Ivey Families of Bladen County & Vicinity

(Including Anson, Richmond, Robeson, Marion, and Marlboro Counties)

There are two Ivey lines that intrigue me because they can’t be connected with a specific ancestor but are likely to be related to each other: 

Adam Ivey (c1700-10? – 1762) who died in  Edgecombe County, North Carolina and whose sons settled in Bladen County (later Robeson County) in the late 1760s.

Thomas Ivey (c1700-10?  - c1775-85)  who lived in Bladen County, North Carolina but apparently died in Georgetown District, South Carolina.  His children also settled in Bladen County (later Robeson)

Both men appear to have been of mixed race.  Thomas Ivey had moved into Bladen County by 1753, where several next-generation Iveys are probably his sons.   The five sons of Adam Ivey also moved into Bladen County roughly ten years later, though the two families were geographically separated by some fifteen miles.  Unfortunately, the majority of Bladen records of the period are lost, but all lived in an area that became Robeson County in 1787.  The descendants of these men are largely guesswork, with several significant gaps, and it is probable that at least some of the Iveys living in the adjacent South Carolina counties belong to these two families.

Also included here are  several other Iveys in the same geography mentioned in 18^th century records.  It’s possible that some of these are related to Thomas Ivey or Adam Ivey, or at least to one another.

Anthony Ivey

Amos Ivey

James Ivey and Joseph Ivey, who appear to be brothers.

James Ivey Jr.

Micajah Ivey

Jeremiah Ivey

John Ivey and Jesse Ivey, who are surely related to one another

The Ivey-Ivie-Ivy family DNA project, many of whose participants are descendants of these people,  is likely to help clarify these relationships.  See http://www.ivey-ivie-ivy.org for more details.

Adam Ivey

1.      Adam Ivey  (c1700-10? – 1762)  The origins of this Adam Ivey are mysterious.  Early Ivey researchers thought he was the same person as Adam Ivey II of Prince George County (later of Isle of Wight), Virginia, but that man was clearly a full generation older.[1]  It is intriguing, though, that the last known residence of that Adam Ivey II was Onslow County, North Carolina in 1737[2] and the court minutes there show a July 1741 presentment for some unknown offense against “Adam Ivie, a melottoe”.[3]   Given that three of Adam Ivey’s sons are later taxed as mulattos or mixed bloods, this seems highly likely to have been the same person later in Edgecombe County and, if so, suggests some sort of relationship with Adam Ivey II or some member of his broader family.  It seems probable that this Adam Ivey was a child or grandchild of one of the sons or daughters of Adam Ivey the immigrant, but it seems impossible to prove.  

A clerk’s fee book of Edgecombe County shows two terse entries in 1746 regarding suits by one Campbell against several persons, among them an “Ivey” and a Major Locklear, who is later associated with the Iveys in Bladen County.[4]   Only the surname is mentioned, but this is likely to be Adam Ivey, indicating that he was residing in Edgecombe by then.[5]  On 4 September 1753 he surveyed 285 acres adjacent “Ivey’s Meadow” in Edgecombe County, which was granted on 23 October 1754.[6]  The land was in present Wilson County near the present town of Wilson, on the north bank of Contentnea Creek, which separated Edgecombe from Johnston County at the time.   According to his will, he also purchased 200 acres from William Register that adjoined this grant, although no mention of the deed exists in the court or deed records.[7]  (This may have been “Ivey’s meadow”, suggesting a purchase before 1753.)   Many of the early records of Edgecombe County are lost, but Adam Ivey appeared on a 1750s militia list for Edgecombe County.[8]  This perhaps means that the sons were not yet 16, the age at which compulsory militia duty was required.  In June 1760 Adam Ivey and Francis Ivey are mentioned as members of a road jury, and Adam Ivey Jr. as a member of the resulting road crew, for a road in the vicinity of that 1754 grant.[9] 

Adam Ivey also owned land on the other side of Contentnea Creek in Johnston County.  On 6 June 1755 he surveyed 165 acres on Aycock Swamp which was granted by Granville on 9 May 1757.[10]  This was just a few miles south of his other lands, located roughly on the present Wilson-Wayne county line.  Johnston County’s deed books were lost in a courthouse fire, but the grantee/grantor indices survived.  These indices include references to the recording of the Granville Grant to Adam Ivey[11], a deed from Adam Ivey (Sr.?) to Adam Ivey (Jr.?) recorded in 1758[12], and a deed from Adam Ivey to Francis Ivey with an unknown recording date.[13]   The first deed may have been a sale of the grant to Adam Jr. and the second a resale by him to Francis Ivey, but I could not find a later sale by Francis Ivey.  

Adam Ivey’s age is impossible to determine, our only clue being that his children were apparently relatively young when he died, for four of the nine children named in his will were still minors in 1762 and all four daughters were unmarried.  The elder children, from later records, had fairly recently achieved majority and the elder sons were evidently still unmarried as well.  His will was dated 10 June 1762 and proved three months later on 28 September 1762 in Edgecombe County.[14]  The will leaves five shillings each to sons Francis and Adam, presumably the eldest, “for I have advanced them as much as I can afford.”  Daughter Elizabeth Ivey was given household goods and £20.  Daughters Sarah, Martha, and Mary were each left £25 with Martha to receive hers at age 21 and Mary at age 20.   Son Lewis Ivey was left a 200 acre plantation purchased from William Register, with possession when he reached 21.  Benjamin Ivey was left the 285 acre plantation “where I now live”.  His wife, who is unnamed, was surely a second wife for he deviated from normal practice and explicitly abrogated her dower rights.  He lent her the use of £50 until “my son” George came of age, gave her household goods and crops outright, and gave her the use of his house and land for five years.  She was evidently the mother of George, who was to receive £30 at 21 and the other £20 at the death of his mother.  Benjamin Ivey was named executor and presented the inventory on 25 January 1763.   The wife, whose name is not given, does not appear in any further records examined. 

Within a few years after his death, all five of Adam Ivey’s sons moved to the southern part of Bladen County that became Robeson County in 1787.  So did many of their immediate neighbors in Edgecombe.[15]  It seems reasonable that at lest some of the daughters may have married and moved there as well, but their husbands are unidentifiable.  At least two of the sons were in Bladen by 1768, the rest by 1775.   

1.1.   Francis Ivey  (1735? – aft1800)  The first record of him is his appearance with his father as a member of a road jury in 1760.[16]  The lost deed of Johnston County mentioned above may have been an earlier record, but the date is undeterminable.  He bought 100 acres in Edgecombe County, apparently near his father, on 22 September 1761[17], which he sold in 1763 with his brothers Adam Ivey and Benjamin Ivey as witnesses.[18]  By 18 April 1767 he was in Bladen County, when a land entry near his brother Adam on Indian Swamp mentions “the plantation where Francis Ivey lives”.[19]  Oddly, he does not appear in the tax list of 1774 (which is thought to be complete) but appears first in 1776 as a white tithable.  A partial 1779 land tax list shows him with 150 acres.  Most early Bladen deeds were lost, but re-recorded deeds show Francis Ivey bought 150 acres in 1780[20] and another 300 acres in 1784[21] both on Indian Swamp. The tax list of 1784 shows him with that 450 acres and one poll.  In 1786 he sold the 300-acre parcel.[22]  By 1787, when the remaining land fell into Robeson County (whose deeds are preserved), we find Francis Ivey acquiring and selling land in several transactions through the late 1790s, all in the neighborhood of Indian and Flowers Swamps in the southeastern part of Robeson.[23]  He appears in the 1786 tax list with 2 males 21-60, 3 males under 21, and 5 females.[24]  The 1790 census of Robeson County shows him with 2 males over 16, 3 males under 16, and 5 females.  He is in the 1800 census, he and his wife both over 45, with a male 10-16, two males 16-25, and two females 26-45.  He is not in the 1810 census and does not appear in Robeson’s records after 1800, evidently having sold all his land there.  

The tax list and censuses suggest four sons and four daughters, but even a tentative identification of most of these isn’t possible with the records I’ve seen.  If we can assume that all the males in the tax and census records were his, there should be four sons:

1.1.1.      Perhaps the Francis Ivey who married Elizabeth Hardcastle by bond dated 5 July 1803 in Roberson County.  He may be one of the two males 16-25 in Francis Ivey’s household.

1.1.2.      Probably Lewis Ivey (c1776 - aft1850).  In 1798 Lewis Ivey bought land on Flower’s Swamp near Francis Ivey with Francis Ivey a witness.[25]  He is not in the 1800 census, and is probably one of the two males 16-25 in Francis Ivey’s household.  He remained in southeastern Robeson County, where the 1850 census shows his age as 73.

1.1.3.      Probably Elias Ivey (c1788 – 1858).  He is likely the male 10-15 in the 1800 household, for he appears in records with Lewis Ivey, lived in the Indian-Flowers Swamp area, and is consecutive to Lewis Ivey in 1830.  The 1850 census gives his age as 62.  His wife was Temperance (apparently Britt).

1.1.4.      Apparent son born 1786-1790. 

1.2.   Adam Ivey (c1735? – c1807/8?)  The lost deed in Johnston County was evidently land or goods given by Adam Ivey Sr. to his son, though there is no later record of a resale, unless it was the second lost deed from Adam Ivey to Francis Ivey.  By 18 April 1767 he was in Bladen County, where he entered a claim for 200 acres on Indian Swamp, including his own improvements.[26]  The patent was issued two years later, on 4 May 1769.[27]  He subsequently bought and sold several tracts in the same small area of Bladen County and continued to do so after it had become Robeson County, signing each sale with his mark.  He appeared as a mulatto in the household of  Simon Cox in the 1768 tax list, again as a mulatto in 1770, but as a white in 1772.  In 1774 he and an unnamed brother are listed as mulattos, and in 1776 he and George Ivey are listed together as whites.  The tax list of 1784 shows him with 450 acres and a single white poll.  In 1786 he is listed as white, with one male over 21, two males under 21 and eight females in the household.[28]  In 1790 he had two males over 16, three males under 16, and seven females.  In 1800 he is over 45, with a household of two males under 10, one female under 10, four females 16-26, and one female over 45.  He does not appear in Robeson’s records after  selling his only remaining land in 1807 and is not in the 1810 or subsequent censuses.  As with his brother Francis Ivey, we can tentatively assume that he had four to six sons[29] but can’t identify them all based on the information we have.  The eldest son, though, appears to have been Josiah Ivey.  Adam Ivey’s widow may have been Mary Ivey, who headed a household of five free others adjacent Josiah Ivey in 1810.

1.2.1.      Probably Josiah Ivey (c1770- ?) who bought land adjacent Adam Ivey in 1805 then sold part of it to Adam Ivey the following day.[30]  Oddly, he bought the same land back again in 1809.  He is 26-44 in 1800, and head of a household of 9 “other free persons” in 1810, after which he seems to disappear.  He does not seem to be the same person as the Josiah Ivey in the 1820 or later Robeson censuses.

1.2.2.      Apparent son born 1774-1785 

1.2.3.      Apparent son born 1787-1790

1.2.4.      Apparent son born 1787-1790
           

1.3.   Benjamin Ivey (c1740 - c1779)  His father’s will devised him the home plantation. On 31 December 1773, Benjamin Ivey and his wife Edey, as residents of Bladen County, sold that inherited land, describing it as where his father lived and left to him by his father’s will.[31]  They had been in Bladen County by 1768 when he appeared as a white tithable adjacent Adam Ivey, evidently living on his own land.[32]  He appears in the same area on the tax lists of 1770 (with John Phillips, mulatto), 1772, 1774, and 1776. He was taxed as white in each list, except 1774 when the white entry is crossed out his name added to a list of “mixed bloods”.  On 13 November 1776 he appears with several neighbors in jail at New Bern for some unknown offense.[33]  He apparently died by 1784, when Edith Ivey was taxed on 450 acres, with no polls.  The following year John Phillips (apparently the mulatto in Benjamin’s household in 1770) sold land to Edey Ivey, with Francis Ivey a witness.[34]  Edey Ivey appears in the 1790 census with a household of one male over 16 and four females.  In 1800, she heads a household of one male 10-16, one female 16-25, and one female over 45 – though the male was clearly not her child by Benjamin Ivey.[35]  There is a second Edey Ivey with two small children as well.  In 1810 both Edey Ivey and Charles Ivey are listed as residents of Lumberton town, though Edey Ivey, head of  a household of five “other free” may be the younger Edey Ivey.  The elder Edey Ivey is perhaps remarried as the Edey Gilbert adjacent to Charles Ivey.   The last appearance of an Edey Ivey, who is probably the younger woman, is in 1820 when she is enumerated as a single female over 45.  It is likely that Charles Ivey was the male in the 1790 household – he appears adjacent to Edey in 1800 and in 1795 Charles Ivey he sold land formerly owned by Edey Ivey.  Edith Ivey is thought to have been the daughter of John Phillips and Hannah Fort (a daughter of Adam Ivey’s neighbor in Edgecombe County).[36]  The tax and census records suggest only one son:

1.3.1.      Charles Ivey (c1767 – aft1850)  Circumstantial evidence points to him as the only son of Benjamin Ivey.  Family legend gives his mother as Edith Ivey and his father as either James or Benjamin (depending on the legend source).  In 1796 he sold land on Indian Swamp, but by 1810 he and his mother were enumerated as the only Iveys the town of Lumberton.  He appears fairly frequently in records beginning in 1789 and is in the1850 Robeson census as age 83.  His known children include Wright Leonard Ivey, Charles Ivey Jr., and three daughters named Mary, Eleanor, and Martha, but census records suggest at least two more sons.

1.4.   Lewis Ivey  (c1745-50 – c1810?)  His father’s will devised him 200 acres when he reached the age of 21.  The land adjoined his father’s home plantation, for Benjamin Ivey’s 1773 deed describes that land as adjoining Lewis Ivey.  He was apparently the last of the brothers to move to Bladen, for he does not appear in tax lists through 1774.  But by 2 March 1775, Lewis Ivey was of Bladen County when he sold his inherited land, describing it as “a tract of 200 acres… which his father Adam Ivey willed...”[37]  He appears on the Bladen County tax list of 1776 in the same district as his four brothers.  By 1779 he had acquired land, for he was taxed on 300 acres in both 1779 and 1784.  In 1786 he was head of a household of two males over 21, one male under 21, and 5 females.  In 1790, though there is a “Luke” Ivey as a single head of household in Bladen, he may be the Lewis Ivey in then-neighboring Brunswick County with a household of one male under 16 and six females – a household closely paralleling the one of a few years earlier.  Later references in Robeson County appear to apply to a younger Lewis Ivey, either his son or a nephew, so it seems likely Lewis Ivey either left Bladen County or died.  The Lewis Ivey in neighboring Brunswick County appears in the census there in 1790, 1800, and perhaps in 1810.[38]  It appears he had one son, Benjamin Ivey, who remained in Brunswick County, appearing in the 1810-1850 censuses and giving his age as 66 in 1850.  If the 1810 census record is indeed Lewis Ivey, he may have had two younger sons by a second wife.  The 1840 census shows a Stewart Ivey with a household of two males 20-30 who may be those two sons.

1.5.   George Ivey  (c1750? – c1780?)  He was under 21 when his father made his will in 1762, and was to receive £30 at 21 and another £20 at the death of his mother.  Although his brothers Adam and Benjamin were in Bladen County by 1768, George does not appear until 1774 when Adam Ivey and his unnamed brother are taxed as “mixed bloods”.  In 1776 and Adam and George Ivey were taxed together as whites.  It appears that Adam was the responsible party in both years, suggesting that George may have still been under age and therefore even younger than the estimate above.  There is no mention of him at all after 1776, although he may have been the second male over 21 in Lewis Ivey’s 1786 household. 

Thomas Ivey

1.      Thomas Ivey (c1700-10? – c1775-85?)    This Thomas Ivey’s ancestry can only be guessed at.  He may have been related in some way to the Adam Ivey above, given the proximity of the two sets of children and the likelihood that he had a son named Adam.  He was of the same generation as that Adam Ivey, so it is tempting to speculate that they may have been brothers.  He might, in fact, be the Thomas Ivey who received a grant just a few miles from the above Adam Ivey, on Contentnea Creek, on 1 December 1744.[39]  The grant was then in Craven County, but was evidently sold about 1754 when it was in Johnston County – a deed from a Thomas Ivey to John Williams was recorded in 1754 in Johnston County, though the deed is now lost. [40]  

Whether this was him or not is unknown, but Thomas Ivey was in Bladen County before 31 March 1753 when a patent to Daniel Willis on Saddletree Swamp adjoined Thomas Ivey’s land.[41]  A year later, on 20 February 1754, he entered a claim for that land, 150 acres including his own improvements on the 5 Mile Branch in Bladen County, and on 26 September 1755 entered a second claim for 300 acres on the west side of Drowning Creek where James Roberts formerly lived.[42] [43] The former did not result in a patent, but the latter was granted in 1756.[44]  Both claims were in present Robeson county, the first just north of Lumberton in present Robeson County about a mile from Drowning Creek, the second somewhere nearby.  Although nearly all early Bladen deeds were destroyed, some were later re-recorded.  Among them are deeds by James Blount and Martha Blount in 1771 of the 300-acre 1756 Thomas Ivey patent which was described as having been sold by Thomas Ivey, apparently prior to 1769.[45] 

The earliest tax list for Bladen County, in 1763, shows “Thos. Ivey & two sons” as white tithables, indicating two sons born by 1746.[46]   Subsequent tax lists, covering the years 1768-1789 are incomplete except for 1774, with each list missing some tax districts.  While we must be cautious about drawing conclusions from the absence of a name, the Thomas Ivey who appears on these later tax lists appears to be the son rather than the father, especially since we can attribute each land transaction of that period to the son.  Further, the son styles himself “Thomas Ivey Jr.” until 1767 then drops the “Jr.”, suggesting he no longer needed to differentiate himself from an elder Thomas Ivey.[47]  Depositions in an 1812 court case strongly suggest that, having disposed of his patent sometime before 1769, Thomas Ivey moved south into what became Marion District, South Carolina and died there some years later.[48]  Thomas Hagans, born about 1765 and identified as a grandson of Thomas Ivey and his wife Elizabeth, refused to pay his assessed tax as a free non-white in Marion District, South Carolina in 1809.  At his trial in 1812, two white men testified on his behalf.  The testimony of John Regan, a longtime neighbor of Thomas Ivey Jr., suggests that Thomas Ivey Sr. left Bladen County sometime in the late 1760s and removed to South Carolina.  The testimony of Robert Coleman, a longtime resident of Marion District, suggests that Thomas and Elizabeth Ivey lived in Marion District for several years before their deaths. [49]  Both men testified that Thomas Ivey was “understood” and “generally reputed” to be of Portuguese descent and that his wife Elizabeth was a free white woman.[50] 

It seems highly likely that Thomas Ivey Jr. and Isham Ivey are the two sons of Thomas Ivey for whom he was taxed in 1763.  It also seems likely that he had a younger son named Adam Ivey.  There may well have been others who appear in South Carolina records.  Not included below is his daughter Kesiah who married Zachariah Hagans and apparently lived and died in Marion District, South Carolina..

1.1.   Thomas Ivey  (c1735? - )  He is surely a son of Thomas Ivey Sr. although there is no specific record that proves the relationship.  As “Thomas Ivey Jr.” he received a grant of 203 acres on Saddletree Swamp very near his father’s grant on 23 October 1761.[51] [52]  Given his absence from the 1763 tax list, he is surely one of the “two sons” of Thomas Ivey in that tax list.  As “Thomas Ivey Jr.” he entered land in 1767 bordering his own line[53], which was surveyed late that year in the name of “Thomas Ivey”[54] though it evidently did not result in a grant.  At about the same time, he and James Blount jointly purchased 500 acres on 5 Mile Branch from William Pugh of Edgecombe County.[55]  A later deed by James Blount of what appears to be a part of the patent to Pugh suggests that he and Thomas Ivey had divided the land.[56]  He is probably the single Thomas Ivey who is a white tithable on the Bladen tax lists of 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, and 1772.  In 1774 he is listed as  white, and a second Thomas Ivey in a different district is listed as “mixed blood”.  In 1776 and again in 1784 Thomas Ivey is listed as white.  He is on the first land tax list, in 1784, with 640 acres and one poll.  This was apparently a 640 acre patent by Gowen Morgan of 1766 on Saddletree Swamp which Thomas Ivey later sold in piecemeal.  By 1787 his land fell into Robeson County and he is found selling land there in several transactions beginning a dozen years later.  He appears on the 1790 census of Robeson County with four males over 16, two males under 16, and five females.  In 1800 he is over 45, with two males 16-25.  By 1796 he is styling himself as “Sr.”, and a son Thomas Ivey Jr begins to appear.[57]  In 1810 he is apparently the Thomas Ivey enumerated as head of a household of four “other free persons.”  Although this Thomas Ivey  is listed as white in every tax list and census except perhaps 1774 and 1810, he apparently found it necessary to prove his race.  He testified in the Robeson County court on 26 August 1811 that he had been proven to be a white man several years earlier by the Bladen County court.  (That original court record, presumably prior to 1787, is among the lost records of Bladen.)  Note that four of the males in his 1790 household cannot be identified with the information we have.  The toher two, and one who died prior to 1790, are probably:

1.1.1.      Reuben Ivey  (c1760 – c1776)  He does not appear as a tithable on any tax lists and therefore was likely born 1760 or later.  The Reuben Ivey who witnessed a deed in Bladen County in 1770 appears to be a different person.[58]  In 1781, Thomas Ivey of Robeson County gave a power of attorney to collect money due to his deceased son Reuben Ivey for his service in the army.[59]  He may have been the Reuben Ivey who served in the Revolution in a local company in 1781-2, but I suspect that was the other Reuben Ivey.[60]  On 30 July 1800 Thomas Ivey Sr. and Thomas Ivey Jr. sold land on 5 Mile Branch described as land Samuel Andrews sold to Reuben Ivey, and descended to Thomas Ivey (Jr.) as his brother and heir.[61]  The purchase by Reuben Ivey was evidently in an unread, but rerecorded, deed.[62]

1.1.2.      John Ivey  (c1775? - ?)  On 10 April 1800 Thomas Ivey Sr. sold him 150 acres for $1, reserving the fruit of the orchard for his own lifetime.[63]  John Ivey sold the land two years later.  He does not appear as a head of household until 1810, and does not appear to be the John Ivey of the 1820 Robeson census.  He may be the John Ivey for whom Thomas Hagans (his uncle?) was granted administration in Marian County, South Carolina on 4 January 1819.  That person’s widow was apparently the Lavinia Ivey in the 1820 census of Marion County with four small children.

1.1.3.      Thomas Ivey (c1775 – ?)  He may have been one of the males under 16 in his father’s 1790 household, for in 1800 he is evidently one of the males 16-25 in his father’s household, and by 1810 is listed as head of his own household, aged 26-45 with an apparent wife and five small children.  By 1820 he had evidently left the area.

1.2.   Isham Ivey  (c1745 – c1818)  He seems likely to be another son of Thomas Ivey Sr., though there is no direct evidence.  Whether he was one of the “two sons” in 1763 depends on his year of birth, and the only evidence of that is a son old enough to a head of household in 1790.  He does not appear on any Bladen tax lists until 1772, perhaps having briefly accompanied his father to South Carolina.  The earliest record of him is a land entry on 11 November 1771 for 200 acres on White Oak Swamp, a branch of the Saddletree Swamp, so close to Thomas Ivey Jr. that it suggests a relationship.[64]  The grant was issued six weeks later.[65]  Thomas Ivey (Jr.) and Isham Ivey then appear consecutively as whites on the tax lists of 1772 and 1774.  On 6 March 1775, he was granted another 100 acres adjacent Thomas Ivey.[66]  The 1776 tax list is county-wide, with Isham again appearing as white.  His district is missing in the tax lists until 1784, when he and Thomas Ivey are again in the same district.  Isham is shown with no land and a single white poll – indicating that he must have sold his patents by then.  In 1787 he bought 250 acres to the east[67] and is the only Ivey remaining in Bladen County in 1788, when he is taxed on that land and one “free” poll. His land on Great Swamp was initially in Bladen County when Robeson was formed in 1787, but would be in Robeson County by the following year thanks to a change in the county boundary.[68]   Isham subsequently is found in several transactions in Robeson County, often with other Iveys who appear to be his sons.  He appears in the 1790 census of Robeson County with two males over 16, three males under 16, and four females, with his apparent son Austin Ivey nearby.  In 1800 he is over 45 with a male 10-16 and another 16-26, one female 10-16, two females 16-26, one female 26-45 and one female over 45.  In 1810 he is again over 45 but there are two females over 45 and a male and a female both under 10.  He was alive as late as August 1817 when he proved a deed[69] but was apparently dead by 22 February 1819 when two slaves were sold to his wife, Sarah Ivey “widow”.[70] 

He appears to have had at least two wives and two sets of children.  His second wife was apparently the daughter Sarah Ivey mentioned in the 1810 will of Gilbert Cox.[71]  Isham and his wife Sarah had given land to Bathsheba Cox in 1816 that appears to have included at least part of an inheritance.  Sarah seems to be the Sarah Ivey who appears in 1820 as head of a household of six free colored.[72]  By 1830 she was in Bledsoe County, Tennessee, age 60-70, and in 1833 two married women (Bathsheba Cox and Sarah Cox), who described themselves as daughters of Sarah Ivey and granddaughters of Gilbert Cox, appointed Claiborne Ivey to recover their interest in the estate of Gilbert Cox.  It appears that Austin Ivey was his eldest son.  Three of the other four sons suggested by the censuses appear to be Jesse Ivey, Silas Ivey, and Isham Ivey Jr. from circumstantial (bit compelling) evidence.

1.2.1.      Austin Ivey  (c1768? - ?)  He appears to be the eldest son, as he appears newly married and head of his own household adjacent to Isham in 1790.  In 1800 he is again consecutive with Isham Ivey, with a household including four young daughters.  Not found in 1810, he is last found in Columbus County in 1820, over 45.

1.2.2.      Jesse Ivey   (c1775? – aft1840) In 1797 Isham Ivey made a deed of gift of 300 acres to Jesse Ivey, who appears in 1810 as head of a household of 4 other free persons.  He was counted as white 1820-1840. 

1.2.3.      Silas Ivey  (c1780? - ?) He is in the 1810 census four names from Isham Ivey, he and his wife age 26-44, with two males under 10 and two males 10-16.  In 1820 he is three names from Josiah Ivey, again aged 26-44.  He disappears from Roberson by 1830.

1.2.4.      Isham Ivey Jr.  (c1795 - ?)  He was likely the male aged 10-15 in Isham’s 1810 household, probably near the upper end of the age bracket since he appears on a muster roll of a Robeson militia unit in the War of 1812.  He appears as a single household (age 26-45) in the 1820 Robeson census, four names from Isham Ivey Sr.  In 1820 he is again single, again aged 26-45.  He disappears by 1830, as the later Isham Ivey in Robeson County is younger and appears to be a nephew.

1.2.5.      Clayborn Ivey (c1806 - ?) apparently a child of the second marriage and the male under 10 in Isham’s 1810 household and 15-26 in Sarah’s 1820 household.  The 1850 census gives his age as 43.

1.3.   Adam Ivey (c1761 -1836) appears to be another son, though the evidence is purely circumstantial.  His (rejected) Revolutionary pension application, submitted in 1835 from Montgomery County, Alabama, stated he was age 74 and born in Robeson County (sic) about 1761, that he removed to Marion District, South Carolina at the age of 9 or 10, enlisted there at the age of 15, and served for several years apparently in the South Carolina militia.[73]  If the birth date and place are accurate, he could not have been a grandson of the Adam Ivey who died in 1762 for his sons did not arrive in Bladen County until well after 1761 and did not leave the county for decades.  (Further, none of those sons appears to have had children prior to the 1770s.)  In fact, the only Ivey we know of who was in Bladen in 1761 and who moved to Marion District in that timeframe was Thomas Ivey Sr., which makes him the only known candidate to be this Adam Ivey’s father.  (Of course he could be a grandson, son of an unknown son.)  Adam Ivey is not found in the 1790 census, though he evidently was married with one son by then.  In 1800 he is enumerated in Sumter County, South Carolina as head of a household of 8 “other free” persons; a John Ivey (not his son), aged 26-44, is nearby.   Not found in 1810, he is in the 1820 Sumter census, over 45 and head of household of nine “other free” persons.  His son George A. Ivey is nearby as head of his own “other free” household.  Adjacent is a Micajah Ivey (see below), also over 45 and also head of an “other free” household.  In 1830, Adam, his son George A. Ivey and Robert Ivey are all heads of white households, Adam the owner of two slaves.  His wife was apparently dead, as he had only three females in the household, all 20-30.  He must have moved to Alabama about this time.  His 1836 will gives a slave to son John J. Ivey with reversion to “my two sons” George A. Ivey and Robert A. Ivey if John died without heirs.[74]  It also bequeaths two slaves to daughter Catherine and one to daughter Nancy Baygents, all reverting to two Baygent grandchildren named Adam and Robert.  Household goods and livestock were also distributed among those named heirs.

1.3.1.      George Adam Ivey (c1788 – aft1850)  He is called George A. Ivey in his father’s will and appears that way in the 1820 and 1830 census.  In the 1840 census of Montgomery County he is evidently the Adam Ivey, aged 26-55, who is head of a free colored household with five females 10-24 and one female 55-100.  In 1850, he is again George A. Ivey, age 62, born in South Carolina, with an apparent second wife Harriet and four children.  A paper in his father’s pension file shows that he was also known as “Adam Ivey”, for in 1853 Adam, Robert, and John J. Ivey declared themselves the only heirs of their father and appointed an agent to pursue the pension claim.

1.3.2.      Robert A. Ivey (c1793 – aft1850)  He is age 57 in the 1850 Montgomery County census, born in South Carolina, with a wife Elizabeth and three older children.

1.3.3.      John J. Ivey (c1797 – aft1860)  He is also age 62 (sic) in the 1850 Montgomery County census, born in South Carolina, with a wife Tempsey and no apparent children.  However, he is only 63 in the 1860 census, which is more consistent with the earlier censuses for his father’s household.

Amos Ivey

The 1779 tax list for Richmond County, North Carolina has an “Amous” Ivey taxed on 50 acres, though I found no deed or grant to him.  He is not on the 1786 state census for Richmond County, but perhaps the same person is later found selling land on the other side of the state line in Marlboro County, South Carolina in 1797 and 1808, apparently living in the northwestern part of the county.[75]  Not found in 1790, he is head of household of 7 “other free persons” in 1800 Marlboro.  The 1808 sale was to a neighbor, so he perhaps left the area at that time.

Anthony Ivey

Anthony Ivey (c1730? – 1790?) An Anthony Ivey entered land in Bladen County on 26 September 1755, the same day as Thomas Ivey’s first claim.[76]  Though the land was never granted, it was evidently somewhere in eastern present Robeson County, between Drowning Creek and the Great Swamp.  In 1756 he shot William Wilkerson, whose father stood the bail, then “absconded the county” before the trial.[77]  There is no further record of him for more than twenty years.  He is chiefly of interest in that the man he shot was apparently living on a grant within a couple miles of the land James Ivey (see below) bought ten years later, and Anthony Ivey himself claimed land somewhere in the vicinity later occupied by the children of Thomas Ivey and Adam Ivey.  He may be the same Anthony Ivey who sold land in neighboring Anson County in 1779.[78]  That person did not appear on the Anson tax list later that year, and evidently moved into either modern Marlboro or Darlington County, South Carolina.  Anthony Ivey died by June 1790 in Darlington District (then Cheraws District), South Carolina when his wife Mary was appointed administrator.[79]  Mary, whose securities were members of the Welsh Neck Baptist Church located then in Marlboro County, had joined the church barely a month after the Anson sale in 1779.[80]  The widow Mary does not appear in the 1790 or later censuses.

James Ivey 

James Ivey (c1740s – 1820)  How he might be connected to these other Iveys is unknown, but it seems likely that he and Joseph Ivey were related, perhaps as brothers.  Although there may have been two persons of this name in the area, it seems more likely that all references to James Ivey are to a single person.  He does not appear on the 1763 tax list of Bladen County but, having accounted for the two sons of Thomas Ivey on that list, he may have been the James Ivey on the 1763 tax list for neighboring Anson County.  He next appears in Bladen County on 26 July 1766 when he bought 200 acres about 20 miles west of the other Iveys, which he sold three years later on 15 September 1769 to James Adair.[81]  His signature mark on that deed appears to match the mark later used on the 1820 will.  The land was just southwest of the present town of Rowland, practically on the South Carolina border, and only two or three miles east of what was then the Anson county line.[82]  This explains his absence from the 1768 tax list, since the tax list of that district is missing.  Subsequent to the land sale he, along with Joseph Ivey, appears in the same district as Thomas Ivey in the 1770 and 1772 tax lists as mulattos, with Gideon Grant listed with James Ivey in 1772.  In May 1772 John Turner entered 100 acres on Leith’s Creek a few miles west of Mitchell’s Creek which included “the improvements he purchased of James Ivey” indicating that James Ivey had lived in Anson County.[83]   He appears first, and Joseph Ivey second, on a list of eighteen “rogues [who are] free Negroes and Mullatus living upon the Kings Land… the Mob Raitously Assembled together“ on 13 October 1773, in a complaint that they “infest [Bladen] County and annoy its Inhabitants.”[84]  His appearance on this list as “Captain James Ivey” is evidently a reference to his leadership of the mob.[85]  Interestingly enough, he and a few other names on the list may have actually been living in Anson County at the time.  The 1774 and 1776 tax lists of Bladen, the only ones known to be complete, do not list either James Ivey or his apparent brother Joseph Ivey (who patented had land in Anson County in 1773).  Sometime in late 1776 or early 1777 a James Ivey signed an Anson County petition to create Richmond County.[86]  This is perhaps explained by a land claim in Anson in late 1778 mentioning James Ivey’s land[87] and a nearby claim six weeks later which included “James Ivey’s old improvement where one Harderson lives”[88] and a third nearby claim a month after that which included “James Ivey’s improvements”.[89]   All three claims were near Joseph Ivey in the eastern portion of what became Richmond, and eventually Scotland, County.   He does not appear on the 1779 land tax list for Richmond, presumably because he owned no land.  But on 24 December 1783 John Forley entered a claim in the same vicinity of what had become Richmond County that included an “improvement made by James Ivey and Boson Cheves.”[90]  He must have moved to South Carolina about this time, for no Ivey appears in the 1786 state census for Richmond County nor is there a James Ivey in the 1790 census anywhere in southeastern North Carolina.   By 1790 he is probably the James Ivey in the 1790 census of Prince George’s Parish of Georgetown District (later Marion District) with two males over 16, six males under 16, and three females.  Presumably the same James Ivey witnessed three deeds in Marion District, two by his apparent brother Joseph Ivey, in 1797 and 1798[91], and is in the 1800 Marion census, over 45, with three males aged 10-15, one female over 45, and four slaves. Two names away is Josiah Ivey, aged 26-44, perhaps a son, with another male 16-25 in the household. He does not appear to be in the 1810 census.  He left a will, signed with a mark similar to that used in 1769, dated 25 July 1820 in Marlboro District which made bequests to his wife Mourning, six sons, a daughter, and two grandsons.[92]  Curtis and Megirt [McGirt?] Ivey, perhaps the younger sons, received the estate but were directed at the death of their mother to pay the others:  Isaiah, Micajah, Joseph, James, Sarah Blackwell, and Curtis and James Proctor.  Note that the 1790 census implies one additional son.

Joseph Ivey 

He seems likely to have been a brother of James Ivey.  He appears in Bladen County near James Ivey as a mulatto tithable in 1768, a white tithable in 1770, and again as a mulatto tithable in 1772.  He is also listed with James Ivey on the 1773 list of free negroes and mulattos (see above).  In May 1772 Joseph Ivey claimed land in the general vicinity of James Ivey [93] for which a patent was granted on 22 January 1773.[94]  The land was in the part of Anson County which was added back to Bladen County in 1777, thus explaining his absence from the Bladen tax lists of 1774 and 1776.  Shortly after his land was redistricted into Bladen County, he is found as a chain carrier in 1780[95] and in the Bladen tax list of 1784 with one white poll and 100 acres.  On 26 February 1785 he sold his patent and does not appear again in Bladen records.[96]  He is apparently the Joseph Ivy “mulatto” found on the 1790 census of adjoining Cheraws District (later Marlboro County), South Carolina with a household of three males over 16 and three females, all enumerated as “other free persons”.[97]  The two older males may have been sons or perhaps two of the otherwise missing Iveys.  Presumably the same Joseph Ivey acquired land across the line in Marion District, for he sold land there as a resident of Marion District in 1795 and in three deeds of 1797 and early 1798, with James Ivey a witness to two of them.[98]  In each case, the land was nearly on the Marion-Marlboro border and roughly five miles from his former land in Robeson County.  In 1804 he sold nearby land in Marion as a resident of Marlboro County.[99]  That surely makes him the Joseph Ivey in the 1800 Marlboro census, aged over 45, with a single female 16-25.  A further indication that this was the same person is a deed to three grandchildren the same year.[100]

A gap in the records (at least the ones I have) raises the possibility that this Joseph Ivey died and that subsequent records are for a second, slightly younger Joseph Ivey.  This would explain later census records suggesting an age that is consistently several years or so too young.  However, the seamlessness of the records suggests only one Joseph Ivey whose age is recorded inaccurately in his old age.  Either way, we have an unusually long-lived individual.  His children give their births in 1800 and ca1807 as South Carolina, but no Joseph Ivey is found in 1810 or 1820 censuses of South Carolina (although the one in 1800 certainly fits this profile.)  It is possible that the “J. Ivey” in the 1810 Marlboro census is him, though the household is not a perfect fit.[101]  He appears fairly steadily in Marlboro County records through 1819, but may be the Joseph Ivey, over 45, in Richmond County, North Carolina in 1820 with a household that appears to perfectly fit later records and would explain his temporary absence from South Carolina records.[102]  He was back in Marlboro County within a few years and in 1830 apparently the same person, now aged 60-70, is in Marlboro County with two young males and a female in the household, though he now evidently has a younger wife.  In 1840 he is again 60-70 (sic), the two younger males, Gadi and Levi, are nearby heads of households and Joseph has apparently remarried the widow Charity Graham.  In the 1850 census of Marlboro, this Joseph Ivey is age 93, with Charity and her son in the household.  Sons Levi (42 SC) and Gadi (50 SC) are also in the county.  His 1853 will, proved in 1857, names sons Levi and Gadi, a daughter Patsy, and his wife Charity and her son Emanuel Graham.[103]  A gravestone for the son Gadi Ivey gives his birth date as 1 November 1800 and his parents as Joseph and Mary Ivey.  Note that the mother would have been pregnant, and presumably married, when the 1800 census was taken, meaning that the Joseph Ivey of Marlboro in 1800 could be this person.  

Whether we have one or two Joseph Iveys in these records is unclear.  The two sets of records, taken separately, seem to describe two Joseph Iveys perhaps ten or so years apart in age.  However, lacking any evidence of two Joseph Iveys alive at the same time, the ability to attribute the 1800 census record to either of them, and the general seamlessness of the records we do have, it may be that all of the above records are for a single person.  If so, he apparently had two sets of children.  Two possibilities for the elder children are the James Ivey Jr. and Micajah Ivey below.

James Ivey Jr. 

His land entry of 100 acres appears on a list of Bladen County land entries between 4 November 1783 and 1 April 1784 that were caveated and disputed.[104]  That probably explains his presence on a 1784 Bladen County tax list, as a white male 21 or over, one name from Joseph Ivey and located in the southwest part of the county.  A year later, on 26 December 1785 both Micajah Ivey and James Ivey Jr. appear on a list of people summoned by the Richmond County court on a trespass case.[105]  It is curious that he should be referred to on all three occasions as “James Ivey Jr.” when there does not seem to be an older James Ivey in the county to distinguish him from, other than perhaps the James Ivey above.  He does not appear as a head of household in 1790, and may have been one of the males over 16 in the household of either Joseph Ivey or James Ivey.  He was likely the same James Ivey in the 1800 census of Marlboro County, South Carolina, aged 26-44 with four children under 10. 

He appears to be a son of either James Ivey or Joseph Ivey.  If he were barely 21 by late 1783 or early 1784, he would not have been a tithable of either in 1772 when they last appeared on the tax lists.  We know that James Ivey had a son named James, but descendants apparently have evidence that he was born considerably after the 1760s.  That makes him a likely son of Joseph Ivey, and therefore probably one of the males in his 1790 household and probably the James Ivey in the 1800 census of Marlboro.

Micajah Ivey   

It’s not clear whether there were one or two people with this name.  On 26 December 1785 both Micajah Ivey and James Ivey Jr. appear on a list of people summoned by the Richmond County court on a trespass case.[106]  A Micajah Ivy appears a year later on the 1786 tax list of Prince George Parish, Georgetown District (later Marlboro), South Carolina with 100 acres.  A Micajah Ivey was a chain carrier for a survey in Bladen County near the state line a year later in 1787, but appears on no tax list there.[107]  He is not found in the 1790 or 1800 censuses.  If he died about that time, the Mary Ivey in the 1800 and 1810 census of Marlboro might be his widow.  Perhaps a different Micajah Ivey served in the War of 1812 from the area of Marlboro or Marion County.[108]  There is perhaps a different Micajah Ivey who appears in the 1820 Sumter County census, over 45, as head of an “free colored” household enumerated adjacent to the Adam Ivey above.  This same Micajah Ivey, along with an Elijah Driggars, testified in a racial background case involving former residents of Georgetown District in Sumter County, South Carolina in 1823.[109]  He is not found in 1830.  He may have been a son of either James or Joseph Ivey, although descendants think James Ivey’s son was a different person.

Jeremiah Ivey

He appears on the 1774 and 1776 tax lists of Bladen County as a white tithable.  In 1774 he is apparently living in a different tax district than any other Iveys, but in 1776 is included in the same district as all other Iveys. There are no further records of him.  Later records for Jeremiah Ivey appear to be much too young to be this person. 

John Ivey and Jesse Ivey

Both appear together in Anson County when John Ivey bought land in 1782 with Jesse Ivey a witness.[110]  Perhaps the same John Ivey had earlier been one of the signers of a petition to divided Anson County in 1777.[111]  Jesse Ivey died by January 1785, leaving a widow named Mary Ivey with John Ivey a buyer at the estate sale.[112]  In 1786 John Ivey sold his land in Anson as a resident of Georgetown District, South Carolina.[113]  He is presumably the John Ivey in the 1790 census of Georgetown District, Prince Frederick Parish but is not found thereafter.  Perhaps a different John Ivey is in the 1800 census of Sumter County near Adam Ivey, age 26-44, as a single head of household.