We have John Alcock to thank for finding where Uriah should be hung on the Rector tree. When Jack sent me the results, he added a few comments.
"Since it was snowing this morning [March 19, 1997, in Fauquier County, VA], I went over to the courthouse instead of working outdoors. I paid particular attention to the "loose" papers in the Fauquier Co. Courthouse which have been catalogued and indexed. I was especially drawn to the name Rector but without any unusual finds. When I finished, I called my wife Mariana to say I was on the way home for lunch, but there was no answer. So I said to myself, 'It will take only a few minutes to look at the Chancery indexes.' I turned to the index of plaintiffs and my eye caught the name Uriah Rector as defendant to John Peyton Harrison. This was no accident; it was only one page out of perhaps two hundred. Finally, a little bit of luck was with me, as the case identifies Uriah Rector’s parentage. You can follow the details in the copies which I am enclosing. The originals are ID 204 in Box 4, 1792 item 007."
John Peyton Harrison filed a complaint on 15 April 1784 against Uriah Rector, the eldest son and heir at law to John Rector, who had been "killed by thunder" before he made a deed for his sale to Harrison of the lot on which John Clark then lived. Uriah refused to honor the bond of his father that the formal conveyance would be completed. Uriah said Harrison had not paid for the tract. The bond was dated 15 April 1773.
The John Rector who was "killed by thunder" was the son of John Rector, and the grandson of the 1714 immigrant, Hans Jacob Richter. John, Jr., died before the end of June 1773, when administration of his estate was granted to William Kincheloe (a relative?). John Rector, Sr., had died before the end of March 1773, leaving 100 acres to his grandson, John, who would have been a brother to Uriah.
The sheriff was ordered to bring Uriah into court to answer the complaint, but he could not be found, since he was no longer resident in Fauquier County. A final decree was issued in August 1792, but no copy was in the file.
John Alcock is the author of " Fauquier Families, 1759-1799 ", which has been acclaimed as an outstanding source of reference material on the people of Fauquier County.
We all have our little serendipity stories pertaining to our research. Just think, if Mariana Alcock had been able to answer the phone, then John would have gone home for lunch and perhaps he would never have found this all important case. It has been my pleasure to work with John (or Jack to most people) on other Rector problems.
(04 Aug 01)
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.