Joseph Baggett, believed to be the third son of Nicholas II, was born ca. 1717 either in Virginia in America or London County in England. Nicholas II came to America in 1715, but it is definitely believed that his father and his grandfather, were here in America in the third and fourth quarter of the seventeenth century. There is a very good chance that Nicholas II was born in America in the century before and had traveled back to London, England for some unknown reason with his parents. That is the reason that I came to the conclusion that Nicholas Baggett's oldest children may have been born in London. The spelling of the name Baggett is mostly recorded in London County there in England. This spelling is not frequently found in any other county in England.

A Baggett family was found living in London County ten to twenty years before John Baggott is believed to have come to America. John Baggott (Baggett) of London had a son Nicholas and a son John. Son Nicholas was christened 1642; son John was christened 1644; and the three daughters: Martha, Mary, and Frances were all christened in 1646, 1652, and 1654 respectively. Their father, John Baggett, Sr., would have been born about 1610-20, so the names and dates all correspond to those recorded in America in Isle of Wight and Surry County in the 1670s and 1680s.

The son John Baggot is found in Virginia in the early part of the eighteenth century. Son Nicholas Baggett is found in Isle of Wight in the 1670s, and the father, John Baggott, is found in Surry in 1683 and is believed to have been living with one of his daughters.

If records are ever found, I believe that the conjecture will be confirmed that the family came from London. In the period of the first quarter to the third quarter of the seventeenth century, practically all the family that spelled the name Baggett and Baggot(t) were in the London County section of England. As mentioned, very few families were recorded in other counties there in England with the spelling of the name as it appeared in America in the latter part of the seventeenth century.

Joseph Baggett is found in the will of his father and in several land deeds, and in 1789 he made his own last Will and Testament in Robeson County, a county cut from Bladen County, NC. His last Will and Testament is recorded at the latter part of this chapter.

There were apparently five of the sons of Nicholas, Sr. who owned their own plantation at their death. There is no record, as far as I know, that either John, Hardy, or Benjamin owned their plantation. Hardy is found on the tax list in Bertie County. John is found in deeds, along with Roger and William Bagget. The John who witnessed the deed of John West was probably the son of Nicholas II. A deed was proven by the oath of John Baggett in 1761. This was probably John, son of Nicholas Baggett II, but other than a few brief recordings, there is not much known about John Baggett. Benjamin Baggett only appears in the will of his father Nicholas Baggett, Sr. (II).

Joseph Baggett lived a long and prosperous life. He owned his own plantation but he, like some of the other sons of Nicholas Baggett, Sr., did not name his children in his will. However, their names are recorded in Robeson County court records when they signed deeds for their interest in lands left by their father to his son Reddin Baggett, who died without heirs or leaving a will. Joseph left the plantation equally to his two sons, Reddin and Barton Baggett. At Reddin's death, his share of the plantation went to the other children.

Joseph Baggett married Sarah R[uth] Blount in 1760. Joseph and Sarah had two sons and six daughters. Their sons were Barton and Reddin. Their daughters were: Leary (Leah, named in Joseph's will), Miriam, Dorcas, Mary, Dicy, and Sarah Baggett. Leah married George Willis, Jr.; Mary married Lewis Powell; Dicy married Joshua Pharaoh; Miriam married Jesse Lee; Sarah was unmarried; and Dorcas married Samuel Britt.

In the document Jack Baggett states that his ancestor, John Redding, was a son of Joseph Baggett and B. Adline Holly. Jack's father, Morris A. Baggett, was born in 1894 and John Redding was born in 1860. John Redding had eleven brothers and sisters. The census of 1860 shows his father Joseph born in 1828 (probably in Georgia) and that he married Bashaby Adline Holley. His five brothers and sisters were born in Wilkes, Richmond, and Burke counties in eastern Georgia. Augusta is in Richmond County, GA.

We know that this Joseph Baggett of Warrens County, GA was a son of Joseph Baggett, Sr., who was born (according to the 1850 census of Jefferson County, GA) 1795 in Robeson County, NC. Joseph, Sr. was apparently married twice. He divorced his first wife, or either she died. He married [second] a woman born 1810 in Richmond County, GA.

Obviously the Baggett families living in Laurens County were all descendants of Joseph, son of Nicholas Baggett II, and based on census records there was apparently only one generation between Barton Baggett (son of Joseph) and the Joseph of Warren County, father of John Redding Baggett. Apparently the Joseph Baggett, Sr., born in ca. 1795, was a son of Barton, son of Joseph Baggett, who was the son of Nicholas Baggett II.

Joseph's daughter Miriam was born ca. 1762 and died ca. 1805. She married in ca. 1775, Jesse Lee, born 1750, died 1816. In 1806 Jesse Lee wrote his last Will and Testament and the will was probated in 1816. The children of Miriam included Jesse Lee, Jr., Elizabeth Lee, Sarah, Obediance, and Keziah Lee. Sons Joseph and Benjamin Lee were executors of their father's will. If you are interested in the children of Jesse Lee, the will needs to be ordered and also look for other documents on the Lee family.

Dorcas was born in 1765 and died in 1827. She married Samuel Britt, who was a fourth great-grandfather of William L. Byrd of Hickory, NC. William supplied some of the information, which included a copy of Joseph's last Will and Testament.

Very little is known about Barton Baggett, son of Joseph. He lived in Robeson County until 1797, when he sold the land left to him in the will of Joseph. Apparently this is when the other children received their portion of the Joseph Baggett estate. It is believed that Barton Baggett migrated to Georgia shortly after he sold his land in Robeson County, NC to Jacob Rhodes.

Reddin possibly may have died before 1797. Only two families are listed in the 1800 census of Robeson County, those of Barton and Thomas Baggett. Thomas was a son of John Baggett, Sr., whom we believe is a son of Nicholas Baggett III. He had four brothers, two unknown, and Nicholas and John Baggett, Jr. In the 1800 census of South Carolina, John Baggett, Jr.'s family is found in Marlboro County, SC and Nicholas, his brother, is found in Orange County with his mother Elizabeth (or Lucy) living with him.

Barton Baggett is found in Pulaski County, GA shortly after the turn of the century. The Baggett families of Barton, Thomas, Nicholas, and John Baggett. (Apparently this is John Baggett, Jr., since there is evidence that John Baggett, Sr. died in 1805) are listed as being in Pulaski County. A Baggett's Creek, named for these original settlers, ran along a river road into the Ocmulgee River in Pulaski County, GA.

Thomas Baggett is shown in the book, History Of Pulaski County, Georgia, in a list of petit jurors in December, 1805. During  the War of 1812 Nicholas, Thomas, and a Lewis Baggett are all shown in the Militia. Barton is listed only once as an original settler and pioneer in the history of Pulaski County, GA. He apparently sold his land in Robeson County in 1797 and early in the next century, he, along with Thomas Baggett, Nicholas, and John Baggett, Jr., settled in central Georgia. Georgia's western frontier presented great opportunities for new settlers.

Although there is a twenty-year gap, we loose the family of Barton (possibly because of the burnings during the War of 1812), but we know they were near the Ocmulgee in the early part of the nineteenth century. However, in 1830 his son Joseph Baggett, Sr. is found back in Robeson County, NC. This was only two years after Joseph Baggett, Jr. was born, so more than likely Joseph, Jr. was born in North Carolina and not Georgia. Barton Baggett probably died between 1800 and 1812, but because of the burnings during the War of 1812 we are at a loss to find any records on him. He apparently died while he lived in the Ocmulgee territory.

Apparently Barton's son Joseph went back to Robeson County, NC after his father died since he is found on the census there in 1830, but by 1834 Joseph Baggett had moved back to Wilkes County, GA. He is on the census of Wilkes County in 1834, Richmond County in 1840, Burke County from 1843 to 1848, and in Jefferson County in 1850.

The first white settlers to come to the Ocmulgee territory had only two ways of reaching their destination, flatboats and narrow trains. Only a few near-by residents could slowly travel along the waters of the river on pole-propelled rafts or flatboats. But immigrants living farther to the east had to travel the well defined Indian trails leading overland from the settled parts of the eastern Oconee and Ogeechee rivers to the Ocmulgee frontier.

It is found that the first pioneer roadways established running down along the Ocmulgee was the River Road. It began to be astablished by primitive Indians, amall trails winding down along the narrow passageway following the stream from where it began down to the sea coast. It was the very first American settlers that began to settle and build houses along the Ocmulgee River in among the narrow passageways. Since there were so many migrating to the new country in this region and putting up buildings, it became imperative that the passage would have to be widened to make room for the carts and wagons to travel down this river trail. They new setttlers built very close to each other because of the Indians in this region hopely to prevent an attact by the Indians. Some came on flatboats because to wilderness was so intense with groth, but some traveled as slowly as possible with eagerness gradually following one of the primitive Indian trails.

These winding Indian trails were numerous, but they were too narrow to provide amply for the passage of the many carts and covered wagons coming to the new land, bearing the possessions of the pioneers. Some were reconstructed to provide wagon trails for the new settlers. Under the jurisdiction of the Inferior Court, each county appointed commissioners to oversee and construct wider roads to provide passage.

Winding through the wilderness from Fort Hawkins down the left bank of the Ocmulgee and Altamaha rivers to Darien on the Atlanta coast down the Ocumulgee, the pioneer wat extended the entire lingth of the Ocmulgee counties of Twigs, Pulaske, Telfair, and part of Montgonery. After entering in Pulaski County from the lower line near Twiggs, the Road went along the east coast of the the Ocmulgee, crossed Shellstone Creek, and led down to Beaverdam Creek. Then after crossing the creek near the site of Mount Horeb Church, the River Road continued southward to Jordan's Creek and led directly to a frontier settlement of Hartford on down to the Ocmulgee River.

The roads were divided into two different names, the Upper River Road and the Lower River Road, beginning at about the Twiggs line down to Hartford the named it the Upper River Road, and then leaving from Hartford to the Telfair County line, they called it the Lower River Road. The Lower River Road wound around the river southward to Limestone Creek and made it's main run to the main run of the Mosquito Creed.

In this section of the settlement were Benjamin Smith, Barton Baggett, Nicholas Baggett, John Baggett [Jr.], Thomas C. Baggett and others. Then crossing the Mosquito Creek, the River Road crossed Baggett's Creek, a stream named for the pioneer Baggett settlement there. The road crissed the Baggett Branch it wound directly to the Telfair County line. The line was very close to the a church that had been erected called the Old Daniels Church and then went on to the Copeland settlemnet. On this part of the River Road it wound around large oak trtees with the moss-draped branches forming a thorough canopy over the narrow passageway.

In 1794 Barton Baggett was a witness in Robeson County to the sale of the Negro man, Simon. In 1797 Barton sold to Jacob Rhodes the undivided half of a 100-acre tract of land on Saddletree Swamp. This land was granted to Joseph Baggett (son of Nicholas Sr.) 18 October 1765 and was bequeathed to Barton and Reddin in Joseph's will in 1789. Apparently Reddin is deceased in 1797, when the land was then sold and divided.

Barton Baggett and his family apparently remained in Robeson County until after the turn of the century. The sale of land below by Barton is the last transaction found. He is a witness to the deed of Jacob Rhodes, who had bought his land in the month before. The next time we find Barton he is in Pulaski County in the central part of Georgia.

It is apparent that the sons of Nicholas III were split after the death of their father, with Lewis, Abraham, and John Baggett, Sr. remaining with their uncle Joseph Baggett and Joel (sometimes with Lewis) living with their uncle Abraham Baggett. This family of Nicholas Baggett III will be examined in the history of this family in History, Chapter XII and XIII. Joel and Lewis are found in deeds in the 1770s with the sons of Abraham. Another Lewis Baggett is found in Pulaski County in 1813.

The descendants of Miriam, daughter of Joseph Baggett (son of Nicholas II), will probably be easily traced. Jesse Lee left a will and named his children. Four of their marriages: Sarah Lee married Jacob Pope; Elizabeth Lee married Daniel Drinkwater; Obediance married a man named whose surname was Sterling; and Keziah Lee married Willie Loe.

Many descendants of Barton's Joseph stayed in Georgia. His son, John P. Baggett, is found in Warren County, GA in 1840 and in Columbia County in 1850. He returned to Warren County by September of 1850, when we find him buying land in Warren County. John P. Baggett made five transactions from September of 1850 to 1852. Joseph Baggett, Jr., his brother, lived on the next farm. At that time he was single and was working as an overseer. He purchased land in July of 1863 and made two transactions for land in 1867. The first purchase Joseph Baggett, Jr. made may have been his stepmother's land.

Joseph Baggett, Sr. (son of Barton), father of John P. and Joseph, is apparently deceased before 1860, since he is not listed on the census. Two of Joseph Baggett, Sr.'s daughters, Darkis Ann and Sarah Baggett, are found working as housekeepers in 1860 in the adjoining county of Glascock.

Joseph Baggett, Jr. is on the 1860 census of Jefferson County, GA, along with his family, and he resides there until his death on 18 December 1892. He is buried with his wife Bashaby Adiline Holley at the Mount Zora Methodist Church cemetery outside Wrens, GA, along with several of their children.

William Wesley Baggett, oldest son of Joseph Baggett, Jr. and his wife Adline, was born April 3, 1858. He was married three times. His [first] wife's name is unknown; had children: Beckom and Fred Baggett. His [second] wife was Georgia Ann Langham (daughter of William B. Preston Langham and his wife Margaret of Glascock County, GA); had children: Willie Irene, Robert Lee, Frances Clyde, Maggie Pearl, Bunyan (died young), Preston (died age 2), and John Baggett (died in infancy). His [third] wife was Evie Carroll; had children: Marcus, Annie Mae, Grady, Alfonso, Clayton, and Joseph Baggett.

William Wesley was a farmer and a veterinarian, practicing veterinary medicine and surgery, and was widely used in many of the surrounding communities. William died 5 September 1918 in Laurens County, GA and is buried in Mt. Zion Baptist Church Cemetery just outside Dublin, GA, along with his wife and some of his children. His brother John Redding Baggett and several of the Baggett family are buried there.

William Wesley and Georgia Langham Baggett had a third daughter, Maggie Pearl. She was born 22 August 1897 in Jefferson County, GA. Maggie married 5 October 1912 George W. Shepard II in Laurens County, GA (son of George W. and Ella Collins Shepard of Wilkinson County, GA), born 6 September 1888, died 2 July 1956. Maggie Pearl died 16 March 1987 and is buried alongside her husband at Cuthbert, GA; they had children: William G., Mary M., Thomas J., and George W. Shepard III, all born in Laurens County, GA.

Apparently John P. Baggett was the oldest child of Joseph (son of Barton) by a previous marriage. John P. and his wife are shown on the census of 1840 there in Warren County with five females under age 15 and one over 40, which may have been his mother or mother-in-law. His stepmother is on the census with his father in the neighboring Richmond County, GA in 1840 with Joseph, age 12 and another son, Seaborn Francis, under 5 and two females age 5 to 10 years, who were probably Darkis Ann and Mary Ann Baggett.

Mary Ann was born ca. 1834 in Wilkes County, GA and married in 1866, John B. Arrington. Seaborn Francis was apparently born in the early part of 1840 and he married, in 1865, Mary Young. Seaborn F. Baggett served the entire period of the Civil War in the Confederate Army. He enlisted in 1861 and his command surrendered with General Robert E. Lee at the courthouse at Appomattox in 1865.

John Redding Baggett was born on December 24, 1860, probably in eastern Georgia, and married three times, as shown in the record of Jack Baggett. A record is found in his Family Bible showing the births of himself, his three wives, and his children. His sons, W. F. and Homer L. Baggett, died in 1914 and 1915 respectively. A copy of this information was found in the Family Bible. Clifford A. Baggett, his grandson, of Hilton Head Island, SC sent me the information in the Family Bible. In his notes he said that his father, Clifford A. Baggett, Sr., died June 1, 1946, and is buried at New Orleans, LA. The majority of the material recorded here on Barton and his descendants was researched and compiled by descendant, George W. Shepard, Jr., of Georgetown, GA.

This family of Baggetts has lived in the eastern and central section of Georgia (except for a brief period in North Carolina) since Barton Baggett settled on the Ocmulgee River in Pulaski County in the early part of the nineteenth century. Pulaski County was made from Wilkinson County, GA.

Apparently John Baggett, Sr. (born 1803) was a son of Barton Baggett and a brother of Joseph Baggett, Sr. John lived in Robeson County, NC in the 1850s. He is found in the 1850 census of Robeson County with his wife, Eliza Brown Baggett, and their children, four daughters and six sons. One of the sons was named for his father, John Baggett, Jr., and another son for his grandfather, Barton Baggett, who was the son of Joseph, son of Nicholas Baggett II. Five of the sons of John Baggett, Sr. migrated to Texas. A lineage is shown from his son Andrew Jackson Baggett. Click here and then click on picture:

Robeson County, North Carolina, 13 October 1789. The last Will and Testament of Joseph Baggett.

First I desire that all my debts should be paid out of my moveable property. Then I desire that the plantation whereon I live should be equally divided between my two sons Barton Baggett and Reddin Baggett. Then I give and bequeath to my beloved daughter Leah Baggett one feather bed and furniture and one likely young cow.

I desire that all the rest of my moveable property should be left with my well beloved wife Sarah Baggett during her life, and then to be equally divided between my two youngest children.
As witness my hand and that this day and date as above written.

N.B. I desire that Joshua Pharaoh and my wife Sarah Baggett should Execute My Will.

Most of the descendants of Joseph still live in central Georgia in the bottom part of what is known as Ocmulgee Fork in and around Laurens County and several counties east of the Oconee River–from Richmond County to the Ocmulgee River.

The five children of John Baggett, son of Barton, and several sons of Bennett Baggett apparently went to Texas and settled near Uzziel Baggett, Bennett's brother. Some of Barnaby Baggett's descendants migrated to Texas, but most of this family stayed in Tennessee. A goodly number of the Texas Baggetts are descended from Nicholas Baggett III. These families began their migration to Texas in the 1840s.

Practically all the Baggett families found in Texas are descendants of Barton, Bennett, Uzziel, Barnaby, and Nicholas Baggett III.

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