e 20th of September, 1775.

On the 4th of August, 1772, Captain Jack left his mountain home and
moved to the residence of his father, Patrick Jack, in Mecklenburg
county. On the 16th of February, 1773, he and his father moved from
the country, where they had been temporarily sojourning, into
"Charlotte town," prospered in business, and soon became useful and
influential citizens.

On the 26th of Sept., 1780, Lord Cornwallis, elated with his victory
at Camden, entered Charlotte, with the confident expectation of soon
restoring North Carolina to the British Crown. Patrick Jack was then
an old and infirm man, having given up the chief control of his public
house to his son, Captain James Jack; but neither age nor infirmity
could enlist the sympathies of the British soldiery. The patriotic
character of the house had become extensively known through Tory
information, and its destruction was consequently a "foregone
conclusion." The British soldiers removed its aged owner from the
feather bed upon which he was lying, emptied its contents into the
street, aid then set the house on fire! The reason assigned for this
incendiary act was, "all of old Jack's sons were in the rebel army,"
and he himself had been an active promoter of American independence.

The loss to Patrick Jack of his dwelling-house and much furniture,
accumulated through many years of patient toil and industry, was a
severe one. The excitement of the burning scene, consequent exposure,
and great nervous shock to a system already debilitated with disease,
a few months afterward brought to the grave this veteran patriot. His
aged partner survived him a few years. Both were worthy and consistent
members of the Presbyterian Church, and their mortal remains now
repose in the old graveyard in Charlotte.

By the last will and testament of Patrick Jack, made on the 19th of
May, 1780, he devised the whole of his personal estate and the
"undivided benefit of his house and lots to his beloved wife during
her life-time." After her death they were directed to be sold, and the
proceeds divided among his five married daughters, viz.: Charity
Dysart, Jane Barnett, Mary Alexander, Margaret Wilson and Lillie
Nicholson. James Jack and Joseph Nicholson were appointed executors.
It is related of Dr. Thomas Henderson, a former venerable citizen of
Charlotte, that, on his death-bed, he requested to be buried by the
side of Patrick Jack, "one of the best men he had ever known."