The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
State of Service: VA
Qualifying Service: Lieutenant
Birth: 1752 Death: 1797
Additional References:
SAR Patriot Index Edition III (CD: PP2210, Progeny Publ, 2002) plus data to 2004
Spouse: Children: Members Who Share This Ancestor
None*
*This means that the NSSAR has no applications for this Patriot on file.
Instead the information provided is best effort, and from volunteers who have either researched grave sites, service records, or something similar. There is no documentation available at NSSAR HQ to order.
Author: Dennis Erroll Boyer
Thomas Barbee was born 29 November, 1752, in Culpeper County, Virginia, the son of “Captain” John Barbee and Elizabeth Welch. He first married Alice Margaret Slaughter (1756-1788) in 1775, and after her death, married 2nd Lucy Slaughter, cousin of Alice and daughter of Col. John Slaughter of Culpeper County; Lucy died about 1791.
Thomas Barbee’s Revolutionary service in the Virginia Continental Line was attested to when, as Lieutenant, he signed a muster role on 6 February, 1779, attesting to a roster for his Company under the command of Captain Lammes, of the 6th Virginia Regiment.
At the close of the war he went to Kentucky where he soon became engaged in many Indian campaigns of that state. In the battle of the Maumee in 1794 he was Brigadier General of the Kentucky Volunteers under General Anthony Wayne; it was after this he came to be remembered as “General” Barbee. The following excerpt from an account of this battle is interesting: "All the historians agree that the defeat of General St. Clair in 1791 by the Indians of the Northwest territory was the most disastrous ever sustained by the American Army in its battles with the Indians. On the other hand, this defeat was retrieved by a most complete and decisive victory in a vast powerful horde at the Rapids of the Maumee in 1794... Wayne's legion was on the right, its flank covered by the Maumee, one brigade of mounted volunteers was on the left under Brig. Gen Todd, the other was in the rear under Brig. Gen. Barbee".
He, with the families of his father and brothers, settled in Danville, Kentucky, where he was active in the development of the community; he operated taverns, served as “first postmaster west of the Alleghenies” with his commission dated 20 August, 17921. He also served the “Virginia Supreme Court-District of Kentucky” (from Order Book 1, pgs. 384 & 388): “The Court doth appoint Thomas Barbee to clean and take care of the Court House of this Court and see that no damage is done to same”, and “Thomas Barbee is appointed keeper of the Public Gaol in the room of William McClure…”1.
Thomas himself died 22 February, 1797, leaving his large estate, which included the “Barbee Mansion”, listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Crow-Barbee House and more recently serving as the “Old Crow Inn”, and is arguably the oldest existing stone house in Kentucky, to his brother Joshua. Thomas and Lucy were probably first interred on the family property, then later re-interred at the present site in Bellevue Cemetery where a monument marks the final resting places of Thomas and his brother Joshua.
A side note: these Barbee brothers are first cousins of this author’s Patriot Ancestor, John Barbee, Ancestor # P-327189, whose grave site in Virginia has not been located.
1”Early Days in Danville”, Fackler, Calvin Morgan, 1941
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