Richard Curtis Sr.

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• ************************************ ID: I30353072 Name: Richard Sr CURTIS Sex: M Birth: 1725 in near Fort Henry, Dinwiddle, Va. 1 2 3 Death: 20 NOV 1784 in Coles Creek, Natchez Dist., MS. 1 2 3 Father: Richard CURTIS b: ABT. 1700 in Dinwiddie, VA. Mother: UNKNOWN SUSANNAH b: ABT. 1700 in Dinwiddie, VA.

Marriage 1 Phoebe COURTNEY b: 1724 in Prince George, Va.Married: 1745 in Onslow, NC

Children 1. Hannah CURTIS 2. Robert CURTIS 3. William CURTIS 4. Richard Jr CURTIS 5. Jerimah or Jemima CURTIS 6. Jonathan CURTIS 7. Martha Phoebe CURTIS b: 1751 in , Onslow, NC 8. Benjamin CURTIS

Marriage 2 Hannah SWAYZE Married: 25 SEP 1782 in Amite, MS. Sources: 1. Title: Mansfield's Family.ged Repository: 2. Title: FTW Note: MARSHA CARMACK OWEN, LIBBIE BRADFORD FLETCHER. PAT BARROS MATHIS, NEIL WOOD, BARBARA MANSFIELD BROWN, ERNEST BRYANT MANSFIELD, RACHEL ELDERS Repository: 3. Title: Carmack, Mansfield, Hart, Carson Family Tree with Photos Repository:

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Families of Sequoyah County,OK & Others Contact: Sharen Neal Email: MJR6387@aol.com

• ********************************** ID: I46059 Name: Richard CURTIS Given Name: Richard Surname: Curtis Suffix: Jr Title: Jr Sex: M Birth: 1725 in Near Fort Henry,Dinwiddie,Va Death: 20 NOV 1784 in Coles Creek,Natchez Dist,Ms Terrority Note: 1792 SPANISH CENSUS: AIS: Richard Curtis, Natchez District, MS, Villa Gayoso. 1802 CENSUS: AIS: Richard Curtis, Mississippi Terr., MS, Petitioner. HISTORY: CURTIS LINGERING SHADOWS.., By Jack Curtis. pg 2-10: ...Richard & Phebe Curtis, Sr. apeared on the Onslow Co. Records 11 Oct 1749 where he recv'd 150 acres. He rec'd another 150 in 1751. 25 Sep 1751 Richard Curtis, Sr. had 158 acres on the fork of Half Moon Branch in Onslow, Co. , NC. By 9 Nov 1764 he had obtained 400 acres on the Great Pocossin in Beauford Co., NC By this time six of his seven children had been born. ...the move of Richard Curtis, Sr. from Onlsow Co., NC to SC by a deed dated 20 NOv 1766, "Richard Curtis, Sr. of St. Mark's Parish, SC sells to Wm Ambrose 150 acres of land for 45 lbs ; the same granted to Richard Curtis, Sr. 26 Nov 1751, located on the NW side of New River, head of Half-moon Swamp, on the Great Pocossin." Hence...they were living in St. Mark's Parish, Craven Co., Cheraws Dsitrict, SC. It gives the exact location as "South of the Pee Dee River at Lake Swamp on Lynch Creek. Richard curt, Sr. is found on a jury list for Cheraw District for Jurymen for Civil causes in 1779. (Were members of) the Welsh Neck Baptist Church, the second oldest Baptist Church in the South, 1738) JERSEY SETTLERS: There is a lot. Need to enter reference info. Said he married Mrs. Phoebe Jones widow of William Jones. Page 175, Vol. I: Page 177: Rev. Jones Writes: "About the year 1743 there lived in Dinwiddie County, near Petersburg, in VA, a newly-married couple, of Welsh descent, by the name of William and Phoebe Jones. Mr. Jones soon after died, leaving a young widow and an only son, by the name of John. Within a few years after the death of her husband Mrs. Jones married the man who will hereafter be known in these sketches as Richard Curtis, Sr, by which marriage they had five sons & three daughter. After the marriage of Mrs. Jones to Mr. Curtis we have no very satisfactory knowledge of the family for about 30 years...

The Curtis family decided to establish their new homes on Cole's Creek, about 20 miles above Natchez. The stories of productive farm lands that were free to all settlers and the peace they would have from the fratricidal strife in SC must have made the prospects of beginning again very enticing. Spain had conquered the Natchez district in 1779, but the emigrants did not anticipate any difficulty from this source. The route the migrants followed to their new homes was the familiar one used by many who were a part of the great westward migration . They left their homes early in 1780 and traveled to the Holston River. It was not a long journey, but winter weather, bad roads, and the poor transportation equipment available made it a difficult and heart-breaking trip. They arrived on the Holston in the early spring and immediately began the task of raising a crop of corn while building flatboats for the journey down the rivers to their new homes. In the fall of 1780 the travelers were ready to begin their voyage. The party included Richard Curtis, Sr., and his wife; two brothers, William and Benjamin Curtis and their wives; Richard Curtis, Jr. and his wife; John Courtney and John Stampley and their wives (nee Hannah and Phoebe Curtis, respectively, daughters of Richard Curtis, Sr.); John Jones and his wife; and others whose names are unknown. On the second boat were Daniel and William Ogden and their families, and a Mr. Perkins and his family. The records do not reveal the name of the occupants of the third boat."

Page 80: Richard Curtis is listed from Northern District, Cato West's District, (Coles Creek-Old Salem Church Area) as taking oath as an allied.

Page 54, Vol. II

Page 55,

Page 103,

Page 131,

Page 137,

Page 176,

Page 177,

Page 238,

Page 360, Vol II: Richard Curtis, Sr., born in VA in 1735, died in Miss.

Nov. 20, 1784. He married (1) in Dinwiddie Co, VA to Phoebe, widow of William Jones. They were the parents of John Jones whose son Jonathan Jones

Married 10 Oct. 1799 to Phoebe Griffing, great granddaughter of the Rev. Samuel Swayze. Richard Curtis, Sr. served in the Rev. War with General Francis Marion. (Miss. Rev. Soldiers by Alice Tracy Welch, p. 75) The families of Richard Curtis, Sr. and Jr. and step-son, John Jones, came to Miss. from SC ca. 1782. After the death of Phoebe Jones Curtis. Richard Curtis, Sr. m. Hannah Swayze (w) Coleman, Daughter of the Rev. Samuel Swayze. At the time of coming to Miss., Richard Curtis, Jr. was about twenty-five years old with a small family. He was the firtst Baptist minister in the Miss. Terr.

Compiled by Annis B. Laird from information obtained from Miss. Rev. Soldiers

Also, Alice Tracy Welch and A History of Miss. Baptist 1780-1970, Richard

Aubrey McLemore.

Page 680,

Page 693, Vol. II: Selections from the Spanish Governor's Report of Tobacco

Production 1790-Jersey Settlers or Allied Families...Richard Curtes (Curtis)

1,000 pounds. (Footnote- Richard Curtis, Jr.-before he had to escape to SC

in 1795 from Spanish Priests.)

Page 695,

Page 699, Vol. II: Curtis, Richard, private in Lt. Col. Neilson's Detachment

of Mississippi Militia-Six companies. In Capt. Nathan Horton Luse's Company.

Page 662-

CEMETERY RECORD: MS. Cemetery Records of Miss. by Gen. Soc. of Utah, SLC, 1946,

FHL 976.2 V22c, page 182: Selsertown Cemetery- Location - Adams County, MS,

in Stanton Forks in a field on Highway 61. Note: Edwin (Edmund) Anders (Andres, Andrews) managed for many years a cotton gin built about 1796 by David Greenleaf, a very ingenious mechanic, on plantation of Richard Curtis.

This was the first public or tol gin built in the Natchez Terr. Ref: J.F.H. Claiborne's Miss., printed in 1880, p. 143. Edwin (Edmund) Anders fought in Tenn. during the Revolutionary War. Ref: Family Records Miss. Rev. Soldiers, by Alice Tracy Welch, printed 1855, p. 10. Edwin Anders/ d. at Selsertown, June 1839/ age 70/ Erected by Catherine Anders.

NATCHEZ COURT RECORDS 1767-1805: By McBee. Page 594-594: CURTIS. When Richard Curtis, Sr. came from South Carolina to the Natchez District early in 1780, with him was a large contingent of relatives. Besides his own immediate family were the families of his step-son, John Jones, his sons, William, Benjamin, and Richard, Jr., and his sons-in-law, John Courtney and John Stampley. They were all Baptists, Richard Jr., born in 1755, being a licensed preacher, the first Baptist preacher to live in Miss. Richard

Curtis, Sr. had married a young Widow Jones in Dinwiddle County, VA., about

1748. In 1755 they were living on the Great Peedee in S.C., whence they made

the perilous journey, by water, to "New Spain", landing near the mouth of

Cole's Creek, in which neighborhood they took up residence. Soon they were

holding religious meeting in the private dwellings, public Protestant services being unlawful in that Catholic country. Neighbours soon joined and among the converts were Stephen de Alva, a Spaniard, and William Hamberlin who became ardent co-worker with Richard Curtis. This conversion of a Spaniard, followed by Curtis performing the marriage ceremony uniting David Greenleaf and a daughter of John Jones, a rite heretofore performed only by a priest, led to the expulsion of the three men from the country. Thereafter with being arrested and sent to work in the silver mines in Mexico, they made

they made their escape in August 1795, going to S. Carolina. There they lived until the evacuation of the territory by the Spainiards in March 1798. On learning this good news the three men immediately return to join their families after a separation of nearly three years. (Miss. Bapts. 7, 8, 9, 176-182)

HISTORY: COLE FOOT PRINTS by Camellia T. Deny, 1251 Briar, Provo, Utah 84604,

page 54:...RICHARD CURTIS, Senior was born abt 1720 in Virginia. We do not know his parents name or the place of his birh. He married about 1749 PHOEBE COURTNEY, daughter of ROBERT and HANNAH COURTNEY. She was born about 1724 in Prince George County, where she was married (1) to William Jones. They had one son, John Jones. Phoebe died about 1790/91.

Richard Curtis md (2) 25 Sept. 1782 Hannah Swayze Coleman. He died November 20, 1784 in Coles Creek, Miss. They had seven children...

NEW JERSEY SETTLERS OF ADAMS CO, MISS. Vol. I, pg 176-178

THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH IN MISSISSIPPI

Dr. Richard Aubrey McLemore in his History of Mississippi Baptists concedes:

"The first protestant settlement in the Old Natchez region was established at Kingston, about sixteen miles southeast of Natchez in 1773. The community flourished and a Congregational church was established. In 1781, the Indians became hostile and forced the abandonment of the settlement."

But he concludes, "Many of these people later became members of other churches, several of them joining the Baptist Church". (71)

Dr. McLemore describes the beginning of the Baptist church thus: "A group of

seven people met at Sister Stampley's home on Cole's Creek," This was in 1791, eighteen years after Reverend Swayze established his Congregational group.

The list of this pioneer group as given in the Salem Baptist Church Minutes

in the Mississippi Baptist Archives is as follows: Richard Curtis, Jr., pastor, William Thompson, recording clerk, William Curtis, John Jones, Benjamin Curtis, Ealiff Lanier and Margaret Stampley. Among the seven we note John Jones the forebear of this distinguished Methodist minister and historian John Griffing Jones. (72) This was a group of Baptists from South Carolina but other farm families were among the early members. Several of them with Congregational connections. In fact, Rev. Swayze's daughter Hannah had for her second husband (after the death of Jeremiah Coleman) the Baptist leader Richard Curtis, Sr., whose daughters Hannah and Phoeve with their husbands John Courtney and John Stampley came in the South Carolina party.

Other names found on the early church rolls were then or later connected with the Jersey Settler families: Miss. F. Coleman, Elizabeth Chaney, Elizabeth Coleman, Feribu Coleman, Buchner Darden, Maria Darden, Jane Farrar, Elizabeth Farrar, Miss Aleaf Farrow, ( 73) Sarah Guice, Martha Harper, John Jones, Phebe Jones, Daniel and Jane Perry, (74) James B . Truly, Sarah and William Whitney and Willis McDonald. Then there were Elizabeth R. and M . B. King.

The difficulties suffered by this second Mississippi Protestant group were greater thatn the Congregationalists. Five factors caused the greater difficulty, first, the river routes were traveled, encountering Indians; second, the situation had not been reconnoitered by scouts as the Swayze brothers and the King brothers had done; third, land was not legally held with authorities no tifies; fourth, the rip was made during the Revolutionary War; fifth, the Spaniards, having gained strength in their hold on the colony by 1791 were more daring in prosecution.

The story will be told from the writings of recognized historians, the early Methodist historian, Rev. John Griffing Jones, already memntioned, and the recent Baptist historian, Dr. Richard Aubrey McLemore.

Rev. Jones writes: "About the year 1743 there lived in Dinwiddie county,

near Petersburg, in Virginia, a newly-married couple, of Welsh descent, by the

name of William and Phoebe Jones. Mr. Jones soon after died, leaving a young

widow and an only son, by the name of John. Within a few years after the death of her husband Mrs. Jones married the man who will hereafter be known in these sketches as Richard Curtis , senior, by which marriage they had five sons and three daughters. After the marriage of Mr s. Jones to Mr. Curtis we have no very satisfactory knowledge of the family for about thirt y years. In the meantime, John Jones, the son of Mrs. Curtis by her first marriage, had grow n up to manhood, and on the 28th of June, 1768, had married Miss Anna Brown, daughter of Abra ham Brown. At the breaking out of the Revolutionary war the family was found in South Caroli na, on the Great Peedee river, not far from the mouth of Black river, and about sixty miles from Charleston...(76)

"The Curtis famiy decided to establish their new homes on Cole's Creek,

about twenty miles above Natchez. The stories of productive farm lands that

were free to all settlers and the peace they would have from the turmoil of the fratricidal s trife in South Carolina must have made the prospects of beginning again very enticing. Spai n had conquered the Natchez district in 1779, but the emigrants did not anticipate any difficulty from this source.

The route the migrants followed to their new homes was the familar one used

by many who were a part of the great westward migration. They left their homes early in 178 0 and traveled to the Holston River. It was not a long journey, but winter weather, bad road s, and the poor transportation equipment available made it a difficult and heart-breaking trip. They arrived on the Holston in the early spring and immediately began the task of raisin g a crop of corn while building flatboats for the journey down the rivers to their new home.

In the fall of 1780 the revelers were ready to begin their voyage. The party included Richard Curtis, Sr., and his wife; two brothers, William and Benjamin Curtis and their wives; Richard Curtis, Jr. and his wife; John courtney and John Stampley and their wives (nee Hannah and Phoebe Curtis, respectively, daughters of Richard Curtis, Sr.); John Jones and his wife; and others whose names are unknown. On the second boat were Daniel and William Ogden and their families, and a Mr....(need page 178 Page 486: PHOEBE JONES MARRIES IN SECRET-SPRING OF 1795 "Richard Curtis who brought his family from Virginia and Charleston to Natchez after 1780, was the first Baptist to operate in the district. They settled on Cole's Creek, hacked their homes out of the wilderness, and spent most of their Sundays praying and reading scriptures in the privacy of their own homes. Curtis died in 1784, and his son, Richard Curtis, Jr., assumed the preaching duti es, ably assissted by John and Jacob Stampley, gifted "natural" preachers. The young Curti s had none of the reserve or respect for the law that his father had shown, and he soon embro iled his sect in an argument with the Catholic priests and Spanish government. In the Spring of 1795, as the religious situation gtew more tense in Natchez, Gayoso called Curtis to government house and asked him to swear that he would not preach in public again, under pain of confiscation of his goods and expulsion from the province. Curtis signed the agreement, but as soon as Gayoso left the province for top secret business up the Mississippi River, the Baptists operated openly. The crisis developed when David Greenleaf, a noted Natchez mechanic who built the first cotton gins in Natchez, decided to marry Phoebe Jones, the daughter of John Jones, who wanted the ceremony performed by her uncle, Richard Curtis, Jr. The couple arranged for an elaborate meeting in the woods. Greenleaf and his companions would ride south from Villa Gayoso, whole Miss Jones and her entourage rode north. With a sign and coutersing, they would meet and be married. Practical jokers in Greenleaf's party persuaded him to ride past the meeting withou t acknowledging the sign (or did he have cold fee?), but they returned within minutes and th e couple laughingly rode to William Stampley's plantation and were married by torchlight. The ceremony was secret, but what married couple are able to live together clandestinely? Greeleaf's fame as a mechanic and his numerous contacts with the Spanish government made him anything but inconspicuous. The secret was uncovered and the Spanish priest demanded to know who had performed the illegal ceremony. When it was discovered that not only had Curtis done the horrors in the Greenlead-Jones nuptials, but, in addition, had baptized William Haberlin and Stephen deAlvo, acting commandant Grand-Pre issued orders for their arrest. But sentires posted on the roads leading to Curtis' home warned the trio, and they escaped through the wilderness to South Carolina, not to return during the Spanish rule. "

1751 WILL: Abstract of North Carolin Wills, by Grimes, pg. 84: ROBERT COURTNEY: Jan. 17, 1750. April 2, 1751. sons: John (1 shilling), Robert (land on the Half Moon Creek on the East side of the Northwest branch of New River called Wallins), Jonathan (plantation whereon "I now live"), and Rowlan, (100 acrews land on lower end of platation). Son-in-law: Richard Curtis. Friend: Benjamin Eason. Wife: Hannah. Daughterd: Pebe Curtis. Executors: Robert and Jonathan Courtney (sons). Witnessess: Matthew Lewis, Jos. Sturges, Benjamin Eason. Clerk of Court: Thos. Black.

• ********* Change Date: 20 JUL 2005 at 20:50:19 Father: Richard CURTIS b: ABT 1700 in of Dinwiddie Co,Va Mother: Susannah Mrs CURTIS b: ABT 1700 in of Dinwiddie Co,Va Marriage 1 Pheobe COURTNEY b: 1724 in Prince George,Va Married: 1745 in Onslow,Nc Children 1. Benjamin CURTIS b: 1747 in of Onslow,Nc 2. Hannah CURTIS b: 1749 in Onslow,Nc 3. Robert CURTIS b: ABT 1750 in of Onslow Co,Nc 4. Martha "Phoebe" CURTIS b: 1751 in Onslow,Nc 5. William CURTIS b: 1754 in of Onslow Co,Nc 6. Richard CURTIS b: 28 MAY 1755 in Dinwiddie Co,Va 7. Jerimah or Jemima CURTIS b: 1764 in Craven,Cheraws Dist,Sc 8. Jonathan CURTIS b: 1767 in Craven,Cheraws Dist,Sc

Marriage 2 Hannah SWAYZE b: 27 OCT 1733 in Southold,Long Island,Ny Married: 25 SEP 1782 in Amite,Mississippi

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GEDCOM Note

THE CURTIS BAND OF BAPTISTS: There were dwelling those days in South Carolina, along the course of the Great PeeDee River, near the mouth of Black River, about sixty miles from Charleston, a family by the name of Curtis, along with others of their kinfolk and acquaintance. "Westward, Ho!" had sounded in their ears and the appeal of the new, unoccupied, and open spaces was too strong for resistance and a number broke camp and set out for the far off "Natchez Country". Richard Curtis seems to have been the nestor of this community and the prime mover in their embarking upon this perilous journey. The caravan consisted of the following: Richard Curtis, Sr. and wife (Phebe Courtney, widow of William Jones dcs/tcm), and his two brothers William and Benjamin Curtis and their wives; Richard Curtis, Jr. and his wife; John Courtney and John Stampley and their wives (nee Hannah and Phoebe Curtis, respectively, daughters of Richard Curtis, Sr.); John Jones (son of Phebe Courtney Jones Curtis) and his wife; Daniel and William Ogden and their wives; A Mr. Perkins and wife; and others whose names are unknown. These departed from their homes in the early spring of 1780 with the women and small children together with their scant supply of feed, clothing, tools and furniture mounted on pack-horses. After reaching the Holston river in the northeast corner of Tennessee, they paused for the summer to build their boats and to raise a crop of corn in preparation for descent by water.

PERILOUS DESCENT OF THE RIVERS: In the early fall of 1780, after the river had attained sufficient depth for their rafts, these adventurers committed themselves and all their earthly possessions to three large, but well-built flat boats and started on their perilous journey. The route lay through the territory occupied by the belligerent Cherokee Indians who lurked in ambush along the narrows, shoals, and sudden turns of the Holston, Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers, determined to allow none of the "pale faces" to pass without obstinate resistance. The voyagers kept ready to defend themselves with the limited implements of warfare that their circumstances would allow. For mutual protection they agreed to float as near each other as they conveniently could. In the foremost boat were Richard Curtis Sr. and his immediate family, including John Jonesand family, and their sons and daughters and their families. On the second boat were brothers, Daniel and William Ogden, and their families, and Mr. Perkins and his family. The records do not reveal the names of those on the third boat. Smallpox broke out on the last named boat, and it was required to float a few hundred yards in the rear and to occupy a different landing at night to prevent the contagion from spreading to the other boats.

ATTACHED BY INDIANS: For several days they traveled unmolested, but while passing a short bend in the Tennessee River near the mouth of Clinch River, the foremost boat was suddenly attacked by the warlike Cherokees. All hands on board commenced a vigorous and well-directed defense. So that her husband could be released to use his rifle, Mrs. Jones put her eldest son, William, then in his twelfth year, at the oar, while she held up a thick poplar stool between him and the bullets; and it was well because it was pierced by one of the leaden missles.After it was all over, Mrs. Jones laughinly remarked that "their guns were very weak, as they did not make a very deep impression on the stool." Another lady heorically took the steering oar from her husband that he might ply his rifle to the foe, and with unfaltering courage, guided the boat until disabled by a wound in the Hannah Courtney was grazed on the head by a ball, and Jonathan Curtis was slightly wounded on the wrist, but, so far as the writer knows, no life was lost. While the attention of the assailants was mainly directed to the first boat, the second floated by the point of attack unharmed.

The excited and bloodthirsty savages now directed their whole force to the capture of the third boat, and as it was passing through the narrows they boarded it in full force and massacred all except one lady, whom they retained as a captive about three years, until, by treaty, she was restored to her friends. But this was a dearly bought victory to the Cherokee, for, either from the captured lady or the clothing or other articles taken from the boat they, they contracted the smallpox, which passed through their villages like the destroying angel, until multitudes of them died. When suffering from the raging fever and thirst occasioned by the terrible epidemic, they sought relief by laying in the waters of the Tennessee, which made it more fatal. Their descendants have to this day a traditional horror of that terrible pestilence.

(Their route seems to have been as follows: Entered the Holston River from around Abingdon in Washington Co. Va. or northeastern Tennessee traveled to the Tennessee River at about Knoxville, Tn, through Chattanooga,Tn.,Decatur and Florence Ala, back into Tennessee to the Kentucky River, entered the Ohio River around Paducah, Ky and the Mississippi River at Cairo,Missouri.