Who is Cynthia? (Revisited)

FROM: Peacock Paths Newsletter August 1996
by John J. Pierce, Historian

We've been getting a ton of stuff recently on the family of Lewis Bryant (ca. 1780-1832) and Cynthia Peacock (ca. 1783-1876), who migrated shortly before the War of 1812 from Barnwell County, SC, to what is now Covington County, MS. We'd known a little about their family before, enough to give a brief summary in Abraham Peacock: Man and Clan of Mystery. But we had never known that there was any family tradition about the Peacocks among the Bryant's.

One of the first items to cross our desk is actually one of the most recent: an affidavit sworn to Aug. 16, 1977, by W.J. Bryant, then in his 90's, a resident of Covington County and a direct descendant of Lewis and Cynthia. Part of the family history, as handed down through generations, was: That Miss Cynthia Peacock, of German descent, a daughter of Levi Peacock, born on the Rhine River, was married first to John Lewis Bryant. That by Mr. Bryant, Cynthia had the following children: Isabelle, Mary, Willis, Jesse, Allen and Levi.

Although W.J. Bryant insisted that he was of sound mind, his mind was apparently starting to wander, at least about Cynthia Peacock having been born on the Rhine River, although it is possible that she was of partly German descent. Other papers we have since received through Chairman Don Peacock indicate that it was the Bryant's who were of German descent, although they are said to have lived in London for 200 years before some of them sailed to South Carolina. But the identification of Levi Peacock as the father of Cynthia could be a real breakthrough.

As many of our readers know, there were several mystery Peacocks born in Barnwell County during the 1780's. Two of them were Arnold Peacock and Levi Peacock Jr., who were probably twins, census records indicate that both were born in 1786. The third was Cynthia, of course, and the fourth was Rachel (ca. 1784, m. James Harveston). But Levi Peacock Sr. (ca. 1755-1832) has never been established as the father of any of them; indeed, the fact that none of them are ever mentioned in his extensive probate record, he died intestate, would seem to rule him out. Levi Peacock Jr., incidentally, had a daughter named Cynthia, and Arnold had both a wife and a daughter named Cynthia, suggesting that the name may have run in their mother's family and/or that Arnold married a cousin.

Levi Peacock Sr. was evidently married twice, because his legitimate children were born over a period of 35 years (ca. 1777 to 1814). What is more remarkable is the length of the hiatus between the two sets of children. By his first wife, there were Anna (1777-1850's, m. Andrew Lee) and Rebecca (ca. 1780-1830's, m. James E. Robinson). Then comes a gap of about 17 years before the birth of Alpha (1797-1873, m. Rev. Barry Moore Cave). There may have been one or two others in between who died young, but even so it would appear that Levi Sr. was a widower for more than a decade before he remarried.

As the astute reader will have noticed, the births of the mystery Peacocks all fall within that gap. What if Levi Peacock Sr. had an extended affair with another woman between wives? He might even have had a marriage that was annulled for some reason, leaving the children of that marriage without any claim on his estate. There may be no way of finding out for certain. During the period in question, Barnwell County was still just the southern precinct of Orangeburg District, for which no court records are known to survive. It was set off as Winton County in 1786, and court records from 1786 to 1792 and a tax list for 1787 survive. Winton County are its courts were abolished in 1792, and Barnwell County wasn't constituted until 1799. Bastardy cases are included in surviving Winton County records, but nothing of the sort relating to the Peacocks.

Piles of Bryant family notes and correspondence have crossed our desk since that W.J. Bryant affidavit. One letter identifies Cynthia's brothers as Levi, Wiley, Jim and Jesse and another one or two. It adds, Jim came to visit once. He went to Texas. Another letter declares that Cynthia Peacock's mother was a Loveless. The first name in the letter referring to siblings matches Levi Peacock Jr. (1786-1860's), but none of the others fit at least, not as full-brothers of Cynthia. There was Jesse Peacock (1804-66), legitimate son of Levi Peacock Sr; and a Willis Peacock (1828-1904) of uncertain parentage whose brother John William (1832-1902) moved to Florida with him in the 1850's. As for the Loveless connection, there was a Thomas Loveless family in Barnwell County as of 1790, although no records known to us suggest a Peacock connection.

Lewis Bryant moved to what is now Covington County, MS, about 1808, and was involved in the removal of the Choctaw Indians, according to W. J. Bryant. He returned to South Carolina to bring more emigrants, notably the McCullum and Stevens families, and founded a settlement between the Leaf and Talahala Rivers. He definitely served in the War of 1812 from Mississippi (Capt. Bailey Heard's Company, Sixth Regiment, Mississippi Territory Militia). A special 1831 census of Indian farmers shows him with an Indian wife, but this was evidently a subterfuge: Cynthia was blond and blue-eyed, and wouldn't let an Indian or a black set foot in her house. Lewis was surrounded by Indians and stomped to death about 1832, and his widow married Charles Phillips.

The second marriage raises questions as to her true age, for she had three children by Phillips: Alpha Permelia (ca. 1832, m. Augustus Washington Sheppard, Hosea Davis), Rebecca (ca. 1834, m. Redmond Carter, Redmond Loveless) and Piety Elizabeth (1836-1909, m. Jeremiah Leggett). If she was the mother of a woman born in 1836, she can hardly have been born before 1790, and the 1850 census shows her age as 50. On the other hand, one of her Bryant children, Willis (m. Nancy F. Phillips or Loveless) was born Nov. 10, 1808, suggesting that Cynthia herself can't have been born long after 1790. Jesse Bryant, ancestor of most of those researching the family, was born Jan. 12, 1813; he married Sophia A. Sanford. Allen Bryant (ca. 1815) married Mary Campbell, Levi L. Bryant (ca. 1824) Sarah Grantham, and Mary Bryant William Lott. Another daughter, Isabelle, is said to have either died young or married Samuel Lowery.