Elizabeth Branch Underhill Green, Edenton Tea Party 1774
Elizabeth ( born 1736) was the daughter of William Branch Jr. of Edenton NC (1698-1745). She was a member of the Edenton Ladies Patriotic Guild of 1773 that met with Penelope Barker at Elizabeth King’s house. She was already a known woman in Edenton when as a young widow she fought for her first husband’s estate. Her family had a prominent tradition in carpentry, so it was no surprise that she married a prominent carpenter, house builder, John Green.
Elizabeth Branch of 1736
Elizabeth was one of many women named Elizabeth Branch in the early colonial period of Edenton, Chowan County, North Carolina. This Elizabeth Branch was the granddaughter of William Branch Sr., master carpenter, who died in 1721. When if you examine the circumstances, Elizabeth’s father, William Branch Jr. was one of the first members of the Branch family born within the North Carolina colony.
And, this Elizabeth Branch was the great granddaughter of George Branch, Jr. immigrant from Isle of Wight, Virginia, to the Albemarle region in 1694. Elizabeth’s grandfather was William Branch Sr., carpenter and tavern owner, and her grandmother was Margaret Branch Arkill of Edenton.
Steeped in Defiance and Court Proceedings
It is instructive to examine influences on Elizabeth’s character and experience. Normally this is difficult to ascertain in the colonial period with records few and far between. However in Elizabeth’s case, she may have had many examples to stand up for justice just as she would with the Edenton Tea Party gathering in their protest against Great Britain.
At a young age, Elizabeth Branch had witnessed a fair amount of legal proceedings. Her father, William Branch, Jr. (1698-1745), died when she was only 8 and her brother, Francis, was only 1. Their mother, Elizabeth Howcott Branch (1712-1747), quickly remarried. Then tragically, the mother died just two years later leaving her with a stepfather at age 11. After Elizabeth Branch’s mother, also named Elizabeth Branch, died in 1747, stepfather Robert Kingham automatically became the guardian of Elizabeth and brother, Francis. Apparently, her relatives were concerned about the care she and her brother were receiving and the administration of the estate left for their care. In 1745, Robert Kingham had sold land to Joanna Palmer, likely land belonging to the children. Shortly thereafter in 1749, Kingham was accused in court of squandering the children’s estate by William Branch Jr.’s stepfather, William Arkill, and William’s brother-in-law (their uncle) Humphrey Robinson. We are uncertain of the ruling, but Elizabeth and Francis it seems remained in the care of Robert Kingham.
Grandparents and Robert Kingham
In 1751, William Arkill, was still alive and married to their grandmother, Margaret Branch, at likely at about age 70 or so. The elderly couple petitioned the court for guardianship of Elizabeth Branch, age15, and Francis Branch, a boy aged 7.
In 1752, Robert Kingham again sold land to John Masanger and presumbably this land belonged to the Branch children. We don’t know if the two children were placed in anyone else’s care until Elizabeth comes of afe. Nonetheless, in 1755, Elizabeth marries at the age of about 19. We are not sure where brother Francis is but hopefully he, at age 11, would be with his sister.
Elizabeth Raised to seek justice.
And perhaps defiance runs in the family because Elizabeth’s grandmother, Margaret Branch, pursued creditors in the Chowan court when her grandfather, William Branch Sr., died prematurely in 1721. In addition, in the early years of the colony, William Branch Sr had hosted the early Chowan court at his tavern/house near the courthouse green and waterfront. That period was from 1709 to 1729. Perhaps when that pub was still in operation, and the Chowan court operated there, the Branch family absorbed some of those legal leanings and passed on that knowledge to young Elizabeth.
The boy, Francis (1744 birth) was not heard from very much in the publlc records so we know very little about his fate. There are two 1767 Deeds from Francis Branch to John Baines or Barnes in Chowan concerning land. Frances Branch was then around the age of 23 and may have been preparing to move elsewhere.
Who were the other Branch descendants related to Elizabeth Branch in the Edenton NC area?
The Branch Family in 1755 Edenton
After the court actions of 1749 and 1751, the children’s immediate family and defenders died. Humphrey Robinson dies in 1752 and William Arkill dies in 1754. This is an informal list of the children of William Branch Sr. and Margaret Branch Arkill that are aunts, uncles, and cousins of Elizabeth and Frances as of 1755 in Chowan or Perquimans County NC:
- William Branch Jr. (1698-1745) dead, wife Elizabeth Howcutt dead as well.
- Elizabeth Branch Robinson (1700-1762) m. to Humphrey Robinson. Aunt. (Humphrey Robinson, uncle, (1690-1752) has now died. They had no sons. Daughters were Elizabeth Wilkins and Susan Cleland.
- :Issachar Branch (1702-1743) carpenter, dead, Wife was Sarah Steward. Uncle. Three sons -Arkill, Issachar Jr., Job. Issachar was a carpenter. Daughter is Ann Chew
- Solomon Branch: Uncle, unknown fate after 1721 father’s death. He was perhaps dead.
- Martha Branch: Aunt, unknown fate.
- Cousins (daughters of uncle Francis Branch / Ann Wheatley), married adults in Chowan and Perquimans area: Mary Jordan, Ann McGuire, Eliz. Thigpen, Sarah Donovan Lewis.
Elizabeth Branch Underhill married in 1755
April 9, 1755 at age 21 and still in Edenton, NC, Elizabeth Branch married Edward Underhill (1730-1758). Underhill, said to be a native of New York, was an attorney in the young town of Edenton. Three years later, at only age 28, Edward dies in the year 1758. Elizabeth appoints herself as an attorney in the Chowan Court to recover debts due to her late husband’s estate. In 1758 Chowan court records, Elizabeth Underhill is identified as being administrator of the Edward Underhill estate. It takes some years to pursue Edward’s debts in the North Carolina court system of the time.
Elizabeth Branch Underhill Green married in 1758
Later that same year, 1758, Elizabeth Branch Underhill marries master carpenter John Green (1707-1774). In 1759, Elizabeth gives birth to a daughter, Ann Green, and two years later, a second daughter, Sarah Green. Both these sisters marry brothers in the Luten family. Ann Green marries Henderson Luten and Sarah Green marries James Luten.
A beautiful plantation was owned by John Green and Elizabeth. Sycamore Hill, 11 miles east of Edenton, still stands today and was said to be built by John Green around 1760. They also had a house within the town of Edenton.
Lacking a marriage certificate is not usual in this period of NC. Evidence of a second marriage came within a court document. In 1764, six years after Elizabeth became a widow, John Green is cited in court actions when the court is summoning “Elizabeth, his wife, and administrator of the Edward Underhill” estate. (North Carolina, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1665-1998.) She is summoning also “Richard Smith” on a debt action in the Chowan Court.
Elizabeth visits Penelope Barker with some friends 1774
In 1774, Penelope Barker hosts an event for 51 local women that became known as the Edenton Tea Party. Elizabeth Green was there.supporting the American cause against “taxation without representation.”
Elizabeth Green in Will of Mary McConnell 1779
We aren’t sure who Mary McConnell is but this will has Elizabeth and her husband, John Green, as well as Sarah Branch. This is likely a sister or sister-in-law of Elizabeth.
McConnell, Mary, Edenton, August 28, 1779. Son James, Elizabeth Green, Sarah Branch, Deborah McConnel, Wm. Arkill, John Green and Jacob Branch; Test, Sarah Branch, Elizabeth Green, William McDonald. [Source: NC Historical and Genealogical Register; VOL. II. Publ. JANUARY, 1901. No. 1.; Edited by James Robert Bent Hathaway]
Sycamore Hill and John Green, Master Carpenter, of Chowan
The best narrative on John Green was found on the NCSU North Carolina Architects and Builders website. The narrative was authored by Elizabeth Vann Moore, Catherine W. Bishir.
https://ncarchitects.lib.ncsu.edu/people/P000514
John Green (fl. 1760s-1780s) was a house carpenter and joiner active in 18th-century Edenton, especially during the 1760s and early 1770s when several important buildings were constructed or completed in the venerable port town. He was variously identified in deeds as a carpenter and as a house carpenter and joiner, indicating that he could erect frame buildings and do the joiner’s work of making and installing paneling and other finish and likely producing cabinets and other types of “joined” furniture.
Green was probably the son of planter Richard (d. 1742) and Else Green of Chowan County (the northern portion that later became Gates County). He had four or five brothers, Thomas, Jacob, Leonard, William, and possibly Richard. Some of his brothers went to Edgecombe County, while John moved to Edenton. Becoming part of an extended artisan family connection, Green married Elizabeth Branch Underhill (the daughter of William and Elizabeth Branch and the widow of Edward Underhill [d. 1757].
John and Elizabeth Green had two daughters: Anne, who married Henderson Luten, and Sarah, who married James Luten. The Luten family, to which Elizabeth Green was already connected by her sisters’ marriages comprised several artisans including Edenton house carpenter William Luten.
John Green owned substantial property in and near Edenton, including several town lots by the mid-1760s and a house in town which he occupied from 1779 to 1781 and sold to his son-in-law James Luten. By 1777 he owned a 940-acre plantation in Chowan County, known as Sycamore, and he had at least three slaves. He also operated an inn at his Edenton residence, where he was licensed to keep an “ordinary” in 1768 and 1769, and he was cited as an innkeeper in his will written in 1779. As a respected citizen, he frequently served as a witness, surety, or executor for others. During the American Revolution, Green, like several other Edentonians, took an active role in the patriot cause. He served in 1775 on the Edenton Committee of Safety, and in 1776 he was one of four commissioners at Edenton appointed to by military stores and other goods for Continental troops. His wife may have been the Elizabeth Green who signed the famous “Edenton Tea Party” resolution in 1774; there were several local women by this name, but she was among the most prominent. Green took numerous apprentices to his trade over the years. He took John Mitchiner to learn the carpenter’s trade in 1763, Nehemiah Bateman and Cornelius Leary to the house carpenter’s trade in 1767, and a tax list of 1774 showed two apprentices, Harvey Vandewater and Art Elberson, living in his household.
Although Green was doubtless involved in many construction projects during his long career, few have been documented, chiefly small tasks on public buildings. In April, 1764, for example, he was ordered by the court to repair “the Bar of the Court House [the old Chowan County Courthouse], put up proper benches, and mend and put up door before next Court.” For this work, he and one James Palmer submitted a bill of £15, 7 shillings, 4 pence. Court records indicate that in 1764 Green built a house measuring 36 by 18 feet on lots 28-29 for James Luten, and also in the mid-1760s he built two other houses measuring 20 by 15 feet and 25 by 15 feet, on lots 95 and 96 respectively, for Joseph Hewes. Whether elements of any of these survive within existing houses is unknown.
For Edenton’s principal colonial building, the Chowan County Courthouse built in the late 1760s, the names of the workmen remain a mystery, though it is likely such a large project involved several local artisans. An advertisement in the Virginia Gazette of June 4, 1767, sought bidders for building “a brick Court-House 68 ft. by 45.” In 1770 when the courthouse was nearly complete, Green and Edenton house carpenter and joiner Gilbert Leigh were paid 15 pounds, 5 shillings, 1 pence for making “bookpresses” (bookshelves) and other items for the clerk’s office, but it is not known whether Green was involved in earlier work on the courthouse.
Indicative of his status in town, at the colonial brick edifice of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Edenton, which had been abuilding since the 1730s, in 1774 John Green accomplished the joinery work of putting up the pulpit (since lost), for which he was paid 5 pounds, 4 shillings. Further work by Green remains to be found.
Authors: 2011 Elizabeth Vann Moore, Catherine W. Bishir.
