MySource:Samples 59/Williams-Earle Farmstead

Williams-Earle House

Barnhill owned the property for twenty five years and sold it and an additional 250 acres to Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Blackburn Williams on October 4, 1820 for $1,000.00. There is no reference to a house or dwelling in this deed, and the first reference to a house is made when Dr. Williams completed his will on June 21, 1852. Williams outlined in his will that his wife, Maria Bowen Williams, would receive “the house and land now occupied by me as a homestead near the village of Greenville.” According to Williams family tradition, Dr. Williams built a small frame building on the property soon after he acquired it in 1820 and added the Greek Revival façade prior to his death in 1852.

Dr. Thomas Blackburn Williams was the grandson of a London merchant ship owner, and son of Colonel James Williams, who was born in England ca. 1750-55 and immigrated to Virginia during the 1770s. Colonel Williams married Elizabeth Blackburn in 1775 while working as a lawyer in Virginia. He was practicing law in New Bern, North Carolina at the beginning of the American Revolution and fought in North Carolina and Georgia during the war. On April 2, 1784, Col. Williams received 250 acres in Georgia for his military service. He remained in Georgia after the war, where he practiced law and served on the Governor’s Council and in the Georgia House of Representatives. He died on November 21, 1793 and is believed to be buried in the Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church in Augusta Georgia.

Dr. Williams was the youngest of four children born to Colonel James Williams and Elizabeth Blackburn. He was named for his maternal grandfather Thomas Blackburn, who was an English ship owner and exporter who worked and married his wife, Sarah Foster, while residing in Lisbon, Portugal. Around 1800, Dr. Williams moved with his mother from Washington, Georgia to the home of his sister Eliza Williams Thompson, the wife of Chancellor Waddy Thompson, in Goden Grove, South Carolina. Eliza married Thompson, ten years her elder, in April 1793.

Dr. Williams purchased three hundred and fifty acres on Brushy Creek in Greenville from John Barnhill on October 4, 1820 for $1,000.00. Around 1850, Williams built a two-story Greek Revival style addition to his ca. 1820 dwelling . . .

On June 21, 1852, Dr. Williams willed to his wife, Maria C. Williams, his house and property, and upon her death was equally divided among their children. Dr. Williams married Maria Bowen Presley (1811-1893) after his first wife, Elizabeth Thompson Maxwell, died in 1832. On August 28, 1874, Maria Williams, Thomas B. Williams, Florida Williams, A. Campbell Williams, Caroline Williams Birnie, Antoinette Williams and Charles H. Lanneau, Jr. of South Carolina and Waddy Thompson Williams of Red River County, Texas sell to James W. Williams of Newberry County the property that Dr. Thomas Williams willed to his wife Maria Williams. James W. Williams sells to Richard Harrison Earle on February 24, 1880 for $2,000.00 the forty acres that Dr. Thomas Williams willed to his wife.

Richard Harrison Earle was a farmer that owned much land in Greenville County during the New South period that descended from Colonel Elias Earle, one of the founder’s of Greenville. Colonel Earle arrived in Greenville in 1787, and was elected to the state legislature in 1794, in which capacity he served until 1798, and to the state senate from 1798 to 1804. He also served as a U. S. Congressman. Richard Harrison Earle owned the property less than two years, and sold two hundred acres that included the forty acres that he purchased from James W. Williams, on which the Williams-Earle house now stands, to his son Marshall Delph Earle in the amount of one dollar “for use of his mother, S.E. Earle (Sallie Ioor of Charleston, South Carolina.”

SOURCES:

1. Greenville County Deed Book L, Page 170

2. Will, Dr. Thomas Blackburn Williams, Apartment 13, File 75, June 21, 1852. Greenville County Courthouse, :Greenville, South Carolina.

3. Perrin, Williams-Earle House

4. “Colonel James Williams, circa 1750/55-1793, Father of Dr. Thomas Blackburn Williams.” Article supplied to the consultant by Thomas Riddle, Greenville County School System.

5. “Dr. Thomas Blackburn Williams, 1787-1852.” Article supplied to the consultant by Thomas Riddle, Greenville County School System.

6. Greenville County Deed Book FF, Page 621.

7. Perrin, Williams-Earle House. Alexia Jones Helsley, “The five visonaries who put Greenville on the Map,” G: “The Magazine of Greenville” (January-Feburary 2009): 62-73.

8. Greenville County Deed Book SS, Page 75.

9. Will, Marshall Delph Earle, Apartemnt 321, File 14, January 2, 1926.

Will of Thomas B. Williams

• THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, GREENVILLE DISTRICT.

I Thomas B. Williams of the state and district aforesaid being of sound mind and memory do ordain and constitute this my last will and testament revoking all others.

FIRST My soul will return to the God who gave it and my body I desire to be interred decently by my executors hereinafter named.

SECONDLY My will and desire is that all my just debts be paid and for this purpose I direct that my Saluda lands where I once lived be sold by my executors and the proceeds applied to the pay of same.

THIRDLY I give and bequeath to my beloved wife Maria C. Williams during her natural life the house and lands now occupied by me as a homestead near the village of Greenville together with all the household and kitchen furniture horses and carriages and stock of every kind on the premises or belonging to them. I also give to my said wife during her natural life the following negroe slaves and the increase of the females (to-wit) Moses and his wife Ritta and their family of children the children of Ritta also my seamstress Susan and her four children and Caroline Valentine and one younger Anda at the death of my wife my will and desire is and I do hereby give bequeath the said house and lands and furniture carriages horses and stock together with all the slaves above mentioned to be equally divided amongst all of my children to my said wife Maria C. Williams and their heirs forever. My desire, too, is that the said property lands and slaves above mentioned be divided at my wifes death amongst my said children the children of my said wife in mind without being sold and for this purpose five appraisers shall be selected by my surviving executors or his representatives to make such partition equally amongst them of all the said property given to my said wife during her natural life together with the increase of the female slaves.

FOURTHLY I give to my son-in-law T. H. Cleveland and his executors and administrators in trust for the sole use and benefit of my son Robert M. Williams during his natural life the following slaves and property Helson Tina and her children my horse Bill Austin and two hundred and fifty dollars in cash at the death of my said son Robert M. Williams my will and desire is that all the said and their increase be equally divided amongst the children of the said Robert M. Williams provided he should die leaving children living at his death. But in case my said son Robert M. Williams should die without leaving children living at his death then my will and desire is that so direct that all the said slaves given to him together with their increase be equally divided amongst all my children by my present wife Maria C. Williams and their heirs forever to be divided as directed in the third clause of my will.

FIFTHLY All the remainder of my property both real and personal I desire to be equally divided after the payments of my debts at my death amongst my children by my present wife Maria C. Williams and their heirs forever. To be divided in kind and not sold as is directed in the third clause of this my will. My reason for giving the bulk of my property to my younger or second set of children is that I have already amply provided for and given to my older children or the children of my first wife more than and now able to give my younger or second set of children Any my object is to do justice to all.

SIXTHLY I do hereby nominated and constitute and appoint my wife Maria C. Williams and my son-in-law T. H. Cleveland executris and executor of this my last will and testament with full power to execute the same by selling and making titles to my Saluda lands and in case they should not be sufficient be pay my debts then and in that case my executors are hereby enpowered authorized to sell and make titles to any other property belonging to me and not specificatley willed to my wife or son Robert M. Williams and the proceeds of such property thus sold to be applied to the payment of my just debts by my said Executors.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this the 21st day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty two in the seventy sixth of American Independence in the presence of the subscribing witnesses.

Signed and sealed published by the testator as his last will and testament in presence of the subscribing witnesses who subscribed the and in the presence of him and in the presence of each other.

B. F. Perry

A. B. Crook

Elisa W. Earle

I further give to my daughter Mrs. Harry Cleveland a negro girl ?

Signed with mark Thomas B. Williams

Probated the 27th day of July 1852

Recorded in Will Book C pages 432 – 436

Apt. 13 File H?.75