William Paschal(c1704-1774)
of the NC Land Grants
by Clarence McDaniel Dec 18 2017
The above are genealogies in their formal state which for some is not what they would like. Below are biographical(reading) forms.
Here is my own biographical sketch of the life of William(Willm) Paschal, C, of the NC land grants
In the town of Woodbridge, NJ, 1729 is where we find the 1st document of our ancestor, William.
William, was apparently living at home in Woodbridge, NJ, before 1725. It is not known where he was born but he seems to be Scottish(mother) and well educated. Nothing is known of his earlier life.
We have concluded, from other sources(see below), that William Paschall married as his first wife, Reliance Dennis of Woodbridge about 1725.
In Woodbridge,1729, William signed as a witness to the will of neighbor, Thomas Pike. The original will exists and a photocopy of William's signature has been obtained. The signature shows 2 final L's and the name William is fully written out and no final flourish is used in the surname. fig 1
William's life can be divided into 2 parts, NJ and NC. I am going to ID him as: William, C, of NJ and as Willm, C, of NC.
William, C, of NJ
Very early, about 1634, there migrated to the new world several groups of people. Those concerning us arrived in the Cape Cod region of Massachusetts. These were English religious dissenters termed: Quakers, Calvinists, Puritans,Pilgrims, Congregationalists, etc. Among these were a group known as: The Reverend John Lothrop's Church. This group initially arrived in six ships. Some surnames in this group were: Lothrop, Dennis, Crowell, Pike, Kent, Scullard, Bishop, Parker, et al. Later on some of these moved to Woodbridge, Middlesex Co, NJ, c1674. There several became leaders in the community. The Pikes, Parkers, Bishop and Dennis family located at the eastern base of what was known as "Strawberry Hill". I have found this site on a modern aerial photo today. fig 2
New info has been accessed and it is now necessary to add another class of religious dissenters to the above list. These people were Scottish with some being called Scotch-Irish(Ulster Scots). About 1680, many Scots were persecuted for their refusal to pledge allegiance to the English King. Some of these took sail to America in what became known as the "Scots invasion" about 1685 to 1715. The eastern ports including Perth-Amboy were their objectives. They came undocumented, landed, and disappeared into the country. These people wished to remain mostly anonymous due to their status. Jana Inglis may have been among this group as no document of her early life can be found. The fact that she married(c1708), 2nd'ly, Samuel Parker is the first mention found.
A book: This book (vol I) is the only reference to her early life yet found: fig 2b Note: A prior suggested marriage by Samuel Parker to a Foord is rejected by this book. This seems to indicate that this article is the 1st to name Samuel & Jana's marriage. The book suggests the info came from the Bible, c1719, but does not state this exactly. Also the book is a reprint of a previous article by Lewis D Cook, a friend of the Bedford family. The reference to DAB:(vol)14,(page)226 is incorrect; I have not found this elsewhere. All of these references need to be located. I have James Parker's will, NYC probate(Robert Clark).The book has typos: ie, Boock? 1719( likely refers to Jana's Bible(a page? dated 1719?). This Bedford line ended with Henrietta; none of her family ever married. The Delaware Historical Society has the Bedford papers but you need to appy($$$) to get acess to them. Somebody needs to do this, preferably someone local,(ie, a taxpayer).A NJ supreme court document states that William was the son of Jana. This means her sons were half brothers. William very likely named his children for them. The odd signature(1734) of Jana in the Bible, thought by Gordon Bond to be Jana's mother is more likely a variation in time. In James Parker's 1770 will he mentioned a sister(in-law?) and her ch, but no names.
The acute observer will note all of William's, C, son's names except one are accounted for. Who was Isaiah, F, named for?
When William wrote his will he did a remarkable thing which until now was not recognized. See daughter, Dianna, M, below in Willm's will.
9/4/16: NJ Court Dockets: I have purchased 10 of these; in one, #41320, we see a case of Disturbing the Peace. Jana had a Inn(her husbands?) Inn and is termed, "Innholder". This Inn is part of her house. Neighbors filed a complaint and it is in court. Jana shows she is a true, Scotswoman by her language- she was instructed to bring her license; several neighbors gave statements as did the drunk who named Jana and her 2 sons. She was fined 10S(shilling, half-pound) for disrespect. This was on Sunday, morning, 25 May 1734. The important thing here is that the document names the two sons, William Paschal and John Parker. But notice: This is common knowledge;ie, no where does Jana state she is the biological mother of William(adopted, an aunt?). fig 2a
William, with the Samuel Dennis family next door, met and married Reliance Dennis..a case of the girl next door.
William wrote his signature twice,one dated 1730, in the 1566 Bible fig 3 of Jana Inglis Parker now Paine. Note: He didNOT put down his birth date?
William then 1730, bought 100 acres of land in Essex Co, NJ, from Joseph Al(lin). This was witnessed by his then step-father, Nathaniel Paine.
fig 4-1 fig 4-2
Samuel Dennis(the son of the more famous one) of Woodbridge, in his will of 1719 fig 5-1 fig 5-2 named an unmarried daughter as Reliance. Also, another, younger, daughter was named, Elizabeth. William named his 7th son, Dennis, possibily(note this word) because William married secondly, Elizabeth Dennis, sister to Reliance. Among the witnesses at the 1725, NY, indenture of James Parker, son of Jana, was Elizabeth Denne(s).
Subsequent Paschal descendants used Reliance(relly-rilly) Dennis and Samuel Dennis as given names for their children and grandchildren. The marriage, c1725, of Reliance Dennis to William Paschal as determined by Mrs Betsy West, Mrs Betty Jo Paschall and myself, on Oct 1, 1986(recorded in my notebook on that day), is today a widely accepted event even though no marriage document has been found.
In the 1735-1737 period William had 3 occasions to visit the NJ Supreme Court sitting in Perth-Amboy or Burlington. These were civil cases, one for which William obtained a jury trial. fig 6a He lost the case and had bail provided by Samuel Dennis(presumably,Reliance's brother fig 6b
Reliance's father, Samuel Dennis or Dennes, and his father before him (also named Samuel) were well-known personages of Woodbridge. The elder Samuel had served in several civil capacities in the town. Reliance's grandfather and his brothers, John and Jonathan along with their father, Robert Dennis, were pioneers in New Jersey. Records indicate that Robert came from Yarmouth, MA, about 1667. Robert was one of the original proprietors of NJ. The John and Samuel Dennis that arrived on a ship in 1664, embarking from Cork, Ireland, were Penn's Friends(not our line) and went to West NJ.
In 1739, a record of the court of New York city fig 6c indicated that a runaway indentured servant, Richard Glover, was being held until William Paschall, of Woodbridge, should come to get him. During these critical years we can show William living in Woodbridge. Obviously he was not the William, B11,(saddler) grandson of Thomas Paschall, B, of Philadelphia. Do I hear death rattles on that idea? This old absurd claim still is found rooted in most of the listings found on the internet. There is no basis for the claim other than the name William. These claims are made merely because of the desirable known ancestry of Thomas Paschall, B.
-some speculation-
From 1739 to July 21, 1743, we have found no records in NJ or NC of William. At this time there were two methods of travel, land or sea. By sea meant a journey of months instead of years. It appears Willim and half-brother, Elisha Parker(and family) sailed to Edenton, NC. A reference to a William Paschal in the Edenton, port-of-entry of NC, eartern shore, has been found. More on this later. It would seem they came by picket boat to NC.
My own guess(this is a guess, not fact) is that Reliance had died and William remarried. Note: There is a grave? marker(photo) with Reliance's name listed in findagrave.com. It appears to be modern(a cenotaph); says it is in Presbyterian Ch cemetery(not found). Whoever did this has made a serious genealogy mistake,ie, It will cause people to cease looking for her burial; no one can show when/where(evidence) Reliance died.
Note:
In November of the year 1744, Willm and two others appear in Granville Co, N C. It may be that the entire family sailed to NC, and stayed there on the coast while the three men went on to the wilds of present Granville county.
Notice that the names Elisha, Samuel,John, James were given names used in the Samuel and Jana Parker family. There is objection noted to the 7th son's name, Dennis. If, however, he married 2nd'ly a Dennis that objection is removed. The namesake, Elisha Parker(1630-1717) was a well known and rich person of Woodbridge, NJ.
The question arises: Why did William and family leave their relatives/friends and go to NC? In many cases when a man lost his wife, parents or business, he moved faraway to start a new life. Willm's mother, Jana Paine was buried in Woodbridge on Jan 1, 1744, in the Presbyterian church cemetery. This is a FACT.
Willm Paschal, C, of NC
Our particular thread can now be picked up on July 21st of 1743 when Willm(as Wm Pasqual) took an Oath of Rights at Edenton, Chowan Co, NC. This same document has an Elisha Parker and 6 whites listed two names below Willm's. Willm appears to be alone as no whites or slaves are listed for him. See Willm's scrapbook for this document. There were several Parkers in Chowan. These Parkers are NOT Willm's half-brother's line. Jame's bother bought a tract in Curritock Co. See scrapbook,JP to BF letter.
In the fall of 1744, in Granville, Willm filed a petition for land. However it was never granted due to problems in England. fig 7b
A petitioner had to meet certain requirements. These were: he had to be a loyal subject of the Crown, not bound or criminal, and he had to pledge support to the Church of England. These were laws passed by the English colonial government at New Bern, the capital. From about 1720 land in North Carolina had been given by the Lord Proprietor's in England at the rate of 50 acres for each person present in the family, including servants/slaves. Our petitioner asked for the modest sum of 150 acres which would indicate that only William and possibly two others were present in 1744. The Right's oath, his petition and cattle mark registration of 1745 are our first records of Willm in NC. The original earmark book is in the NC Archives, file #37.910.1 fig 7c
The 1748 land survey fig 8 is our next record of Willm in North Carolina.
Willm had a survey run on Mar 11, 1748, and received his first land grant on Mar 25, 1749, in the county of Granville for 625 acres. Willm signed this in 1744 when he realized the 150a grant was void. This signature shows the changes in his signature.
Willm's grant of 1749(EEP had photostat copies made c1925) is a beautiful document. Copies may be obtained from the North Carolina Archives. The document is a large and contains Willm's signatures fig 9 to attest his agreement to the terms of the grant. Willm's signature of 1749 shows a fair hand and he signed his surname in the anglicized form(2 L's) with a florish under the name. He abbreviated his first name to "Willm" as he did on other NC documents and his will.
Those granting the land were the legally appointed commissioners of Lord Granville, sitting at New Bern.
THE TERMS OF THE GRANT - The grantee was required, within a space of time, to make improvements in the property. He was to clear and cultivate the land at so many acres a year or he was to build a suitable house and graze so many head a year, etc. In all he was required to do exactly as you would expect he would want to do. A token sum, called quit rents, was due yearly, forever. Failure to meet the terms meant expulsion and forfeiture. It is uncertain why terms were imposed; it was not to the advantage of the Crown to enforce them.
THE PLACE OF THE GRANT - The grant bounds are perfectly definable. fig 10 The grant may be easily located even at this date on a modern map of the area. The base line of the 1st grant is 274 poles from Cabin Br to Smith's Cr(route 1218)
. Embellishments made by Willm's descendants were still there in the 1920's according to Edward E. Paschal, K536(EEP). He wrote that a mill(Dennis,J), "Paschall Mill",was still standing in 1925. EPP's,father, Robert Daniel, K53, was a surveyor and made a map of Warren Co. in 1874. This very detailed linen map is in the state archives and the local Historical Society. As we follow the Roanoke up river from the bay country, we encounter a northeasterly flowing stream named Smith's Creek. Willm located up this creek near a small branch called Beetree. It was here Willm had survey chains dragged through densely forested hill and vale and made his homeplace, and it is here that he is buried.
Willm improved and kept his 1749 grant; indeed he filed for others and added three more grants of adjacent land to the original, making in all 3297 acres. fig 11 The four grants were dated the 11th and 13th of March, 1760 and 16 March, 1761.The 700a granted to Isaiah was intended to be in Williams name and Isaiah later transferred it to his father. This constituted a parcel of land about 3 miles long, east to west, and a mile wide. On a road map, North Carolina routes 1200, 1206 and 1218 enclose most of the original grants. fig 12 The westernmost of the grant extends to present Vance Co.This achievement has caused Willm to be fondly known as:
William Paschal of the NC Land Grants"
In those days when a father grew older and perhaps lost a wife he likely remarried quickly. Thus there were two sets of children. If he had real property he knew there could be and there usually was squabbles over the distribution of the land when he died. It is my belief that Willm was aware of this and wanted his children to have their share when they married. So Willm wrote deeds to each of his older sons except William,G, who had left the county with the Aspen family. These deeds were: Chart 1
Samuel, D, the oldest son got more and likely deserved it. He also seems to have been the most successful. In the table above you can get an approximate idea of when the sons married and left home. They initially settled on the land their father had given them and began raising their families.
In his will, Willm also made bequests to his five daughters. I think this was the same reasoning as I expressed above.The land given was the southernmost part of the 700a given to him by his son, Isaiah, F. He had already deeded 160a of it to son, Elisha, H. He gave the remaining 540a to his four oldest daughters. I think daughter, Ruth, N, never married and after she died her brother Dennis sold her land. fig 13
One such bequest was to daughter, Dianna, M, who had married Richard King, son of John KIng. William specified that their son, Engles(Inglis), was to get the land after their death..
Willm's three oldest sons received grants from NC in their names, all in the same immediate area. fig 14 Surviving records of the early period with individual names of settlers are few. Thankfully, we do have some. There are four published lists, three tax and a militia list, that give the names of individuals that are of interest. These are:
1750 Granville Tax list
1754 Granville Militia list
1755 Granville Tax list
1762 Granville Tax list
These lists suffice to give us some idea of Willm, his sons and their neighbors. As would be expected many prominent names can be found on the these lists which became legends in later North Carolina history.
1750 -This list shows Willm with four additional polls. The state tax was levied on males at age 16 in these early years.
1754 - This is a military list, probably brought about by a French/Indian scare, resulting in a desire to know how many able-bodied men could fight. This list states some relationships. We have Willm and son, William. Other companies carry Samuel, John and Isaiah. Samuel is married and most likely so are John and Isaiah. John's name is either duplicated or the compiler could not distinguish the difference in names. We note Elisha is missing from the list. We do not know of any certain age requirement imposed for this list. This list has, rather inanely, in the past, been used to establish military service for patriotic societies.
1755 - This list gives us the names of the polls and we find six of Willm's sons listed with him. Only the youngest two sons are missing from this list.
1762 - this list shows two sons living in the homes of relatives of their wives. We notice that Isaiah, F, is listed as overseer in the household of Julius Nichols, his brother-in-law. Likewise we see William, G, living in the household of Thomas Aspen. Thomas is likely his father-in-law. Willm has Elisha and Dennis at home and over 16. Samuel and James are listed separately so James has probably married by 1762. The first two tax lists give us a chance to make some rough age estimates for Willm's sons.
We can see this indicates the first four were born before 1734 and the last two were born between 1734 and 1739. We have a document regarding Isaiah which says he was "about 50" in 1779. Samuel's,D, Bible has his year of birth as 1727. Using the traditional order as given by Willm's will then we have, keeping the two year separation as most authorities recommend, their birth years as listed above under born. The traditional year of birth for James is 1740. We lower this to 1739 to be in agreement with the tax list. These 6 sons likely had Reliance as their mother. Also , I think, Reliance likely died before? the birth of James(this is a guess). Sarah,L, seemingly the oldest daughter, married William Buchanon, was probably born 1737.
Other Early Records - The court records of early Granville list, in 1756, Willm's(which one?) name in a trespass suit. A deed record of Thomas Aspen, in 1758, has as witness, William. This is most likely the son, William, G, as he was in that household in the 1762 tax list.
The year 1765 saw Granville County divided with Willm's original tracts split between two counties. The eastern portion of Granville with the home place became Bute County. Again in 1779 we see the Bute name discarded and the county divided into two new counties, Warren to the north and Franklin to the south. The records of Bute were given to the keeping of Warren County wherein the home place now lay.
In 1773 there was an agreement between Willm and son, Thomas, K. The agreement was that Thomas should provide his father and wife with their keep for one year; Thomas in return was to get a sum of money and the 1st grant residual property after the widow, Tabitha, died. I think this was part of Willm's plan to determine who got what. The agreement was witnessed by a William who made a mark like a capital M. This was likely Wm, D3; Wm,G, is believed to have made a mark like a capital W and thought to have been in Orange county at this time.This agreement gave Thomas, K, a legal claim on the 1st grant property.
In May of the year 1774 Willm made his will. fig 15-1 fig 15-2 fig 15-3
The will(likely written by Dennis, J) was probated in Bute court of November, 1774. Today we can view a photo of that original will. Willm named his seven oldest sons and devised a nominal sum to each. This signifies that he considered they had already gotten their fair share of his estate. The idea in naming each is to show that none had been accidentally forgotten. Willm named his then living wife, Tabitha; his underage daughter, Reliance; his married daughter, Dianna, and her husband and son; his three adult daughters and his youngest son, Thomas. The four adult daughters received land in Granville, Reliance got a sizeable bequest, Tabitha got the homeplace for her lifetime. Thomas got the rest including Tabitha's after her death. Thomas was made the ward of his half-sister, Reliance, and posted bond. It has always been the custom that Willm named his sons in order of their birth and we know of no cause to believe otherwise at this time.
An inventory of the estate shows a voucher for payment to the Rev. Henry Patrillo for the funeral sermon. He was a noted Presbyterian minister of the time. Anderson, J1, named a son, Zebulon Montgomery no doubt but for the famous Revolutionary soldier of Woodbridge. James,I(?),Dennis, J, and Thomas, K, as well as two or three daughters probably were by the second wife. Enforcement to this idea is had by the fact that neither of the I,J or K lines ever named a daughter Reliance whereas the older ones did so. Both James and Thomas named daughters Elizabeth.
Of the five daughters we originally knew very little. No marriage records of this period have been located. Dianna had a record (banns, I have not found how EEP knew this-a note was usually put on the church door?) of intent to marry Richard King and this is confirmed by the will. No further marriage records have been identified for the other daughters. Note: Legend has it that when the men went early to light the fires in the court house stove they needed starting material; they found loose marriage bonds and any with names they did not recognize they committed to the fire...
The daughters marriages may be traced using the land records. This requires a tedious search for the first recorded owner of the bequeathed land. At the time the husband was the legal owner of his wife's property unless prior to the marriage an agreement was made. Willm gave bequests to four daughters of land in Granville county south of Elisha.
The deed to Elisha was confused but it was for 845 acres. To understand this the searcher must know that the 700 acres of land given by son, Isaiah, to his father was to the west and south of the fourth grant of Willm. Note: A statement says that this deed was meant to name William, C, as grantee. When this 700 acres is platted in and the boundaries of the 845 acres to Elisha used we see that Elisha got 685 acres (the entire 4th grant to Willm) and 160 acres of the west part of Isaiah's grant. A careful reading of the deed to Elisha now shows that Willm gave Elisha the entire grant along with the liabilities thereof, i.e. the quit rents. This left 540 acres of Isaiah's grant, all south of Elisha. The dimensions are given for this residual land.
Following the amounts given in the will we can plat the land given to each daughter. This has been done. See fig 13 above.
The above lengthly explanation was necessary as this is the only clue to the marriages of the three daughters. The land records had to be searched for mention of Sarah, L's 150 acres south of Elisha being conveyed. The conveyor must have no prior deed for the land it being his wife's legacy. There was located, as predicted three such sales of the exact land. The story is found in each daughter's history. More work needs to be developed on these lines.
Note: , My cousin, Betty Jo Paschall, I413522, of Puryear,TN, did this(without praise or pay) tedious searching of the land records using her own film reader and films. She made lists of the poll tax, abstracts of the deed records, etc. I still have her records. An unsung heroine.
On Nov 15, 1770, There was a guardians bond issued by the court to Willm for the John King orphans: Parks, Mary and Tabitha. Kings son, Richard, of age, was indentured to Willm to learn a trade.. Willm then about 1771 married his 3rd wife, his ward, Tabitha King. They had a daughter, Reliance, P, about 1771. Kings widow(or dau), Mary King, likely signed Willm's will in 1774.
The youngest daughter, Reliance, P, was alive, and not married until 1785, the year Thomas last renewed the bond.
In 1815 at Smith county, TN, James Burchett died and had an estate sale. He was allied by his sisters marriage to the E-line and went with them to that county earlier. At his sale was his widow, Reliance. I suspect she was either William's daughter or a daughter of John, E. The latter seems more likely and is so indicated below. Nothing more is known concerning Reliance, P.
We have traced as accurately as we can the descendants of the eight sons. All eight sons married and had issue. Willm was blessed with no less than 48 grandchildren. The line-up as we apportion it today is:
Son Grandsons
Samuel William,John,Samuel,Milton
John James,Silas,Samuel,John
Isaiah William,George,John,Isaiah,Dennis
William Thomas
Elisha William,Samuel,John,Elisha,Jesse,Isaiah,Ezekiel,Alexander
James Samuel,Robert,John,James,Joshua,Edmund
Dennis Anderson,Nichols,Elisha
Thomas William,Thomas,John,Henry,Michael,Robert
Son Granddaughters
Samuel Reliance,Mary,Rachel,Sarah,Susan,Nancy,Mildred,Betty,Phereba
John Jemina?,Reliance?
Isaiah Lucinda
William Hannah
Elisha Elizabeth,Reliance,Jerusha,Rachel
James Patience,Elizabeth,Eluena,Sarah
Dennis Mary,Sarah
Thomas Nancy,Elizabeth,Mary,Martha,Bushaba
In this list there are some questions but it represents a minimum count - there was possibly two more grandsons. Of these 36 grandsons, surnamed Paschal, nearly all had descendants. The number of grandchildren, not surnamed Paschal can only be determined accurately in one case.
Rachel, N, married William Wilson and they had 9 children, Sarah,L, wed William Buchannon and had 2-5 children; Dianna, M, married Richard; King and had 1 or 2; Ruth, O , none; Reliance, P, unk. This count is 12+ making a total of 48 grandchildren, minimum.
One can quickly see the numbers become astonishing in several generations. When I first became aware of these eight sons and their children and the confusion regarding them I determined to find where they went and when they died. Little did I know of the extent of such a task. The date and place of death for the sons were:
Name Year Died County/State
Samuel 1805 Abbeville, SC
John 1776 Granville, NC
Isaiah 1795 Franklin, NC
William c1818 Russell, VA
Elisha c1810 Caswell, NC
Dennis 1815 Warren, NC
Thomas 1821 Warren, NC
Those who made wills were:
Samuel, Isaiah, James, Dennis
Relationship information may be found in deed records for:
John, Elisha, Thomas
In other wills for:
John, William
End of Willm, C, biography.
Biographies of the family of William, C
Here is son Samuel,D Samuel
Here is son John ,E John
Here is son Isaiah,F Isaiah
Here is son William,G William
Here is son Elisha,H Elisha
Here is son James,I James
Here is son Dennis,J Dennis
Here is son Thomas,K Thomas
Here is dau Sarah,L Sarah
Here is dau Rachel,M Rachel
Here is dau Dianna,N Dianna
Here is dau Ruth,O Ruth
Here is dau Reliance,P Reliance
Today, Sep 5, 2016, in modern NC, I find there is little interest in a pioneer whose only achievement was raising a family of 13 children and a long life. The historical societies seem to be dominated by politics and want to glorify those persons who made fortunes and names for themselves in NC and this is quite understandable..
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