Oglethorpe County GaArchives Biographies.....Rabun, Family 1710 - 1798 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Marianne Leader singermarianne@gmail.com May 28, 2014, 10:08 am Source: Marianne Leader Author: Marianne Leader I have recently been doing an intense and as thorough-as-possible search for the lives, identities, activities, etc of the Rabuns who, for the most part, are thought of as Hancock Co (first in Greene Co) residents after migration from NC in 1785. I have recently come upon the family tree of the Wootens—really several family trees, but many of them very sketchy—where, having found that Thomas Wooten married a Sarah Rabun in 1754, I then realized that she must be a sister to Matthew Rabun b. 1744 to James Matthew Rabun b. 1710. Matthew Rabun b. 1744 in VA (moved to NC about 1765) married a ****see note at bottom of file for info on names**** Sarah Warren (b VA 1746) whose father Robert Warren (died c1759) had married a Margaret Dawson from Isle of Wight, VA. I got the general picture in mind: that the Dawsons, the Rabuns and the Wootens who had settled in York, and/or Isle of Wight, VA, were all associated families, and then many of them came into NC—where by deeds recorded in 1764 (Deeds of Halifax Co, North Carolina 1758-1771: Thomas Wooten mentioned, and Benjamin his father as witness) and in 1768 (Matthew Rabun mentioned as witness), I did see how Sarah Rabun, married to Thomas Wooten, was almost certainly a sister of Matthew Rabun. The father of Matthew Rabun born 1744 was a James Matthew Rabun born 1710 in Ireland (Ulster) who is supposed to have lived in the Nansemond area and/or Isle of Wight area of VA where he had immigrated early in the 1730’s (wife Margaret Brooks); later he also came into NC (Edgecombe, later Halifax Co) where he died in 1798. Matthew Rabun b. 1744, is supposed to have been one of the younger children born in VA, so the time-frame would easily have Sarah Rabun born somewhere around 1734-35 if not earlier. All of this Wooten-Rabun connection winds up in records of GA because Sarah Rabun died around 1768-9, and Thomas Wooten, somewhere around that time came into Wilkes Co Ga and married a widow of John Pope, Tabitha Bradford Pope. For a good number of years, though, it seems, he was going back and forth between Wake Co NC and GA, since there are records of him in the Revolution in the 1770’s and early 1780’s in both GA and in NC. He died in 1791, Oglethorpe, GA where he and Tabitha Pope Wooten are buried. At any rate, while the information I have seen about Sarah Rabun never includes her parents, I think it is more than probable that they were James Matthew Rabun b. 1710 Ulster, Ireland and Margaret Brooks b. 1712, also Ireland, among the Scots in Ulster. Marianne Leader (Grass Valley, CA) Additional Comments: p.s. I am a descendant of Matthew Rabun Jr. born c 1768 NC, married to Apselia Powel b 1774 SC, who married before 1794 in GA. ****Sept 7, 2015 I had included information about my own descent from a "Matthew Rabun Jr"-son of this Matthew born 1744 mentioned above-- and now, it turns out, I have found out that this man I called "Matthew Jr." was a John Rabun or perhaps a John Matthew Rabun born c1772-1773 NC; the rest of what I reported, I believe, is correct. At any rate, this changes how one can find records, since there was a strange absence of any records of a "Matthew Jr" but now I have found at least a few under the correct name of "John Rabun (Raburn)" who was in the Greene Co militia in 1793, as was his older brother William who later in 1817 became governor of Georgia. Records of John Rabun that might have been expected after 1795, when son Wm Watson Rabun was born, though, are still absent. It appears that John Rabun died sometime between 1795 and 1799, as his widow Apselia Powell Rabun remarried to Benjamin Morris c1800; they are found in Hancock County tax rolls with son William Watson Rabun under guardianship of Morris, in 1811. A daughter of Apselia's second marriage was married by 1820. The correct name of my 4th great grandfather is either John Rabun, or John Matthew Rabun (Raburn). He is the son of Matthew Rabun born 1744 and Sarah Warren Rabun born 1746, who moved with their family into Greene/Hancock Co GA in 1785. Additional Comments: From: Marianne Leader [mailto:singermarianne@gmail.com] Sent: 07 September 2015 21:23 To: debra@genrecords.org Subject: further evidence to prove Sarah Rabun born c1734 is sister of Matthew Rabun born 1744 Dear Debra Crosby: It seems almost more than coincidence that once I had written off to you my e-mail about the correct name "John Rabun" or "John Matthew Rabun" (one of sons of Matthew Rabun b. 1744, migrated to GA, Greene/Hancock Co in 1785) I came across a further piece of evidence which seems to show conclusively that Sarah Rabun born c1734, who married Thomas Wooten in Halifax Co NC, was indeed, as I earlier suggested, one of the older sisters of Matthew Rabun b. 1744. In many family histories which included information about the children of James Matthew Rabun born 1710 and his wife Margaret Brooks born 1712 (probably Ulster, Ireland, as they came from Ireland to America c.1730) an older sister of Matthew Rabun b. 1744, Martha Rabun, has been mentioned as having married an Edward Crowell (c.1730-1788) of Halifax, NC; and it has often been said that this name Crowell was deliberately excised from the original Cromwell in order to disassociate the family from the Oliver Cromwell of the Puritan Interregnum in England, 1649-1660. At any rate, whether or not this story about the name is factual, family historians seemed always to be able to note that Martha, older sister of the Matthew Rabun born 1744, had married Edward Crowell. Yesterday, as I was looking through a site, Scribd.com, at a Moore-Williams family history, under a John Alston (1792-1843) entry, I came across this comment: "Concerning the Crowell and Bradford families, see the Wooten section, as Thomas Wooten [#2, b, (2)] married Sarah Rabun, sister of John Benjamin Crowell's mother Martha, wife of Edward Crowell (c1730-1788) of Halifax, NC." (Look for this on-line under Moore-Williams on Scribd.com) If possible, I would appreciate your adding this information to the earlier collected material. It could be applicable in both Oglethorpe Co and/or in Wilkes and in Hancock, as Matthew Rabun b 1744 moved into Greene/Hancock in 1785, while his sister Sarah's children by Thomas Wooten moved first into Wilkes County c1770, and Thomas and second wife Tabitha Pope Wooten later lived in Oglethorpe Co, Georgia where Thomas Wooten died in 1791. (The children of the Sarah Rabun-Thomas Wooten marriage are well documented in a RootsWeb.com document, Subject: Thomas Wooten & Elizabeth Rousseau.) I think everyone interested in the Rabun family-- which spread from Virginia to North Carolina and then into Georgia and Alabama-- can certainly add Sarah Rabun born c1734 to their list of the children of the Rabun immigrant couple from Ireland, James Matthew Rabun b.1710, and Margaret Brooks, born 1712. Thanks, Marianne Leader File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/oglethorpe/bios/rabun1043gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 3.3 Kb