Winchester VA to Salisbury and Yadkin NC Connection
Salisbury and Yadkin were the "go to" areas of Daniel Boone and his dad Squire Boone. So too was it for thousands coming down the valley from Virginia. And from 1759 to 1760 sitting in Salisbury NC were presents and supplies authorized by the Virginia government to give to the Cherokees. They were put on hold once hostilities broke out. Nevertheless Salisbury and the Yadkin River were destinations for many in Virginia.
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Why?
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Cheaper. Plentiful. Less Rules.
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Too many rules was a reason for Squire Boone leaving the Exeter area of Berks Co PA. He ran into repressive condemnation of his family. Some of his children married someone outside the Quaker community. Also land was cheaper and hunting was more bountiful in the south.
Why not West?
Still enemy French and Indian country.
Why not stay?
Property ownership issues.
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Let a lawsuit describe these reasons for you.
This lawsuit was Hite vs Lord Fairfax, British Copy pp 80, 81 from "Pioneers of Old Frederic County Virginia by Cecil O'Dell.
The North became oppressive so Virginia offered promise:
"But these defendants [the Hites] say they believe experimentally the true reason for the growth of this back Country (notice it is not called the frontier) was by reason of the multitudes of people living in the Northern Colonies which are exceeding populous bearing great Burdens of hardship by paying great Rents for small Quanities of Land and it many times not able to produce their Rents and livings and having no lands of their own and some again that had small tracts was willing to enlarge them 'th earning by the Hunters and Traders the common finders of Back lands that the lands in the Colony of Virginia were rich and good were inclined to bear the Burdern, Danger and Hardships in hopes to provide not only for themselves but to prevent as much as in them lay the Slavery of their Posterity and likewise hearing it was so very cheap as to be had for ten Shilling a hundred Sterling this we know experimentally has brought many from New Jersey and Pennsylvania,.
Virginia soon became oppressive. The Carolinas appeared much cheaper, despite it being not as productive as Virginia land:
"These defendants say in answer . . . it must necessarily be for any rational man will be easily convined tis easier for him to procure ten Shillings a hundred to pay into his Majesty's Treasury (in the Carolinas) than to pay three pounds a hundred [in Virginia]
and afterward be forced to pay the same which is daily experienced in this back part and not only so but after they have got some fees to settle pretend the land is secure
and then raise its prices extravagantly
whereas on the contrary were not his Majesty's Land under such inconveniencies there would not pass such numbers the fruitful and healthy part of Virginia to such King's Land in a sickly and unfruitful Carolina
for these defendants have lived so handy to the road leading from Pennsylvania to Carolina thro' this back parts of Virginia where numbers of families daily almost do pass to go there
and have asked why they go there & not stay where the Land is good & their answer is for the most part where they go they have Kings Land [the Carolina or the Virginia part outside of Lord Fairfax's Proprietorship] at ten Shillings per hundred
but here (Virginia) the Land is too dear being all bought of what they commonly call Hucksters."
Stuart E Brown Jr's book, "Virginia Baron - The Story of Thomas 6th Lord Fairfax" calls those defendants, the Hites and others that very epithet - Hucksters.
Legal ownership in Virginia was confusing.
Hite bought land in Virginia obtaining a patent for ownership. Lord Fairfax then came later asserting that land was not Virginia's to sell. Later Lord Fairfax honored those purchases in exchange for Hite to pay annual rent to Lord Fairfax for those lands. It was called a quit rent because once paid, the settler (Hite) who had a patent to the land, was quit of all obligation to the Master owner (Lord Fairfax} of that land.
Pages 20-24 of "Pioneers of Old Frederic County Virginia" by Cecil O'Dell, show the text of that agreement.
Compiled by Jim Moyer 6/5/2024, researched in April, May 2024
Related information
Trading Ford on the Yadkin
Trading Ford was a shallow area of the Yadkin River located about seven miles northeast of Salisbury. As one of the few places where the Yadkin could be crossed on foot or horseback, Trading Ford was a focal point for the movement of people through Piedmont North Carolina for hundreds of years.
Presents for Cherokees sitting in Salisbury NC
To help Lyttelton's August 1759 embargo of goods and particularly blackpowder, the House of Burgesses had agreed to stop their wagon train of previously promised gifts to the Cherokee.
Those supplies and gifts are sitting in Salisbury NC, Yadkin River country, a place where many settlers came to from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
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