Person:Alexander Sawyers (3)

Alexander Sawyers was one of the Early Settlers of Augusta County, Virginia

Contents 1 Early Land Acquisition in Augusta County, VA 2 Records of Alexander Sawyers in Augusta County, VA		Welcome to Old Augusta Early Settlers Beverley Manor Borden's Grant Register Data Maps Places Library History Index
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Early Land Acquisition in Augusta County, VA

Acquisition of Land from Chalkley's:

• Page 295.--3d July, 1755. Humberston Lyon to Allexander Sayers (Sawyers), £50, 650 acres on Wood's River. Teste: James Harress, Christopher Hicks, Eabreham Dunckleberry, Wm. Sayers, J. Buchanan, gent.--

Records of Alexander Sawyers in Augusta County, VA

From Chalkley's:

• Vol. 2 - 23rd May, 1750 - Road ordered from Ezekiel Calhoun's to Wood's River thence to top of ridge between Wood's River and the south fork of Roanoke. John McFarland and Joseph Crockett to be surveyors of former and William Crisp and William Pellam of latter part, with tithables, and the following: Henry Batton, Mordecai Early, John McFarland, Jacob Goldman, John Downing, John Goldman, Charles Sinclair, Nathaniel Wilshire, William Sayers, William Hamilton, Humbertson Lyon, Frederick Carlock, Robert Norris, James Miller, James Cave, Samuel Montgomerie, Steven Lyon, John Conley, Andrew Linam, James Willbey, Samuel Stanlick, James Maies, Robert McFarlin, James Harris, John Vance, John Stride, Robert Miller, Alexander Sayers, John Miller, Jacob Castle, Robert Alcorn, John Forman, and William Miller.

• Vol. 2 - MAY, 1762 (A). - Arbuckle vs. Sayers.--This certifies that James Arbuckle and two sons have served as soldiers in my Company of Militia four months and sixteen days exclusive of what time they have received pay for. April 21, 1759. (Signed) Alexr. Sayers. Arbuckle sues for himself and two sons, who were his servants.

• Vol. 2 - 19th November, 1762. - page 391, John Weltshire, Alexander Sayers, and Jacob Castle to view and report the value of improvements by John Staunton on two tracts on the New River.

• Vol. 2 - FEBRUARY, 1763 (A). - William Crow vs. Mordecai Howard.--Signatures: Alexr. Sayers, John Blagg, Wm. Preston, Samuel McDowell.

• Vol. 1 - MAY, 1765 (A). - Beard vs. Sayers.--Alexander Sayers, gent. "Not executed, the defendant being drowned." 1764-5.

• Vol. 1 - AUGUST, 1765 (A). - Buchanan vs. Sayers.--Robert Sayers, eldest son and heir-at-law of Alexr. Sayers, deceased. May, 1765. Returned: "The boy is in Bedford at school."

• Page 500.--18th March, 1767. Robert Breckinridgc's bond (with Malcom Allen, Richd. Woods) as guardian (chosen) to Robert Sayers, orphan of Alex. Sayers. (Note: this establishes that Alexander Sawyers had died prior to this record).

• Samuel Ewing vs. Robert Sayers, eldest son and heir of Alexander Sayers, deceased, vs. James Buchanan.--Chancery writ, 28th August, 1767. Defendant bought land in 1755 on New River, where Humberstone Lyon was then living.

• Vol. 1 - MARCH, 1769 (B). - Buchanan's Administrator vs. Sayers.--Bill filed 14th January, 1767. Archibald Buchanan, administrator of Walter Buchanan, late of County of Chesterfield, merchant, orator. In 1764 Alexander Sayers, now deceased, owned land in Dunkar's Bottom, on New River, and on Red Creek, at Fort Chiswell, and mortgaged the same to Walter Buchanan on 21st January, 1764. Alexander died 1765 intestate, leaving son Robert, eldest son and

heir. Walter Buchanan died 1766. Archibald is brother of Archibald. Robert Breckinridge was guardian of Robert Sayers, May 1767. The mortgage was proved before the General Court, 28th April, 1764, by John Skelton, Robert Donald and Marty Handly, witnesses. John Fleming and Joseph Maynard were also witnesses.

1. ↑ Ancestry.com. Public Member Trees: (Note: not considered a reliable primary source).

   Alexander Sayers (Sayer) (Sawyer) (Sawyers) of Augusta County, Virginia, son of Robert and Catherine Harris Sayers of Pennsylvania, acted as co-executor with his brother William, of his father’s estate when the will was proved in Augusta Court on August 20, 1746. Alexander was one of the earliest settlers in Wythe County, some forty years before the county was formed. The accounts of Colonel John Buchanan, a counsin to Alexander, show that from the middle of December, 1745 until November following, Buchanan charged him for “maintaining you and wife”. From that first entry through 1765, Buchanan had numerous entries against Sayers, including ones which mentioned cash, liquor, notes, amount paid Humberstone Lyon for his plantation, a coat with a “skarlet” lining and “guilt” buttons, cash paid out for him in Williamsburg and “your expenses on the road,” and “your son’s boarding school”. Alexander Sayers made a claim for a tract of land on March 20, 1746 when he had a survey made for 536 acres of land on Tates Run, a branch of Reed Creek. The land, located west of present Wytheville, was granted to him in 1753. In 1750, Sayers appears on a petition for a road from Calhouns on Reed Creek to Buffalo Lick and Woods River and on to Roanoke. In the same year, he had 50 acres surveyed on a small branch of Reed Creek, on the south side of Buffalo Lick. These last items indicate that Sayers was living in the vicinity of the tract which would later become the site of Fort Chiswell. In 1752, Alexander Sayers was appointed a captain of horses, and in 1754 agreed with James Patton for 504 acres of land where he lived, this tract being part of the 1,150 acres of land known as Buffalo Lick, later the site of Fort Chiswell. At the time he bargained with Patton for the land, he also arranged for one pair of millstones and irons and on March 25, a road was ordered from his mill to James Davis’ on the Holston River. Henry Grubb, a millwright, helped build the mill, but it was unfinished at the time of the Indian intrusions into the area. On July 3, 1755, Alexander Sayers and John Buchanan purchased 650 acres on the New River from Humberston Lyons. In 1758, the deed to the Buffalo Lick land was recorded being a sale from Thomas Walker who had the tract patented on July 4, 1752. In the spring of 1761, Alexander bought three lots in the Town of New London, Bedford County, Virginia, where he was then living, and where his son Robert later went to school. Following the Indian massacres on the frontier, William Preston and 340 men including some friendly Indians, set out to pursue and destroy the Shawnee and in February 1756, the men were camped at Alexander Sawyers (Sayers). In 1758, Sayers was on duty on the frontier, and in 1760 was acting as wagon master at Dunkard Bottom in present Pulaski County. On April 22, 1758, Sayers was recommended by Colonel Andrew Lewis, as a first lieutenant. In February, 1774, Lewis made the statement that Alexander had served as ensign in “a Companie under his command on two expeditions, the Companie being incorporated with a detachment from the first Virginia Regiment.” For this service, his son, Robert, as his heir, was entitled to 2,000 acres of land under the Proclamation of 1763. The warrant, No. 174, did not issue until November 17, 1779.
   
   http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/20146830/person/904626611