The surname Savage is an example of early European surnames created from nicknames. The nicknames were given with reference to a variety of characteristics, such as physical attributes, mental and moral characteristics, or habits of dress or occupation. Savage is of early medieval English origin, and derives from the Middle English and Old French “salvage, sauvage“, wild, uncontrolled. The surname has the distinction of being first recorded in the Domesday Book. Other early examples include: Robert le Sauvage (Surrey, 1198) and Ralph le Savage (Suffolk, 1268). The surname is well-recorded in the Province of Ulster, and the great County Down family of Savage – Savage of the Ards – was planted there by John de Courcey, a Norman invader, as early as 1177. The Annals of the Four Masters mention that the name was Gaelicized as Mac an tSabhasaigh, and accept that the English settlers there became hibernicized. Thomas Savage, “a tayler”, aged 27 yrs., who embarked from London on the ship “Planter” bound for New England in April 1635, was among the first of the name to enter America. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Edric Saluvage, which was dated 1086, in the Domesday Book for Herefordshire, during the reign of King William 1st (William the Conqueror, 1066 – 1087.) Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to develop, often leading to many variants of the original spelling. [i]
The surname Savage was first found in Normandy and England, which implied, perhaps, a roughness of manners. John Sauvage, was a witness in 1222, James Seavage was married in Edinburgh in 1629, and John Savadge appears in “the toun of Sanquhar” in 1641. [ii]
English and Scottish: a nickname for a wild or uncouth person, from Middle English, Old French sauvage ‘untamed’ (Late Latin salvaticus literally ‘man of the woods’, a derivative of Latin silva ‘wood’, influenced by Latin salvus ‘whole’, i.e. natural). Irish: generally of English origin (it was taken to County Down in the 12th century), this name has also sometimes been adopted as equivalent of Irish Gaelic Ó Sabháin, the name of a small south Munster sept, which was earlier Anglicized as O’Savin (see Savin). It is also seen as an Americanized form of Ashkenazic Jewish Savich.[iii]
Selvach (died 729), was king of Scottish Dalriada and was probably a younger son of Fearchair Fada (the Long.)
The Savage Motto
The motto was originally a war cry or slogan. Mottoes first began to be shown with arms in the 14th and 15th centuries but were not in general use until the 17th century. Thus, the oldest coats of arms generally do not include a motto. Mottoes seldom form part of the grant of arms. Under most heraldic authorities, a motto is an optional component of the coat of arms and can be added to or changed at will. Many families have chosen not to display a motto. Motto: A te pro te – From thee, for thee.[iv]
Savage coat of arms
Spelling of the Name
Spelling variations of this family name include: Savage, Sauvage, Savidge, Savadge and others.
Early Savage Settlers
Thomas Savage settled in Virginia in 1607
Richard Savage arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607
Ann Savage arrived in Virginia in 1621
Ann, Frank, Mart, and Thomas Savage settled in Virginia in 1635
Fr Savage arrived in Virginia in 1635
Eliza Savage landed in Virginia in 1701
Richard Savage arrived in Virginia in 1703
Eliz Savage landed in Virginia in 1704
David Savage arrived in Virginia in 1714
John Savage landed in New England in 1716
Job Savage landed in Nova Scotia in 1749
Matthew Savage landed in Nova Scotia in 1749
John Savage, aged 40, arrived in Fort Cumberland, Nova Scotia in 1774
John Savage with his wife and children settled in Fort Cumberland Nova Scotia in 1774
Mr. Abraham Savage U.E. who arrived at Port Roseway, [Shelbourne], Nova Scotia on December 13, 1783 was passenger number 348 aboard the ship HMS Clinton, picked up on November 14, 1783 at East River, New York, USA
James R Savage landed in America in 1801
Patrick D Savage, aged 25, arrived in Maryland in 1812
Crosfield Savage, aged 22, landed in New York in 1812
Patrick Savage arrived in Louisiana in 1824
Anthony Savage landed in New York in 1827
Mary Savage, aged 21, arrived in Saint John, New Brunswick in 1833 aboard the brig William from Cork, Ireland
George Savage, aged 22, a labourer, arrived in Saint John, New Brunswick in 1833 aboard the brig Ugoni from Belfast, Ireland
Jeremiah Savage, aged 22, a labourer, arrived in Saint John, New Brunswick in 1834 aboard the brig Levant Star from Cork, Ireland
James and Jane Savage, arrived in Saint John, New Brunswick aboard the ship Leslie Gault in 1834
Famous Savages
Agnes Yewande Savage (1906 – 1964), the first woman in West Africa to train and qualify in orthodox medicine and also the first West African woman to receive a university degree
Anne Savage, Baroness Berkeley (c. 1496 – before 1546), lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII of England
Ezra P. Savage (1842–1920), American politician and 16th governor of Nebraska
Roz Savage (born 1967), first woman to row solo across three oceans, environmental campaigner
William Alfred Savage (1912–1942), English able seaman in the Royal Navy and recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in the face of the enemy
William Savage (1720–1789), English composer, organist, and singer
Our Savage Ancestors
Thomas William Savage was born in 1621 in Hungars Parish, Northampton, Virginia. He married Bridget Robinson and they had at least one child: Hamilton Savage. Records are sparse, he may have died around or after 1700.
Hamilton Savage was born 1700 in Accomack County, Virginia. He married Rachel (last name unknown) and they had at least one child: William Savage. Hamilton may have been married prior to his marriage to Rachel as he was 55 years old and she was 25 years old when their son William was born. Hamilton Savage died 1785 in Cherrystone, Northampton, Virginia.
William Savage was born 1755 and married Mary Robins in 1778 in Barren, Kentucky. William and Mary had at least 5 children: John (b. 1775), our ancestor Jeanette (b. 1779), William Jr. (b. 1784), Jerusha (b. 1785), and James (b. 1789). Mary died in 1789, possibly in childbirth. William died at age 51 in 1806 in Barren, Kentucky.
Jeanette Savage is believed to have been born October 13, 1779 in Surry, South Carolina. Some researchers have her birthdate as 1783, but she is listed as age 71 on the 1850 census, which would make her birth year 1779.
Famous contemporaries of Jeanette also born in 1779 were William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; Clement Clarke Moore, US professor and author (‘Twas the Night Before Christmas); and Francis Scott Key, American lawyer, poet and composer of the lyrics to Star-Spangled Banner.[v]
Also in 1779, the war for independence was still being waged by the colonies against Britain. US General Anthony Wayne captured Stony Point, New York, inflicting heavy losses on the British; the Battle of Stono Ferry was fought near Charleston, South Carolina; John Paul Jones, aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard, defeated the British frigate HMSSerepis and became the United States first well-known naval hero; John Adams negotiated Revolutionary War peace terms with Great Britain; during the Siege of Savannah in Georgia, Army General Casimir Pulaski is wounded and died two days later; and Benedict Arnold was court-martialed for improper conduct. Samuel Huntington is elected President of the Continental Congress, succeeding John Jay. [vi]
Jeanette married Zephaniah Bell around 1806-1807. Their children were James (b. 1807), Valentine (b. 1809), Elizabeth (b. 1811), Emily (b. 1813), Dorinda Jane (b. 1814), Mary Polly (b. 1815), Andrew Jackson (b. 1815), Benjamin Franklin (b. 1826). Jeanette and Zephaniah are listed on the 1850 U.S. census living with their son Benjamin Franklin Bell and his family in Cooper, Missouri. (Zephaniah died the following year, 1851.)
1850 US Census, Missouri
The 1860 U.S. census lists Jeanette (shown as “Jane”) staying with their daughter Dorinda Jane and her husband John Fort and family in Revalee, Scott County, Arkansas. (This census lists Jeanette’s age as 86 which would put her birth year around 1774.) Jeanette died in 1860 in Cooper County, Missouri, although some researchers list her date of death as 1851.
A Brief Note regarding Slave schedules: I would have to hope that no one really wants to see the names of their ancestors appear on a list of slave owners, but unfortunately, with the number of ancestors increasing exponentially as the generations are traced upward, it is inevitable. I do not intend to debate or condone slave ownership, but acknowledge that it is part of history, not only in the United States, but around the world since the dawn of civilization (and continues today in every part of the world.) That does not make it right, just a fact. The root of slavery is not about race or ethnicity, but about power and economics.
Origins of the Name
Thornton is an English, Irish and Scottish surname, describing people who moved from Thornton, a village in Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire (England), or Mearns (Scotland). It was derived from the Old English “thorn”, meaning thornbush, and “tun”, meaning and enclosure or town. The name Thornton was bestowed when the village grew thornbushes to keep raiders out and cattle in. Thornton family history traces back to Peter Thornton and the Lords of Ince in Cheshire in 1066, while American Thornton genealogy started in the 1630s in New England, Maryland, and Virginia. The family motto, “fideli tuta merces”, means “rewards go to the faithful”, and the coat of arms has three hawthorn trees.[i]
The surname Thornton was first found in Cheshire where the founder of the family was Peter Thornton, Secretary to the Blundells. Thornton in Lancashire is home to another branch of the family.
“In the Testa de Nevill is mentioned Matilda de Thorenton, who was at the king’s donation, but unmarried. In the 17th of Edward II, half the town of Thornton was held by William Banastre, and the other moiety by Laurence de Thorneton, a descendant probably of the above-named Matilda.”
Another branch of the family was found in Arrow(e) in Cheshire from ancient times. “A moiety of the manor was in the Thornton family in the reign of Edward II and passed by successive female heirs to the Duttons and Gerards.”
Nether Witton in Northumberland was also an ancient family seat. “In the 14th century, [the manor of Nether Witton] became the property of Roger de Thornton, who built the ancient baronial tower, and, dying in 1429, was succeeded by his son, whose daughter and heiress conveyed it by marriage to George, Lord Lumley, of Lumley Castle. The estate subsequently became again the property of the Thornton family, of whom James left two daughters, who, as co-heiresses, conveyed it by marriage to the Trevelyans and the Withams, whose descendants are at present its proprietors. The manor house, a handsome mansion of white freestone, erected in the 17th century, is beautifully situated in tastefully embellished grounds; it is said to have been visited by Cromwell in the summer of 1651, and to have been the hiding-place of Lord Lovat, after his flight from the field of Culloden.”
Yorkshire was a county of significance. “The explanation of so many Thorntons in the Yorkshire directories lies in the fact that there are at least three Thorntons in that county including Thornton-in-Craven, and Thornton-in-Lonsdale.”
The Hundredorum Rolls of 1273 confirmed the Yorkshire existence of the family there at that time (Hugh de Thorneton and Richard de Thorneton) but also included a lone Cambridgeshire listing: Roger de Thoratone.
Another source confirms the Yorkshire significance: “ Yorkshire abounds with places so called. Thorne appears to have been an old Anglo-Saxon personal name; and hence Thornton may mean the homestead of Thorne.” [ii]
Spelling of the Name
The name Thornton has undergone many spelling variations, including Thornton, Thornten, Thoroton.
Famous Thorntons
Gilbert de Thornton (d. 1295), English judge who was engaged as a crown advocate in 1291. On 2 Oct. 1284, he was sent to Ireland on the king’s service and later became Chief Justice of the King’s Bench.
Sir Isaac Thornton (1615–1669) English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1660.
Sir Robert Thornton, Lord of East Newton (1454-1514) Transcriber of the ‘Thornton Romances.’ Thornton spent much of his life in transcribing, and perhaps translating into English, romances and other works popular in his day. His is probably Robert Thornton of East Newton, near Pickering, in the North Riding of Yorkshire. He is said to have been a native of Oswaldkirk, and references to that place and to Pickering occur in his writings. He held several manors, was married, and had children. His grandson, Robert Thornton, born in 1454, married a daughter of William Layton of Sproxton; from him descend the Thorntons of East Newton, in the possession of which family the Lincoln manuscript of the ‘Thornton Romances’ remained until late in the sixteenth century.[iii]
Dr. Robert Thoroton (1623-1678) English antiquary, mainly remembered for his county history, The Antiquities of Nottinghamshire (1677). He belonged to an old Nottinghamshire family, which took its name from Thoroton, near Newark. He resided mainly at another village in the same neighborhood, Car Colston, where he practiced as a physician, and lived the life of a country gentleman. He took little part in the (English) Civil War, but his sympathies were with the royalists. However, as a magistrate he was very active in persecuting the Quakers. In return, the Quakers were active in recording the occasions on which he imposed heavy fines on poor members of their faith, often depriving them of the tools to make a living.[iv]
Matthew Thornton (1714–1803) Irish-born Founding Father of the United States who signed the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of New Hampshire.
Billy Bob Thornton, American actor. Thornton has received the President’s Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, a Special Achievement Award from the National Board of Review, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He has also been nominated for an Emmy Award, four Golden Globes, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Dorothea Glenys Thornton, Baroness Thornton (known as Glenys Thornton), Labour and Co-operative politician serving as a Member of the House of Lords since 1998. She was a Government Whip from 2008 to 2010 and a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health from 2010 to 2010.
Henry Thornton (1760–1815) Abolitionist, English economist, banker, philanthropist and parliamentarian.
Kathryn Ryan Cordell Thornton (born August 17, 1952) American scientist and a former NASA astronaut with over 975 hours in space, including 21 hours of extravehicular activity. She was the associate dean for graduate programs at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science, currently a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.
Thorntons in America
There were five Thornton families residing in Richmond County, Virginia and the nearby counties of Gloucester and Lancaster in the latter part of the 17th century. The first of these families stemmed from William Thornton of Gloucester County, who first appears in the Virginia records in 1646 and left three sons: William of Gloucester (1649-1727), Francis of Stafford County (1651-1726), and Rowland of Richmond County (d. 1701.) Their descendants have been traced in various articles in Virginia County Records, Vol. 5, pp. 99, and other Thornton genealogies. The other four Thornton families were those of Luke, William, and Henry Thornton of Richmond County, and Dr. Thomas Thornton of Lancaster County. There are no provable relationships among these five Thornton families, although there is a hint of a connection of the Gloucester family with our Luke Thornton family.[v]
Our Thornton Ancestors
Genealogists believe that our ancestor Luke (Generation 1) Thornton, Sr. was probably born in 1650 in Richmond, Virginia where he is known to have lived at the time of his death. He had five sons and two daughters with his wife Ann Hall. Ann died between October 5, 1725, when she is mentioned in a deed that Luke Thornton made to his heirs, and between January 29 and March 2, 1726, when Luke wrote his will and makes no mention of his wife. Their children were: Luke, Jr., Elizabeth, John, Matthew, our ancestor Mark, Thomas, and Ann. He died in 1725 in Rappahannock, Virginia, having lived a long life of 75 years. His will names his two living sons, Thomas and Matthew, as well as two living daughters, Ann and Elizabeth, as well as several grandchildren. There is a mass of old church and land records concerning Luke Thornton and his sons and grandsons, in several Virginia counties, Richmond and others.[vi]
Mark G2 Thornton was born on September 23, 1686, in Farnham, Virginia. He married Mary Bruce around 1707. They had three sons: Mark (b.1712), our ancestor John (b. 1715), and Thomas (b. 1719). Mark died in 1721 in Richmond, Virginia, at the age of 35.
John G3 Thornton was born in 1715, his father, Mark, was 29 and his mother, Mary, was 23. He married Jemima Longworth around 1740 in Orange, Virginia. They had four children: our ancestor Luke (b. 1741), William (b. 1745), Henry (b. 1750) and Randolph (b. 1759). He died in 1800 in Spartanburg, South Carolina, at the age of 85 years.
Luke G4 Thornton (Jr.) was born in 1741 in Richmond, Henry County, Virginia. He married Martha Rogers in 1762 in Lunenburg, Virginia. They had two children during their marriage, William and our ancestor John. Luke died in 1804 in Spartanburg, South Carolina, at the age of 63.
John G5 Thornton was born in April 1769 in Lunenburg, Virginia. He married Elisabeth Crow on August 15, 1789, in Spartanburg, South Carolina. (James, John and Isaac Crow are listed as near neighbors of John on the 1790 U.S. Census in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Both James and Isaac have females listed in their household around the approximate age of Elisabeth.) John and Elizabeth had nine children in 21 years. Their children are believed to be Elisha, William P., Luke, John Jr., our ancestor Thomas, James, Mary, Bathsheba and Elizabeth.
John died in 1852, in Aliceville, Alabama, and was buried in the Beulah Baptist Church Cemetery, Mantua, Greene County, Alabama.
Thomas G6 Thornton was born on July 21, 1812, in Spartanburg, South Carolina to John and Elisabeth (Crow) Thornton. He married Elizabeth Roberts on December 30, 1830. They had 14 children in 26 years. John, Daniel Roberts, our ancestor Sarah Ann, James M., Elisha H., Martha Elisabeth, Lucinda, Thomas L., and Columbus are listed as their children on the 1850 U.S. Federal Census where they lived in the Attala Township, Mississippi. Twins Napoleon Bonaparte and Sebastian Cabot, Gustaves Augustus, and Mary Ann are listed on the 1860 census in Attala.
Thomas died on May 28, 1900 at age 87, and was buried in the Thornton Cemetery in Attala County, Mississippi.
“He died as he lived, trusting in God”
Sarah Ann Thornton was born on March 15, 1835, in Pickens County, Alabama to Thomas and Elizabeth (Roberts) Thornton. Other (perhaps more well-known) events to take place in 1835 were the publication of Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales, the first tour of P.T. Barnum’s circus, Charles Darwin reached the Galapagos archipelago, Tahiti, and New Zealand aboard the HMS Beagle, and the Treaty of New Echota was signed between the US government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction to cede all lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States, beginning the Trail of Tears.
Sarah married John Bishop Henderson in 1849 in Mississippi. They had five children in 17 years, Mary Tallulah (Lou), our ancestor Alice Elizabeth, Hattie, Amanda, and Joseph Pinkney. Sarah appears on the 1850 U.S. census in Attala, Mississippi, on the 1860 U.S. census in Anderson, Texas, 1880 in Erath, Texas, 1900 in Midland, Texas, and 1910 in Merkel, Texas. She died on December 23, 1913, in Crandall, Texas at the age of 78 years. Her cause of death is listed as “cerebral hemorrhage.” Sarah is buried at Rose Hill Cemetery in Merkel, Taylor County, Texas.
I am an amateur genealogy hobbyist, and not a professional. I do not represent that all facts included here are documented. I have been researching my family tree for 50 years and rely primarily on the following sources: Ancestry, FamilySearchFind-a-Grave, Wiki.Geni, WikiTree, just to mention a few, as well as a multitude of Google, WikiCommons and WikiPedia searches for historical information. I make every attempt to assign credit for the information I share.
Origin of the Name
Henderson is a common Scottish surname. The name is derived from patronymic form of the name Hendry, which is a Scottish form of Henry. Some Hendersons also derive their name from Henryson.
Henderson, Henry and Hendry are names so closely tied and so widespread it is not possible to determine one single line as being the first. Through its Gaelic translation into English, the name MacKendrick is revealed as another variation of Henderson. The Hendersons of Caithness and surrounding areas claim their descent from Henry, son of George Gunn, the chief of Clan Gunn and ‘Crowner’ of Scotland in the 1400s, who was deceived and slain by the Keiths.[i]
The surname Henderson is borne by numerous unrelated families in Scotland. For example, the Hendersons of Fordell, in Fife, were the chief Lowland family of the name. This family descended from a family of Henrysons, from Dumfriesshire (in southwest Scotland.) The Hendersons of Glencoe derive their surname from the Gaelic MacEanruig. There is no known connection between the Hendersons of Clan Gunn and Clan MacDonald or the Hendersons of the Scottish Borders. The surname is rendered in Scottish Gaelic as: MacEanraig or MacEanruig (masculine), and NicEanraig or NicEanruig (feminine).[ii]
The Henderson clan’s historical seat is at Fordell Castle in Dalgety Bay, Fife.[iii]
Henderson Clan History
Unlike some Scottish clans, the Hendersons do not really have a focal point and have, through history and a diversity of origins, spread over Scotland and later overseas. The Henderson name was to be found in the Shetland Isles, as well as in the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland.
Henderson tartan pattern
Shetlands – In the Shetlands, in 1582, the King of Denmark gave the patronymic Henryson to all subsequent generates of William Magnusson. By the 17th century, many of Shetlands Hendersons migrated to the border regions of Liddesdale and later, evidence suggests that large numbers went on to Ulster and then, beyond.
Perhaps their old traditions have been best preserved in their remotest outpost, the Shetland Isles. In the 1620’s, Magnus Henderson of Nordic roots was the first there to take the Henderson name. He became a patriarch of a large family which is traceable down to the present day. Bruce Henderson from Yell has kept up the old art of storytelling; and traditional arts of fiddle playing and singing are still appreciated.
Highlands – The Hendersons had held sway at Glencoe in the Highlands from early times. The last Henderson chief at Glencoe was Dugald MacEanruig. The leadership then passed through marriage to the MacDonalds. But both were wiped out in 1692 by the English at the massacre in Glencoe. At the time of the Massacre of Glencoe, in 1692, our Gaelic-speaking ancestors served the MacDonald Chief (Mac Ian) as the traditional pipers of his Clan. Of 38 men, women and children killed that fateful morning, 22 were Hendersons.[iv]
Many Hendersons had slipped away before that time. One group established themselves in Caithness; others in the Lowlands, Robert Henderson at Fordell in Fife and various Hendersons at Liddlesdale and elsewhere in the Border country. By the mid-18th century, Hendersons had spread to Caithness and Aberdeen in the north, to Fife and to Perth; but the numbers then had started to decline in the Borders.
In the years with the MacDonalds, it became tradition that the Hendersons, known for their size and strength, formed the personal bodyguard of the chief. Standing six feet and seven inches tall, the powerful Big Henderson of the Chanters was MacLain’s piper and protector, and fell with the chief in the cold February night of 1692 in the Massacre of Glencoe, the treacherous outrage ordered by King William of Orange.[v]
Lowlands – Hendersons in Fifeshire descended from a family of Henrysons in Dumfriesshire. They date in Fifeshire from 1511 when they were granted land there and commenced building Fordell castle. Alexander Henderson from this family was one of the drafters of the National Covenant in 1637, John Henderson a settler in Virginia in the 1740’s. The castle itself stayed in family hands until 1866.
Ireland – The Borders were economically ravaged during the 17th century. A large number of Hendersons took up the chance for a new life and new lands in Ulster. They settled first in Donegal and then in Tyrone and Antrim.
But many, discriminated against in their new homes, did not stay. Another exodus began, this time to America and Australia. Among those who left were Alexander Henderson and his family, in 1803, from Killybegs in Donegal to America, and Thomas and Mary Henderson and their infant son on the Sugar Cane as convicts to Australia.
England – The surname was unknown in England prior to the 17th century. It was first mentioned in a marriage document between one of the Borders Hendersons and the daughter of a Carlisle merchant at Hexham. Scottish Hendersons later began moving to England, to Northumberland and to Durham where many became miners.
There was a cluster of Hendersons along the Tyne river. One family has traced its Hendersons back to Bedlington in the 1750’s. The splendidly named Charles Chipchase Henderson took over the Hexham racecourse on the Tyne in 1890 and made it a premier place for steeple chasing.
Further south in Yorkshire, a Henderson family had been clockmakers at the seaside town of Scarborough since the 1680’s. Their name appeared in the local press in tragic circumstances in 1791 when Robert Henderson, known as the sailing Quaker, was drowned in his coble (small fishing boat) in the sight of the whole town.
America – The Scots Hendersons first crossed the Atlantic in the 1650’s.
Australia – The first Henderson arrivals into Australia were convicts, more than fifty between 1790 and 1840 (Thomas and Margaret Henderson from Tyrone in Ireland are among the few whose lines have been traced). The first free settler was probably Robert Henderson who farmed land near Lake Macquarie in the 1830’s.
New Zealand – Thomas Henderson was a pioneer settler in New Zealand, arriving in 1840 and starting his Henderson’s Mill outside Auckland. David Henderson from Fife arrived at the Nelson settlement in South Island in 1842. The influx of Hendersons increased as the 19th century proceeded.[vi]
Variations of the Name
The surname spelling variations arose from regional pronunciation differences, and sometimes perversely creative spelling. Some individuals used multiple surname spellings, and sometimes different surname forms. For example, a traveling Henderson might use the surname MacEanruig in the Scottish Highlands, Henderson in the Lowlands, McHenry in Ulster, and Henry in England.
Some Famous Hendersons
William (Bill) McCranor Henderson, American novelist, author of I Killed Hemingway
Richard Henderson was the pioneer merchant in North Carolina who hired Daniel Boone in the 1770’s to cut a wilderness trail through the Cumberland Gap and open up Kentucky for settlement
Our Henderson Ancestors
Our earliest Henderson ancestor is believed to be William Henderson from Fordell, Fife, Scotland, who was married to Jonette Murray.
Their son James Henderson (b. about 1567) in Fordell, Fife, Scotland. One researcher has him married to a Euphanie Smythe, with children Thomas and Margaret.
His son Thomas Henderson was born 1580 at Caithness, Scotland came to the American colonies in 1607, later moved to Blue Springs, Virginia near Jamestown, and died in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. (That he was born in Caithness and not in Fifeshire as was his father and grandfather has been questioned.) His wife’s name is unknown. It has been said that he was one of the founders of Jamestown, Virginia, although no evidence of his name appearing in The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles: With the Names of the Adventurers, Planters, and Governours from Their First Beginning, Ano: 1584. To This Present 1624, by John Smith, 1580-1631 has been found.[vii] (It is possible that further information may be found in a book by David Dobson: The Scots overseas : emigrants and adventurers from Aberdeen and North East Scotland, Fife, Moray and Banff, Angus and Perth, Southern Scotland, Glasgow and the West of Scotland, Orkney and Shetland, the Lothians, and the Northern Highlands.)
Thomas’ son Richard Henderson was born 1618 in Jamestown and died in Hanover, Virginia in 1655. Some sources list his wife as Polly Washer.
Richard’s son Robert Henderson (b. 1634 James City, Virginia and d. after 1666 in New Kent Co., Virginia)
Robert’s son Thomas Henderson (b. 1655 in New Kent Co., Virginia d. 1704 in New Kent Co., Virginia)
Thomas had a son, Richard Henderson (b. 1678 in New Kent Co., Virginia, d. 1748 in Goochland Co., Virginia)
Richard’s son Nathaniel Henderson (b. 1714, in Henrico Co., Virginia, and d. 1794 in York Co., South Carolina) His will is recorded in the State of South Carolina in 1794, naming a wife, Ellanah, daughter Elisabeth, sons Nathaniel, Daniel, James, Robert, Samuel, and Thomas. The will also states that Nathaniel Sr. owns a 640-acre plantation.
Our story picks up in earnest with Nathaniel’s son Daniel Henderson, who was born in 1771 in Yorkville, York County, South Carolina.
According to one researcher, Daniel Henderson fought at King’s Mountain in the Revolutionary war. The actual battle took place on October 7, 1780, nine miles south of the present-day town of Kings Mountain, North Carolina in rural York County, South Carolina, where the Patriot militia defeated the Loyalist militia commanded by British Major Patrick Ferguson of the 71st Foot.
Map spot for Blacksburg, South Carolina
No one in the Patriot army held command once the fighting started. Each detachment fought independently under the previously agreed to plan to surround and destroy the Loyalists. The Patriots crept up the hill and fired from behind rocks and trees. Ferguson rallied his troops and launched a desperate bayonet-charge against Campbell and Sevier. Lacking bayonets, the rebels ran down the hill and into the woods. Campbell soon rallied his troops, returned to the hill, and resumed firing. Ferguson ordered two more bayonet Lacking bayonets, the rebels ran down the hill and into the woods. Campbell soon rallied his troops, returned to the hill, and resumed firing. Ferguson ordered two more bayonet charges during the battle. This became the pattern of the battle; the Patriots would charge up the hill, then the Tories would charge down the hill with fixed bayonets, driving the Patriots off the slopes and into the woods, and once the charge was spent and the Tories would return to their positions, the Patriots would reform in the woods, return to the base of the hill, and charge up the hill again. During one of the charges, Colonel Williams was killed, and Colonel McDowell was wounded. Firing was difficult for the Loyalists, since the Patriots constantly moved using cover and concealment to their advantage. Furthermore, the downhill angle of the hill contributed to the Loyalists overshooting their mark.
After an hour of combat, Loyalist casualties were heavy. Ferguson rode back and forth across the hill, blowing a silver whistle he used to signal charges. Shelby, Sevier and Campbell then reached the top of the hill behind the Loyalist position and attacked Ferguson’s rear. The Loyalists were driven back into their camp at the toe of the hill, where they began to surrender. Ferguson drew his sword and hacked down any small white flags that he saw popping up, but he apparently knew that the end was near. In an attempt to rally his faltering men, Ferguson shouted out “Hurrah, brave boys, the day is ours!” He gathered a few officers together and attempted to cut through the Patriot ring, but Sevier’s men fired a volley and Ferguson was shot dead from his horse. When the rebels found his corpse they counted seven bullet wounds.
Seeing their leader fall, the Loyalists began to surrender. Some rebels did not initially want to take prisoners, eager to avenge the ‘Waxhaw Massacre’ (or the “Battle of Waxhaws”) where Banastre Tarleton’s men had killed a sizable number of Abraham Buford’s Continental soldiers after the latter had surrendered. (At Waxhaws, Tarleton’s horse was shot, pinning him to the ground, leading his men to believe their commanding officer had been killed under a white flag of surrender.) Also, other rebels were seemingly unaware that the Loyalists were attempting to surrender. Loyalist Captain Abraham DePeyster, in command after Ferguson was killed, sent out an emissary with a white flag, asking for quarter. For several minutes, the Patriots rejected DePeyster’s white flag and continued firing, many of them shouting, “Give ’em Tarleton’s Quarter!” and “Give them Buford’s play!” A significant number of the surrendering Loyalists were killed. When DePeyster sent out a second white flag, a few of the rebel officers, including Campbell and Sevier, ran forward and took control by ordering their men to cease fire, and taking about 700 Loyalist prisoners.
The Battle of Kings Mountain lasted 65 minutes. The Loyalists suffered 290 killed, 163 wounded, and 668 taken prisoner. The Patriot militia suffered 29 killed and 58 wounded. The Patriots had to move out quickly for fear that Cornwallis would advance to meet them. Loyalist prisoners well enough to walk were herded to camps several miles from the battlefield. The dead were buried in shallow graves and wounded were left on the field to die. Ferguson’s corpse was later reported to have been mangled and wrapped in oxhide before burial. Both victors and vanquished came near to starvation on the march due to a lack of supplies in the hastily organized Patriot army.[viii]
Thomas Jefferson called it “The turn of the tide of success.” The battle of Kings Mountain, fought October 7, 1780, was an important American victory during the Revolutionary War. The battle was the first major patriot victory to occur after the British invasion of Charleston, South Carolina in May 1780. The state park preserves the site of this important battle.[ix] (See also South Carolina State Parks. [x])
King’s Mountain battlefield is now the site of a National Military Park in South Carolina, complete with a film produced by The History Channel, a museum, a living history farm, camping, and a battlefield trail.[xi]
Daniel Henderson and his wife, Ann Brown, married (probably about 1793-94) and had at least 4 children: John Robert (b. 1796), Azoe Neely (or Washington Azor, per some records, b. 1798), an unknown daughter (b. 1800) and our ancestor James Franklin, who was born on February 15, 1795, in York, York County, South Carolina. Daniel (and son Azoe) both appear with their families on the 1830 U.S. Census in Pickens County, Alabama.
United States in 1795
A Land Purchase document awarded on September 20, 1839, by U.S. President Martin Van Buren records Daniel Henderson’s purchase of “the North East quarter of the North West quarter of Section Thirty-One in Township Eighteen of Range Fifteen West in the District of Lands subject to sale at Tuscaloosa, Alabama containing forty aces and six hundredths of an acre.”
James Franklin Henderson married Elizabeth Bishop March 12, 1816, in Anderson County, South Carolina, with whom he fathered seven children, Sarah Ann (b. 1817), Henry Nicholas (b. 1820), Daniel (b. 1822), our ancestor John Bishop (b. 1824), Joseph Dixon (b.1827), Dorcas Elizabeth (b. 1829), and James Franklin Jr. (b. 1834). Following the death of his first wife Elizabeth on June 20, 1844, James later married his second wife Rebecca Alexander Waddill, with whom he fathered three more children, Allen[xii] (or Alice, depending on the source) (b. 1846), William Calvin (b. 1847) , and Harrison Arial (b. 1849.) James Franklin died August 21, 1861, at the age of 65 in Anderson, Texas.[xiii]
The family appears on the 1840 U.S. Census in Pickens District, Pickens County, South Carolina, and 1850 in Eastern Division, Pickens County, South Carolina.
The first European settlers came to York in the early 1750s, having migrated south from Pennsylvania and Virginia. Of the three major groups settling Pennsylvania, the English came first, then the Germans, and then the Scots. The county names of Lancaster, Chester and York had been brought from England to Pennsylvania, and then on to South Carolina by the early settlers. (Prior to this, the first known inhabitants of York County were the Catawba Indians.)
The town of York was originally known as Fergus’s Crossroads, named for a tavern owned by two brothers, William and John Fergus, which was located at the intersection of the road from Rutherfordton to Camden and the road from Charlottesburg (Charlotte) to Augusta. When the county of York was established in 1785, the state statute required each county to erect a courthouse and public buildings in the most convenient part of the county, with a tax levied to cover the cost of “building the court houses, prisons, pillories, whipping posts and stocks. “ Fergus’s Crossroads was near the geographic center of the newly formed county and was chosen for the site of the new county seat.
The town of Yorkville was established as the County seat in 1785. Situated between two Revolutionary battle sites, the Battle of Kings Mountain and the Battle of Williamson’s Plantation, York was the only county in South Carolina to remain undefeated during that war.
In 1823 there were 451 people living in Yorkville, 292 white and 159 black, with 80 houses in the town, eight stores, five taverns, one male academy and one female academy, and a printing office. The town could boast 52 mechanics, eight lawyers, two physicians and one clergyman.
Yorkville was officially incorporated on December 7, 1841. W.I. Clawson was the first mayor, and Stanhope Sadler, F.M. Galbraith, T.H. Simril and B. T. Wheeler were wardens. The population was about 800. Over the next two decades, before the outbreak of the American Civil War, Yorkville’s population swelled to 2,000. In 1860, a gas works was installed on West Liberty Street, below the old county jail; Yorkville was the first town in the Upcountry with gas lighting.
In 1853 Lewis Grist bought his father’s newspaper and changed the name to the Yorkville Enquirer, which was published weekly until 2006, when it was merged with the Clover Herald to form the Enquirer-Herald, a weekly newspaper covering western York County.[xiv]
James Franklin Henderson died on August 27, 1861, in Anderson, Texas, at the age of 66. (Another source says he died in Fosterville, TX.)
John Bishop Henderson was born 17 Dec 1824 in South Carolina. He married Sarah Ann Thornton 18 Sep. 1849 and died 26 Apr 1910.[xv]
At the time of John Bishop’s birth, a controversial U.S. presidential election was being decided in which John Quincy Adams was eventually elected as president without getting the majority of the electoral vote or the popular vote, being the only president to do so.[xvi] Later that month was the Decembrist Revolt in Russia against Tsar Nicholas, which has been considered the beginning of a revolutionary movement in Russia, opening the breach between government and reformist elements.[xvii]
United States in 1824
Some well-known historical figures born in 1824 include: Confederate general “Stonewall” Jackson, Pierre Janssen, French astronomer and discovered of helium, California governor Leland Stanford (founder of Stanford University), William Thomson, Irish-Scottish physicist and engineer who was involved with the laying of the Trans-Atlantic telegraph cable, and Scottish poet and author George MacDonald.[xviii]
John Bishop Henderson and Sarah Ann Thornton were the parents of Mary Tallulah, our ancestor Alice Elizabeth, Hattie, Amanda, and Joseph Pinkney. The family was living in Anderson County, Texas at the time of the 1860 U.S. Census.
By 1880, John Bishop’s children were adults. He and Sarah were living in Erath County, Texas, as shown on the 1880 U.S. Census.
Military records from Fort Davis, Texas show that John B. Henderson reported for duty on March 26, 1880 as a witness before a General Court Martial.
According to information found on the Find-a-Grave memorial website:
Capt. John B. Henderson moved to Palo Pinto County in the spring of 1860 settling on Rush Creek. After Indians became too troublesome to remain there, the family moved to Palo Pinto for the safety of the settlement. Portions of the log house where they lived still stand in Palo Pinto. John B. Henderson was an Indian fighter and drove large herds of cattle beginning with a bunch he drove up the Pecos in 1865. His daughter, Donnie Henderson, was born southeast of Strawn in 1864. – The Mineral Wells Index, May 10, 1957
His obituary reads, in part:
In addition to this is the grief of our community over the death of John B. Henderson which occurred at 8:45 o’clock this morning. Grandpa Henderson, as he was known, was one of our most honored old people, the father of Mrs. Mary Edwards and grandfather of Mrs. G.M. Sharp of our city. Besides these and a number of grandchildren and other relatives, he leaves a wife who had for several months been in very feeble health.
The death this morning marked the separation of this good old couple who have been married and lived together for more than sixty years. John B. Henderson was born in Pickens District…where he lived until manhood and moved to Mississippi. Here he met Miss S.A. Thornton whom he married in 1849. In 1850 they moved to Anderson County, Texas, where he lived ten years and lived in Erath and Palo Pinto counties during the times of the Civil Ware. He has been a Mason since 1848, has even been an active temperance man and a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. At the end of this sixty years of happy wedded life, he leaves more than one hundred living descendants.
He was a good man and lived an honorable life, always exercising a strong influence for good with those among whom he lived.
Alice Elizabeth Henderson was born January 26, 1853, in North Palestine, Anderson, Texas. On November 22, 1870, she married William Asbury Bell (b. 1838.) Seven children were known to have been born to William and Alice: David Oscar “D.O.” (b. 1871), John Franklin (b. 1875), our ancestor Susan Gertrude (b. 1879), Donnie Margaret (b. 1883), Charles William (b. 1884), Rolland Cameron (b. 1893), and James Pinkney (b. 1896, who died as an infant.)
In the same year as Alice Henderson’s birth, the first horse-drawn fire engine in the U.S. entered service with Cincinnati, Ohio becoming the first U.S. city to employ fulltime professional firefighters, the U.S. territory of Washington was organized after separating from Oregon Territory, potato chips were claimed to have been invented in Saratoga Springs, New York, Antoinette Blackwell was the first U.S. woman to be ordained as a minister, and Commodore Matthew C. Perry sailed his frigate Susquehanna into Tokyo Bay, opening Japan to Western influence and trade.
Some well-known people to be born the same year include Vincent van Gogh, Tad Lincoln, son of President Abraham Lincoln, Cecil Rhodes, British politician and Prime Minister of Cape Colony and provider of the Rhodes Scholarship, American actress Lilly Langtry and later mistress of future King of England, Edward VII.[xix]
United States in 1853
Alice died on May 21, 1918, at the age of 65 in Dalhart, Dallam County, Texas and is buried with her husband in the Nara Visa Cemetery, Nara Visa, New Mexico.
Headstone for William and Alice (Henderson) Bell in Nara Visa, New Mexico
Although some of the dates in our Henderson line seem to vary with different researchers and source material, the Henderson family is currently the longest line that we have traced in our family tree.
Please note that I am an amateur genealogy hobbyist, and not a professional. I do not represent that all facts included here are documented. I have been researching my family tree for 50 years and rely primarily on the following sources: Ancestry, FamilySearchFind-a-Grave, Wiki.Geni, WikiTree, just to mention a few, as well as a multitude of Google and WikiPedia searches for historical information. I make every attempt to assign credit for the information I share.
Origin of the Name
The name of Frazier has always appeared in various forms, and the spelling varies greatly. While usually assumed to be Scottish, the name was originally Norman, and appears on the Battle Abbey Roll.[i]
In this early period appear the spellings: Frisell, Frasell, Fraser, and Frazer. It is supposed that the name originated in the bearing on the arms of the family of fraises or strawberry leaves.[ii]
Fraser of Lovat arms
One explanation of the appearance of the family in Scotland is given in the tradition that about 794 A.D., Pierre Fraser or Frazer, Seigneur de Troile, was sent by Charlemagne as an ambassador to Achaius, King of Scotland, and that he married Euphemia, daughter of Rahan, a favorite of Achaius. It is also claimed that the Lord Lovat, head of the Clan Fraser, were related to the Marquis de la Frezeliere of France, and that the names had a common origin.
Sir James B. Paul, a knight of the household and family of Henry II of England, was captured by the Count of St. Giles while returning from a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James, and that Frasers, Fresers, Fresels, and Freysels held lands in various English counties during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The Clan of Fraser is one of the largest and most famous of the highland clans. There are sixteen septs (or branches) of the clan. (It will be recalled that in Scotland, whoever joined a particular clan, no matter what his position or descent, assumed the surname of his chief, and this was accepted as an act of loyalty. No common ancestor is to be inferred.)[iii]
Spelling of the Name
The more usual spelling Scotland is undoubtedly Fraser, but the form Frazer also appears. Fraisier being the original French form, the use of the ending -ier has, of course, sanction. In the United States, spelling is as varied as in Scotland. In Pennsylvania alone it has appeared in many different forms: Fraizier, Fraser, Frasier, Frasure, Frayzier, Frazer, Frazier, Frazor, Freaser, Freasor, Freazor, Freazure, and Frezer. A John Frazer of Philadelphia wrote his name “Frazer”, yet in the baptism of his children it is “Frazier.” Nalbro’ Frazier wrote his name “Frazier”, but on his marriage record and tombstone it is spelled “Frazer.” [iv]
Of Scottish Clans, there currently exist two with a sitting chief. Clan Fraser is a Scottish clan of the Scottish Lowlands. Clan Fraser of Lovat is a Highland Scottish clan. The Clan Fraser of Lovat has been strongly associated with Inverness and the surrounding area since the Clan’s founder gained lands there in the 13th century, but Lovat is in fact a junior branch of the Clan Fraser who were based in the Aberdeenshire area.[v]
Clan Fraser tartan
Fraser of Lovat tartan
Early Frasers
Around the reign of William the Lion (r. 1165–1214), there was a mass of Norman immigration into Scotland. Thomas Grey, a 14th-century English knight, listed several Norman families which took up land during William’s reign. Among those listed, the families of Moubray, Ramsay, Laundells, Valognes, Boys and Fraser are certainly (or probably) introduced under King William.
The earliest written record of Frasers in Scotland is in 1160, when a Simon Fraser held lands in East Lothian at Keith (north eastern Scotland). In that year, he made the gift of a church to the Tironensian monks at Kelso Abbey. The Frasers moved into Tweeddale in the 12th and 13th centuries and from there into the counties of Stirling, Angus, Inverness and Aberdeen.
Clan map
It should also be noted that Fraser / Frazer was a common name found in Ireland, most predominantly in the Belfast area of Northern Ireland. Even so, it is acknowledged to be Scottish in origin.[vi]
Frasers in America
The first appearance of the name in America is in 1640, when William Frazer is recorded at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The next known emigrant was Colin Frazer, of Newbury, Massachusetts, who married there in 1685, Martha, daughter of Duncan Stewart, and by her had issue and numerous descendants, of which later was Nathan Frazier, Esq., a prominent merchant and selectman of Boston during and after the Revolution.[vii]
Under the Chief Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat (who had led the Frasers in the 1745 Jacobite Uprising) a regiment of Frasers, the 78th Fraser Highlanders, numbering fourteen hundred were raised and fought the French and Indians in the colonies and in Canada, from 1757 to 1759. The 78th fought under General Wolfe, who had previously fought at the Battle of Culloden, against Simon and perhaps some of the 78th. It was one of the 78th, possibly Simon, possibly one of his men, whose familiarity with the French language saved the first wave of British troops at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, which led to the capture of Quebec. Many Frasers settled in Canada and the United States after the war against the French in Quebec.
In the fight against American independence Simon, who was by this time a General, raised 2,300 men; the 71st Fraser Highlanders. He recruited two battalions at Inverness, Stirling and Glasgow. Most of the men were not Frasers for the number of Frasers had been substantially reduced after the battle of Culloden and the end of the clan system.
Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat
Frasers have always been known for their fighting spirit and their skill in the art of war. Frasers have fought in many wars, from defending Scottish lands against Dane and Norse invaders, to the Scottish Wars of Independence, to the Jacobite risings, both World Wars, and they continue to serve today. Among the organized regiments were an Independent Highland Company in 1745 that fought at the Battle of Culloden, and The 2nd Highland Battalion, formed in January 1757. The 62nd Regiment of Foot, formed 1757, was soon redesignated as the 78th Fraser Highlanders in 1758, and retired as a fighting unit in 1763, but the unit is still active as a fund-raising organization under the authority of the Lord Lovat. The 71st Fraser Highlanders formed in October 1775, and consisted of two battalions raised at Inverness, Stirling and Glasgow for service in North America. They were disbanded in 1786. The Fraser Fencibles Regiment was raised by Col. the Hon. Archibald Campbell Fraser of Lovat, as a home guard in the event of an invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte. The Fraser Fencibles served in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. The Lovat Scouts, formed in January 1900 by Simon Joseph Fraser, for service in the Second Boer War, saw extensive action during the Great War and the Second World War, and now consist of a platoon, Company C, of the 51st Highland Volunteers.
Clan Fraser memorial stone at Culloden Battlefield
Clan Fraser’s long military history came full circle when the 17th Lord Lovat landed on a Normandy beach in June 1944 at the head of a Commando Brigade. Upon the realization he had landed back where the Frasers had come from, Lord Lovat ordered his personal piper to pipe the unit ashore. This could have spelled disaster for the Commandos, however, the nearby German soldiers reportedly did not fire on the group because they thought their leader, Lord Lovat, was mad.[viii]
Our Frazier Ancestors
Our earliest known Fraser/Frazer ancestor John Frazier is believed to have been born around 1770 in Virginia and died 1828 in Tennessee. (The names of his parents and spouse are undocumented, although some researchers list a spouse, Eva Shaddock. There are quite a number of John Fraziers to be found in various records of the era, but none that we can positively document as our John Frazier. Another possible candidate is a John Watkins Frazier who was born 1770 in Augusta County, Virginia, and married Margaret Paul.) At the age of 32, a daughter Caroline Matilda Frazier was born to John Frazier and his (yet to be determined) wife.
Caroline Matilda Frazier was born September 6, 1803 in Virginia. Also, that same year, Beethoven wrote his Third Symphony, Ohio was the 17th State admitted to the Union, and the U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase.[ix]
Other (perhaps better known) people born the same year include Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Sutter (of Sutter’s Mill and Sutter’s Fort), and physicist Christian Doppler.[x]
Caroline married Hugh Joseph Allen in 1820 in DeKalb, Tennessee. Hugh was 19 years old, Caroline was 18. Hugh and Caroline came to Texas in 1838 with two sons and five daughters and lived in Bexar County, Texas, in 1847 on Cibilo Creek, two miles from Selma, Texas.
Hugh Allen’s family were reported to be the first Anglo settlers in the Katemcy Creek area (McCulloch County). They eventually had 12 children: our ancestor Margaret Allen, Joshua, Mahala, Martha Ann, Caroline Matilda, Hezekiah, James Madison, Hugh (Jr.), Mary, Elizabeth, Sarah Jane, and Rebecca Sterling.
Hugh and Caroline’s household can be found listed in the 1850 Federal Census, living in Cibilo Creek, Bexar Country Texas.
They also appear on the 1860 U.S. Census in Bexar County, no town listed.
Caroline Frazier Allen died on December 6, 1867, in Burnet, Texas, at the age of 64, and was buried in Burnet, Texas.
[i] The surname “Frysel” (vowels were at the time often interchanged) is recorded on the Battle Abbey Roll – supposedly a list of William the Conqueror’s companions, preserved at Battle Abbey, on the site of his great victory over Harold. However, the authenticity of the manuscript is in doubt.
[ii] One tradition suggests that the surname is derived from the French words fraise, meaning strawberry (the fruit), and fraisiers, strawberry plants. There is a fabled account of the Fraser coat of arms which asserts that during the reign of Charles the Simple of France, a nobleman from Bourbon named Julius de Berry entertained the King with a dish of fine strawberries. De Berry was then later knighted, with the knight taking strawberry flowers as his Arms and changing his name from “de Berry” to “Fraiseux” or “Frezeliere”. His direct descendants were to become the lords of Neidpath Castle, then known as Oliver. This origin has been disputed and seen as a classic example of canting heraldry, where heraldic symbols are derived from a pun on similar-sounding surname: (strawberry flowers – fraises)
[iii]The Frazier Family, excerpted from Jelke and Frazier and Allied Families, by L. Effingham De Forest, pub. 1931. pp. 16-17
[iv]Some account of Captain John Frazier and his descendants, by Josiah Granville Leach. pub. 1910, page 8
Please note that I am an amateur genealogy hobbyist, and not a professional. I do not represent that all facts included here are documented. I have been researching my family tree for 50 years and rely primarily on the following sources: Ancestry, FamilySearchFind-a-Grave, Wiki.Geni, WikiTree, just to mention a few, as well as a multitude of Google and WikiPedia searches for historical information. I make every attempt to assign credit for the information I share.
Origins of the Name
This interesting French name is widely recorded. The name holders were Counts of France, the Coat of Arms being Blue with three Silver Bends dexter. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Compte Le Houx. which was dated 1680, Paris, France. during the reign of King Louis XIV, The Sun King, 1643 – 1715. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to develop, often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.[i]
The surname of Houx was a French occupational name for a maker or seller of boots and shoes, or a nickname for someone noted for footwear of an unusual design. The name was derived from the Old French word Heuse[ii]. Other spellings of the name include Haup, Hawks, Hocks, Houchs, House, Heuze, Heuzey, Houts, Houze, Hussey, Houzet, Houzel, Houzeaux and Houzard. It was also a locational name for one who lived in a house. In the Middle Ages the majority of the population lived in cottages or huts rather than houses, and in most cases this name probably indicates someone who had some connection with the largest and most important building of the settlement, perhaps in a religious house or simply the local ‘great house’. In some cases it may indicate a ‘householder’ someone who owned his own dwelling as opposed to being a tenant.
An eminent member of the name was Edward Mandell House (1858-1938) the American Diplomat born in Houston, Texas. During and after World War I he represented America in many conferences, and was a long and close associate of President Wilson. French, or rather Norman French, was the language of the aristocracy and the upper classes in England at the time fixed surnames were being developed, it is therefore not surprising that many of our well-known family names are derived from French words. Many have been translated into English names.[iii]
Early Houx families
Charles Du Houx, soldier, was born at Faucencourt, Vosges, France in 1728. He served in Holland, Hanover, and Corsica, gaining the rank of field marshal. He was sent to Poland and helped capture the castle of Cracow. In 1780, he went to the Colonies to fight in the American Revolution. He was second in command to Count Rochambeau and distinguished himself in the capture of Yorktown in 1781. Later he returned to France and became governor of La Rochelle in 1782. He died in 1792 from wounds received defending King Louis XVI of France during an assault on the Tuileries during the Insurrection of August 10, 1792, a pivotal event in the French Revolution.
Charles’ brother, Charles Joseph Hyacinthe Du Houx, Marquis de Viomenil, was born in Vosges, France in 1724. He served In Germany during the Seven Years War. He also came to the Colonies in 1780 to find in the War for Independence. Returning to France in 1782, he was appointed governor of Martinique from 1789-90. He emigrated from France as a royalist in 1791, served in various military commands in Russia and Portugal. He died in Paris, France in 1827.[iv]
Other early Houx settlers to Canada include:
Jean LeHoux, who landed in Montreal in 1643, married in Quebec in 1659
Francoise LeHoux, who arrived in Quebec in 1651, married in Quebec in 1653
Elisabeth Lehoux married in Sainte-Famille, Quebec in 1682
Joseph Lehoux, son of Élie and Anne, who married Marie-Madeleine Lefebvre, daughter of Thomas and Geneviève, in Quebec on 4th December 1700
Jean Lehoux, son of Jean and Élisabeth, who married Jeanne Gerber, daughter of Mathurin and Jeanne, in Sainte-Famille-de-l’île-d’Orléans, Quebec on 22nd November 1701
Jean-Baptiste Lehoux, son of Jean and Jeanne, who married Angélique Chaussé, daughter of Jean-Baptiste and Marie-Madeleine, in Quebec on 6th February 1741
Hyacinthe-Charles Lehoux, son of Jean and Jeanne, who married Françoise Morisset, daughter of Gencien and Geneviève, in Sainte-Famille-de-l’île-d’Orléans, Quebec on 27th November 1741
Pierre-Joseph Lehoux, son of Jean and Jeanne, who married Marthe Asselin, daughter of François and Marguerite, in Sainte-Famille-de-l’île-d’Orléans, Quebec on 14th February 1746 [v]
Our Houx Ancestors
The Houx family line is the second longest line we have traced in our Coots family tree. Our earliest known Houx ancestor was Bastien André Houx (père) who was born about 1645 in Meurthe-et-Moselle, Lorraine, France. (The name Bastien is a shortened version of the name Sébastien, from the martyr St. Sebastian.) He married Anne Monin. Their son, Bastien André Houx (fils) was born 1669 in Meurthe-et-Moselle, Lorraine, France and died around 1760, (possibly in Kassel, Stadt Kassel, Hessen, Germany.) André married Laurance Villaume about January 22, 1687 in Crévic, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Lorraine, France and they had at least 6 children: Laurance (b. 1687), Claude (b. 1691), Nicolas (b. 1695), Jean (b. 1697), Bastien André III (b. 1699), and our ancestor Johan Joseph (b. 1701.)
It is worth mentioning that 1669 was the same year that French King Louis XIV limited freedom of religion. The fact that André fils’ grandson Theodor Friedrich Houx was mentioned as a devout Lutheran and the surrounding decades were marked with religious persecution in France towards the Protestants speaks to the idea that the family’s movements from France to Germany and eventually to the United States might have been influenced by their desire for freedom of religion.
Johan Joseph, born September 23, 1701 in Crévic, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Lorraine, France, married Magdalena Schmidt in 1724, Palatinate, Germany, and died 1775 in Baden Württemburg, Germany. They had two known sons: our ancestor Theodor Friedrich (Frederick) (b. 1725), and Jacob (b. 1750.) [vi] Other Houx family researchers suggest another son Michael (b. 1726.)
Theodor Friedrich (Frederick) Houx was born September 15, 1725 in Pflummern, Biberach, Baden-Wüerttemberg, Germany (Pflummern is about 25 miles south of Stuttgart, Germany) and died March 14, 1820 in Frederick, Maryland. He married Anna Maria Federhoff on May 15, 1753 in Lomersheim, Stuttgart, Baden-Wüerttemberg, Germany.
Baden-Wüerttemberg region of Germany
Letter of Recommendation
I, myself, Johann Georg Werner, the then official mayor and teacher in Sommersheim at the cloister office of Maulbronn, attest that the bearer of this, Theodorius Friderich Haux, by birth from Pflommern, has been employed with me as an assistant teacher for one year–from April 23, 1752 to the same date of the year 1753. He made the announcement that he had decided to go farther to find his fortune by moving to Pennsylvania from here. He became engaged for marriage to a local citizen’s daughter by the name of Anna Maria, née Federhof. For this reason he was laid off by me, and he requested an authentic certificate of his past conduct, to be presented for identification at places where asked for. As an official in duty I attest that said Haux for his time being here, was submissive to his superiors. He has always been honest in his contact with people, calm, discreet, and kind. At school he was eager to give instruction to the youth. At church he sang and conducted the hymn. Thus he was outstanding in a way that not only a commendable pastorate and I myself , as a mayor and teacher, but also a whole parish would have had a real pleasure in keeping him here longer, because of his good behaviour and his laudable qualifications as a teacher; had he not requested resignation for sake of his fortune. This is why we warmly recommend said Theodorius Friderich Haux to everyone. In witness whereof and requesting God’s grace and blessing for him, we wish that the Lord may protect him from misfortune on his most dangerous and inconvenient journey. I, myself put him under the Lord’s best guard. I am putting my own signature under this letter which bears my official seal. This came to pass and was done at Sommersheim on May 21, 1753 The Mayor and teacher of the same place, Johann Georg Werner
Certificate of Marriage and Recommendation
Theodorus Friderich Haux, by birth from Pflummern, worked as an assistant teacher at the local school for about 9 months. He did his work to please the superintendents and the community. His behaviour was blameless. After this, for purpose of marriage, he became engaged to Anna Maria, a daughter of the citizen Joh. Jacob Federhof. After proclamation of that time, he was married at the local church on the 15th of May of the current year, which I officially attest to the same. T.M. Johann Gottlieb Gaupp, for the time being pastor of the same place. Sommersheim, located in Werttemberg on May 15, 1753.
After their marriage in 1753 and before the birth of their first child in 1754, Theodor and Anna emigrated from Germany to the American colonies. It is not known with certainty what precipitated their move, but noted that the Third Silesian War (sometimes referred to as the first global war – Seven Year’s War) was being fought during this period. Many other German families from the Rhineland Palatinate and surrounding regions immigrated during the same period.
Theodor Friedrich Houx became a prominent citizen of Frederick, MD after his immigration from Germany in 1753 with his wife Anna on the ship Patience. He was the author of 12 volumes of “Diaries” from 1820-1878, which are now in the County Historical Society of Frederick, MD. All of Theodor and Anna’s children were born in the American colony of Maryland and baptized in the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Theodor and Anna had 13 known children: Elizabeth, Daniel, William (Wilhelm) Frederick, George (Jerg) Jacob, our ancestor Matthias (b. 1759), Anna Margaret, Joseph, Johann Frederick (Fritz), Heinrich, Peter, Michael, and Johannes. The family appears on the 1790 and 1800 U.S. Census living in Frederick, Maryland. In 1790 the name is spelled “Hocks” and in 1800 it is spelled “Houchs.”
“Frederick Town” was laid out by Daniel Dulany, a land speculator, in 1745; it was settled by a German immigrant party led by a young German Reformed schoolmaster from the Rhineland Palatinate named Johann Thomas Schley, who came to the Maryland colony with his wife.
The settlers founded a German Reformed Church (today the church is known as Evangelical Reformed Church, UCC), which also served as a public school, in keeping with the German Reformed tradition of sponsoring universal public education. Many “Pennsylvania Dutch” (ethnic Germans) settled in Frederick as they migrated westward in the late 18th century.[vii]
Theodor Houx Obituary from Political Intelligencer on March 17, 1802
March 15 buried Mr. Theodor Friedrich Haux, a schoolmaster of the Lutheran congregation here, who was born at Flummern in Germany (Pflummern, Saalgau). He married in Germany May 15, 1753 Anna Maria Federhoff with whom he lived 48 years, 10 months in matrimony and in that time had 13 children with her of whom however, 7 preceded him into eternity. He came with his family to this land in 1753 and to Fredericktown in 1761 which is presently 41 years since his first arrival here in which time he served other schools 9-1/2 years. 3 years in Sharpsburg and 6-1/2 in Middletown. In his high age his bodily powers left him rapidly so that he became progressively weaker and more miserable until at last he weakly, but gently fell asleep in the Lord yesterday at 12 o’clock noon having reached an age of 76 years, 6 months less one day in the grace of God.[viii]
Theodor and Anna’s 4th son, Matthias Houx was born March 10, 1759 in Fredericktown, Maryland and died October 28, 1831 in Cooper County, Missouri. He married Susanna Morgenstern (Morningstar) on September 25, 1781 in Fredericktown, Frederick, Maryland and they had 11 known children: JohannJacob (b. 1782), Johan Frederick “Fritz” (b. 1784), Matthias Michael (b. 1785-died in infancy), Susanna Morgenstern (b. 1757), Johann John (b. 1788), Anne Elizabeth (b. 1790), Gustanna (b. 1792), Johann Nicolas “Nick” (b. 1795), George Michael (b. 1797), Wilhelm (William) “Billie” (b. 1799), and Anna Marie (b. 1801.) Matthias and Susanna are buried in the Mount Vernon Cemetery in Pilot Grove, Cooper County, Missouri.
During the Revolutionary War, Matthias served as a private in Captain Henry Hardman’s Company, 1st Maryland Battalion of the Flying Camp. His unit was primarily from Frederick County, Maryland. The unit was at Fort Washington when Washington’s army was defeated on November 16, 1776. Captain Hardman was captured and not exchanged until June 1778. [ix]
Attack on Fort Washington
Most of the men of the Maryland Flying Camp were captured; although, a few escaped across the river. There are no Muster Rolls for the unit, so the status of Matthias is unknown. There is no evidence that he later served in another unit. He is registered with the DAR as Ancestor #A057236 and SAR as Ancestor #187319. [xi]
Between 1795 and 1797, Mathias moved his family to Kentucky, eventually settling in Louisville. Mathias owned land in both Logan and Muhlenburg Counties, and was Constable of his district for several years.
The exact date of the Houx family’s departure from Kentucky is not known, but Mathias and his clan, by now consisted of grown sons and daughters with families of their own, appear to have settled in Old Franklin, Missouri around 1817. Due to repeated flooding, the township of Old Franklin was abandoned around 1827.
The family moved to Cooper County, Missouri, where there are records that Mathias and his sons voted in August of 1819 to elect the first delegate to Congress from the Missouri Territory. Mathias died in Lafayette County, Missouri, leaving his wife Susanna and several children and grandchildren.
Johann Jacob Houx, first son of Matthias and Susanna, was born March 28, 1782 in Frederick County, Maryland, was baptized April 28, 1872 in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Frederick, Maryland. Witnesses to his baptism were Johann Jacob Joltz and wife Barbara. Jacob died November 8, 1853 in Cooper County, Missouri. He often went by his middle name “Jacob” to avoid confusion with his younger brother Johann John. He married (1) Dorothy (Dolly) Simon on January 2, 1804 in Logan, Kentucky. She died around March 1, 1824. They had 11 known children: Philip Simon (b. 1804), Catherine (b.1806), John Washington (b. 1808), Susan Morningstar (b. 1809), our ancestor Margaret (b. 1811), Matthias (b. 1814), George R. (b. 1817), Mary (Polly) (b. 1820), Michael Morningstar (b. 1821), Lucretia (b. 1822), and Robert Sloan (b. 1824). Following the death of Dorothy, Jacob married (2) Margaret (Peggy) Collins Massie (widow of Sylvanus Massie) on 27 May 1827 in Pilot Grove, Cooper Co., Missouri. Peggy and Jacob had one son, Thomas Campbell (b. 1835). [xii]
In the late 1790’s, Jacob moved with his parents from Frederick County, Maryland to Logan County, Kentucky, and eventually to Cooper County , Missouri. The Muhlenberg County, Kentucky Court Order Book 1, page 152 dated March 23, 1801 shows Jacob “Howks” claimed the right to 200 acres of land on Little Caney Creek. He also entered “400 acres of page on Red River beginning on Mathias Houx SW corner and running with said Houx westwardly boundary line and down the river for quantity to include the said four hundred acres in as near a square as may be” as recorded in Logan County order book I, page 322 and in Logan County order Book 3, page 164 for the December court of 1804.
Logan County Order Book 6, page 95 for the fall term of 1815 “ordered Jacob Houx be appointed overseer of the road from the forks of the highland lick road to the far corner of Reuben Ewing’s barrow field and that he together with the following hands (see list filed) keep the former in repair, clear and smooth 15 feet wide as the law directs.” (The list of hands was not included.)
Jacob Houx is listed in the 1810 census for Logan County, Kentucky.
Various records indicated Jacob and Dorothy left Logan County anywhere between 1814-1816, settling first in Indiana, where they remained but a short time “owing to depredations of the Indians.” They then returned to Kentucky where they remained a few months before emigrating to Missouri, “settling in Cooper County, near Boonville, which then contained only 2 or 3 houses.”
Jacob and his brother John Houx are listed as early settlers of Pilot Grover, Cooper County, Missouri in 1820. He and his second wife Margaret were, along with his brothers William and John and their wives, among the founders of the Mt. Vernon Cumberland Presbyterian Church near Pilot Grove, founded in 1833.
Jacob entered original patents on land in Cooper County on August 8, 1821 and July 26, 1827. Jacob is enumerated in the Cooper County census of 1830, 1840, and 1850. The 1860 census lists Jacob’s widow Margaret with her daughter by her first husband (Rebecca Massie) and son Thomas Campbell Houx with his wife Margaret.
During the Civil War, at least two of Jacob’s sons, Matthias and Michael, rode with Quantrill’s Raiders, and either son Robert or grandson Robert rode with them as well. Grandsons Jacob Edwin, George Washington, and Robert William Kavanaugh, sons of Philip Houx, fought with the Confederate Army. Jacob Edwin was killed in the battle of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Jacob’s son Matthias applied for and was granted a full pardon and amnesty by President Andrew Jackson on April 11, 1866 for his part in the Confederacy. (No record of pardon has been found for the others.)
(Son Robert Sloan Houx was not listed in the will of Jacob Houx. Family members say that he went to California during the Civil War so he would not have to take up arms against his brothers in combat. However, this information contradicts what appears on his gravestone, that he served in the Confederate Army.)
Historical sources say Jacob Houx bought land in Cooper County where he became a “prosperous farmer, and did much for the development of the county, where he was held in the highest esteem. His public spirit always manifested itself when any movement was on foot for the community’s interest.” He led a “busy and useful life, dying October 1830. He was a man of sterling qualities, his death regretted by all who knew him.”
Jacob Houx headstone Mount Vernon Cemetery, Pilot Grover, Missouri
Jacob and Dorothy’s 5th child, Margaret Houx was born April 7, 1811 in Boonville, Cooper County, Missouri and died October 7, 1878 in Stephenville, Erath County, Texas. (On the 1850 Census for Tebo, Henry County, Missouri, her place of birth is mistakenly listed as Kentucky. On the Palo Pinto County, Texas, her place of birth is listed as Missouri. Her place of birth on her marriage record in 1830 was Missouri.)
Contemporaries of Margaret Houx include: Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt; American author Harriet Beecher Stowe, best known for her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin; journalist Horace Greeley; and radical philosopher, utopian socialist and founder of the “Free Love” Putney, Onieda, and Wallingfield communities, John Humphrey Noyes.
Margaret Bell Houx from collection belonging to Lolita Hepworth
Margaret married Valentine Bell on December 2, 1830 in Boonville, Missouri and they had ten or eleven children: Dorinda Jane (b. 1831-1832), John Washington (b. 1833), Susan A. (b. 1836), our ancestor William Asbery (b. 1838), Zephania (b. 1840), Elizabeth Ann (b. 1842-1843), Mathias Houx (b. 1845), Mary Frances (and possibly Mary Ann) (b. 1848), Benjamin Franklin, (b. 1853), and Sytha Virginia (b. 1856).
The 1840 U.S. Census lists them living in Springfield, Missouri and 1850 in Tebo, Missouri.
1850 Census, Tebo Co., Missouri
Valentine Bell and his wife Margaret came to Texas sometime in 1857, and settled in the Ioni Creek area, near the town of Brad. They built the first wagon road west of the town of Palo Pinto to their ranch. Before then, there were only trails for horses. [xiii] Valentine and Margaret are listed with their family in the 1860 census for Palo Pinto County, Texas. Although their ranch was located in the Ioni Creek area, near the town of Brad, unfortunately no records were found of just where the ranch was located, or how many acres it contained. The Texas General Land Office, Archives Division’s records only contain records of early land grants up until the date of the patent system. The early land grant system was pretty much over by 1845, some years before the family moved to Texas.
1860 Census, Palo Pinto Co., TX
On March 1, 1863, a son-in-law William H. Peters (husband of Elizabeth) was killed by Indians. [xiv]Because of mutual animosity between white settlers and native tribes, the family moved to Stephenville in Erath County, Texas, just south of the Palo Pinto County border.
After the Civil War ended and men were again available to deal with the Indian conflict, Margaret Houx Bell returned to the town of Brad in the Ioni Creek area in Palo Pinto County and lived there with her Houx relatives until her death October 17, 1878. She is buried in the Brad cemetery. [xv]
Margaret Houx Bell headstone, Brad Cemetery, Palo Pinto County, Texas
[ii] Heuse: from the name for an iron shoe, sometimes called a pedieux in French. Attached to the greaves of ancient armor – having an iron sole and upper of chain mail. English: a garter; covering worn over a shoe.
[iv]Book of Houx Stories, collected by Jean Carter Dabney, compiled and edited by Ann Bennet Houx, pub. 1994 – disclaims descendance from the two Charles Houx of France.
[viii] Taken from “Frederick, Maryland Lutheran Marriages and Burials 1743-1811” Frederick Sheely Weiser. 1972. National Genealogical Society, Washington, D.C.
Please note that I am an amateur genealogy hobbyist, and not a professional. I do not represent that all facts included here are documented. I have been researching my family tree for 50 years and rely primarily on the following sources: Ancestry, FamilySearchFind-a-Grave, Wiki.Geni, WikiTree, just to mention a few, as well as a multitude of Google and WikiPedia searches for historical information. I make every attempt to assign credit for the information I share.
There are few things more frustrating than to have written a complete blog, only to have an external hard drive fail… so here goes Try #2…
Origins of the Name
The Bell surname may derive from the French “bel,” meaning fair, beautiful, or handsome. Since the derivation is descriptive, common ancestry cannot be assumed for all those bearing the surname. The name was sometimes taken from the sign of an inn or shop. The sign of a bell was frequently used. For example, “John at the Bell” became “John Bell.” There is no particular country or province of origin, though the name was fairly prevalent in medieval Scotland and England.
Bell is the 67th most popular surname in the United States and the 36th most common surname in Scotland. [i]
Early Origins of the Bell family
The surname Bell was first found in Dumfriesshire. “John Bell appears as a notary in St. Andrews, 1248. A family of the name appears to have been hereditarily connected with the church of Dunkeld. Master David Bell was a canon there, 1263, and William Bell appears as dean, 1329-42. William Bel, vicar of Lamberton, witnessed a charter to Coldingham Priory, 1271.”
At one time, the Clan Bell was well known on the Scottish West March of the Scottish and English borders. But in 1587, the Parliament of Scotland passed a statute: “For the quieting and keping in obiedince of the disorderit subjectis inhabitantis of the borders hielands and Ilis.” This statute disolved the Clan status.
Early references to the name in England include Ailuuardus filius Bell listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 in Suffolk; Hugo Bel who was in Winton, Hampshire in 1148; Serlo Belle listed in the Pipe Rolls of Yorkshire in 1190; as well as Roger del Bel, who was in the Pipe Rolls of Norfolk of 1209.
Robert le Bell was Mayor of Bristol in 1239. The Hundredorum Rolls of 1273 had many entries for the name typically with the Old French spelling: Nicholas filius Bele in Bedfordshire; Ralph le Bele in Cambridgeshire; and Hugh le Bel, in Oxfordshire; Thomas le Bel in Suffolk. [ii]
Bell Clan History
A Border riding Clan which gave allegiance to the House of Douglas until the power of that great Clan was dispersed. It is thought that the Bells originate from a Norman supporter of Scottish King David I, and that the name comes from the French word “Bel”, translated as meaning beautiful or handsome. (Since the derivation is descriptive, common ancestry cannot be assumed for all those bearing the surname. [iv])
For generations, the Bells were settled in Middlebie, Dumfriesshire and Berwickshire, although a family of the name was also connected with the church of Dunkeld in Perthshire, an Andrew Bell and Thomas dictus Bell being Canons, and a William Bell serving as Dean.
William Bell, Vicar of Lamberton, witnessed a Charter to Coldingham Priory in 1271, and Adam and Richard Belle rendered homage to Edward I of England in 1296. For generations, the Borders-based Bells survived along with their neighbours through cattle reiving on the West Marches. Their tower at Blackethouse in Dumfriesshire was destroyed in an English raid of 1547, and, after the Union of the Crowns in 1603, they were declared “unruly” by the Scottish Parliament. Many of the Clan moved to the Ulster Plantations, where the name is still widely held. Others emigrated to Australia and New Zealand. Several also crossed the Border into England and settled in Northumberland. The descendants of the Lairds of Blackethouse stayed in the realm but moved to the cities where they contributed substantially to learning and in particular medical science.
After the Chief of the Clan, William Bell, called “Redcloak” after the captured cloak of an adversary seized in battle, died in 1628, the Chiefship became dormant. Dispersed and without leadership, the Bells ceased to exist as a viable Clan. However, in 1990, a petition was begun in support of Douglas Bell, CBE, but he unfortunately died in 1993 before the process of submission to the Lord Lyon King of Arms was completed. In the meantime, his son Benjamin is recognised as Chief Apparent by Clan Bell International (CBI), a charitable non-profit making organisation based in the USA.
Since 1984, the Bells have had two tartans: “Bell of the Borders”, informally known as “Dress Blue”, and “Bell South”, the latter celebrating the merger of Clan Bell International and Clan Bell Descendants.
Clan Bell Dress Blue tartan
Bell South tartan
Andrew Bell (1753-1832, was born at St Andrews and went to Madras in India, where he developed the pupil-teacher system of education. Henry Bell (1767-1830) designed the “Comet“, the first vessel to be propelled by steam on a navigable river in Europe. It was built at Port Glasgow in 1812. Sir Charles Bell (1774-1842), was born in Edinburgh and pioneered work on the human nervous system. He became Professor of Anatomical Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons in London in 1824, Principal of the Medical School at University College, London, in 1828, and Professor of Surgery at Edinburgh in 1836. The Reverend Patrick Bell (1799-1869) was born at Auchterhouse and became the Minister at Carmylie, Angus. He invented the reaping machine. Alexander Graham Bell (1846-1922) was born in Edinburgh and his parents, having emigrated to America, became Professor of Vocal Physiology at Boston University, USA. In 1876, he invented the telephone. John Jay Bell (1871-1934) was a humorist writer of such works as Wee MacGreegor and Mistress M’Leerie.[iii]
Border Reivers
The story of the Reivers dates from the 14th century and continued through into the late 17th century. It concerns the border between the two sovereign countries of England and Scotland. In those days, this Border displayed all of the characteristics of a frontier, lacking law and order. Cattle rustling, feuding, murder, arson and pillaging were all common occurrences. It was a time when people owed their tribal or clan loyalty to their blood relatives or families. And it was common for these families to straddle the Border.
The Reivers were the product of the constant English-Scottish wars that would often reduce the Border area to a wasteland. The continuing threat of renewed conflict offered little incentive to arable farming. Why bother planting crops if they may be burned before they could be harvested? The “reiving” (raiding or plundering) of livestock was however a totally different matter, and so it became the principal business of the Border families.
Border family names and locations [vi]
A Reiver could come from any social class – from laborer to peer of the realm. He was a skilled horseman and fine guerrilla soldier, practiced in the fine arts of arson, kidnapping and extortion. There was no social stigma attached to reiving, it was simply an accepted way of life. [v]
The Bells participated in the Borders disturbances as one of the riding clans of border reivers. In the thirteenth century Gilbert Le Fitzbel held lands in Dumfries, Sir David Bell was Clerk of the Wardrobe to Robert II. In 1426, William Bell’s lands of Kirkconnel were confirmed by James I under a charter recorded in the register of the great seal. The Bells, along with other Borders families, became increasingly turbulent throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Bells were one of the thirteen clans considered “the Devil’s Dozen” for their reiving activities.
Our Bell Ancestors
Valentine Bell is our oldest confirmed Bell ancestor. It is believed that his father’s name was Zechariah Bell, but we have not confirmed the name of his mother. (Other researchers have his father’s name as James Isaac Bell and mother Martha Deal.) Valentine Bell was born in South Carolina around 1740-1750 and died April 6, 1799. (Other records indicate his birth was in Virginia, but most documents list South Carolina.)
Per his will, probated April 1800 in Chester County, South Carolina, Valentine’s wife was named Mary MacGruder (or Mary Roberts MacGruder) and they had ten children living at the time of the will: our ancestor Zephaniah (b. 1769), William, James, and John; daughters Fielder, Nancy, Mary, Sarah, Elisabeth, and Rachel.
According the 1780 reconstructed U.S. Census records, the family lived in the Camden District between Broad and Catawba Rivers, in South Carolina. Valentine is listed on Page 85 of the Roster of South Carolina Patriots of the American Revolution.
Zephaniah Bell, son of Valentine Bell, married Jeanette Savage. Zephaniah was born around 1769 in Chester County, South Carolina and died March 24, 1851 in Cooper, Missouri. Zephaniah and Jeanette had at least eight children: James, our ancestor Valentine b. 1809, Elizabeth, Emily, Dorinda Jane, Mary (Polly), Andrew Jackson, and Benjamin Franklin.
Census Records for Zephaniah show him living in Barren Co., Kentucky on the 1810 U.S. Census, and Cooper, Missouri on the 1830-1850 U.S. Census.
Zephaniah and Jeanette’s son Valentine was born February 14, 1809 in Kentucky. He married Margaret Houx on December 2, 1830 in Boonville, Cooper County, Missouri. They had at least five children: Janie, our ancestor William Asbery b. 1838, Mary Ann and Mary Frances (twins), and Benjamin Franklin.
William Asbery Bell was born May 11, 1838 in Calhoun, Henry, Missouri, married Alice Elizabeth Henderson on November 22, 1870, and died November 11, 1927 in Nara Visa, Quay, New Mexico.
The 1850 U.S. Census lists William’s family as living in Tebo, Henry, Missouri. In 1860 and 1880, they were living in Precinct 6, Palo Pinto, Texas. By the time the 1920 Census was taken, William’s family had moved to Nara Visa, Quay, New Mexico, where he was buried at the age of 89.
Seven children were known to have been born to William and Alice: David Oscar “D.O.”, John Franklin, Susan Gertrude b. 1879, Donnie Margaret, Charles William, Rolland Cameron, and James Pinkney (who died as an infant.)
Susan Gertrude Bell was called “Gertie” as a child and later “Suzie” as an adult. Suzie was born May 29, 1879 in Palo Pinto County, Texas. She married Jay Coots on April 6, 1896 in Channing, Texas. The 1910, 1920, and 1930 U.S. Census lists their family as living in Nara Visa, Quay, New Mexico. By 1940, they had moved to Kern County, California. Jay and Suzie Coots had 9 children: Dewey Oscar “D.O.”, William Monroe “Roe”, our ancestor Charles Fred “Ted”, Daisy Mae, Verna Abye, Anna Bell, Nettie Elizabeth “E”, and Dorothy Dee (who died at the age of 1 year), and Betty June.
1910 U.S. Census, Quay County, New Mexico
1940 U.S. Census, Kern County, California
Susan Gertrude Bell
“Suzie” (Bell) Coots
Suzie would outlive her husband Jay by 29 years. She died July 24, 1971 in Bakersfield, Kern County, California at the age of 92 and is buried next to her husband at Greenlawn Cemetery and Mortuary in Bakersfield, California.
Please note that I am an amateur genealogy hobbyist, and not a professional. I do not represent that all facts included here are documented. I have been researching my family tree for 50 years and rely primarily on the following sources: Ancestry, FamilySearchFind-a-Grave, Wiki.Geni, WikiTree, just to mention a few, as well as a multitude of Google and WikiPedia searches for historical information. I make every attempt to assign credit for the information I share.
Origin of the Name
This English surname CAVINESS is an abbreviated form of the name Cavendish and was a locational name from a place in Suffolk. The name was originally spelled CAFNAEDISC, literally meaning the dweller by the enclosed pasture. [i]
Caviness is an ancient Norman name that arrived in England after the Norman Conquest of 1066. The Caviness family lived in Suffolk where Gernon de Montfichet was granted the lands of Cavendish by Duke William of Normandy, his liege lord, for distinguished assistance at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 A.D. The Montfichets from Montfiquet, Calvados, in Normandy, sired the family of Cavendish, Bacon, Fitchet, and Montfitchet.
The family trace their lineage back to “Sir John Canvendish, who in the reign of Edward III was Chief Justice of the King’s Bench. It was John, a younger son of the Judge, who killed Wat Tyler, and from him the family are descended. Chief Justice Cavendish had a tragic end. He was beheaded in the marketplace of Bury, during an insurrection in 1382.”[ii]
“Little is known of the Cabaniss family in France before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, but since then it has attained some recognition. Pierre-Jean-Georges Cabanis (1757-1808), whose body lies in the Pantheon, was a prominent man of science and philosophy. Laurent Cabanis (1782-1862), associated with Lamartine, achieved a degree of fame as a poet of the Provençal language. In the present day one of the leading novelists is José Cabanis (born March 24, 1922.) An 1832 German story, Cabanis, by William Alexis (pseudonym of Georg Wilhelm Heinrich Häring), deals with a segment of the Huguenot family that fled to Prussia.
“There are numberless variations in American spelling of the name (I have encountered about fifty), which may be reduced to two: CABANISS / CAVINESS. (It has occasionally been accommodated to more familiar English surnames which I will omit to avoid further confusion.) In English, the accent falls on the first syllable, so the name can usually be identified when spoken, regardless of the spelling. But to most members of the family a variant spelling is only somewhat less distasteful than mispronunciation.”
HENRI CABANIS, French Protestant immigrant to Virginia and a progenitor of the family in America, appears first on the ship list of the Mary and Ann of London as “Henri Cabanis, sa femme et un enfant” among 205 refugees led by Olivier, Marquis de la Muce, and Charles de Sailly, sailing from Gravesend harbor. Captain George Hawes acknowledged receipt of payment for transportation of those 207 persons on April 19, 1700. (Brock, Huguenot Emigrations, pp.254f.) Also on that list were “Isaac Chabanas, son fils, et Catherine Bomard” (ibid., p.253), and it is presumed that Isaac and Henri were related (Anderson, Henry Cavinis, pp.403-430).[iii]
After thirteen weeks at sea the ship arrived at the mouth of James River on 23 July 1700. The royal governor, Col. Francis Nicholson, reported on August 12 (in a letter received in London on October 21) that the refugees had been located at a place “about twenty miles above the Falls of James River, commonly called Manikin Town,” a deserted village of the Monacan Indians (ibid., p.252; it is his report that includes the ship’s roster and Hawes’s receipt mentioned above).
Our Caviness connection has not been documented prior to Henry Cavanes, but it appears that our Caviness family could possibly be descended from the Henri Cabanis family who were French Huguenots driven from France during the persecution of the Huguenots after the 1572 St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. They eventually came to Jamestown, Virginia in 1700.
When those families came to the colonies as French Huguenots, they were with the spelling of Cabaniss. There are many different spellings for this family through the generations. Some are: Cavanes, Cavinis, Cavendish, Caveness, Caviness, Cavness, Cavaness.
The Huguenots in America
Huguenot settlers immigrated to the American colonies directly from France and indirectly from the Protestant countries of Europe, including the Netherlands, England, Germany, and Switzerland.
Although the Huguenots settled along almost the entire eastern coast of North America, they showed a preference for what are now the states of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina. Just as France suffered a notable loss though the emigration of these intelligent, capable people, so the American colonies gained. The colonists became farmers, laborers, ministers, soldiers, sailors, and people who engaged in government. The Huguenots supplied the colonies with excellent physicians and expert artisans and craftsmen. The Huguenot Society of America website contains a wealth of further information.
Our earliest Caviness ancestor appears to be Henry Cavanes from England who married Eleanor Cummins of Essex, England on September 29, 1774 at Leyton, St Mary The Virgin, Essex, England. Their son George Caviness, was born 1775 in Petersburg, Prince George County, Virginia, and died 1846 Chatham County, North Carolina.
George Caviness first married Frances Gregory. To this union was born a son, William, born 1794 in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, four daughters whose names are not known, and a son, Edmund Demond Caviness.
George’s second wife was Fersiby “Phoebe” Jerdan (James) Caviness. George Caviness and Fersiby “Phoebe” Jerdan were the parents of these known children: Matthew McCarey, our ancestor Henry, Jeremiah B., Robert and James Caviness.[iv]
Henry Caviness was born between 1804 and 1815 in North Carolina. One source lists his birthdate as December 1813, Chatham County, North Carolina. He married Nancy Roberts and they were parents of 15 children: William, Nancy Jane, Lucinda Ann, Sophronia, James Monroe, John Henry, our ancestor Mary Ellen (who married Monroe Jackson “Cap” Coots), Robert, Martha Alice, Susan (who died at the age of 1), Rebecca Isabel, Mathew, Amanda, Joseph F., and Edward.[v]
Henry and Nancy appear on the 1870 Huerfano County, Colorado Territory census with 9 of their children.
Henry Caviness died intestate on May 5, 1887, a resident La Plata County, Colorado, now Montezuma County. His surviving heirs were “Nancy Caviness, his widow, and Joseph F. Caviness, Edward Caviness, (Mary) Ellen Ritter, now Ellen Burnett, Matthew Caviness, Robert Caviness, James M. Caviness, John Caviness, Sophronia Gerhardt, Rebecca Drew, and Alice Hoffman, his children by his wife, said Nancy Caviness.” Henry was buried in the city cemetery of Mancos, Colorado. According to a publication on September 19, 1919 in the Mancos Times-Tribune (Mancos, Montezuma County), a Petition was filed and hearing scheduled for October of that same year to settle the estates of Henry and his wife Nancy, who had also died intestate on March 16, 1894. [v] Henry and Nancy are both buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery in Mancos, Colorado.
Henry Caviness
One researcher, Arloa Caviness Anderson in her book Henry Cavinis, 1996, agrees that our Henry Caviness was the son of George and Phoebe Caviness, with brothers Edmund, Matthew, Jerimiah and James. “He is said to have been born in 1815 in North Carolina, and died in 1887 in Mancos County, Colorado. He had 10 children by two different wives, and one daughter by his second wife was Mary E., born 1858 in San Saba County, Texas.” [vi] We believe this was indeed our same Henry Caviness and daughter Mary Ellen, but there are varied opinions on the subject of Henry having had two wives.
Another source (John Plath Green in his book Henry Cabaniss and His Descendants, 1956, lists on pg. 29 a William Henry Cabaniss, b. 23 April 1809 near Shelby, NC, son of George Cabaniss and Jenny Elliott. This William Henry Cabaniss had a daughter Mary Ellen Cabaniss with his first wife, Carolina Jane Smith.[vii]
Mary Ellen Caviness was the daughter of Henry Caviness and Nancy Roberts, the 7th child (and 4th daughter) of 15 children. She was born February 22, 1855 in Mason County, Texas. That was also the year that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow composed his poem “Hiawatha”, and in Oregon some 400 pioneers arrived via the Oregon Trail. Future Banker and Secretary of the U.S Treasury, Andrew Mellon, and Austrian composer Josef Gruber, were also born in 1855.
Mary Ellen Caviness
Other memorable events occurring in 1855 include: The first bridge over the Mississippi River in (what is now) Minneapolis, Minnesota; the first locomotive ran from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean on the Panama Railway; Texas was linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas; the first edition of Walt Whitman’s book of poems, “Leaves of Grass” was published; American inventor Isaac Singer patented the sewing machine motor; and David Livingstone became the first European to see Victoria Falls, in what is now Zambia and Zimbabwe.
When Mary Allen was just 10 years old, Andrew Johnson became the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. He assumed the presidency as he was vice president at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. It would certainly be interesting to find a diary from the family to help us compare the thoughts and emotions during this period of our U.S. history to our own memories of the time when President Kennedy was assassinated, or the attempted assassination of President Reagan.
On May 4, 1872, at the age of 17, Mary Ellen married Monroe Jackson Coots. Their children were Gus B. Coots, our ancestor Jay Coots, Ben Coots (who died at age 1 year, 10 months), Eva Coots (who died at age 5 years, 1 month), Albert Coots (who died at age 4 years, 5 months, 5 days), Fred Coots, Ida Coots, Ada Coots, Mary Ellen Coots, Henry Coots (who died aged 2 years, 11 months, 14 days, according to his headstone), and Kemery Coots.
In 1880, Cap and Mary Ellen with 4 of their children are listed, along with two boarders and two servants, on the Gray County, Texas, U.S. Census. By the time the next census was taken, Cap had died from cancer leaving his wife Mary Ellen with 5 children under the age of 10.
1880 U.S. census, Gray County, Texas
Several years after the death of Cap Coots, Mary Ellen married ranch foreman Kemery Ritter on December 31, 1895. They had one daughter, Bessie Etta Ritter. When Mary Ellen was 50, Kemery died on September 22, 1905. On the 1910 U.S. census, Mary Ellen Ritter is widowed, living in Walsenburg with her daughter Mary Ellen and husband George Rice Caldwell, along with her son Kemary and daughter Bessie, and the Caldwell’s 3 young children.
She later married Joseph Burnett in 1911 in Walsenburg, Huerfano County, Colorado, and they are listed with Bessie Ritter on the 1920 U.S. census, living in Walsenburg next door to her daughter Mary Ellen (Coots) Caldwell and family.
1920 U.S. census, Huerfano County, Colorado
Mary Ellen died March 31, 1931, in Dalhart, Texas, at the age of 76, having given birth to 12 children, raised 8 to adulthood, buried 2 husbands and 4 children. Her cause of death is listed as “heart trouble and pneumonia.” She is buried in the Masonic Cemetery, Walsenburg, Colorado alongside first husband Monroe Jackson Coots, and their children Albert, Ben, Eva and Henry, as well as her second husband, Kemery Ritter.
Mary Ellen Caviness-Coots-Ritter-Burnett – Walsenburg Masonic Cemetery
Please note that I am an amateur genealogy hobbyist, and not a professional. I do not represent that all facts included here are documented. I have been researching my family tree for 50 years and rely primarily on the following sources: Ancestry, FamilySearchFind-a-Grave, Wiki.Geni, WikiTree, just to mention a few, as well as a multitude of Google and WikiPedia searches for historical information. I make every attempt to assign credit for the information I share.
Origins of the Name
The name Allin or Allen is in the category of surnames derived from the first name of the parent, “son of Alan / Allen / Allin”, and thought to be derived from the Latin Alanus which may have originated in the name of a Scythian tribe. In the Gaelic we have Alieune, signifying firm, handsome, etc., while the Irish Alun denotes fair, beautiful, and the English Allan or Alan, all-winning, all-conquering.
The oldest form of the name, found on 10th century Breton coins, is Alumnus. It is mentioned as Aleyn in Morte d’Arthur, and in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales as Alein.[i] Alan was the name of both Welsh and Breton saints.
The name in the form Allan appears once in Walford’s County Families and then in Devonshire, while the form Allen is of frequent occurrence.[ii] It was one of the most popular names while surnames were becoming hereditary and is said to have come into England with Alan Fergeant, Count of Brittany, companion of William the Conqueror, and the first Earl of Richmond, Count of York. It soon became common to North England and the Scottish border.
The surname Alan was first found in the lands of Shropshire where Walter FitzAlan of Brittany held a family seat after the Norman Conquest of 1066. The parish of Mileham, Norfolk, is of early significance to the family. “This place, at the time of the Conquest, was given to Alan, son of Flaald, and ancestor of the Fitz-Alans, earls of Arundel, who erected a strong castle here, of which some vestiges may still be traced, within the area of an intrenchment of twelve acres; the site of the keep is pointed out by an inner intrenchment by which it was surrounded.[iii]
The personal name in its Latinized form of “Alanus” appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, although the surname is not recorded until the first half of the 13th Century. The modern surname can be found in a variety of forms, including Allen, Alen, Alleyn, Alleyne, Allain, Alan, Allan, Allin, Allon, Allans and FitzAlan.[iv]
One reference, Genealogical Sketches of The Allen Family, published in 1869 by Joseph Allen of Northborough and updated and republished in 1896 by Frank Allen Hutcheson[v] traces many lines of the Rev. John Allen family who came from Norfolk, England, to Dedham, Massachusetts, in 1637. While there are many descendants in this family with the name Hezekiah, we have yet to establish if they are indeed related to our particular Allen ancestors.
Another reference, Genealogy of the Allen Family, published in 1898 by Daniel Gould Allen, traces the history of a Welshman, John Allen, who settled on Prudence Island (in Narragansett Bay), Rhode Island, in 1702, follows a numbers of Allen descendants, many of whom were Tories during the Revolutionary War.[vi]
One more reference, The Allen Genealogy, published in the 1930’s by J. Montgomery Seaver, contains a great deal of information regarding many British Allen families, including names of those who emigrated to Virginia.[vii] Included in several of these references are quite a few Hezekiahs. Many Biblical names were common during this time period and were used generation after generation, thus causing confusion for amateur genealogists.
Our earliest known Allen ancestor was Hezekiah Allen who was born 1774-75 in Stokes, Pitt County, North Carolina. Some Allen family researchers have suggested that Hezekiah’s parents were Lieut. Timothy Allen who was born April 1746 in Dedham, Massachusetts, (descendant of Reginald Allin of Colby, Norfolk, England) who served in Capt. Ebenezer Batalle’s company at Lexington in 1775, and his wife Rebecca Eames. Their son Hezekiah was born 1775, but references state he was born in Dedham, not in North Carolina. Other researchers offer the names of Andrew Jackson Allen and wife Elsie Clifton as parents of our Hezekiah Allen, but we can find no documentation for these ancestors.
We do know that our ancestor Hezekiah married Martha Elizabeth Lawson August 18, 1857, in Randolph, North Carolina. They eventually had 11 children (that we are aware of): Mary Ann, our ancestor Hugh Joseph, Jane Ann, Stephen, Andrew, William Blakely, Elizabeth “Betsy”, Alfred S., Elijah, Michal, and Hezekiah. Our ancestor Hezekiah Allen died March 6, 1838, in Smithville, DeKalb County, Tennessee, and is buried at Paige Cemetery in Smithville.[viii]
Around the time Hezekiah Allen was born, notable events were occurring in the colonies – Patrick Henry’s famous “Give me liberty or give me death!” speech, Paul Revere and William Dawes’ ride from Charlestown to Lexington warning the “regulars are coming!” The “Shot Heard Round the World” took place in Concord, Massachusetts, George Washington was appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, King George III proclaimed the colonies to be in open rebellion, and the first official U.S. flag raised (Grand Union Flag) aboard naval vessel USS Alfred. [ix]
The Grand Union Flag was first flown on the US Navy’s first flagship, the USS Alfred, on December 3, 1775 by her First Lieutenant, John Paul Jones[x]
In 1800, our Hezekiah Allen’s name is found on public documents in York County, South Carolina, and later, on July 16, 1806, he bought 50 acres of land on Beaver Creek in Buncombe County, North Carolina. Again, in January 1810 in Buncombe County, he is listed on land deeds when he bought an additional 50 acres of land on Beaver Creek. In October of that same year, he sold his land in Buncombe County, North Carolina, and moved to DeKalb County, Tennessee, where he lived in Holmes Creek.
“Buncombe Co., NC Deed Index. Grantee-Morrow, Joseph M. 10-2-1810 Grantor Hezekiah Allen 50 acres on Newfound Creek. Bk C p 169. Grantee-Morrow, Joseph M 10-2-1810 Grantor Hezekiah Allen 50 acres on Newfound Creek Bk C p 177”
In October 1810, Hezekiah sold his land in North Carolina and moved his family to Smith County, Tennessee, where, in 1820 and again in 1830, he is listed on the U.S. census. He was recorded as a member of the Two Seed in Spirit Predestinary Baptist Church[xi] – Holmes Creek, Smith County, Tennessee, ca. 1820.
Hezekiah Allen married Martha Lawson around 1778 when he was about 22 years old and she was about 18. They very likely were married in Buncombe County, North Carolina, and went on to have 11 known children. He is assumed to have died around 1838.
13 June 1838 – Will of Ezekiel Allen:
*Thomas G. Webb, DeKalb County historian states that even though the will says Ezekiel or Ezekiah, this is unquestionably the will of Hezekiah Allen. Proof of this is in the DeKalb County, Tennessee, administrations, 1838-1846, pages 58 and 94, and in DeKalb County, Tennessee, Deed book A page 489. The date given for signing the will is plainly June 12, 1838.
The date of proving the will in court is 6 March 1838. Probably the will was actually signed in 1837. TGW)
DeKalb Co – Will Book A (1838-1854) Hezekiah Allen Will – State of Tennessee, Smith County.
I, Hezekiah Allen, of said County being of sound mind and memory do make and publish this my last will and Testament in manner form as follows (to wit). I give and bequeath unto my beloved Mary Page, the wife of Barney Page, what I let her have when she married and left me also including one dollar of my estate and to her heirs forever. Also I give and bequeath unto my beloved son Hugh (Joseph) Allen all that I let him have when he married and left me also one dollar in cost of my estate. I give and bequeath unto my beloved daughter Jane (Ann) Page, the wife of Jacob Page, all that I let her have when she married and left me also one dollar in cash of my estate. I give and bequeath to my beloved son (William) Blakely Allen three hundred and seventy acres of land also all that I let him have when he married and left me also one dollar in cash of my estate. Also, I give Alford (Alfred S.) Allen one hundred acres and one dollar in cash. I bequeath unto my beloved daughter Elizabeth Taylor, the wife of William Taylor, all that I let her have when she married and left me also one dollar in cash of my estate. Also I give and bequeath unto my beloved son Elijah Allen one tract of land containing 60 acres more or less to the old conditional line, also one horse and saddle, one cow and calf plow, hand ax and suitable farming also one dollar in cash of my estate and for him to keep his stock of hogs that he in hand has at this time. Also, I give and bequeath unto my beloved daughter Michal Allen, two cows and calves and a feather bed and furniture and other necessaries for housekeeping such as her Mother may see cause to let her have and one dollar in cash of my estate. I also give and bequeath to my beloved wife Martha Allen the tract of land wherein I now live and all the rest of my personal estate to her to hold during her widowhood and if she should marry all the above named and above mentioned personal state belong to my youngest son Hezekiah Allen. And bequeath unto my grandson Alexander Allen one tract of land containing __ acres and being in County of the said him to have and to hold forever. I appoint and ordain my beloved wife Martha Allen my lawful executrix to ___ in all my affairs of my last will and testament hereby revoking all forever made by me. Made in witness whereof I have unto set my hand and affixed my seal this 13th day of June 1838. Signed, published and declared by the above named Hezekiah Allen to be his last will and testament in the presents of us who have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses in the presents of the testator, Hezekiah Allen seal
Test Joel Cheatham Jr, Joel Cheatham Sr. Archer Cheatham
State of Tennessee, Dekalb County, personally appeared before me T. M. Wade, clerk of Dekalb County Court, Archer Cheatham and Joel Cheatham Jr. subscribing witness of the within will who being first sworn dispose and say that the said Hezekiah Allen signed and seal the written will upon the day it bears dates witness my hand ___ office this 6th day of March 1838. Acknowledged in open court March 6th, 1838. T. M. Wade – Clerk of DeKalb County Court.
Hugh Joseph Allen was born May 21, 1801, in Stokes County, North Carolina. He received a land grant in Red River Co, Texas, 1200 or 1600 acres, situated in Titus and Cass Counties. Hugh married Caroline Matilda Frazier around 1820 in Tennessee. Hugh was 19 years old, Caroline was 18. Their 12 children were: our ancestor Margaret Allen, Joshua, Mahala, Martha Ann, Caroline Matilda, Hezekiah, James Madison, Hugh (Jr.), Mary, Elizabeth, Sarah Jane, and Rebecca Sterling.
Hugh and Caroline came to Texas in 1838 with their two sons and five daughters and lived in Bexar County, Texas, in 1847 on Cibilo Creek, 2 miles from Selma, Texas. Hugh’s family were reported to be the first Anglo settlers in the Katemcy Creek area (McCulloch County). For a living, he hunted, killed and skinned the Texas Longhorn cattle.
Elsewhere, other notable events occurring during this time include: the U.S. House of Representatives broke the electoral college tie by electing Thomas Jefferson as President over Aaron Burr, The first U.S. foreign war started when the Barbary pirates of Tripoli declared war on the United States of America for refusing tribute, and the first edition of the New York Evening Post was published. During the same era, in 1812, Congress authorized war bonds to finance the War of 1812, the 1st U.S. foreign aid bill was passed to aid Venezuela’s earthquake victims, (Eastern) Louisiana was admitted as 18th U.S. state, Napolean’s Grand Armée begin their invasion of Russia, ending later in the year with the French retreating, having lost as many as 530,000 people. James Madison was re-elected President of the U.S., and the Waltz was first introduced into English ballrooms where some observers considered it “disgusting and immoral,”[xii] probably for the “shocking intimacy” of the dancers.[xiii]
During the era of the U.S. Civil War, Hugh lived in Texas, a Confederate state. It appears from Texas Muster Rolls that Hugh served in at least 3 units between 1861-1862, in Company D, Terry’s Texas Rangers, 8th Cav., Van Dorn Mounted Rifles, 30th Brigade, and Ranger Co. G.
Contemporaries of Hugh Allen, also born in 1801, include Mormon pioneer Brigham Young, Admiral David Farragut (“Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!”), and William H. Seward, who became U.S. Secretary of State during the Civil War and is probably most remembered for the Alaska Purchase of 1867, also commonly referred to as “Seward’s Folly” until the Klondike Gold Rush started in 1896.
After Caroline’s death in 1867, Hugh was 66 years old. Two years later, he married Elizabeth Mescal on December 11, 1870 in Burnet County, Texas. Following Elizabeth’s (assumed) death he later married Mary Edwards, January 13, 1878 in Burnet County, Texas. At 85 years of age, Hugh Joseph Allen died on September 5, 1886, in Red Rock, Bastrop Co., TX. He is thought to have been buried either in High Grove Cemetery in Bastrop, Texas or Old Burnet Cemetery in Burnet County, Texas. His grave has not been confirmed, but a memorial marker for his first wife Caroline, is to be found in the Old Burnet Cemetery.[xiv]
Margaret “Peggy” Allen was born August 9, 1821, in Smith, DeKalb County, Tennessee. She moved with her parents to Texas in 1838 where she met and married Andrew Jackson Coots August 18, 1839. Andy was 27, Peggy was 18.
Contemporaries of Peggy Allen, also born in 1821, include: Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Christian Science church; Irish dancer and courtesan, Lola Montez; Louis Vuitton, French founder of the Louis Vuitton brand of leather goods; George Williams, English philanthropist and founder of YMCA; Russian novelistFyodor Dostoyevsky; and Clara Barton, American nurse and founder of the American Red Cross.[xv]
Margaret “Peggy” Allen
Andrew and Margaret Coots had 6 children: George W. (Washington?), our ancestor Monroe Jackson Coots, Matilda Arminda, Martha Angelina, William T.B. [who lived less than 1 year], and John Andrew Marion [who died at the age of 7].
Andrew died in 1849 in Titus County, Texas (formerly Red River County), after only 10 years of marriage, at the age of 37. After Andrew’s death, Margaret was just 28 years old and left with 5 children. She is listed on the 1850 U.S. Census living in Titus County, Texas, as age 30 with children George, Monroe, Matilda, Martha, and Marion.
1850 Census – showing Margaret “Koots” and children
She then married James A. Smith early in 1851 and had one son, James Smith. James A. Smith died that same year, just 5 days before the birth of his son. She married again in 1852 to James Buchanan Lindsay whose wife had died in 1852, leaving him with four children. Mr. Lindsay and his wife Martha are listed as near neighbors to Margaret in the 1850 census. James and Margaret Lindsay had 3 more children, Mary Virginia, Catherine, and Almeda Lindsay (and possibly a 4th daughter, Berry Rose, who may have died about age 3.)
The Lindsays moved to Mason County, Texas, where they can be found in the 1860 U.S. Census. They also spent some time in Colorado territory where they are found in the 1870 census. Margaret had returned to Mason County, Texas, by the 1880 census where she lived with her oldest son George W. Coots. She died May 10, 1886, in Burnet County, Texas, and is buried in the Crosby Cemetery, Mason County, Texas.
Peggy Allen’s grave marker, Crosby Cemetery, Mason County, Texas1860 Census showing James Buchanan and Margaret Lindsay1880 Census showing George Coots and family, including his mother Margaret Lindsay
[xi] A hyper-Calvinistic, anti-missionary sub-group of the Baptist denomination founded about 1820 by “Elder” Daniel Parker, one of the important frontier preachers in Texas, leading in the organization of about nine churches in the eastern part of the state. https://newikis.com/en/Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit_Predestinarian_Baptists
Charles Fred “Ted” Coots was born August 3, 1903 in Walsenburg, Colorado, the third son of Jay and Suzie Coots. As the story goes, he was called “Ted” instead of Fred by his mother, Suzie Bell Coots, because he was “a little teddy bear.” About 1906, the family moved to Nara Visa, in the territory of New Mexico, where they homesteaded on land between Nara Visa and the Texas border.
Ted as a child, ca. 1908
As a teenager, Ted left home and went to Texas to work as a roustabout in the oilfields.
Ted Coots, 1928
In the early 1920s, Ted moved to Southern California to work in the oilfields in the Long Beach and Santa Fe Springs fields. In the early 1900’s Santa Fe Springs, California was a rural farm area known for its orange groves and for its stinky, hot sulfur springs. In 1919 Union Oil of California drilled some dry holes in the area but then hit a big well on the corner of Telegraph Rd. and Norwalk Blvd in 1921. ¹
His sister Daisy came to California soon after, and Ted helped put her through high school in Norwalk, California. Around 1928, he followed the oil drilling business to Bakersfield, California, where he would meet Evelyn Nanney, who was working in the office at the oil plant. Evelyn later related to her granddaughter Deborah that when she first met Ted, she had told a co-worker, “I’m going to marry that red-headed roustabout.” Ted and Evelyn were married in Bakersfield, California, in April, 1929.
Evelyn and Ted, 1929
Ted and Evelyn Coots would have three children, Albert Jay, born 1930, Sharon Lee, born 1931, and Warren Reed, born 1936.
Ted Coots and children, circa 1940
Times were tough for everyone in the early 1930s, these were the years of the “Great Depression.” Ted worked many times for 75 cents per day and there were times at the end of the week that the people he was working for did not have enough to pay him. Despite those hardships, in about 1934 Ted and Evelyn were able to buy a house located at what is now 801 Beardsley Avenue, Oildale, California. This house came complete with a cow that provided milk and butter for the family. Ted and Evelyn’s family appear in the 1940 U.S. census where they lived next door to Ted’s parents in Oildale.
1940 U.S. Census, Kern County, California
In January 1942, shortly after the start of World War II, Ted and Evelyn moved to Norwalk, California, where Ted went to work in the shipyards in Long Beach and continued there until the end of the war. Ted worked various jobs through the Operating Engineers Union. One of his last jobs was on a road construction project where he was seriously injured in an accident. After that, he worked for Guy F. Atkinson.
Ted could do almost anything from butchering to gardening. His famous raspberry-plum jam is still referred to as “Grandpa Jam.” He was a top-notch auto and diesel mechanic as well as able to repair everything around the house. He was quick to lend a hand to those in need. Ted belonged to the Masonic Lodge in Norwalk, California. He always had a garden and became quite good in ceramics. He also loved to fish, but his family always knew that they were the most important part of his life. Grandson Robert recalled one fishing trip with his Grandpa Ted and dad Albert. Grandpa was never much of a talker, but he sure enjoyed it when they finally caught some fish.
Ted and Evelyn Coots family, ca. 1939 Sharon, Ted, Evelyn, Warren, Albert
In the mid 1970’s, Ted and Evelyn traveled to Maine to visit their daughter Sharon and family just in time to enjoy the New England fall colors. It was a trip Ted remembered with fondness. His grandson Keith recalls that he and Grandpa took a trip to the Maine coast, and walked down the pier to have lunch. Keith was amused that Grandpa ordered chili, when (as Keith puts it) “you can’t get a better bowl of chowder in Maine!”
Ted Coots in Maine, ca. 1974
Ted Coots – 1976
In celebration of Ted and Evelyn’s 50th wedding anniversary in 1979, their children and grandchildren gathered for a dinner and family reunion.
Ted and Evelyn with children and grandchildren, April 1979
Ted and Evelyn Coots, 50th anniversary 1979
Ted’s grandchildren well remember his 80th birthday party in August of 1983 at the home of his daughter Sharon Rex who then lived in Corona, California. It was Ted’s “first birthday party,” as he was pleased to tell everyone. His brother Roe was there, as were his sisters “E” and Daisy. It was also to be the last birthday party that Ted celebrated with his extended family.
Ted with brother Roe – August 1983
Early in 1984, Ted was hospitalized several times and died August 28, 1984 in La Mirada, California, of pancreatic cancer. He had lived to see 4 great-grandchildren born into his family. Nine years later, Evelyn died from complications of Alzheimer’s disease June 29, 1993. They are buried in the Rose Hills Memorial Park, Whittier, California.
Ted and Evelyn Coots, Rose Hills Memorial Park, Whittier, California
In 1999, a Coots cousins reunion was held in Corona, California, with many of the grandchildren of Ted and Evelyn Coots in attendance, as well as a few 2nd and 3rd cousins, descended from Cap Coots and Jay Coots.
Jay Coots was the second child of Cap Coots and Mary Ellen Caviness. He was born April 30, 1874 in Walsenburg, Colorado. The previous month, poet Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, California. During that same year, composer Johann Strauss was producing operas in Europe, Levi Strauss began marketing blue jeans with copper rivets at $13.50 per dozen, Cochise, the Native American Indian leader, died, Herbert Clark Hoover, the 31st president of the United States, was born in West Branch, Iowa, the patent for barbed wire was granted, and Alexander Graham Bell stated his basic idea for the telephone.
Jay Coots
On April 6, 1896, Jay married Susan Gertrude Bell in Channing, Texas. However, another momentous event “overshadowed” this date: the first modern Olympic Games formally opened in Athens, Greece after a lapse of 1,500 years. 8 nations participated. Later that same month, on April 23, motion pictures premiered in New York City. Also that year, Henry Ford made a successful test run of his ‘horseless carriage’ through the streets of Detroit, the 1st movie theater in US opened and charged 10 cents for admission, the electric stove was patented, the electric light bulb socket with a pull chain was patented, gold was discovered near Dawson City, Yukon Territory, triggering another gold rush, the dial telephone was patented, and “Stars & Stripes Forever” was written by John Philip Sousa. We can say that Jay and Suzie Coots were most likely the first Coots generation to ride in an automobile, see a movie in a theatre, and talk on a telephone.
Jay and Suzie Coots with family members
The Coots and Ritter clans would drive their cattle from Walsenburg to Texas along the Canadian River for the winter – it may have been that it was on one of these cattle drives that Jay Coots met Suzie Bell when they went south for the winter.
Jay was mostly a cowboy, probably working for his father – “Cap” Coots in Walsenburg and Nara Visa. He also did a lot of the cooking on the cattle drives and actually was a cook in a hotel in Durango, Colorado, at one time. Most of the time when they lived in Nara Visa he was just a basic rancher, raising cattle and pigs for the family. They lived adjacent to the Bell family in Nara Visa. The Bells and Coots lived very close together there. Jay’s older brother Gus Coots had the “Coots Ranch” in Texas from the New Mexico state line to Dalhart, Texas. The Coots Ranch is still in existence to this day.
Jay and Suzie Coots had 9 children: Dewey Oscar “D.O.”, born 1898; William Monroe “Roe”, born 1901; our ancestor Charles Fred “Ted”, born 1903; Daisy Mae, born 1905; Verna Abye, born 1908; Anna Bell, born 1910, Nettie Elizabeth “E”, born 1912; Dorothy Dee, born 1917 [she died in 1918 at the age of 1 year. Aunt E believed that she died of whooping cough, but we should also remember that the Spanish Influenza Pandemic, which killed between 20 and 40 million people, was raging during this time throughout the world]; and Betty June, born 1922. Jay’s grandsons Elmer Jay Coots, Albert Jay Coots, and great grandsons Steven Jay Coots and Robert Jay Coots all bear his name.
After Jay and Suzie’s marriage, the Coots girls went to church every Sunday. They were allowed to dance all night on Saturday night then went to the local Methodist church in Nara Visa on Sunday mornings. Jay did not attend church, but insisted that his children go.
Jay and Suzie Coots
In Colorado, Jay and Suzie had homesteaded as many acres as allowed at the time. Around 1933 or 1934, ranching was not feeding their family so the homestead was turned over to Suzie’s brother, Uncle Rolland Bell, and they left for California on the old Route 66 to Bakersfield. About 1935 or ’36, they built the house on Beardsley Avenue next to Ted and Evelyn (where Ted’s sister Elizabeth continued to live until her death in 2003.)
Great-granddaughters Vicci Coots and Patricia Hare both recall that Grandma Suzie told them she came to California in a covered wagon. Since Jay and Suzie did not make that move until 1935, or ’36, Suzie may have been remembering their move from Texas to Walsenburg, Colorado, some time before the birth of their first son D.O. in 1898, or their move to Nara Visa, New Mexico, some time before 1908 where Verna Abbye was born.
Jay’s daughter Anna Bell remembered that Jay didn’t drive a car very often. Having grown up on a ranch working with cattle and horses, he was already 35 years old when Henry Ford started selling the Model T in 1909, and he was 54 in 1928 when the Model A came out. One day, he decided to take the car into town to run an errand, but that trip was cut short when he accidentally ran over his favorite pig. Jay decided then and there that he was through with driving cars, because “who knows what might happen next time?”
Of his Grandpa Jay, Albert recalled:
My memories of my Grandpa are that he could do almost anything. He always had a garden, he was a good carpenter who sharpened his own saws and would spend hours straightening old nails. I don’t believe he bought one nail to build the house on Beardsley Ave when it was built around 1936.
He would butcher all of our meat and according to Aunt Anna Bell was an excellent cook; however I remember that Grandma Suzie was the great cook! Grandpa was very good with the fiddle (violin) and many a Saturday night he would be playing his fiddle with Uncle Stanley [Aunt Daisy’s husband] on the banjo and I think Charlie Paul played also. That would always draw a crowd.
He was always very, very patient with the kids and would always take the time to teach us “how to.”
According to a story that Albert related, many of the young cousins, grandchildren of Jay and Suzie, would often spend a month or more in the summer out of the valley heat up in the mountains with Jay and Suzie at their cabin. It is not known where this cabin was located, although it is very likely it may have been near Lake Isabella as Jay and Susie’s son Ted owned property in that area at one time, and grandson Stanley D. Haight also lived in the area until his death, in Glennville.
Albert Jay Coots (left) with cousins
Jay died July 4, 1942 in Bakersfield, California, at the age of 68. His death certificate lists as the cause of death “Terminal broncho-pneumonia due to cerebral hemorrhage.”
Jay Coots grave, Greenlawn Cemetery, Bakersfield, California
The Coots Clan 
