133. Elizabeth Anne "Betty" Dortch Bullock (1803-1832)

I have a student named Betty Dortch in my list of Mordecai students.  She's only at the school one session (first half of 1816), and the adult attached to her account might be Major John R. Eaton.  It looks like a "Maj. J. R. Eaton" paid for "Miss Dortch" in the school ledger, January 1816; there's another mention of the two names together in the May 1817 ledger page, along with the name "R. Bullock."  Other than that and the school rosters, she doesn't seem to have been mentioned by the Mordecais.  Not much to go on, but it's an unusual enough name, let's have a look around.

It's definitely the name of a prominent North Carolina family in the nineteenth century.  William T. Dortch (1824-1889) was a North Carolina legislator, born in Nash County near Rocky Mount; he once owned the historic house named the "Dortch-Weil-Bizzell House" in Goldsboro (for sale, and it's accessible!).  Another North Carolina Dortch moved to Tennessee, and his son (another William Dortch) moved to Arkansas, where he owned Marlsgate Plantation.  Anyway, plenty of Dortches.

Let's try the Major Eaton angle.  John Rust Eaton (1772-1830) was a planter, horse breeder, and state legislator from Granville County, NC.   He mentioned a "Mr. Dortch" recovering from smallpox in a 1794 letter, but that's it for the name's appearance in his published correspondence.  In 1816 he would have been a father to some of his eleven kids (he married Susan Somerville in 1801).  And his sister Betty Eaton married.... Noah Dortch.  Bingo.  Another of Eaton's sisters, Mary, married William Baskerville--we've already run into him, because Eaton had Baskerville nieces at the Mordecai school as well.

So here's the story.  Elizabeth Anne "Betty" Dortch was born in January 1803, first child of Elizabeth "Betty" Eaton (1787-1810) and Noah Dortch (1781-1811).  As the dates show, Betty (and four younger siblings) lost both mother and father by 1811--which might explain why uncle John Rust Eaton was taking care of her school tuition five years later.  At 21, she married James Bullock Jr. (1798-1880), whose sister Catherine Bullock also attended the Mordecai School.  (His sister Fanny Bullock married Macon Green, who was one of the Mordecai's male students in their early years.)  Betty and James had five children together; two died in infancy. Betty Dortch was destined to follow her parents to an early grave--she died in 1832, age 29.

65, 66, and 67. Ann, Catherine, and Eliza Bullock

Three girls named Bullock are listed as Mordecai students:

Ann Bullock from Warren County (?) attended from early 1816 to the last session with the Mordecais, in late 1818; Richard Bullock is the adult name on her account.

Catherine and Eliza Bullock both attended the Mordecai school in 1809 only. They were probably also from somewhere near Warrenton, because many of the first students at the school were local children.

A Richard Bullock appears throughout the school's ledger for the years Ann attended; there's also mention of a James Bullock in June 1818. There's mention of Ann's father paying a lot of attention (courting) a Mary Turner in 1820 correspondence by the family; and in an 1822 letter from Warrenton, Caroline Mordecai Plunkett reports that "There are several weddings now in agitation among the number is Ann Bullock's she is to be married to a son of Judge Henderson." (Caroline Plunkett to Rachel Lazarus, 7 September 1822, Jacob Mordecai Papers, Duke University)

That last tidbit leads us to Anne E. Bullock Henderson (1804-1883), of Granville County (not Warren), Ashland Plantation, who indeed married Archibald Erskine Henderson (1801-1853) in 1822, in Warren County. Archibald's father was Judge Leonard Henderson (1772-1833), Chief Justice of NC. Archibald was a UNC alumnus, a planter and a magistrate. Their seven children were all born in Granville County, between 1823 and 1845. Looks like she was widowed at age 49, with her youngest child just eight at the time. In 1860, the census finds the Henderson household with 129 slaves.

The other Bullock girls are likely relatives of Anne's, but it's a big family in the area. There's a Catherine Lewis Bullock, b. c. 1802, who married Joseph Newton Sims, himself the grandson of a woman named Sarah Bullock. The wedding was in 1822, in Warren or Granville County. Catherine would have been widowed in 1850, in Louisiana. This Catherine Bullock had at least one son, James Bullock Sims, who was born at Tennessee; and a daughter, Sallie Sims. She also had a sister-in-law named Susanna Sims Burt--and a Susan Sims is listed among the Mordecai students who only attended in 1809, along with Catherine Bullock. So it seems like a decent chance she's the Mordecai student.