.
compiled by Jim Moyer 9/9/2017
.
Thomas Cresap
the older one
.
.
Founders Online short bio:
.
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/01-01-02-0001-0002-0010
.
Thomas Cresap (1694–1790) was born at Skipton, Yorkshire, Eng.,
.
and immigrated to America about 1719,
settling first in Maryland
and later moving to the area of present-day Wrightsville, Pa.
.
There he became a leader of the Maryland forces in the boundary dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania, 1730–36.
.
His Pennsylvania establishment was burned by Pennsylvanians in 1736,
.
and he moved to the vicinity of Shawnee Old Town (now Oldtown, Md.),
.
where he built a fortified trading post at the crossroads of a series of trails much traveled by Indians and whites.
.
By 1749, when he was one of the organizers of the Ohio Company, Cresap was widely known throughout the frontier as a trader and land speculator, and Shawnee Old Town had become one of the leading frontier trading posts.
.
Cresap acted as a surveyor and agent for the Ohio Company and helped lay out the company’s road from Wills Creek to the Monongahela.
.
He supported the Patriot cause during the American Revolution, in which his more famous son Michael played a leading role on the frontier
.
.
Wiki Article
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cresap
.
.
See Maryland Pennsylvania Border Disputes:
.
See Cresap’s War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cresap%27s_War
.
More on Cresap’s Border Wars
.
Mason Dixon Line
.
.
.
Another Daniel Boone on steroids
fairly unknown to the general public.
.
And those who know, would ask, “Which Cresap?”
.
The whole family is quite a story.
But first 3 questions.
.
QUESTION 1 — RED CAPS.
.
In Indian garb Cresaps 60 volunteers wore Red Caps and Indian style dress. How could you tell those red caps from the French ? Especially if the French dropped their white and put on Indian dress?
.
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-03-02-0182#GEWN-02-03-02-0182-fn-0005
.
QUESTION 2
Was their red hat like the French wore?
.
VOLUNTEERS AND THE NOTTOWAYS
.
Cresap wasn’t a joiner.
He ran his own band of renegades
numbering 60 volunteers
and 6 Nottoways.
One of them was Tom Step, a Nottoway.
.
http://frenchandindianwarfoundation.org/event/captain-tom-step-nottoway-ally/
.
QUESTION 2
And how does Founders Online know that the same indians who killed John Fenton Mercer at the Battle of the Great Cacapon were the same ones who killed Cresap’s son ?
.
MORE ON THE CRESAP FAMILY?
.
CRESAP’S WAR
Thomas Cresap’s war in the Maryland – PA border:
.
We link you to wikipedia ONLY as a starting point.
Also sourced here is Founders Online and French and Indian War Foundation web sites.
.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cresap%27s_War
.
http://frenchandindianwarfoundation.org/penn-calvert-dispute/
.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cresap
.
This Cresap’s War is not to be confused with a later Cresap’s War more often called Lord Dunmore’s War in 1774
.
MAP SHOWING CRESAP’S PLACE
.
Section of the 1747 Fairfax Map of Western Virginia Showing Cresap’s Home.
.
https://www.nps.gov/archeology/sites/npsites/cnocresap.htm
.
CRESAP’S PLACE KNOWN AS BIG SPOON
.
https://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Thomas_Cresap
.
CRESAP – A RATTLESNAKE
May 8th. [1755] Ferried over the River into Maryland; and March’d to Mr. Jackson’s, 8 Miles from Mr. Coxs’s where we found a Maryland Company encamped in a fine Situation on the Banks of the Potomack; with clear’d ground about it; there lives Colonel Cressop, a Rattle Snake, Colonel and a D — d Rascal; calls himself a Frontiersman, being nearest the Ohio; he had a summons sometimes since from the French to retire from his Settlement, which they claim as their property, but he refused it like a man of Spirit; This place is the Track of Indian Warriours, when going to War, either to the No’ward, or So’ward. He hath built a little Fort round his House, and is resolved to keep his Ground. We got plenty of Provisions. &ca. General arrived with Captains Orme and Morris, with Secretary Shirley and a Company of light Horse for his Guard, under the Command of Capt. Stewart, the General lay at the Colonels.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.