John Meredith Brown (1740 - 1832)

Born 1740 in Ulster, Ireland

Husband of Martha Eleanor (Fanning) Brown — married 1762 in Ireland

Descendants

Died 1832 at about age 92 in Franklin County, Georgia

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Biography

FSFTID LCP8-PGV.

Note: John Brown emigrated from Ireland to South Carolina in 1765, settling in Boonesborough, Belfast Township, South Carolina. 2 Another source suggests emigration occurred in 1763: 2 1763 The Falls departed Belfast, Ireland and arrived at Charleston, South Carolina. 2

• The information was provided at a Council meeting on January 13, 1764. Petitions from recent immigrant arrivals were presented at each meeting. It may be assumed, therefore, that the arrival was shortly before this date.

2 On the passenger list were John Browne and Martha Browne, part of a list of passengers described as "persons [who] were "poor Protestants & lately arrived" "from Ireland" (but does not state that all were Irish) and that they had not paid for their passages. It was ordered "that the Clerk do give their Certificates to Messrs Torrens(,) Greg & Pouag on behalf of the owners of the ship Falls in which ship they were transported" (as security for payment of the fares). "The acting Commissary attending was called in" and was told "that he should endeavor to get Masters for as many of those people as should want them and do everything in his power to prevent their being cheated or imposed upon.". 2 Primary Sources: Journal 30 of the South Carolina Council, pages 14-19, meeting of January 13, 1764. Public Records Office, C.O. 5/511, January 9, 1764. 2 Military Service. Served several tours as a revolutionary soldier from South Carolina. 2. 2 Deed Nov 1801 Franklin County, Georgia. Note: Page 24 - 25 Nov. 1801, ElIsha Dyar and his wife, Levina, of Franklln County, Georgia, to John Brown of Pendleton County, South Carolina for L 5 stg. for 150 acres on E side of the Savannah River. bd. on S. by John Simpson. on N. by William Gabriel Perkins. Signed Elisha Dyar, Levina Dyar. Wit: John Reid, William Reid. John Reid mode oath to John Verner, J.P. 5 Mar. 1802 Rec: 8 March 1802. 2 2 2 2 JOHN BROWN I, MEREDITH & PETER BROWN, & JOHN BROWN II. 2 By Tommy Hart Jones. 2 Some of the earliest settlers in the area which is now southwest DcKalb, southeast Fulton, and north Henry counties in the 1820s were the Browns—Meredith, Peter, and John Brown 11. 2 Meredith and Peter were brothers, sons of John and Martha Brown. The elder Brown, who for clarity is often referred to as John Brown I, had been born in Ireland in 1740. His wife, Martha, had been born in 1742 and they had been married in Ireland in 1762. The following year, they emigrated to the newly-established Belfast Township, SC, in what is now northwestern Edgefield Co. There, after the usual oaths of allegiance to their new country, they received a grant of one hundred acres in Boonesboro. Meredith was born there about 1764 and Peter in 1778. It is not known if there were any other children from this marriage. 2 Both John and his son Meredith were veterans of the Revolution, John having served terms in 1779-1781. Both men have been listed as “fortunate drawers” in several of the early GA land lotteries for veterans of the Revolution. 2 By 1786, John and Martha Brown and their two sons had apparently moved to Wilkes Co., GA., where Meredith married Mary Glover in 1787. Mary Glover, b. in 1770 in SC, was the daughter of John and Ellender Glover who had re­moved from Prince George’s Co., MD, into SC before the Revolution. In 1786, John Glover received a 600-acre land grant on Falling Creek in that part of Wilkes Co. that in 1790 became southwest Elbert Co. and brought his family from SC into GA. In 1788, John Brown II, the first of Meredith and Mary Brown’s four children, was born in Wilkes Co. 2 In 1790, John Brown I received a grant of land in Franklin Co. and, presumably, relocated there. In 1794 he purchased two hundred acres of land on Shoal Creek in that part of eastern Franklin Co. that, in 1853, became northern Hart Co. This purchase probably formed the core of the Brown homestead for the next thirty years. 2 Meanwhile, in 1791, John Glover deeded 200 acres of his original Elbert Co. land grant on Falling Ck. to his grandson John Brown II. The land was to be held in trust for the boy, then only about 3 years old, by his parents Meredith and Mary Glover Brown. Two years later, Meredith Brown was granted an additional 40 acres in Elbert Co. It is unclear exactly which of these parcels constituted Meredith Brown’s homestead during this period. 2 By 1794, John Glover appears to have sold most if not all of his Elbert Co. land, including his mill and plantation on Falling Creek. The date of his death is not known but presumably both he and wife Ellender died in Elbert Co. 2 In 1802, John Brown I deeded to his “well-beloved son Meredith” 88 acres of his 1794 Shoal Creek purchase in Franklin Co. and at least by that year Meredith and his family were living in Franklin Co. At the same time, the elder Brown also conveyed 150 acres to his younger son Peter, who appears to have relocated with his brother on at least two different occasions. 2 On Christmas Day, 1808, John Brown II m. Mary G. Stovall in Franklin Co. the daughter of George M. and Susannah Stovall, in. 10 Nov. 1790 in NC, Mary had been b. in Orange Co., NC, on 3 Feb. 1793. George Stovall, b. 20 July 1763 in NC, d. 30 Jan. 1847, Cass (now Bartow) Co., GA, was the great-grandson of Bartholomew Stovall, b. 24 Aug. 1665, in Albury, Co. Surry, England, d. 1721 in Henrico Co., VA, arid Ann Burton, b. 1667, Henrico Co., VA, d. after 1715, Henrico Co., VA. Ann Burton’s paternal grandfather was Thomas Burton I, who had emigrated to VA by 1636 and her maternal grandfather was William Hatcher, b. 1614, Careby, Lincolnshire, England, d. 1680, “Turkey Island,” Henrico Co., VA, who emigrated to Bermuda Hundred near Jamestown, VA, in 1635 and served several terms in the Virginia House of Burgesses between 1645 and 1660. 2 In 1809, John Brown I conveyed 90 acres of his Shoal Creek holdings in Franklin Co. to his grandson John Brown II and the following year gave his grandson Rigdon Brown right to sell another 220 acres. In 1812, Martha Brown died and was buried in Franklin Co. John Brown I lived another ten years, probably with one of his sons although that is not known for certain. He died in Franklin Co. in 1822. 2 On 10 Mar. 1822, Ellender, the seventh of John and Mary Stovall Brown’s twelve children and the future wife of John J. Hart, q.v., was b. in Franklin Co. The death of John Brown I, however, coincided with the opening of the new lands in DeKalb, Henry, and Fayette counties and his son Peter Brown relocated there almost immediately, followed by Meredith and John Brown II, probably in 1825. 2 Land records have not been located for Meredith Brown but he drew land in the 1827 lottery as a resident of DeKalb Co. and is known to have been living on the Fayetteville-Decatur Rd. where it crossed Entrenchment Creek in southeast DeKalb Co. in the late 1820s. Both he and his brother Peter as well as John Brown II are listed as residents of DeKalb Co. in 1830, although John Brown II actually lived in Henry Co., between present-day Conley and Mountain View in what is now northeast Clayton Co. 2 Three of John Brown II daughters married sons of Daniel Dodson of Jasper Co. Although some records have suggested that John Brown II moved to Jasper Co. prior to his move into Henry Co., it seems most likely that he moved directly to either Henry or DeKalb Co. and it was there that his daughters married into the Dodson family. 2 On 4 Jan. 1831, at the age of 43,John Brown II died. Six years later, in Feb. 1837, Meredith Brown died, followed by his wife Mary Glover Brown in 1841. All three are bur. at the old Elam Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery, in Forest Park. 2 Peter Brown, a farmer and a blacksmith, also oper­ated a saw mill on Entrenchment Creek, one of the first in the area. The father of five sons—Killis, Meredith, William T., Joel, and Edgefield, Peter Brown died in Jan. 1840. He was bur. in the family cent, located off Hutcheson Rd. at Poole Creek in what is now southeast Fulton Co. 2 Mary Stovall Brown, widow of John Brown ll, did not remarry and apparently spent the remainder of her life caring for her retarded (the census says “insane”) son Meredith (b. 1814). In l880sheand her son were living with her daughter Elizabeth Dodson in Clayton Co. On 26 May 1886, at the age of 93, Mary Stovall Brown died and was bur. beside her husband at Elam Church. 2 Issue of John Brown I and Martha _______. 2 (1) Meredith C. Brown, b. about 1764, Belfast Town­ship, SC; d. Feb. 1837, DcKalb Co., GA; m. 1787, Wilkes Co., GA, Mary Glover, b. 1770, SC, d. 1841, DeKalb Co., GA. (2) Peter Brown, b. 7 Oct. 1778, SC; d. 9 Jan. 1840, DeKalb Co., GA; m. ca. 1807, Franklin Co., GA, Sarah Scales, b. 12 May 1776, d. 30 Sept. 1839, DeKalb Co., GA. 2 Issue of Meredith Brown and Mary Glover: 2 (1) John Brown II, b. 27 Apr. 1788, Wilkes Co., GA; d. 4 Jan. 1831, Henry Co., GA; m. 25 Dec. 1808, Elbert Co. GA,. Mary G. Stovall, b. 3 Feb. 1793, Orange Co., NC; d. 26 May. 1886, Clayton Co., GA. 2 (2) Rigdon Brown. (3) Mary Brown. (4) Meredith Brown, Jr. 2 Issue of John Brown II and Mary C. Stovall: 2 (1) Jimmy Brown, b. 9 Dec. 1809. 2 (2) Elizabeth Brown, b. 13 July 1811, Franklin Co., GA; d. 1 Feb. 1891, Clayton Co., GA; m. 2 Nov. 1828, William Dodson, b. 1 Mar. 1808, Jasper Co., GA. 2 (3) Gideon Brown, b. 13 Marc. 1813, d. after 1860, DeKalb Co., GA. 2 (4) Meredith G. Brown [III?], b. 1 Dec. 1814, Franklin Co., GA. 2 (5) Susanna Brown, b. 16 Sept. 1816, Franklin Co., GA. 2 (6) Amey M. Brown, b. 29 Dec. 1818, Franklin Co., GA; d. 22,Nov. 1890, Clayton Co., GA; m. 2 Nov. 1832, Stephen Dodson, b. 28 Jan. 1813. 2 (7) Sarah Brown, b. 16 Sept. 1820, Franklin Co., GA. 2 (8) Ellender Brown, b. 3-10-1822, Franklin Co., GA; d. 8-18-1860?, Clayton Co., GA; m. 29 Jan. 1840, Campbell Co., GA, John J. Hart, q.v., 15 July 1816, Spartanburg Co., SC. 2 (9) Maryann Brown, b. 16 Jan. 1824. 2 (10) Martha S. Brown, b. 16 Jan. 1824. 2 (11) George Wilkins Brown, b. 27 Feb. 1826, Henry Co.?, GA. 2 (12) Catherine Brown, b. 29 Apr. 1828, Henry Co. 2 (13) John F. Brown, b. 23 Jan. 1831, Henry Co., GA. 2 2 References: Most documentation for the Browns is found in the DAR McCall Collections, vol. 22, pp. 43-65, 1944, which includes copy of John Brown II family Bible record, abstracts from many deeds for the Browns in Franklin (part in Hart after 1853), DeKalb and Henry counties and Glovers in Wilkes (part in Elbert after 1790) Co. Also McCall, vol. 86, pp. 160-168, 1950. Deed in Franklin Co., CA (Book TT, p.42,5 Nov. 1810) establishes relationship of John Brown, Sr. and Martha Brown and their grandson John Brown II, son of Meredith Brown and his wife Mary Glover. Also see Franklin Garrett’s Atlanta and Environs, vol. 1, pp. 57, 176-177, for notes on Peter and Meredith Brown. James T. McConnell has published most of the documentation on the StovallBrown connection. For Stovall/BurtonHatchcr documenta­tion, see Stovall Journal, vol. 8, #2, Summer 1986, pp. 49-57; for details of Mary Stovall’s ancestry, see Ancestors Unlimited Edition, vol. 13, #4, pp. 152-155. 2 2 2

Capt.

• Fact: AKA (1762) Ireland
• Fact: Burial (1832) Franklin, Heard, Georgia, United States

• Fact: Naturalization (1763) Immigration Belfast, County Down, Northern Ireland

• Fact: AKA (1762) Ireland
• Fact: Naturalization (1763) Immigration Belfast, County Down, Northern Ireland
• Fact: Burial (1832) Franklin, Heard, Georgia, United States

Sources

• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 13 March 2021, 22:08), entry for Captain John Meredith Brown (PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:LCP8-PGV ); contributed by various users.
• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 19 March 2014, 06:21), entry for John Meredith Brown(PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:LDQK-VSP); contributed by various users.
• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 07 October 2017, 20:46), entry for Captain John Meredith Brown(PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:LCP8-PGV); contributed by various users.