There seem to be many of our Bolling folks who still do not know the story of the “notorious non-existent William Bolling born 1731 died 1776 with wife Amelia Randolph.” This actually should only affect the family of Samuel Bolling and Abigail Choice, since William and Amelia were “created” for the Samuel Bolling of Laurens Co., SC family. It was therefore surprising to find that some descendants of John Bolling and Ursula Bell of Orange Co., VA, thought that this fictional couple were their ancestors, as well [perhaps since John is indeed the brother of Samuel of Laurens]. The person who created William and Amelia made him up to fit their requirements, so that they and other family members could claim ancestral descent from Pocahontas through Samuel Bolling. An elaborate family record was supposedly written by Samuel himself, stating that he was born on “27 Septmbr 1758.” The so-called “Bible record” was then distributed and included in a book South Carolinians in the Revolution. The treachery and deceit finally were discovered by researchers, who realized that Samuel could not have been born in 1758, since his father-in-law Tully Choice deeded him land in 1771. The South Carolina Genealogy Society was appalled, as many lineages had been based on information from South Carolinians in the Revolution. Even the DAR had accepted it as a true source on a number of DAR members’ applications. After the discovery was made, the fictional account was exposed in the South Carolina Society's publications. Neither DAR nor Colonial Dames will accept this book anymore -- or of course the fraudulent Bible record-- as documentation. It was quite a scandal in SC and in genealogical circles.



Sometime later, this information was given to the Bolling Family Association. It took awhile, but they have now accepted the "awful truth" and have removed William and Amelia from their records. It's pretty hard to believe that anyone would make up one Bible record, but this person did another one on the Sullivan family. The Sullivan fake family Bible was exposed in an article in the Magazine of Virginia Genealogy, a really wonderful research paper by Mrs. Carolyn Bland. If you would like to read it, it's in Vol. 2, #4, pp3-13. Mrs. Bland conferred with Bolling descendants, and it was realized that both Bibles had similar wording, very odd ways of speaking, one supposedly being written by James Sullivan, Sr. and the other by Samuel Bolling. It was obvious that both accounts had been authored by the same person.



The descendants of Samuel Bolling and John Bolling should remove all references to William Bolling born 1731, died 1776, and Amelia Randolph from your Bolling material as soon as possible. Please help us to disseminate this information among this family’s descendants, so that no others will be misled. Samuel was a small child when he was named as a son of William of Orange Co., VA in a “longest-liver lease” dated 1749. Therefore, he was probably born around 1744. He probably met Abigail Choice when her father Tully Choice lived in Orange Co., and followed them to Pittsylvania Co., VA, where he and Abigail married before 1771.



Information compiled by: Joyce Poole, descendant of John Bolling and Ursula Bell.