MacRae, John Burgwyn, 1845-1916.

John Burgwyn MacRae of Jackson, Northampton County, N.C., son of Episcopal rector Cameron F. MacRae and Julia Burgwyn MacRae, was a lawyer, owner of a large Roanoke River plantation, and diarist.

From the description of John Burgwyn MacRae papers, 1866-1916, 1974. WorldCat record id: 23658765

NOTE: This essay, with an accompanying annotated list of names, was written in 1980 by Henry W. Lewis, grandson of Dr. Henry Lewis, a Jackson contemporary of John B. MacRae, as an introduction and guide to MacRae's diary (see Series 2). It provides biographical detail on many persons as well as MacRae.

About 1840, the children of John Fanning Burgwyn of New Bern (Henry King, Thomas Pollok, Emily, John Collinson, and Julia--wife of the Reverend Cameron F. MacRae) shared with their Devereaux kin in inheriting (but not without litigation) the extensive Roanoke River plantation lands of George Pollok (sometimes written Pollock ). The shares allotted to the Burgwyns lay on the north side of the river in Northampton County, specifically in the great bend of the river known as Occoneechee Neck.

Mrs. Cameron MacRae, whose husband was at various times rector of Episcopal Churches in Warrenton, in Maryland, in Philadelphia, and in Savannah, never lived in Northampton County, but her brothers, Henry, Thomas, and John Collinson Burgwyn, moved to their Roanoke River holdings. John died young and unmarried; Thomas married a New Yorker, but she did not remain long in the area; Henry King, who had attended Harvard College, married Anna Greenough of Boston. After a brief residence in the village of Jackson, the Henry Burgwyns went to live in a house they had built on Thornbury plantation--long known as Bull Hill before the Burgwyns renamed it for an English town near their ancestral seat. (U.B. Phillips was impressed with the American Farmer's account of agricultural operations on this plantation, not to mention the elaborate facilities erected there for its slave population--chapel, hospital, etc.--and made much of it in his Life and Labor in the Old South.)

Not long after the Burgwyns settled in Northampton County, perhaps before 1845, the Rev. Mr. MacRae became assistant minister of Christ Church, Philadelphia. He and his Burgwyn wife had two children--John Burgwyn (the diarist) and Kate, a daughter who never married and who lived most of her life in Philadelphia with her mother's unmarried sister Emily Burgwyn (called dear Emmie in the diary).

John Burgwyn MacRae was born in 1845. His mother died in Philadelphia before the Civil War, and his father cared for the two young children at the boarding house of a Mrs. Scheetz on Portico Row in that city. Although the sequence of events is not entirely clear, it appears that the Rev. Mr. MacRae accepted a call to St. John's Church, Savannah, and it was from that city that young John entered the University of North Carolina in 1862. John remained in Chapel Hill until 1863; then at age 18 he became a soldier in the Confederate Army and saw service in eastern North Carolina. In 1865 he returned to the University but did not graduate; he received the A.B. degree along with other members of the war classes in 1911.

Upon leaving Chapel Hill, MacRae seems to have gone to Fayetteville, his father's birthplace, to read law. How long he remained there is undetermined, but, having completed his legal studies, it was not long before he settled in Jackson. In the division of the Pollok lands, Mrs. MacRae had obtained two large Occoneechee Neck plantations, one of which had been inherited by John, the other by his sister Kate. Thus, it was not surprising that the young lawyer should have decided to establish himself near these plantations.

When John MacRae arrived in Jackson, he found two of his Burgwyn cousins well established in the community: Alveston, a bachelor, and his brother, George Pollok. In 1869, George Burgwyn had married Emma, daughter of Colonel Thomas and Margaret Jordan Ridley of Bonnie Doon plantation in Southampton County, Virginia, some 40 miles from Jackson. The plat of the Town of Jackson (see Folder 28, Series 4) indicates where the George Burgwyns were living (Number 24) when the diary opens; to the east is situated The Elms (Number 22), the old Calvert residence in which Alveston Burgwyn was keeping bachelor's quarters. Later the Burgwyn brothers exchanged houses.

MacRae seems to have been genuinely devoted to Cousin Emma, his name for Mrs. George Burgwyn, and to his cousin Alveston. His feelings for his cousin George blew hot and cold.

Living in Richmond, but always hovering in the background, was the widowed Mrs. Henry King Burgwyn--MacRae's Aunt Anna --mother of the Burgwyn men in Jackson and of their redoubtable sister, Mrs. Thomas R. Baker, usually called Madame Baker by MacRae. (Mrs. Baker also lived in Richmond.)

The affairs of the Episcopal church, especially of the Church of the Saviour in Jackson, were important to MacRae, and its activities are given substantial space in the diary. In the early years of the journal, the Jackson church was served by the Rev. Gilbert Higgs, who lived in Warrenton and also served the church there. Higgs and his two sisters endeared themselves to MacRae by their devotion to good music and impeccable churchmanship. In Jackson, the Rev. Mr. Higgs was assisted by William T. Picard, a livery stable operator and harness maker who served first as lay reader and later as a perpetual deacon. MacRae's views of Old Pic or Old Whiskers constitute one of the most amusing themes in the diary. Mrs. Picard, a native of Hull, England, was a village tyrant, and her views and actions are important to the chronicle. Their daughter Mabel, a bit young for much notice in the opening volumes of the diary, was a saintly person.

Adjoining the courthouse square in Jackson stood the hotel that since 1808 had been acknowledged center of town life. Here MacRae took his meals and joined those he called the village senators and solons in discussing the news and latest gossip. On the town plat, adjoining Number 7 on the eastern side of the square, was a small two-room office (indicated by a cross mark) in which MacRae was living in the early years covered by the diary. He made a number of moves through the years, but he rarely strayed far from the center of town life.

Facing the courthouse square on the west and attached to the hotel was a small building in which Dr. H. W. Lewis maintained a drug store, called a pill and poison shop by MacRae, and just north of that stood the building in which Dr. Lewis established his office a few years after the diary opens. To MacRae, Dr. Lewis, eleven years his junior, was always Physic. As a bachelor, Dr. Lewis, who had come to Jackson from Virginia in 1879, lived at the William T. Buxton residence (Number 20) where he had an office in the yard. A strong theme in the first volume of the diary is the courtship, marriage, and early domestic life of Dr. Lewis.

The doctor was married in 1884 to Mrs. Sallie Ridley Long, a widow several years older than the doctor, and the mother of two children--Nanny and John Long. When the diary opens, the widow was living in Weldon, North Carolina, in the household of her mother-in-law (Mrs. Melissa Williams Long), together with her two widowed sisters-in-law (Mrs. Junius Daniel and Mrs. James W. Faucett). The late John J. Long (who seems to have been something of a sport ) had been a friend of George P. Burgwyn, and Mrs. Burgwyn ( Cousin Emma ) was first cousin to Mrs. Long. These relationships account for the numerous references MacRae makes to various Ridleys, frequent visitors in the community, who lived either in Southampton County, Virginia, or in the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth. Before 1890, the elderly Francis T. Ridley moved to Jackson with two of his daughters, Mrs. Joseph Drewry and Miss Julia Ridley. MacRae's fascination with Miss Julia is another recurrent theme.

A map of Northampton County (Series 4, Folder 18) shows the major sites mentioned in the diary, as well as the railroads that traversed the county. Observe how near the area lies to Richmond, Petersburg, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Portsmouth; also observe that Raleigh and Wilmington were easily accessible by train. The relative ease with which residents of Jackson were able to reach these cities was a major cause of the fairly sophisticated life they lived.

The plantations mentioned most frequently in the diary--Mowfield, Verona, Thornbury (Bull Hill), Longview, and Belmont--are shown on the county map. Thornbury house was unoccupied; Verona was the home of Senator Matt. W. Ransom, his wife, daughter, and numerous sons, the oldest of whom, Matt Jr., is mentioned from time to time in the diary; Longview was the home of Thomas W. Mason, his daughter Ruth, and his daughter Betty and her husband (Major Mac Long) and their children; Belmont was the residence of Dr. Edmund W. Wilkins and his family; Mowfield--sometimes spelled Moorfields by MacRae--was the home of Mr. and Mrs. George Spruill Urquhart.

The map of Jackson shows three plantation houses that stood on the outskirts of the village: Grape Hill (Number 31) was the residence of an important grandam, Mrs. John Randolph, and her son-in-law, William Wallace Peebles, and his children; Holly Lodge (Number 44) was the residence of Mrs. Sallie Blunt Peebles--widow of both Henry and Nicholas Peebles--and her son Ethelred John ( E.J. in the diary) and her daughter Ella, whose marriage to a Mr. Fuller was considered a misalliance; Mrs. Urquhart of Mowfield was also the daughter of Mrs. Peebles of Holly Lodge. Across the road from Holly Lodge was the residence of the W. Cornelius Bowen family (Number 43).

At Number 7 on the town plat lived Mrs. William Barrow, widowed sister of Mrs. John Randolph. These dignified women were daughters of Samuel Calvert, who, at the time the town of Jackson was laid out, acquired a majority of the lots. It was he who gave the land for each of the three churches in the town--Episcopal, Methodist, and Baptist. When the diary opens, Mrs. Samuel Calvert, Jr. (born Gulielma Faison) was living at Number 18; she was as militant a Methodist as was Mrs. Picard an Episcopal. Mrs. Barrow had several children, but the only two who are mentioned frequently by MacRae are Will and Alethia ( Miss Lethe ), with whom the diarist was infatuated.

As already noted, Mrs. Randolph lived at Grape Hill; her grandchildren, Margaret ( Maggie ), Bruce, and Calvert ( Cal ), and their father, Mr. Billy Peebles, appear again and again in the chronicle.

On the courthouse square (at Number 8) lived Robert Bruce Peebles ( Captain Bob ), lawyer, Confederate veteran, judge, and husband of Margaret Cameron, daughter of Paul Carrington Cameron of Hillsborough. Living with the Peebleses were his sister, Miss Mittie and his nieces, the Misses Lucretia and Janet Whitfield. The Whitfield sisters--led by Miss Lou --became the teachers of the parochial school established by the Church of the Saviour in 1886.

Referring again to the town plat, it will be seen that Number 10 occupies an important location in the town. This house was built for Thomas Bragg, who later became governor of North Carolina and a member of Jefferson Davis' cabinet. After the Civil War, it was acquired by the Newsom family, and early in MacRae's diary it became the residence of the Preots, a Creole family from Louisiana. When Dr. H.W. Lewis' sister Eileen was married to W. Paul Moore of Norfolk, they moved to Jackson and purchased this house. MacRae saw a great deal of the Moores, whose cuisine was famous in the area, and the diarist could not resist an invitation to dinner.

The number of Buxtons mentioned in the diary makes for confusion, but they were an important element in the community. William T. Buxton was register of deeds; Capt. Samuel Buxton was a well-to-do merchant.

Three of the children of Mrs. Samuel Calvert, Jr. appear often in the journal--Samuel Calvert III, Mrs. Douglas A. Jordan, and Miss Maggie (or Mag ) Calvert. Both Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Jordan were popular members of the town's society; Sam Calvert III annoyed MacRae because he--along with Capt. Peebles, Dr. Lewis, and Mr. Bowen--liked to play poker, a game that the diarist deplored. But, like MacRae, Sam Calvert was a strong Mason, and that was important to MacRae.

Important to the narrative--especially in the later volumes--is the fact that George P. Burgwyn maintained a commissary, a barroom, a gin, and a mill at Bull Hill. The millpond there was MacRae's favorite haunt for fishing, and he thought nothing of walking from Jackson to the pond and back day after day--a ten-mile round trip.

In addition to the two maps already noted, there is also a list of persons frequently named in the early volumes of the journal. What has not been mentioned heretofore is what the diary reveals of MacRae himself. A few brief comments will suffice: The frankness with which he records his actions and feelings is reminiscent of Pepys; in fact, it makes the reader speculate as to why MacRae kept the diary so faithfully--from the autumn of 1883 (when he was 38 years old) until January 1916, a few months before his death. The diary is explicit in detailing MacRae's sexual exploits with black women and equally detailed in recording his remorse. He seemed always to be completely infatuated with some acceptable white woman--always admired as if on a pedestal--but unable to restrain himself with blacks who visited him without apparent invitation. He was never married.

In the current phrase, MacRae was allergic to routine employment, yet he seemed always to be trying to find a job. His law practice languished to extinction; he lost his plantation because he could not make mortgage payments; in his latter years he lived on the charity of his Burgwyn cousins. Yet as a man he was remarkably generous with what he had and with whatever was given to him--no matter how modest. The man's eccentricities, which are still recounted in Jackson, are apparent in his account of his own behavior. His opinions of individual men and women must be read with care, for from month to month and year to year they changed radically; an unexpected favor or an unexpected slight was enough to cause him to reverse a strong opinion only recently expressed. On the other hand, his accounts of events are detailed and, from all available evidence, reliable.

It is obvious that MacRae, despite his peculiarities, was usually welcomed in Jackson homes. He must have been an entertaining conversationalist and something of a raconteur; certainly he had a degree of education and experience of the world that enabled him to serve well as the extra man whenever out-of-towners were being entertained.

The diary itself indicates that MacRae's habit was to draft each day's entry on loose sheets of paper, then, at his leisure, he would transcribe the drafts into the journal, making editorial changes as he did so. In a few instances, it is apparent that, in the transcription process, MacRae made errors in dates, and a few entries are made in incorrect order. But these errors are rare. From the autumn of 1883 to January 1916, there are very few days for which no entries were made.

Although MacRae diligently reported his activities when he was away from Jackson, the principal value of the diary lies in its record of what occurred in that town. Few communities have been reported in such faithful detail.

Names frequently found in the early volumes of the John B. MacRae diary:

Anderton: overseer at Miss Kate MacRae's Occoneechee Neck plantation

Baker, Mrs. Thomas R. (Minnie Burgwyn): MacRae's cousin; daughter of Henry K. and Anna Greenough Burgwyn; lived in Richmond

Barrow, Mrs. William (Eliza Calvert): see biographical note narrative

Barrow, William, Jr. (Will or Willie): see biographical note narrative

Barrow, Alethia (Lethe): see biographical note narrative

Bowen, William Cornelius (Neal): see biographical note narrative

Bowen, Mrs. William Cornelius (Josephine Southall): native of Murfreesboro; died of pneumonia in 1893 at same time as Mrs. George P. Burgwyn, Mrs. Douglas A. Jordan, and Mrs. Cornelius G.C. Moore (Mr. Bowen's aunt)

Bowen girls (daughters of the W.C. Bowens: Rettie, Julia, Josephine, and Blannie)

Brodnax, Mrs. Alexander John (Ellen Mallory): widow of Dr. H.W. Lewis' cousin and close companion of his mother, Mrs. Benjamin Lewis; mother of Nelly Brodnax; lived at The Woodlands in Brunswick County, Virginia

Brodnax, Nelly: one of MacRae's beloved. Earlier she had been married to Robert Dunlop of Petersburg who had mistreated her. She, with her mother (both Roman Catholics), had gone to Rome and secured a papal annulment of the marriage, one condition of which was that, although she might reassume her maiden name, she must prefix it with Mrs. There is much speculation in the diary as to whether she is truly free to remarry.

Burgwyn, Miss Emily: see biographical note narrative

Burgwyn, George P.: see biographical note narrative

Burgwyn, Mrs. George P. (Emma Wright Ridley): see biographical note narrative

Burgwyn, G. Pollok: son of the above; appears in the later volumes

Burgwyn, Mrs. G. Pollok (Emily Bartlett Roper): a native of Petersburg who was married to G. Pollok Burgwyn; they lived in Jackson

Burgwyn, Mrs. Henry King (Anna Greenough): see biographical note narrative

Burgwyn, Henry K.: grandson of the above; son of George Pollok; was kind to MacRae in his latter years

Burgwyn, Mrs. Henry K. (Page Cauthorne): a native of Tappahannock, Virginia

Burgwyn, John Alveston: see biographical note narrative

Burgwyn, John Collinson: see biographical note narrative

Burgwyn, John Fanning: see biographical note narrative

Burgwyn, Thomas Pollok: see biographical note narrative

Burgwyn, William Hyslop Sumner: brother of George P. Burgwyn; colonel in Spanish-American War; frequently mentioned in the correspondence of Mrs. Cornelius Phillips Spencer. Lived in Henderson and Weldon, North Carolina. He seems to have specialized in organizing banks in small eastern North Carolina towns.

Burgwyn, Mrs. William Hyslop Sumner (Margaret Maggie Dunlop): native of Petersburg

Burgwyn, William H. Sumner: son of George P. Burgwyn; called Sum by MacRae

Buxton, Captain Samuel: see biographical note narrative

Buxton, William T.: see biographical note narrative

Buxton, Mrs. William T. (Mary Ann Jordan): native of Smithfield, Virginia

Calvert, Margaret (or Maggie or Mag ): see biographical note narrative

Calvert, Samuel: see biographical note narrative

Calvert, Mrs. Samuel, Jr. (Gulielma Faison): see biographical note narrative

Calvert, Samuel III: see biographical note narrative

Daniel, Mrs. Junius (Ellen Williams Long): see biographical note narrative

Faucett, Mrs. James W. (Willie Williams Long): see biographical note narrative

Gooch, James T.: mayor of Weldon

Gooch, Mrs. James T. (Emily Long): cousin of the other Longs and frequent visitor in Jackson

Higgs, the Rev. Gilbert: rector of the Church of the Saviour in Jackson -- see biographical note narrative

Jordan, Douglas A.: one of MacRae's close friends; a native of Smithfield, Virginia

Jordan, Mrs. Douglas A. (May Calvert): daughter of Mrs. Samuel Calvert, Jr.

Kee (occasionally spelled Key in the diary): hotel keeper in Garysburg, N.C.; about 9 miles from Jackson

Lewis, Benjamin: father of Dr. H.W. Lewis; a lawyer who lived in Brunswick County, Virginia

Lewis, Mrs. Benjamin (Ellen E. Wilkins): born at Belmont plantation in western part of Northampton County; a frequent visitor in Jackson at the houses of her son (Dr. Lewis) and daughter (Mrs. W. Paul Moore)

Lewis, Benjamin, Jr.: Dr. Lewis' brother who worked in the town for a few years as a young man

Lewis, Henry W.: the physician that MacRae called Physic : see biographical note narrative

Lewis, Mrs. Henry W. (Sallie Ridley, formerly Mrs. John J. Long, Jr.): see biographical note narrative

Long, John J. III (son of Sallie and John J. Long, Jr.): MacRae did not like the young man

Long, Major Lemuel McKinne (Major Mac): native of Halifax County, N.C.; in 1883 married Miss Betty Mason and lived at Longview plantation in Northampton County

Long, Mrs. Lemuel McKinne (Betty Mason): daughter of Thomas W. Mason; MacRae was highly critical of her in the early portions of the diary but later changed his view

Long, Nanny W. (daughter of Sallie and John J. Long, Jr.) - MacRae admired this young woman; she was a frequent visitor at her mother's house in Jackson after her mother became Mrs. Lewis; later married Thomas B. Yuille.

MacRae, Cameron F.: see biographical note narrative

MacRae, Kate: see biographical note narrative

Mason, Thomas Williams: lawyer, Railroad Commissioner, judge. Lived at Longview plantation. A favorite of MacRae's.

Moore, William Paul: a native of Norfolk; although he was a dentist, he seems to have given up the practice after living in Jackson for several years, probably because of income from other sources. He was hospitable to MacRae and shared with him an interest in music and the bottle. Very popular in Jackson. Mrs. Moore was Ellen, sister of Dr. H.W. Lewis.: see biographical note narrative

Peebles, Calvert G. (Cal): son of William Wallace Peebles

Peebles, Ethelred John (E.J.): see biographical note narrative

Peebles, Mrs. Ethelred John (Margaret Peebles): husband and wife were first cousins

Peebles, Millard F.: son of Henry and Sally Blunt Peebles; his murder is noted in the diary

Peebles, Sarah E. (Miss Mittie): sister of Robert B. and William W. Peebles

Peebles, Robert Bruce: see biographical note narrative

Peebles, Mrs. Robert Bruce (Margaret Cameron): see biographical note narrative

Peebles, Sallie Blunt: daughter of Millard Peebles, later Mrs. Frank R. Harris

Peebles, William Wallace: brother of Robert Bruce Peebles; see biographical note narrative

Peele, Miss Pattie: sister of Mrs. Samuel Buxton

Picard, Mabel (later Mrs. Henry Benjamin Hardy): see biographical note narrative

Picard, William Thomas: see biographical note narrative

Picard, Mrs. William Thomas (Mabel Howard): see biographical note narrative

Preot family: see biographical note narrative

Randolph, Mrs. M. John (Morgianna M. Calvert): see biographical note narrative

Ransom, Matt Whitaker: United States Senator: see biographical note narrative

Ransom, Mrs. Matt Whitaker (Patty Exum): see biographical note narrative

Ransom, Matt Whitaker, Jr.: see biographical note narrative

Ridley, Francis T.: see biographical note narrative

Ridley, Julia Maclin: see biographical note narrative

Ridley, Norfleet Blunt: brother of Mrs. Sallie Ridley Long-Lewis; resident of Portsmouth, Virginia; occasional visitor in Jackson

Ridley, Mrs. Norfleet Blunt (Anna Field Ridley): daughter of Francis T. Ridley, above; occasional visitor in Jackson

Ridley, Robert, Jr.: brother of Mrs. Sallie Ridley Long-Lewis; resident of Portsmouth, Virginia; occasional visitor in Jackson

Ridley, Roberta M. (Berta or Bert): daughter of Nathaniel Thomas Ridley of Bloomfield plantation, Southampton County, Virginia (brother of Mrs. George P. Burgwyn) and Mary Thomas Ridley (sister of Mrs. Sallie Ridley Long-Lewis); occasional visitor in Jackson

Ridley, Mrs. Thomas (Margaret Ann Bynym Jordan) of Bonnie Doon plantation, Southampton County, Virginia; frequent guest of her daughter, Mrs. George P. Burgwyn

Semmes, Mrs. Bernard Brockenbrough (Frances Stuart Lewis) (Miss Fanny): sister of Dr. H.W. Lewis; her visits to Jackson before her marriage are described in some detail; MacRae liked her. After marriage, she lived in Newport News, Virginia.

Stancell, Millard F.: one of MacRae's close friends; at one time managed the local alcoholic liquor dispensary; later register of deeds of Northampton county; following the death of Alveston Burgwyn, lived at No. 24 on plat of town of Jackson

Urquhart, George S.: see biographical note narrative

Urquhart, Mrs. George S. (Susan Peebles): see biographical note narrative

Urquhart, Martha Rebecca (Pattie): half-sister of Mrs. Sallie Ridley Long-Lewis and niece of George S. Urquhart of Mowfield. She and her sisters (Louisa, Annie, and Lucy) lived at Charlie's Hope plantation, Southampton County, Virginia, and were frequent visitors in Jackson.

Weaver, Richard A. (Dick): lived near the Burgwyns and Dr. H.W. Lewis. See Number 23 on plat of Town of Jackson; a great favorite of MacRae's.

Whitfield, Janet: see biographical note narrative

Whitfield, Lucretia: see biographical note narrative

Wilkins, Bessie G.: daughter of Dr. Edmund W. Wilkins of Belmont plantation; first cousin of Dr. H.W. Lewis and Mrs. W. Paul Moore

Wilkins, Edmonia C.: sister of Bessie G. Wilkins

Wilkins, Dr. Edmund W.: uncle of Dr. H.W. Lewis and Mrs. W. Paul Moore; lived at Belmont plantation in the western part of Northampton County. On his property stood the original Town of Gaston, the eastern terminus of the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad.

From the guide to the John Burgwyn MacRae Papers, 1866- 1916, 1974, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)