Person:Devereux Smith (1)

Devereux Smith was one of the Early Settlers of Augusta County, Virginia

Contents 1 Records in Augusta County, VA 2 Devereux Smith & Aneaus Mackay vs Dr. Connolly & Capt. George Aston 3 Smith & Douglas Co.		Welcome to Old Augusta Early Settlers Beverley Manor Borden's Grant Register Data Maps Places Library History Index
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Records in Augusta County, VA

From Chalkley’s Augusta County Records:(unless listed otherwise)

• Virginia's governor, John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, traveled to Pittsburgh, which Virginia claimed as part of its territory, to appoint government officials under the Virginia charter. In 1774, the Virginia assembly separated the western portion of Augusta County's territory and formed the District of West Augusta.

• Montgomery, Thomas Lynch (editor). Pennsylvania Archives. 6th Series, Vol. 2, Page 3. Harrisburg Publishing Company, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1906.

Committee Of Observation - 16 May 1775

"At a meeting of the inhabitants of that part of Augusta County that lies on the west side of the Laurel Hill (Pennsylvania), at Pittsburgh, the 16th day of May, 1775, the following gentlemen were chosen a committee for the said district, viz.: George Croghan, John Campbell, Edward Ward, Thomas Smallman, John Canon, John McCullough, William Goe, George Vallandigham, John Gibson, Dorsey Pentecost, Edward Cook, William Crawford, Devereux Smith, John Anderson, David Rogers, Jacob Van Meter, Henry Enoch, James Ennis, George Wilson, William Vance, David Shepherd, William Elliott, Richmond Willis, Samuel Semple, John Ormsby, Richard McMaher, John Nevill, and John Swearingen." Geography: District of West Augusta included all that part of Pennsylvania east of the Allegheny and Ohio, south of the Indian boundary line at Kittanning, Pennsylvania and west of the Laurel Hill (Pennsylvania). Yohogania County included that part of District of West Augusta north of the mouth of Cross Creek and the point where Laurel Hill (Pennsylvania) crosses the south line of Pennsylvania.

• Court Con'd and held for Augusta County, May 18th, 1775 - Devorix Smith being bound over to this Court of the Complt of Susanna Styger, for assaulting, Beating and Wounding her, appeared, and on hearing the parties and the Witnesses the Court are of Opinion that the Complt be dismissed with Costs. [Same source as record below].

• At a Court held for the Examinaiton of Mr. Devereux Smith, at His House, by His Petition to the Justices, this 21st November 1775, for the Murder of Capn Geo. Aston. Devereux Smith was Examined, denied the fact wherewith he stands Charged the Court are of Opinion that after hearing Smith by his Atto, that is is guilty of the s'd fact he is remanded to the Goal of this County and thence to be removed. Be it remembered that John Neville (etc) came before our Justices and Acknowledged themselves Indebted to ours'd Lord the King in the Sum of 100 pounds Each, to be Levied of Each of their respective Goods and Chattels, Lands and Tenements. [Source: "Virginia Court Records for the Districts of West Augusta and Yohogania County, Virginia", http://www.oldsaintlukes.org/court.htm]

Devereux Smith & Aneaus Mackay vs Dr. Connolly & Capt. George Aston

• Letter from Aeneas Mackay, Pittsburgh, to the Governor. Taken prisoner by Dr. Connolly , and, on refusing to give bail, ordered to be sent to Staunton. [1774-04-09] Mackay, Aeneas; Pennsylvania Council. [S4-V1-p0264]

Source http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/cgi-bin/amarch/getdoc.pl?/var/lib/philologic/databases/amarch/.175

Regarding Aeneas Mackay, Esquire, he was a Magistrate of Westmoreland County, PA, as staunchly loyal to the Pennsylvania Assembly, as was George Wilson, Esquire. In April, 1774, Captain John Connolly, with his Virginia militia, interrupted the sessions of the Pennsylvania court at Hannastown and arrested the three Pennsylvania justices who lived in Pittsburgh. These were Andrew McFarlane, Devereux Smith and Captain Aeneas Mackay. They were taken as prisoners to Staunton, VA, and there detained four weeks, until released by the order of Governor Dunmore.

• Captain George Aston was born in PA but became a Virginian and was involved in Lord Dunmore's War under the command of Captain John Connolly (see John Connolly (loyalist)). He was allegedly murdered in Pittsburgh on October 30, 1775, by Devereux Smith over the Virginia - Pennsylvania border dispute. Trial apparently was not held due to border conflict overlapping the start of the Revolutionary War.

Smith & Douglas Co.

• Devereaux Smith and Ephriam Douglass's business included trading outposts in the Indian Territory surrounding Pittsburgh. The partners opened another store in Kittanning, Pennsylvania, in 1776, where a fort was under construction.

• Book of Ephraim Douglass, Quartermaster, September - December 1776 - Box 1, Folder 3, Ephraim Douglass Ledger Books, 1769-1790, DAR.1937.07, Darlington Collection, Special Collections Department, University of Pittsburgh.

"I do Certify that Mr. Devereux Smith's Waggon was employed in the Service of the Unites States of America in the Public Works at Kittanning (Kittanning, Pennsylvania) from the Eleventh Day of November to the Tenth of December 1776. Including the Allowance for coming from and returning to Pittsburgh. To receive such pay as is Allowed by the Hon. ? the Congress to ? Waggons in the Continental Service. By Order of Aneaus Mackay."

(Signed) Ephraim Douglass Esq.

Aneaus Mackay mentioned above came to this country in 1767 as Colonel Aeneas Mackay of the (Commissary Department) in service with the 18th Royal Irish Regiment (1684–1922)of Foot.

• James O'Hara became an Indian trader for Devereux Smith and Ephraim Douglass.

• 08 Apr 1777 – Letter from James O'Hara in Pittsburgh, PA to Devereux Smith in Hannaha’s Town, PA – Box 1, Folder 1 – Darlington Family Papers, 1753-1921, DAR.1925.01, Darlington Collection, Special Collections Department, University of Pittsburgh.

Dear Sir,

I arrived here yesterday evening from the Indian Country and must say that I have great reason to suspect that numbers of the Savages are determined to annoy our Frontier as much as they dare. On the 2nd day of this month as I was preparing to start with my horses from the Moravian Town, there were three runners arrived from the Tuscarawas, about thirteen short miles off, with intelligence that there were a Party of Eighteen, consisting of fifteen Mingoes, two Shawnee and one Windot at that place on their way to war and that they intended to come for the Ministers and other White People who live with the Moravians upon which all the White people of the Upper Town fled that night to the principle Delaware Town. However, I stayed till next morning and got two of the Moravian Indians to go meet the warriors and find out if possible what they intended to do. We got for answer that they looked on themselves as free men that had no King nor Chief. Therefore, would do as they pleased and that in the first place they would visit the neighborhood of Fort Pitt. They then set off from Tuscarawas and as I knew that I certainly must have fallen in with them if I following my course. I thought best to send my horses by the Delawares and came home myself and man by way of the Mingos Town on the Ohio. I was informed by good Authority that a Party of Sixty Four who had gone some time ago to the Kentucky have returned to ?(Pekowee, Pekowi, Piqua Town) they have brought only one ?(Prisoner) and have lost a Shawny Man. They have again held a Council of War and Seventy have turned out to visit the Big River. The Munsee have in general turned off from the Delawares and are much melined to listen to the Mingoes. The Shawnee’s are divided about one half of them have joined the Mingoes. The Wiandots seem more inclined for peace. I have nothing further material to communicate at present but that I have lost one of your Buckles. Please make my best compliments to Mrs. Smith, Miss Polly and the rest of your family.

I am Sir your Humble Servant, James O'Hara

1.   Cullison. Devereux Smith 1735-1799, Fearless Pittsburgh Pioneer.

   http://earlcullison.com/thumbnails.php?album=13

2.   Consul Willshire Butterfield. Washington-Irvine Correspondence: The Official Letters which Passed Between Washington and Brig.-Gen. William Irvine and Between Irvine and Others Concerning Military Affaris In The West From 1781 To 1783. (Madison, Wisconcin: David Atwood, 1882).

   Page 31 - More than half the month of January, 1779, wore away without anything of importance occurring to the westward of Pittsburgh, when Samuel Sample, an assistant quartermaster, sent by Colonel Gibson from Fort Laurens to Coshocton, for corn and other articles, had one man killed, and another deperately wounded, by treacherous Delawares. The man killed was John Nash, of the thirteenth Virginia regiment; killed 22 Jan 1779. The man wounded was Peter Parchment, of the same regiment as Nash; wounded on the 27th Jan 1779; he finally recovered.
   
   Page 150, 151, 152 - Carlisle, May 08, 1783 - Irvine to Washington - This letter is the last one written by Irvine as commander of the western department to Washington - "Sir: - Your excellency's favor of the 16th of April did not come to hand till this day. Agreeable to your desire, I will proceed to Fort Pitt immediately..." - Irvine reached Fort Pitt on his third trip out, a little past the middle of May. On the first of July, because of the scarcity of provisions at his post, he furloughed most of the troops for a few days, and afterward continued the furloughing for some time, in rotation. From the fifteenth of May to the eighteenth of July, there was but one maraud of savages into the western settlements. From the last mentioned date to the time of Irvine's final departure from Pittsburgh, comparative quiet reigned throughout the western department. On the twenty sixth of September, he received a letter from the assistant secretary at war notifying him that as soon as a detachment of troops arrived which were then on their way, he would be relieved from command at Fort Pitt, which he so much desired. He was authorized to furlough as many of his garrison at once as consistent with safety. This he did, turning over the remainder to one of his captains, and on the first day of October started for his home in Carlisle.
   
   Before his departure, Irvine was presented with the following address - Pittsburgh, September 30, 1783 - To Brigadier General Irvine, Comanding at Fort Pitt and its Dependencies - Sir: - The inhabitants of Pittsburgh having just learned that you intend to retire from this command tomorrow, would do injustice to their own feelings if they did not express their thanks to you, and their sense of your merit as an officer. During your command in this department, you have demonstrated that amidst the tumults of war, the laws may be enforced and civil liberty and society protected. Your attention to the order and discipline of the regular troops under your command, as well as to the militia, your regard to the civil rights of the inhabitants, the care you have taken of the public property, and your economy in the expenditure of the public money, we have all witnessed. This conduct, we assure you, has given general satisfaction to a people who, before your time, were, unfortunately for them, much divided, but now united. As you are now about to quit the military life (in which your ability and integrity have been so conspicuous), we wish you all possible happiness, and that your fellow citizens may long enjoy your usefulness in civil life, in which we doubt not you will deserve their utmost confidence. We regret that we were not sooner informed of the time you intended to set out, as we are confident the whole country would have, with pride, joined us in this or mor animated and better drawn-up address. We sincerely wish you health and a happy meeting with your family and friends at Carlisle; - and are, with great esteem and respect, sir your obedient and very humble servants,
   
   John Ormsby
   Devereux Smith
   David Duncan
   Daniel Elliott
   Samuel Ewalt
   George Walker
   Joseph Nicholson
   Samuel Sample
   Alexander Fowler
   William Christy
   John Hardin
   William Amberson
   
   General Irvine's Reply - Fort Pitt, September 30, 1783 - Gentlemen: Accept my sincere thanks for the address, however flattering, handed me by you on behalf of the inhabitants of the town of Pittsburgh. Concious of the rectitude of my intentions, I am happy that they have met with your approbation. This testimony of your satisfaction is to me a most pleasing reward for the anxious moments I have passed. I have ever felt disposed to sacrafice personal considerations for the benefit not only of the public, but for that of every individual connected with my local command. Your concurrence in all the measures which I adopted to facilitate the public service, deserves my most unfeigned acknowledgments. I have the honor to be, with great gregard, gentlemen, your most obedient servant, - W. IRVINE.

3.   Hassler, Edgar W. Old Westmoreland : a history of western Pennsylvania during the Revolution. (Pittsburg: J.R. Weldin & Co., 1900).

   CHAPTER XXVIII - THE PEACE TREATY OF EPHRAIM DOUGLASS - Page 190 - Ephraim Douglass was the son of Adam Douglass, a Scot, and was born in Carlisle, in 1750. At the age of 18 he went to fort Pitt, where he worked for a few years as a carpenter. He afterward engaged in the Indian trade at Pittsburg and Kittanning, Pennsylvania in partnership with Devereaux Smith and Richard Butler.

4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 The Pittsburgh Gazette
   Dec. 28, 1799.

   "DEVEREX SMITH—On Sunday, the 22d instant, DIED at his plantation near this place, DEVEREUX SMITH, ESQUIRE, aged 64 years. He was born in Warwickshire.. Great Britain, from whence he had emigrated at an early period of his life, and had resided at Pittsburgh and its vicinity near forty years. With foibles attendant on human nature, he had many virtues. Charity and hospitality were eminently predominant. His door was never shut against the stranger, nor was the hungry ever allowed to pass his cottage. As a husband he was tender; as a parent, affectionate; as a friend, warm and benevolent; as a neighbor, obliging; zealously attached to our present happy form of government, a representative democracy, and peculiarly so to the State of Pennsylvania, where he had officiated as a magistrate prior to, as well as subsequent, to the revolution. He has left a disconsolate widow, and a numerous progeny of affectionate children and grandchildren."

5.   .

   Title: Ephraim Douglass Ledgers
   Collection Number: DAR.1937.07
   Creator: Douglass, Ephraim, 1749?-1833
   Creator: O'Hara, James, 1752-1819
   Creator: Pennsylvania. Militia. Pennsylvania Regiment, 8th
   
   Ledger, 1769-1772, Box 1, Folder 1
   
   Smith and Douglass Ledger, 1771-1777, Box 1, Folder 2
   
   Book of Ephraim Douglass, Quartermaster, September - December 1776, Box 1, Folder 3
   
   Joseph Douglass Ledger, 1777, Box 1, Folder 4
   
   Source Link
   http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=ascead;cc=ascead;q1=DAR;rgn=main;view=text;didno=US-PPiU-dar193707

6.   Dahlinger, Charles William, and Pennsylvania) Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh. Western Pennsylvania historical magazine. (Pittsburgh [Pennsylvania]: Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, 1916]-)
   Vol. 1, No. 1. Page 3., January, 1918.

   Rev. John Taylor - The First Rector of Trinity Episcopal Church of Pittsburgh and His Commonplace Book. Page 3 - Although Trinity Episcopal Church of Pittsburgh was not incorportaed until 1805, there was an Episcopal Church in the village a number of years prior to that time. It is probable that such a church was in existence as early as September 24, 1787, that being the date of the deed by which John Penn, Jr., and John Penn, conveyed the land on Sixth Avenue on which the present Trinity Episcopal Church stands, to John Gibson, John Ormsby, Devereux Smith and Dr. Nathaniel Bedford, Trustees "of the congregation of the Episcopalian Church commonly called the Church of England."

7.   Montgomery, Thomas Lynch. Pennsylvania archives. Sixth series. (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Harrisburg Pub. Co., state printer, 1906-1907)
   Vol. 2, Page 3.

   Committee Of Observation
   "At a meeting of the inhabitants of that part of Augusta County that lies on the west side of the Laurel Hill (Pennsylvania), at Pittsburgh, the 16th day of May, 1775, the following gentlemen were chosen a committee for the said district, viz.: George Croghan, John Campbell, Edward Ward, Thomas Smallman, John Canon, John McCullough, William Goe, George Vallandigham, John Gibson, Dorsey Pentecost, Edward Cook, William Crawford, Devereux Smith, John Anderson, David Rogers, Jacob Van Meter, Henry Enoch, James Ennis, George Wilson, William Vance, David Shepherd, William Elliott, Richmond Willis, Samuel Semple, John Ormsby, Richard McMaher, John Nevill, and John Swearingen." Geography: District of West Augusta included all that part of Pennsylvania east of the Allegheny and Ohio, south of the Indian boundary line at Kittanning, Pennsylvania and west of the Laurel Hill (Pennsylvania). Yohogania County included that part of District of West Augusta north of the mouth of Cross Creek and the point where Laurel Hill (Pennsylvania) crosses the south line of Pennsylvania.

8.   Devereux Smith, Fearless Pioneer by Margaret Pearson Bothwell [1957] - Appendix II. - Devereix Smith's Immediate Family And Some Of His Other Descendants.
   Page 288 - "Research has failed to reveal the year in which Devereux Smith and his wife, Elizabeth, were married. He was born in 1735 and died in 1799. She was born in 1729 and died in 1813. Mr. Smith's allusion in his will, dated July 13, 1798, to his "living son Edward" and to his "living Daughters, Mary Amberson, Elizabeth Greenough, Sarah Fowler, Margarette Small, Jane Heaney and Hannah Means" leads one to the conclusion that there were other children born of his union with Elizabeth, and that they were dead." Or, moved away.
   Page 289 - Devereux Smith's daughter Sarah married Alexander Fowler, who was Captain Fowler when he became an auditor for the U. S. Army in the Western District. His record in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is an interesting one. Sarah was still living when he died on February 25, 1806. She referred to herself as the widow of General Alexander Fowler in a power of attorney to Walter Forward, which she acknowledged on March 26, 1818, and which is of record in Allegheny County, Pa.