THE HISTORICAL MELUNGEONS: 2023

Thursday, December 21, 2023

Melungeons in the Beginning

This is from an email to Don Collins who had received his Y DNA Report some 12 years ago. At the time it was said he was related to the BUNCH family by DNA but he had said his results showed he more closely matched a NICHOLS FAMILY. This is my research from 2011 -- the blue print is research I found later. TOBIAS HORTON

His name was usually entered in the records as Toby

Horton. He was living in Lancaster Co.,by 3-16-1653

as the following can be found: 1,095 lbs.tobacco to be paid at his house next Oct. by Thomas Seamor to Thomas Carter.

10-24-1653 Tobias Horton to pay 3 tythes to Rowland Lawson.

6-6-1654 In regard to his lending guns to Indians. A report on this to be made to next court by Henry Rye, John Bunch and William Harper.

8-7-1654 Case against him on behalf of the Lord Protector referred to.

10-6-1654 Fined 2,000 lbs.tobacco for lending a gun to the Indians. William Harper who informed against him to have 1,000 lbs.tobacco.

[John Bunch was given a court order dated June 6, 1654, requiring him to show evidence of a Mr. Toby Horton loaning guns to Indians. He failed to appear and was fined 200 pounds of tobacco -

TobyTobias Horton lived on Corotomon - Haddaway - Creek .. his daughter Rebecca married [for a 3rd husband] EDWARD GIBSON.

TOBIAS HORTON

Tobias was a surveyor, a wealthy planter and prominent businessman. He owned large tracts of land called "Wetherby's Land" located on Corotoman and Haddaway Creeks. He bought 1,400 acres from Francis Morrison, which was originally owned by John Taylor I.

On October 10, 1654 Tobias Horton and wife Elizabeth hired Hugh Brent and Teague Floyne to make inventory of John Taylor's estate. It included "3 old Bibles and 70 other books", value of estate 9,590 pounds of tobacco. On July 1, 1659 Tobias Horton paid John Taylor's debt, 6,173 pounds. [Elizabeth was widow of John Taylor]

On November 12, 1662 Teague Carrell bound himself to Tobias Horton to pay 8,000 pounds tobacco at 1,500 pounds a year, for which Tobias sold him 100 acres of land between Tabbs and Nutypoyson Creeks. Elizabeth, wife of Tobias, asked her son-in-law Uriah Angell to acknowledge the sale.

At Lancaster Co. court on May 15, 1663 Elizabeth requested that cattle which belonged to John Taylor be given to his orphans.

Haddaway Creek where Tobias Horton, Sr. owned land was named by Thomas Gaskin Abraham Moore and Rowland Haddaway when they explored the area January 21, 1659, intending to take up land. They found Indian cabins on it. Corotoman Creek issued out of Fleets Bay and Tobias owned land on its banks. The Indian town of Wiccomoco was located on the southside of Corotoman."

I John Nicholls of Lancaster do owe & am indebted unto John Carter or his assignes the full sum of Three thousand fifty & nine pounds of good tob: & Ca: to be paid in October next as Witnes this 12th of March 1654. Witnes Charles Kinge, Richard Flower, John Nicholls, p. sign, Record 15d Nov: 1657, p. Edw: Dale, cl cur. (Ruth and Sam Sparacio, joint editors, Virginia County Court Records: Deed & Will Abstracts of Lancaster County, Virginia, 1654-1661. McLean, VA: Antient Press, c. 1991, p. 71)

It is worth noting that in 1661/62 a John Nichols sold "above 900 acres to John Edwards of Lanc. Co., cooper. Dated 11 Jan 1661/62. Signed John Nichols. Wit: George Flower, Mary Flower. Recorded 1st June 1662." (Virginia Colonial Abstracts, Vol 1, Lancaster County Record Book No. 2, 1654-1666. online database, Genealogy.com, Virginia Colonial Records, 1600's-1700's, p. 138 of original) So perhaps Richard is a brother or other relative of John and George.

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GEORGE FLOWER being sike in body but sound & p:fecte in memory doe make this my last Will & Testamt., I give & bequeath my Soule into ye hands of ye Almighty God that gave itt, my body to ye Earth to be interred wth: decent & Christian like burriall att ye discretion of my Executrix hereafter named and my temporall Estate as followeth:

It. I give unto my Son, George, and his heyrs, lawfully begotten all my lands, only ye one halfe thereof I give unto my Wife, Mary, during her naturall life, then to invest to my Son, George, & his heyrs as aforesd., but in case my Son, George, should die in his minority or afterwards wth:out issue, then I give my sd. Lands unto my Sisters Sonn, Jon: Tayloe & his heyrs, lawfully begotten & in case of his death without issue, then I give my sd. Land to his Sister, Mary Tayloe & her lawfull heyrs.

It. My wish is that their be noe wast made on my sd. Land neither in him her or otherwaies;

It. I give all my p:sonall Estate to my Wife, Mary, & to my Sone, George, to be equally devided between them, my debts being first pd. My desire is yt. My Son, George, be educated in learning out of my sd. Estate.

It. My will is yt. If in case yt. Above named should dye without issue I then give my sd. Land to Morris Jones, son of Mr. Robt. Jones, deced., & his lawfull heyrs.

It. My will is yt: my Wife, Mary, be ye Executrix of this my last Will & Testamt., I doe alsoe request & appoint Mr. John Pinkard & Mr. Wm. Jones to be ye Overseers of my sd. Will & to have ye Guardenship of my Son in case of ye death of his Mother in witt. Whereof I have hereunto sett my hand & seale this 27 day of 8br. In ye yeare of our Lord 1682.

Signed sealed & declared to be ye Last Will & Testamt. Of George Flower in ye presence of us: Tho: Lawrence, Tobias Horton, Jno: Dixson.

Probate Last Will & Testament in Cur. Com Lancaster decimo die Januarii. p. oaths of Tho. Lawrence, Tobias Horton & Jno. Dixson, and admitted to record. Teste Tho. Marshall, Cl Cur. Signed George Flower (It doesn't mention that the signature was "his mark," so I assume that the original bore his signature. Other Wills and documents in these records note if there was a mark, and show the mark itself) (Virginia County Court Records: Will Abstracts of Lancaster County, Virginia, 1675-1689, p. 57)

EDWARD GIBSON

10th day of (blank) 1703 Indenture between Edwd. Gibson of the Pish: of Xt. Church Lancaster, Gent. of ye one part and Robert Carter of ye said Pish of the other part; witness that ye dd. Edward Gibson for £1700 if sound merchantable sweet sented stem’d tobbo. Paid by the sd Carter hath granted unto ye sd Robert Carter his heirs & assigns forever all that tract of land situated in the aforesd Pish: containing at least 375ac being the Plantacon whereon the sd Edwd. Gibson now lives being bounded as follows, beginning at a corner Gum tree of John Kelleys standing at ye mouth of a small Cove which issues out of Tabbs Creek on ye SW side & thence down the Main Creek at several courses to ye mouth of a Creek which issues out of ye Main Creek which sd Creek parts this land from Bryan Grove’s land, thence up the sd Creek at sevll: courses to a corner pochiccory standing in ye sd Groves line at ye head of the sd Creek just by Nantepoyson Path, thence along ye sd line to a corner white Oak

standing just by John Merris corer tree, thence along a line of marked trees SW by W to a corner white Oak standing on ye E most side of John Merris Road just by the Road side, thence along the sd Road at several courses to a corner white Oak standing by the Road side at a place called ye Gulph, thense by a line of new marked trees N by E to a corner Ash standing in ye Gum Swamp, thence by a line of new marked trees NE to a corner Gum tree standing by the edge of a Swamp in John Kelleys line, then along the sd Kelleys line of marked trees at several courses to ye Gum tree where it first began, which sd land is part of a dividend of 1200ac belonging to Tobias Horton and by him sold unto Teague Correll and descends from ye sd Teage unto Abraham Correll, his son & heir, by deed of Indenture … with all its rights houses gardens commodities & appurtenances whatsoever. To have and to hold unto ye sd Robert Carter his heirs & assigns …

Signed Sealed & delivered in the presence of us

John Babe, Edward (X) [fully encircled] Gibson

[On November 12, 1662 Teague Carrell bound himself to Tobias Horton to pay 8,000 pounds tobacco at 1,500 pounds a year, for which Tobias sold him 100 acres of land between Tabbs and Nutypoyson Creeks. Elizabeth, wife of Tobias, asked her son-in-law Uriah Angell to acknowledge the sale.] EDWARD GIBSON was not on the Living and Dead Census as he was tending the sick at Weyanoke [later called Westover from where Gibby Gibson wrote his will in 1727] Gibby and Hubbard both named a son EDWARD and a daughter MARY. Edward Gibson the younger appears in records of Lancaster Co., Virginia with John Bunch and Tobias Horton. George Gibson and Thomas Chavis are both on record in Lancaster County in mid 1650s before removing to Upper Chippoakes Creek in Charles City County. IMO George is the son of Edward and father of Gibby, and George is the father of John Gibson who is the father of Hubbard and John Gibson.

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ROBERT KING CARTER Robert Carter was born about 1660 in Lancaster County, Virginia, son of John Carter. His son, John Carter married Elizabeth HILL, daughter of Edward Hill III who died in 1726, and his will bequeathed Shirley plantation to Elizabeth, who had married John Carter (eldest son of Robert "King" Carter) in October 1723.

JANE GIBSON Testimony of Robert Wills 1790 In 1640 Jane Gibson, an Indian woman was born in Charles City County according to the deposition of Robert Wills, taken in 1790 at his home in Charles City County. Testimony also shows Jane had a brother or a son named George Gibson, she possibly may have had both brother and son, and a daughter Jane Gibson. Jane, the daughter, married to Morris Evans, their daughter and her descendants would become enslaved. Thomas Gibson aka Mingo Jackson sued and won his freedom proving he descended from the Indian Jane Gibson.

Questions by the defendant. How old were you when you were first acquainted with the elder Jane Gibson and George her brother?

Answer I believe I was ten or eleven years old or thereabouts.

Quest. How old do you suppose they were and how long did they live afterwards?

Answer. Jane Gibson the elder was very old, I apprehend she was eighty years of age, [born about 1640] being past all labour - Mr. Carter my Master took her to live with him at Shirley where I then lived to brew a diet drink, he being afflicted with a dropsy - The old Jane Gibson I suppose might live two or three years.

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JOHN BUNCH

JOHN BUNCH & SARAH SLAYDEN

The minister of Blissland Parish in New Kent County refused to marry them because Bunch was a mulatto. The Councillors decided to refer the petition to Stevens Thompson, the Attorney General of Virginia, "to report his opinion whether the Petitioners case be within the intent of the Law to prevent Negroes & White Persons intermarrying." Thompson noted that there was some confusion as to whether or not a mulatto was to be treated the same as a negro in regard to the 1691 law prohibiting the marriage of a white person and a black person.

''ye issue of such mixtures, cannot resolve whether the issue begotten on a White woman by a Mulatto man can properly be called a Mulatto, that name as I conceive being only appropriated to the Child of a Negro man begotten upon a white woman, or by a white man upon a negro woman, and as I am told the issue of a Mulatto by or upon a white Person has another name viz that of, Mustee; ''

After mulling it over they decided;

October 1705-CHAP. IV

And for clearing all manner of doubts which hereafter may happen to arise upon the construction of this act, or any other act, who shall be accounted a mulatto,

Be it enacted and declared, and it is hereby enacted and declared, That the child of an Indian and the child, grand child, or great grand child, of a negro shall be deemed, accounted, held and taken to be a mulatto.

Source: Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large, vol. 3, pp. 250-251, 252. By 1656 John Bunch had land on the Rickahock Path which led from New Kent County [old York] to the Pamunkey Fort Royal, a traders path. Thomas Gibson had land on this path as well, Thomas Gibsons records are in York Co., died in 1652, ancestor of Nicholas Gibson who inherited his father's land which was actually in New Kent Co at that time. Nicholas is then the father of Thomas Gibson died 1734 in New Kent Co., father of Valentine Gibson and does not share the same Y DNA as Melungeon Gibson line but is likely related.

Monday, October 23, 2023

Indians of Robeson County Part II

THE INDIANS OF ROBESON COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA
AND
HANCOCK COUNTY TENEESSEE

"An old Indian" George Lowery/Lowrie, made an address at the funeral [atteneded by whites and Indians] of his kinsmen killed by the Confederates in 1864.

Quoted in Lost Colony of Roanoke by Hamilton McMillan, George Lowery said;

"We have always been the friends of the white men. We were a free people long before the white men came to our land. Our tribe lived on Roanoke, in Virginia."

The 1646 act required Abraham Wood to keep 10 men at the old fort. It was, at the time, on the southwestern edge of colonial settlement in Virginia. Wood had few local customers, and ships sailing up the James River could load cargoes and sell their imported goods long before reaching the Fall Line on the Appomattox River. Wood himself had a plantation on Upper Chippokes Creek,

Indians on the Upper Chippokes Creek:

William Knott, 312 Acres, Surry Co 28 Mar 1666, p. 482 (land patents). 112 acres on south side of James River on south side of Upper Chipoakes Creek, bounded NW on land of Edward Oliver, N upon Wm. Thomas, E on George Gibson [See Indian Jane Gibson of Charles City County] SE on Mr. Fisher; 200 acres on south side of said River, Wly. on Jeremiah Clements, NW on Edward Oliver, Nly on Wm. Thomas, George Gibson & Edward Minter, Ely. on Wm. Gapins land & Mr. Thomas Busbie [Interpreter for the Crown] and SE on Mr. Richard Hill

The Quiyoughcohannock were one of the first Virginia Indian groups the English encountered in 1607 after landing at Jamestown. Situated primarily in present-day Surry County, the Quiyoughcohannocks had four villages in the region likely east of Upper Chippokes Creek

The Expedition of Batts and Fallam:

A Journey from Virginia to beyond the Appalachian Mountains, September, 1671

''Sept. 5. Just as we were ready to take horse and march from the Sapiny’s about seven of the clock in the Morning we heard some guns go off from the other side of the River. They were seven Apomatack Indians sent by Major General Wood to accompany us in our voyage. We hence sent back a horse belonging to Mr. Thomas Wood, which was hired, by a Portugal, belonging to Major General Wood, whom we here found. About eleven of the clock we set forward and that night came to the town of the Hanathaskies which we judge to be twenty five miles from the Sapenys, they are lying west and by north in an island on the Sapony River rich land. '

English explorer Edward Bland wrote in 1650 about the "Occononacheans and Nessoneicks" living on Roanoke River. The "Nessoneicks" were Saponi.^[16] In 1670, John Lederer visited what he described as "Sapon, a Village of the Nahyssans," who were the Saponi.^[16] Lederer wrote about the Saponi: "The nation is governed by an absolute Monarch; the People of a high stature, warlike and rich."^[16]

In 1671 Thomas Batts and Robert Fallam led an expedition that passed through several Saponi villages. After their visit, the Saponi and Tutelo moved downriver and settled with Occaneechi people. Wikipedia

"We have always been the friends of the white men. We were a free people long before the white men came to our land. Our tribe lived on Roanoke, in Virginia."-George Lowery

Herbert 1725 Map
Saura/Cheraw Village on the Pee Dee
[Spenser Bolton born 1735 on the Pee Dee according to his

Revolutionary Pension Application -testimony proved they

were known as Portuguese and called Melungeons.]

Maps are Great!

Indians of Robeson County Part I

THE INDIANS OF ROBESON COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA
AND
HANCOCK COUNTY TENEESSEE

"An old Indian" George Lowery/Lowrie, made an address at the funeral [atteneded by whites and Indians] of his kinsmen killed by the Confederates in 1864.

Quoted in Lost Colony of Roanoke by Hamilton McMillan, George Lowery said;

"We have always been the friends of the white men. We were a free people long before the white men came to our land. Our tribe lived in Roanoke, in Virginia."

July 17, 1890
--Red Springs, North Carolina
Hamilton McMillan
63D CONGRESS 3D SESSION SENATE DOCUMENT NO. 677 INDIANS OF NORTH CAROLINA LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR TRANSMITTING, IN RESPONSE TO A SENATE RESOLUTIONOF JUNE 30, 1914, A REPORT ON THE CONDITION AND TRIBAL RIGHTS OF THE INDIANS OF ROBESON AND ADJOINING COUNTIES OF NORTH CAROLINA JANUARY 5, 1915.--REFERRED TO THE COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS AND ORDERED TO BE PRINTED

The Croatan Tribe lives principally in Robeson County, N. C., though there are quite a number of them settled in counties adjoining in North and South Carolina. In Sumter County, S. C., there is a branch of the tribe and also in East Tennessee. In Lincoln County, N. C., there is another branch, settled there long ago. Those living in East Tennessee are called "Melungeans," *a name also retained by them here

The Melungeons
Paul Converse
Southern Collegian December 1912

This is quite a fine theory, but most people are more prosaic and hold the Melungeons to be a mixed race, having Indian, Negro, and Caucasian blood in their veins. This the word “Melungeon” itself would indicate and the Bureau of Ethnology at Washington classifies them as a branch or offshoot of the Croatan Indians of North Carolina, who are a people of obscure and mixed descent in whose veins Indian blood predominates..

AN INDIAN TO BE HANGED

Georgia Crotan to be Executed Next Month for Murder.

New York Times
February 28, 1897, Wednesday

ATLANTA, Ga., Feb. 27. -- For the first time in fifty years an Indian is under sentence of death in Georgia. He will be hanged in Glynn County next month. Marcellus Lowry, the condemned man, is a Crotan Indian from the celebrated band
in North Carolina, many of whom have drifted with the turpentine and timber men into Southern Georgia, where they are called "Melungeons."

Swan Burnett

Since the above communications was read before the Society I have received from several sources valuable information in regard to the Melungeons; but the most important contribution bearing on the subject, as I believe, is the little pamphlet published by Hamilton Mc Millan, A. M., on “Sir Walter Raleigh’s Lost Colony” (Wilson, N.C., 1888). Mc Millan claims that the Croatan Indians are the direct descendant of this colony. What connection I consider to exist between the Melungeons and the Croatan Indians, as well as other material I have accumulated in regard to the Melungeons, will be made the subject of another communication which is now in preparation.

* *Read before the Society at its regular meeting, February 5, 1889.

Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology - Ethnology - 1907

Across the line in South Carolina are found a people, evidently of similar origin, designated "Red bones." In portions of w. N. C. and E. Temn. are found the so-called "Melungeons" (probably from French melangi', 'mixed') or "Portuguese," apparently an offshoot from the Croatan proper, and in Delaware are found the "Moors." All of these are local designations for peoples of mixed race with an Indian nucleus differing in no way from the present mixed-blood remnants known as Pamunkey, Chicka- hominy, and Nansemond Indians in Virginia, excepting in the more complete loss of their identity. In general, the physical features and complexion of the persons of this mixed stock incline more to the Indian than to the white or negro. See Mi-tis, Mixed bloods

The North Carolina Booklet: Great Events in North Carolina History

James Mooney

" The Croatan applied for recognition by the United States as Cherokee, but it was denied and the Cherokee acknowledge no relationship, having visited the Croatan country on a tour of inspection. There is a queer offshoot of the Croatan known as "Malungeons," in South Carolina, who went there from this state ; another the "Redbones," of Tennessee. Mr. Mooney has made a careful study of both of these branches also.

In a column called "The Southwest Conrner" published in the Roanoke News, Roanoke, Virginia, on February 25, 1934, Dr. Gooridge Wilson wrote the following .......

........"Mr. Robert Gray, one of the last survivors of those who drove the great herds of cattle, horses, and mules from the mountains to the sea, says that the Melungeons were in much demand for this work, being expert handlers of the stock on long treks...... ... when he was a boy some of the oldest of the clan told him that they were "Croatans," survivors of the Indians tribe

The Magazine of American History with Notes and Queries

Volume XXV 1890
Page 258

After the reports of various committees had been read, and other business transacted, Judge Lea addressed the society on the subject of the Melungeons. He outlined the early history of the settlement of North Carolina. A party under the protection of a friendly Indian chief had gone into the interior when the first settlers came to that coast and had been lost. No other settlers came till a century afterward, and they were told of a tribe who claimed a white ancestry, and among whom gray eyes were frequent. This people were traced to Buncomb and Robeson counties, where the same family and personal names were found as in the lost colonies.

They are now called Croatans, on account of a sign they made on the trees to keep their way. The Basques of the Spanish coast have been said to have settled in that country, but this theory was not thought to be trustworthy. It would be impossible for negroes to form a distinct race, because the number necessary for a colony would not have been allowed to run at large. The race has several old English words which are used as they were in England two hundred years ago, and a case of civil rights has been won in court by a Melungeon displaying his person and proving to the court that he was of Caucasian blood. North Carolina gives the Croatians $1,000 a year for a normal school, and they have excellent roads. This colony, whose early history is thus so clearly traced, lies within forty miles of the Tennessee Melungeons.

See Melungeons Redboned & Croatans - HERE

From 1890 into the 1900s Historians, Anthropologists, Ethnoligists, Smithsonian etc., declared the Melungeons were an offshoot of the Croatan/Lumbee Tribe.

TheCroatan/Lumbee lived on the Pee Dee River, the Melungeons lived on the Pee Dee River. The Cofitachequi, visited by DeAyllon - 1527. DeSoto - 1540 and Pardo - 1570, lived on the Pee Dee River.

One of DeSoto's ships were Portuguese explorers who mixed with the Indians from the Pee Dee River to the Mobile Bay.

Excerpt from the 1871 North Carolina Joint Senate and House Committee as they interviewed Robeson County Judge Giles Leitch about the ‘free persons of color’ living within his county:

Senate: Half of the colored population?

Leitch: Yes Sir; half of the colored population of Robeson County were never slaves at all…

Senate: What are they; are they Negroes?

Leitch: Well sir, I desire to tell you the truth as near as I can; but I really do not know what they are; I think they are a mixture of Spanish, Portuguese and Indian…

Senate: You think they are mixed Negroes and Indians?

Leitch: I do not think that in that class of population there is much Negro blood at all; of that half of the colored population that I have attempted to describe all have always been free…They are called ‘mulattoes’ that is the name they are known by, as contradistinguished from Negroes…I think they are of Indian origin.

Senate: I understand you to say that these seven or eight hundred persons that you designate as mulattoes are not Negroes but are a mixture of Portuguese and Spanish, white blood and Indian blood, you think they are not generally Negroes?

Leitch: I do not think the Negro blood predominates.

Indians of Robeston County Part II

Cherokee Choctaw & Portuguese

The Free Press

27 September 1901, Fri · Page 7

Bridger, Montana

How White Blood Preponderates in Certain Tribes.

North Carolina Croatans, who claim to be descendant of Raleigh's lost colony[1], are not the only peculiar people among the red inhabitants of these United States. The claim is not new. It has been more or less exploited these 30 years, along with that of the more curious Melungeons of East Tennessee. Their name, said to come from the French melange, a mixture, must be pre-eminently fit, since they show racial characteristics of the Cherokees, the Choctaws, the Portuguese [See Below Cherokee Chief Nimrod Smith 2] and the plain ordinary whites. Their language is as mixed as their blood, and their civilization is in somewhat the same condition.

Over against them set their neighbors, the Eastern Cherokees, who live in Qualla Boundary, in western North Carolina, and are so up-to-date that they formed themselves into a regular corporation, so as to share in the government benefits which were in danger of monopoly by the rich and out-reaching western Cherokee nation. [See Below lawsuit 3] Right here it may be proper to say that after the outcry against Indian population of today is not so very much less than that which Columbus found here, and the so-called Five Civilized Nations of Indian Territory, have quintrupled in numbers since crossing the Mississippi.

[1] The Crotans did not claim to be 'Lost Colony of Roanoke' Hamilton McMillan who had witnessed the speech of George Lowery in the 1860s and in McMillan's own words Lowery said in "Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony, with the traditions of An Indian Tribe in North Carolina indicating the fate of the Colony";

ROANOKE IN VIRGINIA
NOT NORTH CAROLINA
[To Be Continued- Next Blog]

Chief Nimrod J Smith

[2] I said to myself, "This is not a modern face of the every-day world; it does not belong to any race admixture of which I know anything; it might have belonged to a Spanish cavalier of the olden time;" and as if in answer to my thought came the information that there was an admixture of Portuguese blood in his veins, or to speak in vernacular, he was "part Portygee."

[3] As principal chief Smith devoted most of his time to the Eastern Cherokee's legal battles. Hoping to gain access to the annuities and other trust funds held by the U.S. government for the Western (Oklahoma) Cherokee, the Eastern Cherokee filed suit in the court of claims against the United States and the Cherokee Nation West in 1883. Two years later the court handed down a decision adverse to the Eastern Cherokee, and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the decision in 1886. The courts ruled that the Eastern Cherokee had dissolved their connection with the Cherokee Nation by their refusal to move west. The decision deprived them not only of the trust and annuity funds but also of their tribal status and consequently left them in an extremely ambiguous legal position."

https://the-melungeons.blogspot.com/search?q=nimrod+smith

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The next time you read the Melungeon or Croatan/Lumbee families or your family were rejected in the Cherokee applications consider this; The United States Government ruled the EASTERN CHEROKEE DISSOLVED THEIR CONNECTION TO THE WESTERN CHEROKEE BECAUSE THEY 'DID NOT WALK'

And it continues today.

January 19, 2007

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. -
"Every year thousands of people are told or "discover" they have Native American blood. Sometimes it's true, sometimes not. And the tribe people most commonly associate themselves with is Cherokee. A group of Cherokee Nation employees and officials recently formed a task force to deal with these "wannabe" Cherokees."

https://www.cherokeephoenix.org/news/non-recognized-cherokee-tribes-flourish/article_ac02834f-35d3-5bc3-bd2c-ad2b69101baf.html

Sunday, September 17, 2023

Melungeons & Fort Blackmore

THE MELUNGEONS
&
FORT BLACKMORE

SOME NOTES

Attorney Lewis Jarvis was born 1829 in Scott County, Virginia and lived in the area and time period where he knew many of the historical Melungeons such as Vardy Collins, the Bolens, and Zachariah Minor. In 1903 he was interviewed for the Hancock County paper and said; "The white emigrants with the friendly Indians erected a fort on the bank of the river and called it Fort Blackmore and here yet many of these friendly “Indians” live in the mountains of Stony creek." (1)

The Fort

Daniel Boone and his family lived at Fort Blackmore in present Scott County, Virginia from October of 1773 until March of 1775 and was in command of Fort Blackmore and other forts on the Clinch River in 1774 while the militiamen were engaged in the Point Pleasant campaign of Dunmore's war. Some of these men did not fight at Point Pleasant but were detached and were with Boone guarding the clinch frontier. Were they the 'company of men' -- the 'friendly Indians' who erected Fort Blackmore as Jarvis said? (See William Herbert's men below)

There were seven of the original forts erected in compliance with Lord Dunmore's order, four on the lower Clinch under Captain William Russell's militia command, and three on the upper Clinch under the militia command of Captain Daniel Smith. These forts were erected by the local militia under the supervision of Colonel William Christian who had been sent out to the frontier by Colonel William Preston who was militia commandant for the area.

When Captain Russell received Lord Dunmore's orders for building the forts it happened to be muster day for the militia in Cassells Woods, and he immediately, on June 25, 1774, laid the facts before his constituents and informed Colonel Preston of their actions on June 26, 1774, saying: "My company yesterday voted two forts to be immediately built, I think in as convenient a place as we can get, and we shall immediately begin to build them."

Two weeks later, on July 13, 1774, Captain Russell again wrote to Colonel Preston the following letter showing that his people had changed their minds about the number of forts to be built and states that the forts had already been erected.

"Since I wrote you last, the inhabitants of this river have altered the plan for two forts only, on this river, below Elk Garden, and have erected three; one in Cassells Woods which I call Fort Preston; a second ten miles above which I call Fort Christian; the third, five miles below the first, which I call Fort Byrd, and there are four families at John Blackmores near the mouth of Stony Creek, that will never be able to stand it alone without a company of men. Therefore, request you, if you think it can be done, to order them a supply sufficient to enable them to continue the small fortification they have begun." (5)

Fort Blackmore was built on the north side of the Clinch River opposite the mouth of Rock Branch. The fort was on the extreme frontier of Virginia and was used by hunters, explorers, adventurers, and home seekers for rest and refreshment.

The Men

From Jeff Weaver's site; NEW RIVER NOTES

Bios of William Herbert's company *See more biographies From Jeff Weaver's site

Micajah Bunch
listed as living on Indian lands. His land was on Elk Creek in current day Ashe Co., NC. He is in William Herbert's company in 1771.

1774 (Lord Dunmore's War): Micajah was among those diverted to Capt. Looney's company on the Clinch and did not fight at Point Pleasant. Instead he was with Capt Looney, Lieut. Daniel Boone and Lieut. John Cox guarding the Clinch frontier.

John Collins
The Fincastle 1772 and 1773 list includes: David (Indian lands), Ambrose, John, John Jr., Charles (Indian lands), Elisha, Samuel (Indian land), Lewis, George (Indian land) Collins and Micajer Bunch (Indian Land).
3. - 1774 (Lord Dunmore's War): One of the John Collins was among those diverted to Capt. Looney's company on the Clinch and did not fight at Point Pleasant. Instead he was with Capt Looney, Lieut. Daniel Boone and Lieut. John Cox guarding the Clinch frontier.

Enoch Osborne 1774 (Lord Dunmore's War): Enoch was among those diverted to Capt. Looney's company on the Clinch and did not fight at Point Pleasant. Instead he was with Capt Looney, Lieut. Daniel Boone and Lieut. John Cox guarding the Clinch frontier. He is listed as a sergeant.

Ephraim Osborne Jr.
1) born 1754 in Rowan Co., NC
2) 1774 (Lord Dunmore's War): Ephraim was among those diverted to Capt. Looney's company on the Clinch and did not fight at Point Pleasant. Instead he was with Capt Looney, Lieut. Daniel Boone and Lieut. John Cox guarding the Clinch frontier...........
Ephraim married Mary Brock (b. before 1774, d. between 1830-1840 in Harlan Co., KY), the daughter of Aaron Brock, sometimes called by his Cherokee name Cutsawah or Red Bird and a Cherokee woman called Sarah. She was a sister to Jesse Brock who fought on the Whig side in the Revolution. It appears that Ephraim or his descendants were present at the Massacre at Yahoo Falls in 1810 on the side of the Cherokee. After this attack, the mixed race Cherokee ceased to exist in Kentucky as Indians and were assimilated into the white population.

Stephen Osborne ---3) 1774: Stephen was among those diverted to Capt. Looney's company on the Clinch and did not fight at Point Pleasant. Instead he was with Capt Looney, Lieut. Daniel Boone and Lieut. John Cox guarding the Clinch frontier

Charles Roark

(Not on Jeff's list, but he is on the list of those paid with Capt. Looney's Co. as were many others in Herbert's company)
Born about 1750, Augusta Co., VA (?). His parents may have been Timothy O'Rourke (b. Ireland, d. Frederick Co., VA?) and Rachel (Timothy married first Sarah Parker, see Timothy Jr. below).

Married Abigail (by tradition a Cherokee Indian) about 1775 in Fincastle Co., VA. She died before 1820 in Ashe Co., NC.
1774 (Lord Dunmore's War): Charles was among those diverted to Capt. Looney's company on the Clinch and did not fight at Point Pleasant. Instead he was with Capt Looney, Lieut. Daniel Boone and Lieut. John Cox guarding the Clinch frontier

William Roberts--- William is probably a brother of Cornelius Roberts and more doubtfully a son of the notorious Capt. James Roberts (Tory leader). He shared an 1780 court venue with Cornelius....He is the William Roberts born about 1744 in old Lunenburg Co., VA who married Elizabeth "Betsy" Walling, daughter of Elisha Wallen and Mary Blevins

1774: William was among those diverted to Capt. Looney's company on the Clinch and did not fight at Point Pleasant. Instead he was with Capt Looney, Lieut. Daniel Boone and Lieut. John Cox guarding the Clinch frontier.

Doswell Rodgers----1774: In Herbert's Company. Doswell was among those diverted to Capt. Looney's company on the Clinch and did not fight at Point Pleasant. Instead he was with Capt Looney, Lieut. Daniel Boone and Lieut. John Cox guarding the Clinch frontier.

William Vaughn----1774 (Lord Dunmore's War): William was among those diverted to Capt. Looney's company on the Clinch and did not fight at Point Pleasant. Instead he was with Capt Looney, Lieut. Daniel Boone and Lieut. John Cox guarding the Clinch frontier.....Daniel Boone records meeting him in the wilds of Kentucky on his first visit (Howling Wilderness). William married a Cherokee maiden by the name of Fair-A-Bee-Luna in Tennessee. It was around his wife's tribal fire that he first heard of the old Indian Healing Springs, now known as Eureka Spring, Arkansas. (Don Byrne)........Eddie Davis was unable to prove Fereby's Cherokee ancestry through DNA testing.

James Wallin-- 1746 - born, Lunenburg Co., VA, son of Elisha Walling and Mary Blevins.
1774 (Lord Dunmore's War): James was among those diverted to Capt. Looney's company on the Clinch and did not fight at Point Pleasant. Instead he was with Capt Looney, Lieut. Daniel Boone and Lieut. John Cox guarding the Clinch frontier

Joseph Wallin
1774 (Lord Dunmore's War): Joseph was among those diverted to Capt. Looney's company on the Clinch and did not fight at Point Pleasant. Instead he was with Capt Looney, Lieut. Daniel Boone and Lieut. John Cox guarding the Clinch frontier

Thomas Wallin----1774 (Lord Dunmore's War): Thomas was among those diverted to Capt. Looney's company on the Clinch and did not fight at Point Pleasant. Instead he was with Capt Looney, Lieut. Daniel Boone and Lieut. John Cox guarding the Clinch frontier.

By family tradition, Thomas' daughter Judy was part Cherokee. According to notes in Tobias Harkleroad's Worldconnect database, Thomas was "living with the tribe after his marriage to her mother [Mary Cox?], and taking part in tribal life
Not on the 1782 Montgomery Co., VA personal tax list. - had moved to the Clinch or Powell River valley in Virginia or Tennessee near Kyle's Ford by then

Edward Williams ---
1774 (Lord Dunmore's War): Edward was among those diverted to Capt. Looney's company on the Clinch and did not fight at Point Pleasant. Instead he was with Capt Looney, Lieut. Daniel Boone and Lieut. John Cox guarding the Clinch frontier.

Some of the land in the original Loyal Company grant was also claimed by the Cherokee, who were the first target of these same leaders in the Revolution. Much of the rest of the land was the ancestral home of the Shawnee, who had been driven from northern and central Kentucky by the Iroquois in the 1660s. The men in Herbert's company, including Herbert, were not part of this Loyal Land Company scheme for the most part, although I have heard people suggest that Enoch Osborne and John Cox may have had some long standing business ties to the company. In fact, many of the people in Herbert's company had trading or even familial ties to the Cherokee, and so it is not surprising that so many became Tories when the Cherokee were attacked in 1777.

William Hays came out in 1770, along with Robert Elsom as stock tenders for Capt. William Herbert, Sr. of Poplar Camp, Wythe Co., Va. Herbert had a patent for land between Dungannon and Gray's Island on Clinch River. Robert Elsom was killed there by the Indians in 1777. Most of the men who served under William Herbert were from Grayson County, Virginia

The 1755 Orange County, North Carolina, tax list several families who either they are their forefather once lived on the Pamunkey River in Louisa County, Virginia and who eventually migrated to Hawkins County, TN and became know as the Melungeons.
Gidean Bunch 1 tithe (mulatto)

Micajer Bunch 1 tithe (mulatto)
Moses Ridley (Riddle) 1 tithe and wife Mary (mulattoes)
Thomas Collins 3 tithes (mulatto)
Samuel Collins 3 tithes (mulattoes)
John Collins 1 tithe (mulatto)
Thomas Gibson 3 tithes (mulatto)
Charles Gibson 1 tithe (mulatto)
George Gibson 1 tithe (mulatto)
Mager Gibson 1 tithe (mulatto)

Most of these families moved from the Flat River to the New River area of Virginia and North Carolina. The follow tax lists are from Kegley’s early adventures on the Western Waters) 1771 New River area Botetourt County, Virginia
Charles Collins 1 tithe
John Collins 4 tithes
Samuel Collins two tithes
Charles Sexton 1 tithe
McKegar Bunch 1 tithe
William Sexton 1 tithe

Some of these including Micager Bunch were living on Indian Lands.
Fincastle County was formed from Botetourt in 1772; this 1773 tax list shows the ones living on Indian land. Which means they had crossed the survey line agreed upon in the treaty of Lochaber as the western boundary.
David Collins (Indian Lands)
Charles Collins (Indian Lands)
Samuel Collins (Indian Lands)
George Collins (Indian lands)
*Micajer Bunch (Indian lands)
John Collins SR
John Collins Jr.
Ambrose Collins
Elisha Collins
Lewis Collins

According to an "authentic tradition" related to Robert M. Addington about 1930 by W. S. Cox of Scott County, Virginia, Baron deTubeuf planned to build a city there just about ten miles above Fort Blackmore on the Clinch River. Tubeuf's colony was very close to where a peaceable band of Indians came down Stony Creek into the neighborhood of Fort Blackmore about 1817 for undetermined ceremonial purposes [prayers were said at a local Indian mound located directly behind the fort]

Baron Pierre Francois de Tubeuf

Pierre Francois de Tubeuf was from the Ales coal basin in France and was “opening up new coalfields in Normandy from 1770 until he set sail for Virginia in May of 1791. One local study described him as “le premier grand mineur de notre pays” or “the first grand miner of our country”. While he was instrumental in the coal industry in France for many years he accumulated many debts and after the French Revolution decided to emigrate to the New World.

His plans were to set up a French Settlement on the Clinch River in Russell County, Virginia which would include “ a number of people with the appropriate talents and skills.” He had traded some of his lands in France to Richard Smith for 55,000 acres in Southwest Virginia. In May of 1791 he set sail with his eighteen year old son, his niece, “eighteen maitres and twenty five servants, skilled and unskilled workers”, a priest, the abbe Dubois, and his son’s former mathematics professor”. He would call his settlement “Sainte Marie on the Clinch”.

Before leaving Richmond for his lands in Russell County some of his countrymen were lured away to work for people in Richmond with tales of the hardships of the frontier. “Relations with the local people proved to be little better than with the inhabitants of Richmond. The Frenchmen had great difficulty with the English language and experienced very bad treatment at the hands of the backwoodsmen every time they had to trade or bargain for goods. The “black tricks” the people played on them were very disheartening”.(THE FRONTIER DREAMS OF PIERRE FRANCOIS TUBEUF James William Hagy in Virginia Genealogy and Biography. Taken from DeTubeuf to Colonel Harvie October 18, 1791)

Tubeuf spent his first days residing at the Russell County Courthouse before removing to the abandoned home of John English. English had built his home on Sugar Hill where Guess’s and the Clinch River come together, very near Fort Blackmore, Castlewoods, and Stoney Creek Church. He had been attacked by Indians at least once before and the last attack left his wife and children dead.

Tubeuf and his family were constantly harassed by the local “inhabitants” who he followed up to “the ridge” on at least one occasion. One of the “black tricks” used on them was to keep Tubeuf from surveying his lands, the “inhabitants” would get Tubeuf and his men to follow them through the woods for hours, ending up back at his cabin. Jonathon Schoepf mentioned in 1782 the local “Indians” in Northern Virginia embraced the rattlesnake “almost lovingly”. Tubeuf’s employees would recall snake handling and “displays of dead snakes as among the “black tricks” played by the local inhabitants.”

“ Two hunters, associated briefly with Tubeuf's enterprise established temporary camp along the north bank of the Clinch, on what Tubeuf thought clearly was part of his land patent. Over the next two weeks, as the hunters searched for deer and other commodities, they were visited by men who "resembled Indians by their coloring" and who appeared almost daily in small groups of two or three to talk in English with the hunters in a friendly fashion about the scarcity of game. but when the hunters began to load their accumulated deerskins and other pelts to leave the site, the "same men" reappeared with reinforcements, all dressed now in "Indian" regalia, and gently but firmly prevented the hunters from leaving with their kill. The skins had to stay with the "true owners, not your or your foolish lord who bloodied our good roads with his evil." (Darlen Wilson-Journal of Appalachian Studies- Multicultural Mayhem and Murder in Virginia's Backcountry: The Case of Pierre-Francois Tubeuf, 1792-1795

The Chickamaugans and Shawnees made regular visits in the county to harass the settlers and many, including Tubeuf, spent the winters in the forts for protection. Tubeuf had a road built from the courthouse to his home and no doubt many of these men working for Tubeuf attended the Stoney Creek Church. In a deposition given in 1859 Jonathon Osborne said he had worked for Tubeuf in the early 1790s. Jonathon was said to be son of Stephen and Comfort Osborn whose name is found in the Stoney Creek Church records.

While the facts are not clear, Tubeuf’s son, Alexander gave the story that his father was killed on election day in 1791. His deposition reads;

“Two men passing by the name of Brown and Barrow, came to the house of this deponents father, and after being invited and partaking of dinner and after staying some time and loitering about, taking the opportunity as the father of said deponent turned his face from them one of the said men [which was Brown] gave him a stroke with a gun that he had in his hand, and the cock of the lock sunk appearingly through his scull which sunk him motionless, and in a short time expired– the foresaid not suffering their fury, with an attempt they further proceeded to murder the whole family and fell upon the said deponent with a club, and after receiving several wounds, made his escape out of the house, and Miss Drushane at the same time dangerously woudned. A servant maid attempting from the alarm to cross the river got drownded, and also the house being robbed and the trunks broke open and plundered, and this deponent further saith not. May 3, 1796"

Although his depositions do not mention “dark skinned” or “Indians” there is a death record in the family papers in France that describe them as “red skins”, years later in a deposition the niece would also recall them as “red skins”.

There were said to be as many as twelve men involved in the conspiracy although only three were tried for their part. James Best, Aaron Roberts, and Obediah Paine were held for over a year in jail while Richard Barrow and John Brown aka Bonds were arrested in New Design, Illinois they mangaged to escape. Despite a 500.00 reward they were never found nor brought to justice. John Bond was found on the 1790 Voters List in Hawkins County.

While the community was enraged over the murder and demanded justice it seems the were split by the three conspirators being held in jail for over a year. The two sons returned to France in 1803 but the other French colonist have not been accounted for to my knowledge. The niece made a deposition many years later and apparently was still in the area.

Hat Tip to the Late Darlene Wilson .

THE HISTORICAL MELUNGEONS