Category: General Information

Ayers from NC in the Revolutionary War AYERS Line

April 3, 2011 Dennis 1 comment

Folks, this is a little longer post than normal, but it contains a lot of historically important information to help put our ancestors lives in perspective. Sorry, but you gotta learn some history.

The Revolutionary War started in Massachusetts in 1775. However, by 1779, the British had been slowly driven from most of the North, and in frustration shifted their hopes to military campaigns in the South. They were hoping to take advantage of much loyalism in the Southern back-country. In 1780, after first taking South Carolina, the British Army, commanded in the South by Lord Cornwallis, was ordered to reclaim North Carolina from the rebels and push on into Virginia. Refer to the map at the end of this post for battle locations.

As mentioned earlier, Thomas Ayers had several sons in his family. While residing in Surry County, NC, they were drawn into the war. Although much of the time they were involved in informal, but violent, battles between loyalists and rebels, one of them also participated in two major battles with regular British troops which turned the tide of the war in the South.

It is not known if Thomas’ family, like his father’s, were also Quakers who were against violence. However, it is known that some Quakers, out of necessity, temporarily suspended their memberships during the war and then rejoined afterwards.

The extreme delay of providing pensions to veterans after the war was a sad, drawn out affair, and not until a Special Act of Congress in 1832 were pensions made available to the majority of surviving veterans. Fortunately, due to these detailed pensions applications in which they had to explain when and where they fought, we are able to get a glimpse into the lives of our Ayers ancestors during the war. I’ll try to capture some of the significant highlights below.

In 1780, Thomas Ayers Sr., was about 46 years old, his son Nathaniel about 25 years old, son Elihu about 19 and son Thomas Jr. about 9. While it would be unthinkable today, Thomas Jr., when still only a young lad, saw much violence and fighting action as he later stated in an affirmation for another pension applicant:

“I was too young to be put on a list of soldiers but I prefomed a voluntary servitude as hard as any soldier that is against Tories. I had to run many a time when over powered by them to save myself. I fought in my Father’s place he being old. Old and young had to fight it was a time of trouble in this country as I before stated the Tories was so bad.”

Elihu Ayers saw the most service. He first entered as a volunteer private in the militia in January 1778. He served a little over 12 months during which he only participated in skirmishes against the Tories (loyalists) and not against the foreigners. He traveled the area around Surry and Wilkes counties defending Whigs (rebels) and their property from the ravages of the Tories. During this term of service, he was present and assisted in “half hanging” William Combs whom they let off on promise of better behavior, and in hanging two other men condemned by a Court Martial. He obtained a discharge from this term of service which was some years afterwards burned in his Father’s House.

Elihu entered his next tour of duty in April 1780. Initially, he again was employed in the surrounding country to keep down the Tories and retaking and restoring property to the Whigs taken by the Tories. Then in the Fall of 1780, he was marched to South Carolina where he participated in the famous Battle of King’s Mountain. The British, under Colonel Ferguson, fought in their traditional close-packed European fashion. The frontiersmen, however, played by different rules, moving from tree to tree picking off Ferguson’s men with their long and much more accurate frontier rifles. Many British were killed with few prisoners taken, and Elihu Ayers personally witnessed the death of Colonel Ferguson. King’s Mountain was a stunning defeat for Lord Cornwallis. After that General Washington sent one of his most experienced officers, Nathaniel Greene, to the South to drive the British out.

Elihu returned to North Carolina for a short furlough, but in the Spring of 1781, he was marched to the very important battle of Guilford Courthouse in Guilford County, NC, which was only 50 miles from his home in Surry County. There, he was part of the militia who panicked and ran from the scene of action. It was a terribly bloody battle from which the Americans, led by General Greene finally retreated, but it left both sides grieviously wounded. The battle was significant, however, in that Cornwallis began to fully realize that he could no longer count on the Loyalists for help, and that victories in the Carolina territory would always elude him. Frustrated he turned his attention back to Virginia where he was also unsuccessful and the war finally ended with an American victory at Yorktown later in 1781.

In 1786 Elihu married Lydia Owen and they later moved to Patrick County, VA. He finally received a pension beginning in 1834 until he died in 1844. You can read a complete transcription of Elihu Ayers’ pension application in his own words here (R335).

Meanwhile, Thomas Ayers’ oldest son, Nathaniel, who is our direct ancestor, was also called into service as a militia man in August of 1780. He too was marched to South Carolina to the Battle of King’s Mountain. However, he did not participate in the battle, as he had been sent to a powder maker, for powder. As it turned out, the Tories had already taken the powder maker, and his powder and the main battle was over before Nathaniel returned. He met the victorious soldiers with the prisoners and marched with them and was held in service until some time in November or December and was discharged.

In February, Nathaniel was again called into service with the same militia company. The object was to join General Greene’s forces, but they kept missing them as Greene, endeavoring to avoid an early engagement with Cornwallis kept changing his positions. As a result, they never did join with Greene before the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. On the other hand, they frequently fell in with parties of the enemy and had little skirmishes. He was then discharged in May 1781.

Since Nathaniel Ayers did not complete at least six months service, he was deemed not eligible for a pension. You can read a complete transcription of his pension application in his own words here (R336).

I wonder if the Ayers clan in North Carolina, was aware that some of their cousins back in New England and New Jersey also fought and helped win the Revolutionary War.

I heartily recommend viewing “The Patriot” movie released in 2000 starring Mel Gibson, which does a very creditable job in depicting the horrific conditions and events in the Carolinas during the Rev War.

The Carolina Road

March 31, 2011 Dennis No comments exist

Colonial families migrating to the Southern Virginia and North Carolina Piedmont area had to traverse rutted dirt wagon roads no more than 10 feet wide with very few routes to follow. Before the French and Indian War in the 1750s, the preferred route going south first took them across the Potomac river via Noland’s Ferry, near what is now Point of Rocks, MD. The Carolina Road then took them east of the Blue Ridge Mountain along a trail which essentially followed Routes 15 and 29 in present day Virginia straight to the Piedmont area. The road was favored by Colonists – as it had been favored by their predecessors, the Algonquin and Iroquois Indians – because of numerous springs along its route, milder temperatures east of the mountains and relatively safe fords across major rivers and streams.

Our Ayers Lineage

March 28, 2011 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

As it became clear that the Northern Ayers Line connects to the Southern Ayers Line, it also became possible to string together our entire Ayers lineage in North America. To do this, I used a timeline chart to show the life spans of each ancestor over the last four centuries. In the chart shown below, you can see the New England and New Jersey ancestors in Green on the left side, and then the Southern Ayers ancestors in blue on the right side.

**Ayers Lineage Timeline — Click to get a larger view**

The Southern Line starts with Nathaniel Ayers and I’ll be discussing him in my next post. Note that I’m still showing a dotted line between John Ayers of New Jersey and Nathaniel Ayers to indicate there are no actual records to tie them together, only DNA test results. The numbers next to each name indicate the generation back from myself shown at the very bottom.

To give a better perspective of time across the four centuries, I’ve added notations on the chart indicating when some major events or wars occurred. From now on as I talk about each ancestor in the Southern line, you might want to refer back this chart to get a feel for the time period in which each lived.

Colonial Naming Patterns

March 24, 2011 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

After reading the first half dozen of these posts, you now have seen many familiar Given (first) names like John and Mary used over and over again. Well, that is because the early settlers of our country more often than not followed the same customs used for naming children in Europe at the time, while also leaning towards Biblical names.

In many families the oldest son and daughter were named directly after the father and mother. In other families the eldest boy was ofter named after the father’s father and the oldest girl was typically named after the mother’s mother. The second boy was then named after the mother’s father, while the second girl was named after the father’s mother. These customs obviously created a high replication of names across generations. In early Massachusetts over 50 percent of girls were named Mary, Elizabeth or Sarah. Some of the popular names for boys were John, Benjamin, Joseph, Jonathan, Nathan and Samuel.

The prevailing use of so many of the same names, along with the general scarcity of records back then, sure make it tough on family historians today. In fact, I bet our ancestors are smiling down on us as they watch us struggle to put the pieces of the family puzzle together.

Mayflower Connection?

March 24, 2011 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

Rightfully or not, many people like to claim they have an ancestral connection to one of the families that came aboard the Mayflower. Well, we AYERS that descend from John AYRE in New Jersey may have a rightful claim, but there is controversy about the true identity of a key individual. I’ll explain.

First some background is needed. George SOULE was a signer of the Mayflower Compact, and one of the original 102 Pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower to Plymouth, Massachusetts Colony in 1620. SOULE was among the one half of the population that survived the first winter in Plymouth and was present at the time of the “First Thanksgiving” in 1621. About 1626 he married Mary BECKET. Their youngest daughter, Elizabeth was born in 1645. Unfortunately, Elizabeth had some scandalous troubles in her early life.

On 3 March 1663 Elizabeth SOULE, daughter of Mayflower passenger George Soule, and Nathaniel CHURCH, grandson of Mayflower passenger Richard WARREN, to whom she was engaged to be married, were each fined 5 pounds for fornication by the Puritan community. By late 1663, Nathaniel still had not fulfilled his promise of marriage, and on 5 October 1663 Elizabeth sued Nathaniel CHURCH for breach of promise, with betrayal, for 200 Pounds but only recovered 10 Pounds. On 2 July 1667, Elizabeth was in court again “for committing fornication for the second time,” and this time she was sentenced to suffer corporal punishment by being whipped at the post. No male partner was named in this action. If no male partner was named, she was therefore not caught in the act, as the first charge proves that the court had no problem fining and punishing both parties. Most likely, a growing belly in her unmarried state was the evidence of fornication this second time.

By March 1668, Elizabeth SOULE has married a man named Francis WALKER based on the recorded land transaction “George SOULE to daughter Elizabeth WALKER, wife of Francis.” Speculation is that George SOULE gave land to Francis WALKER as payment for marrying his daughter. This would also seem to reinforce the notion that Elizabeth had been expecting a child. Sometime after their marriage, Francis and Elizabeth moved to Woodbridge, New Jersey, like many others from Newbury, Massachusetts, and appear to have lived quietly there for the remainder of their lives.

Now getting to the controversy. As mentioned once before, there is a lack of records that far back in time in northern New Jersey. As a result there is much uncertainty of exactly how many children Francis WALKER and Elizabeth SOULE had including their names and dates of birth. However, it is a known fact that a woman named Mary WALKER married John AYERS, in Woodbridge about 1688, and it is from this union that our AYERS line of descendancy is based. Some researchers strongly believe that Mary was a daughter born to Elizabeth probably around 1668, while others just as strongly believe that there is not enough evidence to support that conclusion. The venerable Mayflower Society itself has wavered over the matter, but it currently is not convinced that Mary WALKER was Elizabeth’s daughter and thus not a Mayflower descendant from George SOULE.

So, do we descendants of John AYERS of New Jersey have a Mayflower connection? We may never know unless new evidence is found that convinces all parties that Mary WALKER was herself a true descendant.

Naming Pikes Peak

March 22, 2011 Dennis No comments exist

As previously mentioned, Obadiah Ayer married Hannah Pike, daughter of John Pike who also came over from England on The James. This John Pike was the immigrant ancestor of General Zebulon Pike, the American soldier and explorer for whom Pikes Peak in Colorado is named. His Pike Expedition in 1806 mapped much of the southern portion of the Louisiana Purchase.

AYERS Surname

March 15, 2011 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

According to some estimates there are upwards of 1,500,000 surnames in the United States. According to the 2000 census, AYERS was ranked 812th, with about 38,836 occurrences of that name. The less common variation AYRES ranked number 3025.

AYERS Surname

March 15, 2011 Dennis No comments exist