Boggan, Patrick

ca. 1725–1817

Patrick Boggan, Regulator and revolutionary patriot, was born at Castle Finn, County Donegal, Ireland, according to tradition. He was the son of Sir Walter Boggan. He was probably in his early twenties when he came to America with his two brothers, Benjamin and James, and a sister, Jane. They appear to have settled first in Maryland, later removing to Virginia, and all finally settling in Anson County. Jane Boggan married Thomas Wade, probably in 1743. Patrick Boggan is first recorded as living in North Carolina when he received a grant for 238 acres of land in Granville County from Lord Granville in 1752. In his deed he was described as "planter," and he signed the document himself.

Boggan married Mary Dobbs, and orphan of considerable wealth, and they had two sons and seven daughters: Benjamin, who married but died young without issue; Patrick, Jr., who married Martha Davidson; Jane, married to Pleasant May; Mary, married to John May; Fannie, married to Jimmy Cash; Peggy, who married Inigo Cash; Eleanor, who married William Hammond; Flora, married to James Pickett; and Lydia, married to Moses Coppedge.

By the time of his children's marriages, Boggan was a large landowner and enslaver in Anson County. With his wealth, he gave land and the rights to continue enslaving people to each of them. Much of his property is still owned by descendants. He also made generous gifts of land to his brother-in-law, Colonel Thomas Wade.

Boggan's name appears in 1768 on a petition to Governor William Tryon from residents of Anson County, complaining about their treatment at the hands of local officials. This affiliation clearly identifies him as a member of the group that came to be known as Regulators.

During the Revolution, Boggan was a captain of militia serving under his brother-in-law, Colonel Thomas Wade. He engaged in several raids against local Tories, sometimes in collaboration with partisan leaders from South Carolina.

The courthouse of Anson County had been located near the South Carolina line when the county was established in 1750, but after the creation of two new counties in the northern and eastern parts of Anson in 1779, agitation began for a more conveniently located county seat. In 1782, Boggan purchased seventy acres of land and donated it for a town to serve that purpose, which soon came to be called simply New Town. At the death of Colonel Wade in 1786, the name Wadesboro was adopted. In 1795, Boggan served the county as one of its justices.

Boggan's will is dated 1801, with a codicil added in 1803, but it was not probated until 1817, the presumed year of his death. At that time he owned more than a thousand acres of land. His last years, following the death of his wife, were spent with his daughter, Eleanor Hammond, in a house in Wadesboro that he had built for her at the time of her marriage. This house is still standing and is the oldest house in Wadesboro.