Simon Girty knew William Crawford, friend of GW
.
Spoiler Alert: This involves burning at the stake.
That man on the stake was a Winchester area man at Fort Loudoun, Winchester VA in Colonel George Washington's Regiment. The man in the first picture is Simon Girty, a friend to the man on the stake, our William Crawford.
We're still trekking through 1757. When we looked ahead into July of 1757 we were reminded that Colonel George Washington promoted our man named William Crawford to Lieutenant.
GW promoted Crawford to lieutenant 27 July 1757. After the war Crawford often acted as GW’s surveyor and land agent in Pennsylvania. Born in 1732,[ My Note: Founders Online might be wrong - this birth date is in dispute] Crawford was killed at the age of 50 [or 60] by Indians while on the Sandusky expedition in 1782.
That promotion to Ensign 27 December 1755 and then as Lieutenant 27 July 1757 was right here at Fort Loudoun Winchester VA.
William Crawford was in Captain Christopher Gist's Company of Scouts. Crawford was the man who brought in the deserter William Smith to be hanged at Fort Loudoun Winchester VA. Colonel George Washington wrote of Smith as being " accounted one of the greatest villains upon the continent." See the story on the hanging and the trial.
And Crawford's death?
He should have never left Winchester.
And his statue in Crawford County Courthouse in Ohio gets beheaded 25 August 2017 .
You read that date right.
His statue's head was cut off during that explosive time of Charlottesville in the attempt to remove the Robert E Lee equestrian monument. And copycat removals sprang all around the nation.
And then right after re-looking at this William Crawford, this picture below appears.
In our world of living history interpreters, of reenactors, of writers of history, of researchers of history we continue to see a new angle on an old story. So let's re-tell this one.
This man looks like he might be a problem.
He might just be trouble to anyone he meets.
Better you than him, no?
That's probably how he saw it.
This is Simon Girty.
Simon Girty has a bad rep.
The truth of course is more complicated.
That truth is for another time to discuss.
Instead, the focus here is that this man Simon Girty saw William Crawford on William Crawford's last day on this earth.
We tell it here because William Crawford met George Washington here in the Winchester VA area,
Both were surveyors at the time.
William Crawford was older than GW.
That last day William Crawford had?
It was horrible.
William Crawford was tied to a stake.
He was being poked with a hot stick.
See all those burn marks on this body in picture below?
Maybe it was a Brown Bess shooting black powder charges into his body.
That man in the first picture shown in this story?
That's the same man on the horse in the picture here.
That's Simon Girty.
Our William Crawford is tied at the stake.
He is begging for Simon Girty to shoot him.
And doesn't death hold off when we most want it? No?
We won't know until our own moment.
But William Crawford's moment shrunk to just that.
Simon Girty wouldn't do it.
Doing so would have caused the Indians to kill Girty.
They wanted their time with William Crawford.
A great many injuries and insults and horrors pounded at the Indians in these past years.
This was payback.
See the story on the torture .
See the story on the Gnaddenhutten 1782 massacre.
See the story on that statue.
See the story on Crawford with Washington.
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Compiled by Jim Moyer on this Wix website 5/7/2021, updated 5/8/2021
On French and Indian War Foundation website, compiled and researched 2015, 2016 by Jim Moyer , updated 1/1-2/17, 8/20/17, 8/30/17, 9/2/17, 9/3/17, 9/21/2017, 10/11/2017, 3/31/18, 12/5/2018, 2/8/2019, 11/4/2019, 4/11/2020, 6/7/2022
Crawford's statue
.
Maybe he should have stayed here in Winchester VA.
Crawford at 27 years old or 17 years old (depending who you believe), was surveying and working in the Winchester VA area when he first met 16 year old George Washington in 1749.
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He dies at the stake in slow execution by the Indians June 11, 1782.
His statue in Crawford County Courthouse in Ohio gets beheaded 25 August 2017 .
This happens during the time of statue removal throughout the nation.
This wave of reconsidering statues has happened before.
But it re- started with Charlottesville in the protests for and against the removal of the Robert E Lee equestrian statue.
Replacement statue is Made in China.
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His statue in Crawford County Courthouse in Ohio gets beheaded 25 August 2017.
Ohio’s Crawford County Commissioners couldn’t find anyone who could just replace the head.
So they had to replace the whole statue.
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The new granite statue has been shipped February 4, 2018 and the county hopes to receive the statue by April 1, 2018.
The original deteriorating sandstone statue of 1906 was decapitated morning of August 25, 2017.
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See crawfordcountynow.com, posted February 2, 2018 by James Massara.
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See 2nd source Olivia Minnier,Bucyrus Telegraph12:49 p.m. ET Feb. 2, 2018
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April 26, 2018 Thursday – new statue put in place. See article.
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Photo is of the 1906 sandstone statue before it was beheaded August 25, 2017.
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News article below is reprinted from crawfordcountynow.com, posted February 2, 2018 by James Massara.
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New Col. Crawford statue receives approval to be shipped home
Posted on February 2, 2018 by James Massara
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The Crawford County Courthouse soon will have a familiar face keeping watch over the steps on E. Mansfield St.
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The Crawford County Commissioners recently approved to have a newly constructed statue of Col. William Crawford to be shipped back to Bucyrus to be placed in the previous location of the original statue, which was placed at the courthouse in 1906.
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The replacement comes after vandals decapitated the original statue in August.
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The commissioners received photos of the statue from Longstreth Memorials of the statue as it was completed in China. Longstreth Memorials created a smaller clay rendition of the statue using photos of the previous Col. Crawford, and sent the statue to China.
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The commissioners said sending the work to China to be completed was not simply an economic decision, but it was also due to the difficulty of finding an artist capable of performing the work.
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The statue is expected to be shipped by Feb. 4 and take six to eight weeks to arrive in Crawford County. The commissioners said they hope to have the statue in place by April 1.
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The new statue will be granite, a much sturdier rock compared to the previous sandstone, according to the commissioners.
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Reports were made that during removal and transportation of the previous statue, the sandstone already was deteriorating.
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Other replacements made because of the vandalism of the statue include, new high-definition surveillance cameras being installed around the courthouse.
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The commissioners said law enforcement officials do possess a video of the head of the statue being removed, and the issue remains under investigation of the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office.
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Crawford County Sheriff Scott Kent said the video in his possess is poor grainy quality and was shot from a distance. He said his office has not been able to enhance the video for a clearer picture.
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He reported the video showing a person running across the street, but the quality is too poor to possess any useful details.
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Story © 2018 Crawford County Now – Images © 2018 Crawford County Now
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News article above is reprinted from crawfordcountynow.com, posted February 2, 2018 by James Massara.
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April 26, 2018 Thursday – new statue put in place. See article.
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"Burned at the Stake"
Crawford's Execution at the stake makes national news.
Even a national song is made of it.
CONTEXT:
The Yorktown siege ended 19 October 1781.
Crawford burned at stake 11 June 1782.
The Peace Treaty of Paris is 3 September 1783.
We don't realize how much of the Rev War was also an Indian war.
The British had enlisted the aid of some of the black slaves and Indians as the rebelling colonials had too.
George Washington writes
to William Irvine,
August 6, 1782
I lament the failure of the former Expedition—
and am particularly affected with the disastrous fate of Colo. Crawford—
no other than the extremest Tortures
which could be inflicted by the Savages
could, I think, have been expected,
by those who were unhappy eno’ to fall into their Hands,
specially under the present Exasperation of their Minds,
for the Treatment given their Moravian friends.
For this reason, no person should at this Time, suffer himself to fall alive into the Hands of the Indians.
With great Regard & Esteem I am sir Your most Obedient & humble Servant . Founders Online note:
Source of letter:
. Image of that actual letter
Portrait source:
Portrait of Colonel William Crawford (1732 - 1782), who was an American soldier, and fought Indians in the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War.Date1777SourceWyandot County Historical SocietyAuthorRobert O. Chadeayne 1732-1782Permission
(Reusing this file) First published in the United States before 1923 - public domain.
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The story :
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“Captain Pipe, who knew Crawford
from the 1778 Fort Pitt treaty,
spoke to the crowd,
pointing out that
Crawford had been captured
while leading
many of the men
who had committed the
Gnadenhütten murders.
.
Crawford had nothing
to do with the massacre,
but he had taken part in the “squaw campaign”
in which several of Pipe’s family members
had been killed.
Pipe apparently mentioned this as well.
.
After Pipe’s speech,
Crawford was stripped naked and beaten.
His hands were tied behind his back,
and a rope was tied
from his hands to a post in the ground.
A large fire was lit
about six or seven yards (6 m) f
rom the pole.
Indian men shot
charges of gunpowder
into Crawford’s body,
then cut off his ears.
.
Crawford was poked with burning pieces of wood from the fire,
and hot coals were thrown at him,
which he was compelled to walk on.
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[Ed. Note: Simon Girty is the man depicted on the white horse in the above painting.]
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Eric Marchbein, 72, of Squirrel Hill, who initiated the drive for this historical marker years ago, said the Girtys lived at the bottom of the rigid colonial caste system even before their capture. Because they traded with Indians, they were held in lower esteem than indentured servants and known as “the Injun Girtys.” The great Seneca leader Guyasuta brought his protege, Simon Girty, to Fort Pitt in 1764 in keeping with the treaty requirement that all English captives be returned following the French and Indian War. By then, the young man had fully embraced Indian culture. In that light, it’s understandable that in 1778, during the American Revolution, Mr. Girty left his station as an American officer and fought alongside Indians on the frontier.
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Crawford begged Girty to shoot him,
but Girty was unwilling or afraid to intervene.
After about two hours of torture, Crawford fell down unconscious.
He was scalped, and a woman poured hot coals over his head,
which revived him.
.
He began to walk about insensibly
as the torture continued.
After he finally died, his body was burned.
.
Source:
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Source on Simon Girty historical marker:
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More on this Story on Burned at the Stake including discussion of the burn site:
And yes, there was a song about this.
Where was the spot?
THE BURN SITE
The Search for the Colonel William Crawford, Burn Site: An Investigative Report BY Parker B. Brown, PUBLISHED in The Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, Vol. 68, No.1Q January 1985), Copyright ©Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania
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More on this Story on Burned at the Stake including discussion of the burn site:
TIMELINE OF CRAWFORD
WITH WASHINGTON AND IN WINCHESTER AREA
See Surveys by William Crawford in 1750 and land sold to his brother Valentine Crawford in 1761.
George Washington’s lifelong friend first met in Winchester VA in 1749. Photo on top is the 1906 sandstone statue of William Crawford decapitated August 25, 2017, located in Ohio’s Crawford County Courthouse. Photo on bottom left is William Crawford being burned at the Stake in 1782. Picture on bottom right is the replacement statue, made in China, expected to arrive April 1, 2018, at Ohio’s Crawford County Courthouse. . Click on all pictures to enlarge.
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Old friend of George Washington’s. From the beginning. See all their letters.
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William Crawford. Land finder for George Washington.
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Crawford was there with Washington at Fort Necessity 1754 (name misspelled? or not in returns) , and at Braddock’s Defeat 1755.
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Promoted to Ensign 27 December 1755:
2. Commissioned an ensign in Christopher Gist’s company of scouts in December 1755, William Crawford (1732–1782) was made a lieutenant in the Virginia Regiment on 27 July 1757. Shortly thereafter he went to Augusta County with Major Lewis’s detachment as an officer in Robert Spotswood’s company (see note 3). GW must have originally written “these parts,” not “those parts,” for Crawford was being ordered back to Frederick County where he lived.
Crawford made an Ensign.
Under Christopher Gist’s Company of Scout
Winchester, December 27th 1755
William Crawford1 received his Commission as Ensign in the Company of Scouts commanded by Captain Christopher Gist; who had money delivered him to Recruit with; the General Instructions, and the same private Instructions that were given the Officers at Alexandria the third instant (only the opportunities of Elections were omitted) and was ordered to Rendezvous here the fourteenth of February next.
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Source:
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December 17, 1756
William Crawford was an ensign in Captain Christopher Gist’s Company of Scouts. Colonel George Washington makes it clear that these men should not be treated in any lesser way because they are scouts. Being in the Scout Company is not the same as the two Ranger Companies which were militia and separate from the Virginia Regiment. And pay and rank should be equal to any other company in the Virginia Regiment, if not more, because of the extra danger a scout will meet.
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William Crawford made Lieutenant July 27, 1757 . 1. William Crawford’s familiarity with the Shenandoah Valley region made him a particularly useful young officer in the Virginia Regiment during the next 3 years. See GW to David Bell, 25 April 1756, Robert Stewart to GW, 3 July 1756, and GW to Andrew Lewis, 21 April 1758. GW promoted Crawford to lieutenant 27 July 1757. After the war Crawford often acted as GW’s surveyor and land agent in Pennsylvania. Born in 1732, Crawford was killed at the age of 50 by Indians while on the Sandusky expedition in 1782. . Sources from Founders Online Footnote:
The first Hanging by George Washington
and it was here in Winchester VA
at Fort Loudoun, Winchester VA, 29 July 1757.
.
2. Commissioned an ensign in Christopher Gist’s company of scouts in December 1755, William Crawford (1732–1782) was made a lieutenant in the Virginia Regiment on 27 July 1757. Shortly thereafter he went to Augusta County with Major Lewis’s detachment as an officer in Robert Spotswood’s company (see note 3). GW must have originally written “these parts,” not “those parts,” for Crawford was being ordered back to Frederick County where he lived.
Proclamation of 1763
Washington intends to secretly flout this proclamation with his friend William Crawford.
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GW believes the line drawn by the Proclamation of 1763 will fall one day.
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And that Proclamation of 1763
should fall
because it undid
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LEAVES VIRGINIA
Crawford moves from Old Frederick Co VA to Stewart’s Crossing on the Youghiogheny
1765
From Founders Online Footnote:
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Crawford, a former officer in GW’s Virginia Regiment and a member of a family in Frederick County with whom GW had lifelong dealings, moved with his wife and children in 1765 from Frederick County up to Stewart’s Crossing on the Youghiogheny River.
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Source
See GW’s letter to Crawford 17 September 1767:
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Secure this Promised Land
The other matter just now hinted at and which I proposd in my last is to join you in attempting to secure some of the most valuable Lands in the Kings part which I think may be accomplished after a while
,
Proclamation prohibits this land
notwithst⟨an⟩ding the Proclamation that restrains it at present & prohibits the Settling of them at all for I can never look upon that Proclamation in any other light
.
Keep a Secret
(but this I say between ourselves)
than as a temporary expedien⟨t⟩
.
Don’t let the Indians Know
to quiet the Minds of the Indians & must fall of course in a few years esp⟨e⟩cially when those Indians are consenting to our Occupying the Lands.
.
Take this Opportunity now
any Person therefore who neglects the present oppertunity of hunting ou⟨t⟩ good Lands & in some measure Marking & distinguishing them for their own (in order to keep others from settling them) . . .
.
Again Keep the Secret
I woud recommend it to you to keep this whole matter a profound Secret,
.
Trust who?
or Trust it only with those in whom you can confide &
who can assist you in bringing it to bear
by their discoveries of Land
.
Disobeying the King
and this advice
proceeds from several very good Reasons,
and in the first place
because I might be censurd
for the opinion I have given
in respect to the Kings Proclamation
.
Others Might Grab the Land
& then if the Scheme
I am now proposing to you was known
it might give the alarm to others &
by putting them
upon a Plan of the same nature
(before we coud lay
a proper foundation for success ourselves)
.
Avoid Clashing
set the different Interests a clashing
and very probably in the end
overturn the whole all
.
which may be avoided
by a Silent management & the [Scheme]
.
Pretend we are Hunting
snugly carried on by you
under the pretence of hunting other Game
which you may I presume
effectually do at the same time
you are in pursuit of Land which
when fully discovered advise me of it &
.
Get the Land Patents Ready
if there appears but a bear possibility
If succeeding any time hence
I will have the Lands
immediately Surveyed
to keep others off &
leave the rest to time & my own Assiduity to Accomplish.
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Dinwiddie’s Promise of Land for the Men of 1754
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Lt Gov Robert Dinwiddie promised bounty land particularly to only those in service in 1754.
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See link – http://www.fayettetrust.org/upload/Col%20Crawford%20Statue.pdf
1765 Crawford settles in what is now Connellsville, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. And there’s a statue there too.
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1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix Crawford surveyed lands for settlers and speculators.
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George Washington writes a letter in 1769 emphasizing the original and limited scope of that bounty land promise.
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Source:
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Crawford with Washington on 1770 Trip
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William Crawford and his brother Valentine helped secure land for George Washington near the Ohio River.
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This is an expedition to view and survey the PROMISED LAND by Lt Gov Dinwiddie’s 1754 proclamation of land for the soldier in the 1754 actions of the French and Indians.
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Context:
The Boston Massacre occurred March 5, 1770.
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The trial of the eight accused soldiers opened on November 27, 1770 with John Adams defense attorney for those British regulars.
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At the same time those trials were going on:
Washington and Crawford and Dr Craik went out to the Ohio and the Kanawha in October to December 1770.
.
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“George Washington at the Great Bend of the Ohio River,” by Guy-Harold Smith. Volume 41, Number 4, October, 1932, pp. 655-667. . http://frenchandindianwarfoundation.org/event/washingtons-trip-out-west/
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More on search results on Crawford in Ohio Archives:
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Disputes of Crawford’s Land Patents
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The following is sourced from this excellent book:
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Surveyors And Statesmen: Land Measuring In Colonial Virginia. Richmond, Va.: Virginia Surveyors Foundation, ltd. and the Virginia Association of Surveyors, inc., 1979.
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Page 102
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December 15, 1769, the governor and council agreed to have no more than 20 surveys and ordered a surveyor appointed by William and Mary College.
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Washington goes on a trip October 5, 1770 to December 1, 1770 with Crawford and others. See story.
But no surveyor was appointed until William Crawford was appointed surveyor, March 5, 1771. by William and Mary College.
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“By the end of 1772, Washington had patented 6843 acres on the Kanawha River in Botetourt Count, and he got another 7276 acres there the following year.”
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Sometime after February 1774, William Crawford was appointed “Surveyor for ye Ohio Company.”
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18 April 1775
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The information you have received that the Patents granted for the Lands under the Proclamation of 1754 would be declared Null and Void, is founded on a report that the Surveyor who Surveyed those Lands did not qualify agreeable to the Act of Assembly directing the duty and qualification of Surveyors, if this is the Case the Patents will of Consequence be declared Null and void.
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Page 104
“It was too late for him [Washington] to pursue the matter. Ten days later [28 April 1775] news of the fighting at Lexington and Concord reached Virginia, and Washington left to attend the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, where he was appointed commander of the American armies in revolt against England. In June Lord Dunmore retreated from Williamsburg to safer quarters on British ships in the James River.”
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Page 105
1779
“William and Mary College retained its right to nominate, examine surveyors, as well as to receive one-sixth of their fees, but the power to commission county surveyors was given to the governor of the state.”
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1783
“The law was amended to allow the county courts to nominate surveyors, reserving only the right to examine their qualifications to the college [William and Mary College].” Any power the college had over assistant surveyors was stripped.
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Dunmore’s War
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William Crawford is in Lord Dunmore’s War 1774.
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He is with Dunmore in Winchester VA raising troops.
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Treaty site of Lord Dunmore’s War
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REV WAR
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Crawford on 11 October 1776 is Colonel of the 7th Virginia Regiment. at Battle of Long Island and the retreat across New Jersey and at battles of Trenton and Princeton and in the Philadelphia campaign, he commanded a scouting detachment for Washington’s army and by 1777 on the western front to fight the Indians allied with the British.
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Source:
Some more REV WAR context
Yorktown wasn’t the end of the war.
The Yorktown siege ended 19 October 1781.
Crawford burned at stake June 1782 The Peace Treaty of Paris is 3 September 1783. . So what went on for 2 years? . This link is about some events about that 1781 to 1783 period after Yorktown. See this great site “AfterWARd”
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And this is a great site showing battles and skirmishes AFTER Yorktown 1781 and the Peace Treaty in 1783. See this excellent listing of battles by year.
March 8, 1782 Gnadenhutten massacre
.
Bill Hunt writes about this massacre in his story, "No Mercy That Day part IV"
And here's a sample from the link below:
"Just miles from Gnadenhutten, the militia found the mutilated and scalped remains of Mrs. Wallace, and one of her infant daughters. The scene was grisly to the extreme!
The bodies of Jane Wallace and her daughter, Sarah Jane, had been stripped completely naked, tomahawked, and scalped. While still alive the two victims had been mutilated savagely. The Indians had trimmed two saplings of branches, and at the height of five feet, were cut off and sharpened at the standing ends. The mother and daughter were then thrust down over the sharpened stakes, face up. Both the anal and vaginal cavities had been impaled.
On the evening of the 6th, Lt. Col. Williamson, and his men were approaching the outskirts of Gnadenhutten. They were just a few miles behind the war party, . . . ."
Source:
No Mercy That Day part IV
No Mercy That Day part III
No Mercy That Day part II
No Mercy That Day part I
Wikipedia does not include the hideous details of Bill Hunt's research in the link above.
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This is from Wikipedia:
The Lenape allies of the British sought revenge for the Gnadenhutten massacre. When General George Washington heard about the massacre, he ordered American soldiers to avoid being captured alive. He feared what the hostile Lenape would do to captured Americans.
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Washington’s close friend William Crawford was captured while leading an expedition against Lenape at Upper Sandusky, Ohio. Crawford had not been at Gnadenhutten but was killed in retaliation.[8]
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Captain Charles Bilderback had participated in the Gnadenhutten massacre and was a survivor of the June 1782 Crawford expedition. Seven years later, in June 1789, he was captured by hostile Lenape in Ohio, who killed him.[9]
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David Williamson, the officer who led the Gnadenhutten massacre, was also a survivor of the Crawford expedition.
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In 1814, decades after the war, he died in poverty.
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The leader of the Home Guard at the time was Captain John Hay who on November 24 led an attack on the Delaware.
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In 1810, Tecumseh reminded future President William Henry Harrison, “You recall the time when the Jesus Indians of the Delawares lived near the Americans, and had confidence in their promises of friendship, and thought they were secure, yet the Americans murdered all the men, women, and children, even as they prayed to Jesus?”[10
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Source:
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11 JUNE 1782
William Crawford meets his end, burned at the stake as depicted above.
January 11, 1787 Pension of his Widow
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Source: Library of Virginia Digital Collection . . Crawford, William Pen. 99 1787-1797 Colonel, Expedition Against the Indians Frederick County Widow: Hannah . Also See: Burton,John–May, Joseph . I do with the advice of Council hereby certify that Hannah Crawford, widow of Col. William Crawford, who was killed in an Expedition Against the Indians is entitled to the sum of 135 pounds yearly, agreeable to a Resolution of the General Assembly passed 9th day of ___ ___ which allowance is accordingly made her , to commence from said day. Given under my hand as Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, at Richmond, this 11th day of January 1787. T. Meriwether Signed: Edm: Randolph
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When was William Crawford born? 1722 or 1732?
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Allen Scholl’s genealogical study of the Crawfords, “The Brothers Crawford,” I found that, using a compilation of resources, he had pinned William Crawford’s birth down to August 2, 1722 in Westmoreland County, Virginia based on a compilation of records. . For instance, if he was born in 1732, that meant that he was only 15 years old when he married Hannah Vance and 16 when his first child was born. Furthermore, it would have meant that his wife, Hannah, was eight years older. .
Statue of a 16 Year Old George Washington put into place at Washington’s Office Museum on Cork and Braddock Winchester VA. GW was 16 when he met William Crawford, 28, in Winchester area. This Painting is by Barry Vance. Exhibit at Museum of Shenandoah Valley Sept 2, 2017 through June 2018.
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See link about this Statue of young 16 year old George Washington.
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"George Washington, History of the Life and Death, Virtues and Exploits of General George Washington, " written by the former rector of the Mount Vernon Parish, Mason L. Weems tells a story about William Crawford and his brothers.
In this wildly inaccurate book that also created the famous cherry tree myth, Weems alludes to a teenage Washington participating in athletic games with the Crawford brothers during Washington’s first visit to the Shenandoah Valley in 1749.
Therefore, Weems and a host of historians that followed merely assumed these two men were the same age and assigned a birthdate of 1732 to Crawford.
In fact, William Crawford was 10 years older than Washington. When they first met in 1750, young Washington was 18 years old and on his first surveying expedition to the Shenandoah Valley on behalf of Lord Fairfax. . By this time, Crawford, who was 28 years old, had his own surveying business, which was why Washington hired him as a chainman on several surveys. He also had a farm, was married, and had three young children.
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I found it quite remarkable that one offhand passage in a biography of questionable accuracy influenced so many writers and historians. .
Sources for these claims?
. https://robertnthompson.com/2017/02/22/when-was-william-crawford-born/ . https://robertnthompson.com/2017/02/28/washington-and-crawford/ . Mt Vernon website supports birthdate 1722.
Mt Vernon website also adds Crawford is over 6 feet tall?
Do Company rolls support this?
.
In 1749, while surveying land for Lord Fairfax, George Washington met a young man remarkably like himself. The person was William Crawford, a Virginian standing well over six feet tall who had been born in 1722 and raised by a widowed mother. The two men struck up a friendship that lasted for more than thirty years until Crawford’s death at the hands of Native American warriors deep in the Ohio Country during the last days of the American Revolution.
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Washington invited the young man to join him on his trip through northern Virginia and even taught the craft of surveying to his protégé. – Really ???? the above says Crawford already had a survey business.
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http://www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/william-crawford/
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The brothers Crawford : Colonel William, 1722-1782 and Valentine Jr., 1724-1777 / Allen W. Scholl.
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/005724790
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Letters between William Crawford and George Washington
.
The Washington-Crawford letters. Being the correspondence between George Washington and William Crawford, from 1767 to 1781, concerning western lands. With an appendix, containing later letters of Washington on the same subject; and letters from Valentine Crawford to Washington, written in 1774 and 1775, chronologically arranged and carefully annotated . https://archive.org/details/washingtoncrawfo00washiala . . 1757 – 1781 Founders online William Crawford and George Washington https://founders.archives.gov/search/Correspondent%3A%22Washington%2C%20George%22%20Correspondent%3A%22Crawford%2C%20William%22 . 1773 to 1774 Valentine Crawford and Washington https://founders.archives.gov/search/Correspondent%3A%22Crawford%2C%20Valentine%22%20Correspondent%3A%22Washington%2C%20George%22 . October 1770 Washington’s trip to the West references to both Crawfords and their step brother Stephenson https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/01-02-02-0005-0027 . . .Hearing of Crawford’s Death
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George Washington to William Irvine, August 6, 1782
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I lament the failure of the former Expedition—and am particularly affected with the disastrous fate of Colo. Crawford—no other than the extremest Tortures which could be inflicted by the Savages could, I think, have been expected, by those who were unhappy eno’ to fall into their Hands, especially under the present Exasperation of their Minds, for the Treatment given their Moravian friends. For this reason, no person should at this Time, suffer himself to fall alive into the Hands of the Indians.With great Regard & Esteem I am sir Your most Obedient & humble Servant . https://founders.archives.gov/?q=Date%3A1782-08-06&s=1111311111&r=7 .
. Image of that actual letter http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage . 8 letters and one order that same day https://founders.archives.gov/index.xqy?q=Date%3A1782-08-06&s=1111211111&r=1
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Remember that deserter Crawford found when he was in the Virginia Regiment based at Fort Loudoun Winchester VA ?
WILLIAM SMITH ? THE SAME HANGED MAN?
Compiled by Jim Moyer 2/9/2016, updated 3/31/18
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Was this the same deserter William Crawford captured for court martial and hanging in 1757 as the same one captured by the French before Braddock’s Defeat in 1755?
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The answer is most likely NO.
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The link from British Battles states William Smith as the name of a prisoner at Fort DuQuesne but it should be James Smith.
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“In 1755 while helping his cousin William Smith, roads commissioner, build a road west towards Cumberland County he was taken captive by the Indians . . .”
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And another quote:
“His [James Smith] cousin and brother in law Justice William Smith would continue to provide the legal framework for directing the [Black Boys] rebellion while James led the men in the field.” Source http://smithrebellion1765.com/?page_id=101
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9 July 1755
This British Battles link is wrong.
This prisoner’s name should be James Smith.
“12 prisoners were stripped naked and dragged back to Fort Duquesne. A prisoner William Smith watched as the prisoners were tortured to death during the night at the river-side. “ See source: http://www.britishbattles.com/french-indian-war/battle-of-monongahela-1755-braddocks-defeat/
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One more disambiguation:
We are still looking at James Smith’s cousin and brother in law, the Roads Commissioner and then Justice William Smith. Is he also the same William Smith in this link? William Smith’s A Brief State of the Province of Pennsylvania. And this link: https://libraries.psu.edu/about/collections/unearthing-past-student-research-pennsylvania-history/battle-quaker-pennsylvania .
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Here are the links about a William Smith sentenced to hang at Fort Loudoun:
One of 2 to Hang
William Smith was one of the two convicted deserters hanged on 29 July 1757. For his identity, see GW to William Crawford, 20 July 1757, n.1. Source : http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-04-02-0218#GEWN-02-04-02-0218-fn-0004
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20 Year Old Sadler 1. In the list of deserters advertised by Dinwiddie (see GW to Dinwiddie, 11 July 1757, n.4) a William Smith is named. He is identified as a 20–year-old “sadler.” See the General Court-Martial, 25–26 July 1757, at which a William Smith in Crawford’s custody was tried for desertion and sentenced to be hanged. He was executed on 29 July. Source – http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-04-02-0211#GEWN-02-04-02-0211-fn-0001
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108 Deserters 4. The enclosure has not been found, but in a proclamation dated 19 July 1757 Dinwiddie listed the names and gave the descriptions of 108 drafted men from twenty-six counties who had deserted from the Virginia Regiment, offering a reward of £5 for every deserter returned to Winchester (Virginia Gazette [Williamsburg], 2 Sept. 1757). Source: http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-04-02-0193#GEWN-02-04-02-0193-fn-0004
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This was one man of two sentenced to hang at Fort Loudoun Winchester VA. See extensive story.
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Just to summarize on conflating two different William Smiths and one James Smith:
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James Smith is a prisoner held at Fort DuQuesne captured before Braddock’s Defeat giving an eye witness account of the treatment given Braddock’s men.
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The British Battles link mixed him with William Smith who was Roads Commissioner in PA . This link connects the two. http://smithrebellion1765.com/?page_id=101
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The British Battles link mentions the wrong Smith – https://www.britishbattles.com/french-indian-war/battle-of-monongahela-1755-braddocks-defeat/
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A different Colonel William Crawford (Craford)
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Our William Crawford dies at the stake in 1782.
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The other William Crawford is the father of Portsmouth and dies in 1762.
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This Crawford is also known as William Craford, without the “w”.
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In Spring of 1752, “Gershom Ninmo of Norfolk County planned Portsmouth for William Crawford.” No difference between these 2 Crawfords is cited on Page 136 of a book by Hughes, Sarah S. Surveyors And Statesmen: Land Measuring In Colonial Virginia. Richmond, Va.: Virginia Surveyors Foundation, ltd. and the Virginia Association of Surveyors, inc., 1979.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Crawford . William Crawford (his last name was also spelled Craford or Crafford) (died by April 15, 1762) was an American soldier, politician, and founder of Portsmouth, Virginia.[1] He served as a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses for over thirty years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Crawford_(Virginia) . But Crawford did destroy the Salt Lick Town in Columbus Ohio on the Scioto River . William Crawford (2 September 1722 ? – 11 June 1782) was an American soldier and surveyor who worked as a western land agent for George Washington. Crawford fought in the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War. He was tortured and burned at the stake by American Indians in retaliation for the Gnadenhutten massacre, a notorious incident near the end of the American Revolution.
Portsmouth VA
2006 Statue.
Col. Crawford’s memory immortalized with statue Monday 27 Feb 2016. . The Virginian-Pilot Feb 28, 2006 By Nicole Morgan
. PORTSMOUTH — It was a celebration fit to welcome a city’s founder. . A crowd including city officials, colonial re-enactors, and friends of the artist who sculpted the statue spilled down the steps outside of TowneBank and along the sidewalk. . They withstood hand-numbing cold. Mayor Jim Holley held a pair of scissors about as long as his arms, cut the red ribbon from the colonel’s waist and welcomed him home. . “This will always be here,” Holley said. “This is a signature in our community.” . TowneBank commissioned Portsmouth sculptor Sue Landerman , who also carved the athletes on the exterior walls of the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame and Museum . . Landerman said that despite her research with museums, re-enactors and historians, she found no sketches of Portsmouth’s founder. So she studied sketches of western Europeans from the 1700 s and decided to craft Crawford with “an English look” and a “Scottish chin.” . She created her interpretation of Crawford from when he founded the city in 1754 . . The statue is 7 feet tall, and a granite base hoists it about 3 feet higher. . Crawford wears a long coat and buckled shoes. While holding a plat of the city, he looks toward the shore. . Landerman said she hopes the expression on his face will leave people thinking he’s saying, “I’m very pleased with what I’ve done.” . Charlotte Wood , an Olde Towne resident and Landerman’s friend, said, “I just think it’s awesome the way it turned out.” . During the research and creation of the statue, Wood said, Crawford became more than a man in history books. . “Sue absolutely puts breath and life into any sculpture she does,” she said before taking another look at the colonel. . “If he wasn’t breathing before, he’s breathing now.” . Reach reporter, Nicole Morgan at (757) 446-2443 or nicole.morgan@pilotonline.com. .
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William (Bill) Hunt is a living history interpreter.
You could also say he reenacts too.
But his specialty is certainly bringing to visual life the characters of the past.
He is an expert on Andrew Montour and the Montour family, so we hope to have him appear at a future event for the French and Indian War Foundation.
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See Bill Hunt on portraying a Lieutenant in the Virginia Regiment on Fort Loudoun Day in 17 May 2014.
See Bill Hunt on Andrew Montour
Often links are moved or broken, so for this reason we rely mostly on Founders Online, archive.org, Hathitrust, and wikipedia. Generally newspaper links break.
See link on Bill Hunt presentation at Ashby’s Fort
Other links on Bill Hunt’s presentation of Andrew Montour
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