Carson Johnson - The Raines Family

Genealogical History of Some Carsons, Johnsons, and Related Families

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Chapter 2 - The Raines Family

Alternate spellings of the name “Raines” include “Raney” and “Rhaynes”. The Raines Family is related to the Carsons through Martha Goodwin Raines, who married Joseph Jefferson Carson.

The first Raines that we know about was Robert Raines , who was a goldsmith in England in the 1400’s. He did work for Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth I , and occasionally carried secret messages for her during the reign of her half-sister, Queen Mary . However, we are unable to find any connection between Robert Raines and “our” family.

The first Raines whom we can connect to “our” family was William Raines, born in England in 1645 and died in 1722. He had a son, also named William Raines.

William Raines, son of William Raines, was born in England sometime before 1666, perhaps as early as1655. In 1691 he married Elizabeth Shands . He imigrated toAmerica, and settled in Charles City County, Virginia. In 1693, he received plot number 49, on the north sidof the James River. His name appears on a list of militiamen in 1701-1702. William Raines died in Prince George County, VA, in 1722.

By the time William Raines came to Virginia, things had somewhat settled down. The Indians had been ravaged by war with the settlers and by European diseases, and the remnant of their population had been relegated to a reservation, the first in America. The colonists supported themselves primarily by raising tobacco, which they exported to England. In fact, tobacco was often used as a medium of exchange, instead of money. The economy was subject to tobacco price fluctuations. Negro slaves were replacing indentured white servants as the primary labor force used in land clearing and tobacco production. Tobacco exhausted the nutrients in the soil after three or four years, so the planters constantly needed more land. Brick buildings were beginning to appear.

Incidentally, the Indians grew a variety of tobacco, but that was not the kind of tobacco produced by the colonists. Colonist John Rolfe managed to bring seeds of a much milder strain of tobacco to Virginia from Trinidad or South America, and this “Orinoco” tobacco was the variety that the colonists exported to England.

William Raines and Elizabeth Shands had the following nine children:

Thomas Raines (See below.)
Roger Raines
John Raines (died ca 1730)
William Raines (died after 1763 in North Carolina, see below)
Richard Raines
Susanna Raines
Elizabeth Raines
Sarah Raines
Rebecca Raines

Through William Raines, son of William Raines and Elizabeth Shands, we have a connection to Thomas Jefferson , President of the United States. Here’s how:

William Raines married Angelica Wynne . Angelica Wynne was the daughter of Robert Wynne and Martha Jefferson . Martha Jefferson (1681-1752) was the daughter of Thomas Jefferson (ca 1629-1697, not the president) and Mary Branch . Thomas Jefferson and Mary Branch also had a son named Thomas Jefferson (ca 1679-1730), who married Mary Field . Thomas Jefferson and Mary Field had a son named Peter Jefferson (1706-1757), who married Jane Randolph , and their son was Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States.

Thomas Raines, son of William Raines and Elizabeth Shands, was born in Prince Georges County, VA, about 1695 and died before 1757. He settled in Bristol Parrish, Virginia. He received a grant of 400 acres in Prince George County, VA, in 1733. He married Elizabeth Sisson, and they had at least three children, perhaps four. Elizabeth Sisson died in Albemarle County, VA, February 8, 1773.

Children of Thomas Raines and Elizabeth Sisson were:

Perhaps Sylvia Raines (born ca 1722)
Perhaps William Raines
Perhaps Merry Raines
John Raines
Perhaps Elizabeth Raines (born ca 1728)
Perhaps Nathaniel Raines (1730-1789, married Susannah Parham , was a member of the Committee of Intelligence of Prince George County, Virginia, in 1775)
Alice Raines (born March 31, 1732)
Thomas Raines (born January 10, 1733)
Phebe Raines (born 1735)
Perhaps Robert Raines

Alice Raines was born in Bristol Parish, Virginia, on March 31, 1732, and the younger Thomas Raines was born there on January 10, 1733.

The Committee of Intelligence

What were the Committees of Intelligence? In the period before the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress established local Committees of Intelligence, who gathered and published information about British injustices to the American colonies. In the words of the committee of Prince George County, its purpose was "to convey any alarm, as speedily as possible, to the adjacent counties." In short, Committees of Intelligence were the propaganda arm of the Revolutionary movement. The committees had a network of couriers, and after the beginning of the war, they often carried military intelligence.

A Revolutionary Soldier

John Raines was the oldest child of Thomas Raines and Elizabeth Sisson. He was born in Bristol Parish, Virginia on July 5, 1726. He was a liberal supporter of the established (Anglican) church. He may have married first Elizabeth Randolph, but there are no known children of this marriage. On October 5, 1762, he married second Amy Goodwyn Mitchell (Aug. 31, 1732 – Jan. 14, 1776, See Chapter 3), who was the widow of Thomas Mitchell of Sussex County, Virginia, and daughter of John Goodwyn and Winifred Tucker of Dinwiddie County, Virginia. John Raines was a member of the Committee of Intelligence in Prince Georges County in 1774 and 1775, and commanded a company of Prince Georges County Militia in the American Revolution. John Raines died in1790 in Sussex, Virginia.

The children of John Raines and Amy Goodwyn Mitchell included:

Robert Raines (born ca 1763)
Cadwallader Raines
Amy Anne Goodwin Raines (married Robert Stewart)
Thomas Raines.

Cadwallader Raines, son of John Raines and Amy Goodwin Mitchell, was born in Baldwin County, Georgia in 1768 and married Lucretia Parham .

Thomas Raines, son of John Raines and Amy Goodwin Mitchell, was born in Sussex County, Virginia in January 10, 1763. In 1789, he married Sarah Abercrombie (See Chapter 4) in Hancock County, Georgia. Thomas Raines was appointed Captain of the Hancock County, GA, militia on March 27, 1793. He was a member of the Universalist Church, and he died February 7, 1816, at his residence in Jones County, Georgia. Considering that Sarah Abercrombie owned farm equipment and livestock at her death, it seems likely that Thomas Raines was a farmer.

Children of Thomas Raines and Sarah Abercrombie included:

Sally Raines (married Risdon Moore on September 7, 1827 )
John Goodwin Raines (born January 10, 1791, married Mary Smith “Polly” Bryan, died 1846. Mary Smith Bryan was the daughter of Clement Bryan and Edith Smith , and she married second Robert Howe .)
Cadwallader (or Cadwell) W. Raines (see below)
William Nathaniel Raines (See below)
Nancy Amy Eugenia Raines (ca 1800-November 10, 1856, married James Wilcox Alston . James Alston Carson was probably named after James Wilcox Alston .)
Edmund C. Raines (March 18, 1801-April 2, 1858, married Penelope Trice )
Martha Goodwin Raines
Possibly, Nancy D. Raines (married William Davenport)
Thomas A Raines

John Goodwin Raines and Mary Smith Bryan had a son, Thomas Abercrombie Raines, who was Medical Director of Georgia and who died April 20, 1868. He lies buried at Harris Cemetery on County Road 106, east of U.S. Highway 19 in Northern Taylor County, Georgia. We mention this because it emphasizes the long association that so many of “our” ancestral families have had with this area of Georgia. Besides the Raines family, others of our ancestors with ties to the area include John William Carson and Robert Carson , sons of John Wesley Carson and Isabella McGough who settled Carsonville before moving on to Texas, Joseph Jefferson Carson and his wife Martha Raines who operated a stagecoach inn in nearby Knoxville for a few years, John Ricks and his wife Nancy, who are buried at Crowell Methodist Church, Benjamin Franklin Kirksey who was a member of Crowell Methodist Church, several other Kirkseys who are buried at various Northern Taylor County churches, and several Petermans who lived and died in Taylor County.

What attracted them to this area? Two things. First, free or cheap land which the Creek Indians sold to the whites in 1825, and which the State of Georgia subsequently distributed to lucky lottery winners. Second, accessibility. The Federal Road from Milledgeville to Columbus and beyond was one of the very first roads through the Creek Nation, and passed through what is now northern Taylor County, crossing the Flint River at Benjamin Hawkins’ trading post.

Cadwell W. Raines, son of Thomas Raines and Sarah Abercrombie, married Parthena Thurman. He was a Methodist, a Mason, a judge, and a trustee of Wesleyan Female College in Macon, Georgia. In the 1840’s, he built the “Greek Cross” house near Wesleyan College. He died January 20, 1856 (?), at age 61 years, and is buried at Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Georgia.

Martha Goodwin Raines , daughter of Thomas Raines and Sarah Abercrombie, was born in Hancock County, Georgia, November 29, 1808. She married Joseph Jefferson Carson (See Chapter 1) just one month before her fifteenth birthday on October 29, 1823, and she died on June 21, 1862. [Several reputable researchers say “Eugenia” was one of her two middle names, but that name does not appear in records of the Carson family.]

William Nathaniel Raines , son of Thomas Raines and Sarah Abercrombie , was born January 29, 1796 in Georgia, and died January 29, 1855 in Talbotton, Georgia. He married Rebecca W. Jackson (March 9, 1807 – May 17, 1862) in Jones County, Georgia, on October 28, 1823. She was the daughter of Wilkins Jackson and Sarah Lamar . Among the children of W. Nathaniel Raines and Rebecca Jackson was Julia P. Raines. Julia P. Raines married George A. Brown , son of William Brown and Amanda Gray , in Crawford County, Georgia. Amanda Gray was the daughter of Archibald Gray and Cynthia Armour (See Chapter 1), who were ancestors of the wife of John Thomas Carson . So the Carson family is related to the Raines and Abercrombie families in more than one way. Rebecca W. Jackson and William Nathaniel Raines both lie buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Talbotton.

References: 62, 73, 267, 311, 333, 361