One Rector who had never been placed with certainty was Uriah Rector. There had been no evidence as to who his father was. B.C. Holtzclaw favored placing him as a son of Harmon (son of Hans Jacob Richter, the 1714 immigrant), which was making it crowded there. Harmon, Jr. was clearly a son as he was named in Harmon's will. The evidence for John was the tithe list in Fauquier Co. (Jack Alcock was slightly chagrined that he had not detected this sooner, as John was listed in his book "Fauquier Families".)
Tommie Brittain was extremely interested in Uriah, as he was her ancestor. So she collected evidence from everywhere (he was to be found in several states), but nothing identified his father. What did seem to be clear was that he had a brother Maximilian, as the two of them seemed to go through life together. With two sons that were positively sons of Harmon, to add Uriah as a son of Harmon would require adding Maximilian as a son of Harmon also, bringing the total count to at least four sons, possibly five sons. This was hardly an acceptable reading of Harmon's will.
John Alcock, in his research at the Fauquier Court House, tells a good story. It was the spring of the year, and normally John would have been working on the farm, but this day it was snowing. He had phoned home from the courthouse to say he was coming in for lunch. There was no answer so he decided he could spend a little more time in research. He decided to spend some time with the loose papers in the courthouse that had not been indexed. So he opened the book to one of its two hundred pages and spotted the name Rector. It was Uriah Rector who was being sued by John Peyton Harrison. Examination of the papers yielded the information that Uriah was the son of John Rector. The basis of the complaint was that John Rector had sold land to Harrison, but before John Rector delivered the deed he (John Rector) was "killed by thunder". Harrison was suing Uriah as the eldest son of John Rector, asking that Uriah deliver a deed. John Rector had given a bond on 15 April 1773 that he would deliver the deed. Harrison sued on 15 April 1784. Uriah's answer was that Harrison had not paid.
Who was the John Rector who was killed by thunder? He was the son of John Rector, who was the son of Hans Jacob Richter. Therefore, Uriah and his brother, Maximilian, were great-grandsons of Hans Jacob Richter.
John, Jr., died before the end of June 1773, when the administration of his estate was granted to William Kincheloe (a relative?). John, Jr.'s father had died just before this, for John, Sr., left 100 acres to his grandson, John, who would have been Uriah's brother.
After Harrison had filed his complaint and Uriah had answered, the Sheriff was ordered to bring Uriah into court, but the Sheriff could no longer find Uriah, as he was no longer resident in Fauquier.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.