Some Hooper Records in Colonial South Carolina

Including some records from the border counties of North Carolina

Thomas Hooper in Anson County, North Carolina

(To be added)

1763
Tax List, Anson County — no Hoopers

Hooper records in and around the border counties of North and South Carolina

17 April 1762
Plat:  Survey for Thomas Hooper on both sides of Camp Creek near the Waxsaws (sic) in Craven County [South Carolina], bounded on all sides by vacant land. [Plats Vol. 7, page 229.]  Granted 8 July 1762 [Colonial Grants Vol. 10, page 240.] Memorial dated 21 July 1762 [Memorials of South Carolina Land Titles, Vol. 14, page 233.]

Camp Creek meanders through present-day Lancaster County, South Carolina and runs into the Catawba River south of the town of Lancaster.  It isn’t clear where along the creek this tract is located, but it isn’t far south of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

I found no record of a sale of this grant.

6 April 1765
Warrant: Thomas Hooper, 200 acres in Mecklenburg County joining the Et. side of Broad River a little above his other entry. [Miles S. Philbeck, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Index to Land Surveys 1763-1768, from Anne Goodwin’s files.]

Unless this is the warrant for one of the somewhat smaller surveys below, it did not result in a grant.  The referenced “other entry” may refer to one of the two surveys below.

22 August 1765
Survey:  Thomas Hooper, 160 acres in Mecklenburg County on the west side of Broad River, including part of an island. Beginning at a hickory on the river bank at the mouth of Enos Hooper’s Creek and runs up the creek S40W 160 poles to a chestnut and red oak, thence N50W 160 poles to a red oak then S40E 160 poles running through the island to a stake in the river, thence down the river to the beginning.  The plat shows Enos Hooper’s Creek running east-southeast into Broad River and meandering along the entire S40W line of the survey.  Surveyor: William Dickson. Chain Bearers: Thomas Hooper, Mannin Gore.  [North Carolina Land Grants, Book 18, page 263 and loose papers in File #1396. Also abstracted in North Carolina Land Grants in South Carolina, page 73.]

See the plat here: Thomas Hooper 1765 Broad River

22 August 1765
Survey:  Thomas Hooper, 150 acres on north side and in the islands of Broad River, including the middle of the long island at a place called the Ninety Nine Islands. Beginning at a red oak on the hill side and running thence N40W 155 poles to a sweet gum at a branch thence S50W 155 poles crossing the river and islands to a stake thence down the river S40E 155 poles to a stake, thence to the beginning.   Survey shows small quantity of land on both sides of the river with most acreage being on the islands.  A structure is depicted on the east bank of the river.  Surveyor: William Dickson. Chain Bearers: Thomas Hooper, Manin (sic) Gore.  [North Carolina Grants, loose papers in Survey File #1396. Also abstracted in Brent H. Holcomb, North Carolina Land Grants in South Carolina (Genealogical Publishing Co, 1986), page 73]

These two surveys, and the resulting grants, are quite a bit west of the Camp Creek tract above and are about 8-9 miles south of the Cleveland County (then Mecklenburg), North Carolina border in present-day Cherokee County, South Carolina. Ninety-Nine Islands is a landmark southwest of the town of Blacksburg and just across and downriver from the village of Cherokee Falls.  The “long island” is the island across from the village of Cherokee Falls. 

The border between North Carolina and South Carolina west of the Catawba River was not settled until 1772.  Before that year North Carolina made about 1,000 land grants in South Carolina. These two grants were made from Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. .

24 October 1765
Warrant: Thomas Hooper, 200 acres on both sides of Broad River about a mile above Mathew Floyd’s Rich Land place.  [Miles S. Philbeck, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Index to Land Surveys 1763-1768, from Anne Goodwin’s files.]

This refers to a 1764 grant of 200 acres to Matthew Floyd [Volume 17, page 79] on both sides of Richland Creek where it enters the Broad River in what is now Rutherford County, North Carolina about a mile north of the South Carolina border and 5 or 6 miles west of the Cleveland County line.  (Floyd sold that grant in 1766.)   Mathew Floyd had many grants up and down the Broad River in both North and South Carolina. This warrant did not result in a grant to Thomas Hooper, but it does place him in the vicinity of what became Rutherford County, North Carolina.

5 April 1766
Survey: for Finney McClanahan, 200 acres of land in Mecklenburg County on the No. side of Broad River opposite a Little Island below James Moore’s Survey… Chain Bearers: Arch’d McDowell, Thomas Hooper. Grant issued 26 September 1766.  [From the files of Anne Goodwin. Survey is in North Carolina Land Grants Loose Images, Grant No. 677.  Grant is in Colonial Grants Volume 17, page 291.]

There are eight grants to James Moore in Mecklenburg  within a couple years of this date, but it is likely that the survey referred to here is reflected in Grant No. 676 issued the same day to James Moore for 200 acres on the south side of the Broad River “about 2 or 3 miles above the mouth of Second Broad River.”  This places both McClanahan’s and Moore’s land in Rutherford County, North Carolina about two miles west of the Cleveland County line and about two miles north of Cherokee County, South Carolina.  This is roughly 12 miles from the Thomas Hooper surveys at Ninety-Nine Islands (see below.)

Anne Goodwin points out that Finney McClanahan was the son of Robert McClanahan who had commanded Thomas Hooper in the Cherokee War.  

25 September 1766
Land Grant: North Carolina to Thomas Hooper, 160 acres in Mecklenburg County on the west side of Broad River, including part of an island.  [North Carolina Land Grants, Book 17, page 289]

From first survey of 22 August 1765.

27 April 1767
Land Grant: North Carolina to Thomas Hooper, 150 acres on north side and in the islands of Broad River, including the middle of the long island at a place called the Ninety Nine Islands.  [North Carolina Land Grants, Book 23, page 65]

From second survey of 22 August 1765.

5 June 1767
Survey: Phillip Henson, 100 acres in Mecklenburg County joining on the west side of Main Broad River & Joining Thomas Hooper‘s uper(sic) line Including a Little Island. Beginning at a black oak on the river bank in sd. Hooper‘s line thence with sd. line So. 127 poles to a post oak… [Survey is associated with a 26 Oct 1767 North Carolina grant in Book 23, page 89 (Grant No. 46), from the files of Anne Goodwin.]

This is odd.  Although it seems at first glance to refer to one of Thomas Hooper’s tracts at Ninety Nine Islands, neither of those parcels was bounded by a line running due south (or due north).  All the lines running from the river in both grants were forty or more degrees off north and south.  This may refer to a claim by Thomas Hooper that did not result in a grant.

23 July 1767
Deed:  Thomas Hooper of Granville County in the Province of South Carolina, to John Standford of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, for £50, 150 acres in Mecklenburg County on Broad River including a large island at the Ninety Nine Islands [metes and bounds matching the grant follow] …which is in full the contents by the patent issued to me bearing date (sic) April 1767…. Signed: Thomas Hooper. Witness: William Sharp, Jno S(artan?). [Mecklenburg County, NC Deed Book 4, page 317]

When John Standford of Tryon County, North Carolina gifted half of this land in October 1769 to his young half-brother Essex Capshaw (son of his mother Elizabeth and deceased step-father Francis Capshaw) he noted the patent to Thomas Hooper and the above deed, but did not include metes and bounds.  His deed described it as “on the north side of the main Broad River”, and including “a certain island commonly called the long island”.  [Tryon (now Lincoln) County Deed Book 1, page 86.]

20 October 1767
Warrant: Mathew Floid. 50 acres. On the So. side of Main Broad river, Joining the upper Line of the Land that formerly belonged to Thomas Hooper below the mouth of London bridge Creek Including a Mill Seat.  [Miles S. Philbeck, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Index to Land Surveys 1763-1768, from Anne Goodwin’s files.]

This helps to confirm the precise location of Thomas Hooper’s Broad River grants.  London Bridge Creek is shown on modern maps as London Creek, which flows eastward into the Broad River right at the southern tip of the Long Island just southwest of Cherokee Falls. There is a modern bridge there that crosses the river over the southern tip of the long island.

4 Nov 1767
Deed:  In the tenth day of the seventh year of the reign of King George… Thomas Hooper of the Province of South Carolina, to Matthew Floyd of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, for £53, 13 shillings and 4 pence, 160 acres in Mecklenburg County “on the south side of the Broad River being the place where the said Thomas Hooper formerly lived on… [metes and bounds matching the grant follow] …by the patent bearing date 25 September 1766…. Signed: Thomas Hooper. Witness: William McMillion, John McMillion, John McGun_____  [Mecklenburg County, NC Deed Book 4, page 321]

Matthew Floyd subsequently sold this tract in 1774 to Thomas King, who filed a South Carolina memorial on 15 July 1774 with the same land description [South Carolina Memorials Vol. 12, page 510.]  

Granville County, which was abolished in 1768, was a poorly defined geographic area that performed almost no functions of a county. It definitely included the Long Canes area along the Savannah River, as numerous early surveys along that creek were described as being in or “supposed to be in” Granville County. These two deeds, along with the timing of the plat on Long Canes Creek, appear to show that Thomas Hooper of Long Cane Creek had previously lived on the Broad River just south of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

21 December 1768
Warrant: Ennis Hooper, 200 acres on the Beaverdam branch of the No. fork of Packolet River joining Jas. Howards land on the No. side.  [Miles S. Philbeck, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Index to Land Surveys 1763-1768, from Anne Goodwin’s files.]

This did not result in a grant to Hooper.  The Beaverdam is what was later called Hooper’s Creek, a creek mostly in present-day Polk County that runs southward across the state line and empties into the North Pacolet River about a mile or so south of the border in present-day Spartanburg County.

James Howard’s 250-acre grant was surveyed 10 June 1767 and issued 26 October 1767 as Mecklenburg County Grant #212 (NC Grant Book 23, p119). The survey describes it as “joining and between the lines of Elizabeth Clark and Alexander Kill Patrick including some Beaverdam and small creek. Beginning at a red oak No. side of the creek on Elizabeth Clarks line and runs thence, W 160 poles to a white oak thence so crossing two creeks 250 pole (sic) to a stake thence with Elizabeth Clarks line to the beginning.” The diagram shows the “two creeks” forming a right-facing “V” across the property and apparently running into one another inside Elizabeth Clark’s tract.

In at least two deeds in etc late 1790s, the creek was “Ann Hooper’s Creek” . Anne Goodwin tells me that she was the widow of Thomas Hooper and the mother of several Hoopers who appear in Rutherford County records.

22 April 1773
Survey: for James Quintan of 100 acres in Craven County, 96 District [South Carolina] bounded to the south by Broad river…southeasterly “on land laid out to Enos Hooper” [Plats Vol. 20, page 4]  Later granted to James Quintan and his memorial — referring to  “100 acres situate in Craven County, 96 district, on Broad River bounded NEward on Enos Hooper and all other sides on vacant land.” [Memorials of South Carolina Land Titles, Volume 2, page 468. Survey is at Plats Volume 20, page 4 and dated 22 April 1773.]

Enos Hooper’s creek and Enos Hooper’s land are mysterious, as there are no grants in either North Carolina or South Carolina to Enos Hooper. If Enos Hooper acquired land by deed I have been unable to find a record. Quintan’s plat shows Enos Hooper’s land bordering the Broad River on its northeastern bank.

14 April 1779
Land Claim: James Logan, 100 acres in Tryon County (North Carolina) “pn North Pacolet River above his other entry #420 Including Hoopers Camps…” [North Carolina Grants Book 37, page 29, Grant #46, entered 14 April 1779 as #429, issued 13 August 1779. From Anne Goodwin’s files.]

This is in present-day Polk County, North Carolina just east of the town of Tryon and roughly four miles west of Hooper’s Creek at its nearest.  James Logan has many entries in the grant books, 14 of them issued in 1779 alone, but the referenced entry #420 was granted on the following page of the patent book “on North Pacolet River and above Thomas Sprigg’s entry that Includes the little Cane Brake…” Thomas Spriggs had two nearly adjacent grants that included the mouth of Vaughn’s Creek, which enters the North Pacolet River just east of the present-day town of Tryon.  

Tryon County was carved out of Mecklenburg effective in April 1769 although the boundary between them was not established as the Catawba River until 1774.  In 1779 Lincoln and Rutherford counties were formed from Tryon. Polk County was not formed until 1855 from parts of Rutherford and Henderson.


Note: There do not seem to be any other Hooper mentions in the deed or grant books of the North Carolina counties (Mecklenburg and Tryon) immediately above the above area of South Carolina.  At least, not within several years before or after the 1760s.  


Journal of William Calhoun

From Publications of the Southern History Association, Vol. VIII, No. 3 (May 1904).
William Calhoun settled on Long Cane Creek in what is now Abbeville County about 1756.  His journal, just 6 inches by 3½ inches, with only 32 pages utilized, contains a mixture of accounts, family records, and a few of his records as a justice of the peace. It seems to generally cover the period 1760-1770, though dates of many entries are uncertain. This published transcription is merely 16 pages.

Page 180  undated but prior to late 1762 entry at bottom of page
Thomas Holmes one quart [Liquor]… Thomas Holms, 1 pint ditto

Page 183 (ca 1763?)
Thomas Holms 1½ galon (sic) ditto [Lickour]
Lent to Thomas Holms £0-7-6
Thomas Holms to Summons 0-6-3
Thomas Holms 1 ½ gallon ditto [Lickour]
Thomas Holms 1 gallon ditto [Lickour]
Thomas Holms 1 ½ gallon ditto [Lickour]
Thomas Holms to Summons £6-3

Absalom [undecipherable name]  £0-15

Page 185 (unknown date)
Absalom Hooper 1 quart [Liquor] as also £1-17-6

Page 189 (ca 1767?)
Thomas Holms dr. to 5-8-0

Page 190 (follows an entry labelled “August ye 6th 1768 upon ye balance of all accounts”)
Thomas Hooper to two gallons [Liquor] 2-10-0
Thomas Hooper to 1 pint [Liquor] 0-3-9
Thomas Hooper to 2 gallons 1 pint [Liquor] 2-3-9

dew to Robert Messer on Absalom Hooper’s act £0-17-6

Robert Messer owned two tracts on Long Cane Creek adjacent to William Calhoun, and is mentioned very frequently in the journal. 

Page 192 begins a list of 28 marriages performed…
Absalom Hooper & Elizabeth Holms was married ye 25 day of Novr. ano dom 1765

Oddly, there is no mention of Joseph Holmes in this journal. The father of Elizabeth Holmes is uncertain — Thomas Holmes and Joseph Holmes had adjacent grants on Russell’s Creek in the late 1760s.  Sarah Holmes, who moved to Natchez in 1772, was probably the widow of one or the other of these men — my working hypothesis is that she was the widow of Joseph Holmes, as Natchez records tell us that she had a grown son named Joseph Holmes. Neither of the Holmes tracts were sold by deed.

Other Hooper records in the Long Canes Creek area of present-day McCormick County (formerly  Abbeville, formerly 96 District, formerly Granville County)

15 June 1767
Survey:  for a plat of land not granted: Thomas Hooper, 100 acres on Calhoun Creek “it being one of the branches of Long Cane Creek.”   Plat shows “Ninety Six Road” bisecting the tract, running roughly northeast to southwest.  Warrant dated five months earlier on 4 February 1767.  Surveyed 15 June 1767.  Marked on reverse as entered 1 August 1767 “in a Letter”. On bottom of reverse is written: “Ord. Co.(?) 3 Feb 1773” [South Carolina Unrecorded Plats for Land Not Granted, Vol. 2, No. 617]

See the plat here:  Thomas Hooper unrecorded grant

This tract seems to have been located several miles above the mouth of Calhoun’s Creek in present Abbeville County. 

Note that the timing of this entry argues that this is the same Thomas Hooper previously on the Broad River in old Craven County, which would also explain why his first entry in William Calhoun’s journal seems to be in the late 1760s.  I have no idea what the notation of a court order at the bottom of the page means.  Did Thomas Hooper die before completing the grant process? 

28 November 1767
Survey: James Stuart, 100 acres “on the waters of the western fork of Long Cane Creek, on a branch known by the name of Maskin’s Branch, one of the branches of Calhoun’s Creek, in Granville County: Bounded on the NE”rd by land laid out for Mr. Hooper…”  [Colonial Plant Book Vol 21, page 185.]

See the plat here: James Stuart Plat

The metes and bounds match the above survey of Thomas Hooper.  

5 June 1770
Newspaper Article: “By Letters of the 5th Instant (5 June 1770) from the Long-Canes Settlement, we are informed, that Part of the Country has been lately infested (particularly within 3 or 4 Weeks preceding that Date) with a most desperate Gang of Villains, scarce a Day or Night having passed without their committing some audacious Robbery, insomuch that the Militia had been raised, to take or disperse them; That many of them had been taken, but always made their Escape; among others, Owen Griffin, Thomas Hooper, jun., Joseph Holmes, William Abbott, Jacob Dennard, and Ezekiel Harlow, who (after being conducted by two Constables with a strong Guard, to Cuffeetown; and from thence, with few Assistants, to the Ridge; and thence, without any, to the Indian-Head) turned upon the Constables, took their Guns, and made off with them;  That the Villains disguised themselves with Paint, and tying Handkerchiefs over their Faces;  yet Reason Young, Anthony Distoe, Hugh Hynes, John Caton, Noel Roundtree, Robert Broomfield, one Mulkey, one White, and many others, were known to be amongst them: That they are all armed, present cock’d Pistols and Guns to the Breasts of those they rob; take all the Money, Cloaths, and Bedding they can get, and even their very Beef and Bacon; that they, and some Indians, have almost ruined all the Settlers upon Little-River in Georgia, and broke up the Quaker Settlement there; And that they were then gone towards Pedee, to rob that Quarter; were soon to return through Long-Canes, and thence proceed towards West-Florida.”  [The Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) · 28 Jun 1770, page 5.  Repeated in other editions.]

Several of these names are familiar. Reason Young was with Absalom and Innes Hooper as part of the December 1772 gang in Natchez. Hugh Hinds (Hynes) and Absalom Hooper were accused of robbery and murder in South Carolina (for which Hinds was hanged.)  Owen Griffin was indicted but not convicted of felonious escape at about the same time as the Hoopers (see below) and is likely the same man who wrote his will in Abbeville District in 1804.  Anthony Distoe, Noel Roundtree and several others were brought up on robbery charges at the same time as the Hoopers — Distoe was convicted of murder a few years later.  William Abbott escaped custody at the same time as Thomas Hooper.  Joseph Holmes may be the same person later in Natchez, the son of widow Sarah Holmes.

2 July 1770
Deed: Thomas Holmes of the parish of Prince William, Granville County, to John Pickens, deputy surveyor of the county, parish and province aforesaid.. whereas a certain grant of 10 May 1768 to Thomas Holmes of 200 acres lying on Russal’s (sic) Creek, a branch of Savannah River… recorded in Book CCC page 199…for £130, sells “100 acres of land it being a part or moiety of the aforesaid two hundred being the lower part of the said survey tract whereon Absalom Hooper now liveth”. Signed: Thomas (his mark) Holmes.  Witness: William Cannon, Sam’l Taylor. Recorded 19 October 1770. No mention of a dower relinquishment.  [Charleston County Conveyance Book R3, page 327-9.]

See the plat here: Thomas Holmes plat

The grant plat shows a square tract bisected by Russell’s Creek.  The lower 100 acres on which Absalom Hooper lived was bounded to the south by a 100-acre grant to Joseph Holmes and the upper part of the Thomas Holmes grant.   Thomas Holmes’ plat was dated 30 June 1767 and was granted 6 July 1768. [Grants Vol. 16, page 405.]. This is at least a dozen miles southwest of the unrecorded survey to Thomas Hooper.

Incidentally, regarding the two witnesses this deed; in 1768 William Cannon had sold to Samuel Taylor “late of Long Canes” the land on which Cannon then lived located on the Saluda River in Berkeley County “below the mouth of halfway swamp”. [Conveyances Book 3I, page 392.].  William Cannon later had a grant of 100 acres on Russell’s Creek, so he was a neighbor.

18 October 1770
The following Bills of Indictment were delivered out to the Grand Jury:
…The King vs. John Lewis, Joseph Campbell, William Stubbs – Assault
The King vs. James Butler – Assault
The King vs. [uncertain] Francis – Burglary
The King vs. Thomas Lowell – Burglary
The King vs. Thomas Hooper – Larceny
The King vs. Rich’d Wayne, Daniel Lobb & Malcolm Brown – Assault
[South Carolina Court of General Sessions, Criminal Journals 1769-1776, South Carolina Archives Series S145002, 1769, page 76.]

The Grand Jury, John Joor, foreman, returned the following:
Thomas Hooper – No Bill [Ibid., page 77]

Same Court: The following Bills of Indictment were delivered to the Grand Jury:
… The King vs. Thomas Hooper – felonious escape, The King vs. William Abbott – felonious escape, [Ibid. page 80.]

19 October 1770
The King vs. Thomas Hooper – felonious escape; William Abbott – felonious escape; Thomas Rogers – forgery;  The Grand Jury having found the Bills of Indictment preferred against the Defendants On Motion of Mr. Attorney General ordered that the provost Marshall do bring them into court to be arraigned.{ibid., page 83.]

The King vs. Thomas Hooper – felonious escape – on motion of Mr. Atty General ordered that the prisoner be arraigned. The Prisoner being arraigned pleads not Guilty and for Trial puts himself upon the Country and the Attorney General likewise & so forth
[Ibid., page 83.]

It’s not clear what became of this case. But see 20 January 1771.

26 October 1770
Ordered that these several prisoners be brought into court:  (list of 21 persons including) William Abbot, felonious escape…  Absolum Hooper, felony… Hugh Hinds, horse stealing… [Ibid., page 89.]

Court Cases:  The King vs. Absalom Hooper, sentence for horse stealing, recognizance bond posted.  LIkewise for Hugh Hines, John McGregor, Thomas Reeves, and Henry Summerall.  [Ibid., page 90.]

20 January 1771
Ordered that the Provost Marshall do bring these several prisoners into court: Thomas Hooper Jr., horse stealing…Thomas Hooper, Sus. of felony… James Hooper, murder… and ten others [Ibid., page 110.]
No prosecutor or witnesses appearing against these several prisoners they were discharged by Proclamation not having the wherewithal to pay the fees Due to the Offices of this Court. (Same list of names and crimes) [Ibid., page 111.]

Has Thomas Hooper been imprisoned since October or is this a separate crime?  Surely these Hoopers are all related.

16-17 April 1771
Indicted:  Absolum Hooper &  Hugh Hinds accused & indicted for murder.  Hugh Hinds indicted & convicted of robbery. [Ibid., page 121, 122, 129, 134]

Hugh Hinds was convicted of robbery and sentenced to hang. He was indicted for murder but a trial was not necessary since he had already been sentenced to death. It isn’t clear whether Absalom Hooper was actually tried.  There don’t seem to be any further records

Newspaper: “Hugh Hinds was convicted of Robbing the Dwelling-House of a Widow in the Back Country; he was likewise arraigned for Murder, but being found guilty on the first Indictment was not tried on the second Sentenced to be hanged on Wednesday the 15th of May next.”  [South-Carolina and American General Gazette (Charleston, South Carolina), issue of 24 April 1771, page 2.]

Hooper & Holmes located on 1775 map of Ninety-Six District

In 1771 Henry Mouzon Jr. and Ephraim Mitchell (later the Surveyor General of South Carolina), were appointed by Governor Montague to survey the boundaries of the civil districts of South Carolina.  In 1775 Henry Mouzon published a map entitled “An accurate map of North and South Carolina with their Indian frontiers, shewing in a distinct manner all the mountains, rivers, swamps, marshes, bays, creeks, harbours, sandbanks and soundings on the coasts; with the roads and Indian paths; as well as the boundary or provincial lines, the several townships and other divisions of the land in both provinces.

The map — a portion of which is linked below — combined Collet’s map of North Carolina and James Cook’s 1773 map of South Carolina embellished with the additions and corrections from Mouzon and Mitchells survey of 1771. It was surely their survey that resulted in the locations of Hooper and Holmes on Russell’s Creek.

Just across the Savannah River from Fort Charlotte is Georgia’s (unlabeled) Broad River, along which several Hoopers lived a few years later.

The link below is the portion of Ninety-Six District surveyed in 1771.

Hooper settlement on 1775 Mouzon map