I was looking for my great grandfather, John Jasper Speir's parents a few months ago and found the Robert Montgomery Speir Bible which which lists my grandfather as one of Robert's brothers and their parents as Lewis and Ann (no maiden name) Speir. I am pretty sure Ann's father is Robert Montgomery based on the fact she named one of her sons "Robert Montgomery Speir".
I have found several trees that show Harris P Speir, Sr. as Lewis' father but have not been able to find any type of document that ties them together. I have decided that Harris is not Lewis' father. Does anyone know of another Speir line that might have a "Lewis Speir" in it? This would be around the late 1700's to early 1800's and probably in Pitt County?
Thanks, George Speir
Sorry it's taken so long to get back to you, George. According to Pitt County land records, Lewis Spear sold several tracts of land left to him by his father to a Robert Speir 5 Jun 1820 (Deed Book BB, p. 181). In the description, this document mentions that one tract had been purchased from Anthony Whichard and James Gorham is mentioned in relation to another tract. Whichard sold a tract to James 26 Sep 1782 and Spears bought another tract 4 Sep 1781 from Isaac Mundine (or his father, I don't remember which) had purchased it from Gorham. Both of these deeds can be found in Deed Book I, p. 49. So, more than likely, Lewis was the son of this James.
Hope this helps,
Becky
Becky, thank you for responding to my inquiry about the parents of Lewis Speir. I have not had any luck so far in locating the deed books you reference, but I am at this time in the Jasper/New Bern area and will be here for at least another week, maybe longer, and plan to go up to Greenville and look for them in person.
I think you may be correct about Lewis’ father being a James Speir. I was at the 99th Tyson-May Family Reunion Sunday afternoon and someone mentioned that they thought there was a brother to a John Speir who was named “James” and that he was possibly Lewis’s father. This jives with your lead and I plan to pursue it, as I am going up to the library at the University in Greenville tomorrow, and maybe I can find more of the type of info I am looking for there, since the Speir’s lived mostly in Pitt County. Again, thanks for the lead, as the deeds will be one the first things I look for up there.
Sincerely,
George Speir
I apologize for being so slow to respond to this. Somehow, I missed getting a notification about your first post in this thread and then when you left the last post, I was sick. I'm thankful @bsumrell responded! Her tips may well tie all of this together!
I'm so interested in your Speir line because I suspect a relation to my own Spear line. In fact, my great-aunt told me that our Spear family spelled it's name Speir (or Spier) until two or three generations ago, but there was some falling out between brothers or something and one branch started using the Spear name and the other continued with the Speir name. Although I'll admit, I've been skeptical. I always just assumed it was a spelling variation based on phonetics.
I descend from Lewis Spear, son of James Spear and Rachel Butler.
This Lewis would've been born about 1818 and probably died between 1870 and 1880. He was first married to Parmelia Ann Averitt, daughter of David Averitt and Sally Butler (Rachel Butler's sister), and his second wife was Lovie Gaskins, daughter of Seth Gaskins and his wife Serena Gaskins.
https://www.eastcarolinaroots.com/trees/getperson.php?personID=P57&tree=ECR-2018
I have more info about this Lewis on my tree at Ancestry.
Of course I also have your Lewis Speir in my tree (from finding the record in the same Bible), but I'm also stuck on parents. The fact that there is a son named James and my James had a son named Lewis again makes me suspect a family connection.
I tentatively have a James Spier (b. abt 1738, had at least 1 daughter and 5 sons) as father of my James Spear, but I have him living in Beaufort County in 1790 and Pitt County in 1800 and showing up on a tax list in Pitt County in 1763, so I need to go back and check if he was living in that territory that had its border shift over the years.
It's time I get back to this after a long research hiatus. 🙂
One more thing...
@george have you done DNA testing yet? If so, where have you tested? My grandfather and his sister have both tested. (Their grandmother was Mary Elizabeth Spears, daughter of Lewis Spear, son of James Spear & Rachel Butler.)
If you'd prefer to email me about it, you can do so at eastcarolinaroots@gmail.com.
