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Here are several names found amongst various treaties and conferences between (primarily) the Nanitcoke Indians on Maryland’s eastern shore (and what is now Delaware) and the colony of Maryland:
Simon and Captain John of the “Band of Nanticoke Indians Living on Broad Creek Near Present [day] Laurel, Delaware, July 24, 1742. Note: On the same date an almost identical treaty was negotiated with the Nanticoke living at the Chicacoan Town on Nanticoke River through their leaders JOHN COURSEY and Chinehopper.”
At a “Naticoke confer[ence] with [Pennsylvania] Governor Hamilton. At a Conference with the Indians in the State House, Philadelphia, Thursday 14th August, 1760… [were the following Nanticoke Indians] Robert White, John White, George White, William James, Abraham Siscoe, [andJ Jacob Sinoscoe. [The following Conoy Indians were also present], Robert Andom, Maniscus, [and] Manassee.”
Here’s the web site: http://members.tripod.com/~imblackeagle/index-12.html
Note: The Broad Creek Reservation (at present day Laurel, Delaware) is 18 miles (as the crow flies) from Dagsboro, Delaware.
Note: Additionally, somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I recall that there was also (during this same time period of 1742 and the negotiation of treaties) one “ROBIN, the Interpreter” who represented the Queen of the Indian River Indians, but I can’t recall the source.
Another excellent work on the early nanticoke is by C. A. Weslager (again), entitled “The Nanticoke Indians: A Refugee Tribal Group of Pennsylvania” published by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, 1948.
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Several nice old family photos from Indian River, including Nicey Harmon (1845-1910).
Petitions sent to the Maryland Governor Sharp in 1757 give the following surnames for the Nanticokes living in what is now Dorchester County, Md.: Bishop, Pincher, Williams, Joshua, Cohonk, Pocatous, Tobe, Squash, Asquash, and Thomas.
They were on the move.
256 Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 1701—14.
P. R. O. [Indians in Maryland.]
B. T. Md.
Vol. 9. An Account of what Nations of Indians reside within the
province of Maryland and are under Articles of Peace with
the said Government.
The Emperor of Nanticoke, which Nation consists of ten
Towns, the certaine number unknowne.
The Eastern Shore Indians remove very often into Virginia
and Pensilvania; so tis almost impossible to have the Exact
number of men or Towns; but some of those which are
called so, have not twenty families in them. The numbers of
the Indians in these parts decrease very much by reason of the
Small pox a distemper they had not before the Europeans
came amongst them, and by their old way of poisoning, which
they are very expert in; but the greatest cause of all is their
being so devilishly given to drinking, especially of Rum, for
procuring which they will even sell or pawne all they have
The Emperor of Piscattaway under whose subjection is con
tained Chapticoe and Mattawoman Indians, all which joined
by other are said not to be above 8o or 90 in number.
The Pomunkey Indians came also by consent and order of
the Government under the Subjection of the said Emperour.
A commission being granted him generally to rule and
governe all the Nations of Indians on the Westerne Shore,
dated the 14th day of July, anno 1696, which said Commission
was to remain during pleasure
[Sir Thos. Lawrence to the Earl of Bridgewater. Dated
Mar 25, 1697]
Originally posted by techteach
Here are a few relevant links:
http://www.pa-roots.com/~lancaster/books/ee/index.html
If you read about the history of Donegal township, you find that the early Scotch-Irish settle the areas that were cleared of trees by the yearly burns of the Indians.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/armhtml/armessay.html
This has links for early maps of the Frederick County, VA area, one done by George Washington.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~pahuntin/1793barree.htm
This one might be relevant mainly to me. It lists many of my folks, Sinkey, Mccartney (direct ancestors), Green (don’t know if these are related to the WVA Greens), Huston, etc. I believe this to be the area that the Iroquois gave land for refugee tribes. Richard Sinkey lived on Standing Stone Creek which flows into the Juniata.
Techteach
Cindy,
I have some pressing projects here and have had to drop out of the loop for a bit, but this little tidbit- not sure how it fits in or if for anyone – was too interesting not to post right away:
“AUGUSTA ORDER-BOOK….
1746
-Feb 19th James Huston and three other men presented for being vagrants, and hunting and burning the woods; on information given by John Peter Salling, James Young, and John McCown. Huston fined three pounds for illegally killing three deer. “
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/va/rockbridge/courts/earord.txt
Kind of reminds me of the Saponi record over in Orange County. Of course, these guys could have just been Irish vagrants???
Brenda
Originally posted by techteach
Brenda,
I have not read all your postings yet, just the first two. You might be interested to know that Huston is not the only name on that list in my line. I also have Potter (my gggrandmother was a Potter, daughter of a Sinkey and Potter and looked mixed. My great aunt’s book says “the Indian was very close in her line”) and Mitchell, although Mitchell is not in my direct line, but they lived very near the rest of the folks in IA. And Evans. Betts is very close to Butts also, isn’t it? That line intermarries with the William Green line.
Linda – notice the Potter?
I earlier traced a genealogy of the Marvel line to Gibson County, IN.
Techteach
Here is an interesting POTTER note that looks like there was some kind of involvement of a Potter with a trader????
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/nj/statewide/vitals/marriages/njmarp01.txt
“#013; Preserve POTTER, yeoman, & Robert SAVAGE, trader, both of the County of Monmouth…
[bound to]… Lewis MORRIS, Governour… 500 pounds… in the 16th year of his Majestys
reign… 22 July 1742. .. . Preserve POTTER… obtained a License of Marriage for himself… and
for Catherine CUNNINGHAM of the same county, spinster… [w] Anne MADOCK, Wm MADOCK”
Here is a collection of papers from the PA archives that may make interesting reading as they touch on Indian days…. there is a Potter mentioned in these papers, too.
http://www.phmcstate.pa.us/Bah/DAM/mg/mg489.htm
.
“Almost a dozen items have some bearing on relations with Native Americans, and several letters describe various aspects of frontier life in eighteenth-century Pennsylvania. In his August 20, 1770 communication with his father, Charles Lukens, writing from York, related an account “of a Skirmish with the Indians in the Red Stone Settlemt.” where “Six or Seven Indians Came into the Settlement and got some Liquor so much as to intoxicate them [and] they then Plundered one or Two houses of all that was in them.” The settlers followed the fleeing Indians and “a Battle ensued” the next day with “the Indians every one Killed on the Spot & . . . one White man.” On October 13, 1764, William Maclay reported that “I am this moment dressed, with my Leggins my Match Coat, and other Habiliments in the Indian Taste . . . .” Several months later when writing to John Lukens on July 2, 1763, he observed that “the Woods are as thick as possible the gnats, Horse Flies, and Rattle Snakes are as plenty and bit as Wickedly as any time in the World.”
Jesse Lukens’s correspondence contains references to disputes with the Connecticut settlers in northeastern Pennsylvania, known as the “Pennamite Wars.” William Maclay’s letter of December 30, 1775, to John Lukens provides a moving account of one outcome of that conflict, the death of Jesse Lukens on December 25, resulting from a wound received while “attempting to Force a passage over the north Branch” of the Susquehanna River. Other notable personages whose names appear in the Land Office correspondence include: Ephraim Blaine, Anthony Butler, Reuben Haines, Thomas Hartley, Thomas McKean, Presley Neville, James Potter, Richard Peters, Dorsey Pentecost, James Scull, and James Tilghman.”
Brenda:
These are interesting. I found something that placed my Potter in Iowa before any of the other group came, an account by an early traveling minister, I think, who reported finding him there. And interestingly enough, a town called Monmouth, is found right there. It is one of those that if you blink, you are through it. I have found several of the family in cemeteries there too.
The Potters have a lot of ministers in the line, but in looking at the historical documents, many early traveling preachers were also listed as traders.
Techteach
PS: Shoemaker is also a name found in the cemetery with my Potter and my Blackfoot ancestor.
The Nottoway were/are a Virginia tribe living along the NC/Va. border in what is now Southampton Co. (Courtland area) Their language appears to have been Iroqouian. The last piece of old Reservation land appears to have passed out of Nottoway descendant hands in the 1940’s. As late as 1870, several families were still listed as Indian in the area.
Originally posted by Forest
Brenda,
My best guess would be that he places the Nanticoke with the Delaware by mistake, making an assumption based on geographical proximety rather than culture or language.
The Nanticoke of Indian River Hundred are pretty likely descendants of both the Nanticoke proper as well as smaller groups, perhaps including Choptank and Assateague ancestry. My thought is that in 1750, there was little differnce between any of the Lower Shore communities.
I also tend to think that if the Tutelos were ever on the lower Eastern Shore, they weren’t there very long or in large numbers.
In 1941 C. A. Weslager interviewed an elderly Hitchens man in Sussex Co, Delaware, who claimed his father was “Blackfoot” (his mother was a Nanticoke Norwood) Weslager regarded it as possibly deriving from the old Blackfoot Town designation for Dagsboro, or as simply being a misunderstanding on the part of the informant.
I have heard about the Hitchen’s interview; do you know which book it was in? Also, I think I heard about a Jackson from this area saying about the same thing. There is a quillwort plant native to swamy lands called “Blackfoot” that I have wondered about being the source of the name……It appears from the very little I have seen that the MD Blackfoot Town was called that from abt. 1740 something to abt. 1785… a brief period of time. That is why I am wondering if any Tutelo may have come briefly into the area during that time, say between the French and Indian War and the Revolution. That is why I am also wondering what kind of activities Dagworthy participated in between the two wars, too, and if these activities might have included any NC/VA natives he became familiar with during the war….I know it’s a long shot, but just wondering about possible scenerios.
I agree that abt. this time the natives on the Eastern Shore were pretty much intermingled. Do you think it is possible that the same could be said of those in the NC/VA border area, too? Also, is it reasonable to wonder if some of the settlement-fringe Indians and “tributary” Indians travelled based on “occupation”, as well as for the reasons we usually asume whole groups migrate in and out of areas for?
Originally posted by Forest
The Nottoway were/are a Virginia tribe living along the NC/Va. border in what is now Southampton Co. (Courtland area) Their language appears to have been Iroqouian. The last piece of old Reservation land appears to have passed out of Nottoway descendant hands in the 1940’s. As late as 1870, several families were still listed as Indian in the area.
Any idea why they would be with some Catawba & Cherokee at Ft. Cumberland?
ARCHIVES OF MARYLAND
VOL. 6, p. 549
http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/m…l/am6–549.html
Letter Bk.III
[Sharpe to Dinwiddie.]
5th May 1757—
Sr
“……Capt Dagworthy will keep an Account of what
quantity of either he draws for but I suppose that quantity
will not be great. He informs me that there is a considerable
Number of Cherokee Catawba & Nottoway Indians with him
at present & that they expect to be joined by many others
from their respective Tribes, who upon your Invitation have
declared in our favour & are come from home to act in Con-
junction with the Forces that are supported for the Defence of
these Colonies…….”
Brenda
From the reference, I would imagine they ( the Nottoway) were there basically as mercenaries. Probably a small group af young males, with the families remaining behind in southside Virginia.
As to intermixing along the NC/Va. border, it can be documented, for example, that part of the Nansemond (Algonquin) joined the Nottoway (Iroquoian), so I don’t see why there could not have been other examples. Even the Pamunkey (Algonquin) and the Catawba (Siouan) had some cultural interaction and intermarriage. I believe that after a certain point in time, it became, in many cases, more important just to be “Indian”, than a specific type of Indian, when it came to who you associated with.
Thanks a bunch. I have seen this one go for over a $100.00 on ebay, so I will have to see if I can track it down in a library.
Originally posted by Forest
From the reference, I would imagine they ( the Nottoway) were there basically as mercenaries. Probably a small group af young males, with the families remaining behind in southside Virginia.
As to intermixing along the NC/Va. border, it can be documented, for example, that part of the Nansemond (Algonquin) joined the Nottoway (Iroquoian), so I don’t see why there could not have been other examples. Even the Pamunkey (Algonquin) and the Catawba (Siouan) had some cultural interaction and intermarriage. I believe that after a certain point in time, it became, in many cases, more important just to be “Indian”, than a specific type of Indian, when it came to who you associated with.
This probably adds greatly to the difficulty of searching for our “Blackfoot” ancestors. Are we really trying to separate out a strand that was tightly woven into “remnant eastern woodland Indian”? But, in the process of this seemingly impossible task, we are learning more about a dynamic, but hidden history….
Thanks, Forest.
Brenda
Catherine Green from “Blackfoot Rez” I just posted this to the GREEN thread, but thought I should include it under BLACKFOOT TOWN as well……
Here is a very interesting query from the 1997 archives of the Lower Delmarva mail list at rootsweb.com:
http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/cg…7+19233461486+F
“Still looking for Catherine GREEN b. 1815, dau. of Robert GREEN (b. 17??).
New family stories say she came to Somerset from Blackfoot Rez. in Sussex
Co., DE.
She is in Tyaskin HH 880, Somerset Co. 1850 Census. This is the William
HORNER household. Listed, in order, are (GREENs only) John S. GREEN age 13,
Aretta GREEN age 8, Jesse GREEN age 7, and Catherine GREEN age 35.
Q: Why is she listed last? We have no proof that these are her kids. The
family has her as Native American. Could this be the reason?
We haven’t found her anywhere else. Oh, assuming this is her since her son
John Henry GREEN b. Mar 22, 1852 married William HORNER’s dau. Julia Ann b.
Mar 15, 1862. But have found what we are hoping to be her mother Kitty
GREEN (b. 1800) in every census checked up to 1860. She (Kitty) was listed
as a free colored person in 1840 Som. Census pg. 206. This would confirm a
Native heritage?
Back to Catherine (Katie). The family elders also say she married John Mace
WILLIS (b. Aug 6 1835)(he later married Elizabeth DORSEY according to his
will). And sometime after she beared John Henry GREEN (taking his mother’s
surname according to Nanticoke custom) John Mace’s parents came to the
Somerset rez (?) and took him home.
Family elders do remember lawyers coming to John Henry’s home in Dorch. Co,
to fullfil his father’s will and John turned it down saying his father was
no help when he was alive so why should he be when he is dead.
Anyone have any suggestions, further info, or just plain “give up”? Three
cousins and I are all searching everywhere for info and can find absolutely
nothing linking her to anyone else or anywhere else. Or is there anyone in
the area (or anywhere) that specializes in this kinda situation.
Thanks,
John (the Desperate)
John Starkey
This would suggest that there were folks still referring to Blackfoot Town or “Blackfoot Rez” as a place after 1785. For GREEN researchers, here is another family tradition that links Green with Blackfoot and Native American heritage. Is John Starkey on our list here????
Brenda
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