Adam Mitchell (1745 - 1802)

Born 1745 in Chester County, Pennsylvania

Descendants

Died 1802 at about age 57 in Washington County, TN.,

Biography

Private Adam Mitchell served with Guilford County Regiment, North Carolina Militia during the American Revolution.

Adam Mitchell is a DAR Patriot Ancestor, A080432.

A Biographical Sketch of Adam Mitchell

(Ancestor of David and Roger Bowles, San Antonio S.A.R. Chapter)

Adam Mitchell was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania in c.a.1745 his parents were Robert and Margaret Mitchell members of the Scots-Irish "Nottingham Colony" which would acquire 33 plats from Lord Carteret of about 640 acres each in North Carolina. Adam's Father would acquire 1 of the land grants and additionally buy 107 acres that joined his land from Robert Donnell on October 2, 1762. The 107 acres became the Mitchell's home and adjoined property that in 1774 was chosen the site of the new Guilford County Courthouse. The growing community was, for lack of a better name, called Guilford County Courthouse.

Adam's Father died in 1775 and Adam became the overseer of his properties, which included a distillery, and tannery. He served in the militia on two expeditions to Wilmington in Thomas Blair's Company and as Captain of the Guard at the Guilford County Courthouse guarding captive Tories. His distillery supplied whisky for the Colonial Army's soldiers and his farm corn and fodder for their horses.

He would join other family members and neighbors on March 15, 1781 as a local militiaman on the front line of General Greene's well conceived defense of Guilford County Courthouse. This line was behind a wooden rail fence just south of his property and less than a mile from where his mother Margaret, wife Elizabeth, and 6 children had taken refuge in a well fortified spring house of the Mitchell Farm.

The local militia from Guildford were fighting to protect their families and property from the British as well as fighting for Independence. The local militia were no match for the well trained Hessian soldiers and their bayonets. Adam was captured and imprisoned. His Mother negotiated his release.

The battle ended in Adam Mitchell's corn field below the house that he and his Father had built 19 years earlier. His family survived the battle; the cornfield became a mass burial ground for casualties on both sides. The children had witnessed the bloody battle. The oldest son Robert helped bury the dead, his Mother and Grandmother cared for the wounded.

The family would never farm the land again knowing that such gallant fighting men of both armies lay under its soil. Today the farm of Adam Mitchell is known as The Guilford Courthouse National Military Park in Greensboro, NC, the first Revolutionary War battlefield to be preserved by the Federal Government.

Adam moved his family over the Appalachian Mountains into the Knob Creek area of western NC now Washington County, TN., acquiring land from his Father-in-Law John McMachen, continuing his agrarian pursuits until his death in 1802.

Children of Adam MITCHELL and Elizabeth MCMACHEN\MCMAHON

1. Adam MITCHELL.
2. Robert MITCHELL.
3. William MITCHELL.
4. Jenney MITCHELL.
5. Margaret MITCHELL.
6. John MITCHELL.
7. Samuel MITCHELL.
8. David MITCHELL.
9. James MITCHELL.
10. Hezekiah MITCHELL.
11. Ibby MITCHELL.
12. Rebecca MITCHELL.

Buffalo Presbyterian Church

The first preaching service in this community, of which we have any record, was by Rev. Hugh McAden, a missionary sent out from Pennsylvania, and it was on August 31, 1755, at the home of Adam Mitchell, near where the church now stands. This was two years after the colony had settled here. There may have been other missionaries who visited here both before and after Mr. McAden, but he is the only one who kept a record. On the previous Sabbath he had preached at Hawfields in what is now Alamance County. We quote from his diary: “Wednesday came to Buffalo settlement, about thirty-five miles; lodged at William Mebane’s till Sabbath day; then rode to Adam Mitchell’s where I preached. The people seemed solemn and very attentive, but no appearance of the life of religion. Returned in the evening, about a mile to Robert Rankin’s, where I was kindly received and well entertained till Tuesday; then returned to the former place and preached; no stir appeared, but some tears.”

There was a bitter division in the Presbyterian Church in 1741, largely on the subject of revivals. The people of Buffalo belonged to the Old Side, the conservatives, and Mr. McAden belonged to the New Side. That may have been the reason why he did not have a more emotional response to his preaching. The people heard him gladly, but it was contrary to their religious principles to show any emotion.

Protestant dissenters, which included all denominations except the Established Church of England, were not permitted to organize churches except by permission of the courts. In the Colonial Records, Volume 8, page 507, we find on record a petition from the members of the Buffalo congregation. In this record the petition is not dated and the names of the signers are not given. The original paper has not been found, and may not be in existence.

“To the Worshipful Court of Rowan: The Petition of your petitioners showeth, That we the inhabitants of a congregation known by the name of North Buffalow and living on the waters of Reedy Fork, of North and South Buffalow, do certify to the Worshipful Court that we intend to make use of a house on a piece of land purchased from Adam Mitchell, Senior, as a place of public worship according to the practice of Protestant dissenters of the Presbyterian denomination, and desire it may be entered in the records of the Court, according to the Act of Parliament in that behalf made, and your petitioners as in duty bound shall ever pray. Signed by a number of persons. The above petition was read in open court, and ordered to be recorded, which petition was granted.”

[pages 19 & 20]^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ http://ncgenweb.us/nc/guilford/buffalo-presbyterian-church-history/

• Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Genealogical Research Databases, database online, (http://www.dar.org/ : accessed 27 Aug 2022), "Record of Adam Mitchell", Ancestor # A080432.
• http://sarsat.org/HistoricalAccounts/patriotbiographies/adammitchell.htm

Acknowledgments

• Thanks to Allan Thomas for starting this profile.