John Scott Godley (1826 — After 1880)
| Parents: |
Jesse S. Godley and Mary Stark Unknown |
| Daughter: | Mary Scott Godley |
John Scott Godley and Amanda Melvina Fitzallen Jamerson were born in Kentucky. John in Allen County, Kentucky in about 1826 and Amanda in about 1832, but the records do not show where.
They married in about 1847 in Allen County, Kentucky. We know they did not put an out-of-date postage stamps on their wedding announcements, since there were no out-of-date postage stamps. This was the first year the United States issued stamps.
John Scott Godley and Amanda Melvinia Fitzallen Jamerson with their grandson, Lacy Leroy Ewing. Circa 1895.
They had four children, all also born in Allen County, Kentucky: Anne E. Godley, born in 1848; Mary Scott Godley, born on November 26, 1849; M.L.S. Godley in 1849; and Lue Ann Godley on July 16, 1852. If you are reading carefully, you will note that M.L.S. Godley was born in the same year as Mary Scott Godley. Perhaps, they are the same person.
John was a farmer and a slave owner. The 1850 census for Allen County, Kentucky showed him owning three slaves (a 50-year old female; a 15 year old female and a 14-year old male).[1]
The 1860 census for Allen County, Kentucky, showed him to be a resident of the Gainesville community.[2] The same census showed Amanda Melvia Fitzallen as being twenty-eight years old, indicating she was born in about 1832. She then was a housewife.[3]
The slave schedules for the 1860 census showed John S. Godley as the owner of a 35-year old female slave. His parents owned twenty-six slaves between them.[4]
The 1870 census for Allen County, Kentucky showed John S. Godley as a 44-year old farmer married to Amanda M.H. Godley, a 39-year old woman who was "Keeping home."[5]
The 1880 census for Allen County showed John S. Godley to be a 55-year old resident of the community of Gainesville. He lived with Amanda M.F., his 49-year old wife. No children were then living with them. He was a farmer, and she was "keeping house." Both of them were born in Kentucky, and all four of their parents were shown as being born in Virginia. This census was taken on June 9, 1880.[6]
Another source reports that she was born in 1827 and that her name was Amanda Melvine Fitzalan.[7]
Nannie Maude Spears informed Brian Reeves in a conversation in July 1975 that both Amanda Melvina Fitzallen and her daughter, Mary Scott Godley died shortly after Nannie Maude Spears married Lacy Leroy Ewing in 1908. She also said Amanda Melvina Fitzallen's mother had lived in Allen County and that her father had died in a hunting accident.[8]
An LDS record says that her name was Amanda M.F. Jamerson and gave her husband's county of birth, as well as his approximate death date and their marriage information.[9]