Whitmell Family

The Farmer and Mechanic (Raleigh, North Carolina) Wed, Jun 11, 1884
The Whitmell Family and its Derivatives.

Among our Revolutionary sires, the men of ’76, no one in historic old county of Bertie (or Bartie as it was often spelt, and as it now should be pronounced) shed more lustre upon the common cause than Col. Thomas Whitmell. Though advanced in years and infirm, being nearly three score and ten, he was among the first, to lend the weight of his name, and "blameless life" to the cause of the Colonies, and we find him elected by the Assembly of Patriots, that met in Hillsborough in ’75, as Colonel, for Bertie county, with Thos. Pugh, a connection of his family, as Lieutenant Colonel.

As yet, we have been unable to trace the origin of this distinguished individual. On the first book "A" of the records of Bertie county, which date back to 1722, we find, among the first conveyances of real estate, several deeds from Thomas Whitmell and Elizabeth Blount Whitmell, his wife, showing that he was a large landed proprietor at early period of the Colony. Farther back than this we cannot trace him, unless the books in the court House at Edenton, where the early records of Albemarle county are kept, or the papers in the Secretary of State’s office at Raleigh, will reveal the secret.

We know this, however, that he was a gentleman of wealth and culture, judging from traditionary lore and specimens of his handwriting and composition which have come down to us; lived near what is now Windsor, the county seat of Bertie, and that he was the Senior Warden of the old Glebe Church, hard by his home, where his ashes now mingle with the dust. Of this old Church not a vestige is now left, to tell the passer by, that he stands on sacred grounds, save a few old mossy bricks and heaps of rubbish, so completely has the rude and iconoclastic hand of time swept away the sacred fane. This old church, like most Colonial Churches, was built of English brick, at least, we were so informed by an old gentleman. Mr. Jonathan S. Tayloe, who for years was a living link between the past and present, recently dying at the advanced age of 87, and who lived for nearly a century, near the site of the old church.

Elizabeth Blount, wife of Col. Whitmell, was descended from an ancient family, and like Tennyson’s Lady Clara Vere de Vere, surely deserved the name of ‘the daughter of an hundred Earls’ of any one ever did, as the Blount family traced their lineage back through more than 700 years of titled and distinguished ancestry, the first of the name, James Blount who emigrated to Virginia about 1665, being a lineal descendant of both Sire William, and Sire Robert "Le Blond" or "Le Blount" both of who, were distinguished followers of William, the Norman, at Hastings. The family have documentary evidence to establish the fact of their descent through the Barns of Ixworth and other noble houses of England, from these two brothers, the heir and heiress of both branches having inter married, and the writer of this, has a pedigree of the family in his possession tracing back to the brothers who fought at Hastings.

Col. Thomas Whitmell had a large family, one son, Thomas Blount Whitmell and five or six daughters. Thomas Blount Whitmell married Miss West, (a daughter of an ancient family of the county and had one son Thomas West Whitmell, whom tradition says was killed at the battle of Germantown, Pa., when but a youth. Hence the name as a surname became extinct, though it has been handed down as a double or middle name and worn by numbers of descendants, even to the present time.

Of these daughters one was married to a Whitaker and had a daughter Elizabeth, of who nothing more is known.
Another, daughter was married to an Alston and left distinguished representatives, the Alstons, Kearneys and other prominent families of Warren and Halifax counties descending from this branch.
A third daughter married Henry Hunter, Esq., and left a large number of descendants among who are the families of the Col. Jesse Averitt of Florida, formerly of Bertie County, N. C. General Joseph H. Bryan, Mrs. Mary Bryan Hill, who was the mother of the Honorable William Whitmell Pugh, who was at one time speaker of the House of Representatives of Louisiana, the family of Dr. Jos. Bryan Outlaw, who married Hannah Turner Stone, the daughter of Hon. Davie Stone, Gov. and United States Senator of N. C., the descendants of John Drew, Esq, brother of William Drew, Esq., once Attorney General of N. C., the descendants of Col. David Outlaw, M. C., the Suttons of Bertie and the Plummers of Warren and Franklin and many other families long known in Carolina and other States as "the best people."
Martha, another daughter of Col. Whitmell was married first a Bate, a Collateral ancestor of the present distinguished Governor of our sister, or daughter State of Tennessee. She had no issue by him and after his death married a second time, Colonel John Hill, who at one time was Sheriff of Bertie county, and a distinguished citizen. By Hill, she had Henry Hill, who married Martha Williams of Halifax county, N. C., the daughter of Col. Joseph John Williams, the distinguished patriot, and Elizabeth Alston, his wife. This Joseph John Williams was a member of the Committee of Safety for Halifax county in 1774. He was also a delegate to the Assembly at Halifax in 1776, with Hon. Willis Alston, M. C., Gen. Willis Jones and other distinguished patriots. He was also the member from Halifax county to the House of Commons in 1774, and a brother of Col. Wm. Williams whose name will be mentioned later on. Henry Hill, (above mentioned) had one son, John Hill, who was killed in childhood by a fall from a horse, and dying young, his widow was married to Dr. Samuel Thorne of New York, from whom the noted family of that name descend, Col. Walter Clark of Raleigh, N.C., being a descendant, through his mother, Ann Thorne. Another son of John Hill, was the celebrated Col. Whitmell Hill of Halifax and Martin who was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, who was a member of the Continental Congress and of whom Wheeler says: "He early entered with great earnestness into the dubious and dangerous conflict between England and America and threw into the scale of liberty, his life, his fortune and his sacred honor." The Farmer and Mechanic (Raleigh, North Carolina) Wed, Jun 18, 1884

Continued from last week.
In 1775 he represented Martin County in the Assembly at Hillsborough, in 1777 a member of the State Legislature, and in 1778, was a delegate to the Continental Congress of Philadelphia and served until 1781. He married Winnifred Blount, his first cousin, the daughter of Thomas Blount and Elizabeth Whitmell, and left a large family. Among his children were Thomas Blount Hill and Elizabeth, who was married to John Anthony, of Philadelphia. Thomas Blount married Rebecca Norfleet, and among their issue, were Whitmell J. Hill, Esq., of Halifax, Thos. B. Hill, of Hillsborough, Mrs. George E. Spruill, Mrs. Charles Urquhart and Mrs. James B. Urquhart, of Virginia, all of whom have left prominent representatives, who are among the best people of Carolina and Virginia. Also among the descendants of Hon. Whitmell Hill, is Thos. N. Hill, Esq., the distinguished *urist of Halifax county, N. C. John and Elizabeth Anthony also left a large number of descendants to perpetuate an honored name. Another daughter of John Hill and Martha Whitmell was Elizabeth, who was married to Hon. Jonathan Jacocks, of Bertie county, N. C., also a distinguished patriot of the Revolution, and who has left a large number of descendants, one of them Wm. Henry Rhodes, the distinguished poet of San Francisco, California, the son of Col. Elisha A. Rhodes, (who was United States Consul to Galveston, when Texas was a Republic) and Maria Jacocks, both of Bertie county, N. C. Of Rhodes, it was said by one fully able to judge that "as a poet he was equal of Whittier and the superior of Sims, and as a writer of purely imaginative fiction, and of fiction with a mixture of science, he was only equaled by Jules Verne."
Another daughter of John Hill and Martha Whitmell, was Mary, who was married to Thomas Bollard, another Revolutionary patriot, and whose descendants we have yet been unable to trace. Another daughter of John Hill and Martha was married to Wm. Scott Pugh, great-grandfather of the writer, who was the son of Col. Thos. Pugh, referred to above. These left a large number of children whose descendants now people almost every Southern State. We will here mention that the only daughter of Wm. Scott Pugh and Winifred Hill was married to Col. William Tunstall of Pittsylvania county, Va., where they left a large family, that distinguished gentleman, Whitmell Pugh Tunstall, being their youngest son. This last left a large family, among whom is Miss Nannie Whitmell Tunstall, who is well known to readers of fiction as the author of several novels of American society.

Lastly, among the daughters of Col. Thomas Whitmell and Elizabeth Blount, were Mary and Elizabeth. The former was married first to Major Theophilus Pugh, and after his death to Mr. Thompson. By Pugh, she had, Col. Thomas Whitmell Pugh (whose name is mentioned in Wheeler as Ensign) Major Francis Pugh and John Pugh. By Thompson, she had Thomas, Hezekiah and Lewis. Thomas Thompson, married Mary Bond, and had several children, among whom was Hon. Lewis Thompson of Bertie, who could have occupied the Governor’s chair, had he chosen to accept it. This last, was a gentleman of great wealth and high social position, as we have been informed by an ex-officer of the late bank of this town, that it was the custom of Mr. Thompson to invest yearly $75,000 or $80,000 income from his large landed estates. Mary Whitmell has a large number of descendants of both names scattered over the South, among whom was the wife of Hon. John Branch, Governor of North Carolina. We allude to the last wife of this distinguished gentleman. Her maiden-name was Jordan, a grand-daughter of Thos. Whitmell Pugh. The only issue of Col. Whitmell, not noticed in this sketch, as Elizabeth, who was married first to Thos. Blount, and left a daughter, Winifred, who was married to Hon. Whitmell Hill, above mentioned. A second marriage with Major George Pollock, was productive of no issue. By a third marriage with Col. William Williams, aforementioned, she had three children. First, Samuel who married Charity Dawson (daughter of the distinguished John Dawson of Williamsburg, Virginia, a descendant of William Randolph, the founder of the family of Turkey Island, Virginia, and of Col. John Slith, all of which will be found in Meade’s "Old Families of Virginia.") Second William Williams who married his first Cousin Elizabeth Williams, and third, Elizabeth Whitwell Williams (who was married to John Johnston, brother of Gov. Samuel Johnston, Royal Governor of N. C.) and who left a large number of descendants.
In writing of the descendants of Sarah Whitmell and Henry Hunter, we should have mentioned the late Dr. David E Tayloe, of Washington, N. C., and his no less lamented sister, the wife of Dr. John Kirkland Ruffin, of Wilson, the last being a son of the late Hon. Thomas Ruffin, who though dead yet speaketh in Carolina Jurisprudence, and whose memory and actions will ever blossom in the dust. Also, and important thing to notice, and which is very flattering to the pride of the Whitmell connection, is that so many of the family were distinguished in the Revolutionary times.

In the Assembly at Hillsboro’ in 1775, Bertie sent Jonathan Jacocks, Thomas Ballard, and John Johnston, all of whom married granddaughters of Col. Whitmell, while Col. Whitmell himself and his relative, Thomas Pugh were elected officers for the county. She also sent to State Congress, at Halifax, which formed our Constitution, Johnston and Thom Pugh. Martin county to Hillsboro’ sent Col. Whitmell’s grandson, Whitmell Hill and his son-in-law William Williams. To Halifax in April 1776, she sent them again.

To Halifax again in 1776, sent Whitmell Hill, Wm. Williams and Thomas Hunter, this last being a’so a grandson of Col. Whitmell and her officers for the county were William Williams, Colonel, and Whitmell Hill, Lieut-Colonel. What family can point to a prouder Revolutionary history?

We will conclude these rambling remarks, by asking all members of the great connection to point out any errors they may discover in this. The writer is a descendant of both Martha and Elizabeth Whitmell, two of the daughters of the old Colonel (as he was called) and hence feels a great interest in all that pertains to the descendants of the family. Hoping that some one of that numerous band, who is more able to write upon the subject will take it up, he has the honor of subscribing himself.

Theirs truly,
EDWARD WILLIAMS PUGH, M.D. "Glendower Hall, " Windsor, N. C.

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