George Washington Rudd of Barnwell

In the previous posting George W. Rudd, father of Burrell Rudd of Coffee County, AL, we located George W. Rudd living in 1810 Barnwell County, SC.

When we look at the 1820 Barnwell census we see two clusters of Rud families.


One on page 17a shows a George Rud, Sr., George Rud, Jr. and Wm. Rud the other one shows George Rud on page 20b and a Rud who we can’t identify on page 20a. (Based on the space available for the given name of this Rud, I wonder if the name is Wm. Rud.) But for our purposes here it doesn’t really matter since both of these George Rud household say the head is 26/45 years old. In addition, it does appear that the 1820 census was transcribed by several different people and some of it is in alphabetical order, some of it appears to be in chronological order, so it is of no use to us as far as determining neighbors!

Based on the 1810 census we established George Rud with a wife named Susannah Rud was born between 1765 and 1784. In the 1820 census we can establish that both of the listed George Ruds are born between 1775 and 1794. That narrows down George W. Rudd’s birth year as 1775 and 1784.

Now we move to the 1830 census.

We see George Rud reporting his age as between 50 to 60.

That means he is born between 1770 and 1780. When we combine all these census records together we can now narrow down the birth year for George W. Rudd to be between 1780 and 1784.

Next we need to identify the George Rud in 1810 who we have determined to be the father of Burrell Rudd to be the same George Rud in 1830.

Looking back at the land records for the George Rud we have identified as the father of Burrell Rudd we see the names of his neighbors and landmarks.

The 1811 land grant says:

One Hundred and Ninety Four Acres surveyed for him the 10th of January 1811. Situated in Barnwell District between Lower 3 Runs & Big Saltcatcher including a Pond called ( ? ) Pond on a Road from Ed Brown’s Mill to Barnwell Courthouse.

The 1811 land survey says:

Situated in Barnwell District between Lower Three Rivers and Big Saltketcher including a Pond called Persemmon Pond and on a road leading from Col. Brown’s Mill to Barnwell Courthouse. Bounded NE by land surveyed for Thos. Morris and on all sides by land supposed to be vacant.

The 1831 deed of sale of his land says:

Tract of land containing one hundred and ninety-four acres more or less situated in the District and State aforesaid adjoining lands of the said Moses Sanders, John Barfield, Elijah Davis and William A. Peyton lying on the south side of the great Saltcatcher on the road leading from Barnwell Court House to Stinson Landing on Savannah River which land was granted to the said George Rudd on the Sixth day of December 1813.

Keeping in mind that the land records only list the names of the land owners and not the actual persons living on the land we can see that in the 1830 census we have George Rud with John Sanders, Sidney Davis and Nathan Davis on page 136.

On page 135 we see John Peyton and Talton Brown.

On page 137 we see what is most likely Bartlett Brown (not the Barrett Brown as transcribed).

Since the 1830 census appears to be transcribed based on the actual report of the Census Taker, we can conclude that it is reflective of the cluster of families.

When George Rud sold his land in 1831, the adjoining land was owned by Sanders, Davis and Peyton. His 1811 land grant and survey name Ed Brown and Col. Brown as owners adjoining land. This is of course circumstantial evidence, but it does indicate that the George Rud in the 1830 Barnwell census is our George W. Rudd.

In addition we have the Mill’s Atlas for Barnwell County surveyed in 1818.

George Rud’s land was located between the Big Saltcatcher and the Lower Three Runs/River on the road from Barnwell Courthouse to Stinson’s Landing/Bridge. Between the head of Cedar Branch and land owned by Talton Brown.



That brings me to the conclusion that George Washington Rudd of Barnwell County, SC, the father of Burrell Rudd was born between 1780 and 1784. He is too young to be of age in 1797 Screven County, GA (21 years old) to be the same George Jr. in the Deed of Gift by George Lounsdell Rudd, Sr. to his four named sons.

This George Washington Rudd would have been 13 to 17 years old in 1797.