OVERVIEW

Location

Adams County, Mississippi

Date Constructed/Founded

1841

Associated Surnames

McMurran, Turner, West, Baker, Griffith, Conner

Historical Notes

In 1840 the McMurrans purchased 132 acres from Mrs. McMurran's father, Judge Edward Turner and began construction of Melrose in 1841.

Associated Slave Workplaces

Woodlands Plantation (Adams Co. MS), Moro Plantation (Concordia Pa. LA)

Associated Free Persons

John Thompson McMurran – owner
Mary Louisa Turner McMurran – wife
Judge Edward Turner – father-in-law
Mary West – 1st wife of Judge Edward Turner
Theodosia Turner Griffith – sister-in-law
William B. Griffith – brother-in-law, law partner
Elizabeth Baker – 2nd wife of Judge Edward Turner
Elizabeth Frances Turner Conner – sister-in-law
Lemuel Parker Conner – brother-in-law

Associated Enslaved Persons

none found yet

Research Leads and Plantation Records

Records of Antebellum Southern Plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War, Series I: Selections from the Louisiana State University, Part 3, The Natchez Area: Lemuel P. Conner and Family Papers, 1818-1865; Edward Turner Family Papers, 1767-1878; John T McMurran Family Papers, 1820-1875; also includes the Estates of William B Griffith and William Edward T Griffith. Stampp, Kenneth M., Editor, University Publications of America, Bethesda, Maryland, 1989.

Miscellaneous Information

Melrose was not actually a plantation, but rather an estate or town house, John McMurran never grew cotton there. By the mid-1850s, John McMurran owned or held interest in five plantations, two of those were in Mississippi, two in Louisiana, and one in Arkansas. The five plantations included over 9, 600 acres of land and 325 slaves. John McMurran owned Moro, pronounced Morrow, Plantation in Concordia Parish, Louisiana with A. M. Vardaman, an overseer.

Edward Turner was appointed as Aide-de-Camp and private secretary for Governor W. C. C. Claiborne of the Mississippi Territory and served as Clerk of the House of Representatives soon after his arrival. In 1802 Turner was involved with local republicans in an attempt to move the territorial capitol from Washington to Greenville. That same year, Edward Turner married the daughter of Colonel Cato West, the Secretary of the Mississippi Territory.

On August 17, 1802, Edward Turner was appointed Clerk of the County Court in Jefferson County by Governor Claiborne, succeeding John Girault. Judge Edward Turner’s career in public service included Mayor of Natchez, Attorney General of the State of Mississippi, speaker of the state House of Representatives, and Chief Justice of the state's Supreme Court.

William B. Griffith was John T. McMurran's law partner and brother-in-law.

References

Goodspeed Publishing, Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi, Embracing an Authentic and Comprehensive Account of the Chief Events in the History of the State and a Record of the Lives of Many of the Most Worthy and Illustrious Families and Individuals. Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1891.
Rowland, Dunbar, History of Mississippi: The Heart of The South, Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1925