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: Patriotic Service / Private
There was no entry found at Find-a-Grave as of Dec 2022
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Author: Jay Patrick Jackson
Thomas McClanahan, Sr., was born about 1731 at Prince William County, Virginia. He is thought to be the Thomas McClanahan, neighbor to the Washingtons, who at age 17 years was a chain carrier for George Washington. As such, he helped survey Lord Fairfax’s Shenandoah Valley lands in 1749, along with Thomas Marshall. He was also chain man for Jeremiah Wood on the Long Neck in 1750.
Payroll vouchers and muster rolls identify Thomas as a Captain of a Virginia militia company from 1758-1761. When sufficient pressure had been brought to push the bill for the creation of Fauquier County through the Virginia House of Burgesses, May 17, 1759, the first justices appointed included Thomas McClanahan. Fauquier County records of that year also list Captain McClanahan as one of the 18 most influential men in the county, along with his friend, Thomas Marshall.
In 1762, Thomas McClanahan, living at Fauquier County, bought land at nearby Culpeper County, Virginia, and moved his family there. In 1771, he donated land near Mulkey Mountain, on which the first Baptist Church located at Culpeper County was built.
When the Revolution came, Thomas was too old to go to war, but Revolutionary War ‘Publick’ Claims records of Culpeper County document he provided 600 pounds of beef in 1781 to support Continental forces.
By 1783, he and his family had removed to Kentucky. He owned land at Fayette County, including land at the Shawnee Indian territory known as “Clover Bottom,” which eventually became known as the “McClanahan Exemption.” By 1789, he and his family had moved to adjacent Bourbon County, Kentucky. He represented this county in the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1793.
Kentucky records describe an incident at the First Constitutional Convention at Danville, Kentucky, in 1793. Colonel James Smith, also a representative from Bourbon County, shot Captain Thomas McClanahan, and took his place in the Legislature. Fortunately, the shot was not fatal, and in 1794 and in 1796, the Governor of Kentucky appointed Thomas McClanahan, Esquire, as a justice of the peace.
Thomas McClanahan married Margaret Strother, a descendant of the 1670s immigrant from England to Virginia, William Strother. They had five daughters and two sons.
Captain Thomas McClanahan, Sr., died in 1809 and was buried at Bourbon County, Kentucky.
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