Person:Laban Walker (1)

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Notes

From Phillip Walker, October 2014, personal communication:

There's a fair amount of circumstantial evidence that Laban is Hansford Walker's father. I think there's a strong likelihood that Laban is Hezekiah's son; they did live next to each other in Barnwell County, South Carolina, in 1810, and both ended up in Mississippi, though not in exactly the same place there. Documentation is lacking for a solid proof, though.

There were, in fact, four Hezekiah Walkers, and it's been a while since I've looked at the evidence, so I hope I am not confusing them again, but Hezekiah ties not only to Duplin County when Edward was known to be there, he also ties very closely to Edgefield County, South Carolina, Walkers who are in Group 10. Absolute proof of Hezekiah's DNA being Group 10 would be great, because it would firmly put all of Edward's Group 10 contemporaries in exactly the same orbit. As a quick summary of those contemporaries:

• Edward B., born 1756 somewhere in NC, location unknown until he said he was in Duplin County during the Revolution. I think he was probably in both Duplin and Dobbs based upon the units in which he served, probably near the border of the two. Today, the likely area is around where Sampson County and Lenoir County meet. He left NC shortly after the war and ended up in Sullivan County by 1790; whether he went straight there, I don't know. He moved to Claiborne (now Hancock) County around 1819, where he died in 1838.

• Samuel, born in the 1740s, was in what is now Edgefield County, South Carolina, before the Revolution. Died there in 1813. Cofounded a church with Hezekiah Walker from Duplin County who left Duplin slightly after the Revolution.

• Francis (not Marion, no known middle name), born 1758, was in Edgefield County before and during the Revolution, too, and later went to Simpson County, Mississippi. There was an Ezekiel Walker who was in Edgefield and is thought to have been Francis's brother. The names Ezekiel and Hezekiah, of Wake County, North Carolina, show up on at least one Duplin County deed. Some folks claim a third brother, Joel, who does not show up in Edgefield records apparently. The idea that they were born in Maryland dates back a while, but there is little real evidence of Maryland, and the whole Toaping Castle connection is fantasy. Two known descendants of the real Toaping Castle family (which is far more of a mundane family than the DAR legend) tie to another DNA group. Coincidentally, one of them settled in Knoxville, Tennessee, and the other lived in Claiborne County, Tennessee, for a few years before going to Kentucky -- a good 20 years before my branch moved there. There could be a Maryland connection, but not with that particular Walker family.

There was never a large group of Walkers in Duplin County (or Dobbs, which, in addition to having been dissolved, is a burned county). My working theory, backed by nothing other than rampant speculation on my own part, is that there was a Walker "homeland" where Edward's line may have lived for multiple generations, in North Carolina if he was right (and correctly quoted) about his own birth place, or possibly elsewhere. Sometime before the war, parts of that family went to Edgefield and parts went to Duplin County. The economy in eastern North Carolina revolved around ship stores before the war, but given that Wilmington was blockaded most of the war and occupied for a part of it, that economy was destroyed. A substantial portion of the population left after the war, and the remaining Walkers did so, too. From the looks of things, most went on to Edgefield where there were seemingly other family. Edward went to Tennessee, with no known companions. Of course he went with someone at that point, but I don't know who. I have identified only one person who definitely knew Edward in both places, and he moved to Tennessee many years after Edward.

Ancestry Public Member Trees

The above shows two lines of descent for Laban, as shown by different genealogists.

• Descent from Mathias Walker=Charity Smith, which traces back, according to some, through several generations to a Richard Walker b. 1695 in Barnstable, Mass.
• Descent from Hezakiah Walker=Dorcas, who were present in Duplin County, NC in 1777, with DOB's of c1755.

Given the DUplin County Connection, in conjunction with the fact that Edward Walker (24) was living in that area at about the same time, suggests a family connection with Hezakiah Walker.