When the OFHS DNA Project was established in 2003 we never dreamed that the results would eliminate a significant portion of the descendancy of Major Thomas Owsley of Stafford County, Virginia. That happened when it was shown that John Owsley I was not the biological son of Thomas Owsley II. There was no getting around the many tests that were conducted, all with the same results. It took a while for realization to sink in. During one of several DNA Project presentation updates at Annual Meetings since that time the question was asked “So are we not descended from Major Thomas Owsley?” My answer was “Unfortunately, we are not.” I hoped my response would not result in a stampede of most of our society out of the door. Fortunately, that did not happen. So, if John Owsley I was not the son of his father, who was his father and how did he come to be in the Owsley family? I hope to answer that question herein. 

The results of the OFHS DNA Project showed that Thomas Owsley II was the father of Thomas III, Newdigate, and Weldon, but not John. Thomas Owsley III is the undisputed eldest child and son of Thomas II, whereas John, Newdigate and Weldon have always been considered his younger offspring. This detail can be seen in the Last Will and Testament of Thomas Owsley II wherein he first bequeaths a portion of his land amounting to 180 acres to his son Thomas, then makes his next bequest “…unto my Son John Owsley remaindor of the Tract adjoining my son Thomas being one Hundred acres to him and his Heirs for ever, the Land to be laid out across the Tract…” Ultimately, Thomas bequeaths the remainder of his property to be equally divided between his children, whom he appears to name in the order of their birth—John, William, Nudigate, Sarah, Points, Ann, Elizabeth, Jane and Welding. 

As is evident, Thomas II called John his son. Yet he was not according to the DNA results. And John Owsley believed Thomas was his father. This is evident in a Loudoun County deed (Book D, p. 195, 392) of 12 Sept 1763 wherein John and his wife Ann sell 100 acres, it “being the land whereon the said John Owsley did Live…it being all the land left of the said John Owsley by his said Father also his Mothers thirds of the said land.” The land being sold is the 100 acres he received through the will of his father. 

How can John be his father’s son and yet not be so? To explain this situation it will be necessary to draw conclusions that cannot be proven based upon surviving records, but which take into account all the evidence that is known. 

Thomas Owsley II, by an undocumented 1st wife, who must have died in childbirth, had Thomas III, born 1731 or 1732. Being a man of some means in his mid-30s with an infant son, Thomas II quickly remarried. His 2nd wife, Ann Hudson, was perhaps herself a recent widow with an infant or more likely was pregnant with the child of her late husband. Ann, as the wife of Thomas Owsley II, is first mentioned in a Prince William County deed (Book A, p. 250) of 17 May 1732, when “Ann, wife of Thomas Owsley” relinquished her right of dowry to lands that were being sold. Consequently, John Owsley was born soon after their marriage, but was raised by Thomas II as his own son. Ann Owsley went on to bear her husband eight more children. Thus, Thomas III, Nudigate and Weldon all share their father’s DNA, but John II, the son of his mother’s 1st marriage, does not. The following chart may better explain what has been said. But bear in mind that this is only a theory. 

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