Let’s Find Our Brown Cousins

William Brown Research Study

Richmond County, Georgia • Spirit Creek • Floating-tree method • Evidence timeline

Richmond County survey evidence showing William Brown and William Lee in the same Spirit Creek land neighborhood.

Current Conclusion

William Brown, son of John Brown and Sarah Brown, is placed on Spirit Creek in the Augusta–Richmond County area by 1788, adjoining William Lee. The assembled evidence follows him in that neighborhood through approximately 1808. No reliable record reviewed so far proves his residence after that period.

William Brown was the maternal half-brother of William Bartholomew Ball. William Lee is included here only as Brown’s adjoining landowner and as part of the Brown–Lee–Ball neighborhood evidence. Charity Lee’s earlier family and children remain a separate Lee-family study.

Research Identity

William Brown was the son of John Brown and Sarah Brown.
After John Brown’s death, Sarah apparently married Bartholomew Ball.
William Brown was therefore the maternal half-brother of William Bartholomew Ball, born 2 December 1767.
Family tradition says William Bartholomew Ball was called “Bart” because his older half-brother was named William Brown.

The William Brown Floating Tree

William Brown Floating Tree — Working Research Profile

This Ancestry profile is a separate research workspace used to test records, locations, relatives, and possible connections. A floating branch is an organizational method, not evidence, and it remains disconnected from the proven Ball tree until original records support the relationship.

The floating tree is a separate research branch maintained inside the same Ancestry tree as the proven Ball family. Its people are connected to one another, but the branch is not connected to the accepted Ball lineage. This allows records, hints, DNA networks, land neighbors, witnesses, migration patterns, and signatures to be tested without presenting an unproved relationship as established fact.

Research caution: a floating branch is an organizational method, not evidence. The working cluster includes John Brown, Sarah (shown in the tree as Sarah Allen), William Brown, and Sarah’s possible later husband Bartholomew Ball. Sarah’s Allen surname and all proposed relationships remain subject to documentary proof.

Documented and Reported Timeline

Date	Place	Event	Status
Before 1766	St. Mark’s Parish, SC	John and Sarah Brown were associated with Bartholomew Ball’s neighborhood. A 1749 John Brown plat shows Bartholomew Ball adjoining.	Documented locality
4 Nov. 1766	St. Mark’s Parish, SC	Bartholomew Ball received a citation to administer John Brown’s estate as nearest of kin. Later records identify William Brown as John Brown’s son.	Strong probate evidence
2 Dec. 1767	Probably St. Mark’s Parish	William Bartholomew Ball was born to Bartholomew Ball and the widow Sarah Brown.	Indirect proof
1788	Spirit Creek, Richmond County, GA	William Brown was in the Augusta area and lived on Spirit Creek; he administered Sarah Brown Ball’s estate.	Reported; originals needed
1788 onward	Spirit Creek	William Lee adjoined William Brown’s land, placing both men in the same Richmond County neighborhood.	Documented neighborhood evidence
1 November 1790	Spirit Creek	William Lee acquired 50 acres at Spirit Creek from John Butt and others.	Documented Lee deed
20 April 1791	Richmond County	William Lee acquired 100 acres from Jacob McCullough.	Documented Lee deed
14 July 1792	Fork of Spirit Creek	William Lee sold 500 acres to Levin Collins. William Lee and Charity Lee signed the deed; Charity made her mark.	Documented Lee–Charity deed
1 Jan. 1796	Richmond County, GA	William Bartholomew Ball married Charlotte Lee.	Documented marriage bond
1796–1808	Augusta–Richmond County	Augusta Chronicle indexes reportedly place William Brown, Bart and Charlotte Ball, and William Lee within the same regional network.	Notices must be retrieved
22 August 1799	Richmond County	Charity Lee died. Her obituary identified her as William Lee’s wife, a widow, and the mother of a number of children.	Contemporary Lee-family evidence
2 October 1809	Georgia	Bart received a passport authorizing travel through the Creek Nation toward the Mississippi Territory.	Documented passport
Late 1809–1810	Richmond County to Mississippi Territory	Bart and Charlotte Lee Ball likely left the Augusta–Richmond County area after approximately thirteen to fourteen years of married residence there.	Supported migration range
1811	Mississippi Territory	Bart’s Mississippi land claim places the Ball household in the territory by this period.	Documented land evidence
After 1808	Unknown	No reviewed record securely identifies William Brown’s later residence, death, spouse, children, or estate. Bart’s move west does not prove that Brown accompanied him.	Open Brown research question

Chronology caution: the phrase “moved from Columbia County in 1788” is problematic because Columbia County was created in 1790. It may refer retrospectively to land later placed in Columbia County.

Known Georgia Lee Property Records

These records are included only because William Lee was Brown’s adjoining landowner. They will be duplicated and analyzed more fully in the separate William and Charity Lee study.

Date	County / area	Acres	Record
July 1782	Richmond	100	Application; Revolutionary Records of Georgia, vol. III, p. 169.
1 Nov. 1790	Spirit Creek	50	From John Butt et al.; Deed Book A-2, p. 350.
20 Apr. 1791	Richmond	100	From Jacob McCullough; Deed Book C, p. 271.
2 Jan. 1795	Little River near Sherrill’s Creek	—	Act of 2 January 1795, Marbury and Crawford, p. 388.
5 Sept. 1796	Burke	150	Survey adjoining John Allen and vacant land.
5 Oct. 1796	Burke	200	Survey with a dry branch; neighbors require verification.
1799	Richmond	—	Published House Journal, 1799, p. 41.
4 Aug. 1808	Richmond	—	Power of attorney; Deed Book L, p. 118.

Research Process and Priority Records

Establish the correct William Brown: anchor candidates to John Brown’s estate, Sarah Brown Ball’s estate, Spirit Creek, William Lee, or William Bartholomew Ball.
Retrieve the Richmond County plats: obtain the original 100- and 150-acre Brown plats and record all boundaries, neighbors, dates, and citations.
Build the Spirit Creek chain of title: search deed books, tax digests, court minutes, and plat books from 1787 through at least 1815.
Recover the Augusta Chronicle notices: retrieve and transcribe the originals indexed for Brown, Ball, Charlotte Ball, and Lee.
Trace the disposition: look for a deed, sheriff’s sale, tax default, probate return, or notice naming Brown’s later residence.
Test Columbia and Burke first: use neighbors and watercourses, not the name alone. Treat Bulloch County as a controlled hypothesis.
Record conclusions by confidence: Documented, Strong Indirect Evidence, Research Lead, Conflict, or Rejected Candidate.

Working Conclusion

Richmond County Tax-Digest Review (Elizabeth Shown Mills, 12 July 1985)

The newly reviewed file set is Mills’s analysis prepared for R. C. Ball, not a complete facsimile run of the original tax digests. It chiefly tracks BALL and LEE references; it does not establish that every BROWN entry was searched or extracted.

1794: the surviving roll covered Augusta; a William BELL appeared, but Mills found no basis for identifying him as William BALL.
1795: no BALL entry was found. William LEE appeared in Capt. Lyon’s District with two enslaved persons and 322 acres of pine land.
Undated 1793–1800 roll, identified by Mills as about 1797: William BALL was taxed on 18 acres of Richmond County pine land on Butler Creek, adjoining Watkins.
1800: Levin Collins’s 350-acre Spirit Creek tract adjoined William LEE. Lee was not separately assessed; Mills suggested he may have left Richmond County, lived across a county line, or remained named in an outdated boundary description.
1801–1806 and 1808: Mills reported that the rolls were not known to exist.
1807: William BALL appeared for one poll in District 2; the Butler Creek properties were in District 3, showing that his residence was elsewhere in the county.
1809: William BALL was taxed in Richmond County for 202½ acres in Baldwin County, Lot 144. Mills distinguished him from William F. BALL of Liberty and Baldwin counties.
1811–1822: several LEE, BELL, and BEALL entries appeared, but later William BELL entries were expressly judged not to be BALL. No reliable continuation of the Richmond County William BALL was established.

Brown-study limitation: William Brown is not mentioned in this 1985 report. Because the report was designed around BALL and LEE, that silence is not proof that Brown was absent from the original tax rolls.

Proven destination: Spirit Creek, Richmond County, Georgia, in the Augusta area by 1788.

Last supported period: the Brown–Ball–Lee network is reflected in Richmond County and Augusta references through approximately 1808.

Unproven destination: no later county or state can yet be assigned. Bulloch County is a research lead, not a conclusion.

Principal Sources

BFHA-RC-000039, William Bartholomew Ball Research Record and Source Registry.
Susan Sloan, Identifying the Father of William Bartholomew Ball (1767–1841/46), October 2011.
R. C. Ball compilation, William Ball plus William Lee (002).
Alice O. Walker, Personal Name Index to the Augusta Chronicle, vols. I–II.
South Carolina Colonial Plats, vol. 5, p. 49, John Brown tract dated 8 November 1749.
Ball Family Association research records and Georgia source files.

Prepared as an active research study. Conclusions will be revised when new original records are located.

William Brown Research Pages

Researchers should use these pages in the following order:

William Brown Research Study — the main continuing-research page.
William Bartholomew Ball Parentage Proof — BFHA-RC-000047 — the Brown–Ball parentage and half-brother evidence.
William Lee Research Record — BFHA-RC-000046 — Brown’s adjoining Spirit Creek neighbor and the associated Lee evidence.
Ball Family Georgia Collection — Richmond County, Spirit Creek, Augusta, Burke County, and the Brown–Lee–Ball neighborhood.
Editor’s Notes — BFHA-RC-000049 — background on the Brown parentage research and earlier conclusions.
Complete Digital Archive — the full Ball Family Association research archive.