Recently, there was a mention of a Uriah Wise who lived near Joseph T. Rector. It was considered a possibility that Uriah Wise was working for Mr. Rector. The combination of the names "Uriah" and "Rector" brought to mind the difficulty of placing the first Uriah Rector. No definitive evidence located him in any Rector family.
B. C. Holtzclaw thought it was possible that Uriah was a son of Harmon, who was the son of the 1714 immigrant Hans Jacob Richter (Jacob Rector). Harmon Rector left a will, but it was less than fully complete. He mentioned his oldest son John, and then later mentioned "my three sons". The question was whether the three sons included John, or were in addition to John. Prof. Holtzclaw was willing to admit that the three sons were in addition to John. Descendants of Uriah were less than satisfied, though, as this was hardly evidence. In fact, it seemed to be negative evidence.
John P. Alcock was aware of the problem and was keeping his eyes open for records that pertained to Uriah Rector. In the Fauquier Courthouse, he once found himself with a few spare minutes, so he opened the Chancery Indexes. In the Index of Plaintiffs, his eye caught the name Uriah Rector as defendant in a case brought by John Peyton Harrison. There was an element of serendipity in this, as there were perhaps two hundred pages and John caught the name Uriah Rector almost immediately. Fortunately, the case identified the father of Uriah. The case had been brought because it was said that Uriah had not fulfilled a promise that his father had made before he (the father) died.
The complaint was filed on 15 April 1784 against Uriah, 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 that Harrison had not paid for the tract. The bond is 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 Jacob Rector. John, Jr., died before the end of June 1773, when administration of his estate was granted to William Kincheloe. John Rector, Sr., had died before the end of March 1773, leaving 100 acres to his grandson John, who was a brother of Uriah.
Since the name Uriah has struck me as an unusual name, I thought I would mention his existence and place him in the Rector families if there was any possibility of a connection to Uriah Wise.
Several articles in
Beyond Germanna
treat the case of Uriah Rector, who had been so troublesome to place in a the larger family.
(14 May 04)
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.