William Pearce

     William Pearce was born circa 1754 in Beaufort County, North Carolina.² He was the son of Joshua Pearce and Hannah Green.¹ He married Sarah Bray circa 1780.² He married Elizabeth Chafin circa 1810.³ He died on 6 November 1813 at Lunenburg, the Pearce plantation, near Cheneyville, Rapides Parish, Louisiana.²
     
     With his parents and his brothers, William Pearce was in 1768 one of the early settlers of Screven County, Georgia. Book No. 1 of the Screven County deed records in the courthouse in Sylvania, Georgia, contains the accounts of many land transactions of these Pearces between the years of 1794 and 1820.² He was a Justice of the Peace in 1773 and Judge of the Inferior Court of Screven county in 1794.¹ He served with distinction in the Revolutionary War and was certified as a member of the First Battalion, Georgia Line by General Elijah Clarke in 1784 (The Story of Georgia and the Georgia People by Smith, p. 621). He is also listed as a soldier in the First Battalion, Georgia Line in McCall-Tidwell & Allied Families (p 481).¹ In 1803, William Pearce moved with his children to Rapides Parish in the United States' newly acquired Louisiana Territory and established a plantation on the west bank of Bayou Boeuf about two miles above the present town of Cheneyville. The location of his plantation, named Lunenburg, is shown on early maps of the Bayou Boeuf country. Family tradition tells that while a brick chimney on his home was under repair, bricks accidentally fell on his head and killed him. Family tradition also tells that William Pearce buried much gold around his plantation home, but subsequent diggings have failed to discover it.^2,1

     William Pearce was mentioned in his father Joshua Pearce's will dated 10 November 1807 in Screven County, Georgia. Secondly :-I give and bequeath unto my beloved son William Pearce, whom I appoint executor, two tracts of land, Also 1,075 acres of land which shall be used for the mill, to be equally divided between my sons William and Stephen.