1. John Sallis I 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 was born 12 about 1717. He died about 1771 in Georgia.
The story of John Sallis is an intriguing one. Where he spent his youth is not yet known but we do know he spent some time at sea. His name is on a list of those on board the ship "Strafford" which arrived in the Colony of Virginia about October 1742. This list survives and is on file in the British Records Office in London.
The diary of Bishop Spangenburg, of the Moravian Church, written in the 1750's when he was on a journey through North Carolina, stated "We are at present staying with a man who spent a year and a half in Guinea. The Captain with whom he sailed, deserted him; the negroes captured & bound him with the intention of killing him but set him free & treated him with kindness, & would gladly have kept him with them; but he sighed for his native land & availed himself of the first opportunity of returning thither ... " This would seen to indicate that John Sallis had been born, not in England but in America. [The word "thither" meaning "there" would indicate John Sallis was returning home to America.] John Sallis was picked up by the British ship "Strafford" and returned to Virginia in Oct 1742.
In the infancy of the settlement of Bertie Co., N.C. there were few or no roads. However, there were many streams and rivers upon which settlers traveled in search of homes and land. Boats were more numerous than horses and served as a means of transportation and communication. Cashie River was one of these "roads." Settlement on the Cashie began as early as 1711. By the year 1717, the area had been pushed and cleared inland from the river and had been broken up into so many plantations that the General Court at Edenton ordered a road built "from New Market plantation at the head of the Cashie to Sandy Point on ye mouth of Salmon Creek." By 1719, fifty-eight freeholders, or family heads, lived between Salmon Creek and Cashie River.
As 1741 approached, Bertie County was populated enough for the Colonial Government to decide that there was a need for a new county to be formed. An act of the Colonial Assmebly in 1741 set off the upper portion of Bertie County into a county named Northampton. This necessitated the building of a new courthouse for Bertie County. After much dissention, Governor Gabriel Johnson signed into law an act "That the Court House, Prison, and Stocks shall be built between Cashy Bridge and Will's Quarter Bridge." There is no reference to the actual starting date on the courthouse but it was used in 1744, and formally accepted on 11 Aug 1747. County officials made a contract with John Sallis in 1848 for the addition of locks, window bolts, and a table. He was also to lay off and fence in the courthouse yard with posts and rails and to erect a whipping post and stocks.
John Sallis was in Bertie Co., N.C. as early as 27 Dec 1742 when he signed as a witness to a bill of sale. On 17 January 1745, he signed as witness on another bill of sale. Another witness on this same bill of sale was Isabella Frazier. The maiden name of John Sallis' wife has not been found in any record. However, since her given name was Isabella, it is probable this Isabella Frazier was his wife.
According to the book "Ray's Index & Digest to Hathaway's N.C. Historical & Genealogical Register (published by the Clearfield Company), John Sallis was a Deputy Sheriff in Bertie Co. in 1747. John Sallis began buying property in 1748. He bought 400 acres on Walston's Creek, 100 acres on Cashy River, 100 acres on Buck Branch, 300 acres on Bear Swamp and two other pieces of land.
He leased from James and William Castellaw "those houses that lyes (sic) near the Court House at Cashy."The lease was for the term of seven years "with full power to raise any stock of Hoggs, Cattle, Horses, or Sheep, and to make use of any timber or timber trees on the tract of land that the said houses and improvements belong, but not in any wise to transport or cause to be transported any timber off said land."
The Sallis family did not stay in Bertie Co. very long, not quite ten years. By 1750-51 they had moved west to Granville Co., N.C., a distance of about 115-120 miles. It was there that in October of 1751 he bought 675 1/2 acres of land called "Plum Tree Bog." This was located on the Hico Path on Fox Creek, in northwest Granville County. John built his family home on Plum Tree Branch. In May of 1752, he bought 739 acres of land that lay on both sides of Grassey Creek. He bought more land in 1753. This time he bought 300 acres on a branch of the North Fork of the Tar River called Bennett's Creek. By August of 1752 John Sallis had sold all of his land in Bertie County. He also sold the land on Grassey Creek in 1753.
In 1752, the Moravian Church sent a group of men to North Carolina in search of a place to settle and build a community. One of these men, a Bishop Spangenburg, kept a diary of his travels. It has been translated from the original German and printed. John Sallis encountered the party [possibly on his way back from Bertie County] and traveled with them for a few days. Some of the men became ill and John Sallis brought them to his home to recouperate until they were well enough to travel again.
The entry in the Spangenburg diary for 26 September 1752 says:"We are at present staying with a man who spent a year and a half in Guinea [a country in west-central Africa with a coast on the Atlantic Ocean]. The captain with whom he sailed deserted him; the negroes captured him & bound him with the intention of killing him but set him free & treated him with kindness & would gladly have kept him with them; but he sighed for his native land and availed himself of the first opportunity of returning thither. He and his wife treat us with the greatest kindness & consideration & we pray that he may be abundantly recompensed."
Their expense account shows they paid "to John Sallis' where we lay sick, 8 pounds 12 shillings, 'trinketgeld' to his servants, 5 shillings 9 pence." And again, " John Sallis, 5 shillings 9 pence."The leaders of the Granville Co., N.C. government were the wealthier landowners and their friends. It is apparent that John Sallis was among this group. At the March 1754 Granville County court he was one of those appointed as a "Justice of the Peace." On the 4th of Sept 1754 he returned a list of "taxables" of his district. He was one of those named as a juror to attend the Supreme Court that would be held the first Tuesday in May 1755. From the book "History and Genealogies of Old Granville Co., N.C. 1746-1800" by Thomas M. Owen, pages 173-4: "The following lists represents the names of such persons as appear from the Minutes of the County Court to have served in the capacity as Justices, sitting as members of the County Court." One of those named was "John Sallis, 1754,56."
"For an illustration of the manner in which the colonial squire became, and remained, the dominate figure in provincial and local government, there is hardly a better source than the early history of Granville County. The government of this county ... was ... vested in the Commission of Peace, a body composed of an indeterminate number of justices. In a very real sense, these officials governed the county; they were invested with judicial powers; they exercised control over the sheriff, the clerk of the court, and the local militia ..."
The appointees, and possibly some of the members of the Commission of Peace, were corrupt. They collected taxes and pocketed some of the money and also committed other indiscretions. The article goes on to say that apparently some of the commissioners, among them John Sallis, objected to the way things were being run. As a result they were dismissed from the Commission. John Sallis appears to have been a man of honor, as well as an educated man, and believed in doing what was right.
John Sallis had been appointed a captain in the county militia under Col. Eaton. Discipline was so bad he went so far as to write several letters to the Governor, telling him how his authority had been undermined. When conditions didn't improve, and being an honest and honorable man, he resigned his commission. Not only did he disagree with the way the county officials were conducting the county business, he wrote an accusatory letter to a member of the Commission of Peace, James Paine. As a result Paine's friends took up his cause and charged John Sallis with "injuriously reflecting on him [Paine] as a member of this House [the state Assembly]." In October 1756, a committee was appointed to look into the situation. They found John Sallis to be "guilty of a high misdemeanor and breach of the privileges of this House." Consequently, a warrent was issued for John Sallis to be brought before the House to answer their questions about the accusations. Nothing more was found in the records pertaining to this matter.
About this time, the Regulator Movement began in North Carolina. The Regulator Movement was a large group of citizens from Granville, Orange, and surrounding counties who disagreed so strongly with the corruption of their county officials they rose up in protest. This was the beginning of the disturbances that brought about the Revolutionary War. Many of those involved in this action moved out of the area, most of them going to Tennessee. John Sallis sold his land and all the rest of his "estate" in Granville Co., N.C. and moved his family to Georgia.
How, and exactly when, John Sallis and his family made the trip to Georgia isn't known. However, they were there before the 17th of July 1758. For it was on that day that he signed as a witness to a deed. Volume 7 of "The Colonial Records of Georgia" says that at a council held at Savannah on 3 October 1758, a petition from John Sallis was read. It stated that he had just come into the Province from North Carolina with a wife and five children and "was desirous to obtain a Grant of Land for Cultivation. Therefore praying for four hundred Acres on the Savannah River about a mile and a half above Lands Possessed by Mr. Rae in Augusta Township which if granted" he wanted "to cultivate and improve the same [having] already begun a settlement thereon." The petition was granted. By May 1759 he had been witness to other legal documents in the "District of Augusta, Colony of Georgia."
Other land records indicate that John Sallis moved his family to the area that was then Burke County but is today in Warren Co., Ga.By January of 1767 he was a landowner near Rocky Comfort Creek, a branch of the Ogeechee River. The book "Families of Burke County, 1755-1855 a Census," by Davis & Lucas, page 68, shows that on 5 April 1868, John "Sellers" was granted 350 acres of land "bounded on the north by Georga Galpin, northeast by land ordered the said John Sellers and on the southeast part by Henry Cavanah." There was a Thomas "Saller" who was granted land adjoining John "Seller" in 1773. No other record has been found to identify who this Thomas Saller was. It is likely he was an unidentified son of John Sallis.
John married Isabella Frazier daughter of Daniel Frazier and Margaret Dawson about 1745 in North Carolina. Isabella was born about 1722/1725 in Bertie Co., North Carolina. She died in Georgia.
Some say her name was Seals, however, an Isabella Frazier signed as a witness with John Sallis on a bill of sale in Bertie Co., N.C. in 1745. This was probably his wife or soon to be wife.
John and Isabella had the following children:
2 M i Thomas Sallis 1 was born about 1747 in North Carolina. He died in Georgia.
A Thomas "Sellers" was awarded a grant of 100 acres of land in Elbert Co., Georgia on 4 May 1773. It was 'bounded on the northwest by George Galpin, southwest by John Sellers and southwest by Nicholas Cavena." (From "The Families of Burke Co., 1755-1855 a Census" by Robert Scott Davis, Jr. & Rev. Silas E. Lucas, Jr.; p. 66). No other record has so far been found naming this Thomas Sellers. It is possible, or even likely, that he was killed in the fighting of the Revolutionary War. Most of the severest fighting in Georgia during that War occurred near his home.3 F ii unknown daughter Sallis 1 was born about 1748 in Granville Co., North Carolina. She died in Georgia. + 4 M iii John Sallis II 5 F iv unknown daughter Sallis 1 was born about 1752 in Granville Co., North Carolina. She died in Georgia. + 6 M v Joseph Sallis