John Bruton was born in the 1740s in Craven County, North Carolina (one record states 1741; another shows 1747). He was married with Jeanette Griffin, who was also born around 1747 in Craven County. She was one of three children of Jonas Griffin and Alice Bryan Griffin. John and Jeanette had six children. John served in the Revolution as a spy on the Georgia frontier, and at the completion of his military service, he received a bounty grant of 300 acres in Washington County in 1782. Bounty grants were made to many Revolutionary War veterans as compensation for their patriotic services. On July 10, 1781, Virginia records mention that John had delivered seven slaves to a new owner in Halifax (now Fairfax) County, Virginia. These records are the first located which actually refer to the John Bruton of Georgia. John also appears in a Georgia state revolutionary pay roll on February 25, 1786, when John Brewton was paid 47 pounds for hunting cattle.
John Bruton was granted an additional 287½ acres on Town Creek in Washington County on November 24, 1784. John continued to purchase property in this area. On January 6, 1791, two plots of 150 acres each were surveyed by John Watts at John Bruton's request. The property contained in the first plot included Bruton Creek and was adjoining to Bruton (now Brewton), Georgia. The second plot included Big Creek and adjoined the property of Dan Eubanks. All of this property was later made part of Warren County, when Washington County was subdivided into about a dozen new, smaller counties.
John bought additional property in 1795. He bought 200 acres of land on the west side of Beech Tree Creek from Thomas Johnson of Columbia County on February 19. Edmond Bugg and Benjamin Bruton were witnesses to the transaction. John also bought a tract of land on March 27 in Warren County from William Bush, Sr., and his wife, Mourning Bush. This land also bordered on the west side of Beech Tree Creek and on the property that John had bought in the previous month from Thomas Johnson.
John took part in another business transaction on November 1, 1798. For $800 he bought one negro man, one negro woman, one mare, a stock of hogs, corn, cotton, and all the remaining crops of David Walker of Jefferson County. The bill of sale for the slaves was witnessed by Benjamin Bruton and Sally Bruton. This Benjamin Bruton was Isabella Bruton Askew's son; Sally Bruton was the second John Bruton's daughter. This transaction shows that the two families knew one another.
Aside from being a planter John Bruton also served as justice of the peace of Warren County, a position he obtained in 1795. He appears in many records after 1795 in this official capacity.
On April 22, 1808, John Bruton gave some of his property to family members. These were Charlotte Bruton Walker, Laney Bruton Spann, Sally Bruton Porter, Vicey Bruton Black, Jeanette Bruton, and John Bruton, Jr. These gifts were recorded in a deed of gift recorded in the Superior Court Deeds and Mortgages records in Warren County. On August 13, 1808, John Bruton was mentioned in the Augusta Chronicle newspaper in a list of persons who had failed to pay his taxes. In the following year, on February 22, 1809, John sold additional property to Simeon Travis. This land bordered with that of Robert Bolling and Benjamin Upton. These are the last known records of John and his wife Jeanette.
John and Jeanette's six (6) children were: Charlotte Bruton, who married Joel Walker; Eleanor ("Laney") Bruton, who married Francis Spann; Sally Bruton, who married William Porter; Vicey Bruton, who married Robert Black on March 18, 1795, in Warren County; Polly Bruton, who married Charles Devereaux; and John Bruton, Jr., who married Mildred Clarke on February 1, 1810, in Jefferson County. John Bruton, Jr.'s, children were Benjamin F. Bruton and John Alexander Bruton.
Regarding your search on Jemima Johnson Fontaine, she married with Nathan's brother, Benjamin Bruton. Benjamin was born around 1769 in North Carolina. He moved to South Carolina and then to Georgia, where he was living by 1790 (as were other family members). On February 2, 1791, Benjamin Bruton was granted 214 acres on Rocky Comfort. He was also granted an additional tract of land there on December 13, 1802. The remaining 200 acres of Rocky Comfort were owned by Robert Gray.
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