William Anthony Gholson

From Richard Weiss 21 June 2016:

BACKGROUND: In his book, “Families and descendants in America of Golsan, Golson, Gholson, Gholston, Also Goldston, Golston, etc”, 1959, author James Mallery Black surmised that Major Lewis Golson of Orangeburg, South Carolina was possibly a son of William Gholson and grandson of Anthony Gholson. Black noted that this was just a guess on his part due to the closeness of the spelling of the names and being located in the same general area of South Carolina. Since that time, the connections between the Golson and Gholson families has been added to countless family trees resulting in Black’s guess becoming “fact”.

Y-DNA EVIDENCE DISPROVING GOLSON DESCENDANCY FROM GHOLSON A yDNA surname project was established at FTDNA to confirm or refute the Golson/Gholson connection proposed by Black. That project can be found here: https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/golson-gholson-gholston/about Five tested descendants of Major Lewis Golson - four through son SGT John Lewis Golson and one through son LT John Casper Golson – have yDNA tested at least for 37 markers at Family Tree DNA. All the Golson’s are haplogroup G-M377 and match each other.

Additionally, over 25 descendants of Major Lewis Golson, including four of the five y-DNA testers, have have completed atDNA testing and uploaded to GEDMatch. The 25 testers descend through three of Major Golson’s children, LT John Capser Golson, SGT John Lewis Golson, and Mary Golson Rumph. These Golson descendants have extensive In-Common-With status with each other providing another source of evidence of genealogical pedigrees of four of the yDNA testers to Major Lewis Golson.

L. Gholson, a descendant of Anthony Gholson Sr through his son William Gholson, tested at FTDNA. We compared L. Gholson’s results with those of two Gholson descendants that have been reported by SMGF and GeneBase. L. Gholson is an exact match at 32 out of 32 markers with R. Gholson, a descendant of Anthony Gholson Sr through his son Anthony Gholson Jr. R. Gholson was listed in the SMGF database prior to its deletion. – we have a copy of R. Gholson’s results. We can only compare 32 markers instead of 37 because the other markers tested between FTDNA and SMGF are different. In addition, L. Gholson matches at 20 of 22 comparable tested markers with H. Gholson, a descendant of Hiram Gholson b 1807 in TN who tested at GeneBase. All the Gholson’s are haplogroup R1b.

Two important points:

1. All three Gholsons - the two descendants of Anthony Gholson Sr. through different sons and the descendant of Hiram Gholson - are in haplogroup R1b and apparently close matches. Thus, we can be fairly confident that Anthony Gholson's haplogroup was R1b and it's very likely that H. Golson was also closely related and possibly descended from Anthony Gholson Sr.

Haplogroup R1b is a widely European haplogroup that is commonly found in the British Isles. Gholson lineage traces to England.

2. All five tested descendants of Major Lewis Golson - four through son John Lewis Golson and one through son John Casper Golson - match each other and are in haplogroup G-M377. Haplogroup G-M377 is a distinctly Jewish German group that connects back to Heilbron Germany in the 1500s.

LAND GRANT EVIDENCE OF IMMIGRATION VICE BEING BORN IN VIRGINIA Further research in South Carolina found the attached abstracts printed in Brent H. Holcomb, Petitions for Land from the South Carolina Council Journals, Volume II: 1748-1752 (Columbia SC: SCMAR, 1997),

Initial Bounty Land grant dated 6 Oct 1752 p. 208 “Meeting of Tuesday A.M. 6 August 1751: Pages 221-222: The Petition of LODWICK COUSON humbly setting forth,That the Peti'r coming from Holland was left on St. Page, a MazounPortuguese Island [the record of the petition ends abruptly here] Theprayer thereof with regard to y'e land and Charges was granted.”

Land Grant Memorial dated 24 Aug 1765 A Bounty grant was issued to Ludowick Colson on 6 Oct 1752, for 50 acres on (waters of) the Congaree River. The Memorial of Ludwick Colson, dated 24 Aug 1765, transcribes the adjacent landowners as George Bowser, John George Kirshe, Philip Raiford and Michael Smith [sic]. All of the landowners (under their more usual spellings) lived on the east side of Raiford's Mill Creek, a tributary of the Congaree River, located in current lower Richland Co.

Sale of land grant date 14-15 Nov 1773 SC Deed Book P-4, pp. 338-341: Lease and release. 14 & 15 Dec 1773, “Lewis Golson, Esqr., of St. Mathews Parish, SC, to Adam Bowers of province aforesaid, planter, for ?100 SC money, tract granted 6 Oct 1752 to Lewis Golson, 50 acres on north side of Congaree River adj. John George Kersh, Philip Raiford, George Bowers, Michael Snider. Lewis Golson (LS), Wit: George Bowers (X), Peter Staley, John Golson. Proved in Camden District by the oath of George Bowers before Philip Pearson, J.P., 30 July 1774. Recorded 15 March 1777.”

Note that the plat of George Bowers was listed under Boeser, Bowser and Boozer (despite no apparent connection to the Buser/Boesar/Busser families of Saxegotha and Orangeburgh Townships). The Bowers name was used by this family from the latter 18th century. John George Kirch and Michael Schneider were immigrants who arrived on the ship St. Andrew in late 1744. This Kirch/Kersh/Kiershe is not the same person as the John George Kirch with an Orangeburgh plat in 1739.

A petition is normally followed by a plat, a land grant, and then a Memorial which acts as registration of ownership. The Memorials were supposed to be filed within 6 months of receipt of the grant (but often were not). Quit Rent taxes of 3 shillings per 100 acres were payable to the Crown; Bounty grants to newcomers from Europe had their Quit Rents remitted for 10 years following the date of the grant.

The Bounty grant indicates that Major Golson was a "foreign Protestant", since those were the only people eligible for the Bounty program. Immigrants who were Catholic had to sit through long sermons explaining why they should abjure the Pope--otherwise, they'd have to pay surveying and recording fees for their "free land", just like any English-born immigrant (or anybody born in the colonies outside South Carolina). A few of them did that, while others preferred to pay the fees. There is no indication that Jewish immigrants were pressured to change religions upon arrival. Most of the early practicing Jews settled in Charlestown or Savannah, where Bounty land grants weren't available. Since Lewis Golson asked for--and received--a bounty grant, it is unlikely that he was a practicing Jew at the time of arrival and most likely a protestant Christian.

We have not been able to find a location for an island named “St. Page” under Portuguese rule. “Mazoun" or Mazun was a frequent English mispronunciation for the Amazon river, which was indeed in Portuguese hands in 1751. Whether pirates or privateers were operating out of the Amazon delta islands will require further research. St. Page may not be correct due to translation errors between an English scribe, as pronounced by a German immigrant, During the mid and late 1740's, a number of immigrant ships were captured by French or Spanish privateers (a few unlucky immigrants by one of each), and diverted to other locations. Several settlers of Orangeburgh and Saxegotha had to be ransomed from prison in Havana after a 2-year stay there. We are unaware of Portugese privateers or pirates, its’ possible. This is an area of further research.

Ludwig Colson/Lewis Golson likely arrived alone from Germany or Switzerland because his initial land grant was for 50 acres. 50 acres was given to single immigrants. We do not know if he departed with a family that died enroute or if he was single at the time of departure. Normally immigrants came in groups from the same town or area. We do not know if he arrived with others or totally alone.

He most likely departed on a ship from Rotterdam Holland, the primary embarkation point for 1700s travel to the Colonies.

After his arrival, he petitioned for land on 06 AUG 1751 he was awarded the land grant of 50 acres in 06 Oct 1752 on the east side of Raiford's Mill Creek, a tributary of the Congaree River, located in current lower Richland Co. He later sold the land grant in 14-15 NOV 1773.

Based on the land records we know Major Lewis Golon’s first name was very likely Ludwig and Golson may be an English spelling variation of his German surname, which remains undefined.

There also is no record of Major Lewis Golson using the name John as indicated in many trees.

CONCLUSION Based on the yDNA evidence and the land grants, we can conclude beyond doubt that Major Lewis Golson was NOT a son of William Gholson and NOT a grandson of Anthony Gholson Sr. of VA. The Gholson family (of VA/TN/KY etc.) is not related (at least patrilineally) to the Golson family (of SC/AL etc).