The 1997 Dillard Reunion will be held on Saturday and Sunday, June 14 and 15, 1997 at the Dillard House, Dillard, Georgia. Final reunion details will be furnished in a subsequent notice closer to the time of the reunion. To avoid problems in finding housing, advance reservations are recommended.
Membership in the Dillard Family Association with dues at $8.00 per year per family, and your intentions to attend the 1997 reunion, should be addressed to Mrs. Rachel Dillard Scott, Secretary-Treasurer, 218 Indian Trail, Anderson, South Carolina 29625, telephone (803) 287- 3944. The membership form found in the last page of this newsletter is provided for your convenience.
Speakers at the Sixth Annual History Session, which will start at 9:30 A.M. on Saturday morning, June 14, 1996 will be the following:
Dorothy Dillard Hughes of Lubbock, Texas on her 1996 publication, "Dillard Research Notes: Culpeper County, Virginia Dillards and Two Related Families of South Carolina," which catalogues early Dillards who were residents of that county.
Almeda Hutchins Burns of Tucson, Arizona will speak on "Reminiscences of the Life of Rosette Dillard Wikle", (1854-1933) daughter of John Barnard Dillard and Rachel McKinney Dillard of Rabun County, Georgia.
Hugh Johnson, of Palmetto, Georgia, retired from the United States Department of Agriculture in Washington, D. C. who will speak on "Connections with Dillards in the Revolutionary and Confederate Services".
John T. Dillard of Monroe, Oregon, descendant of Revolutionary soldier, William
With time permitting, a query session with audience participation in the program on any Dillard question, topic or artifact a participant may wish to bring up is also planned.
The Dillard Family Association was reorganized in 1991 to include all Dillards in the United States for the purposes of preserving Dillard history, culture and comradeship through sponsoring an annual reunion and other functions. Attendance each year at the Dillard Reunion continues by a substantial number of Dillards from many different family lines all over the county. The reunion is held at Dillard, Georgia in Rabun County which was settled about 1821 by a line of Dillards.
A part of each reunion program is a one half day Dillard History Session with speakers giving research on Dillard history and genealogy in which audience participation is encouraged. Over fifty people attended the 1996 history session. A number of experienced and published Dillard genealogists participate in the history sessions and enjoy exchanging Dillard historical information with all present. Attendance at the history session is optional.
The Dillard Annual, published by the Dillard Family Association with a mailing list of some 500, contains addresses of the reunion speakers of the previous reunion. Other events, such as tours of nearby points of interest, scenery and historic homes and locations have been scheduled at past reunions. Two reunion dinners, periods of fellowship and a meeting of the Dillard Family Association are held during Saturday and Sunday at each reunion.
Officers of the 1996-97 Dillard Family Association are Barnard Malcolm Dillard, of Dillard, Georgia, President; John M. Dillard, of Greenville, South Carolina, Vice-President; and Rachel Dillard Scott, of Pendleton, South Carolina, Secretary-Treasurer.
The Dillard Reunion is held at the Dillard House, owned and operated since the Civil War by descendants of Revolutionary soldier Lt. John Dillard, with excellent food, motel accommodations and a large modern lodge for holding meetings. Numerous other excellent motel and food accommodations with golf, fishing and other recreation opportunities, are nearby in this busy tourist area.
The Dillard Family Association sponsors the preservation of Dillard history by numerous contributors in the Rabun County Public Library in nearby Clayton, Georgia. All persons attending the annual reunion are invited to visit the library and inspect the contents
The Dillard Family Association held its annual meeting in Dillard, Georgia June 8-9, 1996. Members of Dillard families began gathering at Dillard as early as June 7 for what proved to be a very exciting and enjoyable occasion. Registration began at the Rock House on Saturday, June 8, at 9:30 a.m. The History Session began at 10:00 a.m.
Carlton M. Dillard of the Fielding Dillard family was the speaker. He told many interesting stories and showed pictures, after which the group was invited to ask questions. The session was well attended and much interest was displayed. A special treat was the presence of Sally Russell Warrington from England. She is writing a book about her grandmother, Ina Dillard Russell. She shared many interesting stories from over 1500 letters in her possession which Ina Dillard Russell had written to her husband and thirteen children over a period of nearly fifty years.
Following a lunch break the History Session reconvened. Dr. Howard Jones disclosed information regarding "Sarah Dillard Davis, Newly Discovered Daughter of John, and Elizabeth Dillard Dryman."
John M. Dillard recognized registrants who had traveled long distances.
Following an interesting "Show and Tell" period, Malcolm Dillard led those desiring to do so on a tour of Dillard Historical Sites.
At 6:30 p.m. the group gathered at Henry's Playhouse for a delightful buffet dinner. Approximately 80 persons attended.
On Sunday at 12:30 p.m. more than 50 persons again gathered at Henry's Playhouse where a wonderful buffet luncheon was served by the Dillard House.
Following the meal a brief business session was called to order by the President, Dr. Howard Jones. Minutes of the 1995 meeting were approved as printed in The Dillard Annual, Volume 3, which was distributed by mail in January of this year. The Treasurer's Report was given by Rachel Scott who reported a balance of $1,043.61.
The Nominating Committee Report presented by Malcolm Dillard, Chairman and President-elect of the Association, recommended the election of the following officers: President, Malcolm Dillard; President-elect and Vice President, John M. Dillard; and Secretary-Treasurer, Rachel D. Scott.
Mary Ann Pickard moved the nominations be closed, seconded by Edward Dillard and the slate of officers was accepted to serve during the 1996-97 year.
Dr. Jones was thanked for having served so faithfully as president and the meeting was adjourned. The consensus of opinion by those attending was that the reunion was most enjoyable and appreciation was expressed for the "royal treatment" given us by the Dillard House staff.
The following written presentations of the speakers at the Fifth Annual History Session of the 1996 Dillard Reunion, Carlton M. Dillard, Dr. Howard V. Jones and Sally Russell Warrington, follow the policy of the Dillard Family Association that each speaker publish his reunion speech in the next Dillard Annual.
Let me thank you for having me come and talk to you about Fielding Dillard of Oglethorpe County, Ga. I am honored to be here.
Please don't be as rude to me as you were six months ago in my dream. Upon reading Dr. Jones' letter advising that this talk should last an hour, I threw the letter into the air saying, "Why, I can't talk for an hour on any subject! ". The problem was taken to my dear wife of fifty-one years where I expected sympathy. Instead, in a matter-of-fact tone, she said, "When you are talking about genealogy on the telephone, your conversations seldom run less than an hour. You'll have no problem!" Case closed! No sympathy. So I went to sleep that night with that "Nobody loves me feeling!" That must have triggered this dream. As I walked into this very room where you are now assembled, there was absolute bedlam. You were a
You have organized a great Dillard Family Association. I hope all of you take pride in it, that you work together to make the association stronger, and that you will pass this fellowship along to your children. When we consider the abuse the traditional American family is taking today at the hands of the motion picture and television industries and other groups that seem determined to destroy the family unit as we know it, our children will certainly need all the help we can give them. We have come a long way since Clarke Gable broke down all barriers when he said to Scarlett, "Frankly, my Dear, I don't give a damn." The stuff that spews into so many American living rooms today and is shown in movie houses under the guise of realism is the same type stuff that thirty or forty years ago was shown secretly to a small group of snickering men in a smoke-filled back room. A lady wouldn't dare be seen there. It is the kind of stuff I investigated as "Obscene Literature." Call me an Old Fogy if you like, but don't call me a Prude; because after thirty-five years in law enforcement I am not easily shocked by what I see or hear. I am disturbed by the distorted image some groups are trying to give to the American family unit.
Someone has said, "We can take neither credit nor blame for our family background." Strictly speaking, the statement is true. In a broader sense, however, every day we live, we take credit, we benefit, we profit from what we have inherited from our ancestors; and, make no mistake, our children and grandchildren, will be helped or hurt by what they inherit from our generation. From our Dillard ancestors we, as a family, have inherited a sense of humor, a deep faith in the Almighty God, a sense of reasonable self respect, a pride mingled with humility--not haughtiness--and a dignity that comes from hard work, resourcefulness, and thriftiness. These are fine qualities. But, let me hasten to say these qualities were not achieved without excellent outside help. To all of you spouses, male and female, present and past, who accepted us with our many faults and became members of this Dillard family, we say: "Welcome aboard and thank you! We couldn't have done it without your help. "
Rev. Miles Hill Dillard, grandson of the first Fielding Dillard, had just married Lella Jackson of Meriwether County, GA., in 1886. His parents, Fielding Dillard II and America Frances Chaffin, held a spend-the-day party at their home in Oglethorpe County, inviting neighbors and relatives from miles around. During the introductions, one elderly lady pulled Miles aside and said, "Miles Dillard, how on earth did you get such a nice girl to marry you?" Miles quipped, "O, we Dillards have a habit of doing that, and we've been doing it for so many generations till now we've got to be right nice people."
Let me tell you another story that became a Dillard story through marriage. This one is from our daughter-in-law's family. Pam Rucker Dillard, wife of our son John A. Dillard, is seated here in the audience. Her father, Dr. Julius T. Rucker of Augusta, has just completed an excellent Rucker family history, and I am indebted to that volume for this story. Pam's great grandmother Ann Thornton lived in Elbert County, Ga., before Rural Electrification Associations. Two girls from the city came to visit Ann as overnight guests. When time came to retire, one of the girls asked Ann: "Pray tell, how do you take a bath without a shower or tub?" Ann replied: "It's quite simple. You get a pan, a washcloth, and soap. In the reservoir beside the kitchen stove you will find hot water. Dip what you need into your pan and start your bath. Begin with your face and wash down as far as possible. Then go to your feet and wash up as far as possible. Finally, you wash possible."
It was October, 1985. My fishing boat was anchored in the Fishing Creek area of Lake Thurmond in Lincoln County. Every trick and lure I owned had failed to coax a strike from a bass. Finally, it became clear, even to this stubborn fisherman, that the fishing season for 1985 was over. It would be March, 1986, before crappie started stirring again. That would give five full months to take care of a little project that kept begging for my attention. My parents lived in southwest Wilkes Co., Ga. I wanted to learn how my father's family was related to the Dillards of Oglethorpe County, Ga. Then and there I decided that if I sacrificed my other hobby of woodworking, and really concentrated on this project, I could do the research, write the manuscript, have the book printed and distributed, and when March of 1986 came, I would be back on Lake Thurmond ready to get my share of the crappies. How naive! Eleven crappie seasons have come and gone since that ambitious commitment was made. My fishing boat and motor have been sold; my place on Lake Thurmond in Lincoln County where I spent so many happy hours, has been sold; for the most part, my woodworking tools have been idle; and that research project is still incomplete. Working on family history just doesn't leave time for those less important things. Genealogy seems to have become my vice or my virtue.
When I begin thinking of genealogy as my vice, I hurry to the fifth chapter of Genesis and read again some of the "begat" verses. But, my greatest comfort comes from remembering a Bible verse learned at my mother's knee. Actually, it is one of the Ten Commandments: "Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." Exodus 20:12.
In December, 1993, we published a family history entitled Back to Old Virginia with Dillard, Daniel and Kin. That volume covered some descendants of Fielding Dillard but its focus was upon one Dillard family line and eight allied families. A manuscript is now well underway for a family history which will include a brief biographical sketch of every descendant we can identify of Fielding Dillard (1771-1818) and Patsey Martha Beadles. We hope it will be ready for distribution late this year or early in 1997.
You may not be as hooked as I am on family history, but your very presence here today tells me you are interested in Dillard family history. As I understand, most of you
After hearing of my new interest in family history, a fishing friend asked if I had Dillard relatives living in an Alabama county where he spent his childhood. I said probably so but I could name none. If you know of this family or are related, please understand I tell the story just as it was told to me. Remember that fishermen are prone to exaggerate. He said this Dillard family from that rural county had been feuding with a Lucas family for several generations. During the horse and buggy days, the Dillard father and his twenty year-old son were traveling a country road in a two-horse wagon when they came face to face with the Lucas father walking with several of his grown sons. As the two groups came together, the Lucas boys began throwing rocks at the Dillards. While the Dillard father was trying to control the team of horses, three Lucas brothers jumped upon the wagon. Two held the Dillard youth while another Lucas boy repeatedly stabbed the young Dillard about his chest and neck with a switchblade knife. The Lucas boys jumped from the wagon and continued taunting the mortally wounded Dillard youth. When the Dillard father looked around from struggling with the team and saw his son covered with blood and weakly sinking to the floor of the wagon, he is reported to have shouted to him: "Get out there and fight them, Boy. You're going to die anyway." While I admired the man's courage, I couldn't say if this was my Dillard line or not.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Man is but the sum of his ancestors." Then, to know Fielding better, we need to know something of his ancestors. We know that Fielding Dillard's father was Thomas Dillard who spent most of his adult life in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. We can't prove this, but we think Thomas was probably the son of Nicholas Dillard, Sr., of Caroline County; and Nicholas Dillard, Sr., was probably the son of George Dillard, the Immigrant.
Most of us who descend from the early Dillards of Virginia descend from this George Dillard who came to the colony of Virginia around 1650, as an indentured servant-- some other party paid for his passage. Some early accounts claimed, without documentation, that George was born in 1634, in Wiltshire, England, and came to Virginia in 1650 as a Barrister for the King of England. Dorothy Dillard Hughes of Lubbock, Texas--you know her--called my attention to an article which explained that, in England, Barristers are not trained at a University as in the States, but attend one of the four Inns of the Court, all in London. There are Grays Inn, Lincoln Inn, Inner Temple Inn, and Middle Temple Inn. Solicitors there are trained under a form of apprenticeship and do legal work but are not allowed to practice before the courts of England. This has been the custom for 800 years and was the custom in George Dillard's time. The mentioned article gave two addresses to which one could write and have a name searched through the admission records of the four Inns. My letters giving a brief synopsis of what we know about George and several spellings for his last name were answered quickly. George's name was not found among the records of either Inn, and both letters added that if George, indeed, came to Virginia as an indentured servant, it would be highly improbable that he would have at the same time been a barrister.
The few remaining records concerning George Dillard show that he was one of 107 Headrights for whom a transportation receipt was turned in at the Virginia Land Patent Office by Capt. Moore Fantleroy on 22 May, 1650. The Capt. received 50 acres of land for each Headright for a total of 5,350 acres. Under the Headright system every immigrant entering the colony, or the person paying his passage, was entitled to fifty acres of land. The indentured servant was indebted to the person paying his passage, until the debt was paid. Depending upon George Dillard's age, craftsmanship and other factors, he might work as long as seven years to repay the debt.
In 1665, George Dillard patented 250 acres of land in New Kent County for having paid the passage of five other passengers. Those 250 acres adjoined land on which George was living. The implication here is strong that, during those fifteen years, George had repaid his own transportation debt, had bought land of his own, and in 1665 was financially able to pay the passage for five other passengers.
In 1665, New Kent County was a large tract of land stretching westward almost from Chesapeake Bay. The Mattapony (Mattaponi) River headwaters rose in the western section of the county and flowed southeasterly to the Chesapeake Bay. It was a time when Virginia County boundaries were changing rapidly. Settlers moved westward looking for new, cheap land on the frontier. As new settlements sprang up, new counties were formed so the settlers' business with the government could be handled without traveling great distances. So rapid was this transition that a plantation owner might find his land falling in three or four different counties in a short span of thirty or forty years. With so many changes, we need a natural landmark to follow a tract of land. The Mattapony River provides such a landmark.
King and Queen County (one county) was formed from New Kent in 1691. Then the Mattapony River, from its source to its mouth, was in King and Queen. In 1702, King William County was formed from King and Queen with the Mattapony River forming the boundary between King William on the south side and King and Queen on the north side.
In 1704, four Dillards paid Quit Rent from King and Queen County, meaning their land was on the north side of the Mattapony. Quit Rent was a tax or fee due the crown seven years after a piece of land was patented. The fee was 2 shillings per 100 acres. Those Dillards from King and Queen County were George Dillard with 325 acres, Thomas Dillard with 175 acres, Nicholas (Dilliard) Dillard with 150 acres, and Edward (Dilliard) Dillard with 150 acres. We can't prove it, but I look upon George with the larger tract of land as the Immigrant and father of the other three men with smaller tracts.
Between 1704 and 1728, Nicholas Dillard of King and Queen, patented land on the south side of the Mattapony, on Reedy Swamp in King William County. Several neighbors
Thomas Dillard was born circa 1706. The first Spotsylvania County record for Thomas shows him in 1731 to be an overseer on land of Robert Baillor in Prosessioners Precinct 5 of St. George Parish. Precinct 5 was in the southeastern corner of Spotsylvania County, near Nicholas Dillard's place in Caroline. Thomas and his first wife, Elizabeth Holloway, married about 1734. That is the year Thomas first bought land in Spotsylvania County, but I believe Thomas and Elizabeth were still living in Caroline County. Their first child Joseph was born 1735 in Caroline. When in 1756 this child, Joseph, entered military service for the French and Indian War he gave his age as 21 years, making 1735 his year of birth, and his place of birth was given as Caroline County. This son, Joseph, was shown to be of Caroline County eleven years later when, on 2 Nov., 1767, he bought land in Amherst County where he would spend the rest of his life. John Dillard, another son of Thomas, was in Drisdale Parish, Caroline County, on 17 Aug., 1775, when he sold the 100 acres inherited from his father, to his brother Richard Dillard. These ties of Thomas Dillard's family to Caroline County lead me to believe that these children were probably the grandchildren of Nicholas Dillard, Sr.
Thomas Dillard and Elizabeth were the parents of nine children before Elizabeth died about 1754. Within two years, Thomas had found a courageous lady, Sarah Mason, daughter of Peter Mason, to marry him and accept the challenge of caring for nine children ranging in age from about three to about nineteen years. Added to that number were three children born to Thomas and Sarah. The nine children of Thomas and Elizabeth were: Joseph, John, William, Thomas II, and James, and girls Ann Pettus, Lucy Luck, Jane Duvall, and Hannah Dillard who was unmarried in 1774 when Thomas made his will. Children of Thomas and Sarah were Richard, born about 1758, Mary (about whom we know nothing more), and Fielding, born 1771. Fielding was the only child for whom a guardian was appointed in December, 1774, following the death of Thomas. That guardian was Fielding's older brother John of Caroline County. Fielding, only four years old, probably did not move to Caroline County with his brother, but continued living with his mother Sarah in Spotsylvania County until her death.
Thomas left the homesite and 170 acres to Sarah as long as she lived and remained a widow. Upon her death or remarriage, that property would go to Joseph, the oldest boy, who was living in Amherst County, Va. Joseph sold the home and 170 acres in 1779. No doubt, Sarah Mason Dillard had died. It seems that Richard Dillard and young Fielding Dillard had cared for their mother as long she lived. But in 1779, following Sarah's death, Richard and Fielding began making plans to move on to Halifax County, Va. Richard, who had earlier bought some of the land his half brothers inherited from there father, went about disposing of that land. His wife Susannah Chapman signed some of the deeds. In 1779 (Deed recorded 18 Nov., 1779) Richard sold to John Coats a one hundred-acre tract on the north side of Pawpaw Swamp, where Richard lived. This must have been young Fielding Dillard's property. In his father's will Fielding was left "all the land I own on the North side of Pawpaw Swamp . . ." At age fourteen Fielding might have chosen his own guardian; but he was not yet fourteen, and no record of such a choice has been found.
Life was not kind to Fielding Dillard. His father died when Fielding was only four. His mother died when he was eight. Even his wedding did not run smoothly because of difficulties he and his bride experienced with the paper work. The joy that came with the birth of their first child was cut short by Fielding being charged with slander the same year. Their migration to Georgia did not help. There must have been some happy times, but Fielding did not live to see even one of his ten children grow to maturity and marry. He never experienced the joy of fishing with a grandson or watching a granddaughter play with her dolls.
Richard was married to Susannah (Chapman) by 1781 when they began disposing of land in Spotsylvania County. On 3 Dec., 1783, Richard and Susannah gave a deed to John Coats for 250 acres, and their names do not appear in Spotsylvania County records after that date. Fielding's name does not appear in those records after 5 Dec., 1774, when John Dillard was appointed his guardian. Fielding, together with Richard and his family, must have moved to Halifax County, Va., during the winter of 1783.
Fielding Dillard would not soon forget three events that happened while he lived in Halifax County, Va. He and Patsey Martha Beadles took a wedding bond in Halifax County, Va., on 27 Oct., 1800, with William Beadles signing the bond for Patsey's family. She had a brother named William, but it appears the bond was signed by a William Beadles who remained in that county after Patsey's family had migrated to Georgia. The wedding apparently did not take place; because two months later, on 6 January, 1801, in Rowan County, NC, another wedding bond was taken with Patsey's father, Joseph Beadles, signing for the bride's family. In the Virginia bond, both Patsey and Fielding were referred to as "of this county," while, in the North Carolina bond, Patsey is referred to as "of the county aforesaid," meaning Rowan County; but no residence is indicated for Fielding.
Considerable confusion concerning Fielding Dillard arose among researchers because of a misreading of the Halifax bond in a published abstract. In that abstract, Patsey's last name was erroneously shown as Bradley and the signature on the bond as William Bradley. This made it appear that two Fielding Dillards married two different brides in different states only two months apart. When a copy of the Halifax bond arrived from the court clerk, it was obvious the last name of the bride and the person signing for her family was Beadles. When the copy of the North Carolina bond came, the strong similarities between the two Fielding Dillard signatures on the bonds were noted. I knew that no valid comparison could be made from these specimen, limited as they were as to quality and quantity; but I wanted to know what a trained handwriting examiner would say about the signatures. I turned them over to a friend who had extensive training in that field. For obvious reasons, he did not want his name used in any publication where this comparison was mentioned; but he was satisfied the two Fielding Dillard signatures had been written by the same person.
What happened? I see two possibilities. It is my guess that Fielding and Patsey were planning to be married in Virginia; but, before the marriage was performed, Patsey's family joined a wagon train moving south. That bond was taken 27 Oct., 1800. It was the late fall. Crops had been gathered, and the family was prepared to join the first wagon train moving south. Her family stopped in Rowan County, NC, long enough for Fielding to come and the couple was married there. Joseph Beadles did not remain in NC. He bought his first land in Oglethorpe County, Georgia, in 1802. Another possibility is that Patsey Beadles was not yet twenty-one years old; and, without her father's signature on the bond, the minister or the court official in Va. declined to perform the ceremony.
We know that Patsey and Fielding returned to Halifax County, Va.; because Fielding's name appears in the personal property tax list for 1802. Then, in 1803, the couple became
On 26 Nov., 1803, judgment was rendered against Fielding on a charge of slandering Thomas Powell and his wife; and Fielding was fined fifty pounds. This man probably was the same Thomas Powell who was in Amherst County, Va., on 26 May, 1785, when he signed as surety on a marriage bond for Jean Dillard, the daughter of Joseph Dillard, Fielding's half brother, when Jean and Henry Stoneham were contemplating marriage. Interestingly, in Thomas Powell's will made in Halifax on 2 June, 1813, he named a daughter Patsey Dillard.
Fielding, Patsey, and one-year-old Joseph must have made the trip to Oglethorpe County, Ga, in the winter of 1804, after crops had been harvested. Fielding made his first purchase of land in Oglethorpe County on 5 February, 1805, when he bought 270 acres on Clouds Creek. There he and Patsey built their home very near the lands of the Cherokee and Creek Indians, and about two miles from the Cherokee Corner Indian Trading Post. That trading post is the site of present-day Cherokee Corner Methodist church where their descendants hold their reunion every August. Fielding continued to purchase land up until the year he died. They added nine additional children to their family, but Fielding did not live to see one of those children reach maturity or marry. Fielding died between 1818-1819 when his oldest child, Joseph, was only fifteen. He was buried about 100 yards from his home at a site that became the Dillard Family Cemetery. Martha Patsey was awarded a widow's dower of 200 acres from Fielding's estate on 22 Oct., 1819. (Oglethorpe County Probate Court Minute Book L, p. 27). Following her death between 1826 and 1831, Patsey was buried at the same place. At least three of their children and many grandchildren were buried there. Beneath the vines and trees that obscure the place today, they all rest--awaiting the Resurrection. Their ten children are listed below:
1) Joseph Beadles Dillard was born 1803, Va married 12 August, 1830, Elizabeth Ann Baldwin, nee Ellington. They are my father's ancestors.
2) Susan Dillard born about 1804, Ga., married 13 Dec., 1825, Jesse King.
3) Mary Dillard born about 1805, Ga., married 18 Dec., 1828, Wilkes County, Ga., Littleberry (Little Berry) King.
4) Sarah Ann Dillard born 9 Aug., 1806, Ga., married 1st. 6 Dec., 1830, Oglethorpe County, Cornelius Furcron. Cornelius died 20 Jan., 1837, and Sarah Ann married 2nd. Felix Hardeman. No children by Hardeman but three Furcron children survived to maturity, with many descendants identified. Sarah Ann and Cornelius Furcron were my mother's ancestors.
5) Richard Dillard born 10 Oct., 1808, Ga., died 12 May, 1875, buried Oglethorpe County, married 1st. Sarah Jane Ellington (sister of Elizabeth Ann Ellington). Sarah Jane died 7 Jan., 1843, buried Oglethorpe County, Ga. Richard married 2nd. Antionnett A. Chaffin who died 16 Nov., 1869. Richard and both wives were buried at the Dillard family cemetery, Arnoldsville, Ga.
6) Elizabeth Dillard reported to have been a twin of 2) Susan Dillard. Died at birth about 1804.
7) Harriet Dillard born about 1810, Ga., married 14 Feb., 1843, Mordecai Edwards, as his third wife. Harriet died 1 Jan., 1844. No children by Mordecai and Harriet.
8) Juriah Hepsibah Dillard (Lucinda Dillard) born 12 Sept., 1813, Ga., married 1st 8 Dec., 1831, William Furcron, brother of Cornelius Furcron. William and Juriah had one child, William Cornelius Furcron, born 23 July, 1833, Ga., before William Furcron died 17 Dec., 1833. Juriah Hepsibah married 2nd Lorenzo Dow Furgerson, lived Oglethorpe County for few years, moved to Madison County, Ga.
9) Martha Custis Dillard born 2 May, 1814, Ga., married 2 April, 1832, John Ferdinand Phinizy. Two children born to this union, John Ferdinand Phinizy II and Martha Phinizy, but no grandchildren known.
10) Fielding Dillard II born March, 1815, married 18 March, 1841, Clarke County, Ga., America Frances Chaffin born 23 Jan., 1826. Fielding died 18 Oct., 1896, and America Frances died 30 Dec., 1909. Both buried Dillard family cemetery, Arnoldsville, Ga. Thirteen children were born to this marriage, and most of their descendants have been identified.
The most distinguished descendants of Fielding Dillard and Patsey Beadles were those of their granddaughter Ina Dillard, the thirteenth child of Fielding Dillard II and America Frances Chaffin. Ina, a school teacher, married a young attorney named Richard Brevard Russell, and they were the parents of fifteen children, thirteen of whom lived to maturity, and two of whom are living today. Richard Brevard Russell became Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court. All of their children excelled in their chosen professions. The best known of their children, of course, was United States Senator Richard Brevard Russell, Jr. who became Governor of Georgia, and later served as United States Senator from Georgia from 1933 until his death in 1971. Ina Dillard Russell wrote many letters during her lifetime. They were long, newsy letters to her children, cousins, and friends. The family has collected and preserved more than a thousand of those treasures. Their Granddaughter Sally Russell Warrington of Warwick, England, the daughter of the late Dr. Alexander Brevard Russell of Winder, is working with the University of Georgia Press on a volume that will include many, if not all, of those letters. This will be a great contribution to the Russell and Dillard families. It will give us a better understanding of this remarkable lady, concerning whom Sally wrote: "Born in a time when the greatest career choice for a woman was motherhood, she took that career to the top in stellar fashion: thirteen living
To keep our hopes alive concerning George Dillard, I think we need to adopt one of the elements of the archaeologist' s philosophy which says, "The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." I am naive enough to believe that someday, somewhere, someone will discover that thread that links George Dillard, the Immigrant, to at least some of his children.
In conclusion, let me say this. Life was not kind to George nor to his great grandson Fielding, if our theory is correct. However, both men showed qualities worthy of our admiration. I think as they look down from their lofty homes upon the parade of their descendants, they are generally proud; and each man would raise his thumb in approval. Their descendants, whether stonecutters or statesmen, have served well in their chosen fields. They have responded and many died when called to defend their country. Whether as privates or high ranking officers they served well in combat. If either George or Fielding were asked today: "What word of advice would you give to our generation to help strengthen and preserve the family unit?" I think his reply might be this: "Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."
Mildred Elizabeth Bishop (Mrs. James Howard Bishop), The Fielding Dillard Family, 1634-1979. Lella Dillard Whipple, "It's Great to Be a Dillard Because the Dillards are Great People," a speech before the Dillard Reunion, Cherokee Corner, Oglethorpe Co., Ga., 20 Aug., 1972.
Nell Marion Nugent, Cavaliers and Pioneers: Abstracts of Land Patents and Grants, Vol. 1, 1623-1666; Vol. II, 1666-1695; Vol. III, 1695-1731.
Michael F. Doran, Atlas of County Boundary Changes in Virginia 1634-1895, Iberian Publishing Company, 548 Cedar Creek Dr., Athens, Ga. 30605.
Robert Y. Clay, Archivist at Virginia State Library Richmond, Virginia, in lecture at Augusta, Georgia, 3 Oct., 1986.
Dorothy Dillard Hughes, "Genealogy of the First Four Generations of Dillard in America," (c) 1995.
Elaine Saunders, "Tracing your British Ancestors Through Their Trades and Occupations," in Ancestry Newsletter, Vol. X, Number 6, Nov.-Dec., 1992, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Letter to CMD dated 7 April, 1993, from Director Anthony J. Camp, Society of Genealogists, 14 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Road, London, ECIM 7BA, advising that admission records for Grays Inn, Middle Temple Inn, and Lincoln Inn had been checked without finding the name of George Dillard, under several spellings.
Letter to CMD dated 6 May, 1993, from 1. G. Murray, The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple's
Paula S. Felder, Forgotten Companions, Historic Publications of Fredericksburg, Fredericksburg, Virginia, 1982, pp. 14, 53, 136.
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol 2, p. 148, citing military records of George Washington at Library of Congress.
Dr. Howard V. Jones, "Thomas Dillard of Spotsylvania County," p. 3.
William Armstrong Crozier, Virginia County Records-Spotsylvania 1721-1800, Vol. 1, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc.
Copy of Thomas Dillard's will, received Jan., 1987, from Clerk of Circuit Court, Spotsylvania CH, Va.
Copy of William Holloway's will, received Feb., 1989, from Clerk of Circuit Court, Spotsylvania CH, Va.
Netti Schreiner-Yantis and Florence Love, The Personal Property Tax List for the Year 1787, for Halifax County, Va.,p.418.
Sally Russell Warrington (Mrs. Les Warrington), "The Russell Family Herald," June 24, 1995.
Carlton M. Dillard, Back to Old Virginia with Dillard, Daniel and Kin, Gateway Press, Inc., Baltimore, 1993.
I wonder if my cousins from Rabun County may not be getting quite bewildered. They have believed for many years that old John Dillard had just two, maybe three, children: James, Mary Rebecca Dickerson, and a daughter who married a Dryman.
But look what's happened: during the last five years or so, we've been adding children all the time. First came three more boys--Thomas, John Jr. and William F. Although it could be argued that none of them are completely proved as John's sons, there is plenty of circumstantial evidence, in fact a rather overwhelming amount of it. There can really be no doubt that the three belong to John.
With Sophia, our total of children comes up to seven--but we did not think that was necessarily all. In the censuses of 1790, 1800 and 1810, there are still more young people in John's household. Of course these do not have to be children--they could be visitors, relatives, servants, you name it. However, it usually works out that such people are indeed children--and this seems to be working in John's case.
So, right here at the Dillard Family Reunion a year ago, Margaret Payne asked me if I had seen a certain Kentucky record about Sarah Dillard, wife of Baxter Davis. I had not seen that, but now I have, and lo and behold, another daughter of John has appeared!
The record in question is from Wayne Co. Kentucky, where for a time they officially recorded deaths the way we do now. It says, "Davis, Sarah, died 13 November 1858 of the Flux, age 80 years, a widow, born in North Carolina, resided and died in Wayne on the Cumberland River, daughter of John and Ruth Dillard."
That's about as firm an identification as you can ever have in genealogy. There is simply no possible doubt that John Dillard had a daughter Sarah. Note, by the way, that this is also the first and only mention in an official record of John's wife. We were pretty sure she was Ruth; this makes it official.
Since then, we've been in touch with four descendants of Sarah Dillard Davis, and an exchange of data is taking place. Meanwhile, Lucile Johnson of Arkansas, whom some of you will remember from the Reunion a few years ago, has also been prowling through records and turning up additional data. In fact, Lucile, a champion among sleuths, had already wondered if there was some connection with Baxter Davis, because he appeared in so many Dillard documents up in Buncombe Co.
So, what have we learned? Precious little. The principal problem is that in the late 1700's and early 1800's, when Sarah lived, there are an incredible number of Baxter Davises around, not just in the Dillard areas, but all over the map. Apparently there was one family of Davises who latched on to the name Baxter way back when, and used it and used it and used it.
From what we've sorted out of this mess, this is what is emerging, still mighty vague and foggy. There was a Baxter Davis Sr., who was up in Greasy Cove at the same time as the Dillards, the Loves, and the Gregorys. When they moved down to Flat Creek in Buncombe Co., he seems to have moved too, along with what appears to be no fewer than
Baxter Sr. seems to have moved out to Kentucky late in the 1790's, along with some of his sons. Baxter Jr. however apparently stayed in Buncombe, where he married Sarah Dillard by 1795 (possibly a bit earlier, but not much: he apparently was born c.1775, she in 1778). He had some land near the Dillards, but sold it around 1810, and apparently went off to Kentucky by 1815.
Although the Davises seemed to have engaged in quite a bit of land speculation, Baxter seems to have ended up with only 50 acres, which would hardly qualify him as well-to-do. He apparently died between 1821 and 1825--as far as the records are concerned, he just vanished. In 1825 we find that Sarah is paying the taxes on the 50 acres, and her husband never turns up again, as far as we can see.
No estate record has been found for Baxter, and so we do not have a list of children yet. One child is firmly proven, a daughter, Ruth, born in 1796, who married Jesse Cannon Flynn. She also has an obituary that identifies her parents.
A second daughter is probable: Margaret, who married Aaron Hardwick. "Sary" Davis signs a consent for her marriage, usual if the bride or groom was under age. "Sary" must be our Sarah -- and from the way she wrote the consent, she must not have had much education.
Some think there was another Baxter, a Robert, and so on, but to date, no other children have been proved. Unfortunately, that part of Kentucky is loaded with Davises--the results mostly of old Baxter Sr.'s begetting eight sons, all of whom presumably produced little Davises in enormous quantity (a number of them named Baxter, of course).
It's intriguing, puzzling in fact, that in the Census of 1850, Sarah is not living with her own children, but with a niece of her husband, daughter of one of Baxter's brothers.
So, that's where we are on Sarah Dillard Davis: more questions than answers.
Here's one question we haven't figured out yet. It's a record from the North Carolina legislature:
North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal, XIX (1993), 227. @ 227. Davis, Baxter and wife Lucretia. Petition of Baxter Davis of Buncombe County, North Carolina, and Lucretia Davis, his wife, of Washington County, Tennessee, 8 Nov. 1806, states that the said petitioners had amicably agreed to part from each other of their own free will and accord, no longer to be considered man and wife. Petitioners have not cohabited in anyway as man and wife for twelve years and pray an act to divorce them. (GASR Nov.- Dec. 1806, Box 2: folder "Petitions (Divorce, etc.)"). Committee of Divorces and Alimony to whom was referred the petition of ... Baxter Davis and
Boy, divorce sure was hard to get back then!
We suppose this must be Baxter Sr. If Baxter Jr. was born in 1771, a marriage that stopped in 1792 must have been short. But Baxter Sr. seems to be equipped with a wife in Kentucky, one his own age, and therefore we are not totally sure which Baxter is involved..
So, is there any possibility this was indeed Baxter Jr.? Did he then commit bigamy when he married Sarah in 1795--and continued to live with her as man and wife after the divorce was refused? Who can tell? All I can say further is that if this was Baxter Jr., and if he was committing bigamy, no wonder he went off to Kentucky!
There was a strong tradition that John Dillard had a daughter who married a Dryman. Ritchie called her Mary, which is obviously wrong, and I've seen accounts which called her Ruth, and had her married to James Dryman.
Recently, we've been digging into the Dryman family, which centers up the road from Rabun County not very far--Macon Co, North Carolina. The records on the family are not clear-- here we go again!
We don't find any Mary Dryman; we also don't find any Ruth Dryman. There is a James, but if he had a wife, we can't find her, or if he's maybe a James who turns up down in South Carolina, his wife isn't Ruth.
But one lady (with whom we haven't yet corresponded) wrote John T. Coleman a few years ago, stating firmly that she was descended from Elizabeth Dillard for sure, and that Elizabeth's husband was probably Henry Dryman.
There are quite a few land records on Henry--actually Henry Jr., since his father is of the same name and is around the same area--and his wife is Elizabeth. And we do have a list of children this time, although I am not sure on what records it's based.
So, it looks as though we've maybe found John Dillard's daughter who married a Dryman, and her name is Elizabeth. There probably are a whole bunch of new cousins up the road a ways in Macon County.
Two final points. When John Dillard died, James Dillard and Mary Rebecca Dillard
Dickerson testified that they were the only two surviving children. They were wrong, and they get wronger every time we find another child. In fact, of the eight children we now give to John, seven were living in 1842. Only Thomas was dead.
To be sure, they were widely spread out: Sarah was in Kentucky, John Jr. in Tennessee or possibly another part of Georgia, William F. was in Missouri, Sophia was in Tennessee, and Elizabeth was just up the road in Macon Co.
Why James and Mary Rebecca testified that way I don't know and won't guess. It may be connected with the unanswered question of why John Dillard's kids went away from their parents-- and also away from each other.
My other parting shot is just this: Census records show that there may be one more daughter for John Dillard unaccounted for and undiscovered. We don't even have an inkling of who she would be. Maybe someone will tell me before the end of this reunion. Meanwhile, don't hold your breath!
Called Blandina after a Christian martyr of the Second Century, Ina Dillard was born February 18, 1868, in Ogelthorpe County, Georgia, the thirteenth and last child of America Frances Chaffin and Fielding Dillard. She was a petite, bright girl child who grew to be arguably the most influential woman in the history of the state of Georgia.
Prosperous and hard-working farmers, her parents reared ten of their own children to adulthood and gave a home to at least eight orphans. Devout Christians, the Dillards believed everyone should be educated in order to read and study the Bible. Ina went to school locally, then to Palmer Institute in Oxford, GA., and Lucy Cobb Institute in Athens. She became a third grade teacher in Athens in 1889.
To Ina Dillard, however, the example of her mother's career was the inspiration for her life. There was no greater calling than that of Christian wife and mother. On June 24, 1891, she married Richard Brevard Russell, a young lawyer from Athens who was Solicitor General of the Western Circuit, and her stellar career in the role of wife and mother began.
Active in Georgia politics all his life, Richard Russell ran for governor twice, the U.S.
Daughters were born to Richard and Ina in 1893, 1894 and 1896. A son was born on November 2, 1897. He was named Richard Brevard Russell, Jr., and Richard Russell, Sr. felt satisfied with his family. When he suggested limiting the family, Ina said she would have all the children God intended her to have, which turned out to be fifteen, including one set of twin boys. Two children died in infancy, but Richard and Ina worked together to rear the others to be responsible human beings who would serve their own families and communities.
The Russells moved to Winder from Athens in 1894 because Richard felt the Winder area was a growing one where he had a better chance to establish a name for himself than he had in the older area of Athens. In 1902, he chartered the City of Russell, and the family moved out to the little settlement about a mile and a half from Winder in the summer of 1903.
At Russell, Richard leased land to tenant farmers and started a hosiery mill and a bottling works. Because he was often away at court, the businesses did not prosper. Ina kept the books on the farming, selling guano, seed, and groceries on credit, with accounts settled at the end of the year when crops had been sold. In her ledgers she recorded garments she sewed: underwear, dresses, shirts, waists, and skirts for her children, for her cook and housekeeper, and for her two sisters who often came to help her. Although she did not enjoy sewing and felt that she was not good at it, her 1912 ledger shows she made more than 200 garments.
Ina did washing, ironing, and cooking when servants were ill, or in order to save money for Richard. She cooked on a wood stove and did not have electricity until 1930, nor indoor plumbing until 1934. She much preferred working outside to housework and planted peanuts, cotton, tomatoes and potatoes to make money and to feed her family. Her flower garden was a great joy to her and to her family. When Bill Russell, one of her twin boys, was in the Navy during World War II, he wrote his mother that her flowers were more beautiful than all those he saw in Hawaii.
Ina insisted her children have a good education. Richard hired teachers to come to Russell and live with the family, but Ina and her maiden sister Patience Dillard often had to step in to teach. At the age of thirteen or fourteen, each child was sent away to school, and Ina rose early or sat up late to write long, newsy letters to her absent children, instructing them on healthy living habits, the importance of studying while young, and proper behavior in all circumstances.
"I want to ask you not to drink any kind of soft drinks--ever. Cut them out entirely & candy too. I want you to grow strong & be a man. You can't do it if you indulge in these things," she wrote to her boys. Or: "My boy, I'm depending on you to do the right thing Saturday [at the football game]. Surely your mother has helped you in fourteen years to know how to conduct yourself 'at home and abroad. Always have a good time, but be a gentleman."
Ina's eldest son, Richard Brevard Russell, Jr., became one of Georgia's most famous citizens. He was governor of Georgia in 1931 when he was only 34 years old, and two years later he was elected to the United States Senate, the youngest Senator at the time, and he served for 37 years, becoming one of the most powerful men in Washington. He often said he was ten years old before he ever saw his mother sleep, and when he did see her asleep it frightened him terribly. He thought she must be sick. He gave his mother great credit for his success. There is no doubt that she inspired in him a remarkable work ethic and a high character.
Ina was proud of all her children, not because they were famous or powerful, but because they were useful and responsible human beings, as she had taught them to be. Four of her daughters became teachers, one a secretary, and one a lawyer, in addition to founding their own homes. Her sons made careers in politics, law, medicine, the military, business, teaching and the ministry; and they, too, founded homes.
An example of the ideals which Ina Dillard Russell promoted in all her children comes from Ina Dillard Russell, Jr. Ina, Jr. was the first Russell in Washington, going there during World War I to work for the Bureau of War Risk Insurance, which later became the Veterans Administration. She studied law at George Washington University and was admitted to the Georgia Bar in 1930, but continued her work as a claims adjudicator for the VA. In her work, she helped many widows and orphans of veterans, as well as veterans. Sometimes when the government was slow in sending funds, she sent her own money to help tide over a difficult situation.
The Library at Georgia College, formerly Georgia State College for Women, where five of her daughters went to school, is named for Ina Dillard Russell. In 1950, she was elected Georgia's Mother of the Year, and Winder put on a gala celebration for her: a parade from her home in Russell through downtown Winder to the football stadium where she received a citation from Governor Herman Talmadge. Twelve of her children came to celebrate with her. The thirteenth, Walter Brown Russell, was serving in the United States Army in Japan. Although Ina was nearly blind at this time and could no longer write letters, she insisted that her children write him a long letter describing the event.
Ina Dillard Russell's love was not just for her family. Her strength of character, her capacity for love and work, and her faith in humankind inspired not only her children, but many, many others who came to her home through the years. Thousands, with sincere respect and affection, called her Mother Russell. When she died on August 30, 1953, they came by the hundreds from all over the country to pay their respects and celebrate the life of a truly great soul. The day she was buried Georgia flags flew at half-mast.
My father was the fourteenth child of Richard and Ina. It was my good fortune to inherit the letters of Ina, Sr. to Ina, Jr. when my aunt died in 1991. When I had read only those letters I felt if others could be found Ina Dillard could tell her own remarkable story. Through digging in the family records and in the Russell Library at the University of Georgia, I found over 200 letters. It has been a great privilege to assemble them and choose and edit ones for the story because in so doing I had the joy of living with my grandmother for three years. The results are an inspiring book to be published by the University of Georgia Press, a book which will make any one with Dillard blood in their veins proud. Publication date has not been set, but when it is, I will certainly let you know.
Although the title could change, it is currently this: Roots and Ever Green The Letters of Ina Dillard Russell. I based this title on a verse from George Peele's Polyhymnia, written in 1590, which illustrates the life of Ina Dillard Russell.
Two additional articles have been included in this issue of the Dillard Annual for special reasons. Dorothy Dillard Hughes of Lubbock, Texas, who has missed the Dillard Reunion only twice since 1991 and has been a contributor without equal to Dillard genealogy, was the author of a paper which placed first in the 1996 Manuscript Awards Competition of the Texas State Genealogical Society. It was published in the September, 1996 issue of Stripes. The manuscript, "Updating Dillard Traditions" is published in this newsletter with her permission.
In addition to tracing their lineage and family history, genealogists of today have another important duty: to correct mistaken family traditions passed down by earlier generations. Now that genealogical training is widely available in workshops, seminars, and genealogical courses, family historians know that they must support what they write in their genealogies or family histories by citing records contemporary with an event. They know, too, that any undocumented family narrative, or one which cites only printed sources, cannot be accepted until it is verified by records, not simply by printed sources. That a number of published Dillard family traditions cannot be substantiated was first published by Carlton M. Dillard in Back to Old Virginia with Dillard, Daniel and Kin.1 He went to the source---the indexes of those who had studied at the four Inns of Court in London--to show that George Dillard, the first of the surname in America, contrary to legend, did not come to Virginia as a barrister of the King of England, since he was not listed in student indexes. Study and training at one of the Inns of Court was, and still is, a requirement for a barrister.2 "To Test Tradition: Ballad to George Dillard--Immigrant 1650" and its notes in the same book showed that other Dillard traditions are undocumented and unverifiable and consequently
1Carlton M. Dillard, Back to Old Virginia with Dillard, Daniel and Kin: Showing Relationship with Bruce, Cunningham,
Ellington, Ewing, Slaton, Thomson, and Wright Families (Baltimore, MD: Gateway Press, Inc., (c) by compiler 1993), p. 3.
Letter of 7 Apr. 1993 to Mr. Dillard from Mr. Anthony Camp, Director Society of Genealogists, London, stated that he had
examined "the published registers of admission at Grays Inn 1521-1839, the Middle Temple 1501-1944 and Lincolns Inn
1420-1893 but regret to say that they make no mention of any person called Dillard or Dyllard." Letter to Mr. Dillard from
Mr. I. G. Murray, Archivist of The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, London, reported, "I have searched our records
of admission and call to the Bar without success" in finding George Dillard listed. Copies of the two letters were graciously
sent this writer by Mr. Dillard.
2Elaine Saunders, "Tracing Your British Ancestors Through Their Trades and Occupations,
Ancestry, Vol. X: No. 6
(November 1992), pp. 8-12.
229. DILLARD--A partial history of the Dillard family--In a military
enrollment for the militia at James town in 1660 the name of George Dillard, 26
years of age, from Wiltshire, England, first appears, in an apportionment of lands
for the New Kent Land District, the same George Dillard is credited with 250
acres of land for military services rendered against the Indians, dated 1665. A few
years afterwards George Dillard obtains another grant of land, 139 acres in King
and Queen County adjoining the former tract. In his will he gives 389 acres to a
son, James Stephen Dillard of James City County, and two girls. In 1694 James
Stephen Dillard appears with the Carys, Wises and Pages with a Royal Grant for
25,000 acres of land which they located according to "Williamsburg Founders" in
a body and called it "The Williamsburg Plantation." This James Stephen Dillard
was born in Wiltshire England in 1658, and settled in the James City District
(afterwards County), in 1694.4
The "Ballad" corrected the first part of the undocumented clipping by showing that George
Dillard's first American record was 22 May 1650 in Virginia, rather than 1660; that no Dillard
birth record in Wiltshire could be found; that seventeenth and early eighteenth century Dillard
records are in New Kent and King and Queen County, not in James City County; and that George
received his land--250 acres in 1665, adjoining that on which he lived, for paying transportation
costs of five persons, and 139 acres in 1694 by importing three persons---not for militia service.
Every free male between 16 and 60 was subject to militia duty, but land was not awarded for that
service until the French and Indian War (1754-1763); and George entered Virginia during a
peaceful interlude in the long struggle against Indians. Typical of legends, sometimes this one
became garbled, so that George Dillard, instead of James Stephen, was said to be the owner of
"The Williamsburg Plantation."
3Dorothy Dillard Hughes, " To Test Tradition: Ballad to George Dillard--Immigrant 1650," in Carlton M. Dillard, Back to Old
Virginia, pp. 135-153.
4Henry Moorman Dillard, "DILLARD--A partial history of the Dillard family," clipping of almost 2 columns from the
Montgomery [AL] Advertiser, 2 Feb. 1902, no page, which the writer had copied at the Alabama Department of Archives and
History in Montgomery 23 Feb. 1976.
Mr. Terry M. Dillard Your letters July 12 and 23rd inst.: (part of letter) Briefly, the land known
as Middle Plantation was not a plantation on the present sense of the word but a
group of small plantation [sic] in the area between Archers Hope Creek running
into the James River and Queens Creek, running into the York River which in 1633
was ordered palisaded as a protection against the Indians. In 1699 after the
statehouse at Jamestown was burned in 1698, the General Assembly passed an act
to build a new Capitol and [at] the City of Williamsburg at Middle Plantation, and
the town was laid out in 1693-1698, and Burton [Bruton] Parish Church was also
there. You will find an account of the settlements of Middle Plantation, which was
part of [in] York and part in James City County, in Lyin C. [Lyon G.] Tyler,
Williamsburg and the Old Colonial Capitol (Richmond: 1907) and in Rutherford
Goodwin, A Brief and True Account of Williamsburg in Virginia, third edition,
Williamsburg: 1940. We know the names of some of the early settlers who
obtained grants in the Archer Hope area, but do
Therefore no Dillard was the recipient of "The Williamsburg Plantation." James Stephen
Dillard is not found in any early Virginia record. In fact, no James Dillard is in a Virginia record
until 1758, exactly a hundred years after James Stephen Dillard's supposed birth date. This leads
to the second question.
Numbers of people trace their Dillard lineage to a man living about Revolutionary War
times. The frustration begins in the Virginia records when these researchers look for the father of
a particular James, John, George, Thomas, Nicholas, Edward, or another Dillard of that era.
Several books published between 1925 and 1960 include brief sketches of Dillard ancestry, all of
which name James Stephen Dillard as second (or first) of the Dillard surname in Virginia.
6 Yet
there is no Virginia record of an early James Stephen Dillard, and no living person can testify of
his own knowledge that James Stephen Dillard existed. So the logical question, then, is: Was
James Stephen Dillard, of Virginia, a myth--a made-up name--or did he really exist? The puzzle
can be solved, but not easily.
The usual order of research is to look first in printed material and then try to verify it by
actual records. Printed Dillard sketches in available books begin with Judith Parks America Hill's
A History of Henry County, Virginia . . ., first published in 1925.
7 Actually
5Katherine Reynolds, The Dillard Family, Vol. 1 (Houston, TX: Bound Typescript, 1975), p. 22. Miss Reynolds told the
writer that three copies had been made: one for DAR Library, one for Clayton Library in Houston, and one for herself. The
writer had the 576 pages copied on visits to the DAR Library during the next several years (limit of 40-50 pages copied per
day). Since then the 2 volumes have been microfilmed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS or
Mormons).
6Hughes, "Ballad to George Dillard," in Carlton M. Dillard,
Back to Old Virginia, Note 29, pp. 148-150, and "Dillard
in Print: Fact or Fallacy?" Stirpes, Vol. 33, No. 4 (Dec., 1993), Note 29, p. 26. Note 29 lists books and articles
naming George, James Stephen, and James or James Dillard, Jr., as the first three Dillard generations in Virginia.
7Judith Parks America Hill,
A History of Henry County, Virginia with Biographical Sketches of Its Most
Prominent Citizens and Genealogical Histories of Half a Hundred of Its Oldest Families (Martinsville, VA:
In more than sixty photostatic copies of printed Dillard sketches or pedigrees in the writer's
possession, those which purport to trace a Dillard line back to the 1600's have the same first three
generations, none documented, but often in the same words as the 1902 clipping: George Dillard,
his son James Stephen Dillard (born in 1658), his son James (or James Stephen, Jr.). Credit is
occasionally given to Hill's Henry County, which is itself undocumented and therefore not an
adequate source.
Several records of George Dillard appear in Nugent's Cavaliers and Pioneers, from the
first one when he was a headright of Capt. Moore Fantleroy on 22 May 1650, through his
acquisition of land in New Kent County, which fell into King and Queen County, where he
acquired more land in 1694 after it was created in
1691.9
We learn that he had a wife when the
two sold 76 acres of New Kent County land in 1679.
10
The 1704 Quit Rent Rolls, printed in several
books, are a virtual census of Virginia landowners. Every landowner had to pay the Crown an
annual quit rent of one shilling per fifty acres. Queen Anne was the reigning monarch in 1704.
Names included were Nicho. and Edwd. Dilliard and Thomas and Geo. Dillard in King and Queen
County and William Dolerd in New Kent
County.11
Bulletin Printing and Publishing Co., Inc., 1925), pp. 67-70, 152-156.
8H. M. Dillard, "229. DILLARD. A partial history of the Dillard
family," Montgomery [AL] Advertiser, 2 February 1902, n.p.,
copy in possession of writer.
9Nell Marion Nugent, Cavaliers and Pioneers:
Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 1623-1666, with
Introduction by Robert Armistead Stewart (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc.,
1963 [hereinafter, GPCo,],
originally published Richmond, VA: 1934), pp. 194-195, in Patent Book 2, p. 231.
Hereinafter , Nugent, C&P 1:194,
PB 2: 231; and a later volume by Nugent--Cavaliers and Pioneers. . . ,
1666-1695, Vol. 2, (Richmond: Virginia State
Library, 1977): Nugent, C&P 2: 240, PB 7: 173; 2: 259, PB 3: 99; 2;
341-342, PB 8:37, 42; and 2: 386, PB 8, 320.
10Microfilm Reel 7, Virginia State Land Office
Patents No. 7, 1679-1689, p. 173, read in Virginia State Library, Archives
Division (now called "Research and Information Services Division, The Library
of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia"); also in
Nugent, C&P 2:240, P.B. 7:173.
11"Virginia Quit Rent Rolls, 1704," Virginia Magazine of History
and Biography, William G. Stanard, editor, Vol. 29 (1921), p.
342; Vol. 31 (1923), p. 218; Vol. 32 (1924), p. 147; Thomas J. Wertenbaker,
The Planters of
This is important, because it is further evidence that all Dillards descend from George
Dillard, the first of the surname in America. Yet none of the Dillard landowners except George
are in genealogies published before 1960. When a researcher attempts to verify the existence of
James Stephen Dillard and his son James--since printed statements are not necessarily true--the
trouble begins. No James Stephen Dillard is in any early Virginia record in any county. No James
Dillard appears in any official record until 1758--a hundred years after James Stephen's supposed
birth--when a James Dillard patented 269 acres, part in New Kent and part in James City County,
Virginia; hence the frustration of Dillard
researchers.13
No colonial county records exist for New Kent or King and Queen County because they
were burned during the Civil War and in earlier
fires.14
Consequently the few extant
Colonial Virginia (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1922), pp. 26, 177, 297; Elizabeth Lawrence Dow,
Virginia Rent Rolls 1704 (New York: National
Edition and Library Bindery, (c) 1979), pp. 71, 96; Annie Laurie Wright Smith, The Quit Rent Rolls of Virginia, 1704
(Baltimore: GPCo.), pp. 26-28. These list Nicho. and Edwd. (Nicholas and Edward) Dilliard with 150 acres each, Thomas,
175, and Geo. (George) Dillard, 325 acres, and William Dolerd with 50 acres in New Kent County. Thomas Dullard was said
to have 100 acres in Isle of Wight Co., but he was proved to be Thomas Bullard. See next note.
12Blanche Adams Chapman, Wills and Administrations of Isle of
Wight County, Virginia 1647-1800, (Smithfield, VA:
Compiler, 1938), Book I, p. 78; Book II, pp. 135-136. On 26 April 1715 Henry Bullard
was one of three witnesses to Thomas
Bullard's will, and on 26 April 1746 Henry Bullard witnessed Thomas Dixon's will.
No Dillard or Dullard was found in Isle
of Wight records. The 1704 Quit Rent Rolls were colony records, not county records,
and are preserved in the Public Record
Office in London. The handwriting could have faded in the two hundred plus years
that elapsed between 1704, when the
record was made, and the transcription of the record during this century, or the
surname initial record could have been
misread, a common occurrence.
13Virginia Land Records from the Virginia Magazine of
History and Biography, William and Mary, Quarterly and Tyler's
Quarterly (Baltimore: GPCo, Inc., 1982), p. 260; also Virginia Patent
Book 33, p. 530; and Rev. Lindsay O. Duvall, Virginia
Colonial Abstracts, Series 2, Volume 4, James City County
(Washington, D.C., 1957). Patent "Book No. 33 . .. . . 530."
Original publication in "Patents Issued During the Regal Government,"
William and Mary College Quarterly, Vol. XII, No. 3
(1903), p. 190: "Book No. 33, 530. James Dillard. Dec 15 1758.
269 acres. In the counties of James City and New Kent
Counties. Beginning at the Intersection where one of the
disputed lines falls in with Isaac Goddins line." William Waller
Hening, The Statutes at Large, Vol. VIII (New York: Printed for
the Editor, by R. & W. & G. Bartow, 1823. Facsimile
reprint Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia), pp. 208-209:
Part of James City County was given to New Kent County
and part of New Kent County was given to James City County in November
1766, 7th George III. What that did to James
Dillard's land cannot be known.
14All New Kent County records were destroyed "when John
Price Posey burned the courthouse in 1787 and records from that
date were burned in 1865" in the Richmond fire of 1865, when the
public warehouses
So is James Stephen Dillard a myth? The successful researcher must go beyond the
obvious. He needs to know how colonial records differ from those of the present. Spelling was
not standardized, and the handwriting of the 1600's and 1700's was different from today's. Names
were written as they sounded to the record keeper, since the man giving his name was probably
illiterate. St. Peter's Parish Register, New Kent County, lists
three families. William Dollard with
wife Margaret had sons William in 1704 (who became the father of
Thomas in 1736) and Francis
in 1709,17
the year William, the father, died;
18
and James Dollard, with no wife named, had
Elizabeth in 170_ and James in 17__ [page torn]. A
generation later John and Susannah Dollard
had James (1736), Edward (1739), Lucy (1754), and
Susann (1757).19
burned. Many counties had stored
records there for safekeeping. Robert Young Clay,
Virginia Genealogical Resources (Detroit, MI: The Detroit Society for
Genealogical Research, Inc., 1980), pp. 16-17, and
lectures in Washington, D.C. at National Institute on Genealogical
Research, 1975, 1976; King and Queen County records
"were burned in 1833, and in 1864, the Federal Army under general
Kilpatrick burned the courthouse and many of the private
homes in the area, in retaliation for the death of Col. Ullric Dalgren.
. . . There were no colonial records left." Dr. Malcolm
Harris, Old New Kent County: Some Account of the Planters,
Plantations, and Places in New Kent County; Some Account of
the Planters, Plantations, and Places in King and Queen
County; Some Account of the Planters, Plantations, and
Places in Old New Kent County, Vol. 1 (West Point, VA: compiler,
(c) 1977), p. 512.
15Chamberlayne, C. G., ed.
The Vestry Book of Stratton Major Parish King and Queen County, Virginia 1729-1783
(Richmond, VA: Division of Purchase and Printing, 1931),
pp. 42-47, 22, 26, 34, 49, 59, 68, 76, 86, 102, 109, 124, 136, 143,
145, 153, 154, 158, 160, 161, 163, 167, 168, 172, 174,
187, 205, 207, 209, 210, 212, 214, 216, 217, 219, and 221-230.
16The National Society of Colonial
Dames of America in the State of Virginia,
The Parish Register of Christ Church, Middlesex
County, Va. from 1653 to 1812 (Baltimore: GPCo., 1964),
pp. 76, 139-140, 143, 149, 150, 156, 160, (not 196), and 280.
Hereinafter NSCDA VA. Also Chamberlayne, The Vestry Book
of Christ Church Parish Middlesex County, Virginia 1663-
1767 (Richmond: Old Dominion Press, 1927), pp. 168
[not listed in index], 170, 239, 250, 259, 268, 281, 323, and 327.
17NSCDA VA, St. Peter's Parish Register,
pp. 7, 8. William bap. 19 Mar. 1703/4; Francis bap. 13 Mar. 1709/09. They were
recorded as sons of William Dollard and his wife Margaret.
Thomas, son of William and Sarah Dollard, was b. in New Kent
Co., 27 May, bap. 1 July 1736, p. 121.
18NSCDA VA, The Vestry Book of St. Peter's, New Kent
County, VA. from 1682-1758 (Richmond: 1905), p. 45: "Wm.
Dollard departed this life october ye 24th 1709."
19NSCDA VA, St. Peter's Parish Register,
pp. 127, 140, 152, 153. James was born 27 Mar., baptized 15 May 1736, p. 127;
Edward, b. 18 May, bap. 8 July 1739, p. 140; Lucy b. 5 Apr 1754, p. 152;
Susann b. 12 Aug., bap.
The very next year (1758), James Dillard appeared in a
Virginia land record, patenting
269 acres part in James City County and part in New Kent County. [See Note 13.] On 9 and 17
August 1782, Thomas Dillard and George Dillard--not Dollard--
were exempt from New Kent
Militia Class 6; and Edward Dillard--not Dollard--was
assigned to Class 5 to serve in the Army of
the United States from New Kent County.
20
These three men named Dillard were later in tax
records in New Kent County. The Dollard name thus disappeared from New Kent County
records after the baptism of Susann Dollard in 1757; and the Dillard name appeared consistently
after that, beginning the next year, 1758. The key to the mystery is in changed handwriting. In
the 1600's and 1700's the letter e was often written
like an o with a loop at the top.
21 Thus, William,
James, and John Dollard were meant to have the surname Dellard.
Often short e is pronounced
like short i, especially in the South, and Dillard is often
pronounced in such ways that it could be
spelled with any first vowel.
On 6 September 1978 at the Virginia State Library,
to make sure of the appearance of the
letter transcribed as an o, the writer had the
photostats of the parish register and the vestry book
brought from the stacks. One should go to the original
when possible. Printed versions often have
copying errors. It was disappointing to see that
the o was definitely an o. But David Mossom,
rector from 1727 past 1758, the last date in the book
(died 1767), testified that Hen Collings,
rector from 1723-1725, "had the books recopied."
Therefore no originals of the books exists.
However, in the part that had not been recopied,
the e in Charles and in other words was written
like o with a loop at the top. Each e in ordered
had a loop at the top, and o had a horizontal line
straight out from the top. That indicates that the
name Dollard in the two books was first written
as Dellard, an alternate form of Dillard, which was
later miscopied--a frequent type of error.
22
The recopied birth entries of St.
23 Oct 1757, p. 153, all in
St. Peter's Parish, New Kent Co., VA.
20"New Kent Military Classes in 1782," Tyler's Quarterly, Vol. 10, pp. 178-179.
21Kent P. Bailey and Ransom B. True,
A Guide to Seventeenth-Century Virginia Court Handwriting (Richmond: The
Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, 1980);
E. Kay Kirkham, The Handwriting of American Records for a
Period of 300 Years (Logan, UT: The Everton
Publishers, Inc., 1973); Harriet Stryker-Rodda, C.G., Understanding Colonial
Handwriting (Baltimore: GPCo., 1986, originally New
Jersey History (Spring, Summer 1980), and "Letter Forms Found in
American Handwriting 1640-1790," (Washington, D.C.:
Handout and Lecture at National Institute on Genealogical Research,
1975, 1976).
22St. Peter's Parish, New Kent County,
Virginia, Vestry Book 1685-1758, Part I
(Virginia State Library, Archives Division No.
19729), now Library of Virginia (LVA).
In this the e written like an o with a loop
at the top is consistently used. Saint
Peter's Parish New Kent County Virginia Parish Register 1733-1778,
Part II (VSLAD No. 19740): In this, the seemingly
recopied part, the o of Dollard appears with a horizontal
line straight out from the top, not a loop at the top as in the
seemingly older first part. On 8 and 9 Sep. 1992 this author
spent a day and a half in LVA rechecking these volumes page by
page. The conclusions were the same as in 1978.
When people tell what they remember about ancestors, they often relate the events with the
names of those who participated but forget the dates. There is a tendency to compress
generations. Usually these are honest mistakes that anyone might make. For example, the writer's
mother said her grandfather's grandfather came from England. In subsequent research the writer
proved that it was not the ancestor of the fifth generation--her mother's second great grandfather--
but the one of the eighth--her mother's sixth great grandfather--who was the American settler of
1663. The strong tradition of a James, son of George Dillard, with son James seems a believable
memory of the kind legitimately passed down in families, especially since the Dollard/Dellard men-
-James and John Dollard, each with a proved son James---existed and are in official records.
But James Stephen Dillard? In "The Dillards of Amherst County, Virginia," Howard
Vallance Jones, Ph.D., wrote, "To date, not onepiece
of hard documentary evidence has surfaced
to prove even the existence of James Stephen
Dillard."23
Earlier, Terry Moorman Dillard said that
Mrs. Augusta B. Fothergill, a professional genealogist,
eighty-three in 1958 and an early authority
on Virginia records, had researched in Richmond and
in the various counties where Dillards had
lived. She had been employed "by William Dillard
and wife Mary to develop James Stephen
[Dillard] but was never able to find anything on
him and says no one then had a double name."
She was on the 389 acres of the first George Dillard,
where Dillards still lived, but they "knew or
would put out no information." Mrs. Fothergill also
said she doubted if James Stephen Dillard
existed and that Mrs. William Dillard had "misunderstood"
what Mrs. Fothergill had told her, that
Dillards did not live in James City
County.24
Anyone can verify the fact that double first names are not found in Virginia records until
about Revolutionary War times. Not even the governor, Sir William Berkeley, or the greatest
landowners used double given names. Hence chronology, the time when an event is likely to
occur, is something else a genealogist needs to consider.
23Howard Vallance Jones, "The Dillards of Amherst
County, Virginia," Dillard J-1, September 5, 1991, p. 1.
24Reynolds, The Dillard Family, pp. 83, 178;
also pp. 59, 375, 376. About Mrs. Fothergill, the word "authority" is not used
heedlessly. She compiled Wills of Westmoreland County,
Virginia 1654-1800 (1925), Marriage Records of Brunswick
County, Virginia and, with John Mark Naugle, Virginia Tax
Payers 1782-1787 (1940), the book which added about half the
Virginia counties omitted from the 1790 census published
by the Census Bureau. In his Vol. 19 of 34 volumes of Virginia
Colonial Abstracts (about 1943), Beverley Fleet wrote of her,
"Mrs. Augusta B. Fothergill, 1011 Grace St., Richmond, Va.
This lady is actually the Dean of Virginia genealogists.
We all agree that we are never with her but that she gives the solution
of some difficult problem. Her library and files are remarkably complete."
Often a man of one time is confused with a man of another time who has the same name
and lives in the same place. Could that have happened here? That, then, leads to the third
question.
Could James Stephen Dillard have been a later Dillard rather than the son of George
Dillard, the founder? One of the most frequent errors in genealogy is confusing two persons who
had the same name. The next is from "The Genealogy of the First Four Generations of Dillard in
America."26
James, son of John Dollard, was born in 1736 and was probably the James Dillard,
who was the first James Dillard, spelled with an i, in a Virginia record, and was the one cited
previously who patented 269 acres, part in New Kent and part in James City County in 1758.
(The first number of James Dillard below is his Modified Register System number; the number
after his name is the number given by Personal Ancestral File and indicates the order in which an
individual is entered into the computer program.)
84. James Dillard 4- 682, (John 3, James 2,
George1) baptized 15 May 1736 in New Kent
County, was probably the one who patented 269 acres of land, part in New Kent County and part
in James City County in 1758. If so, he had advertisements in the Virginia Gazette
on 12 September 1766 and Thursday 20 October 1774.
He had a son, James, Jr., whose death was
announced in the Virginia Gazette for 31 May 1776:
"About 2 o'clock in the morning mr. James
Dillard, jun. an amiable youth, was snatched off in the
flower of his age, to the great grief of his
friends. In the midst of life we are in death! Of whom may we
25NSCDA VA, St. Peter's Parish Register, pp. 7, 8, 153.
26Hughes, "Genealogy of the First Four Generations of Dillard in America" (Lubbock, TX: unpublished manuscript, 1995), p.
20.
So did a later Dillard researcher confuse James Stephen Dillard with a young James Dillard
who died more than 125 years after George's first appearance in a Virginia record in 1650 and less
than two months before the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776? The question, of
course, cannot be answered. This paper, however, has presented evidence that no Dillard was part
owner of "The Williamsburg Plantation" and that, since no record of an early James Stephen
Dillard has been found in records, and records of men named James Dellard (recopied as Dollard)
do exist, one of those men of record was likely the James Dillard of Henry Moorman Dillard's
article and later Dillard families. Records of later James Dillards have also been discovered.
Correct reading of the early handwriting and consideration of a spelling variation of the Dillard
surname have solved the puzzle.
A wealth of information about the present and the recent past can be gleaned by
exchanging letters with adult relatives. Their personal knowledge of themselves, their children,
their parents, and usually their grandparents preserves this data and is a real gift to the future. For
earlier generations, however, what can be learned from this or a similar study is important to
genealogists. It boils down to documentation. This writer even uses a bit of doggerel as a reminder
to document, document, document:
If something is not documented, it cannot be accepted. If it is documented only by citing
printed material, it should be either omitted or verified by actual records. Also, if the author seems
to cite actual records, before the material is passed on, the records should be spot-checked to see if
the author is honest. Only by research in contemporary records, their correct interpretation, and
careful documentation can one avoid the pitfalls of passing on unverifiable information. Aside
from this, searching for the pertinent records is the great
27The Virginia Gazette of Williamsburg 1736-1780,
Issued on Microfilm by The Institute of Early American History and
Culture from Originals and Photostats loaned by Other Institutions
(Williamsburg, VA: Photographed by Recordak
Microfilming Service, Recordak Corporation, Subsidiary of Eastman
Kodak Company, 1950), Issues of 12 September 1766;
Thursday 20 October 20, 1774; and 31 May 1776.
28Terry Moorman Dillard,
"The Dillard Family," 1957, in Reynolds, The Dillard Family,
p. 4, mentions the burial. Marjorie
Holland, in a telephone call about 1983, told the writer about the tombstone.
This study, however, should not be interpreted as a plea to omit the delightful family stories
about Great Grandma's homesteading experiences; or how, when Grandpa forgot how to stop his
first Model T, he pulled back on the steering wheel and shouted, "Whoa! Whoa!"; or how grieved
Great, Great, Great Grandma was when her stoneware churn was smashed during an Indian
attack. It had been her status symbol--the only churn in the fort a husband hadn't whittled and
made of narrow wooden strips he had carefully fitted together. Family histories need these tales to
spice up the documented begats, and interest in genealogies would be improved by their inclusion.
So let's bury the tradition of James Stephen Dillard with his fabulous estate in the grave so
conveniently prepared for him, complete with a tombstone to remind us never to pass on accounts
of remote ancestors unless they are verified by records or a preponderance of the evidence
recorded in their own time. The gathering of records pertaining to all Dillard families has been a delightful obsession of
mine for forty or more years. Every now and then I find a record, unknown previously by
researchers, that makes me say "Oops!" This year I cried "Oops" several times.
Over in Laurens County, South Carolina, resided a Capt. James Dillard whose Revolutionary
War pension application clearly states that he was born in 1755 or 1756 in Culpeper County
Virginia, and that he joined the South Carolina State Troops in September 1775 at Ninety-Six
(District). How, when and why he arrived in South Carolina is still a mystery. The names of his
parents are not given. (In an 1873 letter, his daughter wrote he moved there when he was "about"
17 years of age. This places him there about 1773).
Up in Culpeper County, Virginia there is a 1790 will of George Dillard in which he names his
sons James and Samuel, among others. Samuel migrated to Laurens County, South Carolina after
the Revolutionary War in the mid 1780's. Various records have definitely proven the Samuel in
Laurens County was a son of George, so, researchers speculated Samuel and Capt. James were
brothers. No record had been found to prove or
There definitely was a James Dillard in Culpeper County in 1781 whose record appears in the
Culpeper County Public Claims book compiled by Abercrombie. As more records are compiled
and published, more light is shed on old questions. This was "Oops" number one.
"Oops" number two occurred when I found Charles and Elizabeth (Dillard) Hutchins had
immigrated to Laurens County, South Carolina. She was the daughter of Thomas Dillard, Jr. in
whose household Lt. John Dillard of Rabun County, Georgia, was raised. Charles Hutchins was
the brother of Samuel Dillard's wife. Capt. James Dillard was a witness to the Laurens County
Deeds of Charles Hutchins (who finally settled in White County, Tennessee).
When Dr. Andrew Jackson Ritchie, a noted educator and a descendant of Lt. John Dillard, of
Dillard, Georgia, wrote the book Sketches Of Rabun County (GA.) History, he went to great
lengths in discussing Capt. James Dillard of Laurens County, South Carolina. Much of Ritchie's
"speculation" concerning Capt. James has been proven to be in error, but the very fact that Ritchie
went to such lengths to include Capt. James in a book written about Rabun County leads me to
believe Ritchie knew there was a kinship between Capt. James and Lt. John Dillard. In fact, on
page 26 of the book, Ritchie wrote, "How the two men were related to each other is not clear."
Finding Charles and Elizabeth (Dillard) Hutchins in Laurens County, South Carolina, proves the
Lt. John Dillard family was quite aware of Capt. James, especially since he witnessed the Hutchins'
deeds.
Are you confused enough? No? Well read this!
As you know, Lt. John Dillard of Rabun County, Georgia, was also born 1755 in Culpeper
County, Virginia. He is ancestor of all the Rabun County Dillards, as well as many others,
including me. One of the Rabun County descendants is John Marshall Dillard of Greenville, South
Carolina, yes, the editor of this Dillard Annual. This year, I sent him a copy of Capt. James
Dillard's Revolutionary War pension application. I was stunned when, much to my dismay, he
wrote me back that one of the men named in the application as a character reference by Capt.
James Dillard, was Golding Tinsley who just so happened to be the husband of a daughter of one
of John M. Dillard's ancestors, Anthony Foster. Doesn't that beat all?
I know only four facts pertaining to Capt. James Dillard's background. (1) He was born 1755
or 1756, (2) in Culpeper County, Virginia. (3) He had a brother named William who was killed at
the Battle of Eutaw Springs, South Carolina, in 1781, and whose heirs are noticeably absent in
George Dillard's Will. (4) In 1775 his place of residence was Ninety-Six District, South Carolina.
The Dillard Annual is published once each year by the Dillard Family Association of
Rabun County, Georgia as a newsletter and to preserve Dillard history and genealogy. In that it is
non-profit, no part of this publication can be republished for profit without the express written
permission of the writer of each article, each of which reserves all rights whatsoever. Any use of
the materials herein should acknowledge the source and give credit to the writer of each article.
Inquiries should be addressed to John M. Dillard, Post Office Box 91, Greenville, South Carolina,
29602.
Name(s)______________________________________________________________________
Address_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Telephone (______)____________________
Enclosed please find my check or money order for $8.00 for 1997 membership (make checks
payable to Dillard Family Association)
_____I expect to attend the 1997 Reunion. I will be accompanied by:___________ _____I cannot attend the 1997 Reunion, but want to retain my membership.
What would you like to see on the Reunion program?____________________________ Do you know any stories about the Dillards you could tell at the Do you have any Dillard or related kin photographs, objects of art or documents you would like to
show us and tell us about at a reunion? If so, what?
_____________________________________________________________________________`
______I would like to participate as a speaker in the Dillard History Sessions.
______I would like to research and prepare a manuscript for the Dillard Annual.
Anything else you can tell us that would help to make your membership and the reunion more
enjoyable?_______________________________________________________________
should not be accepted as part of the Dillard heritage.
3
Three questions omitted
in the "Ballad" are the subject of this article.
Did a Dillard and three others own "The Williamsburg Plantation"?
Credit for discovering the answer to the question about ownership of "The Williamsburg
Plantation" goes to Henry Moorman Dillard's grandson, Terry Moorman Dillard (1890-1970); and
credit for printing it, to Katherine Reynolds, of Houston, Texas, now deceased. In two typewritten
volumes, The Dillard Family (1975, 576 pages), she included all Dillard information and letters
anyone had sent her and the research she and her sister Bess had done. Though this article and the
"Ballad" deal with errors made by previous researchers, we should realize the difficulty under
which they carried on their investigations. Each of the three--Henry Moorman Dillard, Terry
Moorman Dillard, and Katherine Reynolds--deserves the thanks of present Dillard researchers for
their positive contributions to our subject of interest--the genealogy of the Dillard family in
America. Henry Moorman Dillard (1834-1912) influenced numerous people to learn more of
their ancestors and preserved knowledge of his own family, an activity which Terry Moorman
Dillard carried on and expanded. Miss Reynolds' book should be used with care to distinguish fact
from opinion, but it contains things like the following letter that we would be unable to find
without it. Terry Moorman Dillard was the first to write about the Dillards in the 1704 Quit Rent
Rolls mentioned later. In doing so he found that there were other Dillards in the second generation
besides James, the ancestor claimed by most Dillards who wrote of ancestors before his time. His
letters, research, and trial genealogies make up almost half the book.
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG
Restored by John D. Rockefeller, Jr
Williamsburg, Virginia July 30 1956
201 Richard St.
Corpus Christi, Texas.
not find a Dillard among them. As
I wrote Mrs. Sidney Richards, we have not been able to locate any early land grants
to the Dillards for land in James City County in the Virginia Land Patents; unfor-
tunately the records in New Kent and James City Co., Va records have been
destroyed. No deeds or wills prior to 1865 exist in [the] clerk's office and [it
would] be practically impossible to trace a title.
Research department
5 James Stephen Dillard: Was he a Dillard myth or a real person?
there was an earlier
publication. On 23 February 1976 in the vertical file at the Alabama Department of Archives and
History in Montgomery, this writer found "DILLARD--A partial history of the Dillard family" by
H. M. [Henry Moorman] Dillard. It is almost two columns of fine print from the Montgomery
Advertiser for 2 February 1902.8
The first part was quoted previously. This undocumented article
seems to be the real source of most printed versions of Dillard ancestry, including the Hill History.
The explanation for its wide and uncritical use is that Henry Moorman Dillard carried on a
voluminous correspondence, and letter writing was the chief method of discovering ancestors
before large genealogical collections became widely available during the last half of this century.
(Isle of Wight County records show that Henry
Dullard was Henry Bullard, not a Dillard or a
Dullard.12
) Dillard/Dolerd names were found only in
adjoining counties of King and Queen and New Kent.
Church of
England records are vital. Parish registers and vestry books are really official records, since
vestries of the various parishes had certain civil duties. From 1735 the same names--George,
Thomas, and Nicholas Dillard--appear in King and Queen
County.15 Edward is in adjoining
Middlesex County records from 1733 to
1757.16
There is no James Stephen Dillard. There is no
James Dillard.
Peter's Parish Register are alphabetized by surname, further
evidence of a second edition.
This, then, seems to be the answer. It was found earlier in the twentieth century by a
skilled Virginia researcher and by others later and has been verified by this writer. There was no
seventeenth century James Stephen Dillard, but there was a James Dillard
of record, who very
well could have been George Dillard's son. What is the explanation? He was the James
Dollard/Dellard, with no wife named, whose daughter Elizabeth (in 17__, on the same page as
the 1703/04 baptismal records) and son James (in 17__ [page torn], on the same page as 1709
baptismal records) were baptized in St. Peter's Church, New Kent County. The son, James
Dollard/Dellard, probably was the ancestor of later Dillards, since the Dollard name does not
appear in eighteenth century New Kent County records after Susann was baptized in
1757.25
This
James, however, was not the progenitor of all later Dillards, as a number of printed genealogies
imply. Dillards with other given names also had children. Thus a knowledge of the handwriting of
the period seems to have solved one puzzle of the second and later generations of Dillards.
Was James Stephen Dillard confused with a later Dillard?
seek for succour, but of thee, O Lord!"
27
[This James Dillard, Jr., is probably the one buried
three miles from Williamsburg and
called James Stephen Dillard on the tombstone
erected to him some time during the present
century.28
This illustrates a common genealogical error,
that of confusing a person who lived at
one time with one who lived in another.
It is obvious that a James Dillard who died in 1776 "in
the flower of his age" could not have been a son of
George Dillard, first of record 22 May 1650.
It is possible, however, that a James Dillard of 1776 could
have had a second given name, since
men with two given names first appear in Virginia
records about the time of the American
Revolution.
Is not enough proof for a pedigree!
challenge of genealogy, and discovering a
long-sought record is a joy rarely surpassed. Discovering one's true heritage, whatever the social
level of one's ancestors, is the achievement and reward of genealogy.
"OOPS" ANOTHER JAMES DILLARD
by
Lucile R. Johnson
disprove the speculation (which is probably over
100 years old) for no other James, of the right age, appeared in the Culpeper County records. That
is, until this past year when I found an "Oops!"
If any of you reading this find any record concerning these people, please send it to me. I'm
ready for another "Oops!"
Statement of Publication
Dillard Annual
THE DILLARD FAMILY ASSOCIATION
MEMBERSHIP FORM
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Reunion?_____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
E-mail John M. Dillard at:
dillard@netside.com.
Compiled and edited by John M. Dillard.