Doug Hart, one of Joseph Kenney's descendents, performed extensive research about Joseph. All information in fuchsia type is credited to Doug's research.

On April 14, 1810, Joseph qualified as a Captain in the Virginia militia and he took the oath on June 4th. The source of this information is from entries in the Frederick County, VA court records.

Joseph appears in the records of the proceedings of the First Battalion of the 51st Regiment of Virginia militia in Frederick County in November 1810 as a Captain. The document and a transcript by the webmaster of the portion of the document that refers to Joseph are shown below. Scroll down to read about more of Joseph's career, as discovered by Doug Hart.

"It seemed a regular practice at these 'courts of inquiry' for the various captains to report on the delinquencies of their men. Several members of his company were fined for failing to attend and others were fined 75 cents each for appearing at parades without their cartridge boxes." The document below shows that Captain Kenny has reported several failings in his company.

Doug stated, "I found no other record of any other militia activities by Joseph until 1820. On May 9, 1820, Joseph took the oath in Hampshire County as a Lt. Colonel in the 114th Regiment of the Virginia militia. This information is from a Hampshire County court record at the West Virginia Archive. Given that he was an officer both before and after the War of 1812, one would expect that he served in that conflict, but I have found no records of such. The Hampshire County court records reflect that Joseph resigned his commission on June 16, 1828."

 

Contact person for this website is Susan Snyder: susanleachsnyder@gmail.com