52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 27 -- Independence
My maternal 5x great-grandfather Zebulon Brevard was born 29 March 1724 in Cecil Co., Maryland and died 8 Aug 1798 in Iredell Co., North Carolina. In between he married, raised a family of 10 children and "assisted in establishing American Independence"[1] by serving as an ensign in the colonial militia in Mecklenburg Co., North Carolina. He also served as a jury member in the same county. (Perhaps that will make you rethink avoiding jury duty.)
Although I don't know much about Zebulon Brevard (yet) as an individual, the Brevard family from that era were well-known and appear in many written histories of North Carolina.
• The first Brevard ancestor in America -- Zebulon's father, John Brevard or Jean de Brever -- was a Huguenot refugee who feld France when Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685. After a brief sojourn in Ireland, this young man settled in Maryland and fathered a large family....[2]
Because many of the Brevard relatives had the same first names -- Zebulon (yes, there are several Zebulons), John, James, Joseph, Alexander, as well as Jane and Mary -- I'm not quite sure which family group these stories can be attached to, but I think they show the commitment of the extended Brevard families to the revolutionary cause.
• When the American Revolution began, the John Brevards had eight sons, including Alexander and Joseph, and four daughters. All the Brevards were Whigs. When the British under Cornwallis crossed the Catawba river, they passed near the Brevard home; according to family tradition, a British contingent, finding only Mrs. Jane Brevard at home, burned the house and all the surrounding outbuildings to the ground. The explanation offered was that the family had eight sons in the rebel army; clearly, the family took the country’s cause seriously.[3]
• Brevard had ample reasons, political, economic, and religious, for opposition to British rule in America. At the call of the first provincial congress in New Bern, a public meeting was held in Salisbury on 23 Sept. 1774 to elect a committee of correspondence as the congress had requested. Among the twenty-five appointees were Brevard and his son-in-law William Lee Davidson. This committee made inquiries into the conduct of sundry citizens to determine whether they were friends or enemies of the American cause, and Brevard appears to have been an active member. When a committee of safety for the District of Salisbury (comprising the western portion of the state) was appointed in 9 Sept. 1775, Brevard was a member. In 1776 he was a member of the provincial congress meeting at Halifax. He was too old for active service in the army, but it is claimed that all eight of his sons fought for independence, Ephraim, John, Alexander, and Joseph as officers in the Continental Line. ...After the defeat and death of General William Lee Davidson at Cowan’s Ford, on 1 Feb. 1781, Banastre Tarleton’s greencoats pillaged the helpless citizens, burning the Brevard homestead.[4]
• In North Carolina “a British officer was asked why he plundered the Farm and burned the House of the Widow Brevard. His answer was ‘She has seven sons in the rebel army.’”[5]
Footnotes
[1] Donna G. Seago, Application for Membership to the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Washington, D.C.
[2, 3, 4] Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, Wm. S. Powell, University of North Carolina Press, c1979, 1 (A-C), 218.
[5] Joseph Brevard Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill.
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| Obviously not a Brevard from the 1700s. This is my paternal grandfather John Frederick Goehring with a 48-star U.S. flag. I estimate this photo was taken ca. 1942 near the beginning of America's involvement in World War II. |
Although I don't know much about Zebulon Brevard (yet) as an individual, the Brevard family from that era were well-known and appear in many written histories of North Carolina.
• The first Brevard ancestor in America -- Zebulon's father, John Brevard or Jean de Brever -- was a Huguenot refugee who feld France when Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685. After a brief sojourn in Ireland, this young man settled in Maryland and fathered a large family....[2]
Because many of the Brevard relatives had the same first names -- Zebulon (yes, there are several Zebulons), John, James, Joseph, Alexander, as well as Jane and Mary -- I'm not quite sure which family group these stories can be attached to, but I think they show the commitment of the extended Brevard families to the revolutionary cause.
• When the American Revolution began, the John Brevards had eight sons, including Alexander and Joseph, and four daughters. All the Brevards were Whigs. When the British under Cornwallis crossed the Catawba river, they passed near the Brevard home; according to family tradition, a British contingent, finding only Mrs. Jane Brevard at home, burned the house and all the surrounding outbuildings to the ground. The explanation offered was that the family had eight sons in the rebel army; clearly, the family took the country’s cause seriously.[3]
• Brevard had ample reasons, political, economic, and religious, for opposition to British rule in America. At the call of the first provincial congress in New Bern, a public meeting was held in Salisbury on 23 Sept. 1774 to elect a committee of correspondence as the congress had requested. Among the twenty-five appointees were Brevard and his son-in-law William Lee Davidson. This committee made inquiries into the conduct of sundry citizens to determine whether they were friends or enemies of the American cause, and Brevard appears to have been an active member. When a committee of safety for the District of Salisbury (comprising the western portion of the state) was appointed in 9 Sept. 1775, Brevard was a member. In 1776 he was a member of the provincial congress meeting at Halifax. He was too old for active service in the army, but it is claimed that all eight of his sons fought for independence, Ephraim, John, Alexander, and Joseph as officers in the Continental Line. ...After the defeat and death of General William Lee Davidson at Cowan’s Ford, on 1 Feb. 1781, Banastre Tarleton’s greencoats pillaged the helpless citizens, burning the Brevard homestead.[4]
• In North Carolina “a British officer was asked why he plundered the Farm and burned the House of the Widow Brevard. His answer was ‘She has seven sons in the rebel army.’”[5]
Footnotes
[1] Donna G. Seago, Application for Membership to the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Washington, D.C.
[2, 3, 4] Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, Wm. S. Powell, University of North Carolina Press, c1979, 1 (A-C), 218.
[5] Joseph Brevard Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill.
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