"The
Malungeons"
According to Joanne
This is a work in
progress, it will be added to changed, corrected etc., as I find more
information....... I welcome all comments and will be glad to answer
any questions or provide a source if possible.
From my research I hope
to be able to show that the Malungeons were in fact Portuguese
Adventurers who intermixed with the local Indians in the
Carolinas, I believe I can.
These families were reported along the Pee Dee
River as early as 1725, they may have joined Christian
Priber's 'Paradice', his Utiopa in the Cherokee Indian Town. They
were likely ejected after his arrest in 1743 when Chief
Attacullaculla signed an agreement in
Charleston to trade only with the British, return runaway slaves
and expel Non-English whites from their territory, in return they
received guns, ammunition, and red paint .[*]
From
court records found in North Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, Indiana,
Missouri, Illinois these families from the Pee Dee declared they were
Portuguese and in most cases they succeeded. The Ivey, Halls,
Chavis, Shoemake, Bolton, Perkins, Goins, Collins, Nickens,
Dungee, and others have all been identified as Portuguese
in courts, county histories, etc.
In 1848
a journalist from Louisville, Kentucky visited Newman's Ridge where he
stayed at the Vardy Inn and wrote the 'legend of
their history' -- and it would appear that Vardy Collins and/or his
wife 'Spanish Peggy Gibson' were the source. Most researchers
assume Vardy was giving the history of his Collins family but it is
likely his ancestors were merely Indians as were many of the
other early settlers on Newman's Ridge. The little Portuguese
community on the border of the Carolinas appears to have started
breaking up around 1800 and many had moved west after the War of
1812. Judge
Lewis Shepherd tells how these people came over the mountains from
South Carolina to Hancock County, Tennessee and spread out from there.
The Lowery of the Lumbee families according to history have Portuguese
ancestors and it is said that Tobias Gibson, son of Jordan is also said
to have had Portuguese ancestry. It seems fairly clear to me that
the Portuguese settlers who intermixed with one tribe, most likely the
Cheraw or Saura, became the 'Lumbee' while just across the line those
same families who intermixed with the other tribes, possibly the
Catawba, Pee Dee, etc., became known as Redbones. As they moved into
Tennessee and intermixed with the Saponi-Occaneechi families of
Gibsons, Collins, etc., they became what was described in 1848 as the
'present race of Melungens.'
“No Indians in Bladen
County”
About the end of July 1754
Governor Dobbs sailed from England and reached Virginia after a voyage
of ten weeks. For more than a month he was engaged in arranging
with Governor Dinwiddie and Governor Sharpe of Maryland the details of
a plan of campaign against the french and he reached New Bern only at
the close of October. Immediately on arriving he proceeded to
make himself acquainted with the affairs of the province, and called
for a militia return. As indicating the extension of population
at that time;
Bertie reported 720 men
for military duty; Northampton 737 men, which was thought to be 200
short; Edgecombe, 1317; Granville 734; Orange 490; Anson, 790, and
Rowan 996. At Wilmington, Governor Dobbs found seventy families and at
Brunswick twenty.
There were sixteen vessels in
the Cape Fear River, while it was estimated that one hundred came in
annually. Eighteen feet of water was reported at the bar.
At Wilmington a good town house had been built and a brick church stood
ready for the roof; while at Brunswick the church, also of brick, was
not quite so far advanced. Forts had been begun below Brunswick
at Oracoke and at Beaufort.
The Indian war being in
progress particular inquiries were made as to the location of Indians
in North Carolina. In Bertie County there were reported a hundred
warriors of the Tuscaroras and two hundred women and children. In
Chowan two men and three women and two children. In Granville
County there were the Saponas with fourteen men and fourteen
women. The Meherrins had seven or eight fighting men in
Northampton.
The report concludes; “ These
are all the Indians except about eight or ten Mattamuskeet Indians and
as many on the island or banks, a total of twenty.” [1]
The reports of the colonel of
Bladen County and of Captain William Davis, who had a troop of light
horse, both said “no Indians” in that county. Colonel Rutherford
of that county, who was also the receiver-general, added this
memorandum; “Drowning
Creek, on the head of Little Peedee, fifty families, a mixed crew,
a lawless people possess the lands without patent or paying quit rents;
shot a surveyor for coming to view vacant lands, being enclosed in
great swamps. Quakers to attend musters or pay as in the northern
counties.”
When this mixed race was
first observed by the early settlers of the upper Cape Fear [2] about
1735, it is said that they spoke English, cultivated land, lived in
substantial houses, and otherwise practised the arts of civilized life,
being in these respects different from any Indians tribe. [3]
A 1725
map by John Herbert shows the Cheraw/Sarah tribe on the Pedee River
not far from Drowning Creek where these settlers were recorded
ten years later. Also in the South Carolina Gazette October 3, 1771 it
was reported that one Winsler Drigger had been captured “near Drowning
Creek in the Charraw settlement.’‘
The above records show that
there were people living in this area as early as 1725 and as late as
1771 identified as Cheraw/Saura Indians yet in 1754 they were called a
‘mixed crew’ and not marked down as Indians? Did the Portuguese
arrive in the twenty years between 1725 and 1754, mixing with this
tribe and living as white people and speaking English?
[1]HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SAMUEL A’COURT ASHE VOL I 1584-1783
1908- REPORTS ON INDIAN INHABITANTS
[2]The Cape Fear River is formed by the confluence of the Haw and Deep
Rivers and the upper Cape Fear was known as the “Sapona” by the
Indians. http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail
[3] HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA SAMUEL A’COURT ASHE VOL I
1584-1783
1908- “Contemporaneous Documents”
THE
PORTUGUESE SETTLERS
Who were these settlers
living on the Pee Dee in this time period who would later be called
Melungeons, Lumbee, Redbones, and identified as Portuguese? Our
first and probably most important case is that of Solomon Bolton.
Solomon was the son of
Spencer Bolton who according to military records was born in 1735 on
the Pee Dee River. Spencer and probably his brother Solomon
Bolton were living in Georgetown, South Carolina [later would become
Marion County] in 1790. In 1794 South Carolina imposed a pole tax
on ‘all free Negroes, Mustee, and Mulatoes,” Spencer and Solomon Bolton
both signed a petition to repeal the act that was ‘so truly
morifiying to your distressed petitioners.”
By 1860 this family had
removed to the Sale Creek area of Hamilton County, Tennessee where they
were known as ‘Malungeons,’ along with the Shoemake, Perkins, Goins,
Mourning, Manley and ‘others.’ The trial which arose when the
granddaughter of Spencer Bolton married into a fairly wealthy
family gave birth to a daughter and died shortly afterwords. Her
daughter, Martha Bolton Carter, would become the center of this case
which was known as the ‘Romantic Melungeon Case.” Evidence
was presented that showed the Bolton had ‘negro blood’ but many of
their neighbors from South Carolina, Marion and Hamilton Counties of
Tennessee testified Solomon Bolton’s family were Portuguese or Spanish.
One of the most convincing
was the Reverend D. D. Scruggs who testified under oath;
Q. If you ever resided in
Spartanburg District, South Carolina, state when and how long you
resided there?
A. I was born there in the year 1806 and lived there until the year
1866, just sixty years.
Q. State
whether or not you were acquainted with a man named Spencer Bolton in
Spartanburg District So. Ca.?
A. I knew him.
Q. State to
what race of people Bolton belonged, and state fully all the facts in
connection with your acquaintance with him and his family?
A. He
belonged to the Spanish race of people I think. I am positive that it
was either Spanish or Portugese. I was Tax Collector in the District at
one time and amongst other things I was required to levy a per capita
tax on all Negroes and I recollect distinctly that it was not levied by
me upon him. He, Bolton was a dark skinned man with very straight hair
and long nosed, thin visaged man-At the time referred to when I was tax
collector, some parties reported to me that Bolton was of mixed blood.
Thereupon I proceeded to investigate the matter by calling in three
citizens living in his neighborhood, among whom were a Mr. Young, Mr.
Miles, and other to assist me in deciding the question; the decision
was in favor of Bolton, to the effect he had no Negro blood in him.
About the same time my attention was also called in an official
capacity to a Mr. Dempsy who claimed to be a Portugese, and the
decision in his case was that he was of mixed blood, but I gave him the
right of appeal but he left the country. Bolton and Dempsey were not in
any way connected.
Another well known case among
Melungeon researchers took place nearly twenty years prior to the
Bolton case in Johnson County, Tennessee and involved the same Perkins
family who’s relatives were called Malungeons in Hamilton County.
In Joshua F. Perkins
vs John R. White testimony showed the family had lived on the Pee Dee
River in Carolina and were also known to be Portuguese. Some of
those who testified;
I knew old Joshua
PERKINS. He was a dark skinned man, darker than Joshua. Tall and spare.
He resembled an Indian more than a negro. Was generally called a
Portugese
I knew George PERKINS. My
father and mother knew the PERKINS in South Carolina and always said
they were Portuguese & the mother a white woman
I knew the great grand
father of plaintiff, old Jock, a dark skinned and complectioned man.
Rather bald, hair bushy and long, not kinky. Races. Associated with
white people. His wife said to be a Scotch woman. He had a long roman
nose. Associated with Richard WHITE, Landon CARTER, and the most
respectable persons. I knew John GRAVES, the great grandfather of
plaintiff on mother’s side. Hair Bushy, not as curly as SMITH’s -or
BUTLER’s. Was a Constable. Sent to SC for certificate.
Old Jock generally called
a Portuguese until they fell out with him. I was constable in his
neighborhood for 11 years. Understood he went into service against the
Indians & his color was thrown up to him.
- Hardy GRAVES aged 64 in Kentucky.
I knew old Jock. He was
always called a Portuguese and said he came from S.C. I knew 3 of his
sons and he had others. Ferry in S.C. Jacob PERKINS in the battle at
Sullivan's Island near Charleston. I saw the discharge of Jock PERKINS.
They were not connected with the African race
aged 70--Lee County Va. I
have seen old Jock, the father of Joshua, who said they came from
Peedee S.C. He was a dark skinned man with slim face, slim nose and
dark colored hair. He was dark skinned as the blackest of the family.
All the PERKINS had white wives and were reputed Portuguese
Other settlers in Marion
County, South Carolina and across the line in Robeson County,
North Carolina would also be identified as Portuguese in other
court records, county histories, and biographies.
HISTORY OF THE
PIONEERS AND INDIANS OF CROW CREEK
Before the Indians were taken
to Indian Territory there was a large number of whites and Indians that
fled to the mountain between Little Crow Creek and Little Coon. They
built Shavis Town, cleared up about 100 or more acres and cultivated
it, putting out an orchard. They raised winesap apples, peaches, corn
and dug ginseng besides hunting for a living.
The older men were very
religious. They were mixed with Portuguese. Willis Shavis named his
four sons after the Apostles, Andrew, John, Peter and Nathaniel. The
had two Preachers, John Pressley and Brother Forsythe, an Indian. They
would preach and convert the young men and girls and bring them down to
Little Crow Creek to Baptize them. They believed rightly they were to
be buried in baptism in water. They knew the Bible. I don't know where
they knew the Bible very few could read or write. [Willis married an
Evans from the Portuguese settlement of Marion County.
Ivey
Trials
14
AUG 1809 Marion Dist. SC: Thomas Hagans refused to pay the tax on "all
free Negros Mulattoes and Mestizos" claiming that he was a white man.
Two white men testified that they were acquainted with Thomas Hagas
grandfather, Thomas Ivey when he had been living on Drowning Creek in
NC. They stated that Ivey was "of Portuguese descent, that his
complexion was swarthy, his hair black and straight - that his wife
Elizabeth was a free white woman, very clear complexion."('Portuguese'
being a term used then to describe persons of mixed Indian-Spanish
blood, much like 'Creole' and "Metis' is used today) They testified
that Thomas Ivey's daughter, Kesiah Ivey married Zachariah Hagans and
they were the parents of Thomas Hagans. The court decided that
Thomas Hagans was “of Portuguese descent” and therefore not subject to
the tax. [Partially reproduced in North Carolina Genealogy Society
Journal, Vol. IX, pp259 and in South Carolina Indians, Indian Traders,
and Other Ethnic Connections: Beginning in 1670, Theresa M. Hicks,
p298-9]
Hall & Caulder –
These families eventually settled in West Plains, Howell County,
Missouri, the 'dark skinned' Collins family with connections to
Bertie County, Clay County, Ky., and Morgan County,
Indiana also settled in the very small town of West Plains,
Missouri.
HALL-- While no connection from Thomas Hall of Maury County, Tennessee
to Burrell Hall of Little Pee Dee in Georgetown, South Carolina can be
made at this point it is reasonable to think that since Thomas and
David Hall traveled to Arkansas and then Missouri with the Caulder
family from Georgetown there was a relationship.
HOWELL COUNTY
GAZETTE
June 16, 1910 West Plains, Missouri
Halls Ostracized
A noted family Barred From White School
An Oklahoma Damage Suit Similar To One Brought By the Halls in
Howell
County in 1891.
Down in Muscogee county, Oklahoma, damage suit for $10,000 for
which the
"Jim Crow" law of that state is responsible, has brought to memory
among the
older settlers of Howell county a suit of similiar nature that stirred
up
considerable strife in this county a number of years ago. The suit in
Oklahoma is brought by more than one hundred persons. They comprise
"the
Halls" made up of a dozen families of the name of Hall, all related.
They are
suing a school board because the directors have refused to permit the
Halls
to take part in a literary society that meet each week at the school
house.
One of the family was met at the door by a director who told him that
he
could not be admitted because he was "part n*****." Then the ostracism
was
declared against the whole colony and they were barred from the white
school.
A similar case came up in the southern part of Howell county in
1891 when
W.H.Hall, on the part of " the Halls" who then resided in the district
brought suit against the school board composed of F.L. McClain, M.H.
Woodrell
and John Bailey to force the director to permit the Hall children to
attend
the white school. All of the Hall children are of very dark complexion,
and
in Howell county the general understanding became current that they
were of
African descent. When the case came up in the Howell county circuit
court a
change of venue was taken to Texas county and the case was tried before
C.C.
Bland, H.D. Green, A.H.Livingstone and Colonel Wm. Monks were attorneys
for
the Halls. A great deal of testimony was introduced at the trial and
over 100
members of the Hall tribe were in court. The testimony showed that the
ancestors of the Halls came from Portugal.
Henderson Hall, the ancestor of the Howell county Halls came to
Missouri from
Tennessee. His father was from North Carolina and the ancestry was
traced
back to Portugal where the original Halls were found to be of a sea
roving
disposition and came to America soon after the discovery of the country
by
Columbus. Henderson Hall came to Howell county before the
war
and married a daughter of Fred Collier, of Howell county. Hall was
looked upon
as a white man by the early settlers. Others of the family later moved
to
this county and they fast increased in numbers. It is a well known fact
that
all of the children have dark complexion and are almost all very tall
and
angular. Several of them who reside in Oklahoma are Baptist preachers.
The
Oklahoma Halls are principally from Howell county, but some of them
came from
Tennessee and are related to those who emigrated from here to Oklahoma.
Jim
Hall, a nephew of Henderson Hall, resides in West Plains. Jeff
Hall, another
nephew, makes his home in the southwestern part of the county. They
have many
descendants scattered throughout the southwestern part of the county.
Ever
since they won the suit tried in Texas county there has been no
question here
about their nationality and they are looked upon as whites of
Portuguese
descent.
MAURY COUNTY, TN - COURT - Thomas Hall, Proof of Race Affidavits
Contributor's Notes: I would like to share these two Tennessee documents.
Document number one is a Proof of Race affidavit document acquired by my Great
Great Grandfather Thomas Hall, on September 19, 1835, in Maury County,
Tennessee when he appeared before Justice of the Peace, James L. Crawford.
The second document seems to be a certification by William E. Erwin, Clerk of
the Court of Pleas and quarter session for Maury County, that James L.
Crawford had full authority to issue the Proof of Race document. This
document was dated October 13, 1835.
On June 26, 1843, these documents were filed in Marion County at Yelleville,
Arkansas.
In 1850 he moved to Oregon County, Missouri and they were recorded there and
filed on February 13, 1850, by J. R. Woodside, Clerk of that county. The
documents were recorded again in Howell County, Missouri on May 5, 1890. at
9: o'clock A.M. by T.B. Carmical, Recorder.
This was recorded after Thomas Hall's death on December 30, in 1888, in
Howell County, Missouri. This was filed after his death because his
children's children were expelled from school because they were dark and
caused of being Negroes. There were several trials in Missouri and Oklahoma.
The trials proved that they were of Portuguese descent and not Negroes.
THOMAS HALL
1835 Proof of Race affidavits from MAURY County, Tennessee
Recorded in Oregon County, Missouri 1850
Recorded in Howell County, Missouri 1890
Typed exactly as written: State of Tennessee Maury County this day person-
ally appeared before me James L Crawford one of the Justice of the peace in
and for said County THOMAS HALL and maid parob?? testomony that the said
THOMAS HALL is entitled to all of the privileges of a free citizen THOMAS
HALL great grand father on his father side was portage an his great grand father
on his mothers side was an englishman and THOMAS HALL grand father on his
fathers side was of the portagee desent and his grand father on Mothers side
was an irishman and his own father was of the portugee decent and his mother
was a white american woman sworn to and subscribed before me this the 19 day
of September 1835.
James L. Crawford J.P. his
PRESCOTT X REPRUM
mark
his
LONEY X HALLS
mark
========================================= State of Tennessee Murry County
I William E. Erwin Clerk of the Court of please and quarter sessions for
said County do hereby certify that James L Crawford is an acting justice of
the peace in and for said County of Murry in the State of Tennessee duly
commission and qualified according to law and that all his official acts are
intitled to full faith and credit given under my hand and the seal of my
office at office this 13 day of October 1835 and 60 th year of American
Independence
Wm E Erwin clk.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Filed February 13, 1850 J. R. Woodside Typed exactly as written:
State of Tennessee Maury County this day personally appeared before me James
L: Crawford one of the Justices of the peace in and for said county THOMAS
HALL and made proff by private testomony that the said THOMAS HALL is intitled
to all of the privileges of a private citizen THOMAS HALL great grand father
on his fathers sid was a poutagee and his great grand father on his mothers
sid was a inglish= man, and THOMAS HALL grand on his fathers sid was of the
poutagee desent, and his grand father on Mothers sid was an Irishman and his
own father was of the poutugee decent and his mother was a white american
born woman. sworn to and executed before me this the 19th dayof september
1835.
James L. Crawford J.P. his
PRESCOTT X NUPANS (seal)
mark
his
LONNEY X HALLS (seal)
mark
====================================== State of Tennessee, Maury County.
I. William E Erwin Clerk of the Court of Pleas and quarter session for said
County do here by certify that James L. Crawford is an acting Justice of the
peace in & for said County of Maury in the state of Tennessee duly
Commissioned Commissioned and qualified occor-ding to law and that all his
official acts are entitled to full faith and credit.
Given under my hand and the seal of my office at office this 13th day of
October A.D. 1835. and 60th year of American Independence.
Wm E. Erwin clk. (seal).
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CAULDER-- Moses Caulder appears on the 1794
petition regarding the 'free people of color' -- this family is
referred to as 'African American' and 'free black' in the book by Billy
Higgins that deals with these two families but all indications are they
were part of this Portuguese settlement on the Pee Dee.
Tobias
Gibson
LETTER FROM REV. J. G.
JONES TO McKINLEY
GIBSON, ESQ.
Port Gibson, Miss., May 17, 1878
There
were three branches of the Gibson connexion which settled in
Mississippi at an early day: The parents of Rev. Randall Gibson near
Natchez about where the old town of Washington now stands; the family
of Samuel Gibson - the founder of the Town of Port Gibson, in this
vicinity; and that of Rev. Tobias Gibson in what is now Warren county
in the vicinity of Warrenrtown. So far as I know these families all
came from the valley of the Great Pee Dee river in South Carolina. Some time in the sixteenth century
three ship loads of Portuguese Hugenots voluntarily exiled
themselves from Portugal rather than renounce their Protestant faith,
and settled in South Carolina, then the Colony of Carolina, in
the very region of county where our Gibsons are first found, and, from
their elevated intellectuality, morality, religion and enterprise, I
have long believed that they were the descendants of those refugee
Huguenots, though I do not remember ever to have heard but one of the
connexion refer to this as a tradition of the family. I wish we now had
the means of demonstrating this theory.
Here on Newman’s Ridge
is where these dark skinned Portuguese who had intermixed with the
Cheraw Indians along the Pee Dee would meet up with the Saponi Indian
families of Gibson, Bunch, Collins, etc., of Virginia to form what was
called in 1848 ‘the present race of Malungeons’ Later settling
throughout the country in small settlements.
MALUNGEON TOWN
Judge Lewis Shepherd, who has made a close study of the
Melungeons, extending over a period of years, says that in a case of
law in which he represented a Melungeon girl the question arose as to
whether the Melungeons had negro blood in their veins. He said:
"A colony of these Moors crossed the Atlantic before the Revolutionary
War and settled on the coast of South Carolina. They multiplied rapidly
and by this industry and energy they accumulated considerable property.
The South Carolina people, however, would not receive them on terms of
equality. They refused to recognize them specially and would not allow
the children to go to school with them.
"In
fact they believed they were free negroes and treated them as such. By
the laws of South Carolina a per capita tax was levied against free
negroes and the tax
authorities continuously harassed them by efforts to collect the
tax. Under this rigid proscription of the proud people of South
Carolina their condition became intolerable and so they migrated in a
body and
settled after a long and wandering journey through the wilderness in Hancock
County, Tennessee."
Kingsport Times-
1923
LEBANON, WILSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE
When Will Allen Dromgoole
published her first two articles on the Melungeons in 1890 a series of
Letters to the Editor appeared. Two of them stand out as they
appear to be written by two very credible gentlemen who resided at
Lebanon, Wilson County, Tennessee in 1850.
In the AMERICAN of Sept. 15, 1890 Dan W.
Baird wrote of the Malungeons, in part, as follows:
"Several families are still
to be found in Smith, Wilson, Rutherford, and Davidson Counties. There
is nothing in their family names to give the student of ethnology a
clue to their origin.
In a
locality in Wilson County known forty years ago as 'Malungeon Town', the most common names were
Richardson, Nickens, and Collins. In Rutherford County not far from
Lavergne, the principal Malungeons were Archers, Lanterns, and
Blackmans. One of the latter family has sold fish in the north end of
the market house in this city (Nashville) for many years, and some of
the same family reside a few miles out on the Nolensville Turnpike. "A
pretty fair speciman of the Malungeon tribe is a young fellow named
Bernice Richardson, now serving a life sentence in the state prison for
self-confessed complicity in the murder of M.T. Bennet of Lebanon.
From Saundra Keyes Ivey;
''Baird expresses surprise
that writers of recent article on the Melungeons had not 'referred to
the state records or called on any of the many old citizens still
living who are familiar with all that is known of the history of the
people called Malungeons......
........... And it is
then that Baird writes of the Sevier letter and cites the speech of
McKinney. He goes on to write; "All they seem to know of themselves is
that they are 'Malungeons' and of Portuguese descent. These
two points have been agreed upon for more than three-fourths of a
century, and it
appears that any one who undertakes to investigate the matter will be
forced to accept them as established facts. "
Dan Baird was founder of
the SOUTHERN
LUMBERMAN in 1881 in
Lebanon, Tennessee and later moved to Nashville, in connection
with publishing the magazine.
In a later exchange
written by R. M. Ewing to the Editor;
DAILY AMERICAN Sept 21, 1890
p. 4.
R. M. Ewing, wrote that when
he attended law school at Lebanon Tennessee, in 1851:
" there was a colony
of people residing within a few miles of Lebanon who were
locally, and so far as I know generally, called Malungeons. They seemed to be a hard working,
harmless, inoffensive people, a dark red or copper color, and jet
black, straight hair... these
people claimed to be of Portuguese descent.
The 1850 census
shows R. M. Ewing in the Ninth Civil District of Williamson
County, Tennessee -- Student at Law. The Cumberland
University School of Law
was located in Lebanon, Tennessee.
[More about Daniel Baird and Randall M. Ewing and their connections to
the Tennessee Historical Society will be added soon.]
In 1830 Wilson County
census James and Permelia Nickens, John Brown, George and
Elisha Collins, Gideon Goins, Jacob and Hezekiah Archy or
Achy family appear as Free Colored Persons. Shadrack
Goins and members of the Gibson family are also residing in Wilson
County but their families are listed as white.
If there had been no Nickens
or Collins in Wilson County we might assume Baird made this up but
Baird AND Ewing both have the same story -- 1850, Lebanon, Tennessee,
called Malungeons, said they were Portuguese. And the 'mulatto'
Nickens, Goins and Collins family are living there.
From Paul Heinegg;
William Nickens , born say
1750, died in Wilson County, Tennessee, in 1820 leaving ten children
[Wilson County Quarterly Court Minutes 1830, 34]. In 1833 his sons
Marcus, Andrew and Calvin presented a petition to the General Assembly
of Tennessee stating that their parents were from Portugal, had settled
in the United States many years since and that "their colour is rather
of the mixed blood by appearance." They asked to have the same rights
as other citizens of the state. One
supporting statement said that their grandfather was from Portugal and
another that their father bore the name "of a desent of the Portagee" [Tennessee Legislative Petition
77-1831]. In the 1880 census two of their siblings listed North
Carolina as the place of birth of their parents.
This is also backed up by this passage;
Page 30 MELUNGEONS YESTERDAY AND TODAY
Jean Patterson Bible
"In neighboring Wilson County, county historian, R. D. Lawlor, writes
that late in the nineteenth century a lumberman in Vine, a small
village in the county, needed help in cutting some timber so contacted people in Hancock
County asking for labor. About forty Melungeon families came to
Wilson County at the time to assist in the timber cutting and stayed
until about 1870, when several returned to Hancock County. Others
remained and among their descendants was a young man named Carl Trent,
who attended Cumberland University at Lebanon, the Wilson County seat,
and played on the University basketball team in 1950.''
To be continued.............................