By Catherine Williams Fort

 

In 1803, a young Scottish merchant arrived in Wilmington, too ill to continue his journey to Charleston, his intended destination for a new life in America. Fortunately for us, his descendants, he left a letter with his background and reasons for coming to America:

 

As my time is now short I have concluded that it would be best to leave a record of myself in case some day it might be of advantage to those I leave behind. I, John Williams or Williamson, am second son of Robert Williamson and Isabel Marshall whose father was proprietor of Quindo Brief House. My eldest brother's name was William. He entered His Majesty's service in the Navy in 1800 as surgeons mate of the Kint. My father was a farmer in Whitehall, Qumkirk Estate, Parish of Calder, County of Lanark, Scotland.

 

I was born in Whitehall in 1772, 3rd January.

 

My father, in order to help a number of poor weavers in '97, '98 and '99 was induced to embark in the manufacturing business for their support and no doubt would have made a success himself but unfortunately he employed a villain by the name of Thomas Addam who brought him into great difficulties and finally complete ruin.

 

I was taken from the plough and placed into his warehouse but having had hardly any education or practice I was quite unfit for the business. In 1800 he associated my name with him in business under the firm of Robert Williamson & Son.

 

In 1802 we dissolved and I was sent out to New York after business and returned same winter. On my return I found him and myself completely ruined.

 

I left home again in 1803 for good without money, clothes, or friends for Charleston by this place [Wilmington] and here I have stopped.

 

On my departure from Liverpool the clerk in the Custom house entered through mistake on the clearance my name John Williams which I did not discover until some weeks after. On my arrival here I had to enter myself Williams and not thinking I would stop here I deemed it of no consequence what I was called. Indeed my mind was in such a state I hoped that the Fall fever would put an end to my sorrows and I believe it would have had it not been for my worthy wife's care of me in whose house I boarded.

 

I have remained here ever since under the abridgement of my real name only omitting the letters "on."

 

This is a record of myself which may be of service to my family and have therefore subscribed my real name to this.

 

Twentieth day of May, 1840

John Williamson

 

John was my third great-grandfather on my mother’s side. For many years, I had no luck finding much about his wife, other than that she was born in 1776, on Long Island, and that her name was Mary. I knew she was the widow of Andrew Eure (or Ure), a Cooper and Scottish immigrant, but nothing more. She was one of my toughest genealogical “brick walls,” until I was contacted by someone who was tracing his descent from Mary’s sister. Finally, I had a name, Mary Wiley! She, too, was of Scottish descent, though, as noted, born in America. I speculate that John boarded with Mary and Andrew, and they married in 1805, a few days after Andrew’s death (I wonder what THAT backstory is!). 

 

As I have grown to know Wilmington and learn about the Scottish immigrants who arrived here, I think about what it must have been like for him. Alone, sick in mind and body, destitute, he arrived at Brunswick Town, which had been, by that time, abandoned for more than 25 years. Were they simply dumped on the shore, left to find their way to Wilmington? Was there someone there to greet them and offer them aid? How fortunate he was to have found other Scots to give him help! 

 

Mary and John had two sons, Robert Archibald (died age 2) and William Augustus Williams. They are buried in the graveyard at St. James Church. William married Sarah Cloyes Forbes of Boston, a descendant of Daniel Forbes (1620-1687) who was sent to the Massachusetts Colony as a forced indenture after being captured by the English at the Battle of Dunbar. I have often wondered how William and Sarah met, but the Williams family were merchants and thus probably traveled more than most. William and Sarah had six children, including my great-grandfather, William Arthur Williams, who married Jane Iredell Meares.

 

Incidentally, the Meares family has been in the Cape Fear since about 1730, but that’s an entirely different story. I am happy to be living in the same area that my family has inhabited for nearly 300 years!