Narcissus Graham

Graham Name Study, Sumter, South Carolina

• DAR Ancestor #: A046774 LDS Pedigree Resource File

1800United States Federal Census

• Narcissus Graham Clarendon, Sumter District, South Carolina 0 6, 26 thru 44, Page: 604

Named in grateful memory of Narcissus Marsh, Primate of the Anglican Church of Ireland (1702-1713). Came to the assistance of the Grahams (Presbyterian dissenters) to see that justice was done.

In 1730, the Rev. John Graham, then living in Stafford, Conn., went back to his old home in Armagh, Ireland "to attend to his temporal affairs." When he returned to his family in Stafford, we can well imagine how his three children, Elizabeth, John, Jr. and Robert must have gathered about him, as he sat by the log fire and begged for stories of his trip--of the sea and of the big ship which had brought him safely home. He must have told them of his childhood and how difficult it was for the little Scotch boys who did not belong to the Church of England to get an education since all doors were closed to Presbyterians in Ireland. Indeed, if if had not been for the English Primate Narcissus Marsh, who befriended them and helped them in all thier difficult situations, their father would never have been able to go to college and could not have been a minister. Something of the love and reverence which the Rev. John felt for the old Primate must have passed down to John Jr., for when his own sons were born, after naming the first for his father, the second for his mother's father, and the third for his older brother Robert, the fourth son was called Narcissus.

Narcissus served in the Revolutionary war from the beginning until the end, starting at age 14 in the Fife and Drum Corps. Peace was declared in 1783 and Narcissus returned home. However, after the close of the war ther is no mention of him in any Connecticut records or in any family papers. For some time he was unable to be traced further. Then, by chance, a memorandum was found in the Bible of his nephew, Moses King, son of Ruth (Graham) King, which said that Narcissus had married a daughter of George Merrill and that he had gone to the high hills of Santee. No proof of the first statement can be found; but the second one one was very helpful tracing Narcissus as it led the search of South Carolina records where lie the "high hills of Santee."

Narcissus must have heard a great deal of talk during and after the war from soldiers returning from the South. Perhaps their glowing accounts made him decide to settle in South Carolina. Much land was granted to the Revolutionary soldiers; and in 1786 Narcissus received from the government 500 acres in South Carolina.

from The Reverend John Graham and His Descendents by Helen Graham Carpenter, pub. 1942.