Middletown transcript., 1895-07-06

@ NP't settled, was tina
"'H7 ~ they had sprun
| from some Span
ish Moors, who, by some chance, ha
drifted from the southern coast Q
Spain, priol to the Revolutionary wal
and settled at various points on th
Atlantic coast of the British Colonies
but exactly where or when, nobod
could tell. This story of their genesi
seemed to have originated with, or a
any rate was adopted by the late Chic
Justice Thomas Clayton, whose grea
learning and research gave semblanc'
of authority to it and like almost every
body else l accepted it as the true ont
for many years, although my father
who was born and reared in that por
tion of Sussex county where these
people were more numerous than in any
other part of the State, always insisted
that they were an admixture of Indian,
negro, and whitemaD, and gave his rea.
son therefore: that he had always SO
understood from "Noke Norwood"
whom I knew when 1 was small boy.
Noke lived away back in the Twenties,
in small shanty, long since removed,
situated near what has been known for
more than century as "Sand Tavern
Lane" on the west side of the public
road and nearly in front of the farm
house now owned by Hon. Jonathan S.
Willis, our able and popular Represen-
tative in Congress. 1 we'll remember
with what awe contemplated his gi-
gantic form when 1 first beheld him.
My father had known him as boy,
and never passed his cabin without
stopping. He was dark, copper
colored man, about six feet and half
in height, of splendid proportion, per-
fectly straight, coal black hair Though
at least seventy-fve years old) black
CycS anu ulSu CuCCh UOuCSs
When I became Acknowledgement of
the State it fell to my lot to investigate
the pedigree Of this strange people,
among whom was Norwood. At that
day Norwood was held in great rever-
ence as being one of the oldest of
the race. This learned from my
father, who knew him for many
years, when they both lived in
the neighborhood of Lewes, in Sussex
Ihave spoken of this race as
a strange people, because l have known
some families among them, all of whose
possessed the features, hair,
md eyes of the pure Caucasian, while
n other families the children would
III be exceedingly swarthy in complex
on but with perfectly straight black
lair, and occasionally family whose
hildren ranged through nearly the en-
ire racial gamut. from the perfect
londe to at least a quadroon mulatto,
nd quite number who possessed all
be appearance of a red haired freckle-
aced Hibernian. My investigation of
heir geneology came about in the
rial of a Levin Sockum, one of the
ace, upon an indictment found by tn
rand Jury of Sussex county against
i'm for selling ammunition to Isaiah
[armon, one of the same race, who
as alleged in the indictment 10 be a s
zee mulatto. The indictment was franz
/ under the 9th Section of Chap I
II 50, of the Revised Statutes of the ;
tate of Delaware, Edition of 1852, &
age 145, which read in this wise:
eff any person shall sell or lm any {
firearms of ammunition to any he .
gro or mulatto, he shall be deemed
guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall
be fined twenty dollars"
Tie proof of the sale of a quarter of t
pound Of powder and pound of s
lot to Harmon was given by Harmon I
mself; and in fact, was admitted by a
)ckum's attorney. So that the only 8
ct [ had to establish, in order to t
'nvict Sockum, was to identify Har. t
on as bein. a mulatto, and to do this 8
had to establish by proof by men, v
r Of his family, Harman's pedigree. a
0 do this Lydia Clark, who swore a
at she was of blood kin to Harmon, h
as permitted to testify as to the tradi- a
ons Of the family in respect to their
igin. Harmon was young man Fl
'parently about five and twenty years 81
age, of perfect Caucasian features, O
Irk chestnut brown hair, rosy cheeks v
ID hazel eyes. and in making eom- Il
Irison of his complexion with others, n
concluded that of all the men con= o
rned in the trial, be was the most Il
rfect type of the pure Caucasian, fl
Id by odds the handsomest man in "
g court room, and yet he was alleged Ia
be a mulatto. The witness, Lydia b
ark, bis kinswoman, then eighty ii
ven years old, though only q half y,
eed, was almost as perfect type of W
Q Indian as ever saw. She was as :
ry as a young girl In her movement, 81
ID Of intelligence as bright as new W
liar, and this was substantially the 81
tradition she gave of her F
mily and that of Harmon: About d
teen or twenty years before the Il
War, which she said b
oke out when she was a Its IL
, girl some five or six years old, b
ere was lady of Irish birth living N
farm in Indian River Hundred, Al
few miles distant from Lewes, which ci
q owned and carried on herself. Mo- n
'dy appeared to know, anything of "
II history or antecedents. Her 81
ame she gave as Regua and she was Z