Almost Forgotten – The Other Sons
Almost forgotten – the theme for this week is a bit misleading. It might be better to say the Sams I’m going to tell you about this week were never remembered. The core Sams family who lived on Datha Island for a good part of their lives arrived here 237 years ago. And like much of the South, many of their records were lost in the Civil War. We are fortunate to have a visible reminder of their presence, the ruins. These, together with a passionate group of residents that love history, form a magnet for Sams family information to flow our way for safekeeping and sharing. This has led to several first-person memoirs being generously shared with us. Still, there are quite a few Sams we know little about. This week I’m going to talk about the seven Sams sons of William and Elizabeth Sams. I hope a genealogist amongst you may step forward to help us fill in the blanks in their lives.
William Sams (1741 – 1798) and his wife Elizabeth Hext Sams (1746 – 1813) started their life together in 1761, probably on Wadmalaw Island, St. John’s Parish, just south of Charleston, SC. They had seven sons, the first four born in St John’s Parish, the last three after they moved here in 1783. It’s a bit unclear if the whole family moved south together. At that point in time, all four of their boys were under 20 years old. It seems unlikely, though not impossible, that any would have stayed behind. William did well in the Beaufort area. The 1790 Federal Census shows he had 84 slaves, a relatively large number for a plantation owner. As I mentioned in my earlier article on Sea Island cotton, there is good reason to believe his early success was due to cultivating indigo.
The chart below shows the William & Elizabeth family group, including all wives.
The Wadmalaw Brothers
Robert Sams (1764 – before 1790) was their firstborn. In 1783, he would have been 19 and old enough to stay behind on Wadmalaw, especially if he had some close relatives to stay with until he came of age in 1785. I couldn’t find any. His paternal grandparents were gone, as were his uncles on that side. His maternal grandparents were also gone by then, and his mother Elizabeth Hext Sams was an only child, so not aunts or uncles there. CW Sams’ unpublished history says Robert is buried on Datha having never married. We have no marked grave for him. Other sources say he died sometime before his father. We’ve always believed the burial of William Sams was the oldest in the Sams Family Cemetery on Datha. Could it be we are wrong? Very possible, because our 2006 ground-penetrating radar survey of this cemetery revealed several unmarked graves.
William Sams, Jr. (1766 – 1817) was their second son. Similar story to Robert, he was only 17 in 1783. Again, the CW Sams’ unpublished history claims William also is buried on Datha and never married.
John Sams (1769 – about 1834) married Catherine Deveaux (1776 – 1839) in 1792. They had a son and two daughters. I’ll write more about John another day. Currently, we know a bit about him. He spent most of his life in the greater Charleston area around Goose Creek. Our good friend Teresa Bridges from Tennessee is descended from John and has done extensive research into this third brother. So he’s not one of the ‘almost forgotten.’ Teresa knows.
Francis Sams (1772 – 1827) is buried on Datha. He also never married and lived a relatively long life. I have a feeling with some dedicated research, we would be able to find out where he lived and what he did.
All four of these gentlemen lived into adulthood. While Robert was in his 20’s, the other three lived into their 50’s or beyond.
The Datha Brothers
Herb Arnold’s article written for DHF back in 2000 says, “William died in 1798 leaving his property to his wife and his three younger sons. The three older sons were already established on their property.” We, of course, know quite a bit about Lewis Reeve and his younger brother Berners Barnwell since they had plantations on Datha.
Lewis Reeve Sams (1784 – 1856) was William and Elizabeth’s fifth son. While we know a fair amount about this family, I sure wish we had a better portrait of him and his first wife, Sarah Fripp. If you want to feel closer to the Lewis Reeve Sams family, check out his 7,600 square foot home at 601 Bay Street in downtown Beaufort, SC, which is on the market today for $2.3M.
Berners Barnwell Sams (1787 – 1855) is our best known of the seven sons. Partly because of the ruins, but also because of the James Julius Sams memoir. BB Sams had two homes in Beaufort. The one on New St last sold in 2016 for $1.1M. His other home on Laurens St., the house he was building when he died, was recently on the market for $2.1M. And if you are into ‘fixer-uppers,’ you can tour his plantation house tabby ruins on Dataw Island; not for sale.
Neither Lewis or Berners make our ‘almost forgotten’ list. But their youngest brother Edward does.
Edward Hext Sams (1790 – about 1845) married Sarah Fripp (1794 – 1837) in 1814, 1st cousin of Lewis Reeve Sams first wife. They had six children, and you might think we know a fair amount about him; we don’t. It appears they left Beaufort and South Carolina, heading south, as soon as they married. Their children’s birth locations don’t help much. We know two of their six children were born in Georgia and one on Datha. But the others are a mystery, partially because they died young. Both the 1830 and 1840 Federal census records show Edward in Duval County, Florida Territory. You may remember their oldest son Francis William Sams (1815 – 1855) from the Week 7 article about Favorite Discovery. I didn’t say anything then about Edward and Sarah’s 5th child, Cornelius Angelon Sams (1823 – 1884). Though born in Georgia and raised in Florida, he returned to the Charleston area, per the 1850 Federal Census. He reported being a planter, then phosphate digger, then miner in Sheldon, SC. His wife Anna Freeman Sams (1827 – 1875) was a school teacher. I suspect there is much more to their story. We don’t know where his parents Edward or Sarah, are buried, nor much about their other four children.
Almost Forgotten
Of the seven sons of William and Elizabeth, four belong on our almost forgotten list.
Robert and William never got married, and we are not sure where they are buried; maybe Datha. Francis also never married, but he does have a headstone in the Sams Family Cemetery on Datha. And lastly, the wanderer, Edward. With your help, maybe someday their stories will be told.
P.S.
Thank you to Greg Schulte for the picture at the top of this article; taken a few days ago during a rising tide. Seems appropriate, since what you see is all that is left of the Lewis Reeve Sams plantation home.
Sources
Arnold, J. Herbert – Wilderness to Paradise; Significant Events in the Evolution of Datha to Dataw, Dataw Historic Foundation, October 2000. Available here.
Holden, Joel and Riski, Bill – Family Tree for Sams of Dataw Island, accessed March 30, 2020.
Poplin, Eric C., Burns, Gwendolyn, and Agha, Andrew – Recent Archaeological Investigations on Dataw Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina, February 2006. Available here.
Sams, Conway Whittle – History of the Sams and Whittle Families, circa 1905, unpublished. Includes the remembrances of Elizabeth E. Sams, March 18, 1905 and Rev James Julius Sams.
#52 Sams – Week 13