The following is the proof that Rev. Thomas Mullins (1736-1816) served in the Continental Army, and therefore is a qualifying ancestor for the Sons of the American Revolution. We do not know if he served as a combatant, as a clergyman or both.
There is a Revolutionary War Pay Voucher allowed to Thomas Mullins in the upper Salisbury district as follows:
NC Revolutionary War Pay Vouchers, Roll #S.115.112; public claim #832: Thomas Mullins allowed 20 L 14 s 8 p, for a Revolutionary War Pay Voucher on 27 Jun 1782 {see voucher below}. On the next page of the microfilm, “Thos Mullins” is written vertically to the right, but it is unclear whether or not this is a second Pay Voucher.
The military district for Pay Voucher #832 is: “Salisbury District”, and more specifically the fifth line states that this is the “upper Board of Auditors”. The counties included in the Salisbury district, specifically the two counties that comprised “upper Salisbury” were Guilford and Surry (from the James Hunter Chapter DAR book).
Continental Army Thomas Mullins
Assuming that the Thomas Mullins of Pay Voucher #832 was Rev. Thomas Mullins, then this Voucher is evidence of acceptance by North Carolina of Rev. Mullins’s support of the War and the cause of American Independence, and thus indicates Rev. Mullins’s Patriotic Service.
It remains to be shown that the Thomas Mullins of Pay Voucher #832, from the upper Board of Auditors of the Salisbury military district, was Rev. Thomas Mullins.
In the chronology below, all occurrences of “Thomas Mullins” in local deeds and other documents are listed, as located by genealogist the vice-president of North Carolina Genealogy Society(2008) and the author. A continuous record shows that Thomas Mullins bought land from his father Patrick in 1766 in Rowan County; Thomas Mullins first bought land in Guilford County in 1772, less than 6 miles from the Lick Fork Primitive Baptist Church; a 1773 deed refers to Thomas Mullins “of Guilford County”; several subsequent deeds and documents show Thomas Mullins’s continuing residence in Guilford County to the point that he is documented to be Rev. Thomas Mullins; and there is no evidence of a second Thomas Mullins in Guilford County.
Chronology of references to Thomas Mullins in deeds and other documents in Guilford and nearby counties
Thomas’s father, Patrick emigrated from Scotland in 1728. He appears on land deeds in Goochland County VA from 1728 through 1734, and in Amelia County VA from 1746 through 1754. He moved to North Carolina in about 1756, when he obtained a grant of 375 acres of land on the Dan River in Rowan County NC from Lord John Cataret Earl of Granville.
1766 – In 1766-1767 Patrick sold his land on the Dan River to move a few miles east to the future Guilford County. On an indenture dated 17 Jul 1766, Patrick sold to “Thomas Mullins his son”, both of Rowan County, 120 acres of land on the Dan River, part of Patrick’s 375-acre grant from “John Earl Lord Granville”.
1772 – Thomas Mullins was first documented owning land in Guilford County on an indenture dated 11 May 1772: John Mullins sold to Thomas Mullins, both of Guilford County, 120 acres of land on the “lickfork of Hogan’s Creek”.
1773 – On an indenture dated 11 Mar 1773, Thomas Mullins “of the county of Guilford” sold land to William Davye in Surry County. The deed states explicitly that this was the land that Thomas bought from his father Patrick in 1766. This deed and the previous one confirm that Thomas Mullins moved from Rowan County east to adjacent Guilford County between 1766 and 1772 [Surry County was formed from Rowan in 1771].
There are two facts that provide evidence that the Thomas Mullins of the 1772 and 1773 deeds was in fact Rev. Thomas Mullins:
1) A present-day map of the area around Reidsville, NC. shows the Dan River, site of Patrick Mullins’s grant from John Cataret Earl of Granville. The nearest present-day town to the grant site is Mayodan.
About 15 miles to the east flows Hogan’s Creek and Lick Fork Creek. The 1772 deed states that Thomas Mullins purchased 120 acres on the south side of Lick Fork Creek. The location of the present-day Lick Fork Primitive Baptist Church is located on Lick Fork Creek Road.
All land on the south side of Lick Fork Creek is within about 6 miles of the church location. Thus the Thomas Mullins of the 1772 deed owned land within 6 miles of the church where Rev. Thomas Mullins was a minister. This is circumstantial evidence that the Thomas Mullins of the 1772 deed was in fact Rev. Thomas Mullins of the Lick Fork Primitive Baptist Church.
The present-day Lick Fork Primitive Baptist Church is marked by a sign outside the church stating that it was founded before 1786, based on the date of the surviving church minutes. There is no way to be certain that the present day church is in exactly the same location as it was in the 1700s, but based on the church’s name, it was likely always near Lick Fork Creek.
At the time of this writing, the Lick Fork Primitive Baptist Church has 5 parishioners, including Elder David Underwood.
2) An indenture from 1773 states that Thomas Mullins’s wife was Elizabeth Mullins. Surviving Lick Fork Church minutes mention Betsy Mullins several times between 1791 and 1806. These facts comprise additional circumstantial evidence that Thomas Mullins of the 1772 indenture was Rev. Thomas Mullins, from the presumption that Elizabeth Mullins of the 1772 indenture was the same woman as Betsy Mullins of the Lick Fork Church minutes, namely Rev. Mullins’s first wife.
Further Chronology of Land Deeds and Other Documents
1782 – The next occurrence of Thomas Mullins in the Guilford Co. records is the Revolutionary War Pay Voucher #832.
1784 – In a grant dated 8 Nov 1784, the state of North Carolina granted to Thomas Mullins 454 acres of land on the Lick Fork of Hogan’s Creek.
1785 – The following reference states that in 1785 Thomas Mullins “seized” 900 acres of land on which the Mullins-Stacey Cemetery sits:
Louise Fitzgerald. “Thomas Mullins – Stacey Cemetery at Stacey – Rockingham, N.C.” Piedmont Lineages. Virginia-North Carolina Piedmont Genealogical Society. August 1983: Vol. 3, No. 3, p. 119.
This is the first mention of Thomas Mullins in Guilford (Rockingham) County that can be definitively identified as the Rev. Thomas Mullins. This identification is for two reasons:
- First, the 1785 record states that Thomas had three brothers: David, Lemon and Cole. This information evidently was taken from the will of Rev. Thomas Mullins, with a slight error: the executors of Rev. Mullins’s will were Brother David Lawson and Brother Cole from his church (not his biological brothers).
- Second, Elizabeth Mullins m. Iverson Stacey was the daughter of Rev. Mullins’s son, Thomas II. Thus this 1785 record ties the Thomas Mullins of this 1785 record directly to Rev. Mullins’s granddaughter Elizabeth.
1787 – Land purchase deed dated 9 Feb 1787 from Samuel and Mary Bethell to Thomas Mullen “for 50 pd 65 acres on Lickfork of Hogan’s Creek”.
1790 – Thomas Mullin(s) appears on the 1790 U.S. Census: North Carolina, Rockingham.
The chronology above comprises a record consistent with a single individual named Thomas Mullins being the subject of each of the documents listed, and therefore consistent with Rev. Thomas Mullins’s first owning land in Guilford County in 1772, and Rev. Thomas Mullins’s being the recipient of Revolutionary War Pay Voucher #832.
Only One Thomas Mullins in Guilford County
The absence of a second possible Thomas Mullins in Guilford County can be partially addressed with 3 documents:
1) The following reference lists only 2 Thomas Mullins’s in Rockingham County for whom a record of a will exists:
Mitchell, Thornton W. North Carolina Wills: A Testator Index, 1665-1900. 1987, The Genealogical Publishing Company.
This reference lists the will of Thomas I probated in 1817 and the will of Thomas II probated in 1859. No other Thomas Mullins is noted in Rockingham County. There is one other “Thomas Mullen” in North Carolina, will recorded 1785, from Perquimans County, which is well to the east near the Atlantic.
Most wills from Colonial times do not survive, but the fact that Thomas Mullins of the 1772 and 1773 indentures was a large landowner makes it more likely that his will would have survived as the subject of subsequent indentures and other legal matters.
2) A search on ancestry.com yields only one Thomas Mullin(s) in Rockingham County in 1790.
3) A search on ancestry.com yields 2 Thomas Mullin(s)’s in Rockingham County in 1800: the Rev. Thomas Mullins, and his son, Thomas II.
Summary: The above comprises evidence that there was only one Thomas Mullins in Guilford/Rockingham County from 1772 to 1790. This evidence supports the conclusion that Revolutionary War Pay Voucher #832 was allowed to Rev. Thomas Mullins for Patriotic Service during the Revolutionary War.
© 2013 W. Mullins