Jacob Fleenor (abt. 1753 - aft. 1808)

Ancestors

Descendants

Died after 1808 after about age 55 in Sullivan County, Tennessee, United States [uncertain]

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Jacob Fleenor resided in the Southern Colonies in North America before 1776. Join: US Southern Colonies Project Discuss: southern_colonies

Biography

Jacob Fleenor (aka Flenner, Fleener) was likely born between about 1751-1755. He was the son of Johannes Flinner and his wife Anna.^[1] His parents emigrated to America from Germany, possibly the town of Bönnigheim, in Würtemburg, and came to America aboard the ship John and Elizabeth, arriving at the Port of Philadelphia on 7 November 1754. They lived initially in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.^[2] Thus, it is possible that Jacob was born in Germany and emigrated to his America with his family as an infant; that he was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, shortly after their arrival; or even that he was born at sea during the journey. When he was very young, his family moved first from Bucks to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and then settled in Frederick County, Maryland.

Maryland

Jacob Fleenor was a Maryland colonist.

The family had arrived and settled in Maryland by 24 September 1769, when Johann Flinner and Anna Flinner his wife appear on the list of communicants at the St. Peter’s Rocky Hill Lutheran Church near Woodsboro, Frederick County, Maryland (later Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church).^[3]

The first record of Jacob is in the parish registers of that same church, when he was confirmed in 1771.^[4]

Virginia

He migrated to Virginia just before the American Revolution.

Beginning in about 1774, several of the likely sons of Johannes and Anna Fleener migrated southwest from Maryland to the area that was to become Washington County, Virginia. Jacob was among the first.

The land records of what was then Fincastle County, Virginia, reflect that by 1774 his brother Nicholas had settled along Meadow Creek on the remote Virginia frontier in the area that was later to be organized as Washington County. The survey for Nicolas's claim, among the first surveys for property claims in Washington County, was not completed until 1781; and a survey of 400 acres on Meadow Creek for Jacob was also among the first Land Surveys in the region completed on 21 August 1781. His brother Casper (Gasper) also settled in this area about the same time.^[5][6]

Jacob, Nicolas, and a third likely brother Adam Fleener all appear on the list of tithables for Captain Robert Craig's Precinct in Washington County in 1782.^[7] Another early Washington County land survey for Jacob, encompassing 400 acres on Branch Beaver Creek, was recorded on 10 February 1783.^[5]

Tennessee

On 29 June 1790, Jacob Fleener acquired a 300 acre tract of land in what was then claimed as Sullivan County, North Carolina.^[8] This area later became Sullivan County, Tennessee. Around the same time, he appears to have disposed of his lands in Virginia.^[9]

Jacob appears on the tax lists for Sullivan County, Tennessee, as the owner of at least 200 acres of land in 1796.^[10]

On 21 November 1808, he sold 172 acres in Sullivan County to Elijah Watson,^[11] the likely father of his daughter-in-law Mary Ann Watson.^[12] Four days later, he conveyed an adjacent tract of land to his "son Samuel" in consideration of "natural love and affection."^[13]

The circumstances of his death are uncertain, but he died after granting the deed of gift to his son in 1808, most likely in Sullivan County, Tennessee.

Signers of the 1777 Petition of the Holston Division.…. These were men who were engaged in the Cherokee Expedition and were not present when there was a Division of Fincastle in the year 1776. Fincastle County, Virginia was created in 1772 from Botetourt County and abolished in 1776. It was divided into Montgomery, Washington and Kentucky Counties. The petition is a grievance sent to the President and the House of Delegates. Adam Fleenor, Jacob Fleenor, Michael Fleenor, John Fleenor, Gasper Fleenor, and Nicholas Fleenor (all brothers and sons of Johannes Fleenor) are listed on page three….. excerpted from Petition of Holston Men. An American Family History; https://www.anamericanfamilyhistory.com/TennesseeFamilies&Places/1777%20Petition.html

Children

Children of Jacob Fleener include at least:

• Samuel, b. 16 Aug 1780^[11]

Research Notes

Estimated Birth Date

The estimate that Jacob was likely born between 1751-1755 is based on the church record showing his confirmation at St. Peter's Rocky Hill Lutheran Church in 1771. His age is not given in that record, but in later years the confirmation records do show the ages of the young people being confirmed, and the large majority seem to be between 16-20 years of age, although some occasionally appear as young as 12 or as old as 24.

Parental Relationship to Johannes Flinner & Anna

The common claim that Jacob is the son of Johannes and Anna Flinner is corroborated by the description in his brother Michael's pension application of this family's migration from Pennsylvania to Frederick County, Maryland; the appearance of the family in the Frederick County church records, including Jacob's confirmation in 1771; the migration of Jacob and several of his brothers to Washington County, Virginia, beginning in 1774 (including Casper, who is identified as Johannes's son in his Frederick County marriage record; and Nicolas, for whose sons Johannes and Anna acted as godparents in Frederick County); and the specific identification of Jacob as the brother of Michael in Michael's pension application.

Disputed Middle Name

Some, without source, have given a middle name of "William" but none of the sources cited in this profile include that middle name.

Uncertain/Disputed Marriage

Disputed Mother

Many unsourced ancestry trees identify Samuel's mother as Mary and/or Susannah Hope, or Susannah Hope Grimes or Grymes. There are no known sources for any of these claims and it is uncertain whether any such person ever existed. Based on the absence of any source for the claim, that profile has been detached as Samuel's mother.

Sources

1. ↑ See Research Notes.
2. ↑ See profile for Johannes Flinner.
3. ↑ See profile for Johannes Flinner.
4. ↑ Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church formerly St. Peter’s Rock Hill near Woodsboro, Frederick County, Maryland, Parish Registers, 1767-1889, p. 109; digital images, Ancestry.com, "Pennsylvania and New Jersey, U.S., Church and Town Records, 1669-2013," database with images, (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2451/ : accessed 6 Jun 2021),MD-All counties>Rocky Hill>Lutheran>Grace Evangelical Lutheran (subscription required).
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Lewis Preston Summers, Annals of Southwest Virginia 1769-1800, (1929, reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970), 1214 (Nicholas, Jacob & Gasper (Casper) Fleenor all received land grants in Washington County recorded in the the early 1780s; likely settlement beginning in about 1774).
6. ↑ Richard Slatten, “Lodged Land Surveys: A Series (cont.),” Magazine of Virginia Genealogy 27 (1989): 44-51, at 47; Digital Images, Ancestry.com, (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6131/images/VGS_1989_01_01_0045 : accessed 6 June 2021) (subscription required).
7. ↑ FamilySearch, "Personal Property Tax Lists of Washington County, 1782-1850), (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS79-L9MJ-T : accessed 4 Jun 2021), image 40; citing Virginia Commissioner of Revenue; FHL 1,905,744, DGS 7,856,314.
8. ↑ Sullivan County Deed Book Vol 1 1775-1790, p. 461 (microfilm); image, FamilySearch, "Deeds, 1775-1815, Sullivan County, Tennessee," (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:2:77TV-BLQF : accessed 2 Jun 2021); FHL microfilm 24,836, Items 1-7; DGS 4,769,061.
9. ↑ Washington County, Virginia, Deedbook, vol. 1, p. 199 (Jacob Fleener conveys 190 acres to Jacob Sink); & 200 (Jacob conveys 210 acres to John Fleenor on 28 Apr 1791, no consideration indicated. Land is adjacent to land owned by Nicholas); FamilySearch, “Deeds, Vols. 1-2 1778-1802” (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9PX-295R-4 : accessed 4 Jun 2021); FHL microfilm 34364, DGS 7,645,892.
10. ↑ Ancestry, "Tennessee, U.S., Early Tax List Records, 1783-1895," database with images (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2883/images/33119_290488-00505 : accessed 2 Jun 2021), Jacob Fleenor.
11. ↑ ^{11.0 11.1} Sullivan County Deed Book Vol. 6, p. 34 (microfilm); image, FamilySearch, "Deeds, 1775-1815, Sullivan County, Tennessee," (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:2:77TV-BLNK : accessed 2 Jun 2021).
12. ↑ See Margery Frances Day Hanson, Receipt for an Inheritance; or, The Making of the Family (Burlington, Vt.: R. Farnsworth, 1974), 14.
13. ↑ Sullivan County Deed Book Vol. 6, p. 39 (microfilm); image, FamilySearch, "Deeds, 1775-1815, Sullivan County, Tennessee," (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:2:77TV-BLNL : accessed 2 Jun 2021).