3. In 1744, he married the widow of John McDowell, mentioned
on the next page, who had been killed in the Indian fight of
December 14, 1742.--R. G. T.

[9] The daughter of John Patton subsequently became the wife
of Col. W. Preston, and the mother of James Patton Preston,
late a governor of Virginia.

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_Comment by L. C. D._--This note of Mr. Withers, derived from
Taylor's sketches (mentioned below), is erroneous both as to
Patton and Preston. Col. Patton's first name was not John, but
James, as both the records and his own autograph sufficiently
attest. Neither did John Preston, nor his son Col. Wm. Preston,
marry Col. Patton's daughter, but John Preston married his
sister. Miss Elizabeth Patton, while crossing the Shannon in a
boat, met the handsome John Preston, then a young ship
carpenter, and an attachment grew out of their accidental
meeting. But as Miss Patton belonged to the upper class of
society, there was a wide gulf between their conditions, and a
runaway match was the only way out of the difficulty. Gov.
James Patton Preston was named after his grand-uncle. James
Patton was born in County Londonderry, Ireland, in 1692. For
many years he was a prosperous navigator, and crossed the
Atlantic twenty-five times with "redemptioners" for Virginia;
he was also an officer in the royal navy in the wars with the
Netherlands. Having obtained a grant of 120,000 acres above the
Blue Ridge, he himself settled in Virginia in 1735. A man of
wealth, enterprise and influence, he was a justice, sheriff,
Indian treaty commissioner, and finally county lieutenant of
Augusta. In 1755, he was killed by Indians while conveying
ammunition to the borderers.

[10] Capt. John McDowell was of Scotch descent, and born in
Ulster, Ireland, but in early manhood came to America, settling
first in Pennsylvania, and then the Virginia Valley (autumn of
1737). He at once became one of Benjamin Borden's surveyors,
and for five years made surveys on Borden's Manor. Becoming a
captain in the Augusta militia, he was ordered to go out
against a party of Northern Indians who, on the war-path
against the Catawbas, had taken in the Virginia Valley on their
way, and annoyed and plundered the