Jesse Keel and Priscilla Whitaker

[collins]

Wanting to revisit this information:

Ok I am looking at my book and I see I must make a correction. The name is Hardee-Hardy Keel. Says he bought some land in 1765 from a Benjamin Sanders in Pitt county, N.C. Says he died before 1792 and may have moved to Halifax district Edgecomb county, N.C. about five years before his death. This is supposed to account for Jesse Keel's indenture there in 1792. In an abstract from court minutes in Edgecomb county, N.C. 1744-1746, 1757-1794, by Marvin K. Dorman,Jr. 1968 pg.97 Tuesday Nov.27,1792 -- Jesse Keel age 13 years old bound to Thomas Lauriner. pg. 107 Thursday, August 28,1794 Jesse Keel, 15 years old, bound to Thomas Laurence. On page 98 Nov.30,1792 Willie Keel requested a master. Then on page 108 Tues. Nov. 25,1794-- Limon Keel, orphan of Hardy Keel, chose Arthur Brown as his guardian (Limon is most likely Simon Keel)
Priscilla Whitaker is the duaghter of a John Whitaker and wife's name unknown. Priscilla Whitaker was born in ca.1784
In the case Samuel Norwood versus Jesse Keel Madison county Alabama 1819 this case had to do with money Jesse had given a law man to give to a Francis Erwin for a note. This law man either spent the money or lost it and this caused the trouble. In this legal document it specifically states that the law could not go to get Jesse Keel because he resided within the Cherokee Nation. They had to wait till he came into town for supplies before siezing him. And of course he did not know what was going on when that happened. My 6th great grand father had to pay this 70.00 sum twice on this note becuase of the crooked law man in that town. This book I have called Keel-Whitaker: Barnette,Johnson, Keel, and Whitaker; it has 596 pages. It contains a whole mess of names, dates, children, legal documents from court records, land records, and military records. It is an excellent resource for me and I am most greatful to have it. One of the oddities that is in the book is the fact that they seem to have raised silk worms and produced woolsey-lensey which is made from wool and plant fibers. They used black walnut shell for brown dye and copperas for the color orange. On a peice of this cloth is three small stripes and one wide stripe then it repeats. They raised the silk, spun it, wove it, and sewed it. My question is were did they get silk worm back then? Why did they not use cotton and wool instead of plant fiber and wool?
The Whitakers: supposedly one of the writers seems to think that the Whitakers came from Chester and Bucks counties PA. with the Boones, Canteys, and Grahms to Rowan county N.C. Now according to this research one of my relations was married to Katie Boone daughter of Squire Boone, the uncle to Daniel Boone. Now when Daniel went to KY some of my relations went there with them but did not like it there so moved to Mulberry, TN. All Whitakers in Lincoln county, TN descend from this line. Back in Pitt county, N.C. John Whitaker had married a Mary Williams it goes on to give tax list information with Hardee Keel, William Keel, John Whitaker, and Simon Sanders 1784 tax list Pitt county, N.C. It says a Thomas Williams gave John Whitaker both of Beaufort county 25 acres of land on Tranter's Creek. Thomas Williams was Mary Williams father. The land area that was under the Keel and Whitaker families was on Trantor's Creek which runs off another creek from the Tar River. This starting in Beaufort county and running west wards into Pitt county. Tyrrell county is due north, Edgecomb is due west, Dobbs county is due south west, and Craven county is south.


Now when I search the census this is what I found.
Jesse Keel 1800 Pitt County Census
Hardy Keel 1800 Beaufort County Census
John Keel 1800 Beaufort County Census

This family book source states that Hardy Keel had moved off to Halifax District of Edgecomb County, N.C. and I am guessing that Edgecomb was taken from Halifax County in it's creation. Is that right?

The other question would be is Mary Williams the mother to Priscilla Whitaker since this source names a Mary Williams as wife to John Whitaker, father of Priscilla. I can not remember at the moment, but seems like I saw a will of a Thompson family that names Priscilla Whitaker as a grand daughter of this Thompson.

[PappyDick]

One of the oddities that is in the book is the fact that they seem to have raised silk worms and produced woolsey-lensey which is made from wool and plant fibers. They used black walnut shell for brown dye and copperas for the color orange. On a peice of this cloth is three small stripes and one wide stripe then it repeats. They raised the silk, spun it, wove it, and sewed it. My question is were did they get silk worm back then? Why did they not use cotton and wool instead of plant fiber and wool?

The Shakers raised silkworms (and processed the cocoons into cloth) at their South Union, KY colony fairly early in the 19th century. It was not commercially successful. I don't know whether the experiment was tried elsewhere in the region, but that part of Alabama is pretty much the same region (now known as "Interstate 65"). Silkworms need mulberry trees (they eat the leaves), and sometimes you find groves of those, where silk was formerly cultivated (so to speak).

Linsey-woolsey is typically made with linen warp and wool weft. Linen is made from the flax plant, is a lot more trouble than cotton to process and is scratchy, and I tend to agree with your skepticism about its use in Alabama. But it was done. The coarser material derived from processing flax is tow (where we get the word "tow-head" for kids with light blond hair). Tow can also be spun and woven, and the cheap, scratchy cloth made from it was used for slaves' clothing, among other things. All of this linen culture was more common farther east, and farther north, than Alabama. But it was done to some extent in that area, too.

You mentioned a Francis Erwin. I believe one of Andrew Jackson's close associates was Andrew Erwin -- may have the first name wrong, this is off the top of my head. Anyway an Erwin was a big landowner in that area (especially in the southern counties of Middle Tennessee), having bought "headrights," or warrants from old war veterans who were entitled to land but couldn't afford to make the improvements necessary to take it up. This would have been around 1805-1820, I think. Before 1805, north Alabama was Cherokee country (Doublehead lived at present Florence), though the Chickasaw and maybe also Creeks had some claim to it, too. Don't know if any of this is relevant to your folks.

[Bill Childs]

NC County formation:

Edgecombe Co in 1741 from Bertie Co.

Halifax Co in 1758 from Edgecombe Co.

Pitt Co in 1760 from Beaufort Co.