ANSNMRMN I have several letters from Doug and one from Dick Baldauf in my pile of "things to retype and send" to the group. However, this latest from Doug is so compelling, I moved it to the top of the list. It also "probably" supersedes some of those earlier let- ters so I think it's best to get it out among the group. In keep ing with restrictions of length of attached files accepted by some e-mail providers, this is the first of three parts. In fair ness to Doug, I'm dating this report when he sent it to me, rather than the date I'm getting it out to the group. As in all of these things, the data is Doug's, but typos are mine. LSS The MOORMANS of Anson County, NC: More on the Andrew Moorman Sr. (1689-1756) Conundrum by Douglas Tucker 11 AUG 1997 There has been continuing confusion about the Moorman families that migrated from VA to Anson Co., NC around 1750. Were all these Moormans descendants of Andrew Moorman Sr., (1689-1756), youngest son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Simpson) Moorman, or might they have been an amalgam of descendants of Andrew Moorman Sr. and his older brother Thomas Moorman (1688- ? ). I have researched the Carolina Moormans on and off for several years and thought I understood the confused situation pretty well. Boy was I wrong! While looking for support for the Andrew and Thomas position, I found adequate, cumulative proof that _all of the Anson Co. Moormans were the offspring of Andrew Moorman Sr._ I also unraveled a couple of other Moorman family puzzles that had bothered me for several years: "Where did Sallie Clark, daughter of Francis Sr. and Cordelia, fit into the Carolina Moor- man family?" "Where did Thomas Moorman's wife, Sarah Clark, come from?" "Were Sallie Clark and Sarah Clark the same person?" "Who was Andrew Moorman of GA?" "Who were the parents of the Andrew Moorman who married Ann Diggs?" "Why were Benjamin Moorman and Anne Clark, and John Moorman and Rebecca Diggs, disowned by the Quakers when they married?" I found the key to understanding the Carolina Moorman line is in their extensive land dealings in VA, NC and GA. These, supple- mented by Quaker records, wills and estate records, road orders and other county court records allows a piecing together of an interesting, if sometimes confusing, portrait of this branch of the Moorman family. Because I am basically lazy, I have presented the Moormans of Carolina story without detailed text references. My principal references are listed below, but the factual material on which I base my conclusions about this branch of the family is contained in three appendices to this paper. Comments, criticisms and con- trary positions are, as always, welcomed. SOURCES: Abstracts of land transactions, wills, road orders, and other miscellaneous records of the early Anson Co. Moormans are contained in an appendix to this report. Sources include: _The Colonial Records of NC_ by Clark; _Colony of NC Land Patents, 1735-1764_ by Hoffman; _Anson Co. Land Grants (Abstracts of Early Records)_ by McBee; _Anson Co. NC Deed Abstracts, 1749-1766 and Abstracts of Wills and Estates 1749-1795_ by Holcomb; _Colonial Land Entries in NC_ by Pruitt, and _Colonial Records of GA_ by Candler. Hinshaw was the primary reference for Quaker records. VA land patents are from _Cavaliers & Pioneers_ by Nugent, while land sales come from the published records of Goochland and Brunswick Cos. Background Other than property-related information, there is relatively little documented evidence of the two youngest sons of Thomas Moorman (c1658-1705) and Elizabeth Simpson. Son Thomas was born in 1688 and younger brother Andrew a year later. Both baptisms were recorded in the Vestry Book of St. Peter's Parish, New Kent Co. VA. As an adult, Andrew Moorman's name appears in scattered VA land records from 1715/16 through 1746 and in NC land records from 1747 through 1754. By tracking Andrew Moorman's land deal ings, we are able to learn quite a lot about his immediate family and the larger Quaker community that settled near Hitchcock's and Solomon's Creeks in Anson Co. NC. I have dealt with older brother Thomas Moorman rather superfi- cially in this paper because I still know virtually nothing about his adult years, or even whether he survived childhood. There are several property transactions in Hanover Co. that might be at tributable to this Thomas Moorman, including a 15 MAR 1735/36 patent of 303 acres in Hanover Co. on the line dividing Hanover and Spotsylvania Co. This property was along Prithies (Preddy) Creek near today's junction of Orange, Green and Albemarle Cos. Most researchers seem to assign this property to a younger Thomas Moorman, son of Charles and Elizabeth (Reynolds) Moorman. The younger Thomas is part of my line and I have serious doubts that he ever owned property along Preddy Creek. At the time, the younger Thomas (1705-1766) was busy with his father, Charles, ob- taining multiple grants in western Goochland Co. along the Rivanna River, Moorman's River, Ivy Creek and Meadow Creek, etc. This was nearly 20 miles southwest of the Preddy Creek area on the opposite side of the Southwest Mountain range. Distance and terrain seem to make these two properties rather incompatible for a single owner. There also are vague hints/rumors that Thomas Moorman (1688- ? ) might have migrated to Calvert or St. Mary's Co. MD, possibly with his widowed mother, Elizabeth (Simpson) Moorman who may have married again after her husband's death in 1705. I have not looked for Moormans in colonial MD but perhaps others have and can add information to advance or demolish this particular "rumor". Now, back to a Moorman we know something about. Andrew Moorman Sr. (1689-1756) was 16 years old when his father died in 1705. He probably remained with his mother and older brother on the family's Whiting Swamp property in New Kent Co. (later Hanover Co.) until he reached his majority in 1710. He moved to his brother Charles' Black Creek property in New Kent Co. before 1715/16 and subsequently obtained a 400-acre land patent on Byrd Creek in Goochland Co. in 1725. After that, he bought and sold various properties in Goochland, Hanover and Brunswick Cos. VA from 1725 through 1745. Andrew Moorman Sr. lived along Byrd Creek in Goochland Co. from approximately 1726 to 1741. Goochland Co. tax records show him with _3 tithables in 1735_. Dower entries on early Goochland land records tell us that Andrew Moorman Sr. had a wife named Susannah (or Susan) in 1728. While this is the only direct documentary evidence of a wife's name that I have uncovered, I believe the record establishes that Andrew has at least one other wife. Andrew Sr. and his family left Goochland Co. about 1740 and migrated to Brunswick Co. where they lived until 1747/48 when they migrated further south to Anson Co., NC. [DCT note: Susannah Moorman may have been born Susannah Reynolds, daughter of Jonas Reynolds and sister of Henry Reynolds, who owned property adjacent to the Moormans along Byrd Creek in Goochland Co., and who was "jointly" involved with Andrew in several property transactions. Furthermore, Henry and Elizabeth Reynolds migrated to Brunswick Co. VA with Andrew Moor- man and his family about 1741 where they both settled on the south (west) side of the Staunton River (later renamed the Roanoke River) in the western part of Brunswick Co. (later split off to create first Lunenburg and later Halifax Cos.). I have not researched the possible connection of Susannah Reynolds to the Elizabeth Reynolds who married Charles Moorman. Someone else may be able to help on the Reynolds family.] An index to Brunswick Court records shows that Andrew Moorman Sr. had at least two sons residing with him, named Andrew Jr. and Thomas, who were older than 16 years of age in 1743 when they were named in road orders along with their father. I suspect Andrew Jr. and Thomas also were present and over 16 in 1735 when Andrew Sr. was assessed with 3 tithables in Goochland Co. This suggests that both _Andrew Jr. and Thomas were born before 1719_, facts that I believe can be demonstrated once this family is straightened out and organized. John Moorman also shows up in Brunswick Co. records in 1746 under the mysterious "alias" of George Smith. (I have no idea what the alias business was about but there must be more information in the full Brunswick Court records.) We sometimes forget that Andrew Moorman Sr. also had a daughter named Lucy who was born in 1723 and married James Johnson (son of John Johnson and Lucretia Massie) in 1749 when her family were still residents of Goochland Co. Lucy remained in central VA, not following her family to Brunswick Co. and, later, to NC. When Lucy married James Johnson, he was a practicing Quaker and she was not. This got James disowned by the Cedar Creek Meeting. This is curious, because several of Andrew Moorman Sr.'s children (but not all) were practicing Quakers and one became a Quaker preacher. (For those who wish to challenge the parentage of Lucy Moorman, keep in mind that her 1739 marriage date is documented in Cedar Creek and Henrico Meeting records (Hinshaw) under the Johnson family records. I suspect her 1723 birth date is a derivative of her marriage date, but it does not matter much for it is clear that she could have had only one of three Moorman fathers -- Charles, Thomas or Andrew. _There simply are no other candidates._ Since Charles Moorman's family is highly docu- mented, Lucy must have been the daughter of either Andrew or Thomas. The reader can pick his/her poison depending on whether they believe Thomas Moorman (1688- ? ) ever married and had children.) Andrew Moorman Sr. first shows up in NC records in OCT 1747 when he petitioned the State Council for a warrant for 400 acres on east bank of the Pee Dee River about three miles above the mouth of Rockey River. At the time of his petition, this property was in Bladen Co., but it had become Anson Co. by the time the grant was approved on 13 APR 1749. (It would later fall in Montgomery Co. NC and today is near the dam on the Pee Dee that creates Lake Tillery.) By 1750 there were six adult Moormans -- Andrew Sr., Andrew Jr., Charles, Benjamin, Thomas and John -- owning land in Anson Co. NC. Because colonial laws required a male to be 21 years of age to own property in their own right, it would appear that all of these Moormans were over 21 by 1750 and therefore all born before 1729. However, Benjamin and Charles acquired their property "jointly" in a form and location that "suggests" that the property may have been purchased in their names by their father. The implication is that Benjamin and Charles were still minors in 1749. Date of 1st Trans. NC land trans. Type Andrew Moorman Sr. 9 OCT 1747 grant Andrew Moorman Jr. 30 SEP 1749 grant Charles Moorman * 4 DEC 1749 purchase Benjamin Moorman * 4 DEC 1749 purchase Thomas Moorman 5 JUN 1750 purchase John Moorman 25 DEC 1750 purchase * land purchased jointly Andrew Moorman Sr. (1689-c1755) As noted above, Andrew Sr. was the first Moorman to acquire property in Anson Co. NC. He petitioned for a warrant for 400 acres in 1747 and had surveyed and received his grant by 1749. This grant was located about three miles north of the mouth of Rockey River on the opposite (east) side of the Pee Dee River. On today's map, the tract was located close to the dam on the Pee Dee that creates Lake Tillery and close to Clark's Creek. The Pee Dee Quaker Meeting also would later locate its meetinghouse in this general area, and Benjamin Dumas would acquire property directly across the River where he would establish a ferry serv- ice. This initial Moorman tract was roughly 25 miles upstream from the properties later acquired by other Moormans which were generally along Hitchcock's Creek and Solomon's Creek. (For fu- ture reference, the WEST side of the Pee Dee would remain Anson Co. while the EAST side of the River would later become Richmond Co.) Andrew Moorman Sr. is last recorded as a principal in Anson Co. land records in OCT 1754 when he sold 300 acres near Hitchcock's Creek to his sons, Charles and Benjamin Moorman. (These 300 acres included a 250 acre tract which Andrew Sr. acquired from William Stone in JAN 1752, and a small, 50 acre parcel acquired by Andrew Sr. from John Hall about the same date.) Andrew Moorman Jr. sold some land in MAY 1755 and used the "Jr." title, perhaps signify ing that his father was still alive. After that date, there is no further reference in Carolina records to Andrew Moorman Sr. and by AUG 1757, Andrew Moorman Jr. had dropped the "Jr." title. I have pegged Andrew Moorman Sr.'s death as "circa 1756" but know only that he died after OCT 1754 and before AUG 1757. Andrew Moorman Jr. The earliest citation of Andrew Moorman Jr. that I found was in Brunswick Co. Court road orders for MAY 1746. In that same year, Andrew Jr. received a 400-acre land patent on the north fork of Difficult Creek in Brunswick Co. (This land patent was incor- rectly cited among records of Pittsylvania Co., but there is no question about the proper location of Difficult Creek. It was lo- cated in Brunswick, now Halifax Co.). Andrew Jr. and Sr. submitted three petitions for NC land warrants in SEP 1749 and received the final grants in APR 1750. These grants (one to Andrew Sr. for 600 acres, and two to Andrew Jr. for 587 acres and 300 acres) were located between Hitchcock's Creek and Solomon's Creek on the east side of the Pee Dee. Andrew Jr.'s name appears frequently in Anson Co. land records through 1757 after which, except for one indirect reference, his name disappears from land records. In OCT 1752, Andrew Jr. sold part of his 587-acre patent on Solomon's Creek to Isaac Clark. In JAN 1753, Andrew Jr. bought a small, 50-acre parcel near Hitchcock's Creek and adjacent to Thomas Moorman from Joseph Hall. In AUG 1753, Andrew Jr. patented a 246-acre tract along the Little River on the east side of the Pee Dee which he subse- quently sold to Townsend Robinson in DEC 1753. (Townsend Robinson was the brother of Catherine Robinson who married the Andrew Moor- man who died in GA in 1761.) Robinson sold this tract to John Woods in OCT 1754, so it seems doubtful that any of the owners before Woods actually lived on the property. In MAY 1755 Andrew Jr. bought 200 acres on the west bank of the Pee Dee from his brothers, Charles and Benjamin Moorman, who had first purchased the property in DEC 1749 from John Hornback. Andrew Jr. then sold this property to John Collson in AUG 1757. Significantly, this is the first property transaction in Anson Co. in which Andrew Moorman Jr. did not use the "junior" designa- tion. It is also the last transaction in the Anson Co. records which had Andrew Moorman Jr. as a principal. (In APR 1762 Isaac Clark obtained a 275-acre patent near Hitchcock's Creek which was described as "on the northeast side of the Pee Dee joining Thomas Moorman, William Haley, Andrew Moorman Jr. and Benjamin Mims." I think Clark was just repeating what the official county property maps still showed.) Is Andrew Moorman Jr. of Anson Co. NC the same Andrew Moorman who migrated with his family to GA shortly before 1760 and died in 1761? If so, this is the end of the line for his branch of the MOORMAN clan. We know from GA records that his widow and children were all dead before 1770. More on Andrew Moorman of GA later. Benjamin Moorman and Charles Moorman These two Moormans are a bit of an enigma. The limited evidence available implies that they were unmarried sons of Andrew Moorman Sr. and probably still teenagers when their names first appeared in Anson Co. land records. Benjamin and Charles Moorman "jointly" purchased 200 acres from John Hornback in DEC 1749. Andrew Moorman Sr. purchased an adjacent 213 acres from Hornback on the same date. The deed abstracts that I reviewed offered no hints that either "Ben or Charlie" were minors, so I initially assumed they were over 21 in 1749. Subsequent information made it probable that they were still minors in 1749. Ben and Charlie's property was on the _west_ bank of the Pee Dee and directly across the River from the original 400-acre grant to Andrew Moorman Sr. In addition to their father, adjacent property owners included John Clark, who sold part of his tract to Ben- jamin Dumas in 1750, and John Kemp, whose property would be "jointly" purchased by brothers Christopher and Benjamin Clark in 1751. Regardless, this area of Anson Co. was 25 miles upstream from where the other Moormans and Clarks would homestead along Hitchcock's and Solomon's Creeks on the _east_ bank of the Pee Dee. Twenty-five miles was a very significant distance in the mid-eighteenth century. In OCT 1754 Benjamin and Charles "jointly" purchased a 300-acre tract along Hitchcock's Creek from their father and in MAY 1755 sold their original 200-acre property on the west bank of the Pee Dee to their older brother, Andrew Moorman Jr. Andrew Jr. subse- quently sold the property to John Collson in AUG 1757. [DCT Note: While these property transfers appear on the surface to be standard, buy-sell arrangements and not intra-family swaps, the cash amounts involved are an exact "wash", I suspect some aspect of colonial land law was at play, perhaps the requirement that a patent be "seated" within three years or suffer forfei- ture. By "selling" a property at market value, the seating clock could be restarted.] In OCT 1758 Benjamin Moorman, alone, obtained a 300 acre patent on the west side of the Pee Dee along the south branch of Rockey River. This suggests that Ben Moorman had reached his majority and branched out on his own, having married Lucy Haley, a Hitchcock's Creek neighbor in 1756. Ben and Lucy's first child was born in 1757 and was named -- what else? -- Andrew. Unfor- tunately, young Andrew died as an infant and Ben and Lucy did not have another natural child until 1762 when WILLIAM (named after Lucy's father) was born. They named their third son Charles. [DCT Note: One of Ben Moorman's immediate neighbors along Rockey River was Elijah Clark (later RW Gen. Elijah Clark) who took up residence on one of his father's properties about 1762. By that time, his father had moved further west to settle along the Broad River.] Charles Moorman's name last appears in Anson Co. records in 1759, when he was listed as one of the buyers at the estate auction of his deceased older brother, John Moorman. I think it must be as sumed that Charles died around 1760, otherwise I am certain he, too, would have been active in Anson Co. land dealings. I don't think Charles ever married. John Moorman (c1728-1758) John Moorman first purchased property in Anson Co. DEC 1750 when he acquired 100 acres from Thomas Redd on the east side of the Pee Dee along the Unwarre River, several miles "north" of where Andrew Moorman Sr. had obtained his first patent and more than 30 miles upriver from the Hitchcock's and Solomon's Creeks area. In APR 1752 he obtained a 250-acre patent along the Unwarre River and in FEB 1754 another 250-acre patent along the same River. John sold the latter property to Francis Clark Jr. in 1756. Anson Co. records tell us that John Moorman died intestate some time before APR 1758 and that his estate was administered by his oldest surviving brother and heir-at-law, Thomas Moorman. The Court action nominating Thomas as heir confirms that Andrew Moor- man Sr. was dead and that Thomas Moorman was the oldest of Andrew Sr.'s surviving sons. The inventory of John Moorman's estate was carried out by Thomas Moorman and Francis Clark Jr. What the Court records do not tell us is that John's wife, Tabitha (Clark) Moorman (probably a daughter of Francis and Cor- delia Clark), also died in 1758 and that their two young children, Delia and Benjamin, were placed for guardianship and/or adoption within the extended MOORMAN clan living along Hitchcock Creek. We learn from later land records that oldest son, Ben- jamin, born in 1754, was placed with Ben and Lucy Haley who had lost their first child, named Andrew, in 1757. (Benjamin Moorman, son of John and adopted son of Ben and Lucy, married Anne Clark in 1783. Both were disowned by the Quakers for marrying "too close of kin". The disownment is what establishes that _Tabitha Clark must have been a daughter of Francis and Cor- delia Clark_, because we know for certain that Anne Clark was the daughter of Christopher Clark. For Ben and Anne to have been first cousins, Tabitha (Clark) Moorman had to have been a sister of Christopher and Elizabeth (Stone) Clark. The fact that John and Tabitha Moorman named their first daughter Delia (not Delilah as some sources suggest) also points to Tabitha being a daughter of Francis and Cordelia Clark. My judgment is that Tabitha was born about 1726. She did not make her father's will because she died in 1758.) It is not clear who raised John and Tabitha's oldest child, Delia although I suspect she was raised by the widow of Andrew Moorman Sr., who lived during her widowhood with Thomas and Sarah Moor- man. (I haven't gotten to Andrew Sr.'s widow yet -- have patience.) Delia later (1782) married Henry Adcock who also lived along Hitchcock's Creek. Delia was raised a Quaker, but was disowned by the Cane Creek Meeting for marrying out of the faith. (John Moorman, who married Rebecca Diggs in 1783 and was likewise disowned by the Quakers, may also have been a son of John and Tabitha Clark. More on this possibility later.) Camp Creek Meeting records (Hinshaw) inform us that John Moorman married Tabitha Clark in a Quaker ceremony AUG 1751. That, com- bined with his NC land purchase in 1750, seems to push John Moorman's birth date back before 1730. However, John was not named in road orders in Brunswick Co. in 1743, suggesting that he was not yet 16. Taken together, these facts seem to place his birth date between 1727 and 1730 and almost certainly made him Susannah Moorman's son. [DCT Note: Mary Clark, reportedly one of Tabitha's sisters, married John Haley Jr. (c1724-1777). They named their daughters Tabitha, Ursula, Sarah and Delia, in that order, suggesting (to me) that Mary Clark was probably close in age to Tabitha, and Ur- sula. A son, Benjamin, married his cousin, Agnes Clark, daughter of Francis Clark Jr. Benjamin and Agnes Haley were disowned by the Cane Creek Quaker Meeting for being first cousins and subse- quently migrated to Fayette Co. KY. In fact, all of Mary and John Haley's children ended up in KY. So, we now have added two more daughters, Tabitha and Mary, to Cordelia (Lankford) Clark's brood. How many more undocumented daughters are out there? Frances (Clark) Dumas (c1708-1753) probably belongs here too. An Elizabeth (Clark) Dumas, I think, belongs to this crew as well -- but we need to find her a husband. More on that, later.] [DCT Note: My research shows that William Haley Jr. married Elizabeth "Betty" Clark who was a daughter of Francis Clark Jr. William Haley Jr. and Lucy Haley Moorman were siblings, both children of William Haley Sr. (c1726-1780) and Elizabeth (last name uncertain) and grandchildren of Isham Haley and Agnes Clark. That may seem odd given that Agnes and Francis Jr. were siblings, but Agnes was married about 1726 and Francis was not married un- til 1746, almost a generation later. Isham Haley and John Haley Sr. were brothers. John Haley Jr. and William Haley were first cousins. William Haley Jr., son of William, had brothers named Isham, Silas and Randolph and sisters named Lucy, Mary and Mil- ley. Also, both Francis Clark Sr. and Francis Clark Jr. had daughters named Agnes who married Haleys. Clear as mud, right!] [Linda here: We'll pick up with Thomas Moorman (c1715-1782) and Doug's discussion of the other children of Andrew Moorman Sr. I'm personally gaining lots of respect for Cordelia Lankford who had all those children.