The Wilks family is dear to my heart,
for my mother was a Wilks. She was one of seven children, and
her father was the youngest of ten who survived childhood. Our
family has been having reunions in Texas for sixty years, since
"the boys" came home from the war WW II.
Mother, Reta Vird Wilks Ross (1911-1994),
was the daughter of William Wesley Whiteside Wilks (1884-1946)
and Erie Catharine Taylor. His parents were Benjamin Carroll Wilks
(1827-1919) and Martha Harriet Young. Benjamin was born in Lauderdale
Co., AL, son of Philip Wilks (ca1807-1831) and Alcie Marrs . Philip's
parents were John Wilks (Jr.) (ca1775-1836) and Barbary Newman
from Bedford Co., VA; and John Jr's parents were John Wilks Sr.
and Elizabeth Mead from Loudoun Co., VA.
John Wilks (Sr.)'s father Francis Wilks
(ca1700-1783) was our immigrant ancestor. He had first a land
grant in 1735 in Bucks Co., PA, in 1735, and second, a Northern
Neck grant in 1739 in what became Loudoun Co., VA, 1739.
About 1950 my maternal grandmother, Erie
Catharine Taylor Wilks, wrote the stories she had heard from her
father and father-in-law about their family history. Reading my
mother's carbon copy about 1960 piqued my interest, "Wouldn't
it be fun to see whether we could prove whether this is true?"
And it has been an adventure! to follow backwards the footsteps
that led them from England to Texas, and visit the places where
they lived.
Reta Vird Wilks Ross
Wm. Wesley Whiteside Wilks
Benjamin Carroll Wilks
John Wilks Sr. (ca1734-1806) was probably
born in Bucks Co., PA; taken to Loudoun Co., VA, by his father;
moved ca1773 to Bedford Co., VA, raised a large family there (nine
children known), and removed after the Revolution to Oglethorpe
Co., GA. He was a Loyalist, arrested among some "citizens
of the commonwealth induced to the the oath of allegiance to the
King of Great Britain," pardoned in 1780 by an Act of the
Virginia Assembly. His son Samuel served the cause of freedom,
but they seemed to bear no ill feelings after the war.
John Wilks, Sr., was the son of our immigrant
ancestor, Francis Wilks (ca1710-1783), who received a land patent
in Bucks Co., PA, 1732, from William Penn's son M. O. Penn.