1. ELISHA RHODES (Thomas3, John2, Henry1) was born on Cashie Swamp in Bertie County, North Carolina about 1753. He died in the Indian Woods at Quitsney Swamp near the present community of Quitsna in 1789 when he was about 36 years of age. The son of Thomas Rhodes and Elizabeth Standley, Elisha was raised on land, which his family had worked since it had been granted to Elisha's great grandfather, Henry Rhodes, in 1723. Henry was one of the early settlers of Bertie, migrating with many other families from Nansemond County, Virginia and obtaining a land grant of 640 acres on the north side of Cashie Swamp. Part of this land, as well as lands which were added to it, passed to Henry's son John. When John died in 1771 it was passed to his three oldest sons, Thomas, Henry, and John. Just north of the community of Woodville, Cashie Swamp defined an area surrounding the Cashie River at its source. To the east of the Rhodes' lands was the Lumber Bridge which crossed the Cashie. To the west was Sandy Run Swamp and the Roanoke River. Bordered by Norfleet's Ferry Road which ran to Norfleet's Ferry on the Roanoke the Rhodes' plantation was bounded by the lands of Reuben Norfleet, one of the largest land and slave owners in the county during the last half of the 18th Century.
RELIAs he came of age Elisha was caught up in the turbulence of events in the colonies as war with Great Britain drew near. On the eve of the Revolution, December 28, 1775, army accounts of the North Carolina militia indicate that Elisha Rhodes of Bertie County was reimbursed for five guns and a bayonet and paid for 21 days service as a soldier. When the Fourth Provincial Council of North Carolina composed of delegates opposed to the Royal Government of North Carolina met at Halifax, April 4, 1776 it finalized the military organization of the state. Among those officers appointed was Elisha Rhodes, ensign, in the Edenton District. The full extent of his war service is not known but in June, 1780 army pay roll records list Captain Elisha Rhodes in charge of a company of soldiers in North Carolina.
Toward the end of the war he married and with his wife Mary, whose family name is not known, no doubt lived and worked on his father's land on the Cashie or in the Indian Woods. In addition to his land on Cashie Swamp Thomas Rhodes owned land further south in the Indian Woods near Quitsney Swamp and the road that ran from the town of Windsor to Oliver's Ferry on the Roanoke River, as well as two other tracts of land in this area one described as being in the ponds and the other as being across the river in Martin County in the low land of the Roanoke. The area was known as the Indian Woods because it had been the reservation of the Tuscarora Indians, set aside for them following the Indian wars of 1711-1713. By the 1760s most of the Tuscarora had left for New York to join the Iroquois nation, opening the area to settlement by others in Bertie. Thomas began purchasing land in the Indian Woods in the 1760s. In 1788 and 1789 he sold 400 acres of this land to his son Elisha. The land joined that of his brother William who was also sold land by his father at about the same time.
Elisha and Mary had three children born during the 1780s, Thomas, Margaret, and Jonathan. All were very young at the time of Elisha's untimely death in 1789 before he reached the age of 40. Appointed administrator of his estate Mary filed an inventory of his personal possessions with the court on December 2, 1789. Mary remarried within a year of Elisha's death, taking as her second husband Frederick Lawrence, a widowed planter who also practiced law in the county. Frederick became the administrator of Elisha's estate filing an account of an estate sale in August, 1790. Buyers included Elisha's father Thomas, brother William, brother-in-law Thomas Legett, and uncle David Standley.
On January 11, 1791 the Court ordered the division of the estate of Elisha Rhodes with one-third going to Frederick Lawrence on behalf of the widow, the other two thirds to going to Elisha's three children. But the estate settlement and division of the Negroes in the estate did not take place until January 1, 1801. Frederick Lawrence died in 1823, Mary Rhodes Lawrence in 1825.
Children:
i. Thomas Rhodes was born about 1783 in Bertie County, North Carolina. He was about six years old when his father died in 1789 and his grandfather, Thomas Rhodes, was appointed his guardian as well as guardian to his brother Jonathan Rhodes in May, 1790. In posting bond and security of £2,000 for each of his grandsons Thomas agreed to not charge them for schooling, clothing, or board or anything else. So it would appear that Thomas lived with his grandfather at least until the elder Thomas passed away during the winter of 1795-1796. Thomas was named in his grandfather's will and given a mulatto boy named George. He inherited more Negroes in 1801 when the estate of his father, Elisha, was settled. Following his grandfather's death David Tayloe, Thomas' uncle and husband of his aunt Elizabeth Rhodes Tayloe, was appointed guardian of his brother Jonathan in 1796. But no record of a guardian to replace his grandfather has been found in extant court records for Thomas and it is not known with whom Thomas lived with during the next several years. When his father's estate was finally divided Thomas received a portion of his father's land in the Indian Woods near Quitsney Swamp. His brother Jonathan received a like portion of this land and when he died in 1804 Thomas inherited one third of Jonathan's land. Thomas also purchased the land his sister Margaret inherited from Jonathan from Margaret and her husband John Webb.
RELIBy 1804 at about the time he come of age Thomas had a reasonable amount of land and a homestead in a desirable part of the county. By 1809 his holdings consisted of 250 acres according to the county tax rolls. But for his own reasons he decided to leave Bertie and on March 1, 1809 Thomas sold a 217-acre messuage and tract of land to his cousin Jonathan Rhodes Legett for £1,000. This tract was described in the deed as land butted and bounded as appears in an old deed from the said Thomas Rhodes' grandfather, Thomas Rhodes, to the said Thomas's father, Elisha Rhodes. On the same date he sold an additional 70 acres on the east side of the road to Oliver's Ferry to Edward Outlaw, the father-in-law of his uncle James Rhodes. At about the same time Thomas sold two tracts of land, a total of 325 acres, on Cashoke Swamp. Cashoke Swamp is located on the far eastern side of the county emptying as Cashoke Creek into the Roanoke River at the point where the river flows into Bachelor Bay on Albemarle Sound. Part of the acreage was sold to Reuben Lawrence, son of Frederick Lawrence, and Thomas' step brother. Since these lands were not lands that descended from his family and there is no record of Thomas purchasing the land, it could reasonably be concluded that Thomas was married and these lands came from his wife's family. On March 1, 1809, the same day that he sold his land on Quitsney Swamp at the Roanoke River he granted power of attorney to a family friend, Jonathan Spivey, empowering him to act in all matters regarding his financial and business interests for diverse considerations and good causes, me hereunto moving.
In1807 one Thomas Rhodes was granted 200 acres of land on the north fork of the French Broad River in Buncombe County near the present city of Asheville. In 1808 he received three additional grants, 400 more acres in the same area.
ii. Margaret Rhodes Webb was born about 1785 in Bertie County, North Carolina and died there on Salmon Creek near the crossroads community of Merry Hill in August, 1820 when she was about 35 years old. Raised by her mother Mary Rhodes and stepfather Frederick Lawrence she married John Webb of Salmon Creek in about 1803. The Webbs and Lawrences were neighbors on the Creek. The Salmon Creek Peninsula in southeastern Bertie County is bounded by the Cashie River on the South, Albemarle Sound on the east, and Salmon Creek on the north and contained some of the most fertile and valuable land in North Carolina's eastern coastal plain during the 18th and 19th Centuries. The Rhodes, their allied families, and their descendants maintained a strong presence on the peninsula for over 200 years.
RELIJohn Webb was the son of Thomas Webb and Mary Nicholls whose families had resided on Salmon Creek, often referred to simply as the Creek, as neighbors since the time the county was settled in the early part of the 18th Century. Thomas Webb and Mary Nicholls were married on December 3, 1867. Thomas had purchased 200 acres on Salmon Creek in 1765 and this was probably the site of John Webb's boyhood home. As a member of the Sandy Creek Baptist Church, Thomas ostensibly tried, apparently with little success, to uphold the tenants of his religion. In 1772 he was suspended from the church for drunkenness and misbehavior. A few months later he was received back into the church upon repentance only to be suspended again, received back again, and finally suspended in July, 1773 with no indication that he regained membership in the congregation. He died in 1777 and his widow, Mary, was appointed administrator of his estate by the county court. Their son John was born sometime in the 1770s. His other children, if any, are not known. The Webbs and the Nicholls were closely allied as a result of the marriage of Thomas Webb and Mary Nicholls for over 100 years. The relationship between Mary's brother Jehu Nicholls, her cousin Benajah Nicholls, and her son John Webb and his family was particularly close. The families prospered on adjoining plantations and by the 1830s were well established in the area. An 1833 map of North Carolina identifies the Nicholls plantation on Salmon Creek. The Webb's plantations were known as Webb's Ferry and Merry Hill, the community of Merry Hill having been formed on the site. When her brother Jonathan passed away in 1804 Margaret and her husband John inherited several of his Negro slaves and a portion of the lands which he owned in the Indian Woods. This acreage was small in comparison to the 667 acre plantation John Webb owned on Salmon Creek and it was soon sold to Margaret's brother Thomas. The couple was blessed with seven sons and when Margaret passed away very suddenly in 1820 the oldest was but 15 or 16, the youngest a mere infant. By this time John had prospered and added to his plantation by purchasing several additional tracts of land. The family operated a ferry known as Webb's Ferry on Salmon Creek and also operated one of several fisheries on Albemarle Sound. By the 1830s the fishing industry was coming of age on the sound with huge quantities of shad and herring being seined from its waters.
On December 2, 1830, ten years after Margaret's death, John Webb married Sarah M. Norfleet Wills of Edenton. A widow, Sarah had lost her first husband, James Wills, in 1826. Wills was the editor and publisher of the Edenton Gazette and following his death Sarah edited the paper for about a year. She has the distinction of being the first woman editor of a newspaper in North Carolina and perhaps the first in the United States. John and Sarah had no children. John Webb died on April 27, 1837. A month to the day before his death he sold 150 acres of his land on Salmon Creek known as Webb's Ferry to his sons Thomas and Jonathan. Even after this sale he owned at least 1,250 acres on Salmon Creek at the time of his death. He also owned many slaves. He was also the postmaster of the nearby community of Merry Hill, a post he held for several years. And so John Webb closed out a life as planter, ferryman, fisherman, postmaster, and father of seven sons, all of which survived him, Thomas, Lorenzo, Jonathan, James, Jehu, William, and Lewis. In May following his death his son Thomas was bonded as administrator of his father's estate and his widow Sarah petitioned the court for a year's provisions and allotment.
1. Thomas b: Webb was born on Salmon Creek near Merry Hill, North Carolina in about 1804 and died there in 1848 or 1849. On July 5, 1827 he married his cousin Sarah Sally Frances Nicholls, daughter of Benajah Nicholls, in Bertie County. Benajah was a large land and slave owner and served as Clerk and Master of Equity of the Bertie County Superior Court from 1814-1825. Thomas Webb was a planter who also played an active role in the operation of the family ferry and fishery. Thomas also served as a warden for the poor for the county in 1832 and was active in the Methodist Episcopal Church South in Windsor. In 1845 as one of the trustees of the church he was entrusted with a piece of land given by Humphrey Hardy on which was to be built a house of worship, Hardy being desirous of promoting the cause of religion among the citizens of the county and in particular among those residing near him. His brother Jehu Webb was also a trustee. As the eldest son he was often called upon to act as trustee regarding the affairs of his brothers and others in the community.
RELIIn 1837 Thomas joined his brother Jonathan in purchasing a 150 acre tract of land from their father known as Webb's Ferry. When his uncle Jehu Nicholls died the following year he left Thomas the land which I purchased from John Webb upon which he (Thomas) now resides known as the Merry Hill Place. Thomas was also given Jehu's sound plantation, the sound being Albemarle Sound, to be held in common with his brothers. The gift of this plantation to the Webb brothers came with strings attached as Jehu stipulated I enjoin upon them the care and burden of providing for and supporting the old Negroes Joe and Rose during their lives ...
Jehu Nicholls, like his cousin Benajah, was a successful planter with large land and slave holdings. He died in old age and having no wife and children left the bulk of his estate to his sister Anna and the sons of John and Margaret Webb.
Thomas and Sarah Webb had three known children, Clara, Sarah, and Benajah. Since their children were born between about 1836 and 1845 it is possible that there may have been others who may have not survived childhood. Sarah survived Thomas by many years, living with her children near Merry Hill.
i Clara M. Webb, born about 1836.
ii Sarah Webb, born about 1841.
iii Benajah Webb, born about 1845.
2. Lorenzo Stephenson Webb was born on Salmon Creek near Merry Hill February 19, 1806 and died in Windsor on February 28, 1895 in his 89th year. In a lifetime which spanned almost the entire 19th Century he became one of the most notable citizens of Bertie County. In about 1828 he married Penelope Edward Watson, daughter of Edward Collins Watson and Martha Mason Shehan. Penelope was born in 1809. Her sister Prudence married Lorenzo's cousin, Jonathan Standley Tayloe. Lorenzo moved to Windsor from Salmon Creek at about the time of his marriage. He apparently had little interest in participating with his brothers in the family farming, ferry, and fishing business, electing instead to pursue a life as entrepreneur, merchant, banker, and public servant in the town of Windsor. Active in the affairs of the community in 1829 he became the first postmaster of Windsor and in 1832 was appointed as one of the supervisors to construct the town's new jail completed later that year. His business ventures included a mercantile establishment, a bookstore, and a hotel. In 1829 he and his cousin Elisha A. Rhodes operated a mercantile store under the name L. S. Webb & Company. After Rhodes left the county Lorenzo partnered with George W. Capehart, yet another cousin, in the firm of Webb and Capehart. At some point he owned a book store. A few years later in 1835 he joined George W. Capehart and James L. Bryan in the purchase at a sheriff's sale of Watson's Hotel on Dundee Street between King and Queen. He owned property both in town and in the country, buying and selling a number of town lots over the years. He owned land on Salmon Creek which had belonged to his father and property known as Springfield on the Windsor-Indian Woods road which was left to Penelope by her father.
In about 1838 Lorenzo became Clerk and Master in Equity of the Bertie County Superior Court in which capacity he served for many years, a good part of it during the time his cousin Jonathan Tayloe was Clerk of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions. These positions made them very influential, as well as very powerful, in the county. During the 1850s Lorenzo was the cashier of a branch of the State Bank of North Carolina established at Windsor, working once again with his cousin Jonathan Tayloe who was the bank's president. He held this position at least into the 1860s and continued to find time to assume leadership roles in many other community affairs. For example in 1850 he chaired the organizational meeting of the Bertie Lyceum established to allow the young men of Windsor and vicinity to enjoy the benefit to be derived from a free and frequent interchange of opinion on Moral, Scientific, and Literary subjects, and of acquiring an easy mode of expressing ourselves in public without embarrassment. In 1867 he was county coroner and in 1869 mayor of Windsor.
But despite his recognized achievements as public servant, merchant, banker, and community leader, he was probably best known for his association with St. Thomas Episcopal Church. As Warden he was a member of the first vestry and in 1840 he sold the land at the corner of Queen and Gray Streets to the vestry on which the church was built and stands today. On November 15, 1840, at the consecration of the church he was among the first group to be confirmed. He played an active role in the church continuously until hi s death in 1895. The family home was located at the corner of King and Pitt Streets for many years and was here that several of their children came of age. Lorenzo and Penelope had eight children, four of which died in childhood or as young adults. Penelope Webb died on November 20, 1871 at the age of 62. Both she and Lorenzo are buried in the churchyard of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Windsor.
i. Margaret Webb was born about 1829 and died at Windsor June 9, 1854. Never married.
ii. John Webb was born at Windsor August 7, 1831 and died January 14,1863.
iii. Edward Webb was born at Windsor about 1834 and died after 1864.
iv. Elizabeth Lizzie' Webb Askew was born about 1837 in Windsor and died there in 1922. She married Richard Watson Askew on June 15, 1870.
v. Mary Webb Gray was born at Windsor about 1837 and died there April 2, 1912. On October 25, 1859 she married William Stevens Gray.
vi Robert Watson Webb was born at Windsor about June 6, 1841 and died after 1864.
vii Rhodes Webb was born at Windsor about April 25, 1845 and died there in 1859.
viii Frances Watson Webb was born at Windsor about 1848 and died there August 16, 1853.
in financial affairs.
When Jonathan died about the first of the year in 1842 he left little property, his estate sale bringing in only $86 of which $50 came from the sale of a white mare purchased by his widow Martha.
4. James L. Webb was born on Salmon Creek near Merry Hill in Bertie County in about 1811 and died there during the winter of 1848-1849. He apparently never married and in 1840 was enumerated in the census of Bertie County with another man approximately his age living in his household, both engaged in agriculture. This may have been his brother Lewis. James partnered with his brother Jonathan in their store in Windsor doing business as the firm of J. & J. Webb. It is not known whether James lived in Windsor for a time but he did own property there. In 1838 he sold a town lot on King Street which he jointly owned with his brother Jonathan. By this time he was apparently back on the Creek working at the fishery. Unlike his brother Jonathan he inherited a share of his Uncle Jehu's sound plantation. But like Jonathan he worked his way into financial difficulty and placed his property in trust with his brother Lorenzo in 1841, authorizing him sell it at a sheriff's sale to satisfy his creditors if necessary. Among the property placed in trust was the Negro boy Isaac which had been willed to him by his uncle Jehu, his horse, mare and colt, his interest in the seine, flats, and stands and other fishing apparatus. On the same day he transferred his interest in the lands descended to him from his father to a trustee under the same conditions. At some time before he died James L. Webb became John L. Webb for some reason. In 1847 he sold land under the name John L. When he died during the winter of 1848- 1849 he left his wearing apparel to his brother Jehu; his shotgun to his brother Lorenzo's son John; and 90 acres of land plus the land he inherited from his father, a Negro boy Logan , his gold watch and all his other property to Lorenzo's daughter Margaret Webb. He also stipulated that his executor, Jonathan S. Tayloe, have the family burying ground at Merry Hill enclosed with a good substantial fence and pay the upkeep of the same out of my estate and to purchase and have erected a marble tombstone. He apparently never married.
5. Jehu N. Webb was born on Salmon Creek near Merry Hill in Bertie County in about 1813 and di ed there during the winter of 1869-1870. He married Lavinia in about 1838. Her family name is not known. Perhaps because he bore his name, Jehu fared well when his Uncle Jehu died in 1837 and received the largest share of the estate passing to he and his brothers consisting of about a dozen Negro slaves and all the land which Jehu owned adjoining the land of Jehu's sister Anna. He also was to receive an equal share of his uncle's books which were to be divided between himself, his brother Thomas, and Charles Jacocks. When Jehu's sister Anna Nicholls died in 1849 she loaned her nephew Jehu Webb several Negro slaves. The land which he inherited from his father and his uncle and that purchased from his brother William when the latter moved to Caswell County resulted in his having a fairly large plantation near Merry Hill on Salmon Creek. In 1850 he owned 225 acres of improved and 900 acres of unimproved land valued at $1,700, on which he engaged in the production of Indian corn, oats, Irish potatoes, and other crops. He owned 18 slaves in 1850 and 17 in 1862. There is no evidence that he participated in the operation of the ferry or fishery but he may well have done so. He an Lavinia raised a family of at least seven children, the first, his son Jehu, born in about 1840. Jehu Webb, like his brothers Thomas and Lorenzo, was active in church affairs. He was a trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church South when Humphrey Hardy deeded land to the church on which to build a meeting house in 1845. He was likewise a trustee when land was deeded to the church in 1852 to build a church in Windsor. The United Methodist Church was constructed that year on a lot that once was the site of Webbs Gin. Jehu died in winter of 1869-1870 on his farm at Merry Hill. Lavinia survived him by several years passing away in 1884 at Merry Hill.
i. Jehu N. Webb was born about 1840 near Merry Hill, N. C.
ii. Anna J. Webb was born about 1842 near Merry Hill, N. C.
iii. Amelia Webb was born about 1846 near Merry Hill, N. C.
iv. Thomas J. Webb was born about 1848/1849 near Merry Hill, N. C.
v. Sally Webb was born about 1850 near Merry Hill, N. C.
vi. Emma Webb was born about 1853 near Merry Hill, N. C.
vii. Millie Webb was born about 1856 near Merry Hill, N. C.
6. William R. Webb was born on Salmon Creek near Merry Hill in Bertie County, North Carolina in about 1816. On December 4, 1839 he married Elizabeth L. Vanhook at Leasburg, Caswell County, North Carolina. He settled there after his marriage and sold the land that he had inherited from his father on Salmon Creek to his brother Jehu Webb in 1840. There is no evidence that he resided permanently in Caswell County and efforts to determine his whereabouts after 1840 have been unsuccessful.
7. Lewis Webb was born on Salmon Creek near Merry in Bertie County, North Carolina in about 1818.
iii. Jonathan Rhodes was born in Bertie County, North Carolina about 1787 and died there in 1804 at the age of about 17. Orphaned by the death of his father Elisha in 1789 he came under the guardianship of his grandfather, Thomas Rhodes, along with his brother Thomas. In 1796 following the death of his grandfather, David Tayloe, his uncle and husband of his aunt Elizabeth Rhodes Tayloe was appointed his guardian. Guardian accounts were filed by Frederick Lawrence, his mother's second husband, administrator of his father's estate through the year 1804. When Jonathan died in 1804 his stepfather Frederick Lawrence was appointed administrator of his estate and filed an inventory on November 10, 1804. On January 2, 1805 the perishable estate of Jonathan Rhodes was divided among his brother Thomas, his sister Margaret, represented by her husband John Webb, and Judith Lawrence, representing his mother Mary Rhodes Lawrence. The property consisted of six Negroes, those being descended from his father, each share being valued at $472. Later that year on July 11 the lands of Jonathan Rhodes in the Indian Woods were divided between the same heirs. The land was also descended to Jonathan from his father.
Note: ELISHA AVERITT RHODES DESCENDED from English stock whose families settled the Upper Parish of Nansemond in Virginia in the latter part of the 17th Century. Typically, many of these settlers migrated from this Southside Virginia locale across the provincial line into the eastern coastal plane of North Carolina. Many settled in that section of the Chowan Precinct of the Province of North Carolina which became the Bertie Precinct in 1722. Land and tax records of Nansemond contain the names of dozens of Bertie's pioneer families, one of which was the Rhodes family. Although conclusive proof has not been developed as to the Nansemond connection, it seems logical to conclude with reasonable assurance that the progenitors of the Bertie Rhodes began life in America in the Upper Parish. Likewise, evidence as to the identity of the immigrant ancestor is inconclusive but does point to a Charles Rhodes who was a land owner in Nansemond in 1682. Quit rent rolls in Nansemond in 1704 contain the names of Charles, Henry, and Thomas Rhodes, all common given names of the Bertie Rhodes.
Editor Note: This data abstracted from the Consul's Journey Publication.
Thanks to the Author Gerald Galvin Larson for submitting this Information to Craig Rhodes.