Elsom Family

Robert Elsom Killed on Clinch River at Gray's Island
                      By Emory L. Hamilton
                                
     From the unpublished manuscript,
Indian Atrocities Along the Clinch, Powell and
Holston Rivers, page 31.

     In 1770, William Herbert who lived on a
plantation called "Poplar Camp", at Herbert's
Ferry on New River in now Wythe County, VA,
acquired a tract of land on Cubb Creek, about two
miles below Dungannon, near a place known today
as Gray's Island.
     Herbert, himself, never lived on this land,
but brought out a herd of cattle to graze upon it.
Robert Elsom and his father-in-law, William Hays
came along to herd the cattle and improve the land.
Robert Elsom was listed as "Overseer" for Herbert.
Hays and Elsom built a cabin on the land at "a
spring that ran out of a cave", and lived upon the
land until Elsom was killed by the Indians
sometime in 1776. The writer has been unable to
find any details concerning the killing. In 1798,
Cubb Creek was known as Hays' Creek.
     Raleigh Duncan and his brother, John, (the
latter slain at Moore's Fort in 1774), settled on
part of the land claimed by Herbert in 1773 and
obtained a patent for the same by settlement right.
William Herbert, Sr., died in 1776, and his son
William Herbert, Jr. sold the land to Simon
Cockrell, a Baptist preacher. A lawsuit (1) for
possession ensued between Cockrell and John
Duncan, son and heir-at-law of Raleigh Duncan,
from which suit the foregoing facts have been
gleaned.

(1) Augusta Co., VA Court Causes Ended, Cockrell vs
Duncan.

Contact: Rhonda Robertson at: rsr@mounet.com

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