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Greetings to the Fish School! Help greatly appreciated on early eastern NC Fish(es)!
I have been working for a decade or so on early settlers of the Contentnea Creek watershed, the area abandoned by the tuscarorans after the Tuscarora War ended in 1713/15.
Apparently one of the first settlers in the area was William Fish, though he also had land granted to him in Edgecombe County, abstracted below, and it isn't clear exactly where he lived.
2 March 1738 grant to William Fish 400A (Edgecombe) Beaverdam Swamp, School House Branch (SS Book 3:394). (SS Edgecombe File 24: no documents.)
2 March 1738 grant to William Fish 500A (Edgecombe) mouth of Wildcat Branch, Beaverdam Swamp (SS Book 8:84). (SS Edgecombe File 667: no documents.)
I am exploring the connection between the first generation Contentnea Aycocks and the Fish family.
Aycock Swamp -- tributary to Contentnea Creek, whose headwaters extend southwestward into the cemetery at Fremont, NC -- was named for a land-owning Aycock who was established enough there to have a significant tributary named for him by 1743/44, when adjacent land was entered by (and then granted to) William Fish, citing “Haycock’s Swamp." William Fish' two 1745 grants are abstracted below.
20 April 1745 grant to William Fish 200A (Craven) SS Contentnea Creek, on “Haycock’s Swamp,” (ES Aycock Swamp) (SS Book 5:344; duplicated 10:187); 250A entered 2 March 1743/44, “at the mouth of a branch above his improvements on Acocks Swamp.” (SS Craven File 455, no documents; SS Craven File 1283, no documents)
20 April 1745 grant to William Fish 100A (Craven) SS Contentnea Creek (SS Book 5:344; duplicated SS Book 10:187; entered 2 March 1743/44, on the “Marsh Branch near Smith’s path so on both sides of the Branch" (SS Craven File 456: no documents; SS Craven File 1284, no documents)
While it is possible, of course, that this Aycock lived elsewhere, it seems unlikely, given the local naming conventions. For instance, modern-day Newsome's Branch, just up Aycock's Swamp from there, on the western side, was named for Quaker David Newsome, who owned and lived on much of that land by the 1770's.
Moreover, the other two "orphan" Aycocks, John and Thomas, both were granted land a few decades later just upstream on Aycock's Swamp, near the headwaters, also near modern Fremont. Sure seems like a generation to me. John Acock also acquired land from Jonas Cook during the burned deed period (Book 6, page 271, and so probably about 1760 or so), again suggesting a generation remove from the precursor. The Cook grants were located downstream near the mouth of Aycock Swamp on Contentnea Creek, on the west side of Aycock Swamp. More of the Cook grant land was sold to Ephraim Daniel (Burned Book 9, page 295, about 1772); this land would become part of the long-standing Daniel Quarter. John Aycock also sold land to William Lancaster (Burned Book 10, page 259, about 1774).
A parsimonious explanation, forever beyond proof, if that one of the first pioneers to that area was FNU Aycock, for whom the swamp was named, who had sons, John, Thomas and -- dare I say it? -- Jesse.
A John Fish (William's son?) sold land during the burned deed period to John Weaver (Book 7, page 137, and thus about 1766). John Weaver was a major Aycock swamp landowner, with several granst in that area.
Another early grant -- dated 1744 -- was issued to Jacob Barden . . . located on the next tributary upstream on Contentnea Creek. Jesse Aycock's second wife is purported to be Charity Barden; his earliest record is the burned deed cited in the grantor/grantee index for Book 6, page 372 (that is about 1763 or so, by estimation) when Jacob Barden conveyed land to his son in law.
The earliest land record for an Aycock in that index to the burned deeds -- and the only other one I see -- is a Granville grant to William Acock recorded in (burned) Book 4, page 195 (i.e. dated in the middle 1750s, by estimation; that would be Johnston County, and likely the grant to William Aycock actually dated 1752 and located on the southside of the Neuse on Falls of Swift Creek). Presumably, this is the other line (Richard and company, via Granville County).
You decide, but it sure looks to me like there was an active clan of Aycocks and Fish(es) owning land and perhaps living around Aycock Swamp by about 1743. The Aycocks were probably sired by the missing ancestor for Jesse. That would make both families among the very first settlers of Upper Contentnea Creek, on lands abandoned by the Tuscarorans thirty years before. Given that Jesse Aycock's birth date is usually given as 1743, he could even have been born there rather than Virginia, as usually cited.
What do you folks know about William and John Fish?
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