Thomas was in the Rev War from VA, and was a ferryman for George Washington crossing the Delaware Got this info and much more in a saved file from Pat Thomas Gedcom. Also18 Thomas enlisted under General Washington and was also one of Washington’s select marksmen, and was a man of great muscular power, weighing from 250- 300 pounds

In the DAR patriot Index I Centennial Edition, p.405
found : Thomas Hamilton, b. 2 Dec. 1751, d. 29 Jul 1816, service in Va and his two wives are listed as !. Martha Shearer and 2. Elizabeth Muncey. Elizabeth Greathouse is one and the same. She was apparently married to a Muncie previously.

“After taking up his claim and after the Revolution the young man came further west, locating in BuffaloTwp., Washington, Co., Pa. He there entered 600 acres 0f land….”18


[first story in the book] found on rootsweb

Coat Tails and Captivity
Reverend Thomas Brownlee lived with his wife, Elizabeth in a clearing in the woods of western Pennsylvania. One day in the fall there was a warning that the Indians were on the warpath. Reverend Brownlee went into the woods to bring home the family cow. He?d only gone a little way when he heard Indians approaching. There was no time to run. Quickly, he crouched down among the branches and leaves of a thicket near the trail. But he forgot to pull down the long tails of his coat. Those tails caught in the thicket branches and stood up behind him like flags. The Indians captured him easily.
Rev. Brownlee thought they would kill him right away, but they didn?t. They wanted a captive instead. He thought of his wife, hoping she would be safe. She could shoot as well as a man, but could she manage alone? She would think that he was dead. He had to stay alive and find a way to get back to her. On the way to the Indians? camp he thought of a plan. The Indians knew little English, and he knew only a few words of their language. But he did know how to make moccasins.
Maybe they could use another set of hands to work the leather. He could stay alive and watch for a chance to escape.
In camp, he used many gestures and his few words to convince his captors of his skills. They seemed interested and tied him to a nearby tree. They brought him an animal skin and some rough tools to show what he could do. It was not a good skin, but he worked it carefully. He must have impressed them because they brought him more leather and better tools. While he worked, he felt they would let him live. But they gave him only parched corn and water to eat.
Through the winter he remained tied to the tree, making moccasins. He was hungry and thirsty and cold. The bark of the trees and water he melted from the snow provided him some relief. He became very thin, and his skin grew weathered from the sun and the wind and the cold. His hair and beard grew long, and he didn?t have a way to bathe or wash his clothes. It was a very long winter. At last, the snow began to melt and spring flowers peeped through old leaves. Buds appeared on the trees. He added elm and basswood buds to his diet.
That spring the Indians and the settlers negotiated an exchange of captives. Thomas Brownlee was one of the captives released in the exchange. He was weak from hunger and lack of exercise, but he was determined to reach home. He moved slowly and carefully through the woods, avoiding the trail. He kept the tails of his ragged coat in mind so they wouldn?t give him away again. It took a long time, but he finally reached the clearing and knocked at the cabin door. Elizabeth answered the knock, but she almost slammed the door in his face when she saw the thin, ragged, hairy, dirty man who stood before her. Then he spoke. "Your husband has come home," he said. And she recognized him and hugged him, and he was home at last.

The story as Alfred Raymond Francis [Linda?s grandfather] remembered his mother, Georgina Davidson Francis, telling it. She heard it from her grandmother Elizabeth Greathouse Brownlee:

Elizabeth’s husband was captured in western Pennsylvania one fall when he went into the woods to get the cow after an alert of an Indian uprising. He spotted Indians and hid in a bush, but his coat tails caught and gave him away. He spent the winter tied to a tree making moccasins. He ate parched corn and water and elm and basswood buds. In the spring he was released in a prisoner exchange and made his way home--where his wife didn?t recognize him at first because of his long hair and beard. (By the way, Elizabeth told Georgeina that she could shoot as well as a man could!)


Birth: 21 DEC 1751 in Scotland
Death: 27 JUL 1816 in Buffalo, Washington county, Pennsylvania
Burial: Buffalo township, Washington county, Pennsylvania, Old South Buffalo Cemetery
Note: According to Revolutionary Soldier?s data base
Note:

According to a Brownlee researcher, he owned 600 acres in Buffalo township in Washington County. He was a private from Virginia in the Revolutionary War. He is called a Reverend in some information but the church register of the South Buffalo Presbyterian church, he was an Elder. Thomas enlisted under General Washington, and was one of his ferrymen crossing the Delaware. He was also one of Washington's select marksmen, and was a man of great muscular power, weighing from two hundred and fifty to three hundred pounds. (Beers page 1241) According to Crumbine's history of Washington County, he was named James. "Archibald Brownlee had four sons,--John, Archibald, Jr., William and James,--all of whom took up land in this section. Some of them had four-hundred-acre tracts and others larger ones. James (Thomas) warranted three hundred and ninety-nine acres March 1, 1785, under the title of "Squirrel Hill," which was next the lands of James Clemmens and John St. Clair. He built himself a hut, covered with earth, in which he lived while making a clearing upon his property. This hut was very near the spring in the vicinity of the South Buffalo Church. James Brownlee's first wife was Martha Shearer, and their children were three sons and three daughters, the son being the oldest. They are all dead save Martha Brownlee, the youngest daughter. She was married to James Brownlee and resides in Washington, her husband having died nine years ago. James Brownlee was left a widower, and married for his second wife Mrs. Elizabeth Muncey. She was a daughter of Herman Greathouse, who, with his friends Holliday and Edgington, located very early just in the edge of West Virginia. Mrs. Brownlee remembered very well when the Virginia and Pennsylvania State line was surveyed. By this second marriage of James Brownlee there were four children, on son and three daughters. The son, William J. Brownlee, emigrated to Missouri, where some of his descendants now reside. Others of his family are in Steubenville, Ohio. Elizabeth Brownlee became Mrs. Henry Bruce, and resides on the National road near Claysville. Susan married Richard McClelland, and her descendants live in Franklin township. Rachel Brownlee married Dr. George Davidson, of West Alexander." However, In Canton township Crumbine assigns James to Jane Leman and that marriage is as stated in the Torfoot Brownlee's. Everything else is correct, including names that his children were named and whom they married. Thomas Brownlee's will was submitted 23 July 1816. He leaves to his wife Elizabeth and Her four children, one hundred acres and four hundred dollars. Elizabeth is to divide this as she thinks proper. If she remarries, the land and money is to be divided among the children but she is to have a fifth part and also all the grain that was grown on the place and enough hay as will keep two cows. Elizabeth is to have his greatcoat, twenty pounds of wool, all the yarn and the flax in the field and her saddle and her choice of the small bibles and Fisher's Catechism and the Saints Read and Wates Psalms and all the flour and meal and meat that is in the house plus any of the furniture she and her children, Elizabeth, Susannah, William and Rachel may have need of, plus all the books that are bound and the two small bibles also. His older children are then mentioned. Margaret Brownlee is to have four hundred dollars, Jean Brownlee is to have the same. After each get their share, any remaining money is to be divided. Martha Brownlee is to have the sum of two hundred dollars when she attains the age of 18. The older boys are to provide the money out of the land they are to receive. Hamilton is to get the land that is already deeded to him but must provide the cash anyway. David and Archibald are to inherit the remainder of the real estate. Hamilton's son Thomas is to inherit sixty six dollars to be paid out of his father's article. He leaves Treaney Muncy and Jean Brownlee the thick cloth to make coats. He also leaves to Hamilton his large Bible and the History of Rome and the Traveler of CIres?. He leaves to David a book called M'Kuen's Keep, the dictionary and Brown's Catechism. He leaves to Archibald the Messiah, The History of America and ? arithmatic and the History of England. Hamilton and Archibald are to be executors. The will is signed by Thomas and witnessed by John McMillen, Thomas Whitehill and Nathaniel Robinson. The will is registered by Isaac Kerr on 29 July 1816. There is a story in the Washington County paper stating that Thomas Brownlee, aged 65 years of Buffalo, died 27 July, Saturday am of gravelstone. It says that he suffered for 10 days prior to dying, which may make the death date that I have incorrect. The article says that he was an early settler of Washington County, a Christian, patriot and a kind husband, a tender parent and an obliging neighbor.
FRANCIS-DAVIDSON FOLKLORE
by Linda Lucas Walling

_MIL: