Early 1900s affidavits of members of the Willis family

In the early 1900s,  there was a candidate for political office in Cleveland County,  Patterson Lorenzo Newton,  who was accused through rumor of being mixed race.  In his defense,  he published a pamphlet which included a number of affidavits of children of the marriage of Jacob Willis 1780-1828 to Lydia Black 1785-1850.  The children giving affidavits included:

Ann Willis Eaker 1814-1913
Agnes Willis 1812-1907
Rachel Willis 1822-1911

In addition,  Malanda Self Willis 1829-1914,  wife of Jacob Craven Willis 1821-1883 (brother to Ann, Agnes, Rachel) also provides an affidavit.
 
In these affidavits we learn a couple of important facts about the Willis family:

• The mother of Lydia Black was Rachel Booth.
• Rachel was born around 1750 in Pennsylvania (although we're still not sure where in Pa).
• The Booth and Goins families were close,  intermarried often,  and migrated together from Pennsylvania to Rutherford County.

And,  there's one rumor:

• Ann Willis 1814-1913 may have married an AJ White first,  but Jacob protested the marriage,  and she later married Joseph Eaker.

And,  one issue that comes to light, but is still unclear:

• Rachel Booth may have initially married first into the Julian family (which I discuss later in this post), before marrying James Black. 

Patterson Newton traces his lineage back to an Alexander Goins,  who lived near Kings Mountain,  NC,  close to the border of SC.  That's a good 20 to 30 miles away from the farms of the Willis families in late 1700s,  early 1800s, in NW Rutherford County.  However,  there is a William Goins who is a neighbor to the Willis family.  So,  it is assumed that Alexander Goins near Kings Mountain is somehow related to the William Goins living near the Willis family.   And Rachel Booth,  who initially lived near Kings Mountain,  later marries James Black and settles near the Willis farms.  So,  the Willis family members are called upon to provide affidavits in defense of the Goins family and against the rumors of them being of mixed race.

Patterson Newton,  in tracing his heritage back,  devotes a portion of the pamphlet to speaking of the hardships of his grandmother,  Nancy Goins 1808-1889,  married to Stephen White 1804-1869.  This is the connection that Patterson Newton has to the Willis family.  Another child of this Goins/White family,  Andrew Stephen White 1842-1933,  married Lydia Ann Willis 1852-1932,  the daughter of Jacob Craven Willis 1821-1883 and Malanda Self Willis 1829-1914.  It was Malanda, and her 3 sister-in-laws,  who gave the depositions.   It is not clear to me though how Nancy Goins is related to either the Alexander Goins of Kings Mountain,  or the William Goins, early settler near the farms of the family of William Willis Sr.  But these Goins families likely all trace their family back to the same,  early 1700s Pennsylvania Goins roots.

This information was published in the Fall 2016 edition of the Bulletin of The Genealogical Society of Old Tryon County,  North Carolina (click on each image to enlarge):

This information was pointed out to me by the publisher of this article. In the affidavit of Rachel Willis on pg 139,  the publisher, about Rachel Booth,  indicates in parenthesis "(married a Julian the first time and James Black,  who was born in 1756,  the second time)".  The publisher then pointed me to the WILL of a Jacob Julian of York County,  SC.   But,  the dates and other information don't make sense.  An abstract of this WILL is below (York County, South Carolina Will Abstracts 1787-1862 by Brent H. Holcomb):

The assumption appears to be that this Rachel Julian is Rachel Booth,  who marries James Black,  second.  But, the dates don't come anywhere near aligning.   And,  it does not make sense that Jacob Julian would be leaving his estate to his former wife.  So,  I have doubts about this assumption that Rachel Booth married into the Julian family before marrying James Black.  This issue needs further research.

Addendum 3/13/2017:  I received the following info from a Black family researcher .... 

I descend from the John Black who moved to Pulaski County, Kentucky, so I haven’t spent quite as much time researching the branch of James Black and his wife Rachel. What I have on Rachel comes from Julian researchers (descendants of Samuel Julian). I will have to dig through me records to find out specifically who contributed the info. While I have not corroborated the information, I have found no significant reason to question the connection. I welcome any input you can give me on James Black’s family, and I would be interested in hearing more about the depositions you referred to.

Rachel was supposedly the widow of (George) Julian, so she may have indeed been a Booth. I should have mentioned that she was a widow on my tree. I’ll glean through some of the points of interest I have on the Blacks and Julians:

Samuel Julin deeded James Black 30 acres on the First Broad River on January 9, 1804 (witnessed by James Smith and Clayborn Condrey). Rachel was supposedly the widow of George Julian , a Loyalist, who was wounded at the Battle near Fort Dorchester on September 1, 1781. He was taken to a Quaker Meeting House, and was attended to by a woman named Jemima Ponder. Julian died by September 15, 1781, and his widow later married James Black, a neighbor of Jemima Ponder.  George’s son, Samuel Julian, was born on July 14, 1780, and was raised by James Black. Samuel married Mary, daughter of Clayborn Condery in Rutherford County on March 17, 1803, and moved to Henderson County, Kentucky, and Warwick County, Indiana (he named his first son, James Black Julian).

George Julian signed the petition regarding the North and South Carolina boundary dispute on May 15, 1775.  In 1782, and Act of Assembly passed at Jacksonborough (a few miles west of Charleston) confiscated the land of George Julian deceased for public use, and was sold to James Moffit. George’s administrator, Jacob Julian, protested the assembly, producing the affidavit of Jemima Ponder taken at Creek Meeting House in Dorchester, South Carolina, and the land was returned to the family (Jacob Julian sold the land for George’s heirs in 1788).  On January 18, 1782, Jemima Ponder “saith that she did live at the Creek Meeting House (a Quaker Meeting House) below Dogester (Dorchester) and that George Julian who did live on King’s Creek in District aforesaid (Camden) was there, and that she the said deponent did see the said George Julian depart this life between the first and middle of September in the year 1781”.  The meeting House was on Ashley River, and it is assumed that George was injured in battle at the Fort of Dorchester. 
 

Other records say that after George’s death, his widow married a Black (“widow Black, neighbor of Jemima Ponder”).  Jemima Ponder was the wife of Daniel Ponder of Clark’s Fork.  It is believed that a number of these loyalist families of Clark’s Fork first moved to Dorchester before moving to North Carolina (probably those labeled by Col. William Bratton as loyalists in 1783). 
 

There seems to be some confusion as to the identity of George’s wife. Some say it was Martha Denton, and others say George was married to two women named Martha.  Another source indicates a different George, who married Hannah Madden. The confusion seems to be about which George was killed in 1781. I suspect that George was with Lt. Col. Ernst Leopold Von Borck’s forces that were ambushed by Brigadier General Francis Marion’s forces at Parker’s Ferry on the Edisto River between Colleton and Dorchester County on August 31, 1781.  125 of Von Borck’s men were killed, and 80 wounded. 

[Note - in examining many trees with Julian surnames,  I have noticed that there are two George Julians living in the early 1780s.  One is in Randolph County,  NC,  and is married to Martha Denton.  The George we are most interested in is living down in Camden,  SC.  We believe that it is this George who was married to our Rachel Booth.]
  

The father of Samuel is hotly debated by Julian researchers.  It should be noted that descendants of Samuel merely indicate that his father died when he was young, and his mother remarried to a Black.

[Note - I have noticed in some trees that a Samuel Julian married to Mary Condrey is also attached to Jacob Julian,  of the WILL in the abstract above.  So,  there is some confusion as to whether this Samuel is the son of George Julian and Rachel Booth,  or son of a Jacob Julian and Rachel Alexander]

   

So,  my conclusion on all this is,  what I will go with in my tree:

1.  George Julian and Rachel Booth were married and had a son,  Samuel Julian.
2.  George died in 1781.
3.  Rachel married second,  James Black.
4.  Samuel Julian was raised in the family of James Black.
5.  Samuel later married Mary Condrey,  moved to Tenn,  then to Indiana.
6.  Rachel and James had a daughter,  Lydia Black,  who married into our Willis family (to Jacob Willis 1780-1828).

As another interesting note,  I would point out too that the name Lydia is very common in the Julian family.   It could be that our Lydia got her name as a result of Rachel's first marriage into the Julian family.