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.
5. Search history books.