Pinkston


The earliest record of a Pinkston (Pinkstone) in America is a land warrant issued October 25, 1695, to Peter Pinkston1 for 200 acres named Pinkston’s Delight “lying at Elk Ridge…by a branch of the Pattuxent River” in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. In 1699, Peter bought another “parcel of land called Pinkston’s Folly lying on …Rogue’s Harbour Branch” of the Pattuxent, also in Anne Arundel County. (All references to land ownership in Marylnad are documented by photocopies of Anne Arundel County Land Records; originals are on deposit at Hall of Records, Annapolis, Maryland.)

By 1702, Peter Pinkston1 was married to Elizabeth ________?, as shown by another Maryland land record wherein Peter and Elizabeth Pinkston were the grantors. Peter and Elizabeth had probably married before 1695, because their son William Pinkston (named in still another land deed) was married by 1716. (St. Ann’s Parish Records, V. I, copy at Maryland Historical Historical Society (MHS), Anne Arundel County). By 1715, Peter Pinkston owned several hundred acres in Anne Arundel County, including Pinkston’s Delight, Pinkston’s Folly, Pinkston’s Fancy, Marlborough Plains and Pinkston’s Random (Randall). Pinkston’s Delight lay in Baltimore County, on the North side of the dividing line between Anne Arundel and Baltimore in 1721. In the deed, Peter was still called a resident of Anne Arundel County.

Peter Pinkston’s1 sister, Sarah, was also a resident of Anne Arundel County. She and Peter had either come to America as very young people or had been here to parents of whom we have no account. Sarah was married first to Anthony James 13 May, 1703, in Talbot County, Maryland, St. Peter’s Parish (copy of marriage record at Maryland Historical Society), then to John Barber 23 April, 1710 in Anne Arundel County. (Anne Arundel County Marriage Records, All Hallows Parish, copy at MHS). In 1719, Peter and Elizabeth Pinkston freely gave their “sister and brother” John and Sarah Barber the tract called Pinkston’s Fancy.

In 1735, Peter and Elizabeth Pinkston lived in Queen Anne County, Maryland. (Land Records of Maryland, Vol. RD#2, pp. 296-297). By that time, their children had grown up and had children of their own. Children and grandchildren are named in various deeds of conveyance on record at Hall of Records, Annapolis, Md:

1. Hannah Pinkston2, “eldest daughter, m. Henry Jarman (Jurman). Their son, a minor in 1735, William Jarman3, (prob. b. ca. 1719), inherited Pinkston’s Folly. William Jarman3 m. Sarah Rutledge 17 February 1739 (St. John’s Parish Records, copy at MHS).
2. William Pinkston2, b. ca. 1695 m. Martha Nelson 4 March 1716/17. Children:

3. Peter Pinkston, Jr.2. In 1722, this son was called before St. Ann’s Parish Vestry to answer charges of “incontinent living together” with Anne Johnson. (Maryland Historical Magazine, V. III, p. 167, Baltimore 1912.)
4. Greenbury Pinkston2 was probably also a son of Peter Pinkston1 and Elizabeth. Greenbury died in 1772 in Fairfax County, Virginia; was probably named after a prominent planter of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, a political activist who a contemporary and neighbor of Peter Pinkston1: Nicholas Greenberry. Greenberry Pinkston2 probably moved to Fairfax County, Virginia between 1740 and 1770. (Greenberry Pinkston, Fairfax County estate inventory 1772.)

In 1731, William Pinkston2 is called heir-at-law of Peter Pinkston1 and acts as such in selling "Pinkston’s Delight" to Phillip Hammond. William is apparently literate enough sign his own name to the deed. (Maryland Patents EI#5 pp. 94-95.)

In 1739, Peter and Elizabeth are still alive and are named “planters” of Talbot County, Maryland. In that year, they sold “Marlborough Plains” in Anne Arundel County, land they owned since 1707.

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Greenberry Pinkston2 (Peter1)

We know very little at present of Greenberry Pinkston2, except that he was probably born ca. 1700-1710 in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. He probably moved to Fairfax County, Virginia some time in the 1740s, after Peter Pinkston’s1 death. His marriage is not listed in the marriage records of Maryland, though he was probably married in Talbot County before moving to Virginia. A copy of the inventory of his estate is in my personal possession. It is in the files of the Fairfax County Court Clerk, recorded November 18, 1771. Witnesses were Thomas Triplett, Humphrey Peake and Joseph Cash. Greenberry’s executors were Elijah Williams, John Tillett and George Tillett. The Justice of the Peace was Captain Edward Payne.

Greenberry Pinkston2 had children. I have no documentation that the brothers named here are sons of Greenberry Pinkston. But they lived, owned land, married and joined the Revolutionary War in the same area where Greenberry died in 1772; I do have documentary evidence that the men named here are brothers:

1. Henry Pinkston3 (Greenberry2, Peter1) b. ca. 1745-50, probably in Talbot County, Maryland, m. ca. 1780-81 to Mary Ann “Polly” Carroll, daughter of Joseph Carroll and Ann Jennings Carroll ( personal communication of Mrs. Edgar L. Cox from Robinson family records, 1980). Henry3 probably moved as a child or young man with his father to Fairfax County, Virginia; then after his father’s death in 1771/2, he moved to Fauquier County, Virginia, buying land there in 1778. His 232 acres were located on the South side of Broad Run in Leeds Parish (Fauquier Deed Book 7, p. 90). Today the land lies between Interstate 66 and Route 29/211 just South of the Fauquier/Prince William County line. Henry Pinkston3 was a fairly prosperous farmer, judging from the inventory of his estate in 1804 (Fauquier County Will Book 3, pg. 507). The estate was administered by Dixon and William Robinson, his sons-in-law. The inventory of his estate is still on file in Fauquier County in Will Book 3, p. 507. Named as heirs were: Francis Pinkston4; Dixon Robinson and William Robinson (Fauquier Will Book 4, p. 203).

Henry Pinkston3 had children:

2.Shadrack Pinkston3 (Greenberry2, Peter1), born ca. 1754-56, probably in Fairfax County, Virginia, married Athaliza Carroll before 1773; served in Commander-in-Chief’s Guard in the Revolutionary War. (This family history follows Shadrack’s line.)
3.Greenberry Pinkston3 (Greenberry2, Peter1), born in Fairfax County, Virginia?, moved to Montgomery County, Alabama in 1818.

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Shadrack – aka “Shadrick,” “Shadrach” – Pinkston3 (Greenberry2, Peter1)

Shadrack Pinkston3 was born ca. 1754-56 probably in Fairfax County, Virginia; married before 1773 Athaliza Carroll, daughter of Joseph and Mary Ann Jennings Carroll (Robinson family records via personal communication of Mrs. Edgar L. Cox of Utica, Kentucky, 1981; this has since been put into question by the will of Demse Carroll and wife Rebekah of Loudon County, though this could be explained by Demse being also known as Joseph and his having a second wife, Rebekah -- this latter information is posted at www.dkco.com/gen/gendex.html). Shadrack joined Daniel Morgan’s 11th Virginia Continental Regiment in November, 1776 and was transferred to the Commander-in-Chief’s Lifeguard in May, 1777 at Morristown, New Jersey (Carlos E. Godfrey, The Commander-in-Chief’s Guard, Baltimore, 1972, pp.226-227). The 11th Virginia Regiment was “raised in Prince William, Amelia, Loudon and Frederick Counties” (E. M. Sanchez-Saavedra, A Guide to Virginia Military Organizations in the American Revolution, 1774-1787, Richmond, 1978, p. 64). It is probably that Shadrack was mustered to duty at Manassas Court House in Prince William County, though his family apparently resided in Fauquier County at the time. Shadrack was listed in the 5th Company under Captain William Smith (National Archives, Revolutionary War Records).

The Commander-in-Chief of the American Revolutionary Forces, George Washington, released a circular on April 30, 1777, which set forth the particulars for his Guard: they were to be handpicked, four men of each regiment, so that Washington himself could then select the most promising from among them. As a result of Washington’s detailed specifications, we know almost exactly what Shadrack Pinkston3 was like in physical appearance. (Carlos E. Godfrey, op.cit., p. 42): “it is my farther wish that this company should look well and be nearly of a size, I desire that none of the men may exceed in stature five feet nine inches, sober, young, active and well made. I recommend care in your choice. I would be understood to mean men of good character in the regiment that possess the pride of appearing clean and soldierlike…”

From May 1, 1777 to May 6, 1777, the Company was chosen and organized into four sergeants, four corporals, one fifer and fory-seven privates, under the command of Captain Caleb Gibbs (Ibid., pp. 42,43).

Shadrack Pinkston3 saw action in the Battle of Brandywine, Delaware, September 11, 1777 (Ibid., p. 227). “On the morning of the 11th, the British having advanced, the battle of Brandywine opened with vigor and continued all day, when the Americans were repulsed near Birmingham Meeting House and retreated in confusion during the evening to Chester, twelve miles distant.” (Ibid., p. 47)

Again on October 4, 1777, at Germantown, Pennsylvania, Shadrack was involved in the battle (Ibid., p. 227). “At seven o’clock in the evening of the third of October, the Guard, with the Army left Methacton Hill very stealthily for Germantown. As they emerged from the woods of Chestnut Hill early the following morning Washington’s advance surprised the British pickets, who fell back into the main street of Germantown before being re-enforced, when the Americans received the galling fire from the fortified Chew House with disastrous results, although no casualties occurred to the Guard.” (Ibid., p. 48)

Shadrack Pinkston3 was discharged a coroporal, at Morristown, New Jersey, December 16, 1779, having served three years in the 11th Virginia Regiment on Continental Establishment (Ibid., p. 227). In addition to his pay of 6 and 2/3 dollars every month, he was given a warrant for bounty land in the Ohio Military District (then of Virginia; later if formed Ohio County, Kentucky), warrant no. 3997 for 100 acres, dated November 19, 1785 (__________ Jillson, Old Kentucky Entries and Deeds, p. 354).

After the War, Shadrack returned to Fauquier County, Virginia, along with his niece’s husband, Dixon Robinson, who had also served in the Guard, (Godfrey, op. Cit., p. 240). In 1782, Shadrack and Henry Pinkston co-sign the inventory of the estate of John Barbour in Fauquier County, Virginia. Barbour is probably the son of John and Sarah Pinkston Barbour, therefore a cousin to Shadrack and Henry Pinkston.

From all appearances, Shadrack3 did not go immediately to Ohio Military District when he received his land warrant in 1785. In fact, the Shadrack Pinkston3, who fought the Revolution may never have gone to Kentucky at all. In 1804, long after Shadrack Pinkston’s3 death, a lot next to Francis Pinkston, Dixon Robinson and William Robinson is still listed in the name of a Shadrack Pinkston in Fauquier County Land Records. This may be further proof that Shadrack Pinkston4 of Kentucky was the son of Shadrack3 of the Commander-in-Chief’s Guard. Shadrack4 may have been the owner of the lot described above, as well as being almost certainly the one who claimed the land in what became Ohio County, Kentucky.

Shadrack3 and Athaliza Pinkston are thought to have lived for a short time in Rowan Conty, North Carolina, where some Pinkstons from Maryland had settled by post-Revolutionary times (1790 Census, Rowan County, North Carolina). About 1785, Shadrack and Athaliza Carroll Pinkston moved to Wilkes County, Georgia. Shadrack died there in 1795; Athaliza remarried Fada Jarrett. She died in Fayette County, Georgia, 1845. (Kettle creek Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution, Washington, Georgia. 3-100 Georgia)

Shadrack3 and Athaliza Carroll Pinkston had children:

1. Shadrack Pinkston4 (Shadrack3, Greenberry2, Peter1), born ca. 1775, probably in Fauquier County, Virginia. This child is not listed in Shadrack's will, though it is believed that Shadrack3 had 6 children, not just the 5 mentioned in the will. And though Shadrack signed over his Ohio County, KY land to William Gaine, Nov. 10, 1785 [VA. Library], we know that a Shadrack Pinkston occupies land in this area in the generation of Shadrack4, whereas no William Gaine or anything sounding like that name shows up in the Kentucky census records in the early 1800s. This family history follows this line.
2. Greenberry Pinkston4 (Shadrack3, Greenberry2, Peter1), born ca. 1776 in Fauquier County, Virginia; died 1828, Wilkes County, Georgia; married (1) Mary Kay (Ann?) Armstrong; married (2) Sara Edison, born ca. 1780, Virginia. Greenberry Pinkston4 and Sara Edison Pinkston had children:

3. John Carroll Pinkston4 (Shadrack3, Greenberry2, Peter1), born 1773; died 1804, Wilkes County, Georgia, married Elizabeth Lawson Kain, born August 10, 1780; died May 3, 1856, Newton County, Georgia. John C. Pinkston4 and Elizabeth Kain Pinkston had only one child:

4. Charlotte Pinkston4 (Shadrack3, Greenberry2, Peter1), married Benjamin Starr.
5. Frances Pinkston4 (Shadrack3, Greenberry2, Peter1), married Peter Bennett
6. Sally Pinkston4 (Shadrack3, Greenberry2, Peter1), married James Hurley, Jr.

The above information on Shadrack and Athaliza Carroll Pinkston came (1) via personal communication of Lorraine Cates, Richmond Heights, Missouri, and from (2) the web page at members.aol.com/InmanGA/family.starr.html

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Shadrack Pinkston4, (Shadrack3, Greenberry2, Peter1)

Shadrack was born probably in 1775-76, around the time his father joined Daniel Morgan’s regiment in Fauqier County, Virginia. We have no marriage record of Shadrack Pinkston4. However, we know he married and had four daughters, ages ranging approximately 5-15 years old when the family is listed on the Ohio County, Kentucky Census of 1810. Presumably Shadrack4 had married in Fauquier County, Virginia ca. 1795 and had moved on to the land which his father had earned as bounty for his service in the Revolution.

By 1810, a John Pinkston, born July 26, 1782 (Lucius P. Little, Local Preachers of Old Times in Kentucky, a monograph read at Louisville Conference, 1904) had also moved to Ohio County, Kentucky. John had been born in Rowan County, North Carolina where many descendants of the Anne Arundel-Queen Anne-Talbot County, Maryland families descended from Peter Pinkston1 had apparently moved in the 1760s or 1770s, possibly about the same time that Greenberry2 had gone to Virginia from Maryland.

A Daniel T. Pinkston, born June 9, 1763, is also listed on the 1810 Ohio County, Kentucky Census. That the above John Pinkston and Daniel T. Pinkston are brothers has been established by the existence of a letter from John Pinkston in Davies County, Kentucky to his “dear brother” Daniel T. Pinkston in Vigo County, Indiana, dated April, 1828. (Cates, personal communication) Davies County, Kentucky was formed from a portion of Ohio County, Kentucky.

The relationship of John and Daniel T. Pinkston to Shadrack Pinkston4 has not been established; however Shadrack named one of his sons Daniel5.

Shadrack Pinkston4 died between 1841 and 1849 in Muhlenburg County, Kentucky. He and his wife had at least 11, probably 12 or 13 children. (Ohio, Davies, Muhlenburg County Census Records 1810-1850)

I have traced the descendants of only one of Shadrack Pinkston’s4 children:

1. Daniel A. Pinkston5 (Shadrack4, Shadrack3, Greenberry2, Peter1), born 1820, Daviess County, Kentucky; married 1849 Elizabeth Medlock, born 1831, South Carolina, daughter of James Medlock (son of Nathaniel Medlock) and James' wife, Nancy Perryman Medlock, born 1798 in South Carolina (Muhlenburg County Census 1850; Wallace Dunlap via gedcom file).

Before 1862, Daniel5 and Elizabeth had left Kentucky and settled in Miller County, Saline Township, Missouri (according to the birth record of their son, Robert Monroe Pinkston). There the family survived the hardships of frontier life and the Civil War. Daniel died some time after 1880 (Miller County, Missouri Census 1880). Elizabeth Medlock Pinkston lived until January 1, 1918. She died at 86 years of age in Henryetta, Oklahoma, as recorded in a Bible in the possession of Tsianina Pinkston Garner of Houston, Texas. The Bible will some day be in the possession of Lavedia Garner Zachary, also of Houston.

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Daniel A. Pinkston5 (Shadrack4, Shadrack3, Greenberry2, Peter1)

Daniel A. Pinkston5 and Elizabeth Medlock Pinkston had children (1850 Census, Muhlenburg County, Kentucky and 1880 Census Soundex of Missouri):

Hattie, a daughter-in-law was listed with this family on the 1880 cenuss. She was 18 years old and had a one-year-old daughter, Mary A. Hattie was possibly the wife of Nathaniel, but Nathaniel was not listed with the family.

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Robert Monroe Pinkston6 (Daniel A.5, Shadrack4, Shadrack3, Greenberry2, Peter1)

Robert Monroe Pinkston6 was born in Miller County, Missouri in 1862. In 1883 in Eldon, Missouri, he married the girl next door – according to the 1880 census record – Ida Bell Blackburn, born 1868 in Missouri to William M. and Elizabeth Wallace Blackburn ( See the Blackburn chapter of this family history.) Ida was 15 years old and Robert 21 at the time of their marriage. Robert built a log house on his land and all their children were born in that house (personal communication of Beulah Dean Pinkston7 Garner, their daughter. Robert and Ida moved to Henryetta, Oklahoma in 1907. They owned an automobile repair garage and gas station in that small town until age and illness forced Robert’s retirement. Ida Bell died in 1944 in Henryetta, Oklahoma and Robert died in 1948, also in Henryetta.

Robert Monroe Pinkston and Ida Bell Blackburn Pinkston had children (this list is copied from the family Bible which belonged to Ida Bell; the Bible is now in the possession of Lavedia Bell Garner Zachary, the daughter of Tsianina Pinkston Garner of Houston, Texas.

1. Charley L. Pinkston7, born November 30, 1885; died February 10, 1895
2. Lula Myrtle Pinkston7, born May 3, 1888; died August 24, 1888
3. George Elmer Pinkston7, (Robert6, Daniel A.5, Shadrack4, Shadrack3, Greenberry2, Peter1) born July 2, 1890; married ca. 1910 Bessie Shepherd, born March 3, 1893. George Elmer Pinkston died October 12, 1953. They had children:


The foregoing information on the descendants of George Elmer Pinkston was provided by Georgia May Pinkston Bates in 1979.

Pinkston Family History, Part 2

INDEX OF FAMILIES