Henry Hamblen (1740 - 1815)

Born 25 Mar 1740 in Prince Edward, Virginia

Ancestors

Husband of Judith (Watkins) Hamblen — married 1764 in Prince Edward, VA

Husband of Mary Polly (Dickenson) Hamlin — married 1770 in Prince Edward, VA

Husband of Mary Molly Blakemore — married 1783 in Augusta, VA, USA

Descendants

Died Aug 1815 at age 75 in Fort Blackmore, Scott, Virginia, United States

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Biography

Henry Hamblen was born on 25 Mar 1740 in Prince Edward, Virginia to parents Daniel Hamblen and Margaret Watkins. He married first Judith Watkins. He married second Mary (Polly) Dickenson). He married third Mary (Molly) Blackmore. He died in Aug 1815 in Fort Blackmore, Virginia.

"Henry Hamblen came to Castlewood and settled in upper Castlewood, on the North side of Clinch River in 1769. He operated a mill there long before Bickley's Mill and the old foundation still stands on Mill Creek.

Married (1) Mary "Polly" Dickenson before 1776. Later he moved to Rye Cove and married (2) Mary "Molly" Blackmore on 19 June 1787 (but illegally). During the Revolutionary War he is reported to have been a Tory.

In the year 1781, a company of eleven Indians visited the home of a Mr. Hamblin, on Clinch river, near Castles Woods. Mrs. Hamblin (wife #1), who was at home, barred the doors to her house and defended it against the attack of the Indians with an old musket-gun that would not fire. Account 1: But in the May of 1782, the Indians returned to her home, at which time they succeeded in killing and scalping Mrs. Hamblin.

When Henry's first wife was killed by Indians in May of 1782, son Champ Hamblen, then a boy ten years of age, was captured and carried west, but eventually was transported into Canada, where he was ransomed by a French trader and taken to Quebec, from which place he was sent by boat to Norfolk, and that from Norfolk he made his way back to his home near Fort Blackmore; two of the boys, Charles and John, and most likely daughter Frances, were saved from the Indians by a negro slave, a giant in stature and weighing three-hundred and fifty pounds; that for this act the slave was given his freedom and a small farm some six miles south of Jonesville.

That Henry Hamblen's wife was killed by Indians in the Spring of 1782 is substantiated by the personal testimony of James Fraley, who applied for a pension for his service to the United States as an Indian spy and scout on the frontier during that period in history. Court records, plus D.A.R. records, prove that five of Henry Hamblen's children survived the Indian raid of 1782.

Children of Mary Dickenson: Champ Hamblen, Charles Hamblen, John Hamblen, Francis Hamblen (b.1772/4) and Frances "Fannie" Hamblen (b.1770).

He married third Mary Blakemore in 1783 in Augusta, Virginia. Children: Cynthia Hamblen m. Mr. Chadwell."

Sources

• Annals of Southwest Virginia, 1769-1800

• Alabama Surname Files Expanded, Henry Hamlin 1740, spouse Mary Dickenson

• History of Scott County by Robert M. Addison, p 93

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/174647336