Lawrence
Bishop
Born in Bethel Township, Bedford, Pennsylvania
Son of [father unknown] and [mother unknown]
[sibling(s) unknown]
Husband of
Nancy Ann (Stallings) Bishop
— married
[date unknown] [location unknown]
Descendants 
Died
at age 87
in Bullitt, Kentucky, United States
Profile last modified
| Created 10 Apr 2020
This page has been accessed 112 times.
Biography
Lawrence Bishop was born in May 1763 in a part of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania that would become Bedford County. We know his father was George Bishop and we think his mother was named Elizabeth. More about that later.
In 1780, when Lawrence was 17, some of the county militia was called on to do military duty on the frontier to guard against Indian attacks. A draft was held and Lawrence's father George's name was drawn. Lawrence went in his place, and spent the next two months on guard at the town of Bedford, thirty miles from his home.
The following May saw the militia called out again for guard duty. Lawrence again went as a substitute for another man, a common practice where one man would pay another to take his place in the draft. This time he marched 25 miles past Bedford and across the Allegheny Mountains as a guard and scout. He returned home after his two-month tour was up.
Then in August he served in the militia, again as a two-month substitute, along the Juanita River, a tributary of the Susquehanna River, as protection against the reoccurrence of recent Indian attacks.
Sometime after the war, Lawrence married a Miss Sousley and they had a son named Daniel in 1787. Then, according to Lawrence, the family left Pennsylvania in October 1793 and settled in this part of Kentucky. It appears that he and his first wife had at least one more child, a daughter named Elizabeth who, according to her tombstone, was born in August 1797.
In May 1798, Lawrence purchased 140 acres of land from Richard Johnson, and a George Bishop purchased 50 acres next to him on the north side. Then George sold his land to Barlett Foster in 1805, and moved to Jefferson County. The deed identified his wife as Elizabeth. We speculate that George and Elizabeth were Lawrence's parents.
We haven't determined the exact location of Lawrence's land, but we do know that Richard Johnson purchased 2000 acres "on the waters of Floyd's Fork and Salt River" in 1795, and that he sold a total of over 600 acres to six different men, including Lawrence Bishop, all on 18 May 1798. From the survey description of Johnson's 2000 acres, it appears that it lay between Floyd's Fork on the northwest and McCullough's Run on the southeast as shown on the plat to the right.
Lawrence's first wife was apparently dead by June 1798, for he married Mary Young then, and they had a daughter named Mary who would marry James Gunn in 1820 in Jefferson County. Mary was just an infant when her mother died, and Lawrence married a third time, this time to Nancy Stallings in 1802. Lawrence and Nancy would have at least three children, sons they named John, Samuel, and Oliver Perry Bishop.
Lawrence apparently began losing his eyesight around 1820 for in his 1832 application for a pension, he reported that he had been blind about 12 years. He continued to be listed as head of his household decade by decade through 1840, although by that year Nancy was no longer listed.
After that time, he apparently lived with one or more of his sons, perhaps visiting first one and then another. In 1850 he was listed with his son Oliver's family, but in 1851 he deeded his home place over to his son Samuel "in consideration that I have been supported for several years past by the said Samuel Bishop, I being blind, old and otherwise afflicted, and for the further consideration that the said Samuel Bishop shall support me the remainder of my life and after my death shall have my remains buried in a plain and decent manner." Lawrence died sometime in the 1850's, for he is missing in the 1860 census.
Sources
https://bullittcountyhistory.org/memories/lawrence_bishop.html
"United States Census, 1790," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHKR-Q4W : accessed 4 October 2020), Laurence Bishop, Bedford, Pennsylvania, United States; citing p. 233, NARA microfilm publication M637, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 9; FHL microfilm 568,149.
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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Lawrence by comparing test results with other carriers of his Y-chromosome or his mother's mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known yDNA or mtDNA test-takers in his direct paternal or maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Lawrence:
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Lawrence by comparing test results with other carriers of his Y-chromosome or his mother's mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known yDNA or mtDNA test-takers in his direct paternal or maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Lawrence:
-
~0.78%
Cole Aubrey
:
AncestryDNA, GEDmatch A664830 [compare], Ancestry member Cole_Aubrey
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1. A careful analysis of the 1820, 1830, & 1840 census records indicate that Mary Emma Bishop Gunn (my 3rd great grandmother) was born between 1791 and 1794, before Lawrence's marriage to Mary Young. Her mother was the Miss Sousley. 2. Lawrence did not die on 29 July 1850, even if every tree on the internet says so. That date was the day the census taker visited Lawrence's neighborhood. The date is written at the top of the census page. Someone probably recorded that he died AFTER 29 July 1850 and everyone copied the date without the "after". You mention in his bio that Lawrence deeded his land to his son Samuel. That is correct. The date that deed was written was 5 March 1851--nearly a year after the 1850 Census. Additionally, Lawrence appears on the 1851 tax list. We are unable to use later tax lists to narrow down his date of death, as the 1852-1858 tax lists are missing. He does not appear on the 1859 tax list. (Samuel, his son is on the list with Lawrence's 170 acres.) Since he no longer had property, he probably would not have appeared on them. (From earlier tax lists, he was already exempt from the county levy. He once owned quite a few horses, but in later years no longer kept horses. His age & blindness was probably the reason.) I do think that I have narrowed down his date of death, however. His last pension payment was in March 1854. He did not receive his September payment. From this we can infer that he died sometime in 1854. I have added to Lawrence's profile on FamilySearch and attached a multitude of records to his Sources. Here is a link to his profile: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/KJZ8-531 Others have indicated that Miss Sousley was named Sarah C. Sousley and was the daughter of Henry Sousley (Sr) and Susan Cooper. I have been unable to verify this. However, it does make sense, in that the Hendery Sousel that was on the 1790 Bedford Co., PA census and who bought land the same day as Lawrence and George was a son of Henry (Sr) and Susan Cooper Sousley, making him a brother to Miss Sousley. I'm still searching for documentation to prove this. I have a little more information on George Bishop that I will share on his own WikiTree page.
"United States Census, 1790," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHKR-Q4W : accessed 4 October 2020), Laurence Bishop, Bedford, Pennsylvania, United States; citing p. 233, NARA microfilm publication M637, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 9; FHL microfilm 568,149.