Nancy Castleman was born ca 1804 possibly in Davidson County, Tennessee.

She married John Chesney Crownover, the son of John Crownover and Elizabeth Chesney on April 29, 1824 at San Felipe, Fayette County, Texas. Nancy had immigrated with her mother and father Sylvanus Castleman and Elizabeth Lucas as one of a group referred to as "Austin's Old Three Hundred" referring to the first 300 families to settle Texas under the leadership of Stephen F. Austin. John and Nancy Castleman Crownover were the first couple to be married by bond in the Republic of Texas by Stephen F. Austin.

Nancy died in 1844 during childbirth of her son, John Bunyon. A year after her death her husband, John, also died. Their children were split among Nancy and John's brothers and sister, with the exception of the oldest, Chesney, who was not a minor. Rufania and Marion went to Arter and Lavinia Castleman Crownover, John and Mary Crownover Rabb took Leona. Benjamin and Melissia Crownover Phillips took John Bunyon. When he was born, Melissia had a small baby also and was able to breast feed both babies.

A provision of Stephen F. Austin’s colonization contract with Mexico was that the Roman Catholic religion would be the only one practiced in colonial Texas. This minor detail was pretty much ignored by the majority of the Protestant settlers, until it became a legal issue when the subject of marriage came up. There being only one known priest that visited the colony, Father Miguel Muldoon, who spent a lot of time in Mexico. So to keep the colony growing spiritually, morally, and population wise, Austin authorized Marriage Bond ceremonies to be performed between a couple who could not wait the sometimes year or more for the priest to show up to perform a proper Catholic wedding, which was not high on their list of rituals. The following is a Marriage Bond issued in 1824 concerning the offspring of two families of Fayette County colonists. All original punctuation and spelling has been retained. This was the first marriage bond issued in the colony.

Marriage Bond
Be it known by these presents that we John Crownover and Nancy Castleman of lawfull age inhabitants of Austin’s Colony in the Province of Texas wishing to unite ourselves in the bonds of matrimony, each of our Parents having given their Consent to our Union, and there being no Catholic Priest in the Colony to perform the Ceremony—therefore I the said John Crownover do agree to take the said Nancy Castleman for my legal and lawfull wife and as such to cherish support and protect her, forsaking all others and keeping myself true and faithfull to her alone, and I the said Nancy Castleman do agree to take the said John Crownover for my legal and lawfull husband and as such to love honor [and] obey him forsaking all others and keeping my [self] true and faithfull to him alone. And we do each of us bind and obligate ourselves to the other under the penalty of ______ Dollars to have our Marriage solemnised by the Priest of this Colony or Some other Priest authorized to do so, as soon as an opportunity offers—All which we do promise in the name of God, and in presence of Stephen F. Austin judge and Political Chief of this Colony and the other witnesses hereto signed
Witness our hands the 29th of April 1824
Witnesses present
Be it known that we Sylvanus Castleman and Elizabeth Castleman the parents of the within named Nancy Castleman do hereby give our consent to the marriage of our said daughter with the within named John Crownover—April 29, 1824. Attest.
Stephen F. Austin then issued a proclamation that he had witnessed the ceremony and it was legal, at least in the eyes of the colonists. It has been noted that more than one Catholic wedding was attended by the children of the bride and groom.

From The Austin Papers, edited by Eugene C. Barker, 1924.