Pike County Mississippi
MSGenWeb
BACOT
According to Pike County history, Laban Bacot was one of the four men appointed to lay off the “county site” in 1816
when it was moved from Jacksonville on the east side of the Bogue Chitto to Holmesville, and he also served as the first
sheriff of Pike County.
Bacot was born April 23, 1776 in Darlington, SC and died on April 6, 1848 in Holmesville and is buried in the Bacot
Cemetery there. He was the son of Samuel and Sarah Margaret Allston Bacot.
Samuel Bacot was a hero of the Revolutionary War and the Florence, SC Chapter of the DAR is named in his memory.
Their website gives the following information:
“Samuel Bacot, a brave revolutionary patriot, served as lst. Lieutenant in General Francis Marion's Brigade in 1782. He
was a native of Christ Church Parish, having been born near Goose Creek, SC, in 1745. Shortly after his marriage to
Sarah Margaret Allston in 1769, he left the Low Country and moved to what was then the backwoods of South Carolina,
to a point on the Wateree River near Camden where he resided during the thrilling days of the Revolution.
Samuel Bacot's most daring exploit during the struggle for independence has been handed down through generations. In
1782, he, along with about thirty others considered dangerous to His Majesty's cause in the Province, were imprisoned
in Camden. In order to provide maximum security, the authorities decided to transfer the group to Charles Town. On the
journey to that place, the night was spent at a deserted log cabin, where Bacot and his fellow prisoners perfected a plan
of escape. After midnight, Bacot, the leader of the plot, summoned the guard and requested a drink of brandy. When the
drink was given to him, he dashed it in the guard's face, and with his comrades, rushed through the door, overpowering
the guards and seizing their stacked weapons. In a compassionate gesture, the guards were freed, and the former prisoners
each made his way home.”
Laban Bacot married Mary Letman in 1797 in South Carolina and they had 5 children: Samuel (1791-1840), Susannah
(1801-1845), Maria Louisa (1802-), Elizabeth Rebecca (1803-), and Mary Louisinda (1809-1850 married Robert Potter
Wingate). He married second Margaret Moore Love on April 23, 1822 in Pike County, and their children were: Lorinda
(1823-1907 married Josiah Terrell Martin), Robert (1824-1917 married Nancy J. Dickey), Levy (1827-1912 married Ann
Roberts), William (1832-1900 married Myra C. Atkinson), Adam (1834-1900 married Rebecca Jane Sibley), Julia
(1836-1869 married Seth P. Caston), and Rachel (1840-1844).