Benjamin (b. 1756) and Rebecca Martin in Hampshire?
Benjamin LeMasters-Rebecca Martin THEORY
By Duane A. Boggs ([email protected])
March 9, 2004
As a descendant of Benjamin and Rebecca (Martin) LeMasters, I have reviewed much of the work done by others over the years.I am aware of the tradition that Benjamin’s father, Isaac, had land on Decker’s Creek in Monongalia County, part of which was somehow transferred to Zackquill Morgan and became Morgantown, (now West) Virginia.I am also aware that researchers have assumed that Isaac (and his family) lived on the remaining part of the land in Monongalia County.Finally, I am aware of the tradition that Benjamin married Rebecca Martin in Morgantown in 1779 and that she was the daughter of John and Elizabeth (Goldsborough) Martin from Talbot County, Maryland.
I have certain problems with the details and would like to set forth the problems I see with our current thinking, some “hard” facts (e.g., from written records), some reasonable deductions and a THEORY (to be proven or disproven by further research) which I believe better explains the facts.
Problems:
First, some people report that Isaac died in Monongalia County in 1797.There is, however, a Virginia land record from 1801 that refers to Isaac as if he were still alive.The record concerns a land grant to Isaac’s neighbor, David Scott.It is set forth below.
http://ajax.lva.lib.va.us/F/U6BIS2BS5UB3CQV35CVE4G1F2P8UAUCL47UUJ4U6GK6DLFDA2V-09496?func=full-set-set&set_number=008610&set_entry=000002&format=999http://ajax.lva.lib.va.us/F/U6BIS2BS5UB3CQV35CVE4G1F2P8UAUCL47UUJ4U6GK6DLFDA2V-09496?func=full-set-set&set_number=008610&set_entry=000002&format=999
URL (Click on link) http://lvaimage.lib.va.us/cgi-bin/GetLONN.pl?first=291&last=&g_p=G48&collection=LOhttp://lvaimage.lib.va.us/cgi-bin/GetLONN.pl?first=291&last=&g_p=G48&collection=LO Grant
Title Scott, David.
Publication 17 December 1801.
Other Format Available on microfilm. Virginia State Land Office. Grants A-Z, 1-124, reels 42-190; Virginia State Land Office. Grants 125- , reels 369-.
Note Location: Monongalia County.
Description: 105 acres adjoining and between lands of Isaac Lemasters, Charles Dawson and Aaron Henry.
Source: Land Office Grants No. 48, 1801-1802, p. 291 (Reel 114).
Part of the index to the recorded copies of grants issued by the Virginia Land Office. The collection is housed in the Archives at the Library of Virginia.
Subject - Personal Scott, David.
Lemasters, Isaac.
Dawson, Charles.
Henry, Aaron.
Subject - Topical Land titles -- Registration and transfer -- West Virginia -- Monongalia County.
Subject -Geographic Monongalia County (W. Va.) -- History -- 19th century.
Genre/Form Land grants -- West Virginia -- Monongalia County.
Added Entry Virginia. Land Office. Register. Land grants, 1779-
Library of Virginia. Archives.
Other records from this same source indicate that Isaac and his neighbors (David Scott, Charles Dawson, Henry Aaron and Thomas Pindle) all lived on the West side of the Monongahela River (i.e., not the Decker’s Creek and Morgantown side), on/near Flagg Meadow Run and/or Scott's Mill Run.The PROBLEM is that our Isaac had died four years before the 1801 record, in 1797.
Second, I have to believe that it is more likely than not that Rebecca Martin was living with her parents up until the time of her marriage to Benjamin circa 1779.If they were married in Monongalia County (in/near Morgantown) as tradition states, then I would expect to find a John Martin somewhere in records for Monongalia County.I have not found any such records.While there was a Martin family in Monongalia around 1779, there was no John from Talbot that I can find.(Some Martin researchers might have sidestepped this problem by concluding that John Martin must have died before 1790, presumably because he does not appear as the head of a household or on a tax list for the 1790 census of Monongalia residents.The PROBLEM is that there is no John Martin in Monongalia.
Third, many records of Benjamin and his siblings involve Berkeley County, (now West) Virginia, which is some 90 miles East of Monongalia and, in fact, on the opposite side of the Appalachian divide (between rivers flowing East, e.g., into the Potomac, and rivers flowing West, e.g., into the various tributaries of the Ohio).The only record concerning Monongalia is as the enlistment location for Joseph LeMasters, as stated in his pension application for Revolutionary War service.
Fourth, history and geography tell us that the general direction of pioneer settlement was from Pennsylvania and Maryland down (to the South) into the Valley of Virginian, including the Shenandoah Valley and the valleys of the upper Potomac.Settlements also spread down into Augusta County and West into the Greenbrier Valley and other areas of (now West) Virginia.From Monongalia County, settlement did not spread back East, but West and South into what became Wetzel, Tyler, Marion and other counties of (now West) Virginia.
Facts:
1. Benjamin LeMaster enlisted in Berkeley County, Virginia, in the First Virginia Regiment, circa 1776, probably served a three-year enlistment, and then apparently returned home in time to marry Rebecca Martin in September 1779.Because there is no known marriage record, the location is uncertain, but earlier researchers have guessed it was Morgantown.He and Rebecca then moved to Greenbrier County (there are Virginia land records to support the Greenbrier location).
2. Benjamin’s brother Thomas (“The Scout”), had left home (wherever Isaac and Nancy (Scott) LeMasters lived) and migrated into a more Southern part of the Valley of Virginia and then Westward into the Greenbrier Valley even earlier than Benjamin.
3. Benjamin’s brother Joseph enlisted in Morgantown and served in a unit under David Scott of Monongalia County.
4. Benjamin’s sister Catherine/Katharyn (various spellings)married William Ferguson and lived in Berkeley County for a time (before ultimately migrating West to Kentucky).
5. Benjamin’s brother Isaac lived (and died in 1844) in Berkeley County.
6. Benjamin’s brother Richard was married in Berkeley County in 1802 (before ultimately migrating West to Indiana).
7. Reportedly, Benjamin’s sister Mary was married in Amherst County, Virginia, South from Berkeley County.
8. No one seems to know the whereabouts of Benjamin’s sister Charity.
9. In 1779, Berkeley County included the Eastern half of Morgan County (which was not formed until 1820).
10. In 1779, Hampshire County included the Western half of Morgan County.
11. In 1779, Hampshire County was adjacent to Berkeley County (both on the Potomac River, but with Hampshire just West (upriver)).
12. Morgantown is about 90 miles West from even the Westernmost boundary (as of 1779) of Berkeley County.
13. An Isaac LeMasters appears on the 1782 tax list for Hampshire County (with one “tithable”).
14. A Joseph LeMasters appears on the 1782 tax list for Hampshire (also with one “tithable”).
15. A Jonathan LeMasters appears on the 1782 tax list for Hampshire (also with one “tithable).
16. There is a John Martin on the 1782 tax list for Hampshire (with one “tithable”; there may have been a second John Martin as well, also with one “tithable”).
17. As of 1782, a “tithable” in Virginia was a white male over the age of 16 or a slave.
18. A John Martin was the head of a household (of 7 souls) in Hampshire in 1784 (on North River, a branch of the Capacon, which flows into the Potomac).
19. According to the Hampshire County Minute Book for 1788-1791, a John Martin was appointed overseer of the road from Dillon’s Run to James Smith’s on North River.
20. Just across the Potomac from Berkeley and/or Hampshire was Washington County, Maryland.On a 1783 tax/census list, there were an Isaac LeMasters and a Hugh LeMasters.There was also a Nicholas Martin there at that time and the Martin family of Talbot had a Nicholas Martin of about the right age.
21. From about 1773 until at least 1801, there was an Isaac LeMasters in Monongalia County, (now West) Virginia.
22. There were at least three, and perhaps four, men named Isaac Martin, all of the same generation of the LeMasters family of Maryland, all grandsons of Richard and Martha (Dennis) LeMasters.Our Isaac (born circa 1728) was the son of Joseph and Catherine (Ward) LeMasters and married Nancy Scott.One of his first cousins Isaac (born circa 1734) was the son of Richard Lemasters, Jr., and Martha (Kerrick) LeMasters).Another of his first cousins Isaac (born circa 1746) was the son of Abraham and Rachel (unknown) LeMasters (and might have married a Miss Morgan, per a submission to the LDS).A fourth possible first cousin Isaac (born circa 1724) was the son of Isaac and Mary (Hayes?) LeMasters.
23. A newspaper article from the Fulton Daily Leaders, Fulton, KY, July 18th, 1975, apparently based on information from two of Joseph LeMasters’s descendants, Mrs. James T. Nanney and Mrs. Richard A. Shepherd, both members of the Jacob Flournoy Chapter of the DAR, states the following [paragraph divisions removed; bold emphasis added]:“JOSEPH LEMASTER(1758-1826)Joseph Lemaster, son of Isaac and Ann (Nancy) Lemaster, was born in Maryland in 1758.Included in his Revolutionary War pension application is a Bible record stating that his brothers and sisters were Isaac, Richard, Benjamin, Thomas, Mary, Charity, and Catheryne.Isaac and Richard are believed to be the same as those in Bourbon Co., Kentucky in the 1790's.Joseph enlisted in the Continental Army in 1776 at the age of eighteen at what is now Morgantown, West Virginia.Apparently he was still living in Maryland at the time. He fought in the Battles of Germantown, Brandywine, and was stationed at Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) where he was engaged in several battles with the Indians. On March 1, 1780, Sgt. Lemaster received his discharge and returned home to Maryland where he and Hannah --- were married in 1780.The names of all the children of this marriage have not been definitely established.There are indications that they may have been Joseph, Jr., Hannah, Nancy, Elizabeth and Rebecca.There is proof that Rebecca, a daughter, was born in 1784, married Alexander McKay in 1806 in Davidson Co., Tennessee, and died in 1850.Joseph and Hannah lived in Hampshire County, Virginia until sometime between 1782 and 1784, when they moved to Abbeville, South Carolina.Hannah died before 1792 and Joseph married Mary Waddell, daughter of John and Mary Waddell.Issue of this marriage were:1. John Waddell Lemaster who married Nancy Almond;2. Mary; and 3. Eliza.They moved from South Carolina to Maury County, Tennessee in the early 1800's.Sgt. Joseph Lemaster died August 10, 1826, while visiting relatives in Williamson County, and is buried near College Grove, Tennessee.”This newspaper article has been posted on the web at http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ky/fulton/military/revolution/jlemaster.txthttp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ky/fulton/military/revolution/jlemaster.txt.
24. Also on the web is posted an excerpt from page 8 of a book entitled “Benjamin Lemasters of Nicholas County, West Virginia” by Ronald V. Hardway.In his book, Mr. Hardway discusses only two of the three (or four) cousins all named Isaac LeMasters.Apparently accepting the conclusion (discussed below) that Isaac father of Benjamin and Joseph resided in Monongalia, Mr. Hardway has assigned certain land transactions between a Joseph Flint and an Isaac LeMasters to our Isaac.
Deductions:
A. Past researchers have apparently concluded that, because Joseph LeMasters enlisted in Monongalia, served in a military company with David Scott and was the son of an Isaac LeMasters, that therefore it could follow that the Isaac LeMasters in Monongalia was his father.Therefore, Benjamin LeMasters’s marriage to Rebecca Martin is also assumed to be Monongalia (Morgantown).This conclusion, however, ignores the close ties of most other family members (e.g., Benjamin, Catherine, Isaac and Richard) to Berkeley County, just East of Hampshire County.Nor does the Monongalia conclusion explain why Joseph and his first wife, Hannah, would have lived in Hampshire County in 1782.Nor does the Monongalia conclusion square with the absence of any John Martin (father of Rebecca) in Monongalia.Therefore, the assumption about the location of Benjamin LeMasters marriage to Rebecca Martin is also questionable.
B. The Isaac LeMasters on the 1782 tax list for Hampshire County (with one “tithable”) could be our Isaac.He himself would have been the tithable, and at home at the time could have been his wife Nancy and children Mary (b. 1769), Isaac (b. 1773) and Richard (b. 1775), with both boys under 16 so not yet tithable.
B. The Joseph LeMasters on the 1782 Hampshire tax list could be Isaac’s son, who would soon thereafter move to South Carolina.
C. Thomas and Benjamin were both gone from Isaac’s household by 1782 and were apparently in the area of Greenbrier County at the time.
D. The John Martin who was head of a Hampshire County household in 1784 (and, presumably, one of the two (?) John Martins on the 1782 tax list) could be the father of Rebecca Martin.If so, he would have been born in or before 1738 (to be at least 20 at Rebecca’s birth in 1758).His household might have been himself, wife Elizabeth, and five younger siblings of Rebecca’s (with none being a son born before 1766).These five children might have been born at about two-year intervals and might have been born between 1766 and 1774.
E. The Isaac LeMasters in Washington County, MD on the 1783 tax/census list could be the son of Richard and Martha (Kerrick) LeMasters, based on the geographical proximity of Hugh LeMasters, named for their maternal grandfather, Hugh Kerrick.
F. The Isaac LeMasters in Monongalia County could be the son of either Abraham and Rachel or Isaac and Mary.Abraham reportedly lived in Berkeley County, (now West) Virginia and so my own conclusion is that Isaac of Monongalia was the son of Abraham.Abraham lived in Berkeley, as did Morgan Morgan, the father of Zacquill and David Morgan, of Morgantown renown.It is possible that this Isaac LeMasters, son of Abraham, married an as-yet undiscovered sister of Zacquill and David and was thus dealing with his brother-in-law when he sold his Decker’s Creek claim.
THEORY:
Joseph LeMasters may have headed West to visit his father’s first cousin Isaac LeMasters (and Joseph’s second cousins, the children of that Isaac) in Monongalia County and chose to enlist there, leading to Revolutionary Service focused on the Indian threat from West of Pittsburgh.Following the end of his military service, he returned East, and married and settled (temporarily) near his father Isaac in Hampshire County, (now West) Virginia.
Benjamin LeMasters and Rebecca Martin were likely married in the area of Hampshire County (where John Martin, possibly her father, lived).
The land transactions in Frederick/Washington County, Maryland between Joseph Flint and an Isaac LeMasters probably involved Isaac son of Richard or Isaac son of Abraham and NOT our Isaac, son of Joseph.
Benjmain’s sister Mary might have been visiting the family of John LeMasters (son of Richard and Martha (Dennis) LeMasters) who had moved from Maryland to Amherst County, VA, when she met and married there.
Does anyone have information to support or refute this theory?Please contact me at [email protected].
More Replies:
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Re: Benjamin (b. 1756) and Rebecca Martin in Hampshire?
Hope Doyle 7/28/06
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Re: Benjamin (b. 1756) and Rebecca Martin in Hampshire?
Duane Boggs 3/12/04