Mea Culpa
I confess it's probably my fault. Twenty
years ago, long before the advent of the internet and its ability
to rapidly perpetuate incorrect information, I took up research
of the Henderson family where my aunt, Thelma Henderson Schoolfield,
had necessarily left off. Since time was a luxury I had back in
the day, I made rapid headway in courthouses and libraries across
North Carolina and quickly discovered that we could push our line
back one generation prior to Argalus, who until that time was
our earliest known Henderson ancestor.
Colonial North Carolina records conclusively
proved that the father of Argalus Henderson was one James
Henderson of Henderson's Landing on the New River
in present-day Onslow County. I was delighted to find numerous
records, all referencing James Henderson.
James Henderson was a busy man. James Henderson showed up in the
records a lot. Notice that I keep emphasizing James
Henderson, and there is no "Isaac" in
between James and Henderson.
James had several children: son Argalus,
and daughters Lucy Henderson Loyd, Bethany Nixon, Elizabeth ("Betty")
Jenkins, Nancy ("Nanny") Henderson, and another son,
James Jr., who was not named in James Sr.'s will and disappears
from the records in such time as to imply that he may have died
as a young man, probably without issue. James Henderson mentions
only one son in his will, Argalus. (Also in the area during
James Henderson's lifetime was a John B.* Henderson, a Joseph
Henderson, and a William Henderson, but no connection to the James
Henderson family has been established.) Throughout his will
and all other colonial records (except the single reference
below) our James is referred to only as James Henderson, or James
Henderson Sr.
The Origin
of Isaac
So where did "Isaac" come from? Onslow
County NC Deed Book 18 Page 44:
Apr. 16, 1792 "William Loyd and
his wife, Lucy, and Archelaus Henderson of Onslow and Chatham
Counties, NC, for the sum of [sixty pounds] sold to James Foy,
Jr., land on Kizabel's Creek in Onslow Co. near James Henderson's
Landing, 220 acres whereon Isaac Henderson
lived and died, and willed to his daughter, Lucy Henderson,
now Lucy Loyd, the land granted to Nathaniel Avritt and deeded
by will to James Henderson, deceased. Test: James Foy Sr., William
Jenkins."
This record is clearly referring to James Henderson
Sr.'s 1770 will, and to James Henderson's children, Lucy and Argalus.
And yet, he is clearly called James and Isaac in the same document.
Without looking at the original document, I have no way to tell
if it is a transcription error, but it seems unlikely. For lack
of any supporting documentation I decided that the best thing
to do was use Isaac as James's middle name, so I put it in parentheses
to denote that it may or may not be a correct appellation. (It
should be noted that James's son Argalus named his eldest son
Isaac, and Isaac was to become a family name among Argalus's descendants.
This supports a case that James Henderson may have also been called
Isaac.)
So there you are. For better or worse, the name
James (Isaac) Henderson was duly recorded in my notes, which began
to circulate among other researchers some years ago. Mea culpa.
Mea culpa. If anyone can provide
an original source document with the name "James Isaac
Henderson", I will be happy to change my position on this,
but until then, "Isaac" remains in parentheses and in
question.
Laura Henderson, January 24, 2007
