Archelaus Branch of Duplin County, North Carolina, is important because he is the ancestor of many Branch families in the Southern United States. Two documents are key to understanding the family tree of Archelaus Branch: The probate/will of 1819-20 and the marriage certificate of 1785. We are focused on Archelaus because the records of Duplin County have his name appearing multiple times as a reliable Branch member of the community. Kenansville NC court documents have him appearing as a jury member or witness to land transactions. He was apparently a successful family man and farmer. Archelaus (also known as Archibald) Branch was born about 1764 likely in Dobbs County NC died around 1819 in Duplin. Duplin County is a largely rural county south of present day Goldsboro NC and south of the aforementioned land of the ancient Dobbs County.
In 1785 Archelaus married Hepsibeth Weston on March 30 as documented by a marriage certificate in an era when not all marriages are recorded on surviving documents. This is a period right after the Revolutionary War and the death of Archelaus’s father. The witness is Burwell Branch, a Revolutionary War veteran, who in his 1832 pension application states that he was born in Dobbs County NC in 1757. Burwell (also written as Burrell) is presumed to be Archelaus’s older brother. Note that in the 1790 census both Archelaus and Burwell were residents of Duplin.
Other documents for Archelaus include land ownership. January 1, 1794, Archelaus buys or is gifted land of 100 acres in Goshen Swamp by Benjamin Herring. Arch’s son, Rueben, married Anne Herring daughter of Stephen Herring. Then on April 2, 1795 Archelaus and Burwell Branch (brothers) witnesses the marriage of sister Mary Branch to Baker Bowden also of Duplin.
Who was the patriarch of this family and the father of Archelaus?
The likely father of Archelaus and Burwell is Arthur Branch. Arthur (ca 1718 to 1784) moved from Southampton County Virginia to Dobbs County North Carolina about 1755. Ogburn Branch of Southampton was the father three sons: Arthur Branch (Sr.), William Branch, and Moses Branch as documented in his will written in 1776 as the war was starting. The youngest son, Moses survived both his brothers and traveled back to Virginia for Ogburn’s probate in 1785. Arthur Sr. who died in 1784 was a more settled North Carolina resident than his brother Moses. and is thought to have fathered more children than Moses but that is conjecture. Arthur received a pay voucher in the Revolutionary War for provisions provided to the Army. Moses was, however, an active soldier receiving one of his pay vouches in Wilmington; Moses was married to Ann Clark in 1759 in Surry County, Virginia, and later witnesses a document with a wife named Mariah in 1779. Arthur was presumed to be married before 1750 to a first wife and then to Edith (Eydeth) perhaps as his second wife; Edith Branch survived Arthur by over 25 years and wrote her own will in 1808 primarily naming grandchildren.
What does the will of Archelaus Branch tell us?
Archelaus died apparently around the age of around 55 but could be even 8 years older. Branch was born about 1764 likely in Dobbs County NC. By his 1785 marriage, Arch was likely at least age 21. He is therefore speculated to be born by at least 1764 but after 1752. Those age dates jibe with census records on which Archelaus appears in 1790, 1800, and 1810. Specifically in the 1810 census , Archelaus’s birth at 1765 or before made his age older than 45 years of age. However Archelaus was not older than his brother Thomas born around 1751 and Thomas was of legal age 16 in the 1769 census.
The source of the first name of Archelaus is a puzzle as no Branch men previous were named that. It is possible that since many of Arthur Branch’s children were born after he moved to North Carolina in 1755 that the name Archelaus was derived from his wife’s Edith’s family (unknown) or an esteemed neighbor.
Who are the six children of Archelaus and Hepsibeth from the 1819 will?
While others may attribute other people to Archelaus Branch’s family, others must be excluded and this is the definitive list of children. Also note that many men and women in the Branch family from subsequent eras in the 1800’s share these first names:
- Rueben Branch
- Arthur R. Branch
- Archelaus/ Archibald Bryant Branch
- Bryant M (or W) Branch
- “Polly” Mary Branch
- Benjamin C. “Ben” Branch (Jr.).
These six children are presumed to be the only surviving children of Archelaus. Many family trees erroneously connect other Branches to Archelaus without documentation that the 1819 will provides us. One clue going thru the generations is that multiple Branch descendants from this line have both sons named Archie or Archebald, honoring the father, and daughters named Hepsie or Hepsibeth after his mother. Please see post on the Archelaus Branch family for more information on these children and their descendants.
The wife of Archelaus, Hepsibeth Weston was the daughter of Rueben Weston of Duplin and she survived him. It appears that with the exception of Arch Branch Jr. all or most of this Branch family, including Hepsibeth, migrated to the frontier of West Tennessee with a group of Duplin neighbors and extended family members between the 1820’s and 1834. They may have been using the land bounty likely received by several older Branch men from the Revolutionary War service. Some of the migration details are documented in the Jesse Grimes letters of the Texas archives. Jesse Grimes was the brother of Easter Grimes Branch who married Archelaus Branch Jr.
The son of Archelaus, Archelaus Branch Jr., stayed in Duplin County and was a notoriously wealthy landowner partially thru buying land from people immigrating west and partially from his mother’s Grimes inheritance. Like the community, many in his family left North Carolina in a westward migration starting in the 1820’s. The end result is that most of Archelaus Branch’s North Carolina family went on to migrate to the west Tennessee frontier and go on to populate parts of the American South including Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas.
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