Carolina Key People - Landgrave Edmund Bellinger, Sr.





Landgrave - Edmund Bellinger, Sr.

Edmund Bellinger appears in South Carolina as early as 1692. He is called "Captain" Edmund Bellinger, possibly was a ship captain, was in 1697 the Deputy of William Craven (one of the Lords Proprietors), and in 1698 was appointed as Surveyor General and a member of the Executive Council for Governor Joseph Blake. In 1698, he assisted the Lords Proprietors in drawing up the final set of Fundamental Constitutions. By as a patent dated May 7, 1698, he was created a Landgrave. Under this patent a barony containing 13,000 acres was laid out in the Yemassee lands and included the savannah or swamp known by the name of Tomotley. When the Tomotley Barony was actually laid out is not known, and there are no copies of any plats to be found. On December 12, 1702, Landgrave Edmund Bellinger was granted 6,000 acres "Lying & being on the South Side of ye head of Ashepoo River." It was referred to as the Ashepoo Barony. Edmund Bellinger, Sr. died, leaving a will dated October 10, 1705, whereby he devised all the lands to his son Thomas, upon whose death the lands descended to his brother, the second Landgrave Edmund Bellinger. The first Landgrave Edmund Bellinger had a son, Edmund the second Landgrave, another son, Thomas, who died early and without issue, and another son, William who was known as Captain William Bellinger. He also had a daughter Margaret, who married Nicholas Bohun, a daughter Elizabeth, who married John Palmer, and a daughter Lucia, who married Richard Fairchild. Ashepoo Barony Plat Source: The Baronies of South Carolina by Henry A.M. Smith, as published in the South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Volume XV, 1914. My grandfather was Edw. Yonge Wootten, late of Wilmington, NC; a descendant of Capt. Philip Yonge, Loyalist, H.M. Surveyor General of Georgia, husband of Christian Mackenzie, daughter of Capt. Wm. Mackenzie, in 1775 H.M. Comptroller and Collector of Customs, Sunbury, Georgia, and brother of George, Third Earl Cromartie, of Cromarty, Scotland. Philip's father was the Hon. Henry Yonge, Sr., Loyalist, H.M. Surveyor General of Georgia. His first wife, Christiana Bulloch, was the sister of Patriot Gov. Bulloch of Georgia. But Philip was the son of wife Elizabeth Bellinger, daughter of Capt. Wm. Bellinger, Sr., and noble lineage wife Elizabeth Baker. Capt. Bellinger was the son of Sir Edm. Bellinger, Sr., *Landgrave, of Tombodly and Ashepoo Baronies, South Carolina. J.A.L.Miller, Jr. Southport, North Carolina, June 06, 2004 Edmundsbury on the Ashepoo was laid out on land given Edmund Bellinger, the second Landgrave, and named for him. Today nothing is there except a few graves that surround the site of the church. A pretty place that retains its original name is Poco Sabo, the home site of Edmund Bellinger, the fourth Landgrave, who is buried there. Granger, the trader and interpreter, who stood behind the commissioners, signified to them the willingness conveyed in the last words of Sanutee, to hear what they had to say, and Sir Edmund Bellinger -- then newly created a Landgrave, one of the titles of Carolinian nobility -- the head of the deputation, arose accordingly, and addressing himself to the newcomer, rather than to the Assembly, proceeded to renew those pledges and protestations which he had already uttered to the rest. His speech was immediately interpreted by Granger, who, residing in Pocotaligo, was familiar with their language. (From "The Yemassee. A Romance Of Carolina" (Vol I.) by William Gilmore Simms) Carnot Bellinger of Luling, Texas. Edmund Bellinger, the father of Carnot Bellinger, of Luling, was born in Beaufort, SC, March 4, 1802, received a classical education and completed a full collegiate course of study at Columbia College, South Carolina. He was prevented from graduating, but received a certificate of high standing in all his classes by the faculty. In 1826, he married Miss Ann Le Gare Roach, a native of Charleston, SC, a daughter of William Roach, of Bristol, England. Through her mother she was a descendant of the "Huguenots " through the Le Gare family, and through her grandfather her family reaches back to the McGregor clan, in Scotland, to the year 700 AD. Hugh Swinton Le Gare, her first cousin, was Attorney General of the United States. By marriage she was connected with William Gilmore Simms. Mr. Bellinger was directly descended from the "Landgraves" of South Carolina, a title hereditary conferred by one of the Georges of England on Edmund Bellinger of Westmorland County, England, who married Elizabeth Cartwright, and emigrated to America about the year 1688, at which time he was created first Landgrave. His son Edmund was second Landgrave. He married Elizabeth Butler; their son Edmund became third Landgrave. He in turn married Mary Lucia Bull; their son Edmund was fourth Landgrave. William Bellinger, the youngest brother of the fourth Landgrave, was the father of this Edmund Bellinger, who, with his wife, soon after his marriage, moved to Illinois. He remained there six years, and came to Texas in 1839, and assisted in the early development of this country, then "The Republic of Texas." (From DeWitt Colony Biographies on the web) George Bellinger was born in Barnwell County, the son of a distinguished and courageous South Carolina Attorney General of the same name. He was a fourth generation lawyer, having descended from Edmund Bellinger of the 1832 Nullification Convention and from Landgrave* Edmund Bellinger who, in 1698, was the Surveyor General of the Carolinas. Serene and secluded, the lush maritime forest of Bull Point has stood virtually untouched through the long centuries since its discovery. Very early records indicate that Bull Point was originally part of Tomotley Barony, a 13,000 acre Proprietary grant located in Prince William Parish. Granted to Charles Edward in 1726, the barony was relinquished one year later to Thomas Lowndes, and later still became one of *Landgrave* Edmund Bellinger's baronies. (From history of Bull Point)