The Origins of Virginia Pioneers
The Irish, and Scottish-Irish to Bath County, Virginia
Alexander Spotswood, the Governor of Virginia, was a man of energy and foresight. In 1716, he undertook a journey through the foggy Blue Ridge Mountains in search of a location to establish forts.
The start was from Williamsburg, then the capital of Virginia. Above Fredericksburg, there was no road. The Blue Ridge was crossed through or near Swift Run Gap, and the South Fork of the Shenandoah was reached near Elkton. It was named the Euphrates and was thought to flow into the Great Lakes. On the west bank, Spotswood and his companions uncorked a large variety of liquors they had brought along and indulged in a grand spree.
Probably not enough firewater remained for a second big drunk, and the "gentlemen" of the party seemed to have been in no mood for further adventure. But the rangers who had guided Spottswood were left behind to continue the exploration. Although the governor did not half accomplish his purpose, his trip was historically significant.
Beginning in 1725, a new and substantial stream of American immigration came from the north of Ireland and the valley of the upper Rhine River. Nearly all these people landed in Philadelphia because, in Europe, the Pennsylvania government was reputed to be more liberal than the other colonies.
A little more than a century before Spotswood's trip, the province of Ulster in northern Ireland had been conquered and almost depopulated. The British government confiscated several million acres of its lands and colonized them with people from the southwest of Scotland and the north of England. Many Highland Scots and a few Huguenots from France were among them. The settlers were plain, hardy, and industrious, and they soon redeemed Ulster from its sorry appearance. Yet, there was a nagging persecution of the Ulster people, both religious and industrial.
The immigrants were Presbyterians, while the native Irish were Catholics. England had rules against those who did not adhere to the Church of England. Presbyterian ministers were not permitted to perform the marriage ceremony, and at times, their congregations could not meet in public places. Industrial persecution was because of the thrift and industry of the Ulster people, who were punished for their manufactures with a view to strangling their competition. To escape this harsh and unfair treatment, the people of Ulster began flocking to America.
In America, they were called Irish, and the term Scotch-Irish was coined. But actually, they were a blend of Scottish, English, Celtic Irish, and French Huguenots, the first element being the largest.
The southeast corner of Pennsylvania was already settled, and there was little room or welcome for the strangers. Thus, the families prepared to push westward along the colonial frontier. Within fifty years, the Ulster people and the colonial Americans who joined them had occupied a broad belt of mountain and piedmont country extending from New York to Georgia.
They came from a hilly country and took kindly to the mountains. They were simply folks, and while crossing the Appalachian Mountains, they proceeded to subdue the forest, the beasts of prey, the Indians, the French, and the British.
The Blue Ridge Mountains are nearer the seaboard in Pennsylvania than in Virginia. The broad Cumberland Valley is but a continuation of the Valley of Virginia. Nature, aided by Indian paths, had thus provided an easy line of travel to the South. Many immigrants poured into the hitherto uninhabited district made known by Spotswood. They reached Virginia by a side entrance without coming into close touch with the people of Tidewater, Virginia, who were almost wholly of English origin.
Eleven years after Governor Spotswood's revel on the bank of South River, a petition to the governor and council was given, referring to a region called “the Cowpasture.” The signers were Beverly Robinson, Robert Brooke, William Lynn, and Robert and William Lewis. These men were not themselves explorers but were influential planters of Tidewater.
The two Lewises were not of the family that became so conspicuous in the annals of Augusta and her daughter counties. John, the father of the Lewises of Augusta, had not yet come from Ireland. But William Lynn was his brother-in-law. The paper is dated 1727 and reads as follows: "Your Petitioners have been at great Trouble and Charges in making Discoveries of Lands among the Mountains, and are desirous of taking up some of these Lands they have discovered; whereupon your petitioners humbly pray your Honours to grant him an order to take up Fifty Thousand Acres in one or more tracts of the head branches of James River to the West and Northwestward of the Cow Pasture, on seating thereon one family for every Thousand Acres, and as the said Lands are very remote and lying among the great North Mountains, being about Two Hundred Miles at least from any landing—Your Petitioners humbly pray Your Honours will grant them six years to seat the same." There is no record of the above petition having been granted.
During the summer of 1732, John Lewis from Ulster settled a mile north of the region later known as Staunton. He was a person of means and leadership and was accompanied by about thirty of his Ulster followers. Another Virginia pioneer was James Patton, who was unwearied in soliciting immigration to the Augusta colony. By the end of a dozen years, several hundred Ulster families were scattered over the present counties of Augusta, Rockingham, and Rockbridge and even into the Valley counties lying nearer the Tennessee line.
Lewis and his companions were regarded as squatters in the public domain. Meanwhile, two immense tracts of choice land were given to William Beverly and Benjamin Borden. Beverly's grant of 118,491 acres lay around the Staunton area. It was known as Beverly Manor and also as Irish Tract.
Lewis was middle-aged when he came to Virginia. His sons, Thomas, Andrew, and William, were minors at the time but ultimately became prominent. Thomas was the first county surveyor of Augusta. Andrew assisted in surveying, and both brothers were energetic land prospectors.
On October 29, 1743, an order of council for 30,000 acres was issued in favor of James and Henry Robinson, James Wood, and Thomas and Andrew Lewis. The grant was located in the basin of the James River above the mouth of the Cowpasture. Thomas and Andrew Lewis seem to have been the only active syndicate members, although Wood, of Frederick County, was also a surveyor.
The Robinsons were aristocrats of Tidewater, and their names were enough to give the enterprise some prestige. If, as is probable, no settlers had appeared in the Bath County area before 1743, this will explain why the surveying did not begin in earnest until nearly two years had elapsed. September 26, 1745, the Lewises appeared on the Cowpasture, just above Nimrod Hall, and surveyed 1,080 acres for Adam Dickenson. This tract was the most northern in a chain of four. The others were run for Alexander Millroy, John Donnelly, and Hugh Coffey during the next two days.
On the last day in March 1746, the surveyors returned to the Cowpasture, and below Coffey, they laid off parcels for Joseph Watson, Andrew Muldrock, and William Daugherty. It was then continued down the river to the vicinity of Griffith Knob, surveying for John Walker, James Mayse, and Robert Crockett. Meanwhile, a detachment of the surveying party was at work far above, laying off selections for James Scott, John McCreery, William Gillespie, William Lewis, James Jackson, James Simpson, William Black, Robert Abercrombie, Thomas Gillespie, Thomas Fitzpatrick, Hugh Edwards, William Warwick, and James Hall.
The surveys already mentioned took in nearly all the choice morsels of Cowpasture bottom that lie within the present limits of Bath and also the more desirable land on Stuart's Creek. During the last week in April, the surveyors were busy on Jackson's River. Their largest tract was for William Jackson. Immediately below was a second large tract for Adam Dickenson. The lands of James Ewing, William Jameson, and Archibald Elliott were still farther below. The surveying continued at intervals until October 4.
Meanwhile, the Lewis family did not fail to look out for “Number One.” On September 5th, 950 acres designated Fort Lewis were run off in the name of John Lewis. William Lewis took a tract immediately below Bullpasture Gap. Thomas Lewis took two tracts on Jackson's River, at and just below the Highland line, and on Back Creek.
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Source: Annals Bath County Virginia by Oren F. Morton, B. Lit. (1917)