Hi Donna here is the material you requested.- Gwen Renshaw reflections pg. 15 RENSHAW'S in ROWAN COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA The Renshaw's of Maryland were large land owners and People of responsibility and integrity. Thomas Renshaw's estate of one Thousand acres was divided equal among is four sons, his wife, Jane, to have a home and livelihood for life and daughter, Jane, to have such personal property as her mother saw fit to give her. This new (American) custom of dividing the land among the sons of a family was well established by this time. But it had its problems. Most families were large and the land allotments correspondingly small. Many sons felt the need to sell their portions and go into newly opened territories where the legacy would buy a larger tract or where land grants were to be had. In 1767, Abraham, with six sons destined to share his estate, sold the land his father had given him and took his family to the Piedmont area of North Carolina where many neighbors, relatives and intermarried families were settling, in Rowan County. Settlers had come earlier into this area, usurping the hunting grounds of Indians whose home it had been for centuries and who fought valiantly to retain it. After years of tragic encounter, the white man took possession,and Abraham obtained a grant of five hundred acres of land in the "Forks of the Yadkin" between Hunting and Bear Creeks -with sons Elijah and Joseph adjoining so that they made a small community with many others who were intermarried families or old neighbors from Maryland. The eldest son, Thomas and young Isaac were in an adjoining Taxing District with a different community of neighbors with whom they intermarried, giving us some help in locating the next generation as they married into families of that area, near the Iredell County line on Spring Creek and nearer the Yadkin. All this area is now in Davie County,which was taken from Rowan in 1836 when most of the Renshaw's had continued to follow migration Trails. Abraham, Abraham, Jr. and Thomas seemed to be the first to come. Jonathan Hunt's Tax List of 1768, fragmented and actually undated, contains the names of the first two, with one slave named 'Dick' and Thomas was on David Carson's list. This land was not a wilderness but a rolling country of grassy meadows and trees of oak, maple and the like. The land was fertile and well watered. The climate was mild with moderate temperature; the kind of situation that newcomers found desirable. Many others came down the Carolina Road, many of them faithful adherents of the Church of England. Scotch-Irish were well represented, and Germans from Pennsylvania, usually Lutherans. Quackers and Mennonites were here. Among these were the Dickeys, Luckeys, Brawleys, Neelys and Lyons who would also be neighbors of the Renshaw's. Rowan County farms were generally small. Slaves were few in this section; often one or two living in tiny cabins quite near the masters homes and working alongside members of the family. Pg. 16 Land grants for these early-comers may cause confusion. Records may show that their grants were made after the Revolution. I was puzzled until I learned that the original Colonial grants were made by the 'quit-rent' system whereby a man paid a fee each year. After the Revolution this was changed and State grants were made. This is the document that we usually see. Many Meeting Houses were erected. Thyratira Church, first called, simply, 'Ye Lower Meeting House'. Presbyterian, organized in 1753, became 'Cathey's Meeting House' in 1764, was near the present Mill Bridge. We have no record of a Church of England congregation in the area nearer than Salisbury and assume that the Renshaws were affiliated with one of the popular evangelicals-Presbyterian, Baptist or Methodist. I have a record of Thomas, Esther and Elijah Renshaw ordering Frances Coupee's "Hymns and Spiritual Songs" in 1803. We are told that Abraham settled near Third Creek Church on Hunting and Bear Creeks about two miles west of Cleveland, which is no longer found on the maps. Renshaw's Ford, an old landmark in the forks of the Yadkin, has long since been replaced by a bridge but is still designated by a marker. I was puzzled when I read that Abraham's farm was on Hunting and Bear Creeks, which are parallel, but a view of the map, scaled a mile to the inch, indicated that the farm reached from one to the other, having a road through the center where Cornwallis' Army marched toward Yorktown in September, 1781. How the eyes of many little Renshaws must have popped! Marching through grandpa's tobacco fields after frolicking in the shallow waters of Renshaw's Ford where they had bivouacked the night before. We believe it was late enough in the season that the tobacco would be in the barns and not trampled underfoot on that September day. New settlers came in so rapidly that Court Orders such as the following were not unusual: "Feb 8 1772: Ordered by the - Court by Petition that the following persons to wit: John Luckey Robert Johnson, Samuel Luckey, William Bryan, James Bryan, Morgan Bryan, John Wilcocks, James Brown, Theop. Morgan, Thomas Willson, will Willson, Jr and Luke Lee - Do Lay out a Road the Nearest and Best Way to the road leading to Salisbury to the shoals of the Yadkin to begin at the most convenient place on the said road between 2d and 3d Creek from thence to Renshaw's Ford on the South Yadkin River thence along the Diddeg Ridge between Rocky Creek and Hunting Creek to the next Ford above the widow Backors, on the main Yadkin known by the name of Samuel Bryant's Bottom" And, "Feb 7 1775, Abraham Renshaw to oversee Rd leading from Frohocks to Robt Luckeys, inhabitants between Hunting Creek and Bear Creek to work on said road". Notice that this work was done in February, at a time the farmers could spare. It is significant that such work could be done in that locale in winter while in many parts of our country such a thing is impossible. A 1778 Tax List is extant in which the Renshaws compared favorably with their neighbors: Pg.16 On Capt. Reed's List: On Capt. Lyons' List: Thomas Renshaw, ...137-19, 1 poll Abraham Renshaw, Jr. ... 105, 1 poll Isaac Renshaw , 1 poll Isaac may-have been work ing for Thomas. He was young married that year. Elijah Renshaw... 200, 1 poll Abraham Renshaw ...336, 1 poll Joseph Renshaw ...370, 1 poll I shall tell you all I can about the children of Abraham and Ann Renshaw. There are many 'blind spots'. Many capable people are working on this line and are cooperating but there are not sufficient records. No Wills at all left by Abraham or any of his sons. These are a 'must' in research but, in this case, they do not exist. Abraham's wife, Ann, preceded him in death therefore he did not need a WILL for her protection. He sold his land to sons Elijah and Joseph. No wills have been found for his sons or grandsons. Here is a repetition of his children's names, not all documented: 1. Thomas Renshaw 2. John Renshaw 3. Joseph Renshaw 4. Abraham Renshaw, all documented 5. Isaac Renshaw 6. Elijah Renshaw 7. Ann Renshaw, all b. Baltimore (later Harford) County, Maryland. 1. Thomas Renshaw b 20 Oct 1739; probably m in Maryland. I have no clue as to the name of his wife or as to the names of his many ch, excepting two sons; perhaps a dau I have said that the location of Thomas' land with a different 'set' of close neighbors has helped to give him identification as opposed to the Hunting-Bear Creek community of his father and brothers. His farm, Crab Orchard on the waters of Little Creek, then the names of his neighbors is a help. It was Thomas, you will remember, who was called upon to be administrator in the case of his cousin William who d. intestate. I would believe that Sarah Renshaw, certainly a grdau of Abraham, would be the dau of Thomas: (The numbers are for organization of material and not related to dates, so Sarah is #a): a. Sarah Renshaw m Robert Buntain 18 Jan 1775. Eli- jah Renshaw and James Robinson were Bondsmen. Thomas was age 36 at this time-Sarah may have been but fifteen-a marriageable age' for a girl at that time. This could be an elopement, with young uncle Elijah assisting. b. William Renshaw m Mary Moore 2 Feb 1796, James Or- ton & A. Balfour, bondsmen. Is this the William who m Mary Ann Luckey in 1786 and had dau, Ann who was remembered in her grfa Samuel Luckey's WILL? It seems to be but no documental proof. But we shall place him here. We shall place the ch. in the order mentioned in William's WILL rather than attempt to place them by age: