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MYRTLE HILL PLANTATION

 Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina

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Robert Strange, Jr.,(Sept. 20, 1796-Feb. 20, 1854) lawyer, judge, author, and U.S. senator, was born in Manchester, Va., the son of James Strange, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, who with his wife settled in Petersburg in 1783. The elder Strange was trained as a physician but gave up his practice to become a merchant. In Virginia young Robert attended schools in Lunenburg and Rockbridge counties and at New Oxford Academy. In 1811 he was at Hampden-Sydney College but the next year entered Washington College. In 1815 the family moved to Fayetteville, N.C., where Strange studied law and was admitted to the bar. He was elected borough representative from Fayetteville to the General Assembly in 1821 and while still a member in 1826 was elected a judge of the North Carolina Superior Court, where he served for ten years. In 1838 Strange and Senator Bedford Brown, the state's other senator, voted for Thomas Hart Benton's resolution to remove the censure of President Andrew Jackson from the journals of the Senate. After this action, the Assembly passed a resolution taking a stand against the Jackson administration and instructing the senators to follow more closely the wishes of the voting majority in the state. Both senators resigned their seats in 1840, and Strange was replaced by William A. Graham.
Strange resumed his law practice in Fayetteville and in Wilmington. Some of his extended remarks appear in The Trial of Ann K. Simpson, a noted murder case in western North Carolina.
In addition to his legislative career at both the state and the national levels, Strange was a director of the Bank of Cape Fear from 1818 until his death. He also was the twelfth grand master of the North Carolina Masons in 1823–24.
In 1817 Strange married Jane Rebecca Kirkland, the sister-in-law of Judge Thomas Ruffin. They were the parents of six children: James, Margaret, Alexander, John, French, and Robert. After Mrs. Strange's death, he married a Mrs. Nelson; there were no children of the second marriage. He was buried in the family cemetery at his plantation, Myrtle Hill, then near Fayetteville but now within the city limits.
In his will, written January 18, 1854, he bequeathed his entire estate to his wife, Margaret, and upon her death, it was to be divided up equally between his children. In addition, she was authorized to have complete control over his estate to sell & dispose of whatever she felt was necessary. However, while he did have 2 witnesses, Strange neglected to appoint an executor, so the court appointed two administrators, George McNeil & Robert S. French. After his death, his son, James W. Strange, acquired ownership of Myrtle Hill through public auction, and it remained in his family until 1892.

From the Estate file of ROBERT STRANGE, 1854.
Sale of Slaves belonging to the Estate of ROBERT STRANGE, by order of GEORGE McNEILL & ROBERT S. FRENCH Administrators.
April 14, 1854

BILLY, old
GUY, old
BILLY JR.
JERRY, unsound
JACK
SILVIA, old
SAM
ARCHIBALD, boy
LUCY
THOMAS
PHILLIS & Children:   JERRY, OCTAVIA, MARY, AUSTIN, AMY, ALEXANDER
ANDREW
PASCHAL
ALEXANDER
ANNETTE & 1 Child and LUCY ANN
GEORGE
NIELL

JOHN WADDILL
N. KING
W. G. MATTHEWS
T. R. UNDERWOOD
JOHN WADDILL
J. C. HUSKE
C. E. LEETE
T. S. LUTTERLOH
W. H. TOMLINSON
J. A. WILLIAMS
T. R. UNDERWOOD
 

  130
  375
  795
  250
  880
  255
  115
1365
  425
  905
3180
 

1100
  910
  980
1485
  975
  690

Researched & transcribed by Deloris Williams