William and Mary of Norfolk County, Virginia

A deed of sale from 1702 records William and his wife Mary in Norfolk County, Virginia. The lack of regular record keeping during the early colonisation of Virginia means that this half-torn deed is the only record of the couple to be found. When and where they married and who Mary's parents were may never be known. Records from England are much more plentiful, however, and up to 1700 three Williams are known to have emigrated: in 1638, 1668 and 1677.

1. The 1638 emigrant would have been aged 79-88 in 1702.
2. The 1677 emigrant would have been aged 40-49 in 1702, but he emigrated to Maryland.
3. The 1668 emigrant would have been aged 48-58 in 1702—probably 48—and went to Virginia. He was therefore the most likely 1702 signatory.

Other 17th and 18th C records from Virginia and North Carolina are sparse but strongly indicate a single Brockett clan there throughout that period—and indeed with descendants living today. Although the early relationships are not yet proven by any records of births, deaths or marriages, geographical proximity and first-name patterns make them all but so. Moreover, there are no known records of other Brocketts being introduced into the vicinity of Norfolk and Princess Anne Counties during that period. Nor are there British records of other Brockett emigrants to Virginia until 1784-5 when two brothers emigrated from Scotland to Alexandria, considerably further north than Norfolk, Pasquotank and Craven counties. So although the assumed ages at marriage of the first 2 Virginian generations are untypical, the proposed line of descent is probably correct.

Norfolk County land deed 1702

1. To all to whom these presents shall Come &c Know Yee that I William 2. Brockett of Norfolk County with the Consent of Mary my Wife for 3. ......... good Causes & Considerations in for & unto moveing; But more 4. [especi]ally for this Consideration of the Summe of Foure thousand 5. ... hund[re]d pounds of tobacco in hand payd or Secured to be payd 6. ...... [at the e]nsealing & delivery of these presents by Henerey Loo 7 .............. afor said The Receipt of which we Acknowledge & Doe 8. .......... the said Heenery [Loo], his heires &c of Every part & parcell 9. divers ........ bargained, Alienated Sold Enfeoffed & Confirmed 10. Especi[ally] ... ..se presents doe bargaine Alienate Sell Enfeoffe & Confirme 11. ................ [sai]d Henry Loo a parcell or T..l of Land Scituate lying & 12. at ....................Norfolk County on the Westerne branch of Elizabeth River 13. of th..................ed of Church Creek bounded betweene Joseph M...es & 14. Disch[arched by Hene]ry Loo And Edward ...es on the back ..oe ..ming into the 15. ............................... ing Seaventy Acres being part of a Pattent 16. ......................... the said Joseph M..es & the said Brockett Containing two 17. [?hundred and?]     twelve Acres Granted ............ by the said Pattent may at 18. .en..............................e To have & to ho[ld the sai]d seaventy acres of Land 19. on ............................................ ediffice ..... [build]ings Orchards Gardens 20. ..................................................................... [w]oods & underwoods timber 21. ..............................................................................munities whatsoever 22. ...............................................................................ion belonging or any= 23. ...................................................................... [Hene]ry Loo & to his heires 24. ...................................................................................ine the said William 25. .................................................................................. with Warranty of 26. ................................................................................. And I the said William 27. .......................................................................... & Administration &c Unto the 28. ......................................................... Administration in the penal Sume of 29. ................................................. [pou]nds of tobaccoe to give Such further 30. ........................................................ the said Land & premises to the said Loo his 31. [heires] ............................................ learned in the Law shall advise or 32. ............................................................. (if need require) As also that the said 33. ........................................................ and delivery of these presents free from 34. ........................................................... Grants, Rights & Tittles of Dower 35. ..................................................... [wha]tsoever And to acknowledge this 36. ................................................................. required and Mary my Wife 37. ...................................................................her thirds to the same In 38. .................................................................... sett our hands & seales this 39. ........................................................................ 1702 40. Sign...                                                                     by his 41. Thomas ......                                                  [Willia]m X Brokett & seale 42. Elizabeth ......                                                            marke 43. Sampson ......                                                        by her 44. ......                                                                 [Mar]y W Brokett & seale 45. ......                                                                       marke 46.               Cour.......... said Will[iam Brocke]tt 47.               Mary [his W]ife did ....................her 48.                    Right of dower ther[ein?] ...... ie 49.                this 24th. of February 1702/3 ...dered 50.                to be Recorded 51.                                    Test.. Sampson Broer D: CCar?

In 1691 Lower Norfolk County Virginia was divided into Norfolk Co and Princess Anne Co. In 1696 Francis Brockett, Cooper of Little Creek in Princess Anne Co, and Rebecca his wife sold land she had inherited from her father there and purchased 50 acres from Anthony LAWSON on 5 Nov (Princess Anne Co Deed Book 17, 1691-1755).

Rebecca was the daughter of Joshua CORNWELL of Lower Norfolk Co and mentioned in his will, pr 17 Mar 1686/7 (in the first Will Book of Upper Norfolk Co, now kept at the City of Chesapeake Court House):

'... I despose of my Estate as folowethe to my Eldest daughter rebecka I Giue and bequeath my Land and if she dec[ease]d without Ishoe borne of her owne body then to fall to her sister My youngest daughter Mary' (ll 7-9)

Although these land deals predate the 1702 deed, no other Brocketts are recorded in Norfolk or Princess Anne Co at that time and the assumption is that Francis was the son of William and Mary of Norfolk Co.

Francis d 1712 Princess Anne Co, proved by a 1712 estate inventory (Princess Anne Co Deed Book 17):

Inventory of the estate of Francis Brockett 1712

Inuentory & appraisement of Francis Brockets Estate (viz:) £   s   d Seuen head of cattle 6   10     Thirteen sheep 3   05     Cart & wheeles & coller & hames 1   10     an old horse old Saddle & bridle 1   10     two: old Spinning wheeles     09     Two: old hoes an ax & Some Coopers Tooles     10     fishing Gear     01     an old gunn & 2: old Swords 1   05     four old hides & 3: old pair Cards     08     hoggs and piggs 2   00     a parcell of old pales & Sifters     07   6 17 1/2 pound of new pewter     17   6 4 1/2 pound of old pewter     02   3 12 Spoones     01   3 A box iron Bible     05     Nine bottles & some other lumber     03     old Drawing Knife & frow     01   6 weavors geare 1   08     old brake & Tenter     02     a old Boat     13     wearing Cloaths 2   10     a bed rugg & blankett a pair of Sheets           & beadstead 4   04     one old bed three blanketts one           Sheet & Trundle bedstead 2   05     two: old Chests a box     07   6 a Small table bench & chairs looking Glass     05     a pott & hooks     12   11 an old pott & frying pann     06     a pott & hookes     14   8 a old bed 3: old blankett & a old rugg     12   6 pott racks     02     a parcell of old barrells     08                 Princess Annss At a Court held the: 2nd of february Anno Dom 1712 33 12   7 Appraised by us Tho: Wishard Ashale Hancock John Webblin Alexander Haruey           Sworn by Elizabeth Bockett (sic) to be a true Inuentory of Francis Brockett Deceased his Esatate to the best of her knowledg & if any more Comes to her knowledge to render an account thereof to the Court and ordered to be Recorded.

The first court notification of the presentation of the inventory was by Rebecca Brocket, but the full inventory was sworn to by Elizabeth Brockett. Rebecca herself may not have lived to present the document in person. The relationship of Elizabeth to Francis is not known. She would have had to have been born by 1691, so if Francis was not born before 1675, she could not have been his daughter. Perhaps she was an unmarried sister.

BROCKETT of Virginia and N Carolina 17th - early 19th C—suggested reconstruction William BROCKETT m Mary ... Joshua b 1654 Wells | a 1702 CORNWELL d 1686 | a 1702 | | | | | | Elizabeth Francis I m by 1696 Rebecca a 1712 b by 1675 | ?d 1712 | d 1712 | |  ________________________|________________  | | | | Joshua m Perthinia Francis II m Mary ... b c 1697 | ... b c 1698 | d 1732 | | d 1747 | | | |  ______|_________   ___________|_______________  | | | | | ?| | | | | Joel John m Mary Benjamin m Sarah Frances Jacob b c 1725-30 d 1812 | ?FAIRCLOTH b c 1723 | ?STEVENS | | d 1777 | d 1758  |__________________________  | | | | | | | Joel Redding William m 1771 Martha Benjamin m Nancy b by b c 1765-75 b 1748 | IVES b c 1756 | FROST | | 1765 d ? 1834 d 1821 | d 1819 | | | a 1790 | | | issue issue a = alive issue

i. Calculating dates

1. Working backwards from the known birth of William in 1748 and assuming bridegroom ages of 25—younger than average—provides a birth date of c 1698 for Francis II. A deposition dated 6 Sep 1721 states that Francis II was 'aged twenty one years and upward' and so born 1700 or earlier (Princess Anne Co Court Records, Bk 3, Part 1, p 6). He was also selling land in 1720, for which he probably had to have been 21, therefore born by 1699.

2. This allows for Francis II to have been the 2nd son of Francis I and Rebecca, married by 1696.

3. If Francis I married Rebecca the same year of the 1696 land deals aged 21, he would have been born 1675, when William of Wells was 21. Both would have been young bridegrooms—untypical of both England and Virginia at the time (Fischer 1989 p 285)—but given William’s young age at transportation perhaps he married earlier than 21 and perhaps Francis was born before 1675.

ii. Notes and references:

1. Joshua d 1747 Pasquotank Co, North Carolina—just south of Norfolk Co. It was the custom in Virginia then for first-born children to be named for their grandparents and second-borns for parents (Fisher 1989 p 308), so Joshua has been assumed elder son, named for his maternal grandfather, who had furnished the land the family lived on. Married Perthinia ...
   1. ?Joel—perhaps born to a yet unidentified first wife of Joshua—was paying taxes in Pasquotank Co in the 1750s, therefore born probably before 1730. He was married at the time of his death in 1777 and had a son and daughter, the former of whom, Joel jnr, was named in the 1790 census as being more than 21 years of age. No descendants of Joel jnr are known.
      
   2. John. The 1748 settlement of Joshua's estate referred to John Brockit's part, 'orphan of Joshua Brockit Decised' (Pasquotank Co, NC, County Court Minutes, 1747-1753, Book II). If Joel was an elder brother, perhaps he wasn't named in Joshua's estate because he was an adult. Married Mary ?FAIRCLOTH and their son Redding has living descendants (Grandy 1999 pp 46-8).
2. Francis II died intestate 1732 in Pasquotank Co, North Carolina, his papers mentioning only his wife Mary. The earlier presence of Francis in Princess Anne Co is proved by his sale of his father’s 50 acres in Lynnhaven Parish to Thomas Ewell for $35 Virginia money (Deed registered in Princess Anne Co, VA, County Court Minutes, 3 Oct 1720) and by the purchase with wife Mary of 200 acres of Faircloth land in Pasquotank Precinct of Albemarle Co, North Carolina 17 Oct 1721 (Record Of Deeds, vol A, Pasquotank Co, NC). Possible children of Francis and Mary:
   
   1. Benjamin d 1758 Craven Co, North Carolina; m Sarah ?STEVENS, d/o William STEVENS of Camden and Craven Cos, North Carolina. No documentation exists connecting Benjamin to Francis II, so a case could be made to connect him—as also Frances and Jacob—to Joshua, the only other adult Brockett in Pasquotank Co. In 1742, Benjamin (home county not stated) applied for a land grant in nearby Craven Co, which was subsequently granted in 1747, when he moved there as a married man. Known children of Benjamin and Sarah:
   1. William, b 1748 Craven Co, North Carolina; d 1821; m 1771 Martha IVES, New Bern, North Carolina, probable d/o John IVES. EJ Brockett (1905 pp 52, 76) gave William's father as Elisha of Wallingford, Connecticut, but in the 1773 deed (see next section) selling the Brockett Plantation William specifically stated that it was the land left to him by his 'Father, Benjamin'. William's marriage to Martha was attested in her Revolutionary War pension and its supporting statements of 15 Feb 1840.
   2. Benjamin, b c 1756; Sheriff of Jones Co, NC, 1798/9; d 1819; m Nancy FROST.
   2. ?Frances (probably female) witnessed the will of Elizabeth Torksey, Pasquotank Co, NC, 1754. Her name and estimated age suggest that her father was Francis II.
   3. Jacob is mentioned only in a 1755 militia list. Given that militia service usually was required of men 16 to 60, one cannot guess at his date of birth. He probably died at an early age.

In 1773 William Brockett of Craven Co, NC, signed a land deed selling 200 acres on the south side of Trent River to William IVES (Craven Co Deed Book vol 21, pp 14-15, uncovered by Nash in 1995).

Craven County land deed 1773-4

1. To all to whom these Presents shall Come Greetings William Brockett 2. of Craven County in the Province of North Carolina Gentleman Know Ye 3. that the sd. William Brockell [sic] for & in Consideration of the valuable sum 4. of Twenty Six Pounds proclamation money to me in Hand paid before the 5. ensealing and Delivery of these Presents by William Ives of the County & 6. Province aforesaid Plaintiff the Receipt whereof I the said William Brockett do hereby 7. Acknowledge that I am therewith fully Satisfied Contented and paid and thereof & of every 8. part & parsel thereof do acquit Exonerate & Discharge the sd William Ives his Heirs & As= 9. signs for ever by these Presents do freely and absolutely Give Grant Bargain Sell 10. Alien Enfeoff Convey & confirm unto him the said William Ives his Heirs and Assigns 11. for ever one Tract or parsel of Land Containing by Estimation two hundred Acres 12. being so much Granted by Patent to my Father Benjamin Brockit Dec'd bearing 13. Date the 10th. Octr. 1747. Situate on the So. Side of Trent River in the County aforesd. 14. joining Frederick Jones's Patt'd Land & known by the name of Brockits Plantation 15. the Bustings [?] and Boundings referd to the sd. Patent To Have and to Hold the aforesd. 16. Land & Premisses thereunto belonging or any way appertaining unto him the 17. sd. William Ives his Heirs and Assigns for ever to his and their only proper use Bene- 18. fit Interest & Behoof for ever And I the said William Brockit do hereby covenant 19. Promise Grant & Agree to and with the sd. William Ives that I do & will hereby war- 20. rant & for ever Defend the aforesaid bargained Land & Premisses all & singular 21. the Lawfull Claim or Demand of any Person or Persons whatever having any 22. proper Claim or Demand in or upon the said Demis't [?] Premisses but to the only 23. proper Claim of him the said William Ives his Heirs and Assigns for ever the 24. annual Quit rents that is or shall become due only Excepted In Witness whereof 25. I the said William Brockit have hereunto set my Hand & Seal this 23d Day Aprile 26. 1773 ~ 27. William Brockett [seal] 28. September Craven Inferior Court 1774 29. Present his Majesty's Justices 30. Signed Sealed & Delivered 31. In the Presence of us 32. John Parkinson 33. Bazell Smith 34. Then was the aforegoing Deed Proved in open Court by the oath of Bazell Smith one 35. Of the subscribing Witnesses thereto agreeable to Law and ordered to be Registered. 36. Test. Christopher Neale C.T.C

An account of Benjamin and his sons and grandchildren is reproduced below from Nash (2000)
pp 32-7, with kind permission from the author. The book is not easily found, due to the small print run.

Nash pp 32-7

In North Carolina a 1750s list of Craven County landowners, a sort of county census, included Benjamin Brockett, showing that his right to the land was proved in June of 1743. In October of 1747 he received title to 200 acres on the south side of the Trent River in Craven County. In an effort to populate the area, land grants had been offered at the rate of 100 acres for each adult in a family, so Benjamin would have been married shortly before this time. One son, William, was born in 1748/9, and another was born about six years later. Whether there were other children, we do not know. In April of 1757 Benjamin was listed as Ensign in the local militia company, but a little more than a year later he was dying. He sent for his neighbor and long-time friend, John Grenade, to help prepare a will. Ben left everything to Sarah, telling her to provide for the children, whom he did not name. By October, he was dead. The next year, Sarah married Simon Foscue. Of the two known sons of Benjamin Brockett Sr, the younger one, Ben Jr, appeared to have made a greater success of his life. Born about 1756. Ben Jr became a large landowner and land speculator in Craven (later Jones) County. He held more than 30 slaves, and he was High Sheriff of Jones County in 1798 and 1799. In 1813 Benjamin Jr sold what was apparently the last of his land to Amos Foscue for $1000: '450 acres on Great Branch on Whiteoak River at John Martin Bender's line to a pine standing by a negro's grave, and along river to beginning.' Ben Jr and Nancy moved to New Hanover County, NC, where Ben died six years later, leaving his estate to his widow. [Benjamin Sr's other son was William.] In 1771 William Brockett and Martha Ives were married by Parson Read at New Bern, NC, and two years later they decided to sell their North Carolina land and move to South Carolina. In the deed covering the sale, William stated that the land had been granted to 'my father Benjamin Brockett, and was known as Brockett Plantation.' The Revolutionary War began soon after the Brocketts arrived in York County, South Carolina, and in that state, more than anywhere else, the conflict became a civil war. In his political views William was a life-long Whig, and he was opposed to the Tories. Years later, in the pension application made by his widow, it would be said that William Brockett 'was an active Whig living in a land abounding with Tories.' It was a bitter, dangerous time. Brockett joined Thomas Sumter's brigade of mounted infantry and served in various South Carolina campaigns and battles until the war ended in 1783. He enlisted as a private and was promoted to captain when another man was demoted. Sixty years later, one of William's sons would recall his father coming home wearing a sword and being called 'Captain Brockett.' ... William Brockett's militia service was irregular in the manner of guerrilla warfare. On 12 July 1780, at Williamson's Plantation, near the headwaters of Fishing Creek, they wiped out a scouting party of the dreaded Tarleton Legion, a vicious, hard-riding British unit of more than a hundred. Early in August they struck the British post at Hanging Rock. There and at other places which today are barely footnotes of American history, they dealt harshly with the Tories, as the Tories in turn did with them. … Finally, the war ended. In 1784 the State of South Carolina gave William credit for 181 days of actual service and paid him 36 pounds, 15 shillings, and 8 pence half-penny. Also, as a consequence of being home rather more often than not during the war, a new child had been brought into the Brockett family about every other year or so. William and Martha remained in South Carolina for more than 20 years after the end of the war. Shortly after the year 1800 they migrated to Smith County, Tennessee (that part of Smith County which was later cut off to form part of Macon County). Whether they all went together as a group, we don't know. William's son Benjamin was involved in land transactions there as early as 1805. Another son, 24-year-old Elisha, bought 20 acres on a branch of Peyton's Creek in 1810, and their father, now 60 years old, bought 30 acres on Defeated Creek in 1808. Their cash crop was tobacco. In the autumn of 1807 Benjamin and Elisha and James signed a petition to the authorities to reduce the number of inspections of the baled crop. They said that too many inspections were damaging the tobacco. Their new 'plantations', as they called them, were in the hilly, wooded, wild country across the Cumberland River, about 12 to 15 miles north of Carthage. What was then a wagon track is now a hard surface road....through Pleasant Shade and up Boston Branch to the little village of Russell Hill. Brockett Cemetery, on a piece of ground given to the community by one of the family (a local historian said by William), is a short distance east of the settlement, near the church. William died in the spring of 1821 and was buried near Carthage, Tennessee, most likely at Russell Hill. He had made his will two years earlier, and it says a lot about the man. An old time Calvinist Presbyterian was William Brockett. At the time of his death, he and Martha had been living with their son Frederick, who, with brothers James and Elisha, was still in Tennessee (Elisha would never leave). Benjamin and Thomas and some of their sisters, those who had married Parkhurst brothers, had already gone to Illinois. After William died, Frederick and James took their families and their mother and went up there, too. It was not an easy trip. One of James's sons was killed during a bad storm when a tree crashed down on the road. They buried him and kept on going. Once arrived in southern Illinois, Benjamin and James stayed in the vicinity of White County. Their widowed mother apparently was living with Benjamin in 1839 when she applied for her Revolutionary War widow's pension. She was allowed $54.81 a year. It didn't cost the government much. She was up in Effingham County the next year, staying with another son, when she died at age 89. … [William and Patsey's fourth son] William B. Brockett Sr was bom in South Carolina the 21st of March, 1783, the year the war ended. Learning anything at all about him has been nearly impossible, largely because he went off on his own, away from the rest of the family. He must have been about twenty-one at the time the family migrated to Tennessee. There is no record of him at all in Smith or Macon Counties. In 1820, then thirty-seven years of age, he was in Warren Co, Mississippi with a family. Eight years later he was living in Louisiana. He apparently was twice married and fathered eight or nine children. Two of them, the twins James and Minerva, were born in Louisiana in 1829. Shortly afterward, William moved the family north to Illinois to join his brothers and sisters who had gone there to settle in and around White County. William and brother Frederick moved north another 75 miles to join Thomas in Fayette County. Once there, William and his son Michael went to the old state capital at Vandalia and arranged to split a 50-acre piece of Fayette County prairie land between them. (That part of Fayette County was soon re-named Effingham County.) A few years later, William added another 80 acres to his farm, but he couldn't seem to stay in one place very long. In 1846 he and his wife and at least two sons, William B. Jr and 13-year-old Merancy, moved back down to White County. Remaining behind in Effingham County were two other sons, John and James. William must have died soon afterward, because he does not appear with Catherine in the 1850 census. In Effingham County, in the fall of the year after the rest of the family had gone, James M. Brockett married Sarah Duncan. The justice of the peace who performed the ceremony was Jim's cousin, Calvin Brockett, son of Frederick. Jim probably worked in the nearby grist mill; during most of his life he was listed in censuses as a miller. A son was born to Sarah the year following their marriage, and they named him William. Suddenly, about 1852, a year or so after their second child, Mary Ann, was born, Sarah was taken ill and died. Only twenty-four, Jim was left with two small children to care for, but he didn't try to go it alone for very long. He was living down near the southern edge of Effingham County, and just across the line in Clay County near the little village of Hord lived Jesse and Elizabeth (Kellums) McGee. The McGees had a 23-year-old unmarried daughter named Elizabeth. In January of 1853 she and James Brockett were married. Their first child, a daughter named Martha Jane, was born the following December. Jim farmed for the next few years and may have worked in the grist-mill once owned by his uncle Fred. Then, about 1856, someone in the family began talking about moving. Thousands of acres of cheap land were being offered to homesteaders out in Kansas Territory. Prices for good farm ground in Illinois had gone so high that many farmers' sons could not afford to go out on their own. They decided they would all go to Kansas. A widower now at 64, Tom Brockett was getting a little old to picking up and moving again, but he planned to be useful. He'd got hold of a medical book, then he sent away to a mail-order house for some medicines, and in the manner of pioneers of those times, he became a sort of self-taught physician (and would be so listed in the 1860 census). With 'Doctor Brockett' would go his two sons, Thomas, 24, and William, 22, and daughter Martha Tucker, 28, with her husband Jonathan and their three children. Also going would be the elder Thomas's two nephews (sons of William B. Brockett): Merancy, 24, with his wife Mary and his mother Catherine, and James, 28, with his wife Elizabeth (McGee) and the three children. (Confusion surrounds the movements of John A. Brockett, elder brother to Merancy and James. Although he later turned up in Kansas, he apparently did not accompany the others at this time. He had abandoned his first wife. Eliza Ann Clark, and gone off to Missouri with one Sarah Catherine (Duvall) Gray and started a family with her, and we don't know precisely when he went to Kansas, although he showed up there in the 1860 census.) It has not been possible to reconstruct the route the Brocketts and Tuckers took from Illinois to Kansas. At the time, there was near civil war on the Kansas-Missouri border. Bands of pro-slavery Missourians often patrolled the roads to prevent free-soil settlers from moving into the Territory (not to become a state until '61). Many people traveled by boat up the Missouri River from St. Louis to Westport (now Kansas City), then went by wagon into the Territory. Others went west into Iowa before turning south through Nebraska in order to avoid the Missourians. Still others went southwest, crossing the Mississippi River at St. Louis and following the trail (now I-44) to Springfield, Missouri, then turning northwest to Fort Scott, Kansas. We suspect the Brocketts travelled the latter route as they made their way to the little settlement called Trading Post, located in Linn County, north of Fort Scott. They were but a short distance, less than five miles, from the Kansas-Missouri border. They were in harm's way. Missouri was well on its way to becoming a slave state. At the time the Civil War began a few years later, more than 10% of Missouri's population was made up of slaves. As the settled frontier crept westward, slave owners began moving into eastern Kansas. One such, a violent Georgian named Hamilton....Dr. Charles Hamilton....lived near where the Brocketts now settled. Most of the neighbors were free-soil families, opposed to slavery on moral or economic grounds, and the friction with Hamilton was a constant, almost daily condition. After a time of feeling mistreated and unwelcome, Hamilton moved over into Missouri, just to the east. A few months later, in the spring of '58, Dr. Hamilton gathered together a band of 'bushwhackers' including, amazingly, one W.B. 'Fort Scott' Brockett, who was to be second in command. Brockett had been involved in other outlaw activities and was an experienced hand at bushwhacking. Hamilton invited the men to go for a ride with him into Kansas. He said he wanted to "go down in the valley and attend to some devils down there," and he wanted only men who would obey orders. The following account has been put together from newspaper stories of that time: The morning of May 19, 1858, was bright and clear, but very warm. The settlers were out in their fields at work. There was no hint of trouble. About nine o'clock, Hamilton and about 25 men crossed the Marais des Cygnes (pron. Mary deh Seens) River at the ford just south of Trading Post and rode to where the new mill was being built. They were loud and abusive, cursing the men at the mill. They took as prisoners Sam Cady and Mr. Wing, the mill superintendent. Then, over at the store in Trading Post, they took John Campbell. Nearby, they captured Joe Alien, Matt Ellis, and Tom Brockett (not known whether elder or younger). After a conference, they turned loose all except Campbell. About this time a man named Tom Stillwell came toward them, driving a team and wagon. They took him and proceeded along the road north-eastward about three-quarters of a mile to the house of Sam Nichols. Here they captured Rev. B.L. Reed and Patrick Ross. They forced their little group of captives along for almost two miles to the house of Austin Hall. He wasn't home, but they took his brother Amos. They turned south-eastward a half a mile and caught William Colpetzer. Then they went back north about a mile to the Hairgrove house and captured Asa and William Hairgrove. They went across the prairie to the house of William Robertson (or Robinson), a settler from Effingham County, Illinois, who had visiting him at the time another Effingham resident, Charles Snyder. Both were taken. Out in an open field they saw Austin Hall driving his oxen back from the blacksmith shop and took him. They now had eleven prisoners. After herding them into a ravine, Hamilton went over and tried to take the people at the blacksmith shop, but they ran him off with a shotgun. Hamilton went back to the ravine and gave orders to have the captives lined up in a row. He told his men to get ready to fire. W.B. Brockett jerked his horse around and out of line and said, ''I'll be damned if I'll get mixed in that kind of killing.'' He said he would shoot in a fight, but he would have nothing to do with such an act as Hamilton demanded. Hamilton cursed him, and with some difficulty brought the other ruffians back into line. He ordered them to fire. Killed were Campbell, Colpetzer, Robinson, Ross, and Stillwell. All the others were wounded. The gang left them lying there and rode off. (Rev. Reed suffered a severe stomach wound, but he survived for many years. Later that year his adopted daughter Ellen married William Brockett (son of Thomas) and by the time the census was taken in the fall of '60 they had a six-months-old son) The appearance of W.B. 'Ft. Scott' Brockett in the stories of the Border Wars was a surprising and puzzling development. He was at one time an assistant to the land agent at Ft. Scott, and he was part owner of the Western Hotel in the same town. He had been involved in numerous scrapes along the border during the preceding two years. In one battle against Kansas free-state men, he had been captured by old John Brown (that's John Brown who later made the raid on Harper's Ferry, West Virginia.) The History of Kansas (Andreas, 1883) states that 'The Fort Scott people were composed of three classes of persons - Free-State, Pro-Slavery, and Border Ruffians of the worst class. Among the latter were such men as George W. Clarke (the land agent), W.B. Brockett, and the Hamiltons.' In April of '58, just a month before the Trading Post attack, an assembly of free-state men published a resolution calling for several bush-whackers to be put to death for their crimes. Among those listed was W.B. Brockett. Brockett was harboring some Army deserters at the Western Hotel, and a squad of soldiers went there and demanded his surrender. They gave him twenty-four hours to get out of town or be shot on sight. The next day, he and his friends left, not being heard of again until the incident at Trading Post. After that the group apparently disbanded and disappeared. Only one of them was ever captured. He was recognized and captured during the Civil War and was hanged. It was not Brockett. … We are unable to determine the identity of W.B. 'Ft Scott' Brockett. It is true that John, James, and Merancy had a brother — and, indeed, a father — named William B, but the senior William B. was surely dead by 1858. If not, he would have been 75 years old, an unlikely candidate for a hard-riding outlaw. There is no evidence or reason to believe that his son, William B. Jr., ever left White County, Illinois. It is true that in southern Illinois there was considerable pro-slavery sentiment, largely due to the fifty-year immigration of settlers from the southern states, but as far as we know, the Brocketts were strongly pro-Union. [There was a tradition among some White County Brocketts] that their predecessors had left South Carolina and Tennessee 'to get away from slavery.' That is a myth. They may well have been for — or against — slavery, but they went to Illinois for better farm land. As for Elisha's family, the only ones who had remained in Tennessee (some later went to Texas), there was no one with whom the outlaw Brockett could be identified. There is one slim clue to the man's identity: While William Brockett went to South Carolina and then to Tennessee, and his sons and daughters migrated to Illinois, other of Benjamin Brockett's North Carolina descendants moved down into Georgia and were counted there in the census of 1850. It is possible that the renegade Brockett was of that group. …