MOBLEY

Source:

Fairfield County Genealogy Society 4th Quarter NEWSLETTER                                                                                    Volume 31 Number 4, 36th Year NEWSLETTER 4th Quarter 2020

​

Featured Family Edward Mobley and Descendants Edward Mobley, a large land, and slave owner laid the foundation of the great wealth of his family before the Civil War. He sold his cotton to the O’Neil’s in Columbia, and their old books show that he was the largest cotton producer in the up-country, of his times. He married Mary Mabry. Many tales are told of Edward’s love and courtship. Here is one, most probable in connection with her father’s will and the U. S. Census of 1790. The will names her brothers and sisters and recites that she is single; Mr. Mabry was a Whig and the Mobley’s were Federalists. He opposed the marriage on this account. The match was not consummated until after his death. When Mr. Mabry died, Edward again appeared as a suitor, but the mother said: “I will not hear of it until my year and a day of mourning expires.” Edward went to the brother, Dan, and said: “Dan, I will do anything, if you will either persuade Mary to run away with me, or your mother to give her consent to give her consent of our marriage, at once” Dan replied: “I would not, for anything, allow my sister to run away with you in our mother’s present grief, but I might persuade mother to consent to and early marriage. You say you’ll do anything; will you join our party?” Edward said: “I’ll join your old party and go with you anything to get Mary.” This brother and Mary persuaded the mother, and the marriage took place, quietly, on the 4th day of July 1790. His descendants are the following.

 

Seven Children

1. Dr. Isaiah Mobley b.12-23-1804 d.2-16-1859

2. Ephraim died in youth.

3. Biggers

4. John

5. Edward

6. Samuel Wagner

7. David Mobley

 

Dr. Isaiah Mobley

The subject of this sketch was born in Fairfield County on the 23rd day of December 1804, and the “twilight and evening star” came to him on the 16th day of February 1859. His primary education was obtained in schools, taught by Professors Spence, Hall, and Shirley, He entered Chapel Hill in 1821, where he remained for two years. He matriculated in the South Carolina College in 1823, where he was a member of the Euphratean Society; He graduated with distinction in 1828. In 1829, perceiving the necessity of a knowledge of medicine in prospect to the institution of slavery, he entered the Charleston Medical College and graduated from this institution in 1831. He married Mary Mobley, Oct. 5, 1837. His descendants are the following:

Seven Children

​

1. Catherine McLean married Capt. R. T. Mockbee who did so much for this state in 1876. One daughter survived her, Catherine McLean who married Steven Baxter-children, Mary Wagner, Robert Mockbee, Sara, and James.

​

2. Mary Wagner married Maj. John Woodward Durham Four children survive her: Marion Mobley; Mary Wagner who married Rev. Samuel Hughes they have one child, Harold Durham Hughes.; Elizabeth Wardlaw who married Edgar L. Culler they have four children: John Woodward, Durham, Edgar Leonidas, Oscar Zeigler.; and Dr. Francis M. who married Virginia Cook Cardwell. One son Francis M. Durham.

​

3. Nannie Thompson died young.

 

4. Edward gave up his life for his country on reaching his sixteenth year. Before joining the army, he had gone to school at New Hope and Blackstock, respectively. He is buried at Woodward Church. A beautiful stone marks his grave and this is his epitaph “He died for his country, He was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.”

 

5. Alice Francis Marion married John B. Cornwell, three children survive them: Eleanor Frances; (Nell) Mary Lily; and Kate Mobley. Nell married William Ely Cornwell---Children: William Ely Jr.; Mary Mobley; John Bennett; Marion Durham; Tom Douglas; James Jeter; and Kate Jeter.

 

6. Cicely Narcissa (Lily) married Dr. T. J. H. Douglas -- Instead of praising her, we take her space for the following letter: Editor of The Lantern: “Sometime in April, between the surrender of Lee’s army and that of Gen. Johnston’s, Mrs. Davis with her escort reached our mother’s home, nine miles south of Chester on Ashford Ferry road, and stated that they had spent the night a Woodward Baptist church. Had intended reaching our home the night before, but owing to the condition of the roads, darkness had overtaken them, and they camped at the church. We remember one lady with Mrs. Davis besides a white nurse and the three children. Maggie, Mrs. Davis’ oldest child must have been eight or ten years old; then there was the boy “Little Jeff” and the baby, Winnie, in long dresses. She was placed in our arms by our mother, who told us always to remember our beloved President’s little baby girl. They were served with lunch and then went to the rooms upstairs to rest. Mrs. Davis seemed hurried, not staying more than two or three hours. Our mother put up fresh milk for the baby and flowers for the other children, and we remember our mother’s tearful farewell to Mrs. Davis.” This was signed by Mrs. R. T. Mockbee, Mrs. Alice M. Cornwell and Mrs. L. M. Douglas (Cousin Lilly).

​

7. Susan Lucretia married T. J. Cunningham. They had no children.

​

Biggers Mobley

Biggers married first Narcissa Gilmore Children—Edward Biggers and Mary N., who married James B. Mobley—one child Capt. Fred Mobley (see life of Dr. James B. Mobley) She is buried at Fellowship. Edward B. Mobley, the son, married Corrie Massey, daughter of the great KLu Klux, Dr. Massey. Their children Aline married Gilbert Green; Ladson; Corrie married G. L. White and died within a year without children; Hazel G. is married and lives at Riverside, SC. By the second married of Biggers to the widow Gibson, there was George Mobley who married Kate McCrorey. Their children are mentioned under her life.

 

(4) John Mobley married Mary Young One child Mary married William Dunnovant - two children- John, who married Helen Mobley and has a daughter Helen, and Quay who married a Miss Williams – no children. After the death of Col. Dunnovant, his widow married Col. John L . Agers of Chester –children, Nannie who married Judge Starbuck of Winston-Salem and has children, and a daughter Mamie who married A. M. Aiken of Chester.

 

(5) Edward married Nancy Woodward Hill Children, Nancy who married a Hall and lives in Atlanta. The rest of this family is not obtainable at his time.

 

(6) Samuel Wagner was a colonel of militia. It was at his father’s home that Capt. Clement Mobley, with his family and many kindred, camped the night before the immigration to Kentucky. The caravan consisted of sixty wagons. He first married Mary Cloud. A child died in infancy. He married the second time Martha Wilkes - no children.

 

(7) David Mobley first married Catherine Dixon. On her death, he married the widow Heath, daughter of Osmund Woodward. He left the following children: Edward D.; William D.; Mary; Amelia; Samuel. By the

Heath marriage he left one daughter, Mannie who married a Pendleton.

 

===============================================================

14617 David Mabry Mobley b. 1808 d. 11/03/1866, Chester Co. SC M/ 1 Catherine Elizabeth Dixon, b. 1813 Kershaw Dist., SC d. 3/14/1857, Chester Dist., SC

​

Tombstone

“In memory of Mrs. Catherine Mobley, consort of David Mobley, Who departed

This life March 4, 1857 in the 44 th year of her age,

Eldest daughter of Samuel and Susan Dixon of Kershaw District.

In early life she connected herself with the Woodward Baptist Church

and died in hopes of a glorious immortality”

 

M/ 2 Lucy A. Woodward Heath (dau. Of Osmond Woodward) CHILDREN

​

Not in order

146171 Edward Dixon Mobley b. 10/12/1831 d.7/27/1901

146172 William Dixon Mobley b. 2/11/1841 d. 1/29/1917

146173 David Mabry Mobley Jr. b. 5/1/1839 d.

146174 Mary Estelle Mobley b. 1847 d.1928

146175 Amelia Mobley 146176 Samuel Wagner Mobley b. 1836 d.1908

146178 Mannie Mobley

146171 Edward Dixon Mobley, b. 10/12/1831, d. 7/27/1901.

Buried Elmwood Cem. Birmingham, Alabama

​

M/ 12/6/1854 Mary Roxana Dixon, b. 8/10/1837 d. 6/15/1921 Daughter of Col. Dixon of Kershaw, SC ( He was left 200 acres by will of Edward #1461, to go to his mother if living and he had no children living.

 

146172 William Dixon Mobley, b. 2/11/1841 d. 1/29/1917 M/ Elizabeth Amanda Dixon, b. 4/17/1845 d. 3/6/1917 (He was in 1st Regt. SC Cav. CSA, in Battle of Brandy Station, VA, served 2yrs. Was at the bombardment of Charleston, VA. In Johnston’s army at end of war.)

 

Children Twelve

1461721 Lee Dixon Mobley b. 1863 d.1880 1461722 William Dixon Mobley b. 1866 d.1917

1461723 Eliza Lee Mobley b. 1867 d. unknown

1461724 Samuel Wagner Mobley b. 1869 d. 1880

1461725 Catherine Dixon Mobley b. 1871 d.1946

1461726 Mary Roxana Mobley b.1872 d. unknown 1461727 David Mabry Mobley b. 1876 d. 1950 1461728 Mary Estelle Mobley b. 1879 d. unknown 1461729 Edward Dixon Mobley b. 1881 d. unknown

14617210 Martha Wagner Mobley b. 1884 d. unknown

14617211 Henrietta Mobley b. 1886 d. unknown

14617212 W. D. Mobley b. 1889 d. unknown

============

1461721 Lee Dixon Mobley b. 1863 d.1880 Died at the age of 16

1461722 William Dixon Mobley b.5-13-1866 d. 6-05-1917 M/ Charlotte Drusilla Smith

1461723 Eliza Lee Mobley b. 1867 d. unknown M/ James Wallace

1461724 Samuel Wagner Mobley b. 1869 d. 1880 Died at the age of 11.

1461725 Catherine Dixon Mobley b 5-15-1871 d.02—1946 M / William Beauregard Cardwell

​

Children nine

Catherine

Elizabeth

Henry

Herbert

Lila Lee

Lily Douglas

Mary Estelle

Sue Crawford

William Joseph 

 

1461726 Mary Roxana

1461726 Mary Roxana Mobley b.1872 d. unknown

1461727 David Mabry Mobley b. 1876 d. 1950

1461728 Elizabeth Mobley 1461729 Mary Estelle Mobley b. 1884 married Lewis Dye –child Drayton

14617210 Edward Dixon Mobley b. 1881 d. unknown

14617211 Martha Wagner Mobley b. 1884 married D. P. Dye –child Mary Elizabeth

14617212 Henrietta Mobley b. 1886 married J .W. Sell - child Edward Dixon Sell

===============

146173 David Mabry Mobley Jr. b. 5/1/1839 Chester, d.12/27/1873 M/ 7/18/1861 Minnie Thomas Heath b. 9/5/1846 Fairfield d. 8/--/1864

146174 Mary Estelle Mobley b. 1847 d. 1928 M/ Tillman Lee Dixon Jr. b. 1846 d. 1887 ( son of Tillman Lee Dixon 12/11/1808-11/1851 and Eliza Barnes 2/14/1818-4/29/1851, of Liberty Hill, SC)

146175 Amelia Mobley M/ J. B. Dixon

146176 Samuel Wagner Mobley b. 1836 Fairfield SC d. 1908 Dalzell Dist. SC : Moved to Brazil after civil war returned to SC later. M/ 8/11/1857 Mary Eleanor Kee in York District, SC, b. 3/11/1839 Chester Dist. SC, d. 7/27/1922 Dalzell, SC, Daughter of Cephas Jackson Kee & Hilda Reeves

146178 Mannie Mobley (dau. of Lucy Heath Mobley) M/1 Pendleton M/2 David Woodward ==========

1461727 David Mabry Mobley b. 1876 d. 1950 (Son of William Dixon Mobley & Elizabeth Amanda Dixon) M/ Rebecca (Bess) L. Hicklin b. 3/08/1880 d. 5/2/1926 Bess Mobley was murdered in the last known duel in the State of SC Shot right between the eyes. It was told that two men were fighting over one of her two teenage daughters, she ran between them trying to stop them when one shot she ducked but the bullet hit and killed her. The man who shot her spent ten years in jail.

​

CHILDREN SEVEN

1 James (Jim) Hicklin Mobley b. 9/22/1899 d. (left Chester in the 1930’s to work in Columbia, SC and may have went to Fla. A carpenter by trade, he was never heard from again. Some people think he was murdered in Columbia after being paid for building three houses and his id. was stolen and they buried him in potter’s field.)

​

2 Thomas (Tom) Dixon Mobley b. 9/26/1902 d. 5/11/1958 in Columbia, SC

3 Amanda Elizabeth Mobley b. 12/14/1907 d. 8-01-1973 Moore, NC

4 Susan Amelia (Sudie) Mobley b. 6/21/1909 d. 1992/93?

5 William Dixon (W.D.) Mobley b. 5/15/1912 d. 7/21/1990 Spartanburg, SC. Ran a produce stand.

6 Charles Poag Mobley b. 7/09/1916 Spartanburg, SC. Had a chicken farm and sold eggs.

7 David (Belie) Mobley b.1919 d. 1991 Old soldiers’ home in the up state. Was a cook in the service during WWll

==============

14617271 James Hicklin Mobley b. 9/26/1902 d. 1930’s disappeared M/ 1920 Lena Mae Doster b. 1/20/1904 d. 12/25/1976 Buried in Evergreen Cemetery Chester, SC

 

CHILDREN FIVE

1 Virginia Louise Mobley b. 5/31/1921 d. 6/21/2009

2 Lillian Estelle Mobley b. 7/29/1923 d. 2/3/1997

3 James Hicklin Mobley Jr. b. 12/16/1925 d. 6/4/2016

4 Billy Gene Mobley b. 2/12/1930 d. 11/06/2011

5 Betty Jean Mobley b. 2/12/1930 d. 9/--1930

​

FEATURED FAMILY BOOK

(the following is part of the book)

​

THE MOBLY'S 

and

Their Connections

​

By

William Woodward Dixon

​

BOOK I

EARLY HISTORY

 

To Florence Grace Feaster:

 

As you are descended from Norris, the Secretary of William Penn, and also from the first Moberly in America by his wife Phoebe Lovejoy, kindly permit the dedication of the first book of this family history to you. --the Author.

 

Encouraged by Charles Fox in the year 1680, a new sect had arisen in England styling themselves, FRIENDS, but called in derision by all other religious denominations Quakers. William Penn was one of these, a nobleman who had been four times imprisoned. He petitioned for a grant of land in America with the result that history tells. Connected with the first settlement of Pennsylvania is the love story of the first Moberley, now spelled Mobley, who came to this country and from whom our family is descended. He came directly from England with William Penn. It has been thought for a long time that this Moberley was the son of a baronet. He was descended from a baronet Sir Edward Moberley in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. This Moberley had three sons, one succeeded to the title and Estates and became Sir Edward Moberley. He had one brother who went into the church and became a bishop; the third bought a commission in the English army. His name was William, went to India, amassed a fortune, returned, and bought an estate near Sheffield. His son Edward purchased a large estate in Cheshire and was a country gentleman.

 

WILLIAM MOBLEY I.

 

On one occasion the father, Edward Moberley, was about to go on a trip to London with one of his dependents, Adam Varnadore. He called his son William to superintend the planting of some apple trees in his absence in a certain field during his stay in London. The son objected to the spot in which he was directed to plant the trees, saying the site selected did not suit him, and that the trees should be planted elsewhere. The father insisted and enjoined that the trees be put out as he directed while away. With that, the elder Moberley and the elder Varnadore went on to London. Adam Varnadore had a son Adam, the companion of young William Moberley. Edward Moberley, the father, and Adam Varnadore, the father, returned from London to find the trees set out against the wishes of Mr. Moberley. In concert, both fathers pulled up a scion of the trees with which each whipped his own son soundly. The boys enraged under the lash ran away together. They got into a ship belonging to William Penn, the founder of the colony of Pennsylvania. Onboard Penn's ship was a beautiful girl, Phoebe Lovejoy, a governess of Penn's household. She was a girl of a good family, educated and refined. Phoebe Lovejoy was a Quakeress, and to her must be ascribed the oft-repeated statement, that the Mobley’s have quaker blood in their veins. In talks around the family fireside, down from one generation to another, Phoebe is said to have been a relative of Penn or his wife, and that she was as accomplished as she was fair and beautiful, that she was as good as she was lovely. She and William Moberley loved in secret, and upon reaching America were married without the knowledge of Penn, the Proprietor of the province of Pennsylvania, and of course all-powerful. Fearing his displeasure, not to speak of his anger against young Moberley, they fled to the Indians and concealed themselves among them. This is not strange for the Indians who lived toward Penn and his people in the spirit of their chief's address to the colonists, "we will live in love with Penn and his children as long as the moon and the sun shall shine. That promise was never broken.

 

When William Moberley landed in Pennsylvania, he was 18 years old. After the marriage and uncertain life for two years, he moved to a point in Maryland, near what was called a few years ago, Point Tobacco. He and

his wife settled down in that State and raised eight sons. How many daughters we cannot find out? We cannot ascertain whether there were any daughters at all. When the youngest son was a boy of 6 years and after the death of his wife whom he deeply mourned, William Moberley, stricken with loneliness and sorrow, craved the sight of his father, the old home, and native land. He returned to England, sad of heart and much changed in physical appearance. He had left a beardless youth, he returned a bronzed, hardened pioneer of the New World. So great was the transformation of physique, of manner and expression, that his father not only did not know him but pronounced him an impostor. The matter of his identity the father could not for the moment be brought to believe. He had sought him over a third of a century and as One whom his enfeebled eyes would never behold again. William Moberley with the tales of his childhood, of how he had incurred his father's displeasure, about the apple tree scions, his flogging, his running away with young Adam Varnadore, and at once going to the window and pointing out the orchard and the very spot he was whipped, convinced his father that he, indeed, was his long-absent boy: Whereupon it may be imagined a scene of affection and reconciliation. William Moberley remained but a short time in England and returned to Maryland, died there, and was the first of our Mobley ancestors whose body given to him in the Old World returned to its mother Earth in the New.

​

THE FIRST MOBLEY IN SOUTH CAROLINA

​

Edward Moberley, son of the first Moberley in America, was the first one of that name to come to South Carolina, some of the family now say as early as 1735, but circumstances and contemporaneous events lead one to believe that it was later, more likely between the years 1758 and 1761, for soon after his arrival he and his sons and one Hans Wagner participated in the troubles and war with the Cherokees. The Cherokees went on the warpath, scalped some white settlers, burned their homes, and took Fort Loudon. The second William Bull was then the Royal Lieutenant Governor of the Colony. He got together and mobilized a body of up-country people with rifles and placed them under the command of Thomas Middleton. Francis Marion was among them. A force of British troops was sent under Colonel Grant to assist the up-country people also. The friendship commenced with the Mobley’s and Francis Marion in this war lasted as long as the life of General Francis Marion. The Mobley’s still bear testimony to that friendship in the Christian names of their descendants.

​

The first South Carolina Mobley had married Susannah DE Ruel and of this union were six sons and six daughters, William, Clement, Benjamin, Edward, John, Samuel, Polly, Susannah, Sallie, Elizabeth, Keziah, and Dorcas. We know this much that Clement married Mary Fox, Ben married the widow Hill, Edward, Susannah, Sallie, Elizabeth, and Keziah all married Meadors. Dorcas married Richard Hill and John married Mary Beam. The youngest son of the first South Carolina Moberley was Samuel, who married Mary Wagner daughter of Hans Wagner, and had four sons and eight daughters to live to maturity. Recurring to an incident of early history, it can be substantiated that the Moberly’s came to South Carolina shortly after Braddock's defeat when so many Pennsylvanians, Virginians, and Marylanders settled in the upper part of South Carolina. And it can be said with certitude that when the Patriarch Edward Mobley came, he brought not only his own family but with him were families of his brothers and sisters and their children.

 

On the route, on the banks of the Yadkin River, they admitted into the caravan of travelers Hans Wagner, a Hollander. At the time his family consisted of himself and a number of daughters. He joined the Mobberley’s to immigrate to South Carolina for the better security of his family of daughters, recognizing at the same time that the gentle air of refinement of the Moberley men would be an educative and cultural force upon the lives of his family.

​

It has been assigned as the reason for the Moberley’s leaving Maryland for the Colony of South Carolina, that it grew out on the continual unsettled condition of Maryland politics in respect to property rights, but as no specifications have been given as to just what the older Moberley’s meant by that, we are induced to give an incident that more likely caused the migration. It must be remembered that when William Moberley ran away from his father's home in England, he took with him young Adam Varnadore who married and continued in his capacity as a dependent worker for the Moberley’s. We find the Varnadore’s with the Moberley in Maryland, and they came on to this State with them. They are here now, and some have confirmed in statements to Miss Marion Durham the family tradition of the runaway of the two boys from England to America. The first Edward Moberley it is said left Maryland on account of incidents growing out of a trial in the Courts of that colony. It seems that the Presiding Judge was severe in his rulings and sentence in a case against an indentured to service white man of Edward Mobley's. Either it was a Varnadore or a Varnadore was present, but this is pretty certain, Mr. Moberley treated the Court with contempt, kicked, and otherwise assaulted the Judge in the Court House. This cost him no doubt a good deal, and afterward, as the Judge had his friends and connections in the colony, there ensued from time to time many fights and difficulties about the matter. After the Moberley’s came to South Carolina, being the only Episcopalians in their neighborhood, it is said that whenever religious discussion engendered high feeling in dispute they were taunted with disfigured tales of the reasons why they left Maryland which invariably brought on the lie and a fight.

​

As stated, the first S. Carolina Moberley and his sons and Hans Wagner with the riflemen and British troops went on long marches, engaged the Indians in battle, and put them to flight to a large Indian town. The whites followed them, burned their shacks to ashes. The Cherokee Chief, Attakullakulla (Leaning Chief) asked the whites for peace. Afterward, he went to Charleston and smoked a pipe of peace with Gov. Bull, among an assembly of people in silence.

 

The Moberley’s settled on what is known as Poplar Ridge, the Eastside of Beaver Creek. Hans Wagner and his family of girls, no boys, near Reedy Branch. Past the meridian of life, he was so solicitous of their welfare that he constructed a strong fort of white oak logs, hewn twelve inches square, for their protection, and when there was danger from the Indians, the neighbors would gather there to defend themselves, with Hans Wagner and his girls. By certain means not very creditable to the Hamptons the Moberley’s were fretted about their lands for a long while and moved a few miles from the place of their first location further to the East and built another fort, and near it erected later the Moberley Meeting House which we will refer to later. Hans Wagner stood his ground against whatever potent influence the Hamptons had brought to bear on the Moberley’s and with his girls held the fort until he got his grant confirmed. The Beams, another family were also harassed in the same way by the Hamptons but held their ground.

 

Hans Wagner married five times. One of his wives was a French woman, Marie DeLashmette. She was the mother of our ancestress, Mary Wagner, who married Samuel Mobley. Another wife of Hans Wagner was Elizabeth Johnstone. She was the mother of Nancy Agnes Wagner who married Capt. Andrew McLean whose daughter Katie married John Mobley. Therefore, it may be well to note right here that the descendants of John Mobley and his wife Katie are descended from Hans Wagner through two wives, Marie DeLashmette and Elizabeth Johnstone. The DeLashmette name in this country has been corrupted to DeLashmet, and I have seen it written Lashley in the information furnished me as to the wife of Clement Moberley a son of the first South Carolina Moberley. The first DeLashmette to come to this country, Mr. Wade Brice informed Miss Marion Durham, was the Marquis DeLashmette, that he was a French nobleman, banished from France for political offenses against the Monarchy of Louis XIV., that he owned nearly a principality of land, some on the Yadkin River in North Carolina, that he once owned the lands on which Mr. Brice lived and now owned by his widow, Mrs. Matilda Brice near Woodward, S. C. The deed is on record here at Winnsboro. Some have thought the Marquis moved with other DeLashmette’ to Kentucky, but that is an error. He went from South Carolina to Chickahominy, Mississippi.

​

Andrew McLean

 

The McLean family, of which Captain Andrew McLean was such a distinguished member as a Revolutionary soldier, came to this country from the Isle of Mull, off the coast of Scotland, and settled in South Carolina, finally locating in York County. His family was violent against the mother country and were Whigs to the marrow bone after the Revolutionary war. He was a high degree Mason, a brave soldier, and had exposed himself with such intrepidity in skirmishes and battles that it was said that "there was scarcely an inch on his body that had not received a wound in the defense of his country." In politics after the Peace of Paris and Versailles, he transferred his fighting qualities to the party of Jefferson and Jackson and disinherited his only beloved daughter "Katsy" for marrying into a family who entertained different views of government. Many times, it has been told me, how Uncle John Mobley had to take Katie McLean up behind him and gallop away with her. Captain McLean became a Major of a regiment, was an educated and accomplished gentle-man, and was present when General Francis Marion offered roasted sweet potatoes to a British officer. He fought at Cowpens, and Kings Mountain and was in the engagement along with the Woodward’s and Mays of this county at Eutaw springs.

MILLS Statistics, PAGE 556

​

Edward Mobley from Virginia, with six sons, all with families settled on Beaver Creek, in the vicinity of Wagner's Fort from whom the settlement on the Creek has taken the name of Mobley settlement. There is one circumstance connected with these early settlers that appear extraordinary, which is, that none of the lands were surveyed until 10 years after they were taken up. The first settlers built their log cabins near the margins of Creek or rivers. At the termination of the Cherokee war of 1760, Wilkinson's Creek was the seat of the Welch."

Mills Hist. So. Co. page 556

​

As stated, Samuel, the youngest son of the Patriarch, married Mary (Polly) Wagner. They had four sons. Edward who married Mary (Polly) Mabry, Samuel who married the widow Elizabeth Whitehead (in girlhood a Pickett) Biggars who married a Corbell, and John who married his cousin Catherine (Katie McLean) Uncle John often referred to himself as the youngest son of the youngest son and stated that this enabled him to possess more of the intimate personal history of the family and reach personally farther back than any other member of his family, which was very true. A great part of this history which may not be of record or the result of personal information and investigation comes through him. He was the writer's great, great Uncle with whom in childhood he has been and felt the force of his magnetism and personality. Uncle John said, and has stated in letters to Theodore Mobley of Cleburne, Johnson County Texas and to Zebulon Mobley of Neosho, Mo., that the Moberley’s came from Cheshire England, and Burk's Heraldry of The British Gentry bear out this statement. In a letter of Theodore Mobley to a daughter of Dr. Isaiah Mobley he says among other personal matters: "I have seen many other men who agree with his (John Mobley's) account of the family. Dr. Johnson, a Confederate surgeon, who married Mary Moberley of Baltimore says the Moberley’s came from England and settled in Pennsylvania." "I saw an Englishman; his name was Higginson. He said he knew the Moberley’s in Cheshire England and that they were a fine family. There were 4 Captain Moberley’s from Kentucky, Confederate officers " This letter of Theodore Mobley was dated September 21, 1902.

​

There was current a belief once in the family that the run-a-way boy William was the eldest son and by the law of England had a right to succeed to the estate, but I think from the evidence it should be discredited. The eldest son in England was named Edward. In fact, the proof is the stronger that when William went back to England his older brother was on a visit to the continent and he did not see him.

​

TWO OPINIONS AS TO THE MOBLEY MEETING HOUSE

 

Mr. A. Wash Ladd wrote: "Now where was the Mobley Meeting House? Just where one would naturally think it would be built on a beautiful eminence, near the main Chester road, and on the then Mobley plantation. According to the late Samuel Stevenson and Wyatt Coleman, two men who were very clear in their recol-lection of dates and places, and who were born about 1800, The site of the Meeting House was about 200 yards in front of the old Mobley house, where now stands Capt. Estes' gin house. Dr. Douglas, Capt., Estes and others recollect seeing some of the old red logs at this place This Was the place always pointed to by old men in this neighborhood where the fight between Wade Hampton, McCarley, Blackstock, (from whom Blackstock took its name) and others, and the Tories took place. These old citizens even stated that McCarley was wounded and one tory killed on the steps of the church.

​

Mr. D. R. Feaster mentions Fort Wagener as being on the lands of the late T. D. Feaster and on Beaver creek. I have been told that the fort is on the waters of Reedy Creek and lands belonging to James Turner, formerly owned by Gov. J. H. Means deceased.

​

Excerpt from the letter of J. Feaster Lyles

​

"The Mobley Meeting House was situated in the fields of Fairfield county near where S. S. Bolick and S. T. Clowney now join lands, one-fourth of a mile East of the Means grave-yard. Fort Wagner is located on Beaver Creek, just below where Reedy Creek flows into it. It is a mistake about Mobley's Meeting House being near Pearson's Gin House."

​

The best article in defense of Feaster Lyles' position was written by the late A. S. Douglas, Esq. It may be found among the files of The Fairfield News and Herald in the South Carolina Library where also may be found articles from the pen of Maj. Thomas W. Woodward and Capt. David Roe Feaster. What we are concerned about is the history of the meeting house as a place of worship. The Mobley's built it as an Episcopalian church. They permitted other denominations to use it. It also became a meeting place for Whigs and Royalists in the days of the Revolution. That a battle or skirmish took place here is quite true, that the whole body of Mobley’s has suffered from this fact through reports is true. The name of the battle being that of the Moberly meeting house, the uninformed have written, the gullible have believed and the jaundiced have asserted that the Mobley’s were Tories in the Revolution. We deny it and say it is false. That they were rich people is true. They were slow in their anger against the British troops and the English ministry, but they were mighty in their wrath. That is true. Now, will all descendants from people who fought in the red uniform of a British monarchy and then came over here after it was all over, put up or shut.

​

CHANGE OF NAME

​

Great grandmother Mary Robinson became blind; Mrs. Anne Jane Neal, still living came once to see her. Mrs. Neal was born just a year before the battle of Waterloo and celebrated her 101st birthday on May 14th last. On the particular visit, we are now alluding to the great grandmother who said to her: "The first Mobley that came to South Carolina spelled his name Moberley. He and his oldest son had an idea that they might succeed to property in England and were always careful to spell the name that way, but the neighbors spelled it M-o-b-le-y." Another account is from Miss Marion Durham who handed the author a letter from Zebulon Mobley to her, a part of that letter says: "My uncle John Mobley told me our original name was 'Moberley.' Our forefathers came to this country from England. There is a Moberly Parish in England. And a Bishop Moberley wrote a book called Moberley's Forty Days which I have read. Uncle John Mobley told me that within his recollection his grandfather Edward Moberley went to Maryland to buy slaves and that the relatives in Maryland (Frederick, Md.) took the notion that he was a speculator and deemed the business of selling slaves beneath one of their families and gave to him a cold shoulder and an averted face. That when he returned to South Carolina he called all his relations together and said: "Our relatives did not treat me as we would have treated one of them if he had visited us. In spite of our earnest protests, our neighbor will persist in writing our name "Mobley." I now move we change our name and sign it henceforth as our neighbors write it, Mobley. I am as you know as far above selling slaves as they are. "Most of the family present agreed, a few clung to the old name. I remember the altercation as if it were yesterday. I was a lad present and felt sorry about the fuss and the change in the name." Aunt Nannie Nicholson informs me since the above was written that her grandmother told her that her grandfather Sam said the reason he liked the change was it took too much trouble to write it "Moberley" and of one thing we are certain, he went further than the neighbors did.. He signed his will "Sam Mobly." Again, when his wife died, he chiseled it "Elizabeth Mobly" on her tomb. It is thus on his vault in Fellowship. The now accepted surname is "Mobley".

​

THE FIRST SAMUEL MOBLEY

​

The first Samuel Mobley married Mary, a daughter of Hans Wagner. After marriage, they had thirteen children, twelve of whom lived to maturity and married. We are sorry that we cannot give the children in order of their ages. The record recites first, the names of his sons, and then his daughters. This is not chronologically true, because we know that the son John was the youngest child. As treated in this history, we are taking for the first Book the descendants of Samuel although we know that Edward was older than he was. After that, we will try to place them forward with some regard to age.

 

Samuel Mobley, the first, cared little about the Stamp Act, as it affected him little; neither was he or the upcountry much interested in precipitating a war with the mother country. His father-in-law looked on George III as the elector of Hanover, as well as the King of England. Being self-sustaining, they were not greatly wrought up over exports to England, nor imports to Charleston.

 

It took Tarleton's invasion of the up-country to make the first Wade Hampton a Revolutionary soldier, so it need not be surprising that our ancestors did not sooner participate in the struggle, which under the providence of God and the aid of a generous ally was to set a new star in the firmament of Nations. However when the people of the up-country could no longer stand the brutalities of the soldiery and camp followers of Tarleton, and when Cornwallis gave the order to them to take up arms for the British ministry, they refused and joined the bands of partisans like Marion, Sumter, and Pickens, who showed in the darkest hour that "though the soil of South Carolina might be overrun, the spirit of her people was invincible". When they did get into the strife, their knowledge of the country, their deadly shots in the peculiar kind of warfare waged in those times were found to be the means necessary to arrest the conquering Cornwallis in his march northward. They, with others of their kind (the Scotch-Irish settlers prevented the British commander from reaching Portsmouth and receiving re-enforcements from New York with which to surround and capture the army of Washington (see McCrady’s History) It gave time for the French fleet under Rochambeau to sail out of New Port, time for a second French fleet to arrive and for Washington to bring his army into Virginia and effect a junction with the French. When Cornwallis finally reached Yorktown, he found to his dismay that he was hemmed in by land and sea and surrendered his sword. Those who have written history with the exception of McCrady have magnified everything the Charlestonians did and dismissed our people of the upcountry with an occasional line. Not a word is said about Capt. Clement Mobley, Capt. Thomas Mobley, Capt. Eleazar Mobley, nor that great courier John Mobley who was constantly between the partisan bands. When Edward Hampton had his horse shot under him in the rout of Dunlap's British, Thomas Mobley presented him with a horse. This is in part borne out by the records in the Historical Commission, but no historian has mentioned it. Nothing is said of Andrew Feaster who gave his field of growing ripe grain to the cause of the Republic. No mention is made of Andrew McLean at Williamson's plantation, and it was Samuel McConnell a connection of our family, who killed a contemptible tory Huck on his horse. We do not minimize the low country's efforts in the early days, but the eleventh-hour servant in the vineyard should receive his mead of honor according to Divine justice. The children of Samuel and Mary Wagner Mobley were Samuel md (md will be the abbreviation for "married" through this history) Elizabeth Pickett; Edward md Mary Mabry; Elizabeth md Richard Mansel; Drusilla md John Feaster; Susan md John Taylor; Mary md David Shannon; Biggers md Jannah Corbell; Lucretia md John Robinson; Nancy md Moses McKeown, Savilla md Thomas Colvin; Simeon died a boy; Dorcas md William Price; John md Katie McLean.

​

HISTORICAL COMMISSION OF SOUTH CAROLINA

​

Alexander S. Salley, Sec'y. and the writer has examined the records of this department of the State Govern-ment and found the following connections who fought and served in the cause of the Republic: Edward Mobley, Sr., Edward Mobley Jr., Capt. Eleazar Mobley, John Mobley, Jr. (Private Horseman), Samuel Mobley, William Mobley Sr., William Mobley Jr., Capt. Thomas Mobley, Capt. Clement Mobley, Benjamin Mobley, Isaiah Mobley, Andrew Feaster furnished his whole crop of oats and gave Col. Henry Hampton a mare. (Mr. Sally remarking on the handwriting of Andrew Feaster to me said: 'Dick did you ever see such a beautiful hand? I tell you those old fellows did things if anything neater and better than we do now.") The period of duty in that war was sixty days in a year. In 1781 and 1782 the Mobley’s mentioned above served every one of them more than that number of days and Mr. Salley again remarked: "Every day over sixty should he regarded by us as excessive patriotism for our country." James Pickett also served.

​

UNITED STATES CENSUS

​

The Census of 1790 contains the following connections of our family: Edward Mobley Sr., Micaiah Mobley, Thomas Mobley, Levy Mobley, Thomas Meador, John DeLashmette, Robert Coleman, Richard Hill, Andrew Feaster, Job Meador, Thomas Means, William Woodward, Philip Rayford, Andrew Cameron, Thomas Halsey, Thomas Hill, William Rabb, Colin Mobley, William Mobley, Sr., William Mobley, Jr. Edward Mobley 2d, Jr. Arramanos Lyles, John Rogers, Samuel Mobley, Jesse Beam, William Coleman, David Coleman, Thomas Lyles, William Robertson, John Woodward, James Rabb, Celia DeLashmette, Nazarene Whitehead, James Pickett.

​

(If you would like to check out the rest of the book, click on the following link: Mobley and Their Descendants)

​

GENERATION OF THE MOBLEYS

(From 1953 Bible Records, D.A.R. Book)

​

As the facts were given by John Mobley, the son of Samuel, to John Coleman Feaster, grandson of his sister, Drusilla.

​

Children of Edward and Susannah Mobley, who was a DeRuel

William Mobley, married (name of wife obliterated)

Clement Mobley, married Mary Fox.

Ben Mobley, married (1st ) widow Hill (2nd ) name obliterated)

Edward Mobley, married Drucilla Meadow.

John Mobley, married Mary Beam.

Samuel Mobley, married Mary Wagoner.

Polly Mobley, married Thos. Halsey.

Susannah Mobley, married Lewis Meador.

Sally Mobley, married Jason Meador

Elizabeth Mobley married Job Meador

Keisha Mobley married Thomas Meador

Dorcas Mobley married Richard Hill

 

Children of John Mobley, who married Mary Beam

William Mobley married Drusilla Meador

Isaac Mobley married Brown

Salley Mobley married (unknown)

Susan Mobley married (unknown)

​

​

​