| Notes |
- Source: DAR, North Carolina Patriots ...
Rees Shelby lived in Mecklenburg Co., NC and served under the command
of his brother-in-law, Capt. Adam Alexander. His name appears, along
with his brother Sgt. Moses Shelby, in "A List of Men formerly in
Captain Alexander's Company". Rees received a payment of 26 pounds on
Certificate #989, and 7 pounds on Certificate #1050 as shown in the
North Carolina Revenue Accounts 6:68 and 12:61.
From: Ancestry.com Biographies ...
Rees Shelby was born about 1730 in Tregaron, Cardiganshire, Wales, and died Bet. 1810 - 1812 in South Carolina. His wife’s name was Mary. She died after 1787 in South Carolina. In December, 1758 Rees Shelby turned over his property in Pennsylvania to his son, Evan, shortly after that he and the rest of the family left their Pennsylvania home for the Carolinas.
We have no record as to where Rees first settled when he reached the south. We do know that his brother, Moses, went directly to some place in South Carolina and it is of course possible that Rees did also. However, the earliest record of Rees' presence in this region is one showing that on June 2, 1762, he bought one hundred and twenty-two acres of land on Clear Creek in Anson County, North Carolina, while his brother Moses, coming up from the south, also bought a tract in that vicinity at the same time. In 1776, he is listed as a private in the Mecklenburg County militia.
By 1787 Rees began to sell off some of his land and on June 2nd of the following year, he secured from the state of South Carolina a grant of three hundred acres in Cheraw District just over the North Carolina/South Carolina line. While living in South Carolina, Rees brought his land holdings to some six hundred and seventy acres. His place of residence there is not known exactly, but it was supposedly in the northwest corner of Chesterfield County.
Rees Shelby is not listed in the christening records for his parents, Evan and Catherine, nor has any document come to light saying "son of . . .” Therefore, there is a chance he could have been Evan's brother rather than his son.
Since the Chesterfield county court house was destroyed during the Civil War, we have no knowledge as to whether he died intestate or not and hence no complete list of his children, or when each of them was born. It is believed that Rees and Mary Shelby had at least eight children: Evan, Jacob, Jonathan, Thomas, David, Isaac, Rees and Mary.
From: Don Dickenson, World Connect File: Don Dickenson's Family Tree ...
Rees Shelby, son of Evan and Catherine Shelby, possibly their second, was born in Wales. His birth year has been estimated as 1721. His wife, whom he evidently married at an early age, was Mary Blair, daughter of Andrew and and his first wife.
Shortly after Rees' parents moved onto the "Maiden's Choice" plantation in Maryland, the father selected and had surveyed for himself an additional 150 acres in the direction of the site of Clear Springs Village, to the south, which parcel he called the "Addition to Maiden's Choice." One hundred acres of it he let his son, Rees, have in February, 1745-6, the later making some improvements on it, including forty new fruit trees. As it turned out, Dr. Carroll of Annapolis claimed that this was his land by prior selection and threatened ejectment . The matter was not pressed to a decision just then, but probably realizing that the claim could hold, Rees vacated it after a while and moved about ten miles to the northwest beyond the mountains into a small triangular valley known as the "Little Cove".
This vale in Pennsylvania enclosed on the east and west respectively by the Cove and Tuscarora Mountains and touching the Maryland line on the south, or open end. At the present time it constitutes Warren Township of Franklin County. Rees was living there as early as 1750
During the French and Indian War Rees' oldest son, Evan, then in his late teens, joined the company of his uncle, Capt. Evan Shelby, Jr., which was attached to Forbes' army, then organizing for the second attempt on Fort DuQuesne in western Pennsylvania. After the fail of Fort DuQuesne in November, 1758, active warfare in that general area ceased and Rees Shelby asked Pennsylvania's Board of Property for a warrant for one hundred and fifty acres of land, which, when issued, he laid on his Cove farm. The survey for this was made on September 13, 1760, and returned for 110 1/2 acres. For some reason or other Rees did not apply for a patent on this land, but turned it over to his son, Evan, in December and shortly after that, joining the great tide of southern migration sweeping past his door, he and the rest of the family left their Pennsylvania home for the Carolinas. Rees at this juncture was possibly around forty years of age. It may well be that on this trek he was accompanied by his younger brother, Moses, and his family, who were living down near Fort Frederick in Maryland, but who also had decided to move south at the same time.
There is no record as to where Rees first settled when he reached the South. Moses went directly to some place in South Carolina and it is of course possible that Rees did also. However, the earliest record of Rees' presence in this region is one showing that on June 2, 1762, he bought one hundred and twenty two acres of land on Clear Creek in Anson County, North Carolina, while his brother Moses, coming up from the south, also bought a tract in that vicinity at the same time. Both these tracts lay in that part of the shire which soon after their arrival there became Mecklenburg County. Mary, sister of Rees and Moses, who had married Adam Alexander, was also living in this neighborhood. The time of the Alexanders' arrival there is not of record; but it is possible that they came down with the Shelby brothers.
At this period North Carolina's government was having trouble with its farm population in the central area, who were outraged by the sharp practices of Lord Granville's land agents, the exorbitant fees charged by court officers for legal services and the excessive taxation to pay for the extravagances of the Tryon administration. Angry farmers, forming themselves into a union called "the Regulators," denounced the corruption and demanded reforms. Tryon met this threat with the counter-threat of force. Moses Shelby is listed as a sergeant and Rees as a private in a company of Mecklenburg County militia, commanded by their brother-in-law, Adam Alexander, in 1766. How long they were in that organization is not a matter of record. This unit was probably not called into active service, but because of the violent disturbances of the "Regulation" period, they were undoubtedly used to preserve order.
When the Revolution started in 1775 the state government set up a military organization for defense, which however, had little to do at first, since for several years that kind of activity was confined almost entirely to the northern and middle states. It was not until 1780 that the British Ministry, realizing its failure in the North and western frontier, finally decided to attack the weakly defended South and sent a part of its army down by sea to take Charleston, South Carolina, which spread out and soon overran that state and Georgia. General the Earl of Cornwallis, having been left in command of the British forces, after defeating the American General Gates at Camden, moved up into Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, making Charlotte his headquarters.
Rees Shelby was then in his late fifties, perhaps when this happened. The soldiers were thus within ten miles of his home. The American cause was well nigh paralyzed in this region and the patriots were for a time rendered helpless, Rees among them. The battle of King's Mountain in neighboring York County, South Carolina, in October of that year (in which four of Rees' nephews from across the mountains took part), wiping out Ferguson's force and weakening Cornwallis' hold on the populace, turned tide and showed the Southerners that all was not lost and, with the rebuilding of the Continental Army under General Nathaniel Greene, the British were gradually pushed out of the South. But it took over two long years and, while no fighting occurred in Anson and Mecklenburg counties, troop movements and patrols brought social life and business nearly to a standstill.
By purchases at the beginning of the Revolution, but before the invasion of his state, Rees added to his land ownership about four hundred acres. He also obtained from the state three grants on Chinquepin Creek to the south of him, which gave him some three hundred acres more, and after the war, he acquired still other parcels. Whether he shifted his residence to any of these new properties, or got them merely to exploit is not known. Most of his acreage is in the present county of Union, which was formed years later to cover the western end of Anson and the eastern end of Mecklenburg
By 1787 Rees began to sell off some of his land, and on June 2nd of the following year, he secured from the state of South Carolina a grant of three hundred acres in Cheraw District just over the line. He must have moved there about this time, for the United States census shows him resident in that district in 1790. While living in South Carolina, Rees brought his land holdings there up to some six hundred and seventy acres. His place of residence there is not known exactly, but it was supposedly in the northwest corner of Chesterfield County, a subsequent division of the Cheraw District.
Rees Shelby's wife, Mary, was 1iving as late as 1787 and Rees himself was still living by 1810, but died before March 1812, when he must have been close to ninety years of age. Since the Chesterfield County courthouse was destroyed during the war between the states, there is no record as to whether he died intestate or not and hence no complete list of his children.
His eldest son, Evan Shelby, remained in Pennsylvania, two sons went to the Carolinas, one son migrated to mid-Tennessee, two sons went to Illinois Territory and one son went to western Kentucky. A daughter, Mary, married Thomas Polk and remained in North Carolina.
Father : Evan SHELBY c: 20 Mar 1689/1690 in St. Caron's Church, Tregaron , Cardigan, Wales
Mother: Catherine Morgan b: in Wales
Marriage 1 Mary BLAIR b: ABT 1721
Married: BEF 1740 in Pennsylvania or Maryland 3
Children
Evan SHELBY b: ABT 1740 in Prince Georges Co., Maryland
Rees SHELBY , Jr. b: ABT 1747 in Lancaster (now Franklin ) Co., Pennsylvania
Thomas SHELBY b: ABT 1750 in Little Cove, Cumberland Co., Pennsylvania
David SHELBY b: ABT 1753 in Prince Georges Co., Maryland
Isaac SHELBY b: ABT 1771
Jonathan SHELBY b: 1761 in Craven Co., South Carolina
Jacob SHELBY b: ABT 1763 in Mecklenburg Co., North Carolina
Mary SHELBY b: 18 Feb 1768 in Clear Creek, Mecklenburg Co., North Carolina
Sources:
Title: First Four Generations of Shelby
Author: Cass Knight Shelby
Page: pg. 5
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Bef 1721 - Bef 1812 (< 91 years)