Jehu Stokely Timeline

Hello my name is Gordon Stokely Jr. from Ohio (Originally from Del Rio Tennessee), I would like to thank all of the people that have helped me gather and compile this information as well as all of the people and publications that are referenced or quoted herein.

This collection of records and documents is not provided in an effort to fully document the Genealogy of the Stokely’s from East Tennessee, that has already been done several times over for the various families. It is being provided in an attempt to outline the life of Jehu and his family.

Click here to read a manuscript that makes a case for Jehu Stokely's being aboard the frigate Alliance

in September 1779 at the scene of the battle between the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis.

Frigate Alliance

The 36-gun Frigate Alliance

The Alliance -- a 36-gun frigate originally named Hancock -- was laid down in 1777 on the Merrimack River at Salisbury, Mass., by the partners and cousins, William and James K. Hackett; launched on 28 April 1778; and renamed Alliance on 29 May 1778 by resolution of the Continental Congress. The Alliance was an exceedingly fast America-built ship of the class of large thirty-twos. Her first commanding officer was Capt. Pierre Landais, a former officer of the French Navy who had come to the New World hoping to become a naval counterpart of Lafayette. The frigate's first captain was widely accepted as such in America. Massachusetts made him an honorary citizen and the Continental Congress gave him command of Alliance, the finest warship built to that date on the western side of the Atlantic. The handsome new frigate's first assignment was the task of carrying Lafayette back to France to petition the French Court for increased support in the American struggle for independence.

I am looking for someone in the extended Messer / Huff family who may have received the Stokely Family Bible (the one that used to belong to Royal Stokely the son of the first Jehu Stokely). I was told the bible was said to be in the possession of Katie Huff Messer, wife of Brack Messer who lived a few miles above Del Rio. Upon Katie's death, the bible reportedly passed into the hands of her relatives (unnamed) in Johnson City, Tennessee. I would like to contact the current owner if possible.

If anyone has any ‘additional information with its source’ please feel free to pass it on to me so I can post it. It would be greatly appreciated.

Contact Info

Gordon E. Stokely Jr.