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In 1754 at the age of 24, John Cole signed a lease with Hancock Lee for 150 acres of land on the north side of Horsepen Run. The land adjoined the plantation of John Herndon in King George County, Virginia.
In 1775 and 1776, Lee’s son Willis Lee entered Virginia’s District of Kentucky and encamped at the spring named Lee’s Big Spring, midway between today’s Frankfort and Lexington. Willis Lee, his cousin Hancock Taylor, Isaac Hite, James Douglas, and John Floyd surveyed the area, for the Ohio Company. They filed 18 surveys, totaling 7,200 acres. Taylor built a log cabin but then was killed by an Indian war party. In April of 1776, Willis Lee also was killed.
Capt. John Lee, son of Hancock Lee of Virginia, entered Kentucky and made a brick addition to Taylor’s log cabin. He occupied the structure and began a tavern business. The Kentucky Gazette advertised Lee’s Blackhorse Inn.
John Cole died three years after executing his lease. His funeral expenses were paid with a case of whisky. In 1782, John’s youngest son, Richard James Cole, joined John Lee in Kentucky, building a residence on Cole’s Road, connecting Lexington to Frankfort. With Humphrey Marshall, Cole surveyed Frankfort for a new state capitol. He soon acquired slaves. On Cole’s Road, Richard James Cole established and operated Cole’s Tavern. The notoriety of the place nicknamed the business as Cole’s Bad Tavern.
In 1802 John Cole died. His ordinary, not too distant from Cole’s Bad Tavern, was sold to the mulatto William Dailey and his partner John Kennedy. Fortesqieu Cummings wrote his stays at the Blackhorse Inn and Cole’s Bad Tavern.
“Any traveler who has once contrasted the rough vulgarity and the badness of his table and accommodations, with the taste, order, plenty and good attendance of his (Cole’s) mulatto competitor will never trouble Mr. Cole a second time.”
In 1811, Cole’s Bad Tavern burned. In December of 1812, Richard James Cole acquired the nearby Blackhorse Inn from Dailey & Kennedy. Richard James Cole Jr. became its operator. Richard Sr. died three years later. His great-granddaughter Zerelda Elizabeth Cole was born in the Inn on January 29, 1825. Zerelda’s sons are Frank & Jesse James.
RELATED: More about Cole’s Bad Tavern
More about the Blackhorse Tavern
FREE DOWNLOAD: The Descendants of John Cole Sr. – the Immigrant
Stray Leaves Daily
Daily updates from the family of Frank & Jesse James with stories, photos, & two searchable genealog
VIDEO of the Clay County Board of Commissioners bestowing honor upon our James colleague & friend Charlies Broomfield. Recognition begins at 2:00 min. mark.
Congratulations Charlie!!
We have hints from the Clay County Archives in charge of James Farm in Kearney, Missouri, that a road leading to the farm will be renamed Charles Broomfield Rd. Charlie was a Clay County Commissioner who took an active role in arranging the sale and transfer of James Farm from the James family to Clay County.
Cant say that I understand the significance of this.
Do you have the address of Jesse & Frank James Cabin in Paseo Robles, California?
SLAVE TRADERS AMONG OUR JAMES FAMILY . . . For a decade Stray Leaves has been researching this most distressing discovery. Finally, it’s time to bring this story to light. There’s much to report. The entire story will take time to tell. As we begin, we are also compelled to reconcile what this history means for us. More specifically for those who are now known to descend from these slave traders, whom it can be assumed never knew of this element of their ancestry, but also for the James family as a whole. The resolution will not come easy.
Forks of the Road Slave Market – Violence In Silence
ericjames.org
“Just at the Forks, where the Washington and Kingston, or Palatine roads converge, stood a low squatty frame building used during the winter monthsI ran a DNA test on all the James names I could find in these stories and didn't get 1 DNA match. My DNA is closer to Jesse than that James line is. I am looking into it being through Robert Thomason (step grandfather of Jesse Woodson James) and Julia Ann Singleton (Aunt to Jesse Woodson James).
I am a descendant of Betty G Woodson.
Waterproof, La in Tensas Parish to be more exact.
Tensas Parish. J. G. James and M. Kerrigan.
The King family. Descendants of Viking slayers. archive.org/stream/Kingswood/Kingswood%20reduced_djvu.txt
"In the middle of 1864, Captain Jason W. James was on scouting duty in the southern part of Madison Parish. About eight o'clock one morning he and his company arrived at the Plantation home of Hr. Joshua James on Roundaway Bayou, who also owned the Ione Plantation in Tensas Parish." You will have to read the rest. I am not posting it here. 😲 😲 😲 sites.rootsweb.com/~lamadiso/articles/ward/chap05.htm
And I do believe this James line is connected to Lucille Ball.
And speaking of slave traders. Nicholas Trammell is mixed in with the Carrigans somehow. www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/trammell-nicholas
And I am a descendant of Elizabeth Woodson Thomas. Wife of Captain Edmund King.
I am also showing DNA matches to the James grandparents of Jesse Woodson James and all 8 of his great grandparents. This is what I need help figuring out. All of my James DNA matches will be in the replies to this comment. In this screenshot they are all the white ones
The sons of Colonial Edmund King.
I am a descendant of Mary Joicy who was widow Woodson, mother of Elizabeth Woodson Thomas.
By the way I am not a Kerrigan by DNA. I am a Carrigan. Civil War name change. Descendant of William Michael Carrigan and Nancy Holt. Nancy Holt was the daughter of Michael Holt III and Rachel Rainey. youtu.be/IsK2eSTVW8A
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When this happens, it’s usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people, changed who can see it or it’s been deleted.Where does Lucille Ball fit?
FIND-A-GRAVE BLUNDERS LEAVE JAMES FAMILY HOWLING . . . Can you spot the errata in this Find a Grave post for the grandfather of Frank & Jesse James? The most glaring deception is the photograph!
History tells us the photograph was invented about the time John M. James was dying. Neither history, nor the administrator of this posting, Charlotte Raley McConaha, can tell us is how photographic technology made its way from France to the distant American frontier to take a photo of John M. James, months before his demise.
Another imprecise miscalculation in this post is the attribution of the middle name “Martin” to John M. James. The name never has been proved by evidence. To guess the name is unreliable and wrong.