Barton Scroggins, bef. 1767-aft. 1816

[Descendants]

Ancestor of the Scroggins of Madison and Macoupin Counties, Illinois

The Barton Scroggins who is the subject of these pages is generally believed to be the ancestor of many of the Scroggins and related families of Madison and Macoupin Counties, Illinois.  The purpose of these pages is to publish as much as I currently know about him for other researchers to verify and supplement. 

Several researchers have included Barton and/or his children in their "free" files at Ancestry's World Tree and Rootsweb's WorldConnect, he is included in two publications, is mentioned several places as ID number D23 in the "Scroggins10" files of The Scroggins Papers by William G. Scroggins, and is in the LDS Ancestral File as number RRZ6-WT.   If you have corrections, additions, or questions, or want a link to your page added, please e-mail scroggjm@erols.com. 

This Barton Scroggins (assuming the references are all to the same person) first appears in a few scattered records in the late 1780's in the 96 District, probably the area that became Greenville County, South Carolina.  He had military service in the Knoxville, Tennessee, area in 1794, and was married and appears in other records in Grainger County, Tennessee, northeast of Knoxville, 1797-1799.  He signed a petition in Robertson County (or possibly Montgomery County), Tennessee, in 1803 requesting formation of a new county (which became Dickson County).  He is mentioned in Dickson County records in 1806 and 1816; his daughter Minerva was born there in 1816, and his son Prior is mentioned in Dickson County records in 1817.  Barton apparently obtained land in 1808 in Hickman County (immediately south of Dickson County); the land was sold by the sheriff in 1809.  No records mentioning Barton after 1816 have been found.   There is one reference to a "Jno Scroggins" in Dickson County in 1826, but no mention of any connection to other Scroggins.

Map showing migration of Barton, his siblings, and his son, Prior.

Issues and Questions:

Parents.  Most researchers seem to agree that Barton was probably the son of Humphrey Scroggin (born ca. 1730) and Margaret Doggett.

•   Is there any hard evidence of Barton's parents?

Date and place of birth.  The first known records of Barton have him as a witness about 1787.  This suggests that he was an adult by then and most likely born before 1767 and thus before Humphrey sold his land on the Robinson River in Culpeper County, Virginia, in 1770.  Humphrey and family moved by 1775 to the part of Pittsylvania County, Virginia, that became Henry County in 1776, probably along the Smith River. 

• Is there any better or more precise evidence of a date and place of birth?

Migration, SC to TN.  Other researchers have shown than most of the known children of Humphrey and Margaret probably went with them from Henry County, Virginia, to South Carolina about 1783 or 1784, and to Georgia between 1787 and 1790.  Their son Humphrey (born ca. 1763), apparently stayed in South Carolina somewhat longer than the others and then moved to Kentucky before 1800, with or following his father-in-law, David Kirby.   Barton was in South Carolina in 1787 and in Tennessee by 1794.  There does not seem to be any record showing that he went to Georgia.

• When did Barton leave South Carolina for Tennessee?
• Did he go directly to the Knoxville area?
• Did he leave with the younger Humphrey or on his own?

Military Service.  Barton served in Donaldson's Regiment of Militia, Territory South of the Ohio in 1794.  The National Archives has three compiled military service cards for this service.

Marriage, Russells.  There is a Grainger County, Tennessee, marriage bond for Barton Scrogins and Dice Russell, dated December 27, 1797.  That seems to be the only record of the marriage--apparently there was no return, the return hasn't survived, or the marriage didn't happen.  Dice or Dicey Russell has not been further identified.  There were relatively well-known, but poorly documented Russell families in Grainger County at the time.  Some of those Russells moved to Dickson County (and possibly other nearby counties), probably about the same time as Barton; others moved to Franklin County, Tennessee.  There is a record of a Dicey Russell marrying Solomon Wagner in Barren County, Kentucky, in 1799; they later moved to Franklin County, Tennessee.

• Were there two women, about the same age, in the general area, named Dice or Dicey Russell?
  • If so, were they related and how?
  • If not, is it possible that the Barton Scrogins & Dice Russell marriage did not happen and she later married Wagner?
• Did Dice Russell belong to one of the Grainger County Russell families?
  • If so, which?
  • If not, where did she come from?

Grainger County, Tennessee.  "Barton Scroggins" is shown as being in Capt. Horner's Company in the 1799 Grainger County Tax List, and he signed a petition as "Bartin Scrogin" in January of that year.  Capt. Horner is probably Capt. John Horner who married in 1789 Elizabeth Russell, the daughter of Capt. George Russell who died in Grainger County during the winter of 1796-1797 and Elizabeth Bean.  John Horner's sister Esther married in 1802, Lewis Russell, younger brother of Elizabeth (see below for more about Lewis Russell).   John's brother George apparently married in 1802 Jemima Russell, another child of Capt. George.    Barton also served as a Grainger County juror on 24 Aug 1798 and 21 May 1799 and was security for the defendant in a Grainger County court case, 21 Aug 1798.  One online site refers to a Jemima Scroggins who was indicted along with Jane Bean in Grainger County in 1798, but does not cite a source.

• Dice Russell does not appear on any known list of children of Capt. George Russell; could she be related--possibly a neice or granddaughter?

Franklin County, Tennessee.  As mentioned above, some of the Grainger County Russells went to Franklin County, Tennessee (formed from Indian lands in 1807).  Also, Humphry Scoggins appears in the 1812 Franklin County tax list;   Russel Scroggins served in the army in 1814 from Winchester, Franklin County, and Gainum Scroggins appears in Franklin County records in the 1820's and 1830's.  In his will, Gainum Scroggins identifies his mother as Nancy Ann Kennerly, and Franklin County researchers think his father was a Scroggins, possibly Humphrey.  Nancy Ann's father, Spencer Reynolds [will], was an Oglethorpe County, Georgia, neighbor of  Barton's probable brother, Thomas, in 1802; and her father-in-law, Thomas Kennerly, was a neighbor of several Scroggins in Georgia before that.  There is some evidence that suggests that some of the people who moved from northeast Georgia to the Franklin County area did not go by any direct route, but went north into Tennessee and then south.

• What connections, if any, might there be among (1) Barton; (2) Bartons parents and siblings who presumably went to Georgia; (3) the Russells who went from Grainger County to Franklin County, (4) Humphrey, Russell, and Gainum of Franklin County; and (5) the Reynolds and Kennerlys who went from Georgia to Franklin County.

Robertson County, Tennessee.  Barton Scrogin appears on a January 1803 petition of residents of Montgonery and Robertson Counties calling for a new county to be formed.  Dickson County was created from those two counties later in the year [map].  Several Russells signed the same petition.

Dickson County, Tennessee.   Barton Scroggins was given leave to keep an ordinary in 1806.   He was mentioned in connection with road work in 1816.  His probable son, Prior was assigned road work in 1817.  No Scroggins are listed in the 1820 [transcript] or 1830 census of  Dickson County, but a "Jno Scroggins" was assigned to road work in 1826.  It is possible that "Jno" was John (1807-after 1850), the son of Barton who married Catherine Young in Illinois in 1827, but this is just a guess.

Hickman County, Tennessee.  Barton Scroggins received a grant of land in Hickman County in July 1808.  The land was sold by the sheriff in 1809.   The 1830 Hickman County census includes Smith Scoggins/Scroggins (ancestor of Loma Scroggins Patton), who was in Wake County, North Carolina, in 1820, and in Lincoln County, Tennessee, in 1850 [index].

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