The Greene County, Tennessee tax list of 1783 lists Joel, Obadiah, Samuel, Peter, Philip, and William Matthews.
East Tennessee is part of Appalachia. At the end of the French and Indian War, colonists began drifting into the area. In 1769, they first settled along the Watauga River. During the Revolution, the Overmountain Men defeated British loyalists at the Battle of Kings Mountain. The State of Franklin was formed in the 1780s, but never admitted to the Union.
William Matthews was born about 1775 in Virginia.
Jane Matthews (1798, married Samuel Stanfield, son of John Stanfield),
John Matthews (1801),
Margaret Matthews (1802, married Thomas Ripley, Jr.),
In 1808 William Matthews married Rebecca Reed in Greene County, Tennessee.
Thomas Matthews
(1806),
Uriah Matthews (1811),
Benjamin Matthews (1812),
William Matthews, Jr. (1814),
Solomon Matthews (1819),
Joseph Matthews (1821).
In 1812, William Matthews was in Greene County, Tennessee
The Massengills, Massengales and Variants, 1472-1931 by Samuel Evans Massengill, M.D. The King Printing Company, Bristol, Tennessee, 1931.
Malinda Matthews (wife of John Smith, grandfather of H. H. Smith) was a daughter of William and Betsey Matthews. Eli Matthews was a brother of Malinda Mathews.
Betsey Matthews, after the death of her husband, Wm. Matthews, married Jonathan Naff. She and her second husband had no children. But Jonathan Naff, by a former marriage, had a number of children, to wit: Jacob, Abe, Henry, John (who was a tailor), (Henry was a fine carpenter, and John Smith, grandfather of H. H. Smith was an apprentice under him).
Jonathan and Betsey Naff lived at the time of their death with John and Malinda Smith in Greene County, Tenn., and they were buried at Limestone, Tenn.
