The Williamson Family · a record

Chapter two · Mecklenburg County, North Carolina

A Crown grant in the Hornets' Nest

In 1776 our fourth great-grandfather William McMurray, born about 1745, by family account in Glasgow, was around 31 years old and farming 150 acres in Mecklenburg County, in what is now Charlotte. His tract was a square, 155 poles on a side, about half a mile, on the northwest side of McMichael's Creek near Sugar Creek.

October 2, 1771

The survey names his neighbors.

Surveyed for William McMurray one hundred and fifty acres of land in Mecklenburg County on the N.W. side of McMichaels Creek. Beginning at a black oak at William Barnett's mill path & runs N 15 E 155 poles to a stake near James Yandle's survey & Charles Alexander's road…Original survey, Mecklenburg County Land Grant File 1921, State Archives of North Carolina

Three course lines and a square back to the black oak. The Barnetts and Alexanders were core families of the Scots-Irish Presbyterian settlement along Sugar Creek, and the Yandles were another early Mecklenburg family. William was buying into an established neighborhood of people very much like himself.

January 30, 1773

This was a Crown grant, not a state one. It was issued under royal governor Josiah Martin, in the name of George III. Five months later, on the King's orders, Martin closed every land office in North Carolina, and no new colonial grants followed. William's was one of the last in the county. The sixteen-month lag between entry and issue was ordinary processing time.

September 26, 1780

Three years after taking land under the King, his whole community went the other way. Charlotte earned the name "Hornets' Nest" from Cornwallis himself, and the Battle of Charlotte was fought at the courthouse on September 26, 1780, a few miles from William's farm.

What the record holds

What the record proves, and what it doesn't

The grant file at the State Archives of North Carolina (Mecklenburg County Land Grant File No. 1921) contains the index card, the original 1771 survey with its hand-drawn plat, and the patent book entry. It proves that a William McMurray owned this tract. Connecting him to our William (c. 1745–1820), father of Thomas McMurry (1785–1860) and grandfather of Bartlett McMurray (1829–1907), depends on his will and on deed records showing what became of the land. That research is under way. The fit is plausible: a young immigrant claiming his first 150 acres at 26, dying in the same county where his son and grandson lived.

Did William serve in the Revolution? Not that we can prove. He does not appear in the DAR Patriot Index under either spelling of the name. A Robert McMurray of Mecklenburg, born about 1735, is a recognized patriot for taking the oath of allegiance and furnishing supplies in 1780, and given the name, place and dates he may be William's kin. Proving that, and finding William's wife's name, are the next steps.

The McMurray line reaches the Williamsons through Hester Leona McMurry, called Hassie, Bartlett's daughter, who married Charles Decatur Williamson in the 1890s. Hassie was Pierce Williamson's mother.

Sources for this chapter