WISH I HAD KNOWN, STUDENTS!

PERRIN CARDWELL 

5th Great Grandfather

PERRIN CARDWELL - 5th Great Grandfather

I wish I had known all of this wonderful history 

about my 'own' family before the 'almost' age of 59!

Having taught school for many years, what wonderful information I could have parlayed to my students.  

I was fortunate to have many, many students that truly loved our Country's history.

Perhaps some of them will read my blog - and learn along with me! 

Perrin Cardwell

Son of John and Keziah Cardwell

1744 - >1810

Perrin Cardwell was born in Cumberland County, Virginia around 1744. As was custom, Perrin was named after his grandmother’s family with a name that is passed down within this family in great regularity.  His early years in Virginia are a mystery, but it can be assumed that he received a formal education and followed the life of a Virginia planter. Being that his father held numerous lands it can be further assumed that Perrin worked the fields or managed the actual farming. 

Being that Perrin only received ten shillings from his father’s estate upon his death in 1795, it would be reasonable to assume that he had already received some assets from his father.  According to estate settlement records for John Cardwell, his son Perrin lived out of state and did not make an appearance at Court.  This is acceptable given the fact that Perrin appears to have migrated to North Carolina by 1767. He would have been in his early twenties at the time and the Yadkin River area offered much reward to the industrious.   The Yadkin River area of North Carolina was a vastly unsettled wilderness during that time. Settlers were few and far between with many coming from Virginia and the Scottish Highlanders arriving from the coast upon landing in the New World. The Highlanders, who heavily filled the Tory militia, had strong ties to the King of England, that allegiance factors into the harsh realities of guerilla warfare that occurred during the Revolutionary War in the New River Valley of North Carolina.

The first record of Perrin Cardwell in North Carolina occurs on March 11, 1767, when he is married to Sarah Cearley in Rowan County, North Carolina.  Sarah’s father, Henry Cearley, gives his consent.  Perrin Cardwell is next mentioned in the 1772 Tax Lists of Surry County, North Carolina.  He is mentioned in the Tax Lists for Surry County in 1774 and 1775 as being in Benjamin Cleveland’s District.  This association with Cleveland factors into the participation of Perrin Cardwell in the militia that was raised by Cleveland during the upcoming war with England. 

Perrin Cardwell is listed in the Wilkes County, North Carolina Land Entry Books as having purchased four hundred acres of land “on the narrows of Naked Creek” on December 9, 1778.  Given the growth and division of the area at that time, it appears that Perrin may have never moved.  Wilkes County was taken from Surry County, which was taken from Rowan County.  Thus, Perrin Cardwell is found in the records of three different counties, but appears to have never moved. 

From his home of Naked Creek in Wilkes County, North Carolina, Perrin raised a family with Sarah and cut out a life from the wilderness.  Life was hard for the early settlers of this area and as the nation moved towards independence there developed a division in the community that developed into all out guerilla warfare.  Perrin Cardwell appears on a list of Militia for Wilkes County, North Carolina under the command of Col. Benjamin Cleveland.  It is known that he participated in the Battle of King’s Mountain. That battle was one of the more decisive engagements of the Revolutionary War.  In addition to having fought in that particular battle, Perrin Cardwell was more than likely involved in the various well-documented Militia activities that occurred under Col. Cleveland’s command.  From the onset of hostilities, there were fierce fighting among those loyal to the King of England (Tories) and those striving for independence in the Yadkin River area of North Carolina.  Col. Benjamin Cleveland’s local militia was involved in numerous clashes with the Tory members in the area. From the History of Western North Carolina by John Preston Arthur, 1914 is a brief account of Col. Benjamin Cleveland who Perrin Cardwell was known to serve under. “In 1776 he became a Whig. He was himself somewhat cruel, as it is related of him that "some time after this (his capture at Old Field) this same Riddle and his son, and another was taken, and brought before Cleveland, and he hung all three of them near the Mulberry Meeting House, now Wilkesborough". Cleveland weighed over three hundred pounds, and his men called him "Old Roundabout," and themselves "Cleveland's Bull Dogs." The Tories, however, called them "Cleveland's Devils. He was a captain in Rutherford's expedition across the mountains to punish the Cherokees in 1776, for which service he was made a colonel, and as such rendered great service in suppressing Tory bands on the frontier. He raised a regiment of four hundred men in Surry and Wilkes counties and with them took part in Kings Mountain fight.”

This type of warfare basically pitted neighbor against neighbor. Raids upon the homesteads of the independence minded rebels, and their families, led to counter-raids against the Tories.  On several occasions, Col. Cleveland’s militia, tracked down and either killed the Tories or caught them and hung them without trial. It is this compiler’s opinion that Perrin Cardwell more than likely participated in this warfare.  The Wilkes County Militia was called upon to help in attacking the Cherokee Indians, allies of the British, of what became East Tennessee.  Mustering together in Wilkes County and then traveling over the Appalachian Mountains to attack the Cherokee towns along the Tellico River in Tennessee, these hardy men gained valuable experience that would later assist them in their tangle with the English at King’s Mountain.  These backwoodsmen, having battled both Indians and Tories, were not the picture perfect Colonial Minutemen. They were instead a rough bunch of hard living men that had gained experience in what the English referred to as “Indian fighting”. They fought utilizing the cover of trees with deadly efficiency. This is in contrast to the standard military tactics of the day that involved meeting on the open battlefield and exchanging volleys of shots with your opponent. Their superior marksmanship abilities were responsible for many British casualties during the conflict and noted by British officers in dispatches and journals. The American Rebels, under Cleveland, wore the rough buckskin clothing common to the early settlers and were as hard as the wilderness that they settled.

The famous Battle of King’s Mountain occurred on October 7, 1780. Leading up to that the British and their Tory allies had committed numerous acts of extreme hostility against the American rebels.  A common practice of  “civilized warfare” at that time called for quarter to be given to captured members of the opponent’s forces.  The British Army had waived this rule on several occasions and had murdered hundreds of captured rebels.  These brutalities fired the hatred for the British among the backwoodsmen of both the Yadkin River area and their kindred that had settled west of the Appalachian Mountains in the Watauga settlements in East Tennessee and Southwestern Virginia. Col. Patrick Ferguson, in command of a combined force of battle proven British regulars and Tory militia, had made a threat to “march onto the mountains, hang the leaders, and lay waste the country with fire and sword”.  This threat was the spark that ignited the resolve of these back country Indian fighters.  They set about in mustering a militia to track down and battle Ferguson and his forces.  On September 30, 1780 the forces from west of the Appalachian Mountains linked up with the militia from Wilkes County under Col. Cleveland.  Over the next few days they played a dangerous game of cat and mouse in attempting to locate the British forces under Col. Ferguson.  They had located Ferguson and moved into position to attack his forces on October 6, 1780 at King’s Mountain, which sets near the North and South Carolina border.  The British has occupied the top of the mountain in a common military defensive tactic.  The American forces encircled the base of the mountain with Col. Cleveland’s militia taking a position on the north.  As the American forces fell into their positions they started engaging the British with both volley and verbal abuse.  The American forces, having fought Indians for years, had borrowed from them the famous Indian yell.  This is something that the British and Tory troops feared as the backwoodsmen attacked up hill, giving loud Indian yells and other verbal abuse towards their foe.  Firing from behind logs and trees the American Rebels advanced and the British, on several occasions, launched bayonet counterattacks.  The battle raged for a little more than an hour before the Americans would take the hill. Col. Patrick Ferguson, the British commander, was killed during the action.  This battle held great importance to the cause for independence, as the loss of Ferguson and his troops signified the beginning of the end of the British campaign in the Carolinas. Though Perrin Cardwell did not file for a pension, his participation in this battle is substantiated by his name being included in the rolls of Col. Benjamin Cleveland’s militia that fought at King’s Mountain.

After the end of such conflicts it was common for the militia to return home and await further orders.  It is highly probable that he participated in further actions against Tory raiders, but again there is no solid documentation.  It is also unclear if the Wilkes County militia took any part in any of the other major battles that forced the eventually surrender of British forces at Yorktown, Virginia in October 1781. 

Perrin Cardwell can be found on the Tax Lists for Wilkes County from 1784 to 1786. 

He is listed in the 1787 Census of Wilkes County, North Carolina as living in Brown’s District with his family of wife, one son and four daughters.  Again, in 1790 he is listed, but with the increase of two additional sons.  He is found in several records of the Wilkes County Court between 1792 and 1797, participating in juries and overseer of road construction.  Perrin is found on Wilkes County Tax Lists for 1795, 1796, 1797 and 1799. In the 1800 Census for Wilkes County, Perrin is listed with his family.  It appears that he and Sarah had another daughter since the census of 1790.  He is listed as having two slaves.  

The last known record of Perrin Cardwell in Wilkes County, North Carolina took place on March 6, 1801. Wilkes County Deed Book, C-1, page 274 contains a record of Perrin Cardwell selling 100 acres of his land to Thomas Cardwell. It is the property that is on Naked Creek, which Perrin had lived on since at least 1778.  Perrin signed the document and Nathaniel Vannoy and Elijah Elmore were witnesses. 

The family of Perrin Cardwell migrated to Adair County, Kentucky sometime after the sale of the property in Wilkes County, North Carolina.  Perrin Cardwell (2), son of Perrin Cardwell and Sarah Cearley Cardwell, married in Adair County, Kentucky in 1805. This notes that the family has settled in that area by that point. They are all found in the 1810 Census of Adair County, Kentucky. Perrin Cardwell’s family matches the children listed in the 1800 census of Wilkes County, North Carolina.  Thomas Cardwell appears to have married (no record of this marriage has been found) and has a family of four daughters and two sons. 

There is no record of the death of Perrin Cardwell or his wife, Sarah Cearley, and they do not show up in additional records in Adair County, Kentucky after the 1810 Census.  This backwoodsman, that settled two homesteads out of the wilderness and fought in the troubled times of our nation’s War for Independence, left us a legacy that is truly inspiring. 

Excerpt from the unpublished 2nd edition of "John Cardwell 1715-1795" by Rand Cardwell