James Patton

James Lynn Patton, (1690 or 1692 – 30 July, 1755) was a merchant, pioneer frontiersman, and soldier who settled parts of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. Between his immigration to Virginia in 1740, and his death there in 1755, he was a prominent figure in the exploration, settlement, governance, and military leadership of the colony. Patton held such Augusta County offices as Justice of the Peace, Colonel of Militia and Chief Commander of the Augusta County Militia, County Lieutenant, President of the Augusta Court, commissioner of the Tinkling Spring congregation, county coroner, county escheator, collector of duties on furs and skins, and County Sheriff. He also was President of the Augusta Parish Vestry and a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. He was present at three important treaty conferences with Iroquois and Cherokee leaders. Patton was killed by Shawnee warriors in July 1755.

James Patton was distantly related to US General George S. Patton (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945), both being descendants of the Rev. William Thomas Patton (1590 – abt. 1641), who was born in Freuchie, Fife, Scotland.

Birth and early life

Little is known about Patton's early life. Much published biographical information is based on hearsay or speculation. He was born in 1690 or 1692 in Ireland, probably County Donegal, and may have spent some of his early years in Derry. Henry Patton is frequently named as his father and Sarah Lynn as his mother, but there is no reliable or primary source documentation to support this. Letitia Preston Floyd says that Patton had four sisters. Patricia Givens Johnson reports family traditions that Patton's grandfather was born in Scotland, that James had an older brother and was therefore not eligible for any inheritance, which motivated him to become a sailor. She notes that Patton is said to have served in the British Royal Navy in Queen Anne's War, which ended in 1713, and that soon afterwards he "procured" a passenger ship and began trading in Virginia.

Letitia Preston Floyd claimed that Patton served as an officer in the Royal Navy, however no evidence to support this has been found, based on investigations into lists of officers available in Great Britain. There is some evidence that his first wife, named Ally, died in June 1728 and is buried in Whitehaven. Between 1734 and 1740, Patton apparently lived in the royal Burgh of Kirkcudbright in Dumfries and Galloway in southern Scotland, where he was named a burgess in December 1734.

Career as a merchant sea captain

Documents indicate that Patton was a merchant ship captain at least by 1723, possibly as early as 1719. He was apparently involved in transatlantic smuggling of tobacco and other goods for the merchant Walter Lutwidge, owner of a small shipping fleet operating out of the Solway Firth. Records indicate that he served as captain of the Pearl (a galley), the Cockermouth, the Davy, the Andrew & Betty, the William, the Basil, and the Walpole. In November 1729, Patton's ship the William ran aground near Padstow in northern Cornwall. An article in The Weekly Journal: or, The British-Gazetteer, on 6 December 1729, states:

“Letters from Padstow in Cornwal, of the 17th of Nov, advise that the William of Dumfries, Capt. James Patton, was drove on a sandy Bank there, on the 14th...The Inhabitants seeing this Prize, sallied out in great Numbers, and began to cut and hew the Ship and Tackle, till the Captain, being well provided with Fire Arms, by an uncommon Bravery threatned to discharge them among the Rabble; whereupon many of them dispersed."

Lutwidge and Patton had numerous disagreements, as detailed in Lutwidge's preserved letters from 1739 to 1740. In December 1739 Lutwidge wrote: "I have mett wth Boath Knaves and fooles in plenty...but of all ye Knaves I Ever mett with, Patton has out don them all.... Hell itself can’t outdo him."

Patton brought goods by ship to several European ports, including Amsterdam and Genoa. He frequently landed at Hobb's Hole in Virginia. Patricia Johnson states that Patton also transported slaves to Virginia. In 1730, he brought to Virginia the thoroughbred stallion racehorse Bulle Rock, retired from racing, but who was mated to at least 39 English or Spanish mares and sired many other well-known racehorses.

Immigration to Virginia, 1740

The first reliable evidence of Patton's activities in Virginia is two letters from William Beverley, addressed to Patton at Kirkcudbright. Beverley was a wealthy Virginia politician who was active in importing and exporting a variety of goods. In 1736, Beverley obtained a 118,000-acre land grant, later called Beverley Manor, which encompasses much of present-day Augusta County. A grantee was able to keep 1000 acres for every family that settled on the land. In 1737 Beverley represented Virginia's Orange County (from which Augusta County was created in 1738) in the Virginia House of Burgesses. On August 8, 1737, Beverley wrote to Patton, "I should be very glad if you could import families enough to take the whole off from our hands at a reasonable price and tho' the order mentions families from Pensilvania [sic], yet families from Ireland will do as well." On 22 August, Beverley wrote a second letter, stating that the grant was for 30,000 acres. He offered Patton one quarter of it in payment for Patton's efforts "to procure families to come in & settle it." Beverley also wrote, "I heartily wish you success & a safe return to us," suggesting that Patton had already visited Virginia and had met Beverley in person. The letters indicate that Patton and Beverley had been corresponding for some time.

In 1738, Patton sailed to Virginia from the port of Whitehaven, as captain of the Walpole, arriving at Belle Haven, Fairfax County, Virginia on 26 August. Among his passengers was his sister Elizabeth, her husband John Preston, and her son, the 8-year-old William Preston, Patton's nephew, and forty-six other prospective settlers. There is some evidence that Patton's wife and two daughters were also on board. Letitia Floyd Lewis, granddaughter of William Preston, wrote a letter to Robert William Hughes, dated 13 June 1879, describing her family history. Although the original letter appears to be lost, a transcription was printed in The Richmond Standard on 18 September 1880. The letter says that:

"...Col. James Patton, who with his friends and relatives James and John Buchanan, and John Lewis and John Preston, emigrated from the north of Ireland, near Londonderry, to Augusta Co, Va., in the year 1736...The then route of emigration and discovery was up the Valley of Virginia from Pennsylvania, though the first landing, as my mother told me, of these emigrants was near Alexandria, Virginia, at some place known as Belle Haven (at the mouth of Cameron Run)."

John Preston, a carpenter, was employed as a shipwright during the voyage, and Beverley promised him 4000 acres of land. Patton appears to have made two final trips to Europe in 1739 and 1740, carrying cargoes of linen, iron, wool, and timber to Holland and bringing goods from there back to Britain. In April, 1740, he returned to Virginia on his final transatlantic voyage.

From Fairfax, Patton purchased or rented pack-horses and he and his family traveled overland to the settlement of Patton's uncle John Lewis at Lewis Creek, near what is now Staunton. During the next few months, they began clearing the land around what they later named Spring Hill, on Christians Creek on the South Fork of the Shenandoah River, near present-day Stuarts Draft, Virginia.

Religious activities

Soon after the Prestons and Pattons arrived, James Patton invited the Presbyterian minister James Anderson to deliver a sermon in his home. In 1740, a permanent preacher, John Craig, settled in the area. Patton and three other men were elected commissioners of the Tinkling Spring congregation in 1741, according to the monument at Tinkling Spring Presbyterian Church. In 1742, Patton underwrote the cost of construction of the Tinkling Spring Meeting House in Tinkling Springs (present-day Fishersville), one of the first recognized churches in the Shenandoah Valley. Initially a one-room log structure, it took nearly three years to finish, with some controversy between Patton and his uncle John Lewis over where it was to be located. The first service was held there on 14 April 1745, when the Reverend Craig wrote: "This being the first day we meet at the contentious meeting-house, about half-built." The log structure was replaced by a stone building in 1790. Patton's rivalry with his uncle continued for years afterwards. The Reverend John Craig wrote: "...a Difference happened between Col. John Lewis & Col. James Patton, both Living in that Congregation, which Continued while they Lived, Which of them Should be highest in Commission & power."

In 1746, Patton was elected President of the Augusta Parish Vestry.

In 1748, Patton provided wood, stone and five acres of land to build a parsonage. He also donated land for the third Lutheran church built in Virginia, located on the Holston River, and for another Lutheran church at Prices Fork, which was named St. Michael's and built in 1770.

Legal roles

On 3 November 1741, Patton was appointed Justice of the Peace by order of Governor Gooch. In October 1743, Governor Gooch commissioned Patton as "collector of duties upon skins and furs in Augusta County," as well as collector of duties on all horses arriving in Augusta County. On 10 October 1745, Patton was appointed magistrate and also the first sheriff of Augusta County, but served only one year as sheriff. He was replaced as sheriff in June 1746 by his uncle John Lewis. As president of the county court, from July 1746 to May 1749, Patton presided over forty-five out of fifty-two regularly scheduled court days, as well as ten out of eleven individual criminal trials. On 15 July 1752, Patton was commissioned Augusta County Coroner by Governor Dinwiddie, and served in this role until replaced by John Madison in 1753.

In January 1753, Patton was asked to hear a case in which a Cherokee leader known as "The Emperor" (possibly either Amouskositte or Moytoy of Citico) had traveled to Williamsburg where he petitioned Governor Dinwiddie for the removal of Samuel Stalnaker from his farm on the Holston River because Stalnaker, a tenant farmer living on land owned by Patton, was allegedly overcharging the Cherokees for goods at his trading post. The Governor agreed to order Stalnaker to charge fair prices, however on his return to the Holston River area, the Emperor was attacked and beaten by a settler named John Connally. Patton agreed to mediate between the Cherokee and the settlers, as there was concern that the incident might lead to Cherokee attacks on white settlements, and issued an arrest warrant for Connally, who fled to North Carolina. An investigation later proved that Stalnaker's prices were reasonable and that the Cherokees were satisfied.

On 19 April 1754, Patton was commissioned Escheator of Augusta County by Governor Dinwiddie. In May, Patton heard a case involving a landowner named John Grymes, who was dissatisfied with Patton's judgment and called him a fool. Patton fined Grymes five pounds for contempt of court, and while Patton "was delivering the Courts opinion and directing the Clerk to Enter the s[ai]d Order, the s[ai]d Grymes still continued gros[s]ly to abuse the said Patton by Calling him a whoresbird &c." Patton fined Grymes an additional £25 and forced him to put up a bond of £100 to ensure "good behavior." Six months later, Grymes again appeared in court with a pardon signed by the governor, given on condition that he apologize and recognize the court's authority. Court documents show that he "ask'd the Courts and more Espitially the s[ai]d Pattons pardon for his past misbehaviour," and so was released from paying the fine or posting the bond.

Military service

A letter of 24 April 1742, from Governor William Gooch announces Patton's commission as a "Colonel of Augusta County," and the commission was confirmed on 27 May, 1742.

In December 1742, the Augusta County militia engaged in combat with a group of twenty-two Onondaga and seven Oneida Indians who had traveled to Virginia from Shamokin in Pennsylvania, under the command of an Iroquois chief named Jonnhaty, to participate in a campaign against the Catawba. An account of the battle, known as the Battle of Galudoghson, was given to Conrad Weiser by Shikellamy's grandson in February, 1743. The grandson claimed that suspicious white settlers, thinking that this war party planned to raid Virginia settlements, attacked them. The settlers later reported that the Indians had killed several hogs and horses belonging to the settlers, and "went to Peoples houses, Scared the women and Children [and] took what they wanted." The militia were called in, and Patton ordered them to escort the war party out of Augusta County. The militia followed the warriors for two days, until one of the Indians made a detour into the forest near Balcony Falls, possibly to relieve himself, and a militiaman fired at him. The Indians then attacked and killed the militia captain, John McDowell. In the battle that followed, three or four of the Indian warriors and eight or ten militiamen were killed. The Indians then fled into the forest and later returned to Shamokin. Patton reports that he rode to the scene with twenty-three reinforcements, arriving two or three hours after the fighting had ended. Patton received reports from the militia that they had seen "white men (whom we believe to be French) among the Indians," and responded by ordering patrols "on all our frontiers, well equipp'd." Patton wrote to Governor Dinwiddie that "we have certain news of one Hundred and fifty Indians seen seventy miles above me, and about the same number lately crost Patowmack on their way up here." Dinwiddie sent powder and shot to Patton and alerted the militia in Orange and Fairfax counties, but no more intruders appeared.

On 16 July 1752, Governor Dinwiddie commissioned Patton as Lieutenant of Augusta County and Chief Commander of the Augusta County Militia.

In January 1754, Governor Dinwiddie ordered Patton to select fifty volunteers to be sent to Alexandria, where they would join forces under the command of Major George Washington, "to support those who are already there building a fort." These men were present at the Battle of Fort Necessity in July, 1754. On 11 September, Dinwiddie ordered (now Colonel) Washington to send Andrew Lewis "with forty or fifty Men" to Augusta County, where he would coordinate with Patton to "protect our Frontier from Small Incursions of Indians and...some French."

On 8 July 1755, Dinwiddie wrote to Patton, ordering him to raise a company of rangers for the defense of Augusta County: "You will immediately list fifty Men as Rangers for guard of the frontiers of [that] county..." On 16 July Dinwiddie wrote to Colonel Stewart, noting that "Colo. Patton carried up some Powder and Shot with him, and I shall now send 4 [barrels] Powder and Lead for the Court House for the Service of the People." On 1 August Dinwiddie wrote to Patton (unaware of his death) that he was sending a "cart load of ammunition &c. for the [Court House]," adding "I have good reason to believe the Indians are not so numerous as you imagine, however all possible care should be used to oppose their barbarities." On 11 August Dinwiddie wrote to Colonel Stewart: "I...am heartily sorry for the death of Colo. Patton, and I think he was wrong to go so far back [without] a proper guard. I hope the waggons with Ammunit'n, &c, did not fall into the hands of the [Indians]."

Land grants

In 1743, Patton applied for a grant of 200,000 acres on the &#