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Meredith Catchings, Sr.

c. 1740–c. 1798

✦ direct ancestor — Owen's 5×-great-grandfather · Catchings line
○ descent not proven throughout — 2 of 5 links unassessed

Life

Born
about 1740
Died
after 28 Dec 1798 · Wilkes, Georgia, USA

Marriage & children

Spouse✦ Anastasia Madden (–c. 1807)
Nancy Catching
Kate Catching
✦ Meredith Catchings (Kitchens), Jr. (1773–1867)

Life as they lived it

Not the dates — the person. What the records happen to show of work, habits, possessions and the odd episode. Each line says where it comes from.

1784 He received Georgia Revolutionary bounty land as a soldier: 287½ acres on 22 May 1784.

work · Georgia Revolutionary bounty land grants, printed register, p. 93

1785 He settled in Wilkes County, Georgia, taking land grants between 1784 and 1791 on the Little River and Kettle Creek. The 1785 tax digest charged him with 4 polls, 6 slaves and 550 acres.

possession · Wilkes County grants and the 1785 tax digest, as summarised in the tree

1798 On 19 July 1798, near the end of his life, he deeded nine enslaved people to his son Meredith Jr. The 1921 family book's transcript gives none of their names.

household · The Catchings and Holliday Families (1921), p. 14

1798 He signed with his mark, not a signature: on 28 December 1798 he receipted his share of Dennis Madden's estate in Wilkes County that way. His son signed his own name in 1809.

habit · Receipt on the estate of Dennis Madden, Georgia Archives, read on the image

1807 His widow Anastasia's will of 6 March 1807 left their son Meredith an enslaved man named Mose, on condition he paid her son Isaac Wilkes $150, and left a second enslaved person to their daughter Nancy.

household · Anastasia Catchings's will, Wilkes County, 1807, and Davidson's 1932 abstract

Records behind this page

Ancestry.com, Revolutionary War Bounty Land Grants
Ancestry · subscription
read the transcript
Revolutionary War Bounty Land Grants, printed abstract series, p. 93 (running head "Revolutionary War Bounty Land Grants"), right column. READ ON THE PAGE IMAGE 13 Sep 2026 (FLHG_RevWarBountyLandGrants-0121.jpg), register K686. The four Catchings entries, verbatim and in the order printed: "Catchings, Benjamin. Ga. Citizen. 24 Feb. 1784. 297 1/2 acres." "Catchings, Joseph. Ga. ---. 24 Feb. 1784. 250 acres." "Catchings, Meredith. Ga. Soldier. 22 May 1784. 287 1/2 acres." "Catchings, Seymore. Ga. ---. 24 Feb. 1784. 250 acres." The Meredith entry states NO heir, NO assignee and no relationship of any kind. CONTROL, ON THIS SAME PAGE - the series DOES record heirship whenever the grant went to heirs: "Cason, Cannon. N.C. Private. 3 Aug. 1820. 640 acres to heirs." / "Cason, Hillery. N.C. Corporal. 3 Aug. 1820. 1000 acres to heirs." / "Castander, Metrue. N.C. Private. 30 Sep. 1785. 640 acres to heirs." / "Casteele, William. N.C. Private. 24 Dec. 1785. 640 acres to heirs." / "Castle, Richard. N.C. Private. 31 Dec. 1824. 458 acres to heirs." / "Caswell, Thomas. N.C. Corporal. 3 Aug. 1820. 428 acres to heirs." - and assignment when a grant was assigned: "Castor, Philip. Pa. Private. 4 May 1795. 200 acres to Alexander Power, assignee." So the silence on the Meredith entry is this series reporting a grant issued to the SOLDIER HIMSELF, not an omission by the abstracter. No heir of his is named in it and none can be.
Wilkes County, Georgia, loose court records — Georgia Archives Virtual Vault (original images)
Estate of Dennis Madden, Wilkes Co., Ga. - receipt of Meredith Catchings, by mark, 28 Dec 1798 (Georgia Archives Virtual Vault item 26796, image 26795)
read the transcript
December the 28 day 1798. Then Received of Richard Madden the Administrator of Dennis Madden Deceas'd my Distributive Sheer this Given under my hand & Seal - [his mark] Meredith Catchings [his] mark || Archivist's caption on the image: "This is fast fading. The heir signing this receipt is Meredith Catchings, Dec 28 1798." -- transcribed from the image 22 Sep 2026; the scrap is wet-damaged and fading. K782.

Research notes

Working notes from the research, kept verbatim — what was read, what it proved, what stays open. Many open with a line grading the parentage; what the grades mean.

Research note · 23 Sep 2026
DEATH DATE CORRECTED 22 Sep 2026, from "after 19 Jul 1798" to "after 28 Dec 1798". He was ALIVE AND SIGNING on 28 December 1798: a receipt among the loose papers of Dennis Madden's estate (Georgia Archives Virtual Vault, Wilkes County Estate Records item 26796, image 26795, read on the image - register K782) reads "December the 28 day 1798. Then Received of Richard Madden the Administrator of Dennis Madden Deceas'd my Distributive Sheer this Given under my hand & Seal - Meredith Catchings [his] mark", and the archivist's caption on the image reads "This is fast fading. The heir signing this receipt is Meredith Catchings, Dec 28 1798." WHY THIS IS SENIOR AND NOT JUNIOR - AN ARGUMENT, NOT A READING. The receipt is signed WITH A MARK. Meredith Jr., born 1773, signed his own name on the 1809 return of Anastasia's estate, so a mark in 1798 points to the father rather than the 25-year-old son. WHAT WOULD OVERTURN IT: any document showing Meredith Jr. signing by mark in this period, or a reading of image 26795 that resolves the hand differently. THE OLD DATE WAS AN INFERENCE, AND THE DATE IT RESTED ON IS STILL GOOD. 19 Jul 1798 is the date of his deathbed deed of nine slaves to Meredith Jr.; the branch memo read "died shortly after" it. The deed date is unchanged and still cited - only the death inference moves. His death now floats between 28 Dec 1798 and the letters of administration on his own estate, which the branch memo records as 1801 from a source this project has not itself opened; that upper bound is a lead here, not a fact. Audited 25 Jul 2026 - Junction #4: identity/lands/wife/death corrected against Catchings & Holliday Families (1921, certified GA record transcriptions) + Davidson Early Records of Georgia. Father UNKNOWN (tradition only). See ancestry/catchings-branch-research.md. PARENTS - TWO FAMILY TRADITIONS, RECORDED 23 Sep 2026 so they are not re-derived (round-4 triage C1, Owen). The round-4 dossier (agent-report-853-meredith-catchings-2026-09-22.md) reads Catchings & Holliday Families (1921) as carrying two traditions that exclude each other: (A) an elder Meredith Catching was the father of five brothers, this man among them; (B) this man was himself the father of Joseph, Philip, Seymour and Benjamin. Both rest on that one compiled book and neither is a record, so no parent is entered on either. NEXT DOCUMENT: his own Wilkes County, Georgia estate file, c. 1798-1801, Georgia Archives Virtual Vault collection p17154coll10, whose returns should name his distributees. WOULD ALSO DECIDE IT: the family Bible of Benjamin Catching Sr. that the 1921 book cites for his birth on 31 Oct 1748; where it is now is not known.

Elsewhere

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