The INMAN name was first recorded in Lancashire England before 1100 AD. It is of Anglo Saxon origins. The name "INMAN" is an English occupational name for the keeper of the public house, or inn. It is derived from Middle English Innmann, (from Old English inn = abode, lodging + mann = man.)
Because of spelling errors in early census', we find other variations of the INMAN name to include: INNMAN and INMON. All three spellings can be found in the Whiteville Memorial Cemetery in Columbus County, North Carolina. The 1810 Columbus County Census lists a James INDMON. Today, several landmarks bear the INMAN name. There is Inman's Lake which lies northeast of Whiteville in Columbus County, INMAN Cemetery outside of Fairmont in Robeson County, and INMAN Cemetery, in Ash, Brunswick County NC.
In his work "Early Inman's of the South", Randy McConnell write of a Robert INMAN who arrived in 1685 in Surry County, Virginia and "has been traced through eastern North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia." It is very likely that James INMAN and his descendants derive from this Robert INMAN. This remains yet to be proven.
The earliest known record of the INMAN family in this area is recorded in a land transaction which mentions 100 acres of land in the present day county of Robeson County, NC that was granted to a James INMAN by the Crown in 1729. It is currently believed that this James is the ancestor to all the INMANs of the southeastern NC and SC area. It is not known when nor how he arrived in the area. In the book "Rambles In The Pee Dee Basin South Carolina" by HT COOK, a Robert INMAN is mentioned in Chapter 5 as living on the "right bank" of the Pee Dee River during the time frame of 1731 to 1740. Could this be a descendant of the Robert Inman written about in Randy McConnell research paper? One of this Robert's neighbors was named Hardy Council which may have been the inspiration for the introduction of Hardy as the given name to several Hardy Inmans found in the Robeson County, NC area. This not likely however since Hardy Sr. would be close to the age of these two men.
Hardy Sr. appears to be the head of the Inman family in the Southeastern Carolinas and is found Robeson County, NC.
There were four known brother in the area dating from the mid 1750s. The James INMAN line, has its beginning in Columbus County (Bladen County then) North Carolina along the banks of the Waccamaw River at what was called Inman's Landing across the river from the farming community of present day Ash, Brunswick County North Carolina. Hardy INMAN, brother to James, has descendants that are well represented in Robeson and Columbus Counties. James and Hardy Jr. are mentioned frequently in land transactions as a party to transactions and as a witness in others.There are two other brothers to James and Hardy Jr. They are John and Robert. Robert has recently been discovered in and around Carroll County, MS. Only what happened to John remains a mystery as of Jan. 2004. There are some INMAN descendants in the area that have not been tied to James or Hardy and could be descendants of one or the other brothers.
The INMAN name is still well represented in the Southeastern North and South Carolina region.