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JOHN MASK PEACE HOUSE, a.k.a BAMBRO PLANTATION

(before & after renovations; click photos to enlarge)

Fairport, Granville County, North Carolina

 Joseph Peace, Senior, a joiner from Goochland County, Virginia, bought two hundred acres of land on Tabb's Creek in Granville County, North Carolina in June 1756. His household consisted of his wife, Mary Mask, and two sons, Joseph Junior and John. Joseph Junior and John married soon after moving to North Carolina, and the three families lived close to each other in Granville County. John M. Peace Sr. (1742-1821), known as Captain John due to his service in the Granville County militia during the Revolutionary War, was a planter. His wife Margaret and their six children (Joseph, Lucy, William, John Mask, Pleasant and Mary) lived at Bambro, the Peace family plantation near Fairport. Joseph and William moved to Raleigh and became successful merchants. John Mask and Pleasant married Reed family sisters and both built homes on Bambro plantation lands. According to family tradition, it was John Mask Peace who built the Peace House that is extant today.
John Mask Peace Jr. (1774-1852) and his wife Frances Maria Reed (1790-1874) married on July 20, 1810 and had ten children between 1811 and 1834: William, Jackline, Elizabeth, Josephine S., Josephine L., Joseph, John, Josephus, Lucinda and Julian. Only Jackline married and had a family; the rest of the children remained at home. By 1850 John Mask's farm was valued at $2,000. John Mask's children Josephus and Lucinda were the last members of the Peace family to live on Bambro plantation lands. Josephus died intestate in 1915 and his acreage was divided into six tracts, with Lucinda inheriting the parcel of land containing the John Mask Peace House and two hundred acres. Lucinda left her property to the Methodist Orphanage of Wake County after her death in 1917. Land speculators W.T. Yancey and E.L. Parham bought the property from the Methodist Orphanage, and subsequently sold it to Allen and Rosalee Cole. Allen and Rosalee Cole purchased the house and two hundred acres in 1939 and built the outbuildings that are still extant on the property. They left the property to their children. Their daughter Mildred and her husband Willard Jackson currently own the house and are renovating it for use as a bed and breakfast inn.

John's brother, Pleasant Peace (1775-1858) owned a comparable farm on the Peace land, northeast of John' house. In 1850 Pleasant owned 350 improved acres of land, 290 unimproved acres had 21 slaves, and his farm was valued at $2,500. After Pleasant's death in 1858 William Leak Peace was listed as head of household. Pleasant Poindexter Peace and Christopher Peace practiced medicine out of offices on their front yard. Margaret Scott Peace outlived her other siblings, and thus inherited the family land. She left the majority of her property to Eliza and Tom Peace, former Peace family slaves whom she employed as caretakers, after her death on July 1, 1901. The Pleasant Peace House was ruinous by the 1970s.
 

JOHN PEACE SR., Granville County, August 8, 1821 Inventory of Slaves:
DUDLEY
ARTHUR
DEMPS
NANCY
CHARLOTTE & her 3 children:
FRANCES
NANCY
LILE
CEALY & her 2 girl children
MARK
LANE