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Descendants of James Robertson

Generation No. 1

1. JAMES ROBERTSON⁴ (DAVID ROBERTSON³ SR., JAMES² ROBERTSON , JR., JAMES¹) was born 1759 in Virginia, and died 26 Apr 1838 in Romulus, Alabama. He married SARAH MORRIS HEADEN 4 Jun 1782, daughter of WILLIAM HEADEN and JANE.

Notes for JAMES ROBERTSON:
Roster of South Carolina Patriots in the American Revolution - Bobby Gilmer Moss p. 821

James Robertson S14341
B. North Carolina ??

While residing in the ninety-six District, he enlisted during 1776 and served under Captains William McClintock, Bowie and Benjamin Brown and Colonels Thomas, Sumter and Henderson (6th Regiment). He transfered to the First regiment under Capt Charles Lining. He was in battle at Fort Moultri and was taken prisoner. After one month, he escaped. Threrafter, he joined Capt. John Thompson and Col. Brandon and was in an engagement with the Cherokee Indians. He was also at the battles at Stono and Cowpens. ( Moved to Alabama)
A.A. 6501 (Audited accounts in SC Archives
Y163
N.A. 246 Rolls of SC Continental Regiments 1775-1783 Wash.,D.C. National Archives M246 Roll 89
N.A. 853 Lists of NC and SC Troops and Officers and Men of Continental Organization raised from more than one state. 1775-1783 Wash., D.C. Nat. Archives M853, Roll 16

A HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY, SC
UNION CO HISTORICAL FOUNDATION
A PRESS,INC. GREENVILLE, SC 1977

Person Receiving Payments For Duty Done in Colonel Brandon's Regiment
Prepared from Stub Indents by Claude E. Sparks

List includes names of David, Issac, Israel, James and Mathew Robertson
Early Settlers of Tuscaloosa Co. - James Robertson was a famous scout during the American Revolution and a terror to the Tories. After the war he settled in Pendleton District, SC. John Pendleton Kennedy describer him: "What a man I saw! Tall, broad, brawny and erect. His homely dress, his free stride, jis face radiant with kindness, the natural gracefulness of his motions, all afforded a ready index to his character. It was evident he was a man to confide in."
It is not known just when "Horseshoe" Robertson came to Tuscaloosa Co., but he was one of the founding members of Grants Creek Baptist Church Sunday School, the first Sunday School in the state, on 3 Feb.,1828. He was a large landowner in the county and several of his descendants are residents now in Tuscaloosa Co.
He is buried in the Romulus Community, about 2 1/2 - 3 miles from his home place. His tombstone reads: "Major James Robertson, a native of South Carolina, died April 26, 1838, aged 79 years, and wad buried here. Well Known as Horseshoe Robinson, he earned a just fame in the war for independence in which he was eminent in courage, patriotism and suffering. He lived 56 years with his worthy partner, useful and respected, and dies in hopes of a blissful immortality. His children erect this monument as a tribute due a good father, husband, neighbor, patriot and soldier. Name derived from a bend in a creek in SC."

Matthew Clinton Tusaloosa County's Early Days
In 1837 there lived in Tuscaloosa Co. a man who was famous in history and in fiction. James Robertson, better known as "Horseshoe Robinson" was born in CC in 1759. During the American Revolution he was scout for the Continental Armies in SC and a terror to the Tories. He moved to Tuscaloosa Co. soon after Alabama became a state. In 1835 John P. Kennedy wrote a novel entitled "Horseshoe Robinson". A copy of the book was sent to Robertson and Horseshoe said that the events related in the book were substantially true.
In the Jan. 17, 1838, issue of the Flag of the Union is the following acount of an interview with Horseshoe Robertson, then 79 years of age:
"The venerable patriot bearing this familiar sobriquet, and whose name Mr. Kennedy has made as familiar in the mouths of American youth as household words, was visited by us in company with several friends, one day last week. We found the old gentleman on his plantation, about 12 miles from this city, as comfortably situated with respect to this world's goods as any one could desire to have him...The old gentleman gave us a partial history of his revolutionary adventures, containing many interesting facts respecting the domination of the Tory party in the South during the times of the Revolution, which Mr. Kennedy has not recorded in his book. But it will chiefly interest our readers, or that portion of them at least to whom the history of the old hero's achievements as recorded by Mr. Kennedy is familiar, to be assured that the principal incidents therein portrayed are strictly true."
"His own name, he informed us, is James; and that he did not go by the familiar appelation by which he is now so widely known until after the war, when he azquired it from the form of his plantation in the Horse
Shoe Bend, of the Fair Forest Creek; which was bestowed upon him by the Legislature Of SC in consideration of the services he had rendered during the war--this estate we understood him to say he stil owned.
He was born, he says, in 1759 in Virginia??, and entered the army in his 17th year. Before the close of the war, he informed us, he commanded a troop of horse, so that his military title is Captain....The old gentleman received us with the warmest codiality and hospitality; and after partaking of the bounties of his board and spending a night under his hospitable roof, we took our leave of him, and sincerely wishing him many years of the peaceful enjoyment of that liberty which he fought so long and bravely to achieve."
Horeshoe Robertson was the great grandfather of Beatty Robertson, for many years president of the Tuscaloosa CityCommission, and also the great grandfather of James S Robertson, who was also president of the City Commission from 1949-1952. The grave of Horseshoe Robertson is in the family cemetary on the west bank of the Warrior River about half way between Foster's Ferry bridge and Sanders' Ferry. Many heroes of less worth are celebrated more. Proper historical tablets erected on Hwy. 11 and 82, together with road markers to the cemetary, could make the burial place a point of interest to many people.

Notes for SARAH MORRIS HEADEN:
Grant's Creek Church Records - Samford University Library

1 Aug 1828 - Received petition from our sister Sarah Robertson requesting this church to send a letter of recommendation recommending her Christian deportment since she has been in our circle of acquaintance to the Chauga Church in Pendleton District, SC.

NOTE FROM JOHN ROBERTSON:

I have been able to get a copy of the Shoal Creek/Chauga microfilm and find that Sarah joined before 1800 and "moved away in disorder" around 1821. She probable moved without asking for her letter. This explains her asking that a commending her "Christian deportment" be sent back from Grant's Creek to the Chauga Church. David and Jane joined and later moved away. There was a minor altercation between Jane Robertson and another sister that apparently was amicably settled. William and Elizabeth Headen Shed were members. William was chided once for non-attendance but later became quite active. "Females" Tomsey and Polly Shed eventually moved a way, but there is no record of William and Elizabeth doing so up through 1830.Her obituary (1-17-1838) said she had been a member of the Baptist church
for 40 years. See family of William Headon (nw SC, ne GA) for numerous
siblings. Her sister Jane married her husband's brother David Robertson.

Children of JAMES and SARAH HEADEN are: