John Corbly was born in 1733 just north of Londonberry, Ireland. At fourteen he indentured himself to pay his passage to America and served four years on a farm in Berks County, Pennsylvania. He went to Winchester, Virginia, where he married Abigail Bull and purchased 300 acres of land in Berkeley County, now the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. At this time he met Elder John Garard, a powerful Baptist preacher who led him.
