Nathan Blackwell

Most people that have an interest in the Blackwell Family geneaology have read the "Blackwell Family History" or the "Knight Family History" that is easily accessed by a simple Geogle search.  These Blackwells of Virginia  were described as "prominent in affairs of church and state" and many generations were traced in that lenghty document.  We know that Thornton Blackwell is one member of the Virginia  Blackwells that moved to Washington Parish.  But also located in Washington Parish and in the same neighborhood and arriving several years earlier are Thornton's brothers Robert Blackwell and William Blackwell.  But the most interesting person is a young man name Nathan Blackwell with no obvious family.  He eventually marries and raises his own family and it is his descentants have discovered a link to the Virginia Blackwell

 We  know from the "Blackwell Family History" that Thornton had an older brothers named Robert, William and Steptoe. There is positive proof that Robert Blackwell and Nathan Blackwell acquired Spanish headrights situated adjacent to each other sometime before Washington Parish became part of the United States. Those land plats are available for viewing on the Bureau of Land Managment, Department of the Interior website. 

 When Steptoe Blackwell died in 1836 he left money to several people in the family including Ann Blackwell who was the wife of William.  Within the probate papers Ann has a filed a petition to claim her share and she stated that her and William had not lived together for 30 years.  She filed these papers from Tennessee where she resides.  The Tennessee connection is hard to overlook because it is also the place of Nathan's birth.  

Nathan Blackwell was a teenager of 16 or 17 at the time he acquired his Spanish Headright property.  He must have had help along the way.  Apparently William and Nathan, along with Robert an possibly others went to Washington Parish Louisiana in search of free land. Why Ann did not come we will never know but her statements within the probate papers suggest she had other children with her in Tennessee and may have been unable to make the long journey.

   He was one of the earliest pioneers of the parish and a patriot that served his country in the War of 1812.