The younger William Bartram later returned to see to his father's estate, after Native Americans were removed from the area, and became a prominent planter, colonel of the militia, and was a member of the colonial legislature for many years.
[3] By 1732[4] and after Native Americans were removed from the area, he returned to North Carolina to see to his father's estate[5] and settled on the Cape Fear River in the Bladen district shortly before it was made a county.
[13] In addition to being a colonel of the militia[14] and a scientist,[9] he was also a justice of the peace of Bladen County and was on the local freeholders court which heard cases involving enslaved individuals.
While nothing definite can be surmised by the remainder of their letters, the younger William held a fondness for Ashwood and corresponded with Mary often throughout his later years.
[3] He once wrote Mary, widowed after her marriage with Thomas Robeson, of the beautiful landscapes around Cape Fear, calling it "the temperate and flowery region", he also spoke of it as "your delightful country", adding that she is "the most pleasing object.
[6] The naturalist, his nephew, left a tribute to Bartram at Ashwood "... beloved and esteemed for his patriotic Virtue in defending and supporting the Rights of Man, and particularly, the Poor, abandoned, and the Stranger.