Including Bridgers Creek and Uraha Swamp. My main focus with this map is a question: Is this James Bryan the man who hailed from Isle of Wight / Nansemond?

I will include a link to a prior Post…

https://andersonnc.com/?s=james+bryan

The son in law of that James Bryan was Richard Braswell. He had a son William, who importantly, was not included on his will, because…well, he was dead’rn a doornail. My hunch is that the William Braswell shown on my map is “that” Wm Braswell, which would make him the grandson of James Bryan of IOW / Nansemond. Got it? good… I barely can keep up.

That “simple” question I am asking can clear up some questions several of us are actively researching at the moment.

Also are the other Bryans who need to explain themselves pronto…

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A look at the will and witnesses for clues…

Aaron Drake does not leave a will I can find and his whereabouts were unknown in 1731…

a John Mack Daniel is a mystery… (I thought this may be a son of Daniel McDaniel on Uraha Swamp)

a dead end for now…

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A sidenote…

Note the patent for Hester Kerby… this gal almost gave me whip lash… I have a couple patents for her and her husband near modern Hertford County and Northampton… indeed, there is a Kirby’s Creek, just to drive the point forward. What and why might they move… also, a woman usually could not patent land in her name unless she was a widow or single (as Traci the Librarian tells me). The I noticed that Rich Square was near by… perhaps there is a Quaker tale to be found here?

Also note the patent for Hardy Council… this guy obviously descends from the Isle of Wight Councils… what interests me is that he appears to be an Indian Trader. He also has a patent just north of the Meherrin Indian tract of land noted on the Moseley map of 1733. Just Google “moseley map 1733” and a great link pops up for the map…well worth the effort. I will soon be uploading my recent work on this overall Chowan “Precinct” map… stay tuned.

Now my obligatorye rants, as I am want to do…

Note the usual castletrash pigs feeding at the trough, Thomas Pollock and his associate William Maule. These guys are the exact same type of government toadies as we have today… Nothing has changed in 300 freaking years. They just nonchalantly fill their pockets with whatever loot they can get there slimy little hands on… in this case land. See Nancy Pelosi…good god that woman gets my goat. I could go on but I will spare you…

The odious Philip Ludwell was appointed to “setel” the boundary dispute betwixt Virginia and North Carolina in 1710. Ludwell was pretty much a pompous Horse’s Ass in my opinion… but don’t let that deter you from enjoying his shenanigans along the border at that time.

The account involving his interaction with Richard Braswell can be found below on page 35.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/4241934?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Here is where Braswell was living in 1706…

I am really curious what the old Indian women thought of Ludwell after he “gave them strict charge to tell only the truth”. He knew how to handle old Indian women. The ass was forever telling everyone he made contact with to only tell him the truth. He had a very low opinion of North Carolinians… but Virginians seemed to be somewhat satisfactory in his book.

Just for Sh*ts and Giggles, substitute “Republicans” for North Carolinians…

I really and seriously have to force myself to stay focused on who I am researching. This started out as a ANDERSON blog as the title suggests, but as you see, I am all over the place with my research. Below is an example… I have so many people in my head and so many brick walls and missing pieces that I will stop and fill in missing pieces in another person on my list… and my list is writ large. The result is that I have difficulties FINISHING with anyone. But then, that is the essence of genealogy I suppose.

But here is a side track… I will not explain where I am at… just give some info which some other researcher may find “golden”.

I was tracking a man by the name of Richard Malpath, Malpass… multiple spellings… and I ran across this family “Richard Parker”. I was impressed with the amount of correct research they had accomplished… my contribution is my “Nansemond” map which shows where they came from.

These folks moved from Nansemond, VA to around the Wiccacon Creek in the modern Hertford county, NC. To cut this Post short… see this link about the Parker folks…

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Parker-1561#_note-0

I could write about so many people from this image … Nansemond is a “burned” county.

Oops… I got sidetracked and forgot to put up the map….

Jonathan Swift had some fun with the first one… Google it for a laugh if you are not familiar with it (written in the 1700s).

The Democrats, in collusion with the Socialists in Washington, DC are hell bent on letting millions of illegal aliens enter our country and sign up for goodies like foodstamps (now debit cards), medical care, free public education, etc… The political goal is to create a voting bloc to bring in a one-party socialist government (see California).

Republicans, at least a few that care, are putting up a half-hearted “fuss”. I’m a little upset by the total lack of anyone doing a damn thing about it.

I propose an “Invading Barbarians at the Gate” tax. The tax is only on registered Democrats and the thoroughly confused Independants. If the Socialists are so proud and good-hearted as to allow a Cloward Piven inspired invasion of our country then they should damn well pay for it at the very least. I suggest $1,000 per month. A switch to the Republican party will nullify the tax.

A commenter just caused a pingback which got my attention…

The subject was a John Bays who the commenter claims is of Indian extraction… along with his purported son James Rutland. All this ruckus just so happens to coincide with me working exactly on that map…

I have no info on Mr Bays nor Mr Rutland… however, if you read my notes in the “blurb” next to Deep Creek, I did mention some history of just that spot where Bays and Rutland settled.

It seems Lewis Williams was pissed at the Indians along with Thomas Pollock and a Capt Downing found the Meherrin Indians “Troublesome”. They had to go…

The “Minutes of the NC Governors Council” in 1726 gives the account mentioned in my “blurb”. My observation is that the real problems started a bit earlier… certainly by 1700 but more likely the 1710ish era. There was an “understanding” between the colonists and the Indians prior to 1700 that the “settlers” would stay to the East side of Chowan River.

The so-called Tuscarora War was the result starting in 1711. The Indians held themselves “generally” in “check” until that time. They simply were pushed too far…

Leaving my historical account there and picking back up on Mr Bays and Mr Rutland… savvy Indians who did not particularly want to die or become a slave sold by South Carolina tribes would “assimilate” into the “white” world. It was quite common at the time. I am forever coming across them in my research. Interesting to me is that it was no big deal at the time… the situation seemed to be that if you could pull it off with hard work you were accepted by your neighbors. Half-breeds were quite common then… no insult intended… its just a fact. Cher getting a hit song out of it notwithstanding…

An anecdote to the above accounts…

This area is several miles south of the above account.

A favorite author of mine is Caiborne T. Smith, he wrote the below article in 1996:

Woodward, Thomas

by Claiborne T. Smith, Jr., 1996

1604–76

Thomas Woodward, surveyor general of the Albemarle, was born in England. Assay master of the Mint under Charles I, he was dismissed from this position on 23 Oct. 1649 by John Bradshaw, president of the Council of State, because of his loyalty to the Crown. Woodward went to Virginia, publicly declaring never to see England again until the return of Charles II to the throne. In November 1661, after the Restoration, John Woodward, a son of Thomas who seems to have remained in England, petitioned the king; reciting the loyalty of his father, he requested that the house and office of assay master be put in his possession until his father’s return or, if his father was dead, to have a grant of it himself. This request was granted, for when John Woodward died in 1665, King Charles II advised the warden of the Mint that the office of assay master was vacant by reason of the death of John Woodward and in the absence of Thomas Woodward, who, if alive, was at some plantation in Virginia. John Brattle was to exercise the office during Woodward’s absence. Thomas Woodward, however, never returned to England.

Assuming a prominent role in Virginia, he served as clerk of court of Isle of Wight County from 1656 to 1662. On 25 Sept. 1663 Sir William Berkeley, governor of Virginia and himself one of the recently appointed Proprietors of Carolina, issued twenty-nine grants in the Albemarle region. These were the first grants of land made in what is now North Carolina. Thomas Woodward was the surveyor appointed to lay off these grants, and of the twenty-nine, three were made to Woodward and members of his family. These tracts, representing over 5,000 acres, lay on the Pasquotank River and on the western side of the Chowan.

Thomas Woodward seems to have remained in the Albemarle section for several years. On 2 June 1665 he sent an interesting report to John Colleton, one of the Lords Proprietors, concerning the new colony and acknowledged his official appointment as surveyor. The report revealed him to be a man of education, as he referred to Bacon’s essay on plantations and quoted a proverb in Spanish. While in Carolina, he served as secretary for the colony and was a member of the governor’s Council. He and Governor William Drummond were commissioners to treat with Maryland and Virginia for a cessation of tobacco planting for the year 1667. This conference, called in response to a sharp drop in the price of tobacco, was held at Jamestown on 12 July 1666.

Woodward returned to Isle of Wight, Va., where he died. In his will, dated 5 Oct. 1677 and probated the same year, he mentioned his wife, his son Thomas, and his daughters Katherine, Elizabeth, Mary, Rachel, and Philarite. Provision was made for the children, if any, of his deceased son John in England. The inventory of his estate listed a parcel of books. The surname of his wife Katherine is unknown; her will was probated in Isle of Wight in 1684.

https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/woodward-thomas

The above Thomas Woodward would patent land which would eventually become known as Mount Pleasant on the western shore of the Chowan River. Woodward himself seems to have deserted the actual patent but it was picked up by Thomas Giles and eventually fell to Thomas Bray in 1714 or so. These accounts are not to be found in any North Carolina records but in Virginia patents.

Read the description to Woodward’s patent in 1667:

“1100 acs. Isle of Wight or Nansemond Co., 17 Apr. 1667, p. 45. Upon the black water or toward the head of Chawon or Chawonock Riv., includ. an old Indian feild called Mountsack.”

It doesn’t take much to read between the lines… the Virginians did not have a clue yet about that area of Carolina… they could not distinguish between the Blackwater River and the Chowan River. Hell, they had not figured out a border between Isle of Wight and Nansemond… they would not lay out a boundary between the colonies for another sixty one years.

Thomas Woodward must have had balls about the size of a full grown bull…(excuse my analogy ladies but you catch the drift). Surely the area was inhabited by Indians who more than likely wanted to trade. Be wary of Greeks bearing gifts

But more to the point of my actually making a point… this creates a new appreciation in my mind of when I now run across these numerous and sundry references scattered thru’ the records of “an old Indian field”. Mount Pleasant must have been something to behold in 1667… enough so that Woodward felt compelled to grab it for himself. He was ‘castletrash’ after all… those bastards could not help themselves… it was the zeitgeist of colonialism to just take it… overtures of buying it from the Indians notwithstanding.

For a flavor of the area (of Nansemond) from a modern Indian perspective… google “Indigenous Life on the Nansemond River” I like the visuals of the Indian settlements… seems pretty accurate to me.

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I am presently working on this map…

This is where the original 1100 acre deed of Thomas Woodward in 1663 had devolved to by 1715…

I read a humorous account by an attorney once where he exclaimed in effect “hell, do you want a title search back to the Indians”…

well, here it is.

I would post the map but I still have some others to track down and add…tedious but fascinating at the same time.

…as Rush Limbaugh used to say… I miss the guy…

Traci the Librarian and I have struggled, to say the least, to find Chowan DB B-1 in the Familysearch.org website.

For any of you brave enough to enter into the fray or ruckus… this may help with your sanity.

A clue to the psychology involved may be found at Image 279 of 627 in Deeds 1714-1735… where you will find a helpful hint by one archivist, I assume, by the name of James Sutten where he lets loose with some angst!.. and informs us that he “thinks” he is dealing with some “Letter_____ C” records.

Of course there is another added note, seemingly by another archivist, who just seems to ramble on a bit, obviously confused by the whole miserable quest. If any of you puzzle solvers want to tackle this garbled response..carry on… I just scratched my head. But be warned… this note may be a symptom of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Be careful in there!… smiling

an update… from PogMo

Wow!! the old boys were MIFFED when they used the term “Scallawag Times”… that is pre Civil War lingo right there for all to see.

See under Pages to the right…

Hat tip to Traci the Librarian… she tantalized my senses with a brand new account of a James Anderson I have not discovered. That got me going on the map… it seems that an Indian Interpreter by the name of William Charlton is involved.

This guy in 1697 or so was living near Edenton ‘Town’… I haven’t researched him to any satisfaction yet… he may have even had some dealings with the Hotshots down on Cape Fear River. Those guys were involved notoriously with wiping out the Tuascaroras in the ‘War’… see Pararamore’s account below.

But now to the fun part… most of my readers know I get a kick out of finding and mapping the Old Guys… Edward Moseley thought he was remarkable enough to be included on his 1733 Map…

…as usual click the filename below the map/ not the download for a better view…

I found an excellent account of the Tuscarora Indians by Thomas C. Parramore at this link… the research of Mr Parramore is Top Notch… a good read. See also his account of Tuscarora Jack… Mr Parramore could be very objective.

https://www.ncpedia.org/american-indians/tuscarora

The man Danced with Indians… well, actually I just made that up.

Anyway… if I can associate the mystery James Anderson with the above rouge, I shall Post it promptly. And, if you check my latest update, I have included Mr Charlton exactly where Mr Moseley said he was in 1733… all cozy with the Indians.

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Hmmm… when Mr Charlton was not cavorting with the Indians he did find amusements in other avenues… to wit:

Rumor has it that he thought about swearing a fifth time… but he said to hell with it and took another drink. We surely would praise him today for not lowering himself to that beastial and unspeakable level such as Jno Hassell who to his utter damnation… dishonoured Almighty God himself!

Happens to me all the time… you run down a rabbit hole and emerge to find yourself confused as to where you had started. In this case, I was researching some BRYANS of IOW and Nansemond. I was looking them up in an IOW Deed abstract book. I find a James Bryan (and I’m now beginning to realize he has a son named Thomas Bryan who is selling his land by a Power of Attorney… I “think” the old man has moved to NC around the Meherrin River.

So that is pretty much the background of what I was doing… so I reference the Richard Williams who is selling some land… the BRYANS are mentioned in the sale and then WHAMMO! there is a Philip Brantley mentioned! Brantley is MY line now that I have figured out I am a bastard of that line. So I track down the deed to figure out where and why… and what was going on…

All of this was “duplicate” work… I had been down that rabbit hole before…

I t just so happened that all these guys “just happened to be in Court that day”…. 28 Dec 1719. I can see Philip Brantley whisked over to a table and asked to “put your mark right here”. Brantley lived maybe ten miles south of there… but Court Day! was a big deal… it got them out and amongst friends, neighbors and likker.

That deed was a bear to unscramble… I’ve done it twice now.