Francis Maybury
Merchant and Land Speculator in Early Tennessee
We have often written about Francis Maybury who was born about 1748 and died about 1818. For many years he lived on the frontier of Tennessee, while maintaining a home not far away in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. In Tennessee he was a merchant, Indian trader and land speculator, among other things.
We believe that his first wife was Mary Hinds. In 1797 he married a second time to Mrs. Mary Wilson (nee Dix) of Pittsylvania County.
Francis Maybury left hundreds of records but almost none of them provide documentary evidence about his family. Yet the circumstantial evidence is very strong that he was the father of James Mabry, killed by Indians in 1792; Richard Mabry, Register of Hawkins County in 1790; and of Seth Mayberry of Jackson County.
The notes of an early Tennessee researcher include this:
Died - Maybury, Frances - Age 70 years. Died Sept. 1818.
While no location is given, we wonder if this may be a reference to a very unusual horizontal stone marking a grave in Jackson County, where Francis Maybury purchased land a few years earlier. We believe that Francis was a son of George³ Mabry (George², Francis¹) who died in Knox County in 1801.
Don Collins
August 2014