Patrick and William Stewart
The Stewart family had been in Scotland since the 12th century. They became the Royal High Stewards of Scotland and in 1371 Robert Stewart became King Robert II of Scotland. A descendant, King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England in 1603. It was the son of King Robert II of Scotland, Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany who ran afoul of the rightful heir to the throne and King James I of Scotland ordered revenge. Sir James Mhor Stewart the first Duke of Albany’s grandson fled to Ireland. His son, James Beag Stewart (b. 1426) returned to Scotland and his descendants settled in Balquhidder Parish, Perthshire where his son, Sir William Stewart (b. 1455) became the Royal Baillie of Balquhidder. In the early part of the 18th century their descendants, two Stewart brothers, Patrick (b. 1697) and William (b. 1711) immigrated to North Carolina in 1739.
Patrick (3rd of Ledcreich) Stewart[1]
b. 1635, Laird of Ledcreich, Balquhidder Parish, baptized Perthshire
d. 22 Aug 1682, Ledcreich, Balquhidder Parish, Perthshire, age 47
m. Margaret Buchanan (daughter of Robert [of Drumlain] Buchanan)
Patrick Stewart was a general in the English Army of Charles I, II and James II. He fought 25 battles and skirmishes, and suffered financially due to his loyalty to the royal families.
Patrick and Margaret had one son Alexander.
Alexander (4th of Ledcreich) Stewart
b. c.1676, Laird of Ledcreich, Balquhidder Parish, baptized Perthshire
d. Perthshire
m. Katherine Stewart (daughter of Alexander Stewart of Glenagle Household in the SE district of Perthshire.)
Alexander and Katherine had four sons: Patrick, William, Robert and Alexander.[2] There was a possible 5th son, John Stewart.[3] It was Patrick and William who immigrated to North Carolina in 1739. There is speculation that John Stewart, b. 1710, Balquhidder was the father of James Stewart who married Elizabeth Stewart, the daughter of Patrick Stewart (b. 1697). There was a Lt. John Stewart of Ledcreich Balquhidder, Duke of Perth’s Regiment who was captured in 1745. He is postulated to be a younger son of Alexander, 4th of Ledcreich. He may have decided to join his older brothers in NC.
Patrick Stewart, 5th of Ledcreich and Stronslany
b. 7 Feb 1697, Ledcreich, Balquhidder.
d. 1 May 1772, SC[4], age 75, buried St. David’s Parish, Cheraw, SC.
m. 1.Jean Stewart, b. c. 1700 Perthshire, m. 1718, Kirktown, Balquhidder
Children:
1. Mary Stewart, b. 8 Jan 1719, Kirktown
2. Katherine Stewart, b. 1 Dec 1720, Kirktown
m. 2. Katherine Stewart, b. c. 1700 Perthshire, m. 23 Nov 1728 Balquhidder
Children:
1. Janet
Stewart, b. c. 1729 Balqquhidder, m. 15 Mar 1755 in Fortingall,
Perthshire to John McLean, b. c.
1730
Children:
1. James
McLean, b. 23 Feb 1756, Fortingall
2. Patrick
McLean, b. 2 Nov 1757, Fortingall
3. Duncan
McLean, b. 12 June 1763, Blair Atholl, Perthshire
4. Donald
McLean, b. 11 Feb 1765, Blair Atholl
5. Alexander
McLean, b. 22 Jun 1767, Blair Athol
The first and second marriages of Patrick Stewart and the three daughters from these marriages are not recorded in any of the later genealogies of the Stewarts of Ledcreich, but the births are found in the Balquhidder Church records. The third daughter married and remained in Scotland. The first two either died young or also married and remained in Scotland and thus were unknown to their later American kin.[5]
Patrick Stewart m. 3. Elizabeth Menzies of Ledcreich, Balquhidder, Perthshire. She was the daughter of Doctor Duncan Menzies, (second son of Robert Menzies of Carse, fourth son of Alexander Menzies of Weem)[6] and wife Margaret, daughter of Robert Menzies and cousin of Sir Robert Menzies of Weem.[7] Patrick and Elizabeth were married 31 Oct 1733 in Dull, Balquhidder.
Children:
1. Margaret
Stewart, b. 3 Nov 1734, Balquhidder
2. Alexander
Stewart, b. c. 1736, Balquhidder, died in infancy
3. William
Stewart, b. 21 Dec 1738, Balquhidder
4. Catherine
Stewart, b. 1739, Bladen County, North Carolina
5. James
Stewart, b. c. 1740, Bladen Co.
6. Charles
Stewart, b. c. 1742, Bladen Co.
7. Elizabeth
Stewart, b. 1744, Bladen Co.
William Stewart
b. c.1711, Ledcreich, Balquhidder
d. 2 Aug 1778 (?), Raleigh, NC, buried South River Church (Presbyterian), Bladen Co. NC or he died c. 1787.
m. 1. unknown (This wife and children don’t seem to show up in other accounts. If William were born in 1711 then a child born in 1725 is not likely.)
Children:
1. Alexander
Stewart
b. 1725, Balquhidder, d. young
2. William
Stewart
b. 1727, Balquhidder, d. young
3. Hugh
Stewart
b. c. 1731, Balquhidder
4. Robert
Stewart
b. c. 1733, Balquhidder
m. 2. Catherine Colvin, c. 1734 in
Balquhidder.
b. c. 1693[8]
Balquhidder
d. c. 1755, age 62, buried Stewart
Cemetery, Bladen Co. NC
children:
1. Patrick
Stewart
b. c. 1734, Balquhidder
d. 14 Dec 1777, Wilmington, NC
2. Margaret
Stewart
b. c. 1738 Balquhidder
m. Spilley
m. 3. Jannett McDougal Williamson, widow (Jane McDougal of Ayr, widow of
Daniel Williamson.)[9] m. c. 1760 in Bladen Co.
b. c. 1730
d. 1793, Bladen Co. NC, buried South River Church
Children:
1. Catherine
Stewart
b. 1761, Bladen Co. NC
m. Dwangher (DeVaughn)[10]
2. Charles
Stewart
b. 16 Jan 1761, Bladen Co. NC
(1773 is the date from the Wilkinson Co. Cem. Records. This is a big
difference. But if we look at the birthdates of the children, 1773 fits
better.)
d. Wilkinson Co. MS, buried
Stewart III
m. 1. Polly Jones in 1798
2. Mary Johnson Fort in 1820
3. Duncan
Stewart
b. 1763, Bladen Co. NC, twin to
James
d. 26 Nov 1820, Wilkinson Co. MS,
buried Stewart II
m. Penelope Jones in 1797
4. James
Stewart
b. 1763, Bladen Co. NC, twin to
Duncan
d.1818, age 55,
Woodville, Wilkinson Co. MS, buried Stewart II
m. 1. Catharine
Knowlan, c. 1792
2. Jane Moulton Dickson
5. Jannett
Stewart
b. 1765, Bladen Co. NC
m. Capt John (Jock) Stewart
(half-pay British officer)
6. Ann
Stewart
b. 1767, Bladen Co. NC
m. James Carraway (son of John
Carraway and Margaret Stewart)
7. Elizabeth
Stewart
b. 1769, Bladen Co. NC
d. 24 Mar 1825, age 56, Wilkinson Co. MS,
probably buried Stewart II
m. Lovick Ventress 1804
8. Eleanor
Helen Nellie Stewart
b. 4 Mar 1771
d. 13 Jan 1844, age 72, in NC
m. Thomas Devane III 1792
In 1739 Patrick Stewart sold Ledcreich to John Glas Stewart of Benmore (later killed at Culloden, 1746), younger son of John Stewart of Aucharn in Argyleshire, and father of the three Benmore Stewarts who inherited Glenbuckie in the mid 18th century.[11] This from the Stewart Clan Magazine which in another issue claims that Patrick may have sold Ledcreich in 1746 to his younger brother, Robert, after the Battle of Culloden when Patrick decided not to return to Scotland.[12] Ryk Brown in his website notes that Patrick Stewart may have sold Ledcreich to his brother John who then sold it to the younger brother Robert. (At some point the lands were sold to the later line of Glenbuckie as Ledcreich was part of the land sold by John Lorn Stewart, 17th and last of Glenbuckie in 1847.)
Patrick and his wife, Elizabeth Menzies, then joined his brother William, widower, and his children in immigrating to America. Another source says William immigrated as a single man and lived with his brother Patrick until he married a Miss Colvin in North Carolina.[13] This would negate the birth of William’s son, Patrick and daughter Margaret by Catherine Colvin in Scotland. There is reference of William’s second wife, Catherine Colvin being buried in North Carolina so I think she may have immigrated with William and left him a widower later. The two children by Catherine Colvin have birth-dates prior to the arrival in North Carolina. The birthdate given for Catherine Colvin has her much older than William. This could explain why there are no more children born to them in North Carolina.)
The brothers, Patrick and William Stewart, joined a party of six Argyllshire gentlemen[14] and about 300 Highlanders, calling themselves the Argyll colony (so named for the shire from which they sailed). On 6 June 1739 the custom office of Campbelltown, Argyll, cleared the “Thistle” with passengers for “Cape Fear in America.” They sailed to Gigha to take additional passenger and join “Charming Molly”. They were cleared at Belfast. Campbelltown is on the Kintyre peninsula, SW of Glasgow. They would have sailed around the Mull of Kintyre and up to the island of Gigha, then across the Irish Sea to Belfast on the NE coast of Ireland. (Another source notes the Thistle of Sailcoats,[15] Robert Brown, Master sailed from Campbeltown, Argyle on 1 June 1739, thence to Gigha to take on additional passengers, and on to join the Charming Molly at Belfast arriving in North Carolina in September.)[16]
Thus it would appear that Patrick and his third wife Elizabeth Menzies, and their two living children (b. 1734 and 1739) and his younger brother William and maybe his (second) wife, Catherine Colvin, and their two children (b. 1734 and 1738) immigrated to North Carolina. Patrick Stewart’s two older daughters would have been grown if they were alive. The third daughter who did marry in Scotland would have been only 10. Did he leave her with his late wife’s family? William’s four older boys are not noted elsewhere and probably died before the immigration. There is a question of their existence and for that matter the marriage of William before Miss Colvin.
The Stewart brothers and their families arrived in September 1739, in or near the newly incorporated (February 1739) town of Wilmington in the North Carolina Colony.
A passenger and immigration list shows William Stewart from Ledcreich, Perthshire, son of Alexander of Ledcreich, settled Bladen County, North Carolina, 1739.[17]
This was a new land to which the Stewarts were sailing. There was no permanent settlement along the Cape Fear River until the eighteenth century. After the restoration of Charles II to the throne of England in 1660, the area of North America south of Virginia was granted to the eight Lords Proprietors of Carolina in 1663. They made plans for three counties: Albemarle, Clarendon which included the lands south of
Albemarle and extending into the Cape Fear Valley, and Craven south of Cape Romaine (later South Carolina). In October, 1664, Sir William Berkeley, Governor of Virginia and one of the Lords Proprietors commissioned William Drummond, a Scottish merchant residing in Virginia as governor and commander in chief of Albemarle County, marking the beginning of a government in Carolina. On January 11, 1665, the proprietors commissioned Sir John Yeamans as “Govenor of the County of Clarendon near Cape Faire and of all that tract of ground which lyeth southerly as far as the River St. Mathias.” In 1670 Craven County was established in what would become South Carolina.
Yeamans in the fall of 1665 landed a group of Barbadians at Cape Fear after losing a ship at the river’s entrance. There was trouble with earlier settlers, Indians, shipwrecks and a report that the region to the south was more attractive. The colony was abandoned in 1667. There were about eight hundred people in the area. The only organized government remained the County of Albemarle until the founding of Charleston (South Carolina) in 1670. In 1688 Phillip Ludwell was appointed governor of Carolina “north and east of Cape Fear”. In 1690 the proprietors appointed Ludwell “Governor of Carolina” to be resident in Charles Town with a power to appoint a deputy governor for the northern portion of the colony. A single parliament was recommended but the North Carolina region continued to have its own legislative body. The next 15 years were orderly and peaceful and settlement increased. In 1704 a town was laid out on the bluff overlooking the Pamlico River and in 1706 Bath was incorporated as the first town in North Carolina. A colony of German palatines with some Swiss established New Bern in 1710.[18] A problem between the established Anglican church and the dissenters led to chaotic conditions in the colony at the beginning of the 18th Century and the Lords Proprietors, unhappy with the situation, appointed Edward Hyde as governor of North Carolina “independent of the governor of Carolina.” The years of internal strife, a series of bad crop years left the colony weakened and divided, and the Tuscarora and their allies seized an opportunity to launch an attach in September 1711. South Carolina came to the aid of the North Carolinians and in March 1713 Colonel James Moore defeated the Indians on the Neuse River. In 1715 North Carolina helped South Carolina crush the Yamassees. In 1718 Col. William Rhett of Charleston came into the mouth of the Cape Fear and captured the famed pirate Stede Bonnet who was subsequently hanged in Charleston. The following year Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard was killed near Ocracoke inlet on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
“The removal of the Indian menace, the suppression of piracy, and the energetic ….administration of Governor George Burrington, 1724-25, all tended to stimulate the growth of the colony.” In 1724-25 over a thousand families moved into the province and four new counties were created between 1722 and 1730 (Bertie, 1722, from Albemarle; Carteret, 1722, from Bath; Tyrell, 1729, from Bath; and New Hanover, 1729, to take care of the newly begun settlement on the Lower Cape Fear. But one historian called this “the outskirts of civilization, inhabiting an almost primeval world that only recently had been abandoned by Native Americans. Settlers confronted often impenetrable forests and swamps.”[19] James Moore and his brother Maurice from South Carolina had been impressed with the Cape Fear region when they had marched through to fight the Tuscaroras, and in 1723 begin to stake out claims, clear land, and erect houses. Maurice Moore laid out the town of Brunswick, 14 miles above the mouth of the Cape Fear in 1725.[20]
“The town of Brunswick, just below Wilmington, was founded in 1725. Church and government followed in 1729, the year New Hanover Precinct was established. By 1731, land on a river bluff northeast of Brunswick was being bought and sold as a suggested town site. In April 1731 Governor George Burrington asked the general assembly to pass an act “for building a Town on Cape Fear (River) and appointing commissioners for that purpose.” The assembly noted that there was already a town on the Cape Fear—Brunswick—and the act failed, but proponents continued planning. They wanted a new town on the eastern bluffs of the Cape Fear River, just south of the junction of its northeast and northwest branches. A town was actually laid off by April 1733.
The settlement was first called New Carthage, then New Liverpool, and by 1735, New Town or Newton. That year, Newton residents petitioned for formal establishment. Formation of a town was held up until February 1739, when the general assembly passed a bill creating, not Newton, but Wilmington—assigning the name to honor Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, sponsor and mentor of then Governor Gabriel Johnston.”[21]
South Carolina became a royal colony in 1719 and North Carolina followed suit in 1729 after the Lords Proprietors offered to sell their interests. At the end of the proprietary rule there were only about thirty thousand whites and fewer than six thousand Negroes in the province of North Carolina—the most sparsely settled of all the English colonies. In 1700 there were 10,720 people in North Carolina; by 1730 there were 30,000 (6,000 enslaved Africans) but most lived on the Albemarle Sound. Virginia, by contrast had greater than 100,000 in 1730 and South Carolina has 60,000 in the Charleston area alone. The largest town in North Carolina in the 1730’s was Edenton with 60 houses. Brunswick on the Cape Fear by contrast had 20 houses. A 1733 map engraved and printed in London in 1736 showed the Cape Fear area as the New Hanover Precinct, a Part of Clarendon County South Carolina.[22] By 1752 the population was 50,000, 1755--80,000, 1765—120,000; by 1775 there were 265,000 whites, 80,000 Negroes and North Carolina had become the fourth most populous English continental colony, exceeded only by Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.[23]
In 1733 settlement was moving up the Cape Fear. There was a small group of Highland Scots on the Upper Cape Fear beginning in 1732, enough that in 1734 a new county, Bladen was created from New Hanover County by the Colonial Assembly. It was named for Martin Bladen, an English soldier and politician, Commissioner of Trade and Plantations, 1717-1746. (The first county seat was called Bladen Court House which became Elizabethtown in 1773.) The earliest, largest, and most numerous settlement of Highlanders in America was the one in North Carolina in the years between 1732 and the American revolution. In 1736 Alexander Clark of Jura in the Hebrides Isles brought a shipload of his fellow countrymen to the colony where he found “a good many Scotch.”
It was three years later that Duncan Stewart’s father and family arrived in Wilmington under the leadership of Neil McNeill.
The first large group of Highlanders to make its way up the Cape Fear and settle in the Cross Creek area was a party of 350 from Argyllshire who disembarked in Wilmington in September 1739, merely six years after the settlement was laid out. In February, 1740, two of the leaders, Dugald McNeil and ‘Coll” McAlister, appeared before the Colonial Council asking special consideration for “themselves and several other Scotch Gentlemen and several poor people brought into this province.” To help these and encourage other Highlanders to follow them the upper house passed a bill granting “foreign Protestants” release from tax payments for their first ten years in the colony. The bill also requested that ₤1000 of the public money be given to Duncan Campbell, Dugald McNeal, Daniel McNeal, Coll. McAlister and Neal McNeal Esqrs to be by them distributed among the several families. The lower house agreed to the tax relief, but deferred on the dole. When the council met again in June, 1740, parcels of land were granted to this group. Some claimed large plots on the basis of headrights of those whom they had brought to America. Duncan Campbell alone received 2643 acres. Although this immigrant party consisted of 350 persons (85-90 families) only 22 individuals received land grants. All land granted was along the Cape Fear River. ‘Patric’ Stewart received 320 acres in Bladen County.[24] Patrick Stewart was William’s older brother.
Patrick and William Stewart and their families arrived in Wilmington in September and probably spent the winter in or near the town. (This would mean that Patrick’s daughter born in 1739 was not born in Bladen Co. as noted above.) Earlier settlers from Pennsylvania and New Jersey had taken up river frontage as far as the mouth of the lower Little River, twenty miles above Cross Creek (now Fayetteville). On June 4 and 5, 1740, 25 men with Highland names were issued patents for 14,000 acres in parcels on both sides of the Cape Fear River as far as the Forks, the confluence of the Haw and the Deep Rivers, about fifty miles above Cross Creek.[25]
The brothers settled first in Brown Marsh in Bladen County above Wilmington. Also in 1740 Patrick received a land grant of 320 acres in Bladen County. In 1756 he was granted land on Harnett’s Branch and in 1763 land in Brown’s Marsh, all in Bladen County.[26] We do not have the records of all of William’s land but by 1779 (tax list) he had 1200 acres.[27] William Stewart had a home on South River about 1757.[28] We do know of a patent from the Crown (Arthur Dobbs, Royal Governor) of “100 acres in Bladen County at Collins folley on the W. side of the sd. River above T. (?) Blounts Ferry, joining above a spring near the swamp.” 21 October 1758.[29] William Stewart for £100 proc money, purchased 320 acres on the Brown Marsh, 1770. William Stewart and wife Jennet sold for £300 proc money 540 acres, part of 640 acres granted to Gabriel Johnston, Govenor, 1738, in 1775. This is part of the above on Brown Marsh.[30]
Life on the Cape Fear in the 1740’s was rudimentary. The immigrant would fell enough longleaf pines to build a log home to be chinked with clay. The colonists killed a tree by removing a ring of bark, which caused the trees to drop their foliage and allowed the sun to reach the crops. The settlers planted Indian corn, wheat, oats, peas, beans, flax or sweet potatoes. The soil produced well at first but was exhausted shortly. Land was so plentiful that it was easier to abandon the old field and prepare a new one for cultivation. The stock roamed about freely in search of food. Cattle and hogs to be sold usually were driven to Charleston. Some cattle and hogs were salted and moved downriver to Wilmington and shipped to the West Indies. The Stewarts had saw mills in the later years. The mills were so important that in 1736 the governor and colonial council issued a proclamation that the construction of a sawmill in the Cape Fear section would be sufficient for maintaining title to a 640 acre grant without any cultivation of the land. By 1764, forty sawmills had been erected on the branches of Cape Fear. Numerous Highlanders held slaves and held them as early as the 1760’s.[31]
Attempts were made as early as 1732 to get the General Assembly to provide 2 new precints: Onslow and Bladen. The Council stated, “in Bladen there are not over three freeholders, Nathaniel Moore, Thomas Jones and Richard Singletary and not over 30 families.” The proposal failed in 1733 but was passed Nov 11, 1734 and signed by the governor, Mar 1, 1735. In 1738 the first courthouse was located at Elizabethtown at a site 3 miles up-river from the present Elizabethtown and called Court House Landing.[32]
Bladen County lies north and west of New Hanover County and Wilmington. It is bisected by the southeast flowing Cape Fear River. Elizabethtown is located on the Cape Fear River in the middle of the present county. To the far west in present day Robeson County (created from Bladen in 1786) is the Lumber River (also known as Drowning Creek). This flows south into the Little Pee Dee River, which joins the Pee Dee from the middle of the state (Anson County, from Bladen, 1750) to form the Great Pee Dee which flows into the Atlantic at Georgetown, South Carolina. Between the Cape Fear and the Lumber is the Brown Marsh flowing south to the White Marsh and to the Waccamaw River which also flows into the Atlantic at Georgetown. West of the Marsh is the Beaverdam Swamp. (Beaverdam Creek flows east to the Cape Fear below Elizabethtown.) In the eastern section of Bladen County is the South River with Colley Creek flowing into it. The South River runs south to join the Black River, which joins the Cape Fear above Wilmington.
Besides Anson and Robeson, Orange County was created from Bladen in 1752, Cumberland 1762, Brunswick 1764, and Columbus 1808. In 1778 the General Assembly moved the Bladen County Courthouse to Elizabethtown from Bladen Court House 3 miles away. The first US census in 1790 shows 837 free whites over age 16, 830 under 16, 1863 free white females and 1676 slaves.
Patrick Stewart, the elder, was 43 years old in 1740 and William Stewart was 28. It appears they both brought wives and young children. William’s wife (Catherine Colvin) died in 1755 and according to Chuck Speed is buried in Bladen County. His second (or third) marriage to Jannet (or Jane) McDougle Williamson, a widow, with two children, Mary and Margaret Williamson, probably took place a short time later with their first child being born in 1761.
One collateral descendant of Janet McDougal notes that Margaret McDougal married his great, great, grandfather, Alexander Campbell. Margaret had a sister, Janet, who married a Mr. Williamson and imigrated to North Carolina from Argylshire 1755/60. One year later Mr. Williamson died leaving Mrs. Williamson with two small children, Mary and Margaret. Janet married Mr. Stewart, a widower with two sons and a daughter (We know of Patrick and Margaret who were children of Catherine Colvin). They had eight children together.[33] This gives some credence that there may have been another marriage in Scotland for William since we only know of a son and daughter from the marriage to Catherine Colvin. Did one of William’s sons by his first marriage come to America with him and died there before William makes his will.
The tax list for Bladen County in 1763 lists four Stewarts: Patrick, William, Hugh and James.[34] Who are Hugh and James? Chuck Speed gives Hugh as a name for one of William’s two sons born to his first marriage to wife unknown. Could this be the same Hugh. However Hugh is not mentioned in William’s will of 1778.
Another source does not list a wife for William in Scotland and states he immigrated as a single man and married Miss Calvin in North Carolina.[35] I think it more likely he did marry Catherine Colvin and had two children by her in Scotland. She may have died before the trip. They had no more children in North Carolina. But Chuck Speed thinks she died in 1755 in North Carolina. His first child by the next wife being born in 1761 suggests this as a strong possibility.
William acquired land in Bladen and New Hanover Counties. He owned slaves, saw mills and appeared well to do.[36]
His will tells of his wealth and his family:
I, William Stewart of Bladen County, being of sound mind and perfect understanding and memory do make this my last will and testament.
I give to my wife during her lifetime the following Negroes, viz: Big Will, Campbelton, Fanny, Phillis, Amelia and Dianna, together with the following plantations, viz: the plantation whereon I now live that is known by the name of Boonesfield, the one known by the name of Newfield, and the one of the name of Skippers Field as also all my horses, cattle and other likewise my plantation tools and household furniture and at her decease the said Negroes, lands and stocks to be disposed of in the following manner, viz: the Negroes, Lize, Will, Campbelton, Phillis, Amelia and Dianna, to be equally divided as she my wife shall will and require between Jannette, Ann, Elizabeth and Helen, the said lands together with the Negro girl Fanny.
I give and bequeath to my son, Charles, to him and his heirs forever, the stock and plantation tools to be divided between my sons, Duncan, James and Charles.
I give and bequeath to my son, Duncan, the following Negroes, viz: Long Sam, John, Tom, Big Jude and Sandy, to him and his heirs forever.
I give and bequeath to my son, James, the following Negroes, viz: Primus, Big Sam, Harry, Hartwell and Sally to him and his heirs forever.
I give and bequeath to my son, Charles, the following Negroes, viz: Sterling, Larry, Little Bill, Dianna and Dugald, to him and his heirs forever.
I give and bequeath to my daughter, Catherine, the following Negroes, viz: Nan, Tinker, Deannder, Bob, Little Viola to her and her heirs forever.
I give and bequeath to my daughter, Jannett, the following Negroes viz: Luna and Neptune, to her and her heirs forever.
I give and bequeath to my daughter, Ann, a Negro girl named Lucy, to her and her heirs forever.
I give and bequeath to my daughter, Elizabeth, a Negro girl named Peg to her and her heirs forever.
I give and bequeath to my daughter, Helen, a Negro girl named Little Judy, to her and her heirs forever.
(This is a total of 31 slaves. Ownership of greater than 20 slaves distinguished a prosperous farmer from a rich planter.[37])
I give to my daughter, Margaret Spiler, one shilling sterling.
I give and bequeath to my wife’s grand-daughter, Jannette Bailey, a Negro to be raised on or purchased out of the profits of the plantation, to her and her heirs forever.
I give to my wife’s grand-daughter, Jannett White, a young Negro to be raised on or purchased out of the profit of the plantation to her and her heirs forever.
I give to William Stewart Beatty twenty pounds.
I give and bequeath to William Stewart Wright twenty pounds.
I give and bequeath to my grandson, Walter Stewart, if he does not receive any of his father’s property, fifty pounds when he shall arrive at twenty-one years of age. But in case he shall die without lawful heirs of his body, the said fifty pounds to return to my sons, Duncan, James and Charles.
I give to my wife during her lifetime one third part of the profits arising from my mills in New Hanover County, likewise one third part of the profits of my sawmill in Bladen County, the other two thirds of the profits of said mills I give to my sons, Duncan and James, the whole of the mills in New Hanover County, together with all the lands I hold on the east side of the South River to them and their heirs forever.
I give and bequeath to my son, Charles, at my wife’s decease the whole of the saw mill on the west side of the South River, together with all the lands therewith belonging to him and his heirs forever.
I give and bequeath to my sons, Duncan, James and Charles, two tracks of land on Colly Swamp, likewise three tracks of land on Cypress Creek and three tracks on Beaver Dam to be divided between themselves as they shall agree.
And I do will and require that if any of my sons shall die without lawful heirs of their body that then in such case, their part in the above mentioned lands, Negroes or other property shall return to their surviving brothers or their heirs, likewise if any of my daughters, Catherine, Jannett, Ann, Elizabeth and Helen, die without heirs to their body, their part to return to their surviving sisters, excluding my daughter Margaret Spiler.
And I do hereby make void and of no effect no former wills, gifts, grants or promises, of any of the above mentioned land, Negroes, stocks or other property, to any person or persons whatever.
I desire that this may be received by all persons as to who this may concern as my last will and testament and I do hereby constitute and appoint Jannett Stewart, my wife, executrix, and Duncan Stewart, my son, and David Bailey, executors of this my last will and testament. ( David Bailey is William’s son in law.)
In witness where of I have here unto set my hand and affixed my seal, this 22nd day of August 1778.
William Stewart
Signed, sealed, and published and delivered by William Stewart as his last will and testament in the presence of: Robert Hendrey, Ann Stewart, Elizabeth Stewart.
Duncan Stewart was named with his mother Janette, and David Bailey as executors of his father’s will dated 22 Aug 1778.[38] Duncan is the oldest son but only age 15.
Why has his daughter Margaret Spiler received such a small inheritance? Her brother Patrick had died in 1777 and reference is made to his son Walter, but no bequest to Patrick.
One chronicler notes that Margaret married a lawyer Spiller, an Irishman, who had left a wife and children in Ireland. Margaret and Spiller separated when the first wife and her children showed in America. Margaret died soon thereafter without issue.[39] She apparently was still alive when her father died but certainly didn’t receive much inheritance. Perhaps William thought the husband might get his hands on it and she had no children that might be affected.
The oldest son, Patrick, from William’s wife, Catherine Colvin had fought in the Revolution on the side of the British. He was a captain. Duncan was infuriated with Patrick remaining a loyalist. He refused to spell his name S-t-u-a-r-t again and from then on went by the name of Stewart.[40] Chuck Speed and Ryk Brown[41] note that Patrick Stuart adopted the Stuart spelling in recognition of his Loyalist support, as the British spell the name Stuart.
Again we read more of Patrick from another source which adds to our understanding.[42] Patrick never married but had an illegitimate son Walter. Patrick fought against the Tories at the Battle of Moore’s Creek under McLeod and MacDonald. Taking some offence of the cause or the officers, he resigned his commission and joined the British Army as a Queen’s Ranger. He died (1777) before the end of the war. Patrick did leave a will dated Dec 14, 1777. William Cromartie, Alexander Carmichael, and John Doane were witnesses. He had his father William as executor as well as David Bailey and William Cromartie. He lists sisters Margaret and Ann and brothers Duncan and James. Another legatee is Jemina Matthews. (Is this his mistress?)[43] Patrick instructs that the infant which Jemina Matthews is now pregnant be given ₤50 if a male and ₤30 if a female and that David Bailey use the money to educate the child. The rest of his estate is to be divided among his siblings listed above.[44] Walter Stewart b. 1778 is apparently the illegitimate son of Patrick Stewart and Jemina Matthews.
A list of the combatants at Moore’s Creek does not list Patrick. Several Stewarts and Stuarts are listed with the Tory Highlanders and only one as a patriot, but not Patrick.
The new Bladen County that received the Stewarts was growing in the years preceding the Revolution. In 1748, the people of the Pee Dee asked for a new county and Anson was formed in 1750 (Anson County is now in the middle of the state), Orange in 1752 (Orange County is now in the north piedmont area of the middle of the state), Cumberland, the site of Cross Creek, the head of navigation on the Cape Fear River, in 1754.
The county exported (in 1754) flour, pork, beef, rice, butter, indigo, tar, pitch, turpentine, staves, heading, shingles and lumber. This would be shipped downriver to the port of Wilmington.[45]
For some reason the elder Patrick, William Stewart’s brother moved to Cheraw, South Carolina in 1766 where he would later die. One report notes that Patrick moved to be with his daughter Catherine who married William Little in 1764.[46] Ryk Brown notes that Patrick Stewart located later near Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina. However his will was made in South Carolina.
William Stewart remained in Bladen County. William is 78 at the time of his death, according to Chuck Speed. However we have William Stewart listed as having 1200 acres in the 1779 tax list for Bladen County.[47] He is also purchasing land in 1779 and 1786.[48] In 1784 the Bladen tax list for Capt Anders District list William Stewart as having lands, 1400, white polls 2, black polls 18.[49] But in 1788 we have his wife Jannett Stewart named as owner of 3100 acres and 19 poll taxes.[50] This would suggest that maybe William Stewart died about 1787 at age 76. William is said to be buried in the South River Presbyterian Church graveyard. This would be near their South River home. (The church building of a later date is located on the northeast side of NC 210, 1.7 miles southeast of the junction US 701. The Stewarts graves are not marked.) His wife was no doubt much younger having had her last child in 1773. She died in 1793 and is also said to be buried at South River.
The only grave markers in the present South River Presbyterian graveyard are Cromarties.[51] The land for the church was given by Charles Stewart in 1796. A plaque on the church notes a one acre gift from Charles Stewart by deed dated 28 January 1796 “…where the church or house of divine worship stands..’ The remaining land was a gift by deed in 1859 from Luther Cromartie, a descendant of the Scottish emigrant William Cromartie and his wife Ruhanah Doane. Were the Stewarts burying there before? Two children were buried there.[52] There is a gravesite about 50 yards behind the church which had an old crumbling wall but is now fenced and owned by the church but located in timberland.[53] These graves were thought walled in when the family left for Tennessee.[54] This would make some sense. The mother died in 1793 and they left for Tennessee in 1794.
There is an early house remaining near the church and may be a Stewart house. It is listed in a book about homes in NC as the Stewart Cromartie Lille House, late 18th century and mid 19th century.[55]
We do not know a lot about the Williamson children, Mary and Margaret, whom Jannette bought to the marriage with William Stewart. In William’s will he left a Negro to Jannette Bailey and one to Jannett White, both granddaughters of Jannette Williamson Stewart. David Bailey shows up in several documents with Duncan, as chain carriers and as one of the overseers to lay off a road from South River to Sampson County in 1788.[56] He is also an executor of William Stewart’s will. From another source we do have evidence that David Bailey did marry Mary Williamson. We have a record of William White buying land on Cypress Creek in 1785 where Duncan Stewart is a chain carrier.[57] From another source we know that William White did marry Margaret Williamson. Thomas White and Charles Bailey are executors of James Stewart’s (Duncan’s twin) will in Tennessee in 1818 (? Related ).
Most of the children of William Stewart and even the descendants of Jannette Williamson Stewart leave North Carolina for Tennessee and Mississippi. The Williamson descendants are in Tennessee. If they went on to Mississippi, it is not clear. Patrick Stewart and Margaret Spiler die in North Carolina before the migration begins. Patrick’s son Walter does leave North Carolina and eventually goes to Mississippi. We do not know about the eldest daughter of William, Catherine. It seems likely she married and remained in North Carolina. The youngest daughter Eleanor Helen Nellie Stewart married and remained in North Carolina.
Ann Stewart’s family probably went to Tennessee and they were definitely in Mississippi. The same applies to Jannett Stewart, the daughter of William. More is known about the rest. Duncan, James, Charles, and Elizabeth all went to Tennessee and on to Mississippi. Even one of the grandchildren of Patrick Stewart, brother to William, went to Louisiana.
[1]
Chuchspeed.com/Stewart.ged/index.htm
[2] The
following Stewart genealogy is slightly different than the earlier Chuck Speed
web site and comes from
Http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rykbrown/stewart_of_ledcreich.htm
[3]
mentioned by Ryk Brown on his website
[4] He
apparently left Bladen Co. NC and went to SC before he died.
[5] Ryk
Brown
[6] Ryk
Brown
[7] The
American Historical Magazine and Tennessee Historical Society… Vol 7, by
Peabody College.
[8] This
birthdate suggests that he husband was probably not born in 1711.
[10]
American Historical Mag…..
[11] Stewart
Clan Magazine, Tome G. Vol 34, No. 6 (Dec 1956)
[12] Chuck
Speed.com
[13]
ancestry.com, Stewarts of Ledcreich, hosted by Chuck Speed and Ryk Brown
[14]
entitled to bear arms.
[15] A town
on the coast of Argyill.
[16]
Stewarts of Balquidder forum. Cites a source of Argyll Colony Plus, Journal of
NC Scots Heritage Society, Vol. 14, #1, March 2000.
[17] Duncan
Stewart by Saunders, p. 6.
[18] Of note
a descendant of Baron DeGraffenreid who settled New Bern married a descendant
of the Stewarts in Wilkinson Co. MS in the 19th c.
[19] Alan
Watson, The Other Cornelius Harnett, The Bulletin, a publication of the Lower
Cape Fear Historical Society, Vol. LVIII, No. 1, April 2014.
[20] The
History of a Southern State North Carolina, Hugh Talmage Lefler and Albert Ray
Newsome, 3rd addition, Univ. of NC Press, 1973
[21]
Wilmington North Carolina, An Architectural and Historical Portrait, Tony P.
Wrenn with photographs by Wm. Edmund Barrett, Univ. Press of Virginia, 1984. p.
1.
[22] MESDA
Journal, 2012, Vol 33. on line.
[23] Lefler
[24] The
Highland Scots of North Carolina, 1732-1776, by Duane Meyer. Pp. 79-82.
[25]
Chuckspeed.com/balquhidder/history/ledcreich.htr
[26] Chuck
Speed
[27] Bladen
County North Carolina, Tax Lists 1775 through 1789, Vol. II, William L. Byrd
III, Heritage Books, Inc. chapter 5. p. 105.
[28] Bladen
Co. Heritage, Vol I, p 124.
[29] Colony
of North Carolina, 1735-1764, Abstract of Land Patents, Vol. One by Margaret M.
Hofmann.
[30] Bladen
Co. NC Abstract of Early Deeds, 1738-1804, by Brent Holcomb. P. 13 and 55.
[31] The
Highland Scots of North Carolina, 1732-1776 by Duane Meyer, p. 103-112.
[32] Years
of History, a limited history of Bladen Co. NC by CE Crawford, 1987.
[33] Ardmoy
Rhu, Dumbartonshire, Rhu 230, 10 Feb, 1966. The Editor, The North Carolinian,
Raleigh. “Charles (Judge) whose letter
to my great grandfather John Campbell, Collector of Customs at Greenoch, this information is
obtained.
[34] New
Hanover County Library.
[35]
American History Magazine and Tenn. Historical Society, Vol. 7. Taken from a report of a descendant. 1902.
[36] Duncan
Stewart by Saunders.
[37] Down
Home, Jews in NC.
[38] Chuck
Speed
[39]
American History Mag….
[40] Duncan
Stewart by Saunders. P. 4.
[41] These two
Stewart descendants have extensive websites of Stewart genealogy from the very
early Scottish Stewarts to the several branches of Stewarts in America.
[42]
American History Mag…….
[43] Bladen
County Abstract of Wills, 1734-1900.
[44] Chuck
Speed
[45] Years
of History, a limited hx of Bladen, by CE Crawford.
[46] Chuck
Speed.
[47] Bladen
Co. Tax Lists 1775-1789, Vo. II, wm L. Byrd III
[48] Bladen
Co. NC Land Warrents, 1778-83, p. 85, 116.
[49] Page 3
[50] 1788
Tax List , Bladen, p. 4.
[51] Cem. Of
Bladen Co. Vol IV.
[52] Bladen
County Heritage, Vol I. P. 124.
[53] I could
not locate this in February 2013 in the heavy woods despite this being winter.
[54]
Personal communication, Scott Cromartie, Wilmington, 2010. In a folder in the NH Co. Library is a note
by Wanda Campbell, a Bladen Co. historian, The old Stuart graveyard on South
River has no marked graves but a brick fence around it which was crumbling away
in this vicinity where the Stewarts lived.
[55] Located
on the NE side of NC 210, 1.1 m. SE of US 70. There is no US 70 but a 701. A two story Carolina I house that has
recently been restored (2013) is located about this site. The present owner did not seem to know the
history nor the date of the house.
[56] NH Co.
court Minutes, part 3, 1786-93, p. 305.
[57] Bladen
Co. NC Land Warrents 1778-83, p. 128.132
No comments:
Post a Comment