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Here's what I have on both Johns. The John Bruton who is believed to be Nathan's father must have been born by the mid-1720s at the latest, because he first appears in NC records 1742 in Craven County. He was reported to the local Craven County court for failing to submit a list of "tythables" and for thus not paying his taxes for the year 1741. The court ordered that he pay his necessary taxes. Craven County had been formed in 1739 from what was known as Craven Precinct, named for William Craven, Earl of Craven, who in 1663 was one of the original eight Lord Proprietors of Carolina. It was in that year, on March 24, that King Charles II officially created Carolina from the Colony of Virginia. At the time of its formation in 1739, Craven County was one of fourteen counties in the Colony.

A few years later, in 1746, Johnston County was formed from the Craven County precinct in which John lived. John appears in that year in the Johnston County Deed Book as receiving a deed from John Winders. The transaction was recorded between November 1746 and the end of the year. He appears in this deed book again when a deed from Jesse Harper was recorded. No page number or date was listed; this transaction was recorded between November 1746 and around 1750, the range of time covered by the book. John is listed in this book once more, in 1750, when he received a deed from Spencer Caldwell.

Johnston County was reduced in size at the end of the decade, when Dobbs County was created from a portion of Johnston County in 1759. Dobbs County was named for Arthur Dobbs (1689-1765), who was governor of North Carolina from 1754 to 1765. It was in Dobbs County records that John next appears on December 23, 1763. On that day the British Crown granted him 175 acres on the south side of Loosing Swamp, adjoining the property of John Powel. This area was originally settled by the Swiss, who founded the nearby city of New Bern, the first capital of North Carolina. Loosing Swamp was in fact named Lucerne Swamp, for the Swiss city, but over time the name evolved from Lucerne to Loosing.

John was granted an additional 200 acres on April 28, 1768, on the north side of the Neuse River and of Briery Branch, joining William Moore, William Bruton, and a point below the lake. The next day, April 29, he appears in another land transaction, when Ephraim Moore was granted 112 acres on the north side of the Neuse River between Briery Branch and Loosing Swamp, joining John Powell, John Bruton, and Moore's own line.

John next appears on a tax list in Dobbs County in 1769. On December 16, 1769, John Powell was granted 300 acres in Dobbs County on the north side of the Neuse River and the south side of Loosing Swamp. This property joined a corner of Powell's property, that of Ephraim Moore, the Gum pond, John Bruton, and the south side of Hickory Neck Branch.

John was married with a woman named Isabella. Her family name is unknown, although one story states that she was born Isabella Emanuel in Savannah, Georgia. No evidence has been found to prove this. John and Isabella are believed to have had seven (7) children. Isabella and these children are known to have moved south from North Carolina.

In 1775/76 John is listed in the North Carolina Secretary of State Treasurer's and Comptroller's Papers Journal "A" as receiving 2.4 for some service to the Continental Army.
John appears in land records again on April 8, 1778, when Solomon Person was granted 400 acres in Dobbs County. The property bordered on that of Jesse Barden, Richard Warrel, Benjamin Warrel, Daniel Lofley, his own property, including the vacant land, and on John Bruton's improvements on each side of Mackason Swamp.

In December 1778 John became a member of Captain Samuel Ash's 1st Troop of the North Carolina Light Dragoons, remaining in this Revolutionary War service until 1781. During his absence Isabella appears in North Carolina records in 1780 as a head of household in Dobbs County. She also appears on a Dobbs County taxpayer list in that year.

This tax list provided some insight about life in Dobbs County during the war. Because of the war economy and the threat of invasion, currency was becoming scarce and the paper money being printed by the Colony was steadily devalued. A provisions tax was devised as a means of paying and collecting taxes. Each taxpayer's property was assessed and each paid in one of the following ten ways, based on per hundred pound valuation: (1) 1 peck Indian corn; (2) ½ peck of wheat; (3) 5 pounds of good flour; (4) 1¼ pecks of cleaned oats; (5) ½ peck of rye; (6) 1 peck of rough rice; (7) peck of cleaned rice; (8) 3 pounds of good pork; (9) 2 pounds of salted pork; and/or (10) 4 and ½ pounds of good beef. The total Dobbs County tax receipts for 1780 were made up of 8,037¾ pecks of Indian corn, 19½ pecks of wheat, 112 pecks of oats, 35 pecks of rough rice, 5,908¼ pounds of good pork, 2,204 pounds of salted pork, and 375¼ pounds of beef. The total value of the county's property was thus 1,128,946.

Isabella Bruton paid her provisions tax as a resident of Captain Matthew Harvey's District. She paid with 18 pecks of Indian corn, 61 pounds of fresh (good) pork, and 34 pecks of oats. This would indicate that the property was assessed at 6,566. Records indicate that oats were only grown in Captain Harvey's district (the area around LaGrange, now in Lenoir County). This area is in the upper plateau of the county, where the well-drained, fertile soil was good for the cultivation of grains.

In April 1781 British General Charles Cornwallis and his army marched north through Dobbs County on their way to southeastern Virginia, where the General surrendered to General George Washington at Yorktown. Later that year, on September 20, John Bruton was granted a specie certificate by the State for the sum of 8. Specie certificates were granted by the State to persons to whom it owed money, often Continental soldiers whom the State at that time could not afford to pay. The holder could redeem the value of the certificate plus interest accrued when the certificate matured. John's certificate matured on March 8, 1784, and was valued at 9.3.7.

In 1786 another payment was made to John Bruton for his service in the Army of North Carolina. Payment was received by John Sheppard in Warrenton. A few years later, in 1791, Isabella and some of her children appear in records of South Carolina. In that year Dobbs County was dissolved so that Lenoir and Glasgow Counties were formed. There is no further known mention of John Bruton in records after 1786, nor is there any indication that he moved with his family in 1791. Several secondary sources indicate that only Isabella and her children left North Carolina.

Isabella first appears in South Carolina records as "Isabel Bruton" in 1791, when she appears on a list of S.C. residents, a document dated October 1, 1791, in the South Carolina House Records Annuities Reports. From this and the fact that John disappears from North Carolina records, it could be assumed that John died before the family moved further south.

Another indication that Isabella's husband John died before leaving North Carolina is that she remarried with a Mr. Askew in South Carolina. She first surfaces as an Askew on September 5, 1791, when she acquired 123 acres in Orangeburgh District, South Carolina. This property was on the south side of the South Edisto River on the Big Branch of Burgesses Creek. The land was bounded by Nathaniel Walker, Henry Felder, Elijah Ford, and Joshua Standley. The date of the recording of this "Askew" transaction, and the listing of Isabel "Bruton" as a 1791 South Carolina resident, would suggest that she married Mr. Askew sometime between January and September 1791. Because John Bruton received payment for his military service in 1786, it would also seem that he died between 1786 and the end of 1790.

Isabella continues to appear in a variety of South Carolina records. On January 2, 1798, she sold her 123 acre tract of land to Burwell Atkinson, also a resident of Orangeburgh District. A few years later, on May 16, 1801, she gave James Berry, "my son-in-law", 200 acres of land in Barnwell District (formed from Orangeburgh District) on the South Edisto River near Burgesses Creek. The property was bounded by Jonathan Doster, James Welteh, Stephen Jones, and Andrew Tannehill.

She next appears in records on February 11, 1811, when she sold 425 acres to William Ritter, also of Barnwell District. This property was bounded by Nehemiah Wroten, Reuben Taylor, Andrew Tannehill, and John Travis. Almost exactly a year later, on February 20, 1812, Isabella appointed Aquilla Bruton, also of Barnwell District, as her attorney to sell and dispose of part or all of her lands in South Carolina. The power of attorney was witnessed by Benjamin Bruton and John McTyer. Isabella next appears in records in Georgia, where most of her children lived; it is possible that she granted Aquilla power of attorney when she in fact left for Georgia.

Aquilla Bruton, as attorney for Isabel Askew, sold 200 acres on Burgesses Creek to Nancy Stout on June 13, 1812. The transaction was witnessed by Benjamin Bruton and John G. Stout.

Isabella does not appear in records again for almost eight years. In July 1820 she is listed as a resident of Richmond County, Georgia. She then appears in Tattnall County, where her son Nathan lived, on September 8, 1824, when she was granted 550 acres between the town of Claxton and the Canoochee River. This land was bounded by property owned by the Brewton, Tippins, Hoover, and Waters families.

The issue of whether or not John Bruton ever left North Carolina has been a particularly perplexing one for many Brewton researchers, primarily because there was a John Bruton living in the vicinity of the Isabella Bruton Askew family in Georgia. This second John Bruton was probably a relative; it has been established that the two Bruton families knew one another. As I mentioned earlier, I suspect that he is a brother to Nathan.

This second John Bruton was born in the 1740s in Craven County, North Carolina (one record states 1741; another shows 1747). He was married with Jeanette Griffin, who was also born around 1747 in Craven County. She was one of three children of Jonas Griffin and Alice Bryan Griffin. John and Jeanette had six children. John served in the Revolution as a spy on the Georgia frontier, and at the completion of his military service, he received a bounty grant of 300 acres in Washington County in 1782. Bounty grants were made to many Revolutionary War veterans as compensation for their patriotic services. On July 10, 1781, Virginia records mention that John had delivered seven slaves to a new owner in Halifax (now Fairfax) County, Virginia. These records are the first located which actually refer to the John Bruton of Georgia. John also appears in a Georgia state revolutionary pay roll on February 25, 1786, when John Brewton was paid 47 pounds for hunting cattle.

John Bruton was granted an additional 287½ acres on Town Creek in Washington County on November 24, 1784. John continued to purchase property in this area. On January 6, 1791, two plots of 150 acres each were surveyed by John Watts at John Bruton's request. The property contained in the first plot included Bruton Creek and was adjoining to Bruton (now Brewton), Georgia. The second plot included Big Creek and adjoined the property of Dan Eubanks. All of this property was later made part of Warren County, when Washington County was subdivided into about a dozen new, smaller counties.

John bought additional property in 1795. He bought 200 acres of land on the west side of Beech Tree Creek from Thomas Johnson of Columbia County on February 19. Edmond Bugg and Benjamin Bruton were witnesses to the transaction. John also bought a tract of land on March 27 in Warren County from William Bush, Sr., and his wife, Mourning Bush. This land also bordered on the west side of Beech Tree Creek and on the property that John had bought in the previous month from Thomas Johnson.

John took part in another business transaction on November 1, 1798. For $800 he bought one negro man, one negro woman, one mare, a stock of hogs, corn, cotton, and all the remaining crops of David Walker of Jefferson County. The bill of sale for the slaves was witnessed by Benjamin Bruton and Sally Bruton. This Benjamin Bruton was Isabella Bruton Askew's son; Sally Bruton was the second John Bruton's daughter. This transaction shows that the two families knew one another.

Aside from being a planter John Bruton also served as justice of the peace of Warren County, a position he obtained in 1795. He appears in many records after 1795 in this official capacity.
On April 22, 1808, John Bruton gave some of his property to family members. These were Charlotte Bruton Walker, Laney Bruton Spann, Sally Bruton Porter, Vicey Bruton Black, Jeanette Bruton, and John Bruton, Jr. These gifts were recorded in a deed of gift recorded in the Superior Court Deeds and Mortgages records in Warren County. On August 13, 1808, John Bruton was mentioned in the Augusta Chronicle newspaper in a list of persons who had failed to pay his taxes. In the following year, on February 22, 1809, John sold additional property to Simeon Travis. This land bordered with that of Robert Bolling and Benjamin Upton. These are the last known records of John and his wife Jeanette.

John and Jeanette's six (6) children were: Charlotte Bruton, who married Joel Walker; Eleanor ("Laney") Bruton, who married Francis Spann; Sally Bruton, who married William Porter; Vicey Bruton, who married Robert Black on March 18, 1795, in Warren County; Polly Bruton, who married Charles Devereaux; and John Bruton, Jr., who married Mildred Clarke on February 1, 1810, in Jefferson County. John Bruton, Jr.'s, children were Benjamin F. Bruton and John Alexander Bruton.

Regarding your search on Jemima Johnson Fontaine, she married with Nathan's brother, Benjamin Bruton. Benjamin was born around 1769 in North Carolina. He moved to South Carolina and then to Georgia, where he was living by 1790 (as were other family members). On February 2, 1791, Benjamin Bruton was granted 214 acres on Rocky Comfort. He was also granted an additional tract of land there on December 13, 1802. The remaining 200 acres of Rocky Comfort were owned by Robert Gray.

Benjamin was married with Jemima Johnson Fontaine sometime before late 1799. Jemima (born in 1755) was the widow of Francis Fontaine, III, who is believed to have been murdered in 1783 by Tories in Georgia. Jemima participated in the Revolutionary War, providing supplies to the Continental Army in South Carolina. (A number of descendants have joined the Daughters of the American Revolution based on Jemima's Revolutionary War service.)

Each of Francis' son-in-laws, John Goza, Joshua Goza, and Nathan Jackson Brewton, Sr., inherited a portion of his estate. The three signed a receipt to Benjamin and Jemima Bruton, administrators of the estate, for their shares of the estate, referring to themselves as "heirs by marriage." This document was witnessed by Sarah Fontaine (Francis' niece) and Edward Matthews, and was probated on October 4, 1799.

Benjamin served as a Justice of the Peace in Montgomery County, Georgia. He moved to southern Alabama by 1816, where his brother Joseph and his first cousin Benjamin also settled. He and Jemima were known to have sold 514 acres of their land in Rocky Comfort (Georgia) on March 3, 1803, to William Simples of Warren County. The bill of sale was witnessed by John Smith and Benjamin Upton. Because Benjamin does not appear in records again until 1816, when he appears on a tax list in Alabama, it has not been determined when between 1803 and 1816 he moved to Alabama. It also has not been determined if Jemima moved to Alabama with him. It is known that she died sometime after 1809.

Benjamin married a second time in Alabama with a woman named Mary, but he had no children from either marriage. He worked as a wagon master and owned his own wagon train, which hauled supplies from the Alabama River to Fort Crawford. After the closing of the fort, he hauled hardwood from southern Alabama to a furniture factory in Milledgeville, Georgia. Aside from operating his wagon train, Benjamin also owned and operated a large plantation in Sparta, Alabama, using slaves as his work force.

Because he had no children, Benjamin's nieces and nephews inherited his considerable fortune when he died in October 1863.

I hope you find this helpful and of interest. I'd welcome anything you come across that may link our Brutons to Virginia.

Regards,

Brian

Followups: Re: Brewton, John 1750 VA john brewton 2/27/00 Re: Brewton, John 1750 VA Tony Powell 2/27/00 Re: Brewton, John 1750 VA john brewton 2/28/00 Re: Brewton, John 1750 VA Tony Powell 2/29/00

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