Person:Evan Shelby (4)

Evan Shelby

Evan Shelby, Jr. was born 23 October 1719 in Tregaron, Cardiganshire, Wales

04 July 1735 - Samuel Blunston issued a license to Even Shelby for 300 acres in the North (now the Cumberland) Valley "at a place (Surrounded by Barrens) called Black Walnut Point, on potomac road between Neild's Friend and Edward Nicholls." The land was then in Lancaster County, PA. Blunston License Book, Office No. 64, State Land Office, Dept. of Internal Affairs, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

In 1739, they moved into Prince George (later Frederick) County, Maryland where his father died in July 1751.

1749-50 - He lives for a time with his family in Cumberland County, PA.

1753 - He's living back in Frederick County, Maryland.

19 Mar 1754 - lawyers for George Mason of the Ohio Land Company push their claims against its' debtors - the late Evan Shelby Sr. of Frederick County, Maryland, was in debt with them. Both Catherine and Evan Shelby Jr. were prosecuted and a judgement record was recorded against them to pay the debt of £14...

1755 – Became a fur trader, was in Braddock’s Campaign

28 May 1758 - he is promoted to the rank of captain with the Maryland troops.

12 Nov 1758 - Colonel George Washington led a scouting party that met a band of Indians along the Loyal Hanna. It is said that in this fight Captain Evan Shelby of Frederick County, Maryland, commanding a company of Maryland volunteers, killed with his own hand one of the leading chiefs of the enemy.

Jun 1758 - Served as a Captain in the French and Indian War and was with General Forbes.

25 Nov 1758 - he led the advance of the army, under General John Forbes, which took possession of Fort Duquesne.

Dec late 1758 - he returned home to Frederick County, Maryland and entered into partnership with Samuel Postlethwaite and Edmund Moran under the firm name Evan Shelby and Company. They dealt in general merchandise and fur, trading extensively with the Indians.

May 1762 - he promoted a company formed to carry out George Washington's proposal to canalize the Potomac River in order to handle the growing transportation needs of the region.

1763 - the firm of Evan Shelby and Company was dissolved. Due to the onslaught, which began in May 1763, of Indians on the colonial outposts, the Indian trade business suffered great losses. Shelby and his partners borrowed heavily and for the next six or seven years were hard-pressed by creditors and harrassed by lawsuits. He began to sell off his land in small parcels, some of it to satisfy judgments and some of it probably to keep going. The records of Frederick County show about thirty such transactions. He obtained a warrant for 9,860 acres, adjoining Maiden's Choice on the south and southeast: "The Resurvey on the Mountain of Wales." It was an extension of the original tract (Johnson Mountain) which his father once owned. He also began service as a Justice of Peace during this time. He served as a Justice of the Peace for ten years. In Dec 1763, his house burned down. He lost all his furniture and business papers.

25 Oct 1765 - Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, when surveying the Maryland-Pennsylvania boundary, wrote in their notes: "Computing offsets, &c. Went to Capt. Shelby's to desire him to go with us to North Mountain for to show us the course of the River Potowmack westward." Mason and Dixon consulted with Evan several times.

16 Nov 1765 - the Maryland Assembly voted 200 pounds to Captain Evan Shelby for his "spirited conduct" in the late war, partly a token of appreciation and partly to reimburse him for the amount he had paid out in equipping his company.

Oct 1766 - he obtained a warrant to add 3,342 acres to "The Resurvey on the Mountain of Wales." These were laid off the next April, though a patent for them was not issued for another year.

22 Nov 1766 - his patent issued for 21 1/4 acres in Washington County, Maryland, called "Welcome Home."

1767-68 – He Served as a First Lieutenant to Captain Alexander Beall. Later he held Commissioned Officer positions in both Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Spring 1768 - he went to Rowan County, North Carolina, where in April he bought 700A on a branch of the Yadkin River.

Dec 1770 - Evan left his sons John and Isaac to look after affairs at home and he took the rest of the family and livestock to the lower part of the Great Valley in what is now the southwest corner of the state of Virginia (now Washington County, Kentucky). The 380 mile journey took three and a half weeks. They traveled with the family of Isaac Baker and together they bought a 1,946 acre tract, called "Sapling Grove" on Beaver Creek, a branch of the South Fork of Holston River, from the estate of John Buchanan for 608 pounds. They split the land between them, with 973 acres each. Baker took the northern half and Shelby the southern. This tract was the site of the future twin city of Bristol, Virginia-Tennessee.

1771 - Evan and his wife Letitia returned to Maryland because of the death of Letitia's father, David Cox. They stayed in Maryland about a year, where Evan sold more of his land there.

Spring 1772 - Evan opened up a general store at Sapling Grove. His two oldest sons joined him. Daniel Boone was a customer at Evan's store. During this year, he built a stockade on the left bank of Beaver Creek, surrounding his house. Known as, Shelby’s Fort in Fincastle County, Virginia, and later Washington County, Virginia.

1773 - he returned to Maryland to wind up his affairs there. Evan's brother, John Shelby, and his family came down with them from Pennsylvania. John lived below Evan on or near the South Fork of Holston. Only their sister Rachel Pindell now remained in Maryland.

7 Jan 1774 - he obtained a land warrant for 2,000 acres, selected the next year for him near the site of Lexington. The land was never occupied by him personally.

• 16 Aug 1774 - Evan, who had been made a Captain in Fincastle County in March, raised his Fincastle Company of 52 men (including sons Isaac and James) to retaliate, under the direction of Governor Dunmore of Virginia, against the Indians for attacking white land jobbers and surveyors in Kentucky and Ohio. The campaign came to be called "Dunmore's War."

A List of Captain Evan Shelby’s Company of Volunteers From The Watauga Valley in The Fincastle County Battalion.

Officers

Evan Shelby, Captain - Assumed chief command on the field of battle after Colonels Lewis, Fleming, and Field had fallen.) Isaac Shelby, Lieutenant - (Took command of his father's company, who had assumed command on the field.) James Robertson, Sergeant Valentine Levier (Sevier), Sergeant

Privates James Shelby, John Sawyer, John Findley (Finley), Henry Shaw (Span), Daniel Mungle (Mongle), Frederick Mungle, John Williams, John Carmack (Wounded at Point Pleasant), Andrew Terrence (Torrence), George Brooks, Isaac Newland, George Ruddle (Riddle), Emanuel Shoatt, Abram Bogard, Arthur Blackburn, Robert Herrill (Handley), George Armstrong, William Casey, Mark Williams, John Stewart (Wounded at Point Pleasant), Conrad Nave, Richard Burck, John Riley, Elijah Robinson (Robertson), Reece Price (Wounded at Point Pleasant), Richard Holliway, Jarrett Williams, Julias Robison, Charles Fielder, Peter Torney (Forney), William Tucker, John Fain, Samuel Vance, Samuel Fain, Samuel Hensley (Handley), Samuel Samples, Benjamin Grayum (Graham), Andrew Goff, Hugh O’Gullion, Barnett O’Gullion, Patrick St. Lawrence, Joseph Hughey (James Hughey), John Bradley, Bazaleel Maxwell.

-Total 49- The Adversary was Chief Hokoleskwa Cornstalk

10 Oct 1774 - The Battle of Point Pleasant - Captain Shelby and his men listed above served there.

20 Jan 1775 - Evan was elected to the Fincastle County, Virginia, 15-member "Committee of Safety," charged with seeing that the resolutions of the first Continental Congress (to import no manufactured goods or tea from the British Isles) be observed.

• July 1775 - letter from Colonel (later General) William Thompson of Carlisle, Cumberland, Pennsylvania, to Evan Shelby, as Thompson was about to join the Continental Army

"Had General Washington been sure you could have joined the army at Boston without first seeing your family [you] would have been appointed Lieut. Colo. of the Rifle Battalion and an express send _____ but you being so _____ the general concluded it would not be possible for you to take the field before seeing your family."

16 July 1775 - military survey of 2,000 acres for Colonel Evan Shelby, lying just west of Lexington. This was probably the first grant of any kind ever issued by the Commonwealth of Virginia on any survey of land in Kentucky. Isaac Shelby at that time located for his father another 500-acre military land warrant, adjoining the 2,000-acre tract. These lands, with others on the East Fork of Hickman Creek, in Fayette County, were conveyed by Colonel Evan Shelby to his two sons, Evan Shelby, Jr., and Moses Shelby.

1776 - 400 people fortified themselves at Shelby's station when they heard that Indians, backed by the British, were headed toward them. One hundred a seventy men set out to meet the Indians, one company being commanded by Captain James Thompson, Evan's future son-in-law, and another by his son, Captain James Shelby. Evan and 100 men soon left as reinforcements. Governor Patrick Henry of Virginia appointed him Major in the troops commanded by Col. William Christian against the Cherokees. On December 21, of that same year, Evan Shelby was appointed Colonel of the militia of newly-created county of Washington County, Virginia.

10 Apr 1779 - he was placed in command of a joint expedition for attacking the Chickamaugas. This tribe lived near present-day Chattanooga. Shelby's man rode down Big Creek in (now) Hawkins County to the Tennessee and on the Tennessee to their destination, 250 miles by water. They took the Indians by surprise and destroyed their towns and provisions.

Oct 1779 - Evan resigned his commission in the Virginia militia when the state of North Carolina extended its border and Evan's property became a part of Sullivan County, North Carolina.

October 1780 – His volunteer militia joined almost a thousand frontiersmen in the march on British Col. Patrick Ferguson at the Battle of King’s Mountain.

24 Mar 1781 - he was appointed by General Nathaniel Greene to be a commissioner to draw up peace terms with the Cherokees. Later this year, he was elected a member of the North Carolina Senate.

13 Oct 1783 - a deed from Evan Shelby to his sons, Evan Shelby, Jr. and Moses Shelby for 2500 acres just west of Lexington and land on the East Fork of Hickman Creek. The title became vested in Governor Isaac Shelby and later passed, in part, to his sons James Shelby and Thomas Hart Shelby. Recorded in the office of the Clerk of the Court of Appeals at Frankfort, Kentucky.

5 Jan 1787 - Evan is nominated to be the Washington District of North Carolina Brigadier General.

20 Mar 1787 - Governor Caswell requested to meet North Carolina Commissioner Evan Shelby from the State of Franklin to negotiate a temporary truce with Col. John Sevier, governor of the short-lived State of Franklin. The resulting treaty later dismembered the State of Franklin.

August 1787 – he was elected governor of the State of Franklin to succeed Sevier, but declined.

29 Oct 1787 – Evan Shelby Resigned as Brigadier General, the last of his public service.

4 Dec 1794 - Evan Shelby died at Sapling Grove; buried on his land. Seventy-five years later he was reinterred at the west end of East Hill Cemetery on the Bristol, Virginia side.

married 1st - Letitia Cox, daughter of David Cox and Susannah, in 1744. She was born 1725 in Maryland, and died 07 Sep 1777 in Charlottesville, VA. By Letitia Cox, Evan Shelby, Jr. had seven children: Susannah, John, Isaac, James, Catherine, Moses and Evan

married 2nd - Isabella Elliott. She died after 1794. By Isabella Elliott he had three more children: James, Letitia and Eleanor.

Signer of the Fincastle Resolutions

• The Fincastle Resolutions was a statement adopted on January 20, 1775 by thirteen elected representatives of Fincastle County, Colony of Virginia.
• The signers of the Fincastle Resolutions, which included many of the leading men of Virginia's western frontier, were

William Campbell

Arthur Campbell

William Christian

Walter Crockett

Charles Cummings

William Edmondson

William Ingles

Thomas Madison

James McGavock

John Montgomery

William Preston

Evan Shelby

Stephen Trigg

The clerk of the meeting was David Campbell.

Evan Shelby's Last Will and Testament

I Evan Shelby being of sound mind and memory do make and ordain this my last Will and Testament, do dispose of my Estate as follows, Viz. It is my desire that all mu just debts be first paid.

Item. I give to my eldest son John Shelby that Tract of land whereon he now lives on Wattago River in the State of North Carolina the purchase money and officers fees that my be due for the said land is to be paid out of my Estate by executors hereafter to be mentioned. My land laying on Buffalow Creek a branch of Wattago afroesaid, I desire my executors to sell and dispose of all the money arising therefrom to be equally divided between my two grandchildren Evan and Sarah Shelby also I give to my said grandchildren to be delivered to them in one year after my death each one a mare to be of the value of twenty-five pounds each;

I give and bequeath to my son Isaac Shelby, all my part of that tract of land laying in Washington County and State of Virginia known by the name of the Hazel Lands, being one third part of the said whole tract (lying on the south and southeast end thereof) which I purchased from Col. William Preston in partnership with John Shelby son and in case the said land cannot be made good by the said William Preston according to my purchase of him, then my desire is that my son Isaac Shelby shall receive in lieu thereof one hundred and fifty pounds out of the remaining part of my estate.

I give to my daughter Catherine Shelby Six Hundred pounds Virginia currency to be paid to her as soon as my lands lying in the State of Maryland can be sold by my executors, and if the sale of the said lands do not amount to six hundred pounds the deficiency to be paid her by my executors out of the remainder of my estate. I also give and bequeath to my said daughter Catherine the mare and her two colts which I had formerly given to her and four cows, also a feather bed, and furniture for it;

I give and bequeath the remaining part of my estate both real and persoanl to my four sons viz. Isaac Shelby, James Shelby, Evan Shelby and Moses Shelby to be equally and fairly divided amongst them, and lastly my desire is that Isaac Shelby James Shelby and Evan Shelby be my executors, to whom I give full power and authority to sell and dispose of my estate in the best manner that each one may receive his or her own part of my estate as before mentioned. In testimony whereof I have hereto set my hand and affixed my seal this 21st, day of February, 1778."

Witnesses

James Thompson

George Blackburn

John Patterson.

1. ↑ Evan Shelby Jr., in Find A Grave.
2.   Ancestor #: A102420 , in Daughters of the American Revolution. Genealogical Research System.

   (listed as senior not junior)
   Service Source: MCILWAINE, JOURNALS OF COUNCIL OF STATE OF VA, VOL 1, P 103; ECKENRODE, LIST OF REV SOLS OF VA, VOL 1, P 397; CLARK, STATE RECS OF NC, VOL 17, P 635
   Service Description: 1) ALSO MAJ; WASHINGTON CO VA MILITIA;
   2) MEMBER NC GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1781

3.   The Birthplace and Childhood Home of Isaac Shelby in Washington County, Maryland
   1972.

   Gerald J Sword describes how Evan and Letitia Shelby lost the fight for their land (part of “Maidens Choice”) to Dr Charles Carroll. It’s not clear who aptly renamed the land to “Shelby’s Misfortune”.

4.   Woods, Rev. Edgar. Albemarle County in Virginia: giving some account of what it was by nature, of what it was made by man, and of some of the men who made it. (Charlottesville VA: The Mickie Company, Printers, 1901)
   Chapter III, 1901.

   "...Evan Shelby [Note: Brigadier General Evan Shelby, Jr. father of Kentucky Governor Isaac Shelby ] was an immigrant from Wales, and at first settled in Maryland, near Hagerstown. There his son Isaac was born in 1750. In the year 1771 father and son were both in southwestern Virginia, in the neighborhood of Bristol; and there the home of Evan Shelby continued to be during his life. It is natural to suppose that his wife, whose maiden name was Letitia Cox, accompanied them to their new home in the West. Whether she was visiting friends in Albemarle, or was passing through on a journey, at the period of her last sickness, it is perhaps impossible now to ascertain. But the plain, well preserved inscription on her tombstone leaves no doubt that this vicinity was the place of her death. A tradition in the Floyd family states, that about 1680 a Nathaniel Davis, who was also a native of Wales, married a child of Nicketti, a daughter of the Indian Chief, Opechancanough, the brother of Powhatan. Robert Davis was a son of these parents, and an ancestor of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy; and a granddaughter of Robert Davis was the wife of Evan Shelby. Probability is lent in this account by the fact, that Robert Davis had a son named Samuel, who would thus be the uncle of Letitia Shelby; and Samuel Davis was the owner of several tracts of land in Albemarle, on the north fork of Rockfish, on Green Creek, and on both sides of Moore's Creek, adjoining the Carter lands. At the time of her death Mrs. Shelby may have been visiting the family of this friend...."

5.   Lewis, Virgil A. History of the Battle of Point Pleasant: fought between white men and Indians at the mouth of the Great Kanawha River (now Point Pleasant, West Virginia), Monday, October 10th, 1774 : the chief event of the Lord Dunmore's War. (Charleston, W. Va: The Tribune Printing Company, 1909)
   Pages 117-118, 1909.

   A List of Captain Evan Shelby’s Company of Volunteers From The Watauga Valley in The Fincastle County Battalion.
   
   Officers
   
   Evan Shelby, Captain - Assumed chief command on the field of battle after Colonels Lewis, Fleming, and Field had fallen.)
   Isaac Shelby, Lieutenant - (Took command of his father's company, who had assumed command on the field.)
   James Robertson, Sergeant
   Valentine Levier (Sevier), Sergeant
   
   Privates
   James Shelby, John Sawyer, John Findley (Finley), Henry Shaw (Span), Daniel Mungle (Mongle), Frederick Mungle, John Williams, John Carmack (Wounded at Point Pleasant), Andrew Terrence (Torrence), George Brooks, Isaac Newland, George Ruddle (Riddle), Emanuel Shoatt, Abram Bogard, Arthur Blackburn, Robert Herrill (Handley), George Armstrong, William Casey, Mark Williams, John Stewart (Wounded at Point Pleasant), Conrad Nave, Richard Burck, John Riley, Elijah Robinson (Robertson), Reece Price (Wounded at Point Pleasant), Richard Holliway, Jarrett Williams, Julias Robison, Charles Fielder, Peter Torney (Forney), William Tucker, John Fain, Samuel Vance, Samuel Fain, Samuel Hensley (Handley), Samuel Samples, Benjamin Grayum (Graham), Andrew Goff, Hugh O’Gullion, Barnett O’Gullion, Patrick St. Lawrence, Joseph Hughey (James Hughey), John Bradley, Bazaleel Maxwell.
   
   -Total 49-
   The Adversary was Chief Hokoleskwa Cornstalk

6.   Cass K. Shelby; Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania; May, 1945.

   (LDS Film #157085)

7.   Note: Findagrave lists him as Jr.; DAR as Sr. Needs more research.
8.   Shelby's Fort and SQUABBLE STATE The authors' research into Shelby's Fort and the "mysterious" Squabble State began with several Revolutionary War pension affidavits: