Bradley Jewett Wootten and Family Collection

Bradley Jewett Wooten 1876 - 1901 Born October 12, 1876, Lt. Bradley Jewett Wooten was a member of a prominent family which has resided in Wilmington from the late 1600s until the present time. During the Revolutionary War, his great-great-grandfather, Richard Bradley, was Commissary of Wilmington and Paymaster of the Third North Carolina Continental Regiment. The Bradley family's principal residence was a four-story home at 11 South Third Street, next to St. James Church. Lt. Wootten's uncle, Richard Bradley III, made his home, Edgehill, on a large tract on Bradley Creek, now Airlie Gardens, and was founder and first Commodore of The Carolina Yacht Club at Wrightsville Beach. The names Bellamy, deRosset, Wright, Giles, Empie, Strange, Murchison, Grainger, Hill, Hicks, and Sprunt appear on the Bradley family tree. Lt. Wootten was the eldest child of the Reverend Edward Wootten, an Episcopal minister, and Eliza Yonge Jewett, daughter of Lucy Anna Bradley and Stephen Jewett. His great-niece is local writer Dr. Anne Russell, whose play The Porch makes reference to Lt. Wootten as "Uncle Theodore."

A graduate of Catlett School in Wilmington, and North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts (now NCSU), where he also served as military instructor, Bradley Wootten became First Lieutenant in the 28^th Infantry of the United States Volunteers. He completed his training at Camp Meade, PA., before transfer to his duty station in the Philippine Islands during the Spanish American War. He received a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the 7^th Cavalry of the regular army in August, 1901, and was transferred to the Columbia Barracks in Cuba. He married Nesfield Green (Nessie) Cotchett, the sister-in-law of Edwin Metts, at St. James Church on August 1, 1901, and returned to duty. Notified of Lt. Wootten's serious illness in November, his wife Nessie and his father traveled to Cuba. Believing him to be well enough to travel, Rev. Wootten returned to Wilmington to make arrangements for his recuperation at home. But on December 15, 1901, Lt. Wootten died in Cuba, Nessie by his side. His funeral was held at St. James Church, where not long before he had been a bridegroom. He was buried in Oakdale Cemetery. Considered to be "the best and the brightest" of a highly respected family, Bradley Wootten was mourned by the lowering of the flag to half mast on the State Capitol at Raleigh. His young widow Nessie, later married Col. George Rodney, bore three sons, and spent her last years in Fayetteville, NC.

Note written by Dr. Anne Russell