Verne Crabtree Summers’s grandmother Mary Ann Lamb was a
descendant of Quakers, a blessing for family historians. The Society of Friends
were notoriously diligent record keepers. And for that reason I find
researching the Lambs, fascinating. The Summers family is the subject of this blog and the book I am
attempting to finish. Nevertheless, I plan to use
the next few blogs to review Mary Ann Lamb’s line. Be prepared.
Members of a movement begun in England by George
Fox in the mid-1600s, Quakers were persecuted there because of their “radicalism”—equality
of sexes, pacifism, refusal to pay tithes, opposition to the state church,
among other things. Thus, when Pennsylvania was founded in 1681 by William Penn,
a wealthy Quaker, thousands of Friends left England heading to the new colony. But
as Pennsylvania grew, it became more difficult to acquire land. Many Quakers left
the colony and moved southward to North Carolina, where land was still
available for purchase or settlement. And soon North Carolina became a Quaker
stronghold
Probably sometime around 1740, Robert Lamb, Mary Anne’s great
grandfather, traveled from England to North Carolina. Many people have reported
Robert as being born in North Carolina to a Henry and Elizabeth Lamb, but
investigation has shown otherwise. Quoting from a book by Martin Styles on
Henry and Elizabeth’s descendants:
Robert Lamb was not a son of Henry and
Elizabeth. He was an emigrant from England. Haverford College has the journal
and some letters of William Hunt (ca. 1733 – 1772), a minister from New Garden
MM, NC. In 1772 he was traveling in the north of England, and in one of his
letters home to his wife mentioned that he had seen Robert Lamb’s mother, and
to tell Robert that she was well. Unfortunately, he’s not clear what her name
was or even just where she lived.
A descendant
claims that Robert was actually a Scot and arrived in America as a stowaway, and
that is certainly possible. Quakerism began in Scotland with the Cromwellian occupation
in the 1650s, though, owing to even greater persecution, it was more limited there
than in England. William Hunt is known to have visited Scotland during his trip and could have met Robert’s mother in that country.
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Robert Lamb lived near the present town of Randleman, about 10 miles south of New Garden Meeting House and Greensboro. |
On 13 Nov 1756, Robert received a
land grant of 429 acres in Rowan Co, North Carolina, on the “N fork of Deep
River.” Now that seems strange. Deep River is nowhere near Rowan Co., today.
But in 1753, Rowan Co was huge, and was later divided, several times. In 1770,
eastern Rowan was combined with western Orange County to form Guilford County, where Robert Lamb ended up as did part of Deep
River and Robert's land. And in 1787 he obtained an additional 150 acres on Polecat Creek, a
Deep River tributary According to Guilford Co Genealogical Society maps, Robert lived a little north of the Deep River/Polecat fork, and that certainly agrees with his land acquisitions.
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The third New Garden Meeting House, Guilford Co, North Carolina (John Collins, 1869). |
North of Robert’s property and a
little west of Greensboro, the Society of Friends, in the early 1750s, established the New Garden Meetings, and a meeting house was constructed around
1757. It was at this new meeting house (which later burned, in 1784, and was
replaced) that, on 2 Aug 1757, “Robert Lamb & Rachel Tayler apeared . .
. & Declared thire intention of marrig with Each other.” And on 29 Sep
1757, at New Garden, Rachel Taylor and Robert Lamb did just that. Rachel, daughter of Simeon Taylor, was from Opekan, Virginia. “Opekan” was the name originally given to what
became known as the Hopewell Friends Meeting House, in Frederick Co, Virginia.
What Rachel was doing in North Carolina is uncertain, for her parents did not
move from Hopewell to New Garden until 1784.
Robert and Rachel lived out their lives in what became Guilford
County. They were there on 15 Mar 1781, during the Revolutionary War’s Battle
of Guilford Courthouse. Part of the action occurred at New Garden Meeting
House, when British forces heading north from Deep River Meeting House
encountered an American unit at New Garden. New Garden Quakers helped care for
the wounded from that battle. Robert and Rachel were there
when British America became The United States of America. And they were there
when several of their descendants left North Carolina, seeking “free” states,
but that is an upcoming story.
It is interesting that also in Guilford Co at the time were Joseph and Mary (Jackson) Summers Summers, whose great great grandson John William Summers Sr. would one day marry Robert and Rachel’s great great great granddaughter Verne Cumi Crabtree. (Do you suppose the Summers and Lambs met?)
On 4 Feb 1814 Robert signed with a mark his Guilford Co will,
which acknowledged his wife, and named three sons—Samuel,
Simeon, and John–and four daughters—Elizabeth, Ester (“Esther” in other
documents), Deborah, and Ann. But, we know of two more daughters, Margaret and
Rachel. Rachel, who died 26 Dec 1809, was not living when her father made his
will. And it is likely that neither was Margaret,
especially since Robert’s will names a single grandchild, possibly, “Margate
Balden,” though the handwriting is difficult to read. “Margate” is likely “Margaret,”
the daughter of a deceased Margaret Lamb, and “Balden” could be “Baldwin.” It is
claimed by many that a Larkin Baldwin married Margaret the daughter of Robert and
Rachel, but Larkin’s marriage was to a “Hetty” Lamb and occurred on 27 Nov 1815, almost two years after Robert had written his will.
A handwritten note with Robert's 1814 will states “Last Will
& Testament of Robert Lamb Decd Feby Two 1815.” Robert had apparently died by that
date. We don’t know when his wife, Rachel, passed, but Robert probably went first since a still-living Rachel is mentioned in Robert’s will.
And this brings us to Robert and Rachel’s son Simeon. Mary Anne
Lamb’s grandfather and the subject of a future blog. But first we need to look at the Quaker migration from North Carolina, for Simeon and some of his siblings were among the emigres. Lambs on the lam is the subject of our next blog.