The Rene Julian Family

Researched by Doug York
And Rose Adams

For many years there has been a great confusion about who our Julian ancestor was.  Count Pierre de St Julian was the favorite pick of the family, but the truth is that our ancestor is Rene Julian.  

Rene was born in France  ca 1660. One family lore about him is that he was orphaned at a very early age. He became a soldier while very young.  . He was a Huguenot and fought in then Battle of the Boyne in Ireland. 

 He was in the Army of James ll in the English revolution of 1688 in which his religious preference was Roman Catholic.  He is said to have deserted to the standard of King William of Orange.   King James men came to get him and return him to his military service.  Rene had a warning and fled out the window in his nightshirt.  He went to the neighbor’s house and borrowed clothes and joined the ranks of William of Orange’s men. For his services to King William he received a grant of land along the Mississippi River. 

He became a professional soldier and spent his youth fighting wars.  He was at least forty years old when he left the service of William of Orange and immigrated to the United States.

Rene was a large man, very tall with fiery red hair. and had a disposition to match.  It is thought that he stopped in Bermuda and married Mary Margaret Bullock.  She was a great lady of Spanish descent.

Rene was a slaveholder and a Presbyterian and hated the Quakers for their belief against War and Slavery.  Mary Bullock came from a very mixed heritage.  Her Father, William Bullock, was a Quaker and her grandfather, Captain Stephen Paynter, was a Slaver and ran a ship between Africa and the Carolinas. 
 
Rene and Mary Julian first settled on the shores of the Carolinas but he used to tell his family that they never needed to consider themselves settled until they moved on the land grant on the Mississippi. 

He lost two sons and decided to move to the healthier climate of the Chesapeake Bay area.  It is said to be in the Bohemian Manor Cecil County, Maryland.

Rene and Mary had seven sons and three daughters. They are as follows:

1-Stephen Julian was the oldest living son.  He married Alatha Bouchelle.  She died young and then he married Ann Hedges
2- George Julian born in Berkely, South Carolina.  He married Martha Denton.
3-Rene Julian Jr. was born in 1710 but very little is known about him.  Family lore says that he moved into Georgia and fought in the Revolutionary War, but he would have been very old to do this.
4-Mary Julian was born in 1712 in South Carolina.  She married John Thompson Jr.  She had one son and this family remained in Maryland.
5-Peter Julian was born in1714.  He first married Mary Baels and second  to Ann Brothers.  Lydia Julian was born to this union.  Peter died as a result of suicide at the age of ninety.
6-Isaac Julian was born in Cecil County, Maryland.  He married Barbara White.  He received a Fairfax grant in 1752.  This land was sold when he migrated to North Carolina.
7-Jacob Julian was born in 1729 in Cecil County, Maryland.  He married Ann Hedges.  There are no known descendants and no record of him ever owning land.
8-John Julian was born in 1720 in Cecil County, Maryland.  He was married to a woman named Elizabeth, who married again after his death to Thomas Allred.
9-Catherine Julian born about 1720 and married Joseph Woods.
10- Ruth Julian born about 1724 and married Elijah Pugh


Rene is living in 1844.  He is listed in the tax records as old and infirm and an Object of Charity and exempt from paying taxes. It is thought that he and his wife Mary are buried in the Opequon Cemetery in Frederick County, Virginia.  However it is tradition to bury family right on the family plantation, and this could also be the situation as there are no markers to mark where they are buried

The five sons that came with him to Frederick County, Virginia left for Orange County, North Carolina in the middle of the night because of an Indian threat.  It is thought that Lydia Julian migrated with them.

The men fought in the Revolutionary with both the British and the Americans.  There is a Peter Julian that was captured by the British and held captive on the Prison ship, the New Jersey.  No further information is known about this Peter Julian.  It is not known if he ties into our Julian line or not and if he died on that ship as many thousands prisoners did.

The five sons of Rene are listed in the tax records of Orange County, North Carolina.  The belonged to the group called the Regulators that fought Governor Tyron in the Battle Of Almanance because of unfair taxation of the landowners.   They signed their names on the petitions to the governor to remove the taxes.  They fought in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.  They were land and property owners and had received land grants from the British in Orange County.  They were British citizens and if they had not fought on the British side they would have lost their land. 

 After the Revolutionary War they were cited into court to show cause as to why the Americans should not confiscate their property, so they would lose either way.  Some of them are listed as deserters as they joined the Continental Army.

Some of the descendants of the Julian family moved out of North Carolina with the opening of the Northwest Territory.  They moved into Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois.

There are many educated people in their posterity including George Julian, an early senator from Indiana