In-Laws of Mary Berry
James Henry, Sr. was born at an unknown date and place, but it can probably be inferred that his birth took place either in northern Ireland or Scotland, but also possibly in Pennsylvania. Based on secondary sources, he lived somewhere along the frontier of Pennsylvania just prior to his move to Virginia, but the time that the Henry family arrived there is unknown. He passed away sometime in 1809 before 25 August, since he appears in the 1809 tax returns, but his will was proved on the 25th of August. Assuming a life span of about 70 years, a good estimate of his birth date would be about 1740. He married a woman by the name of Mary ? (unknown last name) at an unknown date and place, and first appeared in Augusta County, Virginia records in the fall of 1758. As noted above, James Henry, Sr. passed away around 1810 in Augusta County, Virginia. His wife outlived him by at least several years, but the date of her death is not known. |
Timeline of James Henry, Sr. and Mary ? (Unknown Last Name)
20 Sept. 175821 |
Augusta County, Virginia Will Book 2, page 328 |
18 Aug. 176221 |
Augusta County, Virginia Deed Book 10, page 506 |
20 Aug. 176521 |
Augusta County, Virginia Deed Book 12, page 102 |
~1766501 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
176721 |
Augusta County, Virginia Parish Vestry Book, page 441 |
~176921 |
Augusta County, Virginia Marriage Licenses, Marriage Bonds and Marriages |
15 Mar. 177421 |
Augusta County, Virginia Deed Book 20, page 209 Teste: James Henry, Patrick Hay, William Moore. |
1769 – 177721 |
Augusta County, Virginia Marriage Licenses, Marriage Bonds and Marriages |
25 Sept. 1775885 |
Lord Dunmore’s Little War of 1774, His captains and their men who opened
up Kentucky and the west to American settlement, by Warren Skidmore &
Donna Kaminsky, published by Heritage Books, 2002 |
20 Feb. 178121 |
Augusta County, Virginia Will Book 6, page 371 Teste: Hugh Fulton, Thos. Stevenson, Thos. Baird. Proved, 18th November, 1783, by Baird and Stevenson. Executors qualify. |
1 May 1782501 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
29 Dec. 178221 |
Augusta County, Virginia Will Book 6, page 267 |
1783501 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
1784501 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
16 Mar. 178421 |
Augusta County, Virginia Will Book 6, page 397 |
1786501 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
16 Apr. 1787501 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
14 Aug. 178721 |
Augusta County, Virginia Marriage Licenses, Marriage Bonds and Marriages |
29 Mar. 1788501 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
1789501 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
7 Nov. 178921 |
Augusta County, Virginia Deed Book 26, page 416 |
18 Mar. 1790501 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
17 Mar. 1791501 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
6 June 1792501 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
21 June 1793501 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
3 Aug. 179321 |
Augusta County, Virginia Marriage Licenses, Marriage Bonds and Marriages |
5 July 1794501 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
19 Apr. 1796502 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
1797502 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
26 May 1798502 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
23 July 179821 |
Augusta County, Virginia Marriage Licenses, Marriage Bonds and Marriages |
1799502 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
1800502 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
1801502 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
18 Apr. 180121 |
Augusta County, Virginia Will Book 9, page 252 Proved, 27th December, 1802. Jinney, Robert, and Sam. qualify. |
27 Mar. 1802502 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
2 Apr. 1803502 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
20 June 1804502 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
6 June 1805502 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
31 Oct. 180621 |
Augusta County, Virginia Will Book 10, page 309 |
1807502 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
1809502 |
Augusta County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists |
23 Oct. 181221 |
Augusta County, Virginia County Court Judgements |
Analysis of the Timeline
James Henry, Sr. and his wife Mary ? (unknown last name) can be tracked through Augusta County, Virginia records for a period of 54 years from 1758 through 1812. When and where he met and married his wife, Mary ? (unknown last name), and where he lived prior to 1758 is only a guess based on general migration patterns of the Scotch-Irish settlers who populated the Shenandoah valley of Virginia. The best guess is that he probably lived in Pennsylvania among the community of Scotch-Irish immigrants living in the Lancaster County area. There is documentation from a reliable secondary source that definitively places the Henry family somewhere in Pennsylvania, most likely on the frontier, prior to their move to Virginia. The story revolves around an Indian raid of the frontier settlements that resulted in the capture of a number of English settlers, one of them being Betsy Henry. She was taken west of the Ohio River, probably into modern day Ohio, where she was eventually accepted into the tribe. When she came of age, she married a young Delaware chieftan whose ancestry was half Indian and half French. Apparently, their relationship was quite happy, and, when a number of white captives were brought to Fort Pitt, modern day Pittsburgh, about 14 years later, for exchange, she was with her husband and refused to return to white society. This was in the early to mid 1760s, probably 1764 or 1767. If the 14 year “captivity” time is correct, then the original abduction must have taken place in Pennsylvania sometime between 1750 and 1753. It seems that her father had already passed away at an unknown date, since several of her brothers, one being James Henry, persuaded her to accompany them home to visit her old mother before the old woman passed away. Betsy agreed to make the family visit, and James accompanied her. At this point there are two versions to the subsequent events. One is that Betsy was pregnant at the time and delivered a baby girl along the way, and the other story is that she brought along her young daughter. Regardless, her husband was so devoted to her that he vowed that he would renounce his chief status in the tribe and live in white society just to be with his wife. He was never heard from again, and the suspicion was that several of Betsy’s brothers, probably including James, murdered their sister’s husband. The daughter, Sally Henry, was raised by James, and she married William Alexander, son of William Alexander and grandson of Robert Alexander. James Henry settled on a farm he purchased near the present site of Spottswood Station in Augusta County, Virginia. This story seems to jive with certain documented facts for James Henry, which are outlined below.33
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The saga of Betsy Henry notes that the Henry family lived in Pennsylvania at the time of her abduction, which appears to have taken place sometime between 1750 and 1753. James Henry’s first appearance in Augusta County records was not until 1758, so the family probably moved to Virginia a few years after their kidnapping tragedy. At the time of the captive exchange at Fort Pitt, which is believed to have taken place between 1764 and 1767, James Henry owned 340 acres of land in the southwestern corner of the Beverly Grant, which corresponds to area around the modern day Spottswood Station. If the part of the story about the possible murder of Betsy Henry’s Delaware husband is true, it occurred while James Henry was living in Augusta County, Virginia. In the winter of 1781 Robert Alexander’s will was proved, and it noted that James Henry was an adjacent landowner. In addition, Robert’s son William, the father of the William Alexander who married Betsy’s daughter, Sally, was mentioned in the will. The close proximity of the Robert/William Alexander family lends further credence to the connection of Betsy Henry to this James Henry. Finally, in James Henry’s 1806 will, which was proved after 1809, he identifies Sarah Alexander as the wife of William Alexander, but also notes a daughter named Sarah who still retains her maiden name, further supporting additional elements of the abduction story. The 1812 document identifies this daughter as later marrying James Poage and moving to Ohio. In essence, the basic elements of the Betsy Henry saga, as they apply to her brother James Henry, can be supported by primary source records from Augusta County. The bottom line is that the combination of reliable secondary source data and unquestionable primary source data provide a rich and robust illumination of James Henry’s life, not to mention a tightly focused and detailed view of the raw and sometimes violent elements of life, as well as a rather personal view of the clash and melding of European and Native American cultures on the colonial American frontier.
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Although James Henry’s date and place of birth are not known at this time, assuming a lifespan of about 70 years and that his death occurred about 1810, a date which can be bracketed by Augusta County records, an approximate birth date of 1740 can be determined. If so, he must have arrived in the Augusta County area as a teen ager, so he was probably accompanied by other family members, since the earliest Augusta County record for James Henry is from 1758. That record documents a payment from the estate of John Snodgrass. Apparently James was owed money by Snodgrass at the time of the latter’s death, so the debt was paid by the executors of the Snodgrass estate. Aside from tax records, which will be discussed below, James Henry showed up in numerous Augusta County court records from the 1760s until his death in 1809. In 1762 he purchased 340 acres of land in the southwestern corner of the Beverley Grant from an original Beverley land purchaser, Robert Ramsey, who had moved on to North Carolina. Ramsey had obtained the land from Beverley in 1747. In 1765 James Henry served as a testamentary in a land sale by Hugh Hays, who was probably a neighbor. Two years later, in 1767, his property was processioned for Church of England taxation purposes, and the location of the other property owners whose land was processioned at the same time reveal a collection of people living in the southwestern corner of the Beverley Grant. He purchased 408 acres of Borden Grant land in 1767, and in the late winter of 1774 served as a testamentary in another Hugh Hays land sale. In the fall of 1774 the Augusta County militia was called up by the colonial governor to fight the Shawnee and associated tribes. While James Henry does not appear on any of the militia lists from Augusta County, apparently he did supply the soldiers with a horse and saddle. A commission formed after the short war indentified all of the participants and documented the support provided by the local population, and, presumably, James Henry ws compensated for his support and services. He was noted as being a neighbor in Robert Alexander’s 1781 will, which is mentioned in the Betsy Henry saga. In 1782 James Henry served on an inquest panel, investigating the accidental death of a local man, and in 1784 he served as one of the appraisers of the estate of William Woods, who had purchased some land at the southern end of the Borden Grant in 1742. John Fulton was another of the appraisers, and he had purchased 200 acres of land in the northern part of the Borden Grant in 1752. In the summer of 1787 Agnes Henry, a daughter of James Henry, was married to James Nelson. Since Agnes needed her father’s consent, she under the age of 21, which puts an upper limit on her birth date of 1767. The Nelsons were not original Beverley or Borden Grant purchasers, so must have arrived in the area somewhat later than the surge of early settlers. Patrick Hays, a next door neighbor of James Henry’s, apparently moved to Lincoln County, Kentucky around 1789, so, through a Rockbridge County attorney, he sold his land to James Henry. James’ sons, Robert and Henry, served as testamentaries in this land deal. In the summer of 1794, another daughter, Sarah Henry, got married to James Poague, but she was already 21 years old, which did not require her father’s consent. This places an upper limit on the birth of this daughter at 1769. There was a Robert Poague family, living very close to the James Henry farm, and it seems quite likely that this was where Sarah’s husband lived. (Figures 8, 89 and Table II) That family had purchased their Beverley Grant land in 1740. In the summer of 1798 another daughter of James Henry, Agnes, got married to Charles Henry, so she appears to have married a cousin. Both bride and groom were at least 21 years of age, which puts an upper time limit to the birth date of Agnes Henry of 1777. In the early spring of 1801, a neighbor, John Tate, passed away, and both James Henry and George Berry were listed as testamentaries. (Figure 3, Table I)
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From
1782 through 1809 James Henry appears on the Augusta County Personal
Property Tax rolls (Table XXIV), and what stands out is that his
economic status does not appear to change all that much throughout this
time period. The only item that reflects any great change is the fact
that he owned a small number of African slaves until about 1795. After
that, he was no longer taxed on any slaves. What this means is somewhat
problematical. In the last 19 years of his life he was living on a farm
that apparently had required slave labor prior to that time, but no
longer required it after 1795. This could mean that his health had
deteriorated in the last part of his life, and he had already
transferred much of his wealth to his children, but if that’s the case,
then he probably would have written his will much earlier than 1806. |
Table XXIV
James Henry Sr.'s Personal Property Tax Records 1782 - 1809
Year | Horses | Slaves | Tax |
1782 | 4 | 2 blacks | |
1783 | 4 | 2 blacks | |
1784 | 6 | 1 black < 16 | |
1785 | ND | ||
1786 | 7 | 1 black > 16 | |
1787 | 7 | 1 black < 16 | |
1788 | 6 | ||
1789 | 6 | 1 black > 16 | |
1790 | ND | ||
1791 | 6 | 1 black > 16 | |
1792 | 9 | 1 black > 16 | |
1793 | 10 | 1 black > 16 | |
1794 | 0 | 1 black > 16 | |
1795 | ND | ||
1796 | 5 | 0 | |
1797 | 5 | 0 | |
1798 | 4 | 0 | |
1799 | 4 | 0 | |
1800 | 4 | 0 | |
1801 | 5 | 0 | $0.60 |
1802 | 6 | 0 | $0.72 |
1803 | 6 | 0 | $0.72 |
1804 | 4 | 0 | $0.46 |
1805 | 6 | 0 | $0.60 |
1806 | ND | ||
1807 | 5 | 0 | |
1808 | ND | ||
1809 | 5 | 0 | $0.60 |
James Henry wrote his will in the fall of 1806, so, he was probably quite aware that his days were numbered. In the will he identified his wife, three sons and three daughters, plus the married daughter of his “rescued” sister, and a grandchild, probably his niece’s baby. It was proved in the late summer of 1809, which probably pinpoints the approximate date of his death. Presumably, he passed away not long before August 1809. The last record mentioning James Henry is from an 1812 court judgment wherein his widow is complaining that she had not yet received her part of her deceased husband’s estate. |
Mary Berry and James Henry, Jr.
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