Amherst Co., VA, Register of Marriages, p. 9 1785 Amherst Co., VA, census 18 Dec 1778, Amherst Co., VA, Deed Book E, pp. 111-12

5. ROBERT5 JOHNS (ROBERT4, WILLIAM3, RICHARD2, ROGER1) (Source: Robert Johns.) was born Abt. 1760 in Virginia. He married ELIZABETH LYON (Source: Franklin County Suit Papers, 1786-1865, Nov 1791 Robert Johns and Elizabeth (Lyon) Johns v. Mary Lyo, administratrix of Elisha Lyon, deceased. VSLA. ...For possession of a slave girl named Luce whom Mary Lyon refused to turn over to her daughter. Eliz.   Johns avowed that Elisha Lyon, her father, had promised her verbally before his death in 1787 that if she would remain single and "employ her labor and attention to his use" he would bequeath Luce to her. She stayed with her father for 5 1/2 yrs. and during that time she "lost several opportunities of employing herself to great advantage." She also maintained that Elisha Lyon told her husband Robert, that although the slave Luce belonged to Eliz., the elder Lyon was "to have the use of her during his life". Later Elisha Lyon borrowed L30 from Robert Johns and declined to pay it back, observing "as he had given your Orator's wife a negroe he ought to keep the money to make his bargain tolerably good". Mary Lyon assserted that her husband had never given Eliz a slave and it was supported by deposition on 8 Jan 1791 by Alexander Rose. ...on a Curtin Day he hapned to be at Robert Johns some time after Joseph Greer and Faney Lyon was mareid (1 May 1786) ...Eliz said "her father had never give her a Negro but said that Charley Rorax had been there and she had got him to write a leter to her father. That they were about going to Georgia and she expected her father would come there and his being a tenderharted man would give her one." We don't yet know the outcome of the suit.) April 06, 1779 in Amherst Co., VA (Source: Amherst Co., VA Marriage Record, Johns, Robert, bachelor and Elizabeth Lyon, spinster, daughter of Elisha Lyon, April 6, 1779. William Booth, surety, consent of her father, Wlisha Lyon.), daughter of ELISHA LYON and MARY ?.
Child of ROBERT JOHNS and ELIZABETH LYON is:
i.ELIJA6 JOHNS, b. 1784, Amherst Co., VA; d. Barron Co., KY.

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