Old John Richardson is probably the same man who settled in 1769 on the Great Kennawa opposite the mouth of Great Reed Island above the claim of Josiah Fugate (Kegley, Adventurers, II, p. 104); if so, his land was on New River, opposite the mouth of Big Reed Island Creek in present Pulaski County. He apparently moved to Little Reed (in Carroll) a few years later for he is found in the 1771 and 1772 list of tithables of William Herbert (Kegley, New River Tithables, 1770-1773), and there he remained until his death. John took the oath of allegiance to the revolutionary cause, but was not listed on the rolls of any of the surviving rosters of the Montgomery militia.
In 1782 he was taxed with two tithes, four horses and seventeen cattle which would indicate he was then a man of considerable property. He entered his land claim in arch and April 1783; one tract was 400 acres which he claimed by right of settlement (Montgomery, Entry B-5) and the other was on Bobbitts Creek. The Bobbitts Creek tract was the one eventually granted to him and it contained a mill (Montgomery, Entry A-219; Grayson, D. B. 2-379). He had 250 acres of the Bobbitts Creek tract surveyed and it was granted to him in 1793. He let Stephen Clements have 180 acres of the Bobbitts Creek property (Montgomery, Survey B-244), but reacquired it and also received that grant in 1793 (Grants, 27-614; Grants 27-679).
The grants were likely issued after his death. His entries in 1783 are the last records known to have been made of him during his lifetime, unless the John Richardson taxed in 1787 with Thomas Richardson is him. He probably died in the middle 1780s and the Lettice Richardson taxed in 1788 and 1789 is probably his widow.
There was no administration of his estate and no will. There was a deed made in 1800 by his heirs, conveying the 250 acre tract to John Paxton, but the deed is confusing. The heirs named in the deed are Letitia and John Powell, Thomas and Ann Richardson, William and Jane Richardson, Jonathan Richardson, James and Elizabeth Walter, Henry and Letitia Edwards, Lewis Richardson, Joshua and Mary Richardson, Sarah Richardson, and Mary Richardson. In addition, Milley Richardson and another Mary Richardson signed the deed, although they were not named in the body of the deed. It is known from the text of the deed and other sources, that old John's son John had died in 1797 and some of the grantors in the 1800 deed are young John's children.
The correct list of heirs is found in the records of the Superior Court of Chancery of Wythe County in a suit filed in 1829 (at page 4343). Following John's death, for some reason his son Thomas sold the 180 acre tract to Samuel Chew (Grayson, D. B. 1- 223) in 1798. Thomas did not have title to it, but apparently thought he had inherited it, so years later a suit was filed against the Richardson heirs in order to get a proper title to the land. The suit indicates that old John Richardson had six sons: Thomas, Jonathan, Lewis, Joshua, William and John Jr. There is no mention in the 1829 suit of old John's widow, but it would seem that the Letitia who was taxed in 1788 was the widow and that by 1800 she had remarried John Powell and signed the 1800 deed with Powell; probably she was dead by 1829. The 1829 suit also lists the children of John Jr. and William, both of whom were dead by that time.
