Lest We Forget ; Our Melvins and Kin  by  Lionel Dane Melvin
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DANIEL MELVIN I, (Immigrant)
(1708-c1786)
 
Conflicting stories, some similar, have been handed down about this im-
migrant's arrival in the New World. Louise Hall Gary, a descendant, found
this in the archives of the Latter Day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah:
"Daniel Melvin born Isle of Skye, Inverness, Scotland, in 1708 had a step-
father who showed disfavor to the boy and his mother decided to send him
to relatives in America. She placed him in the care of a captain of a ship
whom she knew, and he worked as a cabin boy on the ship while they sailed
to America, some say he was nine and others say ten years old".
 
LeRoy Reeves, another descendant of Daniel Melvin, in the genealogy of
his Reeves family entitled, "Family Sketches", gives an account of the
arrival of Daniel Melvin in this country as was told by an older descen-
dant in January of 1898, Isaac J. Cain, a great grandson. Another descen-
dant, Gaston P. Sutton, told me essentially the same story in 1931, both
of which are accounted for in article I wrote for the State in 1976 as
shown below:
 

 
 
 
         The "Yours truly" logo
         of the State magazine
         appears here.
 
 
 
NO-PLACE-LIKE-HOME  DEPT.

   ...We are glad we made the trip, but
so far as I am personally concerned
they can give all of that area west of
Old Miss back to the Indians. There
are many beautiful and inspiring places
out there, but the sight of the old Blue
Ridge was a welcome homecoming for
us. North Carolina has it all, and you
are doing a grand job in making folks
more appreciative of it. -- ERWIN D.
STEPHENS, Charlotte.
 
                       -----
 
YOUNG DANIEL CAME
ASHORE ON A BARREL

   If Blackbeard was a cold-blooded
murderer and scoundrel, as evidenced
by Hamilton Cochran's scholarly arti-
cle (July and August editions), then the
possibility of my existence may have
hung by a thread. According to family
tradition, my immigrant ancestor,
Daniel Melvin, was a prisoner on
Blackbeard's pirate ship when he ar-
rived in America.
   Born in Scotland in 1708, he was
placed on a sailing ship from Skye to
serve as cabin-boy when he was only 9
years old. The ship was seized by
Blackbeard; and the crew, including


         The "Yours truly" logo
         of the State magazine
         appears here.
 
 
 
the cabin-boy, were taken as prisoners
aboard the pirate ship. One night,
when they drew in near the South
Carolina coast, a seaman by the name
of Tom Bones and one other seaman
silently lowered an empty cask over-
board, then they stripped off their
clothes and followed, taking the boy,
Daniel, with them. Bones and the boy
succeeded in reaching land, but the
third seaman drowned in the effort.
   It seemed that strand of the beach
where they found themselves was used
as a highway and the nude man and boy
were forced to hide in the bushes when
travelers came along, but in time, a
lone man on horseback approached
and Bones, a Mason, stepped out in the
open and gave a sign indicating that he
was of that order. The stranger under-
stood since he, also, was a Mason.
Daniel and Bones were taken to the
home of a stranger, outfitted with
clothes, fed, and later given money to
see them on their way.
   Daniel wandered around until he ar-
rived in the vicinity of what is now
Fayetteville, N.C., where he was
taken in by a couple who reared him to
manhood. Eventually, at around the
     THE STATE, SEPTEMBER 1976
 
 
 
 
 
age of 40, he married Jane Thomas,
daughter of an established family in
Bladen County, and settled on a tract
of land granted him in 1752 on the
south side of South River. There
Daniel and Jane reared their family of
three boys and four girls. Daniel died
around 1794 at a ripe old age of about
86 and was buried on his own land. The
gravesite is lost.

   The story first came to me in Florida
in 1931 from Mr. Gaston Sutton, an
elderly relative who was living in the
Coral Gables area. Mr. Sutton told me
many other things about the family as if
it had happened only yesterday, and
when I asked him how he knew so
much about them, he replied, "It came
through my two grandmothers who
were the daughters of Daniel Melvin."
Many years afterwards I found very
much the same account of this story in
the published history of the Reeves
family entitled, "Family Sketches,"
compiled by LeRoy Reeves. Still later
I found the same in a published history
of the Mercer family located in the
North Carolina Room of the
Greensboro City Library.

   Draw your own conclusions about
the story, and don't strain your con-
science, for I find it a little fanciful
myself. -- LIONEL MELVIN, Pleasant
Garden.


 
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HTML Editor's note:

This excerpt from the State magazine was clearly a facsimile.
It is re-typed here to make it readable by search engines. -Ed.

Pages 24 and 25 have almost no margins in this book.  I therefore gave
these two pages left margins of only three spaces and the right margins
only one space. -Ed.

The HTML editor has learned that Blackbeard was most active off the port
of Charles Town, South Carolina, just upriver from today's Charleston,
South Carolina for a period of time ending in 1718.  He is said to
have stopped as much shipping as possible both entering and leaving the
port.  Given young Daniel Melvin's date of birth, the age that he
immigrated, and that he came ashore in South Carolina, it is entirely
possible that he might have encountered Blackbeard. -Ed.