Status of our Patterson Research

Just this week I sent an email to a fellow researcher (Janice Rosenthal) regarding the status of our oldest known Pattersons and the research / documentation we have to date. Harald Reksten and I have been going through many records of New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North and South Carolina, etc over the last several months (years).

Janice on the other hand specializes in researching the oldest Patterson immigrants in order to better delineate between the various branches, and also to correct many errors being propagated across the Internet. So, I thought perhaps a third perspective (Janice's) would be good concerning our Patterson family. So, I sent her an email as presented the following information to her, which will serve as a "status" for our family, as of March 2010.
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Janice,

I was reading some of your comments / corrections posted on another researcher's website, and I must say thank you for working tirelessly to get the info right, and then to attempt to set the record straight at so many other errant sources. I'm not sure which is the more difficult task!!!

We've spoken before, but I just wanted to pick your brain for a bit. I, too, used to think I may have a connection to those various Pattersons of PA and so I'm "vaguely" familiar with them. I recognize them when I see 'em, but I have no expertise on them at all. What I've learned over the years is to focus on "my" Pattersons and follow the trail. Mine apparently came over before most of those PA Pattersons.

In the course of your research, have your ever run across any particular line of Pattersons that the following group might "fit in"? Harald Reksten (and others) and I have worked very hard for many years going through the records of MD, DE, NJ, PA, etc (still more to cover though) trying to find our group. Harald's done most of the heavy lifting, ordering books, microfilm rolls, you name it. But we both do a lot of research and we both share everything we get with each other.

We do know that our Robert Patterson was in Sussex Co DE in 1732 and 1738. That we're 100% certain of. He bought 106 acres in 1732 from Matthew Ozbun Jr, and then sold it in 1738 (along with his wife, Sarah), apparently preparing to move to the Linville Creek part of Orange Co Va along with the Harrisons, Stewarts, Cravens, Blacks, and many other families.

We have not conclusively found any record of this family prior to 1732. I believe Robert to have been born ca 1711 (1710-1715). He died in 1775 in Craven / York Co SC. His wife Sarah died there in 1790. We know for certain that his father was William Patterson. We know his mother was Mary Margaret. Many people have tagged her with the maiden name of Donnell, but I have determined in the last couple weeks (conclusively) where that assumption came from (Dellmann O. Hood in his book The Tunis Hood Family), and the assumption made was based on faulty data to begin with. So scratch the Donnell name. There may have been a connection to the Donnell / Donaldson / Donelson / McDonald family, but I say prove it!!!

She went by the name of Margaret, but one time the name Mary was erroneously used in a land patent. Her name was Margaret _____ Patterson Adams. She first married William Patterson, and they had at least two children, but no more than two are known. The oldest child (presumed oldest) was Elizabeth, first wife of Jeremiah Harrison. He was born about 1707, and they were married by 1730 or so, at the latest, probably more like 1727 or 28. I think she was born roughly 1709 ish. Next, was Robert Patterson. He obtained his first tract of land in 1732. He appears to have married after that, and certainly before 1738. I suspect he was born around 1711, but approx 1710-1715.

The Harrisons were in Long Island NY for many years, as early as 1680's, but the Pattersons are not found in any of those records, to my knowledge. The Harrisons were in Sussex Co DE by 1721, and began leaving there in 1737 and later for the Shenandoah. If Elizabeth Patterson married Jeremiah around 1727-30, then my Pattersons were certainly here in America no later than that time, obviously.

I think William Patterson must have died no later than 1715 or so. Margaret remarried by 1720 approximately, to John Adams. She was known most of her life as Margaret Adams or widow Adams. She got her Orange Co Va land patent under the name of Mary Adams, that based on later probate records of her grandson Samuel Adams, making that link. John and Margaret Adams had at least three children, but that's all we know about. The oldest daughter's name is not even known, but we know she must have been born 1720-25, and she married Andrew Donelson (b 1722), who was from Somerset co MD. I don't know where they were when they married, nor exactly when they married. They had 3 children by 1744, and she must have been dead by then which was when Margaret Adams wrote her will, naming Margaret "Dollinson" (actually Donelson) in the will. This was the oldest child of her dec'd daughter and Andrew Donelson. They also had sons Robert and Humphrey Donelson by 1744. Andrew died in 1755 leaving them as orphans.

John and Margaret Adams also had a son Samuel Adams, and a daughter Jane Adams, who married Daniel Love around 1743 or 44. Samuel must have been married by 1744 or soon thereafter, as he died by 1748, but later we see his heir, also named Samuel Adams, inheriting Margaret Adams' plantation in Va after she died in 1769/1770. Apparently John Adams died by 1725-1730 after these 3 children were born.

I don't know when this family immigrated to America. Depending on whether it was in the 1730s, or 1720s, or before 1720, you can see there would be many possible scenarios for how this family could have been recorded. Could have been a Patterson couple with 2 kids, or a Patterson widow w/ 2 kids, or an Adams family with 2 Patterson kids and some Adams kids, or even an Adams family with 2 to 5 "Adams" children listed. "Patterson" may not have even been in the names of their immigration record (I'm hoping one still exists for them).

Of course, the Patterson clan may have come a generation or two earlier for that matter.

The oldest record we know of for sure is 1732 when Robert Patterson bought land in DE. We "know" other events had to have happened a few years earlier in DE, such as his sister marrying Jeremiah Harrison. There may have even been a John Adams and Margaret Patterson wedding to find in some old church record somewhere. And of course, an Adams girl marrying Andrew Donelson, possibly in PA, around 1740 or so.

I'm shooting in the dark here. But Robert Patterson, who made his mark "R", had sons Thomas, Peter, Robert, and William. He had daughters Abigail, Mary, Sarah, Elizabeth, and Lydia. There may have been others, but these we know about, from the late 1730s to the late 1750s. They all were probably born in Augusta Co Va, before they moved south to what is now York Co SC.

Thanks, Janice.

Wes
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Wes Patterson's Research Blog
Wes Patterson's Website

Richard Morrow's ironic connection with the Pattersons and Chastains

Richard Morrow was a man of means in the late 1700's and early 1800's. He bought and sold a large quantity of acreage over the years, in multiple locations. As far as I can tell, I am not related to him at all. However, I am connected to him by association in what seems to be an unusual way.

Richard received a NC grant (#800) for 100 acres in 1800 on a stream called Jenkins Branch, which is about 8 miles NW of Asheville, NC in Buncombe County. This was recorded in Buncombe Deed Book S1-6 on page 267, dated 1 Sept 1800. This was near lands already being lived on by my Pattersons, Blacks, Ponders, Harrisons, et al.

Then in January of 1802, Richard Morrow bought 790 acres from William Bryson (bk A pg 383) on the Tuckaseigee River (recorded 18 Sept 1807). This location is in modern day Jackson Co, but was Buncombe at the time, and very shortly thereafter, it was Haywood Co. Over the next few years, Richard Morrow obtained 5 more tracts on the same river, all land grants from NC totaling 650 more acres.

Having purchased land on the Tuckaseigee River in January 1802, Richard then sold his 100 acres on Jenkins Branch to my gggg-grandfather, John Patterson, on 2 August 1802 (Bk 4, pg 657). The witnesses for this sale were Daniel Ponder, James Morrow, and Andrew Patterson. Ponder was John's uncle; James Morrow is believed to have married John's daughter Elizabeth before 1810, but this is not yet proven; and Andrew Patterson's relation to John is yet unknown, but Andrew "may have been" John's nephew.

More importantly for the purposes of this paper, it should be noted that John Patterson's son, George Patterson, was born in 1800 in this general vicinity of Jenkins Branch. The relevance of this notation will be more apparent momentarily. This is where George grew up. George was my ggg-grandfather.

Back to Richard, we now see that he has made his move to what would soon become Haywood Co NC, along the Tuckaseigee River. We begin to learn that this land is on both sides of Caney Fork of Tuckaseigee River in 1807, when Richard began selling parts of it to various people, particularly members of the Chastain family. In March 1807, he sold 144 acres to Benjamin Chestine; then in September 1807 he sold 100 acres to Edward Chestain, and another tract (acreage unknown) to Elijah Chestain. In January 1810 he sold another tract to Eligah Chastain, and lastly he sold 50 acres to Abner Chastain in October 1815.

Both tracts he sold to Elijah Chastain were on Caney Fork. It should be noted that Elijah had a daughter named Rebecca Chastain who was born in 1799, making her eight years old when her dad bought his first tract of land from Richard Morrow. There is a Chastine Creek, a branch of Caney Fork, which is a branch of Tuckasegee River. Use this link for google maps, then switch to Terrain view. You can zoom out for perspective.

John Patterson, still in Buncombe, began selling the larger pieces of his land in 1815, the last 100 acres being sold in 1820 to James Black. An 1818 deed described John Patterson as "of Buncombe"; however, this 1820 deed showed he was then "of Haywood", thus having moved sometime between 1818 and 1820. John bought a tract of land on the Pigeon River in 1824, but nothing else is known as to where he lived in the meantime (perhaps on the land he bought?). The Pigeon River flows north through Waynesville, NC and up into Tennessee. West of there and over the next mountain range, is the Tuckasegee River, which flows north through Sylva, NC and up into Tennessee. At this time, I'm not sure how the Chastains and Pattersons met up, but apparently they did.

Around this time, perhaps no later than 1825 but as early as 1822 possibly, love was in the air, leading to a marriage between George Patterson and Rebecca Chastain. Obviously, they met each other in Haywood County (both locations were then in Haywood), they fell in love, got married, and perhaps their oldest child (or two) were born in Haywood. By 1827 or so they moved south into Georgia, where they were enumerated on the 1830 census (Rabun Co). By 1834 they were in Union County Ga, just north of modern day Blairsville, on the east bank of Nottley Lake (which didn't exist then).

So, what is the ironic connection? Most people would never care, but for those of us who descend from George and Rebecca, it is interesting to note that George grew up on Jenkins Branch in Buncombe Co on land his father bought in 1802 from Richard Morrow. Likewise, Rebecca grew up on Caney Fork in Buncombe / Haywood Co on land her father bought in 1807 from the same man - Richard Morrow.

Thanks, Richard! Thanks for providing the land for the childhood homes of my ggg-grandparents! That's pretty ironic to me - some 200 years later.

Wes Patterson
26 March 2010

Burke Co NC Records

I need to get to Burke county and go through their records. So many of the families who ended up in Buncombe county around my Pattersons on Jenkins Branch were families who had spent the last decade or two in Burke Co.

Also, there was a Benjamin Patterson who received a land grant in Burke in 1792. I need to find out more about him. Was he a brother of my John?