| Notes |
- Buried in the Old Methodist Cemetery on the west side of Main Street, Stephens City, Frederick Co., Va. The grave marker lists his birth as Dec. 9, 1762. There is a DAR marker. "Early Methodism in and around Stephens City" (1906) pp 16 & 17 notes: "The first burying ground -- 'The Old Graveyard' -- on Mulberry street was, without doubt , given by Peter Stevens and his son Lewis Stephens, but there was no deed for it until 1799 when Lewis Stephens, Jr. deeded to thirteen trustees... The names of the trustees were David Wilson, William Mcleod, ...Lewis Stephens , Jr., Bryan Martin Stevens, Henry Stephens..The dust of the first settlers rests in this graveyard, but being generally marked by common limestone rocks, their graves are not distinguishable."
Gene Taylor writing "To my McLeod Cousins--
...."While in London, I visited the Library of the Society of Genealogists. There I found extensive records of the Tilden family of Kent. Our ancestor, John Bell Tilden, whose daughter, Anna Bell, married Lorenzo McLeod, was the son of a Richard Tilden, said to be of the Tilden's of Kent. However we are lacking info as to whether our Richard Tilden, a sea captain from Philadelphia, was a colonial descended from Tildens who arrived in America earlier, or was the son of an English family. Thus we must learn more of Richard Tilden's origin before we can pursue Kent sources.
"In June I spent several days in the Shenandoah Valley during which I visited "Bell Air," home of John Bell Tilden and later of Lorenzo McLeod. While there I saw a book by Garland R. Quarles (Some Old Homes in Frederick Co. Va) which included info about Bell Air and also Tilden info that was new to me. It stated that Richard Tilden, who died 16 June 1762, is buried at Christ Church Philadelphia. In 1763 his widow married John Bell, a close friend of Richard Tilden and also a sea captain. Thus it appears that our ancestor, John Bell Tilden was named for this close friend of this father...."
Bruce's History of Virginia, Vol. 5, p 322.; Quarrels. Some Old Homes in Frederick Co.: and the Pennsylvania Journal of History and Biography, Vol. XIX, all show John Bell Tilden's birth as 1761, while Willa McConnel indicates he was born in 1762. The preponderance of evidence should rule!--JET
Bruce. "History of Virginia." Vol. V, pp. 322-33:
"The Tilden or Tylden family is one of great antiquity in England; as far back as the reign of Edward III, we find William Tylden paying aid for land in Kent, when the Black Prince was knighted.
"The first Tilden of whom we have record in America was Captain Richard Tilden of England who died in Philadelphia Pennsylvania October, 1762.
"Dr John Bell Tilden, son of Captain Richard and Anna (Meyer) Tilden was born in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, December 9 1761; baptized in the Episcopal Church, and died July 31, 1838 in New Town, now Stephen City, Virginia. He was a student at Princeton College at the time of the Revolutionary war and left college to join the Continental army, receiving a commission as ensign, May 23 1799 in the Second Regiment, Pennsylvania line, Commanded by Colonel Walter Stewart. He was subsequently promoted to second lieutenant, his commission to date from July 25, 1780. His regiment left York Pennsylvania, for the southern campaign in the spring of.... and he was present at the siege of Yorktown and the surrender of General Cornwallis. At the close of the war he was honorably mustered out of service, and became a member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati. During his entire service he kept a diary, ... is now in the possession of the Pennsylvania Historical Society in Philadelphia.
"Dr Tilden settled in Frederick County, Virginia, where he practiced medicine until the close of his life. ... time prior to 1824 he was ordained to the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and during ... agitation of the question of lay representation, he advocated the equal rights of the laity with the clergy the legislative department of the church, for which he and other prominent members were expelled for so-called heresy. In 1872 the church admitted its error by adopting lay representation into its polity. Long before the subject of African slavery took a political shape, Dr Tilden manumitted his slaves and sent them to Liberia with one year's outfit.
"Dr Tilden married, August 9 1794, Jane Chambers, born in York County, Pennsylvania, December 18, 1766:... died May, 1827, daughter of Joseph and Martha (McCalmont ) Chambers of York, Pennsylvania. ...."
[There follows a list of their children with spouses and their children which I have incorporated into the respective family pages. The data above were copied verbatim from a photocopy in which some words were lost in the margins. In cases that were reasonably clear, I supplied the missing words or parts of words. In other cases, the missing material is indicated by an ellipsis [[...]]--LKL]
DAR Patriot Index {DAR 1966, p. 679] lists birth as 12/09/1761 and death as 07/31/1838. It lists him as a second lieutenant in Pennsylvania.
John Bell Tilden Phelps [possibly a son of Asburyanna Tilden and Richard Phelps?] contributed excerpts from John Bell Tilden's Journal kept when he was a Lieutenant in the Second Pennsylvania Line, 1781-1782. These were published in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. XIX, no. 1, 1895; p. 51.
"[John Bell Tilden, whose ancestors were the Tyldens of Kent England, was born in Philadelphia, December 9, 1781. In his eighteenth year he left Princeton College and joined the Continental army, being commissioned, May 28, 1779, ensign in the Second Regiment Pennsylvania Line, commanded by Colonel Walter Stewart. He was subsequently promoted to second Lieutenant, his commission to date from July 25, 1780. At the close of the war he was honorably mustered our of the service, and became a member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati. In 1784, he married Jane, daughter of Joseph and Martha Chambers of York, Pennsylvania and settled in Frederick County, Virginia, where he practised medicine until the close of his life. Sometime prior to 1824 he was ordained to the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and during the agitation of the question of lay representation, he advocated the equal rights of the laity with the clergy in the legislative department of the Church, for which he and other prominent members were expelled for so-called heresy. In 1872 the Church admitted its error by adopting lay representation into its polity. Long before the subject of African slavery took a political shape Dr Tilden manumitted his slaves and sent them to Liberia with one year's outfit. He died July 31, 1838 at New Town (now Stephen City), Virginia]"
The removal of the Tilden's to Frederick county in 1784 is questioned by Quarrels:
"THE JOHN B. TILDEN HOUSE-- "BELL AIR" NO. 142
"Location: In the northwest part of the Town of Stephens City.
"Tradition has it that this interesting old home was built by John B. Tilden, and a date in the chimney indicates that it was built in 1788. We have had some difficulty in reconciling these two statements by documentation. The earliest record we have been able to discover of the purchase of land in Frederick County by John B. Tilden is on July 16, 1791 when John Hite conveyed to 'John B. Tilden of the County of Berkely 103.5 acres of land on the east side of the Opequon. (F.D.B. 41 - Page 87). This record would seem to indicate that in 1791 John B. Tilden was a citizen of Berkeley; and incidentally the land here conveyed was not the site of 'Bell Air.'
"Further evidence that Tilden did not own property in Frederick County as early as 1788 is to be found in the tax records of the county preserved in the State Library in Richmond. These records show that Tilden's name does not appear on the tax rolls until 1793 when he is listed as owning the 103.5 acre tract, which we have already named, and one slave and four horses. The horses he probably needed as an itinerant Methodist preacher.
"It is our judgment, based upon a study of a map according to the original charter of the Town of New Town or Stephens City in 1758, made by Alexander Spottswood Dandridge in 1923, that 'Bell Air' stands on a part of 5 acre outlot number 23 in that charter. This lot was a part of a grant by Yost Hite to Peter Stephens on October 3, 1734 and a conveyance by Peter Stephens to his son Lewis Stephens on May 2, 1755 (F.D.B. 5 - Page 472). Lewis Stephens conveyed this lot to Lawrence Snapp on May 3, 1760 (F.D.B. 5 - Page 472) Lawrence Snapp devised the lot to John Snapp and on May 31, 1783 John Snapp conveyed it to John W. Driver. (F.D.B. 9 -Page 434). On October 28 1799 John W. Driver conveyed it to Thomas Dann (F.D.B. S.C. 4 -Page 91; and on April 30, 1815 Thomas Dann sold it to John B. Tilden. (F.D.B. 39 - Page 347).
"From the facts we have thus far recited we can come to only one conclusion about the tradition concerning the date of building and the builder of 'Bell Air': namely, that either Tilden did not build the old house; or , if he did, it was not built as early as 1788 as alleged. Our belief is that the 1788 date may be correct, but that the house was built by John W. Driver who owned the lot in 1788.
"We feel that too little attention has been given by local historians to the distinguished career of John Bell Tilden. He was the son of Richard Tilden of Kent County, England and Anna Myer. Richard Tilden was a sea captain and one of his warmest friends and fellow-captains was John Bell. Tilden died June 16, 1762 and is Buried in Christ Church, Philadelphia. His widow Anna then married his old friend, John Bell and must have survived him because she came to Frederick County with her son by her first marriage, and died in 1819, aged 88 years as her tombstone in the Methodist Church Cemetery in Stephens City attests.
"John Bell Tilden, named after his father's friend, was born in Philadelphia on December 9, 1761. He attended Princeton College, where he apparently studied medicine, and which he left in 1779 to be commissioned as an ensign in the Second Regiment of the Pennsylvania Line of the Continental Army. He served throughout the revolution and kept a journal of his activities, which includes a detailed description of the campaign in Virginia in 1781 and 1782, particularly the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. Extracts from this journal were published in 1895 in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. At the end of the war he was mustered out of service and became a member of the society of the Cincinnati.
"In 1784 John Bell Tilden married Jane Chambers, daughter of Joseph and Martha Chambers of York Pennsylvania. The specific date of his migration to Frederick County we do not know, but it was apparently about 1791. Here he became a leading citizen, a Justice of the County from 1795-1813, and the father of a substantial family [There follow the names, dates and marriages of his children] ... Mrs Tilden died on May 26 1827, and her tombstone in the Methodist Cemetery has the following inscription, no doubt composed by her grieving husband: 'The most affectionate mother, kindly to the poor, and a devoted Christian.'
"Prior to 1824 Tilden was ordained as a minister in the Methodist Church and the inscription on his tomb asserts that for more than 40 years he was a preacher of the gospel. He disagreed with the church authorities by advocating lay representation in determining church policy. As a result he was expelled for the alleged heresy, but later the Church admitted its error by providing for lay representation. The records of Frederick County bear witness to the fact that he opposed slavery and manumitted his own slaves and sent them to Liberia with one year's outfit (F.D.B. 30 - Page 33 and 54) During all of his life in Frederick County he practiced medicine and was known as Dr. Tilden. He died July 31, 1838 and was buried beside his wife and mother at Stephens City. He was the great-grandfather of the late Mrs. Helen McLeod Peery, and the great-great grandfather of W. Alan Peery, Marguerite Peery Clark and Adelaid Peery Cobble, all of Winchester.
"On September 20 1833 John Bell Tilden conveyed to his sons-in-law George Reed and Lorenzo McLeod and to his grandson John B.T. Reed all of his real estate in and adjoining the Town of Stephens City, which included the 'Bell Air' lot and a number of other tracts which he had purchased (F.D.B. 62 - Page 44). Lorenzo McLeod acquired the interests of the Reeds in this property and became the sole owner in 1840. (F.D.B. 83 - Page 500).
"Since that date 'Bell Air' has been conveyed as follows:
March 7, 1875 -- The other heirs of Lorenzo McLeod to William T. Mcleod (F.D.B. 92 - Page 123)
February 24, 1903 -- Helena V. Peery here interest in the William T, Mcleod estate to W.W. McLeod (F.D.B. 123 - Page 306).
April 1 1901 -- Norma A Canter her interest in the William T. McLeod estate to W.W. McLeod (F.D.B. 130 -- Page 241) Thus W.W. McLeod became the sole owner of 'Bell Air'.
July 3, 1943 -- W.W. McLeod to V. Samuel Cook (F.D.B. 187 -- Page 300).
May 4, 1946 -- V. Samuel Cook to Howard R. Mills ( F.D.B. 196 -- Page 300).
August 16, 1950 -- Howard R. Mills to Laverne Ira Saunders (F.D.B. 216 -- Page 530).
July 2, 1954 -- Laverna I Saunders to L. Lester Ritter, the present [1971] owner (F.D.B. 232 -- Page 283)."
Leland S. McLeod in 1967 or earlier sent information to Gene Taylor which corroborates much of the above. Leland's sources included the Record of the Society of Cincinnati; John Bell Tilden's Diary published by the Historical Society of Penn. and reprinted in "The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography," Vol. XIX, no. 1, 1895 p 51 ff.; and the Seven Hills Society CAR [DAR??} National no. 264476.
"John Bell Tilden joined the Continental army in his 18th year as ensign in the second regiment, Penn line and was subsequently promoted to second lieut.
"He fought through North Carolina and Virginia, and was at the surrender of Yorktown, being an officer appointed to receive the surrendered arms.
"During the war he kept a diary which the Historical Society of Philadelphia has published. He was an original member of The Society of Cincinnati
"Lieut Tilden, whose ancestors were the Tyldens of Kent, England, was by profession a doctor, being educated at Princeton College. He left college to join the Continental Army."
John B. Tilden was licensed as a Methodist Minister on January 31, 1803 with George Reed and James Chipley as Bondsmen. -- Kerns, Wilmer L. Historical Records of Old Frederick and Hampshire Counties, Virginia (rev.), p. 10
In August of 1828 George Reed was licensed as a minister to a splinter group of the Methodist Church known as the Methodist Union Society of Reformers. John B. Tilden was his bondsman. Mr Tilden left the regular Methodists in 1828 and registered [as minister] under this denominational name. A footnote in this source says "In 1828 he [Tilden] was expelled from the Methodist church because he advocated lay representation. -- Kerns, Wilmer L. Historical Records of Old Frederick and Hampshire Counties, Virginia (rev.), p. 11. and p. 358.
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Taylor Family Genealogy
1761 - 1831 (69 years)
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