The beginning of the narrative had its origin ten miles from Buford's Tavern.
James Beverly Risque was a resident of Fincastle, Virginia. He studied at William and Mary College and Washington College. In 1794, he began the practice of law. He married Elizabeth Kennerly in 1799 and this union produced three children: Adaline, Ferdinand, and Harriet. Living one block away from this family was a man named Thomas Beale Sr. (I have never been able to learn whether this Thomas Beale Sr. was given a middle name.) Thomas Beale Sr. was born in 1773 and moved from Shenandoah County to Fincastle in the early 1790's to join his brother John, who was engaged in several business enterprises. One writer who knew Thomas Beale Sr. described him as a braggart and an excellent marksman. James B. Risque, his neighbor, was a man of excessive pride; the two were on a collision course. Sometime between the fall of 1806 and May, 1807, a dispute arose between Thomas Beale Sr., and James concerning a sixteen-year old girl named Judy Hancock. (This girl would marry Gen William Clark on January 5, 1808, the same William Clark who explored the Northwest. And it is the same Judy Hancock Clark who is buried in the vault on the side of the hill near Elliston, Virginia. She was the daughter of Col. George Hancock.) The dispute resulted in a duel. Thomas Beale Sr. shot James. Thomas Beale Sr. fled the state of Virginia to begin a new life; he died far from Virginia, having abandoned his family ties. James recovered from his wound and resumed the practice of law. (Handwritten note: Thomas Beale Sr. died in New Orleans, 1820, buried in Presbyterian Cemetery).
