Person talk:George Asbury (1)

Kings Mountain [2 March 2012]

Source:Moss, 1990 attempted to documented each King's Mountain participant based on Service records (e.g., pension applications, statements by known veterans of the campaign, etc), and family stories. Those for whom there were no service records, but for whom family stories existed suggesting they were at Kings Mountain, were listed in a separate tabulation. Moss lists "George Asberry "as "possibly" at Kings Mountain, or "possibly" in the campaign if not actually at King's Mountain, but does not include him in his "proven" tabulations. (There are no entries for a "George Asbury" per se.) Based on that I suspect that all that can be said of his participation in King's Mountain is that he may have been there, but that there is no known original documentation to support this. Q 08:36, 2 March 2012 (EST)

SW VA [3 March 2012]

I checked Source:Summers, 1929 for Asberry/Ashbury (etc). There were no entries in his work.

The only entry for Asbury/Ashberry, etc in Volume I of Early Adventurer's is for Bishop Francis Asbury, who passed through the area during the period of Indian Hostilities. I've no idea if there is a family connection here or not. See Person:Francis Asbury (4) for a brief article and link to his journal.

There is a single entry in Source:Kegley, 1982 for "George Asbury". (p38, vol 2 of Early Adventurer's...). This is a land record which places him in may of 1781 at a place called "Rooting Camp", "on head of East River". Its in the Montgomery county section of this work. The parcel was obtained based on an assignment from a William Longwood. The type of the certificate is not noted. It could conceivably be a certificate based on military service (perhaps in the French and Indian War), but that service would have been performed by Longwood, not Asbury. The record involves a 1000 acre parcel, which suggests which is fairly large relative to other surveys. This may suggest that Asbury was fairly well off---as we would presume he purchased the certificate from Longwood at fair market value---that, however, is just a guess. We rarely know the terms and conditions of an assignment.

Vol 3 p 112 gives additional information on this same land entry, Giving the location as "Roating (Toating) Camp", and noting that the certificate was a treasury warrant. That indicates that this was not for military service. The specific entry in this work is for 1792 when the land was re-entered in Wythe County records---which helps further pin down the location.

p. 146 gives an entry in which the property was apparently assigned to George Pearis in 1798. The property is now described as at the head of East River, "at a place known by the name of Big Springs".

p. 150 entry deals with what appears to be two nearby parcels (200 and 400 acres) which also ends up in the hands of George Pearis. The smaller parcel is "on the East River in Rich Valley". The larger one is "in the forks of Brush Creek known as Fork Lick".

p. 151 gives a record for a transfer of a 200 acre parcel in 1798, based on a asignment that passed through Asberry's hands, to Pearis, and now is sold to Hugh Caperton. This might be the same land described on p 150, but the description is different "Mouth of Sand lick Creek, a branch of Bluestone River."

From the above it would seem that George Asbury settled at the head of the East River by 1782, but sold out by 1798. I presume he probably went elsewhere, and might have left the area well prior to 1798.

I also checked Source:Chalkley's Chronicles and found no entries for Asbury/Ashberry, etc, but I did find the following

JAMES PATTON. To the High Sheriff of this County. Executed by me, John Edward, 2d September, 1747. Mathew Young's bond (with Nathan Lusk (Loosk) and James (mark) Asebury) for appearance at next Court. Signed, sealed and acknowledged before us: James Paton, John Buchanan, John Willson.

James Asebury could be kin to George, but I don't know that. There certainly are few records in Old Augusta for an Asberry etc. I suspect George's parents were not in this area when he was born, though its certainly possible that they went unrecorded. Chalkely's is not necessarily an exhaustive source, though its highly useful. But to show that George was born here would require at least some original source documentation. You'd probably have to gain access to the original court records for Augusta to evaluate this further. That would be, I think, a very time consuming task.

Q 09:28, 2 March 2012 (EST)

Thanks. I'm mostly interested in his grandchildren, but noticed the supposed birth place.--GayelKnott 20:46, 2 March 2012 (EST)