There is a township of Heptinstall in the parish of Halifax in the West Riding section of Yorkshire in England. Probably the name is derived from the Saxon-Anglo tribes that lived in the area. It is of interest that there is a Methodist chapel in this town whose foundation stone was laid by John Wesley.
The Littleton Methodist Church in Littleton, NC has a window dedicated to the service of the Reverend John Wesley Heptinstall who purchased the Heptinstall House in 1855.
Researching this Heptinstall family, ancestors and descendants, has been an interesting challenge. There is much information on the web, but its accuracy cannot always be verified. However, the following documents are a compilation of web information and family information. Chart A is an ancestor chart which details parents of each generation and the coordinating Chart B is a descendent chart which gives additional information about the person and the list of children.
Family Gallery
Ancestor Chart
Descendent Chart
Linking Heptinstalls from Halifax, Georgia and Alabama
Reverend John Wesley Heptinstall
John Wesley Heptinstall was born to William H Heptinstall 1775-1822 and Dolly Bradsher/Bradshire 1775-1848 near the town of Halifax in Halifax County, North Carolina. His parents had moved to the Halifax County North Carolina area from Virginia. They own some property but were not affluent. John Wesley was left fatherless at the age of twelve. A Halifax County court document dated in 1833 specifies the appointment of commissioners to settle the guardian account for siblings, John Wesley Heptinstall, Jesse Heptinstall, and Dolly Langford, formerly Heptinstall. Read More ...
Challenge to Reverend John Wesley Heptinstall's Will
John Olin Heptinstall challenged the language of the will of his father, John Wesley Heptinstall, who died in 1891. The will in its entirety is posted on this website for reference.
The will “gave” to his current wife a house and about fifty to sixty acres of land for her “natural life”. The answer from the Halifax County Superior Court in 1907 specified that after the death of the wife, Cornelia Heptinstall, the acres of land would pass to John Olin and his two sisters, Eugenia Jackson and Ann Newsom.
The will “lent” to John Olin, Eugenia Jackson and Ann Newsom each a residence and in some cases, some additional land to be “enjoyed during the natural lifetime and at their death be equally divided between their children”.
In addition, he “loaned” to his wife and 3 children for their lifetime and then to their heirs a total of more than twenty-two hundred acres from multiple land tracts. The will specified that this land was not to be sold or mortgaged by the wife, sisters and brother, but that it could be divided equally. In 1901 John Olin and his two sisters decided on a land division.
Cornelia Heptinstall died in 1909.
The ruling from the Halifax County Superior Court in 1907 also clarified the word “loan” to a “life estate in fee simple”. It further specifies that the language regarding the “real estate shall not be sold or mortgaged by the grandchildren is void and of no effect”.
The ruling of the Superior Court was reviewed by the NC State Supreme Court in 1908 which claimed no standing in the matter and let the ruling of the Superior Court stand.
Further research is needed to determine the dates that parcels of land were sold and which heir sold them.
Read More
Download the Will challenge here
Halifax County Superior Court and Supreme Court of North Carolina rulings