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Question

I am trying to find out if Wlliam Christmas and Lewis Yancey Christmas his son had a plantation. In Warren,North Carolina or surrounding area. Thanks!

Comments

Have you looked at land records?  William lived in Granville, Bute, and Warren Counties (all the same place, just kept getting subdivided) until 1787 when he moved to Franklin County and then to Tennessee.  His father John was a major landowner there, but moved to Orange in 1777. John's will is digitized at Wills (Orange County, North Carolina), 1782-1968 (familysearch.org) and he left land and some enslaved people to William. 

Answer 1

Hi Teresa,

Lewis Yancey Christmas (1792-1859) and his father, William Christmas (1766-1804), owned land cultivated as a plantation along the banks of Fishing Creek in Warren County, North Carolina. The plantation where Lewis and his immediate family lived was known as Melrose Plantation, located south of Warrenton along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Lewis, in his will, bequeathed the plantation to his cousin, William Duke Jones (son of Robert Jones and Ann Duke).

By the 1870s, Jones carved four 94-acre parcels out of Melrose to give to three of Lewis Yancey Christmas's formerly enslaved sons (Christopher Columbus Christmas, Erasmus Christmas, and Marcus George Christmas) and to Lewis's de facto widow (Keziah Christmas) to settle the lawsuit they had filed against Jones and Jones's son, Joseph Speed Jones. Joseph, executor of Lewis Yancey Christmas's estate, neglected to follow Lewis's instructions to emancipate ten members of the enslaved Christmas family, provide them with $10,000, and transport them to free states.

While Keziah, Christopher, Erasmus, and Marcus accepted tracts laid off from Melrose as a settlement, the other formerly enslaved descendants named as legatees in Lewis's will persisted with the lawsuit and achieved a favorable judgement from the North Carolina State Supreme Court.

William Duke Jones had to sell additional parcels from Melrose to pay Lewis's descendants. William Duke Jones's daughter, Bettie Ann Jones, lived at Melrose with her husband, William Smith Davis (who bought some of the property), and their progeny.

William Duke Jones's descendants still lived at Melrose when fire destroyed the main house on 9 August 1921.

Parts of Melrose now form the neighborhood known as Greenwood Village and include Greenwood Missionary Baptist Church. Lewis Yancey Christmas and his mother, the former Jane Yancey, are buried on the premises in a part of the property known as The William Christmas Cemetery. Many of Lewis's descendants are buried in the churchyard of Greenwood Missionary Baptist Church.

Details about the Christmas family's real estate holdings appear in the wills and estate papers of William Christmas, Jane Yancey, their children, Lewis, Thomas Henry, Sarah, Mary L., Jane Y., and William D. Deeds filed in Warren County also explain the location and eventual disposition of the property. Most of the relevant documents are digitized and accessible via FamilySearch.

Answer 2

William is my 2nd cousin 5x removed. He had 20 slaves in 1800 and Lewis had more later. So they must have qualified as plantation owners. But I have never heard of them having a named plantation.

Answer 3

Hi Teresa, the US Black Heritage project recommends creating a "Slaves of William Christmas, North Carolina" page and listing any and all slaves you find, named and unnamed. Then linking that page to his profile. Same for Lewis.  The important work that contributes to connecting descendants to their ancestors is creating the page above that can easily be searched. Create a separate page for Lewis' slaves. If you do find a plantation, please let us know as we will help walk you through the process. Thank you for asking and for contributing to the work!