OUR WALL FAMILY PART II

There is a great river and it flows through this land, and we have named it History ~ Ursula Le Guin

The Meherrin River in Brunswick County, VA

a man of backbone and spirit

It appears that, by 1734, John III (6GGF) was already showing his independent side. Lou Poole prefaces his account of John's high jinks with this:

I have to admire the man; he had backbone and spirit! As the following Virginia Council records show, he often challenged authority, a quality that had to take courage in those days, when the King and his appointed Council were the supreme authorities. As some of the following records show, as well, he seemed to take something of a high-handed approach to surveys. In any case, whatever his motivation, he was frequently in trouble with the authorities.

Trouble started in April when brother Michael's (6U) recommendation for a position as Justice was objected to. John Wall, "desiring to know the objection" was told those opposed felt the "[r]ecomendation was not fairly obtained." It appears that the rejection of his brother to the court got John's dander up. Five months later, on September 5, John and other justices were "[s]umoned to attend the Board on this Day Fortnight to answer their Contempt in refusing to Swear the Sheriff and breaking up the Court without doing any business."

John's antics had no effect on the Council. On Sept 14th, the record stated that "diputes that have risen among the Justices...occassioned by admitting into the Commission Some Persons lately recommended against the Inclinations of the Major Part of the Bench... It is ordered that...the Persons objected against be left out of the commission." So the role of Justice for brother Michael was not to be.

John's minor show of displeasure, however, wasn't enough to curtail the appointments which seemed to increasingly come his way. Three months later he received a commission to be Coroner of the County of Brunswick and in 1738 he was elected Burgess of the Virginia Assembly and promoted to Colonel.

John's son, our grandfather John Wall IV (5GGF), first shows up in the Brunswick County records in 1741. He would have been about twenty-five at the time. John IV, along with his uncle Michael and his aunts Agnes (6A) and Mary (6A) witnessed a transfer of deed. Also in 1741, the record shows that "Col Wall's work on church completed."

The following record shows the influence the Wall family had gained over the years. It also shows that brother Michael wasn't down and out.

2 Apr 1741: Ordered that Michael Wall Gent have liberty to turn the Road whereof he is Surveior over any part of Fountains Creek he thinks convenient.” The next year, Michael was appointed Sheriff of Brunswick County. He coincidentally attained the rank of captain.

tired and falling out of favor

John Wall’s last term as a Burgess was served in the Assembly of March 1747. The fol-

lowing record reveals that he ran again in 1748 for the office but this time was defeated. He apparently never ran again. According to Lou, if he did run "he certainly was not elected again."

It appears that men who were wealthy and involved in government affairs were often asked to administrate wills. They were also frequently asked to become guardians for minor children. John had certainly done his share of administrations and guardianships. But when Richard Ransom chose as " [e]xecutors: my trusty friends Colo John Wall and Colo Nath’ll Edwards" and appointed them "to be guardian to my 2 sons, James and Robin," both men

"refused to take upon themselves the burden of the execution."

To make matters worse, John had finally worn out his welcome as a Justice of the county. From a record on 12 Jul 1749: "Ordered, That a new Commission of the Peace issue for the County of Brunswick, and that John Wall be left out of it." John, still a man of spirit, wasn't going to take that lying down. He petitioned "to be restored to his Place of a Justice." But that was not to be. From 2 Nov 1749: "John Willis Esqr and Mr John Wall appeared this day before the Council, and on hearing both Parties it was the Opinion of the Council that the said John Wall had not cleared up his Character in so satisfactory a manner as to deserve to be restored to his Place in the Commission of the Peace..."

1749 turned out to be a really bad year for John. While the justice controversy was going on, John's brother Michael, who he had been close to for so many years, died. Michael would have been about 57 years old at the time of his death. He left a mourning ring to his sister Agnes (6A) and the rest of his estate was divided between his two children, James (1C6X) and Lucy (1C6X), who were still minors when he died.

Note: Michael's son James Wall died young in 1777, probably in his 40s. We know that Aunt Agnes was still alive because James included her in his will: "To my aunt Agness Wall – the use of 1 room in my old house for her life & my excrs to supply her ‘with the necessaries of Life’ during her life." Agnes must have been in her 80s at the time. She outlived all of her siblings.

In 1751, John III continued his irascible ways. The November 8 entry says that "Rev. George Purdie accepted as Minster. John Wall (and others), state that they do not accept Rev. George Purdie as Minister." Later, however, John must have been conviced that Purdie was acceptable because, by the next year, John Wall was once again a churchwarden working alongside the good reverend. That same year there was another bright spot in John's life. We have no way of knowing when our poor, unnamed grandmother died but, in 1751, John married Mary, the widow of Burrell Brown. In his sixties now, John would go on to have two children with his new wife.

When his son George (6U) was born in 1752, John made out a new will which included the new addition to his family. The 1752 will was the one that was probated in 1761 when John died. Evidently daughter Mary (6A), born a few years later, was of not enough consequence to warrant a will update.

the travails of a son

It appears that John Wall IV may not have had the business savvy of his father. John IV bought two pieces of property in May and June of 1742. The first, 100 acres, he bought for £25 and sold five months later for £5. The second, 240 acres, he bought for £25 and sold four months later for £10. Probably owing to his father's wealth and status, John IV did, however, manage to marry well. Lou theorizes that the wedding between John IV and Anne Poythress took place ca. 1743. The Walls and the Poythress family had been next door neighbors in Prince George County.

Anne's father, our grandfather Joshua Poythress (6GGF), died sometime around 1740. It appears that John IV, after his marriage to Anne, wasn't happy with her share of the spoils. A note appears on the back of Joshua's will referring to a lawsuit, Wall vs. Poythress. The records for the outcome of the suit don't exist but it appears that John IV did come into some property from the estate. When he sold two tracts of land, 487 acres, for £80, John's wife Anne, after "being first privately examined, voluntarily relinquished her right of dower to the lands conveyed."

John IV, like his father, "was very involved in local affairs of government ant the militia." In 1746, he was named Justice and county surveyer as well as holding the rank of lieutenant in the militia. That year, he also purchased a piece of property, 240 acres, where he made his home with Anne. In 1748, he served as under-sheriff under his uncle Michael Wall. By this time, John and Anne had three children, John (4U), William (4U), and Anne (Nancy) (4GGM). In 1751, John IV was promoted to captain.

John III was involved in a land transaction in December of 1750 which, as Lou Poole pointed out, has"no record of Ann's releasing her dower rights accompanying the record." Lou speculated that Ann may have died before that transaction took place.

In 1752, John IV testified in court concerning a lost or stolen watch of his:

Affidavit of John Wall Jr.: He stated that he was at the ordinary near Brunswick Courthouse with...several others; that Mr Smith took my watch from my hands & then returned it, although at the timeI did not remember it; that I declared my watch was lost but it was found on the billiard table where, several persons said, it was laid by Henry Jackson, but I believe I took my watch & laid it on the table & since many were intoxicated, I do believe that sd Henry is unjustly accused.

Shortly after his court appearance, the tides of fortune for John IV began to take a turn for the worse as his financial straits became apparant. In October of 1752, he sold all of his homestead property along with his "negro man Cyrus." Then, in December of 1752, records show that "[s]d John Wall the younger was indebted to several persons & that sd John Wall the elder was his security for the same." Listed were eight men that money was owed to by John IV. It appears that four slaves and "cattle, etc..." were also sold to pay debts.

The financial predicament spurred the two Wall men into action. By 1753, both John Walls, elder and younger, were in Craven County, South Carolina. There, the two men apparently worked the headright system, still in effect in South Carolina, to their advantage. Under South Carolina law, every head brought into the colony, white or black, was good for fifty acres of land.

Meeting of Tuesday A.M. 1 October 1754: The Humble Petition of John Wall (III) setting forth That he hath five Negroes for whom he never yet Obtained any Land, prays to lay out 250 acres of Land on Pedee River or the waters therof. The prayer thereof was granted.

On the same day, John Wall III made another humble petition for more land for his five children and that "prayer" was also granted.

By 1755, after obtaining 500 acres of land for his debt-ridden son, the elder John Wall was back in Brunswick County, VA.

Note: The Pee Dee is a mighty river that "originates in the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina, where its upper course...is known as the Yadkin River." The river travels 232 miles to Winyah Bay in South Carolina where it impties into the Atlantic Ocean. This river became important to our Covington, Thomas and Wall families in North Carolina, many of whom made their homes on the banks of the Pee Dee.

from bad to worse for John IV

In April of 1756, the Council of Craven County's order of business concerned the woeful John IV:

Read a Petition of the following Subscribers, Inhabitants of Pedee, setting forth, That whereas his Ex’cy had lately deputed John Wall Esq’r to be Colonel of their Regiment who behaviour in all respects rendered him unfit for that office, and as they were fully persuaded

that his Excellency was unacquainted with his bad Conduct, the Pet’rs would as Loyal Subjects, and as they thought themselves in Duty bound inform his Excellency especially with regard to the unhappy Events which might very likely in there troublesome times attend bad Conduct. 1st That his Loyal(ty) to His Majesty King George was greatly to be Questions. 2d That he had given himself over altogether to Drunkenness which rendered him incapable of ordering the affair of the Militia, and most of his behaviour was base, imprudent and immoral, who also seemed regardless of the Good of Common Wealth and as the hines [?] admitted to danger approaching on every side, they thought their Lives and Fortunes at Stake. The Petitioners therefore humbly prayed his Ex’cy to take the said affair into consideration and order therein as he should think fit.

A witness called into Council stated that "he had been informed by one Person that Mr. Wall had drank the Pretenders Health, and that another Person had informed him that Mr. Wall had acknowledged before he left Virginia he was in Liquor and did then drink the Pretenders Health..." John IV was ordered to "immediately answer the Charge made against him..."

Note: The "Pretender" would have been the heir of King James II who had been usurped by William of Orange in 1689.

Lou found no records that show the conclusion to this sad affair. It's possible that John IV didn't live long enough for the affair to conclude. An account of John III's brother Michael's estate in 1757, lists a "John Wall" and a "John Wall, Jr dec'd." Since John IV's name appears as a witness to a will in March of 1757, he must have died shortly afterwards. His children would have been twelve, ten and eight at the time. Thus ended the rather sad life of our grandfather John Wall IV who was only about 42 at the time of his death.

death and will of John Wall III

After returning to Virginia fron South Carolina, John Wall III made his final land coup in 1755. He received over 4,000 acres on Pigeon Roost Creek. He was apporaching 70 in 1757 when he lost two of his sons, John IV and Michael. His own death happened in 1761, at about age 71. Over his long life, John Wall III had bought and sold vast amounts of acreage and acquired a multitude of slaves to work that property.

Since John had not changed his will since the 1752 draft, his sons John IV and Michael were still included. Their portions probably went to their children.

John left his wife Mary 1,000 acres and "four negroe slaves that I had with her namely Digs, Hannah, ___ and Jack as her absolute property."

Son John IV would have received "three Hundred acres of Land to be taken off the upper end of my tract whereon I now dwell and to include the plantation that my said son has already made thereon also his negroes. to wit. Abraham & Moll his wife, Will, Isane, Philby and Amy."

Son Michael would have received 1,000 acres and "my negroes to Wit. Tom and Liddie his wife, Beck and Charles, Frank and Margarett."

Son George received 1,000 acres and "four negroes vizt Tom___, Abraham a boy of Lucy(?) and ____."

The bulk of John Wall's estate along with 2,000 acres of land went to his son James.

the Walls in North Carolina

When our grandfather, John Wall IV, moved to South Carolina, he lived close to the town of Cheraw. Cheraw is only twenty miles from Rockingham, North Carolina, the seat of our Covington family there.

(1) John Wall IV's property in Brunswick County, VA (2) Cheraw, SC (3) Rockingham, NC

The children of John IV, John V, William and Nancy, all ended up, when adults, living in the Rockingham area of North Carolina. Since they were orphaned at a young age, Lou posits a believable explanation as to how they ended up in North Carolina instead in Virginia where they may have lived with their grandfather for a time after their father'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...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.

However the Wall children ended up in North Carolina, the family would remain ensconsed there for many generations. John Wall V would have eleven children who together created a large part of the vast Wall dynasty. William Wall married his possible guardian John Crawford's daughter Lucy. And, in Rockingham, our grandmother Nancy Wall would meet her future husband, John Covington, one of the first in a very long line of Covington/Wall connections. Lou says it best:

There is no end of the confusion that has been caused by so many Wall-Covington marriages over several generations, and all using the same names. Many of the early historians of the area who relied more on memory and family legends than actual research have almost hopelessly confused these folks, and people who do not do in-depth and primary-record research have since replicated and, in some cases, added to the confusion. DAR records and many published second-source books and articles are replete with these errors.

Thanks again to Lou for clearing up much of the confusion.

Next up: The Covingtons