Shenandoah Valley Pioneers and Their Descendants: A History of Frederick County, Virginia., Part 2

Author: Cartmell, T. K. (Thomas Kemp), 1838-1920
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: [Winchester, Va.] : [Printed by the Eddy Press Corp.]
Number of Pages: 607

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Grant, found among the old papers previously mentioned. Our Thomas, however, was the Seventh Fairfax to inherit the title of Lord Cameron, a title of which he ever seemed proud, and never failed to mention in all his papers relating to his holdings in America.

As has been stated, there were special grants for certain parts of Virginia; but Lord Fairfax believed he was the owner of all. The King had reserved for himself certain quit rents, not only from the special patents, but also from Colepep- per. The latter, however, exercised arbitrary rule and power in his proprietary, collecting rents and gathering much from the parish allow- ances. This tyrannical treatment aroused the American blood; and petitions went to the King; and in consequence, the Great Grant was limited to the Northern Neck. (See boundaries else- where: also Hening's Statutes, 1748, pp. 198-9, confirming smaller grants to settlers.)

So far as known, Lord Thomas Colepepper had but one brother, Alexander, who was joint heir in the great grant. But the two brothers had an agreement that Thomas was to take in his name the entire grant, and then convey to Alexander a certain interest in the vast territory embraced in the original grant. But Thomas, the father of Catharine, died before this con- veyance was completed; so this explains the sweeping conveyance made to Alexander Cole- pepper by Catharine Fairfax, sole heir of her said father, "reserving to herself what she term- ed the Northern Neck in the Old Dominion of Virginia in America." This deed of conveyance, dated 1710, contained some reliable history con- cerning the early settlers. She recites many things that throw light on the holdings of many families in large tracts of lands all over Vir- ginia. Our valley settlers have the history of their grants fully set out therein. It was held at one time, that the first settlers had poor title to their homesteads; but this voluminous deed, starting out to convey a large and well-defined territory in the Tidewater country to her uncle Alexander, explains the case fully. Lord Fair- fax, having possessed himself with this knowl- edge, was content to take his grant for the Northern Neck, understanding that the minor grants must be respected. He returned to Amer- ica, as already stated, in 1748; and, upon his arrival, proceeded to Greenway Court, a point 12 miles southeast from Winchester, Virginia, where he established his home and offices. There he lived and there he died, according to reliable information, in 1782, at the advanced age of 92 years-not in Winchester, in 1781, as so often stated in magazine articles.

SETTLERS OF THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY

We are indebted to Mr. William C. Kennerly, whose grandmother lived at Greenway Court at that time, for his inimitable reproduction of what she related to him: "The hearse was brought from Alexandria. The cortege was com- posed of relations and friends from Fairfax County, and his neighbors from every settlement along the Shenandoah, and proceeded to Win- chester with considerable pomp. His remains were placed in the Episcopal Church Yard on Loudoun Street, now the site of the business block on east side of the street, north of the corner of Water and Loudoun streets." When Christ Church (Episcopal) was erected on the corner of Water and Washington Streets, his remains were removed and buried 'neath the chancel of that church.

The boundaries of the Northern Neck, as re- served by Catharine, the mother of Thomas Lord Fairfax, are as follows-(actual survey too lengthy to be given) : Beginning on the Chesapeake Bay, lies between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers, crossing the Blue Ridge, or rather passing through the Gap along the Potomac at Harpers Ferry, then with the "Co- hongoruta" to its source in the Alleganies ; then by a straight line, crosses the Great North Mountain and Blue Ridge to the head waters of the Rappahannock, wherever that might be.

We will find the closing up of the boundary lines resulted in serious trouble to Fairfax, for at that point he runs against the large grants to the VanMeter brothers, Carter, Hite and others. As previously stated, the Fairfax con- veyance recognizes the rights of certain inhabi- tants, sparsely settled throughout the Virginia domain. In many cases, names are given (See Call. 4, 42), stating that many persons had ac- quired rights to hold vast tracts by reason of special grants from the Crown at different stages in the history of the country, so as to encour- age emigration to the New World, when it was found desirable for England to enter in and possess the land, and no longer allow the Ply- mouth and Jamestown Colonists to feel they had any right except such given and granted them by the Crown. And thus we have such settlers, with special grants, for slices out of what had already been embraced in the original grant to Lord Colepepper for Virginia, Lord Baltimore, for what is now Maryland and Delaware, the Duke of York for all the territory lying between the Connecticut and Delaware Rivers. The last named was James Duke, of York, and brother to King Charles II, who, growing tired of his wild and far-away estates, conveyed his entire inter- est in what is termed the Territory above the

Hudson and Delaware Rivers, to John Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, with the ap- proval and confirmation of the King.

Some digression is usually allowed all writers; and as Virginia was to become the home of many inhabitants of numerous Maryland and Jersey grants, it is well to give brief mention of certain conditions prevailing in those sec- tions.

King Charles II, March 12, 1664, saw his op- portunity to parcel out in the New World, large estates for his nobility; and, as already stated, the grants referred to soon grew to be powerful aids to his plan of making a New England on this side the Atlantic. This encouraged emigra- tion, not only from England, but from Ireland, Scotland and France. The Dutch, Swedes and Hollanders soon sought homes in the new world -the last named landing on the Jersey coast; the former, chiefly looking for those who had settled along the Maryland, Virginia and Caro- lina Coasts, found homes among the early set- tlers. Now began a new trial. These settlers desired titles to their homes; and much confu- sion arose. We find King Charles in the latter part of his reign, and James II, who ascended the English throne in 1685, making special grants to families who had become permanent settlers in Lord Colepepper's dominion, but de- clining to do so in the domains of Lord Balti- more and the Duke of York. The Duke of York adopted the plan of subdivision of his grant, and conveyed to Lord John Berkley and Sir George Carteret what was above the Hudson and Delaware Rivers. This appears to have been at the suggestion of the King; for the Duke seemed displeased, and pleaded with the King to know "what he did own in America." Accordingly we find in 1674, Charles renewed his grant to the Duke for the remainder, who was "to hold under such terms as he prayed." Lord Berkley and Sir George Carteret soon divided their grants into what they termed East and West Jersey, and a boundary was establish- ed between them which shows its line of monu- ments to this day. Then was formed the Proprie- tor's government,-to own and control the soil without taxation, so long as they held in their own right, or their heirs, but not so with any purchaser, under whom it became taxable by the State. This proprietary ownership and govern- ment of vast tracts in America, was extended not only to those of Jersey and York, but to Lord Baltimore in Maryland and Delaware, and to Lord Colepepper in Virginia. Lord Berkley offered inducements to immigrants. One, John Fenwick, induced Lord Berkley to allow him to

CARTMELL'S HISTORY

establish a colony,-which was then and is now known as Fenwick Colony. The deed was re- corded at old Salem by John Fenwick, March I, 1682, for a moiety of his Proprietary which he originally purchased from Lord Berkley. This deed of conveyance is to Governor William Penn for this moiety, reserving for himself the said John Fenwick, all the tract called Fenwick Colony, supposed to contain 150,000 acres. Men- tion is made in these pages of this Fenwick Colony, by reason of its having furnished many emigrants to the Valley of Virginia in the early part of the Eighteenth Century, when its dis- covery had been made by Governor Spottswood- he of the Golden Horseshoe Expedition. What he saw filled his party, not only with wonder and ad- miration, but a desire to hastily return and spread the news, inviting immigration from the settlement lying along the Jersey coast and the more thickly settled parts of Pennsylvania. These Northern settlers soon began to seek the wonderland; and at this point we must state, many of these settlers were beginning to feel oppression from the Lord Proprietors. And as they had learned through Governor Penn, that King William III, during his reign from 1638, for thirteen years, had offered grants to a certain number of famil- ies who wanted to go into Virginia and make homes out of the forests, Mary II joined the king in this new effort to people the new lands. This was carried into effect; and good Queen Anne, in her reign of fourteen years beginning 1701, confirmed all such grants, and promised to protect them. So we find about 1725, many persons in those northern settlements seeking information how they could obtain grants in the new country. The tide set in about 1730; some crossing the Potomac East of the mountains, and a few families crossing the Cohongaroota West of the mountains. The latter made a settlement in 1732 near the river, and called it Mecklen- berg. As has been stated, others followed the Opecquon Creek, and settled about thirty miles further South; others at the confluence of the two rivers, Potomac and Shenandoah. Some writers on the subject of the first settlement in the great Valley, think it was at the latter place where Robert Harper and others in 1736, stop- ped and built log cabins, and a ferry boat to accommodate those who were still coming and often found no way to cross over. Now we have come to the point, who were these people who came from the cold North? We have recorded evidence of their courage, ambition, energy, skill, good morals and sufficient means to develop the newly discovered valley; so that it was possible for its hills and dells to become

renowned for their fertility, and afford homes for the thousands who fill every avenue of life; and its history shows who were jurists, states- men and professional men of every class, and whose farmers have in trying times, made it possible for armies to subsist and recruit their depleted stores, while her artisans and inventors furnished other sinews of war. These will ever be recognized as equal to any other people; and as for the warriors, who have won fame from friend and foe, beginning with the invincible Morgan, and coming on down through every military exploit of the country, to Stonewall Jackson and his foot-cavalry-none suggests the thought that their fame will ever fade or be forgotten by succeeding generations.

The reader will excuse such digressions as may seem too often to creep in, as we attempt to lead him along through the various phases of the history of Old Frederick County.

Joist Hite has had the credit given him by other writers, of being the first white man to settle in the Lower Valley, which was then known as Spottsylvania. In 1734, Orange was formed from Spottsylvania. In 1738, an Act of the House of Burgesses directed two new counties to be form- ed, one to be Frederick and the other Augusta, and taken from Orange, as was stated in the opening of these sketches. Hite also has the credit of bringing sixteen families with him; but since no court was organized until Nov. 11, 1743, we have no record of the minor grants referred to in the records of Frederick County prior to the first court. Many were recorded in old Spottsylvania and also in Orange. We will for the present, treat this as the first immigra- tion, and endeavor to name them all and locate them in the sections of the County where they began their work as pioneers. It must be borne in mind, that so soon as they crossed the Poto- mac at what is Harpers Ferry, or at some point West of the Blue Ridge, they entered the country to be known as Old Frederick County. We must not forget that these first pioneers had en- tered the proprietary of the Colepepper grant, which at this coming had descended to the Fair- fax, who was to bring contention and confusion to many whom our Lord Thomas found, as he thought, squatters in his realm. So having this understood, we will start with the Hite settlers. Some of the sixteen families were Joist Hite's immediate family, for he had several sons of full age and three married daughters. Thus we have four out of the sixteen within his own circle, which enabled him to assert a right to rule and direct the movement of his new colony. His sons inter-married with the other families.

SETTLERS OF THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY

Hite speaks of his sons-in-law, Paul Froman, George Bowman and Jacob Chrisman.

While Hoge, Allen, Wilson, White and others, represent in part the English contingent, and Van Swearingen, Van Meter and others, repre- sent the sturdy Dutch, Germans, Swedes and Hollanders, a more extended notice will be given in this work of all the families referred to and their descendants, in a chapter on schools and churches. Our attention at present must be given to the location of the sixteen families, and what they had in their hands to give them a legal right to enter at will the new country, and possess the land and build a log cabin. So, as has been previously stated, William Penn had pointed the way. He it was and the good John Fenwick, who had secured from the English rulers the minor grants referred to; and when they started out for their new home, Joist Hite carried with him the "parchments," granting rights to such families as could find suitable location; then to survey their homestead, de- scribing accurately and erecting monuments of boundaries, so that it could be shown the king who the actual settler was and his name. And the crown recognized these in treating with Lord Thomas Fairfax. (Hen. Statutes, 1748, p. 198).

As has been intimated, many of these grants gave Fairfax much trouble later on, and annoy- ance to the settlers. Many ejectment suits were instituted by his Lordship, availing him nothing, however, in any claim against the settler, where he had fully complied with the provisions of the grant. But where he failed to set out fully his boundaries, so that his lines could be fully established, then he suffered loss. Many of the ejectment suits of Fairfax against the settlers in the Valley and elsewhere, grew out of the leases that had been made by William Fairfax as the agent of the actual heir and owner of the Colepepper grant, so far as it applied to the Northern Neck. Many such leases had been made by him and other agents previous to the time of vesting the title in our Lord Thomas. And be it remembered, the latter emanating from the Fairfax family, were only temporary leases to run for a term of years, mostly twenty years, yielding to the proprietor "On each recurring Lady's Day one Pepper Corn." The lessee to use his tract as he saw, to his own interest: the object being to encourage settlement and offer inducements for substantial development of much of the trackless waste. Some of these short leases were renewed by Fairfax when he landed at the Greenway Court and took control in 1750; the other leases mentioned were the stum- bling blocks to the new Proprietor; for when

he, with his youthful surveyor, began to make surveys for tracts to persons to whom he was making leases for a term of one hundred years, and to be renewable under certain complied con- ditions, he found other claimants who had long before become actual settlers and standing on their "Clearing" beside their own "Log Cabins," as they exhibited their leases bearing unmistak- able evidence of authority, not only from the Colonial authorities, but with the stamp and ap- proval of the reigning Monarch of England. Fairfax could not have been unaware of the legality of the last-named leases for in his in- heritance of the Northern Neck, he took what his mother, Catharine Colepepper, had under the great Colepepper grant, with its provisions: the King reserving the right to make grants within the territory to settlers, requiring in each case that proof should be given the government that such person had settled on his great tract with so many families, and that the tract had been subdivided, and surveys of the subdivisions actually made and conveyance made to an ac- tual settler on his part. Such grants were to be perpetual, and not to be interferred with by Fairfax or his heirs.

The original plan of the King, "ordained for the purpose of planting colonies in America," worked well, and was the cause of large de- velopment of many sections of Virginia. So this condition of the settlement should not have sur- prised Fairfax; but it apparently did; for he treated such as squatters on his soil, who must yield to him a rental and take his lease, and be subject to his demand or vacate. This meant much to these families who had felled the for- est for the good homes they had planted, with virtually the rifle in hand, to protect the settle- ment from the powerful tribes of Indians, who were disputing every effort to make white set- tlements. We find when this demand was made by Fairfax through his agents, he met opposi- tion. He was confronted by men who knew they were right; who, in full faith in their claims, had not only builded their homes and reared sturdy families, but had organized churches and schools, which at that period were flourishing. Many things occurred to mar the peace of his Lordship. He soon found litiga- tion on his hands. In his surveys to lessees, he found monuments marking boundaries of large and extensive areas, such as were claimed by Joist Hite and his settlers, and those of Van Meter, Russell and Carter; the latter resulting in the most famous legal battles fought to a conclusion in the early history of the Virginia Colonies.

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CARTMELL'S HISTORY

As this chapter is intended to mention Hite and his colonies, we will dispose of Hite's claim as the first settler, and then give names, so far as we know, of the families who came with him. We may appropriately state here that Hite, in failing to comply with his agreement made through Governor Penn, suffered much annoy- ance in holding to his claim when attacked by Fairfax. For when it was developed that he obtained his grant, stipulating that twenty fam- ilies was to be the number, while he could only show sixteen, he at once began repairing his weak points. Being a man of great nerve, and of no small ability as a lawyer without the pro- fession, he at once undertook to cure in part the mistake he had made, and to fortify against the attacks of Fairfax. Thus we find him recogniz- ing the Van Meter grants to be, not only better than his, but ante-dating his. The writer is well aware how this statement will be received by many readers; but he must endeavor to state facts in this history of the early and first settlers of the Lower Valley; and if it detracts from the glory of Hite, who has always had the credit of being the first white man to plunge into the unexplored forests of the Old County of Fred- erick, even before its formation in 1738, it must be done; though the writer was tempted to pass it by, desiring this old pioneer should have all the glory. He believed he was the first to con- front the savage tribes on their native soil; and over many "Clearings" did he and his neigh- bors contend with the warriors of "Opek- enough"-he who held sway along the streams of his own naming, which afterwards the white man abbreviated to what we have to-day- "Opeckon"-a stream to become famous, not only for struggles made by the Redmen in pro- tecting his wigwams and hunting grounds from the White invaders, but in later years when the descendants of these invaders were compelled to take their stand in battle array along its his- toric banks to stem another invasion from the same country from whence the first invaders came, and in their peculiar way accomplished the object sought-both being for subjugation :- the first driving before them the wigwam and tomahawk, to result in subjugation only after nearly two hundred years of steady warfare and treaties ;- the new invasion requiring only four years of terrific carnage and bloodshed to dev- astate the Lower Valley, ultimately resulting in the subjugation planned from the first. How strangely differing the causes of the invasions and their results! The former came to do their part in developing a continent in the wilds of America, offering an asylum for liberty-loving

people from every clime and nation, to be one of the mighty host sweeping Westward, to some day land upon the shores of the Pacific Ocean, leaving marks of civilization in their wake, as the states and cities with their teeming millions were ever attesting the wisdom of the first in- vader. Not so with the last! They swept the land with a besom of destruction-they leveled homes as well as forests; but never builded homes and cities. They invaded for desolation! And in their wake, as they pressed southward and westward, left ashes and ruin. But the descend- ants of those grand old first settlers, followed the example of Joist Hite, and made the best of their mistake. Hite had underestimated the strength of his contestants. And when he found his position, the wily old chief used his diplomacy and held his ground. Referring again to Hite and the Van Meter grants, we will state here that Hite obtained by purchase forty thous- and acres of the Van Meter grant, and imme- diately began to make deeds for tracts of land to the many settlers who were now, in 1734, seeking homes; and having located many who had come subsequent to the arrival of his colony, thus showing his good intentions to carry out his agreement to locate at least forty families. Then he turned his attention to the Hite grant, as it has been called,-to have it renewed, so as to protect those of the sixteen families he had located before Fairfax raised his point for ejectment. Many suits followed, as has already been stated; and Fairfax prevailed in some of the latter class; so that some of the sixteen will not appear in the list of those who owned their own land.

Lest there be confusion in regard to the hold- ings of Hite, the author deems it best to give a condensed statement at this point. Hite, through the influence of Governor Penn, receiv- ed a conditional grant from the Virginia Coun- cil in 1730, for one hundred thousand acres of land, to be located West of the Great Mountains, not therefore granted,-upon which he was to locate forty families, within a certain time. This number was reduced to twenty families- and not sixteen, as has been so often stated by tradition. Finding the Van Meter grant in his way, he purchased from them, and proceeded to comply with the conditions,-which required the Van Meters to locate one hundred families. This seemed a prodigious undertaking; and he went to the Governor's Council for an extension of time. This he obtained. He now had vir- tually about two hundred thousand acres of land. He saw his chance to comply. Immi- grants had followed in his wake, seeking land

Old Joist Hite Fort, near Bartonsville; erected 1750

SETTLERS OF THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY

At a Court held for Frederick County on Tues- day the Third day of September, 1745.

Jost Hite in Open Court acknowledges these his Articles of Agreement made between him and Maria Magdalena his wife before marriage, which on his motion is admitted to record to- gether with an account of goods brought by the said Maria Magdalena Endorsed on the back of said Articles.

TEST: THOS. WOOD, CI Cur."

The original is in German, signed in German; was recorded first in Orange County, then in Frederick, 1744. We find no evidence of any children born by this marriage.

The reader will excuse this extended notice of the famous Joist Hite, since he was the chief figure in the early settlement of the Lower Val- ley; and also excuse the brief notices in the fol- lowing pages of many other settlers who became far more famous in their lives, as they struggled to plant the colony under so many adverse cir- cumstances.

Having thus briefly disposed of the Hite fam- ily, we will turn attention to some of the other families who came with Hite. We mention

merely the names of those who settled upon tracts of land that Hite set off for them from the original grant to him for himself, and the twenty families he was to locate. We find Wil- liam Hogue on the Opecquon, John White on Hogue Creek, Nathaniel Thomas at the head of the Opecquon, Benjamin Borden near Shepherds- town, "binding with its western line on the Bull- skin Run," David Vaunce on the Opecquon, Steph- en Hansbella, Christian Nisewanger, etc., (fuller mention later on.)

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Shenandoah Valley Pioneers and Their Descendants: A History of Frederick County, Virginia., Part 2

Author: Cartmell, T. K. (Thomas Kemp), 1838-1920 Publication date: 1909 Publisher: [Winchester, Va.] : [Printed by the Eddy Press Corp.] Number of Pages: 607

Author: Cartmell, T. K. (Thomas Kemp), 1838-1920
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: [Winchester, Va.] : [Printed by the Eddy Press Corp.]
Number of Pages: 607