The Myth of James Terry and Diana Royall

The Terry Family Bible was purchased by Nathaniel Terry Jr. at the 1806 estate sale and was taken to Logan/Todd County, Kentucky.   It was presented in Robertson Courthouse TN., as late as 1855.  It is unknown where it is today, but a transcription from a grandson Robert Y. Lewis, is available at the TN State Archives.   In the early part of the 1900’s a descendent out of one of the sons of Nathaniel Sr., who was from Virginia, mistakenly joined the SAR on the service of Nathaniel Terry Jr, who he did not descend from, he named a Miss Smith as Nathaniel Sr’s wife when Nancy Hopkins Smith was the wife of Nathaniel’s son Robert , and continued on back to Benjamin Terry who died in 1771, naming apparent siblings of his great grandfather, James A. Terry and Diana Royall Terry as the parents of Benjamin.  This has never been proven by any document and was done from family lore, but is often repeated.

Source: Margie Brown  Mgbrown105@aol.com

Note by Robert "Mike" Terry:  At last count there were 37 user submitted trees on Ancestry.com for James Terry and Mary Diane Royal as the parents of Benjamin Terry d. 1771 and the list keeps growing. If you ask where this information comes from you will probably not get an answer. If they even bother to cite a source it is based on the erroneous information from the SAR record of Thaddeus McGee Terry. This same information was provided to me and appears in several publications in the 1980's. -- So like other beginning genealogists I just passed it along in old issues of the Terry Family Historian and it becomes carved in stone. PLEASE Correct your information on this family.