I. John Threewits was a resident of Surry Co VA before 1700. He lived on the south side of the Nottaway River on both sides of Cabbin Stick Branch. [John Threewit was an adjacent landowner to Robert Bolling in Surry County on the south side of the Nottaway River per a land patent of 26 Jul 1722; the Threewits patent was prior to 1695. Nell Marion Nugent, Cavaliers and Pioneers: Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents, Volume III: 1695-1732. The landholdings of neighbors and relatives are included in the same series of sources.] During the 1720's, his near neighbors included John Williamson, John Bell and James Chappell (all in Surry County, VA) and Joseph Tucker (of adjacent Prince George County, VA). Members of these families intermarried in VA through the 1750's, went to SC in the 1760's, and continued intermarrying across subsequent generations. While in VA, they acquired properties in additional locations, and county boundaries changed. Their legal documents were filed variously in Surry/Sussex, Prince George, Brunswick, and Dinwiddie counties in VA. The Surry County, VA will of John Threewets (sic) was signed 14 November 1749, proven 20 March 1749/50. He named wife Ann, his sons Peter, Joel, Edward and John, his daughter Lucy Threewits, and his son-in-law Robert Newman.
II. Joel Threewits was born ~1730 in Surry County, VA. [Entry in family Bible of Joseph Tucker (1685-1758).] In ~1752, he married Jemima Williamson, born August 1734. Jemima was the daughter of John Williamson and Martha Tucker (b. 29 September 1716). Joel and Jemima Threewits witnessed deeds jointly in Brunswick County, VA in 1754 and 1760. On 3 December 1766, Joel Threewitz petitioned the SC Council for 350 acres of land on "Waters of Saludy or Savannah". [Brent H. Holcomb, Petitions for Land from the South Carolina Council Journals, Volume VI: 1766-1770 (Columbia SC: SCMAR, 1999), p. 46.] The amount reflects 100 acres for the head of household, and 50 acres for each additional family member (wife Jemima and the four children born prior to Dec 1766). The two youngest were born in SC in 1767 or later. The Threewits land grant was on Rocky Creek of Stevens Creek in Ninety-Six District (Edgefield County, SC), but the family did not settle there. They purchased land in Craven County on Raiford's Creek—later known as Hay's Mill Creek, currently Mill Creek in lower Richland County, SC. Joel and Jemima Threewits witnessed Richland County wills in 1766 and 1767. [Will of John Taylor, SC Will Book RR (1767-1771), p. 19 and will of Peter Hay, SC Will Book SS (1771-1774), p. 21.] Jemima died within the following few years, and Joel second-married Mary, the widow of neighbor John Thomas Jr. (died 1767). [SC Will Book RR (1767-1771), p. 249.] Joel was a grand juror in 1778-9 for Camden District, region "Between the Broad and the Catawba [Wateree] Rivers". His oldest son John was a petit juror, indicating that he was a landowner and taxpayer by then. Joel was a militia captain from 1 December 1778 to 26 May 1779, and died intestate during the war. [Military service record from Bobby Gilmer Moss, Roster of South Carolina Patriots in the American Revolution (Baltimore MD: Genealogical Publishing Co, 1983-2006). Other Revolutionary War service records are also from Moss, unless otherwise stated.] His widow Mary qualified as administratrix of the estate on 10 July 1782. [Camden District Box 67, No. 2421.] Mary (maiden name unknown) Thomas Threewits third-married Ethel Heath. Her Richland County will was signed 15 August 1807, proven 28 November 1807. [Richland Co Will Book E, p. 81.] One legatee was her daughter Mary Thomas Threewits; her son-in-law John Threewits was an executor.
Children of Joel Threewits and Jemima Williamson:
A. John Threewits was born in 1753 in Brunswick County, VA. He married Mary Thomas, daughter of his stepmother Mary and her first husband John Thomas; they had no children. John enlisted in the militia on 1 December 1778 in the company of his father, Capt. Joel Threewits. He became a militia captain on 1 December 1780, then a brigade major from 28 March 1781 to 28 April 1781. After the war, he settled on Tom's Creek in Lexington County, SC, on a plantation 3 miles south of the town of Granby (currently Cayce SC) that had been inherited by his wife. He was active in civic affairs, was a member of the SC Constitutional Convention and a long-term state senator. He died on 22 June 1842, Mary having died in 1840. The distribution of his estate identifies which of his nieces and nephews were living as of 1844. [Richland Co Equity Records, Box #38.]
B. Llewellyn Threewits was born in ~1755 in Brunswick County, VA. His militia service included several enlistments between 25 December 1780 and 30 July 1752, including service as adjutant under Col. Thomas Taylor. By 1784, he was married to Ann Mary Geiger, daughter of Jacob Geiger (b. 1718 in St. Gall, Switzerland, d. 1761 on Geiger's Creek of the Saluda River in the lower Dutch Fork) and Anna Maria (Mary) Fridig/Friday (b. 25 October 1721 in Bern, Switzerland, d. before 1784 when the estate was distributed to the three daughters. Llewellyn and Ann Mary Threewits had no surviving children. He married Eleanor Fitzpatrick in/by 1788, and his only child was born in 1789. Llewellyn lived near the town of Granby. He died on 2 August 1796. Widow Eleanor second-married Capt. John Thomas (step-brother of Llewellyn Threewits) in 1800.
1. Llewellyn Williamson Threewits was born in 1789. On 8 January 1810, when he reached legal age, he filed a complaint against his mother and her husband John Thomas requesting an accounting of his father's estate. [Richland Bills 46.] In February 1810, he married Catherine Daniel (b. ~1790 in Fairfield County, SC, d. 1856). Catherine was the daughter of William Daniel (b. 1747 in NC, d. 6 May 1807 in Edgefield County, SC) and Lucretia Bell (b. 1757 in Surry County, VA, daughter of Benjamin Bell and Martha Tucker who moved to Edgefield County, SC in 1762). Catherine filed a complaint on 24 January 1811 for separate maintenance, because Llewellyn had a drinking problem. [Richland Bills 71.] He executed a bond on 20 October 1813, deeding slaves in trust to Jesse Daniel for the support of Jesse's sister Catherine Daniel Threewits. Llewellyn died in 1820 in Lexington County; Catherine's trust property—the slaves—was appraised at $5100 on 2 January 1821. [Edgefield County Deed Book 38, p. 217.] They had three children prior to the court's approval of her separate maintenance.
a. Eleanor Fitzpatrick Threewits, b. 1810, married Dr. William Daniel Marsh (b. ~1808 in Edgefield County, SC, d. 1873 in Enterprise, Clarke County, MS). He was her first cousin, son of Capt. Bryant Marsh (b. in Chatham County, NC) and Martha Daniel.
b. John Llewellyn Threewits (5 July 1811 – 17 October 1834), buried near Edgefield SC.
c. Elizabeth Juliet Threewits (5 March 1812 – 14 July1898) married Dr. John Oliphant Nicholson (17 January 1808 – 4 January 1851); family lived in Edgefield County, SC.
C. Williamson Threewits was born ~1755-60 in Brunswick County, VA. He was a horseman in the regiment of Col. Thomas Taylor from 15 December 1780 to 25 June 1781. He did not survive the war; his account for militia services was submitted in 1784 by his brother Maj. John Threewits. A Lexington County tradition states that a Wilkie Threewits was shot by Tories while on a scouting mission near Beaver Creek (in current Calhoun County, SC), was able to swim the Congaree River back to the Richland County side, but died of his wounds at Hay's Mill. The home of Capt. Joel Threewits Sr., on Hay's Mill Creek, was adjacent to the mill.
D. Elizabeth Threewits was born ~1760-65 in Brunswick County, VA. On 14 June 1780, she married Hicks Chappell, who was born 5 March 1757 in Brunswick County, VA. He was named as an heir in the Richland County, SC will of his father Henry. [Richland County Will Book A, pp. 63-65. Signed 11 Nov 1779, proven 9 May 1783.] Hicks Chappell was a Major by the end of the war. The Chappell and Threewits families had been near-neighbors in Brunswick County, VA in the 1750's, were near-neighbors on Hay's Mill Creek (Richland County, SC) in the 1780's. Hicks Chappell died on 11 April 1836. [Richland Co Will Book K, p. 113. Will of Major Hicks Chappell signed 17 Mar 1836, proven 25 Apr 1836.] Elizabeth Threewits Chappell died on 4 July 1841. The Chappell children were identified on the pension application of Hicks Chappell, which included a copy of the family Bible.
1. John Joel Chappell (b. 19 January 1782) married Sophie Maria Green (7 September 1793 – 26 September 1831), daughter of Col. John Green and Jane Harris of GA, on 10 May 1811. He was a member of the state, then the federal, House of Representatives. He was elected Col. Of the 33rd Regiment of SC troops. He died in 1871.
a. Eugenia Chappell (29 October 1812 – 8 February 1839) married Andrew Caldwell Calhoun on 3 January 1833.
b. John Threewits Chappell (13 March 1815 – 13 May 1840) did not marry.
c. Mary Elizabeth Chappell (1 November 1819 – 1 November 1869) did not marry.
d. Paul Green Chappell (17 May 1821 – 17 January 1897) married Salina G. De Vaux on 22 April 1857, by whom he had no children. His only known child was Harriet Chappell, born in 1845 to Charlotte, personal servant to the daughters of John Joel Chappell; her grandmother was the family cook. Harriet Chappell became literate after emancipation, and maintained her own family Bible. [Incomplete documentation. A Nancy Parker of AL sent a transcription of the Bible of her great-great grandmother Harriet Chappell to Lexington County family historian Beiman Otis Prince in the latter half of the 20th century. The letter is mentioned in Beiman Otis Prince, The Early History of the Congaree Settlement, Volume One (privately-published in 1999), p. 136. Date of the letter and address of the owner of the Harriet Chappell Bible are not referenced.]
e. Marian Chappell (b. 10 February 1825) married Robert Hazelhurst Deas on 1 May 1849.
f. Dr. Henry Chappell (4 July 1826 – 14 February 1854) married Cynthia E. Wells on 15 December 1853.
g. Septima Eliza Bush Chappell (3 March 1828 – 25 May 1894) did not marry.
2. William Chappell (12 June 1783 – 1 September 1783).
3. Howell Chappell (3 February 1784 – 19 September 1785).
4. James Henry Chappell (13 October 1786 – 1850) married Margaret "Peggy" Goodwyn, daughter of Col. William Goodwyn and Grace Weston, in 1806.
a. William Hicks Chappell (1806 – 1869) married (1) Maria Elizabeth Carlos (b. 1846) and (2) Mary Johns.
b. Eliza Sarah Chappell (19 April 1808 – 21 May 1835) did not marry.
c. Margaret Goodwyn Chappell married Maj. Jesse Goodwyn Lykes; she died in childbirth on 20 Jul 1845.
d. James Henry Chappell (1816-1878) married Elizabeth Butler (1837-1876) of Edgefield County, SC.
5. Polly Ellen Chappell (20 December 1788 – 6 October 1790).
E. Martha Threewits was born ~1760-65 in Brunswick County, VA or Craven County (Richland County) SC. She married Wood Tucker, who was born 10 May 1751 in Prince George County, VA (the western section that became Dinwiddie County, VA in 1752). He was the son of Wood Tucker Sr. (b. 28 May 1726 in Prince George County, VA, d. 1784 in Richland County, SC) and Millie T. Harper, who had married on 27 January 1743/4. Millie survived her husband in 1784. Wood Tucker Sr. was the brother of Martha Tucker, who married John Williamson and had daughter Jemima, wife of Joel Threewits Sr. Martha Threewits Tucker died prior to 17 March 1825. Wood Tucker Jr. signed his Richland County will on 9 October 1817; it was proven on 20 January 1818. [Richland County Will Book G, p. 47.]
1. Richard Tucker, b. 1784-90 (per census evidence) married unknown prior to 1810, had no children as of 1820. He was not among the distributees of the John Threewits estate, so probably died before 1844.
2. Martha J. Tucker, b. before 1790, was married to a Jumper by 1817 and in 1844. The name of the husband of Martha J. Tucker is undocumented. The large Jumper family of Lexington County, SC descend from 1756 German immigrant Johannes Conrad Schombert, who lived in the lower section of Saxegotha between Savannah Hunt and Sandy Run Creeks. Her Richland County will was proven on 3 November 1863. [Will of Martha J. Jumper, Richland County Will Book L, p. 573. (Date of signature not recorded.)] The executors were sons-in-law Daniel Haughabook and W. Van Wart.
a. Martha Epps Jumper married Daniel Haughabook. The Haughabook family of Lexington County, SC descend from Jacob Hagenbuch of Berg, parish Dägenlen, Zürich, and his wife Anna Barbara Bachmann, who were among the first group of settlers of Saxegotha in February 1734/5.
b. Mary Elizabeth Jumper married ___ Hane.
c. Rebecca Ann Jumper of Lexington District married Walter Van Wart of Columbia, SC (previously of Ulster County, NY) on 15 May 1845.
3. Sally Tucker, b. before 1790, married a Bedsdel, had a daughter named Martha by 1817. No heirs of that name were mentioned in 1844. The single person with a similar name who was attested in SC at the time was a John Betsill (also Betsel) of Charleston in 1800-20. On 2 May 1825, a widow Sarah Betsell paid taxes on 200 acres of land in Christ Church Parish, Charleston District.
4. Nancy Tucker, b. before 1790, married a Watkins by 1818. In 1844, Ann R. Williams was an heir to the estate of John Threewits. In 1850, the Lexington County, SC census included an Ann Williams (age reported as 56) as head-of-household, with a son Elmore (b. 1830) and daughter Elen (b. 1833). She lived in the neighborhood of Sandy Run Creek, immediately adjacent to William Pool (b. 1759), father of the husband of Ann/Nancy Tucker's first cousin Jemima Williamson Threewits Pool (see below).
5. Joel Threewits Tucker, b. 1793, married Elizabeth Prescott, b. 1805. She was the daughter of Willis Prescott of Richland Co (died in 1816). The Prescott estate was distributed on 25 September 1826; the heirs included Joel T. Tucker and wife Elizabeth. [Richland County Will Book H, p. 346.] Their children were born in SC. Joel T. Tucker died on 11 March 1861 in Bayou Chinot, St. Landry Parish LA.
a. Julia Epps Tucker (22 November 1824-28 November 1856)
b. Mary Martha Tucker (3 April 1827-29 August 1880) married Andrew Robert Kilpatrick in Concordia, LA. Martha died in Nanasota, Grimes County, TX.
c. Anne E. Tucker (28 March 1829-17 June 1863)
d. Sarah Frances Tucker, b. 26 April 1831
e. Willis Prescott Tucker (8 November 1833-27 January 1834)
f. Richard Augustus Tucker (3 June 1835-6 November 1841)
g. Caroline Ellis Tucker, b. ~1837?
h. Rebecca Marshall Tucker (14 June 1839-5 December 1840)
F. Joel Threewits was born ~1766-70 in SC. He was probably the second male aged 16+ in the household of his brother John in 1790. In the early 1790's, he married Lucretia, daughter and only-child of Mary Phelps. [Richland County Will Book G, p. 2. Mary Phelps will signed 19 February 1816, proven 26 Jun 1816.] Lucretia's maiden-name was not necessarily Phelps; no man of that surname lived in backcountry SC until after the war. The Mary Phelps will left a legacy to the four oldest children of Joel Threewits—daughters born prior to 1800. The Joel Threewits family lived adjacent to his brother John on Tom's Creek in 1800. He was a resident of Newberry County when he signed his will on 1 January 1818. The witnesses were his brother John Threewits, John's wife Mary, and her brother John Thomas (husband of Eleanor Fitzpatrick, widow of Llewellyn Threewits). The will was proven on 22 December 1836. [Richland County Will Book K, p. 174.]
1. Lucy Vaughn Threewits, b. ~1793, d. after 1844, married ___ Lowerman. Their son, Joel Threewits Lowerman, was mentioned in the 1816 will of Lucy's grandmother Mary Phelps; Lucy's mother Lucretia may possibly have had the maiden name Vaughn. In 1850, Joel T. Lowerman and his wife Harriet (b. 1825 in SC) lived adjacent to the former home of Maj. John Threewits, currently the residence of John Hawkins Threewits (her brother). The first name of Lucy's husband is not documented, but he was necessarily the son of John Lorman/Loreman, the only man of that surname attested in the region of Granby/Cayce SC in 1790-1810. In 1790, John Loreman lived in Richland Co with a wife and a daughter. By 1800, he lived in Lexington Co and had 5 sons under age 10. John Loreman was the only son of John and Mary Magdalena Lorman, residents of Craven County (lower Richland County, SC, across the Congaree from current Calhoun Co). John Lorman signed his will on 16 Oct 1775. [SC Will Book VV, p. 83.] In 1788, John Lowerman (Jr.) signed the incorporation documents of Sandy Run Lutheran Church, as did his neighbors Conrad and John Tschumbert/Jumper (family of the husband of Martha J. Tucker, first-cousin of Lucy Vaughn Threewits Lowerman). John Lorman was the son of John Lourman, an immigrant of 1753 who was born in Altheim, Ulm, Germany, in 1734. He arrived with his father David Lohrmann and brothers George and Andrew
2. Keziah Ann Ross Threewits was born ~1795, married Henry Butler after 1818.
3. Epps Davis Threewits was born in 1799, per the 1850 census, but the name order of the Mary Phelps and Joel Threewits wills suggests that she was older. She died in 1858. She married William Geiger (1804-1884), son of William Geiger (1773 – 5 February 1855) and Margaret Kersh (1782 – 21 January 1852). William Geiger (b. 1773) was the son of John Geiger (1748-1817) and Ann Murff (1742-1831). John Geiger was the youngest son of Herman Geiger (1707-1851), 1736/7 immigrant from St. Gall, Switzerland.
a. Adam Geiger, b. 1828.
b. Louisa E. Geiger, b. ~1830, married Samuel Lorick in 1848
c. J. William Geiger, b. 1832
d. Emily Geiger, b. 1836
e. Joel Geiger, b. 1840
f. David Geiger, b. 1842
4. Jemima Williamson Threewits was born shortly before 1800, married ___ Pool after 1818. Direct documentation is not available, but Pool family historians report that Joseph Henry Pool (b. 1791) married a Jamima W., maiden name unknown. Joseph Henry Pool was the son of William Pool (27 February 1759, d. after 1852) who married Lois Moore on 19 February 1789. Joseph Pool was a resident in his father's household in 1800-1820; they owned adjoining tracts of land on Sandy Run Creek. William Pool was the son of Philip Puhl (b. ~1710 in Germany, d. before 1774 in Saxegotha, since his widow had remarried), by his second wife Anna Barbara Schneider, whom he married in 1756. [See Schneider family bio at www.palmettoroots.org for Barbara's family.] The children of Jemima Williamson Threewits Pool are undocumented, with one exception. In 1850, Wm. Pool, Jun. (b. 1824) lived in a single-person household on Tom's Creek, on property previously owned by Maj. John Threewits, adjacent to his first cousin Joel T. Lowerman, who was himself adjacent to their uncle John Hawkins Threewits, current owner of the Maj. John Threewits home. Their cousin James Henry Chappell (b. 1816) lived two households away from Wm. Pool, Jun., also on the Threewits estate.
5. John Hawkins Threewits, b. 1803, married Mary M. (maiden name unknown, b. 1815 in SC). They had no children in the household in 1850.
6. Joel Thomas Threewits was not among the distributees of the John Threewits estate in 1844; he presumably had died without issue between 1818 and 1844.
7. Llewellyn Williamson Threewits, b. 1815, married Josephine Love Rivers (13 February 1821 – 19 May 1843) on 21 February 1839. She was the daughter of William Croskeys Rivers and Mary Hearn Freer of James Island, Charleston SC. The gravestone of Josephine Love Threewits was the only marker legible in the family graveyard on the plantation of Maj. John Threewits as of the early 20th century (although the year of death was misread as 1813, creating some generational problems). They had two children, John Rivers Threewits (b. 19 September 1841) and Josephine Love Threewits (b. 24 June 1843), but the children may not have survived. Lewis W. Threewits was the sole member of his Richland County household in 1850. He was employed as an overseer for the plantation of Wade Hampton Jr.
8. Lucretia Silvia Threewits married William Cason/Casson.
9. Emma Eliza Threewits married James Croskeys Rivers (b. 19 September 1814) on 7 March 1839. He was the son of William Croskeys Rivers and Mary Hearn Freer.
10. Mary Adeline Threewits married Henry Jones.
SC Threewits with unknown relationships:
1. In 1790, the census of Richland County, SC (Camden District) included the single-person household of Joel Thruwith, categorized under "All other free persons". The surrounding homeowners identify the location as the lower part of the county around Hay's Mill Creek, so near the previous residence of Joel Threewits Sr. The name suggests a family relationship, in addition to the likelihood that this is a former slave of the household. There are no additional land or census records for a Joel Thruwith.
2. Edward Threewits, b. ~1762, enlisted in the Cheraws unit of the SC militia and was serving under Capt. Malachi Murphy when wounded in the shoulder. In 1790, he was a resident of Cheraws District SC (in Darlington Co) with wife Elizabeth Knight and 4 daughters. They moved to Carter County, TN in ~1794. [Note: Capt. Malachi Murphy married a woman surnamed Knight; his widow (per his will) was named Hannah.]
Persons listed as Truewitt on the 1800 census of Darlington County, SC, M32, Roll 47:
p. 116 Stephen Truewitt 23210; 10011; 0
p. 119 John Truewitt 10100; 00100; 0
p. 119 Elijah Truewitt 02101; 12001; 10 (just below John)
p. 121 William Truewitt 21001; 31010; 0
p. 121 John Truewitt 30010; 00010; 0
p. 121 Thomas Truewitt 20010; 10010; 0
3. Stephen Trewhit (b.1755<65) was a resident of Richland Co SC at the time of the 1820 census. He and his wife were both aged 45+. The household included one son aged 16<18, one son aged 18<26 (Edmund), one daughter aged 16<26, and two slaves. The adjacent landowners were families who lived on Crane Creek of the Broad River, just north of Columbia. Four households away was a John Trewhit (age 26<45) with a wife aged 16<26, one son and two daughters under age 10, and 3 slaves. On 26 October 1818, Richland County resident Stephen Truhitt (spellings on pension papers include Trewhit and Trewit, listed as Truewitt on the 1800 census of Darlington County, SC) was added to the pension roll for service in the NC Continental Line. He enlisted in Dobbs County, NC under Col. John Patton of the Second Regiment. He was captured in Charleston SC, but escaped after one month and 8 days, moved to Darlington Co SC after the war. On 15 December 1821, administrator Edmund Threwhitt sold portions of the estate of Samuel [sic] Threwhitt. [Richland County Will Book G, p. 287.] He had died on 12 May 1821, his unnamed wife in Oct 1821, and an unnamed daughter in 1820.
4. Edmund Trewhit, b. 1801 in SC (administrator of the above "Samuel" Threwhitt's estate), was listed on the 1850 Richland County census with wife Maria L. (b. 1809 in SC), son Stephen W. (b. 1832), son William (b. 1835), and boarder Walter Thomas (b. 1830 in SC). Edmund and Stephen Trewhit and Walter Thomas were overseers for the adjoining plantation of Joseph A. Reese. In 1856, Edmund was a resident of Murray County, GA, and the sole surviving child of Stephen Trewhit.
Please forward all questions, corrections, and additions
for this Threewits Bio to the Corresponding Editor: Harriet Imrey
E-Mail: himrey@ntelos.net
