The battle for Davy Crockett’s marriage license

At a wedding celebration in Tennessee in the early 1800s, the future folk hero Davy Crockett met and fell in love with Margaret Elder. They became engaged, and on October 21, 1805, the Jefferson County Courthouse drafted a marriage contract for the couple. However, Margaret Elder eventually came up with a new strategy. After meeting another man, she left Crockett and their unused marriage license behind and eloped with him.

Surprisingly, 200 years later, a visitor by the name of Margaret Smith brought in the exact marriage license to be valued during the 2005 Antiques Roadshow tour to Tampa, Florida. She claimed to have obtained the document from her uncle Harry, who had kept it from being disposed of during his time in the 1930s as a Jefferson County court employee.

The Crockett marriage license had to be returned by Margaret, who was 87 at the time, after Tennessee officials who had seen the show sought it on January 26, 2006, just days after the first Tampa edition of ROADSHOW had aired. The county sued her on February 27, 2006, asserting that she had violated Tennessee law by possessing a "protected public document."

On November 19, 2009, the case was ultimately resolved in court, and five days later, it was decided that the Crockett marriage license did meet the criteria for "Jefferson County historical record" status and had to be promptly returned. On February 19, 2010, Margaret was ordered to turn over the document after an unsuccessful appeal.