Richard Shipley Sr. (abt. 1775 - bef. 1820)

Descendants

Died before 1 Feb 1820 before about age 45 in Rhea, Tennessee, United States

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Our earliest documented Shipley ancestor is Richard Shipley.(1) He was born about 1775, probably in Maryland. Some Shipley families migrated into the overmountain area of North Carolina towards the end of the Revolutionary War, but we have no known documentation connecting our Richard Shipley to any of these families. Some researchers speculate that he descends from Adam Shipley of Maryland.(2) Richard may have resided in Sullivan or Washington County, in what is now Tennessee, prior to his arrival in what is now Rhea County, Tennessee.

He married Hannah Retta Hughes about 1797 according to her statement in her pension application.(3) She was born about 1780 in Tennessee. It is believed that the Hughes family was Welsh. Hannah's name may have been one word, such as: Henrietta, Hanretta, Hannahretta, Hannaitta, etc. Hannah Retta is the form used by one granddaughter. Richard and Hannah had at least four sons, and one daughter all of whom were born in Tennessee. Benjamin Franklin, Sr. was born in 1805, Nathan was born about 1807, William Park was born about 1812, Richard, Jr. was born in 1814, and Elizabeth (Shipley) Dearing. Probably, there were other children in this family, most likely daughters.

By 1819 Richard was in Rhea County, Tennessee where he is documented as paying taxes.(4) The tax information indicates he didn't own land or a slave and that his sons were less than 16 years of age. He probably died during the latter part of 1819. He was killed by Abraham Mitchell, near the home of John Payne.(5) This was the first homicide in Rhea County. Court records document that on February 1, 1820 the Rhea County Quarterly Court paid $5 for the disposition of the body of Richard Shipley. This indicates his death was probably in the latter part of 1819 or in January of 1820. This was the first homicide in Rhea County. His estate was put up for sale in early 1820 and brought $277.56 ½ . $255.43 ¾ was disbursed to settle the estate and Hannah received $22.12 ¾. Court records document that in February 1820 the Rhea County Quarterly Court paid $5 for the disposition of the body of Richard Shipley. (6) Richard's burial place is unknown. Chrispian E. Shelton and John Bailey exhibited the following account of the sale of the estate of Richard Shipley decd. (7) Monday the 6th August 1821, Henry Collins and Azariah David, esquires, were appointed to settle with the Administrators of the Estate of Richard Shipley deceased. (8)

Hannah Retta/Henrietta married William McAllister May 5 or 8, 1825 or 1828 in Hamilton County, Tennessee. (9) She died November 15, 1857 or possibly 1858 in Tennessee.

Hamilton County, Tennessee was separated from Rhea County in 1819. The four known sons of Richard and Hannah lived in the part of Tennessee that became Hamilton County. In 1828 Nathan Shipley acquired 200 acres of land on the lower side of Opossum Creek. He operated a mill in Bakewell, Hamilton County, Tennessee and the Shipley mill wheel still exists. Benjamin Shipley was a blacksmith in Dallas, Tennessee. Other Shipley families, primarily descendants of Eli Shipley, lived nearby on Sale Creek. Of the 821 people who resided in Hamilton County in 1821, most of them lived in the Sale Creek area.(10) All of these locations are a few miles northwest of present day Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Opossum Creek area where Nathan, Benjamin, William Park and Richard Shipley lived is about 20 miles south of Dayton and 40 miles north of Chattanooga.

Our Shipley family on Opossum Creek had financial and legal problems. Benjamin shot a man during a quarrel and fled to Arkansas about 1839. William Park was murdered or committed suicide in 1843 in Hamilton County. Richard, Jr. migrated to Missouri before 1843 and later to Iowa. Nathan stayed in Hamilton County, eventually losing all his property at public auction by the end of 1844. The Shipley families of Sale Creek were unaffected by this ordeal and continued to be successful farmers and merchants.

Known children of Richard Shipley, Sr. and Hannah Retta Hughes:(11)

1. Benjamin Franklin Shipley, Sr. was born the 1st of January, 1805 in Tennessee.(12) He died the 26th of August, 1881 in Mulberry, Crawford County, Arkansas.

2. Nathan Shipley was born about 1807 in Tennessee. Nathan died after 1880 in Hamilton County, Tennessee.

3. William Park Shipley was born about 1812 in Tennessee. He was murdered or committed suicide the 25th of March 1843 in Hamilton County, Tennessee.

4. Richard Shipley, Jr. was born the 15th of November, 1814 in Tennessee. He died the 13th of January, 1908 in Clio, Wayne County, Iowa.

5. Elizabeth Shipley was born about 1817 in Tennessee. She married Gilbert W. Dearing (He was the administrator of Hannah Retta's estate. (13)) Elizabeth died between 1854 and 1858.

The biography of Richard Shipley and Hannah Retta Hughes was researched and written by R. Cecil Shipley and amended by Susan Kimes Burgess

Sources

(1) Most information on the Shipley lineage is from a gedcom from R. Cecil Shipley unless otherwise noted. Susan Kimes Burgess footnoted his sources when known.

(2) "The first permanent settlement in Tennessee was made in 1769 on Boone Creek by Capt. William Bean, who came in that year from Pittsylvania County, Va. His son, Russell Bean, is said to have been the first white child born in the State. Soon after Bean made his settlement, in 1770 and 1771, James Robertson. Landon Carter and others, laid the foundation of the Watauga settlements, which at first were mainly in what is now Carter County. The steady stream of emigrants from the older States, however, soon forced these to overflow into the territory now embraced in Washington and Greene Counties. In 1772 Jacob Brown, with one or two families from North Carolina, located upon the north bank of the Nolachucky River, which up to this time had remained undisturbed by the white man. Mr. Brown had been a small merchant, and brought with him a packhorse loaded with goods with which he soon purchased from the Indians a lease of a large body of land lying on both sides of the Nolachucky. In 1775 he obtained one deed signed by the chief men of the Cherokee Nation, embracing the greater part of the present Washington County west of the Big Limestone, and another deed for the land lying between the Big Limestone and a line drawn from a point on the Nolachucky Mountains north 32 degrees west to the mouth of Camp Creek; thence across the river; thence northwest to the dividing ridge between Lick Creek and Watauga or Holston; thence up the dividing ridge to the rest of the said Brown's land. This land Mr. Brown sold to settlers at a small price. The government of North Carolina, however, refused to recognize the validity of this deed, and continued to make grants in the territory covered by that instrument." Goodspeed's History of Tennessee, The Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1887, pages 797-1,317. Benjamin Shipley was born in Maryland about 1730, married Kitty Unknown and Elizabeth Unknown, and died in Washington County, Tennessee, USA. Margaret Bean, granddaughter of William Bean, married Elijah Hale Shipley, grandson of Benjamin Shipley (1730). Elijah Shipley migrated to Arkansas about the same time as our beloved Blind Ben (son of our Richard Shipley, Sr.) and both appear on the 1840 census in Arkansas. Some researchers believe Elijah and Blind Ben were related, perhaps cousins. Some researchers believe this Benjamin Shipley (1730) was the progenitor of all Shipley in the overmountain area. However, other researchers believe several members of the Shipley family migrated to the overmountain area. This Benjamin (1730) had a son named Richard who would have been born about the same time as our Richard, but there is no proof that they are the same person.

(3) The death certificate for Richard Shipley, who was born 15 Nov 1814 in Tennessee and died in Clio, Iowa on 13 Jan 1908, clearly states he was the son of Richard Shipley and Hannah Hughes. The informant was Richard Jr.'s daughter, Mrs. Rittie Shipley Preston. Source: Rick Albright. "Iowa Deaths and Burials, 1850-1990," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XVQF-K5W : 12 December 2014), Richard Shipley in entry for Richard Shipley, 13 Jan 1908; citing Clio, reference 85 8; FHL microfilm 1,009,081

(4) Rhea County, Tennessee Tax Lists, 1819-1829, Bettye J. Broyles, Rhea County, Historical and Genealogical Society, Dayton, Tennessee, 1989. (The original 1819-1829 tax lists are among the Barnes Papers in the University of Tennessee Library Special Collection Room.)

Abbreviations

WP white poll

TL town lot

BP black poll

SH stud horse

Page 4. Taxables in Capt W. McGill's Company for 1819

Shipley, Richard 0 Acres, 1 WP, 0 TL, 0 BP, 0 SH

(5) Hamilton County Pioneers, John Wilson, BookCrafters, Chelsea, Michigan, 1998, p. 265.

(6) Page 139 County Court Minutes: 13 Feb 1820, Richard Shipley. Inventory ordered sold by the Administrator. Rhea County, Tennessee, USA Minutes Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions February 1820 - February 1821, Bettye J. Broyles, Rhea County Historical and Genealogical Society, Dayton, Tennessee, 1995, August Sessions 1820, Page 75.

(7) Rhea County, Tennessee, USA Minutes Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions May 1821 - February 1823, Bettye J. Broyles, Rhea County Historical and Genealogical Society, Dayton, Tennessee, 1995, Page 14, Page 63.

(8) Rhea County, Tennessee, USA Wills, Inventories, Estate Settlements, and Guardian Reports, 1810-1881, Bettye J. Broyles, Rhea County Historical and Genealogical Society, Dayton, Tennessee, 1989.

(9) William Mcallister Full Pension Record has multiple pages referring to his last wife and widow, Henrietta McAllister and their date of marriage since she was attempting to get his pension benefits as his widow. Sometimes it is listed as May 8, 1825 and sometimes as Mary 8, 1828. Most of the time it was 1825.

(10) A History of Hamilton County, Tennessee, James W. Livingwood, Memphis State University Press, Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, 38152,1981; p. 4.

(11) Richard is proven as the father for Richard Jr., William Park, and Nathan. Richard Jr. wrote a letter to George Roller Shipley, son of William Park Shipley, and referred to him as nephew. According to John Wilson in Hamilton County Pioneers, p265, Richard Jr. and Nathan were in business together as N. Shipley and Brother in Hamilton County. Benjamin is included as a child of Richard and Hannah based on family naming patterns and associations among these four in Hamilton County. These associations come from Hamilton County deeds, which show them selling land to each other and being witnesses for each other. Elizabeth's husband was administrator of Hannah Retta/Henrietta's estate in 1857.

(12) Tombstone; Find a Grave, database and images (www.findagrave.com/memorial/145942179/richard-shipley : accessed 07 May 2021), memorial page for Richard Shipley Sr. (17 Apr 1775–1 Feb 1820), Find A Grave: Memorial #145942179, ; Maintained by Jacques (contributor 47057139) Body lost or destroyed.

(13) Title The "lost" pensions: settled accounts of the Act of 6 April 1838

Author Craig Roberts Scott

Publisher Willow Bend Books, 1996, Original from the University of Wisconsin - Madison; Digitized Sep 24, 2010; ISBN 1888265035, 9781888265033; Length 374 pages

Henrietta McAllister is in this book.

Gilbert W. Dearing was her administrator