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| Name |
Thomas Denton |
| Birth |
(1730) |
(Virginia)  [1] |
| Gender |
Male |
| Immigration |
1775 |
Harrodsburg, Mercer County, Kentucky [1] |
| Immigration |
1806 |
Missouri [1] |
| Person ID |
I52941 |
The Hennessee Family |
| Last Modified |
17 Apr 2019 |
| Family |
Sarah LNU |
| Residence (Family) |
1771 |
Surry County, North Carolina [1] |
| Marriage |
Bef 1798 [1] |
| Residence (Family) |
Harrodsburg, Mercer County, Kentucky [1] |
| Residence (Family) |
Florissant, Missouri [1] |
| Children |
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| Family ID |
F19821 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
30 Apr 2023 |
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| Notes |
- Thomas Denton was one of the first Anglo-American settlers in Kentucky, and his wife Elizabeth is generally acknowledged to have been one of the three white women to see that land.[1] It is not known how many times Thomas was married or whether his wife in 1775 was the mother of his children.[2] Even the source of the given name Elizabeth is unclear. Before 1798, Thomas married a woman named Sarah.[3]
Both birth and death dates and places are unknown for Thomas Denton. He may have been born in Virginia around 1730, based on an unsourced gedcom at Rootsweb.com and the fact that his son was presumably over 21 in 1772. He died in the Louisiana Territory, either present-day Missouri or Opelousas, Louisiana, after 1806 and possibly after 1810.
Before moving to Kentucky, Thomas lived in North Carolina and was probably the Thomas Denton on a 1771 Surry County, North Carolina, tax list[4]; his son Arthur was listed in 1772.[5]
Thomas moved to Kentucky in 1775 along with his wife and at least one of his known children. These were Arthur, Mary and John; any other children were deceased without heirs by 1779, when the estate of John was resolved between his widow Diana and his siblings Arthur and Mary, then Mrs Jonathan Richardson. Although it has been claimed daughter Mary went to Kentucky with her father and probable mother, but returned to North Carolina, no evidence has been located that places her in Kentucky.[6] Son John was married possibly in Harrodsburg, now Mercer County, Kentucky, to Diana How, possibly the daughter of James and Catherine (Cox) How.[7] He died while serving in the Kentucky militia.[8] Son Arthur likely remained in North Carolina.
Thomas settled on Shawnee Run, Mercer Co KY.[9] On 29 Apr 1777, he was court-martialed and fined for failing at guard duty, in Harrodsburg, Kentucky.[10] There are listings of several thousand acres along the Salt River and Sinking Creek given as grants to Thomas and widowed daughter-in-law Diana Denton by James Harrod and his heirs between 1779 through 1783.[11] Thomas Denton was one of the signers from Harrodsburg of a petition in 1785 to the Virginia General Assembly requesting an act to form the town.[12]
The Dentons were involved in militia actions against the Shawnee Indians. In 1779, Col. John Bowman, with 160 men, marched against the Indian town called Chillicothe. Among the nine men killed was John Denton, Thomas’s son.[13]
Later, Thomas Denton is named as a Captain in a July 1780 expedition, according to the Revolutionary War pension record of James McCullough.[14] He is also listed in George Rogers Clark’s papers as an ensign who served with Clark at an unspecified time.[15]end of notation [1]
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