Hi Sarah, I haven't yet done any appreciable research on where people in this area came from. I should perhaps explain that I arrived here 4 years ago from England. Edenton is my wife's home town, and her maternal grandmother was a Chappell from the Quaker family that had been in Perquimans and Chowan since the 1720s while her maternal grandfather was a Brown from the Quaker/Methodist family that had been in Northampton and Gates since about 1700 - so it is investigating these families, and the previous ownership of the land on which our house sits, that has led me into local history. Her father was a career Marine from California, stationed at the air base here during World War II. On her father's side there is a direct male line back to Percival Lowell who, at age 68, moved his entire family and business from Bristol to New England in 1639 because of his opposition to Charles I's imposition of Ship Tax. The earliest reference to anyone owning the land on which our house sits is that it was granted to Anthony Slocum in 1684. He had moved down from Massachusetts. It was later owned by Joseph Hewes, a Quaker signatory of the Declaration of Independence, who moved down from New Jersey. The one Quaker family that William Edmundson found in 1672, Henry and Hannah (Bassett) Phelps, had moved from Salem, Essex, MA 7 years earlier. What I have read led me to suppose that the growth in the Quaker population over the next few years was attributable to conversion of families already here, so I am interested by your suggestion that several of the Quaker families in Perquimans came from Nantucket and would like to know the source for this. I recognise White, Winslow and Newby as names in Perquimans, but not Macy - this may just be because no Chappells ever married Macys. When did these families leave Nantucket? I am not sure where exactly you are referring to by "the tidewater counties of N.C.". To me Tidewater is the area in Virginia on the south side of Hampton Roads, which would have been the counties of Princess Anne (split out of Lower Norfolk 1691, rolled up into the city of Virginia Beach 1963), Norfolk (formed as New Norfolk 1636, split into Upper and Lower Norfolk 1637, remaining part renamed Norfolk after Princess Anne split out 1691 and rolled up into the cities of Norfolk 1846 and Chesapeake 1963), and Nansemond (renaming of Upper Norfolk 1645/6, rolled up into the city of Suffolk 1974). In early times, direct land travel between Norfolk and the Albemarle would have been rendered difficult by the presence of the Great Dismal Swamp. There was a road past the east side of the Swamp by 1733, and the North Carolina troops who participated in the battle of Great Bridge in 1775 would have used this road. Dismals were simply swamps on the coastal plain. The Great Dismal is now only about a quarter of its original size, and it still looks large on any map of the area. However, the line of the present Highway 32 down from Suffolk to Edenton might always have been usable. Most early travel was probably by ship, going out from Chesapeake Bay, down the coast, and either into Currituck Sound through one of the now closed northern inlets or into Albemarle Sound through Roanoke Inlet (closed by a hurricane in 1795). During the War of Independence, ships carrying munitions not only came into port at Edenton - hence the 3 cannon at the foot of the Courthouse Green but, if small enough, went up the Chowan and Blackwater Rivers to South Quay, Virginia. There only a short overland portage was necessary to reach the Nansemond River, which flowed into the James River and eventually the vast Chesapeake Bay. Following his arrival in Maryland from Barbados in 1672, George Fox initially travelled north to New England and New York before heading south into Virginia and Carolina early the next year, so I doubt he could have been encouraging New England Quakers to move south. I haven't yet laid hands on a copy of Fox's Journal to see what indication he gives of any increase in the Quaker population from the single family found by Edmundson a year earlier. In 1662/63 a group of New Englanders bought land from the Indians and attempted a settlement on the banks of the Charles River, as the Cape Fear was then called. Buying the land suggests they may have been Quakers. Following the failure of the short-lived settlement, they left their cattle with the Indians and returned. My only reference to this gives no names, and does not say where in New England they came from. Maybe some of those involved in this attempt later moved to the Albemarle? You inspired me to do a little search for Nantucket history, which found this: The earliest inhabitants of Nantucket were Native Americans. In 1659, a group of nine Massachusetts Englishmen purchased the island for 30 pounds and two beaver hats. Their purpose was to raise sheep as well as to find refuge from the religiously intolerant Puritans. Among the early settlers were Thomas Macy and Tristram Coffin whose names reappear throughout the history of the island. In 1672, looking for an additional source of revenue, the islanders recruited whaling men to settle on the island and teach islanders how to capture whales and obtain the oil. Whales were abundant at the time and could be captured close to shore. Unfortunately, this fails to indicate the religious persuasion of those who bought Nantucket. John At 05:25 PM 05/12/2000 -0700, you wrote: >Thank you very much for this history. It is helpful to me. Do you know >anything about the migration of people from Nantucket into the tidewater >counties of N.C. about that time? I am searching for a Quaker by the name >of John Timothy White, presumed to be descended from Mayflower Whites, >according to family tradition. This would indicate that he or his father >and mother came down from Nantucket with the Winslows, Macys, Newbys, >etc.etc. Could you refer me to a specific historical account of this >particular migration. Thank you. Sarah.