Ancestors

James Huey Sr.

James Huey was born in Augusta County, in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, about 1742. He said so himself in 1838, when he swore that he was ninety six years old and had kept no family record of his age. At fourteen he moved south with his family to Chester County, in the upcountry of South Carolina, and he lived there for more than fifty years. An older James Huey was living in Augusta County in those years. He qualified as an under-sheriff on 20 November 1747, served as a constable until May 1748, and witnessed a Staunton deed in August 1754 together with a Jane Huey. At the March court of 1756 the county clerk noted him as "removed out of the Colony," the same year the boy James went south at fourteen. He may have been the father, but no record of the time says so.

He married Sarah, whose maiden name is given as Mason. Their children were born in Chester County: James, Elizabeth, Dorcas, Mason, John, Susan, Winifred and Jane. In December 1811 a Chester County deed called his eldest son "James Huey Junior."

In 1790 the census taker listed his household in Chester County as one man, two boys under sixteen and six women and girls. A Thomas Cockril was listed on the next line, and Elizabeth Huey married a Thomas Cockrell. Capt. Robert Frost, his company commander of 1777, is listed on the same page of the county return.

He served in the South Carolina militia through most of the Revolution. In August 1777 he turned out under Capt. Robert Frost and Col. John Winn and marched about a hundred miles through marsh country toward the mouth of the Savannah River. They came near enough to hear the British. In the winter of 1780 and 1781 he mustered under Capt. James Gore to go to the relief of Gen. Daniel Morgan, but the company arrived after the battle of Cowpens had been fought. In September 1781 he was drafted again under Lt. Thomas Humphrey, who was acting as captain. They were on their way to join Gen. Francis Marion when they met militiamen coming back from the battle of Eutaw Springs, and he went home to Chester, about forty miles. In 1782 he was a sergeant at Orangeburg under Capt. Amos Davis and Col. Joseph Brown, and he was there when word came that the British had left Charleston.

After the war he claimed his pay. On 16 July 1785 he swore in Chester County that he was owed for 56 days as a sergeant in Capt. Anderson Thomas's company in 1778 and 120 days as a sergeant in Capt. Frost's company in 1781, at twelve shillings and sixpence a day. The state allowed 110 pounds in old currency, worth 15 pounds 14 shillings sterling.

On 1 January 1812 he started west with his family, as many Chester County families did after the Louisiana Purchase. They crossed the Mississippi and reached Ouachita Parish, the country around Monroe, in April 1812. His son Mason died there later that year. The family settled in the western part of the parish, around Indian Village, and he lived about twenty miles from the courthouse.

Under the pension act of 7 June 1832, militia veterans who could prove six months' service were allowed a pension. He was too infirm to travel, so on 19 April 1838 a justice of the peace, George W. Copley, came to his house and took his declaration. He had no discharge, having thrown away his furloughs as worthless, and he knew of no one living who had served with him. Jeremiah Grisham, 81, swore that they had been boys together in Chester District and that he knew James Huey had served under Captain Frost. The government allowed him twenty dollars a year, to run from March 1831, for six months' service as a private.

He died in Ouachita Parish in March 1839. The Ouachita Standard printed a notice that gave his age as 105 and said he had joined the Baptist church at 65. He was buried in Bryan Cemetery near West Monroe. In 2010 the Louisiana Society of the Sons of the American Revolution set a marker over the grave.

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Cite: Heirology, "James Huey Sr. (1742-1839)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/james-huey-sr-1742-1839-fa19bf.