Wrightsborough, Georgia

The following is a transcription of sections of Roger Avery Stubbs’ notebook on John Stubbs (PA>NC>GA), son of Thomas Stubbs the immigrant, that pertain to Wrightsborough. As written in R. A. Stubbs’ notebook on John Stubbs except for comments appearing in braces {}.

From Pearl Baker, Thomson, GA, 7-12-1964 to R. A. Stubbs
{No original of the letter is attached.}

I have wonderful news for you, I know where Stubbs Mill is now have found a man who will take me there later in the fall. He says that now there are too many rattlers around as well panthers.

It is now a very wild section of the country the man’s name is G. M., who lived in his ancestral home out that way - a lovely house with white columns full of lovely antique furniture. It was built I believe in 1840.

All the old John Stubbs mill site and land was eventually bought up by Joel Cloud family and the M. land border each other for 1.25 miles.

I went to Warren Co., GA courthouse Tuesday to check some deeds and found to my horror that the deeds from 1817-1844 had been destroyed years ago by a fire.

John’s two sons Nathan and Jesse sold the mill to Joseph Evans who sold it to Isaac Lowe who left it in his will to David Walker and Isaac Lowe. This is where I lost track and the deeds must have been recorded in Warren Co, GA and destroyed.

I found out just by accident that Joel Cloud III got it - his father had bought it at auction from the estate of Sarah Wilder [Joel Cloud III married a Wilder] and he bought it from his father’s administrator for $912. Joel Cloud owned a great deal of land on Hart’s and Carson’s Creek. He bought 80 acres in 1848 from Wells Walker.

Clark Hill Dam was built early in the 1950’s but the old Stubbs farm was not inundated. From some deeds I found the Stubbs owned other acreage some of it near the meeting house site {Nathan Stubbs’ lot is just east of the old meeting house}.

The Stubbs-Cloud-Lowe mill site is very near the old line dividing Warren Co. from Columbia Co., GA.

About John Stubbs purchase of land in 1772 near Savannah, the people were afraid of the Indians and disheartened by property losses. At least a third of the settlers had left the township by 1770. Gov. Wright promised some protection and by 1772 most of the defectors had returned. Now 1773 John Stubbs was appointed member of the board to keep up the road in the Township of Wrightsborough, so had returned.

[County line changes the last 200 years make deed research difficult.]

There are some ruins of a big house and a family graveyard there. Mr. M. says Joel Cloud wouldn’t take a toll for his milling but demanded cash or gold coins even during the Civil War years [toll of grain was one-tenth.] Later when Obadiah Cloud was re-shingling the roof of his house he found $40,000 in gold coins hidden in small sacks up in the rafters. An old man who lived in Wrightsborough as a boy about 50 years ago or maybe more says the Cloud place in ruins then and that the big boys used to go out there to dig and search believing that there was more gold hidden.

Will of Isaac Lowe [whose last wife was Ann Mooney Stubbs Miller] made in 1800, probated in 1806 leaves to sons Isaac, Jr. and David the grist and sawmills originally property of John Stubbs. From codicil? [John Stubbs died 1803.]

An account of a visit to the old Homestead and Mill Site of John Stubbs near Wrightsborough 11/30/1964 by Pearl Baker, Thomson, GA, local historian. As written in R. A. Stubbs notebook on John Stubbs.

I went up on Childress [Chill Creek - formerly also called Hart’s] (Chill is now a branch of Hart’s Creek) and found the old Stubbs-Cloud-Lowe place and took photographs; found what we thought was the old mill site; it is now owned by H. M. V. of Harlem, GA [Pulpwood people].

We saw no rattle snakes, but did see bobcat, raccoon, and wild turkey tracks. That turkey must have been big - his tracks were as big as my hand. We saw deer crashing through the underbrush.

My husband and S. H., our friend and I were invited to a squirrel breakfast by a Mr. T. who has bought the old Allen Pennell place and has a lot of cows. (In Wrightsborough.) He got interested when he heard us talking about the Cloud place and said he could lead us right to it. His cows get down in there lots of times. It is between Hart’s Creek and the next one - (Chill’s Creek) and a small logging road goes into it, and beyond. A logging truck may be able to make it or a tractor but it is no place for a car. We had gone out to T.’s in S.’s car, and he insisted on driving it into the woods.

That road if you can call it one - is full of ruts, roots, rocks and deep mud puddles. It was awful. Then just to add a little variety it would take off between the trees where you would swear a car wouldn’t go. We finally got there.

It is about three miles, I would say and there is very little left of the Cloud house. But one corner and a doorway and the cellar walls. Evidently someone still believes in the gold story because there were fresh holes dug all around. The house has just tumbled down. The bricks are still there on the ground covered with leaves honeysuckles, vines and blackberry vines. Rather tough going but really not as bad as when we tried to fight our way to the creek. That was frightful, brambles and vines all sorts of things with thorns in them all tangled up with bushes.

My ankles and hands looked like I had been fighting a bobcat. Feel like it too. We found a place that looked like something had been there. A shoaly place that might have been in the creek bed. The remains of a dam, just beyond it a deep hole, that could have been scoured out by water falling over a dam. There was a couple of rotten timbers half buried in the ground, and some rocks that could have been a building of some sort there. It was in a logical spot, so one believes it was what we were looking for. The undergrowth was far too heavy to do any large scale investigating. We should have brought brush hooks with us.

Mr. T. tried to tell us, but it was something you have to see for yourself. He is a retired Army captain, and says he hadn’t seen anything so thick since the campaigns in the Burma jungle. He had been to the old house before but never to the millsite.

When we got back to the road he said he know where there was an old burying place, just a little was from the road so we took off again. These graves are marked by stones just like the Quaker graves, only one is larger than the other. I wonder if there is where some of the Quakers are buried maybe even a Stubbs. We could see traces along the road of place where houses had once been. Here an old pear tree, there a vine or tree that didn’t ‘belong there’, you can always tell. If you see a huge tree or two standing in a tract of second or third growth trees you may be certain they once shaded an early settler’s home and left there.

We got out and poked around some of these places and are certain that we found a chimney or two that had fallen and the rocks or whatever they were made of long ago covered with a deep layer of leaf mold. If we had only carried something with which to dig. I tried to scratch down in one of those mounds but roots were so thick I could make much headway. We found traces of a couple of old roads. You can tell the area is getting wilder all the time as I saw in the paper that a {man} caught otter lately on Maddock Creek due to the Clark Reservoir, beaver are coming back too.

S. H. recalled as a boy, living in Wrightsborough and was cared for by an old Negro woman who had been a slave of Joel Cloud’s. She was in her eighties then and lived to be 102 years old. She told him and his parents that slavery wasn’t bad if you had a good owner like ‘Massa Joel’. She didn’t have to worry about food, clothing, or housing and didn’t overwork either. She claimed to have seen Joel’s ghost on his favorite big white horse. Field slaves usually took the surname of the previous owner having none of their own. Her name was C. J. S. also told of the tradition of the gold hidden on the Cloud place. $40,000 in gold found in the rafters when later members of the family were reshingling. S. says a {man} dug some up in the garden once and a local man went up there with a mine detector but didn’t find any. [Joel would accept only gold at the mill for grinding and sawing.]

J. P. Account of a Visit to Wrightsborough written 9/2/1967
Letter to R. A. Stubbs, from his notebook on John Stubbs:

On my last trip to the South Eastern part of the U.S. I was privileged to visit my Uncle G. at Decatur, Georgia near Atlanta. First we went to a little town in Georgia called Thomson about 2 hours drive from Decatur. We looked up Mrs. Pearl Baker. She came with us and we took three cars as all the Palmer’s went with. We took a jeep because of the brush and under growth. The first stop was the site of the Methodist church which was built in 1810. The only other remnant of a building was a rock house where quakers once lived. {Perhaps the remains of the John Scott store?} In the grave yard of the Methodist church was the grave of Thomas White. it’s still the easiest stone to read. The inscription on the grave stone read, "Our father Thomas White born in Dublin City April 1753, Immigrated to this place in 1775, Married to our mother in 1776. They were fighting for liberty over these hills in 1777. They left the field not a captive but a conqueror in April 1844." I took a picture of this grave stone as it was the easiest to read and it will show up on the film. I noticed the last people to be buried there was in 1945. The next thing we visited was the ruins of the old Cloud house. At one time Cloud’s house was owned by John Stubbs. We came to this old abandoned logging road and we took the jeep in. G. and L. stayed behind. There seemed to be a lot of water standing on the road. There was a lot of pine, and undergrowth. Mrs. Pearl Baker said it was a mile in but it seemed more like two. We kept going until we came to a huge saw dust pile [at] which Mrs. Baker didn’t get out of the jeep as there was too much undergrowth. Mr. Baker, W., T., and myself started looking around and we just about gave up and I looked up and I spotted the ruins as I was the tallest. There was a door there and a heap of bricks. The walls of the basement were intact but pretty well covered with undergrowth. We looked around these ruins for about an hour and I took some pictures trying to imagine what it looked like. We were looking around and saw all these pits. Some of the pits seemed fairly new. There was gold in the rafters of the house and there was a note saying there was more outside according to Mrs. Pearl Baker. We returned to the road and went on to the old stone house {Ansley House}which was about seven miles from the Methodist church. It was in fairly good shape. They invested in a fence around it so vandals wouldn’t destroy it. There were some young kids tried to burn it down but Mrs. Baker said the old stone house just wouldn’t burn. In my estimation the best time to visit the other ruins would be during the winter as you wouldn’t have the brush to contend with. You should also bring a compass so you can find these other ruins in the area without getting lost. J. P.

Roger Avery Stubbs trip to Wrightsborough, Georgia, June 16, 1973
{From R. A. Stubbs notebook on John Stubbs}

Local historian Pearl Baker took us around (sister C. and I).
I was impressed how old colony grown up to southern pine - different kinds of shortgrass. Mocking birds, buzzards, Indigo Buntings.
Red soil - strange flowers.
So many streams - no lakes.
Muddy, Muddy Maddock Creek.
Trickle only in Tanyard Creek.

What we missed by our forefathers leaving before the events leading to Civil War - Slavery and its horrors - collapse of the economy in 1865.
I noted black people on the porches - all open, no screens
in run down shacks.

From Henry Stubbs’ Memoirs 1878

Henry, his second wife Mary Louisa Eccles and two youngest sons, Milton and Charles Rolla went to North Carolina in 1848 for Mary Louisa’s health. Henry wrote: "There we staid for three months, traveled through Guilford County, went to Wright’s Borough where some men inquired of our Milton where he came from. He answered that he came from Ohio in Butler County, and the man was so much astonished he applied to us to know if that five year old boy was correct. We informed him that he was. Well, he could hardly believe his own eyes, to think that such a boy as that could correctly answer such a question. His aunt Lydia Eccles had schooled him to answer such questions as that so you see it was no bother for him to answer correctly. In that state at that time children were not allowed to be educated for fear they would talk too much to the blacks and cause them to run away from their masters."

Other items relating to Wrightsborough in R. A. Stubbs’ notebook on John Stubbs

John Stubbs had sister Esther Cloud whose son, Joel, Jr. and Joel III lived on the Stubbs place later.

Henry Stubbs took sons Milton and Rolla to see Wrightsborough in 1848. {Henry does not say whether he met his cousins the Clouds or Watsons.} In 1962 Rev. G. P., grandson of Milton, visited Wrightsborough, GA.

Nathan, Isaac and Thomas Stubbs, sons of John Stubbs all denounced by Wrightsborough, Georgia Quakers for bearing arms [probably to defend their own].

Columbia Co, GA deeds {unreadable}360 {unreadable} 1803 recorded 2-21-1805 John Stubbs, Jr. for $36 to Joseph Stubbs 17 acres and 19 rods on Upton’s Creek bounded by John Stubbs, Jr. and Sr. which Joseph?

{Below a hand traced map:}
To get to Stubbs [later Lowe-Cloud] place from Thomson, GA, go north out of town, northwesterly, on old Wrightsborough Road, [not NE on 78]. Keep on north about 4 miles cross Maddock Creek [Joseph Maddock mill is to north of here about mile on another road]. Curve left a bit and going on about 2 miles to Pleasant Grove Church corners - veer left nearly a mile and go through the site of old Wrightsborough, and on a couple miles Liberty Hill Road and on over Hart’s Creek [1965 name] and on one half mile to Chill/Childress Creek [Upton Creek Watershed] and back in about 3 miles left on creek in wilds is Stubbs/Lowe/Cloud house. The burying ground and house site between Hart and Chill Creek.

William Penn Attmore [1755-1800] compiled memoirs in 1792 [in NC University Library]
["Uncle"] John Stubbs married Esther Maddock reckons himself to be about 62 years old - lived about 2 miles from Wrightsborough, Columbia Co, GA. He has 14 children 13 grandchildren - ten living.

In 1805 Georgia conducted land "lottery". $8.10 per 207 ½ acre lot $19.60 490 acre lot
Entitled to draw -
· free white bachelors 21 years of age or over - one year residence in Georgia - U.S. citizen -
· Free white male married with wife and legitimate children under 21 years of age 1 year residence GA, citizen.
· Widow with minor legitimate child or children under 21 years of age 1 year residence GA. citizen.
· Minor orphans or family of minor orphans under 21 with father dead and mother dead or remaining.

Isaac, Jesse, John, Jr., Samuel, Thomas, Joseph all sons of John Stubbs - entered but drew blanks - so moved to Ohio. {Did Clouds and Watsons draw land?}

Slavery increased greatly after Revolutionary War and Quakers couldn’t compete with slave labor goods.

John Stubbs land 1806 still described on Hart’s Creek - see deed Isaac Stubbs selling out to Ezekial Alexander.

Thomas Scattergood, noted Philadelphia Quaker [see Teas family section] visited Wrightsborough 1793 [Journal quoted from Guilford College records Greensboro, NC 27410] p. 160-162 Ansley Rock house of Wrightsborough, GA by Kenneth Thomas. The Wrightsborough MM allowed special Sunday afternoon worship to be held three months for Friends above Wrightsborough during summer and fall of 1789 at home of John Stubbs, Sr., mentioned also {unreadable}.

John Stubbs land in Georgia:
1769 - 100 acres - 350 acres
1770 - Lot 2 in Wrightsborough, GA.
1772 200 acres
total 650 acres

Old Richmond Co, GA. Deeds
[from Pearl Baker, Thomson, GA]
1789 John Stubbs, Sr. to John Stubbs, Jr. for 100 pounds 150 acres surveyed and laid off the corner of land granted to John Stubbs, Sr. 1769.

"Autobiography of a Colony" [Georgia], 1974, Barry Fleming,
p. 99.
December 9, 1768
Quakers from North Carolina arrive and occupy the land reserved for them northwest of Augusta; 1000 acres have been surveyed in a proper spot for a township to be called Wrightsborough.
pp. 112-3.
9-29-1773 - Colonial Legislature -
"The road from Augusta to the Quaker Settlement called Wrightsborough in the Parish of St. Paul is dedicated by the legislature to be publick road. Legislature appoints as common surveyor of road in the parish --- John Stubbs, Jonathan Sell, Isaac Lowe."

Thomas Scattergood, noted Philadelphia Quaker Evangelist in Memoirs, 1792 mentions meetings held at Marmaduke Mendenhall’s and John Stubbs’.

At one time Hart’s Creek was just a branch of Upton’s Creek but now all called Hart’s Creek [recent Clark Hill Dam has created a lake and backed the water way up country, etc.].

From Marbury’s History of Georgia Laws - 1799, p. 392
"A certain tract of land containing 500 acres lying in the then Parish of St. Paul now Columbia County, granted to Joseph Maddock and Jonathan Sell in trust for the use and benefit of the people called Quakers for certain purposes therein expressed and in as much as it doth appear that the aforesaid premises do not answer the purposes for which it was intended.
Be it therefore enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Georgia in general assembly met, that David Williams, Camm Thomas, Joel Cloud and John Stubbs be hereby appointed trustees in lieu of the aforesaid trustees, who shall continue in office until the first Monday in May, 1801 at which time the people who are qualified to vote for members of the legislature shall assemble at the town of Wrightsboro and elect at every subsequent term of two years thereafter five fit and discreet persons as trustees who shall continue in office for term of two years.
Be it further enacted that the trustees or their successors in office shall sell or otherwise dispose of the land in such manner as they shall consider most beneficial.
James Jackson, Governor"

Peal Baker, Thomson, GA, found in Appling [Columbia Co.] GA. Court:
"1804 Joseph Stubbs sold to Elijah Mendenhall 160 acres on Hart’s Creek originally granted to John Stubbs 8-3-1769 and left by will to Joseph [son] plus a 17 acre tract conveyed by deed to Joseph by John Stubbs, Jr. 8-22-1803 for $818.00."

Follow up on Stubbs Mill Site - Nathan and Jesse Stubbs sold to Joseph Evans when they moved to Ohio.
1805 - Evans sold to Isaac Lowe
1806 - Lowe sold to David Walker and George Lowe but subsequent deeds refer to David Walker
1820 - Curtis Lowe sold 100 acres on Hart’s Creek [Upton] to John Perry and next day Perry to Thomas Yarborough
1848 - a deed in Warren Co., GA shows Joel Cloud III purchasing mill house tract on Hart’s Creek after being left 2 tracts of land received through grant by Joel Cloud II on Hart’s Creek also tract purchased from Thomas Bowdre on Hart’s Creek.
[The Bowdre purchase is interesting. He got it in 1806 from Peter Parham who bought it from Joseph Bull in 1794 when it was called the Horse Pen.]
Columbia Co., Georgia Court Records at Appling, GA.
"Samuel Jones purchased 100 acres from Charles Crawford Oct. 1784 and his land on the plat is show as being located on side by Isaac Low and John Stubbs on the other side by ____ Moore and Noble Butler."

To get to old John Stubbs farm go north through Wrightsborough on old Stage Coach Road - it is to left on second creek way back in woods to the left.

John Stubbs mentioned in History of Wrightsborough, Georgia History in Magazine of History - Aug. 1911, 14:18 by Candler{?} [MHS {MN Historical Society} #E171 M23]

Bryan’s "Colonial Wills of Georgia 1733-1771" by Bryan
p.96 - Joseph Mooney Town of Wrightsborough to son John, "my land on south side of Upton’s Creek" - containing 275 acres. The plantation on which I now live when he is 21 - on N.W. side of Upton’s Creek about 175 acres.
Wife Mary - 1/3 the benefits of the plantation, half acre lot in Town of Wrightsborough, #27 all household goods horses, cattle, hogs, sheeps, personal estate - wife to pay 10 pounds sterling to daughter Mary Hickson, Deborah and Martha Mooney when latter comes of age.
Exec. wife and John Stubbs
9-20-1774 - J. Maddock and Jonathan Sell are empowered to adm. oath to Mary Mooney and John Stubbs.

For background on colorful mills of John Stubbs, see Georgia Grist Mill story in Maddock family section. {Refers to RAS notebook on Maddock Family.}

Columbia Co, GA Deeds at Appling -
"1783. Samuel Maddock bought from James McFarland for 30 pounds - 200 acres bounded N.E. and N.W. by John Jones south east by John Stubbs. S.W. by Joseph Brown.

The road from Wrightsborough to Augusta was opened as a public road in 1773 and John Stubbs, Isaac Lowe, and Jonathan Sell appointed to keep it in repair in their districts. Jonathan Sell made commisioner. [Georgia Review - Winter 1950]

Columbia Co., GA Deeds at Appling -
"1769 John Stubbs sold to Joseph Stubbs for $80 17 acres on Upton Creek" - brother

A deed of Agnes Swain Hixson Perrott [see Hixson Family section {RAS notebooks}]
Dated 2-222-1794 Signed
Not receiving until 3-19-1798 Warren Co., Georgia - calls Upton’s Creek - "commonly know as Stubbs Creek" - now Hart’s.

Dec. 22, 1768 … (From Candler vol X - p 690) Minutes of Ga. Assembly
{First part - through the listing of names and acreage - copied from Sarah Shaw Tatounova’s Webpage as it is more complete}
On reading a Petition of Joseph Maddock and Jonathan Sell two of the People called Quakers on the behalf of themselves and the rest of the Friends lately come to settle in this Province from North Carolina Setting forth (among other things) that sometime Since there was a reserve of Lands ordered to be made for Forty Families of their People it being then supposed not more than that Number would Settle in the Province but that there were already about Seventy Families come in and actually Settled And praying that a larger Extent of Land might be allotted and reserved for them for a further Term they expecting a considerable Number of their Friends might yet joint them _ And also praying that their several Lands might be laid out; and Grant for the same passed; and a Road from their Settlement run; agreeable to the encouragement formerly given them, on the faith whereof they were come into the Province. It is Resolved that the Land on both Sides Germany's Creek to the Head thereof and from thence to continue this same Course 'till it intersects the Indian Line (not taken up by the People already come) be reserved for the same purpose for twelve Months next ensuing; that a Road be run from their Settlement; their Lands Surveyed in the several Tracts and proportions following and Grants for the same passed and perfected to their respective persons herein after named that is to say,
Thomas Watson...........500 Acres.
Joseph Maddock..........{300 Acres.
.....................................{200 Acres (Purchased)
Deborah Stubbs..........300 Acres.
Thomas Jackson..........250 Acres.
John Stubbs.............100 Acres.
Jonathan Sell...........300 Acres
Joseph Mooney...........550 Acres.
Ann Stubbs Widow........150 Acres
John Jones..............200 Acres
Francis Jones...........250 Acres
Isaac Low...............250 Acres
James Hart..............250 Acres
Thomas Hart.............200 Acres
Richard Jones...........150 Acres
Daniel McCarty..........400 Acres
Samuel Oliver...........250 Acres
Richard Moore...........100 Acres
Thomas Omaley...........200 Acres
Thomas Linn.............250 Acres
Robert McClen...........300 Acres
James Morrow............350 Acres
Peter Perkins...........500 Acres
John Oliver.............350 Acres
Henry Ashfield..........350 Acres
William Elam............250 Acres
Absolom Jackson.........200 Acres
John Slater.............400 Acres
Joseph Hollingsworth....100 Acres
John Whitsit............200 Acres
John Whitsit Jr.........250 Acres
Stephen Day.............200 Acres
James Emmett............200 Acres
Hugh Tinnen.............200 Acres
Cornelius Cochran.......300 Acres
Isaac Vernon............350 Acres
John Sidwell............300 Acres
Amos Vernon.............200 Acres
George Morrow...........300 Acres
Oliver Matthews.........250 Acres
John Perry..............250 Acres

{returning to RAS notebook:}
…. and it is further ordered that a further 100 acres of land out of the said reserve be surveyed and laid out in a proper spot for a township to be called Wright’s Borough and that a plat of the same be certified and returned to the clerk of the Council … ordered that the secretary prepare a warrant or warrants accordingly whereas at a council held on Aug 2 last a piece of land for a cowpen was ordered the Quakers lately settled in this province from N.C. but no order issued for a warrant by reason that they omitted to nominate any person in whose name the same might be made out as trustee for the purposes intended. It is this day ordered on a further application that a warrant be issued in the names of Joseph Maddocks and Jonathan Sill Trustees etc. for surveying 500 acres for a cowpen out of the lands reserved for those people on the North Fork of Briar Creek above land at the said council in August ordered the said Maddocks for a grist mill and that the secy. do prepare a warrant accordingly.

June 6, 1769 (Candler Coll vol X 784)
Governor and council read a petition of John Stubbs setting forth that he was one of the settlers of Wrightsborough that he had only 100 acres of land granted him and that he had a family of a wife and six children therefor praying for … out of the said reserves … etc. the prayer of the said petitioner be granted.

August 1769 … Candler X 853 … John Stubbs mentioned as owning land next to John and Richard Jones.

July 3, 1770 …Candler XI p 86
Lot no. 2 assigned in St. Paul’s Parish, Wrightsborough to John Stubbs.

August 5, 1782 (Candler’s Revolutionary Records of Georgia Vol. 3 Page 178) and his Colonial Records of Georgia Volume 19 Part 2 Page 152.
An Act … whereas many persons have withdrawn themselves from the defense of the state some of whom bore high and important trust and on commissions under the same accepted protection from the enemy in utter contempt of authority of the state and to the evil example of society and forgetting all the sound ties of Kindred and humanity did assist in enforcing the laws of the British government and overthrow that mild and equitable form of government which they had assisted to raise and which it was their duty to support and whereas it si but just and reasonable that the estate of such persons be amerced and that a due discrimination be made … be it therefor enacted by the representatives of the freemen of the state of GA. in General Assembly met and by the authority of the same that the commissioners appointed for carrying into executions an act entitled "An Act for Inflicting Penalties for Confiscating the Estates of Such Persons Herein Declared Guilty of Treason" and for other purposes therein mentioned viz … (list of names -none familiar ) … and be it further enacted that the persons named viz … John Stubbs, Jonathan Sell … (and 60 others) shall be compelled to serve as continental soldiers or find substitutes in the Ga. battalion within 6 weeks of the passing of this act … to serve on the space of two years from the time of their respective enlistment or to the end of the present war. (Then several sections not referring to John Stubbs) … and be it further enacted that all land every person named in this act shall be and be and he and they is and are hereby declared to be disqualified and rendered incapable to serve on any jury or to vote at any election for members of assembly or to serve in the same for and during the space of two years from and after passing of this act but such person and persons are and is hereby declared to be in all other respects restored to the rights of citizenship on taking an oath of allegiance before any assistant judge of the county to which they respectively belong in as full a manner as if the act of confiscation before named had never been made or as any other American citizen doth enjoy the same subject in only the disability in this act contained and all offences of a public nature murder only excepted shall in regard to such person and persons be forever buried in oblivion saving only in the right of civil action to any person or persons who may apprehend him her or them selves aggrieved by such person or persons named in this act ….

Quaker Distress in Wrightsborough, Georgia during Revolutionary War
From Dr. Kenneth Carroll of Southern Methodist University
"From London Friends Records -
About mid 1782 the London Donation Fund Committee heard that several Georgia Friends - ‘Have been by the distress of the times driven from their settlements into Savannah where they are destitute of substance except what hath been allowed them by the British Government there; and that others who remain on their settlements [at Wrightsborough in American held areas] are also in great distress for not joining with their neighbors in the prevailing commotions, having been plundered of their effects and subject to the peril of their lives.’ [From Donation Fund Committee Minutes pp 17-18.]
Most Georgia Friends sought to live up to their Quaker pacifism and a thorough going neutrality although some few took up arms on behalf of the American cause. Still others were inclined toward the Tory position - especially Joseph Maddock and Jonathan Sell, the leading Friends in the Wrightsborough community. When the American forces reoccupied Wrightsborough some of the pro-British Friends had their property plundered their houses burned and were banished to Savannah by the American partisans. Among those going to Savannah with only a very few personal belongings and only small provisions were Joseph Maddock, Jonathan Sell and ten other male Friends and their families - viz.
Joseph Williams, John Embree, John Stubbs, Joel Sanders, ? Hoagin, Joel Saunders, Jr., John Carson, Thomas Faillon, Thomas Stubbs, and Joseph Stubbs. Until they received help from the British Donation Fund these above Friends existed only on an allowance of beef and rice given them by the British Government in Savannah, Georgia."
[Epistles received by London Friends 5:136-137.]

From minute book 1737-1872 Bradford, PA Friends found in Genealogical Society of PA, 1300 Locust St., Philadelphia:
"October[sic] 17, 1754 John Stubbs granted certificate to North Carolina or elsewhere he having an inclination to travel into some of the southern colonies." This is endorsed by Cane Creek, N.C. Friends on April[sic] 5, 1755.
"May[sic] 15, 1755 John Stubbs received back from Cane Creek N.C. Meeting of Friends dated April[sic] 5, 1755"
"Sept[sic] 15, 1757 John Stubbs granted certificate to Cane Creek, N.C. Meeting of Friends also David Cloud both free of marriage engagements."

Troubles in Georgia

The Revolutionary Government had control from 1776 to Dec. 31, 1799 (Rev. Records of Georgia.)
The colonial gov’t took over again in Jan. 1780 and held control [British] to June 1781 - of Georgia. The people banished or their land confiscated by British and Americans alike are all listed in documents. The British banished 151 prominent rebels. The American patriots in March banished 177 Tories and in May 1782 took action against 279. Later 48 of those listed were removed from the list in an act of amercement - fined 12% as penalty later some 21 people removed from the list and 47 relieved of all penalty.

From Lewis Stubbs Papers in Richmond, Indiana also quoted in William Carter Stubbs "Genealogy of John Stubbs of Virginia" (No known connection to us).
Page 16 - John Stubbs born in Chester Co, Penna moved from there to North Carolina in 1755 and married Esther Maddock also of Penna in 1757/8. To this couple were born 14 children. Six were born in North Carolina, viz: Nathan, Isaac, John, Mary, Samuel, and Esther. In 1768 they removed to Georgia about 30 miles from Augusta where the rest of the children were born - John died Dec 27, 1803 and wife 1786 both in Georgia. All of the children, (except Sarah who died young) after the death of their father, moved to Ohio about 1804-1805 and settled in southwest part except Jesse who lived in Indiana.

From History of Preble County, Ohio, published 1881, page 186:
"The ancestor John Stubbs had gone from Pennsylvania to North Carolina to keep in sound and sight of his lady love Esther Maddock. On the way he saw General Braddock undertaking his disastrous march against the French. [Braddock defeated July 9, 1755 and retreated to Pittsburgh to Fort Cumberland, Maryland] [See also Grace Carroll Runyon’s 1945 Preble Co, Ohio page 26, also History of Preble Co, Ohio 1900 Page 259.]

From William Wade Hinshaw’s Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, Volume I Page 422 also Stephen Week’s Southern Quakers and Slavery Page 280.
"On October 1, 1768 John Stubbs Family granted a certificate of removal from Cane Creek, Chatham Co, North Carolina Friends Meeting to Fredericksburg, South Carolina (nearest meeting to the new home at Wrightsborough, Georgia which meeting not yet organized.) (Cane Creek is now in Alamance Co, NC 14 miles south of Graham, NC)

John Stubbs was one of the signers of the protest against the Savannah Assembly acting toward secession from England which it took August 10, 1774 - see Maddock, Joseph section of this record -

John Stubbs cont'd

From Volume XII Pages 160-161
Jan 2, 1772 The council meeting at Savannah read a petition of John Stubbs setting forth that he had been for some years settled in the province and had land granted to him in Wrightsborough Township on his family right and that there was a strip of land joining on the three sides granted to him which he was desirous of obtaining though for the present he had not the right thereto wherefore praying the said vacant land which contains 200 acres on purchase … Resolved that on the condition, etc. the prayer of said petitioner be granted.

From Hinshaw’s Quaker Encyclopedia Vol. I Page 1041
"March 12, 1774, John Stubbs charter member of the newly organized Wrightsborough Meeting of Friends (Quakers). This formed off from Fredericksburg, South Carolina and others but the minutes of last named meeting 1750-1782 are lost so no record of transfer known to be extant.
Dec. 3, 1774 John Stubbs and family officially transferred to the Wrightsborough membership by order of the Bush River South Carolina Meeting on October 4, 1774.
Sept. 3, 1779 John Stubbs placed on a committee to try and obtain land for a meeting house (Church Building).

[Wrightsborough first in St. Paul’s Parish, then in Richmond, then in Columbia now in McDuffie Co, Georgia - the minutes of the meeting are lost 1793 to its dissolution in 1805 so records of the family are fragmentary.]

{Other notes still to be transcribed.}