In a message dated 3/3/01 11:59:27 AM, scismgenie@juno.com writes: On Sat, 3 Mar 2001 12:42:29 -0700 Louise Pettus <lpettus@cetlink.net> writes: > Source: PETTUS-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: [PETTUS] Any Pettus/Bullock connection? > > In the early 1900s Steven A. Epps took a letter to the editor of the > Fort Mill (SC) Times to print in the paper. The letter was written by > S. Bullock, Esq. from Woodlawn, Mississippi Territory on August 5, > 1807 and was "addressed to Mr Epps great-grandfather, Hon. William > Pettus, who represented York District in the South Carolina > legislature during the early year of the century and who was an > uncle of the author." The letter from S. Bullock to William Pettus >began >'Dear Uncle, I received your polite favor of the 24th March--not, > however, until a few days since, on my return from New Orleans, > where I have been since the 15th May last.'" What follows is a lengthy > account of Aaron Burr's arrest. Bullock had been on the same boat as > Burr and says he saw Burr with 90 men, "all peaceable, without arms > or ammunition." Bullock defended Burr and resented the army's >treatment of Burr. > > We are trying to find more on the Bullock line. We think that surely > the "S" stands for Stephen. William Pettus named a son Stephen > Bullock Pettus and we have always wondered where the Bullock came >from. We do know that our Capt George L. Pettus (1753-1816) >and William Pettus, Esq. (1767-1818) (sons of Stephen Pettus, Jr. >and Ann Dillard of Hanover County, VA) had a sister named Susan >who married Daniel White, a Rev. War veteran. William and George >must have had another sister who married a Bullock. > > Kathy and I have been following up on this information, mainly > searching for any Bullock man who married a Pettus woman in the > 1700s. To date we have not found the connection. We do think that >Stephen Bullock's father might possibly have been Edward Bullock but >cannot find his wife's name. Edward went to Kentucky from Hanover >Co., VA. It appears that Stephen Bullock may have been contemporary >to his Uncle William. Note that William's brother George is 14 years >older that he. Stephen's mother could have been older than his Uncle >George. Even the smallest clue or perceived relationship would be > gratefully received. Can anyone help us? > > Louise Pettus ===================== Yes, Louise, I do not believe that there is any doubt that the S. Bullock who wrote this letter from MS in 1807 was Stephen Bullock, the son of Edward Bullock of KY. Stephen Bullock died in Claiborne Co, MS, in 1812. Because he referred to William Pettus as an uncle, the first possibility to consider would be that the mother of Stephen Bullock was a sister to William Pettus. However, the information given to me, which I have never tried to verify through my own research, is that the only known wife of Edward Bullock of KY was Agnes Wingfield. The term uncle had a wider meaning in those early days than we think of at present, though, so it might be necessary to consider a wider range of possibilities. The husband of an aunt of Stephen Bullock on either side of his family, Bullock or Wingfield, might have been called an uncle, so might it have been possible that William Pettus was married to a Bullock or Wingfield? Adding additional complications, in looking at wills in those days, it was not unusual for a man to assume a kinship that really belonged to his wife, so that her mother became his mother and her uncle his uncle and so forth. Therefore, one could not rule out the possibility that William Pettus was the brother of the father or mother of the wife of Stephen Bullock. My information is that his wife was Mary Barnes, so that if the connection came through his wife, it would likely have been her mother who was a Pettus. It would vary from family to family, of course, but the term uncle might easily include a few dozen people, if a man included in that term his own uncles, the husbands of his own aunts, and his wife's uncles on either side of her family. Thus, the determination of possible relationships is not as simple as it might appear. The most straight-forward situation would be that a possible second wife of Edward Bullock, after the death of Agnes Wingfield, was the mother of Stephen Bullock and the sister of William Pettus. There is some evidence of earlier associations between the Bullock and Pettus families. The great-uncle of Stephen Bullock, I believe, was Richard Bullock, who was the ancestor of many of the Bullock families in Granville Co, NC. When Richard sold the last land that he held in Virginia to Thomas Shelton on 11 April 1757 in Louisa Co., the deed was witnessed by a John Pettus. If you would be willing to share the entire letter written by Stephen Bullock with the Bullock list, I feel sure that there would be many who would enjoy reading such a historical letter in which mention was made of Aaron Burr and his followers. Good luck in solving this interesting puzzle regarding the exact relationship that made William Pettus the uncle of Stephen Bullock. My best regards, Ron Bullock