WILLIAM WOODFORD OF VIRGINIA: AN UNSOVED MYSTERY

WILLIAM WOODFORD OF VIRGINIA: AN UNSOVED MYSTERY

There were three William Woodfords in Virginia that were born in the first half of the eighteenth century. One was an emigrant from England in the early 1700s and was known as Major William Woodford. The second was his son who had a distinguished military career in the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars and was known as Brigadier General William Woodford. The third was a Private in the Revolutionary War. This article raises the question of whether there was a connection between William the common soldier and the more well known Major and General. It was "Private" William Woodford who was my ancestor.

MAJOR WILLIAM WOODFORD

Major William Woodford was an emigrant to Essex County, Virginia around 1700. His name first appears in 1706 when he is listed as a witness to a deed in Essex County. The designation "Major" may indicate that he was a commissioned officer in the British Army prior to coming to America. He was an officer in the Militia of Caroline County and served in the capacity of County Colonel until his death.

The area of Essex County where Major William settled later became part of Caroline County in 1728. He acquired large land holdings and built an estate named Windsor on the Rappahannock River near present Fredericksburg, Virginia. There he did extensive farming and grew tobacco on a large scale. He was also engaged in the merchant shipping business.

Major Woodford was a close associate of Alexander Spotswood. In the summer of 1716, Spotswood made his famous journey from Williamsburg to the Shenandoah Valley with his "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe". One of the expedition Members recorded in his journal that they spent a night at the home of William Woodford on the way and again on the return. Major Woodford later joined the group at Germanna.

Major William Woodford was married three times. He had no children by his first two wives. He and his third wife, Anne Cocke, had five sons. The oldest son William, born in 1734, became a Brigadier General in the American Revolution. Major Woodford died in 1755. The exact date is unknown but his will was recorded on June 8, 1755.

BRIGADIER GENERAL WILLIAM WOODFORD

Brigadier General William Woodford was born in Caroline County, Virginia, October 6, 1734, the eldest son of Major William Woodford and his wife Anne Cocke.

In 1755 he enlisted in the Virginia Regiment of Militia. This was during the French and Indian "troubles" and was the beginning of a very distinguished military career. In 1756 he organized a company of Caroline County Volunteers and was stationed at Fort Loudoun near the present town of Winchester, Virginia. George Washington made this fort his headquarters during this period. War was formally declared against France an August 7, 1756. William Woodford served throughout the war until the Virginia Regiment disbanded in 1762.

He was twenty seven when he returned to "Windsor" in the Spring of 1762. On June 26, 1762 he married eighteen year old Mary Thornton. She was the daughter of George Washington's first cousin Mildred Gregory who married John Thornton. A further family connection with the Washington's was that Mary Thornton's sister married Samuel Washington who was George Washington's brother.

The life of a Caroline County Gentleman and Planter for William Woodford was interrupted by the Revolutionary War. He was appointed a Colonel at the outset of the war and was placed second in command of the Virginia forces. On October 25, 1795, Woodford's troops defeated the British at Hampton, Virginia. This victory has caused some to say that he was the General that won the first battle of the Revolutionary War. Those that claim this believe that the fighting at Lexington and Concord were skirmishes and not battles.

General Woodford continued to render distinguished service throughout the war. In 1780 the American Army suffered a major defeat at Charleston and General Woodford was taken prisoner along with 5000 others. As a prisoner he was moved from Charleston to New York where he died in captivity on November 13, 1780. He was buried at Old Trinity Church in New York City in an unmarked grave.

General Woodford’s estate received warrants for over 13,000 acres of Bounty Land in Kentucky because of his services. These lands were claimed by his eldest son, John Thornton Woodford who settled there in 1820. Later two counties were named in honor of General Woodford. They are Woodford County, Illinois near Peoria and Woodford County, Kentucky.

PRIVATE WILLIAM WOODFORD

There was another William Woodford from Virginia who served in the American Revolution. He was probably born 1745/1750 even though one source gives his birth date as early as 1730. He died sometime after 1789 when he appears on a militia voucher list in Rockingham County, Virginia. William and his wife Frances had two children baptized in Shenandoah County, Virginia in 1773 at Beckford Parish Church where Peter Muhlenberg served before the Revolutionary War. Tradition says that William was present when Peter Muhlenberg peeled back his clerical robes to reveal an Officers Uniform and gave an impassioned plea for enlistment in the Revolutionary Cause.

I am indebted to Dave Kuhl of Ocean Springs, MS for information on Private William's Revolutionary War Service. The following chronology is based entirely on his research.

February 1776 - William enlisted in Captain Cambell's company of the 8th Virginia for two years.

July 1776 - William is listed as present at Fort Moultrie, Charleston, SC. A famous battle occurred there when the Americans constructed battlements from Palmetto Logs and sand on Sullivan's Island. The Palmetto Log is very fibrous and the fire from the cannon of ten British Ships was absorbed harmlessly. The British were forced to abandon Charleston which was a very significant victory for the Americans.

May 1777 - October 1777 - William served in Captain Richard Campbell's Company of the 8th Virginia Battalion commanded by Col. Abram Bowman.

August 5, 1777 - On roll call William is listed as "sick in Virginia" and was paid eight pounds sterling at two pounds a month. This included three months back pay to March. Dave Kuhl states that many in the 8th Virginia Regiment contacted yellow fever and malaria in the Carolinas. William's record of frequently being sick suggests that he had malaria with chronic intermittent periods of high fever.

September 2, 1777 - William is listed on roll call as serving under Captain Campbell and being "sick in Maryland".

October 15, 1777 - William is listed as present and serving under Major Cambell. He received two months pay. From this we can conclude that William fought in the Battle of Brandywine which took place on September 11, 1777 and in the Battle of Germantown which took place on October 4, 1777.

November 3, 1777 - William is listed on roll call serving under Lt. Steed. He received one months pay and was listed "sick at North Winter Meeting House".

December 4, 1777 - William re-enlisted for a period of three years at Camp White Marsh.

December 11, 1777 - General George Washington withdrew to winter quarters at Valley Forge. Ten thousand men went to Valley Forge and one third of them would die of disease or starvation before spring. Another third deserted and the Continental Line was down to only three thousand men. William would have been present at Valley Forge.

January 1778 - William received three months pay and was listed as "sick, absent".

April 17. 1778 - William received two months pay and was listed as "sick, absent".

May 2, 1778 - William received one months pay and was listed as "sick in Lancaster".

May 4, 1778 - William was paid the promised enlistment bonus of twenty dollars. Apparently he and his heirs were denied the hundred acres of land portion of the bonus.

June 1778 - July 1778 - William served in Captain Kirkpatrick's company of the Fourth Virginia Regiment commanded by Colonel James Wood.

July 12, 1778 - On roll call William was serving under Captain Kirkpatrick at Camp Paramus and listed as "sick Lancaster". Camp Paramus presumed to be Paramus NJ.

August 3, 1778 - William was serving under Captain Kirkpatrick at Camp White Plains in New York and was listed as "sick Lancaster". This was the last pay record.

August 23, 1778 - William was listed "in hospital".

September 2 and 10, 1778 - William is again listed as "in hospital".

October 5, 1778 - William is listed as serving under Captain Kirkpatrick at Camp Robinson's Farm. The state and location of Camp Robinson is unknown.

December 19, 1778 - William is listed as serving under Lt. Col. Robert Ballard at Middlebrook (presumed to be New York) and listed as "sick Lancaster".

January 14, 1779 - This roll call was the same as the December 19 record.

February 4, 1779 - William is listed as "supposed dead". We know this was an error because of the births of his children after the war. The depositions of his grandchildren in 1834 and the Militia Voucher listing in 1788 in Rockingham County, Virginia also prove that he was not dead in 1779.

Very little is known of his life after the war. Most court records of Rockingham County were burned during the Civil War. There is a deed that survived the fire where his son William Woodford, Jr. and wife Hannah sold John Lemon land near "Peaked Mountain" in 1814. Beginning in 1795 there are marriage records of his children which indicate that their father is deceased.

In 1834 the grandchildren of William Woodford, Sr. and children of William Woodford, Jr. and his wife, Hannah Moss, applied for Bounty Land in Harrison County, Virginia, now West Virginia. Their claim was that their grandfather served in the Revolution and that neither he nor none of his heirs had received any Bounty Land for his services. A copy of the original claim is on file at the Virginia State Library in Richmond, Virginia. Following are some of the depositions recorded by the court.

A Mary Lanie testifies that "the said William Woodford served five years or upwards and he got a discharge on account of a wound that he received upon one of his legs. . . that the said William Woodford at the time of his services as a soldier had his wife with him in Philadelphia and that the deponet lived with her in Philadelphia until he received the wound and then returned with them to Rockingham County".

John Lincoln, from Ohio, testifies that "he knew him before his enlistment and saw and knew him in Philadelphia while he was in the regular service guarding a number of British Prisoners in the new jail, a good portion of whom were taken by General Wayne at Stoney Point. This was in the fall of 1779 and the deponet was then in the 25th year of his life". This John Lincoln was most likely the Great Uncle of President Abraham Lincoln who moved his family from Rockingham County, Virginia to Ohio in 1820.

The court rejected the claim saying that William Woodford, Sr. was not listed on any Army Register and that there was no public document that proved he had served long enough to be entitled to Bounty Land or that he was even a soldier in the Regular or Continental Service. This seems very ironic when you consider that two hundred years after the war we have detailed records of his service as given in the chronology listed above. What a contrast to the other William Woodford of Virginia who received 13,000 acres of land and had two counties named in his honor!

THE MYSTERY

Several years ago I came across a file in the Library of the Rockingham County Historical Society in Dayton Virginia that contained intriguing correspondence from two Woodford Descendants. The first from Mrs. Loraine Fest from Buckhannon, West Virginia, was dated October 18, 1981 and stated that there was a strong family tradition that William Woodford the "Private" was an illegitimate son of William Woodford the Brigadier General or of his father, Major William Woodford. In the latter case he would have been a half brother of the General. The second letter stated that her family tradition was that "Private" William was the son of Brigadier General William Woodford and that Private William had married the daughter of Sir William Howe, commander of the British Army during the war. Because the family was opposed to the wedding the two left England and came to America settling in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. I contacted Mrs. Fest and she told me the following clues which she believes supports the family tradition.

There is a picture in the William Woodford Biography by Catesby Stewart that was taken from a hand painted miniature owned by a Isis Woodford Snyder of Chevy Chase Md. Isis Snyder was a first cousin to Mrs. Fest's father. She thought that it was reasonable to believe that it had passed to her through the family and why would she have it if there was not a connection between the two William Woodfords? Unfortunately both Isis Snyder and Catesby Stewart are both deceased and Mrs. Fest never learned how her father’s cousin obtained the picture.

The second clue is from a conversation she had with the author personally. One was a phone conversation in which the author, Mrs. Stewart, told her that the General had contracted a "youthful marriage". Another conversation took place in the authors home where she told Mrs. Fest that "someday you will figure it out". The perceived implication being that the author knew the answer but wanted Mrs. Fest to find it out on her own. Note that in 1446 pages of biographical information on Brigadier General William Woodford, Mrs. Stewart never mentions a "youthful marriage".

In reading the books by Mrs. Stewart I thought it was interesting that she mentioned that there was a William Woodford who fought for the British during the Revolution, but she never mentioned a second William Woodford from Virginia who served on the American side. Certainly she would have known this after her years of research in preparing for her book.

If this tradition has any element of truth, it would be much more likely for Private William to have been a son of Major William Woodford and a half brother to General William Woodford. The General was born in 1734 and would have to have been very young to have been a father of Private William. Also in 1748 and 1749 a servant girl of Major William Woodford, named Jane MacKenzie, filed a complaint against him for unspecified mistreatment. Mrs. Stewart speculates in her biography that perhaps the overseer had asked the girl to do field work not specified in her indenture contract. Could this have been a early Colonial Court Case of sexual harassment?

I will conclude by saying that I have never seen any evidence to support the family tradition. I realize that "tradition" is often an unsafe guide in Genealogical Research. I would like to solve the mystery no matter what the answer turns out to be. It is the attempt to find answers to these "family mysteries" that make genealogy so much fun.