From the Mountains to the Prairies

King "Alston"
Born 1766? VA
Died after Oct 26, 1789 ?Adams Co. Miss. Terr.
SPOUSE CHILDREN
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King was a slave belonging to Philip Alston by the time he had left Natchez in 1779 after the Spanish took control and moved to the Cumberland Settlement in Washington Co. NC where he signed the Cumberland Compact in May 1780 [see image of page 4 of what survived of the original Compact. The signature, of "Philip Alston" is next to last of all signatures, just below that of "Howard Lucas". It appears to be written with his own pen and in perfect script.
Map of the Cumberland Settlement in 1780.
In April 1781, a person named "Stille" [probably John Stillee], a messenger for the merchant Alexander McIntosh, with whom he resided on St. Catherine's Creek, was forced to be part of a plan to take over the Fort of Natchez from the Spanish guard. Among these rebels was John Alston, Philip's brother, who forged the message using his skill in handwriting [JFH Claiborne, pp. 127-8].
The Commandant of the Natchez District received notice of the death on Jul 29, 1781 of Elizabeth Alston. On that date a conveyance was issued to appoint the guardian of the surviving children, and an estate inventory was performed, listing 16 slaves as well as lands and buildings [McBee, Book A, p. 1].
On Sep 5, 1781 John Alston sold "all his cattle" to a William Brocus, as witnessed by John Townshend. By Sep 29, 1781 John Alston had "absconded" when the rest of his estate was put up for sale [McBee, Book A, p. 3, Book F, p. 235].
The daughter of Philip Alston, Frances married James Dromgoole (1758-1818) in 1782, in the Natchez District. They had a daughter "Hannah" (Mary Susannah) on Sep 8, 1782. She died in 1817. Her father died Apr 14, 1818.
According to the Historical Marker at the site of Dromgoole's Station in Adairville, Logan Co. KY just north of the TN State Line, James settled at "Alston's Station, on the Red River, about 1785" and established his own station 3 years later [photo by Mark Hilton, Sep 14, 2018].
"Early on the morning" of Jul 4, 1786, brothers James and William McIntosh, administrators of the estate and guardians of the children of John Alston, declared to the Natchez District Commandant that a 20 year old slave named King, "native of Va." had been stolen by James "Drum-Gold" and Philip Alston, "fugitives". King had "formerly belonged to the 'robber' Philip Alston" [McBee, p. 34].
Map of the Natchez District as it may have looked between 1779 and 1799.
Petit Gulf where the Alston family owned land is now part of Jefferson Co., created from Adams Co., Mississippi Territory, in 1796 (see present day map).
On Oct 26, 1789, the mother of James and William McIntosh, "Eunice McIntosh, widow, [sold] to Ithamar Andrews a negro named "King", aged 23, nat. of Va., for $550 (Mexican), terms" and James McIntosh witnessed the transaction for Mrs. McIntosh [McBee, Book B, p. 71]. James and his brother William had reported King stolen on Jul 4, 1786.
King's new owner was Ithamer Andrews, who received a 1789 spanish grant of at least 100 arpents on St. Catherine's Creek "5 miles from Fort Panmure, [bordered] by Mrs. [Eunice] McIntosh" and sold Sep 10, 1794 to Israel Leonard. [McBee, pp. 104, 371]. Ithamar died in Wilkinson Co. MS in 1811, his wife in 1812. they had a son Justus.
In Feb 1792, King may have been given back to James McIntosh, when he received "a negro man, aged 32, which said negro he sold them in 1789", as payment for a sale to Ithamar Andrews and Israel Leonard [McBee, p. 90]. But King would be 25 years old based on other court records. In 1792 "Ishamer Andrews" headed a household in the SC (Santa Catalina district which became included in Adams and Franklin Cos. but did not report producing tobacco and therefore may not have owned slaves [MSGenWeb, Natchez 1792 Census Index].
Sources:
Adams Co. Mississippi Genealogy & History Network, "1792 Census for Natchez District (under Spanish Government control)", 2009, 1792 Census.
"George W. Humphreys Bible", Claiborne MS Bibles, photostat of original bible, recorded 1957 by May Wilson McBee, in Mississippi Genealogy Trails, website.
Cumberland Compact, original document signed May 13, 1780, Washington County NC, website.
Clayton, Prof. W.W., History of Davidson County Tennessee, reprod. 1971 by Charles Elder, Nashville TN.
MS Dept. Archives & Hist., Will Book Vol. 1, Adams Co. Courthouse, Natchez MS, microfilm, Apr 1816.
Drake, Doug, Jack Masters and Bill Puryear, Founding of the Cumberland Settlements, The First Atlas, 1779-1804, Warioto Press, 2009, pp. 23, map E7.
Imbert, J. Leopold, map maker, Carte des Possessions Angloises... 1777, reprinted by the Museum of the American Revolution from map image at the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library.
Louisiana Anthology, website.
"Inventories Conveyance... re: death of John Holloway" and "Court proceedings and inventory of estate of John Holloway", Oct 24, 1781, in Natchez Court Records Book A, Jul 21, 1781 - Nov 1787, p. 304, photocopy from research of Mary Lois Ragland, Oct 1990.
McBee, May Wilson, comp., Natchez Court Records, 1767-1805, Greenwood MS, 1953, v. 2, pp. 34, 90, Book A, p. 1-3, 34, 450, 541, Book B, p. 71, Book F, p. 235. .
MS Dept. of Archives & History (MDAH), Jackson MS, rootsweb, Americans Arriving in Spanish-Held Natchez 1780-1790.
MSGenWeb, Natchez District 1792 Census Index, comp. by Ellen Pack, Head of Household Index, transcribed and translated from Spanish.
North Carolina Land Grants, Davidson Co. TN, #2991, website
Potter, Dorothy Williams, Passports of Southeastern Pioneers 1770-1823, Gateway Press, Baltimore MD, 1982, p. 342.
Wells, Carol, Natchez Postscripts 1781-1798, Heritage Books, pp. 101, 144-5, 151,
Whitley, Edythe Rucker, comp., Pioneers of Davidson Co., Tennessee, Clearfield Publ., 2009.
Will Books 3 and 4, Wilkes County, North Carolina, 1811-1848, The Genealogical Society of "Original" Wilkes County), Will Book 3, "Estate of Joahua Howard", Oct 1814, page 89, 120.