DILLEY LAND IN SHENANDOAH CO.,VA

EXTRACTS FROM REPORT OF REBECCA H. GOOD ON DILLEY LAND IN SHENANDOAH CO.,VA to Neville Dilley of Louisville, KY, 28 Nov 1989.

The first record in Shenandoah Co. the name Dilly was dated 1773 when the name of the county was Dunmore briefly before Rev. patriots changed it. In Deed Book A page 437 in 1773, Mathew Plumley and Abigail for fifty pounds, five shillings paid in hand assign a parcel of land containing 80 acres to John Dillie in Powells Fort upon Passage (Creek). Signed and sealed at a court for Dunmore Co. 23 Nov 1773.

Subsequent deeds in which John Dilly disposed of his land make it certain that he had an additional tract of land adjoining the piece that he bought from Plumley.

DB C p 404 John Dilly and Catharine his wife of Shenandoah Co. assign a tract 114 acres in Powells Fort bounded by a survey by John Hughs. This 114 acres is taken out by the full survey of 223 acres as granted John Dilly by the proprietor’s Office on the 26th day of May 1779. This sale acknowledged by John Dilly & Catharine at the August Court in 1780.

The above tract was evidently obtained by application to the office of Lord Fairfax, the Proprietor of the Northern Neck, who issued grants and kept records at his office. These land transfers were often not recorded at the local courthouse because the record at the Proprietor’s office proved title.

DB C p 406, on 29 Aug. 1780, John Dilly & Catharine, for 600 pounds, conveyed a tract of 104 acres upon Passage Creek in Powells Big Fort, surveyed by Robert Rutherford as 104 acres more or less, to Adam Lichlither.

DB C p. 413, Note: this deed was unexpected since the old index to Shenandoah Co. deeds did not include church deeds. John Dilly & Catherine for five pounds convey "one sartein Messuage and lot of land’ lying and being in Pauls Big Fort and assign it to the congregation of Pauls, consisting of Presbyterians and Lutherans English, or the old Protestant Church. Signed on 10 Aug 1780.

This deed was apparently written by a church member, and the only extant list of members shows mostly German names. There were two Indian fortifications know as Big Fort and Little Fort, Passage Creek flows north and the Crossroads still exists at the upper (south) Big Fort. At the Crossroads today, the main North-south road through the valley is crossed by a road that transverses the Massanutten Mountain and follows a tortured course down the mountain to Woodstock. This road is so crooked that it is often necessary to close it during the winter season. Much of the land adjoining Powells Fort is now in the Shenandoah National Park, and some if not all of Dilley’s land is within the park. On page 225 of A History of the Lutheran Church in Virginia and East Tennessee by Cassell, Finck and Henkel, it states that a log building served as schoolhouse and church until 1877 when the present church was built a mile or so West of the Crossroads. (See map, p. 78).

The Shenandoah County Surveyor’s Book for 1785-94, there is a survey for John Dilley Sr. For a tract of land containing 400 acres by grant from the Proprietor’s office in March, 1778. The present known deeds do not account for much of this land. Genealogist Good did not find other Dilleys in the valley except a Henry Dealy who was living in the valley between the Massanutten mountains and the Blue Ridge (now Page Co.). He had a survey in the 1785-1794 book for 100 acres but no deeds. The marriage record shows Henry marrying Amelia Braithwait on 6 Jul 184. He was deceased by 1820 when his household property was appraised (WB I. p. 322)

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