Nathaniel
Holmes-1; Robert-2; Albert Garner-3; Leatha A.-4 (Our ancestor is
Calvin Baker rather than Leatha)
LEATHA A. HOLMES-4 was born in Macon County, Tennessee, May 25, 1851. Macon County had been cut from Sumner in the 1840s. She was the youngest child of a Scots-Irish family which had arrived in Philadelphia in 1771. LEATHA was almost an infant when both her parents, ALBERT GARNER HOLMES-3 and MILLEY TURNER-4 HOLMES, died. She was raised by an older sister, Mary Frances Holmes Bell. She was the twelfth-child of a twelfth-child, so almost 100 years passed between her grandfather’s birth and hers. Her HOLMES grandparents were dead when she was born, but her TURNER grandparents were still alive until she was grown.
LEATHA’s grandfather, ROBERT HOLMES-2, had landed in Philadelphia in 1771 when he was 23 years old, accompanied by his parents, NATHANIEL-1 and MARY__?__ HOLMES, and several brothers and sisters.
They were originally of Scots extraction, but had left Scotland sometime after the first decade of the seventeenth century and moved into Ulster in Northern Ireland, along with many of their countrymen.
In 1600 Scotland had never known orderly government or a rule by law instead of by men, nor had the country ever, for many years at a time, known Peace. Life everywhere was insecure, not only because of recurrent wars with the English, but even more because of abominable economic methods, a niggardly soil, and constant cattle raiding and feuds. [The Scotch-Irish, A Social History, pg 3.]
During the religious persecution of the Irish Catholics by the British, King James settled great tracts of land in the six northern-most counties of Ireland with Protestant Scots starting in the first decade of the 1600’s. Later, many of their descendants came to the colonies to escape persecution by the British.
The people referred to as “Scots-Irish” were actually neither Scots nor Irish, but were primarily Presbyterian, free-thinking Protestants, most of whose ancestors had come from the lowlands of Scotland They were settled on confiscated lands in Northern Ireland beginning about 1610 by King James I of England, to displace the savage and Catholic Celtic Irish Clans. The group was larger than that, though, and included any number of different British subjects who had either been forced into, or voluntarily migrated to, Ireland but were not of native Irish [Celtic] stock.
The Scots Highlanders were predominantly Catholic and less friendly to the British Crown than the Lowlanders. The British/Scots King James didn’t trust the Highlanders much more than he did the native Irish, so he didn’t send the Highlanders into Ireland. The Scots Highlanders were also fiercely independent and tended to go to war with each other and the crown at the drop of a hat!
The Scots settlers moved to six of Ulster’s counties by King James contained an amalgamation of Celts, Roman, Angle, and Saxon blood. The Scots Highlanders were more racially identical with the Celts than with the Lowland Scots. Physically, the Lowlanders were a tough and hardy breed, somewhat tall, and strong boned. They were heavily muscled and fit for hard work. They were a strong-minded people with no lack of common sense. Ordinarily, they were undemonstrative, but love of family ran deep. They were hospitable to friends, and unrelenting to foes. They didn’t take kindly to restraint or injustice and were little given to yielding in an argument.
English Border people were also lumped in with the “Scots-Irish” when they reached America from Ireland. These were the northern British border people who were racially identical with the Lowland Scots and sociologically similar as well. Many of them were forced into Ireland to join the Scots in Ulster. Others went because the religious climate in Ireland at that time was more tolerant of their non-Anglican religions.
Though King James moved the majority of the Scots into his “plantations” in Ireland in the years between 1610 and 1618, about the time of the settling of Jamestown in America, others moved later. After King Charles was beheaded, Cromwell moved in more settlers in the years between 1652 and 1654. During the years after the Civil War in England to unseat Catholic King James II and replace him with Protestant William of Orange and James’ daughter, Mary, since the Catholic Irish had been more loyal to the defeated King James II, more lands were confiscated and settled with still more Scots Protestants. The Scots migrations out of Ireland didn’t really start in force until about 1710 and ended just before the American Revolution.
The Scots had willingly moved to Ireland to better themselves economically. The land- rental system in Scotland in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries was not conducive to successful farming. Scotland had a king who was not a strong central ruler. There was no unified national feeling for the king. The barons who controlled different areas nominally swore allegiance to the king. They expected that the land-owners and farmers under them would swear loyalty to them. The king did not rule or collect taxes. In reality, he was simply one of the more powerful of the barons. He was also subject to overthrow.
The lairds, or land owners, were not “gentry,” but simply land owners. They leased out the land to the farmers below them in a system a step above serfdom, but just barely. Land ownership was usually passed from father to oldest son intact, rather than being divided between several children. This kept the system going, as the great estates were not usually subdivided, but passed entirely. This made the social system work, but left younger sons of the landowners to fend for themselves, go into the military or government service, or emigrate. The frequency of wars did help to eliminate excess sons to some extent. The tenant farmers tended to stay in a given area and work the same man’s lands generation after generation. The system perpetuated poverty, however.
In Scotland, rather than a tenant getting the same piece of ground year after year, they were given narrow bands of ground and these were rotated among different men in different years. This was intended to be fair to everyone, giving everyone a shot at getting the better lands. What it did, in reality, was make things unfair to everyone. Since a man would not get the same piece of ground again, he would not expend the labor to “manure” the ground in the fall. The ground was poor to start with, and the primitive farming methods required huge teams of oxen to pull the plows. A team big enough to pull the crude plows might number 8 to 16 oxen. No one man could afford enough oxen for a team. Therefore, he had to band together with several other men to put a team and plow into the fields.
For about the same reasons that they did not manure the grounds, the farmers did not erect permanent dwellings, because they were moving on next year anyway, or the raiders from outside might sweep down any day and burn and tear down the homes. The Scots built, as one writer of the day noted, “stys out of piled stones in which they and their few animals huddled at night.” The farmers were on the verge of starvation many years because of poor crop yields. Living conditions were very harsh.
Because the farmer usually had barely enough to feed his family, their cattle were left to fend for themselves during the winter, with the survivors rounded up in the spring to yoke to the plow, or give a little milk for the family. Even today, the breeds of cattle developed by this process of natural selection, of survival of the fittest in the harsh Scots climate with poor forage, are still hardy survivors when compared to their European cousins that were bred and developed by selective breeding and given feed and birthing assistance by their owners.
The people, because of their social system, hostile environment, and poverty, were warlike, backwards, shiftless, and generally unsuccessful, living on the ragged edge of starvation. They were the perfect group to offer a new way of farming, a place not too far from home, with lands that they could rent for up to 30 years at a stretch, or even “three lives.” A “three lives” lease was an interesting way to lease land. Three people would be named on the lease and the lease ran for the length of the life of the longest-living of the three. Frequently a man would list himself and two of his younger children. People having three-lives leases would improve the land because they intended to stay there for the length of their lives, though these leases could be, and frequently were, sublet.
The history of the Scots in Ireland is long and colorful, but during their stay in the Isles, which was primarily in the six Ulster counties, there was almost no intermarriage or intermingling with the native Irish, who were despised by the Scots. The Scots kept their own religion, speech, and social customs. Even after many generations, a Scots transplant thought of himself as a “Scotsman.” Yet, they had been gone from their homeland for quite some time, and the move had changed them, they were different from their Scots cousins who had stayed in Scotland. They had little left in common with their Scots cousins who had stayed home and continued to live on the ragged edge of starvation. The intermarriages between the Scots and their British neighbors, who had also moved into Ireland, had also changed them. Prosperity had changed them, as well.
One noted exception to the lack of intermarriage between the Scots immigrants seems to be the DORRIS family in Ireland. According to the research done by C. Eugene Dorris, there appear to be many families of Dorrises who are Catholics in Northern Ireland. This is quite unusual, however, and was not the rule. The Scots Protestants generally looked down on the Catholic Celts so much so that the prejudice against intermarriages with Catholics was even imported into the United States and lasted for hundreds of years. The prejudices went both ways, however, and the Catholics strongly discouraged intermarriage with Protestants, as well.
Transplantation into Ireland had not completely relieved them of persecution by the British government. They soon had a thriving wool-cloth industry. Then the British, in a move to protect the British industries, outlawed the production of wool cloth in Ireland. So the Scots in Ireland started producing linen and developed a wonderful linen industry. In addition to the economic persecution, the British Crown changed from Protestant to Catholic, and back again, several times. Each monarch or pretender to the throne gathered those of his or her religion about them. Those of the opposite faction would fight against them. The poor Scots in Ireland who clung to their Presbyterian faith endured much persecution, including burning at the stake, hanging, drawing and quartering, and other harsh measures. They were a stalwart group, however.
By the early 1700s, the combination of English persecution and increased rents, coupled with widespread famine, caused many to decide to move to the new world---America!
In several waves, starting in 1717 and ending in the last great wave of 1771-1774, over 200,000 of them came to America to find a new life. The migration almost depopulated whole areas of Northern Ireland. The majority of the Scots-Irish were weavers or in some way associated with the linen trade. We have no indication that our ROBERT HOLMES was a weaver, but we do know that his brother, James, kept apprentices who were being taught to weave, so the family had some connections to the trade. His other brother, Albert, was a blacksmith.
The first great wave of immigrants who came in 1717 came because of the destruction of the wool trade, the increase in the quitrents, and the “test act,” which deprived them of their political rights because of their religion. The next great wave came in 1727 to 1728 and was primarily due to famine. A third wave came in 1750 to 1751 and was, again, due to famine. The last great wave, in which NATHANIEL and MARY and their adult children, ROBERT, Albert, James, Catherine, and Elizabeth came, was in the years 1771 to 1774. This wave was due to the decrease of the linen trade and the increase in the rents, as well as a shortage of food. It was the greatest wave of all, and probably 50,000 or more people came. Many were poor and came as indentured servants to pay their way. Whether or not the entire family left Ireland we have no way of knowing. It is possible that one or two, or even more, children of NATHANIEL and MARY remained behind in Ireland.
Children of Nathaniel-1 [circa 1720-1794] and Mary __?__Holmes
ROBERT HOLMES-2, may have been the oldest son, born January 5, 1747/48 [OS/NS], in Raphoe Parish, County Donegal, Ireland, married MARJORY BELL October 10, 1781. He died October 10, 1838, in Sumner County, Tennessee. They had been married 57 years. [Revolutionary Pensions of Robert Holmes & James Holmes.]
James Holmes-2, born February 28, 1863, in County Donegel, Ireland, married Ester McConnel, daughter of Alexander McConnel, about 1785 in Iredell County, North Carolina. He may have been one of the younger children, perhaps the youngest son. He died August 31, 1834, in North Carolina. He was a planter and a weaver. James-2 and Ester had Nathaniel-3, Robert-3, and Ester Holmes-3. Robert Holmes-3 was born 1795, and died 1889. He married Mary A. McConnell. He and his wife are buried at Tabor Meeting House. [Heritage of Iredell, # 270 & #269.][Revolutionary Pension of James Holmes.]
James Holmes-2 was security in 1799 for the estate of Alexander McConnel. Catherine McConnel and Burgess Gaither were the executors. [I:340.]
Albert Holmes-2, born about 1760 in Ireland, was the first of the family to move to Sumner county, Tennessee. He was a blacksmith, and he lived in Tennessee at least until the early 1820s.
Elizabeth Holmes-2, born about 1760, probably in Ireland, married a man named Anderson. [Will of Mary Holmes, Iredell County, NC.]
Catherine Holmes-2, was born about 1760, probably in Ireland. Nothing more is known about her, except that she survived her mother and lived until at least 1800. [Will of Mary Holmes, Iredell County, NC.]
We have not found any indentures for ROBERT-2 or his brothers or parents, but we know from the pensions of James & ROBERT HOLMES that they landed in Philadelphia, where many indentured people came. We also know that they stayed there for several years, just as many indentured persons did before they left and went to newer areas of settlement. It is quite possible that some members of the family came as indentured travelers. If they weren’t actually indentured, they probably had to stay with or near relatives for a few years to accumulate a “grub stake” in order to move on and acquire land of their own. It was unusual for indentured labor to be older or married couples. Usually indentured servants of either sex were unmarried. The Redemptioners might come as married couples or families, but indentures were mostly single persons. In general, the Scots-Irish who came in the 1771 to 1774 migration, migrated due to poverty. We have no reason to believe that our HOLMES family migrated for any other reason.
The families tended to practice “serial migration.” One nuclear family would come in one wave of emigrants, and then write back home and the next group of their brother’s children would come on over, etc. The relatives already here would assist the newcomers to get settled. In turn, those people, when they were settled, would assist another group. Most came through Pennsylvania where they would work off an indenture of from five to seven years or work for relatives, then strike out down the Great Wagon Road in search of cheap land to buy. Land in Pennsylvania worth having was about gone, or pushed up against the mountains and the Indians. ROBERT and his family followed this pattern.
One thing the Scots-Irish immigrants had in common was a universal hatred of the British. Due to their dislike of the British authority, their large number of immigrants helped to force the “attitude” necessary for the American Revolution. There were very few Scots-Irish Tories. So many Scots-Irish fought that the Pennsylvania militia was called “The Irish line.”
Though the Scots-Irish were not totally uniform as a group, their sojourns in Ireland had changed them from their Scots forebearers. They were generally more progressive, better fed, better clothed, cleaner, had little if any loyalty to a locale, and were much easier to uproot and move. Their loyalty seemed to be more to the extended-family group than to a locale. In a way, they were men without a country.
Pennsylvania was chosen as the first stop for most of them because of the greater degree of political, economic, social, and religious freedom than existed in the other colonies. The Quakers, however, soon developed an intense dislike of these “uppity” immigrants. The feelings were mutual.
A few Scots-Irish did come directly into the Scots-Irish settlements in Augusta County, Virginia, at the Beverly Manor, and a few into North Carolina in the years just before the Revolution, but most came through Pennsylvania. A few Catholic Irish were sent into Beverly Manor Virginia, as convict labor. Records in the Presbyterian group in Augusta indicate that these “Popish convicts” lived among them.
ROBERT’s revolutionary records do not indicate the county in Ireland where he resided before he emigrated, but the Revolutionary pension application of his brother, James, indicates that the family came from Raphone Parish, County Donegel, Ireland. It is likely that the entire family came on the same ship with ROBERT in 1771.
We know that ROBERT and his family were Presbyterians, and there is a little history written about the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.
The Raphoe Congregation is one of the early Presbyterian settlements of Ulster. Bishop Know, who was placed in the Episcopal See about the time to the Plantation of Ulster, encouraged the Scotsmen to become tenants on the Episcopal lands; and thus it is that to this very day so many of the farmers in the parish are Presbyterians. The meeting house was originally built at Convoy, and until the middle of the eighteenth century there was no Presbyterian place of worship at Raphoe. About the time Raphoe was erected into a separate congregation, and the old congregation was henceforth known by the name of Convoy.
The first minister of the newly erected congregation of Raphoe was Rev. James Gordon, who had formerly been minister of Castleblaney, and who was installed here in August 1751. He died in his charge in 1785 and was succeeded by Mr. William Ramsay. [A History of the Congregations of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland 1610-1982.]
The Scots-Irish coming to America weren’t going off into a totally unknown land. Reports had come back home from countrymen and relatives already here. Some, who had arrived as early as 1717, were still keeping in touch with relatives at home. Also, recruiters sent by men with large land grants had spread the word to the unhappy Scotsmen in Ireland that they could own their own land in the new colonies, not be beholden to a landlord who could, and would, raise the rents.
Francis Holmes, who may be NATHANIEL’s brother, seemed to be living near them in North Carolina. He may have also sailed with them at the same time or preceded them to America. He signed wills, deeds, and other documents with them as witnesses. Francis was not named as an heir in MARY’s will along with her children, so it is assumed by this author that he was a relative, but not a child of MARY.
Sailing to America
The vessels used for crossings in those days were generally small, when judged by the seagoing vessels today, and powered by sail. They were usually broad in the bow and the poop and forecastle were raised above the main deck. The mainmast was usually near the middle of the ship and the foremast as near the bow as possible. They were very slow sailing vessels and a trip could take from 41 to a 141 days to cross the Atlantic. The price of passage from England to Virginia in the late seventeenth century was six pounds for each person over 12 years old and half that for those under 12. That was about a year’s wages for a healthy person in England.
Food was the same ration as for the sailors, each person to have their allowance of bread, butter and cheese weekly, other provisions were distributed daily: each passenger over six years old was to have seven pounds of bread every week, each mess of eight to have two pieces of pork, each piece two pounds, and peas five days in the week, two days four pounds of beef with peas each day or four pounds of beef with pudding.
Some ships were crowded with immigrants and many people died in crossing either from lack of rations or disease. The quality of the crossing depended upon the honesty and good sense of the ship’s owners and captain. The crossing could have been from poor to horrific. In any case, it was not an easy journey.
The typical dress for the Pennsylvania colonial consisted of a hunting shirt, which was a loose-sleeved frock that came down to the middle of the thigh and was made of leather or linsey-woolsey, a pair of breeches made of the same material, and a belt that always fastened in the back. The belt served as a carrier for anything from mittens to a bullet pouch. Footwear consisted of a form of ankle-high moccasins. A great cape made of heavy linsey-woolsey, decorated with various colored fringes, and a cap topped off the outfit. [Albion’s Seed.]
The Scots-Irish women wore fairly short dresses with petticoats, which scandalized the people in Pennsylvania. The dress for winter would be of wool and the summer dress would be linsey-woolsey. Green and blue as their favorite colors. Linsey-woolsey was cloth made of linen warp, and a woolen woof. In other words, half the fibers were linen, and half were wool. Most women spun the thread for their family’s clothing. [Albion’s Seed.]
Travel from the river ports to the frontier was by foot or horseback. Frontier Pennsylvania at first had no road that could have accommodated a wheeled vehicle even if the immigrants had had them. The immigrants, newly arrived, and eager to make a home usually walked to where they would live, or possibly went part of the way by small boats. It wasn’t long before the new colony started constructing a few roads, however, and a road leading westward from Philadelphia was soon under construction. The pioneers immediately started pushing further out from the road and past its terminus. A road pushed south from Pennsylvania toward Virginia, and eventually into Rowan County, North Carolina. This road was called The Great Wagon Road.
The Pennsylvania Scots-Irish were under-represented in the Colonial Pennsylvania government, which continued as a Quaker-run proprietorship up until the Revolution. The Quakers, though less in numbers, wielded a political power out of proportion to their population. The Scots-Irish on the frontier, who suffered Indian attacks due to the Quakers’ refusal to “handle” the problem, were about ready to rebel when the Revolution broke out. Almost to a man, they were radical Whig proponents, rather than having the more moderate Whig leanings. The Scots-Irish welcomed the chance to join the rebellion and fight the British.
The Pennsylvania Quakers were stubborn in their opinions and so were the Scots-Irish, who were a more war-like group than the pacifist Quakers.
After coming to the colonies in 1771, his pension applicaation says ROBERT lived “on the forks of the Brandywine.” The Forks of the Brandywine is actually a Presbyterian community in Pennsylvania, also called “Brandywine Manor.” [History of Chester County, PA.] ROBERT lived there until May of 1775, when he enlisted in the rebellion and served three months as a private in Captain Cochran’s Pennsylvania Company. The Brandywine Creek, which is about 25 miles southwest of Philadelphia, was known for its flour mills from Colonial times. [Revolutionary Pension W.84, Robert Holmes, Marjory; NC & Penn.]
The Presbyterian pastor when ROBERT was there was the Reverend John Carmichael. He had been appointed in 1760 after a split, over doctrine and acceptable methods of spreading the Gospel, that lasted several years had healed. The church there had its first minister appointed in 1736.
In the first year of the American Revolution, volunteers from Pennsylvania joined troops under George Washington in the Siege of Boston. Other volunteer troops were retained for the defense of the colony, for fear Indians or the British would invade. The Quakers who lived in the area, and were the establishment in Pennsylvania, were pacifists for the most part, though some of them did eventually join the rebellion and leave the sect.
“The Irish Line”
Brandywine
There were so many Scots-Irish in the Pennsylvania Revolutionary army that the line was called “The Irish Line.” Pennsylvania saw its share of the actual fighting in the Revolution because Philadelphia seemed to be the capital of the rebellious colonies and the British wanted to occupy it. Under the command of Sir William Howe, British troops were taken by water from New York and landed at the head of Chesapeake Bay.
The Ordinary Book kept by the quartermaster general of the army noted the common practice of women, which included wives, concubines, and prostitutes, to follow their men.
George Washington moved his troops from northern New Jersey into Southern Pennsylvania in hope of preventing the British army from capturing Philadelphia. August 24,1777, brought fine weather and Philadelphians turned out along Front and Chestnut streets to see George Washington leading the American troops through the city to meet Howe and Cornwallis. For more than two hours, Washington’s men flowed over the cobbled streets. Washington wanted to make a good impression on the people and he ordered his troops to keep “their women out of sight.” [Scheer, Rebels & Redcoats, pg 233.]
Howe landed his British troops, weak and sick from the voyage, at Elk Head and began moving north. The two forces edged closer to the placid ripples of Brandywine Creek. On the morning of September 11, 1777, four young girls were walking on the road. They saw horsemen on the road to Kennet Square and one of the men commanded them to “go home!”
“Why?” the girls asked. “Because the British are coming up this road,” came the reply. This advance seen by the girls was a mere diversion. Howe’s main force was curving upstream to fall heavily on the American’s right flank.
On came the attack. American units broke and ran. Teamsters panicked, sending their heavy wagons rocking and rolling. As darkness fell, the whipped Americans were in retreat. Washington was with Green’s division, still solid despite its killing double-time march and hard fighting, butting its way through the mass of fugitives. Little by little, order was restored. Cornwallis took Philadelphia. ROBERT was there for the Battle of Brandywine, along with several other of this author’s ancestors. [Scheer, Rebels & Redcoats.]
During the first three-month tour with Captain Cochran’s company, the pension records said ROBERT marched to Trenton, Princeton, Brunswick, Woodbury, Amboy, and the New Blazing Star, where “they frequently exchanged fire with the Hessians across the river.”
Late in 1777, after almost six years in the colony, ROBERT-2 and his parents, brothers, and sisters took the Great Wagon Road south, and moved into Salisbury District, Rowan County, North Carolina, into an area that would eventually become Iredell County, North Carolina. The distance from Pennsylvania was about 450 miles. The wagon road was described in The Scots-Irish, A Social History:
It began, naturally enough at the colonial metropolis, Philadelphia, starting on the western bank of the Schuylkill. By the 1720s it reached only to the settlements in Lancaster County, for there the Suysquehanna made a natural end of the track. This section of the road had been widened and steadily improved, for it was the most used, and it now passed through the thriving market town of Lancaster. At the Susquehanna, the main road went through York and Gettysburg, and so across the Monocacy River in Maryland to Williamsport on the Potomac; but a much-traveled northern branch of it led up from Lancaster to Harris Ferry to traverse the Cumberland Valley and lead through Chambersburg to Williamsport. The ferry here crossed the Potomac into the Shenandoah Valley. By the middle of the eighteenth century a number of towns and villages had grown up along the road in the valley of Virginia: Martinsburg, Winchester, Staunton.
At the James River, Looney’s ferry at modern Buchanan, took the passengers across for the short trip to the end of the valley at the site of Roanoke. There the road turned briefly eastward through the Staunton River gap of the Blue Ridge, crossed through hilly country over such minor streams as the Blackwater River, Pigg, Arvin, and Dan, and entered North Carolina. In this province it transverses the Moravian settlement at Wachovia, on the branch of the Yadkin, and then followed the open country between the Yadkin and the Catawba Rivers. In 1760, it had reached Salisbury. The road eventually went through to South Carolina. [The Scots-Irish: A Social History.]
Land in Pennsylvania was relatively high-priced and families were moving down the wagon road to secure cheaper and better lands. NATHANIEL-1 and MARY, ROBERT-2, and the others, took land on “Little Dutchman Creek,” in what was then Rowan County, North Carolina. This was located near earlier Scots-Irish immigrants who had come in the previous waves. One earlier settler, who was probably a relative of some kind, was John Holmes. The earlier settlers had made a stop in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley for several years before they proceeded to North Carolina. John Holmes was about the age to be a brother of NATHANIEL, but at this point, we have no proof they were related.
The land NATHANIEL-1 and his sons settled on along “Little Dutchman Creek” lay along a road called “Sherill’s Path.” It was near where Williamsburg is today. The path was the first route of travel in the country and had lasting influence on the local economy and development. The grant to Francis Holmes, which he received in 1778, was near NATHANIEL’s and was noted as “Lying on the waters of Dutchman Creek at a maple at Sherrill’s ford on said creek.” The path and the ford were well-known landmarks in the area. The path was the main trading route for both Indians and whites, and the “ford” [or a shallow place to cross a river] was also a well-known and well-used area. “The first road through Statesville was Sherrill’s Path.” “Sherrill’s path was undoubtedly the first travelled route through the county and was instrumental in the development of the county.” [Heritage of Iredell, pg 7.]
On Little Dutchman Creek, they apparently settled into the lives of small farmers, as many of the other Scots-Irish in the area did. They cleared their land and built homes, barns, and planted crops. This was a difficult, labor-intensive process in which the trees were felled or the bark cut all the way around the circumference of the tree, so it would die, and the logs piled and burned. Roots, stumps, and brush had to be hand-grubbed out with heavy hoes or left to rot. Crops would have to be planted and the ground tilled with heavy hoes and mattocks unless the land had been cleared previously.
When “new ground” was plowed, it was difficult for both man and beast when the plow would hit roots left in the soil. It took at least six to ten years for the roots to fully rot away. Many early settlers didn’t have the tools or livestock necessary at first to use plows, but tilled their farms by hand, using a grubbing hoe to open hills for planting.
When a family “up and moved,” they usually tried to have a “grub stake” equivalent to two years’ feedstuffs laid by. It took about two years for the farm to be selfsustaining. Clearing the lands for crops, building a house and barns and outbuildings necessary for the farm to fully function, took time. The first year, they might have a small garden plot for a few fresh vegetables in season, but putting in a cash crop or enough to produce for the family would have been impossible. They might have a cow and a few pigs and chickens for their new farm, but couldn’t expect the animals to provide them with their entire living and foodstuffs for several years.
We can imagine that NATHANIEL and MARY’S family of almost grown sons and daughters pooled their resources and energies to construct a shelter for themselves and their animals as the first task upon arriving in North Carolina. They may have lived in tents or very crude lean-tos that first year while they cleared and constructed, cooking their simple meals over the campfire. Their hopes must have been high in the new ground, and they may have been excited to finally own lands of their own. Even with the daunting task ahead, and the war still being fought, they apparently concentrated their efforts on establishing their new home during those first three years in North Carolina.
The family sold some of the excess land they had been granted to those who came later. James, who was a weaver, apparently engaged in his trade in addition to farming. We know this because he later took in apprentices to teach the “art of weaving.” Albert was a blacksmith. If ROBERT had another trade, in addition to farming, we don’t know of it. We can imagine that, like many men of his times, he was a “jack-of-all-trades” and could do just a little bit of everything with at least a minimum skill that was required to keep a farm running. MARY and the girls and women of the family probably spun the thread and James wove the cloth for the family’s clothing. They may have also bartered cloth, thread, or weaving with their neighbors.
The area in which they lived had first been settled about 30 years previous to their arrival, so they were not coming into a total wilderness, but life on a small farm still meant years of hard manual labor. Life was simple, but the toil was relentless.
The family diet would have consisted of the “favorite” foods of the Scots-Irish according to Albion’s Seed. Breakfast would have been fried mush with wild honey. Other foods were roasting ears, succotash, pone bread, hominy, potatoes, turnips, and pork. Beef or mutton was rare, but pork more frequent. Drinks were cider, small beer, whiskey, or metheglin, a fermented drink made of honey and water. Doughnuts and fried apple pies were favorite desserts for the Scots-Irish.
Whiskey was the drink of choice for social occasions and even the ministers drank. Whiskey, in moderation, was considered good for the health and, in cases of sickness, medicinal. Most successful farmers kept a still to turn excess corn into whiskey for themselves and their neighbors. The local tavern, or “ordinary,” if there was one, was usually the social center of the area, along with the mill, militia drill, and the church. Apparently, drinking to excess, which would result in brawling and other social problems, was a frequent occurrence in the descendants of those Scots-Irish as a group.
The use of corn to make whiskey was wide-spread in the colonial and post-colonial periods. The corn mash, which was distilled to make the whiskey, was no less good for animal feed after fermentation than it was before, so the farmer did not “lose” the corn he used to make whiskey. He used the corn mash for animal feed.
From late in 1777, when the family moved to Rowan/Iredell, until the spring of 1780, the family probably concentrated their efforts and attention into getting settled in their new community. Apparently ROBERT did not fight in the Revolution during this time.
In 1778, Samuel Reed, a neighbor with whom ROBERT would later enlist, and Robert Bell were appointed processioners to lay out the land boundaries. This same year, everyone took their oaths of allegiance to the Revolution. The mundane business of the counties and the colonies continued even though the war was still far from won.
In May of 1780, ROBERT entered the Revolutionary forces again in the service of his neighbor, Samuel Reed. Samuel was a captain in Colonel Alexander’s North Carolina Regiment. ROBERT started his service as a private, but was elected first Lieutenant, possibly because of his previous service and battle experience. The group was defeated at Ramseurs Mills and marched to Rugsby Mills on toward Camden.
ROBERT’s brother, James, also fought in the Revolution and later would receive a pension for his services. Another man from the area who fought was Isaac Holmes, but we do not know if he is related to our HOLMES family.
A major engagement of the American Revolution, in which ROBERT and his neighbors were engaged, took place at Saunder’s Creek, Camden, South Carolina, on August 16, 1780, between the American troops led by Major General Horatio Gates and a British force led by Cornwallis.
With the capture of Charles Town [Charleston] on May 12, 1780, the British controlled all of South Carolina except for a few areas where guerrilla warfare was being fought.
On July 19, 1780, Gates had taken command at Hillsboro, North Carolina, and was determined to march south and join Caswell and seize Camden from the British.
Horation Gates was a man of no small ego, but was a leader of small talent. He was later generally discredited but still maintained some political support. Many of Gates’ officers thoroughly detested him. Only by virtue of his length of service and rank was he able to maintain his position at all. [Palmer, America, Its Army, and the Birth of the Nation, 1794.]
General Gates was in such a hurry, he marched without supplies, and assured the troops and his officers that the supplies would catch up to them on the march. This did not happen and the men foraged in a “sterile” area, where they were forced to eat whatever they could find, which consisted of green fruit, and spoiled meat. This resulted in many of the men having cases of dysentery,
A two-weeks’ 150-mile-march through the sterile territory brought Gates’ ragged and hungry troops to the meeting with General Caswell’s North Carolina Militia and Virginia Regulars. ROBERT was waiting there with Caswell’s force to meet Gates on August 7 when the two groups came together. [Scheer, Rebels & Redcoats, pg 407.]
Arriving with his sick men, Gates was still so sure of himself, and unaware of the real number and condition of his troops, that he sent his best troops off on another mission and had only about 3,000 left fit for duty between his and Caswell’s combined forces. He thought, and reported to one officer, that he had 7,000 troops. When he was informed of the actual numbers, he said, “That will be enough.” While Gates had decreased his forces by sending off his best men, while Cornwallis was strengthening his force.
The pre-battle march of Gates’ troops began at 10:00 p.m. on a moonless night and was far from orderly. The usual “pre-march” issue of spirits was dispensed with because they were not available. Instead, the troops, who had marched without wagons and carried everything on their backs, were given a hasty meal of cornmeal, meat, and a dessert of molasses before marching. This acted as a cathartic and debilitated many of the men during the march. About 2 a.m., the point actually ran into Cornwallis’ forces. [Scheer, Rebels & Redcoats, pg 407.]
Unknown to Gates, British General Cornwallis had joined Rawdon and with his 2,000 trained men, Cornwallis lay in wait. After realizing that Cornwallis had a superior force, Gates still decided to fight. Gates’ tactics were ill-advised. He ordered the first charge to be made by the Virginia militia, who were untrained, and could not even march in formation. Their lines became tangled and as they tried to reform, they were attacked and ran without firing a shot.
There were about 300 North Carolina militia. ROBERT’s regiment was one of the few battle-seasoned groups. One North Carolina regiment of regulars fired several volleys, but the rest of the forces fled. The militia, who had never seen battle and had but little training, were completely ineffective. Most fled in panic without firing a shot. Those few militiamen who did stand and fight, died for their efforts, wiped out to a man. About 1,000 Revolutionary soldiers died or were wounded, and as many were taken prisoners. The British lost only 324 men.
Unlike many of his comrades, ROBERT was a seasoned and experienced veteran of other battles. We don’t know if ROBERT’s unit fought or panicked, but according to his pension, ROBERT became separated from his unit in the confusion of the battle and he was taken prisoner August 16.
The impetuosity with which they advanced, firing and huzzaing, threw the whole body of militia into such a panic that they generally threw down their loaded arms and fled in the utmost consternation.
The unworthy example of the Virginians was almost instantly followed by the North Carolinians, only a small part of the brigade commanded by Brigadier General Gregory made a short pause.
The militia, to Gate’s astonished horror, “ran like a Torrent and bore all before them. [Scheer, Rebels & Redcoats, pg 408.]
The prisoners were taken at Camden and were marched in small groups to Charleston, a few each day, and placed on one of the three small prison ships, the Concord, Two sisters, or Fidelity, tied up in Charleston Harbor. ROBERT stated that he was marched on the fifth day. His pension says the prisoners were confined there for about four months, “when about New Year’s Day, all who survived the attack of small pox were landed and placed in barracks.” [Revolutionary Pension of Robert Holmes.]
The British soldiers were about to mutiny and were placed in the ships and the prisoners in the barracks. [Revolutionary Pension of Robert Holmes.] There were rumors among the Americans that the British deliberately infected the prisoners with blankets infected with pox. Apparently, there was some foundation for these rumors.
In several of the accounts of British prisoners published during the war, many prisoners who had been lucky enough to survive stated that the British had brought in blankets that were taken off the dead bodies of people who had died with the pox and that Negroes infected with the pox were sent in among the prisoners. Some of the prisoners who survived were sent to islands where they were sold as convict slaves. The mode of transmission of smallpox had been known for many years. The vaccine for smallpox was known and available to at least some of the Americans. SAMUEL COCHRAN mentioned in his pension application that he had gone through the “application of the smallpox.” This was not the later, and safer, vaccine made from cow pox virus, however, but the earlier and more dangerous vaccine made from human subjects. About one or two of every hundred vaccinated would contract the disease.
Officers who were prisoners of war were exchanged freely between the British and the rebels. The lowly enlisted men and the elected field officers were not so lucky. Since the American enlisted prisoners were usually sick, untrained men, and the British enlisted men were relatively healthy, highly-trained soldiers, General Washington decided it was to the Rebel advantage not to exchange enlisted prisoners with the British [although some exceptions were made.] It was a fact of life for the American prisoners that they did not have as much value to their cause as the British soldier did to his, so they sat for the duration of their lives or the duration of the war, and in some cases, long after the war. Their lot was harder than a common criminal’s since the British considered them “traitors.”
General Griffith Rutherford and Major Gibson were captured at the same battle as ROBERT, but were quickly exchanged. Though ROBERT was an elected field officer, he was not a career soldier or a wealthy aristocrat, so his only hope was to escape.
The prison ships were hell-holes and referred to as such. The living and the dead lay together. Many deaths occurred nightly on board and the usual morning salutation of the guard was “Rebels roll out your dead!” Sometimes the rebel prisoners would conceal a death until the corpse began to stink in order to receive the food ration for the dead man.
When the dead were buried, it was in shallow graves in the sands of the beach which the next high tide disinterred, and they floated under the ports of the ships. The conditions were so terrible that according to one man, any plan of escape, however likely to fail, was still tried. [American Prisoners of the Revolution.]
The newspapers of the day, and other sources, recorded the treatment of the American prisoners.
General Howe has discharged all the privates who were prisoners in New York. Half he sent to the world of spirits for want of food; the others he hath sent to warn their countrymen of the danger of falling into his hands, and to convince them by ocular demonstration, that is infinitely better to be slain in battle than to be taken prisoner by the British brutes, whose tender mercies are cruelties.” [Freeman’s Journal, January 19, 1777]
As soon as they were taken they were robbed of their baggage, of whatever money they had, though it were of paper; of their....shoe buckles and stripped almost of their clothes.
Thus deprived of their clothes and baggage, they were unable to shift [change] their linen, and were obliged to wear the same shirts for even three or four months together...
After they were taken they were in the first place put on board ships and thrust down into the hold where not a breath of fresh air could be obtained and they were nearly suffocated for want of air.
Some...where thrust down in such numbers that even in the cold season of November they could scarcely bear any clothes on them, being kept in a constant sweat...they were suddenly taken out and thrust into cold as...the consequence was that they took such cold as brought the most fatal diseases and swept them off almost beyond conception.
“The commissioners pretended to allow a half pound of bread and four ounces of pork per day; this was less than half the bread allowance of a sailor, and much less meat, but of this pittance they were much cut short. What was given them for three days without a single mouthful of food of any kind. They were pinched to such an extent that some on board the ships would pick up and eat the salt that happened to be scattered there; others gathered up the bran which the light horse wasted and eat it, mixed with dirt and filth as it was.
...the bread and pork that they did allow them was extremely bad...that they were not fit to be eaten by human creatures, and when they were eaten they were very unwholesome.
Nor they in this doleful condition allowed a sufficience of water. One would have thought that water was so cheap and plentiful an element that they would not have grudged them that. But there are, it seems, no bounds to their cruelty. The water allowed them was so brackish, and withal nasty, that they could not drink it until reduced to extremity. Nor did they let them have a sufficience of even such water as this.
When winter came on, our people suffered extremely for want of fire and clothes to keep them warm. Wood was only allowed them for cooking, and for that purpose very sparingly. They had none to keep them warm. Nor had they a single blanket, nor any bedding, not even straw allowed them...
In this situation that contagious distemper soon communicated from the sick to the well, who would probably have remained so, had they not in this manner been thrust in together without regard to sick or well, or to the sultry, unwholesome season...of this distemper numbers died daily, and many others by their confinement.
...for while [the Americans were] famishing they [the British] would come to them and say to them: “This is the just punishment for your rebellion. Nay you are treated too well for rebels; and you have not received half you deserved, or half you shall receive. But if you will enlist into his Majesty’s service, you shall have victals and clothes enough.’
The officers threatened to hang them all; and on a particular time, ordered a number, each man to choose his halter [noose] out of a parcel ofered wherewith to be hanged; and even went so far as to cause a gallows to be erected before the prison, as if they were to be immediately executed.
“They further threatened to send them all into the East Indies and sell them there for slaves.
In these numberless other ways did the British officers seem to rack their inventions to insult, terrify, and vex the poor prisoners. The meanest upstart officers among them would insult and abuse...
In this situation, without clothes, without victuals or drink or even water, or with those which were base and unwholesome, without fire, a number of them sick, first with a contagious and nauseous distemper; those, with other’s crowded by hundreds into close confinement, at the most unwholesome season of the year, and continued there for four months without blankets, bedding or straw; without linen to shift or clothes to cover their bodies; -- no wonder they all became sickly, and having at the same time no medicine, no help of physicians, nothing to refresh or support nature, died by scores in a night, and those who were so far gone as to be unable to help themselves lay uncared for, till death, more kind than Britons, put an end to their misery. [Connecticut Journal, January 30, 1777.]
The following reference is taken from the Virginia Genealogist, Volumes 1-20, on CD, but the exact citation has been lost. It is from a deposition, September 21, 1781, from Willis Wilson, who was taken prisoner by the British.
He has every reason to believe there was a premeditated scheme to infect all the prisoners, who had not been infected, with the small pox….Negroes with the infection upon them were lodged under the same roof….Others were sent in to attend upon the prisoners with the scabs of that disorder upon them. Some of the prisoners soon caught that disorder.
Though probably somewhat exaggerated, these contemporary accounts of the prison conditions that ROBERT HOLMES must have endured give us a fair idea of the strong constitution and the determined spirit he must have possessed in order to have survived. The conditions of the prison ships were horrible, and the barracks ashore, into which they had been moved, were probably not much better. However, the chance to escape from the barracks was much better than from the ships. [American Prisoners of the Revolution, pg 193-226.]
The “Exchange Building,” which stands today several blocks back from the water, stood then right on the edge of the water. The barred windows are today slightly below street level. It is known that this building did house American prisoners of war. This may have been the building in which ROBERT and his fellow prisoners were housed, and the building from which our ROBERT made his escape.
According to ROBERT’s pension application, about the last of February, after being moved into the barracks, ROBERT and three men from Virginia, Thomas Lee, Tapley Nash, and Thomas Riley, made their escape by digging under the “inner and outer walls” with an old piece of broken shovel. When they finally got under the walls, they had to wait until the tide went down. They were so close to the sentry that they had to hold their breaths so that he would not hear them. After getting under the wall and out of town, they traveled at night, hiding in the pine forest during the day. A man gave them food and directed them to General Marion, who gave them more food, enough to last them until they got home. It took them about a month to make their way back home. They probably got home about the last of March or first part of April. We can imagine his family was very happy to see him that spring day in 1781. The family may have heard word of the battle, and probably thought him dead. It isn’t hard to imagine he was also very glad to get out of the hands of the British. [Revolutionary Pension of Robert Holmes.]
When ROBERT heard that General Rutherford had been exchanged, he again volunteered to serve under him. ROBERT raised and financed a troop of horsemen, with himself as the Captain, just before the end of the war and had set off toward a battle, but he arrived too late to fight. They also went to Wilmington where they had several skirmishes before the surrender of Cornwallis and the British evacuation. At the expiration of this three months’ service, he returned home “guarding as much salt as the wagons of General Rutherford could haul.” After the surrender, he continued to serve as a Captain of Horse in the new country. He received pay from North Carolina’s paymaster for himself and his group. [Revolutionary Pension of Robert Holmes.]
After the Revolution, ROBERT tried to get his pension as a Captain, but was refused. The pension office stated that they did, indeed, find pay vouchers for a “Captain Robert Holmes,” but they wouldn’t believe it was our ROBERT HOLMES, and refused to give him a Captain’s pension rate. There were pages and pages of depositions, etc., but the pension office would only give him a pension as an enlisted man. They were fairly easily convinced that a man was a private, but convincing them of the higher rank was difficult. However, in the pension record of Samuel Wilson, S.7944, the proof that ROBERT was, indeed, a captain was found. In the affidavits of Samuel, he mentioned that he served under ROBERT, who was his captain. Samuel deposed:
that afterwards he performed a tour of one month in persuit of the tories in Lincoln or Buck[?] County under Capt. Holmes and Col. C. McDowell. That in 1780 he was engaged in the services in persuit of Lord Corwallis under Capt. Holmes and Col Lock from soon after the time he crossed the Catawaba til near the time of the battle at Guilford Court House. [Revolutionary Pension, Samuel Wilson, S.7944.]
After the Revolution
In 1778, the tax list for Rowan County showed NATHANIEL’s family, with ROBERT-2 listed as a single poll, living in Captain Nichol’s district. Another Scots-Irish family, the family of THOMAS BELL, also lived in the same area and his sons had also fought in the Revolution. Samuel Reed, under whom ROBERT had first fought, lived in the area as well.
A state grant, number 371, was recorded in October, 1783, to Frances Holmes, 590 acres on Little Dutchman Creek, adjacent NATHANIEL HOLMES-1. A year later, in November, 1784, Alexander McConnell recorded grant land in Fork of Yadkin River on South side Little Dutchman’s Creek adjacent ROBERT HOLMES. [Linn, Deeds of Rowan County.]
We aren’t sure when NATHANIEL died, but we know it was after 1784, when he was mentioned on a deed, and before 1794, when MARY, apparently as a widow, made her own will which was recorded in Will Book 1, page 11, in Iredell County, North Carolina. Married women seldom made separate wills. MARY named her sons and daughters in her will.
Funerals in Scots-Irish society were universally held in the home of the deceased rather than in a church. The coffin was locally made. Funerals were solemn occasions of utmost simplicity. Burial was usually in a family plot or, in the more developed areas, in the churchyard.
It was the custom, when the time of death was approaching, for the person to be gently laid on the floor as he took his last breath. Then the body was placed on a cooling board. A platter of salt mixed with earth was placed on the stomach of the deceased and all the neighbors would come and touch the corpse. There was a belief that if a murderer touched the corpse that it would start to bleed. The wake followed this ritual. Small cakes, called arval bread, were served to the guests. Even an “ordinary” funeral might have a 1,000 people attend. NATHANIEL was probably born at least by 1730, so he may have not been much more than what today would be considered “middle aged.” His neighbors probably considered him well advanced in years.
ROBERT-2 and MARJORY BELL-2 HOLMES, the parents of ALBERT G. HOLMES-3, also lived to an unusually old age. They must have been very fortunate to have missed the diseases and accidents usual to those times. He died in 1838, about age 90. MARJORY lived until 1841. He had been receiving his pension from the Revolutionary War since 1832, when Congress revised the pension acts. ROBERT wrote his will in 1833, as follows:
Will of Robert Holmes-2
March 13, 1833. In ...the [name] of God Amen. I ROBERT HOLMES of Tennessee Sumner County do make ordain and declare this instrument which is written with my own hand there of subscribed with my name to be my last will and testament, revoking all others: that all my lawful debts is to be paid as soon as possible, 1ikewise the land that I live on at this time at my death is to be divided betwixt my two sons: Thomas Holmes and ALBERT G. HOLMES and E1ouis in the divide of the land to clean [clear?] his buildings. Striking w[here I] live East and west, the rest of the plantation is to be equally divided between my two sons only if God calls me out of this world before my wife Margery Holmes she is to get her 1iving....of the place. She is to have a mare of her own choosing, likewise two good milk cows of her own choosing, likewise her kitchen affairs also the household affairs such as bedding the like, the other property is to [be] sold and the money reserved for [the] wife as 1ong as she lives and at her death she is to divide the property among her children as she thinks proper if God spares her to live longer than me, this given under my hand and seal day and year above written as witness my hand and seal acknowledged before us by R. Holmes." Signed.
After the death of ROBERT, MARGERY lived with her daughter, Elizabeth-3, and her husband, Thomas McCracken, in Williamson County. Later Elizabeth moved to Polk County, Missouri. Elizabeth had 13 children. In a letter to the author, Theda Womack wrote that she believes ROBERT and MARJORY HOLMES may be buried on the “Mrs. Paul Davis” farm, which was their home at the times of their deaths. There is a small family graveyard there, which contains the graves of ALBERT and MILLEY HOLMES.
At the time of the 1840 census, ALBERT's brothers, Nathaniel Holmes, "Juner-3" and Robert Holmes, "Jr,"-3, were living in Stewart County. Robert Holmes, "Jr."-3 married Polly Tavenor on July 18, 1825, in Sumner County; Nathaniel Holmes, "Juner"-3, married Jane Steele, and two of his sons were R.C.-4 and James Holmes-4, and as Civil War veterans were interviewed in 1922; Agnes Holmes-3 married John G. Alexander in 1825 and moved to Allen County, then to Simpson County, Kentucky. She had 11 children and survived her father. Apparently both Robert Holmes, Jr.-3, and Nathaniel Holmes, Jr.-3, died before their parents.
ROBERT's widow, MARJORY BELL HOLMES, died April 30, 1841. In 1853, as executor of her estate, ALBERT petitioned the government for the remainder of ROBERT HOLMES' pension to be divided between the surviving children: himself, Thomas Holmes, Elizabeth McCracken, and Nancy Alexander. It was for $55 per year. He was also trying to get it increased retroactively to the Captain's rate, which had not been done, apparently, in ROBERT's lifetime. A court hearing was held at Layfaette Court, the county seat of Macon County, and a handwritten appeal was sent to the pension review board for the United States Government.
Petitions and letters were exchanged for years between ALBERT's lawyers and the pension board in Washington setting out the "reasons" for each side of the story. This exchange went on until well after ALBERT's death, and it was apparently never settled in the family's favor. There are 30 or 40 pages of the petitions. We are fortunate to have these petitions as they tell us a great deal about ROBERT's life and Revolutionary services.