I propose that the common ancestor of all American Blackard descendents today
was immigrant John Blackard who arrived in Merchants
Hope south of the James River on Powells's
Creek in Charles City County, Virginia in
1649. It is important for this narrative to note that Merchant's Hope was the
center of Bacon's Rebellion later in 1676.
It is my belief that he was an ex-soldier in the English Civil War against
Cromwell and for the royalists supporting King Charles. A neighbor, David Peebles,
was known to have been a royalist soldier and arrived in the same year, 1649,
and even owned property adj the men who transported John Blackard.
Francis Willoughby was a military commander in the area where the Blackards
lived in Lincolnshire, England and was exiled the same time the Blackards disappear
from Lincolnshire and appear in the Americas. [The
Blackard Family in Lincolnshire, England]
It is said by Peebles family researchers that 300 royalist soldiers fled, or
were deported to the Prince George County area on the James River in Virginia
in 1649.
Later Merchant's Hope church was at the center of Bacons Rebellion in 1676.
Charles Blanchville [sic?] of Charles City
was tried for his role in Bacons Rebellion. Perhaps he obscured the family name
on purpose to protect his children. His widow remarried under the name Blancharedt,
making there some question about the true name since the spelling of the widows
name is far closer to Blackard than to Blanchville.
The 17th March 1676-7. ... ... ... Charles Blanckevile ... upon his knees,
with a rope about his neck, ask pardon ...
Charles Blanchwill was a witness on a Henrico VA court inquiry into the death of John Clyborn.
Later (1714&1721) Charles Blancherd of Prince George appears in the same general area and associated with some of the same people.
Much later Charles
Blackard I appears on Fishing
Creek on the Granville(later Bute)/Edgecombe line
in 1755 and his oldest known son was born earlier in Virginia.
Furthermore, I have found that many of the families around Charles Blackard
I came from old Charles City County Virginia (later Prince George County) at
nearly the same time and 3 others from the immediate Merchant's Hope neighborhood
of immigrant John Blackard, including Peebles.
Willoughby
Blackard from Granville/Bute served avidly in the war of revolution. His
brother Charles
II must have supplied the army with corn or grain as indicated by a substantial
NC army payroll voucher.
Two great grandchildren of Merchant's Hope men from 1650 were born in Granville/Bute
NC near the time Willoughby Blackard was born in 1758. [Peebles]
[Chappell] There is also record of many other
Charles City/Prince George, Virgnia families that relocated to Granville/Bute
NC. Link1 Link2
|
"It is interesting to note that many of the grandchildren and great grandchildren of Nathaniel Bacon's followers settled around the Fishing Creek region and regions to the west. Governor Tryon of North Carolina found this group to be of a rebellious nature in the 1770s as well. This might explain why there were "no Tories [supporters of the king] in Bute County," as one author put it." Ref |
Furthermore, several of these CC/PG people lived quite near Charles
Blackard I in Bute in a community around a baptist meeting house near Fishing
Creek on the Bute side. Later on many of the Blackards and some allied families
appear to be associated with the Primitive Baptist Church.
|
Israel Roberson was born in Prince George Co., Va., about 1698-1700,
as his oldest son, Matthew, was born in 1720, and Israel servee as an
Ensign in the Granville Co., N.C. militia in the General Muster Oct. 8,
1754 (N.C. Colonial and State Records, Vol. Israel Roberson and his brothers, John and Edward Roberson, were sons of Nicholas Roberson, of Bristol Parish, Prince George Co., thus connecting them with two of the founders of the first Baptist Church established in Virginia (cy. Ryland, "The Baptists of Virginia", pp. 2-5)." Ref |
