Bertie County NcArchives Biographies.....Mebane, Alexander Wood 1800 - 1847
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Gerald Thomas gerald_thomas00@comcast.net April 22, 2020, 4:07 am

Source: Research
Author: Gerald Thomas

ALEXANDER WOOD MEBANE
PHYSICIAN, ENTREPENUER, AND POLITICIAN
OF BERTIE COUNTY

by Gerald W. Thomas


Alexander Wood Mebane, the son of William Mebane and his wife, Mary Wood, was born
in Orange County, North Carolina in 1800. Alexander was the great grandson of
Alexander Mebane Sr. who emigrated to America from Northern Ireland during the first
half of the eighteenth century and initially settled in Pennsylvania. After
remaining in Pennsylvania for several years, Mebane relocated to Hawfields, Orange
County by the early 1750s. He was patriarch of the Mebane family of North Carolina.
Eventually, North Carolina colonial officials appointed him as a colonel of the
Orange County militia. An industrious and ambitious individual, he achieved
substantial wealth and was appointed a justice of the peace under the auspices of
the Royal government. Despite his standing as a local official and attainment of
influential local status under the Crown’s rule, Mebane sided with the American
patriots in their opposition to Great Britain during the Revolutionary War. He,
being relatively old (almost sixty years of age in 1775 when the war erupted), did
not actively serve in the American military forces (i.e., North Carolina Line units
in the Continental Army or detached militia). His military service was relegated to
Orange County as colonel of militia and later, Commissary General of North Carolina
with the rank of brigadier general. His sons – Robert, William, Alexander Jr., John,
James, and David – actively supported the quest for independence from Great
Britain.#
	Alexander Jr., was the statesman of the family. He was born in Pennsylvania on
November 26, 1744, and moved to Orange County as a member of his father’s household.
Alexander Jr. was a delegate to the Provincial Congress at Halifax in December 1776,
which formulated the State constitution. He was also a member of the convention at
Hillsboro (July-August 1788) which soundly rejected the constitution of the United
States. Siding with the majority of the convention members, Alexander cast his vote
against ratification. He served in the legislature from Orange County, from 1783 to
1793, and in the latter year was elected as a member of the United States Congress.
He was re-elected, but died on July 5, 1795, before taking his seat. He was fifty
years old. Alexander Jr. was distinguished for sound practical sense, stern
integrity and indomitable firmness. He married, first to Mary Armstrong of Orange
County, who passed away on September 2, 1792. Alexander next married Miss Anne
Claypole of Philadelphia.#
	William Mebane, the son of Alexander Jr. and Mary Armstrong, was born at Mason
Hall, Orange County on April 28, 1779. He married Mary Wood, the daughter of James
William Wood and Christian Freeman, on January 16, 1797, in Northampton County. Mary
was born on October 8, 1780. In addition to Alexander Wood Mebane – their first-born
child – William and Mary had four other children: John Howe Mebane (born 1806),
William Grandison Mebane (1808), Eliza Ann Mebane (1810), and Mary Frances Mebane
(ca. 1821). Mary Wood Mebane died on January 21, 1846, in Mebane, North Carolina.
She was sixty-five years old. William Mebane dated his will April 30, 1846, in which
he named his five children. He added a codicil to the document eight years later, on
April 29, 1854. He died in Orange County on May 3, 1856 – he was seventy-seven years
of age.#
	Alexander Wood Mebane was reared in Orange County. He was liberally educated and
graduated in Philadelphia, likely from the University of Pennsylvania’s school of
medicine. Afforded a doctor’s credential, he settled in Bertie County during the
1820s, where, continuing the trend of high social standing and successful business
achievement of his American ancestors, he became an affluent physician, successful
entrepreneur, and influential politician.#
	Dr. Mebane married Mary Elizabeth Collins Howe, his first cousin, on January 27,
1824. Mary, born ca. 1805, was the daughter of Thomas Howe and Elizabeth Wood who
were married on September 27, 1804. Thomas died about late 1807 or early 1808 when
Mary was two to three years of age. Mary Howe, Mary’s grandmother, bequeathed 640
acres of land to Mary in her will dated January 13, 1813. The land was situated on
Chowan River. Mary Howe died about the fall of 1814 when Mary was about nine years
of age. Subsequently, Elizabeth Wood Howe married William Sutton whom the Bertie
County court appointed as guardian of Mary. William Sutton died by the spring of
1816 and the Bertie County court, on May 17, 1816, appointed Dr. John Edward Wood as
guardian of Mary. Dr. Wood was both Mary and Alexander’s uncle. At his death,
William Sutton left four minor children – Eliza Ann Sutton, William G. Sutton, John
A. Sutton, and Sally Freeman Sutton – to be cared for by his widow. (Eliza and
William were children of William’s first wife, Sarah Warburton. John and Sally were
Elizabeth’s progeny and half-siblings of Mary.) Elizabeth Sutton died by December
1819, when Mary was about fourteen years of age.#
On May 12, 1824 – three and a half months after Dr. Alexander Wood Mebane and Mary
E. C. Howe married – Dr. Mebane purchased a male slave from James G. Mhoon. Less
than four months later (September 4, 1824) he purchased another male slave from
Mhoon. Bills of sale recorded in the land records of the Office of the Bertie County
Register of Deeds reveal that Mebane routinely purchased slaves, and on a few
occasions sold them. By 1830, Mebane owned fifty-two slaves (male and female of
various ages). His slaveholding had increased to sixty-seven individuals by 1840.
During the next six-plus years, the number of slaves owned by Mebane increased
dramatically. By early 1847, Mebane personally owned 118 slaves (including
twenty-two children) and jointly owned with William Moring twenty-two others (four
children).#
	On May 23, 1825, Dr. Mebane purchased 550 acres of land from George Ryan. The tract
was situated on Salmon Creek, a tributary that drains into Albemarle Sound just
south of the mouth of Chowan River, and bounded by the lands of Stark Armstead,
Samuel Iredell, Aquilla Freeman, and others. Mebane held the real estate for less
than two months, selling it to John Bond Williams on July 18. 1825.# 
	By August 1821, Sally Freeman Sutton, Mary Mebane’s half-sister, had died leaving
an estate of which Alexander and Mary sought their share as heirs-at-law. During May
1825, the Mebanes filed a petition with the Bertie County court seeking distribution
of Sally’s property by Cullen Capehart, the court-appointed administrator. Capehart
had also served as the appointed guardian for Sally.#
	In September 1828, Alexander and Mary’s first child, a son whom they named John E.
W. Mebane, was born. Approximately ten months later – on July 23, 1829 – another
son, William Alexander Mebane, was born. Julius A. Mebane was born ca. 1832; Mary
Elizabeth Mebane, 1836; John Thomas Mebane, April 13, 1838; and Alexander Wood
Mebane Jr., 1841. John E. W. Mebane died on April 14, 1835; he was six years old.#
	After residing in Bertie County for less than a decade, Dr. Mebane had become
active in the county’s political circles. An energetic member of the
Democratic-Republican Party, Mebane – according to renown North Carolina historian,
John W. Moore – was devoted to "the Democratic policy" of the era. Bertie County
residents elected Mebane as a delegate to the House of Commons for the 1829–1830
Assembly (November 26, 1829 – January 7, 1830).
The Democratic-Republican Party was founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in
the early 1790s. The party opposed the centralizing policies of Alexander Hamilton,
who served as Secretary of the Treasury under President George Washington.
Democratic-Republicans championed republicanism, political equality, and
expansionism. The party became increasingly dominant after the 1800 elections as the
opposing Federalist Party collapsed. The Democratic-Republicans later splintered
during the 1824 presidential election. One faction eventually coalesced under Gen.
Andrew Jackson into the modern Democratic Party. Another faction became known as the
National Republican Party, which itself later merged into the Whig Party. In North
Carolina, citizens of the west and northeast supported the Whigs mainly because they
wanted education and internal improvements to help with the economy. Meanwhile,
eastern North Carolina was dominated by wealthy planters who tended to oppose
activist government.# Dr. Mebane aligned himself with Jackson’s Democratic faction.
	On May 14, 1831, a "large number" of Bertie County citizens (including Dr. Mebane)
– members of the Democratic faction – gathered in Windsor seeking to convince John
Branch of Halifax County to become a candidate to represent the district in the next
United States Congress. Branch, former state legislator (1811-1817), former governor
of North Carolina (1817-1820) and former United States Senator (1823-1829), had
resigned as Secretary of the Navy in Pres. Andrew Jackson’s Cabinet only two days
prior. Branch’s resignation was precipitated by a widely publicized scandal,
commonly known as the "Petticoat Affair," among the Cabinet members and their wives
in the Jackson Administration. The attendees appointed select individuals, including
Dr. Mebane, who addressed correspondence to Branch in which they solicited his
candidacy. Branch responded on May 31 conveying that he would become a candidate. He
won the district’s election in August and represented the state’s Second
Congressional District (comprised of Bertie, Hertford, Martin, and Northampton
counties) in the Twenty-second Congress which convened December 5, 1831.#
	Bertie County citizens overall approved of Dr. Mebane’s conduct and performance as
a member of the state’s legislature and re-elected him to the House of Commons for
the Assembly of 1830–1831 (November 15, 1830 – January 8, 1831) and elected him to
the state Senate for the Assemblies of 1833–1834 (November 18, 1833 – January 13,
1834), 1834–1835 (November 17, 1834 – January 10, 1835), 1835 (November 16, 1835 –
December 22, 1835) and 1836–1837 (November 21, 1835 – January 23, 1836.) Mebane lost
the senatorial election to William W. Cherry in August 1838.#
	In 1833 (prior to August) Mebane purchased 1,050 acres of land and all associated
structures from James V. Reed. Mebane paid $5,000 for the property which encompassed
a plantation and a fishery. The valuable property became widely known as the
Hermitage. It was situated on the Chowan River about nine miles (via present-day
roadways) south of Colerain.#
	Mebane, an enterprising businessman, undertook large financial schemes. Operating
his fishery on the Chowan River, he was widely hailed as one of the leading
fishermen in the broad waters of the Albemarle country. He successfully implemented
the use of long seine nets to haul tons of herring, shad, and other fish from the
Chowan River. Such nets, upwards to 2,000 yards in length, required six horses and
approximately fifty persons to extract their captured bounty. Prior to the
introduction of seine nets, the springtime catches of fish on their spawning runs up
waterways in eastern North Carolina had been effectuated by means of short float
nets and weirs.# Obviously, Mebane required significant amounts of manual labor for
his evolving business enterprises, including operating his plantation during periods
when the annual fishing business waned at his fishery. He relied on significant
levels of slave labor as evidenced by his increasing slaveholdings during the 1820s
and into the 1840s.
Alexander W. Mebane was involved in a number of financial transactions, directly and
indirectly, with his first cousin and his wife’s half-brother, John A. Sutton. On
November 15, 1834, Bertie County court officials appointed Mebane as administrator
of Dr. John Edward Wood’s estate (Wood was Mebane and Sutton’s uncle). Sutton served
as security for Mebane’s administrator’s bond (in the amount of £1,000), along with
William Moring, a half-brother of Wood, and Mebane and Sutton’s mothers (Mary Wood
and Elizabeth Wood, respectively). In February 1835, Mebane and Sutton jointly
received slaves from John E. Wood’s estate. Mebane, as Sutton’s attorney, acquired
two lots in the town of Windsor from Horatio Hubbell and Frederick W. Hubbell on
August 30, 1835. Mebane served as witness to a number of Sutton’s real estate
transactions in October 1835, November 1837, January 1838, November 1840, and May
1842. Mebane acquired real estate from Sutton in February 1839.#
By 1842 Sutton was experiencing legal and financial difficulties. He was
approximately thirty years old and seemingly had become financially stressed. By
June 1842, Sutton owed $2,000 to Mebane. The next month, Mebane, as Sutton’s agent,
sold a tract of Sutton’s land on the Cashie River to William W. Cherry for $3,000.
The land had belonged to John E. Wood. Various persons sued Sutton in Bertie County
court prompting county justices to order the sheriff to sell certain of Sutton’s
lands and property at public auctions at the courthouse in Windsor. By November 1842
legal actions by several parties against Sutton induced court officials to determine
that Sutton owed $3,250 to the parties and to the court for costs associated with
the suits. During the month, Sheriff Freeman sold several of Sutton’s tracts of land
and a lot in the Town of Windsor at public auctions. Alexander W. Mebane and William
Moring were highest bidders and acquired all of the properties. Other land owned by
Sutton was sold by the sheriff during the month, along with a slave, to further
satisfy legal judgments against him. Alexander Wood Mebane again acquired more of
Sutton’s land holdings at public sales by the sheriff in May 1843 and May 1844.
Sutton died prior to November 13, 1845, when court officials appointed George Wynns
as a "special administrator" for Sutton’s estate to collect monies due from two
judgments against Jesse Bazemore.#
Dr. Mebane remained an active and influential member of the Democratic Party in
Bertie County during the 1830s. In March 1836, "friends" of Pres. Andrew Jackson met
at the courthouse in Windsor primarily to espouse support for Martin Van Buren, the
then-vice president under Jackson and the Democratic Party’s candidate for president
during the election of that year. During the meeting Mebane participated with Thomas
H. Speller, John F. Lee, Lodowick Jenkins, and Joseph Watford in drawing up pro-Van
Buren and pro-Democratic Party resolutions. All of the resolutions were unanimously
adopted by the attendees. Prior to the presidential election in November, Mebane
addressed a circular letter to his Bertie County constituents supporting Van Buren
and, according to a newspaper account, "effectually expos[ing] the
misrepresentations and chicane of the nullifying and federal Whig party." The doctor
called upon all Democrats in Bertie County to vote for Van Buren. Bertie voters
responded favorably providing 442 votes (almost 59 percent) for Van Buren and 312
(41 percent) for Hugh L. White (Whig Party candidate on the ballot in North
Carolina). Van Buren was elected president and carried North Carolina.#
The movement to abolish slavery was well established across the nation by the mid-
to late-1830s. Many of Bertie County’s political leaders – Democrats and Whigs – own
slaves and fervently supported the institution of slavery. The citizens of Bertie
County were eventually moved to publicly express their positions. On Saturday,
January 20, 1838, "one of the largest and most respectable meetings of the people of
this county, ever held, assembled at the Court House in Windsor to take into
consideration the proceedings of the Abolitionists." Dr. Mebane served as chairman
of the meeting during which "Eloquent and impressive speeches were made by Messrs.
William W. Cherry, James Allen, David Outlaw, Lewis Bond, and others." The speakers
were "cool and temperate, but firm and decided" in opposing the abolishment of
slavery.#
	By the summer of 1838 another longstanding national issue – the establishment of a
federal bank – was forefront with the Democratic Party. The party’s constituency
overall opposed a national bank. By late June 1838, the bank issue was of primary
concern to the citizens of Bertie County. However, the contests for Bertie County’s
representatives to the forthcoming General Assembly had not been finalized even
though the statewide election for the Assembly was to be held in August. Bertie
County’s Democrats had selected James Rascoe Rayner and John F. Lee to run for House
of Commons. The Whig candidates were Lewis Bond and William S. Pruden. The Whigs had
selected William W. Cherry to run for state senates. The Democrats, as of June 26,
had not formally selected their candidate although they actively solicited Dr.
Mebane to seek the seat. An unidentified writer to the North Carolina Standard noted
that Mebane had "partially declined" to enter the senatorial quest, but the writer
"trust[ed]" that "the many urgent solicitations" by his friends would induce him to
run. The writer specifically noted that Mebane would oppose the national bank.
During July Dr. Mebane consented to be a candidate for the state senate which
pleased the "People against the Bank." However, a majority of Bertie County voters
favored Cherry (256 votes) to Mebane (226). Rayner and Bond were elected to the
House of Commons.#
	Mebane and Lee’s losses were a "surprise" to certain Bertie County Democrats. One
supporter proclaimed that the election of the Whigs was not a "Whig victory," but
attributed the defeats to "the division in the … ranks" of Bertie County Democrats.
Further, the supporter rationalized that Dr. Mebane had lost the election because he
entered the race at a late date and became very sick prior to the election,
precluding him from attending all but one public meeting during his short campaign.
The supporter refuted "false charges" widely circulating throughout Bertie County
that Mebane "did not wish to be fleeted." Mebane lost the election by only thirty
votes (226) to Cherry’s tally of 256 – a difference of 6.2 percent.#
	The 1840 presidential election pitted President Van Buren against William Henry
Harrison (Whig). Bertie County Democrats, as they had done during the 1836 contest,
supported Van Buren. Early in the campaign – on May 14, 1839 – certain citizens of
the county assembled in Windsor and publicly expressed their approval of the
performance of Van Buren’s administration. James R. Rayner served as chairman and
Dr. Mebane as secretary of the meeting. The attendees desired that the president be
re-elected. Furthermore, they endorsed the candidacy of Rep. Jesse A. Bynum, a
citizen of Halifax County, who was seeking re-election to the Congress of the United
States from North Carolina’s Second Congressional District. Five months later, on
October 11, 1839, Mebane chaired another large pro-Van Buren meeting at the
courthouse in Windsor. Again, on March 17, 1840, Bertie’s Democrats met in Windsor
and appointed Mebane as one of the county’s delegates to forthcoming "conventions"
in Windsor and Britton’s Crossroads (present-day Roxobel). The convention at Windsor
was held on Monday, May 5, 1840. The attending delegates expressed "confidence in
the stern republican principles" of Mebane and unanimously chose him as an elector
for the Van Buren Ticket in the Second Congressional District. Mebane had not
attended the convention but was immediately notified of his selection as elector.
Writing on May 28th to Joseph Watford, Alpheus Lawrence, James L. Webb, and Harman
Eason (officers at the convention) from the Hermitage, his plantation on the Chowan
River, Mebane declined to perform the duties of an elector, stating that he would
have been "much gratified" if the convention had selected another person for the Van
Buren ticket "whose age and weight in character as a politician might have added
more to the strength of the ticket." Further, he noted: "My precarious health, as
well as business obligations, renders it entirely out of my power to any
considerable extent, to take part in the labors of an active contest. And could the
committee representing the views of the convention - if such are their views – yet
make a selection of some individual more competent to carry out their expectations.
I should be much relieved, and still more gratified." Subsequently, Mebane had a
change of position as he indeed served as elector on the Van Buren ticket, referred
to in state newspapers as "The Farmers Electoral Ticket." William Henry Harrison
defeated Van Buren in the presidential election held from late October to early
December 1840. Bertie County citizens voted in the majority (56.3 percent) for
Harrison, as did North Carolinians overall (57.9 percent).#
	Dr. Mebane remained involved in Bertie County and North Carolina politics into the
1840s. Delegates to the North Carolina Democratic Party’s state convention in
January 1842 appointed him to the General Committee of Correspondence. Legislators
elected Mebane as a member of the Council of State in January 1843. Also, delegates
at a Democratic Party convention in Gatesville in May 1843 appointed him, along with
James Rascoe. Rayner, as electors for the party’s presidential and vice-presidential
candidates for the 1844 election. Mebane seemingly did not take as active a role in
that presidential campaign as he had in 1836 and 1840 for Martin Van Buren. (James
K. Polk, Democrat, defeated Henry Clay, Whig, in the 1844 election.)#
	During his lifetime as a resident of Bertie County, Alexander – at times singularly
and on other occasions with his wife, Mary – acquired and sold real estate. Their
transactions totaled hundreds of acres which were predominantly (but not
exclusively) located along Chowan River and in the vicinity of Salmon Creek.#
	Dr. Alexander Wood Mebane died on February 5, 1847 – he was 46 to 47 years of age.
He was buried at his plantation, the Hermitage. In his will dated October 30, 1846,
and proved during the February 1847 term of Bertie County court, he directed that
his entire estate "be kept up and managed" by his executors (John H. Mebane, his
brother, and William Moring) for the benefit of his family so long as the executors
thought it expedient with his wife’s assent. He bequeathed his household items,
furniture, farming implements, livestock and other personal property to his wife.
Also, she was to receive as much of his crops as she desired and an equal share was
to be provided to Alexander and Mary’s children. Further, he directed that his wife,
during her "natural life," was to have use of the land he purchased from Henry
Baines.#
	Documents contained in Dr. Mebane’s estate file reveal that dozens of persons owed
him substantial amounts of money in the form of financial notes and business
accounts. Total debts to Mebane exceeded $14,880 (or approximately $470,000 in
current-day monies). Some of the notes and accounts were described as "good"
totaling $6,503, while significant numbers of others were "doubtful" and "desperate"
amounting to $8,380, or more than 56 percent of the total amount owed to the
estate.#
	Furthermore, Mebane apparently owned a hotel at his death. The executors of his
estate listed numerous articles, including beds, bedsteads, bolsters, pillows,
blankets, tables, desks, wash stands, and other items "in the Hotel." The list
indicates that the facility likely contained twenty guest rooms.# While the location
of the hotel is not revealed in the subject record, most likely it was situated on,
or nearby, Mebane’s Hermitage plantation. The Chowan River would have served as a
convenient avenue for schooners and steamers to transport guests to, and from, his
lodging house.
 	John Hill Wheeler – renown lawyer, diplomat and historian – noted that Dr. Mebane
"was a man of unblemished reputation, faithful to every duty, active and energetic
in every good work and enterprise. These qualities and abilities were duly
appreciated" by the citizens of Bertie County.#

*  *  *  *  *

	Dr. Mebane’s widow, Mary Elizabeth Collins Mebane, married James Rascoe Rayner on
April 2, 1850. James died on September 27, 1852, at the age of 45 years and Mary
died October 29, 1855, at age 50. Son, Julius A. Mebane, died on November 18, 1853 –
he was twenty-one years old. Daughter, Mary Elizabeth Mebane, married John Pool on
December 15, 1857; she died about late summer or early autumn 1891, at age 55. Son,
John Thomas Mebane, served as captain of Company F, Sixty-eighth Regiment North
Carolina Troops (Confederate) from September 23, 1863, until he resigned, June 27,
1864. He married Julia Wheeler on November 27, 1865; he died November 15, 1867, at
age 29. Son, Alexander Wood Mebane Jr., served as a sergeant in Company F,
Sixty-eighth Regiment North Carolina Troops from September 23, 1863, until he was
discharged on June 1, 1864, by reason of physical disability. He died November 30,
1871, at age 30. Son, William Alexander Mebane, served as a private and subsequently
a lieutenant in Company F, Twenty-seventh Regiment North Carolina Troops from May
16, 1861 until June 12, 1865. He was captured at Bristoe Station, Virginia on
October 14, 1863, and confined as a prisoner of war until released on June 12, 1865.
He married Mary Ashburn in February 1852 and Margaret M. Bond on March 15, 1866. He
died January 1878, at age 48.#

NOTES

# 1. John H. Wheeler, Reminiscences and Memoirs of North Carolina and Eminent North
Carolinians (Columbus, Ohio: Columbus Print Works, 1884), #330 (hereafter cited as
Wheeler, Reminiscences and Memoirs); CAROLANA (website), "The American Revolution in
North Carolina, Orange County Militia Regiment (April 22, 1776 – May 9, 1777);
"Orange County Regiment," Wikipedia (website). 
Robert Mebane served as a regimental commander in the North Carolina Line. William
L. Saunders, ed., The Colonial Records of North Carolina, 10 vols. (Raleigh: State
of North Carolina, 1886–1890), 16:1113 (hereafter cited as Saunders, Colonial
Records). No other of Alexander Mebane’s sons are listed in the North Carolina Line
Roster (volume 16, pages 1002-1197). 
John Mebane, according to his 1833 pension applications, served in several militia
companies during the war, including one unit in which his brother, James Mebane, was
an officer. Southern Campaigns Pension Statements & Rosters (website), Pension
application of John Mebane (transcript). 
James Mebane served as a captain in the Orange County Militia. CAROLANA, "Orange
County Militia Regiment;" Pension application of John Mebane. 
William Mebane served as a militia captain. Wheeler, Reminiscences and Memoirs,
330.
Alexander Mebane Jr. served as an Orange County justice of the peace during wartime.
Saunders, Colonial Records, 23:995.
David Mebane, the youngest son, was not old enough to be of much service in the war,
but did participate in two campaigns. Wheeler, Reminiscences and Memoirs, 332. 
 
#  Wheeler, Reminiscences and Memoirs, 331; "Hillsborough Convention," Wikipedia
(website); Thomas E. Baker, "Mebane, Alexander," NCPedia (website).

#  "William Mebane & Mary Wood," Sally’s Family Place (website by Sally Moore
Koestler) (hereafter cited as Sally’s Family Place); Mebane-Nuckolls House History
(Tennessee) (website); William Mebane’s will (G-150), Orange County. 

#  Wheeler, Reminiscences and Memoirs, 331.

#  "William Mebane & Mary Wood," Sally’s Family Place; "Descendants of Joshua
Freeman" (website); William Sutton guardian bond for Mary Howe, November 14, 18—
[full date not recorded in the document], John E. Wood, guardian bond for Mary Howe,
Mary 17, 1816, Thomas Howe’s estate file, Bertie County Estate Files, North Carolina
Estate Files, 1663-1979, North Carolina State Archives, available digitally at
Family Search, familysearch.org (website) (estate files hereafter cited by the name
of the deceased individual); Inventory and record of sale, December 15, 1819,
Elizabeth Sutton’s estate file; Mary Howe’s will, Bertie County will F-265, Office
of the Bertie County Clerk of Court. Various documents in the estate files of Thomas
Howe, William Sutton, and Elizabeth Sutton indicate their approximate dates of
death.

#  Bills of sale recorded in Bertie County land records (i.e. deed books): BB-484
(two transactions), BB-537, BB-620, BB-621, BB-623, BB-625, CC-36, CC-684, CC-714,
EE-175, EE-318, GG-133; Fifth Census of the United States, 1830, Bertie County
population schedule; Sixth Census of the United States, 1840, Bertie County
population schedule; List of Negroes [1847], Alexander W. Mebane’s estate file.
There is no assurance that all of Mebane’s slave transactions were recorded in the
Bertie County land records since individuals who consummated such transactions were
responsible for presenting resulting documents to the county court which were to be
verified and recorded by the Register in the land records.

#  Bertie County deeds BB-391, CC-570.

#  Administrator bond (Cullen Capeehart), August, 13, 1821, Petition to Bertie
County court, May 1825, by Alexander W. Mebane and Mary Mebane, Sally Freeman
Sutton’s estate file.

#  The author surmises that the Mebane’s first child’s full name was John Edward
Wood Mebane, named after Dr. John Edward Wood, uncle to both Alexander and Mary.
John Edward Wood died in Bertie County in 1834.

#  "Democratic-Republican Party," Wikipedia (website); David A. Norris, "Whig
Party," NCPedia (website). 

#  North Carolina Free Press, May 24, June 7, 1831; "John Branch," Wikipedia
(website); Secretaries of the Navy, www.navy.mil (website); "Petticoat Affair,"
Wikipedia; John L. Cheney Jr., North Carolina Government: 1585-1979 (Raleigh: North
Carolina Department of the Secretary of State, 1981), 678 (hereafter cited as
Cheney, North Carolina Government).
The "Petticoat Affair" (also known as the "Eaton Affair"), was a scandal involving
members of Pres. Andrew Jackson's Cabinet and their wives, from 1829 to 1831. Led by
Floride Calhoun, wife of Vice President John C. Calhoun, these women – dubbed the
"Petticoats" – socially ostracized then–Secretary of War John Eaton and his wife,
Peggy, over disapproval of the circumstances surrounding the Eatons’ marriage, which
they deemed as her failure to meet the "moral standards of a Cabinet Wife." The
affair rattled the entire Jackson Administration, and inevitably led to the
resignation of all but one Cabinet member.

#  John W. Moore, History of North Carolina, Volume II (Raleigh: Alfred Williams &
Co., Publishers, 1880),16 (hereafter cited as Moore, History of North Carolina);
Cheney, North Carolina Government, 293, 295, 300, 301, 303, 305.

#  Bertie County deed DD-70. The complete date of the transaction was not noted in
the deed which was proved in Bertie County court during the August 1833 session.
#  Moore, History of North Carolina, 17.

#  Administrator bond (Alexander W. Mebane), November 15, 1834, Division of Negroes,
February 1835, John E. Wood’s estate file; Bertie County deeds DD-316, DD-342,
DD-614, EE-603, FF-153, FF-417. Wood’s middle name is variously recorded in records
as "Edward" and "Edwards."

#  Bertie County deeds EE-109, FF-520, FF-530, FF-541, FF-542, GG-32, GG-34, GG-99,
GG-132, GG-133; Administrator bond (George Wynns), November 13, 1845, John A.
Sutton’s estate file.

#  North Carolina Standard, April 7, November 10, 1836; Cheney, North Carolina
Government, 1328-1329.

#  Persons attending the meeting (in addition to Dr. Mebane) included Lorenzo S.
Webb, Col. Joseph B. G. Roulhac, Dr. John R. Gilliam, Jonathan S. Tayloe, Willie J.
Gilliam, George J. Outlaw, Lewis Bond, N. H. Thompson, William Moring, John Hardy,
David Ryan, James V. Reed, Solomon Cherry, Thomas Riddick, John D. Williams, Henry
Nicholls, Miles Bailey, James Rascoe Rayner, Jonathan R. Webb. George W. Capehart,
Harry Rayner, Aaron Askew, Thomas Henry, John Freeman, Marcus C. Ryan, Thomas Bond.
George. Hollev, Alpheus Lawrence, Thomas C. Watson, Dr. John W. Bond, John. A.
Sutton. Joseph B. Cherry, Perry Tyler, William Britton, John. G. Roulhac, Thomas
Gilliam, George O. Askew, John. Askew. Joseph Leary, Richard P. Freeman, David
Holley, Thomas O. Nichols, John W. Peterson, E. Watson, James Gill, Edmond Dunstan,
James L. Webb, and W. L. Valentine. North Carolina Standard, February 7, 1838.

#  North Carolina Standard, July 11, 25, August 22, 1838

#  North Carolina Standard, August 22, 1838

#  North Carolina Standard, May 29, November 20, 1839, March 25, June 10, August 8,
1840; Tarboro’ Press, September 12, October 3, November 7, 1840; Cheney, North
Carolina Government, 1328, 1329.

#  Tarboro’ Press, January 29, 1842; Hillsborough Recorder, January 5, 1843; North
Carolina Standard, May 24, 1843. Bertie County citizens narrowly voted in the
majority for Henry Clay. Clay also carried North Carolina. Cheney, North Carolina
Government, 1328-1329.

#  Bertie County deeds DD-130, FF-45, FF-49, FF-76, FF-324, GG-31, GG-39, GG-270,
GG-294, GG-298, GG-416, GG-435.

#  Alexander W. Mebane’s will, Bertie County will G-412.

#  Various lists of financial notes and accounts, Alexander W. Mebane’s estate
file.

#  Articles in the Hotel belonging to the estate of A. W. Mebane (undated),
Alexander W. Mebane’s estate file. The author found no references to a hotel in any
of Mebane’s land records on file in the Office of the Bertie County Register of
Deeds.

#  Wheeler, Reminiscences and Memoirs, 331.

#  "James Rascoe Rayner, Frances Lawrence, & Mary Collins Howe," Sally’s Family
Place; Gerald W. Thomas, "Bertie County’s Confederate Soldiers," unpublished
research paper; Maanarin, Louis H., and Weymouth T. Jordan Jr., comps., North
Carolina Troops, 1861-1865: A Roster (Raleigh: Division of Archives and History,
North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 1965– ), VIII:53.

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