Notes on Joseph Maddock
21 Feb 1990
by Ralph Hayes

Nathan MADDOCK came to America as a boy with his parents about 1701 and settled on Brandywine Creek. Brandywine Creek winds through old Chester County, Pennsylvania and down through Newcastle County, Delaware. They probably lived in the Delaware portion since they attended Newark Monthly Meeting (MM). It was here that Joseph MADDOCK was born about 1722, the first MADDOCK of our line to be born in America. Nathan was a tailor by trade but Joseph did not follow in his father's footsteps. Joseph became a man of many trades, including that of miller, farmer, contractor, and orchardist, but never exhibited any interest in being a tailor. Later events proved that Joseph was intelligent, outspoken, and of an independent turn of mind.

During the early 1700's tens of thousands of immigrants arrived in Pennslyvania and the other American colonies from Scotland, Ireland and Germany, fleeing persecution and famine in Europe. By 1730 the seacoast areas were becoming crowded. Land prices were going up, and the poorer of the settlers could no longer afford to buy land. These people turned their eyes to the unsettled lands to the west and south, and many began to move into the uplands at the base of the Appalachian Mountains.

The MADDOCK family attended the Newark Friends Meeting at Kennett, Chester County, Pennsylvania, a few miles to the north of their homes but it appears that Nathan and Hester were not very active members of that meeting, since their names appear only in the records as witnesses to several marriages. In fact, since the births of their children are not recorded in the records at Newark, it appears likely that for at least a period of some years the family either severed its connection with the Quakers or were members of some other meeting whose records have not been located.

The records of Newark Monthly Meeting show that Joseph was accepted into membership on "5th of ye 3rd month, 1739", at the age of about 17. It appears that Joseph was a fairly active church member since the records show that he was appointed to several committees. About 1740 Joseph married Rachel DENNIS, daughter of Samuel and Ruth (TINDALL) DENNIS, at Haddonfield, New Jersey. Haddonfield lies across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, some 30 miles east of Kennett. It appears that the young couple settled in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and the records show that for a time Joseph was a magistrate in that county. On 3 May 1746 Rachel MADDOCK was received as a member of Newark Monthly Meeting by a certificate of transfer from Haddonfield Monthly Meeting.

By this time many of the Pennsylvania Quakers, hungry for new lands, and losing their influence in the seacoast areas due to the influx of large members of people of other convictions, had begun to move south and west down the mountain valleys into North Carolina. Cane Creek Quaker Meeting was established in 1751 in Orange County (now Alamance County), North Carolina, and the New Garden Meeting was established in 1754 in Guilford County. In the twenty year period 1750-1770 Quaker settlements were established in numerous areas in both North and South Carolina. Our ancestors including the MADDOCK and DENNIS families took a very active part in this great southward movement. The way was hazardous and hard. There were few roads and towns, no maps to show the way. And since the horses and wagons were loaded with every worldly goods the settlers owned, most of the settlers and their families walked every step of the way. In addition, the Indians were a constant menace, and hundreds of settlers lost their lives to the Indians. But the lure of new lands for the taking was irresistible, and soon thousands of families were treking southward and westward.

After their marriage Joseph and Rachel MADDOCK settled down to family life in Chester County. Children were born and life was good. But as the years passed, a longing for something better must have risen in Joseph. Apparently Joseph did not own land in Chester County, and maybe it was the longing for a piece of land of his own that made his thoughts turn to the vast unsettled lands to the south. Or maybe he felt the need for "elbow room" in an area that was becoming heavily settled as new immigrants arrived every month from the British Isles and from the European continent. At any rate, in 1754 he made the decision to move to North Carolina, as many Quakers from the Pennsylvania area had done in the past few years. The Quakers were becoming fairly well established in the Cane Creek area in Orange County in north-central North Carolina, and good reports from Friends who were already settled in that area must have convinced Joseph that this was the place to settle.

Preparations were made. Since only the family's most useful and valued possessions could be carried with them no doubt many of the family's possessions had to be sold. Goodbye's were said, and with one long, last look at their old home, the family set out on the long, difficult journey southward that fall of 1754, little knowing the hardships and sorrows that lay ahead. Their certificates from Newark MM was dated 3 Sep 1754 so they left after that. It is very probable that a number of families made the trip as a group including four of Rachel's brothers: John, Jacob, Isaac and Abraham.

An examination of an early map makes it easy to determine by what route the little group traveled southward, for any good map of that area showed clearly that from the earliest colonial days a road of sorts extended southward from Wilmington, Delaware, through Baltimore, Maryland; Alexandria, Fredericksburg, Richmond, and Petersburg, Virginia; and then through Warrenton, North Carolina to Hillsboro in Orange County. Part of this route was over the Occaneechi Path, long used by the Indians to trade at the Indian village of Occaneechi. That village on the Roanoke River was long gone by the time our travelers came down the road. Present day Interstate Route #95 follows the course of this old road almost exactly all through Maryland and Virginia.

The records of Cane Creek Monthly Meeting, which was located 14 miles south of the present-day town of Graham in Orange County (now Alamance County), show that on 2 November 1754 Joseph and Rachel MADDOCK and their daughters, Deborah and Mary, were received into membership by a certificate of transfer from Newark Monthly Meeting in Pennsylvania. There were also younger children in the family but it was not customary to list them in a certificate. On the same date John FRASIER, apprentice to Joseph MADDOCK, was also received into membership by a certificate from Newark MM. The fact that Joseph MADDOCK had an apprentice whom he brought with him from Pennsylvania is a matter of some interest, since it indicates that Joseph was a tradesman, and a man of at least some means. The family settled some ten or fifteen miles northeast of Cane Creek on the Eno River, near the present-day town of Hillsboro, North Carolina and there Joseph built a grist mill.

A mill was a valuable addition to a settlement, since it meant that the settlers could readily have their grain ground into meal and flour, and there is little doubt that MADDOCK's mill soon prospered. Joseph apparently also became a contractor, for Orange County records show that he was hired to build the county jail in Hillsborough in 1755 and in 1757 ground pinned it to make it more secure. He was also soon appointed road commissioner.

In 1754, the year in which Joseph MADDOCK moved to North Carolina, the French and Indian War began. The fact that the English were pushing into the Ohio River area alarmed the French, who claimed the whole area west of the Appalachian Mountains. The French induced the Indians all along the northern frontier to attack the English settlements, and there must have been great apprehension all along the frontier, even though most of the fighting took place in western Pennsylvania and the Great Lakes region.

On 3 July 1754 a young Virginia militia officer by the name of George WASHINGTON and his troop were defeated by the French and their Indian allies at Fort Necessity in southern Pennsylvania. In the following year General Edward BRADDOCK was decisively defeated by the French in the same area. The North Carolina frontier apparently was not greatly affected by the war, although the Cherokee tribe was a constant threat to the settlements in west-central North Carolina. There is no record that Cane Creek area suffered from Indian raids during this period, although the settlements further west suffered considerably. In 1760, North Carolina troops led by Hugh WADDELL defeated the Cherokee at Fort Dobbs, about 100 miles west of Cane Creek, and this ended the Indian threat to central North Carolina. Joseph and Rachel and their family settled down to life in North Carolina.

The family prospered and life was good. The family was well respected and Joseph became a well known citizen of the community. On 16 November 1757, their daughter Deborah was married to Thomas STUBBS. The next year another daughter, Ester, married John Stubbs. In February 1763, Nathan MADDOCK their oldest son, married a MICHELL girl who was not a Quaker and he was disowned by the Cane Creek Meeting for doing so. It was many years before he rejoined the Quaker church. Joseph Maddock Jr. married Rebecca Hinshaw about March 1784, probably by a priest since Rebecca was dismissed but for some reason Joseph Jr. was not.

During these years Joseph MADDOCK became close friends with two other influential citizens of the community, Hermon HUSBAND and Jonathan SELL. All three were active Quakers. HUSBAND was also a man of considerable property, and a contemporary writer describes him "as a man of superior mind, grave in deportment, somewhat taciturn, wary in conversation, but when excited, forcible and fluent in argument." He served as a member of the North Carolina Assembly in 1769 and 1770. About 1763 trouble started in Cane Creek Monthly Meeting which was to considerable change the lives of each of these three friends.

In 1762 Rachel WRIGHT, a member of Cane Creek Meeting, committed some forbidden act and was disowned. As was then customary, she submitted a paper confessing and condemning her act and requested re-instatement. This was apparently accepted, but when in 1763 she asked for a certificate of transfer to Fredericksburg, South Carolina, she was accused of insincerity in her confession, and the certificate was refused. This caused a considerable squabble among the membership of the meeting. Hermon HUSBAND so loudly and publicly condemned the actions of the Meeting that on 7 January 1764 he was disowned by Cane Creek Meeting, and he was never again to become a Quaker.

A group of HUSBAND's supporters, led by Joseph MADDOCK and Jonathan SELL, presented a paper to the Meeting expressing dissatisfaction with the disowning of HUSBAND, whereupon the whole matter was referred to the next higher authoritative body, Western Quarterly Meeting. The Quarterly Meeting, in February 1764 decreed the suspension from membership of MADDOCK, SELL and the other dissidents. MADDOCK, SELL and the other members of their group then appealed to the highest authority available to them. The Yearly Meeting decided that the Western Quarterly Meeting had been in error, Rachel WRIGHT received her certificate, and Joseph MADDOCK and his fellow dissidents were restored to membership. However, Hermon HUSBAND had apparently made too many enemies among his Quaker brethern, and he was not restored to membership. Officially the matter was closed and Joseph MADDOCK and Jonathan SELL continued to be active members in the church. However, the wounds were not healed, and there continued to be dissension, and this no doubt contributed to the eventual exodus of MADDOCK, SELL and others.

When the people of North Carolina began to rebel against British taxes, a group called the "regulators" called an historic meeting at MADDOCK's Mill in 1766. They advertised their rallies to be at MADDOCK's Mill because there was no liquor there. This must have been too much for Joseph and his peace-loving Quakers. On 1 Sep 1767 Joseph Stubbs presented to the Georgia governor a petition of "sundry families at present residents in Orange County in the Provence of North Carolina but lately from Pennsylvania, setting forth that they were desirous to remove into and become settlers in this province, and praying that a reserve of land for that purpose might be made for a certain time". As a result of this petition, 12,000 acres were reserved for them. On 18 Feb 1768 another 12,000 acres were reserved. Under the system of granting land then in force, the head of a family was authorized 200 acres and 50 acres for his wife and 50 acres for each child.

In late 1767 or early 1768, Joseph and about 70 Quaker families and peace-minded neighbors moved further along the Occaneechi Path to Georgia to get away from the political intrigue in North Carolina. On 25 July 1768 he petitioned for 200 acres to build a gristmill on the north fork of Briar Creek called Sweetwater. The petition was approved but not granted until 2 April 1771. Joseph was a founder of Wrightsborough, Georgia, about 35 miles from Augusta, on the border of what became the Ceded Lands. He served as a commissioner for the sale of the Ceded Lands tracts to perspective settlers. On 3 July 1770 he and Jonathan SELL received a grant of 500 acres on the north fork of Briar Creek called Sweetwater Creek above Joseph's 200 acres about 10 or 11 miles southeast of Wrightsborough village, although still in Wrightsborough Townshipp, as a trust for the Quakers. The land was used as a communal cowpen. A deed for another piece of land in this area mentioned it as being bordered for a mile by MADDOCK land. Joseph also bought lot number 66 in Wrightsborough town on 3 July 1770. The town was located on Town Creek, Wrightsborough Township (now called Middle Creek and the Township included all of the present McDuffie County and portions of Warren and Columbia Counties in Georgia).

The settlement grew faster than expected and on 6 December 1768 Joseph MADDOCK and Jonathan SELL presented another petition to the governor that was approved on 7 February 1769 namely: that more land be allocated, a road be built, that the land be surveyed and warrants be issued. Joseph's son-in-law John STUBBS received 450 acres in Wrightsborough Township on 3 Jul 1770 and another 150 acres on 7 Jul 1772 as well as a town lot. John was quite active in Quaker affairs in Wrightsborough. Daughter Deborah received 300 acres in Wrightsborough Township in 1769 and a lot in the town on 7 Jan 1772 after the death of her husband, Thomas STUBBS, Jr. On 3 Sep 1774 son Samuel MADDOCK appeared before the monthly meeting in Wrightsborough "Condemning his misconduct in having Carnal Knowledge of her that is know his Wife before Marriage". Samuel was also active in Quaker affairs in Wrightsborough.

Joseph had two mills. One was on Sweetwater Creek next to the cowpen tract and the other one was on MADDOCK's Creek. A settlement was founded there in 1770 around the mill called "MADDOCK's". Also on 3 July 1770, Joseph received a grant of 300 acres in the vicinity of "MADDOCK's" on MADDOCK's Creek. On 7 June 1774 he received an additional 100 acres and with Issac VERNON as co-trustee, received another 1100 acres on 7 Feb 1775, probably known as Horse Pen Tract. On 4 November 1773 Joseph was appointed clerk for the Wrightsborough MM, Georgia. John STUBBS, had a grist and saw mill on a creek variously called "HARTS", "STUBBS" and "UPTON's".

On twenty-two different occasions between 1768 and 1774 various petitions, orders, and other matters affecting the town and township of Wrightsborough were noted in the minutes of the Governor and Council. Perhaps the most serious matters considered were the Indian depredations, because marauding bands continually stole their horses and cattle, with practically no protection given to the Quakers by the government. In fact, in 1769 there was such a total loss of stock that they could barely plant and cultivate any crops at all. From fear of the Indians, some twenty-five heads of families left the settlement in 1771, but of these thirteen soon returned. By 1772 their situation was so desperate that they proposed enlisting two companies of militia from their own number, but this offer was not accepted. During all of that period of five years the government appropriated only one hundred pounds for their protection, plus 50 pounds for a fort built in 1774.

The Quakers had great trouble during and after the Revolutionary War. Many of the settlers were declared traitors and their property confiscated. The Quakers were exempt from banishment and confiscation but were taxed an extra 25% in place of serving in the militia. It is not known if Joseph was a Loyalist during the war or just a pacifist as were the Quakers generally. On 12 October 1774, just after the Boston Tea Party, Joseph and others (many Quakers) signed a petition in support of the British king. In their petition they expressed dissent with a resolution in South Carolina supporting the people of Boston and outlined four reasons for their support of the government of Great Britian: 1) resolutions against the King and Parliament were illegal, 2) grievances can be resolved legally through their representative in the Assembly, 3) since they had no dealing in destroying the tea, they should not partake of the consequences either, and 4) they could not expect any assistance from the forces of Great Britian against an Indian war if they supported the Boston people. They felt that their area would be laid waste by an Indian attack if British forces did not help them.

By 1779 the settlers in Wrightsborough were having a very difficult time. As if the war was not enough, the colony was plagued by lawless bands of raiders who looted, burned, and killed everything in their path. Things were doubly worse for Joseph Maddock. On 13 Aug 1779 General Lincoln ordered him to stand trail. I assume it was for treason but I do not know of the outcome. By 1780 Wrightsborough was laid waste. In March 1781 Joseph's plantation and mill on Sweetwater Creek were burned by the raiders. Since he had been a magistrate, deputy governor and clerk of Wrightsborough MM, priceless records were destroyed. In 1775 part of Joseph's property was sold by the marshall of Savannah and Joseph went bankrupt. In 1782 a group including some Quakers were ordered to serve as soldiers for two years. This created a real dilemma since their lands would be seized if they did not serve and dismissed from the church if they did.

The American Revolution brought special hardships for the Wrightsborough Quakers, as it did for all of the American Quakers. Despite a law granting the Quakers exemption from the draft, young men were persuaded to enlist in the rebel forces. Others joined partisans that in the last years of the war came to be little more than bandits and murderers. Some of the Friends, attacked because of their alleged loyalty to the King (or because their principles against bearing arms, even in self-defense, made them vulnerable targets), violated their beliefs by protecting themselves and their property, or attempting to take revenge against their persecutors. As a result of the Revolution twenty members were dealt with by the Wrightsborough Monthly Meeting for military activities, of whom fifteen were disowned.

Joseph Maddock had particular reason to fear the wrath of the rebels. He had done all that he could to support Royal Governor WRIGHT and the King's cause. In July 1775, he declined to take the seat to which he had been elected at the Whig's Second Georgia Provincial Congress. The following month, Maddock joined some forty prominent frontiersmen in signing a petition opposed to Georgia meetings that supported the Boston Tea Party. When that petition was refused by the Whigs, Joseph and a few other Wrightsborough Quakers joined the hundreds of backcountry Georgians who signed new protests that were published in the Georgia Gazette. In November, he travelled to Savannah to present Governor WRIGHT with an offically sanctioned letter from his Monthly Meeting of their non-involvement with the rebels. When a British agent arrived in Wrightsborough in early 1779, Joseph Maddock helped him to find guides to South Carolina, to recruit a regiment of Loyalists there. The British army briefly occupied nearby Augusta shortly afterwards and the Quaker leader was part of a delegation of Friends sent to meet with the commanding officer. For these activities, Maddock was soon arrested by the rebels, interrogated, and imprisoned at Charlestown, South Carolina, for several months.

Joseph MADDOCK was eventually released and in the summer of 1780 he had the gratification of seeing all of Georgia and most of South Carolina restore to royal rule. However, by the following year, the tide of war had again shifted as rebel guerrillas, led in part by former Wrightsborough Quaker Josiah DUNN, were operating on the Georgia frontier, killing and plundering persons who had supported the King's cause, those who had not militarily supported the American cause, and, in some instance, those who simply had property worth stealing. By the end of May 1781, thirty-five persons on the frontier were reported to have been killed by these raiders, including eleven settlers who were murdered in their own beds.

Joseph sought refuge in British-occupied Ebenezer, Georgia, in the autumn of 1781, bringing with him some one-fourth of the Wrightsborough Quakers. At nearby Savanah, Sir James WRIGHT had been restored as royal governor and he provided the Friends with financial aid.

With WRIGHT's assistance, MADDOCK and his followers also applied through Daniel SILSBY to the London Meeting for (Friends) Sufferings for aid. In these papers, the story of the Wrightsborough Quaker community is told from its beginnings in Pennsylvania ca. 1754. Also described in detail are the hardships the community suffered during the Revolution, particularly those that involved Joseph MADDOCK.

However, Joseph's troubles were not over. He and his fellow Quakers continued to suffer from the same food shortages, severe weather, and diseases that were afflicting other refugees. On 1 May 1782, they petitioned Governor WRIGHT to allow them to return to Wrightsborough to take their chances with the rebels. Despite their claim that the violence had abated, their request was turned down. Savannah was evacuated by the British army and on 11 July 1782 the Quaker refugees returned to Wrightsborough. Shortly afterwards, Daniel Silsby informed them that they would be allowed to draw up to 500 pounds upon the account of the London Friends. MADDOCK accepted 240 pounds of the money on their behalf. The North Carolina Yearly Meeting learned of the London donation from the Philadelphia meetings, whose members were concerned that the funds might be misappropriated. The Yearly Meeting was particularly suspicious of MADDOCK's motives because they had already sent funds provided by the Philadelphia meetings to the Quakers at Wrightsborough. They advised the Georgia Friends not to accept any of the London donation, but to apply to them for aid instead.

During all of his time, three-fourths of the Wrightsborough Quaker community had remained at their homes, survived the rebel depredations, and even held their regular meetings. In June 1783, they began an investigation of how Joseph MADDOCK had dispensed the money he had drawn on the London Friends. When he refused to condemn his "not honestly Discharging the trust Reposed in him," he was disowned. MADDOCK also declined to provide either the Meeting or Daniel SILSBY with an accounting of how the money was spent. The elderly, now ex-Quaker leader announced his intention to appeal to the Quarterly Meeting but before he did so, some visiting Friends were asked for an opinion on restoring MADDOCK's rite of fellowship. They suggested a minor change in a letter of condemnation he offered, which was done and the paper was accepted. Joseph MADDOCK does not again appear in the surviving Wrightsborough records.

By 1784 the Quakers tried to resume their lives as before but so many non-Quakers had moved into the colony bringing with them slaves that Quakers could no longer do as they wished. Unable to compete with slave labor and unhappy with the conditions, the Quakers began a general exodus from Wrightsborough about 1803 and was completed by 1805. Joseph remained in Wrightsborough throughout this period and lost almost everything. He died a poor man on 9 April 1794. Rachel did not die until 18 Aug 1823 but it is not known if she remained in Wrightsborough or migrated with one of her sons or daughters to Ohio or Indiana.

NOTE:  This information was originally published by Ralph Hayes.  He has generously given his permission for the above information to be shown here.  Thank you, Ralph!