RanHam Tree » Joseph Lynch Martin , Gen. (1740-1808)

Personal data Joseph Lynch Martin , Gen. 

• He was born on September 18, 1740 in Charlotteville, Albemarle Co. Virginia.Sources 2, 3, 4, 5, 7

  Attention: Was younger than 16 years (13) when child (John Martin) was born (June 28, 1754).

  Attention: Was younger than 16 years (6) when child (Mary Martin) was born (??-??-1746).

• Resident in the year 1780: Albemarle County, Virginia, United States.Source 6
• He died on December 18, 1808 in Martinsville, Henry, Virginia, United States, he was 68 years old.Sources 2, 3, 7
• He is buried in Leatherwood, Henry County, Virginia, United States of America.Source 2
• A child of Captain Joseph Martin and Susannah Chiles

Household of Joseph Lynch Martin , Gen.

(1) He is married to Mary "Rising Fawn" Emory.

They got married in the year 1770 at Cherokee, Washington, Tennessee, United States, he was 29 years old.

(2) He is married to Susannah Graves.

They got married about 1779 at Cherokee Nation East, Verenigde Staten.

Child(ren):

1. Thomas W. Martin  1780-1865
2. Sallie Martin  1782-1813
3. Joseph Martin  1785-1859
4. Joseph Martin m Sarah Dalton Hughes  1785-1850
5. Jesse Martin m Ann Armistead  1786-1836
6. Patrick Henry Martin  1791-1815
7. Lewis Graves Martin m Alice Conn & Belinda America Rucker  1793-1877
8. Susan Martin m George W King Sr  1799-1867
9. Maria Martin  

(3) He had a relationship with Susanna Rebecca "Onodutu" Emory.

Child(ren):

1. Joseph Nûñnë'hï Martin  1790-1846

(4) He is married to Susannah Mary Emory.

They got married in the year 1764 at North Carolina, United States, he was 23 years old.

Child(ren):

1. Richard Martin  1758-1841
2. Benjamin H Martin  1772-1835
3. William Martin  1774-1830
4. Abraham Walker Martin  1774-1872
5. Elizabeth Martin m Carr Waller  1775-1843
6. Nancy Nannie Martin  1778-1837
7. Charlotte Martin  1779-1871
8. Nancy Martin  1784-1850

(5) He is married to Sarah Lucas.

They got married in the year 1762 at Virginia, he was 21 years old.Source 3

Child(ren):

1. Joseph Graves Martin  1760-1833
2. George Martin m Anne Wickiego Old  1763-1799
3. Elizabeth Martin  1768-1805
4. MARTHA COFFEY MARTIN  ± 1768-1819
5. Nancy Jones Martin m Archelaus Hughes Jr  1775-1846

(6) He is married to Susanna Graves.

They got married on February 24, 1784 at Henry, Virginia, United States, he was 43 years old.

Child(ren):

1. Nancy Martin hildebrand  1778-1837
2. Joseph Martin  1785-1859
3. Alexandra "Ally" Martin  1786-1860
4. Linzy C Martin  1793-1883
5. Mary "Polly" Martin  1796-1839
6. Lindsley D. Martin  ± 1796-> 1860
7. Alexander Martin  1799-1815
8. Susannah Martin m Benjamin Hancock  

(7) He is married to Elizabeth Betsy Ward.

They got married in the year 1776 at Cne, McMinn, Tennessee, United States, he was 35 years old.

Child(ren):

1. Mary Buffington Martin  ????-1851 
2. Mary Martin  1746-1778
3. John Martin  1754-1823
4. William Martin  1760-1832
5. Richard Fields  1760-1827
6. James C Martin  1760-????
7. John Lynch Martin  1762-1840
8. Susannah Martin  1763-1844
9. William MARTIN  1765-1846
10. Martha Martin  1767-1819
11. Samuel Martin  1768-????
12. Elizabeth Martin  1768-1805
13. Brice Martin  1770-1856
14. Mary Polly Martin  1773-1852
15. Ann Rust  1773-1852
16. Valentine Martin  1774-1880
17. Nancy Martin m Michael Hildebrand  1778-1837
18. Nannie Martin  1778-1837
19. James Martin  1780-1840
20. Alphedus Martin Hughes  1803-1878
21. George Wythe Martin  1805-1867

Child(ren):

1. Colonel Joseph Martin  1785-1860

Notes about Joseph Lynch Martin , Gen.

He was a son of Joseph Martin who was born in England, a son of William Martin.
His father came to Virginia and settled in Caroline County, where he met and married Susanna Chiles.
Joseph and Susanna moved to Albermarle County, VA.
===
They had four sons:
* Brigadier General Joseph Martin 1740-1808
Captain William Martin 1742-1809
Colonel John Martin of "Rock House" in Rockingham County, N.C.
Captain Brice Martin
===
The city of Martinsville, VA. is named for General Joseph Martin.
===
Joseph Martin (1740-1808) was a Brigadier General in the Virginia Militia during the American Revolutionary War, in which Martins' frontier diplomacy with the Cherokee Indian Nation is credited with averting Indian attacks on the Scotch-Irish settlers who won the battles of Kings' Mountain and Cowpens, hastening the Continental Army victory. Martin was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, and later lived on his plantation "Scuffle Hill" near the Smith River in Henry County, Virginia, not far from the 10,000-acre Leatherwood plantation of his friend, Governor Patrick Henry, who appointed him Virginias' Agent to the Cherokee Nation in 1777.
Martin served in the legislatures of several Southern states, and was a longhunter, pioneer, Indian trader and real estate speculator who attempted one of the earliest settlements of what became the state of Tennessee.
===
Another of his sons, Patrick Henry Martin, Joseph Martin named after his friend and sometime neighbor, Governor Henry.
After helping adjudicate the western boundary line between North Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia as far as the Cumberland Mountains, General Martin retired to his Belle Mont plantation at Leatherwood, which he purchased in 1796 from Benjamin Harrison V of Berkeley Plantation.
General Joseph Martin died at his Leatherwood plantation in 1808, and was buried in the family cemetery there. Buried alongside him at the graveyard at Belmont are three other Joseph Martins: Colonel Joseph Martin, son of the general, and his son Joseph and grandson Joseph, who lived at Greenwood plantation.
===
Initially known as Henry Courthouse, the town of Martinsville, Virginia was later renamed in honor of this early soldier, planter, pioneer and real estate speculator.
For many years afterwards, General Martin remained an obscure figure, until Lyman Draper began collecting reminiscences about him, including those of Major John Redd, a prominent Henry County planter who served under Martin, and who also wrote about his early recollections of General Nathaniel Greene, George Rogers Clark, Daniel Boone, Col. Benjamin Cleveland, Dr. John Walker, and other early prominent Virginia figures.
===
Col. William Martin was a son of General Joseph Martin.
Joseph Martin had 18 children by his two wives and his Cherokee common law wife.
Martins' descendants include his eldest son Col. William Martin, Tennessee pioneer, and member of the South Carolina and Georgia legislatures.
===
Nancy Ward (mother of Elizabeth Ward, Josephs' 3rd wife)was born in the Cherokee town of Chota and was a member of the Wolf Clan. Her mother, whose actual name is not known, is often called Tame Doe and was a sister of Attakullakulla.[1] Her father was probably part Delaware, also known as the Lenape. Her first husband was the Cherokee man Kingfisher. Nanyehi and Kingfisher fought side by side at the Battle of Taliwa against the Creeks in 1755. When he was killed, she took up his rifle and led the Cherokee to victory. This was the action which, at the age of 18, gave her the title of Ghigau.
Nancy Ward and her husband Kingfisher had two children, Catherine and Fivekiller. Nancy then married Bryant Ward, a South Carolina colonist and Indian trader, and their child was Elizabeth Ward, the Cherokee wife of General Joseph Martin.
In the Revolutionary War, Ward warned the whites of an impending attack by Dragging Canoe, an act that has made her a Patriot for the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Nancy had the power to spare captives. In 1776, following a Cherokee attack on the Fort Watauga settlement on the Watauga River (at present day Elizabethton, Tennessee), she used that power to spare a Mrs. William (Lydia Russell) Bean, whom she took into her house and nursed back to health from injuries suffered in the battle.
Mrs. Bean taught Nanyehi her new loom weave technique, revolutionizing the Cherokee garments, which at the time were a combination of hides, handwoven vegetable fiber cloth, bought from traders. But this weaving revolution also changed the roles of women in the Cherokee society, as they took on the weaving and left men to do the planting, which had traditionally been a womans' job.
Mrs. Bean also rescued two of her dairy cows from the settlement, and brought them to Nanyehi. Nanyhi learned to raise the cattle and to eat dairy products, which would sustain the Cherokee when hunting was bad.
The combination of loom weaving and dairy farming helped transform Cherokee society from a communal agricultural society into a society very similar to that of their European-American neighbors, with family plots and the need for ever-more labor. Thus some Cherokee adopted the practice of chattel slavery. Nanyehi was among the first Cherokee to own African-American slaves.
===
A monument was errected in 2008 on the old Henry Courthouse square in Martinsville, VA.
It is not Gen. Joseph Martins' tombstone.... it is located at the Martin Cemetery, Leatherwood, Henry County, VA.
===
Gen. Joseph Martin was a colorful, self-willed man with a fine sense of honor. He joined the Virginia militia when he was sixteen years old; was a long hunter; gambler; Indian fighter; Colonial and
Revolutionary War officer; and a great diplomat.
He was the Brigadier General for both the Washington District of North Carolina and the Virginia Militia.
He spent a short time in Georgia on duty for North Carolina and was elected to the Georgia legislature.
He was also a Representative for Sullivian County in North Carolina legislature during the turbulent State of Franklin years and was undoubtedly the most influential person of his time to defeat the State of Franklin from becoming a permanent State.
In 1789 he sold his lands in Powell Valley (Ewing, Va.), and at Long Island (Kingsport, Tenn.) returning to his plantation located on Leatherwood Creek, near present day Martinsville, Va. (Henry County). Having spent thirteen years living in the Cherokee Wilderness lands as the peacemaker,Indian Agent and Revoluntary War General, the wilderness lost their most colorful resident, a man of remarkable abilities and great courage. In the summer of 1808 Gen. Martin made his last journey. The sixty-eight year old soldier made the long trek to the old frontier, passing through Long Island (Kingsport, Tenn.), to the Indian towns, armed with a safe-conduct pass from the Secretary of War. In the autumn of 1808, worn out and feeble, he returned to Virginia. He "took to his bed, never to rise again, and quietly died on December 18th after a life rich in every detail." He was sorely missed, not only by the white settlers but by the Indians, all
whom he had so faithfully served.
Charlotteville, Albermarle County in that state, where their third son Joseph Jr., was born in 1740. Joseph Jr. became a fur trader and planter, and amassed a great deal of wealth. He was elected Captain of the Transylvania Militia in 1776, became Major February 17, 1779, Lieutenant Colonel in March 1781. His activities were directed against the loyalist (Tory) English, Cherokees and others ofthe allies in the country west of the Alleghany Mountains, they having been stirred to violence by a letter of May 9, 1776 from the British Superintendent of Southern Indian Affairs, calling on them for concerted action in killing men, women, and children of the Revolutionists and their sympathizers (*Captain John Stuart, who was a Scot, later married a quarter blood Cherokee named Susannah Emory, and has many mixed blood descendants.Their son was called "Oo-no-dut, or Oo-no-duti ("bushyhead" because of his head of extra curly hair, and his descendants are the Bushyhead families of the Cherokee Nation*). Continuing: "The south had been practically subjugated by the summer of 1780, and it was only by the efforts of such transmountain patriots as Colonel Joseph Martin that it was possible for part of the soldiers to strike and destroy Ferguson at King's Mountain, October 7, 1780 and thereby turn the tide in favor of the Americans. (*Most historians and documents of the Revolutionary war concur that the Battle of Kings Mountain in NC was the turning point of the war. If you want to see it in technicolor, rent "The Patriot" starring Mel Gibson. On the gory side, but fairly close to the real deal, riveting, and well acted. Also very long, but you don't notice it. The Smithsonian consulted on the movie, although it did seem to use a little license in some areas I am familiar with. It seemed to use parts of the Battle of the Cowpens and Kings Mt. together. Banastre Tarleton is conveniently referred to as "Tavington", but most RW buffs didn't having any problem getting the drift). Anyway, continuing from Starr: "Colonel Martin was not at King's Mountain, as he was busy holding the British allies of the West at bay. He was elected Brigadier General of the North Carolina Militia by legislature on December 15, 1787, and was commissioned Brigadier General of the Twentieth Brigade of Virginia Militia by Governor Henry Lee of Virginia on December 11, 1793. Martinsville, county seat of Henry County, VA and the place of his residence, was named for him. He visited the Cherokee Nation in 1808. Shortly after his visit and return home, died on December 18, 1808, and was buried with military and Masonic honors. His brother Brice, named for his father's ship, was a Major in the Creek War. His nephew Brice Hammack was a resident of Warren County, Missouri. General Joseph Martin married Susannah Fields, nee Emory, and their children were: John, born October 20, 1781, first Treasurer of the Cherokee Nation 1819, and the first Supreme Judge (Cherokee Nation remember, not US) in 1821. There is too much to transcribe it all, but it goes on to say that Nancy Martin married Jeter Lynch, and Sabra, the third daughter, married Daniel Davis b 1785 in NC, and he died in June 1866. I have put it in just as he had it, and do not vouch for it's accuracy, although many researchers use Starr's book, and, as it is the only historical documentation of it's type of the Cherokee lineage, is pretty much accepted by the Cherokee Nation. You would be astonished at all the teepee creepin' that went on in those Revolutionary days. Now you know where all of those mixed blood Indians with blue eyes come from. First they all tried to kill each other, then they must have made up, because you will recognize name after name of well known people of that era. Most of the early traders were encouraged to take Indian wives for both political and economical purposes, and many of those people came from Virginia and PA. My own lines are the Whitakers (yes, the Whitakers of the Reverend's family) and Taylors of Virginia and NC. North Carolina, Kentucky and Georgia were all frontier land at that time, and very wild. I hope that this info will give you a jumping off place for further research and confirmation, or at least whet your appetite for the history. Most people have no idea the extent of the intermarriage with tribal populations of the time.

Do you have supplementary information, corrections or questions with regards to Joseph Lynch Martin , Gen.?
The author of this publication would love to hear from you!

Timeline Joseph Lynch Martin , Gen.

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