James Bynum

(1665/6 – c1723)

 

James Bynum’s father appeared in all the Surry County tithables lists from 1668, but James appears for the first time in 1682.  Males were taxable if they were 16 by the June 10 tithable deadline, meaning that James Bynum turned 16 between June 1681 and June 1682.  As the younger son, he may have been apprenticed to a neighbor named Marco McKinnie.[1]   He was listed with McKinnie in the tithables of 1682 and 1683, in the same precinct as his father and older brother.  In 1684, he was listed with George Morrell.  In 1685 he and his brother were listed with Richard Blow and George Blow Jr. in Southwarke parish, apparently having temporarily left Lawnes Creek parish where their father lived.   In 1686 he was back in Lawnes Creek, listed with Charles Savage.  In 1687 he was again in Southwarke parish, with Richard Smith.  In 1688 and thereafter, he was listed by himself back in Lawnes Creek parish, suggesting he may have married about that time.  He was also listed with his brother John in the Surry militia muster of 1687.[2]

 

James Bynum appears relatively infrequently in the deed and court records.  His first recorded land purchase was on 5 January 1691, when as “James Bynham, planter”, he bought 150 acres from Luke and Elizabeth Mizell.[3]  Luke Mizell sold an adjoining parcel to his brother Lawrence, which James Bynum would eventually acquire as well.  Having become a freeholder, he was then eligible for jury service and other privileges.  He began appearing in the Surry court records shortly thereafter, as a grand juror for the first of several times in September 1693[4] and as one of the appraisers of the estate of his neighbor Luke Mizell on 1 May 1694[5].  His wife Elizabeth Bynum had witnessed the will of Luke Mizell the preceding year.  He purchased an adjoining 7 acres from Edward Newby on 29 April 1698.[6]  

 

A few years later, on 2 October 1703, he bought the adjoining 100 acres that had belonged to Lawrence Mizell from Lawrence’s son Luke Mizell.[7]  Although I found no record of any land sales by James Bynum up to this time, the 1704 Quit Rent roll shows him with only 157 acres, not the 257 he should have owned.  This land was sold by James and his wife Elizabeth on 2 July 1706, when it was described as the 150 acres bought from Luke Mizell and the 7 acres purchased from Newby.[8] 

 

At that point he appears to have moved several miles south into what had been Indian territory until it opened for patents in1701, the part of Surry that was later Sussex County.  In 1699 he had claimed 250 acres in the area and had it surveyed in 1702, though it is not clear if he ever patented it.[9]   James Bynum was security for an orphans estate in the hands of James Turner on 25 November 1711[10], and appears in one or two debt cases with people living in that area.[11]  About 1713 he arranged to acquire land from George Nicholson, whose 1713 will directed his heirs to confirm a sale to James Bynum of land between the Nottoway and Meherrin Rivers (in what was later either Sussex or Southampton County).  There is no deed for that land, so it’s not clear if the sale was consummated.  In 1714, he was granted two contiguous 330 and 140 acre parcels considerably south of the Blackwater which he may have been occupying previously.[12]  He was then granted 100 acres on Flatt Swamp, several miles even further south, in neighboring Isle of Wight County near the North Carolina line on 11 April 1719.[13]

 

James Bynum evidently died between 1719 and 1723.  On 16 September 1723, William Bynum sold the two 1714 grants totaling 460 acres.[14]   On 21 April 1724, “William Binam of…North Carilinah” sold the 1719 grant of 100 acres, describing it as a patent to “James Binam decet.”[15] 

 

Unfortunately, there are no Surry court orders for the period 1718-1741.  James Bynum’s estate records would have been among these missing records.  Surry’s wills do exist for the period, but there is no will recorded for James Bynum.  He likely died intestate, since it is clear that his eldest son inherited his land.  We can safely conclude that William Bynum was his son, and William Bynum’s distinctive signature mark allows us to distinguish him from his first cousin of the same name.  James Bynum’s other children are inferred.  James Bynum, by the time of his death, had moved considerably south of his brother, and his sons all seem to have moved into North Carolina at about the same time.  I might also note that all the Bynums of Surry County used distinctive marks as their signatures, making it fairly easy to tell them apart.  In addition, all three of the sons below migrated to the same area of Edgecombe County, North Carolina.

 

Elizabeth, the wife of James Bynum, is thought by many to have been the daughter of Luke Mizell, but that seems to be unfounded.  No evidence exists that even hints at a relationship between the two families other than that they were neighbors for perhaps a three year period.  See separate note on the Mizell connection.

 

 

1. William Bynum (c1690 – 1746)  He appears to be the eldest son, based on his evidently inheriting James Bynum’s lands.  See separate page.

 

2. James Bynum (1690s – 1763)  He used a very distinctive mark in both Virginia and North Carolina, making it easy to trace him.  He was not associated with either of the children of John Bynum, only with the children of James Bynum.  His first appearance in the records is as a witness to a 1724 will [16] and then to a 1726 deed for land near the James Bynum patents in southern Surry.[17]  By 1727 he married Agnes Farmer.  Whether she was the daughter of George Nicholson and forty-ish widow of Thomas Farmer, or a daughter also named Agnes, is not entirely clear.  James and Agnes Bynum witnessed a will as husband and wife in 1727.  They were not married in the eyes of the authorities, however, who fined James and Agnes for “evil cohabitation together” in 1728.  That probably means they were married as Quakers.  James Bynum, apparently with the Farmer children in tow, moved into North Carolina about 1730, living a few miles from his brother William Bynum.  He was “of Edgecombe County” on 8 January 1733 when he bought land from Thomas Turner on Kehukee Swamp.[18]  James aquired land on Deep Creek in 1742 and lived the rest of his life there, in the area that eventually became Halifax County.  He died testate in Halifax County in mid-1763, leaving two sons and two daughters mentioned in his will:  William Bynum, Nicholson Bynum, Mony Dill (or Deal), and Agnes Whitney[19].  He may have had a son named John who died in 1761 and whose estate was administered by Nicholson Bynum – it’s not clear whether this John was his brother or son.  He may also have had a son named Robert, who appears briefly in the Edgecombe records in the 1750s but not thereafter.  The children lived mainly in Halifax and Pitt Counties.  Some of James’ grandchildren ended up in Georgia.

 

3. John Bynum (c1700 – c1761?)  He appears in the quit rent roll of Bertie County in 1735 along with William Bynum, and seems to be the same John Bynum “of Surry County, Virginia” who purchased land on the Meherron River, in the part of Bertie that was later Northampton County, in 1740[20], which he sold as a resident of Northampton County in 1746.[21]  These dates make him too old to be a son of either William or James Bynum.  He may be the John Bynum who died in Edgecombe County in early 1761 apparently without heirs, with Nicholson Bynum his administrator.  Or his death may be unrecorded.