Ft. Boonesborough

Fincastle County, Virginia was dissolved on January 1, 1777 and one of the counties created from the old Fincastle was Kentucky County, Virginia containing all of present day Kentucky.  When Fort Boonesborough was founded in 1775 it was in Fincastle County, then in Kentucky County in 1777 until 1780 when Kentucky County was split into Fayette, Lincoln and Jefferson Counties.  Fort Boonesborough would have been in Lincoln County at that time.  Fred Robertson had identified Alexander's party as being in Fort Boonesborough (the second major fort in the area after the earlier founded Fort Harrod).  However, Robertsons have not been identified as early inhabitants of Fort Boonesborough (see a reconstructed list of early inhabitants of the Fort at https://sites.rootsweb.com/~kycampbe/PioneersFtBoonesborough.htm).  Additionally, Fred's document seems to imply that Alexander Robertson married Margaret Robinson at Fort Boonesborough and that George was her father.  According to the book "Annals of Augusta County, Virginia, From 1726 to 1871" by Jos. A. Waddell, 1902; C. J. Carrier Co.; Harrisonburg, VA, reprint 1986, "Alexander Robertson...was born November 22, 1748, about a mile from Staunton, it is said, but the distance was probably three or four miles.  He married Margaret Robinson, August 18, 1773, in Bedford county...In 1779, Alexander Robertson removed with his family to Kentucky, and settled in Mercer county..."  So Alexander married Margaret 6 years earlier, and in Bedford County, Virginia rather than Boonesborough.  In addition, it turns out that Margaret's father was William Robinson who drowned in New River in 1765, and not George Robinson as implied by Fred.

While Alexander did not go to Fort Boonesborough, there were many other fortifications, often called stations, that were formed in this area within a short time of Fort Boonesborough's founding and could have been a destination for Alexander's party.  One, among the many formed, was Kennedy's Station in the Paint Creek area southwest of Fort Boonesborough (south of present day Manse, Garrard County, Kentucky).  I consider this area because of a book "Our Kentucky Kinfolks & Some Related Families" compiled by Lewis M. and Marilyn H. Owens of Lexington, Kentucky, copyright 1977.  Portions of what they wrote include, "Later in life, Mathew Robertson under oath stated, 'he arrived at Paint Lick Creek eight days before Christmas in 1779'.  In the spring of 1780, Mathew Robertson volunteered as a Private soldier in the Revolutionary War in Captain John Kennedy's Company and Benjamin Logan's Regiment.  He assisted in building Kennedy's Station, located in what is now Eastern Garrard County, Kentucky.  Mathew was with the group to assist in the Battle of Blue Licks.  In the fall of that year, 1782, he served under the same leadership in a tour under General George Rogers dark into present Ohio against the Indians.  However, his primary duty as a soldier was that of an Indian Spy, keeping account of the Indian activity in the area, and when the Indians did take property or prisoners, following and recovering the same.  After the tour under General George Rogers dark, Mathew Robertson took his post again at Kennedy's Station and remained there in the service until after 1783 when peace was realized.  In 1784, Mathew left Kennedy's Station with his father and went farming and clearing land.  In 1785 he along with Alexander Robertson, James Robertson, James Robertson, Jr., John Robertson, William Robertson, and others signed a petition to create Mercer and Madison counties out of Lincoln, which was done in 1786".  The article contains much more information, but I quoted only that which seemed to support Fred's narrative by identifying the same individual's names as Fred.  The oath the Owenses refer to is from Mathew's application (S31338) on April 29, 1833 in Russell County, Kentucky Circuit Court for a pension as a Revolutionary War soldier, for which he received $80.00 annually until his death.  This pension application also identifies his birth as January 12, 1762 in Amherst County, Virginia.  Mathew was not among the Robertsons in Mercer County tax lists because he chose newly formed Madison County for his residence.  The Owenses track him through the formation of counties in the area and have him in Madison through May 1799, Green County in 1800, Adair County from 1802 through 1825, then Russell County starting in 1826.

The foregoing dialog introduces a Robertson who is known to have arrived in the neighborhood ascribed as the destination for Stephen Robertson, and which occurred in the same timeframe of December 1779.  From the papers in the Revolutionary War pension claim S15620 of James Robertson it is stated he was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, date not given.  In 1779 he moved to Kennedy's Station in what was later Garrard County, Kentucky, where he lived four years.  He enlisted in the spring of 1780 and served until the fall of 1782 at various times, as Indian Spy and private, about two years in all, under Captains John Kennedy, George Adams, John Woods, Lieutenant Joseph Kennedy, and Colonel Benjamin Logan in the Virginia Troops; was in two expeditions against the Shawnee Indians on the Miami River and across the Ohio River, under General George Rogers Clark, and was in engagements with them.  He was allowed pension on his application executed February 18, 1834 while a resident of Breckinridge County, Kentucky aged seventy-five years, placing his birth in 1759.  It is not stated whether he was ever married.  Now James Robertson was granted pension number S15620 on March 14, 1834 on this application and was given retroactive allowance to June 7, 1832, the time Congress passed the Pension Act.  He was granted retroactive pay of $60.00 and $10.00 semi-annually under Payroll Number 26550.  On September 6, 1834 he filed an appeal for an increase because of his dissatisfaction with the allowance as he thought he was entitled from the length of his service to a greater sum and whereas others who were engaged in the same service had obtained much greater pensions.  He named his brother, Mathew Robertson of Russell County, Kentucky, who together with others had been thus favored.

Unfortunately these men are too young to have been married by 1775 and to have fathered Stephen, but it does illustrate Robertsons from Virginia migrating to the appropriate area of Kentucky and in the appropriate timeframe.  But nothing connects these Robertsons to Stephen.

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