( The above map is from H.S. Tanner's "Map of United States of America," 1834. Clinch County was formed in 1850 from parts of Ware and Lowndes, and in 1858 Echols County, on the Florida border, was formed from parts of Clinch and Lowndes. )
My mother's father's mother's mother's mother was Mary McIntosh born around the 1780s. A possible (although not certain, since Mary McIntosh is not a rare name) identification of her might be the Mary McIntosh described on a freeafricanamericans web page as Mary McIntosh born in 1787 in the Culpepper region of Virginia:
"... Anne1 Macentosh, born say 1686, was living in York County on 24 May 1706 she was summoned to court to answer the information of Charles Chiswell for having a "Mullato Bastard Boy." On 24 July the case was deferred for the publication of a new law which had not yet come to the county [DOW 12:406, 424, 433]. She was probably the ancestor of2 i. Ann2, born say 1733. 2. Ann2 McIntosh, born say 1733, was living in Richmond County, Virginia, in August 1752 when she was ordered to serve her master, Arjalon Price, an additional thirty-one days for running away and an additional two years for his curing her of "the foul disease" [Orders 1746-52, 416]. He brought her before the Orange County court on 28 October 1756 for having an illegitimate "Mulatto" child. After seeing the child, the court ordered that after the completion of her indenture she serve her master another year and pay the churchwardens of St. Thomas Parish 15 pounds currency or be sold for five years. She was called the servant of John Simpson on 27 April 1758 when the churchwardens of St. Thomas Parish complained that she had delivered a bastard child. She petitioned the court for her freedom from Simpson on 28 September 1758, and on 26 April 1759 she was ordered to serve him additional time for running away for thirteen days [Orders 1754-63, 283, 367, 368, 437, 455]. Her daughter was
3 i. Mary, born say 1756. Mary McIntosh, born say 1756, was indentured to Arjalon Price of Orange County, Virginia, when he called her his "Mallatto Woman" and left her to his wife by his 29 April 1773 will. She was a "Molatto Girl" valued at 20 pounds in Price's 28 October 1773 inventory [WB 2:470-3, 475]. She was taxable in Orange County on herself, two unnamed daughters and a son in 1813 [Waldrep, 1813 Tax List]. She was the mother of
- i. ?William, born say 1785, head of a Culpeper County household of 1 "other free" in 1810 [VA:55].
- ii. ?Joseph, born say 1785, head of a Culpeper County household of 1 "other free" in 1810 [VA:55].
- iii. Mary, born about 1787, obtained a certificate from David Jamison, a justice of the peace from Culpeper County, and produced it in the District of Columbia Court in Alexandria on 17 November 1803: daughter of Molley McIntosh who was born free ... about sixteen years old. I have known Mary als. Molly McIntosh from the time she was a girl, lived in the family of Arjalone Price of Orange County ... said Molly was the mulatto bastard child of Ann McIntosh a Scotch servant woman. Said Molly was bound till thirty one years old according to Law [Arlington County Register of Free Negroes, 1797-1861, no. 5, p.5]. ...".
The web page (Thanks to Mike Johnson, a descendant of Angustavius
McIntosh, for telling me about it.) at
familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/j/o/h/Michael-Johnson-52/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0063.html
has further information about Mary McIntosh, saying:
"... Angustavius McIntosh ... was born in 1813, in Orange County,
Virginia, the free born son of William Henry McIntosh ...
Anguastavius
... died 05 Jan 1894 in Orange, Virginia ...
William Henry McIntosh ...[was]... son ...[of]... Frankey McIntosh
...
Frankey McIntosh ... was ... an indentured servant until she was
16, at
which time she was given, a certificate that vouched her status as
"born free" ...
Frankey McIntosh ...[was]... daughter ...[of]... Mary McIntosh
...[who]... grew up on the Arjalon Price plantation, indentured
until
she was 31 years old ...
Mary McIntosh ...[was]... mulatto ... daughter ...[of]... a
liaison
...[of]... indentured servant ... Anne [McIntosh] ... with John
Whistler, a black man ... Anne [McIntosh] was whipped fifty lashed
and
banned from the church for her indiscretion ...
Anne [McIntosh] ...[was]... daughter ...[of]... Angus [McIntosh]
... a
Scot, from Inverness, Scotland, ... a supporter of the exiled
Stuart
kings. He took part in the 1715 attempt to overthrow the House of
Hanover. Angus and his family (several sons, and a daughter,
Anne),
were captured, and sent to Liverpool from whence they were
banished to
America. Anne eventually would up on the ... Arjalon Price
plantation
in Virginia, as ... indentured servant ...".
Here is how I conjecture that the two accounts quoted above from
freeafricanamericans and familytreemaker might be reconciled with
each
other and with my conjectural family history set out below:
1 - Molly McIntosh (freeafricanamericans) = Mary McIntosh
(familytreemaker)
= Frankey McIntosh born 1756
2 - William Henry
McIntosh born to Molly McIntosh around 1785
3 - Mary McIntosh born Free around 1787 and at age 16 in 1803 got
a certificate of freedom
4 - Angustavius McIntosh son of William Henry McIntosh born Free
in Orange County VA around 1813
My conjectural family history is based on my conjecture and an ancestral chart drawn up by my uncle Hilton Hutchinson ( the husband of my mother's sister Anna Frances - he died of a heart attack on 2 April 1983, only about 4 months after he gave my mother a copy of the chart ). My conjectural history varies from the history on his chart in the following ways:
That having been said, here is my conjectural family history of my ancestors through my mother and her father:
Shortly after Mary McIntosh got her certificate of freedom, she sought a new life down in North Carolina. According to a Richmond County, North Carolina, history web page: "... Richmond County was ... formed ... in October 1779 ... About 1783, after raising money from taxes to pay for buying land and laying out a town, a new courthouse was built in what is today downtown Rockingham. ... The County grew slowly as many families moved down from Maryland, Virginia, and up from South Carolina. ...". Maybe Mary McIntosh, looking for a new life, moved to Richmond County where she met and married John McKennon. Maybe in connection with Mary McIntosh's new start they represented her as being from Scotland. They moved down to Montgomery County, Georgia, where their daughter Margaret McKennon was born in 1810. They continued to move South and West, ending up in Thomas County, Georgia. Their family grew, but the Civil War killed 22 of their grandsons (7 of whom were married and 15 of whom were single).
( The above map is from H.S. Tanner's "Map of United States of America," 1834. Clinch County was formed in 1850 from parts of Ware and Lowndes, and in 1858 Echols County, on the Florida border, was formed from parts of Clinch and Lowndes. )
In the meantime, Malcolm McKinnon was born in 1804 in North Carolina. Maybe he and his family found out that a fellow Scot, John Houston McIntosh, had in 1804 purchased over 3,000 acres of land on Fort George Island ( now known as Kingsley Plantation and being a large part of what is now DuVal County, Florida ) in what was then Spanish East Florida and that they moved down there. Maybe he stayed there through theWar of 1812 and the 1817 sale of the land to Zephaniah Kingsley, until Florida became a territory of the United States in 1821. Maybe after that, since the laws of United States were harsher than the Spanish or Independent Patriot laws of East Florida, he moved to Echols County, Georgia, in the less regimented areas around the Okefenokee Swamp.
Maybe as Margaret McKennon and her family moved in Georgia from Montgomery County to Thomas County, she moved through Echols County where she met and married Malcolm McKinnon. In 1843 their daughter Mary Frances McKinnon was born in Echols County, Georgia.
At the end of the Civil War, William Jeremiah Absalom Ham, a Confederate veteran, walked South to get away from devastation and regimented occupation. When he got to Echols County, Georgia, he stopped at the McKinnon home place for a drink of water, and met and married Mary Frances McKinnon. They remained in Echols County, Georgia, where their son George Clinton Ham was born in 1875. George Clinton Ham married Julia Dixon Stewart, and they had two daughters, the second of which was my mother, Willie Julia (Billie) Ham, born in Echols County, Georgia, on 26 September 1915.
If my conjectural history is correct, then my ancestors through my mother's father would look like this:
......