Genealogy Class, April 2013, problem submitted by Kate Soper
Problem: Track down the parents of Roberts Pike Pickens and determine how they got to
Ireland (parents were Robert or maybe Andrew (Andre) Pickens or Pickon and Esther Jane
Bonneau per the French tradition; parents were William Pickens or Picken and Margaret per the
Scotch Irish Trail); establish the date Robert Pike Pickens emigrated to America in the early 18th
century.
Robert Pike Pickens was my great x 5 grandfather and would like to learn more about the
family’s European heritage.
What we know from Cousin Monroe’s History of the Pickens Family (“The Pickens
Family”), revised and published by my grandmother in 1950:
Robert Pike Pickens came to America from Ireland “probably sometime between 1720 and 1737
(p. 80) He settled initially in Frederick County, Maryland.
Robert Pike Pickens’ brothers, William, Israel, Andrew, and John also emigrated from Ireland
and settled in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
I do not know if the brothers all emigrated at the same time. I do not know if their parents also
emigrated. However, Robert Pikes Pickens died in 1793 at age 96, which would have made him
in his twenties or thirties at the time he left Ireland, so it could have gone either way.
A few years later, William, Israel, Andrew, and John moved to Lancaster County.
About 1740, Israel, John, and Andrew moved to Augusta County, Virginia.
About 1750, Andrew moved to the Waxhaw settlement in northern South Carolina.
Israel Pickens died in 1749.
Andrew and Robert kept up communications and Andrew induced Robert to move to South.
Tradition has it that Robert moved first to Augusta County, Virginia, and after about six weeks,
moved again South with the family of another one of the Pickens pioneers. I do not know the
dates of Robert’s move to Augusta County. However, Augusta County records show that John
Pickens sold his property there in early October, 1754, and moved out of the county on October
21, 1754. The Pickens Family states (p. 80): “This being about the time that Robert Pike Pickens
moved South we believe that John Pickens and Robert Pike Pickens moved at the same time.”
It is said that Robert Pike Pickens intended to settle in the Mecklenburg District of North
Carolina, but after he arrived there and before he unpacked, he and his wife decide it would be
preferable to move to the Waxhaw Settlement. They spent about 8 years at the Waxhaw
settlement near the Catawba River on the line between North and South Carolina. In about 1763,
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they moved to the Long Cane Creek settlement in Abbeville County, South Carolina. Assuming
the 1763 date is correct, they would have moved to Waxhaw around 1755.
The 1763 date is based on the following story: an Indian uprising in 1759 and a massacre in 1760
caused the settlers to flee. Some escaped to the Waxhaw settlement and after the uprising had
been subdued, they returned to Long Cane about 1763. It is believed that Robert Pike Pickens
went to Long Cane at this time, along with the returning settlers.
Robert Pike Pickens’ son, Capt. Robert Pickens, also lived in Long Cane. After the
Revolutionary War, in 1783, Capt. Pickens moved to the head waters of the Three and Twenty
Creek in Anderson District, taking his father with him. He took care of his father in his old age,
until Robert Pike Pickens died at age 96 in 1793. This means Robert Pike Pickens would have
been born around 1687 (date confirmed by Family Tree Maker).
Robert Pike Pickens married Miriam Davis about 1729 (surname and date of marriage per
Family Tree Maker). The names of the following children of Robert Pike and Miriam Pickens
are known (there may have been others):
Israel
Robert (Capt. Robert Pickens) b Nov. 26, 1747, d July 19, 1830. I am his direct descendant.
Annie (twin of Robert)
David
Andrew
Samuel
Margaret
Elizabeth
Family Tree Maker adds following children:
Martha
Jane
Annie
David
Two theories: the French tradition and the Scotch-Irish Trail
French tradition
Robert (or Andrew) Pickens (Pickon) was a Huguenot living in France when the Edict of Nantes
was revoked on Oct. 22, 1685. He held a very responsible position in the French courts. He
married a very beautiful and strong-willed widow named Esther Jane Bonneau. Because of the
persecution of protestants after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, they fled France, going first
to Scotland, then after a short sojourn, moved to Ireland. Their home was probably in the
northern section of the country, although some claim they settled in Limerick. Three sons were
born in Ireland and they later immigrated to America. Their names were:
Andrew
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John
Robert.
“The Abridged Compendium of American Genealogy, a comparatively recent work [according
to the Pickens Family which was published in 1951], gives the name of the French Huguenot as
Andrew in the following language: ‘Andre (Pickon) Pickens, a Huguenot, escaped from France,
thence to Scotland, then went to Ireland, from whence his sons, Andrew, and Robert Pike
Pickens, came to Paxton, PA.’ ”
(source: The Pickens Family, p. 19 - 20)
The Scotch-Irish Trail
William Pickens (Picken) and his wife, Margaret, came to Pennsylvania before April in the year
1720, according to Bolton’s Scotch Irish Pioneers. This information is based on records from the
1722 Neshamy (Neshaminy) Church records, which state that people admitted from Ireland
include William Pickens and his wife Margaret.
They had, among their children, six sons, all of whom were born in Ireland, and in 1740, when
there was a large movement of Scotch-Irish immigrants from Pennsylvania to Virginia, these
boys, or most of them, were along them. The sons were:
Andrew (married Nancy or Ann Davis)
Robert (married Miriam)
Israel (married Martha)
William (married Ann Scott, a widow)
John (married Eleanor)
Gabriel (married Zerubiah)
(source: The Pickens Family, p. 23)
Research on parents of Robert Pike Pickens (I’m having trouble putting this together):
Records from Family Tree Maker:
Robert Pike Pickens, son of William Pickens and Margaret Pike, b in Ireland in 1697, d
Anderson District, South Caroline 1793.
Records from Ancestry.com:
Robert Pike Pickens b Ireland 1700, d Anderson South Carolina 1742.
Robert Pike married Ester Jeanne Bonneau; married Miriam Davis and had 9 children.
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Robert Pickens, son of Robert Pike Pickens and Miriam Davis, b 1747, d 1830.
Death date of Robert Pike Pickens has to be wrong. He can’t have died 5 years before the death
of his son.
Ester Jeanne Bonneau, b Rochell, France 1654, d 1685 in Ireland. Married Robert Andrew
Pickens and had 4 children ; married Robert Pike Pickens.
Records from Nelan web site:
Robert Henry Pickens was the father of Robert Pike Pickens.
Robert Henry was born in Northern Ireland in 1669 and died in Bucks, Pennsylvania in 1735.
His parents were Robert Andrew Pickens (1644 – 1699) and Esther Jane Bennoit (Bonneau),
1654 – 1705.
Records from Findagrave:
Robert Andre Pickens married widow Bonneau in 1665 in La Rochelle, France. They had at least
3 children, including William Henry Pickens
Robert Andrew was a son of Andrew Pickens (Andre Picon) and Isobell Mattisone.
There is a suggestion that Robert Picon was a Scot or Briton at the court of France and that he
fled from Scotland to France in 1661 to avoid religious persecution (he was a Protestant). While
in France, he married Bonneau and they fled from France to Scotland in 1685, and later to
Ireland, again to avoid religious persecution
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