Mary’s Date and Place of Birth

Mary Calhoun, daughter of Ezekiel Calhoun and Jane/Jean Ewing, was born about 1743 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Several pieces of information point to this birthdate.

First, the 3 September 1759 will of Mary’s father Ezekiel Calhoun of Granville (later Abbeville) County, South Carolina, names his sons and daughters by order of birth, listing the sons separately from the daughters.[1] It states,

I also allow an equal division to be given of the Rest and Remainder of all my Goods and Chattels & personal estate whatsoever to my son John Calhoun Patrick Calhoun Ezekiel Calhoun & likeways to my Daughter Mary Calhoun Rebecca Calhoun Cathren Calhoun Jean Calhoun.

Mary is the oldest daughter in the list. Next in the list of daughters is Mary’s sister Rebecca. The tombstone of Rebecca Calhoun Pickens in the Old Stone Church cemetery at Clemson in Pickens County, South Carolina, states,[2]

In memory of Rebecca Pickens, who was born on the 18^th Nov. 1745.

The oldest son of Ezekiel Calhoun and Jane/Jean Ewing was their son John Ewing Colhoun. His death notice in the Times of Charleston on 9 November 1802 states,[3]

Died at his ∫eat in Pendleton district on the 26^th ult. in the 53d year of his age, John Ewing Colhoun, esq. Senator from this state in the Congre∫s of the United States….

This gives John E. Colhoun a birth year of 1749. John E. Colhoun’s tombstone states, however, that he was born in 1752. The inscription reads,[4]

Sacred to the Memory of the Honorable John Ewing Colhoun. He was born in the year 1752 and died on the 26^th of October 1802.

In either case, given that Ezekiel Calhoun’s will names John as his oldest son and that John was born after Ezekiel’s second daughter Rebecca, whose tombstone states that she was born in 1745, it’s clear that Mary was Ezekiel’s oldest child and was likely born around or somewhat before 1743.

Note, too, that Mary Calhoun’s husband Samuel Kerr, who was the son of Samuel Kerr and Margaret Pickens, was born in 1741: Samuel’s baptism at Tinkling Spring Presbyterian church in Augusta County, Virginia, on 29 November 1741 was recorded by Reverend John Craig in a registry he kept as he pastored this church.[5] If Mary was close in age to her husband Samuel Kerr, then a birthdate around 1743 would definitely fit for her.

Finally, as previous postings have noted, Mary Calhoun Kerr’s daughter Jane, who married John Green, was born 8 October 1768, according to her tombstone in Tannehill Historical State Park in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, which states,[6]

In Memory of Jane Green born in Abbeville District S.C. Oct. 8th 1768. Departed this life Nov. 2nd 1855.

Jane was the oldest daughter and possibly the oldest child of Mary Calhoun and Samuel Kerr. It’s possible that her brother John was somewhat older than Jane, however, since John Kerr had a survey for 640 acres in Pendleton District, South Carolina, on 16 July 1784.[7] The land bordered Alexander Noble, whose mother was Mary Calhoun Noble, a sister of Ezekiel Calhoun, Mary Calhoun Kerr’s father. Mary Calhoun Kerr was named for her aunt Mary Calhoun Noble. Alexander Noble was also Mary Calhoun Kerr’s brother-in-law: he married Mary’s sister Catherine. The plat created for John Kerr by his great-uncle Patrick Calhoun also shows John’s land bordering William Matlack, who appears in other records of John Kerr.

If John Kerr had a land survey in 1784, he may have been born in or by 1766, and may therefore have been the oldest of Mary Calhoun and Samuel Kerr’s children. This information, too, fits with a birthdate of around 1743 for Mary.

We can place Mary Calhoun Kerr’s birth in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, since the estate records of Patrick Calhoun, father of Mary’s father Ezekiel, place Ezekiel Calhoun in that county when Mary was born. The estate papers of Patrick Calhoun show his widow Catherine relinquishing to her sons Ezekiel and William her right to administer Patrick Calhoun’s estate in Lancaster County in 1741.[8] There is no other date on this relinquishment of administration than the year 1741. It reads,

I do ketren Calhoun give over to the right of admoesternate Ezekewl and Wilam Colihoun the Goods and chattle [?] of Patrick Calihown De[position?] taken [?] 1741.

Also in the John C. Calhoun papers is a bond dated 4 May 1743 in which Ezekiel and William Calhoun gave bond with their brother-in-law John Noble and with James Mitchell for administration of Patrick Calhoun’s estate in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The estate was settled by 4 May 1744, and by October 1745, Catherine Montgomery Calhoun had moved with her sons James, Ezekiel, William, and Patrick and her daughter Mary with husband John Noble to Augusta (later Wythe) County, Virginia. Given her likely birthdate of about 1743, these pieces of information place the birth of Ezekiel Calhoun’s daughter Mary in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, prior to the family’s move to Virginia in 1745.

Mary Marries Samuel Kerr

I have not found a record of when Mary Calhoun married Samuel, son of Samuel Kerr and Margaret Pickens. If, as I state above, Samuel and Mary had a son (John) born by or around 1766, then I think it’s likely they married by or about 1764. It appears that Samuel’s parents arrived in the Long Cane settlement by 5 October 1762, when Samuel had a warrant for a survey in the Long Cane settlement, and on 19 October 1762, Patrick Calhoun surveyed 100 acres on waters of the northwest fork of the Long Cane in Granville (later Abbeville) County, South Carolina, for Samuel Kerr.[9] Prior to this, on 19 November 1760, Samuel and wife Margaret had sold their homeplace of 224 acres on Big Meadow Run in Augusta County, Virginia, to James Hughes and Andrew Greer.[10] The deed states that Samuel had acquired this land, which was on Big Meadow Run of Cathey’s River on the Beverly Manor line, by patent dated 19 August 1756, and it speaks of houses and buildings that were being sold with the land. Both Samuel and wife Margaret signed it, Margaret making her mark. It’s evident from the deed that Samuel and Margaret were selling their homeplace to move away from Augusta County. As Howard McKnight Wilson notes in his history of Tinkling Spring church, the Kerr family were among the earliest settlers of Augusta County, settling on “a choice spot of land” at the juncture of Christian’s Creek, Long Meadow Run, and Middle River (i.e., Cathey’s River).[11]

As a map of plats contiguous to Samuel Kerr’s 224-acre tract in Augusta County drawn by J.R. Hillebrand and reproduced on a page for Samuel Kerr in the Early Settlers of Augusta County, Virginia project shows, living very close to Samuel and Margaret Pickens Kerr in Augusta County was Margaret’s brother John Pickens, who married Samuel’s sister Eleanor Kerr.[12] John and Eleanor Kerr Pickens had left Augusta county by 21 November 1754 after selling their homeplace on 9 October 1754.[13] The Pickens and Kerr families had been closely connected for quite some time, and were thickly intermarried. John Kerr, brother of Samuel who married Margaret Pickens, married Margaret’s sister Lucy Pickens; and Elizabeth Kerr, a sister of John and Samuel Kerr, married Margaret Pickens’s brother William Pickens. Four Kerr siblings (Elizabeth, John, Samuel, and Eleanor) married four Pickens siblings (William, Lucy, Margaret, and John), then. These four Pickens siblings were aunts and uncles of Andrew Pickens who married Rebecca Calhoun, sister of Mary Calhoun Kerr.

After leaving Augusta County, Virginia, John Pickens (with wife Lucy Kerr) moved to the Long Cane settlement, and when Samuel and Margaret Pickens Kerr’s son Samuel had a survey on 6 March 1767 for 100 acres adjoining his father’s land in Granville (later Abbeville) County, his uncle John Pickens was the surveyor of the tract.[14] The precept for Samuel’s survey was dated 4 November 1766. I think it’s likely that Samuel Kerr and Mary Calhoun had married by the time he received this precept in November 1766 for a 100-acre survey next to his parents. Along with Alexander Noble, a first cousin of Mary Calhoun, Samuel had witnessed a deed of James and Frances Cain to Alexander McPherson for land on the Savannah above the mount of Long Cane in Granville County on 27-8 June 1764.[15]

Mary Calhoun’s sister Rebecca married Andrew Pickens in the Long Cane settlement on 19 March 1765. The marriage date is recorded in the journal kept by Rebecca’s uncle William Calhoun, which was discussed in a previous posting.[16] As these marriage shows, by the time Samuel Kerr married Rebecca Calhoun’s sister Mary (it seems to me their marriage took place not long before the marriage of Andrew and Rebecca), the family of Ezekiel Calhoun had connected to the Kerr-Pickens kinship network, all of these families coming down to the Long Cane settlement from Augusta County, Virginia.

Bob Thompson’s Google Earth plat maps for early Long Cane settlers, discussed in the posting I linked in the preceding paragraph, show that a survey of 350 acres for Ezekiel Calhoun made by Patrick Calhoun on 7 July 1758 was only some 6 miles southeast of the two plats for Samuel Kerr elder and younger I’ve just discussed.[17] Ezekiel’s tract was just east of present-day Calhoun Falls, just east of where Old Calhoun Falls Road (outside Calhoun Falls on the east side) joins highway 72. Ezekiel’s land was on both sides of what’s now highway 72. The two Samuel Kerr tracts were northwest of Ezekiel’s land, just east of highway 81 not far north of Salem cemetery and a bit southwest of Old Rocky River cemetery.

Records of Mary Following Samuel Kerr’s Death in 1781 (?)

Following their marriage, Samuel Kerr and Mary Calhoun raised four children in what would become Abbeville County in 1785: John, who may have been born in or by 1766, as stated above: Jane, born 8 October 1768; Catherine, born in 1774; and Ruth, born in 1779. And then it appears that Samuel Kerr was killed during the Revolution, though the date and place of his death are unclear, with various records providing conflicting information, a point I’ll discuss in a later posting focusing on Samuel and what I know of him. If a payment made to Mary as Samuel’s widow recorded in South Carolina Annuitants Claims has trustworthy information about the date of Samuel’s death, he was killed in 1781: this is stated in a payment of £8 15s made to Mary as the widow on 19 May 1785.[18]

It’s clear that Mary Calhoun had been widowed by 16 June 1784, when Mary Kerr had a survey for 350 acres on both sides of the middle fork of Twelve Mile River in Ninety-Six District.[19] The plat for this land, which was surveyed by Bennett Crafton, shows the tract bordered northeast by Mary Caswell and on the west by William McCaleb. When Mary sold this land in 1792, the deed would give Mary Caswell’s name as Mary Cresswell (and the name is Carswell in the plat recorded in Abbeville County plat books).

Mary acquired this piece of land on Twelve Mile River in what would become Pendleton District and later Pickens County on the heels of her brother John Ewing Colhoun’s purchase of 640 acres on both sides of Twelve Mile River east of the Keowee on 21 May 1784.[20] As a previous posting notes, it was on this tract that John E. Colhoun developed his Keowee Heights plantation at the juncture of Twelve Mile River and the Keowee, with Mary’s daughter Jane Kerr and husband John Green beginning to assist her uncle John to manage the developing plantation soon after they married around 1788.[21]  

As the posting linked in the previous paragraph notes, on 6 March 1792 John Green wrote John E. Colhoun (who was in Charleston) from Twelve Mile River, noting that he was overseeing the construction of John’s Keowee Heights house, and in this letter, he states that he had received a letter from John E. Colhoun through William McCaleb. This is the William McCaleb who had land adjoining Mary Calhoun Kerr’s 16 June 1784 survey. As the linked posting notes, William McCaleb appears on the 1790 federal census in Pendleton District next to Mary Calhoun Kerr’s brother-in-law Andrew Pickens and next to Pickens’ friend and associate Robert Anderson. The linked posting provides some biographical details about William McCaleb, who was the son of William McCaleb and Sarah McAlpin and was born in 1747. On 23 October 1769, He married Ann MacKey, and then served as a Revolutionary captain under Andrew Pickens, representing the south portion of Saluda District with Wade Hampton in the South Carolina Convention that ratified the federal constitution. McCaleb died at his Hermitage plantation in Claiborne County, Mississippi, on 7 March 1813.[22]

As I stated above, on 19 May 1785, Mary received an annuity payment of £8 15s from the state of South Carolina as the widow of Samuel Kerr. She received an additional annuity payment for Samuel’s Revolutionary service on 5 February 1787 for herself and her children, and as we’ll see below, her will bequeaths her annuity, which she apparently was receiving regularly from at least 1785, to her daughter Ruth.[23]

When William McCaleb sold William Young 275 acres in Pendleton District on both sides of the middle fork of Twelve Mile River on 22 August 1788, the deed noted that the land was bordered on the north by land laid out to Mary Kerr, widow.[24] As her listing on the 1790 federal census and her sale of this land in 1792 tell us, Mary did not live on this land and evidently acquired it  for speculative purposes.

The 1790 federal census enumerated Mary Calhoun Kerr in Abbeville County of Ninety-Six District with a household comprised of a white male under sixteen years of age and three females.[25] The three females are Mary and her daughters Catherine and Ruth, who were still unmarried in 1790. The male is not Mary’s son John, who is enumerated on the 1790 federal census in Charleston, where records place John by 1785 and where he married Mary Stone on 25 May 1787. I don’t really know who this male member of Mary’s household in 1790, who may be the male living with her in 1800 (see below) is.

On 3 August 1792, Mary Kerr of Abbeville County sold William Brown of Pendleton District for £250 her 350 acres in Pendleton in the fork of the Middle Fork of Twelve Mile River.[26] Mary signed the deed with William Young and John Harris as witnesses. William Young proved the deed on 8 November and it was recorded on 6 December. The deed states that the words William Young were “entirely erased” from the deed before Mary signed it. John Harris was the husband of Mary’s niece Mary Pickens, daughter of Andrew Pickens and Rebecca Calhoun.

Mary Writes Her Brother John Ewing Colhoun, August 1793

A letter that Mary wrote on 3 August 1793 to her brother John Ewing Colhoun is archived in the John Ewing Colhoun Papers at the South Caroliniana library of the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Mary wrote the letter having gotten news that John’s daughter Floride was dangerously ill. The letter is addressed to John Ewing Colhoun Esq^r. at Charleston and was sent in the hands of Benjamin Howard.

Mary writes,

D^r. Brother I am Sorry to hear you have been Sick you and your family and am afraid to hear that littel flory is dead from the accounts we have had from them in Charleston: of her dangerous illne∫s but if it Should be the case I hope you and Sister will Strive to bear it like christians knowing we have no abiding citty hear and that we are at best but Strangers and pilgrames as all our fathers have been and are gon and pa∫sed into the heavenly contry at least many of them where the inhabiteans Shall no more Say I am Sick and where we Shall find all our Dear children which we have So mutch lamented and too mutch counted them as lost and have too mutch mourned as them which have no hope D^r. Brother I write these things not knowing the certanty whither She be dead or not as we ought allways to Stand in readine∫s as we know not when they may come upon us in this uncertain wourld wherein we are Sure of nothing or at any reate very uncertain of anything but that one thing Death and after that the Judgment that we may be clothed with christs unspotted righttiousne∫s

D^r. Brother I am Still in Some hopes to hear She may not be dead as while there is life there is hope it would be a great p(l)easure to me on your account I long to hear how Sister may be in her crittical Situation we are all well at present mother and all other friends is well we have had a very wet Summer and have a great prospeck of plenty of corn and indeed all other Sort of crops hay excepted I imagion to the dryne∫s of the summer last year together with worms that eat the gra∫s, no more but remain your affectionat Sister

Mary Kerr

“Littel flory,” who was just short of a year and five months old when her aunt Mary wrote this letter, survived the dangerous illness and would go on in 1811 to marry her cousin John Caldwell Calhoun, who held prestigious positions nationally, including the vice-presidency of the U.S. twice.

The letter tells us that Mary was an uncommonly literate woman for her time and place, something not so uncommon among American women like Mary of Scottish and Ulster Scots descent, since the Scots treasured literacy as a prerequisite to reading the scriptures. And as the letter shows us, Mary was very much an Ulster Scots Presbyterian deeply imbued with Calvinist beliefs about death and judgment and the need to live righteously….

Mary Kerr was named in the 9 September 1795 will of her brother-in-law William Kerr in Abbeville District.[27] The will, which was probated 27 March 1798, stipulated that William Kerr wanted 50 acres of his land sold and the money from the sale divided between David Kerr and “my sister in law” Mary Kerr. The will also left Mary what remained unpaid in a note due to William Kerr from Charles Love.

William Kerr, son of Samuel Kerr and Margaret Pickens, was baptized by Reverend John Craig at Tinkling Spring Presbyterian church in Augusta County, Virginia, on 5 May 1745. The baptism is recorded in the previously discussed registry kept by Reverend Craig in which the baptism of Samuel Kerr, husband of Mary Calhoun, is also recorded.[28] The William Kerr who died in Abbeville County in 1798 has been confused with a William Kerr born 7 May 1744 who married Elizabeth Denton and died in Benton County, Alabama, in 1835. This William Kerr made a Revolutionary pension application on 25 August 1832 in Hall County, Georgia, in which he deposed that he was born 7 May 1744 in Augusta County, Virginia.[29]

The William Kerr who was Samuel Kerr’s brother and who made a bequest in his September 1795 will in Abbeville County to his brother’s widow Mary Calhoun Kerr is enumerated alone on the 1790 federal census in that county, and appears not to have married. His will names no children as heirs. It identifies him as William Kerr Sr. and makes bequests to a William Kerr Jr. who is identified as William Sr.’s nephew in the will but is actually his cousin, a son of William Kerr Sr.’s first cousin Andrew Kerr (abt. 1730-1771), whose parents were John Kerr and Lucy Pickens, aunt and uncle of the William Kerr who died in Abbeville County in 1798.

The David Kerr (1756-1836) also named in William Kerr’s September 1795 Abbeville County will was another son of Andrew Kerr. David Kerr also filed a Revolutionary pension claim, giving affidavit in Abbeville on 4 March 1835 that he had served under Captain Samuel Kerr and Colonel Elijah Clark in May 1781.[30] The 1790 federal census shows William Kerr Sr. living next to William Kerr Jr. and another brother of William Kerr Jr. and David Kerr, their brother Andrew Kerr.[31]

The 1800 federal census enumerated Mary Kerr in Abbeville County, South Carolina, with a household comprised of one male aged 16-25, one female aged 16-25, and one female 45+, with two enslaved persons who are identified in the will Mary made on 21 January 1805, which is discussed below.[32] The older female in Mary’s household in 1800 is Mary herself, of course, and the younger female is her unmarried daughter Ruth, who was born in 1779. The male is perhaps the same male enumerated in Mary’s household in 1790, whom I cannot identify.

Mary’s Death in 1805 and Her Will and Estate Records

On 21 January 1805 in Abbeville County, Mary Calhoun Kerr made her will.[33]

The will reads as follows:

In the name of God, Amen

I Mary Kerr of the State of South Carolina and Abbeville Di∫trict being very sick and weak in Body but of perfect mind and memory ble∫sed be God for the same to make and publish this my last will and Testament in manner and form following

Item, I Give and Bequeath to my beloved daughter Ruth Kerr one negro boy named George and one negro girl named Nancy also all the Tract of land on which I now reside together with my black Silk gown Cardinal and Jewelry to her and her heirs forever — furthermore I bequeath to Ruth Kerr all my right of dower to the lands I got by Samuel Kerr untill her marriage after which I wish the Value of the same to be divided Equally between her the s^d. Ruth Kerr and my daughters Catherine McLain and Jane Green — I also Give and Bequeath to my daughter Ruth Kerr my Annuity and one half a Hundred dollar Note due me by James Vernon and the other half I give to my son John Kerr, I also give and Bequeath to Ruth Kerr two of my Hor∫es and the other two I give and bequeath to my son John Kerr together with a Note on George Alexander for fifty dollars, and its my desire that Ruth Kerr take her choice of the Hor∫es

Its furthermore my will that all the residue of my Cloathing be divided amongst my daughters Ruth Kerr Catherine McLain and Jane Green as they Shall see cause to direct — It is furthermore my will that all my Stock of Cattle and all my Household furniture be Sold and the money Equally divided amongst my three daughters and my son John Kerr —

And I do hereby appoint Andrew Norris Esquire John Green and George Bowie Esquire Executors of this my last will and Testament, hereby revoking all other wills by me made — In witne∫s Whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this twentyfirst day of January in the year of our Lord one Thousand Eight hundred and five —

Mary Kerr

Signed sealed published & declared by the above named Mary Kerr to be her last will in the presence of us, who have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses in the presents of the Testator

Samuel Savage Jun^r.

A. Hunter

J. Pringle

Mary’s executor Andrew Norris was her half-brother Andrew Pickens Norris, a son of Mary’s mother Jane/Jean Ewing by Robert Norris, whom she married following Ezekiel Calhoun’s death. George Bowie, also an executor, was the husband of Mary’s niece Margaret Pickens, daughter of Andrew Pickens and Rebecca Calhoun. John Green, the other executor, was Mary’s son-in-law, husband of Mary’s daughter Jane Kerr.

Mary’s estate packet contains an 11 February 1805 court order to Samuel Savage, Sterling Bowen, and James Pringle to appraise the estate, so Mary died at some point between 21 January and 11 February 1805. Also in the estate packet is an estate inventory dated 22 February, compiled by Samuel Savage, Agrippa Cooper, and Sterling Bowen. In the inventory, the $100 note on James Vernon is recorded as a note on Vernon and William Kerr. Mary’s personal property was appraised at $220.25 and included household furnishings, kitchen implements with dishes and cookware, farm tools, and corn and fodder.

The sale of Mary’s estate was held 23 February, with buyers including Mary’s children Ruth and John Kerr, sons-in-law John Green and Hugh McLin (i.e., McLain) Jr., James Pringle, Samuel Savage, Agrippa Cooper, members of the Bowen and Carruthers families, and others. The sale netted $211.38¼.

It appears from a deed that Mary’s sister-in-law Floride Bonneau Colhoun, wife of John Ewing Colhoun, made to her niece Ruth Kerr on 28 May 1805 that Floride claimed ownership of the enslaved woman Nancy whom Mary had bequeathed to Ruth in her will.[34] The deed shows Floride Colhoun deeding to her niece Ruth Kerr for love and affection an enslaved woman named Nancy who was in Ruth’s possession. It states that if Ruth should die without issue, Nancy was to go to Ruth’s sisters, Floride’s nieces Jane Green and Catherine Mecklin. The deed was witnessed by Floride’s nephew Ezekiel Pickens Esq., son of Andrew Pickens and Rebecca Calhoun, and proved by him on 13 August 1805, being recorded 19 August 1805.

An Abbeville County equity case file shows that there was litigation over the estate of Mary Calhoun Kerr.[35] On 16 May 1822, Thomas P. Martin filed suit (Thomas P. Martin vs. William Oliver et al.) against William Oliver and wife Ruth Calhoun Oliver, Mary’s daughter. 

Martin’s bill of complaint states that on 2 July 1816, he had bought from William Oliver and Hugh McLin (husband of Mary’s daughter Catherine Calhoun) 20 acres on which he had built a stone house and other buildings of value, but that Oliver and McLin had not made title to the land to him. Oliver and McLin replied on 5 and 8 February 1823 that they had been willing from the outset to give title to the land to Martin, but he had refused to receive it. The case file includes a deed to Martin signed by William and Ruth Oliver on 24 September 1822 is in the file, with Ruth’s renunciation of her dower interest in the land attached, also signed by Ruth.

Nothing in the case file stipulates that this land had come to Ruth (and by her marriage to William Oliver, to him as well) from Mary Kerr’s estate. But the case file appends a copy of Mary Kerr’s will, and this indicates that the land whose ownership was being disputed was part of the land Mary’s will had willed to her daughter Ruth, on which Mary was residing at the time of her death.

---

[1] South Carolina Wills Bk. 1760-7, pp. 181-2; also in Charleston County, South Carolina, Will Bk. 9, pp. 201-2, transcribed by WPA, pp. 296-7.

[2] See Find a Grave memorial page of Rebecca Floride Calhoun Pickens, Old Stone Church cemetery, Clemson, Pickens County, South Carolina, created by Jimmy Gilstrap, maintained by C. LATTA, with tombstone photos by Scott F. Lewis, Tracy Campbell, David Dubose, and Barbara Register Clark. Note: though family histories often give Rebecca the middle name Floride, I have seen no evidence that she had any name other than Rebecca. The name Floride came into the Calhoun family when Rebecca’s brother John Ewing Colhoun married Floride Bonneau on 8 October 1786.

[3] See A. S. Salley, Jr., “The Calhoun Family of South Carolina (Continued),” South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine 7,3 (July 1906), p. 154, n. 5, transcribing the opening line of the death notice. The same notice is in the Alexandria [Virginia] Advertiser and Commercial Intelligencer (25 November 1802), p. 3, col. 2.

[4] See Find a Grave memorial page of John Ewing Colhoun, Colhoun Family cemetery, Clemson, Pickens County, South Carolina, created by Garver Graver, maintained by Karyn Buckner Garvin, with a tombstone photo by wdlindsy.

[5] See “Book containing baptisms, Oct. 1740-Sept. 1749,” in the collection of the personal papers of Reverend John Craig (held by Union Theological Seminary’s library in Richmond) filmed and digitized by the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and available digitally at FamilySearch. See also Howard McKnight Wilson, The Tinkling Spring, Headwater of Freedom: A Study of the Church and Her People, 1732-1952 (Fishersville, Virginia: Tinkling Spring and Hermitage Presbyterian Churches, 1954), p. 477, extracting the baptisms of Samuel and Margaret Kerr’s four children by Reverend Craig at Tinkling Spring, 1741-7.

[6] See Find a Grave memorial page of Jane Kerr Green, Tannehill Historical State Park, Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, created by Kathy, with tombstone photos by wdlindsy and J R MORRIS-AKA-FRANK DOCKERY.

[7] Abbeville County, South Carolina, Plat Bk. 1, p. 111.

[8] See A.S. Salley, Jr., “The Grandfather of John C. Calhoun,” South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine 39,1 (January 1938), p. 50, discussing the estate documents and noting that they had been found in the probate court records of Lancaster County by George T. Edson in 1936. I have a copy of Catherine’s relinquishment of administration of the estate that my notes tell me was made from a photocopy found in the John C. Calhoun Papers at South Caroliniana Library of the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Information about these estate documents is also in Mary B. Kegley, Early Adventurers on the Western Waters, vol. 3, pt. 2 (Marceline, Missouri: Walsworth, 1995), pp. 597-8, and in the Calhoun folders of the Leonardo Andrea Collection.

[9] South Carolina Colonial Plats Bk. 7, p. 326. The grant was made 8 March 1763: South Carolina Colonial Land Grants Bk. 11, p. 2, and the memorial was recorded 1 April 1763: South Carolina Memorials Bk. 6, p. 65

[10] Augusta County, Virginia, Deed Bk 9, pp. 67-8. The deed gives the surname as Carr. See also “Samuel Kerr” in the Early Settlers of Augusta County, Virginia project at WeRelate.org; and Marcia McClure, “The Kerr Family from Augusta Co, VA to Abbeville Co, SC” at the Upcountry South Carolina Green Families website; and Jim Veregge, “Descendants of James Kerr” at Rootsweb.

[11] Howard McKnight Wilson, The Tinkling Spring, Headwater of Freedom, pp. 11-12.

[12] See “Samuel Kerr” in the Early Settlers of Augusta County, Virginia project.

[13] See “John Pickens,” in the Early Settlers of Augusta County, Virginia project at WeRelate.org, citing Lyman Chalkley, Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia, Extracted from the Original Court Records of Augusta County, 1745-1800 (Rosslyn, Virginia: Commonwealth Printing, 1912), vol. 1, p. 312, abstracting Augusta County court judgments, case of Andrew Lewis v. John Pickens, which states that John Pickens had removed himself out of the county, by 21 November 1754. See also Veregge, “Descendants of James Kerr.”

[14] South Carolina Colonial Plats Bk. 17, p. 428. The grant for this tract was made 22 August 1771: South Carolina Colonial Land Grants Bk. 24, p. 153. The memorial was made 20 August 1771: South Carolina Memorials Bk. 11, p. 52.

[15] South Carolina Deed Bk. E-3, p. 129.

[16] The journal of William Calhoun is transcribed in A.S. Salley, Jr., “Journal of William Calhoun,” Publications of Southern Historical Association 8,3 (May 1904), pp. 179-195.

[17] South Carolina Colonial Plats Bk. 6, p. 382. The grant for the 350-acre tract describes it as Spring Hill on the northwest fork of Long Cane: South Carolina Grant Bk. 9, pp. 7-8.

[18] See Annuities for Persons Hurt in the Service of the State, 1778-1786 and House of Representative Claims and Pension Reports, 1787-1796, transcribed in South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research 1,2 (spring 1973), p. 67, and 1,3 (summer 1973), p. 159. See also Bobby Gilmer Moss, Roster of South Carolina Patriots in the American Revolution (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1983), p. 530. According to Francis B. Heitman, Captain Samuel Carr (as he gives the surname) was “mortally wounded” at the battle on Long Cane on 4 December 1780: see Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army During the War of the Revolution: April, 1775 to December 1783 (Washington, D.C.:  Lowdermilk, 1890), p. 146. However, Samuel Kerr’s South Carolina Account Audited of Claims Growing Out Of The American Revolution (no. 4253, available digitally at the South Carolina Department of Archives and history website) shows Samuel paid for supplying bacon for the militia in 1780 and then serving as a mounted lieutenant in 1781 and 1782. A receipt in this file shows John Ewing Calhoun signing on behalf of Mary Kerr (John’s sister) on 2 May 1785 in receipt of her payment on indent 677. Samuel Kerr’s stub entry for a South Carolina Revolutionary indent (no. 677, vol O) was issued the 2 May 1785, and shows Samuel Kerr paid £67 pounds 10 s 2½d for militia duty as a lieutenant in 1781 and 1782 and for providing bacon for militia use in 1780: see Wylma Anne Wates, Stub Entries to Indents Issued in Payment of Claims against South Carolina Growing out of the Revolution (Columbia: South Carolina Historical Commission, 1915), p. 110.

[19] South Carolina Plats Charleston Series Bk. 9, p. 222; and Abbeville County, South Carolina, Plat Bk. 1, p. 49.

[20] Abbeville County, South Carolina, Plat Bk. 1, p. 8.

[21] For a sketch of the location of John Ewing Colhoun’s Keowee Heights plantation at the juncture of the Keowee and Twelve Mile Rivers found in the John Ewing Colhoun Papers at the South Caroliniana Library in Columbia, see this previous posting.

[22] See Katy McCaleb Headley, Mac Killop (McCaleb) Clan of Scotland and the United States: Descendants of Captain William and Ann (Mackey) McCaleb (Chillicothe, Missouri: Elizabeth Prather Ellsberry, 1964), pp. 1-13.

[23] See supra, n. 18.

[24] Pendleton District, South Carolina, Deed Bk. A, pp. 138-9.

[25] 1790 federal census, Abbeville County, South Carolina, p. 452.

[26] Pendleton District, South Carolina, Deed Bk. B, p. 77.

[27] Abbeville County, South Carolina, Probate Files, box 52, pack 1229.

[28] See supra, n. 5.

[29] NARA, US, Revolutionary War Pensions, 1800-1900, RG 15, file R1719, available digitally at Fold3.

[30] NARA, US, Revolutionary War Pensions, 1800-1900, RG 15, file R5890, available digitally at Fold3.

[31] I am grateful to researcher Marcia McClure for sharing her excellent work sorting out the Kerrs named in William Kerr’s will and clearing up the confusion between the William Kerr born around 5 May 1745 who was brother of Samuel Kerr (married Mary Calhoun) and the William Kerr born 7 May 1744, both in Augusta County, Virginia.

[32] 1800 federal census, Abbeville County, South Carolina, p. 40B.

[33] Abbeville County, South Carolina, Will Bk. 1, p. 304; Abbeville County, South Carolina, Probate Files, box 52, pack 1231. See also James Wooley, A Collection of Upper South Carolina Genealogical and Family Records, vol. 2 (Easley, South Carolina: Southern Historical Press, 1981), p. 170; and Willie Pauline Young, Abstracts of Old Ninety-Six and Abbeville District Wills and Bonds (Greenville, South Carolina: Greenville Printing Company, 1950), p. 171.

[34] The original deed is apparently filed in an estate packet for Floride Bonneau Colhoun in Pickens County, South Carolina (pack 70): see Wooley, A Collection of Upper South Carolina Genealogical and Family Records, vol. 3 (1982), p. 46.

[35] Abbeville County, South Carolina, Equity Files, box 58, packet 3245 (1822).