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1784-1787 NORTH CAROLINA STATE CENSUS: SURRY COUNTY

Index to published version:

Southern/Sothern

William 147 (Absalom Bostick's District)
Gibson 148 (Absalom Bostick's District)
Rubin 148 (Absalom Bostick's District)
William 147 (Capt. Hickman's District)

The first enumeration of households made in the state shows William Southern with his three oldest sons/probable sons Gibson, Reuben, and William II, all with their own households. Younger sons Boaz, Ford, and John will emerge in the coming years. William II is already shown with a slave this year; he was the only Southern in NC ever to hold a slave. At this early date William II is on Snow Creek, on a 100 acre state grant entered in in a district apart from the others on Hewins Creek. 

Head of
household		 White Males
21-60		 White Males
under 21
over 60		 All White
Females		 Blacks
12-50		 Blacks
under 12
over 50		 Household
Total
William 4 3 - - - 7
Rubin 1 2 3 - - 6
Gibson 1 - 2 - - 3
William (II) 1 - 1 - 1 3

Descriptions:

Head of
household		 White Males
21-60		 White Males
under 21
over 60		 All White
Females		 Blacks
12-50		 Blacks
under 12
over 50		 Household
Total
William 4 3 - - - 7

William Southern of Buckingham County, Va., now probably in his 60s, about a decade after settling on Hewins Creek in Surry County (part of Stokes after 1789). The numbers in this entry seem right but the distribution, which shows no women, doesn't mesh with other records. Either this is an odd circumstance - - the known women are away and uncounted and other men are temporarily living in the household, or else there is a clerical error. If the first column number were in the second column and the second column number were in the third column, then it could be wife Magdalen, daughter Judith, the unknown daughter or relative also seen in 1790 in the female column, and William (over 60), Ford (b. ca. 1765), John (b. 1774), and a third man, perhaps Boaz, who is probably a little older than Ford but who could also be under 21 in this period. Ford and Boaz will first appear independently in the 1789 tax list.

Head of
household		 White Males
21-60		 White Males
under 21
over 60		 All White
Females		 Blacks
12-50		 Blacks
under 12
over 50		 Household
Total
Rubin 1 2 3 - - 6

Reuben, most likely the son of William as he is seen in William's household in the Buckingham, Va. tithables lists of 1773 and 1774. He was 16 by 1773, thus born by 1757 and here is about 30 or older. Wife not identified, though other researchers have suggested she was Polly Davis. Two daughters not identified, though one may be Anny, for whom Reuben was bondsman in her 1807 marriage to John Brown. The two sons here are probably Joshua and Reuben Jr.; sons Stephen and Daniel will appear by the early 1790s. Reuben is first seen in the Surry record in a separate household in the 1780 Surry tax list (the first year for which one survives after the 1775 list), but had no land that year. He is not shown in 1782 (no 1781 list exists), but appears in 1783 and consistently thereafter with at least 300 acres. His farm was adjacent to William on Hewins Creek, also land first owned by Joshua Tillery; he was deeded the farm in 1789.

Head of
household		 White Males
21-60		 White Males
under 21
over 60		 All White
Females		 Blacks
12-50		 Blacks
under 12
over 50		 Household
Total
Gibson 1 - 2 - - 3

Gibson (alternate spellings are Gipson/Gypson) with a wife and daughter, his only census appearance in North Carolina. He disappears after this census and the 1787 tax list and is quite probably the Gibson in the South Carolina 1790 census in the Greenville area. His relation to others unknown, though it is likely that he was an older son of William. (One source claims he was the son of a William and Mary Gibson, daughter of Benjamin Gibson, who may have been this William's first wife, but the documentation for this claim is not known). He is shown on the 1785 Tax List (no land) and 1787 Tax List (200 acres); no deed is recorded for his purchase or sale of land. This is probably the Gibson who, according to pension records, was born 1753 (here in his early 30s), enlisted in the army in Buckingham County, Va. in 1776, was captured near Savannah, escaped, and was at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in March 1781. See Revolutionary War Service of Gibson/Gipson Southern. The war ended in late 1781, and he may have decided first to settle with relatives in Surry County, but then moved on. A James and a Samuel Southern (other names on the Buckingham, Va. 1773-74 tithables lists and a possible connection) are on the same 1790 S.C. census. Gibson's wife was Mary (Peters, according to a secondary source); known children in a total of six were John W. and Gipson. He died about 1833.

Head of
household		 White Males
21-60		 White Males
under 21
over 60		 All White
Females		 Blacks
12-50		 Blacks
under 12
over 50		 Household
Total
William (II) 1 - 1 - 1 3

William (II) the veteran of the Revolution (served 1780-1781 and was at Guilford Courthouse -- link to Revolutionary War Service of William Southern II), here in his late 20s (born 1758 or 1759), with a wife and a single slave, either a child under 12, or elderly and over fifty -- probably the former. The name of wife has not been found or suggested in any document. He first appears in county records in the 1783 Tax List with 100 acres entered but not deeded and already one slave which is in the "under 7, 50-60" column. He is identified as William Jr. on the 1783 Tax List in the same district (Capt. Bostick's) as the older William, who is there identified as William Sr., though that may only indicate relative age, and not a father-son relationship. He does not appear in another tax list until 1788, when he has 100 acres in a separate district from the others. Here he is in a separate district from the other Southerns and shown next to Henry Baker on the list, his known neighbor on Snow Creek; Baker came to N.C. from Buckingham County, VA, about the same time as the Southerns. He probably remained in the Snow Creek area until his death in the mid-1830s. No census shows a son in William's household, though he had two or three daughters, names unknown.