Descendants of Enoch Williams
and Elizabeth "Betsy" Clanton Perkins
of Shelbyville, Tennessee


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Frances "Fanny" Wills Williams

Frances "Fanny" Wills Williams (born March 26, 1831; died December 17, 1864) was wed to Robert Bailey Freeman (born September 18, 1831; died February 2, 1892), a Baptist minister organizing El Bethel Church before the Civil War in 1855. Robert was El Bethel's first pastor. Frances was killed by Civil War soldiers who were taking horses from her and her husband's property.


Descendants of Frances "Fanny" Wills Williams

Frances "Fanny" Wills Williams and Robert Bailey Freeman had five children:

  1. Child #1 of Frances "Fanny" Wills Williams and Robert Bailey Freeman:
    Mary Almeda Freeman (died 1863).

  2. Child #2 of Frances "Fanny" Wills Williams and Robert Bailey Freeman:
    Franklin Perkins Freeman (born 1850; died 1858).

  3. Child #3 of Frances "Fanny" Wills Williams and Robert Bailey Freeman:
    Hardin Wills Freeman (born January 31, 1858; died after 1940). Married to Henry C. McQuiddy (born October 15, 1846 in Columbia, Tennessee; died after 1892).

    Hardin Wills Freeman and Henry C. McQuiddy had five children:

    1. Lillian McQuiddy (born June 29, 1883). Married January 22, 1907 to W. A. Ernest. No children.
    2. Robert Clayton McQuiddy (born September 18, 1884). Not married. A physician in Birmingham, Alabama.
    3. Richard Everett McQuiddy (born June 25, 1887; died November 19, 1890).
    4. Edna Allen McQuiddy (born October 10, 1892, twin to James). Married to Thomas F. Dooley (born January 24, 1891). Three children: Virginia Wills (wed to Harmon L. Duncan; three children), James Irvin, Edna McQuiddy.
    5. James Irvin McQuiddy (born October 10, 1892, twin to Edna; killed in action in Belleau Woods, France on June 6, 1918).

  4. Child #4 of Frances "Fanny" Wills Williams and Robert Bailey Freeman:
    Robert "Bobbie" Rothchild Freeman (died 1863).

  5. Child #5 of Frances "Fanny" Wills Williams and Robert Bailey Freeman:
    Richard Russell Freeman (born July 11, 1863; died May 09, 1901). Married on January 23, 1895 to Ida Massey.

    Richard Russell Freeman and Ida Massey had two children:

    1. Robert Bailey Freeman (born May 28, 1895; died April 1969). Married to Margaret Chandler. No children.
    2. Frances Willis Freeman (born July 12, 1898). Married May 23, 1924 to Walter Guy Wiles (born August 15, 1894; died April 30, 1946). One child: Guy Wiles, Jr.

Death of Frances "Fanny" Wills Williams

The "awful accident" happened in 1864 when Frances' daughter, Hardin Freeman McQuiddy, was six years old; Frances' son Richard was 18 months old. In 1940, Hardin wrote her recollection of the day:

Aunt Elvina and her children were at our house. Tom (who worked for the family) came in and said, "Miss Fanny, the bush-whackers got Mr. Bob out there." Ma threw down her sewing and ran out through the yard gate and threw her arms around Pa's neck. The men were pointing their gun at Pa, one fired his gun, a bullet tipped his cheek on the right side, went through his hat brim, cut a little half moon, on into Ma's body. The men demanded his horses. He handed them the keys, they went to the smoke house, got a fine stable horse named Bald Eagle and a sorrel mare named Victoria. One of the men helped Pa to bring Ma into the house. Some of the neighbors had come, they pulled out the little trundlebed, laid Ma on it. Brother Richard woke up, I took him out of the cradle, some one took charge of him. So much confusion.


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