THE PORTUGUESE CONNECTION
Depositions in an 1812 court case strongly suggest that, having disposed of his patent sometime before 1769, Thomas Ivey moved south into what became Marion District, South Carolina and died there some years later. Thomas Hagans, born about 1765 and identified as a grandson of Thomas Ivey and his wife Elizabeth, refused to pay his assessed tax as a free non-white in Marion District, South Carolina in 1809. At his trial in 1812, two white men testified on his behalf. The testimony of John Regan, a longtime neighbor of Thomas Ivey Jr., suggests that Thomas Ivey Sr. left Bladen County sometime in the late 1760s and removed to South Carolina. The testimony of Robert Coleman, a longtime resident of Marion District, suggests that Thomas and Elizabeth Ivey lived in Marion District for several years before their deaths. Both men testified that Thomas Ivey was “understood” and “generally reputed” to be of Portuguese descent and that his wife Elizabeth was a free white woman.
Note; Adam IVEY lived south of the James River in the neck of land bounded by Upper Chippoakes Creek and Wards Creek. This neck included what was later the parish of Martins Brandon, in which Adam Ivey apparently lived at his death, in what would later become Prince George County. It was quite close to Surry County, Upper Chippoakes Creek being the later boundary between Prince George and Surry
Abraham Lincoln defends a Portuguese
In August 1851, William Dungey, a dark-skinned young man of Portuguese
descent, married Joseph Spencer's sister. A family quarrel ensued, which
became so bitter that in January 1855, Spencer claimed throughout the
community that his brother-in-law, "Black Bill," was a Negro........
William Dungey faced losing not only his reputation, but his marriage,
property, and right to remain in Illinois. Section 10 of the 1853 law stated
that, "Every person who shall have one-fourth negro blood shall be deemed a
mulatto." William Dungey retained Abraham Lincoln to quash the possibility
that he might be judged a "negro" and therefore suffer the severe penalties
under the 1853 act.......
On October 18, 1855, the jury returned a verdict of guilty and granted Dungey
$600 in damages plus court costs of $137.50. Lincoln charged a $25 fee, which
Lawrence Weldon considered minimal.
1667Lower Norfolk County
Order Book, 1666-1675, fol. 17.
Whereas Fernando a Negro sued Capt. [John] Warner for his freedome pretending hee was a Christian and had been severall yeares in England and therefore ought to serve noe longer than any other servant that came out of England
accordinge to the custom of the Country and alsoe Presented severall papers in *Portugell * or some other language which the Court could not understand which he alledged were papers From severall Governors where hee had lived a freeman and where hee was home. Wherefore the Court could find noe Cause wherefore he should be free but Judge him a slave for his life time, From which Judgement thesaid Negro hath appealled to the fifth day of the next Generall Court. [It is not possible to follow this case further owing to the destruc-tion of the General Court records for this period.]
eight pence for holding an inquest on the body of one Menasses, a Portugese.
Thomas A. R. Nelson for the State
John Netherland for the Melungeons
"Mr. Nelson asked Mr. Netherland what race of people he called his clients. Mr. Netherland answered Portuguese"
See Illegal Voting Trials Click Here
Littell's Living Age
March 1849
THE MELUNGENS
The legend of their history, which they carefully preserve, is this. A great many years ago, these mountains were settled by a society of Portuguese Adventurers, men and women--who came from the long-shore parts of Virginia, that they might be freed from the restraints and drawbacks imposed on them by any form of government.
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Lucas DeAyllon Expedition to Winyah Bay 1527
"The expedition, financed by Ayllón, sailed with three ships: La Bretona, the flagship; and two smaller vessels, Santa Catalina and Chorruca; as well as a smaller boat to be used in exploring inland waters. With more than five hundred men, women, and children, black enslaved people,...... The Indians of the area, aware that the newcomers had suffered a setback to the north, attacked almost immediately. And as so often happened to Spain in America, dissension arose among Ayllón's followers. Ayllón and many others became seriously ill of a fever. He died on St. Luke's day. One contemporaneous report says that his body was thrown into the sea. The rest of the party, now numbering fewer than 150, returned with the one remaining ship to Santo Domingo."
Before the Indians were taken to Indian Territory there was a large number of whites and Indians that fled to the mountain between Little Crow Creek and Little Coon. They built Shavis Town, cleared up about 100 or more acres and cultivated it, putting out an orchard. They raised winesap apples, peaches, corn and dug ginseng besides hunting for a living.
The older men were very religious. They were mixed with Portuguese. Willis Shavis named his four sons after the Apostles, Andrew, John, Peter and Nathaniel. The had two Preachers, John Pressley and Brother Forsythe, an Indian. They would preach and convert the young men and girls and bring them down to Little Crow Creek to Baptize them. They believed rightly they were to be buried in baptism in water. They knew the Bible. I don't know where
1832 - Madison Co. TN
Free man of color, Richard Matthews, seeks permission to marry a white woman. Matthews says he is "of the Portuguese Blood.
"The Roark's are Portugese. They came from the Black Water country, Tennessee, so did the Sizemores and Collets also"
Dickey Diary ~1898
LETTER FROM REV. J. G. JONES TO McKINLEY
GIBSON, ESQ.
Port Gibson, Miss., May 17, 1878
Dear sir:
There were three branches of the Gibson connexion which settled in Mississippi at an early day: The parents of Rev. Randall Gibson near Natchez about where the old town of Washington now stands; the family of Samuel Gibson - the founder of the Town of Port Gibson, in this vicinity; and that of Rev. Tobias Gibson in what is now Warren county in the vicinity of Warrenrtown. So far as I know these families all came from the valley of the Great Pee Dee river in South Carolina. Some time in the sixteenth century three ship loads of Portuguese Hugenots voluntarily exiled themselves from Portugal rather than renounce their Protestant faith, and settled in South Carolina, then the Colony of Carolina, in the very region of county where our Gibsons are llrst found, and, from their elevated intellectuality, morality, religion and enterprise, I have long believed that they were the descendants of those refugee Huguenots, though I do not remember ever to have heard but one of the connexion refer to this as a tradition of the family. I wish we now had the means of demonstrating this theory.
Excerpt From William Labach - Read here
Reverend John G. Jones was Author of A Complete Hisotry of Methodism - 1887
SHIPWRECKED PORTUGUESE
Title: Letters to the Secretary of State and others from the Governors, Alexander Spotswood, William Gooch, Robert Dinwiddle and Francis Fauquier, and Presidents Thomas Lee and Lewis Burwell, with enclosures and replies. Depository: Public Record Office / Class: C.O. 5/1344 SR Number: SR 00233 Reel Number: 48 Dates: 1726 - 1783 References: Lists & Indexes, Vol. XXXVI, 29. Andrews Guide 183, List 493. ff. 86-87 Lords of Trade to the Duke of Bedford,
10 Jan 1750/51. Spanish and Portuguese ships driven into ports of Virginia by bad weather. Encloses the four (only adding two) documents listed below: ff. 90-91 Enclosed in the above. Extract of a letter from Thomas Lee to the Board of Trade, 6 Nov. 1750. The Spanish and Portuguese ships driven into Virginia ports have proven irrepairable. The masters have been given permission to hire other ships to carry their cargoes to Europe.
PORTUGUESE INDIANS
The Expedition of Batts and Fallam:
A Journey from Virginia to beyond the Appalachian Mountains, September, 1671.
From Annals of Southwest Virginia, 1769-1800.
September 5th 1671
''The three gentlemen bore a commission from Major-general Wood "for the finding out tile ebbing and flowing of the Waters on the other side of the Mountains in order to the discovery of the South Sea."
They struck off due west along a trail that was evidently already familiar, and having five horses made rapid progress. On the fourth day 'they reached the Sapony villages, one of which Lederer had visited the year before. They were "very joyfully and kindly received with firing of guns and plenty of provisions." They picked up a Sapony guide to show them to the Totero village by "a nearer way than usual," and were about to leave when overtaken by a reinforcement of seven Appomattox Indians sent them by Wood. They sent back Mr. Thomas Wood's worn out horse by a Portuguese servant of General Wood's whom they had found in the village, and pushed on to the Hanahaskie "town," some twenty-five miles west by north, on an island in the Staunton River. Here Mr. Thomas Wood was left, dangerously ill.''
GRIFFIN
On page 35 of the Order Book, Volume I (April 24, 1855-January 30, 1869) of the Clay County Records (Kentucky State Archives, Frankfort) "John Griffin was released from being placed on the Negro list, and hereafter he will be listed as a white man, proof being made to the satisfaction of the court that he was of Portuguese descent instead of African descent." [Joanne's possible Melungeon line]
MOONEY
Such, for example, are the Pamunkeys of Virginia, the Croatan
Indians of the Carolinas, the Malungeons of Tennessee, and numerous other
peoples who in the days of slavery were regarded as free negroes and were
frequently hunted down and enslaved. Since the war they have tried hard by
act of legislature and other wise to establish their Indian ancestry.
Wherever these people are found there also will the traveler or investigator
passing through their region encounter the tradition of Portuguese blood or
descent.
Getting To Know Your Bell Bend Neighbors
By Betsy Phillips
''Let's consider the poor census-taker who went out to Bull Run in 1910 (which is in Scottsboro, which I know we're supposed to pretend is so far away from Bell's Bend, but for the sake of this post, let's be honest about it all being right together there). Here he found William and Mary Collins (with their daughter Hazel) and Thomas and Mary Barnes (with their eight children), who he at first classified as "w" for white and then we see the "w" traced over and replaced with a cursive "b" for black.
Right below them is Sarah Thompson (and forgive me here, because I can't read the handwriting very well), but she appears to have at first been classified as "mul" (for mulatto) and that is smeared away and replaced with "w" and her daughter, Vinia, is firmly a "w" without seeming question. And who knows what to make of Curtis Pentecost's wife Ida or daughter Molly? He is a "w," but they are both "d"s.
To help clarify the mess for whoever tried after him to make sense of it all, written elegantly in the margins by each of these families is "Portuguese."
GOINS
Randolph County, NC Deed Book 63 Page 227 as follows: "Cumberland County, NC. Personally appeared before me, Archibald A. Johnson, an acting Justice of the Peace in and for said county in the state aforesaid, Flora McDonald and Catherine McBryde, both of whom are well-known to me to be respectable and truth-telling women and after being duly sworn according to law doth say that they are acquainted with DANIEL GOINS, late of the county and state aforesaid, that they know his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, that his great-grandfather (JOHN HARMON) was a native of Portugal, and was always called a Portugan, and he was of the color of the natives of that place, and that he and his sons and grandsons always exercised the right of and passed as white in every respect." Signed Flora McDonald, aged 88 years and Catharine McBride, aged 83 years. Dated 16 July 1884.
CHAVIS/SHAVIS
HISTORY OF THE PIONEERS AND INDIANS OF CROW CREEK
Beore the Indians were taken to Indian Territory there was a large number of
whites and Indians that fled to the mountain between Little Crow Creek and
Little Coon. They built Shavis Town, cleared up about 100 or more acres and
cultivated it, putting out an orchard. They raised winesap apples, peaches,
corn and dug ginseng besides hunting for a living.
The older men were very religious. They were mixed with Portuguese. Willis
Shavis named his four sons after the Apostles, Andrew, John, Peter and
Nathaniel. The had two Preachers, John Pressley and Brother Forsythe, an
Indian. They would preach and convert the young men and girls and bring them
down to Little Crow Creek to Baptize them. They believed rightly they were to
be buried in baptism in water. They knew the Bible. I don't know where they
knew the Bible very few could read or write.
Note; Wilis Chavis/Shavis apparently came from Marion Dist, SC., same settlement as Bolton, Perkins, and John Shumake/Shumate who had an Indian Reservation not far from there. possibly from the same settlement.
ASHWORTH
T. J. Russell
Clark Ashworth
January 26, 1910
To the Journal:
The Ashworth family had a peculiar history that to a certain extent, militated against them. The grandfather of Clark Ashworth was a native of South Carolina, and the family originally came from Portugal, and were of the Moorish race. A very dark complexion, but had hair on their head, instead of wool, like that of African negro; though, the complexion was about as dark. This fact often caused them to be taken for negroes. An effort was made to disfranchise the family at one time during the days of the Republic. And their friends took the matter up in the Congress and had a law passed, declaring that the law relating to free negroes in the Republic of Texas, did not apply to the Ashworth family. See Act of Congress, date Dec. 12, 1840. H.D. Art. 2571.
TOM J. RUSSELL
Clipping Here
HOW THE PORTUGUESE GOT TO THE PEE DEE RIVER AND MIXED WITH NATIVES
