Revolutionary Soldier’s Strange Pay: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “You Wouldn’t Believe It”

 

Strange Story About Shameful Combat Pay

William Weir: 1751-1787 (4^th Great-grandfather)

Family stories about Revolutionary War service abound in genealogy. But verified, proven stories are quite rare. If a researcher is fortunate, they find a few breadcrumbs that prove someone with the ancestor’s name from the right region served in the Revolution. When I reach this point in research, I usually accept their service as an unverified “fact”—I add it to the tree but note it isn’t verified. But the details from the family lore that make some stories so fascinating and evocative are nearly impossible to prove. That’s the case with this tale about David and William Weir’s service in the Revolutionary War.

According to numerous family histories, William Weir was of Scottish descent, and emigrated with his father David from Ireland. They appear to have been Covenanters, a Presbyterian sect that was persecuted in Scotland. Many Covenanters moved to the New World, and a large group settled in South Carolina near the community of Fishing Creek. That’s where William Weir started his family and acquired land.

Chester County region of South Carolina where Fishing Creek is located--1800s

According to some descendants, father David and son William served in the Revolutionary War together under General Sumter, fighting the British in South Carolina. Other descendants say that William and his oldest son David, a stripling lad of about 14, served together in the war, and young David died of wounds he received in battle.

And then there’s a truly fascinating, repulsive detail from one account: that William’s only compensation for his war service was bounty confiscated from a Loyalist’s estate. The bounty? A young black slave girl. This tale was printed in a reference book entitled Biographical Cyclopedia of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The source is unclear.

So what parts of these stories can we prove?

First I searched Revolutionary War records on a variety of sites. The National Park Service records confirm that a David Weir served in the Continental Army in South Carolina.

A Genealogy.com thread on James Weir’s family compiled by Dorann O’Neal Lam provided some records related to David’s service, which seemed to indicate he was William’s son, not his father. She writes the following:

“David Weir, b 1770, Fishing Creek, Chester Co., SC d from wounds received in the battle at Eutaw Springs (8 Sep 1781).The story was told by Miller Weir that when David's father took a temporary leave from the war to return home to make shoes for his children, young David took his place and was wounded at Eutaw Springs and/or imprisoned at Charlotte. Although his mother Susannah obtained his release and brought him home, he died from his wounds. (See Chester Co. Gen. Bul. June 1981.) Salley's Stub Entries, "Paid to David Weir (Indexed Wier) 10 pounds sterling, for 100 days' militia duty, as per account audited.--Issued 2nd November 1784, No. 470.* Bk L, by A. S. Salley, Jr., Secy of the Historical Commission of SC.(Source:Charlene Gillespie Deutsch)” See full Lam citation below.

I have not been able to access the Chester County Genealogy Society’s 1981 Bulletin article that she cited to get further details. I would have to go to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City to read a copy. However, I did find the “Stub Entry” she refers to. The stub records the distribution of ten pounds sterling for David’s 100 days of service. The full citation is below.

In addition, a website that details South Carolina’s contributions to the American Revolution had listings for both David and William Weir as members of the Turkey Creek Regiment. The Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) has also accepted William’s Revolutionary War service, although at least one of the applications lists David as William’s father and relies on David’s Revolutionary War service.  

I have not been able to verify veteran David Weir’s identity. I have found no birth records for a David who would have been old enough to serve in the war. And I have found no death records for William’s father David that would at least confirm that he was still alive during the Revolution. It is likely that war veteran David Weir is related to William Weir, but I can’t determine whether this David is William’s father or son. Miller Weir’s tale about David’s injury, release from service, and death are persuasive, but they can’t be proven.

The final part of this story, the claim that William Weir received no compensation for his Revolutionary War service except for a female slave child, is the most shocking and hard to prove part. I was raised to see the Revolution as a noble undertaking, untainted by the stain of slavery. This was something I found hard to believe. But I searched for evidence nonetheless.

I could find no “Stub Entry” for William, so he doesn’t seem to have received any cash remuneration for his service. I found it hard to believe soldiers would receive slaves in lieu of pay. But when I did a Google search on the topic, I was stunned to find there might actually be some truth to the story. An online reference book called the South Carolina Encyclopedia had an entry on African Americans in the Revolutionary War which included the following passage:

“However, South Carolina slaves were used as bounty to raise white recruits. In 1781 General Thomas Sumter offered one slave to each white citizen who joined as a private soldier for ten months and as many as three grown and one small slave to those who joined as colonels. Sumter did not have these slaves at the time he made this promise. He was banking on slaves he hoped would be seized from Loyalists during future campaigns. General Andrew Pickens also adopted this recruiting incentive, which became known as “Sumter’s law,” but Francis Marion rejected it, stating that it was ‘inhuman.’”

Sumter was named in the family story as William Weir’s commanding officer and William’s service record shows he served in 1781, so this horrible transaction may have actually taken place!

General Sumter

My experiences trying to verify these old family stories illustrate the continuing need for historical research and dissemination of historical facts. Americans should all know just how entwined slavery was in the Revolutionary War, and how pervasive the use of slaves really was during the period. We must push back against recent right-wing suppression of history with facts and records.

 

Sources:

Service records for William Weir and father David Weir in the Turkey Creek Regiment. South Carolina. The American Revolution in South. Website written and researched by J D Lewis, Little River, SC.  Carolina https://www.carolana.com/SC/Revolution/patriot_military_sc_privates_w.htm

DAR application for descendant of David and William Weir. https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/14571291/person/230139490984/media/aad489d9-dbee-4776-9193-42b04f90bc58?_phsrc=Jng25074&_phstart=successSource

South Carolina Encyclopedia. “African Americans in the Revolutionary War, 1771782.” https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/african-americans-in-the-revolutionary-war/

Genealogy.com Surnames Forum: James Weir: Chester Co SC to Muhlenberg Co Ky. By Dorann O’Neal Lam. 6 Dec 2008. https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/weir/2501/

Stub entries to indents issued in payment of claims against South Carolina growing out of the revolution. Books B-I, K-Z / Edited by A. S. Salley, Jr. secretary of the Historical commission of South Carolina. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112037943567&seq=77

James Weir (1821-1906), by Jerry Long, Owensboro, KY 1994. Excerpt from BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY, John M.Gresham Company, Chicago, Philadelphia, c1896, pp230-232[BA1] :

https://wckyhistory-genealogy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Jerry20Long20-20Weir2C20James20281821-190629.pdf

 

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Tradesman Extraordinaire: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “Tradesman”

James Weir Builds a Mercantile Empire

James Weir: 1777-1845 (Third Great-Granduncle)

 

Hard work is certainly a requirement for success in business, but I believe some people have that extra something that enables them to succeed at a higher level than the average businessman. James Weir had a big helping of that something extra. He left South Carolina in the 1790s as a typical pioneer, moving to Kentucky with nothing but grit and ambition. He became one of the original pioneers of Greenville where he built a veritable mercantile empire that crossed state borders.

James Weir was the third son of William Weir and Susannah Miller Weir (fourth great-grandparents) of Fishing Creek, South Carolina. He was born in 1777, and was about ten or eleven when his father died. William’s will provided that James, along with his sisters, receive equal parts of his plantation, livestock and household furniture. James’ two older brothers, William and Samuel, were named executors of the estate.

James left South Carolina as a young man, heading west into Tennessee and eventually into Kentucky. He kept a journal during the eight months of his journey. His observations about the people, land and towns he passed through are interesting. I was surprised by how straightlaced he was, complaining and aghast at the swearing and immorality he found in Knoxville, for example. He supported himself along the way as a schoolmaster.

Weir originally arrived in Kentucky in 1798 as a surveyor, and eventually decided to settle in Greenville. When he first passed through the Greenville area, he noted in his journal that “Green River is navigable all seasons of the year for large boats, which may pass to and from Illinois and from thence to the Atlantic Ocean. It is thought that it will be a place of great trade in time to come.” He helped his prediction come to fruition.

Jarrels Creek area in modern times

Weir started a mercantile in Greenville in 1799, and received a land grant of 352 acres along the Jarrels Creek in 1802, which he probably used for farming. Slaves contributed to Weir’s wealth. The 1810 census shows he had seven slaves, and by 1820 he had eleven enslaved people in his household. However, by 1830 he had only two female slaves and a free “colored” male in his household—probably the man mentioned in a history of the county as his “body servant Titus”. Selling off his slaves probably reflected the shift in his business focus from farming to his mercantile and trading business, which required little slave labor.  

Rothert county history, cited below, examined a ledger owned by James’ great-grandson Harry Weir that recorded the transactions at Weir’s Greenville store over the period from 1813-1815. From this ledger, Weir’s business practices become clear. Rothert wrote: “Much of the merchandise brought from the East by old James Weir was exchanged for wild pork, rawhides, produce and tobacco. These he shipped to New Orleans on flatboats, where he sold them for cash, with which he bought more goods in Philadelphia.” This triangular trade practice built Weir’s wealth: raw goods and produce shipped from Kentucky and Illinois to New Orleans for sale, and then the proceeds used to buy manufactured goods in Philadelphia that Weir’s customers needed or craved.

Once he purchased goods in Philadelphia, he would ship them by wagon to Pittsburgh, and then send them by boat down the Ohio River. From there the Muhlenberg County goods were put on a boat up the Green River to Lewisburg, and then sent on by wagon. James Weir must have been quite the logistician to make this multi-step shipping system work.

The trips could be hazardous. Weir’s journal entries from his 1803 trading trip down the river to the New Orleans area were reprinted in an appendix to Rothert’s History. The journal recounts how Weir was arrested at the Spanish garrison in Baton Rouge for selling hams without the proper permission from the garrison commander. He was fortunate to be released after a few days and allowed to continue south. After selling his remaining goods in New Orleans, he travelled by sea to Philiadelphia. His ship ran into a severe storm, nearly forcing everyone to abandon ship.

Weir’s original Greenville store was a log cabin located on the west side of Main Street. He next built a brick store on the east side of Main a little further north. This building became known as Weir Corner. A photo of the brick building is below.

In 1816 he built a brick home for his family south of the store. He was also involved in local banking and insurance businesses.

Weir house in background of this photo from 1800s

Over time, he expanded his mercantile business to several other towns, with stores in Lewisburg, Henderson, Hopkinsville, Morganfield, Madisonville and Russellville, Kentucky, with one additional store in Shawneetown, Illinois.

James Weir had three wives. His first wife was Anna Cowman Rumsey, whose family was a powerful one in that era. He had five children with Anna, sons Edward Rumsey Weir and James Weir, and daughters Emily, Anna and Susan Mary Weir. 

Wife Anna died in 1838, and he remarried the following year to Jane Short. Sadly, Jane also died, and James took his third wife, Ruth Beach of St. Louis, on September 29, 1844.

Eleven months later on August 9, 1845, James died at the age of 68. He left his survivors, including an unborn daughter Ruth, handsomely provided for.

James Weir was a true “tradesman”—he learned to barter goods in various far-flung parts of the United States, and he learned to make deals with all sorts of people from all walks of life. He was a true original and a consummate businessman.

 

Sources:

A History of Muhlenberg County by Otto A Rothert. “The Weirs.” Pg. 56-62. Pg. 116-121. Publisher, J.P. Morton, 1913. https://books.google.com/books/about/A_History_of_Muhlenberg_County.html?id=e1UnTbWjk2kC

Kentucky, U.S., Land Grants, 1782-1924. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/18690:2073?tid=81812584&pid=262518455113&hid=1037937987049

Muhlenberg County KyArchives History - Books .....VI The Weirs 1913.

Findagrave entry: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/71435398/james-weir?_gl=1*1r5u67g*_gcl_au*OTYwOTExNTI1LjE2ODk4MDk1ODg.*_ga*MTQ5MDkwODUzMi4xNjI2MjI0NDE0*_ga_4QT8FMEX30*ZDcyNjJkZWMtYTlmMC00MmIwLWI3ZWMtOGQwMDMzMzdhZjRmLjU3OS4xLjE2OTQ1NTczMjQuNjAuMC4w*_ga_LMK6K2LSJH*ZDcyNjJkZWMtYTlmMC00MmIwLWI3ZWMtOGQwMDMzMzdhZjRmLjE3LjEuMTY5NDU1NzMyNC4wLjAuMA..