Descendants of
David Fleming
of Pitt County, North Carolina
Son of John Fleming of Kent County, Delaware ???
Eight generations and 3,430 descendants of David Fleming
and their spouses, correcting and supplanting all previous versions.
Last updates and revisions – April 15, 2004
This project is the collaborative effort of many, to whom I owe my gratitude.
Introduction
Regrettably we know little with certainty of our distant ancestor DAVID FLEMING – not the place or exact date of his birth, not definitively the names of his parents. The county courthouse in Pitt County, North Carolina, in which county he lived for almost 50 years, burned in 1858 and again in 1910, leaving but bits and traces of his life there.
David’s father might have been John Fleming, Sr. who – with “John, Jun.” and George Fleming – appears on the 1762 tax list of Pitt County, North Carolina, that county having been created on January 1, 1761 from neighboring Beaufort County.
Information Possibly Linking
David Fleming to the Flemings
of Kent County, DelawareResearcher John Barnhill of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina has generously forwarded information that would seem to suggest David Fleming’s kinship to John Fleming, who it appears may have emigrated from Kent County, Delaware to Pitt County, North Carolina.
John Barnhill’s 5th-great grandfather, David Barnhill (born about 1695 in Scotland), first appears in Kent County, Delaware records in the will of Eliner Patton. This will was made April 29, 1732 and probated on December 11, 1738. Mrs. Patton’s will shows her heirs to be:
Sons Robert and Thomas; dau. Sarah Fleming; granddaughter Mary Fleming; and son-in-law John Fleming. Among the witnesses to the will were Robert Fleming and David Barnhill. (It is worth noting that the Patton name shows up in the descendants of David Fleming: David’s son Willis had a son named David Patton Fleming –– JTF)
David Barnhill lived in the Black Swamp Branch area of Kent County, Delaware and later in Brown’s Neck, Kent County. The will of Mrs. Eliner Patton and David Barnhill’s own marriage to Margaret Fleming about 1734 suggest the Barnhills and Flemings were acquainted with one another.
John Barnhill names as siblings of Margaret (Fleming) Barnhill: Robert, George, Alexander, John (born about 1708), William, and James Fleming. The wills of Robert, George, Alexander, and William were probated in Kent County, Delaware, in 1754, 1759, 1767, and 1765 respectively. The will of Robert Fleming, written on April 20, 1751 and probated on August 11, 1754, names the following heirs:
- Wife, Aliss;
- Dau., Fillis;
- Margaret Barnhill, daughter of David Barnhill;
- Martha and Hester, daughters of George Fleming;
- Robert, son of Alexander Fleming;
- David, son of John Fleming;
- Elizabeth, daughter of William Fleming;
- Hannah, daughter of James Fleming; and
- Brother-in-law, David Barnhill (also the executor of the will).
From John Barnhill’s e-mail of August 8, 2001:
“My observation is that David Barnhill was not only the husband of Margaret Fleming and brother-in-law to the Fleming men, he was obviously a loyal and trusted friend. The fact that he was listed as an heir and executor of Robert’s will bears that out in my opinion.
Also, I think David Fleming, son of John, may have been named after David Barnhill. Or, maybe it’s just a coincidence.”
Mr. Barnhill’s ancestors David Barnhill and wife Margaret Fleming, with their children Henry, Alexander, John, David, Jr., and Margaret, moved to Pitt County, North Carolina, in 1762. They sold their two parcels of land in Kent County on March 31, 1762. This is about the same period of time that John Fleming, John Fleming, Jr. and Georgia Fleming first appear in North Carolina.
Pitt County was created from neighboring Beaufort County, North Carolina on January 1, 1761. There is no record I have located of any Fleming in Beaufort County immediately prior to 1762 so it seems possible that the Flemings emigrated with the Barnhills from Kent County, Delaware to Pitt County, North Carolina.
There is evidence that the Barnhills and Flemings remained close after arriving in Pitt County, North Carolina. A descendant of David Barnhill, Martha Nurtia Barnhill, for example, married Ivy/Ivey Fleming, grandson of David Fleming, Ivy’s second marriage.
Whether the Flemings can be found in Scotland with the Barnhills and perhaps emigrated to America together is not known and would be speculation at this point. (John Barnhill believes his ancestor David Barnhill was in America and Kent County, Delaware, by 1731.)
John Fleming and “The Pitt Association”
One year prior to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, on July 1, 1775, John Fleming (Jr. or Sr.?) crossed the Tar River to join 87 other members of “The Pitt Association” assembled at the county courthouse at Martinborough (renamed Greenville in 1787), in defiance of the Crown, to sign a declaration protesting “arbitrary illegal acts of the British parliament.”
Early But Few Records of John and David Fleming
ohn Fleming, Sr. was in Pitt County at least by September 23, 1762 when an entry in Deed Book B on page 404 records the sale of 250 acres from “Bennet Britten to John Fleming, Senr.,” as witnessed by John Nobles and Thomas Pinkett. George Fleming first appears in the deed records of Pitt County, North Carolina, in Deed Book E, p. 20 on July 4, 1771 when John Simpson sells 100 acres to him, land once owned by Walter Dixon.
Of David Fleming, these things we know: He was born at least by 1755, being that he was over 45 years of age according to the federal census of Pitt County taken in 1800. He lived on land north of Greenville and the Tar River and south of Grindle Creek in Pitt County near the Great Swamp (or Markers/Markum/Marks Swamp?). David married Ann ?, whose last name is not known, on February 18, 1776 in Pitt County, North Carolina, this according to a transcription of his now-lost family bible. The first record of David Fleming in the surviving deed books of Pitt County can be found recorded November 16, 1777 when he was a witness to a land transaction of John Fleming and Fitch Harris.
From Huxford Genealogical Quarterly, March, 1987, p. 21:
“In his early youth, James Wainwright, Jr. (1789 – 1870) lived on the northside of the Tar River near Markam Swamp. This was the neighborhood in which lived the families of Mundine, Robson, Knox, Fleming and others whose names are found among the early pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia. In 1787 his father purchased from George Falconer a 250-acre plantation, which became the Wainwright homestead for the next several years. The 150-acre tract, which came to James Wainwright, Sr. as the dowry of Sarah Mundine, was sold by James and Sarah in 1791 to David Fleming, a former neighbor.”
On December 1, 1787, prior to the transaction detailed above, David Fleming enters 100 acres in Pitt County “on N side of Tar R; border: the great pocoson, Robert Flake and John Wainwright.” NOTE: According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, ‘pocosin’ is a word of North Carolina or Virginia Algonquian origin meaning ‘an upland swamp of the coastal plain of the southeastern United States.’
The reference from Huxford in the excerpt above is to the deed transaction in Pitt County Deed Book M, p. 295 on March 10, 1791 when David Fleming purchased the 150 acres from James Wainwright for £60. This is the same tract of land – adjacent to lands already in David Fleming’s possession – that on May 31, 1784 the Land Entry Officer for Pitt County (Land Warrant No. 55) directed the county surveyor to lay off and survey for Sarah Mundine prior to her marriage to James Wainwright. By 1794, Wainwright and his family had moved to the southside of the Tar River.
The Flemings held land on the northside of the Tar River across the water from present-day Greenville, North Carolina and near the “great swamp,” adjacent at one time or another to lands held by Robert Flake, Abner Proctor, James Shivers, James Wainwright, and other pioneer settlers of the region.
- viz: “Jonas Shivers of the County of Pitt and State of North Carolina, farmer, for the sum of One hundred and twenty pounds specie have given granted bargained sold to John Fleming his heirs one tract of land situate lying and being in the county aforesaid on the north side of Tar River and on the south side of Grindal Crick ... Signed sealed and delivered in presence of Jesse Shivers Pitt County January Term 1798 ...”
- “John Fleming bargained & sold unto the said Jonas Shivers his heirs parcel of land lying and being in the State & County aforesaid on the north side of Tar River. In Witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand & seal this 31st day of December 1800 ...
- Pitt County Deed Book T, May 1, 1814: John Flemming, “Son of George” and Jesse Shivers, both County of Pitt, N.C.; land on N. side of Tarr river, quit claimed n. side of the Great Swamp, beginning at “a Stake Shivers & David Flemming’s corner ...”
- Pitt County Deed Book BB, Proved February 1821: A deed from Jesse Shivers to James Shivers for $700: Dated: 10 August 1820 – “Land where I do now live” about 750 acres in Pitt County, on the North side of Tarr river bounded by David Flemming and heirs of Benjamin Flemming, Shadrach Shivers, William Briley land.
1790 Pitt County Census
In the 1790 census of Pitt County, David, John and George Fleming can each be found in the New Bern District of that county, each with families of their own.
- According to that census, David and his wife had in their household two males between ten and 16 years of age (Benjamin and John), one male child under ten (probably James), one female between 16–26 (Sarah), and one female child under ten (possibly Lydia).
- In John’s household are one female child between the ages of 16 and 26, another female child ten to 16 years old, and two women over 45 years –– perhaps his wife and his mother or mother-in-law or a sister?
- In George’s home are three male children (one under ten, another ten to 16 years old, and one 16 to 26), two females under ten, and one female 16–26 years of age. It would perhaps appear from this count that his wife had died unless the male child 16–26 was not hers and she was 16–26 years old.
On February 8, 1796, in The North Carolina Journal, published in Halifax County, North Carolina, there appears the following notice:
This is to caution all persons against buying a note of hand payable to Daniel Leggit the 1st of Dec. 1796 for 30 lbs. dated 14 Sept. 1795 and witnessed by John Fleming.
Signed, David Fleming, Pitt Co.
David Fleming Dies Between
August 10, 1820 and September 26, 1826David Fleming died after August 10, 1820 but before September 26, 1826, the latter being the date that his daughter Sarah (Fleming) Little gives power of attorney to John Williams of Crawford County, Georgia, “to secure monies or property due her” as David Fleming’s heir – Pitt County, North Carolina, Deed Book EE, p. 102.
Issue*:
Of David and Ann Fleming
* - Birth dates are from the now-lost David Fleming family bible
B1–––i.––– Benjamin Fleming, of whom below, was born on March 12, 1777 in Pitt County, North Carolina; he died before December 16, 1817.
S1–––ii.––– Sarah Fleming, born June 22, 1778 in Pitt County, North Carolina. She married Edmund Little, reportedly a son of Jesse Little and Frances Dinkins. Edmund and Sarah (Fleming) Little were living in Washington County, Georgia (Morrison’s District) according to the 1820 federal census of that county. Apparently Edmund drew land in the Georgia Land Lottery of 1821 (Land Lot #205 in the 2nd District of Houston County, Georgia) and later emigrated to Sumter County, Georgia. Sarah’s brother Willis (#W1) married Edmund’s sister Sarah.
L1–––iii.––– Lydia Fleming, born December 14, 1782 in Pitt County, North Carolina; possibly died young. No further record.
J1–––iv.––– John Fleming, of whom below, was born on March 18, 1786 in Pitt County, North Carolina. He died in 1852 in Pulaski County, Georgia.
Z1–––v.––– James Fleming, born January 23, 1788 in Pitt County, North Carolina. He may possibly be the James Fleming mentioned in Pitt County Deed Book R, p. 116, on January 7, 1808: “ –– David Fleming to John Fleming, 120 acres, £200. Wit.: James Fleming and Willis Fleming.”
A1–––vi.––– Aidin Fleming, born on March 12, 1790 in Pitt County, North Carolina; died on April 1, 1790.
W1–––vii.––– Willis Fleming, of whom below, born on June 26, 1792 in Pitt County, North Carolina; died on November 27, 1855 in Edgecombe County, North Carolina.
N1–––viii.––– Nancy Fleming, of whom below, was born January 17, 1798 in Pitt County, North Carolina. She died on January 12, 1846. She married Soloman Whichard, and from this union descend many of the prominent members of the Whichard family of North Carolina.
||| Home page |||
Corrections and updates gratefully and
appreciatively received.
E-mail: JTFleming@mindspring.com
Selected web sites related
to the Fleming family
of Pitt County, North Carolina, and Pulaski County, Georgia
||| Fleming Family Genealogy Forum |||
||| Pitt County, North Carolina Family Researchers |||
||| Pitt County, North Carolina GenWeb Project |||
||| Pulaski County, Georgia GenWeb Project |||
||| Pulaski County, Georgia, Query Forum |||
||| North Carolina GenWeb Project |||
||| Georgia GenWeb Project |||
||| Fleming Family One Name Study |||
||| Southwest Georgia Genealogical Society |||
||| John David Bridgers’ Shaggy Dog Chronicles, Memoirs and Other Stories |||
||| Margo McCaul’s Brileygenealogy.net |||
||| The Little Legend |||
||| Linda F. Harris’s Diggin for Roots |||
||| Ree’s Rebels |||
||| B.J. Hughes’ Genealogy Page |||
||| Gary Kemper’s Winstead Family Genealogy |||
||| The Daily Reflector newspaper of Greenville, North Carolina |||
||| Georgia State Archives |||
||| North Carolina Office of Archives and History |||
||| Hull, Wilkins and Related Families (including Little) |||
||| Wainwright Research |||
||| East Carolina University’s Joyner Library |||