I am a descendant of a Howell family from Buckingham Co. VA. My earliest ancestors are brothers Elijah ,b. ~1764 and Duke Howell (my 3G-grandfather), b.~1789. Elijah, was documented as a land-owner and sold at least 450 acres in Buckingham before coming first to Burke Co. NC and finally Knox Co. TN. Elijah was first married in Buckingham to Nancy Ford in 1791 by Rev. Rene Chastain. Later in 1813, in Knoxville, TN., he married Jude Maxey who is the grand-niece of Rene’s wife, Mary Ford. We suspect Nancy Ford was also closely related to her.

We are trying to find the parentage of these Howells and have begun to investigate the possibility that Elizabeth Howell who married Peter Chastain, Rene Chastain, Jr.’s brother, could be tied in with them. There are a few Howells present in Buckingham at the time (1780-1800) who owned land: Charles, Gideon, James, John, and Elijah (Howl, Howle, Howel, Howell).

Elizabeth Howell and Peter Chastain eventually moved to Edgefield County, SC where he appears in the 1790 census next door to William Howell, Sr. William Jr. is not far away. By 1812, my Duke Howell is in a tailoring/ hatter business with a William S. Howell in Knox Co. TN. We have no evidence of how they are related, but suspect they are brothers or cousins. Duke and William S. had many slaves between the 2 of them and owned much land. William owned land in McMinn Co. TN. He married Myra McNair, sister of David, who married Chief Joseph Vann’s daughter, Delilah. A Robert Henry Howell built their house in Benton, TN who also built Chief Vann’s house in Spring Place, Ga.

Duke Howell’s son, Samuel applied for gov’t compensation through the Guion-Miller roll, so he had reason to believe he’d qualify. (He was denied due to incomplete information.) Anyway, the reason I bring up William S. is the probability that he is related to Elijah and Duke, and quite possibly the Wm Howl, Sr. that lives next door to the Chastains in SC.

Has anyone ever run across this related family in Chastain research? I’d welcome any clues.