Capt. Joseph Greene

Birth Notes

b. Cleveland, Tryon Co, NC

Tryon Co., NC

Death Notes

Died between July 1771 and January 1772 at about 52 years of age. His will was probated January 1772.
Place: Bostic, (Tryon) Rutherford County, NC.

General Notes

Served in the French-Indian War. Year 1770: "Commissions as captains in the Tryon Militia were presented by following to the April term of court: Andrew Hampton, Abraham Kuykendoll, Henry Clark and Joseph Green." (from The History of Old Tryon and Rutherford Counties [NC] by Clarence W. Griffin) [thanks to Barbara Harrell].

Joseph was among the earliest residents west of the Catawba. There are many records of him in the area in the 1750s and early 1760s. He was at least in the Charlotte, Mecklenburg County area by 1751 or 1752 to meet and marry Mary. Strong tradition says his son William was born in 1753 at their home on Buffalo Creek near the present NC-SC line in Cleveland County. There is evidence of a settlement there on Buffalo Creek north of the Broad River in 1754 when 26 people were killed in an Indian raid. Whether he originally settled on Buffalo Creek and moved north because of Indian problems is unclear.

Most evidence puts Joseph further north in the German settlement near Beaverdam Creek in the early fifties. He was on Capt. Samuel Corbin's militia list, now thought to be from 1753. When Burill Grigg died in 1756, Joseph had an account at his trading post on the south side of the Catawba at Rocky Ford as did his friend James McAfee. In 1758 he patented about 500 acres of land between Beaverdam Creek and Indian Creek in the northern portion of present day Gaston County. If Joseph were like most settlers, he had lived and worked that land for several years before actually receiving the grant. In the 1760's he sold this land to Christy and Peter Eaker, Jr. and settled or resettled permanently in the Buffalo Creek area.

The log home Mary and her second husband, James McAfee, shared on Buffalo Creek may also may have been Joseph's before his death. Still standing in the 1980s, it was typical of many prosperous settlers in the area. Unlike the modern image of a one room cabin, it was two stories tall and contained four rooms with a hallway in the middle.

When Joseph died in 1771, he left his wife and seven minor children well cared for. Of particular interest in his will is the clause that his daughters were to be equally educated as his sons.

Joseph Green of Tryon County and province of North Carolina Planter Being Sick and In the name of God amen the twentieth Day of September one thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy one, I, weak of body but of perfect mind and memory thanks be Given unto God. Therefore Calling unto mind the Mortality of my body & that it is appointed for all men once to Die do make And ordain this my last Will and testament that is to say Principally and first of all I give and Recommend my Soul into the Hands of God that gave it and for my body I recommend it to the Earth to be buried in a Christian like and Decent manner at the Discretion of my Executors Not Doubting but at the General Resurrection I Shall receive the Same Again by the Mighty Power of God and as touching Such Worldly Estate herewith it Has Pleased God to bless me in this life I Give Demise and Dispose of the same in I the following manner & form?

First I Give and bequeath to Mary my Dearly Beloved wife the sum of One Hundred Pounds to be Raised And levied out of My Estate

likewise I Give and bequeath unto William Green my Dearly and Well beloved Son the Sum of One Hundred Pounds to be Raised and levied out of my Estate

likewise I Give and Bequeath Unto Anne Green my Dearly and well beloved Daughter the Sum of One Hundred pounds to be Raised and levied out of my Estate

likewise I Give and bequeath unto Abraham Green my Dearly and well beloved Son the sum of one Hundred Pounds to be Raised and levied out of my Estate

likewise I Give and bequeath unto Isaac Green my dearly and Well beloved Son the sum of one Hundred pounds to be Raised and levied out of Estate

likewise I Give and bequeath unto Mary Green my Deerly and well Beloved Daughter the sum of one Hundred Pounds to be Raised And levied out of my Estate

likewise I Give and bequeath unto my Deerly well beloved son Jacob Green the Sum of one Hundred pounds to be Raised and levied out of my Estate

likewise I Give and bequeath unto Joseph Green my Deerly and well beloved son the Sum of one Hundred pounds to be Raised and levied out of my Estate

I likewise Will that Abraham Isaac Jacob Mary & Joseph be sent to School and learnt to Read and Write a good Commendable Hand and to Cypher so far as the Rule of three and that to be paid out of my Whole Estate

I likewise Will and bequeat that my Whole Estate be Valued and that the sums above mentioned be paid out of lands and tenaments and Negroes and other Moveable Effects and that the Remainder part be Equally Divided among them all. likewise I Constitute make and ordain my well beloved wife Mary Green and my Well beloved brother in law James McEntire my only Executors of this my last Will and testament and I Do hereby Utterly Disallow Revoke and Disannul All and Every other for Wills and testaments and legacies and bequests & Executors by me in any Ways before this time Named Willed and bequeathed Ratifying and Confirming this and no Other to be my last Will and testament in Witness Whereof I Have Hereunto Set my Hand and Seal the Day and year first above

Written Signed Sealed published pronounced and Declared by the sd .Joseph Green as His last Will and testament in ye presence of us the Subscribers Viz

Joseph Green (His mark)

Henry Reynolds (His mark)

Alaxander Meander

Robt McAfee Jurrate

There are several opinions as to whom Joseph's parents might be. In MacKentire, Russell McEntire says Joseph was the son of a Thomas Green. Another currently popular opinion is that Joseph was the son of John Green and Mary Increase Allen. Another source suggests he was the son of an early pioneer of the Broad River area William Green. This William died about 1770 and also could have Joseph's brother. Other speculation says that the Greens might have been Greenfield (or equivalent) in Holland (maybe Germany). Yet other opinions put Joseph's origin in Maryland. A. B. C. DePriest always said the Greens originally came from New Jersey, and William Green (b. 1753) was a distant cousin of Revolutionary War Gen. Nathaniel Greene. This would make them of English, then Rhode Island, origin. None of the above theories have shown New Jersey roots. At this point I have seen nothing which would make me even venture a guess as to Joseph's parents.

First Light on the Jersey Settlement.-From a sketch of the Greene Family of Watauga, by the late Rev. G. W. Greene, Baptist missionary to China, we learn that "about the middle of the eighteenth century a colony moved from New Jersey and settled in Rowan County, North Carolina. This "Jersey Settlement" is now a part of Davidson County, and lies near the Yadkin River, opposite Salisbury . . . H. E. McCullough, of England, had secured grants to large tracts in North Carolina, tract No. 9 containing 12500 acres, including much of the land of the Jersey Settlement. Jeremiah Greene bought 541 acres of this tract. This land is described as lying "on the waters of Atkin or Pee Dee," on Pott's Creek. This creek passes near the village of Linwood, within a mile of the Jersey church, and empties into the Yadkin, not far away. This land was bought in 1762. Some years later, when this tract of land was divided between his two sons, Richard and Isaac, the new deeds were not registered, but the names of the new owners were written on the margin of the page where the old deed was registered. The Yadkin becomes the Pee Dee in South Carolina. In his "Rhymes of Southern Rivers" M. V. Moore says that Yadkin is not an Indian name, but a corruption of Atkin or Adkin. If Atkin's initials were P. D., then P. D. Atkin might very easily have become P. D. Yatkin, just as "don't you know" becomes "doncher know." Henry Eustace McCullough was doubtless the "H. E. McCullough, of England," referred to by Mr. Greene, was the agent of the province of North Carolina in December and was commended for good conduct (Col. Rec., Vol. IX, P. 206), and he surrendered land in Mecklenberg, claimed by John Campbell, Esq., of England, without authority as Campbell claimed, although there was a direction in the minutes of the council journals that the attorney-general directing McCulloh was to surrender it." (Id. P. 790.) It seems that land in large tracts had been granted to certain persons of influence on condition that they be settled within certain dates, for G. A. Selwyn, of England, appointed H. E. McCulloh to surrender any part of three tracts of 100000 acres each, which had been granted to him upon the above conditions. (Id. Vol. VI, pp. go6-7.) This was in November, 1763, only a year after Jeremiah Greene bought his 541 acres from H. E. McCullough. This would seem to account for the reference by Bishop Spangenberg to the 400 families from the North which had just arrived in 1752, and for the fact that most of the land east of Rowan County had been already taken up at that time. (Id. Vol. IV, p. 1312.)

This settlement consisted of about ten square miles of the best wheat land in the South, and was located in Davidson County, near Linwood. It was composed of many people from New Jersey who had sent an agent there to locate and enter the best land still open to settlement. According to Rev. C. B. Williams in his "History of the Baptists in North Carolina" (p. 16), "The exact year in which the Jersey Settlement was made on the Yadkin is not known. It is probable that this settlement left New Jersey and arrived on the Yadkin between 1747 and 1755. Benjamin Miller preached there as early as 1755, and the facts indicate that there were already Baptists on the Yadkin when Benjamin Miller visited the settlement. The Philadelphia Association has in its records of 1755 the following reference: "Appointed that one minister from the Jerseys and one from Pennsylvania visit North Carolina." But Miller appears to have gone to the "Jersey Settlement still earlier than 1755 - - - (p.17). Another preacher who visited the Jersey Settlement was John Gano. He had been converted just before this time, and was directed by Benjamin Miller, pastor of Scotch Plains Church, New Jersey, to take the New Testament as his guide on baptism. He became a Baptist, and, learning of Carolina from Miller, decided to visit the Jersey Settlement on his way to South Carolina. This he seems to have done in 1756. During his stay at the settlement he tells us in his autobiography that "a Baptist Church was constituted and additions made to it." He left the colony early in the year 1759, and so the church must have been organized between 1756 and 1758. There is a tradition that while there Gano, married a Bryan or a Morgan, one of the antecedents of the Bryan family of Boone.

From Douglas Green on America On Line:
Possibly born in Tryon Co., NC. Buried in Green family cemetery near the brick yards at Bostic, NC. Father may have been Thomas, but there is no documented evidence.

From Douglas Green's data disk:
Also listed as "Ranger" during French and Indian War. At one time lived near Crouse, NC in Gaston County. Jan 1770 term of court - Joseph Green appointed Captain of Militia for Tryon County (records in office of Secretary of State of North Carol ina). McEntire book says he was born in 1714 in Maryland.

Click here for details of Joseph's family with Mary McEntire

Source/Citation The History of Old Tryon and Rutherford