I am reading The Tinkling Spring Headwater of Freedom by Howard McKnight Wilson. On page 19 I found the following: "Between 1732 and 1738 the lands of the southern shenandoah Valley were settled without formal claim or title. However, the settlers staked out the lands each desired and settle upon them. Though they built their cabins and began to improve upon the lands, in the absence of claims they constituted a "Squatters Right". When Beverley secured the patent covering the same territory, it appears that he dealt peaceably with the settlers. Beverley needed settlers and the settlers needed legal titles to their homesteads, so he and the early settlers traded for an average of one English pound for forty acres. however, when the Augusta County Court was established in 1745 the price to new settlers was almost doubled.
Later in the book (page 25) the author says that William Beverley had patented Beverley Manor in 1736 and began selling land in 1738. Page 25 also lists families and where they were living prior to the selling of the land.
Then next page explain that Beverley had applied for his land in 1732. Soon there were neighboring settlements to the west and the southwest. The Borden grant was southwest. The Ephraim McDowell Clan arrived in Beverley Manor in the fall of 1737. Benjamin Borden followed only slightly after this date and received hospitality at the McDowell's for the night. He asked them for assistance in locating and settling lands to the southwest of the James River. Benjamin Borden had already been granted land by the Virginia Council. John McDowell (son of Ephraim) was a surveyor. He agreed to guide Borden to the land he sought in exchange for 1000 acres within the Borden claim. In Nov 1739 Borden obtained his 92,000 acres for 92 settlers.
In the same period, William Beverley was handling another claim before the council at Williamsburg for 30,000 acres on the tributaries of the James to the west of the Beverley Manor. He was in correspondence with Captain James Patton of Scotland concerning the securing and transporting of settlers. Did James Patton bring mostly Scotch-Irish or did he also bring Scots?
It is very interesting to me where James Patton was bringing in his Scotch-Irish passengers. His ship would dock at Hobbs Hole. It took a bit of research to figure out where that was. Unfortunately I could not find documentation for this idea. And there were other possible ports mentioned for the docking of James Patton's ships.
However, Tinkling Spring book says that the tradition that Patton made numerous trips to Hobb's Hole in Virginia, bringing Scots from Ulster, Ireland is not borne out by the shipping returns on the Potomac 1735-1756, where ship owners and ship masters were listed on both incoming and outgoing ships. Patton's name is found there only once and that, as master of the ship on which he brought his family among the ship's sixty-five passengers.
Those who disembarked upon reaching Hobb's Hole on the Rappahannock Ricer were Patton and wife and two children, John Preston and wife and four children, and some fifty-six personal and indentured servant. It is thought that these last were imported to seat the 30,000 acre tract on Calfpasture river . After this one-way voyage another ship master returned the ship and the Patton family stayed in Virginia.
And the maps on this blog post will help visualize the land described in the opening paragraph.
http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2022/04/shenandoah-valley-and-rockfish-gap.html
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