Charles Wilson

of

Augusta County, Virginia

The farm of Charles Wilson in present-day Pendleton County, West Virginia.

Charles Wilson  was born in Ireland around 1710. He migrated to the United States in 1737, probably arriving in the port of Philadelphia. Charles Wilson appears in Augusta County, Virginia, on  the North branch of the James River, as early as March 9, 1745 as a witness to the sale of 200 acres by Francis McCewn to Robert Erwin. Also, in 1756, Charles Wilson was a witness to the conveyance of land on the North Fork of the James River and “Tees” Creek, in what is now Nelson County, Virginia. In 1756, Charles Wilson was appointed as a Lieutenant of the Augusta County militia. The French and Indian War began in 1754 and ended in 1760. During that period the Augusta Militia, under command of Colonel George Washington, constructed, among others, Fort Seybert on the South Fork, and Fort Upper Tract on the main South Branch, about ten miles northwest of Fort Seybert. Also in 1756, Charles Wilson is listed as a taxpayer in the “lower end of Augusta County” and as an appraiser of the estate of Jacob Zorn who, it is said, was the first settler to die in the South Branch Valley. 

In 1758, Indians (probably Shawnees) attacked Fort Upper Tract and massacred all of the twenty-one inhabitants and, on the day following, attacked Fort Seybert, laying  siege to it for three days, and finally capturing it. All of its inhabitants were killed or carried into captivity, and only one captive, James Dyer, ever returned.

By May 8, 1761, Charles Wilson was living in the Potomac Highlands on Kettle Creek of the South Fork of the South Branch Potomac River. This area was a part of the Fairfax Grant, land granted to Lord Fairfax by King Charles II of England, the county was surveyed by George Washington when he was 16.  This property, a few years later, lay partly in Rockingham County and partly in Hardy County.  

Charles Wilson died between 1768 and August 1775. On August 14, 1775, Joseph Wilson, Charles’s son, and wife Mary Sears sold to Charles Wilson Jr., their half interest the same land their father had purchased in 1761. The deed describes it as “..the one hundred and thirty one acres which was devised by Charles Wilson, deceased, to the said Charles and Joseph in joint tenancy”. Joseph, along with his family, then moved to the North Carolina “western country” and settled on Mill Creek (now called Carson Creek), a branch of Big Limestone Creek, in what is now Washington County, Tennessee.

Charles Wilson had the following children:

Charles Wilson (b. _1750)

Joseph Wilson (b. ~1734)

Isaac Wilson (b. ~1741)

Isaac Wilson was born about 1741 in Augusta Co., VA. He died on November 6, 1805 in Washington County Tennessee. Isaac Wilson was a resident, as late as 1775, of Augusta County, Virginia in a narrow valley through which the South Fork of the South Branch Potomac River flows west of the Blue Ridge. Between August 1775 and July 5, 1776, Isaac Wilson and his wife, Ann States, daughter of John States (Staats), moved to the settlement of Watauga in what would become Washington County, Tennessee. On the later date, Isaac Wilso signed the Watauga petition (Note: Two Isaac Wilsons signed this petition.) which pleaded for "anexation" and the establishment of government by the colony of NC over the area to become Washington County. By May, 1778, Isaac and Ann lived on the north side of the Nolichucky (Nonachunheh) River, below the mouth of Little Limestone Creek on land that which Isaac eventually purchased from Jacob Brown on November 24, 1778.  Because this title was not sufficient under NC law, Isaac entered a claim for the land, 350 acres, on December 31, 1778, and received a North Carolina grant, no. 256, for the land on October 23, 1782. (Roll 15, Book 4, p.176). (Note: This land bordered the land of John Crockett, the father of David "Davy" Crockett".)

Isaac Wilson and Ann States had the following children:

Abram Wilson was born after 1760.
Charles Wilson was born after 1760.
David Wilson was born after 1760, married Sarah Steele
John Wilson.was born after 1760, married Sarah Winberg
Ann Wilson. (11/20/1771), married Samuel Wilhite
Isaac Wilson (1776)

Isaac Wilson was born in 1776 in Washington Co., NC. He died in 1840 in McMinn Co., TN. Isaac, Jr. bought 350 acres from his father (Washington Co., Deeds Vol. 9, Page 351) on the north side of the Nolichucky River on November 6, 1805. He later added 151 acres to this on 6 Oct.1813. On 8 June 1828 he conveyed all of his land 521 acres to six of his eight children (Note: The oldest 2, Charles and John had settled 3 yrs. earlier in Monroe and McMinn Co.TN) Isaac's other children except Ann Wilson Copp, moved to Monroe and McMinn Counties in 1837.

He was married to Rosina Wilhite (daughter of Conrad Reuben Wilhite and Elizabeth Broyles) on Jan 16 1796 in Greene Co., TN. Rosina Wilhite was born on Nov 7 1777 in Madison Co., VA. She died in 1850 in Washington Co., TN. 

Isaac Wilson and Rosina Wilhite had the following children:

Charles Gillespie Wilson.
John Isaac Wilson.
Elijah Wilson.
George W. Wilson.
David Lawrence Wilson.
Susannah Wilson.
Solomon W. Wilson.
Catharin Ann Wilson.

Solomon W. Wilson is buried in the Wilson-Joines Cemetery at Chestua Baptist Church, Monroe County, Tennessee.