Using both census and probate records, it appears that the Wilsons were slaves of the Freeland family in Claiborne County Mississippi—possibly they spent time on the Windsor plantation—until emancipation in the Civil War era. The first Mississippi Freeland, Frisby Freeland, was born in Calvert County Maryland in 1747. Frisby fought in the American Revolutionary War. He and Peter Bryan Bruin (more about Bruin below) are the two Revolutionary War veterans who are buried in Mississippi. Frisby Freeland eventually came to Mississippi. He either brought with him or later sent for the slave ancestors of the Wilsons: Pheby Bullan and her children Ned, Ezekial, Isaac and Fanny. The census records from 1870 indicate that Pheby was born in Africa and that most of her children were born in Maryland. Ned was “married” to Priscilla at the time they came to Mississippi. Ned and Priscilla’s three sons were Thomas B. Wilson (Griffin’s father), Richard Wilson, and Joseph Wilson. Thomas married Celia Ross, and their three natural children were Griffin, Moses, and Annie. Thomas and Celia also appear at some point to have “adopted” William Kent who later became known as William K. Wilson. When Frisby died, his will bequeathed Ned and Priscilla and her children to his son Thomas.  Thomas Freeland married Sarah Skinner. Their daughter Catherine Skinner Freeland married her cousin Smith Coffee Daniell II in 1849.  Thomas died, in 1857. In his will he bequeathed his plantation to his children in common:

"My plantation stock, negroes, plantation utensils of every description & provisions and crop, I give and bequeath to my daughter Sarah F. Buckner, my son Frisby A. Freeland, and my daughter Catherine Daniell, desiring that my children will keep said property undivided, and work  for their joint benefit, hereby giving to Smith C. Daniell and Frisby A. Freeland the joint management of said plantation and negroes." (Thomas Freeland Will-July 25, 1854)

Presumably, the Wilsons continued to live on the jointly held Freeland Plantation. Further research will be needed to determine whether they remained there before and during the Civil War.

Thomas Freeland died two years before Smith Coffee Daniell II began construction on Windsor on part of the land originally occupied by Peter Bryan Bruin. (Bruin is buried near the Windsor ruins.)  Windsor was erected between 1859 and 1861 for a cost of $175,000 ($4,128,992 in 2009 dollars), much of it slave labor. He died at age 34 on April 28, 1861 only a few weeks after the house was completed.  Windsor stood until February 17, 1890 when it burned down as a result of careless smoking by a house guest.

Griffin Wilson was born on January 1854 in Louisiana. According to his son Thomas Elijah, Griffin spent his early years in both St. Joseph, Tensas Parish, Louisiana and Bruinsburg, Mississippi. Tensas Parish Louisiana is located directly across the Mississippi River. The 1870, census shows him living in Mississippi with his mother Celia, William Kent, and Moses and Annie Wilson. No information is known about the circumstances of the demise of Tom Wilson. Eventually, Griffin met Nancy Wilkins to whom he was married on January 13, 1875. Griffin died, at 64, on April 26, 1918.

Wilkins History

Nancy also came from Bruinsburg in Claiborne County. Bruinsburg took its name from Peter Bryan Bruin (1754 - 1827). Bruin was an Irish immigrant who originally settled in Virginia and fought in the Revolutionary War. He eventually came to Claiborne County and settled on about 1200 acres at the mouth of Bayou Pierre with his house being on an Indian mound. The settlement that grew up around the area became known as Bruinsburg. By the time of the Civil War, the Bruinsburg Plantation belonged to the Evans family. The slaveholders' names were Tom and Ann Evans. The plantation was said to have washed away into the Mississippi River by 1918. Nancy Wilkins (born April 1858) was the daughter of Caroline Paine Wilkins and Elijah Wilkins. In her Freedman’s Bank application opened on November 9, 1872, Caroline says that she was born in Virginia, names her parents as Samuel Paine and Franky, and said her age was 50. She had brothers named Joe and Washington and sisters named Sena, Anardy, and Frances. Caroline was said to have been bought by one of the Evans family in the slave trader yard in New Orleans. She first married John Doyle by whom she had three children (Georiann, Bob, and Perry).

After John Doyle died, Caroline and Elijah were married on December 25, 1850 by a “colored minister named John Sample. . . according to customs that existed among slaves at that time.” (from Caroline’s Widow’s Declaration for Army Pension dated May 6, 1872). They lived together on the Bruinsburg Plantation. Elijah Wilkins was born in Claiborne County in 1824. He enlisted on May 10, 1863 at age 39 (5 feet 6 inches tall) as a Private in Company G of the 53rd Regiment US Colored Infantry. at Warrenton Mississippi. [Warrenton, Mississippi is an unincorporated community located in Warren County near what is now the Municipal Airport of Vicksburg.] Elijah died of an unspecified “disease” in the Regimental Hospital at Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana on June 21, 1863. He was never paid for his military service.

Caroline Wilkins bore 13 children, but by 1870, only three survived: daughters Nancy and Louisa and son Gloster (who died in 1878). Both Nancy and Louisa stated in  1918 depositions that they had a sister named Betsy Ann who was between them in age, but she died during the Civil War. Oral history as told by Nancy to her grandchildren is that her mother worked in the kitchens at Windsor and that she recalls playing on the grounds as a child. This has not been verified by secondary sources, but it is a possibility since Windsor stood until February 17, 1890 when it was destroyed by fire owing to the careless smoking of a guest. Caroline died on February 5, 1892. Nancy and her sister Louisa (Wilkins) were eventually paid survivors benefits of $900 each in 1919 based on the fact that they were minors at the time of Elijah’s death in the service. Nancy was affectionately known to her children and grandchildren as “Muh.” She survived until shortly after the beginning of World War II and died on November 23, 1942 at age 84. 

Bruinsburg exists no longer, but it will go down in Civil War history as the place where Ulysses S. Grant gained entry into Mississippi on April 30, 1863 to begin the successful campaign to take Vicksburg.

“[I]t was expected that we would have to go to Rodney, about nine miles below, to find a landing; but that night a colored man came in who informed me that a good landing would be found at Bruinsburg, a few miles above Rodney, from which point there was a good road leading to Port Gibson some twelve miles in the interior. The information was found correct, and our landing was effected without opposition.”

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–85). Personal Memoirs. 1885–86. Chapter 33 “Attack on Grand Gulf—Operations below Vicksburg” (http://www.bartelby.com/1011/ accessed April 8, 2010)

On May 1, 1863 the Vicksburg Campaign began with the Battle of Port Gibson (As noted above, Nancy’s father enlisted 10 days later) and ended with the surrender of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863. Effectively speaking, slavery in Claiborne County did not exist after May 1863 even though the war lingered on for another two years.

Family Organization

The children of Griffin and Nancy were Robert, William, Sophia, Moses, Carrie, Annie, Smith Daniel, and Thomas Elijah. The family association of Griffin and Nancy Wilson family members is organized around descent from each of their children.