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Humphrey Madison

Humphrey Madison

Male 1730 - 1756  (26 years)

 

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Death of Humphrey Madison

Indian attack in Bath Co., VA in September 1756. John Byrd/Bird killed by Shawnee; son John Jr., wife, and 5 other children abducted. After truce with Indians in 1763, mother and John Jr. returned.

Sept, 1856 Shawnee Raids of Colonial Settlements near Fort Dinwiddie, Virginia (Wikipedia☍)
Along the Jackson River in present-day Bath County

Several women and children were kidnapped in the raid that killed my ancestor, 26-year-old Ensign Humphrey Madison of Dickinson's Rangers (Virginia Militia). He was the 2nd husband of Mary Dickinson (who was widowed twice before she turned 31). Their daughter, Catherine Madison, who was 2 when her father died, was also widowed twice - before she was 24.

In an another attack a few days later, two of Mary Dickinson Madison's sons (by her first husband, Samuel Brown) were also kidnapped. They are not mentioned in the account below, but their stories can be found at the profile of Adam Brown

- Robin Richmond

Some Virginia settlers kidnapped during a Shawnee raid along the Jackson River in Sept 1856, and repatriated in 1765

From A brief history of Bath County, Virginia by Jean Graham McAllister,
1920 Virginia Magazine of History by J. T. McAllister, (July, 1894),
History of Highland County by Oren Frederic Morton,
, and Annals of Augusta County, Virginia, from 1726 to 1871 by Joseph Addison Waddell, 1902, p139ff, (available at archive.org

The first surveys of Bath Co VA were made on September 26, 1745 with the first white settlement in this area occurring at that time. John Byrd purchased on Jackson's river in 1754 what is now Bath Co. VA. Frequent raids were made by the Shawnee Indians though the section was guarded by Ft. Dinwiddie.

Of the Indian raids into Bath County, VA, the earliest known took place near the middle of September 1756 within or very near the present county limits, and mainly along Jackson's River. During this raid, the families who usually sought protection there were warned of the approaching danger. The families were trying to escape to Fort Dinwiddie, located on the Jackson River one mile north of Fassifern Farm. This fort had been recently visited by General George Washington in his Southern tour of inspection in 1755. The John Byrd family delayed their flight, and the father, John, was killed within sight of the fort. Mrs. Byrd (nee Mary Margaret Dean [sister of William and John Dean]) and six of her children including John Jr., age 8. A younger sister, Sarah Byrd (b 1743) was not taken and became the ward of her uncle John Dean. (She married Samuel Vance.)

In all, 9 men, 1 woman, and 3 children were killed and 2 men were wounded in the raid. In addition to John Byrd, among the slain were Ensign Humphrey Madison, Nicholas Carpenter, James Mayse, and James Montgomery. Joseph Carpenter, David Galloway, George Kincaid, and a Mrs. McConnell were captured, but got away. Mrs. Byrd, Mrs. George Kincaid (nee Elizabeth Dean, daughter of William and Sarah [Campbell]), Mrs. Persinger, and 25 boys and girls were taken to the Indian towns in Ohio. Among the children were 6 Byrds, 5 Carperters,3 Kincaids, and 2 Persingers. Paul Larsh, abandoning his goods, rescued Elizabeth Kincaid by carrying her on his back the two miles to his boat. He then paddled down the little Miami and the Ohio Rivers and up the Mississippi to the French settlement of Kaskaskia. On June 19, 1759 they were married in the Church of St. Ann at Fort Chartres and had a son Charles and daughter Hannah.

Bouquet's decisive victory at Brushy Run over Pontiac in 1763, near the site of Pittsburg, and subsequent treaty of 1764, brought an end to the war with Pontiac. The Indians were required to give up their prisoners they had collected during the preceding 10 years. List F of prisoners delivered to Ft. Pitt in Jan. 1765 included: Margaret Bird, "an old woman taken years ago from Jackson River, died since her arrival." List G: Molly Bird, taken from Greenbrier, 10 yrs. in captivity; and Nalupua Bird, sister to Molly Bird, 6 yrs. Nalupua, less than 10 yrs. old, may have been daughter of Margaret Bird with one of her Indian captors, but this is not confirmed by any written account.. Also among this number were Mrs. Mayse, John Byrd, Jr and several others including one of the Kincaid children. A sister, Kathryn, 2 years older, was married to an Indian chief, and never returned.

During his capture, John Byrd, Jr. became so Indianized that it was quite awhile before he could reconcile himself to the ways of his own people. When he was returned, now a boy of sixteen, he was wearing a gold chain fastened to punctures in his nose and ears. His bravery put him in high favor with his captors. They had him climb trees to drive bears out of them, but took care that he was not harmed. The only time he took fright was when he heard a gun and knew a bear was making for him. The Indians were greatly attached to the boy and intended making him a chief. He made two attempts to return to the Indians, but was prevented. He was a favorite with the red men, and made at least one attempt to go back to them.

John Byrd Jr. (aka Indian John) married Mary Ann Hamilton, they had 7 children, and became the ancestor of the Byrds of Bath and Highland counties. Andrew Hamilton Byrd, whose wife was Elizabeth Capito, was the only son to stay in Bath. He was twice its sheriff. (1849 & 1857). John Byrd died in 1836. He was the grandfather of John T. Byrd, of Bath.

Alexander McClintic (b. 2-16-1787) married Alice Byrd, daughter of "Indian John" Byrd, son of John Byrd who was killed by an Indian in 1757. Alice was the sister of Andrew Byrd of Bath County and to Thomas Byrd of Greenbrier County and later of Saline County, Missouri. Alexander McClintic lived on land inherited from his father east of Marlin's Bottom Turnpike near Lewisburg. Before the Civil War, he moved to Missouri and all contact with Greenbrier kinfolk was lost. He probably lived in Saline County, Missouri where Thomas Byrd lived because around the year 1900, Joe, Mary and Sarah McClintic, all old and unmarried, lived in Saline County, Missouri and were children of Alexander McClintic and known by several of the distant and near kin living in Missouri.

- Author Unknown (from an Ancestry.com note that I cannot find any more)



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