Biography of Anne Ross aka Dove, wife of William Preston Sr, known as Fanny Ross Preston of Cannon County, Tennessee by David Travillion Bunton

Anne (Fanny) Ross Preston was the mother of my 4th great grandmother Hannah Preston Wilcher Crabtree.

The January 1793 Lincoln county, Kentucky marriage records for William Preston and his bride, record her name as Ann or Anne Dove but one account has her name as Ross and this is because her parents were Hugh Ross and Sarah Stockton. The reason she was referred to as Ann Dove in her marriage record was because her step-father was Francis Dove and from childhood she had been raised in the household of her stepfather and her mother Sarah Stockton Ross Dove. According to a local historian named Forrest Calico, in reference to his reading of various Ky Court records, it was stated "Francis Dove married the mother of Ambrose and Hugh Ross, so deposes Thomas Kennedy SR. They had a sister Betsy Ross." This Thomas Kennedy was the husband of Agnes Ross, daughter of Hugh Ross Sr and Sarah Stockton.

The aforementioned Hugh Ross (Jr) and Ambrose Ross were the older brothers of Ann Ross Preston who died after 1840 in Cannon County, TN

According to her grandchildren in their private papers and some published accounts from Cannon County, Tennessee, she was referred to as FANNY ROSS. ie William Preston married Fanny Ross and then an account of their children, which I have verified. One of Ann (Fanny) Ross (aka Dove) Preston's grandsons named Elijah Cheatham Preston born June 20, 1833, died June 1915, gave information on the family in a letter to his nephew Thomas Ross Preston in 1903 as follows:

Quebeck, Tennessee

September 16. 1903

To T R Preston (this was Thomas Ross Preston who was a banker)

Chattanooga, TN

Dear Nephew

Yours received last Monday. Would have answered sooner, but wanted to think a little. My grandfather Preston was named William. If he had any middle name, I do not recollect it. The name William was a favorite among the Preston family. My grandfather was born in Virginia--the date I do not know now. He emigrated to Kentucky where my father I suppose was born. My grandfather married a ROSS. Her name I think was Fanny. He was living in Kentucky during the War of 1812, manufactured salt petre, I have often heard my father speak of it. My grandfather had a brother by the name of Moses, a Methodist preacher who remained in Kentucky and doubtless is the ancestor of all the Kentucky Prestons. All the Virginia and South Carolina Prestons are of one original stock. They are Scotch Irish with a sprinkling of Welch or Wales. My Grand Father had two brother-in-laws in Kentucky. One by the name of Kennedy. He was a Tory in the Revolutionary War. The other was by the name of Lankford. My G. F. was with the company that captured one or both of the Harps. They had killed one of the Lankfords. My G. F. and his two brother-in-laws were considered then three wealthiest men in that part of Kentucky. They lived near the Crab Orchard at a place I think they called Danville. My G. F. stabbed or hurt a man in a difficulty and got broken up in that way. The Preston's were always a little pugnacious. My father's motto "I give no insults, nor take none." My G. F. was a cripple. I might get up a few more items if I was in Cannon Co.

I have no writing of my Preston G. F. I once had writing of my Mears G.F. The whole of the Preston family are of the progeny--still keep up the original type wherever you meet them of ugliness and cleverness. If I find out anything more, I will communicate. If you think I can help you in anything more, write me and I will gladly answer. Give my respects to Charlie and reserve for yourself and wife my best wishes. As ever,

from Uncle E. C. Preston

[note by David Travillion Bunton: Fanny is the nickname for Anne and marriage records show that her sister Elizabeth Ross married Benjamin Brown in 1785 with mother Sarah Stockton Ross giving consent. However, Elizabeth Ross Brown, not long after her marriage became involved as a "common law wife" of Stephen Lankford. (They never married, but had an agreement concerning their business and affairs.) The oldest sister was Agnes Ross, very likely named after her mother Sarah Stockton Ross's mother who was named Agnes. Agnes Ross, per her tombstone was born in 1756, married Thomas Kennedy, who was very wealthy. The recipient of the letter was Thomas Ross Preston, was a banker and financier, who was the son of Hugh Lawson Preston and Thankful Doak. Hugh Preston was the brother of letter writer Rev Elijah Cheatham Preston, both being sons of William Buchanan Preston and wife Mary Mears. William B Preston was the brother of Hannah Preston (1800-1865) of Ky and Cannon County, TN who married first Joseph Wilcher in Lincoln Co, Ky and then Vaach Crabtree in Warren County, later Cannon County, TN. The Wilcher family and other Preston connections were likely those relatives that Elijah Preston wanted to query if he could visit Cannon County, TN. The mention of the Harp brothers refers to Micajah Harp and Wiley Harp, who were infamous for their murders and foul ways.]

Further research confirms that Anne (Fanny) Ross was the daughter of Sarah Stockton who first married Hugh Ross and then Francis Dove. Although I do not know the exact date for the marriage of Sarah Stockton Ross to Francis Dove which occurred in Kentucky, I believe that Ann Fanny Ross aka Dove lost her father while she was very young, and her mother remarried Francis Dove who for all intents and purposes became her father albeit her step-father. Thus, when she married her marriage bond stated Anne Dove and Francis Dove was a bondsman. Francis Dove was also a bondsman for other of her siblings. However the strong traditon of ROSS by her grandchildren must be considered and they carried the names ROSS and HUGH into the generations born in the 1800s. DNA analysis links Ann (Fanny) Ross Dove Preston to many others in both Ross and Stockton families and verifies connections between Sarah Stockton and her siblings, such as Nancy Stockton Shields. My father, Clyde J Bunton, descendant of Hannah Preston Wilcher, daughter of Ann Ross Preston, daughter of Sarah Stockton Ross Dove, matches descendants of Nancy Stockton Shields and other Stockton siblings of Sarah Stockton Ross Dove. DNA analysis of other descendants also link Ann Ross Preston to many members of the Stockton family of Albemarle County, VA, to Richard and Agnes Stockton, the parents of Sarah Stockton Ross, later Dove.