Abt 1720 - Bef 1777 (~ 57 years)
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Name |
Benjamin JONES |
Birth |
Abt 1720 |
New Kent County, Virginia(?) |
Gender |
Male |
Death |
Bef May 1777 |
Bute County, NC |
Notes |
- We do not know where Benjamin Jones lived before coming to Granville/Bute County, NC although it appears to have been Virignia. A 1764 deed to his brother, John, states that John was from "New Kent County Virginia" (Bute CO., NC DB-A, p. 163). Another deed involving John's son Adam says that Adam was from "Virginney" (op.cit.p. 13)
When Benjamin Jones came to North Carolina the area where he settled was wilderness, no towns as such and widely scattered homesteads. The lure of cheap, fertile land through land grants brought many adventurers down from Virginia including a number of Jones families. The land where Benjamin chose to live was part of Chowan County before 1722, Bertie County from 1722-1732, Edgecombe County 1732-1746, Granville County 1746-1764, Bute County 1764-1779, and finally, Warren County from 1779 to the present.
This area is pivotal in studying migration in the Souther colonies and states. The Old Indian Trading Road passed through Bute County and many people from eastern Virginia and the Valley of Virginia came to Bute. Some families settled there permanently. Others stayed for only a few years or a generation, as teh Jones' did. Many people left Bute to go to western North Carolina or south to South Carolina and Georgia.
Some of Benjamin Jones' children did both, first going west to Wilkes County, North Carolina, and then, by a coincidence of names, from there to Wilkes County, Georgia.
Benjamin arrived on the Granville/Bute scene sometime between 1754 and 1758. On October 8, 1754, the first known census of males in Granville County was taken in the form of a muster of Colonel William Eaton's militia (vol. 22 NC State Records). Benjamin Jones was not on that muster roll but, in the roster for Col. Richard Coleman's company, there appear several names of men who would becom ehis neighbors; John and Richard Jones who were probably his brothers, William Young whose son, David, would marry Benjamin's daughter Ann, William "Gilcrees" (Gilreath) whose son, Joh, would marry his daughter Johannah and others.
Benjamin Jones' family lived in the Hawtree Creek section of North central Bute County near the Virginia border. Bute County, named for John Stewart, Earl of Bute, a supporter of King George III, had a short life of only 15 years. During the Revolution, in 1779, residents of North Carolina petitioned the general assembly to divide the county in half. Among the signers were James Jones, John Gilreath, William Gilreath, James Gilreath and William Noles. The general assembly approved and the county was divided. The sourther half became Franklin County, for Benjamin Franklin, and the Northern half Warren County, for a Dr. Warren a hero fo Bunker Hill. On a current map of Warren County, the Hawtree District would be located as follows: the east border would be near Robinson Ferry Road, the west border west of St. Tamany Road near Malone's Creek, the north border the Virginia line, and the south border the railroad running east and west through the county.
Genealogical research in old Granville/Bute county is made difficult by the presence in the county of so many Jones with the same first names. There were, for example, four Benjamin Jones' in Bute during the pre-Revolution period. In general, it seems that the more properous Jones families lived in the southern part of Bute County where there were Edward, Samuel, Sugar, Frederick, Thomas, William, James, Elizabeth, another 2 Benjamins, and other Jones'. Sorting out these Jones' has been difficult so errors may have been made.
The first record of a Benjamin Jones in the Hawtree Creek area is the 1758 tax list for then Granville County taken by Thomas Person. It lists a "Benja. Jones" along with others who, according to subsequent land records, were neighbors of our Benjamin Jones.
(Research):Death Source: Warren County, NC Will Book 2, page 122
Bute County, NC Court Minutes compiled by Brent H. Holcomb, p. 26
Bute County, North Carolina Record Book 2
Warren County NC, DB-1, P. 209-211
Warren County DB-1, p. 43-45
Bute County, NC Record Book 2, p. 122
Bute County, NC Record Book 2, p. 122
|
Person ID |
I7758 |
Johnson & Hanson |
Last Modified |
12 Apr 2005 |
Family |
Johannah PERRY, b. Virginia? d. Bef 1800, Wilkes County, GA |
Children |
+ | 1. Thomas JONES, b. Bef 1744, Scotland d. Bef 26 Apr 1803, Jackson County, GA (Age < 59 years) |
| 2. Ann JONES, b. Abt 1745 |
| 3. Jane JONES, b. Abt 1747, Virginia |
| 4. Catherine JONES, b. Abt 1748, Caller's Ordinary, Smith Creek, Granville County, NC |
| 5. Elizabeth JONES, b. Abt 1749, Virginia |
| 6. Adam JONES, b. Bef 1750, Virginia? |
| 7. William JONES, b. Abt 1750 |
| 8. Johannah JONES, b. Between 1750 and 1755 |
| 9. Samuel JONES, b. Abt 1751 |
| 10. James JONES, b. Bef 1757, North Carolina |
| 11. Saraham JONES, b. Abt 1760, Virginia |
| 12. Susannah JONES, b. 1762 |
|
Family ID |
F2883 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
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