Chapter 1
Zeally Moss Lydia Moss was born at Vevay, Indiana on July 31, 1816, the youngest child of Zeally Moss and Jenny Glasscock. The Moss family was one of America’s earliest families, first settling in Virginia in 1642 when Edward Moss, born in England in 1610, and his wife, the former Ann Belt, arrived in the New World with their nine-yearold son, William. William later returned to England to attend Oxford University and subsequently married Jane North. At the time of his death in 1685, he owned some 2,300 acres of land in Rappahannock County, Virginia. William fathered William Henry Moss (1669-1722) who, in turn, became the father of another William Moss (1698-1733). The latter William Moss married Mary Jane Craik (whose brother was Dr. James Craik, the last attending physician to President George Washington). William and Mary Jane were the parents of Nathaniel Moss (1730-1807). (One of Nathaniel’s nephews, another William Moss, was a pallbearer at the funeral of George Washington in 1799.) Zeally Moss, Lydia’s father, was the son of Nathaniel Moss and Nancy Ann Cockrell. Born in 1755, Zeally’s adventurous spirit was included in the legacy that he passed on to his children, particularly to Lydia and her brother, William. Zeally received an appointment as a captain with the American Revolutionary forces under a Colonel Claiborne in 1777. Zeally was 22 at the time. If that seems young, 1