My Blaylock Ancestry

241 Pages·2014·33.03 MB·English

My Blaylock Ancestry

By Gerald R. Gallagher

Revised
December 19, 2014
Table of Contents

Preface .......................................................................................................................................................... 1
The Origin of the Name Blaylock .................................................................................................................. 4
Early Arrivals in America ............................................................................................................................. 12
Back in Lincoln County, North Carolina ...................................................................................................... 36
Tippah County, Mississippi .......................................................................................................................... 50
South Carolina Sowing Seeds of Discontent ............................................................................................... 73
Civil War Impact in Mississippi .................................................................................................................... 83
Civil War Impact on North Carolina and Georgia Relatives ...................................................................... 119
Mississippi Life After the Civil War ........................................................................................................... 133
Gone to Texas ........................................................................................................................................... 146
From Melancholia Through the Great Depression ................................................................................... 159
Rebounding ............................................................................................................................................... 173
Afterword .................................................................................................................................................. 183
Appendix A - The Rainey Letters ........................................................................................................... 184
Appendix B - Searching for Blaylocks in Arkansas Who Served in the Union Army in the Civil War .... 221
Preface

My mother’s maiden name was Vonda LaRue Blaylock. Her grandfather, Thomas Madison Blaylock, had
died 25 years before she was born. Her father, George Freeman Blaylock, was only 3 years old when his
father died and as a result, very little information about the history of the Blaylock family was passed
from one generation of the family to the next. Only one photograph of Thomas Madison Blaylock is
known to exist but it is known that he was a Methodist Protestant minister and throughout my
childhood I was told that he had died of lockjaw.

Thomas Madison Blaylock
1874 - 1906
Every time I had to get a tetanus shot as a child, I was told that my great grandfather had died of lockjaw
and that the tetanus shot would protect me from his fate. It was even explained to me how horrible it
was to have lockjaw causing a person’s teeth to be clenched uncontrollably and being unable to eat,
resulting in starvation. Obviously, I didn’t want to get lockjaw, so just like all other children, I took my
tetanus shot. The truth is that I really had no other choice. I later came to realize as an adult it was
more painful than most other inoculations. The only problem was, my great grandfather actually died of
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typhoid fever. Somehow the cause of his death had been confused over the years, probably because
tetanus and typhoid both begin with the letter T. I guess I still needed all those tetanus shots. Anyway, I
got them whether I needed them or not.
Family history that is based on stories passed from one generation to the next can contain gems that
were never documented in any public records. These stories can also be inaccurate. By researching the
available records and using the limited amount of family history that has been shared with me, I have
learned some very interesting things about the Blaylock family. I have contacted distant cousins who
had some oral history of the family and I have searched for records that document events in the lives of
my ancestors. In some cases, the information I have found is limited to birth, death and marriage dates
which can be very boring to read. So much so that when many people research their family tree and
provide this type of information to living family members, it is often never read. I have tried to find
information that goes beyond these basic facts in order to glimpse into the past and understand
something of the lives my ancestors lived.
I have described family research to others as being similar to solving a jigsaw puzzle but instead of
having all the pieces in the box when you start, you only have a few pieces on one edge and you have to
go and find all the other pieces. Sometimes you find pieces that seem to belong to your puzzle but turn
out to be for a different puzzle all together. Other times, there are just missing pieces that no longer
exist because the event was not recorded or the record was destroyed. If I only had a dollar for every
time a County Clerk told me that the Courthouse records burned in a fire prior to 1900. But just putting
the pieces of the puzzle together without understanding the events that the people lived through is like
putting a jigsaw together and looking at the back of the puzzle rather than the picture on the front. So I
have tried to put the births, death, marriages and children into context for the time and places my
ancestors lived.
At the same time, keeping track of the names of the men in each generation can become confusing
especially when some individuals have a common name with their father, uncles, cousins or
grandfather. In addition, because women have traditionally taken the last name of their husbands when
they married, it can be very difficult to determine who a specific woman’s parents were. I have included
a chart on the following page that may be useful as a reference as you read through the history of the
family.
There are still many unknowns and I intend to search for more information which will provide additional
insight into the Blaylock heritage which I will share with my family. But rather than starting with the
most recent history and working backwards, which is what is required in researching the family’s history,
it is more understandable to start at the beginning or at least the earliest Blaylocks that I have been able
to connect to my family.

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The Origin of the Name Blaylock

Generally, last names came into use in the British Isles around 1000 A.D. as the number of people
increased and there was a need to identify a specific person when several individuals living in the same
area used the same Christian name. The last name might be based on the occupation of the person,
some physical characteristic of the person, or refer to the place where the person lived. There are
several theories on the origin of the name Blaylock and it is very possible that more than one of these
theories is correct.
The Theory of Scottish Origins
The most authoritative source of information on the origin of the name Blaylock was published in 1946
by George F. Black and titled The Surnames of Scotland which I quote here: “Blayloc. A rare name
recorded in Annan, 1801. Suggested to be from Old English, blæ meaning livid or lead colored hair, but
perhaps of local origin. Cf under Blellock.” Others have given the meaning of the word blæ as ash
colored and the old English word loc to mean a lock of hair. The word blæ is also the origin of the word
bleak we use today when we say we have bleak weather meaning a gray or colorless day. Many old
English root words are derived from Norse words as a result of the influence of the Viking’s many
interactions with the English and Scots. The modern Norwegian word for lead is “Bly” and the modern
German word for lead is “Blei” which may be a clue that the Old English word blæ was the result of
Viking influence.
Based on this explanation, I would assume that the person or persons who first used the name Blaylock
had gray or ash colored hair but I wonder if this would really be an unusual trait that would distinguish
that person from others with the same Christian name. In the 1500s, living to the age that one’s hair
would turn gray could have been unusual since anyone living to the age of 30-40 would have been
considered old and it is possible that the people who took up the name Blaylock were honoring an
ancestor who lived much beyond the normal life span of the time. But perhaps there was something
unusual about the person with the gray or ash colored hair. I only mention this because my mother had
brown hair her whole life except for a patch about 1 inch in diameter that turned gray or ash colored
later in her life. Perhaps the original person who used the name Blaylock had a similar unusual patch of
hair.
In any case, George F. Black found the census of Annan township in the County of Dumfriesshire in
Scotland taken in 1801 lists a household under the name Blayloc. But other sources claim documents
have listed the name Blaylock in Scotland as early as the 1500s. The reference to Blellock given in The
Surnames of Scotland is intended to allow for the possibility that the name Blaylock may also refer to a
particular farm such as Blailoch in Selkirk in the border lands of Scotland and England which could have
been the origin of a family name.
Dumfriesshire today is the County of Dumfries and Galloway in the southwest of Scotland. To the east is
Northumberland County, England and to the south is Cumberland County, England. This border area
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between Scotland and England was the northern boundary of the Roman Empire. During the reign of
Emperor Hadrian a wall of defense was built across this area to separate Roman England from the
barbarians in the north. The wall was constructed beginning in 122 A.D. and the township of Annan lies
only about 10 miles from the path of Hadrian’s Wall. Over the centuries, conflicts to preserve the
independence of Scotland on the one hand and the desires of those in England to conquer Scotland on
the other hand, lead to battles in the border area. Obviously, England succeeded and Blaylocks must
have been firsthand witnesses to the conflict.

Remains of a Section of Hadrian’s Wall built by Romans in 122 A.D.
In July 2013, my wife, Lisa, and I took a vacation trip to Ireland and Scotland. We went to Dumfries and
found records for the Canonbie Parish Register which recorded christenings for Jannett Blaelock
daughter of James Blaelock and his wife, Jannett Murray, on March 27, 1698 and the children of Francis
Blaelock and his wife, Elizabeth Underwood; Mary Blaelock christened on December 14, 1762 and
Francis Blaelock christened on January 8, 1767. By the 1790s, the Canonbie Parish Register recorded
christenings for several Blaylock families and the spelling of the name appears as Blaylock after that
time. The Canonbie Parish Cemetery also has memorials inscribed with at least 5 Blaylock families’
names beginning as early as 1765. One of the memorials is for Francis Blaylock who died at the age of
94 on February 15, 1860 and appears to be the same person as Francis Blaelock who was christened on
January 8, 1767. This information conforms with the information given in The Surnames of Scotland by
George F. Black regarding the evolution of the spelling of the name from Blælock to Blaylock. The
spelling of a name by a clerk in the church or by a stone mason depended on the training of the person
making the record because most people could not read or write at this time and they relied on the
education of those who could to know how a name should be spelled.
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Village of Canonbie
Today, Canonbie is a small village with a population of approximately 390 people on the River Esk
located 2 miles north of the border between Scotland and England. The Canonbie Parish population is
estimated to be about 1,250 people. In 1983, the A7 highway between Carlisle and Edinburgh was
constructed along a scenic route and passed on the west side of Canonbie while the old road runs
through the village. Prior to the building of Hadrian’s Wall, a Roman settlement had been built in this
area along the Roman road going north into Alba (the Roman word for Scotland). Most histories of
Canonbie report that an Augustinian Priory was first built there in 1165-1170 A.D. as an outpost of the
Jedburgh Abbey located about 40 miles to the northeast. However, some histories claim the Priory was
established in the reign of David I of Scotland between 1124 and 1153 A.D. Canonbie grew as people
moved near the Priory and by the 1500s Canonbie Parish was a population center for the Debatable
Lands with an estimated population of 2,500.
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View of the Debatable Lands today
Until Scotland accepted English rule, there were disputes over the boundary between the two countries.
The Scots claimed land further south and the English claimed land further north. The land in dispute
was known as the Debatable Lands. When Henry VIII renounced the Catholic Church and established
himself as the head of the Church of England, all property previously owned by the Catholic Church in
England was confiscated and this dramatically improved Henry’s financial position. In October 1542,
Henry requested that his nephew, James V of Scotland, renounce the Catholic Church and recognize the
Church of England but James remained a faithful Catholic and refused. On November 24, 1542, the
English Army under the command of the Lord of Wharton defeated a much larger Scottish Army at the
Battle of Solway Moss about 4 miles south of Canonbie. After the battle, the English destroyed the
Priory at Canonbie while they pursued the retreating Scottish Army north. Later, stones from the
destroyed Priory were used to build the bridge over the River Esk in Canonbie. As a result of the
destruction of the Priory, any records that might have existed for the area and might have included
Blælocks prior to 1542 have not survived.
Whether these Blaylocks were directly related to the Blaylocks who came to America and are my direct
ancestors is impossible to determine based on the limited records that are available. But at the least,
they represent some of the earliest Blaylocks and provide an insight into the geographical area and the
political unrest where the family originated. This would not be the only time that Blaylocks found
themselves living in disputed territory.

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An Alternative Theory
Another theory of the origin of the name Blaylock is that it was derived from the name Blacklock which
is believed to have originated in Cumberland County in northern England. The use of the name
Blacklock is reported to have begun as early as 1100 A.D. The old English origin was blac and loc
meaning a person with black hair. Some researchers theorize that the handwritten word blac was
misinterpreted as blæ resulting in the name Blacklock becoming Blælock and then Blaylock. While this is
a popular theory that is often repeated on the internet and is possible, I would suggest that the spoken
word was more important when the name Blaylock originated because so few people were able to read
and write at that time. In speaking, the words Blac and Blæ sound differently even if they may look
almost identical when written by hand as they would have been in any document from this time period
and it is the difference in the sound of the two words that causes me to doubt this theory.
Blacklock is a much more common name than Blaylock in both England and Scotland which may simply
be the result of more people having black hair than ash colored hair. However, the theory that the
name Blaylock may have originated in England is supported by the fact that the number of people
named Blaylock living in England in the early censuses substantially exceeds the number enumerated in
Scotland. In addition, parish registers in Carlisle, Kirk-Linton, Penrith and other towns in Cumberland
County list many more Blaylock christenings in a much broader area than those in Scotland. Whether
this is due to better record keeping and preservation of records in the English parishes compared to the
parishes in Scotland or actually indicates the origin of the name is impossible to know.
Dumfriesshire in Scotland and Cumberland County in England border each other, so the name could
have originated in northern England and moved into Scotland or the reverse. Regardless of the origin of
the name, early Blaylocks lived in the Debatable Lands. Some of this territory is in Scotland today and
some is in England.
One More Alternative Theory
A third theory I have seen but which is much less popular claims that Blaylock is derived from Blacklock
but that the origin is based on the word “loch” in Scottish meaning lake. In this theory, the Blaylocks
lived near a Black Lake but no specific lake is mentioned. I have found no foundation for this theory but
it is interesting that Blaylock is considered a Sept or branch of the Clan Douglas by the Clan Douglas
Society of North America. The origin of the name Douglas comes from the Gaelic “dubh” meaning dark
and “glais” meaning water or river. Perhaps the origin of the name Douglas influenced this theory that
Blaylock could have been derived from words meaning Black Lake. Whether the inclusion of the
Blaylocks as a Sept in the Clan Douglas is historically accurate or not is questionable because the Clan
Douglas Society of North America is primarily a social organization which includes good fellowship and
learning about Scottish heritage among its goals. However, it is known that the Douglas Clan was an
important clan in southwestern Scotland.

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