Abraham Voisin Nabors, Sr.

Note: It is believed that Abraham and Rebecca neighbors were the parents of the Abraham and Issac that married Eleanor and Nancy Boyd. However it is possible that they are grandsons, not sons. If the birthdate of Abraham and Rebecca are correct, the dates Abraham and Issac's birth would place them either as younger sons or as older gransons.

Neighbours / John Whitman Monroe Neal

ABRAHAM NEIGHBOURS. believed to have been born in 1684. It is not known if he was born in Pennsylvania, or if he was born in Ireland and then immigrated to Pennsylvania. He then moved to Loudon County, Virginia, and settled on the Potomac River. While there he married Rebecca. Around 1725 they went to Buckingham County, Virginia. The only courthouse record in Louden County shows that property was then willed in 1758 to daughters of Nathan Neighbours and his wife Mary Thacker. This Nathan was believed to be the son of Abraham and Rebecca. The next record found of Abraham and Rebecca Neighbours is in 1771 when they lived in Prince Edward County, Virginia, and it is recorded that they sold land in Buckingham Co. It was mentioned in the papers that they were from Buckingham Co. The next record of Abraham and Rebecca is in Laurens District, South Carolina,where they aparently came about 1780. It is also recorded that Abraham Neighbours bought 200 acres in Craven Co, NC in 1771. Ramsey's "History of South Carolina", published in 1800, states that "Abraham Neighbors died in 1798 at the age of 114 years, and his wife, Rebecca, has fallen and broken her hip at the age of 105. She is doing nicely." The same text also states that Abraham and Rebecca had been married for over 80 years. To give the size of Abrahams family, the Federal Census of 1790 shows 7 males over 16 including himself 8 males under 16 and 5 females of which one was his wife. It is thought that all Nabors/Nabers/Neighbours in the southern United States are descended from Abraham. It is believed that the Neighbours family is descended from French Huguenots who fled to England and from there to Ireland. Ramsey's History of South Carolina (published about 1800) states,"Abraham Neighbors died in 1798 at the age of 114 years, and his wife, Rebecca, had fallen and broken her hip at the age of 105. She is doing nicely."

"History and Legends of the Neighbours" / by Annette Ray Hunt in Whitman Neal's Neighbours

Whitman Neal wrote in a letter to Mrs. C, G, Young of Memphis TN that Abraham and Rebecca's children inculded William, Nathan, Francis, Benjamin, Samuel, Abraham, Issac and Jacob. Abraham married Eleanor Boyd and Issac married Nancy Boyd.

"Eleanor and nancy Boyd were descended of Irish nobility and lived in an aristocratic style until their property was destroyed by the Tories" (Dictionary of Alabama Biography pg 1268)

The Neighbours of Laurens and Newberry Counties were wealthy planters. Recorded deeds indicate that they had land, slaves and livestock.

In 1780 British soldiers held Charleston and Tories rode the countryside, preying on the farms of the Whigs. H. S. Halsey, an Alabama historian (descendant of Isaac's daughter, Mary) interviewed Mrs. Drayton Nabors in Pickens Co., Ala. in 1877. She was 84 years old at the time and told much about the early days of the family. Halsey wrote the following story of Isaac Neighbour's death in a letter to Thomas McAdory Owens.

It was on a dark night, late in the spring or early summer of 1780, that a band of Tories under the noted (Bloody) Bill Cunningham made a raid into the neighborhood in which Isaac Nabors lived. A party from the band stealthily approached his house, suddenly broke into it and killed Nabors with their broadswords as he was arising from his bed. Mrs. Nabors, in her fright, supposing that all the family would be killed, hurried her hastily aroused children out into the yard where all hid themselves. While some of the Tories were plundering the house, others visited the Negro quarters and took possession of all the Negroes; forty in number, except a woman named Fanny and two old men who resolutely refused to go off with them.

These stolen Negroes were sold in Jamaica, which was a great depot for stolen Negroes during the Revolutionary War. After the departure of the Tories with their booty, Mrs. Nabors and her children and remaining slaves ventured back into the house where lay her husband brutally mangled by the Tory broadswords, and where occurred a heartrending scene; the widowed mother, the orphaned children and the faithful slaves mingling their tears over the mutilated corpse.

It was a night of horror long to be remembered. The next day some of the people of the neighborhood came in and buried Mr. Nabors. But it was not the Nabors family alone that suffered from that horrible night's bloody work. Other families were visited, their horses and Negroes were stolen and persons were barbarously murdered. Among these was a man named Woodruff, who was killed with his wife and one or two children.

After her husband was killed, Mrs. Nancy Boyd Nabors moved her children to the house of her sister and brother-in-law, Abraham Nabors, and the two families lived together until peace was made.

They suffered much from Tory cruelty during the war and they had to resort to every artifice to save their food and clothing from the Tory marauders. They had hollow logs and trees in the woods in which, during the day, they kept their provisions, clothing and bedding concealed.

John, a boy of 14 and son of Abram Nabors, often suffered from Tory malices. They would frequently torture him, hanging him up to force him to reveal the hiding places of the family supplies. But John was resolute in making no revelations.

In this impoverished condition, the family adopted a perfect system of domestic economy. Each had a certain specified task assigned, which he was to perform every day. One was to do the milking, one to do the wood cutting, one the washing, one the cooking, etc. It is remembered that (Isaac's son) William was the weaver of the family.

Mrs. Nancy (Boyd) Nabors, Isaac's widow, kept her horse and her cows in the swamp. She had a bridle at the house with which she would bridle her horse, mount him and drive the cows up at a certain time to be milked, for this milk was the main dependence for the living of the family.

On one occasion, a party of Tories visited the house, and one of them happened to see the bridle and took possession of it. Mrs. Nabors was a spirited woman and seized the bridle while it was in the hands of the marauder, and though he pulled her several times around the house, she held on to it so resolutely that the Tory finally yielded it to her.

As an instance of the poverty of the country, on one occasion, Mrs. Nabors lost a needle and she spent three days looking for it until she found it, as it was impossible to get another needle except at Charleston, which was then in the possession of the British.

Son of Abraham Neighbors, Jr. and Eleanor Jane BOYD

Husband of Elizabeth BURTLE

Father of George Washington Neighbors; Abraham Neighbors; Nathan Neighbors; Elleanor Jane "Ellen" NEIGHBORS; James B Neighbors; William Neighbors; Elizabeth NEIGHBORS; Nancy NEIGHBORS and Sarah C NEIGHBORS « less

Brother of Benjamin F. NEIGHBORS; John Nabors; Isaac Neighbors; Rebecca NEIGHBORS; Samuel Neighbors; Charles Neighbors; Susan NEIGHBORS; Nathan Neighbors; Lewis Neighbors and Solomon Neighbors « less