The data on this page has been gleaned from census records and marriage and death records
Corrections or additions welcome.

Researched by Myrtle Bridges March 30, 2011 

Generation No. 1

1.  MORGAN2 BROWN  (MORGAN1) was born 1759 in SC, and died March 23, 1840 in Nashville, Davidson County, TN.  He married 
(1) MISS JAMES Bet. 1780 - 1783 in SC.  She died Abt. 1783 in SC.  He married (2) ELIZABETH LITTLE January 22, 1784 in 
Long Bluff, South Carolina, daughter of WILLIAM LITTLE and CATHERINE STEWART.  She was born November 24, 1765 in SC, and 
died April 26, 1829 in TN.

Notes for MORGAN BROWN:
Fayetteville Observer, (Fayetteville, NC) Wednesday, April 15, 1840; Issue [1193]; col E.
Caregory: Death Notices

Died, on the 23 ultimo, (March 23, 1840) at his residence near Nashville, Tennessee, aged 83 years, Dr. Morgan Brown. The 
deceased was a native of Anson county, in the State of North Carolina, from which he removed in to the State of South Carolina, 
and resided near the Cheraws on Peedee river until he emigrated to this State, in the year 1795. Dr. Brown served his country 
in various capacities during the Revolutionary war; first as a volunteer under Colonel Thompson during which service he was at 
the defence of the city of Charleston from the attack made on that place by the British fleet under Sir Peter Parker; afterwards 
as lieutenant of infantry in the North, having been present at the battle of Brandywine, and some minor engagements between the 
American and British forces. At a later period of the war, he acted as Assistant Commissary to the Southern army under Baron 
De Kalb, Gates* and General Greene, and as superintendent of transports under the last named commander; and was engaged in the 
partisan warfare carried on in that section between the Whigs and Tories. After the war, he served several sessions in the 
Legislature of South Carolina. (This message was shared by the Nashville Banner in Tennessee to Fayetteville Observer in 
Fayetteville NC.)

Morgan Brown traveled to Maryland in 1773, on business. He boarded a ferry in Maryland, though sick, and got a taste of the 
coming American Revolution: "I crossed Chesapeake Bay at Annapolis, and having to pass a British Sloop of war, was hailed and 
a little detained by her, for although hostilities had not yet taken place, every appearance was threatening." Brown recalled, 
"But upon the ferryman assuring the captain he had none on board but a sick lad from Carolina, going to visit his friends, we 
were allowed to pass… It was truly a boisterous day, and the wind ahead, it took the whole of it to reach Kent Island. And with 
truth I can say it was the sickest day I ever experienced." 
(Richmond County Daily Journal  6 Feb 1994 / No Ordinary Lives - A History of Richmond County - 1750-1900 by John Hutchinson)

Morgan Brown 4th after the battle of Fort Moultrie ( built to protect the city of Charleston, SC) continued to serve on the side 
of the Americans until the end of the Revolutionary war. He was lieutenant in the Continental army & commissary with the rank of 
Captain in which capacities he was in action at the Battle of Brandywine and most of the important battle in the South. At such 
times as the regular army was disbanded in the Carolinas he served as a volunteer with Marion's mounted men. At the close of the 
War of Independence he married Miss James by whom he had one son, Morgan. His wife survived the birth of her son but a short time. 
About the time of this marriage he had studied medicine and was a practicing physician while he continued a citizen of South Carolina. 
He was a member of the two first legislatures of that State. After the death of his first wife he was married to Elizabeth Little and 
resided in Darlington District on the Pee Dee river. In the year 1794 he removed to the State of Tennessee then known as the Cumberland 
Territory. At that day the journey was so long and laborious that it was necessary to rest during the summer months; which he did at 
the place where the town of Knoxville now stands, but where was then only a fort and block house. He occupied while there the island 
in the Holston river opposite the town. And there is buried his son Morgan the only issue of his first marriage. The child, who was 
very promising in every respect, was also heir at large to a large fortune which passed to collateral relations of his mother's family 
on his decease. Morgan Brown the 4th reached Nashville, then known as the French Lick in the fall of 1794, but declining the great 
inducements held out to him to remain, he passed on after a delay of several weeks, to Montgomery County on the Cumberland where he 
settled and bought many large tracts of land. On one of these he laid off the Town of Palmyra. He (nothing further)

At an election of the Legislature, held on the 29th and 30th of November, 1784, William Dewitt was returned Senator, and Morgan Brown,
Elias Du Bose, Colonel Lemuel Benton, William Pegues, Thomas Powe, and Calvin Spencer, Representatives for St. David's Parish … The 
Session of 1785 was rendered memorable by the passage of the celebrated County Court Act. As the population of the country extended, 
the Circuit Court system, established in 1769, was found inadequate to the due and equal administration of justice. To remedy this evil, 
it was proposed to establish Courts of Inferior jurisdiction, after the model of the County Court system of Virginia and North Carolina. 
Mr. Justice Pendleton, one of the Associate Judges, and an active member of the House of Representatives (for these offices were not 
then incompatible) was the able advocate of this scheme. By his influence and strenuous exertions, it was adopted.

By this act, it was provided "that the District of Cheraws should be divided into three counties, that is to say,--one county lying 
and being on the south-east side of Pedee River, bounding on the said river on the one side, the district line of George-town on the 
other side, and on the other side, the North Carolina boundary, and shall be called and known by the name of Marlborough County, (SC); 
one other county, beginning at the mouth of Cedar Creek, on Pedee River, thence up to the head of the southernmost branch of the said 
creek, and thence by direct line to the fork of Lynche's Creek, being the upper county of the said northern division of the District, 
and shall be called by the name of Chersterfield ; one other county, beginning at the mouth of Cedar Creek, thence down Pedee to the 
District line, thence along said line to Lynche's Creek, thence up the same to the fork, being the lower county of the said division, 
and shall be called Darlington County." By the 11 sec. of the Act, the Justices of the said counties were empowered to build Court 
Houses, etc., to cause taxes to be laid for the erection of public buildings, and to select for the same the most convenient part of 
each county. The County Courts, thus established, were to be held once in every three months, by the justices of the peace of the 
several counties respectively; and their jurisdiction extended to the hearing and determination of all causes at common law, to any 
amount where the debt was liquidated by bond or not of hand, or where the damages in certain actions did not exceed fifty pounds, and 
in other personal actions where the damages did not exceed twenty pounds, or where the titles of land did not come in question. In the 
criminal cases their jurisdiction was extremely limited. The modes of proceeding were prescribed, the forms of process, and the manner 
of trial. The right of appeal to the superior, or circuit courts were provided.

On the 21st of March, the joint committee of the Senate and House, appointed for that purpose, reported a list of justices for the 
several counties. For Marlborough, Claudius Pegues, Sen., George Hicks, Morgan Brown, Thistram Thomas, Claudius Pegues, Jun., Moses 
Pearson and Thomas Evans. For Chesterfield County. Gregg's "History of the Old Cheraws So. Carolina Heritage Series No. 9", pgs 432, 433

The Convention met at Columbia, SC in May. The Constitution was adopted on the 3rd of June. It gave the Counties of Marlborough, 
Chesterfield, and Darlington two representatives each, and for the three, two senators. At the ensuing election, Morgan Brown and 
Robert Ellison were returned Senators … ( pg 451 Gregg's "History of the Old Cheraws South Carolina Heritage Series No. 9" )

In January 1791 the Legislature elected as County Court Judges for Marlborough, Morgan Brown, Tristram Thomas, and William Thomas. 
(pg 452 Old Cheraws)

On order of the Continental Congress, General Horatio Gates arrived in North Carolina in July 1780 to take charge of the Southern 
Campaign. He had been a nation hero since October 1777, when he defeated the Red Coat Army at Saratoga, NY. But as he marched southward 
Gen. Gates was gradually destroying his army's ability to fight. He drove his men ten to fifteen miles per day in sweltering mid-July 
heat, through areas of North Carolina barren of all but Tories. He reached the Pee Dee in early August, expecting to find rich stores 
grain. Instead he found the prior year's harvest exhausted. Gates soldiers dined on unripe corn and green peaches, the sum of which, 
not surprisingly, had rather disastrous gastronomic effects. Officers fared little better, eating soup of lean beef thickened with hair 
powder… Danger escalated quickly. Within hours, Tories-apparently already well-organized-threatened to overrun the Patriots' Mask's 
Ferry camp (Richmond County, NC). On August 18, two days after the battle of Camden -Colonel desperately wrote to General Harrington. 
"My orders from Colonel Harrison were to stay and command this pass, in order to enable the stragglers of our army to cross the river 
(Pee Dee). Considering the necessity of rallying our men, who generally seem to pass this way, and which would be rendered entirely 
ineffectual by giving up the ferry to the command of the disaffected people, you will render me all the assistance you can. 
(Gregg- History of the Old Cheraws)

Indeed a steady stream of defeated Patriot soldiers crossed the Pee Dee at Mask's Ferry. Many were too exhausted or injured to go 
further. Four ailing soldiers stayed at Morgan Brown's house, including one "shot through the hand and body. And another who was 
"shott in the arm."  Others stayed with Charles Robinson who complained that he had two children "at the point of death" because 
they "had taken the disease from the Virginia troops that was sick and was kept in the barn." Other retreating soldiers crossed 
at Hailey's Ferry, and some of the dead 
were, tradition says, buried in the Old Quaker Cemetery" on the hillside overlooking the ferry 
landing. (No Ordinary Lives - Hutchinson)

1806 March 8. South Carolina. Marlborough District. To the Honorable the Justices of the County Court of Richmond, Greetings: Know 
ye, that in pursuance of a Writ of Commission to us directed to take the Deposition of Duncan McColl, Jun. concerning what he knows 
in and about a certain piece of land lying in Richmond County on the waters of Little Mountain Creek for which there is now a 
controversy depending between Edwin Ingram as plaintiff and James Roper as defendant. We have this day caused to come before us 
the said Duncan McColl, Jun. who being duly sworn, was interrogated and answered as follows.
Question:  First by us. Are you interested in this suit?
Answer: No.
Question by Ingram: Was you in company with your father and Morgan Brown when Brown showed him the beginning corner tree of this 
above named tract of land which the said Brown sold to your father?
Answer: I was with my father when M. Brown shewed him the place where he the said Brown said the corner tree of said land had 
formerly stood.
Question by Ingram: What kind of tree was the said corner tree?
Answer:  I think he said it was a white or post oak and that Morgan Brown marked another small oak, near the place where he said 
the cormer corner tree stood.
Question:  On what part of the land was the place of the aforesaid tree?
Answer:  Near the said creek, in the bend of the same just below the mouth of a branch that makes into the said creek below the 
plantation where my father then lived.
Question:  Do you mean the land bought from Brown or from Hynes? 
Answer: The land bought from Brown.
Question: Did you not go on the line with Brown up the branch by a certain popular, then up some distance above the popular and 
then turn to Terrie's line? Answer:  Yes.
Question:  Did Mr. Brown ever shew you any other corner for a beginning of the said land as you ever knew or heard?
Answer:  I know of no other beginning corner for the aforesaid old tract.
Question By Roper: Was not this corner tree above mentioned one Morgan Brown's old survey of 600 acres?
Answer:  It appeared so when it was run out afterwards.
Question: Was it not a doubt with your father whether this was the right corner?
Answer: I don't know that it was. 
Sworn to before us this 8th day of March 1806 William Bristow and David Stewart. 
Richmond County, NC Civil Action Papers CR.082.325.6

1806 April 17th. State of South Carolina. Marlborough District. By virtue of a Commission to us directed by the Justices of the 
Inferior Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions of Richmond County to take the Deposition of Duncan McColl Sr. respecting a cause 
depending in said Court wherein Edwin Ingram is plaintiff and James Roper is defendant. We, David Stewart and John McKay, two 
of the Justices assigned to keep the peace in and for the District of Marlborough, caused to come before us Duncan McColl, Sr. 
who being duly sworn deposeth and sayeth that he purchased a tract of land from Absolom Hynes on the waters of Mountain Creek. 
That he the deponent got Benjamin Covington  to survey said land and that they began at a white oak sapling about a gunshot 
above a poplar tree near a branch and went down the branch until we went about fifty yards from the creek near the mouth of 
said branch. Said Edwin Ingram chopping the trees with us, but afterwards he threatened to take some of the land from me which 
caused me to send for Morgan Brown  to come and shew the corner of the above mentioned line. Said Brown came and went with the 
deponent and his son, Duncan, and came near the mouth of the branch above mentioned and stood and said that the corner was within ten 
steps of where he stood on a white oak saplin but said some person cut it down and was not to be seen and that he would swear to it.
Question: By Mr. Roper. Did Brown ever shew you that corner but once, that is where he said it ought to stand?  Answer: Not but one.
Question:  How long since you cleared what is called the upper field?
Answer:  About seventeen or eighteen years.
Question: Was not the corner that Brown shewed you near the mouth of the branch, where he said it was cut down, a corner of the land 
you bought of Absolom Hynes?
Answer:  Yes it was. And further the deponant sayeth not. Duncan McColl. Sworn to in presence of us David Stewart J.P. and John McKay J.P.    
Richmond County, NC Civil Action Papers CR.082.325.6
												
1806 May 20th. State of Tennessee. Montgomery County. Agreeable to a Commission to us directed from the Worshipful Court of Richmond 
County, North Carolina to take the Depositions of  Morgan Brown Sen'r. According to the directions of the same on the 20th day of 
May 1806 at the house of Morgan Brown, Jun. we proceed to take the Deposition of the said Morgan Brown, Sen'r: 
Question: Where does the beginning corner of a tract of land sold by you, lying in Richmond County on Little Mountain Creek to 
Duncan MacKall [McColl] stand?
Answer: The said corner stands at a small White Oak on the north side of the creek near the mouth of Cochram's Branch.
Question: Where does the upper corner of the six hundred acre tract stand which you surveyed for yourself on Little Mountain Creek 
adjoining Gold's land whereon said Ingram now lives?
Answer: The upper corner of said six hundred acre tract stands on or near Cochram's Branch on a large white oak on the upper side 
of said branch. [signed] Morgan Brown. Sworn to and subscribed this 20th day of May 1806 before us James Moore and  James Fentress	
Richmond County, NC Civil Action Papers CR.082.325.6

Research of Myrtle N. Bridges, Richmond County, NC
	
Child of MORGAN BROWN and MISS JAMES is:
	i.	MORGAN3 BROWN, b. Abt. 1783.

	
Child of MORGAN BROWN and ELIZABETH LITTLE is:
2.	ii.	MORGAN W.3 BROWN, b. January 01, 1800, TN; d. March 07, 1853, Nashville, Davidson County, TN.


Generation No. 2

2.  MORGAN W.3 BROWN (MORGAN2, MORGAN1) was born January 01, 1800 in TN, and died March 07, 1853 in Nashville, Davidson County, TN.  
He married ANN MARIA CHILDRESS November 07, 1826 in Davidson County, TN.  She was born 1810.

Notes for MORGAN W. BROWN:
Morgan W. Brown married Nov 7, 1826 Ann Maria Childress in Davidson, Tennessee.

He owned 11 slaves in the year 1840. (Census)

The Weekly Herald, (New York, NY) Saturday, March 12, 1853; Issue 11; col F. Obituary of Morgan W. Brown, District Judge of the 
United States fro the District of Tennessee, died at Nashville on the 7th instant, aged 53 years. Judge Brown was born on the first 
day of the present century. He was on the bench as District Judge about twenty years, and was the second District Judge in Tennessee, 
having succeeded the Hon. John McNairy, who was appointed by General Washington in 1796. He was the great grandson, on the mother's 
side, of that Stuart who fled from Scotland after the battle of Culloden in 1745, and who settled in South Carolina. Doctor Morgan Brown, 
father of the deceased, was a Revolutionary soldier, and fought in almost every bloody field in his native State, (South Carolina), from 
Eutaw to King's Mountain (in North Carolina)

Vermont Patriot & State Gazette, (Montpelier, VT) Thurs., Apr. 14, 1853; Issue 17/381; col E. Death of a Distinguished Judge-Morgan W. Brown, 
District Judge of the United States for the District of Tennessee, died at Nashville on the 7th instant. Judge Brown was born on the first 
day of this century. He was on the bench as District Judge in Tennessee, having succeeded the Hon. John McNairy, who was appointed by 
Gen. Washington in 1796. Judge Brown was a man of high literary attainments as a general scholar; he possessed great independence of 
character as a man of thought, and in the social relations of life and in his family was a most kind, urbane, and considerate gentleman. 
He was the great grandson, on the mother's side, of that Stuart who fled from Scotland after the battle of Culloden, in 1745, and who 
settled in South Carolina. 

The above may refer to Bonnie Prince Charles Edward Stuart who was a grandson of King James VII who was driven out of Britain in 1688 
because of his support of the Catholic faith. Prince Charlie, claimant to the British throne led the Scottish Highland army in the 
Forty-five Rebellion. Myrtle Bridges)

	
Children of MORGAN BROWN and ANN CHILDRESS are:
3.	i.	WILLIAM L.4 BROWN, b. 1830, Nashville, Davidson County, TN.
	ii.	JANE BROWN, b. 1832.
4.	iii.	DICEY BROWN, b. 1835.
	iv.	JOHN L. BROWN, b. 1839. (John Louis Brown great-grandfather of Lionel Richie) 


Generation No. 3

3.  WILLIAM L.4 BROWN (MORGAN W.3, MORGAN2, MORGAN1) was born 1830 in Nashville, Davidson County, TN.  He married MARY R..  She was 
born 1836.
	
Children of WILLIAM BROWN and MARY R. are:
	i.	MORGAN W.5 BROWN, b. 1854.
	ii.	ELIZABETH L. BROWN, b. 1856.
	iii.	JAMES W. BROWN, b. 1862.
	iv.	WILLIAM MC. BROWN, b. 1864.


4.  DICEY4 BROWN (MORGAN W.3, MORGAN2, MORGAN1) was born 1835.  She married COOK.  

Notes for DICEY BROWN:
Mulatto
	
Children of DICEY BROWN and COOK are:
	i.	EFFIE5 COOK, b. 1856, Davidson County, TN.
	ii.	LUCY COOK, b. 1859, Davidson County, TN.
	iii. ROBERT COOK, b. Abt. 1865, Davidson County, TN.
	iv.	JOHN COOK, b. Abt. 1869, Davidson County, TN.

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