Boring into History, Part II

To be young was very heaven!
      One of the heirs to Joseph Boring’s liberty-loving patrimony was his son Isaac. Born on March 8, 1762, in Orange County, he was an adolescent when his father died and willed to him the family’s grist mill. On March 7, 1780, Isaac married his step-sister Phebe Browning, daughter of his mother’s second husband John and his first wife Elizabeth Demarest. Phebe was born on September 19, 1762, in Essex County on Virginia’s Middle Peninsula. As their marriage in the springtime bloomed the American cause in South Carolina was grievously endangered when Charleston fell to General Henry Clinton and 5,000 Patriots were taken prisoner. The remnants of the army scattered towards North Carolina and were pursued by Charles Cornwallis, now leading the British campaign in the South. At this parlous hour the Continental Congress dispatched General Horatio Gates to the South to conduct a counterattack.

 The Battle of Camden

      The two armies met at the Battle of Camden on August 16, 1780. Isaac fought in this crucial engagement and the preceding skirmish at Little Lynches Creek, having been drafted in early May in Hillsborough. He served as a private in Captain George Oldham’s company of Colonel John Collier’s North Carolina state militia regiment. The force of which he was part formed the center of General Gates’ line, and when the British soldiers attacked with bayonets the militiamen, poorly trained and without bayonets of their own, broke ranks and fled. This implosion allowed Lord Cornwallis to outflank the Patriot forces and inflict one of the worst defeats in the annals of American warfare. In a report about the incident written by Lieutenant Colonel H. L. Landers of the Army War College and printed by the government in 1929, the author concluded:

The mention of it calls to mind the havoc wrought by untrained troops fleeing from a battle field, pursued by the phantoms of terror; troops that were fully expected by their leaders to fight, constituting two-thirds of the Army, terrifiedly rushing from the battle field without firing a shot, before scarcely any of their number were wounded; deserting the regular forces whom they might have protected and from whom protection would have been received. The cowardice of the militia, induced as it was by mob fear, was followed by no miraculous intervention whereby those who held their ground and bravely fought might be saved. The latter, in turn, were also overcome by the enemy. Their gallantry alone could not win victory from a more numerous foe of equal military merit.

Isaac was discharged from his six-month service in South Carolina in November, purportedly due to injury. He made his way back home, to a section subdivided from Orange in 1777 called Caswell County. Lord Cornwallis and the British army ranged through the area in 1781, winning Pyrrhic victories against the Patriot guerillas yet ultimately playing into the hands of General Gates’ replacement, General Nathaniel Greene, and his war of attrition.

When this tired journalist chanced to stop for the night on his return from Hillsborough, he heard from the residents in the area of North Hyco Creek that their sympathies are neither for nor against the new county, as the journey to Hillsborough is not as difficult for them as for some in northwestern Orange (soon to be Caswell). … Yours truly may, in fact have to discontinue his journalistic wanderings in this area, as he feels strongly called to take up arms to assist the Revolutionary Forces in the colonies which are gathering to help defend our infant nation whose independence from the Mother Country was officially declared less than one year ago.

—Joshua Lea, May 1777

      Isaac was probably a yeoman farmer after the war. Phebe had nine children between 1781 and 1801. On March 9, 1783, John Browning, Isaac’s father-in-law and step-father, sold him 400 acres on Storm Creek for £10. On October 10, 1786, Isaac and Phebe sold 100 acres to Nicholas Browning, a relative, for £50. In 1787 Isaac worked on a road crew and also attested to Nicholas’s will when he died. As a Revolutionary War veteran Isaac was granted land in Wilkes County, Georgia, a sprawling precinct stretching west of the Savannah River, and with a cavalcade of extended family relocated there around 1790. As Wilkes was subdivided into smaller counties the Borings found themselves in Greene, where on January 14, 1797, Isaac purchased 136 acres. Then on February 22, 1800, Isaac bought 287 ½ acres in Jackson County, where he would reside for the remainder of his days.
      Among the party who moved from North Carolina to Georgia were Isaac’s mother Susannah and her second husband John Browning, yet they stayed in Greene County when Isaac moved on. John died there on November 18, 1803, and left to his wife the 187 ½-acre plantation, furniture including a feather bed, a slave named Jack, and a bay mare named Bonny. Susannah died in 1812, having over her 82 years come from the coastline of colonial Virginia to the frontier of an independent nation. She left behind the following instructions:

It being appointed that all the human family shall die and being far advanced in years and considerably affected in body, though sound of mind and memory; and being possessed of small property, do make this my last will and testament, viz:

1st My will that my faithful and trusty servant Jack shall have freedom at my death.

2nd My three horses beasts, to-wit, Polly, Bonny, and Snip, three head cattle, that is one, cow and one three year old steer and young heifer, feather beds, bedsteads, sheets, counterpanes, blankets, bed quilts, pillows, coulster, one woman’s saddle, bridle, large jugs, plates, cups, saucers, pitchers, copper coffee pot, skillets, pots, knives and forks, etc. with all the rest of my property shall be divided between my children, Susanna Hart, Isaac Boring, and David Boring. I also constitute my sons Isaac and David Boring my executors. In testimony whereof I set my hand and affix my seal the 18th day of February 1812.

Settling Down at Last

      Isaac Boring brought his family to Jackson County around the same time as arrived a related branch, the Lyles, and the two families settled along the Mulberry River. In 1801 Isaac served as a justice of the peace and owned one slave according to a tax list. On December 12, 1802, he bought 135 acres from George West. According to an 1809 tax list he owned 287 ½ acres. The 1810 census for Georgia is not extant, but the 1820 record shows Isaac’s household comprising just three people and no slaves. In the intervening decade Isaac had sold 50 acres in 1812, bought 428 acres in 1816, and finally sold 234 ½ acres in 1819.

 Georgia in 1823

      In 1827 Georgia held a land lottery in which territory expropriated from the Creek was raffled to white settlers. As a Revolutionary War veteran Isaac was entitled to two drawings, and he garnered two plots of 202 ½ acres each in Lee County, which he left to his heirs. The 1830 census indicates the expansion of Isaac’s fortunes and household: in addition to he and Phebe there appear two younger white people, perhaps grandchildren; twelve slaves; and a free black man over the age of 55. Isaac’s health was already failing, as he made his will on September 14, 1829. He died on May 18, 1831, at the age of 69. His will was proved on June 7 and leaves extensive instructions, some of which I have excised:

I, Isaac Boring Senior of the County & State aforesaid, being of perfect sound mind & disposing memory, and calling to mind the uncertainty of Life, do hereby make my last will and testament, revoking all wills heretofore made by me

Item 1. I resign my body to the grave and my Soul into the hands a gracious God in hope of a glorious Resurrection and everlasting life.

Item 2. I desire that all my just debts be discharged.

Item 3. I give and bequeath to my beloved wife Phebe Boring, all the land pertains to the tract whereon I now reside, including the Plantation and Appurtenances together with all my stock of horses, hogs, cattle etc. And also the following Negroes to Wit, Moses, Jane, Ester, Lewis, Moriah, Reubin, Willis, Caroline, Clarey, Mary and Tilley, during the term of her natural life, with a discretion in her my said wife Phebe, and my Executor hereafter named to sell any of the personal or real property above, specified or implied, at any time they may think proper & best adapted to the interest of the Legatees.

Item 4. At the decease of my wife Phebe Boring, I give & bequeath to my children hereafter named an equal dividend of all my property specified in the above and third Item, or the proceeeds thereof to Wit John Boring, Elizabeth Lyle, Susanna Tait, Robert Boring, Isaac Boring, Phebe Johnson, Having regards to the property already given and for which receipts are taken.

…

Item 10. All the residue of my Estate real or personal to Wit, Two Tracts land in the County of Lee, Two Tracts in the County of Gwinnett, one in Jackson, whereon David Thomas formerly resided & adjoining Waid Station, I give and bequeath to my children & Grand Children under the same Rule & Proportion by which these Several Legacees are herein before regulated. And that my Executors do proceed to sale & dispose of the said lands, as soon as it may be thought by them to be most expediant and conducive to the interest of the respective Legatees, And that distribution of the proceeds therof may be made.

Item 11. It is to be understood as the true intent & meaning of the foregoing Items making distribution of my property between my children & Grand children that each respective family of Grandchildren, are to be entitled to no more than an individual Childs from whom they desended would be entitled, upon an equal division of the whole property. It is also to be understood that by the word appurtenance named in the third Item is intended to imbrace Household & Kitchen furniture, working tools ,. or whatever may be found upon the premises belonging to me.

La Révolution trahie
      Phebe was the widow of a Revolutionary War veteran at a time when, as their numbers dwindled, eligibility for increasingly generous pensions was expanded by Congress. On May 6, 1844, she came before the Inferior Court of Jackson County to avail herself of new provisions allotting pensions to Revolutionary War widows. Phebe conveyed to the judge information about her husband’s service, much of which has formed the basis of this narrative and now comprises part of the Isaac Boring file at the National Archives. Unfortunately the other part of that file is the government’s denial of this octogenarian wretch’s request for an annuity, a mockery of justice scarcely surpassed in the annals of the Nineteenth Century.
      The miserable bureaucrats said they needed “further proof” in spite of the evidence adduced by Phebe: sworn testimony from friends and family including one avowal that she was “a lady whose character for truth and veracity was entirely above suspicion”; appeals from her nephew, a justice of the peace in Forsyth County; and discharge papers from Capt. Oldham. She even tore from her Bible’s pages the family tree containing dates of birth, marriage, and death, and sent them to the miserly potentates who held within their power her economic fortunes. On February 4, 1852, her daughter Phebe Johnson granted power of attorney to a lawyer in Washington, D.C., but what good this did we cannot know.
      The denial of Phebe’s pension under the spurious claim that “further proof” was needed will strike readers as particularly outrageous in light of a story relayed by her great-grandson Isaac Boring Lester. In a letter dated October 12, 1931, to the Commissioner of Pensions in Washington, D.C., he recounts a tale which was passed down through the generations.

The closing line of the letter is a direct question—“was she pensioned”—that echoes through the centuries. Sadly it is too late to right this wrong, but Phebe’s story does not end in complete defeat. On April 27, 1855, at the age of 92, she came before the court and restated her case, this time regarding land bounties of 160 acres that Congress had recently begun granting to Revolutionary War soldiers and widows. Victory was hers at last, and although it was short-lived Reverend (she died on July 30, 1857) Phebe’s tireless efforts vindicated Isaac’s service in the Revolutionary War and serve as an example to posterity.

Tempted and tried, we’re oft made to wonder

Why it should be thus all the day long;
While there are others living about us,
Never molested, though in the wrong.

Farther along we’ll know more about it,
Farther along we’ll understand why;
Cheer up, my brother, live in the sunshine,
We’ll understand it all by and by.

—Reverend W. A. Fletcher

Boring into History, Part I

      In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet the leading lady wonders, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet” (II.ii.1-2). Unfortunately for the genealogist it is not sweet fragrance but the drudgery of parsing names on which the history of the Boring family hinges. Every conceivable phonetic manifestation of “Boring” is found in the record, from Boren and Borrin to Boreing and Bouring. Far from inducing boredom, these discrepancies and diversions put one on a path that is contradictory, perplexing, and vexatious. The narrative I present is my best interpretation of documents that are sometimes inadequate and other researchers’ findings that are frequently in disagreement. For the purposes of crafting a usable and understandable account of our branch of the Boring family, I have made elisions and assumptions, which while not academically laudable seems prudent given the lack of reliable sources. Let us hope this is not an instance in which a recently-seen bumper sticker pertains: “Genealogy: Annoying the living. Confusing the dead.”

The First Generation
      Arthur C. Wardle in his 1938 book Benjamin Bowring and His Descendants: A Record of Mercantile Achievement traces the “Boring” patronymic to Stephen Bourying in 1303 in Devonshire, a county in southwest England known for its Celtic heritage, mild climate, and bucolic landscape. Another source posits the derivation as northern European and while unsure of the meaning suggests a north German surname formed from the Slavic word for “pine” or “strife.” The first in our ancestry to reach these shores was probably John Boreing, born in England in the early 1600s, who landed in southeastern Virginia in 1656. According to George Cabell Greer’s 1912 Early Virginia Immigrants, 1623-1666, he was among nineteen indentured servants whose passage was paid by the merchant George Abbott. Nell Marion Nugent’s Cavaliers and Pioneers discloses that Abbott was granted 1,000 acres in Nansemond County (present-day city of Suffolk) on October 4, 1656, for the transportation of twenty passengers to Virginia and that among them was John Bowinge, most likely a misprint of “Boering.” Abbott was a participant in the headright system, which encouraged the importation of labor to the Virginia colony and reimbursed the cost of transportation with land grants. He also availed himself of the practice of indentured servitude, paying the way of poor immigrants in exchange for their labor, particularly in the rapidly ascendant tobacco fields.

There is an objection which the English make. They say that during the months of June, July, and August, it is very unhealthy; that their people, who have then lately arrived from England, die during these months, like cats and dogs, whence they call it the (sickly) season. When they have this sickness, they want to sleep all the time, but they must be prevented from sleeping by force, as they die if they get asleep. This sickness, they think, arises from the extreme heat that exists there. Then, again, when it has been a half-an-hour very hot, if the wind shifts and blow from the northwest, it immediately becomes so cold, that an overcoat may be worn. Thus, this country appears to lie in the dividing line between the heat and the cold....
—David Peterson DeVries, Voyages from Holland to America, A.D. 1632 to 1644

      John arrived in the New World as an indentured servant, part of a wave of around 50,000 between 1630 and 1680, during which staggeringly high mortality rates required constant replenishment. The average term that an adult indentured servant worked before being released from his contract was four to seven years, and it is likely John labored for a comparable period as he next appears in the records a decade later in neighboring Lower Norfolk County (now the city of Chesapeake). According to Virginia Land Patents of the Counties of Norfolk, Princess Anne & Warwick, John sold 300 acres to John Ladd on October 11, 1670, having acquired said land from Roger Fountaine on August 28, 1665. On January 1, 1673, John filed his will in Lower Norfolk, and following his death in the late spring of 1677 it was probated. Though we don’t know the name of John’s wife, this document reveals the names of his two sons.

In the name of God I John Bouring doth will and bequeath unto my two Sonnes being Edmond & John Bouring all my Land being six hundred acres of land and to be equally divided betweene them when they shall come of age...
witness: Wm Hatfield Hugh Hoskings.
Jno. Bouring
Deposition of Hugh Hoskings, aged 34 yeares or thereabouts 17) June 1677.
Adam Keeling. Hugh Hoskins & Seale.

    

 Norfolk and vicinity

New Country to Backcountry
      Edmond Bouren was born around 1660 and was on the cusp of his majority when he became fatherless. Around age twenty he married a woman named Sarah. In 1682 in Lower Norfolk County he began selling land and in 1685 had acquired holdings beyond his father’s bequeathal. Edmond’s name appears on a land description dated November 7, 1704, in Currituck Precinct, then part of Albemarle County and now in the northeastern corner of North Carolina. “Currituck” translates from one of the indigenous languages as “the land of wild geese,” an appropriate designation given that the area, separated from Virginia by the Great Dismal Swamp, became a hideout and refuge for the insurrectionists of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676. Edmond made his will on July 29, 1711, and died soon thereafter. It was transcribed from the will book by researcher T. J. Shumaker:

In the Name of God Amen. I Edmund Bouren of Corotuck in No. Carolina being Sick & weak of body but of perfect mind & memory, & calling to mind yt all [unclear word] must Dye Doe make & ordaine this my Last will & Testamt. revokeing other will or wills by me formerly made. First I give my body to ye Earth from whence itt was taken to be buried In such Decent manner as my Executrix hereafter named Shall think Conveniant. Secondly I Give my Soul to almighty God who Gave itt hopeing by his merits to receive forgiveness for all my sins & transgressions which I have Committed in this wicked World

I Give to my Son Jos. Bouren my Bay mare & all her Increase. I Give to my Son Jos. Bouren my Bay horse coult. I Give to my Son Jos. Bouren & my mill. I Give to my Son Jos. Bouren my plantation & tract of [land] on youpon ridge after my wives decease to him & his heirs forever.

I Give to my loving wife Sarah Bouring my Sorrel mare & all her Increase....

My will & Desire is that my Son Jos. Bouren have all ye Cattle in my Stock wch. are of his proper marke, also my will & desire is that my Daughter Sarah Bouren have all ye Cattle in ye Stock wch. are of her proper marke....

I Give my Negroe man Leboe to my wife Sarah Bouring During her life & after her Decease to my two Daughters Jane Bouren & Susannah Bouren, also my will & Desire is that my loving wife Sarah Bouren have all of rest(?) part of my Estate att her Disposel Except one Gold ring wch I Give to my Daughter Mary Bouren, also I make & ordaine & appoint my loveing wife Sarah Bouren my whole & Sole Executrix of this my last will & Testament to see itt Duly performed & to pay all my lawfull & just Debts, also my will & Desire is yt my Brother Benja: Tulle & my brother Williams & my friend Jos. Wicker may oversee my Estate and prevent any [unclear word] wch. may or shall happen in any case whatever as wittness my hand & Seal this 29th of July anno Dom: 1711

      According to Edmond’s will he had one son, Joseph Boring, who was born in the early 1680s in Currituck Precinct. He inherited his father’s land in what is now Perquimans County, west of Currituck along the northern rim of the Albemarle Sound. Little else is known about him; there is no extant will or record of marriage. Some researchers believe he had several sons, one of whom was William Boring, born in 1701 or 1702. William married Elizabeth Larkin, about the same age as he, in 1722 in Currituck. A 1755 tax list has William in newly-formed Orange County, at that time a vast district in the Piedmont region near the combustible frontier between westering European settlement and the natives’ territory. There is no further information about William except attestation from friends about his dying wishes. From the Orange County court, June 20, 1768:

Then came before me William Lea one of his Majesty's Justices of the Law for the County of Orange, John Currie and James Culbertson both planters and residing (?) in said County and made Oath, Seperately that they on the 11th of this month, heard William Boring on his Death Bed then Will in favor of Charles & Joseph Boring to Charles he left a piece of gold value Sixty Shillings, also a Negro Boy which Joseph Boring may keep, or pay his Brother Charles the Sum of thirty pounds which of either he pleases, and then to be paid by said Joseph when its suits without any process in Law, to be commenced against his Brother Joseph, all the Rest of the Estate to remain in the Possession of Joseph Boring, for his own proper use & his Heirs forever. Given under my hand this twentieth day of June One Thousand Seven Hundren & Sixty Eight.

From Inventories & Accounts of Sales, 1758-1785 edited by William D. Bennett we learn that on January 25, 1770, the executor of William’s will presented an inventory to the court: “1 feather Bed and Rugg, one Copper Skillet, one warming Pann, one Hamma, 1 Rasor and Hone, one Molatto Boy named James, four DoubleLoons, Two Pistol, and one Piece of Gold Value 30 shillings.” William’s wife Elizabeth is alleged to have died not long after her husband, but it seems she was still living in August 1772 when her father Alexander Larkin named her in his will. I have been unable to locate their gravesites or pinpoint the circumstances of Elizabeth’s expiration.

Darling, how could I stay here without you,
I have nothing to cheer my poor heart,
This old world would seem sad, love, without you,
Tell me now that we never will part.

Oh I’ll pawn you my gold watch and chain, love,
And I’ll pawn you my gold diamond ring,
I will pawn you this heart in my bosom,
Only say that you’ll love me again.
—Thomas P. Westendorf

Trouble on the Frontier

      In contradistinction to the paucity of sources about his parents, Joseph Boring’s role in the Regulator movement ensures his memory is not lost to us. Joseph was born in on January 30, 1730, and married Susannah Teague around 1750. He served as a juror in Orange County in 1753, a year before the founding of Hillsborough (contemporary site of UNC-Chapel Hill) as the county seat along the Great Indian Trading Path. In 1754 his name appears on deed record in Granville County and in 1756 in Orange County. In 1764 he was appointed overseer of a stretch of road between the Hyco and Eno Rivers. The following year he joined thousands of North Carolina frontiersmen in the War of the Regulation, a revolt against colonial authorities that heralded the American Revolution.

 1768 plan of Hillsborough by Claude Joseph Sautier

      The coastal plain of North Carolina had been settled for several decades before significant numbers of pioneers began moving into the backcountry west of the fall line in the 1730s. Many of these settlers were Scots-Irish and German and adherents to the new evangelical denominations that preached individualism and local autonomy. These sectional and cultural differences were an early episode in America’s long-running East-West divide, and they generated grievances against colonial authorities, including charges of venality, corruption, a rigged legal system, and an unfair tax code. In 1765 the first of many petitions were circulated seeking restitution and by 1768 the petitioners were calling themselves Regulators as they sought to regulate their own affairs. Sheriffs and judges, as implementers of the tax and legal systems, were particular targets of popular ire, which was at first expressed peacefully but increasingly manifested in mob violence.
      In January 1771 the legislature passed and the governor William Tryon signed An Act for Preventing Tumultuous and Riotous Assemblies, and for the More Speedy and Effectually Punishing the Rioters, and for Restoring and Preserving the Public Peace of This Province. He then called up the militia and led it halfway across the colony to confront the Regulators. When the two forces met west of Hillsborough on May 16, 1771, the governor warned the Regulators to disarm and disperse before negotiations could occur, to which they replied, “Fire and be damned.” In the ensuing Battle of Alamance the insurrection was crushed, and six Regulators were afterwards hanged for treason. The governor intended to see order restored quickly and was thus liberal with pardons, issuing amnesty to all but sixteen Regulators. Our unlucky outlaw ancestor Joseph Boring was among those excluded from this June 11, 1771, edict by the governor:

Whereas, I am informed that many Persons who have been concerned in the late Rebellion are desirous of submitting themselves to Government, I do therefore give notice that every Person who will come in, either to mine or General Waddells Camp, lay down their Arms, take the Oath of Allegiance, and promise to pay all Taxes that are now due or may hereafter become due by them respectively, and submit to the Laws of this Country, shall have His Majestys most gracious and free pardon for all Treasons Insurrections and Rebellions done or committed on or before the 16th Inst., provided they make their submission aforesaid on or before the 10th of June next. The following Persons are however excepted from the Benefit of this Proclamation, Viz. All the Outlaws, the prisoners in Camp, and the undernamed persons....

      When the decree was issued all but a handful of dead-enders had sworn loyalty oaths to the Crown, so Joseph’s exclusion may be attributed to his leadership in the insurrection or his refusal to accept the movement’s vanquishment. As William Laurence Saunders notes in Preface to Volume 8 of the Colonial Records of North Carolina, a bittersweet irony of the Regulators’ defeat is that five years later many of their demands were incorporated in the new state constitution of 1776, and their rebellious spirit animated the war for independence from Great Britain. Joseph was not around to witness these auspicious developments, however, as he died in May 1775, his will having been made in Orange County on January 11, 1775:

Susannah Borin to have her living on the plantation during her widowhood, her bed, and furniture, negro Hannah to wait on her as long as they live, horse, saddle, and bridle. John Borin to have negro Jack; James Borin to have negro Caleb; William Borin to have the wagon, gears, and four horses, RAIN, BON, BUCK, and JACK; Isaac Boring to have gristmill; Joseph Borin, Jr. to have milken cow, Idom: David Borin to have 20 lbs paid to him by his oldest brother, John, the said David shall come of age. Susan Borin, Becky Borin, Phebe (FEBY) Borin, SERE (ZERE) to have divided among them all the balance of my estate and Cousin Fatsy (Patsy) Clarke. David Borin to have the plantation whereon I now live when he comes of age. Charles Stephens and James Currie to see due performance of my will.

The dowager Boring’s bereavement was curtailed by her remarriage to John Browning, a recent widower himself. On August 16, 1776, six weeks after the Declaration of Independence was issued from Philadelphia, Susannah sold Joseph’s land along a fork of the Hyco River for £100 of “Proclamation Money,” the value of which was set by Queen Anne’s directive in 1704 and was therefore nullified by the colonies’ independence. In November 1777 Susannah and John were appointed administrators of Joseph’s estate, which they liquidated at auction on April 6, 1778. Though he died before its consummation, Joseph’s legacy touched America’s quest for self-government in two ways: the aforesaid role of the Regulators’ as a catalyst of the American Revolution and his son’s participation in the war for independence, which will be discussed in the second essay.