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Jupiter "White"
Born 1762? Senegal Nation
Died after Feb 1790 ?Natchez District

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SPOUSE	CHILDREN
?
Elizabeth White and most of the White family moved from Virginia to South Carolina near Pee Dee River in Craven Co. [now defunct]. According to the records of the Cashaway [SC] Baptist Church: On "Sat 25 Oct 1760 ... Mr. James White [her older brother or father] for excess drinking be suspended from this church until satisfaction be given... 20 June 1767 .. on Cashaway Neck on Pee Dee in Craven County. The names of all the members... Elizabeth White [her mother who had recently died].. gone." Elizabeth's sister Jane was married in or before 1760, and Elizabeth herself married five years later.
Jupiter was born about 1762 in the Senegal Nation, and owned by the White family in South Carolina by Dec 1773 when he was deeded to other members of the William White family.
Jupiter may have come to Charleston SC aboard the ship Phillis which arrived in Charleston on Oct 22, 1764 with 70 slaves. The American brigantine ship embarked 82 captives purchased in Sierra Leone Estuary (in West Africa) and landed in SC after a voyage from Boston that started in 1763 [Donnen, Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade to the Americas, Voyage ID #37293]. Like Jupiter, William Dewitt tried to gift a slave named Phillis (or Filis) "and her child" to his daughter Martha Dewitt in 1781. On Dec 23, 1784 "Phillis, ae. 38" was bought at auction by William Smith [McBee, Book E, pp. 17, 163].
Since possible brother Neptune was the Roman god of the sea, it is possible he was born to the family en route from Africa to Jamaica about 1771, since he was was described as "nat. of Jamaica" when sold at the age of 16 in Oct 1787 to Daniel Ogden and sold again at the age of 25 in Apr 1794 [McBee, Natchez Court Records, pp. 46, 101].
A slave boy named Jupiter was included in a deed of gift dated Dec 13, 1773 from Reuben White to the wife and children of his brother William White. The Deed of Gift in Craven Co. SC to Reuben's sister-in-law Sophia White, wife of William, was filed in SC in 1777 after Reuben was killed. Jupiter was described as a boy. In 1773 he would have been about 11 years old [Gifford White, Documents on Estate of Reuben White].
While in South Carolina, the White family was not sympathetic to the American Revolution and left a trail of litigation in the state. The family moved to what is now Burke Co NC, then split with some members moving to Natchez Territory (now Mississippi) and the rest remaining in the Blue Ridge Mountains of NC. The split appears to have occurred when son Reuben was killed by indians in 1777 at Pleasant Gardens NC. James and son William White opted for the patriot side and stayed in Burke Co. During the American Revolution, Mississippi and Louisiana districts were havens for Loyalists.
In late 1781 Catherine "Cary" White, a daughter of William White, married widower William Dewitt in Burke Co. NC. He immediately returned to the Cumberland Settlement in Washington Co. NC. with her. In May 1782, the family was among 13 families emigrating to the Natchez District by flatboats including that of Cary's uncles James White, and John White. They are listed in the Spanish arrival record of Jul 6, as "Guillaume Duelt, wife & children, 5 Individuos" and 23 Slaves. Jupiter was one of these slaves and was sold several times in Natchez.
William Dewitt was the subject of a deposition made in the Natchez District on Jan 31, 1785. The deposition was regarding a transfer of slaves and debts owed by William. Members of the White family bear witness to events in Washington Co. NC [now part of TN] where the Dewitts and White bothers were living with their families in 1781. The transfer of slaves, Jupiter among them, was proven to be a forgery and his debts settled by the Spanish Tribunal [McBee, Natchez Court Records, Book E, p. 36].
In May 1782, 13 families arrived in the Natchez District after a flatboat journey down the Mississippi River, including the families of brothers James White, and John White, and the family of William Dewitt, who had just married Catherine "Cary" White, daughter of Elizzabeth's brother William White.
Although judged a forgery, a Jan 22, 1781 Deed of Gift by William Dewitt mentioned the names of his children by his first wife. In it he gifts to his wife Catherine White Dewitt negroes Ben, Filis, Jinny, and Mary; to his daughter Catherine Dewitt negroes [Phoebe] and Sambo June [brother Juno or his mother, June]; to his son Jesse negroes Cuffey, Stephen, Eudgo, Manday, James, Dol and Lammenton; and to his daughter Martha negroes Filis [Phyllis] and her child, and Jupiter [McBee, Book E, p. 162].
On Aug 31, 1784 the Natchez Court appointed appraisers to value William Dewitt's whole estate to protect creditors in case of William's "meditated flight". On Dec 23, 1784 the estate was valued at $4,319. It included 600 arpents on St. Catherine's Creek with cabins, 400 arpents (about 336 acres) on the Mississippi River with dwelling house and cabins, and 10 slaves, Jupiter among them [McBee, Book A, pp. 24-27].
By Feb 20, 1786, after William Dewitt's conviction for "intention to leave [Natchez] District without passport to evade payment", the entire estate was put up for public sale and the proceeds distributed to the creditors. Among the slaves sold were: Jupiter, "ae 22" to John Row who died in 1791, Cuff, "ae. 40" to James Elliott, June [Jupiter's mother], "ae 40" to Matthew White [relation, if any, unknown]. The ages may have been from the appraisal in late 1784 or 1785 [McBee, Natchez Court Records,Book A, 24-27].
John Row was born in Germany in 1754 and died in Natchez in 1791. His son John (George) Row was born there in 1774 [ancestry.com].
On April 22, 1786, Jupiter, "of Senegal nation, aged 30" was sold by John Bisland to the Waterman Crane family "for $300, in a note" that was witnessed by James McIntosh. At the time, Bisland also owned Neptune, possibly Jupiter's brother, and sold him a year and a half later to Daniel Ogden on Oct 27, 1787 when he was 16 [McBee, Natchez Court Records, pp. 33, 46]. In Feb 1790, "two Guinea negroes ... to remain mortgaged also one named Jupiter from Daniel Clark to Benet Truly [McBee, Book B, p. 74].
John Bisland 1742-1821, seems to have owned Jupiter and Neptune at one time, but sold them at different times. Exactly how or when he got both are unknown. John Bisland was a native of Scotland, came in early 1776 to the Natchez Dist. from NC where he lived in Cross Creek, Cumberland Co. and operated a store, selling dry goods, and many books. He came to NC in Apr 1774 but left NC at the beginning of the war, Aug 7, 1775, arrived in Jamaica on Sep 9, 1775 and New Orleans in Dec of that year, and finally in Natchez by Feb 1776 [wikitree website].
According to the 1792 Natchez District Census, translated from the Spanish handwritten records, the household of Jupiter's possible new owner "Margareta Row" owned 400 arpents of land in the Buffalo Creek (BC) area, and counted 7 white persons and 3 slaves. Of the other possible owners of Jupiter, Waterman Crane had land in Bayou Pierre but no slaves and the household of Benet Truly was not in the census [Adams Co. Mississippi Genealogy & History Network].
The Buffalo Creek area in the 1792 Census is now approximately part of Adams and Wilkinson Counties (see present day map for location of Wilkinson Co. MS).
Map of the Natchez District as it may have looked between 1779 and 1799.
Gayoso succeeded Grand-Pré in 1792 and changed the name of the mansion built by his predecessor to Concord. Postcard showing the mansion before it burned down in 1901.
On Mar 14, 1798 Elizabeth and John Stillee were recorded in a deed transaction in Natchez, as being of Bayou Pierre, witnessed by Henry Milburn. The land was described as 764 acres bounded on the west by "Dewit and Armstrong". The Stillee family was not a household in the Natchez District in 1792 when the Spanish Census was taken. But in the "Bayou Pierre" subdivision were single male households under the name Jese (Jesse) Dwet, and Moises Armstrong, who both seem to have become neighboring land owners by 1798. However the $138 estate of Jesse Dewitt was appraised on Jul 24, 1794 for benefit of creditors. Jesse Dewitt was the son of the deceased William Dewitt and stepson of Elizabeth's niece Catherine White Dewitt, now married to the transaction witness Henry Milburn. In 1796 Dewitt's land appears to have been claimed by Ezekiel Dewitt and wife Mary, who had been granted the 400 acres in Apr 1789 by a Baron Carondelet. The 400 acres on Catherine's Creek was described as adjacent to "John Stilley [Still Lee]" in claim #590 Feb 24, 1804 [Natchez Land Claims, Book C, p. 73].
Bayou Pierre runs through what is now Claiborne Co., created in 1802 from Adams Co., Miss. Terr. (see present day map). Claiborne Co. now borders Jefferson Co. (see present day map for location).
On Aug 31, 1817 an ill Elizabeth White Stillee died at the Highland in east Baton Rouge LA. The day before, Dorinda, aged about 44, was sent to her along with some of her clothes and some money found in her trunk, at Elizabeth's request. Three years later, a female slave aged over 45, was counted in the St. Landry Parish household of "William Milbourne", likely the son of Elizabeth's niece Cary Dewitt Milburn from her marriage to William Dewitt. Her household was listed as "Cary Milbourne" in the same parish not far from Baton Rouge.
In the 1818 Adams Co. MS Census, on page 25 (line 23), there was a household headed by "John Row" with: 1 adult male and 1 adult female, no slaves, but 2 "free coloured persons" which could be the Jupiter and Sal owned by this John Row's mother Margaret Row in 1792 [MDAH, Adams Co. 1818 Census].
In the 1820 U.S. MS Census, on page 26 (line 8), there was a household headed by "John Row" with: 3 males younger than 26, 2 adult males younger than 45 [born 1775 or after], and 1 adult female younger than 45, and no slaves or free colored persons [familysearch.org, MS Census].
SOURCES: Adams Co. Mississippi Genealogy & History Network, "1792 Census for Natchez District (under Spanish Government control)", 2009, 1792 Census. Claiborne Co. MS, "1810 Tax Roll Details", trans. by Lee Kohler, website. McBee, May Wilson, comp., "Land Claims", in Natchez Court Records, 1767-1805, Boock C, p. 73, Book F, pp. 19, 21. McBee, May Wilson, comp., Natchez Court Records, 1767-1805, Greenwood MS, 1953, v. 2, pp. 33, 382, Book A, pp. 24-27, Book B, p. 74, Book E, p. 36. Marlboro County SC Churches, website, Cashaway Neck Baptist Church Record Book, 1756-1778, contributed by Glenn Pearson, May 2000, webpage. MS Dept. of Archives & History (MDAH), Jackson MS, microfilm, roll #5618, vol.1, pp. 105-8. MDAH, Adams Co. 1816 Census, Territorial Census 1801-1816, website, microfilm. MDAH, Adams Co. 1818 Census, website, microfilm. Ragland, M.L., comp., "Holloway Succession Records of St. Helena Parish, LA", Greenwood MS, May 1990, p. 15-16. Rowland, Dunbar, The Official and Statistical Register of the State of Mississippi, Centennial Edition, 1917, Madison WI, pp. 85-89, 1816 Claiborne Co. Census. Scott, W. W., Annals of Caldwell Co., Lenoir NC, 1930, pp. 64-65, 118. U.S. 1820 Census MS, familysearch.org, website, microfilm. Wells, Carol, Natchez Postscripts 1781-1798, Heritage Books, Bowie MD, 1992, pp. 52, 101, 125, 144-5, 151. White, Gifford, "James White and John White", Wm Wiseman & the Davenports, Pioneers Of Old Burke County, North Carolina, v.2 by M.L.Vineyard & E.M.Wiseman, Franklin NC,1997, p. 111. White, Gifford, James Taylor White of Virginia and some of his descendants into Texas, Austin, TX, 1982. White, Gifford E., "Documents on Estate of Reuben White", typed transcriptions of court records at NC Archives, received by Lisabeth Holloway from Michael F. Gibbons, Feb 1989, 5 pages.