John Boone (1727-1803):Daniel Boone’s Cousin in North Carolina
John Boone was born about 1727 at the family farmhouse in Oley (later Exeter) Township, Philadelphia County (now Berks), Pennsylvania. He was the only child of Benjamin Boone (1706-1762) and Ann Farmer (1701- about 1727).
John’s father, Benjamin Boone, was born in Bradninch, Devon, England on July 16, 1706 and was the son of George and Mary Maugridge Boone. His mother, Ann Farmer, was born in Saffron-Walden, Essex, England in 1701 and was the daughter of John and Mary Wyatt Farmer who were long time Quaker preachers. Their intent to marry was recorded by the Abington, Pennsylvania Friends Meeting on the 3rd day of the 8th month in 1726, and they were married on the 28th day of the 9th month in 1726. (The Society of Friends numbered their months and did not use names for the months.)
John Boone’s mother died in childbirth or shortly thereafter, and it is believed he spent most of his early years in the home of his uncle and aunt, Squire and Sarah Morgan Boone (parents of Daniel Boone). When Squire and Sarah Morgan Boone left Pennsylvania with their family on May 1, 1750, to move to North Carolina, John Boone migrated with them. They all settled in the backcountry in the Forks of the Yadkin and the Bryan Settlement.
In the autumn of 1750, he located and chose land which became his homesite on Hunting Creek. There he erected a cabin and additional farm buildings.
In 1753, John Boone married Rebecca, whose maiden name is thought to be Bryan. There’s no documentation about the location of their marriage nor a record of a marriage bond. John’s uncle Squire Boone was a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas in Rowan County, North Carolina and had the legal authority to perform a wedding ceremony. Therefore, it’s believed that he probably officiated at their wedding ceremony. Their children were Benjamin, Mary, Catherine, Sarah, Rebecca, Nancy, Hannah, John, and Elizabeth.
On December 21, 1753, John Boone received a grant from the Earl of Granville for 630 acres on Hunting Creek in Rowan (now Davie) County, North Carolina. The deed was recorded in Rowan County and can be found in Deed Book 3 on pages 426-428. This grant was later proved in Open Court on October 19, 1756, under oath by James Carter and recorded by Rowan County Clerk of Court Thomas Parker. The record for this is found in Book 2, page 150 for the Minutes of the Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions for Rowan County, North Carolina.
On page 18 of James W. Wall’s book Davie County: A Brief History, there is a photo of John Boone’s cabin. Below the photo, it mentions that it was built in the mid-1750’s, was located in the Center community, and is no longer standing. This Boone homesite was on the present-day Boone Farm Road and was near a spring and Sukey Creek. The John Boone log house was moved soon after the Revolutionary War. After the sale of part of his property to his son Benjamin, he lived on the rest of his land until his death in 1803.
John Boone performed a variety of services in the Rowan County government. On October 8, 1754, October 19, 1756, and again in 1757, he’s listed as a member of a Grand Jury in Salisbury. This is shown in Book 1, page 51, and Book 2, pages 149 and 193 in the Minutes of the Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions of Rowan County, North Carolina. On February 4, 1773, he was appointed to serve as a Constable during the year 1773, and this is found in Volume 4, page 9 of the Minutes of the Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions of Rowan County.
In colonial North Carolina, all free men between the ages of 16 and 60 were considered members of the militia. At the time John Boone migrated with the Boone family to North Carolina in 1750, he was around twenty-three years old. Therefore, he was legally considered a member of the Anson County Militia where he was living and then the Rowan County Militia when that county was formed in 1753. The North Carolina Militia Acts required officers to explain to their men the Militia Act requirements and how often to muster, authorized the first mounted militia, and set the number of times men were to muster. For those not familiar with the term “muster,” it was the act of calling together members to assess the availability of the local militias that might function as a defensive force and to also conduct training.
Early North Carolina militia records have not all been well preserved and at this time are very scarce. However, there is a record of John Boone serving in the militia during the Anglo-Cherokee War (1758-1761) in North Carolina. In Jo White Linn’s Rowan County Tax Lists, one will find on page 14 the following: ”25 April 1759. The Publick of North Carolina to Morgan Bryan to a Scout Sent Out in the Alarm of Daniel Hossey & Others being killed ---” Among the eleven members of the Militia listed serving under then Lt. Morgan Bryan (Rebecca Bryan Boone’s uncle) are Daniel Boone and his cousin John Boone. During the Revolutionary War (1775-1783), John Boone would have been required to serve in the militia, but again the records are poor and scarce, and no records show John Boone as serving in the militia.
On August 15, 1766, John and Rebecca Boone sold 350 acres to Robert Bell on Hunting Creek in Rowan (now Davie) County, North Carolina. The record of this sale can be found in Book 6 on page 388 of the Rowan County Deeds.
The Moravians are a protestant Christian denomination, and they purchased and settled approximately 100,000 acres in 1752 known as the Wachovia Tract. The towns they established there are now part of modern-day Winston-Salem. They were great at keeping detailed and extensive records about the activities of those living around them. There are a couple entries in Soelle’s Diary about John Boone. On page 791 of Volume 1 of the Moravian Records, one finds the entry saying, “On the Sept. 1771 trip, Soelle went from William Grant’s, fourteen miles to John Buhn (Boone). According to the Grant from Granville to John Boone, 1753, recorded in Rowan County, Boone owned 630 acres on the north side of Hunting Creek.” On page 794 of the same volume, one finds the entry, “From the home of Daniel Lewis, Soelle went to John Boone, already mentioned, who ‘will probably join the Baptists for the sake of Communion.’” John Boone was a member of the Society of Friends or a Quaker, when he lived in Pennsylvania. This entry shows he was about to join the Baptist Church.
In their 1966 biography about Daniel Boone, the Van Noppens provide some biographical information about John Boone on pages 87 and 88. They mention that John Boone owned land on both sides of Hunting Creek and that “John became almost as legendary a figure as Daniel. He is said to be buried beside Squire and Sarah at the Joppa Cemetery.” In their book, the Van Noppens include a paragraph about John Boone as follows:
“John’s strength was proverbial. On one occasion he heard a pig squealing and rushed to find that a large panther had it in his embrace. John killed the panther with a pine knot, after a fierce struggle. At another time his sons were dragging logs from his bottom land, hitching the log to a wagon with a chain. A log caught between two stumps and the boys could not release it. John told them to back the wagon a little, and he picked up the log with one arm and lifted it over the stumps.”
Another paragraph illustrates the physical prowess of John Boone describing the following:
“One day he was expected to join a work party to help clear underbrush from a new tract of land. The other members of the gang arrived first, were assigned their tasks and went to work. John arrived late, was told what his task was, and laying off his coat he began. Pulling up the brush, root and branch, he soon completed his assignment and was at home some time before the others were finished.”
The 1778 Tax List of Rowan County shows John Boone residing in Rowan County. He was living in Captain Reed’s District and was taxed 1,690.10 pounds. The original record can be found in the North Carolina Archives in Raleigh or in the Abstracts published by Jo White Linn.
His documented patriotic service is for providing wheat for the Rowan County Militia. This is verified by the North Carolina Revolutionary War Pay Vouchers, Rowan County, NC#615 and was paid on February 23, 1780.
On October 10, 1783, John Boone purchased from the State of North Carolina an additional 266 acres adjacent to his Granville Grant property lines and “on the waters of Hunting Creek” next to property of James Leach and John Lynch in Rowan (now Davie) County, North Carolina. The record of this purchase is found in Book 10 on page 253 of the Rowan County Deeds. On March 4, 1786, he and his wife Rebecca sold to their oldest son, Benjamin Boone, 288 acres adjacent to Hunting Creek in Rowan (now Davie) County, North Carolina. The record of this transaction is found in Book 13 on page 289 of the Rowan County Deeds.
The 1790 U.S. Census Records show John Boone living in the Salisbury District of Rowan County, North Carolina. He is also shown in Rowan (now Davie) County in the 1800 U.S. Census Records.
The exact day is unknown, but it’s believed John Boone died during the month of July in 1803. He was buried in Joppa Cemetery in what is now Mocksville, Davie County, North Carolina. Until at least the 1880’s, his tombstone was documented as being “alongside’ the tombstones of Squire and Sarah Morgan Boone. Beal Ijames wrote Lyman Draper in 1884 advising him that John Boone is buried in Joppa Cemetery. There was another letter to Lyman Draper in 1887 written by Hinton H. Helper saying that John Boone’s soapstone headstone at Joppa Cemetery could not be read. Tradition also indicates that John Boone was buried at Joppa Cemetery. His gravestone later disappeared.
In November 2025, the Col. Daniel Boone Chapter-NCSSAR installed a new granite gravestone for John Boone to the right of the graves of Squire Boone and Sarah Morgan Boone. This same Sons of the American Revolution Chapter also installed a granite SAR Patriot marker with John Boone’s headstone in November 2025.
John Boone died intestate (without a will). The records of the Rowan County Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions show that on August 3, 1803, Letters of Administration for the Estate of John Boone, Sr. were issued to his sons Benjamin Boone and John Boone, Jr. On November 6, 1806, John Boone, Jr. was given a deed to the “BOONE HOMESTEAD” by his widowed mother, Rebecca, and brother and sisters, Benjamin, Catherine, Mary, Rebecca, Sarah, Nancy, Elizabeth and Hannah. This is documented in Rowan County Deed Book 21 on page 489.
Sources:
Anson County, North Carolina Deed Records.
Clark, Walter, Editor, The State Records of North Carolina, 16 Volumes, Winston, Goldsboro, State of North Carolina, 1895-1907.
Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, Acts of the North Carolina General Assembly, 1753, Chapter VII, p. 383.
DAR #A012112
Draper, Lyman Copeland, Draper Manuscripts, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.
Fries, Adelaide Lisetta, Records of the Moravians in North Carolina, 1752-1771, Edwards & Broughton Printing Company, Raleigh, North Carolina, 1922, Volume 1, pages 791 and 792.
Howell Boone Papers, Martin-Wall History Room, Davie County Public Library, Mocksville, North Carolina.
Linn, Jo White, Rowan County, North Carolina Tax Lists 1757-1800, Annotated Transcriptions, Jo White Linn, Salisbury, North Carolina, Privately published, 1995.
North Carolina Revolutionary War Pay Vouchers, Rowan County, NC #615 paid 23 Feb 1780.
Entry on August 3, 1803, Records of the Rowan County Court of Common Pleas, Rowan County, North Carolina.
Rowan County Deeds, Rowan County, North Carolina.
Van Noppen, John James and Ina Woestemeyer, Daniel Boone, Backwoodsman: The Green Woods Were His Home, The Appalachian Press, Boone, North Carolina, 1966.
Wall, James W., Davie County: A Brief History, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Division of Archives and History, Raleigh, North Carolina, 1976, pages 18 and 19.
Wall, James W., History of Davie County in the Forks of the Yadkin, Davie County Historical Publishing Association, Mocksville, North Carolina, 1969, pages 34, 35 and 41.
Wall, James W., Martin, Flossie, and Boone, Howell, The Squire, Daniel, and John Boone Families in Davie County, North Carolina, Self-published and Printed by Davie Printing Company, Mocksville, North Carolina, 1982.
