Pee Dee River

In 1744, William Romsey deeded 350 acres to Thomas Minyard in Craven County, South Carolina. Craven was one of the original counties established by the Lords Proprietor of the English colony of Carolina in 1682. The land pertaining to the said deed is in the present-day city of Georgetown.

Thomas Minyard had only been in the country five years; he was aboard the 1739 maiden voyage of Highland Scots bound for the Cape Fear River. The proof is in a 1741 court record of the Royal Assembly of North Carolina, when Thomas petitioned for 30 acres in Bladen County (the Highlanders settled in Bladen County upon their arrival).

This posits a question: What was Thomas doing in Craven County, SC?

I believe the reason dates back to 1685, when King Louis XIV of France issued the Edict of Fontainebleau, which revoked the Edict of Nantes and declared Protestantism illegal, thereby depriving Huguenots of civil rights.

I was operating under the notion that my direct paternal lineage was Scottish; however I’ve since changed my position. In 1682, Thomas Miniere was born in Indre, France near the town of Tours, which incidentally is where the term “Huguenot” originated. Thomas’ parents were Thomas Miniere and Silvain Martinet.

Three years after Thomas’ birth, King Louis XIV issued the Edict of Fontainebleau. Protestants were forced to leave France or be imprisoned. The edict resulted in France losing about half of her skilled laborers and tax base.

Huguenots left in waves, seeking refuge across the globe. Many settled in South Carolina, while the Miniere family settled (temporarily) in Inverness, a Parish in the Scottish Highlands.

Because Miniere is a French surname, there didn’t seem to be a consensus on how it was to be spelled in the Highlands. When Thomas married Mary Clerk in 1714, it was spelled Maynart on the church record. The surname is spelled Menard on the birth records of sons Alexander and Thomas in 1716 and 1718, respectively.

The environment in the Highlands wasn’t much better than in France. The British, in their ever-long ministry of expanding their tax base and army, claimed Scotland in 1707 when the parliaments of both countries agreed to the Act of Union, which established the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Presbyterianism was firmly established as Scotland’s national church, and the Highlanders long remained loyal to the exiled Stuarts. James III/James Stuart led Jacobite Risings in 1708, 1715 and 1719 in an attempt to restore the house of Stuart to the throne. In 1745 his son, Charles Edward, was defeated at the Battle of Culloden. This effectively ended the Stuart monarchy. Perhaps sensing what was to come, 400 souls boarded the Thistle in Argyllshire in 1739.

The 1744 deed seems odd on the surface. The 350 acres Thomas Minyard was deeded by William Romsey was adjacent to 775 acres owned by Paul Trapier.

[Trapier was born c. 1690 in France and immigrated to South Carolina around 1715. South Carolina was the most prominent destination in the Colonies for French refugees. Both tracts of land changed hands several times through lease and release transactions over the years. Eventually, Trapier’s son Paul Trapier II assumed ownership of both properties. In 1789, Trapier donated part of the land to the federal government for the construction of a light house. The property is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.]

I initially thought it was odd that a native Highlander would be involved in a land transaction of 350 acres five years after he arrived in the country. Georgetown, SC is about 200 miles from Bladen County NC, which begs the question: How did Thomas Minyard meet William Romsey?