Gallahue Family Research
Evidence suggests Darby Gallahue (c. 1701-1777) was the son of James (Jacques) Gallahough and Mary Russell. Both arrived in Stafford County, Virginia during the late 1680s. James was one of the Huguenots who leased land (probably 100 acres) in the Brent Town settlement in the part of Stafford County that later became Prince William. This planned Huguenot settlement was marketed to French Protestant refugees in England in 1686. James was probably from Saintonge and may have been a son of Jean Galliot of Cozes. The Gallahough spelling of this surname in court records was likely the result of the English court clerk “sounding out” the French pronunciation of Galliot. The further Anglicization of the name to Gallahue begins to appear in records in the second half of the eighteenth century.1
Darby Gallahue’s mother, Mary Russell, is first documented in a Stafford County court record in September 1690. The record identifies her as the daughter of William Russell and the husband of James Gallahough. While her attorney did not explicitly identify her as an indentured servant who had gained her freedom, the circumstances he describes confirm that she was. Mary was living in the household of a physician named Edmond Helder at the time of his death in March 1688. Helder’s will assigned Mary to his heir, William Downing. If Mary were simply an orphan with Helder as her guardian, the county court would have designated a new guardian. Indentured servants (like enslaved persons) were considered part of the estate of the deceased and were consequently transferred according to the provisions of the will as Mary Russell was. By September 1690, Mary had gained her freedom and was married to James Gallahough. They went to court to secure the livestock (probably in lieu of freedom clothes and corn) that Helder bequeathed to her in his will—a provision that Downing had refused to honor. This was the kind of legal action freed servants often had to take in seventeenth-century Virginia. The court record gives no information about Mary’s father except his name—William Russell. The circumstances of Mary’s indenture strongly suggest she was an immigrant arriving in Virginia about 1686 and that her father, William, was either deceased or remained in England. Mary may also have been a Huguenot—possibly the Marie Rousel who (along with an unnamed sister) received assistance from the Royal Bounty in London in 1686.2
Very little is known about James Gallahough because of the loss of Stafford County records. On July 7, 1702, Mary Gallahough was a widow when she appeared in Westmoreland County Court to testify in a murder trial. She described seeing an indentured servant named James Conney drown in the Machodoc River (now designated a creek that empties into the Potomac). Conney had earlier made complaints to the authorities that his master, William Chandler, had mistreated him. On this occasion, Mary saw Chandler and Conney crossing the river in a canoe. Suddenly, she noticed Conney in the water drowning as Chandler refused to extend his paddle to help him. A jury subsequently found Chandler guilty of causing Conney’s death.3
Darby Gallahue (c.1701-1777) likely grew up on his father’s Brent Town lease surrounded by Huguenot neighbors. Huguenot emigrants Lewis Renoe, John Marr, Clement de Chevalle, Rynhart de la Fayolle, Samual Duchiman, Isaac Duchiman, Peter Lehew, and Louis Tacquet are known to have settled in this area. He became a ship carpenter and married Charlotte Ewell (1714-c.1782) of Lancaster County about 1733. Charlotte was the daughter of Charles Ewell and Mary Ann Bertrand and granddaughter of Huguenot emigrants John and Charlotte Bertrand. Her marriage to Darby demonstrated the resiliency of the Huguenot exile community across the counties of the Rappahannock region over three generations. In February 1735 Darby and Charlotte were in Lancaster County Court to secure property she had inherited from her father at a time when Charlotte’s mother had been re-married to William Ballandine. Because Darby was never listed on the tithable tax list for Lancaster County, it is likely that he did not establish a permanent residency there. As a ship carpenter, he could have itinerated to repair ships throughout the Chesapeake region. By 1739, Darby and Charlotte were living in Prince William County (formed from part of Stafford), possibly on the family’s Brent Town land. A deed witnessed by John Gallahue for Darby’s brother-in-law Isaac White in 1742 raises the question of whether Darby had a brother named John or whether his son, John, may have been from an earlier marriage.4
Darby and Charlotte owned 150 acres in Caroline County that she inherited from her father, but there is no evidence that they lived there. In 1740, the Gallahues pursued litigation over this land in partnership with Charlotte’s four siblings who inherited adjacent tracts. Each of them was awarded fifty shillings by the court. In August 1740, Darby acquired Prince William land from John Frogg (probably his 150-acre tract on Powell’s Creek). Darby sold this 150 acres (along with 18 acres of adjacent marsh land) in July 1761. In 1754, Darby renewed his father’s lease of Brent Town land (probably 100 acres). He received a land grant for 18 acres of Powell Creek marsh land in 1768, creating some confusion for government officials about its ownership.5
There is evidence that Darby and Charlotte worked in partnership with Charlotte’s siblings who moved to Prince William County in the early 1740s. These include Charlotte’s brothers, Charles Ewell, Jr. (c.1712-1747) and Bertrand Ewell (c.1716-1793), her step-brothers William Ballandine (c.1720-1771) and John Ballandine (c. 1722-1782), and her half sister Frances Ballandine (c.1728-c.1793). The leader of this family partnership was Charles Ewell, Jr. In 1730, the eighteen-year-old Charles became an apprentice of Charles Burges, one of Lancaster’s leading merchants. After Burges’ death two and half years later, Charles was hired to manage this business under the direction of the prominent Lancaster merchant, James Ball (the executor of the estate and future husband of his mother). Charles married James Ball’s daughter, Sarah (1712-c.1756) in 1736. By 1737, Charles had left Lancaster to work for John Tayloe, helping to manage two iron works—one in King George County and the other in Prince William. The iron produced in the Chesapeake region was exported to Great Britain which could no longer supply its needs through domestic production. In 1742, Charles’ main residence was in King George County where he served as a court justice. By 1744, Charles had shifted his base of operations to Prince William County where he had part ownership of an iron production facility on the Occoquan River and built the large home that would become known as Bel Air. He also led a family partnership that opened a store and tobacco trading and warehousing business at the port of Dumfires on the Potomac that followed the model of the Bertrand family trading operations in Lancaster. When Charles died in 1747, Bertrand Ewell assumed leadership of the family business operations in Prince William. In 1749, Bertrand bought out Charles’ partners in the Occoquan iron works establishing a one-half interest in his name with the other half held by Charles’ estate. This business was then leased to John Ballandine who became manager of the iron works. Ballandine quickly expanded the business —buying land and constructing buildings—effectively creating the town of Occoquan. By 1760, Ballandine’s operation was quickly sinking into insolvency with creditors in hot pursuit of him and his partners. While there is no record that Darby Gallahue had an ownership stake in the iron works, its failure apparently damaged him and the other family members who participated in the Ewell merchandizing and tobacco trading business. In October 1761, Darby was a defendant in a lawsuit in which he—along with Bertrand Ewell and John Ballandine— were ordered to pay the considerable sum of 109 pounds and four shillings. About the same time, Darby (like other Ewell family members including Darby’s future son-in-law James Muschett) was selling land, apparently to pay debts.6
Darby and Charlotte had eight children. William (c.1733-1754) married Ann Kenner. John (died 1769) married Mary Tacquet Butler from another Huguenot family that settled at Brent Town. John was injured in the French and Indian War. Elizabeth (died 1814) married William Ashmore and after his death John McMillan, Jr. Margaret married Henry Peyton (died 1781). Charles (died 1777) was unmarried. Charles was a captain in the 11th Virginia Regiment and died during his time of service. His undated will was filed on September 1, 1777. Jeremiah (c.1744-1825) married Ann Barnes (born c. 1760). Jeremiah enlisted in the Second Georgia Battalion (Virginia troops), serving from 1776 to 1779. Catherine/Kitty (born 1750) married James Muschett (born c.1736), a Dumfires merchant. Maria/Marianne (born 1753) married Charles Thornton and after his death Alexander Kieth.7
Darby Gallahue died before August 4, 1777, when Jeremiah Gallahue—his only surviving son —filed his will for probate. The date of Charlotte’s death is not known. She was listed on a Prince William personal property tax list in 1782.8
Notes:
1 Ruth and Sam Sparacio, Stafford County, Virginia Order Book Abstracts, 1692-1693, 13; Durand de Dauphiné, A Huguenot Exile in Virginia, 179-180.
2 Sparacio, Stafford County Order Book Abstracts, 1664-1668 and 1689-1690, 123; Bounty Papers, MS 1, Huguenot Library, University College, London.
3 John Frederick Dorman, Westmoreland County Deed and Will Book No 3, 1701-1707, 21-22.
4 Fairfax Harrison, Landmarks of Old Prince William: A Study of Origins in Northern Virginia, 189-190. The marriage of Charlotte Ewell to Darby Gallahue is not listed in the Lancaster Register, but is documented in a February 28, 1735 court action to secure control of land she inherited from her father, Lancaster Deed and Will Book 12, 1726-1736, 333. In 1741, Darby’s brother-in-law, Isaac White transferred responsibility for his orphaned nephew and indentured servant Thomas White to Gallahue so the young man could learn to become a ship carpenter. Darby Gallahue first appears in Prince William records to witness a deed on March 25, 1739, Sparacio, Prince William County Deed Book D, 1738-1740. For the 1742 deed witnessed by John Gallahue, see Richard S. Hutchinson, Lancaster County, Virginia Abstracts of Order Book 8, Part Two, May 1737—March 1743, 172 and 232.
5 Lancaster County Will Book 10, 1709-1727, 376-378; Caroline County Order Book, 1740, 42; Prince William County Deed Book E, 89; Prince William County Deed Book P, 98-102; Prince William County Order Book, 1754-1755, 5; Northern Neck Grants I, 1757-1781, 161.
6 For Charles Ewell, Jr.’s apprentice agreement with Charles Burges, see Lancaster County, Virginia Will Book 12, 1726-1735, 188. For Charles Burges’ November 4, 1732 will see Lancaster County Deed and Will Book 12, 1726-1736, 239. For the August 12, 1735 filing of the Burges estate inventory, see Ibid., page 348. For a detailed presentation of John Tayloe’s iron works in Virginia, see Laura Croghan Kamoie, Neabsco and Occoquan: The Tayloe Family Iron Plantations, 1730-1830, 11 and endnote 32. For Charles Ewell in King George County in March of 1737, see Mary Marshall Brewer, King George County, Virginia Orders, 1736-1740, 32. For Charles Ewell in Prince William County in May of 1739 see Jane Whitehurst Johnson, Prince William County Deed Book Lieber D, 1738-1740, 136-141. For Charles Ewell being sworn in as a King George County court justice in September of 1742, see Mary Marshall Brewer, King George County Virginia Orders, 1740-1746, page 55. For the establishment of a joint stock company by Charles Ewell, Ralph Falkner, Edward Neale, and John Triplett in 1744, see Bertrand Ewell’s purchase of the company from the surviving owners in 1749, Sparacio, Deed Abstracts of Prince William County, Virginia, 1749-1752/1761-1764, 30-31, and Bertrand Ewell’s mortgaging of assets of the company to John Semple in 1762, Ibid., 120-121. For Charles Ewell’s operation of an iron forge in Prince William, see Donald L. Wilson to Scott Arnold, Virginia Department of Historic Resources, August 10, 2000, 3, and Journals of the House of Burgesses, 1752-1758, 57, Library of Virginia, Richmond. For Bertrand Ewell’s earliest appearance in the extant records of Prince William in April 1743, see Dorman, Prince William County, Virginia Will Book C, 1733-1744, 97-99. For John Ballandine in Prince William County by February 1745, see Sparacio, Deed Abstracts of Prince William County, 1740-1741, 108. For William Ballandine, Jr. in Prince William County, see Sparacio, Deed Abstracts of Prince William County, 1748-1749, 66. For Frances Ballandine in Prince William County, see Daniel Payne Ledger, 1758-1761, in R. Jackson Ratcliffe, This Was Prince William, 52. For the Ewell mercantile and tobacco trading business in Dumfries, see the 1793 petition of Jesse Ewell to the Virginia Assembly to discontinue inspection of tobacco at his warehouse in Dumfries, Samuel Shepherd, The Statutes at Large, vol. I, 264, and the description of Charles Ewell III’s warehouse in Dumfries in Dorman, Virginia Revolutionary Pension Applications, vol. 35, 31-36. For the October, 1761 lawsuit, see Sparacio, Prince William County Order Book, 1761-1762, 16-17.
7 Lonnie H. Lee, A Brief History of Belle Isle Plantation, Lancaster County, Virginia, 1650-1782, 121; Revolutionary War Bounty Warrants, Reels 1-29, Library of Virginia. For the will of Charles Gallahue, see the Magazine of Virginia Genealogy 49, No. 1, February 2011, 49-50.
8 For Darby Gallahue’s death, see June Johnson, PWC Bond Book, August 1753-1782, 6. For Charlotte Gallahue on the 1782 personal property tax list, see Fothergill and Naugle, Virginia Tax Payers, 1782-1787.
