| Notes |
- William Stewart was born about 1711 as the youngest son of Alexander Stewart, 4th of Ledcreich, and the youngest brother of Patrick Stewart, 5th of Ledcreich. No record of his birth has been found in the Balquhidder old parish register. The parish register is not complete for this era, so the lack of record is neither a surprise nor a concern. William's birth is estimated to have taken place about 1711, based on the recorded dates of birth of several of his siblings.
Early Life
William Stewart grew up on the family estate of Ledcreich on the north shore of Loch Voil in Balquhidder parish, Perthshire, Scotland. Little else is known of his early years other than that his father died in 1731 when William was about 20-years-old. At this time, William's eldest brother, Patrick Stewart, inherited the family estate of Ledcreich. As the youngest brother in the family, William would likely have worked on the family estate. William's brother Patrick became disillusioned with the state of political affairs in Scotland as secret talks were occurring around him about the possibility of a second Jacobite Rising. In 1739, Patrick Stewart sold the family estate of Ledcreich and, along with William Stewart, and several families from Argyll, emigrated to Bladen County, North Carolina, USA. Contrary to the claims of some genealogies, there is no record of William having married or having children prior to emigration.
First Marriage and Family
William has not been found in any written records during the 1740s. It seems most likely that he was residing on his older brother Patrick's lands during this period and was perhaps saving up money to purchase his own lands.
About 1745, when William would have been in his early 30s, he married in North Carolina to Catherine Colvin, who is believed to have belonged to one of the Argyllshire families who also immigrated in 1739. They may have met onboard the ship while crossing the Atlantic. They had two children before Catherine died. No record has been found of the registration of their marriage or the births of their children.
Land Ownership
William next enters the written record on 29 Sep 1750 in Duplin County, North Carolina, USA, in a land deed for 100 acres on the East Side of Six Runs Creek. (Where it crosses present-day Hwy. 421 in Sampson County, North Carolina, USA.)
Four years later, on 2 March 1754, William Stewart got a patent to 90 acres of land on Clear Run, "above Doctor Green's land," in Duplin [later in Sampson] County. (Edson, George, Stewart Clan Magazine, 1957)
On 11 Jan 1760, William is named in the sale of 100 acres on the east side of Six Runs Creek to Bird Lanier. These are the same lands he purchased a decade earlier in 1750.
Erroneous claims that William Stewart was married in Scotland and immigrated in 1754
William did not immigrate in 1754
In 1957, George Edson, editor of Stewart Clan Magazine, having access to fewer records than we have access to today, made the following erroneous comment in a footnote:
"It is remarkable that William's name did not appear earlier than 1754 (sic) in the land records -- fifteen years after his arrival. Patrick Stewart's own account, however, dated Jan. 18, 1763, named William as his brother but it did not say that William came with him."
This comment has caused confusion for researchers who have mistakenly interpreted it to mean that William did not arrive until 1754. Edson did not say that William didn't arrive until 1754. He simply felt it was noteworthy that no land ownership records had been found for William earlier than 1754. We now know Edson to have been mistaken, as we have since discovered a land record for William in 1750 (noted above).
Edson also mentions that Patrick Stewart's account in 1763 does not state that William came with Patrick. This too has led researchers to mistakenly conclude that William immigrated later than 1739. But Edson was mistaken. Patrick explicitly stated that William was in the Argyll company who arrived in 1739:
“January 18th, 1763. “1st. Patrick Stewart, of Ledcreich, in the Balghinder [Balquhidder], ...and William Stewart, brother-german to the said Patrick, came in company with six Argyllshire gentlemen and above three hundred common people from Scotland to Cape Fear in North Carolina the year 1739."
William did not marry Catherine Colvin in Scotland
In 1763, William's older brother, Patrick, dictated a detailed family tree to his son Charles, later added to by subsequent generations, in which William is described as:
"William Stewart, the younger brother of Patrick Stewart, came from Scotland with him a young, single man, and lived with Patrick until he married a Miss Calvin (sic, Colvin), by whom he had two children, Patrick and Margaret."
The preceding account is contradicted by Stewart Clan Magazine in 1957 in which William is mistakenly identified a widower at the time of immigration:
"William Stewart was born about 1711 in Balquhidder parish, Perthshire, Scotland. MEMOIRS OF MISSISSIPPI stated that he married (1) in Scotland a Miss Colvin, who died, and he, "a widower with several children," came to North Carolina in 1739 in company of his elder brother Patrick and [others]." (see below for full reference)
There is a memorial stone at South River Presbyterian Church in Bladen County, North Carolina, USA, which reads: "Catherine Colvin, first wife of William Stewart, and their two children are buried here. c. 1790. Erected 1995, by trustees of South River Presbyterian Church." As Catherine Colvin died in North Carolina then she could not have died in Scotland and William could not have been her widower when he immigrated in 1739.
As William's brother's own contemporary account from 1763 is likely to be more reliable then Stewart Clan Magazine from two centuries later, we follow the 1763 account that William married Catherine Colvin in North Carolina after immigration and that their children were born in North Carolina, contrary to Stewart Clan Magazine's claim that they were born in Balquhidder, Perthshire, Scotland.
William's Second Family
Sometime before 1760, William married secondly to widow Jannett Williamson (nee McDougal). She had children from her first marriage.
William and Jannett had eight children together. William was well into his sixties when his later children were born. He died sometime after 1779 when his youngest daughter, Helen, may have been as young as eight years old, leaving his wife, Jannett twice widowed with a household of children to raise.
Plantation Owner and Slave Owner
William Stewart prospered in the New World. Like his brother, he owned several plantations and mills in North Carolina and was also a slave owner. In his will he lists his slaves by name.
Death
We have no record of William's death. On 22 Aug 1778, in Bladen County, North Carolina, USA, William signed and dated his last will and testament, in which he refers to himself as residing on his estate in Bladen County, believed to be called Bonniesfield (the name is difficult to read in the will). We have no record of when his will was probated. On 23 Oct 1779 William signed a petition in Bladen County opposing a petition submitted by inhabitants of New Hanover, Duplin, and Bladen Counties to form a new county. So he was still alive at that time.
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The Carolina Regulators, by Josh Stewart:
"In colonial North and South Carolina, during the period of 1765-1771, the Regulator Movement was created which consisted of two groups of Regulators.
The North Carolina Regulators were founded by poor planters in Appalachia, and Quakers from Pennsylvania, both having experienced oppression from English rule, largely based on tax corruption.
The South Carolina Regulators were large plantation owners, that formed their own group of Regulators for the protection of their property from raids, because the state wasn't doing enough to protect their property.
These two groups fused in some areas, Bladen County being one area where this happened, due to it being connected to South Carolina by the Pee Dee River.
It's interesting that one of these groups waw formed by the oppressed, and the other was formed by oppressors, but both found common ground in their disenchantment with English rule: the poor farmers being over-taxed by corrupt officials and the wealthy plantation owners that were frustrated with the the Crown for not providing protection to their property.
Even though William Stewart was based in North Carolina, he was very close to South Carolina and had ties there as well. William's son, Patrick Stuart, and William's brother's son-in-law, James Stewart, were involved together as Regulators in the early 1770s but sometime during the Revolutionary War (1775-1783), Patrick had a falling out with the Regulators (perhaps over loyalty to the Crown), as South Carolina Regulators were largely in support of English rule, they just wanted the Crown to protect their property.
As the Revolutionary War progressed, the North Carolina Regulators became Patriots in support of the Revolution. This did not occur with the Regulators in South Carolina and the large plantation owners.
The Ledcreich Stewarts are one historical example of how families can be torn apart by war, and the traditional vs. revolutionary competing ideologies of that time period."
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Stewart Clan Magazine in 1936, says:
"William Stewart, born about 1691 (sic, this would make him older than his oldest brother) in Balquhidder, Perthshire, younger brother of Patrick, laird of Ledcreich, married (1) Jean McDougal. In 1730 [sic, 1739] he, a widower with several children, came from Scotland with his brother Patrick in a company of over 300 immigrants to North Carolina and settled in Bladen county on the Cape Fear river. William located near Raleigh, Wake County. He married (2) widow Janet Williamson. Children: Patrick; Duncan: m. Penelope Jones: went to Tennessee; Charles: twin of Duncan; Thomas (sic, Thomas appears to be spurious. His father appears to be Dugald Stewart); James; Elizabeth: m. Lovich Ventress of Tennessee; Janet: m. Capt. John Stewart, half-pay British officer." (Edson, George, Stewart Clan Magazine, Tome C, August 1936, vol. xiv, no. 2, p.189.)
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Stewart Clan Magazine later updated this entry in 1957:
"William Stewart was born about 1711 in Balquhidder parish, Perthshire, Scotland. MEMOIRS OF MISSISSIPPI stated that he married (1) in Scotland a Miss Colvin, who died, and he, "a widower with several children," came to North Carolina in 1739 in company of his elder brother Patrick and six gentlemen from Argyleshire and some 300 common people, and located near Raleigh.
"Patrick Stuart, one of the elder sons of William, was a Tory during the Revolution and was a captain in the British army. He spelled his named Stuart.
"Duncan, James and Charles were the other sons of William by his first marriage." (sic)
"This account does not jibe with another account, which said that William was unmarried when he came over. Apparently he married a widow, Janet ______, said to have been a McDougal (who first married a Williamson), with children by a former husband, "and by her he had eight children."+++ The deed records show that William Stewart got a patent Mar. 2, 1754, to 90 acres of land on Clear run, "above Doctor Green's land," in Duplin [later in Sampson] County.
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[Footnotes]
* This information about Margaret came from the pen of her son, James Carraway, who post-scripted it to the genealogy which had been arranged by his grandfather, Patrick Stewart.
+ AMERICANS OF GENTLE BIRTH stated that Patrick and Elizabeth (Menzies) Stewart had a son named John, who settled first in North Carolina but moved to Dorchester County, South Carolina, around 1723, =A:173. This is partly fabrication, but it may have said something.
++ The town of Brunswick, now in Brunswick County, was in New Hanover County prior to 1764.
+++ The tradition that William Stewart was twice married, that the wives' names were Colvin, McDougal or Williamson and that his son Patrick was a Tory captain in the Revolution came many years ago from a great-granddaughter of Lovich and Elizabeth (Stewart) Ventress, living in Mississippi.
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[SCM 1957 continues]
"William Stewart " of Duplin County," planter, sold Jan. 11, 1760, to Bird Lanier, for 10 pounds, 100 acres on the east side of the Six Runs in Duplin [Sampson] County, adjoining John Miller. From a deed made in 1799 by William's son Duncan it would seem that William owned a store at Six Runs Bridge. Of Bladen County on Oct. 17, 1768,
"William Stewart, planter, sold to Solomon Johnston for 10 pounds the 90-acre tract on Clear Run "in Duplin County" which he had obtained by patent Mar. 2, 1754. The witnesses to his deed were William Robinson and Mary Williamson. In September, 1770, William Stewart of Bladen County, planter, bought of Daniel Norton for 100 pounds 540 acres of land on the Brown marsh in Bladen County. The witnesses to this deed were Alexander Stewart* and William McNeill.
"William Stewart got a patent Dec. 22, 1770, to 200 acres on the northeast side of South River, on Jumping Run (in Sampson county), and a patent Apr. 18, 1771, to 400 acres on the east side of South River, in the same county, and he possessed these properties at his death.
"On July 10, 1775, William Stewart of Bladen County and wife Janet deeded to William McNeill, also of Bladen County, for 300 pounds, 540 acres on the Brown Marsh which William had bought of Daniel Norton in 1770. The witnesses to this deed were Neill McCoulsbey and David Bailey.
"The Revolutionary war came on, and the Scots in the settlement were bitterly divided. Many of those who had come from Scotland as refugees from the wrath of King George's government for their part in the rising of 1745 in favor of Prince Charles Stuart were worked on by royalist agents, and by the flamboyant appeal of Mrs. Flora McDonald, who had been sent to North Carolina for the purpose, and made to believe that they should take up arms and help suppress the rebellion. It is doubtful if William Stewart had any part in this confusion. He died during the war.
"After his death+ patents were issued in his name to two tracts of land in Bladen County which he had applied for -- 200 acres on Big Colly Swamp at Reedy Marsh, granted Oct. 23, 1782, and 400 acres on the east side of Big Colly Swamp, granted Nov. 7, 1784. He made his will Aug. 22, 1778, with Robert Hendry, Ann Stewart and Elizabeth Stewart for witnesses. He appointed as executors his wife Janet, his son Duncan, and David Bailey.
"He gave to his wife during her lifetime a number of negro slaves and "the plantation whereon I now live" in Bladen County "that is known by the name of Newfield and one of the name of Skippersfield, as also my horses," etc., etc. He bequeathed negroes to each of his sons Duncan, James and Charles and daughters Catherine, Janette, Ann, Helen and Elizabeth; and one shilling sterling to his daughter Margaret Spiler. He gave a negro slave to "my wife's granddaughter Janette Bailey"; a young negro to "my wife's granddaughter Janette White"; and 20 pounds to William Stewart Bailey and 20 pounds to William Stewart Wright. He bequeathed 50 pounds to his grandson Walter Stewart when 21, "if he does not receive any of his father's property." He then divided among his sons Duncan, James and Charles his mills in New Hanover County, his saw-mill and land in Bladen County on the west side of South River, his land on the east side of South River, his two tracts on Colly Swamp, his three tracts on Cypress Creek and his three tracts on Beaverdeam. Children:++
Margaret, c.1744 : m. _______ Spiler or Spiller ("Lawyer")
Patrick : died before his father, leaving a son Walter
--
Catherine : m. _______ Dwangher
Duncan : mb. Oct. 19, 1797, Penelope Jones, Wake County
Janet : m. John Stewart, "half-pay British captain"
Ann : m. James Carraway
James : m. (1) Catherine Nolan, (2) Jane _____, =E:237
Charles : mb. Apr. 11, 1798, Polly Jones, Wake County
Helen : she was otherwise called Elinor
Elizabeth : m. Lovich Ventress, Tennessee : to Mississippi
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[Footnotes]
*This was probably the Alexander Stewart who was captain of a company of thirty men who took part, on the king's side, in the battle of Moore's Creek Bridge in February, 1776, named in the book, FLORA MCDONALD IN AMERICA, 1909. There was also a William Stewart with the Highlanders.
+ William may have survived the war. The date of probate of his will is not known.
++ Some of the names of spouses were supplied by Mrs. D. W. Pipes of New Orleans in 1936."
(Edson, George, Stewart Clan Magazine, Tome G, January 1957, vol. 34, no. 7, pp.181-183)
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The full text of the Last Will and Testament of William Stewart, Esq., 22 Aug 1778
I, William Stewart of Bladen County, being of a sound and perfect understanding and memory, do make this my last will and testament.
I give to my wife during her lifetime the following negroes, viz. Big Will Campbellton, Daisy [name unclear], Phillis. Amelia and Dianna, together with the following plantations, viz. the plantation where I now live that is known by the name of Bonniesfield [name uncertain, difficult to read], the one known by the name of Newfield and one of the name of Skippersfield, as also are my horses, cattle and other stock likewise my plantation tools and household furniture and at her decease the said negroes, lands, and stocks are to be disponed of in the following manner, viz. the negroes, Big Will Campbellton, Phillis, Amelia, and Dian--- [partially illegible] to be equally divided as she my wife shall will and negroes best [illegible], Jannette, [illegible], Elizabeth and Helen, the said lands together with the negro which named Daisy.
I give and bequeath to my son Charles to him and his heirs forever the stock and plantation tools to be divided between my sons Duncan, James, and Charles.
I give and bequeath to my son Duncan the following negroes, viz. - Long Iain [name uncertain, difficult to read], John, Tom, Big Jude, and Sandy to him and his heirs forever.
I give and bequeath to my son James the following negroes, viz. [illegible], Big Sam, Harry, [illegible], and Sally to him and his heirs forever.
I give and bequeath to my son Charles the following negroes, viz. Starting Larry, Little Bill, Diana and Dugald, to his and his heirs forever.
I give and bequeath to my daughter Catherine the following negroes, viz. Ota-- [partially illegible], [illegible], D---nder [partially illegible], Bob, Little Viola, to her and her heirs forever.
I give and bequeath to my daughter Jannette the following negroes, viz. [a line of text is cut off at the bottom of the page] Lois and Neptune, to her and her heirs forever.
I give and bequeath to my daughter Ann, a negro girl named Leroy to her and her heirs forever.
I give and bequeath to my daughter Elizabeth a negro girl named Peg, to her and her heirs forever.
I give and bequeath to my daughter Helen, a negro girl named Little Judy, to her and her heirs forever.
I give to my daughter Margaret Spiller one shilling Sterling.
I give and bequeath to my wifes granddaughter Jannette Bailey, a negro to be raised on or purchased out of the assets of the plantation to her and her heirs forever.
I give to my wifes granddaughter Jannette White a young negro to be raised on or purchased out of the assets of the plantation to her and her heirs forever.
I give to William Stewart Bailey twenty pounds.
I give and bequeath to William Stewart Wright twenty pounds
I give and bequeath to my grandson Walter Stewart if he does not receive any of his fathers property, fifty pounds when he shall arrive at twenty-one years of age. But in case he shall die without lawful heirs of his body the said fifty pounds to return to my sons Duncan, James, and Charles.
I give to my wife during her lifetime one third part of the profits arising from my mills in New Hanover County likewise one third part of the profits of my saw mill in Bladen County, the other two thirds of the profits of said mills I give to my sons, Duncan and James, and at my wifes decease, I give and bequeath to my sons Duncan and James the whole of the mills in New Hanover County together with all the lands I hold on the east side of South River to them and their heirs forever.
I give and bequeath to my son Charles at my wifes decease the whole of the sawmill on the [illegible, an earlier transcription reads west] side of South River together with all the land [illegible] belonging to him and his heirs forever.
I give and bequeath to my sons Duncan, James, and Charles two tracts of land on Colly Swamp, likewise three tracts of land on Cypress Creek and three tracts on Beaver Dam to be divided between their selves as they shall agree.
And I do will and require that if any of my sons shall die without lawful heirs of their body that then in such case their part in the aforementioned lands, negroes or other property shall return to their surviving brothers or children. Likewise, if any of my daughters Catherine, Jannette, Ann, Elizabeth and Helen dying without heirs of their body, their part to return to their surviving sisters excluding my daughter Margaret Spiller.
And I do hereby make void and of no effect former wills, gifts, or promises of any of the above-mentioned land, negroes, tools or other property to any person or persons whatever.
I desire that this may be received by all persons whom it may concern as my last Will and Testament. And I do hereby instruct and appoint Jannett Stewart, my wife, Elizabeth, And Duncan Stewart, my son and David Bailey, Executors of this my last Will and Testament. In witness here of I have hereafter set my hand and affixed my seal. This 22nd day of August 1778.
Signed, sealed published and [illegible] by William Stewart as his last Will and Testament in the presence of Robert Hendry, Ann Stewart, Elizabeth Stewart.
William Stewart, esq.
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Abt 1711 - 1778 (67 years)
