Benjamin Waller (1768-1804) My 4th Great Grandfather on My Father’s Side

John Spotwood - the man the county is
named after

Benjamin Waller was the fourth of nine children born to John Waller and Elizabeth Curtis Waller. He had two older sisters Elizabeth and Ann “Nancy” and one older brother John Nicodemus Waller. He also had four younger sisters and one younger brother. The sisters were Frances, Mary, Phoebe and Dorothy Virginia. His younger brother was Thomas Baxter Waller.

Benjamin was born in Spotsylvania, Virginia as were all of his siblings. Spotsylvania was named for Governor John Spotswood who led an expedition of pioneers and gentlemen across the Blue Ridge Mountains to Virginia. He was named as the first Lieutenant Governor of Virginia in 1710.The county of Spotsylvania was formed on May 1, 1721and was also known as St. George’s Parish. When the county was formed “500 pounds was budgeted for a church, a courthouse, a prison, a pillory and stocks, which, in the legislation of the times, were always associated as the necessary requisites of a good government.”  History of St. George’s Parish by Rev. Phillip Slaughter.

The exact date of Benjamin’s birth is unknown. I know little about his childhood except that he was raised in the household of a rather notorious Baptist minister and that the family moved from Virginia to South Carolina. The family must have been relatively wealthy because in 1801 they owned 19 slaves.

Sometime before 1789 Benjamin married Joanna Thompson – a native of South Carolina. See my blog post dated August 29, 2017. In October of 1793, Benjamin and Joanna purchased 369 acres from Benjamin’s parents for 75 pounds. This was before the American Revolution so Virginia was still controlled by the British crown – hence pounds instead of dollars. About one month later, Benjamin sold 140 acres to Edmund Clark. I don’t know if it was from the tract he purchased from his parents or a different parcel.

This Wikipedia map of Virginia shows the location of
Spotsylvania county in red

Benjamin and Joanna had moved to South Carolina by November of 1796. I know this because Benjamin was one of the men who prepared an inventory of the estate of Hasting Dial on November 16^th of that year. Benjamin was listed on the 1800 Abbeville census in Abbeville County, South Carolina. The census noted that there were two males, four females and thirteen slaves in the household at that time. Having that many slaves suggests that Benjamin and Joanna owned substantial acreage.

When Benjamin’s father Reverend John Waller died in 1801, he stipulated in his will what his wife and each of his nine children should receive. Benjamin was given a bay colt and four slaves named Jeffry, Aleck, Sukey and her child Gabriel. The will also said that when John’s wife died the remainder of his estate was to be sold and divided equally among his children.

Benjamin died three years after his father died. He was 36. I found a copy of his will and other probate documents when I visited Abbeville in 2017. Those documents reveal quite a bit more about his life. At the time of Benjamin’s death he owned 15 slaves. He left Rachel and her child Willie, Fielding, Armestead, Cloe and Garrett to his wife Joanna, as well as a good feather bed and furniture, a cupboard and cupboard furniture - nice that he left his wife a “good” bed as opposed to a ratty old one.

This is a small piece of Benjamin's will that says what he
leaves to his daughter Hulda and his unborn child

Each of his children received one or more slaves. His eldest Betsy got Shannon, Matilda received Jacob, John got Clara and her son Jack, Sukey and her child Precilla went to Guilford, and my 3^rd great grandmother Hulda received Davy. Joanna was pregnant with their last child as Benjamin had his will and last testament prepared so he left Merian and Agga to the then unborn child. Joanna chose to name the baby after her deceased husband – he was Benjamin F. Waller, born sometime in 1804.

Two of Benjamin’s brothers William and Thomas B. Waller along with George White inventoried Benjamin’s estate on May 3, 1804, and arranged for his debts to be paid. Within the estate documents are a few records of mild interest, for example, in 1813 payments were made to purchase a bonnet and bridle for Benjamin’s daughter Matilda and a bridle and saddle for Hulda. School tuition was paid for sons Guilford and “Henry” – was this a nickname for John Harvey? Other expenses associated with maintaining the slaves they employed included $8.50 for a doctor to tend to Davy, $6 for Dr. Meriweather to attend to Sukey, and $4 for a blanket for Clay.

A view of downtown Abbeville in 2017

Between 1807 and 1813 payments were made to the estate when Charles McGehee hired Clay, Robert Finey hired Davy and Moses Drummond hired Sukey to work for them. All this generated a total of $141.15 in income to the estate. The inventory of everything Benjamin and Joanna owned at the time of his death is seven pages in length. The appraised value came to $5310.59 and included the following:

Household & Personal Items

Knives and forks, Spinning wheel, 1 Loom, Tray sifter, Small glass, Candle stick, a lot of buttons, Walnut Desk $24, Family bible $8, Geography book, Dictionary, Blank Book, The Christian Religion, Small Bible, Picture Book, Small Book, Pamphlets, Watch, 6 Windsor Chairs, Table, Small table, 8 Common chairs, 1Arm chair, 2 salt cellars, 4 beds & furniture, Trunk of shoes, Case & bottles,1 Trunk, 1 old chest, Shot bag, Small and large pot, Trays, a lot of pewter, 2 butter ?, Powdering table, 2 churns , Coffee mill, Jug, Iron tea kettle, 2 shot guns

Farm Equipment

½ gallon measure, Pair of saddle bags, Pewter pot, 5 stakes of blades, Pair of fire dogs, Nails, Powder 400#, Scales, Money scale, Saddle ,Keg white lead, Old chest, Barrels, ? for corn, Pair of ? irons, 1 knife and bonnet, 2 scythes & cradles, Old irons, Hoes, Mattock, Augers, Axes, Ax & Wedges-several sets sold to individuals, Share mold, Iron ware, Stellyards, Lock chains, Saddle, Iron bound keg, Cut saw, Swingle free, Shovel plow, Plough, Chain tracer, Grind stone, 2 funnels, Cart, and a kettle

Food & Feed Items

1 bee hive, Bee gum, Small flour barrel, 3 small kegs, 240 bushels of corn, 110 gallons of brandy

Animals

2 small Bay horses, 2 sorrel horses, 1 Bay colt, 1 sorrel colt, Black horse, Roan colored horse, 18 geese, 7 bison, Hogs – 7 people purchased, Sow, Steer, Bull, Cow with bell, Small cow, Dun colored cow, Black cow & calf, 3 Brindle cow & calf, 19 more cows and calves

Slaves

Jeffery, Alexander, and Violet

Land

202 acre tract Joanna bought and 326 acre tract that George ? bought

Misc

360 units of Cotton

Note: a ? indicates words I could not read on the original documents.

This is one page of the appraisal of Benjamin's
estate prepared by Natham Lipscomb

Sources for this post include: Benjamin Waller's probate documents, 1800 census, Find-A-Grave and Rootswebsites, "Abbeville Marriage Records" by Larry Pursley, "Greenwood County Sketches" by Margaret Watson, Spotsylvania County Records 1721-1800, Will Abstracts for Abbeville by Willie Pauline Young, the will of Rev. John Waller,