Vital Information
| Field | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Drury Holt Sr. | WikiTree Holt-11387 |
| Born | 29 Dec 1759, Surry County (Albemarle Parish), Virginia | WikiTree; FaG |
| Died | 16 Feb 1835, Whitley County, Kentucky | WikiTree; FaG |
| Father | Nathaniel Holt (b. 17 Jun 1736, Virginia) | WikiTree |
| Mother | Abigail Clanton (b. 1742, Surry, Virginia) | WikiTree |
| Wife | Sarah Elizabeth Rogers (~1765-~1852), daughter of Thomas Rogers (~1740-1811) of Hawkins Co, TN | WikiTree Holt-2042; Thomas Rogers will |
| Son | Drury Holt Jr. (b. 25 Jan 1801, Hawkins Co, TN; d. 11 Mar 1883) | WikiTree |
| Military | Revolutionary War militia (1777); War of 1812 (Battle of the Thames, 1813) | HMDB #174491; WikiTree |
| Property | 143 acres on Marsh Creek, Whitley County, KY (1819-1831 tax lists) | Whitley Co tax records |
Their Story
Tidewater Virginia
Drury Holt was born on December 29, 1759, in Albemarle Parish, Surry County, Virginia, the part of the Tidewater where the Holt family had lived since his great-great-grandfather Randolph Holt I arrived from England around 1620. His father, Nathaniel Holt, and his mother, Abigail Clanton, raised him in a landscape of plantation farms and low country along the James River. By the time Drury reached his teens, the world was changing. The Revolution was coming, and the Holts, like most of their Virginia neighbors, would be drawn into it.
The Revolution
In 1777, at about age 17, Drury swore allegiance to the State of Virginia and enrolled in the militia. His name appears on Grayson's First Muster Roll (while the area was still part of Montgomery County), under Captain John Cox's Company. The muster roll is preserved as a historical marker (HMDB #174491) at the site where these men pledged their service.
The details of Drury's Revolutionary War service are thin. He served in the Virginia militia in the Elk Creek District of Montgomery County (later Grayson County), in the mountainous southwestern corner of the state. This was frontier country, far from the major battlefields but close to Cherokee territory, where militia companies spent as much time guarding against Indian raids as fighting the British. His cousin Bailey Anderson, meanwhile, was fighting at Musgrove's Mill and the Siege of Ninety Six in South Carolina.
Westward Through the Mountains
After the war, Drury married Sarah Elizabeth Rogers, daughter of Thomas Rogers of Hawkins County, Tennessee. Thomas Rogers's 1811 will names his children including "Betta" (Elizabeth). The connection between the two families is further confirmed by naming patterns: Thomas Rogers had a son Doswell Rogers, and Drury named one of his own sons "Doswell Drury Holt."
The Holts moved through the mountains in stages: from the Elk Creek District of Virginia to Hawkins County, Tennessee, where their son Drury Holt Jr. was born on January 25, 1801. Then on to Knox County, Kentucky, and finally to Whitley County, Kentucky, where Drury settled on 143 acres along Marsh Creek. He appears in the Whitley County tax lists continuously from 1819 through 1831.
The War of 1812 and the Battle of the Thames
In 1812, when war broke out again with Britain, Drury Holt was 52 years old. He had already served his country once, more than three decades earlier. He enlisted again.
The War of 1812's western theater centered on the struggle for control of the Great Lakes and the Northwest Territory. The Shawnee leader Tecumseh had built a confederacy of Native nations allied with the British, and the combined British-Indian force had captured Detroit in August 1812, humiliating the Americans.
By the fall of 1813, American forces under General William Henry Harrison (the future president) were pushing back. On October 5, 1813, Harrison's army, consisting mostly of Kentucky mounted militia under Colonel Richard M. Johnson, caught the retreating British and their Indian allies near Moraviantown on the Thames River in Upper Canada (present-day Ontario). The mounted Kentuckians charged and broke the British line almost immediately. The fighting shifted to a swamp on the flank, where Tecumseh and his warriors made a final stand. Tecumseh was killed. His confederacy collapsed. More than 600 British soldiers surrendered.
Drury Holt was there. The specific details of his role are not recorded, but his presence at the Battle of the Thames is documented in family and genealogical records. He was 53 years old, fighting alongside men half his age, in a battle that decided the fate of the Northwest.
The span of Drury Holt's military service, from the Revolutionary War muster rolls of 1777 to the Battle of the Thames in 1813, covers 36 years and two wars. Few men in this family tree served their country across such a range.
Final Years
Drury Holt died on February 16, 1835, in Whitley County, Kentucky, at the age of 75. His wife Sarah Elizabeth survived him by about seventeen years, dying around 1852.
Through his son Drury Holt Jr. and grandson Eliphaz Holt, the line runs to Noah Caswell Holt, Sybil Dora Holt, and ultimately to Gary Vaughan Fulghum.
Document Sources
| Document | Type | Status |
|---|---|---|
| HMDB Marker #174491 (Grayson's First Muster Roll) | Historical marker / muster roll | Consulted |
| WikiTree Holt-11387 | Genealogical database | Consulted |
| WikiTree Holt-2042 (Sara Elizabeth Rogers) | Genealogical database | Consulted |
| FaG #38024736, #181709913 | Cemetery/memorial | Consulted |
| Whitley County KY Tax Lists 1819-1831 | Tax records | Referenced; not directly consulted |
| Thomas Rogers will, Hawkins Co, TN (1811) | Probate | Referenced (names "Betta"); not directly consulted |
| War of 1812 service records | Military records | Not yet located; would confirm unit and rank |
| McAllister's Virginia Militia in the Revolutionary War | Published military data | Referenced |
Birthplace Note
Multiple genealogical sources (WikiTree, FaG, Genealogy.com) consistently give his birthplace as Surry County (Albemarle Parish), not Sussex County as previously recorded. Nathaniel Holt's will was probated in Sussex County, Virginia (1814), which is adjacent to Surry County and may be the source of the earlier attribution.