Virginia to N. C. Migrations


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William Mangum Sr. was a probably a son of John the immigrant. We first know of him in 1734 when he and his wife Mary record their son James' birth in the Albemarle Parish of Surry County, Virginia. This couple also recorded the births of other children in the parish.

The early records concerning William Sr. and his family are very uncertain. William was born about 1709 although we have no direct evidence of his birth or his parentage. His wife Mary, according to one genealogy, may have been a daughter of Job Person and wife Lucy although we have not been able to document that theory. Another source says she was daughter of John Person who's will was probated in Surry Co., Virginia in 1738, but that theory presently seems doubtful. The available records do suggest that the Person family was close kin to the Mangums. William Mangum Sr. and his family remained in Virginia until at least June 1747 when William helped appraise the estate of Arthur Sherrod. By May 1748 the family was in North Carolina.

William Mangum Sr. and family apparently made the trek to the Southwest in 1748. In May of that year William Mangum witnessed a deed in that part of Edgecombe Co., N.C. that is now in Halifax County. They did not stay long there but continued on west into that part of Granville County that is now Warren County. William witnessed a deed there in June of 1748 and obtained land in 1749 when 350 acres were surveyed for him. The land was granted to him in 1751 by John Earl Granville. The grant calls him a planter of St. John's Parish.

The tax lists for William begin in 1749 when he list two polls. One poll is William himself and we suspect the other is his son Samuel Mangum. William's last land grant was in 1760 and thereafter he began to sell his land. We have no definite proof as to when and where William Mangum Sr. died.

One other migration from Virginia occured about 1780-85. That migration was by Absolom Mangum. Absolom was a son of James Mangum, the brother of William Mangum Sr. Absolom and his family settled in the southern part of Granville County, near the border with Wake County. Many of the Wake County Mangums stem from Absolom and his children.

Absolom left records in Johnson County, N.C. in 1769, Wake County in 1780 and maybe in Union County, S.C. in 1782 and 1790. He bought land in Granville County in 1788 and was in the 1787 tax lists. A court record in Granville seems to show that he bought land there in 1786. It is not known whether all these records pertain to the Absolom who settled in Southern Granville County. If so, he was a restless sort, as were many of our early pioneers. Absolom died on or before 1802 since Lucy Mangum was administrator of his estate on 7 May 1802.

Reference:Mangum Family Bulletin, Vol. 13, Page 24. See Publications page.

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