This is the fourth and last stop in the project that the Find a Grave 1776 Badge email started a few weeks ago — and since it lands on the Fourth of July, it felt like the right moment to close the loop on the whole series with one more patriot, plus a full accounting of everyone the search turned up.
This last one comes from my wife’s maternal Darling-Huber line, where there’s only a single confirmed Revolutionary War patriot: James Walter.
James Walter (1752–1838)
James Walter was born in Maryland in mid-February 1752 — the 16th or 17th, by most reckonings, though that date is calculated from his age at death rather than a contemporary record. He was the eldest of six children of John Walter and Ann Parker.
His military record is one of the more varied of the ten patriots in this series. Around 1777, in Virginia, he served as a Sergeant, for which he later received land. By the winter of 1782 he’d been reassigned south: muster records place him in an artillery detachment under Capt. Lt. Booker, 1st Regiment, at a camp near Bacon Bridge, South Carolina, with service recorded for January, February, and March of that year. At some point during his service he was also commissioned a Captain. For his various roles he was known, distinctively, as “Forage Master” — the officer responsible for keeping an army’s horses and draft animals fed, a job that mattered just as much as anything done on a battlefield.
In November 1783, he received a warrant for 400 acres of bounty land in Virginia for his service. He married Margaret Ann Swan after April 19, 1783 — “after the war,” as one family account puts it — and the couple settled in Frederick County, Virginia, where they raised at least seven children.
One detail stands out from later in his life: sometime before 1838, while still in Frederick County, James Walter freed the people he had enslaved. He eventually moved to Fairfield County, Ohio, and died on May 10, 1838, at the Lancaster-area home of his oldest daughter. He was originally buried at the old Lancaster City Graveyard, which is now defunct, and was later reinterred in Lancaster’s city burial plot — his Find a Grave memorial notes that the original marker no longer exists. He’s a recognized DAR patriot ancestor (A120153).
One of his daughters, Catherine Ann Dent Walter, married David Swayze and is herself #51 on the Darling-Huber ahnentafel — the link that carries James Walter’s line down through the Swayzes and into the Darling family, and eventually to my wife.
That Find a Grave email about the 1776 Badge sent me through all four of my and my wife’s family lines, and the running total came out to an even ten confirmed Revolutionary War patriots:
Brown-Montran (my maternal line)
Maj. Samuel Wolcott (1736–1802) — Massachusetts militia
Lieut. John Parsons Sr. (c. 1736–1821) — Massachusetts militia; served under Wolcott, whose daughter later married his son
Grover Buel (1732–1818) — New York militia
Wicks Weeks Rowley (1760–1826) — New York militia; married Buel’s daughter
John B Maben (1753–1813) — New York militia; Irish immigrant patriot
Roberts-Barnes (my paternal line)
Silas Taft (1744–1813) — Massachusetts militia, marched to Tiverton, RI
Reuben C. Sutherland (before 1755–1799) — New York militia; his daughter married Taft’s son
Howell-Hobbs (my wife’s paternal line)
William Rose Sr. (1733–1785) — North Carolina militia, Wagon Master
William Rose Jr. (1759–1801) — North Carolina militia; Sr.’s son
Darling-Huber (my wife’s maternal line)
James Walter (1752–1838) — Virginia and South Carolina; Sergeant, Forage Master, and eventually Captain
Looking back at all ten together, a few things stand out. Half of them served in some kind of support or logistics role — wagon master, forage master, militia pay — rather than in a famous battle, which is a good reminder of how much of the Revolution ran on unglamorous, essential work. And in three of the four family lines, the patriots turned out to be connected to each other by marriage within a generation or two, often without my having noticed the connection before pulling them together for this series.
Ten patriots is a good number to sit with on the Fourth of July. There are certainly more out there in collateral lines I haven’t chased down yet — but for now, these are the ten Find a Grave’s anniversary email sent me looking for.
This article was researched by me and drafted with the assistance of Claude.ai, with editing support from Grammarly.
Continuing the project that the Find a Grave 1776 Badge email set off, I’m crossing into my wife’s Howell-Hobbs line for this installment, where two more confirmed Revolutionary War patriots turn up: William Rose Sr. and his son, William Rose Jr., of Halifax County, North Carolina. They’re #148 and #74 on my Howell-Hobbs Ahnentafel chart, respectively — and unlike the patriot pairs in my last two posts, this one isn’t two families joined by marriage. It’s the same family, two generations deep, both of whom answered the call.
This actually isn’t new territory for the blog. Back in November 2019, I wrote about the Rose family of Halifax County while trying to sort out the parentage of Elizabeth (Rose) Vincent, one of my wife’s third great-grandmothers. At the time, I narrowed seven or more Revolutionary-War-era Halifax Roses down to two who actually held confirmed DAR Patriot status — this same father and son. The new documentation I’ve since pulled together fills in their service records more fully, so it felt like the right time to give them their own dedicated profile.
William Rose Sr. (1733–1785)
William Rose Sr. was born around 1733. On January 27, 1758, he married Mary, whose maiden name hasn’t been identified. The couple had two known sons: William Jr. and Elisha, who died in Halifax County in 1795.
Rose’s Revolutionary War service is recorded as that of a Wagon Master, for which he received a pay voucher in 1781 — a role that mattered as much to keeping an army moving as any combat assignment. The 1784 Halifax County tax list shows him with 230 acres and, like a number of his propertied neighbors, one enslaved person recorded on the rolls as a taxable “poll.” He died in 1785 and is recognized by the DAR as Patriot Ancestor #A206765.
William Rose Jr. (1759–1801)
William Rose Jr. was Sr.’s eldest son, born in 1759. By 1784, in his mid-twenties, he was already a property owner in his own right — the same Halifax tax list that shows his father’s 230 acres lists “Wm. Rose Junr.” with 248 acres. He served in 1781, paid for his services per a North Carolina Revolutionary War pay voucher, and is recognized separately from his father as DAR Patriot Ancestor #A206187.
He married Sarah Crawley, and the couple’s children included Edmund, Wormley, Littleberry Rowan, Jesse — and, per most family trees, a daughter named Elizabeth, born in June 1785. William Rose Jr. died February 14, 1801, in Warren County, Georgia, having moved south sometime after his Halifax County years.
A Father and Son, and a Lingering Question
What makes the Roses different from the patriot pairs in my last two posts is that there’s no marriage connecting them — they’re directly father and son, both serving in the same county in the same war, and both managing to clear the DAR’s bar for proof of service when several other Halifax Roses (Amos, Ann, Samuel, Thomas — none with confirmed DAR status) didn’t.
Where things get less certain is one step further down the tree. That daughter, Elizabeth Rose, is the presumed mother-line connection to my wife — she went on to marry Burkett Vincent, and from there the line runs down through the Vinson/Vincent family into the Howells. But as I noted back in 2019, the parentage of Elizabeth herself isn’t nailed down by a primary source. Most researchers’ trees point to William Rose Jr. and Sarah Crawley as her parents, with smaller minorities favoring an Elisha Rose instead. I still haven’t found the document that closes that question, so for now William Rose Sr. and Jr. stand as the leading — but not yet proven — candidates for two more rungs on my wife’s ancestral ladder.
Nine Patriots and Counting
That brings the running tally to nine confirmed Revolutionary War patriots found across three family lines so far — Brown-Montran, Roberts-Barnes, and now Howell-Hobbs. Resolving Elizabeth Rose’s parentage is still on my research list; if I ever crack that brick wall, this post will be the first to get an update.
This article was researched by me and drafted with the assistance of Claude.ai, with editing support from Grammarly.
A couple of days ago I went through my Brown-Montran family line and turned up five confirmed Revolutionary War patriots — two branches that, conveniently, had already married into each other before I ever drew the connection on paper. Since that Find a Grave anniversary email got me looking, I kept going, and this time I crossed over to my paternal Roberts-Barnes line, where two more patriots were waiting: Silas Taft and Reuben C. Sutherland.
As it turns out, they’re connected to each other too — and in much the same way as last time.
Silas Taft (1744–1813)
Silas Taft was born July 10, 1744, in Uxbridge, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, the first of nine children of Stephen Taft and Mary Lewis. He married Elizabeth Cruff on December 4, 1768, at Uxbridge.
His Revolutionary War service came later than most — in the summer of 1780, when Rhode Island’s coastline came under renewed threat from British forces. Taft, by then in his mid-thirties, was called up as a Private in Capt. Bezaleel Taft’s 9th Company, under Col. Nathan Tyler’s 3rd Worcester County Regiment. He marched to Tiverton, Newport County, Rhode Island, and was discharged after fourteen days, including three days’ travel home.
He later moved to Oneida County, New York, where he died on August 7, 1813. He’s buried at Lee Valley Cemetery in Lee, New York, and is a recognized DAR patriot ancestor (A112392). Find a Grave memorial
Several of Silas’s children, including his son Asa Taft, eventually settled in Triangle, Broome County, New York — which is exactly where this next connection picks up.
Reuben C. Sutherland (before 1755–1799)
Reuben C. Sutherland was born before 1755 in Horseneck, New York — territory that’s now Greenwich, in Fairfield County, Connecticut, a reminder of just how unsettled the New York–Connecticut border was in the colonial period. He was the eldest of eleven children of William J. Sutherland and Hannah Avery.
Sutherland served as a militiaman in the 6th Regiment of the Dutchess County, New York militia between April 1776 and January 1777, and again in Dover, Dutchess County, between August 1781 and January 1782. He later drew a federal pension for his service (pension numbers 13,693 and 42,531). In 1788 he married Mary Lewis at the First Stanford Baptist Church in Bangall, Dutchess County. He died September 10, 1799, in Broome County, New York, and is a recognized DAR patriot ancestor (A111154). Find a Grave memorial
The Connection: Triangle, Broome County, New York
Just like Wolcott and Parsons, and Buel, Rowley, and Maben before them, the Taft and Sutherland families ended up joined by marriage. Reuben Sutherland’s daughter, Tamise “Fanny” Sutherland, married Joel Cruff Taft — a son of Silas Taft — around 1819 in Triangle, Broome County, New York, the same town where Silas’s son Asa had already settled. Joel Cruff Taft later became a member of the Sons of the American Revolution on the strength of his father’s service.
Fanny outlived Joel and remarried in 1856 in Sullivan County, Indiana, where she died in 1864 — one more small reminder of how far these families spread west in the decades after the war.
Seven Patriots and Counting
That brings my running total to seven confirmed Revolutionary War ancestors across two family lines — and, so far, a perfect record of patriot families finding each other through marriage within a generation or two of the war itself. I don’t know yet whether that’s coincidence or just how small these rural communities really were, but it’s becoming a pattern worth watching for as I keep working through the tree.
This article was researched by me and drafted with the assistance of Claude.ai, with editing support from Grammarly.
An email from Find a Grave landed in my inbox this week, marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with a new “1776 Badge” for memorials of Revolutionary War participants. It was the nudge I needed to go back through my Brown-Montran family line and tally up exactly how many ancestors served. The answer: five confirmed patriots, sitting in two branches of the tree that — as it turns out — were already quietly connected to each other.
Three of the five already carried notice of Revolutionary War service on their Find a Grave memorials. For the other two, I’ve submitted suggested edits so their service will be reflected there as well.
Here are their stories.
Branch One: Parsons and Wolcott, Berkshire County, Massachusetts
Lieut. John Parsons Sr. (c. 1736–1821)
John Parsons Sr. was born around 1736 in Durham, Connecticut, and by 1776 was serving as a Second Lieutenant in the 10th Company, 1st Berkshire County Militia — under the command of Capt. Samuel Wolcott. He later continued his service as a Lieutenant under Capt. Elijah Deming and Col. Ashley. He settled in Sandisfield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, was head of household there in the 1790 census, and died March 2, 1821, at about 84. He’s buried at Sandisfield Center Cemetery. Find a Grave memorial
Maj. Samuel Wolcott (1736–1802)
Samuel Wolcott was born November 15, 1736, in Wethersfield, Connecticut, and served in the Massachusetts militia around 1776 — as the same Capt. Samuel Wolcott under whom Lt. John Parsons served. He later held the rank of Major. He died April 19, 1802, in Sandisfield, and is buried in the same cemetery as Parsons: Sandisfield Center Cemetery.
The two families turned out to be more than fellow soldiers. Wolcott’s daughter, Mary “Polly” Wolcott, married John Parsons Jr. — the lieutenant’s son — in 1788. The captain and his lieutenant ended up neighbors in the same churchyard, joined permanently by their children’s marriage a generation later. Find a Grave memorial
Branch Two: Buel, Rowley, and Maben — New York to Michigan
Grover Buel (1732–1818)
Grover Buel was born April 4, 1732, in Killingworth, Connecticut, and served in the New York militia around 1776. He settled in Amenia, Dutchess County, New York, where he died September 14, 1818. He’s a recognized DAR patriot ancestor (A016639). Find a Grave memorial
Wicks Weeks Rowley (1760–1826)
Wicks Weeks Rowley was born in September 1760, also in Amenia, Dutchess County, New York, and served in the New York militia around 1776. In 1783 he married Deborah Buel, Grover Buel’s daughter, joining two patriot families. The couple eventually settled in Lexington, Greene County, New York, where Rowley died July 22, 1826. He’s buried at Lexington Village Cemetery. Find a Grave memorial
John B Maben (1753–1813)
John B Maben was born June 1, 1753, in the parish of Braid-Broughshane, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, and served in the New York militia in 1776 after emigrating. He settled in Lexington, Greene County, New York — the same town where the Rowleys later lived — and died June 1, 1813, his sixtieth birthday exactly. He’s a recognized DAR patriot (A072838). Find a Grave memorial
The Maben connection to the Rowleys may run deeper than shared geography. Wicks Weeks Rowley and Deborah Buel’s daughter, Electa Rowley, died in 1835 in Saline, Washtenaw County, Michigan, and was buried at Benton Cemetery — the same cemetery, and quite possibly the same family plot, as John B Maben’s son, Robert Maben. I haven’t yet confirmed a marriage record between Electa and Robert; the shared burial citation is just the kind of small clue that usually means something. Adding it to the research list.
A Small-World Family Tree
What struck me most in pulling these five together wasn’t the service itself — militia duty in 1776 New York and Massachusetts was common enough — but how often these patriot families found each other afterward. A captain and his lieutenant, buried steps apart, whose children later married. A pair of soldiers’ descendants who may have followed each other from the Hudson Valley all the way to Michigan a generation later. It’s a good reminder that in small communities, military service and family connection were rarely separate threads.
This article was researched by me and drafted with the assistance of Claude.ai, with editing support from Grammarly.
Every family tree holds names that deserve a closer look — names we’ve passed over a hundred times while chasing the bigger brick walls. For me, Cannon is one of those names. It appears in my wife’s Howell-Hobbs line through Martha Cannon (c.1764–1818), her 3rd great-grandmother, who married Thomas Armstrong Pankey in Goochland County, Virginia, in November 1785.
The name sounds thoroughly English — and in part it is — but its roots reach into Norman France, the ecclesiastical courts of medieval England, and the ancient Gaelic clans of Ireland’s northwest coast. Martha’s story is also tinged with mystery: her mother is believed to be Caroline Rolfe, but her father’s name remains unknown, and confirming both parents is an active research goal. This Surname Saturday untangles the threads of the Cannon name, traces the family’s deep roots in colonial Virginia’s James River valley, and sets Martha in the world she was born into.
Name Origin
The surname Cannon carries two distinctly different ancestral coats, and researchers are wise to know which they are following.[1]
The English derivation traces to an ecclesiastical title. The name originates from the Old French canonie or canoine, introduced to England after the Norman Conquest of 1066, which itself absorbed the pre-7th-century Old English form canonic. The ultimate root is the Greek kanon, meaning “rule” or “measure,” which passed into Ecclesiastical Latin as canonicus — the title for a clergyman on the staff of a cathedral or important church. The name was likely applied as a nickname to someone who worked at a clergy house, who conducted himself with clerical dignity, or who simply served “The Canon” directly.[2] Early English records confirm the name’s medieval presence: “John le Cannon” appears in the Oxfordshire Hundred Rolls of 1273, and “William le Canon” in the same document.[3]
The Irish stream of the name is entirely separate. In Ireland, the surname is rooted in the northwest — specifically Tir Chonaill (County Donegal) — and derives from the Goidelic Mac Canann, meaning “son of a whelp or wolf,” related to the Anglo-Irish forms Mac Connon and Connon. A reference to “Canannan, son of Ceallach, Tanist of Uí Ceinnsealaigh,” dates to A.D. 950, and Letterkenny, County Donegal, is said to derive part of its name from this family.[4]
Researchers should be alert to variant spellings and indexing errors. The name appears historically as Canon, Canoun, Channon, Cannan, Connon, and Cannone. One critical Virginia-specific caution: the Cannon family of Goochland County must not be confused with the Kennon family, sometimes pronounced “Cannon” in Virginia records.[5] The two are distinct surnames that overlap in the same counties and time periods, and careless indexing has commingled them in many published genealogies.
Geographical Distribution
Today, approximately 121,858 people worldwide bear the Cannon surname, ranking it the 4,611th most common name globally. The United States holds the largest share, with 94,322 bearers — about one in every 3,843 Americans. England follows with 11,123, and Australia with 5,323.[6]
Notably, the highest density of the Cannon name — meaning the proportion of the local population bearing it — is found not in Ireland or England but on the Isle of Man, a reflection of the name’s Manx Gaelic heritage. Within the United States, Cannon is most concentrated in Texas, Georgia, and Florida.[7]
In the United States, the share of the population bearing the Cannon name increased 583 percent between 1880 and 2014; in England it grew 234 percent; and in Scotland the increase reached 320 percent.[8] Whatever the name’s medieval origins, it found especially fertile ground in the American South.
Cannon in Colonial Virginia
The Cannon name was well established in Virginia before Martha was born. The land patent records of Goochland County tell a compelling story. On 20 June 1733, William Cannon was granted 1,700 acres on the south side of the Fluvanna River in Goochland County, and John Cannon received a separate grant of 150 acres on the north side of the Fluvanna the same day.[9] These are among the earliest documented Cannon land patents in the region and suggest an established family presence along the James River corridor well before Martha’s birth.
Goochland County itself was formed in 1728 from the western portion of Henrico County, and in 1749 Cumberland County was created from Goochland’s lands south of the James River.[10] This boundary shift is directly relevant to Martha’s story: families whose land straddled the James suddenly found themselves in a new county without moving an inch. That Martha was born in Goochland and died in Cumberland reflects this geographic reality as much as any migration.
By 1742, William Cannon of Goochland was deeding land along the south side of the James River, with neighboring tithables including John Cannon, suggesting a multi-generational family cluster in this corridor.[11] Whether these early patent holders are Martha’s direct paternal ancestors remains to be proved, but their presence in the same county during the generation before her birth makes the connection worth investigating.
When Did the Cannons Come to America?
The question of when Martha’s Cannon ancestors first arrived in Virginia cannot yet be answered with documentary certainty. However, the land patent evidence places the family firmly in Goochland County by 1733, which implies arrival in Virginia no later than the early 18th century — and likely earlier, given the time required to establish sufficient standing to patent 1,700 acres.
Virginia’s colonial Cannon families most likely came from England, consistent with the English ecclesiastical origin of the name and the predominantly English planter culture of the James River Piedmont. An Irish Gaelic origin is possible but less probable for a family rooted in Goochland’s Anglican community by the 1730s. Further research into Virginia Quit Rent Rolls, headright patents, and the St. James Northam parish register may reveal an earlier immigrant ancestor.
Cannon Ancestor
My wife’s Cannon ancestor is Martha Cannon, born about 1764 in Goochland County, Virginia Colony, and died about 1818 in Cumberland County, Virginia. She is my wife’s 3rd great-grandmother.
In November 1785, a marriage bond was executed for Thomas Pankey and Martha Cannon, with a surety of fifty pounds current money of Virginia, stipulating that “if there is no lawful cause to obstruct a marriage intended to be had and solemnized” between the two parties, the obligation would be void.[12] The marriage was solemnized on or before 25 November 1785 in Goochland County.
Martha’s parentage has not yet been fully documented and remains an active research goal. Her mother is believed to be Caroline Rolfe, a name that carries its own rich Virginia history (see Section 6 below). Martha’s father’s name is currently unknown. Her maiden name is noted in later family research as “Martha (Cannon?) [Liggon] Pankey,” suggesting some uncertainty in the record — a reminder that colonial Virginia women are among the most difficult subjects to document with precision.
Married: November 1785, Goochland County, Virginia
Died: c. 1818, Cumberland County, Virginia
Goochland County is bordered by Cumberland County to the southwest, and the two counties were linked from the moment Cumberland was carved from Goochland in 1749.[13] Martha and Thomas Pankey likely spent their entire lives in the southern corridor of this region, with jurisdictional boundaries shifting around them rather than the family moving far.
Direct Cannon Descendants
Martha Cannon Pankey is the gateway Cannon ancestor in this line. Through her marriage to Thomas Armstrong Pankey, she is an ancestor of:
It is tempting to wonder whether Martha’s daughter Caroline was named, in whole or in part, for Martha’s own mother — Caroline Rolfe. If so, the given name Caroline carries a quiet memorial to a grandmother who has otherwise largely slipped from the record.
Descendants of the Pankey line include the surnames Binford, Calhoun, Cannon, Ellis, Howell, and Scott.[14]
Endnotes
[1]Common surname origins include occupations (such as “Farmer”), physical characteristics (such as “Short”), places or landmarks (such as “Hill”), and patronymics derived from a father’s name (such as Johnson from “son of John”).
[2]Forebears, “Cannon Surname Meaning, History & Statistics,” https://forebears.io/surnames/cannon, accessed June 2026.
[3]SurnameDB, “Last Name: Cannon,” https://surnamedb.com/Surname/cannon, accessed June 2026.
[4] Genealogy Trails, “Goochland County, Virginia Land Patents, Book 14.
[5]Cecilie Gaziano, “Total Cannon, Kennon, Rudd, & Russell Family Timeline,” rev. 10 May 2018, citing Alberta Marjorie Dennstedt research, Goochland Co., Va., Deed Bk. 5, p. 243.
[6] Cecille Gaziano, “Total Cannon, Kennon, Rudd & Russell Family Timeline,” rev 10 May 2018, citing Alberta Majorie Dennstedt research, Goochland Co. Deed Bk. 5, p.243.
[7] Don Taylor, “Marriage Bond – Thomas Pankey & Martha Cannon,” Don Taylor Genealogy, June 2022, http://dontaylorgenealogy.com/2022/06/marrage-bond-thomas-pankey-martha-cannon./
[8] Don Taylor, “Census Fact vs. Residence Fact – Caroline M. A. Pankey Howell (1811-?),” Don Taylor Genealogy, March 2015, citing 1810 Y.S. Federal Census, Cumberland, Virginia, Roll 68, p. 143, http://dontaylorgenealogy,com/2015/03-census-fact-vs-residence-fact-caroline/.
[9]Genealogy Trails, “Goochland County, Virginia Land Patents, Book 15,” https://genealogytrails.com/vir/goochland/land_patent_bk15.html, accessed June 2026.
[10]FamilySearch, “Goochland County, Virginia Genealogy,” https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Goochland_County,_Virginia_Genealogy, accessed June 2026.
[11] Don Taylor, “Pankey – Surname Saturday.” Don Taylor Genealogy, July 2020. https://dontaylorgenealogy.com/2020/07/pankey-surname-saturday/.
[12]Don Taylor, “Marriage Bond – Thomas Pankey & Martha Cannon,” Don Taylor Genealogy, June 2022, https://dontaylorgenealogy.com/2022/06/marriage-bond-thomas-pankey-martha-cannon/.
