News
- June 19, 2007
- Added Uncle Earl!
Neill Beard ca. 1720 - February 1772
Rev. Hugh McAden
The Reverend Hugh McAden was a pioneering Presbyterian minister from Delaware that traveled extensively through the South prior to the Revolutionary War. He kept a journal that included numerous details about the places and people that he visited.
In one entry, I have heard mentioned, he states that he traveled "30 miles down the Yadkin and stayed with Neill Beard". Now I feel confident that Rev. McAden was in the area at this time since he ended up on the Cape Fear in February of that year where he apparently expressed some frustration with the fact that there were so many Baptists in the area. But, the question here is, did he really find a Neill Beard on the Yadkin or was that a mistake of some sort?
If one considers the possibility of Miriam and Neill of Bladen county being contemporaries, then this tends to indicate "Yet Another" Neill Beard outside of the Cape Fear area.
At any rate, the lives of Neill Beard and his family seem tightly woven with the Baptist traditions and families that came from Delaware and prior to that in Wales. Even my own grandfather talked about a connection between Wales and the family and I believe this is where that family legend came from.
But more on this as I put together the story...