Mary"Molly", born 10 August,1763, Fauquier/ Pr. William Co., Va.; married James Jones , Farquier Co., 27, October,1781; died, Monroe County,Va., 21 December, 1852.

Reuben, born 1765, Fauquier/ Pr. William Co.,Va.; married, Jean"Jane" Gullett (pronounced Gauley), Greenbrier Co.,Va. 15 February, 1797, died, before 1830, Lincoln Co., Ky.

Esom, born 1767, Pr. William Co,, Va., married, Jean "Jane" Handley, Greenbrier Co.,Va. 29 December,1795, died, September or October, 1828, Rush Co., Indiana; possibly of drowning.

John, born 1769,Farquier/ Pr. William Cos.,Va., married, Mary "Martha" Gray (aunt to the Gullett sisters), Greenbrier Co., Va., 2 January, 1794.

Matthew, born 1772, Farquier/Pr.William Cos., married Mary "Polly" Gullett, Greenbrier Co., 6 January,1795, died after 1850, Casey Co.,Ky.

Joshua, born 12 February, 1773, Farquier/Pr. William Cos.Va., married Hannah Hawkens, Greenbrier Co.,Va., 26 February, 1799, died,9 October,1858, Monroe County, Va.

Edward, born 1775, Farquier/Pr. William Cos.,Va., married Caty Williams, Greenbrier Co.,Va., 27 March,1799.

Edmond, born ?, married ? died?

William Jr., born 1785, Greenbrier Co., Va.. married Elizabeth (unknown, suspect she was a sister of the Gullett girls and was previously married to Reuben Whorton) about 1809, Monroe Co.(?), died between 1830 &1840, Lincoln Co., Ky.

Elizabeth, born 28 December,1788, Greenbrier Co.,Va, married Mark Hardin Shumate, 6 October,1806 in Monroe Co. Va., died 2 March, 1873, Giles Co. Va.

James, born about 1794(source: deduced from the 1810 & 1820 Monroe County, Va. census') , Greenbrier Co., Va., married Jane Elkins/Elcans, 20 March, 1819

By: Roger Greenough, April, 2006

While this material was one of the keystones to my Leach family research for a long time and was considered gospel until I found that most of my research runs contrary to much of the material presented by Mr. Morton and I wonder if he used unverified interview notes to develop his offering.

The following material is a comparison of the differences between my research and Mr. Morton's copy. My comments are in brackets.

William Leach a stonemason, came from Prince Edward at the close of the Revolution with his wife, Susanna Hughes.

[ If William was a stonemason I have found no evidence of him using that trade in either Greenbrier or Monroe Counties. A trade such as this would have been used in building bridges and public buildings and his name does not appear in any records as being a contractor.It also appears that William and his family arrived in the Monroe area about 1782 the year of the close of the War. It has been reported in Vol.1 edition 1 of the Greenbrier Historical Society Journal, dated 1963, that upon the family's arrival William claimed a 155 acre tract of land. Which by the time of the survey of his land patent in 1789 had grown to 170 acres in size. There is a question as to the timing of the family's arrival as I have found that Mary"Molly"Leach, William's oldest daughter married James Jones in Fauquier County, on the 27th of October, 1781(source: James Jones Rev.War pension application, Dept Interior, Bureau of Pensions, executed 29 may ,1849.) one other source states that the happy couple were married in Greenbrier County on the aforementioned date.Though no records have been found by me. I go with the pension application as the correct location. I also find the mention of the location of Prince Edward Co. as to where the family emigrated from to be suspect in light of the earlier mentioned information].

He was accompanied by Leach Mann, a relative, and by the Gullet, Egner, and Fuller Families.

[ In checking Greenbrier Co. records for any mention of a Leach Mann none has been found. With that in mind I find it doubtful that there was ever a Leach Mann. It occurs to me that the leach man mentioned as a relative was Absalom Leach one of the witnesses to William's will, written in 1807, and often goes unmentioned. William Gullett and his family are recorded as appearing in the area about the same time as the Leach family. There are no records found in either Greenbrier or Monroe counties for the Egner or Fuller families through 1825 ].

His[ William's] settlement was on the Washington Nickell place in the Sinks, some of his close neighbors being James Gregory and John and William Brown. He owned slaves and left a personality valued at $ 274.67[an estate of $247.67].

[The previous statement is only partially correct. His immediate neighbors, based on his land survey, were William Gullett, Samuel Glass and William Tincher. He did own slaves but the value of his estate exceeded the previously mentioned dollar figure. The $247.67 number was arrived at as a result of someone using the gross total results of the William's estate auction, dated May 16, 1808, as the total value of his estate.His wife Susannah inherited the equivalent appraised value of 188 American Pounds 1 shilling and11 pence or about$626.20 making the total value of his estate $873.87, exclusive of the value of his remaining land].

After his death in 1805 [ 1808] the widow and most of her children went to Kentucky, Joshua, Mary and Elizabeth remaining in the Sinks. Essom was living on Rich [Creek], William Jr. on Kelly's [Creek], and Reuben, already married had been given a part of the family homestead.

[The statement that after William's death in 1808 his widow and most of her children moved to Kentucky is not correct. The exodus started as early as 1805 with his sons leaving by ones and two's. John left about 1805, Reuben about 1807, Mathew and Edward about 1808. Their main settlement area was Lincoln County, Kentucky. Esom moved to Ohio about 1812.

It is doubtful that the man called William Jr. who lived on Kelly's Creek is actually the son of William Leach. I suggest that he is brother of the aforementioned Absalom and is a nephew of William. He married Jean/Jane Thomson on the 21st of January, 1794 [Greenbrier,WV Marriage Records, Vol.1A]. Bought 97 acres of land located on Kellies Creek from Charles and Margaret Hynes for $1.00 on the 16th of June,1800. He and his wife Jean farmed this land until the 15th of September,1807 when they sold this property to Miles Foster for $1.00 and apparently moved on.

It appears that Susannah Leach never did leave Monroe County. Her name appears on various legal records with her two youngest sons William, Jr. and James until March of 1821.When she and these sons and their wives Elizabeth Leach and Jane[Elcans] Leach sold the last of William's land, a 128 acre parcel to George Nickle.This William,Jr. and James apparently remained in Monroe county until nearly 1830 before moving to Lincoln County, Kentucky. As late as July, 1825 they were recorded as having attended the estate sale of a Thomas Charlton and both men made purchases at this event].

About 1815 some of the family came back as far as Charleston with a stone to mark the father's grave, but learning there that the spot could not be identified, they returned to Kentucky and have been lost sight of [since].

[This statement appears questionable in light of a previous statement that the widow and three of her sons along with her two married daughters were still living in the "Sinks" at this time and would have been able to point out the site of William's grave.]

Two sister's came with William, Sr. to Monroe County. Susan married Isaac Foster and Nancy married Alexander Clark.

[ Information has been found , though unproven by me, that indicates that Isaac Foster was the nephew of Susannah Hughes Leach, sister-in-law of Susan. Isaac's parents were Isaac Foster, Sr. and Sarah Hughes. Sarah and Susannah, were sisters and daughters of Edward Hughes and Elizabeth Grigsby of Prince William County, Virginia.

There is an implication in the above paragraph that Susan and Isaac were married in the Greenbrier/Monroe Counties area. To date, I have found no evidence that this is true. However, an unproven source states that they were married in Prince William County about 1785. Though it is doubtful that this statement will ever be proven as the courthouse located at Manassas was burned during the Civil War destroying all of the records.

This source also gives Susan's birth year as 1742 and location as Prince William County, Virginia.

Other than the previous statement that states that Susan came to the Monroe County area with her brother William I have found no records that can prove that she and Isaac Foster Jr ever lived there. What I have found though, is that it appears that Susannah Leach's sister Sarah and her husband Isaac Foster, Sr. and their family lived in the county from about 1787 through 1798. Not long after the tax year of 1787 Sarah and Isaac bought an assigned interest in a 209 acre land patent from Sarah's nephew Reuben Leach. This property was located on Swopes Knob, east of the present day town of Union,West Virginia. Isaac received title to this property in 1796. On April 24,1797.Isaac sold this farm of 209 acres,personal property,livestock,etc. to his son Nathaniel Foster for $1.00. There was no mention of Sarah during this exchange. Reuben Leach and his wife Jean and J. Byrnside were witnesses to this transaction.

On September 25, 1798, Nathaniel Foster sold this property to Jacob Longenacre for $1.00 and and according to a biography found in the History of Nicholas County, West Virginia by William Griffe Brown, dated 1954, moved himself and his father Isaac to near Cross Lanes in Nicholas County later that fall. Three of his brothers, Isaac Jr., James and Nimrod came along with them.It is reported that brothers, Isaac Jr. and James soon went west. Isaac Sr. and Nathaniel bought land in the bend of the Gauley River, where Nathaniel developed a large farm. "Old"Isaac purportedly died about 1814 and Sarah died 10 April, 1822. Both are buried in the Zoar Baptist Church Cemetery at Cross Lanes, West Virginia ].

As is generally the case when dealing with family traditions and recollections the information provided is basically true but not always factually correct.

"The following biography was taken from "The Making of a Township" by David G. Lewis 1829-1917. Chapter 28 page 195.

William Leach was born May 5, 1793 in VA. He married Sarah Harrison, daughter of John and Rachel Price Harrison, Dec. 23, 1813 in Butler Co., Ohio. Mrs. Leach belonged to a pioneer family with an honorable history. (It is claimed she descends from the President Harrison lineage. This has not been proven.) William Leach, who was a soldier in the war of 1812, came when Fairmont Township was a dense forest. Along with the Lewis, Ward, Todd, Simons, Duling, Powers, Crist, Redder, Ice, Corn, Furnish, Mason, Harrison and Payne families, the Leach family had its opportunity, and William Leach was the man of the hour in planting his family tree in the virgin soil of the township. Three sons, namely Esom, John and Edmund and four daughters, Rachel, Mary, Jane and Martha constituted his family circle. His children and children's children, unto the third and fourth generation assemble in annual reunion in the comfortable little grove generously bequeathed to Fowlerton, to the town of his founding, by William Leach." more... Back to Esom Leach page