THE AMERICAN CANDLER LEGEND
 with Commentary by Ed March APR 1999.

Without trying to separate fact and fiction, here is the American
Candler Legend more or less as I find it.

Daniel Candler (c1695-1765), our immigrant forebear, was the grandson of
an English soldier, William Candler, who moved to Ireland in the 1650's.
Like many Englishmen who fought in Oliver Cromwell's Army, Lieutenant
Colonel Wm. Candler received confiscated land in lieu of payment. Lt.
Colonel Candler settled at Callan in County Kilkenny (in southeastern
Ireland). According to legend, William was married before Cromwell's
revolution, but his wife died during the strife of the Civil War.
William had two daughters by this first wife (name unknown), one of them
named Mary.

Mary Candler married Captain Zachariah Moorman (also a soldier in
Crowell's Army). Zack and Mary joined the newly blossoming Quaker
movement. Presently, the Moormans (or at least some of their children)
moved to America. Their Moorman/Clark/Johnson descendants may be found
in early Virginia Quaker records in Henrico and New Kent Counties.

Back in Ireland

...So William's first wife died during the English Civil War. He
commenced a military career and eventually, Captain Candler went to
Ireland with Lord Oliver Cromwell's forces. Upon retirement, Major
Candler attained the military rank of Lt. Colonel & the social rank of
Esquire. He took up residence on confiscated Irish land, and eventually
came to live at Callan Castle in County Kilkenny. His second marriage
was to Anne Villiers (perhaps the wife of a deceased fellow officer of
William's in the Irish campaign).

William and Anne had children -- Thomas and John (perhaps others).
Thomas inherited the Callan lands and the title of Esquire. He married
Elizabeth Burrell who died (presumably without issue). Thomas then
married Jane Tuite (pr. "Toot" -- equally, if not more, high-born
English than he) with whom he had six known children: Daniel, Henry,
Jane, William, Ann, and Thomas. Thomas disowned Daniel when he married
Hannah. They lived in Dublin for a time, perhaps living near Daniel's
aunt and uncle Moorman, perhaps becoming Quakers. Eventually, they left
Ireland for America.

========

COMMENTARY

There is no mention of a son, Daniel Candler, in the 1719 will of Thomas
Candler of Callan, County Kilkenny, but then Daniel was supposed to have
been disowned.

In the late 1800's, Allen Daniel Candler, a descendant of Colonel
William Candler of Georgia, wrote a booklet entitled, The Candler Family
Form 1650 to 1890. That book was published privately and I have not had
the privilege to see a copy. In 1896, Foote & Davis Co. of Atlanta,
Georgia published Colonel William Candler of Georgia, His Ancestry and
Progeny, by "His Great-Grandson, Allen D. Candler." In the author's
words, this was "a revised addition of that [first] book under another
and more appropriate title." The author claims also to have used an old
manuscript history of the Georgia Candlers written by Ignatius L. Few,
L.L.D, and a grandson of Col. Wm. Candler of Georgia. I do not know if a
copy of this work is in existence today.

A reading of the 1896 book sheds light on just what facts and which
parts of the Candler Legend Allen D. Candler knew at that time. For
example:

1] He did not know the names of William's father and mother

2] He believed that William was married to Elizabeth Anthony in North
Carolina

3] He did not know that William had brothers and sisters (speculating
only that he may have had a brother and that this brother may have been
the progenitor of the Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina branches of
the family).

Allen D. Candler says of North Carolina:

"In this province, William Candler's father settled, his son William and
probably another son, was born there, and soon after the birth of his
son, he died there, being still a young man. Here we find William
Candler, in 1760; here he married, as is shown by the records, and here
his three oldest children were born.

If he had a brother, and family tradition says he had, he was probably
the progenitor of all the Candlers in North Carolina and Virginia. They
trace their lineage back to Zachariah Candler, who appeared in western
North Carolina about the beginning of the present century, and belonged
to the first generation after the War of the Revolution. They do not
know whether they are descended from the English or the Irish stock, but
the fact that their earliest ancestor, of whom they have any account,
lived soon after the war, in that state fom which William Candler came a
few years before the war, strengthens the supposition that the father of
Zacheriah Candler and his brother John, who died in Tennessee in the
early part of the present century, was the brother of William Candler of
Georgia. "

According to Allen D. Candler:

1 The Candlers came to North Carolina and stayed

2 They had two sons William and the father of Zacheriah of North
Carolina, and John of Tennessee (who we know to be Zedikiah)

3 The father (we know he was Daniel) died young in North Carolina

4 William married Elizabeth Anthony in North Carolina ("...as is shown
by the records, and here his three oldest children were born."

5 William and Elizabeth moved to Georgia between 1765 and 1769


Some facts as we know them today:

1 Daniel, Hannah, John, Elizabeth, William, Elloner, and Zedikiah were
living at South River Settlement, Virginia by 1753, probably a bit
before.

2 John Candler married c1750, Elizabeth Gibson whose father James had
lived at South River since the late 1740's. John Candler's first child,
William was born at S.R. in 1751.

3 John, William, and Elloner joined the Quakers in 1755 at South River.

4 Daniel joined the Quakers in 1756 at South River.

5 Elizabeth joined the Quakers in 1758. She had already married John
Caffrey, a neighbor at S.R.

6 William married Elizabeth Anthony in May-June 1761. William was the
clerk of the Quaker Meeting and he was disowned for being married by a
priest. He must have been in residence. NOTE: Elizabeth's father, Joseph
Anthony, shared property lines with Daniel, William, and John Candler.

7 Elloner Candler married in August of 1763 to Byrum Ballard at South
River MeetingHouse.

8 1765, Daniel Candler made his will and died at South River. William
Candler was executor. In this will, Daniel states that if Zedikiah moved
out of his mother's (Hannah's) house before he turned twenty, he was to
lose his share of the inheritance -- Zed was not 20 in 1765!
Furthermore, Daniel left everything to Hannah till her death after which
the estate would be divided equally.

91766, William asks the Quakers to settle his business. In 1767, he is
on Pittsylvania County tax rolls (with slave "Chester"). In 1769, he
sold Chester in Georgia. This is how William lived prior to Life in
Georgia.

There is no doubt that the Candlers ventured into North Carolina early
on and possibly often. William and Elloner received certificates
(permission slips) to visit Cane Creek and New Garden Monthly Meetings.
Elloner's husband, Byrum Ballard, though born in Virginia had been
living in Carolina and was a member of a meeting there until he
transferred his membership to South River (the very day he married
Elloner). On the other hand, I don't see evidence of a permanent move to
Carolina until Zackariah moved there in the late 1700's (probably the
1790's).

William and John were surveyors and appraisers (and reputed to be well
educated - by VA wilderness standards at least). They no doubt traveled
widely. In 1760,William contracted to deliver supplies to the soldiers
at Dunkard's Bottom on the New River (present-day Radford, VA). This was
"way out" west in those days, a mere outpost to protect against and
monitor the Indians.

There is a general misconception that pioneers were quite isolated and
unable to travel without good roads. There is some truth to this, but
when one reads of the great distances that these pioneer woodsmen
traveled (and frequently), one is surprised. William Patton of
Smithfield plantation (present-day Blacksburg, VA) traveled from his
Blue Ridge Mountains home to Williamsburg three or four times a year,
routinely. When Indians killed Patton in the 1750's, the news was in the
London papers within a surprisingly short time.

Conclusion

There are some tough questions that I wonder about. Allen D. Candler did
not know Daniel and Hannah Candler as the parents of Col Wm. Candler of
GA (or of his siblings - John, Elizabeth, Eleanor, and Zedikiah). On the
other hand, he reported broadly, the Irish information. Doesn't it seem
strange that legend would retain tales of Irish ancestry and yet nothing
about the Virginia sojourn of the family? Colonel William of Georgia and
his wife Elizabeth Anthony were married in Virginia and some of their
children must have been born there. William's father died in Virginia in
1765 and his mother, Hannah, survived him (some say until c1800). Why
did Allen D. Candler have to speculate that "perhaps" the Virginia and
North Carolina Candlers were related to his ancestor Col. Wm. of
Georgia? Did the Candlers ever really live in North Carolina?