William Anglin

William Anglin
1733–1803
BIRTH 31 MARCH 1733 • Virginia, USA
DEATH 1803 • Harrison County, West Virginia, USA
6th great-grandfather

I start this feature with a heartfelt thank you to our cousin, Cynthia Wilkerson.   She did much of the research that led to the story below and visited the site where William Anglin once lived.  I am indebted to Cynthia for allowing me to repost the details she uncovered and for allowing me to use her photographs.  Together, we continue to uncover our family's legacy.

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In our family's history we find numerous men with the name "William Anglin."  The English tradition in the 1700s and 1800s was to name the first born son after the child’s father’s father, the second born son after the child’s mother’s father, the third born son after the child’s father, the fourth born son after the child’s father’s eldest brother, the fifth born son after the child’s mother’s eldest brother or father’s second eldest brother. The first born daughter was named after the child’s mother’s mother, second born daughter after the child’s father’s mother, third born daughter after the child’s mother, fourth born daughter after the child’s mother’s eldest sister, fifth born daughter after the child’s mother’s second eldest sister or father’s eldest sister. And so on and so forth according to the naming rules of the time. This causes a great deal of confusion for genealogists as we try to decipher ancient records in our families' lineage.

The William Anglin that discussed in this post was our first Anglin ancestor to have been born in the Colonies.  William was the son of Adrian Anglin and Elizabeth Gates (Elizabeth was born in Virginia in  1707).  It is believed William was born around 1733 probably in the area of Goochland or Hanover County, VA.  William and his wife had several children; John, Isaac (who our lineage is through), Adrian,  Elizabeth, Samuel, and William.  The family lived in what was then known as Virginia, but later became West Virginia when the area was divided in 1863 as the results of conflicting beliefs about slavery.   

William Anglin held land in Barbour County, VA (WV) along the Tygart River, then called the Monongalia River.  This area was surveyed in part by George Washington who worked as a surveyor beginning at the age of 17.  Once a pioneer claimed bounty or grant lands, they were required to make improvements upon the land in order to keep it. William acquired his land in the mid-to-late 1770's, but his ailing elderly father prevented him from doing much to the property for several years. Several researchers who investigated court documents seem to think that William helped his father run his mill in what was Buckingham, Virginia up until Adrian died on the 25th of April, 1777.  We do find William listed in an early census type of record as still living in Buckingham County in 1779* so it makes sense that William remained in Buckingham County.  His mother had died in childbirth much earlier in 1738 so William had no ties to remain in Buckingham and returned to his land along the Tygart River  after 1799.  He lived there until his death in  about1803.  It was there that he ran an inn on the east side of the river.  One source said the inn was located near the area where a small white church sits now, near the entrance of the covered bridge.  Records show that William built a primitive fort, an inn, and was given permission, or more accurately, was ordered by the court to maintain a road to the ferry which he eventually ran across the Tygart River.  From what Cynthia was able to figure out by creating a timeline, the fort came first, but was primitive at best.

The few people who lived or traveled in this part of the state crossed the Tygart River at Anglin's farm; and thus the area was known as Anglin's Place. William Anglin owned all the land on which the current city of Philippi was built. As time went on and William ran the ferry, and the area became known as Anglin's Ford.

It seemed that out of necessity that William decided to run a ferry across the river in addition to running the inn.  It wasn't until a very famous preacher, called Bishop Asbury, came to visit and required the services of his inn, that William began to operate the Ferry with his son, Samuel, manning the opposite shore from his land.  Bishop Asbury was a traveling minister for the Methodist Church. He was widely liked and preached to whomever would listen to him. When they heard he was coming, large crowds gathered.  Bishop Asbury himself wrote the paragraph in one of his journals that would one day make William's inn embarrassingly famous, but it also gives credit for why William started the ferry.  Bishop Asbury was not pleased with the Anglin Inn's accommodations and he found them worthy of his criticism.

In April of 1789, Bishop Asbury's journal reads: "we had to cross the Alleghany mountains again, at a bad passage. Our course lay over mountains and through valleys, and the muck and mire was such as might scarcely be expected in December. We came to an old, forsaken habitation in Tygers Valley: here our horses grazed about, while we boiled our meat: midnight brought us up at Jesse's, after riding about 40 or perhaps, fifty miles. The old man, our host, was kind enough to wake us up at four o'clock in the morning. We journeyed on through devious lonely wilds, where no food might be found, except what grew in the woods, or was carried with us. We met with two women who were going to see their friends, and to attend the quarterly meeting at Clarksburg. Near midnight, we stopped at Anglin's, who hissed his dogs at us: but the women were determined to get to quarterly meeting, so we went in. Our supper was tea. Brothers Phoebus and Cook took to the woods; old Anglin gave up his bed to the women. I lay along the floor on a few deer skins with the fleas. That night our poor horses got no corn. and next morning they had to swim across the Monoogabela (the Indian name for the Tygart River). After a twenty mile ride we came to Clarksburg, and man and beast were so outdone, that it took us 10 hours to accomplish it."**

The crossing of the Tygart River upstream had been so hazardous, other writers say, that it is believed that Bishop Asbury asked that a ferry be instituted. One of the early documents in the courthouse was the one which gave instruction to William that he should maintain a road to the ferry. Bishop Asbury was considered to be persuasive in more areas than just saving souls, and apparently it was true. If he complained, changes occurred.  In later years, Daniel Booth established a ferry, which proved to be the best means of crossing the river between Beverly and Monongalia County.  Thus the ferry was used extensively, and the settlement came to be called Booth's Ferry, which name was used till the official renaming to Philippi.

To jump back just a bit, there is reason to believe that William's lack of hospitality and crowded conditions at the inn may have been understandable.  While there have only been two recorded incidences of Indians attacking European settlers in Barbour County, there were many uprising that occurred during the Anglin's era.  Many of the settlers abandoned their cabin numerous times due to uprisings or had to leave the county entirely due to the threat of Indian raids.  Bishop Asbury apparently didn't know of the dangers of these uprising or that an Indian attack had occurred only days prior.   It was reported that an Indian band had attacked a neighbor's homestead, killing all the members of the family except a young girl, whom they took.  Men from the area formed a scouting party, chased the Indians, and found the girl alive. They recaptured her, bringing her back to friends and saving her from a future as an Indian slave.  This likely explains why William Anglin was said to sic his dogs on anyone unfamiliar in the night.  And it possibly explains the poor reception the night visitors got in terms of food and care from a supposed inn.  There were others at the inn who actually left and my grandfather gave up his bed so the women could at least have a bed.  And Bishop Asbury who slept on flea bitten hides, at least wasn't sleeping on the dirt floor.  It must have been a miserable night for all of them, but chasing Indian raiders over several days of the past week, had not given William, who was about 56 at this time, much opportunity to be the pleasant host as Bishop Asbury expected.

William Anglin, his wife, and their family lived a life of true pioneers on what was then considered the frontier.  Think of Daniel Boone or Davy Crocket and you can envision the type of life the Anglins lived.   While life on the frontier held many challenges, William lived to the age of 71 or 72.  We see William's wife listed with a variety of names; Susannah, Jane Susanna, Anna/Ana.  It does not appear that any of the researchers have been able to agree on her first name, nor have they been able to uncover her maiden name or a marriage record for William and Anna/Susanna.   I have seen her date of death listed as 1810 in some instances, which means she would have been about 77 when she died, but most researchers have her date of death as unknown.  Researching women in colonial times is a difficult task as women were not typically property holders nor did they have the same legal rights as men.   I have spent the equivalent of several days trying to break through the brick wall, but remain unsuccessful in finding any verifiable details about my 6th great grandmother.

During the Revolutionary War, the settlers in Western Virginia were generally active Whigs and many served in the Continental Army.  William's son Isaac (my 5th great grandfather) joined the Continental Army in 1777.  You can read about Isaac in some of my others posts.  It was Isaac, who went into Yancey County, NC (Burke at the time) when he was given a land grant for his years of service.  Our ancestors have lived in this area for centuries and it is where my grandfather, Clifford Anglin, was born.  Isaac only lived to be 35 per family history and is said to have died in 1795.  He left little documentation of his life, but he does appear on the 1790 census, the first ever take by our new country.   On the 1800 Census, only his wife Nancy Anglin appears.  

William Anglin's Land Grant

Patrick Henry Esquire Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia,

To all to whom these presents shall come Greeting Know ye that by Virtue of a Certificate in Right of Settlement given by the Commissioners for adjusting the Titles to unpatented Land in the District of Monangalia, Yohogania & Ohio and in Consideration of the ancient Composition of Two Pounds Sterling paid by William Anglin into the Treasury of this Commonwealth there is Granted by the Said Commonwealth.

Unto the Said William Anglin asse of Jno Radcliff a Certain Tract or Parcel of Land containing Four hundred Acres by Survey bearing date the Sixth day of May one Thousand Seven hundred and Eighty five lying & being in the County of Harrison on the East side of Tygers Valley River on Pringles Ford including his Settlement made in the Year One Thousand Seven hundred and seventy three, and bounded as followeth To wit Beginning at two white oaks and running thence South eighty four degrees West one Hundred twenty two poles to a poplar North thirty degrees West fifty four Poles to a Beach on the bank of said River thence down the Same with the Meanders thereof Six hundred and Seven Poles to ared oak thence South twenty five degrees East forth Poles to two white oaks South fifty poles to a white oak South Eleven Degrees West Thirty Poles to the Beginning With its Appurtenances to Have and to hold the said Tract or Parcel of Land with its appurtenances to the said William Anglin & his Heirs for ever In Witness whereof the said Patrick Henry Esquire Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia hath hereunto Set his Hand and Caused the Lesser Seal of the said Commonwealth to be affixed at Richmond on the Twenty Seventh day of October in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred & Eighty Six and of the Commonwealth the Eleventh.

P Henry

Virginia Land Office, Grant Book 7, p. 204 – 206

*Ancestry.com. Virginia, U.S., Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1607-1890 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999.

**America’s Bishop: The Life of Francis Asbury. Darius L. Salter.