Background
Before we get into Thomas’s story, mention should be made of his next older brother, Bryan (Brient) Macklendon. Little is known of Bryan, except that he was born around 1685, moved to South Carolina around 1745, and died around the same time he moved. It appears that Bryan neither married nor had children. He would have been about eight years older than Thomas, five years younger than Dennis, and 6 years younger than Francis. Bryan and Francis died about the same time as each other at about 60 and 66 years of age, respectively. Dennis died 20 years earlier at about 45 years of age. Thomas lived on another 12 or 13 years and passed on at the age of 68/9 in 1758.
Francis’ wife Elinore had a younger sister, Elizabeth. The Bush sisters were both born in Chowan County to parents who had come from the Isle of Wight, Virginia, some years earlier. Elizabeth, who was born in 1693, apparently captured the heart of Thomas, (Francis’ youngest brother). Thomas, who was 3 years older than Elizabeth, married her in 1712 when they were 22/23 and 19/20 years of age, respectively.
Yamassee War
The causes of the war were many, and some have never been resolved with certainty, but the effect of the war was the near destruction of English settlement and trading in the southern Carolina Province.
The aftermath of the Tuscarora War had the effect of bringing the various tribes who helped the English defeat the Tuscarora into much closer communication with each other. It also brought them into closer contact with the English, giving them insight into the internal struggles of these newcomers to their world. The English populations of the northern and southern parts of the coastal Carolina Province were governed separately, and were poorly coordinated. The actual separation of the Province into two distinct royal colonies would not occur until 1729. Meanwhile many of the same tensions and rivalries that led up to the Tusarora War simmered, only the geographic focal point of these tensions was now southwest of Charles Town. Here the Yamasee lived. The Yamasee, the Apalachicola to their southwest, the Creek to their west, the Apalachee and Cherokee to their northwest… basically all of the allies of the English against the Tuscarora two years earlier, combined in a poorly coordinated, but largely effective attempt rid southern Carolina Province of the English from 1715-17. Hundreds of settlers were killed and captured, highly vulnerable ranging traders were killed all across the southeast, and practically all outlying settlers took refuge in Charles Town, straining its resources to to point of near starvation for the inhabitants there. Later in the conflict the Cherokee sided with the English against their Creek rivals. This was a major deciding factor in favor of the English.
The result of the conflict was complex and extended. It included the destruction and enslavement of many of the Yamasee by their rivals, the organization of a professional (paid) militia in southern Carolina, the migration of the lower Creek westward, back to their ancestral homelands along the Chattahoochee River and the Apalachicola southwest to St. Augustine. The Yamasee War was also a catalyst to the formation of the British colonies of South Carolina and Georgia.
2nd-Generation Thomas and Elizabeth
Thomas was the youngest of the four 2nd-generation brothers. Born in 1690, he married Elizabeth Bush in 1714 and they had seven children. Elizabeth died giving birth to her last son Thomas Jr., in 1728. Thomas married his second wife Mary Bryan in 1730. The name “Mary Bryan” comes up in a few places in the family. A detailed record of the Bush family sheds some light on her. The mystery woman is referred to as Mary Bryan Bush in some records.
A detailed record of Thomas corroborates the Bush family record and clarifies. The reason for this is that she originally married the Hunt sister’s brother John. The two families were close and had various pieces of land in Bertie and Chowan Counties. In 1724, both families sold their properties and moved south to Craven County, purchasing adjoining parcels of land there. John died in 1728, the same year his sister Elizabeth died in childbirth. This left Thomas and Mary widowed and living on large adjoining parcels of land in Craven County, near New Bern. Thomas with seven children, and Mary with six. The two decided to marry and raise the two families as one.
Children of 2nd-generation Thomas and Elizabeth and their locations at their demise:
- Dennis McClendon b: abt 1718 Perquimans Co., NC d: aft 1790 Anson Co. NC
- John McClendon b: 1722 d: 1784 Anson Co., NC
- Joel McClendon b: 1722 d: abt 1800 Montgomery Co., GA
- Isaac McClendon b: 1724 d: abt 1756
- Jacob McClendon , Sr. b: 1725 in Bertie Co., NC d: bef Apr 23, 1793 Wilkes Co., GA (American revolutionary and slave owner)
- Jemimia McClendon b: 1727 d: 1754 Richmond, NC
- Thomas McClendon b: ABT 1728 d: 1756 Greene Co., GA
In summary, after a few generations along what is now the coastal plain of North and South Carolina, the McClendons started moving inland. In the early- to mid-1700s, three family branches moved along three primary routes, having minimal contact between the branches after the migrations were established. By the early 1800s, one branch had moved far afield into Tennessee, near Nashville, where they established themselves for five generations. Another settled in Kentucky. Several of the South Carolinians moved to Alabama, and a great many of the North and South Carolinians settled throughout Georgia. Many of those who were born in Georgia and Alabama moved on to Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas before their deaths in the late-1800s and early-1900s.
Next: Tennessee Migration
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Related Links:
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Immigrant Ancestors PDF Excel
Royalty/Nobility Quick-Reference
Dennis McClendon: Procession to my “XIV” Designation
DMCXIV 
