The Orange County tithables list in 1739, for a major part of the Robinson River Valley, still exists. It consists of several precincts, with a man assigned to prepare each one. The question arises as to the accuracy of the lists. Were they carefully prepared? I am inclined, initially, at least, to accept the written statement at its face value.
Let's start with James Pickett's precinct, which is south of the Robinson River, where, after several names (English), we have Michael Holt. Since his land is known, we have a fixed point. In present day Madison County, this would be on the south side of it. Other names in the general vicinity are William Offill, Isaac Smith, Ruckers, and Garths, all names from the south side. After Michael Holt, there are several more English names before we encounter a steady stream of Germans, whose locations are known. These include Cortney Browel (Broyles), George Lung, John Hoffman, Jon Carpenter, Mathias Castler, Michael Cook, Henry Snider, Robert Tenner, George Tenner, Lodowick Fisher, Geo. Teter. Then follow Phillip Roote's Quarter, Henry Moccoy, Anthony Strother's Quarter, and John Killy. In some places the last name is given as Kelly.
Then follows Adam Carr (Garr), Wm. Carpenter, Nicholas Yager, and a few more English names, Thomas Watts, Edward Watts, Thomas Edmonson, George Thompson, John Phillips, Wm. Henderson, Thomas Coker, and John Edins. The list returns to the Germans names with Daywall Cristler, Adam Yager, Mathew Smith, Henry Crowder, Christley Browel (Broyles), John Hansborgow (Harnsberger), Michael Smith, Daywat Cristler, Michael Keiffer, Geo. Moyers, John Rowse (Rouse), Thomas Weyland, and then 26 more English names, though one of them is Mark Finks.
Already, we have uncovered several problems. An obvious one is that there are two Daywall or Daywat Cristlers. Remember that this list of names was the result of one man's work. I would think that if he put down two Theobald Christlers, then there were two. But this is one more than we were expecting. The name of Christley Broyles is a puzzle. We were expecting two Broyles, Conrad and Jacob, and we have those men in the lists. The presence of Christley is a problem. Most likely there was another Broyles who has been omitted from the histories.
Who was George Tanner? Who was Henry Crowder? This last name may very well be Krauter, a more Germanic spelling. Either way, he is an unknown. When we get to other of the lists, we will see more problems.
Returning to Christley Broyles, he was probably a son of John and Ursula Broyles. Apparently, the parents were of a child bearing age when they came to America, and Christley (Christian?) Broyles was probably born in Virginia. If he were born in 1718, then he would have been 21 in 1739, old enough to be on the tithables list. Some writers have confused Christley and Conrad and said these were variations of the same name. More likely, there were two distinct individuals. Whether Christley left heirs is unknown, but right now nothing would say that he did not.
(02 Dec 00)
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.