© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 1 5/21/14
ROBERT RUTHERFORD
By Rudolf Loeser
For half a century, from early manhood, Robert Rutherford played an active and
honorable part in the communal and political life of the lower Shenandoah Valley of New
Virginia.1 He was a “plain, unassuming man … [of] small frame … who dressed in the
simplest garb, and very few would suspect the intelligence and ability that lurked beneath
his homely clothing, whilst his integrity and kindness of heart were known to all.”2 He
was a family man, and had a puckish sense of humor. “He was eccentric; but brilliant and
very popular … a man of high character, of education and refined feelings.”3 His youngest
daughter, Eleanor, is said to have provided this description: “He looked old when she first
recollected him, yet was handsome with dark hair worn in a queue, gray eyes, and a high
forehead. He was always plain in his dress and wore short clothes, knee and shoe buckles.
His disposition was cheerful, he was musical and sang well. His manners were easy, his
conversation agreeable.”4 And John Pope, describing a visit to one of Rutherford’s
neighbors in September 1790, adds: “Mr. Robert Rutherford, a Member of the Virginia
Senate was also there, and contributed much to the chearfulness of the Company, by
singing several most excellent Songs.”5 Raised among farmers and “acquainted with the
frontier from his infancy,”6 Rutherford, like Thomas Jefferson, saw the yeoman farmer as
the necessary backbone of an enduring republic. Thus he was anxious that Congress
should regulate the sale of Federal lands (the Northwest Territory) to benefit small
farmers willing to risk life as pioneers; not only young Americans but especially
immigrants “as it is only by the prospect of acquiring Land on easy terms, that men with
their family’s and others will brave the dangers of the Atlantic, while this is the very seed
1 “The term New Virginia was used by the end of the eighteenth century to distinguish the
region west of the Blue Ridge from Old Virginia, to the east. It consciously set off the world of the
farmer from the world of the planter, a region rich in towns from one poor in towns, grain and
livestock production from tobacco culture, and a free labor society from a slave labor society. [But
this] distinction cannot be too rigidly drawn …” Warren R. Hofstra, The Planting of New Virginia
(Baltimore, 2004), 5.
2 J. E. Norris, ed., History of the Lower Shenandoah Valley (Chicago, 1890; repr. Berryville, VA,
1972), 251, 337.
3 Mary Louise Conrad, “Robert Rutherford,” West Virginia Historical Magazine, 1(1901): 55,
58. Ms. Conrad was Rutherford’s great-great-granddaughter.
4 Mrs. B. D. Williams, “Robert Rutherford,” Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society,
5(1939): 14. Eleanor was born in 1775 when her father was, say, fifty-five years old. I have not
noticed any mention of an existing painted portrait of Robert Rutherford.
5 John Pope, A Tour Through the Southern and Western Territories of the United States
(Richmond, VA, 1792). (A diary ordered by date.) Pope was visiting Charles Washington.
6 Annals of Congress, 4th Congr., 2nd sess., 1742 (30 Dec 1796).
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time as it were of the American people.”7 Rutherford insisted on the virtues of a plain and
simple life: “While the Roman people maintained their simplicity of manners, while
Cincinnatus was amongst them, they were a happy people; but when they lost sight of
their plainness of manners, they lost sight of their happiness.”8 He did, however, use
flowery, prolix language at times, as in this close of a letter to Washington:
And now may the Supreme parent of life! and light! and great director of this, and other
Systems, far beyond our utmost thoughts! deign to hold you with amiable Lady, Very
long in his good keeping. And may you while life is desirable remain the parent, the
guardian, and the guide of a great and generous people, as well as the beneficent friend
of all the human race, are the unfiegned wishes of Dear Sir your Most Obt And truly
affectionate Hbl Sert R. Rutherford.9
Robert Rutherford and his younger brother Thomas were sons of Capt. Thomas
Rutherford, who eventually settled northeast of today’s Charles Town. Capt. Rutherford
was one of several Rutherfords mentioned in Frederick Co. records during the mid-1700s:
Reuben (ca. 1705–1764), Benjamin (1718–ca. 1805), John (1689–1789) and Mary (died
1798). It has been stated – but without convincing proof – that they were all children of
Robert (1663–1725) and Margaret Rutherford of Essex Co. in Rappahannock River.10
Reuben, who married his neighbor Ann (widow of Henry Hunt), lived on Cattail Run just
east of Capt. Rutherford.11 Benjamin and Elizabeth Rutherford eventually settled near
Winchester.12 John and Violetta Rutherford moved frequently; they apparently lived in
northern Augusta Co. when they witnessed a deed for John and Ann Funk in 1761.13
Perhaps this was that John Rutherford whom James Wood called “brother-in-law;”14 if so,
then Wood’s wife Mary Rutherford belonged to this group of conjectural siblings.
7 Letter, Rutherford to George Washington, 13 Mar 1972, in The Papers of George Washington:
Presidential Series, Dorothy Twohig et al., eds. (Charlottesville, VA, 1987– ), 10:97 (my emphasis).
8 Annals of Congress, 4th Congr., 2nd sess., 2103 (9 Feb 1797).
9 Letter, Rutherford to George Washington, 15 Dec 1790, in The Papers of George Washington:
Presidential Series, 7:89.
10 William Kenneth Rutherford and Anna Clay Rutherford, Genealogical History of the
Rutherford Family, rev. ed. (Lexington, MO, 1986), 1:142, 146, 149, 150 (hereafter cited as
Rutherford Genealogy). A Thomas Rutherford is mentioned in Essex Co. records in 1728 and 1730
(Rutherford Genealogy, 1:147); presumably this is the man who went to New Virginia.
11 Cecil O’Dell, Pioneers of Old Frederick County, Virginia (Marceline, MO, 1995), 111, 114;
Gertrude E. Gray, comp., Virginia Northern Neck Land Grants (Baltimore, 1987–1993), 2:62;
Rutherford Genealogy, 1:149.
12 Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 18:249; Rutherford Genealogy, 1:150.
13 Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 6:353–55. In 1786, three years before his death in Kentucky, John
married again, claiming he was then 97 years old. Because of his first wife’s unusual name it seems
almost certain that he was the John Rutherford of Essex Co. who married Violetta, daughter of
James Reynolds. Essex Co., Va., Orders, 1725–1729: 206 (16 Jan 1727); Rutherford Genealogy,
1:146.
14 In a memorandum to himself, dated 11 Oct 1752, reprinted in Winchester, Virginia, and Its
Beginnings, Katherine Glass Greene (Strasburg, VA, 1926), 29. See also Kegley’s Virginia Frontier,
F. B. Kegley (Roanoke, VA, 1938), 127.
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The earliest record of Capt. Thomas Rutherford on the frontier dates from October
1735,15 when the Opequon neighborhood was still part of Orange County. His first
recorded land purchase there, just south of Winchester, occurred in January 1740;16 on
28 Nov 1741 he purchased Isaac Perkin’s 519-acre tract northeast of Charles Town – this
would become part of the family place later known as Flowing Springs. 17 He was sworn a
militia captain on 24 Feb 1742/43, and again on 2 May 1753.18 When the first court of
Frederick County was proclaimed on 11 Nov 1743, Thomas Rutherford was sworn in as
sheriff, and James Wood (his brother-in-law?) as clerk;19 on 13 Jan 1743/44 the sheriff
appointed Benjamin Rutherford (his brother?) and Robert Rutherford (his son?) deputy
sheriffs.20 After his two-year sheriff’s term ended, Capt. Rutherford reverted to justice of
Frederick County and continued in that office until he was removed in 1748, and then
again after reinstatement in 1750;21 he also was chosen a member of the first vestry of
Frederick parish and, with James Wood, was churchwarden.22 In mid-1751, after another
purchase (400 acres from Henry Bradshaw) and two additional surveys (of 550 and 603
acres), he finished assembling his home farm of 2,017 acres; the whole was resurveyed by
George Washington and then confirmed to Rutherford by an “including deed” from Lord
Fairfax dated 29 Aug 1751.23 About half a year later, on 17 Mar 1752, he mortgaged this
entire plantation, where he then lived, to Lord Fairfax for £ 450 at 5% interest for five
years.24 He died intestate not long after, during the spring of 1756,25 while Indian raids
severely disrupted life in Frederick County. However, Robert Rutherford “of the Parish
and County of Frederick in the Colony of Virginia Merchant Eldest Son and Heir at Law
15 Orange Co., Va., Judgments 1736, Alexr. Spotswood Esq. vs. Wm. Hawkins. These papers
include a receipt bearing that date, for Thomas Rutherford’s payment of five shillings.
16 Orange Co., Va., Deeds, 3:403–06. He sold most of this land two years later. Orange Co., Va.,
Deeds, 5:159–63.
17 Orange Co., Va., Deeds, 5:52–56. One of the witnesses was Reuben Rutherford (his brother
who lived nearby?).
18 Orange Co., Va., Orders, 3:345 (as cited in Frederick Pioneers, O’Dell, 113); Frederick Co.,
Va., Orders, 4 (page number unreadable).
19 Frederick Co., Va., Orders, 1:2.
20 Frederick Co., Va., Orders, 1:14. There is no known record of a second Robert Rutherford in
Frederick Co. at this time, so Sheriff Rutherford’s deputy most likely was his son
21 H. R. McIlwaine et al., eds., Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia
(Richmond, VA, 1925–1966), 5:269, 336.
22 Garland R. Quarles, Winchester, Virginia: Streets–Churches–Schools (Winchester, VA, 1996),
107; Frederick Co., Va., Orders, 1:152.
23 Gray, Northern Neck Grants, 2:53.
24 Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 2:489–91.
25 On 2 June 1756 a court record concerning the suit of Jeremiah Smith vs. Thomas Rutherford
states that the defendant was dead; this is the earliest such record. Frederick Co., Va., Orders,
7:63. The most recent earlier court record of Rutherford living, dated 5 Mar 1756, is the court’s
order to Gabriel Jones to bring suit against former sheriffs Thomas Rutherford, Andrew Campbell
and Lewis Neill – the justices must then have known (or thought) that Rutherford was alive; on 3
Apr 1754 Gershom Keyes and Thomas Rutherford, his security, in open court acknowledged their
bond for Keyes’ license to operate a ferry across the Shenandoah. Frederick Co., Va., Orders, 7:42,
5:376.
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of Thomas Rutherford late of the same Place Gent deceased” on 4 Sep 1760 discharged
the mortgage and recovered his paternal farm.26
No official records provide any information about Thomas Rutherford’s wife;27 most
likely she was a daughter of Thomas Crutcher (died 1722) of Essex County.28 Robert and
Thomas were their only known children.29 Capt. Rutherford and his wife were buried on
the family farm.30
Robert Rutherford’s appointment as his father’s deputy or under-sheriff on 13 Jan
1743/44 is the earliest official record found to mention him. Deputies served at the
sheriff’s pleasure and “execute[d] his Office in his Name and Stead.”31 It seems
improbable that a teenager, and one of small stature at that, could have been effective as
sheriff on the raw frontier; Robert Rutherford must have been of age in 1744 and thus
born, say 1720.32 (He was appointed under-sheriff twice more: by Thomas Chester on 3
Sep 1745, and by Jacob Hite on 5 Apr 1749.33) In September and October 1745 he sued
26 Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 6:105–06.
27 Tradition calls her Sarah de Montargis. Williams, “Robert Rutherford,” 11. Her son Thomas’
son Thomas called his daughter Sarah de Montargis (Sally) Rutherford and she “married Dr. John
Briscoe [and their] descendants still live at Piedmont, the old Briscoe place near Charles Town.”
Danske Dandridge, Historic Shepherdstown (Charlottesville, VA, 1910), 256. Capt. Rutherford’s
wife has also been called Susannah Dobbin. Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 4(1897):
441.
28 In letters to “dear cousin James Crutcher” Robert Rutherford mentioned many Crutchers as
aunts and cousins; these family references are most satisfactorily explained if Robert’s mother was
a daughter of this Thomas Crutcher. Elisabeth W. McNamara, Descendants of Thomas Crutcher
(Baltimore, 1985), 4–5, 167 (hereafter cited as Crutcher Genealogy). Rutherford’s letters to
Crutcher were preserved and passed down to Ms. McNamara. Crutcher Genealogy, 356–65. She
donated the originals and her typed transcripts to the Filson Library in Louisville, KY.
29 No birth records found. George Washington referred to them as brothers in 1758. W. W.
Abbot et al., eds., Papers of George Washington: Colonial Series (Charlottesville, VA, 1983–1995),
5:220. Council records of 1778 also call them brothers. H. R. McIlwaine et al., eds., Journals of the
Council of State of Virginia (Richmond, VA, 1932–82), 2:63.
30 Robert Rutherford’s final will is dated 2 Jan 1802 (probated on 11 June 1805). Jefferson Co.,
Va., Wills, 1:198–205. Fragments of an earlier will (which I have not seen, written 1792[?]) have
been published. In this earlier will Rutherford reportedly requested “that black marble slabs be
properly fixed on the graves of my father, my mother, and my own with proper inscriptions” (this
apparently was never done), and that his daughter’s remains be moved from Norfolk and
reinterred by his son’s. Williams, “Robert Rutherford,” 15. The Rutherford family graveyard (no
marked stones) is described in Tombstone Inscriptions: Jefferson County, W. Va., 1687–1980, Bee
Line Chapter, NSDAR (Marceline, MO, 1981), 287 (hereafter cited as Jefferson Tombstones).
31 It was not legal to restrict the authority or duties of an under-sheriff in any way; “the office is
entire, and cannot be abridg’d.” George Webb, Office and Authority of a Justice of Peace
(Williamsburg, Va., 1736), 298. This book – known as Webbs Justice – became a popular reference
in Colonial Virginia. On 12 Oct 1744 the Frederick County justices paid their clerk, James Wood,
for “six Webbs Justices for the use of the county.” Norris, History, 83.
32 Thus he was probably only a few years younger than his colleague Benjamin Rutherford (his
uncle?). It is necessary to emphasize this because Robert Rutherford’s traditional birth date,
20 Oct 1728, has been so widely disseminated and accepted. Rutherford Genealogy, 1:147;
Williams, “Robert Rutherford,” 12. If, however, he really was born 1728 then it is unlikely his
father could have appointed him deputy; but then, who was that deputy?
33 Frederick Co., Va., Orders, 1:416, 3:67.
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David Crockett and others for debt.34 On 6 Oct 1747 he sold a lot in Frederick Town (i.e.
Winchester) to Hugh Parker, of Prince George County, Maryland.35
The Rutherford brothers worked as surveyors for Lord Fairfax in the 1750s and 1760s;
it is not known who trained them – perhaps James Wood (their uncle?).36 Surveying the
backcountry was strenuous and time-consuming but brought rewards: good income, and
intimate knowledge of the land and the pioneers living there. 37
NORTHERN NECK SURVEYS BY THE RUTHERFORD BROTHERS38
Robert Thomas
Year Surveys Acres Surveys Acres
1751 46 15,353 - -
1752 43 13,263 15 3,781
1753 44 13,766 31 8,382
1754 22 6,981 21 7,082
1755 15 4,966 24 5,712
1756 3 620 1 120
1757 - - 1 396
1758 - - 1 570
1759 - - - -
1760 2 245 17 4,947
1761 14 4,482 24 5,854
1762 30 9,536 57 15,905
34 Frederick Co., Va., Orders, 1:450, 472. Thus Robert Rutherford was of age when that debt
was first contracted. A father “owned” his son, and particularly his labor, until he turned 21 years
old. Yet a father could “free” his son at an earlier age. This was occasionally done in a will, to take
effect after the death of the father of a teenage son, but was rarely done while both father and son
were living. Edgar McDonald, “Estimating Ages in Colonial Virginia,” The Virginia Genealogist,
49(2005): 83–94. It is not known whether Capt. Rutherford gave his son Robert his freedom, but
that is unlikely.
35 Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 1:366–74. Thus Robert Rutherford was of age when he first
bought that lot (no record found).
36 James Wood had been county surveyor for Orange County, and later was for Frederick
County; he also surveyed for Lord Fairfax. During 1751–63 Robert Rutherford was assistant
surveyor of Frederick County. Sarah S. Hughes, Surveyors and Statesmen: Land Measuring in
Colonial Virginia (Richmond, VA, 1979), 166, 168, 169.
37 Papers of George Washington: Colonial Series, 1:8-37. Those pages present a succinct account
of teen-aged George Washington’s career as a surveyor and are a thorough summary of surveying
for Lord Fairfax, which surely pertains to the Rutherfords too. Washington was trained by George
Home, the first official surveyor of Frederick County; after 1752 Home was assistant surveyor
there. “A diligent frontier surveyor working only a few months out of the year could clear
annually £ 100, a cash income greater than that of most planters and tradesmen in the colony”
(ibid., 8). On survey fees see also Surveyors and Statesmen, Hughes, 64–71.
38 Data from Northern Neck Warrants, Joyner.
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1763 22 8,716 59 17,513
1764 - - 30 7,103
1765 - - 24 18,992
Just as the Royal government appointed an official surveyor for every county in
Virginia, so Fairfax divided his proprietary into survey districts and assigned a surveyor
to every district.39 His land office issued survey warrants addressed by name to the
surveyor of the district where the land was located. The brothers’ districts apparently
were adjacent, separated by a line drawn roughly west-northwest/east-southeast through
the vicinity of Winchester; Robert’s extended up towards Augusta, including much of
Shenandoah, Warren, Clarke and Frederick counties; Thomas’ ran down to Potomac
River, including the rest of Frederick, the eastern section of Hampshire, as well as
Morgan, Berkeley and Jefferson counties (in the mid-1760s Thomas ran some surveys in
what had been his brother’s district).40 Robert Rutherford surveyed a tract of 1,384 acres
in 1752, a tract of 3,195 acres in 1762, and tracts of 1,455 and 1,890 acres in 1763; Thomas
Rutherford surveyed a tract of 1,175 acres in 1762, tracts of 2,236, 2,080 and 1,200 acres in
1763, and a tract of 11,716 acres in 1765; every other tract the brothers surveyed
contained less than 1,000 acres with by far most containing less than 500 acres. On 25
occasions Robert surveyed two tracts on one day; Thomas managed that 30 times and
indeed, on 3 occasions he surveyed three tracts on one day.
Until the Revolution, however, Robert Rutherford was primarily a merchant. It is not
known how he was trained in business; perhaps he began as an itinerant trader. He may
have been associated with Thomas Cresap in 1752.41 Rutherford settled in Winchester
and is said to have had a store there by 1754;42 over time he owned various lots in the
town and became one of its trustees. On 13 Sep 1753 he married the widow Mary How, 43
daughter of William Dobbin.
39 Survey for Nicholas Princely. Peggy Shomo Joyner, Abstracts of Virginia’s Northern Neck
Warrants & Surveys (Portsmouth, VA, 1985–95), 2:125.
40 These approximate district descriptions of course are based on today’s county lines.
41 Thomas Cresap, an immigrant from England, was a frontier trader based on the upper
Potomac River in Maryland. In 1752 James Wood did business with “Cresap & Rutherford.”
James Wood Family Papers, Box 2, “Accounts and Receipts, 1750–1756” (Handley Library,
Winchester, VA).
42 Conrad, “Robert Rutherford,” 55.
43 Conrad, “Robert Rutherford,” 56. Tradition notwithstanding, she was not the widow of Brig.
Gen. Sir George Augustus, Viscount Howe (who was slain by a stray bullet on 6 Jul 1758 during a
skirmish with the French in the woods near Ft. Ticonderoga, north of Albany, NY), nor of his
brother Hon. Thomas Howe, MP (who died 14 Nov 1771 in London of an inflammation in his
bowels); neither man ever married. George E. Cokayne, Vicary Gibbs et al., eds, The Complete
Peerage, (London, 1919–1959), 6:597; John Lodge, The Peerage of Ireland (Dublin, 1789), 5:85–86;
Annual Register (London), 1771. Their brief, uninformative wills, probated at the Prerogative
Court of Canterbury (Register Artan, and Register Trevor, respectively), are preserved at The
National Archives in England; copies available on line for a fee (2008).
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William Dobbin’s origins are unknown.44 He may have been one of the immigrants
who got land on the upper Opequon from Jost Hite in the 1730s;45 he did witness three
deeds for Hite in May 1742, and three more in November.46 His farm was located just
southeast of Winchester;47 he was a hatter.48 He was one of the first purchasers of a Lot
(#12) in James Wood’s newly laid out Frederick Town. On 27 Dec 1744 Dobbin hired
Duncan O’Gullion to build him a house on his lot within five months. Measuring twentyfour
feet square on the outside with walls of good stone and lime ten feet high, the house
was to cost £ 0/5/6 per perch and one barrel of beer.49
William Dobbin was probably born about 1700. It appears he had two daughters,
Grace and Mary, but their mother’s name is not known.50 It appears that Grace married
James Dunbar.51 It is said that Mary was born 20 Feb 1732.52 It appears that she married
44 Though his name often appears as “Dobbins” in official records, on surviving original
documents he always signed as “Dobbin.” The authors of the Dobbins genealogy suggested
William Dobbin might have been a grandson of Daniel Dobbins, immigrant to Rappahannock
River in the 1670s; however, he does not fit well in that family. Kenneth W. Dobyns and Margaret
S. Thorpe, Daniel Dobyns of Colonial Virginia (Arlington, VA, 1969), 35. Perhaps Dobbin came
from Ireland in the mid-1730s like Samuel and Mary Glass and their family of children and
grandchildren. Thomas K. Cartmell, Shenandoah Valley Pioneers and Their Descendants
(Winchester, VA, 1909), 413.
45 Jost Hite (Hans Justus Heydt) was a key figure in early New Virginia. Henry Z. Jones, Jr.,
Ralph Connor, and Klaus Wust, German Origins of Jost Hite (Edinburg, VA, 1979).
46 Orange Co., Va., Deeds, 5:165–78; 7:22–26, 38–45. These are the earliest official records
mentioning William Dobbin that I have found.
47 In 1755 he sold 400 acres to Robert Willson, Jr. – Winchester Airport is now located on that
land. O’Dell, Pioneers of Old Frederick, 288.
48 Frederick Co., Va., Ended Causes, August 1750, Box 12, Folder 1, Dobbin vs. Hite, James
Wood Collection, # 155 (Folder 25) (Handley Library, Winchester, VA).
49 Frederick Co., Va., Ended Causes, October 1747, Box 7, William Dobbin vs. Duncan
O’Gullion (Handley Library, Winchester, VA). A perch in masonry is a volume measure equal to
about 25 cubic feet. The O’Gullion brothers (Duncan, a mason, and Neal, a weaver) had come to
the Opequon from Maryland; while Neal apparently returned to Maryland, Duncan died in
Frederick Co. by May 1756. Frederick Co., Va., Orders, 5:466.
50 Tradition calls her “Deborah;” Robert and Mary Rutherford did give this name to a
daughter. Conrad, “Robert Rutherford,” 56. Perhaps she died early, after bearing two daughters,
and William remarried. Perhaps this hypothetical later wife was related to Adolph and Mark
Euler/ Oyler/Ilor of Frederick County. Writing to George Washington on 20 Jul 1758 concerning
Washington’s running in absentia for election as burgess while commanding Virginia’s war
against the Indians, Robert Rutherford said: “There is a good Prospect of Success in the insuing
Election, as your friends push every thing with the greatest ardour; even down to Will the Hatter
and his Oyly Spouse Shew the greatest Spirit in the Cause.” Papers of George Washington: Colonial
Series, 5:305–06. What could be the meaning of that? Rutherford’s sense of humor? He was, after
all, referring to his father-in-law. Perhaps “Will the Hatter and his Oyly Spouse” was a common
term for Dobbin and his wife. Was there a second “Will the Hatter” in Winchester then?
51 The earliest record of James Dunbar that I have found lists him as a juror on 3 Oct 1745.
Frederick Co., Va., Orders, 1:459. Both William Dobbin and James Dunbar, on 23 Sep 1748,
witnessed the will of Dobbin’s neighbor Abraham Hollingsworth, an elder member (born 1687) of
a numerous family of Quakers. Frederick Co., Va., Wills, 1:203. After selling their 400-acre
Fairfax grant, on Opequon and the Wagon Road, for £ 60 to Robert Rutherford on 17 June 1767,
James and Grace Dunbar disappear from Frederick County records. Gray, Northern Neck Grants,
2:188; Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 11:547–50. Perhaps James soon died and perhaps Grace married
Isaac Perkins of Frederick Co. as his third wife. On 4 Feb 1777 Robert Rutherford joined Grace
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 8 5/21/14
Thomas How who, on 3 Jun 1748, agreed with Peter Tostee to run the latter’s Winchester
store.53 How’s origins are unknown.54 On 23 Jan 1748/49 William Dobbin, “for the Love
and affection that I … do bear unto Thomas How and Mary his Wife,” gave them his
house and lot in Winchester, reserving one room “for my own use to lodge in for &
during my Life.”55 Mary bore a daughter, Margaret (born 3 Mar 1749/50?),56 before her
husband died intestate. On 8 May 1750 Mary was granted administration on Thomas
How’s estate.57
At the annual court martial of 9 Oct 1761, on the motion of his son-in-law Robert
Rutherford, William Dobbin was relieved of further muster duty – presumably because
he was then sixty years old.58 The last official record naming William, dated 6 Apr 1767, is
the gift of “sundry horned cattle” to his “loving grand daughter Ann Dunbar.”59
In the mid-1750s the French and Indian War irrupted into Frederick County and
destroyed much of what the first generation of settlers had achieved. Indian fighting was
endemic to the American frontier. Fighting intensified horrendously during the French
and Indian War after the ambush of Gen. Braddock’s Regulars, in the woods by
Perkins, widow of Isaac Perkins, in signing a bond to indemnify Isaac Perkins who had become
his stepmother’s surety on her administratrix bond. Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 17:216.
52 Greene, Winchester Beginnings, 379. If this date is correct then Mary married quite young.
53 Thomas How was to be paid £ 30 for one year; their covenant was witnessed by Daniel Hart.
James Wood Collection, # 448 (Folder 17) (Handley Library, Winchester, VA). Peter Tostee was a
merchant; he leased his store in Winchester from James Wood. Hofstra, Planting of New Virginia,
192–93, and passim. Peter and Elizabeth Tostee owned various tracts of land, including two in
Wappacomo Manor, presumably for settling debts in the ordinary course of business. In 1762
Widow Tostee owned land by Potomac River (near today’s Falling Waters, Berkeley Co.) near the
Wagon Road from Watkins Ferry (today’s Williamsport) to Winchester.
54 The surname How is not rare; a Joseph How lived on Lost River in northern Augusta Co. at
this time. A family named How had been living in Rappahannock River since the mid-1600s. On
7 Nov 1748 Thomas How, Humphrey Hasledine and James Dunbar witnessed a deed of sale for
Andrew Pitts. Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 1:437–41. On 8 Mar 1748/49 Thomas How was granted
and ordinary license. Frederick Co., Va., Orders, 3:50.
55 Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 1:447–48. The deed recites that Dobbin “put the said Thomas
How & Mary How in full & peaceable possession by the Gift & delivery of one Silver Spoon …
having received of the aforesaid Thomas and Mary How five Shillings Sterling of Money & Many
other good things.” The witnesses were Thomas Chester (the former sheriff), Andrew Pitts and
Humphrey Hasledine. Dobbin is styled “Gent.” in this document; I do not know why this might
have been appropriate.
56 Speculative date – see later.
57 Frederick Co., Va., Wills, 1:381–82. The sureties for her administration bond of £ 200 were
Robert Lemmon (a weaver) and Ellis Thomas. On the same day Andrew Caldwell, John Harrow,
William Cocks and Thomas Wood were ordered to appraise Thomas How’s estate. Frederick Co.,
Va., Orders, 3:242. On 12 May 1750 Margaret Glascon, a servant belonging to Mary How, widow,
complained that William Dobbin beat her immoderately; Dobbin had to post bond of £ 20 for
good behavior, with sureties Robert Lemon and Thomas Wood. Frederick Co., Va., Orders, 3:261.
During the ensuing year Mary How brought several suits to recover debts owing her deceased
husband’s estate.
58 Barbara Vines Little, Frederick County, Virginia, Militia Records 1755–1761 (Westminster,
MD, 2000), 44. However, 56 men were discharged from further muster duty at this court martial
for unstated reasons; also discharged was Robert Morgan who was “in some measure blind or
nearsighted.” The previous court martial was held in November 1760.
59 Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 11:374–75.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 9 5/21/14
Monongahela River just south of Ft. Duquesne on 9 Jul 1755, unexpectedly ended in a
great slaughter and headlong rout of terrified British soldiers.60 The Indians of the Ohio
valley then rushed into a prolonged frontier war on European settlers; 61 a war fought by
both sides with frightful brutality against civilians and fighters alike.62 Thus the mid-
1750s were years of panic in Frederick County. So many settlers were killed or abducted
by raiding Indians, and so many terrified survivors tried to escape eastward or southward
in another headlong flight to safety, that the county seemed on the verge of
abandonment. The inexperienced government, led by Gov. Dinwiddie, fumbled to defend
its frontier; the new Virginia Regiment was deployed to Winchester with young,
inexperienced Col. George Washington in command. One of his tasks was to build a large
fortress there.
Fort Loudon became a massive project,63 pushed forward without a nice regard for
private property rights. Afterwards, on 30 Nov 1762, Robert Rutherford and Mary Wood
(his aunt?) petitioned the Burgesses for compensation since “they and others, who were
Proprietors of Lands adjoining the Town of Winchester, have suffered much by having
their Timber cut down to build Fort Loudon; … [and] some of them … had their Lands
so pillaged as not to have any Firewood left.”64
During winter 1755–fall 1757 Rutherford became more directly involved in the war
effort as Commissary Dr. Thomas Walker’s deputy in Winchester, sharing the vexing job
of finding supplies for the soldiers. As the fighting wore on Washington realized that
Frederick County needed Rangers – armed scouts who, in small parties, would patrol and
help defend the frontier against Indian raiders – and recommended Rutherford as
commander because of “his universal acquaintance on the frontiers; and the esteem the
people in general have for him.”65 Gov. Dinwiddie authorized a Company of about 100
men in late fall 1757;66 they were active for about a year and Washington struggled to
keep them in Frederick (where they were effective because they defended their own, in
country they knew) when the government wanted to deploy them elsewhere (where they
would not be).67 In the midst of all this, summer 1758, Capt. Robert Rutherford fell
seriously ill and got leave to consult Dr. Gustavus Brown in Port Tobacco, Maryland.68
60 John Grenier, The First Way of War (New York, 2005), 111–13.
61 As always, the Indians’ choice of combat over meek accommodation was a fateful error with
dreadful consequences for all Indians. There never was the least chance that they could stop,
much less turn back, European expansion into North America; and yet violent resistance could
only benefit them if they achieved complete success. Instead, their centuries-long stubborn,
fighting retreat only confirmed frontier settlers in their enduring, intense hatred of all Indians.
62 Matthew C. Wood, Breaking the Backcountry (Pittsburgh, PA, 2003), 7–8, 55, 236–40.
63 Hofstra, Planting of New Virginia, 247–48.
64 John Pendleton Kennedy, ed., Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia 1761 – 1765
(Richmond, VA, 1907), 119–20.
65 Letter, George Washington to Gov. Dinwiddie, 5 Oct 1757, in Papers of George Washington:
Colonial Series, 5:2.
66 Papers of George Washington: Colonial Series, 5:39.
67 Robert L. Bates, “Rutherford’s Rangers,” Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society,
4(1938): 4-18.
68 Papers of George Washington: Colonial Series, 5:205, 220.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 10 5/21/14
Frederick County court met fairly regularly during this time; at February Court in 1758
they cleared up their accumulated unfinished business by disposing of about 120 suits
that had abated because one or both parties were dead.69 After British forces under Gen.
Forbes had seized the remains of Ft. Duquesne in late 1758 and rebuilt it as Fort Pitt,
Frederick County recovered quickly – it was indeed “a land of plenty in those days,” a
magnet for farmers. 70 In late 1763 the British government tried to protect Indians and
settlers from each other by proclaiming the Appalachian Mountains the boundary
between them; but the settlers ignored the Proclamation Line.71 Rutherford continued to
be concerned about pioneer farmers’ security: in Kentucky, where some of his relatives
settled after the Revolution; and in the Northwest Territory, where the British incited
Indian raids despite their promises in the Peace of Paris of 1783. The vicious fighting in
the 1750s had shaped Rutherford’s opinion of “these Vindictive and troublesome”
Indians for the rest of his life: “inveterate Savages, who Slay or wound to the latest
breath[,] and that tortures Cannot subdue[;] whilst [a] Very few of these rational Vermin
distroy Valuable members of our Species, and Such[,] for the most part, as loudly demand
our pity and utmost protection[;] at the same time that, there assuredly is a measure of
Justice, due to this uninformed Cast of mankind.”72 Though vehement, these are the views
of a fair-minded man, an amalgam of “the western philosophy of extinction and the
easterner’s advocacy of fair treatment.”73
By 1760 Rutherford had returned to private life in Winchester. He became grantee or
grantor of many deeds recorded in Frederick and Berkeley counties (he also obtained
grants from Lord Fairfax). As noted earlier, it was he who paid off his deceased father’s
mortgage to Lord Fairfax; he considered Flowing Springs farm his patrimony and home
place and was strongly attached to it. Since he lived in Winchester he probably leased out
his holdings (though Flowing Springs might have been farmed for him by an overseer). 74
It is not clear why Rutherford accumulated so much land: whether as investments of
business profits (to be resold as needed) or to build a sufficient estate for his heirs.75 He
apparently made a point of asking family members, including teenagers,76 to witness his
deeds: Thomas Rutherford (brother), Drusilla Rutherford (sister-in-law, wife of Thomas),
Benjamin Rutherford (uncle [?]), Reuben Rutherford (nephew [?], son of Reuben),
Howard Rutherford (nephew [?], son of Reuben), James and Robert Wood (cousins [?],
sons of Mary Wood), William Dobbin (father-in-law), Margaret How (wife’s daughter),
69 Frederick Co., Va., Orders, 7:348ff.
70 Hofstra, Planting of New Virginia, 264–65; Dandridge, Historic Shepherdstown, 20.
71 Colin G. Calloway, The Scratch of a Pen (New York, 2006), 92–100.
72 Letter, Robert Rutherford to George Washington, 15 Dec 1790, in Papers of George
Washington: Presidential Series, 7:87.
73 Charles Judah Bayard, The Development of the Public Land Policy, 1783 – 1820, with Special
Reference to Indiana (New York, 1979), 151.
74 However, no recorded leases have been found.
75 As an old man in Congress he repeatedly spoke out against large-scale land speculators
whom he regarded pernicious exploiters of pioneer farmers and dangerous to the future of the
country.
76 “Any person above the Age of 14 Years, and not disabled by Law, may be a Witness.” Webbs
Justice, 136.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 11 5/21/14
Susan Rutherford (daughter), Mary Peyton (daughter), Debby Rutherford (daughter),
Henry Peyton, Jr. (son-in-law, husband of Mary), John Peyton, Jr. (son-in-law, husband
of Susan), Thomas Peyton (brother of John), Thomas Rutherford, Jr. (son [probably], or
nephew, son of Thomas [possibly]), William Little (wife’s son-in-law), William Crutcher
(first cousin [?], son of Thomas Crutcher),77 Leonard Crutcher (first cousin [?], brother of
William).
While briefly reviving his sideline of surveying, Rutherford mainly worked as a
merchant. 78 Like other retailers beyond the Blue Ridge he dealt with wholesale merchants
in eastern Virginia, Philadelphia and Great Britain, occasionally signing substantial
mortgages to them as guarantees for business debts. For example, on 9 Mar 1771 he
mortgaged 550 acres (two parcels) to Cumberland Wilson of Dumfries, Prince William
County, the Virginia representative of the firms of James Wilson and Sons and Colin
Dunlop and Son, merchants of Kilmarnock, Scotland,79 to secure debts of almost £ 221
Sterling plus almost £ 192 currency. In two transactions dated 13 Sep 1777 Rutherford
sold the mortgaged lands and more for £ 972 to John Reynell, Mordecai Lewis and Jacob
Harman of Philadelphia.80 These men retained about £ 650 current money, the amount
due on the mortgage. Cumberland Wilson, however, could not be found: in 1775 he had
joined the British and left Dumfries for parts unknown (North Carolina?). Thus they
forwarded the money to William Hartshorne of Alexandria who placed a notice in the
newspaper asking Wilson or his agent to apply to him for the money.81 After Rutherford
was elected Burgess, and especially as a Senator during the years of the Revolution, he
took his public responsibilities seriously and spent much time on them,82 having to
neglect his business and private affairs; during this time he sold or mortgaged most of his
lands and bought very little.
The Rutherfords lived in Winchester until 1773,83 and Mary’s daughter Margaret How
grew up there as the oldest child with four half-sisters and a half-brother. Beginning in
77 Crutcher Genealogy, 89. William Crutcher witnessed almost every deed during 1760–63; this
suggests to me that William worked for Rutherford and perhaps lived with him.
78 Rutherford is styled “merchant” in several deeds of 1760–66.
79 Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 14:245–50.
80 Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 17:385–92. John Reynell (1708–1784), Quaker, was a successful
shipping and commission merchant, and one of the founders of the Pennsylvania Hospital. John
Woolman, Journal and Essays, ed. by Amelia Mott Gummere (New York, 1922), 512–13. The
partners Mordecai Lewis (1748–1799), Quaker, and Jacob Harman (1740–1780) also were
merchants. Henry Simpson, The Lives of Eminent Philadelphians (Philadelphia, 1859), 652–55.
81 Virginia Gazette, no. 1412, 24 Apr 1778. William Hartshorne (1742–1816), Quaker,
Mordecai Lewis’ brother-in-law, was a prominent merchant, active in the community life of
northern Virgina. A. Glenn Crothers, “Quaker Merchants and Slavery in Early National
Alexandria, Virginia: The Ordeal of William Hartshorne,” Journal of the Early Republic, 25:47–77.
82 He had to travel to Williamsburg frequently, occasionally (during the 1770s) stopping to visit
(and sometimes stay overnight with) George Washington at Mount Vernon.
83 By two deeds of lease and release dated 5-6 Apr 1773 Robert and Mary Rutherford “of
Winchester” sold 11 tracts, containing about 3,000 acres, to John Smith of Northumberland Co.
for about £ 5,400 (Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 16:185–208). By six deeds of lease and release dated
1-2 Apr 1774 (their earliest subsequent recorded land sale) they, “of Berkeley County,” sold
parcels comprising 100 acres, parts of a tract of 320 acres “adjoining the Commons of the Town of
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 12 5/21/14
1766 she signed as a witness for several of her stepfather’s land deeds. On 3 Mar 1768
“Robert Rutherford of Winchester in Frederick County in consideration of the natural
love & affection which I have and bear towards Margaret How my wife’s daughter” gave
her three negro slaves (all young children); I think that Rutherford chose that particular
date because it was Margaret’s eighteenth birthday.84 In January 1772 Margaret married
William Little, an immigrant from Scotland, who apparently became Rutherford’s close
friend.85
In 1796 Robert Rutherford told Congress “my relatives are numerous.”86 He and Mary
had eight known children; six of their daughters survived to marry.87
1) Susannah (Sucky, Sukey) Rutherford, born 23 Nov 1756, married 8 May 1780 John
Peyton (younger half-brother of her sister Mary’s first husband), born ca. 1757, son of
Henry Peyton of Prince William County and his second wife Margaret Gallaher.88 John
Peyton had come to Winchester about 1775 and was a merchant there (Peyton St. was
named for him); he was a vestryman of Frederick parish and was for a while Deputy Clerk
of Frederick County. He and Sukey had nine known children; he died in Winchester in
1804, Susannah died 8 May 1829. 89
2) Mary Rutherford, born (20 Nov 1757?),90 married say 1774 Henry Peyton (older
half-brother of the man her sister Susannah later married), born about 1750,91 son of
Henry Peyton of Prince William County and his first wife Annie Thornton. Before the
Revolution Henry moved to Frederick County, where he was an attorney92 and became
Deputy Clerk. He and Mary had one known child.93 Henry was a militia officer; he was
Winchester” that Fairfax had granted to Rutherford in 1754, to six different buyers for about £
250 (ibid., 419–52).
84 By Virginia law, a young person had to be 18 years old to “bequeath Slaves, by Will in
writing.” Webbs Justice, 188. A younger child’s slaves were the property of the legal guardian,
which, in Margaret’s case, most likely was her stepfather. Thus if this was not Margaret’s 18th
birthday, then she was older (or there would have been no point to the expense of a legal deed).
85 See my related article, “William Little,” in this issue, pp-pp.
86 Annals of Congress, 4th Congr., 1st sess., 1119 (21 Apr 1796).
87 No birth records found and birth order unknown; order of surviving daughters as in Robert
Rutherford’s final will. Birthdates of all children must have been handed down as family tradition
(which I have not seen) and presumably were known to the authors of Rutherford Genealogy.
However these authors have altered the birth years (in an undisclosed fashion, and without listing
the traditional dates) to make them fit their theory that Robert and Mary married in 1763.
88 Horace Edwin Hayden, Virginia Genealogies (Wilkes-Barre, PA, 1891; repr. Baltimore,
1979), 504, 530; Rutherford Genealogy (2:1128) states 23 Nov 1764 as Susannah’s birth date but
the same marriage date.
89 Quarles, Winchester: Streets-Churches-Schools, p. 77; Garland R. Quarles, Some Old Homes in
Frederick County, Virginia (Winchester, VA, 1999), 75; Hayden, Virginia Genealogies, 530.
90 If the age on her tombstone is correct she was born September 1756–July 1757; Rutherford
Genealogy (2:1132) states 20 Nov 1765, almost exactly a year after Susannah – thus she probably
was born 20 Nov 1757.
91 International Genealogical Index, v5.0, states 1748 (“no source information is available”).
92 He swore the attorney’s oath on 21 Mar 1775. Berkeley Co., Va., Orders, 2:350.
93 Norris, History, 136; Hayden, Virginia Genealogies, 504. On 28 Aug 1778 Henry Peyton of
Prince William Co., Mary Peyton’s father-in-law, gave two slaves to Mary Peyton, “widow of
Henry Peyton, dec’d, my son,” and her young son Robert Thornton Peyton. Berkeley Co., Va.,
Deeds, 5:90–92.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 13 5/21/14
fatally shot in November 1776 by a deserter resisting arrest.94 Mary married again, 6 Jul
1781, John Morrow, born about 1750, a merchant of Shepherdstown, ruling elder of the
Presbyterian Church there, and justice of Berkeley County.95 Morrow witnessed the first
two successful demonstrations of James Rumsey’s steamboat on Potomac River in
December 1787. John and Mary had nine known children. Mary died in August 1810 in
her 54th year, and John in 1819.96
3) Deborah (Debby) Rutherford, born (11 Mar 1761?),97 married (4 Feb 1783?)98
George Hite, born 28 Oct 1761, son of Jacob Hite and Frances Madison. He lived in
Charles Town and was the first Clerk of Jefferson County, until his death.99 He and Debby
had eight known children. George died 16 Dec 1816 and Deborah outlived him many
years, dying 16 Jul 1843.100
A short time before the Revolution, Jacob [Hite] moved to South Carolina, leaving
George at the College of William and Mary. Jacob, his wife and young children were
most inhumanly massacred by Indians in 1776. George left college and went to South
Carolina to endeavor to find his two young sisters, whom the Indians had carried away.
Arrived at the scene of the massacre, he found the remains of his parents and the
children, and buried them, but could learn nothing about the fate of his sisters.101
4) Elizabeth (Betsy) Rutherford, born (28 Sep 1763?),102 married 1 Jun 1786 John
Conrad, son of Frederick Conrad and Maria Clara Ley; John was a merchant in
94 On 19 Nov 1776 Berkeley County court found William Wallis, Thomas Morgan, Jeremiah
Thomas and John Casidy guilty of feloniously murdering Henry Peyton, Jr, and remanded them
to Williamsburg for trial. Berkeley Co., Va., Orders, 2:492; Dandridge, Historic Shepherdstown,
234.
95 Guy L. Keesecker, Marriage Records of Berkeley County, Virginia 1781 – 1854 (Strasburg,
VA, 1969; repr., Baltimore, 1983), 175; A. D. Kenamond, Prominent Men of Shepherdstown
During its First 200 Years (Charles Town, WV, 1963), 81–83; Norris, History, 235.
96 Jefferson Tombstones, 182, 308; Kenamond, Prominent Men of Shepherdstown, 82.
97 She must have been born 1762 or earlier since she witnessed a deed, Walter and Hester
Sherley to Thomas Rutherford (her uncle), on 1 Dec 1776 (she must have been at least 14 years
old when she signed); the other witnesses were her sisters Susan Rutherford and Mary Peyton,
and Howard Rutherford, son of Reuben Rutherford (her great-uncle?). Berkeley Co., Va., Deeds,
4:53–56. Rutherford Genealogy (2:1135) states she was born 11 May 1768.
98 International Genealogical Index, v5.0 (“no source information is available”). This same
Record states that Deborah was born 11 Mar 1760.
99 Jefferson Tombstones, 364; A. D. Kenamond, “The Hite Families in Jefferson County,”
Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society, 31(1965): 42–47.
100 Jefferson Tombstones, 364. In the application for the final pension payment due to Deborah
Hite as widow of a Revolutionary War veteran, John R. Flagg (Deborah’s son-in-law) provided
that death date. Alcyon Trubey Pierce, abstr., Selected Final Pension Payment Vouchers 1818–
1864. Virginia: Richmond & Wheeling [Athens, GA, 1996], 274. Her tombstone gives the year as
1842. Jefferson Tombstones, 364.
101 Dandridge, Historic Shepherdstown, 324. Jacob Hite, son of Jost Hite, left Berkeley Co. about
1775 after he lost his contest with Adam Stephen over the location of the county seat (Quarles,
Some Old Homes, p. 132); as a result he and several colleagues were dismissed from their seats on
the county court. See my related article, “William Little,” in this issue, pp–pp.
102 Rutherford Genealogy (2:1138) states 28 Sep 1769.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 14 5/21/14
Winchester.103 John and Betsy had three known children. He died suddenly 10 Aug 1794.
Betsy’s father wrote “we have lost our worthy and very affectionate Mr. John Conrad and
his two eldest children which has well neigh if it does not yet kill our dear Betsy.”104 But
she survived this tragedy and married again, 1 Jan 1799, Dr. Joseph Wilson Davis. He
became a justice of Jefferson County.105 They had no known children. Elizabeth had died
by 1810 and Joseph probably died 1824.106
5) Sarah (Sally) Rutherford, born (12 Aug 1765?),107 married 26 Apr 1791 Daniel
Bedinger, born 1761, son of Henry Bedinger (Büdinger) and Magdalene Slagle (von
Schlegel) of Shepherdstown.108 Daniel and Sally lived many years in Norfolk where Daniel
was Alderman, U. S. Surveyor of Customs and, from May 1802 to February 1808,
Superintendent of the Gosport Navy Yard. In 1794 Rutherford wrote from Berkeley
County “our dear Sally Bedinger and her affectionate consort and two fine daughters are
now with us from Norfolk.”109 When the family moved back to Jefferson County, Daniel
built his mansion Bedford (using masts from the U. S. frigate Constitution as pillars for
the portico) on the site of his mother’s farm outside Shepherdstown. Daniel and Sally had
ten known children.110 Daniel died 17 Mar 1817 in his 58th year; Sarah died 14 Jul 1844.111
Daniel had been an ardent patriot, burning to join the American army in 1775 when
he was fourteen years old, but was sent home to his widowed mother. He tried again the
next year so insistently that he was allowed to enlist. He was soon captured by the British
near New York and confined under conditions so shamefully wretched that he would
have died except for the sympathy of a Hessian guard (to whom he appealed in German)
and the care of his devoted elder brother George Michael Bedinger who searched for him
103 Elizabeth Timberlake Davis, Frederick County, Virginia, Marriages 1771 – 1825 (n.p., 1941;
repr., Baltimore, 2003), 27; Garland R. Quarles, Some Worthy Lives (Winchester, VA, 1988), 71–
72; Quarles, Old Homes, 74–75; Hofstra, Planting of New Virginia, 302–06.
104 Robert K. Headley, Genealogical Abstracts from 18th-Century Virginia Newspapers
(Baltimore, 1978), 73; Letter, Robert Rutherford to James Crutcher, 23 “Apr” (Aug?) 1794, in
Crutcher Genealogy, 359–60.
105 Keesecker, Berkeley Marriages, 56; Norris, History, 344. He likely was Joseph Wilson Davis,
born 19 Mar 1772, son of Leonard Davis and Mary Wilson of Berkeley Co. (information as found
on www.e-familytree.net in Feb 2008).
106 The 1810 U. S. census of Charles Town shows head-of-household Joseph W. Davis, aged
26–44, living by himself with six slaves; the 1820 U. S. census of Charles Town shows head-ofhousehold
Joseph W. Davis, M.D., living with a woman aged 16-26, eight slaves and one free
negro. His will (which I have not seen) was probated in 1824. D. W. Morrow and D. J. Morrow,
Wills of Jefferson County, West Virginia … .An Index: 1801 – 1899 [Westminster, MD, 1824], 4.
He was not found in the 1830 U. S. census of Virginia.
107 Rutherford Genealogy (2:1139) states 12 Aug 1771.
108 Davis, Frederick Marriages, 19; Danske Dandridge, George Michael Bedinger
(Charlottesville, VA, 1909), 3–10; Kenamond, Prominent Men of Shepherdstown, 30–31.
109 Letter, Robert Rutherford to James Crutcher, 23 “Apr” (Aug?) 1794, in Crutcher Genealogy,
359–60.
110 Rutherford Genealogy (2:1139) lists ten children and adds they “reportedly had thirteen
children.” One of their sons, Henry Bedinger, was the U. S. Minister to Denmark who negotiated
the treaty granting free passage through the Danish Sound off Copenhagen. Alexandra Lee Levin,
“Henry Bedinger of Virginia,” Virginia Cavalcade, 29:184–91.
111 Jefferson Tombstones, 219; Pierce, Final Pension Payment Vouchers, 38.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 15 5/21/14
and brought (partly carried) him back to Virginia. After he recovered Daniel reenlisted,
was promoted Lieutenant, and served till the end of the war.112
6) Thomas Rutherford, born 30 Jul 1767, died mid-November 1787, unmarried. 113 In
January 1788 his father wrote “I have in November last been deprived of my only son by
four days sickness a misfortune which has given us the most pointed sorrow, but his fate
is fixed and all tears that could or can be shed availeth not.”114
7) Margaret (Peggy) Rutherford, born ca. 1772, died 13 Jun 1791 in her 20th year,
unmarried. 115 Her father lamented “my own tears can never cease to flow while I breath
this vitol air for the Loss of a most dutiful endearing & innocent Daughter at Norfolk in
June last. But these are Vicessitudes in the nature of things and we must submit.”116
8) Eleanor Rutherford, born (5 Jul 1775?),117 married 5 Feb 1799 James Brown, born
say 1774, a merchant in Shepherdstown; he was elected clerk of the Shepherdstown Court
of Hustings in 1820.118 In 1804 he and brother-in-law John Morrow jointly operated a
store. In 1809 James leased from brother-in-law Daniel Bedinger a large brick building at
the corner of German and Princess Streets that Bedinger had built. Brown operated a
grocery store there and sublet part of it to the Globe tavern. Later he and a partner bought
the building outright, and eventually Brown sold the property, which then became known
as the Entler Hotel; it is now a historic landmark in Shepherdstown.119 James and Eleanor
Brown had nine known children. The 1810 U. S. census of Shepherdstown lists James
Brown’s household with a couple aged 26-44, five young children, and a woman over 44 –
who could of course have been anyone but perhaps was Eleanor’s mother Mary. Eleanor
died in Charles Town 21 Mar 1857 aged 82 years, having “passed the whole of a long life
in her native county;” James died 12 Sep 1858 aged 84 years. 120
During most of the second half of his life Robert Rutherford was a legislator: Virginia
burgess and senator, and U. S. Congressman. George Washington had sat as one of the
two burgesses for Frederick County in the Assemblies of 1758–61 and 1761–65; thereafter
he represented Fairfax County. When Washington declined re-election as burgess for
112 Danske Dandridge, American Prisoners of the Revolution (Charlottesville, VA, 1911), 82–89.
113 Rutherford Genealogy, 1:160; Headley, Genealogical Abstracts, 298; Rutherford Genealogy
(1:160) states he died 20 Oct 1787.
114 Letter, Robert Rutherford to James Crutcher, 25 Jan 1788, in Crutcher Genealogy, 356–57.
115 Headley, Genealogical Abstracts, 298; she is called “Miss Peggy.” Rutherford Genealogy
(1:160) states she was born 1770 and died 1788.
116 Letter, Robert Rutherford to George Washington, 13 Mar 1792, in Papers of George
Washington: Presidential Series, 10:97–99.
117 Rutherford Genealogy, 2:1144.
118 Keesecker, Berkeley Marriages, 195; Norris, History, 378.
119 Kenamond, Prominent Men of Shepherdstown, 28; Mary Corcoran Lehman, “Entler Hotel,”
on Historic Shepherdstown Commission’s website (February 2008).
120 “Obituaries from the Southern Churchman,” The Virginia Genealogist, 44(2000), 179;
Jefferson Tombstones, 357. The 1850 U. S. Census of Charles Town states James’ age as 74, and
Eleanor’s as 72 years; they resided in the household of their son John P[eyton] Brown, druggist.
When listing former ministers of Norbourne parish, Bishop Meade mentioned “Rev. Mr. Veasy,
of whom a venerable old lady in Charlestown – Mrs. Brown – speaks as a man who faithfully
performed his duty in preaching and catechizing, as she was the subject of both.” William Meade,
Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia (Philadelphia, 1857; repr. Baltimore, 1995),
2:297.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 16 5/21/14
Frederick in 1765, Robert Rutherford stood for that seat instead. Records of the Assembly
of 1765 have not survived and the names of Frederick’s burgesses in it are not known.121
At the first session of the Assembly of 1766–68, on 6 Nov 1766, no burgesses from
Frederick and Hampshire Counties were seated,122 but in the second session, on 12 Mar
1767, the burgesses from Frederick were Robert Rutherford and James Wood
(Rutherford’s cousin [?]), both new members; those from Hampshire were Thomas
Rutherford (Robert’s brother) and James Mercer, both veteran burgesses. Thereafter
Robert Rutherford was regularly elected burgess for Frederick and attended every session
except that of 1768. After the formation of Berkeley County in 1772 he served as burgess
for Berkeley until the final colonial Assembly in 1775. Virginia then had a provisional
government with a legislature called the Convention, comprising two delegates from each
county; Rutherford represented Berkeley in the Convention. The records show that he
energetically helped to resist the oppressive acts of Parliament and to promote the
independence of the colonies. When the Virginia Constitution of 1776 established a
Senate,123 Rutherford served in it as the member for Berkeley, Frederick and Hampshire
Counties until 1791.124
He did not fight in the Revolution but evidently worked tirelessly to support the war.
“According to Eleanor’s account, their home was stripped of blankets for the soldiers
during the war winters, and in those years her father was rarely home a week at the
time.”125 On 3 Apr 1777 Robert and Thomas Rutherford (and seven others) received the
court’s permission to inoculate their families against small pox.126 Such inoculation was
then regulated by law because it was feared that it could cause an uncontrollable outbreak
of the disease.
121 William G. and Mary Newton Stanard, Colonial Virginia Register (Albany, NY, 1902; repr.
Baltimore, 1989), 170
122 On 8 Nov 1766 the House’s Committee of Privileges and Election reported why no elections
had been held in these counties. The House “Resolved, That the Writs for the Counties of
Hampshire and Frederick miscarried by Accident. Ordered, That an Address be made to the
Governor to order new Writs for electing Burgesses to serve in this present General Assembly” for
these counties. The Assembly records contain a detailed account of what went wrong, painting a
vivid picture of how chancy communications with the backcountry then were. J. P. Kennedy,
Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia 1766–1769 (Richmond, VA, 1906), 18–19.
123 Robert Rutherford was a member of the committee who drafted this “plan of government.”
Conrad, “Robert Rutherford,” 57.
124 J. Dallas Robertson, in his sketch “Robert Rutherford,” in Men and Events of the Revolution,
Garland R. Quarles et al., eds. (Winchester, VA, 1975), 25–27, states that Rutherford served in the
Continental Congress in 1788 – this is an error, from a misreading of the evidence cited (a
document concerning Col. Robert Rutherford of South Carolina and his attendance at one of his
state’s constitutional conventions).
125 Williams, “Robert Rutherford,” 14. Rutherford himself hints at this in a speech in Congress
concerning the outbreak of war: “At length it was resolved that the people should return the blows
and the violence they had endured, and a man in whom the great characters of antiquity united,
was selected to lead our brave youth and virtuous bands. All rushed forward in the common
cause: the tender sex, with Spartan valour, gave up the sons of their warm affections to combat
under their chieftain and common parent, while they stinted their younger children to comfort as
far as they could the brave men in arms. I live a witness of what I advance.” Annals of Congress, 4th
Congr., 1st sess., 1117 (21 Apr 1796).
126 Berkeley Co., Va., Orders, 2:533.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 17 5/21/14
The Continental Congress’ desperate, dangerous printing of paper money to help pay
for the Revolution ruined Robert Rutherford financially, as it did so many other patriots.
When Washington wrote to him in 1786 requesting prompt payment of a small debt,127
Rutherford answered:
I am hon’d by your excellency’s letter of the 8th instant, and am very unhappy in not
Complying with your utmost wish, & at the Same time to have acted up to the warm &
grateful dictates of my own heart on the occasion. The very great & unequal loss of at
least £ 10,000 Specie Value Sustained by the Continental money[,] not to mention the
entire neglect of every domestic Concern, the whole time of the late important Contest,
by which the remnant of my fortune (to use a forced term) became a perfect wreck at
the Close of the war[,] has embarrassed me much, but as I am determined (however
painful the Idea) to Sell 1000 Acres of my paternal Estate, I hope to pay off each
Pressing demand in the Course of the year.128
The U. S. Constitution became effective in summer 1788. Initially Virginia was allotted
ten members in the U. S. House of Representatives, and was divided into ten districts. The
First District included the counties of Berkeley, Hampshire, Shenandoah, Hardy,
Monongalia, Ohio, Randolph and Frederick. The 1790 federal census showed Virginia
entitled to nineteen members. New, smaller districts were drawn and first used for
elections to the Third Congress; the new First District included only Berkeley and
Frederick.129 Alexander White, a lawyer and native of Frederick who had often worked
with Rutherford, represented the First District in the First and Second Congresses.130
Federalist by conviction, White wanted to make the new U. S. Government strong and
effective; he generally voted with the commercial interests of the Federalist Party. This
alarmed Robert Rutherford who feared that the interests of yeoman farmers and frontier
settlers were neglected.131 He challenged White and was elected handily from the redrawn
First District for the Third Congress, and then re-elected, though challenged in
turn by Federalist Gen. Daniel Morgan, for the Fourth. His service in the House began
127 Washington was known to be very particular, tight-fisted and insistent in money matters.
128 Letter, Robert Rutherford to George Washington, 28 Mar 1786, in The Papers of George
Washington: Confederation Series, W. W. Abbot and Dorothy Twohig, eds. (Charlottesville, VA,
1992–97), 3:610.
129 F. Vernon Aler, History of Martinsburg and Berkeley County, West Virginia (Hagerstown,
MD, 1888), 178–79.
130 Alexander White (1738–1804) went to London, to the Inner Temple and then Gray’s Inn,
for his legal training and began practicing law in Frederick Co. in 1765. He married Elizabeth
Wood (Rutherford’s cousin[?]), daughter of James Wood. E. Alfred Jones, American Members of
the Inns of Court (London, 1924), 216–17; W. C. di Giacomantonio et al., eds., Debates in the
House of Representatives. Third Session: December 1790–March 1791 [Baltimore, 1995], 927–32).
At least two of White’s Virginia colleagues were also natives of New Virginia: John Brown (1757–
1837), born in Staunton, represented the Second District in the First and Second Congresses and
later was U. S. Senator from Kentucky (ibid., 888–93); and Andrew Moore (1752–1821), born in
Rockbridge Co., represented the Third District in the First and Second Congresses, and the
Second District in the Third and Fourth Congresses (ibid., 914–17).
131 Letter, Rutherford to George Washington, 15 Dec 1790, in The Papers of George
Washington: Presidential Series, 7:88.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 18 5/21/14
with the Session called to order on 2 Dec 1793 and ended with the Session adjourned sine
die on 3 Mar 1797.132
Some members of the House, such as Federalist Fisher Ames (Mass.), looked down on
Rutherford, likely as much for his political stance of pragmatic anti-Federalism as for his
dress, demeanor and advocacy of pioneer farmers’ interests.133 For example, Rutherford
felt the need to remind the House
a tax on salt was almost like taxing the common air. Farmers were obliged to use large
quantities of it for their stock; it rendered them docile and easy to be managed. Indeed
it could not be done without; a person was nothing without salt. The price at present
was enormous on the frontier and this duty would add prodigiously to it; for this reason
he would give it his flat opposition.134
During his first session in Congress he held that thoughtful regulation of commerce
was a duty of government. Evidently familiar with Adam Smith’s idea of the invisible
hand, he doubted its efficacy.
I confess that I consider the genius of commerce almost as a divinity, yet I cannot
expand my faith with those who contend that it may rush against and overturn all the
fences of reason, and in the end regulate itself. A position to me as incongruous, as that
the atoms innumerable, which float in our atmosphere, shall at last adhere and form an
intelligent being.135
He, like Hamilton, wanted a policy supporting American manufactures instead of
emphasizing agriculture (whose export earnings were then expected to pay for European
manufactured goods).
It is visionary to hope that all the agricultural productions of this extensive Continent
can always find a market at the islands in the Atlantic and those sterile parts of Europe
which now receive them. It would afford me much real pleasure if such were the case –
fond as I am of agriculture, and anxiously engaged for the prosperity of all who are
prosecuting that very necessary and life-sustaining occupation.136
Rutherford’s best opportunity to speak for independent small farmers came during the
debates of the Land Office bill of 1796, to regulate the planned sale of those U. S. public
132 This session lasted until very late into that Friday night.
133 In the run-up to the election of the Fifth Congress, when Daniel Morgan challenged
Rutherford for the seat, Ames, visiting western Virginia, wrote to Secretary of the Treasury Oliver
Walcott “Mr. Rutherford is as little respected here as in Philadelphia, and yet the many whom he
flatters and deceives, will support him against General Morgan. This is the opinion of federal
men.” Don Higginbotham, Daniel Morgan, (Chapel Hill, NC, 1961), 200.
134 Annals of Congress, 4th Congr., 2nd sess., 2197 (17 Feb 1797). Earlier, on 16 May 1794, an
additional duty of three cents per bushel of salt had also been debated. Fisher Ames “was
convinced this was much better than a land tax. It was beyond all comparison, more cheap, more
certain, and more equal in the collection, than a land tax. He would rather tax salt, at even half a
dollar per bushel, than agree to a land tax.” Rutherford “objected to this duty on salt. It was often
to be carried from one to three hundred and fifty miles inland, and in fact, it frequently costs
twenty shillings per bushel. No tax would be so universally unpopular as this would be.” Annals of
Congress, 3rd Congr., 1st sess., 698 (16 May 1794).
135 Annals of Congress, 3rd Congr., 1st sess., 353–54 (28 Jan 1794).
136 Loc. cit
.
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lands “lying Northwest of the river Ohio, in which the title of the Indian tribes is extinct.”
During the 1790s land speculators were responsible for widespread economic distress.137
“Speculators” comprised a relatively small number of wealthy (and seemingly wealthy)
men: both greedy investors in this country and in England, France and Holland,138 as well
as irresponsible financiers “publicly practicing the meanest and most disgraceful acts and
tricks of swindling.”139 All were despised with intense disgust, especially on the western
frontier. The objectives of the Land Office bill were “to raise money and invite settlers,”140
but there was no consensus among Americans about which objective was primary. The
House compromised without resolving that issue. Those whose priority was to raise the
most money quickly (to pay off the National Debt so as to free up funds for internal
improvements and external defense) wanted to sell large tracts relatively cheaply for
prompt payment, which only wealthy speculators could afford (they would subdivide and
resell to small farmers at a large profit). Those whose priority was to attract settlers
wanted to sell the land for near its true value (to discourage speculators by limiting
profits) but on easy terms in tracts small enough so that small farmers could afford them.
Rutherford tried to seize the initiative. He was the second speaker on February 15th
when the debate began:
There never was a bill of greater importance than that before the House. He said that
the House were the fathers of the country, and that they were about to set out new
farms to their sons, by doing which he hoped they should destroy that hydra,
speculation, which had done the country great harm. Let us, said he, dispose of this land
to original settlers, 150,000 were waiting to become occupiers of this land, (a member
called out for his authority, when he said there was more than that number). The bill
before the House, he said, was exceptionable. It would not, he said, defeat the
speculators. The monsters in Europe, added he, are ready to join the monsters here, to
swallow up the country. He said this tract of country should be disposed of to real
settlers, industrious, respectable persons, who are ready to pay a reasonable price for it,
and not sold to persons who have no other view than engrossing riches. He had made
out a rough plan, he said, of what struck him as proper regulations. He was proceeding
to read the whole of them, when the Chairman reminded him that the first section only
of the bill was under consideration. He said he was against the whole bill, and might as
137 Land speculation was closely tied to speculation in government bonds, mainly dating from
the Revolution. The value of these bonds had long been very doubtful; speculators sought to get
them as cheaply as possible by any and all means, since there was a chance they might be accepted
in payment for public land at (or near) par. Forrest McDonald, The Presidency of George
Washington (Lawrence, KS, 1974), 82–88.
138 For example, at this time the largest landowners in upstate New York were the Pulteney
Associates of Great Britain who had bought the “Genesee tract” of 1.2 million acres from Robert
Morris, a Philadelphia speculator who had bought it and more from Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel
Gorham, New England speculators who had bought all of today’s western New York State from
Massachusetts. As it happened the major British partner (owning ¾), Sir William Johnstone
Pulteney (of the Johnstones of Westerhall), was a distant cousin of William Little of Jefferson Co.
(see my related article, “William Little”, in this issue, pp–pp) – though I doubt either man knew
the other. (It must be said, however, that Pulteney, reputed “the richest commoner in the
Kingdom,” was an upright, frugal Scot.)
139 Annals of Congress, 4th Congr., 1st sess., 403 (2 Mar 1796).
140 Ibid., 334 (16 Feb 1796).
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 20 5/21/14
well then express his sentiments upon it. He said he was a mere child of nature, an
inhabitant of the frontier, as untaught as an Indian; but he had some faint glimmerings
of reason, and he was confident his plan would answer the desired purpose. After
explaining and dwelling some time on the merits of it, he concluded with saying, he
loved his country and all honest men, but hated speculators, and hoped the present bill
would not pass.141
But he was no orator like Fisher Ames, and sarcasm did not carry the day. Several other
Members also, each for different reasons, wanted to throw out the proposed bill and
begin anew. As Rutherford said, “if he asked a fine painter to present him a peacock, and
he painted him a bat, he should tell him, that though he might be a fine painter, yet he
had totally mistaken him.”142 He became frustrated by his failure to convince his
colleagues to see it his way,143 that the land “should be compactly settled by honest,
respectable yeomanry.”144 Moreover, Albert Gallatin (Penna.) observed that speculators
had an essential role to play, explaining
There were three classes of purchasers; the first were moneyed men, who were
commonly called speculators, who were not likely to settle upon the land they
purchased, but would sell it again for a profit; the second class were farmers of small
property, who would purchase and settle upon the land; the third class were men who
have not money to purchase … [Speculators were] the only class from whom poor
persons can get lands. The farmer, he observed, would not buy land to sell. These poor
persons must purchase on long credit, and pay out of the profits of the land.145
The final compromise was not nailed down until April 5th, the last day of debate, when
the House agreed to an amendment (long debated in committee) requiring that half the
640-acre lots to be surveyed (today’s sections) had to be divided into lots of 160 acres each
(quarter sections). Rutherford grumbled that this “was the only favorable clause to the
real settler in the bill.”146
During the partisan struggle in the House to defeat the Jay Treaty (ratified by the
Senate and signed by Pres. Washington) by refusing to appropriate funds needed for its
implementation, Rutherford sided with Westerners and Jeffersonian Republicans to
oppose the administration’s wishes. He “attacked the Jay Treaty as a sign of America’s
subservience to England and a slap at her old benefactor France.”147 In his long speech
against the treaty he objected to the provisions for repayment of American commercial
debts (he thought them unfair, in light of the predatory pre-war lending practices of
many British merchants, and the actions of their factors at the start of the war); to the
141 Ibid., 328–29 (15 Feb 1796). That “child of nature” crack may have expressed how he
thought his colleagues viewed him.
142 Ibid., 339 (17 Feb 1796).
143 He was called to order repeatedly; on one occasion he “again occupied considerable time in
making objections against the bill, which were pretty much the same as those he brought forward
yesterday.” Ibid., 341 (17 Feb 1796).
144 Ibid., 414 (3 Mar 1796), (my emphasis).
145 Ibid., 340 (17 Feb 1796).
146 Ibid., 867 (5 Apr 1786).
147 Higginbotham, Morgan, 200.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 21 5/21/14
restrictions on American trade (he thought they were unjust and intolerable); and to the
provisions for British military withdrawal, long overdue, from Detroit and the Northwest
Territory (he, like many Westerners, thought they allowed too much delay and gave
pioneer settlers little protection from Indians).148 And he warned that these partisan
struggles would sap the strength of the nation since a “great family cannot divide and yet
stand.” He felt the need, however, to emphasize his warm regard for Washington
I have had the honor of the President’s acquaintance well nigh, or quite, forty-four
years, and he has supported every character with merit, dignity, and unwearied
attention. I have acted with him on trying occasions, sometimes equal, oftentimes in a
subordinate sphere; and though senior in point of years, yet I uniformly looked up to
him as a parent, my head and my guide; yet I am independent of the President – an
unchangeable friendship only excepted.149
In the end Fisher Ames’ eloquence ensured a very narrow House vote supporting the Jay
Treaty.
In 1794–95 General Daniel Morgan, strongly pro-Administration and alarmed by the
populist anarchy of the Whiskey Rebellion which Pres. Washington had sent him to the
western frontier to suppress, felt a “hearty contempt for the character who now serves us”
and challenged Rutherford’s re-election; but Rutherford prevailed. Two years later
Morgan, having in the meantime worked in support of the Jay Treaty, and angered by
Rutherford’s vote against it, challenged the incumbent again; this time Morgan won.150
Rutherford challenged the vote. Alleging that Virginia election law had been violated by
Morgan and his supporters, on 19 May 1797 he petitioned the House to declare Morgan’s
election invalid and to re-seat him instead. On 4 Dec 1797 the Committee of Elections of
the Fifth Congress reported that Rutherford’s evidence “was wholly insufficient to
support the allegations” of irregularities at the polls.151 By not objecting to this finding
Rutherford accepted it. Writing to his friend Washington about this affair, Daniel
Morgan had the last word: “I believe the old man conceives himself Defeated Now.”152
After the war Rutherford bought military warrants for lands in today’s West Virginia
and Kentucky. West Virginia records show that he was granted 7,950 acres in today’s
Monongalia County in 1785 and 1786, and 3,000 acres in Ohio County in 1787.153
Acquiring land and secure title at a distance, while he lived at Flowing Springs or in
148 Annals of Congress, 4th Congr., 1st sess., pp. 1116–20 (21 Apr 1796). Anxiety about northwest
frontier security had actually become irrelevant since, due to British betrayal of the Indians in the
Battle of Fallen Timbers, by then “the power of the British on American soil was broken.”
McDonald, Presidency of George Washington, 147–49.
149 Annals of Congress, 4th Congr., 1st sess., p. 555 (14 Mar 1796). Thus Rutherford first met
Washington in 1752, when he was, say, thirty-two and Washington twenty years old. And he
probably quite literally “looked up” to Washington since he was a small man while Washington
was tall.
150 Higginbotham, Morgan, 195–203.
151 American State Papers, 10, Miscellaneous 1:158.
152 Letter, Daniel Morgan to George Washington, 30 Oct 1797, in The Papers of George
Washington: Retirement Series, Dorothy Twohig et al., eds. (Charlottesville, VA, 1998–99), 1:440.
153 Edgard B. Sims, Sims Index to Land Grants in West Virginia (1952; repr., Baltimore, 2003),
497, 580.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 22 5/21/14
Philadelphia, cost him no end of trouble and anxiety (especially after Kentucky separated
from Virginia to become a state) since he could not perform the necessary legal steps, or
pay the fees and taxes, in person. He turned to his cousin James Crutcher for help.154
Kentucky records show that he was granted 17,438 acres on Rockcastle River in today’s
Lincoln County in 1786, 10,000 acres in Fayette County in 1784, 1,000 acres in Nelson
County in 1786, and another 2,000 acres on Rockcastle River in Madison County in
1798.155 Since he also traded and bought land, it is not clear how much he eventually
acquired and was able, or wanted, to hold on to.156 During 1790, “an excursion of Ten
months thro the South Western frontier, particularly over most parts of the Kentucky,
[enabled him] to observe, the great fertility of the soil.”157
In his first will (written before he was elected to Congress) he divided much land
between his children and grandchildren, altogether “ten thousand acres on what he called
the Western Waters and fifteen thousand on the Rock Castle river in Kentucky”158 – more
than he ever owned east of the Alleghenies. In his final will of 1802 he mentioned only a
few smaller parcels: some land near his farm and two 1,000-acre tracts in Kentucky; as
well as a tract of 4,000 acres on Ohio River and one of 400 acres in Hampshire Co. that he
had already designated for specific persons. He empowered his executors to sell any of his
lands to pay debts and legacies, and then provided “that all the land belonging to my
estate which shall remain unsold be equally divided amongst the following persons Viz.
Margaret Little, Susanna Peyton[,] Mary Morrow[,] Deborah Hite, Elizabeth Davis, Sarah
Bedinger and Eleanor Brown … according to real value.” Perhaps he had given land to his
children during the decade between the two wills, like the 4,000-acre parcel on the Ohio
River which, as stated in his will, he conveyed to his son-in-law John Morrow to settle a
debt. In both wills he mentioned that his farm then comprised 650 acres – much reduced
from the original 2,071 acres. And apparently (at least in 1802) he no longer owned even
that outright since he gave Mary “the tract of land I now live on … during the full term in
which I am possessed, which will terminate” on 1 May 1804.159
154 Some of Rutherford’s letters have survived. Crutcher Genealogy, 356–65. In these letters
Robert included much Rutherford and Crutcher family news and repeatedly urged James to tell
about the Crutchers who had moved to Kentucky. James Crutcher (1755–1823) was the son of
Hugh Crutcher (died 1781), who must have been Rutherford’s uncle. James and his wife Nancy
(Poor) moved to Kentucky in the early 1780s and there had nine children. They named their first
child Robert Rutherford Crutcher; on 25 Jan 1788 Robert wrote to James: “… very happy to hear
that you with good consort are well and made more happy by the birth of a son, who you both
have been so very kind and affectionate as to call by my name at length for which singular
affection I return you both my sincere thanks.” Crutcher Genealogy, 356.
155 Willard Rouse Jillson, The Kentucky Land Grants (Louiville, KY, 1925; repr., Baltimore,
1971), 1:114, 232.
156 In July 1802 James Brown advertised in the Kentucky Gazette that he was Robert
Rutherford’s attorney in fact and had land for sale. Karen Maurer Green, The Kentucky Gazette
1801–1820 (Baltimore, 1985), 17.
157 Letter, Rutherford to George Washington, 15 Dec 1790, in The Papers of George
Washington: Presidential Series, 7:86.
158 As summarized by Mrs. Williams in “Robert Rutherford,” 15. A few details concerning
these bequests are quoted in Rutherford Genealogy, 2: 1135, 1138, 1139, 1144.
159 Presumably this refers to the mortgages and conveyances (which I cannot disentangle)
through which Flowing Springs passed to Charles Yates, merchant of Fredericksburg. It was in
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 23 5/21/14
The Berkeley Co. personal property tax list of 1787 shows that Robert Rutherford
owned eleven slaves over sixteen years old, five younger slaves, twenty-nine “horses,
mares, colts, mules,” and twenty-eight cattle; two white men, Joseph Stroud and William
Sallars, lived with him.160 The 1800 tax list shows that he then owned ten slaves over
sixteen years old, one slave aged twelve to sixteen years, and sixteen horses; and one white
man lived with him.161 In his will he gave all his slaves to Mary but “in case of her death
happening before mine,” to be divided equally among her daughters “except the mulatto
woman Beck and her family of children” for whom he made specific provisions.162
Robert Rutherford died [10?] Oct 1803,163 almost two years after he wrote his final will;
as noted earlier, this will was not probated until 11 Jun 1805. He gave his farm to Mary
(restricted, as mentioned earlier) together with all buildings, farm equipment, stock,
crops and bees, sawmill and mill,164 riding chair, personal property and books. After
Robert’s death Mary probably left Flowing Springs, perhaps to live in Shepherdstown with
the family of her youngest daughter Eleanor Brown. She died (24 Jun 1813?).165 She and
Robert had “owned a large and handsome estate … situated in the picturesque valley of
the Shenandoah, in view of the beautiful range of Blue Ridge Mountains, and here the
statesman-patriot lies buried by the side of his wife.”166
1804 that Yates’ nephew became manager of Walnut Grove, part of the original Flowing Springs.
Elizabeth Daniel, “Walnut Grove,” Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society, 13(1947):
14; [A. D. Kenamond?], “Greystone,” Magazine of JCHS, 22(1956): 31–32.
160 Netti Schreiner-Yantis and Florence Speakman Love, The Personal Property Tax Lists for the
Year 1787 for Berkeley County, Virginia (Springfield, VA, 1987), 1432.
161 John Frederick Dorman, “Berkeley County, Virginia, 1800 Tax List,” The Virginia
Genealogist, 9(1965): 70.
162 He mentioned her youngest son Robin, and the boys Jonathan, Bill, John, Harry and
George; it seems they were mostly young and it is not clear how many of these children were
counted on the tax list.
163 Rutherford Genealogy, 1:160; Conrad, “Robert Rutherford” (58), states October 1803.
164 Louise Singleton Kemp, “Old Mills,” Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society,
21(1955): 27–28. The mill has been studied archaeologically. William D. Updike, “Historical and
Archaeological Investigations of the Flowing Springs Mill,” Magazine of JCHS, 69(2003): 20–32.
165 Rutherford Genealogy, 1:160.
166 Conrad, “Robert Rutherford,” 58.
ROBERT RUTHERFORD
By Rudolf Loeser
For half a century, from early manhood, Robert Rutherford played an active and
honorable part in the communal and political life of the lower Shenandoah Valley of New
Virginia.1 He was a “plain, unassuming man … [of] small frame … who dressed in the
simplest garb, and very few would suspect the intelligence and ability that lurked beneath
his homely clothing, whilst his integrity and kindness of heart were known to all.”2 He
was a family man, and had a puckish sense of humor. “He was eccentric; but brilliant and
very popular … a man of high character, of education and refined feelings.”3 His youngest
daughter, Eleanor, is said to have provided this description: “He looked old when she first
recollected him, yet was handsome with dark hair worn in a queue, gray eyes, and a high
forehead. He was always plain in his dress and wore short clothes, knee and shoe buckles.
His disposition was cheerful, he was musical and sang well. His manners were easy, his
conversation agreeable.”4 And John Pope, describing a visit to one of Rutherford’s
neighbors in September 1790, adds: “Mr. Robert Rutherford, a Member of the Virginia
Senate was also there, and contributed much to the chearfulness of the Company, by
singing several most excellent Songs.”5 Raised among farmers and “acquainted with the
frontier from his infancy,”6 Rutherford, like Thomas Jefferson, saw the yeoman farmer as
the necessary backbone of an enduring republic. Thus he was anxious that Congress
should regulate the sale of Federal lands (the Northwest Territory) to benefit small
farmers willing to risk life as pioneers; not only young Americans but especially
immigrants “as it is only by the prospect of acquiring Land on easy terms, that men with
their family’s and others will brave the dangers of the Atlantic, while this is the very seed
1 “The term New Virginia was used by the end of the eighteenth century to distinguish the
region west of the Blue Ridge from Old Virginia, to the east. It consciously set off the world of the
farmer from the world of the planter, a region rich in towns from one poor in towns, grain and
livestock production from tobacco culture, and a free labor society from a slave labor society. [But
this] distinction cannot be too rigidly drawn …” Warren R. Hofstra, The Planting of New Virginia
(Baltimore, 2004), 5.
2 J. E. Norris, ed., History of the Lower Shenandoah Valley (Chicago, 1890; repr. Berryville, VA,
1972), 251, 337.
3 Mary Louise Conrad, “Robert Rutherford,” West Virginia Historical Magazine, 1(1901): 55,
58. Ms. Conrad was Rutherford’s great-great-granddaughter.
4 Mrs. B. D. Williams, “Robert Rutherford,” Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society,
5(1939): 14. Eleanor was born in 1775 when her father was, say, fifty-five years old. I have not
noticed any mention of an existing painted portrait of Robert Rutherford.
5 John Pope, A Tour Through the Southern and Western Territories of the United States
(Richmond, VA, 1792). (A diary ordered by date.) Pope was visiting Charles Washington.
6 Annals of Congress, 4th Congr., 2nd sess., 1742 (30 Dec 1796).
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 2 5/21/14
time as it were of the American people.”7 Rutherford insisted on the virtues of a plain and
simple life: “While the Roman people maintained their simplicity of manners, while
Cincinnatus was amongst them, they were a happy people; but when they lost sight of
their plainness of manners, they lost sight of their happiness.”8 He did, however, use
flowery, prolix language at times, as in this close of a letter to Washington:
And now may the Supreme parent of life! and light! and great director of this, and other
Systems, far beyond our utmost thoughts! deign to hold you with amiable Lady, Very
long in his good keeping. And may you while life is desirable remain the parent, the
guardian, and the guide of a great and generous people, as well as the beneficent friend
of all the human race, are the unfiegned wishes of Dear Sir your Most Obt And truly
affectionate Hbl Sert R. Rutherford.9
Robert Rutherford and his younger brother Thomas were sons of Capt. Thomas
Rutherford, who eventually settled northeast of today’s Charles Town. Capt. Rutherford
was one of several Rutherfords mentioned in Frederick Co. records during the mid-1700s:
Reuben (ca. 1705–1764), Benjamin (1718–ca. 1805), John (1689–1789) and Mary (died
1798). It has been stated – but without convincing proof – that they were all children of
Robert (1663–1725) and Margaret Rutherford of Essex Co. in Rappahannock River.10
Reuben, who married his neighbor Ann (widow of Henry Hunt), lived on Cattail Run just
east of Capt. Rutherford.11 Benjamin and Elizabeth Rutherford eventually settled near
Winchester.12 John and Violetta Rutherford moved frequently; they apparently lived in
northern Augusta Co. when they witnessed a deed for John and Ann Funk in 1761.13
Perhaps this was that John Rutherford whom James Wood called “brother-in-law;”14 if so,
then Wood’s wife Mary Rutherford belonged to this group of conjectural siblings.
7 Letter, Rutherford to George Washington, 13 Mar 1972, in The Papers of George Washington:
Presidential Series, Dorothy Twohig et al., eds. (Charlottesville, VA, 1987– ), 10:97 (my emphasis).
8 Annals of Congress, 4th Congr., 2nd sess., 2103 (9 Feb 1797).
9 Letter, Rutherford to George Washington, 15 Dec 1790, in The Papers of George Washington:
Presidential Series, 7:89.
10 William Kenneth Rutherford and Anna Clay Rutherford, Genealogical History of the
Rutherford Family, rev. ed. (Lexington, MO, 1986), 1:142, 146, 149, 150 (hereafter cited as
Rutherford Genealogy). A Thomas Rutherford is mentioned in Essex Co. records in 1728 and 1730
(Rutherford Genealogy, 1:147); presumably this is the man who went to New Virginia.
11 Cecil O’Dell, Pioneers of Old Frederick County, Virginia (Marceline, MO, 1995), 111, 114;
Gertrude E. Gray, comp., Virginia Northern Neck Land Grants (Baltimore, 1987–1993), 2:62;
Rutherford Genealogy, 1:149.
12 Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 18:249; Rutherford Genealogy, 1:150.
13 Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 6:353–55. In 1786, three years before his death in Kentucky, John
married again, claiming he was then 97 years old. Because of his first wife’s unusual name it seems
almost certain that he was the John Rutherford of Essex Co. who married Violetta, daughter of
James Reynolds. Essex Co., Va., Orders, 1725–1729: 206 (16 Jan 1727); Rutherford Genealogy,
1:146.
14 In a memorandum to himself, dated 11 Oct 1752, reprinted in Winchester, Virginia, and Its
Beginnings, Katherine Glass Greene (Strasburg, VA, 1926), 29. See also Kegley’s Virginia Frontier,
F. B. Kegley (Roanoke, VA, 1938), 127.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 3 5/21/14
The earliest record of Capt. Thomas Rutherford on the frontier dates from October
1735,15 when the Opequon neighborhood was still part of Orange County. His first
recorded land purchase there, just south of Winchester, occurred in January 1740;16 on
28 Nov 1741 he purchased Isaac Perkin’s 519-acre tract northeast of Charles Town – this
would become part of the family place later known as Flowing Springs. 17 He was sworn a
militia captain on 24 Feb 1742/43, and again on 2 May 1753.18 When the first court of
Frederick County was proclaimed on 11 Nov 1743, Thomas Rutherford was sworn in as
sheriff, and James Wood (his brother-in-law?) as clerk;19 on 13 Jan 1743/44 the sheriff
appointed Benjamin Rutherford (his brother?) and Robert Rutherford (his son?) deputy
sheriffs.20 After his two-year sheriff’s term ended, Capt. Rutherford reverted to justice of
Frederick County and continued in that office until he was removed in 1748, and then
again after reinstatement in 1750;21 he also was chosen a member of the first vestry of
Frederick parish and, with James Wood, was churchwarden.22 In mid-1751, after another
purchase (400 acres from Henry Bradshaw) and two additional surveys (of 550 and 603
acres), he finished assembling his home farm of 2,017 acres; the whole was resurveyed by
George Washington and then confirmed to Rutherford by an “including deed” from Lord
Fairfax dated 29 Aug 1751.23 About half a year later, on 17 Mar 1752, he mortgaged this
entire plantation, where he then lived, to Lord Fairfax for £ 450 at 5% interest for five
years.24 He died intestate not long after, during the spring of 1756,25 while Indian raids
severely disrupted life in Frederick County. However, Robert Rutherford “of the Parish
and County of Frederick in the Colony of Virginia Merchant Eldest Son and Heir at Law
15 Orange Co., Va., Judgments 1736, Alexr. Spotswood Esq. vs. Wm. Hawkins. These papers
include a receipt bearing that date, for Thomas Rutherford’s payment of five shillings.
16 Orange Co., Va., Deeds, 3:403–06. He sold most of this land two years later. Orange Co., Va.,
Deeds, 5:159–63.
17 Orange Co., Va., Deeds, 5:52–56. One of the witnesses was Reuben Rutherford (his brother
who lived nearby?).
18 Orange Co., Va., Orders, 3:345 (as cited in Frederick Pioneers, O’Dell, 113); Frederick Co.,
Va., Orders, 4 (page number unreadable).
19 Frederick Co., Va., Orders, 1:2.
20 Frederick Co., Va., Orders, 1:14. There is no known record of a second Robert Rutherford in
Frederick Co. at this time, so Sheriff Rutherford’s deputy most likely was his son
21 H. R. McIlwaine et al., eds., Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia
(Richmond, VA, 1925–1966), 5:269, 336.
22 Garland R. Quarles, Winchester, Virginia: Streets–Churches–Schools (Winchester, VA, 1996),
107; Frederick Co., Va., Orders, 1:152.
23 Gray, Northern Neck Grants, 2:53.
24 Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 2:489–91.
25 On 2 June 1756 a court record concerning the suit of Jeremiah Smith vs. Thomas Rutherford
states that the defendant was dead; this is the earliest such record. Frederick Co., Va., Orders,
7:63. The most recent earlier court record of Rutherford living, dated 5 Mar 1756, is the court’s
order to Gabriel Jones to bring suit against former sheriffs Thomas Rutherford, Andrew Campbell
and Lewis Neill – the justices must then have known (or thought) that Rutherford was alive; on 3
Apr 1754 Gershom Keyes and Thomas Rutherford, his security, in open court acknowledged their
bond for Keyes’ license to operate a ferry across the Shenandoah. Frederick Co., Va., Orders, 7:42,
5:376.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 4 5/21/14
of Thomas Rutherford late of the same Place Gent deceased” on 4 Sep 1760 discharged
the mortgage and recovered his paternal farm.26
No official records provide any information about Thomas Rutherford’s wife;27 most
likely she was a daughter of Thomas Crutcher (died 1722) of Essex County.28 Robert and
Thomas were their only known children.29 Capt. Rutherford and his wife were buried on
the family farm.30
Robert Rutherford’s appointment as his father’s deputy or under-sheriff on 13 Jan
1743/44 is the earliest official record found to mention him. Deputies served at the
sheriff’s pleasure and “execute[d] his Office in his Name and Stead.”31 It seems
improbable that a teenager, and one of small stature at that, could have been effective as
sheriff on the raw frontier; Robert Rutherford must have been of age in 1744 and thus
born, say 1720.32 (He was appointed under-sheriff twice more: by Thomas Chester on 3
Sep 1745, and by Jacob Hite on 5 Apr 1749.33) In September and October 1745 he sued
26 Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 6:105–06.
27 Tradition calls her Sarah de Montargis. Williams, “Robert Rutherford,” 11. Her son Thomas’
son Thomas called his daughter Sarah de Montargis (Sally) Rutherford and she “married Dr. John
Briscoe [and their] descendants still live at Piedmont, the old Briscoe place near Charles Town.”
Danske Dandridge, Historic Shepherdstown (Charlottesville, VA, 1910), 256. Capt. Rutherford’s
wife has also been called Susannah Dobbin. Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 4(1897):
441.
28 In letters to “dear cousin James Crutcher” Robert Rutherford mentioned many Crutchers as
aunts and cousins; these family references are most satisfactorily explained if Robert’s mother was
a daughter of this Thomas Crutcher. Elisabeth W. McNamara, Descendants of Thomas Crutcher
(Baltimore, 1985), 4–5, 167 (hereafter cited as Crutcher Genealogy). Rutherford’s letters to
Crutcher were preserved and passed down to Ms. McNamara. Crutcher Genealogy, 356–65. She
donated the originals and her typed transcripts to the Filson Library in Louisville, KY.
29 No birth records found. George Washington referred to them as brothers in 1758. W. W.
Abbot et al., eds., Papers of George Washington: Colonial Series (Charlottesville, VA, 1983–1995),
5:220. Council records of 1778 also call them brothers. H. R. McIlwaine et al., eds., Journals of the
Council of State of Virginia (Richmond, VA, 1932–82), 2:63.
30 Robert Rutherford’s final will is dated 2 Jan 1802 (probated on 11 June 1805). Jefferson Co.,
Va., Wills, 1:198–205. Fragments of an earlier will (which I have not seen, written 1792[?]) have
been published. In this earlier will Rutherford reportedly requested “that black marble slabs be
properly fixed on the graves of my father, my mother, and my own with proper inscriptions” (this
apparently was never done), and that his daughter’s remains be moved from Norfolk and
reinterred by his son’s. Williams, “Robert Rutherford,” 15. The Rutherford family graveyard (no
marked stones) is described in Tombstone Inscriptions: Jefferson County, W. Va., 1687–1980, Bee
Line Chapter, NSDAR (Marceline, MO, 1981), 287 (hereafter cited as Jefferson Tombstones).
31 It was not legal to restrict the authority or duties of an under-sheriff in any way; “the office is
entire, and cannot be abridg’d.” George Webb, Office and Authority of a Justice of Peace
(Williamsburg, Va., 1736), 298. This book – known as Webbs Justice – became a popular reference
in Colonial Virginia. On 12 Oct 1744 the Frederick County justices paid their clerk, James Wood,
for “six Webbs Justices for the use of the county.” Norris, History, 83.
32 Thus he was probably only a few years younger than his colleague Benjamin Rutherford (his
uncle?). It is necessary to emphasize this because Robert Rutherford’s traditional birth date,
20 Oct 1728, has been so widely disseminated and accepted. Rutherford Genealogy, 1:147;
Williams, “Robert Rutherford,” 12. If, however, he really was born 1728 then it is unlikely his
father could have appointed him deputy; but then, who was that deputy?
33 Frederick Co., Va., Orders, 1:416, 3:67.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 5 5/21/14
David Crockett and others for debt.34 On 6 Oct 1747 he sold a lot in Frederick Town (i.e.
Winchester) to Hugh Parker, of Prince George County, Maryland.35
The Rutherford brothers worked as surveyors for Lord Fairfax in the 1750s and 1760s;
it is not known who trained them – perhaps James Wood (their uncle?).36 Surveying the
backcountry was strenuous and time-consuming but brought rewards: good income, and
intimate knowledge of the land and the pioneers living there. 37
NORTHERN NECK SURVEYS BY THE RUTHERFORD BROTHERS38
Robert Thomas
Year Surveys Acres Surveys Acres
1751 46 15,353 - -
1752 43 13,263 15 3,781
1753 44 13,766 31 8,382
1754 22 6,981 21 7,082
1755 15 4,966 24 5,712
1756 3 620 1 120
1757 - - 1 396
1758 - - 1 570
1759 - - - -
1760 2 245 17 4,947
1761 14 4,482 24 5,854
1762 30 9,536 57 15,905
34 Frederick Co., Va., Orders, 1:450, 472. Thus Robert Rutherford was of age when that debt
was first contracted. A father “owned” his son, and particularly his labor, until he turned 21 years
old. Yet a father could “free” his son at an earlier age. This was occasionally done in a will, to take
effect after the death of the father of a teenage son, but was rarely done while both father and son
were living. Edgar McDonald, “Estimating Ages in Colonial Virginia,” The Virginia Genealogist,
49(2005): 83–94. It is not known whether Capt. Rutherford gave his son Robert his freedom, but
that is unlikely.
35 Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 1:366–74. Thus Robert Rutherford was of age when he first
bought that lot (no record found).
36 James Wood had been county surveyor for Orange County, and later was for Frederick
County; he also surveyed for Lord Fairfax. During 1751–63 Robert Rutherford was assistant
surveyor of Frederick County. Sarah S. Hughes, Surveyors and Statesmen: Land Measuring in
Colonial Virginia (Richmond, VA, 1979), 166, 168, 169.
37 Papers of George Washington: Colonial Series, 1:8-37. Those pages present a succinct account
of teen-aged George Washington’s career as a surveyor and are a thorough summary of surveying
for Lord Fairfax, which surely pertains to the Rutherfords too. Washington was trained by George
Home, the first official surveyor of Frederick County; after 1752 Home was assistant surveyor
there. “A diligent frontier surveyor working only a few months out of the year could clear
annually £ 100, a cash income greater than that of most planters and tradesmen in the colony”
(ibid., 8). On survey fees see also Surveyors and Statesmen, Hughes, 64–71.
38 Data from Northern Neck Warrants, Joyner.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 6 5/21/14
1763 22 8,716 59 17,513
1764 - - 30 7,103
1765 - - 24 18,992
Just as the Royal government appointed an official surveyor for every county in
Virginia, so Fairfax divided his proprietary into survey districts and assigned a surveyor
to every district.39 His land office issued survey warrants addressed by name to the
surveyor of the district where the land was located. The brothers’ districts apparently
were adjacent, separated by a line drawn roughly west-northwest/east-southeast through
the vicinity of Winchester; Robert’s extended up towards Augusta, including much of
Shenandoah, Warren, Clarke and Frederick counties; Thomas’ ran down to Potomac
River, including the rest of Frederick, the eastern section of Hampshire, as well as
Morgan, Berkeley and Jefferson counties (in the mid-1760s Thomas ran some surveys in
what had been his brother’s district).40 Robert Rutherford surveyed a tract of 1,384 acres
in 1752, a tract of 3,195 acres in 1762, and tracts of 1,455 and 1,890 acres in 1763; Thomas
Rutherford surveyed a tract of 1,175 acres in 1762, tracts of 2,236, 2,080 and 1,200 acres in
1763, and a tract of 11,716 acres in 1765; every other tract the brothers surveyed
contained less than 1,000 acres with by far most containing less than 500 acres. On 25
occasions Robert surveyed two tracts on one day; Thomas managed that 30 times and
indeed, on 3 occasions he surveyed three tracts on one day.
Until the Revolution, however, Robert Rutherford was primarily a merchant. It is not
known how he was trained in business; perhaps he began as an itinerant trader. He may
have been associated with Thomas Cresap in 1752.41 Rutherford settled in Winchester
and is said to have had a store there by 1754;42 over time he owned various lots in the
town and became one of its trustees. On 13 Sep 1753 he married the widow Mary How, 43
daughter of William Dobbin.
39 Survey for Nicholas Princely. Peggy Shomo Joyner, Abstracts of Virginia’s Northern Neck
Warrants & Surveys (Portsmouth, VA, 1985–95), 2:125.
40 These approximate district descriptions of course are based on today’s county lines.
41 Thomas Cresap, an immigrant from England, was a frontier trader based on the upper
Potomac River in Maryland. In 1752 James Wood did business with “Cresap & Rutherford.”
James Wood Family Papers, Box 2, “Accounts and Receipts, 1750–1756” (Handley Library,
Winchester, VA).
42 Conrad, “Robert Rutherford,” 55.
43 Conrad, “Robert Rutherford,” 56. Tradition notwithstanding, she was not the widow of Brig.
Gen. Sir George Augustus, Viscount Howe (who was slain by a stray bullet on 6 Jul 1758 during a
skirmish with the French in the woods near Ft. Ticonderoga, north of Albany, NY), nor of his
brother Hon. Thomas Howe, MP (who died 14 Nov 1771 in London of an inflammation in his
bowels); neither man ever married. George E. Cokayne, Vicary Gibbs et al., eds, The Complete
Peerage, (London, 1919–1959), 6:597; John Lodge, The Peerage of Ireland (Dublin, 1789), 5:85–86;
Annual Register (London), 1771. Their brief, uninformative wills, probated at the Prerogative
Court of Canterbury (Register Artan, and Register Trevor, respectively), are preserved at The
National Archives in England; copies available on line for a fee (2008).
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 7 5/21/14
William Dobbin’s origins are unknown.44 He may have been one of the immigrants
who got land on the upper Opequon from Jost Hite in the 1730s;45 he did witness three
deeds for Hite in May 1742, and three more in November.46 His farm was located just
southeast of Winchester;47 he was a hatter.48 He was one of the first purchasers of a Lot
(#12) in James Wood’s newly laid out Frederick Town. On 27 Dec 1744 Dobbin hired
Duncan O’Gullion to build him a house on his lot within five months. Measuring twentyfour
feet square on the outside with walls of good stone and lime ten feet high, the house
was to cost £ 0/5/6 per perch and one barrel of beer.49
William Dobbin was probably born about 1700. It appears he had two daughters,
Grace and Mary, but their mother’s name is not known.50 It appears that Grace married
James Dunbar.51 It is said that Mary was born 20 Feb 1732.52 It appears that she married
44 Though his name often appears as “Dobbins” in official records, on surviving original
documents he always signed as “Dobbin.” The authors of the Dobbins genealogy suggested
William Dobbin might have been a grandson of Daniel Dobbins, immigrant to Rappahannock
River in the 1670s; however, he does not fit well in that family. Kenneth W. Dobyns and Margaret
S. Thorpe, Daniel Dobyns of Colonial Virginia (Arlington, VA, 1969), 35. Perhaps Dobbin came
from Ireland in the mid-1730s like Samuel and Mary Glass and their family of children and
grandchildren. Thomas K. Cartmell, Shenandoah Valley Pioneers and Their Descendants
(Winchester, VA, 1909), 413.
45 Jost Hite (Hans Justus Heydt) was a key figure in early New Virginia. Henry Z. Jones, Jr.,
Ralph Connor, and Klaus Wust, German Origins of Jost Hite (Edinburg, VA, 1979).
46 Orange Co., Va., Deeds, 5:165–78; 7:22–26, 38–45. These are the earliest official records
mentioning William Dobbin that I have found.
47 In 1755 he sold 400 acres to Robert Willson, Jr. – Winchester Airport is now located on that
land. O’Dell, Pioneers of Old Frederick, 288.
48 Frederick Co., Va., Ended Causes, August 1750, Box 12, Folder 1, Dobbin vs. Hite, James
Wood Collection, # 155 (Folder 25) (Handley Library, Winchester, VA).
49 Frederick Co., Va., Ended Causes, October 1747, Box 7, William Dobbin vs. Duncan
O’Gullion (Handley Library, Winchester, VA). A perch in masonry is a volume measure equal to
about 25 cubic feet. The O’Gullion brothers (Duncan, a mason, and Neal, a weaver) had come to
the Opequon from Maryland; while Neal apparently returned to Maryland, Duncan died in
Frederick Co. by May 1756. Frederick Co., Va., Orders, 5:466.
50 Tradition calls her “Deborah;” Robert and Mary Rutherford did give this name to a
daughter. Conrad, “Robert Rutherford,” 56. Perhaps she died early, after bearing two daughters,
and William remarried. Perhaps this hypothetical later wife was related to Adolph and Mark
Euler/ Oyler/Ilor of Frederick County. Writing to George Washington on 20 Jul 1758 concerning
Washington’s running in absentia for election as burgess while commanding Virginia’s war
against the Indians, Robert Rutherford said: “There is a good Prospect of Success in the insuing
Election, as your friends push every thing with the greatest ardour; even down to Will the Hatter
and his Oyly Spouse Shew the greatest Spirit in the Cause.” Papers of George Washington: Colonial
Series, 5:305–06. What could be the meaning of that? Rutherford’s sense of humor? He was, after
all, referring to his father-in-law. Perhaps “Will the Hatter and his Oyly Spouse” was a common
term for Dobbin and his wife. Was there a second “Will the Hatter” in Winchester then?
51 The earliest record of James Dunbar that I have found lists him as a juror on 3 Oct 1745.
Frederick Co., Va., Orders, 1:459. Both William Dobbin and James Dunbar, on 23 Sep 1748,
witnessed the will of Dobbin’s neighbor Abraham Hollingsworth, an elder member (born 1687) of
a numerous family of Quakers. Frederick Co., Va., Wills, 1:203. After selling their 400-acre
Fairfax grant, on Opequon and the Wagon Road, for £ 60 to Robert Rutherford on 17 June 1767,
James and Grace Dunbar disappear from Frederick County records. Gray, Northern Neck Grants,
2:188; Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 11:547–50. Perhaps James soon died and perhaps Grace married
Isaac Perkins of Frederick Co. as his third wife. On 4 Feb 1777 Robert Rutherford joined Grace
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 8 5/21/14
Thomas How who, on 3 Jun 1748, agreed with Peter Tostee to run the latter’s Winchester
store.53 How’s origins are unknown.54 On 23 Jan 1748/49 William Dobbin, “for the Love
and affection that I … do bear unto Thomas How and Mary his Wife,” gave them his
house and lot in Winchester, reserving one room “for my own use to lodge in for &
during my Life.”55 Mary bore a daughter, Margaret (born 3 Mar 1749/50?),56 before her
husband died intestate. On 8 May 1750 Mary was granted administration on Thomas
How’s estate.57
At the annual court martial of 9 Oct 1761, on the motion of his son-in-law Robert
Rutherford, William Dobbin was relieved of further muster duty – presumably because
he was then sixty years old.58 The last official record naming William, dated 6 Apr 1767, is
the gift of “sundry horned cattle” to his “loving grand daughter Ann Dunbar.”59
In the mid-1750s the French and Indian War irrupted into Frederick County and
destroyed much of what the first generation of settlers had achieved. Indian fighting was
endemic to the American frontier. Fighting intensified horrendously during the French
and Indian War after the ambush of Gen. Braddock’s Regulars, in the woods by
Perkins, widow of Isaac Perkins, in signing a bond to indemnify Isaac Perkins who had become
his stepmother’s surety on her administratrix bond. Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 17:216.
52 Greene, Winchester Beginnings, 379. If this date is correct then Mary married quite young.
53 Thomas How was to be paid £ 30 for one year; their covenant was witnessed by Daniel Hart.
James Wood Collection, # 448 (Folder 17) (Handley Library, Winchester, VA). Peter Tostee was a
merchant; he leased his store in Winchester from James Wood. Hofstra, Planting of New Virginia,
192–93, and passim. Peter and Elizabeth Tostee owned various tracts of land, including two in
Wappacomo Manor, presumably for settling debts in the ordinary course of business. In 1762
Widow Tostee owned land by Potomac River (near today’s Falling Waters, Berkeley Co.) near the
Wagon Road from Watkins Ferry (today’s Williamsport) to Winchester.
54 The surname How is not rare; a Joseph How lived on Lost River in northern Augusta Co. at
this time. A family named How had been living in Rappahannock River since the mid-1600s. On
7 Nov 1748 Thomas How, Humphrey Hasledine and James Dunbar witnessed a deed of sale for
Andrew Pitts. Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 1:437–41. On 8 Mar 1748/49 Thomas How was granted
and ordinary license. Frederick Co., Va., Orders, 3:50.
55 Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 1:447–48. The deed recites that Dobbin “put the said Thomas
How & Mary How in full & peaceable possession by the Gift & delivery of one Silver Spoon …
having received of the aforesaid Thomas and Mary How five Shillings Sterling of Money & Many
other good things.” The witnesses were Thomas Chester (the former sheriff), Andrew Pitts and
Humphrey Hasledine. Dobbin is styled “Gent.” in this document; I do not know why this might
have been appropriate.
56 Speculative date – see later.
57 Frederick Co., Va., Wills, 1:381–82. The sureties for her administration bond of £ 200 were
Robert Lemmon (a weaver) and Ellis Thomas. On the same day Andrew Caldwell, John Harrow,
William Cocks and Thomas Wood were ordered to appraise Thomas How’s estate. Frederick Co.,
Va., Orders, 3:242. On 12 May 1750 Margaret Glascon, a servant belonging to Mary How, widow,
complained that William Dobbin beat her immoderately; Dobbin had to post bond of £ 20 for
good behavior, with sureties Robert Lemon and Thomas Wood. Frederick Co., Va., Orders, 3:261.
During the ensuing year Mary How brought several suits to recover debts owing her deceased
husband’s estate.
58 Barbara Vines Little, Frederick County, Virginia, Militia Records 1755–1761 (Westminster,
MD, 2000), 44. However, 56 men were discharged from further muster duty at this court martial
for unstated reasons; also discharged was Robert Morgan who was “in some measure blind or
nearsighted.” The previous court martial was held in November 1760.
59 Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 11:374–75.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 9 5/21/14
Monongahela River just south of Ft. Duquesne on 9 Jul 1755, unexpectedly ended in a
great slaughter and headlong rout of terrified British soldiers.60 The Indians of the Ohio
valley then rushed into a prolonged frontier war on European settlers; 61 a war fought by
both sides with frightful brutality against civilians and fighters alike.62 Thus the mid-
1750s were years of panic in Frederick County. So many settlers were killed or abducted
by raiding Indians, and so many terrified survivors tried to escape eastward or southward
in another headlong flight to safety, that the county seemed on the verge of
abandonment. The inexperienced government, led by Gov. Dinwiddie, fumbled to defend
its frontier; the new Virginia Regiment was deployed to Winchester with young,
inexperienced Col. George Washington in command. One of his tasks was to build a large
fortress there.
Fort Loudon became a massive project,63 pushed forward without a nice regard for
private property rights. Afterwards, on 30 Nov 1762, Robert Rutherford and Mary Wood
(his aunt?) petitioned the Burgesses for compensation since “they and others, who were
Proprietors of Lands adjoining the Town of Winchester, have suffered much by having
their Timber cut down to build Fort Loudon; … [and] some of them … had their Lands
so pillaged as not to have any Firewood left.”64
During winter 1755–fall 1757 Rutherford became more directly involved in the war
effort as Commissary Dr. Thomas Walker’s deputy in Winchester, sharing the vexing job
of finding supplies for the soldiers. As the fighting wore on Washington realized that
Frederick County needed Rangers – armed scouts who, in small parties, would patrol and
help defend the frontier against Indian raiders – and recommended Rutherford as
commander because of “his universal acquaintance on the frontiers; and the esteem the
people in general have for him.”65 Gov. Dinwiddie authorized a Company of about 100
men in late fall 1757;66 they were active for about a year and Washington struggled to
keep them in Frederick (where they were effective because they defended their own, in
country they knew) when the government wanted to deploy them elsewhere (where they
would not be).67 In the midst of all this, summer 1758, Capt. Robert Rutherford fell
seriously ill and got leave to consult Dr. Gustavus Brown in Port Tobacco, Maryland.68
60 John Grenier, The First Way of War (New York, 2005), 111–13.
61 As always, the Indians’ choice of combat over meek accommodation was a fateful error with
dreadful consequences for all Indians. There never was the least chance that they could stop,
much less turn back, European expansion into North America; and yet violent resistance could
only benefit them if they achieved complete success. Instead, their centuries-long stubborn,
fighting retreat only confirmed frontier settlers in their enduring, intense hatred of all Indians.
62 Matthew C. Wood, Breaking the Backcountry (Pittsburgh, PA, 2003), 7–8, 55, 236–40.
63 Hofstra, Planting of New Virginia, 247–48.
64 John Pendleton Kennedy, ed., Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia 1761 – 1765
(Richmond, VA, 1907), 119–20.
65 Letter, George Washington to Gov. Dinwiddie, 5 Oct 1757, in Papers of George Washington:
Colonial Series, 5:2.
66 Papers of George Washington: Colonial Series, 5:39.
67 Robert L. Bates, “Rutherford’s Rangers,” Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society,
4(1938): 4-18.
68 Papers of George Washington: Colonial Series, 5:205, 220.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 10 5/21/14
Frederick County court met fairly regularly during this time; at February Court in 1758
they cleared up their accumulated unfinished business by disposing of about 120 suits
that had abated because one or both parties were dead.69 After British forces under Gen.
Forbes had seized the remains of Ft. Duquesne in late 1758 and rebuilt it as Fort Pitt,
Frederick County recovered quickly – it was indeed “a land of plenty in those days,” a
magnet for farmers. 70 In late 1763 the British government tried to protect Indians and
settlers from each other by proclaiming the Appalachian Mountains the boundary
between them; but the settlers ignored the Proclamation Line.71 Rutherford continued to
be concerned about pioneer farmers’ security: in Kentucky, where some of his relatives
settled after the Revolution; and in the Northwest Territory, where the British incited
Indian raids despite their promises in the Peace of Paris of 1783. The vicious fighting in
the 1750s had shaped Rutherford’s opinion of “these Vindictive and troublesome”
Indians for the rest of his life: “inveterate Savages, who Slay or wound to the latest
breath[,] and that tortures Cannot subdue[;] whilst [a] Very few of these rational Vermin
distroy Valuable members of our Species, and Such[,] for the most part, as loudly demand
our pity and utmost protection[;] at the same time that, there assuredly is a measure of
Justice, due to this uninformed Cast of mankind.”72 Though vehement, these are the views
of a fair-minded man, an amalgam of “the western philosophy of extinction and the
easterner’s advocacy of fair treatment.”73
By 1760 Rutherford had returned to private life in Winchester. He became grantee or
grantor of many deeds recorded in Frederick and Berkeley counties (he also obtained
grants from Lord Fairfax). As noted earlier, it was he who paid off his deceased father’s
mortgage to Lord Fairfax; he considered Flowing Springs farm his patrimony and home
place and was strongly attached to it. Since he lived in Winchester he probably leased out
his holdings (though Flowing Springs might have been farmed for him by an overseer). 74
It is not clear why Rutherford accumulated so much land: whether as investments of
business profits (to be resold as needed) or to build a sufficient estate for his heirs.75 He
apparently made a point of asking family members, including teenagers,76 to witness his
deeds: Thomas Rutherford (brother), Drusilla Rutherford (sister-in-law, wife of Thomas),
Benjamin Rutherford (uncle [?]), Reuben Rutherford (nephew [?], son of Reuben),
Howard Rutherford (nephew [?], son of Reuben), James and Robert Wood (cousins [?],
sons of Mary Wood), William Dobbin (father-in-law), Margaret How (wife’s daughter),
69 Frederick Co., Va., Orders, 7:348ff.
70 Hofstra, Planting of New Virginia, 264–65; Dandridge, Historic Shepherdstown, 20.
71 Colin G. Calloway, The Scratch of a Pen (New York, 2006), 92–100.
72 Letter, Robert Rutherford to George Washington, 15 Dec 1790, in Papers of George
Washington: Presidential Series, 7:87.
73 Charles Judah Bayard, The Development of the Public Land Policy, 1783 – 1820, with Special
Reference to Indiana (New York, 1979), 151.
74 However, no recorded leases have been found.
75 As an old man in Congress he repeatedly spoke out against large-scale land speculators
whom he regarded pernicious exploiters of pioneer farmers and dangerous to the future of the
country.
76 “Any person above the Age of 14 Years, and not disabled by Law, may be a Witness.” Webbs
Justice, 136.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 11 5/21/14
Susan Rutherford (daughter), Mary Peyton (daughter), Debby Rutherford (daughter),
Henry Peyton, Jr. (son-in-law, husband of Mary), John Peyton, Jr. (son-in-law, husband
of Susan), Thomas Peyton (brother of John), Thomas Rutherford, Jr. (son [probably], or
nephew, son of Thomas [possibly]), William Little (wife’s son-in-law), William Crutcher
(first cousin [?], son of Thomas Crutcher),77 Leonard Crutcher (first cousin [?], brother of
William).
While briefly reviving his sideline of surveying, Rutherford mainly worked as a
merchant. 78 Like other retailers beyond the Blue Ridge he dealt with wholesale merchants
in eastern Virginia, Philadelphia and Great Britain, occasionally signing substantial
mortgages to them as guarantees for business debts. For example, on 9 Mar 1771 he
mortgaged 550 acres (two parcels) to Cumberland Wilson of Dumfries, Prince William
County, the Virginia representative of the firms of James Wilson and Sons and Colin
Dunlop and Son, merchants of Kilmarnock, Scotland,79 to secure debts of almost £ 221
Sterling plus almost £ 192 currency. In two transactions dated 13 Sep 1777 Rutherford
sold the mortgaged lands and more for £ 972 to John Reynell, Mordecai Lewis and Jacob
Harman of Philadelphia.80 These men retained about £ 650 current money, the amount
due on the mortgage. Cumberland Wilson, however, could not be found: in 1775 he had
joined the British and left Dumfries for parts unknown (North Carolina?). Thus they
forwarded the money to William Hartshorne of Alexandria who placed a notice in the
newspaper asking Wilson or his agent to apply to him for the money.81 After Rutherford
was elected Burgess, and especially as a Senator during the years of the Revolution, he
took his public responsibilities seriously and spent much time on them,82 having to
neglect his business and private affairs; during this time he sold or mortgaged most of his
lands and bought very little.
The Rutherfords lived in Winchester until 1773,83 and Mary’s daughter Margaret How
grew up there as the oldest child with four half-sisters and a half-brother. Beginning in
77 Crutcher Genealogy, 89. William Crutcher witnessed almost every deed during 1760–63; this
suggests to me that William worked for Rutherford and perhaps lived with him.
78 Rutherford is styled “merchant” in several deeds of 1760–66.
79 Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 14:245–50.
80 Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 17:385–92. John Reynell (1708–1784), Quaker, was a successful
shipping and commission merchant, and one of the founders of the Pennsylvania Hospital. John
Woolman, Journal and Essays, ed. by Amelia Mott Gummere (New York, 1922), 512–13. The
partners Mordecai Lewis (1748–1799), Quaker, and Jacob Harman (1740–1780) also were
merchants. Henry Simpson, The Lives of Eminent Philadelphians (Philadelphia, 1859), 652–55.
81 Virginia Gazette, no. 1412, 24 Apr 1778. William Hartshorne (1742–1816), Quaker,
Mordecai Lewis’ brother-in-law, was a prominent merchant, active in the community life of
northern Virgina. A. Glenn Crothers, “Quaker Merchants and Slavery in Early National
Alexandria, Virginia: The Ordeal of William Hartshorne,” Journal of the Early Republic, 25:47–77.
82 He had to travel to Williamsburg frequently, occasionally (during the 1770s) stopping to visit
(and sometimes stay overnight with) George Washington at Mount Vernon.
83 By two deeds of lease and release dated 5-6 Apr 1773 Robert and Mary Rutherford “of
Winchester” sold 11 tracts, containing about 3,000 acres, to John Smith of Northumberland Co.
for about £ 5,400 (Frederick Co., Va., Deeds, 16:185–208). By six deeds of lease and release dated
1-2 Apr 1774 (their earliest subsequent recorded land sale) they, “of Berkeley County,” sold
parcels comprising 100 acres, parts of a tract of 320 acres “adjoining the Commons of the Town of
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 12 5/21/14
1766 she signed as a witness for several of her stepfather’s land deeds. On 3 Mar 1768
“Robert Rutherford of Winchester in Frederick County in consideration of the natural
love & affection which I have and bear towards Margaret How my wife’s daughter” gave
her three negro slaves (all young children); I think that Rutherford chose that particular
date because it was Margaret’s eighteenth birthday.84 In January 1772 Margaret married
William Little, an immigrant from Scotland, who apparently became Rutherford’s close
friend.85
In 1796 Robert Rutherford told Congress “my relatives are numerous.”86 He and Mary
had eight known children; six of their daughters survived to marry.87
1) Susannah (Sucky, Sukey) Rutherford, born 23 Nov 1756, married 8 May 1780 John
Peyton (younger half-brother of her sister Mary’s first husband), born ca. 1757, son of
Henry Peyton of Prince William County and his second wife Margaret Gallaher.88 John
Peyton had come to Winchester about 1775 and was a merchant there (Peyton St. was
named for him); he was a vestryman of Frederick parish and was for a while Deputy Clerk
of Frederick County. He and Sukey had nine known children; he died in Winchester in
1804, Susannah died 8 May 1829. 89
2) Mary Rutherford, born (20 Nov 1757?),90 married say 1774 Henry Peyton (older
half-brother of the man her sister Susannah later married), born about 1750,91 son of
Henry Peyton of Prince William County and his first wife Annie Thornton. Before the
Revolution Henry moved to Frederick County, where he was an attorney92 and became
Deputy Clerk. He and Mary had one known child.93 Henry was a militia officer; he was
Winchester” that Fairfax had granted to Rutherford in 1754, to six different buyers for about £
250 (ibid., 419–52).
84 By Virginia law, a young person had to be 18 years old to “bequeath Slaves, by Will in
writing.” Webbs Justice, 188. A younger child’s slaves were the property of the legal guardian,
which, in Margaret’s case, most likely was her stepfather. Thus if this was not Margaret’s 18th
birthday, then she was older (or there would have been no point to the expense of a legal deed).
85 See my related article, “William Little,” in this issue, pp-pp.
86 Annals of Congress, 4th Congr., 1st sess., 1119 (21 Apr 1796).
87 No birth records found and birth order unknown; order of surviving daughters as in Robert
Rutherford’s final will. Birthdates of all children must have been handed down as family tradition
(which I have not seen) and presumably were known to the authors of Rutherford Genealogy.
However these authors have altered the birth years (in an undisclosed fashion, and without listing
the traditional dates) to make them fit their theory that Robert and Mary married in 1763.
88 Horace Edwin Hayden, Virginia Genealogies (Wilkes-Barre, PA, 1891; repr. Baltimore,
1979), 504, 530; Rutherford Genealogy (2:1128) states 23 Nov 1764 as Susannah’s birth date but
the same marriage date.
89 Quarles, Winchester: Streets-Churches-Schools, p. 77; Garland R. Quarles, Some Old Homes in
Frederick County, Virginia (Winchester, VA, 1999), 75; Hayden, Virginia Genealogies, 530.
90 If the age on her tombstone is correct she was born September 1756–July 1757; Rutherford
Genealogy (2:1132) states 20 Nov 1765, almost exactly a year after Susannah – thus she probably
was born 20 Nov 1757.
91 International Genealogical Index, v5.0, states 1748 (“no source information is available”).
92 He swore the attorney’s oath on 21 Mar 1775. Berkeley Co., Va., Orders, 2:350.
93 Norris, History, 136; Hayden, Virginia Genealogies, 504. On 28 Aug 1778 Henry Peyton of
Prince William Co., Mary Peyton’s father-in-law, gave two slaves to Mary Peyton, “widow of
Henry Peyton, dec’d, my son,” and her young son Robert Thornton Peyton. Berkeley Co., Va.,
Deeds, 5:90–92.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 13 5/21/14
fatally shot in November 1776 by a deserter resisting arrest.94 Mary married again, 6 Jul
1781, John Morrow, born about 1750, a merchant of Shepherdstown, ruling elder of the
Presbyterian Church there, and justice of Berkeley County.95 Morrow witnessed the first
two successful demonstrations of James Rumsey’s steamboat on Potomac River in
December 1787. John and Mary had nine known children. Mary died in August 1810 in
her 54th year, and John in 1819.96
3) Deborah (Debby) Rutherford, born (11 Mar 1761?),97 married (4 Feb 1783?)98
George Hite, born 28 Oct 1761, son of Jacob Hite and Frances Madison. He lived in
Charles Town and was the first Clerk of Jefferson County, until his death.99 He and Debby
had eight known children. George died 16 Dec 1816 and Deborah outlived him many
years, dying 16 Jul 1843.100
A short time before the Revolution, Jacob [Hite] moved to South Carolina, leaving
George at the College of William and Mary. Jacob, his wife and young children were
most inhumanly massacred by Indians in 1776. George left college and went to South
Carolina to endeavor to find his two young sisters, whom the Indians had carried away.
Arrived at the scene of the massacre, he found the remains of his parents and the
children, and buried them, but could learn nothing about the fate of his sisters.101
4) Elizabeth (Betsy) Rutherford, born (28 Sep 1763?),102 married 1 Jun 1786 John
Conrad, son of Frederick Conrad and Maria Clara Ley; John was a merchant in
94 On 19 Nov 1776 Berkeley County court found William Wallis, Thomas Morgan, Jeremiah
Thomas and John Casidy guilty of feloniously murdering Henry Peyton, Jr, and remanded them
to Williamsburg for trial. Berkeley Co., Va., Orders, 2:492; Dandridge, Historic Shepherdstown,
234.
95 Guy L. Keesecker, Marriage Records of Berkeley County, Virginia 1781 – 1854 (Strasburg,
VA, 1969; repr., Baltimore, 1983), 175; A. D. Kenamond, Prominent Men of Shepherdstown
During its First 200 Years (Charles Town, WV, 1963), 81–83; Norris, History, 235.
96 Jefferson Tombstones, 182, 308; Kenamond, Prominent Men of Shepherdstown, 82.
97 She must have been born 1762 or earlier since she witnessed a deed, Walter and Hester
Sherley to Thomas Rutherford (her uncle), on 1 Dec 1776 (she must have been at least 14 years
old when she signed); the other witnesses were her sisters Susan Rutherford and Mary Peyton,
and Howard Rutherford, son of Reuben Rutherford (her great-uncle?). Berkeley Co., Va., Deeds,
4:53–56. Rutherford Genealogy (2:1135) states she was born 11 May 1768.
98 International Genealogical Index, v5.0 (“no source information is available”). This same
Record states that Deborah was born 11 Mar 1760.
99 Jefferson Tombstones, 364; A. D. Kenamond, “The Hite Families in Jefferson County,”
Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society, 31(1965): 42–47.
100 Jefferson Tombstones, 364. In the application for the final pension payment due to Deborah
Hite as widow of a Revolutionary War veteran, John R. Flagg (Deborah’s son-in-law) provided
that death date. Alcyon Trubey Pierce, abstr., Selected Final Pension Payment Vouchers 1818–
1864. Virginia: Richmond & Wheeling [Athens, GA, 1996], 274. Her tombstone gives the year as
1842. Jefferson Tombstones, 364.
101 Dandridge, Historic Shepherdstown, 324. Jacob Hite, son of Jost Hite, left Berkeley Co. about
1775 after he lost his contest with Adam Stephen over the location of the county seat (Quarles,
Some Old Homes, p. 132); as a result he and several colleagues were dismissed from their seats on
the county court. See my related article, “William Little,” in this issue, pp–pp.
102 Rutherford Genealogy (2:1138) states 28 Sep 1769.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 14 5/21/14
Winchester.103 John and Betsy had three known children. He died suddenly 10 Aug 1794.
Betsy’s father wrote “we have lost our worthy and very affectionate Mr. John Conrad and
his two eldest children which has well neigh if it does not yet kill our dear Betsy.”104 But
she survived this tragedy and married again, 1 Jan 1799, Dr. Joseph Wilson Davis. He
became a justice of Jefferson County.105 They had no known children. Elizabeth had died
by 1810 and Joseph probably died 1824.106
5) Sarah (Sally) Rutherford, born (12 Aug 1765?),107 married 26 Apr 1791 Daniel
Bedinger, born 1761, son of Henry Bedinger (Büdinger) and Magdalene Slagle (von
Schlegel) of Shepherdstown.108 Daniel and Sally lived many years in Norfolk where Daniel
was Alderman, U. S. Surveyor of Customs and, from May 1802 to February 1808,
Superintendent of the Gosport Navy Yard. In 1794 Rutherford wrote from Berkeley
County “our dear Sally Bedinger and her affectionate consort and two fine daughters are
now with us from Norfolk.”109 When the family moved back to Jefferson County, Daniel
built his mansion Bedford (using masts from the U. S. frigate Constitution as pillars for
the portico) on the site of his mother’s farm outside Shepherdstown. Daniel and Sally had
ten known children.110 Daniel died 17 Mar 1817 in his 58th year; Sarah died 14 Jul 1844.111
Daniel had been an ardent patriot, burning to join the American army in 1775 when
he was fourteen years old, but was sent home to his widowed mother. He tried again the
next year so insistently that he was allowed to enlist. He was soon captured by the British
near New York and confined under conditions so shamefully wretched that he would
have died except for the sympathy of a Hessian guard (to whom he appealed in German)
and the care of his devoted elder brother George Michael Bedinger who searched for him
103 Elizabeth Timberlake Davis, Frederick County, Virginia, Marriages 1771 – 1825 (n.p., 1941;
repr., Baltimore, 2003), 27; Garland R. Quarles, Some Worthy Lives (Winchester, VA, 1988), 71–
72; Quarles, Old Homes, 74–75; Hofstra, Planting of New Virginia, 302–06.
104 Robert K. Headley, Genealogical Abstracts from 18th-Century Virginia Newspapers
(Baltimore, 1978), 73; Letter, Robert Rutherford to James Crutcher, 23 “Apr” (Aug?) 1794, in
Crutcher Genealogy, 359–60.
105 Keesecker, Berkeley Marriages, 56; Norris, History, 344. He likely was Joseph Wilson Davis,
born 19 Mar 1772, son of Leonard Davis and Mary Wilson of Berkeley Co. (information as found
on www.e-familytree.net in Feb 2008).
106 The 1810 U. S. census of Charles Town shows head-of-household Joseph W. Davis, aged
26–44, living by himself with six slaves; the 1820 U. S. census of Charles Town shows head-ofhousehold
Joseph W. Davis, M.D., living with a woman aged 16-26, eight slaves and one free
negro. His will (which I have not seen) was probated in 1824. D. W. Morrow and D. J. Morrow,
Wills of Jefferson County, West Virginia … .An Index: 1801 – 1899 [Westminster, MD, 1824], 4.
He was not found in the 1830 U. S. census of Virginia.
107 Rutherford Genealogy (2:1139) states 12 Aug 1771.
108 Davis, Frederick Marriages, 19; Danske Dandridge, George Michael Bedinger
(Charlottesville, VA, 1909), 3–10; Kenamond, Prominent Men of Shepherdstown, 30–31.
109 Letter, Robert Rutherford to James Crutcher, 23 “Apr” (Aug?) 1794, in Crutcher Genealogy,
359–60.
110 Rutherford Genealogy (2:1139) lists ten children and adds they “reportedly had thirteen
children.” One of their sons, Henry Bedinger, was the U. S. Minister to Denmark who negotiated
the treaty granting free passage through the Danish Sound off Copenhagen. Alexandra Lee Levin,
“Henry Bedinger of Virginia,” Virginia Cavalcade, 29:184–91.
111 Jefferson Tombstones, 219; Pierce, Final Pension Payment Vouchers, 38.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 15 5/21/14
and brought (partly carried) him back to Virginia. After he recovered Daniel reenlisted,
was promoted Lieutenant, and served till the end of the war.112
6) Thomas Rutherford, born 30 Jul 1767, died mid-November 1787, unmarried. 113 In
January 1788 his father wrote “I have in November last been deprived of my only son by
four days sickness a misfortune which has given us the most pointed sorrow, but his fate
is fixed and all tears that could or can be shed availeth not.”114
7) Margaret (Peggy) Rutherford, born ca. 1772, died 13 Jun 1791 in her 20th year,
unmarried. 115 Her father lamented “my own tears can never cease to flow while I breath
this vitol air for the Loss of a most dutiful endearing & innocent Daughter at Norfolk in
June last. But these are Vicessitudes in the nature of things and we must submit.”116
8) Eleanor Rutherford, born (5 Jul 1775?),117 married 5 Feb 1799 James Brown, born
say 1774, a merchant in Shepherdstown; he was elected clerk of the Shepherdstown Court
of Hustings in 1820.118 In 1804 he and brother-in-law John Morrow jointly operated a
store. In 1809 James leased from brother-in-law Daniel Bedinger a large brick building at
the corner of German and Princess Streets that Bedinger had built. Brown operated a
grocery store there and sublet part of it to the Globe tavern. Later he and a partner bought
the building outright, and eventually Brown sold the property, which then became known
as the Entler Hotel; it is now a historic landmark in Shepherdstown.119 James and Eleanor
Brown had nine known children. The 1810 U. S. census of Shepherdstown lists James
Brown’s household with a couple aged 26-44, five young children, and a woman over 44 –
who could of course have been anyone but perhaps was Eleanor’s mother Mary. Eleanor
died in Charles Town 21 Mar 1857 aged 82 years, having “passed the whole of a long life
in her native county;” James died 12 Sep 1858 aged 84 years. 120
During most of the second half of his life Robert Rutherford was a legislator: Virginia
burgess and senator, and U. S. Congressman. George Washington had sat as one of the
two burgesses for Frederick County in the Assemblies of 1758–61 and 1761–65; thereafter
he represented Fairfax County. When Washington declined re-election as burgess for
112 Danske Dandridge, American Prisoners of the Revolution (Charlottesville, VA, 1911), 82–89.
113 Rutherford Genealogy, 1:160; Headley, Genealogical Abstracts, 298; Rutherford Genealogy
(1:160) states he died 20 Oct 1787.
114 Letter, Robert Rutherford to James Crutcher, 25 Jan 1788, in Crutcher Genealogy, 356–57.
115 Headley, Genealogical Abstracts, 298; she is called “Miss Peggy.” Rutherford Genealogy
(1:160) states she was born 1770 and died 1788.
116 Letter, Robert Rutherford to George Washington, 13 Mar 1792, in Papers of George
Washington: Presidential Series, 10:97–99.
117 Rutherford Genealogy, 2:1144.
118 Keesecker, Berkeley Marriages, 195; Norris, History, 378.
119 Kenamond, Prominent Men of Shepherdstown, 28; Mary Corcoran Lehman, “Entler Hotel,”
on Historic Shepherdstown Commission’s website (February 2008).
120 “Obituaries from the Southern Churchman,” The Virginia Genealogist, 44(2000), 179;
Jefferson Tombstones, 357. The 1850 U. S. Census of Charles Town states James’ age as 74, and
Eleanor’s as 72 years; they resided in the household of their son John P[eyton] Brown, druggist.
When listing former ministers of Norbourne parish, Bishop Meade mentioned “Rev. Mr. Veasy,
of whom a venerable old lady in Charlestown – Mrs. Brown – speaks as a man who faithfully
performed his duty in preaching and catechizing, as she was the subject of both.” William Meade,
Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia (Philadelphia, 1857; repr. Baltimore, 1995),
2:297.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 16 5/21/14
Frederick in 1765, Robert Rutherford stood for that seat instead. Records of the Assembly
of 1765 have not survived and the names of Frederick’s burgesses in it are not known.121
At the first session of the Assembly of 1766–68, on 6 Nov 1766, no burgesses from
Frederick and Hampshire Counties were seated,122 but in the second session, on 12 Mar
1767, the burgesses from Frederick were Robert Rutherford and James Wood
(Rutherford’s cousin [?]), both new members; those from Hampshire were Thomas
Rutherford (Robert’s brother) and James Mercer, both veteran burgesses. Thereafter
Robert Rutherford was regularly elected burgess for Frederick and attended every session
except that of 1768. After the formation of Berkeley County in 1772 he served as burgess
for Berkeley until the final colonial Assembly in 1775. Virginia then had a provisional
government with a legislature called the Convention, comprising two delegates from each
county; Rutherford represented Berkeley in the Convention. The records show that he
energetically helped to resist the oppressive acts of Parliament and to promote the
independence of the colonies. When the Virginia Constitution of 1776 established a
Senate,123 Rutherford served in it as the member for Berkeley, Frederick and Hampshire
Counties until 1791.124
He did not fight in the Revolution but evidently worked tirelessly to support the war.
“According to Eleanor’s account, their home was stripped of blankets for the soldiers
during the war winters, and in those years her father was rarely home a week at the
time.”125 On 3 Apr 1777 Robert and Thomas Rutherford (and seven others) received the
court’s permission to inoculate their families against small pox.126 Such inoculation was
then regulated by law because it was feared that it could cause an uncontrollable outbreak
of the disease.
121 William G. and Mary Newton Stanard, Colonial Virginia Register (Albany, NY, 1902; repr.
Baltimore, 1989), 170
122 On 8 Nov 1766 the House’s Committee of Privileges and Election reported why no elections
had been held in these counties. The House “Resolved, That the Writs for the Counties of
Hampshire and Frederick miscarried by Accident. Ordered, That an Address be made to the
Governor to order new Writs for electing Burgesses to serve in this present General Assembly” for
these counties. The Assembly records contain a detailed account of what went wrong, painting a
vivid picture of how chancy communications with the backcountry then were. J. P. Kennedy,
Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia 1766–1769 (Richmond, VA, 1906), 18–19.
123 Robert Rutherford was a member of the committee who drafted this “plan of government.”
Conrad, “Robert Rutherford,” 57.
124 J. Dallas Robertson, in his sketch “Robert Rutherford,” in Men and Events of the Revolution,
Garland R. Quarles et al., eds. (Winchester, VA, 1975), 25–27, states that Rutherford served in the
Continental Congress in 1788 – this is an error, from a misreading of the evidence cited (a
document concerning Col. Robert Rutherford of South Carolina and his attendance at one of his
state’s constitutional conventions).
125 Williams, “Robert Rutherford,” 14. Rutherford himself hints at this in a speech in Congress
concerning the outbreak of war: “At length it was resolved that the people should return the blows
and the violence they had endured, and a man in whom the great characters of antiquity united,
was selected to lead our brave youth and virtuous bands. All rushed forward in the common
cause: the tender sex, with Spartan valour, gave up the sons of their warm affections to combat
under their chieftain and common parent, while they stinted their younger children to comfort as
far as they could the brave men in arms. I live a witness of what I advance.” Annals of Congress, 4th
Congr., 1st sess., 1117 (21 Apr 1796).
126 Berkeley Co., Va., Orders, 2:533.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 17 5/21/14
The Continental Congress’ desperate, dangerous printing of paper money to help pay
for the Revolution ruined Robert Rutherford financially, as it did so many other patriots.
When Washington wrote to him in 1786 requesting prompt payment of a small debt,127
Rutherford answered:
I am hon’d by your excellency’s letter of the 8th instant, and am very unhappy in not
Complying with your utmost wish, & at the Same time to have acted up to the warm &
grateful dictates of my own heart on the occasion. The very great & unequal loss of at
least £ 10,000 Specie Value Sustained by the Continental money[,] not to mention the
entire neglect of every domestic Concern, the whole time of the late important Contest,
by which the remnant of my fortune (to use a forced term) became a perfect wreck at
the Close of the war[,] has embarrassed me much, but as I am determined (however
painful the Idea) to Sell 1000 Acres of my paternal Estate, I hope to pay off each
Pressing demand in the Course of the year.128
The U. S. Constitution became effective in summer 1788. Initially Virginia was allotted
ten members in the U. S. House of Representatives, and was divided into ten districts. The
First District included the counties of Berkeley, Hampshire, Shenandoah, Hardy,
Monongalia, Ohio, Randolph and Frederick. The 1790 federal census showed Virginia
entitled to nineteen members. New, smaller districts were drawn and first used for
elections to the Third Congress; the new First District included only Berkeley and
Frederick.129 Alexander White, a lawyer and native of Frederick who had often worked
with Rutherford, represented the First District in the First and Second Congresses.130
Federalist by conviction, White wanted to make the new U. S. Government strong and
effective; he generally voted with the commercial interests of the Federalist Party. This
alarmed Robert Rutherford who feared that the interests of yeoman farmers and frontier
settlers were neglected.131 He challenged White and was elected handily from the redrawn
First District for the Third Congress, and then re-elected, though challenged in
turn by Federalist Gen. Daniel Morgan, for the Fourth. His service in the House began
127 Washington was known to be very particular, tight-fisted and insistent in money matters.
128 Letter, Robert Rutherford to George Washington, 28 Mar 1786, in The Papers of George
Washington: Confederation Series, W. W. Abbot and Dorothy Twohig, eds. (Charlottesville, VA,
1992–97), 3:610.
129 F. Vernon Aler, History of Martinsburg and Berkeley County, West Virginia (Hagerstown,
MD, 1888), 178–79.
130 Alexander White (1738–1804) went to London, to the Inner Temple and then Gray’s Inn,
for his legal training and began practicing law in Frederick Co. in 1765. He married Elizabeth
Wood (Rutherford’s cousin[?]), daughter of James Wood. E. Alfred Jones, American Members of
the Inns of Court (London, 1924), 216–17; W. C. di Giacomantonio et al., eds., Debates in the
House of Representatives. Third Session: December 1790–March 1791 [Baltimore, 1995], 927–32).
At least two of White’s Virginia colleagues were also natives of New Virginia: John Brown (1757–
1837), born in Staunton, represented the Second District in the First and Second Congresses and
later was U. S. Senator from Kentucky (ibid., 888–93); and Andrew Moore (1752–1821), born in
Rockbridge Co., represented the Third District in the First and Second Congresses, and the
Second District in the Third and Fourth Congresses (ibid., 914–17).
131 Letter, Rutherford to George Washington, 15 Dec 1790, in The Papers of George
Washington: Presidential Series, 7:88.
© Rudolf Loeser, 2008 18 5/21/14
with the Session called to order on 2 Dec 1793 and ended with the Session adjourned sine
die on 3 Mar 1797.132
Some members of the House, such as Federalist Fisher Ames (Mass.), looked down on
Rutherford, likely as much for his political stance of pragmatic anti-Federalism as for his
dress, demeanor and advocacy of pioneer farmers’ interests.133 For example, Rutherford
felt the need to remind the House
a tax on salt was almost like taxing the common air. Farmers were obliged to use large
quantities of it for their stock; it rendered them docile and easy to be managed. Indeed
it could not be done without; a person was nothing without salt. The price at present
was enormous on the frontier and this duty would add prodigiously to it; for this reason
he would give it his flat opposition.134
During his first session in Congress he held that thoughtful regulation of commerce
was a duty of government. Evidently familiar with Adam Smith’s idea of the invisible
hand, he doubted its efficacy.
I confess that I consider the genius of commerce almost as a divinity, yet I cannot
expand my faith with those who contend that it may rush against and overturn all the
fences of reason, and in the end regulate itself. A position to me as incongruous, as that
the atoms innumerable, which float in our atmosphere, shall at last adhere and form an
intelligent being.135
He, like Hamilton, wanted a policy supporting American manufactures instead of
emphasizing agriculture (whose export earnings were then expected to pay for European
manufactured goods).
It is visionary to hope that all the agricultural productions of this extensive Continent
can always find a market at the islands in the Atlantic and those sterile parts of Europe
which now receive them. It would afford me much real pleasure if such were the case –
fond as I am of agriculture, and anxiously engaged for the prosperity of all who are
prosecuting that very necessary and life-sustaining occupation.136
Rutherford’s best opportunity to speak for independent small farmers came during the
debates of the Land Office bill of 1796, to regulate the planned sale of those U. S. public
132 This session lasted until very late into that Friday night.
133 In the run-up to the election of the Fifth Congress, when Daniel Morgan challenged
Rutherford for the seat, Ames, visiting western Virginia, wrote to Secretary of the Treasury Oliver
Walcott “Mr. Rutherford is as little respected here as in Philadelphia, and yet the many whom he
flatters and deceives, will support him against General Morgan. This is the opinion of federal
men.” Don Higginbotham, Daniel Morgan, (Chapel Hill, NC, 1961), 200.
134 Annals of Congress, 4th Congr., 2nd sess., 2197 (17 Feb 1797). Earlier, on 16 May 1794, an
additional duty of three cents per bushel of salt had also been debated. Fisher Ames “was
convinced this was much better than a land tax. It was beyond all comparison, more cheap, more
certain, and more equal in the collection, than a land tax. He would rather tax salt, at even half a
dollar per bushel, than agree to a land tax.” Rutherford “objected to this duty on salt. It was often
to be carried from one to three hundred and fifty miles inland, and in fact, it frequently costs
twenty shillings per bushel. No tax would be so universally unpopular as this would be.” Annals of
Congress, 3rd Congr., 1st sess., 698 (16 May 1794).
135 Annals of Congress, 3rd Congr., 1st sess., 353–54 (28 Jan 1794).
136 Loc. cit
.
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lands “lying Northwest of the river Ohio, in which the title of the Indian tribes is extinct.”
During the 1790s land speculators were responsible for widespread economic distress.137
“Speculators” comprised a relatively small number of wealthy (and seemingly wealthy)
men: both greedy investors in this country and in England, France and Holland,138 as well
as irresponsible financiers “publicly practicing the meanest and most disgraceful acts and
tricks of swindling.”139 All were despised with intense disgust, especially on the western
frontier. The objectives of the Land Office bill were “to raise money and invite settlers,”140
but there was no consensus among Americans about which objective was primary. The
House compromised without resolving that issue. Those whose priority was to raise the
most money quickly (to pay off the National Debt so as to free up funds for internal
improvements and external defense) wanted to sell large tracts relatively cheaply for
prompt payment, which only wealthy speculators could afford (they would subdivide and
resell to small farmers at a large profit). Those whose priority was to attract settlers
wanted to sell the land for near its true value (to discourage speculators by limiting
profits) but on easy terms in tracts small enough so that small farmers could afford them.
Rutherford tried to seize the initiative. He was the second speaker on February 15th
when the debate began:
There never was a bill of greater importance than that before the House. He said that
the House were the fathers of the country, and that they were about to set out new
farms to their sons, by doing which he hoped they should destroy that hydra,
speculation, which had done the country great harm. Let us, said he, dispose of this land
to original settlers, 150,000 were waiting to become occupiers of this land, (a member
called out for his authority, when he said there was more than that number). The bill
before the House, he said, was exceptionable. It would not, he said, defeat the
speculators. The monsters in Europe, added he, are ready to join the monsters here, to
swallow up the country. He said this tract of country should be disposed of to real
settlers, industrious, respectable persons, who are ready to pay a reasonable price for it,
and not sold to persons who have no other view than engrossing riches. He had made
out a rough plan, he said, of what struck him as proper regulations. He was proceeding
to read the whole of them, when the Chairman reminded him that the first section only
of the bill was under consideration. He said he was against the whole bill, and might as
137 Land speculation was closely tied to speculation in government bonds, mainly dating from
the Revolution. The value of these bonds had long been very doubtful; speculators sought to get
them as cheaply as possible by any and all means, since there was a chance they might be accepted
in payment for public land at (or near) par. Forrest McDonald, The Presidency of George
Washington (Lawrence, KS, 1974), 82–88.
138 For example, at this time the largest landowners in upstate New York were the Pulteney
Associates of Great Britain who had bought the “Genesee tract” of 1.2 million acres from Robert
Morris, a Philadelphia speculator who had bought it and more from Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel
Gorham, New England speculators who had bought all of today’s western New York State from
Massachusetts. As it happened the major British partner (owning ¾), Sir William Johnstone
Pulteney (of the Johnstones of Westerhall), was a distant cousin of William Little of Jefferson Co.
(see my related article, “William Little”, in this issue, pp–pp) – though I doubt either man knew
the other. (It must be said, however, that Pulteney, reputed “the richest commoner in the
Kingdom,” was an upright, frugal Scot.)
139 Annals of Congress, 4th Congr., 1st sess., 403 (2 Mar 1796).
140 Ibid., 334 (16 Feb 1796).
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well then express his sentiments upon it. He said he was a mere child of nature, an
inhabitant of the frontier, as untaught as an Indian; but he had some faint glimmerings
of reason, and he was confident his plan would answer the desired purpose. After
explaining and dwelling some time on the merits of it, he concluded with saying, he
loved his country and all honest men, but hated speculators, and hoped the present bill
would not pass.141
But he was no orator like Fisher Ames, and sarcasm did not carry the day. Several other
Members also, each for different reasons, wanted to throw out the proposed bill and
begin anew. As Rutherford said, “if he asked a fine painter to present him a peacock, and
he painted him a bat, he should tell him, that though he might be a fine painter, yet he
had totally mistaken him.”142 He became frustrated by his failure to convince his
colleagues to see it his way,143 that the land “should be compactly settled by honest,
respectable yeomanry.”144 Moreover, Albert Gallatin (Penna.) observed that speculators
had an essential role to play, explaining
There were three classes of purchasers; the first were moneyed men, who were
commonly called speculators, who were not likely to settle upon the land they
purchased, but would sell it again for a profit; the second class were farmers of small
property, who would purchase and settle upon the land; the third class were men who
have not money to purchase … [Speculators were] the only class from whom poor
persons can get lands. The farmer, he observed, would not buy land to sell. These poor
persons must purchase on long credit, and pay out of the profits of the land.145
The final compromise was not nailed down until April 5th, the last day of debate, when
the House agreed to an amendment (long debated in committee) requiring that half the
640-acre lots to be surveyed (today’s sections) had to be divided into lots of 160 acres each
(quarter sections). Rutherford grumbled that this “was the only favorable clause to the
real settler in the bill.”146
During the partisan struggle in the House to defeat the Jay Treaty (ratified by the
Senate and signed by Pres. Washington) by refusing to appropriate funds needed for its
implementation, Rutherford sided with Westerners and Jeffersonian Republicans to
oppose the administration’s wishes. He “attacked the Jay Treaty as a sign of America’s
subservience to England and a slap at her old benefactor France.”147 In his long speech
against the treaty he objected to the provisions for repayment of American commercial
debts (he thought them unfair, in light of the predatory pre-war lending practices of
many British merchants, and the actions of their factors at the start of the war); to the
141 Ibid., 328–29 (15 Feb 1796). That “child of nature” crack may have expressed how he
thought his colleagues viewed him.
142 Ibid., 339 (17 Feb 1796).
143 He was called to order repeatedly; on one occasion he “again occupied considerable time in
making objections against the bill, which were pretty much the same as those he brought forward
yesterday.” Ibid., 341 (17 Feb 1796).
144 Ibid., 414 (3 Mar 1796), (my emphasis).
145 Ibid., 340 (17 Feb 1796).
146 Ibid., 867 (5 Apr 1786).
147 Higginbotham, Morgan, 200.
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restrictions on American trade (he thought they were unjust and intolerable); and to the
provisions for British military withdrawal, long overdue, from Detroit and the Northwest
Territory (he, like many Westerners, thought they allowed too much delay and gave
pioneer settlers little protection from Indians).148 And he warned that these partisan
struggles would sap the strength of the nation since a “great family cannot divide and yet
stand.” He felt the need, however, to emphasize his warm regard for Washington
I have had the honor of the President’s acquaintance well nigh, or quite, forty-four
years, and he has supported every character with merit, dignity, and unwearied
attention. I have acted with him on trying occasions, sometimes equal, oftentimes in a
subordinate sphere; and though senior in point of years, yet I uniformly looked up to
him as a parent, my head and my guide; yet I am independent of the President – an
unchangeable friendship only excepted.149
In the end Fisher Ames’ eloquence ensured a very narrow House vote supporting the Jay
Treaty.
In 1794–95 General Daniel Morgan, strongly pro-Administration and alarmed by the
populist anarchy of the Whiskey Rebellion which Pres. Washington had sent him to the
western frontier to suppress, felt a “hearty contempt for the character who now serves us”
and challenged Rutherford’s re-election; but Rutherford prevailed. Two years later
Morgan, having in the meantime worked in support of the Jay Treaty, and angered by
Rutherford’s vote against it, challenged the incumbent again; this time Morgan won.150
Rutherford challenged the vote. Alleging that Virginia election law had been violated by
Morgan and his supporters, on 19 May 1797 he petitioned the House to declare Morgan’s
election invalid and to re-seat him instead. On 4 Dec 1797 the Committee of Elections of
the Fifth Congress reported that Rutherford’s evidence “was wholly insufficient to
support the allegations” of irregularities at the polls.151 By not objecting to this finding
Rutherford accepted it. Writing to his friend Washington about this affair, Daniel
Morgan had the last word: “I believe the old man conceives himself Defeated Now.”152
After the war Rutherford bought military warrants for lands in today’s West Virginia
and Kentucky. West Virginia records show that he was granted 7,950 acres in today’s
Monongalia County in 1785 and 1786, and 3,000 acres in Ohio County in 1787.153
Acquiring land and secure title at a distance, while he lived at Flowing Springs or in
148 Annals of Congress, 4th Congr., 1st sess., pp. 1116–20 (21 Apr 1796). Anxiety about northwest
frontier security had actually become irrelevant since, due to British betrayal of the Indians in the
Battle of Fallen Timbers, by then “the power of the British on American soil was broken.”
McDonald, Presidency of George Washington, 147–49.
149 Annals of Congress, 4th Congr., 1st sess., p. 555 (14 Mar 1796). Thus Rutherford first met
Washington in 1752, when he was, say, thirty-two and Washington twenty years old. And he
probably quite literally “looked up” to Washington since he was a small man while Washington
was tall.
150 Higginbotham, Morgan, 195–203.
151 American State Papers, 10, Miscellaneous 1:158.
152 Letter, Daniel Morgan to George Washington, 30 Oct 1797, in The Papers of George
Washington: Retirement Series, Dorothy Twohig et al., eds. (Charlottesville, VA, 1998–99), 1:440.
153 Edgard B. Sims, Sims Index to Land Grants in West Virginia (1952; repr., Baltimore, 2003),
497, 580.
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Philadelphia, cost him no end of trouble and anxiety (especially after Kentucky separated
from Virginia to become a state) since he could not perform the necessary legal steps, or
pay the fees and taxes, in person. He turned to his cousin James Crutcher for help.154
Kentucky records show that he was granted 17,438 acres on Rockcastle River in today’s
Lincoln County in 1786, 10,000 acres in Fayette County in 1784, 1,000 acres in Nelson
County in 1786, and another 2,000 acres on Rockcastle River in Madison County in
1798.155 Since he also traded and bought land, it is not clear how much he eventually
acquired and was able, or wanted, to hold on to.156 During 1790, “an excursion of Ten
months thro the South Western frontier, particularly over most parts of the Kentucky,
[enabled him] to observe, the great fertility of the soil.”157
In his first will (written before he was elected to Congress) he divided much land
between his children and grandchildren, altogether “ten thousand acres on what he called
the Western Waters and fifteen thousand on the Rock Castle river in Kentucky”158 – more
than he ever owned east of the Alleghenies. In his final will of 1802 he mentioned only a
few smaller parcels: some land near his farm and two 1,000-acre tracts in Kentucky; as
well as a tract of 4,000 acres on Ohio River and one of 400 acres in Hampshire Co. that he
had already designated for specific persons. He empowered his executors to sell any of his
lands to pay debts and legacies, and then provided “that all the land belonging to my
estate which shall remain unsold be equally divided amongst the following persons Viz.
Margaret Little, Susanna Peyton[,] Mary Morrow[,] Deborah Hite, Elizabeth Davis, Sarah
Bedinger and Eleanor Brown … according to real value.” Perhaps he had given land to his
children during the decade between the two wills, like the 4,000-acre parcel on the Ohio
River which, as stated in his will, he conveyed to his son-in-law John Morrow to settle a
debt. In both wills he mentioned that his farm then comprised 650 acres – much reduced
from the original 2,071 acres. And apparently (at least in 1802) he no longer owned even
that outright since he gave Mary “the tract of land I now live on … during the full term in
which I am possessed, which will terminate” on 1 May 1804.159
154 Some of Rutherford’s letters have survived. Crutcher Genealogy, 356–65. In these letters
Robert included much Rutherford and Crutcher family news and repeatedly urged James to tell
about the Crutchers who had moved to Kentucky. James Crutcher (1755–1823) was the son of
Hugh Crutcher (died 1781), who must have been Rutherford’s uncle. James and his wife Nancy
(Poor) moved to Kentucky in the early 1780s and there had nine children. They named their first
child Robert Rutherford Crutcher; on 25 Jan 1788 Robert wrote to James: “… very happy to hear
that you with good consort are well and made more happy by the birth of a son, who you both
have been so very kind and affectionate as to call by my name at length for which singular
affection I return you both my sincere thanks.” Crutcher Genealogy, 356.
155 Willard Rouse Jillson, The Kentucky Land Grants (Louiville, KY, 1925; repr., Baltimore,
1971), 1:114, 232.
156 In July 1802 James Brown advertised in the Kentucky Gazette that he was Robert
Rutherford’s attorney in fact and had land for sale. Karen Maurer Green, The Kentucky Gazette
1801–1820 (Baltimore, 1985), 17.
157 Letter, Rutherford to George Washington, 15 Dec 1790, in The Papers of George
Washington: Presidential Series, 7:86.
158 As summarized by Mrs. Williams in “Robert Rutherford,” 15. A few details concerning
these bequests are quoted in Rutherford Genealogy, 2: 1135, 1138, 1139, 1144.
159 Presumably this refers to the mortgages and conveyances (which I cannot disentangle)
through which Flowing Springs passed to Charles Yates, merchant of Fredericksburg. It was in
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The Berkeley Co. personal property tax list of 1787 shows that Robert Rutherford
owned eleven slaves over sixteen years old, five younger slaves, twenty-nine “horses,
mares, colts, mules,” and twenty-eight cattle; two white men, Joseph Stroud and William
Sallars, lived with him.160 The 1800 tax list shows that he then owned ten slaves over
sixteen years old, one slave aged twelve to sixteen years, and sixteen horses; and one white
man lived with him.161 In his will he gave all his slaves to Mary but “in case of her death
happening before mine,” to be divided equally among her daughters “except the mulatto
woman Beck and her family of children” for whom he made specific provisions.162
Robert Rutherford died [10?] Oct 1803,163 almost two years after he wrote his final will;
as noted earlier, this will was not probated until 11 Jun 1805. He gave his farm to Mary
(restricted, as mentioned earlier) together with all buildings, farm equipment, stock,
crops and bees, sawmill and mill,164 riding chair, personal property and books. After
Robert’s death Mary probably left Flowing Springs, perhaps to live in Shepherdstown with
the family of her youngest daughter Eleanor Brown. She died (24 Jun 1813?).165 She and
Robert had “owned a large and handsome estate … situated in the picturesque valley of
the Shenandoah, in view of the beautiful range of Blue Ridge Mountains, and here the
statesman-patriot lies buried by the side of his wife.”166
1804 that Yates’ nephew became manager of Walnut Grove, part of the original Flowing Springs.
Elizabeth Daniel, “Walnut Grove,” Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society, 13(1947):
14; [A. D. Kenamond?], “Greystone,” Magazine of JCHS, 22(1956): 31–32.
160 Netti Schreiner-Yantis and Florence Speakman Love, The Personal Property Tax Lists for the
Year 1787 for Berkeley County, Virginia (Springfield, VA, 1987), 1432.
161 John Frederick Dorman, “Berkeley County, Virginia, 1800 Tax List,” The Virginia
Genealogist, 9(1965): 70.
162 He mentioned her youngest son Robin, and the boys Jonathan, Bill, John, Harry and
George; it seems they were mostly young and it is not clear how many of these children were
counted on the tax list.
163 Rutherford Genealogy, 1:160; Conrad, “Robert Rutherford” (58), states October 1803.
164 Louise Singleton Kemp, “Old Mills,” Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society,
21(1955): 27–28. The mill has been studied archaeologically. William D. Updike, “Historical and
Archaeological Investigations of the Flowing Springs Mill,” Magazine of JCHS, 69(2003): 20–32.
165 Rutherford Genealogy, 1:160.
166 Conrad, “Robert Rutherford,” 58.