CAMPBELL

Campbell County Kentucky Wills, Estates, Probate Records

Campbell County was formed on December 17, 1794, two years after the creation of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. It was taken from sections of Scott, Harrison, and Mason Counties and was named for Colonel John Campbell (1735 to 1799), a Revolutionary War soldier and Kentucky Legislator. The original county included all of the present Boone, Kenton, Pendleton, and most of Bracken and Grant counties. The county seat of Wilmington survived from 1794 to 1797 and its courthouse of logs was later replaced in 1815 by a brick structure. Newport was the county seat until 1823 when it was removed to Visalia. This site was unpopular and the county seat was returned to Newport in 1824, lasting until 1840. In 1840, Kenton County was created, primarily out of a significant portion of Campbell. The Kentucky General Assembly then forced the county to move its seat to Alexandria, closer to the center of the new, smaller Campbell County. In 1883, after years of lobbying, the General Assembly established a special provision to allow Newport to designate a Court House District separate from the offices in Alexandria.

Campbell County Kentucky Genealogy Records Available to Members

Indexes to Probate Records

Wills, Estates, Inventories 1794 to 1820

Images of Wills, Estates, Inventories 1894 to 1820

Testators:Allen (infant) | Allen, David | Ally, Samuel, Captain | Anderson, Jacob | Anderson, John |Armstrong, John | Arnold, Elisha | Bagby, Robert | Baker, John |Beall, Benjamin | Beall, Jeanette | Beaver, John |Benham, Peter | Berry, Washington | Blanchard, Abiel | Bobet, Randolph | Buckner, George | Cahill, James | Campbell, Colen | Campbell, John |Cleveland, Levi |Cloud, William |Colvin, Lewis |Cooper, Benjamin |Cooper, Christopher |Cormely, Michael |Coursey, William |Curry, William |Davis, Joseph |Dickens, Charles |Dickerson, William |Dickinson, Arche |Dixon, Henry |Duckworth, Robert |Eckert, Leonard |Edmonds, John |Fleming, James |Flournoy, Lucy |Foster, George |Fowler, Richard |Frier, Humphrey |Gano, John Stiles |Green, Betsy | Griffin, Thomas | Griffing, Ebenezer | Hamilton, Jesse | Harnett, Zachariah | Harper, Richard | Hume, Joel | Hume, John |Jenkins, Elizabeth |Jones, Margaret |Kennedy, Mary |Kennedy, Thomas |Kennedy, William |Kenney, Robert |Kent, Susanna |Kinkaid, Andrew |Klette, Frederick | Knight, Jacob |Leathers, John |Leathers, John Sr. |Leathers, Joshua |Leathers,Thomas |Leitch, David |Lindsey, Thomas |Lucas, Lewis M. |Lynn, Nathan |Mardes, Wilson |Martin, John |McCollum, John |McDonald, George |McKay, Jacob |Merman, John |Miller, Jacob |Miller, John |Miller, Philip Jacob |Morton, David |Moseley, John C. |Moseley, Thomas |Nelson, Anne Nelson, John |Nelson, Meredith |Nunamaker, Lewis |Osborn, James |Paul, John |Pearcefield, Vallentine |Peek, George |Perry, Samuel |Ponder, John |Powell, Micajah |Revelle, Randle |Reynolds, Jonah |Rice, Lewis |Richardson, John |Rosell, John |Rust, Enos |Sandford, Thomas |Stephens, William Sr. |Shepherd, Joseph |Smith, James |Spilman, James |Stewart, Hugh |Stubbs, Robert |Swan, Hugh |Swing, Samuel |Talbert, Abner |Talbot, John |Taylor, Caleb |Taylor, Edmund |Taylor, G. E. |Taylor, James |Terry, David |Thatcher, Daniel |Trail, Osburn |Turner, Alexander |Turner, Rowlen |Vadin, Hennery |Vickelthymn, Levi |Vice, Nathaniel |Vickers, Moses |York, John |Wagoner, Catharine |Wagoner, Phillip |White, Robert |White, Thomas |Willison, Richard |Wilson, Samuel

Tax Records

  • Names of Insolvents for 1804, 1811, 1818, 1821

The First Gunsmith of Kentucky

The first gunsmith in Kentucky was probably Squire Boone, a brother of Daniel, who learned the craft from his cousin Samuel Boone at a gunshop in Maryland dating somewhere between 1759 to 1764. The Boone families were very large, some having as many as ten or fifteen children, and hailed from Pennsylvania before going West. The popular first names were repeated, such as George and Squire. There were several Squire Boones, for example, during the same period. One of them went into the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia and settled in Orange (later Botetourt) County. He fought with the militia against the Shawnee Indians at the famous war of Lord Dunsmore in 1774 when the governor sent the militia into Ohio to rid the colony of Indians. The product of the gunsmith was vital to life on the frontier, for both food and self-defense against the Indians who regularly scalped white men and took their women as slaves. The better-known gunsmiths were of Pennsylvania or Swiss extraction. Source: Kentucky Encyclopedia by John E. Kleber.

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