Family History Writing Challenge Day 2- 1812- Fort Sinquefield on the Tombigbee River

         

 

Sarah was torn from her tenuous sleep by the soft hoot of an owl. She startled awake, wide-eyed. She didn’t dare light a candle to search the inky blackness of her room for intruders. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness she quickly glanced around. She was alone, only the little body of her daughter snuggled beside her, warm and innocent. Sarah put her arms around the child, hugging her close, and glanced over at her three year old son, sleeping in the little trundle bed nearby. Satisfied they were safe, she rested her head back on the pillow, listening, waiting... Sure enough, another owl call pierced the air. She held her breath. The Indians used owl calls to communicate to each other, to coordinate their savage attacks. They had mastered every bird call, sounds she used to enjoy as she wandered about the countryside. Now when she heard birds her heart stopped. Even that small joy had been stolen from her, along with her freedom. No longer could she wander the countryside, her small children at her side, gathering wild flowers and sweet berries, or digging into the warm earth as she planted seeds in her garden.

She should not, she knew, complain. Her husband, Uriah, was the commander of Fort Sinquefield, and due to his position they had the finest accommodation available- a small cabin of their own with a stone chimney and fireplace where she could keep a cooking fire. There was a simple wooden table and a few chairs. A ladder led to the sleeping loft above. She had a bed, with a feather mattress brought from home, big enough for her and her husband and children. But it felt lonely, without his big body beside her, to warm her and comfort her. He would assure her. “Hush, Sarah. I am with you. The men are on guard outside. You are safe.” And sometimes, she would believe him. But deep in her heart she knew the truth. They were only a few hundred whites, mostly helpless women and children, amidst tens of thousands of Creek Indians, most of them hostile and bent on exterminating the whites who had recently settled on their lands.

She lay awake, the events of the last few weeks pummeling her brain. As the danger of Indian unrest became apparent, as rumors flew about which terrified the  small population of settlers and then reports came of unimaginable atrocities, stockades sprang up across the very land that had once held so much promise. Hastily constructed, a barrier of pointed wood stakes with a few blockhouses was raised around an acre of land. Inside, cabins and huts were being constructed providing minimal shelter from the elements and minimal safety from any outside onslaught. Still, even before the stockade walls were completed, Sarah watched families flood through the gates. They came on wagons, on foot or by horseback, a few meager belongings hastily thrown into burlap sacks. Sarah rushed out to meet her neighbors, welcoming them, helping direct them to the few shelters that had been constructed. Some put up canvas tents, sure this would not last for long. Sarah prayed they were right.

There were far too many people, but this was their only hope. In no time the small space was terribly overcrowded. The men were quickly absorbed into the militia, or assisting with constructing the stockade and rude shelters. The women, half of them pregnant or nursing hungry infants, held onto crying toddlers or looked worriedly after youngsters who ran about in blessed ignorance, enthusiastically playing with friends they rarely saw except on Sundays at church. But the only way this enclave resembled a church was in the magnitude of prayers that were offered up to the heavens.

Family History Writing Challenge 2025- Day 1- Finding Sarah

 

Cato, Mississippi

I  traveled nearly a thousand miles to reach this place, searching for my ancestors. But the pretty headstone I found in the little country cemetery did not belong to an ancestor. It belonged to a woman who was very dear to me for another reason. 

The little country cemetery at Cato is not far from the Baptist church, a red brick building with a white steeple pointing skyward and broad double doors welcoming worshipers inside.  Down the road, tall trees surround the small plot of land, a well-kept space which is illuminated by bright Southern sunlight. A number of white and gray headstones rise from the grass, marking the resting place of about 200 souls.

 

The memorial stone I found is simple and peaceful. But it was a tribute to a woman whose life was anything but simple and peace often eluded her existence. She surely cherished those peaceful moments, among the years of strife. The fact that she survived for 98 years tells of her strength of character.

The headstone itself is cracked in half, caused by a lightning strike according to family stories. But it survived even that assault, and presents a sweet memorial with a flourish at the top, followed by a faded inscription. 

                                                       Sarah Womack

                                             Died November 30,1882, Aged 98 years.

          Not lost, blest thought, but gone before, where we shall meet to part no more.”

In death she was indeed surrounded by many of those she loved. These stone memorials tell the story of much love, but also tragedy. Sarah’s memorial is next to her son’s, who stood by her side throughout her life.

Ferdinand Hayes Claiborne Dent survived her by only two years, dying in 1884 at age 75. Next to him is a broken but pretty stone, carved with a rose and faded inscription. This  belongs to his wife, Mary A. Campbell, who lived another decade, dying in 1899 at age 82.

A grandson, too, lays close by. This memorial pulled at my heart. Thomas Beasley Dent was only 17 years old when he died in February, 1863. The year, of course, was a clue. Thomas was one of far too many young men who died during the Civil War. I learned later that he was lost defending Vicksburg, and two of his brothers who were also there, carried his body home.

One other grandchild lies in the cemetery Martha Dent Kennedy- who lived to age 84. But the others Sarah loved had scattered to the winds- some close by in other Rankin County resting places, others who followed the westward migration as far as Louisiana and Texas.

One of those she loved was the reason I was here.

Sarah was the woman who raised my great-great grandfather, Abraham James Womack, as her own child. Her remarkable life story is a part of his own, and so a part of mine as well. 

Resources:

Cato Cemetery, Rankin County, Miss- Find-a-Grave

Sarah Walker Dent Womack find-a-grave

Ferdinand Hayes Claiborne Dent Find-a-Grave

Mary Adeline Campbell Dent- Find-a-Grave

Thomas Beasley Dent- Find-a-Grave

Richard Womack I from Robert Burke's research

 Robert Burke- Womack Gen

1764-1771- John Henry Pryor and the Regulators

John Henry Pryor was the son of Robert Pryor (b 1663 England d 29 Oct 1757 Gloucester, Va) and Elizabeth Virginia Greene (b 1667 Gloucester Va d 1761 Gloucester Va) It is thought that Robert Pryor was in Virginia by 1674.

In 1775, John Henry Pryor was 60 years old and living in Orange County, NC.
His wife was Margaret Gaines. In 1777 they were in Caswell County NC.

We know a great deal about John Pryor from the will he wrote in  September 1771 in Orange County, NC.  He was a wealthy man. Besides lands beyond his plantation, totaling over 1,000 acres,  he leaves at least 26 slaves to his children and grandchildren. He lists furniture including numerous feather beds, and extensive livestock including horses and cows. To his wife Margaret he leaves the plantation, 12 slaves, two stills, and his stock. David Womack and William Stone (his son in laws) were named executors of his will.

The Womacks and Pryors lived in the frontier of western NC. There was friction between these frontiersmen and the eastern colonial government in NC led by Gov. Wm. Tryon. The western settlers felt they were excessively taxed and ruled by dishonest officials. They rebelled against the taxes and fees. Tryon, who had built himself an exhorbitant palace, and was seen as corrupt by the settlers, sent out over 1000 men in 1768 to meet a force of Regulators numbering nearly 4,000. Several leaders of the Regulators were arrested but released without bloodshed.

Herman Husbands (who was considered the chief agitator of the Regulators)  and John Pryor both represented Orange County in the NC House of Burgesses.https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.php/document/csr08-0068
http://www.sonsofdewittcolony.org/mckstmerreg2.htm


In 1769, John Pryor was a county representative in the colonial assembly in NC as well as a prominent Regulator. In September 1770, the court met at Hillsborough, and was disrupted by the Regulators which drove the crown's attorney, Edmund Fanning, out of town. Governor Tryon sent out a military expedition with 1000 men and met the Regulators at Alamance, where they fought. 15 Regulators were taken prisoner and 7 of these were executed at Hillsborough.

 Many of the frontiersmen fled from NC after this battle and would become patriots in the American Revolution several years later.
Herman Husbands and John Pryor were leaders of the movement, but Herman Husbands was expelled from the House of Burgesses in 1770 while John Pryor was allowed to remain.
John Pryor died while serving in the House of Burgesses in New Bern in 1771.




His daughter, Mildred, was married to David Womack, son of Richard Womack III. In 1777 and 1780 they were living in Caswell County, NC. where David's name was on a petition to the House of Burgesses in 1779., In 1800 they were living in Hillsborough, NC.

David migrated to Burke County Georgia, where in 1792 he had 100 acres and in 1793 he added an additional 200 acres of land. He and his brother John were chain carriers (surveyors.)

Mildred may have died in Beaufort, SC in 1804.

By 1804 the family had moved to Greensburg in St. Helena Parish, La., where David died.

Their children, born between 1764 and 1785 were Richard Mansel, Dorothy Pryor, David II, Abner, Abraham, Jacob Green and William Washington Womack. The children of David Womack II would migrate to Trinity County Texas.

Early Womack and Puckett settlers in ChesterfieldCounty and Swift Creek

Eastern part of Chesterfield County- tidewater

1622 massacre in the area include John Rolfe, former husband of Pocahontas and father of the tobacco industry

1673 plague and severe winter which killed 50,000 cattle in Virginia

Cattle were more common than horses, and hogs the most common farm animal of all. Wolves were numerous and ravaged the livestock. Negroes and Indians commonly stole hogs for food. In 1669 the Indian tribes were required by law to deliver 145 wolf heads

The settlers depended heavily on imports from England; yarn and thread and material for clothing, table linens and napkins, blankets, shoes, stockings, metal items such as razors, scissors, candlesticks, pots and pans,lanterns and lamps, fishing hooks and lines, farming implements, nails, gunpowder.

1656- Orphans and the sons of poor men were apprenticed by the parishes to be trained until the age of 21. Spinning wheels were used to make home spun cloth. William Byrd had a millstone at Falling Creek

For the wealthy, English laws of primogeniture held in England, but younger sons could be sent to Virginia to get land patents. Once established, however, primogeniture again took hold.

There were two classes; gentlemen (often planters or merchants) and servants or laborers.

1679-Richard Kennon marked himself as a merchant, Martin Elam and John Bowman called themselves planters.

Drinking was done heavily, card playing and betting a universal pastime, 

Horse racing was the most popular diversion and social gathering event and breeding for sport encouraged as early as 1643. By 1663 importing horses was prohibited although export was allowed. There was a track at Bermuda Hundred. Racing disputes were common. In 1688 Abram Womack and Richard Ligon held a race  with Womack's horse ridden by Thomas Cocke and Ligon's by Joseph Tanner, a servant of Thomas Chamberlaine, who was the starter. Abram Childres was the judge. Womack's  horse shied from the track and Ligon's horse won the race, resulting in a dispute. Heavy betting was common at such events, and disputes went to the court.

1680- John Piggot (puckett) won 300 pounds of tobacco while playing cards with Martin Elam and claimed he was owed more

Thomas Cocke kept a tavern in 1685, but was also a planter. Hospitality at good inns and taverns were matched by the residences of wealthy landowners, who lived as if on an English estate. The landed gentry ruled the county and the state.

 People traveled from one plantation to another on boats or sloops along the rivers and streams; even bridle paths were basic in those times. The settlements were limited to the rivers and creeks. The lands beyond the fall line of the James River were heavily forested and inhabited by savages.

 William Farrar settled in 1656

John Puckett and John Burton settled in 1665

Abraham and William Womack (Womecke) about the same time as John Puckett

Richard Kennon settled in 1665 at Conjurer's Neck- at the junction of Swift Creek and the Appomattox river

By the 1680's land patents began gradually going westward  along Swift Creek.

In 1682 William Puckett and Thomas Puckett received 750 acres in Bristol parish, north of the Appomattox river.

In 1683, Joseph Tanner and Richard Womack received a patent for 260 acres on the north side of the Appomattox river. James Baugh got a patent for 119 acres on the north of the Appomattox.

In 1690 Henry Walthall got a patent for 320 acres on the north side of swift creek in Bristol Parish. A few years later Richard Kennon, Francis Epes, Joseph Royal and George Archer got patents on the north side of the Appomatox at Winterpock Creek. In 1703 more families moved there.

Early Chesterfield county settlers

continue p. 63

Baugh family and marriage of Elizabeth Womack

 

(see Womack to far left)

Baugh Plantation- Ashton Creek, a branch of the Appomattox River

William Baugh Sr. arrived in Virginia from London in 1638. He was a widower and married Elizabeth Sharpe Parker about 1639 in Henrico County. 

Elizabeth had arrived in Virginia on the "Francis Bonaventure" in August 1620.  She married Sgt. William Sharpe (an "ancient planter in the time of Thomas Dale" and in 1624 they were living on the Bermuda Hundred with their sons Isaac and Samuel. William had 40 acres of land and was elected Burgess for Bermuda Hundred. 

After his death Elizabeth married Thomas Parker, who was living with Thomas Baugh at the West and Sherley Hundred. Thomas was thought to be the son of John Baugh, and nephew of William Baugh, Sr.  Thomas Baugh emigrated from Bristol, England on the "Supply" which arrived in Virginia on 29 Feb. 1621. By January 1625 he had relocated to the "College Lands." The 1624 muster recorded Thomas Parker there as well, under Thomas Osborne's command. Thomas Parker arrived in Virginia on the "Neptune" in 1618, along with William Farrar. After his marriage to Elizabeth, he died prior to July 1836.

Elizabeth was now a wealthy widow, and in July 1636 she patented 500 acres in Henrico between the Curles and Varina, part of a total of 950 acres patented in August 1637 from headrights due to transportations of 13 servants for Sharpe. This land was in Varina, east of Henricus.

Elizabeth married William Baugh Sr. in about 1639 and died before Feb 1, 1650, when her will was recorded.

William Baugh Sr.

William Baugh Sr. arrived in Virginia from London in 1638. He was a widower and married Elizabeth Sharpe Parker about 1639 in Henrico County. He lived at Kingsland and Proctor's Creek prior to 1668, when he received a land grant for 577 acres near his brother, John Baugh. He received 600 acres for transportation of 12 persons to Virginia, including his son, William Baugh, Jr. , who arrived in Jamestown about 1660. This land was on the south side of the James River, and the north side of Appomattox river near Ashton Creek.  His brother, John Baugh, had a 1638 land patent near Johnson Creek.

William Baugh Jr. married Jane Hatcher Branch in 1661 but died prior to 1678 and she remarried. One of her daughters, Priscilla Baugh, married William Farrar III, and William Baugh Sr. left her a tract of land.

William Baugh Sr. married a third time after the death of Elizabeth,  to Elizabeth Womack. Their children were Katherine Baugh born 1653 who married a Jones and James Baugh I born 1655 who married Elizabeth Ashbrook and Mary Baugh. Mary Baugh married 1- Thomas Howlett and 2- Thomas Byrd, the brother of William Byrd I of Westover. Thomas Byrd died in March 1710 and Mary died on May 16, 1710 and her son Thomas Howlett Jr. administered her estate with Capt. Thomas Jefferson giving security.

William Baugh Sr. was buried at the Baugh family cemetery near Ashton Creek.

Read further

http://arslanmb.org/baugh/baugh.html

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1914683?seq=1

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1914991?seq=1

http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/henrico/bios/earlyfam2.txt

Source:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/119190420/william-baugh by Gresham Farrar

1) "Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers, 1607-1635" by Martha W. McCartney, 2007, pp. 120, 528, 529, 631 ,632.
2) "The Farrar's Island Family" by Alvahn Holmes, 1972, p. 145.
3) "Virginia Magazine of History & Biography" Vol. 13, p58.
4) "Virginia Gleanings in England Abstracts of 17th and 18th Century English Wills and Administrations Relating to Virginia and Virginians" by Lothrop Withington, 2007, p113.
5) "Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607-1624/5" by John Frederick Dorman, 4th Ed., Vol. I, 2004, pp8,12,367,930.
6) "Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607-1624/5" by John Frederick Dorman, 4th Ed., Vol. 3, 2007, p153.
7) "Cavaliers and Pioneers. Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants" Vol. I by Nell Marion Nugent, 1983, p549.
8) "Virginia Vital Records" Indexed by Judith McGhan, 1984, p9.

"The Correspondence of the Three Byrds of Westover

Richard Womack 1655-1684 Mindmap of Relationships in Henrico