The Dragoo family is of French Huguenot descent, and came to America with the great numbers of that faith after their dispersion in Europe. Where this particular family first settled in this country is not certainly known. Like all such foreigners, they seem to have been for a long while placed at a great disadvantage, compared with their neighboring English emigrants, and were not able to acquire much property.
Peter Dragoo was a farmer of Frederick County, Virginia, owning a farm northeast of Winchester some years before the Revolutionary War. His wife was named Mary, and they had several children. In the court records of Frederick County I find, "May 6th, 1773, Elizabeth Jolliffe, widow of William Jolliffe, brought an action against Peter Dragoo, which case she won, and the Sheriff sold 30 sheep and 65 gallons of whiskey belonging to said Dragoo, to satisfy said debt." "March 3d, 1773, Peter Dragoo brought an action against Tristram Ewing by which he recovered quite a large debt with interest from June 14th, 1768. Plaintiff out of the Colony, so John Nevill his attorney paid the debt." "June 7, 1744, William Dragoo recovered a debt from James Tash." This was a son of Peter Dragoo and brother to Mary. "A Mrs. Dragoo was killed by Indians in what is now West Virginia; in 1786, her son a small boy was taken prisoner, and kept twenty years." I am inclined to think this was the widow of one of the sons of Peter Dragoo.
