Research: London Young

The following study was produced during a free 14-day study group sponsored by Diana Elder and Nicole Dyer of The Family Locket, using their “Research Like a Pro” method. I highly recommend their method and their work! Find it here: https://familylocket.com/. I did the study after noticing that London Young was engaged in land purchases with members of my white Ashmore family following the Civil War.

OBJECTIVE

Identify the relationship between African American London Young, born about 1832 in Georgia, who married Violet Jones on 23 January 1868 in Liberty County, Georgia, and died before 1889, and the white Ashmore family of Liberty County, Georgia.

SUMMARY OF KNOWN FACTS

Facts discovered during research:

London R. Young, a man of African-American descent, was born in the early 1830’s^[1] in Georgia, and is known to have lived in Liberty County, Georgia, from at least 1868 through his death on 8 March 1889.

A London Young was listed on the payroll of the Freedmen’s Hospital in Savannah, Georgia, in Decmeber 1865. His supervisor was surgeon-in-charge A.F. Augusta, U.S. Colored Troops, and he received $10 as pay for the month^[2]. It is not clear whether this was the same London Young, though no other London Young of the right age was found in Savannah records after that.

He married Violet Jones on 23 January 1868, in a ceremony performed by white Liberty County Justice of the Peace Joseph Ashmore^[3]. On 31 March 1868, he purchased 50 acres of land for $100 from John S. Ashmore — who was either Joseph Ashmore’s son John Strong Ashmore or his nephew John Sumner Ashmore — described as running from the “northwest corner of [the] Wilson Tract.” The deed was witnessed by Gabriel Andrews and William Lambert, who both signed by mark (so presumably were illiterate, and probably former enslaved people)^[4].

In November 1870, he was living with his 39-year-old wife Violet, daughter Patsy (age 10) and a household comprised of Tero Grant (a 29-year-old black man, a railroad laborer),  Patsy Grant (a 22-year-old black woman, a farm laborer), Harriet Jones (a 13-year-old black girl), Diana Jones (a 12-year-old black girl) and Clara Harden (a 6-year-old black girl)^[5]. He owned 4 improved acres worth $50, plus 1 bushel of peas & beans and 1 bushel of sweet potatoes. The total value of his farm production was $4^[6]. Based on the order of families listed in the census, he appeared to be living near white planters William and Mary Feaster (daughter of Martha Eliza Ashmore Carter, Joseph Ashmore’s sister), William R. and Sarah Shave (parents of Joseph Ashmore’s nephew John S. Ashmore’s wife Emma), and Wesley and Mary Ashmore (Joseph Ashmore’s son and daughter-in-law).  

In 1878, London Young paid taxes on 34 acres worth $44, with a total value of property, including tools and animals, of $67^[7]. On 26 August 1879, he traded land with Wesley Ashmore, selling him 1.5 acres (bounded north by his, London’s, own land, east by London Young and Frank Williams, south and west by Wesley Ashmore)^[8], and buying from him 1.5 acres (bounded north and east by James Holmes, south by public road, and west by Wesley Ashmore)^[9]. [Holmes and Williams were both former slaves; Frank Williams had been enslaved by Joseph Ashmore’s grandfather, John Ashmore.]

In 1880, listed as 50 years old and still married to Violet, now listed as 56 years old, he was living in Liberty County’s 15th District with daughter Muriah, 8 years old, and a 40-year-old woman whose name given as Patsey Graham, described as his stepdaughter. London is described as a farm laborer, and Violet as “keeping house” and said to have “complicated disease.” The couple is next to George and Lizzie March, who were living with Lizzie’s daughter Agnes Ashmore and her children Irving and Washington. [Lizzie March was the widow of Toby Ashmore, formerly enslaved by John Ashmore.] Also living nearby were white planters Michael and Minnie Crowley (daughter of Martha Eliza Ashmore Carter, Joseph Ashmore’s sister). Daniel and Caroline Shuman, Lizzie Ashmore March’s daughter, were also nearby with their child, as were Wesley Ashmore and Frank Williams.^[10]

On 6 March 1889, London R. Young sold 19.5 acres of the north part of his property to Elizabeth (Lizzie) March. The land was bounded north by W.J. Feaster, south by Frank Williams, and west by London’s own land^[11]. The next day, 7 March 1889, he sold 2 acres to Elizabeth Baker for $30, bounded east and north by W.J. Feaster, south and west by Robert Q. Cassels. The public road running from the No. 3 S.F. & W. railway and the public road running between Midway and Fleming ran through the land.^[12] 

On 8 March 1889, London died, according to his widow Violet’s petition to the Liberty County Court of Ordinary, presided over by Joseph Ashmore, on 22 March 1889 for a year’s support from his estate, described as being “very small.”^[13] In August of 1889, Violet Young mortgaged 22 acres of London’s property to Joseph Ashmore for $11. The land was described as bounded to the north by J.W. Feaster, east by the estate of Joe Hudson, Rose Stevens, and Frank Williams, south by Joe Hudson and Minnie Scaff, and west by Minnie Scaff.^[14]

On 5 February 1918, Violet Young sold two acres of land to Daniel Shuman (son-in-law of Toby Ashmore) in the 1359th District, bounded north and east by B. Stevens, south by St. James Chappell, and west by Wesley Ashmore.^[15]   

FINDINGS & ANALYSIS – RESEARCH REPORT

The purpose of this research was to identify any information available for London Young, an African American man, presumably a former enslaved person, living in Liberty County, Georgia in the 1800’s, and determine what relationship, if any, there was between him and the white Ashmore family of Liberty County. The study was prompted by discovery of some land transfers involving him and the Ashmores after the Civil War.

Liberty County, Georgia, was devastated by the end of the Civil War, following Sherman’s March to the Sea at the end of 1864. The white Ashmore family, which had been among the earliest white settlers in that area, arriving in the 1750’s, were small-scale planters who had probably enslaved no more than 15 people at a time, and they were one of the families who remained in the area after the war. They lived in the vicinity of the Midway Church and Fleming. My 4th great-grandfather John Ashmore’s (1767-1849) will has survived in the Liberty County Court of Ordinary records; it named 11 enslaved people, three of whom — Toby Ashmore, Frank Williams, and Abram Houston — are seen in the Liberty County Superior Court land records as being neighbors of the Ashmore family and engaged in land transfers with them in the post-War period.

While analyzing the post-War land transfers involving the Ashmore family, it became apparent that most of these transactions to or from African Americans involved people who had been their former slaves. So when transfers involving London Young were found, the question arose: was he one of them?

The post-War indexes for the Liberty County Superior Court land deeds and mortgages were searched for any records in which London Young sold, purchased or mortgaged land. No records were found of any transactions for him that did not involve members of the immediate or extended Ashmore family. Further, in all of the transactions, the land involved bordered land owned by a member of the Ashmore family, and one of the transactions appeared to be a trade of bordering land.  His first recorded purchase of land was for 50 acres from John S. Ashmore in 1868, only three years after the end of the Civil War. It seems unlikely that the white Ashmore family — which otherwise was buying/selling land with either close/extended family members or with their former African American enslaved people — would have engaged in these transactions with someone who did not have a close connection.

Although no direct evidence was found to indicate that London Young had been formerly enslaved by the white Ashmore family, the land records data strongly suggests this may have been the case. How could this be proved? There are three types of antebellum court records that could provide this answer: wills, estate inventories, and bills of sale. For Liberty County, almost all antebellum wills that were filed with the Court of Ordinary have been transcribed or summarized and put online (https://theyhadnames.net/), but no London was found who seems to fit the right time period. Both the estate inventories and the bills of sale are still being transcribed for that site, so the answer may appear there at some point.

One other source has provided an intriguing clue: In 1846, a local pastor named Charles Colcock Jones made a census of all African Americans — free and enslaved — who were church members in Liberty County’s 15th District (where London Young’s land was)^[16]. There were three men named London. One of them was owned by J.M.B. Harden, and attended the North Newport Baptist Church, which was also attended at that time by Toby Ashmore, who was enslaved by the Ashmore family at that time. This London was described as a driver, which was a supervisory position within the enslaved community and a position of trust.  It will be recalled that in 1870, a member of London Young’s household — relationship unknown — was a black child named Clara Harden.

Another possible source of information would normally be the 1850 and 1860 Slave Schedules. In the 1850 slave schedule, Joseph Ashmore does appear with a man the right age, but of course there is no name. Joseph Ashmore does not appear in the 1860 slave schedule for Liberty County’s 15th District, which requires more research, as he should have been there. In any case, without additional evidence, the slave schedule would not be very useful in answering this question because of the lack of names.

While this study did not answer the question of London Young’s precise relationship with the white Ashmore family, it did provide important details of London Young’s life. Continued research into antebellum Liberty County court documents naming African American enslaved people may provide clarification about that portion of his life.

 

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