Yes, I do have a hypothesis. A distant cousin started on our family side almost 20 years ago with his Grandmother, my Great Aunt. He was convinced that James Harrell b. 1747 Nansemond Co. Va and d. 1831 in Nelson Co. KY. I too believe that evaluation. Difficulty is with sources and documentation. One journal published by the Crume family confirms association with the Harrell family. The following excerpts might explain:
The Crume Family: Three Generations, January 1995, By Rick Crume, 131 130th St S Glyndon, MN 56547-9551 http://www.onelibrary.com
Elizabeth Crume, 19 April 1762,87 probably in Frederick County, Virginia; died after 16 April 1801 when her father wrote his will,88 and perhaps before 1810 in Nelson County, Kentucky. She was married 25 March 1783 in Shenandoah County, Virginia, to James Herrell who may have been the James Harrell/Herrold who appears in Nelson County, Kentucky a couple of years later. Various spellings of the name James Harrell appear in the Nelson County tax lists for the years 1785 to 1789.89 A James Herrold living northeast of Bardstown was listed in the 1789 Nelson County, Kentucky, militia list.90 A James Herrold shows up in the Nelson County tax list of 16 November 179291 and a James Harrell appears on the 1800 list92 dated 30 August, the same date recorded for other members of the Crume family who migrated from Virginia to Kentucky in about 1794 to 1795. And a James Harrell was enumerated in the 1810 and 1820 censuses of Nelson County. The 1810 census shows one male over age 45, five males ages 16 to 26 and two females ages 10 to 16, but no female over age 16. Apparently his wife had died before this census. In 1831 a James Herral of Nelson County deeded Negro children named Jason and Hanny to his daughter Lear Gibbs of Davis County, Kentucky. He also deeded three Negroes, Mary, Margaret and Elizabeth, to his granddaughters, Nancy and Margaret Herral, heirs of James Herral, Jr., deceased, of Shelby County, Kentucky.93
86Nelson Co., KY, Will Book E:198-200. 87Family Bible record of Philip Crume. 88Nelson Co., KY, Will Book A-1:470. 89Margaret Johnson Schroeder, Residents of Nelson County, Virginia (Now Kentucky) Recorded in Tithable and Tax Lists (Bardstown, KY: Schroeder, c. 1988) vol. 1 (1785-1791). 90Research by Lucy B. (Allen) Geoghegan, Bardstown, KY. 91Charles Brunk Heinemann, First Census of Kentucky, 1790 (1940; reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical Publ. Co., 1981). This is not the 1790 census, but a compilation of tax lists. 92Garrett Glenn Clift, Second Census of Kentucky: a Privately Compiled and Published Enumeration of Tax Payers Appearing in the 79 Manuscript Volumes Extant of Tax Lists of the 42 Counties of Kentucky in Existance in 1800 (Frankfort, KY: KY Hist. Soc., 1954). 93Nelson Co., KY, Deed Book 18:390. 94Family Bible record of Philip Crume. 95Nelson Co., KY, Administrators Bond, p. 59.
With this information and knowing that the Philip Crume was the father of Elizabeth, I think there is a possibility that the above couple might be the father of Philip Harrell b. 1787 Nelson Co. KY. He later married Catherine Redding and settled on property that he bought from Daniel Crume in 1828 who happened to be Elizabeth Crume Harrell’s brother. In addition, a valid explanation of the unusual occurrence of the family name “Philip” that has riddled my side of the Harrell family.
The following is also from Crume Family: Three Generations:
“In 1821 Daniel bought land in Clinton Township, Decatur County, Indiana, and in the next year’s county elections he was a candidate for associate judge.76 He and his wife Hannah sold the land in Decatur County on 20 March 1827 to Phillip Harrell.77 She signed the deed. It’s the last record we have of the couple and we don’t know where they moved or when they died.”
As for the relationship between “James Harrell b. 1747 and Chester Harrell son of William Harrell b. 1728 and married Susannah Chester “James and William Harrell are brothers and sons of Richard Harrell Jr. b. 1675. Our distant cousin had made this evaluation. In my DNA summary, Philip D.2 Crume (Daniel1). On 23 December 1749 is present.
Finally, the Philip Harrell b. 1787 had a son named Jesse Ray Harrell b. 1813 in KY (presumed Nelson Co.) married Mary Ward b. 1816, whose son Philip Edward Harrell b. 1883 is my Great Grandfather.
Philip Marion Harrell, son of Philip Harrell b. 1787 was in the Civil War.
At the moment my father who is a Harrell is having his DNA done. Should prove interesting. Do tell me more or what I might do to help. It is very puzzling to get the sources for confirmation.