John Temple

PROOF CLASS: MOTHER = ARGUMENT (Owen, 12 Sep 2026) - she is Joseph Temple's wife MARY, with him on four Spotsylvania deeds 1760-1770, three dated 5 Jun 1770, inside John's birth window. Her SURNAME "Hill" is UNPROVEN - family tradition, no record. PROOF CLASS: FATHER = ARGUMENT (relabel 13 Sep 2026; flag set by Owen 21 Aug 2026). William Temple's 1835 King and Queen will makes William a son of Joseph, and his nephew Arthur = [88], this John's son. No clause states John's own filiation. THE ARGUMENT, in full: proof-summary-78-temple-mother-2026-09-12.md (register K622, K629). LEG 1 - John is Joseph's son; ProofFather has been 1 since 21 Aug 2026 (William Temple's 1835 King and Queen will). LEG 2 - 29 Jul 1760, Spotsylvania Deed Book E p.221, read on the page image: "Joseph Temple and Mary, his wife, of St. Stephen's Par., King and Queen Co., to Robert Baylor and John Semple". LEG 3 - 5 Jun 1770, Deed Book G p.275, THREE separate deeds, each "Joseph Temple of King and Queen Co. and Mary, his wife" (to David Woodroof, to Richard Mauldin Owen, to Robert Wilkinson). LEG 4 - 1762, VMHB XVIII:1 (1910) p.89: "Joseph Temple (and Mary his wife), and Benjamin Temple, of King William, sold lands ... devised ... by their father, Joseph Temple, deceased". LEG 5 - the Latane Family Bible gives John "aged 41" at death on 20 May 1812, so he was born 21 May 1770 - 20 May 1771, and THE 5 JUN 1770 DEEDS FALL INSIDE THAT WINDOW. LEG 6 - a Virginia wife joins a conveyance to RELEASE DOWER and is privily examined, so "and Mary his wife" is a legal act requiring her to be the wife on that date, not a scribal formula. Four instruments across 1760-1770 therefore attest one continuous marital state spanning the birth. WHAT THIS DOES NOT ESTABLISH - THE SURNAME. Not one of the four deeds says "Hill"; they say "Mary". [85] carries ZERO citations, and her recorded birthplace "Hillsboro, Loudoun" and death place "Hillsboro, King and Queen" look derived from the surname rather than from a record (Loudoun is some 90 miles from King and Queen). The surname rests on three COMPILED sources which may all descend from ONE family tradition - VMHB XVIII (1910) p.89 "Joseph the eldest, married Molly, daughter of Col. Humphrey Hill"; Crozier, Virginia Heraldica (1908) p.84; and Virkus, Compendium of American Genealogy III (1928) p.487 - supported by four primary CORRELATIONS that do not state the relationship: Humphrey Hill's own will of 8 Feb 1774 names "my three daughters, Mary, Frances, and Ann" already provided for, yet the word "Temple" does not occur anywhere in that will and it names NO son-in-law; Hill is "of the Parish of St. Stephens, in the County of King and Queen", the SAME PARISH the 1760 deed gives Joseph and Mary; Hill WITNESSES that 1760 deed; and Temple land adjoins "Colo. Humphrey Hill" in 1766. A witness is evidence of a NAME, not of a relationship, and a shared parish is not a marriage. UPGRADES TO DIRECT on: the ORIGINAL Spotsylvania deed books behind Crozier's abstracts, if a dower release or privy-examination return gives Mary's maiden name; or the division/distribution of Humphrey Hill's estate, which would name distributees by MARRIED surname where the will did not; or [32] Joseph Temple's own will or estate (King and Queen is a BURNED county; the loose and Superior Court series are untested). DO NOT re-propose Humphrey Hill's WILL - it is read in full and spent. ADDED 11 SEP 2026 (evening) - THE THREE LOOSE-PAPER ARKS ARE OPENED AND THIS NOTE IS CORRECTED TWICE: the Tunstall suit is 1815-16 in the SUPERIOR COURT OF LAW, not 1822, and "John Stephen[s]" is JOHN STEPHENSON. A bill penal of 3 Oct 1811 carries his signature and seal. Registers K603, K604, K605, K606. HIS OWN HAND, A SECOND TIME, ON A SECOND DATE. Wood Co., (W.)Va. LOOSE COURT PAPERS, in the Superior Court of Law; FS koha:276505, DGS 008532162 (v.55-65, "Wood. Court Records 1815-1816"), ark 3:1:3Q9M-C332-Z4HP, 6017x4371, read on the manuscript at native resolution 11 Sep 2026 (K603). ONE sheet carries two papers. The first is a BILL PENAL: "On demand I promise to pay or cause to be paid unto Robert Tunstall his heirs or assigns the full and just sum of One hundred dollars, to the payment whereof well and truly to be made I bind myself my heirs, Ex'ers and Adm'ors in the penal sum of Two hundred Dollars - Given under my hand and Seal this third day of October 1811 - In presence of William P. Matthews ... Jno: Temple (Seal)". THE DEBT IS $100; THE $200 IS THE PENALTY, which is why the declaration demands two hundred. With the will of 19 May 1812 (K580) this gives TWO AUTOGRAPHS ON TWO DATES, seven months apart - an instrument for identifying further Temple papers. A debt contracted in his lifetime, consistent with the store (K596). AND THE SUIT IS EARLIER THAN THIS NOTE HAS BEEN SAYING. The declaration, on the same sheet: "Wood County To Wit, In the Superior Court of Law thereof. Robert Tinstall Complains of Jno: Stephenson and Nimrod Saunders, administrators of Jno: Temple dec'd, of a plea that they render unto him ... the sum of two hundred dollars, Which they unjustly detain from him - For that the said Jno: Temple, heretofore in his life time, to wit, on 3rd day of October 1811 ... by his certain note in writing commonly called a Bill Penal with his name thereto subscribed and his seal ... Beeson P.Q." So Tinstall vs Temple's Adm'rs is a 1815-16 filing in the SUPERIOR COURT OF LAW - not the 1822 county-court matter this project carried; the 1822 costs line of $8.06 is the same cause's tail. A THIRD COURT is therefore in play, and its order and minute books are a series distinct from BOTH the county minute books (K598) and the Will Books. ⚠ TWO SPELLINGS ON ONE SHEET, NOT REGULARISED: the instrument reads Tunstall (a clear u, verified at 2x); the attorney's pleading reads Tinstall, three times. "JOHN STEPHEN[S]" IS JOHN STEPHENSON, AND THE BRACKET CLOSES. K581 could only read the 1816 will-book header as "John Stephen[s]"; this pleading spells Stephenson in full, twice, and the 1822 and 1816 ORIGINALS both write it out (K604, K606). ★ AND THE WILL'S CUSTODIAN BECAME AN ADMINISTRATOR: K580 leaves the property "in the hands of my friends Nimrod Saunders and Matthew Sam[ue]ll", and Saunders is here administering the estate. ⚠ AN OPEN QUESTION, RECORDED AND NOT RESOLVED: MARY TEMPLE IS NOT A DEFENDANT in this 1815-16 pleading, though K581's settlement returned 1 July 1816 names her one of THREE administrators. That is consistent with her qualifying later, or with only the resident administrators being sued, or with her being in Essex and unserved. K583's 1828 wording - "the administration accounts of John Stephenson and [Nimrod Saunders], Administrators, and Mary Temple, Adm.rx" - phrases them as two administrations, which is suggestive and is not proof. THE ORIGINAL 1816 SETTLEMENT IS FOUND AND READ (K606): DGS 008420570 (v.66-73, 1816), ark 3:1:3Q9M-CS1N-XLXD, 5918x3912. The header, on the original, running across the fold: "The Estate of John Temple dec'd in acc't with Jn'o Stephenson, Nimrod Saunders and Mary Temple, Administrators of the [Deceased] - Dr ... Cr". K581's header is confirmed on the paper the clerk was copying from. ★ AND THE CLERK'S COPY DROPPED THE CENTS: K581 read the credit side as "$1,497.-" and the total as "$2,344"; THE ORIGINAL READS 1497.66 1/2 AND 2344.66 1/2. Arithmetic control, and it closes exactly: 1497.66 1/2 + 847.00 = 2344.66 1/2, and 2344.66 1/2 - 213.85 1/2 = 2130.81, the figure written as "To Amount bro't over". ⚠ Further debit lines appear on the original beyond those K581 quotes - "Cash to Carter Keigner(?) - 5.00", "Cash to S.(?) Foley for amount - 3.75", "Cash to Cryer & Clerk of Sales - 20.40" - but K581's extract is illustrative, not exhaustive, so this does NOT establish that the clerk's copy omits them. THE ORIGINAL 1822 ADDITIONAL SETTLEMENT IS FOUND AND READ (K604): DGS 008532170 (v.141-150), arks 3:1:3Q9M-C332-8S9W-S and 3:1:3Q9M-C332-8S97-D - which are ONE SHEET PHOTOGRAPHED TWICE, not two leaves; a different transcript length is not a different document. "Dr. John Stephenson Adm.r of Jn'o Temple dec'd - 1822 May 6th To balance due on last Settlem't - $213.85 1/2 - Cr - By Latane's Rec't for $50 - $50.00 - Personal services allowed by the C't - 50. - By Comm'n a[t] $5 p'r Ct on $2180.81 - 109.04 - Costs on suit Tinstall vs Temple's Adm'rs - 8.06 - $217.10 - do Balance 213.85 1/2 - Bal. due Administrator $3.24 1/2 ... Witness our hands this 6th day of May 1822 - John Taylor, Isaac Morres(?), Comm'rs". IT CONFIRMS K582 IN EVERY PARTICULAR. ⚠ The autograph reads "Isaac Morres"(?) where K581 and K582 read the clerk's copies as Isaac Morris - flagged, not changed; a signature and a clerk's transcription of it are two different instruments. ⚠ And the large right-hand paper on 8S9W-S is a DIFFERENT ESTATE ENTIRELY (Beckwith, adm'r Alexander H. Creel): a whole-image OCR of that ark splices two estates into one document. ⛔ AN OPEN ARITHMETIC QUESTION, RECORDED AND DELIBERATELY NOT EXPLAINED. The 1816 account carries $2,130.81 forward, and its own figures require that number. The 1822 settlement computes the administrator's commission "at $5 p'r Ct on $2,180.81", and 5% of 2,180.81 is the 109.04 actually written (5% of 2,130.81 would be 106.54). THE TWO BASES DIFFER BY EXACTLY $50.00 - which is also exactly the "Latane's Rec't for $50" credited in 1822. That correspondence is suggestive and IS NOT PROOF. No document read by this project says the commissioners added the receipt back, and nothing of the kind is asserted here. ⛔ THE 1812 ADMINISTRATION BOND IS NOT IN THE FREE RECORD, AND THE REASON IS NOW READ RATHER THAN INFERRED (K605). The probate clause at the foot of the recorded will, Will Book 1A f.122, ark 3:1:9392-C3FL-G, is the WHOLE clause: "Wood County Court July Term 1812. The foregoing Last Will & Testament of John Temple dec'd was exhibited in Court, proved by the Oaths of James H. Neal and Nimrod Saunders, Two of the Witnesses thereto. And Ordered to be Recorded. - Teste, J H Neal C.W.C." NOBODY QUALIFIES, NO BOND IS ENTERED, NO SECURITIES ARE NAMED. So the grant of administration is an ORDER-BOOK entry, not a will-book one - and WOOD COUNTY ORDER BOOK 1812-1817 NOW HOLDS THREE WANTED THINGS: the appraisers' names, the captain question, and the qualification with its bond and securities. Controls on DGS 008532161 (the reel that yielded the original inventory): "Temple" 2, both accounted for; "Nimrod" 4, all four the Kincheloe estate; positives "administrator" 35, "letters of administration" 23, "bound unto" 85, "Justices" 32, "John" 147; negative control (a must-miss token, deliberately not reproduced here) 0 - THE CORPUS DEMONSTRABLY CONTAINS ADMINISTRATION PAPERS AND DOES NOT CONTAIN THIS ONE. A cross-filter over every Stephenson and Saunders hit on 008532161 and 008532162 (45 transcripts) matched exactly ONE, and it is the bond paper above. A third prior negative agrees: the Wood County Clerk's own online index (K579) lists five Temple documents - will, inventory, three settlements - and no bond. ★ And a date that now makes sense: the inventory is headed July 6th 1812, the FIRST MONDAY IN JULY 1812, i.e. the first day of the very term at which the will was proved - appraisal ordered and will proved the same day. "Est." is confirmed a third time in "Inventory and Appraisement of Est Capt John Temple dec'd". ⚠ THE "STILL UNREAD IN THIS CLUSTER" PARAGRAPH BELOW IS SUPERSEDED IN TWO PARTICULARS: Tinstall vs Temple's Adm'r is READ, and it is 1815-16, not 1822; and the administration bond is not where that paragraph looks for it - it is behind the Order Book, per K605 above. The 1828 Dr account (ark 3:1:9392-H5VG-K), the Order Book 1812-1817, the bill of sale naming who bought the four enslaved people, and John (E?) Wright vs Mary Temple adm'rx (1826) all remain unread. ⛔ WHAT THIS DOES NOT DO: it names no child, no brother and no brother-in-law, gives no age and no birth date, and NO PARENTAGE FLAG MOVES. Stephenson, Saunders, Tunstall, Matthews, Taylor, Morres, Keigner and Foley are non-relatives so far as anything shows, and no person is added for any of them. The 1770-1771 birth window stands. Evidence: ancestry/sources/wood-county-loose-court-papers-2026-09-11/FINDINGS.md sections 2d-2g, plus the image captures named in K603-K606. ADDED 11 SEP 2026 (second entry, afternoon) - THE ORIGINAL FILED INVENTORY IS FOUND AND READ, AND IT CORRECTS THIS NOTE TWICE. The paper the appraisers themselves wrote, and the clerk copied into Will Book 1A, survives in the Wood County LOOSE COURT PAPERS - a different holding from the courthouse will books, filmed from the originals at Morgantown and digitised FREE on FamilySearch: catalog koha:276505, "County court records, 1785-1875", 216 reels; DGS 008532161 (film 231642, "Court records v. 41-54, 1812-1814"), images 56-57, arks 3:1:3Q9M-C332-D9V3-R and TH-909-84312-43358-12. Read on the manuscript at native resolution 11 Sep 2026; register row K600. CORRECTION 1 - THERE IS NO "En." THE ORIGINAL READS "Est.", i.e. Estate, in BOTH places: the heading, "Inventory and Appraisment of Est. Capt John Temple Decd. Wood County. July 6th 1812", and the filing endorsement on the fold, "Appraisment / Est. Capt John Temple / Decd" with "Augt 1812". The "En. Capt." recorded below from the CLERK'S COPY is therefore almost certainly a misreading of the same abbreviation. NO RANK HIDES IN IT. (Scope: the will-book page was not re-read this session, so the copy's own letterform is not re-graded here - only the original is reported.) CORRECTION 2 - THE FIRST ENSLAVED WOMAN'S NAME IS RESOLVED. THE ORIGINAL READS "Letty and child (Nancy) ... 300", immediately above "Nancy and child (Tom) ... 300". The basis is a letterform control taken from the SAME SHEET IN THE SAME HAND and saved as an image: the initial carries a baseline loop that crosses its own stem and sweeps right into the "e" - the capital L of "Half of Large Keel boat" eight lines below - and it is NOT the capital S of "2 Smoothing Irons" four lines below, which descends with a leftward hook and makes no crossing loop at all. THE CLERK'S RECORDED COPY STAYS AMBIGUOUS AND IS NOT OVERWRITTEN. The original is preferred because it is one copying step closer to the appraisers, NOT because Letty is the commoner name. This is a reading with a stated control; it is not a regularisation, and the name must still never be "corrected" toward anything a later hand finds familiar. WHAT THE ORIGINAL ALSO CONFIRMS, line for line against the will-book copy: "1 Uniform hat & coat 2 pr Boots 1 Do shoes - 30 75"; "Plantation &c - 45"; "1 Skeff" (skiff) - 3; and "2 Braces pistols & sword", which INDEPENDENTLY confirms the correction of the machine transcript's "2 Barnes Pistols" - a brace is a pair, so four pistols. The quantity column carries "944 lb", "668 Do", "68 Hams" and the appraisers' standing note "Not ascertained". WHAT IT DOES NOT CARRY: NO APPRAISERS' SIGNATURES. Both leaves were read to the foot; the inventory simply ends at "Plantation &c" and the columns are ruled off. Their names are therefore NOT recoverable from the paper - only from the court's ORDER appointing them. AND THAT ORDER IS OUT OF REACH FOR NOW: THE 1812 MINUTE/ORDER BOOK IS NOT ON FAMILYSEARCH (K598). FS catalog koha:764318 labels its film "Minute books 1801-1820", but the target cards and the page transcripts say what is filmed is 1801-1802 and about 1816-1820 - 1803 through 1815 is missing. Controls on DGS 008614315 (1,025 images, 874 transcribed): "Temple" returns 2 hits and BOTH are the microfilm target card, "50 East North Temple, Salt Lake City"; positives "John" 895, "Neal" 259, "court" 874; negative (the must-miss control) 0. The Order Book 1812-1817 is held by the Wood County Clerk and on WV State Archives microfilm. "WHAT KIND OF CAPTAIN" IS STILL OPEN, AND MUST NOT BE CLOSED BY PLAUSIBILITY (K602). No John Temple of Wood County appears in any printed county history, in any Blennerhassett/Burr monograph, or in all twelve volumes of the Calendar of Virginia State Papers; the 1806 Wood County "Volunteer Enrollment" roster of about 150 names carries no Temple. Wood County's militia was the 113th Regiment, Virginia Militia, under Col. Hugh Phelps. The finding that actually bears on the question is a NEGATIVE one: the 1878 county history styles land-speculator William Tilton "Capt. Tilton" for nothing but leading a boat down the Ohio in 1785, with no military service stated anywhere, while saying outright that James Neal's "Capt." came from Revolutionary army service. Same book, same river, two different sources of the same title. WOOD COUNTY USAGE SUPPORTED BOTH CONVENTIONS AT ONCE, so neither the uniform coat nor the half-share in the keel boat can adjudicate it. Evidence: ancestry/sources/wood-county-loose-court-papers-2026-09-11/ - FINDINGS.md plus the letterform-control and endorsement captures. ADDED 11 SEP 2026 - WHAT HE WAS DOING IN WOOD COUNTY IS NOW ON THE RECORD: HE WAS KEEPING A STORE. The 1812 INVENTORY is read on the manuscript (Wood Co. Will Book 1A pp. 122-125, taken 6 July 1812). It is a merchant's stock in trade, and it names four enslaved people. THE DOCUMENT: "Inventory and Appraisement of the Estate of En. Capt. John Temple dec'd Wood County July 6th 1812" [as transcribed 11 Sep from the CLERK'S COPY; SEE CORRECTION 1 AT THE HEAD - the original reads "Est.", not "En."], returned and ordered recorded Wood County Court August Term 1812, "Teste, J H Neal C.W.C." - the same James H. Neal who witnessed the will seven weeks earlier. FamilySearch DGS 4715379, arks 3:1:9392-C3FL-G (pp. 122-123) and 3:1:9392-C3FL-K (pp. 124-125). Register rows K596-K597; full transcription in ancestry/sources/wood-county-clerk-inquiry-2026-09-10/INVENTORY-FINDINGS.md. WHY IT IS A STORE AND NOT A HOUSEHOLD, on the appraisers' own words: "3 Funnels, Weights & Scales - 23" and "1 Set Measures - 1.41", apparatus for selling by weight and measure; the standing left-margin note "Quantity not ascertained" against the bulk goods; 944 lb Coffee at 20 cents (188.80, exact) and 668 lb more "Do (Green)" at 25; Hyson Tea at 1,50 per lb; pepper, allspice, ginger, allum, nutmegs, and indigo by the ounce; Salt at 75 per Bushel and again "in Barrels"; Barrel Pork at 6,00 per Cwt; Nails at 20 per lb and "Ten penny" by count; Blistered Steel; 8 Hilling hoes; a Chest of Tools; empty barrels; jars and jugs at 40 cents each; and "Deer Skins", peltry taken in trade. AND HE WAS CARRYING: "1 Half large Keel Boat - 20", a half-share in a river freighter, and "1 Skiff - 3". Parkersburg stands where the Little Kanawha comes into the Ohio. THE CLERK'S "CAPTAIN" HAS A COAT: "1 Uniform hat & Coat, 2 pr Boots, 1 Do Shoes - 30.75", the most valuable article of clothing in the estate, and the heading itself was read here as "En. Capt." - SEE CORRECTION 1 AT THE HEAD OF THIS NOTE: the original reads "Est.", i.e. Estate, and there is no "En." at all WHAT IT DOES NOT SAY is of what he was captain: militia and river usage are both live, and a uniform does not decide between them. HE OWNED NO WOOD COUNTY LAND. "Plantation &c - 45" is an improvements figure, not a title. The complete pre-1845 TEMPLE set in the Wood County Clerk's online index is 10 rows - his own five estate documents plus three 1838 deeds belonging to other Temples - against a coverage control that fires (BLENNERHASSETT = 598 hits, including deeds of 1817 and 1818). See K579. SCOPE OF THAT NEGATIVE: it is what is indexed under TEMPLE in that one instrument; land in a partnership name, unrecorded, or leased would not appear. FOUR ENSLAVED PEOPLE ARE NAMED, and they are the names the 1816 settlement withheld: "(S/L)etty & Child (Nancy) ... 300 -" and "Nancy and Child (Tom) ... 300 -", written between "Candle Moulds" and "1 Stone Churn". Appraised 600 dollars on 6 July 1812; the 1816 account credits 847 dollars "By Do of Negro Slaves per bill" (K581). THE INITIAL OF THE FIRST NAME WAS RESOLVED LATER THE SAME DAY, FROM THE ORIGINAL: it reads "Letty" - see CORRECTION 2 at the head of this note, and K600. On THIS page, the clerk's copy, the letterform matches the S of "Stone Churn" two lines below and remains ambiguous; that ambiguity is left standing and is not overwritten. Whether the adult Nancy of the second line is a different woman from the infant Nancy of the first, the record does not say. Registered at ancestry/enslaved-people-named-in-temple-records.md. IT STILL NAMES NO CHILD, NO BROTHER AND NO BROTHER-IN-LAW, AND GIVES NO AGE OR BIRTH DATE. [78]->[32] is untouched by it, and the 1770-1771 birth window STANDS - the second estate record in two days to answer the 30 July prediction in the negative. CORRECTIONS TO THE 10 SEP READING, both from reading the manuscript instead of the HTR: the transcript gave "2 Barnes Pistols & sword"; the manuscript reads "2 Braces Pistols & Sword", i.e. four pistols. And the gloss that "1 Cradle & Bed" showed an infant in the household does not survive - [70] Henry was born in Essex on 6 Apr 1812 and never left it; a cradle among 7 trunks, 8 hilling hoes and 944 lb of coffee is stock, not a nursery. STILL UNREAD IN THIS CLUSTER: the 1828 Dr account (ark 3:1:9392-H5VG-K); Wood County Order Book 1812-1817, never touched, where the administration bond and any guardian appointment for the four minors must be, and whose own index begins only in 1850 so it must be read page by page; the LOOSE ESTATE PAPERS, which would hold the bill of sale naming who bought the four people above, and the appraisers' signatures and grand total, both absent from the will-book copy; and the two suits Tinstall vs Temple's Adm'r (1822) and John (E?) Wright vs Mary Temple adm'rx (1826). CORRECTED 11 SEP 2026 - THE 'LEAD, NOT YET WORKED' BELOW IS NOW WORKED. Wood County, (W.)Va. is confirmed, not a mis-transcription: his WILL and all THREE settlements are read on the manuscript. Birth window unchanged, 1770-1771 stands. WHAT WAS FOUND, all free on FamilySearch and needing no Clerk account: WOOD CO. WILL BOOK 1A ff. 121-122 - HIS WILL, signed 19 May 1812, the day before the Bible's death date, "being sick and weak in body", directing that his property be placed in the hands of "my friends Nimrod Saunders and Matthew Sam[ue]ll of the County aforesaid for safe keeping until my brother or brother-in-law ... living in Essex County in the Commonwealth aforesaid shall come to take charge of it", to be managed "for the use and benefit of my wife and Children until my Children arrive of lawfull age"; witnesses James H. Neal, Nimrod Saunders and Caleb Bailey; proved Wood County Court, July Term 1812. Register K580 (FS catalog koha:76590, film 577192 / DGS 4715379, arks 3:1:9392-C3N4-L and 3:1:9392-C3FL-G). THIS IS THE IDENTIFICATION, on three legs at once: he is dying in Wood County while his wife and minor children are in ESSEX; the children are all under age; and he signed one day before the Latane Bible records his death "in the county of Wood aged 41". THE THREE SETTLEMENTS, all read on the image 10 Sep 2026. 1816 (Will Book 1A pp. 190-191, register K581): the header reads "The Estate of John Temple dec.d in a/c current with John Stephen[s], Nimrod Saunders and MARY TEMPLE, Administrators of the Deceased" - so [79] Mary Latane Temple administering her husband's estate is CITABLE, not inferred. The estate totalled $2,344, of which $847 is credited "By Do of Negro Slaves per bill" and NO ENSLAVED PERSON IS NAMED on the page (registered at ancestry/enslaved-people-named-in-temple-records.md). 1822 additional settlement (Will Book 2 p. 126, K582): opens at $213.85 1/2, exactly the balance the 1816 commissioners struck - the two are arithmetically continuous across six years. 1828 (Will Book 3 @ 70, K583): a receipt of 14 Sep 1826, "Received of HENRY W. LATANE Esq, agent for M.rs Mary Temple, Administratrix of John Temple dec.d ... after deducting a fee bill of fifty two cents due the Clerk of ESSEX SUPERIOR COURT". ⛔ WHAT NONE OF IT DOES: the will's "my brother or brother-in-law" clause is GENERIC and names nobody, and no child of his is named in any of the three settlements (controls both ways: positives 4/4, negative control 'zebra' 0/4 - K583). So [78]->[32] is NOT advanced by any of this. The father proof in the 21 Aug 2026 section below still rests entirely on William Temple's 1835 will. ⛔ AND THE 30 JUL PREDICTION IS ANSWERED IN THE NEGATIVE. It reads "An estate record or a tombstone giving an age in years AND months would close the birth window to a single year." The estate records give NO AGE AT ALL. The window 21 May 1770 - 20 May 1771 stands, with 1770 the likelier half. Do not re-hunt this. ⚠ A TRAP ON THE SAME PAGE: the item list at the TOP of Will Book 1A p. 190 (3 old Hoes, 2 old axes, 1 Chest) is ELIAS HECKMAN'S inventory, attested "Charity (her mark) Heckman, Adm't", teste J. H. Neal, Clk. Temple's account begins BELOW it, mid-page. Read the page top-down and another man's estate gets attributed to him. ⚠ STILL UNREAD, cheapest first: the 1812 INVENTORY, 3 pp. (ark 3:1:9392-C3FL-K), HTR-only and the likeliest place enslaved people are named; the 1828 Dr account (ark 3:1:9392-H5VG-K); and two named suits, "Tinstall/Tunstall vs Temple's Adm'r" (1822) and "John (E?) Wright vs Mary Temple, adm'rx" (1826). Write-up: ancestry/sources/wood-county-clerk-inquiry-2026-09-10/SETTLEMENTS-FINDINGS.md Audited 30 Jul 2026 - BIRTH YEAR CORRECTED from a flat 1771 to the range 1770-1771, and the Latane Family Bible cited as the source of the death date. THE BIBLE GIVES AN AGE, NOT A BIRTH DATE. Read directly from the image 'Latane Bible Page 4.jpg' (RM media M198) and from the Library of Virginia scan, Bible Records item 52218: 'Departed this life May 20th 1812 Mr. John Temple in the county of Wood aged 41'. Nothing in the Bible states a birth date. ARITHMETIC: aged 41 on 20 May 1812 means born between 21 May 1770 and 20 May 1771. That window is 365 days, of which 225 fall in 1770 and 140 in 1771 - so 1770 is the likelier year, and the value previously recorded was the LESS likely half of the range. WHERE THE 1771 CAME FROM: both circulating transcripts append a parenthetical - Owen's reads '(meaning, that John Temple would have been born in 1771)' and the shorter copy reads '(would have been born 1771)'. That is the TRANSCRIBER'S inference, not the Bible's text, and it had been promoted into the tree as a recorded fact. LEAD - WORKED 10 SEP 2026, SEE THE CORRECTION AT THE TOP OF THIS NOTE (written 30 Jul 2026 as 'LEAD, NOT YET WORKED'): 'in the county of Wood' is clearly legible in the original hand and is the only place-of-death evidence there is. It should point at a probate or estate record. Verify whether this is Wood County, Virginia (now West Virginia) or a mis-transcription before searching - the family's seat was Essex County. An estate record or a tombstone giving an age in years AND months would close the birth window to a single year. 21 AUG 2026 - FATHER PROVEN (ProofFather set to 1): JOHN TEMPLE IS A SON OF [32] COL. JOSEPH TEMPLE, on the 1835 will of his brother William Temple of King and Queen Co., Va., read on the typescript images 12 Aug 2026 (1835WillOfWilliamTemple.pdf; pages in ancestry/sources/temple-john-parentage-2026-08-11/). GRADE: LIKELY-STRONG, NOT RECORD-CERTAIN - King and Queen is a burned county, so the unidentified transcriber's typescript is ONE INFORMANT and may be the only surviving text. THE SYLLOGISM: Item 15 ('the annuity due from me left in my hands by my father Joseph Temple') makes William a son of Joseph Temple; the 'Lastly' clause appoints 'my nephews Baylor Temple and Arthur Temple' executors; Item 7 gives to 'John Temple, Son of Arthur Temple' and to 'said Arthur's three daughters, Mary, Elizabeth, and Martha Temple' - and [88] Arthur John Temple, son of THIS John, has exactly those four children ([1673] John, [1674] Mary Louisa, [1680] Elizabeth, [1675] Martha Ellen, per the Latane Bible; his wife was [1672] Jane E. Richards, m. 1827 same source). Arthur = [88] makes John a sibling of William, hence a son of Joseph = [32]. Corroborated in the same document: 'my nephew Henry Temple' - [70] Rev. Henry Waring Latane Temple is John's other son. THE HOMONYM TEST (Owen's condition, run 21 Aug 2026 BEFORE this flag was set): in the ENTIRE 1850 US census an exact search for 'Arthur Temple' returns ONE man - Essex Co., Va., age 45, farmer, real estate $5,000, wife Jane, children Mary, Elizabeth, Martha, John, Lucy, Ann, Henry in the household (all four will-names present); the 1840 census likewise holds exactly one candidate nationally, the same Essex household, misindexed 'Arthur Sample' (screenshots in ancestry/sources/temple-arthur-homonym-test-2026-08-21/). SCOPE OF THE TEST, stated honestly: census indexes misread surnames (the 1840 misindex itself proves it), so 'only one in the index' is not 'only one alive', and a rival Arthur could have died 1835x1840 - the identification therefore rests on the four-for-four child match PLUS census uniqueness together, not on either alone. ProofMother stays 0: the will says nothing of [85] Mary Hill, whose own b. 1732 is unsourced (its chain ends at a 1952 SAR application - see the F16 entry in db-write-queue.md). THIS ROUTE IS INDEPENDENT OF THE CONTAMINATED F16 PASQUOTANK SIBSHIP (12 Aug agent report): it runs through a brother's own will, not through F16's child list.