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John Pendergrass (bef. 1736 - bef. 1794)

Born before [location unknown]
Husband of — married before 1760 [location unknown]
Descendants descendants
Died before at about age 58 in Wake County, North Carolina, USAmap
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Profile last modified | Created 30 Apr 2012
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The Birth Date is a rough estimate. See the text for details.

Contents

Biography

U.S. Southern Colonies Project logo
John Pendergrass was a North Carolina colonist.

John Pendergrass is thought to be the son of William and Mary (Unknown) Pendergrass.

John's birth date is estimated as before 1736 based on his first appearance in records on the Granville County, North Carolina tax list in 1757. He must have been at least 21 to own property and pay taxes. He was living near present-day Vicksboro.

Sometime before about 1760 he married Hannah "Hanner," last name unknown, based on the age of his son Solomon. It is not known if they married before or after arriving in Granville County.

John and Hannah had five boys and one girl:

All were born on John's farm which -- by the time Moses was born -- had become part of Bute County and is now Warren County.

By April 1789 the family had moved 35 miles south to Wake County, North Carolina, where John bought 100 acres "on the drains of the Beaverdam Creek at Mockerson Creek" near the intersection of Wake, Franklin, Nash and Johnston counties, next to and on the same day as Hezekiah Massey.

Massey was in Granville County at the same time as John and it has been speculated that there was a family connection. No documentary evidence for that has been found but there are tantalizing DNA clues.

John would eventually leave the same 100 acres to his "well loved wife hanner" for life and to his youngest son Moses thereafter.

In 1790 he served on a road jury to improve a road from the Franklin County line.[2]

In 1792 and 1793 he was on the tax list for 100 acres but owed no tax, perhaps because of age.

John does not seem to have been a particularly successful farmer. He did not accumulate land beyond the 100 acres he bought in 1789 and is not known to have owned slaves.

John died in Wake County between 17 April 1794, when his will was written, and September, when it was proven in Wake County court.

His will only mentions his "well beloved wife hanner" and his sons Jesse and Moses and daughter Anney, but his oldest son Solomon witnessed and proved the will. Probably Solomon, John and Benjamin had already received gifts. In fact, Solomon, John, and Benjamin each were taxable for 100 acres beginning in 1792. Perhaps the land came from their father.

John's neighbor and "friend" Hezekiah Massey was the executor.[1]

Research Notes

Contrary to many unsourced trees on other sites, John's wife was Hannah Unknown, NOT Hannah Grady or Mary Ransom. The evidence for Hannah as John's wife is his will.[1] There is no evidence for Grady being her maiden name.

There is no evidence that this John Pendergrass served in the military, either during the Revolutionary War or at any other time. He would have been in his 40s when the war started and rather old to serve. The DAR erroneously has the service record for John Pendergrass of Chatham County, North Carolina, attached to this John Pendergrass' information. [3]

Sources

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Wills and Estate Papers (Wake County), 1663-1978"; Author: North Carolina. Division of Archives and History; Probate Place: Wake, North Carolina. John Pendergrass. Ancestry Record 9061 #578819 Share Link.
  2. "Wake County Court Minutes," 1st Tues. Sept. 1790, Vol. 3, pg. 55.
  3. DAR Ancestor #: A088327

See, also:

  • "United States Census, 1790," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHKB-BQD : accessed 23 September 2017), John Pendergrass, Wake, North Carolina, United States; citing p. 246, NARA microfilm publication M637, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 7; FHL microfilm 568,147.

Acknowledgements





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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with John by comparing test results with other carriers of his Y-chromosome or his mother's mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known yDNA or mtDNA test-takers in his direct paternal or maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with John:

Have you taken a DNA test? If so, login to add it. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA.



Comments: 4

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This John P was not in the revolution despite the error in the DAR patriot index. It was actually "Chatham" John, husband of mary Rigsby, who served and someone was confused and allowed in anyway.
posted by Karen Pendergrass
Most of this is okay, more or less - better than many biographies, at least. This John was NOT in the revolution depsite the error in the DAR patriot index which says he was. The Joh n who served was "Chatham" John P from Orange Co, husband of Mary Rigsby, and not "Wake" John who was married to Hannah. The connection with Hezekiah Massey is that Wake John and he were best friends and Hez' dau Amy married John's son Benjamin P. Hez and John bought land adjacent to each other in April 1789 from John ledbetter. Prior to that we don't know if John had land and farmed it or worked at some other occupation or was a sharecropper or renter. John's first appearnace on a tx list was actually 1757 not 1755 but apparent brother spencer carried a survey chain for Thorntons in Dec 1755.
posted by Karen Pendergrass
Whoever is managing this profile is working from information taken from the bad book by Allen Pendergraft written in 1977 and long since discredited. There was no Mary Ransom (Allen said "perhaps she was a Ransom" only because John had a grandson named Ransom and Allen had a fetish about every first name being someone's maiden name. It is not known when John Pendergrass was born nor where but his wife at the time of his death was HANNAH Unknown (not Grady - another Allenism) .You can always tell a tree based on the bad book because the same mistakes - <Mary ransom, Mary Henri, Mary Raleigh, "Robert" Raleigh. "James" Spencer - all products of Allen's imagination are repated constantly all the way back to the fictional Pocahontas connection. PLEASE do real research and don't just COPY.
posted by Karen Pendergrass
Hi Alisha, I was wondering if you will be coming back to WikiTree? We have Pendergrass files we can merge. Thanks!  :) Betty
posted by Betty Tindle

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