Woodruff-GA-1770-1854

Most of the information I have is contained in:

Woodruff, Caldwell, Sketch of Col. Joseph Woodruff, Revolutionary Soldier, of Broro Neck, McIntosh County, Georgia, with list of his descendants, Hyattsville, MD, 1917. CS71.W887 1917, LCCN: 17020877.  Copy located in Library of Congress, Washington DC.

Caldwell Woodruff states that "Joseph Woodruff came to Charleston, SC and with his wife and two children and one slave appeared in the Province of Georgia in the month of August 1768."
No name for this slave is mentioned at this time.

On Tuesday the 4th of December 1770, another petition from Joseph Woodruff was read in the Governor's council.  It stated he "had had Land granted him but was possessed of a Family Right for five hundred Acres of land having a Wife three Children and four Negroes Therefore praying for 500 acres in St. Andrew's Parish formerly ordered William Barns who was out of the Province."
   Quoted from: Chandler, Allen D., The Colonial Records of Georgia, Proceedings and Minutes of the Governor and Council from 3 April 1770 to 13 July 1771, Vol. XI, The Franklin Turner Company, Atlanta GA, 1907, page 193. Book on file at the Alabama State Archives, Montgomery AL (1997).
Again no names of these slaves are mentioned.

Excerpt from page 12:
"It is probable that Joseph Woodruffe's health began to fail him about 1789, for in that year he executed a deed of trust, now on file in the Court Records at Hinesville, Liberty County, creating his son-in-law, Capt. Ferdinand O'Neill and the widow, Mrs. Susannah Graves, trustees of his personal estate, for the benefit of his three minor sons, George, Joseph, and James.  In this deed of trust he names twenty-seven Negroes as follows:

Boatswain (A child)            Morris
Betta                          Nancy
Brutus                         Nero
Caesar                         Old Joe
Celie                          Pendar
Comba                          Phebia
Daphina                        Peggy
Dina                           Romeo
Flora                          Sharp
Jacob                          Smart
James                          Sylvia
July                           Tom
June                           Venus"
Mingo
-----------------------------------------------

The next part gets a little complex.
In a 22 April 1854 letter from James Woodruff, son of Joseph, to his neice, Christianna Heriot, he writes that he is upset over a "land deal" Charles O'Neal (son of James' sister, Mary Ann Woodruff, and Ferdinand O'Neal) has claimed.  He writes, "Now if Charles claims under any purchase sale or coveyance from brother George upon a swap with him of Negroes in my mother's possession, what right had George, more than your father (Major Joseph Woodruff of Spring Garden FL) or myself to the said Negroes, tho' this pretext would fail him, as my sister and Charles took and kept possession and now have (if he is not dead) one of the most valuable Negro men that was in my mother's possession at her death.  She (my mother) having died at my sisters, and had this Negro with her at the time of her death which they converted to their own account."

I surmise from this that some of these slaves passed from Col. Joseph Woodruff to his wife Mary, and subsequently to their children: George, James, Joseph and Mary Ann.  The land in question was in Georgia, but I'm unsure if it is Jasper or Washington County, both places the family had residences.

I sincerely hope some of your researchers may find this information useful.

Contributed by: Dot. Tribble

This (above) was sent to me (the African-American Genealogy Ring) a few months ago and sorta got lost in the shuffle.  I thought I'd send it along to see if it could be of some assistance to anyone.
Contributed by: LaGenWeb@aol.com
By way of: Jackie Ferguson