I have been researching Richard Elliott for several months, and I have a concern about the narrative we all have been following. These basic points state that he served at the rank of Colonel in the State of Virginia, and that he died in Montgomery County, Kentucky (not Virginia) around 1799. These are a few of the texts that say Richard held the rank of Colonel, and died in Montgomery County KY:
–Genealogies of Kentucky Families from The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, Vol IIrn
–Historical Southern Families, Volume VIII
–Early Families of Eastern and Southeastern Kentucky, by William C. Kozee
However, the records indicate that Col. Richard Elliott who served in Virginia during the Revolutionary War lived in Brunswick County, Virginia after the war and died in Charlotte County, Virginia (not Montgomery County, Kentucky). Which Richard do we descend from?
COLONEL RICHARD ELLIOTT WAR RECORDS
We see a letter that Col. Richard Elliott wrote to Thomas Jefferson in November, 1780 (Jefferson was governor of Virginia at that time). Col. Elliott said he was in Brunswick County Virginia, at Cabin Point, in command of a troop of over 500 men and virtually no guns or ammunition, and he was afraid to move the men without proper equipment (1).
There is a record of a ‘rejected application’ to receive a bounty based upon the service of Col. Richard Elliott submitted by a known heir, George Elliott, in 1830. Even though the application was supported by the affidavits of Thomas Wilkinson and Henry Elliott, the government examiner at the time rejected George’s claim because he said there was no record of a Richard Elliott having served in the Revolutionary War. This is curious, because a simple search on Fold3 pulls up a series of records of numerous men who submitted pension applications in the 1830s, detailing their own service activity, and these men all state that at one point in their service, they served under Col. Richard Elliott, in Brunswick County, Virginia, at Cabin Point. Here is a list of these men: Thomas Wilkinson (submitted the affidavit mentioned above); William Wilkinson; Answorth Harison; James Martin; John Thomas; James Coghill; James Martin; Thomas Yeargen; and Thomas Carson. Nearly all of these men indicated that at the time of their enlistment they lived in either Dinwiddie or Brunswick Virginia, and that they served under Col. Richard Elliott in Brunswick VA.
A search of local records of Brunswick VA shows that indeed, right after the war, a Col. Richard Elliott continued to live in Brunswick VA, in fact, there are some post-war military records for the years of 1785-1786 which reference Col. Richard Elliott involved in various reassignment decisions along with other military officers, and one entry says that he was considering resigning from the military (2).
A CONNECTION TO A HORSE
Yes, you read the above correctly. A search of the name Richard Elliott on ‘Founders Online’ (a database of the National Archives) retrieves a copy of a letter written to George Washington by Martha Custis-Washington’s only son she had before marrying George, John Parke Custis, dated 26 March 1778. In this letter Custis references a pedigree horse - a blood-bay stud named Apollo. The footnotes offered by the National Archives state that Apollo was amongst the lineage of famous horses: Leonidas, foaled in 1774, along with “his dam and another foal from former Maryland governor Horatio Sharp”, sired by Lloyd’s Traveller, foaled in 1767 and sired by the famous stallion ‘Fearnaught’. Several cross-references are made to 1770s newspaper articles referencing these pedigree horses, including a specific reference that Richard Elliott of Brunswick County, VA owned Apollo in 1777 (3).
This is important because of a reference to Col. Richard Elliott in a chancery action in Brunswick VA filed in 1804 by Thomas Lundie Jr., the administrator of the estate of Thomas Lundie, against Robert Elliott, executor of the estate of Richard Elliott “formerly of Brunswick Virginia”. The suit alleges that Richard Elliott, William Fanning, and Thomas Lundie (Sr) had purchased “a stud horse called Apollo”, that Richard kept the horse, benefitting from the “season” (offspring) as well as profits from the sale of Apollo, and never paid the other two partners for the monies he would have benefitted from Apollo. The amount of profits Richard first received was estimated at 785 pounds, most of which were paid to Fanning and Lundie through a surety bond, but the amount still remaining was 34 pounds and 94 pence. The suit states that between 1785 and 1796, Lundie’s administrator wrote to Richard Elliott several times, received responses from him acknowledging the obligation, along with promises he would pay them out soon – but Elliott never paid. Next, Lundie’s administrator started knocking on Richard’s door demanding to be compensated, and again, Elliott would acknowledge the obligation and promise to pay, and never did. Most importantly, the suit claims that Richard Elliott relocated to Charlotte County, Virginia, and soon thereafter became ill with ‘dropsey’. Lundie traveled to Elliott’s home in Charlotte VA in February 1796, where Elliott gave him a “few bushells of salt’ as payment towards the debt, promised to pay the remainder, and never did – then died. “Elliott failed to comply with his promise … & in a short time afterwards departed this life leaving a will by which he appointed Robert Elliott executor” (4).
A COL. RICHARD ELLIOTT DIED IN CHARLOTTE COUNTY VA
In December, 1796, Robert Elliott probated the will of his father, Richard Elliott, in Charlotte County, Virginia. An examination of the various estate papers of Col. Richard Elliott revealed that he was an extremely wealthy man, with considerable land holdings, cash and tangible assets. It is noteworthy that his surviving widow is named Anne, and his named children are sons George, Robert, daughters Julia, Martha, and Elizabeth Jamison, granddaughter Nancy Elliott (daughter of his deceased son William Elliott), son in laws John Easter and Alexander Walker (5).
It is clear from these collective records that Col. Richard Elliott remained in Brunswick Virginia after the war, moved from Brunswick to Charlotte County VA. This is clearly not the man that is said to have lived in Augusta County Virginia and then ended up in Montgomery County, Kentucky, in the late 1790s. There are no records of any probate paperwork for Richard Elliott in Kentucky, but there were records lost in that area to fires and flooding.
The questions which now arise are:
Were there two Richard Elliotts who served at the rank of Colonel? (Probably not).
If not, do we descend from the Colonel Richard Elliott that died in Charlotte County, Virginia, or the Richard Elliott who died in Montgomery County Kentucky?