of the NC Land Grants

by Clarence McDaniel Sep 1 2016

In the town of Woodbridge,NJ, 1729-1739, is where we first find our ancestor, William Paschal.

William, C(see ID Code), apparently lived at home in Woodbridge, NJ, It is not known where he was born but he seems to be Scottish and well educated.

We have concluded, from other sources(see below), that William Paschall married Reliance Dennis of Woodbridge about 1725.

In Woodbridge,1729, a William Paschall signed as a witness to the will of Thomas Pike(a next door neighbor). The original will exists and a photocopy of Williams 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

Williams life can be divided into 2 parts, NJ and NC. I am going to ID him as: William, C, of NJ and Willm, C, of NC.

Very early, about 1634, there migrated to the new world several groups of people. One of 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 lived at the base of what was known as "Strawberry Hill".I have located this site on a modern aerial photo today. fig 2

William Paschall, C, was associated in 1730 with the Samuel Parker family, probably living with them and next door to the Samuel Dennis family. I think this was a case of the boy and the girl next door..

William, C, wrote his signature twice in 1730 in the Bible of Jana Inglis Parker Paine, fig 3 then the wife of Samuel Parker of Woodbridge. Later on, in NC, we find a strange will bequest showing that William, C, was related to the Inglis family!  William, C, then that same year, bought 100 acres of land in Essex Co, NJ(Elizabethtown), from Joseph Al(lin) fig 4-1 fig 4-2 This is the same William, C, as one of the deed witnesses, Nathaniel Paine, was later the 2nd husband of Jana. In that Bible Jana states it is her Bible. Jana and Nathaniel are buried in the Presbyterian cemetery in Woodbridge per a 1917 index to the cemetery.

Samuel Dennis(the son of the more famous one) of Woodbridge, in his will of 1719/20 fig 5-1 fig 5-2 named an unmarried daughter as Reliance. Willm, C, named his 7th son, Dennis, no doubt but to honor the Dennis line. 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, is today a widely accepted event even though no marriage document has been found.

In the 1735-1737 period Wiliam 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. The judgment went to the plaintiff. William had bail provided by Samuel Dennis(his wife's brother) fig 6b This court handled cases in excess of 40S(shilling).

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. The John and Samuel Dennis that arrived on a ship in 1664, embarking from Cork, Ireland, were 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 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(saddler) grandson of Thomas Paschall of Philadelphia. 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. William, C, as you will see below has his own documented background.

From 1739 to 1744 we lose track of William; there have not been any records found in this period. The Fall Line Road(see: FamilySearch.org "fall line road") fig 7a opened in 1735 and I believe this could be the route taken by William and family to NC. If he had the means a quicker way was by sea.

William also seems to have changed his style of writing his name using Willm and adding a florish at the end. Perhaps he stopped along the way for a year or more. In the year 1744, Willm and likely his two older sons, appear in North Carolina. It may be that the entire family went to Virginia and stayed there while the three men went on south. My own guess(this is a guess, not fact) is that Reliance had died(c 1739) and Willm remarried. When and where is not known. If local it was likely in the Pike or Dennis  family. If later the Wilson family.

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 he moved faraway to start a new life. Also William was in debt, had tried twice to make his fortune, so perhaps he was caught up in the idea of a new start. I have not found a single instance of others in Woodbridge who also moved with him.

Our particular thread can be picked up in the 1744, Granville Co., petition for land. However it was never granted due to problems in England. This is our first document of Willm in NC.

In Nov, 1744, in Granville Co., Willm filed a petition for land. 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 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 sons were present in 1744.

This petition, a cattle mark registration of 1745 fig 7c and the 1748 survey fig 8 are our first records of Willm in North Carolina. The original earmark book is in the NC Archives, file # 37.910.1.

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.

Willm's grant of 1749 is a beautiful document. Copies may be obtained from the North Carolina Archives. The document is large and contains Willm's signature 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 as "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. Embellishments made by Willm's descendants were still there in the 1920's according to Edward E. Paschal. He wrote that a mill, "Paschall Mill", was still standing in 1925. Edward's father, Robert Daniel, K53, was a surveyor and made a map of Warren Co. in 1874. This very detailed map is in the state archives. As we follow the Roanoke up river from the bay country, we encounter a northeasterly flowing creek 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 added three more grants of adjacent land to the original, making in all 2597 acres. fig 11 These grants were dated the 11th and 13th of March, 1760 and 16 March, 1761. 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:

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 older sons 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 aproximate idea of when the sons married and left home.

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 southern 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

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:

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 an 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 complier 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 - Recently published, 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 show the following:

Name         1750        1755
Samuel       > 16         > 16        > = "over" < = "under"
John         > 16         > 16
Isaiah       > 16         > 16
William      > 16         > 16
Elisha       < 16         > 16
James        < 16         > 16

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 Bible has his year of birth as 1727. Using the traditional order as given by Willm's will then we have:

Name         born
Samuel      1727
John        1729 
Isaiah      1731
William     1733 
Elisha      1735 
James       1739

We keep the two year separation between births as most authorities recommend. 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 between the births of James and Dennis.

Other Early Records - The court records of early Granville list, in 1756, Willm's 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 homeplace 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 homeplace 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 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. Whether this was Wm, D3, or Wm, G, remains to be determined though Wm, G is believed to have made a mark like a capital W and thought to have been in Orange county at this time.

In May of the year 1774 Willm made his will. fig 15-1 fig 15-2 fig 15-3 The will was probated in Bute court of November, 1774. Today we can view a copy 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 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 Pike's peak explorer. My guess is that Willm married secondly into this Pike family, who were his neighbors, and embraced their religion after 1739 and Dennis, J, and Thomas, K, as well as two or three daughters were by this second wife. Enforcement to this idea is had by the fact that neither of the J or K lines ever named a daughter Reliance whereas the older ones did so.

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 three daughters.

The daughters marriages may be traced using the land records. This requires a tedious search for the first recorded owner of the bequeathed land. Willm gave bequests to four daughters of land in Granville county below that of son, 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. 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 old 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 old 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. Betty Jo Paschall of Puryear,TN, did this tedious searching of the land records.

The daughter, Reliance, P, was alive, and not married until 1785, the year Thomas last renewed the bond. Reliance was not the child of Willm's first wife Reliance as so many searchers have presumed. We can show this by the following analysis:

Eighteen was at the time the legal age for females. If Reliance was underage in 1785 (assuming the bond was for an underage ward) then she must have been born no earlier than 1767. If we presume Reliance Dennis was born no later than 1703 (she was a minor when her father died in 1719) then Reliance would have been, as a minimum, 65 years old when daughter Reliance was born. The incidence of live births to women over 50 is extremely small so good genealogy then denies the assumption that Reliance was the mother.

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 James, I, or John, E. The latter seems more likely and is so indicated below.

We have traced as accurately as possible the descendants of the eight sons. All eight sons married and had issue. Willm was blessed with no less than 63 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

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
James        1792             Warren, 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