Research Papers (of Catherine Starnes?)
in posession of James W. Green III
The following is typed from hand written notes that I (James W. Green III) think that I got in 1972 from Miss Catherine Starnes or her sisters or their mom (Mrs. Sarah Coleman Starnes). At that time they had moved from Ridgeway, Fairfield Co., SC to Elgin, Kershaw Co., SC. The handwriting is in fine line blue ink (not water proof) on yellow paper 5 inches wide by 7 3/16 inches vertically with perforation at the top where it was torn from a pad. The paper is ruled with blue horizontal lines about .35 inches apart. There are 2 vertical red lines about .05" apart that delineate a 1.1" left margin. This ink & paper makes me think this notes were written about 1970. The handwritting is clear & smooth (not palsied) so I doubt it was written by Sarah who died in 1972. I recall that Miss Catherine b.1908 was the one that was the genealogist so I think it is her handwritting. Catherine died of cancer about 1975 or 1980 I think. The survivors have sold the home & moved to a retirement home which I believe I was told is in Rock Hill, SC.

In March 1972 me & my parents moved to Fairfield Co. SC from Johnson City TN where we had lived since 1951. Probably between March & July 1972 we looked up our distant cousins the Starnes that mom had lived with briefly as a child in Ridgeway. We found they'd moved to Elgin & went to see them. They showed me the family Bible of Col. Joseph Ragsdale Coleman & his wife Juliana Banks (& gave it to me in about 1985 when they were preparing to sell out & move to the retirement home). They also showed me Gov. J.P. Coleman's Coleman book which told me my Coleman ancestry. They told me of the Coleman Reunion & showed me these notes on the Bankses. On Aug 23 1972 I wrote my 1st letter to Beverly Helms of Beaufort SC no doubt because the Starnes told me Beverly had the letters of her grandfather W. Banks Dove Sr., that is the letters from the Lowes of Forfar Scotland. On Aug 30, 1972 I wrote to Mrs. "Beverly" Helms (the former Miss Mozelle Foster DOVE) saying I planed to visit her that Labor Day. That is probably the date I visited her. I arrived at night & it was not convenient & I do not think she knew where the letters were. She was pleasant but I never got back to see her.

In Jan 1996 I did a tent at the Orlando FL Games & a lady came by our tent to say she had a friend Mrs. Marjoribanks Barrett. This turned out to be Beverly's sister. Since then Mrs. Nina Barrett (no connection via Barrett) has taken up correspondence with Marjoribanks Barrett to gain more data on them for the database & to see if the correspondence with the Lowes in Scotland could be found.

In Sept. 1996 at the Marjoribanks AGM in Charleston SC, I loaned the following pages (& more) to Nina Barrett to xerox. Below is her email where she has typed them up & emailed them back to me to put here on the web. I checked them against the original yellow sheets today 17 Feb 1998 & put them on the web.

From: Jade105@aol.com    
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 22:29:31 EST
To: jwgreen@hotmail.com
Subject: letters 3
third and final try.

Letters and accounts on the subject of John Marjoribanks and Samuel Banks.
Typed by Nina Barrett, February 16, 1998.
Typed line-by-line as written, spelling as written:

[Here starts a handwritten copy of Bowen's 1933 typed: "Low Letters & Facts told by A.R. Banks"
I suggest you click on this link & read what was typed in 1933 rather than what was typed here below from the ca.1970 handwritten copy, below. When you return from reading the 1933 typed copy, scroll down to page 7 below to read on from there where the 1933 typing ends. Signed J.W. Green III]

Page 1-not marked as so

From a letter written to
Howard A Banks by Misses
Jessie and Jeanie Low of Forfar
N. E. Scotland (cousins) giving facts
about the Banks family in S. C.
descended from John Marjoribanks
and his son Samuel.
               Oct 4 1909
 " Your great, great grandfathers'
name was John Majoribanks.  He it
was who was the father of Samuel
Majoribanks of Fairfield District S.C.
      The other names of the
family were Mary, Katie, and
Belle.  Your great, great grandmother
was Ellen Murdouch.  We cannot
give the name of our kinsman who
fought on Culloden, only we have
heard Mother speak of one of her

2   ancestors being there.
Mother was very proud of her name
(She was a Wallace) and used to
say her father could trace back
to the direct line of Sir William
Wallace."

   In a former letter they said that
the father of Samuel Marjoribanks,
or Banks, as he became in plain
democratic America, was brought up
in Thornhill , the family having
removed there from Dumfriesshire
about the time of the "Covenanters
Feud".  This man, John Majoribanks)
was a dyster or dyer, the business
being more lucrative then that it is
now.  His house is still standing
in Thornhill and is know as the
"Dysters House".

3   Hoping to mend his fortune
John Mar--  came to America and
settled in Fishing Creek.  The family
history of this side of the water
says he died of fever, and not
hearing from him, his son, Samuel,
gave up a clerkship in the Bank of
England and came over to look
for his father.  He fell in love
with a pretty face in fairfield Dist
and Married Miss Robinson.
They started back to England
but she was freightened by
the ocean and the frail craft
that plied it at the port of
Charleston and refused to go.
Returning to Fairfield they
settled and raised a family of a
dozen children.

(Separate page) 4 Facts about the Banks family as told by Alex R Banks (a prominent school teacher died in 1918 Flu epidemic while teaching at Ridgeway S.C.) John Majoribanks built a dam across north fork of Fishing Creek at what is now known as Cornwell's Mill or Prides Old Mill which is five miles on the South side of Rock Hill S C . There are native stones put together without cement. This accounts for his being buried at old Fishing Creek church where he worshipped. When grandfather Sam Banks reached Charleston he inquired 5 of his father and he met a man named Peden , from the up country who lived on Rocky Creek (Ten miles from Fishing Creek) who had gone to Charleston to sell his tobacco and he offered to take Samuel Banks back with him to hunt his father . They reached Mr Peden's home on a Saturday night and grandfather stayed with Mr Penden over Sunday and went to Old Catholic Presbyterian Church dressed in his Scotch Plaids - Highlander. He lived to see two of his sons ordained as ministers in this church and one son, William , was pastor there for over 30 years. At the meeting of the Presbytery in Catholic Church in when grandpa and uncle Alex were 6 ordained ministers by the " laying on of hands". Grandpa was William Banks . Uncle Alex was Alexander Banks they were sons of Samuel Banks . The Old Man Samuel Banks walked down the aisle of the church palsied . He lived to be 87 . They there were 45 of grandfather Sam Bank's sons, grandsons and great grandsons -in law in the Confederate Army. Jeanie & Jessie Low are the daughters of Margaret Wallace (Peggy) the daughter of Mary Marjoribanks, the daughter of the dyster of Thornhill and fuller of Fishing Creek. SC Samuel Banks and his wife Elizabeth Robinson are buried in 7 old Concord Cemetery at Woodward SC (near Blackstock) ----------------- ---------
[Here ends the sentences that are also in Bowen's typed: "Low Letters & Facts told by A.R. Banks"
signed JW Green III]
  Samuel Robinson Banks , being an
industrous Scott established a
                                 cloth
fullers business makeing broadcloth,
doeskin and silk hats

  In a book from the Library " Half
Forgotten By-ways of South Carolina"
by Robert Wilson pages 23-24-25
Ref to Major Majoribanks (no given name)
an officer in the British Army .  He was
in charge of Col. William Washingtons
when he was captured and was taking
him a prisoner to charleston but:
" Sickening on the retreat with the
deadly malaria of this Carolina
Swamp, he died near Black Oak, and

               8
his mossy grave may be seen today
by the roadside , marked by a sinple
stone , and protected from desecration
by a wooden paling .  It stands
near the gate of Woodboo Plantation,
which old Stephen Mazyck, the
Huguenot , first settled , about
25 miles from Eutaw and 43 miles
from Charleston   -   this may not
be a relative --

(Separate page) Taken from the account of the death of A R Banks- " The first of the family to come to this country was Samuel Mandeville Marjoriebanks, who for Convenience abbreviated the name to Banks. The Marjoribanks family was descended from Robert Bruce through his daughter Marjorie. Samuel Marjoribanks established a fuller's mill on Fishing Creek, near where the great Falls development now is
[Here starts a handwritten copy of the 1920 newspaper article that is on the web as: 1920 Newspaper article about W. Banks Dove, the Lowes, & their Banks ancestry
I suggest you click on this link & read what was typed from the photocopy of the clipping rather than what was typed from the handwritten copy, below. When you return from reading the typed copy of the clipping, scroll down to the bottom of page 4 below to read on from there where the typing of the clipping ends. Signed J.W. Green III]

(Separate page)
W. Banks Dove, Secy of State of SC,
has an interesting ornament for Mantle

   Occupying a prominent place on the Mantle
in the office of W Banks Dove, Sec'y of State.
is a small box of white heather fresh
from the highlands of Scotland . The
small box, emitting a faint , spicy fragrance,
seems strangely out of place in the office,
and is commented upon by the visitors to
the official.
   Purple heather is more or less
common, but the white is rare and
not much of it has been seen in this
state.  The box was sent from
Forfar, Scotland, by MesdamesMisses
Jessie and Jeanie Lowe, who trace
their lineage from Robert Bruce
and are kinswomen of M. Dove on
the Banks side.  Correspondenec

2   between the two families has
 been kept up for many years
   The relationship, according to Mr
Dove, was discovered in a rather
unusual fashion.  Many years ago ,
a letter from Scotland directed to
Mrs Elizabeth Majoribanks was
advertised and Mr Dove's grandmother,
Mrs Elizabeth Weir , saw the advertisement
and recalled to mind the address.
The letter contained information
concerning Samuel Majoribanks who
came to America in 1795 and who
went on an exploring tour to Chester
County where he later purchased
property and built a dam which
is still in existence.  He died
after residing for several years in
Chester County.
   The records show, Mr Dove says,
3
  that a relative of this Samuel
Marjoribanks , the first part of the
being dropped, came from England
seeking traces of his kinsman, no
word having been received from him in
many years.  When he landed at
Charleston he happened to meet
William Peden of Chester , who told him
something of his lost relative and later ,
by wagon, transferred the visitor to
Chester , his plaids and kilts
attracting much attention , more or
less to the embarassment of the
Modest Scotsman.  It was not
until he went to Pleasant Grove
Presbyterian Church and heard
Rouse's version of the Psalms
"lined-out" in the old fashioned way
that he really began to feel that he

4 
   he was in the hands of friends.
Later this visitor met and married
Miss Elizabeth Robinson , Mr Dove says,
and when the young bride went to
Charleston , purposing to sail with
her husband to Scotland and saw the
small boats and the great ocean , she
remarked to her husband "I'll nae
cross".  the husband also decided
to forego the trip and the two
returned to the community of the bride.
    The small box of heather is
another link that serves to bind
still closer together the widely
separated branches of this family many
of whom have held high and responsible
positions in this Country though few of the
have amassed great riches.

(Back of previous page (above), i.e. back of page 4)

Copied from

"the State"
Paper.

Probably in
the 1920's

There are 3 more pages which are copies of tombstones & more info which is surely wrong.

Return to Legends about Samuel Banks

The url of this page is
http://Genealogy.Org/~green/Mbanks/starnes.html and
http://millennium.FortuneCity.Com/byker/362/Mbanks/starnes.html
( http://members.FortuneCity.Com/jgreen/Mbanks/starnes.html)

This page was put on the web Tuesday 17 Feb. 1998.
This page was Last Updated 13 April 2002.

This page was put on the web by
James W. Green III.


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