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His year of birth and death are unknown.
15 Mar 1767 - Robert Bellshe was a witness to a deed from Robert Poage to Robert Poage his son for 150 acres on Back Creek in Augusta County, Virginia.[1]
15 Mar 1767 - Robert Belshie Jr. purchased 230 acres on Linvel's Creek, George Speece's line; corner part of said tract belonging to Zebulon and Robert Harrison, part of 670 acres devised by Robert Cravens, from John Cravens (executor of Robert Cravens) and Margaret for £50. Delivered by Robert Belshire in June 1783[2]
17 Mar 1767 - Robert Belshe received money as a creditor of the estate of Robert Cravens.[3]
18 Aug 1770 - Robert Balshee was witness to a deed from George Shooemaker and Elizabeth to Conrad Weaver for 31 acres on the north branch of Shanandore.[4]
Unsourced trees show him as the son of John Belcher. However, the 1767 land record indicates he is a 'Jr' (unless his son was born earlier than shown on his profile and the records above are for the son).
Some (again unsourced) trees show that he died in 1770 in Franklin, Virginia.
There are records of a James Belshe in 1763 in Augusta, Virginia. These may be his brother or his son.
Per a private report written by Robert B Belshe in 2015: "The first Belshees to arrive in what is now Tazewell County, VA were Robert and William Belshee; both had land patents on the Maiden Spring fork of the Clinch River near what became Liberty, Virginia. Robert, William, Samuel and James were brothers, and three of them and five of their adult children signed the petition to form a new county in 1793. The Belshee’s had been in Rockingham and Augusta County for the previous two generations and the family acquired land along the Island Draft of the Shenandoah River and on Linville’s Creek in Augusta Co. This article will focus on the eight Belshee’s who signed the first petition to form a new county. The new county was formed after six petitions had been presented to the legislature from 1793 to 1799; but it was not until a political deal was struck to name the new county “Tazewell” after a prominent member of the legislature, that the new county was approved.
"Not to be confused with the Isham Belcher family, the Belshees were located along the Maiden Spring fork of the Clinch River (8 miles west of the court house) and the Belchers along the Bluestone River (25 miles NE of the courthouse). There is often confusion in the spelling of these two families names, and with time some of the Belshees morphed into Belsher and Belcher so that many descendants of both families have trouble sorting out their roots.
"For this manuscript I chose the spelling Belshee used by Robert Belshee in his Will with his original signature, and for William Belshee’s children, I use Belsha, his family’s preferred spelling of the name. When I quote specific documents, I have used the document spelling. Belshey, for example, was used on the petition of 1793 for seven of the eight signatures. Often the taxman or scrivener would spell the names as he heard them, which led to much variation. Sometimes this variation occurred within the same document.
The Petition to Form a New County in 1793
The original signers of the 1793 petition to form Tazewell county included eight Belshees among the 329 signers (Virginia legislative petitions, Wythe County – oversize Box 13, #2989, October 23rd, 1793 and reproduced by Nikki Schreiner– Yantis in her book Archives of the Pioneers of Tazewell County, Virginia.)
William Belshey signer 38
Robert Belshey signer 264 (note 5 sequential signers)
Craven Belshey signer265
Zachariah Belshey signer 266
Joseph Belshey signer 267
Samuel Belshey signer 268
John Belcher signer 301 (note his spelling)
Robert Belshey, Jr signer 329, the last signer of the petition
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B > Belcher | B > Belshee > Robert (Belcher) Belshee Sr
Categories: Estimated Birth Date | Virginia Colonists