***John Church 1. (Yankee John) Lived in Rowan County North Carolina by 1760...The Revolutionary War pension application for his son John II . listed this County as his place of birth in that year... Johns name appeares on a 1761 list of taxable living in a section of Rowan County, that has now become Davie County...This listing was certified by the County Court on the 8th, of October 1761... Unfortunately, I can find nothing about Yankee John prior to 1758... The pension application of his son Amos stated that he(Amos)was born in Virginia in the year 1758... No established area of residency has yet been discovered in that state...Many Church family researchers have speculated that the family probably was migrating south at the time of Amos's birth and did not obtain permanent residency in the state of Virginia... Some decendants have known him as Yankee John, thereby indicating that his orgins were farther to the north..(I, Raymond Church) personally think that he was, in his younger days, a Yankee Doddle Dandy, from England...However I am just guessing!!.. There are other refrences to the presence of John Sr. in Rowan during the 1760s.... On Oct.3rd.1764 a summary of claim made to the County during the year was entered into the court minutes...John Church had received ten shillings bounty money for bringing in a wolf scalp during the year... It is interesting to note that the same listing contains an identical payment to Daniel Boon, making a personal aquaintance between then a distinct probability...The colonial custom of putting orphans in the hands of community members required that the overseeing adult be part of the landed gentry... John was summon'd into court April 15th. 1767, and ordered to bring "Sarah Burch" an orphan, to be delt with legally... The July 1767 court ordered that Rachal Burch be apprenticed to John untill she attains the age of 18 years, she being 14 years, and 5 months old, and the master is to give the said apprentice a suite freedom cloath, a colt, a calf,and a spinning wheel... The last entry relative to this matter occured in this 4th.Nov. 1774 session when John Church was requested to come to the next court to explain why he had not freed" his indentured servant Rachel Burch,agreeable to the law." John had moved his family to the New River area of Wilkes County in 1773... Only one other refrence to John has been found in the Rowan records... On wendsday,14th. November, 1770,he recorded his personal livestock mark as "O" a crop in the left ear...Thus it is apparent that John was a part of the land owning Planters of early Rowan life. ..He owned some livestock, and was certified as a legal represenative of the county court.*********************************************** An excellent article by William Doub Bennett dealing with the settlement problems of the New River area was published in the Feb. 1984 issue of the North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal... Bennett reported that Granville Grants of land were made in the western part of the state untill the death of Lord Granville which led to the closing of that office in 1763... He further states that:...From that time , untill 1778, when the state of North Carolina assumed title to all vacant lands and began issuing grants, it was impossable to obtain title to vacant land in Ash County...The lack of title to land in western North Carolina was such a problem that the North Carolina assembly passed the following resolution on Aug. 19th. 1778...Whereas there are so few people in Wilkes, Burke, Washington,and Surrey Counties who have obtained titles to their lands, that legal juries cannot be obtained... Resolved therefore that reputable House Holders in the aforsaid counties be, and are hereby to be capably of acting as Jury Men upon all occasions within their respective Counties.....Undoubtedly John was caught in the dilemma described above... Wilkes County land entry #731 indicates that Benjamin Cleveland entered on Jan. 2nd. 1779, 100 acres on the waters of New River, the Little Fork, of Pine Swamp,including the plantation whereon John Church now lives......Benjamin Cleveland's name was marked out, and John Church's name was written over it in the entry book... Presumably John had moved his family there in 1773, was unable to enter the land into record at that time, and failed to do so promptly when the State Land Office opened...evidently Cleveland entered the land in his name,but it reverted back to John becaues he had allready exstablished a home, and made improvments...This land which would later fall in Ashe County when it was formed in 1801, was deeded to John by the state on May 6, 1782, this deed indicated that the Church home was still maintained on Pine Swamp through that date.... It is important to note that it appeares that John later moved his family to land across the crest of The Blue Ridge, in or near the present Summit Community on property that remains in Wilkes County today... This move took place prior to the 1801 formation of Ashe County, for his -1801 legal doccuments are to be found in the Wilkes records...The original Pine Swamp site was sold by John in 1802, to John Judd for 100 pounds, as recorded in the Ashe County records... John had entered and received one other 100 acre tract on New River in 1785. He sold this land to David Owen for 200 pounds in 1794... On May 18, 1789 he received two grants of 100 acres each on Lewis Fork... One of these tracts began at a chestnut tree on top of the mountain,and was located on the North Fork of Lewis Fork...This piece he sold to his son Elijah Church in 1795 for 12 pounds...The other tract was probably the one he lived the rest of his life on....John made one other land purchase in Wilkes..In 1795 he bought another tract on Lewis Fork from William Floid for 20 pounds..He sold this in Oct. of 1805 to Elizabeth Blackburn for 40 pounds...That document was the last legal transaction known reguarding John Church Sr.************** I have a few suspects as to the father of John Church Sr,but nothing documented.....There is no documentation on the the first wife of Yankee John...A name "Ms. Stamper" was carried down through the family tree... There was a Joel Stamper who fought beside Amos in the war, and I believe that this has some signifcance... I will call the first Mrs, John Church Ms. Stamper untill such time as I discover a more likely name....John's second, and last wife was "Jane Andrews" she was a much younger woman, and out lived John by several years...She was the daughter of James Andrews, who had been a neighbor in Rowan County in the 1760s...Jane's sister "Sarah" remarried John's son Phillip...Jane Andrews Church appeared in the 1810 census with one son, and five females besides herself..This was probably "Gabriel", the youngest son,along with his wife, and four of john's youngest daughters...Jane was living alone when the census taker came by in 1820 ...She witnessed a court receipt for attendance at a trial on Dec. 19th. 1825...I can't find anything about her after that...************John Church Sr.s oldest three sons were documated by their war record, however several of his children left no record as to their parents... The best Genealogical detective work available , many people, in many parts of the world, (My sincerest thanks go out to them all) have setteled on the following as the children of Yankee John Church.
JOHN CHURCH 1. AND DESCENDANTS
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Amos Church's Pension Application
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