Margaret Dinsmore – Begats and Bequeathals

David Dinsmore, Ulster-Scots Loyalist in South Carolina and Nova Scotia Exile: Every Life Worth a Novel (8)

January 28, 2023February 10, 2023 William D. Lindsey2 Comments

Hants County, Nova Scotia, Deed Bk. 4, p, 508

Or, Subtitled: New Documents Casting New Light on Old Mysteries

And now another addendum to a series of postings from the past — these tracking the life of my ancestor David Dinsmore, who was born in Ulster in 1750, arrived from Belfast with his wife Margaret aboard the Earl of Donegal in Charleston, South Carolina, on 10 December 1767, and received a grant from the colony of 150 acres on the Tyger River in Craven County (later Ninety Six District, then Spartanburg County) on 27 February 1768. When the American Revolution broke out, David took the British side, in 1775 and ended up in Nova Scotia, with his wife Margaret and their five children remaining behind on their farm on Jamey’s Creek of the Tyger River in South Carolina. I told David’s story and the story of his family in a seven-part series (citing documentation you’ll find as you read this series) that began in February 2018 with this posting.

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The Children of Dennis Lindsey (abt. 1755-1795): Mark Lindsey (1774-1848) (2)

April 19, 2020December 27, 2022 William D. Lindsey4 Comments

Jeremiah Bell Jeter, The Recollections of a Long Life, Richmond, Religious Herald Company, 1891, p. 305 — Jeremiah Bell Jeter, *The Recollections of a Long Life* (Richmond: Religious Herald Company, 1891), p. 305

Or, Subtitled: Round-Breasted Methodist Coats and Venerable Circuit Riders

Morgan and Lawrence County, Alabama, Records to 1830 for Mark Lindsey

And so another move for Mark and Mary Jane Dinsmore Lindsey and their family: in 1800, they left Spartanburg County, South Carolina, where both were born (in 1774 in Mark’s case, in 1779 for Mary Jane) and moved with her Dinsmore family to Wayne County, Kentucky. They remained in Wayne County to 1817 (if they moved with son Dennis, who went to Madison, later Lawrence County, Alabama, in that year) or until the fall of 1819, when they sold their homeplace in Wayne County and then begin to appear in Lawrence County records. Mary Jane’s brother John Dinsmore and wife Phebe (Woodruff?) then joined Mark and Mary Jane Lindsey in Lawrence County, selling their land in Wayne County, Kentucky, on 26 February 1821. Continue reading “The Children of Dennis Lindsey (abt. 1755-1795): Mark Lindsey (1774-1848) (2)” →

The Children of Dennis Lindsey (abt. 1755-1795): Mark Lindsey (1774-1848) (1)

April 17, 2020December 8, 2020 William D. Lindsey2 Comments

Lindsey, Mark Biography, James Edmond Saunders, Early Settlers of Alabama (New Orleans, 1899), pp. 122-3. — Mark Lindsey biography in James Edmond Saunders, *Early Settlers of Alabama* (New Orleans, 1899), pp. 122-3

Or, Subtitled: Spartanburg County, South Carolina, Families Move to Wayne County, Kentucky, and Then to Lawrence County, Alabama

Spartanburg County, South Carolina, Records for Mark Lindsey

We’ve met Mark Lindsey in previous postings. As I’ve noted, when the estate of Dennis Lindsey (abt. 1755 – 1795) was sold on 12 February 1795 in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, Mark shows up as a buyer at the estate sale. He and Mary Lindsey, Dennis’s widow, lead the list of buyers, in fact, both buying horses from the estate. As the posting I’ve just linked also tells us, an 11 April 1796 account of money received by Dennis’s estate lists Mark as one of those who had made payments to the estate, as noted in the estate’s book accounts. Continue reading “The Children of Dennis Lindsey (abt. 1755-1795): Mark Lindsey (1774-1848) (1)” →

The Children of Dennis Lindsey (abt. 1755-1795): Isaac Lindsey (abt. 1776 – 1833)? (1)

April 13, 2020 William D. LindseyLeave a comment

Florida Parishes Map, Louisiana Folklife Program — Map showing Florida parishes of Louisiana, from Joel Gardner, “The Florida Parishes: An Overview,” at website of Louisiana Folklife Program

Or, Subtitled: Spartaburg County, South Carolina, Families Head to the Florida Parishes of Louisiana Before War of 1812

The story of Isaac Lindsey illustrates what important genealogical breakthroughs are now possible through DNA research. Until genealogical DNA testing came along, no one (at least, no one of whom I’m aware) had any inkling that the DNA of male descendants of an Isaac Lindsey who died in April 1833 in St. Helena Parish, Louisiana, matched that of known male descendants of William Lindsey (abt. 1733 – abt. 1806) of Spartanburg County, South Carolina. Then along came DNA testing and that match became apparent, and it left researchers of the set of Lindseys tagged group 10 in the International Lindsay Surname DNA project with some questions to answer.

Chief among these: who is this Isaac Lindsey who would seem, given DNA findings, to have roots in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, but who is an unattached outlier living in distant St. Helena Parish, Louisiana, in the early 1800s? And how does he fit into the Spartanburg County Lindsey family where DNA findings suggest he somehow fits? Continue reading “The Children of Dennis Lindsey (abt. 1755-1795): Isaac Lindsey (abt. 1776 – 1833)? (1)” →

The Children of Dennis Linchey/Lindsey (abt. 1700-1762): William Lindsey (abt. 1733-abt. 1806) (3)

February 4, 2020October 10, 2023 William D. Lindsey1 Comment

Lindsey, William, Account Audited (File No. 4600) Of Claims Growing Out Of The American Revolution 2 — William Lindsey (Lindsay), South Carolina Account Audited (File No. 4600) of Claims Growing Out of The American Revolution (indent 479)

Or, Subtitled: Land Grants and Payments for “Sarvis Done”

From the Revolution to the End of William Lindsey’s Life

We ended the previous posting, the second in our three-part series about the life of William Lindsey (abt. 1733 – abt. 1806), son of Dennis Lindsey the immigrant, noting that he acquired a 200-acre land grant on 9 November 1774 in what would become Spartanburg County, South Carolina. The land was on a branch of the Tyger River that was almost certainly Jamey’s Creek, and a number of indicators suggest that this land may have been between that creek and Ferguson’s creek near what would eventually become Woodruff, South Carolina. Continue reading “The Children of Dennis Linchey/Lindsey (abt. 1700-1762): William Lindsey (abt. 1733-abt. 1806) (3)” →

David Dinsmore, Ulster-Scots Loyalist in South Carolina and Nova Scotia Exile: Every Life Worth a Novel (7)

March 13, 2018January 30, 2023 William D. LindseyLeave a comment

Hants Co 1787 Crown Land warrant 14 Dec Bk4 pp326-7 — Hants Co., Nova Scotia, Crown Land warrant 597, 14 Dec. 1787, Bk. 4, p. 326.

Hants Co 1787 Crown Land warrant 14 Dec Bk4 pp326-7 (2) — Hants Co., Nova Scotia, Crown Land warrant 597, 14 Dec. 1787, Bk. 4, p. 327.

And now an “aftermath” posting about the story of David Dinsmore. As the following account indicates (I’ve previously posted it elsewhere online), in May-June 2016, I took a trip to Nova Scotia to see if I could find any trace of what became of David Dinsmore after he sold his Nova Scotia land in January 1787. On that trip, I scoured all the documents I could locate that might conceivably have information about David at the Nova Scotia Archives, the provincial land office, and the Crown Lands Office. I located the tract of land David was granted as a Loyalist in the brushy hills of Rawdon township and drove to look at it, I scoured the tombstones in the Old Burying Ground in Halifax and corresponded with the archivist overseeing that historic site. I attended a meet-and-greet event of the Nova Scotia Genealogical Society and talked to the very informed folks who came to that event, including a descendant of the Densmore family from whom David bought land in August 1786. I found no trace at all of David after he sold his Nova Scotia land in 1787. Here’s my account of that search from my previous posting about it, slightly edited for republication here: Continue reading “David Dinsmore, Ulster-Scots Loyalist in South Carolina and Nova Scotia Exile: Every Life Worth a Novel (7)” →

David Dinsmore, Ulster-Scots Loyalist in South Carolina and Nova Scotia Exile: Every Life Worth a Novel (6)

March 12, 2018December 23, 2022 William D. Lindsey3 Comments

Dinsmore, David, SC Royal Grants 17, p. 257 — South Carolina Royal Grants 17, #257.

If David Dinsmore did return to his wife Margaret and their five children after he sold his Nova Scotia land grant in January 1787, then it seems strange that Margaret is listed as head of her household in Spartanburg Co., South Carolina, on the 1790 federal census. A 19 November 1799 deed of Jane McClurkin to Paul Castelberry, both of Spartanburg County, also says that the land bordered on the east on Margaret Dunmore’s land, indicating that by 1799, Margaret was regarded as the owner of the land her husband had acquired in South Carolina (Spartanburg DB G, pp. 159-161). Continue reading “David Dinsmore, Ulster-Scots Loyalist in South Carolina and Nova Scotia Exile: Every Life Worth a Novel (6)” →

David Dinsmore, Ulster-Scots Loyalist in South Carolina and Nova Scotia Exile: Every Life Worth a Novel (5)

March 10, 2018January 30, 2023 William D. LindseyLeave a comment

1787 D. Densmore et al. 100 acres Nova Scotia

4. Exile to Nova Scotia

David Dinsmore’s 1786 Loyalist land claim in Nova Scotia states, “At the Evacuation of C. Town he came to this Province, and is now settled in Rawdon.”[1] After the fort at Ninety Six fell and the South Carolina Loyalists retreated first to Orangeburg and then eventually to Charleston in the latter part of 1781, they began making arrangements to leave the colony. According to Lambert, by mid-August 1782, 4,200 Loyalists had registered to leave South Carolina, including nearly 2,500 women and children with 7,200 enslaved Africans and African-Americans.[2] Prior to their departure, on 18 April, Zachariah Gibbs and other South Carolina Loyalists prepared a petition to the Crown indicating that a large number of Tories—perhaps as many as 300, they claimed—had been murdered by the Whigs in the colony, with the majority of these in Ninety Six District. Continue reading “David Dinsmore, Ulster-Scots Loyalist in South Carolina and Nova Scotia Exile: Every Life Worth a Novel (5)” →

David Dinsmore, Ulster-Scots Loyalist in South Carolina and Nova Scotia Exile: Every Life Worth a Novel (3)

March 8, 2018April 13, 2018 William D. LindseyLeave a comment

2. From Immigration to the Revolution

David Dinsmore and his wife Margaret left Ireland from Belfast on 7 October 1767.[1] After their arrival in Charleston on 10 December 1767, they received their bounty land grant on the same day (22 December) on which, as noted previously, the South Carolina Council Journal documented the names and ages of the settlers arriving aboard the Earl of Donegal. The grant of 150 acres—100 for David and 50 for Margaret—is recorded in the Council Journal immediately after the list of new settlers was entered into the Journal.[2] Continue reading “David Dinsmore, Ulster-Scots Loyalist in South Carolina and Nova Scotia Exile: Every Life Worth a Novel (3)” →

David Dinsmore, Ulster-Scots Loyalist in South Carolina and Nova Scotia Exile: Every Life Worth a Novel (2)

March 7, 2018April 13, 2018 William D. LindseyLeave a comment

The David Dinsmore Family: Ulster Origins

If the one document we have providing a precise age for David Dinsmore is accurate, he would have been born in or close to 1750. The document in question is the list of passengers aboard the ship the Earl of Donegal when it arrived in Charleston from Belfast on 10 December 1767.[1] On 22 December, the South Carolina Council Journal recorded a tally of the ship’s passengers, noting their ages. This document lists Dinsmore’s age as 17 in December 1767, his wife Margaret’s as 20.[2] Continue reading “David Dinsmore, Ulster-Scots Loyalist in South Carolina and Nova Scotia Exile: Every Life Worth a Novel (2)” →