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: Captain / Civil Service / Patriotic Service
per Find-a-Grave - May 2022 - Burial Details Unknown
Directions to Cemetery / Gravesite:
Author: Martin Capages Jr. PhD
Birth 13 MAY 1730 • Essex, Virginia, United States
Death 23 SEP 1784 • Greasy Cove, Washington, Tennessee, United States
4th great-grandfather of Martin Capages Jr.
Thomas Dillard Jr., was one of the first Commissioners of the Peace for Pittsylvania. in 1767. He was also one of the Vestrymen of Camden Parish. He was a Lt. Col. of Militia in 1767 and commanded a company of Minute Men from Pittsylvania which marched to Gwinns Island and assisted in driving off Lord Dunmore.
One company of Minute Men marched from Pittsylvania against Lord Dunmore and there may have been others of which there is no record. In June,8 1776, Captain Thomas Dillard, Lieutenant Jesse Heard and Ensign Robert Dalton commanded a company which marched from Pittsylvania through the counties of Halifax, Charlotte and Dinwiddie to the town of Petersburg, crossed James River at Cobham, and proceeded on to Gwynn's Island. Here they were stationed several weeks under General Andrew Lewis and took part in the battle fought there July 9, 1776. A steady cannonading had been going on for a day or more when the enemy from their lookouts, perceiving our men taking boat, cried out, "The shirtmen are coming!" and fled precipitously. Lord Dunmore feared the deadly aim of the shirtmen, as the soldiers of the up-counties, clad in hunting shirts, were called. Dunmore did not desert his post at the capitol until it was reported to him that the shirtmen were marching on Williamsburg, when he fled to a man-of-war on the river. In 1778, Dillard commanded a company of the Illinois Expedition.”
Send a biographical sketch of your patriot!
Patriot biographies must be the original work of the author, and work submitted must not belong to another person or group, in observance with copyright law. Patriot biographies are to be written in complete sentences, follow the established rules of grammar, syntax and punctuation, be free of typographical errors, and follow a narrative format. The narrative should unfold in a logical manner (e.g. the narrative does not jump from time period to time period) or have repeated digressions, or tell the history of the patriot's line from the patriot ancestor to the author. The thinking here is that this is a patriot biography, not a lineage report or a kinship determination project or other report published in a genealogy journal. The biography should discuss the qualifying service (military, patriotic, civil) of the patriot ancestor, where the service was rendered, whether this was a specific state or Continental service, as well as significant events (as determined by the author) of the patriot's life. This is the entire purpose of a patriot's biography.
Additional guidelines around the Biography writeup can be found here:
Send your submission1, in a Microsoft Word compatible format, to patriotbios@sar.org for inclusion in this space 1Upon submission of a patriot biography, the patriot biography becomes the property of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and may be edited to conform to the patriot biography submission standards.