Marriage Bond of James Swagerty, Sr. and Delilah Meek, signed in
Greene County, Tennessee, August 30, 1796

                   James Swagerty and Delilah Meek
                          Cocke County, Tennessee

                                                     by Iris Teta Eubank Wagner
James Swagerty was born in Fermanagh Township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, September 12, 1773.  He was the son of FREDERICK SWAGERTY and, as yet, unidentified mother.   Research to identify the name of James's mother,  FREDERICK SWAGERTY'S LAND RECORDS IN FERMANAGH TOWNSHIP suggest close ties to the Gallagher family of Cumberland County, who  lived in Fermanagh Township continuously from 1762/63 until 1781/83.

Delilah Meek was born on April 5, 1773, the daughter of Jacob and Mary Meek.

Children of James and Delilah were first born twins Polly and Sally, April 20, 1798. 
Polly and David Harned were married February 22, 1827.  Twin sister Sally married Job Parrott.  They lived in Cocke County. 

The second birth was James's and Delilah's eldest son, usually referred to in later Cocke County records as JAMES  SWAGERTY, JR.  He was born July 14, 1800.

James Swagerty, Sr.'s father FREDERICK SWAGERTY, born 1727 in Rheinhessen, Germany, was still living during the time the first four children were born.   It is likely that both Frederick and James and family were living in the SWAGERTY HOUSE AT CLEAR CREEK  in Cocke County during this time.

Through the next fourteen years seven children were born to James and Delilah :  Aseneth, who was known as "Amelia," April 9, 1802.   She married Jacob Parrott.  They lived in Cocke County.

Vicinity, known as "Cynthia," was born March 20, 1805.
Harvey, born March 13, 1807.  He married Lucy Ann Scott Wayne, October 7, 1834. They lived near Knoxville, Tennessee and for a time at the family farm on Clear Creek
Delilah E., often referred to as "Selina," was born July 14, 1809. She married Charles Smith  Sept. 17, 1829. They lived in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Lindon B., also known as   "Malinda," was born November 28, 1811.  She married George W. Pierce in 1835 in east Tennessee.   They moved to Bates County, Missouri, sometime after 1839.
Grandison F., as a grandson was named for his grandfather Frederick. Grandison F. was born January 17, 1814.  He married  Nancy Denman in  Georgia in 1839.  He lived in Georgia, and Pulaski County, Arkansas.
                                                                                                                                         
            Swagerty Family Bible (excerpt)                             Edith was born November 3, 1816.
                                                                                                                 She  married Lorenzo Dow Wyatt Swagerty Family Bible, kept by James and Delilah Swagerty.                                                in the late 1830's.  They lived in
Published in Tennessee Ancestors, August 1986, Vol. 2, p 126-127.(see                       Gordon  County, Georgia.
details below in Sources) 
                                                                       ____________________

Manufacturers Schedule, 1820, Cocke County, Tennessee

The 1820 Manufacturers Schedule is the single surviving early census of Cocke County prior to the
U. S. Census of 1830.

                                                                      
                                                                      ___________________         

Land where he lived - James Swagerty's home tract from Survey Book "A"
In Tennessee in the 1820's land warrants began to be entered and surveys done in the individual counties where the land was located, rather than  entered as previously in surveyors' districts.  
Survey Book "A"  is the earliest survey book known to exist for Cocke County. 

Survey Book "A" - Cocke County, Tennessee 1822 - 1854
Transcription by A. R. Mews(?) and Heber Parrott (?)
*This Abraham Swagerty is a son of Frederick's son John Swagerty, mentioned in the survey document above.
Harvey Swagerty is James Swagerty, Senr.'s second eldest son.

Frederick Swagerty's Land Grant for his initial 100 acres,
 listed on the 1783 Greene County Tax List
(below) Reproduction, in part, of the Original Land Grant
This is where James, Sr. lived in the Swagerty house at the Clear Creek settlement.
This tract was entered on February 5, 1780
The tract was surveyed by Abraham Swagerty December 4, 1792
The State of North Carolina issued the Land Grant (below) on February 23, 1793

Additional surveys for James Swagerty from Survey Book "A"

On March 14, 1826, Cocke County Surveyor Jonathan Wood surveyed 20 acres for James Swagerty, Sr., extending his old lines along Clear Creek.  Adjacent neighbors were Lona Chapman and Robert Smith.   Chain carriers were brother JOHN SWAGERTY's son, ABRAHAM SWAGERTY, and HARVEY SWAGERTY, James, Sr.'s second eldest son.

The next day, March 15, 136 acres were surveyed at Clear Creek for James, Sr.   Adjacent land owners were his brother John Swagerty, the Fowler family, the Faubions, the Grants.  Chain carriers were son in law JACOB PARROTT (married  AMELIA SWAGERTY), and  Harvey.

The following day March 16 Wood surveyed 150 acres for James, Sr. on nearby Oven Creek.  Chain carriers the same.  An additional 50 acres were surveyed on Oven Creek the same day, with Harvey and Abraham  carriers.

With James's earlier survey of 114 acres in 1824, together with these four surveys, brings his total acreage to 470 acres .  Later surveys may have been lost in the county courthouse fire of 1876.

1830 Census Entry for James Swagerty, Sr, Cocke County, Tennessee
From the time his family settled in the North Carolina over mountain country when James was age ten, he lived his entire life on the homestead along Clear Creek. 

 - to continue -

Original Narrative and website © copyright Iris Teta Eubank Wagner 2010-2011

Sources of proof for the Swagerty narratives and genealogies
James and Delilah Meek Swagerty, The Swagerty Bible, published in Tennessee Ancestors, August 1986, Vol 2, p126-127.  The Bible record was submitted for publication by Mrs. Violet K. Wolfe of Monroe County, Tennessee.  The Bible was owned in 1986 by Mrs. Grace Reid Wear Kirkpatrick of Madisonville, Tennessee, descendant of Susannah Swagerty Johnson, daughter of James Swagerty, Jr. and Nancy Clark Swagerty.

James G. M. Ramsey, Annals of Tennesse ; Originally Printed in 1853 for J.G.M. Ramsey, MD, by Walker and Jones, Charleston, South Carolina.  Reprinted 1967 with the addition of a biographical introduction, annotations and index for the East Tennessee Historical Society, Knoxville, Tennessee.  Reprinted 1999 by the Overmountain Press.

Greene County, North Carolina, Marriage Bonds, Greene County Courthouse, Greene County, Tennessee, James Swagerty to Delilah Meek, August 30, 1796.

www.seviercountylibrary.org/genealogy/cockeco/ccsurvey.htm  Cocke County, Tennessee, Survey Book "A" 1822 - 1854, W. P. A. Transcription by A. R. Mews [?] and Heber[?] Parrott.  Typed by Agnes Mattux and Willis Hutcherson. 

   Fanny Swagerty Eubank and son James Eubank, 1940 photos of the Swagerty log house.

   Annice Graddon Eberle, Swagerty Family File, Stokely Memorial Library, Newport, Tennessee.

   Marguerite White Williams, 1958 photos of the Swagerty log house.

Thomas Perkins Abernethy, From Frontier to Plantation in Tennessee : A Study in Frontier Democracy, Chapter: Jackson, Blount, and Sevier, Southern Historical Publications No.12, University of Alabama Press, 1967, p173.

Irene M. Griffey, Earliest Tennessee Land Records & Earliest Tennessee Land History, Clearfield Company, Inc., reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, 2003, pp384, 385.

Dr. G. L. Ridenhour, Land of the Lake : A History of Campbell County, Tennessee, LaFollette Publishing Company, Inc., LaFollette, Tennessee, Copyright 1941 by Dr. G.L. Ridenhour,  p8.

The National Register of Historic Places - Tennessee, Swaggerty Blockhouse - also known as the Swaggerty Fort,  Building # 73001756.

David F. Mann, The Dendroarchaeology of the Swaggerty Blockhouse, Cocke County, Tennessee : A Thesis Presented for the Master of Science Degree, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2002.

East Tennessee Historical Society, First Families of Tennessee : A Register of Early Settlers and Their Present-Day Descendants, copyright 2000, East Tennessee Historical Society

Tennessee State Land Records, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Microfilm Collection #1177, Chuck Sherrill,  State Historian, Director.

Pollyanna Creekmore, Early East Tennessee Tax Payers,  (Greene County 1783, Cocke County 1839, Map of Cocke County 1832, Bill for Creation of Washington County), Southern Historical Press, Easley, South Carolina, reprint edition 1988.

www.progenealogists.com  The Palatine Project.  Pennsylvania. The Ships' Lists of men who took the Oath of Allegiance and became Naturalized Members of the Colony of Pennsylvania.  Using sources such as books by Burgert, Yoder, and Hacker, some family members of the men, and where the family had originated, are listed.

Bridgett Schneider, online copyright, 1996-2008, List of Taxables in Captain Samuel Gragg's Company for 1796, Greene County, Tennessee, Genealogy, Early Tax Lists.

Sarah Sweigert O'Haver, family information from Bible and papers  given Mrs.O'Haver by her father Frederick Swagerty. (Sarah and Joseph O'Haver moved their family from Cocke County, Tennessee to Greene County, Indiana before 1820. ) 

  Pennsylvania Department of Internal Affairs, Harrisburg, original surveys.   The Pennsylvania
  Archives, Harrisburg. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission website. Digital Documents,

  Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Pennsylvania State Archives, Digital Documents,
  including Land Records (East Side Applications, Westside Applications, Warrant Register,
  Patentee Register), Westside Application Register, April 1767, John Ross entry #3413;
  Frederick Sweikert entry #3414.

  Silas Wright, History of Perry County, in Pennsylvania, from the Earliest Settlement to the Present
  Time, Millerstown, 1872, Wylie & Griest, Printers, Bookbinders and Stereotypers, 1873.

  Ralph Beaver Strassburger and William John Hinke, Pennsylvania German Pioneers, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2
  (the signature edition, p466) of the Ships' Lists, Pennsylvania German Society, 1934.

 William Henry Egle, Pennsylvania State Library, Notes and Queries of Pennsylvania: Historical and Biographical, Harrisburg Publishing Company, 1898 (Original from the University of Michigan), Digitized July 14, 2006, by Google Books. 

Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking, The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy, Third Edition, Ancestry Publishing, 2006.

 John Joseph Henry, Journal of the Campaign Against Quebec, originally titled An Accurate and Interesting Account of the Hardships and Sufferings of That Band of Heroes, Who Traversed the Wilderness in the Campaign Against Quebec in 1775, pp52-192 at www.footnote.com