John Hewitt arrived in Onslow Co., NC probably about 1748 with his (suspected) brother Thomas Hewitt.  Although the earliest county records found for John begin in 1762, Thomas was known to be in Craven County by 1752.  We have not yet discovered from where they came, despite a thorough search through colonial records of locations from where other Onslow settlers emigrated.  A tentative conclusion is that they arrived by ship directly from England or Ireland.

Rigdon Hewitt, grandson of the elder John Hewitt, had an eventful and prosperous life.  He married at least three times, increasing his personal wealth in the process.  He had ten children and a sizeable estate at the time of his death.

About 1830 John Hewitt, son of Rigdon Hewitt, moved with his brother Edward to the Western Georgia frontier.  John settled in Macon County by 1838, and Edward in Stewart County.  The circumstances of their migration are unknown.  Indeed, the only evidence to date that ties John to his Onslow roots is a scrap of paper that mentions his father Rigdon.  John died in 1842 for unknown reasons.  He left behind three children including John Jasper Hewitt, my second-great-grandfather.

John J. Hewitt moved with his family to Lowndes County, GA about 1856.  He served for the Confederate States by enlisting in the 12th Georgia Infantry, Company I, known as Lowndes Volunteers.  He experienced some of the bloodiest battles in the War, including Battle of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House.  He was captured there on May 5, 1864 and taken to the POW camp in Elmira, NY.  He was released the following year, returned to Lowndes and married shortly thereafter.  By 1880 the family moved to Jasper in Hamilton County, FL where the family prospered for fifty years before scattering their own ways.

Genealogy Database of the Hewitt Family of Onslow and Jones Co., NC and their descendants and relatives

Please contact me at shawn@north-trek.com.