Record: Amherst County, Virginia, Will Book 14, p. 585. Will dated 23 October 1849; proved and ordered recorded in July 1858.

Reading transcription of the will’s body. Capitalization, punctuation, and paragraphing have been lightly regularized. A bracketed question mark identifies an uncertain name; compare the manuscript image before treating that spelling as settled.

I, Nathan Guthrie of the County of Amherst and State of Virginia, knowing the uncertainty of life and being desirous while in health and strength to make a disposition of what little property it has pleased God to bless me with, do make and ordain this my last will and testament.

Item 1st. It is my will desire that all my just debts and funeral expenses be paid.

Item 2nd. I give and bequeath to my two sisters Susan Stockton and Sarah Guthrie, to be equally divided between them, the following property, to wit: Abraham a man, Sarah and her four children, to wit, Mary, Milly, Nancy and [Elvy?], and the future increase thereof, together with all other property I may have or be in possession of at the time of my death, both real and personal, and all interest of every kind or nature that may be coming to me from any source whatsoever, to them, their heirs or assigns forever.

Item 3rd. It is my will and desire that if it should so happen that either of my sisters above named, Susan or Sarah, should die before I do, then and in that case it is my will and desire that the survivor should have the whole of the property above mentioned, or if they both should die then to those who would be my legal representatives.

Lastly, I nominate, constitute and appoint my sister Susan Stockton the executrix of this my last will and testament.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal this 23rd day of October 1849.

Nathan Guthrie [seal]

Witnesses and court endorsement: The witness area names Robert C. Martin and William M. Bowling, with Geo. H. Turner written below. The endorsement states that the will was proved by the oaths of Ro. C. Martin and George H. Turner, subscribing witnesses, and ordered recorded.

Date correction: The will-writing date is 23 October 1849. The separate probate event belongs in July 1858; the retained abstract reads 19 July 1858. The exact day should be checked against the full-resolution volume. Neither 23 October 1849 nor December 1858 should be carried forward as the probate date.

Open the recorded will →

Nathan’s will names six enslaved people: Abraham; Sarah; and Sarah’s four children, whose names read Mary, Milly, Nancy, and [Elvy?]. The final child’s name remains a tentative reading.

Sarah is explicitly identified as the mother of the four children. Abraham is described as a man, but the will does not state his relationship to Sarah or her children. This Sarah is distinct from Nathan’s sister Sarah Guthrie, one of the beneficiaries.

The will treats these individuals and their future children as inheritable property. It records Nathan’s intended bequest, not the eventual distribution. Estate inventories, settlements, deeds, and subsequent records may reveal what happened to them and preserve additional family connections.

The following notice concerns an order made at rules on 3 December 1849. Nathan is the plaintiff; Nicholas Guthrie and William Kent are the defendants.

Virginia:

AT Rules held in the Clerk’s Office of the Circuit Superior Court of Law and Chancery, for the County of Amherst, on Monday, the 3rd day of December, 1849.

Nathan Guthrie, Plaintiff,
against
Nicholas Guthrie and William Kent, Defendants.

IN CHANCERY.

The defendant Nicholas Guthrie, not having entered his appearance and given security according to the Act of Assembly and the Rules of this Court, and it appearing by satisfactory evidence that he is not an inhabitant of this Commonwealth: It is ordered, That the said defendant do appear here on the first Monday in March next, and answer the bill of the plaintiff; and that a copy of this order be forthwith inserted in some newspaper published in the town of Lynchburg, for two months successively, and posted at the front door of the Court House of this county.

A copy—Teste.
ROBERT TINSLEY, Cl’k.
Dec 20—w2m

The court accepted evidence that Nicholas lived outside Virginia and directed publication of the order. The notice does not disclose Nathan’s claim, Nicholas’s destination, or the outcome. The date of this order is not necessarily the date the suit began.

Source: archived clipping of the Amherst chancery order. Nathan’s legacy page captions the notice Lynchburg Daily Virginian, 17 January 1850, p. 4; the crop itself contains no masthead. Line-end hyphens have been joined in the transcription.

Open the original court notice →

1850 census: The supplied research screenshot places Nathan in District 46, Lafayette County, Missouri. The related family notes identify Susan Stockton and Sarah Guthrie with his household and cite p. 246a, under Nathan or Nathaniel Guthrie. The original schedule should be checked for the full household, ages, occupation, property values, and enumeration date.

21 November 1857 marriage: The retained Westport reference names Nathan Guthrie and James Wetzel as witnesses to the marriage of Alfred A. Swartzell and Ann Hudson, performed by John C. Shackelford of the M.E. Church. An image or full citation for the register is still needed.

These references connect the family’s Lafayette County years with Westport. They do not establish an exact migration date or show that the chancery dispute caused the move.

A transcription of “Westport’s Hidden Burial Ground,” Kansas City Star, 11 May 1902, reports a headstone for Nathan C. Guthrie bearing the dates 5 August 1810–27 April 1858.

The article describes a neglected burial ground whose stones were becoming difficult to read. Its report preserves Nathan’s dates, but it is not a newly inspected gravestone photograph or a civil death record.

An identity distinction: When questioned, local residents initially remembered a Guthrie who ran a school for young women. They then recognized that this schoolmaster had lived well beyond 1858 and could not be the man named on Nathan’s stone. The schoolmaster’s occupation and the reference to his son William should not be assigned to Nathan.

Source: transcribed 1902 newspaper account, preserved on the Jackson County genealogy site. The present location of Nathan’s remains or marker requires further cemetery research.

Read the Westport burial-ground account →

• 19 September 1825 — Will Book 6, p. 619: Elizabeth Guthrie’s guardianship bond for Nicholas, Lucy, Nathan, and Susan, orphans of William Guthrie. The related family bonds occupy pp. 619–621.
• 17 March 1828 — Will Book 7, pp. 145–146: A further Elizabeth Guthrie guardianship reference. Check the named wards against the earlier bond.
• 17 November 1828 — Will Book 7, pp. 187–190: References concerning William’s estate left unadministered by Elizabeth, deceased, and Elizabeth’s own estate.
• 9 May 1831 — Marriage bond: Nathan and Nicholas as sureties for Susan Guthrie and Preston Stockton; Campbell Franklin identified as guardian.
• 21 March 1832 — Will Book 8, p. 187: Nicholas as guardian of Sally, Laurence P., Oliver, and Elizabeth, with Nathan among the sureties. The other surety’s surname is “Wingfield” in the supplied abstract and “Dinglefield” in the legacy resource list; the manuscript should resolve it.
• January 1840 — Franklin County Will Book 5, p. 178: Division of John Wingfield’s estate including the heirs of Elizabeth Guthrie. Consult the complete entry for the named heirs and distributions.

These are retained abstracts and volume-and-page references. They are not presented as newly inspected originals of every listed document.

The Library of Virginia’s Amherst County microfilm guide lists:

• Will Book 14, 1855–1858: reel 22. Nathan’s recorded will is cited at p. 585.
• Will Book 6: reel 19; Will Books 7 and 8: reel 20, for the earlier family bonds and estates.
• Chancery Orders No. 3, 1849–1855: reel 36, a starting point for the court proceedings. The surviving case papers should also be sought under all three parties’ names.

These are Library of Virginia reel numbers, not FamilySearch film numbers. The volume listing does not establish that the full chancery case has been located.

The family’s GFG1A connection is supported by John William Guthrie’s line, with its GFG1A modal Y-DNA and matching Augusta County, Virginia locations.

Nathan has no identified children or descendant line in the present research. No DNA participation through Nathan has therefore been established for this page.

A dash means participation has not been established for this page. The wider family’s test evidence should not be labeled as a result from Nathan’s descendants.

Learn about the Guthrie DNA Project →