Joseph Lapsley, Sr.

Joseph LAPSLEY Sr. Capt.(248) (4653)(257) was born about 1721 in North Ireland. He died in 1787 in Lexington, Rockbridge, Virginia. Will was made November 29, 1787. Joseph bought a farm of 338 acres from Benjamin Borden July 6, 1742, near where Lexington in Rockbridge county, Virginia now stands, which probably means he was at least 21 years old then. Borden had been granted the land by Gov. Gooch of Virginia. Borden gave Gooch a buffalo calf and in return he gave Burden enough land for a small principality. This was about six months prior to the Indian raid into the Valley which resulted in the cruel death of John McDowell, who was the husband of Magdalen Woods McDowell, his wife's own sister.

Joseph may have come to Virginia by way of Pennsylvania, reaching Virginia about 1734. That is the year in which the Woods and

Wallaces came to Virginia from Pennsylvania, and the Lapsleys may have been of the same party. Of his parents, we know nothing, except that it is said he was of Huguenot extraction.

In 1752, ten years after his first purchase, Joseph Lapsley bought another tract of four hundred acres, this time from Sarah's nephew, James McDowell, her sister Magdalen's son. The Lapsleys were no doubt prominent people in Rockbridge from the earliest days - good, reliable, Scotch-Irish folk,who in any time or place make sturdy citizens and good neighbors. Ther is a litle creek near Lexington now which, for generations, has been called "Sarah Lapsley's Run".

Joseph Lapsley's home was visited in June, 1755, by the Rev. Hugh McAden, one of the pioneer Presbyterian missionaries of Virginia and North Carolina. From his diary we read "...preached on the second Sabbath of July to a considerable large congregation. Rode home with Joseph Lapsley, two miles from meeting, where I tarried till Wednesday morning (16th). Here it was I received the most melancholy news of the entire defeat of our army by the French at Ohio, the general killed, numbers of inferior officers, and the whole artillery taken. This, together with the frequent accounts of fresh murders being daily committed upon the frontiers, struck terror to every heart. A cold shuddering possessed every breast, and paleness covered almost every face. In short, the whole inhabitants were put into an universal confusion. Scarecely any man durst sleep in his own house, but all met in companies with their wives and children, and set about building little fortifications to defend themselves from such barbarians and inhuman enemies,whom they concluded would be let loose upon them at pleasure". This, of course, was Braddock's defeat, which occurred July 9th, and the news of which spread all over they colony in less than two weeks. This brieef narrative by a reliable eye-witness gives us a very vivid picture of the hardships and perils to which the Woodses, Lapsleys, Wallaces, McDowells, etc. were exposed in those far-off days, in what was then called the "Backwoods of Virginia".

We must remember that what we now know as Washington and Lee University had its beginning almost in sight of the homes of the Lapsleys, Wallaces, Woodses and McDowells (and, almost certainly, with their active assistance) six years before this visit of Mr. McAden....Hence, we doubt not that Joseph Lapsley and his neighbors sent their boys and girls to good schools where they studied the humanities along with the Westminster Shorter Catechism and the Bible - a plan which not a few sensible Christian people in this day and generation consider most wise and desirable.

He was married to Sarah WOODS about 1741 in Lexington, Rockbridge, Virginia. Children were: Jr Joseph LAPSLEY , James LAPSLEY Sr. Ensign, Jean LAPSLEY, Mary LAPSLEY, John LAPSLEY, Martha LAPSLEY.