Jane Rachel Thompson

Notes:

Mentioned in Hugh Thompson will, 1757.
Several accounts (or perhaps several tellers have picked up on a single tale) report that Jane Thompson was scalped by Indians "down to the ears," yet lived, and thus was "one of only two cases in history who lived after being scalped." This whole story is specious.
First, it is even questionable whether she was scalped. The letter from Col. William Christian to Col. William Preston, October 22, 1779, reporting the incident (see notes for Bryce Russell, above) simply says she was "knocked down" by the Indian Logan and another Indian and left there, "so that she can tell of him." It seems likely that if she had been scalped, Jamey Thompson would have reported that to Christian, and the colonel would have mentioned it in his letter.
Second, the person or persons who originated the story appear not to have been familiar with Indian scalping practices. The Cherokees in the late eighteenth century were not in the habit of taking the whole scalp "down to the ears." Only in the American Southwest, in the mid- to late nineteenth century, did Indians retaliate against white scalp-hunters by taking the whole scalp. The scalp-hunters, such as the notorious John Glanton, usually men from the dregs of white society, took large scalps and divided them up into smaller sections in order to get more money from the Mexican government, which paid a bounty on each scalp taken.
Finally, it appears that the source of this story doesn't appear to be familiar with the history of Indian-white relations. There are many verified accounts of people who lived after being scalped, although it is true that the larger the piece of scalp removed, the worse the prognosis. By the time of the Revolution scalping had been experienced by many in the Indian-Indian and white-Indian conflicts in the East, and survival was known to be possible, if not likely.
It is very possible that the Indian identified by Christian as "Logan" is the notorious Iroquois-born leader of the Mingo tribe of Ohio known by whites by that name. After Lord Dunsmore's War of 1774 the Mingoes were broken up and scattered, and although East Tennessee seems far from Ohio, Logan raided all up and down the frontier and indeed was reported responsible for raids with Cherokees, Shawnees, and Delawares along the Holston, Powell, and Clinch Rivers as early as 1774 (Christian to Preston, November 8, 1774). Logan was killed by a nephew in 1780.

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/p/a/r/Noel-Parsons/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0003.html

Jane married Bryce Russell about 1742. Bryce (son of (..) Russell, son of (..) Russell) was born about 1824 in Co Antrim, Ulster, Ireland or Scotland; died after 1790 in Tennessee; was buried in Ebenezer (now Knoxville), Tennessee. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Died:
Named in Hugh Thompson's will, 1757.
Killed by Indians (in 1778?). Lucile W. Bates wrote Leora Atkinson Parsons: "This is given this way by some descendants. There were at least two George Russells in East Tenn. at the same time. I do not know whether both George & Hugh [Russell] were killed at the same time or at different times."
Note that the letter from Col. William Christian to Col. William Preston, October 22, 1779, does not mention that any of Bryce Russell's family were killed when Jane Thompson Russell was scalped and the two daughters were taken by the Indian Logan. Yet it does mention six people killed on the Clinch River about that time, and it seems likely that if George (and Hugh?) had been killed when his mother was scalped and his sisters abducted, Christian would have said so.
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/p/a/r/Noel-Parsons/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0009.html

Notes:

Died:
Named in Hugh Thompson's will, 1757.
Killed by Indians (in 1778?). Lucile W. Bates wrote Leora Atkinson Parsons: "This is given this way by some descendants. There were at least two George Russells in East Tenn. at the same time. I do not know whether both George & Hugh [Russell] were killed at the same time or at different times."
Note that the letter from Col. William Christian to Col. William Preston, October 22, 1779, does not mention that any of Bryce Russell's family were killed when Jane Thompson Russell was scalped and the two daughters were taken by the Indian Logan. Yet it does mention six people killed on the Clinch River about that time, and it seems likely that if George (and Hugh?) had been killed when his mother was scalped and his sisters abducted, Christian would have said so.
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/p/a/r/Noel-Parsons/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0009.html