The Shells of Pigeon Creek Genealogy Web Site
The ancestors, descendants, and cousins of the Shells of Pigeon Creek, Alabama.
Notes for William Shell
The part of Brunswick County in which William lived was near the dividing line between Brunswick and Mecklenburg Counties and also near the line between the two counties and the area of North Carolina which comprises the present county of Warren (which was originally Granville, then Bute, then Warren.) Also very near was the county of Northampton in North Carolina. Communities of neighbors settled naturally along the various streams and rivers.
Two such communities in the Brunswick-Mecklenburg area and reaching over into North Carolina is of interest to our family. One community developed along the Pidgeon Roost Creek, which flows from Brunswick, joins another creek, and empties into the Roanoke River in Warren County. The other community was four to five miles west of Pidgeon Roost and grew up around Keeth or Leath's Branch and nearby Poplar Creek and extended to Miles Creek in Mecklenburg County. Poplar Creek begins in Mecklenburg, crosses into Brunswick in the southern part of both counties, and then passes into North Carolina to join the Roanoke River.
In the 1760s there was a migration from the Surry-Sussex Counties area to the Pigeon Roost Creek area, involving families associated with each other as relatives and neighbors. Among those were: Clantons, Coopers, Barkers, Hickses, Proctors, Hargraves, James Adams, and Shells. Stephen Ellis and his sister Amelia with her husband William Shell were among this group. Some of these families took up land along the creek in Brunswick County and others in Warren (then Bute County), North Carolina.
Land records show these settlers were continually trading land in this creek valley and moving from farm to farm and back and forth across the line between the two colonies of Virginia and North Carolina. Presumably they gave little thought to the line, the only important entity to them being the lush farming creek valley, and where it would best suit them to plant their crops. It is therefore logical to assume that the Ellises (Richard and Mary) moved to Brunswick County either with or just after the migration of their neighbors and relatives. William and Amelia Ellis Shell came to Pidgeon Roost community in 1765.
Ann Ellis Sheek. History of Twelve Generations of the Ellis Family. 1974. p. 26.
William Shell bought 110 acres adj. his first purchase, Caleb Ellis I and John Justiss on 16 Dec. 1755 from Wm. and Alice Wiggans (Bk. 7 (1753-60) p. 252). He sold 108 acres to John Person(s), Jr., on 20 Febo 1764 (essentially the same land bought of the Wigganses); this was his last land transaction as a resident of Surry Co. As "William'Shell of Brunswick Co., Va.," he sold his remaining Surry land, the 100 acres acquired from Caleb Ellis I, to James Buchanan, Merchant, on 5 Mar. 1768 (Deed Book 8, p. 364.)
Rising far south in Brunswick County and crossing the state line into Warren County, North carolina are the main run, middle run and upper run of Pigeon Roost Creek. The latter two (known today as Songbird and Mill Creeks) flow into the main run, which empties into the Roanoke River. William and Amelia were in this area by 1765, when Warren County was known as Bute, and in ensuing years acquired land on both sides of the state line:
(a) 18 July 1765, 203 acres, Brunswick Co., from Wm. Brewer . . "near Middle Run of Pigeon Roost Creek and thence down meanders of sd. creek to the County line (Virginia/North Carolina line) . . .Wm. White's line . . .Sam'l White's line . . .to 1st station (Deed Book 8, p. 373).
(b) 15 Mar. 1768, 220 acres, Bute CoO, North Carolina from John Shell of
Cumberland Co., Va., bounded by middle and upper runs, Pigeon Roost
Creek, (Virginina/North Carolina line), and lands of Roberson, Danold and Breek. (This John Shell known to be a brother of William). (Warren Co., No C., Deed Bk. 2, p. 101).
(c) 8 Oct. 1770, from William Gilliam of Granville Co., N. C., 224 acres in Bute County, adj. Wm. Clanton, Mark Forrest, Jonathon Riggin, John James Buds, Thos. Eaton and Samuel Yeargain. (Deed Book 2, p. 140).
Between 1768 and 1785 William sold all his Pigeon Roost Creek lands:
(a) 28 Aug. 1766, 100 acres. Brunswick Co., to Jas. Adams (Bk. 8, p. 353).
(b) 10 Aug. 1768, 250 acres, Bute Co. to Stephen Shell.
(c) 18 Mar. 1769, 100 acres, Brunswick Co., to William Gunn (Bk. 9, p. 490).
(d) 12 Nov. 1770, 50 acres, Bute Co., to William Gunn (Bk. 3, p. 141).
(e) 25 Jan. 1785, 224 acres, Warren Co., to Stephen Shell (Book 8, p. 197).
Note: The Stephen Shell of (b) above, called Stephen Shell, Sr., in some records was probably a brother of William; he was the father of Salley Shell, wife of Stephen Ellis Revolutionary Soldier. The Stephen Shell of (e), also known as Stephen Shell, Jr., was a son of William and Amelia.
Some five miles west of Pigeon Roost Creek is Poplar Creek and branches. They run southward into North Carolina, converging before flowing into the Roanoke River. Most of this system of waterways arises in and flows through Mecklenburg Co., Va., but the West Branch flows through Brunswick Co.. This branch, which is east of the other forks of Poplar Creek, probably is called West Branch because it lies in extreme western part of Brunswick Co. In 1773, William Shell began acquiring land along the West Branch, all in Brunswick Co..
(a) 25 Jan. 1773, 460 acres from George & Frances Tillman, on the Dearding (Dividing ?) Br., and Keath's (Leath's) Br., adj. Alexander Morrison, Brooks, Walker, and Wall. (Bk. 10, p. 551).
(b) 24 July 1780, 482 acres from George & James Wall, adj. Morrison and Baughe (Order Bk. 2, pp. 138, 149).
(c) 21 June 1788, 91 acres from Henry & Ann Delony, on s. side of Black's Road, beginning at a post oak on Shell's Mill path, adj. Harwell & Baugh. (Bk. 14, p. 357).
As his sons attained manhood, William deeded lands to them:
(a) 21 June 1788, 215 acres to William Shell, Jr. (Bk. 14, p. 359).
(b) 24 May 1790, 150 scres to Harmon Shell. Bk. 14, p. 596).
(c) 23 July 1791, 140 acres to John Shell ((Book 15, p. 596).
(d) to son, Stephen,
Signed by William Shell and dated 29 Oct. 1797, is this important document: Let this indented writing testify to all whom it may concern --That I William Shell senr of the county of Brunswick and state of Virginia for divers good causes & considerations who being about to remove to South Carolina have made constituted & in my place & stead put my son Lemmon Shell of the county and state aforesaid my true and Lawful attorney for . . . disposition of all my lands lying in Brunswick County... (Deed Bk. 17, p. 255).
On 29 Dec. 1798, William obtained land in Newberry Dist S.C., from his son Stephen. (Newberry Co.: Index to Deeds, Grantees, 1776-1843).
At the time of his death William's wife was Abigail (Abba). The information that follows was supplied by Miss Myrtle Peacock of Indianola, Miss. (now deceased, a descendant of William and Abigail Collingsworth). The Collingsworths were listed in the 1790 census of Newberry Dist. They had come there earlier from Brunswick Co., VA. William Collingsworth died in Newberry Dist. c. 1798-1800. Estate records include a receipt dated 1801, for the widow's share of the estate, which is signed 'Mrs. Abba Collingsworth (now Mrs. Shell).'
William Shell left no will, but estate papers exist. Records of a Court of Equity, held in Laurens, SO COS for the united dists. of Granville, Laurens and Newberry, show statement of Harmon Shell (son of William and Amelia) that William Shell, Sr., at the time of his death owned a tract of 130 acres on waters of Enoree River; that in Aug., 1807 William Shell died, leaving widow, Abigail, and ten children
' . . . distribution . . . between Harmon, Abigail, Stephen, John and William Shell, Milly Hatton wife of John Hatton, Lemon Shell, wife of John Dugan, Lucy Wright, wife of James Wright, Cornelius Shell, Dorothy Lemon Shell. . . . The said Cornelius and Dorothy Lemon are under 21 to-wit: Cornelius 7, Dorothy Lemon 6...'
(Laurens Co., S. C.: Court of Equity Record Book (1803-1808); pp. 1,2).
Cornelius and Dorothy Lemon were children of William's second marriage. The document giving age of Cornelius as 7 is dated 29 Feb. 1808, indicating that William and Abigail were married 1799 or 1800. The two children were in Jones Co., Ga., by 1818 as shown by Guardian Accts. of that County (Court of Ordinary; Inventories, Appraisements & Sales Returns Bk. B (1813-1819); p. 364).
As noted, William Shell owned considerable land; tax lists, 1782, Brunswick County, Virginia, show he then owned 17 slaves of taxable age; no doubt there were others, younger and older. He was a "patriot" during the Revolution, providing beef, a gun and other supplies to the American forces.
Frank Shell's Notes.
William Shell was a man of parts. He was a farmer, a Methodist preacher, a patriot who furnished supplies to the Army of the Revolution, and a soldier in the Virginia troops of the Continental Line. His first wife was Amelia Ellis. They had numerous children, of whom eight are known to have grown up. Their history is well known to their descendants.
William lived in Brunswick Co., Virginia until 1797 then emigrated to Newberry Co., South Carolina and bought land from his son Stephen who moved there six years before. Most of the other Shells from Virginia, including the children of his deceased brother John, went to Newberry Co. during this same period. His wife died prior to his moving to Newberry Co.. How long William Shell's wife had been dead is not recorded, but on reaching Newberry Co., William renewed acquaintance with the family of his old friend William Collingsworth, also a Methodist preacher, who had formerly lived in VA, but had gone to Newberry Co. in 1790. Collingsworth had died and his young widow, Abba, married William Shell in 1798 or 1799. She already had four children, and was destined to have two more. When William Shell died on Aug. 19, 1807, the settlement of his estate showed that he had, beside the older children listed above, two minor children named Cornelius and Dorothy, and a wife Abba. It may be noted that William Shell's oldest child and his youngest differed in age by nearly half a century.
Ovid B. Hundley, Dr. J.T. Griswold. William Shell Notes from Cornelius' Descendants. 1951.
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