Andersons of Colonial N. Carolina

Stories focused on the Indian Trade during the early 1700s… much of my Blog is focused on these folks… these are real stories.

click the blue filename below the graphic for a better view…

I use these depositions when I map these people and try to dig up clues… many settled on the Chowan River. Many near the Morattock (Roanoke) River near Occoneechee Neck and elsewhere.

As an example, I’m looking to form something of a history (or a least a bit of a story) for a guy named Lawrence Mague. I am attempting to chronicle the Bryan family from IOW and Nansemond. A John Bryan married the daughter of Mague.

I mentioned a Major Thomas Milner in my early account of Bacons Rebellion and the raid on the Indegenes of Occoneechi Island in 1676. Mague was too young to have participated but the Coll. Thomas Millner in Nansemond he refers to in the deposition is likely the same guy that was there in 1676. So as you see, I can place Lawrence Mague in Nansemond about 1692 along the Boundary Line near Summerton in what would become Chowan Precinct as much as it would be referred to as Nansemond. In the 1690s there was a lot of Indian Trade going on in that area. Indeed, the Tuscarora Indians were numerous along with the Nottoway and lesser tribes scattered around including the Chowanocks. It seems to me Lawrence Mague was in the thick of things. I find it interesting that Mague also associated with some Traders from Occoneechee Neck around the Roanoke River (the Morattock River as it was known then)… those Traders were the notorious Arthur Kavenaugh and his step son Thomas Whitmel. As I’ve said, Mague’s daughter Alice married a son of Lewis Bryan and Thomas Whitmel married a daughter of Lewis Bryan… making them “kin” as it were. I do not know the circumstances but Mague “seems” to have been around the Occoneechee Neck Indian Traders in 1715.

1715   Arthur Kavanaugh, of Surry Co., Va., to Thomas Whitmell, of Surry Co., Va.; July 13, 1715. 600 acres on north side Morattuck River, known as Hull Hole, beginning on the low grounds of the river, as by patent to said Kavanaugh may more fully appear. Test, John Keeter, Lawrence Mague. (Bertie County.)

Same, to same. 600 acres land in Province of North Carolina; July 14, 1715. Test, John Keeter, Lawrence Mague.  (The North Carolina historical and genealogical register, Volume 1 By James Robert Bent Hathaway)

Noted in his Inventory of 1740 was: 5 pares of shoes… and true to form, a “shoemakers bench”. Also and of interest was “1 plantation on Chowan River”. It does not say which side of the River however… I have tracked him to both sides at different time. It seems his son in law John Bryan had removed to Craven County near New Bern (along with daughter Alice) before his death.

Of keen interest to me also was that the Edward Bryan his “loving friend” who acted as a co-Executor to his Will. It seems this Edward Bryan was a Mariner.

Since Thomas Whitmel was not only an Indian Trader but also became an Indian Agent it seems rather obvious that the Bryans and Whitmel “kinfolks” were involved in shipping “skins” up the Coast if not directly to England.