He had several grants for land in Va. prior to coming to N. C. One of these 400a in Lower Norfolk Co, on East side of North River, Sept 30, 1670, by Sir William Berkeley, for trans\u2019 fourteen persons, and another grant by same authority, on same date, 700a on East side of North River, \u201cwhich falleth in to Corotock\u201d adj Thomas Tullies land, in what is now Currituck Co N. C. Prior to this date he had taken up land in Perq Co, and was already settled in what is called to this day, \u201cDurants Neck.\u201d This deed, or grant from the Indian Chief Kilcocanen, King of Yeopim, for all the land between the River Perquimans, & Roanoke Sound, March 1, 1661, where he had seated a Plan\u2019 before Aug 4, 1661. In the second conveyance of the Indian King he spelled his name Cuscutenew, but they are supposed to be one & the same person, and it was the usual procedure at that time, to spell a name just as it sounded to the copiest. This deed is found in Deed book A, No 374, and has as Test\u2019 Thomas Weymouth, & Caleb Calleway. Thomas Weymouth was a great navigator, and adventurer, sailing with Capt Pring, and he was among those who started out in 1603, in search of the ill fated colony on Roanoke Island.<\/span><\/p>\n How he came to be in Albemarle at this time is not explained. Caleb Calleway was of course already settled in the Province. This deed of the Indian King to sd Durant, is the oldest recorded document in North Carolina. If there were older records they were all destroyed in the uprising of 1677\/79. Fifty-five years elapsed between the making of the deed by King Cuscutenew, and its recording on the books in the Reg Office, which was done by John Stepney \u201cReg of all writings for Perq Precinct\u201d Oct 24, 1716 George Durants Plan\u2019 was known by the name of \u201cWicocombe\u201d and was situated between \u201ctwo Rivers, Perquimans, & Kototine\u201d (Little River). According to the record George Durant seems to have been a fair minded man, and quite honest in his dealings with both the Indian Chief, and George Catchminy, who set up a counter claim for said land, claiming a prior right, by a grt from Sir William Berkeley, therefore Mr. Durant, \u201cwho had cleared a small Peice of Ground,\u201d at once \u201cdesisted\u201d on hearing the contention of sd Catchmaid, who on Mar 13, 1662 made a bona fide deed to sd Durant for the disputed land. Later the Lords Pro\u2019 made a secure deed to Mr. Durant for this land, Dec 26, 1673. No man with the exception of Timothy Clare, is more often, or more honorably mentioned in Perq. He stand out, virile, hardy, opinionated, with a following of all faiths, and from the records died much respected in the community. Some have classed him as a Quaker, but the records do not verify that fact. He was certainly married by an Episcopal Minister (Rev David Lindsey) and his children all but one (Deborah) m into Episcopal families. Not once is his name mentioned in the Quaker records, nor are the ages of any of his children recorded there. It is the opinion of many that he was a Scotchman, and therefore of Presbyterian faith, but his Church affiliations in Perq are uncertain. From the records he appears to have come from London to America. Exactly where this renowned man lies buried is shrouded in mystery. It is said his grave was once to be seen on the bank of a large drain, in Durants Neck, and that in cutting out the ditch, mud from the bottom was thrown out over it, until it disappeared. In the will of William Sherrell, Perq Co, George Durant\u2019s place of residence is named as \u201cBerty Point,\u201d and the deeds in Perq speak of his \u201cseating\u201d being on a \u201cPoint which divides sd land from a Neck called Langleys.\u201d His house has long ago disappeared, and even the location is now in doubt. There can be small doubt, however, about its being in the lower part of Durants Neck somewhere near the village of Little River. (See N. C. Hist & Gen Reg, for this family.)<\/span><\/p>\n Source:\u00a0History of Perquimans County\u00a0by Ellen Goode Rawlings Winslow, (1931).<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Of George Durant very little is known before his arrival in Perq Co, but it is an undisputed fact that he landed in Va before 1658. He made deposition in Northumberland Co Va, July 1658, that he \u201ccame to Virginia in the ship Potomack, age 25 years.\u201d As this book is very much faded with … Continue reading “DURANT”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5108],"tags":[33001,35606,33026,35601,35604,30340,35603,30384,33011,35607,35608,32125,35602,31343],"class_list":["post-435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-early-families-of-perquimans-county","tag-berkeley","tag-calleway","tag-clare","tag-cowbough","tag-cuscutenew","tag-durant","tag-kilcocanen","tag-lindsey","tag-marwood","tag-pring","tag-sherrell","tag-stepney","tag-tullie","tag-weymouth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncgenweb.us\/perquimans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncgenweb.us\/perquimans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncgenweb.us\/perquimans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncgenweb.us\/perquimans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncgenweb.us\/perquimans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ncgenweb.us\/perquimans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8778,"href":"https:\/\/ncgenweb.us\/perquimans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435\/revisions\/8778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncgenweb.us\/perquimans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncgenweb.us\/perquimans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncgenweb.us\/perquimans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"DURANT](\"http:\/\/ncgenweb.us\/perquimans\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/DURANT-History-of-Perquimans-County-by-Ellen-Goode-Rawlings-Winslow-1931.1.jpg\")
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