General Notes

[basham.ged]
[Verta Mae Gause2.FTW]
[Bacot.FTW]
The Gause and Bellune families were both prominent in Marion County fr
om e arly Colonial days.  The latter family settled on Britton's Neck;  Wi
lli am Bellune, born in 1755, being one of the first settlers.  His wife w
as F rances Port, daughter of Thomas and Frances Port.
This Bellune family was of Huguenot extraction.  The obituary of Eliza
be th (Bellune) Bigelow, born in Long Branch near Georgetown on Novemb
er 9, 1 757, states that her paternal grandfather was an "immediate exil
e" from Fr ance to Carolina, and that she, herself, was of "purest Huguen
ot descen t, her father having been a Bellune and her mother a Boissier
e.  William B ellune of Britton's Neck, born in 1755, could have been a fi
rst cous in of Mrs. Bigelow, as the obituary mentions the fact that her fa
ther a nd her brother (the brother known to have been Daniel Bellune) we
re engag ed in battles of the Revolutionary War in defense of the colonie
s.  Mo st of the Bellune family papers give John Bellune as name of the re
fugee a ncestor.