Person:John Lyle (13)

Capt. John Lyle was one of the Early Settlers of Augusta County, Virginia

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Biography of Capt. John Lyle

ROCKBRIDGE NOTEBOOK BY: George West Diehl

“Capt. John Lyle of Rockbridge” Chapter III

In the first battalion was a militia company under the command of Capt. John Lyle. William McCutchan was the lieutenant and Joseph Long, the ensign. Both had served at Point Pleasant with Lyle. The complete roster of the company has never been found, but it is known that among the men in the ranks were William Miller, Joseph Bell, and William Willson. Miller and Wilson were volunteers, but Bell was drafted. The company assembled at Isaac Campbell’s well known home on the “Great Road.” Campbell had received the property from his father, Gilbert Campbell, by will sixteen years before. The place became the site of the new town of Lexington in 1778. “The Cherokee Expedition,” as the movement became known, has been treated in detail by some historians, merely cited by others, and completely ignored by some. The difficulties of equipping the militia with powder and lead, when it was finally assembled, delayed the advance and it was not until the first of October that Christian’s army reached the Long Island, on the upper Holston River. Advancing from this point deep into the Indian territory, the army was involved with raiding the Cherokee towns, plundering their fields, and having an occasional skirmish. Chota, where Nancy Ward, the beloved woman of the tribe and a friend of the white man, had her home, was the only Cherokee town not given to the torch. The punitive work was done by Christian with the loss of one soldier, a man named Duncan who was killed in a skirmish, but the loss to the Cherokee was heavy. Upon his return to Long Island, Christian reorganized his little army for further action. Then following instructions, Christian placed Col. Evan Shelby and Major Anthony Bledsoe in command of a detail of six hundred militiamen to remain at Long Island as a vanguard. In a parley with some of the Chiefs, who had come to plead for peace, he informed them that their petition would be granted the following May, but, in the meantime, all hostilities would cease. This closed the expedition and the militia was ordered to return home. The long trek back up the “Great Road,” or “Warrior’s Path” was made and, in late December, Lyle’s company was back home. With the passing of the winter of 1778-79, Captain Lyle was turning his eyes and heart toward new lands. It was time when there was a restlessness among the people and, for some reason, a longing for seeking new homes, Would it be North Carolina, perhaps in the beautiful valley’s of the Holston, or the Tennessee, or the French Broad? Or, would it be the bluegrass lands of Kentucky? Apparently, it was difficult for Lyle to decide. James McDowell, a neighbor-boy, son of Judge Samuel McDowell and his wife the former Mary McClung, had enlisted in the Continental Line as a private when only sixteen years old; he remained in the service through Yorktown, coming out an ensign. In 1779, after the strain of Valley Forge, he was home on furlough. He and Mary Paxton Lyle, the only daughter of Capt. John Lyle by his first wife, had been childhood sweethearts. Learning that Mary’s father was talking of removing to North Carolina, he pressed his courtship--Mary consented to become his wife. The year 1780 was momentous in the Lyle household. The 431 acres of the farm which Captain Lyle had received from his father was divided into two portions. One, the larger portion of 351 acres, was sold to Alexander Campbell and the lesser, being 100 acres, was deeded to James Defrees. Then, on Sept. 21, Mary Paxton Lyle became the bride of James McDowell. Captain Lyle, having decided to migrate to Kentucky, led his family down the “Great Road,” then over the “Wilderness Road,” through Cumberland Gap into the blue grass country of Kentucky.

Information on John Lyle

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mysouthernfamily/myff/d0029/g0000075.html#I101383

Capt. John LYLE ABT 1736 - 1793 ID Number: I101383

TITLE: Capt.

RESIDENCE: Ireland and Rockbridge Co. VA

BIRTH: ABT 1736, Co. Antrim, Ireland DEATH: 1793, Rockbridge Co. Virginia RESOURCES: See: [S3464] [S3671] Father: Mathew LYLE "the Immigrant" Mother: Esther BLAIR

Family 1 : Isabella PAXTON +Esther LYLE +John LYLE Notes

2 John LYLE b: 1736 d: 1793 + Isabella PAXTON + Frances STUART