David Bondurant

1754 - 1778  (24 years)

• Name	David Bondurant
  Birth	1754	, Buckingham, Virginia, USA
  Gender	Male
  Death	11 Sep 1778	Boonesboro, Madison, Kentucky, USA
  Person ID	I15096	Master
  Last Modified	7 Jun 2016

  
  

  Father	John Peter Bondurant,   b. 1 Oct 1711, Manakin, Goochland, Virginia, USA d. 1774, Manakin, Goochland, Virginia, USA (Age 62 years)
  Mother	Sarah Rachel Taylor,   b. 1711, Manakin, Goochland, Virginia, USA d. 1762, , Buckingham, Virginia, USA (Age 51 years)
  Marriage	1736	, , Virginia, USA
  Family ID	F3978	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map		Birth - 1754 - , Buckingham, Virginia, USA Death - 11 Sep 1778 - Boonesboro, Madison, Kentucky, USA  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Notes

  In 1776 Boonesborough was again attacked by Indians. That summer Daniel’s daughter Jemima and two daughters of Col. Richard Callaway, were captured by the Shawnees, but rescued two days later. Another Indian attack was made on Boonesborough in April 1777, and Daniel was wounded. Settlers continue to come into the area. In January 1778 Daniel led a party of 26 men to the Lower Blue Licks to boil salt. He was captured in February by the Shawnees, but escaped and returned to Boonesborough in June. September 1778, under the guise of signing a peace treaty with the whites, the Shawnees gather at Fort Boonesborough. They besieged the fort from 7th to 18th September, but the settlers held on, with only two casualties – DAVID BONDURANT, and London, a male slave of Col. Richard Callaway. In the fall of 1779 Boone led a group of settlers from NC into KY, and they established a new settlement six miles northwest of Boonesborough which they called Boone’s Station. While in Richmond, VA, in 1780, Daniel Boone was robbed of $20,000 in depreciated Continental scrip, and land certificates (including one from “JOHN BUNDRUM”). DAVID BONDURANT (BUNDRIN, BUNDIN, BUNDRANT, BUNDRUM) Now we switch from the life story of Daniel Boone to that of the one white casualty in the 1778 attack by the Shawnees on Boonesborough – David Bondurant. Kentucky in 1778 was Kentucky District, VA, so its earliest records can be found preserved in the Virginia Archives at Richmond. David Bondurant had come into Kentucky District, and had made a settlement in February 1778 on “Tate’s Creek about three miles from the mouth thereof including the Walnut Bottom,” an area now part of Lexington, KY. Indians made repeated attacks on small settlements of whites, and with the impending peace treaty with the Shawnees, we presume that David and his wife had gone to Fort Boonesborough to witness the signing. Their home was some miles to the northwest of the fort. These eyewitness accounts collected by John Filson, and documents gathered by Lyman Draper, give a graphic account of the siege of Boonesborough. From THE LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE, by Lyman C. Draper, edited by T.F. Belue, Pages 510-12 On Friday the 11th of September [1778] .... That night was the severest firing on both sides that occurred during the siege, commingled reports of the firearms and the vivid flashes of powder in quick succession, the one echoing back from the surrounding hills and the other partially exhibiting the dark forest in the distance, rendered the scene one of solemn grandeur. The constant flashes of the guns made it so light in the fort that the smallest article could be seen in every part.... Another tragic event occurred during that busy and exciting night. While DAVID BUNDRIN, a Dutchman who was posted in the south-west bastion, was looking through a port-hole partly closed with a stone, a ball struck close and split, one half penetrating his forehead, producing a mortal wound and rendering him speechless. A little before day Boone called out to his men to cease firing, as they were necessarily shooting at random and were uncertain of producing any good effects.... He [Bondurant] lived a number of hours, all the while resting his forehead in his hands and his elbows upon his knees, constantly rocking his body in a sitting posture until all his brains by the action had apparently worked out of the wound, sometimes wiping away the oozing brains with his hand. [He is said to have lived 3 days.] His simple-hearted wife, while her husband was in this dying condition, would consolingly remark, “it vas Got’s plessing dat de pall didn’t hit ‘im in the eye.” Bundrin was a good soldier and had been wounded in the thigh when at work in the field the preceding spring [1778]. Draper had discovered John Filson’s interviews with survivors of that Boonesborough siege, and built this narrative from Filson’s interview of John Gass, and others. What came as a surprise was that Gass described David Bundrin [Bondurant] as “a Dutchman” and MARRIED. The quote of David’s wife’s comment, in broken English with a German usage, further suggests that it was Mrs. David Bundrin, who is not named further in the interview, who was “Dutch” – at that time the colloquial reference to a German-speaking person, not just a person from Holland. The Valley of Virginia had a number of settlements of German-speaking citizens who had moved south-westward from Pennsylvania, and may have formerly been “Pennsylvania Dutch.” Was David’s wife one of them? Might their marriage be found recorded in one of the early church registers or record books; perhaps his surname was mis-spelled, and we’ve missed it in transcriptions and indexes. The marriage would almost certainly have been performed by the minister or in the Meeting to which SHE belonged, and this should provide her name, and possibly parentage. Calling David a “good soldier” suggests that he may have seen some military service, possibly earlier in the Revolution, or in the French and Indian War. Has anyone seen documentation? I have not; Clint, have you? All able bodied white males 16 to 45 were required to do militia service in their home county four days a year for drilling, and when called out by the Governor. While this might be considered military service, would David’s contemporary have referred to his appearance at militia musters as making David a good soldier? Since the settlement made by David Bondurant lay in the Kentucky District of Virginia, inheritance of his land would be governed by Virginia law. Hening’s STATUTES AT LARGE ... OF VIRGINIA, vol. 9, pages 355-56. October 1777. V. And whereas great numbers of people have settled on waste and ungranted lands situate on the Western Waters, to which they have not been able to procure legal titles, and the general convention of Virginia on the 24 June 1776 did “resolve, that all such settlers upon unappropriated lands, to which there was no prior just claim, should have the PREEMPTION or preference to a grant of such lands,” and it is just and reasonable that the lands in their possession thus secured to them should contribute by tax to the common charge.... That all persons who, on or before the 24 June 1776, had bona fide settled themselves, or at his or her charge had settled others, upon any waste and ungranted lands on the said Western Waters, and had not by regular entry, survey, or contract, ascertained the quantity of their claim, shall be allowed for every family so settled 400 acres of land to include such settlement, or such lesser quantity as the person entitled thereto desires.... Had David and his widow had children, his preemption would have passed to the widow and children. That the claim was awarded to JOHN PETER BONDURANT, if David died intestate (as he probably did), suggests that J.P.B. was David’s father.