4th Generation

From Virginia to Kentucky

William Ransdell

(about 1742-1801)

Ann "Nancy" Petty

(about 1744-1823)

            William Ransdell was born in about 1742 in Westmoreland County, Virginia, possibly the son of John Ransdell (see notes above) and grandson of Edward Ransdell and Mary Gorham.   His father had moved to Orange Co., VA about 1734.  William married Ann ("Nancy") Petty in about 1760.[1]  Ann's birth date was about 1744, in Orange County, VA.  She was the daughter of John Petty, Sr. (1702-1770) and Rebecca Simms Petty[2] (see PETTY ).   Ann’s  father’s will, proved on 27 Sept 1770 (Orange Co., Will Book 2, pp. 422-24) names his daughter Ann Ransdell and names her husband William Ransdell as an executor.

          Another possibility is that William Ransdell was the son of William Ransdell and Mary Chilton, grandson of Wharton Ransdell and Ursula Presley Neale, and great-grandson of Edward Ransdell and Mary Gorham.  If that is the case, William would be the 5^th generation of Ransdells.  This is the information provided in Early to America compiled by Helen Joyce Cox.

           The first United States census in 1790 shows William Ransdell as head of a household of 11 people in Orange County, Virginia.

Kentucky Pioneers

William Ransdell, his wife Ann (also frequently called Nancy), and their entire family, including two married daughters and their families, as well as William’s brothers Sanford and John, left Orange Co., Virginia for the frontier life in Kentucky, in about 1795.  To prepare for the move, they sold land in Orange Co., VA in 1794.  It is safe to say they were among the people of English descent who came--people about whom it was written, “Their customs and manners set the pattern for hospitality and pleasant living in central and western Kentucky.”

From the History of Kentucky:  "Early settlers into Kentucky arrived from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.  Settlements were made in several areas of the state, but most early ones were abandoned because of Indian attacks.  Still, settlers kept coming for the rich, fertile land available on inexpensive terms. Many of those who enlisted in Virginia during the Revolutionary War were rewarded with warrants for Kentucky land in lieu of cash."[3]

          The first white settlement in Kentucky had been established by James Harrod and about 30 other people in 1774.  Allen W. Eckert in The Frontiersman describes the settlement:

          Nearly 100 miles south of the Ohio River in the vast unexplored interior of Virginia’s Fincastle County, a small group of permanent buildings was being raised not far from the Kentucky River, close to the east bank of the Salt River.  It was the first settlement of whites ever to be established in the Can-tuc-kee lands, and the leader of the party named it after himself ... Harrodstown (later Harrodsburg).

          In December 1776, the Virginia Assembly officially created Kentucky County out of the Fincastle lands.  Harrodstown was made county seat.  By 1781 the settlements of Harrodstown, Lexington, Danville, and others were becoming small cities.  Harrodstown’s population was over 2500 and plans were underway to erect a courthouse.  Yet, it was still a savage land.  During the years 1783-1789, 1500 settlers were killed and scalped on the Ohio River alone.

          On June 4, 1792, the Indian problems virtually ended, Kentucky was admitted to the union as a state.  In about 1795, William and Nancy Ransdell and their family, including some grown children and their spouses, moved to Kentucky.  This is described in the history books as a formidable journey, because they had to travel by land from the center of Virginia up to Pennsylvania in order to take a boat down the Ohio River.  "The roads were impracticable for wheeled vehicles, and overland transportation was effected by means of pack horses.  Even to this mode of transportation the paths across the mountains were difficult and often dangerous.  In some places they were barely passable; at other points they ran along the brink of a precipice, where a single misstep involved great danger if not destruction, or were overflown by streams, which it was necessary to ford."

          The earliest record of William Ransdell in Kentucky is in a Mercer Co., KY deed book in 1797.  He and his wife Nancy conveyed 50 acres of land on Salt River and Chaplin Ford to John Ransdell, Sr. (probably their son). [4]

          William Ransdell died in about 1801, the last year his name appears on the annual tax lists of Mercer Co. as owning and paying tax on several hundred acres of land on Salt River.  Thereafter, his widow Nancy is listed as paying tax on the same land. 

          Nancy died in about 1823, at which time William's estate was entered in probate. [5]

          Seven years after Nancy's death, William Ransdell's Division of Land Among His Heirs was recorded.  Sharing in this division of land were his sons, daughters, and their husbands.[6]

Children of William and Ann Ransdell were listed in his will as follows (not necessarily in order of their birth):

i.    Zachariah (m. 19 Dec 1799 Nancy Bohon)       

ii.   Sally (probably 3^rd child, b. about 1765; m. 1781 John Bohon)      

iii.  Fielding (b. about 1786, d. about 1850 Mercer Co.; m. 3 Jul 1809 in Mercer Co., KY, Margaret Bohon.            

iv.  Foxall (b. 30 Oct 1777, d. 15 Sept. 1839, m. 1802 Elizabeth Bohon

v.   Martha (Patsy) m. John Poulter 25 Jan 1786 in Orange Co., VA.  He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War.)

vi.  Wharton  (probably the second child; a Bible record confirms his birth date as 8 Nov 1763; m. 25 Sep 1798 Abigail Chamberlain; died 28 Aug 1835)[7]

vii.  Nancy m. Pierce Chamberlain 16 Mar 1797 in Mercer Co., KY (Nancy  had died by the time this division of land was made; her heirs were listed as

          Robert, Nancy, Polly, and Eliza Chamberlain, all minors; and William 

          Chamberlain, Minerva Spears, Julian Chamberlain, and Malissa

          Chamberlain)

viii. Elizabeth, b. 8 Aug 1769, (m. John Sanford 30 Jun 1788 in Orange Co., VA, d. 12 May 1839)[8]                       

ix.   Jael  ( m. (1) 9 Aug 1796 Clater/Claytor Combs; m. (2) 1805 Jacob Vorhise)

x.    Polly (m.William Bourne)

xi.   William (believed to be the oldest child, b. about 1761, d. about 1802)

xii.  John  (b. about 1775-d. before 1830)