This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/YZ5.2ACIB/1076 Message Board Post: Note - I am skipping the list of children of John Paxton, along with their spouses and issue, assuming that they have been amply recorded and discussed on this list. I will say that several descendants of John left Va. for Kentucky or North Carolina. This brings us to p. 7 "THOMAS PAXTON. The second son of the "Widow" was born in Ireland in 1719. He lived at the mouth of Buffalo creek, at a place called the Boat yard. His farm was owned for many years by James Thompson. He had a flour and saw mill, and built the first brick house south of North River. His will was probated in the Rockbridge county court, and the "Land Books" of that day show he was a large land owner and had a number of slaves. He and his brother, William, were both elders in Falling Spring church prior to the Revolution. He died in 1788 and was buried in the old Falling Spring church graveyard at Buffalo Forge. He was twice married. First to Elizabeth McClung, and then to Mary Barclay, daughter of Hugh Barclay. After his death she married James Woods. By both wives he had children." (Note - Thomas had 8 children by Elizabeth McClung and 7 by Mary Barclay.) "This completes the family of Thomas Paxton. I have lists of some of his descendants down to the present day. Some had very large families. There are scattered all over the South and West. WILLIAM PAXTON, the youngest son of the "Widow Paxton," was born in Ireland or Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 1732. He came, when a minor, with his mother and brothers, Joseph and Samuel, and settled in Rockbridge county, on North river, on the farm purchased by his brother, Joseph, from Robert Allison, and conveyed in 1748. Here William Paxton lived and died. Under the will of his brother Joseph, he acquired a moiety of this tract of land, which contained 285 acres, and the other half he purchased from Samuel, his nephew (son of Samuel Paxton and Mary Moore, supra.) To this tract he added adjoining tracts, as at his death he was assessed for taxation with 700 acres in "the home place" and two other tracts of land containing 65 acres and 203 acres respectively, in Rockbridge county, and two tracts of 395 acres and 90 acres in Amherst county. Besides these lands, he left a considerable personal estate and quite a number of slaves. He was a prominent man in the early history of this county, being a member of the first "Vestry" which had charge of the roads, the poor and the morals of the new county, and several other matters appertaining to titles to land, etc., etc. He was a captain of milita during the Revolutionary war, and served for some time on James River below Richmond, near Petersburg, etc. It will be seen from the depositions now on file in the Rockbridge county court clerk's office, that were taken by indigent veterans seeking pensions from the government, that he was in the active service, having been in the "Battle of Hot Water" metioned in Waddell's annals of Augusta county. During or after the war, he held the rank of "Major" by the governor's commission, and many of the claims, etc., filed with the settlement of his estate, are made out against him as "Major Paxton." Quite a lengthy account is given by the Marquis de Chastellux in his "Travels in North America, 1780-1-2", of the night he spent at "Captain Praxton's Tavern," on his way from Monticello to the Natural Bridge. William Paxton is said to have built the first hewn log house south of North River, and in the "Forks of James River." He married Eleanor Hays, daughter of David and Isabella Hays. It is said that a member of this family has still in possession a piece of horse-hide, part of which was used for food in Londonderry during the seige. Eleanor Hays was a remarkable woman, if half the traditions be true, of strong will and good judgment. After her husband's death she ran the estate, as if he was still alive, and one of her sons-in-law brought a chancery suit to obtain his wife's share. But all matters were soon compromised and the estate divided. William Paxton died Sept. 30, 1795, aged 63 years. He left no will. His wife died Aug 13, 1815, aged 72 years. So he was born 1732 and she in 1743. Both were buried in the graveyard near where Major Cress now (1894) lives. Neat monuments stand at the head of each grave. Perhaps the "Widow" lies there, too, as there are a number of unmarked graves around. From the papers in the chancery cause above mentioned, I can give the children of Major William Paxton in the order of their birth. (Note- He goes on to list 10 children and many grandchildren for William and Eleanor Paxton.) As this manuscript is intended for the eyes of members of the Paxton family only, I add an extract from Greene's "Historic Families of Kentucky." Mr. Green says on p.p. 107 and 108: "The Paxton's were among the earliest settlers of Rockbridge, of the same Scotch-Irish race as the McDowlells, McClungs, Stuarts, Lyles and Houstons, with whom their descendants have so frequently intermarried. Speaking of the Paxtons, General Alexander H.H. Stuart pronounced them to be the most gallant and the proudest of all the famillies in the Valley. Their names will be found figuring abundantly and conspicuously among the soldiers who fought in every war from 1755. They occur as frequently in the lists of Presbyterian members, elders, and ministers, and on the rolls of able lawyers." W.P. Houston Oct. 23, 1894"