John, Do you still have the records which you referenced (tax lists, etc.) pulled - so that you could give us the exact abstracts by year with original spelling, etc? Thanks, Marianne On Tue, 20 Nov 2001 23:00:32 -0800, PIATT-L@rootsweb.com wrote: > HAPPY THANKSGIVING > > (1) Piatts, Pyatts, Pyeatts, and Peyatts everywhere, as well as other > descendants of Rene Piat, may want to give thanks that one of the > most unusual spellings of the surname did not endure -- Peepyat. > > In its list of land grants in Hampshire County, VA, Sims Index to > Land Grants in West Virginia shows the following entry: > > NAME OF GRANTEE / ACRES / LOCAL DESCRIPTION / YEAR / BOOK / PAGE > > -->> Peepyat, William / 50 / Mill Creek / 1796 / 9 / 119 > > Source: http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvminera/sims29.htm > > Maybe the recorder misheard a name that was really William P. Piatt. > Or maybe Peepyat was some sort of nickname. Or maybe someone in the > transaction had a stutter. In any case, once it had been entered in > the record books, the Peepyat spelling was repeated several times by > the recorder(s) in records pertaining to this land grant. > > William Peepyat's 50-acre tract was surveyed in 1794 and the grant > was issued in 1796. The record of the survey conducted by John > Mitchell Jr. reads in part, > "December 2nd, 1794. By virtue of part of a land office Treasury > Warrant No. 415 dated April 28th, 1794, and entered August 6th, 1794, > I have surveyed for William Peepyat assignee of William Fox a tract > of land in Hampshire County on the middle ridge adjoining Thomas > Lazenby on the drains of Mill Creek. . . ." > > This William Peepyat survey document was witnessed by Cornelius Peepyat > and Wm. Lazenby. A summary and scanned images of the survey record > can be viewed at the following Web pages: > http://eagle.vsla.edu/cgi-bin/lonn.gateway?bib=0145-03160&conf=010000 > http://image.vtls.com/LONN/NN-1/315/315_0289.tif - [begins] > http://image.vtls.com/LONN/NN-1/315/315_0290.tif - [continues] > > The record of the 1796 grant issued to William Peepyat by Robert > Brooke, Esquire, Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, can be > viewed at the following Web page: > http://image.vtls.com/LONN/NN-3/303/303_0524.tif > > William Peepyat's survey is mentioned again in an adjoining 1795 > survey and 1799 land grant issued to Frederick Finks (Fink). > http://eagle.vsla.edu/cgi-bin/lonn.gateway?bib=0138-65460&conf=010000 > http://image.vtls.com/LONN/NN-1/315/315_0499.tif - [survey] > http://image.vtls.com/LONN/NN-3/304/304_0050.tif - [grant] > > Immediately following the Finks survey (on page 499) is the record > for a 1795 survey for William Fox, presumably the same man who > had assigned William Peepyat his Mill Creek tract. > > Study of the land descriptions in these documents might disclose > the physical configuration of the parcels of William Peepyat and > his neighbors. To conduct additional online search of Virginia > Land Office Patents and Grants, go to the following Web page: > http://eagle.vsla.edu/lonn/virtua-basic.html > > ----- > > (2) William Peepyat was apparently William Piatt, who appeared on the > tax records of Hampshire County from 1797 through 1813 as William > Peyatt, Peayatt, and Peatt. William Peatt appeared on the 1810 > Hampshire County census, page 24. In that census record he apparently > lived with his (first?) wife, whose name is unknown, and three children > less than 10 years old. (The son was Benjamin F. Piatt, born 1808, who > later married Ann Carter. The daughters were Mary Elizabeth Piatt, > born about 1805, who later married John C. Ward, and perhaps Rachel > Piatt, who married George Bowman in 1827.) Subsequently, William Piatt > and his wife (or wives) apparently had 12 or 13 more children. His > widow appeared on the 1850 census for Nicholas County, VA, as Margaret > Piatt, age 58; if Margaret's age was correct, she was on the verge of > being too young to have borne William's oldest children. > > (In 1814 in Augusta County, VA, a William Peatt married Mary Smith, > the daughter of Martin Smith, and in 1815 William Peat was listed on > the Augusta County tax records. Piatt genealogists have supposed that > this was William of Hampshire County marrying Mary as his second wife. > However, this conclusion has not yet been proven. The only real > evidence for this supposition is the 1864 Mason County WV marriage > record of John S. Piatt, born about 1841, who supposedly said his > parents were "William and Mary". However, at the age of 8 this same > John had appeared on the 1850 census of Nicholas County, VA, with his > mother, Margaret Piatt (recorded as Poatte). (See page 384a, lines 5-9, > family number 573, at the following Web page: > ftp://ftp.us-census.org/pub/usgenweb/census/wv/nicholas/1850/pg0382b.txt > I wonder if an inspection of John's original marriage record might > disclose that his parents were actually identified as "William and Marg".) > > (An alternative possible identity for the William who married in 1814 > is William Piatt/Pyatt the basketmaker, who was born about 1790 in VA, > migrated to Ohio prior to 1820, and later lived in IN, TN, and MO. > This William's first child Benjamin is said to have been born about > 1813. This William's first wife has been thought to have been > Catherine Glass, but without any confirming evidence, as far as I know. > Is it possible that the 1814 William and Mary moved to Ohio, perhaps > with relatives, while the older William remained in Hampshire County?) > > ----- > > (3) William Peepyat/Piatt who received the Hampshire County land grant > was born about 1770-1775, probably in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. > The identity of William's parents is uncertain. > > William was undoubtedly related to Cornelius Piatt, who had acquired 50 > acres of land on Beaver Run in Hampshire County in 1792 and who witnessed > the 1794 Peepyat survey. In the Hampshire County tax records for 1795 > and 1796, two males over 16 were listed in Cornelius's household; one > of them was presumably William Peepyat. Only one male over 16 had been > charged to Cornelius in 1792 and 1794, and once William started appearing > on the tax list in 1797, Cornelius again was charged with only one male > over 16 in 1797 and 1798. > > How was William related to Cornelius? He might have been a son, in > which case the unidentified female over 45 in Williams's household > in 1810 might have been his widowed mother. But alternatively, William > could have been brother, cousin, or nephew to Cornelius. It is possible > that William's father was James Piatt, born before 1765, who was listed > near William on the 1810 Hampshire County census, page 23 (recorded as > James Peate, and sometimes transcribed at James Peale). > > I believe Piatt genealogists have studied the surviving tax records > of Hampshire County. But there are land records for Hampshire County > that have not been thoroughly researched. Further research in these > records might disclose more about the relationships of William, > Cornelius, and James. > > > -- John F. Keilch > Berkeley, California > > > ==== PIATT Mailing List ==== > The PIATT mailing list archives can be searched at > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/PIATT-L/ > > > ============================== > Visit Ancestry.com for a FREE 14-Day Trial and enjoy access to the #1 > Source for Family History Online. Go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=702&sourceid=1237 > ______________________________________________________________________________ Send a friend your Buddy Card and stay in contact always with Excite Messenger http://messenger.excite.com