Week 16 #52Ancestors: Out of Place

While researching my east Tennessee tree, I find that many relatives hailed from North Carolina or Virginia and were Baptists.  I was intrigued to find an ancestor who was born in Massachusetts and he is my 4^thgreat-grandfather!  His name was Jonathan Barnard born circa 1759 in Massachusetts (some say England). He enlisted in the Revolutionary War in 1775 in Cambridge, Massachusetts and served with the Massachusetts Continental Line.  

Washington Taking Command of the American Army. At Cambridge, Mass. July 3rd, 1775, by Currier & Ives, 1876.

 A summary of Jonathan’s service was found on Wikitree, “He took up with a regiment at Prospect Point outside of Boston after the British had invaded and just before Bunker Hill and the formation of the Continental Army under Washington. He was there at the time of Bunker Hill but apparently was not a participant. His first enlistment was just for a few months, but he re-enlisted later in the year. He was part of the movement into Boston in spring of 1776 when the British evacuated. He was under General Nathaniel Greene who was in charge of Boston for a couple weeks but then was re-assigned to New York where the British were engaging anew. They started out on Long Island as part of an artillery regiment under Col. (later General) Henry Knox using the equipment that Knox had retrieved from defeating the British at Ft. Ticonderoga. They moved in to help defend Ft. Washington on northern Manhattan across from Ft Lee in New Jersey. That was a disastrous loss that prompted Washington to do what he could to salvage his army before it was overtaken. Jonathan Barnard, however, was among those who were captured by the British. He was taken to prison in New York and was there until 8 Jan 1777.”  

Battle of Ft. Washington, 1776 published on Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository

By 1784, Jonathan is living in Goochland County, Virginia and has married a young woman named Obedience “Biddy” Barnett.  This year was provided as their year of marriage in pension paperwork.  Biddy was born to John Barnett and Elizabeth Hutchins who were Quakers.   The Richmond and Cedar Creek Monthly Meeting Minutes state, “Obedience daughter of John disowned 4^thmonth 1786.”  I wonder why she was disowned two years after the marriage?  Some researchers think she was disowned for marrying out of faith or for marrying a Revolutionary War veteran. Unfortunately, the Minutes do not provide a reason.  I often wonder how he ended up in Virginia. Was he employed as a teacher in the Quaker community?  

Submitted: September 19, 2011, by Bernard Fisher of Mechanicsville, Virginia. 

Moving forward, Jonathan enters 20 acres of land in Claiborne County, Tennessee on the north side of the Clinch River beginning on a Poplar and running so as to include the house and spring where he now lives located on part of a warrant No. 60 for 300 acres dated 9^thJuly 1811 and entered 8^thOct 1811. It is later withdrawn on November 10, 1814.  On August 16, 1816, he purchases 22 acres of land from Mathew McGhee in Hawkins County, Tennessee.  Another 20 acres of land was entered for Jonathan Barnard on April 10, 1817 and an additional 25 acres was obtained through a land grant on March 17, 1818 in Claiborne County. 

He applied for his pension in Hawkins County, Tennessee in October 1818 and we learn from the application he had been a teacher.  That career ended due to the loss of his eyesight.  In 1834 Jonathan requests a pension transfer to Mercer County, Kentucky.  He states his children and friends are packing up and removing west and he thought he could live better and cheaper in Kentucky.  Looking at the 1830 and 1840 censuses, it does not appear that any of his children have left east Tennessee so it leaves me to ponder this statement.  I know that there was a Shaker community in Pleasant Hill, Kentucky but I haven’t found anything that connects him to them.  Who did he know in Mercer County, Kentucky and since he was blind then how did he travel there?

Published on sos.ky.gov

Jonathan’s will was dated October 18, 1835 and states:

In the first place I want my pension drawed by Garret Derlin and my debts paid and Garret Derlin and wife satisfied for their trouble with me and I want all my plunder put to sail, and my debts collected by Mr. Durlin and my deceased son John Barnard four orphan children to have my estate equally divided between them living in Grainger County East Tennessee let this be done at my decease this is my last Will & Testament. 

Jonathan Barnard

Attest

Elizabeth Wickersham

Thomas A. Hawkins

Mercer County Ten. December County Court 1835

The foregoing Noncupative Will of Jonathan Barnard dec’d was this day produced into Court Approved by the oath of Elizabeth Wickersham and Thomas A Hawkins two subscribing witnesses thereto and ordered to be recorded done accordingly.

Attest

Tho Allin

The will was filed in Mercer County, Kentucky rather than the state of Tennessee. A review of the 1830 and 1840 Mercer County census records do show Elizabeth Wickersham on both and a G.W. Durland on the 1840 census.  It is odd that Jonathan made no provision for Biddy.  Perhaps it was because she was left in the care of one of his sons.  She did apply for a widow’s pension in 1846 in Claiborne County, Tennessee. Several people came forward to verify the marriage as Biddy didn’t have a record of it nor did the Court Clerk at Goochland County, Virginia.  Apparently, the efforts worked as she appears on the Widow Pensions Roll.

Many people have researched Jonathan Barnard and tried to find his family in Massachusetts. Could he be the son of Reverend Thomas Barnard from Salem, Massachusetts who has been proposed by another researcher?  Looks like I will be going down that rabbit hole!