We resume the story about George after he has returned home from having been captured by Indians and held by the French for three years during the early days of the French and Indians Wars. George and his wife Margaret have settled back into their lives. Soon they would welcome their sixth son, Jesse, in 1759, followed by daughters Hannah in 1760 and Jemima in 1765.
- 23 October 1777 a grant for 226 acres near Dillon’s Run a branch of the Great Cacapelion
- 24 August 1779 a grant for 200 acres on the headwaters of Dillon’s Run; and
- 25 August 1779 a grant for 152 acres on both sides of the top of Kinman’s Mountain.
Genealogists have long speculated that George rented land from Lord Fairfax or a land speculator when he and Margaret moved to western Virginia in 1744. The common belief is that the 1777 grant was for that land and that the 1779 grants were for properties he acquired later. As I read the 1779 grants, however, I saw language that suggested a totally different scenario.
The following language in the 24 August 1779 grant (“Grant”) is what caught my attention. The August 25th grant is identical save for the survey date and the property description.
“I [Lord Fairfax]…do give grant & confirm unto George Edginton (sic) of Hampshire County a certain tract of waste and ungranted land on the Head Water’s of Dillon’s Run in the said county bounded as by a survey there of dated November the 10th 1761 made for the said George Edginton by John Mauzy and forfeited by virtue of an advertisement issued from my office recorded therein in Book N, but on the application of the said George Edginton I have allowed a Deed to issue to him for the said land…”
The Grant states that it is for a “tract of waste and ungranted land.” For this, I turned to The Legal Genealogist for help understanding what this meant. In her post, she tells us that it simply means that the land hadn’t yet been granted to someone else. https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2018/10/15/virginias-waste-lands/.
The Grant goes on to state that the land was “bounded as by a survey there of dated November the 10th 1761 made for George Edginton by John Mauzy…”
Most people have a survey made to verify the boundaries of property they already own or that they wish to purchase. So, if George had the property surveyed in 1761 why couldn’t we find any record of him obtaining legal ownership until 1779?
For the answer, we first need to gain some historical perspective regarding where the land was located.
In the early 1700s, Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, inherited over 5 million acres in Virginia in what came to be known as the Northern Neck Proprietary (“Proprietary”).
After years of not receiving the rents that were due him, Fairfax appointed his cousin William Fairfax to be his representative in the American Colonies. While staying with William, Lord Fairfax met George Washington who was William’s neighbor. Fairfax ultimately hired Washington as a surveyor.
From 1749 to 1752 Washington would serve as a surveyor for grants of land on the frontiers of the Proprietary. He would also later obtain land grants of his own from Lord Fairfax.
I turned, therefore, to writings by and about Washington to understand the process for obtaining a survey and a land grant from Fairfax. Washington tells us that a person wishing to buy a parcel of land would first visit the Proprietary land office and pay a fee to have a land warrant issued. Lord Fairfax, who lived in the Proprietary, or his agent would approve the claim and choose a surveyor to lay off the bounds. The surveyor would receive packets of land warrants from the Proprietary land office. The documents would instruct him to survey an approximate acreage for a specific person at a general location by a certain date, normally 5 to 6 months from the date of the warrant.
The surveyor would return the finished survey with the warrant to the Proprietary land office where it might lay for several years before a grant was issued. In fact, fully a third of lands Washington surveyed were granted within 2 years’ time and over half within 5 years. Some, however, were not granted until the 1770s and some may never have been granted.
Delays were sometimes due to challenges from rival claimants. Others simply chose to have the survey done to preserve their right to the land and then elected not to proceed with the grant to avoid having to pay taxes to Lord Fairfax. (14)
Bingo! We see now that George might have had the land surveyed in order to stake his claim. He then chose not to proceed with the grants to avoid having to pay taxes.
I doubt that Lord Fairfax was pleased with this practice.
In fact, we see next in the Grant that the survey was “…forfeited by virtue of an advertisement issued from my [Lord Fairfax] office recorded therein in Book N…”
Book N is a book that summarizes the land grants that were issued for land in the Northern Neck of Virginia. There we find a transcript of the following ad, which had been placed in the Pennsylvania Gazette by Thomas Bryan Martin, Lord Fairfax’s nephew and his current agent. The ad was also posted at the Proprietary’s office.
The ad tells us that surveys dated before 1764 would be forfeited if the fees required for issuing a grant were not paid by 29 September 1765.
We know from the Grant that George's property was surveyed in 1761. The Grant also tells us that the survey was forfeited thus by implication we can conclude that George didn’t pay the fees that were due prior to the 1765 deadline.
George lived on the western frontier, far removed from the Proprietary office, which was over 50 miles away at Fairfax's estate at Greenway Court. I doubt that George saw or knew about the ad. It must have been quite a shock to learn about it when he finally sought to obtain the grants.
I keep wondering why George didn’t apply for all three grants when he applied for and ultimately obtained the one in 1777. Why would he wait two years to apply for the grants to the parcels he had surveyed in 1761? Perhaps he didn’t. I can only speculate but it seems more likely that he did apply for all three at the same time but that approval for the properties that were surveyed were delayed until 1779.
The Grant next states that “…but on the application of the said George Edginton I have allowed a Deed to issue to him for the said land…”
Here the Grant tells us that Lord Fairfax allowed a Deed to be issued to George thus giving him clear title to the land.
Each of the three grants state that George and his heirs were required to pay Lord Fairfax and his heirs an annual tax of one shilling sterling money for every fifty acres. George was apparently not required to pay any back taxes.
Each of the three grants state that George and his heirs were required to pay Lord Fairfax and his heirs an annual tax of one shilling sterling money for every fifty acres. George was apparently not required to pay any back taxes.
So now we know. George preserved his right to two parcels of land when he had them surveyed in 1761. He would gain legal title to that land in 1779. The 1777 grant was the first parcel of land he gained legal title to but is actually the last parcel of land he selected.
I feel confident that somewhere on the land he had surveyed in 1761 is where George and Margaret built their home and raised their children. I wondered if I could find its location.
The Grant whose text we've been dissecting is for 200 acres on the headwaters of Dillon’s Run. Wikipedia tells us that the source of Dillons Run lies in a hollow along the southeastern end of Cooper Mountain, south of the community of Millbrook. (15)
I was quickly able to find the unincorporated community of Millbrook. Notice how it lies near a long, narrow valley where much of the land has been cleared. https://www.google.com/maps/@39.2091825,-78.5652418,159m/data=!3m1!1e3
That view doesn’t show Dillons Run however so I zoomed in and moved to the right until I finally saw Dillons Run appear on the right hand side. You can see how it’s path runs towards the bottom center of the image until it reaches Parks Hollow and Dillons Run Road. There it turns so that it runs parallel to the road as they both proceed towards the upper left. The headwater is located somewhere to the left so Dillons Run is actually flowing from the left hand side to the right where it meanders its way towards a place called Capon Bridge. https://www.google.com/maps/@39.2091825,-78.5652418,159m/data=!3m1!1e3
Now that I had found Dillons Run, I went back to the map of Millbrook and zoomed in. The label for Millbrook has disappeared but its location is at the fork in the road near the upper right where the “50/25” label appears. You can barely see Dillons Run coursing its way just below that fork in the road. Dillons Run Road continues towards the left until it terminates at someone’s property. https://www.google.com/maps/dir/39.2153159,-78.5590647/39.2148539,-78.560068/@39.2144704,-78.5579425,525m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!4m1!3e2.
The Dillons Run headwaters are somewhere here perhaps along the treeline. Do you suppose any remnants remain of George's home ? It gives me goosebumps to know that this is the very land where our ancestors lived 250 years ago.
Unfortunately, we won’t be so fortunate in pinpointing the locations of the other two grants.
The 1777 grant states that it is for land near Dillons Run however its boundaries are identified as a Chestnut Oak, a Spanish Oak, etc. Thus, there’s no way we can identify it’s exact location.
The 25 August 1779 grant states that it is for land on both sides of the top of Kinman’s Mountain. I was unable to locate Kinman’s Mountain on a modern day map or on any historical map.
As he grew older and their children moved away, it must have been difficult for George to maintain all this acreage. Hence, we find in 1788 where George has signed over power of attorney to his son George Jr. so that his son can complete the sale of the three parcels to a Benjamin Johnston. In this document we also learn that all three parcels are, in fact, on Dillons Run. It's likely that they’re all right there in the maps I shared with you.
In the power of attorney we also learn that George has moved away from the place where he and Margaret lived for so many years. He is now living in Ohio County, Virginia (now West Virginia).
I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about George’s property ownership as much as I enjoyed researching it.
Next: The Rest of the Story
________________________________
How we’re related:
George Edgington I & Margaret Broome
|
George Edgington II & Mary Naylor
|
George Edgington III & Betty Lindsey
|
Brice Viers Edgington & Margaret Gutridge
|
Thomas Edgington & Isabel Walker
|
Margaret Annabel Edgington & James Horatio Bladen
|
Gertrude Ethel Blayden & James Iver Creger
|
Helen Pauline Creger & John Robert Nielsen
References and Acknowledgements
Lots of researchers have written about and compiled information about the Edgington family, and I have drawn liberally from their work. Suffice it to say that they don’t all agree – and in fact some contradict each other. So I’ve gone through each and compiled the information I found credible by evaluating the sources, where possible.
- During the mid to late 1800’s, Lymon C. Draper interviewed and corresponded with three grandsons of George: George (son of Thomas), Jacob (son of Isaac) and Jesse (son of Jesse). The information obtained was collected and included in the 500 volumes that now comprise what is known as the Draper Manuscripts. Draper Manuscript, MSS, Series S, Volume 16, Page 271.
- Highland Pioneer Sketches and Family Genealogies, Elsie Johnson Ayres, H.K. Skinner & Son (1971).
- Historical Collections of Adams County Ohio, Carl N. Thompson, Adams County Historical Society (1991)
- Further Materials on Lewis Wetzel and the Upper Ohio Frontier, part of the Draper Manuscript, edited by Jared C. Lobell, published by Heritage Books, Inc. (1994)
- Descendants of George Edgington and Margaret Broome, Volume I, Howard Edgington, Apple Valley, CA, self published (undated)
- West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, www.wvculture.org
- The West Virginia Encyclopedia, www.wvencyclopeida.org
- Frontier Culture Museum, State of Virginia, www.frontiermuseum.org
- National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/fost/learn/historyculture/1768-boundary-line-treaty.htm
- (10) Virginia Northern Neck Land Grants, 1742-1775. Vol. II (database online), Provo, UT, USA; ancestry.com Operations Inc. 2006.
- (11)A History of the Milams in Virginia; http://www.milaminvirginia.com/glossary.html
- (12)Virginia Source Book—Frederick County, by Charlou Dolan, https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/snodgrass/2350/
- (13) “Virginia Baron: The Story of Thomas 6th Lord Fairfax “([database on-line], Provo, UT, USA; ancestry.com Operations Inc. 2006.
- (14)“George Washington’s Professional Surveys,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-01-02-0004. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, vol. 1, 7 July 1748 – 14 August 1755, ed. W. W. Abbot. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983, pp. 8–37.]
- (15) Virginia Places, http://www.virginiaplaces.org/settleland/fairfaxgrant.html
- (16) Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dillons_Run
No comments:
Post a Comment