A look at Richard Harve Slaven, part one...

I've been collecting and presenting information on branches of any Slaven(s), Slavin, Slevin, etc. on this web site for over 20 years, and without a doubt the one individual that has generated the most questions and emails is Richard Harve Slaven (or Slavey, depending on the document; we'll use Slaven here). You could liken a man who lived in Richard's time to a pebble tossed in a quiet pool-- the pebble disappears but the circle of ripples gently expand outward, like the man's family circle expands over generations. But in such an analogy, Richard Slaven was more brick than pebble and the generations more waves than ripples.

So much interest in Richard Harve Slaven, yet some of the basic facts about him are most likely wrong. This post will look at those facts.

For example: in the Garrard County, Kentucky, Tax Books of 1797 (Family Search film 7834436, John Slaven 60 acres of grade 2 land on the waters of Paintlick in Madison County, 7 horses, mares, etc., 1 Black, and 1 white male over 21. He was assessed on April 29, 1797. Nearly two months later, on June 22, 1797, Richard Slavin was assessed for 1 white male above 16. (These are images 27 and 29 on the aforementioned film.) Of course, just because Richard is on his own instead of in John's household is no proof one way or the other as to whether he is John's son. What is significant though is Richard's age-- under 21.

Literally hundreds of trees on Ancestry, and his trees at FamilySearch and WikiTree, give Richard Harve Slaven's birthdate as 23 June 1775. However, I have not been able to find a source for this date. It's on his Find-A-Grave memorial, but the source is uncreditted. Circumstantial evidence points to Richard having a later birthdate.

As previously mentioned, there's the 1797 tax list where he over 16 but under 21. A 1775 birthdate would make him 23-- the assessment date was the day before his 24th birthday, if the 23 June 1775 date was accurate.

Richard appears in just one federal census, 1820. (At least, as far as I've found.) Only the head of household is listed in the census, and from the sheer number of people in the household-- 21!-- and the ages of the females, it's some kind of a blended or multi-generational household. The oldest male is in the "26 through 44" age range. The official enumeration day of the 1820 census was 7 August 1820. Ages were supposed to refer to that date. This is after Richard's supposed 23 June 1775 birth date, so he should have been in the "45 and over" category if was born in 1775.

Also, 1798 was a banner year for Richard Harve Slaven. Thanks to the list of events compiled by Lanny Slavey and published on the (now defunct) Richard Slavey Chronicles website, he got a land warrant in August, got married in September, and had a land entry ten days later. Getting land and getting married could be a sign that he turned 21 in 1798, not 1796.

Related to the question of Richard's birth date is the oft-repeated attribution that Richard is a "Revolutionary War veteran." The War lasted from 19 April 1775 to 3 September 1783. Obviously Richard would have been too young to have been a regular soldier in the War, even if he had been born in 1775. Could he have been a drummer boy? Nathan Futrell, reputed to be the youngest drummer boy in the Revolutionary War, was born in North Carolina in 1773-- at least a couple years before Richard's birth. Besides, had Richard been a drummer boy, surely that fact would have been passed down through the generations. My guess is that the erroneous Revolutionary War service claim stems from a book which attributes a land grant to Richard as a Revolutionary bounty grant. It wasn't.

It doesn't matter whether you go with 1775 or 1777 as Richard's birth year, it's problematic in assigning John and Elizabeth (Graham) Slaven as his parents.

John Slaven was born on Christmas Day 1756 (according to many family trees) or Christmas Day 1757 (according to his headstone). He's listed as 94 in the 1850 census... which doesn't really fit either year. (If he was born on Christmas Day, which definitely seems a tradition one would remember and pass down, he would have had to have been born in 1755 to be 94 at the time of the census.) In his pension statement, John was 75 as of 20 November 1832, which would support a Christmas 1756 birth. So at 17 to 20, depending on which combination of John's birth dates/Richard's birth dates you go with, it's possible that John could be his father.

However, according to his wife Elizabeth's headstone, she was born in 1761. While I haven't found a record, trees list John and Elizabeth's marriage as occurring in 1783 in Rowan County, North Carolina. Oops. This would put Elizabeth between 13 and 16 at Richard's birth (depending again on whether 1775 or 1777 is correct). It also means Richard would have been born 6-8 years before John and Elizabeth's marriage. While it's still possible, it definitely seems less likely.

A further strike against John and Elizabeth being Richard's parents is a 1787 tax list from Rowan County, North Carolina (image 327). We find:

John Slavey
1 Male 21-60
0 Male under 21 or over 60
3 Female

The three females in the household should be John's wife Elizabeth and daughters Isabella "Ibby" b. 1785 and Ann b. 1787. If Richard was their son-- or even John's son with an unknown woman-- and was born in 1775-7, he should be listed in the "white male under 21 or over 60" category. At 10-12 years old, Richard would not have been living out on his own.

Of course, one could counter that all the evidence I've presented to counter the "facts" of Richard Harve Slaven's birth date and parentage is circumstantial. But what is the source of the 23 June 1775 birth date? What is the evidence that John and Elizabeth Graham Slavin are his parents, besides the fact that they were all in Garrard County, Kentucky, for a short time?

One other circumstantial bit of evidence against John Slavin being Richard's father: when John died, there was a lot of court documents generated concerning the estate. While John oulived Richard-- if Richard's 1841 death date is correct-- his will mentioned two daughters who had died previous to 1848, a total of nine children. There were also deeds by John's heirs that speak of being entitled to one-ninth interest in property. The children named in John's will were Mary Carnes, Isabella Reid, Ann Clinton, Sarah Wooley, Elizabeth Martindell, William Slavin, John Slavin, James G. Slavin and George Slavin. No Richard. This information is from John's Slavin's wonderful source notes for his online tree.

If John and Elizabeth Graham Slavin aren't Richard's parents, then who are? I'll answer that question in a separate post in a week or so. I'm hoping to get scans or photographs of the family Bible pages to illustrate the article.

Disagree? Have other comments or questions? Email me at slavens.net@gmail.com and I'll incorporate the discussion into a future post.