Robert Lamb

 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.

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.

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.