Proof of Patriotic Service During the Revolutionary War for Jacob RUPE

In a recent post, I wrote about leaving my comfort zone as Maryland research is new to me and researching Rhineharts Folly, the land owned in Baltimore County, Maryland, by my 6th great-grandfather Johann Jacob RUPP (1723-aft.1792), known as Jacob RUPE in America.

An Archives of Maryland electronic publication. Courtesy of Maryland State Archives

I found the original 1755 patent of 12 acres by Derick Rheinhart and the 1763 re-survey of 115 acres (adding 103 acres to the original 12) by Frederick Rinehart. The wording of the two surveys and the description of the land showed Derick RHEINHART and Frederick RINEHART were the same man.

I don’t have the following deeds however I know they exist (spelling of the surnames may be variants):

• the 1770 sale of 115 acres by Frederick RINEHART to Jacob RUPE
• the 1787 sale of 15 acres by Jacob RUPE to Johannes SCHAUER
• the 1788 sale of 100 acres by Jacob RUPE to Heinrich RUPE
• the 1793 sale of 100 acres by Heinrich RUPE to Jacob BOBLITZ.

Without these records I cannot be certain Rheinharts Folly was owned by Jacob RUPE and later his son Henry. (MDLANDREC, a digital image retrieval system for land records and indices for Baltimore County, is on my to-do list – learn how to use it for retrieving the land records).

The next step in the process of proving my ancestor owned this particular piece of land was interrupted when I discovered the 1783 Supply Tax assessments for Baltimore County, Maryland. The name of the land owned by the taxpayer was included on this tax list. Would it prove the land owned by my Jacob RUPE was the land seen in the plat above?

The DAR and SAR accept this supply tax as evidence taxpayers performed Patriotic Service. Taxpayers were persons listed with property or men who were taxed 15 shillings. Only the persons listed as paupers were not taxpayers.

The Act to Raise Supplies for the Year 1783 was passed by the general assembly in the November 1782 session.

General Assembly, Laws, MSA S966-20 (Nov. 1782 Session, p. 329, Ch. 6. (http://aomol.msa.maryland.gov/000001/000203/html/am203–329.html : accessed 1 March 2015). Courtesy of Maryland State Archives

CHAP. VI
An ACT to raise the supplies for the year seventeen hundred and eighty-three.
A tax of 25f is imposed on every £. 100’s worth of property; one half thereof shall be collected by distress and sale, after the 20th of May next, in specie, unless 10f thereof be paid by the 1st of March, in fresh pork, at 27f6; barrelled pork, at £. 4 10 0 for each barrel containing 220lb; wheat, at 5f3; new crop tobacco, at 10f, and an allowance of four per cent. for cask; or fine barrelled flour, at 15f the short hundred, and an allowance of 3f for the barrel.  In case of thus discharging 10f, the party so doing is then chargeable with only 2f6 more in specie, for the first payment.  In like manner, the other half of the tax shall be levied after the 15th of September, unless, before that day, 10f of it be paid in specifics, as aforesaid, in which case only 2f6 will be due in specie.
One fifth of the specie received under this act is appropriated to the use of congress; the residue is first appropriated to the support of the civil list; and the money arising from the sale of the specifics shall, in the first place, be applied to the discharge of a year’s interest on specie certificates.

General Assembly, Laws, MSA S966-20 (Nov. 1782 Session, p. 343, Ch. 34. (http://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000203/html/am203–343.html : accessed 1 March 2016). Courtesy of Maryland State Archives

CHAP. XXIV
A Supplement to the act to raise the supplies for the year seventeen hundred and eighty-three.
In this act, each collector is required, by the 10th day of every month (beginning with June next) until all the taxes due in his county be collected, to make out an alphabetical list of those who shall have paid their tax, before the 1st day of the month.  One copy of such list he is to lodge with his county clerk, and another copy he shall send, by the first opportunity, to the intendant.  This provision was calculated to stigmatize all such as, at that critical time, should neglect so important a duty as that of punctually paying their taxes.

The 1783 Supply Tax assessments for Baltimore County have been transcribed and are available here. The images of the tax lists are also online.

The cover sheet of the tax list of the Pipe Creek Hundred in Baltimore County, Maryland, courtesy of the Maryland State Archives.

The sheet Jacob RUPE, aka Jacob ROOP, was found on, courtesy of the Maryland State Archives.

Jacob RUPE was on the 1783 Supply Tax list, his surname was spelled ROOP. The items included on the list were the owners names: Jacob ROOP and lands names: Tetrix Folly.

Why Tetrix Folly and not Rhineharts Folly? The next person entered on the list was Tetrick RINEHART who did not own land but paid taxes on other property. This appears to be a variation of the name of the previous owner of Rhineharts Folly seen on the land records as Derick RHEINHART and Frederick RINEHART. Jacob ROOP’s land called Tetrix Folly had 115 acres, the same amount as Rhineharts Folly. Rinehart’s first name on the tax list in the possessive form would be Tetrick’s and likely pronounced as spelled – Tetrix.

The value of Jacob ROOP’s land was 30 and improvements were valued at 20. He had no slaves, 3 horses, and 7 black cattle. His horses and cattle were valued at 41 and other property at 12 giving a total of 103 for all property. The assessment totaled 1£5f9d. There was 1 free male and 3 white inhabitants in the household.

It was 1783, Jacob and Barbara’s older children were married and no longer living at home. Their youngest son Heinrich or Henry was close to 18 years old and not yet married. Note: all households in the Pipe Creek Hundred had only 1 free male listed in the household which appears to be the head of household and all other person were included in the total inhabitants in the household. Did the free male in the household have to be 18 or 21 years of age to be included in the count?

As an aside the following persons were also found on the 1783 tax list:

• Michael ROOF, on the same page as Jacob, may be his son Michael b. 1749
• George WEAVER, husband of Barbara RUPE, daughter of Jacob
• John SHOWERS, husband of Anna Maria RUPE, daughter of Jacob
• Martin ROOP was in BA North Hundred, may be Jacob’s son b. 1751

What began as a search to prove Rhineharts Folly belonged to my 6th great-grandfather Jacob RUPE turned into the discovery of his being on a supply tax list. Is this tax list proof enough for patriotic service during the Revolutionary War? Both the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) an the SAR (Sons of the American Revolution) consider the payment of such “supply” taxes enacted by special state laws as patriotic service. (see further reading below Genealogy Sketch box)

The next step would be to locate the land deeds proving Jacob RUPE owned Rhineharts Folly and was a resident of Baltimore County at the time the supply tax was paid. If I find only records for Rhineharts Folly, will his land being named Tetrix Folly on the tax list still allow acceptance of his patriotic service during the Revolutionary War? Or am I only seeing more complications?

 

Genealogy Sketch

Name: Johann Jacob RUPP
Parents: Johann Jacob RUPP Jr. and Maria Apollonia FETZER
Spouse: Maria Barbara NONNENMACHER
Parents of spouse: Johannes NONNENMACHER and Maria Barbara STAMBACH
Whereabouts: Oberhoffen-lès-Wissembourg, Pennsylvania, Maryland
Relationship to Cathy Meder-Dempsey: 6th great-grandfather

1. 1. Johann Jacob RUPP
   2. Heinrich Thomas “Henry” RUPE Sr.
   3. James ROOP
   4. Gordon ROOP
   5. Gordon Washington ROOP
   6. Walter Farmer ROOP
   7. Myrtle Hazel ROOP
   8. Fred Roosevelt Dempsey
   9. Cathy Meder-Dempsey

Further reading material:

Is That Service Right? by the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution

Maryland State Archives MARYLAND INDEXES (Assessment of 1783, Index) 1783 Baltimore County MSA S 1437 (Transcription of the 1783 Supply List)

Overview of Maryland Revolutionary War Era Taxes as Proof of Patriotic Service for the National Society Sons of the American Revolution

Maryland Tax Laws in Force During the American Revolution

Maryland Revolutionary Tax Records

Baltimore County, Maryland – 1783 Supply Tax, Courtesy of Maryland State Archives

West Virginia Society Sons of the American Revolution Proving Patriotic Service by Revolutionary Taxes

© 2016, copyright Cathy Meder-Dempsey. All rights reserved.