1714-1778
Robert DENTON was born in 1714. Died in 1778 in Hampshire CO, VA (Now Hardy CO, WV). Robert owned land by 1751 in present-day Hardy CO, WV on both the Lost River and Cacapon River west of Strasburg, VA. Following the last Indian uprising in 1766, Robert was involved in the purchase of more land in the Great North Mountain Range in what is now West Virginia. Robert stayed in this area though his brother James and others found Tennessee alluring, as well as Kentucky. He amassed some 1,600 acres of land in the area. He must have become ill in the late 1760s for he began to sell off the Lost River parcels, mostly to his family. In 1768 he sold 323 acres to his daughter Margaret and her husband, Joel Robinson. At his Lost River Plantation he began to see the great migration into the countryside begin. Surveyors were in Kentucky laying out the best lands for those who participated in the long conflict with the French and the Indians. The English crown still forbade movement across the Alleghanies, but their Virginia governor, John Murray, Lord of Dunmore, instituted an expansionist attitude after he took office in 1771. The land-greedy pioneers were impatient with the "rights" ascribed to the Indian tribes. Robert died in the early part of 1778. He married Jane MOON on 13 Feb 1738 in Burlington CO, NJ. Jane MOON was born in 1714. Died in 1787 in Hampshire CO, VA. "License of Marriage on the thirteenth Day of February A.D. 1738 was granted by his Excellency Lewis Morris Esq. Gov. unto Robert Denton of Evesham in the County of Burlington, Yeoman, of one party and Jane Moon of the same Township, Spinster of other party. Arch Home, Secry" They had the following children: Margaret DENTON
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