Col. John CABELL

   User ID: P00051725.

  General Notes:

John Cabell John was born around 1743 in Goochland County, Virginia. The exact date is not known because the records and Bible of his father, William Cabell, have been lost. John's birth fell either before William's trip to England or after his return. The little that is known about John's childhood appears in his father's medical records: in 1756, William had to set the bone in John's leg when his horse fell on him. Later the bone had to be rebroken and set because John was too active and restless to give the injury time to heal. In 1762, John married Paulina Jordan, the daughter of Colonel Samuel Jordan. A year later he was promoted to Captain John Cabell. William Cabell deeded John land in Buckingham and across the Fluvanna in Amherst; he also paid off his son's debts so John and Paulina could have a fresh start in life together. There are few personal records remaining about the life of John Cabell because the records of Buckingham County and the family papers were all burnt or destroyed. John is mentioned frequently in his brothers' diaries, but primarily regarding business transactions. John Cabell was very active in local government. He was a delegate from Buckingham County to the Convention in Williamsburg, May 6, 1776. He also served as the county lieutenant of Buckingham for many years and represented the county in the General Assembly of Virginia. John and his wife had ten children: John, George (who died immediately after birth), George, Frederick, William, John J., Elizabeth, Samuel J., Judith Scott, and Paulina Jordan. Three of their children died while still infants. On July 31, 1781 Paulina Jordan died and on July 19, 1787 John married again. His second wife, Elizabeth Brierton Jones died October 16, 1802 without having children. John Cabell died on June 12, 1815 at his Green Hill farm.

John Cabell (1735-1815) New evidence discovered by Randolph Wall Cabell proves that Col. John Cabell, the progenitor of an astonishing thirteen Cabell grandchildren, was born before his father William Cabell </speccol/collections/cabell/biographies/william.html>'s departure for England in 1735. In a letter dated 19 January 1736 (1737 using today's calendar), William Cabell exhorted his wife, Elizabeth Burks Cabell </speccol/collections/cabell/biographies/elizabeth.html>, "to keep my fore Children close to their books..." The fourth child, born just before his father's departure, could only have been little John Cabell. By 1756, Cabell was no longer little, but he needed his father's assistance as much as ever. John Cabell's horse fell onto his leg and shattered it on 5 December, and his father bandaged the limb. When the patient proved restless and disturbed the setting, his father rebroke the bone and set it properly. His father contributed even more to Cabell's welfare when--after his 1762 marriage to Paulina Jordan--the elder Cabell deeded his son landin Buckingham County and paid off his debts. Settled on his estate, "Green Hill </speccol/collections/cabell/lifestyle/homes.html>," Cabell became involved in politics and helped lead his county through the Revolution and into the early national period. He served as sheriff of Buckingham County and as a member of the militia. He attended the Fifth Revolutionary Convention, when forged Virginia's 1776 Constitution and launched the Commonwealth as a political entity. He also served serveral terms in the General Assembly </speccol/collections/cabell/contributions/generalassembly.html> as a representative of his county. Paulina Cabell died in 1781, after bearing ten children, seven of whom survived her. Cabell remarried in 1787, to Elizabeth Brierton Jones. She then died in 1802, with no children. Cabell appears, however, to have adopted her only son from her first marriage, Robert Jones. In his will, the child appears as Robert Jones Cabell. Still robust at 65 years old, John Cabell took yet another wife after Elizabeth Jones' death. He may never have formally married Frances Johnson (c. 1788-?), but he acknowledges her as the mother of three additional children, Elizabeth Burks Cabell, Alexander A. Cabell, and Napolean Bonaparte Cabell </speccol/collections/cabell/images/large/MSS9764_A/carrington_c_tutwiler/nbcabell.jpg>. Alexander Brown was not aware of or chose not to acknowledge these children in his 1895 The Cabells and Their Kin </speccol/collections/cabell/resources/cabellsandtheirkin.html>. Carrington Cabell Tutwiler puzzled over the genealogy of John's family as well; as late as 1950 (well after the republication of Cabells and Their Kin), he received a letter from L. R. Hodges of Charleston, WV suggesting that Napoelon Bonaparte Cabell and his siblings were the children of Elizabeth Jones.

Having survived two wives and five of his children, John Cabell died on June 12, 1815, about a mile from Green Hill.

John married Paulina JORDAN on 20 May 1762 in Buckingham, Virginia, USA. (Paulina JORDAN died on 31 Jul 1781 in Buckingham, Virginia, USA.)