Robert Cravens Home.
Said to be about 2 miles south of Harrisonburg, Virginia.
Unknown.
Robert Cravens about 1745.
Mary Cravens, widow, and Robert Cravens, son, by inheritance, each one-half.
Robert Cravens, son, in whole by will of father.
None.
Craven was a name of prominence and antiquity in England, and particularly well known in London, where one of the name had twice been the Lord Mayor of the City. Sir William Craven Kt. Of Winwick, Northamptonshire who died in 1707 at the age of seventy-three years, was the youngest son of Thomas Craven of Appletreewick near Skipton in Craven, in county York. He was a grandson by his father’s side, of Anthony Craven, and by his mother’s side, grandson of Robert Craven. He was great-grandson by his father’s side of William Craven, and by his mother’s side, great-grandson of Henry Craven, which Henry Craven was a brother to Sir William Craven Kt., twice Lord Mayor of London.
The Lord Mayor of London died in 1618, possessed of a vast fortune. He had sons William (1608-1697) and John (d.1648) both of whom were created barons, the title being conferred on William in 1624.
John was the founder of Oxford and Cambridge scholarships. In 1664, William was created an Earl, and dying unmarried the barony passed to his cousin William, from whose brother John, the present title is descended.
William, the first Earl of Craven, like Lord Culpepper, contributed large sums to the aid of Charles II, while in exile, and followed the restoration was in turn the recipient of many favors from the Crown, one of them being his appointment as one of the Lords Proprietors of the Carolinas, from which circumstances Old Craven County, South Carolina (formed in 1674 as one of the four original counties), and present Craven County, North Carolina, derive their names.
Among the early immigrants to America, Hotten lists Richard Craven under "Patents granted settlers in Virginia", 1626 and Thomas Craven, age 17, as licensed to go beyond the seas to Virginia, 24th July 1635, "embargoed in the Assurance of London".
James Craven of 1639 and Thomas of 1642 appear in Greers lists as immigrants to Virginia, also, but the earliest of the name in the colonies to leave known descendants seems to have been the widow, Ann Craven, who settled under Fenwick, in Old Salem, New Jersey about 1677. According to Sharp, the Cravens "were prominent citizens in the public affairs of Salem" for more than a century. There were Cravens settled in Delaware and also in Pennsylvania.
Just where Robert Cravens (1696-1762), one of the first Justices of Augusta County was born, is not definitely know. He came to Orange County, Virginia, from Sussex, in Delaware, about 1739. On the first
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of June in that year he placed his Sussex land in the hands of his attorney, James Hood, for sale, but the land was not sold until some years later, the power of attorney being granted the second time.
Robert Cravens was a brother-in-law of Thomas Harrison, founder of the town of Harrisonburg, Virginia, having married his sister, Mary Harrison, probably at or near the "Maiden Plantation", the home place of Mary’s father. His first land patent is dated in 1744. In all, he and his sons were granted some two thousand five hundred thirteen acres of land in ten patents—on Cook’s Creek, Smith’s Creek, Linville Creek, and purchases from McKay, Hite, Duff and Green, the greater part being located on the waters of Cook’s Creek. Robert and his brother-in-law Thomas Harrison, settled as near neighbors; their first patents were granted on the same day and their lands were practically adjacent.
The greater part of Robert’s land being located on Cook’s Creek, or its water, it was in the direction that he settled. His home was on the "Great Road", today’s "Long Grey Trail", better known as the Valley Pike, or Route #11, and was probably within a mile or two of the present southern limits of Harrisonburg. April 14th, 1746 he was granted a "License to keep Ordinary at his house" with John Lewis and Robert Pickens, Gentlemen, as sureties. Robert Cravens was intimately and actively identified with the affairs of Augusta County, both in a civil and a military way, as were also his sons in Augusta and in what later became Rockingham. At the organization of Augusta County in 1745 he became one of the first Justices to be appointed, as was also Peter Scholl, the two representing the northern end of the county, now Rockingham, Their homes being in the region of "Thomas Harrison’s". He was one of the first "Surveyors and Overseers" to blaze and lay off the old "Indian Road’, the first authorized road up the Valley and the forerunner of the Valley Turnpike.
I have not been able to come in touch with much of Robert’s military service. It was of course confined to operations either in defense or against the Indians on the northeast frontier. In July 1743, at a court held at Orange, he took the oath prescribed and was sworn into his military commission as Captain of Horses.
As an appraiser of land values Robert was highly regarded, the Court often appointing him to act as such. In many of his services to Augusta, he was associated with his brothers-in-law, the Harrisons and Alexander Herring. The children of Robert Cravens and Mary Harrison, his wife, were nine in number, four boys and five girls, namely" John (1722-1778), Joseph (d 1763) William (1730--) Robert (1733-1784) Margaret (1724-1800) Maggie (b---d) Mary (b--d 1801) Agnes (b--d) Elizabeth (b--d). Captain Robert Cravens, the pioneer and Justice of the first Court of Augusta County, died as revealed by the proving of his will in the spring of 1762, during the French and Indian War. In the previous autumn when he signed his will he was failing in health from which he never rallied. By his passing old Augusta lost one of her noble company of first settlers, whose descendants were to add further luster to her name and whose children’s children like so many others, were to go forth from Virginia to help "make other States great".
Robert Cravens Will
IN THE NAME OF GOD AMEN, October Ye Second in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and sixty one viz. 1761 and I Robert Cravens of the County of Augusta and Colony of Virginia being sick and weak in body but of:
First, I desire all my lawful Debts to be paid, which I have legally contracted.
Imprimis, I give and bequeath to Mary, my Dearly beloved Wife, one four year old dapple gray horse and side saddle, her own bed and bed clothes and her great and little Wheel, five cows and calves, ten head of sheep, five head of hogs, sixty pounds in cash and all the household three beds and furniture thereunto (The great iron pot only excepted) and the Negro wench called Knelly during her natural life and at my wife’s
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decease I will the wench shall be sold and if Knelly has any children during my wife’s lifetime I will my wife shall give and bequeath them to any of my children that their Mother please and half of my dwelling house and half of my plantation during her natural life and five acres of the Great Meadow.
Item. I give unto my son John Cravens one Negro Boy named Tom and the smooth bore gun that he has now in possession to him and his heirs forever.
Item. I give unto my son William Cravens the tract or parcel of land commonly known by the name of the Great Meadow containing one hundred forty one acres (five acres only excepted for his mother) to him and his heirs forever but in case he has no issue it shall become his Brethren and their heirs forever and sixty pounds in money and forty pounds to be paid by his Brother John for the Negro boy named sip which I will to John but if John refused to pay the forty pounds the Negro Sip shall become William’s, and I allow a receipt for Thirty Seven pounds to be given on that I have of Williams.
Item. I give unto My Daughter Mary the tract or parcel of land she now lives on containing one hundred-twenty-four acres to her and the heirs begotten of her body forever and one great iron pot.
Item. I give unto my two Grand Children Zebulon and Robert Harrison that tract or parcel of land containing two hundred acres lying and being on the East side of Linville Creek to them and their heirs forever and one Negro child called Dina and her increase for them and their heirs forever but I will that my Daughter Margaret Harrison shall have the service of the girl Dina if she desires it during her natural life.
Item. I give unto my Daughter Agnes the tract or parcel of land she new lives on to her and her heirs begotten of her own body forever.
Item. I give unto Maggie my Daughter sixty pounds in money.
Item. I give unto my son Robert Cravens the half of my dwelling house and half of my plantation I now live on during his Mother’s natural life and at her decease the whole to him and his heirs forever but in case he should die without legitimate male issue the land to become his Brethrens and their heirs forever.
Item. I give unto my grandson Robert Cravens that tract or parcel of land containing one hundred sixty acres of land commonly known of waits Cabin lying on the Creek below Joseph cravens to him and his heirs forever but in case he should die without heirs legally begotten of his own body he said land shall become his fathers and his heirs forever.
And to his Brother John Cravens my grandson I give ten pounds in cash to help to school him and ten pounds to Mary black my Granddaughter and the tract of land containing four hundred seventy acres of land I will to be sold where Samuel Mowry now lives on.
Item. And all my debts, legacies, and funeral charges being first paid I will desire the remainder of my estate to be divided among my loving wife and nine children John, Agnes and Maggie to have two shares for each others one share.
This I trust will be done and all truly fulfilled by my loving wife and son John Cravens whom I do appoint whole and sole Exors. Of this my last will and Testament and I do hereby utterly disallow revoke and disannul all and every other former Testaments, wills, Bequests and Executors by me in any ways before this time willed and bequeathed.
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Ratifying and confirming this and no other to be my last will and testament in witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this day and year above written.
His
Robert R. Cravens (Seal)
mark
Signed sealed published pronounced and
Declared by the said Robert Cravens as
His last will and testament in the presence
Of us the subra.
viz. Archd. Huston
Matthew Thompson
Daniel Love.
John Cravens, styles "John Cravens, eldest son and heir of Robert Cravens, farmer, deceased", was, with his mother, Executor of his father’s estate but did not live to complete the settlement. His widow. Margaret, and his brother Robert were his executors, as was also his mother, she being the sole surviving executor of the estate of Robert Cravens, the father, of which John was also an executor.
John and his brother William served as tax collectors of the county at different times: John in 1748 and William in 1755. Both were also Constables.
John’s first land was obtained by purchase, February 21st, 1751 by deed from John Wright and Lydia, his wife, two hundred acres on branch of Cook’s Creek for forty pounds; land formerly conveyed to Wright by Samuel Harrison and wife Mary. On the same day Robert and Mary Cravens with Scholl and Newman as their witnesses, also deeded the first four hundred-acre tract patented in 1744 to Wright, this being Robert’s first conveyance in Augusta County.
John Cravens settled on his Cook’s Creek land, a few miles southwest of his father, near a place called Fisher’s Spring, his plantation being not far from present Dayton, Virginia. He married sometime between 1758 and 1762, Margaret, the widow of William Dyer (nee Margaret Hiatt).
In addition to his home plantation and another here, he also acquired land in the old Linville Creek community through the death of his father. At the time of his own death in 1778 he was a large landowner of the county. He died intestate; his widow in 1782 married as her third husband, Dennis Lanahan, and early resident of Ireland, and by occupation was a stone-mason and builder and is supposed to have built many of the best early residences in the town of Harrisonburg and in the community.
Robert Cravens, Jr. by the terms of his father’s will was given half of the home and home plantation during his mother’s lifetime and at her death, the whole property of the home plantation became his. What disposition he may have made of it, or just where it is located, I have not been able to discover and doubtless will not be able to do so. Should I later find any information in connection with the location of the old home place I will send a supplementary report. No doubt this information could be found if one knew just where to look for it.
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Houston Harrison in "Long Grey Trail"
County Court Records
December 30, 1936 Geo. W. Fetzer
Harrisonburg, VA