SHEPHERD PAGES
Descendants of Thomas Shepherd
of Ireland and New Jersey
Notice to all who venture here. The information found here may be changed from time to time. This is a work in progress and we welcome all information that will help solve this mystery-"Who are these people?" Nothing here is cast in stone. After reading some of the ongoing dialog from the past, we know how challenging this will be. The Shepherd's origin quest has been a subject of discussion for over one hundred years and probably even before that. So let us join the force of this new tool-the Internet- that those of the past didn't have to help in their research.
Distant rumors have it that there were five brothers of Welsh ancestry who went to or were born in Ireland and then came to settle in lower New Jersey. In 1683, five Shepherd brothers came to Burlington Co., N.J., from Clough-Keating, in County Tipperary, Ireland. Then they went to Shrewsbury in the Province of East Jersey. Four of the brothers settled along the Cohansey River, Salem Co., about 1690. They owned adjoining lands. They named the locality, Shrewsbury in remembrance of their first home in East Jersey.
In Ireland, these brothers were members of a Baptist Meeting at Clough-Keating, in County Tipperary. Their names were James, David, John, Thomas and Moses. We believe that Thomas Shepherd was the father of William Shepherd Sr. who settled Prince George County, Maryland. His brother, Moses Shepherd settled at Woodbridge, Middlesex Co., NJ.
To thicken the plot, Isaac and John Van Meter and Jacob and Sara du Bois purchased large quantities of land in Salem Co. about 1714, at a place called Pilesgrove. This is Pilesgrove twp., not too distant from the Cohansey River valley in south central NJ. One of the brothers, William, moved to Maryland and the Van Meters, the first explorers of the Upper Neck of Virginia, settled in Virginia, across the Potomac River from the Shepherds. In this area of New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. is where our story begins.
William Shepherd Sr. of Prince George County, Maryland and his wife Sarah sold 150 acres of land located "at the head of the Beaver Dam Branch that runneth out of the Eastern Branch of Potomack" (present day Anacostia River) with Sarah releasing her right to dower on 12 October 1717. William Sr. then bought a 150-acre tract named 'Charley Forrest' in Prince George County, Maryland from John Bradford on 18 December 1721 and sold the 150 acres renamed "Shepherds purchase part of land called "Charley Forrest" to James Brooke on 27 October 1739. Shown as Tract 21, Map 1 in the book "PIONEERS OF OLD FREDERICK COUNTY, VIRGINIA". Book by Cecil O'Dell, printed by Walsworth Publishing Company-1995-Marceline, Missouri. Sarah wife of William Shepherd, carpenter, released her right of dower and Joseph Chapline, Peter Rentfroe and John Shepherd were witnessees. William Shepherd Sr. and William Shepherd Jr. appeared on a "List of Taxables, 1733 Monocosie Hundred". Again listed on a list of "Those that had no tobacco burnt in Monoccosea Hundred August 1734". Probable son,William Shepherd Jr. was one of the petitioners for meeting houses to be erected to administrate in William's office as Presbyterian Minister of the Gospel in Orange County, Virginia in 1737. John Shepherd, filed a petition of dept against Lewis Thomas and Robert Worthington on 28 August 1742. John also filed a lawsuit against John Tredan on 13 January 1743/44 and is mentioned in a Frederick County Court Order on 9 March 1743/44 to "view a road from John Shepard's to head of Bullskin".
Thomas Shepherd Sr. was a man of vision and settled on the
west bank of the Potomac River above the only fordable crossing in that section
of the river. His land, 222 acres, was patented, Oct. 3, 1734. A little village
grew on the west bank called "Pack Horse Ford", and was marked on the maps of
the time as on the "Old Wilderness Road", the historic passageway to the
territory to the West, used since ancient times by the Indians. Thomas Shepherd Sr.
platted his town lots at this site and sold them the same as land developers do
today. Thomas Shepherd purchased 457 acres from Lord Fairfax on 12 June 1751.
This land was adjacent on the west of his patent land to present-day Mechlenburg
Heights at John VanMeter's (Thomas's father-in-law) 1,786 acre land patent of
1734. (Tract 132, Map 2 of Cecil O'Dell's book). The land then runs south along
VanMeter's east line to John Welton's 1734 patent of 442 acres at the southwest
line. (Tract 23, Map 1 from Cecil O'Dell's book). On the east side of his patent
land, Thomas purchased 50 acres from Richard Morgan's 155 acre Fairfax grant.
Adjacent to this 50 acres, he bought 32 acres from Fairfax on 15 January 1768,
east of today's Shepherdstown, about one-half mile along the edge of the
Potomac River. Thomas Shepherd petitioned the Orange County Court on 26 February
1737/38 requesting to be discharged as constable-Sherundo as soon as Richard
Morgan was sworn in his place. He built a grist mill and sawmill on his
222 acre patent land, and by 1776, he had a new mill erected on his 457 acre
grant land. Permission to establish a ferry across the Potomac River was
granted by an act of the Assembly of Virginia in October 1762 to Thomas and in
November 1762 he was authorized to erect the town of Mechlenburg. After his
death (in 1776) the name was changed by an act of the Virginia Assembly to
Shepherdstown. The first lots in the town were sold on 21 July 1764.
These were the times of George Washington, land surveyor and Virginia militiaman. Captain Thomas Shepherd Sr., based on the
records, was an acquaintance of George Washington. Voting records for the election of the Commanding Officer of the Virginia Militia exist showing that Thomas voted for George to be Commanding Officer.
His
will was written 23 March 1776 and was proved on 20 August 1776. He bequeathed
the sawmill and acreage to son William, the grist mill and acreage to son
Thomas, the new mill and acreage to son John, the remaining land to son Abraham,
two acres and house to wife Elizabeth, a Mechlenburg lot to grandson Thomas
Thornburg and 100 pounds each to his daughters Mary, Sarah and Elizabeth plus
lots in Mechlenburg to Susannah and fifty pounds to Martha.
Elizabeth's will was written July 10, 1786, and was probated June 18, 1793. It
is recorded in will Book #2 at Martinsburg, Berkley Co., WV. When Thomas, her
husband, died, he left a large estate.
Memorials to the Shepherd Family;
Sons of the American Revolution marker In
memory of Elizabeth Van Meter Shepherd, 1715-1792, wife of Thomas Sr.. A bronze plaque on the fence at the Shepherd Family
Cemetery; In memory of Thomas Shepherd-1705-1776-founder of Shepherdstown-Early American Settler & Patriot. Father of five sons who served in the
Revolutionary War. Placed by Lafayette Chapter,Sons of the American Revolution, Akron, Ohio.
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