Last revised: 31 Dec 2009

Edward Pedigo (Pediford) (Peregoy)
(25 Dec 1730 - 26 Apr 1834)


Edward Pedigo, often referred to as “Grand-Sire Ned” by his family, was the son of Henry Peregoy, Sr. of Baltimore County, Maryland by his first wife, Amy Green. His grandfather was Joseph Peregois (1665-1720), who immigrated to Maryland from France in 1685. According to family tradition, Edward and his older brother, Robert, ran away from home while still in their teens to escape the oppressions of a tyrannical step-mother. The two boys changed the spelling of their name to Pedigo and settled in the York River Valley of Virginia. Later they moved to the wilderness region of the Southern Piedmont, an area now encompassed by Patrick and Henry Counties. It was here that the brothers married the Elkin sisters; Edward to Hannah Elkins and Robert to Mary Elkins. Both families had sons named Joseph, Henry, Elijah and John, and both had daughters named Elizabeth and Amy.

In a letter dated 08 Nov 1904, George Edwin Pedigo (then 86 yrs. old) wrote from Randolph, Metcalfe County, Ky. as follows:

“In the year 1805 my grandfather, Joseph Pedigo, moved from Virginia to Kentucky and settled down near Pleasant Hill. The house is on the land he bought (250 acres in 1816) . Two or three years after this he went back to Virginia and moved Grand-Sire Ned to Kentucky and settled him on part of his land. Grand-Sire Ned lived there until the death of his wife, then went to his son Joseph’s and lived and died there. My mother having died, I was placed at my grandmother’s and grandfather’s (Joseph and Dolly Edwards Pedigo), and I waited on Grand-Sire Ned until he died. He was buried 2 and ½ miles north of Pleasant Hill Church. No graveyard here then.”

Edward Pedigo came to Kentucky with his oldest son, Joseph, who had moved there three years earlier. Joseph Pedigo married Dorothy Edwards in Virginia in 1783, and when the couple moved to Barren County, Kentucky in 1805, they were accompanied by several of Joseph’s siblings, including brothers Henry, Levi and Elkin. Joseph then returned to Patrick County, Virginia to get his parents and bring them to their new home. By then, Edward was an old man of about 73 years of age. He would eventually live to the ripe old age of 104, and he died on 26 Apr 1834, near Randolph, Kentucky (according to the Bible record of John Grogan Pedigo, a grandson of Edward and Hannah). The original homestead was located in Barren County near the village of Randolph but is now in Metcalfe County being formed from Barren in 1860. Edward and two of his sons (Joseph and Henry) are believed to be buried in what was the old Pedigo family graveyard located approximately 0.1 mile south of Randolph. The exact location of the cemetery can no longer be identified, the site having been leveled by bulldozer in recent years.

The present form of the name, Pedigo, was adopted by the Virginia and Kentucky branches of the family, but the Maryland family remains one of the older forms which is Peregoy. However, there are several recognized forms of the same name: Pedego, Perego, Peregory, Peregoe, Perigo, Pedigoy. These forms are taken from various documents, and in one old will there are five of these forms.

Edward Pedigo was an American Patriot and has a long and interesting record, not only in the Revolutionary War, but also in the French and Indian War. He served in the militia of Halifax County, Virginia, recorded in September 1758 as Edward Peregoy, for two periods prior to that date. He was with Washington at Fort Duquesne, the scene of General Braddock’s defeat, being one of the thirty Virginians who left the battlefield alive. When the colonies rebelled against England, Edward saw Revolutionary War service under the name of Edward “Pediford” (along with other variant spellings) and served in the capacity of private with the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 11th Virginia Regiments. After the war he received a land warrant by the Virginia State Land Office for three years service in the Continental Line.

He first enlisted in 13 Feb 1778, for one year and served in Capt. Charles Fleming’s Company, Seventh Virginia Foot, commanded by Col. Alexander McClenachan. As the Virginia Regiments were often combined and reorganized, Edward was soon in Capt. Henry Young’s Company of the 3rd and 7th Regiments, and later in the 5th and 11th Regiments. Certain of his muster rolls have much historic interest, showing him with Washington at Valley Forge, at Morristown, and with the troops aiding D’Estaining’s fleet at Savannah. He saw action at the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse on 28 Jun 1778. The muster roll for Dec. 1778 tells of his re-enlistment for the duration of the war. His last surviving muster roll is dated “Camp near Morristown, 09 Dec. 1779,” but this fails to show his later service, which are proved by his military land warrant of 12 Jan 1784, reciting three years of service. It is almost certain that Edward was with the rest of the enlisted men and officers of the Virginia Line when they were captured by British forces at the Siege of Charleston on 12 May 1780.

The fourteen children of Edward Pedigo were: Joseph, who married Dorothy Edwards; Levi, who married Polly Newland; Henry, who married Leah Cochran; Abel, who married Susannah Ross; Elizabeth, who married William Edwards; Bathsheba, who married Nathan Cochran; Elijah, who married Sally Hall; Lucy, who married Jesse Clark; Elkin; Hannah, who married John Reeves; John, who married Amy Neblett; Nancy, who married John Sneed; Amy, who married Benjamin Hardy and Kisiah, who married James Edwards.