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FROM A LETTER WRITTEN TO HOWARD A. BANKS BY MISSES JESSIE AND JEANIE LOW OF Forfar, N.E. Scotland (COUSINS), GIVING FACTS ABOUT THE BANKS FAMILY IN SOUTH CAROLINA DESCENDED FROM JOHN MAJORIBANKS AND HIS SON, SAMUEL. (Marjoribanks pronounced Marshbanks) Copy Oct. 4, 1909 "Your great, great grandfather's name was John Majoribanks. He it was who was the father of Samuel Majoribanks of Fairfield District, South Carolina. The other names of the family were: Mary, Katie, and Belle. Your great, great grandmother was Ellen Murdouch. We cannot give the name of our kinsman who fought on Culloden, only we have heard Mother speak of one of her ancestors being there. Mother was very proud of her name (She was a Wallace) and used to say her father could trace back to the direct line of Sir William Wallace." In a former letter they said that the father of Samuel Marjoribanks, or Banks, as he became in plain democratic America, was brought up in Thornhill, the family having removed there from Dumfriesshire about the time of the"Covenanters feud". This man, (John Majoribanks) was a dyester (ordyer), the business being more lucrative then than it is now. His house is still standing in Thornhill, and is know as the "DYESTERS HOUSE". Hoping to mend his fortune, John Mar--joribanks came to America and settled in Fishing Creek. The family history of this side of the water says he died of fever, and not hearing from him, his son, Samuel, gave up a clerkship in the Bank of England and came over to look for his father. He fell in love with a pretty face in Fairfield District and married Miss Robinson. They started back to England, but she was freightened by the Ocean, and the frail craft that plied it at the port of Charleston and refused to go. Returning to Fairfield, they settled and raised a family of a dozen children. (END) Facts about the Banks (Majoribanks) family as told to Mrs. Ben (Mary Mack) Ardrey by her uncle, Alex R Banks, (a prominent school teacher died in 1918 Flu epidemic while teaching at Ridgeway S.C.) on the last visit he made her before his death: John Majoribanks built a dam across the North fork of Fishing Creek at what is now known as Cornwell's Mill (or Prides Old Mill) which is five miles on the South side of Rock Hill S C. There are native stones put together without cement. This accounts for his being buried at old Fishing Creek Church where he worshipped. "I will nae cross so wide a river" (mill pond), Grandmother Elizabeth Robinson Banks said, speaking of the Atlantic Ocean when her husband was urging her to cross it to go back to the old country. When Grandfather Sam Banks reached Charleston he inquired for of his father and he met a man named PEDEN, from the up-country who lived on Rocky Creek (ten miles from Fishing Creek), who had gone to Charleston to sell his tobacco and he offered to take Samuel Banks back with him to hunt his father. They reached old man Mr Peden's home on a Saturday night and grandfather stayed with Mr Penden over Sunday and went to OLD CATHOLIC Presbyterian CHURCH (Presbyterian) dressed in his Scotch plaids - Highlander. He lived to see two of his sons ordained as Ministers in this Church, and one son, William, was pastor of the Catholic Church there for over 30 years. At the meeting of the Presbytery in Catholic Churchinwhen Grandfatherpa and Uncle Alex were ordained Ministers by "The "Laying On Of Hands". Grandfatherpa was William Banks, Uncle Alex was Alexander Banks, they were sons of old Samuel Banks. The old man, Samuel Banks, walked down the aisle of the Church palsied. He lived to be 87.TheyThere were 45 of Grandfather Sam Bank's sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons-in-law in the Confede- rate Army. Jeanie & Jessie Low are the daughters of Margaret Wallace (Peggy), the daughter of Mary Marjoribanks, the daughter of the Dyester of Thornhill and Fuller+???? of Fishing Creek, S. C.. Samuel Banks and his wife, Elizabeth Robinson Banks, are buried in old Concord Cemetery near Blackstock, S. C. near Woodward, 30 miles from Columbia, near Ridgeway, where Eliza Parks now lives. (1933) at Woodward SC (near Blackstock) ----------------- --------- +This word should most probably be "miller" since he built a mill on the North fork of Fishing Creek. (JSB) Note by Elizabeth Lynn. I think "fuller"is correct. It refers to a person who shrinks and thickens wollen cloth by moistening, heating, and pressing. This was a very necessary trade, following the work of the Dyester.
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This page was put on the web Wednesday 18 Feb. 1998.
This page was Last Updated 13 April 2002.
This page was put on the web by
James W. Green III.