Part III: The Poston Family Origins and the Transatlantic Crossing

The geographic and infrastructural history of the town of Poston cannot be decoupled from the deeply researched genealogical history of its founding family. The Poston lineage in America represents a sprawling, extensively documented migration that perfectly mirrors the broader patterns of Anglo-American settlement in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The preservation of this history is heavily indebted to local archival efforts, preservationists, and meticulous genealogical compilations, most notably Erma Poston Landers' seminal 1965 masterwork, A Poston Family of South Carolina: Its Immigrant Ancestor and Some of His Descendants 20 .

English Antiquity and the Maryland Arrival

The precise origins of the Poston family trace back to the agrarian and mercantile environments of Shropshire, England.³ The immigrant ancestor, definitively identified in genealogical and tax records as John I Poston (c. 1680–1744/1745), initiated the family's transatlantic crossing early in the eighteenth century.⁴ Historical ledgers and shipping manifests indicate that he embarked from the major port of Liverpool on April 26, 1703.³

The exact nature of his early years in the American colonies features slight regional divergences in historical documentation, reflecting the highly fluid movement of early colonial settlers. Some historical archives place his initial arrival and integration in Leonardtown, St. Mary's County, Maryland.²⁴ From there, the family developed extensive early ties to neighboring Charles County, Maryland.²⁴

Records from this Mid-Atlantic region show early Poston descendants actively involved in the local colonial Anglican community. Specifically, family members are heavily documented within the records of Trinity Church in Durham Parish, Charles County.²⁵ Figures such as Richard Poston (baptized at Trinity Church) and William John Poston were heavily engaged in the ecclesiastical and civic affairs of Maryland throughout the 1700s, with William John Poston inheriting the family's "Goodwill Plantation".²⁵ The family's connection to Trinity Church was substantial; early Postons were listed as tithers of the parish, subscribed toward the rebuilding of the church, and served as trustees for local educational institutions like the Charlotte Hall School.²⁹

The Pennsylvania Settlement

However, the specific branch of the family that would eventually migrate south to settle the South Carolina Pee Dee region firmly anchored itself further north in Pennsylvania. By 1722, John I Poston appeared on the colonial tax rolls of Chester County, Pennsylvania.⁴ The Mid-Atlantic colonies offered vast expanses of relatively affordable land and a degree of religious and economic freedom that appealed to English immigrants.

Accompanied by his wife, Martha, John I Poston acquired an early land patent comprising 274.⁵ acres that straddled Octoraro Creek in West Fallowfield Township.⁴ This Pennsylvania agrarian settlement

provided the family with immense economic stability for several decades, allowing them to accumulate the capital necessary for future generational expansion. John I Poston drafted his last will and testament on December 8, 1745, naming his wife Martha and his son John II as executors, thereby establishing the legal framework for the transfer of the Chester County estate and ensuring the family's continued prosperity.²⁶ His will and the subsequent inventory of his estate remain filed in the Chester County Court House in West Chester, Pennsylvania.³¹