Person:Jacob Marlin (1)

1744: List of Frederick Clerk Fees belonging to James Wood, Anno Dom. 1744. Marlin, Jacob - 91 [Pounds of Tobacco]. [Source: "Winchester, Virginia, and its beginnings, 1743-1814", pg. 385]

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Records in Augusta County, VA

From Chalkley's:

Vol. 1 - MAY, 1749. - Jacob Marlin vs. Samuel Finley.--Defendant lives at Jackson's, on River James. 20th February, 1748.

Vol. 1 - MARCH, 1789 (L to Z). - John Poage vs. William Elliott.--In 1772 plaintiff was at Greenbrier and met Walter Drinnen, who claimed he had title to the place on Tyger's Valley which Nicholas Nutt had settled and lived on two years until he was driven away by Indians. Nutt had sold land to Jacob Marlin, father-in-law to Drinnen. Walter was old and infirm.

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Notes

The town of Marlinton, Pocahontas County, Virginia is named for Jacob Marlin.

May be related to John Marlin, peddler, who shortly after the first settlement of Winchester in 1738, set off with John Salling, a weaver, two adventurous spirits, that set out from that place (Winchester) "to explore the 'upper country', then almost unknown". They came up to the valley of the Shenandoah, called Sherando, crossed James River, and reached the Roanoke river, where a party of Cherokee Indians surprised and captured Salling, Marlin escaped. Salling was detained by the Indians for about six years, and on being liberated returned to Williamsburg. [Source: "Annals of Augusta County, Virginia", Waddell, pg. 23].

References

The West Virginia Encyclopedia.

Marlin and Sewell
Jacob Marlin and Stephen Sewell, the first white residents of the Greenbrier Valley, had established themselves by 1749 at the mouth of Knapps Creek, the present site of Marlinton, Pocahontas County. They were discovered living there by surveyors John Lewis and his son, Andrew, in 1751. Marlin and Sewell had built a cabin together but later argued over religion and separated. By the time the Lewises found them, Sewell had moved from the cabin to a nearby hollow sycamore tree as the best way to avoid further dispute and preserve his friendship with Marlin.

The two men may have been land scouts rather than actual settlers, and soon afterward Sewell was among a group of 18 who received a large land grant north of the Greenbrier River. He and Marlin permanently parted ways some time after the Lewises came upon them at Knapps Creek. Sewell later built a cabin on the eastern side of Sewell Mountain on what is now known as Sewell Creek near present Rainelle. He was killed by Indians, apparently at the cabin site and probably in 1756 during the French and Indian War. Marlin, who returned to the East, survived the Indian wars.

Marlin and Sewell were among the very first English colonials to establish themselves on the ‘‘western waters,’’ those streams flowing westward to the Gulf of Mexico rather than eastward to the Atlantic. Their remarkable story soon became part of regional folklore and history. They left their names on the map of the area, including most notably the town of Marlinton and Sewell Mountain, but also a dozen more streams, mountains, and other places.

http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1508
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Stephen Sewel & Jacob Marlin, first settlers in western Virginia

The first pioneer sketch we turn to is a man by the name of Stephen Sewel. According to most traditional accounts, he along with partner Jacob Marlin made the very first Euro-American settlement in western Virginia in 1749 when the two built a cabin near the mouth of Knapps Creek at the present site of Marlinton in Pocahontas County. Settlers of English descent from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, the two men lived together for a short while until a religious dispute prompted Sewel to vacate their cabin and move into a nearby hollow tree. (170) Some traditions specify that their disagreement involved the rite of baptism and how it should be performed. (171) Regardless, there is near universal agreement that Sewel possessed deep religious convictions. (172)

https://prickettsfort.wordpress.com/category/jacob-marlin/
Drinnon, Kenneth C. Drinnons of Mulberry Gap: A Century of Family History
pg. 16.

Jacob Marlin died prior to May 24. 1765, the date his son Jacob Marlin, Jr. was granted letters of administration on his estate. Alexander Galsepe, Andrew Sitlingon, John Warick and Samuel Vance (or any of the three) were to appraise the estate (Augusta County, Virginia COB 9, p. 374). The papers did not show a name for Jacob's wife or Walter Drinnen's wife.
Cole, J. R. History of Greenbrier County. (Elkview, West Virginia: West Virginia Genealogical Society, 1995).

In 1751, John Lewis was, with his son, Andrew Lewis, surveying the 470 acres at Marlinton. Andrew Lewis was thirty-one years of age. John Lewis was seventy-three years old. They found a trapper here by the name of Jacob Marlin, from whom this town takes its name, it being first called Marlin's Bottom. Jacob [Marlin trapped out of Winchester, as did John Marlin, and we have often wondered if they were not really the same man.