Harshbarger line: John Boughan of Virginia

First, almost none of this research is mine.  I found a very well researched blog page on Thomas Moore's Genealogy site and most of what I will be talking about is his research.  Without his research, I would know almost nothing about this man.

It is strange to be writing about a man in the Harshbarger line who was not of German or Swiss descent.  At least, we don't think he was, and he was in Virginia long before more of the Germans and Swiss immigrants had even thought about crossing the ocean. 

John's parents were James Boughan and Mary, possibly Mary Edmondson.  He was born probably about 1675 but maybe as late as 1683.  His parents were probably the immigrants of the family, and were here at least by 1664.  If you wish to prove your descent from James and Mary, you may be eligible for membership in the Jamestowne Society, which would be kind of cool.  It seems that John should also be a qualifying ancestor, but apparently so far no one has submitted his proof.  John had three siblings but so far James is the one that seems to qualify for admission to the society.  It follows that John should also qualify.

We don't know when John was born, but he was signing documents in 1704 so would have been born at least by 1683.  His marriage was to Susannah Ley, sometimes erroneously named as Susannah Bryant.  She married Thomas Bryant after our John's death, which is apparently where the confusion started.  John and Susannah had at least four children together, John, Augustine, Dorothy and Mary. 

If you can imagine a young man in about 1700, wearing colonial clothing and possibly a powdered wig, this may represent John.  He was a man of substance, frequently being called on as a witness to a neighbor's will, or to be an appraiser.  He sued and was sued quite often, and was required to post bond on more than one occasion.  He inherited land from his father as well as, sadly, "Negroe's" and their increase.  His wife was to have the use of them (no indication how many) until her death and then they were to be divided up between the four children.  He was known as a planter and some of his transactions were paid in tobacco rather than cash, as was typical for other planters in the era.  His land was mostly on Piscataway Creek, which drains into Rappahannock River.  This was quite close to the coast and if there were hurricanes, it might have been a bad place to be. 

John died sometime before August 10, 1720, the date his inventory was taken.  Much of the value of the estate was in the 15 slaves he owned.  Their value totaled 287 pounds, 10 shillings and the estate was valued at a little over 410 pounds.  Land didn't yet have a high value.  As mentioned earlier, Susannah married Thomas Bryant, but died herself in 1726.

We don't know whether John worked as hard to raise his family as the "Pennsylvania Dutch" did to raise theirs.  But it wasn't an easy life, living and working on the frontier of Virginia, just as it was not easy living on the frontiers of Pennsylvania.  We can be grateful to John and Susannah for the heritage they passed on.

The line of descent is

John Boughan-Susanna Ley
Mary Boughan-John Edmondson
Sukey Edmondson-Thomas Wyatt
John Wyatt-Alice Gordon
Jean Wyatt-William Farmer
Margaret Farmer-Solomon Bennett
Mary Bennett-John Harter
Clara Harter-Emmanuel Harshbarger
Grover Harshbarger-Goldie Withers
Cleveland Harshbarger-Mary Beeks
Their descendants