Doug1

       The Jennings family started in America with Hon. Edmund Jennings of Ripon Hall, York County, Virginia. He was the son of Sir Edmund and Margaret Burkham Jennings of Ripon, York County, England. He was in England in 1659. The grandfather of Edmund, Sir Edmund Burkham, was Lord Mayor of London from 1621-1622.
        When Edmund Jennings was still young he decided to make his home in America.   He was a liberal supporter of the established church and was a great influence. He served Virginia as Attorney General (1680-1692), was a member of the King�s council, Secretary of State and acting Governor of Virginia from 1706 to 1710.
         The first generation of my ancestors in America began with Edmund Jennings of whom my middle name originates from. Charles Jennings carried on the second generation, and his birth date is unknown to any records dating back to his early death around 1705.    He was the Clerk of Elizabeth City County, Virginia. He married around 1680 to Mary with an unknown last name.
            Charles Jennings II who lived from 1680-1747 in Elizabeth City County, Virginia carried the third generation down. There is not much know about his life except that he married three different times. He had a child with his second wife and named him John Jennings. He died in 1785 in North Carolina. In 1774 Col. John Jennings moved from Virginia to Anson County, North Carolina. My ancestors live here, in North Carolina for the next two generations. Col. Jennings settled in settled in part of Anson County in 1779 and formed Montgomery County.
            Col. John Jennings� son, Major John Jennings II who lived from 1761 until 1806, represents the fifth generation of my ancestry.    John II, or Major Jennings was high sheriff of Anson County, North Carolina for many years of his life. He and his wife, Elizabeth Lanier, had three sons: John Jennings III, who followed in his fathers� footsteps and was also sheriff of Anson County, Dr. Edmund Jennings, and Dr. Thomas Jennings. They also had two daughters, Eliza and Lottie, who created a rather unordinary incident. The Charlotte Observer reported that Eliza married Dr. D.R. Dunlap of Charlotte. When Eliza was on her deathbed she requested that her husband marry her sister Lottie. He later fulfilled her wish and created quite a stir in the community and mainly the church that he attended and served as an elder, the First Presbyterian Church in Charlotte. There was a law in the church that forbidden marrying sisters. Not wanting to let his wife down, he moved to Mecklenburg County and became Methodist.
          My great-great-great-great grandfather leads me into the sixth generation. His name is Dr. Edmund Jennings. He was born in Wadesboro, North Carolina on April 23, 1792. He married two different times and later died in Shelby, North Carolina on
December 2 1863.
           Dr. Edmund Jennings and his first wife, Isabella, had a son, Dr. Jonathan Beatty Jennings, who was my great-great-great grandfather. He was born in 1817 in Yorkville, South Carolina. He married Sally McCully of Columbia, South Carolina and they had four children. Their children were Dr. William Beatty Jennings, D.D., Edmund H. Jennings, Dr. Douglas Jennings, and Isabella Beatty Jennings, who lived in Bennettsville and died as a young girl .
             My great-great grandfather, Dr. Douglas Jennings represents the eighth generation of my family. He was born in Bennettsville, South Carolina on October 18, 1863. He was educated in Bennettsville and received his B.S. from the College of Charleston. He served as Bennettsville�s only druggist. They had four children who were all born in Bennettsville. Their names were Ruth, Douglas Jr., William Crosland, and Henry. When my great-great grandfather died the Pee Dee Advocate wrote, �Douglas was a skillful and popular druggist and pharmacist, a prominent Mason, a loyal elder of the Presbyterian Church, and an officer of the Bennettsville school board. He was popular wherever he was known, and had a wide circle of friends throughout the state. �
               My great grandfather, Dr. Douglas Jennings, Jr. was born in Bennettsville in 1894 and was also educated in Bennettsville, the College of Charleston, and the Medical College of Charleston. He was the President of the S.C. Medical Association and the President of the Tri-State Medical Association.   He noticed a need for a hospital in Marlboro County and led efforts into building one. He practiced surgery here for many years. When he died in December 1, 1946 the Pee Dee Advocate wrote this article about him:

             If an institution is the lengthened shadow of a man, Marlboro County General Hospital               is a lengthened shadow of Dr. Douglas Jennings. In the years�since the hospital was              opened thousands of patients entered its doors for operations and treatment. To Dr.                  Jennings came the high and the low, the rich and the poor, the white and the black. To             each he gave the marvelous skill of his strong and gentle hands.

            My great grandfather married Mary Grace Edens of Marlboro County in 1919. They had five children: Dr Douglas Jennings III (my grandfather); William Crosland Jennings; Mary Grace and Kate Edens Jennings, that were twins who died one day after birth; and Charles Edens Jennings.
              My grandfather was born in 1920 in Bennettsville. He was educated in Bennettsville, The Citadel, University of South Carolina, and the South Carolina Medical College in Charleston. My grandfather married Mary Elizabeth Ilderton, my grandmother, from Charleston, South Carolina. They had four children: Mary Elizabeth, Gwendolyn Lee, Janette, and Douglas Jennings IV, my father, who is an attorney in Bennettsville. My grandfather recently retired from practicing medicine in Bennettsville in 2001.
                Douglas Jennings IV married Deborah Vuicich in 1978, and they had two children: Douglas, born in 1985, and Grace, born in 1987.
                From the early 1800�s until 2001 there has been a practicing Dr. Jennings in my family. Most of these generations of doctors have been actively practicing in Bennettsville.
This traces my family ancestry back eleven generations, and I represent the twelfth.