The Elliott Era, 1814-1836
City of Lynchburg Clerk's Office, Lynchburg
20 July 1814
Peter Elliott purchased from Agatha Dicks
Book B, pp 160

Peter Elliott in later life (1774-1863)

Elliott paid $1,025 for the property in 1814. By 1816, it was being assessed at $3,500.
Owner's note: $1,025 seems like a lot of money for the lot to have been empty
or "unimproved." Perhaps another structure was already there? Was the present house
there, and improvements to the house and lot caused the higher 1816 assessment?
Most other lots in the area were selling for far less. (Examples below)

• 1811: John Bullock bought four (1/2 acre ea.) lots on Federal Hill for $400 (sold one acre in 1819 for $6,000)
• 1814: Edward Price bought lot 193 for $300 (later that year, the lot was assessed at $2,500)
• 1815: Ezekiah Jordan bought lots 273 & 293 for $800 (3yrs later, the house built on 293 was $2,400)
• 1817: William Phaup bought lots 386 & 396 for $300 (In 1818, he was assessed $3,900 for lot 386)

NOTICE
THE subscriber respectfully informs the
public that he is prepared to stock guns in
the neatest and strongest manner, and on
the most accommodating terms.
                                                    Peter Elliott
Lynchburg Sept. 12 1817                                4w20

"For Rent, A TENEMENT in the neighborhood of Hezekiah [sic] Jordan,
suitable for a large family. Possession given the 1st of Novr. next."
Lynchburg, Sept. 18 1818                                           PETER ELLIOTT
Peter Elliott owned property on Lot #277, on the southwest corner
of (now) 9th & Monroe Streets. This was just around the block from
Ezekiah Jordan's house at (now) 8th & Polk Streets.
 

In the newspaper, the Lynchburg Post Office would advertise the names of those individuals who had mail waiting for them on the first of each month. Peter had a letter at the post office on July 1st, 1817, and Ann had one waiting for her on January 1st, 1818.

THE ELLIOTT FAMILY
pp. 486-493 A History of Evansville and Vanderburgh County, Indiana
by Joseph Peter Elliott, 1897

        The Elliott family are to-day thoroughly American, as this brief sketch will show you. Back as far as 1740 an emigrant colony, from adjoining counties in England and Wales, settled in the vicinity of Mobsic Bay, Gloucester County, Virginia. In this colony were the first members of the Elliott lineage, and they settled on a new plantation within about four miles of where Yorktown was located, and began life in this magical new country—this Eldorado—upon a farm.
        It was upon this farm in Gloucester county, that Peter Elliott, the father of the author, was born in 1774. He was but a small boy when Lord Cornwallis surrendered his army to General Washington, but he remembered many events of that long siege and of the final events of the War of the Revolution. He remembered when the red-coats were encamped upon the family plantation, and how the dashing young officers often secured him to carry delicate love notes to the blushing young Tory maidens of that locality. These young English officers, some of them at least, were even quartered in the dwelling of the family. And many a time was he trotted on a red-coat’s knee, while his father was in the depleted ranks of the little patriot army under General Washington and his generals.
        When the first call for soldiers was made in 1776, the oldest of the three Elliott brothers at once enlisted in the service of the thirteen colonies. Sometime in the course of the war the other two entered the army, and as it happened each brother was in a different division of the troops. They were in many contests in the course of the long struggle for freedom, and it happened that all three were in the struggle at Yorktown, and each was wounded there in a final onslaught upon the works on the entrenched British. Wounded and broken down from long years of exposure, they were taken home. When white-winged peace came at last, they did not survive many years to enjoy it. The names of these Revolutionary soldiers were James, Thomas, and Robert Elliott. They died comparatively young.

        [Begin glorified account of the Siege of Yorktown] During the winter campaign against Yorktown, the patriots groomed their horses in caves dug in the hillsides and arranged with props like rooms in coal mines. The three brothers were in the charge made by Washington and his generals upon the breastworks, and tradition has it that this was a bold and bloody conflict, in which many personal heroic adventures were performed. It is with pleasure that the author recollects that he has walked over the old breastworks at Yorktown, and had depicted to him by the old soldiers the contest that waged there for liberty many years before. These old war ruins are yet vivid and clear in his mind and heart. The fireside history of this glorious victory is deeply imbedded in his very nature, and it seems to him, when he thinks of it, that there is no country on the face of the earth equal to his own beloved land, over which the star-spangled banner waves in beauty and glory. [End glorified account of the Siege of Yorktown] 

        James and Thomas left many sons and daughters. The descendants of one became sea-faring men, and of the other merchants and traders, near Baltimore. Numerous relationships have been discovered, and some of them have been traced back to their origin by the author. Robert Elliott, the grandfather of the author, married a Dodbson, and she bore one son, named Peter. After the death of Robert, the widow married James Hall. Their daughter, Martha, married a man named Ranson; their son; John Hall, Martha's brother, was a prominent figure at one time in commercial affairs, at Richmond, Virginia, and to-day his son, Joseph Hall, has with ever more success, followed in his father's footsteps.
       Peter Elliott was born November 29, 1774, in Gloucester county, Virginia, as heretofore stated. He was brought up, or as they say in Virginia, raised on a farm. When nineteen years old he went to Richmond and bound himself out to a man named Mr. McKin, a carpenter.

Whiskey Rebellion, by an unknown artist (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

When the Whisky Rebellion, as it is called, broke out in western Pennsylvania he was drafted to help suppress the revolt.

• Pvt. Peter Elliott, Captain John Stewart's Company, Major George Benn's Battalion, Colonel William Campbell's Regiment, September 1st - December 4th, 1794 (from a pay roll at Winchester, Virga. Nov. 17th, 1794) National Archives, RG94:54, Box 5.

The troops were ordered to rendezvous at Fort Pitt. The prompt measures of President Washington quelled the trouble without much difficulty. Afterward young Peter Elliott returned to Richmond and finished his trade apprenticeship. He pursued his occupation with Mr. McKin until he was twenty-four years old, when he married Miss Jane Morton, a sister-in-law of Mr. McKin, and a descendant of English ancestors. Their only child died in infancy, and the mother herself died within a year after marriage. About a year subsequent to his wife’s death, Peter Elliott married Miss Mary Pritchett, of Richmond.

• Peter Elliott m. Mary Prichard, 22 September 1806, Chesterfield, Virginia (IGI).

To them were born Ann Elizabeth, June 13, 1809. She married Alexander Duval, and is to-day residing in Louisville, Ky., a widow, in feeble health.

• "Alexander Duvall son of Henry & Mary Duvall was born on Kent Island, Queen Ann County, Maryland 14th day of December 1811", "Anne Elizabeth Elliott daughter of Peter & Mary Elliott was born in Richmond, Virginia 13th day of June 1809"(Duvall Bible Record)

• "Alexander Duvall and Ann Elizabeth Elliott were married in the city of Lexington, KY on Monday morning 24th August 1835, by the Rev. H. H. Kavanaugh of the Methodist E. Church." (page 283 of the book Mareen Duvall of Middle Plantation.

William Morton Elliott was born January 15, 1812. He was a physician and a minister, and a man of exceeding fine qualities. His death occurred December, 1874.

• William M. Elliott, Surgeon, 40th Illinois Infantry Regiment (June 3, 1862-Resigned February 22, 1864)

        On the death of his second wife, which occurred shortly after the birth of her only son, Peter Elliott married again, and this time a Miss Ann Brown, a daughter of Stephen Brown. She was born September 24, 1790, in London, England. She was a woman of many lovable qualities and a true helpmeet.
        When the awful holocaust occurred in the Richmond theatre in 1811 Miss Brown was there. She remembered being pressed towards the door in the wild rush, and of being thrown down in the panic that prevailed and was trampled upon, and when she recovered consciousness, she was lying in a ditch somewhere else. Some one had dragged her unconscious form from there to safety. She was scarred and cut with iron heel-taps, and the scars remained till the day of her death. It will be remembered that the Governor-elect of Virginia was so horribly charred by the fire that his body was only identified by a gold watch chain worn around his neck. The names of all the dead, who are buried in one wide grave, are carved upon a monument that marks their final resting place.
        This union with Miss Brown brought forth three children. Robert was born August 4, 1813. He died in infancy on October 20, 1814. Joseph Peter was born April 3, 1815. Sarah A. was born May 12, 1819, and died August 12, 1820.
        After the death of Ann Brown Elliott, Peter married a fourth wife, and this time it was a Miss Godfrey, of Lynchburg, Virginia, formerly of Richmond. No issue resulted from this union.

• Peter Elliott m. Mary Godfrey, 10 April 1824, Lynchburg, Virginia (IGI).

Peter closed his business affairs in Richmond about the time of his marriage to Ann Brown and located in Lynchburg, where most of his children were born. His pursuit as a contractor and builder brought him neat and substantial gains. In time, however, he settled farther west in pioneer country, and took up residence in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1824, where he added the wagon-maker’s and black-smith’s trades to his other labors

• Elliott Jas., [sic...should be Jos. for his son, Joseph Peter Elliott, or perhaps our Peter's first name was Joseph as well] wagon-maker, W Main St. opposite Georgetown road (1838 Lexington City Directory)

He owned slaves there as he owned them in Virginia, and the refractory ones gave him considerable trouble to manage, and with his business worries he began to decline in general health. He always sympathized with the sentiment that would liberate the slaves, believing freedom to all to be right in a land of the free and a home of the brave. When poor health overtook him he found homes for his slaves in Lexington, quit his business, and came to Evansville, where he lived with his son Joseph Peter Elliott. This was about 1849.

CLICK HERE FOR PETER ELLIOTT'S LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY HOUSE

• JOSEPH P. ELLIOTT HOUSE,  S.W. Corner Short and Georgetown Sts., Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky, Built Before 18??. Source: Old Houses of Lexington, C. Frank Dunn, typescript, n.d., copy located in the Kentucky Room, Lexington (Kentucky) Public Library. Peter Elliott, who had removed to Evansville, Ind., in 1853, conveyed the house here to Joseph P. Elliott, who was shown as operating a blacksmith shop on Main St. opposite Georgetown St. in 1838 (Directory.). The property back of it (north-west corner Main and Georgetown Sts.) had been "in the possession of Peter Elliott and used as a waggon-maker's shop" according to a deed in 1849. Joseph P. Elliott and wife, of Evansville, Ind., sold their house in 1855 to Joel Webster. (1859-60 Directory: "Joel Webster, sheep skin and morocco dresser, S.S. Vine bet. Mill and Broadway, house S.W. corner Georgetown and Short.") Alexander T. Parker purchased the house in January, 1863, and conveyed it to his wife, Mrs. Virginia Parker. She sold it in 1869 to Mrs. John M. Shepperd.

• 700 SHORT STREET WEST, "Built for Peter Elliott, who had a "waggon-maker's shop" behind (northwest corner Main and Georgetown) before 1853. Was 1 1/2 story, 3-bay, unbonded brick house. Original outline may be seen in brickwork on west end. Later gambrel roof and opening changes; modern porch." Again, on pages 243-4, Lancaster mentions the property "The original cottage outline may be seen on the heightened walls of the house on the southwest corner of Georgetown Street, No. 700." This really is the same property, despite the apparent address change.  Source: Vestiges of the Venerable City: A Chronicle of Lexington, Kentucky, Its Architectural Development and Survey of Its Early Streets and Antiquities, Clay Lancaster, Lexington-Fayette County Historic Commission, 1978: p. 246.

• A Peter Elliott first shows up in the Fayette County tax records in 1828 and is still there by 1839---probably don't have the last year of appearance yet--will keep chugging along. This Peter basically mortgaged a slave named Lewis in October 1828 soon after coming to town, which your Peter might not have needed to do. He apparently prospers in his first decade, although he continues to rely on others for lines of credit and finally pledges some of his property as security for his co-signer. Among other things, he purchased property at the same address occupied by James Elliott in 1838 and engaged in business as a "black smith and waggon maker." A wife does show up in the records by 1843. By 1854, he is a resident of Evansville, Indiana and, from that distance, sells part of his Lexington property to a Joseph P. Elliott and part to a Henry Brice (a free man of color), among others. His wife is no longer mentioned.

• Provided by Pam Brinegar of Lexington, Kentucky

Joseph Peter, the author, settled up his father’s affairs in 1850, disposed of his property in Lexington, and managed his funds thereafter. He died on the 24th of June, 1863. He sleeps to-day in Oak Hill Cemetery.
        He was a man of many sterling qualities, faithful in agreements, correct in his moral instincts and true to his friends. He was a member of the Methodist church. He was a patriotic citizen and a lover of his country. He believed in its institutions and its destiny, and he loved and honored the flag, the stars and stripes that led his father to victory and established a country without an equal upon this earth.
        Joseph Peter Elliott, as already stated, was born April 3, 1815, at Lynchburg, Virginia. He was named after Joseph of biblical fame. It was his mother’s delight to read that story to her young son. Before he could read he could repeat this romantic story by heart, so often had she read it to him. She was a religious woman and was often called from her secret devotion to her meals by the servants.
        What little schooling the author got was in Lexington, Kentucky, and from his sister, Elizabeth (Mrs. Duval).
        The family resided about ten years in Lynchburg, and came to Lexington, Kentucky in 1824, traveling by teams through the wilderness. That was, in fact, the only means of transportation in these pioneer times. His mother, Mrs. Ann Brown Elliott, had died the previous year in 1823. The author set out from there in 1836 to become the architect of his own fortunes, and spent the first winter in Louisville, learning the saddlery business. In February, 1837, he settled in Evansville, where his long life has been spent. His elder brother, William Morton, had come in December, 1826 [sic][1836], prospecting for business and had rented a house in which to conduct the saddlery business...

Peter Elliott's third wife, Ann Brown Elliott, died on 24 July 1823
Peter purchased a coffin that cost $35, 5 or 6 times the average price,
from Diuguid Funeral Home. She was buried on July 29th
at an unknown location (probably the Old City Cemetery)

"Departed this life on the 24th of July, Mrs. ANN ELLIOTT, aged about 32, consort of Mr. Peter Elliott of this place. Mrs. Elliott was a professor of the Christian religion, and had been for about 7 years a member of the Methodist church. Her walk in life corresponded with her profession, and her surviving friends have the consolidation of believing that she has reaped the reward of her labors. She has left behind to mourn her loss, a husband and one child."
[While Peter had two children from his second marriage, he and Ann only had one who
survived, Joseph Peter Elliott]

Peter Elliott of Lynchburg married Mary Godfrey of Richmond on 10 April 1824
Rev. John Early, a nearby neighbor (700 Court Street) of the Elliotts, later became
a bishop in the Methodist Church. Gordon Brown is listed as a witness in the court records.

The Virginian (Lynchburg) April 16, 1824, pp. 3
 

Common Law Order Books, April 30, 1822, Campbell County (Clerks Office, Rustburg)

Commonwealth vs. James W. Dibrell (on presentation for stopping the public road)

This day came the attorney for the Commonwealth as well as the defendant by his attorney and there upon came also a jury to wit: Hartwell _____, William Moore, Archibald Blankenship, Robert Butler, Powhatan Jones, Peter Elliott, Edward Bolling, Stephen Cook, David Thompson, Dennis Kelly, M. Clarkson, John Davis who ___ elected ___ and sworn the truth and upon the premises to speak upon the ___ ___ oath do say that the defendant is not guilty as he in his pleading hath alleged therefore it is considered by the court that he be discharged from this prosecution.

City of Richmond Census, 1810

Lynchburg (Campbell County) Census, 1820

The two older boys and 16-26 female are unaccounted for, and may have been extended family and/or associated with Peter's business. One of the slaves shown below may have been named Lewis.

Lynchburg Land Tax Records, 1816-1836

Lexington (Fayette County, KY) Census, 1830

Lexington (Fayette County, KY) Census, 1840

Presumably, the house was used as rental property during the period between
Elliott's departure for Lexington, KY and his sale of the lot (10-12 years)

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