Isaac VAN METER

                   or 1702	1  PURC
	2  DATE 17 JUN 1730
	2  PLAC 10,000 acres, beyond the Blue Ridge, Virginia
	2  NOTE Built Fort Pleasant at Old Fields
	1  CAUS Scalped by Indians



Relation to mother, Sara DuBois, shown by deed from Sarah DuBois to Isaac VanMetre, dated 27 May 1726, recorded Liber D, page 203, Salem Deeds, which recites consideration as "love, good will and affection I have and do bear toward my loving and dutiful son Isaac VanMetre . . . "

John Van Meter and his brother, Isaac, were granted 110,000 acres of land in the Shenandoah Valley by the Royal Governor, William Gooch, which they later sold to their cousin, Jost Hite, after selecting choice sites for themselves, while it was still a wilderness.

Kegley's 'Virginia Frontier in describing the earliest history of Virginia, says: "The Van Meters cross the Powtomack (Potomac River). John and Isaac Van Meter were traders who knew the country about the Potomac and the Shenandoah as early as 1728. After 1721 Isaac lived in New Jersey, but John had moved westward toward the southwest part of Maryland. In 1730 their petitions for 10,000 acres each in the forks of the Shenando River and 20,000 more for other families were granted. This was not to interfere with the surveys of Carter and Page."...Jost Hite with Robert McKay began acquiring land in the Shenandoah Valley in 1731. They with one hundred families were desirous of seating (settling) themselves on the back of the Great Mountains on land lying between the land of John Van Meter, Jacob Stover, John Fishback and others. ... Hite acquired the Van Meter grants in 1734 and patents began to issue to his settlers, one thousand acres to each family...joining the land of 'Jost Heyd' and others.

Isaac Van Meter first settled in this area in 1740 and in 1744 built a home and fort that he named Fort Pleasant. The house and fort were built on a gentle rise overlooking wide open fields stretching south down the valley of the South Branch of the Potomac River. Later, the Van Meter lands were passed on to his son, Garrett.

1754 Heirs
Information about Isaac Van Metre, So. Branch of Potomack County of Frederick, VA.
Married to Hannah. Will Feb 15 1754
Children:
Henry
Jacob
Garrett
Sarah Richman
Catherine
Rebecca Hite
Clita

Names of wife and children as shown in will, dated 15 Feb. 1754, proven 14 Dec. 1757, Hampshire County, Virginia (now Hardy County, West Virginia): wife Annah, children, Henry, Jacob, Garrett, Sarah Rickman, Catherine, Rebecca Hite, Hellita.

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In the beginning it was the fatherland religion, but was admitted to the Presbytery of Philadelphia; which, consultation to those records will show. This accounts for the change to Presbyterianism of Isaac and his family. In 1714 Daniel Cox, of New Jersey sold 3000 acres of land to Jacob du Bois of Ulster Co., NY. , (a brother of Sarah du Bois, the wife of Jan Joost Van Meteren) Sarah du Bois, John Van Meter and Isaac Van Meter, (the mother and two sons.) This was subsequently divided among them of which John individually acquired 400 acres and Isaac 430 acres. Isaac bought many other tracts in Salem Co., also and passed a very active life there as did his brother John and Henry. The most important probably to his descendant, being the prominent part he took in the founding of the Pittsgrove (Pilesgrove) Presbyterian Church of Salem Co., NJ. The covenant of which was signed 13th April 1741. This he is designated in signing as number 1: his wife Hannah (norn annetje), 2; their son Henry, 3; and their daughter Sarah, 4.

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The Scotch-Irish or The Scot in North Britain, North Ireland, and North America, Volume 2
ÊChapter III
ÊÊThe Seaboard Colonies
ÊÊÊVirginia
The settlements in the Valley of Virginia were originated principally by the labors of four individuals -- John and Isaac Vanmeter in Frederick county , William Beverley in Augusta , and Benjamin Borden in Rockbridge . To them Governor William Gooch made extensive grants of land beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains , on condition that they should be colonized within a reasonable time. These grants were all of a later date than the so-called Fairfax grant, which was made by Charles II. in the twenty-first year of his reign, and conveyed to a number of noblemen a tract known as the Northern Neck of land in Virginia , "rounded within the head of the Rivers Rappahannock and Quiriough or Patomack rivers , the courses of said rivers, . . . and Chesapeak Bay ." At a later date, title to all this tract became vested in Thomas , Lord Culpeper , one of the original grantees. Culpeper 's daughter and heiress married Thomas , Lord Fairfax , "Baron of Cameron , in that part of Great Britain called Scotland ," and the estates passed to Lord Fairfax . This grant gave to that nobleman, with the exception of certain reservations, nearly all the land in what are now the counties of Page, Shenandoah , Warren , Clarke , Frederick , Lancaster , Northumberland , Richmond , Westmoreland , Stafford , King George , Prince William , Fairfax , Alexandria , Loudoun , Fauquier , Culpeper , and Madison , in Virginia , and Berkeley , Jefferson , Morgan , and Hardy , in West Virginia . Lord Fairfax visited his Virginia estates in 1739 , and returned again about 1747 , ultimately settling at Greenway Court, in Clarke county , within a few miles of Winchester , where he remained until his death in 1782 . While living in Westmoreland county , he had become acquainted with the Washington family, and particularly with the young George , then a youth of fifteen, who had been a boyhood companion of the children of Fairfax 's cousin, William Fairfax , of Belvoir , an estate near Mount Vernon . Accordingly, the nobleman proposed that one of the sons of his cousin together with George Washington should visit his lands on the frontier, for the purpose of exploring, surveying, and making maps of them. They accepted the proposition, and started on their journey over the mountains March 11, 1748 . A record of their surveys is preserved in Washington 's Journal of the expedition.


The Scotch-Irish or The Scot in North Britain, North Ireland, and North America, Volume 2
ÊChapter III
ÊÊThe Seaboard Colonies
ÊÊÊVirginia
John and Isaac Vanmeter , of Pennsylvania , obtained a grant of forty thousand acres from Governor Gooch in 1730 , to be located in the lower Shenandoah Valley , within the present counties of Frederick , Clarke , and Jefferson . This warrant was sold by the grantees in 1731 to Joist Hite , a Hollander, who removed from Pennsylvania in 1732 with his own and fifteen other families, most of them Scotch-Irish. They settled along Opequon, Cedar , and Crooked creeks , in what is now Frederick county .

Ancestry.com. Scotch-Irish: The Scot in North Britain, North Ireland and North America [database online] Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 2002. Original data: Hanna, Charles A. The Scotch-Irish or the Scot in North Britain, North Ireland and North America, Vol. 2. New York, NY: Putnam, 1902.

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http://www.uh.edu/~jbutler/gean/wildernessroad.html

His son Isaac Van Meter with his wife and four children settled at historic Fort Pleasant in what is now Hardy County, West Virginia, in 1744.

"Isaac Van Meter, brother of Jacob, was killed and scalped by the Indians near his fort in 1757. One of his sons was Colonel Garret Van Meter who was born in New York in February 1732, and was a boy of twelve when the family located at Fort Pleasant. In 1756 he married Mrs. Ann Markee Sibley, and after the death of his father, inherited Mount Pleasant and a large tract of surrounding land. He was a colonel of a regiment of militia in General Washington's army in the Revolution. After the war he and his wife lived at old Fort Pleasant, where they died full of years. Only two of their sons grew to mature years, Isaac, born in 1757 and Jacob, born May 18, 1764. These brothers married sisters, Bettie and Tabitha Inskeep, whose mother was Hannah McCulock (McCulloch), a daughter of the most famous Indian fighter and scout of his day. (Travelers through present Wheeling may note a marker at the site of McCulloch's leap, over a bluff to escape from the savages.)

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http://www.sonic.net/~prouty/prouty/b315.htm#P907

Isaac VAN METEREN766,879 was born before 1692 in USA, New York, Ulster Co.. He was baptized about 1692 in USA, New York, Ulster Co..763 He signed a will on 15 Feb 1754 in USA, Virginia, Frederick Co.,.880 Isaac's will states he was "of the South Branch of Potowmach in the country of Frederick, Virginia" when it was made. It was presented in court in Hampshire Co., Virginia December 14, 1757 by his sons Henry and Garret. The will provides for his "dear wife Hannah, as long asshe shall live," and mentions children: Henry, Jacob, Garret, Sarah (the wife of John Richman), Catherine Van Metre, Rebecca Hite ( the wife of Abraham Hite) and Helita Van Metre. The lands in New Jersey are to remain under their current leases until their expiration when they are to be sold at public venue to the highest bidder; devises lands in Virginia, slaves and money. The children are to have the privilege of selling their land, but must first offer it to their siblings so that they may keep it amongst them. He died after Feb 1754 in USA, Virginia, Frederick Co.. Isaac Van Maitre was a landowner in Bridgewater Township, Somerset Co., New Jersey, in 1714. In 1718/19 Isaac Van Metere of Salem, NJ was appointed executor of the will of Hendrix Mullinar. Fellow bondsmen were John and Henry Van Metre, also of Salem.
Isaac had a family of eight children, some of which emigrated with their parents to the Valley of the South Branch of the Potomac prior to 1745.
Isaac's grant of land obtained in 1730 (the same time as his brother Jan) was for a 10,000 acre tract lying near "The Trough" on the Opequon River. All of these lands were in what was then known as Orange Co., later became Berkeley Co and was near the present town of Martinsburg, West Virginia. Fort Pleasant was built on the land owned by Isaac.
In 1757 both Isaac and his second wife were killed and scalped by the Indians outside Fort Pleasant.

763. Smyth, Samuel Gordon, A genealogy of the Duke-Shepherd-Van Metre family : from civil, military, church, and family records and documents (Lancaster, Pa.: New Era Print Co., 1909, 480 pgs.), p. 14.
766. A genealogy of the Duke-Shepherd-Van Metre family : from civil, military, church, and family records and documents, p. 16.
879. Unknown., A Story of a Van Matre Family. p. 6, 8.
880. Anonymous, Biographical, genealogical and descriptive history of the First Congressional District of New Jersey (New York: Lewis Publishing Co., 1900, 1368 pgs. ), p. 36.