Research

I and several other Arnett descendents, one of whom you have corresponded with on the Gen Forum Arnett site, John W. Arnett, have been researching Arnetts who appear to originate first in SC, then NC, and then some back to SC again before moving to Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Texas.

Some of them were in the Anson Co, NC area. There's John Arnett b. 20Jun1760 in Anson Co., NC. He was drafted during 1776/77 to serve in the company of Capt. John Culpepper of NC and was send out against the Indians for 3 months. On April 8, 1779 he volunteered at Chesterfield and served under Capt Thomas McManus +ACY- Col. George Hicks (Roster of SC Patriot's in Revoluntionary War). He later moves to Georgia. At sometime, he was in Francis Marion's brigade with what we believe to be at least two brothers, James +ACY- Samuel (Book Marion's Men Pg 5 under privates and non-commissioned officers).

A book North Carolina Taxpayers 1701-1786 by Ratcliff shows:
Arnett, Philemon Dobb Co 1779
Arnett, Wm Pitt Co. 1762
(A William Arnet enlisted 30Oct1775 in the Volunteer Co. of Colleton Co -later changed to another name - Regiment of Foot)

North Carolina Taxpayers Vol 2 1679-1790
Pg 5
Arnett, Andrew Cason 1786
Arnett, James Cason 1786
Arnett, Moses Wilke 1782
Arnett, Philemon Wayne 1786
(I don't believe these last two groups were out of my direct group)

>From another source (I have not seen the record myself): There's a William Arnitt receiving 200 ac. on Cribbs Creek in 1774

Again from the same source: In the 1800 census of Anson Co., NC there was a Peter, David, William (no male and a female under 10 listed in his household) and a John. They are gone in 1810.
 

Craven Co. NC Court Minutes records an Oath of Allegiance by W. Arnett Atty. at law 1767-1778

Back to SC
a.. James Arnett +ACY- Martha (his wife) purchase land in Craven Co., SC from Benjamin Land on 23 +ACY- 25 March 1770
b.. George Arnett right to purchase property in Craven Co. - Samuel Arnett receives it for George.
c.. James Arnott right to purchase property in Craven Co. - Samuel Arnett receives it for James.
I believe this area later becomes Fairfield Co.

1790 Census of Fairfield Co. Shows Samuel Arnat and James Arnat (you just never know how it's going to be spelled)

1800 Census of Fairfied Co. Shows Samuel Arnett, Sr and Samuel Arnett, Jr. plus James

There is a will in 1806 for Samuel Arnett, Sr. naming Samuel, Jr among others. Our current belief is that Samuel Jr. made the trip from SC to Rutherford Co., Tn and later to Henry Co., TN. His oldest son William Major Arnett was my great, great grandfather. William stayed in Rutherford Co., when Samuel moved on to Henry Co.

That's some of the information I have.

Some of the things we are trying to link (John, James, and Samuel) to a group of Arnetts who came to South Carolina from Barbados in the early part of the 1700s.

Does any of this sound familiar?

I look forward to sharing information with you

Best regards,  Joe T. Arnette
Plano, TX

Notes on the Arnetts of North Carolina presented by William Morgan 3/8/99.
E-mail as follows.

 Joe, Jenny, Merle, Walter and Gerald,

 Copied after the next few paragraphs is the letter I mentioned in my previous, but first to put it’s source in context: About five years ago during a visit to the SCHS in Charleston, SC, I found a letter in the vertical files by a Mrs. Milam of Ft. Stockton, TX, which mentioned the contents of a letter her father William Washington Arnett had written about his ancestors of SC. During this past year from contact on the genforum I met Gerald Watkins who was familiar with her and had collected some material her granddaughter, Sage McKenzie, had put together and published in 1988 under the title of “The Memoirs of William Washington Arnett.” Gerald is a descendant of a collateral family and has kindly sent me copies of some of the material he and Sage have collected.

 In his memoirs which Mrs. Milam had quoted in her 1947 letter to the SCHS, W. W. Arnett wrote the following reminiscence in about 1885:

“I was born on the 5th day of January A.D. 1823--I was the last of or youngest of the family--My father was named David Arnett and was the only son of John Arnett--He [I presume David] was born in South Carolina as also his father and any number of his brothers--that is my grandfather’s brothers--The Arnett family went to South Carolina from the Eastern shores of Maryland--before the Revolutionary war with England--The Arnett family must have went from some place to the eastern shores of Maryland, I recon, they did but as I do not know anything about it and as tradition says nothing about it I will have to leave you to form your own opinion in regard to where they came from or wether they cam atall--My grandfather and his brothers served with General Francis Marion against the British and Torys in South Carolina on the Peeslee [Pee Dee] and surrounding country. Finely, emigrated to Tennessee in time to fight the Indians there You see, they were on the war path--My father moved to Alabama at an early date and there in Franklin Co., I first appeared on the carpet.” W.W. Arnett died in 1885 or 1892. [ed. by Sage McKenzie, pub by White Hawk Press, P.O. Box 1448, Wimberley, Texas 78676, 1988]

 William Washington Arnett married in 1874 to his second wife, Eudocia Herrington, and their daughter was Minnie Bruce Arnett who m. Thomas Monroe Milam. The memoirs and letters of Mrs. Milam were placed in the University of Texas library in Austin.

Some source, not sure exactly, faxed to Gerald Watkins, copies of many of these papers, and he sent them to me. Included in papers is the following letter, which at long last I present to you. I believe Alex Arnett’s ancestor was the John Arnett who was b. in Anson Co, NC.

The Women's College of The University of North Carolina Greensboro, N.C. Department of History and Political Science August 4, 1937

 Mrs. T. M. Milam Fort Stockton, Texas

 Dear Mrs. Milam:

 I almost put it "Cousin Minnie," for I am sure we are cousins,--but too distant to claim, no doubt. It seems that we had common ancestors down to the time when your branch of the family went to Tennessee. I do not have the records available now; but I have just returned from a visit with relatives in Georgia, during which I spent a day with Mrs. Warren Lane of Statesboro and had a rather superficial view of her records on the Arnett family. Mrs. Lane is my first cousin on my mother's (the Dixon) side. My brother, Carey George Arnett of Haleyondale, Screven County, Georgia, employed Mrs. Lane some years ago--in the nineteen-twenties--to trace the Arnett family. She has done a rather good job so far as our own branch of the family is concerned and also on a number of collateral branches. She seems to have gone much farther and covered a wider scope than any other genealogist has done in the field of the Arnett family. She has definitely traced my family--which was almost certainly yours down at least to the Revolutionary era--back to the Middle Ages. One thing that interested me particularly is that we are descendants of Lord Bacon (Francis).

The John Arnett to whom you refer as receiving his pension in Screven County, Ga., was my great grandfather. His son and grandson, my father, remained in Screven and I was born there. Collateral branches of the family scattered. Of my father's four sons, no two of us live in the same state.

Referring again to more distant ancestors, my forefathers and their brothers were mostly Johns (more Johns than any other), Williams, Peters, and Thomases (referring of course to their given names.) They scattered from New Jersey and Pennsylvania to Georgia--and some branches westward to Texas and adjacent states. Mrs. Lane also has the record of the branch that came via Barbados, but I am not sure she has linked it directly to the others except more remotely in the British Isles. I believe it possible to reconstruct a large part of the family tree--larger even than Mrs. Lane has already done, but it probably is not possible to make it complete. I shall welcome any further information which you may have to offer. Sincerely yours, Alex Mathews Arnett
 

I wonder if any of you have contacts with folks who could make inquiry as to the current repository of Mrs. Lane’s material?

Items of interest:

 Anson County Deeds, Volume A:

 pp. 2-3: 28 March 1749, John Ashley of Anson Co., planter, to Samuel Arnell [sic] of same, planter, for L 15 money of Va....100 A on N side of Great Pee Dee at the mouth of Little River.” [One of you may have mentioned this before. The Arnell could have been Arnett or maybe not....would need to look at the original. -- J.Arnett]

 from Abstracts from the NC Journal of Halifax, NC 1795-1797:

 “Sheriff’s Sales...lands situated in Anson county,...for the year 1796...250 acres , lying on Cribb’s creek, the property of Arthur Davis, patented by William Branch, joining John Arnett.”

 from Abstracts of Land Entries: Anson Co, NC 1778-1795:

 “Aug 27, 1778 John Cloftin enters 150 ac in Anson Co on Cribbs Cr waters of Rocky R; border: Arnett and ‘perhaps’ Brooks; includes his improvement.”

 “Nov. 17, 1791 Thomas Wade enters 200 ac on S side of Carolina Br; border: up the branch, crosses ‘the’ creek, & near David Arnett’s old cabin.”