on Hatteras Island
Pasquotank County deed records (Book A: 40) tell of an “authentick Bill of Sale” by a member of the North Carolina governor’s council and Deputy of the Lords Proprietors, Thomas Boyd and his wife, Winifred, written on January 20, 1713, for acreage with plantation house “escheated” or lapsed from Thomas Jones and lying between the lands of John Ferme/Hume and Anthony Markham for the price of one “Negro boy” valued at £30. Boyd issued this bill of sale to Ashby Evans through his attorney, “Eliz. Evans.” Blank spaces left for the amount of acreage to be filled in were left unmarked, yet the deed was registered as it was. That’s because Thomas Boyd, by the time of registration for the deed, was presumed dead. Anglican minister Giles Rainsford wrote to John Chamberlaine from “Chowan in North Carolina” July 25th 1712:
I presume you are no stranger to the Indian War which has some time since begun and continues in the barbarous Massacres of so Many English Inhabitants Most families of Pamlico hourly feeling the effects of their Cruelty nor truly can the Govr promise himself one hours safety being continually alarmed by the Tuskarora Spies in his own Quarters Col1 Boyde was the other day sent out with a party against the Indians but was unfortunately shot through the head and few of his men came home but what shared in his fate and fell sacrifices to the same common misfortune— (NCCR, 1: 860)
Boyd had reputedly been killed by the enemy Indians (most of them Tuscarora), while many of his men were captured. Some of those men were probably Hatteras Indians. At least, that’s what Rainsford reported. Rainsford’s report was premature for Thomas Boyd was alive and well to meet the Hatteras upon their escape and return.
Whereas report has been made to this board that ye Hatteress Indyans have lately made their Escape from ye Enemy Indyans and are now at Coll Boyds house…
It is ordered By this Board that the afsd Coll Boyd Doe supply the Said Indyans wth Corne for their Subsistance untill they can returne to their owne habitations againe and lay his Accot thereof before ye next Assbly fforasmuch as there is like to be a great Want of Corne in this Governmt for ye Supply of our fforces agt ye Indyan Enemy… (NCCR, 2: 129-30)
Subsequent colonial records confirm Boyd’s “resurrection” and continued presence at council meetings. Reports to officials in London from a wilderness province like early North Carolina were often plagued with mistakes or misreports. Obviously a skirmish occurred that resulted in the Hatteras’ capture. Somehow, Boyd made it safely home and the Hatteras Indians found him there. After collecting their corn, the Hatteras could make their way back to their home of Hatteras Island.
Settlers in Pasquotank County had long been familiar with the Hatteras Indians. While no direct references are extant, men of names like Scarboro, Quidley, Whidby, Davis, and about a dozen others who once lived in Pasquotank became permanent residents of Hatteras Island. Others, like Valentine Wallis and his brother William stayed on Hatteras long enough to make a little money before they headed for Carteret County, not far away.
Hatteras Island had been used by the earliest North Carolinians, as well as mariners from much of maritime America, since first arriving in the future state. Many mariners crash-landed upon Hatteras and early Virginians probably knew about the Indians who lived there. They may even have spoken with them. No records remain of such an encounter before Capt. Thomas Bilton’s accidental visit in 1707, when he spoke to “Virginians,” not Indians, on shore. Still, we learned of their European-Indian cooperative business enterprise in 1997-8 when Dr. David S. Phelps, along with student archaeologists from East Carolina University, excavated a “workshop” upon the Buxton end of the island. Phelps dated his find to a range of 1650-1720. This date may be a bit early, but not by much.
The first known Virginian to settle in North Carolina was Indian trader Nathaniel Batts in 1654. We only know about that event because of a later court hearing in Virginia in which Batts told of his purchase from local Indians. Batts remains in North Carolina to this day, although his grave has probably submerged beneath Albemarle Sound. The island known as “Batt’s Grave” sank quite near to Durant’s Neck in Perquimans County, where another trader, George Durant made his purchase from Yeopim chief Kilcacenen in 1662 (NCCR, 1: 19).
Another quick peninsula east, we find Pasquotank County and the home of the New Begun Creek community and Little River Meeting House, the place of worship of many of North Carolina’s first Quakers. This is the area above the Albemarle Sound and known collectively, with Currituck and Chowan Counties as “Albemarle.” Pasquotank was the home of our hero and possibly another Quaker, Col. Thomas Boyd.
Studying Hatteras Island at this time involves the records of Currituck County, but also those of Hyde County and many deed records appear in Hyde before 1739. The surprising part is that Hyde County is not the only place we find Hatteras deeds before 1739. Why? Much like the separate colonies before the Revolution, early North Carolina “counties” held something of an autonomous nature as well… apparently they often claimed remote Hatteras Island as “ungoverned territory.” This may also have had something to do with Quakers trying to remain anonymous with regard to England’s official Anglican Church who often discriminated against peaceful Quakers that refused to fight battles. As Boyd shows us, however, not all Quakers were pacifistic. However, we only speculated that Boyd was a Quaker. The only clue to the difference in religion is the unusual way that Pasquotank Precinct began its deeds, with “To all Xtian people to whom these presents shall come…” and the particular Christian wording that usually follows.
Why is this important to the study of Hatteras Island? Well, that “workshop” that Phelps uncovered was run by heretofore unknown Europeans, but presumably by newly-arrived North Carolinians. Quakers, also slave traders at this time and not yet the guardians of Indian virtue that they will later become, were quite well-disposed to them nonetheless. If anyone would share an island in peace with natives, it would be the Quakers. If anyone were to keep such a business venture secret, it would be Quakers.
Of the Pasquotank men that had later dealings with Hatteras Island, we find Valentine Wallis who constructed a home near the “workshop” location before 1740 that was later occupied by Job Carr and then, Hezekiah Farrow. Wallis was born and christened in Middlesex County, Virginia in 1699, son of William Wallace (not the guy from Braveheart) and Ann (possibly) Blount. He had a brother William, sisters Sarah, Jane, Mary, and, interestingly “Anne Kinnecum,” a name rather similar to the chief of the Yeopim that sold George Durant his land, “Kilcacenen.” Valentine’s mother remarried after William died to a Richard Grey of Perquimans and had another son, Richard Grey Jr. Grey/Gray is yet another Hatteras surname (See below and also: Pasquotank Co., NC Record of Deeds 1700-1751, Deed A: 242).
Other records showing the Wallis connection to Hatteras come through Pasquotank deeds before 1739 when Currituck County began the process. One is for 1734 and gives us the details of the long-misunderstood Valentine Wallis presence on the island. It also involved his younger brother William Jr.:
..
Pasquotank County Deed Records, Book C: 345 (transcription taken from published source) – Note the land on Flatty Creek adjacent to John Boyd and the land (570 acres) on Hatteras Banks, that he formerly lived on.
Apparently, Valentine and his brother planned to move away from both Pasquotank County and Hatteras Island at this time, going to Carteret County where we find many Pasquotank County names as well, including the second-most populous Quaker community in North Carolina.
There seems to have been a great deal of Boyd contacts with Hatteras, although there has been none alluded to aside from the “capture” incident involving the Indians in 1712. Might there be a closer connection to Boyd, producing the militia structure that included the Hatteras Indians? Yes, there is… and it is a surprising one indeed.
John Whitby is a name that is often seen on Hatteras, especially in mid-eighteenth-century deed records. The blending of the English settlers and the Indians makes itself known in studies of the “persons of color” on the island and how they suddenly change to “white” in the 1800 census. Names like Whitby, Basnett, and Quidley appear in genealogical records that detail their mixed relationships. Going back to Pasquotank County once again, we find the Whitbys, or Whedbees have their origins there as well.
Even more surprising, we see that Thomas Boyd married Winnifred Whedbee and was a brother-n-law not only of the Reeds (first official settlers of Hatteras), but also of John, Richard, and George Whedbee. Just to throw in some other names, the O’Neals, who at one time, own the Indian Town at Trent Woods on Hatteras, also hail from Pasquotank as do the Fosters, John and Macrora Scarboro/Scarbro, Davis (specifically Thomas & Elizabeth close to Currituck) and Robb (vague hints and closer to Currituck... only after 1716 when he came over as prisoner), Matthew Midgett (in present day Camden on "Alligator Creek" that flows into North River, along with neighbor George Whedbee), Jno. Jennet, Oliver, Miller, William Rawlinson/Rolinson, and more.
The evidence is overwhelming! There was much more to the Thomas Boyd story than previously assumed (the previous reports of his demise have been exaggerated!) and much more to the Hatteras Indians also. That the colonial government sent extra gunpowder, shot, and flints to John O’Neal to distribute them to the Hatteras Indians then living on his island property in 1720 (property which included the Indian Town later owned by the Elks family of Indians in 1759), it just continued the relationship that they had long enjoyed. This was a community of relatives, much like it is today. That they could assimilate into white culture as easily as they did is not much of a surprise. The outside world grew more hateful to people of color by 1800, yet on remote Hatteras Island, it was just a fact of life… though light enough to fool the rest.
One question that we have to ask... why did the Hatteras Indians become the native group who showed the most affinity towards Europeans and live with them peacefully for so long? Maybe because they already had English ancestry! Come see us at the Lost Colony Research Group website.
2 comments:
Interesting article. Was very enlightening on many fronts, esp all the info on Thomas B. Boyd. I'm doing some research into my family history and Thomas B. Boyd is part of that. I'm curious, do you have any idea if he spent several years in N. Ireland before coming to the U.S.? I know he is originally from Scotland, but was curious as to how he came here and where/what he did before arriving. Any additional info is greatly appreciated.
Interesting research on Thomas Boyd. You make him a very real person. Thank you. I too have been working on the Boyd family genealogy. Thomas Boyd married Winifred West, widow of John West and, I believe, the sister of Thomas Pollock. The Ann Whedbee you reference was his daughter-in-law, Ann Chancey wife of John Boyd, who as a widow married George Whedbee. Thomas Boyd dies before 1720.
Post a Comment