Philip Clover of Virginia

Clovers of Franklin County, Ohio: A Study of Henry Clover, His Ancestors and Descendants
Created, edited and maintained
by June Clover Byrne

Philip Clover
Of Frederick County and Berkeley County, Virginia

The following article is part of the beginning of my book, Clovers of Franklin County, Ohio A Study of Henry Clover, His Ancestors and Descendants. The book and this article were copyrighted in 2001. If you want a copy of the book, please contact me at junebyr@yahoo.com

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Philip Clover AKA Phillip Clover

See Virginia Overview for a discussion of research in the geographical area.

        The only actual records of Philip Clover to have survived are deeds, tax lists, and a couple of court records. Abstracts of these are at the end of this chapter. This includes all Philip Clover deeds found in Frederick County, Virginia or Berkeley County, Virginia. It also includes tax lists since these also can provide clues when scrutinized carefully.
        The very first record that Philip Clover left was in Frederick County, Virginia. It was a deed dated 21 July 1764 when he purchased lot number 25 in Mecklenburg on the corner of German Street and Princess Street for 40 shillings from Thomas Shepherd and his wife, Elizabeth. This deed is one of twenty-one deeds dated 21 July 1764 for lots sold for 40 shillings which have exactly the same wording. It is an unusual deed to the modern mind. For one thing, he was required to build a house on the lot. This clause was probably to discourage land speculators. The second odd sounding item is the 5 shillings ground rent which was due yearly.(1) Ground rent was not unusual in those days. Ground rent was paid for the right to build a house on someone else’s land. Remember that this was still a proprietary area and this was actually a kind of tax.
    Unfortunately, some years ago, an inexperienced researcher read this deed and decided that the reason it was odd was that Philip’s wife was a daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Shepherd. Since then, this myth has taken on a life of its own and appears in the International Genealogical Index, the Ancestral File, early issues of the Clover Family Exchange [which I did not publish], and every possible place you could possibly find a Clover family tree. However, there is absolutely no proof that Philip was married to one of Shepherd’s daughter. In actual fact, Thomas Shepherd’s will, dated 23 March 1776, and the will of his wife, Elizabeth Shepherd, dated 10 July 1793, identify their children. The Shepherd family was an important one in the area and has been extensively researched. All of his daughters are accounted for and it is physically impossible for any of them to have been married to Philip Clover. Some confused researchers have also brought up the name of Elizabeth VanMeter. However she was Thomas Shepherd’s wife so that this is just more of the same myth.
        If you are interested in this Shepherd Family, you should look at the standard reference book on them. The Duke, Shepherd, and Van Metre Families. It is out of copyright and is therefore available free on Google Books.
    The first names of two of Philip’s wives are known, but their surnames are not. On 16 September 1773, Philip and his wife, Elizabeth, sold 15 acres for 113.10. Two days later, Philip Clover and Elizabeth, his wife, sold lot 25 in Mecklenburg to Michael Welsh for 24. So we know that in 1773, Philip was married to an Elizabeth. Note that this does not prove that she was the mother of anyone in particular. However, she is the most likely candidate. There is no clue as to her actual surname. She must have died between 1773 and 1780, because on 20 June 1780, Philip Clawver and Malachi Pope deeded two lots to William Morgan the 2nd. At first glance, this was intriguing because there is no Philip Clover deed acquiring either or both of these lots. It seemed possible that the two men had inherited the land from their deceased wives. However, a more careful examination of the deed records showed that Philip Claver and Malachi Pope each purchased a lot on 27 June 1767. The writing in these deeds is such that it is impossible to tell Claver from Clover. And, of course, the actual deeds were copied in a deed book, which is all that is now available for inspection. Therefore, it is not possible to state categorically that a particular entry is a Clover, not a Claver, or vice versa. If this is Philip Clover, it is proof that his wife was deceased by June of 1780 because no real estate sale would have been valid without her signature.
    One method to find out more about this situation is to check the rent rolls because this should list all landowners. Rent Rolls were a kind of tax list. Philip and his wife, Elizabeth, had sold all the other land they were known to own in 1773, so if Philip is on the rent roll, it means that he owned this land. The rent rolls are not readily available, but the rent rolls for the years 1772 through 1777 for Berkeley District were printed in Historic Shepherdstown, by Danske Dandridge. The list is printed on pages 62-73. This book is available free on Google Books. She suggests that this list is not complete.
    There is no Philip Clover on the list. There is, however, a Philip Glover with an unknown number of acres. Since there are no Glover or Philip Glover land purchases in this area at this time, this is likely to be a Philip Clover record. This confusion of Clover and Glover arises because in the early handwriting, C’s often had a small hook or circle after them which makes them look like capital G’s. This leaves us with a Philip Claver who was actually Philip Clover, who was on the rent roll as Philip Glover and who had no wife in 1780.
        Sometime between 1780 and 1781, Philip remarried someone with the first name of Susannah. Her identity is not known. However, the couple sold 40 acres in the Sleepy Creek area, to George Creamer on 12 August 1781. They also sold 116 Acres to Francis Wagoner on the same date. This is particularly interesting, because Philip had previously sold all of the lots and all of the land that he had purchased. Consequently, it is possible that the land they sold had belonged originally to Susanna. If the deeds for the purchase of the particular parcels sold could be located, they would help to identify her. Clearly, if Philip did not marry her until about 1780, she cannot be the mother of any of the Clovers who are associated with Philip. She may have died by 1788, when Philip signed a deed without a wife. However, this was not a sale of real estate and would have been valid without her signature. His next actual sale of real estate is probably the one in Berkeley County Deed Book 14 which is missing from the county records. The only reason we know it exists is that it had been indexed before it disappeared during the Civil War. The index lists two Clover sold to Clover entries. The missing deed book is supposed to cover the years of 1797 and 1798. As it happens, in August of 1802, Philip Clover, Junior sold land. In that deed, the information is given that he had received it from Philip Clover, Senior, in a deed dated 14 May 1798. As a result of the loss of this book, it is not known if Philip Senior was married at this time or not, his wife's name might have been mentioned in the second deed so the assumption has been that she died before then.
    The land which Philip and Susanna sold was on Sleepy Creek. Sleepy Creek empties into the Potomac River just a few miles east of Hancock, Maryland. It starts on the border of Virginia and West Virginia and flows northward up the valley beside what is now the Sleepy Creek Public Hunting and Fishing Area in eastern Morgan County, West Virginia. The Sleepy Creek area on modern maps is marked as the northeast corner of Morgan county.
    Starting in 1783, there are personal property tax lists for Berkeley County. These have different information in different years, but they generally listed the number of persons who had to pay a poll tax. The poll tax, also termed a head tax, is a tax only on males of certain ages. Males over 21 are taxed and sometimes those 16 to 21 are also taxed, sometimes at a different rate. The tax collectors were quite efficient and these lists are deemed excellent sources of information. Naturally, people made every attempt to avoid this tax and often moved around to avoid it so the lists are never perfect. The infirm and those who were preachers were generally exempted, but this was a matter that changed constantly. The beauty of the personal property tax lists is that it was the first list to include those who did not own land, so it is much more comprehensive than the previous rent rolls.
    So an examination of the Berkeley County, Virginia personal property tax records becomes of great interest. In 1783, Philip Clover is found with two tithables [taxable white males over 21], 0 age 16 to 21; 1784, same; 1785, same; 1786, 1 tithable, 1 male 16-21; 1786 (another list for the same year), Philip Clawver, same; 1787, same, 1788, different type of tax list; 1789, no list; 1790, Philip Clover 2 white tithables, Henry Clover, 1 tithable; 1791, same; 1792, Philip Clover, Sr 1, Philip Clover, Jr, 1, Henry Clover 1; 1793, Phillip Clover Sr 2 tithables (No Henry so probably included with Philip Sr.), Phillip Clover Jr 1 tithable; 1794, Philip Clover, Jr 1, Henry Clover 2 (This probably includes Philip Sr.); 1795, same; 1796, Henry Clover 1, Philip Sr. 1, Philip Jr 1; 1797, same; 1798, Henry Clover 1, Philip Clover, Jr 1; 1799 same.
    There are several interesting points about this tax list. First of all, this information sketches a scenario where Philip Clover, Senior, was the head of the household and was sometimes paying taxes on another male. Note that a taxable male disappeared out of Philip’s household in 1786. If this was Henry Clover, Henry must have been born prior to 1762 in order to have been over 21 in 1783. He disappeared for 1786 and 1787. In fact, he probably got married about this date and was living elsewhere. He may have been living with his wife’s family in the Henry Ambrose household. Philip Clover, Junior, probably first appeared as a male 16 to 21 in the 1786 tax list, as the second tithable in 1790, and under his own name in 1792. This would indicate that Philip Clover, Junior, was born about 1769 and had his own household in 1792. This might well mean that he had just married in 1792. One can follow all three of these individuals though the tax list until suddenly in 1798, there are only two tithables between the two households. Yet, Philip Clover, Senior. appears in a deed record in 1802, so he was not deceased. He may be living with another family or he may have been excused from paying taxes because of age or infirmity.
    Philip Clover deeded what appears to be all of his possessions to Henry Clover; Philip Clover, Junior; George Creamer; John Vernow; and Rosannah Clover on 28 June 1788 according to the Berkeley County, Virginia deed. Because of this deed, Henry and Philip Clover, Junior, are believed to be Philip’s sons. Rosannah Clover who later married Mathias Ambrose, Barbara Clover who married George Creamer, and Christine Clover who married John Fernow are believed to be his daughters. However, there is no actual proof that they are his children. And if they are his children, there is no proof that there were no more. The deed makes it probable that they were his children, but it is NOT absolute proof and researchers need to remember this. Note that he deeded the crops in the fields, but no land was included.
    George Creamer married Barbara Clover, 7 July 1771 at Shepherdstown, Virginia. What is popularly termed “George Creamer’s bible” was published in The Fayette County Connection. It is actually a piece of paper which was located in Fayette County Historical Society of unknown source. It appears to be an affidavit signed by George Creamer. In it, he gives his birth, marriage, and children. It is headed with the statement that “J. George Creamer was born in Lancaster, Pensilvanea in the year of our Lord 1746, the 26th of Novembre.” George Creamer signed the record and dated it 12 August 1813. Added onto a space after the first paragraph in a different hand, is the statement that he died 26 August 1826, aged 80 years and 3 months. If the death date was correct, he was actually 79 years 9 months.
    The following children were listed: Mary Susana, born 14 September 1771; Jacob born 20 June 1774; George Henry born 22 August 1776; Michal born 18 June 1778; Maria Magdelen born 9 October 1780; Elizabeth born 6 March 1783 and died 26 September 1783; Joseph born 13 October 1784; David born 13 June 1787; Rosana born 6 January 1790. George Creamer moved to Fayette County, Ohio where he and his large family left a large number of descendants.
    This paper may have been part of an application for a Revolutionary War Pension. Whatever it is, all information that can be checked against this paper is very accurate. It is unfortunate that George did not write down the birth date of Barbara Clover. His own birth date appears to be correct, but it is according to the new calendar. His birth record in the Moravian Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is listed as: Joh. George Kramer, born 15 November 1746, the son of Michael and Catherine. Although the date appears to be different from the one that he gave, it is actually the same. There was a calendar change a few years after he was born and there was an 11 day change so the dates are actually the same.
    There is a tombstone in the Old Creamer Cemetery which reads: First Settlers: George Creamer 1746-1826, Barbary Clover 1749-1810. However, this tombstone is quite new and was erected by their descendants. Since Barbara does not appear in any census, we have no help there to try to establish her age. If she married at the age of 18, which was common in colonial times, she might have been born about 1753.
    The first record of George Creamer found in Frederick County is a deed which he witnessed dated 2 December 1770.
    John Fernow married Christine Clover. John Vernow or Fernow or Fernough was a soldier in the Revolutionary War for the British. He is supposed to have been at Yorktown for the surrender of Cornwallis. A very interesting book was published about his descendants in 1912 by Marshall H. Fearnow. One of the most important documents in regards to his family is an 1870 interview with his daughter, Mary Magdalene Ferneau, born 7 October 1790 in Berkeley County, Virginia, who married John Core in Ross County, Ohio and later moved to Pike County, Ohio. In this article she told a lot about her early life and what she remembered about her father. She stated that her mother’s name was Christena Clover, who was born in Virginia.
    John Fernow left a will in Ross County, Ohio, dated 16 October 1822, proven 17 October 1825. In it he mentions his wife, Christina; his eldest son, John; second son, Henry; sons, David and Samuel; sons, Joseph and Solomon; son Daniel (land in Morgan County, Virginia); daughters, Martha, Mary, Susanna, Ester, Elizabeth; his three grandchildren, John, Solomon, and Henry Fernow, when of age. His executors were John and Henry, his sons. Witnesses were Noble Crawford and James (X) Harper.
    Although John’s will was in Ross County, Ohio, he and his wife are buried in Highland County in the Old Burying Ground at the City of Greenfield, Madison Township. John Fernow, died 9 August 1825, in his 65th year. Christina Ferneau, “wife” died 25 February 1850, aged 88 years 6 months 14 days. This age would mean she was born ca. 11 August 1761.
    Philip Clover, also stayed in the area. In early records, he appears as Philip Clover, Junior. However, there are no deed or tax records where Philip Clover, Senior or Philip Clover, Junior, appear with a middle initial of any kind. Consequently, all records for a Philip A. Clover are for the son of Philip, Junior. It is possible that the A. stands for a family name, but so far this remains just a theory. Note that no initial has ever been found for others in this generation. Philip Clover, Junior’s date of birth is not certain, but the tax records suggest he was born about 1769. Philip Junior married, perhaps about 1792, Ann Smith, the daughter of Solomon Smith, a Revolutionary War Soldier who was born about 1750 and died before 31 January 1824. He was the son of William and Sisley Smith who came to Smith’s Corners about 1730. Ann died after the 1850 census where she was listed with her daughter Rosannah. Ann was aged 78, born Virginia, in the 1850 census.
    Philip Junior’s heirs were listed in a Morgan County court order book on 8 October 1842: Denis S. Clover, Georgette Clover, Hugh and Mary [Clover] Smith, Emanuel Clover, Philip A. Clover, [Junior], Absalom Clover, Virginia Clover, Rose Ann [Clover] Reynolds, David Duckwall, William Duckwall, Mary Jane Duckwall. The Duckwalls were children of Amelia Clover who married Isaac Duckwall in Berkeley County, Virginia 24 October 1815. On another page, there was another list of heirs which included all of these and also a Peter Clover. Peter was probably just omitted in the first record because he was listed in the newspaper notices of the court case printed in The Martinsburg Gazette, 4 November 1841, and 23 July 1846.
    Although Philip Junior was too young for the Revolutionary War, he apparently served in the militia at a later date. “At a court continued and held for Berkeley County, the 27 February 1798. Present: Robert Stephen, James Wilson, William Henshaw, David Hunter, Henry Bedinger, Edward Giffin, Gentlemen, Justices: Ordered that Robert Justin be appointed Captain of a Musquetry Company, in the room of John Hunter, resigned, William Stephenson, as Lieutenant in Justin’s Room, and Jacob Creamer, Ensign. ...... Paul Verdier, a Captain of Musquetry, in the room of Frederick Snyder, removed. Joseph Cromwell, Lieut. and George Little, Ensign; George Barer, Lieut. in Captain Whitmire's Musketry Company, in the room of William Allen Resigned, and Davis Sampson, ensign in the room of Philip Clover, resigned.” At that time, militia officers were appointed. The word “room” here has an archaic meaning which refers to a position or office held. Removed means moved out of the area.
    Mathias Ambrose married Rosanna Clover, 11 May 1791 in Berkeley County, Virginia, by David Young. They remained in the same area for their entire lives. Mathias was a minister and a brother to the Catherine Ambrose who married Henry Clover. Mathias stated that he was 69 and the son of Henry Ambrose in March 1833 in a letter in Michael Widmeyer’s Revolutionary War Pension Application. This is shown in its entirety in the Chapter Two which is about his father, Henry Ambrose. This would mean that he was born ca. 1764. His death date and his children were given in a deposition for his estate. He died intestate on 17 March 1842, with the following children: Joseph B.; Henry; William; Matthias; George; David; Lucy; Margaret (non-compose mentis); Mary, the wife of George Aulabaugh; Roseannah the wife of George Durham; Hannah, the wife of John Kitchen; and Susanna, the wife of John Yost. Roseannah had died before Mathias because she is not listed as an heir. They may have been buried in Ambrose Chapel Cemetery, but the earlier stones are field stones that are now totally blank.
    The Mathias Ambrose entries in the 1810, 1820, 1830, and 1840 censuses allow a calculation as to her likely birth date, assuming that the adult female in the house is Roseanna. In 1810, she was 26 to 45; in 1820, she was over 45; in 1830, she was 50 to 60; and there is no female in the house in the 1840 census. From this, she was likely to have been born between 1770 and 1775, and to have died between 1830 and 1840. Her husband stated in an affidavit that he was born about Census calculations of ages are fraught with peril, but better than nothing. Since she married in 1791, this age bracket fits well with her likely age at marriage.
    Other Clovers in the area: There are a few other persons who might possibly have been connected with Philip Clover. First, there is a Margaret Clover who is supposed to have married a Richard Eckles/Eacles about 1789 in Berkeley County and moved to Perry County, Ohio. He died in 1829 and left a will and she died in 1848, also leaving a will. Her connection to Philip is based upon “somebody” said so. However, John Clover lived in Perry County for a while before he moved to Fairfield County, Ohio. His children in the 1880 Census state that their father was born in New Jersey. His father is unknown. This is most intriguing, but no serious research on this line has come to my attention.
    Also there was a Peter Clover in the Berkeley County tax lists from 1791 to 1794. His name is also spelled Clever in some of the tax lists. No deed records have been found for him. There is a record of a Peter Clover/Cleaver in the Revolutionary War, but he may have been associated with the Cleavers who are in the Frederick County rent rolls in 1759 and 1764. I have numerous small pieces of information on this person but am so far unable to prove that he was or was not an actual Clover.
    In the 1796 tax list, there was a John Yoast living with Philip Clover. Yost/Yoast researchers have a long tradition that William Yost is supposed to have married an Elizabeth Clover about 1766 in Pennsylvania and moved to Virginia. His eldest son, John, was born in 1769 in Pennsylvania. He is in the 1850 census of Morgan County, Virginia. However, the Elizabeth Clover/William Yost marriage is unsubstantiated.
    In the final analysis, there seems to be so much that is hazy in the picture of these people. We have Philip Clover, Senior, probably a German, who was in Mecklenburg in 1764. He had a wife, Elizabeth, who died before 1780, and a second wife he remarried about 1781. The second wife, Susannah, could not have been the mother of any of his probable children. These probable children were Barbara Clover born ca. 1749-1753, Henry Clover, born 1762/3, Christine Clover, born 11 August 1761, Philip A. Clover, born ca. 1769, Rosanna Clover, born 1770-1775. When this is examined carefully, it seems that Philip, Senior, must have been born before about 1730 to have managed to acquire a wife and children by these dates. So many of these dates are based on calculations that it would be easy for him to be a few years older or younger. Barbara Creamer seems to be much older than the other children. I have wondered if she was actually a younger sister of Philip or a niece, but there is no evidence for this. Since the people in the deed were just named but were no relationship is stated, we have to consider this as a possibility. If so, then Philip might have been a few years younger.
    One thought provoking record has been found. In the IGI, there is an extracted record for a Johan Philip Kloever, baptized 27 May 1724, in batch number J990322. This was taken from FHL microfilm number 0810309, which includes baptismal records of the Parish Register of Evangelical Church, in Barntrup, Lippe, Germany from 1666-1894. His father is listed as Jost Henrich Kloever. This is very interesting because a birth date of 1724 would be almost the right age for Philip Clover of Berkeley County. The fact that his father had “Henrich” as part of his name is especially interesting since Philip’s oldest known son was named Henry. However, there needs to be some connection made between this entry and the Philip in Berkeley County. So far this has not happened. There are no other Kloever/Clover Christenings in this set of records.
    Note that in many areas of Germany, it was common for persons to have Johan as the first name of every male child in the family. The children then actually used the middle name. The girls were often named Maria. This was not true in all parts of Germany. And sometimes other first names than Johan were used, but Johan or Johannes accounts for most of these types of names. If a boy was intended to be called Johan, he was named Johan Johan.
    Not only is the birth date of Philip Senior in question, his death date is in question. The last known date at which he was alive was 10 August 1802, when Philip Clover, Junior, deeded land to Philip, Senior. The records of the disposition of this land have not been found. They appear to have been in Deed Book 22 which is one of the deed books lost during the Civil War. Deed Book 22 would have been dated 1810.
    There is some evidence in the tax records that he died around 1802. Philip Junior's records are all as Philip Junior up to that point at which time he becomes just Philip Clover. That suggests that there was no longer a senior in the area.

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Last Updated 4 September 2011