| Notes |
- NOTE 1./ Thomas Hobby : Last Will and Testament recorded in Book 4 Page 240 C.R. 56.801.2 Johnston Co . Wills 1760-1830.
Will: Johnston,N.C. 29 June 1803
Wife: Sarah-land & plantation I now posess with all stock, household furnishings, and tools during her natural lifetime, and after death, to be disposed of as her decided:
Son: Alexander-5 ShillingsSon: Henry - 5 Shillings
Daughter Elizabeth - Loom & furniture
Son Francis - land & plantation; land I have by deed from John Norris
Son Briton - land & plantation where I now live, after death of wife.
Son William - 5 Shillings
Son Jonathan - 5 Shillings
remaining estate to be sold by Exec. and money to be divided- 1/3 to sons Henry, Alexander, & Jonathan: 2/3 to daughters Elizabeth, Sally, Francis, & son Briton.
Exec: Alexander Hobby Jr., David Bell
Wit: John Aason, J. Sanders, Wm. A. Bryan
Alexr. Hobby (signed)
Prob Feb ct. 1804
NOTE 2./ Historical Note: The Year Was 1789
The year was 1789 and in the U.S. a young government was beginning to take shape. In its first nationwide election, the popular Revolutionary War general, George Washington, became the country's first president and was sworn in at the first capitol of the United States, Federal Hall in New York City.
In France, a rebellion was underway and with the storming of the Bastille prison, the French Revolution began. In its reporting on the subject, The Times of London, England had the following to say of the conflict:
The spirit of liberty which so long lay in a state of death, oppressed by the hand of power, received its first spark of returning animation, by the incautious and impolitic assistance afforded to America. The French soldier on his return from that emancipated continent, told a glorious tale to his countrymen--"That the arms of France had given freedome to thirteen United States, and planted the standard of liberty on the battlements of New York and Philadelphia." The idea of such a noble deed became a general object of admiration, the [facets?] of a similar state were eagerly longed for by all ranks of people, and the vox populi had this force of argument--"If France gave freedom to America, why should she not unchain the arbitrary fetters which bind her own people.
Later that year, the Marquis de Lafayette, with the advice of Thomas Jefferson who was at the time the American ambassador to France, drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. It was adopted by France's National Assembly in August and ratified by Louis XVI in October.
There was unrest in other parts of the world as well. Sweden and Russia were at war, and briefly, Norway had joined the conflict, although a peace treaty was signed in July 1789.
In a smaller, but well-known conflict, the mutiny on the H.M.S. Bounty was also in the year 1789. On April 28, part of the crew of the Bounty, led by Fletcher Christian, mutinied and set Captain William Bligh and eighteen crewmembers adrift. Bligh managed to get the boat some 3,600 miles to Timor. Some of the mutineers were captured and prosecuted--three were hanged, while others, including Fletcher Christian ended up on Pitcairn Island, where some of their descendants live to this day.
In 1789, there was an epidemic of influenza in New England, New York, and Nova Scotia, which resulted in many deaths due to secondary cases of pneumonia. The new president was among those who fell ill. He caught a cold while visiting Boston, and later, was affected more seriously with influenza, which was dubbed Washington Influenza.
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1741 - 1803 (62 years)
