Bethea Family Genealogy Website

Around the early 1800's the local Betheas between Sweatswamp and Buckswamp vicinities had been worshiping at Harleesville (now Little Rock, S.C.) in the Methodist Church shown above. Opportunities to homestead new lands in the West started to look attractive to younger Betheas by 1803, when the Louisiana Purchase opened up vast new territories West beyond the Mississippi River.

This is a history of the descendants of an Englishman who crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Great Britain to Virginia about 1700. He was born in 1684 somewhere in France or England. The family name, Bethea, is more French derivative than English.  What is clearly known is that Betheas were protestant in their religious beliefs. About the time when English John was born around 1684, French King Louis XIV  REVOKED  the earlier Edict of Nantes, a freedom of worship proclamation by King Henry the Great, an earlier French King following the REFORMATION. This was when Martin Luther in 1519 nailed those theses to the door of the Wittenberg, Germany castle Catholic church door. The French government was opposed to Protestantism, and widespread persecution and murders of French Protestants followed the revocation of the Nantes Edict.  Although there is NO official proof or records of Betheas fleeing France, we also have NO proof of other Bethea families living in England or Great Britain around 1700.  We do know that at least five ships full of French Protestants sailed from England to the James River area of the Virginia Colony in the year 1700. Most likely English John had been protected since his infancy by protestants who brought him to America on one of those five ships  (see following articles and documentation).

MASSACRE OF THE FEAST OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW IN FRANCE, 1685

Chapter II

The French Protestant believers (called Huguenots by the French) left France to escape death after the revocation of the earlier Nantes Edict. The Feastday of St. Bartholomew, captured in the painting above is of a massacre in a French village, and the engraving demonstrates how protestant French citizens had to flee in small wooden boats across the English Channel from Brittany and Normandy to England. Such was probably the fate of the original John Bethea, and how he happened to be called "English John" accompanying fellow protestants settlers to a new life in America, where old Indian  lands (like the Manakin Town) were offered on the James River for homesteading  in Virginia. Some of the protestant settlers preferred locating on navigable waterfronts, instead of on the isolated and non-navigable upstream locations like Manakin Town, Va., so they went elsewhere in Virginia  and settled along Chesapeake Bay and Albemarle Sound to the South, near the old community of  Suffolk, Va.
		The grand Palace of Versailles, outside Paris, the government of France and the Sun King, Louis XIV, held their royal court.

Chapter III

There are two books still in print, which shed a lot of information of these early Bethea families. One is called the "Ancestral Key to the Pee Dee", written by Mary Belle Manning Bethea and printed by the R. L. Bryan Company of Columbia, South Carolina. It was copyrighted in 1978 and it has been said that some copies are still available from the Librarian of the Dillon County Library in Latta, South Carolina (Near Buckswamp). Library of Congress Catalog Number 78-61789 applies to this history book.
The 2nd helpful Bethea History is contained in the pages of  "A History of Marion County, S.C." by W.W. Sellers  (from the earliest times to the present, 1901) copyright 1902-1996 by the Southern Historical Press, P.O. Box 1267,  375 West Broad Street, Greenville, S.C. 29602-1267. It may be that copies of this may be obtained direct from the publisher.  My copies were obtained through a friendly third person/ Bethea cousin with vast knowledge of Bethea historical matters and I am indebted to all of my Bethea, Rogers, Manning and dozens of more family names descended from the original Bethea  cousins whom have provided virtually all of the content of this website.
		A Third book often referred to by Bethea researchers , Harllee's Kinfolks, Vol. 3 by William Curry Harllee , contains an additional wealth of regional and biographical information on the Betheas and their relatives.  This volume is currently out of print. There are a few copies available from Higgingson  Book Company , 14 Derby Square , Post Office  Box 778 Salem, Massachusetts 01970.

Chapter IV

John Adams, Second President 1797-1801	Thomas Jefferson, Third President 1801-1809	James Madison Fourth President 1809-1817	James Monroe  Fifth President 1817-1825	John Quincy Adams Sixth President 1825-1829

Chapter V

The Bethea family expanded and grew over the last three hundred years, first under the English King in the British American Colonies, and then as patriots in the Revolutionary Independence effort of the United States of America. Afterward the family members spread from coast to coast. Beginning with " English John  Bethea ", this is the story and pictures of his descendants. "ENGLISH" JOHN BETHEA  sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe and married the Widow lady Upton. He arrived somewhere along the coastline of Nansemond (later Norfolk), Virginia. That county is now extinct, but it lay between Chesapeake Bay to the North and the Albemarle Sound inlet to the South.  "English John" died sometime after 1750.

Virginia John Bethea(2) (b. before 1705 d. after 1779) He had four (4) children:

1) "Buckswamp" John Bethea  Settled Buck Swamp abt. 1756. Died 8-12-1821 The first marriage was to Lucy ________, and the second marriage was to Absala Parker born 1744 and married in 1765.
2) "Sweatswamp" William Bethea  Married Sara Goodman and had four sons.
3) Anna (Bethea) Rogers b. Sept 6. 1755 - d. abt 1845 m. Erasmus (Lot) Rogers b. Sept 12. 1755 in Suffolk, Nansemond Co, Va. They married on April 11, 1773  in Dillon County, S.C. and Anna died about 1845 at Dillon. We have a new bio on Lot Rogers. Click Here to read it.
4) Mary  (Bethea) Rogers m. 1st Elthered (DRED) Rogers 2nd William Stackhouse

All of these descendants of Virginia John Bethea settled around what is now Dillon County South Carolina until after the War of the American Revolution.  By 1800, when the United States of America was well established, and President Thomas Jefferson was purchasing new lands in the Western frontier, (The Louisiana Purchase)  some of the Bethea descendants set out by horse and wagon to Georgia, to Alabama, to Mississippi  and then crossing the great Mississippi River - to Arkansas, to Texas and beyond, seeking homestead lands in the new U.S. frontier.

Tristram Bethea (2) b. 1713 in Herford (Gates County) N.C) d. 1779
Settled on the family's 150 acre plantation in Gates County, N.C. He had NINE (9) CHILDREN AS FOLLOWS:

1) James Bethea³, d. before Feb. 1797 
2) Jesse Bethea³, b. before 1736 d. 1812 m. (2nd) Elizabeth Breeden (Thomas)  Marlboro Bethea Branch 
3) John Bethea³, d. 1799 in Gates County, N.C. 
4) William Bethea³ b. Mar. 1, 1744 in Gates County , N.C. Married Jerusha Brown Cape Fear Bethea's 
5) Elisha Bethea³ b. 1761 in Gates County , N.C. 
6) Mary Bethea³ d. after Oct. 30, 1792 in Gates County 
7) Elizabeth Bethea³, 
8) Ann Bethea³, 
9) Priscilla Bethea³