Sehoy III, also called Sehoy Weatherford (c. 1750 – c. 1815) was a

Muscogee The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek or just Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language; English: ), are a group of related Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands Here they waged war again ...

Creek trader who was part of the Sehoy matrilineage. Like her mother and

grandmother Grandparents, individually known as grandmother and grandfather, or Grandma and Grandpa, are the parents of a person's father or mother – paternal or maternal. Every sexually reproducing living organism who is not a genetic chimera has a maxi ...

, both also called Sehoy, she contracted multiple marriages with white traders. According to Muscogee custom, her sons inherited her tribal identity and later fought on the Creek side of the

Creek War The Creek War (also the Red Stick War or the Creek Civil War) was a regional conflict between opposing Native American factions, European powers, and the United States during the early 19th century. The Creek War began as a conflict within th ...

and the

Red Sticks Red Sticks (also Redsticks, Batons Rouges, or Red Clubs)—the name deriving from the red-painted war clubs of some Native American Creek—refers to an early 19th century traditionalist faction of Muscogee Creek people in the Southeastern Uni ...

rebellion. After inheriting property, Sehoy III set herself up as a successful trader in Coosada.

Early life and family

She was born around 1750 to

Sehoy II Sehoy II or Sehoy Marchand (b. c. 1722) was a Muscogee Creek Wind Clan woman who was part of the Sehoy matrilineage. She and her family are known for their intermarriages with white traders, with the children inheriting their tribal identities fro ...

, a Muscogee Wind Clan woman, and her husband Malcolm McPherson, a Scottish trader. (Other family tradition makes Sehoy III's father a Tuckabatchee chieftain). Her siblings were Elizabeth and Malcolm McPherson II; she also had half-siblings, Sophia Durant,

Alexander McGillivray Alexander McGillivray, also known as ''Hoboi-Hili-Miko'' (December 15, 1750February 17, 1793), was a Muscogee (Creek) leader. The son of a Muscogee mother, Sehoy II, and a Scottish father, Lachlan McGillivray, he was literate and received a ...

, and Jeanette Milfort Crook, from Sehoy II's marriage to

Lachlan McGillivray Lachlan McGillivray (–1799) was a prosperous fur trader and planter in colonial Georgia with interests that extended from Savannah to what is now central Alabama. He was the father of Alexander McGillivray and the great-uncle of William McIntosh ...

. After being raised by his Scottish father, Alexander positioned himself as a Creek leader, with Sophia acting as his spokesperson. When she was about eight years old, Sehoy III moved into the household of Alexander's advisor and eventual father-in-law, the Dutch trader Jacob Moniac, and his wife Polly. When she was about fifteen, Sehoy III and Jacob had a daughter, Hannah.

David Taitt

In about 1776, in Little Tallassee, Sehoy III married David Taitt, a Scottish surveyor and mapmaker who was Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs to the Creek Nation at the time. Taitt was a colleague of Sehoy's half-brother Alexander McGillivray, who foiled a Creek plot to assassinate him in 1777. He and Sehoy had two children, Davy (b. 1778) and Eloise, who spelled their surname Tate. Alexander McGillivray's family mostly raised Davy from age twelve. Davy was later involved with the

. David Taitt left Little Tallassee in 1778 due to the request of his superintendent and the danger posed to him by factional fighting there, and he does not appear to have maintained contact with Sehoy III and their children.

Charles Weatherford

In 1779/80, Sehoy III met and married Charles Weatherford, a trader from

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

who had come to Coosada to seek refuge from Revolutionary War fighting. Their children were

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

(b. 1781) and Elizabeth, who married a pair of siblings from the Moniac family. Charles Weatherford established a plantation downstream from Sehoy's residence at Coosada, where he trafficked stolen horses. He spent twelve months imprisoned for debt in 1787–8. During that time, Alexander McGillivray petitioned the Spanish officials for his release on the grounds of the distress of Sehoy and their children. In 1798 he narrowly escaped being exiled by a council of Creek elders for being a 'meddler.' In 1799, Sehoy III claimed her brother Malcolm II's property when he died according to Creek law. Charles had moved to a smaller residence downstream and Sehoy, defending her matrilineal wealth from him, ran a trading establishment and lived 'in some taste, but expensively.' Hawkins reports that she enslaved thirty Black people. Charles eventually left for the

Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...

. Sehoy III died about 1813, at which time her son

William Weatherford William Weatherford, also known after his death as Red Eagle ( – March 24, 1824), was a Creek chief of the Upper Creek towns who led many of the Red Sticks actions in the Creek War (1813–1814) against Lower Creek towns and against allied f ...

was emerging as a leader in the

References

{{Reflist 1813 deaths People from Alabama Muscogee people 18th-century Native American women 19th-century Native American women Native American slave owners Year of birth uncertain