again with wife and children by the Kiskiminetas route and arrived at Fort Le Boeuf May 15, 1795, escaping all the dangers which (as the Court afterwards found) then rendered settlements unsafe. Here, on his own land, he built a log cabin, generally believed to have been the first permanent home of a settler in Erie County. Here he was soon joined by Amos Judson and others, and here in 1797 came John Wilson, formerly of Newtownards, near Belfast, Ireland, whose daughter, Sarah, in the year 1800 married Thomas, son of Lieutenant King. (83) In that year King dated his letter to Judge Huston from "King's Garden, to be put in the post-office at Pittsburgh." He seems to have been fairly prosperous. Waterford became a busy place. Salt was then carted over the land portage from Erie, and near King's Bridge loaded on bateaux and floated down French Creek and the Allegheny to Pittsburgh. Before 1820 salt wells were opened on the Kiskiminetas, and this trade fell off and Waterford's decline set in. (84) King sold 60 acres of his land grant to John Simpson in 1814 for $150; 82 acres to his son, Samuel, the same year, and in the following year 40 acres to his son, Thomas. In 1817 he and his wife conveyed 86 acres to their son, John, in consideration of an annual payment of $50 during the lives of the parents. (85) On April 18, 1818, he appeared before Judge Moore of the Common Pleas Court at Erie and made affidavit to his application to the Federal Government for a pension, reciting his services in the Twelfth and under Col. Hartley. The application was granted, and he is listed as a pensioner in 1820 and 1825 (86), and a pension was paid to his widow, Elizabeth, till her death in 1840. A leaf of his daybook is now in the possession of a greatgranddaughter. The entries in it seem to be principally of transactions with his sons and son-in-law. illustrate the range of prices a century ago. On March 4th, 1820, Peter Ford, a son-in-law is They Brown, farmer, to use of my canoe--------25c Robert King." $24.96 He died in 1826 and was buried on his own land. The tombstone that for many years stood over his grave designated him as "Captain." There is no evidence that he ever held such a commission. But doubtless he was often addressed by that title, like other leaders in the new settlements, and so he is commonly spoken of by his descendants. No better epitaph could be found for his final resting place than the commendation of his colonel: (1) "Robert King Brave Soldier and Good Woodsman". (87) REFERENCES AND NOTES Copy of Family Bible Record. 2) Froude's The English in Ireland: Lecky's Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, passim. (3) (4) (5) (6) C. A. Hanna's The Scotch-Irish, p. 177 et seq. H. J. Ford, Scotch-Irish, pp. 202-204. Papers of Mrs. Chas. Himrod. Jenkins' Pennsylvania, Colonial and Federal. Vol. II p. 568. (7) Linn's Annals of Buffalo Valley, p. 26. (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) History of the West Branch Valley by J. F. Meginness, pp. 39-40. Meginness' History of Lycoming County, p. 61. History of the West Branch, p. 43. Linn's History of Centre County, p. 12. (13) Annals of Buffalo Valley, p. 30. (14) (15) (16) Buffalo Valley, pp. 35, 201. Doddridge's Notes, Chap. XI and I. Beveridge's John Marshall Linn's History of Centre County, p. 16. (17) Buffalo Valley, p. 42. (18) Buffalo Valley, p. 44. (19) Buffalo Valley, p. 51.. (20) Warren's History of Cumberland County, pp. 28-29. (22) (23) (24) Bell's History of Northumberland County, pp. 88, 89, 95. Jenkins' Penna. C. & F. Vol. II, p. 28. (25) When the State Courts assumed a jurisdiction over this district many years later, Chief Justice McKean inquired about the Fair (26) Play system from an old Irishman, Peter Rodney, who answered, "All I can say is, that since your Honor's Courts have come among us, fair play has ceased." Meginness History of Lycoming County, p. 205. History of the West Branch, p. 192. Frontier Forts, Vol. I, p. 407. (27) Penna. Archives, 5th Series, Vol. VIII, p. 35. (28) Pension Application. (29) Pennsylvania Archives, 2nd Series, Vol. X, p. 775. (31b) Winsor's Hist. of U. S. Vol. VI, part 2, p. 370. (32) Winsor as above, p. 376. (33) H. R. Johnston's Campaign of 1776. (33a) St. Clair Papers, p. 382. (34) Pension Application. (34a) New Jersey Archives, Vol. I, pp. 383-6. (34b) Linn's Buffalo Valley, p. 167. (34c) Pennsylvania Archives, 2nd Series, Vol. X, p. 757. (35) S. G. Fisher's True History of the American Revolution p. 328. (35a) Egle's History of Penna. Chester County, p. 523. (36) J. B. Linn in Notes & Queries, Vol. II, p. 129. (37) Winsor as above, p. 381. (38) Lafayette-Sparks Mss., transcribed through the courtesy of W. Letter of Wilson King, Jr., May 5, 1921. (40) Penna. Archives as above. (39) (41) Do. (42) Do. (43) Do. (44) Winsor as above, p. 634. (45) (46) (48) Jenkin's Penna. Col. & Fed., Vol. II, p. 65. (47) Meginness' West Branch, p. 217. Buffalo Valley, p. 155. (49) Bell's Northumberland, p. 124. (49a) Pension Application. Shimmell's Border Warfare in Penna, p. 99. (50) (51) (52) Do. (53) (54) Colonial Records, Vol. VII, p. 640. Penna. Archives, 2nd Series, Vol. XI, p. 453. (54a) Egle's History of Penna, p. 1001. (56) Frontier Forts of Penna., Vol. I, pp. 381-5. (57) Winsor, as above, pp. 639, 643. (57a) Jenkins, as above, Vol. II, p. 69. (58) Shimmell, as above, pp. 118, 131, 139. (59) Bell as above, p. 518. (60) Linn's Centre County, pp. 20, 21. (61a) Bell, as above p. 519. (61b) Penna Archives, 2nd Series, Vol. XXIII, p. 260. Do. Vol. XX, pp. 375, 406, 540. (62) (63) (64) (65) (66) (67) (68) Family Bible. Do. Penna. Archives, 3rd Series, Vol. XXV, pp. 202, 203. Do. p. 479. Do. p. 480. (69) Penna, Archives, 3rd Series, Vol. XXVI, p. 762. (70) Family Bible. (71) Meginness' West Branch, p. 361. (72) Meginness' Lycoming County, p. 208. (73) Penna. Archives, 4th Series, Vol. IV, p. 165. (75) Letter Wilson King, Sr., Apr. 7, 1875. (75a) Meginness' West Branch, p. 201. (77a) McMasters' United States, Vol. I, p. 96. (78) (79) (80) (81) (82) (83) Note to 2 Smith's Laws, p. 205. Scott vs. Anderson in above note. Northumberland County Deed Book "I" pp. 321, 322. This John Wilson was a son of Hans Wilson who was the son of Nathaniel Wilson, all of Ireland, where the family had lived since the reign of Charles I. They were no kin to one, Woodrow Wilson, whose family came from Carlisle, England. An unusual story is told of John Wilson's wife's family: In the 17th century a certain William Warnick and Jane, his wife, at a watering place met another William Warnick and Jane, his wife, no known relatives of the first couple. Together they agreed that, if they had children, one a son, the other a daughter. the parents would bring them together; and so in time it happened that their children, William Warnick, Jr., and Jane Warnick, Jr., married. They had a daughter Elizabeth who married Hugh Bailey (an Englishman) and they had a daughter Elizabeth, born in 1740, who married John Wilson and was the mother of Sarah Wilson, who married Thomas King, and was the mother of Josiah, Wilson, and Alfred King and others. Papers of Mrs. Charles Himrod and the two Wilson Kings. (84) Sherman Day's Historical Collections, p. 327. (85) Erie County Deed Book "B" p. 602 and "D" pp. 582, 342, and "B" p. 696. (86) Pennsylvania Archives, 3rd Series, Vol. XV, pp. 696 and 725. (87) Considerable confusion has arisen because of the existence of another Robert King, a native of Ireland, a resident of Northumberland County and a Revolutionary soldier. "John of Lancaster" writing in "Notes and Queries" (Harrisburg) 4th Series, Vol. I. p. 179, asserts that this other Robert Kinghere termed the "Lycoming King"-was on Hartley's expedition and died in Lycoming County aged 90. This is incorrect, although W. H. Egle, in speaking of the 12th Regiment Lieutenant Robert King, repeats this error. This Lycoming King, was the grandfather of the wife of J. F. Meginness, the local historian so often cited above (see his History of Lycoming County, p. 1153), and whose son lived with Meginness when the latter wrote; the Lycoming King's grandson, Robert King Jr., was the subject of a biographical sketch in one of those histories. The historian of the West Branch makes no claim that his wife's grandfather held a commission in the 12th or any other regiment or took part in Hartley's expedition. Meginness, too, carefully omits the name of the "express" he records as having been sent by Mifflin to the Senecas in 1790, although his account of the Walker Tragedy is otherwise full. Doubtless, the Lycoming King was the co-hero with Covenhoven of the curious Indian capture (related in Sherman Day's Historical Collection p. 455) of the fruits of which, says Covenhoven, "the two poor provincials were cheated by the Continential officers" on their arrival at Sunbury. One of these officers was the Erie Robert King, as the Pension Application and Col. Hartley's report show. This Lycoming King was assessed in Mahanoy and Lycoming Township, Northumberland County, in 1785-1786 (Archives 3rd, Series Vol. XIX, pp. 635, 680, 710 and 788) while at the same time the Erie King was assessed in Point (including the town of Northumberland) and Bald Eagle Townships, same county, (ditto pp. 468, 758). The Pension Application and Family Bible entries giving the birthplaces of his several children should remove all doubt as to the matter of identity. |