Lanterna Rally

Author: David Smarr

Publisher:

Published: 2017-04-30

Total Pages: 508

ISBN-13: 9780997467529

Chronicled on these pages are the names and stories of a closely-knit group of intrepid pioneers of English and Scotch-Irish ancestry, who in the early 1740's left the relative safety of the Potomac Path and traveled the Ox Road into the forested foothills of the Virginia Piedmont. Settling near the crossroads of Indian paths later known as the Colchester and Carolina Roads, today Gilbert's Corner, and along Little River of Goose Creek, including Owsley's Branch, this group began to clear and till the land to establish their homesteads. Their ancestors had been among the first settlers along the banks of the Potomac River between Dogue Creek and the Occoquan River. The network of families included Hall, West, Owsley, Smarr, Stephens, Pearl, Owens and Murray. Other Potomac Path English families who acquired land in the Little River neighborhood included Carter, Mercer, Washington, Fairfax, Cocke, Green, Marshall, Wade, and Bayley.An in-depth study of the origin and development of Robert Carter III's Goose Creek Tract details the owners of land grants near the south half of the 1727 Goose Creek Tract grant, and secondly the rise of tenancy on Goose Creek Tract beginning in 1755 is explored based on Robert Carter III's personal papers and from other original documents. The individual leases are mapped to provide a visualization of their location, and are organized by general location; the southeast quarter later owned by William Carr Sr.'s estate, the southwest quarter later owned by Joseph Jones and President James Monroe, and the north quarters later owned by Robert Carter III's sons George and John Tasker Carter beginning in 1798. An analysis of Loudoun County Land Tax lists is used to identify and track the ownership of the leases from 1782 to 1830.This volume is the second of an American history series that chronicles the passage of a group of English and Scotch-Irish pioneers through a series of frontiers, beginning at Jamestown, Virginia, then up the Potomac River, later inward to the Virginia Piedmont, next westward to Kentucky and finally into the heartland of Missouri.