Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia

Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia

Extracted from the Original Court Records of Augusta County 1745-1800 by Lyman Chalkley

Complete in Three Volumes

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

About this publication:

This publication is very sizeable, the hardbound volumes contain approximately 600 pages each. We have included navigation aids within the documents, as well as added hypertext links to the index. Other than that we have tried to keep the original formatting as close to the original books as possible. We hope you enjoy these pages, and find them useful.

For your convenience there are some instructions for using this publication, as well as downloading and searching, available on each page. You can access the instructions by clicking

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With a project this size we wanted to make some of the material available as soon as possible, but it will take some time to complete. Pages are being added on a regular basis. Please have some patience, while we continue to publish and edit.

How Did Chalkley Become Available Online?

The Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia: 1745 to 1800 by Lyman Chalkley is really the best starting place for anyone researching ancestors in Augusta County during this time

period. This three volume series contains most of the abstracts of court records in Augusta County between those dates.

With Chalkley now out of print, the most recent publisher, Genealogical Publishing Company of Baltimore, has stated this material is now in the public domain which permits the USGenWeb project to copy any or all of it and make it available on the Internet.

Chalkley is not without its problems, as Daphne Gentry of the Publications and Educational Division of the Library of Virginia has pointed out. Not all documents are included. There are not only errors of omission, but errors of transcription have also been documented. This simply means that the careful researcher should send for a copy of the original document, as with any secondary source, and should not assume that because it doesn't appear in Chalkley it does not exist.

Appreciation is expressed to the following people for making this project possible:

Carmen J. Finley, VAGenWeb Augusta County Coordinator, whose vision to make Chalkley available online became a reality.

Trudy Lusk, first Chalkley Web Editor, who spent countless hours of her volunteer time designing the project pages and scanning the material.

Linda Lewis, VAGenWeb founder and USGenWeb Archives(tm) Coordinator, for clearing the way for this project. Who also spent countless hours of her volunteer time scanning the material.

Freddie Spradlin, VAGenWeb for his time in proofreading and help with editing.

Dereka Smith, librarian at the National Genealogical Society, who provided the books so they could be scanned.

Dr. Brian Leverich, founder of RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative, for providing the space on RootsWeb for this project, and for his support of USGenWeb.

USGenWeb Archives(tm) is truly becoming the most successful genealogical project on the Internet due to people who freely volunteer their time to provide information and services to other genealogists.

Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia

Extracted from the Original Court Records of Augusta County 1745-1800

by Lyman Chalkley

Complete in Three Volumes

VOLUME I. Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. Baltimore 1974

Originally Published Mary S. Lockwood 1912

Reprinted Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. Baltimore, 1965 Baltimore, 1966 Baltimore, 1974

Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number 65-15351 International Standard Book Number 0-8063-0069-8

Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia

Volume I

FOREWORD.

In the year 1745, all that portion of the Colony of Virginia which lay west of the Blue Ridge Mountains was erected into a County which was named Augusta. In December of that year, the County Court was organized and held its first sitting. Prior to that time it had become the refuge and abiding place of a strong body of Scotch-Irish immigrants. The bounds of the new County were limited on the north by Fairfax's Northern Neck Grant and the boundaries of Maryland and Pennsylvania to the westward of Fairfax; on the east by the Blue Ridge mountains; on the south by the Caroline line. On the west its territory embraced all the soil held by the British without limit of extent. For about twelve years the County Court of Augusta was the only Court and repository of records within that district. From the end of that period, at frequent intervals, its jurisdiction was restricted by the erection of other Counties as the demands of the settlers required. Its original constitution embraced all Virginia west of the Blue Ridge (with the exception of the Northern Neck Grant, whose southern boundary was in the present County of Shenandoah, and western, through the Counties of Hardy, Hampshire, and northward to the Potomac); the whole of the present state of West Virginia; a portion of the present Western Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh, which was, at times, the seat of the County Court; and the lands on the waters of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

The value of this compilation of notes and abstracts will be determined by the extent of its contribution to the history of the early settlement of a great country and the acceptability of its form. It is not claimed that it is of equal value with the records themselves, or that it is perfect as a compilation. Nor does it constitute a history in the accepted sense. Yet, as the progressive record of the daily life, the needs, the trials, the struggles, the efforts, the labors, the implements and tools, the occupations and amusements, the aids and obstacles, the aims and longings, the achievements and failures, the forming and shaping, the beauty and ugliness, the riches and sordidness, the risings and declinings, the moral, physical, and spiritual evolution of an offshoot and a nucleus of a people whose characteristics have ever been truth, honesty, simplicity, singleness of purpose, and courage, it is believed that it presents history in its truest, most reliable and most attractive form. There is much in it that will be found to be of no direct import; much that cannot

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be classified; much that cannot be reduced to a generality; much that cannot be made to point to a moral. But every item has its value, each has its place in the picture, each gives a touch or different shade of color, each limits, or broadens, or enlightens its own surroundings. The vista unfolds by grades and steps, and truth becomes plain, as it always does, through growth and development. The story is told by those who act the play. Nothing is added by commentator; nothing is colored by bias; nothing is affected; nothing the result of self-consciousness.

To present the bare facts has been the purpose of the compiler. Each reader will weave his own story, with his own coloring and atmosphere.

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Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia

Volume I

PREFACE.

These abstracts of the original Court Records of Augusta County, Virginia, compiled by Judge Lyman Chalkley, were purchased by the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1905.

The Twenty-first Congress, National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, held in Washington, D. C., April 15-20, 1912, by a unanimous vote, presented these records as a gift outright to Mrs. Mary S. Lockwood, Honorary Vice-President General, National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, who has prepared them for publication, with the assistance and co-operation of the following Publishing Committee:

Miss Grace M. Pierce (Chairman), Registrar General, National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, 1909-1911. Miss Aline Solomons, Librarian General, National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, 1905-1907. Miss Julia McBlair, Librarian General, National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, 1899-1903. Mrs. Edward E. Rosa, Librarian General, National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, 1903-1905. Mrs. Short A. Willis, Librarian General, National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, 1909-1911. Miss Catherine Brittain Barlow, Secretary, Dolly Madison Chapter. Miss Delia Jackson, Member, Amsterdam Chapter. Miss Mary E. Barlow, Member, Dolly Madison Chapter. Mrs. George A. Beach, Regent, Monticello Chapter. Mrs. Sarah Hall Johnston, Member, Mary Washington Chapter. Miss Zillah Solomons, Member, Mary Washington Chapter. Miss Lesley Jackson, Member, Mary Washington Chapter.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

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