I have been searching for any evidence that John Stewart Jr. was a captain in the military because:
- A service grant may be how he came to own 3,750 acres in Kentucky and
- Many genealogies refer to him as a captain.
In a prior post regarding the Kentucky land grant referenced in his will, I reviewed several possible options for a ‘Captain Stewart’. However, I did not discuss Captain John Stewart of Greenbrier Valley.
Captain John Stewart of Greenbrier Valley served in a regiment from Botetourt County, and several records, including his own memoirs, record Stewart’s presence at the Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774. I stumbled across this John Stewart while looking for additional connections between the Stewart and Floyd families.
The earliest known connection, that I can identify, between these two families is the marriage of John Stewart Jr’s daughter, Mary, to John Floyd’s brother, Charles, in 1773. Yet, there is the possibility of an earlier connection.
Most genealogies list the middle name of John Stewart Jr’s son, Charles, as being ‘Floyd’. Keep in mind, there are two Charles’ that we are discussing:
- Charles Floyd (John Floyd’s brother, married Mary Stewart) and
- Charles ‘Floyd’ Stewart (John Stewart Jr’s son).
Charles ‘Floyd’ Stewart was born around 1756, so if his middle name truly was Floyd, it would indicate a connection between these two families that began decades earlier than the marriage between Mary Stewart and Charles Floyd in 1773. A circa 1750’s connection between the Stewart and Floyd families would have been in a period during which very limited documentation exists related to my Stewart line. Therefore, it is a connection worth exploring further.
When I found Captain John Stewart of Greenbrier Valley, I was excited to identify all of the intersections between this John Stewart and John Floyd. First, Captain John Stewart of Greenbrier Valley led a regimen from Botetourt County, and, when John Floyd first began his career as a surveyor in 1770, he studied under William Preston in Botetourt County.
Secondly, Captain John Stewart of Greenbrier Valley was present at the Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774, and, based on his letters recorded in John Floyd The Life and Letters of a Frontier Surveyor, we know that John Floyd likely crossed paths with Captain John Stewart of Greenbrier Valley on the day of the battle:
The tenth in the afternoon about twelve or fifteen miles from the Ohio, the news met us that the army was attacked that morning early by a large body of Indians. We pushed on and got in about midnight, where we were very kindly received, and I imagine if our number had not been double that we were, we should not have been complained on for that. I understand we were much prayed for that day in time of the engagement.
… many of the officers fought with a great deal of courage and behaved like heroes, while others lurked behind and could by no means be induced to advance to the front.
It has also been documented that, John Stewart Jr., from my Stewart line, settled in Amherst County in the spring of 1775. This is the same county where John Floyd resided at that time. It is not unreasonable to surmise that, after the Battle of Point Pleasant, John Stewart chose to relocate to Amherst County based on his interactions with John Floyd. This would, however, be an incorrect supposition.
Following the Battle of Point Pleasant, Captain John Stewart of Greenbrier Valley went on to become the first county clerk of Lewisburg, where he advocated for the ratification of the US Constitution in 1788 and was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1797. He, therefore, was definitely not the same individual as my John Stewart Jr.
I find it helpful to document and understand these individuals so that, when I run across them in historical records, it becomes easier to attribute those records to the correct ‘John Stewart’. In the meantime, I will continue to search for evidence that my John Stewart Jr. was, in fact, a captain.
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