John Pickens

John Pickens, the fifth son of William and Margaret Pickens, was born about 1710 in Ireland. He moved with his parents to Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1719, where he united with the Bensalem Dutch Reformed Church by certificate. In 1737, he married Eleanor Kerr. Records show he signed a road petition in Paxton Township, Pennsylvania in 1735.

In 1740 there was a large movement of Scotch-Irish immigrants from Pennsylvania to Virginia. The Governor of Virginia offered special inducements to encourage settlement of the territory west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Under the existing laws of Virginia, a freeholder who brought persons into the colony at his own expense was entitled to a certain number of additional acres of land.

At a court in Orange County, Virginia, on Thursday, July 24, 1740, John Pickens made an oath that he imported himself, Margaret Pickens, "ye elder" (his mother), Eleanor (his wife), Margaret "ye younger" (his younger sister), Gabriel Pickens (his brother)and William Baskin from Ireland to Philadelphia and from thence to this colony at his own expense and that this is the first time of proving his and their right to obtain land. (as indicated above, under Virginia law, a man was allowed certain additional acres of land for each person he had transported into the colony at his own expense.) 

He was granted land in what is now Augusta County, Virginia on February 27, 1740. Other records show he made a court declaration on July 24, 1740. In 1742, he was appointed a Captain in the militia. He owned a mill in 1744 and was appointed a Justice in 1745. There are many references to John in Augusta County, Virginia from 1745 to 1754. His children were baptized by the Reverend John Craig from 1741 to 1749.

In October, 1746, John Pickens, William Baskin, James Leslie, and 30 others signed the following petition to the Governor and Council of South Carolina:

(The following is from the Journal of the South Carolina Council, October 10, 1746.)

"His Excellency laid before the Board the following petition he had received from sundry inhabitants of the back parts of Virginia, humbly showing that the petitioners have had a great expectation to hear by John Turk that the lands, granted at Ninety six, was purchased as Thomas Turk has informed them; that the Council did promise them that such a purchase should be obtained last March. That the petitioners trusting to his word have fully resolved to remove their families but as no certain account had been brought them of the purchase having been made, the same put a stop to their moving. Wherefore, if the Governor will soon make a real purchase of that land laid a part for them and then communicate the same to Thomas Turk, so that they may be informed of the truth thereof, if they can with safety then they will remove and come there. That the petitioners are informed that there are many loose persons who bear a bad character in some of those back parts and hope the Council will give them no manner of encouragement by letting them settle on any of that land, and pray that the Government would not grant away the best of that land, until they have time to hear of the purchase, and then to come and have their lot amongst us, they rely on the Clemency of the government in granting their request.

Signed: John Pickens, William Baskins, James Leslie and above 30 others."

Eight years later, on October 9, 1754, John and Eleanor sold their land in Virginia and by November 21, 1754 had left the county. The 1758 Augusta County, Virginia records list John as "Gone".

Apparently this is when the family moved to the Ninety-Six District in South Carolina. John died in Abbeville, SC in 1771.