Abt 1710 - Abt 1782 (~ 72 years)
Generation: 1
1. | Sampson Strickland was born about 1710; died about 1782. Notes:
From STRICKLAND SCENE Vol 7, No 2, Second Quarter 1986:
"Sampson Strickland of Revolutionary Wake County, N.C.: A Tale of Tory Determination" Contributed by Franceine Perry Rees
"A great may tragedies, and perhaps as many tales of courage and sacrifice, could be written if those of us who dig into our family's "roots" could learn the complete stories behind the written records of events in our ancestors' lives! We can only wonder about what motivated Sampson Strickland, Sr., middle-aged husband and father, solid citizen and prosperous farmer, to stand up in the Wake County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions in December, 1777, and steadfastly refuse to swear the Oath of Allegience to the State of North Carolina. By his refusal, Sampson placed himself with the despised Loyalists and was therefore ordered to leave the state. In some parts of North Carolina, "Tories" were numerous and could support each other against revolutionary pressure; such was not the case in Wake County.
The Oath, devised as part of the state's Treason Act of 1777, was unequivocal; "I will bear faithful and true Allegience to the State of North Carolina, and will to the utmost of my power support and maintain, and defend the independent Government thereof, against George the Third, King of Great Britain, and his Successors . . . . "
Unlike other British sympathizers, Sampson Strickland was not a recent immigrant to these shores; as youngest son of Matthew Strickland, Jr. and his wife Anne Bracewell, he descended from several generations of Viriginia colonists. His nearest tie to the pro-British Anglican clergy appears to have been nor nearer than a maternal great-grandfather, Rev. Robert Bracewell, parson of the Lower Parish, Isle of Wight County, Virginia, whose death preceded Sampson's birth by more than fifty years. Neither was he a merchant who profited from trade with the British. For whatever cause, even in the face of overwhelming opposition, this Strickland found himself unable to renounce his loyalty to the English crown.
Born in 1723 in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, Sampson Strickland moved south as a young man, receiving a Granville grant patent May 24, 1756 for 275 acres of land in what was then Johnston County, North Carolina. (The Powell Creek area where he settled was divided in 1770 to create Wake County.) Court records include more than a dozen references to Sampson thereafter; he recorded deeds, witnessed others' land transactions, registered his cattle brand. In addition to his agricultural pursuits, he accepted a number of civic responsibilities, serving as juror, caretaker of an orphan, road committee member and road overseer.
By the time colonial fervor for independence rose high, Sampson Strickland must have been quite thoroughly settled among his Wake County neighbors, doubtless cherishing hopes that eventual reconciliation with the mother country might be achieved. But as the strife between England and her colonies increased, it became impossible for North Carolinians to remain tacit royalists. A rather mild loyalty oath in which persons suspected of sympathizing with the crown swore not to bear arms against or otherwise oppose the rovolutionary government "during the present unhappy contest between Great Britain and America" was ultimately replaced by a much more stringent avowal; all who lived within the colony that had proclaimed itself a state were to be compelled to declare their allegiance to it.
As 1777 drew to a close, Sampson Strickland may have already refused the oath in a muster of men in his militia district, or he may have been singled out and summoned to court as a suspected British symphathizer. At any rate, two other men appeared in court the same day as Sampson; they each swore the oath and were given certificates as evidence that they had "complyed with the law."
Sampson Strickland, however, defied the court, the law, and popular opinion: "...being Cited to appear at this Court to take the Oath of Allegience to this State came into Court, and on said Oath being offered to him her refused taking the same, whereupon the Court Pronounced his Banishment agreeable to Law."
It is probable that Sampson was banished as ordered, but where he went remains a mystery. Did he go to the West Indies or to Nova Scotia, as did other Loyalists? Did any of his family go with him? Was any of his property confiscated?
The records do not offer such information. In fact, he must have died in exile, because his name does not appear in the court minutes from the time he was sentenced until after his death, when his widow Christina reported his estate inventory in July, 1781. In March of the next year, she received fromthecourt persmiisio to act as her husband's administratix, posting bond for 700 pounds. In June the court accepted an account of the estate sale from the deputy sherriff (buyers included Christina, Obediah, Abel, and Hardy Strickland, along with Sampson Strickland, Jr. In March, 1783, Christina sought guardianship of her younger children--Obediah, Abel, Mary Anne, Lot, Braswell, and Matthew, for which she was required to enter bond of 1,200 pounds. In May 1784, Obediah achieved his majority and purchased 250 acres of what had doubtless been his father's land fromthe deceased Tory's eldest son and namesake, Sampson, Jr. Christina, their mother, co-signed the deed with her mark. One of the witnesses, Joseph Strickland, may have been another older son with Sampson the elder and Christina. Lot Strickland's December, 1784, will names his mother and brothers, Braswell and Matthew, with Obediah as executor and Abel and Joseph as witnesses.
It is unlikely that many of Sampson Strickland's legion descendants would agree that his refusal to support the new state was justified; history has certainly shown that the American Revolution was not only inevitable but beneficial. However, those of us who descend from this stubborn Wake County Tory should take some pride in his bravery, and hope we might have inherited a modicum of that quality in his charater which resulted in this sacrifice of home and a comfortable future for principle and loyalty.
The loyalist tendencies of Sampson Strickland Sr did not descend to his namesake. The younger Sampson served two tours of active duty with the Wake County militia, according to documents in a pension claim filed by his children.
Family/Spouse: Christina ???. Christina was born between 1710 and 1720; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
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Generation: 2
3. | Sampson Strickland (1.Sampson1) was born between 1740 and 1765; died on 16 May 1839 in Franklin County, North Carolina. Notes:
The list of the children of Sampson Strickland and his wife Bythe, is from his Revolutionary War pension claim file no. R-10264. He was a resident of Wake County, North Carolina during the Revolutionary War, where he took the oath of allegience on November 24, 1777. In 1780, he married his cousin, Bythe Strickland in Wake County. He died May 16, 1839 at about age 82 years, when a resident of Franklin County, NC to which he had moved a few years before his death. His wife, Bythe, died in Franklin County, date not given.
All of his children lived in Nash County in 1846, when son Eaton Strickland applied for a pension based on his father's alleged five months tour under Captain Collars and six month tour under Captain Carrington, both in the North Carolina Militia. Sampson was reportedly at the Battle of Stono. The pension claim was not allowed, as proof of service as required by the pension law was not furnished.
A Martha Strickland, age 76 in 1845, and then of Nash County, stated that she married into the Strickland family, and that her husband was present at the marriage of Sampson and Bythe.
STRICKLAND SCENE Vol 7, No 1 First Quarter 1986
Family/Spouse: Bythe Strickland. Bythe was born before 1753; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
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Generation: 3
21. | Willy Strickland (7.Braswell2, 1.Sampson1) was born about 1796; and died. Notes:
Probably female and probably married Granberry B. Williams in Franklin County.
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22. | Wright Strickland (7.Braswell2, 1.Sampson1) was born on 8 May 1800 in North Carolina; and died. Notes:
(Research):
Census Listings:
1850 Census
North Carolina, Johnston County, District 10
Enumerated 30 Oct 1850
1083-1083
Right Strickland 52 M Farmer 700 NC
Lucinda Strickland 48 F
Martha Strickland 14 F
Elizabeth Strickland 12 F
Mary Strickland 9 F
Lucinda Strickland 6 F
1860 Census
North Carolina, Nash County, Collins District, PO Hilliardston
Enumerated 11 July 1960
Page 100
858-808
M.M. and Elizabeth Strickland
839-809
Wright Strickland 60 M Farmer 3000 16000 NC
Lucinda Strickland 56 F NC
Mary Strickland 19 F NC
Lucinda Strickland 16 F NC
Wright married Lucinda Chamblee on 6 Sep 1825 in Wake County, North Carolina. Lucinda was born on 18 Oct 1802 in North Carolina; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
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Generation: 4
27. | Mahartney Strickland (22.Wright3, 7.Braswell2, 1.Sampson1) was born on 12 Feb 1827 in North Carolina; and died. Notes:
(Research):Census Listings:
1850 Census
North Carolina, Johnston County, District 11
Enumerated 6 Nov 1850
Stamped 77
1165-1165
Hartley Strickland 25 M Farmer $125 NC
Katherine Strickland 22 F NC
Willie Strickland 3 M NC
Right Strickland 1 M NC
Mahartney married Catherine Bailey on 6 May 1847 in Johnston County, North Carolina. Catherine was born on 8 Feb 1830 in North Carolina; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
Children:
- 45. L. Wiley Strickland
was born about 1848 in Johnston County, North Carolina; and died.
- 46. Wright Strickland
was born about 1849 in Johnston County, North Carolina; and died.
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Generation: 5
37. | James Richard "Dick" Strickland (24.Samuel4, 16.Abel3, 4.Obediah2, 1.Sampson1) was born on 18 Nov 1868 in Alabama; died on 12 Jun 1947 in Franklin County, Alabama; was buried in Cedar Creek Cemetery, White Oak, Franklin County, Alabama. Notes:
(Research):
Census Listings:
1900 Census
Alabama, Franklin County, Pleasant Site Beat No. 4
Enumerated 19 Jun 1900
SD 6 ED 21 Sheet 9A
149-150
Strickland, James R Haed W M Nov 1869 30 m 8 Ala Lal Ala Farmer
Strickland, Mattie M Wf W F Nov 1876 23 m 8 5/2 Ala Ala Ala
Strickland, James R Son W M Jly 1894 5 S Ala Ala Ala
Strickland, Samuel A W M Feb 1896 4 S Ala Ala Ala
James married Mattie Modenna Crow on 14 Feb 1892 in Franklin County, Alabama. Mattie was born on 10 Nov 1876 in Alabama; died in Jul 1967 in Red Bay, Franklin County, Alabama; was buried in Cedar Creek Cemetery, White Oak, Franklin County, Alabama. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
Children:
- 55. James Roy Strickland
was born in Jul 1894 in Alabama; died about 1974.
- 56. Samuel Aulsie Strickland
was born on 28 Feb 1896 in Alabama; died on 25 Mar 1936 in Russellville, Franklin County, Alabama; was buried in Cedar Creek Cemetery, White Oak, Franklin County, Alabama.
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Generation: 6
56. | Samuel Aulsie Strickland (37.James5, 24.Samuel4, 16.Abel3, 4.Obediah2, 1.Sampson1) was born on 28 Feb 1896 in Alabama; died on 25 Mar 1936 in Russellville, Franklin County, Alabama; was buried in Cedar Creek Cemetery, White Oak, Franklin County, Alabama. Family/Spouse: Mary Clementine Emerson. Mary was born on 14 May 1899 in Franklin County, Alabama; died on 12 Nov 1995 in Franklin County, Alabama; was buried in Cedar Creek Cemetery, White Oak, Franklin County, Alabama. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
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Generation: 7
Generation: 8
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