Perry Family of Nansemond, Chowan & Bertie County, NC
Preliminary Report — Based on Research at andersonnc.com
Compiled by Scout | August 20, 2026 | For revision. (Scout is my Claude Agent)
Realize that an AI is writing the report (from my research true…) but be skeptical and point out any errors you may see…
only trust bots as far as you can throw them…listen to what I tell you, not what I do…smiling
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That is a bit of “background”…
perry-family-history-preliminary
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I am presently focused on some Perry folks who I ran across in Edgecombe County
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A rather innocent looking deed shows up in 1798 wherein William Saunders sells 168 acres to Josiah Perry. So naturally I want to know who said Perry was and what the hell he was doing in the neck of woods I was investigating… the Gall. That land was in the family until 1833 when a Jeremiah Perry of Sumner Tennessee sold it to Jesse C. Knight and added some acres. In the course of such events I have found myself repeatedly confounded by some of the most obnoxiously complex survey descriptions that you can imagine. But then the surveyors at the time seemed equally as confused as I am now… so I do get some satisfaction from that historical tidbit. Now it seems for true and for sure that you also will be confused… to wit:
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Sanders to Killebrew 1801
Note that somewhere in that “study” I make the point that that deed had to deal with CURTIS MILL POND… that is important. But after much more consternation I realized that Curtis Mill Branch was not where I was focused when I first ran across this Josiah Perry. No. I first ran across Perry when I was researching another mill branch called Killebrew Mill Branch which was also known as Dancy Mill Branch. And rest assured, the names can flip flop at any time. Also, to make matters worse, there were odd times when the said mill branch was called Griffis Mill Branch and Deloach Mill Branch. I found the deed where Perry got that land on Dancy/Killebrew Mill Branch here… (also note Wm Saunders turned into Solomon Saunders)…to wit:
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Sanders to Perry 1805 251
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Wait…Stop. Lets take a Sanity Break. Genealogy is finding some clues and trying to make some sense of them… which is what I just did with those deeds. But I was not getting answers. I did not know who these people were and what they meant to the story I am trying to unravel. With that in mind, I will share the Perry notes I have but here is a bit on the two Saunders brothers that I have uncovered… just to get some “bearings” of how they fit into this picture.
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Saunders Sol Estate 1773
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So here is what I found of William Saunders and Josiah Perry. William Saunders sold him a Mill “site”… whether or not a Mill was ever constructed I have not found out. Also, along with that tidbit of information, I found out that his brother, Solomon Saunders, had married the daughter of Joshua Killebrew (or maybe she was his sister). In any event, Solomon Saunders had gotten his hands on another Mill known as the Dancy/Killebrew Mill (known today as the Nobles Mill). So now you know as much as me.
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Saunders Wm to Perry 1798
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Afterthoughts…
My real purpose of this particular sidetrack of unintentional knowledge was to find out the details of two Grist Mills. The first, known today as Nobles Mill had so many names my head was spinning. The other is still a mystery to me but I think it was called Curtis Mill. I say that because of the surprising number of references I find to Curtis Mill “SWAMP”… which led me to think there, you know, may have been a mill.
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Sanders to Perry 1805 2 251