195. Ninian[9] Riley (Eliphaz, 239) (A426). Born, 18 Mar 1725/6, in Montgomery

Co., MD. Died, 1814, in Fayette Co., KY. Extra 4: 1758, in Prince George P.,

Frederick Co., MD. Census: 1778, in Montgomery Co., MD. Census: 1786, in

Wright's Dist., Surry Co., NC, 1790. Census: 1810, in Fayette Co., KY.

Occupation: Bap.Min.,Farmer.

A.R. Ritchie in Casstevens (1981): "Ninian Riley, Sr. performed patriotic service in the Revolutionary War. He signed the Oath of Fidelity and Allegiance to the State of Maryland. His was the eighth name on Samuel McGruder's return. Ninian was Warden of St. Paul's Parish, Rock Creek Church (now in Washington, D.C.) for the years 1763 through 1767, and 1772. Three of his children were baptized there....In the Colonial Wars of 1748, at the age of 22 years, Ninian was a member of Captain George Beale's Company. This company was comprised of George Beale's cousins...Since Ninian Riley was a Whig, a prominent man and a holder of landed estates, as well as a Warden in the Rock Creek Episcopal Church, he suffered much criticism from his Tory neighbors for his loyalty to the Patriots cause. He was converted to the Baptist faith by listening to Jerry Moore who preached through the bars of his jail cell. Ninian became a minister. At least two of his sons were also ordained ministers in the Baptist faith. It appears that harassment and religion were his reasons for leaving Maryland to settle in Surry County (now Yadkin) North Carolina, with his family.

"The first purchase of land by Ninian Riley, Sr. in Surry County, North Carolina, was issued, August 9, 1787, by Rich'd Caswell, Governor. 'Ninia Reylee Land Grant from the state of North carolina, 200 acres in county for 50 shillings every hundred acres.' There is another record of a 400-acre grant from North Carolina in 1789 for which Ninian paid 500 shillings for each one hundred acres....When Ninian was aged 71 years in 1797 he and his family and nine other North Carolina families migrated to Fayette County, Kentucky. They settled ten miles south of Lexington and seven miles north of the Kentucky River." )

O'Dell (1981): "The Baptist religion dominated the lives of the Rileys of Montgomery County. But the news seeping north from North Carolina resulted in the Rileys cutting their family ties with Montgomery County and heading down the Great Wagon Road to the South, through the Valley of Virginia. The year was 1784, only months after the close of the American Revolution.

"The large family traveled inside or alongside their horse-drawn wagons. It was fall, and they admired the reddening of the maples along the valley after crossing the Potomac at Watkins' Ferry, several miles south of Hagerstown, Maryland.

"Traveling south down the Shenandoah Valley they encountered many types of people with who they had had little contact during their lives in Montgomery. There were the poverty stricken who could not afford to purchase land in Pennsylvania or Jersey but who wanted land of their own. Others were skipping out on debts they could not pay back in the northern colonies. The there were those fleeing to escape punishment for some evil deed.

"As the Rileys moved southward, they met frontiersmen whose morality startled these church-going evangelical Baptists. The Rileys were aghast at the householders along the way who danced, drank beer and whiskey, played cards, used profanity, and ignored the Sabbath.

"But, also enroute, they found solace in other southbound travelers who were seeking new and respectable lives: Methodists, Moravians, Presbyterians, Quakers, and of course, other Baptists. Indeed, travellers along the Great Wagon Road were a motley crowd-- the religious, the immoral, the poor, the adventurous, the ambitious.

"The road was long and rough. In general, it followed old Indian trails, meandering along early paths not easily traversed by wagons. Only 1 or 12 years before the Rileys took off for North Carolina had the road become passable to wagon traffic. Until that time it was merely a foot path, gradually giving way to the wagon.

"The Rileys left Maryland in the fall because they had heard that the Road would be in better condition during that season of the year. The summer rains would have subsided, and through Virginia the counties appointed road 'overseers' or 'viewers' who were charged with keeping up the road at county expense. These 'overseers' were mostly farmers, and they assumed their road maintenance role in the fall after they had harvested their crops. Thus, travel in the autumn of the year was preferred.

"Even so, the road was almost impassable. When rains did come, the mud and flooding virtually halted all traffic. When Ninian Riley and his family arrived at Looney's Mill Creek (later Buchanan, Virginia they were greeted by a swollen river that required their using the ferry. Had it not recently rained, they could have forded the stream, but Ninian thought it prudent to take advantage of the ferry.

"Before embarking, Ninian's sons put blinders on the horses to limit their vision. The ferry was a flat-bottomed scow, less than 3 feet in length. It had a sloped end and railings to keep the horses and livestock from going overboard. The Rileys found the short trip to be exciting indeed, with the floodwaters rocking the ferry, flat-bottomed or not. One of their horses became overly nervous, and in its attempt to seek safety in the rocking boat, broke its leg.

"The Rileys slumbered at night either in their wagons or on the ground. On some nights they would seek permission from a farmer to sleep in his hay loft. Despite the rough life among the frontiersmen in the Valley, most people were willing to help the weary traveller. Farmers would sometimes provide a couple of beds or even meals for the family.

"When households along the road referred to their offerings as 'publick houses,' they were restricted by law to charge no more than the county permitted. Lodging for the night was no more than eight cents per person. Keeping a horse with a 'sufficiency of hay, fooder, or sheaf oats,' cost Ninian 35 cents. The charge for breakfast was 20 cents per person.

"With such a large family, Ninian did not stop at many public inns. Not only was the overnight cost high, but they found the facilities were not always acceptable. In one public house they had to wash at the watering trough in the stable yard. They slept four to a bed. Then, to add to their discomfort, raucous singing prevented their sleeping until the early morning hours. Better to depend on themselves, thought Ninian, rather than to receive little in the way of sleeping comfort.

"For the most part, the Riley caravan consisted of two-wheeled carts, which were much more maneuverable on the often narrow road. They were pulled by a single horse. In addition they had several pack horses plus some livestock.

"After three weeks the tired family approached Big Lick, Virginia (later Roanoke), where they ferried across the New River. Here the Great Wagon Road lost many of its travelers who took the Wilderness Road into Tennessee and Kentucky. But the Rileys were headed for North Carolina, and they were now no more than 6 miles from the Virginia-North Carolina boundary.

"Crossing the line into North Carolina a few days later they found themselves in Surry County. The land was beautiful, and a welcome sight to the travel-weary Ninian, his wife Elizabeth, their son Garrard, and other children.

"They continued on the Great Wagon Road for some 3 miles where they reached Shallowford, for many years an important traffic hub for Indians and early white settlers. During the Revolutionary War, all military traffic crossed the Yadkin River at Shallowford. Its attraction stemmed from the fact that during high water nearby fords would flood, but Shallowford would remain useable.

"The Rileys turned west at Shallowford, following the old Mulberry Fields and Salisbury Roads to the northwestern corner of Surry County. Here Ninian Riley arranged for the purchase of 400 acres of patent land from the State of North Carolina. The acreage was located on 'Buck Shoals Branch Waters' of Hunting Creek. He paid 200 shillings for the land."

"The Long-Lost 'Diary' of Nancy (Riley) Clarke", Yadkin Co. Hist. Soc. Jnl. v 6 (1987): "Some years after he had daughters and sons born to them, Ninian began to think seriously on the subject of religion. His parents were members of the Church of England, but Ninian had heard a Baptist preacher by the name of Jerry Moore preach one night and while he was preaching, some of the company threw rotten eggs over him, but he bore it all meekly and exhorted them to flee the wrath to come, to repent and believe the gospel. They caught him and put him in prison. He still preached in jail.

"Ninian was very fond of reading, had a good education, and now began to search the scriptures to see whether the doctrine that J. Moore had preached was true, as he could bear such abuse and not resent it, but prayed for them that had thrown the eggs on him, saying he rejoiced that he was counted worthy to suffer prosecution for the Lord Jesus. Ninian's mind became interested and, the more he read the scriptures, the more he felt condemned. He tried to keep these feelings and reflections to himself, as there was such persecution against the Baptists.

"At length, he went on a journey over the mountains with packhorses to pack salt for family use, as that was the only way they could obtain it as there were no wagon roads over the mountains in those days, 1750. Ninian was now alone with his horses near the top of the mountain. He was very much exorcised. He knew not what to do to relieve his mind from that awful feeling. He plainly saw that he was a condemned sinner, and nothing but the brittle thread of life kept him out of hell. He saw the justice of good in his condemnation, but he begged for mercy, when all of a sudden, light broke into his mind and filled him with joy and peace, and he shouted aloud there by himself. He viewed the plan of salvation by Jesus Christ so plain, and the atonement God had made through Jesus Christ for sinners so full, and this world and all its glory seemed so small, when compared with the glory that he felt. To use his own words, 'He thought he could set his foot against the mountain he was near, and push it over.' He also thought he could convince any sinner of the reality of religion.

"While in his transports of joy, there came along a man. He was gld to see him, as he'd had no doubt that the man would believe him, but to his great surprise the man just laughed at him and said he was crazy. This convinced him that he had no power of his own; that power belonged to God alone. He afterwards became a Baptist and, so zealous was he, that the church gave him license to preach. He was very good in exhortation but never became a preacher.

"He, with his family--then numbering 12, four sons and eight daughters, some of whom were married--moved with him to N. Carolina, Surry Co., and settled on Hunton Creek, waters of the Adkin river, some time before the Revolutionary War, and suffered many loses and abuses from the Torys, as he was a Whig and true to his country's cause.

"He was a great admirer of nature and in his old age, delighted himself in cultivating in his garden many variters of flowers. When they were in bloom, he has taken me, his first granddaughter that bore his name, by the hand and would show me his roses and pinks and would say, 'See these beautiful flowers. See how they differ from one another. Even so shall the saints differ from one another in glory." And he would seem to feel happy in the very thought, saying at the same time that these beautiful flowers gave more praise to their maker, much more than man, the noblest of God's creations. Yet he came far short of giving that honor to their Creator that those lilies did.

"He was a farmer...."

"On the day that Garrard [Riley] took his wife and daughter over to his father, it being 4 weeks old, the man seemed to be overjoyed and said he was over sixty years older than that child and he would show him how supple he was. He jumped up and hit his feet together three times before he came down. He also ran three steps up the side of the house, so nimble was he then....In the summer of 1796 he [Garrard] sold his farm and in September he with his family and in company with 10 families in seven wagons, the most of them were his relations--2 families were his sisters Johnson and Cast. There were 40 children in all--some black. They all left Surry Co., N. Carolina, the same day, bound for kentucky. They took their milk cows with them. Every family had some, so it made a smart drove, and all the children that were able drove the cows, and at night we all called a halt and arranged the tents, made fires, milked the cows, cooked supper, drove down stakes, lad boards for their tables they carried with them, then prepared the beds, sleep well, rise early, get breakfast, milk the cows, out the milk in jugs for dinner, bake bread, cook for dinner, then strike their tents and pack up everything and move off about 10 miles and stop and feed and eat dinner and so on, until one of the company took sick.

"The company all staid two days. The lady got worse and we had to leave her and her husband with some of their relations...the company moved on until they got in the "Wilderness," where there was danger of being attacked by the Indians, so they would set their tents and wagons all around their fires so if there should be any alarm, they would all be close together. They all had guns, kept them loaded and ready if needed. The youngest child [Sarah Riley] took the flux on the road and was very bad...The company stayed until noon when they thought it safe to go on as Sarah was much better. She was still amended when we got to Rock Castle...We saw the graves of two Methodist ministers that had been killed not long before by Indians. Rock castle was thought to be a very dangerous place to encamp, but it was dark when all the wagons got over and up on this side. The place where they encamped was right over the place that was called the 'Den of Horse thieves and Counterfitters' as there were many of such in that day. It was said that Wenon (?) were often seen strolling through the cliffs and woods. It was an awful looking place. There was hardly room for two wagons to have room to stand and pass around...There was an alarm that night. About midnight the cattle came running up to the wagons and the horses snorted and the dogs ran in the tents and could not be hissed on. Every man was up and had his gun ready. The women were very much alarmed but nothing appeared in sight. The next morning we were all off in a hurry. The men thought that the horses and cattle smelt Indians but what was the reason they could not make the dogs attack them? Some thought it was bears.

"At the end of four weeks...we found ourselves in Lexington, Kentucky--7 wagons, 10 families, with 40 children all arrived safe...And now there was a dreadful parting...

Odell (1981): "Ninian, Sr. bought 1000 acres of excellent land just seven miles north of the Kentucky River."

From Ritchie, Major Francis Wright and Ann Washington with Allied Families: "There is a deed for 1 acres of land in Prince George County, Maryland to Ninion Riley dated 29 Jan 1747." She also says that Ninion deeded all his land and personal property in Surry Co. to his three eldest sons before he left for Kentucky, 4 Nov. 1799.

A list of Capt. Wright's District, Surry Co., NC taken by William Cook Feb. 1786 listed Ninian Riley adjacent to Edward Riley, Ninian Riley, Isaac Windsor, William Alnutt, and Jarrott Riley. Ninan's household had 1 white male 21-60, 2 white males less than 21 or over 60, and 2 white females.

He married Elizabeth Taylor (196) (A427), 1746. Children:

i. Sarah[8] Riley. Born, circa 1748. She married John Johnson.

ii. Rachel Riley. Born, 31 Dec 1750. Christened in St. Paul's Par,

MD.

iii. Mary Riley. Born, circa 1757, in MD. She married William Allnut,

12 Feb 1779.

iv. Elizabeth Riley. Born, 1758, in MD. Died, Oct 1825, in Fayette,

KY. She married Isaac Johnson.

144 v. Nancy Riley.

vi. Zachariah Riley. Born in MD.

vii. James Taylor Riley. Born, 1764, in MD. Died, 1823, in Clay, MO.

He married, first, Susan Lanneau, before 1788. He married,

second, Martha Cass, 25 Feb 1789. He married, third, Susan

Mockerbee.

viii. Gerrard Riley. Born, 20 May 1766, in MD. Died, 30 Dec 1830, in

Bloomfield, IL. He married Carolina Frances Wright[97], daughter

of John Wright III and Ann Williams, 12 Jan 1786 in Surry,

NC.

ix. Ninian Riley Jr. Born, 10 Apr 1767, in Frederick, MD. Died, Feb

1829, in Clay, MO. He married Sarah Wright, daughter of John

Wright III and Ann Williams, 14 Mar 1790, in Surry, NC.

x. Lucy Riley. Born, circa 1770. Died, 13 Feb 1809, in Clark, KY.

She married Robert Cass, 16 Feb 1790.

xi. Precious Riley. Born in MD. She married Stephen Wood.

xii. John Riley. Born, 1778. Died, 12 Aug 1797, in Surry, NC. He

married Sarah Elsberry.