1742, Rhode Island

Providence, Rhode Island, 1858. Harbor view, taken from the grounds of George W. Rhodes, Esquire. Hand-colored lithograph. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sarah Clarke, wife of Lieutenant Edward Greenman, has died at the age of 49 in Charlestown, Washington, Rhode Island. She is the daughter of Jeremiah Clarke & Elizabeth Ann Sisson.

Peleg Sisson, son of Thomas Sisson & Jane Card, marries Rebecca Ingraham in Brightman's Pond, Westerly, Washington County, Rhode Island.

Benjamin Sherman, son of Thomas Sherman & Lydia Wilcox, and Mary Sherman, daughter of William Sherman & Abigail Palmer, are married in South Kingstown, Rhode Island.

(Sarah Clarke and Peleg Sisson are my first cousins 9 times removed. Our common ancestors are George Sisson & Sarah F. Lawton.
Benjamin Sherman is my second cousin 9 times removed. Our common ancestors are Thomas Lawton & Elizabeth Salisbury. Benjamin and Mary may be 2nd Cousins, sharing Common Ancestors, their Great Grandparents: Phillip Sherman & Sarah Odding and Edward Wilcox & Susannah Thompson.)

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Catesby Cocke, Land Speculation and George Washington

1725-1742: Prominent Tidewater Virginia politicians and businessmen buy huge tracts in this era of land speculation. William Fairfax, uncle of Thomas, sixth Lord Fairfax, amasses more than 35,000 acres; Francis Awbrey, 29,000 acres; Catesby Cocke, 23,000; John Colvill, 22,000; Robert Carter, Lord Fairfax's real estate agent, 21,000. These five own 40 percent of future Loudoun's 330,800 acres. The land is often leased in 100- to 200-acre tracts or after a few years is sold; many double their money.

William Cocke and son, Catesby
Dr. William Cocke, of Suffolk, England, came over to Virginia in June, 1710 and settled at Williamsburg. He came over in the Deptford with Alexander Spotswood, and lived there prior to about 1720.

It is known that Dr. Cocke came as private physician to Lt. Governor Spotswood. Then, in June, 1712, Dr. Cocke was sworn in as Secretary of the Colony of Virginia. He had been recommended to this office by Spotswood and Edmund Jenings, former Secretary of State and former acting Governor. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Cocke had sent for his wife, Elizabeth Catesby Cocke, sister of Mark Catesby, the naturalist; and his two children who were in England. They arrived in the Hanover in April, 1712. Apparently, Catesby was with them for a few days after they had been met and taken to Williamsburg in the Governor's coach. Soon Dr. Cocke, his family and Catesby were visiting at "Westover." Cocke had been a classmate of William Byrd in England.

By 1713 Dr. Cocke had been appointed to the Council. From 1716-1718 he was in England on business for the Colony. On October 22, 1720 he "was struck with a fit of apoplexy in the Capitol and died immediately and fell on me," so reported Byrd. Dr. Cocke left a widow and six children: Mrs. Elizabeth Cocke Pratt (widow), Catesby (born 1702), William, Anne, Susanna and Lucy.

He was a member of the Council, Secretary of the Province and a Judge of the General Court.

Catesby Cocke, his son, lived at Belmont, Fairfax County. Catesby Cocke lived next door to George Mason's Gunston Hall and across the Potomac River from Nathaniel Chapman. He was the first Clerk of the Court for both Prince William County and Fairfax County. Like many wealthy men of the day, Catesby was a land speculator. In 1731, 292 acres of land on both sides of Broad Run in Thoroughfare Gap were patented to him by permission of Lord Fairfax. Since he never made any improvements of the land, he had to relinquish it to Lord Fairfax in 1737. Subsequently, Godfrey Ridge bought the land and flipped it to Jonathan Chapman for 10 pounds in 1741. In 1742 Jonathan Chapman bought a sliver of land that would enable the Chapman Mill head race to reach Broad Run above the 87 feet it descends. This information suggests the mill could have been built any time after 1737 and before 1742.

Catesby Cocke and George Washington, Tax Evaders

In making a schedule of his property, an owner took an oath that the list recorded everything subject to taxation. If a man omitted one carriage or slave, he perjured himself.
As inscribed in the hand-written, leather-bound book of the court, the following is the report of the Grand Jury of Fairfax County, Colony of Virginia, rendered to the court on May 21, 1760. The names of the 15  defendants add some color and character, humor and historical interest, to the proceedings.
"We present George William Fairfax, George Washington, John Carlyle, Daniel French, Robert Bogges, Catesby Cocke, Townshend Dade, Sylbill West, Garrard Alexander, J. Emima Minor, William Ramsay, Benjamin Grayson, George Mason, John Plummer, Daniel McCarty and Abraham Barnes for (not) entering their wheeled carriages agreeable to law, as appears to us by the list delivered to the clerk of the county."

1754 Maryland - Taneytown Founded

1754- Taneytown, Maryland was founded in 1754 when one of the area’s first land grants took place. Nearly 7,900 acres were granted to Edward Diggs and Raphael Taney under a patent designated as the Resurvey of Brothers Agreement. Lots were laid out and the first deeds registered in 1762. Raphael Taney, whose home was in St. Mary’s County, probably never lived here. He did, however, help design the town’s layout and gave it his name. One popular misconception is that the town was named for Roger Brooke Taney, a U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice. Judge Taney, who shared a common ancestor with Raphael Taney, was not born until 1777.

The earliest known inhabitants in the Taneytown area were native Americans. The Tuscarora Indians hunted deer, otter, wolves, and wildcats in the area’s abundant woodlands. The early European settlers were Germans from Pennsylvania and Germany. Before the arrival of white settlers, however, most native Americans had already migrated west over South Mountain in the Cumberland Valley. The Treaty of Six Nations, which was signed in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1745, offered white settlers protection from Indian attacks in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia and made the ownership of land by white men legal.

Of the town George Washington once wrote "Tan-nee town is but a small place with only the Street through which the road passes, built on. The buildings are principally of wood."

Orders from George Washington to Lieutenant Colonel Elisha Sheldon

16 December 1776

Sir

The Congress having thought fit to appoint you Lieutt Colo. Commandant of a Regiment of Horse to be raised and to empower me to appoint the officers under you,reposing especial trust & confidence in you & knowing how much your honor & reputation depends upon the proper choice, I am willing you should have the Nomination of all the Officers (reserving to myself a negative of any One and all such as I shall think unfit for that service, and doubt not you will be particularly carefull in fixing upon none but Gentlemen of true spirits and of good Characters—observing at the same time that Gentlemen of Fortune and reputable Families generally make the most usefull Officers.

You are immediately to repair to the State of Connecticut and as soon as possible nominate your Officers, and send them out on the recruiting service; they are to be particularly attentive to take none into the Corps, but young light active men.

The Privates are to receive Twenty Dollars bounty, and a Suit of Cloaths on entering the Service and pay as per Schedule annexed. They are to be raised to serve during the war unless sooner discharged by Congress.

Each Non commissioned Officer and private is to be furnished with a good Horse, Saddle, Bridle & other Accoutrements belonging to the Horse service at the expence of the Continent—and I will recommend to Congress that the Commanding Officer be also furnished at the public expence with the same, but cannot absolutely engage it as I beleive it is not customary.
In procuring the Horses, you are to have no Stallions, Mares, White or Grey Horses, but likely serviceable Trotters of sufficient size, It is expected you will purchase them at the most reasonable rate & not upon an average to exceed One hundred Dollars per Head, carefully describing and keeping an exact account of the Cost of each Horse.

Saddles, Bridles, Carbines, Broadswords, Pistols and every other accoutrement necessary (agreable to a Pattern herewith given you, you will procure as cheap as possible.

Your Regiment is to consist of One Major, an Adjutant, Surgeon & Mate and Six Troop, to each Troop, One Captain, One Lieutenant, One Cornet (commissioned Officers) One Qr Master, Two Serjeants, Two Corporals, One Trumpeter, One Farrier & thirty four privates.

In order to enable you to defray the Expence of raising and equipping this Regiment, you are herewith furnished with a Warrant upon the Paymaster for the sum of 14,000 Dollars and a Letter to Governor Trumbull to advance you such further Sums as may be necessary on Continental account. In case of the latter failing you are to advise me of it, & if no public money is to be had in that Department from a Paymaster to be appointed, send a carefull Officer for such Sum or Sums as may be wanted.

1776 Connecticut

December 12, 1776- Sheldon's Horse, the Second Continental Light Dragoons, commissioned by Congress under the command of Colonel Elisha Sheldon at the direct recommendation of General George Washington. Washington indicated that he expected Sheldon to appoint only gentlemen of "true spirits and good character" and observed that gentlemen of fortune and of reputable families generally made the most useful officers.

The unit had volunteered for service early in 1776 but was rejected because of insufficient forage for the horses and men. The dragoons entered active service after the defeat of the Continental Army at White Plains, New York, in October 1776.

The name dragoon is derived from the carbine (the dragon) carried by Frederick the Great's medium cavalry. Lighter and shorter than a regular musket; the carbine's size made it ideal for light cavalry use. It was attached to the shoulder with a musket sling. Pistol holsters on the saddle contained two French cavalry pistols for use in close quarters, and dragoons also carried
a wooden canteen, bedroll, feed bag and picket rope.

Most of their fighting was done on foot with the horses being used primarily as transport. Dragoon mounts were generally smaller than those used by heavy cavalry. Horses had to be bay, black, chestnut or gray in color. The typical load carried by a horse could be 250 pounds, including equipment and rider.

Members of Sheldon's Horse served as personal bodyguards to General George Washington.

1778 Washington on Quakers

March, 1778- During the bleak, dark days at Valley Forge, General Washington issued the following orders to Brigadier General John Lacey, Jr.:

Head Quarters, Valley Forge, March 20, 1778

Sir:

Sunday next, being the time on which the Quakers hold one of their general Meetings, a number of that Society will probably be attempting to go into Philadelphia. This is an intercourse that we should by all means endeavor to interrupt, as the plans settled at these meetings are of the most pernicious tendency. I would therefore have you dispose of your parties in such a Manner, as will most probably fall in with these people, and if they should, and any of them should be mounted upon Horses fit for draft or the service of light Dragoons, I desire they may be taken from them and sent over to the Qtr. Master General, any such are not to be considered as the property of the parties who may sieze them as in other cases. Communicate the above orders to any of the officers of the Continental Army who may command scouting parties upon your side of the Schuylkill.