Essentials
Born: About 1740; Granville, North Carolina
Married: Mary; Granville, North Carolina
Died: After 1804; possibly in Elbert County, Georgia, or vicinity

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One-minute history

BY DARYL JAMES
JANUARY 2002
     Little is known of John Parham beyond information contained in a will he drafted 4 August 1804. This will was registered 22 April 1805, and reads in full:

     In the name of God Amen. I John Parham being in sound mind and memory and calling to mind the state of mortality in which I dayly am, make and ordain this my will and testament and hereby revoke all other will or wills heretofore made by me. Item 1. My will is first of all that my just debts be paid. Item 2. I lend my wife Mary Parham both real and personal during her natural life or widowood. Except two horses, one to my son Thomas Parham, and the other to my son Dickson Parham. Priced to eighty dollars each. Item 3. My will further is that after the death of my wife above mentioned, my estate then to equaily divided between my several children, Viz: Elizabeth Bennett, Cannon Parham, John Parham, Isam Parham, Nancy Sargent, Mary Upshaw, Thomas Parham, Holeberry Hicks, Mildred Parham, Dickson Parham, Frances Parham and Lucy Parham.
     Item 4. My estate consists of one small tract of land on the water of Doves Creek (Elbert County, Georgia), it being the place I now live on, six negroes named, Viz: Len, Anthony, Jane, James, and Delilia, a small stock of horses, cows, and hogs together with my household plantation tools and citery. Item 5. My will further is that my several daughters, Viz: Mary, Mildred, Holeberry, Frances and Lucy have each of them a bed before the division of my estate, priced to thirty five dollars each. My wife has the power to give those beds when she shall or may find it convenient. Item 6. I do now constitute and appoint my son John Parham and friend Wm Davis, Executors to this Last Will and Testament in whom I repose Real Confidence. Made, Signed and Sealed this second day of August in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and four.
     John Parham
     Test: Edmond Shachelford, David Hicks, Thomas Parham
     Registered the 22nd day of April 1805
     W. Higginbotham C.C.O.

     The Elbert County that John refers to was established in 1790. It was formed using land ceded by the Cherokee and Creek Indians in a treaty signed 1 July 1773. The first permanent white settlements appeared in the last two decades of the 18th century after the American Revolutionary War, which means John and his wife Mary would have been among the first whites to settle in the area.
-- Sources: The will, provided to this Web site by Robin Morris, a descendant of John Parham through Gad Morris, comes from Ref. Pg. 13, His. Col. of the Ga. Cha. Nat. Soc. D.A.R. Vol 3--Davidson. A copy can also be found at http://users.ap.net/~chenae/parham4.html on the Internet

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Cicero MORRIS
Gad MORRIS
Norma MORRIS
Lucy PARHAM
John PARHAM

CHILDREN WITH MARY