Joseph Collins-Thomas Collins-Samuel Collins 2 tithes

Flatt River, Orange County Va.

was formed from Granville in 1753. The Flatt River area was in the new county. A 1755 Tax list of Orange County, NC. ( ref. Melungeon and Other Pioneer Families) If a family had at least 1/16 Indian or black they were sometimes listed mulatto.
 
Gedion Bunch 1 tithe(mulatto) Micajer Bunch 1 tithe (mulatto) Thomas Collins 3 tithes (mulatto) Samuel Collins 2 tithes (mulatto) John Collins 1 tithe (mulatto) Moses Ridley (Riddle) 1 tithe & wife Mary (mulattoes) Thomas Gibson 3 tithes (mulatto) Charles Gibson 1 tithe (mulatto) George Gibson 1 tithe (mulatto) Mager Gibson 1 tithe (mulatto)Land Grants in Orange County, NC. 1756- To William Combs on Flatt River joins Thomas Gibson, Joseph Collins & John Wade.

Chainbearers: Thomas Gibson Jr. and Moses Ridley(Riddle) . 1761-700 acres to Thomas Collins on Dials Creek of the Flatt River.

Chainbearers:
George Collins and Paul Collins (mulattoes)Some of these old pioneers may not have known all the rules and did not obtain a deed, notice who lost their improvements in this deed. John Brown-Warrants 26 Dec 1760, 700 acres on the Flatt River, includes Bolins, Riddles and Collins Improvements.
Surveyed 13 April 1761, deed 14 Oct 1761.
Wherever these people who's children became known as Melungeons migrated, they always left a few behind. Although those left behind were never labeled Melungeon they were "kin to the people who later became known as the Melungeons of Newman Ridge". A few stayed on the Flatt River, some migrated to the territory that became South Carolina, some to Pittsylvania County, Virginia.
A Collins family along with Moses Riddle and some of the Bolen's moved to Pittyslvania County, Virginia before 1767 and had land entries on the Sandy River.

The 1767 Tax list of John Wilson, Pittsylvania County, Va. records: Moses Ridle (an Indian), William Ridle, Peter Perkins List records; Christopher Bowlin, and son William, Christopher Bowlin Jr. James Bowlin, Joseph Bowlin.

• Daniel, William, and Samuel Collins

• 1767 ,  Pittsylvania County,
   
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  John Davis was born about 1732 and married Jemima Collins in about 1753.
  
    In the First List of Tithables of Pittsylvania County, Year 1767, he is listed as an overseer on the Mecklenburg County, Virginia plantation of George Jefferson (son of Thomas Jefferson's uncle, Field Jefferson). 
  
  Daniel, William, and Samuel Collins appear on the same list in addition to the following slaves:  Sam, Chance, Pompey, Phillis, Patt & Lacy.  Field Jefferson's wife's name was Mary Frances Robertson, the daughter of George and Mary Eppes Robertson. 
  
  George Robertson's sister was Catherine Robertson who married Joseph Collins.  If Jemima is descended from this Collins family then this could be the relationship to the Jefferson family.   

  In Constant Elisha Watson Davis' manuscript "The Davis Family", written in 1892, it states that Jemima Collins was related to President Thomas Jefferson. This claim is also mentioned in the source, The History of Logan County, West Virginia, written by Henry Clay Ragland in 1896 and later republished in 1978 by The Logan County Genealogical Society. Following is the section from that book which relates to the Davis & Jefferson family connection...

   " The settlement at the mouth of Spruce, where Lewis Rutherford now lives, was made by Benjamin Sprouse. At just what time he settled there is not known, but he raised a large family of boys and girls, and with Reuben Thacker, a brother-in-law, moved further to the west, selling his place to William Davis, who came from Albermarle County, and claimed to be a first cousin of Thomas Jefferson. Davis married a Mrs. Hensley, of Russell County."