Thomas Ashcraft (1740 - 1825)

Born 1740 in New Kent, Virginia

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 28 Dec 1825 at about age 85 in Anson, North Carolina, USA

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Biography

JOHN and THOMAS ASHCRAFT

Virginia Origins

About the age of sixteen, John, along with his nineteen-year-old brother Thomas, was sent by his father, James, to Brunswick County, Virginia. Here John and Thomas were to clear 178 acres of land that their father had patented on May 12th, 1759. The property as described in the land deed was located at the fork of Cedar Creek. The deed also makes reference to Little Cedar Creek, Middle Cedar Creek and the adjoining acreage of Robert Moore. (John and Thomas’ sister, Elizabeth, married a Robert Moore.) In 1761, James patented another 186 acres on the Brunswick/Lunenburg County line. The Moore family, friends of the Ashcrafts, had previously moved from New Kent County to Brunswick County. They befriended John and Thomas, looked out for their well-being and taught them the trade of milling.

Following the death of their father, in 1766, John and Thomas continued to work the two parcels of land. However, in 1768, the government of Brunswick County began to seek proof of ownership. The brothers, having no deeds to the inherited property, chose Robert Moore as guardian to protect their interests. Moore, well established and respected in the Cedar Creek area, attested to Ashcraft ownership in a court case held the 26th of September 1768. Thus, without benefit of official documents, Thomas - being the older of the two brothers - was able to sell both parcels of land in August of 1770.

To North Carolina

By 1772, the John and Thomas had moved to North Carolina along with other families from Virginia. The brothers’ names appear that year on the September 19th Revolutionary War muster roll of Capt. Isaiah Hogan’s Militia, Chatham County. Both are listed on the Orange County tax records from 1779 through 1785. (In 1778, John lived near the Haw River on a parcel of land adjoining the properties of Robert Moore, James Roach, John Grisham and Henry O’Daniel, as is described in a land record for Robert Moore.)

In 1782, John received two hundred and six pounds currency from the Hillsborough district auditor’s office for a claim he presented to the state of North Carolina. Thomas was paid nine pence five shillings from the same office on June 10th, 1783. These payments were probably for supplies the Ashcrafts sold to the Patriot Militia during the American Revolution. The Hillsborough District was, at that time, in Chatham County, which lay adjacent to - and had been until 1771 a part of - Orange County. 1785 was the last year the Ashcraft brothers’ names appeared on the Orange County tax records. Thus, it’s assumed they had migrated south to Anson (now Union) County, North Carolina by 1786 where they each added a child to their families. John was married to Mary Brown, the daughter of John and Lucy Brown who had been friends of the Ashcraft family in Virginia. Thomas’ wife was Oholabamah; some descendants give her family name as Hightower.

John was a planter and lived on Lick Branch of Lane’s Creek as shown by land patent #1507. The land was slightly hilly and the soil extremely fertile. At that time, farming was the main industry with the major crop being cotton followed by corn, wheat and sweet potatoes. However, some researchers contend that John Ashcraft was also an Indian trader, learning from his father-in-law, trader John Brown. John’s first wife died about 1792 while they were living in Anson County. Having nine children ranging in age from two to twenty to care for, John soon married his second wife, Rebecca. Her maiden name is not known, although some descendants speculate it was “Scarborough”. In 1799, before the birth of their fourth child, the family loaded their belongings into wagons and moved to the Catawba Indian Lands in nearby York District, South Carolina.

Thomas built a gristmill on Lane’s Creek. Area farmers would bring their grain to be ground into flour and meal. In 2005, the heavy timbers from the mill were still embedded in the creek bottom and one of the grinding stones protruded from the bank.

Thomas and Oholabamah both died in Anson (present-day Union) County and were originally buried across Lane’s Creek from their home. In the early 1900s, descendants had their remains moved from the edge of a field to the cemetery of Bethel Baptist Church, just south of Marshville. The cemetery is within view of the original home site that the couple had settled almost a century and a half earlier.

- ~Sharon Spielman Ashcraft, 2006

^[1][2][3][4],^[5][6]and Federal Census Records.

Sources

1. ↑ Reference: Research of Mary Davis Elmore; Brunswick Co. VA 1720-1975 by Gay Neale, Pg. 36
2. ↑ ; Brunswick Co. VA Court Records 1768 and 1770;
3. ↑ Orange Co. NC Tax Records
4. ↑ , NC Archives; Land Patent Books
5. ↑ NC Archives; Revolutionary War Records, NC Archives
6. ↑ DAR Patriot Index, Vol. I, Pg. 77