Overview

Location

Granville Co., NC

Date Constructed/ Founded

pre-Revolutionary War

Associated Surnames

Burton, Williams, Henderson

Historical notes

Home built by Judge John Williams (1731-1799) who was one of the first Judges under the State Constitution in 1777. In his early life, he was trained to be a carpenter, and may very well have done a good deal of the construction of his own Montpelier Plantation. As an early explorer, he was among the men who were financers of the Transylvania Company, the enterprise started by Colonel Richard Henderson (1735-1785), his cousin; in 1775,together with others from Granville County that formed the Transylvania Company, Henderson bought the land from the Cherokee Nation that became the State of Kentucky and were instrumental in hiring Daniel Boone to explore that new territory. The city of Williamsboro, North Carolina, named for John Williams who donated the land upon which it was built, was the ancestral home of the Williams and Henderson families in Granville County, with both Richard Henderson and his son, Judge Leonard Henderson (1772-1833)one of the first Chief Justices of North Carolina, spending a great deal of time at Montpelier Plantation. Upon his death in 1799, Judge Williams left the land and the Plantation to his wife, Agnes Bullock Williams (ca.1720-1802), and after her death, to his Grandson, Francis Nash Williams Burton (b.1779),son of Col.Robert Burton (1747-1825) & Agatha Williams Burton (ca. 1760-1831).

Associated Slave Workplaces

Sneed Plantation

Associated Free Persons

• Judge John Williams - owner; founder of Montpelier
• Agnes Bullock Williams, daughter of Richard & Ann Henley Bullock and was wife of John Williams
• Robert Burton - son-in-law of John Williams
• Francis Nash Williams Burton- grandson of Judge John Williams
• Agatha Williams Burton - daughter of John and Agnes B. Williams
• Richard Henderson, Leonard Henderson - cousins of John Williams

Associated Enslaved Persons

*(1799- John Williams to wife) Adam, Dolly, Fanny, Milly, Anna, Penny, Levina, Antony, Bristor, Prisilla, John, Betty daughter of Ricy, Peggy,Lemman James, Ned, Polly, Peter, Hannibal, Juno, Andrew, Hetty, Nanny and her son Erasmus.

• (1799- John Williams to daughter, Agatha, wife of Col.Robert Burton.) Yellow Sam commonly called Charlottes Sam, Dorcas, Virgil Hector, Nelly his wife Narmon, ???ipio, Tom, Daman, Susey, Dicey, Joe Celey & Sally her daughter Kitte,Betty daughter of Phillis,Ransam, Laury, Mariah & Simon.

• (1799- John Williams to grandson, John Williams Burton) Hannah daughter of Judy, her daughter Jinny,"and her increase", boy Cato.

• (1799- John Williams to grandson, Francis N.W.Burton) ) Minor, Davy, Jack, lang Sam, Gabril, Doctor, Pampy, Strap, Will, Beavar Hannah wife of Doctor, Edey, Eliza, Rachel, Sally daugher of Hannah, King, Suckey, Isaac, Francis, Harvey, Cuffy, young Minor, Philis, Patty, Lucy, Rose, George, Silva, Ben, Delia, and every other negro or negroes which I now possess not heretofore disposed of with their future increase to him.

Research Leads and Plantation Records

• none reported yet

Miscellaneous Information

• John Williams is buried at Montpelier Plantation.

References

• Will of John Williams, WB 5/16 State Archives
• "Historical Sketches of North Carolina, 1584-1851",Wheeler, John Hill.
• History and Genealogies of Old Granville County, North Carolina, 1746-1800, Owen, Thomas McAdory, Copyright 1993 (Southern Historical Press Inc.,P.O.Box 1267,Greenville,SC 29202-1267).
• BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY OF THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS,1774-PRESENT. http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=W000515
• ESTATE RECORDS OF GRANVILLE CO., NC.VOLUME 13-16: Abstracts of the Wills and Estate Records of Granville County,North Carolina,1833-1846, by Zae Hargett Gwynn; compiled by Trudie Davis-Long, Willow Bend Books, 2005

Users Researching This Workplace

• Deloris Williams

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