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Descendants of John Roberts

Generation No. 1

1. JOHN¹ ROBERTS was born Abt 1765 in Tennessee (N.Carolina). He married UNKNOWN WOOD.

Notes
A John Roberts in reported as serving on a Grand Jury in Casey County Kentucky in 1807. No Roberts, however, is reported on the Casey County property tax list until 1814. In that year an Edmund Roberts is recorded with an "estate" valued at $6.

A John Roberts is reported on the 1810 census for Casey County. Family consists of three males under 10 years of age, one female aged 25-45 and one male aged 25-45. This would place both John's birthdate and his wife's as between 1765-1785.

William Bryan Roberts note's indicate that his Great Grandfather Roberts was 12 at the time of his capture and that he remained with the Indians until age 17. Presumedly, this John Roberts is William Bryan's Great Grandfather.

If Asel Robert is correctly identified as the brother of John Roberts born 1801,
then this John Roberts is also his father. Asel Roberts' census record indicates that his father was born in Tennessee and his mother was born in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania birthplace for his mother matches with William Bryan's notes which indicate that his Great Grandmother (Unknown Woods) read from a "Dutch" (German) bible.

A Tennessee birthplace in Tennessee in the period 1765-1785 places John Roberts among the earliest settlements of that State.

My search for Roberts families in Tennessee in the period 1765 through 1785 has uncovered an Edmond Roberts who purchased land within the Sycamore Shoals Treaty Purchase, known as the Watauga Settlement in 1775. This is the area along the Holston River near Long Island and Reed(Y) Creek, now the present site of Kingsport Tennessee in Sullivan County.

A Henry Roberts name also appears in various land transactions througout the 1780's and 1790's involving properties along Reedy Creek.

A specific reference is made in Kincaid's Wilderness Road to a John Roberts family living on Reedy's Creek near Long Island off the Holston River. The family was attacked on September 24, 1774 by Chief Logan, a Mingo Chief from a village near the present site of Stuebenville, Ohio. Kincaid's report indicates that John Roberts, his wife and three children were killed and one "lad" was taken into capativity.

Chief Logan was a famous Chief and the the circumstances surrounding this raid are widely reported although the specific attack on the Roberts family itself is rarely described in detail. Tennesse pioneer, Arthur Campbell, himself an escaped indian captive visited the family Roberts family homestead within two day after the attack and wrote at least one description of the incident which is referenced in the literature, but I have been unable to obtain a copy of his report.

The "lad" taken into captivity may be the father of William Bryan's Great Grandfather. If so, and he was indeed 12 at the time of capture, this would place his birthdate at 1762, three years youger than indicated by the 1810 Census.

The earliest settlement on the Holston at this location was in 1771, the North Holston settlement, established by Evan Shelby, Issac Shelby, Anthony Bledsoe and William Cocke and thirty other unnamed families. Families, however, had been filtering into nearby parts of the frontier as early as 1761 and the boundaries of Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee were not clearly established at that time.---Gary Conley, January 15, 1996.

Children of John Roberts and Unknown Wood are:

2.	i.	JOHN² ROBERTS, b. 1801, Kentucky.
	ii.	ASEL (AISLE) ROBERTS, b. 1810, Kentucky; m. NANCY.
3.	iii.	HENRY ROBERTS, b. 1807, Casey County, Kentucky.
	iv.	"DOCK" ROBERTS.
	v.	UNKNOWN DAUGHTER ROBERTS, m. IVAN THOMAS.

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