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Thomas English was one of the Early Settlers of Augusta County, Virginia __________________________ [edit] Records of Thomas English in Augusta County, VAFrom Chalkley’s Augusta County Records:
[edit] Accounts of Thomas English's family in Early Augusta County, VAThe following deposition taken in Augusta County, VA details much of the relationships of this English family:
Foote's Sketches of Virginia, second series, contain a long account of the circumstances attending the death of Colonel Patton, and of the captivity and escape of Mrs. Mary Ingles. Dr. John P. Hale, of Kanawha, a desceudent of Mrs. Ingles, in his work called "Trans-Alleghany Pioneers," gives a still fuller and, doubtless, more accurate account, and we shall mainly follow the latter. Thomas Ingles, says Dr. Hale, came from Ireland when a widower, with his three sous, William, Matthew and John, and settled first in Pennsylvania. According to tradition, he, in 1744, accompanied by his son, William, then a youth, made an excursion into the wilds of Southwest Virginia, going as far as New River. On this occasion, it is supposed, he became acquainted with Colonel James Patton. The latter then or soon afterward held a grant from the British crown of 120,000 acres of land west of the Blue Ridge, at that time Augusta county, but in the present counties of Botetourt, Montgomery, etc. The old town of Pattonsburg, on James river, in Botetourt, was called for him, and the opposite town of Buchanan was so named for his son-in-law, Colonel John Buchanan. During the same excursion, probably, the Ingleses for the first time encountered the Draper family, who had settled on James River, at Pattonsburg. This family consisted of George Draper, his wife, and his two children, John and Mary. While living at Pattonsburg, George Draper went out hunting, and was never heard of again. About the year 1748 the Ingleses, Drapers, Adam Harman, Henry Leonard and James Burke, removed from James river and settled near the present town of Blacksburg, in Montgomery county, calling the place Draper's Meadow, since known as Smithfield. In April, 1749, the house of Adam Harman was raided by Indians, but, as far as appears, no murders were perpetrated. This is said to have been the first depredation by Indians on the whites west of the Alleghany. It was reported to a justice of the peace for Augusta county, with a view to the recovery of damages allowed by law. William Ingles and Mary Draper were married in 1750, and John Draper and Bettie Robertson in 1754. The marriages no doubt took place in Staunton, there being no minister nearer Draper's Meadow authorized to perform the ceremony. In July, 1755, Colonel Patton went to the upper country on business, and was accompanied, it is said, by his nephew, William Preston. He was resting from the fatigues of his journey, and also seeking recovery from sickness, at the dwelling of William Ingles and the Drapers. It was on Sunday, the 8th of July, says Dr. Hale—but circumstances had led us to fix the date at least a week later*—that an unexpected assault was made on the house by Indians. Preston had gone to Philip Lybrook's to engage his help in harvesting. William Ingles and John Draper were away from the house. Foote says they and others were at work in the harvest field ; but if it was on Sunday the statement is quite certainly incorrect. Mrs. John Draper, being in the yard, was the first to discover the Indians. She hastened into the house to give the alarm, and snatching up her sleeping infant ran out on the opposite side. Some of the Indians fired upon her, breaking her right arm, and causing the child to fall to the ground. Taking up the infant with her left hand she continued her flight, but was overtaken, and the scull of the child was crushed against the end of a log. At the moment of the assault, Colonel Patton was sitting at a table writing, with his broadsword before him. Being a man of great strength, of large frame, and over six feet high, he cut down two Indians, but was shot and killed by others out of his reach. Other persons killed were Mrs. George Draper, the child of John Draper, and a man named Casper Barrier. The Indians plundered the premises, securing all the guns and ammunition, and setting fire to the buildings, immediately started on their retreat, carrying with them as prisoners Henry Leonard, Mrs. John Draper, and Mrs. Ingles and her two children,—Thomas four, and George two years of age. The unarmed men in the field could only provide for their own safety. The country was sparsely settled, and some days elapsed before a rescuing party could be collected. The Indians, on their hasty retreat, stopped at the house of Philip Barger, an old man, cut off his head and carried it in a bag to Lybrook's. Preston and Lybrook had gone back to Draper's Meadows by a different route from that taken by the Indians, and thus they escaped. In letters written by Governor Dinwiddie on the nth of August (nine letters were written by him the same day) he referred to Patton's death. To Colonel David Stewart, of Augusta, he wrote .that Patton " was wrong to go so far back without a proper guard." He hoped the wagons with ammunition did not fall into the hands of the Indians ; but he could not conceive what Patton was to do with ammunition "so far from the inhabited part of the country." Writing to Colonel Buchanan at the same date, he expressed regret that the men sent by Buchanan "after the murderers, did not come up with them." This is the only information we have of any pursuit. A letter written by John Madison, Clerk of the County Court of Augusta, to his cousin, Col. James Madison of Orange, father of President Madison, dated August 19, 1755 (erroneously printed 1753), shows the spirit of the times. We find it in Rieves's Life of Madison. The writer says : "Four families on their flight from a branch of New River this minute passed my house, who say that five men were murdered at the house of Ephraim Voss, on Roanoke, since the death of Col. Patton. 'Tis shocking to think of the calamity of the poor wretches who live on the Holston and New rivers, who for upwards of a hundred miles have left their habitations, lost their crops and vast numbers of their stock. Could you see, dear friend, the women who escaped, crying after their murdered husbands, with their helpless children hanging on them, it could but wound your very soul." He alludes to the appointment of Andrew Lewis as Lieutenant of the county, and expects to see his instructions on next court day. He is extremely obliged to "good friends for the guns sent," and will return them as soon as otherwise provided. He is also much obliged to Col. Madison for an invitation to take refuge with him, but his "train" is too large; and moreover, if he loses his all with his life, his children may as well go too. In a postscript he says: "I verily believe they are determined on our destruction. However, as they come in small parties, if they will be so kind as to stay till I have finished my fort, may Heaven send me a few of them."
From the unpublished manuscript, Indian Atrocities Along the Clinch, Powell and Holston Rivers, pages 93-98. In Tazewell Co., VA, lies Burke's Garden, one of the most beautiful valleys in all of Southwest Virginia. The valley is a bowl 10 miles long by 5 miles wide, snuggled down between beautiful mountains on all sides, with a narrow outlet at one end. This was perhaps the earliest site of a settlement in Tazewell Co., with the Ingles brothers and son building a cabin there in 1749, (1) although they did not make a settlement at this date, only a cabin. The Ingles and Patton families claimed all of Burke's Garden, and after the death of Col. James Patton, his grandson James Thompson seems to have taken over and most of the land eventually came into possession of James Thompson and Dr. Thomas Walker. In 1760 it was known as "Ingles Craborchard." (2) Kegley, in his "Virginia Frontier," (2), says: Thomas, John and William Ingles of Ingles Mill Creek of the North Fork Roanoke, were among the most interesting of the early settlers. Thomas and John were brothers, William and Matthew, (3) sons of Thomas. Thomas Ingles a grandson of William says, "My great grandfather, Thomas Ingles, was a merchant of Dublin, Ireland, who, upon suspicion of entertaining liberal principles and engaging in a rebellion him and his two sons were sent as convicts to Wales from whence they made their escape to the United States, my grandfather William Ingles being one of the number, they came first to Pennsylvania and from there to this country. (Letter of Thomas Ingles of Lovely Mount, Montgomery Co., 1851). They were here as early as 1746 and were well established when Dr. (Thomas) Walker visited them in 1750. Thomas and his brother John entered land on the waters of New River and Clinch and William as heir to both, came into possession of it. John was killed at Vause's Fort and his wife, Mary, was carried into captivity. When this Mary Ingles returned she married John Miller and went to Carolina. William Ingles came to the Roanoke with his father and Uncle John before 1746. William in 1750 married Mary Draper, but he continued to live on the Roanoke until after 1753, when he purchased land at Draper's Meadows from Col. Patton. He was on the waters of New River in 1754 and 1755. A neighbor of Ingles, on the Roanoke River, James Burke sold his property there in 1753 and moved to Burkes Garden and lived there until the Indians saw fit to run him out. From Burkes Garden James Burke migrated to Cumberland Co., NC, and in 1760 he and his wife Lucretia, conveyed the remainder of the original Burke land on the Roanoke to Dr. Walker. This is the reason for calling the place Burke's Garden as James Burke seems to have been the first to actually make a settlement in the valley. At the Draper's Meadows massacre of July 30, 1755, the wife of William Ingles, Mary Draper Ingles, and her small son Thomas, then four years old, were taken captive by the Indians. Mrs. Ingles made her escape, and the details of which has become the classic Indian story of Southwest Virginia. Her son, Thomas, was held captive until ransomed by his father in 1768. He had spent thirteen years with the Indians, had grown to young manhood, spoke their language fluently, and had adopted Indian ways altogether. It is said that upon return he was very unhappy away from his Indian friends, and had much difficulty in readopting to civilized life. He was finally sent to Albemarle Co. By his father and while there married. William Ingles continued to live on in the area until his death in 1782, leaving at least five children (4), who were: Susannah who married Abraham Trigg; Rhoda who married Byrd Smith; Mary who married John Gills, and Thomas and John Ingles. (5) Thomas Ingles eventually settled in Burke's Garden on the land he had inherited from his father. He was Commissary for the troops on the Point Pleasant expedition and his feelings were very strong for the Indians. On the 5th of April, 1782, the Shawnee, under the leadership of Black Wolf made a raid upon Burkes Garden and captured the family of Thomas Ingles. Pendleton, History of Tazewell County, (6) gives the following: The Indians had concealed themselves until Ingles went out on his farm to work, and then surrounded his home; and made his wife, their three children and a Negro man and woman prisoner. After taking as much booty as they could carry the Indians started with their prisoners back to Ohio. The cries of the captives attracted the attention of Thomas Ingles and his Negro man while they were plowing in a field. Seeing the number of Indians, Ingles knew he could do nothing for his family. He and the Negro man, unhitched the horses from the plow and started to the nearest settlement for assistance. Knowing the Indians would make their way back to the head of the Clinch, Ingles crossed the mountains to the nearest settlement on the North Fork of the Holston.. It happened to be Muster Day for the Washington Co. militia and the settlers on the North Fork of the Holston River had assembled, and were being drilled by Captain Thomas Maxwell, who had formerly lived at the head of Bluestone, in Tazewell Co. Maxwell with a party of fifteen or twenty volunteers, went with Ingle's to Burke's Garden to pursue the Indians. (7) Joseph Hicks (Hix) (8), a single man and his Negro slave were the only other people who lived in Burke's Garden besides the Thomas Ingles family. The day the Indians attacked the Ingles family Hicks and his Negro man were on their way to the home of Ingles and saw the Indians with their captives. He and the Negro man immediately started across Brushy Mountain for help in Bland County. There they secured six or seven men and arrived back in Burke's Garden about the same time Maxwell and his party arrived. The two parties united under Maxwell and went in pursuit of the Indians. On the fifth day after the capture the advance scouts discovered the Indians, who were camped for the night in a gap of Tug Mountain. It was agreed that Maxwell should take half of the men, and during the night, get in front of the Indians, and Thomas Ingles should remain with the other half in the rear of the Indians, and at daybreak a simultaneous attack should take place. The night was very dark and the ground rough and brushy. Consequently the party with Maxwell lost their way and did not reach the front by daylight. Maxwell having failed to get to his appointed place on time, and the Indians beginning to rouse from their slumbers, Ingles determined to make an attack with his men. Dr. Thomas Hale, who was a great-grandson of William and Mary Ingles and who collected his information from the records of the Ingles family thus relates what transpired after the attack was made: 'So soon as a shot was fired, some of the Indians began to tomahawk the prisoners, while others fought and fled. Thomas Ingles rushed in and seized his wife just as she received a terrible blow on the head with a tomahawk. She fell covering the infant of a few months old, which she held in her arms. The Indians had no time to devote to it. They tomahawked his little five year old daughter, named Mary, and his three year old son, named William. His Negro servants, a man and woman, captured with his family, escaped without injury. Dr. Thomas Hale, in his "Trans Alleghany Pioneers," says that "shortly after this occurrence that Thomas Ingles, his wife, and infant daughter, moved to Tennessee and settled in succession on the Watauga River at Mossy Creek, and at Fort Knox, now Knoxville. There his daughter, Rhoda, who escaped death, grew up and married Patrick Campbell. Subsequent to the marriage of his daughter, Thomas Ingles moved to Mississippi, where he lived until he died. After tomahawking the Ingles children in making their escape the Indians ran close to Captain Maxwell and his party, and, firing on them, killed Captain Maxwell, (9) who was conspicious from wearing a white hunting shirt. The whites remained on the ground until late in the evening burying Captain Maxwell, who was killed outright, and Thomas Ingle's little son, who died from his wounds during the day. Mrs. Ingles and the little girl were still alive, although badly wounded. Four days after the party arrived at William Wynn's Fort at Locust Hill. On April 26, 1782, Col. William Preston, wrote Governor Harrison (10), a letter wherein he states: Enclosing a letter to himself from Col. Walter Crockett, dated April 15, 1782, giving account of the killing of Captain Moffet's sons, and the whole family of Captain Ingles in Burke's Garden, - also of his having ordered Col. Cloyd to call out the militia to assemble at "David Doack's Mill", to protect the settlements, as the people talk of "breaking up" unless help is afforded them. He calls also for provisions as they cannot be supplied on Clinch. Col. Preston adds, "I wrote to your Excellency the 10th instant informing you of the damages the savages had done in Montgomery. I last night received the enclosed letter from Colonel Crockett. It appears that Captain ingles family were not burned in the house, as he imagined, but were taken prisoners. He raised a party of men and pursued the enemy; after some days march he overtook them and recovered his wife and one child, both tomahawked, but perhaps not mortally, and his slaves. One of his children they murdered, killed an officer of the party, and made their escape. The enemy attacked some other families, but were repulsed though, I believe without loss. They killed a man on Bluestone, and I am told a woman at Culbertson's Bottom on New River. Their signs have been seen in various parts of the country, which has given the greatest alarm to the inhabitants; and what is extraordinary that five houses they attacked, that four belonged to officers, and some of them a considerable distance within the frontier settlements, which induces me to believe they are conducted by Tories. I am at a loss what measures to fall upon for the defense of the distressed inhabitants. (1) Statement of Matthias Harman in 1809, Maxwell vs Pickens, Augusta Court Causes Ended, O. S. 129; N. S. 45. Bill 1807. (2) Kegley, Virginia Frontier, pages 194-195. (3) Matthew was a seaman and died unmarried at sea. Statement of Samuel Wilson (born 23 February 1733) Augusta Court Causes Ended, Thompson vs. Ingles, O. S. 46; N. S. 16. Wilson married Rebecca, daughter of James Burke. (4) Statement William Wynn, Augusta Court Causes Ended, Wynn vs Inglish's heirs, O. S. 48; N. S. 16. (5) Perhaps the same John English who settled in 1772 on Sugar Hill in Wise Co., near St. Paul, VA, and whose family was murdered there in 1787 by Indians. The name is variantly spelled, Ingles, Inglis, Inglish and English. See story of John English's family in this volume. (6) Pendleton, History of Tazewell Co., VA, page 443. (7) David E. Johnson, History of Middle New River Settlements, page 146, says that Henry Harman was of this party also. (8) Joseph Hix was still in Tazewell Co., in 1809, when he made a deposition in the case, Maxwell vs Pickens, Augusta Court Causes Ended, O. S. 129; N. S. 45. Bill Filed 1807. (9) Killed on Tug River at a place still called Maxwell's Gap. (10) Calendar Virginia State Papers, Vol. III, page 139. [edit] Records of Thomas English in Augusta County, VAFrom Chalkley's:
[edit] Possible Relative in early Augusta County, VirginiaThere is a Patrick Ingles (English) that appears in early Augusta County, Virginia records. He married an "Alice (listed as "Else" in his will), and was born before 1741 (perhaps well before that date), and appeared in the following records: From Chalkley's:
It is not known how (and if) there is any relation to this Patrick English. More research is necessary to determine any relationship. [edit] External links
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