From the Galaxy of Holliman Cousins, Part II

by Glenn N. Holliman

Recently distant cousin Allen Holleman (photo below) of North Carolina and I met and shared a meal.  I had noticed Allen's comments and thoughtful questions on the Tina Peddie Holyman Group chat room, and thought as I would be in his area, would like to meet him.  As we indulged in our common passion for comfort food and Holliman/Holleman history, it was an enjoyable and long lunch.

 

Over three glasses of an iced beverage (unsweetened) he told me his family branches, which intrigued me because I knew a lot of Holleman/Hollimans had moved across the Virginia border into North Carolina, not long after the unpleasantness with the Tuscarora tribe ended in the early 1700s.  For many the western march meant moving south by southwest as did my branch of the family.  Allen's moved into Wake County after the Revolutionary War. His ancestors put down roots and some, such as Allen, remain in the Raleigh area to this day.

His lineage begins in America as does mine with the arrival in Jamestown, Virginia in 1650 of Christopher Holyman, Sr. who had four sons and two daughters.  The daughters married Atkinsons. The four sons married and had children and swoosh, the family branches started multiplying.

Allen's branch emerged from Christopher, Jr. (mine from Richard Holyman, one of his brothers) who begat John who begat Jesse, the husband of Charity Cofer.  Their son, John Holliman, left Virginia and moved to Wake County, North Carolina.  Then came David Holleman, John Austin Holleman , Junius Dowd Holleman and then Joseph Holleman, Allen's grandfather, a carpenter - the first Holleman in this branch to leave the occupation of farming.

Allen's father, Joseph Allen Holleman, Sr., was in the building business.  Joseph Allen Holleman, Sr., our Allen, joined him, bought and sold it and other business and has thrived as a creative entrepreneur.  He now claims he is retired (which I doubt given his high energy level), but he looks great in his blue Mustang convertible.

 

Allen's resume is amazing - scuba diver, car race driver and U.S. Marine helicopter gunner in Viet Nam - are just a few of his endeavours.  Indeed, he must have the same DNA as Christopher Holyman, Sr. who in the 17th Century left England, sailed a dangerous sea, scratched a farm out of a wilderness and kept a look out for wild animals and angry Indians as he stripped his tobacco.  A salute to both Allen and his 8th great grandfather, Christopher, Sr. for their spunk and achievements!

Another post next week from our amazing Galaxy of Holliman cousins....

Our Family's Colonial Era, Part XVI

by Glenn N. Holliman

Who Were the Children of Christopher Holliman, Sr.?

In 1952, George A. Holleman, formerly of Chicago and later Columbus, Mississippi, wrote and published privately a work called The Hollyman Family. To my knowledge this work, which was expanded and reprinted by Holliman genealogist Tina Peddie, is the first and still the only comprehensive volume to discuss the founding of our Holliman family and to list hundreds of names of Holliman descendants. It is a monumental piece of research for the pre-internet age. Those of us who are his distant cousins are grateful for this volume, and Tina's work to update it and keep it alive.

The 350 odd page volume is available from Tina Peddie, desabla1@yahoo.com.

In this book George Holleman published, probably for the first time, a list of the children of Christopher Holyman Sr.

They are:

Thomas Holyman - ? to 1734

Christopher Holyman, Jr. - ? to 1731 in Isle of Wight Co.

William Holyman - 1661 - 1704

Richard Holyman - ? to 1711 in Surry Co.

Ann Holyman who married John Atkinson in 1691

Mary Holyman who married James Atkinson (John's brother) in 1691

The genealogists, reports and data I have read seem in agreement that primarily Hollymans, Hollemans, Hollimans, Hollomons, etc. in the United States are descendants of this family. This is not to say that other Hollimans could not have migrated later to other colonies or that other Virginia Holymans, such that have been discussed in other postings, did not leave families also.

However, to my knowledge (and I wish to be corrected if in error), most if and not all Hollimans (and variations) trace their lineage through Christopher Holyman, Sr. Personally, this is my branch, so those of you related to me through grandfathers and great grandfathers are descendants of dear Christopher Sr.

And thank you George A. Holleman for your pioneering work!

Our Family's Colonial Era, Part XIV

by Glenn N. Holliman

The Observations of Historian John Bennett Boddie

In 1938, Virginian historian John Bennett Boddie published Seventeenth Century, Isle of Wight County, Virginia. My 1994 reprint by the Genealogical Publishing Company of Baltimore, Maryland is brimming with abstracts of county records and Boddie's own history of this part of Virginia in the 1600s. Yes, there are many Holymans, including Christopher Holyman, Sr. and Jr., recorded in this volume, and much to study and upon which to reflect. In the next few postings, I shall pull out and examine some findings that reflect on our family and our country.

Isle of Wight Country had its first English settlers in 1619, one Captain Christopher Lawne responsible for a few pioneers. He represented his fledgling county in the historic first House of Burgess's meeting in 1619. Lawne's settlement floundered, but one Robert Bennett transported 120 settlers to Isle of Wight by 1621.

As I have recorded in earlier posts, the Powhatan Indian Confederacy launched an uprising on Good Friday, March 1622. After the day of murder, only 50 or so English remained in Isle of Wight Country, and 950 so English in the entire colony. English Virginia barely survived, but in recovering the settlers launched all out war on the Native Americans. From 1622 to 1632, annual forays into Indian territory resulted in destruction of many villages and food supplies.

Colonial Virginia was safer for current and future English settlers, and the amount of available land taken by a decade of conquest considerably enlarged frontier borders. The Warascoyak's tribe of Isle of Wight Country was destroyed in the extensive conflict.

In recording the above, Broddie on pages 84 to 86 notes three important precedents established by the Virginia House of Burgess in that ten year war. I thought them so important to understanding the future of our country, that I record them here.

1624 - Virginia General Assembly required 'that those shall be hurt on service shall be cured at public charge and the lame to be maintained by the county according to his person and quality'.

The care of veterans wounded in combat is enshrined into legislation very early in our history!

1629 - The Assembly gave Plantation commanders the authority and power 'to levy men to fall upon the Indians'. This is the first conscription or 'draft' law in colonial America, a precedent that all future draftees (such as myself in 1968) can appreciate!

1632 - Assembly required that no man shall attend church without carrying firearms or work ground with out arms and a sentinel. In a foreshadowing of the 2nd Amendment to the 1789 U.S. Constitution, later Assembly laws required that white males own a musket, shot and powder. This requirement provided an instant militia and saved money by not requiring a central armory for each county.

More on Colonial Virginia and our family in the next posting....