It would appear that Overton’s dates are off by one year. Instead of marrying after Robards received legislative approval for the divorce proceedings, as alleged in 1827, Andrew and Rachel were “married” months before, earlier than November 3, 1790, when Cochran referred to Rachel as “Mrs. Jackson,” and probably sometime in late October 1790. If this is true, they “married” when Rachel was still legally bound to another man—unless, of course, they did not marry at all (which would explain the absence of any documentation) and simply lived together as common-law husband and wife.
