In an undated petition from the mid-1830s, orator Obadiah Alexander petitioned the court. That his father Aris Alexander died many years ago intestate with land of 25 acres. His widow married Joseph Jones and has since died. He left the following children your orator, Mahala now the wife of Richard L. Haile, Nancy the wife of James H. Greenwood, Maria who married Lewis D. Brooks and died before her mother leaving Beverley and Alexander Brooks, both under 21. [Essex County, Virginia, Box Chancery No. 39, item 39-C-17.]