'Wur-teh' Watts

Not the same as Wu-te-he 'Wuttah'

Biography

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Watts-3165

Uncertain Parent

The mother of Bob and Lucy Benge is often referred to as "Wurteh Watts," a name for which there is no documentation. "Watts" comes from the apparent fact that Cherokee Chief John Watts was her brother, but a time line makes it unlikely that white trader John Watts was her father. He does not appear in records relating to the Cherokee until after 1750. "Wurteh's" son, Bob Benge was born no later than 1765, probably closer to 1760, meaning his mother must have been born no later than 1750, and probably closer to 1745.

Biographical notes

As with most early Cherokee women, almost nothing is known of the woman called “Wurteh Watts,” the mother of Bob “The Bench” Benge. She is named in no records and is known only by extrapolation from references to her father, her brother, and her son. She was born in the Cherokee Nation about 1750, usually listed as the daughter of white trader/interpreter John Watts and a Cherokee woman who was the sister of chiefs Old Tassel and Doublehead. The family lived in or near the Cherokee town of Chota. John Watts came into the Cherokee Nation before 1752 when he accompanied a Cherokee delegation to Williamsburg, VA as interpreter. [1] A deposition from Trader Robert Due/Dews from 1777 stated that Old Tassel was the uncle of the Cherokee John Watts/“Young Tassel.” [2] Bob Benge and his brother “The Tail” are described as the nephews of John Watts, leading to the conclusion that their mother was the daughter of John Watts the elder and sister of John Watts the younger. [3]

“Wurteh” may have had more than one husband, but only one, white trader John Benge, is certain. They were the parents of two, possibly three children, Bob “The Bench” Benge, Lucy Benge, and “The Tail,” who is described as a brother of Bob Benge but whose father is uncertain. [4]

Her date of death is unknown.

Note: for discussion of other possible spouses and children please see the G2G thread attached to this profile.

Family

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Benge-104

John Benge, who spent much of his life as a trader in the Cherokee Nation, [1] was a white man from Virginia. He married Elizabeth Lewis about 1760 in Ablemarle County, Virginia; they were the parents of three children, a son, (possibly William Lewis Benge), a son Obediah, and a daughter Sally. According to "The Fielder Family Record"an unsourced family history written in 1857 by Herbert Fielder, the grandson of Sally Benge Fielder, :“The father of Sally abandoned her while an infant, in Virginia, and came to the Cherokee nation and married an Indian [woman], by whom he raised the Indian family of half-breeds named Benge, who were somewhat famous with their tribe."

John fathered three Cherokee children:

1. Bob (The Bench),
2. Martin (The Tail), and
3. Lucy Benge

by a Cherokee woman often referred to as Wurteh, believed to be a sister of John Watts, the Cherokee chief. [2] It was common for white traders to have concurrent white and Cherokee families, but it appears that he simply abandoned his white family at some point in the 1760's. His date of death is unknown, but he was still alive in 1793 when he warned Indian Agent John McKee that his life was in danger from John Watts. [3] [4]

References

1. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Watts-3165
   1. McDowell, William. Colonial Records of South Carolina, Series II, The Indian Books. South Carolina Department of Archives and History. 1955. Vol. 3, pp. 10 & 14
   2. Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, Volume 22, Pages 995-1005, Deposition of Robert Dews concerning relations with Native Americans, January 22, 1777. Image at https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/document/csr22-0706
   3. American State Papers, James Carey to Governor Blount, March 19, 1793. pp. 437-438, image at http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampagecollId=llsp&fileName=007/llsp00...
2. Goodpasture, Albert V. “INDIAN WARS AND WARRIORS OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST, 1730-1807.” Tennessee Historical Magazine 4, no. 4 (1918): 252–89. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43999637. Page 256. "The most daring and crafty of these Chickamauga bushwackers was Bob Benge, the son of an Indian trader named John Benge, who married a niece of the old Tassel, and spent his life in the nation. The Tassel complained to the commissioners at the treaty of Hopewell, in 1785, that, in passing through Georgia, Benge had been robbed of leather to the value of £150 sterling. John McKee saw him, and was be friended by him, near Chattanooga, as late as 1793.329 His Indian wife had two sons, Bob Benge and the Tail. Only the former of these bore his name; and, through the inaccuracy of the pioneer ear, that has been almost lost, as he appears generally in our Tennessee histories and public documents under the more dignified name of the Bench, by which I shall still call him, though he is celebrated in Virginia tradition as Captain Benge. ... "
   1. Receipt from State of Georgia, image at receipt
   2. Brown, John. P. “Old Frontiers.” Southern Publishers, Kingsport, TN. 1938. p. 170
   3. American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. 1, p.444 McKee
   4. Hoig, Stanley W. The Cherokees and Their Chiefs. University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville. 1998. p. 84.
   5. http://shaybo-therisingtide.blogspot.com/2011/09/descendants-of-ama...
   6. Logan Banner 's 'Chief Benge the red headed Cherokee'
   7. "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 10 September 2017, 12:57), entry for John Benge(PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:LTRY-FTZ); contributed by various users.
   8. "Trader" John Benge's Tree[1]