#mary-james — Public Fediverse posts

Children of Griffith and Mary James: Hannah, Gwendolyn, Joseph, Mary, John, and Samuel

Dean Historical Marker, Starr, Anderson County, South Carolina, photo by Brian Scott at Historical Marker Database

Or, Subtitled: Migration Trails from Maryland to South Carolina and Many Points West

As the previous posting shows, in his 20 April 1795 will in Pendleton District, South Carolina, Griffith James names his wife Mary and the following children: Hannah, Gwendolyn (Jenny in the will), Joseph, Mary, John, and Samuel.[1] The children are named in order of birth by gender groupings, with the three sons named in their order of birth as well as the three daughters. A 4 July 1874 letter of William Simpson, a great-grandson of Griffith James’ daughter Mary James Cummings, states that Griffith James also had a son Thomas, who is not named in the will. That letter and the question of the son Thomas will be discussed below. (To read the continuation of this posting, please click the numeral 2 below.)

Here are some salient pieces of information about Griffith and Mary James’ children:

1. Hannah James was born 2 November 1752 in Maryland. If Griffith James had already settled by this date in the vicinity of what would later be Sharpsburg in Washington County, then I think Hannah would likely have been born in Frederick County, the parent county of Washington. But I do not have proof of her place of birth, other than to note that her grandson Thomas Dunlap Leonard states in his 1883 “Biography of the Leonards” that Hannah was “born and reared in Maryland.”[2]

I’ve discussed Hannah James Leonard’s life in detail in my series of postings about the Leonard family. As the posting I just linked states, about 1775 in Frederick (later Washington) County, Hannah married Thomas Leonard, son of Robert Leonard and Honor Pritchard (and see also here). This family moved from Maryland to Pendleton District, South Carolina, in 1786 and from South Carolina to Lincoln (later Marshall) County, Tennessee, in 1808.

As another posting about the Leonard family notes, Hannah’s dates of birth and death are recorded on her grave marker in the Leonard family cemetery outside Petersburg, Marshall County, Tennessee.[3] The gravestone states, as indicated above, that she was born 2 November 1752 and that she died 3 November 1842. Hannah died at the Leonard homeplace outside Petersburg in Marshall County, Tennessee. The family cemetery, in which she is buried with husband Thomas Leonard, is behind the site of the old homeplace.

2. Gwendolyn James was born about 1754, probably in Frederick (later Washington) County, Maryland. I haven’t found a document giving a precise date of birth for Gwendolyn. The 1754 date is suggested by Beverly Dean Peoples and Ralph Terry Dean in their book Country Cousins, Descendants of Samuel Dean.[4] Federal censuses on which Gwendolyn is enumerated in her husband Samuel Dean’s household do not offer much help in narrowing down the year of her birth: the 1800 census places it between 1755 and 1774, the 1810 census before 1765, and the 1820 census before 1775. Gwendolyn was living in 1830 after Samuel died in 1826, but I do not find her listed as head of a household on the 1830 federal census.

As Country Cousins states, a 1751 birthdate for Samuel Dean has been handed down among his descendants. Griffith James’ will names Gwendolyn (“Jenny”) after her sister Hannah, whose 2 November 1752 birthdate is established by her gravestone. As we’ll see in a moment, there’s documentary evidence for a 1758 birthdate for Griffith’s son Joseph and for a birthdate of 19 November 1763 for Griffith’s daughter Mary. So if Gwenny was born between Hannah and Mary, her birth year would definitely fall between 1752 and 1763, and, it appears, prior to Joseph’s birth year of 1758. Samuel and Gwendolyn’s first child, Thomas, was born 13 September 1774, and that date also makes a 1754 birth year for his mother very reasonable.

Gwendolyn James married Samuel, son of Richard and Priscilla Dean, about 1773. Since Richard Dean and Griffith James lived on adjoining tracts of land outside Sharpsburg in what was then Frederick but soon to be Washington County, the marriage would very likely have occurred in Frederick County.

Anderson County, South Carolina, Will Bk B, pp. 6-7

Gwendolyn James Dean made a will on 6 December 1834 in Anderson County, South Carolina, her husband Samuel having died there also testate with a will dated 22 May 1826 and probated 25 September 1826.[5] Gwendolyn’s will was probated 7 September 1835, so she died between 6 December 1834 and 7 September 1835. Why numerous family trees published online and Gwendolyn’s Find a Grave memorial page state her date of death as 5 December 1834 is beyond me to understand or explain.

According to Country Cousins,[6]

Samuel Dean and Gwendolyn James and others are buried in unmarked graves on what was then their property near Fairview School on Highway 116 between Belton, SC and Williamston, SC.

The cemetery in which Gwendolyn and Samuel are buried is now known as the Dean cemetery, and is close to Starr in Anderson County, South Carolina.

Liber Defunctorium in Parochia Sancta Maria, etc., available digitally at FamilySearch

3. Joseph James was born in 1758, very likely in Frederick (later Washington) County, Maryland. We know Joseph’s year of birth from his death record in the death register of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary parish in Perryville, Perry County, Missouri. This states that he died in that parish on 22 May 1825, aged 67.[7] The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary parish served the English-speaking Catholic population of the area from 1817 until its merger with the German-speaking St. Boniface Parish to form St. Vincent de Paul Parish in 1965.

As previous postings have stated (see here and here), about 1780 in Washington County, Maryland, Joseph married Elizabeth, daughter of James and Sarah Walker Austin. The 20 April 1779 will of Elizabeth’s father James Austin in Washington County states that James was leaving to daughters Elizabeth and Charity shares in a tract of land called King Cole, which came to Joseph James by his marriage to Elizabeth, and which he later sold to his father Griffith James.[8]

Thomas James, son of Joseph James and Elizabeth Austin; photo reproduced in Frank Everett Stevens, The Black Hawk war, Including a Review of Black Hawk’s Life (Chicago, 1903), p. 146, attributed to Martha H. Hoke

As previously noted, about 1791, Joseph moved his family from Washington County, Maryland, to Kentucky. A book written by his son Thomas James entitled Three Years Among the Indians and Mexicans, which recounts his experiences on a trading expedition in 1809 with Auguste P. Chouteau from St. Ferdinand, Missouri, up to the headwaters of the Missouri River and to the Columbia, says that in 1803, Joseph James moved his family from Kentucky to Illinois and then in the spring of 1807, the family made its way to Missouri.[9]

The Combined History of Randolph, Monroe and Perry Counties, Illinois, states,[10]

The James family, of Welsh origin, were among the early settlers in the American Bottom [in Monroe County, Illinois]. Joseph Austin James emigrated to Illinois in 1803, accompanied by his son, Thomas James, who was born in Maryland, in the year 1782, and James A. He moved to Missouri in 1807, where he died.

One of Joseph James and Elizabeth Austin’s sons was named James Austin James, and I suspect that the history of Randolph, Monroe, and Perry Counties has given James’ father Joseph the middle name of Austin for that reason. I have seen no documents giving Joseph, son of Griffith and Mary James, the middle name Austin. If Joseph did have a middle name, it might have been Griffith and not Austin. A letter written on 4 July 1874 by William Simpson of Jacksonville, Florida, a great-grandson of Joseph James’ sister Mary and husband Harmon Cummings, states that Griffith and Mary James had a son Griffith who was a Revolutionary soldier who went west from Maryland.[11] William Simpson seems to be referring here to Joseph James, who was a private in Captain John Reynolds’ militia company, 2nd battalion, in Maryland during the Revolutionary War.[12]

Joseph James’ place of burial is not known. There’s speculation that he’s buried at Mount Hope cemetery in Perryville, Missouri, but if that’s the case, his grave is not now marked.

John Cummings, “A Journal of the Life & Parantage [sic] of John Cummings & Wife.”

4. Mary James was born 19 November 1763 in Frederick (later Washington) County, Maryland. This date of birth is recorded in a document written by her son John Cummings, entitled “A Journal of the Life & Parantage [sic] of John Cummings & Wife.”[13] Biographies of John Cummings note that he was born in Pendleton District/Anderson County, South Carolina, on 2 December 1802, and in 1830, moved to Gibson County, Tennessee, where he and wife Rachel Canada became Mormons and went to Nauvoo, Illinois, then from there in 1832 to Provo City, Utah, and finally to Heber City.[14] I think it’s likely that John Cummings’ handwritten document is now held by descendants in Utah or is perhaps in a library or archive there.

Maryland Historical Society, Maryland Marriages 1777-1804

In a previous posting, I noted that the marriage of Mary James and Harmon Cummings on 7 September 1779 is recorded in records of Washington County, Maryland, indicating that the marriage was solemnized by Reverend George Mitchell of Hagerstown, who also married Mary Ann Leonard and Colin Campbell. Mary Ann Leonard was a sister of Thomas Leonard who married Mary James’ brother Thomas Leonard.[15]

Frank Ellwood Esshom, Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah (Salt Lake City: Utah Pioneers Book Publishing Company, 1913), p. 831 John Cummings, photo uploaded by Jerry Duke to Cummings tree at FamilySearch

The journal of Harmon and Mary Cummings’ son John states that Harmon Cummings was born 23 March 1756 and died 4 February 1851. Mary James Cummings died 29 March 1847 according to John Cummings’ journal. Both died in Anderson County, South Carolina, and are said to be buried in the cemetery of Mountain Creek Baptist church south of Anderson, to which they belonged.

Melinda Junkins vs. Harmon Cummins, Mary Cummins, Moses Dean, et al., Anderson County, South Carolina, Equity Court no. 140 (no. 29, 1847)

5. John James was born between 1770 and 1780 according to the 1830 federal census of Anderson County, South Carolina, and between 1750 and 1760 according to the 1840 federal census.[16] I suspect his birth year actually fell somewhere between 1760 and 1770.

John James died in Anderson County in January 1842. In 1847, his niece Malinda Junkins, daughter of Harmon and Mary James Cummings, filed a case for partition of property belonging to John and his brother Samuel that had come to them from Griffith and Mary James.[17] Malinda’s 21 February 1847 bill of complaint states that John James died in Anderson County in January 1842 unmarried and with no legal issue, but that he had an illegitimate daughter who married William Hembree, and that Hembree was occupying the land in question. An inventory of John’s estate filed in the case file shows that the estate inventory was done on 1 February 1842 and a bill of sale in the file shows John’s estate being sold on 18 February 1842 at the house of John E. Norris.

Melinda Junkins vs. Harmon Cummins, Mary Cummins, Moses Dean, et al., Anderson County, South Carolina, Equity Court no. 140 (no. 29, 1847)

Prior to this lawsuit on 7 April 1846, Harmon and Mary Cummings had deeded to daughter Malinda Junkins 174 acres that had descended to them from their brothers John and Samuel James, with the deed stating that both John and Samuel had died prior to April 1846, neither leaving lawful issue.[18] This document also states that William Hembree was occupying what had been the land co-owned by John and his brother Samuel.

Melinda Junkins vs. Harmon Cummins, Mary Cummins, Moses Dean, et al., Anderson County, South Carolina, Equity Court no. 140 (no. 29, 1847)

6. Samuel James was likely born between 1760 and 1770 in Frederick (later Washington) County, Maryland. As the preceding posting states, when his father Griffith James made his will in Pendleton District, South Carolina, on 29 April 1795, the will made his two youngest sons John and Samuel, the two sons still living with their parents in 1795, their father’s executor.

The bill of complaint filed by Samuel’s first cousin Malinda Junkins in 1847 in her lawsuit against her parents says that Samuel James had left South Carolina to go west and had not been heard from in thirty years and was presumed dead. The bill of complaint also says that Samuel died unmarried and without lawful issue. The 4 July 1874 letter of William Simpson discussed above also states that Samuel James, a Revolutionary soldier, had gone west from South Carolina.

Samuel James had left South Carolina 7 September 1825 when his uncle Samuel Dean, acting as Samuel James’ power of attorney, sold Griffith Dean 154 acres on a branch of Twenty-Six Mile Creek in Pendleton District belonging to Samuel James, with the deed stating that Samuel James was “formerly of Pendleton District.”[19]

Samuel may have already left South Carolina by 12 September 1821 when Joseph Grisham filed a suit of debt against him in Pendleton District and Samuel did not (as it seems to me, reading the court documents) appear in court after having been summoned.[20] Samuel was indebted to Joseph for $20.50 promised by a note of obligation, dated 28 January 1821. When Samuel did not appear in court, his property was garnished.

I think that Samuel James continued owning property in Pendleton District after he left South Carolina, since a man of this name appears on tax lists of Anderson County in 1835, 1836, 1837, 1838, and 1840, and I’m not aware of another Samuel James living in or holding property in Anderson County at this time. This property may well have been the land whose disposition Malinda Junkins was challenging in her 1847 lawsuit.

I have been unable to discover where Samuel James went when he left South Carolina, and where he died and may be buried. If Malinda Junkins’ bill of complaint in 1847 is correct, then he left South Carolina by 1817, since he had not been heard of, she claimed, for thirty years. The 1820 federal census shows a number of men with the name Samuel James in points west of South Carolina including Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Louisiana.

As stated previously, though the will of Griffith James does not name a son Thomas, the 4 July 1874 letter of William Simpson states that Griffith James had a son Thomas, who was a Revolutionary soldier who went west. As one reads the family history William Simpson offers in this letter, it’s important to keep in mind that it definitely contains mistaken information. Simpson states, for instance, that Gwendolyn James’ husband Samuel Dean was “a frenchman who came over to this country with General Lafayette,” and that Hannah James married “a Mr. Lenard, one of the hessians that Grand Father helped take prisoner at Trenton.” Both of these pieces of information are totally incorrect.

A Thomas James married Elizabeth McFall in Washington County, Maryland, on 18 April 1778 and is found on the 1790 federal census in that county. But this Thomas James does not appear to be a son of Griffith and Mary James. His roots lie in Harford County, Maryland, and I find no information that links him to Griffith James.

[1] Anderson County, South Carolina, Will Bk. C, p. 82.

[2] Thomas Dunlap Leonard, “Biography of the Leonards” (1883 manuscript now circulated as typescript; present whereabouts are not known).

[3] See Elizabeth Lucie Leonard Baxter, “Leonard Family,” Marshall County, Tennessee, Historical Quarterly 6,2 (summer 1975); and Find a Grave memorial page of Hannah James Leonard, Leonard cemetery, Marshall County, Tennessee, created by Donna B. and maintained by LookingforFamily, with a gravestone photo by Jimmy Trout. Note that the Find a Grave memorial page gives Hannah James a middle name, Leona, that is erroneous. No document I’ve seen ever states a middle name for Hannah.

[4] Beverly Dean Peoples and Ralph Terry Dean, Country Cousins, Descendants of Samuel Dean, 2nd ed.(Franklin, North Carolina: Genealogy Publishing, 2001), p. 3. See also Beverly Dean Peoples, “Richard Deane (1701-1788) and His Children,” at Rootsweb.

[5] Gwendolyn James Dean’s will is in Anderson County, South Carolina, Will Bk B, pp. 6-7. Samuel Dean’s will is a “floating” will not recorded in a will book: Anderson County, South Carolina, probate files box 15, no. 173.

[6] Beverly Dean Peoples and Ralph Terry Dean, Country Cousins, p. 3.

[7] Liber Defunctorium in Parochia Sancta Maria, etc., available digitally at FamilySearch.

[8] Washington County, Maryland, Will Bk. A, pp. 29-30.

[9] Thomas James, Three Years Among the Indians and Mexican (Waterloo, Illinois: War Eagle Office, 1846).

[10] The Combined History of Randolph, Monroe and Perry Counties, Illinois, etc. (Philadelphia: J.L. McDonough, 1883).

[11] In 1999, Heidi Rose Lahey owned the original letter and another that William Simpson wrote on 7 February 1877. She has helpfully placed transcriptions of both letters online at Rootsweb.

[12] Henry C. Peden, Revolutionary Patriots of Washington County, Maryland 1776-1783 (Westminster, Maryland: Family Line, 1998], p. 184; and S. Eugene Clements and Edward F. Wright, The Maryland Militia in the Revolutionary War (Silver Spring: Family Line, 1987], p. 240)

[13] I do not know the present whereabouts of this handwritten document. Digital copies are online at FamilySearch here and here. The 19 November 1763 date of birth is also stated in Hugh S. Watson’s “Genealogy” column, Virginia Gazette (13 August 1954), p. 11, col. 1, with a clipping of this column in the Alabama Archives’ surname files.

[14] See Yvonne Cummings Miller, Biography of H. Clay and Ruby Cummings (Salt Lake City: Hiller, 1990); and Frank Ellwood Esshom, Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah (Salt Lake City: Utah Pioneers Book Publishing Company, 1913), p. 831. See also Heidi Rose Lahey’s family history site, noting the dates of birth and death of Mary James and her husband Harmon Cummings and indicating that both are registered in temple-rites records of the LDS church.

[15] Maryland Historical Society, Maryland Marriages 1777-1804; and Gaius Marcus Brumbaugh, Maryland Records, vol. 2 (Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1928; repr. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1967), p. 522.

[16] 1830 federal census, Anderson County, South Carolina, p. 183A; 1840 federal census, Anderson County, South Carolina, p. 103.

[17] Melinda Junkins vs. Harmon Cummins, Mary Cummins, Moses Dean, et al., Anderson County, South Carolina, Equity Court no. 140 (no. 29, 1847).

[18] Anderson County, South Carolina, Deed Bk. Z, pp. 195-7.

[19] Ibid., Bk. R, pp. 483-4.

[20] Joseph Grisham vs. Samuel James, Pendleton District, South Carolina, Summary Process Papers, roll 2109.

#ancestry #AndersonCoSouthCarolina #AugustePChouteau #CharityAustin #ColinCampbell #ElizabethAustin #familyHistory #FrederickCoMaryland #genealogy #GeorgeMitchell #GibsonCoTennessee #GriffithDean #GriffithJames #GwendolynJames #HagerstownWashingtonCoMaryland #HannahJames #HarfordCoMaryland #HarmonCummin #HarmonCummings #HarmonCummins #HeberCityWasatchCoUtah #history #HonorPritchard #JamesAustin #JamesAustinJames #JohnCummings #JohnJames #JosephJames #KingColeWashingtonCoMaryland #LincolnCoTennessee #MalindaCummingsJunkin #MarshallCoTennessee #MaryAnnLeonard #MaryJames #MonroeCoIllinois #MosesDean #MountainCreekBaptistChurchPendletonDistSouthCarolina #NauvooMissouri #PendletonDistSouthCarolina #PerryvillePerryCoMissouri #PetersburgMarshallCoTennessee #ProvoCityUtahCoUtah #RachelCanada #RichardDean #RichardDeane #RobertLeonard #SamuelDean #SamuelJames #SarahWalker #SharpsburgWashingtonCoMaryland #StFerdinandStLouisCoMissouri #StarrAndersonCoSouthCarolina #ThomasDunlapLeonard #ThomasJames #ThomasLeonard #WashingtonCoMaryland #WiliamHembree #WilliamSimpson

Griffith James (bef. 1725? — 1795): Final Years in Pendleton District, South Carolina (1793-5)

Anderson County, South Carolina, Will Bk. C, p. 82

Or, Subtitled: Horse Thieves and Baptist Churches

As the previous posting notes, after selling his homeplace in his Pough tract just southeast of Sharpsburg on 13 May 1792, and (with James Austin), after selling his 50-acre portion of the King Cole tract on 3 March 1792, Griffith James moved with his wife Mary from Washington County, Maryland to Pendleton District, South Carolina.[1] As another past posting states, Griffith and Mary moved from Maryland to South Carolina at some point in 1793. Note that the court case regarding the theft of Griffith James’ horse in Pendleton District in September 1793 discussed below also shows that this family had moved from Maryland to South Carolina by September 1793. (To read the continuation of this posting, please click the numeral 2 below.)

The Move from Maryland to South Carolina, 1793

Since Griffith and Mary’s sons John and Samuel, who are, as we’ll see in a moment, named in his will, had not shown up in records of Ninety-Six (later Pendleton) District, South Carolina, prior to 1793, these two sons, who seem to be the youngest of the couple’s children, may have been living with them in Maryland and have made the move to South Carolina with them. As the previous posting notes indicates, Griffith and Mary’s son Joseph was living in Washington County up to 1791, when he moved with wife Elizabeth Austin to Kentucky, settling eventually at Perryville in Perry County, Missouri.

In heading to Pendleton District, Griffith and Mary were joining daughters Hannah (married Thomas Leonard), Gwendolyn (married Samuel Dean), and Mary (married Harmon Cummings), who had gone to South Carolina in 1786. The posting I’ve just linked features an excerpt from Louise Ayer Vandiver’s Traditions and History of Anderson County that recounts stories passed down in the Cummings (Cummin in this source) and Dean families about the move from Maryland to South Carolina.[2] These family stories speak of the long trip through “pathless forests” in carts whose wheels were sections cut from a large tree sawn thicker in the middle than on the edges.

The posting linked in the preceding paragraph notes that Griffith James’ son-in-law Thomas Leonard had arrived with wife Hannah in their children in Ninety-Six District by 9 February 1786, when he had a survey for 180 acres on waters of Big Generostee Creek.[3] Thomas’ brother-in-law Samuel Dean had a plat for 350 acres in Ninety-Six District in the fork of the Tugaloo and Keowee Rivers on 10 March 1787.[4] The linked posting to which I’m pointing here notes the draw of this part of the South Carolina upcountry in these years: having taken the British side during the Revolution, in 1777 the Cherokees ceded to South Carolina all their lands east of the Unacaye mountains, and in 1784 the South Carolina General Assembly passed “An Act for Establishing the Mode and Conditions of Surveying and Granting the Vacant Lands Within this State.” In 1784, a land office was opened to sell land in this upcountry region at $10 per 100 acres, and a large influx of settlers poured into the region.

Also noted in the linked posting I’ve just been citing: Big Generostee runs from east to west through Pendleton District to the Savannah River, with Mountain Creek running from east to west to meet Big Generostee before the conjoined streams reach the Savannah. Thomas Leonard, Samuel Dean, and Harmon Cummings settled near the confluence of the Big Generostee and Mountain Creek a few miles west of present-day Starr and just east of what is now Lake Hartwell, which was formed from the damming of the Savannah and Keowee (or Seneca) Rivers. A hamlet called Dean’s Station, named for this Dean family and marking where Samuel Dean lived, is less than two miles north of Starr on highway 81. It seems likely that Griffith and Mary James settled in this vicinity, as well, a deduction made more compelling by the fact that after the couple arrived in Pendleton District, Mary James joined Mountain Creek Baptist church, which is some six miles north of Dean’s Station.

Screenshot

Proof that Griffith James had arrived in Pendleton District by June 1794 is found in a deed that Jacob Herring made to Samuel Dean on 17 June 1794: on that date, Herring sold Dean 125 acres in Pendleton District on the Big Generostee, with Thomas Leonard and Griffith James witnessing the deed.[5] I haven’t found any connection between erring made to Samuel DeanJacob Herring and the kinship network of Griffith James, other than this sale of land. Jacob appears on the 1790 federal census on the same page as John Lauderdale, whose daughter Sarah married Thomas Lewis Leonard, son of Thomas Leonard and Hannah James.[6] As has been previously shown, John Lauderdale also lived on Big Generostee, evidently not far from the Leonard, Dean, and Cummings families.

Case re: the Theft of Griffith James’ Horse in September 1793

A previous posting discusses in some detail a court case involving horse-thieving in which Griffith James is featured, since the stolen horse on which the case revolves was his and was taken from his pasture.[7] The case file shows Shadrack Lantrip making oath on 10 November 1796 that James Shockley had stolen a bright bay mare out of Griffith James’s pasture in Pendleton District on the night of 2 September [1793]. Lantrip deposed that Shockley had described the horse to him at a blacksmith shop on the waters of Generostee on the main road leading to Shockley’s Ferry.

Shockley’s or Shockley Ferry crossed the Savannah River to Georgia at a location not far south of present-day Hartwell Dam. When the dam was created on the Savannah River below the confluence of the Tugaloo and Seneca Rivers to form Lake Hartwell, the point at which Shockley’s Ferry crossed the Savannah fell into the lake. Savannah is the name given to the Tugaloo River from the point of the confluence of the two rivers, and Seneca is the name given to the Keowee River from that point as well. Note the 1787 plat for Samuel Dean mentioned above, for land in the fork of the Tugaloo and Keowee Rivers.

Shockley’s Ferry was established by Thomas Shockley of Pendleton District, who appears on the 1790 federal census on the same page as Jacob Herring and John Lauderdale.[8] Located close to Shockley’s Ferry was a Baptist church with the same name — Shockley’s or Shockley Ferry Baptist church — that was the parent church of the Mountain Creek Baptist church to which members of the James family including Griffith James’ wife Mary and her daughters Hannah, Gwendolyn, and Mary belonged.[9] Shockley’s Ferry church was formed sometime in the 1780s after a large group of Baptists gathered in Pendleton District in the vicinity of what would soon be site of the ferry crossing. The church stood on the east bank of the Savannah immediately below the junction of the Tugaloo (i.e., Savannah) and Keowee (or Seneca) Rivers.

An undated scrap of paper in the file for the case in which James Shockley was tried for stealing Griffith James’ horse has a sworn statement of Shadrack Lantrip that he made his November 1796 statement accusing Shockley of stealing the horse under fear for his life after having received a hundred lashes. The case file also has a sworn statement of Griffith James dated 2 October [1793] giving power of attorney to his son John James to recover the horse, with witnesses Patrick Bowers and Robert Linn before justice D. Brown. Another statement by an unidentified person says that Lantrip had parted with the horse at the house of Shockley, giving it to John Hendricks and Mary Spurgen, who lived on Buck Creek on the Waters of the Broad.

On 13 October 1794, a recognizance was issued by William Edmondson to Thomas Shockley and James Hamilton, giving bond to assure that James Shockley appeared in court 10 November next. On 10 November, Shockley was indicted and a jury was struck. The indictment identifies the stolen horse as belonging to John James, a farmer of Pendleton District.

On 8 February 1796, somebody not identified in the transcript — was it Shockley? — made affidavit that in 1794 before harvest, Christopher Carsey told him that Mark Powell had stolen a brown horse from William Brown and carried it into Virginia. In the fall of the same year, he and Shadrack Lantrip went to “old Mr. James’s” and stole a large bay horse from the pasture.  Lantrip promised £10 to his accomplice.  The person swearing the oath for this statement thought that in February 1796, the horse was near Three Runs. In 1795, this unidentified person and Daniel McCollum with an enslaved man named Reuben belonging to Daniel Stathers had also formed a confederacy to steal a roan horse and a bay one from the field of one Howard.

On 11 April 1796, a subpoena was issued to Daniel Stringer, James Morrow, and John Gresham to appear in court on 10 November 1796. A warrant dated 9 July 1796 was then issued for the arrest of James Shockley. This has a comment written on it that John James of Pendleton District had made oath that on the evening of 2 September 1793 a bay horse had been stolen from Griffith James, now deceased.

On 11 July 1796, Shockley was committed to jail.  On the same day, he gave affidavit denying the charges against him. On 27 July 1796, a recognizance of Thomas Shockley Sr. and Jr. was filed for James Shockley’s upcoming court appearance.

On 4 November 1796, John James gave security with Robert Rankin to appear in court on 10 November at Pickensville. On 10 November 1796, a true bill of indictment was issued. This again dates the theft as occurring on the night of 2 September 1793. When the trial ended, the jury found Shockley not guilty. 

Also on 10 November 1796, a copias was issued to Moses Little, Jeremiah Files, Shadrack Lantrip, John James, William McKerley, and Joseph McKerley to give evidence for the state. On 23 November 1796, a recognizance was issued to Shadrack Lantrip to appear in court on 10 April next to give evidence vs. Shockley. Finally, On 11 February 1797, a recognizance was issued to William McKerley to give evidence. Four days later, recognizance was issued to John James to appear in court on 10 April. If there was an outcome of the case after this date, it is not mentioned in the court file as transcribed here.

As the preceding summary of documents in the case file regarding the theft of Griffith James’ horse indicate, Griffith was living on 2 October 1793 when he gave power of attorney to his son John to recover the stolen horse, and had died by 9 July 1796 when a warrant was issued for James Shockley’s arrest. Griffith James made his will in Pendleton District on 20 April 1795.[10] The will reads as follows (a digital image is at the head of this posting):

In the name of God. Amen. I Griffith James of the State of South Carolina and County of Pendleton being weak in body but of sound Memory. bleſsed be God. do this day the twentieth of April in the year of Our Lord. One thousand and Seven hundred and Ninety five make and publish this my Last will and Testament in Manner following that is to Say First I Give to my son Joseph James all my wearing appearel which Shall be at my Decease also Ten pounds of Money it being paid of Money Due to me in the State of Maryland if It is ever collected. also I give and bequeath unto my Daughter Hannah Leonor One Dollar to be paid within One full year after my decease also I give to my Daughter Jenny Dean one Dollar to be paid to her at or with[in] One full Year after my decease, also I Give to my Daughter Mary Cummins one Dollar to be paid at the sd time also I give to my son John James one Dollar to be paid at the said time, also I give to my son Samuel James one Dollar to be paid at the said Time and all and every other thing of my Estate real & Personal which shall or may belong to me at my Death I Give and Bequeath to my Dear wife Mary James forever & I make & ordain my son John James and Son Samuel James, Executors of this my will, in trust for the intents & purposes in this my will contained to do & perform the same according my true intent and Meaning. In Witneſs thereof I the sd Griffith James have to this my last will and Testament set my hand & affixed my seal the day & year above written; Signed & Delivered by the said Griffith James For his last will & Testament — in the presence of us who were present at the signing and sealing thereof

                                                                                             Griffith James

Owen McCorkel

Jane Lesly (her mark)

James Jones

Proven by James Jones and Jane Lesly in open court

Recorded in Will Book C, Page 82

Recorded 12th April 1796

The will has no probate date, only the date on which it was recorded. It is the only estate record of Griffith James that appears to be extant. As a previous posting notes, a death date of 3 October 1795 for Griffith is stated in a study of the Dean family entitled Country Cousins: Descendants of Samuel Dean with no information about the source of this date.[11]

Given that Griffith and Mary James appear to have decided in 1792 to move to South Carolina and join their children there, and that they made that move in 1793 with Griffith dying only two years later, I think it’s likely that he was up in years by the time of his death with grown and married children born as early as 1752. It’s possible he was becoming frail and/or sick when he and wife Mary decided to relocate, and that they made the decision to join their daughters in South Carolina so that one or more of the daughters could look after their parents in the final years of the parents’ lives.

[1] Washington County, Maryland, Deed Bk. G, p. 771-2, 815-6.

[2] Louise Ayer Vandiver, Traditions and History of Anderson County (Atlanta: Ruralist, 1928), pp. 71-2.

[3] South Carolina Plat Books (Charleston Series), vol. 15, p. 127; and Ninety-Six District, South Side of Saluda, Commissioner of Locations Plat Bk. B, p. 113.

[4] South Carolina Plat Books (Charleston Series), vol. 14, p. 164.

[5] Anderson County, South Carolina, Deed Bk. C & D, p. 360.

[6] 1790 federal census, Pendleton District, South Carolina, p. 4.

[7] Washington District, South Carolina, General Sessions Case Rolls, 1792-1799, no. 49. I am indebted to researcher Beverly Dean Peoples for providing me with a transcript of documents in the file of this case.

[8] See supra, n. 6.

[9] Leah Townsend, South Carolina Baptists, 1670-1805 (Florence, South Carolina: Florence Printing Company, 1935), p. 195-8; T.H. Garrett, A History of Saluda Baptist Association (Richmond, 1896), pp. 114, 137, 262-4; Vandiver, Traditions and History of Anderson County, pp. 44, 217; and “Mountain Creek Baptist Church,” at Winthrop University Archives’ Roots and Recall website.

[10] Anderson County, South Carolina, Will Bk. C, p. 82. See also Virginia Alexander, Colleen M. Elliott, and Betty Willie, Pendleton District and Anderson County, South Carolina, Wills, Estates, Inventories, Tax Returns, and Census Records (Easley, South Carolina: Southern Historical Press, 1980), pp. 11-12.

[11] Era Josephine Morgan Davis, Louise S. Rourke, and Marc B. Smith, Country Cousins: Descendants of Samuel Dean (1996), p. 3. In correspondence with me in January 1997, researcher Barbara Morris of Bellaire, Texas, stated that the 3 October 1795 death of date was sent by Lucy Rebecca Dean to Louise Rourke in the 1980s. Louise Rourke, who lived in Citrus Heights, California, was the primary author of Country Cousins. Unless I’m mistaken, Lucy Rebecca Dean (1942-2023, m. John Kennemur) was a daughter of Richard Brown Dean and Joanne Richardson. Rebecca Dean Kennemur was a DAR member and active genealogist. This Dean line descends from Samuel Dean and Gwendolyn James through their son Richard P. Dean.

#ancestry #BigGenerosteeCreekPendletonDistSouthCarolina #ChristopherCarsey #DanielMcCollum #DanielStrathers #DanielStringer #DeanSStationAndersonCoSouthCarolina #DeansAndersonCoSouthCarolina #ElizabethAustin #EnslavedManReuben #familyHistory #genealogy #GwendolynJames #HannahJames #HarmonCummin #HarmonCummings #HarmonCummins #HartwellDamSouthCarolina #history #JacobHerring #JamesHamilton #JamesJones #JamesMorrow #JamesShockley #JaneLeslie #JeremiahFiles #JohnGresham #JohnHendricks #JohnJames #JohnLauderdale #JosephJames #JosephMcKerley #KeoweeRiverSouthCarolina #LakeHartwellSouthCarolina #MarkPowell #MaryJames #MarySpurgen #MosesLittle #MountainCreekBaptistChurchPendletonDistSouthCarolina #MountainCreekPendletonDistSouthCarolina #NinetySixDistSouthCarolina #PatrickBowers #PendletonDistSouthCarolina #PerryviillePerryCoMissouri #RobertLinn #RobertRankin #SamuelDean #SamuelJames #SarahMLauderdale #SavannahRiver #SenecaRiverSouthCarolina #ShadrackLantrip #SharpsburgWashingtonCoMaryland #ShockleyFerryBaptistChurchPendletonDistSouthCarolina #ShockleyFerryPendletonDistSouthCarolina #ShockleySFerryPendletonDistSouthCarolina #StarrAndersonCoSouthCarolina #ThomasLeonard #ThomasLewisLeonard #ThomasShockley #TugalooRiverSouthCarolina #WashingtonCoMaryland #WilliamEdmondson #WilliamMcKerley

Griffith James (abt. 1725? – 1795): Washington County, Maryland, Years, 1763-1793

Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. J, pp. 652-3

Or, Subtitled: “A True Copy of the Free Male Taxibils of Sharpsburgh and Lower Antietam Hundred”

In the first posting in this series tracking the history of Griffith James (abt. 1725? – 1795), I focused on the first documentation I’ve found for him in the place in which he lived near Sharpsburg, Maryland, from at least September 1763 to 1793, when he moved from Maryland to Pendleton District, South Carolina. As that posting shows, by September 1763, Griffith James had acquired from Joseph Chapline, founder of Sharpsburg, a 75-acre tract called Pough just southeast of Sharpsburg, on which he lived continuously from September 1763 (and probably earlier than this) until May 1792, when he sold Pough before making his move to South Carolina. In the posting that follows, I’ll survey records for Griffith James in Frederick County (the parent county of Washington County) and Washington County, from 1763 until he made his move to South Carolina in 1793.

1760-1770

As the previous posting indicates, Joseph Chapline founded the town of Sharpsburg in 1763 and the following year, he laid out a plan for the new town, consisting of 187 lots located around the freshwater spring that was a primary attraction of the new town, with each lot measuring 103 feet wide by 206 feet long.

Immediately after the town was laid out, Griffith James purchased one of the lots in the new town [see the digital images at the head of this posting]. On 16 June 1764, he bought lot 66 from a Richard Dean who had the same name as the man whose son Samuel married Griffith’s daughter Gwendolyn, but is an entirely different man.[1] We can ascertain that this Richard Dean is not the Richard who was father of Samuel because various documents tell us that Richard Dean’s wife was named Priscilla, and the wife relinquishing dower for the sale of lot 66 in June 1764 was named Catherine. Beverly Dean Peoples has done valuable research on Richard and wife Catherine, and finds that the Richard Dean selling Sharpsburg lot 66 to Griffith James in June 1764 was a free man of color whose wife Catherine was the daughter of Robert Pearl, a mulatto freeman of Carrollton Manor, Maryland.[2]

The deed recording Richard Dean’s sale of lot 66 to Griffith James notes that the agreement of sale was made on the 16th and the deed was then recorded on 22 June 1764. The deed contains no information about the lot itself other than its measurements, which conform to the description given above of the lots in Sharpsburg as they were laid out: they were 103 feet wide by 206 feet long. Since the deed speaks of appurtenances, it’s possible that there was a structure standing on the lot when Griffith James bought it. He paid Richard Dean 55 shillings for the property, with a stipulation included in the deed that Griffith was to pay Joseph Chapline 3s 6d annually as quitrent. Richard Dean signed by mark with Joseph Smith and Peter Bainbridge witnessing and with wife Catherine relinquishing dower.

Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. K, pp. 818-9

Griffith James did not hold onto lot 66 for long. On 25 October 1766, he sold the lot to Robert Cockburn for a shilling; if he had invested in this lot for profit, his investment definitely did not yield a hearty return.[3] Perhaps Griffith was indebted to Robert and used the lot to satisfy a debt? Robert Cockburn was a Scotsman who had ties to the Chapline family and was teaching the English-speaking children of Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia) by 1762. When Berkeley County was formed in 1772, he was appointed surveyor of that county.[4] As the previous posting notes, when Joseph Chapline’s father William moved west from eastern Maryland before 1730, he settled on the Potomac four miles above Shepherdstown.

Again, the deed for the October 1766 sale of lot 66 contains no information about the lot other than its measurements (as stated previously) and a clause indicating that any appurtenances on the lot were included in the sale, and that Cockburn was to pay quitrent annually to Chapline. Griffith signed his name with Joseph Smith and Samuel Beall Jr. witnessing. On 23 October, Griffith signed receipt for Cockburn’s payment of a shilling, and on the 25th, he acknowledged the deed with wife Mary relinquishing dower. Note that this document indicates that Griffith was married by October 1766 to the Mary who is named as his dear wife Mary in his 20 April 1795 will in Pendleton District, South Carolina, cited in the previous posting.[5] I have seen no information suggesting to me that the wife Mary of the 1766 deed was a different Mary than the wife named in Griffith’s 1795 will. By 1766, Griffith and Mary had children Hannah, Gwendolyn, Thomas, Joseph, and Mary, and it’s possible their sons John and Samuel, whose dates of birth are not easy to ascertain, had also been born by this date.

Note the name Samuel Beall Jr. in the preceding deed: this is the Samuel Beall named in Joseph Chapline’s 4 September 1763 agreement establishing his ironworks on the Antietam near Sharpsburg, with Samuel Beall as one of his business partners in this venture.[6] As the previous posting shows, this agreement mentions Griffith James, noting that Chapline was excluding from the agreement 215 acres he had sold to Daniel Moore and Griffith James. The linked posting also points out that Samuel Beall was a first cousin of Alexander Beall, under whom Robert Leonard, father of Thomas Leonard who married Griffith James’ daughter Hannah, served at Fort Frederick near Hagerstown in the 1750s. Samuel Beall lived at Hagerstown and the 15 October 1774 will he made there identifies him as Samuel Beall Jr.[7]

Another name in both the June 1764 deed showing Richard Dean selling lot 66 to Griffith James and the October 1766 deed recording Griffith’s sale of the lot to Robert Cockburn deserves attention: Joseph Smith witnessed both deeds. Smith was a prominent settler in this part of Maryland, an associate of both Joseph Chapline and his business partner Samuel Beall. An English immigrant, in 1749 Joseph Smith patented tracts in Frederick (later Washington) County called Elwicks Dwellings and Smiths Purchase.[8] On 12 October 1761, he was an appraiser of the estate of Joseph Chapline’s father-in-law William Williams in Frederick County.[9]

Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. K, pp. 453

On 27 July 1767 the Frederick County court rendered judgment for Griffith James in a supersedeas suit he had filed against Stephen Bennet, Wm. Bleakley, and Richard Moore.[10] The record of the verdict states that the judgment was recorded 18 August 1767, and contains no further information about the basis of the lawsuit. Richard Moore is, it seems clear, the son of Daniel Moore, whose Mores Delight land adjoined Griffith James’ Pough, and who, as the posting I’ve just linked indicates, may have married Mary Dean, a sister of Samuel Dean who married Gwendolyn James, sister to Griffith James’ wife Hannah. Daniel Moore’s son Richard was old enough to have a child born by 1777, so he was certainly of age in 1767.[11]

On 24 March 1769, Griffith James witnessed the will of George Laurance in Frederick County, Maryland.[12] On 8 August 1769, Griffith and the other witness to the will, Sarah Reed, proved the will at county court. The will and probate bond show George with a wife Mary. I have not been able to find any more information about either George Laurance or Sarah Reed.

As the previous posting indicates, on 25 July 1769, David Ross, one of Joseph Chapline’s business partners in the ironworks operation, had a grant in Frederick County for 8,025 acres that included a tract called Boston, Resurvey of Little I Thought It, and part of Keep Trieste, Dutch Loss, and Mill Place. The survey shows the land granted to Ross bordering both Griffith James’s Pough and Chapline’s Hunting the Hare tract, part of which he sold to Richard Dean (Deans Purchase), father of Samuel Dean who married Gwendolyn James, and part, I think, to Daniel Moore (More’s Delight)P. As the linked posting shows, Arthur Tracey’s index card for this grant and his map of patent locations for Washington County states that Pough was next to Keep Trieste, Boston, and Little I Thought It.[13]

Beverly Dean Peoples has sent me a transcript of a page of Frederick County court minutes that appear to date from 1769, showing the county court issuing an order for a road from Samuel Beall’s mills to cross the Antietam at the ford where Andrew House lives and then to run from the mills run to the landing on the Potomac below Rachel Vandever. From there, the road was to go on the upper side of Daniel Moore’s plantation and Peter Hill’s through John Kissinger’s to join the road leading from Fredericktown at Jacob Russell’s, and from the mill up the branch where Griffith James lived and along the eastern branch of Antietam Creek to the landing at the mouth of the creek. Another road order in the November 1770 county court minutes mentions the same road coordinates and indicates that Griffith James had been appointed overseer for this road.

1770-1790

On 6 May 1774, a Griffith James who is a different Griffith James from the man living in the vicinity of Sharpsburg in then Frederick County, Maryland, witnessed the will of Margaret Williams of Radnor township in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The will made a bequest of ￡5 to Mary, wife of Griffith James.[14] 

Because the Griffith James witnessing this will had a wife named Mary and was a contemporary of the man living near Sharpsburg, one family tree after another online and in published sources has conflated the Griffith James witnessing Margaret Williams’ will with the man living near Sharpsburg. But the Griffith James witnessing this will lived in Radnor township in Chester County, Pennsylvania, where he married a wife named Mary Gyger, and where that couple lived to the end of their lives — while the Griffith James residing on the Pough tract just southeast of Sharpsburg lived there continuously from at least September 1763 (and probably earlier) until he sold this piece of land in May 1792 and then moved the following year to Pendleton District, South Carolina. I’ll discuss the 1792 land sale and move to South Carolina later.

On 24 December 1774, Griffith James appears in a list of those with stray livestock in Frederick County.[15] After September 1776 forward, when Washington County was set off from Frederick, documents for Griffith James are filed in Washington County records.

“Unpublished Revolutionary Records of Maryland, List of Patriots Who Took the Oath of Fidelity and Support to the Government,” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 6,1 (April 1917), pp. 12-13

On 2 March 1778, Griffith James took the oath of allegiance in Lower Antietam Hundred of Washington County.[16] Griffith’s name appears in the list of oathtakers compiled by Chr. Cruso as “James, Grifet.”

As the preceding posting notes, in 1783, Griffith James was taxed in Lower Antietam Hundred of Washington County for the Pough property, with the acreage given as 100 acres.[17] The tax list states that this property comprised 60 acres of woods and 40 acres arable. Griffith was also taxed for four horses and eight beef cattle.

The posting I’ve just linked also states, though we know from Joseph Chapline’s September 1763 ironworks deed that he had already sold Griffith James the Pough tract by that date and Griffith was taxed for the land in 1783, it was not until 10 April 1787 that the executors of Joseph Chapline, his sons Joseph and James, officially sold Pough to Griffith James.[18] The deed states that the land was sold for￡5, and it gives the name of the tract as Pough, noting that the tract consisted of 75 acres. The deed was signed by Joseph and James Chapline with John Still and Alexander Clagett witnessing, and was recorded on the same day.

14 February 1788 in Washington County, Griffith James witnessed the will of Richard Dean, Griffith’s neighbor at Deans Purchase whose son Samuel married Griffith’s daughter Gwendolyn.[19] Witnessing the will with Griffith were John Ritchie, Hannah Codd, and William Gregory, who were the three witnesses proving the will on 7 April 1788 when Richard’s widow Priscilla presented it for probate.

1790s

As the previous posting states, Griffith James is enumerated on the 1790 census in Washington County, Maryland with a household comprised of two males aged 16 and over, one male aged under 15, and two females.[20] Listed next to Griffith is his son Joseph James, with one male over 16, three males under 16, and three females in his household.

Washington County, Maryland, Deed Bk. G, pp. 368-9

On 12 April 1791, Griffith James’ son Joseph sold his father for￡50 a 50-acre portion of a tract called King Cole in Washington County.[21] Joseph James signed, with H. Shryock and Thomas Crampton witnessing, and on the day the deed was made, Joseph affirmed it before these witnesses.

Dr. Arthur G. Tracey patent/tract index and map locations for Carroll, Frederick, and Washington Counties,” Maryland State Archives

As a previous posting has noted, Joseph James obtained the King Cole tract from James Austin through Joseph’s marriage to James Austin’s daughter Elizabeth about 1791. The original King Cole tract consisted of 1,970 acres patented to Henry Crabb on 30 August 1754.[22] Arthur Tracey’s index card in his list of patents in Carroll, Frederick, and Washington Counties shows King Cole lying next to the Antietam ironworks. In 1769, Jeremiah Beall owned 246 acres of King Cole, and the 9 April 1759 will of Alexander Beall stipulates that King Cole, a parcel of 246½ acres, was to go to Beall’s son Magruder.[23] As has been noted in previous postings (e.g., here and here), Alexander Beall was the commanding officer of Robert Leonard, whose son Thomas Leonard married Griffith James’ daughter Hannah, in the 1750s when Robert Leonard was stationed as a soldier at Fort Frederick near Hagerstown. Alexander was a first cousin of Joseph Chapline’s business partner Samuel Beall, who lived at Hagerstown.

Washington County, Maryland, Deed Bk. G, p. 666

On 3 March 1792, Griffith James bought from Stephen Yates, both of Washington County, for ￡65 an enslaved boy named Phill, aged 16 or 17.[24] William Good and Thomas Crampton witnessed this deed, which was recorded 13 April 1792.

Washington County, Maryland, Deed Bk. G, pp. 815-6

Also on 3 March 1792, for ￡90, Griffith James and James Austin sold to Stephen Yates, all of Washington County, 50 acres of the King Cole tract, the portion that Griffith’s son Joseph had acquired by his marriage to James Austin’s daughter Elizabeth and had sold his father in April 1791.[25] Griffith James and James Austin both signed the deed with William Good and Thomas Crampton witnessing. The deed was recorded 30 August. No dower release for the land is recorded. The sale of this tract and the Pough land in May 1792 indicates that Griffith James was making preparations to move to South Carolina to join his children who had gone there in 1786.  Griffith James’s son Joseph moved from Maryland to Kentucky in 1791.

Washington County, Maryland, Deed Bk. G, pp. 771-2

On 13 May 1792, Griffith James sold this Pough tract to Robert Hoffman for ￡330.[26] The deed names the land and states that it contained 75 acres. Griffith James signed with witnesses Thomas Crampton and William Good, and the deed was recorded on the 12th [sic] with Griffith’s wife Mary releasing her dower interest on that date.

By 11 June 1794, when Hagerstown’s Washington Spy published a notice by Robert Hoffman cautioning persons from taking assignment on Hoffman’s bond given to Griffith James for £65, Griffith James and wife Mary had made their move to Pendleton District, South Carolina.[27] The context for this notice appears to be that a company named James Browns and Co. had dissolved on 6 May, and bills owed to the estate of that company were being called in.

We can know that Griffith and Mary James were in South Carolina by this point since Griffith appears, along with his son-in-law Thomas Leonard, as a witness to a deed of Jacob Herring to Griffith’s son-in-law Samuel Dean in Pendleton District on 17 June 1794.[28] The next posting in this series will survey Griffith James’ final years in Pendleton District.

[1] Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. J, pp. 652-3.

[2] “Richard Deane (1701-1788) and His Children,” at Rootsweb. Beverly recommends to those seeking further information about the Pearl family Mary C. Jeske’s “Autonomy and Opportunity: Carrollton Manor Tenants, 1734-1790.”

[3] Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. K, pp. 818-9.

[4] Danske Dandridge, Historic Shepherdstown (Charlottesville: Michie, 1910), p. 53; and Ted McGee, nomination form for Shepherdstown Historic District on National Register of Historic Places (2 April 1973), at the West Virginia Culture Center website.

[5] Anderson County, South Carolina, Will Bk. 1793-8, p. 82.

[6] Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. J, pp. 793-804.

[7] Washington County, Maryland, Will Bk. A, pp. 13-16.

[8] History of West Virginia, Old and New, vol. 2: Biographical (Chicago and New York: American Historical Society, 1923), p. 180.

[9] “Joseph Chapline,” at Mike Marshall’s Early Colonial Settlers of Southern Maryland and Virginia’s Northern Neck Counties, citing the original appraisal record.

[10] Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. K, p. 453.

[11] See Geolover, “Sarah’s Surprise — Part 1,” at West Virginia Family Tracks and Trails.

[12] Frederick County, Maryland, Will Bk. 37,2, pp. 422-3; and Bk. A-1, pp. 343-4.

[13] See Arthur G. Tracey’s patent/tract index and map locations for Carroll, Frederick, and Washington Counties at Maryland government’s Maryland History site.

[14] Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, Will Bk. Q, p. 39.

[15] F. Edward Wright, Early Lists of Frederick Countians 1766-1775 (Silver Spring, Maryland: Family Line, 1986), p. 4.

[16] See “Unpublished Revolutionary Records of Maryland, List of Patriots Who Took the Oath of Fidelity and Support to the Government,” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 6,1 (April 1917), pp. 12-13; Henry C. Peden Jr., Revolutionary Patriots of Washington County, Maryland 1776-1783 (Westminster, Maryland: Family Line, 1998), p. 184; Raymond B. Clark Jr., Washington County, Maryland Records: Oaths of Allegiance, 1778, and Balance Books [Distributions] on Estates, 1778-1801 (St. Michaels, Maryland: Maryland and Delaware Genealogy, 1989], p. 3; and Margaret Roberts Hodges, Unpublished Revolutionary Records of Maryland, vol. 3: Oaths of Allegiance and Fidelity Taken in Washington County in 1778 (priv. publ., 1939), p. 35.

[17] “Washington County 1783 Tax Assessment,” Western Maryland Genealogy 7,4 (October 1991), p. 171; and “Assessment of 1783, Index,” citing Lower Antietam and Sharpsburg, p. 34 (MSA S1161-11-1. 1/4/5/54) at website of Maryland State Archives.

[18] Washington County, Maryland, Deed Bk. E, pp. 332-3.

[19] Washington County, Maryland, Will Bk. A, p. 168. The will spells the surname as Deane.

[20] 1790 federal census, Washington County, Maryland, p. 9.

[21] Washington County, Maryland, Deed Bk. G, pp. 368-9.

[22] See Edward C. Papenfuse and Sarah Patterson, “Dr. Arthur G. Tracey patent/tract index and map locations for Carroll, Frederick, and Washington Counties,” prepared by the Maryland State Archives in October 2009.

[23] Frederick County, Maryland, Will Bk. A, p. 127.

[24] Washington County, Maryland, Deed Bk. G, p. 666.

[25] Ibid., pp. 815-6.

[26] Ibid., po. 771-2.

[27] Washington Spy (Hagerstown, Maryland), p. 3, col. 3: see F. Edward Wright, Western Maryland Newspaper Abstracts 1786-1798 (Silver Spring, Maryland: Family Line Publications, 1985), p. 48, #335.

[28] Anderson County, South Carolina, Deed Bk. C & D, p. 360.

#AlexanderBeall #AlexanderClagett #AndersonCoSouthCarolina #AntietamCreekWashingtonCoMaryland #AntietamIronworks #BerkeleyCoVirginia #BerkeleyCoVirginiaWestVirginia #CatherinePearl #DanielMoore #DavidRoss #DeansPurchaseWashingtonCoMaryland #ElizabethAustin #ElwicksDwellingsWashingtonCoMaryland #EnslavedBoyPhill #familyHistory #FortFrederickWashingtonCoMaryland #FrederickCoMaryland #genealogy #GeorgeLaurance #GriffithJames #GwendolynJames #HShryock #HagerstownWashingtonCoMaryland #HannahCodd #HannahJames #HenryCrabb #history #JacobHerring #JacobRussell #JamesAustin #JamesChapline #JeremiahBeall #JohnJames #JohnKissinger #JohnRitchie #JohnStill #JosephChapline #JosephJames #JosephSmith #KingColeWashingtonCoMaryland #LittleIThoughtItWashingtonCoMaryland #MagruderBeall #MargaretWilliams #MaryDean #MaryGyger #MaryJames #MoresDelight #PendletonDistSouthCarolina #PeterBainbridge #PeterHill #PoughWashingtonCoMaryland #PrinceGeorgeSCoMaryland #RadnorTwpChesterCoPennsylvania #RichardDean #RichardDeane #RichardMoore #RobertCockburn #RobertHoffman #RobertLeonard #RobertPearl #SamuelBeall #SamuelJames #SarahReed #SharpsburgWashingtonCoMaryland #ShepherdstownJeffersonCoWestVirginia #SmithsPurchaseWashingtonCoMaryland #StephenBennet #StephenYates #ThomasCrampton #ThomasJames #ThomasLeonard #WashingtonCoMaryland #WilliamBleakley #WilliamGood #WilliamGregory #WilliamWilliams

Thomas Leonard (1752-1832), Son of Robert Leonard: Lincoln County, Tennessee, Years (1808-1832)

Marshall County Historical Quarterly 10,1 (Spring 1979), cover photograph

Or, Subtitled: “My will and desire is that my wife Hannah, Leonard, Shall remain quietly in peaceable poſseſsion, of the room, commonly called hers, during her natural life”

This posting continues (and concludes) my documentation of the life of Thomas Leonard (1752-1832), son of Robert Leonard and Honor Pritchard. This series began with an account of Thomas’s birth and coming of age in Washington County, Maryland, and then followed him to Pendleton District, South Carolina, where he and wife Hannah, his widowed mother Honor, and other family members settled in 1786 after they moved from Maryland. Now this final posting about Thomas’s life will document it life in its final period in Lincoln County, Tennessee.

I’ve told some of the story of Thomas Leonard’s move from South Carolina to Tennessee in a posting about his son Thomas Lewis Leonard, who is my ancestor. As the linked posting says, an 1883 family history written by Thomas Dunlap Leonard, a grandson of Thomas Leonard who grew up knowing his grandparents Thomas and Hannah Leonard and hearing their account of the family’s history, states that Thomas and Hannah moved their family from South Carolina to Tennessee in 1806.[1]

Angie May Gill Wallace, “History of Marshall County Families,” Marshall Gazette (19 September 1947), p. 3

Arrival in Tennessee

The 1806 date for the family’s move is repeated in other published accounts of this Leonard family.[2] Family histories assigning an 1806 date for the arrival of the Thomas Leonard family in Lincoln County, Tennessee, also state that the family received a land grant on Cane Creek in Lincoln (later Marshall) County for the service of Thomas’s father Robert Leonard in the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars. According to Angelina May Gill Wallace, a great-granddaughter of Thomas’s daughter Hannah Leonard Moore, the original papers for this land grant remained in the possession of the Leonard family at Petersburg, Tennessee, in 1947 when Wallace’s article was published.

The document to which Angie Gill Wallace refers was, however, not a land-grant document. It was, rather, the 12 September 1800 power of attorney that Thomas, his brother Robert and brother-in-law Colin Campbell, and mother Honor Leonard gave to James Irwin in Pendleton District, South Carolina, authorizing Irwin to claim back pay and any possible land grant due to them for Robert Leonard’s service in the two wars. This power of attorney is discussed and transcribed in a previous posting.

Lincoln County, Tennessee, Deed Bk. A, pp. 43-4

I have found no record of a land grant given to the Leonard family in Tennessee (or elsewhere) for Robert Leonard’s service. As I’ve previously explained, the first record I find for this family in Lincoln County, Tennessee is a deed for Thomas’s purchase of 640 acres from Anthony Foster on a north branch of Elk River on 21 September 1809.[3] The north branch of Elk River to which the deed refers is Cane Creek, which flows into Elk River, tributary of the Tennessee River that meets the Tennessee River in Limestone County, Alabama. Elk River does not at any point run through Marshall County, Tennessee, though it flows through Marshall’s parent county of Lincoln.

Thomas Leonard’s September 1809 land purchase in Lincoln County, Tennessee, followed his and wife Hannah’s sale of their homeplace in Pendleton District, South Carolina, on 29 January 1808 and Hannah’s relinquishment of dower for this sale on 15 February 1808.[4] It’s clear that the Leonard family made its move from South Carolina to Tennessee between 25 February 1808 and 21 September 1809.

“In the Ground Eighty Years, Fayetteville [Tennessee] Observer (8 November 1894), p. 2, col. 3

These dates correspond with information that appears in a November 1894 article published in the Fayetteville [Tennessee] Observer.[5] The article quotes S.J. Leonard of Petersburg, a grandson of Thomas and Hannah Leonard and a son of their son Griffith James Leonard. Samuel James Leonard states in the article that his father Griffith came to Cane Creek in Lincoln (later Marshall County) in 1808. As we’ll see below, Thomas Leonard willed his land on Cane Creek near Petersburg to his son Griffith, who lived and farmed with his father after the family settled on Cane Creek, inheriting the Leonard homestead that will be discussed below.

A previous posting discusses Thomas Leonard’s September 1809 purchase of 640 acres in Lincoln County in detail. As the posting notes, Thomas’s sons Griffith and Thomas witnessed Anthony Foster’s deed to their father and proved the deed at May court 1810.[6] A land entry recorded by Charles Gibson on 14 April 1811 at the head of Cane Creek and the north Branch of Elk River states that the land Gibson was entering joined land on which Thomas Leonard was living at that time, which had originally been granted to Anthony Foster.[7] When Robert Leonard, son of the elder Thomas, entered forty acres on the head of Pigeon Roost, a branch of Cane Creek on 16 April 1818, the entry again stated that Thomas Leonard was living on adjoining land acquired from Anthony Foster.[8]

Also previously noted: Leonard researcher Sue Cooper suggests that Thomas Leonard and his brothers Robert and William may actually have moved initially from South Carolina to Sumner County, Tennessee. She bases this conjecture on the fact that a ledger of an unidentified Sumner County merchant she has seen shows these three men with accounts in 1806-7. It’s well documented that Thomas and his brother Robert did settle with their mother Honor and with brother-in-law Campbell in Lincoln (later Marshall) County, Tennessee, but it can also be shown that William died testate in Anderson County, South Carolina, in March 1811.[9] And it’s clear that Thomas Leonard was still living in Pendleton District, South Carolina, in January 1808 when he and wife Hannah sold their homeplace there.

1810-1820

Histories of Lincoln and Marshall Counties note that by 1810, Thomas Leonard was settled on the middle fork of Cane Creek in that county. Goodspeed’s history of Lincoln County notes that Thomas was a settler on Cane Creek in the first or second decade of the 19th century.[10] A 19 June 1810 court record states that he was assigned by the court to oversee a road from the west fork of the west side of Little River where the road intersected the road from Jefferson to the mouth of Little River near Major Smith’s.[11]

At some point after the family arrived in Tennessee, Thomas Leonard’s family built a house on their homestead north of Petersburg that stood until the latter half of the 20th century. I have not seen information dating the initial construction of this house. The spring 1979 issue of Marshall County Historical Quarterly has a picture of the old Leonard homeplace on its cover (see the image at the head of this posting).[12] The house was a two-story white frame house with chimneys at both ends and porches on front and back. It appears to have been built in the early Greek Revival pattern of antebellum Southern farmhouses, and to have been added onto as the family grew, so that there was large lean-to wing projecting out of the back of the house.

In her Marshall Gazette article of September 1947, Angie May Gill Wallace talks about the “Leonard homestead” established by Thomas Leonard’s family.[13] She describes the old Leonard house as follows:

The dwelling is a low rambling farmhouse with wide porches constructed of logs and clapboard. The farm buildings are in excellent repair, having been recently heired by Mr. John Wilson of Lewisburg, Tenn., who is a grandson six generations removed. … At the termination of one of the garden walks is the family graveyard where Thomas and Hannah Leonard with many of their descendants are buried.

In an article she published in 1975 in the Marshall County, Tennessee, Historical Quarterly, Elizabeth Baxter notes that the cemetery that Angie Gill Wallace says is at the termination of a garden walk from the old Leonard house is on a hill overlooking a lake, and is shaded by trees that lend their beauty to the site.[14] It’s not clear to me what lake Baxter is referring to here. Cane Creek is definitely visible from the hill on which the cemetery stands, and to the east of the creek is a body of water that may be a pond or small lake, but I’m not sure that water feature is visible from the cemetery.

A biography of Dr. John Norris Cowden in Tennessee, the Volunteer State also speaks of the old Leonard House as it stood in 1923.[15] John N. Cowden was a son of Dr. John Cowden and Mary Hannah Leonard, a daughter of Thomas Leonard’s son Griffith James Leonard. The biography states: “Thomas Leonard, removed from North [sic] Carolina to Tennessee, settling on a land grant, and the old mill, house and barn which were erected one hundred and twenty-six years ago are still standing on the farm, which is now owned by W. S. Leonard, an uncle of the subject of this review.”[16]

As a previous posting notes, the old Leonard house and family cemetery behind it are located about 2½ miles north of Petersburg at what’s now called Leonard Bluff on Liberty Valley Road.[17] As the linked posting says, I visited the cemetery in February 2008, noting that the old homestead house was no longer standing.

Berry C. Williams, “A Brief History of Lincoln County,” Fayetteville Observer (16 January 1951), unpaginated 100th anniversary edition

As the biography of John Norris Cowden indicates, after settling on Cane Creek, Thomas Leonard erected a mill on his land. Berry C. Williams provides the following information:[18]

Joel Yowell, an early citizen of Petersburg, had a large horse-mill two miles from Petersburg, with a hand-bolting machine attached. Jesse Riggs and Thomas Leonard also had mills of this kind. Leonard and Yowell had wheat threshers attached to their mills, and Leonard also had a cotton-gin attached.

According to Helen and Timothy Marsh, an old clerk’s list of early land transactions in Lincoln County that were otherwise not recorded shows that in May 1810, Anthony Foster deeded to Thomas Leonard another 230 acres in Lincoln County, which Foster had acquired as a Tennessee land grant.[19] The deed was proven at Lincoln County court on 28 May 1810 by oaths of Griffith and Thomas Leonard, with the surname spelled as Linard.[20] Immediately preceding this notation in the court minutes books is a record of a grant of 230 acres by the state of Tennessee to Anthony Foster, with the note that this was grant no. 674. The same court minutes state that at this court session, Thomas proved his ear mark, a swallow fork in each ear. In addition to the other early records I’ve just cited, an 1810 Lincoln County muster roll of local militiamen includes Thomas.[21]

As the last posting notes, after his move to Tennessee, Thomas Leonard appeared in litigation in Pendleton District, South Carolina. The linked posting discusses a lawsuit filed by Thomas in May 1810 regarding a promissory note that had been assigned to him by William Glenn, to whom Thomas and wife Hannah sold their South Carolina homeplace. An 8 February 1812 deed in Pendleton District also notes that Patrick Norris had sold Ezekiel Pickens 140 acres on Oolenoy Creek of the Saluda River on 7 October 1811, pursuant to an October 1810 judgment for Thomas Leonard in this suit re: the promissory note, Thomas Leonard vs. John McClure.[22]

Lincoln County court minutes for 27 May 1811 show Thomas Leonard on a road jury to mark a road the nearest and best way from Fayetteville to the Bedford County line and on to Fishing Ford and Nashville.[23] Because Thomas Leonard’s son of the same name was of age by 1811 and had not yet moved from Tennessee to Alabama, this record could refer to either of the two Thomas Leonards. As a previous posting notes, another 1811 court order specifies that the Thomas Leonard to whom the order was issued was Thomas Sr.: on 28 August 1811, the county court ordered Thomas Leonard Sr. to oversee a road from Robert Leonard’s to Gibson’s Gap, with hands to work under him including his sons Thomas, Hezekiah, Griffith, and Samuel Leonard.[24] Since many Lincoln County documents in the period 1808-1818 when both Thomases were living in Lincoln County and both of age do not use the Sr. or Jr. designation, it is not always simple to know to which Thomas the documents refer.

Court minutes for 3 May 1814 report that Thomas Leonard had been indicted by the state of Tennessee on a charge of tippling.[25] The court minutes about this case state that James Greer, prosecutor, and Arthur Brooks, witness on behalf of the state, had been required to post bond ($100 for Greer and $50 for Brooks) on condition that they appear to give testimony against Thomas Leonard. I take the charge to mean that Thomas was distilling and selling whiskey. As we’ll see later when we have a look at Thomas’s will, the will confirms that he had a still, which he bequeathed to son Griffith in his will.

On 7 May 1814, no true bill was found in the state’s case against Thomas on the charge of tippling.[26] The grand jury ordered the state to pay costs. It’s interesting to note that two days prior to this, Thomas’s son Colin Campell Leonard had been given permission by the court to keep an ordinary at his father’s house.[27] At the same May 1814 court session, the state charged James Greer, the prosecutor in Thomas Leonard’s case, with tippling. Also at this court session, a charge of assault and battery against Thomas’ son Colin was continued. On 4 August 1814, Colin was found guilty of assault and battery on James Greer. This series of court records make one wonder if a dispute between Greer and the Leonard family over the market for whiskey was driving Greer’s prosecution of Thomas Leonard for operating a tippling house.

In his 1883 history of the Leonard family, Thomas Dunlap Leonard observes that “Uncle Colin was dissipated (drank) in early life,” but had been a good soldier in the Indian War of 1812-4.[28] Thomas D. Leonard went on to observe that Colin had been a true friend to his friends and a bitter enemy to his enemies, and possessed noble and generous principles. In his later life, he had steady habits, and became a Methodist preacher, Thomas D. Leonard added.

On the subject of fighting and carousing: Goodspeed’s history of Lincoln County says that Petersburg, Fayetteville, and Arnold’s Grocery (now Smithland) were noted places for the settlement of all sorts of grudges in “pummelling” fights.[29] Apparently the fights were public spectacles and the onlookers assured that fair play occurred, biting and weapons being outlawed. 

Court minutes for 9 November 1814 show Thomas Leonard having resigned from his position as overseer of a local road and Stephen Harmon appointed “in room of” Thomas.[30] This record could possibly refer to Thomas’s son Thomas, who might by this point have begun his preparations to move his family to Alabama. A Thomas Leonard continues to appear in court minutes as a juror: court minutes for 18 February 1815 show him on a jury that found John Porter guilty of hog stealing.[31] In May 1815, Thomas Leonard is listed among those owing notes to the estate of George C. Witt in Lincoln County.[32]

On 3 May 1815, Thomas or his son Thomas appears in court minutes on a jury in the case of Samuel A. Harris vs. Thomas Shute.[33] This may be the case that is listed in the same court session as James Harris vs. Thomas Shute.[34] At issue in the case was a dispute about who caveated a tract of land.

Lincoln County, Tennessee, Court Minutes Bk. March 1814-November 1816, p. 193

On 4 May 1815, the elder Thomas Leonard was tried on the state charge of tippling.[35] The court record identifies him as a “yeoman,” stating that he had pled not guilty and “for his trial put himself on the County.” The jury, which included his nephew Joseph Dean, found him guilty, fining him a dollar plus costs. On the same day at the same court session, Thomas or his son of the same name was on a jury that tried Obediah Hogg on a state of Tennessee indictment of assault and battery.

Court minutes for 8 May 1816 show Thomas or his son Thomas serving as a juror along with Griffith Leonard in the case of James Daniel vs. John Bell.[36] A 21 April 1818 survey of thirty-five acres on the headwaters of Cane Creek in Lincoln County for land assigned by Brin(?) M. Gassen says that the tract bordered land assigned by Anthony Foster to Thomas Leonard, on which Leonard was then living.[37]

23 October 1819, Thomas was on a jury in several Lincoln County trials.[38] We can know with certainty now that this is the elder Thomas, since his son of that name moved to Alabama in 1818.

1820-1830

The 1820 federal census enumerates the household of Thomas Leonard in Lincoln County with one free white male aged 26-44, one free white male aged 45+, and a free white female aged 45+.[39] Thomas is also shown as holding four enslaved people. Next to Thomas is the household of son-in-law William Depriest Moore, who married Thomas’ daughter Hannah, and next to William Moore is Thomas’s brother-in-law Colin Campbell. The younger male in the household with Thomas and Hannah Leonard is their unmarried son Griffith James Leonard.

As previously discussed, Thomas’s son Thomas Lewis Leonard sold two tracts of land on Cane Creek in Lincoln County to his uncle Colin Campbell on 16 August 1822, one containing 135 acres and the other twenty acres.[40] The posting I’ve just linked notes the documents showing when Thomas Leonard younger obtained these pieces of land, and their location next to his father’s original 640-acre tract. On 27 January 1823, both deeds were proven in court by the subscribing witnesses.[41]

Thomas Leonard’s family appears on the 1830 federal census in Lincoln County with one male 30-40, one male 80-90, and 1 female 70-80.[42] In the household are also eight enslaved persons: slaves: one male 10-24, two males 36-55, and 3 males 55-100; one female 55-100, and one female over 100.

The male aged 30-40 in Thomas Leonard’s household in 1830 was, again, Thomas’s son Griffith James Leonard, who was born 25 September 1787, according to his tombstone in the Leonard family cemetery.[43] In his 1883 Leonard family history, Griffith’s nephew Thomas Dunlap Leonard states that Griffith remained with his parents until their death, bestowing care on them in their old age.[44] As has been previously noted and as we’ll see in more detail a moment, Thomas Leonard’s 9 July 1829 will left the Leonard homeplace outside Petersburg to his son Griffith, who lived his whole life at the homeplace, according to Angie May Gill Wallace, and left it to his youngest son William Stephens (Bud) Leonard.[45] 

Thomas Sr. and Jr. are on an 1830 tax list in Lincoln County in the district of Thomas’s son-in-law Capt. William D. Moore’s. Thomas Sr. is taxed for 230 acres on Cave Creek. His son Griffith is also taxed for 128 acres on Cave Creek in the same district, on Cave Creek. Since Thomas’s son Thomas was in Limestone County, Alabama, by this time, the tax list appears to indicate not that he lived in Tennessee, but still owned land there.

Lincoln County court minutes for 24 January 1832 reference the case of John Nield vs. Thomas Leonard.[46] The minutes state that the sheriff had been ordered by the court to sell a tract of land on which Thomas Leonard lived on the waters of Cane Creek, on which James Rust (had previously?) lived, to satisfy a judgment against Thomas handed down on 16 July 1831. It’s not clear to me what this case was about and not at all clear that Thomas Leonard lost land due to a court judgment not long before his death.

Lincoln County, Tennessee, Will Bk. 1, 1827-1850, pp. 79-80

Thomas Leonard’s Will and Probate

Thomas Leonard made his will in Lincoln County on 9 July 1829.[47] The will reads as follows:

Thomas Leonards last will and Testament In the name of God Amen  I, Thomas Leonard of the County of Lincoln State of Tenneſsee do make, ordain and declare, this instrument which is written to be my last will and testament; revoking all others — Imprimis all my debts of which there are but few, and none of magnitude which are to be punctually and speedily paid, and the legacies herein after mentioned, or bequeathed , are to be discharged as soon as circumstance; will permit and in the manner directed

Item 1st To my beloved wife, I give and bequeath, the use interest (word is repeated) and profits with the future increase if there should be any one negroe woman named Hannah, and Moses her husband and Nancy (commonly called Nanny) also all my household furniture belonging to her room, and all the Kitchen furniture to use and dispose of as she may think proper, also my will and desire is that my wife Hannah, Leonard, Shall remain quietly in peaceable poſseſsion, of the room, commonly called hers, during her natural life after the death of my wife Hannah to revert back to my Son Griffith Leonard,

Item 2nd To my son Robert Leonard I give four hundred dollars, which money is to be made, if not in hand, out of my estate, hereafter bequeathed to my son Griffith Leonard,

Item 3rd To my daughter Hannah Moore, wife of Moore fifty and one half acres of land, now in the poſseſsion of said Moore, situated lying and being in the County of Lincoln and State aforesaid, and bounded as follows to wit) Beginning at a White oak my north west corner, running thence east, one hundred and eighty poles to a dogwood and two beeches, a north east corner of my tract thence south fifty poles , thence west and North to the beginning for compliment during her natural life; after her death my will and desire is that my grandson Thomas D Moore, shall have the before mentioned and described tract, to his own proper use and benefit

Item 4th To my son Griffith Leonard, I give and bequeath, the ballance of my land , with the appurtenances thereunto belonging, as per deed for two hundred and thirty acres, after what has been before described or bequeathed to my daughter Hannah Moore, as per bounds before described leaving as per deed one hundred and seventy nine acres, and one half of the same more or leſs also all the household and kitchen furniture belonging to the ballance of my house, and all my farming tools belonging to the plantation, of every description, all the stock of hogs horses and cattle, and Sheep, waggon and gear, still Tubbs and all other properties belonging to me, that is not herein mentioned. If any then Should be, to his own use and benefit; or disposal,

Item 5th If any person being a legal heir, not herein mentioned, my will and desire is that my son Griffith pay him or them, the sum of five dollars each, and lastly I nominate and appoint my Son Griffith Leonard my executor to this my last will and testament, In witness whereof, I have hereunto, set my hand, and affixed my seal, this 9th day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty nine

Signed Sealed and delivered Thos Leonard (seal)

in the presence of Test

Nacy Meeks

John Lovett

Parker Campbell

State of Tenneſssee

Lincoln County Court April Term 1832

The last will and Testament of Thomas Leonard, decd was produced in open Court for probate, and thereupon came Nacy Meeks, and Parker Campbell, two of the subscribing witneſses thereto, who being first duly sworn, agreeably to law, say they heard the said Thomas Leonard acknowledge, the same to be his last will and Testament. and that he was at the time of signing sealing publishing and declaring the same, of sound mind and memory. which is ordered to be so certificed, whereupon came Griffith Leonard the executor named in the will, and took the oath, prescribed by law, and entered into bond & so, this 16th April 1832. given under my hand at office in Fayetteville this

Brice M Garner Clk of P&P Superior

By Peter R Garner DC

Lincoln County court minutes show Nacy Meeks and Parker Campbell proving Thomas Leonard’s will on 16 April 1832 and Griffith Leonard being appointed executor on that date.[48] Thomas Leonard’s tombstone in the Leonard family cemetery records his date of death as 8 April 1832. With his will having been proven in court on 16 April, his son and executor Griffith Leonard returned the inventory of the estate on 16 July 1832, Griffith Leonard returned the estate inventory.[49]

Lincoln County, Tennessee, Deed Bk. I, p. 236

Shortly before his death, on 31 March 1832, Thomas sold his son Griffth enslaved persons Dick and Mack for $1,000.[50] The deed identifies Thomas as Thomas Lenard Senr. of Lincoln County, and is signed Thomas Lenard. Nacy Meeks and Parker Campbell witnessed this deed. Court minutes for 17 April 1832 show the deed proven in court on 16 April 1832 by Nacy Meeks and Parker Campbell, at the same time they proved the will of Thomas Leonard.[51]

Thomas D. Leonard offers a florid, sentimental tribute to his grandparents Thomas and Hannah James Leonard in his biography of the Leonards.[52] He states,

Thomas Leonard, [Hannah James’s] husband and her and family constituted a God loving family. Then [sic: he means “when”] they came to Lincoln County in 1806, their children were grown. Three of them were married.

The blessings and sentiments contained in the CXXVIII Psalm, pro[p]riety be applied to their family, also the same blessings are clearly verified in their children, and grandchildren, vis “Blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord and walketh in his ways for thou shall eat the labor of thy hand.” Happy shalt thou be and it shall be well with thee, thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the side of thy house: thy children like olive plants round thy table. Behold that thus shalt the name be blest that feareth the Lord.” Can any one of the older and thinking ones of their descendants say that these promises does [sic] not apply to the family of Thomas and Hannah Leonard? Has not their example been a light to us that knew them? Have we not remembered their teachings a thousand times through our lives? Does not thee by precept and example of the parents extend to the children to the third fourth generation of them that love the Lord, as well as to those that hate him. I love to know that I have descended from such noble spirits. I love to know that their offspring have inherited their noble disposition and have been guided by their teachings.”

Thomas’s wife Hannah lived ten years following his death, dying 3 November 1842 at the Leonard homeplace outside Petersburg. Thomas and Hannah are buried together in the family cemetery behind the site of the old house. Her tombstone records her date of birth as 2 November 1752.[53] I’ll have more to say about Hannah in future when I trace the James family line.

A Brief Postscript

A little postscript about a source that is sometimes cited in discussions of Thomas Leonard, which has incorrect information about his life during the American Revolution. In a letter dated 4 July 1874, William Simpson, a grandson of Thomas Leonard’s brother-in-law Harmon Cummings, states that Thomas Leonard was a Hessian soldier whom Harmon Cummings took prisoner in Trenton, New Jersey, during the Revolutionary War.[54] Simpson, who was living in Jacksonville, Florida, when he wrote this letter, was a son of Mary Cummings and Thomas Simpson; Mary was a daughter of Harmon Cummings and Mary James, a sister of Hannah James Leonard.

It’s not clear to me whether Harmon Cummings himself was the source of the incorrect information that Thomas Leonard was a Hessian soldier held prisoner at Trenton, New Jersey, during the Revolution, or whether that information is something his grandson William Simpson acquired somewhere. As we’ve seen, there’s solid documentation that Thomas Leonard was the son of a British soldier, Robert Leonard, who came to Maryland after 1750 to help guard the frontier of western Maryland as the tensions that led to the French and Indian War began to develop. As the linked posting also shows, there’s equally solid documentation showing that Thomas was a member of the first military company organized for the Revolutionary war in Hagerstown, Maryland, on 6 January 1776.

Thomas Leonard was neither German (Hessian) nor a hireling for the British Army during the Revolution. There actually was a Thomas Leonard serving as a Loyalist major for the British who was taken prisoner at Trenton, New Jersey, when Harmon Cummings was there during the Revolution. But this is an entirely different man than Thomas, son of Robert Leonard and Honor Pritchard. This Thomas was born in 1708 in Monmouth County, New Jersey, and was a son of either Nathaniel or Thomas Leonard.[55]

In my next posting, I’ll provide some brief information about the children of Thomas Leonard and Hannah James.

[1] Thomas Dunlap Leonard, “Biography of the Leonards” (1883 manuscript now circulated as typescript; present whereabouts are not known).

[2] See J. Lester Wolfe, “Thomas Leonard,” in Heritage of Lincoln County, Tennessee, ed. Lincoln County Heritage Book Committee (Waynesville, North Carolina: County Heritage, 2005), p. 414; and Angie May Gill Wallace, “History of Marshall County Families,” Marshall Gazette (19 September 1947), p. 3. The article states that it was written for the Robert Lewis chapter of DAR.

[3] Lincoln County, Tennessee, Deed Bk. A, pp. 43-4.

[4] Anderson County, South Carolina, Deed Bk. I & J, p. 278.

[5] “In the Ground Eighty Years, Fayetteville [Tennessee] Observer (8 November 1894), p. 2, col. 3. The article was originally published in the Petersburg Enterprise.

[6] Lincoln County, Tennessee, Deed Bk. A, pp. 43-4.

[7] Lincoln County, Tennessee, Land Entries Series 2, 1817-1823, p. 77.

[8] Ibid., p. 132.

[9] See Anderson County, South Carolina, Will Bk. A, pp. 129-130.

[10] Goodspeed’s History of Lincoln County, Tennessee (Nashville: Goodspeed, 1886; repr. Columbia, Tennessee: Woodward & Stinson, 1972), p. 768.

[11] Lincoln County, Tennessee, Court Minutes Bk. February 1810-1810, pp. 9-10, 15-6.

[12] Marshall County Historical Quarterly 10,1 (Spring 1979).

[13] Wallace, “History of Marshall County Families.”

[14] Elizabeth Lucie Leonard Baxter, “Leonard Family,” Marshall County, Tennessee, Historical Quarterly 6,2 (summer 1975),

[15] John Trotwood Moore and Austin P. Foster, Tennessee, the Volunteer State, 1769-1923, vol. 3 (Chicago: S.S. Clarke, 1923), pp. 238-241.

[16] I’m dubious about the claim of this biography that the Leonard house was built in 1797. I suspect that the rambling old farmhouse that was erected at some point in the 19th century was on the site of and may have incorporated an earlier house that may have dated to the early 19th century when the Leonards arrived on Cane Creek. That original house would likely have been a log cabin.

[17] In a telephone conversation with me on 16 December 1996, Jackie Leonard of Athens, Alabama, told me that Leonard homestead land was owned in 1996 by Tommy Wilson, owner of a horse farm, Ridge Vale Farms, whose address was Rt. 1, Petersburg, TN 37144.

[18] See also Berry C. Williams, “A Brief History of Lincoln County,” Fayetteville Observer (16 January 1951), unpaginated 100th anniversary edition. See also Goodspeed’s History of Lincoln County, Tennessee, p. 769.

[19] Helen C. and Timothy R. Marsh, Early Unpublished Court Records of Lincoln County, Tennessee (Easley, South Carolina: Southern Historical Press, 1993), p. 126.

[20] Lincoln County, Tennessee, Court Minutes Bk. February 1810-1810), p. 9.

[21] “Muster Roll — War of 1812,” Lincoln County, Tennessee, Pioneers 24,1 (January 1995), pp. 27-8.

[22] Anderson County, South Carolina, Deed Bk. M, p. 33. On Patrick Norris, who is part of my Calhoun family kinship network in Abbeville and Pendleton District, see this previous posting. Patrick was the son of Robert Norris and Jean/Jane Ewing, and married Rachel Calhoun, daughter of William and Agnes Calhoun. On Ezekiel Pickens, son of Andrew Pickens and Rebecca Calhoun and a member of my Calhoun-Pickens kinship network, see this previous posting.

[23] Lincoln County, Tennessee, Court Minutes Bk. February 1811-February 1812, p. 57.

[24] Ibid., pp. 120-1.

[25] Lincoln County, Tennessee, Court Minutes Bk. March 1814-November 1816, p. 13.

[26] Ibid., pp. 36-7.

[27] Ibid., p. 21.

[28] Thomas Dunlap Leonard, “Biography of the Leonards.”

[29] Goodspeed’s History of Lincoln County, Tennessee, p. 769.

[30] Lincoln County, Tennessee, Court Minutes Bk. March 1814-November 1816, p. 101

[31] Ibid., p. 147.

[32] Lincoln County, Tennessee, Will Bk. March 1809-April 1824, p. 108; and see Frances T. Ingmire, Lincoln County, Tennessee, Wills, Inventories, and Miscellaneous, March 1809-April 1824 (St. Louis, 1984), p. 30.

[33] Lincoln County, Tennessee, Court Minutes Bk. March 1814-November 1816, p. 188.

[34] Ibid., pp. 190-2.

[35] Ibid., p. 193.

[36] Ibid., p. 345.

[37] Tennessee Plats and Surveys 1817-1822, p. 77.

[38] Lincoln County, Tennessee, Court Minutes Bk. October 1819-July 1823, pp. 21-3

[39] 1820 federal census, Lincoln County, Tennessee, p. 12 (119).

[40] Lincoln County, Tennessee, Deed Bk. B, pp. 226-8. On 31 December 1832, Colin Campbell sold the 135-acre tract to his nephew Griffith James Leonard, Thomas’s son: see Lincoln County, Tennessee, Deed Bk. I, pp. 251-2. See also North Carolina-Tennessee Land Grant Bk. S, p. 868, warrant no. 3847.

[41] Lincoln County, Tennessee, Court Minutes Bk. October 1819-July 1823, p. 604.

[42] 1830 federal census, Lincoln County, Tennessee, p. 178.

[43] Photos of the tombstone by Jimmy Trout are at the Find a Grave memorial page of Griffith J. Leonard, Leonard cemetery, Marshall County, Tennessee, created by Louise Jenkins.

[44] Thomas Dunlap Leonard, “Biography of the Leonards.”

[45] A Wallace, “History of Marshall County Families.”

[46] Lincoln County, Tennessee, Court Minutes Bk. April 1830-October 1833, p. 316.

[47] Lincoln County, Tennessee, Will Bk. 1, 1827-1850, pp. 79-80. WPA workers Katherine Rhea and Mary Earle Parks published a transcript of the will in 1936: see Will Books, 1810-1850, Lincoln County, Tennessee (WPA Historical Records Project, 1936), pp. 44-5.

[48] Lincoln County, Tennessee, Court Minutes Bk. April 1830-October 1833, p. 329.

[49] Ibid., p. 368.

[50] Lincoln County, Tennessee, Deed Bk. I, p. 236.

[51] Lincoln County, Tennessee, Court Minutes Bk. April 1830-October 1833, p. 332.

[52] Thomas Dunlap Leonard, “Biography of the Leonards.”

[53] See the Find a Grave memorial page of Hannah James Leonard, Leonard cemetery, Marshall County, Tennessee, created by Donna B., maintained by LookingforFamily, with tombstone photos by JimmyTrout. This site incorrectly names her Hannah Leona James Leonard. I’ve seen no documents giving Hannah James a middle name, and suspect that the Leona is a misreading of part of her name on her tombstone: Hannah LEONArd.

[54] I have a transcript of William Simpson’s letter sent to me in May 2008 by Cummings researcher Stephen Ehat, who told me that Mary Ann McDonald of Lyman, Wyoming, had a photocopy of the original letter. I don’t have information about who might own the original.

[55] See Clifford Neal Smith, Muster Rolls and Prisoner of War Lists in American and Archival Collections Pertaining to the German Mercenary Troops (DeKalb, Illinois: Westland, 1974, pp. 91-2.

#ancestry #AngelinaMayGillWallace #AnthonyFoster #ArthurBrooks #BriceMGarner #CaneCreekLincolnCoTennessee #CaneCreekMarshallCoTennessee #CharlesGibson #ColinCampbell #ColinCampbellLeonard #ElkRiverLincolnCoTennessee #EnslavedManDick #EnslavedManMack #EnslavedManMoses #EnslavedWomanHannah #EnslavedWomanNancy #EnslavedWomanNanny #EzekielPickens #familyHistory #FayettevilleLincolnCoTennessee #genealogy #GeorgeCWitt #GriffithJames #GriffithJamesLeonard #HannahJames #HannahLeonard #HarmonCummings #HezekiahLeonard #history #HonorPritchard #JacksonvilleDuvalCoFlorida #JamesDaniel #JamesGreer #JamesHarris #JamesIrwin #JamesRust #JesseRiggs #JoelYowell #JohnBell #JohnCowden #JohnLovett #JohnNield #JohnNorrisCowden #JohnWilson #JosephDean #LeonardBluffMarshallCoTennessee #LimestoneCoAlabama #LincolnCoTennessee #MarhHannahLeonard #MarshallCoTennessee #MaryCummings #MaryJames #MonmouthCoNewJersey #NacyMeeks #ObediahHogg #OolenoyCreekPendletonDistSouthCarolina #ParkerCampbell #PatrickNorris #PendletonDistSouthCarolina #PeterRGarner #PetersburgMarshallCoTennessee #RobertLeonard #SaludaRiver #SamuelAHarris #SamuelJamesLeonard #StephenHarmon #SumnerCoTennessee #ThomasDunlapLeonard #ThomasLenard #ThomasLeonard #ThomasLewisLeonard #ThomasLinard #ThomasShite #ThomasSimpson #TrentonMercerCoNewJersey #WashingtonCoMaryland #WilliamDepriestMoore #WilliamGlenn #WilliamSimpson #WilliamStephensLeonard

Thomas Leonard (1752-1832), Son of Robert Leonard and Honor Pritchard: Maryland Beginnings

Tombstone of Thomas Leonard, Leonard cemetery, Marshall County, Tennessee, photo by Jimmy Trout: see Find a Grave memorial page for Thomas Leonard, created by Donna B., maintained by LookingForFamily

Or, Subtitled: “Formerly Sergeant in the war of 1753 Genl. Washinton’s first Ridgiment and in the Late American war with Britain in the Maryland Ridgiment as Sergeant till killd. in Genl. Gatises Defiat”

Date of Birth

The dates of birth and death of Thomas Leonard, son of Robert Leonard and Honor Pritchard, are recorded on his tombstone in the Leonard family cemetery north of Petersburg, Marshall County, Tennessee. The cemetery, which I visited in February 2008, is on the land Thomas Leonard bought in then Lincoln, now Marshall County, in September 1809 when he moved his family from Pendleton District, South Carolina, to Tennessee. The family lived on this land about 2½ miles north of Petersburg, the Marshall County seat, at what’s now called Leonard Bluff on Liberty Valley Road. The cemetery is located behind the site of an old family house known as the Leonard homestead that stood up to the middle of the 20th century but was no longer there by the 1990s.[1] I’ll discuss this house in more detail later.

The Leonard family cemetery in which Thomas Leonard and wife Hannah James Leonard are buried is said by family tradition to date to the generation of Thomas’ mother Honor Pritchard Leonard, who accompanied the family from South Carolina to Tennessee and is thought by descendants to have died after 1810. According to researcher Elizabeth Lucie Leonard Baxter, Honor is buried in the cemetery in an unmarked grave.[2] When I visited the cemetery in 2008, I noted a row of headstones too weathered to read, in a shape and style that suggested to me that these stones might date from the early 19th century. By 2008, the tombstones of Thomas and wife Hannah were also impossible for me to read. Thomas’ Find a Grave memorial page includes a photo of his stone that is fairly clear and allows the inscription to be made out.[3] See the top of this posting for a digital image.

It reads:

Thomas Leonard

Born

Oct. 15 1752

Died

April 8 1832

The tombstones of Thomas and wife Hannah are matching stones that appear to date from not long after Hannah’s death on 3 November 1842. I suspect, but do not know for certain, that they were erected by Thomas and Hannah’s son Griffith James Leonard (1787-1864), who inherited the family homeplace in his father’s will, and who lived there up to his death. Griffith and his wife are buried in the family cemetery along with several generations of their descendants and other family members.

As a previous posting notes, in his 1883 manuscript entitled “Biography of the Leonards,” Thomas Leonard’s grandson Thomas Dunlap Leonard (1810-1888), a son of Thomas and Hannah Leonard’s son Robert (1777-1844), states that Thomas Leonard’s father Robert Leonard (bef. 1730-1780) was “a soldier of the English Army” who came to Maryland — as a British soldier — around 1750.[4] As the linked posting also tells you (and see here), Thomas Dunlap Leonard’s manuscript states as well that he knew his grandparents Thomas and Hannah James personally, and that he grew up in Tennessee close to them before his family moved to nearby Madison County, Alabama, about 1818. His information on the early generations of the Leonard family rests on what his grandparents shared with him and other family members.

Thomas Dunlap Leonard, “Biography of the Leonards” (1883 manuscript)

Place of Birth

Thomas Dunlap Leonard’s manuscript does not state a place of birth for his grandfather Thomas Leonard, but does indicate that Thomas married wife Hannah James “of Maryland” about 1775, and the family then lived in Maryland before moving to South Carolina in 1786. As the previously linked posting also says, a number of records place Thomas Leonard’s father Robert at Fort Frederick some eighteen miles west of Hagerstown in the period leading up to the Revolution. Historian Henry Peden notes that Robert Leonard was stationed at Fort Frederick by August 1757, and that the account book of Colonel John Dagworthy, field commander at Fort Frederick in 1756, shows Robert Leonard paid for service by Dagworthy on 7 March 1763.[5] A document dated 8 February 1755 shows Robert Leonard indenturing his son William on that date to a local farmer and identifying himself as a soldier serving under Captain “Dagurthey.”[6]

These records suggest that when Robert Leonard’s son Thomas was born on 15 October 1752, he was very likely born in the part of Frederick County, Maryland, that would become Washington County in September 1776. Fort Frederick, where we can definitely place Thomas Leonard’s father Robert by 1757, was constructed in 1756 west of Hagerstown, as noted above, in what’s now Washington County.  Its construction was financed by Joseph Chapline of Sharpsburg in Washington County, who had ties to Griffith James, who lived at Sharpsburg and whose daughter Hannah Thomas Leonard married about 1775.[7] The likelihood that Thomas Leonard was born in Hagerstown in Frederick (later Washington) County, Maryland, seems to me very strong.[8]

“Proceedings of the Committee of Observation for Elizabeth Town District [Washington County],” Maryland Historical Magazine 12 (1917), pp. 269-271

Revolutionary Service, Hagerstown, Maryland, Militia

Previously, I’ve also noted that Thomas Leonard appears in a list of members of the first military company organized for the Revolutionary war in Hagerstown on 6 January 1776.[9] Thomas J. Scharf, whose History of Western Maryland including Frederick and Washington Counties I’ve just footnoted, transcribes a declaration the militia members signed on this date in January, noting that the company was being formed to serve the Council of Safety of Maryland. As the linked posting notes, in addition to Thomas Leonard, those signing included Richard Moore, whose father Daniel Moore lived in Sharpsburg next to a Dean family intermarried with the family of Griffith James, as well as brothers Samuel and Thomas Dean.[10] Samuel Dean was Thomas Leonard’s brother-in-law. He married Gwendolyn James, sister of Thomas’ wife Hannah James, in 1773. This militia unit was under the command of Joseph Chapline, the founder of Sharpsburg, who was connected to Thomas Leonard’s father-in-law Griffith James from the time Griffith James first appears in Sharpsburg records in September 1763.[11]

Sharpsburg is bit over thirteen miles south of Hagerstown, which was originally known as Elizabethtown. Scharf is citing minutes of the Elizabethtown District Committee of Observation for 5 June 1776, which say that on that date, a list was presented to the committee compiled on 6 January 1776 of a group of men who signed their names to a resolution to form a militia per a resolution of the Provincial Convention held at Annapolis on 26 July 1775.[12] Thomas Leonard’s sister Mary Ann married Colin Campbell at Hagerstown on 27 July 1780, and Hannah James’s sister Mary James married Harmon Cummings on 7 September 1779 at Hagerstown.[13] Both couples were married by Reverend George Mitchell of Hagerstown.[14]

We can, then, confidently place Thomas Leonard in a militia company organized for Hagerstown in Washington County, Maryland, in January 1776, in the year after it’s thought he married Hannah James of nearby Sharpsburg. In the same militia company was Samuel Dean, who married Hannah’s sister Gwendolyn in 1773. Signing next to Thomas Leonard in the declaration establishing this militia was Richard Moore, who had close ties to the family of Griffith James into which Thomas Leonard and Samuel Dean married. And leading the militia unit was Joseph Chapline, the founder of Sharpsburg with ties to Griffith James. In September 1779, another sister of Hannah and Gwendolyn James, their sister Mary, married Harmon Cummings in Hagerstown, and in July 1780, Thomas Leonard’s sister Mary Ann married Colin Campbell in Hagerstown. Both of these couples were married by Rev. George Mitchell, a Hagerstown pastor.

There are multiple pointers to Hagerstown or nearby Sharpsburg as the place in which Thomas Leonard lived from the time he married Hannah James about 1775, Hagerstown also being his probable place of birth…. Then in or just before 1786, as noted above, Thomas Leonard and wife Hannah moved their family to Pendleton District, South Carolina. This is a move that Thomas and Hannah made along with her sister Gwendolyn and husband Samuel Dean and her sister Mary and husband Harmon Cummings. The tradition of these families is that they moved to South Carolina from Washington County, Maryland.[15]

Dean Family’s Connections to Cumberland (and Bedford) County, Pennsylvania

But researcher Beverly Dean Peoples, a descendant of Samuel Dean and Gwenny James, finds a pattern of back-and-forth movement of some of her Dean ancestors from Washington County, Maryland to Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and its daughter counties of Bedford and Huntingdon in the 1770s.[16] Beverly states, “[P]rior to the move to SC with his wife’s family, Samuel [Dean] had tried to establish a home in the now Huntingdon County, PA area with his brothers Thomas, William and John.” Land records place Samuel in Huntingdon’s parent county of Bedford in 1774, and histories of the area state that he began building a house in Bedford County in 1773. Beverly thinks that Samuel’s brother William first claimed land in Cumberland County in 1766 before Beford was split from Cumberland in 1771, with Huntingdon then being formed from Bedford in 1787.

Since Samuel Dean is in the January 1776 Hagerstown militia list with his brother-in-law Thomas Leonard, he evidently had not moved his family permanently from Maryland to Pennsylvania in these years. Beverly notes that the reported birthplaces of the children of Samuel Dean and Gwendolyn James suggest that the family may have been coming and going in the 1770s between Maryland and Pennsylvania, and that as the Dean brothers were considering new locations for their families in Pennsylvania, they may have left their wives in Washington County for much of the time when they were sojourning in Pennsylvania, where skirmishes between native peoples and settlers of European descent were creating dangers for incoming settlers. Beverly Peoples notes that Samuel returned to Washington County from Pennsylvania for good in 1784, selling his land in Pennsylvania, and at this point, he joined with his brothers-in-law in their plan to move to South Carolina.

I mention Beverly’s well-researched findings about the history of the Dean family during this period because if Thomas Leonard’s brother-in-law Samuel Dean was moving with his brothers between Washington County, Maryland, and Cumberland (or Bedford) County, Pennsylvania, in the 1770s and early 1780s, it seems to me worth asking if Thomas Leonard might have been making similar moves. We know that he was definitely in the Hagerstown militia in 1776, and he begins appearing in Pendleton District, South Carolina, records in 1786. So the time frame in which I’m suggesting that Thomas might have spent some time in Cumberland or Bedford Counties, Pennsylvania, would be in that decade, 1776-1786.

12 September 1800 power of attorney of Honor Leonard, Thomas Leonard, Robert Leonard, and Colin Campbell to James Irwin of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, in possession of descendant Leonard Wilson of Petersburg, Tennessee, up to 1972

In fact, I have not found any clear records showing this Thomas Leonard in Cumberland or Bedford County, Pennsylvania, in that decade. However, I want to point to a record I shared in a previous posting. In the posting I’ve just linked, I shared a digital image of a 12 September 1800 power of attorney given by signed by Thomas, his brother Robert, their mother Honor, and their brother-in-law Colin Campbell to James Irwin of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. I’ve reposted that image here. As the linked posting explains, this document passed down among descendants of Thomas Leonard and Hannah James and in 1972 was in the possession of descendant Leonard Wilson of Petersburg, Tennessee. I have not found this power of attorney recorded in court records of Pendleton District, South Carolina, or Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.

September 1800 Power of Attorney of Leonard Heirs to James Irwin of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania

As you’ll see as you look at the image of this power of attorney, what it says is not easy to make out. Part of the document is torn away, and some words defeat me as I try to read them. The following transcript is my best attempt at reading this document:

The Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, location of James Irwin leaps out at me, of course, as I read this document in conjunction with Beverly People’s research about her Dean family members of Washington County, Maryland, before Samuel Dean and wife Gwendolyn James moved in 1786 with Thomas Leonard and Hannah James to Pendleton District, South Carolina. Who was James Irwin, and how were the Leonard family members giving him this power of attorney in 1800 connected to him?

In particular, why were they asking him to recover pay due to Robert Leonard for Robert’s service in the French and Indian War and then in the Revolution? This document states that Robert served as a sergeant in George Washington’s first regiment in the “war of 1753.” I think that “war of 1753” is a reference to what is now conventionally called the French and Indian War: Robert’s heirs are not stating that he served under Washington in the year 1753 specifically but in the war that began with hostilities building in 1753 and open warfare commencing in 1754.

As noted previously, we have documentary evidence that Robert Leonard was serving as a British soldier under John Dagworthy in western Maryland by February 1755. In 1756, construction began on Fort Frederick near Hagerstown, with construction completed the following year.[17] As stated above, we know from documentary evidence that Robert Leonard was serving under Dagworthy at Fort Frederick in 1757.[18] Dagworthy’s troops were at Fort Cumberland on the Potomac west of Fort Frederick prior to their move to Fort Frederick. Virginia took possession of Fort Cumberland in the fall of 1755 and this placed Dagworthy on what historian Eric Sterner calls a “collision course” with Washington.[19] Washington was considered to be in charge of the fort, but Dagworthy saw him as a young upstart and refused to submit to his command.

As construction began on Fort Frederick in July 1756, Washington visited the fort, and in June 1758, he returned to the fort during his campaign to capture Fort Duquesne. All during these years, with documentary evidence that Dagworthy paid Robert Leonard for service in March 1763,[20] there was interaction, usually hostile on the side of Dagworthy, between Robert Leonard’s commander John Dagworthy and George Washington. And there were questions about who was in command of whom, so that confusion about whether Robert Leonard was serving under Dagworthy or Washington for part of this period of time is understandable.

The 1780 power of attorney goes on to state that Robert Leonard then served during the Revolution as a sergeant and was killed in the defeat of General Gates. Horatio Gates was defeated by the British at the battle of Camden in South Carolina in August 1780.

And to return to the question of who James Irwin was and why the heirs of Robert Leonard gave him power of attorney in 1800 to recover pay due to Robert for his service in these two wars: there were multiple James Irwins living in Cumberland County in the period 1780-1800. I’ve entertained the idea that a man of this name who was a captain in the 5th company of Cumberland County’s 2nd militia battalion in 1780 is the James Irwin to whom the Leonard heirs gave power of attorney in 1800.[21] I suggest this possibility  because I suspect that the James Irwin of the power of attorney had some military background and ties, if the Leonard heirs were asking him to retrieve back pay for Robert Leonard’s military service.

But I honestly don’t know enough about the Irwin families in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, in this period to be certain that this James is the man named in the Leonard power of attorney. I have also entertained the possibility that a Thomas Leonard who was serving as a lieutenant in a Cumberland County militia unit under Captain William Black is Thomas, son of Robert and Honor, but I suspect this was an entirely different Thomas Leonard.[22] A Thomas Leonard born in New Jersey in 1753 married Esther Cookson in Cumberland County in 1781, with his affidavit given as he claimed a Revolutionary pension stating that he moved to Cumberland County in 1780 after having given Revolutionary service in New Jersey.[23] I think it’s highly likely he was the man who was a lieutenant in a Cumberland County militia unit in 1780.

I do, however, think it’s well worth noting that the heirs of Robert Leonard gave power of attorney to a James Irwin of Cumberland County in 1800, asking him to recover pay due to Robert for Revolutionary service. I think this is well worth noting when we know from Beverly Dean’s exhaustive research on the family of Thomas Leonard’s brother-in-law Samuel Dean that Samuel and his brothers were trekking back and forth between Washington County, Maryland, and Cumberland/Bedford Counties, Pennsylvania, in the 1770s and first part of the 1780s.

By 9 February 1786, Thomas Leonard with wife Hannah James had moved, along with Samuel Dean and wife Gwendolyn James, Harmon Cummings and wife Mary James, and Colin Campbell and wife Mary Ann Leonard, from Washington County, Maryland, to Pendleton District, South Carolina. In my next posting, I’ll pick up the story of Thomas Leonard’s life from the start of his years in South Carolina.

[1] In a telephone conversation with me on 16 December 1996, Jackie Leonard of Athens, Alabama, told me that Leonard homestead land was owned in 1996 by Tommy Wilson, owner of a horse farm, Ridge Vale Farms, whose address was Rt. 1, Petersburg, TN 37144.

[2] See Elizabeth Lucie Leonard Baxter, “Leonard Family,” Marshall County, Tennessee, Historical Quarterly 6,2 (summer 1975), and “Thomas Leonard Family Graveyard,” Marshall County, Tennessee, Historical Quarterly 10,1 (spring 1979), both reporting a transcription of the cemetery headstones made by Baxter on 28 January 1968.

[3] See Find a Grave memorial page for Thomas Leonard, Leonard cemetery, Marshall County, Tennessee, created by Donna B., maintained by LookingForFamily, with a tombstone photo by Jimmy Trout.

[4] Thomas Dunlap Leonard, “Biography of the Leonards” (1883 manuscript now circulated as typescript; present whereabouts are not known).

[5] Henry C. Peden Jr., Marylanders and Delawareans in the French and Indian War 1756-1763 (Lewes, Delaware: Colonial Roots, 2004).

[6] Frederick County, Maryland, Land Record Bk. E, pp. 659-660.

[7] See Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. J, pp. 798-802, stating that Chapline had sold 215 acres to Daniel Moore and Griffith James. On Joseph Chapline and the founding of Sharpsburg, see Edward C. Papenfuse, A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1635-1789 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979); Lee and Barbara Barron, The History of Sharpsburg, Maryland, Founded by Joseph Chapline 1763 (1972), pp. 8f; Maria J. Liggett Dare, Chaplines from Maryland and Virginia (priv. publ., 1902); and Thomas J.C. Williams, A History of Washington County, Maryland, etc., vol. 1 (Hagerstown, 1906; repr. Baltimore: Regional Publishing Company, 1968), pp. 23-4.

[8] The one child of Thomas Leonard and Hannah James who was still living when the 1880 federal census was taken was their youngest child Hannah (1795-1886), widow of William Depriest Moore. Hannah was living in 1880 in Marshall County, Tennessee, with her daughter Angelina and Angelina’s husband Joseph John Skidmore Gill. On the 1880 census, Hannah reported the birthplace of both of her parents as Maryland: see 1880 federal census, Marshall County, Tennessee, 4th civil district p. 347 C (ED 135, dwelling 88/family 101; 7 June).

[9] See J. Thomas Scharf, History of Western Maryland: Being a History of Frederick, Montgomery, Carroll, Washington, Allegany, and Garrett Counties, etc., vol. 2 (Philadelphia: L.H. Everts, 1882), pp. 1189-1190.

[10] The Dean home tract, Hunting the Hare, and Griffith James’ home tract, Pough, were across from each other on present-day Burnside Bridge Road close to its intersection with present-day Mills Road just outside Sharpsburg to the southeast. I visited this area in August 2007 and took photos of both pieces of land.

[11] See Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. J, pp. 798-802, stating that Chapline had sold 215 acres to Daniel Moore and Griffith James. On Joseph Chapline and the founding of Sharpsburg, see Edward C. Papenfuse, A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1635-1789 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979); Lee and Barbara Barron, The History of Sharpsburg, Maryland, Founded by Joseph Chapline 1763 (1972), pp. 8f; Maria J. Liggett Dare, Chaplines from Maryland and Virginia (priv. publ., 1902); and Thomas J.C. Williams, A History of Washington County, Maryland, etc., vol. 1 (Hagerstown, 1906; repr. Baltimore: Regional Publishing Company, 1968), pp. 23-4.

[12] See Henry C. Peden Jr., Revolutionary Patriots of Washington County, Maryland 1776-1783 (Westminster, Maryland: Family Line, 1998), p. 210, citing “Proceedings of the Committee of Observation for Elizabeth Town District [Washington County],” Maryland Historical Magazine 12 (1917), p. 270; and Williams, A History of Washington County, p. 1189.

[13] See Maryland Historical Society, Maryland Marriages 1777-1804 (1949), p. 226; and Gaius Marcus Brumbaugh, Maryland Records, vol. 2 (Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1928; repr. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1967), p. 522.

[14] In a 3 March 2006 email to me, researcher Barbara Horne told me that she lived in Washington County and believed that Mitchell was a Reformed minister.

[15] See Beverly Dean Peoples and Ralph Terry Dean, Country Cousins: Descendants of Samuel Dean (Franklin, North Carolina: Genealogy Publishing Service, 2001).

[16] See “Richard Deane (1701-1788) and His Children” at Rootsweb.

[17] See Debra R. Boender, “Fort Frederick (Maryland,” in Colonial Wars of North America, 1512-1763: An Encyclopedia, ed. Alan Gallay (Oxford: Routledge, 1996), pp. 236-7;“Frederick, Fort,” in Encyclopedia of the French and Indian War in North America, 1754-1763, ed. Donald I. Stoelzel (Westminster, Maryland: Heritage Books, 2008), p. 160; Maryland Park Service, “Fort Frederick State Park History,” at website of  Maryland Department of Natural Resources; and “Fort Frederick,” in Forts of the United States: An  Historical Dictionary, 16th Through 19th Centuries, ed. Bud Hannings (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2006), p. 193.

[18] See supra, n. 5.

[19] Eric Sterner, “General John Dagworthy: George Washington’s Forgotten American Rival,” Journal of the American Revolution (online; 11 October 2017). See also George W. Marshall, Memoir of Brigadier-General John Dagworthy of the Revolutionary War (Wilmington: Historical Society of Delaware, 1895), pp. 13-15; “General John Dagworthy,” in Biographical and Genealogical History of the State of Delaware, vol. 1 (Chambersburg, Pennsylvania: J.M. Runk, 1899), pp. 105-6; “Dagworthy Controversy,” at The Ladies of Mount Vernon’s George Washington’s Mount Vernon website; and “John Dagworthy” at Wikipedia.

[20] See supra, n. 5.

[21] Pennsylvania State Archives, “Cumberland County Revolutionary War Militia,” online at the website of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. On 18 October 1835 in Butler County, Ohio, a James Irwin deposed as he applied for a Revolutionary pension, stating that he was born in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, on 16 October 1758. This is not the James Irwin who signed the 1800 Leonard power of attorney. The signature of this James Irwin on his pension affidavit does not match the signature of James Irwin of the power of attorney: see NARA, Case Files of Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Applications Based on Revolutionary War Service, compiled ca. 1800 – ca. 1912, documenting the period ca. 1775 – ca. 1900, RG 15, file of James Irwin, Pennsylvania, S9743, available digitally at Fold3. In February 1833, James Irwin deposed in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, which was formed from Cumberland County, as he applied for a Revolutionary pension. The signature of this James on his affidavit does not match that of the James of the 1800 power of attorney: see ibid., file of James Irwin, Pennsylvania, W3689, available digitally at Fold3.

[22] Pennsylvania Archives, fifth series, vol. 6, ed. Thomas Lynch Montgomery (Harrisburg: Harrisburg Publishing Company, 1906), p. 340.

[23] NARA, Case Files of Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Applications Based on Revolutionary War Service, compiled ca. 1800 – ca. 1912, documenting the period ca. 1775 – ca. 1900, RG 15, file of Thomas and Esther Leonard, available digitally at Fold3. See also S. Falsey, “Sgt. Thomas Leonard,” at Brad Leonard’s Leonard Genealogy – Solomons Leonard of Duxbury and Bridgewater.

#AmericanRevolution #americanHistory #BattleOfCamdenSouthCarolina #BedfordCoPennsylvania #ButlerCoOhio #ColinCampbell #CumberlandCoPennsylvania #DanielMoore #ElizabethtownFrederickCoMaryland #ElizabethtownWashingtonCoMaryland #EstherCookson #FortCumberlandAlleganyCoMaryland #FortFrederickWashingtonCoMaryland #FrenchAndIndianWar #genealogy #GeorgeMitchell #GeorgeWashington #GriffithJames #GriffithJamesLeonard #GwendolynJames #HagerstownWashingtonCoMaryland #HannahJames #HarmonCummings #history #HonorPritchard #HoratioGates #HuntingdonCoPennsylvania #JamesIrwin #JohnDagworthy #JosephChapline #LincolnCoTennessee #MarshallCoTennessee #MaryAnnLeonard #MaryJames #PendletonDistSouthCarolina #PetersburgMarshallCoTennessee #RichardMoore #RobertLeonard #SamuelDean #SharpsburgWashingtonCoMaryland #ThomasLeonard #WashingtonCoMaryland #WilliamBlack

Thomas Lewis Leonard (1781-1870), Son of Thomas Leonard and Hannah James: Early Years in Maryland, South Carolina, and Tennessee

Thomas Dunlap Leonard, “Biography of the Leonards” (manuscript transcribed as typescript, 1883)

Or, Subtitled: “He was one of Limestone’s best citizens, no man stood higher as a good man than Thomas Leonard. His wife was his equal in all duties of a companion.”

Thomas Lewis Leonard, son of Thomas Leonard and Hannah James, was born in 1781 in Washington County, Maryland. This date of birth is based on the 1850 and 1860 federal censuses. Both censuses enumerate him in Cherokee County, Texas.[1] In 1850, the census states that Thomas was 69 years old and in 1860, he’s listed as 79. Both censuses give his birthplace as Maryland. (To read the continuation of this posting, click the numeral 2 below.)

Maryland Years, 1781-6

The 1883 manuscript of Thomas Dunlap Leonard discussed previously (and also here) states that Thomas’ parents Thomas Leonard (1752-1832) and Hannah James “of Maryland” (1752-1842) married about 1775 and “after living in Maryland for several years after their marriage in 1775 and the birth of several children they moved to South Carolina.”[2] Since a stream of documents from September 1762 to March 1792 consistently shows Hannah’s father Griffith James living in Sharpsburg, Maryland, in that time frame, it seems reasonable to assume that Thomas Leonard and Hannah James married in Hannah’s home community of Sharpsburg. I also suspect that Thomas and Hannah lived in Sharpsburg near or with the family of her father Griffith James following their marriage, and that this is where Thomas Lewis Leonard was born.

J. Thomas Scharf, History of Western Maryland: Being a History of Frederick, Montgomery, Carroll, Washington, Allegany, and Garrett Counties, etc., vol. 2 (Philadelphia: L.H. Everts, 1882), pp. 1189-1190

A January 1776 record definitely places Thomas Leonard in the part of Frederick County, Maryland, that would become Washington County in September 1776: as Thomas J. Scharf states,[3]

The first military company organized for the Revolutionary war in Hagerstown was mustered in January, 1776, the members whose names are appended subscribing to the following obligation: “We whose names are subscribed do hereby enroll ourselves into a company of military, agreeable to the resolution of a Provincial Convention held at Annapolis on the 26th of July, 1775, and we do promise and engage that we will respectively march to such places within this province and at such times as we shall be commanded by the convention or the Council of Safety of this province, or by our officers in pursuance of the orders of said convention or Council, and there with our whole power fight against whomsoever we shall be commanded by the authority aforesaid. Witness our hands the 6th day of January, 1776.”

Scharf then lists the signatories to this declaration. They include Thomas Leonard, who signed next to Richard Moore. Richard was the son of Daniel Moore, who lived in Sharpsburg next to a Dean family intermarried with the family of Griffith James, whose land was across the road from the land of Griffith James.[4] Also signing the declaration were Samuel and Thomas Dean. Samuel Dean was Thomas Leonard’s brother-in-law; he married Hannah James’ sister Gwendolyn in Sharpsburg in 1773. Thomas Dean was Samuel’s brother. This militia unit was under the command of Joseph Chapline, founder of Sharpsburg and connected to Hannah James Leonard’s father Griffith James from the time Griffith James first appears in Sharpsburg records in September 1763.[5]

Griffith James’ home tract outside Sharpsburg, Pough, viewed from Burnside Bridge Road, August 2007 Home tract of Dean family descending from Richard Dean viewed across Burnside Bridge Road from Griffith James’ home tract, Pough, August 2007

Hagerstown, where this militia unit was formed, is a bit over thirteen miles north of Sharpsburg. Hagerstown was originally known as Elizabethtown, and Scharf is citing minutes of the Elizabethtown District Committee of Observation for 5 June 1776, which say that on that date, a list was presented to the committee compiled on 6 January 1776 of a group of men who signed their names to a resolution to form a militia per a resolution of the Provincial Convention held at Annapolis on 26 July 1775.[6]

Frederick County, Maryland, Land Record Bk. E, pp. 659-660

Various records place Thomas Leonard’s father Robert Leonard, a British professional soldier, at Fort Frederick some eighteen miles west of Hagerstown in the period leading up to the Revolution. Historian Henry Peden notes that Robert Leonard was stationed at Fort Frederick by August 1757, and that the account book of Colonel John Dagworthy, field commander at Fort Frederick in 1756, shows Robert Leonard paid for service by Dagworthy on 7 March 1763.[7] A document dated 8 February 1755 shows Robert Leonard indenturing his son William on that date to a local farmer.[8] In this document, Robert identifies himself as a soldier serving under Captain “Dagurthey.” When Fort Frederick was built in 1756, its construction was financed by Joseph Chapline of Sharpsburg, the same Joseph Chapline with ties to Griffith James, whose daughter Hannah married Robert Leonard’s son Thomas in or about 1775.[9]

As a previous posting notes, Thomas Dunlap Leonard (1810-1888) states explicitly in his manuscript about the Leonard family that Robert Leonard was a soldier: the manuscript describes Robert as “a soldier of the English Army” and notes that in Thomas D. Leonard’s lifetime, Robert’s discharge papers from the English army were in the possession of his uncle Griffith James Leonard, son of Thomas Leonard and Hannah James. Thomas D. Leonard states that he had seen the discharge papers. As the posting linked at the head of this paragraph also notes, Thomas D. Leonard grew up knowing his grandparents Thomas and Hannah James Leonard both of whom died after Thomas D. Leonard reached young adulthood, and it’s clear that much of his information about the first generation of this family in America comes from their testimony.

1855 tax list, Cherokee County, Texas, p. 25A, available digitally at FamilySearch Ibid., close-up

A prefatory note about Thomas Lewis Leonard’s name: a number of published family trees and other published sources both in print and online give Thomas the middle name Alfred. His name appears in almost every document I’ve found as simply Thomas Leonard. However, the 1855 tax list of Cherokee County, Texas, shows him with the middle name Lewis: his name is written as Thomas Lewis Linard in this document.[10] It’s clear that the man with this name on this 1855 tax list is Thomas Leonard (1781-1870); his son Thomas Jr., who was born in 1829, is enumerated next to Thomas Lewis Leonard with the junior designation next to his name. This tax listing also states that Thomas Lewis Linard/Leonard was being taxed as guardian of the heirs of M. Johnson. Thomas Leonard’s daughter Maria, who married Marmaduke Johnson, died in Cherokee County on 20 September 1848, and as we’ll see down the road, in December 1849, Cherokee County court gave her father Thomas Leonard guardianship of her minor children, though their father was still living.

South Carollna Years, 1786-1808

I noted previously that Thomas D. Leonard’s manuscript states that following their marriage about 1775, Thomas Leonard and wife Hannah James lived a few years in Maryland, where they married, having a number of children born to them there, and then moved to South Carolina. The manuscript does not date the family’s move from Washington County, Maryland, to Ninety-Six (later Pendleton) District, South Carolina. But we can fairly well pinpoint the Leonard family’s arrival in South Carolina from a plat for 160 acres on the Big Generostee in Ninety-Six District that was made for Thomas Leonard (Linard in this document) on 9 February 1786.[11] The grant for this land was made to Thomas (again, with his surname spelled Linard) on 6 November 1786.[12]

South Carolina Plat Books (Charleston Series), vol. 16, p. 35

The 1786 arrival date in South Carolina concurs with information reported by the families of two sisters of Hannah James Leonard whose families moved to South Carolina along with Thomas and Hannah Leonard. Both the family of Hannah’s sister Gwendolyn, who married Samuel Dean, and of her sister Mary, who married Harmon Cummings, state that these families came to South Carolina from Washington County, Maryland, with the Leonard family in 1786.[13] The 1790 federal census of Pendleton District, South Carolina, confirms that these three families had settled near each other by that date in what had now become Pendleton District.[14] A 4 May 1826 deed that Samuel Dean made to his son Moses for 330 acres on Mountain Creek of the Big Generostee tells us that Samuel’s land shared a dividing line with land owned by Thomas Leonard prior to Thomas’ removal to Tennessee.[15]

12 September 1800 power of attorney of Honor Leonard, Thomas Leonard, Robert Leonard, and Colin Campbell to James Irwin of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, in possession of descendant Leonard Wilson of Petersburg, Tennessee, up to 1972

In the latter part of 1793, Griffith James and wife Mary would join their children who had moved to South Carolina and would settle among them. It also appears that when the children of Robert Leonard and wife Honor Pritchard moved in 1786 from Maryland to South Carolina — Thomas Leonard was joined in the move by brothers William and Robert and sister Mary Ann with husband Colin Campbell — their widowed mother Honor accompanied them. A 12 September 1800 document preserved by their descendants in Marshall County, Tennessee, shows Honor Leonard and sons Thomas and Robert, along with Colin Campbell, giving power of attorney to James Irwin in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, to represent them as they claimed a land grant for Robert Leonard Sr.’s Revolutionary service. The power of attorney states that Robert Leonard was a lieutenant in the Maryland regiment and that he was killed at General Gates’ defeat in South Carolina (i.e., at the battle of Camden in August 1780), and that the signatories were living in Pendleton District, South Carolina, when they signed this power of attorney.[16]

Thomas Lewis Leonard would have been five years old when his family moved from Maryland to South Carolina. He came of age in the South Carolina upcountry in northwest South Carolina in what became Pendleton District in 1789 and later became Anderson County. As a previous posting notes, about 1800 in Pendleton District Thomas married Sarah M. Lauderdale, daughter of John Lauderdale and Milbury Mauldin. No marriage record appears to be extant. This date is based on the birth of Thomas and Sarah’s first child, their daughter Aletha, in 1803. Sarah’s father John Lauderdale began acquiring land on the Big Generostee in Ninety-Six District in November 1786.[17] The 1800 federal census of Pendleton District suggests that the Leonard and Lauderdale families lived not far apart from each other: the families are enumerated on consecutive pages.[18]

As a previous posting states (naming Thomas Lewis Leonard’s father as Robert, instead of Thomas, his correct name), “Thomas, the 2nd son of Robert and Hannah Leonard married Sarah Lauderdale in So Carolina, moved to Lincoln Co Tn with his father in 1806.”[19] It’s possible that the Leonard family had begun to prepare for its move to Lincoln County, Tennessee, in 1806, but a deed that Thomas Leonard made in Pendleton District on 29 January 1808 states that Thomas was still living there on that date: Thomas sold William Glenn 506 acres in Pendleton District with the deed stating that both parties were living there.[20] Thomas’ wife Hannah relinquished her dower rights in the land on 15 February 1808, an indicator that the family was selling its homeplace and moving away, and on the same day, Thomas’ brother-in-law Colin Campbell, husband of Thomas’ sister Mary Ann Leonard, who had witnessed the deed, proved it. Thomas signed this deed, with wife Hannah using her mark.[21]

Tennessee Years, 1808-1808

It seems clear that the Leonard family had arrived in Lincoln County by 21 September 1809 when Thomas Leonard — this is, it seems to me, the elder Thomas who was father of Thomas Lewis Leonard — bought 640 acres on the north branch of the Elk River from Anthony Foster, with sons Griffith and Thomas (Lewis) Leonard witnessing the deed and proving it at May court 1810.[22] A land entry recorded by Charles Gibson on 14 April 1811 at the head of Cane Creek and the north Branch of Elk River states that the land Gibson was entering joined land on which Thomas Leonard was living at that time, which had originally been granted to Anthony Foster.[23] When Robert Leonard, son of the elder Thomas, entered 40 acres on the head of Pigeon Roost, a branch of Cane Creek on 16 April 1818, the entry again stated that Thomas Leonard was living on adjoining land acquired from Anthony Foster.[24]

Lincoln County, Tennessee, Bk. A, pp. 43-4

I think it’s possible, but don’t have certain proof of this, that Thomas Leonard’s son Thomas Lewis Leonard was farming with his father Thomas at this point and living with his family on the same 640-acre tract his father had bought from Anthony Foster in September 1809. Lincoln County court minutes on 28 August 1811 show Thomas Leonard Sr. being ordered by the county court to oversee a road from Robert Leonard’s to Gibson’s Gap, with hands to work under him including his sons Thomas (i.e., Thomas Lewis Leonard), Hezekiah, Griffith, and Samuel Leonard.[25] Madison County, Mississippi Territory, records suggest that Thomas’ second son John had relocated to north Alabama by this point, and Lincoln County records suggest that the oldest son, Robert, was living with his family independently of his father in 1811. Thomas Lewis Leonard was the next son after John, and was followed by brothers Hezekiah, Samuel, Griffith James, and Colin Campbell Leonard.

After his move to Limestone County, Alabama, in 1818, Thomas Lewis Leonard made two deeds for land in Lincoln County, Tennessee, to his uncle Colin Campbell in August 1822 that allow us to locate some valuable information about this Thomas in Lincoln County records before he left Tennessee for Alabama. This information is all the more helpful when many Lincoln County documents in the period 1808-1818 do not use the Sr. or Jr. designation for the two Thomas Leonards who were of age in those years.

Lincoln County, Tennessee, Deed Bk. B, pp. 226-7

On 16 August 1822, Thomas Leonard made two deeds to Colin Campbell for tracts of 135 acres and 20 acres in Lincoln County, Tennessee.[26] The two deeds recording this land sale both state that Thomas Leonard was living in Limestone County, Alabama, when he sold the land. So this tells us that the Thomas deeding the land was Thomas Lewis Leonard and not his father Thomas Leonard. Both pieces of land were on the headwaters of Cane Creek. These deeds were witnessed by Thomas Lewis Leonard’s brother Griffith James Moore and brother-in-law William Depriest Moore, husband of Thomas and Griffith’s sister Hannah Leonard.

Tennessee Land Grant Bk. S, pp. 868-9

A Tennessee land grant dated 24 March 1822 shows Thomas Leonard being granted the 135-acre tract on that date, and another grant dated 27 March 1822 records his grant of the 20-acre tract.[27] The grant for the 135 acres states that this land was assigned to Thomas Leonard by the heirs of John R. Stephenson, who had a warrant (no. 3947) for 640 acres on 23 Feb 1796. The 640 acres were entered 27 July 1820 (entry no. 11598) and surveyed 17 August 1820.

The 20-acre tract was assigned to Thomas Leonard by John Whitaker, who had a grant of 1,200 acres (warrant no. 568) on 24 June 1784. The 1,200 acres were entered 27 June 1820 (entry no. 11583) and surveyed 28 June 1820. This survey document shows this land adjoining Anthony Foster’s land on which Thomas’ father Thomas Leonard lived along with a widow Campbell who must have been, I’m assuming, the wife of a William Campbell named mentioned below; Thomas Leonard’s brother-in-law Colin Campbell died 27 May 1832, so this is not Colin’s widow Mary Ann Leonard Campbell.[28]

Tennessee Land Entries 1812-3, series 2, p. 213 Tennessee Land Entries 1811, unpaginated

Though the 27 March 1822 grant to Thomas Leonard states that John Whitaker entered this land on 27 June 1820, Tennessee land entry books for 1812-3 show Thomas Leonard entering the 20 acres on 12 January 1813.[29] A second entry of the 20 acres by Thomas Leonard dated 26 June 1820 is recorded in a later entry book.[30] The survey for the 20-acre dated 28 June 182- says that the land was on the waters of Cane Creek, a north branch of Elk River, near land claimed by Anthony Foster and William Campbell.[31]  The 24 March 1822 grant of the 135-acre tract to Thomas Leonard states that the land joined land granted to Joshua Lawrence. When Thomas’ father, the elder Thomas Leonard (1752-1832) bought 640 acres from Anthony Foster in September 1809, the deed for this land stated that it bordered land granted to Joshua Lawrence.

This chain of land documents suggests that soon after Thomas Lewis Leonard arrived in Lincoln County, Tennessee, with his father and siblings, along with his father’s brother Robert and sister Mary Ann with husband Colin Campbell, and the family matriarch Honor Leonard, Thomas Lewis Leonard entered land by in January 1813 next to land that his father Thomas had bought in September 1809. After leaving Tennessee in 1818, Thomas Lewis Leonard sold this land to his uncle Colin Campbell in August 1822. If Thomas Lewis Leonard farmed with his father during the years in which he and his family resided in Lincoln County — 1808-1818 — he may have lived on his father’s 640-acre tract. Otherwise, the two tracts that Thomas Lewis Leonard sold to Colin Campbell in 1822 may have been his homeplace in the decade in which he lived in Lincoln County, in which his wife Sarah Lauderdale Leonard gave birth to four daughters — Cynthia, Matilda Caroline, Maria W., and Minerva D. Leonard. Prior to moving to Tennessee, in South Carolina, the couple had three daughters born to them: Aletha R., Hannah, and Milbury.

In my next posting, I’ll pick up the story of Thomas Lewis Leonard from the point at which he left Tennessee for Alabama in 1818.

[1] 1850 federal census, Cherokee County, Texas, p. 876 (dwelling and family 474; 7th November); 1860 federal census, Cherokee County, Texas, beat 1, Rusk post office, p. 411 (dwelling and family 27; 4 June).

[2] Thomas Dunlap Leonard, “Biography of the Leonards” (1883 manuscript now circulated as typescript; present whereabouts are not known).

[3] See J. Thomas Scharf, History of Western Maryland: Being a History of Frederick, Montgomery, Carroll, Washington, Allegany, and Garrett Counties, etc., vol. 2 (Philadelphia: L.H. Everts, 1882), pp. 1189-1190.

[4] The Dean home tract, Hunting the Hare, and Griffith James’ home tract, Pough, were across from each other on present-day Burnside Bridge Road close to its intersection with present-day Mills Road just outside Sharpsburg to the southeast. I visited this area in August 2007 and took photos of both pieces of land.

[5] See Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. J, pp. 798-802, stating that Chapline had sold 215 acres to Daniel Moore and Griffith James. On Joseph Chapline and the founding of Sharpsburg, see Edward C. Papenfuse, A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1635-1789 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979); Lee and Barbara Barron, The History of Sharpsburg, Maryland, Founded by Joseph Chapline 1763 (1972), pp. 8f; Maria J. Liggett Dare, Chaplines from Maryland and Virginia (priv. publ., 1902); and Thomas J.C. Williams, A History of Washington County, Maryland, etc., vol. 1 (Hagerstown, 1906; repr. Baltimore: Regional Publishing Company, 1968), pp. 23-4.

[6] See Henry C. Peden Jr., Revolutionary Patriots of Washington County, Maryland 1776-1783 (Westminster, Maryland: Family Line, 1998), p. 210, citing “Proceedings of the Committee of Observation for Elizabeth Town District [Washington County],” Maryland Historical Magazine 12 (1917), p. 270; and Williams, A History of Washington County, p. 1189. Thomas Leonard’s sister Mary Ann married Colin Campbell at Hagerstown on 27 July 1780, and Hannah’s sister Mary James married Harmon Cummings 7 September 1779 at Hagerstown. Both couples were married by Reverend George Mitchell of Hagerstown.

[7] Henry C. Peden Jr., Marylanders and Delawareans in the French and Indian War 1756-1763 (Lewes, Delaware: Colonial Roots, 2004).

[8] Frederick County, Maryland, Land Record Bk. E, pp. 659-660. The farmer’s name appears in this document as both Robert Bowies and William Byard.

[9] Peden Jr., Marylanders and Delawareans in the French and Indian War 1756-1763, p. 54.

[10] 1855 tax list, Cherokee County, Texas, p. 25A, available digitally at FamilySearch.

[11] South Carolina Plat Books (Charleston Series), vol. 16, p. 35; and Ninety-Six District, South Side of Saluda, Commissioner of Locations Plat Bk. B, p. 113, giving the plat date as 21st February. The same page has a plat to Thomas Leonard’s brother William dated 22 February.

[12] South Carolina Grant Bk. 15, p. 416.

[13] See Beverly Dean Peoples and Ralph Terry Dean, Country Cousins: Descendants of Samuel Dean, 2nd ed. (Franklin, North Carolina: Genealogy Publishing Service, 2001), p. 5; and Louise Ayer Vandiver, Traditions and History of Anderson County (Atlanta: Ruralist, 1928), pp. 71-2, both citing oral tradition handed down by Gwendolyn James Dean and Harmon Cummings to their descendants.

[14] 1790 federal census, Pendleton District, South Carolina, p. 6.

[15] Anderson County, South Carolina, Deed Bk. R, p. 482.

[16] I have not found this power of attorney in records of either Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, or Anderson County, South Carolina. The original, of which I have a photocopy and digital copy, was owned by descendant Leonard Wilson of Petersburg, Tennessee, up to 1972, when he died. I do not know its whereabouts at present.

[17] South Carolina State Plat Bk. 21 (Charleston Series), p. 8. It’s clear that Thomas Lewis Leonard was of age and married by 21 November 1804 when his father Thomas made a deed in Pendleton District to Samuel Copeland using the suffix senior for his name: Pendleton District, South Carolina, Deed Bk. I & J, p. 123.

[18] 1800 federal census, Pendleton District, South Carolina, pp. 110A (Thomas Leonard) and 111A (John Lauderdale).

[19] The claim that the Leonard family moved from Pendleton District, South Carolina, to Lincoln County, Tennessee, appears in various published sources, but without documentation that I have seen: see, e.g., J. Lester Wolfe, “Thomas Leonard,” in Heritage of Lincoln County, Tennessee (Waynesville, North Carolina: County Heritage, 2005), p. 414. A number of Leonard researchers have reported in family trees and published articles that the Leonard family received a grant for Robert Leonard’s Revolutionary War service on Cane Creek in Lincoln (later Marshall) County, Tennessee, in 1806, but I have not seen corroboration of that grant.

[20] Pendleton District, South Carolina, Deed Bk. I & J, p. 278. It appears that litigation ensued over this land sale: Pendleton District Judgment Rolls for a case numbered 886 show that in 1810, Thomas Leonard filed suit to recover a debt of $200 owed him by John McClure and Colin Campbell. At issue was a note McClure had made to William Glenn and which Glenn then assigned to Thomas Leonard in November 1808, evidently as partial payment for the land Leonard sold Glenn. I think it’s possible that Colin Campbell was party to the suit because he had gone surety with McClure re: the note given in payment to Thomas Leonard. The case file shows Thomas Leonard appearing in Pendleton court in October 1810. I suspect he had already settled in Tennessee and had returned to South Carolina for this court hearing. An 8 February 1812 deed in Pendleton District notes that Patrick Norris had sold Ezekiel Pickens 140 acres on Oolenoy Creek of the Saluda on 7 October 1811, pursuant to an October 1810 judgment for Thomas Leonard in a suit of Thomas Leonard vs. John McClure (Anderson County, South Carolina, Deed Bk. M, p. 33). On Patrick Norris and Ezekiel Pickens, see here. Patrick Norris was a son of Robert Norris and Jean/Jane Ewing who married Rachel, daughter of William Calhoun and Agnes Long. William Calhoun was a brother of Ezekiel Calhoun, who was Jean/Jane Ewing’s husband prior to Robert Norris. Ezekiel Pickens was a son of Andrew Pickens and Rebecca Calhoun, a daughter of Ezekiel Calhoun and Jean/Jane Ewing.

[21] As a previous posting has noted, Leonard researcher Sue Cooper suggests that Thomas Leonard and his brothers Robert and William may actually have moved initially from South Carolina to Sumner County, Tennessee. She bases this conjecture on the fact that a store ledger of an unidentified Sumner County merchant she has seen shows these three men with accounts in 1806-7. It’s well documented that Thomas and his brother Robert did settle with their mother Honor and with brother-in-law Campbell in Lincoln (later Marshall) County, Tennessee, but it can also be shown that William died testate in Anderson County, South Carolina, in March 1811: see Anderson County, South Carolina, Will Bk. A, pp. 129-130. Note that an article in the Fayetteville [Tennessee] Observer entitled “In the Ground Eighty Years,” published 8 November 1894, says that S.J. Leonard of Petersburg had stated that his father Griffith J. Leonard came to Cane Creek in Lincoln County (later Marshall County) in 1808 (p. 2, col. 3). The article was originally published in the Petersburg Enterprise. S.J. Leonard was Samuel James Leonard, son of Griffith James Leonard, brother to Thomas Lewis Leonard.

[22] Lincoln County, Tennessee, Bk. A, pp. 43-4. This deed states that Thomas Leonard was in Bedford County (adjoining Lincoln on the north) when the deed was made.

[23] Lincoln County, Tennessee, Land Entries Series 2, 1817-1823, p. 77.

[24] Ibid., p. 132

[25] Lincoln County, Tennessee, Court Minutes Bk. 1, pp. 120-1.

[26] Lincoln County, Tennessee, Deed Bk. B, pp. 226-7. And see North Carolina-Tennessee Land Grant Bk. S, p. 868, warrant no. 3847.

[27] Tennessee Land Grant Bk. S, pp. 868-9, grants 16803 and 16820.

[28] Tennessee Plats and Surveys, 1817-1821, series 3, p. 401.

[29] Tennessee Land Entries 1812-3, series 2, p. 213, entry no. 4877. This same date is stated in Tennessee Land Entries 1811, unpaginated, arranged by entry date.

[30] Tennessee Land Entries 1817-1823, series 2, p. 273.

[31] Tennessee Plats and Surveys 1817-1821, series 3, p. 401.

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