James Stallings, John Smith & William Bryan

It appears James Stallings was one of the guys along with Samuel Smith Sr and John Smith Sr to migrate to this area in the late 1730’s. He patented 313A along the river and it appears this is where he built his plantation. In his LW&T “…. I give & bequeath to my son Ezekiel Stallings & his heirs forever all my lands & plantations lying on the south side Neuse River ….”

Ezekiel sold 150A to William Talton in 1794. The 150A was made of from part of the 313A and 300A. (JOCO BK:T1/PG:141) Then in 1797 he sold the remaining land to Everett Pearce. (JOCO BK:W1/PG:188)

Next down the river is three parcels of John Smith. At this point in my research I’ll have to defer on claiming which John Smith owned these lands. There is a daunting task of trying to figure this out and how it all falls in line with John Sr’s death and their migration to Tennessee.

What can be stated with confidence at this point is that the 150A parcel may have been John Smith Sr’s first patent of Craven County. If son John Jr was born about 1724 then it’s safe to assume this parcel belongs to John Sr as John Jr would have been 16 in 1740.

The survey of the 500A parcel shows the relationship of the parcel to the Poplar Branch. Examining this document helped plot the lands to the north of this 500A parcel.

Here is the patent for the 390A parcel.

Then to the west of John is William Bryan. As with John, there is a large web of documents on the Bryan’s and I’m not quite ready to tackle either. But, what we do know is that William married John Smith Sr’s daughter Elizabeth Smith. (SLPB VOL:40/PG:43)