Andersons of Colonial N. Carolina

I’ve set the table over several years…

The details of my research are scattered over numerous Pages and Posts … use the Search Box if you are brave.  A caution that it has broken dishes and burnt recipes.

It all turns out to be so simple when all the pieces are arranged…

Not to say that this is finished… but this a point where you folks can decide if this is theory or fact.

And one more time… the widow of Thomas Browne (Christian) did NOT re-marry to William Maule.

see here for the map you can zoom in on… of particular interest is the land next to John Browne Sr on Petty Shore…

https://andersonnc.wordpress.com/old-chowan-precinct-map/

James Curlee (noted in the patent for John Browne) did not have a patent that I can find… that is because the property was ceded to him by the widow of George Smith (whose patent I also cannot find… he most likely bought the land himself).  At the same time George Smith was dying… he sold part of the land to Isaac and Jacob Lewis (sons of Bridgett Brown).   Confused yet?  So her two sons were living next door to her in her widowhood (undoubtedly on the “widow’s third”)  She seems to die sometime prior to the disposal of the property in 1727.  Also the name “John Smith” is noted in the John Browne patent… it threw me for a loop until I discovered the George Smith connection.  Simple now that I have scratched off the last hair on my head.

Susanna Brown, daughter of John Brown Jr also had two bastard sons at this location of Petty Shore.  She and her two other sisters, Sylvester and Grace later moved to Horse Swamp a few miles to the west.  A Charles Brown, son of Susanna should be of interest to anyone who has a mysterious Brown show up today in their DNA… if you catch my drift.  His last name started with “M”. For reasons unknown to me the sisters “gifted” the Petty Shore property to their sister Elizabeth in 1727.  That is the date that I place for the death of John Browne JR.  There is no will that I can find… or a reference to his death for that matter, other than the statement in the deed “Land formerly belonging to our father, John Brown dec’d. “.  John Warren (wife Grace Brown) also purchased 100ac on Horse Swamp.  All the daughters of John Brown Jr may have been living together there.  The remaining daughter Elizabeth lived with her husband John Joyner in Isle of Wight (which today is Southampton County, VA.)  The Joyners finally sold the Petty Shore property in 1741.

All these facts are in my notes.   But even I have to “search” to find them.  So. There… do some digging.

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An afterthought…

I always hunt for that “smoking gun” proof.  I have not found one for any of the sons of John Browne SR.  With that said though, even professional genealogists recognize that it is not always forthcoming… they will concede to the “preponderance of evidence” factor just as we sometimes do in a court of law.

Just today I finally put the clues together concerning  two sons of Bridgett (Lewis) Browne.  And there staring me in the face was the one son of John Browne who I least expected to find…William.  William Browne married Martha Braswell… he also had property in IOW (now Southampton, VA) near another son of Brigett (Lewis) Browne… Anthony Lewis (of Anthony’s Delight fame).  William Browne and Anthony Lewis were step- brothers as it were.  At this place in old IOW also shows up Thomas Browne who is associated with a property deal with his brother William.

Along with the tool of research that we call “the naming pattern” is a similar pattern that folks of the early days “stayed around to help each other”.  An intermarriage was for keeps. Family was kin.

With that said, and to make a simple point… the folks were “isolated” from each other… day to day… Their “plantations” were often a mile or so from neighbors.  So when the “quarterly Court” time came around, it was time to take care of business and well…Hoop, holler and raise some hell… hug the kinfolks, shake hands with friends… drink some likker.  You get my drift.

William Browne had to travel from Roanoke River (or his land in Southampton…hard to pinpoint EXACTLY where he was living in 1714) to get to the shindig of the “quarterly Court” where these deeds were accomplished:

By horseback… a wagon if he brought the family… and he undoubtedly had to ford some swamps and pocosins…  snakes and such…

Note the hard clues in the #411 deed above… “on ye west side of Wicacon Creek” is a little confusing (I would say north)… “joining a branch of Brooks creek” is spot on (Brooks Creek is on modern maps)… and this little jewel “next to Little Town near James Corlee”… I note the history of Little Town on my larger map.  There were actually two “Little Towns” at this time in history… the other one was near where the Nottoway, Blackwater and Chowan Rivers meet, known today as Wyanoak.

I’m enjoying a Mich Ultra… thank you very much (smiling).