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.
Richard Willis, Sr. was born 25 Feb 1746 at Orange County, Virginia, a son of William Willis and Mary. He married Drusilla Pearson Barnett in 1774 at Spartanburg County, South Carolina. Drusilla was born 12 Jul 1755 at Spartanburg County.
Richard Sr. and Drusilla were the parents of John (born 1775), Martha (born 1777), William (born 1779), Richard Jr. (born 1783), Mary G. (born 1785), Elizabeth (born 1787), Joseph (born 1792), Edward H. Sr. (born 1794), and Sterling (born 1796).
Richard and Drusilla were among the first settlers to the Spartanburg, South Carolina, area. They lived on a plantation on Kelso Creek that merged with Fairforest Creek at Spartanburg County. The plantation was close to where the ambush of the Loyalists took place at the battle of Cedar Spring, 12 July 1780. The surprised Loyalists fled to Gowen’s Fort. By 1775, Richard was serving as a soldier against the Redcoats in the Revolutionary War. He returned home off and on while the war was raging and by the end of the war in 1783, Richard was home to stay.
Richard Willis served as a private in the South Carolina militia under Colonel Benjamin Roebuck after the fall of Charleston. He fought in the battles of Cowpens and Kings Mountain.
Richard died 25 Dec 1837 at Spartanburg County, South Carolina. Drusilla died 4 May 1845. They are likely buried at the Old Unity Baptist Church Cemetery in unmarked graves.
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.