Andersons of Colonial N. Carolina

I cannot imagine writing a book about anyone I have chosen to research… as soon as it came off the presses I would begin x’ing out paragraphs and making changes. My glimpse of the Perry family is not even in a preliminary stage. And so it seems to be with everyone else I can “Google” up. They seem to be all over the place in the Nansemond/Chowan “precinct” areas. I have some “tentative” locations I will share. I have some associations with other folks I have researched that do not make sense in my mind, but there they are… and as such, they are clues. And I have found that clues lead to other clues and hopefully can produce “stories”.

I have found that when I begin to write, knowing that what I write will be open to being challenged, I am somewhat careful and more diligent, perhaps. I try to be as factual as I can… and I try to always give my sources. When I am theorizing and thinking out loud I say so. I am always looking for others to add to my collection of thoughts… that is the reason for this blog…to allow others to help my investigations.

I first ran across some Perrys with my research of John Browne “The Indian Trader” of Kingsale, Nansemond, VA. More specifically, his son Thomas Browne, who about 1700 owned some land in Nansemond and was associated with some ROGERS. That Thomas left a Will in 1718 witnessed by two PERRYS… which first piqued my curiosity. But they keep showing up in my other research. It is my opinion that witnesses to a will generally were “connected” in some fashion to the Testator.

Thomas Browne had a brother William who had a son Beale. William died about the same time as his brother Thomas… Beale Browne sold his father’s property to a man named Edward Howcott who sold the land to a John Perry in 1721. Perhaps it was simply a coincidence… perhaps not?

But as is my want… I began collecting random notes… thinking that it may lead to something. And so I find the PERRYs lingering in my mind…

The notes above were collected years ago in my John Browne research… as just curiosities…

I am presently researching the BRYAN family of Nansemond/Chowan “precinct” and up pops the PERRYs again:

And here I sit with a lot of curiosity and little to no history… who were these folks? I am still researching but thought I would throw them out for discussion to you guys… from the area above, it would appear the Maclands were in Nansemond in the early 1700s. I know nothing of this John Macland… and I suspect but cannot prove, that Macland may be a bastardization of McClendon (in its variations).