With Sword In Hand; LaRue County's "Paul Revere"

An Examination of an Important Early Pioneer Family During Kentucky's Settlement Period

by Gary Dean Gardner, Independent Scholar

It has not been determined whether William Phillips had this home erected, or if he acquired it upon his arrival in LaRue County in 1823.

Special thanks go out to Chris D. Phillips for so generously sharing his extensive genealogical data on the extended Phillips family, and to Mary Ellen Moore for dropping all else to seek out names for me in Nelson County's archives.

Of one thing most scholars are certain.  The Phillips family was an extensive clan and an extensively tangled one, sending varied related pioneer men to Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee of a single hardy stock and courageous nature, all willing to risk the harshness of uncivilized wilderness to satiate a lust for adventure and a common desire to thrive and prosper.  Some succeeded, others failed, but none succumbed to weakness or cowardice in the process.  This is especially true of the Phillips men of LaRue County at the juncture of the Barrens and the Bluegrass of central Kentucky.  Their primary origins in Wales is most assured, though their ancestral bloodlines in that country will likely never be clarified. 

Most members of the Phillips family either already had considerable wealth, or they gained it after arriving in Kentucky.  Even in 18^th century Kentucky (aka Virginia) of this early settlement period, the primary basis of wealth came in the form of land and slaves.  A fascinating account within The Weekly Maysville Eagle edition on the 22^nd of March 1876 preserves & retells the arrival of one related branch of the greater Phillips family to the early riverport on the Ohio then known as Limestone.  The story centers on the family of William Phillips (1710-1774, s/o George Phillips), a slightly older kinsman (likely a 1^st or 2^nd cousin) to the Phillips brothers who found their way to Jefferson (later Nelson, then Hardin, & finally LaRue) County, who settled in early Mason County.  Per this account, which I include primarily because of the intriguing savage recollection of African-Americans as Phillips family chattel wealth in the earliest of pioneer settings in Kentucky, we are told that, 

“William Phillips emigrated from Wales to Philadelphia during the last century, and there married a Miss Penn, a relative of William Penn.  Subsequently he removed to Virginia, and there raised a large family.  His son Moses married, in Virginia, …The Moses Phillips first named; in February 1789 sent a negro man with William Routt to Kentucky for the purpose of raising grain for his family, with whom he followed in the Fall of that year, landing at the mouth of Limestone, and proceeding to Lee’s Station.  During the stay of the family at this station, Moses, Thomas and John Phillips, the brothers above named, in company with a negro woman and boy, went to a corn field a short distance from the station to gather some grain, after doing which they started on a race for the gap, which John was the first to reach, climbing on top of the fence.  An Indian who had watched the party darted from an ambush and felled John to the ground with a blow from his war-club.  The other ran back into the cornfield, where they were soon found and captured by the Indians.  In spite of the entreaties of the negro woman, Moses and Thomas Phillips were killed and scalped.  John in the meantime recovered sufficiently to craw into the Station, which the Indians discovering retreated, crossing the Ohio near the Pelham place, taking with them the negro woman and boy.  The former lived with the Indians several years, until she was purchased from them by a trader and brought back to Kentucky, where she was reclaimed by John Phillips.  The negro boy stayed with the Indians ten years, when making his escape, he brought back with him a rifle, tomahawk and knife, which were soon taken from him by his white masters, much to his discontent… Our correspondent is evidently mistaken as to the date of the arrival of the Phillips family.  William Rout and his family came to Mason County in Feb. 1785, and we know that Edmond Phillips came with him.  The incident spoken of as to the killing of Moses Phillips took place in 1787, from the best information we can obtain.  There were three negroes taken, Bob, Sarah and Isaac.  After crossing the river, the Indians found they were pursued and Bob not moving to suit them was tomahawked in Logan’s gap, and the stump with the marks of the tomahawk is yet probably to be seen.”

The article goes on to delineate the progeny of this branch of the Welsh Phillips family in northern Kentucky.

The other William Phillips whose line interests us most had ancestral ties to Wales as well, but was most likely a native of either Pennsylvania or Maryland.  He was one of the four sons of James Phillips of Cecil County, Maryland.    William's brothers, per their father's 3rd of April 1773 will, were John, David, and Philip who were all mentioned along with a sister, Mary Phillips.  At least two of these four brothers, Lt. Colonel David Phillips and Captain Philip Phillips (ca.1730/50-1797), became forever affiliated with the fabled  “Welsh Tract” of Pennsylvania & Delaware by receipt of bequests from their father before the young men relocated to far southwest Pennsylvania in lands once claimed by Virginia.  Sharing a similar migratory route, both brothers would record the final chapters of their stories near Nashville in Davidson County, TN about 1797. 

Will of James Phillips of Cecil County, MD naming his children including Hodgenville founder & fort builder Philip Phillips

Confirmation of ties to the "Welsh Tract" aka the "Welsh Barony" are important not only in connecting James Phillips to Wales, but in the placing of his sons in context with the early Baptist church and this unique historical location prior to their moves south.  Delaware's printed state guidebook from the Depression-era Works Progress Administration (WPA) gives mention to the church established by those first Welsh immigrants that surely included James Phillips & his children.

"Right on this road to WELSH TRACT BAPTIST CHURCH, erected in 1746 as successor to the first Baptist church in Delaware, a log structure built in 1706.  The congregation now belonging to the Primitive Baptist group, was organized in Wales in 1701.  That year the members emigrated to America and in 1703 bought from William Penn a tract of 30,000 acres that has since been called Welsh Tract, about one-fourth of it lying in Cecil County, Md.  The elevation of Iron Hill is said to have attracted them, and to this part of New Castle County the name Pencader Hundred was given; pencader is supposed to have meant "highest place" in the Welsh tongue.  The present building is simple in line, one story in height, with a hipped roof, and is built of brick laid in Flemish-bond.  The bricks are said to have been imported from England, unloaded in New Castle, and in panniers on muleback.  The date is on a stone set into the top of the front wall.  The present white[painted, brown-trimmed pews are of the 19th century.  the oldest communion service consists of tow pewter plates and two pewter cups and saucers in used about 1830.    

The yard is enclosed by a whitewashed stone wall built at various times from 1827 on and is shaded by huge old oaks growing just outside.  A grassy lawn slopping down to the Christina Creek attracts picnickers on summer days.  Across the road are whitewashed carriage sheds and the ancient little whitewashed  stone house of the caretaker.

Some of the early 18th-century grave stones are rough-hewn from brown stone, and show the marks of the chipping tools. Celtic words are crudely lettered on them.  A soldier of Oliver Cromwell's "Ironsides" regiment is supposed to be buried here.  Visitors are told that the mother of Jefferson Davis is also buried here--an untrue but sturdy legend based apparently on a gravestone inscribed  "Hannah Davis, died 1854, aged 71 years."  Jefferson Davis's mother was Jane Cook Davis.  However, his great-grandparents John and Anne Davis (or Davies), lived in this vicinity." -Delaware: A Guide to the First State, 1938, pg. 459.

Welsh Tract Baptist Church, Newark, Delaware ca. 1746

Reacting to religious intolerance in England, sixteen Baptists from the counties of Pembroke and Carmarthen in South Wales formed a church and in June 1701 left for American resettlement in Pennsylvania.  Due to certain religious practices that differed from the established Baptists already there, the group soon took possession pf and relocated to lands acquired from William Penn which constituted the 2nd "Welsh Tract" consisting of 30,000 acres centered in New Castle County, Delaware and lapping about 1/4 of the grant into Cecil County, Maryland (an earlier "Tract" was granted and its boundaries established by 1687, from when came many new residents to the new "Welsh Tract").  There they were joined by additional Welsh settlers, among whom are recorded between 1709 and 1720 the arrival of Lewis Phillips and John Phillips. 

Thomas Holme Map of Pennsylvania from 1687 denoting the "Welsh Tract"

James' familial connections to either Lewis or John Phillips are uncertain, though it seems likely he was directly tied to one or both men as he acquires "Welsh Tract" property which he later deeds to his sons.  Along with his brothers, William as well received "Welsh" lands from James according to a Cecil County deed of 15th May 1778 when he and wife, Sarah, sell 108 acres which James Phillips had acquired back in 1754.   This tract fell in the Delaware portion of the "Tract" where the original Welsh pioneers had established their "Welsh Tract" Baptist Church.

This sale of land by William Phillips brings us much pertinent data, including reference to his marriage, his profession, and confirmation not only of his brothers' names from James Phillips' will, but of Philip Phillips' removal to Yohagania County, Virginia as his personal history has previously alleged .  Cecil County records state,

“15 May 1778 William Philips of Cecil County and State of Maryland, weaver and Sarah his wife of the one part and Jeremiah Taylor of the County and state afs'd, Farmer of the other part ... that for and in consideration of the sum of 560 pounds common money to them in had paid have given granted bargained & sold to the said Jeremiah Taylor a Certain tract or parcel of Land situate in the aforesaid county and state bounded by a corner of Thomas Thomas's Land... containing 108 acres and three quarters of Land be it the same more or less it being part of a tract of land made over by William Davis and David Evans unto a certain David Williams as appears by their deed dated 6 Aug 1736 recorded in New Castle County Lib m p. 147 and by the widow and children of the said David Williams Conveyed unto a certain Richard Williams as appears by a deed dated 17 Feb 1745 filed in New Castle and by the said Richard Williams and Rebecca his wife made over and recorded unto a certain James Phillips as appears by their deed dated 1754, and by the said James Philips and Rebecca his wife conveyed to the said William Philips as appears by deed bearing date 29 Mar 1774 Recorded B v. 2 p. 345, (signed) William Philips and Sarah (her mark) Philips. Wits: Jos. Gilpin and Ann Hollingsworth. Returned to Cecil County Maryland Court 15 May 1778 (Sarah released her dower right) 

immediately following: 28 Aug 1778 Wm. Phillips informed one of the justices of the peace of the Commonwealth of Virginia that he hath lost the deed of convenyance of a certain tract of Land in New Castle County and State of Delawar (sic) by the s'd Philips title to the Land by a misinformation that David Philips should lay claim to said Land it being a tract that s'd Wm. Philips hath sold to a certain Jeremiah Taylor of Cecil County . This is to Certify that the s'd David Philips, brother to s'd Wm. Philips hath before me acknowledged that he neither did nor 

doth lay any property nor claim to the Said land and farther I the said David Philips have for the acknowledgment of the above set my hand and seal (signed) David Philips before Oliver Miller

- Came the above mentioned David Philips before me the s'd Justice and did solemnly swear that he was a witness to a Deed for the above mentioned land unto s'd William Philips from James Philips and Rebecca his wife and that s'd David was present and the same was recorded at New Castle within six months of the same. (signed) Oliver Miller 

immediately following: Then came Philip Philips before me the and the commonwealth justices of the peace in the state aforesaid and did solomnly swear the within mentioned Oliver Miller to be and to act as a magistrate in Late August Court held in Youghanganea [Yohogania sic] County and Coloney State of Virginia and heart the said David Phillips make the within acknowledgement before the said Justice and the he the said Philip Phillips was a witness to the within mentioned deed - sworn before me Tobias Rudolph, justice of Cecil County, Maryland.”

(Cecil County, Maryland Deed Book 14, pg. 279 )

The now defunct Yohogania County, the territory of Western Pennsylvania claimed by Virginia from 1777 until 1780

Records of the now-extinct Virginia county of Yohogania (now primarily Washington County, Pennsylvania) indicate Philip Phillip’s residency there at least as early as 1776 when he served in the capacity of a constable whose duties he fulfilled until August of 1778.  He and brother John, along with an unspecified relation Thomas Phillips, had arrived at the Falls of the Ohio by 1779, and Philip had moved on south some 50 miles to the Nolynn to begin construction of a timber fortification by the fall of 1780 named for Phillips in which the first families of that area between Bardstown and Elizabethtown took up residence.  Apparently coming as well from Yohogania County were the families of Hinch, Ashcraft, Cessna, Friend, and Kirkpatrick by 1781, to be followed closely by the LaRue, Hodgen, & Walters families between the autumns of 1784 and 1785.  The Friend family, more specifically from “Friend’s Cove” in Pennsylvania, was perpetuated in a multitude of bloodlines by the marriage of 5 daughters to these aforementioned pioneer families.  Nancy Friend wed Jedediah Ashcraft, Eleanor married Joseph Kirkpatrick, Mary chose Jonathan Cessna, Elizabeth married William Hinch, while Susannah Friend became the wife of Philip Phillips himself, surveyor, land speculator, and founder of the settlement.

Only a single Kentucky Historical Society highway marker commemorates the long-abandoned site of Phillips' Fort and its accompanying pioneer cemetery.  It has been alleged that well-meaning but untrained amateur archaeologists removed the surviving displaced  grave stones without permission of the property owner.  If so, there whereabouts are now unaccounted for.

Philip took on much more than the role of protector of his stockade’s inhabitants.  He was as well active in the Virginia militia.  1780 offered a period of relative peace & stability which was short-lived, but afforded Phillips the opportunity to construct his fort and conduct its first occupants to its safety.  The upper regions of what was then Jefferson County, however, soon fell prey again to Indian attacks in 1781.  Phillips was compelled to leave the fort to defend other stations then at risk.  Veteran Jacob Hubbs, in his pension deposition decades later, explained the campaign across the Ohio River.  He states, “In 1782 General George Rogers Clark planned an Expedition against the Shawnee Indians and I volunteered in a Company Commanded by Capt. Andrew Hynes (of which Philip Phillips was Lieutenant and William Hinch Ensign) in the Regiment Commanded by Colo. John Floyd – the whole of the Troops Commanded by General Clark. the Tour was for Two months. We Rendezvoused at the falls of the Ohio River and marched against the Indian Towns [Piqua, Standing Stone, and others] on the Miami River where we destroyed several of the Towns [10 Nov 1782] and then returned home & were discharged.”

Despite long absences for the men and the general hardships of life so remote from civilization, existence in the rustic fort feigned a degree of normalcy.  It required all the fundamentals of life, inclusive of love, marriage, birth, and death, along with spiritual needs and the daily cravings of the stomach to be dealt with at all cost.  Historian Evelyn Crady Adams, in her exceptional paper on Fort Phillips on the Nolynn, offered a detailed examination of domestic adaptation there.  She transcribed from Jefferson County Minute Book “A” from March 1781- September 1782 and explained that,

 “The furnishings of early forts consisted mainly of essential household goods, agricultural and building implements of a simple nature, and the conventional flint lock rifle.  These were brought on the long journey from the east.  Somewhat typical in diversity and functional value are the chattels of Mary Cessna who lived in Phillips’ Fort.  Jonathan Cessna, Mary’s husband, was slain by Indians.  Listed in the inventory of his personal property in August, 1782, were three pewter dishes, eight pewter plates, four pewter basins, spoons, etc., a frying pan, pots and pot hooks, two beds and bedding, books, a spinning wheel, a hackle, farming utensils, five axes, lumber, one rifle gun and a side saddle.  The livestock consisted of one mare, three cows and one ewe.  If his list were multiplied by the number of other householders residing in Phillips’ Fort, the total furnishings could be deemed adequate to meet immediate simple demands.”

Population in the fortress waxed & waned as the Indian threat intensified or relaxed, and as additional settlers were drawn to the inner regions of the Rolling Fork & Salt River Valleys.  While no Census was enumerated, surviving records indicate a mixed residency of perhaps 30-40 individuals at any given time, made up on occasion of more children than adults, and including an unspecified number of enslaved African-Americans.  Among them we know the names of Mark and Anthony (Nourse), chattel of James Nourse, but many within the confines of Phillips’ Fort were known to have owned slaves, including Philip and Susannah Phillips.  In addition, their own household in the stockade was filled out with some 9 children, all but the first two born in their father’s fort.  Their first two children, sons John & James, were believed born in what today is Hardin County on “Neely’s Branch” of the Middle Creek of Nolynn River, east of Elizabethtown and about 5 miles from present-day Hodgenville (James Neely, whose son James Jr. would be the future son-in-law of Phillips, is credited with aiding in the construction of Phillips’ Fort, and a slightly earlier “station” on a branch of Middle Creek still bears his name).  The remaining children, though, were born to Philip & Susannah after their inhabitation of the fort.  Those children included Elizabeth “Betsey” b. ca. 1780/81, Eleanor “Nelly” b. 10 Feb 1782, Mary “Polly” b. 1783, Joseph b. 1784, David b. 1790, Nancy A. b. 1793, and finally William born 1794.

The last known photograph of the Phillips' Fort Cemetery.  Descendants in the 1920s bemoaned the condition of their ancestors' graves, but did nothing to rectify the problem and preserve the site.

It remains difficult to ascertain if the elder William Phillips, brother to Philip, actually left Cecil County Maryland at all, and if he did whether he went first to Kentucky along the Nolin or directly on to Nashville like his brother later did.  William Sr.'s 1778 sale of his lands in the "Welsh Tract" would apparently precipitate such a venture, and would coincide with the removal of Philip to Jefferson County in what is now Kentucky.  The common use within the family of this particular given name gives rise to confusion in ascertaining his exact movements & settlement.

Perhaps a key to determining William Phillips' movements is Elizabethtown, Kentucky founder Colonel Andrew Hynes (28 Feb. 1750- Sept. 1800).  Hynes apparently has a long, multi-generational tie to the Phillips family.   Nelson County was established 1st January, 1785, and among its first "Gentlemen Justices" appointed that following 24th May were Andrew Hynes & Philip Phillips, Phillips having served under Hynes three years prior in General Clark's military maneuvers against the Shawnee north of the Ohio River.  Hynes and Philip Phillips would venture together in land speculation, as documented in Nelson County Will Book "A" p. 598, referencing the purchase by John Coombes of 350 acres from the two men (see also 28 Jan 1818 Nelson Co. KY Loose Papers; "Deposition of Edward Coombes" verifying this tract being jointly held by Hynes & Phillips).  As well, Philip Phillips and Andrew Hynes, along with Capt. Thomas Helm and Samuel Haycraft, Sr., all established their "stations" nearly simultaneously, confirming a solid pioneer bond amongst all these men.

So, clearly Hynes had a long standing military, economic, and social relationship with one Phillips brother, but what about with the other?  Some clarity here is found by facing the easy & erroneous assumption that ALL William Phillips' in early Nelson County records reference the man who settled on Hardin's Creek in present day Washington County, Kentucky, with his brothers Benjamin, John, & Thomas.  It may be mere coincidence that these Phillips brothers, of undocumented parentage, arrive at the Falls of the Ohio in 1779.  It is likely they knew Philip Phillips, and perhaps William, and it's plausible their militia service overlapped.  It is even feasible that all these men were distantly related through a common Welsh lineage, but there is just no direct connection to be found but for a surname.

Within Nelson County's "Land Depositions" Book 1800-1817 lies an intriguing clue to William, brother of Philip Phillips.  Here is referenced yet another William Phillips who is clearly NOT the same man as the William of Hardin's Creek in Washington County.  On page 204 is found "The Deposition of William Phillips taken on behalf of John E. King which reads:  

"to be read as evidence in a suit in Chancery now depending in the Bards Town District Court wherein said King is Complainant, and Thomas Collins is Defendant.  The said Phillips being first sword Deposeth and sayeth that some time in June in the year 1779 he in company with Andrew Hines [sic], (Levi/Levin?) Todd, Jessey [sic] Rude, James Williams, Ruben Camp [sic] and some others started from the Falls of the Ohio in order to explore the country and make improvements and traveled till we came to Bullitt's Lick and from thence we proceeded across Salt River and made an improvement on the north side of the Long Lick Creek, where John Essery formerly lived and then proceeded across the Long Lick Creek to a walnut Flatt and there made an improvement which the field now occupied by William Shain would include, and thinks it probible [sic] to be the place sworn to the surveyor by John Essery, and thence proceeded and made several other improvements and then returned to the Falls of Ohio and there cast lots for the improvements and the improvement on the north side of Long Lick Creek where John Essery formerly lived, fell to Lev. Todd, and the improvement on the south side of said creek in the walnut Flatt fell to Jessey Rude and further saith not."

It should be noted that William Phillips in his 4th Sept. 1802 deposition (taken in Shepherdsville, Bullitt County) never mentions as comrades the Washington County brothers who seem to have all served in the militia together.  He clearly however, and firstly, names Colonel Andrew Hynes, and goes on to list Reuben Kemp (1754-1834) who eventually settled in Hardin County, Kentucky about 1795 and remained their through 1816 (Hardin County Tax Lists), and Jesse Rude  (1750-1791?) who settles in Nelson County.  The affiliation with Hynes and the dates recorded would logically indicate this could be William Phillips the brother of Philip.  Further documentation is required to verify Williams permanent removal from Maryland.

Interesting, and perhaps to a degree ironic, is the continued Hynes association with the removal of Andrew Hynes, Jr. to Middle Tennessee.  Here in the Tennessee State Militia Hynes Jr. would serve as the next line commanding officer to Phillips Jr.  

William Phillips' sons William Jr. & Philip appear to have timed their arrival in Davidson County with that of their uncle, Philip Phillips, in 1795, a short two years before the pioneer LaRue County settler died.  Per family tradition the young men arrived in Nashville that year to reside with their aunt & uncle who had themselves recently resettled from Hardin (now LaRue) County, Kentucky.  William Jr. was by oral tradition born in Wales in 1773.  We now know that to be false, as William Jr. would have been born either in Maryland, Delaware, or more likely southern Pennsylvania near to the current West Virginia border.  Regardless, he was settled near to Nashville in Davidson County prior to 1797, the approximate year he married Nancy Henderson, d/o William Henderson.  And, despite “legend and lore” regarding William’s youth, the young man was most certainly beyond his teens when he made the acquaintance of his uncle’s neighbor, Andrew Jackson, though not by many years.  Depending upon the date of birth one affirms, William Phillips was around 20 when he arrived in Davidson County and, while apparently youthful in appearance and most certainly athletic, would have been much “longer in the tooth” than ever given credit for by the time oral histories had taken on mythic proportions in the early 20^th century.  

Often there is no real need to "chew the cud" of prior historians, as a clearer point was already made by them.  As such, I shall offer below  for my readers the narrative of "Billy Phillips as given by early 20th century Jackson biographer Augustus Buell.

 "Congress declared war against Great Britain by join resolution passed about five o’clock P.M., Friday, June 12, 1812.  President Madison was at the Capitol and signed the joint resolution within a minute after it was laid before him in its final enrolled form.  Less than an hour thereafter a dozen “express-couriers” were en route for every end of the Union with the tidings.  In these days the words “express-courier” may need exact definition.  In 1812 those words described a small, but extremely important and highly select force of young men, about twelve in number, directly under control of the President- to whom they reported in squads representing about one-fourth of their total number every day.  If there was nothing for them to do, they had an easy job.  Their pay was good for that time and their “commutation of allowances,” while waiting orders in Washington, enabled them to live at the best hotels or boarding-houses.  Most of them turned an honest penny occasionally by jockey-riding in the races on the old tract at Bladensburg.  When they did have anything to do, they had to do it at once and with all their might.

One of the “Government express-riders” was a young man named William Phillips.  He was a Tennessean, whom Senator Campbell, of that State, had brought to Washington in the capacity of clerk or secretary.  In his boyhood William Phillips- or “Billy,” as they called him in and about Nashville- had been one of Jackson’s own jockey-riders on the old “Clover Bottom track.”  When he was not more than sixteen years old, Billy Phillips had enjoyed the honor of riding the invincible old Truxton himself, in a heat race, for the biggest purse ever heard of west of the mountains; with General Jackson on one side of the stakes.

Now he was destined to ride a race against time, which, in the long run, was to determine the fate of General Jackson in history.

Before sundown, June 12, 1812, Billy Phillips, government express-courier- or, in popular parlance, President’s express rider- crossed the Potomac at Washington, bound for Richmond, Hillsboro, Salisbury, Morganton, Jonesboro, Knoxville, Nashville, Natchez and New Orleans, to carry the news that another fight with England was on; and, this time, a fight to the everlasting finish.

Similar messengers were sent north, northwest and south at the same time.  Those sent north went toward New England, where the new war was not popular, and for that reason they were not required to ride fast.  But Billy Phillips, the hard-riding jockey-boy of Andrew Jackson and Tennessee, was to spread the glad news among people whose bones ached for a fight with England, and his instructions were simply to go as fast and get there as soon as horse-flesh could carry or human flesh could endure to ride.

A copy of a quaint old letter is before us.  It was written at Lexington, North Carolina (now the county-seat of Davidson County), dated June 15, 1812, and signed by the Rev. Dr. T. Rayner, a Baptist clergyman and father of Judge Kenneth Rayner, famous in the history of North Carolina and the country at large.  It was directed to “Mr. T. L. Branch, Esquire, Charlotte.”  The historical part of it is as follows:

… I have to inform you that just now the President’s express-rider, Bill Phillips, has tore through this little place without stopping.  He come and went in a cloud of dust, his horse’s tail and his own long hair streaming alike in the wind as they flew by.

But as he past the tavern stand where some were gathered, he swung his leather wallet by its straps above his head and shouted- “Here’s The Stuff!  Wake Up!  War!  WAR WITH ENGLAND!! WAR!!”

Then he disappeared in a cloud of dust down the Salisbury Road like a streak of Greased Lightnin’!

He left no other news.  But this, taken with what has been doing in Washington for some time and Bill’s well-known character as a cruel rider, is news enough.  He must get relay at Salisbury and from there we will hear more particulars.

I do not wait for such but send this to you by the hands of young Mr. Stokes, who will come to you much quicker than the regular post-rider from this place.

It is a Righteous War, only too long put off, and we must all gird up our loins to fight out the good fight and give England the lesson her pride and fury have long needed.  As you know I was in the last war a soldier when she begrudgingly and for that she could not help it, signed our Independence.  But she never forgave us.  Now, we must thrash her again and this time I hope to last forever, because I do not like war and hope some way may be found to make her hold the peace.  I hope us old men now who were at the Cowpens and Guilford and the Springs [meaning Eutaw Springs] thirty-odd years ago, may not be brought into this new war, for there is plenty younger.  But we must give precept if no example now and it would not be a bid idea to have some good descriptions of King’s Mountain and other places like it made in our pulpits and school-houses!  [The Rev. Dr. Rayner was clearly of the Church militant.]

I shall come down to Charlotte in a few days.  By that time we will hear more particular news.  Bur for the present let us hope there will be no Tories in this war as in the last one.  If such should be and show themselves in this part of our State, I engage that their story will be short and sad.  Trusting that the Lord may guide us all in the path of patriotism for our own country and forgiveness to our enemies I am, etc.

The gentleman to whom this letter was written was the same Mr. Branch who, in 1775 and thereabouts, taught the “Oldfield school” at Waxhaw’s, in which eight-year-old Andrew Jackson was a pupil.  Mr. Branch was now (1812) a lawyer and also a pillar of the church.  The Reverend Doctor Rayner seems to have had no misgivings as to the outcome of the “new war,” and he seems to have been equally free from doubt as to what would happen to “Tories in his part of the State” if “such should be and show themselves.”

This ride of William Phillips was a marvel.  He left Washington at nightfall, June 12^th.  In the afternoon of June 15^th, as Dr. Rayner tells us, he “tore through” Lexington, NC, “like a streak of Greased Lightnin’.”  Just before dark, June 21^st, he “tore into” Nashville at the same “greased lightning” gait.  This was, by the roads he traversed, 860 miles in nine days, or an average of ninety-five miles every twenty-four hours.  Now, a first-rate rider who as not the fear of a S. P. C. A. before his eyes and no mercy on horse-flesh, may ride ninety-five miles in one twenty-four hours, with suitable relays of good horses.  But to hold that pace for nine days in succession, by daylight and in the dark alike, through a thinly settles country and over mountains some of the way, is flatly incredible now and forbids attempt at explanation.  But Phillips di it, as the date of Governor Blount’s receipt to him for the dispatches he delivered shows beyond question:  “Received etc., certain letters from the President and the Secretary of War, by the hands of William Phillips, U. S. Courier, Nashville, June 21, 1812, 7 o’clock P.M.

“[Signed] W. Blount, Gov’r.”

But this was not all.  Phillips’s home was at- or very near- Nashville.  He stayed with his folks the night of June 21^st.  Early the next morning he was off and away again for Natchez and New Orleans, nearly six hundred miles more!

For some reason Phillips did not ride so fast between Nashville and New Orleans as between Washington and Nashville.  Maybe he was tired.  Possibly his horses were not so good or the relays were father apart.  Or we may reasonably suspect that, having given the great news to Governor Blount and General Jackson, there was no particular need foo the Rev. Dr. Rayner’s “Greased Lightnin’” the rest of the way; because the defence [sic] of that part of the country devolved upon Jackson, Blount and Tennessee, so that information to those who were to be defended might be carried more at leisure.

At any rate, William Phillips took one more day between Nashville and New Orleans than between Washington and Nashville.  That is, leaving the national Capital at sundown, June 12^th, he was in Nashville at seven P.M., June 21^st.  Then, leaving Nashville early in the morning of June 22d, he arrived at New Orleans and tool Governor Claiborne’s receipt for his dispatches under date of July 2, 1812, eight o’clock P.M.

In this connection there is another fact worthy of record.  Knoxville was the capital of Tennessee in 1812.  The straight road- the old Emigrant Trail- from Jonesboro to Nashville did not strike Knoxville but ran to the northward of it.  Phillips expected to find Governor Blount at Knoxville and took that route.  But when he arrived there he found that the Governor had gone to Nashville the day before.  The whole of this detention amounted to five or six hours; not much under normal conditions of horseback travel, but a good deal when a man is riding ninety-fie miles a day for nine days in succession.

We have given al this space to the “Ride of Bill Phillips” from Washington to New Orleans because there was another “ride” in our national history and poetry, much shorter though none the less sacred to patriotism.  Paul Revere rode from Boston to Concord Bridge in 1775.  It was an American ride.  Bill Phillips rode from Washington to New Orleans in 1812; also an American ride.  The ride of Paul Revere has been- as it should be- made immortal.  But no one knows anything about the ride of Bill Phillips.

The whole matter narrows itself to this:  New England writes the histories of her heroic sons. Tennessee lets the histories of her sons- equally heroic- be forgotten; unless some man, with the blood of Puritan New England or of New York in his veins, writes it for her.  For this, Tennessee, glorious in all else, should be ashamed.

Phillips seems to have viewed this exploit as the apogee of greatness as a “President’s express-rider.”  When he came back to Nashville, at easy pace from New Orleans, he forwarded his resignation to the President and received in due time an appointment as Ensign in the Army.  He joined Colonel John Coffee’s regiment of Tennessee Mounted Riflemen and served with it through the war.  The modern visitor to Nashville, if provided with introductions to the best society, may meet some very agreeable gentlemen and some exceedingly beautiful women in whose veins his good old blood flows.

William Phillips reached Nashville with the news of “War!  War with England!! War!!!” the night of June 21^st.  The next day- or in a few days- Major-General Andrew Jackson issued a proclamation to his division of militia."  

(Buell, Augustus C., History of Andrew Jackson, Vol. I., 1904, pp. 247-253.)

 And among the first of the Tennesseans to answer Jackson's call was our own William Phillips.  In the archives of General Coffee the following letter from him is found:

 Fayetteville, October 3, 1814

I have been detained here several days longer than I expected when I left you, have mustered into service about two thousand men here besides several companies that is to follow after and four companies from East Tennessee, when all is together I shall have about twenty six hundred men in my Brigade.  We have had a second Regiment organized, in which was elected Thomas Williamson Col., Cap. George Elliott Lieut. Col, Capt. George Smith 2^nd Lieut. Col., William Mitchell and William Phillips Majors. (Sioussat, St. George L., Editor, Tennessee Historical Magazine, Vol. II, 1916, p. 285.)

Application for William Phillips' military headstone
Family legend inspired the reference to a Welsh birth

Despite his governmental travels and military service through the War of 1812, William & Nancy reared a sizeable family of 8 boys, remaining in the Nashville area for some years. William apparently had received some of his Uncle Philip Phillip’s surveying skills, perhaps being trained by the older relation at some point.  On the 15^th of May 1815, after returning home from New Orleans and, just perhaps, making plans for local defenses should hostilities with Britain not truly be over, William created a map of the city of Nashville which today is a treasure of the Tennessee State Library and Archives.  Clearly civic-minded and influential in Nashville society, Phillips would remain in Tennessee only 8 more years.   In 1823 William Phillips reversed the migration route of his old Uncle Philip Phillips, leaving Davidson County and Tennessee to return his family to Hardin County, Kentucky in that portion that would eventually break off to form LaRue County twenty years later in 1843.  There on the road from Hodgenville to Sonora they erected a fine brick plantation house in a simple Federal style along with all the necessary outbuildings and slave quarters.  Above the mantlepiece in the formal parlor he hung the British sword he’d captured a decade before at the Battle of Lake Borgne in the swamps of Louisiana outside New Orleans in service to his mentor, riding instructor, and General, Andrew Jackson.

The map of Nashville drawn by William Phillips in 1815, courtesy the Tennessee Historical Society

William & Nancy were accompanied back to Kentucky by at least some of their Tennessee-born sons, two of which married their Neely cousins and brought them back home to the Bluegrass as well.  Philip & Susannah Friend Phillips’ daughter, Eleanor, born in then Jefferson County (now LaRue) in her father’s fortifications on the Nolynn River the 10^th Feb. 1782, had married Major James Neely 27^th April 1797 in Davidson County, about the same time William and Nancy were wed.  To that couple were born 7 sons, including a namesake Philip Phillips Neely, and 5 daughters.   William Phillips’ sons, the great nephews of Philip Phillips, that went with their parents to Kentucky included William Henderson Phillips who married Martha “Patsy” Cann of present-day Hart County, Kentucky,  Isaac Cullen Phillips who was married 15 July 1823 to Elizabeth Tinker, d/o Dr. Ralph Tinker,   John B. Phillips who married his 2^nd cousin Mary H. Neely, d/o Major James Neely and Eleanor Phillips,   Philip Purdy Phillips (again, a namesake of the old explorer), and Madison Phillips who also married his 2^nd cousin, Miss Elizabeth Neely, sister to his sister-in-law and again d/o Major James Neely and Eleanor Phillips.   (Interestingly, and further tying all these families of the old fort together, Major Neely’s brother, William Neely had married Mary Friend, part of the larger Friend family that migrated with Philip Phillips to Nelson/Hardin/LaRue County, Kentucky)  Isaac, John, & Madison all eventually left Kentucky for Arkansas between 1846 & 1849.  

Phillips' grave in Arkansas

William shows up in the United States Census for Hardin County, Kentucky in 1830 as a wealthy man, the master of 18 enslaved men, women & children.  No longer in their prime of life, the 1850 Federal Census enumerated Philip and Nancy in the household of their adult son, Philip Purdy Phillips, clearly a namesake for William’s uncle who had initiated settlement of the region with the establishment of his stockade back in 1780.  Like his Uncle Philip, William was enumerated by the Census taker as having been born in Pennsylvania, most likely his correct place of birth though both were credited within the family as being natives of Wales in southwestern Great Britain.  Nancy Jane Henderson Phillips tragically succumbed to the Cholera epidemic that raged through central Kentucky in 1852, expiring the 8^th of September.  She was hurriedly buried in the nearby Coombs-Williams family cemetery close to Eagle Mills.  After Nancy’s death, William went to visit his sons in Dallas County, Arkansas, intending to come home to LaRue County, but ultimately dying there in November of 1860.  He was buried in the Methodist burial ground there at Hunter’s Chapel Cemetery near Tulip, Arkansas where he was eventually joined again in death by many of his descendants.  His memory has been preserved by his grandchildren, his LaRue County house, and his cherished reminder of the Battle of New Orleans.

The Coombs-Williams Cemetery in LaRue County where Nancy Phillips is buried, photo courtesy Linda Ireland

Thanks for your time in reading.  I welcome your questions on this subject.  

CITATION OF ADDITIONAL REFERENCES

Will of Philip Phillips, probated Davidson County, TN 27 Nov. 1797

Andrew Hynes Papers, Historic New Orleans Collection, MSS 185

The Terrible and the Brave:  The Battles for New Orleans, 1814-1815, The Historic New Orleans Collection, 17^th May 2005 to 8^th January 2006, p. 17.   Case 6-C; Sword of Lt. John Leavach, 21^st Regiment of Foot (Royal North British Fusiliers)

Cooke, Captain John Henry, Narrative of Events in the South of France and of the Attack on New Orleans in 1814 & 1815, T. & W. Boone, London, 1835.

United States Department of the Interior, National Register of Historic Places #90001979 William Phillips House LU-36.

Tennessee Historical Society; Tennessee State Library & Archives, Misc. Files T-100, ID# 36400, MAP:  The City of Nashville (1815), (Storage location IX-A-2v, B.10, M-15 ½) (Dimensions 25 x 20 cm).

Rootsweb, the Eleanor Nelly Phillips genealogy ID: I12940

15^th Oct 1832 Pension Application of Jacob Hubbs S16421 Bullitt County, KY

Adams, Evelyn Crady, “PHILLIPS' FORT (1780), NOLIN STATION, EARLIEST SETTLEMENT IN LARUE COUNTY, KENTUCKY”, The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, Vol. 58, No. 4 (October,1960), pp. 308-321.

Nelson Co. KY (VA) Court Minutes 29 July 1785 Nourse to Phillips

Severns Valley Baptist Minutes 25 June 1796 Susannah Phillips already residing in Tennessee, membership moved to “Cumberland” association

Bowles, Mrs. Thomas H., “The Phillips Family of Dallas County”, The Arkansas Family Historian, Vol. VIII, No. 3 (July-Sept. 1970), pp. 75-85.

Scharf, J. Thomas, History of Delaware 1609-1888, Vol. I., Richards & Co., Philadelphia, 1888.

Papers of the Historical society of Delaware, XLII, "Records of the Welsh Tract Baptist Meeting, Pencader Hundred, New Castle County, Delaware, 1701-1828, In Two Parts- Part I", The Historical Society of Delaware, Wilmington, 1904.

Hibbs, Dixie, Bardstown: Hospitality, History, and Bourbon, Arcading Pub. 2002, p. 10.