Section 5 JOHN DESPAIN OF VIRGINIA
We cannot define the date and place of birth of John Despain with much certainty. As we
discussed above, There is evidence that his father, Samuel, immigrated to Virginia sometime
between 1729 and 1738 in which period it is reasonable to assume John was born. We may also
safely assume that John lived with his father when the family moved from Virginia to North
Carolina in 1755.
Since his oldest child was born in Warren Co., N.C., in 1757,55 we might also assume that
that place was where he met and married Susan Scott. Yet there is another very real possibility.
We mentioned above that Samuel acquired patents for quite a bit of land in Lunenburg Co., Va.,
in 1752. If John had set about to improve this land he might have known the families of Robert
and John Scott who had settled that area sometime before 173656. John Scott provided land for
a meeting house for a colony of Scots-Irish Presbyterians there.57 This Calvinist religion is akin
to John Despain's own French Protestant faith.
Before 1770 John settled on a 185 acre tract in Botetourt Co. in the western panhandle
of Virginia.58 The Loyal Company had obtained 800,000 acres for settlement in that area as early
as 1749, but until the 1760's Indians had resisted their attempts to carry out the plan. John's land
was provided with a survey in 1774 wherein it is described as being on "O'Niels River, a branch
of Meadow Creek."59
Like his father before him and like most early residents John did not stay out of the
records of the county court. In 1773 John Lynch successfully sued him for having failed to repay
a debt.60 It was also during this period that one Thomas Martin sued a certain Thomas Pritchard,
who had given Martin a note he had gotten from John Despain.61 Pritchard must have thought
he had a case against John, but it was dismissed.62
Americans mark the year 1776 indelibly in their minds as the birth of their nation. For
John and his neighbors in Fincastle Co., Virginia, the call to arms came in September 1777.63 The
troops were not needed for fighting that year. Authorities had wanted to test the loyalty of the
inhabitants and discover any Tories in their midst.64 One Henry Bowyer was afraid to enlist
because he had been guilty of selling powder to Tories.65 He then had his mare stolen, probably
because property of Tories was considered free game--Loyalists would have no recourse in the
constituted courts of the now independent Colonies.
Even words spoken against the authorities were evidence of Loyalist sentiment. A certain
James Cooper was incriminated by some things he had said concerning an occasion involving
John Dispain.65 Capt. Abram Trigg and Capt. Lorton were "attempting to take in John Spain for
some crime." In pursuing him they had "got into some deep and difficult place in Little River,
where they had trouble in extricating themselves." We suppose that the "crime" spoken of was
"harbouring horse thieves" or men of questionable character.67 John was required to post bond
for his good behavior based on that crime and on "sundry enormities" (probably evading arrest).
The "horse thief" was acquitted, which is probably what made it unreasonable to prosecute John
for his involvement.
We do have some idea who these "horse thieves" might have been. A certain Robert Carr
was suspected of taking a mare of John Harris' along with two other horses. This John Harris had
been threatened with bodily harm by Charles Skaggs. John Clifton was also accused of having
uttered threatening words. When John Dispain needed securities for his good behavior, Clifton
and Skaggs stepped forward. John Dispain stood in as security for John Clifton in his case. The
man actually prosecuted as the horse thief was the notorious Lawrence Buckholder.68
During these years of turmoil John served in the militia aiding in the defense of the country
from raids made by Indians who had been incited by Loyalists. John served as a lieutenant at one
time.69 Benjamin, John's oldest son, served in the same company as his father in 1781.70 Peter,
John's next oldest son, had gone to Chesterfield and there enlisted with the Virginia troops.71
After the war the economic difficulties that beset the new nation in general must have
effected John and his family as well. By 1787 title to John's land had been assigned to creditor
after creditor, each one assignee of the next.72 We presume that it was the death of the first wife
of John's son Peter that left two small children (Solomon, brn 1785, Susanna, brn 1787) for their
grandparents to care for. It is quite clear that it was the death of Benjamin's first wife that added
another child (Solomon, brn 1790). In 1791 Peter and his sister Temperance, then only fourteen
years old, went to Kentucky where they married to begin families in a new land.73 This left the
families of John and his third oldest son James "Scotty" still living on the 185 acres on Meadow
Creek.
It appears that John and Scotty took their families to Kentucky in 1795, where settlements
were fewer and fertile land more plentiful.74 For the next ten years the Despains lived on Brush
and Pitmans Creeks in Green County.75 There were quite a number of Separate Baptists who had
come to this area from Virginia and North Carolina. The last year that John had a horse to tax
was 1806, and so we presume that he died shortly thereafter--he would have been in his
seventies. We don't know when his wife Susan died. Note, however, that the grandchildren they
were raising were still in their teenage years at their marriages in 1805, 1806, and 180776.
