General James Winchester

Major General James Winchester

A Patriot of the American Revolution for MARYLAND with the rank of Captain. DAR Ancestor # A128339

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Winchester_(general)
• http://www.tnportraits.org/30261-winchester.htm
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/145616110/george-washington-win...

James was born the son of William Winchester [1711] ENG and Lydia Richards [1727] Maryland [daughter of Edward Richards [1678] ENG and Mary Head [1690] ENG]. Edward Richards came to the new world from Manchester England by 1710 or earlier. By 1739, Edward had settled his family on ground, "Spring Garden," and "Rattlesnake Ridge," that would become Hampstead, Maryland.

William and Lydia were married in 1754. William is credited with being the founder of Westminster, Maryland. These were families who were among the first white settlers moving west from the Baltimore, Maryland area.

"Winchester enlisted in the Maryland militia during the American Revolution. He served General Hugh Mercer's Flying Camp battalion during the early months of the war. By May of 1776, he was appointed a 2nd Lieutenant. He was captured by British forces during General John Sullivan's failed attempt to take Staten Island on August 22, 1777. Winchester was released in a prisoner exchange, and in May 1778 he was commissioned a lieutenant in the 3rd Maryland Regiment. He was taken prisoner a second time at the surrender of Charlestown, South Carolina on May 12, 1780. Exchanged in December, he was promoted to captain and served the remainder of the war under General Nathanael Greene."

"On June 1 transferred to 3rd Maryland Battalion; on Feb. 9, 1782, commissioned a captain; with his brother, George, a lieutenant, fought through the southern campaign under General Nathaniel Greene; is said to have been present at the siege of Yorktown and at the surrender of Gen. Cornwallis; served until Nov. 1785."

In November of 1785, James and his brother George Winchester [1757] Maryland arrived in territory that would later, in 1796, become Sumner County in the state of Tennessee [what was then called the Cumberland settlements]. They built a log cabin, with some fortification against local Indians, on a large bluff overlooking Bledsoe's Creek.

In 1796 Tennessee was admitted to statehood, and James was elected speaker of the first Tennessee State senate. In 1800 James Winchester, Judge John Overton, and Andrew Jackson [future president of the United States] joined with others to purchase the Rice Grant; this was 5,000 acres located on the western border of TN on which the town of Memphis, Tennessee, was eventually built. James chose the name "Memphis" for the community, and thus became one of the first proprietors of the town.

In 1802 James completed work on his manor house named "Cragfont" on Bledsoe's Creek about 6 miles east of Gallatin TN [and about 30 miles north east of Nashville]. This house is today on the National Register of Historic Places and is open to the public for tours.

On the 22nd of November in 1809 the town of Winchester, TN in Franklin County was named after James by an act of the Tennessee legislature.

In the War of 1812 James was commissioned as a Brigadeer General and placed in charge of the army of the northwest.

Memphis TN was founded on May 22 1819. James' son Marcus Brutus Winchester, oversaw the beginnings of the fledgling community, opened its first business, was its first postmaster, and later mayor.

http://www.tnportraits.org/30261-winchester.htm

Fought in Revolutionary War. Moved to TN, 1785. Elected Speaker of the Senate and brigadier general, commandant of the Mero District, 1796. Developed land which would become Memphis, 1820. General during War of 1812.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6756534&ref=wvr

United States Army Brigadier General. At the start of the War of 1812, he was a Captain in the Tennessee Militia. In March 1812, he was commissioned a Brigadier General in the US Army, in command of the Army of the Northwest, Ohio. After engaging in several skirmishes with British forces, he was sent to part in an attempt to recapture Frenchtown, Michigan. On January 22, 1813, at the Battle of Frenchtown, he was attacked by a combined British and Indian forces resulting in his capture and the loss of many soldiers. Despite the surrender of all his troops, the British slaughtered hundreds of unarmed American soldiers. Winchester was imprisoned in Canada and resigned his commission following his release in March 1815. After the war, he served on the state commission to regulate the Tennessee-Missouri boundary.

https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/james-winchester/

James Winchester, pioneer, entrepreneur, military commander, and founder of Memphis, was born in Westminster, Maryland, and served in Maryland regiments during the American Revolution. He was wounded and captured in a raid on Staten Island in mid-1777 and imprisoned until December 22, 1780. After his release, he joined the Maryland Line and fought in General Nathaniel Greene’s command until 1783, when he was discharged with the rank of captain.

Winchester came to Davidson County, North Carolina, in 1785 and settled on Bledsoe’s Creek, where he built a mill, distillery, and cotton gin. When Sumner County was created by partition from Davidson in 1787, Winchester became captain of the horse, and was soon elevated to lieutenant colonel, commandant of the county. In 1789 he became the first county trustee.

During the Southwest Territory era, James Winchester continued as county militia commander. Appointed to the legislative council of the territory in 1794, he was named acting commander of the Mero District Militia the following year.

When the State of Tennessee was organized in 1796, Winchester was elected Speaker of the Senate and brigadier general, commandant of the Mero District. From 1797 to 1800 he surveyed Indian boundary lines, took the census for Mero District, and attended the meetings of the county court more often than most of his fellow magistrates. In 1800 he subdivided and platted the town of Cairo on the Cumberland and acquired an interest in a five-thousand-acre tract on the Mississippi River that he and John Overton developed as the site of Memphis in 1820. Promoter of a school at Cairo, he was also a trustee of Davidson Academy, Nashville, and Sumner and Transmontania Academies in Gallatin. His various business ventures included the Sumner Cotton Factory, a riverfront warehouse, and a variety of shops, all at Cairo. He built flatboats and barges for river transportation, and in 1806 he constructed two oceangoing schooners near his mill on Bledsoe’s Creek. After a safe passage by way of New Orleans to Philadelphia, he sold them at the point of disembarkation.

When the War of 1812 began, Winchester won appointment as a brigadier general in the regular U.S. Army. Assigned to the recruiting service, he yearned for a field assignment, an ambition that led to an ongoing controversy with General William Henry Harrison and ultimately to Winchester’s capture and the defeat of his army at the River Raisin on January 22, 1813. During April 1814 Winchester joined General Andrew Jackson on the Gulf Coast and took command at Mobile until the end of the war. Playing secondary roles to two military chieftains who would be future presidents of the United States ended General Winchester’s military career. However, he later published a vindication of his acts in the northwest that charged Harrison with failing to honor his promise to rendezvous his troops with Winchester’s on the fateful day of battle at the Raisin River.

After 1815 Winchester organized a steamboat company, bought and sold land, surveyed the boundary line between Tennessee and the Chickasaw Nation, and planned the city of Memphis. He died at Cragfont on July 27, 1826.

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Book Title: Lineage Book : NSDAR : Volume 024 : 1898 1,61157::1969631