Since our RICHARD JOHNSON-2 apparently grew up in and lived in Louisa County, Virginia, why did he enlist over and over again in the Hanover County, Virginia, ranks? Though Louisa and Hanover were very close together, there must have been some reason why RICHARD-2 went to Hanover to enlist. We may never know for sure just what his reasons were, but he did serve under Thomas Johnson, who was most likely the man designated as Thomas Johnson, “Minor.” A relative?
Thomas Johnson, Minor-iiii, was connected to the Hanover County families of Johnson, Boswell, and Meriwether, who had been security for RICHARD JOHNSON-2’s supposed grandparents’ wills. This family used and reused the given name of Thomas so frequently that the terms “junior” and “senior” were not enough to distinguish between men, so this particular man was designated “Thomas Johnson, Minor” to distinguish him from the several other men with the same name.
Hanover is a “burned county” and many important records were destroyed. The destruction of many of the early records makes genealogical research in Hanover “a challenge” at times. Fortunately for us, the British merchants tried to collect debts as late as the 1880s that were incurred before the Revolution. Some of the records of these investigations, law suits, etc., which they used to try to locate assets and heirs, gives some interesting information. The fact that these Hanover Johnson families used and reused the given name of Richard is also interesting to genealogists researching these lines.
Hanover County is about 30 miles inland from present-day York County, Virginia. The early gentry settled on the fertile land along the rivers, but it was also a perfect nursery for mosquitoes. In the hot summers, “the musketeaes are a sort of vermin of less danger [than others] but more troublesome, because more frequent,” wrote Robert Beverly. Malarial parasites were introduced at an early time by immigrants from Europe and Africa, first the mild type, and then the more dangerous Plasmodium falciparum, by which Africa got its revenge for black slavery. [Glazebrook, Virginia Migrations, Hanover County, VA, pg. iii.]
The settlers didn’t realize that the mosquitoes transmitted the disease, but they did realize that moving away from the tidewater area gave them a better chance to avoid it. The African slaves were less susceptible to the malaria because of the natural immunity conveyed to some blacks by the sickle-cell trait. The inheritance of this disorder was recessive. Therefore, for a child to inherit the deadly sickle-cell disease, a black child must receive a gene from each carrier-parent with the trait. One-fourth of the children of two carriers would receive two sickle genes, thus inheriting the sickle-cell anemia. The sickle-cell inheritor would likely die as a child. One child out of four would have no sickle-cell trait and would be as susceptible to the malaria as the whites. However, half of the offspring of two carriers would receive one gene, and have the trait, thus being immune to the malaria, without the deadly effects of full-blown sickle-cell disease. Carriers of the trait [one gene] would give the gene for the trait to half of their offspring if they had children with an non-carrier. Whites did not have this advantage. [Tierney, Current Medical Diagnosis & Treatment, pg. 429.]
Hanover County was named for the Duke of Hanover, who later became George I of England. It was created from New Kent County in 1721. New Kent lands were previously contained in York, and previously to that, part of Charles River. This helps to confuse the records and make research more “interesting” and “challenging.”
St. Paul’s Parish had been a part of New Kent County. That portion of New Kent was partitioned off to be the new County of Hanover. St. Paul’s Parish covered the entire county of Hanover from 1721 until 1726, when St. Martin’s Parish was divided off of St. Paul’s Parish. Many of the early records of the church vestry have been lost and county records as well. Part of St. Martin’s Parish also fell into part of Louisa County at one time. This adds more to the confusion of the records. Major Nicholas Meriwether was mentioned in the records of the parish in the very early 1700s when his lands were processioned. [Vestry Book of St. Paul’s Parish, 1711.]
Hanover County was an important area in the Revolution. It was the place of residence of Patrick Henry, and his father, the Reverend Patrick Henry, the pastor of St. Paul’s Parish.
In 1775, the Hanover Committee of Safety, which consisted of Patrick Henry and several other leading members of the community, led a group of men on the Gunpowder Expedition. It’s possible that most of the young men of Hanover who later fought for the Revolution were members of this group. [Glazebrook, Virginia Migrations, Hanover County, VA., pg. iii.]
During the war in Virginia, Thomas Jefferson was Governor of Virginia. He published a proclamation May 17, 1780:
placing an embargo on beef, pork, bacon, lard, wheat, Indian Corn, and other grain, or flour or meal, until the end of the present session of the assembly, to permit public contractors to procure supplies for the American troops and prevent the supplying of the enemy. [Virginia Genealogist, “Local Notices from the Virginia Gazette,” pg. 151. CD]
During the Revolution, property belonging to the Loyalists was seized and sold, and lands were returned to the State, or escheated. If the Loyalists tried to sell their lands before leaving the country and returning to England, the sale would, in some cases, be voided and the lands returned to the state or granted to others.
Though Hanover was primarily agricultural, the two most famous towns and trading centers of the colony were located there. Newcastle and Hanovertown contained merchants who traded with the people of the area and British ships called at their docks up until the start of the war, and after the war.