Isham Peacock (1742 - aft. 1851)

Born 8 Oct 1742 in Johnston County, North Carolina

Ancestors

Husband of Martha (Easterling) Peacock — married about 1775 in Dobbs County, North Carolina

Descendants

Died after 8 Feb 1851 after age 108 in Ware, Pierce County, Georgia, United States

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Isham Peacock is Notable.

Isham Peacock was a centenarian, living to age 108.

Private Isham Peacock served with North Carolina Militia during the American Revolution.

Isham Peacock is a DAR Patriot Ancestor, A086856.

Biography

Isham Peacock was born in Johnston County, North Carolina on October 8, 1742, the son of Samuel and Tilsey Peacock. Part of Johnston County was carved out to form Dobbs County in 1758. Apparently the family lived in this section at the time of the split, and therefore Isham claimed Dobbs County as his county of birth as noted in his pension application, even though the county had not yet been formed at the time of his birth.

Samuel, Frank, and John Peacock were listed on the 1782 Dobbs County Tax List.^[1] It is not clear if this Samuel is Isham's father, but possible. However, Samuel either held lands in both Dobbs and Johnston as one contiguous section, or else he had separate lands in both counties. His own will in 1793 was filed in Johnston County.

Revolutionary War Service

Record: 1776, a Private under Capt. William Hoye and Lt. Col. David Love. 1780, a Private under Capt. Elias Pate and Col. Thomas Robeson, Jr. (Bladen County Regiment). Born on 10/8/1742 in Craven (what became Johnston then Dobbs) County, NC.^[2] Isham Peacock served as a soldier in the Revolution from North Carolina. He served four tours of duty of two months each.^[3]

As outlined in his pension application, he basically marched up and down the Carolinas for eight months, and saw no action. At the end of his service though, he was captured by local Tories, and all his military papers were taken from him. This band of Tories decided he would hang. However the captain of this crew discovered he was a Mason, and he allowed him to escape the noose.^[4]

He received a pension for his efforts until his death at the age of 108 in 1851.^[5]

Yes, Isham was one of those extraordinary individuals who lived well over 100 years of age. His birth date is not an error.

He received Land Grant #1 in Bryan County,Georgia 1805.^[6]

Georgia

Isham received no lands from his father in 1793. One way of interpreting this is that he was no longer in the area. He does not appear on the 1790 census as a head of household in any state.

Isham's first place of residence in Georgia was apparently Warren County where he was living 1794 in Capt. Hatcher's district, owning 200 acres of land on Joe's Creek (as shown by the 1794 tax-digest of Warren). He seems to have lived a short time in Effingham County, though just when cannot be determined now. By 1798 he had moved to Montgomery County, he appearing on the tax-digest there that year as a resident taxpayer; at that time he owned no land there but still owned 300 acres in Warren County. He was -cut out of Montgomery County into Tattnall County in its formation in 1800. In 1802 he was busy with his ministry and led Lott's Creek Primitive Baptist church in Bulloch County. He lived in Tattnall until about 1833-35 when, his wife having died, he went to Ware (now Pierce) County to make his home with his son John.^[7]

Isham also received lands in Bryan County in 1806, two hundred acres next to Samuel Peacock's land all other sides being vacant land.^[8] Isham was living in Tatnall County, or at least owned 200 acres of land there in 1820.^[9] He had four hundred acres by 1824.^[10]

Family

Isham and Martha had at least four children: Sarah B., John, Lewis, and Isham Samuel. There may have been others. Although details of his personal life are scant, there is a satisfying amount regarding his calling.

Ministry

Just where or when Elder Peacock was converted and united with the Baptist Church and when and where he was ordained to the ministry, is not known. The first known local church membership was Beard's Creek Baptist Church, Tattnall County (organized 1804). He was the second pastor of the church, serving 1819 to April, 1835, when he moved to Ware. The Minutes of Piedmont Baptist Association show he was pastor of Salem Church in Liberty Co., in 1815. When the Association was first organized in 1815 he was one of four or five Baptists who attended and took part in the organization. He was Moderator of the Association, 1819-1824, inclusive. He was the first pastor of Providence Church in Ware County, 1844 to 1845 when he moved to Florida. By the 1820s he had come to be known as "Father Peacock" among the people where he preached. In the division over missions in the Baptist ranks in the 1830s he seems to have adhered to the anti-mission group who in time called themselves Primitive Baptists.^[11]

Isham was famous throughout south Georgia and north Florida as a minister, and personally founded a great number of Primitive Baptist churches. Isham Peacock was one of the most influential early Baptists in Georgia, and certainly the most influential of the Primitive Baptists.

He joined Lott's Creek Primitive Baptist church in Bulloch County around 1802. He went on to establish at least the following Primitive Baptist churches:

Black Creek south of Savannah

Beard's Creek in what would become Tatnall County

Salem In what would become Tatnall County

High Bluff in present day Brantley County

Pigeon Creek This was the first Baptist church in Florida, near Boulogne.

Reverend Peacock was serving as the Piedmont Baptist Association in 1828, and active in affairs of the broader churches. He was described as "Old Father Peacock", and "a profoundly influential minister of the region.' ^[12]

As to Peacock’s theology, it was decidedly Calvinistic. Historian Michael Holt notes that he was quick to speak out against the proper “discipline” of the Baptist faith. “In 1830, he was able to get Beard’s Creek Church to adopt a resolution forbidding Missionary and temperance speakers from taking the pulpit there. However, they rescinded the resolution as soon as he moved to Pierce County.

Though he was alleged to be sober, he was known to demonstrate his aversion to temperance societies by carrying a cane full of whisky he used to refresh himself while preaching…The disgust Peacock showed toward organized attempts to regulate public morality was typical of frontier Baptists.”^[13]

In addition to these activities, Peacock founded the first Baptist church in present-day Florida in 1821 (Pigeon Creek Primitive Baptist Church near present-day Boulogne). For a brief time, it represented an extension of Baptist theology into a foreign territory, as this was still part of Spanish Florida at the time and therefore was technically against the laws of Spain regarding the establishment of non-Catholic churches.

" Peacock made a preaching tour into Florida when eighty years old and baptised converts in the woods ' south of the Altamaha' far from a church in his ninetieth year." ^[14]

He is found in the 1840 Ware County Census as being 90-100 years old. ^[15]

Elder Peacock’s last church was Providence Primitive Baptist in Ware County, where he was preaching at age 101; blindness ultimately ended his life of preaching and he moved to the Jacksonville area. On a trip to visit family members in Pierce County in 1851, at the age of 107, Peacock died and was buried at Shiloh.^[16][17]

Revolutionary War Service

Sources

1. ↑ https://www.ncgenweb.us/ncstate/historical/DobbsCo/files/tax-1782.htm#MP
2. ↑ #Lewis
3. ↑ (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QL6Y-N9L8 : 31 October 2017), Peacock, Jan 1778; citing Jan 1778, United States, citing NARA microfilm publication M246. Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Services, 1980. FHL microfilm 830,404.
4. ↑ Sons of American Revolution Membership Applications
5. ↑ "United States Revolutionary War Pension Payment Ledgers, 1818-1872," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q24Q-LRHB : accessed 9 February 2018), Isum Peacock, 04 Mar 1831; citing Georgia, United States, NARA microfilm publication T718 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1962), roll 8; FHL microfilm 1,319,388. "United States Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783," database with images, FamilySearch </li>
6. ↑ : 20 May 2014, Headright and bounty documents 1783-1909, Patillo, James-Peavy, Peter > image 351 of 602; State Archives, Morrow.Georgia, Headright and Bounty Land Records, 1783-1909," images, FamilySearch </li>
7. ↑ https://homepages.rootsweb.com/~scroots/sc10539.htm</li>
8. ↑ "Georgia, Headright and Bounty Land Records, 1783-1909", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:CB7B-2Q6Z : Fri Mar 08 04:51:36 UTC 2024), Entry for Samuel Peacock, 22 Jan 1806.</li>
9. ↑ "Georgia, Tax Digests, 1787-1900", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:68BS-622D : Sat Mar 09 02:36:44 UTC 2024), Entry for Isham Peacock, 1820.</li>
10. ↑ "Georgia, Headright and Bounty Land Records, 1783-1909", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:CTYV-XYT2 : Thu Mar 07 08:43:28 UTC 2024), Entry for Isham Peacock, 11 Dec 1824.</li>
11. ↑ https://homepages.rootsweb.com/~scroots/sc10539.htm</li>
12. ↑ Primitive Baptists of the Wiregrass South: 1815 to the Present Link</li>
13. ↑ Michael Holt, (Thesis) The “Gold Standard” of the Wiregrass Primitive Baptists of Georgia: A History of the Crawford Faction of the Alabaha River Primitive Baptist Association, 1842-2007,Michael Holt, (Thesis) Valdosta State University, 2009. </li>
14. ↑ Primitive Baptists of the Wiregrass South: 1815 to the Present p21 Link</li>
15. ↑ "United States Census, 1840," database with images, FamilySearch (Link: 24 August 2015), Isham Peacock, District 586, Ware, Georgia, United States; citing p. 138, NARA microfilm publication M704, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 52; FHL microfilm 7,048</li>
16. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #5028128 Retrieved Feb 8, 2018., Isham Peacock, Shiloh Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery Blackshear, Pierce County, Georgia</li>
17. ↑ "United States Census (Mortality Schedule), 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M3FJ-BP4 : 29 July 2017), Isham Peacock, Ware county, Ware, Georgia, United States; citing line 2, NARA microfilm publication T655 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 422,413.</li></ol>

• Revolutionary War Service Records, J.D. Lewis, for Isham Peacock