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Archiver > OREAR > 1997-08 > 0871935763


From: Donna Sarchet <>
Subject: O'Rear Family Sword
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 15:22:43 -0500


Here's Part II about what I have on the O'Rear family sword and the
Irish baron story.

From a photocopy I have of a 1977 reunion invitation to the O'Rear
reunion held in Minden, LA from Cecil N. O'Rear, President:

"We've also extended an invitation to Mrs. John Glenn of Marion,
Virginia to attend and bring the ancestral sword which was used in the
service of Charles I of England by our Common ancestor, John O'Rear."

There is an actual, honest-to-goodness picture of the sword and its
imprint/mark engraved on its blade. This picture appears in Marvin
Kelly O'Rear's "A Brief Sketch of O'Rear Family History." This booklet
is a combination of slide prints and accompanying narrative of the
presentation Kelly gave each year at many of the O'Rear family reunions.
Apparently enough people requested copies of his presentation on the
family's history that he had these booklets printed. I obtained one at
the 1986 reunion in Chattanooga.

My question: Does anyone know who Mrs. John Glenn of Marion, VA is?
How does she fit into the family tree? Who has the sword now?

My comment: I can see how this tangible evidence (the sword) lends
credibility to the Irish baron story. However, I can't help but think,
too, of a recent lecture at the NGS conference given by Elizabeth Shown
Mills, editor of the "National Genealogical Society Quarterly."

She was hired by a family to substantiate the family story that their
early VA immigrant was indeed the dau. of the Duke of Nottingham (as I
recall off the top of my head the title) in England. The family had a
silver spoon with that family's crest engraved on it. The spoon had
been carefully handed down each generation to the present. The story
was the dau.'s family was not happy with her choice of a husband, so she
and her bridegroom fled England for America taking with them one silver
spoon as a memento.

However, when Mrs. Mills, a Certified Genealogist, checked English
records on this prominent family, she discovered that the Duke in
question left a variety of records behind--none of which mentioned the
daughter in question. In further probing of legal records, etc., it was
finally discovered that what had actually happened was that the maid and
the butler, both employed in the service of the Duke, eloped and sailed
to America--with the Duke's silver in tow. They apparently sold pieces
as needed and kept one spoon at the end.

Moral: Things may not always be as they seem.

It reminds me too of a pervasive story in my Barron family line about a
Capt. William Barron who sailed to Georgia from County Waterford,
Ireland--just in time to serve in the Am. Rev. and serve as a Capt. He
married the brave and beautiful Prudence Davis (either in Ireland or the
U.S.). They were said to be residents of Warren Co., GA. Anyway, at
the time of the Battle of Augusta (GA), Capt. Barron was so feared by
the British and Tories that a bounty was placed on his head. A group of
Indians who were aligned with the Tories managed to capture Capt. Barron
as he lay wounded on the battlefield. They beheaded him and impaled his
head in the middle of the Augusta town square for several days as a
warning to the Loyalists. BTW, what lends credibility to this story is
that it was related on official "Secretary of the State of Alabama" in
the 1890s by John Girrourd, a Barron great-grandson and Sec. of State of
AL.

The truth: William Barron was indeed a Capt. in the Rev. War. Records
now indicate that the immigrant ancestor was his grandfather, another
William Barron, who came into MD, then on down to VA and his son, also
named William, on into Craven Co., NC. Prudence Davis and Wm. Barron
appear to have married there. There, to date, appears to have no
historical substantiation to the story--at least according to some noted
GA historians/genealogists, not to mention the Historical Society of
Augusta, GA. In fact, I have come across a different family who tells a
remarkably similar beheading story in Augusta--only a different surname
is involved. Again, things are not always as they may seem.

Linda, you asked what I thought. I personally tend to lean more toward
the French Hugenot theory, although I admit I'm a fairly recent convert
(of sorts) to that theory. I'm not sure how to explain the sword and
the fact that Dennis O'Rear found the Orea surname in a later 1600s
census in Ireland. If evidence is presented, however, that supports the
Irish theory, I'll be prepared to go that direction. I know that my
O'Rear cousins and uncles (my mother's maiden name was O'Rear)
definitely consider themselves to be Irish!!

I suppose the reason I keep leaning toward the French Huguenot theory is
that the earliest known associates of the Orea (as the name is presented
consistently in early records) family are virtually *all* French
Huguenot--the Renos, Tarquetts, and others. As we know, people traveled
and migrated in groups. These French neighbors are also the families
they intermarried with. If one were to track these neighbors back to
their country and place of origin, it would be interesting to see if any
Oreas were there.

Also, in Ed's microfilm, there is some very interesting material
prepared by a professional genealogist on the French Huguenot Oree
family. There is also a documented reference to the death of a "Daniel
Oree" in Barbados in the mid-1600s--in the time period just before the
family appears in VA records (many French Huguenots migrated to the U.S.
via the Caribbean I'm told). If anyone's interested, I can post more
material on this theory.

Anyone else have insights/comments on the family origins? I'm open!

Donna

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