← The Thomas and Bridges Story, 1540–1840

Chapter XIV: Ancestors of Charity (Cohoon) Bridges

Charity Cohoon, who married Drury Bridges, was the daughter of John Cohoon and Priscilla (Flowers) Cohoon. She was born September 18, 1771, on a plantation in the Tyancoca Swamp community of Edgecombe County, North Carolina.

First record of John Cohoon in Edgecombe County was in 1754, at which time he bought 150 acres of land from the Earl of Granville, part of a tract granted the Earl September 17, 1744. The property lay on both sides of the Tyancoca Swamp and was located above the mouth of Meadow Branch.1 Will and Egbert Haywood were witnesses, and Francis Corbin was witness for the Earl of Granville.

During his time in Edgecombe County, all of which seems to have been spent in the Tyancoca Swamp area, John Cohoon did a great deal of land trading. Also involved in some of the transactions were his brother William, and Micajah Cohoon, a cousin, both of whom seem to have settled in the Tyancoca Swamp area about the same time.

Next item in Edgecombe County records pertaining to John Cohoon was February 11, 1761, when he paid five pounds to his brother William for 100 acres of land. In December of the same year, John sold to his cousin Micajah 260 acres for 20 pounds proclamation money. . On October 20, 1765, John Cohoon bought from Renissen Tisdale 157 acres for which he paid 10 pounds provincial money. This was adjacent to the land of Isaac Flowers, and one of the witnesses to the deed was John’s brother William.

Other transactions included: January 12, 1767, for 127 acres from William Cohoon for the sum of 10 pounds; Dec. 6, 1.769, John Cohoon sold to Henry Henderson for 35 pounds current Virginia money part of the tract of land he had acquired from the Earl of Granville in 1754; Dec. 30, 1771, John Cohoon sold additional acreage to Renissen Tisdale, for 12 pounds; Oct. 22, 1777, Henry Flowers sold 290 acres to John Cohoon, for 100 pounds proclamation money, the land being a grant Flowers had purchased from the Earl of Granville in 1760; Oct. 9, 1783, John Cohoon received a 100 acre land grant from Governor Alexander Martin; and on Sept. 19, 1788, John Cohoon sold 150 acres on the south side of Mercer’s Mill Creek, to Thomas Broadrib for 40 pounds specie money.2

John Cohoon and his wife Priscilla had five children. They were: Joel, Mary, Charity, Ava and Simon. In the ensuing years both sons grew to maturity in the Tyancoca Swamp area, married, made land purchases, and built homes of their own.

John Cohoon’s will was probated in February Court 1789 in which he bequeathed the following: eldest son Joel, plantation “whereon I now live,” and all land except 50 acres taken from the north, a negro boy, Ned, featherbed and furniture; daughter Mary, negro boy, Sam, also featherbed and furniture; daughter Charity, negro girl named Effeneba, one featherbed and furniture; daughter Avy (Ava) negro named Venus, featherbed and furniture; son Simon, “plantation whereon I now live” with 50 acres taken from Joel’s tract. All land belonging to plantation he gave to his wife for her use during her lifetime, including the right to clear any part of it she desired in order to get firewood. His wife, Priscilla, and son Joel, were executors.3

Joel Cohoon and his mother, Priscilla, executors of the estate of John Cohoon sold the final parcel of land, 100 acres on the Tyancoca Swamp in Edgecombe County, to William Folk on March 11, 1793, closed out the estate, and divided the remainder among the children.

Prior to the death of John Cohoon, his son Joel had married Naomi Futrell. She was born in 1768, probably in Northampton County, North Carolina, and they were married in Edgecombe County on Aug. 4, 1785.4 She apparently was the sister of Daniel Futrell who married Joel’s sister Ava. Simon Cohoon, Joel’s brother, also married in Edgecombe County, but there is no further record of his sister Mary.

By 1805, Joel Cohoon had disposed of the property he had acquired, all of it being in the Tyancoca Swamp community. Thus with nothing to keep him in North Carolina, he packed his family and belongings and headed west, following closely the trail of his brother-in-law, Drury Bridges, and his sister, Charity, to Kentucky.

Joel Cohoon settled on Donaldson Creek, one of the first five permanent settlers (see Chap. 1) and where he died October 1835.

Children of Joel and Naomi (Futrell) Cohoon included: David Greene Cohoon, born 1786, married Rebecca Futrell: Nathan Cohoon; and Archibald B. Cohoon, born 1799 in North Carolina, married Charity Cohoon in Trigg County, Oct. 25, 1825.5

Joel served in the Revolutionary War in North Carolina, entering service at the Nash County court house. He served under General Nathaniel Greene and other officers were Col. Crain and Major Coffield. He applied for and received a pension (No. W. 8576) Dec. 24, 1833, after he had settled in Kentucky.6 Many of Joel’s descendants still live in Trigg County.

Simon Cohoon, brother of Joel, also migrated to Kentucky. He must have died before 1822 as the Trigg County Court that year appointed a guardian for Simon’s two children, Ross and Polly Cohoon.7

In 1850 Naomi (Futrell) Cohoon, widow of Joel was 82 years old and living with her son, Archibald and his family.8

The Trigg County Calhoun family line descends from William Cahoone, a native of Scotland, who arrived in America on the ship Unity about 1653 and settled in New England. He and his wife, Deliverance, whom he married about 1663, had six sons: Samuel! William, Joseph, James, John and Nathaniel. By 1685, Samuel, the oldest son, was living in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, working as a shoemaker, and was on the quit rent roll of Nansemond County, Va., in 1704. He married Mary, the daughter of William Hunter, and had five sons: Samuel, Jr., James, John, William, and Robert.

John Cohoon, third son of Samuel, Jr., and Mary (Hunter) Cohoon, was born in Nansemond County, Va., about 1705. He moved to Edgecombe County, North Carolina, in June 1739, when he was granted 300 acres of land on the south side of the Tar River on Walnut Creek. John and Mary Cohoon had seven children: Micajah, William, Rowland, Darby, Elizabeth, Debora and Penelope.

William Cohoon, second son of Samuel and Mary (Hunter) Cohoon, was born in Nansemond County, Va. He married Sarah Powell, daughter of John Powell; was granted 250 acres of land in Edgecombe County, N. C., August 4, 1741; made his will in Edgecombe County January 3, 1789, and it was probated February Court 1790. William and Sarah had 11 children: Robert; daughter, name unknown; William, Jr., who married Elizabeth Flowers; John, who married Priscilla Flowers (parents of Charity); Mary, Charity! Sarah, Priscilla, Penelope, Solomon and Treasy.

The Calhouns of Trigg County descend from an ancient Scottish family line which gets its name from the property of Colquhoun in County Dunbarton, which was granted to Humphrey of Kilpatrick prior to the year 1248. Ancestors of the Trigg County line came to America after the final defeat of the Royalists at the Battle of Worcester, September 3, 1651, in England. This defeat also caused the ancestor of the Bridges line to leave England for America.9

The mother of Charity (Cohoon) Bridges was Priscilla (Flowers) Cohoon. She was the daughter of Jacob Flowers who made his will in Edgecombe County, N. C., on July 14, 1766.10 The will was probated in October Court that year, and he bequeathed: to his wife, Mary (the former Mary Johnson, apparently his second wife, whom he married November 20, 1764, two years before his death. She was the daughter of Benjamin Johnson who made his will Sept. 27, 1763, and which was probated in October 1763), use of four slaves, mare, horse, 11 cows and calves, 17 hogs and the home plantation; to son Jacob, seven slaves, still and worm, rest of the livestock; daughter Elizabeth Cohoon (wife of William, brother of John) three slaves, four cows and calves; daughter Priscilla Cohoon (wife of John, mother of Charity) three slaves, cow and calf; grandson Hardy Flowers, tract of land north of the Tar River, one slave, four cows and calves, four sows and pigs, horse and a bed and furnishings. His son Jacob Flowers, and son-in-law John Cohoon were executors. An inventory of personal property was filed with the Edgecombe County court in 1767, apparently closing out the estate.

Jacob Flowers, father of Priscilla (Flowers) Cohoon, was the son of Henry and Jane (Underwood) Flowers of Isle of Wight County, Virginia. He was an adult by 1728, at which time he paid Barnaby MacKenne (ancestor of the Trigg County McKinney family) of Bertie County, N. C., 10 pounds for 150 acres of land on the south side of the Blackwater Swamp in Isle of Wight County, Va.11 He later migrated to Southampton County, Va. On January 28, 1750, Jacob Flowers purchased 200 acres of land on the south side of the Tar River in Edgecombe County, for which he paid Arthur Whitehead 45 pounds current Virginia money. An additional 85 acres, apparently adjoining his other tract, was purchased at the same time from William Cain.12 Two years later, March 14, 1752, Jacob Flowers sold to Richard Ricks of Southampton County, Virginia, 335 acres of land north of the Nottaway River, apparently the property on which he had been living prior to moving to North Carolina.13

On July 2, 1760, he patented 550 acres of land on the north side of the Tyancoca Swamp in Edgecombe County, the same area in which lived John Cohoon, and later, William and Drury Bridgers.14

Jacob Flowers’ father, Henry, was a younger son of Captain John Flowers, a Mariner, of London, England. Apparently this branch of the family reached America for the first time on March 5, 1640, when Jeremy Dickinson sold John Flowers, Mariner, 200 acres adjoining Robert Newton in Charles City County, Virginia.15

John Flowers dealt in land and tobacco. It is not known just who his wife was, but he had at least four children: Christopher, Ann, Samuel and Henry. It was Henry who moved to Isle of Wight County and established the Flowers family through whom Charity (Cohoon) Bridges descends on her material side.

Summing up Charity’s paternal line of descent, we find:

William Cahoone, of Scotland, and wife Deliverance, had six children including a son, Samuel.

Samuel Cohoon, and wife Mary, had five sons including one named William.

William Cohoon and wife Sarah had 11 children including a son named John.

John Cohoon married Priscilla Flowers and they had five children: Joel, Mary, Charity, Ava and Simon.

Charity Cohoon married Drury Bridges and moved to Kentucky.

Charity (Cohoon) Bridges’ maternal descent:

John Flowers, Mariner, London, England, acquired land in Virginia, married and had at least four children: Christopher, Ann, Samuel and Henry.

Henry Flowers married Jane Underwood, Isle of Wight County, Va., and had at least one son, Jacob.

Jacob Flowers was married in Isle of Wight County, name of first wife unknown. His second wife was Mary Johnson. Children, all by his first wife: Jacob, Elizabeth and Priscilla.

Priscilla Flowers married John Cohoon in Edgecombe County, N. C. They had five children: Joel, Mary, Charity, Ava and Simon.

Charity married Drury Bridges and migrated to Kentucky in 1804.

  1. Edgecombe County, N. C., Deed Book 7, page 256.↩︎

  2. These land transactions are on record in office of Register of Deeds, Edgecombe County Court House, Tarboro, N. C↩︎

  3. Edgecombe County Will Book C, page 82.↩︎

  4. “Marriages of Edgecombe County, 1730-1868,” Williams & Griffin, 1958. Naomi and Daniel Futrell in all probabilities were children of Saunders Futrell and his second wife Charity. Daniel was born about 1770 in Northampton County, N. C. He and his wife Ava had two sons, Winborne and Hansel. The family moved to Kentucky about 1805. Will of Daniel’s father, probated 1804 Northampton County, State Archives, Raleigh, N. C., names children by his first wife, however the original document is in such poor state of preservation that the writing is not legible beyond bequest item two. It does not mention either Daniel or Naomi up to that point.↩︎

  5. Trigg County marriage records.↩︎

  6. SAR Yearbook, Kentucky Society, 1896, page 231.↩︎

  7. Trigg County Minute Book A, page 65, item dated Jan. 21, 1822.↩︎

  8. Trigg County Census, 1850.↩︎

  9. “Historical Southern Families,” Boddie, Vol. V, pages 245-251.↩︎

  10. Edgecombe County Will Book A, page 161.↩︎

  11. Isle of Wight County, Va., Deed Book 4, page 14.↩︎

  12. Halifax County, N. C., Deed Book 4, pages 16-17.↩︎

  13. Southampton County, Va., Deed Book 1, pages 401-402.↩︎

  14. Edgecombe County, N. C., Deed Book 5, page 11.↩︎

  15. Nugent, page 159.↩︎