Personas

I was born in the Winter of the Year of our Lord 1726, in Overwharton Parish, Stafford County, in the Colony of Virginia. I am by descent of the Scots-Irish, though an American by birth and affection. My honoured parents were Thomas and Marion Kendrick, and I was the youngest surviving of five sons.  I have since taken to wife Miss Denise Regier, and the Lord hath blessed our union with three sons, James, Joseph, and Robert.

In my youth I attended the Log College in Pennsylvania for the space of one year, where I was instructed under the celebrated New Light divine, the Reverend William Tennent, shortly before his departure from this mortal life. Having completed my studies there, I returned again into Virginia. Yet my inclination was ever toward the sea, and, removing to the coast, I entered the life of a mariner. In due course I was bound apprentice in the art of coastal surveying and the making of charts.

Whilst employed upon a survey in Charles Town, in the Province of South Carolina, I found both the country and its people much to my liking and resolved to remain. There I continued to perfect my skill in the drawing of maps and sea charts, whilst also applying myself to the improvement of land as a planter.

After maintaining a lengthy correspondence with the daughter of a worthy acquaintance, I journeyed by the Great Wagon Road unto Tryon County in North Carolina, that I might make her personal acquaintance. She was Miss Denise Regier, a Prussian, newly come into the colonies and employed as a schoolmistress. Our friendship prospered into affection, and in due season we were joined together in holy matrimony.

When the king of England was engaged in the late French and Indian War, commonly called the Seven Years’ War, I entered into military service. Therein I acquired considerable experience in the field and became well acquainted with the manner of warfare practised against the Cherokee. Upon the conclusion of that conflict, I continued my service in the militia of this province fighting for Liberty.