When John Owings Sr. was born about 1758, in Baltimore, Maryland, British Colonial America, his father, Elijah Owings or Owens, was 39 and his mother, Hannah Stinchcomb, was 18. He married Aphra Afrey Foster on 12 April 1790, in Rowan, North Carolina, United States. They were the parents of at least 5 sons and 2 daughters. He died on 15 May 1815, in Rowan, North Carolina, United States, at the age of 57, and was buried in Rowan, North Carolina, United States.