The solution to the parentage (at least of the father) of Uriah Rector was found by John P. Alcock, a major researcher of the Fauquier County, Virginia, records. John is not a Rector descendant, but his wife is. John wrote to me,
"Since it was snowing this morning [March 19, 1997], 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 my way home for lunch, but there was no answer. So I said to myself, 'I 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. That 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. (Probably this lot adjoined the lots which Uriah sold to Glascock and Neavil, as there is no recorded deed on this lot.) 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 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 Hans Jacob Richter. John, Jr., died before the end of June 1773, when administration of his estate was granted to William Kincheloe [was he 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 of Uriah.
The sheriff was ordered to bring Uriah into court to answer the complaint, but he could not be found as he was no longer resident in Fauquier. A final decree was issued in August, but no copy was in the file.
[The material in the last three notes was reported in
Beyond Germanna
on pages 504 and 505 (vol. 9, n. 3, May 1997).]
(21 Sep 05)
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.