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The first Landrums of record in America appear in Virginia in the 1600's. John and James Landrum appear in deeds and wills in old Rappahanock County which became Essex County, Virginia . Although the relationship between these two men is not conclusively proven, some people have make the assumption they were brothers. Additionally, it is assumed that these two men arrived from Scotland.The stories regarding the origin of the Landrum family can be traced to a book called "The Life and Times of Rev. John Hill Landrum" by H.P. Griffith, published in 1885. In this book , two relatives of John Gill Landrum recall family legends that the Landrums descended either from two brothers from Scotland or five brothers from Wales. Neither story has been conclusively proven , but most Landrums in American can trace their lineage to these two Landrums from Virginia that researchers refer to as John 1st and James 1st. There is also a reference in "The Landrum Family of Fayette County, Georgia" by Joel Shedd, published in 1972, that attributes the Landrum descent from Scotch-Irish blood. Shedd accepts the story that John and James Landrum were brothers who emigrated to American from Scotland. The most direct evidence of this is related by Dr. Samuel Landrum of Edgefield, SC, great-grandson of the first John Landrum. "The original Landrums were two brothers who came over from Scotland and Settled in Virginia: one named John, the other James."What is known is that there were Lendrums in Scotland and Ireland at the time John and James Landrum arrived in America. The Lendrums of Ireland are attributed to the Lendrums of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. I prefer to accept the most widely held theory that John and James Lendrum came from the Scot line. There is a reference to a John Lendrum being a deserter in Scotland in 1685.

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      928. John Landrum I, born Abt. 1665 in Aberdeenshire, Scotland; died Abt. 1707 in Essex Cty., VA. He was the son of 1856. Fnu Lendrum. He married 929. Jane Evans Abt. 1689 in VA. 

929. Jane Evans, born Abt. 1667 in Wales; died Aft. 1707 in Essex Cty., VA. She was the daughter of 1858. John Evans and 1859. Unknown Johnson.
Notes for John Landrum I:

Writtern by David SKLENAR

2815 NW 94th St.

Seattle, WA 98117

The History of the Landrum

from the name of a Celtic people.

      The Landrum Family 

The Landrum family name is derived from Lendrum, from a place of that name near Turriff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Lendrum itself is from the Gaelic leathan druim meaning "broad ridge" or according to another authority it means "moor of the ridge" from the Celtic lon meaning "moor" and droma, the genitive of druin meaning "hill or ridge". The Lendrum farm is situated between Turriff and Fyvie in northeastern Aberdeenshire. Turriff is 38 miles northwest of the city of Aberdeen and the Lendrum farm itself measures about 250 acres in the parish of Monquhitter about four miles south of Turriff. Numerous farms in Aberdeenshire are known by names which they have borne for centuries. The land in this area has been cultivated by man continuously from the Neolithic age six to eight thousand years ago.
The Lendrum farm has had its present name from at least as early as the eleventh century when the Battle of Lendrum was fought there. This was a bloody three-day battle between the forces commanded by the mormaer(earl) of Buchan, "the Thane of Buchan", and the army of the usurper, Donald Bane, "Donald of the Isles", brother of King Malcolm Canmore. The decisive third day of the battle was fought in a six-acre field which tradition covers with gore. The field is located in Monquhitter parish in Aberdeenshire. The mormaer of Buchan prevailed and Donald, after losing most of his forces, was forced to flee. Down to at least 1793 it was firmly believed locally that "corn" (i.e. grain) grown on the "bloody butts of Lendrum" could not be reaped without strife and bloodshed among the reapers.
The site of the battle was marked by cairns and tumuli until some time in the first half of the nineteenth century, when a tenant put the heath under plow. In the course of this he removed the hillocks which had marked the graves of the slain and preserved the memory of the battle, in many of which he found corroded iron and other evidence of conflict. The tenant unknowingly destroyed battle memorials which he regarded as merely encumbrances in his field.
Some sources have the Lendrums originally with the Comyn family, but when Robert Bruce defeated Comyn, the name Comyn was banned. Some of the Comyns took the name Lendrum.
The "Lendrum" tartan is registered with the Scottish Tartan Society and is better known as the "MacFarlane" tartan. The latter name is the one by which all of the setts were first known, and when and why they also became Lendrum tartans is unclear. There can be no connection between the names, historically speaking, the MacFarlanes are from the area around Arrochar at the top of Loch Lomond while the Lendrums come from a place of that name near Turriff in Aberdeenshire.
The Lendrum coat of arms is on record in The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. It is confirmed to George Lendrum, Esquire, of Jamestown, county Fermanagh, son of James Lendrum, and grandson of George Lendrum, Esquire of Moorfield, county Tyrone. These are Irish counties and as such, we are not directly descended from this line. The coat of arms is described as "Gu. three garbs or, on a chief argent three wool packs sa. Crest-on a mount vert, a dove close holding in its beak an olive branch, all ppr. Motto-La Paix. The tie between the Irish and Scottish Lendrums is described later.
The first Landrums of record in America appear in Virginia in the 1600's. John and James Landrum appear in deeds and wills in old Rappahanock county which became Essex county, Virginia. Although the relationship between these two men is not conclusively proven, some people have made the assumption they were brothers. Additionally, it is assumed that these two men arrived from Scotland.
The stories regarding the origin of the Landrum family can be traced to a book called The Life and Times of Rev. John Gill Landrum by H.P. Griffith published in 1885. In this book, two relatives of John Gill Landrum recall family legends that the Landrums descended either from two brothers from Scotland or five brothers from Wales. Neither story has been conclusively proven but most Landrums in America can trace their lineage to these two Landrums from Virginia that researchers refer to as John 1st and James 1st. There is also a reference in The Landrum Family of Fayette County, Georgia by Joel Shedd published in 1972 that attributes the Landrum descent from Scotch-Irish blood. Shedd accepts the story that John and James Landrum were brothers who emigrated to America from Scotland. The most direct evidence of this is related by Dr. Samuel Landrum of Edgefield, SC, great-grandson of the first John Landrum. "The original Landrums were two brothers who came over from Scotland and settled in Virginia; one named John, the other James."
What is known is that there were Lendrums in Scotland and Ireland at the time John and James Landrum arrived in America. The Lendrums of Ireland are attributed to the Lendrums of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. I prefer to accept the most widely held theory that John and James Lendrum came from the Scot line. There is a reference to a John Lendrum being a deserter in Scotland in 1685.
Why the Landrums left Scotland for America at this time can only be speculated. As previously mentioned, clan warfare was prevalent during the late 17th century. Around this time in Aberdeenshire history was a period known as "The Troubles". A bitter war was waging between the Covenanters who adhered to strict Presbyterianism and the Cavaliers who followed the traditional Episcopal form of religion typified by the Established Church of England. The wave of Presbyterianism that swept over Scotland in the time of John Knox did not extend into Aberdeenshire, where Presbyterianism was less generally acceptable than episcopacy, and Aberdeenshire remained the stronghold of episcopacy in Scotland for generations.
The bitter conflict in Aberdeenshire between the Presbyterians Covenanters and the Episcopal Cavaliers started in 1638 when the National Covenant (prescribing Presbyterianism throughout Scotland) was ordered to be subscribed. This demand was met with resistance in Aberdeenshire and an armed force was sent to the shire the following year to enforce compliance. The Cavaliers, not being disposed to yield, dispersed an armed gathering of the Covenanters in a battle at Turriff on May 14, 1639. This affair known as the "Trot of Turriff" was the first bloodshed in the Scottish religious civil war and marked the beginning of The Troubles in Aberdeenshire. The religious war continued intermittently for many years and Presbyterianism did not gain ascendancy in Aberdeenshire until the eighteenth century and the Turriff area was a stronghold of episcopacy.
Religious civil wars were not confined to Scotland during this time. The Glorious Revolution, in which James II (James VII of Scotland) was dethroned and William of Orange and his wife, Mary, were installed in place of James, was basically a struggle between Protestants and Catholics. The predominantly Protestant English and Scots opposed the pro-Catholic policies of James. The predominantly Catholic Irish supported him. At the invitation of English parliamentary leaders, William of Orange came over from Holland with an army and landed in England on November 5, 1688. On February 13, 1689 William and Mary accepted the crown proffered by vote of parliament.
James II took refuge in Ireland and sought to regain the throne with the aid of an Irish army. On June 14, 1690 William landed in Ireland and led an army that defeated James II at the Battle of Boyne. Captain James Lendrum fought with William's forces in Ireland in 1690 and received a grant of land confiscated from Irish nobility that had supported James II. This gave rise to the Lendrums of Ireland. The tie between the Lendrums of Scotland and Ireland is confirmed in The Surnames of Ireland, which states that the Lendrum name in Ireland is "a Scottish (Aberdeenshire) toponymic associated with Cos. Tyrone and Fermanagh since mid-seventeenth century.
Whether it was the pressure to subscribe to Presbyterianism, being on the losing side of the battles between the Cavaliers and Covenanters, the fighting between William of Orange and James II, or a result of clan warfare that caused John and James Landrum to move to America we may never know. Whatever the specific reason, the end of the seventeenth century was a tumultuous time in the British Isles. America offered opportunity for a new start. The earliest record of the Landrum brothers in America is a deed dated December 8, 1688.
John Landrum I married Jane or Sofronon Evans and they had four children: Thomas born in 1690, Elizabeth born in 1693, John II born in 1696, and Martha born in 1699. The name Sofronon is speculative based on the interpretation of the writing in the will. John Landrum II married a woman whose name may have been Mary Buckner, born in 1700. John and Mary had seven children: John Jr. (III), Charles, Benjamin, Thomas born in 1720, Reuben born in 1729, Joseph born in 1730, and Samuel born in 1737. John Landrum I died in 1708.
In 1663 Charles II granted to eight English noblemen most of the land in what is now the southern half of the United States. In 1728 all of these Lord Proprietors surrendered their interests in this land to the Crown, with the exception of John Carteret, soon afterward made Earl of Granville, who refused to surrender his one-eighth interest. In 1744 Lord Granville's interest was satisfied by having surveyors cut out for him a strip of land sixty miles wide adjoining the Virginia border and extending from the Atlantic Ocean westward to the Blue Ridge mountains. It proved to be the most fertile part of North Carolina, and two-thirds of the population lived there.
Orange County, North Carolina like Orange County, Virginia was named for the Prince of Orange who became King William during the reign of William and Mary. The earliest record pertaining to a Landrum in Chatham County, NC is a land grant by Lord Granville to John Landrum on August 28, 1754, covering 640 acres of land in the part of Orange County that subsequently became Chatham County. The 1755 tax list of Orange County, North Carolina contains the following entry: "John Landrum with sons and 1 negro, 6 white, 1 negro." In addition to the above-mentioned land grant in 1754, North Carolina records show the following land grants by Lord Granville to the Landrums:
Grant # Grantee Date Acres Location
8 John Landrum 10-2-1761 700 Not Shown
43 Benjamin Landrum 10-2-1761 640 Head of Mill Creek
112 Reuben Landrum 12-24-1762 379 Between Mill Creek
& Great Creek
112 Joseph Landrum 12-24-1762 136 On Mill Creek
The 1870 map of the county at the courthouse in Pittsboro,NC shows "Landrum's Creek" running from north to south into Rocky River at about the center of the county. This is where the Landrums lived during the approximately 20 years they resided in Orange, later Chatham, County, North Carolina.
Lord Granville set up a territorial system of land tenure under which his land office made grants of land to settlers who were required to pay a fee for having an "entry" of the land made in the land office records and in addition were required to pay "quit rents". This system proved to be grossly unsatisfactory, as Granville's land agents proved to be dishonest and inefficient. Their dishonesty and inefficiency led to riots by the settlers.
The trouble in Granville district were not limited to the land agents, as there were complaints about extortion by county officers. The mutterings that led to the War of the Regulators started in Granville district and soon spread to Orange County. In March, 1768 an organization that came to be known as the "Regulators" started an era of force and violence when they agreed among themselves to forcibly resist payment of any taxes in excess of what they considered lawful. The Regulator movements in North and South Carolina were the products of sectional and economic conflict. These movements were tied more closely to local discontent than they were to any widespread dissatisfaction with British rule. In fact, many of the Regulators later sided with the crown against the colonial ruling class that led the independence movement.
The conflict in North Carolina came to a head around 1768 when small farmers in the backcountry protested against the inequitable and inefficient system of local government prevailing in their area. Charles and Rueben Landrum were two of the signers of a Regulators' petition form Orange County dated April 30, 1768 concerning grievances over taxes. Conflict between the Regulators and Governor William Tryon continued for several years. Governor Tryon, instead of trying to address the grievances of the settlers, got the General Assembly to enact an ex post facto law making past acts of the Regulators a capital offense.
On May 11, 1771 (subsequent to the enactment of the ex post facto law making prior acts of the Regulators crimes punishable by death) Rueben Landrum was indicted (along with many others) for being a Regulator by a Special Court convened at Newborn, N.C. Rueben probably fled North Carolina to Cross Keys, S.C. at this time. On May 16, 1771 the Battle of Alamance Creek (about 24 miles from Hillsboro, the county seat of Orange County) took place between about 2000 Regulators and about 1200 troops of the Crown. The Regulators were routed after their ammunition gave out although casualties were about equal on both sides. One of the Regulator leaders was executed on the battle field, and six Regulators were hanged for treason following a court-martial.
The Regulators in South Carolina were also backcountry farmers. Upset by banditry and Indian attacks about which their local government did little, they formed associations in 1767; they refused to pay their taxes and took vigilante action to impose their own form of law and order. In 1769, South Carolina set up a court system for the backcountry and conditions stabilized there.
No doubt it was on account of this background of unredressed grievances that feelings ran unusually high against Tories in Chatham County, NC. As the spirit of the Revolutionary war gained momentum, settlers questioned paying for their land , claiming it was free. John Landrum II died in or prior to 1773 at the height of the troubles. His son, John Landrum, Jr. may have been an agent for Lord Granville and was murdered by rioting settlers. This does not mean that he was one of the dishonest land agents, as North Carolina records mention by name many of the Granville agents who were guilty of dishonest and other improper acts, but no mention is made of any Landrum in this connection.
John Landrum, Jr.'s son, Thomas, sought out the supposed murderer of his father and "cut him down in cold blood". It seems that the murderer of the Tory John Landrum was released on bail on June 29, 1781 by a resolution of the state legislature. This was during the Revolutionary War and the Revolutionary state legislature was in control. It was after the accused murderer was released on bail that Thomas Landrum killed the accused murderer of his father. Thomas fled to relatives in Georgia while on bail and was brought back by the bail bondsman. He was acquitted of the killing of his father's murderer, but was convicted on the charge of horse-stealing while escaping and sentenced to death. The statement that Thomas Landrum was a Tory and "condemned to death as a Tory" would seem correct although it appears that all the Landrums except for John Landrum, Jr. and his family supported the Revolutionary cause. In all, nineteen Landrums served in the Revolutionary War.
John Landrum, Jr.'s brother Reuben fled to Cross Keys, SC after the War of the Regulators in 1771. Cross Keys was at that time in the part of District Ninety-six that later became Union County. When South Carolina was first divided into six districts in 1768, all of the western part of the province, except the extreme northwestern part which was still Cherokee Indian territory, was put in District Ninety-six. This extended from the North Carolina border on the north to nearly as far south as Augusta, Georgia. District Ninety-six was divided into six counties in 1783. One of these counties was Union.
Reuben Landrum was a minister of the gospel. He married a Miss Terrel, who was related to the Wilkins family of Union and Spartanburg counties. Rueben married a second time to a Miss Mary Ray and they had five sons and four daughters. Rueben Landrum is represented as having been a good citizen, a man of strong though not cultivated mind, and as always standing squarely up for what he considered the best interests of his country. He dropped dead of old age in 1805 while feeding shucks to his cattle.
Reuben had three sons by his first wife: Stephen, James, and Benjamin. Stephen, the eldest, was born in 1756 and married a woman named Patsey. They had a son named James. Stephen was a soldier in the Revolutionary War; but after three months' service he came home on furlough, and while sitting in the yard engaged in shaving himself, was shot dead by a party of Tories who had come up to the gate.
James, the second son, was of a roving and wayward disposition. He went to North Carolina and married an Indian wife; and after the treaty in 1827, by which all lands in Georgia were ceded to the United States, he moved with the tribes to the West. Benjamin, the third son, was born in 1760, married and died in Middle Tennessee .
James Landrum was born in 1758 and married Rebecca Duncan a half-breed Cherokee in the Cherokee Nation East. Rebecca Duncan was born in 1792, the daughter of Young Charles Gordon Duncan, a Scotsman, and Dorcas Duncan, a full blood Cherokee of the Dear Clan.
In the Cherokee Nation there were seven Clans. The seven Clans of the Cherokee controlled inter-personal affairs, such as hereditary duties and privileges, marriage, revenge, disputes between individuals, and personal injury or porperty damage cases. The children belonged to the Clan of the mother, and the law forbids marriage between persons of the same Clan. Evidently, the original names of the seven (human) Clans have been lost or changed over the years, or the meaning of some of their original names have been differently interpreted. Four Clans that are consistent are: Deer, Wolf, Bird, and Long Hair. The other three Clans are variously described as Paint or Warpaint, Blind Savannah, Savannah or Blue, and Holly, Bear or Wild Potato.
The presence of the Clans in the autonomous Cherokee towns insured that the towns did not wage war on each other. Killing between Cherokees, which was ana cat of war when committed by or to an outsider, came under the law of Clan revenge. If a Cherokee of one Clan killed a Cherokee of another Clan, the Clan of the slain person was entitled to: (1) claim the life of the killer, or (2) if the killer could not be reached, claim the life of a close relative in the killer's Clan, or (3), failing that, of another member of the killer's Clan. Revenge entitled the injured Clan to a life for a life, without reciprocal retaliation, which evened the score.
Rebecca Landrum died on February 15, 1872 near Vinita, Cherokee Nation, I.T. and is buried in the Landrum cemetery southeast of Vinita, OK. James and Rebecca Duncan were the parents of 13 children who were 1/4 Cherokee.
James Landrum was a prosperous man according to the 1835 Census of Cherokees in the limits of Georgia. He lived with 4 males under 18 years of age, 5 over 18, 3 females under 16, and 3 over 16. They lived on the "Etower" (Etowah) river in Lumpkin County, Georgia. He owned 8 slaves of which 7 were female. One white (James) was connected to the Cherokee Nation by marriage. He owned 13 horses and had six farms with 218 acres in cultivation. Nobody in his family could read English, but two could read Cherokee. 12 family members were half-breeds and three were quadroons. Lumpkin County had extensive gold and iron ore mines, extensive water power and about 1/5 of the land was tillable. In the Cherokee nation in 1835 there were 21,804 Cherokees and 257 whites connected by marriage. James Landrum lived close to Sequoia, developer of the Cherokee language.
James and Rebecca's eldest son was Charles Landrum. Charles is listed in the 1835 Census of Cherokees within the limits of Georgia under James' listing. They must have lived next to each other. The census lists him as owning one farm of 20 acres with 5 horses and three people. One male over 18, one male under 18 (probably their son, Thomas), and one female over 16 (probably his wife, Ruth Proctor Landrum). Of the three, nobody could read English, but one could read Cherokee.
The Landrums, along with all the other Cherokees, were forced off their land in 1837 and marched to the Indian Territory in the west on what is now known as the "Trail of Tears". The U.S. government maneuvered a small number of the Cherokees into ceding the Cherokee land to the U.S. in a sham treaty known as the Treaty of New Echota. More than 4000 Cherokees died along the way. Of the more than 40 treaties signed between the Cherokee Nation and the United States, all were broken by the U.S. government.
Charles and Ruth Proctor Landrum had six children of which Thomas was the eldest. Thomas Landrum married Pauline Martin, youngest of nine children of Judge John Martin and Eleanor "Nellie" McDaniel Martin. Thomas Landrum died in 1863 and Pauline Martin Landrum died about 1875. Thomas and Pauline Landrum had two sons: Benjamin Cullic Landrum and Thomas L. Landrum.
Benjamin Cullic Landrum was born on November 17, 1861 in Saline District, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory. He and his siblings were listed on the 1906 Cherokee rolls by his father, Thomas Landrum. He married Martha Madeline Hyde on June 19, 1893 in Oklahoma. Martha was born in Rich Hill, Missouri on June 30, 1872. Benjamin and Martha had seven children. The third eldest was Bailey Burnel Landrum who was 1/16 Cherokee.
Children of John Landrum and Jane Evans are:
464 i. John D. Landrum II, born 1696 in Essex Cty., VA; died Abt. 1770; married Mary Buckner Abt. 1719.
ii. Thomas Landrum, born 1690 in VA; died Bef. August 16, 1715 in Essex Cty., VA.
iii. Elizabeth Landrum, born 1693.
iv. Martha Landrum, born 1699.

Name: JAMES I LANDRUM

Sex: M

Birth: 1659 in Turriff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Death: 18 DEC 1739 in St. Anne's Parish, Essex Co, VA

Burial: DEC 1739 St. Anne's Parish, Essex Co, VA

Reference Number: 5318

Father: WILLIAM LANDRUM\LENDRUM b: 1635 in Turiff/Ellon, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Marriage 1 MARY BROWNE\BROENE b: ABT. 1673 in VA - Essex Co

Married: 10 AUG 1696 in Amherst, St. Anne's Parish, Essex Co, VA

Children

Margaret Landrum b: ABT. 1697 in Essex Co, VA

Mary Landrum b: ABT. 1699 in Essex Co, VA
WILLIAM LANDRUM b: ABT. 1701 in Essex Co, VA
Elizabeth Landrum b: ABT. 1703 in Essex Co, VA
Winifred Landrum b: ABT. 1706 in VA - Essex Co
James II Landrum b: 1708 in Scotland
Dorcas Landrum b: ABT. 1714 in Essex Co?, VA
Samuel Landrum b: ABT. 1702 in Essex Co, VA
Sarah Landrum b: ABT. 1714 in VA - Essex Co?
Patrick Landrum b: 1716 in Essex Co, VA
Martha Landrum b: ABT. 1718 in VA

• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Feb 20 2021, 23:42:30 UTC