CRAFFORD FAMILY OF NEW RIVER, NORTH CAROLINA
By ELLIS MUNSON GOODWIN
pub. in the national Genealogical Society Quarterly Vol. 55, No. 1, March 1967
(which was continued from the Quarterly, December, 1965, page 262)

Transcribed for Genealogy Trails by K. Torp

TRAPS CREEK, on the east side of New River in North Carolina, originally was called Glovers Creek from Charlesworth Glover of South Carolina who held land there in 1723. Until the time of the Revolution Onslow records called the stream Glovers Creek, or Glovers Branch. It was called Traps Creek from 1780, and perhaps earlier. By an Onslow deed of 26 May 1783 (N 12), Henry Ruark and his wife Elizabeth, of Onslow, sold 50 acres to Edward Ward “at the mouth of Traps Creek, commonly called Cranfords (Craffords) on the east side of New River.” The property lines of William Crafford, father of James and John, evidently embraced all of Traps Creek to its head. No deeds mention the creek as a property line. The original tract must have extended parallel to the creek on both sides from the river inland to Sneads Ferry road. This road still connects the east end of the “lower ferry,” as Sneads Ferry was once known, with roads leading to New Bern, an early seat of the North Carolina legislature.

From Sneads Ferry downstream the principal geographical features marked on current maps are Courthouse Bay, Wilkins Bluff, Traps Bay, Traps Creek, Edwards Creek, Cedar Point, Howards Bay, Salliers Bay and Craigs Point. The first courthouse, where William Crafford was clerk, was at Courthouse Bay. He doubtless lived on the road leading to the courthouse and beyond to the ferry. The courthouse was built in 1737. In 1744, it was destroyed by fire “by some malischus and evil disposed person.” (Brown, Joseph Parsons: The Commonwealth of Onslow. New Bern, 1960.) The other place names are identified with the names of the principal landholders along the east side of the river. From the ferry southward these families included the Sneads who operated the ferry in the last century and perhaps earlier; the Wilkins family, innkeepers and ferry operators (John Wilkins, grandson of John the original ferry-keeper, disposed of his interest in Sneads Ferry in 1820); William Crafford of Glovers (Traps) Creek and his sons James and John; the Edwards and Howard families; and at Cedar Point the Hancock and, later, the Pollock families.

The earliest buyers of parts of the Crafford tract were John Wilkins, Samuel Ramsey, Levin Buskin (a schoolmaster), Edward Howard, and one James McGinnis who acquired a small tract at the head of Traps Creek. The Crafford brothers, according to deeds citing Crafford boundary lines, continued to hold land at Traps Creek until after the Revolution. By 1793, when both Crafford brothers had died, the Traps Creek property had been divided among a number of new owners. They and neighboring landholders included: John Riggs, John Daniel, and Edward Howard (all at the mouth of Traps Creek); John Williams; John and James Howard; John Hansley; Richard Whitehurst; Richard Farr and his son William; Grace and John Edwards; John Nicholas; and Jacob Lewis. William Farr, John Wilkins and James Crafford, the latter the foster father of Andrew Jackson, removed some years before the Revolution to what had been Anson County, North Carolina. The three families had been neighbors at Traps Creek. There were others from New River—probably many—who removed to the Carolina backlands. Some are mentioned in the account which follows.

ALLISON—David Allison was nominated as an engrossing and committee clerk at a Tarboro session of the North Carolina legislature in 1785 and again in 1787 (N. C. Colonial Records, pp. 20-119). In August 1788 he was commissioned “master of the Rolls and clerk in equity” of the superior court for Washington District at Jonesboro where Andrew Jackson and David Allison had just been admitted to practice law. Allison held this position two years, resigning in 1790 to go on to the Cumberland and begin financial operations which led eventually to his ruin. Andrew Jackson, just starting his career as a lawyer and trader, was heavily involved, as endorser of some of Allison’s promissory notes, in Allison’s failure. Allison must have been known to Jackson before the two men met at Jonesboro. As early as 1781, Allison had been awarded 8oo pounds by the legislature, then meeting at New Bern, “for drawing bills.” By 1794 Allison had acquired more than 200,000 acres in Onslow and at least 34,000 acres in Jones, Cumberland, and Montgomery counties, a strip of territory extending from the sea almost to the Waxhaws (Gwynn, Zae Hargett: Abstracts . . . Jones Co., deed book H-262-267, 15 March 1796; Gwynn: . . . Onslow Co., P. 756). Most of this land evidently was wasteland of very little value.

That this David Allison was the same man with whom Jackson had business connections in Tennessee is substantiated by mention in the Jones County deed, cited, of Tennessee lands “which Stokley Donalson” . . . conveyed to David Allison. Stockley Donelson was a brother of Rachel Jackson, wife of the General.

AVERY—Col. Waitstill Avery figures prominently in Jackson’s early years in Tennessee. Avery in 1777 attended the session of the North Carolina legislature which that year convened at New Bern. At the same session Henry Rhodes, John Barber, John King and Robert Snead were granted certain allowances, along with Waitstill Avery. The first four were New River people whose names occur frequently in Onslow records in association with those of the Crafford brothers. There is no present reason to believe that Avery ever lived at New River, but these New River associations show that Jackson quite early in his life must have known of Col. Avery through his Crafford foster father and other settlers in the Waxhaws from New River.

According to the usual accounts, Jackson first encountered Col. Avery about 1784 when Jackson was at Morganton, Burke Co., North Carolina.

BLACK—Thomas and William Black, perhaps brothers, appear in Onslow records (C 7) from 1741. Thomas was clerk of the court there, succeeding William Crafford after the latter’s death in 1744 or 1745. William Black owned land on Halfmoon Swamp and, before his death about 1759, had incurred debts which resulted in the forced sale of land from his estate after he had died (F I; F 66; G 13). The land included William Black’s 130 acres on Halfmoon Swamp and other land on Gravelly Run, in all some 530 acres.

The name Black appears no more among Onslow landholders until 1784 (N 9) when Richard Farr (q. v.) sold the tract William Black had owned on Halfmoon Swamp to one James Wrenn (q. v.), Farr having acquired the land after the tract had changed hands several times following the lawsuit and sale of the tract at auction. Among the later owners had been James Farr. James Wrenn, in turn, sold the same tract on Halfmoon Swamp in 1786 (O 16). Thus, we have the Farr, Wrenn and Black families on Onslow—and the first two of the Waxhaws—mentioned in transactions involving a lawsuit, doubtless arousing divided opinions among those concerned.

One William Black of a later generation appeared in Nashville in 1806 when his name was conspicuous among those who insisted on having their names appear in the Nashville Impartial Review as mourning the death of Charles Dickinson after the Jackson-Dickinson duel (Parton: Life of Andrew Jackson, Vol. I, 1887 edition, p. 303).

FARR—Richard Farr, Sr., was at New River as early as 1734 when he was a juror, was involved in a suit, and was appointed commissioner to lay out roads on the east side of New River (Onslow deeds, A 3). He died 8 November 1758 leaving a widow, Hannah, and four sons: Richard, Jr.; Titus Green (who Maryann and had John, Richard and Elizabeth who m. a Wrenn, and Hannah); James; and William. The youngest son, William, was a witness in Onslow as early as 1763. In 1768 (H 73; I 6) William Farr “formerly of Onslow Co., but now of Mecklenburg County” sold to a merchant part (390 acres) of the Richard Farr grant (640 acres) of 8 March 1736; and in another deed the same year William and his wife Eleanor of Mecklenburg sold to John Williams 400 acres adjoining John Howard on Craffords (Traps) Creek. In 1768 he sold 240 acres at Hopes Creek and Schoolhouse Branch “left by will to me by my father.” It is evident that this William Farr of New River at some time between 1763 and 1768 removed to Mecklenburg County, which at that time included the present Union County and settled parts of both of the Carolinas to the west. This included the Waxhaws. It is quite evident that this William Farr of Onslow and Mecklenburg was one of a substantial number of former Onslow County residents who by the time of the Revolution had moved into the backlands. No Farr by the name William has been found in later records of Onslow County. This William Farr doubtless was Lt. Col. William Farr who made his will 3’ July 1792. in Union County, South Carolina (will book A, pp. 1618 8, as given in Pharrs and Farrs with Other Descendants, by Henry Newton Pharr, 1955. p. 567). Lt. Col. William Farr left a widow, Elizabeth Taliaferro (evidently his first wife, Eleanor, had died) and sons William Black Farr, James, Thomas, John Pulaski, Titus Green, and several daughters. William Black Farr was an executor of his father’s will. He must have been named for William Black (q. v.), brother of the clerk of the court in Onslow. Another son, Titus Green Farr, doubtless was named for his uncle at New River, Titus Green Farr, who made his will 15 March 1762 (Gwynn: Op. cit., p. 712) leaving a widow, Maryann (Pound, later Maryann Clandanel by a subsequent marriage) who died about 1798 mentioning in her will (Ibid., p. 703) her sons John and Richard Farr, and daughter Elizabeth Wrenn. This Richard Farr was probably the Richard Farr who in 1784 sold to James Wrenn (q. v.) 130 acres on Half-moon Swamp at New River (Onslow deeds 9 and 10). Richard, according to his mother’s will, had a son, George, perhaps the father of George L. Farr, born about 1810 who had a son Jackson Farr, born about 1842 (dates computed from the 1850 census), then living in the lower southwest district of Onslow County.

LESTER—William Lester and Melthen his wife, according to Norfolk County, Va., records (William and Mary Quarterly, vol. i, p. 46) on 15 September 1687 were summoned to appear before Capt. William Robinson, with Capt. William Crafford present, to give evidence against “one Edmands who pretends himself a papist priest.” No Lester has been found in early records of Bertie County, the area from which many came to New River after 1734 and one would expect to find at least one Lester family among them. This mention of Capt. William Crafford, undoubtedly the Crafford involved in the Culpeper rebellion, shows that a connection is at least possible between the William Lester of Norfolk and a William Lester who came to New River by 1738 and held land on the northeast side of the northwest branch, probably about where Jacksonville stands today. He died about 1760 (a widow Lester held land in 1761 adjoining “Evans’ old place”), leaving sons William, Jr., and Banester. The younger William was born 1744 or earlier. By 1771 he was living in a house on the southwest branch of New River next that of John Crafford, younger brother of James Crafford. The names William Lester and John Crafford appear together on each of eight conveyances. They show that John Crafford during the years of the Revolution continued to live there, but at times he lived a few miles nearer the sea at his brother’s Turkey Creek property where he presumably was overseer while James was in the Waxhaws.

Banester Lester, brother of William Lester, Jr., lived at Smith’s Creek near the County seat. In 1786 James Wrenn(q. v.) witnessed Banester’s sale of land at Halfmoon Swamp. In 1789 Banester bought a slave from Richard Farr (q. v.) Banester died in 1792 and his will named as executor Maj. Robert W. Snead. A witness was Burrell Dixon. These surnames appear often in records mentioning the Crafford brothers. Banester by his wife Mary Pound, who did not survive her husband, left a son by the same name and three daughters.

Banester Lester, Jr., married 4 July 1800 Elizabeth Wood, daughter of Jesse Wood and widow of Valentine Johnston a son of Col. Thomas Johnston1, the latter sheriff of Onslow County. By her first husband Elizabeth had Mary and Thomas who were brought up in the Lester family. Both were named as heirs in their stepfather’s will, made in 1826. The stepfather, Banester Lester, Jr., died by 1828 when the will was probated. When his widow died between 1835 and 1840 she named in her will her grandchildren, Andrew J. Johnston and William H. Johnston, as well as her daughter Polly (Johnston) Henly, or Henby. Her only son, Thomas Johnston had died before his mother. There were no surviving children by the Lester marriage. Andrew J. Johnston, born about 1825 (census, 1850), married 11 February 1866 Jane Ward. His name appears frequently in marriage records between 1859 and 1867 when, as witness, he signed some 150 marriage bonds.

NUTT—Nathaniel Nutt was living before 1754 with his wife Bethany Williams on the Stephen Dampear grant, west side of the northwest branch of New River. Bethany’s brother, William Williams, Jr., in 1754 had given his sister 160 acres in the same locality, originally part of the Samuel Johnston, Esq., grant of 1745. Andrew and William Nutt, perhaps sons of Nathaniel and Bethany (supporting evidence is lacking), in 1751 like James Crafford petitioned for land warrants in Anson County. The name William Nutt next appears in the New Hanover County census records, 1790. Only Andrew’s name is found in the intervening years. Andrew Nutt, like James Crafford, took up land in Anson County. According to deed book 6, No. 366, Register of Deeds, Mecklenburg County, Andrew Nutt brought from William King part of the latter’s original grant for 640 acres in 1763, located on the south side of Waxhaw Creek. This was about the time that James Crafford settled in the Waxhaws. Andrew Nutt and his wife Margaret sold their Waxhaw Creek land, or part of it, to John and Agnes Barkley, parents of Mary Barkley Cousar, 13 August 1770. The Cousar-Barkley names will be familiar to those acquainted with the Walkup testimony collected in 1858 to throw light on Andrew Jackson’s early years in the Waxhaws. These few facts tend to show that the Nutt (Knott) family of the Waxhaws, living a mile or so south of the Crafford homesite, were New River people.

OVERTON—Judge John Overton and his brother Thomas were both men of importance in early Tennessee. The Judge and Jackson were warm personal friends. John Overton, according to biographers, was born in Louisa Co., Va. in 1766. No suggestion has been found that the Overton brothers may have lived once at New River; but before Jackson had been admitted to the practice of law one John Overton of Cumberland Co., N. C. (Onslow deed O 20, 3 December 1785) sold 160 acres on the east side of New River. This was in the general area where the Crafford brothers had lived at mid-century. This could not have been the Tennessee Judge. He was apparently a son of one John Overton of Onslow County who made his will 20 March 1737/38, probated 4 July 1739 and devised to a son John, to five other sons, to six daughters, and to his wife Elizabeth. This younger John was probably the John of Cumberland County in 1785 who had owned land on the east side of New River. Neither, probably, was the John Overton of Tennessee. The coincidence in names is mentioned here because William Crafford of New River witnessed the will of the elder John Overton of New River, and signed the will as clerk of the court, affixing a coat of arms on the seal (Grimes: Wills, p. 275). It is quite possible that the Virginia and Onslow Overtons were related and that Jackson owed to his Crafford connections his initial acquaintance with the John Overton who became his friend. It is clear that the Craffords of that early date considered their family armigerous. This is perhaps the evidence that Bassett sought (Bassett, John Spencer: Correspondence of Andrew Jackson. 1926. Preface, p. vii) when he wrote: “It is hard to find anything in Jackson’s inheritance which accounts for . . . (his) pretension of superiority . .

POLLOCK OF ONSLOW—Dr. W. A. J. Pollock, called a distinguished physician of Lenoir County (Powell, William S.: Story of Lenoir County and Kinston, N. C., 1963) operated the Pollock Hotel at Kinston about the middle of the last century. Dr. Pollock seems to have been the William A. J. Pollock who earlier owned Cedar Point Plantation at New River, a mile below the Crafford properties at Traps Creek. If he was named for Andrew Jackson he must have been born about 1815 when the General became a national figure. Possibly he was older, for as early as 1836 he had become a large property owner. Circumstances support the apparent connection between his given name and the fact that he lived close to the Crafford lands.

William A. J. Pollock apparently was not related to the Pollocks of the adjoining county, Jones, where George Pollock of Ravenwood and others, by that surname early in the last century acquired extensive properties on the Trent River. These nearby Pollocks were descendants of Thomas Pollock, Governor of North Carolina. George Pollock of the Ravenwood plantation was a cousin of Aaron Burr, Jr.

Descent of the Onslow County Pollocks has been traced only from John Pollock, who was at Stones Bay on New River as early as 1751. He died by 1778 and his properties on Stones Bay a few miles upstream from the Crafford properties on the opposite side of the river were inherited by John and William, brothers, who died before 1815, leaving (among other children) John and Lewis who had John B. Pollock, Hanson M., George W., John, and William A. J. Pollock, all born between the turn of the century and, in the case of William A. J. Pollock, about 1815. Hanson M. Pollock bought the Sneads Ferry lands and Cedar Point plantation about 1825. Between these large tracts was the Traps Creek area and what had been the Crafford properties. Hanson in 1839 sold Cedar Point to William A. J. Pollock and the Sneads Ferry lands to John B. Pollock. John Pollock, father of Hanson M. and William A. J. Pollock, married in 1795 Serena Wood. John Pollock died and the widow remarried by 1837 when Serena Cox of Sampson County (Onslow deed book 22-142, 1837) sold certain lands at New River in which she had an interest “except the plantation known as The Snead Place adjoining Gov. Dudley’s plantation.”

POLLOCK OF PHILADELPHIA—George Pollock of Trent River (q. v.) engaged, in many real estate operations involving tracts close to those of David Allison (q. v.) in Jones County. Most of this activity was in the two decades following 1793. It has been supposed that he was the George Pollock who helped finance Aaron Burr’s venture in Louisiana.2 Actually there were three Pollocks with sufficient financial resources to have helped finance Burr’s large-scale venture. They were: Burr’s North Carolina cousin, George Pollock of Trent River; Oliver Pollock, originally of Carlisle, Pa., a patriot in the Revolution, well known in history as U. S. commercial agent at Havana and New Orleans; and George Pollock,3 b. 1762, d. 1820, a New York merchant (junior member of the firm Yates & Pollock), later of Philadelphia and New Orleans. All were probably born in Ireland, and all came to America in the two decades before the Revolution. No evidence seems to have been found that they were of common ancestry in Ireland. Among the many Pollock items in Jones County records (Gwynn: Jones County records. 1963.) are: George Pollock of Philadelphia, Pa. sold to Strong one-quarter acre near Trent Bridge ; George Pollock sold to Griffin one quarter acre adjoining Mr. S—(252-1806); John Strong, Sr., of Connecticut one-half acre on the west side of Mill Creek (255, 1806); George Pollock of Philadelphia, Pa. sold to . . . Foy, one-half acre near Trent Bridge (14-230, 1816). These few items identifying George Pollock as of Philadelphia suggest that many items supposedly involving George Pollock of Trent River may actually be conveyances by the Philadelphia merchant. They may have been part of routine commercial transactions. In any case, they were transactions close to New River where we now know there were families connected with New River families in the Waxhaws. It is quite possible that Andrew Jackson as a young man established his early connections with Aaron Burr through this chain.

WILKINS—John and William Wilkins were in Onslow County by 1745 when John was recorded as holding land at Traps (Glovers, Craffords) Creek formerly owned by a Crafford. This land was, of course, part of the original tract at Glovers Creek held by William Crafford, first of the clerks of the court at Onslow.

This William Wilkins, possibly a brother of John (or perhaps of the previous generation in the same family) was called “of Halifax, N. C.” in 1760. It is clear that both came from the Halifax area to Bertie (Bertie deed C 98, 1729, by which James Rutland bought land between Ahoskie and Sandy Run, with Robert Wilkins, Henry Rhodes and William Crafford as witnesses). Rhodes must have been the grandfather of Col. Henry Rhodes, prominent in Onslow County at the time of the Revolution; and William Crafford doubtless was the grandfather of William Crafford, clerk of the court at Onslow. William Wilkins is last mentioned in Onslow County in 1762.

The John Wilkins first mentioned, brother (?) of William of Halifax, in 1748 bought 325 acres at Traps Creek from the Crafford brothers, James and John. Later, Wilkins was called an innkeeper, and he had an interest in the “lower ferry,” later known as Snead’s Ferry. John Wilkins continued to buy and sell land in Onslow County until 1768. Some time earlier (probably in 1763 when he bought 9 slaves), he had removed to Clarks Creek in the Peedee River Valley, perhaps a day’s ride from the Waxhaws, where by 1774 he had acquired 900 acres by grant. Later, he returned to New River, and had died there by 1778 when his son, John Wilkins, Jr., was mentioned as having inherited land at Clarks Creek from his father (Onslow deeds N 15-17; N 24). The son was called “ferry-keeper” in 1779. In 1778 he had sold his father’s land in Anson County. The son also sold, in 1792, “Burrington’s Gift” on the west side of New River near the mouth, and about that time his name was mentioned with Samuel Clegg and John Yopp, both neighbors of the Crafford brothers when they were living at Turkey Creek toward the end of their lives.

A John Wilkins of the next generation married about 1820 Martha, and had, among his younger children, Jackson Wilkins, born about 1840 (census, 1850).

1Col. Johnston was b. 1735-C. He made his will in 1801 and it was probated in 1805. He was a major in the militia at the beginning of the Revolution and sheriff of Onslow 1775-1791. A son, Thomas Johnston, Jr., d. by 1801, was register of the county in 1789. The Colonel’s parents seem to have been Thomas Johnston and his wife Ann, both appearing in early records of Bertie Co., and later at New River. This Thomas of Bertie and Onslow apparently was related to Samuel Johnston, surveyor general of the Province and brother of Gov. Gabriel Jobnston. In 1741 the Governor conveyed by deed (Onslow deed C-7) to Thomas Johnston, then of Onslow, 430 acres adjoining one Glover, perhaps the Indian trader Charlesworth Glover (q.v.) named in early South Carolina records.

2 George Pollock, son of Thomas Pollock and Eunice Edwards, was an intimate friend of Aaron Burr, his first cousin. He lived in Philadelphia at 172 Chestnut Street near 6th from 1800 to 1806 Burr was his guest in Philadelphia (Historical Register.. . Interior Pa.: Hayden, Rev. Horace Edwin: Pollock Family of Pennsylvania. Vol. i, p. 48. 1883). The Blennerhassett papers, on which the above seems to have been based, mentions financial aid to Burr by one Pollock in 1807 at the time of Burr’s trial at Richmond, Va. It does not identify this Pollock (Safford, Wm. H.: The Blennerhassett Papers. Cincinnati, 1891, p. 370; p. 467). Others since the above was written evidently have assumed that the Pollock of the Richmond trials was Burr’s North Carolina cousin.

3. “George Pollock was the brother of Ann Elizabeth Pollock (Betsey Hartigan, wife of Dr. William Hartigan of Dublin, Ireland). In 1787 he married Catherine, daughter of Richard Yates, his business partner in New York. He was also associated with Oliver Pollock in New York and Philadelphia. In 1802 he moved to New Orleans and took an active part in the organization of the State Government.” (Parks, Lawrence: Gilbert Stuart. N. Y., 1926. Vol. 2, p. 605.) A portrait of George Pollock, and portraits of his wife and family connections, all by Stuart, hang in the National Gallery of Art at Washington, D. C.