Daniel Melvin

Find a Grave

• Residence: Bladen County, NC - 1763

Updated from [http://www.myheritage.com/research/collection-1/myheritage-family-t... MyHeritage Family Trees] via son [John Thomas Melvin John Thomas Melvin] by [http://www.geni.com/projects/SmartCopy/18783 SmartCopy]: ''Oct 21 2014, 4:32:21 UTC''

* Updated from MyHeritage Family Trees by SmartCopy: Oct 21 2014, 4:33:53 UTC

SEE "Timeline" for chronological order of life events including photos and documents if available; SEE "Media" for only any photos included in "Timeline" if available; SEE "Sources" for only the documents included in "Timeline" if available.

A photo is included of a commemorative stone placed for Daniel and Jane Melvin as well as some of their offspring (grandsons). It was erected by the White-Melvin Reunion in Bladen (County), North Carolina, in 1997, near a church the family helped found.

NOTE: Fri, April 11, 2003 placed by MICHELLE GERRINGER, "Daniel Melvin was sent to the USA as a cabin boy on a sailing ship when he was 10 years old. His father had died and his mother remarried. He did not get along with his stepfather. His mother was sending him to the USA to live with next of kin (Year about 1717). The ship he was sailing on was captured by Blackbeard the Pirate (William Teach) of Teachey, North Carolina. One night he and two others slipped oveboard with some empty water cask(s) and swam ashore in Northern South Carolina. His friend, Bones, made it to shore with Daniel, the other man drowned! Daniel lived in Bladen County (NC) for awhile, then moved to the mountains. He found the winters too severe and moved back to Bladen County where he lived until (his) death."

DANIEL MELVIN, Birth: 1708 in IVERNESS, SCOTLAND. Married in 1745 to JANE THOMAS (born 1726). His death in Bladen County, NC, USA. Burial: Davis-Melvin Cemetery, White Oak, Bladen County, NC, USA. (SEE "Timeline" of burial event for photo of Melvin Memorial), NOTE: Gravesite Memorial shows his year of death as Circa 1788 but other records show 1786.

7 CHILDREN: SUSANNAH MELVIN; NANCY ANN MELVIN born 1753; JANE MELVIN born 1748; JOHN MELVIN born 1752; GEORGE MELVIN born 1760; MORNING MELVIN born 1761 and DANIEL MELVIN II born 27 Aug 1769

SOURCES: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:2301332&..., http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=MEL&GSpartial...,

(Some notations, information & photo(s)/enhancement added by family connections researcher, Jim Semple, Jr., jhsemple@yahoo.com)

Buried near John Melvin Cemetery. (Grave Lost) Jane and Daniel Melvin are buried on the 100 Hundred Acres of land that he was granted in 1751. Near Peters Creek ! A memorial stone with Jane and Daniels name on it is located near White Oak, NC DANIEL MELVIN WAS SENT TO THE USA AS A CABIN BOY ON A SAILING SHIP WHEN HE WAS 10 YEARS OLD. HIS FATHER HAD DIED AND HIS MOTHER REMARRIED. HE DID NOT GET ALONG WITH HIS STEP FATHER. HIS MOTHER WAS SENDING HIM TO THE USA TO LIVE WITH NEXT OF KIN. (YEAR ABOUT 1717) THE SHIP HE WAS SAILING ON WAS CAPTURED BY BLACK BEARD THE PIRATE (WILLIAM TEACH) OF TEACHEY NORTH CAROLINA. ONE NIGHT HE AND TWO OTHERS SLIPPED OVERBOARDWITH SOME EMPTY WATER CASK AND SWAM A SHORE IN NORTHERN SOUTH CAROLINA. HIS FRIEND BONES MADE IT TO SHORE WITH DANIEL THE OTHER MAN DROWNED! DANIEL LIVED IN BLADEN COUNTY FOR A WHILE THEN MOVED TOO THE MOUNTAINS. HE FOUND THE WINTERS TOO SEVERE AND MOVED BACK TO BLADEN COUNTY WHERE HE LIVED UNTIL DEATH.

Le Roy Reeves has this to say about Daniel Melvin on page 60 of Ancestral sketches:

Daniel Melvin was shipped at the age of ten as a cabin-boy on a ship bound for America. The ship was captured off the Carolina coast by the famous pirate Blackbeard (Edward Teach), and Melvin and others were taken prisoner. Shortly thereafter, in the nighttime, Melvin, one Tom Bones and a third man removed their clothes, went overboard with an empty water—cask, and started for land. The third man was drowned, but Melvin and Bones reached the shore on the coast of South Carolina and hid in the bushes near a road. In the morning a stranger came along the road. Bones who was a Freemason showed himself, gave a signal of distress and was recognized. The stranger took them to his home and kept them for several days. When they left he gave Bones two suits of clothes and two guineas in money because he was a Mason; and he gave Melvin one suit of clothes and one guinea because he was in the company of a Mason. This story was related in January, 1898 by Isaac J. Cain, greatgrandson of Melvin. Not only is it definite, but it is chronologically correct. Blackbeard's career as a pirate began in 1716. He was killed and his ship was captured off the coast of North Carolina, November 22, 1718.

Melvin married about 1736 and settled as a farmer in Bladen County, North Carolina. At one time during his married life he removed with his family to the mountains of North Carolina but he found the climate there too severe and soon returned to Bladen County. His final home was in the north -east corner of Bladen County as now bounded, near Peters' Creek and Peters Creek Baptist Church, about one-fourth mile west from the present Wilmington—Fayetteville highway. There he built and occupied a log house which has long since disappeared.

The "Yours truly" logo of the State magazine appears here.

YOUNG DANIEL CAME ASHORE ON A BARREL

If Blackbeard was a cold-blooded murderer and scoundrel, as evidenced by Hamilton Cochran's scholarl article (July and August editions), then the possibility of my existence may have hung by a thread. According to family tradition, my immigrant ancestor, Daniel Melvin, was a prisoner on Blackbeard's pirate ship when he arrived in America. Born in BoNess,Scotland in 1700, he was placed on a sailing ship from Skye to serve as cabin-boy when he was only 9 years old. The ship was seized by Blackbeard; and the crew, including the cabin-boy, were taken as prisoners aboard the pirate ship. One night, when they drew in near the South Carolina coast, a seaman by the name of Tom Bones and one other seaman silently lowered an empty cask over- board, then they stripped off their clothes and followed, taking the boy, Daniel, with them. Bones and the boy succeeded in reaching land, but the third seaman drowned in the effort. It seemed that strand of the beach where they found themselves was used as a highway and the nude man and boy were forced to hide in the bushes when travelers came along, but in time, a lone man on horseback approached and Bones, a Mason, stepped out in the open and gave a sign indicating that he was of that order. The stranger under- stood since he, also, was a Mason. Daniel and Bones were taken to the home of a stranger, outfitted with clothes, fed, and later given money to see them on their way. Daniel wandered around until he arrived in the vicinity of what is now Fayetteville, N.C., where he was taken in by a couple who reared him to manhood. Eventually, at around the age of 40, he married Jane Thomas, daughter of an established family in Bladen County, and settled on a tract of land granted him in 1752 on the south side of South River. There Daniel and Jane reared their family of three boys and four girls. Daniel died around 1794 at a ripe old age of about 86 and was buried on his own land. The gravesite is lost. The story first came to me in Florida 1931 from Mr. Gaston Sutton, an elderly relative who was living in the Coral Gables area. Mr. Sutton told me many other things about the family as if it had happened only yesterday, and when I asked him how he knew so much about them, he replied, "It came through my two grandmothers who were the daughters of Daniel Melvin." Many years afterwards I found very much the same account of this story in the published history of the Reeves family entitled, "Family Sketches," compiled by LeRoy Reeves. Still later I found the same in a published history of the Mercer family located in the North Carolina Room of the Greensboro City Library. Draw your own conclusions about the story, and don't strain your con- science, for I find it a little fanciful myself. -- LIONEL MELVIN, Pleasant Garden.

On September 27, 1751 his petition for a warrant for 100 acres of land was ranted by the Governor and Council at New Bern, fourteen months after the granting of a similar petition of Edward Reeves; (Colonial Records of N.C., Vol. IV, pp. 1043,1247); and it was apparently on this that his last home was built. The census of 1790 shows Melvin living in Bladen County, but in that record the name is erroneously spelled or copied Meloins.

• Updated from Find A Grave Memorial via son John Thomas Melvin by SmartCopy: Aug 27 2015, 14:18:21 UTC