| Notes |
- Benjamin Culpepper Jr.'s life history has not yet been accurately or
fully pieced together. This Benjamin might just as easily have been
the son of Benjamin Culpepper, Sr., Joseph's brother. For the moment,
based partly on naming conventions used by the two younger Bens, this
one is assumed to have been the son of Joseph, and the following
discussion is based on this assumption. See also the discussion of the
Fishing Creek deeds in the Theories Section of this web site, for
further details. Our current thoughts on him follow, but these could
easily change as new information comes to light.
It would appear that Benjamin was born either in Norfolk County, VA,
or in early Bertie Precinct, NC, in the early 1720's. He moved with
his family to Edgecombe County, NC, in the late 1730's. He married his
wife, Lydia, there, in the early 1740's.
When his father Joseph died intestate in 1745, he inherited one, and
possibly two tracts of land as Joseph's eldest son, by right of
primogeniture. He may have lived on one tract, on Swift / Sandy Creek.
And his mother Martha lived on the other Fishing Creek tract until she
remarried around 1751, to Benjamin Dumas, and moved with Dumas to
Anson County, NC.
After his mother's re-marriage, Benjamin then sold the Fishing Creek
tract to his first cousin, Benjamin Culpepper (ferryman), in 1752. And
by 1754, he had decided to move on, and so sold the tract on which he
then lived on Sandy Creek to Thomas Davis.
Here the record on Benjamin Jr. becomes murky for about 13 years,
until 1767, when his eldest son Joseph Culpepper first appears in
records in South Carolina. So it seems likely that Benjamin moved to
South Carolina around 1754, probably with one or more of his wife's
relatives. Where he settled has not been discovered. And he must have
died there prior to 1771, when his widow Lydia received a grant as
"the widow Culpepper."
That this Benjamin was the son of Joseph is based on the
interpretation of two deeds involving Joseph's Fishing Creek property.
In 1741, Joseph sold one-half of his Fishing Creek property to
Benjamin Culpepper. This was probably Benjamin his brother. Joseph
also had a son named Benjamin, but analysis shows that he did not sell
the land to his own son. By 1746 both brothers were deceased, and
their two sons, both named Benjamin, were each in possession of one
half of Joseph's original 320 farm on Fishing Creek.
Although it is impossible to tell, due to the poor wording of the 1741
deed, the current analysis presumes that Joseph's son Ben inherited
the WEST half of the property by right of primogeniture, and
Benjamin's son Ben owned the EAST half by right of primogeniture. In
1752, Benjamin (son of Joseph) sold the WEST half to his older cousin,
Benjamin, ferryman, son of Benjamin. See the footnote for a detailed
look at these land transactions.
Since after 1746, there were only two Benjamin Culpeppers in early
Edgecombe, it would be useful if we could distinguish them, by the way
they signed deeds. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The surviving
deed books in early Edgecombe are later copies of the original deeds,
so the original marks from the original deeds have not survived. In
all cases in which a Benjamin sold land or witnessed a deed, the "B"
mark was apparently used, and except for Benjamin's will in 1767, the
original mark itself has not survived.
By 1752, and perhaps as early as 1743 Benjamin Culpepper (son of
Joseph) was living on a 300 acre farm on Sandy Creek, in Granville
Co., NC. This was about nine or ten miles northeast of his first
cousin Benjamin's land on Peach Tree Creek, considerably closer to his
cousin Benjamin, and to Peach Tree Creek, than was his old Fishing
Creek land. This writer speculates that this may have been the same
300 acres on Swift Creek, which Benjamin's father Joseph may been
granted as early as 1743. Land Grants, Vol. 1, page 59, NC Archives,
Raleigh, 27 February 1743, Joseph Culpepper enters 300 acres in
Edgecombe County, on the north side of Swift Creek....and RUNS ACROSS
THE CREEK; includes his improvements; made out; paid: rights returned.
The entry has survived, but not the actual grant.
In 1754, Benjamin Culpepper Jr., sold the 300 acres on Sandy Creek in
Granville Co., NC "where I now live" to Thomas Davis. (Granville Co.
Deed Bk. B, p. 391-2) Witnesses were Lewis Davis, Moses Harris, and
Samuel Chaivis. Benjamin signed this deed with a 'C.' This land was
described as "beginning on the north side of the said [Sandy] Creek at
a Road Oak running thence along a line to a corner tree a Road Oak
thence along a line CROSSING THE CREEK to a White Oak a corner tree of
the south side of said creek thence along a line to a corner tree a
White Oak thence along a line CROSSING THE CREEK to the first station
it being the plantation whereon I now live."
That Benjamin's 300 acres on Sandy Creek was the same land as Joseph's
1743 land entry on Swift Creek is speculation. But note that Sandy
Creek becomes Swift Creek at Hilliardston community in present day
Nash County (according to "The North Carolina Gazeteer" by Wm. S.
Powell). And this could have been about the point where this land was
situated. And this was also near the boundary between what was then
Edgecombe and Granville Counties. So the land entry might have
mentioned Edgecombe, and the later sale, Granville, as the location.
Also, note that both the land entry, and the later sale, mention that
the land was on both sides of the creek. So this unusual feature of
the property is found in both documents. Further, assuming the land
entry became a grant to Joseph, there is no further mention of the
sale of the land by his estate. Likewise, there is no other mention of
Benjamin buying his Sandy Creek land. So by assuming that these two
records refer to the same property, one has a complete history of its
purchase and later sale. And if this is correct, then it strengthens
the idea that this Benjamin was the son of Joseph, as he would have
inherited this land from Joseph by right of primogeniture, just as he
apparently inherited the west half of the Fishing Creek property.
An anomaly, which remains to be explained, is that this Benjamin
apparently signed his sale of land in Edgecombe with a 'B' and yet
signed this sale of land in Granville with a 'C'. Was the 'B' in the
Edgecombe sale an error by the copyist? Since the surviving deeds in
Edgecombe are copies, not originals, it would be hard to speculate.
There is no further record of this Benjamin. He seems to have moved in
the direction of, if not to, Richland or Camden District, SC, where
records have been lost. No surviving records on Benjamin in South
Carolina have been found.
Research on his wife and her family might eventually provide
additional clues. Since Benjamin did not follow the migration path of
his siblings, chances are, he was migrating with his wife's family,
and not with his own. Perhaps she was related to the John Griffin, who
was an adjacent land owner to Joseph Culpepper in early Northampton
County, and who may have been the same John Griffin who lived next to
Benjamin's widow Lydia in early South Carolina.
|
Abt 1724 - Bef 1771 (~ 46 years)