Anne Nancy (White) Burrell (abt. 1768 - 1861)

Born about 1768 in Burke, Province of North Carolina

Ancestors

Wife of Joseph Carr — married 24 Feb 1794 in Atakapas Post, Spanish, Louisiana

Wife of George Burrell — married 1 Apr 1801 in St Martinville, St Martin, Louisiana Territory, USA

Descendants

Died Apr 1861 at about age 93 in Orange, Texas, United States

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Biography

Nancy was born about 1768. She passed away about 1834.

Anne "Nancy" White was born about 1770 in North Carolina to John White and Sarah Gambill, possibly in the course of their migration from Virginia to Louisiana.

Nancy White was married three times. Her first husband was David Harmon^[1] who may have not died, but rather deserted for Texas. (NOTE: Widow of David Harmon? He was in TX in 1829) ^{[citation needed]}

Children of the marriage:

1. John Harmon

Her second husband was Joseph Guillaume Car.^[2][3]

Her third husband was George Burrell.^[4]

She was the sister of James Taylor White, an early-day Chambers County cattle baron.

"Nancy White's three marriages.....link in kinship many of the old families of Jefferson, Chambers, Liberty, and Orange counties." ^{[citation needed]}

When Nancy White married Joseph Carr, she brought three children from her first marriage.

The following was translated from French and must be one of the earliest pre-nuptial agreements ever written. It is dated February 24, 1794 and concerns the marriage of Joseph Carr and Nancy White. :At the army post of Atakupas, on the twenty-fourth day of the month of February of the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety-four, before us Don Francisco Cajo y Luogo, lieutenant in the permanent regiment of Louisiana and civil and military commander of the said place, in the presence of two witnesses to help us in the absence of a notary public, there being none in this territory, have appeared on the one hand Mr. Joseph Carr, native of Jamaica, of age and legitimate son of Hugo Carr and Marguerite Halfas, and the widow Ann (Nancy) Wit (White), or age and legitimate daughter of Jean (John) Wit (White) and Sara (Sarah) Cambel, native of Carolina, thus authorized by consent of the said father, on the other hand. And the said parties, of their own free will and choice, and in the best possible form, also in presence of their witnesses, that in on the side of the bridegroom, Mr. Louis Dantilly Bertin and Antoine Martinez, and on the side of the bride, Mr. Guillaume White and Mr. Jesse White, her brothers, - also present and residing at this place; being intent on taking each other by law, by name and by the sacrament of marriage according to the Protestant rite, both contracting parties make the following solemn agreements and covenants.

The community property of the said husband and wife will be drawn up according to the law and customs of Spain ; even though this territory would change dominion or that the parties would go and reside in other lands with their customs.

The said husband and wife are not responsible for each other?s debts incurred before the marriage. If there are any, they will be settled by the one who will have contracted them and from his or her property.

In case of legal separation each party will take back that which he or she will have brought into the marriage. If there has been an increase it will be divided by common consent.

The said husband and wife take each other and their estate duties, real estate and personal estate, which are to befall them or to be forfeited by them. The husband with the property of one thousand (illegible) in bank notes which belong to him, according to the knowledge of his friends. As to the property of the said bride it consist in an amount of two hundred and seventy-five pintos and two great reals as her half of her community property with Mr. David Herman (Harman), her first husband, which is indicated in the deeds of apportionment dated the second day of the month of November of the year one thousand seven hundred ninety-two. And because of the good and sincere affection that said husband and wife have for each other, they decide and consent this day that incase of death without legitimate child of this marriage, the surviving one of the two and his heirs will possess in perpetuity the estate of the deceased, with the clause and condition that if the survivor marries again that agreement will be cancelled and that the estate of the deceased will go to the blood line after an inventory made by the authority of this army post who, without any opposition from anyone, will have the right to bring the estate of the first deceased back to the blood line, for the profit of his heirs, renouncing anything contrary to this disposition.

Written and agreed in the commander's residence, in good faith, with the consent of said parties, parents and friends, which parties and parents, having signed after us, here above mentioned commander, as also Mr. Ramon de Cordoval and Charles Potier, legal witnesses to this matrimonial contract.

Francisco Cajo y Luongo Joseph Carr.

Nancy White William White.

John White Ramon de Cordoval.

Louis Dantilly Bertin Antonio Martinez.

http:/www.lynnwright.comJamesMcLaughinFamily.htm^[5]

Marriage

1 APR 1801.

St. Martinville, St. Martin Parish, Louisiana. ^[6]

Notes

Note NI02169 White Ana of N. Carolina (Jean & Sara Gambie of Virginia) m David Armand of SM (SM Ch)

Car, Guillaume (Joseph of Jamaca (Hugo & Marguerite Halfan) m 24 Feb 1794 Ane Wit, a widow. Fr. Carolina (SM ct hse OA - 15-75)

White, Ana, wid of Carolina (Jean & Sara Gambel) m 24 Feb 1794 Joseph Car of Jamaica (SM Ct.Hse.: OA-15-75)

White, Ane a widow; from Carolina (Jean & Sara Gambel) m 24 Feb 1794 Joseph Car of Jamaica (SM Ct. Hse: OA-15-75)

(NOTE: Widow of David Harmon? He was in TX in 1829)

White, Ana of N Carolina (Jean & Sara Gambie of Virginia) m Joseph Car of Jamaica (SM Ch) White, Nancy, wid of Joseph Carr m George Burrell, In Succ. of Joseph Carr dated 16 Aug 1816 (SM Ct. Hse.: Succ #242)

White, Ana of N.Carolina (Jean & Sara Gambil of Virginia) m George Borel of England (SM Ch)

White, Anna, widow of Joseph Car; from North Carolina; a Catholic (John & Sarah Gambil) m 1 Apr 1801 Georges Borrel, English, born in Hardfordshire; an Anglican (Robert & Elizabeth Tompkins from Ireland) * not entered in SM registers (NI Ch.: OA-#8)

White, Anne of North Carolina, widow of Joseph Carr (John & Sara Gambil, natives of North Carolina) "Informacione de Solteria Producida" - (Marriage Investigation regarding the freedom to marry) dated 1 Apr 1801 George Borrel, Church of England, of Harfondchire, England and in this parish for 18 years (Robert & Elizabeth Tomkins native of Ireland and England) Signed: Frederic Tenholt, Louis Chemin, Peter O'Reilly, James Dunman. Fr. Michel Bernard Barriere (SM Ch: Marriage Investigation: Folio D, #33) ____________________ NANCY WHITE'S LEGACY LIVES by Gwendolyn Wingate, staff correspondent. (Top of page is cut off but believe it appeared in an Orange, TX newspaper. (Sent by Barbara Vernon)

Lusty, lovely Nancy White was four times married, and her offspring were among Texas' first settlers. Today's descendants may number in the thousands.

There is no known picture of the enigmatic Nancy, but even from the dry, precise legal documents that record her actions, she emerges full-bodied and alluring. Desiring and desirable, strong-willed and physically hardy, she steps out fs and takes possession of the imagination.

Nancy, or Ann, as her name is often recorded, was born to John White and Sarah Gambel a few years before the Am. Revolution. White is said to have descended from emigrants from the Isle of Wight on the southern coast of England. Thely records as householders in Virginia, but in the 1770's they were involved in the Regulator troubles in Burke Co., NC that preceded the revolution. Planters in the Carolina uplands rebelled against extortionate tax collectors of Gov. William Tyron, and two of the White brothers were beaten nearly to death during a riot. One was shot in the arm during the foray and lost the use of that arm, says an old court record. Six Regulators were hung and others killed by the governor's militia.

Nancy could barely have remembered these bloody troubles, but it may have been because of them that the Whites moved on for a brief stay in Mississippi and then in the 1780's to the Attakapas dist. of Louisiana. That district, then undas made up of scattered settlements of Arcadians who had been expelled from Nova Scotia; Spanish from the Canary Islands who settled near present day New Iberia; a few Indians, some of the Attakapas tribe from which the district took its name; and trappers, traders and ranchers, some from the United States.

Life was not easy in that pioneer land, Nancy's mother was a midwife assisting at the birthing of children. She bore nine of her own. John White was probably a farmer and cattleman, perhaps branding his own wild cattle of the coastal p,ts of stock introduced by the Avoyelles Indians trading with the Spanish in Mexico. John White registered brands for himself and his son William in 1790.

It was here in 1787 that the young Nancy fell in love with David Harmon and was married. The 1792 Spanish militia census for that post shows that Harmon, then 35, was a fusilier or infantryman. He was one of the few Americans listed amocadians and Europeans.

Nancy and David Harmon had three children, Ann, John and Sarah. Their youngest daughter was born in 1792, the same year St. Martin's Parish records list an inventory of David Harmon's estate after his death. Those precisely written documents voice neither joy nor pain, but Nancy must have remembered her first love throughout her long life. She named a later son David.

The young widow may have returned to her father's home with her children. She must have had some education, uncommon in that day for a woman, and she must have given her children some schooling, for both she and they signed their name onther than making a mark. In 1804 she or her father registered brands for her children at St. Martinville.

But by that time Nancy was no longer the widow Harmon. A marriage contract penned carefully in Spanish proclaims the union on Feb 24 1794, at the Attakapas Post of "the Widow Ane Wit, elder and ligitimate daughter of Jean Wit and Sara Ge of Carolina…and, Joseph Carr of Jamaica, elder and legitimate son of Hugo Carr and Mrs. Marguerite Halfair of Jamaica." Officiating officer was the post commandant, Francisco Cago y Luongo, and the bride's brothers, William and Jesse White were witnesses.

According to the contract the groom, who was probably of Scottish descent, brought to his marriage 1000 piastres (worth about each) in notes, belongings consisting of 275 piastres, and other property commensurate with Nancy's half ofy division from her marriage to Harmon.

Nancy bore a son, William, and a daughter, Lucy, to Joseph Carr. But perhaps it was too soon after the loss of her first love, or maybe Carr had an insatiable wanderlust. He disappeared from the scene, and subsequent documents never ry as the widow Carr. Stories passed down through the generation's hint that Carr was a freebooter and adventurer. A man by that name took part in the 1812 Gutierrez expedition that attempted to wrest Texas from Spain. The expedition failed and if indeed Carr was with them, there is no clue to what happened to him.

A few years later Nancy married George Burrell, or Borel as he sometimes appears. He and his family had been in the district as early as 1782 and were probably neighbors of the Whites. He and Maria Dunman were baptismal sponsors of Nancster Sarah in 1801.

Nancy's life with George Burrell may have lacked the ecstasy she knew with David Harman, but in maturity they must have brought warmth and understanding to the marriage that lasted nearly 20 years. She named her oldest son Robert, and the younger, David.

The children of Nancy White's three marriages would play an important part of the history of Jefferson, Orange and Chambers counties. In 1830 John Harmon veteran of the War of 1812 and son of her first love David, settled near Adams Bays now Orange. John's son David had come to Texas a year earlier, and Nancy's daughter Sarah, who married Absalom Gray came in 1833.

One of John Harmon's son Joshua, was the ancestor of the Harmon saddlemakers of Hankamer. His other children married Pevitos, Patillos, Blands, Coles and Means most of who were also early settlers.

William Carr was a part of Stephen F. Austin's third colony, claiming the William Carr League along Taylor's Bayou near LaBelle. He may have gotten additional land for furnishing horses to the TX. Revolutionists.

David Burrell settled near Taylors Bayou in 1828, claiming the league of land that bears his name. His nephew, George, his brother Robert's son, married Nancy French, daughter of John J. French of the trading post. Their son, J.J. Burred a cousin, Alzena Carr, daughter of Nancy White's son, William Carr.

Probably all of Nancy's brothers and sisters except Jesse also settled in Texas. Her brother, James Taylor White, was in Chambers Co. before the TX Revolution and it was at his ranch that the Turtle Bayou resolutions were drawn up, an earlytation of Texans and Mexicans. Nancy White Burrell herself claimed land in McLennan Co. which was later lost by her heirs in a lawsuit.

By 1824 when Nancy made a settlement with her dau. Sarah Harmon for her share of her father's estate, Nancy was again a widow. But her love life was not over. Opelousas marriage records reveal that on June 8 1828, she married Jacob Hamshire

Nancy was now past childbearing age, but Hamshire's descendants from an earlier marriage would also leave their mark on area history. His son John was one of High Island's early settlers and the town of Hamshire would take its name from the surname of his grandson, Lovan. An early Jefferson co. sheriff, David Garner married a Matilda Hamshire in 1839, who was a granddaughter of Jacob's.

Other descendants of Nancy's, to name a few, are Clubbs, Moors, Dugars (Dugats), Jetts, Abshiers, Walles, Norwoods, Harrises, Pruetts, Wilcoxes, Gatlins, Hayes, Aubeys, Hargraves, Wingates, Alexanders, Van Wormers, Hoffpauirs, Heimans, Bouseny others.

When did Nancy die? And where is she buried? Some say in a half-forgotten cemetry near Duncan Woods in Orange Co. No one knows for sure.

WHITE, Ane a widow; from Carolina (Jean & Sara GAMBEL) m. 24 Feb. 1794 Joseph CAR of Jamaica (SM Ct. Hse.: OA-15-75)

Sources

1. ↑ Donald J. Hébert, Southwest Louisiana Records, 1750-1900, compact disk #101 ("SWLR CD"), (Rayne, LA: Hébert Publications, 2001; reprints by Claitor's Publications); WHITE, Ana of N. Carolina (Jean & Sara Gambie of Virginia) m David Armand of SM (SM Ch)
2. ↑ "Louisiana Parish Marriages, 1837-1957," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QG1Y-8M1B : 4 April 2020), Joseph Car and Ann White, 24 Feb 1794; citing St. Martin, Louisiana, United States, various parish courthouses, Louisiana; FHL microfilm 1,310,799.
3. ↑

   Car, Guillaume (Joseph of Jamaca (Hugo & Marguerite Halfan) m 24 Feb 1794 Ane Wit, a widow. Fr. Carolina (SM ct hse OA - 15-75)

   WHITE, Ana, wid of Carolina (Jean & Sara Gambel) m 24 Feb 1794 Joseph Car of Jamaica (SM Ct.Hse.: OA-15-75)

   White, Ane a widow; from Carolina (Jean & Sara Gambel) m 24 Feb 1794 Joseph Car of Jamaica (SM Ct. Hse: OA-15-75)
4. ↑ Hebert, SWLR CD:

   WHITE, Ana of N.Carolina (Jean & Sara Gambil of Virginia) m. George Borel of England (SM Ch)

   WHITE, Anna, widow of Joseph Car; from North Carolina; a Catholic (John & Sarah Gambil) m 1 Apr 1801 Georges Borrel, English, born in Hardfordshire; an Anglican (Robert & Elizabeth Tompkins from Ireland) * not entered in SM registers (NI Ch.: OA-#8)

5. ↑ Source: #S449 Note: Southwest Louisiana Records
6. ↑ Source: #S507

• U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900
• http://genforum.genealogy.com/burrell/messages/1659.html
• "BEAUMONT A Pictorial History" by John H. Walker & Gwendolyn Wingate:. --

Comments by Norma (Aubey) Lewis

page 48 of "BEAUMONT a Pictorial History" by John H. Walker & Gwendolyn Wingate (Published in 1983).

• Source: S449 Southwest Louisiana Records

• Title: Southwest Louisiana Records, 1750-1900: compact disk #101; Author: Donald J. Hébert; Publication: Rayne, LA: Hébert Publications, 2001
• Public Records