Family Surnames

Between the years 1650 and 1900 it is estimated that 28 million Africans were forcibly moved from Africa as slaves. Like many of our immigrant ancestors, surnames which originated in Africa were changed to Western one.

Many African Americans who were slaves were not given a last name, only a first name. If they were given a last name, it was the name of their master’s. Phillis Wheatley’s name tells a lot about the time in which she lived, and gives clues to her life. Wheatley, the first Black poet published in America, was named Phillis after the name of the slave ship Phillis that brought her from Africa to America. Wheatley was the last name of her master and mistress, William and Susannah Wheatley. Unfortunately Phillis never wrote down what her original name was, and so it is lost to us today.

Blacks were seldom addressed by a surname; instead they were usually listed by a first name, or as a “Black Male” or “Black Female.” Once slavery ended and usage of surnames became legal they were free to use either previous name or to choose a new one. Many slaves didn’t receive a last name until they were freed. Sometimes a slave took (or kept) the last name of their former master, or took a common name from the area in which they lived.

In census records, from 1790-1840, only names of the head of household were provided, along with number of slaves. In 1850 and 1860, the Federal government took a supplemental slave census, giving the slave owner’s name, and the number of slaves by gender, age, and a designation of black or mulatto. The names of all free blacks were included in the 1850 and 1860 census. Beginning in 1870, the census listed the names of all African Americans.

Williams

Williams – This surname derives from the personal name, Williamthat originated in medieval England and later came to be extremely popular in Wales. The meaning is derived from son or descendant of Guillemin, the French form of William. Derived from an Old French given name with Germanic elements; will = desire, will; and helm = helmet, protection.It is the second most common surname in Wales and the third most common surname in the whole of the United Kingdom, the third most common in the United States of America and Australia and the fifth most common in New Zealand.Variations: Williamson, MacWilliams, Wilcox; Origins: Wales, England, Scotland, Germany. Benefiting from family connection to the English throne, many early Williams’s descendents served in public office and governed newly conquered lands. Eventually the name spread across all of the English speaking countries and finds its places as the 3rd popular surname in Great Britain and America. Historically, this name comes from greatness and the surname basically means, “a family of heroes”.

The Country Origins of the Williams Surname: The Williams surname primarily originates from such countries as Wales, England, Scotland, and Germany. Throughout the ages, the Williams surname maintains its position as the third most popular surname in the United States and Great Britain. Primarily, the Williams surname is considered a Welsh name. You cannot really trace each William back to one man because many just cropped up and then used the patronymic naming conventions to adopt a family surname.

Wales/England historians credit the Welsh people with adding the “s” to the end of the surname that in the Welsh culture denotes “the son of”. Since Williams is the most popular variation of the name, it is safe to assume that most of the ancestors of the Williams surname came from Wales. Many of the prominent Williams family came from the historic county of Breconshire or Brecknockshire in Wales located near the English/Welsh border. Sir Henry Williams (1661) and Richard Williams (1679) are the first of a host of Williams family members from Breconshire who served on the English Parliament.The Welsh line of Williams’s families connects with the motto, Cywir in Gwlad meaning Righteous country or correct land. This is fitting due to the Welsh Williams role in the civic government of their lands.

Northern Scotland, the Williams surname takes on the variation of McWilliams that also means “son of Williams”. The Scottish people are one of the only groups of people using William as part of their surname that did not add the “s” suffix. An excerpt from George F. Black’s excellent book Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History: Duncan Ban MacWilliam and William the Lion were both great grandsons of Malcolm III. Duncan was slain in the battle of Mam Garvia in Moray in 1187; his son Donald was slain in Moray in 1215 and his son Guthred was beheaded at Kincardine in 1211. Indicates some of the early bearers of the MacWilliams surname.

Germany, genealogists credit the German language with produce the primary variations of the name, William. Some of the old German names are Willihelm and Willelm. The roots of the German people are traced back to Prussia. The German Williams clans identify with a shield having four roses displayed on a silver background. The German Williams family crest is a single rose.

The First Williams to Migrate to America: The Williams family played a huge part in developing New England. Many Williams’s family members came to America to seek religious freedoms. The Williams surname is prevalent in all of the fifty states with Williams Counties located in such as Virginia, Ohio and North Dakota.

• Thomas Williams – 1620 – voyaged to America on the Mayflower, but died at Plymouth during the first winter before every marrying or bearing children.
• Richard and Marie Williams – 1630 – Settled in Maine
• Roger Williams – February 5, 1631 – born in London, England (circa 1604), he sailed to Boston aboard the Lyon and assumed a seat as one of the first Baptist churches in America. As a result of his desire to separate church and state, Roger Williams formed a new settlement at Providence, Rhode Island. He and his wife, Mary (Barnard) Williams, gave birth to 5 children (Mary [1633], Freeborn[1635], Providence [1638], Mercey [1640], Daniel [1641], Joseph [1643]) all born in America.

Williams in Georgetown: Joseph H. Rainey was the first Negro to be elected to the national House of Representatives. He had been the first state senator under the new constitution serving from 1868 to 1870. Also Bruce Williams was a state representative during this period. During post reconstruction, 1876-1900 the Negroes who served in public office were local Negroes, not carpetbaggers. Bruce H. Williams, a Negro, was state senator from 1878-1888. He was one of the last Negroes to sit in the South Carolina Senate. Williams was succeeded by Richard Dozier in 1888 and by Walter Hazard in 1892. Williams had been born in slavery in Georgetown District. After the war he attended high school in Raleigh, North Carolina and was then ordained to preach in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

In 1805 David Rogerson Williams replaced Benjamin Huger in Congress. Williams, was a planter more in the style of Huger. These gentlemen were helped by the fact that the Methodists and Baptists had given up their crusade against slavery. IN the decade following 1817 South Carolina experimented with a state financial internal improvement scheme. The central purpose was to improve the natural system of waterways throughout the Georgetown and the state. The work of Public Works was largely a failure. Some success was due to the enterprise of David R. Williams, who later became Governor David R. Williams.

Cuttino

The Cuttino or Cuttineau name is not Italian. It is French from (Cothonneau). The names of the first settlers in Georgetown can be taken from sources such as the parish register, the land grants, the court paper, the town records, and the advertisement in the South Carolina Gazette. The following names appears most often and could be considered the family names of the first settlers and landowners; Allston, Bell, Cleland, Collins, Cuttino, Ford, Godfrey, Heriot, Hughes, Hume, Keith, Kinloch, Lesesne, Lewis, Pawley, Pyatt, Screven, Smith, Snow, Trapier, Tucker, Vereen, White, Wilson, and Young.

 In 1843 B.T. Cuttino was an intendant and/or mayor of Georgetown. An analysis of these names reveals three fairly well defined groups: the French, the English, and the Scots. None of these settlers, however, came in groups; they came as individuals. Some were sons of men who died had settled in Colleton or Berkeley counties, the second generation making a new start on a new frontier. Others were men who held public office or engaged in slave and other trade in Charleston and were investing their profits in the newly developing region. Later, the lands that they had acquired would draw them as permanent residents. Cuttino, Lesesne, Vereen, and Trapier were French names representing Huguenot families who reached Carolina before 1700. The French Huguenots who settle around Georgetown were rice planters, first on the North Santee and then on the Waccamaw and the Pee Dee.

In Georgetown around 1786-1804 there were efforts of converting slaves to Christianity. The Baptist did not push their religious faith with the slaves as much as did the Methodists. The early Georgetown Baptists clustered around William Cuttino, who had been converted in 1767 in Charleston. In 1801 William Cuttino, Sr., Savage Smith, Cornelius Dupree, William Grant, William Cuttino, Jr., John Davis, John Evans, Jeremiah Cuttino, William B. Johnson, and others petitioned for an act of incorporation which was second from the legislature on December 19, 1801. They build a wooden meeting-house Baptist Church. The Episcopal Church was incorporated in 1820. This was the church of the largest rice planters. None of the Episcopal clergymen opposed slavery. The Reverned James L. Belin began his mission to the slaves in 1819 on his own plantations and those of Robert Withers and Major Ward on Waccamaw. In Georgetown the Baptist Peter Cuttino met on Sunday afternoons with a few friends and blacks for a sermon, song, and prayers.

During the 1830’s concerns arise about irregularities in the senate election between R.F. W. Allston and J.H. Read. The Georgetown Unionists (many of whom were Scottish decent) included Henry Cuttino, were drawn into the nullification movement and signed a petition to the Senate stating that managers of the North Santee and Pee Dee polls had received as legal voters persons who admitted that they had voted elsewhere. It was also reported that the Santee poll stayed open two days while the other county polls stayed open only one day. In light of this situation, another election was called and Allston still won the senate seat. The Unionists were driven out of public life. The Withers, Read, Wilkinson family connections, the Scots (the Heriots, Frasers, McDowells), the Black River (the Greens), and the Black Mingo (the Doziers) men, the Methodist (Shaw and Waterman), and the Baptists (Cuttino) were not to provide the outstanding leaders of the next three decades. In order to oppose the power and influence of the large planters, the Unionist tried to draw support of Northern men in the town of Georgetown and the small farmers of Horry County, but this did not work. The big planters of Waccamaw, the Pee Dee, and the North Santee were all Episcopalians who represented the bulk of nullification strength. The leaders of this group were able to dominate with ease throughout the remainder of the antebellum period.

Last, in Georgetown there was a court for trial of Negroes, both slaves and free, who had been accused of a crime. In 1787 Governor Thomas Pinckney was petitioned to pardon Abraham, who was sentenced for breaking open and robbing the store of Heriot and Grant. The Governor pardons Abraham because William Cuttino his owner had promised to send him far away from Georgetown. An 1833 act gave the accused the right of appeal from a Negro court to the circuit court for any slave or free Negro convicted of a capital offense. As the court for the trial of Negroes was not a court of record, it is difficult to provide a history of this court within the state and impossible for Georgetown.

Dentley

The surname “Dentley” reveals that in the United States there are 28 phone book entries with the surname Dentley and approximately 100 persons with this name.

Thus, the surname Dentley is the 178473 most frequent names in the United States.  

States with lots of occurrences of the name are Tennessee (6), New Jersey (5), South Carolina (5), Pennsylvania (2), Illinois (1), Louisiana (1), as well as Maryland (1).

Dentley is identified by the United States Bureau of the Census as a surname with more than 100 occurrences in the United States for the year 2000 United States Census. In demographic aspects of surnames from census 2000, the Census Bureau tabulated the surname of all people who had obtained Social Security Numbers by the year 2000. Dentley ranks #146011 in terms of the most common surnames in the United States for 2000. Dentley had 104 occurrences in the 2000 Census, according to the United States Government records.

For the last name of Dentley the Census Bureau reports the following race/ethnic origin breakdown:

• 7.69 percent, or 8 total were “Non-Hispanic White Only”
• 87.5 percent or 91 total were “Non-Hispanic Black Only”
• 0 percent, or None were reported “non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only”

Brown

Brown is a surname of English, Irish, and Scottish origin. It also originates independently in the United States, as an Anglicization of several other surnames. Brown is one of the most common family names in English-speaking countries. According to the 1990 United States Census, Brown is the fifth most common family name in the United States.

Brown is generally a descriptive surname (nickname) referring to the color of the individual’s complexion, color of hair, or garments, from the Middle English br(o)un, from Old English or Old French brun, meaning “brown.” As a Scottish or Irish name, Brown may also be a translation of the Gaelic donn for “brown.”

The Browns during the founding of Georgetown were:

•  Robert and Katherine Brown, Parish Leaders
• Dr. Robert Brown, a Scotsman medical doctor
• Colonel P.P Brown of the 157^th New York volunteer commanded a brigade stationed at Georgetown, which consisted of the 54^th Massachusetts volunteers and five companies of the 102^nd United Stated Colored Troops and eight companies of the 32^nd United States Colored Troops.
• Joseph Brown, agent for the South Carolina Gazette Newspaper
• Charles Brown, Commissioner
• William Brown, Scottish storekeeper

Source: Rogers, G.C. (1970). History of Georgetown County, South Carolina. University of  South Carolina Press. Columbia, South Carolina.