The Quaker .io list has been very active through the holiday and I have been very interested in the conversations. But because of the holiday, I have not had time to participate as much as I would like in the conversations. Santa brought me the book named in the title of this blog post, So I will start with this book.
Jacob Elliott and his wife Elizabeth and his children (which included married children with their own families) took a certificate from Center MM in southern Guilford County to New Garden MM near present day Greensboro. This was almost certainly a move from Randolph County, NC to Chestnut Creek in what is now Galax, Virginia. I assume that New Garden MM was the closest MM to the area. Below is a map showing where I believe they lived in this time period. Their land would have been in what is now Carroll County. But at the time it would have been Montgomery County. And from that, I was able to place the land no a modern map.
Land on Which Elliot family lived during the Revolution
Montgomery County, Virginia was huge in this time period extending from the NC border to the Ohio River.
And between Henry County on the East and Washington County on the West.
From New River notes is the following explaining who had settled in this area:
Following the Battle of Alamance, 1771 a group of intermarried families left the Piedmont of North Carolina and moved just across the Virginia border into virgin wilderness along Chestnut Creek and its tributaries. These families were mostly Quakers or disowned Quakers and many of the men had been active in the Regulator movement and participated in the Battle of Alamance. Amongst them was a Baptist named Flower Swift. The largest extended family was the Quaker Cox family. The Cox family was related by blood to Herman Husband. Husband was the best known leader of the Regulation and was a fugitive after Alamance 1771, traveling under the pseudonym Tuscape Death. Possibly amongst the Chestnut Creek settlers was William Rankin, who had been declared an outlaw by North Carolina's Governor Tryon. Almost all of this group came from today's Randolph, Guilford, Alamance and Iredell counties. Before they were in North Carolina, most of their familiess had migrated thusly:
- Chester Co., Pennsylvania and neighboring New Castle Co., Delaware and Cecil Co., MD then moving to York, Adams or Franklin Co., PA, thence to North Carolina
- Harford or Baltimore Co., MD, thence to Monocacy, Frederick Co., MD, thence to North Carolina
A large percentage of the Quakers and non-Quakers were of Scotch or Irish ancestry. The non-Quakers were mostly Baptists.
https://www.newrivernotes.com/carroll_history_1779-1783_flower_swift_company.htm
My new book has information about these families.
On pages 10, 11, 12 there is great information on where to find land information on this area. The author spent many years of his life gathering land information and he share with the reader where to look for records
While trying to answer a query about how I knew this land to be that of Jacob Elliott, I reviewed what I read in the book. I interpret the below as being when the war was over and the Elliott family were ready to move back to Randolph County, they sold the 240 acres on Chestnut Creek to John Williams. The author has a plat map on page 300 that shows the 150 acres on Chestnut Creek on which John Williams lived.
