ON TO NORTH CAROLINA
- westmohney
- Nov 7, 2024
- 10 min read
Updated: Jan 18
...as Touching Such worldly Estate wherewith it hath pleased God to Bless me in this life I give and Devise and Dispose thereof in the manner & form following... ~ from the will of Matthew Raiford
North Carolina was the jumping off point for our grandfather James Wall Covington (2GGF) and his wife Sarah Ann Terry (2GGM) on their move westward to California in the 1850's. James and Sarah's son Stephen (GGF) would meet and marry Esther Parrish (GGM) in San Bernardino in 1887.
Three of our Virginia families that eventually moved to North Carolina to mingle with the Covington clan were the Raifords in 1720, the Walls in 1754, and the Terrys sometime before 1756. The three Maryland families who also eventually ended up in North Carolina were the Roes before 1755, the Thomases in 1762 and the Covingtons in 1769. The story of these families and their migrations begins here.
history of North Carolina
The land that is now North Carolina was granted to Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584. In those days, North Carolina was part of the huge swath of land that first comprised the colony of Virginia. The area around Abermarle Sound was the first section of the eventual state of North Carolina to be settled. From our "Quakers!" post, you may remember that Abermarle was a haven for the Society of Friends. After all his religious travails in Massachusetts, our uncle Henry Phelps (9U) moved there with his wife Hannah Baskel.
Abermarle Sound (1), shown below, is about 115 miles from the James River (2) in Virginia where most of our early southern families settled.
It wasn't until 1712 that North Carolina became a separate colony in its own right. A few short years later, lands in that province were ripe for the taking. The Tuscarora war, which began in 1711 and ended in 1715, resulted in a drastic reduction of Natives living in the area. Many were taken to become slaves or indentured servants. Others were placed on reservations on the Pamlico River. A few migrated south or north to become assimilated into other tribes.
Note: We wrote about the Tuscarora War and our uncles Peter (1C7X) and Robert Poythress' (1C7X) involvement with the Tuscarora tribe in our "The Virginians" Post.
The sparsely populated coast of North Carolina became attractive to pirates. Most notable among the pirates that trolled the waters of the new colony was Edward Teach better known as Blackbeard. In 1718 Blackbeard ran his ship aground on Beaufort Island. The governor of North Carolina promised him safe haven but the Virginians had other ideas. They ambushed and killed Blackbeard. The pirate Steve Bonnet set up operation at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, but he was eventually captured in 1717 and hanged.
In the 1720s, with the shores now relatively safe, planters from South Carolina and Virginia began settling along the Lower Cape Fear River, bringing with them the large plantation slave system.
the migration
Much of the "great migration" to North Carolina happened in the 1740s and 1750s. People of all ethnic backgrounds soon learned of the cheap land available and came by the thousands from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and Virginia.
As in all migrations at the time, the travelers packed their necessities onto wagons, horses or mules and set off leaving comfortable homes behind. In his article "Southern Routes," Creston S. Long says that "the journey required considerable planning, daily challenges, constant uncertainty, and a degree of risk. . .Once the travel day was over, families faced the task of setting up camp or seeking out other shelter in a private home, an ordinary, or even alongside the road."
Long cites a travel account left by Charlotte Brown, a nurse who traveled with the Virginia troops under the command of her brother. Her journey would have been roughly the same route our families took from Virginia:
Brown recorded some of the best description of the roads that extended west from the primary arteries of the Tidewater, Piedmont, and Valley. The picture she paints of eighteenth-century travel to the far backcountry is one of discomfort and travail. Brown’s days sometimes commenced at two in the morning when she began preparing for a march that would often last until the early evening hours. Brown wrote in her journal that “the roads are so bad that I am almost disjointed.”
Once the wagon train crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains, conditions only worsened. The horses struggled so much on the steep hills that everyone had to walk alongside the wagons instead of riding, and eventually the “poor horses no longer regard[ed] the smack of the whip or the beat of the drum.” The wagons, also falling victim to the poor conditions of the roads, required constant repair.
Brown’s diary makes it painfully clear that to travel the road to North Carolina, even with the support of the British Army, was an exhausting enterprise.
Matthew John Raiford
Our first relative to arrive in North Carolina was our grandfather Matthew Raiford (6GGF), who came fifteen years before the main migration to that area. Matthew was born in Isle of Wight County, VA in 1687. Ca. 1710, he married our grandmother, Mourning (6GGM) (last name unknown) and they had one son, Matthew, Jr. (5U), born in Virginia. There may have been other children born in Virginia, but there is little proof for dates and locations of birth.
In 1820, possibly aware that there would be no land inheritance for him in Virginia, Matthew moved on to the greener pastures of Craven County, North Carolina. Matthew's father, the immigrant Philip Raiford (5GGF) died four years later, in 1724. Philip left his plantation in Isle of Wight County, Virginia to his oldest son Robert (6U). Matthew, however, wasn't entirely forgotten. Philip left to his second son a "whole Stock of ['Cattle of' struck out] horses & Mares thats at Roanoke & their Encreasce..." Why the horses were at Roanoke, is a mystery as the island is about 100 miles from Isle of Wight County.
Most of what we know about Matthew's life North Carolina comes from census records property transactions, and wills. Matthew's first appearance North Carolina records was on the tax rolls of Craven County in 1620. In 1635, possibly as a prelude to his move to Bladen County, Matthew sold 200 acres of land to his mother's brother, William Kinchen (7U). By 1740, his name appeared in Bladen County with a notation that he had recently moved from Edgecombe County.
Note: Counties in the large swaths of land in the South can be confusing as they were frequently being divided into new, smaller, more manageable counties.
By 1739, Matthew's oldest son, Matthew, Jr. (5U) was married with children of his own. That year Matthew, Jr. made an interesting purchase, buying 100 acres of land for 1,000 pounds of pork. The transaction was witnessed by his father. About this same time, another of Matthew, Sr.'s sons, Philip (5U), sold his lands in North Carolina and moved to South Carolina where he established the the South Carolina branch of the Raiford family.
In 1749, Matthew Raiford, Sr. bought 640 acres from his son-in-law William Robards. This land was on the northwest branch of the Cape Fear River near Fayetteville which you can see in Bladen County on the map above (3). Matthew's land was in an area that eventually became Cumberland County in 1754.
Between ca. 1710 to 1740, Matthew and Mourning had ten children. In 1755, Matthew made out his will and he died three years later in 1758 at age 71. To son Matthew and daughters Mary (5A) and Mourning (5A) he left one shilling silver. He also left one shilling to another daughter, our grandmother Ann (5GGM), who may have already been married to William Terry (5GGF). To daughter Rebeckah (5A) he left "Six Cows and Calves. . . on condition that Silvester Sears shall not at any time Claim any Rights to any part thereof by virtue of his being formerly Maryd to her the sd. Rebeckah."
Note: Rebecca had been married to Sylvester Sears. She divorced him sometime before 1752 when she married John Liles.
To his youngest son Philip (5U) who hadn't reached the age of 21 by the time his father died, Matthew left "all that land & plantation whereon I now dwell containing four Hundred & Ninety Acres. . .when he attains to the age of Twenty one years his Mother therds therof Excepted. . ." It was customary to leave a third of a man's estate to his wife.
To his wife Mourning and the other four children, Robert (5U), William (5U, Grace (5A) and Druscilla (5A), along with main beneficiary Philip he left "all my Negroe Stock and other movables what so ever To be Equally Divided between them."
After Matthew's death, our grandmother Mourning married Patrick Connor sometime before 1761. She died in 1765 at age 75.
William Terry, east of the Pee Dee
Ca. 1760, our grandmother Ann Nancy Raiford (5GGM) married William Terry (5GGF).
Note: Willam and Nancy's great-granddaughter was Sarah Ann Terry (2GGM) who married James Wall Covington (2GGF)
William was born in Louisa County, VA ca. 1740. He must have been newly arrived in Anson County, NC when he married Ann. Since there were two William Terrys living in the vicinity of the Pee Dee River, the two men were identified as William west of the Pee Dee and William east of the Pee Dee. Our grandfather was the eastern William.
To make matters even more confusing, both William Terrys married Raiford girls. William west of the Pee Dee married our grandmother Ann's sister, Mary (5A). The two Williams were probably cousins but no one has yet been able to figure out the exact relationship.
The first record we have of our grandfather in Anson County is the purchase of 300 acres on the north side of the Pee Dee River in March of 1756. A month later, he purchased an additional 300 additional acres on the south side of the Pee Dee. He settled on the south side land which was on the shores of Hitchcock Creek where our uncles Robert (4U) and Philemon Thomas (4U) had also made their homes. We will cover the Thomas family in depth in our next post.
Hitchcock Creek lay only a few miles from the nearby town of Rockingham where many of our Covington relatives were located. Rockingham is about ten miles from the border of South Carolina.
William and Anne had seven children between the years ca. 1762 and 1776. William died in 1804, at age 58, and left a will which exemplified the cavalier way slave owners dispersed their "Negroes."
. . .I give to my son Matthew Terry (5U) two Negroes, viz. Nell and Boson. . .and should the Negro wench Nell have any children that they be given to Benjamin Ingrams' two youngest daughters Hannah & Drusilla. I give to my son William Terry (5U) one Negro fellow named Jacob. . .and also one dark Bay mare. I give to my son James Terry (5U), two Negroes, viz., Solomon & . . .I give my daughter Nancy Cole (5A) one Negro girl named Grace. . .
It appears that our grandfather Champness Terry (4GGF) hit the jackpot. His father left him four Negroes, "viz Tabitha, Bob, Ben & Charles. . .also my dark Bay horse Salem and all my household furniture and working tools." William also gave to "Champ" his stock of hogs and cattle.
William left to three of his sons, William, James and Champness, 238 acres to be divided equally among them but Champness, possibly his father's favorite, was to "pay all my just debts out of said crop and take the remainder for himself."
We can find no definite date for Anne Raiford Terry's death. Since she isn't mentioned in William's will, we assume she died sometime before 1805.
the Walls
Our grandfather John Wall (5GGF) was born in Brunswick County, Virginia in 1715. He married Ann Poythress (5GGM) ca. 1740. The couple had three children, John, Jr. (4U), William (4U), and our grandmother Nancy (4GGM). We don't know the date of Ann's death, but it was sometime after Nancy's (4GGF) birth ca. 1748 and before ca. 1754 when the Wall's moved to Craven County, South Carolina.
John's move to South Carolina coincided with a spate of financial troubles he began having in Virginia shortly after Ann's death. Brunswick County records also indicate that he drank a bit which caused problems with his fellow Virginians. John's father, John Wall III (6GGF), did all in his power to get his son settled in South Carolina, even buying land for him to begin his own enterprise.
Craven County, SC was just south and across the border from Rockingham, North Carolina where our Covington and Thomas families would soon settle.
John Wall's great-great grandson, Mial Wall (3C4X) wrote a little about his grandfather to the best of his knowledge from information passed down in the family:
My great-great grandfather John Wall Sr. removed from Greensville County, Va., (later Prince George County) about the yr. 1745 and settled on the banks of the Pee Dee river about 4 miles from the town of Rockingham, N.C. . .acquired large tracts of land there. . .We still have a host of relatives living in and around Rockingham and Wadesboro, N.C. and I visited there last spring.
In 1756, John received a warrant for 400 acres of land in Anson County. It appears, however that he never moved there. According to our cousin Lou Poole (5C), the Anson County land that John purchased "was never surveyed, probably because John Wall died sometime in 1757."
Lou Poole speculates as to what happened to the three children after John's death.
I think it is entirely possible that John, William and Ann (Nancy) Wall might have been living with, or at least under the wing of, John Crawford, father of Thomas Crawford (H4A). . .after the deaths of their father and grandfather. That explanation could easily account for the close relationship the two families obviously had, and why the Wall children moved to Richmond County at about the same time that the Crawford family did. And it should be noted that Ann Covington (née Wall) witnessed the 1789 will of Thomas Crawford. . .
The Thomas Crawford whose will our grandmother Ann Nancy Wall witnessed, married our aunt Rebecca Covington (4A), sister of Ann Nancy's husband, our grandfather John Covington (4GGF).
Another indication of the close relationship between the Wall and Crawford families is seen in the following record. John Crawford's petition would have been filed just about the time of John Wall's death:
Memorial exhibited by John Crawford to be registered in the Auditor’s office … a tract of land of 150 acres in Craven County; Bounding SW on John Ellerbey’s land, and on all other sides on vacant land. Originally granted by His Majesty King George the Second, on the eighth of March 1755 unto John Wall at quit rent of 3/ sterling or 4/ proclamation money per hundred acres; and who conveyed the same to this Memoralist. . .May 1757.
Note: A memoralist was simply a person submitting a petition to the government.
A third indication of close ties between the two families would be the marriage of our uncle William Wall to Thomas Crawford's sister Lucy.
Ca 1770, Nancy Wall married our grandfather John Covington (4GGF). Lou Poole wrote:
It was among the children of John Covington and Ann (Nancy) Wall that the names “Wall” and “Poythress” were abruptly introduced, usually as middle names. These names continued to be used in several later generations, and became more wide-spread as Covingtons married Covingtons and other closely related families. . .
In our branch of the Covington family, that is certainly true. The Wall name would carry down three generations to John and Nancy's grandson, James Wall Covington (2GGF), and great-grandson, Stephen Wall Covington (GGF).
We'll have much more on our Wall and Covington families in future posts.
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