 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
About GenCircles
|
| Myra Nickla |     |
| Yarbrough,Garett,Bolton |
|
Because of the continuous flow of immigrants, by 1750, PA was flooded with settlers. Then it began to overflow into VA. Soon it too became over populated, forcing the settlers to continue their migration into the Piedmont area of northern NC . Historians agree that nearly all the Yarbrough, Holmes, Leech. Garret. Bolton families that arrived in northern NC were part of the tides of settlers flowing down from the Valley of Virginia. Land was in big demand. At the time a 50 acre farm in PA would cost £7 - 10 shillings. But, in Granville County (which covered the upper part of NC) a 100 acre farm would cost only five shillings. This surge of immigrants and the price of land was a major influence on settler migration into NC. Most of these new settlers were Presbyterian. In 1751,Yabrough, Bolton,George, Walker,Holmes. Leech And Andrew was in Spotsylvania County, VA where he witnessed a deed. Since the law prohibited "servants" from executing or witnessing documents, it is assumed that he had completed his service. Spotsylvania was situated in the area of the PA-Chesapeake Bay migration path. During the early 1750s Granville, Orange, Rowan and Anson Counties, NC were part of the frontier. Orange was formed from Granville County, NC in early 1752. As was the custom, most settlers staked their claim or purchased land. All they had to do to own unclaimed land was to live on it for a certain length of time, build a cabin, clear the fields and begin hacking out a living. The term "settlement rights" or "tomahawk rights" was marks by tomahawk slashes on trees surrounding their claim, usually 100 acres. On this claim, the settler would build a crude log cabin, with dirt floor and tree bark or stone slabs for a roof. For subsistence, he used his skill as a hunter. And, there was plenty of game available...deer, turkey and other wildlife. On 30 Jan 1754,Holmes,Yarbrough, Garett, Andrew, Walker,George, was found surveying land in Orange County, NC. Surveys show he worked at least from 1754 - 1762 with others including Lawrence Bankston, Joseph Doolittle, Zachary Lea, Major Lea, Philip Praton, William Churton, and George Lea. In the 1754 survey, Andrew was part of the team that surveyed land for a John Lea in Orange County. He and Major Lea were listed as SCC (Sworn Chain Carriers) and worked for surveyor, William Churton. A "chain carrier" was a surveyor's assistants that handled the measuring chain. Often the chain carrier was a relative of the claimant. The law required that the chain carrier take an oath to the honesty of his work and, therefore, was referred to as a "sworn chain carrier". According to early records - the SCC was usually over the age of 21. Boys under the age of 21 were simply referred to as "chain carriers" without being "sworn". So, this and his witness of the deed in 1751, as a "freeman", gives us a time line in which to further judge Andrew's age and birth date. Considering the times, they earned a good wage, but hard earned. They trekked a wilderness to accomplish the job. There were Indians to pacify or avoid and settlers already claiming title (and willing to shoot the surveyors). On occasion, these early day surveyors had to stop and pull cattle or horses from bogs and quicksand and rescue equipment, supplies and pack animals from flooded rivers and streams. They were even plagued with hoards of flies and other insects, so thick, they would even clog the nostrils of the pack animals. It is not known when Andrew began surveying land. However, another young man, George Washington, a contemporary of Andrew, who started surveying in the late 1740s, was from Westmoreland County, also in the Tidewater area of VA. Even though he was about the same age as Andrew, he was not an indentured servant. He was already surveying in the Tidewater counties, including Culpepper and others adjacent to Spotsylvania county, where Andrew was living. And, their paths may have crossed during his survey duties. The French and Indian War (1753 - 1763 During the 1750s, France had possession of most of America west of the British Colonies. However, the English wanted to expand its territory. The encroachment of settlers into territories along the frontier, claimed by France, was part of the reason the French and its Indian allies went to war against England and the colonists. In 1752 the governor-general of New France was given specific instructions to take possession of the Ohio Valley, removing all British presence from the area. However, England had already granted 500,000 acres of land in the Ohio Valley for settlement. In 1753 French troops secured the area. There were military and Indian skirmishes between the British and French but war was not officially declared until 1756. The war was waged mostly west and north of Pennsylvania and Virginia to the Great Lakes area in Canada. The British and French finally reached an agreement on 10 Feb 1763, the Treaty of Paris, which gave the British all the land east of the Mississippi River. Incited by the French, a large party of Shawano Indians fell upon a settlement in western VA and massacred all its inhabitants. Another example was a group of captured Cherokee warriors that were discovered with the scalps of 22 settlers of Rowan County, NC (the county adjacent to Orange County where Andrew lived). The settlers along the frontier bore the brunt of the war, enduring cabin burnings, wife and children kidnaping, ambushes, massacres and all-out bloody warfare. To the colonist on the violent frontier, the War meant a greatly escalated struggle with the Indians. The occasional raids became a constant and unceasing fight. The settlers fought off daily raids at their cabins and forts. Every settlement had its slaughtered, but were mostly women, children and the elderly. One account described "war of the Indians, 'strikes terror through what had been a peaceful countryside.' Indian fighting was never open and manly. The Indians hid in ravines, behind rocks and trees. They creep out in the night and sets fire to houses and barns. They shot down the ploughman at his furrow. They scalped women at the spring, and children by the roadside, with their little hands full of berries." In October 1759 dispatches were sent requesting militia troop protection of the frontier. The British regulars were inept in their attempt to alleviate the suffering of the homesteader. So the settlers took matters into their own hands. They retaliated with raids and counter-measures that went on for years. Guerrilla fighting became endless. The settlers adopted the Indian's way of fighting - butchering, scalping and burning. It may have been unconventional, but was effective. For 11 years fear and mayhem ruled the frontier. Many settlers moved further south along the GP Wagon Road to escape the war. The peace treaty signed in 1763 provided that no British settlements were allowed west of the Appalachian Mountains. This land to the west was set aside as Indian hunting grounds. This increased the migration south along the GP Wagon Road. After peace was declared, settler migration expanded. In the fall and winter of 1765 more than a thousand wagons passes through western NC. The proclamation of 1763, which prohibited westward settlement, angered the colonists and established a beginning point which culminated in the Revolutionary War with England. To finance the war with France, England had gone into debt. Since the war was fought mainly to protect the borders of the American colonies, the English government decided to make the Americans pay for most of that debt. This, naturally, created great unrest in America and prompted a movement for the Colonies to declare their independence from England. The colonists began to rebel against the English. Colonies began to recruit and organize local militias. Settlers ignored the prohibition and crossed the Allegheny Mountains into Tennessee and Kentucky. The American Revolution (1776 - 1783) It is hard to point to any one event that singularly led to the Revolution. The Colonials viewed...they were entitlement to full democratic rights. The British view...that the American colonies were to be used and exploited in whatever way best suited England insured that war was inevitable. It began with the treaty agreed to by England to end the French & Indian War. To further infuriate the colonists, England imposed the Sugar Act of 1764, writs of assistance, the Stamp Act in 1765, Townsend Acts in 1767, the Tea Act, the Coercive Acts imposed in 1774 and costs of quartering troops. British troops were landed in Boston to enforce the taxes. In the interim it led to the uprising of the Regulators ending with the Battle of Almanac on 16 May 1771. The Regulators were businessmen and planters, originally from the Piedmont area (where Andrew CADDEL lived), who opposed the taxes and regulations imposed by the British. The Regulator movement became so anti-establishment that the British Colonial government, fought back violently, and the Regulator defeat culminated with the "Battle of Alamance" in 1771. The abuse of authority and tyranny experienced by the frontier settler further swayed many to the Patriot cause. Many of the Colonials still considered themselves citizens of England and were called Loyalists. Those who opposed the British were called Patriots, many of which were Scottish Highlanders and Regulators. There are no records or family lore that identified Andrew as either Loyalist or Patriot. However, I tend to believe, since he left Scotland during times of English oppression and later experienced continued oppression by the British, he later became affiliated with the Patriot cause. He had struggled for some 30 years to establish himself in the Colonies and begin a family. At the age of c45, he may have considered himself too old to "get involved." We may never know. Even though Andrew descended from Highland Scots, according to family lore, he was born and raised in Edinburgh, SCT. It is apparent that his inherent character and strength as a Scot provided the endurance to overcome the hardships of coming to America and survive in the early days of Colonial frontier life. The Scottish Highlanders, because of their superior fighting ability, were highly "courted" by the British. By giving them special privileges, they obtained loyalty from many Highlanders. Therefore, the War became a fight not only with England, but among themselves...brother against brother and neighbor against neighbor. Fear of reprisal against the Highlanders was also an issue, if they sided with the King there was danger of reprisal from the Patriots . If they took up the Patriot cause they might experience the suffering of post-Culloden events, where they lost their land to the English government, especially those that still had land in Scotland. And, an abundance of good land was a major reason for many to immigrate to the Colonies. The Patriot movement began in many places throughout the Colonies. They began to organize. One of these was the Provincial Congress at Hillsboro, Orange County, NC, which first met in August 1775. It became the chief policy-making body for the Patriots of the Colony. It drafted and directed the plan of opposition to the crown and raised a Revolutionary Army. >From the mountains, foothill farms and frontier communities came the wagons, food and clothing in support of the Patriot forces in their fight against the British. The frontier forts and settlers did their share of fighting. In fact, many became some of the bloodiest of battles against raids led by British forces. The Colonies finally declared independence from England and ultimately beat the British back into sea and to England.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
