William Jarman

William Jarman (1748 - 1813) was a prominent inhabitant of early Albemarle County. He numbered among Albemarle's Revolutionary War veterans, serving as a captain in that conflict.

Biography

Front view of Jarman's Mill House, located at 1207 Browns Gap Turnpike. Photo by Tracy Mounts.

Jarman was born in Albemarle County in 1748. He was the son of Thomas Jarman, an early English settler of the county who had obtained a grant of land on Moormans River in 1762. During the Revolutionary War, Jarman served as a captain in the armed forces of Virginia.

Jarman established his home on 2.9 acres of land near the site of Mechum's Trestle in 1790. The house was the seventh oldest in the county at the time of its construction, containing a stone foundation, log frame, weatherboard siding, floored attic, and four fireplaces, three of which have since been converted to gas. Jarman soon after built a mill on the land which was known by his name for many years afterwards. The eight-foot retaining wall in front of his house was laid without mortar, with the stones most likely being quarried from the hillside behind the adjacent mill site.

In 1805, Jarman and Brightberry Brown commenced construction on Browns Gap Turnpike, a road that began at a point called Camping Rock, crossed the ridge at Brown's Gap, descended through Brown's Cove, and terminated at Mechum's Trestle. A formal acceptance of the road was undertaken the following year by commissioners who had been appointed from both sides of the mountain.

Jarman died in 1813.

Family and descendants

Jarman had four sisters named Elizabeth, Mary, Martha, and Frances and a brother named James. Elizabeth married Zachariah Maupin (the son of Daniel Maupin Sr.), Mary married Benajah Brown, Martha married Daniel Maupin, and Frances married John A. Michie. James resided on the east side of the road in Brown's Cove, about one mile south of Doylesville. In 1819, he was appointed as a magistrate and was frequently employed in the county business of his district before dying in 1847. James was succeeded in the homestead by his son Miletus, who himself later died in 1874.

Jarman was married to Sarah, the daughter of John Maupin, and had five sons and six daughters with her. In 1819, his oldest son James sold his half of Browns Gap Turnpike to Ira Harris for 100 dollars. His son Thomas bought the land on the summit of the ridge at present-day Jarmans Gap, with the landmark going by his name rather than that of Michael Woods Sr. from that point onwards. Thomas' daughter, Mary, married the younger William Woods of Beaver Creek and had a son with him named Peter A. Woods, who became a merchant of Charlottesville.