Paces in NC, 1700's, Anson through Edgecombe Counties.
PACE:NORTH CAROLINA SOURCES
Dates of creation of some northeastern counties:
Chowan, 1669; Beaufort, 1705; Bertie, 1722; Bute, 1764; Edgecomb, 1741;Granville, 1746;Hyde, 1729; New Hanover, 1729; Onslow, 1734;Johnston, 1746; Duplin, 1749; Hartford, 1759; Dobbs, 1758; Pitt, 1760; Halifax, 1758; Martin, 1774; Nash, 1777; Northampton, 1741;Gates, 1778; Wayne, 1779.
Carolina was divided into eight territories grantedto noblemen by Charles II as settlement of a major loan they had made to him.North Carolina included four of these grants or proprietorships.Sevenofthe noble families sold their rights to the Crown in 1729 but Lord Granville, who held a wide strip along the border with Virginia,kept his.Settlers buying land here had to pay his agents as well as the colonial royal government. His agents were resented and tended to be dishonest, cheating settlers and Lord Granville. Corbin and Bodley, two of them,were seized in Edenton in 1759 and jailed, leading to rioting against them.
The Indian threat ended with the defeat of the Tuscar-oras in 1713.Settlers sought land along many swamps and creeks which was fertile and desirable for tobacco farming, corn, cattle and hogs. Many settlers were slaveholders from Virginia.
Edenton on Ablemarle Sound was made the capital of the colony in 1728.It became a busy port, shipping lumber, foodcropsand slaves.Apleasanttown developed which is well preserved today.A churchyard was set aside n 1722 when the town was started. Francis Corbin, the notorious land agent for Lord Granville, built the Cupola House.The capital was moved to New Bern on the Neuse in Craven County in 1766.
Severalof the children of Richard and Rebecca Pace of Surry County, Virginia, moved to North Carolina about the time he moved, probably about 1719.Records in North Carolinamention his sons Richard, George, William and Thomas.Other Paces from Virginia who settled in North Carolina were probably related.
ANSON COUNTY.
Anson was formed from Bladen in 1750. Bladen was taken from New Hanover in 1734.New Hanover was taken fromoriginal Craven in 1729.Rowan was taken from Anson in 1753 and Mecklenberg in 1763. Many western Carolina counties came from Mecklenberg. Anson is located on the border with SC.Many of its records were lost in a fire in 1860.
1777. William Pace signed a petition asking that the Pee Dee River be the dividing line between Anson and Montgomery counties.He was a son of William and Celia Pace of Northampton County and brother of Stephen Pace.
Jan. 2, 1784. Stephen Pace of Chatham County applied for a grant in Anson for 80 acres. This was surveyed Feb. 10, 1784, by Morgan Brown with chain carriers Archibald Faulkner and William May. Brown was a later neighbor of Stephen Pace. Stephen recorded the same day a deed for 200 acres he bought from Nathan Faulkner. Both tracts lay on the north side of Jones Creek.
Dec. 2, 1786. Stephen sold his land on Jones Creek to Sterling May and bought land on Little Brown Creek from the Brown family. He and James Brown are listed only five names apart on the Census of 1790.
1788. William Pace died, leaving his property to his brother Solomon.
1790 Federal Census.
Stephen Pace, p. 35. Fayette District. 2 free white males 16 and older; 3 free white males under 16; 5 free white females.8 slaves. (This man was one of two Stephen Paces in the NC Census in 1790. The other lived in Edgecombe County.)
This Stephen Pace was a son of William and Celia Boykin PaceofNorthampton County, named in William’s will with siblings: Solomon, Hardy, William Pace, Jr., Winefred and Penelope Pace.He was left two slaves by his father.He named his children: Solomon, Hardy, William and Penelope.His siblings had similar names.
Stephenwas born about 1747 and married Catherine Gatewood Buchanan, daughter of Joseph Buchanan,about 1772. Their first child, William Pace, was born in 1773.Stephenappears to have lived in Edgecombe County on land he bought in 1771 on Peachtree Creek, part of it in Bute County.He sold this land four years later to Christian Bustin.
1795. Solomon Pace,brother ofStephen,died in Northampton County. Solomon willed to Stephen three tracts, one of which he bought from Solomon Byrd, all three from a sheriff’s sale. He also left Stephen “500 Spanish milled dollars” from the sale of the surplus of his estate, to be paid to him over five years. This money might have financed Stephen’smove to Georgia.
Solomon did not marry but had a daughter by Mrs. Beddingfield.Hiswillhas interesting provisions:
“Should my daughter Fanny ever live to have a living child, legitimate or illegitimate,I then give to her, Fanny Beddingfield, alias Pace, the daughter of Elizabeth Beddingfield,” 450 acres, 22 slaves, eight of the best horses, 30 head of the best cattle, sheep, 60 hogs, and all the household furniture.
Item: Should my daughter Fanny not live to have a child, legitimate or illegitimate, her estate is to go to my brother, Stephen Pace.
Item: It is my will and desire that my daughter Fanny may entirely be under the whole and sole care of my executors, or be bound unto some person, preference being given to Mrs. MacKenzie.
Item: It is my will and desire if Elizabeth Beddingfield does peaceably submit to Fanny’s being dealt with and educated agreeable to my will (not otherwise), then and in that case only my executors may lend her, Elizabeth Beddingfield, during her life, a support not less than my Dwelling house, Kitchen, Dairy and Smokehouse, Yard, Garden, Cotton, Potatoes, Ground, 2 beds, 6 chairs, 2 tables, Loom, Wheel and Cards, Kitchen Furniture, 2 cows & calves, 6 Heas of Sheep, a negro girl named Cherry, and Provender”.
1803. Stephen Pace relingquished “all the right and title he may have had in Solomon Pace’s estate” to Turner Bynum, who had married Solomon’s illegitimate daughter, Fanny Beddingfield. She had met the conditions of her father’s will.
February, 1806. Stephen Pace, Jr., was still living in Anson when he served as his father’s attorneyfor sale of land. Stephen provided another son, William, with a 200 acre farm “for love and affection”.
BEAUFORT COUNTY.Created in 1705.
1810 Federal Census.
Jeremiah Pace, p. 81, Buncombe District.
BERTIE COUNTY.
Formed in 1722 as Bertie Precinct of Albemarle, its territory lay west of the Chowan River and was bounded on the south by the Roanoke River.
Northampton County was taken from the western part of Bertie in 1741 and lay north of the Roanoke River.Edgecombe was created from land south of the Roanoke. Windsor is the county seat of Bertie today.
1706. The earliest Pace record in North Carolina is a grant from Lord Granville to Richard Pace. This 640 acre grant, a square mile, was on Urahaw Swamp near Potecasi Creekin Chowan in Albemarle, which became Bertie Precinct in 1722.Richard Pace, then about 30, likely went to the Urahaw area to check out the land before he applied for his grant, possibly in 1704 as his granddaughter wrote in her memoir in 1791.The grant required his being seated there within three years (“build a habitable house, and clear, fence and plant at least one acre”).The grant escheated.The document somehow came into the possession of the Devereaux family and is now in the Hall of Records in Raleigh.
1712.
John Pace of Surry County, Virginia, obtained a grant in Bertie Precinct, later Northampton County, in Occoneechee Neck, a sweeping bend of the Moratuck(Roanoke) River.A map in 1775 noted “Pace’s Mill” at this point. Land Grants, Book D, p. 4.
1713. Thos. Parlock, et al, deeded land to John Pace. Grants D, p. 4.
1720. Richard Pace, Jr., son of Richard and Rebecca, received a Granville grant for 620 acres adjoining that of Pollock who had obtainedRichard Pace, Sr.’sescheated grant of 1706. A controversy arose over 30 acres at the boundary line and Richard, Jr., ceded this to Pollock.
August 4, 1720.Volume 2, Colonial Records, p. 389: At a council held in the town in Mattercomack Creek, Cullen Pollock presented a petition “showinghe formerly lapsed a tract of land containing 640 acres on the north side of Moratock River which was patentedin one Richard Pace’s name and that Colonel Maule in his making a resurvey for the petitioner on the said land for point of knowing the line trees left out of the tract near thirty acres and Richard Pace from whom it was lapsed now entered the same and surveyed it.And the petitioner believing that since the lapse was granted himfor the whole tract and that these taken up as aforesaid left out by Mr. Maule’s mistake he hopes it noweys barrs him of his rights therefore humbly prays the land so left out of the tract lapsed by the petitioner by Colonel Maule’s mistake be granted him. Ordered the same be granted accordingly”.
This seems to imply the original grantee, Richard Pace, Sr., had entered the Pollock tract and surveyed it.Richard Pace, Jr., did so, however.
March 1, 1719/1720.John Pace, son of John Pace, had a grant of 620 acres.“By virtue of ye written warrant for 620 acres of land for John Pace, Jr., by me, John Grey, Deputy Surveyor”. The property was described: “beginning at a hickory in John Pace, Sr.’s line”, bounded by William Braswell’s line and corner, Robert Lang’s line, Matthew Sturdivant’s line, and John Pace, Sr.’s line. Witnessed by Richard Jackson, Frederick Jones, Charles Eden, John Heckleford and Thomas Pollock. A grant identical with this was recorded for James Pace, Jr., on the same day. An error in recording appears to have occurred as no such James Pace is known in this area at the time and the property is clearly the same. This land and the land of John Pace, Sr., fell into Northampton County when it was formed in 1741.
1724. Richard Pace, Sr., obtained a large grant of 1220 acres in the Three Creeks area of Surry County, Virginia, where he already owned 285 acres.He deeded the 285 acres to his son-in-law John Bradford.This raises doubt as to the actual date of his move to North Carolina.
March 25, 1726/27.Will of John Pace, Sr.Daughters: Ann Pace,Elizabeth Pace, Frances Pace.Sons: George Pace, John Pace, William Pace. Daughter Mary Pace Melton.Executors: sons, John and William.Proved in August Court, 1727. Witnesses: Abraham Burton, John Bobbitt, Francis Garnet.
(Another source says George Pace was executor. Who was?”)
John left his “river land”, less 40 acres to William Lowe, to his son William Pace.
John Pace’s wife was probably Elizabeth Lowe, daughter of William Lowe and Ann Loweof Bristol Parish, Virginia. Lowe deeded 150 acres in Bristol Parish to George Pace, said to be his grandson, in 1717. William Lowe died in Bertie Precinct, NC. in 1720. He had three children: John Lowe, William Lowe and Elizabeth Lowe, the Elizabeth Pace named in his will.
1 March 1726. William Frost sold to Richard Pace, Jr., for 10 pounds 50 acres of a patent taken out the same day by David Cummins who had sold the patent to Frost.
6 May, 1726. David Cummins sold Richard Pace, Jr., for 200 pounds, 100 acres adjoining the above 50 acres, bounded “on the 190 acres of a patent sold Alex Bane.” Witnessed by John Bradford. (Bradford was Richard’s brother-in-law).
May, 1726. Richard Jackson sold 100 acres for 20 pounds to Richard Pace, Sr., and Richard Pace, Jr., being part of a patent of Bartholomew Chaven.Book B, p. 136.
1726. John Davis executed a power of attorney to James Pace.Deeds Book B, p. 213. (Who was this James Pace?)
1726. William Frost deeded land to Richard Pace. Deeds B, p. 321.
1726. David Cummings deeded land to Richard Pace. Deeds B, p. 395.
1727. William Lowe deeded land to George Pace. Deeds B, p. 294.
1727.John Pace, husband of Elizabeth, died in Bertie (later Northampton County).
1728. Henry Bradley, Jr., deeded land to James Pace. Deeds B, p. 410.
1728.Thos. Busbee deeded land to John Pace, Jr. Deeds C, p. 26.
1728. John Green deeded land to Richard Pace. Deeds B, p. 424.
August 13, 1739. Bertie County Deeds, Book E, p. 480. William Pace and John Pace and Elizabeth Moore, Relict of John Pace, late of Bertie County, Dec’d, to John Corlew of Yorkhumton Parrish, of York County, Virginia, …. For 35 pounds, 5 shillings a tract …. Of 200 acres on the south side of the Roanoke River, on south side of a grant to John Pace, late of Bertie County and adj. to Daniel Crawley, Coll. William Little, John Lowe and William Pace. This is a one year lease, to be fully ended…and paying unto William, John Pace and Elizabeth Moor…the rent of one year of Indian Corn at the feast of St. Michael the Arch Angel….
William PaceJohn Pace
ElizabethX Moore
1729. Henry Rhodes deeded land to John Pace. Deeds C, p. 87.
May, 1729.Richard Pace, Sr., bought 290 acres on the Roanoke River from his son-in-law, John Green and Ralph Mason. Green had patented 640 acres, 29 July,1712.Richard left this to his son Thomas when he died in 1736. Deeds C, p. 122.Green was Richard’s son-in-law.
1729. Ralph Mason, et al, deeded land to Richard Pace, Sr.Deeds C, p. 95.
Feb. 10, 1730. John Pace, Jr., sold 200 acres of his 620 acre grant of1720 to John Cotton.There might have been an intermarriage with the Cottons.John Cotton had land on OcconeecheeCreek, in the great bend of the Roanoke in what became Northampton County.When John Pacedied in 1761, he left no will. The land, less the widow’s dower of one third, went to the oldest son, Thomas Pace.Thomas deeded 280 acres to his brothers, William and John, 140 acres to each.
March 3, 1732. Richard Pace, Jr., witnessed the will of William Cain, Bertie Precinct.
1730. John Pace deeded land to William Pace. Deeds D, p. 4.
Nov. 1, 1730. Richard Pace, Jr., sold 300 acres on the north side of the Moratuck (Roanoke) River on Urahaw Swamp, minus 30 acres ceded to Pollock,to RichardPace, Sr., for 30 pounds. This was part of Richard, Jr.’s, 640 acre grant in 1719/1720.Witnessed by Thomas Pace and William Cain.Deeds C, p. 318.Richard Pace, Sr., left this plantation to his son Thomas when he died in 1736.
In 1733, Richard Pace, Sr., owned 800 acres in Bertie Precinct and Richard Pace, Jr., 540 acres. That same year Richard, Sr., sold his 680 acres in the Three Creeks area of Surry to John Bradford.
March 7,1734. Alexander Bane of Edgecombesold 190 acresto Richard Pace, Sr., of Bertie Precinct for 18 pounds, part of a tract sold to Bane by David Cummins adjoining John Green’s line.Deeds D, p. 203.Richard left this land to his son William when he died two years later.
1735. Richard Pace, Jr., deededland to Richard Pace, Sr.. Deeds D, p. 203.
1735. Barnabe MacKinna deeded land to William Pace. Deeds D, p. 282.
March 13, 1736. Will of Richard Pace.Daughters: Mary Pace Johnson, Rebecca Pace Bradford, Sarah Pace House,Tabitha Pace Moore, Amy Pace Green,AnnePace Stewart,Frances Pace Green. Sons: Richard Pace, Thomas Pace, William Pace.(Richard Pace and John Pace, Sr. were brothers).
1738. William Pace deeded land to Thomas Pace. Deeds D, 271.Bertie County.
February 25, 1739/1740.Colonial Records of North Carolina, Vol 4, p. 522,lists Richard Pace as a juryman for Bertie and Edgecombe counties.William Pace is on the same list, p. 522, and is listed again on p. 524, probably the same William.In this same volume, p. 588, under date of March 10, 1740/1741, William petitioned for 130 acres of land in Bertie County.William Pace died in Northampton County in 1775.
Volume 4, p. 590, March 17, 1740/1741, tells us the council held at Edenton read the petition of George Pace for 100 acres in Edgecombe County.
1740. Samuel Buxton, Jr., deeded land to Thomas Pace. Deeds F, p. 147. See Bertie County Deeds Index, by Edyth Smith Dunstan, State Archives of Georgia.
1741. Northampton County and Edgecombe County wereseparated from Bertie.
Page 616, May 5, 1742, Council held at New Bern, the council again heard the petition of George Pace for 100 acres in Edgecombe.
There are no Pace wills in Bertie records after 1760 according to one source.
Jan. 10, 1780.Marriage bond of Samuel Pace andAgatha Owens. Witnessed by Elisha Rhodes and William Gray.Marriage Bonds of Bertie County, NC.
1790 Federal Census.
Sam Pace, p. 14, Edenton District.
BUTE COUNTY.
Granville was formed from the northern section of Edgecomb in 1746.Bute County was taken from the eastern part of Granville in1764.Butewas abolished in 1779when Warren and Franklin Counties were formed from it. The Trading Road passed through Bute from the eastern Virginia counties.
See Franklin, Warren.
April 28, 1775. Deed Book 6, p. 148. Indenture between Robert Sheffield, planter, and his wife and William Pace, all of Bute County, for 160 pounds, 6 shillings, 8 pence, Proclamation money 150 acres in Bute County on the north side of Tarr River, bought of Barnabas Godwin who had bought the land from Moses Grant, part of a grant Oct. 10, 1752.Signed by Robert Sheffield and witnessed by Josiah Eley, James Denby, John Sheffield. Registered October 10, 1777.
August 22, 1775. Stephen Pace of Bute County, planter, sold to Christopher Bustin of Halifax County, planter, 380 acres lying partly in Edgecombe County and partly in Bute County on the north bank of Peachtree Creek and on the Bare Branch adjoining William Hill, John Odum and Drewry Harrington.Deed Book 3, p. 151.(Abstracts, by Watson).
Feb. 13, 1777. Minutes of the County Court, Bute County. Page 14. William Pace was appointed overseer of the road from Ferrells Road to Needum Birds, and ordered that he keep the same in repair with the usual hands, or those that live where the usual hands did.
May 13, 1777. Minutes of the County Court. P. 19. A deed from Robert Sheffield and Patty his wife to William Pace was proved by the oath of James Denby, a witness, and same was ordered to be registered.
1779. Bute County was split into Franklin and Warren and Bute ceased to exist.
CHATHAM COUNTY.
Founded in 1771.
Planters in Edgecombe took up new land in Chatham.
Nov. 20, 1778. A land survey for Stephen Pace was ordered,land on both sides of Rocky River in the southeastern part of Chatham.He had sold land on the border of Edgecombe and Bute in 1775. His new land was bounded by John Brantley, Jr., and William Brantley, former neighbors in Edgecombe. The tract was 640 acres, a square mile, and had probably been applied for several years earlier. Joseph May and John Byrd were the chain carriers.Within five years, he began to sell off land to move to Anson County.
1783. Stephen Pace sold 10 acres to John Brantley, his neighbor.
1784. Stephen Pace sold 130 acres on “Brantley’s line” to John White.Stephen’s wife signed for her dower rights in the deed to Whiteas “Cattron”, a form of Catherine.
Jan. 2, 1784. Stephen Pace applied for a grant in Anson County to which he moved soon.See Anson County. He settled eventually in Putnam County, Georgia where he died in 1822.
1800 Federal Census.
Richard Pace and wife, both 45 or older. They are not listed in the 1810 Census. This Richard Pace might be a son of Richard Pace, brother of John Pace, both of whom came from Prince George County, Virginia, to Edgecombe County in 1759.There might have been a brother named William Pace as well. Richard Pace died in 1769 without a will. His oldest son was Thomas Pace who sold his land.John Pace moved to Surry County about 1773.
1808. Hardy Pace bought land “on the waters of Brush Creek” in the western part of Chatham from John McDaniel.
November 8, 1810. Hardy Pace bought land on Terrell Creek in the northern part of Chatham from Reuben Rives.
1810 Federal Census.
Hardy Pace, p. 212. No township shown. He is listed as 26 years old, had a wife and two persons 45 years and older in his household.Family history from an unknown source says he married Susannah Kime and had Mary and James Pace. Some time in the 1820’s he left for the new territory of Indiana and abandoned his family. AHardy Pace is shown in Bartholomew County, Indiana, in the 1830 Census.A marriage of Hardy Pace and Susannah Kime took place in Randolph County, just west of Chatham, Sept. 22, 1807, one source says.
Hardy Pace of Bartholomew County, Indiana, married Nancy Hankins therein 1831.
1815. Hardy Pace sold his land on Terrell Creek, with Joseph Kirk who might have held a mortgage on it, to Henry Lutterloh. Pace might have been landless after this.Hardy’s wife might have been Susannah Brown.
There is no known connection between this man and Stephen Pace who moved to Georgia. We do know that his son Hardy was 22 in 1810 and had moved to Georgia.
1835. Samuel Perry sold 100 acres on Terrell Creek for $150 to Susannah Pace and her daughter Nancy. In 1848 Nancy deeded her interest to Susannah “in consider-ation of the affection and filial regard which I entertain toward her”.
1838. Rachel Riddle deeded some furniture to her two granddaughters, Mary and Elizabeth Pace, for “natural love and affection”.
CHOWAN COUNTY.
Formed as a new county in 1670 from Albemarle District. Bertie was taken from it in 1722.
Sept. 23, 1788. Joseph B. Pace and Zilpha Woodward were married.
CRAVEN COUNTYNC
This was a large early county from which many other counties were created.
Nov. 30, 1745. John Green of Northampton County deeded land in Craven County to Richard Pace. The land was located on the north side of the Neuse River between Anthony Cook and Carrie Godbee. Witnessed byJames Pace and Anthony Cook.
(Was John Greena brother-in-law of Richard Pace?) This land was cut in 1746intoJohnston County where he lived for some years before beginning his move to Granville County, SC.Richard Pace, Jr., of Northampton Countyappears to have sold out his property there about 1744. He registered a deed for 300 acres bought from Anthony Cook at the same time, adjoining the 273 acres bought from Green.
EDGECOMBECOUNTYNC
Edgecombe was formed in 1741 from Northampton. Its northwestern section was cut off in 1746 as Granville County.When Edgecombewas divided again in 1758, the northern section became Halifax and the area south of Fishing Creek remained as Edgecombe.The western part of Edgecombe became Nash in 1777. About one sixth of Edgecombe became part of Wilson County.
1742.Council held at New Bern. The council again heard the petition of George Pace for 100 acres in Edgecombe.
Nov. 27, 1744. James Pace made application at New Bern, seat of government, for 450 acres in Edgecomb County.He was admitted to Council Nov. 24, 1744, to prove his rights, listing five white persons in his household.
1758. Thesection of Edgecombenorth of Fishing Creek becameHalifax County.
January __, 1760. Thomas Hart sold John Pace of Edgecombe County for 31 pounds 10 shillings a 190 acre plantation on the South Bank of Beaver Dam Swamp.This was deeded to Hart, Nov. 6, 1756. Kindred Carter and Jesse Carter were witnesses. (This was in later Nash County).Deed Book OO, p. 153.
June 25, 1762. John Pace and Richard Pace witnessed a deed for Thomas Hart and his wife. Deed Book 1, p. 501. John and Richard were brothers newly arrived in NC from Virginia.See other deeds: Book C, p. 45; Book D, p. 20; Book D, p. 60.)
Sept. 19, 1764. Amy Pace and Solomon Strickland were bonded to be married in Edgecomb. Themarriage bond for fifty pounds was given by Solomon and Jacob S. Strickland.They lived in that part of Edgecombe which became Nash County.Solomon and Amymoved to Georgia before 1804. He died in Madison County, his will dated Nov. 5, 1813.
1769. Richard Pace, from Prince George County, Virginia, resident of Edgecombe County, died without a will.
May, 1769. Elizabeth Pace, was granted administration on the estate of Richard Pace, deceased. Bond of 500 pounds proclamation money signed by her, John Jones and Nathan Jones.Court Minutes, 1763-1774, p. 220.An inventory was submitted by Elizabeth Pace, signed with her mark.May Court, 1769.
August, 1769. The county court ordered sale of Richard’sestate by the sheriff. An inventory of the estate is given in detail in OUR COLONIAL ANCESTORS (Bruce), p. 338. It included a sword, two negro slaves, seven books, furniture, equipment, one gun.Inventories and Returns, p. 60, of the estate of Richard Pace, deceased, dated August 12, 1769, showed a woman slave sold for $100 pounds, a negro boy for 32 pounds, the entire estate sale bringing 200 pounds, 2 shillings, 6 pence.
His son Thomas, the eldest, sold his land when he inherited it upon settlement of the estate.Names of other children are needed.One might have been Stephen and another Richard Pace, Jr.
Dec. 19, 1770.John Pace witnessed the will of Nathaniel Powell.
Dec. 7, 1772. John Pace and wife Sarah sold 192 acres on the south bank of Beaver Dam Swamp to Wright Nicholson of Halifax County, for 130 pounds proclamation money, land bought from Thomas Hart to whom it was granted.Witnessed by Edw. Moore, John Poullan, Edw. Nicholson.Deed Book 2, p. 93. (Abstracts of Early Deeds of Edgecombe County, North Carolina, Vol. 2, by Watson)This John Pace, brother of Richard who died in 1769, moved to Surry County, NC., with his family.
Sept. 1, 1774. James Wall of Edgecomb County sold to Thomas Pace of Halifax County,220 acres on the south sideof Fishing Creek adjoining Francis Parker, granted by patent to Joseph Moore, Feb. 14, 1739.Witnessed by Willoughby Powell.(Deed Book 3, p. 43, Edgecombe County. Abstracts of Early Deeds of Edgecombe County, by Watson).This land was in Edgecomb County, Fishing Creek being the border between Halifax and Edgecomb.His son John settled here.Willoughby Powellmarried Thomas’s daughter Elizabeth Pace.John would diebefore 1792, leaving debts,when Thomas made his will.This Thomas Pace was a son of Thomas Pace who died in 1746 and a grandson of Richard Pace, Sr.
August 22, 1775. Stephen Pace of Bute County, planter, sold to Christopher Busin of Halifax County, planter, 380 acres lying partly in Edgecombe County and partly in Bute County on the north bank of Peachtree Creek and on the Bare Branch adjoining William Hill, John Odum and Drewry Harrington.Deed Book 3, p. 151.(Abstracts, by Watson).
1777. Nash County was separated from Edgecombe.
June 14, 1781. The will of Moses Knight named his daughters Sarah Pace, Mary Knight and Phereby Knight. Executors were James Nicholas and James Pace.
(Pace was probably his son-in-law). (Abstracts of Wills of Edgecombe County, 1733-1856, by Williams and Griffin).
May 16, 1785. Sion Beckingham deeded a tract of 80 acres on Griffin’s Swamp adjoining Henry Screws to Stephen Pace. Witnessed by Richard Pace. Deed Book 4, p. 358.(Abstracts, by Watson).This property was just east of the Nash County line.This Stephen Pace is probably the man who with Major Walker sold land in eastern Halifax County in 1779.Richard Pace might be a brother, both possibly sons of Richard Pace who moved from Prince George County, Virginia, in 1759 and who died in NC in 1769.
1790 Federal Census:
John Pace, p. 57, Halifax District.
John Pace, p. 58, Halifax District.
Stephen Pace, p. 57, Halifax District.
1795. Stephen Pace sold the land he bought from Beckingham to Matthew Griffin and moved to Johnston County