Re: James and Eleanor Pritchard of S.C.
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In reply to:
Re: James and Eleanor Pritchard of S.C.
Gerald purvis 1/22/11
I doubt I can tell you much more than you already know. My SC Pritchards/Pritchetts are a brick wall, and so far, nothing has really clicked.I was hoping one of James' sons would be my breakthrough, but that looks unlikely.
I am hesitant to accept all the SC James Pritchards as the same man.There were several Pritchard families in the state, so it's possible some of the land grants are to different men.
As to burials, my understanding is that prisoners of the British who died while imprisoned after the fall of Charleston were not always buried in marked graves.There are a number of possibilities...some died of illness inthe prison, some were transferred to prison ships and likely would not have been buried at all, some were sent to St Augustine, etc.Since James reportedly died while a prisoner, his burial location might never be known.
I believe Jame's daughter Mary died in Charleston and is buried there, but I can not tell you which cemetery.Sons William and James Pritchard and the Purvis family ended up in Edgefield, SC (which was also orginally part of Ninety-Six District).
As for property..in 1730, the area in the upper part of the state would have been Craven, part of which was claimed by both NC and SC.There was not an Edisto district...it is one of the waterways used to describe property locations.The center of SC government at the time was Charleston, which is why you have that reference on several land grants.There was a John Pritchard in Craven in 1730/35, but I do not believe he is connected to James.The districts were established in 1769...as you note, Orangeburgh district did not exist in 1730.Prior to that, the state was based on a parish system.
I have no record of James owning land in the New Acquisition, although that is where many of the Greenville settlers came from after the war.It was an area of upper SC that had been the subject of land dispute between NC and SC. It was settled in June 1772 when the border between North and South Carolina west of the Catawba River was established by survey.After this survey, a large tract of land between the Broad and Catawba Rivers that had previously been claimed by North Carolina was incorporated into South Carolina.This area includes modern York County and a portion of present day Cherokee County, and was originally designated by South Carolina as the New Acquisition District. It did NOT include the Spartanburg/Greenville area.Until the end of the revolution, much of the Greenville area was held by the Cherokee, and the Spartabuurg area was part of Ninety-Six District.
In fact, that's what caused James' original land confiscation.Since the Cherokee sided with the British, the presumption was that most land owners in Cherokee territory were Tories; additionally, they had little in the way of formal documents to verify their ownership."Greenville" by Archie Vernon Huff Page 18 states that "Settlers on Greenville land before the revolution were relatively rare, though there were hints in existing records of more. James Pritchard with his wife Eleanor and four children - Elizabeth, William, James, and Mary -purchased land from the Cherokees."
Since James was NOT a Tory, Eleanor made a plea to the legislature regarding the confiscated land and new land was awarded to her and her 4 children, each of whom received 640 acres on Twenty Three mile Creek in Ninety Six District, surveyed by John Purves.Ninety-Six district also covered an extremely large geographic area and was eventually subdivided into many present day counties. Twenty-Three-Mile Creek empties into the Seneca River south of present day Pendleton, where it eventually runs into the Savannah River.
James is mentioned as the sheriffand JP of Orangeburgh District (not county) during the revolution, which I can't really explain, since it is not consistent with his land ownership and business operations in the Cherokee territory, beginning as early as 1758.Nor does it explain why his property in Greenville would have been confiscated, if he were a well-known citizen in the area.Orangeburgh District was adjacent to but south of the Ninety-Six district, so if the same man, the family must have moved around a bit.Of course, it may be that the man in Orangeburgh District and the man in the Greenville area are two different men.
From the book, Unwaried Patience and Fortitude, page 644 is the following statement: "James Pritchard enlisted in the 1st South Carolina Regiment on 4 Nov 1775. He served in the 2nd South Carolina Regiment in 1777. He was sentenced to be punished for desertion on 4 Aug 1777, but he was pardoned since he returned on his own, and helped find other deserters."This doesn't sound like a man who became sheriff and JP, so I wonder if this is another James Pritchard.
The DAR recognizes James Pritchard only for civil and patriotic service - as JP and sheriff, and because he provided provisions to the troops.They do not recognize him for military service.That doesn't mean he didn't serve, but it may mean there are several persons with the same name and it is not possible to accurately separate their records.
I'm sure none of this helped, but perhaps it gives you a little insight into the very confusing early SC geography. People have a tendency to use present day county names for the old locations, sometimes without explaining why.Since James' parents are unknown, I don't know of anything to suggest James was born in Orangeburgh, South Carolina other than his reported presence there as an adult.