Member of the House of Delegates

Since Monongalia County records have been lost, the date of John Corbly's election to the House of Delegates is not certainly known. It probably took place on December 6, 1776, the time set by· an Act of the General Assembly passed in October, 1776. The same Act of the General Assembly that created Monongalia County (October, 1776) provided that: " ... on December 6th following ... landholders of Monongalia County qualified to vote for representatives in the General Assembly to vote for the location of a court." The General Assembly met twice a year. A "Register of the General Assembly of Virginia, 1776-1918," ·by Earl G. Swem and John W. Williams names John Harvie and Charles Sims delegates for the session of October 7 to December 21, 1776, District of West Augusta.

For the newly created Monongalia County, John Pierce Duvall and John Corbly were the representatives for the sessions of May 5 to June 28, 1777, and for October 22, 1777, to January 24, 1778. Considering these dates, December 6, 1776, seems the likely time of Corbly's election to the House of Delegates. There is no record of any objection to John Corbly's serving in the House of Delegates at the May 5 to June 28 session. "The most pressing business of the October Session, 1777, was to remodel the Colonial laws of the State to conform to the principles of the new constitution."1 When Virginia adopted a new constitution containing the famous Bill of Rights, Article 16 provided for freedom of religion, but the Bill of Rights was not a law and its definition of religious liberty was incomplete and not clearly defined.2 Legality of marriage ceremonies performed by dissenting ministers was questioned.

There was a difference of opinion whether the ministers of the Gospel of any denomination could serve in either house of assembly or privy council. The discussion whether John Corbly, being a minister of the Gospel, should be permitted to serve in the House of Delegates, began October 20, 1777, and the issue came to a vote as shown by the House Journal on November 1, 1777, as follows: Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia: Begun and Held at the Capitol, in the City of Williamsburg, on Monday, the Twentieth Day of October … One thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven.

"The House being informed that Mr. John Corbley, one of the members returned to serve in this present General Assembly for the county of Monongalia, is a minister of the Gospel: Mr. Corbly was heard in his place upon the subject matter of said information, and confessed himself to be a preacher of the Gospel, but alleged that he received no stipend or gratuity for performing the function; and then he withdrew.

"And the question being put, that Mr. John Corbley is capable of being elected a member of this House .... " On November 1, 1777, "It passed in the negative. "Ordered, That the Speaker be desired to issue a new writ, for the election of a delegate, to serve in this present General Assembly for the county of Monongalia, in the room of Rev. John Corbley, who being a minister of the Gospel, is incapable of being elected a member of this House."3 John Corbly was the first minister of the Gospel to be denied the right to serve in the General Assembly, but he was not the only one. The contention was not permanently settled for more than thirty years.

Early Baptist preachers received no pay for their services. On October 7, 1776, a question came before the Redstone Baptist Association as to "whether a minister of the Gospel ought not to be acquitted from the encumbrances of the world so as to give himself wholly to the work of the Gospel." The question was answered "Yes." The church minutes do not record that any action was taken about this matter. The year 1785 is the first in which there is any record in the Goshen Church Minutes of John Corbly's having received any pay.

1 William Taylor Thom, Struggle for Religious Freedom in Virginia.

2 lbid.

"A petition of the Baptist Association setting forth doubts… whether marriages solemnized by dissenting ministers are lawful and praying that an Act may pass to declare such marriages lawful." From Struggle for Religious Freedom in Virginia.

The House journal Notes for October 25, 1779, shows that a law was passed at that time legalizing marriages performed by Baptist preachers. A law to permit Baptist preachers to serve as chaplains in the Revolutionary army was also passed. ·

3 See William and Mary Quarterly, 26 E 67-97, page 75.

Justice of the Peace

John Corbly's "devotion to the cause of the colonies," his "vigorous and warlike sermons that heartened the frontiersmen who came for many miles around to be his auditors,"4 are a part of the pioneer history of Greene County.

Until the temporary boundary line was confirmed by Pennsylvania on September 23, 1780, Virginia exercised all the functions of government, both civil and military, over what is now Greene County, Pennsylvania. Patrick Henry was elected governor in June, 1776. He commissioned John Corbly, John Minor, William Crawford, and others justices of the peace; others held military appointments and were authorized to construct forts, maintain scouts, and call out the militia when needed.5 · Virginia had passed a special military act which had enrolled every able-bodied freeman between the ages of 16 and 50 in the militia.

Monongalia County, which included Greene County, the southeastern part of Washington, and the southwestern part of Fayette, was created by an Act of the General Assembly in October, 1776. The same Act of the General Assembly instructed: "Landholders of said county qualified to vote for representatives in the General Assembly to meet at the house of Jonathan Cobun6 on the 6th of December following, then and there to choose the most convenient place for holding courts in the future."7

Monongalia County court records were destroyed by fire in 1796. It is thus not definitely known whether or not the election was held December 6 at the home of Jonathan Cobun. This is likely the date when John Corbly was elected to the House of Delegates. There was no further Act of the General Assembly in regard to the establishing of a court. There is proof that an election was held at some time, for Corbly was elected to the House of Delegates and a court was established on the Theophilus Phillips farm, a short distance from the present village of New Geneva, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. There was a large shop on the farm in which regular court was held the second Monday of every month until late in 1780. 8

The courts were required to administer and dispense justice, establish ferries, confirm roads when necessary, grant letters of administration, probate wills, appoint subordinate officers, grant tavern licenses, try crimes arid misdemeanors, and perform such duties as would advance the interest of the community.9

Considering the numerous duties of the Monongalia court, it would be of deep interest to have a record of the court cases heard by John Corbly. However, only fragmentary information is extant of the arrests and trials of Tories. There is one known Monongalia record of a court session which John Corbly heard. "Three justices, John Swearingen, John Corbly, and Thomas Crooks," presided over a case of bond execution of the Lawrence Veech estate. The case was heard on "September 14, 1779, Armstrong Porter, executor; George Myers, bondsman." The question

of the bond execution was not settled in the Monongalia County court but was held over and reopened after Pennsylvania took over the jurisdiction. It was finally heard in tile court of Washington County, Pennsylvania, which accounts for this court record being preserved.

4 Thwaits and Kellogg, Frontier Defe11se of the Upper Ohio.

5 L. K. Evans, op. cit.

6 The Jonathan Cobun home located near Point Marion, Pa., known as Cobun's Fort, was burned by the Indians in 1778, after which he removed to near Fairmont, ·W. Va.

7 Benjamin Wiley, History of Monongalia County.

8 Ibid.

9 Creigh, History of Washington County.

The Theophilus Phillips farm was later owned by Everhart Bierer.

Military Service

A Member of Captain William Harrod's Company

The question as to whether John Corbly went to Kentucky with Captain William Harrod's Company in the spring of 1780 seems best answered by a reply to this inquiry from the Assistant superintendent of the State Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin, July 17, 1940.

"Our senior research associate reports as follows:

"Capt. William Harrod was in command of The Falls of the Ohio, Louisville, 1780, and no doubt the company list in Collins, Kentucky, Vol. I, p. 12, refers to the men there with him. In the Harrod papers we find two letters, one of March 20, 1780, to his wife ( 4NN80) apparently written from near Louisville, telling of Captain Chaplinel' s escape from the Indians with news of a projected attack; this would be Byrd's expedition of 1780. So it would seem that Harrod's Company was at The Falls of Ohio in 1780."

Captain William Harrod's Company was made up of 92 veterans from Pennsylvania and Virginia.1 The names of twelve men of this company are found in the Goshen (now John Corbly Memorial Baptist Church) Minutes.2

George Rogers Clark, in 1779, by defeating the British General Hamilton at Fort Vincennes had won all the territory west of the Mississippi River for the United States. General Hamilton had been captured and imprisoned at Harrodsburg, Kentucky.

The British at Detroit planned a campaign under the command of General Byrd to release General Hamilton and destroy all the settlements of Kentucky. One division of General Byrd's army was to retake Fort Vincennes and another division was to go to the aid of General Cornwallis who had won .. all of South Carolina and was now moving his army into North Carolina. General Byrd's first objective was to capture The Falls (now Louisville), the strongest fort on the Kentucky frontier.

General George Rogers Clark, hearing the British had started an expedition to The Falls, sent an urgent call for help to Colonel John Bowman, asking him "with the greatest expedition, to embody the militia ... with everything necessary to repel our hostile invaders ... " and added, "this is the humble prayer of the inhabitants of The Falls."3

Seven companies, including that of Captain William Harrod, went to The Falls to reinforce the troops of General George Rogers Clark.4 The Falls, protected by two forts and a stockade, "assumed the appearance of a regular fortification capable of withstanding a severe shock." Captain William Harrod was put in command. General Byrd's force numbered between three and four hundred Canadians and by an Indian force estimated anywhere between three hundred and seven hundred. The Indians were gathered together by the three Girty brothers, Simon, James, and George, and Alexander McKee,6 who accompanied General Byrd in his expedition.7 When General Byrd's army reached the Ohio River, he heard of the strong defense of The Falls, and began to have some doubts of his success. He changed plans, ascended the Licking River to Fort Ruddell, and demanded its surrender. Captain George Ruddell, unable to defend the fort against such a large number, asked that the people inside, about three hundred men, women, and children, be protected from the savagery of the Indians by the British soldiers. General Byrd promised to protect the prisoners, but as soon as the fort surrendered the Indians began to murder and scalp the helpless people. General Byrd next compelled Martin's Fort, five miles distant, to surrender and fifty prisoners were taken. General Byrd now seemed to have doubts about any further success. For some reason not definitely known, he gave up his campaign to take Kentucky and began a retreat to Detroit. The failure of General Byrd to carry out his planned campaign had far-reaching effects. It removed the threat of the British to take Kentucky, and to regain the territory lost by General Hamilton. Virginia soldiers now went to the aid of the scattered and disorganized American Army in North Carolina. They joined independent companies, commanded by their own leaders, and defeated a division of the army of Cornwallis at King's Fountain, North Carolina, October 7, 1780. This American victory at King's Mountain was the turning point of British success of the Revolutionary War in the South.

General George Rogers Clark reorganized a company which he sent to make war against the Indians in Ohio. Some of the survivors of the prisoners taken at Fort Ruddell and Martin's Fort were taken to Detroit and others to Indian villages in Ohio. Two of the prisoners taken at Fort Ruddell were Theodosia, wife of Captain George Ruddell, and her sister, Lamia. They were daughters of William Lynn who had removed from Fort Redstone in Pennsylvania to Kentucky. This was the William Lynn, brother of Andrew Lynn, who brought nine thousand pounds of powder from New Orleans to Wheeling in 1777. He removed from what is now Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and took up land about ten miles from The Falls sometime in 1779. In 1801, he was killed by the Indians near The Falls. In his will he named the two daughters, Theodosia and Larnia, as being taken prisoners by the Indians at the surrender of Fort Ruddell. The daughters returned from captivity in 1782. John H. Gwathmay's Historical Register of Virginians in the Revolutionary War names John Corbly as "a member of the Kentucky militia who went to the defense of The Falls."

1 :Names of Captain William Harrod's Company are found in Collins, History of Kentucky, Vol. I,

page 12. The names are also found in The Tenmile Country and its Pioneer Families by Howard C.

Leckey, Vol. I, page 25.

2 The names of Captain William Harrod's Company found in the Goshen Church Minutes are: John Corbly Isaac Dye, John Easteood, James Guthrie, Evan Henton, Thomas Henton. Rowland Hughes, John Hughes, Samuel Lyon, William Smiley, Robert Tyler, Abraham Van Meter.

3 From Draper Manuscripts,, State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

4 Collins, History of Kentucky, Vol. I. page 12.

5 Pritts, Mirror of Olden Time Border Life.

6 Pritts, Mirror of Olden Time Border Life.

The three Girty brothers, Simon, James and George, whose characters Pritts describes "as disgraces to human nature," were former officers of the militia recruited at Fort Pitt (then called Fort Dunmore) by Dr. John Connolly. They with Alexander McKee were suspected of being Tories in a plot against Pittsburgh in 1778, but escaped before being arrested, and joined the British at Detroit.

7 Accounts of General Byrd's expedition are given in: Pritts, Mirror of Olden Time Border Life.

Randall and Ryan, History of Ohio, Vol. IL

Palmer, Life of George Rogers Clark.

Leckey, The Tenmile Country and Its Pioneer Families. Vol. I gives names of Capt. Harrod’s Company