ISAAC DILLION-3 married JEMIMA BRITTAIN November 23, 1787, with Nathan Armfield as the bondsman for the non-Quaker ceremony, for which ISAAC was disowned by the Quakers. [Hinshaw.]
JEMIMA BRITTAIN, [spelled several different ways] was born about 1769, probably in Guilford County, North Carolina. We are not a 100% sure who her father was, but the preponderance of evidence is that Benjamin Brittain, who was listed in Salisbury District in 1790, near the DILLON families, was her father. Benjamin Brittain was one of the early Quakers listed in the New Garden area, but apparently was not faithful to the sect. He was listed in the early minutes of the New Garden Monthly Meeting. He had moved to North Carolina in 1754, and he had been received from Hopewell Meeting in Virginia in 1755. His brother was William, whose wife was Rebecca Ballanger, and who moved there in 1758. Benjamin was disfellowshipped in 1758, only three years after the move from Virginia.
Benjamin, James, Samuel, and William Brittain, lived in Guilford about the time appropriate to be JEMIMA’s father and were apparently brothers. [Hinshaw, pg 370.] William's will there in 1794, without a probate date, does not list JEMIMA as an heir, so we can probably eliminate him as JEMIMA's father. Benjamin is the only one that lived in the same district with the DILLONS, so he has the best "odds" of being JEMIMA's father. No absolute proof has been found, however.
Joseph Brittain, who died in 1774 or 1775 in Rowan County, left a will naming his sons and his wife, Jemime. The names of his sons almost duplicate the names of the Brittains in Guilford County. However, his sons were all minors when he died in 1774, therefore precluding him being the father of our Benjamin and William, but he might be their brother. The will of Benjamin’s brother, William, in Guilford lists his sons. He had a son named Joseph, and the Brittains, in general, seemed to use and re use the names Joseph, William, Benjamin, so there is probably some connection between the families, but at this point, we are unable to pinpoint it.
Benjamin Brittain owned land along the four creeks and rivers very near the DILLON families. He had arrived only a year or two after DANIEL DILLION had come, so ISAAC and JEMIMA must have grown up close to each other. Benjamin was given a letter from Hopewell to New Garden Meeting of Friends, so we can be reasonably sure that he knew the DILLONS in Virginia.
Carolina Cradle, by Robert W. Ramsey, a history of the central-Carolina settlement, doesn't mention anything about the Brittain lines. The McCubbins Collection of abstracts on microfilm at the Arkansas History Commission in Little Rock, Arkansas, lists a few records for the Brittain family in Rowan County. The earliest record in the McCubbins information is:
James Brittain, a native of Wales who moved to Pennsylvania and then Virginia, and while passing through North Carolina, liked the Iooks of the country and went back to Virginia and brought his bride, Miss Witty, and her in 1aws back with him and settled in what is now Forsyth County, and was then Guilford. They had a son named Samuel [Sr.] born in 1742 in North Carolina and he married Mary Perkins and had sons: Samuel, James, Joseph, Wil1iam, John and daughters Mary and Nancy.
How valid this "tale" is remains to be researched. Some of the McCubbins [written] oral history is not documented, or is in conflict with existing documentation. Samuel, born in 1742, probably was not a brother of Benjamin , who was probably at least several years older.
Samuel Britton was living in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and migrated to Hopewell Monthly Meeting in Frederick County, Virginia, where DANIEL’s family lived. This Samuel was received in 1737 in Virginia. He had a daughter, Sarah, who was disfellowshipped in 1765 in Hopewell Meeting. Jonathon Britton was disfellowshipped the same year by Hopewell. This Samuel Britton, born by 1716 or before, might be an ancestor of Benjamin.
The LDS Family Records contain the family of John Brittain, born about 1600 in England, and his wife, Eleanor Cross. Their son, William, and his wife, Maria Stillwell, emigrated to Staten Island, New York. The "repeating names" of their family make this author think that we might eventually "connect" with this family. More research is needed to document even JEMIMA's connection to Benjamin..
William Brittain, in Guilford County, had two sons, also named Joseph and William. This confuses the records somewhat by the end of the 1790s, as these two young men were adults by then. William-1's wife was Rebecca [Ballanger], as mentioned in his will in 1794. No probate date was given for his will so we aren't sure when he died, but it appears after 1809, when John Hunt made him executor of his will. It is obvious, though, that at least some of William's children were grown by then, as he mentions four married daughters in his 1794 will. One of them is surnamed Hunt. William and Joseph Brittain married two girls named Gooch in 1795 and 1796. We assume that these were the sons of William-1 rather than his. This would probably mean that William was born at least by 1750 [or before] to have grown, married children by 1794.
During the Revolution, a Benjamin Brittain served as a corporal for three years. His son, Benjamin Britain, “heir at law” of Benjamin, received a warrant for 200 acres of land for his father’s Revolutionary services.[Burgess, Virginia Soldiers of 1776, Vol 2, pg 1391.]