Person:Andrew Cowan (6)

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Identity

There is a very good case to made that this person is the same person as Andrew Cowan of Augusta County, Virginia. However, it is not likely that this person is the same person as Andrew Cowan of Jefferson County, Tennessee, as some researchers have thought.

See Also

Notebooks:Cowan for data collection.

Document. Deposition of Charles Cocke in the Case of McKenney vs. Preston, 1811

Analysis:Identity of Andrew Cowan of Castle's Woods

Records for Andrew Cowan in Southwest Virginia - the records for 1819-20 are likely for his son Andrew

Overview

Andrew Cowan settled in Southwest Virginia, perhaps in the Blackwater area, about 1772. His parents are unknown, but other Cowans who settled in the area, particularly around Castle's Woods, are thought to be his kin. These Cowans include:

• William who married Jane Walker,
• Samuel who married Ann Walker,
• David, whose wife is unknown

Andrew married Mary Walker, daughter of John Walker III (1705-c1776) and Ann Houston (?-?). Mary was the sister of Jane and Ann Walker, who married Andrews brothers. ^[2]

Andrew is listed on the Roster of Moore's Fort in Castles Woods, in 1777. He appears prominently in other militia records of the time period, and became one of the first Justices of Russell County, when that area was split off from Washington County after the Revolution. Records that point to his personal life, however, are sparse. A single land record points to his owning property in the Rye Cove area, or perhaps a bit westward in Powell Valley. His presumed kin, Samuel, William and David, on the other hand, all settled in the immediate vicinity of Castles' Woods in modern Scott County.

Andrew Cowan was a "gentleman justice" and appears in this capacity in numerous court records of Southwest Virginia until well after 1800, probably dying there around 1805. [Need to recover basis for this conclusion.] Some researchers believe that he relocated to Jefferson County, TN, where he remarried about 1793 (see Andrew Cowan of Jefferson County, TN for details). There is at least one researcher who believes that he moved to Sullivan County, TN. His presence in the court records of Washington County after the turn of the century, acting as a Justice, rule out these alternative views of his history.

1.   White, Emma Siggins. Genealogy of the descendants of John Walker of Wigton, Scotland: with records of a few allied families, also war records and some fragmentary notes pertaining to the history of Virginia, 1600-1902. (Kansas City, Missouri: Tiernan-Dart Printing Co., 1902).
2. ↑ The only known source for this is Genealogy of the Descendants of John Walker of Wigton, Scotland by Emma Siggins White. White's information on the children and marriages in the family of John Walker III appears to have been primarily based on family tradition passed down through his grandson, William Walker. William was captured by Indians about 1777 at about age ten, taken north into the Ohio country, and grew to prominence in the Wyandotte Indian Tribe. Williams recollections of his family, as passed down in his family, seem to be generally accurate where we can independently confirm them, but are notably in error in some details. Several of the names of his brothers and sisters are distorted (his " "Hetty" appears to be in reality to be "Elizabeth", and his uncle "John Judy" appears to be "John Snoddy". Thus, while the information recorded in White, presumably based on family tradition in his family, are our best source of information on this faimily, some caution is warranted.