Editing Marchant family (section)

==Before M.L. Marchant==
M.L. Marchant Sr., the first Marchant in the Greer area, came from a long lineage going back to early founding days of the colonies. Eight generations earlier, John Marchant III was born 1600 in Yoeville, Somerset, England. He came to the colonies, possibly via the Barbados, and was admitted as a freeman in Newport, Rhode Island on June 2, 1638. He went to Mt. Wollaston, Braintree, Massachusetts, and is mentioned living there in 1645, and made his way to Yarmouth, Barnstable, Massachusetts, where he is chosen Constable of Yarmouth on June 7, 1648. The full 8-generation record can be found in the GHM Ancestry.com Marchant family tree; along the way, the family name was just as commonly "Merchant."

So where did John Marchant III come from? His parents were John Marchant II and Joan Surbridge, who were married in Oxted, Surrey, England July 14, 1566. Beyond that, reports are sketchy and unreliable. Many in the family were engaged in the maritime industry, and John is variously referred to as "Captain" and "Lieutenant." How he relates to the Captain John Marchant who sailed with Sir Francis Drake on his West Indian Voyage, 1586, and stopped over at Roanoke on June 26, 1586, is unknown — but many amateur genealogists are happy to claim the connection, regardless, and many believe John Marchant II to be this Captain. We have not yet seen sources for that claim.

M.L. Marchant's father, John Wesley Marchant, was born in North Carolina but moved to Edgefield, SC where M.L. was born.