Transcript of hand written letter dated June 24, 1977 from Coy K. Johnston, 
Attorney at Law to Mrs. Paul Gray and used with her permission. Submitted 
by John R. Clarke

Dear Mrs. Gray:

I believe I can answer you query in Family Puzzlers May 26th (No 501).  But 
one thing bothers me. In 1809 in a deed by William DANIEL, the wife is 
signing the dower release was Margaret DANIEL, see Deed Book I (eye) pp. 
173-4, Screven County, Georgia.  It is possible you are mistaken with respect 
to Betsy WATTS or it is possible she was a second of later wife. I realize, 
of course, William of your pedigree may not be the William to whom I refer, 
but implications to the contrary seem quite strong to me.  William, brothers 
Seth and Josiah (Jr.) and sister Elizabeth, were children of Josiah DANIEL 
and wife, Elizabeth MAY, of Old St. Peter's Parish, Beaufort District, S.C.  
Old Josiah lived in a plantation, Danielton, in St. Peter's, and it abutted 
upon the Savannah River.  He also owned land on St. Matthew's Bluff, on both 
sides of the Savannah (the land in GA, being in Screven County; the S.C. 
land in present day Allendale, although Danielton is now in Hampton County).  
The sister Elizabeth married Amos JOHNSTON (1769-1815) and they are my 
great-great- grandparents.  
	According to the deed of 1809, William and Margaret DANIEL were then 
resident in Beaufort District.  The land described in the deed lay on Savannah 
River in Screven County, and it was set out ".....My father died in possession 
of which is to be divided Betwixt my Brother Josiah and the heirs of my 
brother Seth and myself which land was sold by the State of Georgia to my 
father, Josiah DANIEL."  (This land was apparently confiscated Tory land and 
was bought by Josiah at a possible sale of such confiscated land.)
	1809 must have been the year William and his family moved over and 
farther into Georgia.  He does not appear in the 1810 or later censuses for 
St. Peter's Parish.  Nor is there any other deed of record in Screven County 
in which he was a party.  Josiah (Jr.) and Elizabeth died before 1819 and a 
portion of the estate of Josiah (Jr.) was administered in Screven County.  
Elizabeth had sold her Screven land before her death.  
	There is now no trace of DANIEL in Hampton County.  The county was 
formed after the Civil War   All probate and land records of Beaufort District 
were burned by Sherman in 1865 -  as well as practically every structure.  
It is fortunate that some of the Screven records have survived.  I believe 
old Josiah, his wife Elizabeth, Josiah Jr. and Seth lie in unmarked graves in 
old (now abandoned) Union Methodist Church and; they were Methodist.  
	Josiah (Sr.) migrated to St. Peter's with older brothers Thomas and 
John circa 1768 from Pitt County, N.C.  Thomas (who seems to have been rather 
well off) moved on to GA after the Revolution, and John, I believe, is the 
DANIEL of that name later found in Burke County, GA.  There was a Henry DANIEL 
- also Mary  -- in St. Peter's in the 1820's; I suspect they were children of 
Thomas, but the thought they may have been children of Josiah (Jr,) lingers.
	Josiah (Sr.) married Elizabeth MAY in 1772 at old New Jerusalem Church 
at Ebenezer, in Effingham County, GA (a Salzburger - German Lutheran - 
settlement) just over the Savannah River from Black Swamp in St. Peter's Parish. 
I guess Ebenezer was more convenient that St. Peter's in Purrysburg (the parish 
church, rather a long way down the river from Black Swamp, a name brought down 
from Pitt County).  Elizabeth was one of seven daughters of John MAY and Mary 
STAFFORD.  No sons.  Mary MAY nee STAFFORD at 106 years of age in 1823 
according to her gravestone at Black Swamp.  (I have the STAFFORD lineage back 
to 1606.)  John MAY (MAY) died in 1763 in Pitt County.  His widow and her seven 
daughters were members of the Pitt migration to St. Peter's; so were he several 
STAFFORD brothers and several other Pitt families, including my 
great-great-grandfather, Capt. Nathan JOHNSTON.      
	As well as I can determine Josiah was born in 1740 and died circa 1807.   
He was born in Tyrrell County, N.C. one of eleven children of Thomas DANIEL and 
wife Elizabeth LANIER.  The youngest of six sons, Thomas died testate in 
Tyrrell in 1749 and Elizabeth, his widow, died in Tyrrell in 1752  -- and also 
left a will.
	Thomas was born in 1675 in the Parish of St. James, in Barbados, 
B. W. I. the son of John DANIEL and wife Ann.  He was christened there Sept. 
25th.  John's brother was Robert DANIEL, of Barbados, who migrated to 
Charleston, S. C. a landgrave, who in 1704 became Deputy Governor of the 
northern area of Carolina, and settled at Bath on Pamlico Sound. LANIERS 
meanwhile also from Barbados, migrated to VA and one drifted down to Tyrrell 
County in N. C. - Robert LANIER, whose daughter Elizabeth married Thomas 
DANIEL.  I suspect Thomas and Elizabeth were married in North Carolina.
	I don't know when John and Ann DANIEL moved to Barbados from England 
but the LANIERS (in the U.S.) left England - London - circa 1655  -- and it may 
well be the two (or more) DANIEL brothers left at the same time.  
	Robert LANIER (father of Elizabeth, wife of Thomas DANIEL) died in 1745, 
testate, in Tyrrell County, N. C. (Mr. Johnston marked out several sentences but 
I will include them in this transcription - "He was born in 1642 in Greenwich 
County, Kent, England where he was christened May 22nd and therefore 97 years 
old at his death.  This according to Mrs. Royal E. Ingersoll, Lanier, 
(Washington, DC 1966) at p. 411.  An older brother John had migrated to VA by 
1656.  In 1678 Robert was in Barbados when a son Clement was baptized - his 
mother's name was given as Rebecca (?) LANIER."  This is the end of the marked 
through section)  He was born in Barbados, and came to Virginia with brothers 
Clement and Lemuel.  Clement was baptized in St. Micheal's Paris Barbados 
Aug 21, 1678. - so it would seem their parents were dead by 1688.  Robert was 
the eldest of the three brothers.  In 1695 Robert married Sarah, daughter of 
John BARKER and Grace COTTON of Surrey County, VA., and in 1711 moved down to 
N. C.  - see Mrs. Royal E. Ingersoll, Lanier (Washington, DC 1966), p. 411.  
	Robert was the son of another Robert LANIER, son of Clement LANIER and 
wife Hannah COLLET of Greenwich, County Kent, England, and was baptized there 
May 22, 1642.   A brother John had gone to VA by 1656.  Their mother was buried 
in 1653, and at their father's death in 1658/9 both had left England (but were 
remembered in his will).  
	Robert was the son of Nicholas LANIER and wife Lucreece (Lucretia) .  
Nicholas died in 1612.  He was born in Rouen, France  -- a Huguenot - and in 
1561 settled in London, moved to East Greenwich, County Kent.  He had been a 
prominent musician at the Court of Henry II, King of France, and became a 
musician at the Court of Queen Elizabeth I and King James.  He became quite 
wealthy.  He was a flutiest and also a coronet player.  He left France because 
of the disfavor in which Huguenots were held - but with recommendations of King 
Henry and at the invitation of the Earl of Hertford.  At one time there were 
three generations of LANIERS in the King's musicians, and one of Nicholas's 
sons, Nicholas the Younger, became the chief musician and assembler of the 
King's art collection  -- several portraits of Nicholas the Younger (one by 
Van Dyke) hang in European Museums.  Upon the advent of the Commonwealth under 
Cromwell (following the beheading of Charles I) the LANIERS, being Royalists, 
fell in disfavor, became impoverished, and this is apparently why John migrated 
to VA and Robert to Barbados.   Mrs. Ingersoll (a descendent) wife of Admiral 
Royal E. Ingersoll, who commanded the Atlantic Fleet during World War II, spent 
quite an effort in investigating the LANIERS. Unfortunately, she didn't pursue 
her enquiry into the descendents of old Josiah DANIEL although she mentions him 
(at p. 415).  
	I might mention that Emanuel County, GA was formed from Montgomery and 
Bullock Counties.  You may wish to check land and probate records there.  There 
are no surviving such records in Washington County - two courthouse fires, last 
by old burner Sherman.  
	Hope the foregoing may prove helpful.  I would be interested in your 
reactions.

Sincerely Yours, 

Coy K. Johnston.


Certification: I, John R. Clarke, certify this is a true and accurate 
representation of the above-described letter, as sent to me by Mrs. Lucy Gray, 
the recipient.   -- John R. Clarke, May 29, 2001.





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