Andersons of Colonial N. Carolina

a map to set the table…

Click on the filename below next to where it says “download” to get the best image … which you can zoom.

My personal interest in this map is one George Anderson who died 1757, testate. I have a theory that he may have family ties to some neighboring SIMS folks.

A certain Benjamin SIMS happens to be something of a hotshot celebrity by colonial standards, i.e., he was a pre-revolutionary “hellraiser” which forthwith got my patriotic juices all atwitter and excited… that’s how I roll.

Some background on Benjamin Sims… of Granville County… this little booklet was published in 1905 (and referred to then as “old”).

So its seems that Mr SIMS sold some property to my guy George Anderson … who shortly afterwards unfortunately assumed room temperature, as Rush Limbaugh used to say.

Coincidently I have found numerous references to this Mr SIMS… hence I term him as a “Hotshot”.

Now it happens that Benjamin Sims is on my radar… but it seems some other very capable researchers have “claimed” him as a descendant of one Adam Symes of Virginia.

Hmmm… I think… nothing I like better that a good pissing contest…

And so it began that I started this new Granville map project to settle this conundrum once and for all. At which time shortly into the project I ran across this problem… the modern location of the creek called Buffalo Creek is on the SOUTH side of Tar River. Many of the key players I am researching are on Buffalo Creek. Alas! I find on the Mouzon map of 1775 the Buffalo Creek is on the NORTH side of tar River.

If you study the map above a bit and center your focus on the locus of Buffalo Creek and Tar River you will find the confluence of Osborn Jeffries, Matthews (who sold to a Hunt) and Robert Moody. There is NO WAY in hell I can make that happen. (by mapping parlance).

Now look at the Mouzon map of 1775…

So… can anyone explain this?

Hmmm… to bring the question home, the question is, is Buffalo Creek north or south of the Tar River?

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update…. I have made some notes on the SIMS boys. Right around 1720 is when my blood pressure begins to rise when the SIMS folks begin to show up with adjoining property to James ANDERSON at Occoneechee Neck (near modern Halifax, NC).

So… my theory goes thusly:

The wife of James Anderson in 1716 (Elizabeth) has a signature mark which I find curious… it is an “S”.

Elizabeth “S” Anderson. Can the “S” be for SIMS?

When you sit back and look at the cozy relationships of these SIMS folks and James Anderson it just rattles my cage in wonderment that perhaps she was a Sims daughter or sister? In particular one Robert Sims who died in 1729. No daughter was mentioned in his will of course, genealogy can’t be that simple. I have always heard that when folks got down to buying and selling property “cousins” and kin were the highest priority. Note that William Boon and James Anderson were pretty tight.

James Anderson just drops off the radar around 1727 much to my chagrin and confusion.

But then! Isn’t it interesting that in 1757 one George Anderson and brother William Anderson (from parts unknown) show up and buy some land from the same Joseph SIMS from Occoneechee Neck that adjoined James Anderson.

Can it be that these are sons of James Anderson? And double dayum! are these folks cousins?

Note above that many of these outlying patents are not not “placed” in their correct locations… I simply do not have enough info yet. The more patents you add, the more accurate the map becomes.

Some more misc SIMS notes to ponder…

I may be getting ahead of myself but other researchers are convinced that William Anderson and sons (mentioned above) removed to Bladen / Cumberland County in the early 1760s. I am pursuing that avenue as I write.

Meanwhile for any folks who are reading this that are SIMS researchers… here is an interesting clue I just found… I have not proceeded with the mapping yet but just wanted to see if anyone has been down this trail. Could this SIMS be a son of the Joseph mentioned above? Or perhaps of the Henry Sims also mentioned?

a Henry Sims clue near the Cape Fear River…. the Bladen/Cumberland County area in 1756/6.

And careful readers of this Post will recall a mystery William Sims lurking around in the shadows… is this him?

https://andersonnc.com/2021/05/23/william-sims-indian-trader/

But back to my ANDERSON research…

Back in 1999/2000 I corresponded with Paul Anderson… he had an ancestor named James Anderson who left a Revolutionary War pension which referred to his birth about 1760 “on the Tar River” in Granville County, NC. I would like to credit Paul with getting me interested in this family of Andersons. He also suspected, but could not prove, an association with the James Anderson of Occoneechee Neck.

This was Paul’s “smoking gun”for assuming the move from Granville County to the Cape Fear River. And I agree.

The DNA of Paul and myself did not match. That can be explained now because my Anderson branch (from William Anderson d 1789 of Edgecombe County, NC) are “bastards” of an unknown Brantley male. My line is from a “female” Anderson… shocking! I know. I joke with Ken Brantley, of the Brantley Group that we Andersons are the “Brantley Bastards“. The DNA evidence is overwhelming.

If Paul is indeed a descendant of James Anderson (of Occoneechee Neck) then that DNA will be the same as Carolus Anderson (noted on the Moseley map of 1733 near the Meherrin River), his brother. Carolus is the brother of Elizabeth Pitman, mother of William Anderson d 1789 of Edgecombe.

That is my “unproven” theory.