James McDowell, of Augusta County

Not the same as Lieutenant James McDowell, of Derry Township, his first cousin.

---

Biography

James McDowell, of James City and August County, Virginia was born circa 1715 in Raloo, County Antrim, Ireland. He was the second son of Ephraim McDowell and Margaret McDowell (Irvine).

He died after 1758.

---

https://leomcdowell.tripod.com/id32.htm

Another of Ephraim’s sons, James McDowell, took Benjamin Borden, Jr. to court in 1742 for slander claiming Borden stated: "Thou art a rogue and murderous villian, and I can prove it…". Borden wrongfully blamed James McDowell as responsible for bringing the Indians down upon them by instigating a dispute with the Indians. Both of Capt. John’s sons, James and his older brother Samuel McDowell, were Captains of the Militia and also Commissioners (Justices). James and Samuel were often reported, in records of the times, "ranging", a term used to describe the militia’s duty of patrolling the frontier, watching over the cattle herds and scouting Indians that may pose a threat to the community. Samuel later became the Justice for the County of Rockbridge and a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses.

James McDowell was a merchant, planter and storekeeper at his estate at Maryland Tavern, as well as landlord at the Borden Estates. Members of this 1st and 2nd generation of Colonial American McDowells fought as militiamen and Rangers in the French and Indian War and helped cover the retreat of the mortally wounded British Major-General Edward Braddock and his forces after the disastrous Battle of Monongahela River (or Braddock’s Defeat). In 1758, as the French and Indian Wars continued, then-Lt. Joseph McDowell (b. 1715) of Winchester, Virginia, (later of Quaker Meadows in Burke County, North Carolina) as a member of the Orange County Militia in Capt. Rutherford’s Rangers, received the following orders from Maj. George Washington:

To Lt. (Joseph) McDowell of Captn. Rutherford’s Rangers
June 17, 1758.

Sir:
Captn. Stephens assuring me, that so soon as the Prince William Militia are taken from his House, the Families there and in the Neighbours also, will immediately remove; I am oblig'd, having it no otherways in my power to Order a few of your Men to be station'd there in their place: you are not to put so many there, as to distress the other Posts you secure; and if (Captn. Van) Swearingen’s Division can afford you any for this place, I shall take care to Order some accordingly.

        I am, your sr.

 G.W.

(George Washington)

---

James was born about 1715. He was the son of Ephraim McDowell and Margaret Irvine. James was born 6 OCT 1709 in Antrim, Ireland.
James, the son of Ephraim, is often conflated with James of Derry Township in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, who died in 1746-47. Land records help discern the two men.
James McDowell of Derry Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania - THE OTHER JAMES James secured a warrant for 200 acres of land in Lancaster County on March 13, 1737. The land was surveyed in 1743 and shows that it was located Derry Township on Swatara Creek adjacent to Thomas Black. On June 3, 1756, James wrote his Will and named his wife Mary and 8 children. He died before September 1, 1747, when his Will was admitted to probate. In 1751, Mary was forced to sell the plantation (which she sold to Martin Brand) as she could not pay James's debts. Mary was then appointed the guardian of her 8 children in advance of her move to South Carolina and Thomas Black (her neighbor) was released from his bond - presumably the bond for Mary's service as executor of James's estate.
James McDowell of James City and August County, Virginia James McDowell received his first patent in Virginia in 1743, for 400 acres in Orange County on the south side of the James River. In 1750, he received a patent for 400 acres on the west side of the Blue Ridge in the fork of the James River. His brother John received several patents in the same area in 1742. James sold this same land in 1752. Some might claim that this James is James son of John, but James son of John was born in 1739 and so would have been too young to make these land transactions. In 1741, James was sworn in as a constable for Orange County, Virginia. From these records, we can discern that the James who was buying and selling the same land in Augusta County Virginia in 1743 and 1752, cannot be the James who died in Derry Township in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1746-47.

• Reference: WikiTree Genealogy - SmartCopy: Feb 8 2023, 17:23:09 UTC

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/McDowell-5758

---

James McDowell, the second son of Ephraim, had come here in the spring of 1737, planted a crop of corn and made a settlement on the South River in the Beverly Manor. Mary McDowell Greenlee tells in a deposition, taken in 1806 when she was of the age of ninety-five, (the paper still extant), how her father, her brother John, her husband and herself determined to start for this settlement. They intended to locate near John Lewis who was a relative and who had been a neighbor in Ireland previous to 1732. He had left Ireland a fugitive, where, it is told, Sir Mungo Campbell, an oppressive landlord, had attempted in a lawless and brutal manner to drive him from premises of which he held a freehold lease. Sir Mungo had slain an invalid brother in his presence, and was, in turn with a cruel henchman, killed by Lewis. Lewis first went to Portugal where he had a brother-in-law, and was advised by him to seek a safer asylum in Pennsylvania. John Lewis in the summer of 1732, had removed to Lancaster County to what was later “Beverly Manor” a few miles from the present city of Staunton. He named his place “Bellefont.”

---

• https://archive.org/details/sketchesofshelby00moon/page/40/mode/2up...