Edmund Lilly of NC Report
Cullember-Cullumber
Colember-Culumber
Lilly-Lilley-Lillie
Report on
Edmund Lilly
[II] of North Carolina
By Lou Poole
Links:
Edmund
Lilly [II]
The following report was researched,
written, and
sent to me by Lou Poole who
has graciously shared his work with us. Please note that
although
Lou has not edited these comments that Edmund's
middle name
was
Fleming, it surely was not. None of the children of this
Lilly
generation in Virginia had middle names. There is absolutely
no
contemporary evidence that he had any middle name, much less one of
Fleming. Please remove it from your records.
The date
and place of birth
for Edmund Lilly [II] is unknown. However, since he married
about 1750, we must assume he was born couple of
years
before 1730. The
traditional date given by the family is 1728, which is probably based
upon his marriage. However, he might have been a year or so
older. Since the earlier records for him are in Virginia, he
was
certainly born there.
Edmund Lilly was married [first] to
Sarah Dumas,
daughter of
Benjamin
Dumas. (1) The disownment for marriage out of unity
in July of 1750 proves that they had married before that. The
disownment might have been several months after the actual marriage.
Since Benjamin Dumas purchased land 10 July 1753 in Anson County, (2)
it is likely that the group moved there shortly afterward.
It is likely that Benjamin went to North Carolina
and
purchased land and then brought the families to North Carolina at a
later date. He may also have stayed in North Carolina to
prepare
the way for them. The proof that Edmund married Sarah Dumas is
in the 1753 deed in which Benjamin Dumas sold land to Edmund and Sarah
Lilly for "fatherly affection."
From
Cumberland County we find the
only deed that mentions Edmund Lilly, Jr., prior to his arrival in
North Carolina. This would seem odd, but Elizabeth Flippen, his
probable grandmother, was living in Cumberland County:
“Dec
11, 1750 from Benjamin Dumas of
Louisa County, planter, to John Smith, lately of Westmoreland County,
planter, the lease for 10 years of 3 tracts of 1250 acres of land in C.
This lease allows Smith to seat a plantation on every 200 acres where
there is not already any, with the liberty of getting timber for the
use of the plantation. Dumas is not to disturb Smith, under penalty of
100 £. Smith will make no waste of timber, and will plant on
each
plantation, and leave on each plantation at least 200 [fruit] bearing
peach trees and 50 [fruit] bearing apple trees, and is to leave the
several plantations in good and sufficient tenantable order. If Smith
fails in any of the above articles, he shall forfeit and pay Dumas 100
£, and the lease becomes void. Signed – Benjamin Dumas,
John (I his
mark) Smith. Wit. – Edmund Lilley,
Philip Timberlake,
William
Dickerson, William Terrell, William Dillin. Recorded at Mar Court,
1751.”(4)
In the following book, Halifax County is mentioned. However, Halifax County was only created
from Edgecombe County in 1758.
Since we know from the Anson County records that he was already there
by 1753, he could not have stopped in Halifax County. And if he
was ever in the region that became Halifax County,
there is no extant record of his presence there.
“Edmund is said to have come
to Anson County
after stopping briefly in Halifax County, North Carolina. His
brothers John and William were also in the county in the 1750s
according to land deeds. Edmund Fleming [sic] Lilly was a planter, a
large landowner, a Baptist preacher, and had a gristmill on Rocky
River. He is listed as one of the early pastors of Rocky River Baptist
Church, founded in 1776. Edmund Lilly is considered a patriot by the
DAR for service as a juror in 1777, and many of his descendants have
used his service to obtain membership. He lived and farmed on Richlands
Creek in Montgomery County, only a mile or so north of the present dam.
He is buried in the family cemetery just north of NC 731, one mile east
of the Pee Dee River, then two miles north, ¼ mile left, top
of
the hill on the right. When last seen by me it was a wooded
site…”(5)
EDMUND
LILLY, REVOLUTIONARY WAR PATRIOT
“In the historic old Lilly
burying ground on the shores of Lake Tillery in Montgomery County [see
Appendix II], the dates on the stone marker of Edmund Lilly’s
grave are 1728 - 1815. Edmund Lilly may have lived longer than 1815,
but we do know he was living 26 September 1815, for among the Lilly
papers is a Bill of Sale executed between him and George W. Davidson on
that date. [Note: I have not found this record, but I strongly suspect
that the Edmund Lilly of this deed was most likely his son, Edmund
Lilly Jr. I think he was deceased by 1810, because his wife is listed
in the 1810 census and he is not.] He probably never fought in
the Revolutionary War, for he was 48 years old at it beginning, but
that he was a patriot is proved by other services rendered. In January
1777 he was one of jurors appointed from Anson County to serve at the
Court of Oyer held for the district of Salisbury. This was not the
first time he had served at this court, but that he was appointed to do
so in the midst of the Revolutionary War shows he was a trusted
patriot. Also, in 1778, the North Carolina General Assembly passed an
act forming several new counties from Anson County territory,
Montgomery being one of them, and he was appointed to serve on a
committee for buying 50 acres of land and contracting workers for
building a courthouse, prison, and stocks for Montgomery County.
“Edmund Lilly married three
times, first of Sarah Dumas, second to Miss Lightfoot in Virginia,
[Sic: See notes on Lightfoot Myth] and
third to Elizabeth Billingsley. His land division gives us the
Billingsley wife’s children, three: Sarah, who married Walter
Farr Burns; Mary (Polly) who married William May; and Elizabeth who
married David Carpenter. [Note: The first and third marriages can be
confirmed, but the second marriage never happened. ]
“Edmund
Lilly was a planter in Anson County. We don’t know the exact
date
of his coming to North Carolina, but the earliest land deed recorded to
him in Anson County is dated 15 January 1753 and is from his
father-in-law, Benjamin Dumas, to Edmund and Sarah Lilly for
‘5
shillings to him in hand paid and more especially for the fatherly love
he hath for his child,’ and was for 350 acres. During later
years
he acquired thousands of acres and in some of the deeds he is
designated as Edmund Lilly, Planter. He is shown in the 1790 census to
be the largest slave holder in Montgomery County in that year.
“He was also a miller. In January 1773, he got a court order
giving him leave to build a water grist mill on Rocky River on his own
land opposite Walter Gibson’s land at the shoals known as the
Great Shoals.
“Edmund
Lilly was a Baptist Preacher. The records of Rocky Mount Baptist Church
in Anson County record him as pastor of that church in 1790. One
genealogist in writing of him said ‘Edmund Lilly, Sr.,
besides
being an ardent patriot, was a deeply pious man, and at some time in
his life embraced the Baptist faith and entered the ministry. Few
details of his life are known but tradition says he was a man of
education, culture, and wealth. His children intermarried with other
prominent colonial families and the name Lilly has come to be a synonym
of honor and learning.’
“It seems he had a younger half brother, who too was a Baptist
preacher — Robert Lilly. I have a copy of an old letter written
by Robert 22 October 1854. The post office was ‘Promised
Land,’ Fluvanna Co., Va. In it he said, ‘I am now in my
81st year and am writing in the room where I was born — I was
ordained to the pastoral care of the old church ‘Liles’ in
1821 which was the first Baptist Church in this county. Here my parents
had their membership when the church was constituted in 1774 and here
they remained ‘til their deaths.’a Through this letter,
with other data, I feel sure I have found the very spot from which our
Edmund came to N.C...(6) [Note: The Robert Lilly of Lyle's Church
is well documented. He was the son of Armiger Lilly, and the
grandson of Edmund Lilly I of Fluvanna County. So he would have been a
nephew of Edmund II, not a younger brother. The error may have come
about through the fact that Edmund Lilly I may have had a son, Robert
Lilly. This Robert Lilly is the one who moved to West Virginia.]
The letter in the Allen family history contained the
following excerpt of Edmund Lilly’s arrival in North Carolina:
“The exact date of settlement is not known but
an old land grant dated 1773 and known as the “King’s Big
Grant,” included several thousand acres to the following men:
William Colson, John Clark, Edmund Lilly, V. Vanhoose, William Johnson,
William Whitfield, James Whitfield, John Haigler, William Randle, W. D.
Watkins, William Hildreth, Thos. Tomlinson, and Culpepper Watkins.
[Comment: To illustrate the hazards of
accepting personal recollections without authentication, Mr. William
Price writes: “William DeJarnette Watkins was born 25 Jan 1803 in
Anson Co. He and his younger brother, Culpepper, could not have been
included in the “King’s Big Grant” of
1773.”](7)
From
a paper prepared by Miss Carrie Lilly
and delivered at the Dedication
Service
of the Edmund Lilly Historical
Marker in 1952.
“It seems he had a younger half brother, who too was a
Baptist
preacher — Robert Lilly. I have a copy of an old letter
written
by Robert 22 October 1854. The post office was ‘Promised
Land,’ Fluvanna Co., Va. In it he said, ‘I am now
in my
81st year and am writing in the room where I was born — I was
ordained to the pastoral care of the old church
‘Liles’ in
1821 which was the first Baptist Church in this county. Here my parents
had their membership when the church was constituted in 1774 and here
they remained ‘til their deaths.’a Through this
letter,
with other data, I feel sure I have found the very spot from which our
Edmund came to N.C...(6) [Note: This Robert Lilly was not his half
brother. This Robert Lilly who was the minister at
Liles
Baptist Church was the son of Armiger Lilly. See Children of Armiger Lilly.
There is a
Robert Lilly of West Virginia who may have been the brother of Edmund
Lilly II.]
Allen
Family
History
The letter referred to previously in the Allen family history contained
the following excerpt of Edmund Lilly’s arrival in North
Carolina:
“The exact date of settlement is not known but an old land
grant
dated 1773 and known as the “King’s Big
Grant,”
included several thousand acres to the following men: William Colson,
John Clark, Edmund Lilly, V. Vanhoose, William Johnson, William
Whitfield, James Whitfield, John Haigler, William Randle, W. D.
Watkins, William Hildreth, Thos. Tomlinson, and Culpepper Watkins.
[Comment:
To illustrate the hazards of
accepting personal recollections without authentication, Mr. William
Price writes: “William DeJarnette Watkins was born 25 Jan
1803 in
Anson Co. He and his younger brother, Culpepper, could not have been
included in the “King’s Big Grant” of
1773.”](7)
“Some of these men came down from Virginia, supposedly about
1750. On reaching North Carolina, they settled land with a keen eye to
the goodness of the soil, and the comforts of the living. The grant
locates a branch road leading off from the old Salisbury-Wadesboro road
called Allenton Road, which lead to Fayetteville. A certified copy of
this plot of land taken from the original is on file with the Yadkin
River Patriots Chapter D.A.R. This gives almost authentic proof of the
settlement existing prior to 1773. Miss Effie Turner had a rough drawn
sketch of part of this Allenton land — locating the
“Tavern” or “Red House,” which
was laid off in
1812 as dower right of Rachel Marshall, the mother of John &
James
Allen and Robert Marshall.”
DAR
Application
In the application for DAR membership submitted by Mrs. Sue McCain
Snuggs, we find the following misinformation:
“Edmond Lilly, Jr., was one of the heirs to John, Duke of
Bedford’s fabulous fortune [Note: This is pure pipe dream. See
Burke's Peerage.]
The
Lilly's came originally from Lillie, France. They crossed the English
Channel with William the Conqueror and for valiant service rendered the
King were awarded an estate and title. [Since we don't know the father
of the emigrant, John Lilly, and can't absolutely prove Edmund's
descent from John Lilly, this is pure pipe dream.] When Edmond Lilly,
Jr., left
Virginia, he sold his land in 1766 and the deed is still on file.
[Note: This deed was for Edmund Lilly sr, not this Edmund.
This
Edmund was in North Carolina many years before.]... ... married Miss
Lightfoot of Virginia in 1766 [This is a myth. Note that Edmund
II was in North Carolina by the time this mythical marriage is supposed
to have taken place. ] ... Edmond Lilly, Jr., was one of a
committee
appointed to purchase fifty acres of land and build thereon a
courthouse, prison, stockade for the County of Montgomery which was
formed from Anson...”(8)
[Note from June Byrne: It is just sad to see all these errors in one
place. In fact, this is past errors, it is pure imagination.
Doesn't anyone ever check anything? This is the
most egregious set of errors that I have seen in a long
time. ]
Histories
of North Carolina
Edmund Lilly is mentioned prominently and frequently in
Paschal’s
History
of North Carolina Baptists.
In Morgan Edwards’ “Notebook on North Carolina
Baptists,” his 1772-73 notes for the Little River Baptist
Church(9) included:
“...The
house [of worship, i.e., church?] is 80 feet by 20, built in 1758, on
land given by Thomas Ward. This church consists of four branches; one
near; one house on Rocky river (Edmund Lilly), Jones’s Creek;
another on Mountain Creek, in each of which places is a house. No
estate. Salary 60£. Ruling elders, laying on of hands
admitted
here. Divided about love-feasts, washing feet, etc. Families about 60
whereof 48 persons are baptized and in comm. which here is
administered the 2nd Lord’s day in _____. No ordained
minister,
but two preachers, John Bollin and Edmund Lilly... The most remarkable
things that may be said of this church are (1) That in three years it
increased from 8 souls to 500 but is now reduced low by removal of
families to other parts, chiefly occasioned by oppressions which seems
to them remediless since the battle of Alamance...”(10)
“...At
any rate the statement of Morgan Edwards with reference to the
membership of the Little River church shows that they were almost a
unit in supporting the Regulator movement. It is probable that it was
because their pastor, Mr. Murphy, did not cooperate with them in this
that he left them in 1769 and went to another field of labor in Surry
County. After his departure the Little River church had no ordained
pastor, but two preachers, John Bollin and Edmund Lilly, remained to
assist in their worship.”(11)
“...It
is well known that in general the Baptists were ardent patriots...
Those in the Regulator country were Separates and had the same reason
to support the patriot cause as did their Separate brethren in Virginia
who, according to Semple, were a unit for independence. At least two
Separate Baptist preachers did distinguished service to the State in
the Revolutionary period. These were Edmund Lilly of Anson and David
Allen of Surry.”(12)
“Further south
the
Baptist churches in the counties of Montgomery, Anson and Mecklenburg
(Cabarrus) constituted an important part of the Association. In
Montgomery these churches were Little River, with only 15 members,
without pastor; Rocky River, to which Asplund assigns 1758 as the date
of its constitution probably confusing this church with its parent
church Little River. In 1790 Rocky River had 189 members under the care
of Rev. Edmund Lilly, a distinguished patriot of the Revolutionary
period, who had as his assistant William Kindell..”(13)
“Edmund
Lilly... was also an early promoter of the plank roads. Both families
[Lilly and Carpenter] had taken up land in that section before 1753.
Lilly was prominent in the annals of early Anson along with John
Culpepper, who served old Rocky River Baptist Church from its inception
until the 1840’s.”(14)
Also see:
Endnotes:
(1)
Brent
Holcomb,
Anson
County, North Carolina Deed Abstracts Volume 1: 1749-1757, 1974.
Book A: 292.
(2)
Brent
Holcomb,
Anson
County, North Carolina Deed Abstracts Volume 1: 1749-1757, 1974.
Book A: 145-6.
Hinshaw,
William Wade, Encyclopedia of
American
Quaker Genealogy,
Vol. VI, p. 286.
(3)
“Louisa County Order Book,
1744-1748, p. 167” – Sparacio, Ruth, Virginia County Court
Records, Louisa
County, Virginia Orders 1744-1747,
p. 43.
(4)
“Cumberland County Deed Book
1, p. 307” — T.L.C. Genealogy, Cumberland County,
Virginia,
Deeds, 1749-1752, p. 27.
(5)
Unpublished manuscript, “The
Lilly Family of England, Virginia, Stanly, Montgomery, and Anson
Counties, North Carolina” by John Paul Lilly dated 1992, and
provided via Internet exchange.
(6)
Part of the paper read at the
dedication service for the historical marker dedicated to
“Edmund
Lilly, famed Revolutionary Patriot” in the Lilly Family
cemetery
on 22 March 1952. The paper was compiled and written by Miss Carrie
Lilly of Mt. Gilead, N.C. A copy was provided to me by William A. Price
of Birmingham, Alabama, in October 1992.
(7)
Personal correspondence from
William A. Price of Birmingham, Alabama, dated 9 October 1992.
(8)
DAR application of Mrs. Sue McCain
Snuggs of Albemarle, North Carolina (#149160).
(9)
“This church was near the
mouth of Little River in the part of Anson that was erected into
Montgomery County. It was later known as the Fork of Little
River” — Paschal, George Washington, History of North Carolina,
Vol. 1,
p. 225.
(10)
Paschal, George Washington,
History of North Carolina Baptists, Vol. 1, pp. 225-226.
(11)
Paschal, George Washington,
History of North Carolina Baptists, Vol. 1, p. 296.
(12)
Paschal, George Washington,
History of North Carolina Baptists, Vol. 1, p. 379.
(13)
Paschal, George Washington,
History of North Carolina Baptists, Vol. 1., p. 408.
(14)
Medley, Mary L., History of Anson
County North Carolina, 1750-1976, p. 100.
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