Lora Hunt Jeffries' Indiana Home Page:Information about John Cuppy
John Cuppy (b. Abt. 1730, d. September 1802)
Notes for John Cuppy:In the Cuppy/Shriner Genealogy, the author says that John Cuppy married Margaret Parker.However, John Cuppy, Jr. said his mother's maiden name was DeVore.He was 100 years old at the time of the interview and may have been confused.I've seen no proof of either name.
Most of the information about John Cuppy comes from the Draper Papers.According to John Jr. his father was of German ancestry, arrived in America around 1750 (may have jumped ship as a sailor) and that he married Margaret DeVore, a native of New Jersey, in 1754.John Sr. settled in Morristown, NJ where he became a stone mason.His first 3 children were born there.Another internet source says he married in New York.
Around 1762 the family moved from Morris Co. NJ to Mill Creek, Hampshire County, VA (a few miles below Romney, WVA).They lived here during the American Revolution in which John Cuppy Sr. was too old to fight but he furnished a rifle to the cause and so his descendants are eligible to be members of the DAR.
John Cuppy bought land from Benjamin Parker and wife (Sage-early records of Hampshire Co. VA, p. 68.)
After the Revolution, John Jr. and Abraham were members of Capt. Samuel Brady's Scouts and fought Indians in the Ohio River country.After the Treaty of Greenville, John Sr. and Margaret sold their land (Apr, 1794) and moved to the Ohio River country to lived with John Jr. on Tomlinson's Run in Brooke County, VA.John Sr. died there in 1802.
There are at least2 possible spellings of hs original name.Johannes Koppe (German) or Jan Koptje (Dutch).Either name becomes John Cuppy in English.
Will Book 1, p. 13, Brooke County, VA.In the name of God, Amen.I John Cuppy, of the county of Brooke and Commonwealth of Virginia, being weak in body but of sound and persuit mind and memory, considering the uncertainty of this mortal life and sound mind, blessed be the Almighty God for the same, do make and publish this my last will and testament in manner and form as follows, viz. that is to say..
First and Principally I give and recommend myself unto the hand of Almighty God who gave it, and my body I recommend to the earth to be buried in decent form at the discretion of my executors, not doubting but at the General Resurrection I shall receive same again by power of the Almight God.
First I do constitute and appoint my wife, Margaret Cuppy, and my 2 sons John and Abraham, my sole executors....
Second, I give and bequeath to my dear and loving wife all my personal estate, perishable property...
Third, I give and bequeath unto my grandson John Cuppy, son of Abraham Cuppy all my land estate....
Fourth...and as to what clothing there may be left of my wearing apparel, they are to be equally divided among my 3 sons as may suit themselves.....
4th day of August, 1801.
No final report of the execution of the will has been found.Some records may have burned in the fire that destroyed the original courthouse.
He talks about 3 sons and no daughters are mentioned at all.However John Jr. named all the children and their order of birth in the Draper interview.
The following was posted by Robert Lloyd on Genforum:
Many questions arise about the wife of John Cuppy Sr.; weather her last name was Parker or Devore. No evidence has been found for a marriage to either one. Dr. Walter Shriner (1895-1979) who did his research from about 1945, until his death in 1979 makes a case for Margaret Parker as the wife of our ancestor John Cuppy Sr. His work is contained in “The Cuppy-Shiner Genealogy”; two volumes, which can be found in the Terra Haute, Indiana library, call # 929.273 C921s. The library also contains many file cabinets of his research work and correspondence.
The LDS Family History Center also has an 18-leaf manuscript on microfilm attributed to Dr. Walter Shiner 1977.
Dr. Lyman Draper’s manuscripts, the result of his interview with John Cuppy Jr. in Aug. 1860, plainly reads that “Johns father came from Germany about the middle of the last century and married Margaret Devore”. I believe that John Jr.; almost 100 years old at the time, misspoke. John Jr. was married to Elizabeth DeVore in 1779 and I believe it is his first wife that he was thinking of at the time of the interview. John’s first wife Elizabeth DeVore died in 1803 and had been dead fifty-seven years at the time of the Draper interview, which is further reason that I think that he misspoke his mother’s maiden name. John Jr. married second Lydia Oilar in 1824. She lived until at least 1832.
Two pages further in the Drape interview John Jr. says that he “married his cousin Elizabeth DeVore, daughter of John DeVore”. John DeVore was married to Anne Parker; the sister of Margaret Parker who I believe was John Jr. mother. This would make Elizabeth, John Jr.s cousin.
The Draper papers are very hard to read and it is unknown whether he wrote the papers as he conducted the interviews or whether he wrote them from notes at a later date. If, as I believe, the latter, it is possible that some notes were confused at the time he sat down to write the papers.
The Hampshire Co. Virginia Deed Book 1, page 318-319, June 9, 1766, shows that John Cuppy Sr. purchased 227 acres on Mill Creek from Benjamin Parker. Dr. Shiner believe this Benjamin was the brother of Anne Parker and Margaret (Parker) Cuppy, the children of John Parker and his wife Elizabeth unknown.
More About John Cuppy:
Occupation: Farmer and stone mason.
More About John Cuppy and Margaret (?):
Marriage: Abt. 1754, New Jersey?.
Children of John Cuppy and Margaret (?) are:
- +Henry Cuppy, b. June 30, 1766, Mill Creek, Hampshire, VA (now WVA), d. September 21, 1833, Wayne County, Indiana.