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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 3third 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"
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(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, byMesdamesMisses 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
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.