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The story of the Quaker colony at Wrightsborough, near present day Thomson, Georgia,
begins in 1767 when Jonathan Sell and Joseph Maddock, both members of the
Cane Creek Meeting in North Carolina,
applied for land grants in the territory of Georgia. 12,000 acres were reserved for the Quakers provided at least 10
families settled on the land by February 1, 1768. In the event, they far exceeded the requirement: 40 families were in the
first group, led by Joseph Maddock and Jonathan Sell. In fact so many settlers arrived in that first year that on December 6,
1768 Joseph Maddock, along with Jonathan Sell and Thomas Watson, asked for an additional grant.
At a Council held in the Council Chamber at
Savannah on Tuesday, the 7th February, 1769
Present
His Excellency James Wright, Esquire
In Council
On reading a Petition of Joseph Maddock and Jonathan Sell two of the People called Quakers on the behalf of themselves
and the rest of the Friends lately come to settle in this Province from North Carolina Setting forth (among other things)
that sometime Since there was a reserve of Lands ordered to be made for Forty Families of their People it being then
supposed not more than that Number would Settle in the Province but that there were already about Seventy Families come
in and actually Settled And praying that a larger Extent of Land might be allotted and reserved for them for a further Term
they expecting a considerable Number of their Friends might yet joint them _ And also praying that their several Lands might
be laid out; and Grant for the same passed; and a Road from their Settlement run; agreeable to the encouragement formerly
given them, on the faith whereof they were come into the Province
It is Resolved that the Land on both Sides Germany's Creek to the Head thereof and from thence to continue this same Course
'till it intersects the Indian Line (not taken up by the People already come)
be reserved for the same purpose for twelve Months next ensuing; that a Road be run from their Settlement; their Lands Surveyed
in the several Tracts and proportions following and Grants for the same passed and perfected to their respective persons herein after
named that is to say,
Thomas Watson...........500 Acres.
Joseph Maddock..........{300 Acres.
.....................................{200 Acres (Purchased)
Deborah Stubbs..........300 Acres.
Thomas Jackson..........250 Acres.
John Stubbs.............100 Acres.
Jonathan Sell...........300 Acres
Joseph Mooney...........550 Acres.
Ann Stubbs Widow........150 Acres
John Jones..............200 Acres
Francis Jones...........250 Acres
Isaac Low...............250 Acres
James Hart..............250 Acres
Thomas Hart.............200 Acres
Richard Jones...........150 Acres
Daniel McCarty..........400 Acres
Samuel Oliver...........250 Acres
Richard Moore...........100 Acres
Thomas Omaley...........200 Acres
Thomas Linn.............250 Acres
Robert McClen...........300 Acres
James Morrow............350 Acres
Peter Perkins...........500 Acres
John Oliver.............350 Acres
Henry Ashfield..........350 Acres
William Elam............250 Acres
Absolom Jackson.........200 Acres
John Slater.............400 Acres
Joseph Hollingsworth....100 Acres
John Whitsit............200 Acres
John Whitsit Jr.........250 Acres
Stephen Day.............200 Acres
James Emmett............200 Acres
Hugh Tinnen.............200 Acres
Cornelius Cochran.......300 Acres
Isaac Vernon............350 Acres
John Sidwell............300 Acres
Amos Vernon.............200 Acres
George Morrow...........300 Acres
Oliver Matthews.........250 Acres
John Perry..............250 Acres
Only the
bare outlines of the once thriving town of Wrightsboro can now be seen. The
old Quaker Meeting House burned down, but the small Methodist church that replaced it probably looks very much like the original meeting
house.
Some of the original pews from the old Quaker Meeting
House remained after the fire and are located in the Methodist church.
I didn't have a chance to visit the Rock house, built by the Ansley family, the only structure associated with the Wrightsboro meeting still standing, but here is a picture of it on another page I found.
Brothers Thomas and Benjamin Ansley, though not themselves Quakers, were closely associated with the Wrightsborough settlement from its start. Thomas built the famous Rock House, the only original structure from the Wrightsborough period still standing. In addition the Ansleys married into a number of Wrightsborough Quaker families, including, the Coxes, the Morrises and the Sanders. You can see the Ansley descent on Ansley descendant Bill Ansley's page.
The story of Agnes Childrey, a Wrightsboro Quaker child captured Indians, contributed by Bruce Wood.
Joel Cloud, another person prominent in early Wrightsboro, was the nephew of the Stubbs brothers at Wrightsboro (his mother was Esther Stubbs). You can see the Cloud ancestry on this page by Ken Cloud.
Family of Isaac Cooper at Wrightsboro (Cheska Wheatley's page)
Some of the Wrightsborough Coxes can be found on Jerry Richmond's page.
Descendants of Robert Day (including the Stephen Day line of Wrightsborough). Thanks to Pamela Lee Cranston for supplying this report.
Descendants of Joseph and Esther (Buffington) Evans are on this page by Donna Woodward. If anyone has any information on the family of Jane Evans of Wrightsboro (married John Edwards) please let me know! This is my line!
The Greathouse Archives has
information on thousands of people of that name, including Jacob Greathouse
of Wrightsborough.
And a little mystery-- Who was Jacob Greathouse? Was the man of that name at Wrightsborough
the notorious murderer of Chief Logan's family?
If he chose to hide himself amongst the gentle Quakers of Georgia it availed him nothing in the end, for the story is that the Chief
had his revenge-- when many years later Greathouse again appeared in the area he and his entire party were massacred, with special
torture reserved for him and his wife. If this is the same man, however, one thing is certain-- his son Jacob's family was not among
the party. The younger Jacob married Nancy Perkins, granddaughter of Richard Moore, one of the prominent Quakers in the settlement.
Many descendants of the pair still live in Georgia and Alabama.
Dan Stubb's page also has the Hicksons of Wrightsborough.
The Hinshaw Family Association lists Rebecca Hinshaw, the one Hinshaw we know to have been at Wrightsboro as one of their 'orphans' -- her parents are unknown. You may find other Wrightsboro members among their extensive listings, however.
Agnes Childrey, a Wrightsboro Quaker child captured Indians, married William Hodgin.
Two Jackson siblings, Jane and Enoch, married another brother-sister pair, James and Nancy Moore, children of James and grandchildren of Richard and Sarah (Jenkins?) Moore of Wrightsboro. This page gives information on most of the Wrightsboro Jackson family.
Francis Jones Sr., Francis Jones Jr. and Henry Jones were the heads of the three Jones families in Wrightsboro. In addition Francis Jones Sr. was married to his own Jones cousin, Sarah Jones. Henry Jones was the second cousin of Francis Jones Jr. Jerry Richmond has untangled some of the Jones lines on this page.
Quaker Migrations to the South the story of Joseph
Maddock and wife Rachel Dennis and their move first to North Carolina and then
as founders of Wrightsboro, told very well by Maddock descendant Ralph Hayes
Joseph Maddock's Descendants: Are you a Maddock descendant? Come see who you're related to!
Joseph Maddock's ancestors from Chester, England. Jill Carter Knuth,
author of "The Stubbs Index" has set up this beautiful page. Jamie Niecamp also has Maddock information on her
home page.
The Mendenhall Family Association has much information on the Wrightsboro Mendenhalls: search their databases for 'Wrightsboro', 'Phineas Mendenhall' or 'Marmaduke Mendenhall'.
Descendants of Richard Moore of Wrightsboro (I'm one of them!)
Jamie Niekamp's Mote index has some of the Wrightsborough Motes.
Descendants of Thomas Phelan and Mary Evans are on Christine Helmick's family tree page.
Lisa's genealogy page shows Pughs descended from James M. Pugh of Wales, who married Joan Price in 1692. This includes several closely related Pugh families at Wrightsborough.
Family of Joel Sanders at Wrightsboro (Cheska Wheatley's page)
Three Stubbs brothers, John, Thomas (both married to daughters of Joseph Maddock, and Joseph (married Ann Mooney) were prominent early members of the Wrightsboro colony. The Stubbs Family by Henry Stubbs descendant Dan Stubbs also includes Wrightsboro residents Joseph Maddock, John Stubbs and the Jones family.
Here's another page I found recently on Thomas Stubbs, the immigrant.
Descendants James Vernon of Wrightsboro.
Descendants of Daniel Williams & Mary Humphreys, Daniel Treadway's home page.
The Winslett Family: Joan Case's web page.
The Wrightsboro Quaker Community Foundation, Inc.
P.O. Box 1816 Thomson, GA, 30824
The director is Dorothy Jones
Original records for Wrightsboro are located at Guilford College, in Guilford, NC.
QUAKER RECORDS IN GEORGIA: Wrightsborough 1772--1793, Friendsborough
1776--1777. Compiled by Robert Scott Davis, Jr. Copyright 1986 by Augusta Genealogical Society, which
uses many of these records is available from The Augusta Genealogical Society, Inc., PO Box 3743, Augusta GA 30904.
Jill Carter Knuth, author of The Stubbs Index and the web page on the Cheshire ancestors of Joseph Maddock
has contributed the following review of this book:
This book begins with some background material about the southern-most Quaker
settlement at Wrightsborough, Georgia. Included is a brief history of the
settlement, a copy of the warrant for Wrightsborough Township, 1769, and a
list of the town lot owners.
Before the settlers at Wrightsborough had established their own Monthly
Meeting, they were attached to Bush River Monthly Meeting in South Carolina,
and the monthly meeting minutes for the period 1772--1773 are included in this
volume.
The largest section in the book is a transcription of the Wrightsborough
Minutes of the Men's Meeting, 1772--1793, and Births and Burials, 1744--1803.
Also included are lists of Representatives to the Womens Quarterly Meeting,
New Garden, North Carolina, 1788--1792 and Representatives to the Womens
Quarterly Meeting, Bush River, South Carolina, 1792--1801. Unfortunately, the
Minutes of the Men's Meeting 1793--1805, the Minutes of the Women's Meeting
1773--1805, and the marriage register are lost.
The section of the book concerning Wrightsborough concludes with a brief
history of the Wrightsborough Quakers in the American Revolution, and a letter
from Borden Stanton written in 1802 from near the Ohio River to the Friends at
Wrightsborough, describing conditions in the Northwestern Territory.
The second part of this book outlines the history of the short-lived
Friendsborough settlement which was also located in Wrightsborough Township.
This colony was established by William Manson on the eve of the American
Revolution. It was probably not a Quaker settlement. However the names of many
of the Quaker settlers from Wrightsborough appear in the surviving cash
account books from Friendsborough, which make up most of the second part of
this book.
One of the aims of compiler Davis was to question the assertion of previous
scholars and writers that almost every settler in Wrightsborough was a Quaker.
Davis concludes that Quakers were in a minority from an early date and their
numbers diminshed proportionally as time went on.
All the Quaker records transcribed in this book are the property of the North
Carolina Yearly Meeting of Friends and are now housed in the Friends
Historical Collection of Guilford College Library, Greensboro, North Carolina.
Most of them have been abstracted in William Wade Hinshaw's Encyclopedia of
American Quaker Genealogy.
The book is useful to researchers of Wrightsborough both for the information
presented in the main chapters and for the extensive lists of sources given in
footnotes and the bibliographies. The book includes some sketch maps and a
good index.
Articles:
"THE QUAKER SETTLEMENT OF WRIGHTSBOROUGH GEORGIA", by Ralph G. Scott, Jr., p.210-223, from
The Georgia Historical Quarterly, Volume LVI summer, 1972, Number 2.
"The Quakers of Wrightborough, Georgia," by Mark Candler, THE MAGAZINE OF HISTORY, XIV (1911)
This Diggin' in Georgia Webring site is owned by Sarah Shaw Tatounova. Want to join the Diggin' in Georgia Webring?? |
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