John Holloway, Jr., of Morgan Co., TN

John Holloway Jr. (1759–1837), who married Rebecca Cavett. John Jr. and Rebecca settled in Morgan Co., TN. John Jr. served as a soldier in the Revolutionary War, enlisting in Jonesborough, Washington County. John Jr. stated in his pension application that he moved to Henry Co., VA at about age 10, thus in about 1769. This information secures the identity of John Jr. as the son of John Holloway Sr. of Pittsylvania/Henry Cos., VA and Washington and Sullivan Cos., NC/TN.

John Holloway Jr., son of John Sr. and Elizabeth MNU, applied for a Revolutionary War pension in Morgan Co., TN on 20 Nov. 1832, NARA #W271. He gave his age as 73, thus placing his birth to about 1759. According to his pension application, he was drafted in what is now east Tennessee, marching from near Jonesborough, Washington County. His military service involved fighting Indians on the frontier. (He seems not to have been the John Holloway who fought at the Battle of Kings Mountain, making no mention of the battle in his application.) John said he was born in Virginia, near Richmond, Henrico County, unable to remember the exact county, and that he was carried to Henry Co., VA when he was about 10, and then later to Tennessee, where he lived during his service to the Revolution. He returned to Henry Co., VA for one year after the war and then moved back to east Tennessee, where he lived for five years, close to Moccasin Gap. John then moved to Roane Co., TN, the part that became Morgan County. John H. Hood and Thomas M. Cox provided affidavits on behalf of his pension application.

John Jr. made three claims in his military pension application that help connect him to his father. First, his pension application states: "He was born near Richmond Virginia he does not know what County, was carried to Henry County Virginia at about ten years old…" John Jr., born about 1759, claimed to have moved to Henry Co., VA when he was about 10, that is, in about 1769. Note that Henry County was formed out of Pittsylvania County in 1777, meaning that young John was not literally taken to Henry County at 10, but rather, he was taken in about 1769 to the part of Pittsylvania County that became Henry County in 1777. This fits perfectly for him to have been a son of John Sr., who began appearing in Pittsylvania/Henry Co., VA in a court record of Jan. 1770. John Sr. filed suit at the time against someone who owed him money, implying that he had been in the county for at least several months before then, thus arriving in the county sometime by at least 1769.

Second, John Jr.'s pension application indicates that he "was carried to Henry County Virginia at about ten years old and sometime thereafter to where it is now Tennessee State where he lived during the time of service in the revolution," and further, "He entered the service of the United States against the common enemy of his country in the revolutionary war, he was drafted in the part of the world that is now East Tennessee, " and that "He marched off from near where is now Jonesboro in East Tennessee." John Jr. claimed not only that his parents took him as a child to Henry Co., VA but that he subsequently moved with his family to east Tennessee such that he was drafted and mustered into the military in Jonesborough, Washington County. Again, what John Jr. says in his pension application is a perfect fit with facts concerning his father, both as to the timing of the family's location in Pittsylvania/Henry Co., VA and in Jonesborough, Washington Co., NC/TN. John Holloway Sr. appears in records of Pittsylvania/Henry Co., VA during the 1770s in close association with his apparent brother Charles Holloway, and then John Sr. was administrator of the estate of Capt. Charles Holloway in Jonesborough, Washington Co., NC/TN in 1783. John Sr. had first begun to appear in records of Jonesborough in 1778, about the time that John Jr. claimed to have been mustered into the military in Jonesborough.

Third, John Jr.'s pension application indicates that at some point after the war, he went to live in Henry Co., VA for one year, after which he returned to east Tennessee, where he lived for five years, his home there near Moccasin Gap. Moccasin Gap is in Virginia, just north of Sullivan Co., TN. Again, this is a perfect fit with proven details concerning John Jr.'s father. In 1787, John Sr. patented 50 acres adjoining William Tredway on the North Fork of the Holston River in Sullivan County. John Holloway Sr. had been a neighbor of William Tredway in Pittsylvania/Henry Co., VA during the 1770s, and then became a neighbor of his again in Sullivan Co., TN during the 1780s and 90s. In 1792, John Holloway sold 50 acres in Sullivan County. He was described in the deed as of Washington County, proving that the same John Holloway was in both Washington and adjoining Sullivan County. In 1784, William Tredway had patented 300 acres on the North Fork of the Holston River, his property described in the patent as extending to the Virginia state line. John Holloway Jr. stated in his military pension application that his home in Tennessee was near Moccasin Gap, VA, which was just across the state line from his next-door neighbor's property. The Holloway property in Sullivan Co., TN was closer to Moccasin Gap, VA than to Kingsport, the seat of Sullivan County, explaining why John Jr. described his home in east Tennessee as near Moccasin Gap, VA.

Because John Holloway of Morgan County claimed for himself personal facts that are readily apparent through documents for John Holloway Jr. of Sullivan County, it is obvious that these two were one and the same person. As the son of John Holloway Sr., John Jr. moved with his parents to Pittsylvania/Henry Co., VA in about 1769, then moved to Cherokee Creek near Jonesborough, Washington Co., NC/TN in about 1778, where John Jr. was drafted into the Revolutionary War, and then moved with his parents to the North Fork of the Holston River in Sullivan County, where their home was close to Moccasin Gap, VA. "John Holloway Junr." first appears on record 1 Dec. 1795, selling 200 acres in Sullivan County that his father "John Holloway Sr." had patented the year before. When John Holloway of Morgan Co., TN claimed in his military pension application that he moved with his parents at age 10 to Henry Co., VA, that he was drafted in Jonesborough, Washington County, and that he lived in east Tennessee after the war near Moccasin Gap, he was effectively claiming to have been the John Holloway Jr. of Sullivan County, son of John Holloway Sr. of Pittsylvania/Henry Co., VA and Washington and Sullivan Cos., TN. Contrary to many online family trees, John Jr. was not the son of Squire James Holloway. No evidence for a Squire James Holloway in period documents has been found in Virginia or Tennessee.

Rebecca Holloway (maiden name Cavett), widow of John Jr., applied for a widow's pension under her husband's military service in Morgan County on 6 Oct. 1838 (NARA #FN80NC). She gave her age as 70, thus born about 1768. She stated that she and John were married on 17 Mar. 1790 and that he died on 4 Apr. 1837. She gave additional testimony on 30 Apr. 1839, correcting dates of birth for her children that had been given incorrectly in a family Bible. The partial listing of children she gave included: Joseph, born 17 Mar. 1795; William, born 15 Jun. 1798; Kessiah, born 24 May 1801; Rachel, born 24 Jan. 1804; and Claborn, born 25 Feb. 1807. On 20 Aug. 1839, Rebecca described her two eldest children as: Nancy, married Matthew Griffy and that they lived in Marion Co., TN; and Elizabeth, married Elisha Hood, died 15 years earlier in the part of Overton Co., TN that became Fentress County. Rebecca died on 17 Mar. 1850. She and John lived near Sunbright, Morgan County.