Researcher Cynthia Crigler wrote an article for Beyond Germanna (v10, n1, Jan 1998), in which she expressed doubt that the wife of Henry Aylor was Margaret Crigler, a daughter of Susanna Clore Weaver Crigler Yager. First, there was no evidence that Susanna, the mother, had a daughter, Margaret. [Susanna was the Susanna Wever on the headright list that I have been discussing recently.]
Apparently, the late B. C. Holtzclaw was the first to claim that Margaret Aylor, wife of Henry Aylor, had been Margaret Crigler. In turn, he was followed by the late Sarah Aylor Lewis, who repeated the claim. Perhaps Arthur D. Crigler made the same claim before Sarah, did but, in any case, he agreed. Though three people have repeated the statement in their published genealogies, this is simply the result of copying and not of research .
Holtzclaw said that a deed from Nicholas and Margaret Crigler showed that Margaret Aylor was receiving her share of the Crigler estate. Cynthia Crigler put an end to this copying process and obtained a copy of the deed, so that she could see what it said. The conclusion of Holtzclaw, she found, went beyond any reasonable bounds, and was probably not valid. She started first with a deed of 20 Sep 1759, whereby Christopher Loyal sold to Henry Aylor, for sixteen pounds, 100 acres of land that was part of a 1726 patent to Michael Cook and Jacob Criglar, for four hundred acres. The second deed, of 18 Oct 1759, from Nicholas and Margaret Crigler, was to Henry Aylor, and conveyed 200 acres that had been a part of the Michael Cook and Jacob Criglar patent mentioned earlier. Nicholas obtained his full interest in this land by a conveyance from his brother, Christopher. Henry Aylor paid two payments of thirty and fifty pounds for this two hundred acres.
At no point in this deed are there any terms of endearment such as "beloved daughter", or "beloved sister", which might have been expected in an estate or family settlement. Furthermore, the price that Henry paid for these two hundred acres, eighty pounds, hardly sounds as though it were an estate settlement. Finally, there is no mention of any wife of Henry Aylor. On three points, therefore, it does not sound as though it were settlement of a Crigler estate. The amount of money sounds as if it were a commercial transaction. No reason other than money is given in the deed. No reason is given as to why Henry Aylor would be entitled to the property.
More likely, just a month before, Henry Aylor purchased one hundred acres, which was adjacent to the two hundred acre parcel. It sounds as if he wanted more land adjacent to what he owned, and made an offer to Nicholas Crigler, who accepted, and sold him the land.
Susannah Clore Weaver Crigler Yager did make a property distribution of slaves to her two sons, but she made no distribution to any daughters.
The Christopher Loyal, who sold his one hundred acres to Henry Aylor, was Christopher Leyrle. The outline of his history is known, and it is consistent with the story above. (He moved to North Carolina.) There are good reasons to doubt that Henry Aylor's wife was a Margaret Crigler, and we will give her true identity in the next note.
(22 Nov 00)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.