Family Notes of Holmes, Pasteur and Allied families (IV) – Personal belongings

I have a copy of the inventory of the estate of William Pasteur returned in the March Court, 1782, Craven County, N.C. Furniture, china, (Queen’s ware), silver teaspoons and tablespoons, brass candlesticks, etc. are listed. Edward Pasteur’s will previously referred to in [I] and [II], gives no inventory but leaves his children “household furniture” and personal property.

A beautiful Pasteur bed, c. 1820, is in the possession of W.C. Bracken, III, Atlanta, Ga. We know that Sidney and Henry Holmes used it for many years but do not know whether or not Sidney’s father owned it earlier and how far it went back in the family. Annie Caroline Norman told me that the Haviland china in the Thomas Jefferson Pasteur family has been scattered to many members. I have never seen any.

In the Jack Lytle home, Ocala, Fla., I saw two old Pasteur silver tablespoons that were made by Murdock, New Bern, N.C., silversmith, 1812-1819. From the initials engraved on them I believe they were the property of John and Elizabeth Pasteur. She was the sister of Thomas J. Pasteur and married her cousin. I have tried to straighten the story behind the ownership of the former Spaight silver but have not succeeded. Alester Garden Holmes shows a silver bowl and cream pitcher that he says were bought by Thomas J. Pasteur at a sale of Gov. Spaight’s possessions between 1840 and 1850. Annie Caroline Norman wrote that Alester Garden Holmes’s aunt, Mary P.H. Meares, wrote her that the silver was bought by Edward Pasteur at the sale of the first Gov. Spaight’s effects. The first Gov. Spaight died in 1802. The second, his son, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Jr., died in 1850. Though I have looked in many books on silver marks I have flot been abie to identify and date those on the pieces – SW SW. Annie Caroline Norman wrote that there were originally 7 pieces. Her family has a sugar bowl. The coffee pot was sold in 1875. That leaves 3 pieces unaccounted for. Annie Caroline Norman also wrote that there was flat silver, buried during the War Between the States, and its present location is unknown to her. I know of none except the 2 spoons mentioned above and they did not belong to our direct line.

Alester Garden Holmes shows a large ladle, monogramed ER, which I think could have been the property of Edward P. Ridgely, son of Sallie Pasteur and C.G. Ridgely. I have not been able to identify the maker’s marks: WT WT “in deep indentations”, Alester Garden Holmes wrote. The Wilmot Stuart Holmes family has a very old wedding ring, a thin gold band. I had a jeweller help me look at it under a powerful magnifying glass. From the initial I think it could have been worn by one of the wives of Charles Crawford, but not our ancestor, Marie Delzelle. According to Sidney Pasteur Holmes, Charles had five wives! The Holmes family also has a little oval picture, about 1 and 1/2 by 2 inches, that could be made into a brooch “painted” with the hair of Sidney and Henry Holmes, their first six children (2 later died) and Caroline Crawford Pasteur. I have read that such a painting is valuable now. It was done by a Florida friend of Sidney. William C. Bracken, III, has a stick pin made from a medallion that was part of a bracelet. See The Magazine Antiques (New York), August 1969, p. 237, telling of this kind of jewellery, made in Naples in the 19th century. It was brought to the family by Charles Pasteur, son of Thomas J. and Caroline Pasteur, c. 1850. He “went to sea” but I do not know if that meant the regular U.S. Navy. In the Southern Historical Collection (University of N.C. Library), are two letters dated 1850, from him to his parents. They were from St. Kitts’ and Antigua, in the West Indies. He died in 1850.

I recently learned that several Pasteur descendants in Florida have pieces of Chelsea china. They are: Delzelle Pasteur Igou (Mrs. W. J.), Jack Lytle, Ocala, Ernest Lytle, Winter Park, Frances Lytle Maddox (Mrs. T. E., Jr.), Rt. 2, Box 19, Wildwood, Fia., 32785. Frances wrote me this information and added that she thinks ail the pieces owned today are saucers and that each person has one except Delzelle who has two. Frances also has a pair of brass andirons that have been in the family a long time. Delzelle lives in Ocala.

Source: Abstracts from Family Notes of Holmes, Pasteur and Allied families, chiefly of North & South Carolina. Research and Compilation by Caroline Pasteur Holmes Bivins. 1982

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