Want to Laugh? Read how Martha McFarlane Bell Mused Lord Cornwallis
Revolutionary War Stories in North Carolina
Did you ever wonder what living among the Tories during the brutal Revolutionary War was like? What if the British occupied your home? What would you do?
The stories of Martha McFarlane Bell spell violence and risks, yet although British soldiers frequently confronted her, it is amusing how she single-handedly took matters into her own hands.
Mrs. Bell was born and reared in southern Orange County near the boundaries of Alamance County. She was born McFarlane, of Scottish or Scots-Irish ancestry. Although she was not a natural beauty, she possessed fine features and was considered “a good-looking woman.’’ She was gifted with a strong mind, an ardent temperament, and great firmness. She could love devotedly and hate with equal intensity, which made her a valuable friend but an undesirable enemy.
Some eight or ten years before the Revolutionary War, Martha McFarlane married a young widower, Colonel John McGee, with two children and an ample fortune. Their home was on Sandy Creek in the northern portion of Randolph County. Colonel McGee owned a vast landed estate, a mill, a country store, etc., and carried on a larger business than any other man in Randolph. But McGee died at the beginning of the war, leaving his wife with five little children, three boys, and two girls, to struggle with the world.
Being the richest widow in that locality, it is said many sought her hand in marriage, particularly the frisky young widowers and bachelors in their prime. Finally, William Bell, a widower, won her affections, and in May of 1779, they were united in the holy bonds of matrimony.
From the moment the ties were severed with the Mother Country, Mrs. Bell espoused the patriot cause. During the war, she acted as a nurse, taking journeys that risked her life. However, like so many other families, the ravages of war depleted her plentiful possessions.
The country was but sparsely settled, the roads at times almost impassable, and cutthroats and desperadoes ubiquitous, yet Mrs. Bell, mounted on a noble steed and armed with dirk and pistols like the knight of old, sallied forth on deeds of mercy. She sometimes encountered insults and attacks at the hands of ruffians, but her wonderful self-possession always rescued her from harm. On one occasion, about the close of the devolution, she was traveling an unfrequented road, obeying an appeal for help, when she espied ahead a perfect desperado and outlaw by the name of Stephen Lewis, generally called Steve Lewis, a member of Fanning’s Corps. When he beheld her approaching, he dismounted, hitched his horse, set his game against a tree, and then took his stand in the middle of the road. As she approached, he seized her horse by the bridle and ordered her to dismount, at which she drew her pistol and threatened to shoot him on the spot should he move a step! Woman’s nature is not to take human life, though had Mrs. Bell fired and killed this notorious Tory, it would have been a Cordetlike act. However, she pursued the milder course and was content with taking him prisoner, driving him home before her at the point of the pistol, ready at any moment to fire. Since there was no man there to keep guard over him, Lewis escaped.
After the profitless victory at Guilford Courthouse, Cornwallis’ Army, on its way to Wilmington, encamped for about two days at the Bell plantation. The troops arrived about the middle of the afternoon; the main division stacked arms at the adjoining plantation of John Clarke’.
While Cornwallis seized her house as headquarters, he knew the landlady's character and treated her with marked respect. When Cornwallis enquired about the whereabouts of William Bell, she replied “In Greene’s camp.”
“Is he an officer or a soldier in the army ?” Cornwallis asked.
“He is not, but thought it better to go to his friends than to stay and fall into the hands of his enemies.”
“Madam, I must make your house my headquarters and use your mill for a few days to grind for my army while I remain here.”
“Sir, you possess the power and, of course, will do as you please without my consent, but after using my mill, do you intend to burn it before you leave ?”
“Madam, why do you ask that question ?”
“Sir, answer my question first, then I will answer yours.”
His lordship then assured her that the mill should not be burnt or injured, hut that he must use it to prepare provisions for his army, and further added that by making her house his headquarters, he would be a protection to herself, her house, and everything in or about it; “for,” said he, “no soldier of mine dare to plunder or commit depredations near my quarters.”
To this, she replied: “Now, sir, you have done me a favor by giving me a satisfactory answer to my question, and I will answer yours. Had your lordship said that you intended to burn our mill, I had intended to save you the trouble by burning it myself before you derived much benefit from it; but as you assure me that you will be a protection to me and to the property about the house, I will make no further objections to your using our mill, and making my house your headquarters. At the same time, you stay, which I think you said would be only for a few days.”
Both parties kept the pact. When Cornwallis entered the house, he announced his annihilation of Greene’s Army, but it was learned that his comments were mere bravado.
The vernal equinox was approaching, which caused the cold, high wind. On that account, the back door that overlooked the Martinsville-Fayetteville road was kept shut. Cornwallis opened this and stood a few moments gazing up the road, then again took his seat by the fire. Mrs. Bell immediately shut it, but Cornwallis opened it and, returning to his chair, was restless and unable to stay in one position for five minutes.
When Mrs. Bell closed the door the second time, he insisted that it be left open. When asked why, he said General Greene might be coming down the road.
‘’Why,” said she, “I thought you told me a little while ago that you had annihilated his army and that he could do you no more harm.”
He answered this: “Well, madam, to tell you the truth, I never saw such fighting since God made me, and another such victory would annihilate me.”
Mrs. Bell was much vexed to have her house occupied by imperious, profane men, though the commander’s presence protected her to a certain extent, and she escaped the insult hurled at Mrs. Caldwell’s head seven days before.
The Tories seized her grain, cattle, provisions, and whatsoever they chose, without compensation. At a distance, she could hear the soldiers cursing her as a rebel and uttering maledictions. Through it all, however, she bore herself with dignity and without fear.
One day, a man passing her door hurled at her with some insulting language. She expressed a wish that the horse might throw him and break his neck. In several minutes, her wish was granted. Dashing headlong down the steep bank of the river, the rider was thrown and his head crushed amid the rocks.
Being warned of the approaching enemy, she hid her coin and bacon. The pork she secreted in rocks across the river, the money — divided chiefly in “guineas and half Jos” — she placed under a huge rock, which formed the bottom step at the entrance. This was a favorite depository for the Whigs’ cash, and knowing that, the enemy frequently lifted the steps in search of hidden treasure. Knowing this, she ran the risk of losing the savings of years. One day, she went through the enemy’s camp to divert their attention and lingered there momentarily before walking boldly to the step, lifting the rock, and taking her coin.
The Bells had employed Stephen Harlin as a miller. As his conduct proved, he had the reputation of being a rascal and a Tory. He let the British have grain and meal out of the mill and revealed the place of her bacon. After Harlin stole her bacon, he was not forgiven.
On the arrival of the British, Harlin threw his cap in the air, shouting, “Hurra for King George!” Harlin was not dismissed until a miller could be hired to replace him.
The evening that Cornwallis’ forces retreated, Mrs. Bell visited the camp, ostensibly on some errand, but in truth to ascertain the real condition to report to Colonel Lee and Colonel Washington, who, hanging on the rear of the Redcoats, gave considerable trouble. General Greene must know the force of his enemy, who was heavily burdened with the wounded and who were dying all along the highway.
Donning her husband’s uniform and arming herself well, she rode forth into the British camp, then to the Walker plantation on Sandy Creek, on the pretext of a claim for depredations committed that were unknown till the soldiers departed, she was keenly alert, and returned bearing information to the Patriots.
There was an even more daring exploit of Mrs. Bell. It was the night she rode all night in company with a Whig to ascertain the movements of the Tories said to have been forming across the river fourteen miles distant from her house. The perils of such a journey were indeed great. At each house, she was the “spokesman.” She would enquire about the road to a certain point and on to another. She inquired as, “Were there any Royalists embodied in that direction?” “Where was their place of meeting?” “How far was it ?” “What was their number ?” “What were they going to do ?” “Would they molest her ?”
In this manner, she learned satisfactorily of the enemies’ movements since the information led to Colonel Lee’s successful raid the following night.
Mrs. Bell’s staunch patriotism invited attacks from the Tories, and her husband dared not lodge in the house at night.
On one visitation, the British burned the barn and its contents, wounded one of her sons, and threatened to shoot another because they protested against such depredations. Another night, they attempted to murder her aged father, then on a visit to his daughter’s family.
When two desperate characters approached him with drawn swords, seeing she must act quickly, Mrs. Bell seized a broad axe tightly with both hands, raised it above her head, and exclaimed with great sternness, “If one of you touches him, I’ll split you down with this axe. Touch him if you dare!”
Her earnestness and defiant attitude overawed them to the extent they left the house. In the fall of 1781, after a trip North, Mr. Bell attempted to sleep beneath his own roof. The Tories, learning of his presence, called promptly with intentions of hanging him. Finding the house securely closed, they prepared to apply the torch. When they were passing around the house, Mr. Bell thrust his head out of the window to see if they had applied the torch and, in case they did, to fire upon them. A Tory very near to the window inflicted such a wound on his head that he was completely overcome. Mrs. Bell summoned her youthful sons — lads in their teens — from their beds upstairs and ordered them to get the old musket, ready to fire from the upper windows, and going to the windows near the kitchen, yelled to their servant Peter, “Run as hard as you can to Joseph Clarke’s and tell him and the Light Horse to come as quickly as possible, for the Tories are here.”
Mr. Clarke had a troop of mounted men at his command, but their whereabouts were unknown. The Tories, apprehensive of shots from above and of Joseph Clarke’s “Light Horse,” retreated.
Once, Mrs. Bell made a trip to Wilmington with Mrs. Dugan to visit the latter’s son. Colonel Thomas Dugan, long confined on a prison ship, was condemned to be hung.
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Sources: The North Carolina Booklet: Great Events in North Carolina History Volume XVI of The Booklet issued quarterly by the North Carolina Society, Daughters of the Revolution, beginning July 1916; In 1856, The Reverend E. W. Caruthers, D.D., published his book, “The Old North State in 1776,” which covers stories of Martha McFarlane Bell of North Carolina, frequently harassed by the British.
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