Yes the "by McIlhaney", etc, is the recorder. Sometimes only the parish
is listed and other times only the recorder. I listed them chronologically
and by recorder so that we could track names better. I agree that by
watching slave ownership and cohabitation, we can get a better idea of
family affiliation, although all of these Wells could conceivably be
related.
I don't know what to think about these scalps. I am not so sure that they
are talking about human scalps, but rather some time of pelt. Whatever
they were, these scalps had value to the people of the time and were taxed.
I will keep digging. I figure that I need to track this Zachariah and
perhaps his whole family to get a better idea of what the heck is going on.
Food for thought for everybody: I get the sneaking suspicion that our
Zachariah Wells Sr. and the Zachariah Wells the Tory were not only related,
but were the same person. The only "proof" we have of Zachariah the Tory's
death was the account in "Kings Mountain and Its Heroes" where his death
was reported by a couple of teenage boys (perhaps exagerating?).