Isham Clement, Sr.

I married “spinster” Sarah Scott on 27 November (bond) 1760. That’s what my marriage bond called her—it then meant she had never been married.

Although no records reveal I saw action during the Revolution, I did provide the army with one gun, for which they reimbursed me.

In 1782 and 1785 Amelia County counted 10 whites in our household, and we then owned 10 slaves. As was the tradition, we named our children for our own parents and grandparents: Mary Harwood and William for my parents, Sarah and Joseph for her parents, Ann for my grandmother, Frances and Judith for Sarah’s grandmothers, and, of course, Isham for me. We must have used up all the ancestors we knew before we got to Elizabeth, Lucy, and Martha Clements.

Our home was on Bent Creek near the present-day town of Clementown Mills—likely named for the mill my grandfather, William Clement, owned. By 1785 I had constructed 3 dwellings and 8 other buildings on my farm.

One daughter Mary Harwood Clements married Edmund Booker from 10 miles up the river near Saylers Creek. Before he died, they had 7 children. Her second husband was Moses Overton. Daughter Lucy Clements married James Hillsman, a son of Matthew Hillsman from 5 miles south on Flat Creek.

I was evidently in my 60s when I died. As I left no will, the county court appointed Samuel Ford and Pinketham Davis Booker to administer my estate. One son, age 16 to 26, was living in Sarah’s household in 1810, and she then had 11 slaves.

We know who my children and their spouses because all the living ones were in court to have my estate divided in 1822, the year after Sarah died.