WHO ARE THE PARENTS OF FAUNTLEROY MUSE?

 

      It was the belief of our Muse ancestors that the father of Fauntleroy Muse was Lawrence Muse born in 1730 in Virginia and died in 1757 in the French and Indian War.  They believed that he was married to Elizabeth Fauntleroy.  She was supposed to have been courted by George Washington.  An article appeared in the McKeesport, Pa. Daily News sometime in the 1940’s, of which I have a reproduced copy of, stated that after Lawrence Muse died, Betsy remarried and settled in Westmoreland Co., Pa. in 1766.  It is said that his name was William Elrod.

 

     As stated in “A Southern Legacy, Volume ll” compiled by Dr. Roger David Chambers in collaboration with Lou Andrews Murphy and Robert T. Muse there is no  evidence in any records in Virginia or Pennsylvania verifying the existence of Lawrence Muse or that he married Betsey Fauntleroy or that he was the father of Fauntleroy Muse.  There is also no evidence that he is the brother of George Muse Sr. of KY.

 

      There is an article on the life of George Washington, of which I have a copy that plainly states he was courting a “Lowland Beauty”, which the author of the article claims was Elizabeth Fauntleroy, daughter of William Fauntleroy Jr.  He includes a letter written by George to Mr. Fauntleroy.

 

     There is much information on line of a Mary Muse marring John Teter Elrod and living for a time period in Westmoreland Co., Pa. The parents of this Mary Muse are unconfirmed but believed to be William and Mary Pope Muse.  It has been said that William the son had a step-brother by the name of Fauntleroy.

 

     Robert T. Muse who collaborated on a book titled “A Southern Legacy, Descendent of John Muse of Virginia” and complied by Dr. Roger David Chambers, states in an article published in a newsletter called “Tri-Annual Musing” that he believed the following.  Mary Muse daughter of William (as noted in the above paragraph), John Jr., and John Sr. Muse seems to be the mother of Fauntleroy Muse.  He believes Mary was a widow with two young sons when she married John Terer Elrod.  He further states that he believes her first husband could be an unknown child, (one of 13 children) of John Muse, son of Thomas Sr. and John Sr.  This John Muse was twice married.

 

     Another party has expressed this following story.  He stated that Mary Muse, who married John Teter Elrod, is the aunt of Fauntleroy Muse, her being the sister to his father who he believed to be Hopkins Muse. This is also not documented. Hopkins Muse had no child by that name.

 

SO THE MYSTERY OF THE PARENTS OF FAUNTLEROY MUSE LIVES ON

 

 

MUSE FAMILY

 

Credit for this family tree starts with Louise Sprague, granddaughter of Philip K. Muse, who did it about 1924/25.  Lena Muse and Naudeen Burr did an updated one in 1961, 1971 and in 1973 they also had the help of Janet Muse  Lipps.  Janet and Duane Muse again updated it in 1981.  Naudeen Burr did it again in 1995.  Michelle Roth did much research, gathering information from all sort of records and submitted it to Familytreemaker.com.  It is on Volume 1 tree #3162

This information may be wrong because of a typographic error or may be wrong simply because we have received the incorrect data; we are willing to accept other data in place of this if that data can be verified by some type of record.  If you would like to report an error, even if it is in the typing, please do so.
Olive Case Walmer

Email corrections@eacasefamily.com

 

 

1/27/2010  BREAKING NEWS AS TO THE ANCESTORS OF FAUNTLEROY MUSE

A direct descendant of Fauntleroy Muse, (b 1757 VA) took part in the Muse Family DNA project. DNA showed that Fauntleroy Muse was of Nordic descent, not Western European. He was not a lineal descendant of John Muse SR of Westmoreland Co VA, and he was not the brother of George Muse of Hampshire Co VA & KY. As previously noted in this Forum, the legend that Fauntleroy was the son of "Lawrence Muse & Betsy Fauntleroy" is just that-- a family legend. It evidently originated with Fauntleroy's PA descendants. It found its way into print, and was accepted as fact by other researchers. The legend also claimed that Col. William Elrod was Fauntleroy's stepfather. Col Elrod's Bible gives his DOB as 1764, so he was 7 years younger than Fauntleroy.

The Muse DNA project has proved there are at least 4 separate & distinct MUSE lineages in this country. Maybe Fauntleroy Muse was the first of his line in America. His parentage, unfortunately, remains unknown.


 

Descendants