Sheila- For example this is a chapter from a book I wrote on this family. William, born c1730 is the dead end at the moment-Dale William Sorrell and His Family
The Revolutionary War Period
During the Pre Revolutionary War period, William Sorrell and his family consisting of a possible wife, Ann, four proven sons, James Sr, Elisha, Thomas and Richard, a probable son, Joseph, and a possible son, William, lived in or near Culpeper Co., Virginia. Elisha Sorrell, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, enlisted from Culpeper County in 1777. James, the eldest brother, was living in Culpeper in 1780. Both James and Elisha appear in the Personal Property Tax Lists (PPTL) of Culpeper County almost immediately after the inauguration of the Tax system in 1782. Most of the information about the family in this period comes from the following sets of records which are covered in detail in the footnotes at the end of this chapter, which probably ought to be reviewed briefly before the reader continues.:
1. Footnote 1-1: Virginia Land Bounty records, consisting of affidavits in which Elisha is trying to claim land as a result of Revolutionary War service.(1-1) 2. Footnote 1-2: Virginia Land Bounty documents for the French and Indian War in which James Sorrell, the eldest son and heir at law to William Sorrell, is claiming the land bounty due William for his service in the French and Indian Wars.(1-2)
William Sorrell
I suppose that although proceeding backwards through the generations in a genealogy study is more common than vice versa, still we have a fairly unique case in the Sorrell family. The Sorrell brothers born around the mid 1700s are very well documented and we know a great deal about them. We know considerably less about the father of the brothers, William Sorrell. At the present time the Virginia Land Bounty documents mentioned above(1-2) represent our complete concrete knowledge of William Sorrell. In 1763 King George issued an order by which all veterans of the French and Indian War who had served since 1754 were to receive land for their services. This decree did not result in a land boom for the veterans as King George, in the decree, made all land west of the mountains out of bounds. Since most of the decent land left was in the out of bounds area, not many soldiers made early claims. In 1779, the newly declared free colony of Virginia put a statute of limitations of 12 months on such claims for Virginia soldiers. Pursuant to this limitation or perhaps co-incidental with it, James Sorrell, living in Culpeper County, Virginia filed a claim in the Culpeper Court in February of 1780 for the land bounty of his father, William, deceased. In March of 1780 a land warrant is found in the files awarding James 50 acres for that service. We can deduce a number of things about William from this set of records and guess a few more. First, and most important, this record establishes William as the father of James Sorrell of Culpeper and therefore the rest of the Sorrell brothers. It further confirms James Sorrell as the eldest son. We had deduced prior to finding this record that James was the eldest as he was declared heir at law for his brother Richard in 1784(1-1). We know by the primogeniture laws in effect until 1786 that the eldest son and eldest brother became heir at law to a father or any younger siblings respectively. The record further says that William served in the French and Indian War and was discharged from Lt. Colonel Gage's unit of Colonel Hackett's Regiment of "Regulars" in 1755. History tells us a good bit about William's service and we can examine the history of the period for clues to the life of William Sorrell. In mid 1754, on orders from Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, George Washington had lead units of the Virginia Militia to the Forks of the Ohio in an attempt to drive out the French. George's army and the French had tangled at Fort Necessity, not too far from Fort Duquesne, and the Americans had come out second best. Terms of the surrender had allowed the Americans to withdraw from the field pretty well intact and the units had marched back to Fort Cumberland. In November of 1754, Washington, frustrated at his attempts to recruit more Colonials and disturbed by the British Army's views on the rank of Colonial officers, resigned and went home to Mount Vernon. This left Adam Stephen in command of the Virginia forces at Fort Cumberland. During the winter months, Stephen evidently had some luck in recruiting . He recruited not only on the frontier, but by February 1755, he was back in Alexandria still trying to obtain recruits. Fortunately for us of the later generations, George Washington was a meticulous record keeper. The soldiers of his 1754 army are detailed by name, age, height etc in a series of returns and filed in a set of documents called the Washington Manuscripts. A set of these are filed in the Virginia State Library and I presume in many other places. Unfortunately there is no Sorrell to be found in these lists for 1754. The lists end in October of 1754, perhaps coincidentally with Washington's departure as Commander. Perhaps Adam Stephen was not so concerned with records as George seemed to be. The list of Colonial soldiers in the Virginia Regiment starts again in the fall of 1755, some months after the defeat of Braddock's forces in July 1755. Again no Sorrell appears in the 1755 lists. In summary, William Sorrell probably was not a member of the Virginia Regiment prior to October of 1754 nor after October of 1755. This means that he was either a regular member of the British Army arriving in North America in early 1755 or he was one of the Colonials recruited in early 1755 specifically for the Braddock campaign. For reasons to be detailed later I believe that he was a Virginian recruited in very late 1754 or 1755 and discharged in 1755 after the campaign had ended. In very late 1754 General Edward Braddock was placed in command of all British forces in North America and was ordered to proceed to North America and drive out the French. In addition to overall command of all forces, Braddock, himself, was to lead the attack on Fort Duquesne, held by the French near the Forks of the Ohio near present day Pittsburgh. In 1754 the 44th Regiment of British Regulars, the East Essex Regiment, was stationed in Ireland under the command of Colonel Sir Peter Hackett. With the 44th in Ireland was the 48th division under the command of Colonel Thomas Dunbar. These two regiments were ordered to North America to serve as the nucleus of Braddock's invasion force into Pennsylvania. At the time both regiments had about 500 men apiece and expected to “flesh” out the regiments to 700 men each by the recruitment of Colonials in North America. The two regiments embarked from Cove nea Cork in Ireland in January 1755 in 13 transports and arrived in Hampton, Virginia during the month of March 1755. Washington refused a commission in Braddock's army because he would have had to take a sharp demotion in rank to fit British views on the subject of Colonial officers. Stephen accepted a commission as a Captain and became the Senior Officer of the Virginia units with Braddock. Washington, himself, accepted a position on Braddock's staff. Immediately after landing in North America, the two British regiments also began receiving recruits from Virginia and Maryland. By the time Braddock's army left Alexandria, Virginia it consisted of the two regular regiments, the 44th and the 48th, both "fleshed out" to 700 men with the addition of recruited Colonials, nine Virginia companies of about 50 men apiece, which were designated by the names of their respective captains: Two companies of carpenters- Polson's and Mercer's; Six companies of foot (infantry)-Stephen's, Wagener's, Peyronie's, Hogg's, Cocke's and Lewis'; one company of light horse (cavalry); a company of seaman, and three Independent Regular Companies from the Carolinas and New York. So far in my research, I have been unable to determine just how the untrained Colonials, (by British standards), some of them from the Virginia Regiment of 1754, but many of them evidently just recently recruited, might have been integrated for actual battle into the British Regiments or whether they were. The bounty documents certainly place William administratively in the 44th Regiment but whether the Americans actually fought side by side with the British Regulars, were formed into independent units within the Regiments, or were all assigned to the American units, I don't know. The army marched from Alexandria up the Potomac River to and through Fort Cumberland in present day Maryland and on to the Monongahela river a few miles from Fort Duquesne. Braddock, on the advice of George Washington, who had gone along as an aide to Braddock, had detached Colonel Dunbar a few days previously and he was to the rear of the march bringing up the supplies and baggage. On the morning of 9 July, Braddock sent Lieut Colonel Thomas Gage (later General Thomas Gage who commanded British forces in America at the start of the Revolution) forward with a detachment to force the crossings of the Monongahela and guard them while the rest of the main army crossed. All went well until Braddock's main army had crossed the river and was approaching the rear of Gage's forward unit a half mile or so beyond the crossing. Then the French and Indians attacked Gage and drove him headlong back into the main army while the wagons in the rear of the army was pushing them from the other side. Chaos ensued with the British Army remaining in ranks in the road while the Indians and the French poured heavy fire into their ranks from the woods. A detachment of Americans broke ranks and moved behind trees also but the British Regulars mistook them for Indians and fired a volley into their backs killing most of them. In the battle and the subsequent rout of the British back across the river, Braddock, Sir Peter Hackett and his son Francis Hackett were all killed along with about 2/3 of the British and American troops. The remaining troops who made their way out of the battle were lead by George Washington back to join up with Dunbar and the remainder of the troops. All of them precipitously fled back to Fort Cumberland and then on to Philadelphia. We do not know, of course, William Sorrell's role in the battle. We know his certificate said he was attached to Gage's unit, and he may well have been with the advance party that Gage commanded on the 9th. He may also have been sick and left with Dunbar or left to guard a crossing along the way or any of a dozen other scenarios. One never knows for sure the activity of a common soldier on a given day of battle but the best bet is that he was with his unit where ever that was so most likely he was with the advance party. We know from the record that William was deceased by 1780. We believe he died in the Revolutionary Army in 1778 near Valley Forge, PA. For details see article on William Sorrell of the 10th Regiment later in the chapter. The record shows that James made the claim from Culpeper. It also states, that at one time, at least, evidence of William's service in the French and Indian Wars existed, perhaps a discharge certificate that William had received in 1755 or perhaps something that James had managed to get from the British Army files in 1780. There are some things, however, that we must not read into this set of documents. For example, we do not know from these documents that William, himself, ever lived in Culpeper. We do not know whether the land bounty claims had to be filed in the county where the soldier lived or whether the claim was made in Culpeper only because James Sr, the applicant, was living there in 1780. In fact we have no concrete evidence at the moment of where William and his family lived before the two proven sons of William, James Sr and Elisha, appear in Culpeper. This must be remembered as we proceed from the things the documents do tell us into the more abstract areas of inference and speculation. Proceeding from the concrete facts of the record to inference, we can use the records to make some inferences about William's age and marital status in 1755. We know that Elisha, son of William, said in his Revolutionary War pension application that he was born c1754. We know that James, eldest son of William, was older than Elisha, but not by how much. One could guess that James had to be born at the latest by 1752 to be born before Elisha's 1754. These two bits of information tell us that William was likely already married and raising his family by 1755 when he served in the army. Since William was already married with a family by 1755 it seems likely that he was one of the Virginians recruited to "flesh out" the units rather than one of the regulars coming over from Ireland with the regiment. However we can not even be certain of this as our research has shown that it was fairly common for the wives and children of British Regulars to travel with them and it is certainly possible that William and his family did arrive in North America in 1755. On the other hand we also know that British Regular soldiers enlisted for very long terms and served almost on a life time basis. The discharge William received in 1755 sounds much more like a Colonial being discharged after the reason for enlisting had passed than a Regular British soldier just coincidentally arriving at his date of discharge in 1755 immediately after Braddock's defeat. Part of our on going research at the moment is an attempt to get information from British Army files. We have been told by the Record Office in England that the muster sheets of the 44th "have not survived" to use their term, but we have not at this date plumbed the military history of the units involved or the time period itself in sufficient depth to state that this avenue will be fruitless. William was listed as being deceased by 1780(1-2). At his discharge from the army in 1755, he was most likely a young man in his twenties. Several facts lead us to this conclusion. First, we know that James Sr, the eldest child and Elisha were born in the very early 1750s, indicating that William was probably married c1750 and was likely a young man at the time. Also, a survey of several of the units in Colonial service at that period of time indicates ages of soldiers from their teens into the forties. This is a fairly wide spread for guessing William's age. On the other hand, roughly 75% of the soldiers in one fairly large sample were in their twenties, while only 10% were in their forties. In addition Philip Ketchum in his book, Winter Soldiers, in talking about the Regular British soldier says that the enlistment age for Regular regiments before the Revolution was 18-30. Thus an estimate of William’s birth of about 1730 is probably not too far off. The specific recruiting practices(1-9) for Colonials for the Braddock campaign are known and recorded. They call for recruits between the ages of 16 and 35. They also say that recruits must be "straight and well made, broad shouldered, strong limb'd, and with a healthy complexion". They also forbid the recruiting of all Irish unless the recruiters could be sure they are not Catholics. Taking all the above information into account, it weights the odds sharply toward the fact that William was in his twenties. Accepting this for the moment, it means that he was born about 1728-1735 and must have been fairly young at his death even if he died as late as 1780 itself, the latest possible year of his death. This means that William would have been in his late forties or early fifties and probably left a widow and younger children at his death. One might guess that even if William did not live in Culpeper, but perhaps a nearby county at the time, his widow and younger children might very likely have moved in with James Sorrell Sr, the eldest son, or Elisha in Culpeper after William's death. My guess is, though, that William, even if he did live elsewhere prior to the war, had moved to Culpeper before 1777 when the sons enlisted from Culpeper in that year. I further believe, with no proof at all, that the Ann Sorrell, who appears one year in the Culpeper Tax Lists in 1786, was very likely William's widow. Joseph Sorrell, later of Rockbridge County, Virginia was born to this family in the 1760s and first appears in the Culpeper Tax Lists as a householder in 1787, probably after marrying in Culpeper, or attaining the age of 21 or perhaps both of these. We believe that the scenario in which William's widow is living along with her younger children in the James Sr household in Culpeper makes it much more likely that Joseph is in fact another younger brother of the proven Sorrell brothers. We should mention again that there are no records that we have been able to find in pre-war Culpeper that mention a Sorrell family. However, it should be borne in mind that Culpeper had the traditional court house fire and any early records are essentially non-existent. If not Culpeper, where did the William Sorrell family live after 1755 and prior to the Revolution? We have one lead that provides a great deal of interesting information if the lead turns out to be true. Marshall Wingfield wrote a "History of Caroline County, Virginia". In this book, Wingfield publishes a list of Revolutionary soldiers "from" Caroline County. In a later book on the History of Caroline, an author named T E Campbell also lists the soldiers of the Revolution "from" Caroline. The lists are not identical, which perhaps lends a bit more credibility to them. Wingfield quotes no source or proof for his list. Campbell notes his list came from the Virginia State Archives, but a search by me and the Library staff in that library did not turn up any leads as to where the list had originated. In both of these unproved and uncorroborated lists, Elisha, Richard, John and William Sorrell are named as being soldiers from Caroline. Both Elisha and Richard are, of course proven sons of William. A John Sorrell did make a pension claim for his service in the Revolution and said he was born in Caroline, and removed to Spotsylvania County, next door to Caroline after the war. A William Sorrell enlisted about the same time in the same unit with Elisha and Richard and is undoubtedly the father or brother or other close relative; we personally believe he is the father of Elisha and Richard. We are in the process of researching the connection of William Sorrell and his family to Caroline County at this point in time. As mentioned above, IF we could prove that William was in fact a native of Caroline County, we do have one recorded candidate to be William. I have completed a great deal of research into the records of Caroline and I must reiterate that no such connection other than the two books cited above has yet been found by me, so that any such connection must be completely speculative at this time. In 1749 a John Sorrell died in Caroline, and in 1749 a court order in that county mentions three orphan children of John Sorrell, namely William, James and Mary, who were bound out. This means that the three children were under 21 and probably somewhat over 14 years of age in 1749. This indicates that William Sorrell of Caroline was born after 1728 and probably before 1736. This fits almost perfectly with our notions of William, the soldier, who was discharged from the army in 1755 being born in the late 1720s or early 1730s. However, later in our Caroline research we found another William Sorrell, born c1730, who died in 1814 in Caroline who may be (and is more likely to be) the William, son of John Sorrell. Thus the parentage of William Sorrell, father of James, Elisha, Thomas and Richard is still completely undetermined at this date of 01 Jan 2007.
Ann Sorrell
It is possible, but not certain, that we know the first name of the wife of William Sorrell, the mother of the Sorrell brothers. In 1786, only, there appears in the Culpeper PPTL (1-5) an entry for an Ann Sorrell. It was unusual then, (but not impossible) for spinsters to appear as heads of households. Before we knew about William, we had always believed that Ann was a Sorrell widow, but never had a husband with whom to connect her. Elisha and James, the two brothers, were the only adult Sorrell surnames appearing in Culpeper records until Joseph Sorrell appears on the tax roles in 1787. Although Ann could be the widow of some unknown Sorrell male, it is possible, even likely, that she is the widow of William and the mother of the brothers. She may have been living with James Sr after the death of her husband. Since we are reasonably sure that William was a fairly young man at the time of his death, it seems a good bet that both his widow of and some younger children may have been living with James Sr or Elisha during the 1780s in Culpeper. Why she was in her own household in 1786 is a mystery we probably won't solve. One could speculate however that it had something to do with the appearance of Joseph Sorrell, her probable son, on the PPTL in 1787. One could speculate that Joseph had gotten married in 1786 and he and his wife along with his mother, Ann, had moved out of James' household. However, since Joseph was only 20 in 1786, the household appeared in Ann's name in that year. After Joseph became 21 c1787, it appeared in his name instead of his mother's. Unfortunately, I believe it will be hard to prove definitively just who this lady was, so her relationship to William will have to remain in the realm of speculation.
The Children of William Sorrell
James Sorrell Sr
The eldest son of William Sorrell was James Sorrell Sr. (hereafter called James Sr to differentiate him from his only proven son, James Sorrell Jr). James Sr was born sometime before 1754. We know he was older than his brother, Elisha, who was born c1754 according to his pension application. In 1830 in the Bath County, Ky census an old couple consisting of a man 80-90 and a female 90-100 were living in the household of James Sorrell Jr which may or may not be James Sr and his wife. If this was James Sr and if the census report is correct (always doubtful) James was born 1750 or before. The first record we have of James Sr is the 1780 document(1-2) filed in Culpeper County, Virginia in which he as the eldest son and heir at law to his father, William, claims the land bounty due William for his service in the French and Indian War. We do not know when James came to Culpeper but he was there by 1780. We know very little of the marriage status of James Sr. In 1799 James Sr and his wife, Mary, sold some land in Amherst County(1-3), Virginia so at one time he was married to a lady named Mary. His daughter, Mary, was born c1780 according to later census records so evidently he was married by then. We have no record of James Sr serving in the Revolutionary War.(1-4) In the bounty documents, James swore that he was Elisha's brother(1-1), but says nothing about his own service. James Sr first appears on the Culpeper Tax Lists in 1783(1-5). James and Elisha were the only proven sons of William Sorrell that we know survived the War, unless, as seems likely, Joseph Sorrell, was a fifth brother. James Sr and Elisha lived near each other the rest of their lives, moving together from Culpeper to Amherst County, Virginia and finally on west into the Bath area of Kentucky(1-6) together or at least about the same time. We do not know exactly when James Sorrell Sr died. We know he survived his brother Elisha by at least a year as he was still alive in 1826, one year after his brother, Elisha, died in 1825. In 1820 Elisha had applied for and evidently received some land due his brother, Thomas, who had been killed in the Revolutionary War. In 1826, there appears a document(1-10) in the Bath County Court of June of 1826 in which James Sr is applying for the land due Thomas, which I had assumed Elisha had already obtained. I haven’t figured out the legal ins and outs of this transaction, but it seems odd that James Sr would be trying to get the land if in fact it had been awarded to Elisha.
Elisha Sorrell
The best documented of the Sorrell brothers is Elisha Sorrell. Elisha was born in c1754 according to a his pension application(1-7). He enlisted in the 10th Virginia regiment of the Continental Line in Culpeper Co., Virginia on 8 January 1777. (1-6) He served in the 10th Regiment from the date of his enlistment on 8 January 1777 until the Virginia regiments were consolidated in White Plains, New York in September 1778. The 10th became the 6th Regiment and the military records of Elisha are found under the records of the 6th. Elisha and his regiment marched north to Washington's main army in April of 1777. The 10th served in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth in the New Jersey campaigns of 1777 and 1778. In December of 1778 Elisha re-enlisted at Middlebrook, New Jersey for the "duration" of the war and went on leave until April 15, 1779. In the summer of 1779 Washington detached the remnants of the decimated Virginia regiments and sent them south to the Carolinas as a detachment under General Charles Scott to meet the British threat in that area. Evidently Elisha caught up with the detachment before the end of 1779 as he fought at the battle of Savannah, Georgia in December of 1779(1-7). We do not know exactly when Elisha was discharged, but it must have been before 24 April 1780 since he said in the bounty land application documents(1-1) that he was discharged by Colonel Richard Parker at Augusta, Georgia. Since Colonel Parker took a ball between the eyes at Charleston on 24 April 1780 and was killed instantly(1-9), Elisha had been discharged before that date. We do not know why Elisha was discharged prior to the "duration" being over in 1783. One could speculate, however, that by the first of 1780 he was sick of soldiering. He had been a Continental soldier for three years, fighting in several fierce battles, and seen two of his brothers and his father dead in the service. In addition, prior to enlisting in the Continental Army in 1777 he had spent 18 months in the militia. We could speculate that perhaps he used his original discharge date of 8 January 1780, did some tall talking, and conveniently forgot that he had re-enlisted in 1778. We could also be a little more charitable and believe that the Army also thought he had had enough and discharged him on his original date. We have no record of Elisha's marriage to an Elizabeth Unknown(1-7), but it seems likely he was married either while on leave in the spring of 1779 or shortly after his discharge in early 1780. One of his daughters, Nancy Sorrell Redman, is buried in the Ceres cemetery, near Roodhouse, Illinois(2-4). Her tombstone says she was born in 1780. We do not know if she was a first born but if the date is correct, it seems likely that she was. The first record we have of Elisha after the war is a 1784 entry in the Culpeper Tax Lists(1-5).
Richard Sorrell
Richard Sorrell, brother of Elisha, enlisted in the 10th Regiment of the Virginia Continental Establishment on the same day as Elisha, 8 January 1777. He marched north with the regiment in April but according to his military record(1-8), he spent most of the rest of his military service in the hospital. He died in New Jersey in November of 1777 just before or after the 10th went into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. We presume that Richard was unmarried since his older brother James Sr was designated his heir to receive his land bounty(1-1). If he had been married, his wife would have been involved in the estate. We know nothing else of Richard. We do not know his age(1-10), or marital status.
Thomas Sorrell
The record on Thomas Sorrell, the other proven brother, is even more sparse. Elisha said in the bounty land documents(1-1) that Thomas was "killed" in the war. Thomas served in the 1st Regiment of the Virginia Continentals. Since this Regiment was formed before the 10th Regiment, it is possible that Thomas had enlisted prior to Elisha and Richard's enlistment in January 1777. His military record(1-8) says he was in Capt. Richard Taylor's company. Taylor was commissioned in March of 1776. If this company was the only company that Thomas was in, it means that he enlisted after March of 1776. Between February and August of 1776, the 1st Regiment trained in Williamsburg, Va. and marched north to the New York City area during August of 1776. At least some of the Regiment was in the battle of Long island in August of 1776, and the disastrous battles of Harlem and Washington Heights later in the fall. After these defeats, The Regiment participated in the terrible retreat of Washington's beaten and demoralized army across New Jersey in late fall and early winter of 1776. The Regiment participated in the battle of Trenton, when Washington's army finally turned on the British and recrossed the Delaware to surprise the Hessians on Christmas day of 1776, but the names of the two American soldiers who were killed in that battle are known. A week later in January of 1777 Washington surprised Cornwallis again at Princeton and Thomas' regiment took heavy casualties in that battle including their commanding general, Hugh Mercer and their own commanding officer, John Fleming. Concerning Thomas himself, all is speculation, as his military service record consists of a single entry dated May of 1777 with the single remark "dead". We have examined the military records of Capt. Taylor's Company with some care to try to learn something from their content and format. Only three muster lists remain. The first one is the May 1777 list in which Thomas, along with four or five others is listed as "dead". I had never seen this designation in a muster sheet before. Usually there are a lot of "sick" listed as well as absentees, but no "dead". I don't know whether this particular muster sheet was sort of bringing the muster up to date in May or whether it means that Thomas was killed in May 1777. There were no major battles in the theater between Princeton in January 1777 and Brandywine in September 1777, but it doesn't mean that all fighting between the Americans and British ceased during the interim. Whatever the circumstances of Thomas' death, by May of 1777, just about the time Elisha and Richard's regiment joined the main army in New Jersey, Thomas was already dead in the service and buried somewhere far from home in the snow and cold of New York or New Jersey.
Joseph Sorrell
Joseph Sorrell was born in the mid 1760s according to the 1830 and 1840 censuses of Rockbridge County of Virginia, where Joseph later settled. He first appears on the Culpeper PPTL(1-5) with James Sr and Elisha in 1787. Probably he had attained his majority at age 21 at this time, had married, and set up a household. From his father's death before 1780 until c1787 he probably lived with James Sr in Culpeper. Since we believe that William Sorrell was in his 40s at the time of his death it seems probable that William's widow and any younger children would have moved in with the eldest brother, James Sr. We do not consider Joseph a "proven" son of William and brother to James Sr. We do consider it proven that he is the son of either William or of James Sr. If William turns out to be William the Orphan of Caroline, under 21 in 1749 and still bound, it doesn't seem that James could have been born before 1749. If so, he would only have been 16 or 17 at Joseph's birth in 1766 at the latest. On the other hand if James is only two or three years older than we think he is, it makes it possible he is the father of Joseph. We are quite sure that Joseph lived in James' household in the 1780s and moved out c1787 to form his own household. Whether he was living there as a son or as a younger brother is difficult to tell. At any rate, because we consider Joseph Sorrell, who later appears in Rockbridge County, Virginia from 1810 until his death in the 1840s a proven son or grandson of William Sorrell, we shall treat him as a son because that seems the best possibility at the moment, but to repeat, we do not consider it proven.
William Sorrell
A William Sorrell enlisted in the 10th Continental Regiment with Elisha and Richard just shortly after the two brothers enlisted in January 1777(1-8). His military record indicates he was sent on furlough in the exact same month that Richard Sorrell died in November of 1777. One could speculate that William was granted a furlough BECAUSE of Richard's death. A William Sorrell is also listed in Wingfield's book with Elisha and Richard as being from Caroline County. I believe all this indicates that William was very closely connected with Elisha and Richard Sorrell, maybe a brother or maybe William, the father. Evidently William never returned from his furlough and was declared a deserter in May of 1778. Although it may be that William was a brother or other relative of Elisha there also remains the intriguing possibility, even probability in my opinion, that this is William, the father. If William, the father, was born about 1730, as we believe, he would only have been in his late forties in 1777. It is possible that the old soldier, William, enlisted to go off to war with his sons. This notion is not too far fetched. In Michael Shaara’s book on the Revolution he points out that the militia facing the English around Boston in 1775 may have been untrained but that about one third of them had served in the French & Indian War, so had some combat experience. Although no definitive proof exists that William of the 10th Regiment is William, the father of James and Elisha, the evidence seems fairly conclusive. William of the 10th enlisted 3 March 1777 only two months after Elisha and Richard enlisted. So we start with the conclusion that William and Elisha were closely connected. Three soldiers enlisting in the same regiment at almost the same time from the same area might be a co-incidence but probably not. According to William’s service record he was listed as being “in hospital” or “tending the sick” during his whole stay in the army. He was listed as going “on furlough” in November of 1777, the exact month in which Richard Sorrell died in the same Regiment. Perhaps another co-incidence but co-incidences seem to add up to the close connection mentioned before. William never came back from his furlough, and was declared a deserter in May of 1778. One should note that this record is entirely in accord with a soldier dying and failing to report back to his unit at the end of the supposed furlough. Record keeping was very sloppy at the time and most units didn’t really know where many of their soldiers really were. A glance at history of the times gives us a clue as to what happened to William 10th. Soldiers of the Revolutionary Army considered a stay in the hospital as a death sentence and entered a hospital very reluctantly. They rarely made it out of the hospital alive. This, of course, had to do with the fact that the killers of soldiers in the Revolution were mostly communicable diseases of the Army camps occasioned by the close confinement of the soldiers, unsanitary practices, bad food, lack of food preservation methods, and lack of any real knowledge of how to treat such. These “camp diseases” were dysentery, typhoid, typhus, malaria, small pox and others. We can draw a couple of inferences from William’s hospital duty. First is the probability he was somewhat older than the average soldier as he was picked to tend the sick. Secondly the chances are better than excellent that he never left the hospital alive or was mortally ill when he did leave. Both of these inferences support William of the 10th as being the William, father of the Sorrell brothers. We know from James Sorrell’s bounty land application in 1780 that his father, William was dead by that date. William, James’, Elisha’s and Richard’s father would have only been in his mid or late 40s in 1777 as he was born c1730 by our best estimate. We have discovered in SAR records the record of a grave of a William Sorrell, a private from Virginia, who died in 1778 and is buried somewhere near Valley Forge, PA. Again a brief look at history helps with this entry. British forces originally scheduled to go north up the Hudson River in New York to link up with Burgoyne moving south along the same route from Canada were re-routed to the Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania in the fall of 1777. In October of 1777 Washington had attacked the British near Germantown a few miles to the north of Philadelphia. Several other minor engagements took place in this area. Washington had established field hospitals at various camps during these movements north of Philadelphia. In December of 1777, Washington and his troops moved into winter quarters at Valley Forge some 20 miles or so north of Philadelphia. Since Richard died and William seems to have disappeared from the 10th regiment in November of 1777, it is likely that both were in hospital at one of the various camps around the area, and it seems likely that William as well as Richard died there. Thus the 1778 burial entry in the SAR records fits William of the 10th rather precisely. A word about the SAR records seems in order here. In a CD listing these burials it gives the source of the William Sorrell information as SAR records dating from 1993. While in Washington, DC I checked these records rather carefully trying to find the original source of these burial data. I finally contacted the gentleman who was responsible for starting the program for these records in 1993. He told me that they had not included the source of such information for various reasons, none of which make any sense to a genealogist. However, he did say, that burial records generally came from a burial form that people had sent in to enter into the data base. He thought such a record probably existed for William but the gentleman had since retired and did not have access to the records. I called the library where such are held and the librarian was on vacation. I had a promise that when the librarian returned they would try to find a burial form for William. To date I have not heard from the library and still have that to check. So I do not know if any information exists other than a William Sorrell, private soldier of Virginia, who died in 1778, is buried somewhere near Valley Forge, PA. In summary the evidence points directly at William of the 10th Regiment as being William, father of the other two Sorrell brothers in the Regiment. William of the 10th was obviously some close kin to Elisha and Richard. He last appears on record in the 10th the same month that Richard died. William of the 10th was the only William Sorrell I could find from Virginia. Our William was an old soldier, veteran of the French and Indian Wars, who would likely have joined his sons, particularly as he was only about 47 years old at the time. Our William was known to be dead by 1780 and William of the 10th was dead in 1778. I have found in my research only one other William Sorrell, that might tend to fit the profile for William of the 10th. A William Sorrell Jr submitted a pension claim for service during the War of 1812 in which he said his father was a William Sorrell, born in Caroline in 1752 and a veteran of the Revolution. Of course, this William Sr would fit nicely as another brother to Richard and Elisha. However William Sr of Caroline did not die until 1840 so he obviously is not the William of the 10th. This, in effect, leads us to one conclusion that is supported by any record that I have been able to find so far. William Sorrell, father of the Sorrell brothers, enlisted in their Regiment shortly after they did, spent his time mostly in the hospitals and died and was buried near Valley Forge in 1778.
Summary of the Revolutionary War Period
In summary, the military records, pension and land bounty documents establish the Sorrell family in Culpeper by 1780. Although William, the father, is dead in the Army, probably in 1778, and two of his sons, Thomas and Richard have also died in the War, James Sr and Elisha appear in Culpeper about that time. We have no record indicating for sure that William, the father, ever, himself, lived in Culpeper. We do have the 1780 document filed in Culpeper in which James claimed William's land bounty(1-2). However, I presume that that document was filed in Culpeper because James Sr lived there at the time, and not necessarily because William lived there. We also know that Elisha, himself, said he enlisted in Culpeper in 1777. James Sr shows up in the 1780 Culpeper document and both of the brothers, James Sr and Elisha, appear on the tax lists almost immediately after the inauguration of the Tax system in 1782. It probably bears repeating here that we have found no trace of a Sorrell family in Culpeper before or during the Revolution except those cases mentioned. However, it should be noted that early records of Culpeper are sparse to non-existent because of the traditional court house fire that destroyed all the records. I have searched the Culpeper Court house and I am convinced there is nothing to be found there. I have searched the State Archives in Richmond thoroughly for Culpeper records. Although I have searched there many times, they have a lot of records at the State Archives and I never go there without the hope of finding something else. However, I am convinced there is nothing more there that will be easily found. There is no Sorrell mentioned in will, marriage, deed, or land tax records. They are not listed in the Tithable Tax Lists(1-11). They are not listed in the Culpeper Class Lists of 1780(1-12). I had been searching for three years at least for the parents of the brothers and only by blind luck did I stumble over the French and Indian War documents(1-2) concerning William. The French and Indian war military records seem like a fruitful area to explore and I am in the process of doing that now. Culpeper was formed in 1748 from Orange County, which was formed in 1734 from Spotsylvania. So Culpeper in essence derived from the Caroline-Spotsylvania area which is the focus of present research activity. Footnotes for Chapter 1
Footnote 1-1. Land Warrant and Bounty Land File for the Sorrells brothers; Virginia State Library and Archives, Richmond, Va. a. For Elisha Sorrell: LO 6389; Application made in June of 1820 from Bath County, Ky; Recorded: Book #3, pp 79 b. For Richard Sorrell: LO 3095; Application made on 17 May 1784 from Culpeper County, Virginia c. For Thomas Sorrell: LO 6420; Application made 10 Oct 1820 from Bath County, Ky. Elisha filed the application making a claim for the warrants of both Richard and Thomas
An abstract of these documents follows: From application by Elisha Sorrell in 1820 from Bath County, Ky.
1. 24 March 1820: Bath County, Ky- James Sorrell appeared before Peter Davis, J.P. and made oath that "his brother, Elisha Sorrell, enlisted for three years in the Revolutionary War, 10th Virginia Regiment commanded by Colonel Stevens, Capt. John Gilleson's Company" 2. 24 March 1820: Bath County, Ky- Elisha Sorrell appeared before Peter Davis, J.P., and made oath that "Thomas Sorrell, his brother, enlisted for three years as a soldier until he was killed in the Revolutionary War, 1st Virginia Regiment, commanded by Colonel John Green, Captain Richard Taylor's Company" 3. 24 March 1820: Bath County, Ky- Elisha Sorrell appeared before Peter Davis, J.P., and made oath that "his brother, Richard Sorrell, enlisted and served 3 years in the Revolutionary War, 10th Virginia Regiment, commanded by Colonel Stevens" 4. 24 March 1820: Bath County, Ky- Elisha Sorrell appeared before Peter Davis, J.P., and made oath that "he enlisted in Captain John Gilleson's Company of the 10th Virginia Regiment, commanded by Colonel Edward Stevens, for three years service, Continental Line; that he served three years in said regiment, was honorably discharged by Colonel Richard Parker in the state of Georgia and never received his land warrant. Appoints John Watkins of Richmond to receive his warrant when issued and to receipt for it in his name. certification follows by Peter Davis that "James and Elisha Sorrell who have sworn to these affidavits are creditable men" 5. 10 July 1820: Bath County, Ky- Henry Brother, J.P., certifies "from evidence adduced to me it appears to my satisfaction that the above named Elisha Sorrell is the reputed brother and one of the heirs at law of Richard and Thomas Sorrell, deceased.
The above documents establish the 4 Sorrell brothers, James Sr, Elisha, Richard and Thomas. Both Richard and Thomas died in the War and Elisha and James Sr survived to make their land bounty claims. At the date of these affidavits, 1820, both James Sr and Elisha were living in Bath County, Ky.
Also in the file are the following documents: 1. 17 May 1784: William Roberts and John Minor made oath in court (Culpeper County, Virginia) that "James Sorrell is heir at law to Richard Sorrell who died in Continental Service" (Culpeper County, Va) 2. 24 May 1784: Certification by the court that the representatives of Richard Sorrell is entitled to the proportion of land allowed a private in the Continental service. These two documents indicate that James had received Richard's land warrant from the state of Virginia almost 40 years before Elisha claimed it again in 1820.
Also in the file are the following documents: 1. 15 June 1820: Bath County, Ky- Certification in council that "Elisha Sorrell be allowed land bounty for three years as a private, Continental Line". 2. 15 June 1820: Bath County, Ky- Certification in council that "representatives of Thomas Sorrell be allowed land bounty for three years service as a private"
One other document is pertinent to the land bounties. In the June, 1826 Court of Bath County, KY, pp265 appears the following: On motion of James Sorrell, Sr it is proved to the satisfaction of the court that Thomas Sorrell died or was killed during the Revolutionary War and that a warrant issued to the heirs legal representative or devisee of the said Thomas Sorrell for 100 acres of land and that James Sorrell, Sr is his oldest brother and only heir at law.
From these two documents we can deduce that Elisha did receive his own as well as the land bounty due one of his brothers, Thomas. Evidently he did not receive approval of his claim for the bounty of his other brother, Richard. It makes sense that he wouldn't as his older brother James had already received Richard's inheritance almost forty years earlier. I am not sure of the legal implications of the final document quoted. Elisha, who died in 1825, had evidently received the land due Thomas in 1820. However, it seems, after Elisha’s death, his brother, James is trying to obtain the Thomas land. I don’t know why James would get it instead of Elisha’s heirs. Perhaps there had been a delay in awarding the land and the deeding had not been finalized in Elisha’s name. One could wonder why Elisha did not make a claim in 1784 for his own bounty when James Sr claimed Richard's bounty and why James also did not claim the bounty of Thomas at that time. We have to cast a jaundiced eye at Elisha's military record to explain why he did not make an early claim. Elisha had originally enlisted until 7 January 1780. In December of 1778 in Middlebrook, N.J. he re-enlisted for the duration. The war ended in 1783 and Elisha said he was discharged by Colonel Richard Parker. Parker was shot between the eyes and killed instantly in Charleston on 24 April 1780, so it is a certainty that Elisha was discharged prior to that date and prior to the end of the "duration". I suspect that Elisha conveniently forgot about the 1778 re-enlistment and went home in January of 1780. Perhaps in 1784 he was not too eager to have the army examine his record carefully. By 1820 the primogeniture laws had been changed and perhaps, also, Elisha felt reasonably secure by this time. He and James, both living in Bath County, Ky at the time could have agreed that Elisha could claim Thomas' bounty as well as his own since James had already claimed Richard's. Any restrictions on the original statute may have been eased over the years making Elisha's claim on Thomas' bounty valid. There may be other ways to explain the chain of events but here is one of them.
Footnote 1-2: The following records are taken from a file of French and Indian War Land Bounty Grants found in the files of the Virginia State Archives in Richmond, Virginia: Note: In 1763 King George issued a proclamation giving land to all veterans of actions in the French and Indian war since 1754. This order involved a sliding scale with more land for more rank. Privates received fifty acres, sergeants received 200 etc. However, the proclamation included a stipulation that the land beyond the mountains was out of bounds for the bounty. Therefore there was no rush for the land since most of the decent land left was in the out of bounds areas. In May of 1779 the then recently declared free colony of Virginia placed a statute of limitations of 12 months on such claims and also lifted the limitations on the land beyond the mountains. About 1400 warrants were issued.
1. Index Listing: William Sorrell....as a soldier in Col Hackett's Regulars; Issued James Sorrell his heir at law...... 50 acres- grant 719 2. Certificate 719: "At a court held for Culpeper County 21st day of February 1780: On the motion of James Sorrell, son and heir at law of William Sorrell, deceased, having produced a certificate from Lt Col Gage of Col Hackett's Regiment of the discharge of the said William Sorrell from service in the year 1755. Ordered that the same be certified. The same James Sorrell made oath that he believes his said father in his lifetime had never claimed any land for said service and that he has not since the death of the said deceased nor received any satisfaction for the same". 3. From: List of Colonial Soldiers of Virginia, dated 1916. Special report of the Dept' of Archives and History for 1913 an index listing occurs for William Sorrell, FIBW, 2, 308. This document is found in the Archives in Richmond. It is nothing more than a handwritten transcription of Certificate #719..
4. Land Office Warrant #719, also found in the files of the Virginia State Archives in Richmond, Virginia: "To the principal surveyor of any county within the Commonwealth of Virginia: This shall be your warrant to survey and lay out in one or more surveys for James Sorrell, heir at law of William Sorrell, dec'd his heirs or assigns, the quantity of 50 acres of Land, due unto the said James for military service performed by the said William Sorrell as a soldier in Col Hackett's Regulars in the late war between Great Britain and France. According to the terms of the King's offer and Britain's Proclamation of 1763. A certificate of which, duly proven is received into the Land Office. Given under my Hand and the seal of said office on this seventeenth day of March in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty. (Boldfaced type is either a direct quote or a handwritten part in a printed form)
Note: There is a misleading reference to this file in a book by Lloyd D Bockstruck entitled "Virginia Colonial Soldiers". He mis-interpreted "Col Gage of Colonel Hackett's Regiment" and his book reads of "of Colonel George Hackett's Regiment". If one reads the certificate, one can see how one might read "Gage of" as George but the certificate definitely reads "Gage of". The transcription by the Archive's project listed under #2 above also reads "Gage of". The error makes a large difference. Of course there is no George Hackett to be found in the records. I can say this with a certain degree of certainty since both the Virginia State Library staff and I spent many hours looking for a Colonel George Hackett before I found there was none. However, Lt Col Gage (Later General Thomas Gage of Revolutionary War fame) was in Sir Peter Hackett's 44th East Essex Regiment with Braddock's army in 1755 in Virginia and Pennsylvania. This allows us to pinpoint William's unit rather precisely.
Footnote 1-3: Amherst County Deed Books; Book H; pp391; A record exists for a sale of property by James Sorrell et ux, and his wife Mary to a Henry Hartless in 1799. In Amherst in 1799 were two James Sorrells, James Sorrell Sr and his proven son, James Sorrell Jr. James Sorrell Jr had married Mary McDonald the year before in 1798 so on the face of the record it could be either James Sr and his wife coincidentally with the same name as his daughter in law or James Sorrell Jr and Mary McDonald. However, James Sorrell received the land in a grant in Amherst in 1794. James Sorrell Jr was born after 1775 according to later census records and not later than 1777 by a non-definitive analysis of the PPTL of Amherst. Therefore he would have been only about 18 at the time of the grant and unmarried so it is much more likely that the receiver of the grant was James Sr and not James Jr. Mary was such a common name at the time and James Sr did name his only known daughter Mary, so it does not strain any probability laws to believe that James Sr's wife was also named Mary.
Footnote 1-4: Land Warrant and Bounty Land File for James Sorrells, Gunners Mate, U.S. Navy; LO 2066; Virginia State Library and Archives, Richmond, Va. The proximity of this file and that of the Sorrells brothers above may cause some confusion to researchers. James, the Gunners Mate, was not the James who is named in the files of the Sorrells Brothers as the brother of Elisha. Another file, a collection of records under the name of a lawyer by the name of Martin contains a series of affidavits that clarify the situation. One affidavit is by an Edward Sorrells, brother of the Gunners Mate, James. In that document, Edward swears that -"James lived in or about Northumberland County, Va. all his life before and after the war. This Edward of Northumberland County had a wife, Dorcas, and is undoubtedly the Edward, husband of Dorcas, who is to be found in the Revolutionary War Pension Application Files in the National Archives. To summarize, there is no record of James, the brother of Elisha, having served in the Revolutionary War or of having applied for or received bounty land for such service.
Footnote 1-5:
Personal Property Tax Lists of Culpeper and other counties of Virginia; Filed in the Virginia State Library and Archives, Richmond, Va. In 1782, after becoming a state in the new Republic, Virginia counties established a system of personal property taxes, not to be confused with the tax lists for those who owned land and paid taxes thereon. Each head of a household was taxed each year for the number of white males in his household (poll Tax), and other personal properties such as horses, cattle, slaves. These tax lists become a sort of yearly census for the county and although they contain no genealogical information, only the name of the head of the household, they are invaluable for finding and tracking families almost on a yearly basis. They are particularly valuable in tracking the Sorrells family since they almost never seemed to own land and appear on land tax lists. For some reason, of which I am not aware, there was no tax or at least no list for 1808. Also, occasionally, there appear year gaps in the lists for a family when it is known that the family did in fact live in the county that year. There seems to be no pattern or reason to these gaps and they probably are mostly the result of some sort of an exemption, simple omission, or laxness on the part of the assessor.
Footnote 1-6: In and about 1810 Elisha, James Sr and James Jr, as well as some of their children moved into what I call the Bath County Area of Kentucky. All through this narrative, for the sake of brevity, I shall use the term Bath County Area to mean Bath, Rowan, Fleming, Montgomery and Menifee Counties, all counties adjacent to Bath or each other. I shall use the specific county name when it is more definitive and appropriate.
Footnote 1-7: Pension Application of Elisha Sorrell; #S37190 of 17 June, 1818; Pension Application File of Revolutionary War Veterans on file at the National Archives and Record Service, Room 400, National Archives Bldg, Washington, D.C.
An abstract of the pension file follows: Elisha Sorrell stated that he is a private citizen of the United States residing in Kentucky. That he served as a private soldier for three years during the Revolutionary War. That he was enlisted in Culpeper County, Virginia for three years by Ensign Armistead Minor, was mustered into Captain John Gilleson's Company 10th Virginia. That he was engaged in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth and Savannah, but that his house got burned and his discharge in it. That he has no evidence of his services or discharge other than what is here sent and what may be found in the War Department. That he was enlisted about the first of the war say some time in 1777. (Actually 8 January 1777) because he served as a minuteman between twelve and eighteen months and then enlisted immediately. His discharge was at Augusta upon the Savannah river. That he is in indigent circumstances and has lost the use of his right arm and is totally unable to obtain a subsistence by manual labor which is the only mode of getting a living within his power--Wherefore he claims the pension allowed him by law. He declares he has here-to-fore received no pension from the United States. A Thomas Williams states he is well acquainted with the above Elisha Sorrell and knows him to be a very poor hard working man until the last twelve months when he lost the use of his right arm and now is unable to gain a living. He also testified that when said Sorrell first came to the neighborhood where he now lives he was the poorest man the affiant ever saw having a wife and five children with him. Document dated 17 June 1818. In a subsequent document dated 14 August 1820, Elisha said he was sixty six years old (c1754). He names three children living with him as John Sorrell, James Sorrell and a daughter named Phoebe Sorrell. He said his son John was of age and labors for himself. Elizabeth, his wife, was noted in this document as being 57 years old (c1763). Footnote 1-8:
The military records of Revolutionary War soldiers (Military, not pension) are filed on microfilm in Room 400 in the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.. These records contain information only on those soldiers who served in Continental Units. The files do not include the many if not most of the Revolutionary soldiers, those who served with various militia units for varying time periods. I have extracted the specific files on the Sorrell brothers and have included them verbatim in the Appendix to this Notebook. See the Appendix for the military records of Elisha, Richard, and Thomas, all proven Sorrell brothers and children of William Sorrell; Also included is the military record of a William Sorrell, who as the narrative states, has an unknown connection to the Sorrell family. I have no doubt that William is another Sorrell brother, or perhaps is William, the father, himself. The jury is still out on his relationship to the others.
Footnote 1-9 Pennsylvania Archives, Series 2, pp594-596- The Pennsylvania Archives Series is a series of many volumes found in many libraries. The compiler found this particular set in the Library at the National Archives, Washington, D C in Room 203.
Footnote 1-10 June, 1826 Court of Bath County, KY, pp265: “On motion of James Sorrell, Sr it is proved to the satisfaction of the court that Thomas Sorrell died or was killed during the Revolutionary War and that a warrant issued to the heirs legal representative or devisee of the said Thomas Sorrell for 100 acres of land and that James Sorrell, Sr is his oldest brother and only heir at law.”
