John Medearis was born 22 February 1744, in Essex County, Virginia, between the Rappahanock and the Dragon according to the Bible Records of George Washington Davis Medearis. Dragon Run, which runs through Dragon Swamp, runs parallell to the Rappahanock.
John is referred to in various family charts as Capt. John or John Thomas Washington. Capt. John comes from his rank in the Revolutionary Army. The names Thomas Washington was added from an unknown source. However there is no evidence to support these names. No documents have ever been found with anything other than John Medearis.
John enlisted into the Revolutionary Army in the North Carolina Continental Line. He made 1st. Lieutenant. 3rd NC 15 Apr 1777, Eaton's Company. Was promoted to Capt. 23 Dec. 1777 in charge of the Medearis Regiment, transferred to the 1 NC 06 Feb. 1782, and was promoted to Brevet Major, 30 Sept. 1783.
(brevet = increase in rank without increase in pay)
John gave Marker Photoa lot to the war effort and was instrumental in obtaining supplies for George Washington's Army during the harsh winter on the Potomac. Pensions and payment for services were issued in land grants to officers, based on their time of service and rank. John obtained a great deal of land for his service. Including the land in Tennessee that he retired on after the Revolution. He called this plot of land "Liberty". There is a Historical Marker on the site in Liberty where the old home site still sits. According to letters written between John and his son George, John was forced to move to Tennessee in 1809, in order to claim his right to this land.
There are transcripts of letters that John wrote in the "Colonial Records of North Carolina". These documents can be found at the Archives in most states.
John married Sarah Hicks Bell, the daughter of Robert and Sarah Reeves Hicks of Granville County, NC. Their marriage bond is dated 21 Nov. 1780 in Wake County, NC. They were likely married on 20 Dec. 1780, as their sons George Bible records state. His military activity could explain the delay. Sarah was born in Essex County, VA in 1746.
She married Thomas Bell of Scotland in 1763 and had children: Barbara Bell, Robert Bell, Margaret Bell, George Bell, Matilda Bell, Thomas Bell and Charity Bell. Thomas apparently died in the Revolutionary War.
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Revolutionary War Dept., Accountants Office 02-13-1795 Statement of Claims - Settlements.
02-25-1795, 6483 John Meaderis, Capt. 2nd Regiment, Continental Line of North Carolina, under command of Col. Alexander Martin Commuta, 03-22-1783 $2,400.00
Military land Warrants, Continental Line. A list of warrants for land granted the officers and soldiers in the Continental line out of the Secretaries office.
19. John Maderris, Captain 5th Regiment 3,290 Acres 72 months service
Oct. 16, by Robt. Goodloe
American Revolution Roster, Fort Sullivan (later Fort Moultrie) 1776 - 1780
John Medaris H.R.: 387; SR:1110; PI 22 Feb, 1744 - 31 March 1834
1 Lt. 3rd NC 15 Apr 1777, Eaton's Company
Capt. 23 Dec. 1777,
trf 1 NC 06 Feb. 1782,
BVT Maj. 30 Sept. 1783;
m. Mrs Sarah (Haywood) Bell.
(trf = transferred , BVT = Brevet = promotion in rank without increase in compensation)
Roster of North Carolina Soldiers in the American Revolution, Guilford County, North Carolina
John Medaris Active Duty (See Above)
listed as Medearis also while in Lt. Eaton's Company.
Commencement Name Rank Sums Received Description of Service Pension Age
From the Fayetteville, NC, Observer
Thursday, October 7, 1999
County dodged British invasion
By Roy Parker Jr.
Contributing editor
Along with the flowering dogwood, the early spring of 1779 brought sighs of relief to the Patriots of Cumberland County.
It appeared that they, and all of North Carolina, had dodged a bullet, at least for the time being.
The threat of a British invasion, which had so alarmed the previous six months of the fifth year of the American War of Independence, abated.
The month of May 220 years ago brought welcome news that the British and their Loyalist allies were falling back from a short-lived siege of Charleston, returning to their base at Savannah, which they had seized in December of 1778 as part of Britain’s new “southern strategy” for victory over the Patriots.
But June brought a sobering footnote promising that the war was far from over in the South.
Gen. Benjamin Lincoln’s little army of Continentals and militiamen, marching on the heels of the British force, was badly bloodied by the Redcoat rearguard in a sharp fight at a river crossing known as Stone’s Ferry.
In a quirk of history, the British heroes at Stone’s Ferry would become a household word in Cumberland County.
They were men of the 71st Highland Regiment, a unit that in the next 30 months would fight across the Carolinas, march through Cross Creek with Lord Cornwallis in 1781, and surrender at Yorktown.
Forty years later, a township in Cumberland would be named in honor of the kilted Redcoats.
The British presence in the South was doubly threatening to Patriots of Cape Fear, who rightly surmised that simmering Loyalist sentiment would flare into open defiance as it had three years earlier, only to be thoroughly suppressed at the Battle of Moore’s Creek.
Some Loyalists from the area were already in the fight.
The British forces in Savannah included units of Loyalists, among them the North Carolina Royal Regiment under Lt. Colonel John Hamilton.
Some men from the Cape Fear region were serving under Hamilton’s royal flag, and may have taken part in the shootout at Stone’s Ferry.
The threat of British invasion turned Cross Creek into a busy staging point for North Carolina militia units called out by Gov. Richard Caswell and ordered south to join Benjamin Lincoln’s army.
Cross Creek merchants acting as commissary officers did a brisk business provisioning units marching from as far away as the Chowan River valley.
The operations of the provisioning system were evident in a letter that Caswell wrote in June to Cross Creek merchant Peter Mallett: “Find enclosed a warrant from the Treasury for $5,000 which I request you immediately apply to purchasing flour, grain, for the Continental Troops and militia who may make your way to the southward.
“You will also be pleased to provide them flesh provisions from the public stock.
“I should have wrote you on this subject sooner, but it was til very lately altogether uncertain if these articles would be necessary at Cross Creek.
“Let me to entreat you to give every assistance in your power to the troops on their march.
“Col. Lamb, with a party of men hired by the militia will, I suspect, be with you in a few days.”
The summer of 1779 saw a return to less hectic times for the village’s few hundred residents.
The county government, holding its quarterly session in July, attended to an agenda of mostly peaceful pursuits, such as laying off roads and approving tax collectors for the various “captain’s districts.’’
There was even time to levy a fine of five pounds on one John Murphy “for being drunk on jury duty.”
Until he paid up, Murphy was to be “taken into custody.”
But there was also war-related business. The court proceeded to prove that Patriots were still firmly in control of local affairs in Cumberland.
Even with the Loyalist rumblings under way across the Carolinas, the Patriot county government proceeded to enforce a “confiscation act’’ seizing the property of Loyalists who had already left the county.
Perhaps meeting in a new courthouse on Maiden Lane in “Upper Campbellton’’ (the new official name for Cross Creek), the justices of the peace who comprised the local county governing body appointed three notable Patriots as “commissioners of confiscated property.’’
They were taverner George Fletcher, merchant Pat Travers, and planter Thomas Armstrong. The latter, who did not live in Cross Creek, failed to make it to meetings, and was replaced in October by John Matthews.
By August, the alarms from South Carolina were so muted that a body of mounted militiamen stationed at a “camp near Cross Creek” since earlier in the year was disbanded.
Its commander, Lt. Col. James Thackston of Orange County, reported to his superior, Brig. Gen. Jethro Sumner, on his collateral duties organizing militia units for the southward march.
He wrote:“I have just finished discharging all the soldiers whose time has expired on the first and fifth of this month.
“Those whose times does not expire until December next, and the old soldiers, we by order of Gen. Lincoln, formed into companies, officered and sent to Charleston, a return of which, together with a return of the Brigade for the last month, you will receive withall.
“All arms and accouterments in possession of the men now discharged have been sent to the assistant quartermaster general in South Carolina, except for about 30 stand that were went with the prisoners (apparently deserters) to Salisbury.
“By order of Gen. Caswell, the whole brigade was mustered out and paid off, up to the last day of this month. I will send (muster rolls) to you. In the hurry of business, Lt. Col. Lytle, who was appointed muster of the regiments (when he left me), carried them off with him.
“I was under the necessity when before I left headquarters of applying to Gen. Lincoln for money, on the account of this state, to purchase necessaries for the officers on the march home, which was cheerfully granted, to the amount of $4,180, which sum I put in the hand of Col. Madearis, to enable him to furnish the requisites.
“I have had a very troublesome and tiresome time of it since you left, but I have at length got through with it, I hope to your satisfaction.
“I have given orders to all the officers to come in with the men now discharged to be diligent in apprehending deserters who may be lurking in the counties adjacent to the places where they are until they receive further orders from you.”
With that, the 1779 Cross Creek military establishment of the War of Independence shut down for the season.
John Medaris 
- b.~ 1620 in Maderia, Portugal or Virginia d.1680
