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: NC
Qualifying Service: Patriotic Service
FindA Grave Oct 2023; No Grave GPS, No NSSAR or NSDAR grave Marker
Directions to Cemetery / Gravesite:
Author: James Michael Robertson
William Ledford
William Ledford was born about 1722 at England.His Last Will and Testament was signed and sealed 2 June 1796 at Rowan County, North Carolina.An exact date of death for William Ledford has not be documented.The date on his probate file is 1796. Some sources indicate he died in 1798. Ledford provided Patriotis Service for North Carolina as a supplier of provisions for the Continental Army.
In the book, Generations, An American Family, by John Egerton, combines verifiable facts and generations of oral family history to tell the life stories of William Ledford and his two brothers, Henry Ledford and John Ledford.Egerton did copious interviews for this book with Curtis Burnam Ledford, a direct descendant of John Ledford and he noted that “...history lived in Burnam Ledford.”
Henry (aged 18 years), William (aged 16 years) and John Ledford (age 14 years) migrated to America about 1738 and were most likely indentured servants as they signed on to work for sea captain, Colonel James Patton, in exchange for passage to America aboard his ship, Walpoole.
Augusta County, Virginia, court records show that in November 1746, Henry Ledford, William Ledfordand John Ledford were ordered to cut a trail along a ridge dividing the New River from Roanoke River (then a wagon road, today it roughly traces Interstate Highway 81). William Ledford was the grantee for 90 acres on the west fork of the Roanoke River, 3 January 1753, “...where Bradshaw Creek empties into the Roanoke...” (about 10 miles east of Blackburg, Virginia). In the late 1750s, William Ledford and John Ledford and their families left Virginia and migrated to Rowan County, North Carolina. Henry Ledford is said to have died about 1755 at Augusta County.
In 1755, William Litford (Ledford) appears on the Rowan County, North Carolina, tax list. He also served as a Juror for the Rowan County, North Carolina, Court of Common Pleas.It is after William Ledford moved to North Carolina that he prospered. In 1764, William Ledford purchased 330 acres of land on both sides of Abbott’s Creek at Rowan County. William Ledford was issued land grant, 4 November 1784, Number 1008 for 750 acres at Reedy Branch of Abbott’s Creek.
William Ledford married Elizabeth McCurry about 1745, while a resident of Virginia. William and Elizabeth’s known children were Sarah, John, Martha, Lydia, Thomas Jacob, Squire, Phoebe, William, Nancy Ann, Rebecca and Elizabeth.
Abbott’s Creek Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery at Wallburg, Davidson County, North Carolina is the final resting place for William Ledford and Elizabeth McCurry Ledford.
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.