HISTORY SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF OUR ANCESTRY, by Celia Jolley

I will admit that sometimes I may have gone down the wrong rabbit holes, but even the wrong people I chase can still give us fleeting views of their time in history.  As far as I have come to find, DNA is fairly reliable to five generations, back to the 1700's.  1. You can trace ancestry thru family lines and records, or  2. Ancestry.com suggests linking lines by comparing the DNA of others in their collection who share overlapping DNA.  Some researchers are not satisfied unless they exhaust every avenue of evidence-census, marriage, wills, service records, etc. before confirming their ancestry family tree.  However, I prefer to chase ancestry lines at a much faster pace even if I am tripped up now and then, mostly using #1 & 2.

An ancestry tree is revealing, but sometimes some of these discoveries need to come alive with snippets of personal histories.   Thus, I will write snapshots of our kinfolk whether heroes or scoundrels.  Sadly, many of our kinfolk were slave holders, some whose livelihoods included shipping slaves as cargo.  Yet some of our black or "mulatto" kinfolk had slaves themselves.   Many of our kin were killed or injured or became prisoners of different wars, some in the name of freedom, Patriots or Torries, and some fighting for the North or the South.  I even discovered one fourth generation grandfather through my grandfather George Wise's mother who served in the "colored troops" in the Civil War.  

Perhaps I will later tell the story again of one of the first slaves in Jamestown, Emanuel Rodriguez which became Driggers.  He claimed his father was a Portuguese ship captain while his mother was from Africa.  His second wife from whom his children were born was a white woman.  Thus a line of "Mulattos" descended.  Some were light enough to passed off as white while others were noted in censuses as blacks.  Many called themselves Portuguese to avoid being seen as slaves.  Some of these married into the white Ivy family.  In the time of Thomas Jefferson, the wealthy Ivy plantation owner tried to persuade the Virginia government to sanction intermarriage with other races.  It was not passed, and thus we find that some of that family still intermarried with their slaves and moved South to avoid interference.  here is his timeline:

Born 1620, became the slave of Francis Potts in 1640 on his plantation in Magotha Bay, Northampton. Captain Potts sol two of their children, Thomas and Ann to pay off personal debt.

He became freed after the death of Potts in 1658.  By then he was a widower and had remarried but continued to provide for the enslaved children from his first marriage.  He gave a horse to his daughters Francy and Jane before his death in 1673.  His second wife was white.  He also cared for a British officer who left him some money for his kind service.  Emmanuel worked hard on his parcel of land where he had cattle and horses to breed.  He bought the freedom of some of his children.  

His family went to court many times to settle disputes.  Often they were settled in their favor.  His son Thomas married a free black woman.  Because she was free, their children were born free according to Virginia law. This is the line that came to us through the Wise family.

Researching ancestry follows so many lines as we each have four grandparents, eight great grandparents, sixteen gr gr grandparents and so on as it multiplies to countless twigs off the branches.

I confess that these stories will not be in order for the most part. Thus, I will begin by telling you that we have multiple kin who came across on the Mayflower.  Indeed seven of the signers of the Mayflower Compact.  Likewise, we can trace many to the earliest settlers in Jamestown as well as earliest settlers in the Dutch settlements of New York, Baltimore and Long Island.

The main reason that compelled our early settler kinfolk to come to the New World was that they were fleeing persecution.  Some had their great grandparents burned at stake for their faith by Queen Mary, some were Huguenots-followers of John Calvin-who fled for their lives from Catholic France leaving everything behind to avoid being hung for their Protestant faith.  At one point when the crown was no longer sympathetic to Protestants in 1572, a walled city in France was invited to a feast which turned into a horror as the army closed all gates of escape and shot and killed almost the whole Protestant city.  By 1585 their beliefs were outlawed in France whereas  Jamestown even had a Huguenot church.  

Some of the Scots-Irish kin came to America when their land and livelihoods either could not support life-potato famine-or when livelihoods were seized by the gentry as tenant farmers were no longer seen as profitable as sheep and cattle and thus were evicted .  Some had their properties seized by the Church of England as non-conformers.  Property could even be seized if their tithes were not paid-which some of our non-conformists refused to support the Church of England and suffered the consequences.  Sheriffs were given a free hand to persecute them however they chose, which was often brutal-beatings and imprisonment, women included, and their property seized. 

Throughout the history of the British Isles and France, life was fragile depending upon who achieved the throne, whether Catholic or Protestant, or battles seeking independence from England by the Welsh, Scots, and Irish, and against invading Vikings.  Some prisoners found themselves aboard a ship to the new world: to return would mean a hanging.  Deportation solved England's prison population problems.  Some of the Scots Irish young people were chosen by their family and community to send away so that the population of poor were remediated as a burden in Ireland.  Perhaps a few came pursuing fleeting riches or a better life, but most came because their lives depended upon it. 

The Mayflower Pilgrim's story begins with the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century.  The advent of the printing press in the mid 1400's made the printed Bible available to the masses by the early 1500's and more and more people began to read and form their own opinions as to the meaning Christianity. Tyndale was burned at the stake for being the printer of the Bible (while Henry VIII ordered a mere thirty years later that churches and populace should have the English Bible available to them.   The Reformation spread rapidly after Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses were published in 1517, and over the following years there were several theologians and scholars who differed in their beliefs from Luther.  One of these was John Calvin, a French theologian, who was born in 1509 and died in 1564 and is the father of Congregationalism and Presbyterianism." (from the book "Pilgrim George Soule" by Charles E. Soule and Alberta N. Soule.

The Pilgrims sought and were given support by their native neighbors-Squanto, Samoset, both who spoke English and the Sachem of the Wampanoags Massasoit. But times changed and friendly chiefs were replaced by the next generation with angry warriors, and battles were fought.  William Penn made his own treaties with the Natives until another chief came to power which led to King Phillips War, King Phillip being a chief.  Several of our kin fought in this war.

Some of the early settler kin intermarried with Natives including my ancestor Pocahontas (on my father's side) as well as others.  Some fought in Indian Wars, while several kinfolk settlers were massacred by Indians including at least two who were scalped and lived such as our gr gr gr grandpa Jesse Adkins as a toddler while most of his family were massacred.  Others were captured by Natives during an attack at Martin's Station and were marched from Tennessee to Canada to be handed over to the French fort for payment.  Eventually the older boys escaped and later the family was freed but had to walk back to Tennessee.  At times both the French and the English paid Indians for scalps and rewarded them for attacks on the settlers killing men, women and children. Some of the earliest settlers made their own treaties with the Cherokees to lease their land in what became Tennessee as well as forming their own constitution before our nation's was ever written.  Perhaps a kinsman might have been there for that as they were early settlers there.

But back to the signers of the Mayflower Compact and our kin:

Edward and Gilbert Winslow both were signers of the Mayflower Compact, as were William Brewster, John Turner, George Soule, William White, Richard Warren, and Thomas Rogers, all kin.  

Edward Winslow, 1595-1655,was a Separatist, was 3x governor, but died on ship in the Caribbean War vs Spain.  His portrait is the only original one in the Plymouth settlement.  He first married Elizabeth Barker who died that brutal first winter, then immediately married Susanna, widow of William White who had died in that 1621 starving time.  Their survival depended on quick remarriage. All the children with Susanna were Edward, John, Josiah, and Elizabeth and Fortune? Peregrine was born to Susanna and William White aboard the Mayflower.

Thomas Rogers' grandfather was burned at the stake when he left Catholicism and became a leader of the Anglican Reformation.  His children were made to watch their father die.   Thomas Rogers may have been related to Susanna White Winslow.

William Brewster, a Separatist, lived from1568-1644 and married Mary Brewster.   Their children were named Jonathan, Love, Patience and Fear.  It is said that his life was threatened because of what they were printing in the Netherlands.  He was a lay preacher out of the immigrant church in Leyden which was formed by another of our kin John Robinson who had left England to seek religious freedom in the Netherlands along with his congregation.  England began pressuring Netherland to reject these non-conformists.  It was that which spurred the Pilgrims to go to the new world. Robinson planned to go with them on the Mayflower, but was made to wait due to ill health.  He did follow later but could only stay a short time due to his health.   He died not long after he returned back to the Netherlands.  Robinson is called the pastor to these Pilgrims.  He left a revered legacy easily found on the internet to read further.

John Turner and two of his sons died in the Starving Year of 1621.  He had a daughter who had stayed in Leiden.

George Soule, 1595-1679, was Edward Winslow's indentured servant.   One historian named Bangs believes that Soule was born in 1600 possibly in Leiden.  He says it is possible that "he became acquainted with Edward Winslow or actually joined the Brewster/Winslow printing operation." Because what they printed was considered radical, Brewster went into hiding in 1618 as he was at risk of being arrested.  This Bangs also was certain that Soule came with the Pilgrims from Leiden.  Soule's indenture was ended when he was twenty five.   The Mayflower finally took sail in 1620, leaving the leaky Speedwell.  The voyage took 65 days with rough weather.  They landed off what is now known as Cape Cod.  He was 20 when he signed the Mayflower Compact.

Half of the Mayflower's passengers died that first year.  At one point there were only seven who were healthy enough to care for the sick.  George Soule was the only indentured servant of Winslow's to survive. At the end of servitude, they were allowed to marry and were given an acre of land.  He married Mary Beckett in 1623.  They had nine children.  Later Soule sold his property in Plymouth and became one of the 26 "Men's purchase" of the land in Middleborough bought from the native Josiah Wampatuck for 70 pounds.  Their firstborn son died fighting the Mohawk Indians in Canada in 1664.   During King Phillip War in 1675 (the son of the chief  whom William Penn had previously made a treaty) burned much of southern New England, torching one third of the one hundred towns.  The Soule's house was among them.  Their youngest son Benjamin was killed in  battle with the Wampanoags in 1676.  George Soule died in 1679 or 1680 and is buried in the Miles Standish Burial Ground in Duxbury.

William White married Susanna.  As said before, he died in the Starving Years and she, in order to survive, quickly married newly widowed Edward Winslow.  The child of William and Susanna was Peregrine White who was born on board the Mayflower.  (The first child born on the Mayflower was Oceanus born to Elizabeth Hopkins, but died at age 2).  

Other kin soon followed, like John Adams who married Eleanor Newton Worden in 1621.  When widowed she married Kenelm Winslow, another Winslow brother who did not come on the Mayflower but arrived later.  John Adams was not directly related to President John Adams, but I believe the line comes through the president's cousin Samuel who was very active in the Revolution.

My great grandfather Uncle Bud Robinson's life has been well documented.  He wrote his own autobiography and has several biographies written about him, including one written by his wife Miss Sally and one written by his son-in-law George Wise, my grandfather.  My grandmother Ruby was asked by the Nazarene Publishing Company to write one for young readers, and she requested that I draw the illustration for that paperback.  Perhaps I will go back and write in more detail his life.  The Nazarene Publishing House in Kansas City probably has most copies.

Uncle Bud's father was Emanuel Robinson.  His alcoholism kept his family trapped in poverty, probably selling his slaves he inherited before the Civil War.   I suspect that he was involved with rogue raiders during the Civil War whose leader is buried in the same cemetery alongside other Robinsons. Tennessee was divided by slavery with wild stories coming out in the area where they lived.  Rogue troops even rode their horses into a church in Sparta as soldiers who couldn't escape hid under hoop skirts.  A woman was indeed killed.  Perhaps more about him later.  His father was Jacob Robinson who married a frontier preacher's daughter.  He is the one who established his family in the Sparta, Tennessee area along Calf Kill Creek.  We visited there and found a Robinson Community Church there.  It is a sweet brick building in the countryside.  Faith seems to skip generations, however such as Emanuel Robinson and William Robinson.  I believe that relatives of his first wife in Missouri wrote that Emanuel did pray for forgiveness before he died.  William Robinson probably heard Francis Asbury preach, as I will mention later, but we do not know his spiritual condition.

Approximately 100 years passed from the Pilgrims who considered a Rev. Robinson as their pastor, to Uncle Bud's great grandfather William Robinson who was born with an itchy foot.  He left quite a paper trail some of which put him among early pioneers in South Carolina, North Carolina, Southern Virginia, the Cumberland Gap, Kentucky and Tennessee.  Yet, unfortunately he also left court records reporting his wickedness as a young man.  

 "William Robinson, Planter of Parrish of St. Jude (North Carolina), on January 10, 1769, with force and arms did commit heinous crime fornication upon one certain Charity Kennedy,"  (whom he did eventually marry)."

Then again, "William Robinson, Planter, on July 30, 1770 did take one grey horse, goods and chattels of some person unknown.  That Ley Jones, Laborer, on March 1771, did beat and falsely imprison one William Robinson." I suspect it was time to get out of Dodge, I mean North Carolina.  It was about that time that he and Charity moved to southern Virginia to Fincastle County, Castlewood.

Oh what irony, that after he and Charity married and moved to Castlewood, Virginia, in 1770 or 1771, his home became the first courthouse in the area in 1786, and he served on many juries.  In fact, he served as a witness to a fellow early settler Henry Hamblin on suspicion of his passing base born. He pled not guilty and the case was dismissed.  I believe he may have helped Hamblin build one of those station-forts, the one in fact where Robinson's teenage son was killed by Indians.   

Another irony was that his wife Charity Kennedy was either Cherokee or of the Catawba tribe, or even possibly of Melungeon mixed race heritage.  I have not been able to ascertain her parentage line though there were Catawbas in that time and area with Kennedys as a known tribal name.  There has always been a hesitation by tribes to give that kind of information which could lead to mistreatment (i.e. being attacked by the man who became her husband).  An early history of Castlewoods, in 1899, by a certain Rebecca W. Semple wrote, "William Robinson came from South Carolina about 1770 bringing with him his wife who was a Miss Kennedy, also of South Carolina and was said by some to have Portuguese blood.  She was very dark 'complected,"  In fact, her daughter Laodicea (Dicy) wrote once that her mother was Cherokee.  

All this was unknown to me as I studied the history of the Cherokee during this period for my ebook, "Nest."  The Holston Treaty 1791 prohibited settlers from entering Cherokee lands in Powell Valley.  However, the government issued land grants-as payment for those who served in the Revolutionary War-and the wave of settlers still came.  Perhaps William Robinson was there when the Treaty of Tellico was made. 

It is said that a William Robinson fought in the Battle of Kings Mountain, but I don't believe it was our William Robinson.  However, we do have at least five of our kin, Fulkersons, Vances and Sharps who fought in that Revolutionary War's crucial battle of Kings Mountain.  We were able to go the site and walk where they fought mostly Torries led by an English officer Ferguson.  Their names are inscribed on a plaque, and the park service has a gift shop with a first hand account written by Benjamin Sharp available for purchase.   

 Our William Robinson came up from South Carolina, through Rowan, Yadkin, and Surry Counties.  It was in Surry where he was taken to court.  Cherokee at the time of the settlement of West Virginia inhabited one of the most attractive section of American continent, occupying the banks of the Catawba, Savannah, Yadkin, and Tennessee.  It was in Rowan County where the Daniel Boones family was living, perhaps William Robinson listened to the stories of the Wilderness Trail inspiring him to move there:

1751 Boone family settles in Rowan county, North Carolina, on the Yadkin River.

1760 Boone crosses the Blue Ridge Mountains during the winter hunt.

1769 Boone blazed the first trail from North Carolina into eastern Tennessee where he remained for two years before heading home.(This was a year before Robinson's moved not far from this area in 1770.) Indeed, Daniel Boone and his wife were saved and baptized by a traveling preacher in the home of the early pioneer, James Robertson.

1771 Daniel and Squire return from Kentucky. 

1772 Boone and companions hunt as far west as French Lick near what would become Nashville.

1773 Boone and Russell tried to settle Kentucky but their sons were killed by Indians on the Wilderness Trail. (Robinsons had moved to that area when this happened, and I do believe that William Robinson later bought property on this site.)

1775 Boone and thirty ax men blazed a trail from Holston to the wilderness Road to Kentucky for the Transyvania Company and founded Boonesborough. He moved his family there before finally settling in Missouri.

1777 the Avery Treaty was signed on Long Island of the Holston.

However, some of the fighting in the Revolutionary War was against the Cherokee who allied with the English.  Sadly, as I said before, the English rewarded and encouraged the Cherokee to barbarously kill women and children as well as men and to bring them the scalps for rewards. It often included unspeakable tortures.  They wanted them to drive out the settlers, not for the Indians sake, but for England's. William Robinson did give 100 meals to soldiers on the frontier under Captain Trimble and five bushels of corn for the volunteers under Colonel Morgan on the march to the Falls of the Ohio where a big battle against Indians was fought. I believe Samuel Vance, a relative on the other side, fought in that big battle and wrote about it.

As far as having Portuguese blood, perhaps Charity Robinson was of mixed race having come from the line of our slave Emanuel Rodriguez who claimed his father was a Portuguese ship captain.  Or, some believe the Portuguese blood was from Spaniards & Portuguese who were left behind in the early history of North Carolina when their fort was closed, but sailed away leaving some behind.  Some of these men intermarried with blacks and natives.  Even some of the Catawba tribe claim Portuguese blood from Raleigh's Lost Colony who disappeared some think as they intermarried with Portuguese shipmates who were also left behind when they dropped off those colonists and sailed away.  For some reason it was seemed to be more acceptable to be Portuguese than black to emphasize that they were not slaves nor natives which had fewer privileges or rights in society. The only records are that she was dark complexed and that her daughter said she was Cherokee.  

Another irony was that William Robinson was a "planter" who came from a line of plantation owners who were slave owners.  His plantation as far as I can tell was a rough log cabin, not one of those white pillared classics of the South.  Sadly, his slaves are listed in his last will putting into writing to which of his children he would leave them with as well as those who he wanted to be emancipated.   Thus, his dark skinned wife helped to oversee these slaves. 

Another irony was that their teenage son Nelson-probably half Cherokee himself-was killed during an Indian raid in 1783 at Hamlin's Fort near Castlewood.  Mr. Hamlin had married twice: twice and sadly both wives and ten stepchildren who were also killed in a matter of a couple of years, one at the same attack as Robinson's son Nelson.   The Robinsons also took in a young girl who was the only one of her large family who survived an Indian massacre by hiding in the puncheon floor.  She grew up in their family, and years later married the eldest Robinson son, William Jr.   If Charity was Cherokee, that must have doubled her grief when her son was killed in the fort her husband helped to build in 1776.

One of his friends was a man named Watts who spent much of his life with the Cherokee and mentioned William Robinson multiple times in his writing.  (Is this how William met Charity?) 

As an early settler, Robinson followed not long after Daniel Boone, into the Cumberland Gap, and were neighbors in Castlewood.  Robinson had many properties.  He seemed to move a lot as one of the earliest settlers, moving from South Carolina to North Carolina,  from Virginia to Kentucky to Tennessee. 

His land in Fincastle in Castlewood County (names of counties were constantly changing) was given as as a royal charter.  Supposedly some of his descendants still hold the deed conveying the title surveyed for 617 acres.  It was said that his log cabin still stood there.  However, I read recently that a Robinson donated an original log cabin to the Wilderness State Park by the Cumberland Gap.  It was put back together piece by piece including the wide puncheon floors on the site of Martin's fort at the outdoor historical museum.  Robinson did buy property from Martin and lived close by at one point across a tributary of the Cumberland River from Martin's ferry.  This was before the American Revolution, and they continued to build forts as the Indian attacks were constant.  Since the Cherokee were fighting for the British, it then became a battlefield for the Patriot army to defend the citizens though it was difficult to receive help from the new government who spent what little they had to fight in the North (think of the winter at Valley Forge.)  William built his own station/fort on the Wilderness Trail, Robinson's station.  

Most of the early settlers lost at least one family member to the Indians just like William and Charity Robinson lost their son Nelson as a teenager while under attack.   I believe it was just outside of Castlewood at Hamblin Fort in 1783.  Daniel and Rebecca Boone also lost their teenage son on Wallen Ridge, a tragic tale. 

As Daniel blazed the trail for settlers including his friend Russell and family along with others who wanted to settle in the Kentucky wilderness.  They followed the wilderness trail through the Cumberland Gap.  It was so narrow, the pioneers could only go single file.  No wagons could fit.  Boone's party got separated as he sent his son and Russell's in a small party to round up their livestock.  It was too late they thought to catch up with the others so they made camp and slept.  The Cherokees massacred everyone except for two who escaped, though wounded, and alerted Boone.  As Boone and Russel's sons had slept side by side as best friends, the Indians slowly tortured the boys where they lay until death came slowly.  Russell also was in a group following and came upon the horrific scene where his son alongside the Boone's boy and others died.  The whole group retraced their steps and settled back temporarily for nearly two years in what was Fincastle County, Castlewood, neighbors to the Robinsons.

In an article from "Knox County Pioneers," by Marie Miller Maxie.  She notes that William Robinson and Moses Dorton (who married Robinson's daughter Laodicea-known as Dicey and whose father was killed by Indians) were friends.  I believe Moses fought in the Battle of Kings Mountain, came over the Wilderness Road riding through the narrow path surrounded by the canebrakes taller than their heads, some canes as thick as their arms.   As early as 1792 at least three stations in what is now Bell County were built.  One was known as Robinson's Station. This is where Bishop Asbury, appointed by John Wesley who became the father of circuit riding preachers, rode through the Wilderness Trail and stayed there at least twice according to his diary:

"We entered the wilderness and reached Robinson's Station.  Two of the company were on foot carrying their packs; and women there are with children.  These encumbrances makes us move slowly and heavily.  "  On his return trip he wrote, "Early the next morning we made our way to Robinson's Station.  We had the best company I ever met with.  Thirty-six good travelers, a few warriors, but we had a packhorse, some old men, and two tired horses.  These were not the best part." Then in 1793 on another trip into the wilderness he wrote, "I went to Robinson's Station, where soldiers behaved civilly." He apparently preached there as his goal was to spread Methodism all over the wilderness.

Wallen's Station was built in 1761 in Lee County.  It was a camp for "Long Hunters," led by Elisha Wallen, on a site along the Powell River near Wallen Creek, 6 miles SW of Jonesville. I mention this because it is probably this Wallen from whom he got his property on Wallen Ridge. This is probably the place where Daniel Boone and Russell son's had died at the hands of Indians.

 If you ever travel in this area, don't miss beautiful Addington, VA where many of our kin were buried.  I believe we found an old stone house where the Vance's had a mill.  A little further on is Hilton, Virginia, just a spot on the map, but where some of the kin lived.  So many old log cabins are still standing, beautifully restored, that we could not ascertain which one was theirs.  

If you go a little north in Virginia, go to Charlottesville, then to Ivy, another spot in the road where Charles Harper lived on a ridgetop.  He was a friend of Thomas Jefferson as they worked together towards a library for the university there.  Then in their old age, they moved just across a bit further in the small town of Ivy to live with their daughter who married into Merriweather Lewis' sister's family.  They are buried on that Locust Hill site.

Sorry this is so disjointed, but I hope it gives you a window into the lives of our ancestors.