Life History

Notes

• "Abraham Horton d 1-6-1816, aged 94 years" (born abt 1722)
  --  William Wade Hinshaw, Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, Vol 1 (date Unknown), p 957
  
  I have interpreted 1-6-1816 as 6 January 1816.  I have found that some interpret this date as 1 June 1816, in the British fashion.  I believe even at that time in the colonies, the month was put first and the day second.
  
  Most genealogies report Abraham born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  I found one set of genealogies that have his birthplace as Massachusetts, some of them additionally specifying Springfield, Hampden County, as the location.  Some source state no place of birth at all.
  
  The place of death is agreed as Surry County.  Some state the specific location as Tom's Creek, Surry, North Carolina, others as Westfield, a nearby or later name for the area.  Bob McIvor, whose tree I cite in some of the information for this family, also reports the place of death as Tom's Creek.
  
  The following genealogy reports the uncertainty of the birthplace.  Note that this tree also reports the previous married name of Martha, which I also found in her son Abraham's family information collection.
  
  Abraham Horton
  Birth 1722 in Springfield, Hampden Co. Mass or Bucks Co., PA
  Death 1 June 1816 [6 January 1816] in Toms Creek, Surry Co, NC
  Parents John Horton JR b 1702, Mary Chapin
  Spouse Martha Williams Brissell 1726 - 1808;  Son Daniel Brissel Horton 1752 - 1839
  --  Morton Family, http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/4030006/person/518238658?ssrc=&ftm=1
  
  It appears they lived along Tom's Creek.  It is also known that the original Quaker meeting was designated as Tom's Creek.  It was later renamed Westfield Meeting
  
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  The Westfield Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, better known in this area as "Old Westfield," is the oldest church in Surry or Stokes County and probably the oldest religious group in Northwest North Carolina this side of the Moravian settlements of what is now Winston Salem.  The Meeting dates back to the 1760's when pioneer Quakers from New Garden (now Guilford College) crossed Quaker Gap of the Sauratown mountains to plant a new community in the valleys of Big Creek and Tom's Creek.
  
  Excerpts from Hinshaw, Volume I Westfield Monthly Meeting
  
  Tom's Creek Meeting, the predecessor of Westfield, was located in Surry County, NC, not far from the Virginia Line.  The meeting for worship was organized about 1771; the preparative meeting in 1784.  The name was changed to Westfield when the monthly meeting was established, in 1786.  Previous to this time,  Tom's Creek Preparative Meeting had been attached to New Garden Monthly Meeting.
  --  Westfield Meeting Surry Co NC, http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~quakers/westfield.htm
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  At least one other genealogy seems to clarify the two locations by reporting the place of death as Westfield and the place of burial as Tom's Creek.
  
  The configuration of this family is similar in the genealogies that have all the children of Abraham and Martha Horton.  The following includes the children commonly reported.  In various genealogies some or all of the sons have the middle name Brissell.
  
  Children of ABRAHAM HORTON and MARTHA WILLIAMS are:
  i.    WILLIAM B.2 HORTON, b. July 1746, Bucks Co., PA; d. 1818, Surry Co., NC.
  ii.    JOHN B. HORTON, b. 1748, Bucks Co., PA; d. 1827, St. Francis Co., MO.
  iii.    DANIEL HORTON, SR., b. 13 September 1752, Bucks Co., PA; d. 18 August 1839, McMinn Co., TN.
  iv.    JAMES B. HORTON, b. 27 March 1755, Bucks Co., PA; d. February 1782, Old Chillicothe, Ross Co., OH.
  v.    PRISCILLA HORTON, b. 1757, Bucks Co., PA; d. 1778, OH.
  vi.    ABRAHAM HORTON, JR., b. 09 May 1759, Bucks Co., PA; d. 11 December 1842, Lawrence Co., AL.
  vii.    ISAAC HORTON, b. 1763, Bucks Co., PA; d. 1854, Sugar Hill, Gwinnett Co., GA.
  --  Descendants of Abraham Horton, Sr., http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~shipleyharrison/horton.htm
  
  This set of children fits the ages, dates and itmelines.  Some have later chidlren, with Jonathan born as late as 1796, when Martha would be 70 years old!  This is impossible.  There must be one or more generations missing in those genealogies that reprot Jonathan and others as children of this same Abraham Horton and Martha Brissell Williams Horton.
  
  Another source comments on Abraham's role in the Quaker community.  This genealogy also cites a book on the Hortons to state that they named their first four sons with the middle name Brissell, to perpetuate Martha's family name.  This heightens the question about Martha's parents, since several compilations of records of the period report her parents to be James Williams and Priscilla Roberts.  Some genealogies report her as Martha Williams Brissell, as though Brissell was her first married name.  This may still be the case, but I have not found any record of such a marriage.
  
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  Abraham Horton, born 1722 in Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts; died January 1816 in Surry County, NC. He married 481. Martha Brisell January 09, 1745/46 in Bucks, Pennsylvania.
  
  Martha Brisell, born 1726 in Bucks County, PA; died 1808 in Toms Creek, Surry, NC.
  
  Notes for Abraham Horton:
  In 1768 Abraham and his family moved to Surry County, North Carolina. They were Quakers and a number of Quaker families moved together. They eventually formed a Quaker Monthly Meeting at Westfield in Surry County near Mt. Airy.
  
  Abraham Sr. designed and constructed water-powered mills for the purpose of milling grain. The last mill he built was on Tom's Creek in Surry County.
  
  The Virkus Compendium states that Abraham and Martha gave their first four sons the middle name of "Brissell" in order that the name would be perpetuated.  [Five appear in most genealogies, but no other documentation has been found for this.]
  
  All of the information on this generation of Hortons comes from the book The Horton Connection.
  
  More About Abraham Horton:
  Burial January 1816, Westfield, Surry County, NC
  Source: The Horton Connection
  --  Ancestors of Janet Lee Jinkins, http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/c/u/l/Janet-J-Culp/GENE1-0015.html
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  The followng is reported of Abraham, but one wonders what marriage in 1778 they were referring to.  Abraham would have been 56 at that time, and no record has been found of him remarrying at that time.  That is the year of his son John's marriage to Nancy Green.  But the dismissal is dated 25 January 1778, and John Horton did not marry Nancy Green untl July 1778.
  
  Some have understood that it was his son John Brissell Horton who was dismissed, though one or more transcriptions have the date as January 25 instead of Jul 25 (apparently reading the 7 as 1, in 7-26-1778?).  John did marry an Indian, Nany Anne Green, on 25 July 1778, the date of the reported dismissal.  But it is said of Abraham in this 1995 compilation of source information on the Hortons.  This source is reported to have several errors, like this confusion of John with his father Abraham.
  
  "In 1769 Abraham Sr and his family moved to Surry County, North Carolina.  They were Quakers, and a number of Quaker families moved together.  They eventually formed a Quaker monthly meeting (church) at Westfield in Surry County near Mt Airy.  ... Dismissed from New Gardens [New Garden] monthly Meeting of Quakers, 25 July 1778 because he was 'married out of unity.'" [No detals on who he married or the date of the marriage.  But note that Abraham would have been in his 50s.  In the original it refers to his son John, who married Anne Green, of Cherokee descent.]
  --  The Horton Connection, the descendants of Abraham Horton, Sr, Compiled by Arnold Horton Wilson and Bonnie Imogene (Rains) Wilson, 1995
  
  Abraham's son John married a Cherokee or part Cherokee woman, Nancy Anne Green, daughter of Meshack W Green and Lucretia Franklin.  Both Meshack and Lucretia are varyingly reported as full-blood or part Cherokee.  John Brissell Horton did have Cherokee lands by virtue of his wife Nancy Anne.  He was among other Cherokee citizens that signed the 1817 treaty with the United States to exchange lands there for new land in Arkansas, part of the New Madrid District of the Lousiana Purchase.

Sources

• 1. Genealogy.com Trees
• 2. William Wade Hinshaw, Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, Vol 1 (date Unknown), p 957
  • Name: Name: North Carolina Yearly Meeting of Friends; Location: http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/12576608/person/-225035741/media/1;;
• 3. Ancestry Trees
• 4. The Horton Connection
  • Location: Compiled by Arnold Horton Wilson and Bonnie Imogene (Rains) Wilson; Date: 1995;
  • Transcription compilation from  Horton sources
• 5. Family Data Collection - Births
• 6. Email Sources
• 7. Gravestone of Isaac Horton, Sugar Hill Baptist Church Cemetery, Sugar Hill, Gwinnett, Georgia
  • Registry:  http://www.oldplaces.org/gwinnettga/cemeteries/sugar_hill_3.html
• 8. 1850 Federal Census, Gwinnett County, Georgia
  • 25 September, Sugar Hill District, page 388, Hse/Fam #935
• 9. Family Data Collection - Individual Records