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Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Ancestor Birthday - May 23rd - Miriam Bell 1773


I'll interrupt the Early Oregon Cousins series for a couple of days to post ancestor birthdays beginning with my 4th great-grandmother, Miriam Bell.

Miriam was one of my northeastern North Carolina Quakers. She was the daughter of Lancelot Bell and Miriam Nicholson. Her father had immigrated from England about 1758 and married Miriam Nicholson in 1759 in Pasquotank County, North Carolina. They had 7 children and Miriam was the youngest, born 23 May 1773. Miriam was not yet a year old when her mother died in January of 1774. I wonder how Lancelot, who worked as a shipwright, cared for his 7 children. I have not found a record of Bell relatives of his in North Carolina. The oldest daughter Mary had just had her 14th birthday. But there was quite a large family of Nicholsons there and they were a part of the Quaker congregation. Lancelot was chosen as an elder of the Pasquotank or Symons Creek Monthly Meeting in 1780.

It was in January of 1781 when Lancelot died. Miriam was now 7 1/2 years old. In the abstracts of the Pasquotank County Wills, Lancelot had entrusted the care of his youngest children to older ones and Miriam was in the care of her sister Sarah, who was 17.

The Quaker meeting minutes reported on 16 Sep 1797 that Miriam had married Benjamin Albertson of the Suttons Creek Monthly Meeting in neighboring Perquimans County. She and Benjamin had two children Mary in 1798 and Nathan in 1801. Miriam had died before 1810 as there is no one of the correct age in the census. Also Benjamin married for a 2nd time in 1811.

I feel a little sad that Miriam had to grow up without her mother and my ancestor Nathan also lost his mother at a rather early age.


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