Stephen Trigg

Stephen Trigg

Stephen Trigg was an American pioneer and soldier from Virginia. He was killed ten months after the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in one of the last battles of the American Revolution while leading the Lincoln County militia at the Battle of Blue Licks. Trigg County, Kentucky, was named in memory of him.

About Stephen Trigg in brief

Summary Stephen TriggStephen Trigg was an American pioneer and soldier from Virginia. He was killed ten months after the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in one of the last battles of the American Revolution while leading the Lincoln County militia at the Battle of Blue Licks. Trigg County, Kentucky, was named in memory of Stephen Trigg. His daughter Mary married General David Logan, who would serve in the Illinois state legislature and become Abraham Lincoln law partner in Springfield, Illinois. Two of Trigg’s brothers, John and Abram, would later represent Virginia in the U.S. Congress. He had four brothers, William, John, Abram and Daniel, who were all soldiers in the Revolutionary War. He lived the early part of his life in southwest Virginia and ran a tavern in Botetourt County. He served as magistrate, Justice of the County Court in Chancery and a Justice of Oyer and Terminer, besides being appointment Deputy Clerk and surveyor of the road from New River to the Sinking Spring. He continued pursuing his livelihood as a merchant at Dunkard Bottom in present-day Pulaski County. From 1773 to 1774, he partnered with David Ross and operated a community store in New Dublin, with branches located in Meadow Creek, Reed Creek and Reed Island. In 1776, he was a delegate to the first Virginia revolutionary conventions, and was a member of the Fincastle Committee of Safety that drafted the FIncastle Resolutions, a precursor to the Declaration of Independence passed by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.

He then moved to Kentucky himself, where he was one of its first justices of the peace, presiding over misdemeanors and other civil cases. As the population increased, the southwestern half of Botetcourt County was separated in 1772 and became Fincstle County. In the last session of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1775, he served as a delegate for Montgomery, Washington and Kentucky; he absented himself to serve as a captain in Dunmore’s War. The last time he served in the House was in 1778, when Montgomery was split into three counties and so Fincistle County became defunct in 1776; the new counties were Washington, Montgomery and Kentucky. He died in 1782, and his body was later found hacked into pieces. He is survived by his wife, Mary Christian, and their three children, all of whom were born in the 1770s and 1780s. His son, William Trigg, was a judge in Bedford County, Virginia, and served as an official in the Bedford County Court from 1770 to 1771. He also served as the first justice of the Peace in the new county of Montgomery.