72 i.
John DENTON.144. Robert DENTON was
born in 1695 in Jamaica Long Island NY. May have been born 1714. He died in
1778 in , Hampshire VA. Robert's will mentions all his children.
Robert owned land by 1751 in present-day Hardy CO, WV on both the Lost
River and Cacapon River west of Strasburg, VA. Following the last Indian uprising
in 1766, Robert was involved in the purchase of more land in the Great North
Mountain Range in what is now West Virginia. Robert stayed in this area though
his brother James and others found Tennessee alluring, as well as Kentucky. He
amassed some 1,600 acres of land in the area. He must have become ill in the
late 1760s for he began to sell off the Lost River parcels, mostly to his family.
In 1768 he sold 323 acres to his daughter Margaret and her husband, Joel Robinson.
At his Lost River Plantation he began to see the great migration into the countryside
begin. Surveyors were in Kentucky laying out the best lands for those who participated
in the long conflict with the French and the Indians.
The English crown still forbade movement across the Alleghanies, but their Virginia
governor, John Murray, Lord of Dunmore, instituted an expansionist attitude after
he took office in 1771. The land-greedy pioneers were impatient with the "rights"
ascribed to the Indian tribes.
The Virginal Admiralty Records have a listing for a Robert Denton in 1746. It
may have been this Robert Denton. Robert died in the early part of 1778. He
was married to Jane MOON (MOORE) on 13 Feb 1738 in , Burlington NJ.
145. Jane MOON (MOORE) was born in 1714. She died in 1789 in , Hardy
VA. Children were:
72 i.
John DENTON.
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