Augusta County is the farthest point that our ancestors settled in Virginia during the 18th century. It is estimated that such a journey required at least six weeks to cross the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains.
This means to genealogists that Augusta is the last County in Virginia to search for those families who began the long, tiresome trail from Pennsylvania across a wild frontier of Indians and buffalo.ย
John Preston, an Irishman from Londonderry, was among the first settlers of Augusta County. His home was known as "Spring Hill." However, in 1743, he settled his family upon a tract of land adjoining Staunton on the north side of that town. He died shortly after that and was buried at Tinkling Spring Meeting House.
Preston has a daunting history. His father and uncles were Englishmen who served under King William and aided in the city's defense when besieged by Roman Catholics commanded by King James in 1689. Preston was a protestant who married a sister of Colonel James Patton of Donegal and was removed from Ireland to Virginia in 1740.ย
Colonel James Patton had commanded a merchant ship for some years and was a man of property and enterprise. The Colonel obtained an order from the Council from the Governor of Virginia, which he appropriated to himself and associates 120,000 acres of the best lands above the Blue Ridge Mountains. When Colonel Patton was killed by Indians at Smithfield, Virginia, in 1753, some of these lands were passed on to his descendants.ย
There are many stories of the first settlers of Virginia. The best way to find family stories is to search county records.ย
The surviving records of the first will book for Augusta County, Virginia, are listed below.ย
Augusta County Genealogy RecordsโโโWills, Estates, Marriages
Digital Images of Augusta County Wills 1745 toย 1753
Oddly enough, I discovered the following details of Anne, the widow of Sir Henry Holland, the last Duke of Exeter, in โ The Paston Letters, A.D. 1422โ1509โvolume 5 (of 6) by James Gairdner.
Why did this book attract my attention? The letters were dated between 1422 and 1509, before the Great Fire of London in September 1666. This fire swept away parish registers and other vital data. The Paston Letters are a valuable resource for anyone tracing their family history in England.
Here is the source material online. All you need to do is CTRL+F at the beginning of each volume to search for your names!
My interest is Sir Henry Holland, a son of John Holland. Johnโs stepbrother was King Richard II, a youthful king deposed by his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke (Henry IV). Richard II was born January 6, 1367, in Bordeaux, France, and died in February 1400 in Pontefract, Yorkshire (now West Yorkshire), England. He was the King of England from 1377 to 1399. During this time, John Holland (his half-brother) was an heir to the throne of England and Johnโs son, Sir Henry Holland. Henry Bolingbroke quickly disposed of the Holland heirs.
Sir Henry Holland resided in an elegant home overlooking the Thames River in London.
Ironically, his home was also the Tower of London (given to John Holland by the Prince of Wales), where the Yorkish found him when they convinced him to go with them to France. During the journey, Sir Henry supposedly fell overboard. Later, history writes that he was pushed overboard by Sir Thomas Saint Leger. Afterward, Legal married the widow Anne, and Anne brought proceedings before the new king, Henry IV, for their daughter to inherit all of the estate and wealth of Sir Henry Holland. This request was granted.
But the story does not end hereโthe marriage between Sir Henry and Anne of York was an unhappy experience. Although Henry was a strong supporter of the Duke of Lancaster, Anne was convinced to marry Henry (because he was to become an heir to the throne). She gave birth to one daughter. However, Sir Henry frequently fought wars in France alongside the Duke of Lancaster.
Volume 2:
โ154.1 Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter. During the civil war that followed, he adhered to the House of Lancaster, though he married Edward IVโs sister. His herald had probably been seized by Cadeโs followers and pressed into their service.โ
โ321.7 Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter. On the 11th of May this year, he was ordered to appear before the Council on the following Thursday (16th May). โ See Nicolasโs Privy Council Proceedings, vi. 180.โ
โ329.3 Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter. On the 24th of July, the Duke of York was charged by the Privy Council to convey him to Pomfret Castle. โ See Nicolasโs Privy Council Proceedings, vi. 217.โ
Volume 4:
โ189.1 Anne, eldest daughter of John Montacute, third Earl of Salisbury, married, 1st, Sir Richard Hankford, Knight; 2ndly, Sir Lewis John, Knight (whose will was proved in 1442); and 3rdly, John Holland, who was created Duke of Exeter 6th January 1443, and died in 1446. Fenn erroneously supposed the lady to have been the widow of Thomas Beaufort, a previous Duke of Exeter, who died in 1426. This Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, married Margaret, daughter and heir of Sir Thomas Nevill, but his wife did not survive him, as Fenn supposed, for at his death, he was found to have been a tenant of her lands for life by the law of England. However, Fennโs note on this passage is so interesting that we must quote a part of it. Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, was buried in the Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds. โOn digging,โ he says, โamongst the ruins of this Abbey, the body of the Duke was found, on the 20th of February 1772, wrapt in the lead, and entire. The face, hair, and every part were perfect, and the flesh solid, but being exposed to the air, the body soon became offensive . . . . . I procured some of the hair, which was of fine brown color and very flexible.โ
Volume 5:
โ250.2 Anne, daughter of Richard, Duke of York, sister of Edward IV., and widow of Henry Holland, the last Duke of Exeter, her first husband; she died 14th of January 1475 and lies buried with Sir Thomas Saint Leger, Knight, her second husband, in a private chapel at Windsor. โ F.โ
Volume 6:
โ250.1 Richard, Duke of York, second son of King Edward IV., in or before January 1478, married Anne, sole daughter and heir of John Mowbray, late Duke of Norfolk. โ Rolls of Parliament, vi. 168. She was at that time only in her sixth year, and she died early.โ
โ250.2 Anne, daughter of Richard, Duke of York, sister of Edward IV., and widow of Henry Holland, the last Duke of Exeter, her first husband; she died 14th of January 1475 and lies buried with Sir Thomas Saint Leger, Knight, her second husband, in a private chapel at Windsor. โ F.โ
These notations fill in some of the gaps on my family group sheet.
Once the ancestors are discovered in the early records of the American Colonies, it behooves the genealogist to search further. The first settlers to Jamestown came from England.
Although it is possible to find much more data in the surviving parish registers, once the names on your chart belong to the 15th to 25th generation (cousins), the probability of nobility exists in the lineage. It has been said many times that American families can trace their lineage to King Edward I. This is certainly true of the Holand/Holand/Hollande families. Sir Thomas de Hollande married a granddaughter of King Edward I, and her second husband was the Prince of Wales (who died before taking the throne). Hence, Sir Thomas de Hollande's children became King Richard II's step-brothers.
Also, several marriages throughout the Hollande lineage included members of the nobility that also linked back to King Edward I of England. This is true of so many lineages that link back to America!
The Holland/Hollande/Holand/Holande genealogy is available to members of georgiapioneers.com and other royally connected families. (Search in the vault).
Pottery from the Rosetta-stone era of Egypt. A granodiorite stele was inscribed with three versions of a decree issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 B.C. It was the Rosetta Stone that was the key to deciphering Egyptian scripts!ย
Consider the archaeologist who digs in the sand and carefully handles objects. Each layer of sand is carefully excavated. Broken pieces of pottery, no matter how small, provide clues of the era or timeline. It is a process that discovers answers and events of earlier eras.ย
If you did not find a pension record of your Revolutionary War Soldier, you can employ small clues to discover answers. There are โworkaroundsโ to help you learn more about his service.
Once you discover (in the muster rolls) the names of the commanders and/or officers under whom your ancestor served, a door is opened to more information. Concentrate on learning about the commander, using the Internet, and the details of the battles fought under this commander. Note enlistment dates and re-enlistments under different commanders.
Another source is the commander's name who โsigned the Land Grantโ for your ancestor. That commander is verifying your ancestor's military service, and you should search for further data.ย
For example. I have an ancestor who did not leave a pension but served under โLighthorseโ Harry Lee (Henry Lee III, the father of Robert E. Lee of the Confederate War). Because Lee signed all his requests for land grants, that fact helped me learn more details about his service afterward.
Lee was nicknamed โLighthorseโ because of his equestrian skills. During the Northern Campaign, Leeโs Legion was one of George Washingtonโs most tenacious cavalry commanders. When the British Commander, Lord Cornwallis, sent his troops South to capture the Southern port cities, Leeโs Cavalry went into the Carolinas and Georgia, where he copied the โhit-and-runโ tactics used by Indians to distract and prevent the British from capturing Augusta. Hence, following the skirmishes and battles of Major-General Lee provided the details of war for my ancestor.
Another place to search is the names on supporting affidavits included within a pension application. Affidavits and letters were typically written by friends, fellow soldiers, neighbors, or kinfolks. Next, search for a pension record under that name. The extra research on this name may unfold some exciting facts and stories. But do not stop there. Go to the county and state where your ancestor died, and search the old wills and estates for this name. If you find an old will, it may reveal places, relationships, or other interesting data.
Thus, searching for tiny details is the key to locating people who are challenging to identify. Some of my most satisfying discoveries came from reading all the wills and estates in the county where my ancestors resided. Also, the witnesses to deeds, marriages, and wills should be systematically researched similarly.ย
It is the minor details that write the story.
Resources:ย
1. There are many books about those who served in the war to be discovered in local libraries. Search Genealogical Abstracts of Revolutionary War Pension Filesby Virgil White. If you find your ancestor, record the information for your files.
2. Search the Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Application Files, 1800โ1900. These are National Archive films available through the FamilySearch Library. Click on the View Film Notes button. Scroll through the last names until you find the film number for your ancestorโs last name. Obtain the film, then look alphabetically for your ancestorโs name.
3. Search for books in a regional library or the U. S. Archives for muster rolls and other data.ย
4. Many printed books with muster rolls and other service data have been published. They are usually found on the shelf of the genealogy section of regional libraries.ย
5. If you are a member of virginiapioneers.net, here are the online links to service records:
I found the Lineage of William Franklin, a Revolutionary War Soldier in Georgia.
The James River Mountain at Buchanan, Virginia, and home of William Franklin,
The Story of a Fighter, William Franklin, Sr.
This lineage begins with Martha Franklin, who married Alexander Smith and resided in Warren County, Georgia.
The Franklin families left Tidewater, Virginia (Princess Anne County) in the mid-1700s and settled on Pine-Run Mountain in Botetourt County, Virginia. Pine-Run Mountain Rock Quarries. According to the Minutes of the Superior Court of Augusta County, Virginia, the Franklin log cabin was located on Pine-Run Mountain (Augusta County, later Botetourt County) one mile below the rock quarry!
My search began with all Franklin families in Virginia. I read every last wills and testaments until I found what I wanted.
Thomas Franklin was an immigrant, and in 1650, he was granted some land on Kettle Creek. This is a little island near Outer Banks, North Carolina. Later, records show that Thomas resided in Princess Anne County, Virginia, where I found his old will. Thomas Franklin left his lands to all of his sons except Edward. The older sons remained in Princess Anne County. But where was Edward? I began the hunt for Edward and discovered that he received a land grant in western Virginia in Augusta County. Augusta County made boundary changes, and later, that region became Spotsylvania and then Botetourt County.
Edward Franklin's land grant was located on Pine Run Mountain. A Minute Book in Augusta County revealed a road assignment that evolved around three males who, in suggesting that another road be cut, described the site of the cabin on Pine Run, just below a rock mill which was on the James River Hydrate quarry near Buchanan, Virginia, producing aragonite, barite, calcite, and opaline silica. The pioneer families settled on Pine-Run Mountain and James River Mountain. This Minute Book record told the story of where Edward settled.
At the age of 18 years, William Franklin Sr. (born 1718 in Virginia) purchased some farmland in James River Mountain and was thereafter married to his 1st wife, Sarah Rebecca Boone. Their son, George Thomas Franklin, was born on the James River Mountain in 1744 (died 1816 in Warren County, Georgia). William's eldest son, George Thomas, wrote in his application for a Revolutionary War pension that he was born on the James River Mountain! When the boy was ten years of age, his mother died. It is unknown how she died. However, the Shawnee Indians greatly harassed the settlers, taking men and women as slaves. Rebecca was descended from George Boone, a Quaker from Philadelphia. The Boones' number is 12 to 15 children, and they repeated family names. It may be that Rebecca was a daughter or granddaughter of one George Thomas Boone. She most probably was a second cousin to the famous Daniel Boone.
Lord Dunmore's War
In October of 1774, Lord Dinsmore, the Governor of Virginia, sent out all of the Virginia Regiments to battle with the Shawnee Indians. The two regiments in Botetourt County went by boat on the Mississippi River to Ohio Falls to battle the Shawnee. They were the first and only regiments to battle the Shawnee. Chief Cornstalk was known for his diplomatic skills and military prowess, and he played a critical role in negotiating alliances with the British Army and leading his people into battles against the encroaching settlers. Each side had many casualties; ultimately, Chief Cornstalk signed a Treaty of Peace.
William Franklin Sr., a member of the Militia, Love Regiment from Botetourt County, was listed as having sustained an injury.
Afterward, when the call was put out along the western frontier for volunteers in the Continental Army to fight the British, young George Thomas Franklin was the first to go East to join the Southern Campaign. The British regiments had moved their operation into North Carolina.
Later, William Franklin and family, viz: second wife, sons William, and others, followed. According to the land grants given after the Revolutionary War, William Sr., William Jr., and Thomas Franklin all served.
However, based on the amount of bounty land each received, only William Franklin Sr. served to the end. The Militia companies required all males between 16 and 50 to serve. William, born in 1718, was fifty-six years of age when he fought in Lord Dunmore's War of 1774.
After the war, in 1783, he would have been sixty-five years old, declaring he was staunchly brave and determined. After the war, he settled on about 1300 acres of land in Davisboro, Georgia. A method of discerning what battles he fought in can be learned by tracing the service of General William Lee, who signed the bounties. It is said that the DAR placed a monument over his grave in Davisboro, Georgia, but I have not located it. William Franklin, fighter of two wars!
William Franklin's grave in Davisboro, Georgia, by D.A.R.
Notes
Immigrants to America
Lord Dunmore's War of 1774
Dunmore's War and the Opening of the Revolutionary War
Grave of William Franklin, Davisboro, Georgia
Squire Magrudge Boone
Warren County, Georgia
The Service of General Light Horse Harry Lee
Sources: Revolutionary War Records of William Franklin, Sr., George Thomas Franklin, and William Franklin, all receiving bounty grants for their services in Warren County, Georgia, signed by Light Horse Harry Lee; The Soldiers of West Virginia in the French and Indian War; Lord Dunmore's War; the Revolution; the later Indian Wars; the Whiskey Insurrection; the second War with England; the War with Mexico by Virgil A. Lewis, M. A.
Clues from this Research
1. Search all will records and estates having the same surname.
2. Search Indian Wars, Revolutionary War, War of 1812.
3. Search Minute Books for unexpected details.
4. Take note of who signed the Bounty Grants, and search that officer's war record for more details of your ancestor's service.
An old abandoned house in Londonderry, South Carolina. Compliments of Pinterest.com
During the mid-1700s, millions of Germans from the Lowlands migrated to America. These people essentially came from the North Rhine area and include (today) northern states of (Bundeslรคnder): Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Bremen, North-Rhine-Westphalia, Mecklenburg-Western-Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg. A common port of entry in the US was the Philadelphia map.
An examination of all of the early counties in Pennsylvania reveals individual families as well as religious congregations seeking free land in America. The indexes reveal billions of German names starting about 1690. Many settled in Pennsylvania while others trekked southwestward into (todayโs) North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and Indiana. A popular settlement during the mid-1700s was the State of Franklin, formed in 1784, which embraced Eastern Tennessee counties of Blount, Caswell, Greene, Spencer, Sevier, Sullivan, Washington, and Wayne.
Interestingly, land that was once along the North Carolina border became part of Franklin as it voted to give Congress some 29,000,000 acres. this State. In April 1784, the state of North Carolina voted to give Congress the 29,000,000 acres to help relieve debt. Presumably, this included (later formed) Jonesborough, Tennessee.
I recently discovered that one of my ancestors who received bounty lands in Wilkes County, Georgia, wrote in his Revolutionary War Pension that โhe was born in North Carolinaโ in that area which became the State of Franklin. Further research included research in the North Carolina border counties as well as those in East Tennessee. He was born ca 1760/1765 which meant that his parents were born ca 1730 and traveled the pioneer trail through the Blue Ridge Mountains, Cumberland Mountains and plateau, and the Appalachian ridge and valleys. For anyone who has visited Cumberland Gap and the villages around Gatlinburg, this is truly a beautiful place. Notable is Cherokee, North Carolina, which was but one of many Cherokee villages spread throughout these mountains. As more immigrants poured into the area, the State of Franklin expanded.
The interesting part of searching for German ancestors is the variations in the names after they were anglicized. Hence, the necessity of observing and considering all possible name variations. Once the German name has been zeroed in on, one needs to discover โwhereโ in the Lowlands.
Some that I found in Sullivan County, Tennessee are Netherland, Loudermilk, Bachman, Buckellen, Baugh, Beachboard, Torbitt, Pemberton, etc. I am in the process of adding old wills to the Tennessee section of Georgia Pioneers. (Lots of records here; this will be slow). To date, Lincoln, Greene, and Franklin Counties TN have been added.
German settlers in Londonderry, South Carolina
Thousands of Germans migrated to Pennsylvania and South Carolina during the 1700s. In April 1764, Germans from the Palatinate arrived in Charlestown, South Carolina โand presented a letter from the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations to Governor Boone, acquainting him that his Majesty had been pleased to take the poor Palatines under his royal care and protection, and as many of them were versed in the culture of silks and vines, had ordered that a settlement be provided for them in Carolina. That they might be settled in a body, one of the two townships, called Londonderry, was allotted for them, and divided most equitably into small tracts, for the accommodation of each family. Captain Calhoun, with a detachment of the rangers, had orders to meet them by the way and conduct them to the place where their town was to be built, and all possible assistance was given towards promoting their speedy and comfortable settlement.โ
Londonderry was located in Spartanburg County between the Broad and Saluda Rivers.
Source: A Historical Account Of The Rise And Progress Of The Colonies Of South Carolina and Georgia, Volume 1, by Alexander Hewatt; Charleston Records