Various spell of Philbeck name
According to E. Hobart Peters (Head of Research, Raleigh, NC, 1965), much of the early tendency to vary the name came from "carelessness on the part of the clerks, poor hearing, etc."From this sprang a variety of misspellings probably
unmatched with any other name.In 1797 we find the name spelled "Filpeck" and "Philpeck."Wilhelm Ernst, in bowing to English phonetic pronunciations, not only changed his given names to William and Ernest, but changed his surname to "Felback," which the closest the American tongue could come to the true pronunciation.We also find that his son, William, Jr., was commonly known as William Felpick.As late as 1850, both William and George had settled on the form "Philpeck,"which was the commonly used form in the Piedmont region of NC. John, son of William, used "Philbeck" around 1825 and is still used today in that region.
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