Descendants of Richard PACE Gentleman

Notes

41. William PACE

Following is abstracted from the History of the Pace Family, compiled by Freda Reid Turner, distributed by the Pace Society of America.

William Pace

In his letter, written between 1844 and 1850, the Reverend Barnabas Pace talks about his brother, William Pace:

"Third son was a brother William, a large, likely man, six feet, two inches high, strong bodily powers and a mind capacious and strong, but being raised just at the close of the Revolution he lacked education.  He could read and write but very imperfectly.  Sure I am, could he have been blessed with liberal  education, he would have been an ornament to society.  But few men ever better understood the Scriptures, or had them more at command.  He was of the high Calvinistic Order, and nothing afforded him so much satisfaction as disputing with the Arminians on the doctrine of  grace.  He seemed never to tire or lack a quotation of the Scriptures.  He was much gifted in disputation, and it was his delight.

"Early in life he made a profession of religion, joined the old Baptists, in which he lived for many years, but some way he became dissatisfied with his church.  He quit  going to meeting and was excluded for non attendance.  He lived out of the church until the day of his death, though he maintained good order and died in the triumph of faith, living only some twenty minutes from the time he was taken.  Seeing his family was very much frightened, he told them not to be scared, for he had lived to die, and exclaimed with his last breath, 'O death where is thy sting, O grave where is thy victory.'

"William never married until he was about thirty years old.   He then married Lucretia Gardner, a widow whose maiden name was Robinson and old lady Robinson was a Glover and a sister to Uncle Charles Bussey's wife.  She had two children (by her first husband) both daughters, the oldest was Frances. ...

"William had one son and four daughters.  The son married a Miss Leverett and lives in Atlanta.  Three daughters, one married Hezekiah Dodwell, one married Henry Scarsbrook, one married my son, Freeman H. Pace, the other died when small.  Brother William then lost his first wife and married Agatha Parker, by whom he had two sons and two daughters.  ... "

45. Barnabus PACE

Much has been written BY but not much ABOUT Rev. Barnabas Pace. He was a minister of the Primitive Baptist Church in Georgia.  He was born about 1786 in South Carolina and married Patsy Harris.  Around 1844-1850 he wrote a 30-page history of the Pace family, in the form of a letter to his son William, in which he discoursed at length on some of his religious leanings.  He gave a long discourse about why Freemasonry was not condoned by the Baptist church.  He talked at length about predestination and free will.  Throughout his history of the family, he frequently digressed onto the subject of religion, prayer, sin.  He responded to a challenge his son had made about his father's saying, "I know a thing is so," by giving his rationale for believing himself to be right.  Following is his response:  

"I know such thing for myself, and concerning myself, for when I say I have a pain in my head or breast, no other created being can possibly know it, yet I know it for myself.  And so of every other thing that I say I know, my mind is convinced of the fact, having weigned the subject thoroughly in my mind.  My mind is being convinced of the truth of my assertion.  I say I know it just as though I had taken your scales and weigns and weigned to a customer eight pounds of coffee.  He might say the quantity is deficient, I throw my eyes over the scales and weights, I see all right, I then say I know I am right.  Still I may be in error, for so far as myself and my mind is concerned, I say I know I am right, there are eight pounds.  And he may undertake to show me that I had the wrong weights or the scales were hitched some way, should he succeed in convincing my mind I then say I know I am wrong.  Otherwise I shall still say there are eight pounds.

"Do not understand me to mean or to be misunderstood, that I know with that perfection of knowledge that God knows. No, not so, but so far as me and my knowledge is concerned, I know as man and not as God, who cannot err, but as poor, fallible man, that knows scarcely anything. ..."

As is so often true of people who record their family history, Barnabas failed to record any of his own life's story.  One must read his writings to try to get some idea of the personality of the man himself.

58. Thomas PACE

Idiotic, acc. to Pace Society

59. Nancy PACE

Idiotic, acc. to Pace Society of America