----- Original Message ----- From: "Mildred Venitucci" <emvee@kingwoodcable.com> To: <GAMACON-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2001 7:19 PM Subject: [GAMACON] FW: Barfield Family > Jo is a great researcher from Marion Co.,SC, and as you can see, gave me > permission to post this to the Macon Co list. I often see queries about the > Barfields on the GA list. Mildred > > -----Original Message----- > From: JoChurchD@aol.com [mailto:JoChurchD@aol.com] > Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2001 1:59 PM > To: emvee@kingwoodcable.com > Subject: Re: Barfield Family > > Thanks, Mildred. Glad you enjoyed it. They are my favorite, unrelated > family. > > If you know how to contact the Macon lady, please feel free to pass along > the > message to her. She has my permission to post it as she feels most > appropriate, so long as it isn't altered, and my name and e-mail address are > attached. I would feel a little awkward sending it to her out of the blue. > And I really can't be joining any more lists - can hardly keep up with the > Marion list! :-) > > Jo > > In reply to Jane: > > There is no well done, comprehensive history of the Barfield family > available, not in print and not online. Sellers is about as good as it gets. > > There are numerous websites and charts with information on Barfields all > over > the southeast, including Marion and Robeson Barfields. I have found these > sites woefully ailing in good, concrete, cited research. However, some idea > of the family may be obtained by doing a web search on google.com or some > other search engine for "barfield and marion" or "barfield and robeson". > Don't forget the alternate spelling of Barefield. Beware of bald statements > of descent with no cited sources. And you won't find many sources. > > Briefly, the Barfield descendants in and from Marion/Dillon all seem to > descend from one or the other of the two Richard Barfields who had early > land > grants in Bladen/Robeson County. The earliest of these Richards was the one > who had a land grant on Ashpole Swamp in 1757. This grant was shown by later > deeds to have been near the confluence of Hogg Swamp with Ashpole. > > This Richard Barfield and his wife Mary moved to South Carolina, apparently > between 1763 and 1769, and in 1769 sold his land grant on Ashpole. There are > clues, mighty small clues indeed, that some of this Richard's sons may have > been Joshua, Nathan, Thomas, and Josia Barfield. This is from the 1763 > Bladen > tax list, where all those 5 male Barfields are shown in one household. It > has > not been ruled out that Richard might have been brother or some other > relation of the others, rather than their father. > > Another clue is that all of those Barfields (except for Josia who is never > heard of again, and Richard, who was arguably deceased by 1786) were shown > in > the 1786 tax list for Captain Odom's Company, Prince George Winyaw Parish, > in > what was to become Dillon County, indicating that whole family group may > have > moved to Marion. Thus they would be the Barfields "in the fork of Drowning > Creek and Little Pee Dee River" as discussed by Robert Bass and many other > biographers of Francis Marion. They are the only Barfields for whom record > has been found in the fork of Drowning Creek and Little Pee Dee prior to the > Revolutionary War. > > There was another Richard Barfield who had a land grant about 1784 in > Bladen/Robeson, over on east side of Hogg Swamp, also not far from the > confluence with Ashpole. This Richard was kind enough to leave a will dated > 1785, naming his wife Ann and his children. Descendants of that Richard > Barfield, mostly through his son Willis Barfield, still reside on his lands > in that area. Two of this Richard's sons, Elisha and Shadrach, later moved > to > Marion County, where they had land grants bounding or near Joshua Barfield, > near present day Gaddy's Mills, and not far from the homesite of Barrett > Barfield Senior. > > It remains a matter of conjecture just how this newer Richard was related to > the earlier Richard who moved from Bladen/Robeson to Marion. Many theories > exist, and many counties in North Carolina have been searched for evidence, > but nothing conclusive identifying these two Richards has ever been found. > They may have been father and son, uncle and nephew, cousins - who knows. > > There was also, in Bladen/Robeson, a Charles Barfield with land grants on > Ashpole Swamp by 1769, and a David Barfield on Old Field Swamp (Fairmont > area), also very early. Most if not all of their male descendants seem to > have left this area. There is little to indicate that any Barfields other > than descendants of the younger Richard, and the elder Richard along with > his > family, ever resided in what became Dillon County. There were some Barfields > in the western part of old Marion County, and in that part of Marion that > became Florence County, near Pamplico, and there is some indication that > those Barfield families were closely connected to the Barfields of present > day Dillon County. Again, however, little has been found that sheds light on > concrete family relationships. > > It is stated (not surmised or guessed at, but stated as fact) on a number of > online Barfield sites that the tory captain Jesse Barfield was son of a > Solomon Barfield, that he came down from some distant NC county at the > beginning of the Revolutionary War. I find this theory patently absurd. > > There is nothing in the records to suggest that the Tory, Captain Jesse > Barfield, was anything but a homegrown Barfield. I find it most unlikely > that > a stranger with distant family connections came here and immediately > commenced to getting himself elected militia captain, and getting at least a > couple of hundred locals to follow him in the campaign against the patriots. > > In my own opinion, and I stress OPINION here, he was quite likely a son or > grandson of the earlier Richard of Bladen/Robeson (perhaps the same as > Josia, > or perhaps a son too young to be taxed in 1763), who moved with his family > to > what was to become Marion/Dillon (just a matter of a few miles), became > quite > popular, was elected captain of the Loyalist Militia, and led men he grew up > with - neighbors and relations - against Francis Marion and Maurice Murphee. > > As noted above, there is some speculation that the Josia in the 1763 tax > list > may have actually been Jesse. However, no proof of this has ever been found. > I have a copy of the original 1763 tax list from the NC Archives. The > handwritten list actually reads Josia, with great clarity. While the old, > extant list may be an early copy of some original tax returns, and Josia may > be a clerk's mistake in copying Jesse, without knowledge of any "original" > prior to the list, this line of reasoning rapidly becomes an exercise in > futility. > > Likewise, no proof has ever been found that Barrett Barfield Senior was a > son > of Captain Jesse Barfield. Sellers, of course, speculated that he was son or > nephew of Captain Jesse. And there was an anonymous entry in Bethea's AKPD > stating that Barrett was son of Captain Jesse (which statement, in my > opinion, was probably based entirely on Sellers' speculations). But NO > PROOF, > not even a convincing clue, has ever been found. > > Small clues abound, like the location of Barrett's lands adjoining a land > grant to Joshua Barfield, the same Joshua who paid taxes on and apparently > administered on the estate of one Jesse Barfield in 1786. The fact that > Barrett Senior sold that land grant of Joshua's when he sold his own > adjoining lands in about 1838 and moved to Macon Co, Georgia. And the fact > that Barrett Senior named one of his oldest sons Jesse. But not so many > clues > that they add up to a preponderance of the evidence. Barrett Senior's father > remains unknown. Barrett's father could have been Captain Jesse, or one of > his brothers, or perhaps even some other Barfield. > > I have been through ALL the Barfield entries in the Marion deedbooks up to > 1885 and most of the early Bladen and Robeson Barfield deeds. Through all > the > early Barfield wills and estates in Bladen, Robeson, and Marion. Through all > the land grants and plats for Barfields in all three counties. Through all > the census records, and numerous other Marion records, court records and > such. Many clues, nothing conclusive. They left many documents, but little > trace of their family connections. > > It is true that we only know of the four descendants of Barrett Senior > remaining in the Dillon County area. But the Barfields in this area prior to > 1850, both in Robeson and in Marion, were numerous.Young male Barfields in > the early census records had a habit of leaving the area about as soon as > they reached manhood (perhaps because of the Tory business). It is amazing > how many of them were found unnamed in their father or mother's household in > an early Marion or Robeson census record, only to disappear in the next > census, leaving not a mention of their name in the local records. > > However, there were just as many early Barfield women. And I would suppose > that many of them married and either remained in the area with their > families, or moved west, leaving adult children here. There have been many > many Barfield daughters born around here since 1757. I'm certain they left a > number of descendants. We just don't know who they were... > > I suspect many of us have Barfield grannies back there somewhere. I've been > looking for her for for a long time now - my unknown Barfield granny. I have > good reason to suspect early Barfield connections to my Horn, Miller, > Brewer, > Cook, and Hayes lines. But not an ounce of proof so far.... > > Other local families who were in close proximity to the Barfields, and may > have early Barfield connections (prior to say 1800) were Adams, Barnes, > Elvington/Yelverton, Ford, Grantham, Hill, Jones, Lee, Lewis, Moody, Page, > Smith, Thompson, and others . > > Jo Church DIckerson > > > ==== GAMACON Mailing List ==== > "Not for fame or reward, not for place or rank, not lured by ambition or goaded by necessity; but in simple obedience to duty as they understood it; these men suffered all, sacrificed all, dared all, - and died." > --Rev. Dr. Randolph McKim (inscription on Confederate soldiers monument, Arlington National Cemetery) > > >