The First Generations of the Samuel Peacock Family

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a series of articles about our early ancesters. This first one is about Samuel Peacock I and descendants of his first son Samuel II. Next issue will feature the descendants of Samuel I’s other known sons John and William. Information on JohnPeacock’s plantation is on pages 6-8.

People used to get into genealogy in hopes of finding out they were descended from royalty. But even those who found royal ancestors often found them on the wrong side of the bed, and most of their ancestors - if they could find them, were commoners. But they were so obsessed with royal blood that they weren’t above faking a line here or there. The only people like them today may be those who explore “past lives” under hypnosis, and somehow always find kings and queens rather than peasants or smiths. When the Peacock Family Association of the South began its DNA project, “Commoners” became the designation for those descended from the original Samuel Peacock of North Carolina.

Most Peacocks of the Southern States are his descendants, but we know both more and less about Samuel than the early historians of the family knew or thought they knew. Thanks to field research by Doug and Lissa (Peacock) Rader (Peacock Paths, May 2008) we know where Samuel Peacock’s homestead was, and there are traces of old brick that indicate he had a brick house there - along with bits of ceramic and glassware that were once part of household items. On the other hand, we don’t know just when or where Samuel was born, when or where he married, or when he died. We know that his wife’s name was Mary, but we have no idea what her maiden name was, nor her parents, nor his. But thanks to DNA, ( and our Don Peacock !) we know that the sons commonly attributed to him based on circumstantial evidence really were his sons.

Those sons are Samuel II, John and William. There is good reason to believe that there was another son named Isaac, but Isaac’s male line apparently soon died out, so there is no way of testing it for DNA. It seems reasonable that Samuel and Mary also had daughters, but nobody has ever claimed descent from them, and there doesn’t seem to be any evidence whatever as to who they might have been.

As for Samuel I and Mary Peacock themselves, we know that they were still alive as of April 5, 1737, when they sold 640 acres of land - bequeathed to Samuel the year before by Henry Crumpton - to Lawrence Smith. Samuel had already deeded 100 acres to his son John on May 2, 1736, and on Oct. 20, 1742, Samuel and John sold the remainder of the first Samuel’s land in Northampton County to Robert Warren. Presumably the first Samuel had died between 1737 and 1742, and his sons were acting in concert to wind up the estate. Samuel left no will, and there isn’t a trace of an estate record.

The John Peacock and Samuel Peacock, who were parties to the 1742 deed and were presumably the sons of the first Samuel had apparently moved by then to what is now Wayne County, NC, and were raising families there, based on early land grants. John died in Wayne County in 1781 and Samuel II in neighboring Johnston County in 1793. John’s family will be the subject of the next installment in this series. William Peacock, with a wife named Elizabeth, bought land in Duplin County (now Sampson County) beginning in 1750. He was murdered by his slave Morris June 3, 1760. William’s wife was probably the same as the Elizabeth Peacock whose daughter Patty received a bequest in the 1751 will of William Eldridge of Northampton County. An Isaac Peacock who first appears in a 1753 deed in Duplin County, and was later involved in extensive land dealings in Tyrrell and Beaufort counties, may have been yet another son of Samuel I. He or more likely a son of the same name who served in the War of 1812, died in 1827 in Beaufort County; his widow Nancy (died Mar. 16, 1838) is also buried there, and he had a daughter, Polly Foreman. William’s family, like John’s, will be covered in the next installment, but too little is known about Isaac to construct a genealogy for him at this time.

Descendants of Samuel II Samuel Peacock II, who died in 1793 and was probably born around 1705, had a wife whose name has been read from poorly written records in Johnston County, NC, as both “Tilsey” and “Cisley, ” but the latter seems more likely as the 1800 Wake County census includes a household headed by Cisly Peacock - most likely his widow. Samuel II’s will names sons Samuel III, John, Abraham and Isham, and there are also bequests to Moses Lee, Simon Branch and Nicholas Dickson, who may have been sons-in-law although no such relationship is stated. Among the sons of Samuel Peacock II, it is uncertain whether Samuel Peacock III or Abraham Peacock was born first, but for the sake of convenience we will assume Samuel III was born ca. 1730 and Abraham two years later. Certainly both must have been born in the early 1730’s, if not before.

SAMUEL PEACOCK III, was born about 1730 in Bertie County, NC, and died in 1814 in Washington County, GA. He was probably married about 1753, in which year he received a land grant in Johnston (later Dobbs and Wayne) County, NC. His wife’s name, as proved by the family Bible of his grandson Asa Pearce Peacock, was Amy. Her maiden name is not known, but it may have been Thomas, as Thomas is used as a middle name repeatedly among descendants of Samuel Peacock III’s sons. John and Jonathan Thomas were prominent Dobbs County Baptists, and the name Jonathan also recurs among Samuel III’s descendants.

Based on a 1769 tax list for Dobbs County, Samuel III may have had a son named Frank. ca. 1754. Since only one Samuel Peacock is shown, however, it isn’t clear whether Samuel III or his father Samuel II. is indicated. Whether Frank was a late son of Samuel II or an early son of Samuel III, he seems to have died without issue - even assuming he might be the same man as a Solomon Peacock shown in a 1779 Dobbs County voting list (“Solomon Franklin” is a name used by Florida Peacocks in later generations).

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