Fourth Generation

87. Major Samuel LEONARD was born about 1735 in Cape May, NJ. He died in 1810 at the age of 75 in Brunswick Co., North Carolina. Dates of births of children over too great a range for one wife. Dates need verification.

Samuel's household had 5 members in the 1790 Census, plus 2 slaves. His will was probated in 1810, naming his wife Uphany and his two youngest children, Rebecca and Daniel. His executors were Samuel Leonard, III, and Thomas Leonard.

Did he die in Auvergne, France (per Cliff Leonard Family Tree)?

There may have been an intervening generation: A Samuel Leonard b. 1742 in Brunswick Co., d. 1810 in Brunswick Co., son of Samuel Leonard 1720-1782 and wife Elinor. It seems unlikely that Effie would have been having children in her 50's.

Was he also married to a Judith abt. 1764. She was born abt. 1745 and died abt. 1807.

Samuel and Henry Leonard registered land patents for 540 acres surrounding Lockwoods Folly Inlet (New Hanover Co., later Brunswick) 27 Sep 1756. Between 1768 and 1771, they added another 470 acres.

Between 1763 and 1772, the Brunswick Co. tax lists include Samuel Leonard Sr. and Samuel Leonard Jr., Henry Leonard Sr. and Henry Leonard Jr, John Leonard, and Jacob Leonard. The will of John Leonard, written in 1771 in Cape May, NJ, names his brothers Henry and Samuel in the Carolinas, as well as his sister Sarah Robinson, wife of John Robinson, also of the Carolinas. The will names his nephews Samuel, Henry, John, and Jacob, and John Robinson Jr. The will also mentions "by brother Samuel's daughter Jane Ludlam....my brother Henry's four daughters...my sister Sarah Robinson's daughters...my cousin (nephew?) Samuel's son Joh...and...my cousin (nephew?) Henry's son John."

Brunswick Co. County Court Minutes, Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, 10 Apr 1792, Miss Rebecca Ann Leonard chose her uncle Samuel Leonard as guardian, also Thomas and Jacob the same choice made, approved and entered into bond with John Robinson and Edw Sullivan as securities in the sum of 300 lb.currency. William Gause, Esq appointed guardian to Esther Leonard and Wm Espy Lord for Jane and Elizabeth Leonard. Eleanor mentioned in the records until 1793, but is absent in 1800 census.

NC will abstracts for Henry Leonard (1774) and Samuel (1782) and Samuel Jr. (1811) corroborate some of this information and confuse some of it too. by the first census in 1790 there is only one Samuel Leonard and one Henry Leonard listed in Brunswick Co. Jacob and John Leonard first appear as taxpayers in 1769, but we know that both Jacob and John are dead before the first census in 1790. (Does the NC State Archives have any further info?)

What is the origin of the name of Lockwoods Folly River?
Ben Steelman
StarNews
The name goes way back — it appears on the Ogilby map of 1671, making the river possibly the oldest named in North Carolina.
As you might expect, with so much time passing, the real origin has been lost with time. Two legends predominate. William S. Powell, in The North Carolina Gazetteer, repeats the old story about a man named Lockwood who built a big, fine ship up the river — only to find it was too big to float through Lockwoods Folly Inlet (which separates Holden Beach and Oak Island where the river flows into the Long Bay of the Atlantic Ocean). The boat was supposedly left to rot in the river, where it was a landmark for many years.
A second version, told by John Hairr in “North Carolina Rivers,” claims that Mr. Lockwood tried to plant a colony by the river but didn’t provide enough supplies, ran afoul of the local Indians and had to abandon his attempt. Considering that the name was on maps as of 1671, this falls close to the time of the abortive “Charlestown” settlement of the 1660s.
Powell, however, suggests a third explanation: In the 1660s, the word “Folly” was often included in the name of English estates from the French “Folie,” which means “delight” or “favorite abode,” rather than “real big screw-up.” In that sense, Lockwood Folly would mean “Lockwood’s Delight.”
In any case, nobody seems to know who Mr. Lockwood was.
In 1779, the county seat for Brunswick County was moved from Brunswick Town to Lockwood Folly. For a number of years, the semi-official seat of government was John Bell’s plantation, near the early Lockwood Folly Bridge, until a courthouse could be built in 1786. A town called Walkersburg was incorporated nearby, at Deep Water Point, in 1784, which was supposed to become the county seat and the courthouse site, but nothing seems to have come of those plans, and the county seat was moved to Smithville (modern-day Southport) in 1808, where it would remain until 1977.
Lockwood Folly is one of Brunswick County’s six historic townships, including the modern municipalities of Holden Beach, Varnamtown (on the banks of the Lockwood Folly River), Saint James and part of Shallotte. The 18-hole Lockwood Folly Country Club, with an adjoining gated residential community, is located near Holden Beach.
According to Powell, the Lockwood Folly River (referred to as a “creek” by some locals) is supposedly the second most beautiful in North Carolina. (The Waccamaw River is supposed to be No. 1.)
Date posted: December 28, 2009
User-contributed question by:
Anonymous

Effie Mercer UPHANY⁴¹ was born about 1745 in Brunswick Co., NC. She died in January 1797 at the age of 52 in Brunswick Co., NC. Also called Effie Mercer. Was she previously married?

Major Samuel LEONARD and Effie Mercer UPHANY had the following children: