Gentlemen,
I found your addresses through a web site which I discovered while doing a search on the internet:
Morphew/Murphy Family Information - Updates
On the site appears the following statement:
[The neighbor on Morphew's south boundary was William Buis who came to Deep River in 1752 when it was Anson County. Buis built a tavern and inn on his land called an "ordinary" for travelers on what appears to be the junction of two crossroads, one of which may be the important link joining Salisbury, N.C. with the Great Road to Philadelphia. Bewes (Buis) Ordinary is shown on a 1770 map by Collett. In later years the the old inn was moved behind a newer house and given a protective metal roof which preserved it to the present time, making it the oldest structure in Guilford County. William Buis was an interesting individual in that he became a schoolteacher and had a schoolhouse slightly west of his inn/hotel.
The first court sessions on newly formed Guilford County were held on his farm from 1771-1774.]
Actually, what I had been searching for was mention of "Buis Ordinary" as, on another web site, I had found the following statement:
[Both David Lindsay, and his young nephew Madison, were members of the large Lindsay clan of Guilford Co. which was headed by the patriarch Robert Lindsay, who had operated the old Buis Ordinary in the western part of the county in the 1770s.]
Another researcher sent me the following: [To quote from Ethel Arnett's book on Greensboro, "The act which established Guilford provided for court to be held in the home of Robert Lindsay until a courthouse could be built. In 1774 the county commissioners bought land from John Campbell for a courthouse site and the county seat was named Guilford Courthouse" (p. 18)]
Robert Lindsay, who died in Guilford County, NC in 1801, was my fifth great grandfather, and I am trying to find information about him and his home. I wonder if the "Old Buis Ordinary" which your site states has been preserved and is the oldest structure in Guilford County, is the same structure that was listed in an architectural survey of Guilford County published in 1979, as a fragment of the Lindsay house. (below)
I also was sent a cemetery survey of a small family graveyard near the home where several of Robert Lindsay's children are buried. (below)
Robert Lindsay was, probably a son of John Lindsay. There are conflicting accounts of their origins. They were doubtless of Scots origins, but some say they came to Pa. or Md. from Ulster and thence to NC. Others say they are descended from the Lindsay family of Northumberland County, Virginia, which settled there in the 1660s. I do not know the name of John Lindsay's wife, or the name of Robert's first wife, by whom he had two children, John and Elizabeth.
Robert's second wife was Nancy (Ann) McGee, daughter of Colonel John McGee (d. 1773) who received grants of land in Anson (later Orange, then Guilford, then Randolph) Counties in 1749. I have listed seven children born to Robert and Nancy: Samuel (m. Henrietta Causey), Robert (c.1775-1818, m. Letitia Harper), William (c.1777-1841, m. Elizabeth Briggs), Jane (c. 1779, m. Jesse Hargrave), Andrew (1786-1842, m. Elizabeth Dick), Susanna (1789-1857, m. Dr. Joseph Wood), David (1793-1860, m. Sarah Dillon.)
I am descended from William Lindsay and Elizabeth Briggs, through their daughter Guilianna Lindsay (1807-1885) who married Elswick S. (probably Sherwood) Field. Their son John Andrew Field (1846-1883) was my great great grandfather.
Since I discovered all of the above information, I have not been to Greensboro. I have written to several people trying to find out if the house and cemetery still exist, but have not had any luck. I thought perhaps you all might be able to give me some information. And, after all, it sounds as if our ancestors were neighbors. There may have been some connection at some point.
Best Regards,
John Field Pankow
JFPankow@aol.com
If anyone has information which will help John, please contact him.) Larry Morphew, ed.