In his History of the Hammock House and Related Trivia, Maurice Davis wrote about Robert Williams, who owned the "White House" property from 1765 to 1777.
“Robert Williams, a Quaker, was one of the most remarkable
men who ever lived in Carteret County. He obviously made no small plans.
“He is first recorded in the county in June 1765 when he
purchased from Timothy Alling and Benjamin Olney, merchants, two parcels of 75
acres along Taylor’s Creek designated ‘Taylor’s Old Field’ and the White House,
the western part of the land formerly belonging to James Winwright, deceased.
Williams also obtained from Mary Whorton, widow of Mattock Whorton, an assignment
of her dower rights in the White House land ‘where she now lives.’
“In 1767 he returned to England and married Elizabeth
Dearman…In the same year Williams purchased property in New Bern and opened the
‘Ready Money Store.’ He also had a store in Beaufort. By 1769 he had begun to
purchase property along Black Creek between the settlement that was to become
Newport and the Mill Creek home and mill of William Borden. He dammed the creek
and created a large mill pond, using water power to operate a saw mill and
grist mill. He also raised rice there and built a brick house using brick and
ballast stone brought from England.
“William obviously overextended himself from time to time
with his several enterprises and his Quaker brethren—the Bordens and the Stantons—sometimes
came to his rescue. In 1773 he lost his house and store in New Bern. William
Borden bought his Black Creek property at a sheriff’s sale in 1775. Williams
managed to retrieve this later. The Hammock property was sold in 1777 as the
result of bankruptcy and was purchased by Benjamin Stanton.
“Robert Williams and his first wife Elizabeth, who died in
1773, had one child, Richard. Richard’s second wife in 1796 was Sarah Stanton,
daughter of Benjamin. In the year following Elizabeth’s death, Robert was
thrown out of the Core Sound Quaker Meeting [as mentioned above]. Robert,
however, made his peace with his Quaker brethren and in the same year married
Ann Shoebridge, his first wife’s English friend. They had eight children, three
of whom survived to adulthood.
“In 1790 Robert died at his Black Creek plantation
‘Dinnant.’ His widow and family migrated to Ohio.
“It was Milton Williams who came to Carteret County and
located his ancestor’s grave at ‘Dinnant’ and marked it with an appropriate stone.
However, Robert Williams’ most fitting memorial is the beautiful mill pond
which is all that remains of his remarkable ‘Dinnant’ plantation. The saw mill
was still producing lumber during the Civil War.”
