Murden family came to North
Carolina, entered the old property and took charge of it.

These brothers married sisters, the Misses Sawyer. In time the Old Brick
House came into the possession of Nancy Murden, a descendant of one of
the brothers Murden.

At her death she left the property as follows: One-third to Isaac
Murden, one-third to Jerry Murden, one-third to Nancy Murden, her
grandchildren.

This will is recorded in the court-house at Elizabeth City, North
Carolina.

CHAPTER VIII

"ELMWOOD," THE OLD SWANN HOMESTEAD IN PASQUOTANK COUNTY

On a low bluff, overlooking the waters of the beautiful Pasquotank
River, some five or six miles from Elizabeth City, there stood until a
few years before the outbreak of the Civil War, an old colonial mansion
known as "Elmwood," the home for many years of the historic Swann
family, who were among the earliest settlers in our State, and played a
prominent part in the colonial history of North Carolina.

Mrs. J.P. Overman, of Elizabeth City, whose father, the late Dr. William
Pool, of Pasquotank County, spent his boyhood days at Elmwood, then the
home of his father, has given the writer a description of this historic
house, as learned from her father: "The house was situated on the
right-hand bank of the river, and was set some distance back from the
road. It was built of brick brought from England, and was a large,
handsome building for those days. As I recall my father's description of
it, the house was two stories high; a spacious hall ran the full length
of the house, both up-stairs and down; and in both the upper and lower
story there were two large rooms on each side of the hall. A broad,
massive stairway led from the lower hall to the one above. The house
stood high from the ground, the porch was small for the size of the
building, and the windows were high and narrow. The ceilings of the
rooms on the first floor had heavy, carved beams of cedar that ran the
length of the house. On the left of the house as you approached from the
river road, stretched a dense woods, abounding in deer, and in those
days these animals would venture near the homes of men, and feed in the
fields."

The great planters in those early days in North Carolina, spent their
working hours looking after the affairs of their estates, settling the
disputes of their tenants, and attending with their fellow-landed
neighbors the sessions of the General Assembly, and of the courts. Their
ple