The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
State of Service: NC
Qualifying Service: Civil Service / Soldier
Author: Frank Grady Hall, III
The progenitor of the great Harris family in Mecklenburg and Cabarrus Counties, Samuel Harris lies in an unmarked grave in the heart of lower New York City. Born in Scotland in the late 1600s, he was a staunch Protestant or Dissenter and could not surrender himself to royal tyranny and religious intolerance. In 1778, he abandoned his homeland of Scotland and set sail to America with his younger sons Charles and Thomas. The three thousand miles across the Atlantic was too stressful for Samuel Harris and he died at sea. Charles and Thomas kept his body aboard ship until they reached New York City and he was buried on the island of Manhattan.
Samuel, Charles and Thomas planned to meet Samuel’s other sons, Robert, James and Samuel, who had come to America earlier. The five sons reunited in Carlisle, Pennsylvania after the burial of the elder Samuel. All five of the brothers prospered in Pennsylvania until about 1750 when for some reason or another they all moved to the backwoods of North Carolina. They settled along the Rocky River section that became Mecklenburg and the Cabarrus County.
The descendants of Samuel, Sr. and Martha (Laird) Harris will claim that they were the first to arrive in North Carolina. Eventually all five settled in the section and lived as a clan. As one brother names his children after another brother and as cousins married cousins the family became so integrated that genealogists have had difficulty establishing lineage to the early children. Samuel Harris Sr. was an assessor and juror in Mecklenburg County, NC during the American Revolution. He was born in 1715 in Scotland and died 10 March 1789 in Greene County, GA.
Samuel and Martha had eleven children.
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