The Welshman Jehu Stokely, the father of the branch of the Stokely family that settled in east Tennessee, came to that region in the 1790s around the time that Cocke County was created. One of the region's pioneers, he arrived in the eastern part of the county near what is now Del Rio, from Bute County North Carolina (latter Warren) with a Revolutionary War soldier's grant of land and later expanded those holdings to include hundreds of acres of farmland along the French Broad River and south along the banks of Big Creek.
Stokely, while still in Wales, had been brought into court by the British for a minor offense and sentenced to serve seven years aboard a British ship as punishment. He eventually reached the American colonies, arriving through Charleston, SC, and, holding a grudge, acquitted himself during the Revolutionary War, serving with the North Carolina Militia.
Revolutionary war records (army accounts) show Jehu in the battle at brier creek Georgia while being in the North Carolina Militia. Army Accounts are books that were kept in the fashion of ledgers, between about 1780 and about 1795, for the purpose of recording various Revolutionary War military payments. A few volumes were compiled during the war by the district auditors on the occasion of their issuing or reissuing specie certificates; but most volumes were compiled between 1788 and 1793, to explain and detail North Carolina’s Revolutionary War expenditures when the state's military accounts with the Federal Government were being settled. There are thirty-one volumes in this series in the Archives; however, internal and external evidence indicates that some volumes in the series have not survived intact.
The information contained in each volume varies to some degree, but most volumes contain lists of names of individuals and the amount "paid" to each. Usually, the amount "paid" was the amount of specie certificate or voucher that had been issued to that individual, along with any interest that might have accrued. Some of the lists include certificate or voucher numbers; occasionally, it is possible to match a particular voucher or certificate with its account entry. Such matching is normally a detailed process, however. In some cases, the purpose and date of payment are included in an account entry, and there are instances where other information is included in the form of "remarks." Usually, these remarks are quite brief and limited to comments regarding the validity of an entry or the authenticity of a payment.