Person:George Morrow (3)

LIKELY BROTHERS:

• Samuel Morrow (1740-1780), Abbeville, SC.
• James Morrow (1731-1788), of Orange Co, NC and Abbeville, SC
• William Morrow m. Rachel Reed (1728-1780) of Orange Co, NC

George first appears in Derry Township, Lancaster (now Dauphin) County, Pennsylvania on the 1759 tax list as a single man. He is married to Mary Fleming by the local Presbyterian minister in 1763.

George and Mary Morrow moved to near the Cape Fear River, NC from Pennsylvania around 1764, according to pension application of son Hugh. George's brothers James and William were living in Alamance County, NC. By 1769, George and James had moved south and requested adjoining parcels in the settlement at Saint Paul's Parish, Georgia (present-day McDuffie County, Georgia). The parcels were surveyed and not granted, and both settled in Abbeville County, South Carolina. George inventoried James' estate in 1788.

George had one child (Hugh) at the time he requested land in Georgia in 1768 (his request for 300 acres indicates he had two other people in his household). His son John, who named his daughter Mary Fleming presumably after his mother, was born about 1770. His daughter Jane was also seemingly an adult by the time of his 1790 will. His children Mary Ann, Margaret, George Mecklin, and James were minors, and later evidence regarding their ages is lacking and/or contradictory.

George's will, abstracted below, provides for 100 acres for his son Hugh, various goods for his apparently-adult children John and Jane, and for the rest of the estate to be used by his wife for the benefit of the four minor children. The land itself was to be divided between son George and James at her death. Because Mary's will in turn only names some of the children, it's historically been assumed that he had two wives, and she took care of only her own children in her will. But by the time she wrote her will in 1819, Hugh and John had left the state and John was dead. Nor does the name 'George Mecklin' necessarily indicate that he was named after his mother's maiden name, as the name Mecklin also appears among George's brother James' descendents.

Will Abstract

Will of George Morrow, dated this 10th day of March 1790.

In the name of God Amen. I, George Morrow of Abbeville County in the State of South Carolina, Planter

Names "my loving Wife Mary Morrow"

My son John And my daughter Jane {this part appears to have been deleted after being written)

My son Hugh Morrow

My son John Morrow

My daughter Jane

My daughter Margaret Morrow

My daughter Mary Ann Morrow

My sons George Mecklin Morrow and my son James

I constitute and appoint My beloved wife Mary Morrow, William Hutton, and Eden Pettigrew As my executors

this 10th of March 1790.

William Dealls

Wiall Beall

Jane Foster

Proved April 6, 1790

[Source: Abbeville District, South Carolina Will Book 1, pg. 48].

Origin

Busted: This man is usually listed as a son of “Old Samuel” of Spartanburg, SC, d. 1796. DNA tests of four descendants do not match other relatives of “Old Samuel.

March 2025 findings identified additional information on Group 5 ancestors so as to tie them all to George and his contemporaries James and William, assumed to be his brothers. Samuel is either another brother, or a family error related to other children of James.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Abbeville Wills. 1787-1837 (FamilySearch)
   [1].
2.   J.T. Morrow. J.T. The Morrows and Related Families. (Baltimore: Gateway Press (1979)).