GERMANNA_COLONIES-L Archives

Archiver > GERMANNA_COLONIES > 2009-08 > 1249338457


From: Betty Johnson <>
Subject: Re: [GERMANNA] Non-genealogy - 1727 Jager/Yager Land Patents inMadison
Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2009 22:27:37 +0000 (UTC)
In-Reply-To: <951670.33533.qm@web80010.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>


(Ignore if you're not a Yager -- I've got a lot of boring stuff in here! -- Betty)

Corlee, at the risk of irritating you yet again, I must make some comments on statements in your post.about relationships and locations of Yager land in Madison County, Virginia.

You wrote:
>About Nicholas and Adam Jager/Yager, 1717 emigrants, and their land. I find a
lot of conflicting information about the original patents. I use the
traditional land patent map of the Robinson Valley as the basis of my
understanding. I have tried to translate that on the Virginia Gazetteer
map of Madison County, but that is difficult to do. I would love to actually find the exact pieces of land so day.

Corlee, for many years the very generous Dewey Lillard, who lives in Madison County, has as a hobby very quietly been tracking various original patents and grants in the area through information in deeds and wills up to the present day. In return for my providing him Yager land descriptions, which include the names of neighbors, as well as land tax and personal property tax information, he has drawn out plats for me showing the positioning of much of the Yager real property, all at no charge to me. I would be glad to share this information and these plats with you, though I cannot exactly e-mail them. The papers are too large for my scanner. When you are next in virginia, I invite you to visit my Yager library in my home in Waynesboro -- It is not very far from Madison -- 'bout 50 miles south on 29 to Charlottesville, then 24 miles west on I-64. My library contains copies (plus transcriptions) of all the Yager entries on both land and personal property tax lists from inception in 1782 through 1850, and later in some cases, such as the Yager lands in Frederick, Shenandoah and Page County. (I spend a lot of time at the Library of Virginia and at the relevant courthouses.) I have also taken Vee Dove Tull's book on Madison County Homes and tracked every Yager mentioned in it back to the immigrant Nicholas and compiled this information into a booklet I am donating to the Germanna Visitor Center, to be used in conjunction with Mrs. Tull's book. Included in the booklet are the photos we took on the day-long tour of Yager property in March 2008.

You wrote:
>. . . Adam Yager's original 100 acre land patent that
passed down to John A. Yager (Blind John) then to J. Hiram Yager, then his
grandsons with William L. Payne getting the house. The house finally
willed to Lemuel Yager Payne. Upon Lemuel's death, his daughter inherited
and put it up for sale in the mid-1990s.

I question the accuracy of some of the above statements.
1) John A. Yager is not the one now called "Blind John." He is, instead, John Adam Yager (AdamJr, Adam, Nicholas.) He owned and was taxed on numerous parcels of land over his lifetime, including several lots in the town of Madison itself. He lived in the area all his life. I estimate his year of birth to be between 1765-1770, based on his wife's DOB (Anna Barbara Carpenter b2 Aug 1771); his father's DOB (9 May 1738); his apparent rank among the children in his father's family (~4th of 9 children, the oldest of whom is Elisha b 13 Nov1781, and the youngest of whom is Elijah, b 15 Feb 1782); and his age range in the censuses for 1830 (age 60-70) and 1840 (age 70-80). His estate records indicate he died without a will before 23 July 1840, when letters of administration were issued to Hiram Yager (Madison Co VA Court Order Book 9, p. 181).

2) "Blind John" Yager, born 15 Sep 1732, is the son of the immigrant Adam and, therefore, the uncle of John Adam Yager, above. Blind John's son who was also named John has the middle initial W., not A. One can track Blind John and his son by their descriptions in the tax lists. (Follow the money!!) Note that Blind John was not called "Blind" in his younger days: he is listed as "John Yager Sr. (Mountain)" in the 1801 land tax list, and his son John is listed as "John Yager, son to Mountain" in the 1793, 1794, 1795, and 1796 Personal Property Tax lists. I won't go into lengthy citations here but will be glad to provide them off list. (These tax list entries with complete microfilm citations are in my book, "Following John....")

Ginnie Nuta can give you tons more information on her ancestor John W., son of Blind John.

John Adam Yager is, I believe, the "John Yager Junr" in whose house (Lemuel Yager Payne house, p,90, Dove) the first county court of Madison County convened on "Thursday the 23rd day of May 1793 in the 17 year of the Commonwealth."

3) Adam Yager, Sr., the immigrant not only left the land where he lived to his youngest child Godfrey in his will dated 9 Sep 1793 ("I give & bequeath to my son Godfrey Yager all the land & plantation whereon I now live containing by Patent one hundred acres together with sixty one acres I Bought of Nelson[*] to him & his forever I also give to my said son Godfrey any Horse or mare I shall be possessed with at my Death, as also my Best Saddle & Bridle. . . " (Mad Co VA WB 1-24) but also went to the trouble of recording a deed dated the following day, 10 Sep 1793, to that effect (Mad Co VA DB1-64, recorded 27 Feb 1794).

You wrote:
>. . . traced the paper trail from the original land patent in 1727 at the
Spotsylvania Court House down to Lemuel Yager Payne at the Madison County
Courthouse. But I just inferred that the paper trail was for the house
pictured on Page 90. I have not survey proof.

I agree with you on this. The house is no longer standing, but the picture on p. 90 of Dove is, I believe, the house where the 1793 county court meeting was held. Dewey Lillard escorted Ginnie, Thom, Cathie, and me to the property in March 2008 and we took photos of the barn, etc. Again, this land is private property and Dewey got permission in advance for us to visit.

You wrote:
>As for Nicholas Jager's original 400 Acres, I have found the Yager Mountain Road and I have Inferred that is went to the original land patent.

Again, Dewey Lillard has located that 400 acre plot and it is not on Yager Mountain Road (695) -- but if you continue on down Jack Lillard Road (655) past where 695 goes off to the left -- you will come to the original 400 acres plot. Dewey got permission for us to go on this property which is now owned by a nice young family, and we located a partial foundation and chimney of what we believe could well be Nicholas's house. The original plot is 5-sided. Nicholas sold the upper half of that land to Philip Politz in 1729 and bought it back in 1733. Nicholas sold the lower 200 acres to his son Adam in 1737 Adam acquired another 100 acres within the original 400 and of that resulting 300 acres gave 150 to his son John (Blind John and 150 to his son Nicholas (II), in 1762.

I've certainly not figured out all the land transactions and locations. Also, not every transaction was recorded because people sometimes didn't want to pay recording fees, so acreage found in tax lists may not ever appear in deed books. Also, the land tax lists in those early years of the Commonwealth list so many Adam Yagers and Adam Yager Jr.'s that it's almost impossible to sort them out. Jan, Craig and I worked on this for a good little while, and I'm not sure we ever got it straightened out.

I'm now going to reply to Craig about Adam Yager's land on Mount Poney - and why I did not include it in "Following John," as well Then I'm to reply to Craig about Double Top Mountain.

Please note that I have not been working alone on this land information -- Jan Creek, Craig Kilby and I had a lengthy correspondence in the 2002-2003 time frame about the 1727. And I've relied heavily on John Blankenbaker's groundbreaking material, which I believe you mean by the "traditional" Robinson River land patents.

Respectfully submitted,
Betty Johnson


This thread: