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Then Charlotte Methodist Church also located
in Randolph Co. was named after Charlotte (Swaim) Redding.
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Where did the Redding’s come from. So many rumors have been storied down
on this subject. John F. Redding has traced this and knows of other people
working on it too. This story is partly verified.
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There were 4 Redding brothers in Kelso, Scotland. They lived on the Redding
Farm on the Tweed River. One of them stole a hog from a neighbor, or were
accused of the act. This was a terrible offense with sever punishment.
So the 4 brothers fled to Ireland. No idea now of how long there, but they
went onto England where they took an oath of allegiance. This is on records
to be found. They then took passage to America on which they landed on
Virginia soil. (John knows the name of ship, has it at his home) This part
gets foggy, it was the 1600’s, but they stayed in Virginia for a time.
Then 2 brothers went on up to Connecticut and 2 went to North Carolina.
The Carolina brothers became very successful..
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The
first name known to Pasquotank County area is Thomas Reding. His son Joseph
Reding, the firsts was born 1680. Thomas had a brother named Lionel Reding
who started the first Library in America. He took a ship to England and
got Lords and such to donate books and brought them back across the ocean.
He also started the town of Bath, N.C. At this time history is not giving
Lionel credit for the town of Bath. Hopefully to be corrected in the future.
Lionel was friends with .John Lawson who authoredthe book "History of the
Carolinas.”(John Redding highly recommends reading this book.) Lawson explored
and mapped out the Carolina’s, and shortly after writing his book, he was
literally skinned alive by Indians and died.
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John
Redding has been to Scotland a few times and has visited the Redding Farm.
He says it’s the most beautiful farm land he’s ever seen. The Duke of Rockshire
has held together this area on the Tweed River and the Redding Farm is
to this day still farmed by hereditary tenants. The Kelso Abby located
here has since WW2 been proved to be bigger than Westminster Abby. I have
to wonder ifrecords on the Redding Family may be located here.
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John
F. Redding lives on the original Joseph T. Redding property in Back Creek
Township, Randolph County. He has his own home, the home of Joseph T. only
has the chimney standing. Joseph T. built his home there in 1819. The Redding
cemetery is in pretty bad shape now and no one at this time knows if or
where records of this cemetery may be. John F. gave his nephew Donald Redding
a piece of property of which the cemetery is located on
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John
F. Redding’s brother moved to Pasquotank County NC in the 1950’s. John
now has a nephew who lives there with his family. Nobody has been able
to find any graves of our Reding ancestors there. John reminds us that
Pasquotank County is a Democratic County unlike Randolph which is Republican!
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