Person:Marianna Denny (1)

http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/th/read/DENNEY/1997-11/0878974590

5. Mary Ann DENNY was born in 1748 in Lancaster County, PA. Died on 23 Nov 1833 in Guilford County, NC. She married John PAISLEY Sr., Col. in 1769 in NC. John PAISLEY Sr., Col was born in 1745 in Lancaster County, PA. Died on 10 Oct 1811 in Guilford County, NC. John Paisley, son of the emigrants, William Paisley and his first wife, Eleanor McLean, was born in Pennsylvania in 1745; moved to North Carolina with his father in 1765. John Paisley was early identified with the military forces of North Carolina. He was appointed by the Council as Major of 1st Battalion, Minute Men of Salisbury District, 1775. He was a field officer for Guilford County, being Lieutenant Colonel of Guilford Regiment. In 1776, he joined General Rutherford to subdue the "Over- hill" Cherokee Indians. He was appointed to pay for salt taken from Revolution. John Paisley, 1745-1811, and wife, Maryanna Denny, 1750- 1833.

He lived on his farm on Birch Creek, a small tributary of Little Alamance Creek, in Guilford County, NC.

Notes per Mark Ulmer: John Paisley, Sr., was the youngest of three sons born to William Paisley, Sr., and Eleanor McLean Paisley. He was born in 1745 in Pennsylvania and migrated at the age of 20 to Guilford County , North Carolina, with his father and family. Four years later, in 1769 , he married Marianna Denny. They lived on a part of John's father's original tract, east of Birch Creek, a small tributary of Little Alamance Creek, and north of where the "Great Road" was located as of 1811. The Forbis family lived down the road to the southeast; the Gillespies and Gorrells were near neighbors; and the Alamance and Buffalo Presbyterian Churches were equi-distant from the Paisley homestead, the former to the southwest, and the latter to the northwest. Sources: Guilford County, North Carolina, Will Abstracts, 1771-1841, pp . 48-49 (Southern Historical Press, Inc. c/o Rev. S. Emmett Lucas, Jr., P. O. Box 738, Easley, South Carolina 29640); Ruth Hackney Kirkman, "1790, 1800, 1810 Population Schedules, Guilford County, North Carolina" , p. iii (1808 map of Guilford County).

John Paisley's father, William Paisley, Sr., was one of the founding members and Elders of Alamance Church. John and his brother, Robert, were also Elders of Alamance. John's involvement in the Presbyterian church at Alamance is apparent, not only from the fact he was an Elder, but also from the accomplishments of his first son, William Denny Paisley, a highly regarded Presbyterian minister (ordained in 1798) and founder of Greensboro First Church, missionary to Tennessee from 1797 to 1799, teacher and one of the founding fathers of Greensboro, North Carolina. Sources: Rev. C. H. Wiley, "Alamance Church, a Historical Address", pp. 36, 39 (1880); Rev. E. C. Murray, "A History of Alamance Church, 1762-1918" (1918); Bettie D. Caldwell, "Founders and Builders of Greensboro, 1808-1908", pp. 20-24 (1925).

Like most of the Guilford County, North Carolina, Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, John Paisley was an ardent Whig and acitve in the Revolutionary cause, even before the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776; he was a "brave and valiant soldier" and leader throughout the American Revolution. Sources: Rev. Eli W. Caruthers, D.D., Vol. I, "Revolutionary Incidents and Sketches of Character Chiefly in the Old North State", p. 90; DAR Patriot Index, Centennial Edition, Part 3, p. 2215; Edythe Rucker Whitley, Registrar, Tennessee Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, 1894-1960 , "Membership Roster and Soldiers", p. 1240 (1961) [citing, inter alia, Wheeler's History of North Carolina, Vol. I, pp. 75, 81 (1851); Lippincott, Grambo & Co., Series I, Historical Sketches, Vol. 10, pp. 206, 531].

When the Colonial Assembly North Carolina first established its organized militia and appointed its Field Officers on September 9, 1775, it authorized raising one Company of Minute Men, which at that time would have been 50 men. John Paisley was appointed 1st Major of the Guilford County Company, making him third in command, behind Col. Ransom Surtherland and Lt. Col. James Martin, the brother of Col. Alexander Martin, who would later become Governor of North Carolina. Source: "Roster of North Carolina Soldiers in the American Revolution", pp. 502- 503; Sydney M. Cone, Jr., "The History of Guilford County, North Carolina, U.S.A., to 1980 A.D.", p. 36 (1980).

In early 1776, the British Colonial Goveror, Josian Martin, called for the Loyalists in North Carolina to join him in Wilmington on the North Carolina coast. About 1,600 Tories marched, but they were intercepted and defeated at Moore's Creek Bridge, about 20 miles northwest of Wilmington. While the casualties were not extreme, the psychological effect of the battle was significant; this early defeat discouraged many Loyalists and caused them to remain inactive during the early years of the Revolution. Source: Dan L. Morrill, "Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution", chapter 1.

Shortly after the Battle of Moore's Creek, on April 4, 1776, John Paisley was one of the Guilford delegates, along with Ransom Sutherland, William Dent and Ralph Gorrell, to the meeting of the Fourth Provincial Congress in Halifax which placed the State in military organization. Source: Sallie W. Stockard, "The History of Guilford County, North Carolina", p. 30 (1901). Later in the session, on April 22, 1776, the assembly formed the first Constitution for the State of North Carolina. This assembly also appointed, for Guilford County, James Martin, Colonel , and John Paisley, Lieutenant Colonel, making Lt. Col. Paisley second in command after Col. James Martin. Source: Cone, p. 36; Wiley, p. 45. Later, he became Colonel of the Militia. Source: Whitley, p. 1240.

In February, 1776, Col. James Martin was temporarily suspended for improperly arresting and fining several men in his command without a Court Martial hearing. Lt. Col. John Paisley may have taken over command for the balance of the year, given that he was referred to as "Colonel" from June, 1776, by all accounts, except that of James Martin. At any rate, during the time of the Cherokee Indian uprising in the Blue Ridge Mountain area of North Carolina, which was instigated by the British, Col. John Paisley dispatched a battalion of troops to aid Brigadier General Griffith Rutherford in subduing the "Overhill" Cherokee Indians who were ravaging as far as the Catawba River. He appointed Ralph Gorrell as Commissary for the Guilford Battalion in order to obtain supplies of salt and powder for this effort. Source: Cone, pp. 36-37. Around the middle of June, 1776, about 400 Guilford Militiamen were mustered. They "marched to the Turkey Cove, at the foot of the Blue Ridge, then crossed it over to Swananoa, thence to Pigeon River, thence to French River and thence to the Tennessee River where [they] came to some of [the Cherokee's] towns which [they] burned and cut down their corn, moving from one town as [they] destroyed it and marching to another." The Guilford Militia returned home in the beginning of November, 1776. Source: Vol. XXII, State Records of North Carolina, pp. 145-150 (statement of James Martin).

Although it appears that Col. James Martin's military manuevers may have been slight from the end of the Overhill Cherokee expedition until the Battle of the Guilford Courthouse, Col. John Paisley and his brother, Capt. Robert Paisley, appear to have keep busy "Tory Hunting". Captains Arthur Forbis, Moore, Whitsell and Gillespie, all "in the regiment of Col. John Paisley, were employed principally against the Tories under Fields and Willesby, in several tours, . . . [which] ranged through Randolph, Chatham, Moore, Anson, Montgomery and Rowan Counties. In the Fall of 1778, three regiments were raised by draft to go to S. C., commanded by Colonels Paisley, Locke and Sanders, and the brigade by General Rutherford. [James] McBride served with Capt. John Donnell, in Col. Paisley's regiment, going to Purysburg, on the Savannah river, where they lay until Spring, . . ." Source: Vol. XXII, State Records, pp . 143-145 (statement of James McBride).

On January 26, 1779, by petition of Guilford County residents to divide the County for the purpose of forming Randolph County, John Paisley, James Martin and William Dent were appointed commissioners to help set the new county line. Source: Cone, p. 39. On October 2, 1779, Col. John Paisley wrote a letter to his superiors regarding the state of military affairs. Source: Vol. XIV, State Records, p. 403.

In the latter part of 1780, about a thousand Tories were gathered at Wax Haw Creek, near Charlotte. In the latter part of September, Col. John Paisley and 200 of his men joined Gen. William Davidson at Camp MacCappin's Creek, 8 miles south of Charlotte, near Salisbury where Gen. Jethro Sumner was expected with his brigade. Source: Vol. XIV, State Records, pp. 615-616. In early October, under the direction of Gen. Sumner, Col. Paisley was dispatched with "a party of 300 foot soldiers, with a few horses" to disperse the Tories and cut them off from Charlotte. Source: Vol. XIV, State Records, pp. 692-693.

Apparently returning home after this encounter, "late in the fall of 1780, when the proximity of the British army and their triumphant success hitherto had given fresh life and courage to their friends in this country, a small Tory encampment was formed near the dividing line between Guilford and Randolph Counties. . ." which determined it to be "an object of primary importance with the Tories to capture [Col. John Paisley] and carry him to the British. A party was accordingly dispatched from the camp one night for the purpose, and arrived at his house just before sunrise. The Colonel had been out on an expedition against the Tories below Deep River, and had returned the evening before ." Source: Caruthers, Vol. II, pp. 193-195.

It appears that Col. Paisley and his Guilford County Militiamen were dispatched at the very end of 1780 to "join General Greene (who was retreating from before the British), in Caswell County, thence with him to Halifax, C. H., Va., where information was received of the ravages of the Tories in the neighborhood of Capt. Forbis [and Col. Paisley, his neighbor], who obtained permission to return home with his Company. When they reached Guilford, the Tories had fled the County, and Capt. Forbis resolved to join the army again, but before leaving Guilford, prisoners were sent to him to guard, . . . and he was on that duty when the battle was fought at Guilford." Source: Vol. XXII, State Records, pp. 151-152 (statement of John Montgomery, under Capt. Forbis at Guilford).

In the spring of 1781, after the American victory at King's Mountain, the British General, Lord Cornwallis, approached Guilford County in pursuit of General Nathaniel Greene in what would become one of the last battles of the American Revolution. Greene arrived at the Guilford County Courthouse on February 9, 1781, and found the North Carolina Militia assembled there, about 200 men, under the command of Col. James Martin. There was also a company under the command of Capt. Arthur Forbis made up of men from the Paisley, Finley and other families of the Alamance Church neighborhood. Lord Cornwallis arrived at the Alamance Creek 2 weeks later, on February 26th, with the intention of crossing the Reedy Fork Creek at Weitzel's Mill. A skirmish occurred there between American and British forces, but the British advance was not halted. On March 6, 1781, Cornwallis crossed the Reedy Fork Creek and and made their encampments in the neighborhoods of the congregations of Rev. David Caldwell at Buffalo and Alamance on the plantations of William Rankin and Ralph Gorrell, Esq., and the property of Rev. Caldwell. Source: Cone, Chapters 11 and 12. "The plantation of Col. John Paisley was the principal scene of [the British troops] deprivations; but others that lay on their route or contiguous to his, were not neglected." Source: Caruthers, Vol. II, p. 176. The British settled in, while awaiting reserves, and appropriated neighborhood homes and supplies, although nearly all the men of this area were with Greene. Greene, meanwhile, prepared for battle at the Guilford County Courthouse. On March 15, 1781, Cornwallis marched.

The Battle of Guilford County Courthouse put Cornwallis' 2,200 professional troops up against Greene's force of 1,490 Continental soldiers and 2,910 untrained Militia, most of whom were farmers that had never seen battle. Greene formed his troops in three lines of battle, facing west, stationed about 400 yards apart. The first line was made up of the unseasoned North Carolina Militia; they were stationed behind a rambling rail fence in front of open streams that sloped gradually downward toward a small stream from where the British would advance. The Guilford company of volunteers under the command of Capt. Forbis were here, including Willaim Paisley, Jr., John Paisley's brother, with orders to fire twice before retreating. The second line consisted of Virginia Militia and some Continentals. The third line was composed entirely of seasoned Continental troops, as well as two 6-pound cannon under the command of Capt. Samuel Finley. Col. John Paisley and his command were stationed to the south on a knoll, for the purpose of observing enemy troop movements and communicating intelligence.

At 1:30 in the afternoon, the Red Coats appeared. Upon order, they began their march up the incline toward the North Carolina Militia where they were met by a "most galling and destructive fire" from the "Irish line of the American Army, composed of marksmen lying on the ground behind a rail fence"; this was Capt. Forbis' Guilford company. Capt. Forbis fired the first shot, felling a British officer, and his company fired twice before retreating, unlike the other North Carolina volunteers present who fled at the first encounter. In the retreat, Capt. Forbis was mortally wounded and William Paisley was shot through the wrist. The British fired their volley and pressed on to encounter the second line of Americans. The Virginia Militia put up a strong fight, but the British pushed through and advanced upon the third line. These American Continentals counter-attacked, and, for a moment, threatened to overwhelm the British, but Lord Cornwallis ordered his cannon to shoot grapeshot through his own troops, killing many of his own men - a desparate measure - but one which saved the British from defeat. This allowed time for British reserves to be brought up and Cornwallis succeeded in capturing Capt. Finley's cannons. At this point , Greene decided that while retreat would mean technical victory to Cornwallis, Greene's escape with most of his troops would give him a longer term tactical advantage than winning the battle, so he withdrew, leaving the field to Cornwallis. The British army was so reduced and removed from its lines of supply that Cornwallis retreated back to the North Carolina coast. He surrendered to Washington seven months later at Yorktown, Virginia. Of the North Carolina Militia, 7 were reported killed and 6 wounded. Sources: Cone, "The History of Guilford County, North Carolina", Ch. 9-12 (1980); Foote, "Sketches of North Carolina", Ch. 21 (1925); Alden, "The South in the Revolution, 1763-1789", pp. 256- 259; Craig L. Symonds, "A Battlefield Atlas of the American Revolution", pp.92-93; Dan L. Morrill, "Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution", chapter 14.

On November 18, 1782, at the first session of the County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, Col. John Paisley, Col. John Gillespie, and others were commissioned as a "Jury to lay out a road from the Highrock ford on Haw River to the County line at Elisha Mendenhall's Mill". Source: Stockard, p. 33.

The level of prominence to which Col. John Paisley, Sr., rose during his life is partially detailed in his Will, dated July 25, 1811, admitted to probate in November of that year, after his death on October 10, 1811. Source: Guilford County, North Carolina, Will Abstracts, pp. 48-49; recorded at Will Book A, file number 0295. Although he gave his wife a life estate, he left his plantation fo his son, John Paisley, Jr., his homeplace to his daughter, Nancy Paisley Hanner, and a total of 15 negro slaves to his children, two each.

Ironically, John Paisley's great-grandson, William Paisley, died in the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy in effort to maintain this system, while George W. Paisley, great-grandson of William Paisley, Jr., the brother of John Paisley, Sr., fought for the Union with the Illinois Volunteers; Illinois was strongly anti-slavery. Sources: History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois; W. C. Rankin.

More About JOHN PAISLEY , SR.: Occupation: Farmer and planter Religion: Presbyterian, Elder in Alamance Church Military: 1775, Colonel in American Revolution, North Carolina Militia; Battle of Guilford 1st Migration: 1765, Migrated from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Guilford County, North Carolina

They had the following children:

+21 i. William Denny PAISLEY Rev. +22 ii. James PAISLEY +23 iii. Agnes "Nancy" PAISLEY +24 iv. John PAISLEY Jr. +25 v. Eleanor "Nellie" or "Ellen" PAISLEY +26 vi. George PAISLEY +27 vii. Elizabeth PAISLEY +28 viii. Mary Ann PAISLEY 29 ix. Jane PAISLEY was born on 28 Jun 1790 in Guilford County, NC. Died on 2 Jun 1797 in Guilford County, NC. 30 x. Anna PAISLEY was born in 1793. Died in 1796.