Daughter of William Cornell (d. 1749) of Pennington, Hunterdon (Mercer) County, NJ. Wife of William Merrell (ca. 1729-1782) of Randolph County, NC. Her grave marker was photographed by C. Phelps Merrell in 1984. Her grave was for many years obscured by overgrowth and feared lost. However, the cemetery has been cleared in recent years and her grave marker recovered and photographed.

http://www.valsamides-design.com/merrill/williammerrill3.html

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Biography written by mv66nc (# 46944406), with some additional assistance of Mike and Jane Deal (# 47022146)

Note: The surname spellings Merrell and Merrill are used interchangeably in this article. Both spellings are found in original primary source documents.

Daughter of William Cornell (d. 1749) and wife [possibly Elizabeth Smith] of Pennington, Hunterdon (now Mercer) County, NJ. Mary Cornell married William Merrell/Merrill (ca. 1729 - 1782) about 1750 in Hunterdon (now Mercer) County, NJ.

William Merrell/Merrill and wife Mary Cornell were parents of at least three known sons:

1. Benjamin Merrell/Merrill, b. December 2, 1752 Hopewell, Hunterdon (Mercer) County, NJ, d. May 10, 1836 Buncombe County, NC; md. February 4, 1778 Rowan County, NC, Penelope Merrill, b. about 1760, d. about 1830, daughter of Benjamin Merrill and Jemima Smith. Benjamin Merrill and his wife were first cousins. Benjamin Merrill performed service in the militia during the Revolutionary War (Pension Application #S8891). He and his wife migrated about 1798 or 1799 to Buncombe County, NC, settling on Cane Creek in the vicinity of Fairview, North Carolina. Benjamin Merrill devised his will in Buncombe County, NC on January 25, 1825 (Probated July 5, 1836). Benjamin and Penelope Merrill are buried in the Merrill-Patton family cemetery, Fairview, Buncombe County, NC.

2. Daniel Merrell/Merrill, b. May 17, 1755 Hopewell, Hunterdon (Mercer) County, NJ, d. March 11, 1844 Randolph County, NC, md. July 16, 1783 Randolph County, NC, Elizabeth Lytle, b. 1763 Pennsylvania, d. 1810 Randolph County, NC, daughter of Henry Lytle and Margaret Harmon; 2md. June 20, 1816 Randolph County, NC, Rachel Ward, b. about 1773, d. August, 1817 Randolph County, NC; 3md. January 6, 1818 Guilford County, NC, Margaret (Warrick) Thomas, b. November 9, 1770 Caswell County, NC, d. April 23, 1837, daughter of Andrew Warrick and widow of Robert Thomas; 4md. December 21, 1837 Randolph County, NC, Hannah Bishop, d. before September 10, 1845 Randolph County, NC. Daniel Merrell performed service in the militia during the Revolutionary War (Pension Application #S7222). Daniel Merrell continued to reside on the home plantation of his father William Merrell. He and at least two of his wives are buried in the Merrell family cemetery, Old Mountain Road, Randolph County, NC. His third wife, Margaret (Warrick) Thomas Merrill is buried at Fair Grove Methodist Church Cemetery in Davidson County, NC.

3. John Merrill, b. July 24, 1757 Hopewell, Hunterdon (Mercer) County, NC, d. between April 12, 1833-January, 1834 Buncombe County, NC; md. Catherine Rhodes, b. October 20, 1760. John Merrill performed service in the militia during the Revolutionary War (Pension Application #S7220). About 1798 or 1799, he and his family, along with Benjamin and Penelope Merrill, Boyd and Nancy McCrary, and others migrated to Buncombe County, NC, settling on Cane Creek near present day Fairview, NC. John Merrill devised his will in Buncombe County, NC on April 12, 1833 (Probated January 11, 1834). He and his wife are buried in the Merrill-Patton family cemetery, Fairview, North Carolina. A monument to John Merrill was erected by his descendants at Bearwallow Baptist Church near Gerton, Henderson County, NC.

William and Mary (Cornell) Merrell migrated from NJ to Rowan (Randolph) County NC about 1757, based upon the federal pension application of their son Daniel Merrell. Their plantation was located on the Little Uwharrie River in western Randolph County, NC, very close to the present border of Randolph and Davidson Counties, NC. On February 17, 1763, William Merrell acquired 245 acres in Tract 10 of Rowan County, NC on the Richland Fork of the Uwharrie River from Henry McCulloh (Proven October Court, 1763) [Rowan County, NC Deed Book 5, 1762-1764, pp. 343-344]. In 1779, William Merrel paid taxes in William Milliken's District of Randolph County, NC on 545 acres of land (100 acres of which were improved), four slaves, nine horses, twenty-two cattle and £230 in money, bonds, and stocks on trade [List of Taxables, Randolph County, NC, 1779, William Milliken's District, SS 837, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC]. William Merrell acquired 100 acres of land on the waters of the Uwharrie River in Guilford (Randolph) County, NC from the State of North Carolina on November 13, 1779 (Entered July 6, 1778) [State of North Carolina Land Grants, Guilford County, NC, File No. 126, Grant No. 128, State Archives of NC, Raleigh, NC; State of NC Land Grant Book 33, p. 128]. William Merrell was issued another land grant (perhaps posthumously) from the State of North Carolina on October 23, 1782 for 200 acres on the waters of the Uwharrie River in Randolph County, NC (Entered May 7, 1779) [State of North Carolina Land Grants, Randolph County, NC, File No. 121, Grant No. 120, State Archives of NC, Raleigh, NC; State of NC Land Grant Book 49, p. 209; State of NC to William Merrell, October 23, 1782, Randolph County, NC Deed Book 1, 1779-1785, p. 8].

The circumstances of the death of William Merrell/Merrill are related in an account entitled "Personal Notes" written by his great-great grandson Orson Merrell (1842-1907) of Portage, UT in 1886. The account was published in the 1935 genealogy "Captain Benjamin Merrill and the Merrill family of North Carolina" by William Ernest Merrill (1906 - 1981):

"The old gentleman was carried away by the British soldiers. Two of his boys, Benjamin and John, were out hunting and saw the soldiers with a light and heard their father's voice, but they were afraid to shoot for fear they would hit their father. He was never heard of afterwards and it is supposed he was hanged. The soldiers were raiding through the country and they came to their house while the boys were away, and helped themselves to what they wanted. Their mother told them what she thought of them and they split her tongue."

The late local historian and genealogist Forrest Edgar Lyda (1939 - 1998) related a popular family legend in a newspaper article entitled "The Hanging Tree, Forrest Lyda returns to the spot where ancestors died 205 years ago" written by reporter Tony Earley for a September, 1985 edition of "The Daily Courier" of Rutherfordton, NC. This article was also cited in an article by Don Bailey entitled "A Cliffside Connection to the Battle of Kings Mountain" published in the Fall, 2012 edition of "Cliffside Chimes." The family legend, as related by Forrest Lyda in the 1985 newspaper article, alleged that Loyalist Ambrose Mills (ca. 1721 - 1780) turned over Regulator Captain Benjamin Merrill (ca. 1731 - 1771) to Governor William Tryon after the Battle of Alamance (May 16, 1771). Following the Battle of Kings Mountain (October 7, 1780), the legend asserts that William Merrell was present for the execution of Ambrose Mills at the Aaron Biggerstaff Farm in Rutherford County, NC on October 14, 1780. To avenge his late brother's death in 1771, Merrell slapped the horse which Mills sat on, thus causing Mills to hang. The legend further alleges that Ambrose Mills' son, William Mills (1746-1834), left for dead at the engagement at Kings Mountain, was among the Tories who abducted William Merrell from his home in Randolph County, NC several months later. Mills transported his prisoner over 120 miles to the hanging tree at the Biggerstaff Farm in Rutherford County, where Merrell was executed in the same manner as Ambrose Mills and the other Tories.

There is no primary source documentary evidence which supports the historical accuracy of the family legend related by Mr. Lyda and others. Firstly, there is no evidence that Ambrose Mills played any role in the capture, arrest, or surrender of Captain Benjamin Merrill following the Battle of Alamance. A document entitled "Journal of the Expedition Against the Insurgents in the Western Frontier of North Carolina Begun the 20th April 1771" records that it was Colonel Edmund Fanning (1739 - 1818) and his detachment who surrounded Merrill's house and took Merrill prisoner. Fanning brought Captain Merrill to the camp at Abbott's Creek on Saturday, June 1, 1771 [Clark, Walter, ed., "The State Records of North Carolina, Volume 19, 1782-1784 with supplement 1771 - 1782," 1901, p. 849]. Ambrose Mills' involvement in the War of the Regulation, if any, is not clear. There is no known documentary evidence suggesting that he ever served under Colonel Edmund Fanning.

Ambrose Mills' loyalist activities primarily occurred during the Revolutionary War when he was part of the expedition against the Cherokees in 1776 and subsequently arrested and held at Salisbury. His association with Loyalist David Fanning (ca. 1755 – 1825) began in 1778, when the two men planned to assemble a troop of 500 men to march under the royal standard at St. Augustine, FL. Their plans were subsequently betrayed, and Mills was arrested. Mills was later liberated and fought at both Earle's Ford and Kings Mountain [Draper, Lyman C., "King's Mountain and its heroes," Cincinnati, 1881, pp. 481-482; Fanning, David, "The Narrative of Colonel David Fanning," New York, 1865, p. 7].

Secondly, there is no primary source documentary evidence which corroborates William Merrill's participation at the Battle of Kings Mountain nor places him at the execution of Ambrose Mills at Biggerstaff Farm in Rutherford County. While there is no complete list of the Overmountain men and Patriot participants at Kings Mountain, much of our knowledge of the events and participants at that engagement are drawn from correspondence, accounts, and testimonies found among the Kings Mountain Papers collected by historian Lyman C. Draper (1815-1891), Secretary for the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, as well as Draper's published work "King's Mountain and its heroes" (1881). Federal Revolutionary War pension applications, "The Colonial and State Records of North Carolina" series, and many other contemporary documentary sources (Loyalist and Patriot) also supplement our knowledge of those events. The events at Biggerstaff Farm are detailed by Lyman Draper in "King's Mountain and its heroes" (1881), pp. 339-341. William Merrell is not mentioned in Draper's calendars nor published work, nor in Bobby Gilmer Moss' extensive roster, "The Patriots at King's Mountain" (1990).

Thirdly, it seems rather implausible that William Mills (badly wounded at Kings Mountain) would have journeyed over 120 miles with a band of Tories in the months after the executions at Biggerstaff Farm to abduct William Merrell and transport him as a prisoner back to Rutherford County, NC, simply to execute him from the same "Hanging Tree" as his father. While piedmont North Carolina was plagued by Tory raids throughout the course of 1781 and Orson Merrell's account suggests that Merrell and his family fell victim to such raids, there is no proof either way that William Mills was the culprit behind Merrell's abduction.

Primary source documents indicate that William Merrell was deceased prior to March 20, 1782, when his son Benjamin Merrell posted bond as his administrator. The Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions of Randolph County, NC ordered that Letters of Administration on the estate of William Merrell be granted to Benjamin Merrell, who took the Oath of Administrator and executed a bond dated March 20, 1782 with Edward Sharp and Thomas Dougan as his securities. On June 10, 1782, the court recorded that Benjamin Merrell had produced the inventory of William Merrell's estate and ordered John Johnson and Jedn. Harper to appraise the moveable estate of the deceased and report to the next court [Estate of William Merrell (1782), Randolph County, NC Estates Records, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC; Randolph County, NC County Court Minutes, March Term/June Term, 1782]. These documents suggest that William Merrell died in either late 1781 or early 1782, well after the events as described in Mr. Lyda's family legend. While county and district courts were undoubtedly delayed or obstructed by the events of the war, it is unlikely that administration of Merrell's estate would have been postponed by over one year.

On February 24, 1783, Benjamin Merril conveyed to John Merril 245 acres in Randolph County, NC [Randolph County, NC Deed Book 1, 1779-1785, p. 14]. Two years later on November 19, 1785, John Merrill sold to his brother Dan Merrell, for £10, 23 ½ acres on the waters of Uwharrie River [Randolph County, NC Deed Book 2, 1782-1785, p. 186]. On December 1, 1792, Benjamin Merrell of Randolph County, NC conveyed to Dan Merrill 100 acres on the waters of Uwharrie River for the sum of £50 [Randolph County, NC Deed Book 5, 1785-1794, p. 18]. Six years later on September 14, 1798, Benjamin Merrill of Randolph County, NC sold to Joseph Winborne 462 acres on the Uwharrie (Proven November Term, 1798) [Randolph County, NC Deed Book 8, 1798-1806, p. 41]. The following day on September 15, 1798, John Merrill of Randolph County, NC conveyed to his brother Dan Merrill 272 acres on the Uwharrie for a consideration of £300 (Proven November Term, 1798) [Randolph County, NC Deed Book 8, 1798-1806, p. 42].

Benjamin Merril was enumerated on the 1800 Federal Census of Buncombe County, NC with 1 male 45+ (before 1755), 1 female 26-45 (1755-1774), 2 males 16-26 (1774-1784), 1 female 16-26 (1774-1784), 1 male 10-16 (1784-1790), 1 female 10-16 (1784-1790), 1 male 0-10 (1790-1800), 5 females 0-10 (1790-1800), and 1 slave [1800 Federal Census, Buncombe County, NC, p. 179]. The household of John Merril was also listed in Buncombe County, NC with 1 male 26-45 (1755-1774), 1 female 26-45 (1775-1774), 1 female 16-26 (1774-1784), 3 males 10-16 (1784-1790), 1 male 0-10 (1790-1800), and 4 females 0-10 (1790-1800) [1800 Federal Census, Buncombe County, NC, p. 179].