Project Background

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Some Research Notes and Current Hypotheses
of the
Origin of the Arterburn Family and Surname:

Based on Historical and Genealogical Sources
and
Recent DNA Analyses

Contents


I. Preface
II. German or English or Scot?
III. Peter Atterburn in Maryland
IV. Peter Arterburn (aka Atterburn) in Virginia
V. Clues from the Life of Peter Muhlenberg
VI. Atterburn and ARTERBURN and Otterburn in America
VII. Lutheran or Anglican or German Reformed?
VIII. A New World of Opportunity and Change
IX. Clues from the Old World
X. The Evidence Reconsidered
XI. Endnotes
XII. Bibliography (Print)

I. Preface




This project [1] was inspired by the original research during the 1970s of Carroll Norben "Art" and Janet D. Arterburn, who published their results as the book entitled, The Arterburn Cousins. [2] Of the many American Arterburns they were able to trace and document through personal contact or from public records, all were linked to two ancestors, PETER ARTERBURN (1711-1803) and WILLIAM ARTERBURN (ca.1730-1817), of Shenandoah County, Virginia. According to Art and Jan, Peter and William were initially presumed to have been brothers, but no definitive evidence of this has ever been found. More recent evidence suggests that William may have been the son of Peter's first marriage.

William would move his family (about 1799) to the vicinity of Beargrass Creek near the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville), in Jefferson County, Kentucky. Around the same time (about 1805), Peter's son, James, removed with his family along with others from Shenandoah County to the vicinity of Kendrick Creek in Sullivan County, Tennessee. From these two primary resettlements of ARTERBURNS away from Virginia, descendants have since spread across the United States.

Unfortunately, Art and Jan were unable to find a paper trail beyond Peter and William. Neither were they able to find a record of the voyage to America for Peter or William, and eventually concluded that these two ancestors may not have been the initial immigrants. [3]

"Peter Atterburn" has since been found and traced from his first appearance in Charles County, Maryland, in 1737, through 1754. Next he appears in adjacent Prince William County, Virginia, as early as 1762-63. William's first appearance in Dumfries, Virginia (Prince William County), in 1768, has also been documented. Previous clues now enable us to connect these locations as evidence of a migration of the ARTERBURNS from Charles County, Maryland to Prince William County, Virginia, and across northern Virginia through Culpeper County to Shenandoah County. Also, a reassessment of the evidence indicates that Peter of Maryland and Peter of Virginia were almost certainly one and the same, and that Peter Arterburn was most likely our immigrant ancestor.




II. German or English or Scot?




Prior to Peter and William in America, the "Arterburn" spelling has been found only once so far in public records of the Old World. The marriage of "William Arterburn" and "Jane Wilkinson" was recorded in the English port city of London, in 1676. What may have been an earlier variant spelling of ARTERBURN--perhaps our original surname, "Atterborn" (or "Atterborne," and later, "Atterburn"), has also been found in a few London church records and in one passenger list, 1619-1769.

That our surname and its probable variant spellings have been found only in England may at first appear to be simple and incontrovertible proof of an English origin or ancestry. However, a much more complicated and interesting story lies beneath this surface of appearances.

Art and Jan Arterburn began their research with two differing hypotheses: Art believed that our family/surname was Scotch-Irish, or Scots-Irish (i.e., originally, those Scottish emigrants who first settled in Ireland before coming to America, prior to 1777), while Jan was persuaded that the ARTERBURNS' roots were in Germany. In the end, they both concluded that our family most likely came from one of the German-speaking cultures of Europe. [4] Their conclusion was based both on clues derived from their own research and on prevailing traditions among descendants.

Green Arterburn (1834-1903), great grandson of Peter, reported in a published biographical sketch that the ARTERBURNS were of German descent. [5]

The majority of ARTERBURNS interviewed by Art and Jan also believed that their family roots were in Germany. [6]

What follows will draw from the previous research of Art and Jan Arterburn, as found in their book, and also from some updated material provided by them. In addition to that, I present some new material, and a new analysis overall.




III. Peter Atterburn in Maryland




A more recent discovery finds our ancestor "Peter Atterburn" in public records of Charles County, Maryland. Peter first appears there as a defendant debtor in Charles County Court, in 1743. The court found for the plaintiff, Richard Gambra, [7] and ruled the defendant's personal property (one horse and 379 lbs. of tobacco) be attached to satisfy his debt of 600 lbs. of tobacco, plus additional assessments of 600 lbs. for damages and 500 lbs. for costs. The court record indicates that the defendant "is run away from the place of his late abode," and was not available to appear in court. [8]

Peter was clearly not a landowner, and does not appear on any of the surviving rent rolls for Charles County, nor in the tax lists. Colonial Maryland's agricultural economy thrived on growing tobacco, and relied on both slave and indentured immigrant labor. [9] This early form of contract labor sometimes resulted in the exploitation and mistreatment of immigrants. [10]

The description of Peter's circumstances and the additional assessments for damages and costs indicate that he was almost certainly an indentured servant. Europeans who could not afford the cost of passage before leaving the Old World relied on the "redemptioner system" to finance their voyage, if they were unable to pre-negotiate a contract of indenture before departing.

"To finance their passage, many of the penniless before 1820 became "indentured servants," also known as "redemptioners." The typical indentured service contract made out with the captain of a ship provided that the fare had to be paid together with an additional 12% premium no later than fourteen days after arrival. If a passenger was not able to wipe out the debt -- perhaps with help from a relative or a friend in America -- then the captain was at liberty to "sell" the passenger into a form of servitude, often together with his wife and children, for three to four years. Estimates suggest that half of all early German immigrants financed their passage in this manner. To be sure, only non-German harbors, in particular Rotterdam and Amsterdam, permitted this manner of passage. Shippers in Hamburg and Bremen demanded cash payment."

(Above excerpted from The German Americans: An Ethnic Experience, Ch. 4, published online. Underline added)

"Redemptioners were European immigrants, generally in the 18th or early 19th century, who gained passage to America (most often Pennsylvania) by selling themselves into indentured servitude to pay back the shipping company which had advanced the cost of the sea voyage. British indentured servants generally did not arrive as redemptioners after the early colonial period due to certain protections afforded them by law. Redemptioners were at a disadvantage because they negotiated their indentures upon arrival after a long and difficult voyage with no prospect to return to their homelands."

"The only two surviving first-person accounts by redemptioners were published in September 2006 in the book Souls for Sale: Two German Redemptioners Come to Revolutionary America. By coincidence, they both arrived in Philadelphia on the ship Sally in the fall of 1772. John Frederick Whitehead and Johann Carl Buettner were recruited in Baltic cities and shipped as virtual prisoners to Rotterdam, originally to be delivered to ships of the Dutch East India Company departing for Indonesia. Their handlers missed that opportunity so they settled for handing them over to a ship bound for Pennsylvania."

(Excerpt above from the Wikipedia article: "Redemptioner." Underline and italics added. Parentheses original)

The Library of Congress estimates indentured servitude to have been the plight of one-half (50%) of all the Germans who came to America during the 1700s. [11]

This could also be the reason that our surname has not been found in any ship's passenger list. Before 1820, captains or masters of vessels were not even required to keep a passenger list.

In 1748, Peter was deposed in Charles County Court as a witness verifying that John Gardiner had once pointed out his land boundaries to Peter and his wife. In this deposition, Peter attests his age of 37 years (thus, born about 1711), and that his wife had been deceased for 11-12 years.

From this, we can deduce that Peter had been in America, and in Charles County, Maryland, since at least 1737. This may have been about the time of his arrival in the New World, but we can't be certain. Obligations of indenture or redemption were typically 4-7 years in length, which would fit with the date of his court case (1743).

Peter appears again in Charles County Court records, in lists of personal names that appear to be either servants or debtors (see also Endnote #9, below) in two estate settlements--the latest in 1754. [12] He may have remained an indentured servant, since his debt had been compounded due to earlier default (1743), and may have required additional years to work off. Peter does not appear in the surviving Charles County tax list of 1758. By that time or soon after, he may have been free of debt and able to leave Maryland for Virginia.




IV. Peter Arterburn (aka Atterburn) in Virginia




"Peter Arterburn" subsequently appears in Prince William County, Virginia, in 1763, as a defendant in court unable to satisfy his creditor, William Carr, a local merchant. The court record indicates that he owned virtually no personal property of value that could be seized to satisfy his debt, other than a single hoe. [13]

"William Atterburn" (aka "Arterburn") first appears in John Glassford's store ledger of accounts at Dumfries, in Prince William County, in 1768. "Peter Arterburn" also appears in Glassford's ledger at Dumfries. John Glassford & Company was a large Scottish mercantile firm with stores both in Virginia, including Dumfries, and in Maryland, including Port Tobacco, in Charles County. Prince William County, Virginia, is just across the Potomac River from Charles County, Maryland.

As itinerant laborers, Peter and William may have lived in more than one of the outlying communities around Dumfries during this time, including nearby Fauquier County. The service area of Glassford's store at Dumfries probably covered a wide radius in northern Virginia. For poor, rural colonists of this era, trips to the store were undoubtedly rare and special occasions to purchase affordable goods that could not be otherwise bartered or produced at home.

We know that William's son, Samuel, was born (1771) in Culpeper County, as indicated on his headstone. William's daughter, Mary "Polly" Arterburn, would later marry (1795) a German, John Wey, of Fauquier County. [14] These facts suggest that Peter Arterburn and his family migrated from Prince William County through Fauquier County, and on to adjacent Culpeper County, before eventually settling in Dunmore County (Shenandoah County, after 1778).

Culpeper County was the site of an early German settlement known as the Germanna Colony (see Endnote #31, below), with additional satellite settlements at Germantown (located in Fauquier County, after 1759), and in the Robinson River Valley of present-day Madison County (Culpeper County, before 1792).

"Germantown" had been an early satellite settlement of the Germanna Colony of Culpeper. Germantown (and Fauquier County) was only 25-30 miles from Dumfries. Although the original settlers of Germantown had moved on by the time of the American Revolution, Germans undoubtedly still lived and worked in the area. Fauquier County is directly adjacent to Culpeper County (including a portion that later became Rappahannock County) and to that part of Shenandoah County (Warren County, after 1836) where Peter and William are last known to have lived in Virginia.

These early records in Charles County, Maryland and Prince William County, Virginia indicate that Peter Arterburn was very poor and struggling to make ends meet. The loss of his first wife in Maryland may have been a severe setback. Nonetheless, he had taken the initial steps toward the promise of a new life in America for his family, and for all of us. The gift of opportunity, if not of prosperity, that Peter Arterburn bequeathed his progeny in the New World would require future generations--beginning with his children and the children of William, to more fully realize its blessings. [15]

Peter Arterburn (aka Atterburn) subsequently appears in Dunmore (later Shenandoah) County, in 1773. He was a landowner of record in Shenandoah County for a relatively short period of time--from 1780 to 1785. [16] Yet, baptismal, census, and other public records indicate he and his family evidently lived there from as early as 1773 until his death, in 1803. There are no Deeds for William in Virginia, but William also appears in public records of Shenandoah County, from about 1775 until his move to Kentucky, about 1799. All of the evidence that we have clearly indicates that Peter and William were tenant farmers and/or landless craftsmen during most of their residency in Virginia. [17]

Peter was a carpenter, according to the authors of The Arterburn Cousins, although the source for this was a local historian and the primary source was either not disclosed or unknown. Shenandoah County court records (1795) show that William was a shoemaker. These ARTERBURN families probably relied on both farming and craftwork for their livelihoods.




V. Clues from the Life of Peter Muhlenberg




Rev. John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg (1746-1807), a 1st-generation German American and Lutheran clergyman from Pennsylvania, served for four years as pastor to the German families in the new county of Dunmore (later Shenandoah), in northern Virginia. [18] Peter's brother, Rev. Frederick A.C. Muhlenberg, also a Lutheran pastor, later served in Congress as the first Speaker of the new U.S. House of Representatives. Their father, Rev. Henry (originally, Heinrich) M. Muhlenberg--a German emigrant from Hanover, is considered one of the principal founders of the Lutheran Church in America.

While he may not have been typical of most Germans in colonial America, Peter Muhlenberg's story does present a telling example of how the Germans and the English interacted during the colonial era. Muhlenberg's baptism of PETER'S infant daughter also provides valuable clues about the ARTERBURNS.

Born in Pennsylvania, Muhlenberg was sent back to Germany as a youth for schooling, and later enlisted in the British Army. Returning to America, he studied theology and pastored Swedish and German Lutherans in Pennsylvania and New Jersey before accepting a pastoral call to the German Lutherans of Woodstock, Virginia, about 1771. [19]

In 1772, Muhlenberg visited London and was ordained a priest in the (Anglican) Church of England, the official church of the Royal Colony of Virginia. Coincidentally, King George III, sovereign head of the Church of England, was both German by ancestry and his royal family was based in Hanover, the Old World home of the Muhlenbergs.

The Lutherans and Anglicans--both originally high church communions, shared similar theologies and liturgies. The Lutherans and Anglicans also shared the same church house in Woodstock. After his ordination and return to Virginia, Muhlenberg was appointed rector of the new Anglican parish of Beckford in Dunmore County, and served the English Anglicans there as clergyman, too.

Muhlenberg's ordination in London may have been motivated as much by political ambition as anything else, since Anglican ordination of American Lutherans at that time wasn't typical. Church and politics were very much interwined in colonial Virginia, and Muhlenberg quickly became a rising star politically, on the eve of the American Revolution. In the brief time he was in Dunmore County (1772-76), he was elected to the legislature, the House of Burgesses, in 1774.

Muhlenberg was asked by George Washington, in 1776, to raise and lead a Virginia regiment of Germans for the new Continental Army. [20] Colonel Muhlenberg was commissioned a Brigadier General (brevetted a Major General by war's end) of the Continental Army, in 1777. On the other side of the pond, King George III would enlist some of his German subjects and allies from the mainland, including the Hessians, to help the British Army put down those rebellious colonists in America! After the war, Muhlenberg eventually returned to Pennsylvania, and later served in Congress and in Pennsylvania state offices. Although he gave up the ministry for politics, Muhlenberg remained an active Lutheran until the end of his life.

On July 11, 1773, Rev. Peter Muhlenberg baptized the infant daughter of Peter and Sarah, "Henry," who had been born on May 21. [21] Henry's baptism appears in a list of births and baptisms preserved in an old record book lodged at the courthouse, in Woodstock. According to the authors of The Arterburn Cousins, Rev. Muhlenberg recorded this entry himself. Henry's baptism was most likely performed in the first Lutheran church in Woodstock, believed to have accomodated both Lutheran, German Reformed, and Anglican worshippers before the Revolution (see Endnote #19, below).

The histories of the Irish and Scots-Irish in Ireland during the 17th-18th centuries were scarred by discrimination and persecution, with resulting antipathies that were often carried to the New World. While there was an offical state church of Ireland that conformed to Anglicanism, the vast majority of the native population remained loyal to Roman Catholicism, especially the poor and working class. There is no evidence of Catholics in early Shenandoah County.

If Peter had been Irish (Catholic) or Scots-Irish (Presbyterian), it's highly unlikely that he would have presented a child for Baptism to a German Lutheran who, as an ordained Anglican priest and rector of the parish, also represented the official church of the English Establishment, which had been implicated in two centuries of sectarian and political oppression of both Catholics and Presbyterians in Ireland. [22]

It seems equally doubtful that Peter could have been a Scot, whether Presbyterian or other Dissenter, since these sects were in "Nonconformity" with the Church of England. The vast majority of Scots identified with the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland, which was rooted in the Reformed (Calvinist) faith tradition. The Anglicans essentially followed Lutheran theology.

Baptism and Communion were purely religious and fundamental sacraments, closely linked with church or sectarian identity in colonial America, as today. Submitting to the rite of Baptism would almost certainly have reflected the sectarian preference of the participants.

Whether a Scottish (or English) Presbyterian, Quaker, Baptist or Methodist, such a Nonconformist or Dissenter in colonial Virginia would not likely have turned to an Anglican or Lutheran priest for the sacramental rite of Baptism.

This excerpt from Library of Congress' website page, "Religion in 18th-Century America," serves to further illustrate the sectarian divide in colonial America (see also Endnote #28, below):

"The sacrament of Holy Communion was precious to colonial Presbyterians (and to members of other Christian churches). Presbyterians followed the Church of Scotland practice of "fencing the table"--of permitting members to take communion only after being examined by a minister who vouched for their spiritual soundness by issuing them a token that admitted them to the celebration of the sacrament. The custom continued in some Presbyterian churches until early in this century."

[Parentheses original]

VI. Atterburn and ARTERBURN and Otterburn in America




"Otterburn" has been found only once in Maryland and Virginia as a contemporary and variant spelling for Peter Arterburn's surname: In this record of the baptism of Peter's infant daughter, Henry, soon after the apparent date of their arrival in Dunmore County. [23] Otherwise, "Atterburn" seems to have been the most common variant of ARTERBURN in Virginia public records for William, and for Peter in Maryland and Virginia.

Various random spellings are found, of course, probably a clue that others initially relied on their aural interpretation for spelling our surname, since neither Peter nor William were likely able to spell or write themselves. From early on, we find persistent and recognizable renderings of the prefix, "Atter" or "Arter," and of the suffix, "burn," represented by such spellings as "Alter, Ater, Artur, bun, bon, bern, and boun." The ARTERBURN spelling probably became more standardized as the children of Peter and William were educated and achieved maturity.

Since Peter most likely only vocalized his name on the occasion of Henry's baptism, Muhlenberg may have interpreted what he heard as "Otter," especially if Peter Arterburn was German. German short O and short A are almost identical in sound.

Since German short A and German short O may have been difficult even for Muhlenberg to distinguish only by hearing, could Peter Arterburn's original surname have been "Otterborn," in German? This possibility cannot be entirely ruled out, since "Otter" was certainly more common in Germany. "Atter" as a name or name prefix may have been unknown to Muhlenberg, as it was also apparently rare in Germany.

Muhlenberg may simply have been more familiar with the German surname, "Otter," and other German compound surnames based on the Otter prefix (e.g., "Otterbach, Otterberg, Otterbein").

Muhlenberg would almost certainly have known of his contemporary, Philip William Otterbein, the German immigrant and Reformed clergyman whose mission work competed with the Lutheranism of the Muhlenbergs among the Germans of the Middle Colonies.

Otterbein visited the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, including Shenandoah County (cf. Wayland, 1927). According to historians at Rockingham County Historical Society, one of his churches provided the namesake for the community of "Ottobine," in nearby Rockingham County. Otterbein's embrace of Pietism, which the Muhlenbergs opposed, led to his co-founding of the splinter sect, Church of the United Brethren in Christ, in 1769.

Muhlenberg's rendering is the only instance of "Otter-" ever found for the spelling of Peter's or William's surname. Also, the early London renderings of "Atterborne," including George Atterborn in a ship's passenger list, and later of William Arterburn and Luffman Atterburn in London, seem to favor the German short A. Until we find evidence of our family on the Continent, though, we can't be absolutely certain of the spelling.

"Marks" for both Peter and Sarah Arterburn appear in recorded Deeds in Shenandoah County, and for Peter in his Will, almost certainly an indication that both were illiterate. This fact greatly increases the likelihood that Peter was unable to spell his surname, and that he probably relied on vocalization (see also Endnote #17). If illiterate, Peter's pronunciation may have even varied slightly over time, as he undoubtedly heard different enunciations of his surname, and learned to speak English himself.

The authors of The Arterburn Cousins illustrate and comment about the unusually graphic mark (i.e., three wavy lines) used by Peter Arterburn for his signature in his Will. The use of marks was neither so prevalent nor distinctive in early public records or documents as to indicate that "making your mark" was more fashionable than an actual signature. Those who could sign their names appear to have done so.

How could "Atterburn" (or "Atterborn") have turned into ARTERBURN in America? Variation in the spelling of names was not uncommon during the colonial era, as anyone who has pursued genealogy can readily attest. Language differences and literacy were undoubtedly factors, and another culprit may have been differences in pronunciation. The factor of pronunciation can partly be attributed to the English heritage of "received pronunciation" (RP), or the "King/Queen's English," and to the dynamics of an evolving English language in both the Old World and New. King's English (RP), which prevailed among some English immigrants during the colonial era, especially in Tidewater Virginia, was characterized by non-rhotic pronunciation (omitting the R consonant sound unless followed by a vowel) and the use of broad A (also called "long A," in England). We first find the spelling, "Arterburn," for Peter's surname in the Virginia Tidewater county of Prince William.

King's English pronunciation of ARTERBURN would likely have sounded something like, "Ah' tuhr buhrn" (A as in father). If Maryland Peter, whose name appears in public records as "Atterburn," was a German-speaking immigrant, the German pronunciation of this name (or of "Atterborn") would have sounded remarkably similar. German double consonants (in this case, "tt") are preceded by the short vowel sound--in this case, short A. The German short A vowel sound is the sound heard between the English vowels in hut and hot, or "utter" and "otter," and is pronounced as a short, clipped sound. Thus, Peter Atterburn's enunciation of his surname would have sounded similar to "Ah tuhr buhrn" or "Otterburn."

Even if we allow that Peter's original surname might have been spelled, "Aterborn," the German long A vowel sound (before a single consonant) is like the English sound of A in "hard," and his enunciation would still have sounded similar, just not as short and clipped.

Those English Americans who were accustomed to King's English (RP) may have heard this German short A sound as English broad A, interpreted it as the AR phoneme (see Endnote #24), and may have supplied the non-rhotic R in spelling, resulting in "Arter-". [24] Some who heard the broad A sound may not have been skilled at (non-rhotic) spelling, and still have written "Atter-."

Since German short A and English short O are also very close in sound, it seems surprising that other instances of the "Otterburn" spelling did not occur in Maryland or Virginia for Peter and William. But none have been found, except--ironically--in this one instance with Muhlenberg.

If Peter and William were English or Scots whose surname was "Otterburn," why haven't we found it spelled this way at least once in the other records of Maryland and Virginia?

Could it have been in part because the English and Scots saw and heard before them a darkly complected German-speaking immigrant who spoke English, at best, with an accent?

Professor Wayland's research reveals abundant evidences of Anglicization of German names in the Shenandoah Valley. [25] Political, social, and economic influences of Crown and Colony were probably underlying factors. Governor Spottswood's early experiments with the Germanna Colonies in northern Virginia had already paved the way for German immigrants in the Piedmont. Across the Blue Ridge, George Washington had begun his career as a surveyor for Lord Fairfax in the Shenandoah Valley, in 1748. Washington had a lifelong interest in land speculation, and began to acquire claims to western lands from this period. (By the time of his death, according to historian Richard Brookhiser, Washington's scattered estate holdings amounted to 60,000 acres.) Later, Washington would make Winchester his headquarters and his home while commander of the 1st Virginia Regiment, and while living there was elected Frederick County's representative to Virginia's colonial legislature, the House of Burgesses.

The town of Muellerstadt, founded by Jacob Miller (Mueller) in Frederick County, in 1752, was officially chartered and renamed, "Woodstock," in 1761. Woodstock later became the seat of the new county of Dunmore, in 1772. Washington himself sponsored the town charter in the House of Burgesses, and Thomas Jefferson later (1795) designed its new courthouse. From the time of the French & Indian War (1754-1763), Washington and others labored to bring the Shenandoah Valley into the orbit of Tidewater commerce and politics.

Peter Muhlenberg's later presence there, as an influential German with strong ties to both the Virginia gentry and the Anglican Church, seems to mirror the trend towards assimilation to English customs and language among the Germans of the Shenandoah Valley, by the time of the Revolution. "Peter" as a given name was more common among German-speaking families than among the English or Scots during this era. That neither Peter nor William repeated this name in their families appears to be a clue of their deliberate efforts toward assimilation.

This trend did not result in complete abandonment of German culture or language, as Wayland and others have pointed out. Elements of both were often preserved within the family, at home, or even within the community, and Wayland cites evidence of this in subsequent generations of German families who remained in the Valley.




VII. Lutheran or Anglican or German Reformed?




The available evidence indicates that Peter Arterburn originally identified with either the Lutheran or German Reformed or Anglican faith tradition.

Soon after their arrival in Dunmore County--about 1773, Peter and Sarah presented their infant child, Henry, for baptism to Rev. Muhlenberg, an ordained priest of the Lutheran and Anglican communions. The Lutherans and Anglicans were kindred spirits in doctrine and liturgy, and both traditions had been politically and culturally allied in the Old World.

The German Reformed and Lutheran congregations also shared a union meeting house, along with the Anglicans, in Woodstock's early years (cf. Wayland, 1927). Given the apparent necessity of shared public space, in a community dominated ethnically by Germans but politically by the English, and presided over by the politically adroit Muhlenberg, such a cooperative venture doesn't seem too surprising. Lutheran and German Reformed congregations are known to have shared meeting houses in Pennsylvania, as well. However, the Reformed (Calvinist) Churches were markedly different in doctrine and liturgy from the Lutherans (and Anglicans).

The Muhlenbergs were integral to the founding of the Lutheran Church in America, and were undoubtedly invested in its theological heritage. Evidence of this is the central role of Henry Muhlenberg, Peter's father, in acting to conserve distinctive Lutheran doctrines and clerical authority in colonial America, and also in opposing the influences of Pietism.

Here we can see most clearly the sharp contrast between the "high church" Lutheranism of the Muhlenbergs and the "low church" character of the Reformed faith. This contrast is also evident in the missionary work of the German Reformed pastor, Philip William Otterbein.

We find evidence of Henry Muhlenberg's continuing influence among the Lutherans of Shenandoah County even after his son, Peter, had moved on, through Henry's mentoring relationship with Simon Harr, a lay pastor and school teacher at St. Paul's Church, in Strasburg.

We have no reason to believe that Peter Muhlenberg, so recently called by the Lutherans of Woodstock and also newly ordained as an Anglican priest, would have abdicated his spiritual heritage and pastoral duties by baptizing outside of the communions he represented. Even though he later supported the cause of independence and turned to politics after the War, Muhlenberg remained an active Lutheran throughout his life. Upon his death, Peter was buried at Augustus Lutheran Church, in Trappe, Pennsylvania, the church founded by his father, and also the burial site of Henry.

Likewise, had Peter Arterburn been an adherent of the Reformed faith, he would more likely have turned to a recognized minister or pastor of the German Reformed Church in Shenandoah County for the rite of Baptism.

Why should we think that Peter identified with the Lutherans instead of the Anglicans?

Muhlenberg did not distinguish between Lutherans and Anglicans in the surviving list of baptisms at Woodstock, in which both German and English names are to be found.

We can't judge from this whether Peter remained a faithful Lutheran throughout his life, but other evidences certainly point to the greater likelihood that he was German.

Thus, it seems probable that Peter Arterburn originally identified with the Lutherans in matters of faith, because he was German, and because he submitted to a German who was a Lutheran priest for the sacrament of Baptism for one of his children, soon after his family's arrival in Dunmore County.

Why haven't we found other records of baptisms of the children of Peter and William, or records of the marriages of Peter and William? We may yet uncover such records, but then again we may not. Such records may simply not have survived. Blankenbaker's research on old Hebron, the earliest Lutheran Church and congregation in northern Virginia, has determined that Lutheran pastors were visiting house churches during this era (see Endnote #31, below). No ARTERBURN records have been found at Hebron.

Peter and William were apparently Lutheran, initially at least. Their marriages and the baptisms of some of their children may have occurred in one or more of these house churches in Prince William, Fauquier, or Culpeper Counties. Such records, if they ever existed, may have been outside of the Church of England--if before the Revolution, and may be lost to us. The same could apply for baptisms of ARTERBURNS in early Shenandoah County, regardless of affiliation, since house churches and traveling clergy were apparently common for all (non-Anglican) denominations during this era.

VIII. A New World of Opportunity and Change




The Lutherans of Woodstock were without a dedicated pastor from 1776 to 1806, and did not meet regularly during this time (see Endnote #19, below). Peter and WIlliam lived (from 1775, at least) east of Massanutten Mountain in Shenandoah County (later southwest Warren and northwest Page Counties), along the south fork of Shenandoah River, or South River. [26]

While some of the landowners along South River were English and Scots, some were also Germans. German tenant farmers and craftsmen also lived there. The following excerpt (Ch. 4, p. 29) from A.P. Funkhouser's history of United Brethren, published on the website of the United Brethren Historical Center, gives an early and first-hand account that alludes to the Germans living along South River:

"In the early spring of 1748, Gottschalk, a Moravian missionary, speaks thus of the Massanutten settlement, situated on the South Branch of Shenandoah river just above the Luray valley: "Many Germans live there. Most of them are Mennisten (Mennonites), who are in a bad condition. Nearly all religious earnestness and zeal is extinguished among them. Besides them, a few church people live there, partly Lutheran, partly Reformed." [27]

South Fork meeting house, located south of Front Royal along the Indian Road (highway 340) leading to Bentonville and Luray, was a union church house that served both Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists during the post-Revolutionary period. [28] Peter or William or some of their children, influenced by their neighbors or landlords, might later have joined the Presbyterians, Baptists, or Methodists.

The First Great Awakening had already begun working its way through the churches of colonial America by the late 18th century, diminishing Old World sectarian ties and witnessing the emergence of new and old dissenter groups. This new movement of the spirit emphasized personal experience and authority of scripture more than liturgy and received doctrine. Following the breakdown of the English Establishment during and after the War for Independence, and the adoption of the new Constitution, religious freedom and tolerance increased, as did the popularity of these new churches.

The families of Peter and William appear to have imbibed this new and independent spirit of the Awakening that spread across the early American frontier. Peter's oldest daughter, Jemima, married Jeffery Collins and remained in the Shenandoah Valley. Both were members of the Dunkard Church, or German Baptists, which grew out of the Lutheran and German Reformed traditions. [29]

According to early marriage records transcribed by John Wayland in his book, A History of Shenandoah County, Virginia, the minister who officiated in the marriages of "Sarah Arterburn and Nicholas Haun," and of "Elijah Arterburn and Sarah Vinson" was Lewis Corbin, a Baptist clergyman who later moved to Eastern Kentucky. "William Arterburn [Jr.] and Rachel Smote" were married by Simon Harr, a Lutheran lay pastor and school teacher of Shenandoah County.

Rev. William Williamson, a Presbyterian, [30] solemnized the marriage of "James Arterburn and Polly Elsea" (Elzey/Elsey) in Front Royal, yet Methodism, of Anglican origin, became the church of choice for some of their family in Tennessee and Kentucky. Also in Kentucky, William's family subsequently embraced the new Christian Church, of Presbyterian and Baptist origin, in the wake of a Second Great Awakening.

Peter & Sarah and William & Nancy chose names for some of their children that are often identified with English or Scottish families (e.g., "James, Jemima, Presley"). They also used some Biblical names that were common in both German and English families (e.g., "Elizabeth, Jacob, John"). "Presley" as a surname has been traced by descendants to both England and Germany, and was later used as a given name. "James" shares Biblical roots with the name "Jacob," and although more popular with the English, it was also used by Germans. "Jemima," another Biblical name, was less common but also used by German families.

German immigrants in colonial Virginia used a variety of typically English given names in their families during this time, as revealed by early baptismal records (1750-1780) of Hebron Lutheran Church, in Culpeper County (Madison County, after 1792). [31]

We can only guess about the reasons behind their choices, but it doesn't seem unreasonable to believe that our ancestors' choice of names may have partly reflected the new "melting pot" culture of America in which they now lived. Their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren intermarried with their English, German, and Scottish neighbors in Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. [32] With succeeding generations, economic and social ties probably counted more than ethnic or cultural origin.

The evidence clearly shows that Peter and William began their lives in America as relatively poor and landless, and probably illiterate. Their assimilation, even survival, would have depended on adapting to the dominant English culture and society in which they lived. The families of Peter and William appear to have assimilated and adapted very well, and their children and grandchildren and great grandchildren prospered and flourished.




IX. Clues from the Old World




The International Genealogical Index (IGI) has a record of marriage, extracted from church records, for "William Arterburn" and "Jane Wilkinson," in the English port city of London, June 21, 1676. Their marriage was consecrated in Allhallows-on-the-Wall Anglican Church, on Broad Street, by the old London City Wall, near the East End. Allhallows is a very old church, and has been associated with the trade guild of the Worshipful Company of Carpenters for over 600 years, although we have no evidence that London William was a member of this guild. [33] Whether this William was an immigrant from another land or was born in England cannot be determined from his marriage record, which consists of only a single-line entry with no further information. [34]

Could London William have been our ancestor or relative? We have too few clues to know for sure. Certainly the spelling of his surname matches the final form of our spelling found in America. But several issues currently exist: "William" was far too common a given name to treat it as evidence. There is also a time gap of 1-2 generations between this William and Peter in Maryland, and no evidence of children for William and Jane in London or elsewhere. No evidence of London William and Jane beyond this single record has been found anywhere, in the Old World or New.

Might London William have been an Otterburn? Since we have a few later instances in the British Isles of "Otterburn" apparently rendered as "Etterburn" or "Atterburn," and even "Arterburn," [35] this possibility cannot be entirely ruled out. However, neither IGI nor Ancestry.com has any matching records for a "William and Jane Otterburn."

We know that "Atterburn" was the predominant variant and earliest spelling of ARTERBURN found in America, for Peter and William. From this follows a reasonable assumption that "Arterburn" and "Atterburn" in London may also have been related variants. We have already looked at how King's English (RP) during this era could have turned "Atterborn" into "Atterburn" or "Arterburn," both in England and in America.

Another clue that London William may indeed have been an ARTERBURN, and possibly an "Atterborn," is the fact of his marriage having occurred in Allhallows Church, near the East End of London. The East End was the poor side of town, so to speak, and also populated with German immigrants.

No "Otterborne" or "Otterburn" records have been found at Allhallows. The eight "Otterborne/Otterburn" records found in London (1542-1690) occur elsewhere, and in more prestigious venues. These were probably relatives or descendants of Adam Otterburn of Scotland, whose connection with British Royalty and the courts has been documented (see Endnote #39, below).

Of the few "Otterborne/Otterburn" records found in London, none occur in the same churches where "Atterborne/Atterburn" records have been found.

If London William had migrated from his German-speaking homeland in Continental Europe, and was living and working in London as a craftsman or laborer, his original surname could have been Anglicized--either at the time of marriage, or earlier (see Endnote #24, below). Jane Wilkinson's surname also could have been Anglicized, since "Wilckes" and "Wilckens" and other variants appear in early German church records, and Wulkenzin and Wilken-Berg occur as place names in Germany. The "Wilkinson" surname spelling can also be found in contemporary Germany.

Many "Wilkins" and "Wilkinson" families appear in London records, from the 17th century, of the churches surrounding Allhallows Wall Church, including St. Dunstan Church in the nearby East End village of Stepney. According to genealogists affiliated with the Family History Library (LDS) in Salt Lake City, the greatest concentration of German immigrants in London occurred in the East End. Despite some language differences, the English and German peoples shared a common heritage, and many Germans immigrated to the British Isles, or passed through England en route to her many colonies, especially to America. [36]


Atterburn and Arterburn and Otterburn in England


The English Census of 1851 includes a young family of three "Arterburns" living in the port city of Liverpool, in Lancashire County, in northwest England. The earliest date indicated, 1823, is for the birth of the male head of household, "John Arterburn," [37] born in the adjacent county of Cumberland. John appears in Liverpool several generations after William in London, so they may or may not have been directly related. We have no evidence that they were. That both were living in a major English port city may be a clue about their status or origin. If John was an ARTERBURN, he or his male descendants must have moved on or died out soon thereafter, since there were no "Arterburns" recorded, anywhere in the British Isles, in the British Census of 1881.

Could John Arterburn of Liverpool have been an Otterburn? IGI has no subsequent records for this "John and Martha Arterburn" or for a matching "John Otterburn" of Liverpool, but does have church records for two Otterburns in Lancashire County, contemporary with John: "Warren Otterburn" of Liverpool married Ann Dewar, in 1839, and "Richard Otterburn" of Manchester married Ann Tyler, in 1853. The given names, "Warren" and "Richard," are documented among the Otterburn families in the counties of Yorkshire and North Yorkshire during this era, which probably link both of the Lancashire Otterburns to northeast England.

Neither IGI nor Ancestry.com has any matching records for a "John and Martha Otterburn" anywhere in the British Isles. However, "Ann Otterburn," age 33, born in Cumberland County, does appear in the 1851 English Census. Ann was currently residing in Scarborough, in Yorkshire. Ann was head of household, with a 14-year old female who was listed as a "visitor." Whether Ann's birth in Cumberland and these Otterburn marriages in Lancashire are more than coincidental with John Arterburn's presence there cannot be definitively determined from what little evidence we have, but are certainly suggestive.

"George W. Arterburn" appears in the English Census of 1891 (see Ancestry.com) as the four-year-old grandson of Gilbert and Sarah Dowson, all of whom show Skerne, in the county of East Riding of Yorkshire, as place of birth. "John W. Arterburn," age 16 and single, was a draper's apprentice in the household of John Nicholson, in the 1891 Census, residing in Scarborough, county of North Yorkshire. According to this record, John W. was also born in Scarborough, even though no ARTERBURNS were recorded in the British Census of 1881.

"John W. Otterburn" appears in the 1881 Census, age 6, in Scarborough, a match for the "John W. Arterburn" of the 1891 Census.

"George W. Arterburn" was too young for the 1881 Census, but IGI does have records for the name, "George Otterburn," extending back to 1818, in Scarborough and Yorkshire. The death index for England and Wales lists a "George W. Otterburn," age 54, who died in the county of Lancashire, in 1941, an apparent match for the "George W." of the 1891 English Census.

A few instances of the "Atterburn" spelling appear randomly in the English Censuses of 1841, 1851, 1861, and 1871--all residing in Yorkshire, and all with birthplace of Yorkshire or Sutton Forest:

1841 Census: George and wife Mary, in-laws in the household of John Skelton; Richard, a 15-year old apprentice in the household of George Richardson.

1851 Census: Richard and wife Mary, farmers, with three servants. Ancestry.com has annotated this record with "Otterburn" as an alternate spelling; William, Edmond, Edwin, Thomas, and Warren, an in-law family in the household of William Prust.

1861 Census: George, an unmarried craftsman with one male boarder.

1871 Census: Marie, listed as "visitor" in the household of John Rall.

These "Atterburn" individuals match either "Otterburn" births or given names indicated in church records of Yorkshire and Sutton Forest, found in IGI.

What then are we to make of these British records in which a few instances of "Atterburn" and even "Arterburn" spellings have occurred for what otherwise appear to be Otterburn families?

The "Prust" and "Rall" surnames suggest French and German roots, respectively. Colonel John Rall was a German who commanded the brigade of Hessian troops at Trenton, and the Proust surname is notably represented in France by Marcel Proust. We have already established, with the Otterbachs, that German immigrants were present in 19th-century Yorkshire (see Endnote #35, below). This may simply be coincidence. Regardless, we have no evidence linking any of these individuals with the ARTERBURNS.

The dynamic and evolving state of the English language during this era, in both the British Isles and in America, has already been discussed. We have looked at how the remarkable similarity in spelling and pronunciation of these names could have made them susceptible to confusion and conflation. What remains for us to do is to look more closely for any clues, in historical context, that might help to clarify whether these few anomalous spellings are more likely misspellings, or whether they might actually represent common variant spellings of "Otterburn" in the British Isles.

Clearly, the "Otterborne/Otterburn" spellings predominate in northeast England and in Scotland, from earliest times. Certainly, one or more Otterburn families with an extended ancestry is represented in these records.

These two isolated instances of "Arterburn" may have resulted from an English census taker, in 1891, imposing King's English (RP) pronunciation and non-rhotic spelling, upon hearing the surname, "Otterburn." John W. and George W. were not living in Otterburn households at the time, which may have been a contributing factor.

The "Arterburn" spelling never reappeared in subsequent records for the individuals so named, who were otherwise listed as "Otterburn."

English broad A and short O are virtually identical in sound and could easily have been confused and conflated by a census taker in these few instances of "Atterburn" that occurred, also. In most of these records, as well, the "Atterburn" spellings appear in households that were not Otterburn households, which may have contributed to the error. The fact that the "Atterburn" spellings are found in census records, and not in local church records, is also an important clue.

That neither the "Atterburn" nor "Arterburn" spellings persisted in the British Isles is telling. We find no evidence of these spellings as early variants of "Otterborne/Otterburn," either. Finally, the "Atterburn" and "Arterburn" spellings are not to be found today in the counties of Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, Northumberland, or East Riding, while the "Otterburn" spelling abounds.

"Atterburn" and "Arterburn," in these few instances in northeast England, were most likely anomalous misspellings of "Otterburn."


Atterborne and Atterburn and ARTERBURN

The IGI lists two female marriages and one female christening, extracted from London church records, for the surname, "Aterborne, Atterborne, Atterbourn," 1619-1726.

Source information for these IGI records of the two females who were married in London include the Registry of Deeds of Ireland (1708-1929), a clue that both of these families or their descendants subsequently moved on to Ireland.

The IGI has extracted records of one female marriage and one male christening for the surname, "Atterburn," 1726-1769.

All of these records are found in churches in the north of London and near the East End, areas where German immigrants are known to have lived. The surnames (e.g, Pierce, Harwick, Dent, Luffman) represented in these records can be found in other church records in north London or the East End, where Germans are known to have lived. These surnames or their German precursors can be found in German church records, and have also been found among later German immigrants in America (see also Endnote #39, below).

"George Atterborn," (age 20, thus born about 1615) appears in the passenger list of the vessel, "Constance," bound for Virginia, in 1635. There is circumstantial evidence that the Constance may have been a Dutch vessel, from Rotterdam, as were many of the commercial ships that transported immigrants to colonial America. George may have originally embarked from the Continent. Surviving records of court proceedings in London, February-April, 1636, indicate that a dispute arose about passenger fares for some of the (unidentified) indentured servants aboard this vessel, but the final disposition seems unclear. One "George Atterborne" later appeared in New England, so he evidently did make it to America, but nothing more has ever been discovered about George or his family, if any. [38]

Could George or his descendants have migrated to Maryland and/or Virginia, and could he have been the ancestor of Peter Arterburn? If Peter was an indentured servant in Maryland--as the court evidence strongly suggests, it seems unlikely that he would have been a 4th or 5th generation descendant of George Atterborne. If Peter in Maryland had been a descendant of George, wouldn't Peter have benefited from his ancestors' labors in America, and would likely have had a greater degree of economic independence than he apparently had? Wouldn't there be surviving public records of the intervening generations of George's male descendants in America? Could George Atterborne have been a relative (without surviving male progeny) who arrived much earlier in America, if not our direct ancestor?

These early instances of Atterborne, Atterburn, and Arterburn appearing briefly in London and at different times suggest that these were indeed migrants or recent immigrants, rather than multi-generational residents. It's possible, of course, that some might have remained in the British Isles, but without surviving male progeny to perpetuate any of these surnames. [39]




X. The Evidence Reconsidered




After years of searching through genealogical records for England, Ireland, and Scotland--which included visits to London, Dublin, and Edinburgh, Art and Jan Arterburn were unable to find definitive evidence of an English or Scottish ancestry for the ARTERBURNS. In the end, Art and Jan concluded that a German or Continental ancestry was most likely indicated. [40]

A careful reexamination of the available evidence, both old and new, has turned up nothing that is better explained by attributing an English or Scottish origin. In fact, much of the evidence argues decidedly against such a hypothesis.

The weight of the evidence points unmistakably toward a Continental origin for the ARTERBURNS, probably from a land or culture where German was spoken. An even earlier East European or Asian ancestry may also be indicated, based upon John Elsea's testimony and the DNA evidence. Although no single piece of evidence proves the case conclusively, the cumulative effect is substantial and overwhelming. To recount briefly, some key pieces of evidence are:

John Elsea's court testimony that Peter Arterburn "came from the East India," [41] along with other clues that Peter and Maryland Peter were one and the same (see Endnote #15), indicate that Peter was almost certainly our immigrant ancestor.

Several different sources serve to corroborate, if not clarify, John Elsea's testimony about Peter's dark complexion and "East India" origin:

1. A second family tradition of an "Indian" ancestry among descendants.

2. The Warren County, Virginia contractor who built Otterburn School in the vicinity of where Peter Arterburn apparently once lived, and who linked the ARTERBURN name with Indians.

3. The challenge of Elias Arterburn as a witness on racial grounds in Tennessee.

4. The Union Army service record's description of a "dark complexion" for Thomas E. Arterburn in Kentucky.

According to the authors of the The Arterburn Cousins, the majority of ARTERBURN families they interviewed believed that Germany was their ancestral home of origin. Green Arterburn (1834-1903), great grandson of Peter Arterburn, publicly declared the same in his published biographical sketch. We also have historical clues of a German cultural identity for the ARTERBURNS.

As we have already discussed, evidently the ARTERBURNS were not ostracized or treated as second-class citizens in Shenandoah County. Peter's German or European cultural identity must have prevailed over his skin color among the white Europeans--the Germans, English, and Scots--who were his peers.

Dr. A.P. Funkhouser, in his history of the Virginia Conference of the United Brethren in Christ, reports that some Germans who came to America from the region of the Upper Rhine were of mixed ethnicity and darkly complected. Switzerland and three states of southern Germany are located along the Upper Rhine: Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse. All are known to have been sources of German immigration to America during the colonial era.

If we triangulate these facts with the many different pieces of evidence that Peter was also German or German-speaking, it's possible that we have located the region of his home in Germany. It may or may not be coincidental that the ship on which George Atterborn was originally booked was named "Constance," namesake of either the German town of "Konstanz," located in the state of Baden-Württemberg, or Lake Constance, along the German border with Switzerland. The (Upper) Rhine River flows through Lake Constance and through the town. The claim of the late Shenandoah Valley genealogist and historian, Fred Painter, to have found evidence of a Swiss origin for the ARTERBURNS also points in this direction.

That Peter, according to John Elsea, "came from the East India" remains the mysterious piece of this puzzle. John Elsea's statement could allude either to an earlier Asian or East European origin before Peter or his ancestor migrated to Germany, or to another seafaring adventure of Peter, before coming to America. The DNA evidence could support either. That Peter was a youth, recently married, and indentured when he first appears to us in Maryland probably argues against the latter, but we can't be certain of this.

That both might obtain--that Peter was a German of East European or Asian origin ultimately, who might have first journeyed to the Dutch East Indies, followed by a second "redemptioner" passage to America--also remains a possibility.

If John Elsea's meaning was the Dutch East Indies, the question of the origin of Peter's skin color remains. If the source of Peter's skin color was an Asian mother of the Dutch East Indies, and not a prior East European or Asian ancestry (in Germany), this would mean that Peter's father went to the Dutch East Indies and married or partnered with a woman of color. Thus, Peter would presumably have been born and have grown up there.

Peter was poor, illiterate, indentured and of dark complexion when we find him in America, which is likely revealing of his past economic and social status. Yet, he apparently had all the rights and privileges of a white European in Shenandoah County, and was not ostracized as were many of mixed ethnicity in Virginia (e.g., the fate of some Melungeons). If Peter had grown up in a far-away colonial home, the darkly complected son of a Pacific island mother and a poor European migrant, and without benefit of a more pronounced German cultural identity, it seems doubtful that his social status in Shenandoah County could have been what it was.

In the absence of evidence to the contrary, the simpler hypothesis that the source of Peter's skin color was prior East European or Asian migration to Germany seems more credible because it requires fewer assumptions. This hypothesis also fits nicely with Funkhouser's dark Germans, the fact of historic migrations on the Eurasian Continents, and our DNA profile, which locates the origin of the R1a Haplogroup in Central or Southern Asia. This region is contiguous with both the Indian Subcontinent and Eastern Europe, and this could have been the meaning of "East India" that John Elsea had in mind, instead of the Dutch East Indies.

Even if John Elsea meant that Peter had come from the Dutch East Indies to America, Peter still could have come from Germany first. Within a window 1728-1736, he probably would have had time to "work off" an indenture in the Dutch colony, then secure a second "redemptioner" passage to America. Perhaps we may yet uncover additional evidence, whether from extant records or advances in DNA analysis, that will help to clarify this.

The prospect of linking Peter Arterburn to the British Isles and to any British records may be unrealistic, regardless of whether one or more might have been distant relatives.

A final word about surnames: While I think we can be confident that the available evidence for a German or Continental origin is conclusive, the same cannot be said about the original form or spelling of our surname. Neither "Arterburn" nor "Atterburn" have been found in Europe, and both appear almost certainly to have been Anglicized forms of another name or spelling.

Given what we know about the state of the English language during this era, and the fact that we can link the spellings of ARTERBURN and "Atterburn" in America, we have good reason to believe that "Atterburn" and "Arterburn" in London may also have been related variants. "Atterborn" is close enough in spelling and pronunciation, and we have already explored how the German and English (RP) pronunciation of these names is remarkably similar. All three spellings have been found in close proximity, in London church records, and in locations where Germans and other immigrants are known to have lived (see Endnote #39).

"Atterborn" or "Atterborne" is the earliest form of spelling of the three. But this name has yet to be found in Europe, so we can't be certain this was the spelling of our original surname. The components of this name, "Atter" and "Born," suggest a Continental origin. While the spelling, "Atter," is relatively rare as an early German surname, "Born" is much more common, then and now, and can also be found throughout Europe as a place name. "Born" also occurs as a common suffix in other composite German surnames.

Thus, it would seem that "Atterborn," if precursor of ARTERBURN, may have been either:

1. A relatively late and rare German composite surname that was partially Anglicized in America, and perhaps also in London.

2. A late and rare Germanized form of another surname, derived perhaps from an earlier Asian or East European name, which was partially Anglicized in America, and perhaps also in London.

Evidence for Peter Arterburn (aka Atterburn) or his family of origin, and the spelling of our original surname, may yet turn-up in local German or Continental records. European records have hardly been touched by genealogists in comparison with British records, which have been far more intensively searched.

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XI. Endnotes

[With hyperlinks, use your browser's "Back" (<--) button to return to this Website. Please report broken links]

1. Arterburn, Charles R. Some Research Notes and Current Hypotheses of the Origin of the Arterburn Family and Surname: Based on Historical and Genealogical Sources and Recent DNA Analyses, Lexington, Kentucky : C.R. Arterburn, c2007-2010.



2. Arterburn, C. Norben and Janet D. Arterburn. The Arterburn Cousins, [S.l. : s.n., 1977]



3. Arterburn and Arterburn, op. cit., p. 2-14.



4. Art & Jan Arterburn were once in contact, during the 1970s, with Shenandoah Valley genealogist and historian, Fred P. Painter, who claimed that he had proof of Swiss ancestry (i.e., German-speaking emigrants from that part of the European Continent known today as Switzerland) for the ARTERBURNS. But his offer of evidence came with a price, which at the time was deemed too costly, especially since Art & Jan were still very much engaged in their own research efforts. Alas, Mr. Painter passed away soon thereafter, and presumably took his secret--whatever it was--to the grave.



5. Arterburn and Arterburn, op. cit., p. 2-14. The entire though brief biographical sketch, which originally appeared in Portrait and Biographical Album of Coles County, Illinois, is quoted in the entry for "Green Arterburn" in The Arterburn Cousins.



6. Arterburn and Arterburn, op. cit., p. 2-14.



7. This online transcription from Court Records of Prince George's County, Maryland, 1696-1699, clearly reveals that Richard Gambra was a Maryland planter who employed indentured servants, and that he was probably a severe master:

"Ordered that Christopher Fisher Servant to Richard Gambra be comitted into the Sheriffs Custody and to be hand to the Whipping poast there to Receive twenty Lashes well Laid on, and Continue in the Custody of the Sheriffe till his Master Send for him." [Underline added]

Estate settlement records for Richard Gambra, Jr. (1726-1793) have been published online at RootsWeb, which may provide clues to the location of the Gambra estate where Maryland Peter labored.



8. Unpublished update of The Arterburn Cousins, reported by Art and Jan Arterburn, February, 2005.



9. Lorena Walsh's study (William and Mary Quarterly) of servitude and tenancy in Charles County, Maryland, 1650-1720, describes conditions around the turn of the 18th century in this county's immigrant-saturated economy, briefly summarized on p. 91:

"In 1660, over 90 percent of Charles County's free adult males were immigrants. Mortality was high, and the sex ratio was unbalanced; therefore many men never married and raised families. Because the population was not growing by natural increase and because large numbers of new European immigrants continued to enter the county, the adult population remained predominantly foreign-born through the 1690s. By 1705, however, half of the adult men were locally born, and by 1720 about two-thirds were first- or second-generation creoles."

[Note: Carol Berkin's book about colonial women and families clarifies in a footnote on p. 9 that "colonial historians use 'creole' to indicate colonists born in the Chesapeake settlements, rather than immigrants to the region."]

On p. 90, Walsh's table of reconstructed data indicates that, in 1720, there were 213 male servants (estimated) in the County.

On p. 96, Walsh notes:

"Until 1681, all immigrants to Maryland might claim a right to land from the proprietary government. From headright applications one can identify former servants who had arrived with indentures, as well as those who did not. Evidence suggests that servants who had the foresight to negotiate a contract before leaving England were likely to be older, of higher social status, and more skilled than those who made no advance agreement. After the headright system was abolished (1681), servants can be identified only from records of age judgments for those serving according to the custom of the country and from listings of servants in inventories and miscellaneous court records; most of these probably had no indentures. Hence toward the end of the century known ex-servants are increasingly likely to have immigrated at younger ages, possessed fewer skills, and come from relatively low social origins."

[Parentheses original. Underline added]

Thus, the contracts of some servants evidently were not recorded with the local court. Such a record for Maryland Peter may not exist.



10. See this study of punishments meted out by some colonial era courts in Maryland and Pennsylvania to disobedient indentured servants, published online by Melissa Roe of Lafayette College, Easton, PA. Excerpted from Roe's study:

"A Pennsylvania law passed prior to 1682 concerning runaway servants stated that the servants 'shall be Adjudged by the Court to double the time of such their absence by future Service over and above other Damage and Cost' and that anyone aiding the runaway 'Shall forfeit twenty pounds to the Master...and be fined five pounds to the Court.'

"Laws in early Maryland prescribed punishments considerably more severe than those in Pennsylvania. In 1638, for example, several lashes were the punishment for running away. In the following year, the punishment was extended to hanging the runaway. By 1641 the law was changed such that death would be the punishment unless the servant requested that his or her service be extended after the expiration of the contract. The service could be extended up to twice the time absent, not to exceed seven years.

"In 1650, time was doubled and the servant was responsible for damages and costs incurred by the master during the servant's absence. In 1666 the law was again altered providing that a servant would serve 10 days extra for every one day of absence."

See also "On The Path to Slavery," a recent master's thesis at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, which examines indentured servitude in 17th-century Virginia.



11. From The German Americans: An Ethnic Experience. "Inequality: Incomes, Occupations, Social Structure" (Chapter Four), published online:

"Those families who initially worked as indentured servants acclimated more rapidly to their surroundings. They picked up the language more readily, got acquainted with American farming methods, learned the techniques of craftsmen, as well as about commerce and the law."

12. Unpublished update of The Arterburn Cousins, reported by Art and Jan Arterburn, February, 2005.



13. Unpublished update of The Arterburn Cousins, reported by Art and Jan Arterburn, February, 2005.



14. Arterburn and Arterburn, op. cit.



15. Peter Arterburn of Shenandoah County used three wavy lines as his personal mark for his signature in his Will, in 1796. Such an unusual mark seems emblematic of a seafaring memory, as if Peter had memorialized in his mark a recollection of the adventure of a great ocean voyage.

Could Peter's distinctive mark be a clue that he had made the voyage to the New World himself?

Could John Elsea's reference in his court testimony (see Endnote #23) that James Arterburn's father "came from the East India" be another clue of this?

What does an analysis of the evidence we now have about Peter in Maryland and Peter in Virginia reveal? For ease of comparison, upper case "PETER" will represent Peter of Shenandoah County, and lower case "Maryland Peter" will indicate Peter of Charles County, Maryland.

We have no evidence of the age of Sarah, wife of PETER, nor of when or where they were married. We know only that their first child, Jemima, was born about 1766, birthplace unknown. Thus, both PETER and Sarah most likely were born by 1748, or earlier. In 1748, Peter attested in court that he was born in 1711, and had lost his wife in 1737 and was evidently a widower. Thus, PETER could not have been born between 1737-1748, if the son of Peter of Maryland.

If the son of Maryland Peter, PETER in Virginia most likely would have been born within a window, 1728-1736, given Peter’s birthdate of 1711. If so, PETER would have been age 30-38 at the time of the birth of his first child, Jemima. If Peter and PETER were one and the same, he would have been age 55 at the time of Jemima's birth. In either case, PETER evidently was late in starting his family of Shenandoah County.

Was William the son of Peter and his Maryland wife, and younger brother of PETER?

William, who died in 1817, lived 14 years beyond the death, in 1803, of PETER. If William was PETER’S younger brother, and the son of Maryland Peter, he must have been born within approximately the same window, 1729-1737. We know that William's first child, Samuel, was born in Culpeper County, in 1771. Thus, William also began his family later, at age 34-42, in this scenario.

Could William have been born later, perhaps the son of a second marriage of Maryland Peter?

If so, William most likely would have been born no later than 1753, since his first child was born in 1771. If so, Maryland Peter would have had to have remarried within a window, 1748-1752. Do we have any clues that this might have occurred?

Maryland Peter was almost certainly an indentured servant in Maryland, in 1743, and his contract was most likely extended since he was clearly in arrears with Richard Gambra at that time. Peter appears again in Charles County public records either as a servant or debtor in estate settlements, as late as 1754. Peter was poor and in debt while in Maryland, and his prospects there for matrimony the second time around may have been equally poor.

Maryland Peter's struggle with indebtedness evidently continued in Virginia. He was also poor and virtually without any personal property when he was taken to court in Prince William County, in 1763.

That Maryland Peter remarried within this four-year window, 1748-1752, and had a second child under such conditions cannot be ruled out, but is at least questionable (see also Endnote #9).

If PETER was the son of Maryland Peter and a first wife (1728-1737), with William the son of Maryland Peter and an unknown second wife (1748-1752), then PETER and William would have been half-brothers.

If this scenario is correct, why only one child in this second marriage, since we have no evidence of any other ARTERBURNS in the generation of PETER and William?

Why only one or two children in Maryland Peter's first marriage?

Maryland Peter would have come of age, traveled to the New World, married, have had one or two children, and have lost his wife--not necessarily in that order, all within a window, 1728-1737. He was also faced with the economic hardships of life as an indentured servant, once in America. Rather, it seems surprising that he would have had any family at all during this time.

Another scenario would have Maryland Peter childless in the first marriage. If he remarried within a window, 1748-1752, during which time both PETER and William were born, both would have been old enough to marry and start their families when they did. Given Peter's circumstances, this seems equally questionable.

If this scenario were correct, why only two children in this second marriage? Also, this scenario would not explain PETER'S relatively early death, in 1803, in light of the advanced ages of his son, James, and of later progeny. Nor would it explain why William, so close in birth date, outlived PETER by 14 years. Nor would it account for PETER'S unusual personal mark, or John Elsea's statement about PETER'S origin.

If PETER and Maryland Peter were one and the same, then he obviously did remarry. We just don't know when or where. Perhaps PETER'S fortunes had improved by 1766, sufficient to remarry and start a new family. From Prince William (or adjacent Fauquier County), the ARTERBURNS moved on to Culpeper County, and finally to Shenandoah (Dunmore), by 1773.

(Note: We may never find complete marriage or baptismal records for the ARTERBURNS during this period. This was early America and the hinterlands of colonial Virginia, where record-keeping was probably marginal, at best--especially for the poor and illiterate. Marriages for Peter and William, and baptisms for some of their children, may have been performed in house churches, outside of the Church of England, without surviving records.)

If Maryland Peter and PETER were one and the same, and childless in the first marriage, and if he had remarried within a window, 1748-1752, during which time William was born, it seems equally difficult to explain the gap of at least 14 years before PETER and Sarah had their remaining children. Just as unlikely would be a scenario in which PETER was the first and only child of Peter, with William the first child born to PETER, 1748-1752. Why the long gap between this first child and the subsequent children of PETER and Sarah?

If Maryland Peter and PETER were one and the same, could William have been his son, the only child of a first marriage, born to a mother who had died in Maryland, in 1737?

"Peter Arterburn (aka "Atterburn") does not appear in public records after Prince William County until PETER appears in Shenandoah County, in 1773, during the baptism of his infant daughter, Henry. PETER and Sarah together would give birth to seven (known) children: Six were born relatively close together, from 1766-1774. If PETER and Maryland Peter were one and the same, he would have been age 55-63 during this time. Their last child, Jacob, was born later, in 1780.

William first appears in public records in John Glassford's accounts ledger, in Prince William County, in 1768. We know that William was in Culpeper County, by 1771, since his first child, Samuel, was born there. William does not show-up again until Shenandoah County, in 1775 and again in 1785, in the two censuses of John Netherton. He also appears in Shenandoah County court records claiming reimbursement for services performed during the War, in 1782-83. William appears in tax lists from 1783 and as a witness to five Deeds, 1794-1799, in Shenandoah County. William and other family members are also named in court minutes of the Overseer of Poor District #2, in 1795. William was absent from the 1799 tax list, probably a clue that he moved his family to Kentucky in that year.

PETER was the only one of the two ever to purchase property in Virginia (1780-1785). PETER was taken to court--twice--in Shenandoah County for indebtedness (1784), during this period. He was evidently forced to sell his farm (1785), for slightly less than what he had paid for it, five years before. Was this Maryland Peter, struggling with indebtedness due to the obligations of a young family, perhaps exacerbated by illness and advancing age?

Shenandoah County Court Minutes has the following entry, dated December 25, 1783: "On motion of Peter Arterburn, he is henceforth exempted from the payment of the County Levy."

Exemptions were only granted for age or infirmity, but we find no evidence that PETER was disabled, since he was evidently paying rent to Zachariah McKay, in 1790 (see Endnote #17). There are no court minutes or orders about PETER by the Overseer of the Poor to indicate that he was disabled, had become destitute, or was unable to provide for his family.

There are no indications in any public records of two contemporaneous persons named, "Peter Atterburn/Arterburn," in Maryland or Virginia. John Netherton's two censuses (1775, 1785) show only one "Peter," as do the tax lists of Shenandoah County.

In 1783, we find only one "Peter Arterburn" listed as a tithable in the county's tax list, and only one tithable listed in his household--himself, since he had no male children yet old enough to be taxed. We find only one tithable listed for "William Arterburn," as well--himself. Although difficult to read, PETER is the 14th name on the list, and William is 17th. PETER had not yet requested an exemption.

If the "Peter" who requested and was granted a tax exemption at the end of that year was an elder or second "Peter," which would also indicate that he was a separate tithable, there should be two individuals named "Peter Arterburn" (or Atterburn), or at least two tithables in his household, in the 1783 tax list. But we find only one.

In the 1787 and 1799 tax lists, only one "Peter Arterburn" is listed, and also marked as "levy free," or "Lfree." Thus, we have the same "Peter" who requested exemption from the county's tax levy in 1783, appearing in the 1787 and 1799 lists as exempt. Thus, we have PETER.

PETER'S tax exemption in Shenandoah County presents us with a telling clue about his age, and also further evidence that he and Peter of Charles County, Maryland were one and the same. In which case, his age in 1783 would have been about 72.

If Maryland Peter and PETER were one and the same person, he would have been about 92 at the time of his death, in 1803. Could PETER have lived such a long and vital life?

Consider that PETER'S son, James, lived to the age of 92, in Tennessee. James' oldest son, John, who lived to age 91 in Kentucky, was a widower and remarried at age 76. James' second son, Elzia, lived to age 80 in Kentucky, and sired 11 children with his first wife. As a widower, Elzia remarried (a much younger woman) at age 59, had three additional children, and remained active until the end of his life.

If William was the first son of PETER from a previous marriage, William would have been at least age 80 at the time of his death, in 1817. Such an advanced age for William seems in line with PETER'S longevity--if he was also Maryland Peter, and also with the fact that William died 14 years after PETER.

Finally, if Maryland Peter and PETER were one and the same, this would also explain in the most straight-forward manner John Elsea's testimony that PETER "came from the East India," and PETER'S unusual and distinctive personal mark.

16. The Virginia Historical Inventory in the Library of Virginia collection includes a WPA site survey (1936) identified as the Peter Arterburn house, located near Bentonville/Flint Run, in Page Valley, southwest Warren County (Shenandoah County, before 1836). According to Deed records, Peter owned this property for only five years. On May 25, 1780, Samuel Stover (Stauffer) conveyed 204 acres, "being the equal part or half of a tract of 408 acres by survey made by Mr. George Humes by patent granted to Thomas Norman of Augusta County baring [sic] date 14th June 1751," to Archibald Allen for 400 Pounds, 5 Shillings.

On the same day, Samuel and his wife Barbara conveyed the other "equal half" of this tract, 204 acres, to Peter Arterburn, for 65 Pounds, 5 Shillings, "current money." There were no witnesses recorded for either Deed, and the wording of both is virtually identical. Was Peter's tract of such poor quality compared with Allen's to justify such a great disparity in price? Presuming "equal half" to mean of equal value, and taking "current money" as a clue, Peter must have bought this property on credit with only a down payment.

No clues appear in the Deed for the sale of the property to James Stinson five years later, but a reasonable presumption would be that Peter couldn't afford to keep it. Peter was taken to court for indebtedness--twice, by the Cunninghams, in 1784.

Advancing age may have also been a factor. Shenandoah County Court Minutes has the following entry, dated December 25, 1783: "On motion of Peter Arterburn, he is henceforth exempted from the payment of the County Levy." According to Merriam-Webster, "henceforth" means "from this point on," which implies permanence.

Exemptions were granted for age or infirmity, but we find no evidence that Peter was disabled, since he was evidently paying rent to Zachariah McKay, in 1790 (see Endnote #17, below). There are no court minutes or orders about Peter by the Overseer of the Poor to indicate that he was disabled, had become destitute, or was unable to provide for his family.

According to Stinson's Deed, recorded November 25, 1785, he paid 60 Pounds, 5 Shillings--5 Pounds less than what Peter had paid. (Again, no witnesses were recorded.) There were no stipulations in Peter's first Deed about remaining installments, no subsequent court action by Stover to recover any loss due to a default by Peter, and no mention of Stover's property interests in Stinson's Deed. Some of these transactions may have been handled privately, either with unrecorded documents or as gentlemen's agreements among friends, or possibly even among relatives.

(Note: Samuel Stover (Stauffer) was a Swiss German who also owned property near Big Spring, about 10 miles south of Peter's Bentonville/Flint Run property, between Luray and Rileyville in present-day northwest Page County (cf. O'Dell's Pioneers of Old Frederick County, Virginia)

When Art & Jan Arterburn visited Peter's property, in 1974, they reported only a small structure "of stone and mud mortar" on the Bentonville/Flint Run site, which was believed to have originated with Peter. Dan & Lynn Arterburn Coleman visited the Bentonville site, in 1983. They also found a small, one-room stone structure, which was partially dug into the earth, and without a roof. This structure, described by both Art & Jan and Dan & Lynn, may have been the remains of the cellar indicated in the 1936 WPA site survey.

According to the site survey, a "dilapidated" log house covered with weatherboard occupied this site, in 1936. Dan & Lynn also reported a vacant house nearby. It's unclear whether the house they saw was the log house surveyed in 1936, or a new structure added since then. But the survey's description of a cellar "under one end" of the log house seems to be a clue that the 1936 log structure was already gone by the time of both visits.

(Note: Construction of a walk-in cellar underneath the house was characteristic of German building practices in early America, as illustrated by the log home of German immigrant, George Bowman (Bauman), of adjacent Rockingham County:

"George Bowman began construction of his house in 1773. His first task was to begin excavation of the cellar, a laborious task requiring the digging out the side of the hill that he had selected for just this purpose. This integral part of Germanic housing in both Germany and America was used to store large quantities of perishable foods at relatively cool and stable temperatures."

Bowman's house has been relocated and is now preserved at the Frontier Culture Museum, Staunton, Virginia.)

The WPA survey also indicates the separate "remains of a big stone chimney in yard." Neither Art & Jan nor Dan & Lynn remembered this chimney from their visits, so apparently it was already gone by then. Could this old chimney have been the remains of an earlier or later house, or was it the remains of some other structure contemporaneous with Peter's house? In John Netherton's Census of 1785, Peter owned a "dwelling," but William apparently did not. They appear not to be listed together, so evidently William was not sharing Peter's farm and homesite.

Although weatherboard, narrow flooring, and a brick chimney suggest the possibility of later improvements to an earlier structure, the log house with stone chimney and cellar of the 1936 site survey could have been built by Peter, but we may never know for sure.



17. Arterburn and Arterburn, op. cit., p. 2-14.

That Peter was a renter or tenant farmer, after giving up the Bentonville/Flint Run property, is corroborated by an entry recorded, April 29, 1790, in Shenandoah County Deed Book G:

"Know all men by these presents that I Zachariah McKoy [sic: McKay] of County of Sullivan and State of North Carolina [Tennessee, after 1796] ... do constitute and ordain my well beloved friends Jeremiah McKoy [sic: McKay, Zachariah's great nephew] & Sinnett Young of County Shanandoah and State of Virginia my Lawfull Attorneys for me and in my name ... for the Recovery of my Rents whereon George Priest, Thomas Vinson, and Peter Arterburn now lives ... witness whereon I have set my hand and seal this 8th day of Februrary 1790 ... Witnesses: Edwin Young, William Dobson, James McKoy [sic: McKay]."

(Gilreath, 2002. Underline and bracketed contents added)

(Note: The surnames "Priest" and "Vinson" can be found in both England and Germany. These and similar instances suggest migration of Germans to England, as has been documented. From this alone, of course, we can't be certain whether George Priest or Thomas Vinson or their ancestors came from the British Isles or directly from Germany.)

Cecil O'Dell, in his Pioneers of Old Frederick County, Virginia, has mapped many of the early landowners along the south branch or fork of the Shenandoah River, known as the South River.

Robert McKay (1680-1752), a Scottish Quaker from Cecil County, Maryland and his partner, Jost Hite, a German from Pennsylvania, were issued an initial patent for 100,000 acres located on several branches of the Shenandoah River, in 1731. The family of Robert McKay (Sr.) would continue for generations to control prime parcels of bottomland on both sides of the south branch, or South River.

(Note: On September 30, 1790, James McKay, son of Robert (Sr.), "consigned Power of Attorney to Isaac McCarty of Nelson County, Kentucky for the purpose of recovering and receiving money for land in Kentucky." Among Robert's Shenandoah County descendants was a great grandson named, "Enos McKay," born October, 1, 1774. (O'Dell: 415,416)

The name "Enos McKay" suggests some kind of link with "Enos McKie" (a variant spelling recognized by the MacKay Clan) who later married William's daughter, Sarah, in Jefferson County, Kentucky (cf. The Arterburn Cousins). Jefferson and Nelson are adjacent counties.)

Zachariah McKay--Peter's landlord--inherited from his father, Robert (Sr.), the "plantation named Nathaniel Calbreath's Bottom," whereon he lived. O'Dell was not successful in pinpointing this South River tract, so we can't be certain of the exact location where Peter Arterburn was living in 1790. However, Zachariah McKay appears in the list of tithables (i.e., taxpayers), in 1746 and again in 1750, who were responsible for the upkeep of a section of the old Indian Road (now highway 340), which ran parallel to the South River. This particular section was located between Caleb Job's Mill, at Overall, and the old Frederick/Augusta County line near Riverside, just south of Front Royal. A branch of this old road also ran along the west side of the River, via Indian Hollow Road across Brush Bottom Ford, north along Panhandle Road, to James McKay's 310-acre plantation (located along the River, north of McCoys Ford Road). James' plantation was his father's (Robert Sr.) old home place. Zachariah McKay's property must have been located somewhere in that vicinity, between Brush Bottom Ford north to Otterburn Road (later Downing Farm Rd).

(Note: Zachariah McKay's move, about 1790, to Sullivan County, Tennessee, might have influenced Peter's son, James, who later moved there, about 1805.)

As tenants or renters, Peter and William may have lived at different locations during their residency of 30 years in Dunmore/Shenandoah County. The names with which they are associated in public records suggest that they lived along the South River or its branches (i.e., Runs) in Page Valley, in what would later become southwest Warren County, and northwest Page County. William was located in poor district #2, as late as 1795, which also confirms this (see also Endnote #27, below).

Their presence in Page Valley with other landless Germans among English and Scottish and German planters probably mirrors both their socio-economic status and history. Unlike the Germans who came from Pennsylvania, Peter and William had apparently migrated across northern Virginia from Maryland. They were no doubt already well acquainted with the ways of the English and Scots. They may have accompanied others who came to Dunmore County from Prince William, Fauquier or Culpeper Counties, or from Maryland.

Most of the public records in Dunmore/Shenandoah County for Peter and William name one or the other as a witness on the recorded Deeds of landowners who lived in the vicinity of South River.

(Note: These records include indications that "marks" were used by both Peter (P) and Sarah (#), and also William (X) for signatures, a clue that they were illiterate.)

The following are published abstracts of these Shenandoah County Deed and Order Book entries (Gilreath, 1986-2004):

June 22, 1773. Reubin Padget, Sr. to "Theophlus Padget, son of Reubin Padget ... confirmed piece or parcel of land lying on branches of Flint run." Witnesses: "Philip Crume, Abraham Raws, Peter Arterburn, John Calfee."

June 22, 1773. John Calfee to Henry Calfee. 118 acres "on one of the main branches of Flint Run." Witnesses: "Theophlus Paget, Reubin Paget, Peter Atterburn, Philip Crume, and Benjamin Bercley."

May 26, 1774, from the Order Book: "In Debt. Alexander Macher, Plt. v. Henry Speelman, Deft. This day came the Plaintiff by his attorney ... Defendant being arrested and ruled to find Special bail but failing therein ... unless said Deft. find such bail at the next Court ... Judgment shall be given Plt. against said Deft. and Peter Arturberner his bail for appearance ..."

(Note: The surname, Speelman/Spielmann, can be found in early German church records and in contemporary Germany. Spielmann also exists as a place name in Germany and in southcentral Austria. Johannes "John" Spielmann was one of the original German settlers of the First Germanna Colony, in 1714. Henry Speelman may have been a descendant or relative.)

May 25, 1780. Samuel Stover to Peter Arterburn. "Tract of land containing two hundred and fore [sic] acres more or less ... being the equal half of a Tract of Four hundred & eight acres by a survey made by Mr. George Humes by patent granted to Thomas Norman of Augusta County [Dunmore, after 1772] baring [sic] date 14th June 1751 ... Consideration of five shillings and Sixty five Pounds current money ... Samuel Stover, Barbara (X) Stover. Witnesses: None."

(Note: Samuel Stover was a Swiss German, as indicated in Endnote #16, above.)

November 28, 1782, from the Order Book: "Upon motion of Ann Cunningham who made oath according to Law ... Certificate is granted her for obtaining letters of Adm. of the Estate of John Cunningham, Dec'd. in due form ... William Thomas & Peter Arterburn her securities ..."

(Note: The surname, Thomas/Tomas, can be found in early German church records and as both a surname and placename in contemporary Germany. Tomas also occurs as a surname and place name in southcentral Austria.
Hans "John" Wendell Thomas/Tomas was one of the original German settlers of the Second Germanna Colony, in 1717.

Another German family with this surname, that of Peter Thomas, has been documented in Berks County, Pennsylvania.

"Henry and Johann Thomas" have been documented among 18th-century German families in Maryland, some of whom later moved to a German coastal settlement in Louisiana.

William Thomas and his brother John were renters or tenant farmers in Shenandoah County, according to the Deed books. They may have been descendants or relatives of one of these families.)

December 25, 1783, from the Minute Book: "On motion of Peter Arterburn he is henceforth exempted from the Payment of the County Levy."

May 27, 1784, from the Order Book: "Ann Cunningham, Adm. of John Cunningham, dec'd. Plt. vs Peter Arterburn, Charles Reagans & Edwin Young, Deft. - In Debt. This day came the Plaintiff by her Attorney ... Alexander Machir undertook for Deft. Young ... said Deft. Arterburn being arrested was solemnly called but came not ... unless he appear at next Court ... Judgment be then entered agst. him and John Hutcheson his Security for the debt and costs ..."

(Note: The surname, Jung, is quite common in early German church records and in contemporary Germany. Jung also occurs as a surname and place name in Austria. Johannes "John" Young/Jung was a German immigrant who settled across the Rappahannock River from Germantown (in present-day Culpeper County), about 1734. Edwin Young may have been a descendant or relative.)

May 27, 1784, from the Order Book: "Ann Cunningham Plt. vs John Grayham & Peter Arterburn Deft. - In Debt. This day came the Plaintiff by his Attorney ... Deft. being arrested was solemnly called but came not ... unless said Deft. appear at next Court ... Judgment then be entered agst. him and Joseph Thomas & John Hutcheson their Security for the Debt."

(Note: The Cunningham family were landowners along South River, and arrived in old Augusta (later Dunmore, then Shenandoah) County long before the ARTERBURNS, as indicated in the excerpt from O'Dell, below.)

May 27, 1784. John Woolf to William Henry. 150 acres "on Flint Run." Witnesses: "Henry Reagan, Peter (P) Arterburn, Daniel Hackney."

November 25, 1785. Peter Arterburn to James Stinson. "Consideration of five Shillings and Sixty Pounds ... one certain tract of land containing two hundred & four acres more or less being the equal half of a tract of four hundred and eight acres by a Survey made thereof by Mr. George Humes by patent granted to Thos. Norman of Augusta County bearing date from the Proprietors office the 14th June 1751 and since by sundry conveyances become the property of said Peter Alterburn ... corner to William Calfee ..." "Peter (P) Arterburn, Sarah (#) Arterburn. Witnesses: None."

September 9, 1794. George Harding to Henry Harding Jr. 121 acres on the "south side of Gooney Run" (north of Flint Run). "George (X) Harding, Margaret (X) Harding." Witnesses: "William Allen, John Netherton Jr., William Arturburn."

September 9, 1794. George Harding to Thomas Allen. 316 acres "on the east side of Shenandoah River" (i.e., the east side of the south fork of Shenandoah River, also known as South River). "George (X) Harding, Margaret (X) Harding." Witnesses: "William Allen, John Netherton Jr., William Arturburn, Vincent ( ) Brannon."

June 13, 1797. John Broughill to John McKarty. 172 acres, "lying and being in Jacob Fallis line on the bank of the branch of Jeremys Run [near Rileyville, in northwest Page County] ... corner to Frederick Hershberger's land." Witnesses: "W. Jennings Jr., Daniel Trout, William ( ) Arterboun."

April 11, 1797. Duskin Tibbs to Hezikiah Woodward. 294 acres, "on Gooney Run [north of Flint Run] a branch of the Shenandoah River [South River] ... in Thomas Montgomery's line." Witnesses: "William (X) Arterburn, Christian ( ) Vaught, Jno. Hambough, Thomas Woodward."

April 9, 1799. Jonathan Clark, James Green, and Andrew McKoy (sic: McKay)--Commissioners representing the estate interests of Jost Hite, Robert Green, William Duff, and Robert McKoy (sic: McKay)--to John Roy, for 253 acres, "lying with the lines of one of the twenty seven surveys commonly called South River survey." Witnesses: "Jeremiah McKay, Wm. ( ) Arterburn, John Curl."

O'Dell's account from court records of the development of the old Indian Road along South River reveals the names of the local inhabitants charged with its upkeep. Some of these early surnames are clearly German or Anglicized (e.g., Hurst, Long). Other names may have been Anglicized (e.g., Leeth, Harding):

"On 25 November 1743, the Orange County Court ordered Robert McKay, Caleb Job and James Leith to view and lay off the road from Massanutten (Luray area) to Caleb Job's Mill (Overall, Virginia on Overall Run). On 22 March 1743/44, the Court appointed Robert McKay to serve as overseer of this section of the road and that Philip Long 'with his gang help clear the same.' The Court directed the overseers (McKay and Long) to divide their 'gangs' after the road was cleared. Philip Long lived on an 850-acre tract at Alma, Page County, Virginia where U.S. Highway 340 crosses the South Branch Shenandoah.

[Note: George Long/Lang was one of the original German settlers of the Second Germanna Colony, in 1717. Philip may have been a descendant or relative.]

"The Orange County Court on 28 June 1745 stated, 'The order for Adam Cunningham, James McCoy [sic: McKay] and George Leith to view the way from Job's Mill to Frederick County line not being yet performed is continued.' All three men lived between present-day Overall, Warren County and Bentonville, Virginia. The Orange County Court referred to this road from the county line to Philip Long's place as the 'The road through Augusta (County) called the Indian Road.'

"The Augusta County Court on 18 March 1746/47 ordered that the following men be appointed to work on the 'Road ordered from Caleb Jobs Mill down (north) to the County line (Frederick)':

"James McKay, Moses McKay, Henry Harding, John Hill, Philip Crume, Thomas Land, William Hurst, Thomas Burk [sic: Buck], William Harrel, Thomas Grubbs, William Hawkins, Zachery McKay, Joshua Job, James McNeal, Adam Cunningham, Jacob Harrill, Charles Coxe, Charles Burke [sic: Buck], Ephrm. Leeth and Caleb Job.

"The inhabitants on the north side of the South River Shenandoah presented a petition to the Augusta County Court in 1750/51 wherein they stated that approximately three years earlier, the Court had ordered a road running down from Caleb Job's plantation down the south (east) side of the South River to James McKay's plantation [south of Front Royal], 'which road is not suitable, and prepare a location on North side crossing the river at a place called the Brush Bottom Ford and so along the river by Henry Speer's plantation. Prayer for survey:

"Mason Combs, William Hurst, Zachariah McKay, Stephen Phillips, John Hankins, Charles Thompson, Thomas Parent, Adam Cunningham, John Sollers, William Overall, Terrence Carroll, Alexander Gunnel, Benjamin Guden, Josiah Parent, Edmon Bollen, Thomas Grubbs, Richard Shirley, Thomas Hues, William Dickerson, Thomas McNeal, Ephraim Leeth, William Parent.'

"This petition requested that the road at present-day Bentonville (U.S. Highway 340) turn west, running along Warren County Highway 613 [Indian Hollow Rd] across Brush Bottom Ford (now Indian Hollow Bridge, a low water bridge) to James McKay's 310-acre plantation.

"Another petition to the Augusta County Court in 1751/1752 stated, 'recites that last fall the Court sent James McKay and Richard Harrill to view a road. They accordingly viewed a road to strike out of McKay's road at Reuben Paget's and so to keep down the River on the east side to the County line. Prays an order to appoint Philip Crum or William Hurst or William Harrill to be surveyor, and order all tithables on Flint Run or its branches and Gooney's Run or its branches from Walter Cunningham's down [north] to the County line [old Frederick County line, just south of Front Royal]:

"Jacob Harrill, Peter Emlie, Anthony Horton, Reuben Paget, Richard Harrill Sr., William Owens, John Kelly, Howard Gibson, James McCoy, Philip Crume, Joseph Hokens, William Hurst, Thomas Land, Richard Harrill, William Harrill, Thomas Monmon, William Colbee [sic: Calfee], Thomas Harrill, John Harrill, John Jones, Joseph Ballenger, James Land, Moses Harrill.'

"Apparently, this petition concerned the original 18 March 1746/47 Court Order for the (Indian) Road from Walter Cunningham's tract running north on or near U.S. Highway 340 between Flint Run/Gooney Run and the South River. Cunningham lived west of Limeton, Virginia near U.S. Highway 340 and about 1 1/2 miles north of Warren County Highway 613 [Indian Hollow Road]."

[O'Dell: 490, 491. Parentheses original. Underline and bracketed contents added. Underline indicates names that also appear in public records associated with Peter and William--also an indication that these individuals or families predated the arrival of the ARTERBURNS in Shenandoah County.]



18. Arterburn and Arterburn, op. cit., p. 2-14.



19. Excerpted from John W. Wayland's A History of Shenandoah County, Virginia, and published online at the Shenandoah County GenWeb site:

"It appears that the Lutherans have built in Woodstock, the county seat, at least three successive church houses: One in 1803, one in 1822, and another (the present one) in 1884. This enumeration does not include the church in which Muhlenberg preached from 1772 to 1776. That building was probably erected prior to 1761, but just when or by whom we have no records to show. Evidently it was used by English and Germans together; and after the Establishment broke down in 1776, it is probable that the Germans of the community (both Lutherans and Reformed likely) continued to meet at least occasionally in the old (Muhlenberg) church for worship. ... The congregation had no regular pastor from 1776 to 1806, a period of 30 years. During this long interval the congregation was kept alive by visiting Lutheran pastors, Rev. Henry Moellen, Rev. C. F. Wilbaum (1776); in 1786 Rev. Jacob Goeing; in 1792 Rev. Christian Streit of Winchester; in 1793 Rev. J. D. Young of Martinsburg."

[Parentheses original]

20. The famous story of Rev. Peter Muhlenberg preaching his farewell sermon followed by the stripping of his clerical robe in the pulpit to reveal his Continental Army uniform underneath may be more fable than fact. Recently, the PBS program, History Detectives, investigated this at the request of the Lutheran Theological Seminary, in Philadelphia. The seminary has in its collection a robe allegedly worn by Muhlenberg. The program transcript reveals the details of their investigation into the provenance of the robe and the sources for the famous story. Their final conclusion was that the robe probably had belonged to Muhlenberg, and that Muhlenberg undoubtedly preached a farewell sermon, but that the dramatic story about the uniform most likely was added as a patriotic gesture by a descendant, 75 years later.

There are no known records of Peter or William having served in the militia or as soldiers during the American Revolutionary War. Both were poor and had young children at the time, which could account for their status as non-combatants. Peter and William both appear in a Dunmore County Census of military district #3 (later, Page and Warren Counties) taken by Captain John Netherton, in 1775, which included local residents who could be called upon for militia duty if needed (cf. Brumbaugh, 1935).

(Note: Netherton's lists of 1775 and 1785 have many of the same names, including Peter and William, who appear in both lists. Wayland's transcription (cf. Wayland, 1927) of Netherton's and John Hutchirson's sections of the 1785 Census include Wayland's description of the areas covered as "now upper Warren" and "the south branch of the Shenandoah River above Front Royal." It's important to note that Wayland is speaking topographically (i.e., upper, above) and not geographically (i.e., north, south). While he further describes "upper Warren" as including such towns as Overall, Bentonville, and Limeton, when looking at a map of Warren County, these towns actually lie in southwest Warren County. One might easily mistake the expressions, "above Front Royal" and "upper Warren," if looking at a map, to imply north of Front Royal. Netherton's and Hutchirson's lists actually covered areas south of Front Royal, as corroborated in the Deeds.)

William Arterburn, William Thomas, and Thomas Harding, along with other Virginians who remained on the home front but supported the cause, later submitted claims (1782-83) and were reimbursed (see Virginia Revolutionary Publick Claims) for services rendered of driving beef cattle in support of Virginia state troops. The DAR and SAR have considered this acceptable evidence of service for membership purposes for descendants of William Arterburn.



21. Arterburn and Arterburn, op. cit., p. 2-14.

Wayland's A History of Shenandoah County, Virginia includes in an appendix this list of baptisms, performed mostly during 1773-74.

The marriage of Henry Arterburn and Robert Abbitt on November 3, 1790, appears in Shenandoah County public records. In The Arterburn Cousins, Henry's name as it appears in this record has been transcribed as "Harry," while Shenandoah County GenWeb has transcribed it as "Hany." Lower case cursive "rr" and "n" in older scripts can be difficult to distinguish sometimes, so the intent of the writer of this original record seems unclear. "Harriet" was an Anglicized feminine form of "Henriette," but "Harry" doesn't seem to have been used as a feminine name during this era, even by the English.

Other than her marriage, the only other instance known of Henry's recorded name was the record of her baptism, in 1773, during which her name was probably only vocalized by her parents. Was "Henry" in that case just a familiar form or nickname for "Henriette?" This seems unusual for a feminine name, since "Henry" was usually a masculine name, even among the English. Also, it seems more likely that Peter and Sarah would have used the complete form for her baptismal name.

If "Hany" is closer to an accurate reading of the marriage record, then a different name is suggested, such as Hanna or Hanne or Henny. "Hany," in this case, would probably be a closer rendering of the complete form of what also could have been the baptismal name.

Whether "Harry," and perhaps "Henry" earlier, also, were simply misspelled or mistakenly written for a woman's name, or whether one or both of these might have been transcription errors remains an open question.

(Note: Peter Muhlenberg was evidently bilingual in both German and English, but this is no guarantee that he was good at spelling, especially of names. We know that Muhlenberg, if he was in fact the scribe behind this baptismal record, apparently misspelled Peter Arterburn's surname.

Western Europe and Germany were inhabited by a heterogeneous population that included immigrants from other parts of the Continent and Asia. It's clear from the evidence that Peter Arterburn was a German of a different ethnic group and social class than Muhlenberg.)

Blankenbaker's research of the early baptismal records of Hebron Lutheran Church, 1750-1775, clearly reveals that Germans in northern Virginia often christened with only one given name. Woodstock baptisms also reflect this lack of uniformity, since some Germans are listed with two given names and some with only one. Thus, whatever her name may have been, Henry's christening with a single name was not atypical for the Germans at Woodstock. Also, the evidence is clear that Germans in colonial Virginia were using English names, too (see Endnote #31, below).


22. According to reconstructed data from the U.S. Census of Virginia in 1790, the total population (not including 512 slaves) of Shenandoah County consisted of the following tithables of self-reported origin:

4,113 were Germans,
2,027 were English or Welsh,
294 were Scots, and
26 were Irish.

A total population count of 10,510 has been calculated for this census year. These figures show that German American families were still in the majority in Shenandoah County, in 1790--by far the largest German population of any county in Virginia. Very likely, the total population of Shenandoah (then Dunmore) County was less in 1773, which was about the time that Peter and William first appeared there, and with a greater concentration of Germans overall, too. The Scotch-Irish, or Scots-Irish, apparently gravitated more toward those Virginia counties just south of the Shenandoah Valley, ranging from present-day Augusta County (see Endnote #26, below) to the west and southwest, and into the Appalachian Mountains.

Scots-Irish often self-identified in America simply as Irish during this era. "Scotch-Irish" as a badge of origin didn't predominate until after Irish Catholics began migrating to America in large numbers in the 19th century.

(Note: From American Heritage Magazine, online:
"Only occasionally were these people then called Scotch-Irish; the usual designation was simply “Irish.” “Scotch-Irish” is accurate, yet many Irish-American critics assert that it is an appellation born of snobbish pride and prejudice. They are not entirely wrong. During the years of immigration, from 1717 to 1775, none of the newcomers seem to have insisted upon the “Scotch” part of the name; this insistence developed only among their descendants, and for interesting reasons.")

See also John W. Wayland's The German Element of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, A History of Shenandoah County, Virginia, and A History of Rockingham County, Virginia.




23. A later instance of the "Otterburn" spelling occurs on a highway map (1936) of west Warren County, Virginia, which shows the following place names: "Otterburn School and Otterburn Road." Are there any clues about the origin/source of these place names?


a. Indians and the ARTERBURNS: Local Tradition


"Otterburn" as a surname does not appear to have had a distinct family presence in Warren County, according to the Warren Heritage Society--or even in colonial America, since the name does not appear in early censuses or histories.

The only other instance known of "Otterburn" appearing in 18th-19th century Virginia, other than in Muhlenberg's record of Henry's baptism, is the Otterburn Estate in Bedford County. The historic "Otterburn" house and property is situated near the peaks of Otter, on the Little Otter River that flowed through the "Little Otter estate" of a wealthy Scotsman, Benjamin Donald (1797-1871), which Donald later called, "Otterburn." Donald may have been inspired by historic memory of the Medieval Battle of Otterburn, important in the wars for Scottish independence, and may have adopted the sentimental name for his New World estate on the Little Otter River. Or, Donald's adoption of this name for his estate may have simply reflected nostalgia for his Scottish linguistic heritage, since "burn" was the common Scottish (Middle English) word for a stream.

Today, the small building that was once a rural school still stands but no longer serves its original purpose. The road has ceased to be identified as "Otterburn Road," although the Fourth District of Warren County still bears the name of "Otterburn Precinct." The road and precinct names apparently derived from their association with this early school, long since consolidated.

Some of the McKay family land grants were located along South River. Otterburn Road (Hwy 623, later Downing Farm Rd, on this 1952 map) was evidently very near to the known location of the home farm of Robert McKay, Sr. In 1790, Peter was living as a renter on the property of his son, Zachariah McKay (see Endnote #17, above). Zachariah's property also appears to have been located in this vicinity. This might explain how the site came to be identified somehow with the ARTERBURNS, in an earlier time.

According to the Heritage Society, the school dates from the early 20th century, and was so named by the contractor who built it.

The contractor's descendants once reported that the name was chosen to honor a tribe of "Indians" who earlier had lived in this area, but nothing like "Otterburn" can be found among the list of known Virginia tribes.

Could the early 20th-century contractor who built Otterburn School in Warren County have been relying on a garbled or conflated local tradition about the Native Americans who originally inhabited this area and the ARTERBURN family?


b. Indians and the ARTERBURNS: Family Tradition


The authors of The Arterburn Cousins reported two obscure references uncovered during their research: That some descendants believed the ARTERBURNS to have Indian ancestry, and that the ARTERBURNS were believed to have once lived "at the Indian," in Virginia. Since they could find no evidence to support a Native American ancestry for the ARTERBURNS, the authors interpreted this notion as a possible confusion by later descendants with the memory of where the ARTERBURNS had once lived, "at the Indian." While searching for the location of the "Indian," they discovered geographical coordinates (Lat N. 38° 50’, Lon W. 78° 09’ 45”) for a recognized Virginia place name known as "Indian Run," and located this site in neighboring northwest Rappahannock County, in Shenandoah National Park. We have no other evidence, though, that ARTERBURNS ever lived in Rappahannock County.

Another possible explanation for the tradition of the ARTERBURNS living "at the Indian" could be the fact that the road that ran along the east side of the South River through Bentonville, adjacent to Peter's farm (1780-85), was from earliest times known as the "Indian Road"--highway 340, today (see Endnote #17, above). At Bentonville, the old Indian Road also turned west and proceeded along Indian Hollow Road (highway 613, west), crossed the river at Brush Bottom Ford, and continued north along the west side of South River (via highway 613--Panhandle Road) to James McKay's plantation (north of McCoys Ford). The Bentonville to Browntown Road (highway 613, east),on the opposite or east side of highway 340, crosses Flint Run nearby and the location (#88) of Peter's property. Thus, both Indian Road and Indian Hollow Road intersect very near the boundary of Peter's farm. Both appear to be clues of an early Indian tradition associated with this area.

c. Indians and the ARTERBURNS: John Elsea's Testimony in Tennessee


Are there any other clues that might account for the origin of this idea that the ARTERBURNS were of Indian ancestry?

One other intriguing clue appears in a Washington County, TN court case in which Lloyd Ford's Will had been contested over the freeing of his slaves at his death, in 1843. John Elsea, Elias Arterburn, and James Arterburn all testified in this case, and each in their testimony supported the plaintiffs' case that Lloyd Ford had intended to free his slaves.

John Elsea (b. 1773) was the son of Thomas Elsea/Elsey/Elzey (1755-1826), and the brother of Mary Elsea, who had married James Arterburn in Shenandoah County, in 1798. James and Mary "Polly" Arterburn subsequently moved their family to southwest Sullivan County (adjacent to Washington County), TN, sometime between 1804-06, probably about the same time that Thomas Elsea and some of his family moved to northwest Washington County. However, John does not appear in the 1799 tax list of Shenandoah County, so he may have moved earlier.

Elias, son of James and grandson of Peter, had apparently been challenged by defendant's counsel on racial grounds as an unqualified witness. John Elsea, Elias' uncle, was called to testify about Elias' competency. Afterwards, Elias was ruled an acceptable witness.

Thanks to Doug Moore who has transcribed excerpts from Anne Klebenow's published account of this famous court case on his genealogy website (search "arterburn"), and to Stuart Jones for bringing it to my attention. The following excerpt relates John Elsea's testimony about Peter Arterburn:

"The testimony on the part of the defendant being closed the Plaintiff's Counsel introduced as Plaintiffs evidence Elias Arterburn, to whose competency as a witness defendants counsel objected, alleging that he was within the limits of degrees prohibiting Fed of Apenbly [sic: ?] Where upon John Elsea was called by defendant's counsel as a witness and stated: I knew the Arterburns. James Arterburn's father was a very dark skin man, as dark as a Cherokee Indian. He came from the East India. The mother of James Arterburn was a fair skin woman. James Arterburn is the father of Elias Arterburn. (Whereupon the Court overruled the objection and declared the witness competent) as well because of the straight hair and fair appearance of the witness, as because it was not proved that he was within the degree)."

[Bracketed contents and underline added. Parentheses original]

Since John Elsea grew to manhood in Shenandoah County during the lifetime of Peter Arterburn, his description of and acquaintance with Elias' grandfather would undoubtedly have been from personal memory.

(Note: Evidently, John Elsea testified separately in this instance as a hostile witness called by the defense. There is no reason to presume that, in so doing, John's intentions were inimical toward the ARTERBURNS. The issue appears to have been one of whether Elias was of African descent. John Elsea's testimony may have actually defused the issue, since the fact that Elias' grandmother was a "fair skin woman" undoubtedly influenced the court's favorable decision.)

It seems unclear from Klebenow's account why the defense attorney made such an allegation about Elias' racial heritage. The court evidently noted Elias' "fair appearance" and "straight hair," but might he have been darker than usual, perhaps enough to have caused suspicion? James, Elias' father, apparently testified after Elias. For all we know, James might also have been challenged had the court not already established that Elias was racially qualified as a witness. In other words, James might also have been more darkly complected than usual for a white man.

d. Indians and the ARTERBURNS: Is There a Melungeon Connection?


These accounts of an attributed Indian ancestry or Indian-like appearance also raise the question of a possible Melungeon connection for Peter (and William). One group of Melungeons has been historically linked to southern Maryland, and to Charles County, and this, of course, was where we first find Peter. However, it may be worth noting that "Melungeon" remains a broad category of mixed ethnicity for some families widely scattered in the middle colonies of colonial America, many without clearly established origins.

According to the 1787 tax list of Shenandoah County, which included enumerations for "blacks" (male and female) as taxable slave property, two "blacks" above age 16 and three "blacks" under age 16 are indicated in William's listing, with one "white" tithable, himself. No "blacks" were recorded for Peter in the 1787 tax list. We know that William was not a landowner, and that his family was relatively poor as indicated by entries in the court minutes of 1795, so it's very unlikely that he owned slaves. In William's listing in the 1789 tax list, four "white" tithables (i.e., males above age 16) are indicated, which would have included himself, but no "blacks."

Were these anomalous "blacks" of 1787 actually ARTERBURNS who were mistaken by the compiler for Africans, because of their dark complexion?

(Note: William had two sons, Elijah and Samuel, who were above 16 and tithable in 1787 and 1789. This third male in William's household, in 1789, could have been Peter's tithable son, John, who may have been living with and working with William. John would later accompany William and his family in their move to Kentucky, about 1799. Neither of Peter's sons, James nor John, appear separately in the 1787 or 1789 tax lists, and neither are they included in Peter's tithable entry for 1787 or 1789. James may have been included as an unnamed apprentice, laborer, or prospective son in law with another family, both in 1787 and 1789.)

The ARTERBURNS seem not to have exhibited other characteristics historically associated with Melungeons, such as ostracism or living in separate communities. In the censuses of Shenandoah County, Peter and William were listed as "white," and apparently enjoyed the same rights and privileges of white Europeans.

Something other than skin color must have determined Peter's "white" status among his contemporaries, the Germans, English, and Scots who were his peers. Could that something have been a German or European cultural identity?

Other than the foregoing accounts, there is no evidence known to me of unusual ethnic or racial characteristics associated with ARTERBURNS in Virginia, Tennessee or Kentucky, except for one: Elias Arterburn's nephew, Thomas E. Arterburn (son of Elzia), who died in the Civil War, was described in his Union Army service record as having a "dark complexion, blue eyes, and dark hair."

Because of the dearth of photos or physical descriptions of ARTERBURNS from the first and second generations after Peter, we have no way of really knowing whether such characteristics might have been more prevalent among the children and grandchildren of Peter and William.

Family Tree DNA's Melungeon Core Project includes a "Collins" family historically identified as Melungeon, with an R1a1 Haplotype. Whether this Collins family was related to Jeffery Collins of Shenandoah County who married Jemima Arterburn isn't known.




24. Presuming an Atterborn/ARTERBURN connection, how could the influence of "received pronunciation" (RP), or the "Queen's/King's English," have been a significant factor in the transformation of "Atterborn" into ARTERBURN, in 17th-century London?

This era was marked by a shift in several English vowel sounds, concurrent with the rise of non-rhotic pronunciation and the emergence of the new phoneme of the broad A sound (also referred to as "long A," in England) in many English words.

From the Wikipedia article, Development of non-rhotic accents:

"The earliest traces of a loss of /r/ in English are found in the environment before /s/ in spellings from the mid-15th century. ... John Walker uses the spelling AR to indicate the broad A of aunt in his 1775 dictionary and reports that card is pronounced "caad" in 1791 (Labov, Ash, and Boberg 2006: 47)."
[Underline and italics added]

This change did not result in the elimination of R from the spelling of the affected words. A good speller would still have spelled these words with the Rs intact.

A number of words that begin with the AR phoneme (e.g., arbour, ardour, artery, Arthur) are known to have been affected by this shift to non-rhotic and broad A pronunciation. The case cited above from Walker’s dictionary, of AR representing the broad A sound in "aunt," seems a clue of just how closely associated were this new broad A pronunciation and the AR phoneme, since this particular word doesn’t even contain the AR spelling. These changes had begun in England as early as the 15th century, and were still underway in 1676, long before Walker compiled his dictionary.

"Atterborn" appears to have been a composite German surname (i.e., Atter & Born). The German short A pronunciation (the English vowel sound between utter and otter) of "Atterborn" would have sounded very similar to English broad A (A pronounced as in father).

The surnames of Germans living in London were often Anglicized, whether by themselves, the Church, or by the copyists of official records. London William's surname may have simply been misspelled, or Anglicized, at the time of his marriage--especially if he was illiterate or only vocalizing his name. An Allhallows cleric may have heard the German short A sound in "Atterborn" as English broad A, identified it as the sound of the AR phoneme, and simply interpolated the non-rhotic R in spelling London William's surname, turning it into "Arterburn." This might very well have been the first instance of this spelling.

From the Wikipedia article, Development of non-rhotic accents:

"For non-rhotic speakers, what was historically a vowel plus /r/ is now usually realized as a long vowel. So in Received Pronunciation (RP) and many other non-rhotic accents card, fern, born are pronounced [kɑːd], [fɜːn], [bɔːn] or something similar; the pronunciations vary from accent to accent."

Since "born/borne" and "bourne/burn" are so very close both in spelling and in sound, it's easy to see how these spellings could have been confused or conflated.

Although plausible, this remains a speculative scenario, since we have only one (before Peter and William in America) occurrence of "Arterburn" in the Old World, and no clear link to the three Atterborns or two Atterburns who also appear in London church records. Nor do we have any other clues about William's literacy or his status in London, or when his surname was first adopted or written down. Since no other records have been found in London of christenings for William and Jane's children, it seems reasonable to infer that either they were childless, or were not regular Anglican communicants, or else must have been temporary residents.




25. Professor Wayland, commenting about his research into German immigrant families and their surnames, in his History of Rockingham County, Virginia, strikingly notes this fact:

"One is constantly confronted with instances in which names originally German have been changed into forms that are not now recognized as German. For example, the [Rockingham] county records contain entries in which Zimmerman is changed to Carpenter; Yager to Hunter; Swartz to Black; etc. In an inspection of names Carpenter, Hunter, and Black would not usually be counted as German; and many similar cases may be cited; hence the probability that one is apt to underestimate the number of German families, rather than overestimate it, from an inspection of the names in their present forms."

[Bracketed contents added]

26. From VAGenWeb's Rockingham County History by Harriet Welch, online:

"Just What Makes Up the Shenandoah Valley? Living in the Shenandoah Valley (Harrisonburg to be exact) I usually think of the valley as stretching from about Winchester to Lexington. Technically it would be the area where the Shenandoah River flows and can be expanded into whatever watersheds feed into the river. The southernmost county included in the term "Shenandoah Valley" would therefore be Augusta since it's streams and rivers flow into what becomes the Shenandoah, and the northernmost county would be Jefferson County, WVa, where the Shenandoah flows into the Potomac at Harper's Ferry. In between these two points the counties whose watersheds would feed into the Shenandoah River would be Rockingham, Page, Shenandoah, Clarke, Warren and Frederick.

"There are two forks of the Shenandoah River. The South Fork begins at Port Republic which is in Rockingham County. Two rivers, the North River and South River meet at Port Republic and become the South Fork of the Shenandoah. This branch flows north up the eastern side of the Massanutten Mountain range (which, by the way is a separate range and not part of the Blue Ridge). To natives, this side of the "Valley" is called "Page Valley".

"The North Fork of the Shenandoah River begins above the Broadway/Timberville area. This branch flows north up the west side of the Massanutten Mountains and the two branches meet at Front Royal. The river then continues north and meets with the Potomac at Harper's Ferry.

"Generally speaking the Valley area was predominately [sic] populated with the "Scots-Irish" and Germans. The Scots-Irish seem to have congregated more in Augusta County and south, and the Germans from Rockingham County north."

[Parentheses original. Underline and bracketed contents added]

27. Other evidences that Germans also lived in east Shenandoah County can be found in John Netherton's census of 1775 of the old Dunmore military district #3, and in Netherton's and Hutchirson's later census lists of 1785. Both censuses covered Page Valley, that part of Shenandoah which later became southwest Warren County and northwest Page County, where the families of Peter and William evidently lived--from 1775, at least. German surnames, some misspelled or Anglicized, can be found in both censuses.

The surviving tax lists also show that other Germans were living in the same district as Peter and William.

Indentures and guardianships recorded in Shenandoah County Court Minutes, 1791-96 include entries for William and other family members, which locate them in "poor district #2." Other recognizably German surnames also appear among these entries for district #2.

Daniel Bly's introduction to his transcription of these records in the Shenandoah County Minute Books defines the areas of the two poor districts:

"In 1783 Shenandoah County was divided into two districts, each with an Overseer of the Poor. District One was the territory west of the Massanutten Mountain generally constituting the watershed of the North Fork of the Shenandoah River. It included all of present-day Shenandoah County and the "Fork" district [north of Front Royal] of Warren County. District Two was the land east of the Massanutten Mountain constituting the watershed of the South Fork of the Shenandoah River. This is now Page County and southwestern Warren County."

[Bracketed contents added]

While some of the Germans along South River of Shenandoah County were clearly landowners, others were not, as corroborated in the Deed and Order books (cf. Gilreath, 1986, 1987, 2002, 2004; O'Dell, 1995). Some were tenant farmers, or renters: Peter and William, Thomas Vinson, George Priest, and William and John Thomas, among others.




28. Before the Revolution, Non-conformist or Dissenting sects like the Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists often met in camp meetings or house churches, especially in frontier communities, until their increase was sufficient to raise new meeting houses. The Presbyterians were probably the first of these sects to arrive in the Valley of Virginia, represented by the Scots-Irish who seem to have preferred the frontier. Initially, they were persecuted by the English Establishment, but eventually they were tolerated west of the Blue Ridge because they were regarded as an effective buffer against the Indians. The earliest roots of the Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists in Shenandoah County are unclear, but the following sources offer some clues:

"Although Baptists had existed in the American colonies since the seventeenth century, it was the Great Awakening that galvanized them into a powerful, proselytizing force. Along with the Methodists, the Baptists became by the early years of the nineteenth century the principal Protestant denomination in the southern and western United States. Baptists differed from other Protestant groups by offering baptism (by immersion) only to those who had undergone a conversion experience; infants were, therefore, excluded from the sacrament, an issue that generated enormous controversy with other Christians."

"Methodism, begun by John Wesley and others as a reform movement within the Church of England, spread to the American colonies in the 1760s. Although handicapped by Wesley's opposition to the American Revolution, Methodists nevertheless made remarkable progress in the young American republic. Francis Asbury (1745-1816) was the dynamo who drove the spectacular growth of the church. He ordained 4,000 ministers, preached 16,000 sermons and traveled 270,000 miles on horseback, sometimes to the most inaccessible parts of the United States."

[Above excerpts from the Library of Congress' website page, "Religion in 18th-Century America." Parentheses original]

Excerpts below are from The Planting of the Presbyterian Church in Northern Virginia Prior to the Organization of Winchester Presbytery, December 4, 1794, "Section XXIV. Front Royal," by James R. Graham (1904):

"[Front Royal], so far as we are aware, does not appear in any Ecclesiastical Records until after the erection of this Presbytery [1794], and yet the congregations of which it is the successor had an existence several years earlier. These congregations were known as "South River" and "Flint Run." Of their origin and of their history, prior to about 1789, we have no reliable information. When the Presbytery was formed in 1794 the two "churches" of South River and Flint Run, then supporting a minister, were assigned to its care. The location of each is definitely known.

"South River" was about two miles south of Front Royal on the road leading to Luray. Persons still living remember an old log church which stood on an eminence overlooking the South Fork of the Shenandoah River, from its proximity to which it derived its name. That old building has long since gone to utter decay, and no one knows now by whom it was built or by whom it was owned. But from the manuscript diary of "Parson" Williamson which we have read, it is quite certain that this was the "South River Church" in which he preached for so many years in his early ministry, and that it was a "Union Church" in which Baptists and Methodists also preached.

"Flint Run" is a stream three or four miles further south, coming down from the Blue Ridge and emptying into the Shenandoah.

[Note: Peter's Flint Run property along Bentonville to Browntown Road was almost 10 miles south of Front Royal, and the stream's beginnings were even farther south. Flint Run empties into South River farther north, between Limeton and Karo, a distance of about 6 miles from Front Royal. Thus, Flint Run and its tributaries stretch for 4-5 miles.]

"There is no vestige of a church building there now, nor is there any tradition that there ever was one there. From the diary just referred to, it appears that all the appointments of Mr. Williamson on Flint Run were made at private houses. While at each of these places there was a good number of Presbyterian families, and frequent services were held at both, yet the inference is a fair one, that Flint Run was regarded as of secondary importance and rather an appendage of South River than an independent church. There is no evidence of any elders there, nor of any regular organization.

"[Rev. Williamson's ministry] began in 1792 ; before that time it is doubtful whether any proper church organization existed at either place. We do not meet with the name of any elder until November 29, 1794, when James Perry and William Bailey were elected, and the next day were ordained.

"[W]hile we have been concerned mainly, if not exclusively, with the planting and growth of Presbyterianism in Warren County, we have not been ignorant of the fact that other branches of the Christian Church were also actively at work there. Both Baptist and Methodists were strong rivals of the Presbyterian Church. This may have been the case everywhere, or almost everywheres [sic] else. But as the evidence of this denominational competition did not appear in other cases, no reference has been made to such a fact.

"But in the region of Front Royal the case is different. For much that we know of that region we are indebted to the diary of Mr. Williamson and in that diary constant mention is made of meetings held at South River and Flint Run, and Front Royal by Methodist, and especially by Baptist, preachers.

Mr. Williamson writes of his frequent attendance at their services, and though often expressing his dissent from their teaching and his disapproval of some things in their worship, yet his reference to them is always made in the kindest spirit, and his relations to them seem always to have been of the most fraternal character. The simple fact we want to bring out in this statement is that in planting our church within these bounds, the Presbyterians did not have the field to themselves. In some cases the Episcopal [Anglican], and in others the Reformed and Lutheran Churches dispute with them the claim to precedence."

[Underline and bracketed contents added]

29. Unpublished update of The Arterburn Cousins, reported by Art and Jan Arterburn, February, 2005.




30. Arterburn and Arterburn, op. cit., p. 2-14.

Excerpt below from online website, "Early American Presbyterians" (2008), no longer available. Reproduced and currently available via RootsWeb:

"Rev. William Williamson (1764-1848): He was a charter member of the Presbytery of Winchester, Virginia. He was born in Edinburg, Scotland, about 1764 where he was educated. He was a lawyer and migrated to Virginia about 1790. He studied Divinity, perhaps under the Rev. James Waddell; and was a candidate to Hanover Presbytery October 29, 1791, and licensed May 12, 1792, and ordained November 11, 1793. He was stated supply at Gordonsville, 1792-3; evangelist at South River and Flint Run, teacher at Front Royal in 1793 to about 1804. He was stated supply and teacher at Middleburg, and evangelist and missionary 1804-Feb 1, 1848, when he died. He is buried at Warrenton."

[Parentheses original. Underline added]

31. For a revealing look at the given names used by German immigrants for their children at the old German Lutheran Church (Hebron Lutheran, today) of the second Germanna Colony, in Culpeper County (Madison County, after 1792), Virginia, 1750-1780, see Germanna History Notes #1737 and #1738, and search ("Find") for the name, "Jemima." The resulting charts will display all of the given names used, and their frequency. The index to all of John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes gives access to an interesting overview of the lives of some of the German Americans who lived in or passed through northern Virginia.

Mr. Blankenbaker notes in reporting his research (#1737) of the baptismal register that German Lutherans at Hebron often christened with only one given name. Thus, the practice of two or more given names, with a "rufname" or calling name, was not a uniform practice among German immigrants. My own surmise is that these naming differences were probably linked to social class or family heritage, rather than simply a German origin.

Mr. Blankenbaker has also researched and published the surviving records of baptisms and marriages for the old church at Hebron. No ARTERBURNS are to be found there. In a recent telephone conversation, he noted that Lutheran pastors from Hebron were traveling a circuit of house churches while ministering to German immigrants in northern Virginia, before the Revolution. If Peter and William originally identified with the Lutherans, their attendance at house churches could account for the absence of any birth or marriage records for the ARTERBURNS, while they were living in Prince William, Fauquier, or Culpeper Counties.




32. Arterburn and Arterburn, op.cit.

Shenandoah County was largely populated by Germans, and many of the surnames of the in-law families of the ARTERBURNS show unmistakable signs of their European origin. One or more of these Virginia families could have migrated through London or the British Isles before coming to America. Given that almost all were relatively poor and landless, some most likely came directly from their homes in Europe. Compare the American surname spellings of the following ARTERBURN in-law families with examples of their likely German counterparts, which can be found in early German church records (see IGI), and in contemporary Germany:

American Name ---- German Surname ---- Place Name

Abbitt ---- Abbott, Abt, Abbt, Abbate ---- Germany
Barnett ---- Barnett, Barndt, Barnet, Bernitt ---- Germany
Braham ---- Braham, Brahm, Braam, Braem ---- Germany
Carrier ---- Carrier, Karrier, Karer/Karrer ---- Germany, Austria
Collins ---- Collins, Kahlen, Kuhlins, Colling/Kolling ---- Germany, Austria
Elzia/Elzey/Elsey ---- Elze, Else, von Elsey ---- Germany
Houn/Haun ---- Houn, Haun, Haan ---- Germany
Pringle ---- Pringal, Prengel, Bringel
Vinson ---- Vinson, Winzen, Wenzen ---- Germany, Austria
Wey ---- Wey, von Wey, von der Wey ---- Germany

From the introduction to The Smoots of Maryland and Virginia, by Harry Wright Newman:

"The only early family which could possibly be confused with the descendants of William Smute is the German family of Smootz which settled in Pennsylvania. Prior to the Revolution Abraham Smootz, a member of this family, was an early settler in the Valley of Virginia. Later the "s" was substituted for the "z," and the city directories today show members of this family scattered throughout the States. Yet it is possible that some branches of this family have actually dropped the "s" and thus spell their name like that of the pioneer family of Maryland."

[Italics and quotation marks added]

33. Search using "Last Name" at: LDS Family History Center Library, International Genealogical Index. Transcriptions of the Apprentices' Entry Books, 1654-94, of the Worshipful Company of Carpenters are available at British History Online. For more information about trade and craft companies of this era in London, and their archives (not available online), see Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section.




34. This IGI record was extracted from the original parish records of Allhallows London Wall Church, in the possession of Guildhall Library, London, which was microfilmed in 1964 by the Family History Library, Genealogical Society of Utah (LDS). The original single-line entry in the parish register book contains no additional information, unfortunately. It reads simply:

"William Arterburn & Jane Wilkinson, married xxi June."

The year, 1676, is noted in the upper right corner of the page. All entries on the page appear to have been made by the same hand, probably by a cleric of the church or an assistant. Although no other "Arterburn" records appear in IGI during this period, I double-checked the microfilm of the original record (same book) of christenings at Allhallows Church for any "Arterburn" births, 1676-1682. I didn't find any. IGI does not have any other ARTERBURN records from London churches of this era, either.

Either London William and Jane had no children during this time--which seems unlikely unless they were childless, or they were not regular Anglican communicants, or they had moved elsewhere.

35. Adam Otterburn, who served the Scottish Crown as Lord Advocate, 1525-1538, was married to Janet Rhynd. The family initially resided in Reidhall, Fife, Scotland, a lieutenancy area (formerly, county) just south of Angus. A number of Otterburns appear in church records, in the 17th-18th centuries, living in those counties--including Angus--that surround the city and port of Edinburgh.

The family of "James Etterburn" also appears in Angus County, in records of Abirlot Church. In one record there, his surname appears as "Atterburn."

"Elizabeth Atterburn" was christened in Abirlot, in 1753, born to "James and Margaret Hillox Atterburn."

James appears as "James Etterburn" in his marriage record to "Margaret Hillocks," in 1743, and also in four later church records there of the christening of their other children. Although this James does not appear in any IGI church record as "Otterburn," he might have been an Otterburn, since other Otterburns lived in Angus County, and also appear in Abirlot Church records.

Also from the IGI:

"James Otterburn" was born "about 1753, of Craigtown, Angus, Scotland," source uncited.

"James Otterburn" married "Isabel Ramsay" in Abirlot, in 1762, "extracted from local church records."

"James Atterburn" married "Magdalene Esplin" in Angus, Scotland, in 1778. This IGI record was taken from an LDS sealed church record, source uncited.

"James Otterburn" appears in Anglican church records, in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, born in 1818.

Could one or more of these represent the family line of James Etterburn? Were these two sporadic instances of the "Atterburn" spelling in Scotland simply an anomaly, the results of scribal error? Was James Etterburn most likely an Otterburn?

Could James Etterburn have been a German immigrant from the Continent? Could he have been an Atterborn? Might he have been an ARTERBURN?

German short A in this case would be pronounced with the vowel sound between "utter" and "otter," as a short clipped sound. Might the Scots have heard this as English short E or short A, and rendered it accordingly?

We have no other clues that James Etterburn of Scotland was an Atterborn, or an ARTERBURN, and will probably never know for sure, one way or the other.

There were no Etterburn, Atterburn, Atterborn, or Arterburn families to be found in Scotland, or anywhere else in the British Isles during the British Census of 1881.

The surname of James Etterburn's spouse, "Hillocks/Hillox/Hilloches," appears to have counterparts (e.g., "Hillekes/Hellekes") in early German church records, and also in contemporary Germany. Several of the in-law surnames (e.g., Lauder, Rae, Rhynd) of early Scottish Otterburns also appear to have German counterparts (e.g., Lauder, Ray/Rae, Rund). "Otter, Otterbach, and Otterberg" are German surnames and place names.

An "Otterbach" family appears in the 1841 English Census, with the head of household, "John Otterbach," born in Yorkshire, in 1781. Interestingly, Ancestry.com has annotated this record with "Otterburn" as an alternate spelling of the surname.

The family of "Richard Otterbach," born 1819 in Yorkshire, appears in the 1841 English Census, also annotated for "Otterburn" as an alternate spelling.

The family of "John Otterbach," age 29, appears in the 1881 English Census, residing in Yorkshire, without any such annotation. John was a laborer who was born in "Wurtermburgh" [sic], Germany.

Other "Otterbachs" appear in the 1881 and 1891 English Censuses, in Yorkshire, with birthplace of Germany, without any alternate spelling annotation.

All of this evokes the question of the ultimate origin of the Otterburn family line, and of whether there might have been