Bucklesberry, Back in the Day: Early Settlers–The Herrings (Part 2)
Dr. Joe Sutton
Hailing from Bertie County, N.C., the Herrings were among the first early settlers and landowners of Bucklesberry. Brothers Abraham, John, Sr., and Samuel Herring were issued land patents and surveys from 1738 to 1747 that totaled 1,525 acres.
Following the lead of their fathers, second generation Herrings continued to amass land in the Bucklesberry area. Included were John, Jr. and Joshua (proven sons of John Herring, Sr.), Benjamin and Simon (purported sons of John Herring, Sr.), Anthony, Michael, and Stephen (proven sons of Samuel Herring), and Jacob and Joseph (purported sons of Samuel Herring). These Herring descendants are named in twenty-two Bucklesberry area land patents and surveys dated 1738 to 1759, totaling 6,932 acres.
By the mid-1750s, a growing number of Herrings had migrated to, and were living in, the Bucklesberry area of then-Johnston County, which had been created in 1746 from old Craven County. The 1755 Johnston County militia roster proves their presence. Among the 93 listed on the roster were the following seven Herring men: Anthony, Frederick, Jacob, John [Jr.], Joseph, Joshua, and Simon Herring, who served as Captain and Commander.
Prior to the Revolutionary War, the foundational basis of the U.S. Military were militias created in local governments, which enrolled almost all free men who were landowners and residents in the county. To be members of the Johnston County militia in 1755, then, the seven Herring men necessarily were residents of Johnston County by that year, as all had been issued one or more land patents in the Bucklesberry area before 1755, except Frederick and John, Jr. Presumably, they were living with other Herring relatives in Johnston County.
The contribution of the Herrings in the early colonization of Bucklesberry is historically significant. Among the first and largest landowners in the unsettled backcountry of North Carolina, their land holdings were vast. By the late 1750s, the first and second generation Herrings had obtained more than 8,000 acres of land in or near Bucklesberry. Their land acquisition outpaced that of the Suttons, also early settlers, whose holdings did not exceed 7,000 acres until a century later in 1850.
Herring descendants remain landowners and residents in Bucklesberry today. Some of the acreage inherited from their ancestors is presently located on the north side of the Neuse River, where Bear Creek empties, between Jenny Lind Road and the aptly named Ben F. Herring Road, south of the town of La Grange. Benjamin Franklin Herring, Sr. (1828-1907) was the twice great-grandson of patriarch John Herring, Sr.
The late genealogist and historian Martha Mewborn Marble (1944-2019) of New Bern, N.C. suggested that the Herrings may have brought over the Bucklesberry name from their motherland of Bertie County, where there was also a community named Bucklesberry. Doubt remains, since the 1720 land grant to John Herring, Sr., the earliest known document which identified a tract of land within close proximity to, if not located squarely in, the Bucklesberry area, fell short of naming Bucklesberry per se. Perhaps John Williams, whose 1738 land grant is the first to explicitly reference Bucklesberry, may eventually prove to be the originator. As with the Herrings and the Suttons, Williams also hailed from coastal Bertie County.
Next month's article will discuss other early settlers of Bucklesberry. Interested readers may enjoy reading a previously published Bucklesberry article titled "Strong Women" available at https://t.ly/CuuwV.
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