| Notes |
- "William Lillard was not only our first member of the General Assembly of Tennessee but also the first Colonel Commandant of the County, January 18 1798. He was a captain of the militia in the days of the Southwest Territory, from Green County, before Jefferson County was organized, and in the latter days after it was established. He was Colonel of a regiment (second Regiment, Tennessee Volunteers) in command of General John Cocke (son of William) in the Creek War of 1813 and 14.
"Colonial William Lillard married Rachael McKay Leith...." --- O'Dell. Over the Misty Blue Hills, p. 113
"'William Lillard, a member of the Convention from Cooper County, was born in Virginia and lived near Abington, Washington County in that state. He was a Colonel in the Revolutionary War in command of Virginia troops and served under Washington and Lafayette and was also an officer in the War of 1812. He was a slave owner and a man of considerable wealth. He first moved from Virgina to Jefferson County, Tennessee, about 1797 and represented that county in the Lower House of the Tennessee Legislature and subsequently represented Cocke County for eighteen years. He settled in Missouri Territory in what was then Cooper County (now Saline), in 1817, and was elected to the Constitutional Convention. He certainly was a man of magnetic influence because Lillard (now Lafayette) County was named for him by those who knew him personally. In 1820 he was elected Representative of Cooper County to the first Legislature and in that year, Lillard County (now Lafayette) was organized. He returned to Tennessee to live and entered land in the Hiwassee district probably about 1824, on account of ill health, due to malaria and died there about 1832.
"'His wife's name was Rachel McCoy, and he appears to have had three sons, Austin, John, Jeremiah and one daughter, Nancy, who married Joseph Allen, all of whom died in Tennessee,....'" --- O'Dell. Over the Misty Blue Hills, p. 115, quoting from Houck's History of Missouri (p. 261)
|
Taylor Family Genealogy
