Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/331

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

church at the time of his ministry, and a ser- mon in his memory was delivered by the Rtv. Ezekiel Cooper and afterward publish- ed (Philadelphia, 1799). During the yellow fever epidemics in Philadelphia during the years 1793, 1797, 1798. he remained at his post, in the latter named year falling a vic- tim to the disease.

Francisco, Peter, was brought to \'irginia as a child, by a sea captain, who left him upon the wharf at City Point, friendless and alone. After some days he was taken in charge by the parish authorities, who bound him out to Anthony Winston (an uncle of Patrick Henr}')» ^^ho resided on his estate "Hunting Tower," in Buckingham county. His name and dark complexion led the com- mon surmise that he was of Portugese origin. His immense physical strength, even as a boy, attracted attention, and his honesty and frankness won the respect and confidence of his master. In the fall of 1776, at the age of sixteen, he joined the Tenth Virginia Regiment. He was now a sturdy youth, six feet one inch in height, two hun- dred and sixty pounds in weight, and ex- ceedingly muscular and active. His son said of him: *'He could take with his two arms two men weighing one hundred and sixty pounds each, by their legs, and at arm's-length raise them to the ceiling; and he told me that he had shouldered a cannon weighing eleven hundred pounds. An ordi- nary sword being too short and light for him. Gen. Washington ordered one to be made for him at a blacksmith shop — six feet from hilt to point, which he could wield as a feather." He was passionately devoted to the cause which he had made his own, and there is no such picturesque figure in the

whole continental line as Peter Francisco. He fought in the battles of Brandywine. Germantown and Monmouth. At the storm-, ing of Stony Point, he was the second man to enter the fort, only preceded by Lieut. James Gibbons, of Virginia. He was wounded several times, and killed several British soldiers. After his term of service had ended, he returned to Virginia, and en- listed in a cavalry troop, and fought under Gates and Greene, and was at the surrender uf Lord Cornwallis, at Yorktown. After the war, he kept a tavern at "New Store." Buck- ingham county, Virginia, and for many years v/as sergeant-at-arms of the house of dele- gates. He married (first) Mary Anderson; (second) Catherine Fauntleroy Brooke; And (third) Mary B. (Gr}'mesj West, a widow. He died, in Richmond, Virgmia, in January, 1831, and the house of delegates paid him the honor of a public funeral. His portrait hangs in the State Library in Rich- mond.

Stuart, John, son of David Stuart and Margaret Lynn, his wife. He was engaged by John Lewis in locating land in West Vir- ginia, and settled on the Greenbrier river. He was frequently engaged in the Indian wars. He was a member of the house of delegates during the revolutionary war, and for more than a quarter of a century was county clerk. He was also county lieuten- ant of Greenbrier county, and in 1788 was a member of the state convention called to pass upon the Federal constitution, and voted for its adoption. He married Agatha, widow of John Frogg, of Augusta, and daughter of Thomas Lewis, son of John Lewis.

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