Peter's Lawrence County, KY Years

Old Peter Skaggs stops showing up in Virginia records in 1811.  Apparently at that point he moves on to Kentucky, specifically Floyd County.  A large part of eastern Kentucky was known as Floyd County then, later in 1822 Lawrence County was created from Floyd.  Our evidence of Peter Skaggs in Kentucky is from present-day Lawrence County, specifically Blaine Creek.

Jailbird!

Well, we know from the personal property tax records that Peter Scaggs was in Russell County, VA from 1796-1803 and in Tazewell County, VA from 1807-1810.  Where was he from 1804-06?  In the Russell County jail.

Peter's Tazewell County, Virginia Years

Peter Skaggs appeared in the personal property tax lists of Tazewell County, Virginia in the following years:

1807

1808

1809

1810

Peter's Russell County, Virginia Years

Peter Scaggs is found in the Russell County, Virginia personal property tax lists for the following years:
1796
1797
1798
1799
The 1800 tax list is missing
1801
1802
1803

Peter's Montgomery County, Virginia Years

Peter Scaggs was married in Montgomery County, Virginia in 1788.  To my knowledge, that is the first historical record of Peter.  But there are other subsequent records of him in Montgomery County:

1788 Tax List
December 19, 1788, List A, Peter Skeggs a white male 21+, 2 horses, mares, colts or mules

1789 Tax List
1789 Peter Skeggs, 0-0-0 Personal Property Tax List "C" for Montgomery 
County VA, March 1, 1789
® "Montgomery County Virginia Circa 1790" pg. 41 by Netti Schreiner-Yantis

1790 Tax List
1790 Mar. 1, List C, Peter Scaggs located, Peak River, Dunkard Bottom, south side of Little River, New River head of Strouds Branch. Peter Skeggs was taxed March 8, 1790, no males between 16-21, no slaves, and no livestock in the area of both sides of Little River, Dry Branch, Sugar Run, South Fork and West Fork of Little River, Meadow and Mill Creeks, Dunkard Bottom or Mahanaim.

1792 Tax List
September 29, 1792, List B, Peter Skaggs a white male 21+, no horses, mares, colts or mules

Children of Peter and Martha

There has been some confusion about who Old Peter Scaggs' children were.  I believe this is because Peter's brother Solomon and Solomon's wife died close together in time and Peter and Martha took charge of his brother's orphaned children.  These orphans get confused with Peter's own children.

Peter's Marriage to Martha

We have a record of Peter Scaggs' marriage bond to Martha Cohun (Cothin, Cathon, etc. depending on how you read the handwriting) with the marriage dated June 24, 1788.  That marriage record is still mysterious to this day: Who did Peter marry?  Why didn't any apparently close relatives post surety or witness?

Peter's birth

I am unaware of any direct evidence of Peter's birth, e.g. church record.  The only evidence we have that indicates his age is from decades later.  Of course Peter may not have known when he was born or his exact age; this was not uncommon in those days.  This lack of birth information means there is a lot of speculation about his birth date with many different dates listed.  However we do have relevant US census records from Kentucky for the 1820, 1830 and 1840 census that provide us some clues:

Why start this blog?

I have a family genealogy that contains a Scaggs line that goes back to Peter Skaggs, then stops.  I was interested in extending this genealogy and looked to the internet, however, no luck.  Many other families have this problem as well; their lines stop at Peter Skaggs.  Who was this guy and why doesn't anyone have reliable documentation of where he came from?  It's the 21st century for crying out loud.

Peter Skaggs (a.k.a. Scaggs, Skeggs, Skegg) lived in the latter half of the 18th century and early half of the 19th century in Virginia and Kentucky.  He first turns up in Montgomery County, Virginia in the 1780s, shows up later in Russell County, Virginia and finally in what is now Lawrence County, Kentucky in the early 1800s until his death in 1841 at 80+ years old.  However, there is no indication of where or when he was born, who his parents were or who his wife's parents were.  It's a mystery that many researchers have spent many years trying to unravel.  I created this site to give researchers, family members and other interested parties a single point of contact on the internet to share information, stories and thinking about the origins, life and times of Peter Skaggs.  Please feel free to comment and contribute.