The reasons why formerly enslaved people selected their surnames varied. Some took the last enslaver’s surname. Some didn’t. Some took a surname not associated with any slave-owner. Some took the surname of a previous enslaver who had enslaved one or both of their parents. There are other reasons. So, what surname did Squire take? Let’s look at the research of him.

I stumbled on this case recently while researching a potential DNA connection. A man named Squire had been enslaved by William Brownlee in Abbeville County, South Carolina, per his 9 Nov 1839 estate inventory; he had died in 1836. Here’s Squire inventoried among 17 people whom William Brownlee had enslaved.

Per William Brownlee’s estate record, Squire was sold to his grandson, James William “J. W.” Black, for $1,255.

But Squire was named in John Burnett Black’s 1844 estate, Abbeville County, South Carolina. John was married to William Brownlee’s daughter, Elizabeth. They were the parents of J. W. Black. John’s estate shows that Squire was then sold to F. L. Kay, who was Francis Lemuel Kay, on January 12, 1847, for $650.

Francis Lemuel Kay and his brother, Stephen D. Kay, migrated to Smith County, Texas in the 1850s from Abbeville County. Francis died in 1867 in Texas. In the 1870 Census, just four households away from Stephen Kay in Smith County, lived Squire and his family. He had selected the surname Brownlee. His age was reported as 53, and his birthplace was recorded as being South Carolina. He had been sold or transferred two times, but he chose the surname of what may have been his first enslaver, William Brownlee. William Brownlee also had “owned” an enslaved woman named Rosetta, valued at $275 in 1839, who may have been Squire’s mother. Squire named one of his daughters Rosetta “Rose”.

In 1880, the census taker erroneously recorded the family’s surname as Brown, but the family were and remained Brownlees. South Carolina is also recorded as Squire’s birthplace.

Even though I went from 1839 to 1880 with this case, one can especially see the importance of cluster research with enslaved ancestral research. Cluster genealogy is the diligent act of researching a person’s friends, associates, and neighbors, aka FAN Club, to garner clues and to learn more about that person’s history, as well as possibly finding the last enslaver. The white Kay Family were neighbors to Squire Brownlee in the 1870 census, right there on the same census page, and they were from South Carolina, too.