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Note: Isobel Madsen NOTES: Prior to 1740, he had a shoe factory and leather treating business, both small but profitable. In 1740, Daniel sold land in Kent County to his brother John Shawhan and moved to Frederick County, Maryland. He served in the French and Indian Wars in 1748 as a corporal in Captain Stephen Ransberger's Company, Maryland, Colonial Militia (see D.A.C. Lineage Book, Vol. 6, page 340, No. 5984, Nell Downing Norton; also Maryland Historical Magazine, Vol. 9 (1914), No. 4/354.).
In 1756 Daniel and his daughter Margaret Shawhan received (reason unknown) a small legacy from the estate of Edward Beatty of Frederick County, Maryland, Bk, 1/26. Daniel and his family remained in Frederick County until 1759 when he sold his horses and cattle to one Samuel Beall (D.B. F/248) and pushed into the wilderness of Hampshire County, Virginia, where it is believed he died in or after 1770 or 1779. In November 13, 1770, he signed a deed to his son Darby Shawhan of Hampshire County, Va., to which he signed his name Shaughen, the old spelling (see Hamp. Co. Va. D.D. 2/203). {Madsen, pp. 8-9}
Birth Date: 1709 Birth Place: Kent Co., Maryland Death Date: 1770 Death Place: Hampshire Co., VA Occupation: Shoemaker
Notes: The oldest son of Darby and Sarah, Daniel, a cordwainer (shoemaker and worker in leather) sold Shad's Hole to his brother, John, in 1740 and left the Eastern Shore for Frederick County. Daniel and his wife, Jennet, settled about seven miles from Frederick. Daniel served in the French and Indian War in 1748 and moved in 1759 to the vicinity of Romney in Hampshire Co., Virginia (West Virginia). Daniel and Jennet are ancestors of the Kentucky and Ohio Shawhans. Daniel, son of Daniel and Jennet, was a pioneer of Bourbon County, Kentucky. Darby, the youngest son of Daniel and Jennet, pioneered in Warren County, Ohio.
The Daniel branches of the family have been researched and summarized by several descendents including Wm. G. Hills of Chevy Chase, MD in 1939, Marie Perrin Lemley, a genealogist in Los Angeles, California, Violet Romer Shawhan of Oakland, California, Nell Downing Norton of New London, Missouri in 1944, Isobel Chandler Madsen of Geneva, Ohio in 1962, Kenneth G. Lindsay of Evansville, Indiana in 1964, and Ron T. Shawhan of New Jersey in 1983.
Residence: 1709. Kent Co., Md. 1740. Moved to Frederick Co., Maryland. 1748. Served in French and Indian War. 1759. Moved to Hampshire Co., Virginia.
Research: 7 Jan 1736. Name of Daniel Shawhan on bond of John Gleaves, administrator for Sarah Gleaves. (Hills, p. 129)
Name of Daniel Shawhan on the bond of Robert Meeks.
25 Nov 1728. Daniel Shawhan witness to will of William Huddlestone, Kent Co., Md.
1740. Daniel sells land in Kent Co. to his brother, John.
1748. Daniel served as a Corporal in Capt. Stephen Ransberger's Co., Maryland Colonial Militia during the French and Indian Wars in 1748.
1756. Daniel and daughter, Margaret, received small inheritance from the estate of Edward Beatty of Frederick Co., Md.
1759. Daniel sold his horses and cattle to Samuel Beall of Frederick Co., Md.
13 Nov. 1770. Daniel signed a deed to his son, Darby of Hampshire Co., VA.
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Note: Daniel was raised on his father Darby's farm, known as "Darby's Desire", a 100 acre plot of land that Darby had purchased in 1709 from a tract called "Shad's Hole", owned by Francis Bellows. He learned the business of farming, particularly that of tobacco which was the primary staple at the time in Kent Co., Maryland. He also learned the trade of a cordwainer/tanner -- i.e. one skilled in the leather business. Typical of the period, this included making shoes, belts, clothing, saddlewear, and even fire buckets. Daniel was 27 years old when his parents died in 1736; a bequest from his father's will included "unto my beloved son Daniel Shawrn one long gunn and no more." Daniel was the Administrator of his father's estate.Debt records also show that Daniel was responsible for 50 acres of the land formerly held by his father Darby, in the tract known as "Shad's Hole". How he came into possession of this is not known, but it's suspected that he acquired it from his brother, David, who had received it as part of his inheritance from their father Darby's estate. By November 25, 1728, he was well thought of, enough to witness Daniel Huddleston's will. In 1736 he was the bondsman for John Gleaves, administrator of Sarah Gleaves' estate in Kent County. He also was a bondsman for Robert Meeks, a possible relation of Daniel's mother, who was born Sarah Meeks.As a farmer and tanner, Daniel made a modest living, but it wasn't enough for him to stay in Kent County where he saw the soil becoming leached from the tobacco crops, and opportunities limited for his growing family. On October 14, 1740 he and his wife, Jennett,sold his land, part of a tract called "Shad's Hole",previously received from his father Darby's estate, to his brother "John Shawhawn", and migrated west with their two children, Margaret and Daniel, to the Appalachian section ofMaryland, considered to be the extreme western part of Baltimore County, where he settled about 7 miles west of Frederick, near Jefferson and Catoctin. This section of Maryland was formed into Frederick Co., MD in 1748. The "History of Frederick County, Maryland", by T. J. Williams, pub. 1910, identifies Jefferson as being the community in which the "Shawens" were early settlers. Daniel and Jennett's last four children, David, Darby, Sarah, and Mary, were born in Frederick County. For years, French trappers and traders had lived among the Indians; they spoke their languages and supplied them with the tools and weapons they needed, and they didn't cut down the forests like the English did. As the Indians saw more English move westward into settlements, they grew increasingly alarmed, and. supported by the French, they often raided the thinly settled regions, including western Maryland. The setters formed militia groups to defend themselves. In 1748 Daniel served as a Corporal in Capt. Stephen Ransberger's Company of the Maryland Colonial Militia in defense against the French-led Indian raids which often hit that section of the frontier. He was also there in 1755 when General Braddock's troops passed through, using "Ye Ferry of Shann" over the Opeckon River, on their way to attack the French at Ft. Duquesne (present Pittsburgh); he also saw the bloodied remnants return, after their terrible defeat at the hands of the French and their Indian allies who fought from cover and ambush and not in the massed, closed-ranks, open style that the British troops used. Braddock was killed and it was only through the efforts of a young colonial officer, Colonel George Washington, that more were not lost. Frederick Co. records show that Daniel, on April 9, 1756, received 2 pounds, 14 shillings from the estate of Edward Beatty; his daughter Margaret received 7 shillings from the same estate.Daniel remained in Frederick Co., until 1759 when he sold horses and cattle to one Samuel Beall and pushed further west into the wilderness of Hampshire Co., VA/WV, near Romney. It took considerable courage for Daniel and his family to make their way westward, as that frontier was still subject to Indian raids spurred on by the French who wanted to do everything possible to keep the English east of the Appalachian Mountains. These pioneers became a breed among themselves -- stern, violent, and clannish, but brave, upright, and wildly independent. The year 1758 had seen the British finally push the French and their Indian allies out of Ft. Duquesne, renamed it Fort Pitt, and thus offered the opportunity for brave men to venture westward, despite the dangers offered by the Indians under Pontiac and other warlike chieftains. Daniel and his family soon had land cleared of stumps, had sowed rye and other seed brought with them from Maryland, and had planted a crop of Indian corn. Trees were hewn into timber for the building of a cabin and other buildings, which may have included a stillhouse to turn grain into whiskey, a most popular and profitable product of the settlers. The Shawhans may have become distillers through necessity, but they knew a good thing when they saw it, and the name of Shawhan whiskey was to become well-known from these early times into the Twentieth Century. It's believed that Daniel died in the early 1770s, shortly after, on November 13, 1770, he transferred a deed to his son Darby, stating "I Daniel Shaughen, Sr. of Hampshire Co. and colony of Virginia, shoemaker, .. leave unto Darby Shaughen, my beloved son, .. etc.". (Deed Book 2, page 203, Hampshire Co., VA).
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