Person:John Mann (63)

John Mann was one of the Early Settlers of Augusta County, Virginia

Contents 1 Estate Records 2 Records in Augusta County, VA 3 Notes		Welcome to Old Augusta Early Settlers Beverley Manor Borden's Grant Register Data Maps Places Library History Index
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Estate Records

From Chalkley’s Augusta County Records:

• Vol. 1 - MAY 28, 1751. - (580) Thomas Mann, orphan of John Mann, to be bound.

• Page 431.--18th June, 1752. John Graham's bond as guardian (appointed) to Thomas Mann, orphan of John Mann, with surety Adam Dickinson.

Records in Augusta County, VA

From Chalkley’s Augusta County Records:

Notes

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~azopp

Husband: John Mann

Born: ABT. 1705 at: Ulster Ireland

Married: BEF. 1725 at: Ulster Ireland

Died: ABT. 28 MAY 1751 at: Botetourt Co VA

CHILDREN

Name: John Mann, Jr.

Born: 1725 at: Ulster, Ireland

Married: ABT. 10 SEP 1763 at:

Died: BET. 1773 - 1778 at: 1

Spouses: Frances Elizabeth Carpenter

Name: Moses Mann

Born: ABT. 1727 at: Ireland

Married: at:

Died: BEF. 19 AUG 1756 at: near Covington, VA 2

Spouses:

Name: William Mann

Born: 1731 at: Ireland possibly County Tipperary 3

Married: ABT. 1755 at: probably Bath Co VA 4

Died: 20 MAR 1778 at: Botetourt Co., VA 4

Spouses: Jane Hamilton

Name: Thomas Mann

Born: BET. 1735 - 1738 at: Botetourt Co., VA

Married: at:

Died: 1772 at: Botetourt Co., VA 5

Spouses:

SOURCES

1) Botetourt Co., Virginia list of Tithables

2) Augusta Co., VA Will Book II

3) Steve McClintic Info

4) WV News Greenbriers 160th Anniversary Edition

5) Chalkey's Scotch-Irish Cronicles

http://www.angelfire.com/pe/shirleyspage/mann.html The Mann Family of Botetourt County, Virginia

JOHN MAN, PIONEER AND PROGENITOR

The earliest mention of the Manns in Augusta County is the entry in the Orange county order book dated February 17, 1735 when John Man, among others, declares his importation direct into the colony from Ireland and Great Britain for the purpose of claiming land. John Man and the others then directly and immediately assign their land rights to Robert Green. Here is the exact rendering from the Orange county order book: “James Mitchell, James Vorttiau (illegible), David McMurrie, John Latham, Joshua Thomas, Charles Ffloyd, John Man, Thomas Pitchor, Joseph Phillips, John Welch and John Doalworon (illegible) severally made oaths in open court that they were immediately imported into this Colony from Great Brittain and Ireland and that this is the first time of proving their importation in order to obtain rights to Land which said Rights they Assign to Robert Green, Gent." The Council, meeting in Williamsburg, entered in its minutes: “November 3, 1740. Upon consideration of the petition of John Smith, Zachary Lewis, William Waller, Robert Green and Benjamin Waller, Leave is granted to them to Enter for and Survey One Hundred thousand acres of land in that part of Orange County which will be in the County of Augusta when that County shall take place on the River and Branches of Roanoke and the Branches of James River.” No further mention of this grant is found in the minutes of the council and no record is made in the county surveyor’s books or in the land office, except that it is stated in each survey made for these men that the tract surveyed is a part of the 100,000 acres allowed to them. Small tracts were entered and surveyed for individuals or for the company at desirable locations selected and the sum of the acreage taken to make up the whole. From the beginning John Smith was the agent in the field to show purchasers over the land and have their surveys made. This order of council was renewed in May 1745 to John Smith and others for 50,000 acres and again renewed in 1750, this time to Zachary Lewis for 50,000. By purchasing the parts of all the partners, except Smith and Lewis, Colonel James Patton got the whole grant in his hands and became the director for the affairs of the company. In 1761 Lewis released to William Thompson and John Buchanan, executors of James Patton, all his right in the grant. According to the agreement patents for tracts of land were to come out in Colonel Patton’s name and he was to give deeds to the people who bought the land on the payment of their respective sums with the interest due. Buyers thus avoided the trouble of entering and surveying the land and the payment of the surveyor’s and quit-rent fees. Money received from the sale of the lands was to be divided into six shares, after expenses, and 10% commission for Colonel Patton had been deducted.

The company finally played out and we do not know how much land to charge to its account. The exact procedure used by these men in handling this land is not made clear by any records we have found. John Smith was the only one of the group who was actively interested in the settlement. Presumably he was in the territory from the time the grant was made. Where he first lived cannot be ascertained. He owned land at the Great Lick on Roanoke and at Looney’s Ferry where in 1755 he was found building a fort around the house. Later in the same year, Govenor Dinwiddie referred to himas an experienced woodsman whose judgement could be followed in planning against the Indians. In the summer of 1756 after his return from the Shawnee expedition, he and his sons helped to defend Fort Vause.

In 1745 Robert Green of Orange country, William Duff of Frederick county, Jost Hite of Frederick and Robert McKay of Augusta county established thriving settlements on different branches of the Shenandoah, especially on Linvell’s Creek, a total of 7000 acres. Patents were issued to Robert Green who made conveyances to purchasers and others of this group. There was another patent to Robert Green which supported an advanced settlement on the southernmost branch of the south branch of the Potomac. The settlers were John Patton, Senior and Junior, Roger Dyer, William Dyer, William Stephenson, Matthew Patton and John Smith.

The above information comes from Kegley’s “Virginia Frontiers” but the 1735 Orange county court order book demonstrates that Robert Green appears to have begun land speculation before1740, at least as early as 1735. Robert Green came from England to Virginia in 1712 with his uncle William Duff, a Quaker. He represented Orange county in the House of Burgesses in 1736 and 1738. He died in 1748, leaving six sons.,p> From a petition by William Beverley to the government of Virginia it appears that the area of the Calfpasture River was already named and the rudiments of settlement present by 1726. However, according to Wilson’s “Tinkling Springs: Headwaters of Freedom”, in 1738 only eleven heads of household had obtained their titles to the land from Beverley. However, the year 1740 saw a rush of heads of household to register their importation into the colony for the purpose of gaining headrights to their property. Therefore, even the phrase immediately imported into this colony may be misleading when it comes to the date that a certain emigrant actually arrived in Virginia. Still, not every head of household obtained title to his land as witness the fact that in 1744, of the 77 heads of household who were subscribed members of the Tinkling Springs congregation (Presbyterian), only 47 of them held title to their land. This means there must have been a substantial class of tenant farmers, indentured servants, merchants and the like.

The emigrant John Man, having assigned his land rights to Robert Green, promptly disappears from court records until he is mentioned as the deceased father of Thomas Mann in May 1751 when Thomas is to be bound on the parish. Most likely he was one of those inhabitants of Augusta county who did not, for some reason, become a landholder. A history of the German Mann family which lived in the same general area as our British or Scots-Irish emigrant says that on May 18, 1749 a petition was filed. The author of the book says the John Man mentioned is not related to his Mann ancestors. The petition reads: “Petition of the inhabitants of North River and Picot (Peaked) Mountain to build a road from John Mann’s smithy on the south side of the mountain, eastward to John Wigard’s joining the mountain road and from the smith shop westward to the Stone Meeting House. Jacob Rogers, Robert Scott and James Berd to lay it out”. One of the petitioners was a Jacob Mann, a German. The road was of chief interest to the settlers north of the Beverley Manor grant and to the Germans of Peaked Mountain. It would appear that our John Man, after serving out his indenture, if such were the case, applied himself to the trade of blacksmith and thereby amassed some material wealth. There is little doubt that this John Mann is ours since the location of the smithy is near the Stone Meeting House which was located on the Beverley Manor and served as the focal point of the early settlement of Scots-Irish.

There is one tantalizing mention of another Mann in the earliest generation of settlers. Waddell, in his “Annals of Augusta County” says that the record book of courts martial held by officers of Augusta militia from 1756 to 1796 has in part escaped destruction. From this volume, we learn that a council of war was held at Augusta Courthouse (in Staunton) on July 27, 1756, by order of the Governor, to consider and determine at what points forts should be erected along the frontier for the protection of the inhabitants. The council was composed of the most prominent men of the county and it unanimously agreed that forts should be constructed at the following places: “At Peterson’s, on the South Branch of Potwomack, nigh Mill Creek”, two miles from the northern county line as it was drawn at the time; “at Hugh Man’s Mill on Shelton’s Tract, 18 miles from Peterson’s”, “at the most important pass between the last named place and the house of Matthew Harper, on Bull Pasture” (the place afterwards designated was Trout Rock, 17 miles from Man’s); “at Matthew Harper’s, 20 miles from Trout Rock” and at Captain John Miller’s, on Jackson’s River”. The description of forts continues, but this is the portion of interest to us. The length of the frontier to be protected was estimated by the council as two hundred and fifty miles, and the number of men to garrison the forts as six hundred and eighty. The scheme was abandoned later and only one or two new forts were erected. Mill Creek is, according to the gazeteer, a left hand tributary to South Branch of Potomac River in Hampshire county, West Virginia. Nearby stood Fort Defiance, where the minutes of the Augusta court show that Thomas Mann, son of John Man, was stationed for at least a brief period of time. This could of course be coincidence, but Hugh is definitely not a German name. It could be either Scots-Irish or English. Another thing the council minutes fail to tell us is what sort of mill this Hugh Man operated. It was probably a grist mill as those were very common even early in the settlement, but if it were a gunpowder mill, perhaps that is the point of origin for our Manns in the New World. Perhaps some of the earliest Manns remained in present day Hampshire county while others moved into present day Monroe county to operate the gunpowder mill near Greenville and still others, our John Man included, removed to the vicinity of Staunton. Whoever this Hugh Man was, he could not have been too young a man in 1756 since he is shown already established with a Mill. Was Nathaniel Mann HIS son? Do some of the unaccounted for Manns in Montgomery county later on belong to his line? For every fact I uncover it raises two or more questions!

There were some Manns christened at the Peaked Mountain Church in McGaheysville who were clearly German. All were the children of George Adam Mann and his wife Elizabeth Herman. George was baptized on October 9, 1763 and it is probably he who married Betsey Moyer in Montgomery county in 1790. After she was widowed, Betsey married Peter Harmon in 1797. Magdalene was baptized on March 11, 1765; John on July 30, 1771 and David on March 10, 1784. Adam Miller, whose descendants intermarried with the Manns of Monroe county (Germans) originally came to Virginia from Schierstein, Germany around 1726, according to the naturalization papers.

According to the Houchins family history, around 1770 the Manns, Maddys and Millers moved from Rockingham county, Virginia into present day West Virginia, near Greenville in Monroe county. John Mann came to Pennsylvania from Germany and his son Jacob married Barbary Miller, daughter of Jacob Miller, emigrant. Jacob and Barbary Miller Mann had Jacob Mann, Junior who married Mary Kessinger on August 24, 1779; Adam, who married first Mary Maddy on December 9, 1783 and second Polly Flinn on May 3, 1790; Elizabeth, who married William Maddy on February 25, 1783 and a daughter who married a Mr. Low. Jacob Mann owned a gunpowder mill. Saltpetre was supplied from Maddy’s Cave during the Revolution. This cave had formerly belonged to the Manns of Springfield. This is an intriguing mystery since there is a story that William Mann and his father and/or uncles and brothers lived in a saltpetre cave when they first emigrated from Ireland to Virginia. I do not know what, if any, substance this story has. It may have been influenced by the presence of the German Manns at Greenville or it may be an authentic tradition. Springfields abound, both in the United States and in Ireland. There were Scots-Irish Mann emigrants to Springfield township in Bucks county, Pennsylvania and Scots-Irish Manns living in Springfield township, Chester county, Pennsylvania. Moses Mann, son of William, one of the sons of the emigrant John Man, bought 26 acres of land on both sides of Jackson’s River, including a saltpetre cave, on December 10, 1792, in Botetourt county. Some of the children of William Mann stayed in Bath and Alleghany counties, and some went to Greenbrier county in the vicinity of present day Monroe county. A Moses Mann bought 22 acres in Monroe county on March 4, 1831, adjoining the land of Adam Mann and Adam Miller. This may or may not be a descendant of William Mann.

The Mann family which ended up in Bucks county is described as the family of James Mann and his wife Mary Carroll. The Manns and Carrolls were from Scotland and in childhood James and Mary emigrated with their families to county Antrim around the year 1690. He married her about 1709. The names of their children were James, born in 1710; John, born in 1712; William in 1714 and a daughter named Mary. John, the second son, became the progenitor of the family in Bucks county when he embarked from Donegal in 1732 in the company of the McNairs and others bound for America. They landed at Philadelphia and proceeded to Bristol in the autumn of the same year, locating at different points in Bucks county. Although our John Man was imported immediatelyinto Virginia, perhaps he was related in some fashion to these Bucks county Manns.