James Roberson

A Patriot of the American Revolution for VIRGINIA. DAR Ancestor # A097245

James Roberson (undocumented James Monroe Roberson). By one account, he was born in Scotland about 1737. He came to America with a brother, landed in Virginia, and he never saw his brother again.

He has been claimed as a son of Dr. Andrew Roberson and his wife Ann (Munro?) based on a statement in an early genealogy of the family: "[Andrew] had James Monroe and Margaret McIntosh." ((Hayden, 347n., citing Foote S. I. 368). The idea of a relationship seems to have originated because Dr. Robertson married a woman with the maiden name Roysdon, and Roysdon was the odd given name of James' and Mary's oldest son.

However, the relationship is unlikely because Andrew Robertson's children are well-documented. The only reference to any the children of Dr. Robertson by his first wife Ann ? [maybe Munro] is in the diary of Dr. Gordon from Lancaster Co who mentions "Dr Robetson and his poor children." However, he left many records and a detailed will. There are references to each and every child except James Monroe.

In 1756 a man by this name (James Robertson) was living in Albemarle County, Virginia, where he served in the company commanded by Captain James Neville in the French and Indian War, but it is not likely that this is the same James. His name also appears in a list of those who contributed money to buy provisions for friendly Indians.

The first certain record of James is 1758 in Bedford County, Virginia when he served in the company commanded by Capt. John Quarles. During the American Revolution he served in the company of Captain Quarles, Second Virginia Regiment, commanded first by Col. Alexander Spotswood and afterwards by Col. Christian Febiger. It is said that this company was with Col. Febiger in the Battle of Bunker Hill.

He moved to what is now Tennessee and settled first in Greene or Hawkins County, where he bought land on 23 August 1778. James and his wife Mary sold land in Bedford County, Virginia on 25 February 1779. He was probably a relative of the A. Robinson, Thomas Fuqua, and Isham Fuqua who are mentioned in connection with the estate of William Howard on 23 November 1790 at Bedford County.

His sons William and James Roberson were among the first settlers in Bledsoe County. In 1819 James Sr. bought land on the western side of Sequatchie Valley near his son, James Jr. with whom he probably lived, as there is no mention of his wife being with him.

In 1827 he was alive and very agile and vigorous, according to the accounts of his great grandsons. His name was not found on the 1830 census, so he died presumably in 1828 or 1829. The date was given as January 3 from a memorandum in the possession of a descendant. He was buried in "the old Indian Burial Ground" on the west side of Sequatchie valley, about eight miles from Pikeville.

Sources

• Family Tree DNA, Clan Donnachaidh DNA Project, accessed Sept. 13, 2016.
• Horace Edwin Hayden, Virginia Genealogies: A Genealogy of the Glassell Family of Scotland and Virginia (1891)