The Scribner Family in Japan

While stationed at his last assignment with the U.S. Marines in Yuma, Arizona in 1960, my father, Robert Gordon Scribner, received his final remote tour duty assignment which was a 9-month tour to a base in Iwakuni, Japan.

Mom & Dad decided to make it a family adventure, and towards the end of Dad’s tour in Iwakuni, we were all headed to Japan to join him.  At that time there were four of us children, and we all got passports and a 90-day tourist visa for Japan.  We left to join Dad in July of 1961, and we got permission from our local school district to miss the beginning of the next school year for the trip which I suppose was regarded as an alternative educational opportunity – not something easy to get approved in today’s time I would think.

Family was not included on remote military tours of duty, so we waited until near the end of Dad’s tour, and flew over on a commercial airplane.  The plan was for us to live “near” the base, we would have weekend trips, and Dad would use some of his vacation at times for us to explore Japan. 

We rented a small traditional Japanese house not far from the Iwakuni air base that was located between several rice fields.  The house was owned by a Japanese artist that lived next door.  Dad would ride to work on a small motorcycle each day.  The rooms in our Japanese house were divided with sliding doors with traditional rice paper panels, the floors had rush mats, and we always took off our shoes at the door and wore slippers inside the house.  We slept on tatami mats that were rolled up during the day.  And we often found lizards or salamanders in the small bathroom that had a shower. 

In the mornings there was a lady that we called Mamasan that would bring groceries from the local market and help Mom with the cooking, laundry and housekeeping.  We had steamed rice with every meal – and I love rice to this day.  We also discovered some wonderful red Japanese candy with rice paper wrappers that would just melt away when popped in your mouth, wrapper and all. 

There were local children nearby that we played with – mostly baseball – even though they didn’t speak any English and we didn’t speak any Japanese.  I remember that I lost a couple of baby teeth while there, and we must have had a Japanese tooth fairy because I got Japanese coins under my pillow in exchange for my two teeth. 

The house was right next to some railroad tracks, and we thought it was so cool to place coins on the track and then the train would flatten them out when it rolled over them.  Surely our parents never realized that we were doing that!

In his later years, Dad had written down some stories about our time in Japan, and I will share them here: 

“Our house had a bathroom that was two steps down from the bedroom, and it sprung a leak in one of the water pipes.  We told the landlord, so he sent his father over to fix it; only the father hooked up the hot water to the toilet.  I told the landlord that you still got your feet wet when you stepped into the bathroom and the toilet had hot water in it.  So, over came Papasan again to fix it.  He spent most of the day in the bathroom and proudly came out and bowed that he was finished.  He did get cold water again in the toilet, and he fixed the leak by building a wooden platform so we would not get our feet wet.” 

While in Japan, we traveled a lot by train, and I still love the rhythm of riding trains.  However, Dad also purchased a 1949 green Hudson car for $100 and we used it for some of our sightseeing excursions in the next few months.  I remember it well because there was only one inside door handle that we had to “pass around” when we needed to get out of the car, and of course, no seatbelts.  He sold the car, also for $100, when we left.

More of Dad’s narrative tells about our sightseeing adventures:

“After meeting my family in Tokyo and spending a couple of days there, we boarded a train for Nagoya to visit the pearl farms.  The kids got a kick out of seeing the raising, gathering, sorting and selling of the cultured pearl.   We went down on the beach to watch the pearl divers (all women) return from gathering pearls.  We even enjoyed the sea urchins that they roasted on the beach.  From Nagoya, we took the train to Kyoto to visit the city that was never touched by war.  We visited all of the shrines and palaces that the city held, and then on to Iwakuni.  We spent the first couple of nights at a Japanese Inn because our house was not quite ready for us.  Getting used to a Japanese toilet was unique for everyone as it was just a hole in the floor that you had to hit, and it was communal.”   

“We took the family up to Hiroshima to see the Peace Museum and warned them of the reception they might receive from the Japanese there.  It is a tough museum for children to go through, due to some of the exhibits, but they all came through with flying colors.” 

“One time we took a train trip to Beppu to visit the hot springs.   Beppu was on the island of Kyushu so it was a long train ride.  We arrived at the train station and I told Ann to take care of the kids and board the train, as I would get seats for them. The Japanese are very polite people, except when it comes to the trains, and then they push and shove everyone.  The train came into the station and I threw our luggage through a train window and followed it by myself and put luggage on enough seats for our family when about five minutes later along comes Ann and the kids.  I knew that was the only way we would all get seats.  We arrived at our hotel and for the next few days we all dressed in kimonos for the rest of the stay.  The baths at our hotel were not communal so I took the boys and we washed, prior to getting in the big pool, and Jeff could not wait so he dove in and surfaced very red faced because it was so hot.  Needless to say all the Japanese men looked in awe at the young boy, beet red.”

At the end of our 90-day visa for Japan, we headed to Hong Kong.  Dad took a week of leave and joined us there:

“I flew to Hong Kong and met up with the family at the Mandarin Hotel in Kowloon, Hong Kong.  We hired an Amah through the hotel to do some babysitting, and we all enjoyed a week in Hong Kong.  The Amah would come in every night to feed and babysit the children while Ann and I went out to dinner and took in the nightlife.  One night while Ann and I were having dinner in the hotel and watching an elegant Chinese Opera, we looked up beyond the scenery and there were our kids with the Amah watching the Opera - but they did not have to pay to get in.  Amah knew everyone and introduced the kids to all the performers.  After a week’s stay I had to leave and fly back to the base at Iwakuni and Ann and the children were due to leave a few hours after me on a plane to Hawaii.  I paid Amah and asked her to make sure Ann and the children got to the airport and safely on the plane.  Amah insisted on escorting the family right on to the plane and the gate personnel could not keep her off.  She told them in Chinese that she had promised her employer she would get them on the plane, and that is what she did.”  

I can remember how exciting it was to know that we were illicitly watching that Chinese theater performance.  We all had a great time in Hong Kong.  Mom even got some lovely clothes made for her while we were there. 

Our next stop was Hawaii where we spent a month in temporary base housing at the military base on Oahu.  The base is located in a non-public area of Waikiki Beach and it was a child’s dream.  The teenage daughter of a family friend would come by each morning and we three older kids would get to spend practically all day in our bathing suits with her playing and swimming at the beach.  There was also a lobby area at base housing where there were some lounge chairs equipped with a coin box and a small black & white television mounted on the arm of the chair.  You could “purchase” 15 minutes of television time with a quarter.  We often checked to see if anyone left without watching all of the television time that they had paid for.

We stayed in Hawaii while Dad wrapped up his tour of duty in Japan, and then he joined us for another couple of weeks in Hawaii before we all headed back to Yuma, Arizona.  By then we were well into the fall and had missed a couple of months of school.  What a wonderful time this trip was for all of us! 

*  *  *  *  *

Notes:

1)  In 1973 as a young adult, I was fortunate enough to visit Japan, and I remember recognizing places that I had been to as a child, especially in Kyoto – feeding the deer at Nara Park, a large bronze Buddha in the Tojaiji temple, and a small square hole in one of the pillars on the back side of that temple for children to crawl through where it is believed that they will receive enlightenment and good fortune.  It felt like déjà vu many times for me during that trip.  

 2)  One memory that comes to mind with our trip to Japan, is that it was the first time that I ever saw a color television – not in Japan, but in the airport.  When we were scooting through the airport we noticed that there were a few color televisions in one waiting area.  I think that they were in an area of the lobby that was set aside specifically for television watching.  And remember that the color show that was being broadcast at the time was Bonanza.  Also, I still have the pearl that I found in my oyster at the pearl farm.

3)  For the next several years Dad would show some of the home videos that he took while he was in Japan to our grade school classes when we studied Japan in social studies.  His videos showed many of the temples and shrines, the pearl farms, and other scenes of life around Japan.  

4)  I will be sharing more blog posts about of my parents and our early family life later this year.

 

Key Individuals:

     Robert Gordon Scribner  (1923 – 2006)

     Ann Hart Hughes Scribner  (1921 – 2006)                           

- Jane Scribner McCrary

A Christmas Letter in 1960

In June of 1960, USMC Major Robert G Scribner was away from his family and 4-months into a remote duty tour to Iwakuni, Japan.  Bob and Ann wrote each other letters daily, and their letters were mostly about missing each other and about their children – Bobby (10 yrs), Jane (7 yrs), Jeff (4 yrs) and David (1 yr).  Bob fretted knowing that Ann had her hands full with four young children back home in Yuma, Arizona.

That year, Bob assumed responsibility for buying all of the Christmas gifts needed for not only the children and Ann, but also for Bob’s mother, and Ann’s parents, as well as three in-law families including nieces and nephews.  Ann and the children had recently traveled to Norfolk, Virginia in December to spend the holidays with her parents, Charles & Nina Hughes. 

Below is Bob’s letter to Ann written on Christmas Day in 1960.  It is longer than most, but gives a window into that time for the Scribner family…

Below is the photo mentioned above that Ann sent to Bob as his Christmas gift in 1960 while he was away from the family.

Merry Christmas to you all from me in this year of 2022, sixty-two years later!

*  *  *  *  *

Notes:

The military career of Robert G Scribner was the subject of an earlier blog in May 2020.  And his ranching career will be the subject of a blog post that I am planning for later this year.  My next blog post will be about the Scribner family time in Japan when everyone joined Bob in 1961.

Key Individuals:

     Robert Gordon Scribner  (1923 – 2006)

     Ann Hart Hughes Scribner  (1921 – 2006)               

- Jane Scribner McCrary

 

Augustine Bearse – a controversial immigrant story

There has been much controversy about the life of Augustine Bearse, one of our earliest immigrants who arrived in New England in 1638.  Often referred to as Austin Bearse, he was born about 1618 in Longstock, Hampshire, England.  [Note that Bearse, the most common version used in the family line, and Bearce are both used in various genealogy references.  I will use the name both ways at times in this article.]

The name of Augustine Bearce first appears on the shipping manifest of the ship, Confidence of London, sailed from Southhampton, England and arrived in Plymouth on April 24, 1638.  The ship’s manifest lists Augustine Bearce, aged 20, along with 84 passengers on this voyage to the New World.  It is believed that the ship’s passengers were predominately family groups of Puritans leaving political conflict and persecution in England.

We know that Augustine Bearse settled in Barnstable, Massachusetts on Cape Cod and about 30 miles south of Plymouth with a company of settlers led by Rev John Lathrop.  Lathrop was originally ordained with the Church of England.  However in 1623, he renounced his orders and adopted more Independent Congregationalist and Puritan beliefs.  His reformed ideas were considered heretical and after several years of imprisonment for his preachings, Rev Lathrop left for the New World to escape further persecution in England. 

Rev John Lathrop is considered the founder of Barnstable, Massachusetts.  And Augustine was the first person named on record of those who joined Rev Lathrop’s church when it was established in Barnstable in 1643.  The early church records note him as a “freeman” and a “Goodman”.  Augustine’s wife joined the church in 1650 as the church register records her as “the wife of Brother Berce”.  Augustine was a farmer and successfully raised enough to feed his large family of eleven children – the first six of which were girls!  He also served Barnstable as a grand juror in 1653 and again in 1662; and he was a surveyor of highways in 1674.

An early book written in 1888 titled Barnstable Families notes of Augustine Bearse that “He appears to have been very exact in the performance of his religious duties, causing his children to be baptized on the Sabbath next following day of their birth” and that “He was one of the very few against whom no complaint was ever made:  a fact which speaks well for his character as a man and a citizen.”  Thus, Augustine Bearse appears to have been a highly regarded member of both his church and the community of Barnstable.  However, while Augustine appears to have been highly regarded by his fellow settlers, records also show that the Bearse family kept Indian slaves, usurped Indian lands, and fought in the Indian wars – behavior that was not uncommon in those times.

Some genealogies cite the wife of Augustine Bearse as Mary, with her last name unknown.  One possible theory about Mary is that on the original ship manifest Augustine’s name is listed immediately under the names of Martha Wilder of Shiplocke, Oxford, England and Mary who is noted as her daughter, but without an age or her last name recorded.  It is also notable that Austin’s first child was named Mary, and his second child was Martha.

Now, there is an alternative discussion of Augustine Bearse that was first introduced in the 1930’s.  In 1933, a man named Franklin Ele-watum Bearce applied with the State Commissioner of Indian Rights and Claims for benefits as an Indian in the state of Connecticut.  For provenance, Franklin provided a document that he had written called Who Our Forefathers Really Were where Franklin claimed that the wife of Augustine Bearse was Mary “Little Dove” Hyanno, an Indian princess.  While the commission couldn’t either prove or disprove his genealogy as provided in his narrative, they accepted his statement as an authentic and legal declaration of his lineage, and approved his benefit claim. 

Franklin asserted that he based his claim of Indian ancestry and his version of his family history almost 300 years prior on his own personal knowledge “handed down from generation to generation by my ancestors and imparted to me by word of mouth by my grand father, Henery Bearce” and also on information included in an original diary of Zerviah Newcomb, the wife of Josiah Bearse, a grandson of Augustine Bearse.  Franklin wrote that the diary was titled A True Chronicle of the Bearse Family.  However, Franklin did not provide either the diary or a copy of it with his claim – and there is no record of the diary’s existence other than as stated in his claim.

According to Franklin Bearce’s manifest, Augustine Bearse was persecuted in England because of his Romany or Gypsy heritage.  And for some minor infraction of English law, he was deported to the colonies.  Franklin claimed that Augustine Bearse was the only prisoner allocated to the Barnstable colony after his arrival.

Franklin maintained that no Puritan daughter would marry a gypsy because of religious and racial prejudices.  Augustine instead married Mary “Little Dove” Hyanno, daughter of John Hyanno, a full-blooded Wampanoag Indian, and son of the Sachem Ihyannough who befriended the Pilgrims on their first arrival.  He claimed that they were married in a traditional Indian ceremony at her village.  Franklin described Mary Hyanno as a “flaming-haired Mattachee princess.”  He also noted that Augustine Bearse was given good land in Barnstable by his wife’s grandfather.

Franklin E Bearce’s manuscript and theories gained widespread attention after a 1935 article was published in a magazine called the Utah Genealogical Magazine which detailed Franklin’s version of the Bearse history.  However later in 1939, Franklin’s genealogy was disputed in a well-respected publication titled The American Genealogist.  

There is no actual evidence that tells us whether Augustine Bearse had a Romany or an English heritage.  And we don’t really know if he made the voyage to escape religious or ethnic persecution, if he was deported as a prisoner or if he chose to make the voyage himself.  And last we don’t really know who Augustine married – the daughter of Martha Wilder, an Indian princess, or someone else entirely.  Because of the lack of original documentation or other sources to back up his claims, many genealogical historians refer to Franklin’s version of the Augustine Bearse genealogy as lacking credibility and most certainly contrived solely to obtain rights and benefits as an American Indian. 

Augustine was prominent in both the church and local governance and his children married into the best families in Barnstable and Yarmouth.  Critics of Franklin’s story maintain that it is absurd to believe that respected Puritan families would hold him in high regard and also allow their children to marry his children if he was a deported criminal Gypsy married to an Indian woman. 

I have mentioned this before, but it is good to remind you that simply because something was printed in a book or even handwritten in a bible, manuscript, journal or on a piece of paper, that doesn’t necessarily make it true and accurate.  A historian or researcher will always want to find verification or supporting documentation whenever possible.

*  *  *  *  * 

Key Individuals:

Augustine/Austin Bearse/Bearce (1618 – 1686)

Wife or wives:  unknown, possibly Mary ?

            James Bearse (1660 – 1728) [Augustine’s youngest son & our ancestor] m. Experience Howland (1669 – 1728)

           

Notes:

1)  If you refer to my earlier post, A Mayflower Connection or not [posted on October 3, 2020] and also the follow-up in the Notes of Overboard on the Mayflower [posted on November 15, 2021], you will see that our line to the Mayflower runs through Experience Howland.  Experience married James Bearse, the youngest son of Augustine/Austin Bearse, the immigrant.

2)  I wonder… if Augustine Bearse’s wife was a full-blooded Wampanoag Indian, then would American Indian ethnicity show up in the results of a DNA test for a descendent 350 years later?  I did an Ancestry DNA test several years ago, and there is no indication that I have any American Indian ethnicity in my results. 

Others have also thought about this, as I found a web page online seeking yDNA samples from direct male descendants of Augustine Bearse to test for Romany heritage, and also seeking mtDNA samples from direct female descendants to test for Native American heritage.  To date, testing results indicate that Augustine was not of Romany descent, and his wife was not Native American.

 Jane Scribner McCrary

The Roberts Siblings

One of my great grandmothers was Jane Roberts who married Luke Hughes in Shiloh, Camden County, North Carolina in 1881.  Her parents were Thomas Linton Roberts and Elizabeth Morrisette Roberts of Camden County, North Carolina [see the blog post, Struck By Lightning, November 30, 2021].  I was named after Jane who was my mother’s grandmother.

Jane had eight siblings, and six of the Roberts siblings lived into the 1900’s – three girls, Jane, Elizabeth/Betty, and Jestine and three boys, Thomas, George and James.

The six Roberts siblings lived long lives with four of them remaining in North Carolina, and two of them moving to Norfolk County in Virginia at some point. However they were near enough to remain in close contact all of their life.

The siblings’ details are noted below:

Jane Roberts (1861 – 1933) married Luke Hughes.

Elizabeth Morrisette Roberts (1863 – 1941) married Henry Clay Miller.

Jestine Morrisette Roberts (1869 – 1940) married James Depolian Sawyer.

Thomas Marcellus Roberts (1872 – 1945) married Leonoa Sanderlin.

George Lewis Roberts (1875 – 1950) married Annie Sawyer Leary.

James Monroe Roberts 91878 – 1962) married Charlotte Perkins.

Jane was the oldest, and the first of the six Roberts siblings to die.  She died in 1933.  However, before that time and around 1930, the Roberts siblings all gathered in Shawboro, North Carolina at the residence of James Monroe Roberts and his family for a Roberts Family Reunion and photo.

*  *  *  *  *

Key Individuals:

     Thomas Linton Roberts  (1830 – 1881)

     Elizabeth Morrisette Roberts  (1834 – 1896)

             Nancy Roberts  (1855 – 1876)

             Polly Roberts  (1858 – 1875)

             Jane Roberts   (1861 – 1933)

             Elizabeth Morrisette Roberts  (1863-1941)

             Martha P Roberts  (1866 – 1875)

             Jestine Morrisette Roberts  (1869 – 1940)

             Thomas Marcellus Roberts  (1872 – 1945)

             George Lewis Roberts  (1875 – 1950)

             James Monroe Roberts  (1878 – 1962)

Notes:

1)  I have a listing of the attendees as they appear in the Roberts Family Reunion photo, and will be happy to share if anyone is interested.  My grandparents, mother and aunt are in the top row, and Jane & Luke Hughes are on the far left end.

2)  I have received comments from a few of my family blog readers that there are far more blog posts about Dad’s side of the family than Mom’s side.  And, yes, that is true.  It isn’t by design though; it is simply a matter of me having more original family information available for Dad’s side.  Also when researching the lines on both sides, I have found that there are just more public records and documentation available for the Scribner lines than for the Hughes side.  I think the reason for that difference is primarily because of both wealth and location.  Mom’s ancestors don’t appear to have been large landowners which allowed many families to create wealth.  And paper trails are also easiest to follow in the more populated New England area.  Many of Mom’s ancestors were located in southern rural areas where documents were often not kept or did not survive over time.

But for now, these last two blogs were about Mom’s side of the family.  And I do have another couple planned before I am finished that will be about the Harts, Mom’s great grandparents.

- Jane Scribner McCrary

The Morrisettes of North Carolina

My mother’s side of our family tree finds most of her known relatives through her father’s line in Virginia and North Carolina.  One branch of that family tree, the Morrisette family, appears to have arrived in the Virginia area before 1700.  This is the line of one of my mother’s great grandmothers, Elizabeth Morrisette, 1834-1896.

 

Elizabeth’s paternal line traces back to Thomas Morrisett who was born in 1675 in either England, Scotland or France.  Some suspect that Thomas was part of a French Huguenot family and that he lived in Scotland prior to his journey to the Colonies. Most of my information comes from the family genealogy book, The Morrisettes of North Carolina and Other Southern States written in 1972 by Edna Morrisette Shannonhouse. 

It is believed that Thomas Morrisett (1675-1768) arrived in Princess Anne County, Virginia in 1695 with the John Randolph Expedition.  However, there is no manifest or documentation found for a John Randolph Expedition, so we can’t verify that information.   However, the Virginia Randolph's arrived before 1650 beginning with William Randolph, and one of his 5 sons was named John.  The Randolph's were very wealthy landowners raising tobacco and it is reasonable that the Randolph family sponsored many voyages between England and Virginia and possibly at least one led by John Randolph, a son of William Randolph.

 

It is thought that Thomas Morrisett, supposedly a French Huguenot, arrived in Virginia in 1695.  And that he had a twin brother, Pierre/Peter, who arrived in 1700 with a group of French Huguenots that started a settlement known as Mannikintown in Virginia.

Most of what is known about Thomas Morrisett, the emigrant, was obtained from an old Morrisette family bible.  According to Edna Morrisette Shannonhouse, the original Morrisett family bible burned in 1875, and the bible entries were soon thereafter re-created from memory in a new bible to try and capture the early Morrisett information.  According to Ms. Shannonhouse’s book, the second bible records begin with:

Thomas Morrisett, born in Esicks County, Scotland, May 1, 1675; emigrated to this country with the John Roldolph [sic] expedition in 1695; settled in Princess Ann [sic] County, Virginia, near Cape Henry; died June 1, 1768, age 93 years.  Thomas married Mary A Wade, the daughter of Magen Wade, who was born March 15, 1679 in Scots County, England; arrived in 1690; married May 8, 1698; and died March 5, 1775.

The original Thomas Morrisett home site was said to be located in Back Bay, Virginia.  Thomas and Mary had 3 sons, and it is believed that our Morrisett line is through their youngest son, Thomas Morrisett II (1702-1774).  According to Edna Morrisette Shannonhouse: 

“Cap'n Tom was a mariner, and traveled on a boat that did business with ports in the West Indies, and on occasion, they put into port at Indiantown Creek, which is located on the border of present-day Camden and Currituck Counties.  In those days, it was a thriving, deep water port.  At any rate, he is supposed to have fallen in love with a pretty red-haired girl named Hannah Cason.  Some stories say that Hannah's mother was an Indian and her father a Scotsman named Peter Cason.  One story says that Thomas never married the beautiful Hannah, but her children by him were given his name.  Other stories say he did marry her.  All of them agree that she had twin sons by him, named Pater [Peter] and Cason Morrisette.  One story goes on to say that he went back to sea, leaving her a chest full of gold coins and that he never returned.  He is supposed to have been lost at sea or killed by pirates."

One of Hannah Cason’s great granddaughters said that Thomas was referred to as “the Frenchman” and she remembers her great grandmother as a very old woman called “Granny Hannah”, and in her later years Hannah lived with her great grandson, Philip Morrisette (Elizabeth Morrisette’s father), at the Morrisette home known as “Populars” in Sandy Hook.  It is said that Hannah Cason lived to be over 100 years old.

I must note that there has not been any historical documentation found so far that specifically names our Thomas Morrisett or even his son, Thomas Morrisett II.  And the book on the Morrisette family history written by Edna Morrisette Shannonhouse is not a documented or verified source.  Many regard the information included in her book as unproven or even questionable. Feel free to call or email me if you want any further discussion on this topic. 

The earliest Morrisett documentation found in the area does include a Pierre Morriset among a group of about 500 French Huguenot emigrants that arrived aboard three ships that left Southhampton, England in July 1700.  The passenger named Pierre Morriset, a single man, was aboard the ship Mary and Ann, the first of the three ships to arrive at the mouth of the James River in Virginia.  A later ship named the Peter and Anthony arrived at Jamestown, Virginia in September 1700, and the passenger list for that ship included Jean Maricet, with no wife or family, but there is no indication if he was related to the earlier Pierre Morriset. 

According to Ms. Shannonhouse, the Pierre Morriset who arrived in 1700 is the twin brother of our Thomas Morriset who she believes arrived earlier in 1695.  Again, there is no recorded documentation for Thomas’ arrival, just family lore and an early family bible. 

The next recorded documentation found for a Morriset in our line is a North Carolina land grant record showing that acreage was granted to Peter Morrisett (1728 – 1803) on July 9, 1760 in Currituck County, North Carolina. 

Several months ago I wrote a series of blog posts about several of my ancestors that fought in the Revolutionary War.  All of the individuals noted in those 3 blog posts were on my father’s side of the family and lived in the northeast.  I was pleased when I recently realized that I had missed an ancestor who was on my mother’s Morrisette side of the family and also fought in the Revolutionary War.  

Documentation shows that this Peter Morrisette enlisted as a Patriot on May 21, 1778 as a corporal in the 10^th Carolina Regiment assigned to Carter’s company; and he also served in the 6^th Carolina Regiment commanded by Col Gideon Lamb during the Revolutionary War.  In 1820, after his death, Peter Morrisette was issued a Revolutionary land warrant for acreage for his service.  The land was granted in the name of his heirs.

A Peter Morrisett is found in the 1790 Census for Camden County, North Carolina.  The census shows his family of four included 2 adult males, 1 adult female, 1 male child, and one slave.  In the 1800 census a Peter Morrisette family was in Currituck County and had 1 adult male, 1 adult female, 5 children under 16, with no slaves.  It is probable that these two censuses refer to Peter Morrisette, the eldest son of Thomas Morrisett II and Hannah Cason, or his son, also named Peter Morrisette.  Unfortunately, these early census records only list the name of the head of household.

*  *  *  *  * 

Individuals:

 

Thomas Morrisett  (1675 – 1768) m. Mary Ann Wade Morrisett (1679 – 1775)

Thomas Morrisett II (1702 – 1774) m. Hannah Cason (1703 – aft. 1803)

                        Peter Morrisett  (1728 – 1803) m. Alis/Alice D’auge 

                                    Peter Morrisett II (1750 – 1820) m. Chloe Hutchins

                                                Philip Morrisette (1790 – 1837) m. Jane Garrett

                                                            Elizabeth Morrisette  (1834 – 1896)

 

Notes:

1)  Elizabeth Morrisette (1834-1896), noted above, had an interesting life and you can find more information on Elizabeth at my blog post Struck by Lightning, posted on November 30, 2021.

2)  I noted several years ago in the Introduction to this blog that I first became interested in gathering our family history information in the late 1970’s.  In the spring of 1979, I took a trip with my mother to visit some of her relatives in Virginia and North Carolina.  On that trip, I started asking questions and gathering information about my mother’s ancestors. 

One of my mother’s cousins, Esther Rippard Bradshaw, with a love for our family genealogy, offered to share her information with me – and I was hooked.  Esther copied many of her family sheet pages (it was a time before we used the computer for our genealogy!) from her files that related to my family line. Esther and my mother were both granddaughters of Luke Hughes & Jane Roberts Hughes.  

Esther also showed me a paperbound typewritten book titled “The Morrisettes of North Carolina and Other Southern States” written in 1972 by Edna Morrisette Shannonhouse and told me that was the source for a great deal of information on our family Morrisette line.  Regrettably, she told me that it was no longer in print and the only copies that she knew of belonged to family members.

After I got home to New Mexico, I decided to write Edna Morrisette Shannonhouse to inquire about her book.  Edna answered my letter, and she told me that there truly were no more copies available; however I was delighted when she mailed me copies of the pages from her own book that linked to my family line.  Those pages even had some of her handwritten notes on them! 

Ms. Shannonhouse died in 1995, and her son later authorized a reprinting of her book in 2006 by the Family Research Society of Northeastern North Carolina.  So there are now more copies to be found of this book. 

I’ll state again, however, that because much of her early Morrisette information is family lore and not verified with documentation, many historians remain skeptical as to the accuracy of some of Ms. Shannonhouse’s facts and assumptions. 

 – Jane Scribner McCrary