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James Coburn, of South Branch, Potomac River
b.Abt 1688
Facts and Events
James Coburn was one of the Early Settlers of Augusta County, Virginia
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Estate Records of James Coburn
- Vol. 1 - FEBRUARY 15, 1748. - (69) Jonathan, son of James Coburn.
- Page 99.--15th February, 1748. Jonathan Cobourn's bond as administrator of James Cobourn, with sureties John Dobikin and Michael Stump.
- Page 165.--19th April, 1749. James Coburn's appraisement. Settled with Andrew Knoling, Peter Tustee, Henry Sheplar, Geo. Sea, Fredk. Sea, Thos. Dove. Due from James Kuykendall, Saml. Coburn. Due from Christian Ewigh, Joel Hornback. Due from Jacob Coburn, Wm. Leane, Isaac Coburn. Due from Henry Femster, John Ryon, Aaron Price. Due from Jno. Collins, Jno. Warwell, Richd. Field. Due from Henry Cartwright, Garrett Decker. Due from Danl. Richardson, John Kuykendall. 21 lbs. nails. By Abraham Vanderpoole, James Simpson, Michael Horn.
Records in Orange County, VA
- Orange County, Virginia, 71, 24 June 1742 - On petition of several inhabitants of the South Branch for a road from Codys [Caudy's] on Cape Caporn [Cacapon] to Peter McHugh's and from thence to Coburn's mill. It is ordered that the subscribers of the said petition clear the said road under James Coburn, who is hereby appointed overseer of the said road and it is further ordered that he cause the said road by the tithables who were subscribers to the petition to clear the same and make bridges where required according to law.
Records in Augusta County, VA
From Chalkley’s Augusta County Records:
- 1744: Thursday [June] 9th - Journal of Thomas Lewis, Surveyor: Continued cloud and likely to rain. Moved with the bagage up to the line where we encamped opposite to Coburns. Went to see Coburn who with his wife and miller, a bucksom lass, repayed the visite in the evening we spent very meriley.
- 1744: Tuesday [June] 28th - Journal of Thomas Lewis, Surveyor: to the west fork of Mill Creek. Here we left off having 3 miles down said creek to Coburns, and just got there as the gentlemen comisioners and bagage did, who was very much surprised to see Fumfire there before them, who had come down the river with Capt. Winslow and was judged intirely lost [Fumfire was their farrer (probably a slave) who had wandered off and was rescued by the party]. Our provision being entirely gone, we were well prepared to dine with Coburn on our arrival. We went to our old camping place when here before where we pitched our tents. Several of the inhabitants came to see us whom our men engaged to wrestle with them. Diverted us very much.Source: Genealogy.com
- Vol. 1 - JUNE 18, 1747. - (221) James Coburn. Michael Harness, James Simpson, Michael Shef, appraisers John Bogard's estate.
- Vol. 1 - 1751-1752 - Petition for road from Widow Cobern's Mill, on the South Branch, to John Paton's Mill, on the South Fork, at least 30 miles nearer than the road we formerly traveled. A bridle road asked for: William Stephenson, Mathew Patton, Jeremiah Calkin, George West, Peter Reed, Jr., Samuel Patton, Benjamin Patton, Leonard Reed, John Reed, John Knowles, Alexander Crockett, John Patton, Luke Collins, Jacob Reed, Daniel Richardson.
Information on James Coburn
- James Coburn, a son of William and Mary (Baker) Coebourn, was born about 1690 in Chester County, PA and died in Augusta County VA about 1748. His son Jonathan posted bond as the administrator of his father's estate in Augusta County February 15, 1748. James paid taxes on land in Prince George's County Md in 1733. On February 27, 1735, 300 acres on land on the Conegochege River in Franklin County PA was granted to James. This land was sold to Philip Davis October 16, 1736. He was living on the South Branch of the Potomac river in present day Hardy County, West Virginia when George Washington surveyed Wappacomo Manor for Lord Fairfax in 1748. His children are named in the will of his son John, dated November 26, 1764. [Source: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hcpd/norman/COBURN.htm]
- In 1736, John Van Meter's son, Isaac Van Meter, who has since moved to New Jersey, decided to explore western Virginia for himself. He traveled to present-day Moorefield in nearby Hardy County and staked a claim to 400 acres of land by using a tomahawk to mark slashes on trees outlining the claimed territory. He then returned to his New Jersey home. When he returned the following year, he found James Coburn living on his land. Coburn was a member of a group of families which had settled in the Hampshire County vicinity around 1735. He moved to the Moorefield area while Isaac Van Meter was away. The dispute over the land's ownership was settled peacefully as Isaac Van Meter paid Coburn for the land. Coburn then moved further south and west, settling in the vicinity of present-day Petersburg in Grant County.
Source: http://www.polsci.wvu.edu/wv/Grant/grahistory.html
References
- McCauley, William. History of Roanoke County, Salem, Roanoke City, Virginia and representative citizens, 1734-1900. (Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms International, 1982)
pg. 67.
James Coburn, the first slave-owner on record in the county, died in 1749, leaving, among other property, a negro man appraised at $66 sixty-six and two-thirds cents and a negro woman worth $110.
- Genealogy.com.
Perhaps the best information about the very earliest settlements in the South Branch Valley comes from Kercheval's "History of the Valley of Virginia" (first published in 1833), which relates details of several events recounted to the author by contemporaries. According to Kercheval, the first settlers in the South Branch Valley were James Coburn, James Rutledge, John Howard, and James Walker, who arrived sometime around 1735. Evidently, two brothers named Isaac and John VanMeter (sons of John VanMeter - an Indian trader who was probably the first European to see the South Branch Valley) had claim to some fertile land along the South Branch (just above "the Trough", near the junction of two Indian trails - the McCullough path and the Seneca trail - at the site of some Indian "Old Fields", where Ft. Pleasant would be erected). When they visited the area in 1740, they found James Coburn had already settled there. VanMeter proceeded to buy out Coburn, who headed upriver about 15 miles and established a new home and operated a mill just above the mouth of Looneys (Lunice) Creek, where the town of Petersburg now exists. His was described in 1746 as being "the farthest settlement" (Lewis Journal, p.27). Kercheval further states that by the time Isaac VanMeter moved out to the South Branch for good in 1744, several others were also living in the area, including Abraham Hite, Peter Casey, Pancake, and Forman.
As previously stated, James Coburn was among the first to settle the South Branch around 1735. He is believed to have been born around 1690 in Chester County, Pennsylvania, where he married an Irish girl named Mary. His grandfather, Thomas "Coebourn", journeyed from Berkshire, England to Philadelphia on board the "Bristol Factor" on Sep 28, 1681. James died on February 15, 1748 in Augusta County, and his son Johnathan was bonded as administrator of his estate, with sureties provided by John Dobiken and Michael Stump (Augusta County Will Book No.1, p.99, Augusta County Court Records, Order Book No. 2, p.69).
https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/varvel/63/
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