Witness against William Hambleton.On 3 Nov 1738 Samuel appears in the court minutes of Brunswick County, Virginia, as a witness against a certain William Hambleton.18 This man was to be sent to Williamsburg for a criminal trial and several witnesses were called into court to give depositions for their testimony at that trial, namely, William Gunn, Peter Brewer, Aaron Johnson, Moses Dunkley, and Abraham Kibbles. The nature of the offense and the outcome of the trial are subjects of conjecture. From later court records we learn that the prosecutor William Gunn was likely a local attorney; he had a large number of debtors and several creditors. Peter Brewer was a land owner, but the others seem to have been laborers. Any records that might have been kept of the trial in Williamsburg would have been lost to flames. Samuel undoubtedly took part in the common labor of cultivating tobacco, labor which was normally supplied by indentured servants. Not unlike his fellows Samuel incurred indebtedness that was sometimes uncollectible. On 19 Feb 1738/9 he gave William Gunn a note for £6.1s.5d. William took action against him in the August court and won.19 Similar action that William took against other debtors failed to absolve his own indebtedness and by the time his creditors came back upon him he had absconded to the south into the neighboring colony of North Carolina. | ||
More consequences of William Gunn’s absconding.Similar evasive action was taken by one of Samuel’s debtors, James Adams, whom he tried to prosecute in October court 1740.20 Then in May 1741 Theophilus Field, who ran an ordinary (tavern) in the neighborhood, prosecuted Samuel successfully for a debt of £2.5s.21 In August Samuel appeared in court again. This time the claim was that he was in possession of part of William Gunn’s property, but the claim could not be proved.22 We may speculate that perhaps Samuel had put up collateral on Field’s note and since William was not able to collect it himself, his creditors could have no claim on it. | ||
Burying Benjamin Wray.The vestry of St. Andrews parish, the ecclesiastical counterpart of Brunswick County, also recorded the name of Samuel Dispain. In 1743 they allowed him 200 pounds of tobacco for burying Benjamin Wray.23 Benjamin appears in the court minutes as a planter as early as 1733.24 Why the parish was subsidizing his burial is a subject of conjecture, but a genealogical connection to Samuel would seem to be excluded. Perhaps Samuel simply needed the money. Still, it may be significant that a grandson of Samuel for some unknown reason was given the name Benjamin in 1757. | ||
Missing immigration certification.During the period between Jun 1742 and Jan 1745/6 the clerk of the county court failed to keep the minutes. The court was astonished at his neglect, but nothing could be done to recover the loss.25 It may well have been during this period that Samuel would have been issued his certificate of importation. Such documents as were not neglected state the immigrant’s country of origin, how long in the colony (in some cases as long as 30 years), and how many importation rights the immigrant is entitled to. Since Samuel was granted 200 acres on 20 Aug 1748, we suppose that he was responsible for the immigration of four individuals.26 | ||
More financial problems.On 3 Apr 1746 Samuel’s financial problems were again brought before the court. Thomas Cocke obtained a judgment against him in the August court for £4.7s.4d.27 | ||
Burning down the gaol.In 1748 there was a very unusual altercation brought to court involving Samuel.28 A certain William Middleton had been committed to jail for 42 days. Supposedly it was while he was there that the jail was broken and burned. On 17 Jun 1748 William Middleton, William Davidson, Anne Spain, Elizabeth Matthews, Sarah Green, and Mary (or Elizabeth) Morgan were brought before the court to answer for the offense. They were committed to jail (a house belonging to James McDaniel, a deputy) for eight days.29 After the hearing all were released except for William Middleton and Elizabeth Morgan — James McDaniel had been able to give testimony against these two. We can imagine the women of the neighborhood rising up against some real or supposed injustice against one of them and Elizabeth bearing the incendiary torch. | ||
Retaliatory incendiarism.It was not long before William Middleton was in jail again, this time for 44 days for a breach of the peace.30 On 5 Jan 1748/9 he found himself in jail a third time.31 He had been arrested for burning Mary Matthews’ house. The witnesses examined were Mary Matthews, Drury Malone, Samuel Dispain, and John Brown. They all went to Williamsburg for the trial. Other court records shed some light on the character of some of these people. William Davidson was indicted by a grand jury for adultery. The same charge had been brought against Sarah Green (wife of Thomas Green?). We can imagine William Middleton and William Davidson being general trouble makers, perhaps laborers on or near the Matthews’ place, making themselves quite intimate with the women around. | ||
Ridge road passes by Samuel’s land.It was on 20 Aug 1748 that Samuel first obtained a patent for land he had settled.32 Evidence that he had entered it much earlier is William Malone’s patent in 1744 which describes his land as bordered on the south by “Dispanes line.”33 The court minutes for 1750 are missing and Samuel’s name appears again in 1751 as one of those on a petition for a new road to be built from the county line on the ridge between Taylor’s Creek and the Meherrin River.34 Today this section is Forksville road, part of Virginia State Route 639. Samuel’s land, today part of a huge tree farm, was in his name for only two years; he sold it for £30 to Samuel Marshall on 26 Jun 1750.35 The fact that a grandson of Samuel was given the name Marshall, and Samuel and John Marshall witness Samuel Dispain’s will in 1782 has made us wonder whether Anne might have been a Marshall or have married into the family. However, when we reconstruct the Marshall family pedigree from wills on file for an older (badly mutilated) and younger John Marshall any further evidence of such a connection fails to fall out.36 | ||
Land in Lunenburg County.It must have been around 1750 when he sold his Brunswick Co. land, that Samuel moved his residence about three miles up the road along Taylor’s ridge entering a pair of 400 acre tracts. Land patented there as early as 1752 had been described in terms of “Despanes lines.”37 Samuel patented this Lunenburg Co. land in 1762, when it had come time to dispose of some of it.38 | ||
Land in Halifax County, North Carolina.In 1755 Samuel purchased 100 acres in Halifax County, North Carolina.39 This land was on Great Fishing Creek very near the county line with Bute County where Moses Harris lived.40 Moses presumably married Samuel’s daughter Sarah around this time.41 Samuel lived here when he sold 200 acres of his Virginia land in 1762.42 He sold 200 acres more in 1764.43 In this year also he sold the Halifax land when Samuel would have been ae 72.44 We may well suppose that by this time he was being supported by his children and grandchildren. He settled on Horse Creek in Granville County, North Carolina, where he paid for 180 acres in June 1768.45 It was in this year that he sold another 200 acres of his Virginia land.46 | ||
Samuel’s declining years.As Samuel became older he would have become more dependent on his children and grandchildren for support. In 1767 he felt it necessary to deed over all his personal property to his oldest grandson, Benjamin, who would have been only 10 years old at the time.47 In the deed Samuel provided that if Benjamin were to die the property should fall to Harrison Harris, who we assume would have been the oldest son of Moses and Sarah (Dispain) Harris. 1767 was a time of political strife in the western counties of North Carolina. A large number of settlers had moved down from Virginia and from further north and the government officials of the eastern counties refused to divide the western counties or to otherwise let them be represented fairly in the Assembly. | ||
Disposition of Samuel’s estate.Samuel had an additional tract of 180 acres on Horse Creek which he sold in 1774.48 He still had title to his other tract there in 1783 when he died. We may suppose that Samuel and Anne were probably living with Moses Harris when he died because his will was proved in Warren County.49 He left his son John five shillings and his daughter Sarah the same. This is the kind of provision that the deviser of a will would make to prevent an heir from pursuing any other claims to the estate. It was Benjamin who fell heir to the property given him in 1767 and the land he must have been residing on in Granville County.50 Benjamin afterwards sold the land in 1787.51 | ||
Moses Harris of Warren County, North Carolina.We are able to state but little with certainty concerning the family and descendants of Samuel’s daughter Sarah. Her family appears to have included at least the following: | ||
| Moses & (Samuel0) Sarah4 (Despain) Harris | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Samuel | |
| brn abt 1758 | ||
| 2. | Elizabeth | |
| brn abt 1760 | ||
| lic 20 Apr 178252 | Thomas Ezard | |
| 3. | Nathan | |
| brn abt 1762 | ||
| 4. | Harrison | |
| brn abt 1764 | ||
| lic 3 Feb 178953 | Elizabeth Bettes | |
| Evidence for the first three children in this family is relatively strong: 1) Benjamin “Spain” stood as bondsman at Elizabeth’s marriage, 2) Harrison was implied in Samuel’s will to be his grandson, 3) Harrison along with Samuel Harris witnessed this document, and 4) Nathan stood surety for Benjamin at his marriage in 1780. One of the difficulties that impedes further research on this family is the common occurrence of the Harris name. They appear to have lived on Harris’s Branch of Great Fishing Creek bordering Warren (Franklin) and Halifax Counties, North Carolina54. | ||