William Stewart (1736 - bef. 1820)

Born 1736 in Chester, Pennsylvania

Ancestors

Husband of Jennet (Caldwell) Stewart — married about 1753 in Abbeville, South Carolina

Descendants

Died before 18 May 1820 before age 84 in Abbeville, South Carolina, United States

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Biography

By Mary Stewart Kyritsis (email removed for privacy)
Edited by Fred Prisley

William Stewart married Jennet Caldwell. The 1790 census for Abbeville county showed a William Stewart, Jr. as head of household with two females, two males under 16 years of age, and a male over 16 in his household.

William Stewart made his will 07 Jun 1794, with Matthew Wilson, David Robinson and Samuel Armstrong as witnesses, but it was not probated until 18 May 1820. He named as executors his wife Jennet and his son Alexander Stewart.

• He gave four shillings six pence each to his son John 'and my two daughters Mary and Elizabeth.'
• He gave his son Alexander 150 acres 'of the plantation on which I live, to be laid off by one line, joining William Shaw's, Andrew Miller's and Matthew Wilson's land.'
• The remaining 100 acres of the farm was to belong during her life to his wife Jennet, and at her death it was to go to his son William.
• He gave to his grandson, John Weir, a year's schooling and his maintenance until 16 years old, when he was to be bound to a trade.

William's children were:

1. Alexander, b. abt. 1772
2. Mary, m1. John Weir, Sr. (son John Weir, Jr.), m2. Robert J. Richey
3. Elizabeth
4. John
5. William

WILLIAM STEWART AND WIFE JENNET CALDWELL -- From Mother Barksdale's Story of her Wonderful Life, by Mrs Susan Ann (Richey) Barksdale of Abbeville SC, printed 1905 in Little Rock, AR:

"I was born in the historic county of Abbeville in the famous state of South Carolina ... on Nov. 8, 1838 ... My father was Robert Richey and my mother was Elizabeth Richey; they were first cousins. My mother's mother was a Stewart. My great-grandmother was a Caldwell and a cousin of John C. Calhoun.

"Mrs Leila R. Mize of Athens, GA, writing in 1950, said: 'It is probable that William Stewart and Jennet Caldwell were married in Lunenburg county, VA, or a nearby county, as many of the Caldwells and Richies came from that section to SC about the time of the Revolution.'

"John Caldwell supplicated the Philadelphia synod of the Presbyterian church on 26 May 1738 in behalf of himself and many families of the Presbyterian persuasion who were about to settle in the back parts of Virginia, asking that a committee be appointed to solicit the favor of the government of Virginia in behalf of the settlers, many of whom were already establishing homes there. The government of Virginia was Church of England. A letter was accordingly sent by Rev. James Anderson to Gov. William Gooch at Williamsburg, who replied 04 Nov 1738, that the settlers would be welcome 'on the western side of our great mountains' if their ministers would take the oath of loyalty to the house of Hanover, register their places of meeting and behave themselves peaceably toward the government. John Caldwell moved with a number of other families about 1743 to the Cub Creek neighborhood in what was then Brunswick County (and would become Lunenburg in 1746 and Charlotte in 1765), probably after tarrying a few years in the Shenandoah valley. He was, we suppose, a relative of Andrew Caldwell, who married Ann Stewart and had David Caldwell, born 22 Mar 1725, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, who became a noted Presbyterian preacher. John Caldwell's granddaughter Martha became the wife of Patrick Calhoun of Granville County, South Carolina, and mother of John Caldwell Calhoun, famous statesman.

"The earliest Stewart to appear in the Cub Creek settlement was John (1745-1746). He was styled 'of Brunswick County' in a deed dated 02 Jan 1745/6, to him by Richard and William Kennon, selling him for £19 650 acres of land in Brunswick county on the north side of Cub Creek. The Kennons -- Richard and wife Anne of Charles City County and William, Jr., and wife Elizabeth of Henrico County -- were granted a large tract of land in Brunswick County by Gov. Gooch on 01 Mar 1743/44, and this was part of it. The deed records do not show what became of John's 650 acres on Cub Creek, unless he let it go on a mortgage to Charles Turnbull, witnessed by Clement Read and Paul Carrington, Sep 1752. John got a grant on 10 Jan 1748/49 of 318 acres on both sides of Buffalo Creek in Halifax county, which he sold 09 Dec 1754 to Cornelius Short. He got a grant 10 Sep 1755 of two adjoining tracts of 200 acres each on both sides of Elkhorn Creek in Halifax (partly in Pittsylvania) County. All this time he lived on the north side of Staunton River, and soon after getting a patent to this 400 acres, he went to Salisbury, Rowan County, North Carolina. On 08 Apr 1756, John Stewart 'of the County of Solsbarey in South Carolina' deeded to Charles Stewart of Lunenburg county for £40 the 400 acres on both sides of Elkhorn Creek in Halifax County; the witnesses being James Stuart, John Stewart, and Charles Stewart. The Charles Stewart who bought these two 200-acre tracts was a younger brother of one Thomas Stewart of Charlotte County. On Charles's death without issue, Thomas, as heir at law, gave one of the tracts to his son Charles on 19 Mar 1767. The quit-rents were not paid, and both tracts were forfeited, and John Logan paid up the rents and obtained a right, which he assigned to one James Stewart, who was issued a patent on 03 Aug 1771.

"William Stewart (b.1756) appeared on Cub Creek in a deed dated 10 Oct 1747 wherein he was styled 'of Lunenburg County'. He bought of Richard and William Kennon for £10, 254 acres of land on Cub Creek, one of the witnesses to the deed being William Caldwell. He was a witness to a deed 28 Apr 1755 by James Stewart of Halifax County to John Stewart of Lunenburg County, land on Turnip Creek. He then went to South Carolina, perhaps joining Patrick Calhoun's party at Salisbury or Charlotte, the Calhouns coming from Wythe county, Virginia. On 10 Jan 1756, William Stewart, late of South Carolina, deeded to Robert Weakley of Lunenburg County for £40 his 254 acres of land on Cub Creek, witnesses to his deed being James Rutherford, James Stuart and John Stuart. Elizabeth Brandon, administratrix of the estate of John Brandon, Sr., (whose widow was Ann), gave power-of-attorney 22 Apr 1757 to William Stewart of Granville County, South Carolina, which was recorded in Rowan County, North Carolina. William Stewart of Granville County bought 23 Feb 1758 of John Goff for £23 200 acres of land on Turkey Creek, 'bounded on all sides by vacant lands,' in Granville (now Edgefield) County. William died before 1764. In his will, dated 28 Mar 1761, he bequeathed this 200 acres to John Stuart, Jr., who was probably a nephew."

William Stewart who married Jennet Caldwell, cousin of John Caldwell Calhoun, was evidently married to Jennet quite some years before her illustrious cousin was born, which was 1781. If Mother Barksdale was right, her great-grandfather Stewart was married about 1762 to have a daughter Mary who had a son John Weir in 1780. Mrs Leila E. Mize of Athens, Georgia, a descendant of Mary by her second husband, Robert J. Richey, found a record that John Weir, Mary's first husband, died 01 Jul 1781, noted in the records of St. Philip's Protestant Episcopal church in Charleston, but we are not convinced that this is the right John Weir. (Note: it has been proven to be. John, Jr. had his father's body removed from Charleston and reburied beside his mother's grave at the Greenville Church, Donalds, South Carolina.) Jennet would thus appear to have been a generation older than John C. Calhoun, whose age would tally with that of Jennet's grandson.

William Caldwell -- there was a man of this name in Charlotte county in 1749, and John Stewart was on his tithe list -- was born in Pennsylvania in 1748. According to Annals of Newberry, South Carolina, "In the next year the family removed to Virginia, where they remained until they emigrated to South Carolina about the year 1770." It was in 1770 that William's sister Martha became the second wife of Patrick Calhoun. "After his removal to this state (South Carolina) William Caldwell spent two years at his brother-in-law's, Patrick Calhoun's, in Abbeville, and then returned to Newberry. His brother John Caldwell was married in Mecklenburg , North Carolina, came (to Newberry county) in 1770. He died in the Revolutionary war (a victim, it is said, of Tory atrocity). James Caldwell was born in Charlotte county on 08 Jul 1755, the day of Braddock's defeat, and came with his mother in 1770. He was captain of a company at the battle of Cowpens, 17 Jan 1781.

The Stewarts went from the Cub Creek settlement in SC ahead of the Widow Caldwell and her younger children, a William Stewart being there as early as 1756. That William Stewart could hardly have been the husband of Jennet Caldwell, unless she became his second wife, for he would have been born around 1725. The William who married Jennet was a grandfather by 1794, when he made his will and provided for the schooling of a grandson, John Weir, until 16 years of age. The mother of this boy remarried in 1784, so he was at least 10 but not yet 16 years old in 1794. At that time William's children were evidently all of age. The children named in his will, Abbeville County, were: Mary, John, Elizabeth, Alexander, and William.

Sources

• Find A Grave: Memorial #36062775 for William Stewart (1736–1820), citing Greenville Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Donalds, Abbeville County, South Carolina, USA ; Maintained by Michael Bell (contributor 46911790) .
• Stewarts in Surry County, North Carolina: [selected issues of The Stewart Clan Magazine from January 1930-December 1970], by George T. Edson; Morris Monroe Stewart; Clan Stewart Society in America. Published 1930-1970.
• Edenfield Genealogical Society submitter Mary Bird (email removed for privacy)

See also:

• Ancestry Family Trees Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. Note: This information comes from 1 or more individual Ancestry Family Tree files. This source citation points you to a current version of those files. Note: The owners of these tree files may have removed or changed information since this source citation was created. http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=16281647&pid=1986 'This is a family tree and is not regarded as an acceptable source,

Acknowledgements

• This person was created through the import of JDS_09_17_10.ged on 09 February 2011.
• WikiTree profile Stewart-3373 created through the import of 10_s family tree.ged on Jun 23, 2011 by Tenielle Hoefener.