Peter Shields Revisited

by Donna Gloff

Delores D’Errico has done extensive research on Peter Shields (1756-1832), the several-great grandfather in many Orlando families, who served both the English and the Colonists in the Revolutionary War. She is searching for documentation to support our long-held beliefs about his life. Below are some of her findings and suspicions about his story. I (the author of this article) agree with her well researched and presented information and suspicions. Dolores welcomes comments and information from anyone who can add something to this discussion.

　
We think:
1 Peter Shields was born in Lanchester, England and came to the colonies as a soldier in a Red Coat, serving King George.
a. We know a Peter Shields was christened in Lanchester’s All Saints Anglican Church in 1756. This baby is commonly accepted as our Peter Shields, but we have nothing that shows why this Peter Shields is our fellow.

Right, above: Lanchester, Durham, England, near the border between England and Scotland
Left: If this Peter is our Peter Shields, he was christened in the church, All Saints in Lanchester. This is how it would have looked then. The tower was built in the middle ages. Today there is a clock set in the tower wall. 　
Right: People of 1760s England dressed rather like the folks in the sketch to the right.

.FYI: What was Peter Shields’ life like in England? He most likely did not come from a family of substance because if he had, his family would have bought him a rank in the army and there is no indication that Peter Shields was an officer in either the English Army or the Virginia Militia.
　
b. Legend says that he came as a soldier with Burgoyne’s forces to put down the rebellion in the American Colonies. So far no documentation has been found that supports even his enlistment or conscription into the King’s Army. However, the circumstantial evidence causes us to believe this is most likely true. We need to research the British military records for Burgoyne’s troops in order to confirm this. Fortunately, there are many kinds of records and they are in good condition, so, when someone gets to the task it should not be unpleasant work. The records surrounding his military career should also confirm where and when he was born, who his parents were and what his father’s occupation was.
　

Right:The uniform of an English soldier at the time of the "Rebellion"

In 1984, apparently using information from the history books, Larry Shields constructed a likely scenario for Shields’ career as an English soldier.

　
2 Peter’s wife may have been Elizabeth Judy.
No record has been found of Elizabeth’s parents or of Peter’s and Elizabeth’s marriage, but Peter’s wife has generally been identified as Elizabeth Singleton. Dolores noticed that one reference, the Blackford County History, stated that his wife was of German heritage. She further noticed that "Singleton" is not a German name and the closest German family would have been the "Judys", according to tax records. (This is a German or Swiss name originally spelled "Tschudy" and pronounced "Judy".) Also, the person who bought Peter’s 70 acres in Hardy County was one "Jacob Judy".

The short reference that claims Peter Shields’ wife was of German heritage doesn’t carry too much weight, but it did catch Dee’s attention and what weight is does carry tilts the balance away from the Singletons to a German family, like the Judys.

Left: Virginia counties in Peter Shields’ day. Red is Peter Shields' Hardy and Pendleton County Properties, Blue is the Braxton County area where both the Shields and Singltons settled in the early 1800s. Green is Farquier County where the Singletons came from.

The case is made stronger because there is no reason why Peter Shields would have crossed paths with the Singletons in his early years. The Singletons settled in Farquier County, several counties and a mountain range away from Hampshire/Hardy County where Peter pioneered, farmed and where he and Elizabeth raised their family. Then why might earlier researchers have thought Elizabeth might be a Singleton? Since the Singletons settled near the Shields family in Braxton County, an early family historian may have jumped to a conclusion. However, Peter and Elizabeth married and raised their family in Harrison/Hardy County decades before their move next to the Singletons in Braxton County.
　

3 Peter served in the Virginia Militia twice.
a. English prisoners and deserters were not welcome in the Continental Army.

Dolores cites "Escape in America" by Richard Sampson, pg 68, which quotes a Congressional resolution in February 1778:
"Whereas experience hath proved that no confidence can be placed in prisoners of war or deserters from the enemy, who enlist into the Continental Army; but many losses and great mischiefs have frequently happened by them; therefore Resolved, that no prisoners of war or
deserters from the enemy be enlisted, drafted, or returned, to serve in the Continental Army."

Local militia, however, were not so restricted. Peter Shields could very well have served with his neighbors in the Virginia militia. There were several militia units present at Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown so he might well have been there, just as our historians have said.

Unfortunately, the militia records are too often faded and illegible. This has not stopped Dorlores from searching for evidence of Peter Shields' service. Delores finds clues to Peter Shields' military service in unexpected places. For example, Peter's son Peter Jr. named one of his sons Weedon. That is an unusual first name. However, General George Weedon commanded the militia regiments who were present at Cornwallis' surrender. Another example is Treasury Records documenting the transfer of land from Joseph Neville to several men. One of them is Peter Shields and the land transferred is Peter's 70 acres in Hardy County. The militia was not involved with the national program that gave men land in sections of Ohio and Kentucky in return for service in the national army. However, Neville, in raising his militia, could have made contracts with his men for land in return for service, and since Neville was a land speculator, it would have been to his advantage as well an an opportunity for his men to acquire that most precious commodity, their own farms.

　
Left: Illustration of Revolutionary War Militia in battle
　
b. At roughly age 50, Peter again served in the Virginia Militia. We have records which show he served in 1807 under Capt Jordan. (ref: Volunteer Soldiers, 1784-1811, transcribed by Virgil D. White 1987)

If we were to find the reason Peter Shields chose to enlist in the militia during a time of peace with the English, French and Indians, we would know a lot more about the life he lived.
　
4 Peter and Elizabeth settled in the North Branch of the Potomac Watershed, on West Mill Creek near the county line separating Hardy and Pendleton Counties. (Note the red dot on the above map of old Virginia.) They had 70 acres to farm in Hardy County and a 35 acre piece of land nearby in Pendleton County that may have had a saltpeter mine.
　
a. Hardy County
Tax records show that in 1784 Peter (in his late 20s), Elizabeth and their first two children were living in Hampshire County. (Hardy County was formed in 1786 from Hampshire County.)
　
About 1790, 70 acres of unimproved land in Hardy County on the west side of North Mill Creek between John Wise and John Liking was surveyed for Peter Shields. This land had originally belonged to Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Neville.
　

Left: Survey of the 70 acres land

Right: A random photo of West Mill Creek

In 1811 Peter (in his 50s) and Elizabeth sold the 70 acres to Jacob Judy for 75 pounds.
　
FYI: How big is 70 acres?
(70 acres equals .109 square mile or the equivalent of a square about 1/3 mile on each side.) They raised their eight children there. The land acquisitions and the children’s births are well documented. The possibility that he had a saltpeter mine is very likely.

b. Pendleton County
In 1805 Peter Shields purchased 35 acres of saltpeter caves in Pendleton County, a few miles south of his 70 acres in Hardy County. He sold the land to ??Hinkle in 18??.

Right: A "brush" of Saltpeter on a stone cellar wall.

FYI: What is saltpeter?
Saltpeter is potassium nitrite, KNO3: potassium, nitrogen and oxygen. Saltpeter is common in the caves along the Allegheny Mountains where it seems to grow on the rocks. It is the result of a chemical reaction It is scraped off the rocks and then purified into saltpeter. Its main use at that time was for gunpowder, which is about 75% saltpeter, 15% sulfur and 10% charcoal.

.
5 Peter and Elizabeth Shields moved with their family to Salt Lick, Braxton County, in the early 1800s. Their life on Salt Lick will be covered soon, in another entry.

The original entry about Peter Shields is at http://orlandostonesoup.blogspot.com/2006/03/revolutionary-war-veteran-peter.html

Our Grandfathers' Tory Rebellion

by Donna Gloff

Including Hyre, Mace, Rohrbaugh, Crites, Borer, Brake, Osborn & Others

It would be difficult to find someone from Orlando who is not descended from a veteran or patriot of the American Revolution. That makes it all the more interesting to learn that in 1781, six years into the Revolutionary War and a year and a half before it was finished, a number of our pioneer forefathers rebelled against the high taxation and conscription demands of the continental government and formed a Tory unit, to fight with the British against the Continental Army.

The Beginnings of an Insurrection

It was a desperate time for our infant republic, and the demands on the citizens were back-breaking. In April of 1781, a John Claypool and several of his pioneer neighbors along the Lost River, east of our forefathers on South Fork of the Potomac, had had enough and when the tax collector arrived they refused. They hoisted a Union Jack and "Drank to King George the third's Health and Damnation to Congress." By the time authorities arrived, forty or fifty men had made their way to Claypool's on the Lost River.

Above left: The Union Jack

Right: a sketch of typical Colonial militia, engaged in battle. The troops that marched on Torys included Army regulars and militia like these.

Those pioneers surrendered, but word spread anyway and 150 or more men rode to join the insurrection. These were not just pioneer farmers. Deserters from the Colonial army and English soldiers escaped from POW camps helped to swell the numbers. This growing band of Torys had centered on the West Branch of the Potomac, at Brake's mill, about 15 miles north of Moorefield.

Our Grandfathers

Several of our German immigrant forefathers who had settled on the West Branch joined the fray here. We know about them because of a document they signed: a petition for clemency. According to Richard K. MacMaster in The History of Hardy County, 1786 - 1986, found at Buzz Perry's website, http://www.perrybrake.com/ClaypoolRebellion.pdf,

"Another group of petitioners also asked for executive clemency, adding that they 'have been instrumental in detecting and bringing in some of the principal Comspirators to Justice.' Enough evidence against them convinced the Grand Jury, nevertheless, to indict them for treason and insurrection. The signers of this petition included Samuel Lourie from Lost River. The rest lived on the South Fork or the South Branch. Jacob Brake, whose name headed the petition, Jacob House, John Mitchell, Jeremiah Osborn, and Adam Rodebaugh lived on the South Fork or in the vicinity of Moorefield in Michael Stump's district. Michael Algire, Charles Borah or Borrer, John Casner, Jacob Crites, Leonard Hier, John Mace, Henry Rodebaugh, Jacob Pickle, Adam Wease, Sr., Adam Wease, Jr., John Wease, and Jacob Yeazle were all in John Wilson's district on Mill Creek in present Grant County. Jacob Hier, Isaac Mace, and Thomas Stacey were in Job Welton's district in the vicinity of Petersburg."

Most of the twenty-five South Branch pioneers who signed this petition have descendants throughout central West Virginia, including the Oil Creek area. Some of their descendants are named Riffle, Morrison, Hyre and Hyer, McCauley, Strader, Mick, Mace, Skinner and Heater.

The Petition for Clemency

[This petition was written as one paragraph, with extremely long sentences. Line breaks have been added to make reading easier. -ed]
"Humbly Sheweth,
That your Petitioners living in an obscure and remote corner of the State are precluded from every intelligence of the state affairs either by public papers or from the information of men of credit and veracity, and at the same infested by the wicked emissaries or pretended emissaries of the British who travel through all parts of the frontiers and by misrepresentations and false news poisoned the minds of the ignorant and credulous settlers.

That your petitioners from narrow and confined notions and attached too strongly to their interests conceived the Act for laying the enormous tax of eighty pounds paper money on every 100 pounds of their property, rated in specie and a bounty for the recruits of the Continental Army, and the law subjecting them at the same time to be drafted for the said service and the further Act for clothing the Army as unjust and oppressive after paying such a high tax on their assessed property.

And those wicked and designing men by their artful insinuations and false intelligence industriously propagated to delude and seduce your petitioners, too readily prevailed on them to oppose the execution of the said Acts and take up arms in defense of what those wretches called their liberty and property.

But your petitioners humbly shew that they never concerted or conspired the destruction of Government or the hurt of any individual, further than to defend themselves when attacked or compelled to yield obedience to those laws;

and when your petitioners were made sensible of their error by the gentlemen from the adjacent counties who marched a body of men sufficient to have put all the disobedient and deluded crew to the sword, but, from motives of humanity and prudence attempted the more mild method of argument to dispel the delusion and bring them back to their duty,

your petitioners, ready to receive information and open to correction, readily gave up their arms and engaged to deliver themselves to justice and submit to the laws of their country when called for, which they have since done and stood their trial in the County Court of Hampshire,

and were by that Court adjudged to stand a further trial before a Special Court of Oyer and Terminer appointed to meet at the Court House on the 10th day of July last,

but the gentlemen nominated as Judges by the Honorable Board failing to attend, the prosecution was postponed;

and your petitioners were then informed by a proclamation under the hand of the County Lieutenant that the Executive, ever prone to adopt the most lenient measures to penitent offenders, offered pardon and indemnity to all those concerned in the late insurrection, if they would return to their duty and behave as good citizens in future.

And your Petitioners impressed with a deep sense of the gracious intentions of your Excellency and the Honorable Board towards the ignorant and deluded were encouraged to sue for pardon; and that the same act of grace might be extended towards them since they humbly conceive their conduct has been more consonant to the duty of good citizens, who conscious that they have transgressed against the laws of their country readily delivered themselves to Justice and a trial by their peers to suffer the punishment due to their crimes though committed through ignorance and misguided zeal.

Whereas those who have availed themselves of the said proclamation, the equally guilty, did not come in until their safety was insured to them by promise of pardon, wherefore you petitioners humbly hope from the known clemency of your Excellency, and that governs the Councils of the Honorable Board, that they will be graciously pleased to pardon their past offenses and include in the Act of Indemnity so mercifully held out to offenders under the like circumstances and they engage on the faith of honest citizens to act a true and faithful part to the State in future if they are released from further prosecution and restored to the privileges of other citizens; which your petitioner John Claypole is more encouraged to expect from a letter of General Morgan to your said petitioner wherein he promises to procure his pardon on his returning to his allegiance and becoming a good citizen, this he humbly conceives his behavior has, since he was convinced by his error and freed from those mistaken prejudices that seduced him from his duty, wherefore in deep contrition for their past misconduct and sincere promise of conducting themselves as good citizens for the time to come they humbly pray pardon, and that the Honorable Board will save their innocent wives and children from ruin and misery, which they must necessarily be involved, for the crimes of their deluded husband and parents. And your petitioners will pray...

Petitions were bound over for Jury in November. All of the men were pardoned. Several of the men went on to fight against the British in the Colonial Army.

Our Pioneer Grandfathers

Who Signed the Petition for Cemency
with some information about their relationship to the Oil Creek watershed.

Leonard Hier b. 1727 in Benkin, Switz. D. 1786, Hardy Co. VA Descendants: all the Hyers and Hyres
John Mace b. 1711, s/o Henry and Ann (Petty) Mace, father of Eva Mace Descendants of Frank & Eva (Mace) Riffle
John Rorebaugh m. Barbara Reger, d/o Anthony Reger Descendants: all the McCauleys in the area, a few Micks, Skinners and Heaters
Jacob Brake b. abt 1730 in Germany Descendants: Lee Morrison, among others

A few of the Orlando descendants of the Claypool Rebellion: John Scott Riffle b. 1845 (descendant of John Mace), Lee Morrison b. 1867 (descendant of John Brake), Elizabeth (Wine) Blake b. 1866 (descendant of John Mace). Jonathan "Hedge" McCauley b. 1871 (descendant of Anthony Reger), Everett Allman, 1907 (descendent of Leonard Hyre). Doris Jean Blake b. abt 1933 (descendant of John Mace).

Some of the participants as yet unidentified as related to Oil Creek folks
Michael Algier
Isaac Brake b. abt 1760, s/o Jacob, m. Roseanna Almon, moved to Ohio.
Charles Borer
Jacob Crites b. 1752 in Bucks Co, PA, d. 1837, Hardy County, m. Elizabeth Henkle
Adam Rohenbough one of 3 sons of Johann Adam Rodenbaugh & Maria Barbara Fischer
Henry Rodenbough one of 3 sons of Johann Adam Rodenbaugh & Maria Barbara Fischer
Martin Rodenbaugh one of 3 sons of Johann Adam Rodenbaugh & Maria Barbara Fischer
George Sites
Thomas Stacey
Adam Wease
Adam Wease, Jr.
John Wease,
Jacob Yeazle
John Mitchell This doesn’t seem to be our Mitchell line.
Jeremiah Ozburn
Josia Ozburn
George Peck
Jacob Pickle
Jacob House
Samuel Louri
John Casner

. . . . .

Note: for more information see http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/~hyde/brake/ToryUprising.html and
http://www.perrybrake.com/ClaypoolRebellion.pdf and Kercheval, Samuel. History of the Valley of Virginia, 1833.

Note: If your roots pass through Orlando and if you have questions about your ancestors, we'll do our best to help you with your search. Send your questions to orlandowestvirginia@yahoo.com.

Note: Among the ancestors of the Oil Creek community are at least two grandfathers who came to the Colonies with His Majesty King George III’s armies. Peter Shields and Henry Church were both English soldiers who became Prisoners of War. Church served out his time as a POW and married a Quaker girl, Shields gave his allegiance to the new Americans and joined their army.

Right: a British soldier

Samuel & Martha (Fox) Gay

Samuel Gay and Martha Fox both moved to Lewis County when they were small children. After they married they settled on Oil Creek in the late 1850s.

Both Samuel and Martha came from families that had come to the colonies in the 1700s. Samuel's great grandfather (his father's mother's father) Anthony Mustoe,was born in Whitechapel, London in 1748. He lost two wives and several children before making a life with Mary Dorothy Seiler and raising a family of seven children in Virgina. During the Revolutionary War, Anthony served in several Virginia regiments in the Continental Line, reaching the rank of Sergeant. He was at Valley Forge from Feb 27, 1778 to June 4, 1778.

Martha's line includes the Ratliffs which are easily traced to Louisa County, VA, in its pioneer days before the Revolutionary War.

Samuel and Martha raised nine children in Confluence/Orlando: seven boys and two girls.

To the left is one of their children, George Miles Gay, who married Lucinda Freeman.

Samuel Gay's Obituary

provided by Darrell Groves

(Ind. Tues. 24 Feb. 1920)

GAY, SAMUEL of Oil creek, died on the 18th. Born April 26, 1840, died February 18, 1920, aged 79. Married December 31, 1863 to Martha J. Fox. Nine children, all surviving. His wife died some twenty-two years ago. Children, John, Noah and George Gay of Kemper; Charley and Earl Gay of Weston; Robert Gay of Gaston; and J. L. Gay of Richwood; Miss Cora Gay, at home, and Mrs. J. F. Riffle of Kemper. Also survived by three sisters and two brothers. Died of influenza. (Ind. Tues. 24 Feb. 1920)

The Immigrant Jacob Conrad on the South Branch of the Potomac

This picture, probably a tintype, was posted by Joe Hacker to Nettie Gregory's MyFamily site Braxton County West Virginia Pictures and People1

This picture is interesting to Orlando area folks for two reasons. First, it is of the South Branch of the Potomac, which provided many of Lewis County's and Braxton County's earliest settlers. Most of us have descendents who came to central WV via the South Branch. Second, Daniel Conrad's grandfather built the house to the left in the picture and Daniel Conrad and his wife Margaret (Shields) were among the very early settlers of Braxton County. They are ancestors of not only the Conrads of the Oil Creek watershed but, through their daughter Phebe, the Skinners too.

The house to the left in the picture was built 1n 1763 by Daniel Conrad's grandfather, the immigrant Jacob Conrad/Coonrod, Sr. when he settled on the South Branch of the Potomac River, just south of the town of Ruddle, (This is now Pendleton County, WV, it was then Augusta Co, VA.) According to MyFamily.com, "Jacob Sr. built a home of limestone there and was a blacksmith by trade.2" The house was torn down in 1890's.

Widower Jacob Conrad Sr. was part of the Palatine migration. He had come into the Port of Philadelphia from the Canton of Bern in Switzerland in 1750, aboard the ship "Patience" from Rotterdam. Jacob Sr. had brought with him his three daughters and one son. His son, Jacob Conrad Jr. would marry Hannah Bogard and they would have ten children. (Jacob Jr. would also fight in the Revolutionary War and they would become land wealthy.)

One of their ten children, Daniel Conrad, married Margaret Shields and then they moved to Braxton County. Daniel and Margaret had only four children. Those of us in the Orlando area who carry the family name of Conrad are mostly descended through Chrisman Conrad who married Elizabeth Wine and settled just over the hill from the Clover Fork of Oil Creek, near Bulltown. From there their kids would marry into the families of the original settlers of Oil Creek. Daniel and Margaret's only daughter Phoebe3 married Alexander Skinner and became an original settler of Oil Creek and grandmother of all the Skinners of Oil Creek. Thus, the Skinners of Oil Creek also share the ancestry of the old immigrant Jacob Conrad.

Conrads and Skinners who moved into the area in the 1900s may or may not share this particular ancestry. If you are curious about how your ancestry fits in, please contact me, Donna G. at orlandowestvirginia@yahoo.com.

1. The reference attached to the photo reads: "Subject Counties--Pendleton--Homes Physical Location Photograph Filing Cabinets Source Ruddle, Richard, Loan Date of Acquisition 1973/09/20"

2. Copyright © 1998-2000, MyFamily.com Inc. and its subsidiaries.

3 For more about Phoebe (Conrad) Skinner see the entry for Mar, '06 Grandma Phoebe Conrad

Revolutionary War Veteran Peter Shields

Left: British Redcoats of the Battlefield

Peter Shields was Phoebe (Conrad) Skinner's grandfather: her mother's father. See the entry "Orlando's Grandmother, Phoebe Conrad" and for more on Peter Shields' adventures see http://duskcamp.itgo.com/Shields.htm

We know Peter Shields was christened on Jan 26, 1756 in Lanchester, Durham, England. His parents had lived in Ireland, maybe they were Irish.

Peter came to America as a British soldier during the American Revolution and served under General Burgoyne. When Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga Peter and his fellow English and Hessian soldiers were marched to Cambridge, Massachusits and then to a POW camp in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Many of the Hessians deserted as they passed through the German communities in Pennsylvania. The English prisoners of war also wondered what they were fighting for, and chose to join the colonies and fight for freedom. Peter was one of those. He deserted the British and served in the Continental Army and witnessed the surrender of General Cornwallis at Yorktown, Va. in 1781.

In return for his military service, Peter was granted 70 acres of land in Hardy County Va. April 2, 1783. He married Elizabeth Singleton in Hardy County about 1783 on North Mill Creek
and they lived there until about 1807 when they moved to Salt Lick in what is now Braxton County.

Left and right: the 1794 documentation of the survey for 70 acres of land in Hardy county that Peter Shields purchased. Double click on the images to enlarge them. Thanks to Dolores Derrico for these images.

All the Conrads and Skinners of Orlando, among many others, descend through Peter Shields.

Material in this entry has been taken fron the information provided by Howard Bee and Darryll Groves and Paul Frazier in their family trees published at Rootsweb.com and Ancestry.com.