Meeting Minutes from Feb 1, 2012
Comments (0) D-OGS Meeting, 1 February 2012
Location: Bennett Place, Durham, NC
Speaker: Stewart Dunaway
Topic: The McCulloh Great Tracts – Their Impact on Genealogical Research
Meeting Minutes taken by Ginger R. Smith, D-OGS Secretary
The President Fred Mowry opened the meeting at 7:03 with a welcome. John Goss, the site coordinator of Bennett Place, said a few words of welcome to us since it is our first visit. He said they have a great library at Bennett Place containing 1500+ books including NC and GA troop books and they are working on getting Union books. Apr 28-29th is the 50th anniversary of Bennett Place as a State historic site. The surrender will be recreated here. He is looking for a contact within the 82nd airborne band for the recreation.
Fred asked for visitors to come forward. Stewart introduced David Southern as a visitor tonight. Ellen Weig is also a visitor interested in several names including the Women of the Lady’s Sewing society at St. Matthews. Bob Bailey lives nearby and is visiting. Rodney Watson was introduced as someone who keeps coming because he loves genealogy.
MJ, our program coordinator/VP introduced Stewart Dunaway as our speaker tonight. He is from Florida. He has spoken to us before.
Henry McCulloh is the subject of Dunaway’s research. He was an 18th Century Entrepreneur. Dunaway discussed his book Pyles’ Defeat. Which has caused 2 new historical markers to be erected – John Butler in Swepsonville and another marker which was incorrect – 1st ever to be pulled down since 1935 – for the first paper mill which is not in Hillsborough. Stewart’s books can be found at www.LULU.com/sedunaway
Land Grants Overview:
Pre-1740 settled land was on the Eastern coast; first grants were from the King, then Lord Proprietor, then Granville Grants, then McCulloh Grants; then State Land Grants.
Stewart showed us some grants from the King, Granville, the Lord Proprietor; only 1 original McCulloch grant he’s ever found (preprinted form probably copied from Granville grant)
The McCulloch Family:
Often misspelled: the H and Ks were interchanged
Divided family – loyal for the rebellion; the loyal members resided in England and are buried in England.
3 different McCulloch “sects”
- James Iredell descended from McCulloch family
- Alexander McCulloch – daughter married Thomas Frohock a surveyor and one who collected money, allowed to sign grants in Henry’s name
- Henry McCulloch – married into the Houston family, supported the Revolution; 1 son, James McColloch; remarried to Penelope Eustace who died. They had a daughter who died, leaving him with their son, Henry Eustace McColloch who’s girlfriend has a son out of wedlock – George McColloch who is raised by James Iredell – totally estranged from father Henry E McColloch
Granville District:
26,000 SQ miles including the top half of the State all the way to the western border of the State. Some tracts of
land were surveyed and given to McColloch even though they were in Granville territory.
Tract design:
The McColloch line doesn’t necessarily mean the boundary line.
A “tract” probably contains several “subtracts” and individual surveys
A “tract” of 100,000 acres might contain up to 96 subtracts
There are errors in these great tracts, so have some elasticity when viewing and/or mapping these tracts
Many errors probably due to the Gunter’s chains used to measure which were dragged for miles.
Time Line of Events:
McColloch’s reputation was that he was a crook and that he never sold his land.
Henry McColloch received his grants in 1737
Henry dislikes the locations based on the surveys in 1744
They were supposed to be 12 tracts of 100,000 acres each, supposed to be contiguous (but they were not)
He accepts them and Matthew Rouan enters them into the patent book in 1745 (took 8 years)
Granville discovers the overlap and enters into an agreement in 1755 (10 years of discussion over this overlap of tracts 12, 11, 10, 9 and part of 8 )
Henry never sold land until he could begin in 1755
A second agreement established in 1761 – that says they can’t accept (in addition to sell land in overlapping territory)
Then Lord Granville dies in Jan 1763 and Granville’s land office is closed in April 1763
McColloch surrenders the overlap land in Oct 1763 to Granville’s heirs – he had to surrender all of the bill of sales, grants, etc to these heirs
McColloch surrenders the remaining unsold land to the King – 1767
The McColloch’s purchase (from themselves) 67,000 acres of land – from all 13 tracts – this is confiscated (not the 1-12 because they already gave that back).
Events Continue
McColloch sales continue
Regulator Movement 1768-1771 (citizens fighting citizens = Civil War)
Committees of Correspondence 1774-1775 – the 13 colonies started talking to each other
1777 NC Confiscation Act: 1. If I catch you assisting the British, I will confiscate your land 2. If you live outside the area, you must come back and claim it or I take it
All land is lost – McColloch, Granville, King
1778 – State land grants began – it started in 78 and not 76 because they confiscated it first. The McColloch tracts were prime real estate!
Loyalist Claims:
England allowed these to be made and they would pay you for your land lost
Henry McColloch died before the war ended 1779
Granville heirs and H E McColloch file for their loss in 1783
McColloch claim awarded 1789 18,038 pounds (filed for 54kpounds) – about 64-67,000 acres lost
Granville claim awarded 1789 – about 60k pounds – 365k acres lost out of 16.6 million
Loyalist Claims # 2: (debt due)
Jay Treaty 1794 – our treaty with England to deal with this in which America agreed that we should pay the debt due to England – make sure you research this at the NC State Archives – might be why families moved from Eastern part of state to western part of state – to avoid paying debt owed
Henry McColloch files his claim in 1795, nothing but issues, delays and problems
He had lots of mortgage bonds for lands he no longer owned
H E McColloch blows a fuse – enters an insane asylum (for the wealthy) in 1808
H E McColloch dies in 1812 and his wife in 1842. His family cemetery is in Chiswick, England, but he is not buried there. They were not poor, but not elite like Lord Granville.
Issues:
The land granted in these 12 tracts are difficult to follow – especially the overlap tracts
Tract 11 was in old Orange Co – The deeds were lost
The are NO “McColloch Grant” records in the State Archives like SLG or Granville grants etc.
Surrender records are the best source for finding the purchases/grants
Microfilm of original surrender records
Records of the Executive Council – vol 8 (Cain) – use this over the microfilm. Stewart said it matched up well with the films
NCGS Vol 4, issue 2 (1978) – Early Settlers in the NC Piedmond on lands sold by Henry McColloch – Davenport (be wary of this article it has some errors, including that the grants went to a mistress, it was actually a relative)
Loyalist Claims and Confiscation Records (Archives)
Eva Weeks – Register of Orange Co. (State Archives, Orange Co. Deed office, etc.) – contains hand written notes by clerks about the deeds that were destroyed.
Richard asked to please sign the card being passed around for member who died, Homer Tapp.
Fred Mowry opened the Business Meeting:
Secretary’s Report: Fred asked if there were any corrections to last month’s meeting minutes that were posted in the newsletter. Karen said there were some people who came in late and their names were not capture in the minutes. Minutes were accepted.
Treasurer’s report: (Ginny) The beginning balance as of 1/31/12 was $4085.89. Expenses were $157 and deposits were $500 for an ending balance of $4428.89.
Membership: Peg Edwards said there were 156 members, 23 complimentary members who don’t pay; we are members of 3 genealogical societies.
Website committee: (Ginger) no announcements
Trading Path: (Fred) the Elias’s need some help and need a new Editor. They are willing to continue printing and assisting the editor. Richard suggested we recruit non-local members as well.
Highlights from newsletter (Richard):
Stagville Sun Feb 12, Sat Feb 18th a couple of events; Feb 5th: Tom Magnunson from Trading Path is leading a walk at Stagville from 2-4. Alamance Co Gen society meeting Feb 13th, Carol Troxler to talk about her book, Farming Dissenters about the Regulator Movement and the Piedmont; Hillsborough, a living history recreation at Alex. Dixon house with a British Encampment with firing of muskets; Feb 19th, CH Historical society presentation on Bayard Wooten by Jerry Cotten in basement of Chapel Hill museum; Chatham Co Historical Association, Feb 19th at 2pm at Central Carolina Community College – rebuilding of historic Chatam County Courthouse; NCGS Spring meeting at Rocky Mount.
Civil War Workshop at Duke Homestead: Feb 25th how to trace CW ancestors and do research, has a subcommittee with Elias’s and Fred. Will have handouts. And Slave Records. Richard asked for volunteers to sit at table with journals and membership applications and/or answer questions about genealogy. They should contact Richard
Program Updates (MJ Hall): Next meeting in March will be by Mark Chilton, mayor of Carrboro who will talk about tracts. Meeting will be at the Methodist Church meeting room in Southern Village. We plan to rotate 2012 meetings between Southern Village, Bennett Place, and at Duke Homestead.
Karen: The Rebecca Wall Genealogy corner has the maps we donated to them (from Jim Richmond and his wife) hung on the wall. Richard says they’ve been hung a couple of months now.
Themocracy