The Lost Colony Research Group

Genealogy ~ DNA ~ Archaeology

Newsletter

August 2011

History of NC

It's hard to imagine that we're working with records in our search for the Lost Colony that are some of the earliest records in the history of the State of North Carolina.  Actually, it was just "Carolina" then, North and South didn't happen until 1712, and it wasn't a state, because the Revolutionary war was still almost 100 years distant.   

Sometimes taking a look at a historical timeline, aside from being interesting, can lend perspective to what our ancestors were doing and what was going in around them.  Here's a brief history of North Carolina before the United States was formed.  

North Carolina Early History  

1. Jamestown landing was May 15, 1607
2. In 1629, a grant was made to Sir Robert Heath between the latitude south of 36 degrees and north of 31 degrees.
3. In 1648 Roger Green was granted 10,000 acres in 2 grants near the Chowan River which was to be divided among 100 settlers from Virginia.  At this time, the area was in the colony of Virginia.
4. In 1661, George Durant purchased a tract of land from Kilcocanen, chief of the Weapemeoc Indians between Perquimans River and Little River.  The area is still called Durant’s Neck.  This was prior to NC becoming the territory of Carolina in 1663.
5. In 1663 Charles II granted to the Lords Proprietors the territory of NC.  (Same bounds as the Heath grant.)
6. In 1665 a new charter extended NC north to 30 degrees.  At that time there were about 2000 people in Albemarle region.
7. In 1665 William Drummond of Virginia was appointed first governor of NC by the Lords Proprietors.
8. The first assembly met at Elizabeth City in May of 1665.
9. In 1676, Governor Jenkins jailed Thomas Miller, druggist.  Miller and Eastchurch went to England to obtain the removal of Jenkins as governor.  On the way back from England Miller and Eastchurch stopped over in the West Indies where Eastchurch met a woman and sent Miller back to Elizabeth City to take over as Governor until Eastchurch returned.  Miller took over and because he was also collecting customs, the inhabitants wanted to get rid of Miller who was appointed illegally by Eastchurch.  Miller was subsequently arrested by Durant who was his enemy.  Court was then held by 40 people and Miller was removed.  In 1669, Miller broke out of jail and sailed for England.
10.  Seth Sothel was appointed governor by the Proprietors, but he was captured by pirates.  Later he returned in 1683 to be governor.
11.  In 1690, John Gibbs proclaimed himself governor of Carolina.  It didn’t work.
12.  The early churches in NC were Anglican, Baptist and Quaker.
13.  About 1700, the first settlement occurred south of Old Albemarle County near Bath.
14.  In 1711, the Tuscarora killed many settlers in and around the Neuse River, the Trent River and the Pamlico River in Hyde County.  By 1713, the Indians had been defeated and many, but not all, left the area for New York.
15.  About 1715 Edward Drummond, otherwise known as BlackBeard (the pirate) changed his name to Edward Teach.  He was a friend of Governor Eden.
16.  About 1729, the remaining proprietors sold out to the Crown except for John Carteret who kept his share in the middle of North Carolina.  From this point on, North Carolina was known as a Royal Colony.
17.  In 1766, New Bern was made the capital of NC.  Until this time, there had been no official capital, although Bath was often used as such.
18.  The Revolutionary War occurs in 1775-1783.
19.  In 1789, North Carolina ratified the constitution and became the 12^th state to sign.

20.  In 1789, Raleigh became the state capital.

The Kinnekeet Bible  

Hubert Price was a genealogist and researcher who passed away some years ago.  His collective works have come to be known as the Kinnekeet Bible.  Not only did he document the early families, with sources, he also provided extracted data from early sources that he could not necessarily tie to the early families.  In some cases, he was able to make the link.

His notes are chock full of interesting information.

Old Albemarle Precinct was the first part of North Carolina settled by Europeans.  Aside from the Native people, who had always lived here, the first settlers arrived from Virginia and then slowly made their way down the coast.  Price extracted this data from microfilm and his notes say “deeds to or from in Pasquotank County 1700-1747.  Camden made from Pasquotank about 1870.”

Volume A 1700-1747

Page 72 1746 - Patrick Quidley

Page 74 1716 - William Gray

Page 149 1716 – Mary Scarborough

Page 225 1719 – John, Mary and Augustine Scarborough

Page 500 1727 – John Scarborough

Page 166 1716 – Matthew Midgett

Page 191 1718 – George Whidbey

Page 324 1720 – Christopher Williams

Page 488 1727 – Edward Williams

Page 408 1725 – Thomas Miller

Page 50 1752 – James Williams

Page 491 1758 – Joseph Williams

Page 35 no year – William Williams to Joseph Williams – NE side Pasquotank river near Sawyers Creek

Page 49 no year – James Williams to son and daughters

Page 235 1757 – Augustine Scarborough

Volume B 1759-1762

Page 46 1727 – Joseph Williams

Page 101 1750 – Augustine Scarborough

Page 120 1750 – Joseph Williams

Page 240 no year – Augustine Scarborough

Volume C 1750-1761

Page 420 no year – Joshua Gray

Volume D 1761-1764

Page 4 no year – Austin Scarborough

Page 298 no year – Joseph Williams

His further notes are:

Perquiman County

Mcrora (?) Scarborough

Abra Jennett

William Price

Pasquotank County

James Williams

Richard Gray

Robert Barnett

Currituck County

Mich. (Michael) Oneal

Thomas Oneal

John Neal

Zediah Farrow

Jacob Farrow

Evan Miller

Willis Miller

Just When I Thought I had the Answer….

Masque, Maskue, Askue, Massague, Massigay, Masagy, Maskie, Massechoes and Mashoes

Enlightenment is where you find it.  In this case, it was laying on the steps.  I was visiting the home of Dawn Taylor and her lovely father, and I asked to use the restroom.  They directed me to the facility, which was up the stairs on the second level.  They do what we do at home, anything needing to go upstairs get stacked on the steps at the bottom and the next person to go up takes it along.  On their steps was an October 1996 edition of the Tyrrell Times, the publication of the Tyrrell County Genealogical Society.  I was immediately interested, and they loaned me the journal for a few days.  I found a very interesting article, which proved very enlightening relative to one of our Hatteras early families as well.

I thought I had this particular family figured out…..just when you think you have the answer, a left hook arrives.

In our Hatteras neighborhood project, we’ve been reconstructing the various neighborhoods from Buxton through Frisco in an effort to pinpoint the Native villages and to better understand the family relationships.  Through the joint efforts of several researchers over the past couple of years, we’ve succeeded in reconstructing these neighborhoods.  One of our mystery families, who don’t live on the Outer Banks anymore is the Joseph Maskue family.  Joseph is first found on Hatteras Island in 1757 when he receives a land grant of 300 acres “on Hatteras Banks” on the sound side near John Neals.  This was then Currituck County, later Hyde, and now Dare.

In 1767, George Masque sells the entire 300 acres patented by Joseph Masque to Benjamin Price, and the Masque (Maskie, Maskue) family disappears from the records of Hatteras Island. 

The reason this family was of particular interest is because the Maskue land abuts the land grand of William Elks, the Hatteras Indian family as reflected in the 1771 sale of part of the William Elks land.

I thought I had this family further identified.  A 1713 court record shows a Thomas Askue estate that involved Henry Davis, Patrick McKuen, John McKuen and Francis Farrow, all Hatteras men.  Henry Davis patented the land adjacent to the land that Joseph Maskue would patent in 1757.  The McKuen family were neighbors as well, and Francis Farrow, while not an adjacent neighbor, was an early island pioneer as well. 

 Admittedly, there is more than 40 years between the estate of Thomas Askue and the land grant of Joseph Masque, but the nearly exact location, the neighbors and the similarity of surnames is very certainly suggestive of a connection, especially considering that in 1713, there were very, very few families living on the Outer Banks, probably less than ten, judging from the early land grants and tax records.  Land grants on Hatteras really didn’t begin until after the Tuscarora War was resolved and it ended in 1713.

In the Tyrrell Times, James L. Liverman, wrote an article about a pair of French brothers who settled in Albemarle County at the end of the 17^th century.  Unfortunately, he didn’t give specific dates, but I’ve extracted some of what he did say.

“A pair of Frenchmen came to live along the southern shore of the Albemarle Sound somewhere toward the end of the 17^th century.  Probably Huguenots strayed from one of the colonies to the south.  Stephen was 25 at his first mention in the colonial records and seems to have located permanently just across the estuary from the Sand Banks in a neighborhood later to become a part of Tyrrell County, then to be lost to Dare, while the apparently more ambitious Benjamin made a claim “about 4 or 5 miles below Scuppernong River”.  This family name was variously rendered as Massague, Massigay, Masagy and other misadventures.  One clerk wrote it as Massechoes coming pretty close to the place names of Mashoes Creek and Mashoes in today’s mainland Dare County.

Legend has it that a shipwrecked Frenchman came ashore near present time Manns Harbor when that area was still completely uninhabited.  With his wife and family lost at sea, the marooned man is said to have carved the entire account of his travail onto a cedar shingle before he died of abandonment and grief.

Benjamin yclept (sic) Massenque abandoned his homestead below the Scuppernong probably at the same time he married one of the two orphaned daughters of Thomas Waller.  He then embarked on a series of lawsuits against a prominent citizen of the Albemarle by which he eventually secured custody of the other orphaned daughter and the Waller estate entire.  He was dead within the year. 

There is nothing in the surviving records about an heir, but a Peter Museos turns up in the court minutes 16 years after Benjamin’s death.  Then the name disappears from the archives, except for one trace that remains.  On the left hand side when headed out of Columbia south of NC94, you will notice in the vicinity of Ryder’s Creek the last memorial, a green placard sign that says “Pity My Shoe Road”.”

Liverman also spells the name Micheaux.

The first names don’t match.  We find Thomas Askue on Hatteras Island in 1713 and the Albemarle names were Benjamin and Peter.  The later Hatteras first names in the mid-1700s were Joseph and George.  However, the similarity between the surnames can’t be arbitrarily dismissed without further investigation.  I’d certainly appreciate any information that anyone has about these or similar surnames in this region of eastern North Carolina.

Struck by Lightening

When reconstructing the Hatteras families from both genealogical and historic records, some truly remarkable historic tidbits are found.  Some of these aren’t really of any significance other than to the families involved and as sort of a general interest historic sort of way, but I find them fascinating regardless.  For example, did you know that lightening could strike you while you are in bed?

One of these records is about the family of Washington W. Scarborough, born in 1862, son of Ezekiel Scarborough and his wife Catherine, thought to be a Barnes who initially married a Price.  Washington married Bethany Miller who was born between 1852 and 1854, the daughter of Hezekiah Claughton Miller and Bethania “Bethany” Gray.  They probably married in late 1872 or early 1873, judging from the birth of their first child, Dorcas Rosa Scarborough in December 1873, according to both family records and the census.  Their second child, Ezekiel Littleton Scarborough was born in December 1876.

The family history of both the Scarborough and the Miller families records their deaths.  Both Washington and his wife, Bethany, were killed, in bed, by lightening, while the small child who slept between them survived.  According to the Miller family records, Bethany died about 1885.  The Scarborough records don’t give a death date.  In the 1880 census, Cilioven, also known as Salome, was just 3 months old at the time the census was taken.  If they died shortly thereafter, she would have been the child between them.  There is no record of a later child being born to this couple. 

If they died in 1885, it’s unlikely that they had no children between 1880 and 1885.  Of course, if they had additional children, they could have died, and even a child who survived the initial lightening strike could have succumbed later to their injuries.  Dates in genealogical records that only provide a year are often “about” dates from someone’s later recollection and are often incorrect, so they could have died between 1880 and 1885.

A sad tale indeed, but the kind of information important to genealogists.  Hatteras Island has the highest incidence of deaths from lightening strikes in the US.   

Notes on the Yuchi (Chiscas)  

Extracted from "The Melungeons" by Bonnie Ball

P 35 – Dr. John Swanton a recognized authority on the Creek Indians, has said that the earliest mention of the Yuchi (also called the Chisca) is found in early Spanish documents, “published and unpublished.” 

The Yuchi were visited by De Soto and other early explorers.  De Soto sent soldiers to the Chisca Province, which was evidently located in the rougher parts of what is now Tennessee.  According to Dr. Swanton, some of the Yuchi left the Appalachian Highlands because of the colonial wars and in 1656 a part of the tribe settled on the James River in Virginia.  They defeated the colonists in battles, but were not heard of afterwards. 

It appears that they separated into distinct groups.  One remained in the north (Tennessee); a second group settled not far from the Choctawhatchee River in western Florida; and others established themselves on or near the Savannah River in Georgia.  Dr. Swanton points out a reference to the “Uche” or “ Round Town People” in SC state archives.  He also mentions a legend found by Thomas Jeffery at some point on the Savannah River above Augusta, which read “Hughchees or Hogoloes Old Town deserted in 1715.”

Hughchees supposedly means “Yuchis”.

In about 1729 the Yuchi gathered in a settlement on the Chattahoochee River under the protection of the Creek confederacy.  In about 1791, William Bartram, a botanist, visited that area in search of botanical specimens.  He described the town as the largest, most compact and best situated Indian town he had ever seen. 

“The houses had wooden frames, lathed and plastered inside and out with a reddish, well-tempered clay, or mortar, that looked like red brick walls.  They were neatly covered with cypress bark and shingles.”

Whether this means they had earlier been influenced by the habits of European explorers is a matter for speculation.  A United States Commissioner to the Creeks saw something similar in 1785 and said: “These people are more civilized and orderly than their neighbors.  Their women are more chaste, and the men are better hunters.

They have lately begun to settle out in the villages, and are industrious compared with their neighbors.  The men help the women with their labors and are more constant in their attachment to the women than is usual.”

Timothy Barnard, a British subject and a “man of affairs”, married a Yuchi and acquired great influence in Indian affairs.  He as the first white settler in Macon, Georgia and died in 1820.  He had three sons by his Yuchi wife: Timpoochee, Michee and Cosena.  These children later played important roles in the government of the Creek Nation, after its removal to the Indian Territory.

P 36 - A great-grandson of Cosena Barnard was the Reverend Noah G. Gregory, who served as a representative from his native town to the Creek Nation, Indian Territory.  That the “Euchees” were essentially a distinct tribe from any others is indicated by their language, which has no resemblance to any tongue spoken on the continent, and by their customs and personal appearance.  They differed from other aboriginal tribes, for many of them had gray eyes and their complexion was several shades lighter than the full-blooded members of other nations.  The shape of their faces seemed to differ slightly too and the women, in many instances, were exceedingly beautiful.

Yuchis, like the Croatoans were friendly to the white man.  They even allied themselves with the US in 1814 against the Creeks. They were led by Timpoochee Barnard, the son of the British subject (actually a Scotchman).  Timpoochee also served in the Confederacy during the Civil War.

Yuchis were very superstitious.  As late as 1890 most of them believed implicitly in witchcraft.  They were once noted for pottery made by the women and for clay pipes  made by the men. Dr. Swanton believed they had a distinct culture that complemented their distinct language.

Some believe the Yuchi to be survivors of the friendly native Americans who greeted Columbus when he first landed in the New World.  They also believe Yuchis could have descended from the Lucayans, Indians thought to have fled to Andros Island a hundred miles off the Florida coast to escape the “fire stick” of Columbus.  In an ancient Spanish chronicle, the Lucayans of the Bahamas were called “Yucayas”, and the Indian name for the “Columbus Indians” was “Yuchi”.

Their later history is easier to reconstruct in later years.  A prominent members of the Yuchi in the Creek nation after their removal to the “Indian Territory” was Chief Samuel William Brown (1843-1935).  His son, Chief Samuel William Brown Jr. visited Georgia a short time before his death.  From his father’s vivid descriptions he was able to recognize various places.  He declared the Yuchi had inhabited Georgia for a thousand years and spoke of their having lived in an area of the coast now submerged.  Brown also knew of a tradition that the said Indians had come from the famous Easter Island.

The Kendall Ring  

In 1998, East Carolina University organized "The Croatoan Project", an archaeological investigation into the events at Roanoke. The excavation team sent to the island uncovered a 10 carat (42%) gold 16th century English signet ring, gun flints, and two 16th century copper farthings at the site of the ancient Croatoan capital, 50 miles (80 km) from the old Roanoke colony.  This is particularly important, because if able to identify the owner of the ring, the ring could show a connection between the colonists and the Native Americans on Hatteras Island.

It was subsequently reported that a researcher was able to trace the lion crest on the signet ring to the Kendall coat of arms, and concluded that the ring most likely belonged to one Master Kendall who is recorded as having lived in the Ralph Lane colony on Roanoke Island from 1585 to 1586.

We know from historical records that indeed there was contact between the Croatoan and the English, and that some of the 1585 military colonists were on Croatoan island, awaiting the arrival of a supply ship.  If indeed, the ring does belong, or did belong to Kendall, it only confirms what historical records have already told us.

However, if it could be proved that the ring belonged to a family of one of the Lost Colonists, it would bring us a step closer to perhaps revealing the fate of those colonists. 

Andy Powell undertook to substantiate the earlier researcher's findings, but was unable to find any connection between the Kendall family and a lion on a coat of arms or in any other record.

He feels that the two Kendall men are probably of the same family line.

Andy's research reveals that the name does originate from the town of Kendal in what is now the county of Cumbria as early as 1097.

It seems that around 1200 AD one of the family moved to Cornwall.  One has to wonder whether this was a family dispute as the two localities are about as far apart as one can get in England!

Today the Kendalls of Cumbria have died out but a Kendall has brought the old Cornish family seat at Pelyn near Lostwithiel and is in the process of restoring it.

The coat of arms for the Kendalls of Kendal was three eagles on a red background with a blue and yellow chevron; the motto was “Aquila Petit Solem” - The Eagle Seeks The Sun.

The coat of arms of the Cornish Kendalls of Pelyn remains three arched Dolphins with a chevron across the shield.

Andy is convinced that it is this Cornish Kendall family that is responsible for the Kendall of Raleigh's Military Colony of 1585-1586.  The father married Elizabeth Carew another great West country family and heavily linked to Raleigh and Grenville. The Kendall family stepchildren were Pierce’s, another name linked to the 1587 colony through Jane Pierce.

Andy further stated that the problem is that the emblem on the ring is not a coat of arms, it is what would be referred to as a Moniker and may have absolutely no bearing on anything to do with the owners family. A single lion could represent anything, it was a popular symbol then as it is now… the nearest heraldic emblem of any sort would be the Scottish Lion but he is rampant (upright) not encumbant.

So unfortunately, the Kendall Ring is likely not associated with the Kendall family, nor is it likely that we will be able to use the lion emblem to further identify the ring's former owner.

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