Buitekant & Scheffer Family Tree » Joseph L Irby Sr (1728-1781)

Personal data Joseph L Irby Sr 

• He was born on September 10, 1728 in Culpeper, Virginia.Sources 2, 4, 5
• Alternative: He was born on March 10, 1727 in Halifax, Culpepper Co, Virginia, United States.Sources 1, 3
• He died on November 19, 1781 in Massacre at Hayes Station, Laurens SC, he was 53 years old.Sources 2, 4, 5, 7

  Age: 53

• Alternative: He died on November 19, 1781 in Massacre at Hayes Station, Laurens, South Carolina, United States, he was 53 years old.Source 1
• He is buried in Clinton, Laurens County, South Carolina, USA.Sources 5, 7
• A child of Joshua Irby and Mary Blythe

Household of Joseph L Irby Sr

He has/had a relationship with Mary Frances Carter.

Child(ren):

1. Moses Irby  1764-????
2. Pleasant Irby  1766-1856
3. William M Irby  1758-1828
4. Joseph L Irby  1758-1781
5. Elizabeth Irby  1778-1868
6. Moses Irby  1771-1849
7. Greaf Irby  1762-1781
8. Henry Irby  1767-1793
9. Carter Irby  1768-1837 
10. William Carter Irby  1775-1828
11. Charles Irby  1770-1833 

Notes about Joseph L Irby Sr

The Hayes Station Massacre, South Carolina, November 18, 1781
Joseph Irby, Sr. (1728-1781),
Joseph Irby, Jr. (1758-1781), and
Greaf Irby (1759-1781)
Joseph Irby, Sr., was a plantation owner who lived in Culpepper County, Virginia. He was a staunch Whig who fought the Tories in Virginia and South Carolina until the time of his death, which occurred at Hayes Station, South Carolina, where he and 2 of his sons were massacred by Colonel "Bloody Bill" Cunningham and his party on November 18, 1781.
"Bloody Bill" was a fanatic Torie loyal to the Crown. Even though the war was all but over, he set out on November 17, 1781 with 300 men in a raiding party that was to leave a trail of death behind them. On the 18th, he reached Hayes Station, which was a small militia station of 20 men commanded by Colonel Joseph Hayes. Among his men were the Irbys .
Cunningham´s raiders surrounded the Blacksmith Shop in which Colonel Hayes had positioned his men, and set it on fire. As the defenders surrendered, the women and children were separated from the men, which Cunningham and his men then proceeded to hack to pieces with their sabers.
There now stands a monument at the spot marking what is now known as "The Hayes Station Massacre".

After the massacre at Cloud´s Creek, Major William Cunningham rode to the house of his old commander, Major John Caldwell. When he arrived at the gate he hailed Caldwell. When the Major walked out and was within a few paces of Bloody Bill, the Loyalist drew his pistol and shot him dead in the presence of his wife. She fainted as she saw him fall. Bloody Bill crossed to the south side of the Saluda River and proceeded up the Cherokee Path. This was an old trading route to the Cherokee Nation. The Loyalists rode up the path to Anderson´s Mills, where they burned an abandoned militia post. Cunningham crossed the river and headed into what is now Laurens County, to Hayes Station. Colonel Joseph Hayes commanded the military station at Edgehill Plantation. Hayes had been warned of the presence of Cunningham´s force, but after a scouting expedition returned with no evidence of Loyalist activity he refused to heed any warnings. When Cunningham´s riders pulled up to Hayes Station Hayes barely had enough time to get his men in the post. Cunningham and his riders were described as all wearing "Lincoln green." Cunningham warned Hayes that if any shots were fired everyone would be killed. Inside the fort were two of Colonel James Williams´ sons, Daniel, eighteen years old, and Joseph, fourteen years old. Colonel Williams had died at the fighting on King´s Mountain. As the Loyalists approached someone in the fort fired a shot that killed one of Cunningham´s men.

Cunningham sent in a flag of truce and said that if the post surrendered he would spare all. Hayes refused to surrender, trusting that reinforcements would arrive soon. The fight continued for several hours until Cunningham´s men managed to set fire to the roof by shooting flaming ramrods wrapped in pitched soaked rags. They also threw irons that had been heated in a blacksmith´s shop nearby on the roof. Choking from the smoke Hayes and his men surrendered. Thomas Young wrote that "Daniel Williams threw his father's pistols into the flames, exclaiming that he would rather see them burn, than go into the hands of a Tory." Cunningham decided to hang all the Patriots on the pole of a fodder stack. When he was about to hang Colonel Hayes and Captain Daniel Williams, Joseph Williams cried out, "Oh, brother Daniel, what will I tell mother?" Cunningham replied "You will tell her nothing, you damned rebel suckling!" and he cut the boy down with his sword. The rope that was holding Hayes and Williams broke and Bloody Bill killed both of them with his sword. Cunningham killed one other man with his sword, swinging the sword until he collapsed from exhaustion. The rest of the prisoners were turned over to his men, who killed any that they had a real or an imagined grudge against. Only two of the Patriots were killed in the fighting, the rest were murdered after the surrender. One of Loyalists was "a man by the name of Love" who "traversed over the ground where lay the dead & the dying, his former neighbours & old Acquaintances, & as he saw Signs of Life in any of them, he ran his sword thro´ & dispatched him. Those already dead he stabbed again: & when others seemingly without Life, pierced by the point of his Sword were involuntarily convulsed with the pain, to these he gave new wounds; lest any in so dreadful a Calamity might sham death to avoid it." That night Cunningham camped at Odell´s Mills. The next morning he began his retreat to Charlestown. Cunningham knew that there were numerous bands of angry Patriots in pursuit of his "Bloody Scout." The nearest danger was Colonel Samuel Hammond and his men. Lieutenant William Butler was one of Hammond´s men and the son of one of the men killed at Cloud´s Creek. Resistance to the "Bloody Scout" had been slow at first, due to a lack of ammunition, but Colonel LeRoy Hammond and Colonel John Purves had transported a supply of powder and shot across the Savannah River just for the retaliation against Bloody Bill and his Bloody Scouts.

Batch #: 7019505, Sheet #: 60, Source Call #: 538535
Hayes Station Massacre
http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=document&guid=ae4adad0-14da-452d-9327-8b48183955f7&tid=13172520&pid=1519203342

Do you have supplementary information, corrections or questions with regards to Joseph L Irby Sr?
The author of this publication would love to hear from you!

Timeline Joseph L Irby Sr

Click on the names for more info. Symbols used:  grandparents    parents    brothers/sisters    children