Womack's Fort Militia Roll, 1776

Capt. Jacob Womack's Company
Fincastle County, Virginia
(now Sullivan County, Tennessee)

Transcribed by Jim Maroon
Annotated by C. Hamnett

According to Oliver Taylor's Historic Sullivan (1909), "In the spring of 1767, two years after the first settlers made their homes in the county, Jacob Womack built a fort two miles east of Bluff City on the land once owned by Sam Miller [not further identified]."

Womack's Fort was located in what is now Sullivan County, Tennessee, but was originally considered part of southwest Virginia. The Fort is also mentioned in Goodspeeds' History of Sullivan County, which states "Fort Womack, which stood two miles east of Bluff City, was built by Jacob Womack. It afforded protection for the people who lived in the territory now covered by the Fourth, Sixteenth, Ninth and Twentieth Civil Districts. It is said that when on one occasion its people were forted here a marriage took place between Hal [Henry] Massengill and Penelope Cobb. From this union have sprung a large number of descendants. many of whom still reside in the county."

In 1776, however, Womack's Fort was part of Fincastle County, Virginia, and that same year, upon war having been declared against the English, became part of the newly-created Washington County, Virginia, both of which counties are named in the following muster roll of Jacob Womack's Militia Company. By 1778, however, upon erection of Washington County, North Carolina (now Tennessee), Jacob Womack was one of the justices of the new county court (Washington County Court Minutes, 23 Feb 1778), with the 1778 Washington County, North Carolina Tax Return of Jacob Womack including a number of the following men in addition to himself, many of whom are also on the 1796 Sulivan County tax lists:

To consult the roll: Click Here.