Thank you so much for the reply. All this info is tantalizing and suggestive, but I have yet to figure out all the relationships. My explanation, alas, must be wordy.

I previously was aware that Jesse Goodwin was "Jurat" [i.e., witness] to this Box will and had years ago done some work in the 1980s to try to understand the other witness, Benjamin Hollingsworth, who had also witnessed the Jesse Goodwin will. At that time, I had access to a copy of the Box Book.

==>Let me note that the Goodwins who are primary focus of my research are NOT this Jesse Goodwin family, but instead are Goodwins who arrived in Franklin Co., TN about 1817, arriving from Wilkes Co, NC. My interest is mostly in the siblings:

1) James H. Goodwin, b. 1800 NC; listed Franklin Co, TN 1830 census, later to Coosa, Talladega, and Lawrence Counties, AL;
2) Newton Goodwin b. who married Jane Wakefield, listed Franklin Co., TN 1830 census and moved to AL and thence to TX
3) Sarah Goodwin [b. 1794-1800 NC] who md. B. Hamilton Wakefield in 1817 shortly before the Wakefields migrated to Franklin Co., TN before 1820.
These 3 Goodwin siblings were offspring of Josiah Goodwin [b. 1765/8 and d. ca 1806] and Louisa (Reynolds) Goodwin [she d. 1850s Lincoln Co., TN]. Of these, only Sarah (Goodwin) Wakefield, her widowed mother, and Sarah's offspring remained in Franklin County after the mid-1830s. James H, Josiah, and Sarah's grandfather was George Goodwin who in 1810 still owned land in Pendleton District, SC, having moved there from Greenville and Union Districts, SC where they'd lived since before the Revolution.

==>Back in the 1980s, I corresponded with descendants of David Muckleroy [the son-in-law of Mrs. Elizabeth _____ (Goodwin) Jones] of Texas. We had a strong belief - no proof - that the Muckleroy family might have been close friends of both the Jesse Goodwin family and the Josiah Goodwin heirs of Franklin Co., TN. One bit of info that led to the belief was the fact that Davis Owen Muckleroy married 27 Apr 1840 in Franklin Co., TN to Christiana Elizabeth Wakefield, daughter of B. Hamilton Wakefield and Sarah (Goodwin) Wakefield. In other words, Davis O. Muckleroy married a grandchild of Josiah Goodwin. Two points from this old research-

1) decades ago, the Texas Muckleroys suggested that Mrs. Elizabeth Jones was born Elizabeth NEELEY. I believe this was from personal records carried with the family to Texas, but my memory is not so clear on this and I cannot presently locate my correspondence. If indeed that were her surname, it would obviously have significance in the naming of Robert Box's son Neeley Box.

2) David Muckleroy [son-in-law of Mrs. Elizabeth Jones] was b. 1806 GA, a son of Isaac Muckleroy. David, of course, migrated to Texas, taking Mrs. Jones with him. Also living near him in 1850 Texas was another daughter of Mrs. Elizabeth Jones [Nancy, wife of John F. Graham], who was born about 1819 in TN and a son James R. Goodwin born 1820 TN. Assuming that Mrs. Elizabeth Jones gave birth at the age of 50 at the latest, then this woman was born no earlier than 1770. It would be more reasonable to place the birth of her James R. when she was maximally 45, meaning she was likely born no earlier than 1775.

On the other Goodwin/Muckleroy connection, Davis O McElroy/Muckleroy was b. ca 1812 -- also in GA -- and lived with his widowed mother Mary and his wife and children in Franklin County, TN in 1850 and until his 1856 death. The father of Davis O. Muckleroy appears to have been a William Muckleroy who married Mary Arnold in Oglethorpe County, GA in 1801. What I still don't know is whether William Muckleroy of the 1801 GA marriage and heirs in Franklin Co., TN was related to Isaac Muckleroy who had Georgia-born children of similar ages and then lived in Franklin Co., TN. Many researchers do trace both David and Davis O ultimately back to Avington Muckleroy in VA, but I have never confirmed this by my own research.

==>The other name shared in common with the Robert Box family is that of Charles McDaniel, who had intermarried with Sarah Box, per the Box will of 1821. Clearly, this married man named Charles McDaniel was someone born well before 1810.
B-u-t...a younger Charles McDaniel also married one of the Sarah Goodwin/Hamilton Wakefield daughters, namely Nancy Louisa. In 1850, Mrs. Louisa Goodwin, the aged grandmother of Louisa [Wakefield] McDaniel, was living in the Charles McDaniel home. We know from this groom's obituary that his full name was Charles Barker McDaniel and he was born 15 May 1819 in Lincoln Co., TN to Fielden and Mary McDaniel, and died in October 1882. I have not followed these McDaniels further to determine whether the similarly named men were kinsmen or not.

So, to summarize, there are name groupings that could be coincidences, but also might be significant in understanding several families.

It appears that within the Franklin Co., TN sphere of Robert Box, there is are sons with the given names Micajah, Goodwin, and Neeley, a son-in-law Charles McDaniel, and co-executor John Jones, with witnesses Jesse Goodwin and Benj. Hollingsworth.

In the sphere of Jesse Goodwin, we know he moved to Franklin County, TN around 1812 from the Franklin Co., GA area. A 1790 census entry for a Jesse Goodwin in adjacent Pendleton District, SC and deeds also in that area suggest a Jesse Goodwin was a next door neighbor to and associated with the aged Robert Goodwin who had a son named Micajah [Meceager] Goodwin. However, the 1820 Franklin County, TN census entry suggests Jesse Goodwin and his wife were born 1774 at the earliest. Benjamin Hollinsworth was one of his executors. We also know that Jesse Goodwin's wife Elizabeth [perhaps nee Elizabeth Neeley] remarried after his 1826 death to a John Jones and later moved to Texas in the later 1830s with daughter Sarah (Goodwin) (born 1807) and her husband David Muckleroy. This widow Goodwin may be listed as Elizabeth GoodMAN on the 1830 Franklin Co., TN census on the same page as son-in-law David McElroy. In a deed dated February 1833, she [now as Mrs. John Jones] made a deed of settlement of Jesse Goodwin's property on his children and gave full names and -with husbands in the case of the married daughters, of 8 different children, NONE of them including Mrs. Jane Box nor any of Robert Box's known heirs. Also interesting in this sphere is that - according to entries at findagrave, David Muckleroy's sister Jane (born 1808 GA) married James Box, b. 1799 Laurens Co., SC.

In the sphere of Sarah (Goodwin) Wakefield, though born in NC, she was granddaughter of the George Goodwin who lived in Pendleton District around 1800. This Sarah Goodwin was born 1794-1800 and married 1817 in Wilkes Co., NC and immediately migrated to Franklin Co., TN with her husband's family and her widowed mother. She had two brothers who lived in Winchester in the 1820s before they moved to Alabama and later to TX. She had a daughter who married Davis Owen McElroy/Muckleroy and another daughter who married Charles McDaniel, all in Franklin/Lincoln Co., TN in the early 1840s.

Do these spheres indicate kinships going back to the Carolinas? I just don't know.