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Hello again,
I've had a chance to check my notes, and I do have Elza Ann Jane Brewton listed. She was born on October 27, 1849; as you know, she married Jackson Holland.
Eliza was one of 10 children of William J. Brewton and Sarah Emily Weaver. William was born on March 22, 1830, in Georgia; Sarah was born on December 3, 1828, in Alabama. She was the daughter of John and Maria Weaver. William died on December 3, 1906, in Meridian, Mississippi. Sarah died some years later, on June 27, 1917.
William was one of eight children of Emanuel Brewton and Eliza Caroline Bacon. The Edmund Troupe Brewton in your earlier message is one of William's brothers. So Edmund was Eliza Ann's uncle rather than his father.
Emanuel was born on May 3, 1801, in Georgia. He received three land grants in Bulloch County, Georgia: one for 150 acres in 1835; a second for 1,000 acres, also in 1835; and a third for 50 acres in 1837.
Around 1826 Emanuel married Eliza Caroline Bacon, daughter of Jonathan B. Bacon and Eliza Myers. Jonathan and Eliza had six children, but were not married until after the birth of their fifth child. Up until that time Jonathan was married to another woman. Caroline, who was born around 1810, was one of the five illegitimate children. One of these siblings was Charlotte Malvina Bacon, who married Emanuel's brother Benjamin Brewton. Emanuel and Caroline moved to the Fort Crawford area in southern Alabama in 1839, where the railroad was later built through their land. They moved there to join Emanuel's uncles, Joseph, who settled there in 1816, and Benjamin, who settled there in 1819. Emanuel first appeared in the Alabama census in 1840. At that time he had six children. He had two more children in Alabama.
In 1850 Elizabeth purchased a forty acre tract of land called "Old Prickly Pear Field", so named because of the many cactus plants growing there. Emanuel no longer appears in records; it is assumed that he died sometime before 1850. His wife lived for a number of years. On May 29, 1883, she sold a 200x300 foot lot in the town of Brewton for the construction of the new Escambia County courthouse and jail. She received $100 for the property. Upon her death she was buried in the Fort Crawford Cemetery, the oldest burial ground in the county.
Emanuel was one of twelve children of Nathan Jackson Brewton, Sr., the founder of the large Georgia Brewton family. He was born a "Bruton" in 1765 in Dobbs County, North Carolina, and moved to Georgia along with his family. It is possible that he lived for a short time near Charleston, South Carolina, as did many members of his family, but no records have been located to substantiate this theory.
On April 3, 1794, he and his fiancee Nancy Fontaine Thompson obtained a marriage license in Warren County. Nancy, a young widow, was born around 1780. She was one of at least three children of Francis Fontaine, III, and Jemima Johnson Fontaine. Francis died during the Revolutionary War. Nancy's mother, Jemima, remarried with Benjamin Bruton, Nathan's brother. Jemima was, therefore, both Nancy's mother and sister-in-law. Nathan and Nancy were married on May 18, 1794.
A few weeks later (on June 4, 1794) Nathan bought 350 acres of land in what was then Liberty County, on the south side of the Canoochee River. He and Nancy built their home there, just above where the Brewton-Hendricks Bridge later stood, near the mouth of Cedar Creek. This site was an advantage in times of high water, and the flat river side just below it was a good landing place for timber and boats. Nathan built and operated several mills there for squaring timber.
Later Nathan and Nancy moved across the bay, where Nathan built a grist mill. On May 6, 1810, Nathan served as a petit juror in Tattnall County. He continued to purchase property there and in adjoining areas; by 1837 he is known to have owned 10,874 acres in Bulloch, Liberty, and Tattnall counties. In 1835 a church was built near Claxton and named for the Brewton family, as was the local school. Nathan also appears on tax lists in Tattnall County in 1802 through 1804.
On October 29, 1850, Nathan signed an agreement with his grandson-in-law, Seaborn R. Hodges, who was married to Elizabeth ("Betsy") Ann Hendricks, daughter of Elmire Jemima Brewton Hendricks. In the agreement Seaborn agreed to waive all rights, title, and interest in and upon the estate of his mother-in-law, Jemima, and anything that Jemima may ultimately inherit from her father, in exchange for $500. The agreement was witnessed by James H. Wilkinson, another of Nathan's grandsons-in-law. The reasons for this transaction have not been discovered.
Nathan Brewton died on November 25, 1855. In his will he appointed his sons, Benjamin Brewton and Nathan Jackson Brewton, Jr., as the executors of his estate. Another of his sons, Simon Johnson Brewton, assisted Benjamin and Nathan, Jr. On December 10, 1855, Benjamin and Simon filed an inventory of their father's rights and credits with the probate court. A few months later, on March 3, 1856, they filed a petition with the court stating that their sister, Elmire Jemima Brewton Hendricks, was incapable of managing her share of their father's estate. A jury met on March 13 and found that Jemima was "a lunatic" and should come under a guardian's care. It was therefore ruled that she was incapable of managing her own affairs; her brothers assumed control of her share of their father's estate. Later Jemima's children sued their uncles for custody; the court ruled in favor of her children.
On April 24, 1856, Benjamin and Simon sold a portion of the personal property of their father's estate.
Nathan was the first person to be buried in the Brewton Cemetery, near the Brewton Church, in a community now part of the town of Hagan. This new cemetery was set up by his children, primarily Simon and Benjamin, on land donated by their brother Samuel. Nathan's wife Nancy lived with Simon after Nathan's death. Then, in 1864, she moved in with her daughter, Martha Brewton Rogers, and lived there until her death on July 7, 1864. Nancy is buried next to her husband. The Brewton Cemetery is today one of the largest and oldest cemeteries still in use in Evans County (a county created from parts of Bulloch and Tattnall Counties).
On April 8, 1863, the final distribution of Nathan Brewton's estate was made by W. R. Frier, J. D. DeLoach, James H. Wilkinson, W. N. Moore, and James Anderson. The estate was divided into eleven shares. Numbers were placed in a hat; the names of the heirs were placed in another hat. A slip of paper was then drawn from each hat; this was how Nathan's estate was divided among the heirs. Nathan's oldest surviving son, Benjamin, refused to draw, as he had notes in the estate that were about equal to his share of the estate.
His heirs received the following: his wife, Nancy, received three slaves, Sam, Chang, and Raford, valued at $3,800. She paid the estate $300. His daughter, Nancy Brewton Miller, received two slaves, Major and Elick, valued at $1,800. His daughter Clarissa Brewton Smith received one child slave, Calvin, valued at $2,000. His son Simon Johnson Brewton received two slaves, Flora and Body, valued at $1,900. His daughter Martha Brewton Rogers received two slaves, Primus and Eliza, valued at $1,800. The heirs of his son, Emanuel Brewton, received three slaves, Patsy, Clasa, and Mary, valued at $2,300. His daughter Jemima Brewton Hendricks received two slaves, Isiah and Shadrick, valued at $1,900. The heirs of his daughter, Elizabeth Sikes, received three slaves, Danson, Casey, and Dicy, valued at $1,800. Nathan's son, Samuel Brewton, received two slaves, Wilson and Jones, valued at $2,500. His son Nathan Brewton received two slaves, Peter and Buck, valued at $2,300. The heirs also received money or notes totalling $3,500.
Nathan, in turn, was one of eight children of Isabella Bruton; I believe that Isabella's husband and Nathan's father was John Bruton; others claim it was Benjamin Bruton. Let me tell you what I have found. John Bruton was born in the first third of the 1700s. The first known mention of John Bruton in North Carolina appears in 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 eight (8) children. Isabella and these children are known to have moved south from North Carolina, as discussed later in this narrative.
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 pounds. 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.
This is the last time that Isabella appears in records. Her great-grandson, Sam Hendricks, wrote that she was buried on her property there, near where Alfred Barfield had built his home around 1892.
I've been doing a great deal of research on where the elusive colonial North Carolina Brutons originally came. I'd be happy to share some of my theories and findings, if you like.
Hope you enjoy the information, I'd be happy to provide whatever else I can!
Regards,
Brian Nilsson
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