Nathaniel Clough…
Our oldest known Clow family members are Nathaniel Clough and his wife Susannah Clough. They lived in Queen Annes County, Maryland, owned their own farm of unknown acres but was said to have been considerable. Land recorded in 1744, 50 acres was named "Clough’s Hope." In 1747 another 50 acres was recorded and it was called "Boon’s Hope." Boon’s Hope cost Nathaniel and Susannah 2,100 pounds of tobacco, which was a common practice in the early colonies, paying for items with tobacco off your own land.
Nathaniel Clough died in 1748, his estate papers and will are filled in the courthouse in Annapolis. He wanted his estate divided equally among his wife and children. The children were John born 1732, Mary born 1733, Cheney born 1734 this is our line, Susannah born 1737, Rachael born 1738, James born1740, Sarah born 1742, Rebecca born 1743 and Ann born 1749.
Susannah Clough, Nathaniel’s wife died before 1756 exact date is unknown.
In 1740 we had a George Clow's admin. papers in Dorchester Co., MD with Nathaniel CLOW and James CLOW signing as kin. Then there was an Edward CLOUGH who was his administrator. George had an infant son (1 yr old) when he died, whom he had named Edward. This far back we see the name Edward Clough appearing several times. Thinking is that George, Nathaniel, James and Edward, and Mary were all brothers & sister. In a reconstructed census 1782 DE, enumerated was Elizabeth Clow with 9 people in her household. Elizabeth was Cheney's wife.
Cheney Clow...
The story about my 5th Great Grandfather Cheney Clough begins with the Revolutionary War. Cheney Clough, son of Nathaniel Clow of Queen Ann County Maryland, made a big mistake that would eventually cost him his life. He chose to fight for the King instead of the colonist.
At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War about a third of the colonist had no desire for independence from England. In Kent County Delaware, where Cheney Clough was living, the Loyalist were greatly outnumbered. Even being outnumbered Cheney Clough choose to support the King of England, having earlier been a British Officer. As the war progressed the Tories constantly created terror by raiding and plundering the colonist. They stole supplies from the colonist, robbed the mails, plotted against the life of Washington, and generally became very disliked by their neighbors.
During the War, in 1778, the colonist past a law requiring all male citizens over the age of 21 to take an "Oath of Allegiance." A Tory would be pardoned if the Oath was given, if not he would suffer the confiscation of all his land and possessions. When it became time for Cheney Clough's Oath he refused. He also refused to pay taxes to Delaware claming he was living in Maryland. The farm was on both sides of the state line but the house sat in Delaware, he still refused.
On the morning of April 18, 1778, the Sheriff of Kent County, John Clayton, went out to arrest Cheney Clough. This attempt erupted into a gun battle and one of the Sheriff's men, named Moore was killed.
When the battle was over Cheney Clough wife, our 5th Great Grandmother who was helping him load rifles, was wounded having been shot through the breast, and Cheney was arrested and taken to jail. This battle, 200 years later, would be known as "The Cheney Clough Rebellion."
When Cheney was arrested the townspeople wanted his head, they wanted blood, they wanted him charged, and executed for treason, and for four years he sat in a prison. On December 12, 1782 Cheney Clow was brought to trail, he was tried for treason, but acquitted because he claimed he was doing his duty as an officer in the King's army. It seemed that Cheney hadn't taken the Oath and therefore could not be charged with treason. Keeping him in prison, they charged him with burglary and murder. The burglary charge was later dropped, the lack of evidence, but he still had to stand trail on the murder charge.
At the trial, even with testimony from the Sheriff, that the man shot at the time of the arrest was shot in the back, and could not have come from Cheney’s gun, but probably was from one of the Sheriff’s own men behind Moore. This did not sway the jury. The jury found him guilty and sentenced him to be hanged by the neck until dead.
It now fell on the governor to set the time and place for the execution. The Governor wishing he could pardon Clough drug his feet, he did nothing, in fact he did nothing for six years. A new Governor came into office. Still nothing was done. More petitions for pardon were filled by the family but still to no avail. Cheney's wife and children finally gave up their long fight.
In 1788 a final letter from Cheney Clough, having been in close confinement for 10 years, the letter was addressed to the new Governor requested that a pardon be granted at once or that a warrant be issued without delay for his execution.
The pardon was not granted and Cheney Clough "went bravely to his death, singing a hymn as he walked to the scaffold."
The war was long over and ideas were changing, but all too late for our 5th Great Grandfather, Cheney Clough. Everyone agreed that Cheney Clow had fallen victim to the ill-judged violence of party feelings. No date was ever recorded for the execution. Cheney had no will, and there is no record of the disposition of his estate. After the execution Cheney Clough’s family took his body and buried it in a secret place. Many think the grave was near the house but unmarked.
In January 1790 the eldest daughter, Arrana, petitioned the State of Delaware to settle the estate of Cheney Clow and to distribute such among his heirs. The petition was "ordered to lie on the table" and on the table it remained...
My Search for Cheney Clow began on June 18, 2001 in Maryland, on highway 301. We had lunch a dockside restaurant and then continued on 301 north to 300 highway. At 300 we turned east, crossed the Delaware State line, went through the small village of Downs Chapel, stopped at the library, which was right on the highway, and asked if they had ever heard of Cheney Clough. We got this blank look from a woman old enough to know some of the local history and a reply " Never heard of Cheney Clough. " She walked over to a small shelf of local history books, looked through a couple and found a three sentence mention of Cheney having been a Tory and then told us we could probably find something on him in the Archives in Annapolis.
We left… it was almost 5 o’clock, and headed east about 6, 8 miles to highway 44. From instructions I thought the site of Cheney’s fort and home was just a short distance down, this would be south on 44 highway. Didn’t find a thing, turned around and went back to the corner and then to four or five houses, in the area, looking for an older home or at least an older person that might know some of the county’s history. About a quarter of a mile north of the intersection was an old two story white house, with five or six out buildings around it, the fields were all planted in corn, you’d thought you were in Iowa if you didn’t know. We stopped, this probably going to be the last, and found a man named Joe Ford and he knew all about Cheney Clough and his rebellion. He was living on the same ground that Cheney had lived.
His back yard was filled with bird houses, purple martin houses, and he had even built a new barn so he could go into production of a new birdhouse he had designed and was building. We stood for awhile and discussed the pro and con of the purple martin business. He told a story of how they taught the young birds to fly, first a day trip then later two day trips and three. After that they were ready to take their trip to Porta Rico, for their winter quarters and then the whole family would return the next year. Joe had to keep building more and more house to accommodate all the new birds. He also said that if a snake ever got into one of the houses the birds would never come back to that house, ever. He’d have to take the house down destroy it.
Back to Cheney Clough. Joe Ford was living in a late 1700 built farm house that had been owned by the Clark Family and this is what the town folks thought was their local history. They had no idea that the Clough Rebellion had been fought here. Several years ago research proved that the Clark homestead was the actual site of Delaware’s only Revolution battle.
In 1938 the WPA book "Delaware A Guide to the First State" directed visitors to the site off Sudlersville Rd near Kenton, 12 mi NW of Dover". It says "according to owner Joseph G. Ford, Clough’s property was on a bluff behind the Ford/Clark home.
Joe said that as a boy, when his grandmother lived on the old Clark place, he could remember going down to the creek and could always find arrowheads and he had always hopped that someday he could find a Indian axe head. He then told the story of how he and a friend, years later, had gone hunting one day and as they walked along down by the creek the friend just bent down and picked up this perfect Indian axe, one just laying there. Joe thought he was going to die. I thank Joe finally wound up owning the axe but at first his friend told him he was going to sell it.
Joe said that several years ago when they were working on the new highway 300 in front of his place, the highway department had used some of the dirt on his farm to level and to straighten the roadbeds. In return they built him a small pond at the end of his cornfield. Then about seven or eight years ago he decided to do some more work on the dam and pond. The day the bulldozer came he went down to watch and as they graded more off the end of the field he could see a discoloration in the soil in the form of a square about sixteen foot square. This was the first time he really felt he had found the actual spot where Cheney Clough’s log cabin earlier sat. The rebellion reports called it a fort, but it was really his log cabin home. Joe said he also could see a second spot on the ground about the size of a grave. Soil was discolored, he tried to dig in the area but the ground was to hard so he gave up.
According to the legend, after they hung Chaney Clough in 1788 the family took his body and buried it in a secret place. Joe thinks it could have been right next to the house.
After Cheney was executed, our family line left the Delaware area, changed the spelling of the name to Clow and his son Joshua Clow, our 4th Great Grandfather, moved to Ohio. Cheney had a son, China Jr. (the named was spelled China, Cheney, Chaney) who died early 1788, they hung Cheney (best guess, there's no documentation) fall of 1788. Cheney's wife remarried and died within a couple of months of him.
A few years ago after Trish ____ wrote her book on the Clough Family History several of the Clough descendents with Joe’s approval decided to conduct an official archeology dig. A tent was set up, grids were marked off and then they decided to try for funding from the state, that was in 98 or 99 and nothing has been done since. Joe doesn’t have much faith in the dig because he knows that most of what they are looking for has been bulldozed into the dam of his pond.
And then there is the story of all the buried money that was left by Cheney, Joe says if that story was true and a chest had been buried near the old cabin, and if it was still in tack, the highway department probably found it when they were back there removing dirt and they were surely not going to tell anyone. It’s funny how all mysteries are tied around lost treasures, Cheney Clough’s included.
After the trip to the field where I, by the way, got stung by another bee the second one for this trip, we went back to the house where we got the tour of an old eighteenth century farmstead. He showed us all the fireplaces, the door to the cellar, some of his collections and then gave us all his material on Cheney Clough so we could copy it the next day in Dover. We drove into Dover, 15 miles or so, and I found an old diner. This diner was built in 1954 in sNew Jersey and was the second of six to be sold in the U.S.
