The following synopsis is based on my own research over the years, and is shared here so that we may all have a chance to input our thoughts on the subject. June JOHN THOMPSON It is not known if this is the "John Thomson" who made his statement of importation to Virginia in 1738, but there is every possibility that it is so. The preponderance of Thompson family members by the given names of John and William make them extremely difficult to identify with any surety. It is for that reason that close scrutiny must be made as to their location and near neighbors, for these facts help us to identify them as individuals. Although research is on-going on this Thompson family, I will endeavor to transcribe what information has so far been found. It should be remembered that Halifax County, Virginia was created in 1752 out of Lunenberg County, and in 1766, Pittsylvania arose as a new county out of Halifax. It is partly because of the evolution of these counties that research is so difficult on this particular branch of the Thompson Clan. That, and the fact that we are looking for a John Thompson, of whom there were literally hundreds in the early settlements, makes it a difficult task indeed. The first record of our John Thompson purchasing land may be found in Land Entry Book 1737-1780 , p. 167 (Land Entries In The Present Virginia Counties of Halifax, Pittsylvania, Henry, Franklin, and Patrick), Chiarito, 1984, p. 132 as follows: "John Thompson, 400 acres on the little fork of Mulberry Begin: at two White Oaks making an elbow at the upper line of the l[an]d belonging to John Talbott, thence up both sides of the said Cr. for Compt." dated 14 February 1753. The next mention I have found for our John Thompson is under the date of 16 October 1753, Court of Halifax County, when he, along with Merry Webb, John Blevins, and Thomas Shurley were ordered to appear at next court to give evidence against his neighbor, John Talbot for misusing the orphan children under his care. In checking further, we find that the Churchwardens of Antrim Parish had bound Fanny, Mary, Sarah and James Gwin, orphans of James Gwin, dec'd to John Talbot on 15 September 1753. The next document located pertaining to this John Thompson is that of a survey for him in Pittsylvania County recorded in the Old Survey Book 1746-1782 Pittsylvania County, Virginia, 1988, Marian Dodson Chiarito, p. 61. This document reads as follows: "Surveyed 22 April 1756 for John Thompson - 187 acres of Land on the So. Fork of Mulberry Creek. Bounded as follows VIZ: beginning at pointers in Tabots [Talbots] line, thence New lines, per S. Walton [Surveyor]" Looking to the land of John Talbot referenced in the above description, we find a survey for him dated 20 April 1756 for 400 acres " . . on a branch of Leather Wood Creek and Bounded as follows VIZ: beginning at Austins Creek, Chestnut Tree thence new lines." [Ibid., p. 60] This is a very important document as we will see later, for it helps us to identify this John Thompson as the one we are looking for! We are fortunate in the fact that a journal kept by his son Archibald Thompson from about 1755 until his death sometime after 1805 has been preserved in the family, copies of which have been made available to Thompson researchers. It is from this journal that we know that Archibald once lived on or near Leatherwood Creek in Pittsylvania County before he began his migration towards Montgomery County, Virginia. [Note: If you would like to view a transcription of this journal, it is available on Doug Moore's website at http://www.public.asu.edu/~moore.] According to the laws of the State of Virginia in 1762, any person could vote who had an estate or freehold of at least fifty acres if there was no settlement on it, or twenty-five acres if it had a 'plantation house' of at least 'twelve foot square.' The person had to have a legal title to the land for at least one year before becoming eligible to vote unless he had received it through marriage, or by descent or devise [inherited it]. No woman, whether married or single was allowed to vote. Neither was a male infant [under 21 years], a former Catholic, convict, or any person committed of a crime in Great Britain or Ireland. Voting was mandatory! It will be seen from this edict why we do not find all of our 'kinfolk' on some of the Tithable Lists where we expect them to be, for although adult, they probably did not qualify regarding land ownership at the time. A Voters List for Halifax County dated 1764 included the following names, all families that we know to be related by marriage or blood. Thomas Faris, Harris Wilson, Peter Bowman, Jno. Lucas, Jo. Faris, Jas. Faris, William Bowman, William Faris, Jo. Collins, Thos. Mastin, Jacob Faris, John Rowden, Jno. Byer, Jr., Jno. Moore, Jas. Chisum, William Thompson, Richard Finch, Henry Farmer, George Moore, David Lawson, John Lawson, Elexis Musick, Jas. Thompson, Thos. Wilson, Jos. Moore, William Lawson, George Stubblefield. >From his sons' journal, we know that John Thompson married a woman by the name of Mary. Unfortunately, although he was meticulous about almost all the other names he recorded therein, he failed to note the maiden name of his mother! Since their first child, Anne, was born 2 June 1734, we will presume they were married in 1731/32. In an effort to approximate the ages of John and Mary, we would surmise them to have been born between 1700 and 1710. However these dates are only approximates, and it is even possible that John was older and this could have been a second marriage for him. At any rate, we know they were living in this location in the middle 1750's, and perhaps earlier. His neighbor John Talbot had received a survey for land as early as 1751, again situated on Leatherwood Creek, in the amount of 400 acres. Other neighbors in the same general area at that time were Nathaniel & Ralph Elkins, James Skaggs, Christopher Bolling, William & James Blevins, William Dugger, John Oldum, William Cox, Ambrose Jones, Thomas Wilson and John Hickey. [We will see later that there are ties to the Elkins and Blevins family through intermarriage with the Skaggs family. We also note that both John Blevins, Ambrose Jones, and John Hickey are mentioned in the estate papers for John Thompson.] Not too far distant, John Fuller Lane took up an 188 acre parcel on 15 April 1756, and it could well be that the Lanes and Thompsons settled in this area together, as the families intermarried a number of times over the next generations. John Fuller Lanes' land was situated on a branch of Elk Horn Creek in Robert Weakleys line, and was surveyed by James Terry. He had previously claimed 400 acres on both sides on a branch of Sandy Creek on the Banister River in 1747, and he purchased an additional 433 acres on the branches of Mountain Creek in April 1770. Tidance Lane, a son of John Fuller Lane, had a survey dated 26 September 1746 for 135 acres on Sandy Creek of Banister River near his father, and not far away from him, Richard Lain, Sr. [sic] had 400 acres surveyed in his name on 24 February 1747. His land adjoined that of Robert Moor on one side and Nathaniel Terry and Drury Stith on the other. Dutton Lain purchased 400 acres on Elkhorn Creek on 15 December 1748, and Richard Lane, Jr. is shown with 170 acres on a branch of Echols Fork which was surveyed 25 September 1746. Robert Sweeting [Sweeten], who married into the Lane family, held two parcels of 400 and 370 acres surveyed in April and November 1748. It is evident that the Lanes remained in this area for some years, as the records show the next generation of young men in the family also purchasing land, i.e. Edward Sweeting [Sweeten], 440 acres in 1762; Dutton Lane 217 and 168 acres in 1762. Russell and William Bean lived near by, as did Peter Perkins, upon whose Tax List for 1767 Pittsylvania County, Virginia we find them all listed. By 1771, the tithables of Botetourt County included Rubin Ratliff, James Been, Jessey Maxcey, Uriah Akers, Daniel Blevins, Jonathan Grimes, Andrew Ferguson, Cornelius Davis. Appearing on a list of tithables on the Head of Little River that year were John Dispain,* Jeremiah Pate, Wm. Ratleff, John Elswick, Jonathan Elswick, Blackburn Eakers [Akers], Thomas Alley, Jacob and Isrel [sic] Lorton, Edmond Vancel, Richard Whitt, Robert Lyon, and "Long James Skaggs". After the formation of Fincastle in 1773, the land of many of these families fell into that county, and they may be found on the tax lists there. All of these families were, for the most part, all related by marriage to the Thompsons.[John Dispain was one of the appraisers of the estate of John Thompson in 1767. His son Peter was married to Nancy Skaggs, a daughter of Henry and Mary [Thompson] Skaggs.] A copy of the journal of Archibald Thompson, son of John and Mary Thompson, has been placed in the William B. Harlan Memorial Library at Tompkinsville, Kentucky. This old journal, the pages of which measure 4 x 6 inches, covers a time period from about 1755 and continues through subsequent ownership by family members to about 1820. Unfortunately, many of the pages in the book are very dark with age. I would like to sincerely thank the present owner for sharing a copy of it so that those of us still looking for our Thompson connection have access to this valuable data. Because the journal was obviously handed down within the family, the subsequent owners recorded events in their lives throughout the book, wherever there was blank space, and many pages will show as many as four individual penmanships. I have been told that this journal was once loaned out, and when returned, was missing some of the original pages. It is a shame that the information on those pages now seems lost to us, but I have hope that perhaps whomever might know their location presently would be considerate and kind enough to have copies made and mailed anonymously to the library as follows: Archibald Thompson Diary - Addenda William B. Harlan Memorial Library 500 West 4th Street Tompkinsville, KY 42167 I feel certain that receipt of copies of those missing pages would be greatly appreciated by a multitude of Thompson descendants who have found no other way to validate their connection to this family. Posting the information contained therein on the [email protected] website would be another method of sharing this vital information with all Thompson researchers. Although we do not know for sure that the following data refers to 'our' John Thompson, it is certainly a more than a possibility. We do know that his son Archibald was a fairly religious man, who often quoted bible passages in his journal, showing that he had received a better than average education. We include the entries below strictly to show that there was, indeed, a man by the name of 'John Thompson' living in the vicinity where Archibald and his family lived at the same time. According to his journal, Archibald states "On 1st and 2nd of February 1769 I removed my self and family from Leatherwood Creek in Pittsylvania County up to the mountains on the head of Smith's River in the same county and made four crops there." If the 'John Thompson' mentioned below was his father, as I now believe, perhaps he and Mary had preceded Archibald and his family to the Smith River area. On 22 November 1760 John Thompson was appointed Reader for the "Smiths River Settlement" by the church elders, and the records show ". . . he was to be paid the usual Sallery". On page 56 of that record, a notation is made dated 28 November 1761 that "Rev. James Craig was paid for preaching four sermons, and John Tomson [sic] was paid L800." Although we don't yet know the relationship, if any, we find that on 18 June 1762 Rev. Thomas Thompson was involved in selecting a place for a Glebe "near Walters cabins on Double Creek for Divine Service." Soon after, on 20 August 1762, the Vestry Book shows that a letter from Rev. Thomas Thompson was received by the church elders. It follows here in its entirety. "18 August 1762 Halifax County Dear Sir: I beg the favour of you to acquaint the Gentlemen of the Vestry from me that I am not able to discharge the duty of an Incumbent in their Extensive Parish by Reason of my own advanced age and Growing Infirmities and therefore quit all Pretensions to it and leave them at liberty to choose another Minister whom they shall think fitt that I hope theyl Consider in an Honourable way my great Expense, fatigue and Disappointment and so deserve my best wishes and Thankfull acknowledgement. I am, Sir, your Obedient Hbl. Servant, [signed] Thomas Thompson" He was allowed 2,000 pounds Tobacco in salary. On 16 February 1763 a notation was made in the Vestry register "To Revd. Thomas Thompson, 4,720 lbs. Tobacco". On the same day also entered in the record "To John Thompson, Reader, 800 lbs. Tobacco". This Rev. Thomas Thompson [also referred to as 'Thomson'] was ordained by the Bishop of Litchfield on 15 November 1730 and settled at St. Bartholomew's Parish in Colleton, SC from 1734 to 1744. He then served St. George's Parish, Dorchester, SC from 1744 to 1746 at which time he returned to England. He was back at St. John's Parish, Colleton, SC from September 1758 - 1760, and after that served at Salem, NJ, Chester and Concord, DE, until he was sent to Antrim Parish, Halifax Co., VA in 1762. He died there "an aged man." [Ref: Colonial Clergy of the Middle Colonies, Frederick Lewis Weis, 1957, Reprint 1978.] On 29 November 1763 it was ordered that the Collector pay John Thompson his salary, " . . levyed last year". On 22 June 1764 John Salmon was appointed Reader "at the Old Chappell on Leatherwood at or near John Blevinses." [Could John Thompson have been in failing health and unable to continue his duties to the congregation at this time? It seems very likely, as we find notice of his demise in the June 1765 Court records. I also believe this "John Salmon" may well be the same as "John Solomon", named as one of the prospective appraisers of John Thompson's estate.]