Happy Anniversary

 James Murphy Looney and Mary Susan Francis were married 29 October 1874 in Franklin, Tennessee.

Source: Tennessee State Library and Archives; Nashville, TN, USA;
Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002

Surname Sunday - Beeks

 William and Mary Beakes, with their sons in tow, arrived in Pennsylvania aboard the "Bristol Merchant" sailing up the Delaware River in December 1682. Before arriving, William had deeds of lease (tenancy) and release (relinquishment of landlord's interest in the property) of 1000+ acres of land purchased from William Penn. Part of this land was in the region of Bucks County near the Delaware River. He also had lots in the city of Philadelphia. 

The Beakes were Quakers and are listed in many Quaker meeting notes. 

William's son, Samuel (my 9th great-grandfather), married Johannah Biles, daughter of American judge attorney, legislator, sheriff, land speculator and merchant, William Biles. 

William Beakes
Samuel Beaks 1667-1732
Abraham Beeks 1703-1732
Abraham Beeks 1731-1788
Samual Beeks 1752-1814
Francis Marion Beeks 1786-1861
Nettie Jane Beeks 1812-1882
Francis M Smith 1840-?
W F Smith 1882-?
Oda Zelle Smith, my great grandmother

Sources:

• Genealogies of Pennsylvania Families
• U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900
• U.S. Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935
• U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500-1900

My Scots-Irish History

When Abraham Hillhouse was born about 1639, his hometown of Ayr* in the Scottish council (county) of Ayrshire was like most struggling settlements in the Scottish lowlands. The area had been through a series of plagues over the last 100 years and the people were tired and looking for a change in their luck. So when King James the VI offered land to lowlanders willing to immigrate to Ulster, Ireland, many families, including Abraham's, took advantage of the opportunity and sailed across the North Channel towards a new life.

Abraham and his family settled in Parish of Aghanloo. The family appears in records in the towns of Ballycastle, Atikelly, Free Hall and Streeve Hill. They also spent at least 101 days in the city of Derry during the 1689 Siege of Londonderry. Abraham's brother, James, is said to be the mayor of Derry during this time.

The Lowlanders did not quite fit in, though. Not only were their politics and culture Scottish but their Presbyterian religion was incompatible with the Catholic Highlanders and Irish or the King's Anglican Church. The Lowland immigrants became second-class citizens in Ulster -- forced to pay tithes to the Church of England and not represented in the local government. Many of these Ulster Scots or Scots-Irish fled for America others would leave eventually but not before things got even worse.

Between the years of 1717 and 1776, more than a quarter of a million Ulster Presbyterians immigrated to America. Most of these settled into the Appalachian mountains.

Abraham and his wife, Janet had at least 3 children, Abraham, James, and John, all born at Free Hall. John later inherits Free Hall and he and his wife, Rachel, raise their six sons there. John and Rachel are buried at the Arclow Church.

At least 2 of John's sons immigrated to America: Reverend James Hillhouse and Samuel Hillhouse my ancestor. 

Samuel married Anne Luckey in North Carolina and the two settled in western Rowan County after her father's death. It was around this time that the name Hillhouse was changed to Hillis. All five of Samuel's sons fought in the war for independence. Samuel's daughter, Martha, married William Minter.

William and Martha's daughter, AnnaMariah Minton married Peter Morgan. Peter and AnnaMariah had a son, Charles, in 1801 in South Carolina.

Charles married Lucretia and had a daughter Barbara Sophia Morgan. Sophie (1845-1922) is my 3rd great grandmother.

*Though most sources agree that Abraham Hillhouse was born in Ayr, there is enough evidence to make me believe that his ancestry was not Scottish but English. The Hillhouse name originated in North England and Ayr is very close to the English border.

The Newberry Davenports

 

Francis Davenport 1718-1803
 by Thomas Hudson

Francis Davenport was born in 1718. The son of Isaac Davenport Phoebe Eva Sawyer, his grandparents, Francis (b. 1626) and Sarah Davenport migrated from Derbyshire, England with the Society of Friends (Quakers) and settled in Chesterfield, New Jersey. Francis Sr. was the spiritual leader for this congregation at Chesterfield. He was also a kept a local store. His son, Isaac, married Phoebe Eva Sawyer and moved to Newberry, SC.

Francis Davenport was a Patriot in the Revolutionary War (DAR Ancestor #: A029985). He married (1st) Ann Whaley and had Isaac, James, Jonathan, William, David, Francis, Sarah, Abigail, Nancy, Martha, and Fannie. His daughter, Sarah, married Samuel Beeks.  Their granddaughter, Nettie Jane Beeks Smith, was one of the first settlers in Pontotoc, MS. 

Sources: 

• Davenport, John Scott, Newberry Davenport Data, 2000
• U.S. Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970, Ancestry.com, 2011, Provo, UT, USA
• Moss, Bobby G., Roster of the South Carolina Patriots in the America Revolution, Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, MD, 1983

Palatine Trails

At the end of the 17th century and beginning of the 18th century the Holy Roman Empire was involved in several wars throughout the European Continent that would eventually lead to its end. The wealthy region of the Middle Rhine was repeatedly invaded by French troops during these wars. This along with famine caused many farmers to flee. The group moved around the British Isles and Colonies for a few years for many political and economical reason. This group of immigrants became known as Palatines even though only a small part of them were from the Palatinate.

Christoph de Graffenried, 1st Baron of Berberg, was a Swiss nobleman who, in 1710, assisted the immigration and helped establish colonies in North Carolina for the large number of Palatine and Swiss who came to North America. About 100 Swiss and 600 Palatines left Europe for this new colony. Many of these immigrants died during the journey and even more died during wars with the Native Americans during 1712-1715. Luckily for me, Joseph Granade and his son, John (b. 1695) survived all of these trials and made it to the New Bern Colony.

Joseph Granade was born about 1676 in what is modern day Switzerland and immigrated in 1710. His grandson, John Adam Granade (b.1715) is recognized by the Daughters of the American Revolution for his contribution to the war effort.  Joseph Granade's many descendants are spread across the United States.

For more information on the Palatine immigration I recommend these sources:

• New Bern-Craven County Public Library, Swiss and Palatines to New Bern
• National Park Service - The People of Fort Stanwix

The Make Up of Me

    I don't have any family history to share today but I have been wanting to share my DNA Painter image. This image has many colors. It has more empty areas than it has colored areas, for now. I am ever so slowly adding to it bit by tiny bit.  I have been working on this off and on for almost three years. This is a visual representation of my DNA make up. The numbers down the left side represent my chromosomes: 22 and X. The background lines of pale blue and pink represent my maternal and paternal lines on each chromosome. The different colored bars represent the DNA I have from a specific individual ancestor or ancestral couple. Each of these colored bars represents a piece of the most complex jigsaw puzzle ever put into place with hours of researching until my eyes are crossing.

I am a Wash-Tub Woodson

Are you a Wash-tub Woodson or a Potato-hole Woodson? Although it sounds like a nonsensical question, it was a common one at Woodson gatherings in years gone by and for a good reason. There are many writings of this story throughout history, many available online and almost all guaranteed to be written better than what I can do but I am going to give it a try.

John Woodson was born in 1586 to John and Alice Hammon Woodson in Dorset, Dorsetshire, England. He went to school at St. Johns College, Oxford, England and graduated a doctor in 1604. He began working for Sir George Yeardley as a surgeon. Years later, in 1619, John married Sarah Winston. Yeardley had been appointed lord governor of Virginia in the fall of 1618 after the unexpected death of the incumbent governor and so he gathered a group of soldier and recruited John and his new bride and set sail on the ship "George" to Virginia in early 1619 and landed in Jamestown, Virginia in April 1619. (Over a year and a half before the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock!) John and Sarah eventually settled at Flowerdew Hundred near what is now Richmond, VA

Photo by Elaine Hatfield Powell. She her post and photos
 about John Woodson here

and had two sons, John and Robert. 

 

On April 18, 1644 the Powhatan attacked the Virginian settlers in a third attempt to drive them from their land. On the second day of this raid, a group attacked the Woodson's home. Dr. Woodson was returning home from visiting patients when the attack began. Sarah Woodson and her two boys were home alone with the exception of a man named Ligon. (Sources are all over the place about who Ligon was: schoolmaster, indentured servant, shoemaker, friend.) The only weapon they had was a huge fowler that hung over the door. Ligon was a good shot and able to use the gun effectively against the Indians. Sarah frantically searched for a place to hide her boys. She told Robert to hide under the potatoes in the hole where they were stored and John to get under the washtub. Sarah watched out the window as her husband, John, was killed. Sarah and Ligon fought hard and in the end nine of the attackers were dead and the rest ran back into the woods. Her sons crawled out of their hiding places unscathed and from then on were called "washtub" and "potato hole". 

English Long Fowler (“Woodson” musket), mid 17th century, Barrel; about 1750, Lock; about 1800, Stock, VHS accession number: 1929.8 (On loan from Charles Granville Scott and conserved with gifts from Woodson descendants). By Woodson family tradition, the oldest part of the gun was used by Lt. Col. Thomas Ligon, who helped Sara Woodson defend her Prince George County home from an Indian attack on April 18, 1644

Both John "Washtub" and Robert "Potato-hole" went on to have large families. 

John (1632) married Mary Pleasant and had son John (1655)

John (1655) married Mary Tucker and had daughter Christian

Christian married Thomas Hodges and had son Edmund

Edmund married Nephany Walker and had daughter Susannah

Susannah married John Slayden and had daughter Martha

Martha married William Bourland and had daughter Martha

Martha married Buckner Williams and had son Plummer

Plummer married Malinda Mills and had son Sanders

Sanders married Agnes Lewis and had son James 

James married Mollie Savannah Conway and they gave birth to my great-grandfather, Sanders

John and Sarah Winston Woodson are my 12th great-grandparents.

You've heard of at least one other Woodson, outlaw Jesse Woodson James. He was a potato-hole Woodson. 

Notes:

1.  Flowerdew Hundred Plantation was probably named after Sir George Yeardley's wife, Temperance Flowerdew. 
2. There are probably over a hundred sources for this story and hundreds of stories and blogs about it. If you want to read more, and trust me, there is more, do a Google search for Dr. John Woodson Jamestown or the Powhatan Wars. 
3. The Woodson DNA must be of stout stuff because, even though they are fairly distant ancestors of mine, I have found many, many DNA cousins (13th cousins!) with the Woodson as MRCA (most recent common ancestor). This is very surprising considering I have a few 4th and 5th great-grandparents whom I have almost no cousins through. 

Sources: 

• Woodson,  Henry Morton. Historical Genealogy of the Woodsons and Their Connections.1915
• Hood, John. "Hidden in a Potato Hole." Carolina Journal, 19 Oct. 2012
• U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900. Yates Publishing. Ancestry.com Operation Inc. 2004. Provo, UT
• Yawkey, C.C.. "Yawkey, Richardson and allied families; a genealogical study with biographical notes.". 1939. N.Y. American Historical Co. 
• Deetz, James. Flowerdew Hundred: the archaeology of a Virginia plantation, 1619-1864. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995
• Stebbins, Sarah J. "Chronology of Powhatan Indian Activity." National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, May 2009. 
• Dorman, John Frederick. Adventures of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1907-1624/5 4th Ed. Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Pub. Co., 2007
• Bogan, Dallas. "Progenitor of Family Here Died In Indian Battle" LaFollette Press.