| John Donelson Jr. resided in the Southern Colonies in North America before 1776. Join: US Southern Colonies Project Discuss: southern_colonies |
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John Donelson (son of John), aka Jr., and Col. was born April 7, 1725 in Snow Hill, Maryland of John Donelson and Catherine Davies (sic), who married in about 1716 in New Castle, Delaware.[1] p54: "His father was an importer, his maternal grandfather an Episcopal clergyman, a great uncle the first president of the college of Princeton, New Jersey...
25 Jan 1736 "Bosworth" 150 acres, given to John Donelson, son of Capt. John, to allow his mother Catherine Donelson peaceable possession during her life. p 65. 21 July 1756 John Donelson of Virginia sold 50 acres to Thomas Sturgis of Worcester Co. MD and 100 acres to Steven Sturgis., p 65. 6 Nov 1764, John Donelson (son of John) with wife Rachel of Accomack Co., Virginia, sold 220 acres 'Beyond Expectation" in Worcester Co., MD to James Rounds., p60[3]
1744, Pioneer settler of Pittsylvania, Virginia, patented lands in 1744.
1764: Filed his bond as Surveyor for the county of Halifax. (Hall Va. V..130 In April Court he takes the oath as Justice (Order;. 439).
1767: At Nov. Court of Pittsylvania, VA 1767 (Vol. 1-2) John Donelson, Gent., produced a commission from President and Masters of William and Mary College and took the usual oaths as a member of the commission and as justice of Oyer and Terminer (Vol. I-212) County Court Note Book, Vol. VI, No. 4, Dec. 1927),
1769: Chosen along with Hugh Inness to represent Pittsylvania in the House of Burgesses. He served in the House of Burgesses from 1769 until the outbreak of the Revolution, except when officially engaged in making surveys for the colony of Virginia or holding treaties with the Indians.
1770: July Court he took the oath as a member of the commission and as a justice of Oyer and Terminer.
1772: Surveyed the State Line westward; Indians told him of beautiful land in Tennessee...
1773: AT March Court, John Donelson, Jr., becomes assistant surveyor and takes the oath (Pitts. I-111) Was also Colonel in Militia.
1774: On tax list for "Bloomery" on Pigg River. His iron works were known as Bloomery,
1774 /1778: Sold lands to Colonel John Markham and James Calloway, Jeremiah Early for 4,000 pounds. (Deed in Henry County, Book I, pg 300)
1778 Col. John Donelson resigned his position of county lieutenant of all the county's military forces.
1779: He Left Ft. Henry for Fort Nashborough, Tennessee. There he helped found the city of Nashville. He was a signer of the Cumberland Compact bringing the rule of law to the wilderness.
1785 DEATH
HISTORY OF PITTSYLVANIA COUNTY, Virginia: [4] p 42 : In 1744 John Donelson of Accomac patented 200 acres on both sides of Sandy Creek. He made his home on the bank of the Banister River {Halifax, VA}... p154: Col. John Donelson II, the father of Capt. John Donelson {III}, had been for ten years or more along the frontier, performing various trusts for the Colony. p155-56: "Col Donelson was the son of John Donelson, SR., who came to America from London in 1716, and settled in Delaware, where he married Catherine Davies (sic). "Mrs. Donelson's brother (sic), Samuel Davies, was a Presbyterian preacher of great eloquence and one of the founders of his faith in Virginia; he was called by the Hanover Presbytery to Virginia in 1748, where he had made his home for many years. It is said of him that his influence was greater than that of any other preacher of gospel in Virginia (see also Howe's Virginia", pg 294) "Colonel John Donelson II married Rachel Stockly, whose son Captain John Donelson III married Mary Purnell, and their daughter, Emily Tennessee Donelson, married Andrew Jackson Donelson. "John Donelson, Sr., and his wife Catherine Davies, had two children, Mary, who married Hugh Henry of Accomac and John, who married Rachel Stockley also of Accomac. "When about twenty-five years of age, Donelson came to this section and made his home on Banister River {Halifax Co. VA}, near the mouth of Whitehorn Creek, where the house is still standing with long sloping roof and wide rock chimneys. Here was born in 1767 and grew up to lovely girlhood his daughter Rachel, who in later life was to become the wife of President Andrew Jackson.
Mr. Davies went to England in 1753 in the interest of Princeton College, NJ, and his preaching excited such favorable comment that the King himself came to hear him. He was one of the early presidents of Princeton College. pg 324: DONELSON, TENNESSEE, Its History and Landmarks, By Leona Taylor Aiken, p306:
[5]
"John Donelson {III?}, later a resident of the Cumberland Settlement in Tennessee; father of Mrs. Andrew Jackson, Stockley Donelson; ancestor of Andrew Jackson Donelson, Maj. Gen. Daniel Smith Donelson, C. S. A., and other prominent Tennesseans.
He was, at the time, a leader in Pittsylvania county, VA., where he settled about 1744-8. He was son of John Donelson, Sr., who came from London in 1716 and settled in Delaware where he married Catherine Davies (sic), sister of the eminent, Rev. Samuel Davies (sic). John Donelson married Rachael Stockley of Accomac county; was colonel of his county Militia, and a member of the committee of safety at the beginning of the Revolution...Page 359 ...The House of Burgesse, receding, asked the governor to take steps towards a treaty with the Cherokees in which the line should be fixed to run from the junction of the North Carolina line with the Holston the mouth of the Kanawha. Colonel John Donelson was appointed to conduct the survey...The treaty of Lockaber (October, 1770) resulted: By it the line demarking the Cherokee limits was fixed: "Beginning where the boundary line between the province of North Caroline and the Cherokee hunting grounds term- inates, and running thence in a west course to a point six miles east of Long Island in Holston river and thence to said river six miles above the said Long Island (sic) thence in course to the confluence of the Great Canaway and Ohio river."...Colonel Donelson in 1771 ran the line, ...(Many tried to settle western in western country)...Nothing came of it. Colonel John Donelson, of Pittsylvania county, set about to acquire lands in the neighborhood of the line, and in June, 1774, he ran the Virginia-North Carolina boundary line due west from the point of its first intersection with the Holson past its second intersection with that stream in order to ascertain how it would effect his title...Did Donelson thus early contemplate removal to the West?"
PASSPORTS OF SE PIONEERS: 1770-1823 by Dorothy Williams Potter: page 368: Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. I, 1770-1803, p70: South West Point Sept. 1795. : Dear Jackson, By Swift who passes here this morning I drop you a few lines just to acknowledge your favour by Colo. Donelson... J. Grant. [Addressed: "Andrew Jackson Esquire Cumberland Pr. favour Mr. Jno. Swift."] Page 461: On March 2, 1794 Stockley Donelson wrote Andrew Jackson that Donelson had lent a horse to "Mr. Thos. Man... to ride to Cumberland he was to return with your representatives...pp45-46. Page 459: Carter, ed. Territorial Papers, vol. IV; page 247. Blount wrote the Secretary of War again on May 12. 1793 stating "Yesterday evening my express James (sic) Donelson returned via Kentucky (being afraid to venture the nigh way) with letters from General Robertson who lives near Nashville...page 256. Page 128: Knoxville, March 23d 1793: Sir Yesterday my expected express James (sic) Donelson returned from Cumberland, his delay was owing to the waters of that river being very high for many days nine feet above what was ever heretofore known.... Three Chickasaws started with James (sic) Donelson to come on to this place, one arrived with him, and two lost their horses at Bledsoe's station, who will probably be up in a few days...I have the honor to be & c [Governor Blout] [To the Secretary of War]
ION Dilly's Book...about Andrew Jackson and Rachel Donelson...Col. Donelson is Rachel's father. Mary (Donelson) Caffery is niece of Rachel (Donelson) Jackson. Also, in PASSPORTS it states that Mary Caffery, wife of John is a sister of Mrs. Jackson. (There is another Mary Donelson who married a John Caffery in Davidson, TN in 1809. The marriage in Amherst, VA was submitted by a patron. The one in TN was extracted from original records).
There has been some confusion in the Davis line due to the similarity of names of the Rev. Samuel Davis, father of Catherine Davis Donelson, and the Rev. Samuel Davies who was an early president of the College of New Jersey, Later Princeton University. "The History of the Presbyterian Church in America" by Rev. Richard Webster (1857) gives the history of both men: Davis; pg 310, Davies pg. 549. The Rev. Samuel Davies was born on the Lumb farm, New Castle, Del., Nov. 3, 1723. (See Pencader Presbyterian Church records, Glasgow, De., pg. 41). Rev. Samuel Davis married (1) Mary, widow of Colone Sympson; (2) Elizabeth, widow of Colonel Whittington (see Somerset Co. MD records 9.h. 189); he had two children, a son, Samuel and a daughter Catherine, both by his first wife. Catherine married Capt. John Doneslon I. (see division of lands among heirs of Davis, Som. County, Md. Records AZ fo. 125, 21 Jan. 1733);
This week's featured connections are Redheads: John is 16 degrees from Catherine of Aragón, 17 degrees from Clara Bow, 25 degrees from Julia Gillard, 8 degrees from Nancy Hart, 13 degrees from Rutherford Hayes, 16 degrees from Rita Hayworth, 18 degrees from Leonard Kelly, 16 degrees from Rose Leslie, 17 degrees from Damian Lewis, 15 degrees from Maureen O'Hara, 24 degrees from Jopie Schaft and 32 degrees from Eirik Thorvaldsson on our single family tree. Login to see how you relate to 33 million family members.
D > Donelson > John Donelson Jr.
Categories: Cumberland Compact Signers | Long Profiles in Need of Cleanup | Special Improvement Projects | Maryland Colonists
See History of County Formations in Virginia 1617-1995 & History of County Formations in Kentucky 1776-1939.
edited by Liz (Noland) Shifflett
wikitreesoutherncolonies @ googlegroups . com (removing spaces)
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