Meziah Bevan
Indentured Slave
Jeanette Tench
Linch passed down the story of my 4th
g grandmother. Meziah Bevan to my mother, Martha Jeannette Linch Franklin.
Meziah's very wealthy parents died in
Ireland and an uncle cared her for. He sent her to a boarding school ( while he
"cared for" her money ) where she and several of the other girls sold
themselves as indentured slaves for the passage to the Colonies where they
could work and get married. They were sick of school. This was in the mid 1700's.
The other girl's parents found out about
this and sent for their daughters. Meziah, having no parents, remained in the
Colonies in South Carolina in servitude.
The family ( name unknown ) that she was
indentured to one day was going into town to do some shopping and asked Meziah
if there was anything they could get for her. She asked for some tea. The lady
had cooked the tea with fatback, thinking the tea was a vegetable. Poor Meziah
did not get to drink her tea.
Meziah eventually married Thomas Creagh, a
predecessor of Jeanette Tench.