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Archiver > PIATT > 2001-11 > 1006326032


From: John Keilch <>
Subject: William Peepyat [Piatt] -- Hampshire County, VA
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2001 23:00:32 -0800


HAPPY THANKSGIVING

(1) Piatts, Pyatts, Pyeatts, and Peyatts everywhere, as well as other
descendants of Rene Piat, may want to give thanks that one of the
most unusual spellings of the surname did not endure -- Peepyat.

In its list of land grants in Hampshire County, VA, Sims Index to
Land Grants in West Virginia shows the following entry:

NAME OF GRANTEE / ACRES / LOCAL DESCRIPTION / YEAR / BOOK / PAGE

-->> Peepyat, William / 50 / Mill Creek / 1796 / 9 / 119

Source: http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvminera/sims29.htm

Maybe the recorder misheard a name that was really William P. Piatt.
Or maybe Peepyat was some sort of nickname. Or maybe someone in the
transaction had a stutter. In any case, once it had been entered in
the record books, the Peepyat spelling was repeated several times by
the recorder(s) in records pertaining to this land grant.

William Peepyat's 50-acre tract was surveyed in 1794 and the grant
was issued in 1796. The record of the survey conducted by John
Mitchell Jr. reads in part,
"December 2nd, 1794. By virtue of part of a land office Treasury
Warrant No. 415 dated April 28th, 1794, and entered August 6th, 1794,
I have surveyed for William Peepyat assignee of William Fox a tract
of land in Hampshire County on the middle ridge adjoining Thomas
Lazenby on the drains of Mill Creek. . . ."

This William Peepyat survey document was witnessed by Cornelius Peepyat
and Wm. Lazenby. A summary and scanned images of the survey record
can be viewed at the following Web pages:
http://eagle.vsla.edu/cgi-bin/lonn.gateway?bib=0145-03160&conf=010000
http://image.vtls.com/LONN/NN-1/315/315_0289.tif - [begins]
http://image.vtls.com/LONN/NN-1/315/315_0290.tif - [continues]

The record of the 1796 grant issued to William Peepyat by Robert
Brooke, Esquire, Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, can be
viewed at the following Web page:
http://image.vtls.com/LONN/NN-3/303/303_0524.tif

William Peepyat's survey is mentioned again in an adjoining 1795
survey and 1799 land grant issued to Frederick Finks (Fink).
http://eagle.vsla.edu/cgi-bin/lonn.gateway?bib=0138-65460&conf=010000
http://image.vtls.com/LONN/NN-1/315/315_0499.tif - [survey]
http://image.vtls.com/LONN/NN-3/304/304_0050.tif - [grant]

Immediately following the Finks survey (on page 499) is the record
for a 1795 survey for William Fox, presumably the same man who
had assigned William Peepyat his Mill Creek tract.

Study of the land descriptions in these documents might disclose
the physical configuration of the parcels of William Peepyat and
his neighbors. To conduct additional online search of Virginia
Land Office Patents and Grants, go to the following Web page:
http://eagle.vsla.edu/lonn/virtua-basic.html

-----

(2) William Peepyat was apparently William Piatt, who appeared on the
tax records of Hampshire County from 1797 through 1813 as William
Peyatt, Peayatt, and Peatt. William Peatt appeared on the 1810
Hampshire County census, page 24. In that census record he apparently
lived with his (first?) wife, whose name is unknown, and three children
less than 10 years old. (The son was Benjamin F. Piatt, born 1808, who
later married Ann Carter. The daughters were Mary Elizabeth Piatt,
born about 1805, who later married John C. Ward, and perhaps Rachel
Piatt, who married George Bowman in 1827.) Subsequently, William Piatt
and his wife (or wives) apparently had 12 or 13 more children. His
widow appeared on the 1850 census for Nicholas County, VA, as Margaret
Piatt, age 58; if Margaret's age was correct, she was on the verge of
being too young to have borne William's oldest children.

(In 1814 in Augusta County, VA, a William Peatt married Mary Smith,
the daughter of Martin Smith, and in 1815 William Peat was listed on
the Augusta County tax records. Piatt genealogists have supposed that
this was William of Hampshire County marrying Mary as his second wife.
However, this conclusion has not yet been proven. The only real
evidence for this supposition is the 1864 Mason County WV marriage
record of John S. Piatt, born about 1841, who supposedly said his
parents were "William and Mary". However, at the age of 8 this same
John had appeared on the 1850 census of Nicholas County, VA, with his
mother, Margaret Piatt (recorded as Poatte). (See page 384a, lines 5-9,
family number 573, at the following Web page:
ftp://ftp.us-census.org/pub/usgenweb/census/wv/nicholas/1850/pg0382b.txt
I wonder if an inspection of John's original marriage record might
disclose that his parents were actually identified as "William and Marg".)

(An alternative possible identity for the William who married in 1814
is William Piatt/Pyatt the basketmaker, who was born about 1790 in VA,
migrated to Ohio prior to 1820, and later lived in IN, TN, and MO.
This William's first child Benjamin is said to have been born about
1813. This William's first wife has been thought to have been
Catherine Glass, but without any confirming evidence, as far as I know.
Is it possible that the 1814 William and Mary moved to Ohio, perhaps
with relatives, while the older William remained in Hampshire County?)

-----

(3) William Peepyat/Piatt who received the Hampshire County land grant
was born about 1770-1775, probably in Hunterdon County, New Jersey.
The identity of William's parents is uncertain.

William was undoubtedly related to Cornelius Piatt, who had acquired 50
acres of land on Beaver Run in Hampshire County in 1792 and who witnessed
the 1794 Peepyat survey. In the Hampshire County tax records for 1795
and 1796, two males over 16 were listed in Cornelius's household; one
of them was presumably William Peepyat. Only one male over 16 had been
charged to Cornelius in 1792 and 1794, and once William started appearing
on the tax list in 1797, Cornelius again was charged with only one male
over 16 in 1797 and 1798.

How was William related to Cornelius? He might have been a son, in
which case the unidentified female over 45 in Williams's household
in 1810 might have been his widowed mother. But alternatively, William
could have been brother, cousin, or nephew to Cornelius. It is possible
that William's father was James Piatt, born before 1765, who was listed
near William on the 1810 Hampshire County census, page 23 (recorded as
James Peate, and sometimes transcribed at James Peale).

I believe Piatt genealogists have studied the surviving tax records
of Hampshire County. But there are land records for Hampshire County
that have not been thoroughly researched. Further research in these
records might disclose more about the relationships of William,
Cornelius, and James.


-- John F. Keilch
Berkeley, California

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