Jacob Hite
Encyclopedia
Jacob Hite was one of the wealthiest men in Berkeley County
, West Virginia
. Hite had come to the Valley with his father in the early 1730s. A prominent family, Hite had served as sheriff twice for Frederick County
and also as justice of the peace
for that county as well as Berkeley. His son, Thomas, was a member of the House of Burgesses
. Hite is most famous for his assault on the Martinsburg
county jail in April 1774 and his rivalry with Adam Stephen
.
land speculator, Jost Hite, a German
immigrant, and Anna Maria (née
Merckle). His sister, Mary Magdalena Hite, is an ancestor to Major League Baseball
pitcher
Tug McGraw
and country music
star Tim McGraw
.
, created a scheme to obtain a large tract of land from Cherokee Indians, using Pearis' son, George, who was half-Cherokee, as a pawn. Cherokee headmen viewed men like George Pearis as useful diplomatic bridges to the British
. George obtained a 150000 acres (607 km²) tract of land just west of South Carolina
from the headmen. He then sold it to his father and Hite. Though the scheme was clever, a British official feared it may provoke the Cherokees to join an anti-British confederation Indian
diplomats were forming at the time. The official persuaded a South Carolina court to void the deal.
, a Scottish
trader. Hunter was feeling pressure from his own creditors in England
and demanded Berkeley County sheriff Adam Stephen to auction off enough of Hite's estate to pay the debt. Stephen and several deputies went to Hite's plantation and seized fifteen of Hite's slaves and twenty-one of his horses, and brought them to the county jail in Martinsburg-the county seat-to be put up for auction.
Pennsylvania Chronicle, Sep 26--Oct 3, 1772:152, advertisement: On Thursday, the 15th of October next, will be sold by Public Vendue, on the premises {pursuant to a decreee of the County Court of Frederick, in the colony of Virginia, for satisfying a debt due from Jacob Hite to Richard and Peter Footman, Francis Richardson, Clement Biddle, and Daniel Wisser} A valuable tract of land, containing 3118 Acres {more or less} with the dwelling-house, stores, and buildings thereon erected, situate in Berkeley County, {formerly part of Frederick County} within 13 miles (20.9 km) of Winchester, on the great road leading thence from Shweringan's Ferry. The said tract is well watered and improved, being the plantation whereon the said Jacob Hite now lives, and from its situation, and other great improvements and advantages, is esteemed equal to any place in Frederick County.--Also, twenty-seven valuable Negro Slaves [Sep 17, 1772].
that the sale was to take place and threatened to stop it or sue any man who bought his property. The threat was accompanied by the more peaceful, though contradictory, suggestion that Gates and other friends of Hite's buy the property at the sale and Hite would pay them back. Gates, however, used a more direct way to aid Hite. Acting in his authority as a magistrate, Gates allowed Hite to proceed against those persons who were "active in plundering him."
Hite decided to take matters into his own hands. A friend of Hite's, who was the constable, Daniel Hendricks, assembled a posse, including Hite's son Thomas. The posse armed themselves with several weapons and advanced on the Martinsburg jail on April 14, 1774. Sheriff Stephen deputized many men and directed them to guard Hite's slaves and horses. But the gang surrounded the jail, overpowered the guards, and tied up the jailor, who refused to turn over the keys. The posse then chopped down the jail door with axes and broke the lock on the stable door. The gang seized the slaves and horses, and also freed Marty Handley, a prisoner for debt, and a runaway servant. The posse fled for Hite's house, bringing with them two of the prison guards.
Later in the day, Hite received word that Stephen's band was going to attack. Hite feared that his property may still be sold. Hite was also concerned for his slaves, he did not want their families divided. Hite then realized that he and his slaves had a common interest in not being sold, and Hite needed more fighters. Hite then proceeded into the kitchen where his slaves were and told them to follow the white men in the attack with whatever weapons they had. But the slaves never had to fight, as the attack was so delayed that Hite directed them south down the Great Wagon Road
toward his illegal Cherokee property. Along the road, at least some of Hite's slaves were captured and sold at auction. In this regard, Hite epitomized the desperation that many Americans were feeling at this time in American history, as thousands of Americans were in serious financial trouble with their creditors as well.
, which upheld the original judgment against Hite. The General Court refrained from any further decision however, because at this point the Virginia courts began to refuse to try suits brought by creditors against debtors, and the upcoming American Revolution
was just beginning. Although the legal battles were never resolved, the personal feud between Hite and Adam Stephen would become even worse.
and shortly after the printing of Stephen's rebuttal of Hite's accusations, Hite was killed by a band of Cherokee Indians upon returning to his new home in South Carolina.
Dateline, Williamsburg, Aug 30, 1776, passing along news from Mr. William Harrison, that "Captain John Hingston, with a number of settlers, arrived at Licking creed, near the Kentucky...Mr. Harrison likewise informs, that Mr. Jacob Hite, who lately removed from Berkeley county to the neighbourhood of the Cherokee country, with his family and a large parcel of negroes, were murdered at his own house by those savages, with most of his slaves, and his wife and children carried off prisoners; his son, who was in the Cherokee country, was likewise murdered. The Shawnee, Delawares, and Mingoes, had not met our commissioners, although two expresses had been sent to them for that purpose...".
Holton, Woody. Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, & the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999.
Ward, Harry M. Major General Adam Stephen and the Cause of American Liberty. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1989.
Berkeley County, West Virginia
Berkeley County is a county located in the Eastern Panhandle region of the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of 2010, the population is 104,169, making it the second-most populous county in West Virginia, behind Kanawha...
, West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
. Hite had come to the Valley with his father in the early 1730s. A prominent family, Hite had served as sheriff twice for Frederick County
Frederick County, Virginia
Frederick County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is included in the Winchester, Virginia-West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area. It was formed in 1743 by the splitting of Orange County. For ten years it was the home of George Washington. As of 2010, the population was...
and also as justice of the peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
for that county as well as Berkeley. His son, Thomas, was a member of the House of Burgesses
House of Burgesses
The House of Burgesses was the first assembly of elected representatives of English colonists in North America. The House was established by the Virginia Company, who created the body as part of an effort to encourage English craftsmen to settle in North America...
. Hite is most famous for his assault on the Martinsburg
Martinsburg, West Virginia
Martinsburg is a city in the Eastern Panhandle region of West Virginia, United States. The city's population was 14,972 at the 2000 census; according to a 2009 Census Bureau estimate, Martinsburg's population was 17,117, making it the largest city in the Eastern Panhandle and the eighth largest...
county jail in April 1774 and his rivalry with Adam Stephen
Adam Stephen
Adam Stephen was a Scottish-born doctor and military officer. He came to North America, where he served in the Virginia colonial militia under George Washington during the French and Indian War. He served under Washington again in the American Revolutionary War, rising to lead a division of the...
.
Early life
He was the son of a highly successful Shenandoah ValleyShenandoah Valley
The Shenandoah Valley is both a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians , to the north by the Potomac River...
land speculator, Jost Hite, a German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
immigrant, and Anna Maria (née
NEE
NEE is a political protest group whose goal was to provide an alternative for voters who are unhappy with all political parties at hand in Belgium, where voting is compulsory.The NEE party was founded in 2005 in Antwerp...
Merckle). His sister, Mary Magdalena Hite, is an ancestor to Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
pitcher
Pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...
Tug McGraw
Tug McGraw
Frank Edwin "Tug" McGraw Jr. was a Major League Baseball relief pitcher and the father of Country music singer Tim McGraw and actor/TV personality Mark McGraw and Cari McGraw...
and country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
star Tim McGraw
Tim McGraw
Samuel Timothy "Tim" McGraw is an American country singer and actor. Many of McGraw's albums and singles have topped the country music charts with total album sales in excess of 40 million units in the US, making him the eighth best-selling artist, and the third best-selling country singer, in the...
.
Business Scheme
In the late 1760s, Hite and his business partner, Richard PearisRichard Pearis
Richard Pearis was an Indian trader, a pioneer settler of Upstate South Carolina, and a Loyalist officer during the American Revolution....
, created a scheme to obtain a large tract of land from Cherokee Indians, using Pearis' son, George, who was half-Cherokee, as a pawn. Cherokee headmen viewed men like George Pearis as useful diplomatic bridges to the British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
. George obtained a 150000 acres (607 km²) tract of land just west of South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
from the headmen. He then sold it to his father and Hite. Though the scheme was clever, a British official feared it may provoke the Cherokees to join an anti-British confederation Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
diplomats were forming at the time. The official persuaded a South Carolina court to void the deal.
Financial Troubles
The voided deed to the Cherokee land left Hite in serious financial trauma. He had no means of paying a large debt that he owed to James HunterJames Hunter
Dr James Hunter CBE is currently Director for the UHI Centre for History, Chairman of the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust and formerly the Chairman of Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Inverness-based development and training agency for the North of Scotland...
, a Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
trader. Hunter was feeling pressure from his own creditors in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and demanded Berkeley County sheriff Adam Stephen to auction off enough of Hite's estate to pay the debt. Stephen and several deputies went to Hite's plantation and seized fifteen of Hite's slaves and twenty-one of his horses, and brought them to the county jail in Martinsburg-the county seat-to be put up for auction.
Pennsylvania Chronicle, Sep 26--Oct 3, 1772:152, advertisement: On Thursday, the 15th of October next, will be sold by Public Vendue, on the premises {pursuant to a decreee of the County Court of Frederick, in the colony of Virginia, for satisfying a debt due from Jacob Hite to Richard and Peter Footman, Francis Richardson, Clement Biddle, and Daniel Wisser} A valuable tract of land, containing 3118 Acres {more or less} with the dwelling-house, stores, and buildings thereon erected, situate in Berkeley County, {formerly part of Frederick County} within 13 miles (20.9 km) of Winchester, on the great road leading thence from Shweringan's Ferry. The said tract is well watered and improved, being the plantation whereon the said Jacob Hite now lives, and from its situation, and other great improvements and advantages, is esteemed equal to any place in Frederick County.--Also, twenty-seven valuable Negro Slaves [Sep 17, 1772].
Assault on the Martinsburg Jail
Hite vigorously resented his property being taken in this manner. He wrote to his neighbor and friend Horatio GatesHoratio Gates
Horatio Lloyd Gates was a retired British soldier who served as an American general during the Revolutionary War. He took credit for the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga – Benedict Arnold, who led the attack, was finally forced from the field when he was shot in the leg – and...
that the sale was to take place and threatened to stop it or sue any man who bought his property. The threat was accompanied by the more peaceful, though contradictory, suggestion that Gates and other friends of Hite's buy the property at the sale and Hite would pay them back. Gates, however, used a more direct way to aid Hite. Acting in his authority as a magistrate, Gates allowed Hite to proceed against those persons who were "active in plundering him."
Hite decided to take matters into his own hands. A friend of Hite's, who was the constable, Daniel Hendricks, assembled a posse, including Hite's son Thomas. The posse armed themselves with several weapons and advanced on the Martinsburg jail on April 14, 1774. Sheriff Stephen deputized many men and directed them to guard Hite's slaves and horses. But the gang surrounded the jail, overpowered the guards, and tied up the jailor, who refused to turn over the keys. The posse then chopped down the jail door with axes and broke the lock on the stable door. The gang seized the slaves and horses, and also freed Marty Handley, a prisoner for debt, and a runaway servant. The posse fled for Hite's house, bringing with them two of the prison guards.
Later in the day, Hite received word that Stephen's band was going to attack. Hite feared that his property may still be sold. Hite was also concerned for his slaves, he did not want their families divided. Hite then realized that he and his slaves had a common interest in not being sold, and Hite needed more fighters. Hite then proceeded into the kitchen where his slaves were and told them to follow the white men in the attack with whatever weapons they had. But the slaves never had to fight, as the attack was so delayed that Hite directed them south down the Great Wagon Road
Great Wagon Road
The Great Wagon Road was a colonial American improved trail transiting the Great Appalachian Valley from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, and from there to Georgia....
toward his illegal Cherokee property. Along the road, at least some of Hite's slaves were captured and sold at auction. In this regard, Hite epitomized the desperation that many Americans were feeling at this time in American history, as thousands of Americans were in serious financial trouble with their creditors as well.
Legal Battles
Seven members of Hite's posse were arrested for the assault. Before Gates and other justices of the peace, they were tried for breach of the peace but acquitted, though they had to go bond to guarantee their good behavior for twelve months. This made tempers flare even more. Hite and his friends filed a court action against Stephen and other officials. Stephen then realized that he may become liable himself for a suit for recovery of the debt. Stephen received intervention from the General CourtGeneral Court
The General Court is the shorthand name for the:* General Court * New Hampshire General Court* Massachusetts General CourtThis term also formally applied to the:* Vermont General Assembly, formerly the Vermont General Court...
, which upheld the original judgment against Hite. The General Court refrained from any further decision however, because at this point the Virginia courts began to refuse to try suits brought by creditors against debtors, and the upcoming American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
was just beginning. Although the legal battles were never resolved, the personal feud between Hite and Adam Stephen would become even worse.
Rivalry with Adam Stephen
Hite was determined to settle the score with Stephen. Hite went to the public print to let people know what kind of man he felt Stephen was. He published a lengthy indictment of Stephen's handling of Hite's debt case with Hunter in the Virginia Gazette on July 6, 1775. Hite hoped to disparage Stephen's character. In the piece, Hite accused Stephen of forcibly taking his property to satisfy the debt and getting an injunction from the General Court "to stop whatever monies were in his or his deputy's hands, belonging to me, for the satisfaction of Mr. Hunter's demands against me." Stephen printed a rebuttal in the Virginia Gazette three months later on September 30, 1775. In his piece, Stephen insisted that Hunter had given Hite ample extension of time to pay off the debt and he was simply carrying out his duties as a sheriff.Abrupt Death
Though the feud between Hite and Stephen was extremely bitter, it was never resolved. Stephen headed off to fight in the American Revolutionary WarAmerican Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
and shortly after the printing of Stephen's rebuttal of Hite's accusations, Hite was killed by a band of Cherokee Indians upon returning to his new home in South Carolina.
Dateline, Williamsburg, Aug 30, 1776, passing along news from Mr. William Harrison, that "Captain John Hingston, with a number of settlers, arrived at Licking creed, near the Kentucky...Mr. Harrison likewise informs, that Mr. Jacob Hite, who lately removed from Berkeley county to the neighbourhood of the Cherokee country, with his family and a large parcel of negroes, were murdered at his own house by those savages, with most of his slaves, and his wife and children carried off prisoners; his son, who was in the Cherokee country, was likewise murdered. The Shawnee, Delawares, and Mingoes, had not met our commissioners, although two expresses had been sent to them for that purpose...".
Resources
Hart, Freeman H. The Valley of Virginia in the American Revolution: 1763-1789. New York: Russell and Russell, 1942.Holton, Woody. Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, & the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999.
Ward, Harry M. Major General Adam Stephen and the Cause of American Liberty. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1989.