LENOIR/JONES COUNTY, NC - Misc. - Sketch of Kinsey Family, 1912.
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Lenoir Community College Learning Center, Box 188, Kinston, N.C. 28501. -
Genealogy Vertical File, Kinsey #11560-3
We thank the staff at LCC for their permission to copy selected documents
from their file to place on the internet. It is requested that researchers
give appropriate credit when using these documents. Permission to combine
said documents together in printed form is not given.
Donated to Lenoir Community College by Mrs. Roger N. (Caroline) Sutton, 6-
5-81
SKETCH OF KINSEY FAMILY
by Joseph Kinsey
September 1912
In my boyhood I was much in the habit of asking old people about their
ancestors, especially my grandfather, Joseph Kinsey, who was born in 1777
and died just before the Civil War, at the age of 81. I made a note of
many of the dates and names and after I attained my majority I began to put
the date thus obtained in shape for preservation, but none reached back
beyond his father, Joseph Kinsey, my great-grandfather. In the law office
of N.J. Rouse, my old pupil, I had access to the Book of Wills and found
that Joseph Kinsey's will dated April 9, 1752, was probated in the May
court, 1752. His wife Mary, executrix, and John Grenade, executor. This
will showed the following sons: John, Joseph, Abasalom, Christian, Samuel,
and one daughter, Esther. I asked an old lady, Miss Sallie King, why Uncle
John Isler Kinsey has the Isler in his name. Why she said his grandmother
was Mary Isler, the daughter of Christian Isler, who was private secretary
to de Graffenreid. In the '70's I was called on to make a survey of lands
in Jones county, belonging to the Islers. The deed for this land called
for lines of the Ogden Patent, granted by King George. I went to Raleigh
and found the patent granted in 1735 and curiosity led me to look through
the K's and I found that Joseph Kinsey, my great-grandfather, entered 80's
on Joshua's Creek, a tributary of Trent River. John Kinsey entered 80
acres on Joshua's branch, a tributary of Tuchahoe River, which flows into
the Trent. In a booklet on North Carolina History, I learned the colony of
de Graffenreid settled at the juncture of the Trent and Neuse Rivers in
1710 and that the town of New Berne or settlement was called Berne, the
capital of Switzerland. These settlers were Swiss and Palatines, and about
12,000 Palatines from the "Palatine on the Rhine" fleeing the persecution
of the Catholics went to England, being invited by Queen Anne (1708)" who
cared for them with a genuine Christian magnanimity."
About this time, Christopher de Garnered and Louis Mitchell were preparing
to emigrate to America with a large Swiss population, their own countrymen.
Negotiations were entered into between them and the Queen's Commissioners
by which it was arranged for them - about six hundred of the Palatines to
be settled in Carolina upon 10,000 acres of land in the body, between the
Neuse and Cape Fear Rivers.
It is interesting to note the changes in the spelling of the names of these
people then and now. Our Creom was then Grum; Isler was Ealer; Moore was
then Mehr; Wallace was then Wallis; and Kernegay was spelled Kernegee. The
Kinseys settled in upper Jones County and their names appear to have
undergone no change with one exception, which appeared Kensey. From very
old people I learned that great-grandfather Joseph Kinsey married Mary
Williams, the sister of William (Billy) Williams and the names of their
children were Jesse, John, Joseph ( my grandfather), Betsey Celia, and Mary
(Polly). Mary married Richard Nobels, the son of John Nobles. Grandfather
carried me there once on a visit when I was 10 or 12 years old. I
recollect seeing her as she sat on a low chair and she was blind.; as she
had me led up close to her she could feel my head "to see" how high I was
(she said.) This John Nobles, - my-grandfather Nobles, the father of
Richard Nobels, was killed in the Revolutionary War and great grandfather,
after the death of his Williams wife, married Penny Nobles, the widow of
John Nobles, and this Penny Nobles was Phillips Miller's sister. Also
grandmother Brown's mother and grandfather Brown's Dean wife's mother were
sisters of Penny Nobels and Phillip Miller.
Grandfather Joseph Kinsey married Vicy Blackshire, who died leaving no
children. He then married Sarah Brock, the sister of Martin Breck, and
Joseph Brock married Mary Isler. Grandfather's children by Sarah Brock
were Mary, Percy, Joseph Brock (my father), John Isler Kinsey, James
Henderson Kinsey, and Issac Williams Kinsey. Gandmother Kinsey (Sarah
Brock) then died and grandfather Kinsey married Susan Rhem. By her were
born Jane, Joel, Jasper, Justus, Jonas, Jacob, Sallie, Jackson, Job,
Jonathan, Jay and Susan. (Note this peculiarity, that the names of the
boys begin with J.)
Grandmother Nancy Brown, was the daughter of Evan Griffin (some say
Griffith) and Evan Griffin's wife, Catherine, was the sister of Phillip
Miller. Grandmother Brown first married John Lee. After John Lee's death
she married Jessse Taylor, who soon dies and then she married grandfather
Issac Brown, by whom she had Nancy, my mother, and Issac.. Joseph Brock
Kinsey, my father, married Nancy Brown in February, 1841. She was born in
April 26, 1826.
Grandfather Brown's father was named Benjamin Brown and Benjamin's father
was Howell Brown. Grandfather Issac Brown's grandmother was Martha Yates.
She married a Langston and had Ruth, David, and John. Ruth Langston was
Grandfather Brown's mother. She married Benjamin Brown who was born in
Virginia and married his wife Ruth, in Virginia and came to North Carolina.
Benjamin Brown and Ruth Brown had the following children: Issac (my
grandfather,) Asa, Benjamin, Zachen, and Priscilla. (Pricilla) Great-
grandfather Benjamin Brown then died and his widow Ruth married Walter
Dortch. By him she had six children: David, John, Rebecca, Betsey,
Martha, and Ruth. They moved to Georgia and left Grandfather Brown in
possession of the property, he being the old law heir to the estate.
Grandfather Issac Brown's first wife was a Dean, who had the following
children: William, Zachens, Vicy, Mary, (Aunt Polly Nobles) and Pricilla,
Susanna, and Orpha. After his Dean wife died, Grandfather Issac Brown
married Lucy Small, who had two children, Cyrus and Leah. Cyrus Brown
married, and died leaving no children. (Typist note: at the bottom of
the page of the original manuscript is a hand written note that has an
arrow drawn to indicate the notation should be inserted here and reads as
follows........) Susan C. Brock 1st wife 1831 - 1856 - sister of Daniel
Shines Brock and dau. of Hannah Frank & Martin. She is buried in grave
yard at "Eagle Ne... (unable to make out next letters) Farm" in Jones
County
Leah married Frank Thompson, the father of Dr. Cyrus Thompson, Frank et
al.. After the death of Lucy Small, Grandfather Brown married Grandmother
Brown, the widow of Jesse Taylor and they had two children, Issac Brown,
son of Benjamin Brown and Ruth Brown, his wife, was born Sept. 25, 1773,
and died August 4, 1840. Mary Dean, daughter of William Dean and Susanna,
his wife, was born March 22, 1780, and died Nov. 8, 1919. Issac Brown and
Mary Dean were married Sept. 21, 1885. Susanna Brown was born April 21,
1805. Zachen Brown was born Jan. 9, 1808. Died March 1973. Orpah Brown
was born Dec. 12, 1810. Uncle Nacy Brock married Susanna and Orpah. Issac
Brown and Lucy Small were married May 31, 1820. Nancy Brown Kinsey was
born April 26, 1826.
Joseph Kinsey
La Grange, N.C.