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| Birth: | 26 Sep 1733 in Cedar Branch, Rockingham, Virginia 1 3 |
| Death: | 6 Aug 1823 in Lost River, Hardy, West Virginia 1 3 |
| Sex: | M |
| Father: | Wilson Thomas Bomar b. Int 1818 (Age 62 In 1880 Census) in ,, KY |
| Mother: | Adeline b. Int 1830 (Age 39 In 1870 Census) in ,, MO |
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| Burial: Miller Cemetery, Mathias, West Virginia 1 4 1 3 2 5 4 |
| Changed: 8 Feb 2006 15:50:48 |
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| RACHEL ELEANOR SCOTT (Wife) b. 1734 in Cedar Branch, Rockingham, Virginia
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| 6 1 3 |
| Marriage: | 1754 in , Hardy, (West) Virginia 20 Jun 2006 12:15:51 |
| Children: | |
 MARY CLAYPOOL b. 3 Jan 1754 in , Hampshire, West Virginia
- JAMES CLAYPOOL b. About 1756 in , Hampshire, West Virginia
 JOHN M. CLAYPOOL JR. b. 15 Jan 1758 in ,Hardy, West Virginia
- DAVID CLAYPOOL SR. b. 6 Apr 1762 in , Hardy, West Virginia
- STEPHEN CLAYPOOL b. 4 May 1764 in , Hampshire, West Virginia
- Elenor Claypool b. About 1759 in , Hardy, West Virginia
- JANE CLAYPOOL b. 18 Feb 1769 in AUGUSTA CO,VIRGINIA
- MARGARET CLAYPOOL b. About 1772 in , Hardy, West Virginia
- Rachel Claypool b. 15 Apr 1773 in , Hardy, West Virginia
- SARAH CLAYPOOL b. About 1774 in , Hardy, West Virginia
- HANNAH CLAYPOOL b. About 1778 in , Hardy, West Virginia
- ELIZABETH CLAYPOOL b. About 1780 in , Hardy, West Virginia
- WILLIAM CLAYPOOL b. 3 Jul 1781 in , Hardy, West Virginia
- GEORGE CLAYPOOL b. About 1782 in , Hardy, West Virginia
- LEAH CLAYPOOL b. About 1784 in , Hardy, West Virginia
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| Nancy (Wife) b. 1733 in Cedar Branch, Rockingham, Virginia
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| 3 20 Jun 2006 12:39:18 |
| Children: | |
- William Anderson
- William Anderson
- William Asa Anderson
- William Anderson b. in Anderson's Bottom, Hampshire Co, VA
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Individual:
Name Will AMG
------------------ ---- ----
Mary 1.1
James Claypool 1 1.2
John Claypool 2 1.3
David Claypool 3 1.4
Stephen Claypool 4 1.5
Bradigum Claypool 1.6
Mary Metcalf 5
Mary 1.7
Elenor Slater 6 1.8
Jane Osburn 7 1.9
Margaret Osburn 8 1.10
Sarah Slater 9 1.12
Rachel Baker 10 1.11
Hannah Grey 11 1.13
Elizabeth Bradigum 12 1.14
Geo. Claypool 13 1.16
Leah Crisman 14 1.17
William Claypool 15 1.15
Aaron Claypool 16 2.1
Philip Claypool 17 2.4
Nancy Sinnate 18 2.2
Priscilla Chicott 19 2.320 Jun 200614:41:09"The Claypool Family" listed 15 children, of which I entered only Eleanor. John's will lists 19 children, the first 15 of whom appear in AMGrif's 17. She also lists 2 who presumably died young, one of them a second Mary. She lists the 4 remaining children from the will as Nancy's. See John's sheet for a comparative list.
To do: Confirm the other 14 "Claypool Family" kids against AMGrif's 17. 20 Jun 200416:30:50
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- Title: Adrienne M. Griffis' WorldConnect GEDCOM
Author: Adrienne M. Griffis
Publication: Merged on 5 Feb 2006 at 10:12:58
(Aaron Baker merged on 20 Jun 2004 at 11:35:07)
Date: 5 Feb 2006
- Title: Will of John Claypool of Hardy County, 1814
Publication: Adrienne M. Griffis
Text: I, John Claypool of Hardy County and State of Virginia, hereby my
Last Will and Testament in the manner and form following that is tosay it is my Will and desire that my Executors here after namedimmediately after my death do take charge of my estate both realand personal and make sale thereof to the best advantage in thefollowing manner, viz: The landed part of my estate to be sold assoon as convenient, either by public sale or private contract atthe discretion of my Executors and conveyance made for the same--the moveable part of my estate to be sold at public sale, exceptone feather bed and furniture which I give to my wife, NancyClaypool...... after all my just debts and funeral charges arepaid--I allow and it is my will that it be equally divided amongstall my sons and daughters, to-wit: James Claypool, John Claypool,David Claypool, Stephen Claypool, Mary Metcalf, Elenor Slater, JaneOsburn, Margaret Osburn, Sarah Slater, Rachel Baker, Hannah Grey,Elizabeth Bradigum, Geo. Claypool, Leah Crisman, William Claypool,Aaron Claypool, Philip Claypool, Nancy Sinnate and PriscillaChicott.... It is my Will and I do order that one half of thelegasie left to my daughter Sarah Slater.... be given to my grand-son James, son of said Sarah Slater. Also I give unto my grand-daughter Mehala, daughter of the above Elizabeth Bradigum, one ofthe legacey which falls to the said Elizabeth Bradigum.... Andlastly I do hereby constitute and appoint my son Philip Claypooland son-in-law Isaac Chrisman, Executors of this my Last Will andTestament.... In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand andseal, this tenth day of April in the year of our Lord One ThousandEight Hundred and Fourteen, John Claypool Signed, sealed, publishedand 'declared by the said John Claypool as his Last Will andTestament, who in his presence have hereunto subscribed our names Jacob Miller
Anthony Miller
Codicil
I, John Claypool do make this Codicil to and as a part of the
foregoing Will- as followeth: I nominate, constitute and appoint myfriends Geo.- Claypool and Jacob Miller, Executors of this [69?] myLast Will and Testament in addition to those therein constitutedand appointed. In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand andSeal this 2nd day of October in the year of our Lord, One Thousand-Eight Hundred and Nineteen. John Claypool
Signed, sealed and delivered by the said John Claypool as a part of
his Last Will and Testament in the presence of us:Anthony Miller,
Wm McDonald,
Eben Chilcott.
At a Court held for Hardy County the 9th day of Sept-1823, this
Last Will and Testament of John Claypool, dead with the Codicilthereto annexed, was presented in Court by Jacob Miller, one of theExecutors therein named, and the said Will was proved by the oathsof Anthony Miller and Jacob Miller.... and the said Will andCodicil ordered to be recorded..... Ed Williams Clerk
Date: 22 Jun 2006
- Title: The Claypool Family of America, Vol 1, 2, 5
Author: Evelyn Claypool Bracken
Publication: 1982
Date: 22 Jun 2004
- Title: Miller Cemetery Headstones
Text: Adrienne M. Griffis reports the following headstones in the Miller
Cemetery:
Miller-Claypool Cemetery - Lost City, WV.
CLAYPOOL, JAMES (IV) - BORN: (1730)
DIED: 11 AUG 1811-IN THE 81ST YEAR OF HIS AGE
CLAYPOOL, JANE - BORN:
DIED: 02 JUN 1768
CLAYPOOL, JOHN (M. SR.) - BORN: 26 SEP 1733
DIED: 06 AUG 1823-IN THE 90TH YEAR OF HIS AGE
CLAYPOOL, MARG'T - BORN: (1736)
DIED: 26 MAR 1813-IN THE 77TH YEAR OF HER AGE
CLAYPOOL, JAMES- BORN: 14 FEB 1701
DIED: 09 OCT 1789
On Wed June 23, 2004, Selma and I (JimB) went to the Miller
Cemetery. I have photos of all 5 stones. The first two (from theleft) are sufficiently defaced by the weather that I can't saywhat is inscribed on them. The remmaining three read:
IN MEMORY OF JOHN
CLAYPOOL WHO WAS
BORN SEPTEMBER THE
26th 1733.AND DIED THE
6th OF AUGUST 1823.
IN THE 90th YEAR
OF HIS AGE.
IN MEMORY OF
JAMES CLAYPOOL
WHO DEPARTED THIS
LIFE AUGUST 11 1811
IN THE 81 YEAR OF
HIS AGE
INÑMEMORYÑOF
MARG'TÑCLAYPOOL
WHOÑDEPARTEDÑTHIS
LIFEÑMARCHÑ26Ñ1813
INÑTHEÑ77ÑYEARÑOF
HER AGE
(The character I represented here as Ñ is a little centered x.
We return June 19, 2006 to find six graves, 4 of them with small
modern markers at the base of the original stones. The "headstone"of the sixth grave looks to me to footstone of the grave next toit.
June 20, 2006 we returned and Selma found a fallen stone several
feet away from the row of 5 (now 6) Claypool stones. It reads
JANE CLAYPOOL
DECEAS'D
JUNE 2 1768
which agrees with Griffis' transcription above.
Dr. Wilmer L. Kerns, Ph.D. records the family (in Historical
Records of Old Frederick and Hampshire Counties, Virginia(Revised), © 1988, 1992, ISBN: 1-55613-592-0) as:
Claypool, James, was born Feb. 14, 1701 and died Oct 7, 1789. Jane
Claypool, his wife, was born in 1701 and died 1788. James ClypoolJr. was born in 1730 and died 1811. John Claypool was born in 1733and died 1823, Margaret Dunbar was born in 1736, and died in 1813.Source: Gravestone inscriptions in family plot, Hardy County,W.Va.
An inventory of Hardy Cemeteries lists the following:
CLAYPOOL
James 1730-1811
Jas. (born in Delaware) 14 Feb 1701- 7 Oct 1789
Jane 1701-1788
John (s/o Jas. CLAYPOOL) 1733-1823
Margaret (Dunbar) 1736-1813
Date: 20 Jun 2006
- Title: Claypool's Rebellion from "The History of Hardy County: 1786-1986"
Author: Dr. Richark K. MacMaster
Publication: Hardy County Public Library
as a project of the Hardy County Bicentennial
Commission1986
Text: Claypool's Rebellion
Hampshire* County, Virginia, 1781
The constant demand for men, money, wagons, cattle, grain, blankets
and other property wore down the enthusiasm of Patriots as the wardragged on. Taxes rose higher and higher. One Pennsylvanianclaimed he paid more taxes in one year than in the previous twentyyears taken together. The Commonwealth of Virginia imposed newtaxes that struck at the small farmer as much as the larger planteror merchant, for example, a tax of three pence on every head ofcattle. The commissary officers regularly purchased livestock,flour and grain, but paid for them in certificates that could beregistered with the county court, but not translated into money.
Loyalists took advantage of this war weariness. Some British
agents encouraged people in the western part of Virginia, Maryland,and Pennsylvania to pledge resistance to any further demands. OneTory claimed hundreds had taken the oath of allegiance to KingGeorge and waited only for a renewed British offensive to maketheir support available.
The war had not gone well in 1780. General Benjamin Lincoln had
surrendered the entire American army in the South, including allthe Virginia Continental regiments, at Charleston. General HoratioGates had hurried South with such units as he could pick up and metdisaster at Camden, S.C. with a second American force killed,wounded, or captured. New recruits and drafted militia had to fillthe vacant ranks. The British had pacified Georgia and SouthCarolina and moved into North Carolina when General NathanaelGreene marched against them with Virginia militia and raggedContinentals. Daniel Morgan won an important victory at theCowpens in January 1781, but Greene's half-frozen, half-starvedsoldiers kept retreating towards Virginia and seemed alreadybeaten.
Mustering officers hurried more and more companies of militia south
to Greene's army or northwest to Pittsburgh, the staging area forGeorge Rogers Clark's diversionary attack on Detroit. Commissaryofficers organized droves of cattle and wagon trains of flour andmeal, fodder and hay to keep the armies in the field. Inflationhad reached the point where a thousand paper dollars were needed tobuy a dollar in silver or gold. A bushel of salt cost as much asthe best farm.
The traitor Benedict Arnold, now a British General, led an invasion
of Virginia in January 1781, moving swiftly up the James River totake and plunder Richmond. Jefferson had 5,000 militia, many ofthem unarmed, most of them untrained, marching to oppose Arnold,without diverting men or supplies from Greene's command in NorthCarolina. The British invasion added to the feeling ofhopelessness, as the militia were incapable of doing anything toprevent Arnold's much smaller force from going where they pleased. The demand for more and more militia on three warfronts took menaway from home-and kept them for longer periods-when they needed tobe doing their own work on the farm. It was demoralizing whenthese long absences apparently did nothing of any military value.
Dissention was apparent everywhere. Augusta County men prevented
the officers from districting the county as the first step to thedraft. In Rockbridge County they seized the court house and toreup the draft papers and proclaimed "that they would Serve asmilitia for three months and make up the Eighteen months that way,but would not be Drafted for Eighteen months and be regulars." Other Virginia counties experienced similar unrest in April 1781. General Daniel Morgan returned home to Frederick County and "foundthe people in a Ferment about the Taxes; and some went so far as tosay they would not pay them."
Colonel Garrett VanMeter received orders from Governor Jefferson to
send 242 Hampshire County militia to Williamsburg at once. ColonelVanMeter wrote on April 11, 1781 that he could not raise thesetroops. ''I am sorry to inform your Excellency that a dangerousinsurrection has lately arisen in this County, occasioned by theexecution of the late Acts of Assembly for Recruiting this StatesQuota of Troops to serve in the Continental Army, and the Act forsupplying the Army with Clothes, Provisions & Waggons; inconsequence of which the Collector of the Tax under the former Acthas been opposed in the Execution of his Duty, and has been obligedto desist from any further proceeding therein, and although everymeasure that prudence could suggest has been taken to suppress theRioters, yet it has proved ineffectual by reason of their having asuperior force."
Colonel VanMeter was in a difficult situation, if more of his
neighbors were prepared to side with the rioters than to supporthim in upholding the law. Jefferson's demand for 242 militia wassimply the last straw. They were needed only for a month torelieve other militia who had served more than their three monthterm and Hampshire County had to find arms, clothing, provisions,and transport for them. The Governor wanted them as mountedinfantry, so each man would have to find his own horse andequipment. This call came close on the heels of the order to send255 men from the same two battalions to Pittsburgh for the Detroitcampaign. Indeed, Andrew Woodrow had not yet gotten all of theirequipment sent on to Pittsburgh.
Lost River was the center of disaffection at the moment, although
the rebellion quickly spread to the South Branch and to Rockinghamand Augusta counties. John Claypool had the support of most of hisneighbors in challenging Colonel VanMeter's authority. JohnClaypool was born in 1733 and came with his parents from SussexCounty, Delaware when he was a young man. The Claypools settledfirst in Brock's Gap and then bought up many of the best farmsalong Lost River in the 1750's and 1760's. James Claypool, Jr.,John's brother, was a county magistrate. Dunbars, Scotts, Osborns,Vineys, Gums, and other Lost River pioneers were in the immediatefamily circle.
John Claypool claimed afterwards that he and his friends "conceived
the Act for laying the enormous Tax of Eighty Two Pounds paperMoney on every hundred pounds of their property, rated in specie,and a Bounty for the recruits of the Continental Army, and the Lawsubjecting them, at the same time to be draughted for the saidService, and the further Act for Cloathing the Army, as unjust andoppressive after paying such a high tax on their assessedproperty." Their arguments made sense. They were paying enormoustaxes in money and the authorities then asked for food and clothingon top of that. It was probably the idea that they could bedrafted to serve eighteen months and still be taxed to pay a largecash bounty to volunteers for the Continental regiments thatrankled most.
Claypool interfered with the collector for the Lost River district
in making up the clothes and beef requisitions for the army. According to Colonel VanMeter, Claypool said, "if all the men wereof his mind, they would not make up any Cloathes, Beef, or Men, andall that would join him should turn out." There were only five orsix other men present, scarcely a mob of tax-resisters, butClaypool got out liquor and they joined him when he "Drank to KingGeorge the third's Health and Damnation to Congress." Thecollector or someone else complained to three of the countyjustices. The Sheriff and fifty men came to Lost River to arrestClaypool. When they got there, they found sixty or seventy menwaiting for them, all armed. The two crowds of armed men facedeach other in a standoff for some time. Eighteen year old IsaacVanMeter, one of the Sheriff's posse, later recalled that "had apistol been fired a dreadful scene of carnage would have ensued."
It was a formal surrender, negotiated by the Baptist preacher at
Lost River, Josiah Osborn. He sent a letter to Colonel VanMeterdated April 3, 1781.
"Having consulted the Majority, it is the Desire of them, that
their Conduct that has past Lately may be forgiven, as a great partof it was occasioned by Liquor, and as there is things that is laidto the Charge of Sum, that is clear of the Charge, but moreover weacknowledge our behaviour was not Discreet. If you will please topass it by, we will submit to pay our Tax as the Law directs; andare willing to pay our District tax of Beef & Clothing if they canbe purchased, & likewise to be Complyable to the Laws of the State,as far as our ability will allow. At the request of the majority Ihave hereunto set my hand
From Sir, yr. humble Servant
JOSIAH OSBURN."
Colonel VanMeter replied in the same spirit. He was "very Glad to
hear the Mutineers begin to see their Folly," but he could notpromise them immunity from legal prosecution. They would have todepend on the lenience of the courts. VanMeter closed his letter,"from your friend, while you are friends to yourselves and theUnited States."
Claypool's rebellion should have ended there, but it didn't. The
day after the negotiated settlement, at least 150 men gathered tosupport Claypool's tax revolt. Colonel VanMeter heard that "thereare several Deserters amongst these people, Some from the EnglishPrisoners, Some Eighteen Months Men, and some Eight Months men,which they support and conceal." British soldiers who surrenderedat Saratoga in 1777 were in prisoner-of-war camps at Winchester andescapees could easily reach Lost River. The deserters from theAmerican army, the ''Eighteen Months men" and "Eight Months men,"had been drafted from the militia to serve extraordinarily longterms and run away before their forced enlistment was out. Thesemen, escaped p.o.w.'s and deserters, gave a new dimension to therevolt, for they had little to lose by resisting the authorities. VanMeter learned a few days later "that a very considerable numberhave assembled in another part of the County, determined to standin opposition to every measure of Government, and endeavoring topersuade everyone in their neighborhood to join them in theirtreasonable and destructive measures." The new rising centered onthe South Fork. Some people there were determined to be free oftaxes and militia drafts, VanMeter reported, and he feared nothingcould be done until a sufficient force was sent to arrest therebels.
The burden of military service was real. Colonel VanMeter was
unable to draft more than 57 men for service in eastern Virginia as"some of the militia are now in North Carolina, enlisted for thewar." One of the drafted men was Andrew Wodrow, who "does thewhole publick business of the County as a Clerk" and could noteasily be spared. VanMeter suggested Wodrow, Captain WilliamVause, and Solomon VanMeter as good choices to command any cavalryunit that might be raised in Hampshire County.
Governor Thomas Jefferson took Colonel VanMeter's idea about a
cavalry unit as the solution to the insurrection. He commissionedWodrow, Vause, and Solomon VanMeter as the officers in a troop ofcavalry or mounted infantry. Any direct attack on the rebels wouldcertainly begin a battle and end in bloodshed, but the cavalrymencould wait until they had dispersed and then "go and take them outof their Beds, singly and without Noise, or if they be not foundthe first time to go again & again so that they may never be ableto remain in quiet at home."
In May 1781 Colonel VanMeter "ordered out a Company of my militia
as Mounted Infantry, together with Three Companies of Foot, as theRioters had embodied themselves, and the numbers very considerablyincreased." When his little army approached, the rebels lost notime in disappearing. Only a few surrendered and only a few morewere caught before they got away.
That was only part of the story. Colonel Benjamin Harrison, the
Rockingham County Lieutenant, took at least Captain Reuben Moore'scompany through Brock's Gap to Lost River "to put down the Toriesthere." General Daniel Morgan, the victor of Cowpens, took commandof militia raised by Colonel John Smith in Frederick County. TheOld Wagoner, as Morgan's men called him, led an army that possiblyamounted to no more than two companies of Frederick militia, acompany of Rockingham militia, and the mounted men from HampshireCounty. That would be enough to overawe men who were not reallyvery desperate rebels after all.
The house and mill of John Brake on the South Fork, about fifteen
miles upstream from Moorefield, was a stronghold for theinsurgents. But Colonel VanMeter described Robert Smith, ThomasStacey and Michael Boulger (Burger) as "the principal conspirators"and these three men all lived in Job Welton's district on the SouthBranch and Lunice Creek near Petersburg. John Claypool and many ofhis associates in the first stage of the tax revolt came from LostRiver and "the waters of Cacapon." The militia under GeneralDaniel Morgan would have to march through all of Hardy County inorder to stamp out the last sparks of Toryism.
Morgan's soldiers halted at John Claypool's house and took him
prisoner, according to one of Kercheval's informants. Some youngmen fled, among them William Baker. As he ran across a meadow,heedless of a command to stop, Captain Abraham Bird of theShenandoah County militia fired and wounded him in the leg. Theytook horses and provisions from Claypool and advanced along LostRiver. Some of the soldiers caught Matthias Wilkins, put a noosearound his neck, and threatened to hang him as a Tory. ColonelJohn Smith of Frederick County intervened. They roughed up andbranded another suspect named John Payne.
John Claypool gave Morgan a written apology for his own part in the
rebellion. It is dated May 31, 1781, so this part of the campaignwas evidently over by that date.
''These are to inform you that I am hartily Sorry that I have bin
so fare Blinded in this Roiotus affair which was it to do again Iwould Suffer all that I have to be taken from me before I wouldundertake sutch a thing as I am now convinced that I was out of myduty to Stand against the Laws of our State and if you would be sokind as to Exert your favour and ability in my behalf I shall lookupon it as a perticuler favour and do hereby promis to be fathfullfor the time to Come to the United States of Amereca. I wouldappear at the time appointed but it is thought my Life Lays atStake although I know not that I have had any Ill design only Ithought our Burden seemed too heavy, but further Considering theExpence in Supporting the war to prefect our liberty I plainly seemy fault and beg pardon from and not only So but from all inauthority.
From Sir your Very Humble Sarvent
JOHN CLAYPOOL
May ye 31 1781
P.S. if you would please to send me an answer to the above Request
you will obloige yours.
To Genl. Morgan."
They crossed South Branch Mountain and, on the way, killed an
elderly man named Mace who had already surrendered. John andNicholas Mace both owned land on the South Branch at this time. AsColonel John Smith told the story many years later, Captain WilliamSnickers was aiming a blow at the older man with a drawn sword whenMace's son saw him and picked up his rifle. Snickers fell from hishorse, apparently dead. One of Morgan's men, "an Irishman, half-drunk," immediately shot the prisoner.
The army proceeded up the South Fork to John Brake's. He had a
fine farm with extensive meadows, a mill, large distillery, andmany fat hogs and cattle. Morgan's men halted there for two days,living on the best the farm could supply, while their horses fed onBrake's meadows and oat fields. Colonel VanMeter's mountedinfantry rode about the country taking other Tories.
The rebels had no stomach for a fight. "On the approach of our men
to the place where the rioters had assembled, they dispersed withprecipitation-only a few surrendered, and a few taken prisoners,"Colonel VanMeter reported in June. Several more surrendered in thenext few days, although "the principal conspirators and a number oftheir deluded followers still keep out." The County Court heardthe cases of 42 suspected Tories and ordered three to have afurther trial. They bound over the rest to appear before the GrandJury for indictment or, in some cases, dismissed the charges. VanMeter sent deserters back to the army. He expected his hard-riding militiamen would bring in the rest of the Tories in a fewdays.
John Claypool, Thomas Denton, David Roberts, Jr., Mathias Wilkins
and George Wilkins were the prisoners taken on Lost River. Theypetitioned the Governor of Virginia in July 1781 for pardon. Another group of petitioners also asked for executive clemency,adding that they "have been instrumental in detecting and bringingin some of the principal Comspirators to Justice." Enough evidenceagainst them convinced the Grand Jury, nevertheless, to indict themfor treason and insurrection. The signers of this petitionincluded Samuel Lourie from Lost River. The rest lived on theSouth Fork or the South Branch. Jacob Brake, whose name headed thepetition, Jacob House, John Mitchell, Jeremiah Osborn, and AdamRodebaugh lived on the South Fork or in the vicinity of Moorefieldin Michael Stump's district. Michael Algire, Charles Borah orBorrer, John Casner, Jacob Crites, Leonard Hier, John Mace, HenryRodebaugh, Jacob Pickle, Adam Wease, Sr., Adam Wease, Jr., JohnWease, and Jacob Yeazle were all in John Wilson's district on MillCreek in present Grant County. Jacob Hier, Isaac Mace, and ThomasStacey were in Job Welton's district in the vicinity of Petersburg.
Judging from the names of the prisoners, German settlers made up a
large part of Claypool's Rebellion. British agents found Germansettlers from Pennsylvania to North Carolina often confused by theactions of English-speaking Patriots and less ready to reject aKing who had allowed them liberty and security never dreamt of intheir native land. But they were not really Tories, just tired ofthe war and its burdens.
Governor Thomas Nelson succeeded Jefferson in June 1781. The
legislature fled over the Blue Ridge to Staunton, as LordCornwallis and his redcoats advanced, almost unopposed, as far asCharlottesville. With every man, every barrel of flour or otherprovisions needed in the struggle to preserve the thirteenindependent United States, it would be dangerous to punish the taxresisters so harshly that those still at large would feel they hadless to lose by fighting on than by surrendering. Governor Nelsonoffered a pardon to all those who pledged to support their country.
By July Colonel VanMeter told the governor, "they have cheifly, all
(except for a few of the ring-leaders) availed themselves of yourgracious offer of Pardon, and have promised to conduct themselveshereafter as good citizens, a considerable number of them havejoined the Army, and those who are at home, have faithfullypromised to assist in apprehending the others who yet remainobstinate." This might be easier said than done, "as they havefled to the mountains and cannot be easily taken."
Amnesty is never completely fair. Some of the prisoners captures
in May and indicted by the grand Jury had taken almost no part inthe rebellion, while some of the leaders cheerfully acceptedGovernor Nelson's pardon and went home as free men. The judgesappointed to try the prisoners on charges of treason andinsurrection solved this dilemma by not appearing in court. Without judges to hear the case, the state could not proceed totrial and the authority of the special court ran for only a limitedtime. The prisoners remained in jail, unlikely ever to appear incourt. Colonel VanMeter and other neighbors asked Governor Nelsonto pardon them, too.
Peter Hog, Clerk of Rockingham County, did attend the scheduled
trial at Romney on July 10. "I had the opportunity of viewing thedistressing Scenes of aged mothers, wives, & children crowding tothe Court house to take the last Leave of their unhappy Sons,husbands & fathers, apprehending that Execution would be immediateon the Sentence of Death, which, in spite of all my aversion toTories, strongly affected my feelings."
Captain Hog asked Governor Nelson to pardon John Claypool, citing
"the many relations & connexions that the Claypole Family have inthat part of the Country." He mentioned James Claypool, thefather, and his five sons, "with many grand children, who byintermarriages are connected with the most considerable Families onthose Waters, and the strongest friends to our presentConstitution." Punishing Claypool when others, more guilty thanhe, went free was not a good idea.
The Tory rising that briefly worried the authorities ended
peacefully. Some of the men who longed for the happier times andlower taxes before the war, marched off to shoulder muskets inLafayette's ragged army and eventually ran Cornwallis to earth atYorktown. The British surrender brought the war to an end,although it would be two years before a peace treaty.
The prisoners from Claypool's rebellion waited through that
eventful summer and autumn for some word on their case. GovernorNelson decided that he could not interfere as the separation of theexecutive and the judiciary should be kept intact. The leadingPatriots in the South Branch country signed a petition in behalf ofthat "Honest Peacable well meaning man" John Claypool, but to noavail. (Led by Stephen Ruddell, the signers were: CorneliusVandevanter, Anthony Miller, Jacob Rinker, Jr., Abraham Bird, MosesHutton, John Harness, Daniel Richardson, William Bullitt, M. (Mathias) Hite, George See, Abraham Hite, Garrett VanMeter, JohnHiggins, Abel Randall, William Vause, Charles Lynch, Abraham Hite,Jr., Isaac VanMeter, Jesse Ashby, Nathan Harris, John Harris,William Renick, Elijah Greenwell, Jacob VanMeter, ChristoperSnider, James Parsons, Abraham Westfall, Jacob Weidner, DanielMcNeill, John McNeill, Adam Hider, Gasper Hite, Patrick Lynch,George Harness, Isaac Hornback, Richard Shanklin, Michael Hornback,Manus Allgyre, George Stump, William Sears, Joseph Schoot, PeterVandevanter, Jr., Peter Vandevanter, James Ruddell, Isaac Ruddell,William Warden, James Taafe, Joel Robinson, Thomas McFarland,Philip Albis, Jacob Chrisman, Joshua Pepper, William Pepper, JacobMiller, John Solaven, and Archibald Wilson.)
Governor Benjamin Harrison took office in December 1781. He
decided, against the advice of Peter Hog and Garrett VanMeter, thatit would be "imprudent to grant a general pardon to the Insurgentsin your part of the Country" since "Too great Lenity may & mostprobably will bring the Government into Contempt and at lastoccasion its Overthrow." He might pardon some of the lesser frybut he refused to pardon Robert Smith, John Powers, John Ward,Lewis Baker, Nicholas Harpole, and John Claypool, "Six of theRingleaders." They would have to stand trial for their lives. TheGovernor told Colonel VanMeter that Smith should be sentimmediately to the General Court in Richmond for his trial.
The General Court found Robert Smith guilty and sentenced him to
death, but the Virginia General Assembly pardoned him by a specialact passed during the May 1782 session.
In a letter dated "Lost River, Feb. 5th, 1782," Claypool again
asked General Daniel Morgan to use his influence:
"Nothing could induce me to trouble you but an absolut necessity,
which you and all my countrymen are fully acquainted with, inregard to my unhappy affair, for which I stand charged in acting soprecipitately, in consequence of which I most sincerely lament. Your honor, by reading the enclosed, I doubt not will put the mostfavorable constructions on my address to you, in praying yoursentiments on the occasion. I herewith send you a petition toapprove or condemn. The death of that gentleman (Capt. Peter Hog)whose humanity induced him to do all he could for me, is mostdeplorable. But the deportment by which I have conducted myselfthe cheif part of my life, added to my conduct since my resignationto trial, will extort your lenity in saving my life. I hope an actagreeable to the laws of heaven and an attribute peculiar to thegreat Judge himself, who knows the acute conflicts I feel, theconsequence of base and dishonorable actions, for which I againrequest your approbation to live. My trial is to be brought on thenext month, and the indisposition I now labor under calls aloud fora suspension of trial a while I presume may probably be in yourpower. I pray your sentiments in writing, if agreeable to yourpleasure.
I am Sir with due respect, Your most obedient humble Servant
JOHN CLAYPOOL."
Claypool had already paid a price for an act of defiance that
probably was the result of liquor, as the Baptist preacher JosiahOsborn had said it was. Through all the formal and convolutedlanguage, John Claypool was begging for his life.
On June 7, 1782 Governor Harrison dictated a two sentence letter to
Andrew Wodrow, Clerk of Hampshire County:
"I send you pardons for four of the persons concerned in the late
insurrection in the back country. There is no occasion for more asthe noli prosequi secures the rest."
The state had dropped its case. For Claypool and the others, the
long shadow of their "rebellion" lifted. John Claypool lived manyyears at his home on Lost River. He died in 1823 and is buried inthe Miller Cemetery.
1 Sketches of Mercer and Neville are in Robert L. Scribner, ea.,
Revolutionary Virginia The Road to Independence (Charlottesville,Va., 1975--), II, 97, V, 29-30. Jack P. Greene and William G. McLoughlin, Preachers & Politicians: Two Essays on the Origins ofthe American Revolution (Worcester, Mass., 1977), 5-21.
2 Commission of Oyer and Terminer, Hampshire County, 15 October
1772, Archives Division, Virginia State Library, Richmond, Item No. 22516. Executive Journals, Council of Colonial Virginia, VI, 506. Virginia Gazette (Rind's) Oct. 5, 1769.
3 The Cabell Petition is in James Rood Robinson, Petitions of the
Early Inhabitants of Kentucky to the General Assembly of Virginia1769-1792 (N.Y., 1971),35. On the background of the surveys, seeOtis K. Rice, Fro ntier Kentucky (Lexington, Ky., 1975),29-68 andthe same author's introduction to John J. Jacob's BiographicalSketch of the Late Captain Michael Cresap (Parsons, W. Va., 1970). The Hite letter is in Reuben Gold Thwaites and Louise PhelpsKellogg, eds., Documentary History of Dunmore's War (Madison,Wisc., 1905), 31-32. Muster rolls (from the originals in theVirginia State Library) of men who served in Dunmore's War areprinted in E. L. Judy, History of Grant and Hardy Counties, WestVirginia (Charleston, W. Va., 1951), 220-229.These men were paidat Romney and Winchester in October 1775 for service the previousyear. Journal of the House of Burgesses of Virginia 1773-1776(Richmond, 1904) 250, 268. Virginia Gazette (Purdie and Dixon's),Nov.3.1774. Felix Renick, "A Trip to the West," American Pioneer,I (Feb. 1842), 73-80 and (September 1842), 329-332.
4 Robert G. Albion and Leonidas Dodson, eds., Philip Vickers
Fithian Journal, 1775-1776 (Princeton, N.J., 1934), 24. W. W. Hening, Statutes at Large: Being a Collection of All the Laws ofVirginia (Richmond, 1821), vol. 9:9-48. A major source forrecruiting and equipping Hampshire County soldiers is in volumes 6and 7 of Revolutionary Virginia. The Road to Independence(Charlottesville, Va., 1975--), and the three volumes of OfficialLetters of the Governors of the State of Virginia 1776-1783(Richmond, 1926).
5 On Claypool's Rebellion see, in addition to Official Letters of
the Governors, vols. 2 and 3, Calendar of Virginia State Papers andOther Manuscripts (Richmond, 1875), vol. 2, 28, 40, 58, 163, 262,284, 682, 686. Kercheval, History of the Valley, 144- 146, and DonHigginbotham, Daniel Morgan, Revolutionary Rifleman (Chapel Hill,N.C., 1961), 160-162. John Claypool's letter is in the MyersCollection, Manuscript Division, New York Public Library.* Later Hardy County, West Virginia
Date: 19 Jun 2006
- Title: VIRGINIA MARRIAGE INDEX, 1740 - 1850
Text: FULL CONTEXT OF VIRGINIA MARRIAGES TO 1800
Date: 20 Jun 2004
HARDY COUNTY
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