by Edward Ellis, Special Correspondent
Epophroditus.
It’s not a name you hear very often these days. But recently, in looking through a book about old wills, we found Epoproditus Benton along with a few others that won’t make the Baby Name Book. How about Pigo Meavis? Do you like Ambrox Bagley, Darkis Batters, Lakkaster Lovett or Uperasha Holoway? Me neither.
All those and many more are preserved in an otherwise dandy book call Abstract of North Carolina Wills published in 1910. J. Bryan Grimes served as North Carolina’s secretary of state from 1901-1923. During his tenure in office, he oversaw a project to preserve the valuable information contained in the state’s oldest wills. Writing in his office’s book on the subject, Grimes cited the General Assembly of 1754 as having found – even at that early date – that “many of the original wills, patents and deeds have been lost for want of convenient offices to keep the same.” Grimes suggested “the various migrations” of the North Carolina capital from New Bern to Hillsborough to Raleigh had “undoubtedly added to the losses.” He said that many of the documents on hand in 1910 were “in bad order, decayed, foxed and faded, and some of them are illegible.”
Grimes hailed from an illustrious family. He was the grandson of John Herritage Bryan (1789-1870), lawyer and congressman of New Bern, and the son of Bryan Grimes (1828-1880), the famed Confederate general for whom Grimesland is named. And he was a standout in this own right, serving in state office for twenty-two years and producing a will book that’s been a boon to historians and genealogists ever sense.
And just reading through the index of the 670-page tome can give you belly laughs.
Sturgus Ederingame. Usher Epsey. Kerrenhappuch Pierce. Ruina Magan. Xpher Kilbee. Tingnall Jones. Triddle Keefe. Salathiel Mixon. Choosewell Dixon. Elimeleach Cook. Darkness Browning. Not making these up.
How about a theme? Vineyard Bond, Wineford McHenry, Winefruit Boyd, Wineyfruit McKeel, Vines Cropley, and Vines Harrision. Or how about Comfort Cammil, Deliverance Latham, Charity Gray, Fortune Holdeley, Patience Bryant, Temperance Jernagan, Pleasant Arnold, Faith Grice, and Prudence Hardy?
We have Easter Ansley and Chrismass Ray. And we guess the Bell family thought it great fun to name one of their sons Church. Church Bell. Right on par with Mary Cherry, Green Hill, Bracewell Bridges, and Constant Dew. Then there was Sarah Puke and her brother (OMG), James Parrott Puke.
Bible names were big in early North Carolina. Bathsheba Ballard, Lazarus Kenny, Zachariah Harker, Nehemiah Joyner, John Baptista Ashe, Mary Magdelena Hover, Solomon Cotton, Job Cartwright, and Jehosaphat Halland.
And we’ll leave you with just these first names from Mr. Grimes’s book to choose among for the next baby in the family: Salathyel, Neptuania, Lattess, Apsilla, Lowdenner, Vallinity, Ezricam, Annanazah, Portlock, Cormelial, Zillpman, Cearsmear, Lodowick, Fortain, and Zilplia. Glad to help!
Eddie Ellis is the author of New Bern History 101 and other works about Craven County’s rich heritage. He can be reached at flexspace2@aol.com