Flayl P. Nichols (1747-1823) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

Captain Flayl P. Nichols

Born 4 Jan 1747 in Frederick, Frederick, Maryland

Ancestors

Son of John Nichols Sr. and Martha J. (Payne) Nichols

Brother of Elisha Nichols, Mary (Nichols) Cundiff, Archibald Nichols, John P Nichols Jr., Jane (Nichols) Hancock, Catherine (Nichols) Pollard and Jesse Nichols Sr.

Husband of Nancy Ann (Hatcher) Nichols — married 4 Jan 1780 in Bedford County, Virginia

Descendants

Father of Sarah (Nichols) Matson, Martha (Nichols) Lawson, Rhoda Nichols, John Jesse Nichols Sr., Simon Nichols, William Pinckney Nichols Sr., Robert H Nichols and Edward H Nichols

Died 17 Aug 1823 at age 76 in Sevier, Tennessee, United States

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Profile last modified 6 Aug 2022 | Created 17 Feb 2014

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1 Biography
- 1.1 Name
- 1.2 Birth
- 1.3 Marriage
- 1.4 Note
- 1.5 Death
- 1.6 Burial
- 1.7 Senate
2 Sources
3 Footnotes
4 Acknowledgements

Biography

Wagon Master Flayl Nichols served with Bedford County Militia, Virginia Militia during the American Revolution.

Flayl Nichols is a DAR Patriot Ancestor, A083413.

Flayl Nichols, Revolutionary soldier, settled in Sevier County,Tennessee, about 1790. He married Nancy Hatcher in Bedford County,Virginia, January 7, 1780. They sold their Bedford County lands in 1787 and 1783, and records of Franklin Gounty, Virginia, show Flayl serving as juror and making depositions there during these same years.No details of his Revolutionary service are known, but his misspelled name, "Flail Nicholes," was recorded on the roll of Captain Adam Element's Bedford County militia company. also, it was said that he served in the regiment of Colonel William Campbell at King's Mountain,and Captain Clement's company assisted General Nathaniel Greene inNorth Carolina in 1731.

Flayl.'s father was John Nichols whose will. was probated in Bedford County in 1803, the only bequest to Flayl was the "big family Bible 11 but since he was the first heir named it is believed that he was the oldest child and may have received his share before his father's death. It is not known what happened to this old Nichols Bible. Flayl's brothers and sisters, as named in their father's will, were: John, Archibald, Elisha, Jesse, Mary Cundiff, Katherine Pollard, and Jane Hancock. Bequests were also made to "my beloved Wife Martha Nichols *" but her Maiden name was not revealed unless she was a second wife she was the mother of Flayl and the other children named above.

Bedford County records show the following marriages of the above Nichols children: Archibald was married twice? (1) Judith Hatcher, daughter of Richard Hatcher; Elisha Nichols married Rosey blinker (1782); Jane Nichols married Edward Hancock (1783 ); Jesse Nichols married Sally Fields (1800) . It. is believed that Katherine Nichols' husband was John Pollard but the given name of Mary Nichols Cundiff's husband is unknown. Neither is anything definitely known of Flayl's brother John except the bequest in the above John Nichols will of a "small shot gun... unto any grandson John Nichols, son of my Son John Nichols." This grandson is believed to have been John J. Nichols, who with his wife, Margaret (Scantlen) Nichols migrated from Bedford County to Sevier County and settled near Sevierville about 1819. Descendants of Flayl always claimed kinship with descendants of John J. Nichols.

There is absolute proof that John Nichols, father of Flayl, was also a soldier of the Revolution.

Flayl's Sevier County home was located on the West Fork of Little Pigeon River four miles south of Sevierville, near the mouth of Walden's Greek, where Colonel Samuel year established Wear's Fort not long. after 1763. Tradition has it that Flayl and family first resided in this fort after their arrival from V Virginia d during the early 1790's, when the Cherokee Indians Aere making their last attacks on the Tennessee frontier. It is likely that Flayl participated in Colonel Wear's Tal lassie espedition against the Cherokee in 1793.

In 1803 Flayl received a Tennessee grant for his 'occupant claim of 331 acres, which included two horse shoe bends of Little Pigeon and the surrounding g hills; the river today makes the sane bends as in 1807 when the Nichols grant. was surveyed as shown by the surveyor's plat In the Tennessee Archives. His lands joined the lands owned by Stephen Winton, George Green, John Mahan and Alexander Montgomery also original grant holders and early settlers in the same neighborhood. His home was on the bank of the river a few hundred .yards north of Shiloh Cemetery and he operated a mill nearby.

Details in the lives of humble : en are hard to find; so it was with Flayl Nichols, and doubly so in Sevier County, where the early court. records were lost in the court house fire of 1856. Flayl, however, left a few footprints, although obscure and scattered. In 1801 we find him serving as captain of a Sevier County militia company; later, in 1805, the Tennessee legislature made him a commissioner fur the town of Sevier although he did not live in the town.

Perhaps Flayl's neatest claim to fame was his service as state senator in the Tennessee legislature, 1803-04; he represented Sevier and Blount counties. In the impeachment trial of Judge David Campbell, he joined the minority of James White, Senate Speaker and Knoxville's founder, and Joseph McMinn, future Tennessee governor, and voted fur nudge Campbell's conviction. He introduced bills to "establish fairs in Sevier County," and to empower the Sevier County court to levy a tax to repair the "court house, prison and stocks." He also voted with the majority that defeated a bill to 'prohibit the further importation of slaves into Tennessee." And on November 7, 1803, Flayl joined the overwhelming majority of the Senate that, voted to clear John Sevier, Tenn? great, frontier hero, of fraudulently obtaining North Carolina land warrants for 15,000 acres of Tennessee lands. Finally, on August 1, 1801., he voted against the bill allowing North Carolina to "perfect titles" to lands in Tennessee, and after the passage of this bill he entered his strong protest in the Senate Journal.

Flayl and Nancy had nine children, as follows: Sarah (b. 1780),Martha (b. 1783), Rhoda (b. 1785), John (b. 1787), Jesse (b. 1788),Simon (b. 1795), William (b. 1797), Robert (b. 1800 and Edward (b. ?).Only, one of these remained in Sevier County? this was John who married Esther V. Black of Blount County, Tennessee, in 1814. It is believedthat she was a daughter of Joseph Black, one of the f ounders of Blount County and Maryville. The daughter Martha .married Irish? born Robert Lawson, early Sevierville shoe maker and saddler, and they migrated to Talladega County, Alabama, soon after the War of 1812, and many of their descendants still live in the latter place today. Sarah married John Matson, War of 1812 soldier; after his death she and her children also settled in Talladega County, where many of her descendants also live today. The son William married Wlartha Cannon and about 1835 they migratedto Randolph County Missouri he died there in 1864. Jesse, a soldier in the War of 1812, married Tobitha Coulter (or Cotter) and they migrated to Marshall County, Alabama, where Jesse died in 1841 his widow still lived there in 1872. Nothing: is known of the other sons, but, family tradition that, they, like William, also settled in Missouri.Flayl Nichols died at his home on the West Fork of Little Pigeon, August 17, 1823. The family Bible recorded his death as follows: "Flayl Nichols departed this life on Little Pigeon River Sevier County Tennessee State with gravel Aug 17, 1823. His grave in Shiloh marked with the original hand shaped sandstone with the inscription F.N. Dc. 1823, the carving of the old fashioned canoe-shaped coffin below this inscripotion. In recent years a flat granite head stone showing his Revolutionary wear service was furnished by the War Memoirial Division of the United States Army and it was placed in front of the Old stone The Widow Nancy survived for several years- she died about 1840. No original marker remains at her grave, but the writer with the help of three Alabama descendants placed a granite marker fur Nancy by the side of Flayl's grave.

Buried Shiloh Cemetery, Sevierville, TN

Name

Name: Flayl /Nichols/^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]

Birth

Birth:

Date: 1758

Place: Bedford, Virginia, United States^[7]^[8]

Marriage

He married Nancy Ann Hatcher in Bedford Co. VA; marriage bond dated 4 Jan 1780.

Marriage:

Date: 1780^[9]

Husband: Flayl Nichols

Wife: @P518@

Child: @P482@

Relationship to Father: Natural