Carson,
I don't think Pelham was ever a county, despite the labeling you found
on the map.
However, Bill Powell, in his North Carolina Gazetteer (pg 376), offers
the following possible explanation for the maps you reference:
"Pelham Precinct appears on the Wimble map, 1738, between the Cape Fear
and the Northeast Cape Fear rivers at approx. what is now Pender County.
Wimble's map was dedicated to Thomas Hollis Pelham, Duke of Newcastle
(1693-1768), Secretary of State for the Southern Department. Pelham
County appears at the same location on the Mouzon map, 1775. Since there
appears to be no reference to such a precinct or county in the records
of North Carolina it is possible that Wimble was simply flattering his
patron and that Mouzon followed Wimble's map in making his own."
David LeRoy Corbitt, in his book, "The Formation of the North Carolina
Counties 1663-1943," makes no reference whatsoever that I can find to a
"Pelham" county OR precinct.
FYI, Dr. Powell also lists a Pelham community and a Pelham Township,
both located in nw Caswell County.
-Sandy
On Friday, January 31, 2003, at 09:41 PM, CarsonTurner(a)aol.com wrote:
While researching some geographic problems in north-eastern SC
(Kingston
[present Horry County], I was reading an old map titled _A New and
Accurate
Map of North Carolina in North America_ which is dated as created in
1779 and
is presently in the collections of the University of Georgia.
This 1779 map clearly and distinctly records a county by the name of
PELHAM
located west of New Hanover, east of Cumberland/Bladen, north of
Brunswick,
and southwest of Onslow. A waterway named "Black River" runs through
this
county at the meeting of the "NW Cape Fear River".
Does anyone have any historical information about Pelham County North
Carolina in 1779? It is not listed in my gazeteers and is probably a
significant place-name for Unknown County references... A web search of
"Pelham County North Carolina" returned nothing. The Pelham Township
and
"populated place" in present Caswell County is too far north to be
related.
A 1780 map in the same collection shows PELHAM to be near the town of
Exeter
NC (which may have been in either Pelham or New Hanover [prob. now
Pender].
Pender was created much later or I might assume a spelling error by the
cartographer.
Comments, references, and sources appreciated.
Carson Turner