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Richard Holloway
Born 1744? NC?
Died on or after Oct 10, 1774

SPOUSE	CHILDREN
? m. b. d.
In December 1772, Richard Holloway was involved with a gang that killed a Frenchman named Carbonneau and four others, including two Negroes, on the Mississippi River just south of the Yazoo River and north of Grand Gulf. This crime managed to get recorded in several colonial newspapers. The gang consisted of Ennis [sic] Hooper, Charles Holmes, Joshua Howard, Absalom Hooper, Richard Holloway, and Reason Young.
The Spanish Government from New Orleans captured Joshua Howard, Innes Hooper and Charles Holmes by the end of Spring 1773 and turned them over to the British Government of West Florida [Davies, pp. 177-8, 242-243].
The governors of both New Orleans and of British West Florida tried to capture the culprits, but never managed to get the last three men named. Joshua Howard gave evidence on the crime, and [Absalom's brother] Ennis [sic] Hooper and Charles Holmes both were hung in May 1774. In the 1774 Proclamation, dated Apr 20, 1774, the Province of West Florida described the three fugitives, Absalom Hooper, Richard Holloway, and Reason Young, as "long since absconded" and that Richard was "thin in person, about five feet ten inches high, of a fair complexion, thin brown hair tied" and aged about 30 years old. A reward of $200 was offered "for the apprehending of them" [Rivington's New York Gazeteer, Aug 4, 1774].
Joshua Howard was among those who petitioned the British Govt. of West Florida for land on Nov 6, 1776. He was given a warrant for 200 acres on Second Creek (where Absalom also had a grant) in the Natchez District. The receipt for surveying fees was dated Jan. 22, 1777. After the Spaniards took possession of the territory, Howard left the Natchez District for the Cumberland Settlement in an area of far western North Carolina that later became Nashville TN. He returned to Natchez at the end of 1788.
Five days after the Howard petition, on Nov 11, 1776, Absalom Hooper's petition of pardon, he being "accused of robbery on the Mississippi River" was considered by the West Florida Govt. On the same day the land grant petition of Philip Alston was considered. On Dec 10 and 16, the land grant petition of John Alston was also considered [David Library of the American Revolution, West Florida Records, vol. 593, no. 107].
Map of the Natchez District as it may have looked between 1779 and 1799.
In January and October 1779, Absalom Hooper signed Loyalist petitions to the governor of British West Florida. On 27 Oct 1780, he was named in a Dec 1780 deposition. Several others named in depositions in the record series in late 1780 included Joshua Howard, father-in-law Thomas Holmes, and Philip Alston, father of John McCoy Alston who in 1795 married Hooper's daughter Sinia [Papeles Procedente de Isla Cuba Records in the Archives of Seville, Spain relating to U.S. History in the Spanish Provinces of Louisiana, Illinois and Florida Occidental, microfilm].
In 1774, when hostilities broke out between Virginia and the Ohio Indians, Capt. Evan Shelby (1719-1794) was appointed a captain in the local company of militia and led his force to the place where the Kanawha River empties into the Ohio River near present-day Point Pleasant WV. There he became the leading participant in the Battle of Point Pleasant, the decisive battle of Lord Dunmore's War, which quieted the Indians in the Ohio Valley for several years ["Evan Shelby", biography, ncpedia.org, website]. Later Col. Evan Shelby would be one of the leaders of the mountain men who marched on King's Mountain in 1780.
Map showing the location of the Battle of Point Pleasant during Dunmore's War [WarfareHistoryNetwork.com, website].
Historical Marker of the Evan Shelby Fort, established in 1771 and located in Bristol TN near the Virginia border [Historical Marker Data Base, HMdb.org, website].
Capt. Shelby's militia company of "Volunteers, Fincastle" included "several Wataugans who had volunteered" and a "Richard Holloway" was listed among the Wataugans who "may have fought in the Battle of Point Pleasant" on Oct 10, 1774. A "Richard Holliway" was rostered in the battle in Capt. Shelby's company which also included his son Lt. Isaac Shelby, Sgt. James Robertson, and Sgt. Valentine Sevier [WVGenWeb Project]. About 75 militiamen died and 140 were wounded in the battle amounting to about 20% of the engagement against the Indians [WarfareHistoryNetwork.com, website]. A Robert [Reason?] Young, but not Richard Holloway, was among those soon obtaining land permits for land taken from the Indians in the war. This would be only 6 months after the Apr 20 Proclamation that Richard Holloway and Reason Young were fugitives from British West Florida, which at the time included Natchez, and at least 2 months after their descriptions were published. Neither Richard nor Robert were signers of the Watauga Petition of 1776 ["The Watauga Settlement", genealogytrails.com, website].
Sources: Davies, K. G., ed., Documents of the American Revolution, 1770-1783, vol. VI “Transcripts 1773”, Irish University Press, Dublin, 1974, pp. 177-8, 242-243. Papeles Procedente de Isla Cuba Records in the Archives of Seville, Spain relating to U.S. History in the Spanish Provinces of Louisiana, Illinois and Florida Occidental, microfilm. Rivington's New York Gazeteer, Aug 4, 1774. "The Watauga Settlement", genealogytrails.com, website. WVGenWeb Project, "Soldiers at the Battle of Point Pleasant", wvgw.com, website.