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Descendants of James Bickham

Generation No. 1

1. JAMES¹ BICKHAM was born Abt. 1730 in Dorchester, Maryland, and died 1789 in Georgia. He married MARY HENRY Abt. 1754. She died in Georgia.

Notes for JAMES BICKHAM:
James and Mary died before 1790 in Georgia. The records indicate they lived in Burke County, Georgia as this is where the some of the children were born(1770-1790).

They probably came fron England sometime around 1650. They settled in Massachusetts and New Hampshire for awhile, but soon the land became exhausted, and there were rich lands and mild winters in the south. As generations came and passed, they lived in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, in the valleys and hills of the Piedmont. They were hunters and farmers, living not too differently from the way the Indians had for years. They used iron axes to construct their log cabins, to build their crude funiture, and to cut each winter's supply of fire wood. Their muskets provided food for the table and protection from raiding Indians and bandits.
It took three years to clear enough land to feed a family. In another three years the land was depleted of its richness, and the family would load their belongings in their wagon and move father south. If the Cabin had been built with precious iron sails, it would be burned to recover the nails.
By 1755 James Bickham and his Scottish wife, Mary Henry, were living in the hills of North Carolina. Their first son, Abner, was born in the summer of that year.
A decade later James and Mary were living on 350 acres by the Savannah River in South Carolina. In March 1767, they moved across the river into Georgia and in September, James applied to the British Crown for 400 acres "on the branch of Bushy Creek within two miles of David Emanuel." The land was granted on April 5, 1768. It was in the Parish of St. George, which in 1777 would be renamed Burke County.
On August 24, 1773, James and Mary sold 150 acres of the South Carolina property to Stephen Smith for 250 pounds Sterling, and significance here is that while many of the official papers spelled Jame's name as "Beckham", in this record he signed it "James Bickham."
The last record of James and Mary Bickham was a grant of 200 acres in Burke County on September 22, 1786.
James and Mary were the parents of six children, who as adults, moved to Louisana at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It is more certain that the five brothers were the forebears of all the Southern Bickhams.

Children of JAMES BICKHAM and MARY HENRY are:

2.	i.	BENJAMIN² BICKHAM, b. July 9, 1773, Burke Co. Georgia; d. February 13, 1822, Washington Parish, La.
3.	ii.	ABNER BICKHAM, b. July 26, 1755, North Carolina; d. January 29, 1834, Washington Parrish, Louisana.
4.	iii.	SARAH BICKHAM, b. June 2, 1762, Granville Co. North Carolina; d. August 9, 1845, St. Helen Parish,Mckinney Cemetry, Greenburg, Louisana.
	iv.	JAMES WILLIAM BICKHAM, b. 1769, Burke County, Georgia; d. 1817, St. Tammany Parish, Louisana.
5.	v.	THOMAS BICKHAM, b. 1771, Burke County, Georgia; d. December 26, 1850, Washington Parrish, Louisana.
6.	vi.	JOHN BICKHAM, b. 1777; d. 1821, Washington Parrish, La. ,Ellis Cemetery.

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