From "Family History of the Joseph Taylor, Jr. and Sarah Best Family"
By Shari Humpherys Franke

Frances Taylor was the firstborn child of Joseph Taylor, Jr. and Sarah Best Taylor. She was born in 1783 in Martin County, North Carolina. She grew up on the Taylor plantation with a loving mother and father, and also near her grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. When she was about 22 years of age, she married a widower, by the name of William Cherry, Jr. Their wedding date has been given as 25 May 1805 by their descendants, but it might have been 25 May 1802 instead. A careful study of the land record between her father and her husband, shows the date was definitely 25 May 1802 when Joseph Taylor, Jr. sold 104 acres to William Cherry, Jr. for a minimal amount, which could indicate a Deed of Gift. William's first wife, Lottie Hopkins, must have died quite young, and Frances helped to raise her children. it must have been an overwhelming responsibility for a woman so young, to help raise William's children by Lottie. Frances surely loved those children like her own. They would have been 20 years of age, down to 9 years of age when she married William.

 The children of William Cherry, Jr. and Lottie Hopkins were:

 1. Obadiah Cherry, born 1785, Martin County, North Carolina. No more known about Obadiah.

 2. Frances or "Fanny" Cherry, born 1788, Martin County, North Carolina. Frances probably married about 1809, Enoch Floyd in Warren County, Kentucky. (Note:  Descendants of this family, say her name was Tommy Frances Cherry.)

 3. Jane Cherry, born 1790, Martin County, North Carolina. Jane married 11 October 1811, Jacob Boucher in Warren County, Kentucky.

 4. Samuel Cherry, born 1792, Martin County, North Carolina. Samuel married 2 February 1813, Mary Ann Taylor, a daughter of Joseph Taylor, Jr. and Sarah Best, in Warren County, Kentucky. He suffered an early death when he was struck by lightning and died in 1823 in Warren County.

 5. LaVina Cherry, born 19 August 1794, Edgecombe County, North Carolina. LaVina married 5 February 1811, Allen Taylor, a son of Joseph Taylor, Jr. and Sarah Best, in Warren County, Kentucky. She died 15 December 1853, Warren County.

 6. Nancy Cherry, born 1796, Edgecombe County, North Carolina. Nancy married 12 December 1817, James Hill in Warren County, Kentucky.

 7. John Cherry, born 1800, Edgecombe County, North Carolina. John may have married about 1822, Delilah Cherry, a purported daughter of Joseph Taylor, Jr. and Sarah Best possibly in Warren County, Kentucky, (although no actual record of their marriage has been found to date.)

(Note: There is also another daughter listed on many Family Groups named Druphena Parma Cherry, born 1798, Edgecombe County, North Carolina. It appears to the author of this book that this is an error, and that Druphena was the daughter of Willis Cherry, not William Cherry, Jr. and Lottie Hopkins. In the Marriage Records of Warren County, Kentucky, Druphena is listed as the daughter of Willis Cherry.   Willis could be a relative of William cherry, Jr. Willis and his wife Lottie sold 200 acres of land to William Mitchell, on the waters of Clifty Creek, on 2 June 1815, in Warren County, Kentucky.) Druphena married 23 August 1814, Samuel A. Bozeman, Warren County. Also Samuel A. Bozeman was a Witness on the land record before mentioned! So apparently, he and Druphena were already married at the time. Druphena Parma also married (2) Robert Graham--no date listed, according to the Cherry Family File, at Western Kentucky University Library.)

 William Cherry, Jr. was born in 1766, probably in South Carolina. He was the son of William Cherry, Sr. (mother unknown). William, Sr. according to Cherry family traditions, was in the Revolutionary War and served from the State of South Carolina. William Cherry, Jr.'s full name was probably William B. Cherry. Jr. according to his own signature as a witness on the second land record of Joseph Taylor, Jr. in Warren County, Kentucky. Could the "B." stand for "Bailey", and could this possibly be his mother's surname? The name of "William Bailey Cherry" has been handed down through his family. According to James Robert Cherry of Charlotte, North Carolina, a descendant of this family, William Cherry, Sr. served in the Northeast St. David's Parish, of the Cheraws District, in the Volunteer Company under Captain Robert Lide during 1775. During 1782, he served in the militia under Col. Brandon and Gen. Francis Marion.                    

William Cherry, Sr. was the son of David and Margaret Cherry, who were from Antrim County, Ireland. They apparently migrated to Charleston, South Carolina, ca. 1750. It is this author's belief that William Cherry, Sr. married someone in South Carolina, who was the mother of our William Cherry, Jr.

A letter from Edmond B. Cherry, Jr. of Columbia, Tennessee, dated 1 July 1993, states the following important information about William Cherry, Sr.'s family: "David Cherry, a first cousin of our ancestor, Thomas Cherry, came with his wife, Margaret, and settled in Pee Dee River County, near Charleston, S.C., in 1750. They had three sons: George, William, and James. All served in the Revolution, the first two under Captain Lide, in a regiment organized October 9, 1775, the first to form in the Carolinas, it is claimed. William had three sons: George Washington, William (Jr.), and James Henry. George W. was born 1790, died 1883, in Tennessee. He married first his first cousin, Mary Cherry, an heiress, and the daughter of his father's brother, who was very wealthy. The parents of the couple, all strict Presbyterians, were horrified at such a marriage and promptly disowned and disinherited them both. Mary died soon after giving birth to a son, John, who was an albino! As albinos were then generally believed to be one result of marriages between first cousins, the grandparents felt it was a just punishment sent by heaven on the guilty pair and that their own harsh judgment had been confirmed. But the albino son had a fine mind, was well educated and became a prominent school man. One correspondent says her mother went to school with him and told of his brilliant pink eyes. The father married a second time, Alice Blair and they had three sons: David, James and George W., Jr. The second wife died and George married Jane Sloan, from Antrim County, Ireland."

George Cherry, soldier in the Revolution and son of the original immigrant David, married Jane Chestnut, also from Antrim County, Ireland. He had a son, David, named after his grandfather, who was one of the Cherrys who left the south because he did not believe in slavery; this David settled at Bloomington, Ill.

"While the Cherry immigrants were more numerous in New Jersey, Virginia, and the Carolinas they were to be found in every colony. New York had several, and the name is frequent on the roster of the Revolutionary soldiers. Their descendants naturally drifted westward; those who came later, especially after the Civil War, located mostly in the north. Iowa seemed to have been a favorite state." (This information quoted from pages 23 and 24, The James Harris-Mary Cherry Family-- Ancestry, Pioneer Family Life and Conditions, Posterity and Connections, by Professor Fielder Bowie Harris, August, 1935.)

(Note: William Cherry, Jr. named a son George Washington Cherry also!)

Descendants of this family, have stated that William Cherry, Sr. moved to Martin/Edgecombe Counties, North Carolina after the Revolutionary War. There he married Charlotte Council, daughter of Charles Council and Eurydicie. If this is true, she must have been a second wife. The Council Family were Planters of Martin/Edgecombe Counties, and well-known in the area. Charles Council was born ca. 1734, of Isle of Wight County, Virginia. He died 6 July 1805, in Edgecombe County, North Carolina. He left a Will Edgecombe Bk D-236, probated November Court 1806. Witnesses were: Wm Hyman, Jr., Joseph Taylor, Wm Cherry, Wm Taylor. His wife Eurydicie (Dicee) Council in Edgecombe Deed 17-316/1814 "gives to children of her daughter Charlotte Cherry in Kentucky." Charles and Eurydicie were buried in the family cemetery, Edgecombe County farm. The farm is on the county line of Martin and Edgecombe. They had 14 children. The Charles Council family were close friends and neighbors to our Joseph Taylor, Sr. family and the Richard Taylor, Sr. family. More research is needed on this Cherry line.

Apparently, William Cherry, Jr. married about 1784, Lottie Hopkins. Her parents' names are unknown at this time. (There were many Hopkins families living in the area.) They had seven or eight children, which we know of.

William Cherry, Jr. of Edgecombe County, bought property 20 August 1802 from his father, William Cherry, Sr. of Martin County. The amount was 260 acres, and it also contained Strawbridge's Old Plantation. So William Cherry, Jr. had at least this 260 acres, and the 104 acres from Joseph Taylor, Jr. by 1802. (Total of 364 acres.)

In Marriage Records on file at Edgecombe County, North Carolina, there is record of a Fanny Cherry and Enoch Flood marriage on 19 June 1801. The record also states that "Fanny is the sister of Obediah Cherry. Obediah Cherry and Lemuel Thigpen were Witnesses. The wedding was performed by Thomas E. McNair." It is this author's opinion that this Obadiah Cherry and Fanny Cherry could be brother and sister to William Cherry, Jr., and that he named his two firstborn children for them. His own children would have been only six years old and three years old in 1801, so it could not have been them.

We know that William Cherry, Jr. and Frances Taylor Cherry moved to Warren County, Kentucky with the Joseph Taylor, Jr. family in 1808. Frances had already had one child in September of 1806, a son named Joseph Taylor Cherry, and had her second son, Allen A. Cherry, who was born on 2 March 1808, before they left for Kentucky.

William Cherry, Jr. bought land in Warren County, Kentucky on 9 January 1809 from Isaac Rownsawell and his wife Betsey, of Bedford county, Tennessee. William bought 150 acres for $600. The property was located on the waters of Lost creek of the Green River, on the line of William Allen. Witnesses to this transaction were: John Moss, James Moss and John Wallace (brother-in-law). According to a recent map of Warren County, this would have been located close to the Taylor Cemetery near Richardsville.

William Cherry, Jr. died on 22 September 1828, at Warren County, Kentucky, when he was 62 years old, Cause of death is unknown. No will has been found. He and Frances had been married 26 years. Frances was 45 years old when she was left a widow. William's burial place is unknown.

In the 1850 Census of Warren County, Frances is found living with her son George Washington Cherry and his wife Martha Frances Stahl Cherry. Her age is listed as 67 years. In a letter dated 6 November 1993, Dr. William Bailey Cherry of Decatur, Georgia, stated: "If Frances was living with George W. and Martha Cherry in 1850, it was not at the old Cherry homeplace (at Hall's Chapel near the Gasper River) since the information I have indicates that Jeremiah T. Cherry, the firstborn of George and Martha was born on 'the old Brook's place' near Greencastle in 1852, and that 'he was the only son born there, thus, the family moved to the new location between 1852 and 1854 when the second son Isaac was born."

We know that Frances died on 17 November 1852, soon after the 1850 Census, age listed as 69 years. The cause of death was a fever. Her burial place is also unknown, but she was probably laid to rest near her husband William, Jr.

Dr. Cherry also stated: "I have suggested that Uncle T. C. and especially my father (William Bailey Cherry) should have known where their grandfather and grandmother were buried. My father and T. C. were very close and I'm sure they would have talked about it. Their father, G. W. Cherry, was only six when William, Jr. died, but he had 30 years near or with his mother (Frances) and certainly knew where his father and mother were buried. Furthermore, I think he would have put up headstones with names on their graves if they had been buried at Hall's Chapel, especially since his family home was less than a quarter mile from the cemetery. It is reasonable to assume that he talked with his sons about his father and mother and it is reasonable to assume that they knew where their grandparents were buried.

"For these reasons, I don't believe that William, Jr. and Frances were buried there (at Hall's Chapel Cemetery). If Uncle T. C. knew, he would have told me when he and I visited Hall's Chapel Cemetery together in the 1940's and I think that I would have remembered, especially since my great-grandfather was named 'William’.”

The Hall's Church graveyard adjoined the Cherry property (after 1854), and many other members of the Cherry family were buried in the old churchyard.

William and Frances were beloved by their family. Nora Young Ferguson said about this Cherry family: "They reared a large family and their descendants are living in the South, East and West. From the Cherry ancestors, they inherited love for the land and large building enterprises...”

Nora also said this about the Cherry family: "All of the older members of this very intelligent family are in the Great Beyond now. No doubt they have found new fields of endeavor where their talents may be used forever. The younger ones are modernized to the extent that they are well educated and capable of making their 'lives sublime’."