HENDERSON FAMILY HISTORY
William
Henderson, born about 1650, was an immigrant from Scotland (refn
1792). One of his children was also named William Henderson who
was born about 1680 in the Virginia Colony (rfn 1896). William
had a son named John Henderson who was born before 1707, Virginia
Colony, America. He died on August 1783 in Orange County,
Virginia and was buried in that country. (refn 448). He married
Sarah Brockman and they had twelve children (Joseph, Samuel,
Richard, John Jr., Ann Mary, Sarah, Susannah, Elizabeth, Isabella,
Hannah, and Rachael).
Samuel Henderson
was born about 1740, Orange County, Virginia Colony. He died
February 8, 1819 in Caswell County, North Carolina (refn 224). He
married Priscilla Miles on December 18, 1768 in Orange County,
North Carolina. They had fourteen children (Hiram, Joseph,
Sarah, Martha Patsey, Nancy, Priscilla, John, Jacob, Mary
Polly, Elizabeth, William, Samuel, Thomas, and Hannah).
Apparently, Priscilla, his first wife either died or divorced him
and he married Priscilla Nichols, had five children, James Samuel,
Harriet Eliza, Minerva Ann, Ludolphus, and Francis A.
In the early
1800's, North Carolina was home to a relatively large free
"colored" population. These folk, including Henderson ancestors,
most of whom were of mixed black and white (and in some cases
Native American) ancestry, were concentrated in eastern NC. Free
people were usually descended from freed slaves or the freedom
offspring of white women by black men. The Hendersons of Dudley
probably originated as offspring of Martha Patsey Henderson and an
unknown person of color.
In February 1821,
Martha “Patsey” Henderson appeared before the Onslow country
(N.C.) Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions with her small
sons, Bryan and James. Poor, unmarried, and perhaps ill, Patsy
requested that the boys be bound as apprentices to a white
neighbor. Like many other free people of color (1) in rural North
Carolina during the slavery era, Patsy was hard-pressed to provide
food, clothing, and shelter for her family. There was little
demand in rural areas for the skills she may have possessed, such
as sewing or laundering. Binding out her children,
heart-wrenching as it must have been, was a means to ensure that
Bryan and James (and her daughters Marenda and Martha) did not go
hungry or naked.
The entry of
this apprenticeship in the court minutes is the only evidence we
have of Patsey’s existence. However from circumstantial evidence,
we can infer that she was one of several sisters born to unknown
parents in Onslow County around the turn of the 18th
century. Of these sisters – Patsey, Nancy, Susan “Sukey,” Naomi,
and Mary “Polly” – we have the most information about Nancy
Henderson. Though she took in Patsey’s daughters, Nancy, too,
bound out several of her children after the death of their father,
Simon Dove. As was common among free people of color in that
period, Nancy’s children used both her last name and their
father’s at different times in their lives. Typically, a child
of unmarried parents used his mother’s name in childhood and
assumed his father’s name as he reached adulthood.
James Henderson,
born around 1815, was Jesse Gregory’s apprentice until 1823, when
his indenture was awarded to Jason Gregory. A year later, he was
re-apprenticed to James Glenn. Presumably he stayed with Glenn
until his 21st birthday, learning farming and
mechanical skills. We know nothing of his life during these early
years. However, by 1835, James had become romantically involved
with the woman who bore his first four children. We do not know
her first name, but her last name was Skipp. Their first child,
Lewis, was born in 1836. James Henry, Mary, and Eliza followed
every two years.
James Henderson
appears in the 1850 federal census of Onslow Country as a mechanic
living in the household of white farmer B.J. Koonce. As a
mechanic, James made and repaired farming tools. His children,
who carried their mother’s surname Skipp, lived nearby in the
households of the men to whom they had been apprenticed. Their
mother does not appear in the census and presumably was dead.
Several related Henderson and Dove families also lived in the area
which is north of present-day Jacksonville, North Carolina. In
about 1851, James moved approximately 40 miles northeast to
Sampson County, where he married Louisa Armwood, daughter of John
and Susan Armwood. The Armwoods, like the Hendersons, were free
people of color.
By the time the
1860 census was taken, James and Louisa Armwood Henderson had five
children: Anna J. (1852), Hepsie (1856), Alexander (1859), and
John Henry (1860). James’ older children James and Eliza resided
with the family, while son Lewis, his wife Margaret and young
children Lewis T., James Lucian, and Isabella J. lived nearby.
James Henry, Eliza, and Lewis all bore the name Henderson by 1860.
James and
Louisa’s family continued to grow. Nancy (named for James’ aunt),
was born in 1865, Betty in 1867. Julia “Molly” in 1872, Edward in
1874, and Louella “Ella” in 1876, forty years after the birth of
James’ oldest child Lewis. The family moved from Sampson to
neighboring Duplin County in the late 1860s’. James and Louisa
remained in Duplin County until their deaths sometime before 1900.
The family
members descended from James Henderson’s fourteen children:
LEWIS, JAMES
HENRY, MARY, ELIZA, ANNA J., SUSAN, HEPSIE, ALEXANDER, JOHN HENRY,
NANCY, BETTY, JULIA, EDWARD, AND LOUELLA
