FOURTH GENERATION

22. John RENO ⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾ was born on 13 Apr 1715 in Manassas, Prince, William, Virginia. He died on 14 Jun 1806 in Elizabethton, Carter County, TN.  He was married to Mary Susannah THORNE (daughter of William THORNE and Mary PECK) on 17 Nov 1737 in Greenbrier, Vale, VA.  

John Reno, who spelled his own name and his children's names as Reno in his will, was born on the Patent of 1710 obtained by Lewis Reno from Clermont Chevalle, at the confluence of the Occoquain River with Broad Run in Prince William Co., VA. He was living there in 1749 when Faquier Co. was formed out of Prince William Co. There are records of him living in Frederick Co. in 1758 and 1760. On Mar. 5, 1764, he and wife Susannah "of Frederick County" sold land in Prince William Co. to William French, except 1/2 acre for the graveyard described as land left him by his father Lewis Reno (Prince William Co. Deed Book Q, pp. 147, 165). The witnesses to this land sale were Lewis, Francis, Elizabeth, and Laurence Reno. (Nothing is known about this Laurence or Lauroner Reno [writing difficult to read]). Also in 1764, John and Susannah purchased 293 acres on Patterson Creek from Christian and Elizabeth Long. In 1764, John Reno also transferred 600 acres on Patterson Creek, Hampshire Co., VA (formerly part of Frederick Co.) with other transfers listed in 1769, 1770, and 1771. John Reno and his wife appear in land records of Hampshire County in 1761, 1762, 1764, 1765, 1769, 1770, and 1771.

John and his family were among the first settlers of Sinking Creek in Carter Co., TN. Prior to 1776, due to strained relations between the Americans and the British, the British provided the Indians with arms, ammunition and merchandise and in return the Indians harassed the frontier settlements. The Indians were constantly burning, pillaging, and massacring pioneers near the Watauga Settlement where the Renos first lived.

About 1772 after the death of Susannah he apparently moved with all of his children except George and Thomas, who remained in Hampshire County, to Chartier's Creek valley in Washington County, PA (later became Allegheny County). In 1776, he renounced allegiance to Great Britain and the Commonwealth of Virginia while in Henry Co., VA. Between 1784 and 1787, John Reno and nine of his children (all except Benjamin, who died about 1782, and Francis who remained in PA) moved to Washington Co., North Carolina, which later became Carter Co., TN, and where he died about 1808.

During the State of Franklin controversy in Tennessee between Colonel John Tipton and Colonel John Sevier, we find the following: "I hereby give Publick Notice, that there will be an election held the third Friday in August next, at John Rennoe's, near the Sickamore Sholes where Charles Robertson formerly lived, to choose members to represent Washington county in the General Assembly of North Carolina, agreeable to an Act of Assembly, in that case made and provided, where due attendance will given per me." Colonel Tipton was, by his oath as representative of the North Carolina law in the Washington District of North Carolina, opposed to the treasonable act of establishing the State of Franklin which was being organized under Colonel John Sevier. As John Reno had both Sevier and Tipton daughter-in-laws and this conflict had broken out into an armed one, John's situation must have been acute. However, as we see by the advertisement dated July 19, 1786, quoted above from Ramsey's "Annals of Tennessee", page 338, John Reno must have sided with Colonel John Tipton, whose sister (or niece) was married to Reno's son Charles.

"Sicamore Scholes" was on the Watauga River, near the site where the first cabin built by white men in Tennessee Country was erected in 1768. From 1787, John and Charles Reno are found in the tax lists for Washington County, Tennessee (North Carolina). (East Tennessee Genealogical Magazine, Vols. 34, p. 126, and 35, p. 108, et seq.)

On 14 June 1806, John Reno made his will: "In the name of God amen - I, John Reno, being weake in body but of perfect mind and memory Blessed God, and Calling to Mind the Mortality of the body and knowing that it is appointed for all men once to die - doe Make Constitute and ordain this to be My Last Will and testament - in Maner and form following - that is to say after all just debts being paid at the discretion of my Executors - I first will and bequeath unto my beloved son William Reno twenty five cents - to my Beloved Benjamin Reno I also Will and Bequeath twenty five cents - to my beloved daughter Sarah Rodgers I also will and bequeath twenty five cents - to my son John Reno I will and bequeath twenty five cents - to my beloved daughter Mary Calvin twenty five cents - to my beloved son George Reno twenty five cents - to my beloved son Lewis Reno twenty five cents - to my beloved son Francis Reno twenty five cents - to my beloved daughter Margaret Vance twenty five cents - and to my beloved son Charles Reno I will and bequeath all and everything belonging to me of every kind, or spacious of property whatsoever of any kind belonging to me. I and doe make constitute and appoint the aforesaid Charles Reno sole Executor to the same, in witness whereof I have this fourteenth day of June in the year one thousand eight hundred and six and in the presence of these witnesses acknowledge this to be My Last Will and testament Together with my Hand and Seal annexed to the same." Witnesses were John Dunlap, William Lacey, and Samuel Tipton (Original Wills, File No. 2, p. 679, Office of County Court Clerk, Elizabethton, Carter County, Tennessee; Virginia Magazine of History, vol. 9, p. 12; Tyler's Quarterly, vol. 4.)

Mary Susannah THORNE ⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾ was born on 17 Nov 1719 in Prince William, Virginia. She died on 29 Aug 1773 in Brownsville Or Patterson's Cre, VA. She has Ancestral File number 4NK6-NJ. Susannah's mother's maiden name was probably Mary Peck, daughter of Robert Peck. She married first John Orear, and then William Thorne. Donna Sarchet ([email protected]) found a 1733 deed in King George Co., VA where William Thorn and his wife Mary, "relict of John Orea of Prince William County, VA", and Margaret Glasscock (daughter of John Orea and Mary Orea Thorn) and her husband John Glasscock, sell land to Cornelius McCarty. This land is stated in the deed to have been owned by John Orea before his death. In 1708, Robert Peck and his wife Margaret granted a lifetime lease on this same piece of land to John and Mary Orea "of Stafford Co., VA" on behalf of John and Mary's daughter Margaret, who later married John Glasscock. Robert Peck says that this transaction is for "the love, goodwill, and affection which I have and bare towards my loving friend, Margaret Oriar, daughter to John and Mary Oriar".

One source says that Susannah Thorn was born in New England, but there is no evidence for this, and all of the records for William Thorn and his wife Mary in the early 1700s have them in or near Stafford or Prince William County, VA. According to Boddie's Historic Southern Families, Susanna died at Patterson's Creek, VA and may have been killed by Indians. Her name last appears in land records for Hampshire Co., VA in 1772, and it is thought that her husband moved to Pennsylvania about 1772-1773 after her death.

John RENO and Mary Susannah THORNE had the following children:

+57 i. Reverend William RENEAU.
+58 ii. Benjamin RENEAU.
59 iii. Margaret RENEAU^{(1) (2)} was born on 9 Mar 1742 in Allegheny, PA. She died on 9 Mar 1742 in , Beaver Co, PA. She has Ancestral File number 56CP-XF.
+60 iv. Sarah RENEAU.
+61 v. John David RENEAU.
+62 vi. Mary RENEAU.
+63 vii. George RENEAU.
+64 viii. Charles RENEAU.
+65 ix. Lewis RENEAU.
+66 x. Reverand Francis RENEAU.
+67 xi. Thomas RENEAU.
+68 xii. Margaret RENEAU.