James Colvill
James Colvill farmed on Cedar Creek, the stream that divides Frederick County, Virginia, from Shenandoah County, south of Winchester. Where he was born is not recorded, and no known record says when he came to the valley.
His land came from Thomas, Lord Fairfax, proprietor of the Northern Neck of Virginia, who granted the unclaimed land between the Rappahannock and the Potomac for a small yearly quitrent. James received a grant of 400 acres on 30 May 1751 and another of 350 acres on 5 August 1760. The Fairfax grant reserved to the proprietor "a full third part of all Lead Copper Tinn Coals Iron Mines and Iron ore that shall be found thereon." In May 1758 he helped prove the will of Joseph Colvell of Opequon Creek and stood security for its executors. The records do not say how the two men were related. In 1760 he also bought two tracts, of 290 acres and of 129 and three-quarter acres, from John Reynolds and his wife Rachel.
On 3 and 4 October 1763 James Colvill "and Jane his wife of the Parish & County of Frederick" sold six and a half acres to four Philadelphia merchants, Lewis Stephens, John Hughes, Samuel Potts and John Potts Jr. Their neighbours Samuel and Elizabeth Newell sold the same buyers fifty acres on Cedar Creek that week. By 1776 his wife was Ann. Whether Jane and Ann were two wives or one is not settled by any known record.
He made his will on 16 March 1776, "weak in Body but of perfect sound mind and memory." His son John received the plantation on the Long Meadow, a horse worth ten pounds, the wagon and its gear, the plantation tools and a writing desk. His wife Ann was to live with John and had a horse, two cows and a third of the household furniture. His unmarried daughters Ann and Jannet had sixty pounds each and the rest of the movable estate. The home plantation on Cedar Creek was to be split five ways, among his wife, his daughters Margaret Newell, Ann, Jannet and Eleanor Willson. His daughter Martha had ten pounds, to be paid out of Margaret Newell's fifth. She was the only daughter left out of the plantation, probably because she was already married and had been given her portion. Her husband was Joseph Colvill, and she kept her name. His grandson James, son of Joseph, received a heifer, and his granddaughter Elizabeth McCaully two sheep. His son John also received "my two servants to wit James Davis and Philip Roberts."
He named Joseph, John and Samuel Colvill as executors. John and Samuel were his sons, and Joseph was probably his son-in-law. The witnesses were Robert Henning, Samuel Vance, James Simrall and Daniel McCaulley. The will was proved at the Frederick County court on 2 September 1777, so he died in the first year of the Revolution. A Frederick County researcher's letter of 1977 records that he deeded half of the 400-acre grant to his son Samuel, whose own will was proved in Shenandoah County between 1807 and 1809. His daughter Martha and her husband Joseph went on to Washington County, Pennsylvania. His son John died in 1802 or 1803, leaving shares to his brother Samuel and his sisters Margaret Newell, Martha Colvill, Jennet and Ann Thompson.
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Cite: Heirology, "James Colvill", https://heirology.com/ancestors/james-colvill-258bda.