The Kirk Family history below and the genealogy charts that are linked at the bottom of the page have been compiled from many sources including letters, papers and correspondence from direct descendants of Dr. John & Caroline Kirk as well as archives of museums and books. The charts were completed and are being posted as of May 28, 2007, updated as of July 14, 2007.
If you have additional information and/or corrections to any of this information. Please contact: RHSCmaster@aol.com
James Kirk family plot, Chapel of Ease Cemetery, Hilton Head Island, SC
The Kirk Family Genealogy
William and Mary Delebach Kirk came to America from France and settled at St. Johns, Berkeley in South Carolina about 1750. There were 5 children (4 sons & 1 daughter), but records only discuss 3 of the sons: William, Gideon and John. Both William and Gideon served in the Revolutionary Army under Gen. Francis Marion as guerilla troopers in the South Carolina Volunteers.
Gideon married Rebecca Couturier (widow of Peter Couturier). They had 5 children plus Gideon adopted Rebecca's son, Elias. Gideon was a member of the South Carolina State Legislature, which called the constitutional Convention to frame the present constitution of the United States. His daughter, Charlotte, married the adopted son of Francis Marion. Upon her death, he married Charlotte's twin, Harriet, and they had 5 daughters.
William (2nd) Sr. married Miss Katharine Strobhart (German and one record spells the name Stobbar) who lived near Mathew's Bluff on the Savannah River, where William settled. In 1781, while on furlough during the Revolution, some Tories rode up to his home at Swallow Savannah Plantation and asked if his name was Kirk and killed him as he stood in his doorway. Baby James Brown Kirk was thrown out of a bedroom window (in his cradle) into the arms of a slave. Katharine and the other two sons, Gideon and William John, Jr.(age 4) were forced out of the house. She took them up to Pineville, SC, where William's brothers, Gideon and John, had settled.
Toward the close of the Revolution, Katharine went back to Mathew's Bluff with her children, under the protection of the British Army. She afterwards married a Mr. Rose, an Episcopal minister who was a very hard man. They moved near Bluffton, SC. Mr. Rose was so unkind to the boys that they ran away. When they reached Beaufort, SC, Gideon Kirk was taken sick and died – they think of consumption as he had a terrible cough. (One report says he was lost at sea). William John Kirk and James Brown Kirk went to Charleston where William learned the shoe trade and James the carpenter trade. William stayed on there at his trade and settled at Pinopolis, which is north of Charleston on Lake Moultrie. James went to sea for 24 years.
James Brown Kirk, after he returned from sea, married Miss Mary Baldwin, daughter of Isaac and Sarah Baldwin of New Jersey in 1807. They settled near Bluffton, SC, (which is close to Hilton Head Island where Mary lived) and he had charge of Admiral Grave's property. Grave was an English Admiral and had received a grant of land from the British government. James was extremely successful and, by 1810, owned 36 slaves; later 253 slaves. By the time of the 1850 U.S. census, his Okatee-Bluffton land holdings (including plantations he had given to each of daughters) amounted to over ten thousand acres. He was an influential (albeit quietly and behind the scenes) as well as wealthy figure of nineteenth century South Carolina history. (More details of James B. Kirk can be found in the book, A Short History of Callawassie Island, South Carolina, by Bob Behan.
James B. and Mary Baldwin (age 14 at her marriage) had fourteen children (shown in the genealogy charts), two of which hold a particular interest to the history of Rose Hill Plantation: Caroline (b. 1816) and Clarence (b. 1834). Clarence was the youngest son and inherited and lived on Callawassie Island, which originally was purchased by his grandfather, James Brown Kirk. He also inherited an oil painting of William Kirk, Sr. as well as the treasured William Kirk, Sr.'s battle sword. Clarence never married and in his later years lived for a while at Rose Hill with his brother-in-law, John William Kirk (husband of his sister Caroline).
Caroline Kirk was the eldest surviving child of James and Mary. She married Dr. John William Kirk, her 1st cousin and son of her Uncle William John Kirk (another son of James Brown Kirk). At the time of their marriage, James gave them a European honeymoon (1 month) and the 1800 acre Rose Hill Plantation.
Many Kirk descendants reside in the Bluffton & Hilton Head Island area as well as other areas of the country, but our concentration is on the families of John and Caroline Kirk. To read more about them and the history of Rose Hill Plantation House, please go to the History section of this website.
