History Writing

My direct ancestor, Nathaniel Couch, lived in a tumultuous time and place—and it looks like he didn’t miss much of the action. Born in 1725 in Winchester, Virginia when this was a frontier town, he fought in the French and Indian War with George Washington and under the same man during the Revolutionary War; and he hid men who challenged Washington and defied his orders during the Whiskey Rebellion. More specially about the third event, on July 15, 1794, a federal marshal named David Lenox and the federal tax inspector, General John Neville, tried to summon a local Pennsylvania farmer

Nathaniel Couch is my ancestor who fought in the French and Indian War (covered in post one) and the Revolutionary War (covered in post two). At the risk of vastly oversimplifying the roots of the Revolutionary War, here’s a key element. From 1763 through 1775, the British Parliament passed multiple laws that impacted trade and imposed taxes on the Colonists. This taxation didn’t come with representation—and the Colonists weren’t very happy about the financial burden. Tensions kept rising as the two groups couldn’t come to a compromise. This includes the Boston Tea Party incident when Colonists dumped 342 chests of

I can make no claims that my ancestor, Nathaniel Couch, maintained a close friendship with George Washington. Their lives, however, clearly intertwined. As noted in my first blog post about Nathaniel, he was born in Winchester, Virginia in 1725. He remained there for decades. Then, according to The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon, from 1748 to 1758, Washington “spent more nights in Winchester than another place besides his home [in Mount Vernon].” Case for a Relationship Between Nathaniel Couch and George Washington Washington arrived at Winchester on March 16, 1748 as part of a surveying party, a job