Samuel Noble (1)
Born: 1709 Somerset County, Maryland.
Died: December 1776 in Jones County, North Carolina.
Father: William Noble Jr.
Mother: Elizabeth
Married: Rachel Ball ca. 1735
Children: Mark (b. ca. 1738), Mary Magdalene (b. ca. 1740), Elizabeth "Betty" (b. ca. 1742), William (b. 1744), Samuel (2) (b. ca. 1746), Rachel (b. ca. 1748), Nancy (b. ca. 1750)
maps: Black Swamp area, Jones County
[The below history was compiled and written by Mr. Elmer O. Parker, who was a Noble family historian. I received it through correspondence with Andrew Jackson Noble III]
William Noble Jr. [Samuel Noble (1) father] (ca. 1674 – 1724) came to America about 1680 with his parents William and Jennet Noble who settled on the north side of Pocomoke River about opposite the present town of Pocomoke in old Somerset County on the eastern shore of Maryland.
He attained his majority by 1695 when he began to style himself “William Noble Jr.” and his father added “Sr.” to his name. This practice continued until the death of the father in 1709. William Jr. married in 1707 and went out on his own, buying half of the 300 acre “Good Success” patent, and became a tobacco planter and wheelwright. In 1705 he joined with a group of other traders on the eastern shore of Maryland in protesting to Governor Edward Nott of Virginia the collection of taxes on tobacco being shipped when such duty had already been paid in Maryland.
In the course of marketing his tobacco, it would appear that he became acquainted with one of the mariners, a Capt. Thomas Taylor who owned land on White Oak River in Carteret Precinct, Bath County, in the Province of North Carolina, and arranged to purchase Taylor’s property, if he would transport him and his family to that province. A bargain was struck and on 6 April 1721, William sold his plantation in Maryland and with his wife Elizabeth and their six children sailed for a new home in eastern North Carolina, where only recently the Tuscarora Indians and removed to the colony of New York after a bloody defeat in 1712. For protection, William acquired a buccaneer, or pirate’s gun, perhaps also from Captain Taylor.
It is likely the Captain put into Bear Inlet where his passengers were disembarked. There Noble learned of a tract near the present town of Swansboro that had been surveyed for John Nelson but was not granted and he initiated steps to elapse it. He went up White Oak River and on the east side above the mouth of Deep (later known as Hunter’s) Creek, he built a cabin and squatted with his family. Considering the uncertainty of life in this wild region, he sat down on the 22nd of October in 1723, and wrote out a will. Being a good Anglican he first acknowledged the blessings of Almighty God, begged forgiveness for his sins, expressed gratitude for his salvation through Jesus Christ, and then made a careful distribution of his worldly estate among his children. To his sons Samuel [Samuel Noble (1)] and William he gave the Nelson tract in equal parts; to son Joseph the tract he bought from Captain Taylor, and to his youngest son James a sum sufficient to enable him to obtain when he became of age a grant of the land on which he was settling. We have reason to believe that this was accomplished for on 25 September 1741, when James reached 21, he was granted 500 acres in the fork of Deep Creek and White Oak River, adjoining land granted in 1730 to Thomas Houston who also came from Somerset County, Maryland and was one of the witnesses to his will. To his two daughters Hannah and Rachel he willed each a cow and calf, and a Bible-his great Bible to the former and a little Bible to the latter. This indicates that both had sufficient learning to be able to read them.
Though only about 50 years of age he was not destined to enjoy for long his new home, and in June 1724 his friends Thomas Houston and John Starkey (later Treasurer of the Province of North Carolina) presented his will to the Carteret Court at Beaufort for probate. A woman needed a husband and provider in this wild country, especially if there were small children to rear, and by September of the following year Elizabeth had married John Webster, a neighborhood planter. In 1730 John bought a lot in the new town of Beaufort but there is no evidence that he moved his family from the plantation to town. Five children were born of this union. John died in 1745 and Elizabeth nine years later in 1754.
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