Mary (Byrd) Bradford (abt. 1715 - abt. 1769)

Born about 1715 in Edgecombe, Edgecombe, North Carolina, British Colonial America

Wife of Philemon Bradford Sr. — married about 1729 in Granville, North Carolina, British Colonial America

Descendants

Died about 1769 at about age 54 in Granville, North Carolina, British Colonial America

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Patricia Stenbak [send private message] and Tracy McDonald [send private message]

Biography

Philemon Bradford was born in 1703 in Charles City County, Virginia, United States. He died on 25 August 1769 at the age of 66 in Granville County, North Carolina, United States. Parents: Richard Bradford and Anna Roles. Spouse: Mary Byrd. Mary Byrd and Philemon Bradford were married in 1729 in Caroline County, Virginia, United States. They lived in Granville County, North Carolina, United States in 1755. Children were: Elizabeth Bradford, Thomas Bradford, Philemon Bradford, Mary Bradford, G. Richard Bradford, John W. Bradford, David Bradford.

Notes

Philemon was fined five pounds for not attending church, early 1700's.

Notes

Don't think Thomas Byrd and Sarah are this Mary Byrd's parents. I haven't found any connections, sources, etc... Thomas and Sarah have a daughter named Mary Byrd Armstrong.

Behind the Name

Means "affectionate" in Greek, a derivative of f???µa (philema) "kiss". Philemon was the recipient of one of Paul's epistles in the New Testament.

III. Philemon and Mary

III. Philemon and Mary Philemon Bradford, named after a biblical character, was the youngest of Richard Bradford II’s three sons. Born in Virginia, that third generation colonist eventually moved to the young and growing colony of North Carolina, the home of Philemon’s family and descendants for at least the next hundred years. Philemon, like his father and grandfather, lived and died a royal subject. Philemon died six years before the American Revolution began.

Breakup of the Bradford Plantation Shortly after Richard II died in 1724, his sons sold their portions of the 1,197 acre Bradford plantation in Charles City County and moved on. Philemon, for example, sold 100 of those acres to Captain Samuel Harwood of Weyanoke on June 2, 1725. 151 Later, on May 28, 1726, Philemon sold (for thirty pounds) and deeded to a planter named James Bell of Prince George County, the final 370 of the 470 acres of land “bequeathed to him by will” adjoining the 100 acres he had previously sold to Harwood “being part of a greater tract purchased from Howell Pryse by Richard Bradford, dec’d, grandfather of said Philemon.” That land, which Philemon sold “with all houses” thereon, was described as being bounded by Queens Creek, Old Tree Run and Fishing Run. 152 Similarly, Philemon’s brother Thomas sold off his portion of the family’s estate. As a Charles City County record dated December 3, 1728, states, Thomas Bradford “of Westover Parish, Charles City County” deeded to William Riddlehurst of that same county for fifty pounds “the land with houses where said Bradford lives, which was given to him by his father Capt. Richard Bradford by his will, 200 acres.” That land is described as being “bounded by line between Thomas Bradford and Philemon Bradford. Finally, Philemon’s oldest brother, Richard III, who is described in the deed as being “of Westover Parish, Charles City County” deeded to Benjamin Harrison, who is described as living in that same county, for 200 pounds, “all land where said Bradford now lives, in Westover Parish, 200 acres; bounded by land formerly belonging to Richard Bradford (father of said Richard) and Fishing Run.” That deed is dated October 23, 1729. Harrison, thereafter, sold that land to Richard Lightfoot, Esq., for 500 pounds on June 12, 1730. Combined, the sale of the above portions of the family’s 1,197 acre plantation equal 870 acres. I am not sure what happened to the plantation’s other 327 acres. Perhaps five acres of it were the five acres which were included in the estate of George Hunt of Charles City County and on September 1, 1726, were described as having been purchased from “Captain Rich’d Bradford (dec’d).” That five acre lot was further described as having a grist and corn mill located on it. Regardless of exactly how it happened, the Bradford family estate was broken up shortly after Richard II’s death and the Bradfords began to drift away from the home of their forefathers. Thus began a wave of migration that even today sends the descendants of Richard I throughout the corners of the country he helped found.

The Bradford Plantation Today: The Belle Air Dispute Before moving on, I will briefly discuss what happened to the land that was once the Bradford plantation in Charles City County. Incidentally, I do not know what, if anything, was the name of the Bradford family’s once-bustling plantation. Many of those early plantations had names, some of which are still used (e.g., Westover, Shirley, Sherwood Forest, Carter’s Grove, etc.) Whatever it was called then, the most visible portion of the Bradford’s former plantation lands is now called “Belle Air Plantation.” The most recent published material that I have found about that plantation is in Bruce Roberts’s Plantation Homes of the James River. That book, as noted previously, describes that plantation and its manor house. That home, as Roberts notes, lies close to Charles City and just west of Sherwood Forest. In addition to the description of that manor house which I set forth in the first chapter, that book includes the following excerpts: Belle Air Plantation … is the site of one of the oldest existing dwellings in English America. The main part of the structure was probably built in 1650 by Thomas Stegge II …. Belle Air was abandoned in the early twentieth century, and it was not until the estate was purchased for its farmland in 1947 that the value of the house was recognized. In the 1950’s the new owners began the process of repairing and restoring the historic structure.

[P]urchased … in 1947 … the deserted frame house …[had an] eighteenth-century addition and three hundred years of repairs had given the exterior an early Georgian appearance, masking the original seventeenth-century features. Although previous research had failed to reveal any information about the home before 1800, the new owners undertook more extensive research and learned that the main part of the house dated to the middle 1600s. Judging from the overall quality of the construction, the ornamental carving on the framework, and the beautiful Jacobean staircase, architectural historians were able to determine that the home was built by one of the wealthier settlers of early Virginia. However, it is not known who built the original main portion of the manor, which has been added on to through the centuries. Two prosperous men owned the property in the last half of the 1600’s. In 1653, Colonel Thomas Stegge II inherited his father’s merchant business, ships, and the seventeen-hundred acre plantation on the James River … [on which Stegge] completed a home … by 1655. Lieutenant Daniel Clarke purchased the property in 1662, and documents dated 1665 refer to Clarke’s plantation home, which perhaps was the manor built by Stegge. Clarke’s descendants named the plantation Belle Air in the late eighteenth century. Hamlin Willcox purchased the plantation in 1800, and although the house was deserted in the 1920’s, Belle Air remained in the Willcox family until 1945. In the 1950’s the current owner, Mrs. Walter O. Major, and her late husband carefully repaired the plantation manor, which is one of the few surviving examples of the modest frame homes built during the first century of America’s history. [That] three-hundred year-old National and State Historic Landmark [and its] smokehouse, well house, old kitchen, and grounds [may be toured by appointment or] during Historic Garden Week. 159 Other researchers, moreover, dispute that the manor house on Belle Air was built as early as currently advertised. Hence, as you can see, there are a number of bona fide historical disputes surrounding Belle Air Plantation. I will parce through those disputes so that we can get to the truth. 158 In Sandlund I, however, researcher Peter Sandlund refutes the claim that the current “Belle Air Plantation” was ever owned by Daniel Clarke. Sandlund, instead, claims that Belle Air was owned and perhaps built by Richard Bradford I and, thereafter, remained in the Bradford family until 1729. Sandlund asserts that the manor house on Belle Air was on the portion of the Bradford’s estate that Richard Bradford III sold to Benjamin Harrison in 1729.

Resolving the Belle Air Disputes To resolve the disputes surrounding Belle Air Plantation, two questions must be answered: (1) who owned that plantation’s lands in the 17th and early 18th Centuries; and (2) when, and by whom, was that plantation’s manor house built. I think I can answer both of those questions. Answering the first question was not so easy. But, in a nutshell, Sandlund is right: the lands underlying the current Belle Air Plantation was owned by the Bradfords, not the Clarke family. The Bradfords lived there between the 1650s and the late 1720s. Confusion as to the land’s ownership, however, is understandable since many of Charles City County’s courthouse records were destroyed in the Civil War. A complete title search, therefore, is impossible. But there is a key to the answer to the dispute: the original descriptions of the Clarke and Bradford plantations. The Bradfords’ 1,197 acre plantation lands, which Richard Bradford I acquired from Howell Pryce in deeds dated 1657 and 1662 and which stayed intact in the family’s hands until the late 1720s, were consistently described as the land lying “at the head of Queen’s Creek between the Fishing Run and Old Tree Run.” The secret to finding the difference between the Bradford and the Clarke lands, therefore is as simple (or as difficult) as locating the landmarks bordering those lands: Queens Creek, Fishing Run, Old Tree Run and Seller Run. Of those landmarks, only Queens Creek has retained its name since the 17th Century. That waterway, which feeds into the James River at a point less than a mile from the Charles City County Courthouse, runs for a short distance before branching off to form Parrish Hill Creek and Glebe Creek. Those latter two waterways thereafter run towards the northeast, about a mile apart from each other, in the general direction of Ruthville, with Glebe Creek to the west of Parrish Hill Creek. Less than a mile upstream from where Glebe Creek empties into Queens Creek, Glebe Creek meets with Courthouse Creek very close to, unsurprisingly, the Charles City County Courthouse. Finding which of the above waterways are the renamed waterways of the earlier records was not a simple task. Sandlund I, however, provides the answer. Sandlund consulted with historians at William & Mary University to compile a gazetteer of Charles City County waterways. According to that gazetteer, Old Tree Run (also sometimes called Pease Hill Run) is now called Parrish Hill Creek, Fishing Run is now called Glebe Creek, Seller Run (also sometimes called Cedar Run) is now the Courthouse Creek and Old Mans Creek is now called Gunns Run. Having identified the Belle Air Plantation’s lands as the Bradfords’ leaves one question: did the Bradford family build and live in that plantation’s still-standing manor house? Indeed, that manor house is located precisely where you would expect to find the Bradfords’ manor house: just off the then-main road (the John Tyler Highway) and smack-dab in the middle of the land between Fishing Run and Old Tree Run. Hence, if that building dates back to the mid 1650s, as advertised, then it must have been the home of the Bradfords who lived on that land from 1657 through the 1720s. Indeed, the description of that home’s ornate carvings and crafted woodwork is exactly what you would expect from Richard Bradford I, “joyner.” Nevertheless, as much as I wish that I could say that Richard I built that home and that his family lived there, I cannot. Although a historian from Colonial Williamsburg did opine nearly fifty years ago that he believed the manor house on “Belle Air” to date back to the 17th Century, more recent historians have used modern methods to place that house’s construction to the 18th Century and no earlier than the late 1720s. Hence, although on former Bradford lands, that home was apparently built after they moved — perhaps, like in many other instances, on the same site as the former owner’s home. Foremost and first of the historians to conclude that Belle Air was no older than the 18th Century was Cary Carson who, in a 1969 thesis entitled Settlement Patterns and Vernacular Architecture in Seventeenth Century Tidewater Virginia, carefully explained his conclusions. One final note: I think that the initial confusion about the land’s ownership is understandable. Many of Charles City County’s land records were destroyed in the Civil War and a portion of those records that described the Bradford family’s purchases and sales of those lands was not returned to Virginia until 1975, after, as mentioned previously, the descendant of a Union soldier found it in an attic in Oregon. Now that those records have come to light, however, further confusion is not so easily understood. Indeed, any future representations that the current Belle Air Plantation was owned by Clarke, not Richard I, seem to smack less and less of innocent confusion and more and more of the knowing promotion of revisionist history. The ancestors of Richard I, however, should act to correct any further misapprehensions about that plantation. We owe that to Richard I. We owe that to ourselves. All disputes aside, the Belle Air Plantation, is worth seeing. That plantation, which lies just off Route 5 and east of Charles City, is open to the public each spring during Virginia’s Historic Garden Week and at other times for group tours by appointment (although they may not be able to fit you in if you announce in advance that you are a descendant of Richard Bradford’s who is looking to set the record straight).

The Remainder of the Bradford Lands: The Glebe Regardless of its name, the Bradford lands continued to trade hands after the plantation’s break-up in 1724. For example, on June 12, 1730, Benjamin Harrison and his wife Ann sold to Richard Lightfoot, Esquire, the portion of the Bradford plantation that Harrison had bought from Richard III less than a year before. 167 William Riddlehurst, the tailor (spelled “taylor”) who bought 200 of the plantation’s acres from Thomas Bradford, sold one half of that tract to James Bell “Gentleman” on April 28, 1730. 168 In the late 1700s, that land, which adjoined Fishing Run, was further deeded to the Munford family and later, at the turn of the century, to the Mountcastle family. Eventually, the 370 acres that Philemon sold to James Bell in 1726 apparently became known as the Glebe. The Glebe still exists. In early colonial days, the British Crown ordered that the colonies provide suitable quarters for the ministers of the Anglican Church. The portion of the land that was provided to each minister for that purpose was called a “glebe.” In Charles City County, there was no glebe prior to 1732 when a committee of Charles City County leaders (Colonel William Byrd II, John Stith, Samuel Harwood and John Carter) bought from Phillip Lightfoot the 370 acres of the Bradford plantation that was sold by Philemon Bradford to James Bell in 1726. Thereafter, the Glebe remained a rectory for nearly one hundred years. Upon the death of Reverend Seawell Chap, the last minister to occupy the house erected there, the Glebe was sold to Mr. Patrick Herndon who renamed it Cromwell Grove. The tract of land that Philemon parted with in 1726 remained a 370 acre tract for nearly 200 years until 1907 when it was sold to E.G. Wooten as a 352 acre tract. It was sometime between 1916 and 1934 that the Glebe was further reduced to ninety-seven acres. In 1957, the Glebe was owned by Mrs. John Ruffin. Today, the Glebe is located on a road named simply “Glebe Road” which runs from present Route 60 to the Charles City County courthouse, just off of Route 5 (which is better known as the John Tyler Highway). The Glebe is near Providence Forge and is not far from the town of Ruthville. In conducting a vexing — and probably record-breaking — title search of the Bradford plantation, I came across a map of the Glebe, then 352 acres large, made for then-owner Mrs. M.E. Bell in about 1900. From that map one can see that the Glebe land was bounded on the west by the Fishing Run, one of the boundaries consistently noted in records describing the Bradford plantation. That waterway, as noted earlier, and no doubt because of it close proximity to the Glebe, was eventually renamed Glebe Creek. Near the back of the house now on the Glebe (which, by the way, is one of the very oldest houses in Virginia) was the location of a tulip poplar which reportedly measured an incredible fifty-seven feet in circumference. By some reports, that tree was once the oldest tree east of the Rockies. Indeed, while I have been unable to find any waterway still called “Old Tree Run,” the name of one of the waterways bordering the Bradford plantation, on maps of present-day Charles City County, I would wager that, though since renamed, that waterway was originally named after the old, huge tulip poplar tree that once rose up from the Bradford estate and towered over colonial Virginia. Two newspaper excerpts about that tree are of interest. The first, reportedly printed in Cally Ryland’s “By the Way” column of the Richmond News Leader said: How many people in Virginia know that on the Glebe farm in Charles City County there is a tulip poplar tree which measures thirty feet in circumference — or but little less than some of the far-famed redwood trees of California? Lightening has struck this tree three times within the past score of years, yet so colossal is it and such firm hold have it roots taken in the ground that it has defied even the elements and stands, as it no doubt stood before the early colonists came to Virginia, strong in its pride and its dignity. While that undated article, printed some time before 1936, told of the majesty of that great tree, once a silent symbol of the Bradford’s claim to Charles City County land, another article tells of that great tree’s fall. Miss Emily Blayton, the niece and neighbor of then-Glebe owner Mr. Bradley McKenney, wrote: Mother Nature sometimes feels called upon to remind her children that they are but transients upon the earth, and that all things must eventually pass away. This fact was symbolized early yesterday morning at the ‘Glebe’ home of Mr. Bradley McKenney in Charles City County, when the majestic old poplar tree, the largest one in the East, seemed suddenly to disintegrate, and so great a portion of it crumpled to the ground that workmen had to clear away seventeen wagon loads of debris. For over two hundred years the old tree, which measured fifty-seven feet in circumference a foot above ground level, has stood guard over the red brick colonial house. It was, perhaps, but a sapling when the land about it was granted by the Crown, and bricks were made to build a “glebe” or rectory for the rector of Westover Parish. As the tree grew and developed it saw many changes come about. The “Glebe” was no longer the home of the ministers — wealthy planters bought and sold it, their wives gave gay parties; [slave children] played in the shade with their little masters and mistresses; happy brides came down the steps to join their waiting grooms; illness, death, and wars brought their gloom, but the poplar still serenely reached upward, and its leaves sang soft lullabies to the bees and birds. In more recent years, tourists have come to view the monarch, and listen to the quaint legends that have grown up with the ivy that twines about its trunk. It seems strange, yet somehow fitting, that after weathering so many storms, winds and changes, the old tree should have chosen to fall in the quiet of early dawn when not a leaf was stirring. Was not nature adding to her stern reminder a touch of comfort by suggesting that even in death there may be dignity and serenity? 172 Alas, all traces of that ancient tree are now gone. 171 The reader does not need my assistance to conjure up the many analogies and thoughts that spring from hearing of that old tree. The old tree’s stump reportedly still leafed each spring as recently as 1957 — twenty years after it came crashing to the ground. Also of interest, a man plowing the Glebe in the early 1900s unearthed a sundial engraved with the date 1630. The ploughman gave it to then-Glebe owner Bradley McKenney who cleaned it up and kept it on display at the glebe. A subsequent owner of the Glebe, however, took that ancient relic with them when they moved from the Glebe. One author pondered whether that sundial was there during the Glebe’s heyday. My curiosity, however, extends back even further. I wonder if the Bradford family once owned, and eventually abandoned, the blackened brass sundial that was unearthed on a portion of their former plantation lands two hundred years after they moved on. I also wonder what other treasures are buried there.

The Harrisons A final point of interest, before we return to Philemon and his brothers, is a discussion of Benjamin Harrison IV, who bought 200 acres of the Bradford plantation from Richard Bradford III in 1729. Harrison, a wealthy and influential member of the colony, had just married Anne Carter, daughter of “King” Carter, when he bought the Bradford lands. Three years before, in 1726, Harrison began to build a brick home, near the James River, which came to be called “Berkeley.” Harrison’s father, Benjamin Harrison III, had acquired that land from the estate of Giles Bland who was hanged by Governor William Berkeley in 1676 for participating in Bacon’s Rebellion (it was, by the way, Benjamin Harrison III who, along with William Byrd II, ruled upon Sylvanus Stokes’s complaint against Richard Bradford II in 1703). Benjamin Harrison IV, who was killed by a bolt of lightning in 1744, was buried on the grounds of the old Westover Church. His tomb can still be seen there. As explained earlier, I believe that Richard I and/or Richard II, their grave markers long gone, may be buried there also. Benjamin Harrison IV’s son, Benjamin V, served as a member of the Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence. That Harrison’s son, Benjamin VI, inherited Berkeley, but it was Benjamin V’s third son, William Henry Harrison, who became the ninth President of the United States. Notably, that President Harrison’s Vice President, John Tyler (who became President when Harrison died in office), was also from Charles City County — making Charles City County the only county in America to be the birthplace of both the sitting President and Vice President. But that was not the last of the Harrisons. President William Henry Harrison’s grandson, Benjamin Harrison of Ohio, became the twenty-third President of the United States. The second President Harrison is said to have visited Berkeley often during his presidency and, reportedly, each of the Presidents from Washington through Buchanan were entertained at Berkeley. Berkeley saw a lot of action. Besides presidential visits, it was plundered by the British and used as a camp for Benedict Arnold in the Revolutionary War and, similarly, it was used as a camp by General McClellan who seized it during the Civil War. The Harrisons sold Berkeley shortly before the Civil War and, like Richard Bradford I’s descendants before them, moved from their ancestral Charles City County home.

Charles City County Today Anyone who wants to see the site of the original Bradford lands can visit Charles City County and get the flavor of what life was like for those early pioneers. The vicinity is still largely rural and there is no downtown area. The town’s name is misleading since Charles City was never really a “city.” Indeed, according to U.S. Census figures there were only handful of people living in Charles City in 1990, with only 6,282 living in Charles City County as a whole. The land surrounding the old Bradford plantation is largely either large, flat, beautifully tailored farmland or dense woods. The small courthouse — one of the country’s oldest (it was built in 1730) and the location of many of the records mentioned herein — lies just off the John Tyler Highway, not far from the James River. The John Tyler Highway, a picturesque tree-lined road, named after the United States President who was born and lived much of his life along it, is one of our country’s oldest. That historic road, once an Indian trail, runs the fifty miles from colonial Williamsburg to Richmond. It also passes through nearby Jamestown. Along that road, which once passed through the Bradford plantation, one can still see what must be the greatest concentration of plantations surviving our country’s early history. Among the plantations along that road are Sherwood Forest (so named by President Tyler after Henry Clay called him Robin Hood and now run by President Tyler’s family); Shirley (where the Carter family still lives); Westover (the old Byrd estate); Evelynton (named after Evelyn Byrd); Berkeley (the Harrison family’s plantation); and, of course, Belle Air Plantation. Many of those homes can be visited for a small fee. Some of the plantations even run bed and breakfasts for those who would like to sleep in one of those ancestral homes. Indeed, since there are no hotels there, overnight guests have little choice. Other interesting sights along that scenic route include the new Westover Church, described earlier in this book, the Charles City County courthouse and Greenway farm, birthplace of President John Tyler. Those who cannot travel to Charles City County can see pictures of its colonial homes in books including Virginia Plantation Homes, Plantation Homes of the James River and Old Virginia Homes Along the James. One cannot drive down the John Tyler Highway without drifting back through history. It was that road that Richard I and his family so often covered on horseback or carriage to travel to church or visit others; that Richard II used so often in carrying out his duties as an officer and a sheriff; that Nathaniel Bacon and his men used to storm into Jamestown and then out to meet the Indians; and, eventually, that Philemon and his brothers used to leave Charles City County for good.

Brother Richard (III) Moves to Caroline County As previously noted, Philemon’s oldest brother, Richard Bradford III, apparently moved away from the Bradford family plantation shortly after his father’s death. Richard III, moreover, was apparently married by October 1729, since the sale of his portion of the Bradford plantation indicates that, as a part of that sale, his wife “Rachel” released her dower rights thereto. I do not know Rachel’s maiden name. After selling his portion of the family’s Charles City County land to Benjamin Harrison in 1729, Richard III and his wife Rachel moved to Caroline County, Virginia, where they lived in that county’s Drysdale (later St. Asaph’s) Parish. Notably, Caroline County was formed in 1727 from the western portion of King and Queen County where, as you may recall, Richard Bradford II owned some land as early as 1699 (and apparently still owned at his death since the administration of his estate mentions amounts paid to John Holcomb, the sheriff of King and Queen County). Perhaps it was to Richard II’s King and Queen County land that Richard III moved in 1729. After moving to Caroline County, Richard III spent most, if not all, of his life there (since court records from that county mention him as early as 1732 and as late as 1755). Richard’s will, dated October 28, 1756, was probated in North Carolina’s Granville County Court in January 1757. That record would seem to suggest that, just before his death, Richard III moved to live near his brother Philemon who was already living in Granville County. At least one researcher, however, has suggested that Richard III died in Caroline County and that the will in Granville County is a duplicate of one filed and/or probated in Caroline County, Virginia.

Brother Thomas Moves To North Carolina After he sold his portion of the family’s plantation in December of 1728, Philemon’s brother Thomas Bradford, like many other Virginians of his day, moved to the new colony of North Carolina. That move was reportedly made in 1729. Thomas married Elizabeth Smith of Surry County, Virginia, apparently prior to moving to what was then known as Bertie Precinct (later known as Northampton County), North Carolina. The earliest record of Thomas Bradford in North Carolina is a record from Edgecombe County, dated April 5, 1732, which reflects Thomas and Elizabeth’s sale of 180 acres on the south side of Moratuck (later Roanoke) River for ten pounds. There were only three counties in North Carolina at the time, with each subdivision of those counties called a “precinct.” Each precinct eventually became a county. In 1739, Thomas’s wife Elizabeth and her sister Mary (who had married Samuel Norwood) “of the colony of Carolina” (it was not yet divided into North and South Carolina) sold, for four pounds and six shillings, the one hundred acres in Surry County, Virginia that they had inherited as co-heirs of their father Robert Smith’s estate. (Interestingly, only Thomas Bradford signed his name in that record, while his wife and both of the Norwoods signed with an “X”). In a record dated October 15, 1840, Thomas’s wife Elizabeth and her sister Mary released their dower rights in that land but were reportedly “so sickly and impotent that they can not Travel to our said court.” 183 Some time after the death of his first wife, Thomas remarried. His second wife was named Mary (some say her last name was Britten, but the evidence is inconclusive). Thomas died in Northampton County, North Carolina, in 1762 and his will was probated in November of that year. Thomas’s will, which is dated May 23, 1761, mentions his “loving” wife Mary, sons William, Henry, Richard, Nathaniel and Thomas Jr., and daughters Edith, Sarah and Elizabeth. In his will, which is on record in Jackson, North Carolina, Thomas left North Carolina real estate in Orange and Northampton Counties — including an eighty acre island in the Roanoke River “near Captain Spanns Island” that Thomas received from the Crown on March 30, 1743 — to his heirs. A captain of the company of soldiers from the Roanoke District of the Northampton County militia, Thomas served in the French and Indian War and reportedly may have fought the French alongside of George Washington in the July 3, 1754, Battle of Big Meadows. Three of Thomas’s sons (Richard, Nathaniel and Thomas Jr.) eventually moved to Craven County, South Carolina (which was later divided into Chester and Lancaster Counties). Indeed, places in that state were named after the Bradfords, including: Bradford Springs in Lee County, South Carolina, was named after Nathaniel (1738-1807), while Bradford’s First Mill and Bradford’s Second Mill, both in Sumter County, South Carolina, were named for Richard (1744-1826).

PHILEMON: THE YOUNGEST SON Richard II’s youngest son, Philemon, (generally pronounced “fi LEE men”), was apparently born around 1700. Since I can find no prior family members named Philemon, I assume that now-uncommon name was taken from the Bible. Philemon is the title of a biblical Epistle written by the apostle Paul to Philemon. The biblical source of Philemon’s name reinforces my belief that religion was an important force in the life of the early Bradfords. Like his father and brothers, Philemon was born on the family’s Charles City County plantation. Because there was no hospital and few doctors, it is safe to assume that Philemon’s mother, Anna, gave birth to him in the family’s house, most likely with the assistance of a local midwife. Regardless, Philemon’s childhood was probably much like his father’s before him: working on the plantation and learning to read and write at home from his parents. Philemon was about twenty years old when his parents died. Within the following two years, as discussed earlier, Philemon sold the 470 acres of the Bradford family’s Charles City County plantation that was left to him in Richard II’s will. Because many of the records of Charles City and surrounding counties have been destroyed, I am not sure what happened to Philemon between May, 1726, when he sold 350 acres of his portion of the family’s plantation, and 1744 when land records indicate that he was living in North Carolina. My best guess is that Philemon remained in Charles City County, either on some remaining portion of the Bradford plantation, or on some other plot of land left to him in his father’s will.

PHILEMON MARRIES, HAS SEVEN CHILDREN Philemon married sometime after his father’s death. Although his will mention his wife Mary, some family researchers believe that Mary was his second wife. That evidence is not conclusive. Some believe that his alleged first wife’s maiden name was Bird (or Byrd) was the mother of Philemon’s seven children. Whoever their mother, Philemon’s children (as identified in his will) included: Elizabeth (reportedly born in 1730), Thomas (reportedly born in 1731), Philemon Jr. (reportedly born in 1733), Mary (reportedly born in 1736), Richard (reportedly born in 1738), John (my ancestor, reportedly born in 1751) and David (who one source says was born in 1747 and another says was born in 1754). 187 Philemon and his family were apparently still living in Charles City County when the first five of those children were born, since records reflect that Philemon was still living there as late as 1737. It was in that year he was reportedly fined five pounds by the Granville County Court for missing church services. Although an unheard of penalty today, the Anglican Church was still the colony’s official church and attendance was mandatory. 188 To the best of my knowledge, that is the last record of Philemon in Virginia, although some say that he was living in St. Margaret’s Parish, Caroline County, Virginia, from 1729 to 1743. 189 Since Caroline County’s records burned in a courthouse fire in 1836, however, that theory can be neither proved nor disproved. No surviving Caroline County records mention Philemon. Regardless of where he lived in the 1730s, Philemon, like his older brother Thomas, was living in North Carolina by the early to mid 1740s. Some of Philemon’s descendants believe that Philemon married a second time. Supposedly, his first wife died and he later remarried. That second wife was allegedly named Mary Parker, the daughter of Jonathan Parker and Ann Copeland. Her parents, Jonathan and Ann, are mentioned in Eunice Kirkpatrick’s The Parker Family of Johnston County, North Carolina and Related Families. Although I have not seen any hard evidence to prove that Philemon married twice (much less that he ever married Mary Parker), I think that most people base their estimates of his children’s ages on surviving tax lists from Granville County. The first of those tax lists, dated March 25, 1755, shows Philemon with 475 acres of land and indicates only two sons as tithables: Philemon Jr. and Richard (Thomas, who had already married, was listed as living elsewhere in the county). By the time of the March 25, 1769, tax list (taken less than a year before Philemon’s death), however, the only children still listed as tithables living at home were John and David. Thomas, Philemon and Richard, who were each older than David and John, still lived in the county, but each owned his own farm.

NORTH CAROLINA North Carolina, one of our country’s thirteen original colonies, was still a very young colony when Philemon and his brothers moved there. Although North Carolina was the site of America’s first English settlement, on Roanoke Island, that future state’s dangerous coastlines, shallow rivers and fierce native Indians made it more uninviting to settlers than either South Carolina or Virginia. Hence, North Carolina was settled later than either of those adjoining areas. It was not until the 1630s that the English began to explore North Carolina, and not until the early 1650s that the first English settlements appeared there. Those first settlements were on the coast, just off Albelmarle Sound. But what was to become North Carolina was not yet part of any organized colony. That did not happen until 1663 when King Charles II created the colony of “Carolina” and granted it to eight “Lords Proprietor” as a political favor. An explanation may be helpful. As noted in the first chapter, Richard Bradford I left England as a part of the Cavalier migration that occurred during 1653-1658 while Oliver Cromwell, Puritan and former member of the English Parliament, ruled over England as the “Lord Protector” and there was — for the first time in hundreds of years — no king or queen in control of England. In 1660, however, the control of England was returned to the throne and Charles II became the first English in the eleven years since his father, Charles I, was beheaded by Cromwell’s rebel forces. Charles II, however, did not regain control of the throne without assistance. He was helped by several powerful Englishmen. Later, Charles II repaid eight of those men by giving them a large grant of land in America that they were free to settle and make profitable for the Crown and themselves. That grant, made on March 24, 1663, included all the land in America between the thirty-first and thirty-sixth degrees latitude North. In 1665, that grant was expanded to include all North American lands between the thirtieth and thirty-eighth degrees latitude North. Hence, those eight men were given control of approximately one-third of the continental United States. That land included the entirety of the future states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Alabama and Mississippi, most of the land in the future states of Texas and Louisiana, and parts of Nevada and Florida. Not a bad political payoff for the lucky Lords Proprietor. In 1665, that colony of “Carolina” was divided into two parts: North Carolina and South Carolina. The settlement of North Carolina progressed slowly until the warlike native Tuscarora Indians were defeated in a series of battles with the English between 1711 and 1714. Even after that, colonization of the Carolinas was so slow that, in 1728, the Crown offered to buy back all lands held by the heirs of the eight Lords Proprietor. Each of the those heirs, except one, sold their shares back to the Crown. The one hold-out was Lord John Carteret of England, who later became known as the Earl of Granville, but was called simply “Lord Granville” by the colonists. Lord Granville’s land holdings stayed in his family until after the American Revolution and — incredibly — almost until today. Indeed, the dispute over those land holdings was one of the most monumental cases to never be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. You see, in 1782 the North Carolina General Assembly passed an act confiscating Lord Granville’s lands. Two years later, Lord Granville’s heirs brought a lawsuit to recover those lands on the (rather sound) grounds that the Treaty of Paris of 1783 (signed by the U. S. and Britain after the Revolutionary War), provided that all property rights were to be respected, notwithstanding the war. The case dragged on until it reached the Supreme Court in 1809. That lawsuit, however, was dropped when the heirs’ attorney, Francis Scott Key (yes, the same man who penned The Star Spangled Banner) died. As a student of the law, I wonder how the Supreme Court would have ruled on that matter. As a dreamer, I imagine how American history may have changed if the heirs had won. As an attorney, my eyes pop at the contingency fee possibilities of such a case.

THE GRANVILLE DISTRICT As inheritor of his grandfather’s portion of the original grant to the eight Lords Proprietor, John Carteret, the Earl of Granville, retained control of a swath of land running from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, with the northern boundary of that area being the thirty-eighth degree latitude North (the line between Virginia and North Carolina) and the southern boundary being a line that can now be seen running in a straight line from east to west, separating Chatham, Randolph, Davidson and other North Carolina counties on the north and Moore, Cabarrus and Mecklenburg counties on the south. In 1744, the Earl of Granville began to sell that land. Philemon Bradford was one of his first buyers. 194 Northampton, Edgecombe and Granville Counties While I believe that Philemon, like his big brother Thomas, may have moved to Northampton County when he first moved to North Carolina, the earliest North Carolina land records mentioning Philemon that I know of show him living in Edgecombe County in 1742 or 1743. Philemon was granted 600 acres on “the south side of Great Creek” in Edgecombe County on March 16, 1742/43, half of which he sold for fifty pounds in February of 1746 (that waterway, now called Deep Creek, lies in what is now Halifax County). 195 Thereafter, Philemon became an active land speculator. For example, on February 18, 1744, Philemon, sold 400 acres on Edgecombe County’s Persimmon Creek which had been granted to him by Lord Granville only hours before. 196 The purchaser of that tract, William Williams “Gentleman,” listed Philemon Bradford as an adjoining neighbor in 1749. 197 Thereafter, all records that mention Philemon are from Granville County, North Carolina. Philemon, who appears in Granville County shortly after it was created in 1746, lived there for the rest of his life. Indeed, my Bradford ancestors did not finally move from that county until the 1840s and some of Philemon’s descendants live there to this day. Although records seem to indicate that Philemon moved around quite a bit in North Carolina, appearances may be deceptive since the county boundaries in that state repeatedly changed as new settlers continued to move in. Hence, Philemon probably did not “move” from Northampton County to Edgecombe County in 1741, but just so happened to live in the portion of Northampton County that was broken off that year and renamed Edgecombe County. Similarly, Philemon and his family probably did not really “move” from Edgecombe County to Granville County in 1746 as much as, similarly, they lived in the portion of Edgecombe County that was broken off and renamed Granville County (after Lord Granville) in that year.

LAND SPECULATION Philemon, like his American forefathers, was a plantation owner. But, whereas Philemon’s grandfather Richard I was a pioneer, and his father Richard II was a colonial leader, Philemon was a land speculator. The grants of Granville County land that he received from Lord Granville were almost dizzying. For example, surviving records indicate that Philemon received at least the following grants of Granville County land: March 25, 1749: 640 acres on both sides of Fishing Creek; October 28, 1751: 460 acres in the Parish of St. John on the head of Fort Creek near Tar River on Poplar Branch; September 25, 1755: 570 acres on Cedar Creek on Joseph Fuller’s Corner: November 13, 1756: 570 acres “granted from Thomas Child, agent for Lord Granville” in the Parish of St. John on both sides of Little Creek joining Joseph Fuller, Arthur Fuller, Cedar Creek and Peter Vincent; March 7, 1759: 200 acres in the Parish of St. John on the branches of Quick Sand Branch and Beaver Dam Creek; September 15, 1760: 578 acres (in Northampton, rather than Granville, County) in the parish of North West, joining Bradford’s corner, the County line, and John Jones; August 5, 1761: 530 acres on both sides of Beaver Dam and Fort Creeks, “joining Bradfords line”; August 1, 1762: 700 acres on the branches of Beaver Dam Creek adjoining Philemon Bradford Jr., McCulluch’s line and Rain’s line; August 1, 1762: 688 acres on the branches of Quicksand run joining his own line and Nelson’s (or Wilson’s) line. 206The above grants to Philemon add up to a whopping 4,936 acres — nearly eight square miles of land! Moreover, he was the first English owner (excluding the Earl of Granville who, of course, never went near those lands) of each of those tracts. The grants listed above, moreover, may not even reflect the entirety of Philemon’s Granville County land grants, particularly since he later sold land in the county, as you shall soon see, not included in the above tracts. Philemon, of course, did not receive his land grants for free. By law he was required to pay Lord Granville an “entry fee” for each tract received. For each tract Philemon was granted before 1759, the entry fee was three shillings sterling — regardless of the tract’s size. After 1759, Philemon was required to pay entry fees of ten shillings sterling per tract. In addition to the entry fees, Philemon was required to pay a tax, called a “rent,” of three shillings sterling per hundred acres, granted. Those rents were collected two times each year: on the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25) and on the feast of St. Michael the Archangel (September 29). All fees were generally collected in sterling. If Philemon or any other grantee fell six months behind in paying rent on granted land, title to that land reverted back to Lord Granville. Moreover, Lord Granville retained one half of the mineral rights to all gold and silver found on any granted lands. The various fees and rents on the granted lands were collected by Lord Granville’s agents James Innes, Joshua Bodley, Francis Corbin, Ben Wheatley and others. As you will soon see, however, some of those agents took great liberties with their powers in both doling out land (by granting the same land to two different men) and collecting rents and fees (by overcharging grantees and, apparently, pocketing the difference). Hence, I can not calculate the total overhead that Philemon was required to pay on his granted lands. In addition to those grants from the Earl of Granville, Philemon sometimes purchased Granville County lands from other colonists. Since the only purchases that I am aware of were from his relatives, I can only assume that those purchases were made as accommodations to those family members or for purposes of keeping those lands in the family. For example, on March 10, 1761, Philemon bought ten acres from his son Thomas, thereafter, on November 11, 1761, Philemon bought, also from son Thomas, 430 acres on Fishing Creek for ninety pounds. Like most land speculators, however, Philemon did not just acquire land but, when profitable or otherwise appropriate, sold it. Some of his reported sales of Granville County land include the following: 1746 (no day or month cited): “Philip Bradford of Edgecombe County” sold 250 acres in Granville County on Reedy Branch, north side of Fishing Creek, for twenty-three pounds; January 21, 1749: 350 acres on Little Fishing Creek and Hatchers Creek to William Reeves Jr. for sixty pounds; September 14, 1758: 60 acres on Beaver Dam Branch to son Philemon Jr. for 5 shillings; June 2, 1759: 150 acres on the north side of Fishing Creek to Carter Hudspeth for fifty pounds; October 15, 1761: 570 acres on Cedar Creek in Joseph Fuller’s corner to James Vinson of Northampton County; February 1, 1762: 265 acres sold to Richard Harris for ten pounds, in a deed also signed by Philemon’s wife Elizabeth; September 30, 1763: 888 acres on the branches of Quicksand and Beaver Dam Creeks on Truman Bradford’s and Nelson’s lines to son Thomas Bradford for seventy-four pounds. Philemon’s land sales probably yielded him a tidy profit. For example, the 570 acres that Philemon sold for fifty-seven pounds in 1761 only cost him about seven pounds in 1755. Hence, Philemon sold that acreage for approximately eight times what he paid for it a mere six years before — a pretty impressive rate of return. Thus, as you can see, Philemon profited from his status as an early settler of the colony of North Carolina. The study of Philemon’s land dealings provide many footprints for tracking that intrepid ancestor. Copies of those ancient deeds (with Philemon’s signature affixed thereto) may be acquired from the North Carolina Department of Archives and History in Raleigh. Abstracts of most of the above land records, along with many others that mention Philemon’s relatives and neighbors, are in some wonderfully helpful publications: Abstracts of the Early Deeds of Granville County North Carolina by Zae Hargett Gwynn and The Granville District of North Carolina: Abstracts of Land Patents by Margaret M. Hofmann.

A GROWING, CHANGING POPULATION Philemon witnessed a lot of growth in Granville County’s population. Many Virginians, following in Philemon’s footsteps, participated in a huge migration to North Carolina. As a result, that colony’s population grew quickly. For example, while the population of Granville County was 2,000 (of which only 313 were landowners) in 1749, it grew to 3,200 within the next five years, thereafter growing so quickly that Granville County was split into two parts in 1764. The portion broken off was named Bute County (which was later broken into Warren and Franklin Counties). Growth continued. By 1767, even though Granville County’s area was half its original size, the county’s population had grown to 5,000. The county’s population hit 8,000 by 1782. Philemon, however, also witnessed explosive population growth for all of North Carolina. That colony’s 1730 population of 30,000 swelled to 265,000 by 1775. 218 North Carolina’s (and America’s) population was not just growing, however, it was also changing. Although the colonies were almost solely populated by the English during Richard I and Richard II’s lives, Philemon witnessed a growing influx of non-English immigrants. Those immigrants helped turn America into a melting pot of different peoples and cultures. Between 1739 and the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, a growing tide of Scotch Highlanders (who came directly from their homeland), Scotch-Irish and Germans (each of the latter moved largely down from Pennsylvania) swept into North Carolina. In 1760, North Carolina’s population included 45,000 English (34%), 40,000 Scots (31% including both the Highlanders and the Scotch-Irish), 15,000 Germans (11%) and 31,000 African Americans (24%). As a result, Philemon, unlike his colonial forefathers, lived next door to people with different accents, customs and religious beliefs. It was an interesting time to live.

RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION I have every reason to believe that Philemon and his family still belonged to the Anglican Church from the time he moved from Virginia until his death. Admittedly, however, I am not positive. The Anglican Church was present in Granville County during that period. Saint John’s Church, which was built in Williamsboro in about 1757, was the county’s first Anglican Church. That church, which still stands today, is the oldest frame church in North Carolina and the third oldest church building of any type in the whole state. Prior to the construction of that building, there were reportedly three Anglican congregations in the county: one called “Nut Bush” in the town of Williamsboro, St. George’s in Harrisburg (less than a mile east of present-day Oxford) and Banks Chapel in Wilton (in the southern part of the county). Although Philemon and his offspring may well have attended services at Saint John’s church after its construction in 1757, I believe that — if they still belonged to the Anglican Church — they would have attended services in Harrisburg, a town closer to Philemon’s home on Poplar Creek than either of the other two churches. The Bradfords, however, were soon surrounded by people who adhered to faiths other than the Anglican Church. Hence, whereas the Church of England was the “only show in town” in Charles City County, Granville County’s growth made it home to people with a host of different beliefs. There were, for example, Presbyterians in the county since its beginning and, slowly, Baptists grew in number. Some pain accompanied Granville County’s growing religious diversity. As the diversity of Granville County’s population grew, so did the hostility to the colony’s official religion. Several members of other religions were hostile to the Anglican Church since, by law, they were required to pay parish taxes to support that church even though they did not belong to it. That hostility, in turn, led many adherents of those faiths to grow hostile towards the government. Indeed, it was the general country-wide hostility to the state-supported church that later led Thomas Jefferson to demand a separation of church and state. Similarly, that hostility is the reason that the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment provision guarantees the freedom to exercise any religion and prohibits the government from establishing any “official” religion.

GRANVILLE COUNTY LAND RIOTS Granville County’s population growth had its painful moments. Just as Philemon’s parents and grandparents witnessed Bacon’s Rebellion, Philemon witnessed the Granville County land riots of 1759. Because the land owned by the Earl of Granville was so huge, he had to rely on a group of men to survey, grant and regulate that land for him. Some of those men were, charitably, not very ethical. Sometimes the same tract of land was granted to two different men. Illegal rents were collected. Oppression by the Granville agents began as early as 1752, when agents Thomas Child and Francis Corbin declared null and void all patents issued by their immediate predecessors, Mr. Moseley and Mr. Halton, on the legally shaky grounds that the phrase “Gr. by his attorneys” rather than “Right Honorable Earl” was written after Granville’s signature on each of those patents. The locals, who rightly learned to distrust those agents, filed a number of complaints with the colony’s legislature and the

EARL OF GRANVILLE After four years of having their complaints ignored, however, the wronged took matters into their own hands. Hence, when one of Granville’s agents, Mr. Haywood, died owing back rents to several Granville County residents, the enraged citizenry went to his home, dug up his grave and broke open the coffin to see if he was really dead — or if it was just another trick. It would appear that the maxim “no rest for the wicked” was taken quite literally in early Granville County. What a night! Haywood’s unceremonious (although understandable) disinterment, however, only started the mob’s festivities that night. They did not go straight home. The sight of Haywood’s corpse only temporarily satisfied the Granville County mob. That group of rioters soon turned to find any surviving scoundrels who had cheated them. Hence, a number of Granville and Edgecombe County men, possibly including some of the Bradfords or their neighbors, grabbed their guns, mounted their horses and rode to the house of another Granville agent, Francis Corbin. In the dark of night that angry mob grabbed a stunned — and probably terrified — Corbin at his home, kidnapped him and whisked him to nearby Enfield where he was held for several days until he agreed to produce his records and refund all illegally charged rents. Thus, eighteen years before the American Revolution, Granville County witnessed the type of rebellious and independent spirit that eventually earned our independence from Britain. As a side note, can you imagine (bonus points if you can do it without laughing) how much more responsive to your concerns your government officials would stay if the Granville County mob were just around the corner keeping an eye on them? There would be no need to call twice to complain about the faulty traffic light down the street and few politicians would risk being caught with their hands in the community cookie jar.

FARM LIFE Although an active land speculator, Philemon did not just trade in land, he also farmed it. Like his father, Philemon was a planter. His largest crop, if he was like most of his neighbors, was probably Indian corn. Wheat was also commonly grown. Although he probably also grew tobacco, that crop was less for commerce than for the payment of parish and county taxes. Tobacco prices were high in 1762, but that crop’s importance declined after that. Philemon probably also owned at least one fruit orchard. Some of the plantation’s fruit was made into cider. In turn, its a fair bet that some of that cider was turned into brandy. I am not suggesting that Philemon was a drinker, it is just that in those days, making brandy was the only known way to preserve fruit. Hence, if you wanted to taste fruit in the winter, you had to drink brandy. Brandy was reportedly the most common strong drink in Granville County at the time. Philemon’s plantation also included livestock. He, like virtually all farmers in his day, almost certainly had a number of hogs and cattle. Indeed, pork, beef and cornbread were probably the most common things served at the Bradford dinner table. Sheep also appeared in the county around that time and, therefore, many of the county’s families owned wool wheels. Philemon also owned horses which he used for labor and transportation. Interestingly, farm animals were allowed to run wild in Granville County. According to local law, farmers were not expected to fence in their animals, but, stunningly, were required to keep their crops fenced in. Hence, if a farmer’s crops were trampled or eaten by a neighbor’s livestock, he could not recover from the animals’ owner until he first proved that he had a regulation-size fence around those crops. Horses were branded for identification. Similarly, hogs and cattle had their ears marked. With Philemon’s and his neighbors’ animals running wild, you might think that others were tempted to steal livestock. Perhaps, but I am sure they fought the urge. The penalty was too steep. Any person who either stole livestock or placed their brand or mark on another person’s livestock was fined ten pounds plus the animal’s value. For a second offense, the perpetrator was given forty lashes and his or her left hand was branded with a “T” (presumably signifying “thief”) by means of a red-hot iron, in addition to the fine. As bad as that sounds, consider the consequences if the perpetrator were an Indian, slave or mulatto: their ears were cut off after their first offense. Repeat offenders from that group were put to death. No pork chop is worth that. Tools were plentiful in Philemon’s day. He, like his neighbors, probably used axes, plows, handsaws, hoes, claw hammers, cross-cut saws and plow shares. He also owned wagons and harnesses for his horses. Horses, however, were not just for farm work — they were also the primary mode of transportation. Horseback remained the best way to travel in North Carolina until the end of the eighteenth century. Even so, a man with a good horse could average no better than thirty-five miles a day. For jobs like pulling the farm’s crops to the market, however, two and four horse teams were used to pull four-wheeled wagons. The roads, however, were narrow, often no wider than a cart’s wheels, and probably became impassable in winter months. Travel was also made difficult by North Carolina’s numerous rivers, creeks and swamps. Because of the adverse winter travel conditions, the Bradfords probably spent most of the cold winter months indoors reading, working and trying to keep warm.

SLAVES While Philemon had a large family, he did not rely solely on his family members to tend the crops. He also had slaves. Whereas no records indicate that Richard I or Richard II were slave owners, Philemon definitely was. The proof, as you will later see, is that he passed on eleven slaves to his children in his will. Those men and women, probably purchased at auction, almost certainly played a large role in the plantation’s operations. This is as good a time as any to discuss slavery. An important aspect of early America, slavery planted the seeds that led to the Civil War and the future division of America. The first African slaves were brought to America in 1619 when a Dutch Man-of-war’s skipper sold twenty of them to a group of Virginia colonists. Slavery, however, was slow to catch on in the Virginia Colony. The Virginia colonists in Richard I and Richard II’s day still relied primarily on indentured Englishmen to provide their farm labor. Hence, in 1649 there were only 300 people of African descent in America and that number reached only 6,000 (most of which were slaves) by 1700. By Philemon’s day, however, slaves had largely supplanted indentured servants as the provider’s of colonial plantation labor. Indeed, by 1754, slaves comprised twenty-six per cent of Granville County’s population, with that number soaring to forty-one per cent by 1782. In today’s enlightened age, we recoil at the thought of the outright ownership of humans. Moreover, it is difficult to believe that such bartering in humanity took place in a country now so dedicated to freedom and the value of the individual. But, in fairness to those early colonists, the slavery system was legal at the time and, apparently to their way of thinking, the most economical way to financially compete in a market in which farm labor was becoming increasingly expensive. Slavery, moreover, was socially acceptable — even prevalent — in the early middle and southern colonies. Indeed, several early U.S. Presidents owned slaves. The slave-owning Presidents include: George Washington (who owned 216 slaves in 1773); Thomas Jefferson (185 in 1809); James Madison (166 at one time); Andrew Jackson (160 upon taking the presidency); Zachary Taylor (300 upon taking office); John Tyler; James Polk (owned eighteen slaves); Andrew Johnson; and, surprisingly, Ulysses S. Grant. Hence, not only did two of the four presidents featured on Mount Rushmore own slaves, including the one who ironically wrote that it was self-evident that all men were created equal, so too, enigmatically, did the general who led the armies that eventually ended slavery in America. Philemon, therefore, was in some tall company in his now-frowned upon labor practice. I add this discussion not to forgive or rationalize that practice, but to place it in proper historical perspective. Whatever the acceptability was in Philemon’s day, it is unfortunate that Philemon and his fellow colonists began to rely on slavery to meet their labor needs. A short term solution, slavery was a long term mistake. Beyond the fact that the system of slavery is considered morally repugnant by their educated descendants, the early southerners’ growing reliance on slave labor led the southern colonies to depend on a marginally successful agricultural economic system while the northern colonies took the lead in manufacturing, banking and world trade. Too many southerners never left the farms to explore other trades and professions. Education was not taken seriously enough. By the time that many Southerners realized that farming was a dead-end for them, they were financially, socially and educationally well behind their northern counterparts. Only now is the south recovering the ground it allowed the north to take by default in the years prior to the Civil War.

HABERDASHER? Some of Philemon’s descendants speculate that Philemon was a haberdasher and earned income from that profession in addition to the income he derived from his land speculation and crop production. Their speculation is based upon the following September 4, 1750, North

Haberdashers, once prevalent in England and colonial America, no longer appear in America’s cities. The dictionary defines a haberdasher as a retail dealer in men’s furnishings, such as shirts, ties, gloves, socks and hats or a dealer in small wares and notions. Haberdashery specialists first appeared in the mid-14th century. One can get a flavor of goods in a haberdashery from the inventory of a seventeenth century haberdashery which reportedly included pins, needles, thimbles, bodkins, girdles, looking glasses, small chests, purses, bracelets, rings, ribbon, thread, tape, buttons, toothpicks, spectacles, spectacle cases, artificial flowers, combs, inkhorns, brushes and money boxes. Some haberdashers sold dolls. Hence, some haberdashers catered not just to men, but the whole family. Regardless of their clientele, the colonial haberdashers were inevitably involved in trade with British merchants since so many of their goods could not be produced in the colony. It is unclear, however, that the Philemon Bradford who is the focus of this chapter was the haberdasher mentioned in that 1750 land record. While it is conceivable that they are one and the same man, the evidence is inconclusive. Notably, however, none of the numerous land records in Granville County mention Philemon’s profession as that of haberdasher. Instead, those later records describe him, if at all, as a planter. Moreover, Philemon was busy buying land in Granville County before 1750 and, therefore, may not have fairly been described as living in Northampton County at the time (as was Philemon the haberdasher). Nevertheless, people do change professions and Philemon Bradford was not a common name (indeed, I believe that we are related to each of the handful of Philemon Bradfords who have ever lived in North Carolina). At the very least, therefore, Philemon the haberdasher was a cousin or nephew of the Philemon Bradford who is featured in this chapter (particularly since the Thomas Bradford in that record was certainly Philemon’s brother Thomas).

Carolina Land Record. Thomas Bradford of Northampton Co. N.C., farmer, to Philemon Bradford of same county, haberdasher, for 20 pounds, 200 acres on Quarret Creek, being a half of 400 acres near Lick Creek. Witnesses: Jno. Norris, Jno. White, Geo. King, Alex Burch.

FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS Philemon lived at the time of a dispute the British call the Seven Years War and Americans call the French and Indian War. That war was the fourth and final dispute between France and Britain — then the leading nations in Europe — fought between 1689 and 1763. Curiously, each of those conflicts were referred to differently by Europeans and the American colonists. Hence, the war of the League of Augsburg (1689-1697) was known in America as King William’s War; the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1713) was called Queen Anne’s War; and the War of Austrian Succession (1744-1748) was known to the colonists as King George’s War. Hence, it is not surprising that the Seven Years War (1756-1763), the war which was fought for imperial control of America, was termed the French and

INDIAN WAR BY THE COLONISTS Whatever that conflict is called, it resulted in a major enlargement of the portion of North America controlled by the Great Britain. Prior to that conflict, the British controlled the land east of the Appalachian Mountains. The French, who controlled Canada, encircled those lands with a line of forts that ranged from Quebec down to Detroit, south to Saint Louis and down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. A third European power, Spain, controlled Florida and all lands west of the Mississippi River. The English settlers were, in short, surrounded. As the British colonies grew, therefore, it became clear that something had to give. Hence, the British steadily pressed west until they had an inevitable series of disputes with the French. Those disputes, along with others back in Europe, culminated in the Seven Years War between France and Britain. Spain allied itself with France in that conflict. Although the Seven Years War did not “officially” begin until 1756, that struggle “unofficially” began in 1754 when George Washington, then a young officer, led a militia force in an attack against France’s Fort Duquesne. Thereafter, an undeclared war was waged on American soil until the formal declaration of war in 1756. The French, who were greatly outnumbered in North America (75,000 French versus over one million British colonists), bolstered their forces by recruiting their Indian allies to help them. Those tribes, who resented the increasing British presence, accepted firearms from the French and joined them in raiding the colonial frontiers. The war was a great victory for the British. After the war, the British entered into a treaty with the French which expanded greatly the Britain’s North American land holdings. In that treaty of 1763, France surrendered control of Canada and all lands between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River (except New Orleans) to Great Britain. France also turned over the huge tract of land called “Louisiana” (later the subject of the Louisiana Purchase) to Spain. In return, however, Spain was required to surrender Florida to Great Britain. The Seven Years War was important to Britain and its colonies for several reasons: it expanded the empire, it removed Spain and France as competitors for the continent’s control, it gave many colonists fighting experience, and it showed the colonists that they could join together for a common cause — each of those factors proved invaluable when the colonists fought for their independence a few years later. There were about 1.5 million people living in the American colonies at the war’s end.

PHILEMON'S WILL Philemon died a few years later — about six and a half years after the French and Indian War and six and a half years before the American Revolution. His will, dated August 25, 1769, was proven in the Granville County court in January 1770 with his wife Mary appearing as executrix and his son Thomas appearing as executor. After debts and funeral expenses, Philemon left five pounds each to his daughters Elizabeth Hudspeth, Mary White and sons Thomas and Richard. To his wife, Mary, he left “the plantation where I live,” four male and three female slaves and “all stock and household goods” until she either died or re-married. To his son John he left “all that track of land I purchased of my son Thomas Bradford on each side of Fort Creek … containing fore hundred acres more or less” as well as, at his mother’s death, three named slaves, all cattle he was keeping “at William Parnals,” three cows and calves, six sows and pigs, two beds and furniture — all of which was to be divided equally among Philemon’s other children if John died childless. Philemon’s son David was to inherit, on his mother’s death, the “400 acres whereon I live” which was described as being “on Poplar Branch” and another thirty acres Philemon had purchased from his son Thomas, along with four slaves, six cows and calves, two beds and furniture — all of which was to be divided among David’s siblings if that son died childless. Philemon’s will was witnessed by Joseph Parker, Mary Parker, James Heflin and Christopher Parnal and was proven in open court upon the oaths of Joseph Parker and James Heflin. 227

PHILEMON'S HOME Philemon’s will solves a mystery. Philemon’s many land transfers make it virtually impossible to identify which of those lands he actually lived on. His will, however, identifies the land he lived on as an approximate 400 acre plot on the waters of Granville County’s Poplar Branch. Philemon’s will specifically describes that tract as follows: Fore hundred acres more or less and Bounded as followeth: to wit: Beginning at a white oak running east to a pine; thence north to a white oak thence west to a spanish oak thence south to a corner to two persimmon trees thence along a line of mark trees to the poppler Branch thence up the said branch to a corner poppler thence east to a ash thence south to the first station…. I have not yet pinpointed the location of Philemon’s home as described in his will. The trees referred to therein are obviously long gone. Poplar Creek (Poplar Branch), described as a border of that approximate 400 acre plantation, is located about two miles east of Oxford, North Carolina, breaks off of Tabbs Creek and skirts the county line between Granville and Vance Counties. I am not sure who now lives on Philemon’s former plantation.

THE WILL'S OTHER GLEANINGS Philemon’s will also identifies the names of his wife (Mary) and seven children: sons Thomas, Richard, Philemon Jr., John and David and daughters Mary (who married a White) and Elizabeth (who married a Hudspeth). That document also gives an idea of the size of Philemon’s estate, which I would describe as modest, but solidly middle to upper-middle class. Finally, that record suggests that Philemon was a religious man. Although many colonial wills made reference to God, Philemon’s references seem to exceed other contemporary wills. His will, for example, begins as follows: In the name of God Amen. I Philemon Bradford of the county of Granville and province of North Carolina Being in perfect health and sound in mind and memory thanks be to God for the Same and knowing that it is appointed for all men to die Do make this my last will and Testament in manner and form following and first of I all I commend me soul to almighty God who gave it in assure and comfortable hopes of a joyful resurrection through the merits and sufferings of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…. Hence, it seems that religion was an important part of Philemon’s life. Perhaps the dye was cast from the time he was young. As his parents named him after a biblical character, clearly religion was important to them. Philemon’s parents must have instilled those beliefs in Philemon who died “commending his soul to God Almighty.”

PHILEMON'S LEGACY Philemon’s life was not vastly different from his father’s. He ran large plantation lands and probably lived pretty close to the earth. Unlike his father, however, he was not a community leader. Philemon opted instead for a quiet life and active land speculation. He moved from his family’s ancestral Virginia home to the young and growing colony of North Carolina. Although he died in North America 115 years after his grandfather Richard I first set foot there, he, like his forefathers, lived and died a British subject. Although he may have discussed the possibility of a break from Britain with his family and neighbors, he died before the events that triggered the American Revolution. He was the last Bradford in my line to have that distinction. Each of his children, however, lived to be among the first citizens of the United States of America. Those books provide a bonanza of information for anyone tracing the Granville County Bradfords. 208 Similarly, on September 30, 1763, Philemon bought 360 acres on both sides of Beaver Dam Creek from his son Richard Bradford for sixty pounds. 209 207 The graft makes it hard to compute his total costs. Notably, I believe that some people have misinterpreted those records by equating the number of “tithables” in the household with the number of people living in the household. That, however, is not accurate. Females and males below the age of maturity were not counted as “tithables” in the records mentioned above. 192 190 That second wife was reportedly the mother of Philemon’s last two children (John and David). 185 Of Thomas’s other three sons, two (William and Philemon) stayed and died in Northampton County, while the third (Henry) reportedly moved to Darlington County, South Carolina. John Bennett Boddie (who traces quite a bit of Thomas’s lineage), wrote in Virginia Historical Genealogies that there are ancestors of Thomas Bradford, particularly some with the surname Stover, still living in Lancaster County, South Carolina. At least one author, however, disputes that conclusion and says that the Lancaster County Stovers were related not to the descendants of Richard Bradford, but, instead, or Samuel Bradford (or Brawford) who immigrated to South Carolina from Ireland in 1768. 186 184 181 Wherever he died, Richard III’s will names the following children: Richard (IV), John, Lephirah, Eliza, Sepharah, Hanna (who had married a Poe), Mary (who had married a Case), and an unnamed daughter who had married a Bird. One particularly interesting fact in Richard’s will is that he left to his son Richard “all land in Carolina which I bought of my brother” Philemon. 182 177 A scholarly analysis of Charles City County worth reading is Charles City County, Virginia: An Official History. 178 One of that book’s authors, James Whittenburg, graciously assisted me in compiling some information for this book. An interesting but difficult to locate book is D. Gardiner Tyler’s A History and Pictorial Review of Charles City County, Virginia. 179 Tyler’s book runs the gamut from detailing older county history to listing the entire membership of the of the county’s current local American Legion. The last half of Tyler’s book includes photographs of, seemingly, every home in Charles City County (including, of course, Belle Air). Although Tyler died on March 29, 1993, at the age of 93, those who act quickly can buy one of the last ten autographed copies of that book being held for sale by the Heritage Library in Providence Forge. 180 Tyler, a grandson of President Tyler, was considered Charles City County’s resident historian at the time of his death. 175 Visitors to nearby Jamestown can see life-size replicas of the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery (and climb aboard one of those ships where a sailor will describe the four-month voyage from England to Virginia), visit an accurately recreated Pawhatan Indian village and a recreated fort. Visitors to nearby Colonial Williamsburg, moreover, will be treated to a unique colonial experience as they walk through a 173-acre outdoor living history museum with over 500 public buildings, private homes, stores and taverns complete with craftsmen practicing historic trades and crafts — all in an authentically created 18th Century community. Colonial Virginia in and around Charles City County, in short, is a cornucopia of early American history. Information for those interested in visiting any of the above sites is set forth in the footnotes below. 176 174 173 169 166 165 Colonial historians and Virginia architectural experts have told me that most respected experts in the field agree with Carson and, therefore, have concluded that the current Belle Air Plantation was built — at the earliest — in the late 1720s. Bacon’s Castle (so named because Nathaniel Bacon’s troops holed up there during Bacon’s Rebellion) in nearby Surry County, I am told, is the only existing plantation home that is generally acknowledged as dating back to the 17th Century. 163 After contacting William & Mary, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and the research department of Colonial Williamsburg, I have found no one who disputes that gazetteer’s conclusions. 164 Hence, the Bradford family’s plantation ran from the head of Queens Creek and was located between Glebe Creek and Parrish Hill Creek while the Clarke lands were to the west between Courthouse Creek and Glebe Creek. The “Belle Air Plantation” lies between, indeed, smack-dab between Glebe Creek and Parrish Hill Creek. Hence, as Sandlund concludes, the current Belle Air Plantation is located on former Bradford lands not — as that land’s owners have erroneously claimed for the last fifty years — Daniel Clarke’s former lands. 160 The land that Thomas Stegge Jr. sold to Clarke in 1662 was nearby (indeed, you may recall that it was neighbor Clarke’s servant that Richard I found dead in the woods). The 1,698 acres that Clarke received from Thomas Stegge Jr. in 1662, however, included 1,000 acres that was consistently described as “being a neck of land lying between Old Man’s Run and Queens Creek,” and 698 acres which was described as lying “at the head of Queen’s Creek, between Seller Run and Fishing Run.” 161 That latter tract, which adjoined the Bradford family’s lands, made Clarke Richard I’s neighbor. The fact that Richard I and Clarke were adjoining landowners is confirmed in the record of the May 20, 1678, headright of 1,036 acres of Charles City County land to John Turner which describes Turner’s land as lying on the north side of the James River, between Sellar Run and Fishing Run, adjoining Lt. Col. Clarke, Major Edloe (who Richard had a lawsuit against in 1657), Mr. Bradford, to a place called the Arrow Reads, by Chickahominy Path to Major Edlow’s, over Collenses Run to Mr. Rowland’s Place. 162 157 The current owners of Belle Air, however, reportedly deny that that plantation — or its manor house which they report was built at the time that the Bradfords owned that land — ever belonged to the Bradford family. I will elaborate on that historical dispute. 156 That mill may have been on the land when Richard II originally sold it. If so, we can assume that the family milled their own grain. Regardless, that leaves at least 320 acres unaccounted for. Perhaps the acreage I cannot account for was given to some other son or daughter of Richard II that history has forgotten, was sold prior to Richard II’s death or, perhaps, was kept for a while as a smaller plantation by Philemon or one of his brothers. We may never know. 154 In addition, Richard sold Harrison another 100 acre tract, also in Charles City County, bounded by William Parrish, that “said Bradford purchased of Richard Combo” by deed dated February 3, 1724 (Richard III originally bought that tract for five shillings). 155 That record also records that Richard’s wife, Rachel, relinquished her dower rights to that land.^[1]

Sources

North Carolina, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1790-1890 Census & Voter Lists Name Philemon Bradford Residence 1755 - No Township Listed, Granville County, NC

U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 Birth, Marriage & Death Name Philemon Bradford Spouse Mary Bird Birth 1695 - VA Marriage of NC

North Carolina, Wills and Probate Records, 1665-1998 Birth, Marriage & Death Name Philemon Bradford Death Abt 1769 - North Carolina, USA

U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 Birth, Marriage & Death Name Philemon Bradford Spouse Mary Birth 1703 - NC

1. ↑ [1] Bradford, David Thomas. The Bradfords of Charles City County, Virginia, and Some of Their Descendants, 1653-1993. Baltimore : Gateway Press, 1994.

Notes

https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/tree/23921862/person/1702375500/media/dvm_lochist012835-00103-1?_phsrc=dby9610&_phstart=successSource Abstracts of wills recorded in Orange County, North Carolina, 1752-1800

Abstracts of wills recorded in Orange County, North Carolina, 1752-1800 Vol. II. Abstracts of wills, Orange County, N. C. 1800-1850 There is a daughter Mary named in the will of Thomas Bird.