I could find no Suttons in the 1810 Robeson census; I believe Jesse's widow and children, if not Jesse himself, were still there but simply got missed as sometimes happened. In 1820, the only Sutton listed for Robeson is Caleb, who shares the household with an older woman presumed to be his mother. Since I've seen no record to suggest there were any other Sutton families in Robeson during this time period, it's a safe assumption that Jesse was John Caleb Sutton's father.
It has been suggested that Jesse was a son of the Joshua Sutton who died in New Hanover County, North Carolina, in 1796 but the will (a transcription has been submitted to the New Hanover page of NCGenWeb Archives) lists only the following: wife Nansey; sons Benjaman, Joshua and Anthony; daughters Rebecka, Comfort, Sarah Barrow and Betsy Sheperd; son-in-law Jacob Sheperd. There was no Jesse. North Carolina Wills: A Testator Index, 1665-1900 shows no other Joshua Sutton wills, either in New Hanover or elsewhere in North Carolina. A search of Grimes's Abstract of North Carolina Wills as well as of Olds's supplement that covers up to the year 1800 turned up no information on Jesse Sutton or the lady he married (i.e., a likely female legatee married to a Sutton).
The 1790 census was the first Federal one, so there's no falling back on a previous census to try and piece together Jesse's story. The only Jesse Sutton listed in Revolutionary War Bounty Land Grants is from Greenwich, Connecticut, and isn't a promising candidate. No marriage record has been found in Robeson or elsewhere, and so far no deeds, plat surveys, grants or other land records have surfaced that bear his name. I found Suttons aplenty on taxpayer lists, court records and elsewhere, but no Jesse.
The only places I've thus far found a Jesse Sutton, other than the two North Carolina censuses, is in a list of Virginia Tax Payers in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1783, and listed as the brother to Josiah Sutton in the latter's 1792 will, also in Westmoreland County. Unfortunately, I subsequently found a Chancery Court case related to the Josiah Sutton estate which makes clear that particular Jesse Sutton had died leaving only two daughters so it's back to square one.
- Unknown male, b. 1790-1800; possibly died before 1820
- John Caleb Sutton, b. ca 1800; m. Lisha Andrews, Marinda Boyette(?)
- Unknown female, b. 1790-1800; possibly died or married away before 1820
Looking at the available records, I've come to some different conclusions about the Jesse Sutton family than those reached by Johnny Sutton (see Sources below) based on his own and predecessors' exhaustive research. He surmises that Jesse Sutton and his unknown wife had the following children: Jessie Grant Sutton (b. ca 1793), who relocated soon after Jesse's death to Pulaski County, Georgia, and eventually lived and died in Barbour County, Alabama; an unknown son born about 1795; Nancy Sutton (b. ca 1797), who married William Lee in Robeson in 1822; John Caleb Sutton (b. ca 1801); and Susan Sutton (b. ca 1803), who married John Lee in Robeson in 1826.
I suspect rather that Caleb was born before or in 1800, and was one of the two males under 10 in Jesse's household that year. I've seen nothing to tie the Barbour County, Alabama, Jessie Grant Sutton to the Robeson County Suttons, and the fact that there were no other Sutton males hanging around Robeson County (or mentioned in any records I've seen for that area) at least suggests the possibility that this second male son didn't survive. The female who is under 10 in 1800 is a little harder to account for: there's no Sutton bride listed in Robeson County marriages earlier than 1822, but no females in Caleb Sutton's 1820 household other than his mother (45 and over). Based on the latter, I also don't believe that Nancy or Susan Sutton were Caleb's sisters; they married in 1822 and 1826, respectively, so they would still have been in the home in 1820 if they were part of this family.
