Any verified info on Amelia or Emelia Cate/Cates aka Morgan (1735) and parents

Question

I am looking for verifiable data only.    The name is spelled Amelia Cate or Cates, Amelia Ann Cates, Amelia Ann (Millie) Morgan, Emelia Cate or Cates or Morgan. Shown as Emelia Smith Cate on Wikitree at URL.  Born approx 1735.  Wife of Richard Mathias Cates. 

Based on the following story from her grandson, where Amelia is reference as "Millie":  

Joseph Cates' Memoirs - "My name is Joseph Cates I was born June 3 1803 near Cowpens, South Carolina, My forebears were farmers, traders, hunters, pathbuilders and warriors, who moved through Virginia west through the Carolinas and Georgia. Papa's forebears came from England and Scotland and Mama's came from Ireland before the Revolution. Papa's mama Millie was born of English and Manahoac Indian blood. Grandma Millie's mama Ann Spotwood went riding with a younger sister when they was stopped by a Manahoac Indian. He grabbed the reigns of her horse while her little sister escaped back to home. Ann was shamed by that Indian. Later captured by her father and uncles, they hung him to die. When Ann's papa found out that she was with child he paid a dower to Mister Charles Morgan a widowed man with children from Rappahannock Parish, Virginia to keep disgrace from the Spotwood house. Alec Spotwood was a citizen of high political standing in Virginia. He banished Ann and child forever. Ann and Mister Morgan was married. He gave his name to her girl born Amelia Ann Morgan. Papa says he was named John Morgan Cates for a favorite brother of his mama. He told us that she was never ashamed of who she was and nor was he.

I do not know if this story is true in order to cover up a family scandal or if it was partially true to cover up a family scandal.

I am brick walled on this person, and looking for any additional information on Amelia Ann Morgan and her parents.  The Ann Spotwood in the story is not the Ann C. Spotswood from the Spotswood tree.   I have exhausted all the common genealogy websites and come up with nothing of real value. I think a lot of the them have backed into her parenthood because of the story about the indian.  But that story may have been untrue.      

Thanks.

Comments

Where did the supposed memoir come from?  Has anyone seen it?   It makes no sense.  Governor Alexander Spotswood had a daughter Ann, but she wasn't banished anywhere or married to anyone named Morgan.  I can't find anyone named "Spotwood" in Virginia in the first half of the 1700's, just the famous Spotswood family.  The inclusion of "Manahoac" Indian makes the whole thing suspect to me.  They were a very small Northern Virginia tribe mentioned by John Smith.  They ceased to exist in records before 1730 and it's unlikely the average person in Virginia in the 1700's had ever heard of them.  There are numerous versions of this story on the Internet, with most claiming that Ann was in fact the Governor's daughter.  Ann Spotswood, born 1725, married a man named Bernard Moore.

Answer 1

The more I look at this the more it seems a made-up muddle of multiple families.  The 1790 census in Union, S.C. lists a man named John Cates with a family of three.  https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/24757392?h=40fe53&utm_campaign=bandido-webparts&utm_source=post-share-modal&utm_medium=copy-url

At the same time in North Carolina there is a John Cates with a wife Emilia/Millie and eight children.  This John died in 1793 and left a detailed will.  Widow Millie and three children are still there in 1800.  "United States Census, 1800," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHRD-XD7 : accessed 29 June 2021), Milly Cates, Hillsborough, Orange, North Carolina, United States; citing p. 554, NARA microfilm publication M32, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 34; FHL microfilm 337,910.They had an son, John, who was an adult in 1793 but he did not move to South Carolina before 1803. He may be the John Cates who married Hannah Smith in North Carolina in 1811 or that may be a younger John.  Some of the children of John and Millie moved to Tennessee. This cannot be the same family.  

The Joseph Cates from South Carolina appears to be the man who was born in South  Carolina, then lived in Newton County, Georgia and married Elizabeth Hammack there in in 1829.  They moved to Arkansas. In 1850 they are there with ten children. "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M678-RF2 : 20 December 2020), Joseph Cates, Freeo Township, Ouachita, Arkansas, United States; citing family , NARA microfilm publication (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).  Although various web sites say Joseph died in 1845 or 1854, they appear to be the same family living in Locust Bayou, Arkansas in 1860.  "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M87T-9H5 : 18 February 2021), Joseph Cates, 1860.

Comments

Thank you for the information.  It's a strange story with not much to go on.  I'll go through what you referenced and see if I can make any more sense of it.