The Massey family line has been extensively researched by many people and has been traced back to the Normandy region of France. Various spellings of the name include Massy, Massie, Macey and Masci. The first of my ancestors arrived in the Virginia colony in the early 1600s.
William Massey and his wife Judith Pettipool moved from Virginia to North Carolina about 1764. Their son Noel Massey moved to South Carolina before 1790.
Silas Massey was a son of Noel Massey and became a very wealthy man, owning land in both South Carolina and Georgia. When he died, a son-in-law gave his will to another son-in-law who destroyed it. The reasons for their actions were given as being upset that the land was left in their wives names and that the older children were to receive more land. Most of his children had already built farms on land their father was leaving them in the will and had been living there for years. This resulted in the death considered intestate and a probate case with hundreds of pages. There were numerous suits, depositions and hearings as the children battled one another. Reading the documents in the probate file is tedious but very revealing. Silas said he was 100 years old when he died, but some earlier records indicate he was not quite that old.
Highlighted names show the direct ancestor line of Mattie Junkins.