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Our Family
Genealogy Pages
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 1692 - Yes, date unknown
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| Name |
Ann BUNCH |
| Born |
1692 |
Prince George's County, Maryland  |
| Gender |
Female |
| _UID |
8D8CD9A22AE64FBAAA79EC0CF09AD837616E |
| Died |
Yes, date unknown |
| Person ID |
I4713 |
Carney Wehofer Feb 2024 Genealogy |
| Last Modified |
13 Dec 2022 |
| Father |
John, Jr. BUNCH, II, b. 11 May 1666, Henrico, Virginia, British Colonial America , d. 1729, Henrico County, Virginia (Age 62 years) |
| Mother |
Mary Temperance, (Bates), b. Abt 1668, Henrico County, Virginia , d. Yes, date unknown |
| Married |
16 Nov 1691 |
Henrico County, Virginia [1, 2] |
| Family ID |
F8093 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
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| Notes |
- Other Info:
Birth: WFT Est. 1668 - 1691
Birth: 1688, Cohansey, Salem Co., NJ
Death: WFT Est. 1713 - 1779
Marriage: WFT Est. 1685 - 1728
The name "Bunch" is associated with a South Carolina Indian tribe knownas the Brass Ankles. Bunches can also be found in Ashe, Bertie, Chowanand Wilks Counties, NC. There is a definite tie to Grayson Co., VA andpossible ties to Henry, Botetourt and Orange, VA. Hancock Co., TN isconsidered the "home" of the Melungeons as that is where the most famousones lived. We have ties there through Benjamin and Rachel Bunch. Hancockwas split off of Hawkins County where Paul, Lambert, Joseph and JohnBunch lived.
Who are the Melungeons?
The Melungeons are a multi-ethnic people who were first documented in theAppalachian Mountains at the end of the 18th century. Since that time, they have become a part of Appalachian folklore - "sons and daughters of the legend."
Recent research has suggested a possible Mediterranean or Middle Eastern link in the Melungeons' ancestry in addition to their Indian and / orblack ancestry. They often faced discrimination, both legal and social, and tended to settle in isolated communities such as Newman's Ridge inHancock Co., TN. The Vardy Community is at the foot of Newman's Ridge.The community was named after Vardemon Collins, one of the first recordedMelungeon inhabitants, and was first settled around 1780.
We are related to Vardy Collins, through his son, Simeon, who marriedFrankie Bunch, daughter of Benjamin. Although dark skinned for the mostpart, Melungeons have also been fair skinned with red or blonde hair.This difference in coloration could appear in one family with some siblings dark and others light. This caused all sorts of problems when the census takers came around. Many did not know how to record the race of the Melungeons. In one census, a person could be listed as "mulatto"and in the next as "white."
Where are they from?
Depending on the family surname, their roots can be in South or NorthCarolina, Virginia and Tennessee. Since this site deals with the Bunchline, I will only list the places associated with the Bunch surname. Thename "Bunch" is associated with a South Carolina Indian tribe known asthe Brass Ankles. Bunches can also be found in Ashe, Bertie, Chowan andWilks Counties, NC. There is a definite tie to Grayson Co., VA andpossible ties to Henry, Botetourt and Orange, VA. Hancock Co., TN isconsidered the "home" of the Melungeons as that is where the most famousones lived. We have ties there through Benjamin and Rachel Bunch. Hancockwas split off of Hawkins County where Paul, Lambert, Joseph and JohnBunch lived.
Documentation / Sources
There are some extremely interesting references to our Bunches in thewritings of early Tennesseans. In a Plecker letter, an extract from thewritings of Capt. Jarvis states that he personally knew both Paul andBenjamin Bunch and refers to them as early Melungeon settlers in HawkinsCounty. He adds that the Bunches came with early white settlers fromVirginia which is what I find through the early tax records for GraysonCo., VA. They are listed there with several other Bunch families untilabout 1825. Then they are listed in the 1830 census for Hawkins Countywhich suggests they all moved together. Jarvis expanded on thisinformation in an article he wrote in 1903.
Micager Bunch, a mulatto, shows up on the 1771 tax record for BotecourtCo., VA from which Grayson County was later formed. A later noteindicates that he went on to Indian lands (probably Kentucky). He wasalso listed on the 1790 voter's list for Hawkins Co., TN. It is verylikely that he is the same Micager Bunch, mulatto, who was on the 1755tax lists in Orange Co., NC. This shows a definite western migrationmatching that of the other Melungeon families of Hancock Co., TN.
Taken from the Hancock County Times, Sneedville, TN, 4/17/1903
"Much has been said and written about the inhabitants of Newman's Ridgeand Blackwater in Hancock Co., TN. They have been derisively dubbed withthe name "Melungeon" by the local white people who have lived here withthem. It is not a traditional name or tribe of Indians. Some have saidthese people were here when this country was first explored by the whitepeople, and others that they are a lost tribe of the Indians and have nodate of their existence here, traditionally or otherwise. All thishowever, is erroneous and cannot be sustained.
These people, not any of them were here at the time the first whitehunting party came from Virginia and North Carolina in the year 1761 thenoted Daniel Boone was at the head of one of these hunting parties andwent through Cumberland Gap. Wallen was at the head of another party fromCumberland Co., VA, and named Cumberland Mountain for his home county andcalled the river beyond North Cumberland Wallen's Ridge and Wallen'sCreek for himself. In fact, these hunting parties gave all the historicnames to the mountain ridges and valleys and streams, and these names arenow historical names. Wallen pitched his first camp on Wallen's Creeknear Hunter's Gap in Powell's Mountain, now Lee Co., VA.
Here they found the name of Ambrose Powell carved in the bark of a beechtree, from this name they named the mountain, river and valley forPowell; Newman's Ridge was named for a man of the party called Newman;Clinch River and Clinch Valley these names came at the expense of anIrishman of the party n crossing the Clinch River, he fell off the raftthey were crossing on, and cried aloud for his companions to "clinch me,""clinch me," and from this incident the name has become a historic name.
About the time the first white settlement west of the Blue Ridge was madeat Watauga River in Carter Co., TN, another white party was then workingthe lead mines in part of Virginia west of the Blue Ridge. In the year1762 these hunters returned, coming through Elk Garden, now Russell Co.,VA. They then headed down a valley north of Clinch River and named itHunter's Valley, and it goes by this name today. These hunters pitchedtheir tent near Hunter's Gap in Powell's Mountain, 19 miles fromRogersville, TN on the Jonesville, VA road. Some of the party of hunterswent on down the country to where Sneedville, Hancock County, now standsand hunted there during that season. Bears were plentiful here and theykilled many, their clothing became greasy, and near the camp a projectingrock on which they would lie down and drink, and the rock became verygreasy, and they called it greasy rock, and named the creek Greasy RockCreek, a name by which it has been ever since, and here is the very placewhere these Melungeons settled, long after this, on Newman's Ridge andBlackwater. Vardy Collins, Shepherd Gipson, Benjamin Collins, SolomonCollins, Paul Bunch and the Goodmans, chiefs and the rest of them settledhere about the year 1804, possibly about the year 1795, but all these menabove named, who were called Melungeons, obtained land grants andmuniments of title to the land they settled on, and they were the veryfirst and came here simultaneous with the white people not earlier than1795. They then had lost their language and spoke the English very well.They originally were the friendly Indians who came with the whites asthey moved west. They came from the Cumberland County and New River, VAstopping at various points west of the Blue Ridge. Some of them stoppedon Stony Creek, Scott County, VA where Stony Creek runs into ClinchRiver.
The white emigrants with the friendly Indians erected a fort on the bankof the river and called it "Fort Blackmore," and here yet many of thesefriendly "Indians" lived in the mountains of Stony Creek, but they havemarried among the whites until the race has almost become extinct. A fewof the half-bloods may be found one darker but they still retain the nameof Collins, and Gibson, etc. From here they came on to Newman's Ridge andBlackwater, and many of them are here yet; but the amalgamations of thewhites and the Indians has about washed the red tawny from theirappearance, the white faces predominating, so now you scarcely find oneof the original Indians; a few half-bloods and quarter-bloods balancewhite or past the third generation. The old pure-bloods were finerfeatured straight and erect in form, more so than the whites, and whenmixed with whites, make beautiful women, and the men very fair lookingmen. These Indians came to Newman's Ridge and Blackwater. Some of themwent into the war of 1812-14 whose names are here given: James Collins,John Bolin and Mike Bolin, and some others not remembered; those whoquite full blooded. These were like the white people; there were good andbad among them, but the great majority were upright, good citizens, andaccumulated good property, and many of them are among our best propertyowners and as good citizens as Hancock Co., TN affords. Their word istheir bond and most of them are as true to their promise as the magneticneedle to the North pole. The first ones of them that ever came toHancock Co., TN, then to Hawkins County and Claiborne, are wellremembered by some of the present generation here now, and they have leftrecords to show these facts. They all came here simultaneously with thewhites from the State of Virginia between the years 1795 and 1812, andabout this there is no mistake, except in the dates these Indians camehere from Stony Creek. - - M. Jarvis
WHO ARE THE MELUNGEONS?
The Melungeons are most likely the descendants of the late 16th centuryPortuguese and Turks stranded on the Carolina shores when the settlementof Santa Elena, SC was abandoned by the Spanish. They later intermarriedwith the Powhatan, Pamunkey, Chickahominy and Catawba Indians.
After being abandoned in the outlying Spanish forts, they settled in theAppalachians and further intermarried with the Chreokees and much laterwith the northern European settlers; primarily the Scotch-Irish, becomingpart of the American Melting Pot. The word Melungeon is both Portuguese,meaning "white person" and Turkish, meaning "cursed soul."
The following surnames are considered to be of Melungeon descent
Adams, Adkins, Allen, Allmond, Ashworth, Barker, Barnes, Bass, Beckler,Bedgood, Bell, Bennett, Berry, Beverly, Biggs, Bolen / Bowlen / Bolling /Bowling, Boone, Bowman, Badby, Branham, Braveboy, Briger / Bridger,Brogan, Brooks, Brown, Bunch, Butler, Butters, Bullion, Burton, Buxton,Byrd, Campell, Carrico, Carter, Casteel, Caudill, Chapman, Chavis, Clark,Cloud, Coal / Cole / Coles, Coffey, Coleman, Colley, Collier / Colyer,Collins, Collinsworth, Cook(e), Cooper, Cotman, Counts, Cox / Coxe,Criel, Croston, Crow, Cumba / Cumbo / Cumbow, Curry, Custalow, Dalton,Dare, Davis, Denham, Dennis, Dial, Dorton, Doyle, Driggers, Dye, Dyess,Ely, Epps, Evans, Fields, Freeman, French, Gann, Garland, Gibbs, Gibson /Gipson, Goins / Goings, Gorvens, Gowan / Gowen, Graham, Green(e), Gwinn,Hall, Hammon, Harmon, Harris, Harvie / Harvey, Hawkes, Hendricks /Hendrix, Hill, Hillman, Hogge, Holmes, Hopkins, Howe, Hyatt, Jackson,James, Johnson, Jones, Keith, Kennedy, Kiser, Langston, Lasie, Lawson,Locklear, Lopes, Lowry, Lucas, Maddox, Maggard, Major, Male / Mayle,Maloney, Marsh, Martin, Miles, Minard, Miner / Minor, Mizer, Moore,Morley, Mullins, Mursh, Nash, Nelson, Newman, Niccans, Nichols, Noel,Norris, Orr, Osborn / Osborne, Oxendine, Page, Paine, Patterson, Perkins,Perry, Phelps, Phipps, Pinder, Polly, Powell, Powers, Pritchard, Pruitt,Ramey, Rasnick, Reaves / Reeves, Revels, Richardson, Roberson / Robertson/ Robinson, Russell, Sammons, Sampson, Sawyer, Scott, Sexton, Shavis,Shepherd / Shephard, Short, Sizemore, Smiling, Smith, Stallard, Stanley,Steel, Stevens, Stewart, Strother, Sweat / Swett, Swindall, Tally,Taylor, Thompson, Tolliver, Tuppance, Turner, Vanover, Vicars / Viccars /Vickers, Ware, Watts, Weaver, White, Whited, Wilkins, Williams,Williamson, Willis, Wisby, Wise, Wood, Wright, Wyatt, Wynn
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| Sources |
- [S86] GEDCOM File : sovelenko.ged, MJS.
- [S88] GEDCOM File : ~AT4142.ged.
- [SAuth] Jim Carney, compiled by James H Carney [(E-ADDRESS), & MAILING ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE], Buderim, Queensland 4556 AUSTRALIA.
- [S87] GEDCOM File : mhendrix.ged.
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