Re: William White md Edith Powell, NC? ca 1780
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In reply to:
William White md Edith Powell, NC? ca 1780
Virginia Keefer [nee White] 4/05/02
THE JOHN POWELL FAMILY OF COLUMBUS, BLADEN AND ROBESON COUNTIES NORTH CAROLINA
Compiled by: Dr. William C. Powell, Morganton Rd., Fayetteville, N. C. and Bruce C Powell, ,Jr., Fairbluff, N. C.
John Powell was born about 1720-1725, probably in northeastern North Carolina or in southeastern Virginia. It is known definitely that in 1752 he was living in Johnston County, N. C. His son, Captain Absalom Powell I, stated in his: Revolutionary War pension records (on file in the National Archives in Washington) that he was born May 19, 1752 in Johnston County, N. C. The oldest known record concerning John Powell is found in the Land Grant Office, Raleigh, N. C.; this is a grant of 200 acres of land along the south side of the Neuse River in Johnston County and was issued May 25, 1757 (Book 2, page 157). Another early grant for John Powell was for 150 acres lying on the south side of the Neuse River at a place called Bare Hill, adjacent to his own land and to Lee's land. This was surveyed Aug. 29, 1762 and the chain bearers were Frederick Lee and Absalom Powell (Book 18, page 5). John Powell began selling land in 1763, at which time he was probably planning to move to Bladen County. He sold John Lee, Jr. 100 acres of land on the north side of the Neuse River October 29, 1763(Johnston County Deed Book "D"). It is quite possible that John Powell was the son of another John Powell who lived in Craven County. Johnston County was formed from part of Craven County in 1746. This earlier John Powell, first mentioned in the Colonial and State Records of North Carolina in 1731 (Vol. 111), was a Deputy Surveyor of the Colony in 1737 (Vol. IV, page 278) and surveyed land in Bladen County. He was referred to as "John Powell, Gentleman in most records which indicated that he held positions of authority and frequently in colonial times also indicated education and wealth. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace in Craven County in 1743 and reappointed in 1744 (Vol. IV, various pages). He is referred to as "the late John Powell" in Colonial Records October 2, 1750. Large grants of land were issued to him at various times in Craven County. If this John Powell left a will, it has not been preserved. John Powell with his wife Elizabeth and children moved from Johnston County to that part of Bladen County that in 1808 was to become Columbus County probably between 1764 and 1766. He was not listed as a resident of Bladen in the 1763 Tax List of Bladen County, but land was surveyed for him joining on the side of Waccamaw Lake and joining his own land on April 24,1767. John Powell, Jr. and William Burney were the chain bearers (Land Grant Office, Book 23, page 316). For a later grant of land, March 7, 1772, the chain bearers were John Powell Jr. and Absalom Powell. In the records of Bladen County John Powell purchased many more acres of land, and also slaves, prior to his death. His will is recorded in Bladen Will Book No. I, page 538, and is dated 1789. He presumably died in 1789-90 as he is not listed in the 1790 Census of
Bladen. His wife, Elizabeth, named in his will, and maiden name thought to be Lee, is listed as head of the family in the 1790 Census. She died in 1794.
CHILDREN OF JOHN AND ELIZABETH POWELL
I. John Powell, Jr., married Catherine, vho is said to have been a daughter of Elisha and Charity Wilkinson, who came to the Lake Waccamaw area about 1738. John Powell, Jr. was granted land in Bladen County as early as 1779. There is a pay voucher for a John Powell in the Archives in Raleigh for Revolutionary War services. This John Powell is listed among other Bladen County men in the Wilmington District who received payments for their war services. This is probably John Powell, Jr., but could have possibly been John Powell, Sr. He moved prior to the 1790 Census to Cheraw District, S. C. He is listed in the census as having three white males under sixteen, four white females and six slaves. At various times he sold his Bladen county land. In 1806 he sold some and the deed was witnessed by Isaac, Winifred and Barnabas Powell. “John Powell, Jr. and wife Catherine of the State of South Carolina" on Feb. 3, 1813 sold several tracts of land in Columbus County to his brother Isaac Powell (Columbus County Deed Book C, page 239). In his will, dated Feb. 5,1834 and found in Vol. 1, Book No. 8, page 41, Darlington County, S. C., he divided hisestate among the children of his deceased daughters Sarah Powell Moore and AnnPowell Husbands, the children of his deceased son James Powell, and his sonWilliam Powell and daughters Catherine Powell and Margaret Powell Stephens.
II .Captain Absalom Powell I, born May 19, 1752, Johnston County, N. C.,died Oct. 14, 1834, Columbus County, N. C., married Mar. 7,1774 Mary Stevens,born Jan. 1755, died Jan. 20, 1840 (Revolutionary War Pension Record andBible Records), daughter of Colonel Barnabas Stevens and wife Charity(probably Brown) of Bladen County. Barnabas Stevens served as an ensign in acompany of militia raised in Bladen County in March 1776. Thomas Amis wascaptain and John Yates (grandfather of Susan Elizabeth Yates, first wife ofAbsalom Powell II) was lieutenant. Barnabas Stevens was later a colonel in thecounty militia. Barnabas Stevens' first land grant in Bladen County is dated1767. The name in the oldest records if usually spelled Stevens, after about 1800 the name was more often spelled Stephens; however, both spellings were sometimes used in the same deed. Absalom Powell enlisted in March 1776 in CaptainThomas Amis' Company of militia and served one month as a private, during which time he was in the engagement at Moore's Creek where the Tories were defeated. He then enlisted and served one month as sergeant and then one monthas an ensign in this same company. Three years before the close of the war hewas brevetted captain and served at various times in the North Carolina Troops,eighteen months in all, under Colonels Thomas Robeson, Thomas Brown, ThomasOwen and James Richardson. Following the Revolutionary War Absalom Powell began buying large areas of land. From the records in the Land Grant Office in Raleigh and from the Register of Deeds Offices in Bladen and Columbus Counties he purchased about 8,000 acres of land, most of which was in the area of Lake Waccamaw and the Western Prong sections of Columbus County. He sold very little of this land. He was one of seven men appointed to establish boundries and aid in the formation of Columbus County. On the front page of Deed Book “A” in the Columbus County Register of Deeds Office, Whiteville, N. C., the following may be read: "Absalom Powell, Esq. was duly appointed Register, June Term 1810". He also was appointed a Justice of the Peace for Columbus County in 1809. He served in the N. C. House of Commons in 1814 (Wheeler's History of N. C.). His will is recorded in Will Book No. I, page 35, Columbus County and he names the following: sons Absalom, John, James, Josiah and Marmaduke; daughters Amy Powell Swindell and Winifred Powell Allen; grandson Robert Marion Powell. Absalom Powell II and Richard Wooten were appointed executors. A N. C. Historical marker was placed near the grave of Captain Absalom Powell at Lake Waccamaw on Aug. 22, 1933.
III.Charity Powell, married William Wilkinson of Bladen County. His will, dated Aug. 29, 1795 and recorded in Bladen County Will Book No. I, page 795, names his wife Charity, son Charles and "other minor children". His brother-in- law Isaac Powell was appointed an executor and one of the witnesses was Barnabas Powell, another brother-in-law. This line has not been traced.
IV.Chlore Powell, married Alexander Avery of Bladen County. This line has not been traced.
V.Elizabeth Powell
VI.Esther Powell
VII. Mary Powell, died unmarried after 1843. She is mentioned in the will of her sister Zilpha Powell in 1794. She is mentioned in the pension papers of Captain Absalom Powell in 1839, and on March 7, 1843 (Columbus Deed Book "C") her brother, Isaac Powell, deeded two slaves to his daughter Elizabeth and his son-in-law Josiah Powell for the care of his sister Mary Powell. She was apparently dead by 1850 as she is not listed in the census.
VIII. Edith Powell, married William White of Bladen County. This line has not been traced. <<[My line]
IX. Zilpha Powell, unmarried, will dated March II, 1794 and on file in Bladen County. Her estate was divided between her sisters, Elizabeth Powell and Edith White, and her mother, Elizabeth Powell. Her brother Isaac Powell and her brother-in-law William Wilkinson were named executors.
X. Barnabas Powell, little is known of him except that he was of age in 1789 when he witnessed a deed with his brother-in-law William Wilkerson (Bladen County Deed Book No. 26, page 57). He also was a witness to the will of William Wilkinson in 1795 and a deed of John Powell, Jr. in 1806. Tradition has his family moving to Florida.
XI. Colonel Isaac Powell, born 1760-70 (1840 Census), died about 1845, buried at Lake Waccamaw; married first, as the mother of his two children. Winifred Stevens, sister of Mary Stevens, wife of Captain Absalom Powell I. He married second the twice widowed Mrs. Ann Maria Wayne Bill Jones. There are no preserved early marriage bonds for Bladen and Columbus Counties, but the following is from the Raleigh Register, June 4, 1807: Ann M. Wayne married May 19,1807 in Wilmington, N. C., Captain Avery A. Bill". The 1850 Columbus Countycensus gives her age as having been born in 1792. She married fourth and last, as his second wife, Major Josiah Powell, nephew and son-in-law of ColonelIsaac Powell. These marriages and much of the data concerning the children of Captain Absalom and Colonel Isaac Powell are found in a Powell Family History by Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Smith Pierce, born 1847, eldest daughter of Adeline Matilda Powell, born 1824, who was a grand-daughter of both Absalom and Issac Powell. Isaac Powell was appointed first major for the Bladen County militia in 1804 and a Justice of the Peace in 1806. He was appointed lieutenantcolonel of the Columbus County militia in 1809 and a Justice of the Peace for Columbus County in 1810. Colonel Isaac was perhaps the largest land owner inColumbus County. He owned over 10,000 acres and the census reports showthat he had numerous slaves to work the land. Most of his property was in thearea of Lake Waccamaw and between Lake Waccamaw and Whiteville. Children: (a) Lucy Powell, born June 1792, educated at Salem Boarding School,Salem, N. C. (now Salem College, Winston-Salem), married Colonel JosiahMaultsby of Columbus County. The Maultsbys settled in Bladen County prior-to 1736. This line has not been traced, but there were at least two children: (a)John Maultsby and(b) Quince Maultsby who married Penelope Baldwin, daughter of Captain David William Baldwin and wife Joanna Smith, and left many descendants. In the Columbus County 1860 Census, visitation No. 38, Josiah Maulisby, aged 68, is wife Lucy, aged 70, and Lucy's grandniece, Frances C. Powell, age 18, are found living together. Josiah Maultsby was listed as having ninety-one slaves. Many of these have beeninherited from Colonel Isaac Powell. (2) Elizabeth Lee Powell, born Oct. 22. 1798, died Jan. 1847, educated at Salem Boarding School, married her double first cousin, Major Josiah Powell, son of Captain Absalom Powell I and his wife Mary Stevens. See descendants of Absalom Powell I for this line.
-CHILDREN OF CAPTAIN ABSALOM POWELL I AND MARY STEVENS
I. James Powell, left Columbus County as a young man and became a wealthy merchant in New Orleans. Family letters reveal that he died in New Orleans in 1839. Descendants not traced.
II. Winifred Powell, married Noah Allen of Columbus County. Children: (I)Clayton Allen, moved to Texas prior to 1850. (2) Charlotte Allen, married Alexander Campbell of Brown Marsh township, Bladen County. (3) Anne Allen, married Enoch Daniel. (4) Winifred Allen, married Duncan McCoulskey of Bladen County.
III. John Powell, died Bayou Chitto, Louisiana. Family tradition states that he and the Princess Sallie Marie, daughter of a Seminole Indian chief in Florida, were the parents of Osceola (1804-1838), the famous Seminole Indian warrior. The writer of this history has talked personally with a grandson of Colonel Marmaduke Powell, youngest brother of John Powell. This grandson, who was seventeen years old when Marmaduke died, said he had been told on many occasions by his grandfather that Osceola was the son of John Powell. This relationship to Osceola has been passed down to all branches of the family. Marmaduke Powell, Jr. named one of his sons Osceola Powell.
IV. Eliel Powell, of age in 1811 when he witnessed with his brother, Major Josiah Powell, a deed in which Luke Yates sold land to his son-in-law Absalom Powell II (Columbus County Deed Book, "A", page 100). Eliel Powell served as a lieutenant on the merchant ship "Andeola" and died of yellow fever in the West Indies shortly before he planned to be married. He was not named in his father's will in 1834 so presumably died before then.
V. Anne (Amy) Powell, married James Swindell and moved to Georgia. Chil- dren: (I) Winifred Swindell, married a Northington and was living in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1851 (family letters). (2) Lucy M. Swindell. (3) Owen Swindell. (4) Garrett Swindell, moved from Alabama to California in 1851.
VI. Absalom Powell II. born May 8, 1790, died Dec. 25, 1864, married first Nov.10,1810 Susan Elizabeth Yates, born Mar. 12, 1789, died Jan. 6, 1846 (all dates from Absalom Powell II Bible), eldest daughter of Luke Yates (1767-1837) and his wife Sarah Flowers who lived at Grists in Columbus County. Luke Yates, who served as a very young patriot at the end of the Revolutionary War (see pay voucher in N.C. State Archives, Raleigh),was a son of Lieutenant John Yates of Bladen county and his wife Elizabeth, who lived to be 110 years old. Sarah Flowers was a daughter of Ignatios Flowers another Revolutionary War Soldier whose will was probated in Bladen County in 1793; he moved to Bladen County prior to 1767 from Maryland and descended from the Goldsborough family, one of the founders of the Maryland Colony. Absalom Powell inherited much land from his father and continued to buy more land and slaves. He was a big promoter and stock owner of the railroad between Wilmington, Columbia, and Augusta (now the Atlantic Coast Line) and owned much stock in banks in Fayetteville and Wilmington. In 1860, at the age of 70, he was living at his Fair Bluff plantation, and after having already distributed much of his land and slaves among his children, he was listed in the census as having thirty slaves. Absalom Powell II married second Jan. 26, 1847, Experience Lennon, born Oct. 10, 1811, died Apr. 11, 1898 daughter of the Rev. Dennis Lennon, Jr. and his wife Sarah Brown of Lennon's Cross Roads in Columbus County. Absalom Powell II had children by both marriages.
VII. Major Josiah Powell born Feb. 10. 1793, died Jan. 1851, married first, his double first cousin, Elizabeth Lee Powell born Oct. 22, 1789, died Jan. 1847, daughter of Colonel Isaac Powell and his wife Winifred Stevens; he married second Mrs. Ann Maria Wayne Bill Jones Powell, born 1792 (1850 Census, died about 1851, widow of his father-in-law and uncle, Colonel Isaac Powell. Josiah Powell served as a lieutenant, 7th Company, 4th N. C. Regiment, War of 1812. He later served as a major in the Columbus County militia and as clerk of the court for Columbus County. He was a very wealthy man, having inherited large states from both his father, Captain Absalom Powell I and his father-in-law Colonel Isaac Powell.
VIII.Colonel Marmaduke Powell, born 1797, died 1880 (cemetery record), married Mariah A. J. Yates, born Jan. 18, 1808, died 1884, a younger sister of Susan Elizabeth Yates, who married Absalom Powell II. Marmaduke served in the N. C. House of Commons in 1830, `31, `33. `34, and `35 from Columbus County. He inherited much land from his father and added to this. In the 1860 Columbus County census he is listed as having thirty -three slaves. He served as colonel in county militia. He lived and was buried about half way between Lake Waccamaw and Whiteville.
Source:Rev. Fr. Silas Emmett Lucas Jr., The Powell Families Of Virginia And The South (Easley, SC: Southern Historical Press, 1969, Reprint with new material 1977). pp. 456-461
Nadine
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