Jeremiah Tarleton - born February 11, 1755, St. Mary's County, Maryland.  Married Eleanor Medley, born February 20, 1782, St. Mary's County, Maryland, died July 6, 1826, buried at St. Francis Cemetery, White Sulphur, Scott County, Kentucky.

"Among the first settlers of The Scott County Settlement about 1787.  The areas name at the time was Woodford.  The group from Maryland was originally heading to Pottinger Creek, Kentucky, but enroute from their landing at Limestone, near Maysville, they decided to settle in this valley" (from History of St. Mary's County, MD. 1634-1990, page 101).

One of the richest members and founder of the Congregation of St. Francis of White Sulphur, KY in Scotts County (eight miles west of Georgetown), a farmer, owner of Tarleton Tavern and much involved in local politics.  He gave the pastor of St. Francis a hard time "over whether his wife should be a hostess to a dance or whether his daughter should marry a protestant adventurer" (according to "That Troublesome Parish, St. Francis of White Sulphur Kentucky" quoted in "John Medley", page 48.

Served as a First Lieutenant in the Revolutionary War

Owned the Tarleton Tavern on the Frankfort Pike, was a farmer and one of the largest landowners in Western Scott County.  Served as Sheriff and Justice of the Peace (Marie Louise Donnelly, St. Mary's County, MD, Colonial Period, Tenants & Owners of Beaverdam Manor).

Will is on record in Georgetown.  His estate settled in courthouse at Georgetown, Kentucky.  This document shows of "Tarleton's Tavern", which he left to son George.

In the early days of Kentucky Catholic history when the various factions of Scott County Catholic settlers were lining up regarding the many-faceted issues and personalities of the uniquely contentious congregational life at White Sulphur, several families emerged in important leadership positions.  Among them were the Tarletons' and the Fenwicks.

Jeremiah Tarleton was considered to have been one of the richest of the Catholic settlers from Maryland.  He owned land on all four corners of the White Sulphur crossroads, and also acquired the site of the first Catholic church in the area, which had been built in 1794 as Kentucky's second Catholic church.  This St. Francis Parish became the mother church of the present Diocese of Covington and many were the noted clergy and religious who moved there to supply leadership.

Jeremiah Tarleton was a pioneer who was influential in establishing a Catholic community and parish in western Scott County, and who then contributed considerably to upheavals in congregational government which were to give St. Francis Church a hard reputation for many years.  The Tarletons and a group of families settled in Scott County in 1786, the year that Elijah Craig and a party of Baptist settled in Georgetown.  En route to join the Catholic families who h ad located in the Nelson County area the year before.  They found Scott County (at that time Woodford County) land available and they bought it.

By the time of his death in 1827 Jeremiah Tarleton was one of the biggest land owners in Scott County.  His tavern established around the turn of the century, was left to George Tarleton and his brick house, which was probably his second Kentucky home, went to his widow and then to his son James and his son-in-law, J. W. Fenwick.  Two large farms at the crossroads went to son-in-law Thomas C. Jenkins and to Alfred Tarleton.  Alfred was accorded the "Stillhouse tract".

In 1829 George and Eleanor Tarleton sold 149 acres to James Combs, who was a boy of sixteen when he arrived with the Catholic emigration from Maryland to the Elkhorn region.  The log house which almost hugged the fence along the side of the road was built in three sections and had three front doors and a dining room and kitchen appended to the central section.  It stood until 1891 when the family of Combs' daughter, Mary Theresa, and husband Edmund Payne Halley, attempted to add a second story (see E. P. Halley House, Chapter IX), and were persuaded by their builder to tear it down and erect a new home.

Between 1790 and 1810 the population of St. Mary's County decreased from 15,544 to 12,794.  A large portion of that 2,750 population loss can be attributed to the westward migration of many countians to the area of north-central Kentucky, which now comprises Washington and Nelson counties. The reasons for the migration were varied.  One obvious reason was the availability of western land.  The vast western domain gained by England's victory in the French and Indian War was used, in turn, by the newly-declared-independent United States to reward its' citizens for participation in the fight for independence.  The Federal Government offered land rewards for those agreeing to serve in the Continental Army. Creation of the public domain gave the Federal Government the ability to satisfy the land bounties. Western lands were available to persons other than veterans of the Revolution.  Between 1789 and 1799, 480,000 acres of undeveloped western land were offered as a means to promote settlement of the country's frontier.  St. Mary's Countians, like other readers of the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser and the Maryland Gazette, were exposed to a steady printing of ads offering western lands, available at very reasonable prices and at easy terms.  In 1789 land was also made available through a lottery.  George Plater was one of the sponsors of the lottery, which offered 40,000 acres in 246 plots, non less than 150 acres - all for a $15 ticket.

Religious reasons have also been cited as motivation for the westward migration. From the Protestant Revolution during the last decade of the 17th century to the American Revolution and the Bill of Rights, Catholics in Maryland had been denied the right to hold any political office.  Members of the Fenwick family of Leanoardtown left St. Mary's County because they "too long were denied political power".  In 1785 a group of Southern Maryland families formed a "Catholic League" and agreed to move to Kentucky as soon as they could settle their affairs at home.  John Carroll, Archbishop of Baltimore, promised to send a parish priest if the emigrants settled together.  While it is certain that a large percentage of the emigrants were Catholic, this is probably attributable to the large proportion of St. Mary's County's population who were Catholic.

Another reason for the exodus of countians was the depredation suffered by the citizens at the hands of the British during the Revolution.  The British fleet, almost constantly present in the waters surrounding the county, confiscated slaves and stock, sacked homes, and literally lived off the supplies plundered from countians.  However, St. Mary's, St. George's, St. Inigoes and St. Michael's, hundreds which constituted the area most exposed during the Revolution, lost smaller percentages to migrations than other sections of St. Mary's County.

Economic reasons exerted a strong influence upon the decision of many countians who migrated.  In 1782 the six proprietary manors in St. Mary's County - Beaverdam, Chaptico, West St. Mary's, Snow Hill, Mill and Woolsey were confiscated by the government and sold.  These manors were occupied and farmed by countians who leased them, paying the Proprietor a small annual fee.  These lease holders were given in the purchase of the farms they occupied.  However, the purchase price was steep for those with limited means.  In addition to the price of purchase, each buyer was required to pay taxes according to the evaluated worth of the land purchased - type of 18th century sales tax.  A third payment was the annual fee to be paid to Maryland.

Records show that much of the manor land was purchased by the former lease holders.  Hence, many countians became owners of farms which averaged 175 acres.  In most cases purchasers went into debt by giving bond to the state to purchase the land.  However, records of the resale of Beaverdam Manor in 1790, nine years after the original purchase, indicate that many new property owners had been unable to complete the required payments.  Court records show many writs of execution against debtors who did not pay their debts. Also, alienation records show the sale and resale of many farms during the 1790 period, indicating that many people could not raise the money to pay their debts.   Many of those new landowners saw migration to Kentucky as a way out of their dilemma.  Between 1790 and 1800 the hundreds with the greatest percentage of out-migration were Chaptico, in the northwestern corner of the county and Resurrection boarding the Patuxent River.  After 1800 Lower New Town on Breton Bay and St. Georgia's on the St. Mary's River led the county in  population loss. Although the whys of emigration may be hard to determine, the how of migration varied little for most of the emigrants. The usual route from St. Mary's County was overland to Pittsburgh,  At that point the families boarded flatboats and traveled down the Ohio River to Maysville, Kentucky.  They disembarked at Maysville to avoid the area above the falls of the Ohio, which was known to be infested with Indians.  From Maysville they traveled overland to one of the half-dozen "Stations" located near their area of settlement.  These stations played a vital role in the settlement of the Kentucky frontier.  The danger of Indian attack made isolated homesteads impractical.  Between 1774 and 1790 every neighborhood boasted a blockhouse station which provided a degree of safety until homesteads could be established.  It is likely that many countians who migrated prior to 1790 left their wives and children at one of the stations temporarily and traveled the additional twelve or fifteen miles to establish their homesteads.

Source:
History of St. Mary's County, Maryland 1634 - 1990 - Chapter VII Kentucky Kin

Leo Tarleton was a son of Jeremiah "the Catholic" Tarleton, who was one of the more influential and wealthy of the White Sulphur settlers who arrived in Scott County beginning in 1786. A farmer and manufacturer of rope and bagging.  Tarleton married Mary Ann Breckinridge in 1819.  The Breckinridges were well represented in Georgetown, as A. L. Shotwell in 1829 married Gabriella, Mary Ann's sister and Fielding Dickey had married Elizabeth Breckinridge.

Leo's home c1820 is on 336 E. Main Street, Georgetown, KY (on the house tour).  Leo was son of Jeremiah (the Catholic) b. before 1786 in Maryland, married Mary A. Breckinridge and had two children. The first, Leonora married Samuel Tarleton (her cousin) and had children, among them, a Leo.

Leo Tarleton, second married Gabriella Augusta Hawkins and had six children, among the Leo, Jr., whom is the father of Garrard. Leo operated two rope works in Georgetown.  One was located at 336 East Main (his home) and one at the corner of College and Mulberry Streets.

The Leo Tarleton House
336 East Main Street, Georgetown, KY

The three-building complex of brick; house, stable and brick "hemp house" on a large lot, which has for many years been divided and sub-divided were built by Leo Tarleton sometime after his early nineteenth century purchase of the large lot in company with William Cannon.  The house, which has long since been altered to look like a bungalow, faces East Main Street, while the stable faces Mulberry Street and the hemp house faces College Street.  Also on the original lot was a family graveyard enclosed with a stone wall.  Here is buried Mary Ann Breckinridge, Tarleton's first wife and daughter of Preston and Elizabeth Breckinridge.  The house was altered rather severely during two separate eras.  Remaining from the federal era is the leaded and sidelighted doorway and the arch spanning the lone central hall.  A Greek Revival alteration made its imprint and much of the interior is a blend of Grecian and federal detail.  The arts and crafts era bungalow renovation occurred near the turn of the century and resulted in the addition of the second story lighting which is reflected in the extended dormers and the porch.

In 1844 Levi Prewitt bought the extensive Tarleton property for $6,500 from Leo Tarleton and his second wife, Augusta.  The graveyard was surrounded at that time by the field stone wall which has collapsed in recent years.  Prewitt sold it in 1855 to Bieri C. Glass, marking the beginning of an era of Glass family ownership of sixty-four years.  In the early years of the century Margaret Ann Glass Martin willed the house to her sister, Alice K. Davis and her niece, Betty Davis.  Betty married Henry Clayton, the prominent congressman responsible for the Clayton Anti-trust Act of 1914, whom she had met while visiting her neighbors, the J C. Cantrills, in Washington.  This was the period of the bungalow renovation.  In 1919 the Claytons sold it to Buford Hall, a wealthy farmer who had built upon the large holdings of his father of the same name.  Georgetown College bought the property in 1955 and used it briefly for a home for the college president before adapting it into a dormitory for specially selected outstanding men students.  It then became quarters for the office of development of the college prior to its sale to Dr. and Mrs. W. N. Offutt, IV in 1975, at which time it was restored.

Sources:
Scott County, KY deed and will books

Tarleton Cemetery - Georgetown, Kentucky
At Jackson Street and College Campus

Tarleton, Mary Ann b. June 3, 1802 - d. July 6, 1841, wife of Leo

Catholic Cemetery - White Sulphur
Frankfort Pike

Tarleton, Eleanor d. 1815, aged 83, consort of Jeremiah
Tarleton, Elizabeth A. b. 1801 - d. May 1, 1812
Tarleton, James C. b, 1825 - d. August 12, 1826
Tarleton, Jeremiah b. February 11, 1755 - d. July 6, 1826

Source:
Gone, Forgotten, Now Remembered:  Scott County, Kentucky Cemeteries

Submitted by:  John Tarleton

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