I have been trying for years to find out about the mother of Million Brown Wishart, my Great, Great Grandmother and wife of John Ballantine Murphy. There are several sources other than family lore that identify her as the daughter of Sidney Wishart, but all the other information I could find on Sidney Wishart pointed only to one marriage, Ann Eilbeck Mason Cooke, and one daughter, Mary Thompson Mason Wishart. Now I have found the answer!
Sidney Wishart married twice. In a Fauquier County chancery suit from the year 1802 (Browne v. Hening), his marriage to Million Cooke Browne is spelled out quite plainly, naming her, her brother and her parents. Million Cooke Browne was the daughter of Rawleigh Travers Browne and his wife Million Waugh. It is not too much of a stretch to place Great, Great Grandmother, Million Browne Wishart, as the daughter of Million Cooke Brown and Sidney Wishart. Her obituary published in the Virginia Herald on 28 April 1834 does not list her birth date but her age (31) is provided, placing her birth in 1803.
However, we also have a good bit of information identifying Anne Eilbeck Mason Cooke (who apparently was also known as Nancy) as a wife of Sidney Wishart, and a later child of Sidney named Mary Thompson Mason Wishart. Mary Thompson Mason Wishart appears to have been born later than Million B. Wishart, further strengthening the argument that her mother was not the same as that of Million.
Most likely, Sidney Wishart married Million Cooke Browne sometime in the latter 1790s and they had a daughter together – Million Browne Wishart. It is possible that Million Cooke Wishart died following childbirth, or it may have been due to some disease. Without any records to attest to it, we don’t know. But it does appear that Sidney married again, this time to Anne Eilbeck Mason Cooke, and then had another child, Mary Thompson Mason Wishart. So our Murphy ancestors did not marry into the Mason line and we are not all descendants of George Mason. It is still nice to have a mystery solved!