Brother Bill

We nearly lost our beloved Bill Barnwell, my dad's best friend from NC State design school and my mom's big brother, on Tuesday July 13, 2010 to a heart attack.  I have not blogged much lately for lack of interest, and for some time my heart was in my throat for Bill's journey from ambulance ride to quadruple by-pass surgery.  Bill was named for his father, who was a great storyteller.  This gift for engaging people is something which comes easily for my Uncle Bill, and I would like to dedicate a good bit of the spirit of my research and writing about the family to him.  He is, for all of him, a blessing in our lives.  There is no doubt that his survival over the past 2 weeks is a miracle. 

I love you, Uncle Bill.  This one's for you.

p.s. Jarvis has lost over 20 lbs since these pictures at my wedding were taken.

Patriots: the Carolina Gamecock

Thomas Sumter (1734-1832) was one tough fellow.  He outlived all of my other patriots in this segment, surving to his 97th year!  He was the son of a Welsh immigrant, who settled in Virginia.  He was gifted in diplomacy, and grew to work well with the Cherokee Nation, along with his friend and fellow Virginian Brigadier General Joseph Martin, Jr.  I believe that the company hired to write the spoiler for The Patriot left out Martin's name in the list of men who inspired the film's hero.  Both Thomas and Joseph learned a great deal from the Cherokee, having a taste for warfare over the quiet and peaceful life of a planter.  Each fought first in the French and Indian War, and later in the Revolutionary War. 

The story goes that at the end of the Cherokee Campaign Thomas Sumter went with a Cherokee chief, Henry Timberlake, an interpreter, and a servant to the Overhill villages of the Cherokee Nation, at the request of the Chief.  Chief "Old Hop" lead them to the villages in the cold, to prove to them that the Cherokee and the British were at peace.  The journey itself cost them for provisions and later horses to get back to Virginia, and the bill was footed by Thomas.  He went to London briefly, and then took a boat to South Carolina.  He asked the British army for reimbursement for his money spent in the Cherokee Campaign, but instead they locked him in jail.  His friend, Joseph Martin, came to see him, and slipped him some money and a Cherokee tomahawk.   Did Thomas Sumter raise hell and escape from the jail, or did he pay the bill and walk out free?  Where facts are few, it's best to use your imagination.  I see it as one of those "choose your own adventure" novels.  But you must remember, by this time, Thomas was fluent in the Cherokee dialects and warfare.  He knew how to use that tomahawk.  He and Joseph Martin would meet again 30 years later, and Thomas would repay him.

Brigadier General Joseph Martin, Jr.

Thomas Sumter married a wealthy widow, just as Benjamin Martin did in The Patriot, and had several businesses and plantations.  His neighbor?  Francis Marion. 

I would like to portray Thomas Sumter as a spirited, no-holds-barred type of soldier.  He is, afterall, the original gamecock.  Lord Cornwallis himself would call Sumter his "greatest plague" because Sumter came at him with all of his might, unhindered by his own small stature. 
"Tho he be little, he be fierce."  -Shakespeare
Here was the man who rose to the rank of General, and commanded the militias which drove Cornwallis out of South Carolina and into the coast of Virginia, to Yorktown, where Cornwallis was forced to surrender. 

Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown

Thomas, and later his son, would serve in Congress and as a Senator in South Carolina.  I worked at the fort in the mouth of Charleston's harbor, which was named for him, and in his grandchildren's lifetime would host the beginning of the Civil War.  I am not related to the Old Gamecock, but 2 outta 5 ain't bad.

Patriots: the Old Wagoner

I must confess on the need for a refresher course in the battles and names of the American Revolution. I had never heard of Colonel Daniel Morgan (1736-1802) until research for this book began. He was a captain early in his military career, so in reading of his life I began thinking of Captain Morgan rum. In fact, he was related to the pirate Daniel Morgan!!  Arrrgh.  Only this guy was no pirate. He was a brilliant military strategist, and he was the one who relentlessly and repeatedly pursued British General Tarleton, the venomous beast and warmonger.

Morgan was a large, bawdy fellow, whose parents immigrated from Wales to colonial New Jersey.  Young Daniel had a falling out with his dad, and ran away from home at 16.  He went to Virginia, barely literate, and worked at sawmill until eventually joining the British militia and acting as a wagoner in the French and Indian War.  This is where "Old Wagoner" comes from, but I have to tell you I have no clue what a "wagoner" is.

The trouble with Morgan was that he was outspoken (also loved to gamble and fight), and in the heat of an argument he bunched his superior officer in the face.  He was nearly lashed to death for insubordination, and he hated the British from that point forward. 

Morgan joined the cause during the time of the Boston Massacre, and took orders from General Washington.  He played key roles in the successful battles of Saratoga and Cowpens.  He had sciatica, which made warfare and extensive traveling very painful.  He, like Francis Marion, tried to retire by 1780.  But he was needed, so he switched from Washington's mid Atlantic to General Nathaniel Greene's Southern Army.  He destroyed General Tartleton's Tory legion of fighters by organizing and successfully lauding a double envelopment of the enemy.  He also designed Greene's battle plan for the Battle of Guilford Courthouse here, in modern day Greensboro. 

Morgan retired in 1782 to his 250,000 acre estate in Winchester, Virginia which he named Saratoga.  He had 2 daughters with his housekeeper, don't worry, he did marry her, and one love child named Willoughby whom he fathered while in Charles Towne.  Oh, you scallywag, you.

Patriots: the Family Man

Elijah Clarke (1732-1799), hero with a hook nose.  I have a thing for noses.  General Elijah Clarke was one of the men of whom fictional character Benjamin Martin in The Patriot was based.  We get the man closely tied to his seven children, whose home was burned by the Tories, in Elijah Clarke.  One of his younger daughters was named Susanna, which is where the screenwriters had a field day creating a tear-jerking traumatized little girl who could not speak after losing her mother.  Gets me everytime.

 

Hannah Arrington was Elijah Clarke's wife.  She was a strong, muscular woman of Scots Irish descendent, whose parents settled at Winyah Bay, where the Marions built Goatfield.  They say that Hannah was a quiet woman, but when she spoke she spoke with authority.  She followed her husband from camp to camp during the Revolutionary War, bringing the children with her.  The Tories burned their home to the ground while they were away.  Hannah refused to let the enemy break her spirit.  She nursed the wounded on both sides of the battles.  Sounds like a great lady.  Unfortuately I am not descended from her.

Elijah Clarke was from the Outer Banks, son of immigrants.  He was born the same year as both George Washington and Francis Marion.  Elijah wasn't schooled and had no money, so he took his new bride to the free and newly ceded lands from the treaty which ended the French and Indian War in the mountains of Georgia.  This guy fought both Indians and the British during the Revolutionary War.  He survived mulitple wounds, Small Pox, and the Mumps.  He fought under Andew Pickens in Georgia, leading a successful charge to win the battle at Kettle Creek.  Pickens and Clarke fought together again in the two month battle for Augusta.  The British took over a good bit of South Carolina and Georgia in 1780, so Clarke had to travel through Indian country to try to retake Augusta.

Elijah's son John left school at 14 to fight alongside his father, and by 16 he was a captain.  I believe the Gabriel Martin character has some John Clarke in him.  The Clarkes led guerrilla style raids on the British and colonial Loyalists at Musgrove's Mill, Cedar Springs, Wofford's Iron Works, Fishdam Ford, Long Cane, and Blackstocks, in addition to Augusta.  Elijah Clarke was rewarded at the close of the war with a plantation.  He served in the Georgian government, as did his son John.  Elijah was something of a libertarian, insteadof something like a sandwich: he got into trouble trying to create an independent republic on Creek Indian land.  I guess you can't win them all.

5 Patriots: The Fighting Elder, the Wizard Owl

Hello again.  I try to take breaks, really, but then when I return to the research I get excited again.  To be an artist is to doubt one's self, indeed, but to embrace your gifts is an indescribable bliss.  I only wish that everyone could work from their heart, out of goodness of course. 

I read a more indepth description of the story behind The Patriot, and in lieu of how completely whacked out Mel Gibson is right now, I would choose to bring attention to the distinguished patriots whose stories emboldened screenwriters to memorialize them into one man: fictional Benjamin Martin.  Mr. Gibson, please get some help, and have some shame.

Our patriots, to commense this series, are Captain Daniel Morgan, Brigadier General Francis Marion, Colonel Elijah Clark, General Thomas Sumter, and Brigadier General Andrew Pickens.  It would not suprise me to find that I am in some way related to each of these men.  Look out, DAR, I've got another whammy for you.

Slap him a little bit harder, Senator Kerry, he's about to make a huge mistake.

Former Senator John Edwards, the former trial lawyer and seemingly happily married man, is the 7th great grandson of a great patriot of this country: Brigadier General Andrew Pickens (1739-1817).  Who?  Yes, to the point he's not exactly a well-known fellow, but he did some fine things in his day.  And I think he didn't start rolling over in his grave when John Edwards cheated on his wife and used his constituents money to do it, no, no.  I think Andrew Pickens began rattling his bones at the words "trial lawyer." 

Perhaps someone else in the family could do his memory justice.

"The Fighting Elder"

Andrew Pickens's beginnings were very much like that of Francis Marion: his ancestors were persecuted Presbyterians who eventually left England for the New World.  Pickens's parents, surname originally Picon (French), were Ulster people who immigrated from Northern Ireland.  They settled in the Pennsylvania back country as indentured servants, where Andrew Pickens Jr. (our hero) was born in 1739.  The Pickenses migrated South in 1754, in classic Scots-Irish fashion, following their release from service and undoubtedly some hostile encounters with Native Americans.  They were strict in their faith, so much so that Pickens was given the nickname the "Fighting Elder." 

His parents remained in Waxhaw, which today is a suburb of Charlotte, but Andrew Jr. sold his property in 1764 following the final treaty of the French and Indian War, and pushed further south to Abbeville.  Remember Abbeville?  It's all coming together.  Andrew Jr. married Rebecca Calhoun, of the same French descent as Andrew's great grandparents, in Abbeville.   They may have been on the same boat as the Marions: they were also from La Rochelle.  Pickens built Hopewell Plantation on the Savannah River, where many a Cherokee treaty was signed.  Andrew and Rebecca had 14 children: Andrew III would follow in his father's political footsteps, and his brother Floride would father the politician John C.Calhoun.  But my heart belongs to his eldest child, a girl named Mary.  Mary is my great grandmother.  That's right: this time draw a straight line connecting me to a famous revolutionary. 

Andrew fought in the Cherokee Campaign, and may very well have known Francis Marion by name, if not by reputation.  Where Marion rose from nothing to Lietenant, Pickens began as Captain and became a Brigadier General.  His relocation following the war to the Georgia border brought him into the Revolutionary War battles in Georgia, where my mom's relative Randal Ramsay fought in the Continental Army.  Remember how Francis Marion fled Charleston before it was seized by the British in 1780?  Andrew Pickens was taken prisonner.  So what did this guy do to put his name on that list?  He led a 300 man militia against the Tories, who had shown up in Georgia to gather support for the British.  They didn't like him so much.  Sounds like my kinda guy.  He was put under parole, and his men the same, swearing under oath that they would sit out the war.  But the Tories ransacked his home and spooked his children.  I hate to repeat myself, but don't mess with a bull, you might get the horns.

Pickens was also a guerilla fighter, and a brave soldier.  He'd traded with the Indians, and learned how to fight like them during the Cherokee Campaign.  His strategies in warfare helped to win the battles of Cowpens, Ninety-Six, Augusta, and Eutaw.  Eutaw was in Francis Marion's backyard, and they both took orders from Nathaniel Greene. 

Andrew Pickens served as a congressman following the Revolutionary War, worked on relations with the Cherokee Nation, and later sympathized with the Cherokee when they were driven from their land to Oklahoma.  The Cherokee named him "Wizard Owl" for his wise diplomacy.  He is buried at Old Stone Church in Clemson.

Ok, can I talk about his nose?  What is going on with the long French noses?  I wonder if the other 3 patriots had honkers like Pickens and Marion.  I've got French eyes and a French nose, and a [distant, thank God] cousin named John Edwards.

sleeping with the enemy

I'd like to flip the coin, if I may, and speak of a story I remembered from my grandfather Mays's family whose place in the puzzle recently connected for me. The Mays family came over with Reverend William Mease, who sailed from Belfast in 1611 to become part of the lesser-known Roanoke colony above John Smith's Jamestown. You could call him a Scots-Irish Presbyterian because he sailed from Northern Ireland during the Calvinist Protestant Reformation. But he wasn't Scots Irish. He was a Dutchman whose family had lived along the river Maas and had traded with the English. We found the name appearing in Flanders around 1479, when people began adopting last names. Trickle down in time with me to the southern migration of the Scots Irish in the New World colonies. My grandfather's great uncle was William Mayes, who settled in what is now Sumter County, South Carolina in 1759. See above.

Salem Black River Church was built in 1759, and while its original structure has been rebuilt and renovated several times, the cemetary and Sessions house remain.  William Mayes of the parish married a Cherokee chief's daughter.  My previous post addressed the bloody Cherokee campaign, with the Cherokee as the decided enemy of the colonials, and here I find my dad's father's family sleeping with the enemy.  I believe that William married for love.  His descendants founded what is now Mayesville, South Carolina, and prospered therein. 

The Cherokee Campaign ended in 1761, with a treaty.  I was able to find the final page of said treaty, with the marks and seals of the English and Cherokee. 

The French and Indian war ended in 1763, and the 13 colonies were divided by the Blue Ridge from the French and Indian territory.  England maintained its choke-hold until the colonists organized against them, eventually declaring their independence.  Wait for it.

Cherokee Campaign

My dad created an old-fashioned wrestler named "The Sidewinder," whose temper lurks just beneath the surface.  I have mentioned the sleeping monster within the heart of Francis Marion, which, in its fits and starts as a would-be peaceful farmer, cannot be denied when truly challenged.  Indeed, says Simms,

"It was only subdued, and slumbering for a season, ready to awaken at the first opportunity, with all the vigor and freshness of a favorite passion."

Opportunity arose out of a skirmish following the close of the French and Indian War. 

The Cherokee had allied with England, and as they were traveling south through Virginia on their way home as victors, they helped themselves to the settlers horses, to replace their own.  This did not go over well: the Virginians retaliated, and the Cherokee responded in kind.   South Carolina's Governor Lyttleton insisted on stepping in to help the Virginians, and so in 1759 South Carolina entered "The Cherokee Campaign."  Able-bodied men were asked to enlist, and Francis Marion, then 27, joined the cavalry unit lead by one of his brothers.  A delegation of 32 Cherokee chiefs came to Charleston to beseech Governor Lyttleton not to go to war with them.  Lyttleton wasn't buying it, and, taking the delegation as prisoners, brought them to Congaree, where his own forces were waiting.  Lyttleton was an idiot: this delegation came in peace and now they were captives, which offended the Cherokee into all-out war.  They unleashed hell on Fort Prince George and its surrounding settlements, mentioned in The Patriot as "Fort Wilderness," brutally slaughtering all whites they encountered. 

Units from Charleston, the Carolinas, and Virginia perished in their attempt to retake the fort, until they learned from their enemy and began to anticipate them.  They drove the Cherokee from Fort Prince George, and into the village of Etochee, then retreated.  But the Cherokee came back "with great vigor."  They took back their word on every treaty, forged an allegiance with the French, and learned how to use European weapons.  It was sticky business, not to mention horrific.  Francis Marion rose to the rank of Lieutenant, and fought under the command of General Moultrie.  The same men would later fight the English together at Fort Moultrie.  Moultrie described Marion in his memoirs:

"He was an active, brave and hardy soldier, and an excellent partisan officer."

Francis lead his regiment to victory, unrelenting in their pursuit of the Cherokee and gaining ground, as many died on both sides, until the Battle of Etochee was won.  The victory of the whites broke the spirit of the Cherokee nation, as the rest of the Campaign resulted in the destruction of and burning of many villages.  Benjamin Martin, the fictitious Francis Marion, said,
"I have longed feared that my sins would return to me,  and the cost is more than I can bear."

It is recorded of him, that the severity practised in this campaign filled him, long after, with recollections of sorrow.   How can a man drown out the screams of the innocent, long after numbing one's self to the war-woop of the enemy, whose destruction came at the orders of the commanding officer?  I'm trying to tell you that the horrors of warfare not only wearied Marion's soul:  they haunted him.  What he did in the Cherokee Campaign made him legend, but what he did to defeat the Cherokee did not end on the battlefield.  I believe that he had kindness within him, that beyond his hardened exterior of dry bread beat a heart of compassion for the innocent.  He would rally to the protection of the innocent once again in 1775. 

Family connection note: there was a small pox epidemic in Charleston during the Cherokee Campaign.  Job's first wife, my great grandmother Elizabeth de St. Julien, died of small pox in 1759.  Job and Elizabeth's son, Job, would be so close to his uncle Francis that he would name his first child after him.

Francis and the Whale

Parson Weems writes, "I have it from good authority, that this great soldier, at his birth, was not larger than a New England lobster, and might easily enough have been put into a quart pot."  I think we've established that Weems took a lot of liberties in his fantasty novel about the life of General Francis Marion.  Let's interpret this statement from its fable, and try not to imagine a newborn child being cooked for lunch. 

Francis was born to a 37 year old woman who'd been giving birth since age 16.  The baby was probably very small and sickly, and was coddled by the family until he overcame his ailments, his weak and crooked legs and tendency to be sick, at puberty.  He told his mother, who begged and pleaded with him, just as George Washington's mother had done up in Virginia, that he longed to be sailor.  Young Francis went to work on a ship bound for the West Indies around 1747.  Simms describes the scene in his biography of Marion:

"The waters of the Gulf of Mexico, in particular, were covered with pirates. The rich produce of New Spain, the West Indies, and the Southern Colonies of the English, were rare temptations. The privateers of Spain and France, a sort of legalized pirates, hung about the ports of Carolina, frequently subjecting them to a condition of blockade, and sometimes to forced contributions."

Infamous pirates Blackbeard and Charles Drake terrorized the Carolina coastline, when they weren't fighting on the open sea or stirring up mischief in the Carribean.  I think Johnny Depp was trying for a Blackbeard look, but it may have been a challenge to have smoke coming out of his dreadlocks. 
The British had special war ships in place to defend the coastline and thwart the attacks on merchant vessels, such as the one carrying young Francis.  Sometimes civil "cruisers" were retro-fitted with ammo to fight the pirates as well.  Francis's one and only voyage was made upon an armed vessel.
The journey was fraught with danger. 

"She [the ship] foundered at sea, whether going or returning is not said; in consequence, we are told, of injuries received from the stroke of a whale, of the thornback species. So suddenly did she sink, that her
crew, only six in number, had barely time to save themselves. They escaped to the jolly boat, saving nothing but their lives. They took with them neither water nor provisions; and for six days, hopeless of succor, they lay tossing to and fro, upon the bald and cheerless ocean."

Their ship was rammed by a whale, causing the vessel to sink, and the crew lept into a life boat with no provisions.  They were stranded at sea for six days, without drinking water or food, or shelter from the sun.  They ate the ship's dog as their only meal.  Perhaps P.E.T.A. would've suggested cannabalism over the poor dog, but then two of the crew lept into the ocean in absolute madness, and drowned.  How traumatizing!  Another ship discovered and rescued the survivors, nursing the distressed sailors to health.  Was Francis saved by providence, while grown men, stronger than he, perished at sea?  Yes.  He was bound for greater things.  Indeed, he had only begun.

Gabriel Marion, Jr. passed away in 1747, and when Francis returned from the sea he tilled the earth of the family farm and cared for his mother for ten years.  Francis's brothers and sister, except Job, were married with families of their own.  He planted indigo and rice on the Santee canal with his brother Gabriel, until Gabriel had enough money to build Belle Isle plantation, and Francis had enough to create his homestead of Pond Bluff next door.  Francis was not very well educated, and his family did not have much money.  He learned from the land, from the Indians, and made due.  I will speak of his character in the next blog.  I will also speak of the young man he retained from his parents estate, a boy who grew to be a great soldier and fought alongside Francis during the Revolutionary War.  His name was Oscar Marion, and he was loosely portrayed as Occam, played by actor Ray Arlen Jones in The Patriot.   

the lost cause

I'd like to take our story to the convening of the Continental Congress, featured here in The Patriot.  I watched the film again yesterday, and read several reviews which were harsh on the interpretation and presentation of history.  Yes, it's a movie: movies are entertaining, and tell a story.  You want a more accurate play-by-play?  Try a documentary.  I love documentaries, but they don't reach the entire audience, so a regular movie can be used as a decent teaching tool.  This concept will repeat when I speak of the Civil War, a subject as deeply entrenched in the cause for freedom as that which my Uncle Francis fought for, for both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War were civil wars.  Freedom to be, freedom to be free.  Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, which was signed in early July of 1776: a powerful document whose words laid out what the Colonials believed as truth, and would prove with much bloodshed.  The guarantee by the words "for all," were challenged by circumstance and situation, spearheading when Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860. 

Betsey Ross of Boston would sew this flag, a symbol of an established free nation.  To speak of, write of, such a thing prior to the Declaration of Independence, was treason.  My grandfather, Job Marion, represented St. John's Parish in the Continental Congress in Charleston in 1775, and his brother Francis would take his place in 1776.  I have no doubt, given what happened to the French Huguenots in France, at the hands of the Catholic Church in the Religious Wars and thereafter, that the Marions LOATHED tyranny.  The only reluctance, on behest of both brothers, was in how tired they were of war.  Each had fought in the French and Indian War, and their older brother Gabriel Marion III, a grandfather by this time, enlisted in the local militia in 1774.  Parson Weems, in his sweeping-romance-for-young-adults "biography" of Francis claims that none of the other Marion brothers were interested in fighting but were businessmen and farmers instead.  I believe that they defended their families and homesteads.  Their children witnessed the war "with their own eyes," including Job Marion's son Job de St. Julien Marion. 

Young Job was raised by his father and his uncle Francis because his mother died early, and by his teens he had a stepmother and two new children in the house.  Job Marion's father married a family friend, Elizabeth Gaillard, in middle age.  Charleston was seized by the British in 1780 when Job was my age.  His first cousin Gabriel Marion, son of one of his uncles, was captured and murdered in Georgetown by the Tories.  Remember that the Tories were colonists loyal to England. 

The murder of the above mentioned Gabriel Marion was an act of civil war.

The intial battles and skirmishes of the Revolutionary War were pitiful: the English slaughtered the Americans to the point where freedom was deemed "the lost cause."  And from these doubts arose our hero, an underdog, a fighter hardened and wizened by war.  The Sandwich arrived as quickly as he was needed, but no one could follow him or find him.  He was like a ghost, like a clever fox. 

I am beginning to read the accounts of this man, disseminating him from the school yard rhyme and the fabled sanguine warrior, making him more like the rest of us.  A Francis Marion could very well be among us: the gumption, wherewithal, and courage may very well beat within the heart of a man or woman today.  As Martha Washington said, "It is not the greater or lesser things which happen [to us], but our disposition toward them which matters most."  How will you pick your battles, how will you respond when your life and freedoms are threatened?  You could go along with it, obedient like a dog, or play dead.  Or you could act.  I do not encourage violence, but I do believe that it is a right of every American to defend themselves.

  Francis Marion was called to the meeting of the Continental Congress in 1776, and eventually promoted to the status of Captain and manner of the cannon at Fort Moultrie, the first time the British tried to sack Charleston in 1778.  He was already legend for his service in the French and Indian War, where he'd defeated the French and Cherokee in the Carolina and Georgia backwoods. 

Quiet farmer he was not.

The attack on Fort Moultrie by the British, Sullivan's Island

South Carolina's flag: crescent moon and the color blue symbolize liberty.  The Palmetto tree was used to make walls for Fort Moultrie, a lumber so spongy that a cannon ball cannot pierce it.

sandwich geneology

You know, geneology sites are like Wikipedia: the information is submitted by regular folks, and you can either take their word for fact or with a grain of salt.  The only truth on one's side when researching online are the sources, and I have finally found some books laying out the correct dates, etc.  This is needed to lay out the family line for me, to explain why even though General Francis Marion is my great uncle rather than my great grandfather, I still have revolutionary blood in me.  The answer lies in his closest brother, Job.

Gabriel Marion, Jr (1691-1747) married Esther Charlotte Cordes (1695-1757)

Gabriel Marion, III (1711-1777)

Esther Marion (1712-?)

Issac Marion (1715-1781)

Benjamin Marion (1718-1778)

Job Marion (1721-1778)

Francis Marion (1732-1795)

Job Marion served with brother Francis on the 2nd Provincial Congress, represented St. John's parish in 1775.  He also fought alongside his brother at Fort Moultrie and in small skirmishes,

until his death at 57 on June 8, 1778.

Job Marion (1721-1778) married Elizabeth de St. Julien (1725-1755) 

son Job de St. Julien Marion (1750-1799)

Job de St. Julien Marion (1750-1799) married Miss Verditty (?-?), second marriage

son Verditty Marion (1791-1861) born in Abbeville, SC

Verditty Marion (1791-1861) married Martha Herring (1804-?)

daughter Helen de St. Julien Marion (1825-?)

Helen was listed as UKNOWN DAUGHTER on roots.com, and stated she must've died in 1840.  The person who wrote that didn't know Helen because she was the only one who didn't move to Mississippi.  And she didn't die at 15, either, she had a family of her own.

Helen de St. Julien Marion (1825-?) married Robert Palmer.

They had five sons and one daughter, Sallie.  Their son Frank was killed in the Civil War.  Helen's father Derwitty's business took him to LaFayette County, Mississippi, where he passed in 1861. 

We have Sallie's (1844-1903) wedding band.  She was the link in the chain to a famous Revolutionary War hero, and now I know about the rest of the chain.  The holes have been filled in the story!  I'm collecting more stories on the family, to be included in my book.  Right now I need a break. 

ancestral home: Vitre en Bretagne, Languedoc, France

The cross of the French Huguenot Society of America is based upon the cross of Languedoc. The cross is a 4-petaled lily, for the Lily of France, which symbolizes loyalty. The petals form a Maltese cross. Each petal represents the Four Gospels, and they come to two points apiece: eight total for the 8 Beautitudes. Between each petal is a Fleur-de-Lis. The Fleur-de-Lis have 3 points, 12 total points on the cross are the 12 Apostles. Linked to the cross is a descending dove which is the Holy Spirit, the guide and counselor of the church. We use symbols today, but I can't think of anything so detailed, so layered that has been created in the modern world.

The shared ancestor of both my father and mother's families is Pierre de St. Julien de Malacare (1669-?), who was born in Vitre en Bretagne in the Languedoc. Vitre seems frozen in the middle ages, so beautiful. Why would anyone leave? I've just begun reading about the corruption of the Catholic Church, and the writings of the Protestant leader, a Frenchman named John Calvin. Doesn't look good. I would love to visit this place.