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McGoughs in Pre-Revolutionary America:
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McGoughs in Pre-Revolutionary America:
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Miles McGough was born in Ireland around 1730. He emigrated to America and settled in Maryland sometime before 1752 when he leased 75 acres of land in the part of Baltimore county that became Harford county in 1773. He called this land Mile's Adventure. Around 1753, Miles McGough married Elizabeth Spencer who had been born in Maryland on May 16, 1730. Her father, Zachariah Spencer, occupied land that adjoined Mile's Adventure. Their first son may have been Hugh McGough, possibly born in 1755 or 1756.* Their oldest son mentioned in the real state records of Harford county was John McGough who was born in Harford county in about 1758. On March 6, 1760, Miles McGaugh leased 33 more acres of land called The Valley near Mile's Adventure. In 1787, John McGough, as the survivor of Miles McGough, purchased the land that had been leased by his father, Miles Adventure and The Valley (minus 25 acres that had been sold to Hugh Whiteford), called the whole remaining 254 acres Traveler's Rest, and assigned his purchase rights to his mother, Elizabeth McGough.
*Hugh McGough, however, married Rosanna Crooks, who was born in 1740. Unless Hugh was 15 years or so younger than his wife, he more likely was a brother, cousin, or other collateral relative of Miles McGough.
The land originally leased by Miles McGough was in the Deer Creek Upper Hundred of Harford county, and was about one and a half miles south of the eastern half of York county, Pennsylvania; five miles north of Deer Creek, and less than one quarter of a mile south of Broad Creek. The land is immediately east of the intersection of what are now Maryland state roads #136 (Whiteford Road) and #24 (Rocks Road). The intersection is now known as Five Forks. For a map, see: Five Forks, Maryland, United States.
A Hugh McGough was enlisted in the Maryland militia in Deer Creek Upper Hundred in Harford county in 1775 and was among the men of Deer Creek Upper Hundred who took the oath of the Maryland Association of Freemen in 1776. Hugh McGough served in the Pennsylvania Regiment of Foot in 1776 and 1777. He died in Harford county in 1779. He left a widow, Rosanne Crooks McGough. The probate of his estate was opened on October 4, 1779. Hugh McGough may have been the first born son of Miles and Elizabeth Spencer McGough—even though no genealogist lists him as a member of the family of Miles McGough and Elizabeth Spencer. The records show no other McGough family in Harford county during these years. If so, Hugh was no older than 23 when he died. See my page: Hugh McGough, Soldier in the American Revolution. Even so, it is more likely that Hugh was close to the age of his wife, Rosanne Crooks, who was 39 when Hugh died, and a brother or cousin of Miles McGough.
Children of Miles and Elizabeth Spencer McGough referred to in the last will and testament of Miles McGough, which was made in 1884, five years after the death of Hugh McGough, are their sons John, James, Miles, and Thomas, and their daughter Elizabeth. I have not been able to find a copy of the will and have only an indirect reference to it in real estate documents.
John McGough, the first son named in documents referring to a will, was born about 1758 and may have moved to Kentucky (but perhaps first to Pennsylvania) in about 1795 or 1796—to the part of Christian county that became Caldwell county, Kentucky, in 1809—and raised a large family there, including sons named Hugh McGough and Thomas Miles McGough.
After John McGough, the next three sons of Miles McGough and Elizabeth Spencer referred to in the will of Miles McGough were: James McGough, born about 1760; Miles McGough (junior), born about 1762; and Thomas McGough, born about 1765. These three sons moved to Cambria county, Pennsylvania, in about 1803, and raised their families there. James and Miles died in Cambria county. Thomas moved his family from Pennsylvania to Belmont county, Richland township, Ohio, sometime before 1820, and died in Ohio. See my page: McGoughs in the 1820 Census of the United States.
Miles and Elizabeth Spencer McGough were the parents of a daughter, Elizabeth, who was born about 1767, married Patrick William Dempsey around 1793, and had at least eleven children. The Patrick Dempsey family is listed in the 1800 census of District 5, Harford county, Maryland: 2 (free white males under 10) 1 (free white male 10 thru 15) - 1 (free white male 25 thru 44) - 3 (free white females under 10) - 1 (free white female 16 thru 25) 1 (free white female 45 and over) (roll 11, page 126). They moved from Harford county, Maryland, to Cambria county, Pennsylvania, before 1807, and later to Perry county, Ohio, and Huntingdon county, Indiana. The histories of these families after they moved to Cambria county are in my page: McGoughs Who Moved from Harford County, Maryland, to Cambria County, Pennsylvania.
Miles McGough and Elizabeth Spencer McGough were the parents of more children. Court records in Harford county refer to Bartholomew Connell (Bartholomy O'Connell) as the husband of another daughter of Miles McGough, and this daughter—whose name I have not been able to determine—may have been the first-born child of Miles McGough and Elizabeth Spencer, born about 1754. The names of Patrick McGough and Benjamin McGough are also found in Harford county records in the 1790s, and they were possibly also sons of Miles and Elizabeth Spencer McGough.
In the absence of birth, marriage, and death records of Miles McGough and his family, I have included on this page—and in my timeline—several references to other persons in the Deer Creek area of Baltimore county that may have had some connection with the McGoughs. I hope that these references may lead to more clues about the early history of the McGoughs in Maryland.
For a chronological list of events relating to the McGoughs in Harford county, see my page: Timeline of McGoughs in Harford County, Maryland, 1750–1810.
Catholic Vital Records of Central Pennsylvania (5 volumes covering from 1840 though 1869) by Rev. Albert H. Ledoux (1994) is an especially valuable compilation, and I cite this work on these pages simply as Ledoux.
The Archives of Maryland Online is a great source. A good reference to early Maryland public documents is Maryland State Papers (Scharf Collection) 1640-1914 MSA SSI. 1005. Many legal terms from colonial times are defined in the Glossary of Terms of the Archives of Maryland Online.
A source of reference material on the American Revolution is at the Historical Resources Branch—US Army Center of Military History—Bibliographies of the War of American Independence. See also American Revolution and Other Resource Links.
The following book by Henry C. Peden, Jr., is available by subscription on Genealogy.com, and has been invaluable in preparing this page:
Revolutionary Patriots of Harford County, Maryland 1775-1783. The more than 3,600 men named in this book rendered active service in the cause of American independence between 1775 and 1783, either as an officer, soldier, seaman, marine, militiaman, or minuteman in the armed forces of the Continental Congress. (1985), 2000. 271 pages.
Henry C. Peden, Jr., is also the author of a valuable resource for genealogical resource in Harford county, originally in two volumes. Here are descriptions of the second volume and a supplement issued as a third volume:
Early Harford Countians, volume 2: L to Z Volumes 1 and 2 have been extracted from the following: Tax list of 1774, 1776 (missing two Hundreds now contained in the supplement), 1778, 1783, censuses of 1776 and 1790; Dr. Archer's ledgers; Orphan's Court Proceedings; Family Bibles; Estate Administrations; registers of St. Johns, St. George's, Quaker monthly meetings of Deer Creek and little Falls; wills; court minutes; commercial licenses; survey certificates; land records index; marriage licenses; gleanings from various publications such as the Bulletin of the Historical Society of Harford County and other periodicals and histories; list of Non-Associators and Non-Enrolles in 1775; tombstone inscriptions. Over 30,000 entries. (1993), new format in 1999.
There is a supplement in a third volume:
Early Harford Countians, volume 3. This is a supplement containing the 1775 census and two hundreds (subdivisions) of the 1776 census which were inadvertently omitted from the initial publication—along with corrections to the earlier volumes 1 and 2. (1999), 2001. 115 pages.
He followed up on this work with another volume:
Inhabitants of Harford County, Maryland, 1791-1800. A follow-up to Mr. Peden's 1993 massive work on Harford County, Maryland inhabitants—which covered the years 1773 to 1790. This work continues to follow those residents up to the year 1800, bringing the 18th century to completion. Data has been taken from a wide variety of sources. Alphabetical. Includes maps. (1999), 2001. 373 pages.
As I was looking for ways to examine these books, I discovered that Henry C. Peden, Jr., is available to do genealogical research in Harford county. I engaged his services and found that he also has many privately published pamphlets and other sources that he has developed. His work was great, his research exhaustive, and his prices reasonable. His email address is <pedenroots@msn.com>. His mailing address is:
Henry C. Peden, Jr., FMGS
707 Belford Road
Bel Air, MD 21014–4424
His telephone number is: 410–879–8717.
Here is a link to a map of the counties of Maryland, which in turn links to census information about each county. Another good source is Cyndi's List—Maryland. A large bibliography will be found at Maryland. See also Maryland Genealogy on My CinnamonToast® Genealogy for some references to sources on the web of Maryland death and cemetery records.
For more sources on Cambria County, Pennsylvania, see my page McGoughs in America before 1790: Arthur and Susan McGough.
Most of the early spellings of the surname McGough in Harford county were closer to the etymologically related Irish name McGaugh. By 1800, however, McGough had become the standard spelling within this family. See my page: Spelling of McGough.
In a lease of land on April 25, 1752, Miles McGough's signature is copied as Miles Mc geagh, but his name appears throughout the text of the indenture as Miles McDear, a name that appears nowhere else in Maryland. The lease is indexed by Scharf under Miles McDear. (volume 32, number 2, Spring 1991, Scharf Collection: Property Lease Agreements, page 160, on Genealogy.com).
The Abstracts of the Administration Account of the Prerogative Court, Libers 29 though 36, 1750–1754, compiled by V. L. Skinner, Jr., lists a payment to Miles Magau from the estate of John Renshaw, which estate was opened on August 18, 1753. The payee was almost certainly Miles McGough.
In a lease of land on March 6, 1760, Miles McGough is referred to and signs as Miles McGaugh. In a tax assessment of 1783, he is also referred to as Miles McGaugh. Maryland State Archives—Maryland Indexes (Assessment of 1783, Index) 1783 Harford County MSA S 1437 includes these entries:
Miles McGaugh. The Valley, 33 acres. HA Deer Creek Upper Hundred, p. 102. MSA S 1161-6-6 1/4/5/49
Miles McGaugh. Miles Adventure, 75 acres. HA Deer Creek Upper Hundred, p. 102. MSA S 1161-6-6 1/4/5/49
In a list of the signers in 1776 of the Maryland Articles of Association from Deer Creek Upper Hundred in Harford county, Maryland, is the name of Hugh McGough. In another list of signers from the same township, also compiled in 1776, were John McGeaugh and Miles McGeaugh, whom I think were a brother and the father of Hugh McGough.
Miles McGaugh was on a list of taxpayers in Deer Creek Upper Hundred in 1783. Harford County 1783 Maryland Tax List (from the Collection of The Maryland Historical Society—Rhistoric Publications 1970), page 102. His sons are listed as John McGaw and Miles McGaw (page 106). This is one of the few places in the Harford county records where I have found McGaw written for McGough, although both surnames are sometimes written as McGaugh.
Miles McGeaugh was on a list of taxpayers of Harford county compiled on November 26, 1785.
Hugh McGough was listed as Hugh M. Gough in the Harford County, Maryland, Revolutionary Patriots Listings, page 94, as a signer of the oath of fidelity and allegiance to Maryland in 1778. None of the other names on the list has a middle initial.
In a document of April 19, 1788, referring to the death of Miles McGeaugh, and his will dated May 25, 1784, Elizabeth MaGeaugh, of Harford county, Maryland, widow, and her four sons, John MaGeaugh, James MaGeaugh, Miles MaGeaugh and Thomas MaGeaugh, convey to Hugh Whiteford some of the estate property known as The Valley, reserving 7 3/4 acres of the use of Elizabeth. An inquiry from Eleanor Leonard McGough of Ormond Beach, Florida, about this document and other Harford county estate records, in The Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin, volume 36, number 4, Fall 1995, Queries and Answers, page 691 (question 36–094) (published on Genealogy.com), creates additional variants of the spellings by inserting spaces in the surnames:
"MA GEAUGH/MC GOUGH/MC GAUGH. I have listed several land records for Miles MA GEAUTH (MC GOUBH) of Harford Co., MD."
The 1790 census of Harford county, Maryland, lists Elizabeth MGeough and her son, James MGeough, in separate households. See: 1790 Harford County, Maryland Federal Census, page 75, lines 185 and 196.
On April 24, 1799, Elizabeth Megaugh, Miles' wife, assigned her interest in 254 1/4 acres of land lying partly on the north side, but mostly on the south side, of Broad Creek known as Travelers Rest to her son, Thomas Megaugh and her son-in-law Patrick Dempsey. The deed issued by the state of Maryland on December 17, 1799, spelled the grantee's name McGeaugh. Travelers Rest included Miles Adventure, which Miles McGough had originally leased in 1752, and the part of The Valley that had not been conveyed to Hugh Whiteford in 1788.
By unpatented certificate #474 dated December 3, 1804, a resurvey of Travellers Rest, consisting of 354 3/4 acres in Harford county, was filed. The resurvey was for Archabald Heaps and done by David Clark S.H.C., and carried out under a Special Warrant of Survey issued on October 29, 1803. The unpatented certificate of survey was completed on October 5, 1804. (MSA S1222-481). Harford County Circuit Court Land Survey, Subdivision, and Condominium Plats MSA S1222: (Certificates, Unpatented, HA). (There is more on Archibald Heaps below under Thomas McGough (c. 1765–after 1850).) Broad Creek is mentioned in the survey of both of the tracts called Travellers Rest. In the 1803/1804 unpatented resurvey for Archibald Heaps, the reference is:
"a tract or parcel of land called Chevauxdefrize ,,, (containing) ... two hundred thirty eight acres and a half an acre and twenty nine square perches ... (and ... one hundred sixteen acres and eleven square perches in vacant land in seven parcels ... then running with and bounding on the original south seventy seven degrees and a half west forty seven perches to the end of the said line still bounding on the original the following course Viz.t south thirty two degrees and three quarters west sixteen perches then south sixty two degrees and a quarter east two perches and four tenths to two bounded white oaks standing on the south side and near broad creek they being boundaries of a tract of land called Mount Pleasant surveyed for William Prig.(Prigg) thence south thirty three degrees west thirty five perches and a half to a bounded white oak on the side of a hill a boundary of said land, south fifty degrees east seven perches and one tenth to a tract of land called Morgan's Gift surveyed for William Morgan ..."
In the will of Archibald's father, Robert Heape, Sr., executed on May 30, 1810, Robert bequeaths to his daughter Mary Heape "fifty acres of land being part of a tract formerly called Chevordory freeze (should be Chevauxdefrize) but now called Travellers Rest." The will is set out in full below.
Tracts described as abutting Travellers rest in the resurvey of 1803 for Archibald Heaps were Last Addition (Hugh Bay), Alexanders Enlargement (Isabel Alexander), Johns Adventure (William Ashmore), Mount Pleasant (William Prigg), Alexanders Enlargement (Isabel Alexander), and Morgans Gift (William Morgan). The surveys of these properties are available on Maryland Achives in the locations described below.
Harford County Circuit Court—Land Survey, Subdivision, and Condominium Plats—MSA S1222: (Certificates, Unpatented, HA)
Reference: Unpatented Certificate 278
Date: 1802/04/03
Description: Last Addition, Hugh Bay, 340 3/4 AcresHarford County Circuit Court—Land Survey, Subdivision, and Condominium Plats— MSA S1222: (Certificates, Unpatented, HA)
Reference: Unpatented Certificate 20
Date: 1802/05/12
Description: Alexanders Enlargement, Isabel Alexander, 293 Acres
Storage Location: 1/25/5/18Reference: Unpatented Certificate 258
Date: 1795/06/10
Description: Johns Adventure, William Ashmore, 977 Acres
Storage Location: 1/25/5/20Reference: Unpatented Certificate 317
Date: 1795/03/24
Description: Morgans Gift, William Morgan, 70 Acres (vacant land on the west side of Broad Creek, bounded in part by York road; also borders Mount Pleasant)
Storage Location: 1/25/5/21Harford County Circuit Court—Land Survey, Subdivision, and Condominium Plats— MSA S1199: (Certificates, Patented, HA).
Reference: Patented Certificate 557
Date: 1795/08/07
Description: Mount Pleasant, William Prigg, Sr. (Beginning at a bounded White oak standing on the North side of the York Road and on the South side of Broad Creek -- 203 acres)Harford County Circuit Court—Land Survey, Subdivision, and Condominium Plats—MSA S1592: (Patents, HA, Tract Index)
Reference: Patent Record IC K, p. 667
Date: 1796
Description: Morgans Gift, 70 Acres; Certificate
Developer/Owner: Morgan, WilliamHarford County Circuit Court—Land Survey, Subdivision, and Condominium Plats— MSA S1199: (Certificates, Patented, HA).
Patented Certificate 547
Date:1796/09/08
Morgans Gift, Samuel Sprigg (should be Prigg), 70 Acres MSA S 1199-556Reference: Patent Record IC M, p. 37 (MSA S 1592-3531)
Date: 1796
Description: Morgans Gift, 70 Acres; Patent
(Developer/Owner: Prigg, Samuel)Other pertinent surveys in the Maryland Archives are:
Harford County Circuit Court—Land Survey, Subdivision, and Condominium Plats—MSA S1592: (Patents, HA, Tract Index)
Reference: Patent Record IC M, p. 662
Date: 1797
Description: Travelers Rest, 254 1/4 Acres; Patent
Developer/Owner: Mcgeaugh, Thomas and Patrick DemseyHarford County Circuit Court—Land Survey, Subdivision, and Condominium Plats—MSA S1199: (Certificates, Patented, HA)
Reference: Patented Certificate 824
Date: 1799/12/13
Description: Travelers Rest, Thomas McGeaugh and Patrick Dempsey, 254 1/4 Acres
Storage Location: 01/25/05/16Harford County Circuit Court—Land Survey, Subdivision, and Condominium Plats—MSA S1592: (Patents, HA, Tract Index)
Reference: Patent Record IC M, p. 597
Date: 1799
Description: Chevauxdefrize, 833 Acres; Patent
Developer/Owner: Wheeler, JosephHarford County Circuit Court—Land Survey, Subdivision, and Condominium Plats—MSA S1199: (Certificates, Patented, HA)
Reference: Patented Certificate 169
Date: 1799/05/23
Description: Chevaurdefrize (should be Chevauxdefrize), Joseph Wheeler, 833 Acres
Storage Location: 01/25/05/8
Although the land resurveyed for Archibald Heaps in 1804 also straddled Broad Creek, and is in the same general vicinity as the Travellers Rest owned by Miles and Elizabeth McGough, I have not been able to determine whether the first tract includes all or part of the second. On April 24, 1799, Elizabeth Megaugh deeded her interest in Travelers Rest to her son, Thomas Megaugh, and her son-in-law, Patrick Dempsey. On May 17, 1803. Thomas McGough and Patrick Dempsey conveyed their interest in "Travelers Rest" to James McGough, of John; 127+ acres and buildings for £50 (MDHR Liber HD #a Folio 483). On November 1, 1804. James McGough and his wife "Hester" (should be Esther) conveyed their interest in "Travellers Rest" to Thomas Montgomery "in consideration of the sum of nine hundred Spanish milled dollars of the value of seven shillings and six pence each current money of Maryland." The land was delivered to Montgomery on March 19, 1805. The deed was dated November 1, 1804, and the money paid on that date (Liber HD #R Folio 540-2). (In the 1790 census returns for Harford couunty, Thomas Montgomery (M-637, roll 3, page100) was on the page immediately preceding James MGeough, and two pages preceding Elizabeth MGeough.
"June 19, 1782. James McGeaugh, Bartholomew Connel (James' brother-in-law), and Hugh Bankhead, witnessed the will of Thomas Montgomery, planter (whose daughter was Elizabeth Webb). The will was admitted to probate on December 20, 1785. The estate lists two sons, James and Thomas Montgomery. These are probably the James and Thomas Montgomery listed as living one family removed from each other, and close to Hugh Bankhead (and a John and Samuel Webb), in the 1790 census of Harford county (roll 3, book 1, page 117). They were not far removed from the home of James MGeough." Timeline of McGoughs in Harford County, Maryland, 1750–1810
One factor that makes it likely the tract called Travellers Rest in the 1804 resurvey for Archibald Heaps, and mentioned in the will of Robert Heaps, Senior, and the Travelers Rest conveyed on April 24, 1799, by Elizabeth Megaugh to her son, Thomas Megaugh, and her son-in-law, Patrick Dempsey, are the same is that Archibald and Robert Heaps were related by marriage to Thomas McGough. Archibald and Robert Heaps, Junior, were brothers. Their father was Robert Heaps, Senior, who left 50 acres of Travellers Rest to his daughter Mary in his will that he signed on May 30, 1810, and that was admitted to probate on February 23, 1819. Robert Heaps, Senior, married Nancy James (as her second husband). (Roger Kent Heape of St. Louis points out that there is no documentation of this marriage. He is not convinced there was such a marriage.) Thomas McGough married Sarah James, sister of the Nancy James, who married Robert Heaps, Junior. According to some genealogies published on the Internet, Martha Chocke (Chalk) James, the mother of Nancy and Sarah James, married Robert Heaps, Junior, (her grandson?) on August 21, 1782 (or 1781) (as a third husband, whom she married after the death of her second husband, James, whom she had married in 1771). For more on the Heaps and Chockes (Chalks), see the section of this page below on Thomas McGough.
In the 1800 census of Harford county, two sons of Miles and Elizabeth McGough, James and Thomas McGeough, are shown as living next to each other. The surnames can be read as Megeough. One genealogists has indexed them as MeGrough. Genealogy.com indexes the surnames as McGeough.
James Meegaa of Harford county, Maryland, signed the Oath of Allegiance to Maryland in 1778. This may have been James McGough, son of Miles McGough (senior) (Harford County, Maryland, Revolutionary Patriots Listings, page 158). The name was on the returns of Robert Amos for Harford county (Maryland Records, Volume II, Oaths of Fidelity and Support, page 241).) This is the only time the surname Meegaa appears on Genealogy.com and, as far as I can find, anywhere else. (John Chocke was on this same list.)
There was a separate McGaw family, with a James and John (and Robert) McGaw, in Harford county in the 1780s and 1790s. The McGaw name was occasionally spelled McGaugh, leading to confusion. The name of Hugh McGough has often has been erroneously indexed as Hugh McGaugh in various genealogical compilations of Harford county. Other examples of confusion are: the text of a bond of August 8, 1800, to Hannah Richardson, indicates the obligors to be James Price and James McGaugh. The signature on the bond, however, is by James McGaw. The release from liability on the bond says that "although the within James McGaugh is jointly bound with James Price for the whole Bond the said James McGaw is per agreement Released." The name of Jane McGaw is spelled Jane McGaugh in a December, 1782, proceedings in the Harford County Orphan's Court. Abstracts of the Orphans Court Proceedings 1778–1800, Harford County, Maryland, by Henry C. Peden, Jr. (1999). The Robert McGaugh whom indexes show to have died intestate in Harford county on May 1, 1783, was actually named Robert McGaw.
A "Return of Recruits, Substitutes, and Draughts, raised in Harford County for Two Battalions of Militia, Agreeable to an Act of Assembly in 1781" lists John McGaw and James McGaw. The report is dated December 11, 1781, and was submitted by "A. Crawford, Secy. L. H. County" to "His Excellency Thos. Sim Lee, Esq." James and John McGaw are listed under Names of Draughts, and after each name is the entry "Never taken up" (Muster Rolls & Other Records of Service, Miscellaneous Maryland Line Papers, page 399, on Genealogy.com). There is a slight possibility that these entries relate to John and James McGough, sons of Miles McGough and Elizabeth Spencer, whose names were sometimes spelled McGeaugh. James McGaw is on the list of persons in Harford county, submitted in March of 1778, who took the Oath of Fidelity and Support to Maryland in 1778 before James McComas. Also on the list is Sedwick (Should be Sedgwick) James who was a member of Captain William Webb's company of Militia with Hugh McGough (Maryland Records, Volume II, Oaths of Fidelity and Support, page 234, on Genealogy.com.). John McGaw is on the roster of December 2, 1775, of Captain Rigdon's Company No.12 of Maryland Militia in Harford county. A marriage license was issued to John McGaw and Phebe Gilbert in Harford county on July 2, 1801. There were McGaw families in Harford county at this time, and I doubt that these McGaw entries should have been McGough. Both John and James McGaw are in early censuses of Harford county, along with many other McGaws.
Harford county Maryland is in northeastern Maryland, immediately east of Baltimore county, and lies on the northern border of Maryland and southern border of Pennsylvania. Bel Air, today's county seat of Harford county, is 23 miles northeast of Baltimore. See map of Maryland counties. The southern boundary of Harford county lies along the northeastern shoreline of Chesapeake Bay, and the eastern boundary is the Susquehanna River. Harford county was created from a part of Baltimore county in 1773. Northern Harford county is scenic and relatively unspoiled country. See: Residents revel in rural past and present history: Families continue to be drawn to the area’s tranquility and natural beauty—A closer look at Harford County, an article in the Baltimore Sun by Karin Remesch, published on October 27, 2002, where she says:
"The English explorer Capt. John Smith was on the mark when he landed on the shores of Harford County in July 1608, and wrote in his diary: 'Heaven and earth never agreed better to frame a place for man's commodious and delightful habitation.' These scenic vistas and quality of life have kept families in Harford County for generations and have drawn droves of newcomers to the area, each searching for a small plot of land to call his own."
See: Harford County Regional Map on the Harford county website. For a map of all the counties in Maryland, see the US Census Bureau's Maryland County Selection Map. See also Lower Susquehanna River Basin (a PDF file with two pictures of Deer Creek).
The townland in Harford county called Deer Creek Upper Hundred, where Miles McGough leased property in 1752, is on the north edge of the county and lies on the Pennsylvania border. The nearest village is Pylesville. Here is a link to the zoomable MapQuest view of the area centered on Pylesville. The McGough property was about half way between Pylesville and Fawn Grove to the northwest—just across the Pennsylvania line. Here is a link to the Yahoo.com map. The McGough property was immediately east of what is now the intersection of highways #24 and #136 marked Five Forks, and may have included the area marked Bobs Flow.
The term "hundred" relates to the division of a county into an area that was supposed to contain a hundred families or, according to other sources, an area that could furnish a hundred fighting men. Here is the explanation from How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement © Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:
hundred—"an old English unit of area equal to 100 hides (see below). This is roughly 12 000 acres, 5000 hectares, or 18.75 square miles. The hundred is approximately the area of a village with its associated fields, so the name "hundred" came to mean a minor division of a shire or county. This use carried over to the American colonies, where, for example, many of the early settlements in Virginia were called hundreds."
hide—"a very old English unit of land area, dating from perhaps the seventh century. The hide was the amount of land that could be cultivated by a single plowman and thus the amount of land necessary to support a family. Depending on local conditions, this could be as little as 60 acres or as much as 180 acres (24–72 hectares). The hide was more or less standardized as 120 acres (48.6 hectares) after the Norman conquest of 1066. The hide continued in use throughout medieval times, but it is now obsolete. The unit was also known as the carucate."
Here is a definition from the Glossary of Terms in the Archives of Maryland Online:
Hundreds (Hds.)—an old English term for land division equaling a land area of less than a county or shire but larger than a town or parish.
*William Pyles may have operated a saw mill near Pylesville before 1805. In 1805, the Maryland General Assembly enacted: "An ACT to lay out and make a public road from William Pyles's saw mill, on Deer creek, in Harford county (chapter LXXXIX)." A William Pyle married Ann Johnson on December 1, 1804, in Harford county. A William Pyle, Jr., married Susanna Baxter on October 7, 1811, in Harford county. Reverend John R. Keech conducted a funeral of William Pyle on February 13, 1843, in Harford county (probably in Christ's Church). Pylesville Maryland—A Rural Village in Northern Harford says: "In 1813, Nathan Pyle owned a mill on Broad Creek at Pylesville. From his ownership of the mill and adjoining properties, Pylesville received its name."
The geographical reference point mentioned above is marked on map #3 of the ADC Street Map Book of Harford County, Maryland. The three adjoining tracts of land acquired by the McGoughs in this area were determined ultimately to consist of 254 1/4 acres, and the combined tracts were known as Travelers Rest (which included Miles' Adventure and the 7 3/4 acres of The Valley that were not conveyed to Hugh Whiteford). The beginning point of the legal description was "two bounded Spanish Oak saplings standing on the north side and within seven perches of the Main Branch of Broad Creek; and on the south west side and within fifty yards of a spring emptying into said Branch and running thence S86°W forty perches to a stone thence N53°W ninety seven perches to a bounded Chestnut sapling by and on the north side of said branch of Broad Creek " A perche is generally equivalent to a rod, or 15.5 feet, but in these land measurements, it is equal to 16.5 feet:
"In indiscriminate metes and bounds, distance is measured in 16 1/2 foot lengths which are interchangeably known as poles, rods, or perches. Note that 320 poles = 1 mile. The directions are measured in degrees as compass bearings, beginning with the first direction listed and moving toward the second direction. Thus 'north 50 east' in the deed below means 50 degrees east of north and 'south 30 west' means 30 degrees west of south."
The Glossary of Terms in the Archives of Maryland Online says:
Perch—land measurement equaling 16.5 feet.
If I read the description of the McGough land correctly, part of the southeastern boundary of the land was also was a northwestern "boundary of a tract of land called Bellfarm." On the current map of Harford county, 2 1/4 miles south east of the geographic point defined above is a designation of "Belle Farm Heritage." About a mile to the southeast of our geographic reference point, and, on the south side of Broad Creek, is a designation of "Bobs Flow." This may be the spring emptying into the main branch of Broad Creek referred to in the legal description of the land.
The western corner of property originally leased by Miles McGough in 1752 was what is now the Five Forks intersection of Whiteford Road (Maryland state highway #136) and Rocks Road (Maryland state highway #24), marked on map #3 of the ADC Street Map Book of Harford County. After the additions of The Valley—and subtraction of the twenty five acres of The Valley conveyed to Hugh Whiteford in April of 1788—and Travelers Rest, the property extended northeast on what is now Whiteford road to a point just beyond where the road crossed Broad Creek, then southeast along the north side of Broad Creek to a point on the north side of Broad Creek about a tenth of mile west of the Wheeler School Road, then south across the creek (then a jog to the east and back to the west) and just over one half a mile south (along the western edge of Belle Farm) to St. Mary's Road to the point about a half mile east of Rocks Road where a local access road now intersects, then west to Rocks Road, and then north about a half a mile to the Five Forks intersection. The center of this property is less than a mile south by southeast of the geographic reference point described above. The property is a half a mile northeast of the detached 67 acre section of Rocks State Park. that contains the Falling Branch Falls.
The old McGough property is one and one half miles north of the modern-day campus on Pylesville Road shared by North Harford High School, North Harford Middle School, and North Harford Elementary School. The center of the old McGough property is just a little over half the distance from the schools due north to the Pennsylvania border. The McGough property is also within the boundaries of the territory covered by the North Harford Elementary School. (The road to the immediate left of the school is Rocks Road. The first intersection to the north is St. Mary's Road. The second intersection to the north (after a slight bend of Rocks Road to the west) is Five Forks where Whiteford Road enters from the northeast. The McGough property is immediately east of this intersection.)
The roads coming into Five Forks are Rocks Road (#24) from the south, Clermont Mill Road from the southwest, Harkins Road (#136) from the west, Rocks Road (#24) from the northwest, and Whiteford Road (#136) from the northeast. Harkins Road becomes Whiteford Road at the intersection, and the two roads are both part of Maryland State Route #136.
One and one half miles north of the McGough property in Harford county is York county, Pennsylvania. Immediately west of York county and bordering western Maryland is Adams county, Pennsylvania. In the early 1700s, parts of both York and Adams counties were mistakenly thought to be within the province of Maryland:
"In 1727, John Digges, a Roman Catholic Marylander, was granted a 10,000-acre warrant by Charles Calvert, the fourth Lord Baltimore of Maryland. The physical location of the warrant was the choice of Digges himself; hence the name of the tract: 'Digges' Choice in the Backwoods', or 'Digges' Choice'. He located and surveyed, by 1735, 6,822 acres in the area of what is today the Borough of Hanover, Penn Township, and Heidelberg Township in York County, and Conewago, Germany, and Union Townships in Adams County. Digges intended for the tract to be located in Maryland, but the surveying of the Temporary Line between Maryland and Pennsylvania in 1739 located the tract four miles north of the Maryland-Pennsylvania border. By 1730, Digges and other Roman Catholic settlers from Maryland had settled in the area." Digges Choice.
Sometime after 1747, John Digges (sometimes spelled Diggs in Maryland records) moved to his plantation in what was then Baltimore county. His son, also named John Digges, was a circuit-riding Jesuit priest in the Deer Creek area of Baltimore county "beginning in 1743 when Father John Digges, S.J., bought a tract of land on the south bank of Deer Creek and established this mission. Digges died in 1746 and left the property to his friend and fellow-priest, Father Bennett Neale, S.J., who maintained the mission until he retired in 1773." The mission on Deer Creek was known as St. Joseph's Mission. See Rev. John Digges, Jr., S.J., Papers (1734–1746) in the Georgetown University—Lauinger Library—Special Collections Division.
Here is an excerpt from The Digges Family Lineage: 1200 to present:
"Generation 16/ John Digges of Prince George County and Charles County, Maryland received from Lord Baltimore on October 11, 1735 a patent for 10,000 acres called 'Digges Choice' which included the valley of Conewago in what is now York and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania. Here he started the first white settlement in that region west of the Susquehanna River. His wife is thought to have been Eleanor Carroll. Their children were: Edward, William, Henry, Dudley, John (a priest of the Society of Jesus), Eleanor, and Elizabeth . . ."
The McGoughs in Maryland in the latter half of the 18th century were part of a concentration of Catholic settlers along Deer Creek in the part of Baltimore county that became Harford county in 1773. Their marriages, baptisms, and funerals, were performed by Catholic priests. The records of these events have been lost, although comparable records of the "established" Anglican church have been preserved. The difference in availability may be partly explained by the legal restrictions on the practice of Catholicism at the time. An examination of the operation of these restrictions is illuminating. For the history of early Catholics in Maryland, see the article on the Archdiocese of Baltimore in the Catholic Encyclopedia.
Here are some excerpts from an essay entitled Maryland Catholics on the Frontier by Timothy O'Rourke:
"After several abortive attempts at overthrowing the Proprietary government in Maryland, the Protestant revolution of 1689 was successful. It was fomented largely by the non-Catholic colonists of Maryland—about two-thirds of the population of Maryland at that time—who had benefited by the religious toleration policies of Lord Baltimore.
"Almost immediately after the take-over occurred, the subjugation of all Catholics began in Maryland. Justices and other public officials, even sheriffs and clerks, were replaced if they were Catholics. Arms and ammunition of most Catholics were confiscated. The very presence of any Catholic in St. Mary's City during the session of the Protestant Associators—the group which was to constitute the ruling body of Maryland for the next two years—was forbidden.
"In 1692, an Act was passed which established the Anglican Church as the official church of the colony, and all residents were taxed to support the church. Catholics were excluded from public office, from voting, or even jury duty.
"In 1704, the 'Act to prevent the Growth of Popery within this Province' not only forbade all works of conversion but also closed all Catholic churches and schools in the province. Most of them still clung to their Faith, however, and practiced their religion privately, in their own homes. Many baptisms and marriages were recorded in the Anglican churches, usually with a notation that they were known Catholics
"These restrictions on public worship and other persecution of Catholics continued through the colonial period, which extended to the American Revolution and the Bill of Rights."
The 1704 Maryland law prohibited Catholic priests from practicing their religion, baptizing Protestant children, or attempting to proselytize. But by the end of that year, because the law was deemed too strict to enforce, priests were permitted to practice their faith, but only in private. These rules remained in effect until the beginning of the American Revolution. A Declaration of Rights was adopted in Convention of the Delegates of the freemen of Maryland at Annapolis, on August 24, 1776, and incorporated in the Constitution of Maryland on November 3, 1776, as Article 36, Religious Freedom.
"That, as it is the duty of every man to worship God in such manner as he thinks most acceptable to him; all persons, professing the Christian religion, are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty; wherefore no person ought by any law to be molested in his person or estate on account of his religious persuasion or profession, or for his religious practice; ... "
Part of the history of the Catholics in Deer Creek is Priest Neale's Mass House and Mill Site, also known as Paradice Farm, near Churchville. Here is a history of this structure from the Harford County Maryland 1996 Master Plan:
"One other Deer Creek religious institution deserves mention at this point, the stuccoed stone building known as Priest Neale's Mass House (HA-138), a structure that can truly be called unique. The reasons for this little building's existence are complicated. Put as simply as possible, in the late 17th and early 18th centuries waves of anti-Catholicism swept over England and its colonies. This led to, among other things, a series of 'anti-popery' laws, including one that prohibited the celebration of mass except in private homes. A few Catholics (such as the Howards in England and the Carrolls in America) were rich enough to be able to build private chapels onto their houses and hire their own priests; others—the vast majority—had to rely on circuit-riding priests who rode from house-to-house to conduct services. One such was based here, beginning in 1743 when Father John Digges, S.J., bought a tract of land on the south bank of Deer Creek and established this mission. Digges died in 1746 and left the property to his friend and fellow-priest, Father Bennett Neale, S.J., who maintained the mission until he retired in 1773. After the Revolution, the new Archdiocese of Maryland acquired the mission; then, with freedom of religion guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, there was no need for missions such as this and the little building was sold and altered (slightly) to make it suitable for domestic use."
The chapel was also known as the Mission of St. Joseph and as the Monastery at Priest's Ford. Priestford Bridge across Deer Creek is about 3 miles north of Churchville on the Churchville-Dublin Road (Maryland highway #136), which is known as the Priestford Road. The bridge is almost fifteen miles southeast of the McGough property.
In his History of Harford County, Walter W. Preston says at pages 160–3:
"In the year 1747 Rev. Bennet Neale S. J., came to reside at Deer Creek. He was the grandson of the noted Capt. James Neale, and the granduncle of Archbishop Leonard Neale. ... Some years after his arrival, that is in 1760, he purchased of Mr. Henry Beach a narrow strip of land 'together with all the houses, gardens, fences and profits belonging or in any way appertaining thereto.' This plot of ground contained but eighteen acres of land, which lay bordering the creek on the south side, and here one is naturally inclined to conjecture stood the missionary's home, which, in public document of the year 1756, was alluded to as 'Priest Neale's Mass House' and which also gave occasion to the fording being called Priest's Ford. [The house was probably on adjoining property and this narrow strip of land was probably the site of a mill and a millrace. See below.]
"In 1764, Mr. Thomas Shea, who had been a resident of Priest's Ford for fifty years, deeded to Father Neale one of his farms [115 acres], which adjoined the small tract of eighteen acres just mentioned. This farm, which is still known by the name of Paradise, is now the home of Mr. R. Harris Archer, and his residence is the old chapel house which came into use for divine service some time about 1764. ... [Actually, the 115 acres of land had been deeded by Thomas Shea to John Digges Jr., on March 14, 1743, and left to Bennett Neale in Digge's will. See below.]
"There was added in 1786 another tract of land containing three hundred and sixty-nine acres. This purchase was made not by the congregation, but by the agent of a corporation of the Catholic clergymen, and the land, although lying on the other side of the creek, was in very close proximity to the other two smaller tracts.
"The little mission of Deer Creek continued under the care of the Reverend Bennet Neale until about 1770, when this devoted pastor was succeeded in his office by Rev. Ignatius Matthews, who was likewise a Jesuit. This reverend father resided at Priestford until the summer of 1779 ... when his place was supplied by Rev. Bernard Diderick.
"About the middle of the year 1779 Rev. Charles Sewall was appointed to replace Father Matthews."
On March 14, 1743, Thomas Shea had conveyed the site of the Mass House to Father John Digges, Jr., S.J., for a token consideration of 5 shillings. The land was described as 50 acres in Thomas's Beginnings (all south of Deer Creek), and 65 acres in an Addition to Thomas's Beginning (both sides of Deer Creek). There was a house on the property. Shea reserved a half an acre as a burying place. The deed was recorded on May 2, 1744. Father Digges died in Baltimore county in 1746 at the age of 34. By his will of September 11, 1744, Father Digges left all his property to his brother Jesuit, Bennet Neale. (One of the witnesses to the will was Elizabeth Rozer, who married Ignatius Wheeler, and was the mother of Ignatius Wheeler, Jr. See below.) Father Neale, at the age of 38, moved onto the property and took over the duties of Father Digges as a circuit-riding priest in the Deer Creek area.
On November 7, 1750, Henry Beach* conveyed to Bennett Neale 18 1/2 acres of land adjoining and to the east of the part of Thomas's Addition, which Father Neale had inherited from Father Digges in 1846. The land conveyed was part of a tract called Maiden's Bower. This narrow strip of land lay on the south side of Deer Creek.
[*Here is an entry on Henry Beach in Baltimore County Families, 1659–1759, page 35 (on Genealogy.com):
"Beech/Beach, Henry, alias Wiseman, m. Jane Garvin on 29 April 1740; owned 54 a. part Maiden's Bower and 13 a. Miller's Delight in 1750; had iss.: Thomas, b. 31 Aug. 1741; Elizabeth, b. 9 Apr. 1744; see also Wiseman, Henry."
Apparently, Henry Beach was an Anglican. On October 6, 1767, a summons was issued by the vestry of St. George's Anglican Church to Henry Beach for unlawful cohabitation and to his wife, Jane Beach, for evidence. On May 27, 1770, Henry Beach's wife appeared and declared that she had reason to believe that Henry was cohabiting with Elizabeth Dixon "upon which the said Beach to appear at the next vestry and bring a certificate from under the hands of his neighbors that they have parted." On June 4, 1770, Henry Beach produced a certificate from Samuel Smith, Jane Smith, and Robert Harkins, "that Elizabeth Dixon has left his house and they do not think that they cohabit together at present," but on April 15, 1771, another complaint was made against Henry Beach for cohabitation with Elizabeth Dixon. (St. George's Parish Registers, 1689-1793, Abstracts of Vestry Proceedings, pages 110, 111).]
On October 8, 1764, Thomas Shea conveyed to Bennett Neale the same 50 acres in Thomas's Beginnings and 65 acres in the Addition to Thomas's Beginnings that Shea had conveyed to John Digges, Jr., on March 14, 1743. The terms were the same. The sale price was a nominal 5 shillings, and Shea reserved a half acre as a burial place. Although John Digges, in his will had left this property to Bennett Neale, and had been occupied by Neale since Digge's death in 1746, Digge's will had not been probated. The conveyance in 1764, therefore, was to clear up a possible defect in title. See: Priest Neale, His Mass House, and His Successors, by John W. McGrain, Jr., the Maryland Historical Magazine (Baltimore Historical Society 1967), volume LXII, page 274–7.
Miles Foy (November 18, 1674–December 9, 1751), who lived in the Deer Creek area of what was then Baltimore County, asked in his will to be "buried at the Roman [Catholic] Chapel." George H. Stevens elaborates in the Harford County Md. Query Forum:
"I believe this very probably referred to 'a Papist Chapel built on a hill,' otherwise known as 'The Monastery at Priest’s Ford,' situated on the south bank of Deer Creek [Susquehanna Tributary] and three miles north of Churchville in what was then Baltimore County but is today Harford County, MD. Between 1740 and 1747 a Jesuit Father named Bennett Neale settled on Deer Creek in this area and remained through 1756; he may have built a monastery known as the 'Mission of St. Joseph,' and less formally as 'Priest Neale’s Mass House.' Irish workmen at nearby Nottingham Iron Forge and nearby Lancaster Iron Forge may have constituted his flock.
"Accompanying Fr. Bennett Neale (Neall) to MD were his kinsmen James Neall and Edward Neall, who formed a partnership for producing iron and built the forge on the opposite side of Deer Creek. (Mason, Samuel, Jr. Historical Sketches of Harford County, Maryland. Lancaster, PA: Intelligencer Printing Co., 1955. Dewey Call No. is 975.274 M, pages 78-79; 173-174). Also, Walter W. Preston, (in History of Harford County Maryland; Bel Air, MD., Orig. Published in Baltimore, MD, 1901; Reprinted in Baltimore by Regional Publishing Co., 1972, LoC F187.H2P9 1972; Dewey 917.52’74’03), in a discussion of 'The Catholic Church in Harford County,' notes that very early in the 18th Century, members of the Catholic Church began to take up lands and settle about Deer Creek, and its tributaries, from the Susquehanna River in the east to the neighborhood of Cooptown in the west. Of the first names that are in evidence of this immigration, these are some of the more prominent: Wheeler, Clarke, Shea, McElroy, Foy, and at a period somewhat later, Flanagan, Cretin, Doran, McBride, Quinlan, Mattingly, Jenkins, Green, Cooper, Coskery, Cain, Bussey, Boarman, Macatee, etc.
"Preston clearly had access, in 1901, to some sort of parish records or perhaps to then extant tombstones at the site of this early Jesuit Mission. Does anyone know where the records are today? Perhaps we may infer from this that Miles Foy was a Roman Catholic; however, this also likely was the closest church to his home. He and his wife Frances owned an Estate known as 'EIGHTRUPP/AITROPP,' etc. [In 1758, Walter Ashmore of Baltimore county assigned a lease of 62 acres in Aitropp, also known as Eightrupp, to Samuel Hughes. The property may have been called "Beautiful Island. See RENSHAW-L Archives on RootsWeb.]
"It is quite likely that this Mission of St. Joseph, run by Fr. Bennett Neill/Neale was subordinate to the much larger Roman Catholic estate, preparatory-school, agricultural establishment, and church over (eastward) at Bohemia Manor, across the Chesapeake Bay and on the Eastern Shore, at the head of the Bohemia River, in Cecil County, which was run by the famous John Carroll who later (1789) founded Georgetown University. Not clear whether any graves in the cemetery of this Jesuit mission on Deer Creek have survived (it later became a monastery) or whether they have been catalogued, or whether the parish records have survived, locally in Harford County, in Baltimore County, in Cecil County, at Bohemia Manor, in the Maryland Hall of Records at Annapolis, or at the Georgetown University Manuscript Collection & Archives. ...
"Will welcome any assistance you can provide in locating Miles FOY's Grave, in locating the parish records of this Jesuit Mission on Deer Creek, and in discovering the origins of the Foys in early Harford, Cecil, Baltimore Counties, ca. 1682-1751. Regards, George H. Stevens (GHStevens3@AOL.COM); 705 Gleneagles Drive; Fort Washington, MD 20744-7012. Home: 301-292-1202
See also these two postings by George H. Stevens on Genealogy.com: Miles Foy 1674–1751, Foy's Landing, Foy' s Hill and St. Joseph Mission SJ Parish Records 1747.
Father Bennett Neale, S.J. (1709–1787), must have played a part in the life of Miles McGough and his family. Father Neale was the son of Anthony Neale (c. 1659–1723) of Charles county and his second wife, Elizabeth Digges. He was one of five children: Edward Neale (1704–December 28, 1760); Charles Neale (born 1705); Henry Neale (c. 1707–1767); Reverend Bennett Neale, a priest (August 3, 1709–March 2, 1787); and Mary Neale. The will of Anthony Neale of Charles county, Maryland, is dated November 12, 1722, and was proved on July 12, 1723, in Charles county. The will mentions his sons, Raphael, Henry (a minor intending to be a priest), and Roswell (probably by his first wife, Elizabeth Roswell, whom Anthony had married in 1681), and four younger children: Edward, Charles, Bennett, and Mary (Maryland Genealogies, Volume 2, Neale Family of Charles County, page 255, on Genealogy.com). Roswell Neale (1685–March 25, 1751, married Elizabeth Blakiston as his second wife. His son, Benjamin Wheeler, born on October 29, 1731, married Mary Neale.
The Maryland Province Society of Jesus Folder Listing (from Lauringer Library of Georgetown University—Special Collections Divisions) contains records of the transfer of the land for the chapel. One of the contributors was Benjamin Wheeler. The name of Ignatius Wheeler, Jr. (c. 1744–1793), appears in many McGough-related records. For example, Ignatius Wheeler, Jr., was second-in-command of Captain William Webb's company of Maryland militia in which Hugh McGough enrolled on October 14, 1775. His father, Ignatius Wheeler, may have been the son of a brother of Benjamin Wheeler. The Jesuit's folder of information is described thusly:
Box: 37 Fold: 3 Indentures [108 A1-A8] Date Span: [01/01/1725]? - [12/31/1779]?
Description: This folder [108 A1-A8] consists essentially of indentures. Items include the following: Grant (1725) from Charles Calvert [Lord Baltimore] to Thomas Shea; The courses of Maiden's Bower secured (1748); Indenture (1750) between Henry Beach and Bennett Neale, S.J.; Indenture (1753) between Bennett Neale and Benjamin Wheeler; Indenture (1764) between Thomas Shea and Bennett Neale; Indenture (1770) between Benedict Wheeler and Ignatius Matthews, S.J.; Receipt (1773) to Bennett Neale pertains to Deer Creek property
Neale, Jenkins, Digges and Wheeler are listed among early Catholic colonists in Maryland who "survived the dark days" in the article on the Archdiocese of Baltimore in the Catholic Encyclopedia. These four families intermarried several times over several generations. Other names on the list who married one or more of the Wheeler family are Brooks, Gardiner, and McAtee. I found help in sorting out conflicting relationships and dates relating to these families in the articles on members of the Jenkins family in Pedigrees of Members 1905–1939, published by the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of MD, which is available by subscription on Genealogy.com. The genealogies on the Internet are from volume II of Genealogies of Members and Record of Services of Ancestors, which was edited for the society by Francis Barnum Culver (1940, reprinted by Clearfield Publishing in Baltimore in 1997).
Benjamin Wheeler (October 29, 1731–March 7, 1802), a prominent Catholic layman in the Deer Creek area, was born in Baltimore county, married Father Bennett Neale's niece, Mary, and died in Harford county. He is buried in St. Ignatius Roman Catholic Church, Hickory, Harford County. Benjamin married Mary Neale around 1750. Mary Neale was a daughter of Roswell Neale (1685–March 24, 1751) and Elizabeth Blakiston, his second wife. Roswell Neale was the son of Anthony Neale (1659–1723) and Elizabeth Roswell, his first wife, whom he married in 1681. Anthony Neale was the son of James Neale (c. 1615–1684) and Anne Gill. Mary Neale was born in 1734 in Maryland and died in about 1756 in Harford county. (World Family Tree Volume 15, Tree 3465 says Benjamin Wheeler married Mary Neale in 1755, and Elizabeth Green in Harford county on February 4, 1793. Mrs. Elizabeth Wheeler, consort of Benjamin Wheeler, died in Harford county in February, 1802.) This Benjamin Wheeler was the son of Thomas Wheeler (May 19, 1708–1770) and his first wife, Sarah Scott, and grandson of the Benjamin Wheeler who was born in 1685 (or 1686) and died on .October 13, 1741, and who married Elizabeth. (For more of the ancestry of Mary Neale, see: Genealogy of Charles Sylvester Grindall, Society of Colonial Wars in the State of MD, Pedigrees of Members 1905–1939, page 85.)
Thomas Shea's will was admitted to probate on March 27, 1767. He was survived by his wife, Ann. The will was dated October 8, 1754, but the witnesses said this was a mistake; the true date of signature was October 8, 1764—the same day Thomas Shea deeded the property on Deer Creek to Father Bennett Neale that he previously had deeded to John Digges, Jr., in 1743. Witnesses to the will included Ignatius Wheeler and Edward Flanagan (transcribed as Flanganan).
The acquisition of land by "Popish Priests" and the construction thereon of "Mass Houses" did not go unnoticed by the General Assembly of Maryland. On June 17, 1752, a Report by the Committee of Grievances and Courts of Justice to the Maryland General Assembly included this paragraph:
"2dly. That Popish Priests, or Jesuits, take Grants of Lands from the Lord Proprietary, as well as Deeds from others, in their own Names; whereon they build and erect public Mass Houses, Plantations, and Edifices, for the public Exercise of their Functions; of which Mass Houses, Seminaries, or Sects of Jesuits (exclusive of many Chapels and Mass Houses in private Families), there are six or more seated, besides Tracts of Land held in their Right, ready to be so seated for the Purposes aforesaid, and pervert many of his Majesty's Subjects." (Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly, 1752-1754, volume 50, page 52)
Father Bennett Neale and others in the Deer Creek area of what was to become Harford county were investigated by the Council of Maryland for being sympathetic with the French in the French-Indian War. See the proceedings beginning on November 13, 1756. (Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 1753-1761, volume 31, page 161.) On October 26, 1756, William Johnston, whose true name he later admitted to be William Marshall, had testified:
"[I] left Delaware about three years ago, and came to a place called Deer Creek in Baltimore County in the Province of Maryland where he was for sometime employed in the Service of Thomas Burgen, Darby Tool, and James McDonald, during which time he was several times to Mass, at one priest Neals Mass House, and while in that Society it was insinuated to the Congregation by the said Neale that it would be much better for them to live under the Dominion of a French Government than under an English one, that they would thereby get their Lands on easier Terms, and might have and enjoy the free Exercise of their Religion and recommended it to them that it would be proper for them to prepare themselves with Arms and Ammunition, and be in readiness to join any party of French and Indians that might come down to invade, or make an Attack upon his Britannic Majesty's Subjects which was generally agreed on by the whole Congregation ...
"[I] was employed by one James McDonald an Irish Catholic in Baltimore County with whom he worked for hire about a Month at Plantation Business, and that he also boarded with him during that time that while he lived with him McDonald carried him to a Romish Chappie near Deer Creek where one Priest Neale officiated, and that as they were returning McDonald told him that he had heard at Chappie, that the Legislature was about to make a Law to disarm the Catholics, prevent their going to Mass, and to lay them under many severe Restraints as the Catholics were in Ireland, that priest Neale afterwards came to McDonalds while the Informant worked there to christen his Child Susannah and that he happening to come in from the field for some Drink just after the Ceremony was bid to sit down by McDonald the Priest Thomas Burgen and Darby Tool being also in the Room, that while this Informant sat there, the priest told the rest of the Company that a Body of French had he heard attacked and defeated Colonel Washington at a place called the Little Meadows between Virginia and the Ohio, and that after killing a great many of the English they had been merciful and generous enough to let the rest retire & carry off their wounded though they could easily have cut them all off without any Loss on their Side, that the priest thence took Occasion to enlarge much on the Power, Riches, Valour and Generosity of the French Nation and said that he believed if the English had been victorious, the French would not have been treated with such Lenity and Tenderness; that McDonald and Tool said they believed it would be better for the Roman Catholics of this province if it was subjected to the French Government, and asked Mr Neale what he thought of that Matter, that the priest answered he did not know but it might, and said that he thought any young people who had no Plantations or families, would do well in going to the Settlements that the French were making to the Westward, and that he was persuaded they would be kindly received and well treated, the Informant saith that this Discourse made such an Impression"
Marshall's testimony implicated several other members of Father Neale's congregation in Deer Creek Upper, and resulted in a warrant to bring in Bennett Neale, Ignatius Wheeler, John Cretin (Crayton), and others: Thomas Burgen, Darby Tool, James McDonald, and Ulick Burk. Darby Tool and James McDonald were shoemakers who worked for Samuel Webb. Another person identified was Thomas Skey:
"As I was returning home from Chappie the second time with McDonald he told me that he had heard Ignatius Wheeler and Thomas Skey say it would be necessary to provide Arms to assist the French if they should come down, but I never did hear either Wheeler or Skey say a Syllable to that purpose ... " (Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 1753–1761, Volume 31, page 166).
"Priest Neale did once at McDonalds say that one Digges and Skey had Arms and Ammunition by them and that they would be of Service to assist the French to subdue the Country ..." (Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 1753–1761, Volume 31, page 167).
Thomas Skey was Thomas Shea who had donated (actually, "sold" for the nominal amount of five shillings) the land on which the chapel was built to Father Neale's predecessor, Father John Digges, Jr., on March 14, 1743. The confusion of Skey for Shea may have kept Thomas Shea from being summoned before the Council. See: Priest Neale, His Mass House, and His Successors, by John W. McGrain, Jr., the Maryland Historical Magazine (Baltimore Historical Society 1967), volume LXII, page 254.
Marshall also testified that, while in the Deer Creek area, he had worked ten or twelve days for Joseph Renshaw, a protestant—a younger brother of the John Renshaw mentioned above from whose estate Miles McGough had received a payment on August 18, 1753. Renshaw was not implicated in the conspiracy.
The persons implicated as pro-French conspirators by William Marshall (while identifying himself as William Johnson) were examined by the Council on Monday, November 29, 1756. John Cretin denied the substance of the charges when questioned under oath:
"John Cretin of Baltimore County Planter, being sworn on the holy Evangels of Almighty God deposeth and saith that he has lived at Deer Creek in Baltimore County within four miles of Mr Ignatius Wheelers ever since the year 1752; that he is a Roman Catholick, and has gone to the Mass House where Bennet Neale officiated, that the said Neale lives upon a plantation that was given by one Thomas Shea, that he has three, or four Negroes, as he believes working upon it, and that Mr Neale has resided 6 or 7 years there. ..."
Cretin denied any conspiracy to aid the French. Other witnesses supported this testimony. Evidence showed that James McDonald (who, according to Marshall, might have been named Donelson, and was a fuller), a Protestant and a shoemaker who worked for Samuel Webb, had been confused with James Donnally, a Catholic, and a fuller who was a journeyman at Walter Ashmore's fulling mill. (Mary Cavanagh made payments to Walter Ashmore and his son, William Ashmore, on December 8, 1752, from the estate of John Renshaw. On July 19, 1756, William Ashmore, son of Walter Ashmore and his wife Margaret, was married to Susannah O'Neal, widow of Daniel O'Neal (St. George's Parish Registers, 1689–1793, page 84). William Ashmore was a signer and solicitor in the Deer Creek Upper Hundred of the Maryland Article of Association of Freemen in 1775 and 1776. William Crooks, father-in-law of Hugh McGough, had, before his death in 1778, agreed to sell 25 acres of land to William Ashmore. Ashmore was one of the appraisers of the estate of William Crooks in 1779. See: Hugh McGough, Soldier in the American Revolution.)
William Marshall then recanted his testimony (The Recantation and Confession of William Marshall also Johnson, made before his Excellency and the Council the 29th November 1756. Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 1753-1761, volume 31, page 174). The proceedings resulted in this finding:
"Upon hearing the aforegoing Depositions, and the Recantation of William Marshall, it is the Opinion and Advice of this Board to his Excellency that the before mentioned Bennett Neale, Ignatius Wheeler, Ulick Burk, John Cretin, Thomas Burgen, Darby Tool, and James McDonald be discharged, and being called in they were discharged accordingly." (Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 1753-1761, volume 31, page 179)
Darby Tool had once been a runaway indentured servant. John Cretin's testimony before the Council of Maryland was that "Darby Tool is a Shoemaker and works at his Trade for Samuel Webb, that he has a wooden Leg and that the Shoemakers Business is his chief Employment." Tool himself testified on November 30, 1856, that he:
"works at the Shoemakers Business at Mr Samuel Webb's Shop that he rents a small plantation where his Wife lives three or four Miles distant from Webb's, that he has no Family but his Wife, has worked for Mr Webb thirteen years last September at the Shoemakers Business, and that upon the Plantation he rents, he makes no other Grain than Corn ..." (Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 1753-1761, Volume 31, page 171.)
Here is a notice from the Virginia Gazette (Parks), Williamsburg (from March 31 to April 7, 1738)—about five years before Darby Toole went to work for Samuel Webb:
"RAN away from the Subscriber, in Edgcomb Precinct, North-Carolina, on the 26th Day of December last, a Servant Man, named Darby Tool: He is a Shoemaker by Trade, hath but one Leg, and is an Irishman. Whoever will bring the said Servant to me in Edgcomb Precinct, or secure him, so that I may have him again, shall have Four Pistoles Reward, besides what the Law allows, paid by me,
"William Whitehead.
"N.B. He is suspected to be gone to Cherry Point, on Potowmack; and had in Company with him, one Mary Cullen, an Irish Woman, whom he calls his Wife."
From: Virginia Runaways: Runaway Slave advertisements from 18th-century Virginia newspapers.
Patrick Cavanagh conducted a school for Catholic children in the Deer Creek Upper Hundred from sometime before 1753, and during the years when some of the children of Miles McGough and Elizabeth Spencer were in school. He may taught Hugh McGough, who appears to have received a good education, and who left more than a dozen books in his estate when he died in 1779, which was unusual even for a literate person in those years. See my page: Hugh McGough, Soldier in the American Revolution.
In 1753, Miles McGough received a payment from the estate of John Renshaw, of which Patrick Cavanagh's wife was executrix. Patrick Cavanagh was the subject of a statement to the Maryland Assembly in 1757 by Samuel Webb, a leading Anglican, concerning his conduct of an illegal school for Catholic children near the head of Deer Creek. The statement illuminates the anti-popery laws in effect in Maryland at the time. Cavanagh was described in Webb's deposition as a 'Roman Catholic schoolmaster in York County, Pennsylvania, and now in Baltimore County near the head of Deer Creek.'
A footnote in the History of Baltimore City and County by J. Thomas Scharf (Reprinted in Two Parts, Regional Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1971), Part II, page 526, says that Daniel Connelly and Patrick Cavanagh after 1755 established a Catholic school near "My Lady's Manor" that was "quite successful." For more on Daniel (or Don) Connelly, see below. My Lady's Manor is about three miles east of Monkton in Baltimore county, near the line between Baltimore county and Harford county, extends toward Jarretsville in Harford county, and is 15 miles or so to the east of the Deer Creek area of Harford county where James Cavanagh was teaching in 1757. [The 1807 Baltimore directory lists a Daniel Connell, teacher, on Forest Street near North Street. This may be the Daniel Connell who married Mary Roberts in Baltimore on July 23, 1801.]
According to School Teachers of Early Maryland by Robert Barnes (MSA SC 5300), Patrick Cavanagh came to America as an indentured servant to Samuel Webb:
"Cavanagh, Patrick, (MSA SC5300-66), BA, fl. c1757
"* Property: On 23 Aug 1753 Patrick Cavanagh, schoolmaster, conveyed. livestock to William Bennett, carpenter, James Lee, and Edward Morgan, all of BA Co. (BALR TR#E).
"* Legal problems: Samuel Webb of BA Co., on 25 April 1757, deposed that Patrick Cavanagh served his Time with him in Quality of a Schoolmaster that during his time of Service he went frequently to Mass, and always professed himself a Roman Catholic, that since the expiration of his service, about two years earlier, the said Cavanagh has taught School in York County in Pennsylvania until sometime this Winter when he came into this Province, and settled near the Head of Deer Creek in Baltimore County where he now teaches School, and lately told this Deponent that he had about twenty Scholars. Webb added that he believes the said Cavanagh still professes the Roman Catholic Religion (ARMD 31:210)."
The deposition was part of this investigation:
"By the Committee of Aggrievances and Courts of Justice, 28th April, 1757.
"Your Committee beg Leave to Represent as an Aggrievance, that several Persons professing the Romish Religion, have taught School in Baltimore County, and that one doth still teach School in the said County, near the Head of Deer-Creek, as by the annexed Depositions may appear; and humbly Report it as their Opinion, that the Tollerating such Schools, in Opposition to the Statutes of our Mother-Country, must greatly tend to the Poisoning the Minds of the Youth of this Province, and Alienating their Affections from our present most happy Establishment in Church and State: But submit it to the Consideration of the Honourable House." (See: Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly, 1757–1758, volume 55, page 80.)
"On May 2, Charles Carroll, the Barrister, from the Committee on Grievances brought before the Lower House an address to be sent to the Governor, stating that Roman Catholics were conducting schools in Baltimore County, and it was believed in other counties, and requested him to apply at once 'the Statutes of our Mother Country in Force in this Province' in order to put a stop to this evil 'so productive of great Mischief to the good People of this Province' (pages 83, 84, 86-87). It is worth noting that Dr. Charles Carroll, the father of Barrister Carrol, was a convert from Catholicism to the Church of England, and that there is a Catholic breviary in the Maryland Historical Society which belonged to the Barrister's sister, Mrs. Nicholas Maccubbin" (Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly, 1757-1758, volume 55, preface 42).
On August 18, 1753, Miles Magau (i.e., Miles McGough) is listed among persons receiving payment from the estate of John Renshaw in Harford county. Other payees at the same time include Samuel Webb, Flanegan and Co., Ignatius Wheeler, and Isaac Litton. Walter Ashmore, William Ashmore, and James Donnelly received payments from the estate at an earlier time, on December 8, 1752. Executrix of the estate was Mary Cavenagh, wife of Patrick Cavenagh (Prerogative Court Abstracts, 1750-1754, Abstracts 1750-1754 (Libers 29-36), page 134, on Genealogy.com).
Sometime before December 18, 1752, Patrick Cavanagh had married Mary Renshaw, widow of and executrix of the estate of John Renshaw of Baltimore County, and had conveyed land to Samuel Webb (Maryland Genealogical Bulletin, volume 33, number 1, Winter 1992, Colonial Schoolmasters of Baltimore and Anne Arundel Counties, page 160, on Genealogy.com).
John Renshaw was the first born son of Thomas and Jane Renshaw. He married Mary Litton (or Litten) on March 27, 1735, in Baltimore county, Maryland. (His will mentions Thomas Litten and Michael Litten, and Alex Litten was a witness to the will. On August 18, 1753, the court records show payments from the estate to Isaac Litton—and Miles Magau. ) His father, in a will filed on October 13, 1748, left him 250 acres of land in Baltimore county, part of a tract known as "Brothers' Discovery" (Vol 9, 1744–1749, Calendar of Wills 1744–1749, page 172, on Genealogy.com). 25 On March 25, 1737, Isaac Webster (and his wife Mary—sometimes called Margaret), and Jacob Giles (and his wife Hannah (Webster); his second wife was Johanna (Phillips) had conveyed a 134 acre part of Brother's Discovery and part of Giles' and Webster's Discovery to Thomas Renshaw. See RENSHAW-L Archives on RootsWeb (IS# LK, 417).
John Renshaw's will was signed on November 25, 1750, and filed in court on June 8, 1751. He left a wife and six daughters, and possibly an unborn child. (Vol 10, 1748–1753, Calendar of Wills 1748–1753, page 154, on Genealogy.com). The executrix of his estate was first named as Mary Renshaw, his widow, who posted an administratrix's bond on June 5, 1751. Her bondsman was Samuel Webb, and Samuel Webb was a creditor of the estate (Prerogative Court Abstracts, 1751–1756, page 4). By December 8, 1752, when the bond was filed in the name of Mary Cavanagh (Cavanah), she had married Patrick Cavanagh (Baltimore County Families, 1659-1759, Baltimore County Families, 1659-1759, page 535, on Genealogy.com). The court record shows that, on December 8, 1752, a bond was filed covering "Patrick Cavenah & Mary his wife, Acting exrx. of John Renshaw." The sureties were Edward Wakeman and Samuel Well (Prerogative Court Abstracts, 1751-1755, (Liber 1), page 31). See: Descendants of John Renshaw.
On April 29, 1751, John Renshaw of Baltimore county conveyed 79 acres in Brother's Discovery to Samuel Webb, tanner and currier. See RENSHAW-L Archives on RootsWeb and Terry Mason's Family History Site. At the same time, Thomas Renshaw conveyed to Samuel Webb, tanner and currier, eleven acres that was part of Giles' and Webster's Discovery. "Brothers' Discovery" was a tract of land in Harford county on the Susquehanna River near the village of Castleton and near "Maiden's Mount." The land was near Dublin, Maryland:
"Dublin was part of a 4,735 acre tract of land patented to Dr. Charles Carroll of Annapolis, Maryland. He was issued a patented certificate on June 15, 1721. The tract lying north of Deer Creek was known as 'Arabia Petrea.'
"Dr. Carroll sold 'Arabia Petrea' to Jacob Giles and Isaac Webster in 1733 [deeded on March 20, 1734]. Isaac and Jacob were brothers-in-law*. Isaac and Jacob in turn sold off part to new settlers moving into the area. Two of the newcomers in Dublin were William Beaver and Walter Ashmore. Isaac and Giles sold lands east of Route 136 to Walter Ashmore and land west of Route 136 to William Beaver. William Beaver willed his land to his son Charles Beaver." Dublin History.
*The first wife of Jacob Giles Jr. was Hannah Webster whom he married on January 3, 1728 (or 1729) in Deer Creek, Maryland. His second wife was Johanna Phillips whom he married on July 17, 1739. He had four children by his first wife and seven by his second, and "became one of the richest men in Harford County." In 1731, Jacob Giles was appointed overseer of the roads from Zachariah Spencer's to the Rock Run, and from Thomas Felps's to the said Rock Run and likewise from Susquehannah Fording to the Rock Run aforesaid. 1737 Deer Creek Hundreds Tax List, Thomas Felps. Felps Family Research.
Mary Litton was born to Thomas Litton and Mary Hawkins in St. George's Parish, Baltimore county, Maryland, on April 1, 1717. She married John Renshaw on March 27, 1735, in St. George's Parish. Among her brothers were Thomas, Isaac and Michael Litton. See: Lytton Study Group—Descendants of Thomas Litton.
The name of Patrick Cavenough is next to the name of Ignatius Wheeler on the list of men who signed the Maryland Articles of Association in 1776 in Spesutia Upper Hundred in Harford county. (volume 25, number 3, Summer 1984, Men of '76, page 318, on Genealogy.com). On the same list is John Cretin, Bennett Wheeler, Joseph Wheeler, Thomas Wheeler, who is described as the son of Benjamin Wheeler. [A Patrick Cavenough was recruited in Montgomery county, Maryland, to serve in the Extra Regiment of the Continental Army in 1780 (Montgomery County, Maryland, Revolutionary Patriots Listings, page 60, on Genealogy.com). Patrick Cavenough is listed as a private who was granted 100 acres on January 8, 1794 (warrant number 11,075) in Maryland Revolutionary Records, Brief Resume of Maryland Federal Bounty Land Warrants, page 60, on Genealogy.com. Patrick Cavenough and Mary Eustice were married on June 1, 1780, in Montgomery county, Maryland, by Reverend Joseph Threlkeld (Maryland Records, Marriage Records, volume II, page 517, on Genealogy.com).]
Largely at the urging of Ignatius Wheeler, Jr., two acres at Hickory were purchased in 1779 at a nominal price from Martin Preston for the building of another chapel—in addition to the St. Joseph's Mission on Deer Creek operated by Father Bennett Wheeler. Construction on this tract of St. Ignatius Church at Hickory extended over almost fourteen years and was completed in 1793. St. Ignatius served as a mission of St. Joseph's until 1813, and by 1815 it was operating as an independent parish.
St. Ignatius Parish is in operation today. It is located less than a quarter of a mile to the west of the intersection of US Highway #1 and East Jarretsville Road in Hickory, Maryland, about 3 miles north of Bel Air. Here is the entry in Maryland State Archives—Guide to Catholic Church Records at the Archives:
"St. Ignatius Church, Hickory: This is the oldest Church building in the Archdiocese, stemming from its establishment in 1790. It served the entire county for many years. Records begin in 1818. In 1910 it became a mission of St. Margaret's in Belair, and all records for this time frame are in the parish records for St. Margaret's. In 1970, St. Ignatius became a parish once again, with its own records. M2849-M2850 "
There is an article on Ignatius Wheeler, Jr., in A Biographical dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1635–1789, by Edward C. Papenfuse, et al. (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979), volume II, pages 881–2, that is worth quoting in full:
"WHEELER, IGNATIUS, JR. (ca. 1744–1793). BORN: ca. 1744, in Baltimore County; eldest son. NATIVE: fifth generation. resided: in Deer Creek Hundred, Harford (formerly part of Baltimore) County, on his plantation, which was later known as 'Deer Park.'
"FAMILY BACKGROUND. FATHER: Ignatius Wheeler (?–1786). Esq., of Harford County, son of Benjamin Wheeler (? – 1741), who moved to Baltimore County from Charles County ca. 1715. MOTHER: Elizabeth Rosier (Rozer), possibly the daughter of Notley Rozer (?–1727) of Prince George's County and wife Elizabeth Whetenhall Rozer ( ?–1733). BROTHERS: Bennett; Joseph (?–ca. 1803), who married Ann. SISTERS: Monica; Mary, who married John Lee Gibson; and Elizabeth, who married (first name unknown) Mitchell.
"MARRIED by September 9, 1769, Henrietta Maria, widow of Roger Smith (?–1768) of Charles County, daughter of Henry Neale (ca. 1691–ca. 1742/43) of Charles County and wife Mary Gardiner (?–1765). Henrietta Maria was the stepdaughter of John Lancaster (?–1760). She was the great-granddaughter of James Neale (1615–1684); Luke Gardiner (1622–1674); and William Boreman (ca. 1630–1709). Her brothers were Richard (?–1772); Henry; James (?–1772); and Gerard. Her sisters were Sarah, who married Richard Brooke; Mary, who married Richard Gardiner; and Teresa, who married Raphael Lancaster.
"CHILDREN. SONS: Francis Ignatius (1782–1836), who married Mary Ann McAtee; Bennett (1784–1866), who married Frances; and Ignatius (1791–1866). DAUGHTERS:Monica (1773–1807), who married Jacob Rutledge; Teresa (Treacy) (1774–1815), who married in 1799 Capt. Henry McAtee (1768–1852); Henrietta, who was mentally incompetent; Mary Ann (?–1812), who married Samuel Brown after her sister Mary Ann's death.
"PRIVATE CAREER. EDUCATION: Literate. RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION: Roman Catholic; substantial contributor to the building of St. Ignatius Church in Hickory, Harford County. SOCIAL STATUS AND ACTIVITIES: Esq., by 1780. OCCUPATIONAL PROFILE: planter.
"PUBLIC CAREER. LEGISLATIVE SERVICE: 5th Convention, Harford County, 1775; Lower House, Harford County, 1782–1783, 1783, 1784, 1785, 1786–1787, 1787–1788. LOCAL OFFICES: commissioner under the act to procure flour and provisions for the army, Harford County, December 1799–at least 1780; contractor to procure horses for the army, Harford County, 1780, 1781; justice, Harford County, 1784–1789; 1791–1793; commissioner of the tax, Harford County, commissioned December 1792. MILITARY SERVICE: 1sr Lieutenant, Captain Webb's Company of Militia, Harford County, enrolled October 14, 1775; commissioner April 26.1776; colonel, Deer Creek Battalion, Harford County Militia, commissioner April 9, 1778; resigned by June 29, 1780.
"WEALTH DURING LIFETIME: PERSONAL PROPERTY. ASSESSED VALUE £1,499.18.4, including 33 slaves and 16 oz. plate, 1783; 44 slaves, 1790. LAND AT FIRST ELECTION: at least 678 acres in Harford and Charles counties (378 acres in Harford County and 300 acres in Charles County by Personal acquisition), plus his wife's life estate in two tracts in Charles County, at least 160 acres in Harford County leased from the proprietor, and possibly control over some of his father's land north of Deer Creek, Harford County. SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN LAND BETWEEN FIRST ELECTION AND DEATH: sold the 160 acres of leased land in Harford county in 1777, the 300 acres of Charles County land in 1779, and 100 acres in Harford County in 1780; purchased probably 200 acres in Harford County, 1780–1783); with Henrietta sold her interest in two tracts near Port Tobacco, Charles County, 1781; paid taxes on 827 acres of his father's land north of Deer Creek, Harford County, by 1783; bought leases on certificates of survey to confiscated proprietary reserve lands in Harford County totaling ca. 916 acres, 1785–1789, and patented an 1,160-acre tract of reserve land (probably including these purchases), 1788; inherited his father's land north of Deer Creek (of which he was already possessed) and ca. 2 acres of additional land in Harford County, 1786; sold 57 acres in Harford County, 1787; purchased 319 acres, which with other land in Deer Creek Hundred was resurveyed in 1786 into a 1,717-acre tract called 'Dear Park,' for a net gain of ca. 45 acres.
"WEALTH AT DEATH: DIED: on July 15, 1793, at 'Deer Park,' Harford County; buried at St. Ignatius Church, Hickory, Harford County. PERSONAL PROPERTY: TEV, £6,953.1.10 current money (including 47 slaves, plate valued at £9.12.0, books, and a saw mill; FB, £730.18.0 current money. The estate had separate debts of £1,344.0.0 and desparate debts of £3, 806.0.0. LAND: at least 3,020 acres in Harford County."
Ignatius Wheeler (senior), was as a son of Benjamin and Elizabeth Wheeler, married Elizabeth Rosier (Rozer)*. Their son, Ignatius Wheeler, Jr. (1748–October 19, 1776), by September 9, 1769, married Henrietta Maria Neale (c. 1748–May 18, 1807), widow of Roger Smith of Charles county who died in 1768, and daughter of Henry Neale (c. 1691–c. 1742/3) and Mary Slye (or Mary Gardiner?) of Charles county. A website called St. Mary's Families shows the emigration of Henrietta Neale, daughter of Henry Neale and Mary Slye, and wife of Ignatius Wheeler, from Charles county to Harford county, sometime after 1768. (She cites: Charles County, Maryland, My Colonial Relations Plus Others, by Mary Louise Donnelly, P.O. Box 97, Ennis, Texas, 75120, c 2000.) Ignatius Wheeler, Jr., was a large landowner in Harford county, served several terms in the Maryland legislature, and was a substantial contributor to the building of St. Ignatius' Catholic church in Hickory, Harford county, where he was buried on July 15, 1793. Probate of his estate was filed in Charles county on December 19, 1794.
*Elizabeth Rosier Wheeler was a cousin of Richard Bennett whose will was admitted to probate in Queen Anne's county, Maryland, on October 20, 1749. Bennett made this bequest: "To my cousin Elizabeth Wheeler, wife of Ignatius Wheeler of Baltimore Co., land called 'Yorkshire,' reserved in my name for 675 A., in Cecil county, on Susquehanna River; land whereon I dwell called 'Morgan's Neck' and land near Wading Place, Bluff Point.", Other cousins mentioned in the will included William Neale and William Diggs.
Benjamin Wheeler (senior) (1685–October 13, 1741) was a grandson of John Wheeler (1630–1694) who was a major in the Charles county militia before 1681), and his wife Mary. John Wheeler remained loyal to Lord Baltimore in the revolution of 1689 and was deprived of all his appointments by the revolutionists. John Wheeler was one of the commissioners of Charles county in 1685 and 1687. Benjamin's father was Thomas Wheeler (March 18, 1661–c. 1736). Benjamin was in Prince George county on January 24, 1714, when he purchased Pearson's Range from Simon Pearson. [On January 24, 1714, Simon Pierson of Baltimore county, a weaver, conveyed 230 acres known as Pierson's Range to Benjamin Wheeler of Prince George's county (volume 30, number 2, Spring 1989, Baltimore County Land Records 1700–1715, page 156, on Genealogy.com.)] Benjamin married Elizabeth. Their children were Jane (Butterworth) (born in 1705), Thomas (born 1708), Mary (born 1710), Ignatius (born 1714), Charity (Colegate) (born 1718), Elizabeth (Thomas) (born c. 1720), Leonard (born 1722), and Ann (born 1725). Benjamin (senior) died on October 12, 1741. His wife Elizabeth died on June 21, 1742.
Here is information about the family of Benjamin Wheeler (senior) from Time after Time—History of Harford and Baltimore Counties (as quoted on the Colgate Family Page) :
"The plat on the last page is the outline of 'The Three Sisters' 1000 acres originally 'taken up' by Benjamin Wheeler, a Roman Catholic born in Charles Co., MD about 1685, son of John Wheeler. In 1704 at the ripe old age of 19 he married Elizabeth __?__. They lived in Charles Co. for 7 years then moved to Prince George's Co., MD. In 1716 at age 31 he patented 1000 Acres of Northeast Baltimore Co., MD and named it 'Wheeler's and Clark's Contrivance'. In 1718, he took his wife and 5 children and moved from 'crowded' Prince George's Co. to this property in the wilderness. And 'wilderness' it was—Indians, forts, miles and miles of forested hills and valleys, and a few neighbors.
"During his lifetime he patented over 4000 acres in what would eventually become Harford Co. with the names; 'Wheeler's and Clark's Contrivance', 'The Three Sisters', 'Taylor's Neglect', 'Benjamin's Beginning', 'Maiden's Meadows', 'St. Omer's', and 'Green Springs'. 'The Three Sisters' was patented in 1718 about the time his third daughter (sixth child), Charity, was born— hence the name 'The Three Sisters'—you'll have to guess about the meanings behind the other tract names, I haven't researched them yet.
"The children of Benjamin and Elizabeth:
Jane, 1705-1770 m 1728 Isaac Butterworth (marriage on December 18, 1728. Isaac's will was filed for probate on February 13, 1746. By 1748, Jane had married Lawrence Clark (Baltimore County Families, 1659-1759, page 88).
Thomas, [May 19] 1708-1770 [married Sarah Scott; had daughter Charity Ann (c. 1744–October 10, 1820) who married Michael Jenkins on December 21, 1761. [On October 9, 1738, a Benjamin Wheeler was born to Thomas and Ann Wheeler (Records of St. Paul's Parish, volume I, Parish Registers, page 14). This was probably the Benjamin Wheeler who elsewhere is shown with a birth date of October 29, 1731, and who married Mary Neale, sister of father Bennett Neale.]
Mary, 1710-1789 m 1743 William Few [May 16, 1714– Moved to North Carolina before 1760. In 1750, owned 200 acres in Three Sisters (Baltimore County Families, 1659–1759, page 216).Ignatius, 1714-1786 m Elizabeth Rosier [son, Ignatius Wheeler, Jr., is born in 1748].[In 1750, Ignatius Wheeler owned a 360 acre part of Wheeler and Clark's Contrivance, and 67 1/2 acres in Pearson's Range.]
Leonard, [September 18] 1722-1747 m Ann Bond
Charity, 1718-1763 m (by September 15, 1741) in 1739 Benjamin Colegate (November 2, 1719–June 1762 - or 1768?). In his will, Benjamin Colegate appointed James Scott and William Rogers to see that his six children were "brought up in the Protestant faith." The administration of the estate was opened on October 28, 1768. (Baltimore County Families, 1659-1759, page 124).Elizabeth, 1720 (?)-1777 [Elizabeth first married David Thomas, who was born on April 8, 1708, and died in Baltimore county shortly before September 20, 1746, when Elizabeth posted an administratrix's bond in his estate. With her on the bond were Benjamin and Thomas Wheeler. "In November, 1750, the executrix of the estate, Elizabeth Wheeler Thomas, daughter of Benjamin Wheeler, married Henry Green (1726–1797), by whom she had at least six children (Baltimore County Families, 1659–1759, pages 277 and 633, on Genealogy.com). Elsewhere, it says that Elizabeth married Francis Greene II (1694–1761) who was born near Port Tobacco, Charles county.]
Ann, [April 30] 1725- ? m 1741 James Scott"
Benjamin Wheeler's son Thomas married Mary Scott, and they had a son named Benjamin (three) who was born on October 29, 1731 (or perhaps October 9, 1738). This Benjamin married Mary Neale, sister of Father Bennett Neale. He was probably the Benjamin Wheeler who had real estate transactions with Father Neale. (See the Genealogy of Benjamin Wheeler Jenkins in Society of Colonial Wars in the State of MD, Pedigrees of Members 1905–1939, page 131.) This Benjamin Wheeler and Ignatius Wheeler, Jr., were first cousins. Ignatius Wheeler, Jr., named one of his sons Bennett, probably after Father Bennett Neale, who was the brother of his cousin's wife.
[Another Benjamin Wheeler married Rebecca Miles Bevan. On November 5, 1716, Benjamin Wheeler (junior) of Prince George county sold to John Clark 1000 acres of Wheeler's and Clark's Contrivance in Baltimore county. One of the heirs named in his will was a daughter, Frances Renshaw. Baltimore County Families, 1659-1759, page 113.] On April 29, 1751, Samuel Webb purchased 7 acres in Giles' and Websters Discovery from Thomas and Frances Renshaw. Thomas Renshaw had married Frances Clark, daughter of Robert Clark, on January 29, 1739, in Baltimore county. In the estate of Thomas Renshaw, opened on June 24, 1774, was a tract in Harford county called Thomas's Desire "containing 82 acres lying between Deer Creek and Broad Creek (Calendar of Wills, Vol 15, 1772–1774, Calendar of Wills 1772–1774, page 158). The will of Robert Clark, Sr., of Deer Creek, filed on January 8, 1757, refers to his daughter, Frances Renshaw (Calendar of Wills, Vol 11, 1753–1760, Calendar of Wills 1753–1760, page 154).
The names of Benjamin Wheeler and "Ignatius Wheeler, Esq." were on the 1777 tax list of Harford county in the Spesutia Hundred, and the names of Hugh McGouch and Ignatius Wheeler were on the same list for the nearby "Deer Creek Hundred: Middle."
The Wheeler Family of Charles and Baltimore Counties is discussed in John Wheeler, 1630–1693 of Charles County and Some of His Descendants by Walter V. Ball. There were several Benjamin and Ignatius Wheelers in Harford, Charles and Prince George counties in the 18th century, and I have not been able to sort them all out. I have not yet examined the book, but it would be a good source for going further into the history of the Wheeler family. Ball's book may be the source of some confusing data on the Internet. Vivian Wheeler has prepared a notebook of corrections to Ball's book entitled The John Wheeler Family of Charles County Maryland—Correction Notes. She focuses on Ignatius Wheeler, a great grandson of John, on page 63 of Walter V. Ball's work, and on another Ignatius Wheeler, also a great grandson of John, on page 48. She discovered that the information is incorrect and documents this.
Miles McGough may have emigrated to America as an indentured servant, obligating himself to work without wages for four or five years for food, shelter and clothing, in exchange for free transportation to the colony. After fulfilling his commitment to labor, he would have become free to take up land of his own—and perhaps receive a freedom payment. This was a common arrangement under which poor Irish emigrated to Maryland in the first part of the 1700s, and many of these Irish indentured servants became landowners and respected citizens of Maryland. Here is some background:
Maryland State Archives— Indentured Servants:
"Indentured servants were persons obliged by contract to work for a stated number of years. During the early settlement of Maryland, many newcomers were indentured servants who wanted to immigrate to the colony, but could not pay for passage. Those people could agree to exchange time in service for the cost of the voyage. The servant might have accompanied his master to Maryland, or signed papers with a sea captain who then sold the contract after landing in the colony. One form of indenture obliged the master to provide transportation, food, clothing, and lodging for the servant during the term of servitude. On completion of the servant's term, the master may have promised to furnish clothing, a year's provision of corn, and the right to 50 acres of land. The usual length of service was 4 to 5 years, but in the case of a valuable skilled worker, such as a blacksmith or cooper, the time could be shortened to induce the person to sign.
"In 1717, the British Parliament adopted a policy of transportation, which banished convicts to the American colonies, usually for 7 years, and this allowed them to be bought and sold as indentured servants during their sentences. These indentured servants were subject to the master's discipline and could be sold to other masters. Neither men nor women could marry until they completed or purchased their service contracts.
"A person could be placed in servitude by the action of a county court. In 1773, for example, a Frederick County female servant was adjudged for bastardy, having a child 'begot by a Negro.' The child had been born free because that was the status of the mother. The white mother was sold for 7 years of servitude and her mulatto daughter, 11 months old, was sold as a servant to serve until age of 31 years."
Here is a comment from the Maryland State Archives website on Immigration and Naturalization—American Sources Giving Clues to Overseas Origins:
"Indentured Servants and Convicts: In Maryland there exists a considerable body of data, only now being investigated as a source for identifying a large group of colonial immigrants—indentured servants and convicts. For a long time this group was overlooked by genealogists because no one realized the importance of these humble folk as potential ancestors. At least one historian stated categorically that modern Marylanders need not worry: these "undesirables" could not possibly have been ancestors of people living today. Nevertheless, recent research has begun to refute this view and has examined convicts and indentured servants as individuals. While some of these examples have been discussed from the standpoint of Maryland records, remember that other colonies and states will have many of the same types of records."
From: "Family
Tree Bookshop" <neilkeddie@beast.toad.net>
Subject: Re: [LDR] Indentured transports- Marchant
"In answer to your questions, there were two primary methods of indenture. The majority were made before leaving England and were usually made between the individual who was to be transported over here and those acting as agents for the planters in the colonies. There was room for bargaining, so that it was not a hard and fast deal. An individual who was older and possessed some sort of skill or trade usually could bargain for a shorter period than one who was younger and lacked a skill. The contract would be drawn up, and the transportee brought over where they served for the specified time.
"The other avenue was for those who came over here without an indenture. Where possible and in response to market conditions, some sailing masters who had room aboard ships would bring individuals who wished to come over here, paying their passage, and once over here the sailing master would make a contract with a planter for the services of the transportee thereby recouping his costs of the passage. In many cases these transportees were much younger in age and served for a longer period of time. Once the indenture was made, the planter was required by law to bring the servant before the County court to have his age judged and the time of his servitude set—thereby insuring that the indenture or 'contract' was on the up and up and that both parties were protected.
"The average indenture was for about 7 years, but for those who came over at a younger age or lacked a skill, the indenture could be of longer duration. Time could be added to the indenture for a variety of reasons. If a servant ran away from his master, then for each day he/she was gone 10 days would be added to his time of servitude. Women who became pregnant during their time of servitude were required to make up the lost time during their pregnancy and after the child's birth (there was no family leave in those days).
"The best sources for tracking down someone who served as a servant on this side of the Atlantic are the county court records—for those who came in without indentures—and through the late 1600s, the Certificates and rights which was part of the headright system which gave the planter who transported an individual or groups of individuals 50 acres per head. The problem with the latter, and particularly in Virginia, was there was much fraud in which people were reported being transported over here more than once.
"On the other side of the Atlantic, the best source appears to be two lists—one being the London List, which is only a partial list of those who set sail for the colonies with indentures already signed and a much more complete list from Bristol which was throughout the period the major port from which many of the indentured servants left.
"There are two books that are excellent in their look at early Chesapeake history and contain a good treatment of servants and servitude—one being 'Colonial Chesapeake Society' and the other being 'Adapting to a New World' (both of which we stock)."
Here is a quotation from the valuable website: Immigrant Servants Database, a project that intends to identify all indentured servants who emigrated to America from 1607 through 1820.:
"Historians estimate that more than 75% of the colonists who settled south of New England financed their voyages to the new worlds as indentured servants, convict servants, and redemptioners."
Samuel Webb of Deer Creek Upper Hundred bought and sold contracts covering indentured servants, and Miles McGough may have served from 1748 to 1752, or thereabouts, as an indentured servant to Samuel Webb. The names of Samuel Webb and Miles McGough, and Miles' son Hugh McGough, are often connected in records of the Deer Creek area of Baltimore county, beginning in 1752, and after 1773, in the records of Harford county. For many examples, go to my page: Hugh McGough, a Soldier in the American Revolution, and search for Samuel Webb.
Samuel Webb was probably born in England in 1704. He married Elizabeth Jane Weire (shown as Wyre in the marriage record) at Christ Church in Philadelphia on October 21, 1731. Jane was the daughter of George and Elizabeth Weire. Samuel was living in Baltimore county by 1741 where, beginning in 1743, he purchased several large parcels of land. He had established a tannery business by 1742, when Darby Toole went to work for him. (See my page: Hugh McGough, Soldier in the American Revolution.) Samuel was the father of several children, including sons Samuel and William (who was born about 1732 in what was to become Harford county). The senior Samuel Webb died in Harford county in early 1788. His will was signed on December 2, 1787, and proved in Harford county on March 4, 1788. (Will Book R, page 205). For more on this family, see: Terry Mason's Family History Site and WEBB-L Archives on RootsWeb.com.
Philip K. Webb of Detroit, Michigan, who describes Samuel Webb as "my 4th great grandfather," was kind enough to send me a copy of page 259 of Streett Cousins compiled and edited by Anita R. Street in 2002, a book about families with marriage connections to descendants of Thomas Streett of Baltimore and Harford Counties, Maryland. This book identifies the Samuel Webb described in the previous paragraph as a Samuel Webb who was born on October 1, 1724, in Cowlinge, Suffolk, England. 1724 is an impossible year of birth, since the Samuel Webb in whom we are interested married Elizabeth Wiere in Harford county in 1731, became the father of William Webb in about 1732, and was well established in the tannery business in Harford county no later than 1742. Philip K. Webb has determined from Cowlinge parish records (Suffolk, England) that a Samuel Webb was christened there on October 1, 1724 and that he was the son of William Webb (born in 1689 in Cowlinge, Suffolk) and Alice Medcalfe (born about 1693 in Great Bradley, Suffolk) who were married on August 26, 1714, in Great Bradley, Suffolk. Obviously, this William Webb and this Alice Medcalfe were not the parents of a Samuel Webb who was born in 1704, the birth year usually assigned to the Samuel Webb who died in Harford county in 1788. Philip K. Webb is exploring further the connection between persons who appear to be two different Samuel Webbs.
Patrick Cavanagh, discussed above, came to America as an indentured servant and spent his time of service under Samuel Webb, from about 1750 to 1755:
"The Deposition of Samuel Webb, of Baltimore County, taken the 25th April, 1757.
"This Deponent being Sworn on the Holy Evangels of Almighty God, saith, That Patrick Cavannagh served his Time with him in Quality of a School-Master; that during his Time of Service he went frequently to Mass, and always professed himself a Roman Catholic; that since the Expiration of his Service, which is about Two Years, the said Cavannagh has taught School in York County, in Pennsylvania, until some Time this Winter, when he came into this Province, and settled near the Head of Deer-Creek, in Baltimore County, where he now teaches School, and lately told this Deponent he had about Twenty Scholars; and the said Deponent further saith, that he verily believes the said Cavannagh still professes the Roman Catholic Religion; and further saith not." (Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly, 1757–1758, Volume 55, page 80).
In 1744, Samuel Webb advertised in the Pennsylvania Gazette that John Costello (also spelled Castelo, Casteloe, and Castolo in other advertisements), an indentured servant (and probably a shoemaker), had run away from him:
"Abstract from Ben Franklin's 'PA Gazette' 1744, page 450: 'Castolo, John, servant, age c. 22 - runaway from Samuel Webb, tanner, living in Baltimore Co.' (from Terry Mason's Family History Site) (Baltimore County Families, 1659–1759, page 100, on Genealogy.com).
[November 3, 1748. The Pennsylvania Gazette Philadelphia, November 3,1748. Run away from Obadiah Bonsall, of Birmingham township, Chester county, an Irish servant man, named John Costeloe, a shoemaker by trade, about 23 years of age, of middle size, is sl...]
Darby Tool had begun working as a shoemaker for Samuel Webb in September of 1742. On December 26, 1737, the same Darby Tool, an indentured servant working as a shoemaker, had run away from William Whitehead in Edgcomb precinct, North Carolina (see above).
Michael McDonald was an indentured servant of Samuel Webb who in 1756 (or possibly 1755) was drafted (or possibly was recruited) into the service of the army of George II for service in the French-Indian War. Samuel Webb made a claim for the value of McDonald's lost services. An "Alphabetical List of Baltimore County Masters, Servants and Amount of Compensation Claimed in Maryland Currency" is published at page 426 of the Maryland Historical Magazine, volume 94 (Winter 1999). Forty claimants are listed, among whom is Samuel Webb, Tanner. The compensation claimed for the servant named Michael McDonald was £9.19.6, which was paid. The list is part of an article at page 419: "To Stand in the Face of Danger for Us": The British Army and Maryland's Indentured Servants, 1755–1760. The payment was made (out of funds of the province of Maryland) under a requirement of an act of Parliament: "An act for the better recruiting his majesty's forces on the continent of America, and for the better regulation of the army, and preventing desertion there" (30 George 2.--A. D. 1757).
When William Crabtree of Deer Creek signed his will in 1747, he bequeathed to a son "one servant man that Samuel Webb owes me." William Crabtree himself had come to America in 1703 and had been an indentured servant in England from 1698 to 1703. He died at the age of 74 on September 10, 1756. The will of William Crabtree was admitted to probate on October 9, 1756, and said in part:
"I likewise give and bequeath unto my loving wife Jane Crabtree one Irish serving lad called Alexander Anderson, during her widowhood then to go to my son William Crabtree, 2nd, I give and bequeath to my son, Thomas Crabtree, one servant man that Samuel Webb owes me, to him and his heirs and assigns."
William Crabtree was born March 6, 1682 in Broughton, Yorkshire, England. At age 21, he married Jane Halstead, who was 15 years old, on May 3, 1703, in Broughton, Yorkshire, England. Here are notes from Our Crabtree Line—English on the Ratliff—Smith Genealogy website:
"William Crabtree came to America in 1703. William was bonded to James Hogg from 1698-1703 as a Husbandman. Jane Halstead was bonded to James Hogg from 1698-1703 also. According to family tradition William Crabtree brought his wife Jane, and infant son to America and they settled along Deer Creek, which flows into the Susquehanna River near Port Deposit. The Crabtree's were members of the Church of England and attended the Anglican church in Old Joppa Towne, Maryland. The Crabtree family grew and prospered in the New World. William increased his land holdings and was even able to purchase the services of an Irish indentured servant name Alexander Anderson. William had a second servant as referred to in his will plus a Negro who may have been an indentured servant or possibly a slave. On October 12, 1716, William received a grant of land 'Patent FF #7' of l00 acres in Baltimore County, Maryland. This tract of land called 'Labour' lay in Baltimore County in Wood Forest. The deed states 'beginning at a bounded white oak Standing in a bottom branch of Deer Creek....' His will dated Nov. 4, 1757 [1747?], filed January 5, 1758 [October 9,1756?], named his wife Jane, and Children, William, Thomas, John, James, Samuel. Executor James Billingsley son in law. ...
"Several years later on April 1725, he had l00 acres surveyed which he had purchased from Thomas Bond on the south side of Deer Creek. This land was located on a ridge between Winters Run and Deer Creek beginning at three chestnuts being the bounds of Abraham Whitacres land. ...
"William was a farmer who probably lived near Leeds in Yorkshire County, England. He received a grant of several hundred acres in Baltimore County, Maryland, no doubt to encourage him to migrate to America and settle on the lands of Lord Baltimore. William and Jane sailed from England in 1705 with their one year old son, William Jr., and settled in a plantation where Stout Bottle Creek flows into Deer Creek in Baltimore County, Maryland (now Harford County). Deer Creek, in turn, flows into the Susquehanna near Port Deposit. The Crabtrees were members of the Anglican church in Old Joppa Towne, Maryland.
"William increased his land holdings and was even able to purchase the services of an Irish indentured servant named Alexander Anderson. He also had a second servant referred to in his will plus a Negro who may have been indentured or, possibly, a slave. A descendant, Royale Crabtree, visited the site of William's home, however, nothing remained but a small building. Royale also examined the grants held by William from Charles II, King of England. In this neighborhood also lived the Italian family of Poteet, the Pyke and Throckmorton families, and the plantation of the former Count Louis Dumas, called, 'Frenchman's Repose', who had fled from France to Holland. His son, Louis, came to America and was married to Catherine. Their daughter, Catherine, married William's son, James Crabtree.
"William I died September 10, 1756 (age 74) in Baltimore County, Maryland, and Jane died there on March 17, 1759 (age 71)."
Here is an entry from School Teachers of Early Maryland by Robert Barnes (MSA SC 5300):
"Connolly, Don, (MSA SC5300-81), taught school in BA Co. c1756.
* Financial problems: In April 1756, Archibald Standiford, deposed that Don Connolly kept a School the last year in the said County near my Lady’s Manor, and that the said Connolly warranted two or three Persons for schooling their Children, and at the time of trying one of the Warrants against William Crabtree before Justice Boyce, he, this Deponent, heard the said Don Connolly then say that the said Crabtree would not pay him because he the said Connolly was a Papist upon which the said Justice said he would not be concerned with it but desired them to leave the same to be decided by two of their Neighbours and further saith not. (ARMD 31:209)."
See also: volume 33, number 1, Winter 1992, Colonial Schoolmasters of Baltimore and Anne Arundel Counties, page 162, on Genealogy.com.
According to a footnote in the History of Baltimore City and County by J. Thomas Scharf (Reprinted in Two Parts, Regional Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1971), Part II, page 526, Daniel Connelly and Patrick Cavanagh, in about 1756, established a Catholic school near "My Lady's Manor" that was "quite successful." For more on Patrick Cavanagh, see above.
Miles McGough was born in Ireland about 1730. Sometime before 1758 in Maryland, he married Elizabeth Spencer, who was born in Maryland on May 16, 1730. Miles died in Deer Creek Upper Hundred, Harford county, Maryland, in about 1784.
An inquiry printed in the Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin, volume 19, number 1, Winter 1978, Queries and Answers, page 71, says that a Miles McGough landed in Baltimore in 1640 [must be 1740], and died in Harford county, Maryland, in 1784, according to volume 33, number 4, Fall 1992, The Family Exchange, page 810; volume 34, number 4, Fall 1993, The Family Exchange, page 474, and volume 35, number 4, Fall 1994, The Family Exchange, page 585, in the Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin, available on Genealogy.com.
On April 25, 1752, Miles McGeagh leased 75 acres of land in Baltimore county from the Lord Proprietor of the Province of Maryland, acting through his agent Benjamin Tasker. Miles' name appears throughout the text of the indenture as Miles McDear (a name that appears nowhere in Maryland), but he signed the lease as Miles Mc geagh. The leased land was called "Miles Adventure" and "lies on the North Side of Deer Creek." The term of the lease is 99 years. The annual rent was seven shillings six pence sterling. The beginning point of the description of the land, which is at the western extremity of the property, is "a bounded Chestnut Tree near near Zachariah Spencer's Beginning Tree."
On March 6, 1760, Miles "McGaugh" leased for 99 years about 33 acres of land called "The Valley" in the part of Baltimore county that later became Harford county. The beginning point of the description of this land was on the north side of the main branch of Broad Creek, near property owned by Zachariah Spencer, and was described as follows:
"Tract or parcel of Land called The Valley being part of the Lands reserved in the said County of Baltimore, for his said Lordships use; Beginning at 3 bounded White Oaks growing out of one Root standing on the North side of the Main Branch of Broad Creek and running thence N 19 degrees, E 24 perches, S (should this by N?) 80 degrees, W 32 perches, S 50 degrees, W 34 perches, N 70 degrees, W 26 perches, S 58 degrees, W 44 perches, S 50 degrees, W 34 perches, S 58 degrees, W 32 perches, S 33 degrees, E 28 perches, and thence by a straight line to the beginning, containing and laid out for 33 acres."
The land included a stretch of Broad Creek, and most of this land was south of Broad Creek, lying close to—but not contiguous with—Miles Adventure. Travelers Rest, purchased by John McGough, included the land between The Valley and Miles Adventure.
The annual rent was six shillings, seven pence, sterling.
On September 16, 1782, the same property that Miles McGaugh had leased on March 6, 1760, The Valley, now described as about 43 (instead of 33) acres of confiscated British property in Harford county (HA confiscated proprietary reserve lands), was assigned by Mordecai Amos and James Deever to Miles McGough for the balance of the same 99 year term as the original lease. Maryland Indexes (Maryland State Papers, Index) 1775-1897. MSA S1484. Maryland State Papers (Confiscated British Property Papers) 1775-1897. MSA SSI 999-18-1052 MdHR 19990-17-05/178 Location: 1/7/3/21. See also: The Era of the American Revolution, 1775–1789 by Edward C. Papenfuse, Gregory A. Stiverson, and Mary D. Donaldson (Archives Division, Hall of Records Commission, Department of General Services, Annapolis, Maryland, 1977), page 550.
In 1783, Maryland tax records for the Deer Creek Upper Hundred show: Names of person: Miles McGaugh; name and acreage of land, Miles' Adventure, 75 acres; The Valley, 33 acres; quality of land: "sorry"; value of acre: 7/6; value of land 40.10; houses, 5; B. Cattle, 10; value, 40; other property, 6; total, 86.10; assessment, 1.1.7; number of white, 6. Harford County 1783 Maryland Tax List (From the Collection of The Maryland Historical Society—Rhistoric Publications 1970), page 102. Miles sons are listed in the same document as John McGaw, single, and Miles McGaw, securities.(page 106).
In 1752, John Cretin (Creighton, Crayton, Craton, Cratin) purchased 250 acres at Deer Creek from Thomas and Ann Shea. The acreage was called Uncle's Good Will. His first wife, by whom he had three children, was Martha Lynch, daughter of Patrick Lynch and Martha Bowen. (He later married an Elizabeth.) John Cretin died before March 22, 1784 when his will was probated in Harford County. His will was dated November 10, 1783. He left the dwelling plantation to his son John. He also bequeathed "to my son Patrick a young white mare three years old next Spring and one cow, [and] to Miles McGough all my old Cloaths." This has sometimes been mistakenly read as leaving a cow to Miles McGough. See Chapter 4, The First Generation, of The Cretin Family. John Cretin was one of several Catholics summoned to testify before the Council of Maryland in November of 1756 regarding their alleged sympathy with the French in the French-Indian War (see above).
On April 19, 1788, in a document referring to the death of Miles McGeaugh and his will dated May 25, 1784, Elizabeth MaGeaugh, of Harford county, Maryland, widow, and her four sons, John MaGeaugh, James MaGeaugh, Miles MaGeaugh and Thomas MaGeaugh, in consideration of 21 pounds, ten shillings, and six pence, conveyed part of this same property to Hugh Whiteford, with about 7 3/4 acres reserved for the use of Elizabeth and her sons. The document apparently was signed on October 7, 1788. Elizabeth affixing her mark: "X." John, James, Miles, and Thomas all affixed a full signature. [Hugh Whiteford and Hugh McGough were on the same list of persons in Deer Creek Upper Hundred who signed the Articles of Association in 1776.]
Hugh Whiteford, Sr., executed his will in Harford township, York county, Maryland, on June 21, 1786, and probate of his estate was opened on May 27, 1787. He left his wife, Ann Whiteford, and children: John, Anna, Mary and Hugh. [York County, Pennsylvania Wills, 1749–1819 Record on Ancestry.com]
Hugh Whiteford, Jr., may have married Elizabeth Spencer McGough's niece. Elizabeth's sister, Rachel Spencer, married Isaac (or Jesse) Kent—after her first husband, Nathaniel Brindley, had died. Their daughter, Rachel Kent, married a Hugh Whiteford in about 1804. A pledge book in the Harford Baptist Church records lists, in 1803, "Rachel Kent, now Whiteford." (email from Steve Kent of October 17, 2005.) The 1850 census of Harford county, Maryland, lists Hugh Whiteford, age 67, farmer, born in Maryland, real estate of $1000, with his wife, "Rachill," age 66, born in Maryland, and these children, all born in Maryland: Samuel, age 30; Elizabeth, age 31; Nancy, age 26; and Ann, age 26. Immediate neighbors were John Whiteford, age 35, farmer, born in Maryland, and his family; and William Whiteford, age 29, shoemaker, born in Maryland, and his family. Living in the same district was Hugh C. Whiteford, age 43, farmer, born in Maryland, with real estate worth $7000, and his family (Hugh C. Whitford married Cassandra Silver in Harford county, Maryland, on October 27, 1834). Here are some entries from: Maryland State Archives, Maryland Archives (Assessment of 1783, Index), 1783, Harford County, MSA S 1437:
Miles McGaugh. The Valley, 33 acres. HA Deer Creek Upper Hundred, p. 102. MSA S 1161-6-6 1/4/5/49
Miles McGaugh. Miles Adventure, 75 acres. HA Deer Creek Upper Hundred, p. 102. MSA S 1161-6-6 1/4/5/49
Hugh Whiteford, Sr. Whitefords Adventure, 175 acres. HA Broad Creek Hundred, p. 85. MSA S 1161-6-1 1/4/5/49
Hugh Whiteford, Jr. Intent, 117 acres. HA Deer Creek Middle Hundred, p. 95. MSA S 1161-6-5 1/4/5/49
Hugh Whiteford, Jr. Batchelors Delight, 49 acres. HA Deer Creek Middle Hundred, p. 95. MSA S 1161-6-5 1/4/5/49
On April 24, 1799, Elizabeth Megaugh deeded her interest in Travelers Rest to her son, Thomas Megaugh, and her son-in-law, Patrick Dempsey.
Miles McGough was survived by these four sons who were named in his will: John McGough, James McGough, Miles McGough, and Thomas McGough. He was also survived by a daughter, (born about 1767), who had married Patrick William Dempsey around 1793. He was also survived by another daughter who married Bartholomew Connell. Other sons who died before him may have been Hugh McGough, Patrick McGough, and Benjamin McGough.
John McGough, the oldest son of Miles McGough and Elizabeth Spencer mentioned in the will of Miles McGough, was born in 1758. If my assumption is correct that there was an older son, Hugh McGough, born about 1756, and an older daughter (Mrs. Bartholomew Connell) born about 1754, Miles McGough and Elizabeth Spencer would probably have married around 1753. Miles and Elizabeth were both born in 1730. As mentioned above, Miles died in Harford county, Maryland, in 1784, leaving a widow Elizabeth and at least four sons and two daughters.
The first census of the United States in 1790 shows Elizabeth MGeough and her son James MGeough living near each other in Harford county, Maryland:
75 196 MGeough Eliza (roll 3, book 1, page 100). (On the same page of the census are "Mordecai Amos of M." and Hugh Whiteford, who is on the right side of the same page.) Household of 7: 5 free white males 16 and up; 2 females. [Part of the land upon which Elizabeth McGough resided was conveyed to Hugh Whiteford on April 19, 1788.]
75 185 MGeough Jm.(roll 3, book 1, page 99) (close to Eliza MGeough). Family of 7: 1 free white male 16 and up; 3 free white males to 16; 3 females. [James McGough and his family occupied part of the land upon which his mother, Elizabeth McGough, resided.]
Elizabeth Spencer was born in in Maryland on May 16, 1730, and was the daughter of Zachariah Spencer.
"Harford County (Wills) AJ #R [CR 44,758], pp. 64-65 will of Zacharias Spencer mentioning his daughter Elizabeth McGeaugh, 16 December 1783. 01/17/90. Tracking No.: 04837. PD No.: 90-01898." From Maryland State Archives (a long download).
Combining information in World Family Trees, Volume 5, Tree 3055; Volume 10, Tree 1879; and Volume 12, Tree 3740, we find that Elizabeth Spencer's father, Zachariah Spencer, was born in 1706 in Germany and died in 1783 in Harford county, Maryland. Zachariah Spencer and Christian Cobb* are shown as parents of Zachariah Spencer, a younger brother of Elizabeth's, who was born on March 13, 1731/2 in Baltimore county, Maryland; who married Ann Pogue (born on July 29, 1734, in Baltimore county, Maryland) on September 29, 1755; and who died in Gaston county, North Carolina, in 1789.
*Zachariah Spencer married Christian Coob on February 2, 1728, in Baltimore county (1 BA-255) according to Maryland Marriages, 1634-1777, page 169.
*On October 30, 1734, Zachariah Spencer married Charity Cobb, who was born on April 15, 1712, according to in World Family Tree Volume 15, Tree 2985. A Charity Spencer was born on February 19, 1744, in Baltimore county, Maryland, apparently a sister of Elizabeth Spencer McGough. Charity Spencer married Joe Robinson, and died on April 11, 1817, in Gaston county, North Carolina. According to World Family Tree, volume 74, tree 990, the marriage of Zachariah Spencer and Charity Cobb was on February 2, 1728, in Baltimore county, Maryland.
*Zachariah Spencer (Zacary Spenser) signed the Association of Freeman in 1776 in Dear Creek Upper Hundred, and the Oath of Allegiance to Maryland in 1778. Harford County, Maryland, Revolutionary Patriots Listings, page 211, on Genealogy.com. That source notes: "Source M-169 lists one marriage to Christian Coob in 1728, and [another marriage to] Ann Pogue in 1755."
In 1799 or before, part of the tract in Harford county known as Travelers Rest was surveyed for Elizabeth McGough. 12 1/2 acres of adjoining land, known as the Turkey Range, was surveyed for Elizabeth's son, James. Here are entries from Maryland State Archives. Maryland Indexes, Photoduplication Orders, 1986-1994: "SERNO: S11. LAND OFFICE (Patent Record)IC #N, p. 352 Elizabeth McGeaugh's certificate of survey for 'Traveller's rest', surveyed 29 March 1787 [MdHR 17,476, 1-23-4-32]. 10/30/92. Tracking No.: 05871. Circ. No.: 2200." "SERNO: S11. LAND OFFICE (Patent Record)IC #Q, p. 144 James McGough's certificate of survey for 'The Turkey Range', surveyed 16 November 1799 [MdHR 17,479a, 1-23-4-35]. 10/30/92. Tracking No.: 05871. Circ. No.: 2199." "SERNO: S11. LAND OFFICE (Patent Record)IC #M, pp. 662-663 Thomas McGeaugh and Patrick Dempsey: patent of 'Traveller's Rest', 13 December 1799 [MdHR 17,475, 1-23-4-31]. 10/30/92. Tracking No.: 05871. Circ. No.: 2201."
The first-born child of Miles and Elizabeth Spencer McGough may have been a daughter—whose Christian name I do not know. She may have been born in 1754, and an older sister of Hugh McGough. In 1783, her husband Bartholomew Connell was listed as the head of a family of seven. A good guess of the age of the oldest of the five children of Bartholomew Connell and his wife in 1783 is 8. This would make a good estimate of the year of marriage of Bartholomew Connell and Hugh McGough's sister as 1774. If she were 20 years old at the time of her marriage, she would have been born in 1754.
A document filed in an intra-family land dispute begun by James McGough in August of 1800 refers to "Bartholomy O'Connel who has intermarried with another daughter (i.e. other than Elizabeth) of the said Elizabeth (i.e. wife of Miles McGough)." (Answer of Patrick Dempsey, Elizabeth McGough and Thomas McGough, to the bill of complaint of James McGough. The answer was signed on March 18, 1801. See my Timeline of McGoughs in Harford County, Maryland, 1750–1810.)
The husband of the unidentified daughter was Bartholomew Connell who was listed by the 1783 census of Deer Creek Upper Hundred of Harford county as the head of a family of seven, and who is listed by the 1790 census in a family of nine in or near the Deer Creek Upper Hundred (roll 3, book 1, page 71). Before 1797, Bartholomew Connell and his family moved to Baltimore.
On January 2, 1797, James McGough signed a bond in the amount of £100 to Bartholomew Connell of Baltimore county. The note was to become void after James McGough paid £50—apparently the amount James McGough agreed to pay his brother-in-law to extinguish his unnamed sister's interest in the part of the family real estate that James and his family was occupying.
The 1800 census showed Bartholomew Connell and his family in the city of Baltimore (roll 9, book 1, page 169). He was listed as over 45, and there were 7 children living with him, but his wife had apparently died. Baltimore city directories of 1799 through 1807 show Bartholomew Connell, a school master or teacher, with his early address as 99 High Street Old Town, Baltimore, and later: "Caroline between Fleet and Wilks street." I have found no record that names his wife.
The Baltimore, Maryland Tax Records Index, 1798–1808 (available on Ancestry.com) lists Bartholomew Connell in Assessment Book 1800, page 271; 1804–1808, page 83.
In the Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin, volume 25, number 3, Summer 1984, Men of '76, page 323, on Genealogy.com, Hugh McGough is listed with fifty other men under: "Deer Creek Upper Hundred." The men were recorded as Associators by James Barnet (spelled Barnett on page 315 of the same Bulletin). (On this list was "John Wilson, Scot'n," probably the father of the Joseph Wilson who took another 1776 list of signers from Deer Creek Upper Hundred upon which were the names of John and Miles McGeaugh.) Deer Creek Upper is on the Maryland side of the Pennsylvania/Maryland border. Harford county was formed from Baltimore county in 1773. The Deer Creek Upper Hundred was the home of Miles McGough and Elizabeth Spencer, and their sons John McGough and Miles McGough (junior). In a separate list of signers in 1776 of the Maryland Articles of Association, recorded by Joseph Wilson (son of John) and Alexander Rigdon, are the names of John McGeaugh and Miles McGeaugh. The Hugh McGough on the Barnet list of signers may have been a son of Miles McGough and Elizabeth Spencer, and a brother of John and Miles McGeaugh (or McGough).
Hugh McGough died intestate in Harford county shortly before October 4, 1779, when his widow Rosanna Crooks McGough, filed a probate action. He apparently left no children. Hugh's wife was born in 1740, which indicates he may have been too old to be a son of Miles McGough (senior), and that Hugh may have been a brother or cousin. See my page: Hugh McGough, Soldier in the American Revolution.
The Harford County, Maryland, Revolutionary Patriots Listings, page 150 (also available on Genealogy.com, under "Maryland and Delaware Revolutionary Patriots, 1775–1783 Military Records"), lists John McGeaugh and Miles McGeaugh as signers of the "Association of Freeman, Deer Creek Upper (I-322)" and "Hugh McGough, Webb's [Captain William Webb*] Co. No. 16, October 14, 1775. ... Signer of Association of Freemen, 1776, Deer Creek Upper." John and Miles McGeaugh are also listed under "Deer Creek Upper Hundred" as men whose oaths were taken in 1776 by Joseph Wilson (son of John) and Alexander Rigdon, in the Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin, volume 25, number 3, Summer 1984, Men of '76, page 322 (on Genealogy.com). (James Meegaa of Harford county, Maryland, signed the Oath of Allegiance to Maryland in 1778. This may have been James McGough, son of Miles McGough (senior).) (Harford County, Maryland, Revolutionary Patriots Listings, page 158.) The McGeaughs/McGoughs in Deer Creek Upper apparently had neither slaves nor servants (although a tax return of 1798 shows James McGeaugh holding one slave). A list of slave holders in 1776 in the Deer Creek Upper Hundred prepared for the now-inactive website Christopher Fort and Allied Families lists no form of McGough.
On September 10, 16, and 1782, confiscated British property in Harford county, Maryland (HA confiscated proprietary reserve lands) was appraised in anticipation of a purchase by John Walsh and John McGough. Maryland State Papers (Scharf Collection) 1640-1914. MSA SSI 1005.
"The 1776 Constitution authorized the Governor and Council to appoint a Register of the Land Office for each shore, and took steps to protect those persons who already held titles to property. Moreover, under the Confiscation Acts of 1780 and 1781, the revolutionary government appropriated lands held formerly by the Proprietor. Confiscated lands were subsequently divided and sold. The Land Office issued patents on the resurveyed tracts." State Agency Histories at the Maryland State Archives—Land Office.
More details of these appraisals will be found in my page: Timeline of McGoughs in Harford County, Maryland, 1750–1810.
John McGough was among the twenty-eight witnesses to the Quaker marriage on May 28, 1790, of Moses Lukins, son of Benjamin and Alice Lukins, of Deer Creek Upper Hundred, to Sarah Tomkins, daughter of Benjamin and Mary Tomkins, of Fawn township, York county. Pennsylvania Quaker Records of Northern Maryland, Births, Deaths, Marriages and Abstracts from the Minutes, 1716–1800, by Henry C. Peden, Jr. (1993), page 121. [Benjamin Lukens lived near James McGough and Elizabeth McGough in the Deer Creek Hundred, and is on the same page as James McGough in the 1790 census.]
"Moses Lukins, son of Benjamin and Alice Lukins, of Deer Creek Upper Hundred, Harford County, Maryland m. Sarah Tomkins, daughter of Benjamin and Mary Tomkins, of Fawn township, York county, Pennsylvania, on 28th day of 4th month, 1790, at Fawn Township Meeting. Witnesses: ... [among 28] John McGough." Quaker Records of Northern Maryland, 1716-1800, Deer Creek Monthly Meeting Marriage Certificates, page 121, on Genealogy.com.
Could the John McGough in Livingston county/Caldwell county, Kentucky, in 1796 or shortly afterwards, be this son of Miles McGough and Elizabeth Spencer? John McGough, born on October 20, 1763, possibly in Pennsylvania, married Elizabeth Stevenson (born on April 4, 1774) on November 23, 1797; and probably died in Caldwell county, Kentucky, in 1828. (Some sources say that he died on November 19, 1816, in Gibson county, Indiana. See, for example: McGough and SalemKentuckyTyner's on RootsWeb Family Trees.) [A Robert Stevenson signed the Maryland Association of Freemen in 1776 in the Deer Creek Upper Hundred. A Thomas Stevenson signed in the nearby Deer Creek Lower Hundred. Harford County, Maryland, Revolutionary Patriots Listings, page 214, on Genealogy.com. Thomas Stevenson married Susannah Safferty in Harford county, Maryland, on June 7, 1780. William Stevenson married Hesther Parker in Harford county on April 4, 1796. An Elizabeth Stevenson was born to John and Susanna Stevenson in Baltimore county in 1778 according to the Family Data Collection—Individual Records on Ancestry.com.]
John McGough permanently left Harford county in August of 1792 or shortly thereafter. See my page: Timeline of McGoughs in Harford County, Maryland, 1750–1810. Court records in Harford county, Maryland, imply that John McGough left there sometime between 1794 and 1796 because he was being pursued by creditors.
John McGough and Elizabeth Stevenson named one of their sons Thomas Miles McGough. This lends support to the theory that John was a brother of Thomas and Miles McGough, sons of Miles McGough and Elizabeth Spencer. [A counter argument maybe made from the fact that a Miles H. McGough was born in Dallas county, Alabama, in 1826. According to Rowe's A Glimpse of the Past, at page 146–7, he was the 10th and last child, and 6th son, of James McGough and Sarah "Sally" Hollowell, daughter of Miles Hollowell. James and Sarah were married on February 16, 1812, in Christian county, Kentucky. The records of Kentucky marriages (on Genealogy.com) show the marriage of James Megough and Cally Holliwell on February 7, 1812, with Charles Kenady as a witness. Their first three children were born in Kentucky. They moved to Dallas county, Alabama, in 1821 or 1822, where their other 7 children were born. James moved his family to Union county, Arkansas before 1844. James died in October of 1846 in Union county, Arkansas. He had accumulated a fair amount of wealth, including several slaves. all of whom he left to his wife Sarah. Sarah died in 1855. Her estate records indicated that nineteen slaves she had owned were being divided among the children in 1857.]
Another son of John McGough and Elizabeth Stevenson, born in Kentucky, was Hugh McGough, giving some support to my hypothesis that the Hugh McGough of Deer Creek Upper Hundred, Harford county, Maryland, was a son of Miles McGough and Elizabeth Spencer, and a brother of John McGough who moved from Maryland to Kentucky.
Some sources say that the John McGough in Christian county, Kentucky, who married Elizabeth Stevenson, was the son of Robert McGough, Jr., and grandson of Robert McGough and Sarah Matilda Carson who came to the United States and settled in Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, in 1773. Robert McGough, Jr., was the third child and second son of Robert and Sarah Carson McGough. He was born on December 1, 1765, in county Down, Ireland. After the death of his father in 1778 in North Carolina, Robert remained on the original family property in Mecklenburg county until December 13, 1786, when he sold the McGough family's interest in the 150 acres on McAlpin's Creek. At about this time, he married Agnes "Nancy" McWhorter (who was born in Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, on June 8, 1766). Their marriage was probably in about 1785 in Mecklenburg County. They moved to Fort Augusta, Richmond county, Georgia, where their first child, John McGough, was born in 1787. They moved to Christian County Kentucky around 1806. In 1819, the family returned to Georgia and settled in Dallas county. See my page: McGoughs in Pre-Revolutionary America: Robert and Sarah Matilda Carson McGough
One family historian reports that John McGough, the son of Robert McGough, Jr., stayed in Caldwell county, Kentucky, when the rest of his family moved to Dallas county, Georgia, in 1819. "All of the family moved there with the exception of John McGough who remained there in Caldwell County, Kentucky where he died in 1828." From: McGough Family, Research obtained from Reverend E. M. Sharp, Retired, Methodist Pastor of First Methodist Church, Aberdeen, Mississippi, 1945. This conclusion has been challenged, however. Carolyn McGough Rowe, in her book: A Glimpse of the Past—Descendants of Robert McGough (b. 1725 Northern Ireland), at page 76, says that John McGough moved with the rest of his family from Christian county, Kentucky, to Dallas county, Georgia, in 1819:
"Sometime in 1819, Robert and Agnes went to Dallas Co, AL, where three of their brothers had settled. Here they lived the reminder of [their] lives.
"It has been reported by other researchers that descendants of Robert McGough still live in Caldwell Co, KY. I have determined that this is another line entirely. This John S. McGough, came from Pennsylvania to Kentucky and is not related to our family to my knowledge."
John McGough received three grants of land south of the Green River in Livingston county, Kentucky; the dates state when the land was surveyed: on March 27, 1805, 190 acres on the Piney Fork (a fork of the Tradewater River) (book 17, page 405); on March 27, 1806, 200 acres on the Piney Fork of the Tradewater River (book 8, page 46); and also on March 27, 1806, 137 1/2 acres on the west fork of Donaldson Fork (spelled Donelson in the index) of the Tradewater River (book 8, page 47). The Kentucky Land Grants, Part 1, Chapter IV, Grants South of Green River, 1797–1866, page 373 on Genealogy.com.
John McGough's son, Thomas Miles McGough, was granted land in this same part of Caldwell county, on Donaldson's Fork, in 1859, which supports my conclusion that these grants of land were to the John McGough who married Elizabeth Stevenson and who was probably the son of Miles McGough and Elizabeth Spencer.
The 1810 census of Kentucky also lists a John McGouch in Caldwell county, Eddyville township (roll 9, book 1, page 19) with 4 males under 10, 1 male of 45 or more; a female under 10, and one female between 16 and 25. This indicates that John McGough married a wife who was more than 20 years younger than he. Eddyville had been the seat of Livingston county before 1809, and became the seat of Caldwell county when it was formed in 1809. The town is about 7 miles east of the Cumberland River and a short distance north of the modern Interstate highway 24.
One source says that a John McGough, perhaps born in Maryland or Pennsylvania, born on October 20, 1763, married Elizabeth Stevenson on November 23, 1797. Elizabeth Stevenson was born on April 4, 1774, and died on February 14, 1841. The John McGough who was the son of Robert McGough and Agnes "Nancy" McWhorter of North Carolina, was born about 1787, at Fort Augusta, Georgia, and married Elizabeth Brooks on June 26, 1810, in Christian county, Kentucky, so the John McGough who married Elizabeth Stevenson was a different person. The estimated year of birth of John McGough, the son of Miles McGough and Elizabeth Spencer, is 1758—close enough to the purported 1763 birth date of the John McGough who married Elizabeth Stevenson to leave open the possibility that they were the same person.
John and Elizabeth Stevenson McGough's children were:
Alexander McGough, born on September 5, 1798, died on June 14 (or 24), 1808, in Christian county, Kentucky. [There was an Alexander Stevenson who signed the Articles of Association in Deer Creek Upper Hundred, Maryland, in 1776, and enlisted in Captain Robert Harris' Company of Flying Camp Militia on September 16, 1776. Could he have been Elizabeth Stevenson's father? There was no Alexander Stevenson in the 1790 or 1800 censuses of Maryland, but there are two on the first available census of Kentucky in 1810. Both Alex Stevensons were in the township of Eddyville, Caldwell county. (Roll 9, Book 1, pages 12 and 21. Eddyville is the township in which John McGouch and his family were listed in 1810.]
Hugh L. McGough, born on August 23, 1801, and died on February 23, 1831, in Caldwell county, Kentucky. On June 20, 1829, Singleton Asher and Hugh McGough were sureties for Walter McChesney on his appointment as guardian of Peggy Sigler, daughter and infant of John Sigler, deceased. (Caldwell County, Kentucky, Guardian's Bonds 1823–1833.) See The Sigler Web Site. (Walter McChesney was married to Margaret Stevenson, who was born on December 25, 1784 in South Carolina. Margaret Stevenson may have been related to the Elizabeth Stevenson who married John McGough.)
[Tradewater Descendants of Jacob Sigler and Margaret of Virginia and North Carolina, under Chart 2 of 2 Grandchildren of 301 Elvira Amanda Wales and Spencer Washington Calvert
2921 Olive Lavina and Hugh Bird McGough (1895)
2919 Z. Florence and John (1892)]
Elizabeth Caroline McGough, born on May 22, 1803, in Caldwell county, Kentucky; married Wyman Groves on April 19, 1821, in Caldwell county, and died on February 14, 1861. [The 1850 census of Caldwell county, Kentucky, lists Wyman Groves (the marriage is indexed by Genealogy.com as that of Wyman Grows—in another place Grover—and Elizabeth G. McGough), age 48, farmer, born in Caldwell county, Kentucky; Elizabeth C. Groves, age 47, born in Caldwell county, Kentucky; and these children, all born in Caldwell county: John M., 25; Carey A. (female), 17: Ruth C., 15; Stephen F., 12; Richard B., 10. The 1860 census of Caldwell county, Fredonia district, Kentucky, lists Mrs. E. Groves, age 55, a family governess, with personal property worth $270, born in Kentucky, living with Richard Groves, age 20, a farmhand born in Kentucky. Living next door was her son, John, listed as J. M. Groves, age 35, a farmer with real estate worth $1000 and personal property worth $400, born in Kentucky; Letitia Groves, age 21, housewife, born in Kentucky; and James Groves, 1 year old, born in Kentucky.]
Thomas Miles McGough, born January 5, 1805, in Livingston county, Kentucky; married Annie S. Johnson (born March 8, 1809, in Christian county, Kentucky) on December 23, 1828, in Christian county, Kentucky; died September 23, 1864, in Caldwell County, Kentucky; buried in Asher Cemetery, Caldwell county, Kentucky. The 1850 census of Caldwell county lists his age as 44, occupation as Justice of the Peace, and place of birth as South Carolina. This is a mistake, apparently the result of the misapplication of ditto marks in the census rolls. He was born in Kentucky. Thomas' wife, Annie, is listed as 40 years old, and nine children are named.
Caldwell county records show that Thomas M. McGough officiated at the marriage of James H. Roberts to Regina Crowder on October 26, 1846; and that on March 6, 1854, acting as a justice of the peace, he certified true copies of family records, subscribing his name as "Thos. M. McGough, P.C.C."
Thomas M. McGough was granted land on Donaldson Creek in Caldwell county, Kentucky, that was surveyed on December 14, 1855 (book 49, page 45); and 50 acres in Caldwell county between Stephenson's Creek and the west fork of Donaldson Fork, that was surveyed on April 25, 1859 (book 57, page 43). The Kentucky Land Grants, Part 2, Chapter X, Grants In The County Court Orders, 1836 - 1924, page 1542, on Genealogy.com.
The 1850 census listed, in District No. 1 of Caldwell county, Thomas M. McGough, age 44, Justice of the Peace, owning real estate worth $600, born in South Carolina, with his wife, Annie, age 40, born in Christian county, Kentucky, and 9 children: Elizabeth C., born in Caldwell county, Kentucky; Theresa M., age 17, born in Christian county, Kentucky; Sarah A., age 15, on in Christian county; Mary J., age 13, born in Christian county; John W., age 10, born in Caldwell county; Martha S., age 7, born in Caldwell county; Larkin W., age 4, born in Caldwell county; Margaret E., age 2, born in Caldwell county; and Lilli Maria, age 7 months, born in Caldwell county. (Roll 194 Book 1, Page 294b), indexed by Genealogy.com as "McGongle, Thomas M."
The 1860 census listed in the Princeton district of Caldwell county T. M. McGough, age 55, a farmer born in Kentucky, holding real estate worth $2000 and personal property worth $1400, with his wife, Ann, age 50, and 5 children, all born in Kentucky: John, age 20, farm laborer; Susan, age 18, seamstress; Washington, age 16, farm laborer; Margaret, age 13: Maria, age 10.
All the children of Thomas Miles McGough and Annie Johnson McGough are listed in the 1850 census of Kentucky, Caldwell county, 1st District, which is set out along with the 1860 census listings and birth dates and marriage dates on my page: McGoughs and McGues in the 1860 Census of the United States under Kentucky, Caldwell County, Princeton P.O.
John Stevenson McGough, born on February 15, 1807, in Livingston county, Kentucky. He died between 1860 and 1870.
John S. McGough is listed in the Kentucky 1851–1900 Marriage Index. His spouse is listed as Loretta B. Avery, and the date of marriage as April 22, 1860, in Caldwell county. The IGI has an entry on Genealogy.com that indicates that this is the John Stevenson McGough, born in Pennsylvania (should be Kentucky) on February 15, 1807, who married Dicey Terrissa Harper in Caldwell county, Kentucky, on November 20, 1844.
[A John B. McGough is also listed in the Kentucky 1851–1900 Marriage Index. His spouse is listed as Sarah Daniels, and the date of marriage as January 16, 1865, in Caldwell county.]
The 1860 census of Caldwell county, Farmersville subdivision, Kentucky (Roll 359 Book 1, page 131) lists J. S. McGough, age 53, a farmer with real estate worth $1000, and personal property worth $300, born in Kentucky, with his wife, Loretta, age 40, born in Tennessee, and 3 children, all born in Kentucky: John, age 13; George, age 8; and William, age 3.
[The 1870 census of Caldwell county, Farmersville District (Roll 451 Book 1, Page 422b) lists John B. McGough, age 23, a farm laborer, living with the family of L. C. Brown, age 41, a farmer born in Kentucky, his wife E. C., and 8 young children. The same census (Roll 451 Book 1, Page 442b) shows his brother, W. H. McGough, age 13, living in the Fredonia district of Caldwell county working as a farm laborer, and living with the family of James Harper, age 68, a farmer born in South Carolina, his wife Maureen, age 53, born in Kentucky, and four of their children, ages 27 to 15.]
Richard Baxter McGough. born on August 3, 1810, died on July 15, 1870. Married Amelia Jane Ramsey on January 5, 1843.
From a McGough family tree on Ancestry.com: on October 10, 1828, in Caldwell county, Kentucky, Thomas M. McGough was appointed guardian for Richard B. McGough, heir and infant of John McGough, deceased. Securities: William Laughlin and Hugh L. McGough. (Caldwell County, Kentucky, Guardians' Bonds 1821–1833.) This is evidence that John McGough, the father of Richard Baxter McGough, died in Caldwell county earlier in 1828. Richard B. McGough is listed in the 1850 census of Lincoln county, Tennessee, with his wife Amelia and two daughters.
[Betsy McGough married Joseph McGee on November 27, 1816, in Christian county, Kentucky. This was Elizabeth McGough, daughter of Robert McGough and Agnes McWhorter, who was born July 19, 1795 in Greene County, Georgia; who died on June 18, 1869 in Dallas County, Alabama. See my page: McGoughs in Pre-Revolutionary America: Robert and Sarah Matilda Carson McGough.]
[Chancery Court (Record) 142, page 861. John McGough, aged 32 years, Harford County, witness, 1830. 02/11/87. Tracking No.: 15936. PD No.: 87 1648. Maryland State Archives, Maryland Indexes, Photoduplication Orders 1986-1994]
[The 1820 census of Cambria county, Pennsylvania, Cambria township (roll 98, book 1, page 180), lists a John McGough with a family of 8: 4 males under 10, 1 males 10 to 16; 1 male 26 to 45; 1 female under 10, 1 female 26 to 45. This is too young for John McGough, the son of Miles and Elizabeth McGough, who would have been about 62 years old in 1820. This is probably Colonel John McGough, the son of Arthur and Susan McGough, who was born in Ireland in 1784, and came to America with his parents in 1786. See: McGoughs in America before 1790: Arthur and Susan McGough.]
James McGough was born to Miles Mcgough and Elizabeth Spencer McGough about 1760 in Harford county, Maryland. He died in 1812 in Conemaugh township (or Summerhill, Croyle township), Cambria county, Pennsylvania.
In about 1784 in Harford county, Maryland, James McGough married Esther James, who had been born about 1763 in Baltimore county, Maryland. Esther James was the daughter of Richard James, who died on September 27, 1777, in Harford County, Maryland. Esther was raised a Presbyterian and converted to Catholicism, She died about 1843 at Summerhill, Croyle Township, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, and is buried in St. Bartholomew's Cemetery, Wilmore, Pennsylvania. Esther James was the fifth of nine children. Her family lived in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, before removing to Baltimore/Harford County.
James McGough and Esther James McGough had at least six children in Deer Creek Upper Hundred in Harford county, Maryland, before they moved their family to Cambria county, Pennsylvania, in about 1803:
Thomas McGough, born about 1785 (or 1788), who married Mary Ann Skelly (who was born about 1795 in Somerset county, Pennsylvania) on June 9, 1812 in St. Michael's Church, Loretto, Cambria county, Pennsylvania.
Esther McGough, born March 8, 1792, who married John Burke in 1810 in St. Michael's Church, Loretto, Pennsylvania; died May 16, 1863, in Cambria County.
Elizabeth McGough, born about 1799, who married John Skelly (born on February 23, 1792, in Tuckahoe Valley, Bedford County, Pennsylvania) in about 1819 in Cambria county. Elizabeth McGough Skelly died in about 1872 in Pennsylvania.
Rachel McGough, born May 16, 1800, in Harford county, Maryland, who married Michael Skelly (born about 1793 in Cambria County). She died on June 26, 1832, in Summerhill township, Cambria county, and is buried at St. Michael's, Loretto.
Juliana McGough, born about 1801 in Harford county, Maryland, who married Philip McKinney (born about 1803) in Pennsylvania) in about 1829. [Their children included William, James, and Juliana, born 1830–1834. See: History of St. Bartholomew Church, Wilmore, PA (1909), page 19. See the 1850 census of Washington township, Cambria county, Pennsylvania. See the listing of Philip McKinney in the 1850 census of Washington township, Cambria county.]
James J. McGough, born about 1803, who married Sophia Frueh (born about 1802 in Germany) on April 2, 1826, in St. Michael's, Loretto, Cambria County. [Their children were Esther, Mary Ann, Willliam Augustine, Thomas, and Philip, who were born between 1814 and 1833. See: History of St. Bartholomew Church, Wilmore, PA (1909), page 19.]
At least one more child was born in Cambria county, Sarah (Sally) McGough born in about 1810. She married Adam Helsell, who was also born about 1810 in Cambria county.
For the later history of this family go to my page: McGoughs Who Moved from Harford County, Maryland, to Cambria County, Pennsylvania.
The 1790 US census shows James McGough living with his wife and family in Harford county, Maryland, near his mother, Elizabeth Spencer McGough:
75 185 MGeough Jm. (roll 3, book 1, page 99), close to Elizabeth MGeough. Family of 7: 1 free white male 16 and up; 3 free white males to 16; 3 females.
[In an email of November 9, 2004, Kim Danielsen suggests that the estimated date of marriage of James McGough and Esther James as 1784 may be incorrect because this census indicates they had five children by 1790, which would mean that they had five children in 6 years. "Perhaps they married closer to 1781, when James was age 21 and Esther 18...?" Or perhaps one of more of the unidentified females was not a daughter.
James McGough is shown as insolvent on a list in 1791 of county taxes and road taxes due in Harford county in "Deer Creek Upper, Middle, and Broad Creek Hundred" as returned by Robert Amos, Jr. Inhabitants of Harford County Maryland 1791–1800, compiled by Henry C. Peden, Jr. (Willow Bend Books, Westminster, Maryland, 1999), page 223.
In 1798, James McGough and his brother Thomas owned adjoining tracts in Travelers Rest in Harford county, Maryland. On October 1, 1798, a federal assessment of land in Deer Creek Upper Hundred, Harford county, Maryland, lists:
1798 Federal Assessments. {MDHR Film M864-2; M3472-8 1798 Dwellings} 1798 Federal Assessments Deer Creek Upper Value Revalue:
McGeaugh, James 1 house $45. 126 Acres 120 Perches $221.81 $249.54
McGeaugh, Thomas 1 house $45. 126 Acres 120 Perches $221.81 $249.54 1 Oct 1798
McGaugh, James 1 dwelling; 4 outhouses; 2 Acres; $100.00
Particulars:
McGeaugh, James: Part of "Travellers Rest" 126.7 Acres; 1 dwelling house 14 x 16; 1 story; 1 window, 8 lights, 8 x 10 house, 1 kitchen 12 x 14 ft. All wood.
McGeaugh, Thomas: Part of "Travellers Rest" 126.7 Acres, 1 dwelling house 14 x 16, 1 story, 1 window, 8 lights, 8 x 10 ft stable, 1 cover house 10 x 12 ft. All wood.
Also in 1798 James McGeaugh and Thomas McGeaugh are each listed as taxpayers in the Deer Creek Upper Hundred. The entry for James McGeaugh is: "1 tract (126 acres, 120 perches) and 1 building, $249.54 valuation, 1 slave. The entry for Thomas McGeaugh is identical except, instead of 1 slave, it says "no slaves." Inhabitants of Harford County Maryland 1791–1800, compiled by Henry C. Peden, Jr. (Willow Bend Books, Westminster, Maryland, 1999), page 223.
A 1799 Certificate of Survey. {MDHR 17,179a 1-23-4-35} described 12 1/2 Acres called "The Turkey Range." In 1799 or before, part of the tract in Harford county known as Travelers Rest was surveyed for Elizabeth McGough. In 1799, 12 1/2 acres of adjoining land, known as the Turkey Range, was surveyed for Elizabeth's son, James. "LAND OFFICE (Patents) IC #Q, p. 144 certificate of survey for "Turkey Range", James McGough, 5 October 1802. 02/11/87. Tracking No.: 15936. PD No.: 87 1648."
The 1800 US census lists a James Megeough (indexed by Genealogy.com as McGeough) next to Thomas Megeough in Maryland, Harford county (Locale: 5-District, series M32, roll 11, part 1, page 129), with 2 free white males to 10, 1 free white male to 16; 1 free white male between 26 and 45; 4 free white females under 10; 3 free white females between 10 and 16; 1 free white female between 26 and 45 (and 2 slaves).
James McGough probably moved to Croyle township, Cambria county, Pennsylvania in about 1803. He is on the tax list of Croyle township in 1805. Between 1802 and the end of 1804, he disposed of his real estate holding in Harford county, Maryland. Here are some excerpts from my Timeline of McGoughs in Harford County, 1750–1810:
October 5, 1802. James McGough conveys "The Turkey Range" to Amos Jones for "30 pounds specie to me in hand paid." (Patent. Land Office, Liber IC #Q Folio 144.) Land Office (Patents) IC #Q, page 144 certificate of survey for "Turkey Range", James McGough, 5 October 1802. 02/11/87. Tracking No.: 15936. PD No.: 87 1648. Maryland State Archives MARYLAND INDEXES Photoduplication Orders 1986-1994
May 17, 1803. Thomas McGough and Patrick Dempsey convey their interest in "Travelers Rest" to James McGough, of John; 127+ acres and buildings for £50. (MDHR Liber HD #a Folio 483)
November 1, 1804. James McGough and his wife "Hester" (should be Esther) convey their interest in "Travellers Rest" to Thomas Montgomery "in consideration of the sum of nine hundred Spanish milled dollars of the value of seven shillings and six pence each current money of Maryland." The land was delivered to Montgomery on March 19, 1805. The deed was dated November 1, 1804, and the money paid on that date. (Liber HD #R Folio 540-2)
1803–1805. James, Thomas, and Miles (junior) McGough move to Cambria county, Pennsylvania.
March 19, 1805. Travelers Rest is delivered to Thomas Montgomery as agreed on November 1, 1804.
The real estate records (volume 4, page 334) of Cambria county, Pennsylvania, show that, on May 29, 1807, Christian Troyer conveyed to James McGough of Conemaugh township 202 acres, part of land called Hermitage, for $400. For the later history of this family go to my page: McGoughs Who Moved from Harford County, Maryland, to Cambria County, Pennsylvania.
The 1820 census of Summerhill township, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, lists Esther McGough in a family of 4: - - 1 - - - 1; 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - 4 (roll 98, page 191)
Miles McGough and Elizabeth Spencer had a son named Miles who was born in Harford county Maryland in about 1762. To avoid confusion between father and son, I call the son Miles (junior) and the father Miles (senior).
The Harford County, Maryland, Revolutionary Patriots Listings, page 150 (also available on Genealogy.com, under "Maryland and Delaware Revolutionary Patriots, 1775-1783 Military Records") lists John McGeaugh and Miles McGeaugh as signers of the "Association of Freeman, Deer Creek Upper (I-322)" I assume that these are brothers—both the sons of Miles McGough and Elizabeth Spencer—but the Miles McGough listed could be the father.
Miles' (junior) wife was Mary. There is a Catholic church record of one daughter born to them, Margaret McGough, born on December 21, 1803, in Cambria county. She was christened by Father Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin on May 23, 1804, in St. Michael's Church, Loretto, Cambria county. Sponsors were Philip Kelley (Skelley?) and Sara McGough. Ledoux, volume 1, #00071, page 4.
Miles McGough (junior) was on the 1803 and 1815 tax lists for Cambria county, Pennsylvania. The Loretto Centenary lists Miles McGough with his wife Mary and daughter Margaret, born in 1803. The 1820 census records of Conemaugh township, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, indicate that Miles McGough (junior) had 2 sons and 3 daughters:
Conemaugh Township [See: 1820 Census of Conemaugh Township, Cambria County, PA, Transcribed by Brian L. Cartwright]
(1820) Miles McGough, male of 45 and up. 1 person in agriculture. 7 persons in household. (roll 98, page 196)
1 male of 45 and up. (Miles, who was about 58)
1 female of 45 and up. (Mary)
1 female of 16 and under 26. (Margaret, age 17)
1 male of 10 and under 16.
2 females of 10 and under 16.
1 male under 10.
The Brooks-Burrell Family Tree on Ancestry.com (which lists members of the family as McGaugh, McGaughey, McGeough, and McGough — and refers to census returns with the additional spellings of Magahy, Maghy, and McGahey) raises the question of whether the male 10–16 might be William McGaughey and the male under 10 might be Matthew McGaughey. The Brooks-Burrell Family Tree lists these children of Miles (junior) and Mary Ellen McGough: William McGaughey (1802– ); Margaret McGaugh (December 21, 1803 – ); Matthew McGaughey (1810 – March 29, 1894); and James McGaughey (1812 – ). (To find the Brooks-Burrell web site, search Ancestry.com for Matthew McGaughey who was born in Ireland in 1810, whose wife was Martha, and who died in Cambria county, Pennsylvania, on 29 March 1894.)
The 1830 census records of Conemaugh township, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, indicate that 2 sons and 2 daughters of Miles McGough (junior) were at home, and that the mother of either Miles or Mary lived with them. There were 7 persons in the household:
Conemaugh Township [See: 1830 Census of Conemaugh Township, Cambria County, PA, transcribed by Brian L. Cartwright]
(1830) Miles McGough, male 60 to 70 (roll 161, page 175a)
1 male 60 to 70. [Miles, who was aout 68]
1 female 50 to 60. [Mary]
1 male 20 to 30. [William McGaughey, who was probably born in 1802 (according to his gravestone) would fit in this age category.]
1 female 20 to 30. [Margaret McGough, born December 21, 1803, in Cambria county.]
1 male 15 to 20. [Matthey McGaughey, who was probably born in about 1810, could be squeezed into the upper end of this age category.]
1 female 15 to 20.
1 female 80 to 90. [Probably the mother-in-law of Miles McGough (junior). Miles' mother, Elizabeth Spencer, was born on May 16, 1730, and would have been almost 100 years old at the time of this census.]
Census returns, cited in the Brooks-Burrell web site, show the places of birth of William and Matthew as Ireland. Since the birth place of any children of Miles McGough (junior) would almost certainly have been either in Harford county, Maryland, or Cambria county, Pennsylvania, it is unlikely that William and Matthew McGaughey were sons of Miles McGough.
William is listed in the 1850 census of Washington township, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, as William Maghy, age 38 [his gravestone says he was born in 1802, which means he may have been 48] born in Ireland, a farmer with real estate valued at $420; with his wife, Catherine, age 38, also born in Ireland; daughter, Mary A., age 2, born in Pennsylvania; and Margaret Maghy, age 73, born in Ireland. The 73 year old Margaret was probably William's mother and the mother of his brother, Matthew Magahy, who is one name removed on the census return, probably on an adjoining farm, and who had a daughter also named Margaret.
My working hypothesis (thus far based on the flimsiest of evidence) is that William was living on the same property in 1840 with his father and mother, Patrick McGaughey and Margaret McGaughey. (The Munster township was formally created, in part from Washington township, on September 9, 1854.) The 1840 census of Washington township, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, lists Patrick McGaughey in a household of 3: 1 male 80–89 (probably Patrick); 1 female 60–69 (probably Margaret who is listed in the 1850 census as age 73 and living with her son William); and 1 male 30–39 (probably William). Living on the adjoining farm was William's brother, Mathew McGahey, a male 20–29; with 1 female 20–29 (Martha) and 1 male under 5 (John). My further guess is that the entire farm was originally owned by Patrick and Margaret and later divided between their two sons, Willliam and Matthew.
William McGahey was married to Catherine Bradley on September 22, 1844, by Father James Bradley, at St. Patrick's Church, Newry, Cambria county, Pennsylvania. Witnesses were Patrick Bradley and Joanne Bradley. Ledoux, #3273, volume II, page 121. Catherine Bradley (Mrs. William McGaughey) died on August 20, 1870. Her husband, William McGaughey, died on May 28, 1882. His gravestone says he was born in 1802. Souvenir of Loretto Centenary, page 186. Their daughter, Mary Ann, born on May 29, 1848; died on February 10, 1872. Souvenir of Loretto Centenary, page 186. In the 1870 census of Munster township, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, Mary Ann McGahey, age 21, born in Pennsylvania, is listed as at home with her parents, William McGahey, age 60, born in Ireland, a farmer, and Catherine McGahey, age 60, born in Ireland (roll M593_1318, page 303B; Family History Library Film 552817).
Matthew is also listed in the 1850 census, on the same page as his brother William, as Matthew Magahy, age 40, born in Ireland, a farmer with real estate valued at $336; with his wife, Martha, age 30, born in Pennsylvania; and 6 young children, all of whom were born in Pennsylvania: John, 9; Margaret, 8; Mary, 7; Catherine, 4; William, 2; and Ellen, 6 months. In the 1860 census, the family surname is spelled Magahy; in 1870, McGahey; and in 1880, McGaughey. The surname is (I believe) spelled McGough in this note of a baptism by Father Peter H. Lemke at St. Michael's in Loretto in 1842: MC CARDY, Martha Johanna (Johannis/Mariae) b. 05–30 bp. 07–17–1842 gp (godparents): Mattheus McGough/Martha McGough (Ledoux, #0224, volume II, page 13). Although it strains credulity that the surname McGough was spelled McGahe in the very next entry, also by Father Lemke, there is a strong possibility that it was: MC GAHE, Maria (Matthaei/Marthae) b. 05–18 bp 07–17-1842 gp: Cornelius Morris/Maria McCoy (Ledoux, #0225, volume II, page 13). This could be the baptism of Mary, the daughter of Matthew and Martha McGough, who is shown as age 7 in the 1850 census.
There is a record of the marriage of Matthew McGahay and Martha Dely (should be Daly) on January 1, 1839, at Ebensburg by Father Peter H. Lemke, in "Marriages of St. Joseph's, Hart's Sleeping Place, Cambria county, Pennsylvania" at Ledoux, volume I, #5419, page 257.
Martha Daly was born on August 18, 1820, to Edward Daly and Mary Daly, and baptized at St. Michael's in Loretto on October 20, 1820. Her godparents were Barnabas Campbell and Elizabeth O'Hara. Ledoux, volume 1, #00919, page 43. Martha Daly (Mrs. Matthew McGaughey) died on February 4, 1882. Her gravestone says she was born in 1814. Her husband, Matthew McGaughey, died on March 24, 1894. His gravestone says he was born in 1810. Souvenir of Loretto Centenary, page 186.
Here are the children born to Matthew McGaughey and Martha Daly that I found in the Catholic records of central Pennsylvania. The surname is listed in the record as McGaughey unless indicated otherwise:
John McGahy, born on October 14, 1839, and baptized on October 31, 1839, by Father Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin, at St. Michael's Church, Loretto, Cambria county, Pennsylvania. Godparents were James Kean and Sara McGahy. Ledoux, volume I, #03015, page 142. He is listed as John McGaughey, son of Matthey McGaughey and Martha Daly, born on October 14, 1839; died on May 30, 1875. See Matrimonial and Baptismal Records of Father Gallitzin, page 93 at page 137, of Souvenir of Loretto Centenary; and the Register of Death in St. Michael's Parish, Loretto, PA., from November 17, 1793, to October 10, 1899, page 165 at page 186. Souvenir of Loretto Centenary.
Margaret McGarety, born on December 22, 1840, baptized on December 31, 1840 at St. Michael's in Loretto, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, by Father Peter H. Lemke. Parents were Matthew and Martha McGarety (should be McGaughey). Godparents were William McGarety (McGaughey) and Margaret (?) Dely (abreviated as Mar.; should be Daly). Ledoux, volume II, #0067, page 6. [Margaret Magahy, age 8, born in Pennsylvania, is listed as the daughter of Matthew Magahy, age 40, farmer, born in Ireland, and Martha Magahy., age 30, born in Pensylvania, in the 1950 census of Washington township, Cambria county, Pennsylvania (roll M432_761, page 63A). Margaret Magahy, age 19, born in Pennsylvania, is listed as the daughter of Mathew Magahy, age 45, born in Ireland, a farmer, and his wife, Matty Magahy, age 44, born in Pennsylvania, in the 1860 census of Munster township, Cambria county, Pennsylvania (roll M653_1088, page 401; Family History Library Film 805088).]
Mary McGahe, born on May 18, 1842, baptized on July 17, 1842, at St. Michael's, Loretto. Godparents were Cornelius Morris and Mary McCoy. Ledoux, volume II, #0225 and #4987, pages 13 and 202. Mary McGaughey married Charles Hegarty on October 24, 1864, in St. Michael's Church, Loretto. Ledoux, volume IV, #0512, volume IV, page 19.
Martha, born February 20, 1844. Records of St. Michael's, Loretto. Ledoux, volume II, #0749, volume II, page 31. Ledoux, #1237, volume II, page 47. [Probably died before 1850; not listed with her family in the 1850 or 1860 censuses.]
Catherine, born on January 17, 1846. Records of St. Michael's, Loretto. Ledoux, volume II, #1023, page 40.
William, born on October 26, 1847. Records of St. Michael's, Loretto. Ledoux, volume II, #1181, page 45. [His gravestone has been reported to state that William McGaughey, who died in Loretto on May 30, 1875, was born on October 26, 1817. Souvenir of Loretto Centenary, page 186.]
Ellen, born on October 29, 1849. Birth records of St Michael's, Loretto. Ledoux, volume III, #0003, page 1.
Sarah Jane, born on June 26, 1851. Birth records of St. Michael's, Loretto. Ledoux, volume III, #0098, page 4. [According to the Brooks-Burrell Family Tree, Sarah Catherine McGaughey (1851–1917) married Elisha Rutter in 1871, whose granddaughter, Arleta May Rutter (1902–1986), married Dennis Leroy Wilt (1894–1986) in 1929. Their daughter, Jean Eleanor Wilt (1931–2006) married Russell Daniel Brooks (1925–1985 ?).]
Bridget, born on May 28, 1853. Birth records of St. Michael's, Loretto. Ledoux, volume III, #0226, page 8.
Alice, born on May 31, 1855. Birth records of St. Michael's, Loretto. Ledoux, volume III, #0344, page 12.
Elizabeth, born on July 17, 1856. Birth records of St. Michael's, Loretto. Ledoux, volume III, #0418, page 15. [Not listed with her family in the 1860 or 1870 censuses.]
Cornelia, a daughter, born on July 28, 1858. Birth records of St. Michael's, Loretto. Ledoux, volume IV, #0042, page 2. [Listed as Caroline McGahey, age 11, born in Pennsylvania, living with her parents, Matthew McGahey, age 60, born in Ireland, and Martha McGahey, age 50, born in Pennsylvania, in the 1870 census of Munster township, Cambria county, Pennsylvania (roll M593_1318, page 303B; Family History Library Film 552817). In the 1880 census of Munster township, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, she is listed as Cornelia McGaughey, age 17 (? - hard to decipher), a daughter born in Pennsylvania, living with her parents, Mathew McGaughey, age 67, born in Ireland, a farmer, and his wife, Martha McGaughey, age 60, born in Pennsylvania to parents born in Ireland, who was sick with dropsy on the day of enumeration (roll 1110, page 325B; Family History Film 1255110).]
Rose Amanda, born on December 25, 1861. Birth records of St. Michael's, Loretto. Ledoux, volume IV, #0270, page 10. [Listed as Rosalia McGahey, age 8, born in Pennsylvania, living with her parents, Matthew McGahey, age 60, born in Ireland, and Martha McGahey, age 50, born in Pennsylvania, in the 1870 census of Munster township, Cambria county, Pennsylvania (roll M593_1318, page 303B; Family History Library Film 552817)].
Despite my revisiting many records, I have found no convincing evidence connecting Miles McGough, junior, with the McGaugheys, but I will keep on looking.
For the later history of the Miles McGough family go to my page: McGoughs Who Moved from Harford County, Maryland, to Cambria County, Pennsylvania.
In 1798, Thomas McGough and his brother James owned adjoining tracts in Travelers Rest in Harford county, Maryland. The 1798 federal assessments of Deer Creek Upper Hundred showed a re-evaluation of this property of Thomas McGough known as Travelers Rest:
Revalue: McGeaugh, Thomas: 1 house $45. 126 Acres 120 Perches $221.81 $249.54 1 Oct 1798. Particulars: Part of "Travelers Rest" 126.7 Acres, 1 dwelling house 14 x 16, 1 story, 1 window, 8 lights, 8 x 10 ft stable, 1 cover house 10 x 12 ft. All wood.
Also in 1798 James McGeaugh and Thomas McGeaugh are each listed as taxpayers in the Deer Creek Upper Hundred. The entry for Thomas McGeaugh is: "1 tract (126 acres, 120 perches) and 1 building, $249.54 valuation, no slaves. The entry for James McGeaugh is identical except, instead of "no slaves," it says "1 slave." Inhabitants of Harford County Maryland 1791–1800, compiled by Henry C. Peden, Jr. (Willow Bend Books, Westminster, Maryland, 1999), page 223.
On December 13, 1799, Harford county records show a patent to Thomas Mageaugh and his brother-in-law, Patrick Dempsey, from his mother, Elizabeth Mageaugh; and an assignment from Elizabeth's son, John. 1803 {MdHR HD R 172} Travelers Rest, 254 1/4 acres. (MdHR Liber IC #M Folio 662-662}(MdHR 17,475, 1-123-4-31)
The 1800 US census of Harford county lists Thomas Megeough (indexed by Genealogy.com as McGeough) (Locale: 5-District, series M32, roll 11, part 1, page 129) (next to James Megeough), with 2 free white males to 10; 1 free white male between 26 and 45; 2 free white females to 10; 2 free white females between 10 and 16; 1 free white female between 26 and 45; and 1 free white female over 45 (and 2 slaves?). The female over 45 years of age may have been Elizabeth McGough, Thomas's mother.
In a deed to James McGough, of May 17, 1803, of 127 acres in Travelers Rest in Harford county for £50, the wives of the grantors, Patrick Dempsey and Thomas McGough, released their dower rights:
"Elizabeth, wife of Dempsey, and Sarah, wife of Thomas McGough, release their dower rights. Both of them being privately examined out of the hearing of their husbands ... "
In 1804, Thomas Mageaugh and Patrick Dempsy conveyed 254 1/4 acres in Travelers Rest to John DeMoss: "Travellers Rest, 254 1/4 acres. Patent; Thomas Mageaugh Patrick Dempsey to John DeMoss. Indenture made October 17, 1803. Delivered March 20,1804. {MdHR HD R 172}." For a description of the property, see: O'Neill ancestry—Thomas McGough. (John Demoss Jr. was born about 1750 in Harford county, Maryland, married Mary Galloway on November 6, 1778, in Baltimore county, Maryland; and died on November 3, 1820, in Harford county. His father was John M. Demoss who was born on August 9, 1718, in Baltimore County, Maryland; married Susannah Ramsey of Old Baltimore on February 2, 1743, in Harford county; and died on March 23, 1806 in Harford county. See: DeMoss Family Book published in 1997 by Jo Ann Robertson Hornby of Wichita, Kansas.)
Thomas' wife was Sarah James, daughter of Henry James and Martha Chocke (Chalk) who were married in 1771 in St. John's and St. George's Episcopal Church. Bill Heaps informs me that Martha Chocke was born to John and Mary Chocke on January 24, 1747, and had first married Alexander Smith on December 25, 1766, at St. John's and St. George's Episcopal Church. Martha was a Quaker, and the Gunpowder Meeting disowned her in 1767 for this marriage by a priest. (The 1790 Harford County, Maryland Federal Census, page 75, shows John Chalk and George Chalk (page 75, lines 190 and 191) living close to James and Elizabeth McGough (page 75, lines 185 and 196).)
"Her children by Henry James were Priscilla, who married Titus Hollingshead, Henry James, Thomas James, Nancy, who married Henry Hare, Sarah, who married (Thomas) McGough. She (Martha) married Robert Heaps (Junior) on August 21, 1782, and she had four or five children by him." [Maryland Marriages, 1655–1850, on Ancestry.com lists the marriage of Robert Heeps to Martha James on August 21, 1781, in Harford county, Maryland. Maryland Marriages, 1778–1800, also on Ancestry.com, list (at page 108): "Hoopes, Robert, 21 Aug. 1872, Martha James 3 HA-7"]
There was apparently a third marriage of Martha Chocke Smith James to Robert Heaps (Junior), her grandson (!?) (son of her daughter, Nancy James, and Nancy's second husband, Robert Heaps, Senior) on August 21, 1781, or 1782.
"Robert Heaps, Jr., a farmer, married a Quaker widow, Martha (Chocke) James, on 21 August 1782. Lysias Heaps, their fourth son, was born on 17 July 1792 in Harford county, Maryland. His brothers were Robert, John C., and Abraham. ... By 1850, Lysias had settled near relatives in Perry County (Illinois)."
Perry County, Illinois, by Turner Publishing Company Staff (Paducah Kentucky 1998 ISBN 1563114720), under Heape, Lysias. (Compiled by the Perry County Historical Society). Lysias Heape, Lysias Heape, Jr., and Robert Heape, are among several Heapes listed in the 1858 to 1863 Perry County, Illinois, personal property tax lists.
My attempt to track down this marriage, and the large amount of conflicting information about the Heaps/Heape family on the Internet, has led me to the following digression on this subject. My information is from secondary sources and should not be relied upon as providing any final answers.
The American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI) (on Ancestry.com), volume 76, page 470, says that the senior Robert Heaps was born in 1750. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s–1900s on Ancestry.com says that Robert Heaps immigrated to Harford county, Maryland, in 1775, citing Immigrant Ancestors of Marylanders, As Found in Local Histories by Martha Reamy and Bill Reamy, (Westminister, MD: Willow Bend Books, 2000. 358 pages, page: 103.
Heaps was often spelled Heape in Maryland/Pennsylania, and as members of the family moved on to Ohio and Illinois, universally became Heape. Robert Heape, Senior, signed his will Robert Heape Senior, and refers to his son simply as Robert. He refers to his grandson (illegitimate son of his daughter Mary) as Robert Loyd Heape. The will was executed on May 30, 1810, in Harford county, Maryland. The History and Ancestry of the Richardson & Kimminau Families gives a pedigree of the families of of Robert Heape (senior), his son, Robert Heape (junior), and his grandson. Robert Heape III. Although this pedigree gives the middle name Loyd to the first two of these Robert Heaps, I follow the lead of the will of Robert Heape, Sr., and use the middle name Loyd only for a fourth Robert Heape, the son (possibly born out of wedlock) of Mary Heape, the daughter of Robert Heape, Sr. The pedigree below is assembled from a variety of sources—all secondary and subject to error.
Robert Heape Sr. born about 1731, in England; married Mary in about 1751; emigrated to the US in about 1775; and died shortly before February 23, 1819, when his will was admitted to probate. He (possibly) married his second wife, Nancy James (Hare) on August 21, 1781, or 1782. [Roger Kent Heape notes that the date attributed to the purported but doubtful marriage is the same date of the recorded marriage of of Robert Heape, Jr., and Martha Chalk James—in support of this argument that there probably was no marriage of Robert Heape, Sr., and Nancy James (Hare).] (Nancy James' sister, Sarah James, married Thomas McGough.)
Maryland State Archives—Maryland Indexes (Assessment of 1783, Index) 1783 Harford County MSA S 1437 includes this entry: "Robert Heaps. Browns Delight, 40 acres. HA Bush River Upper and Eden Hundred, p. 11. MSA S 1161-6-3 1/4/5/49." (Here is a Map of the "Maryland Hundreds" in Harford County.) [There is a Heaps Cemetery in Harford county south of Fawn Grove—a little more than 3 miles west on Harkins Road from the western edge of the Miles McGough property at Five Forks. Fawn Grove is in Pennsylvania, but the cemetery is in Maryland, close to Amos Mill. There is a West Heaps Road about a mile west of the cemetery that extends northeast then northward from Harkins Road to the Pennsylvania border. The intersection of West Heaps Road and Harkins Road is about 4 miles west of Five Forks. There are two other road in northern Harford county named after the Heaps family. About 2 1/2 miles in a straight line to the southeast of Five Forks is the village of Pylesville. About 3/4 of a mile east by southeast of Pylesville, the Heaps School Road crosses Broad Creek in a southwest to northeast direction. About another 3/4 of a mile down Broad Creek (in a southeast direction), Heaps Road crosses the creek, also in a southwest to northeast direction. See: Heaps of Harford Co., MD, a posting by Jane Gilbert on Generalogy.com., for information on one of the original Heaps farmhouses on Heaps Road.]
Children of Robert Heape Sr. and Mary (?)
* Robert Heape Jr., born in 1753. According to some Internet sources, he died in 1819 at Long Corner, Harford county, Maryland (death information from OneWorldTree). The year of death of Robert Heape, Senior, was 1819, and the year of death of the father has probably been confused with that of the son). Maryland State Archives—Maryland Indexes (Assessment of 1783, Index) 1783 Harford County MSA S 1437 includes this entry: "Robert Heaps, Jr. HA Bush River Upper and Eden Hundred, p. 13. MSA S 1161-6-3 1/4/5/49." The 1790 Harford County, Maryland Federal Census, page 76, lines 24 and 25, shows Robert Heaps and his brother, Archibald Heaps. living side by side.
* Archibald Heape Sr., born September 1, 1758; died about 1841. ["Archibald Heaps was the son of Robert Heaps. He was born in 1758. He married Sarah Bay on 6 Nov 1781. ... Archibald Heaps died in 1841 at Broad Creek, Harford Co, Maryland." Maryland State Archives—Maryland Indexes (Assessment of 1783, Index) 1783 Harford County MSA S 1437 includes this entry: "Arthur Heaps. HA Bush River Upper and Eden Hundred, p. 11. MSA S 1161-6-3 1/4/5/49," My guess is that Arthur is a mistranscription of Archibald. Archibald (Arch'd) Heaps is listed in the 1790 census of Harford county in a family of seven, living next to Hugh Bay (probably a brother, or possibly the father, of his wife, Sarah Bay) in a family of eight on one side, and Robert Heaps in a family of five on the other side (roll M-637_3, page 106). Archibald and Sarah Heaps and the estate of William Bay of Hopewell are named in Chancery Court Proceedings #4795 filed by Daniel Scott on October 8, 1808, in Harford county. The Pension Roll of 1835, volume III, page 65, on Ancestry.com, under Harford county, Maryland, lists Archibald Heaps, age 75, as a private, with an annual allowance of $23.33, with sums received of $69.99, with service in the Maryland militia, placed on the pension roll on February 26, 1834, and commencement of pension on March 4, 1832. (See: Maryland Pension Roll 1835 (F to L).) The 1840 Census of Pensioners Revolutionary or Military Services lists Archibald Heape, age 82, of the 5th district of Harford county, Maryland. Selected Final Pension Payment Vouchers, 1818–1864, lists a payment to Archibald Heaps of Maryland under #1832: "Baltimore, Md., 29 Sep 1840, Archibald Heape [signature] (former private in Rev.), lifelong resident of Harford Co., collected his own $11.67 pension due from 4 Mar to 4 Sep 1840; sworn before William Wallace J.P. [signature]." The War of 1812 Service Records (on Ancestry.com) lists Archibald Heaps as a private in 1 Regiment Ragan's) Maryland Militia (roll box 96, roll exct 602).]
* John Heape (1754–1852). Born on January 10, 1761, according to some Internet sources.Year of birth was 1754 according to Maryland Revoluntionary Records by Harry Wright Newman (Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, 1967, page 26, on Ancestry.com). Died March 12, 1852. [Maryland State Archives—Maryland Indexes (Assessment of 1783, Index) 1783 Harford County MSA S 1437 includes this entry: "John Heapes. Notes: free male under 21. HA Bush River Upper and Eden Hundred, p. 29. MSA S 1161-6-3 1/4/5/49." The Pension Roll of 1835, volume III, page 65, on Ancestry.com, under Harford county, Maryland, lists John Heap, age 82, as a private, with an annual allowance of $20.00, with sums received of $60.00, with service in the Maryland militia, placed on the pension roll on December 20, 1832, and commencement of pension on March 4, 1832. (See: Maryland Pension Roll 1835 (F to L).) The 1840 Census of Pensioners Revolutionary or Military Services lists John Heaps, age 80, of the 4th district of Harford county, Maryland. Selected Final Pension Payment Vouchers, 1818–1864, lists a payment to John Heape of Maryland under #1832: "Baltimore Co., Md., 13 May 1845, John Heape [x his mark] (former private in Rev.), lifelong resident of Harford Co., collected his own $10/00 pension due from 4 Sep 1844 to 4 Mar 1845; sworn before Enoch M.Lowry J.P. [signature], witness John Heape Jr [signature]."]
* Mary Heape, born in 1763. [The mother of Robert Loyd Heape, who is menioned in the will of Robert Heape, Senior.]
* Sarah Heape King, born in 1770, died before 1870 [married Richard King].
* Thomas Heaps, born May 12, 1772; died on October 3, 1838. [On August 6, 1834, Thomas Heape of Richland county, Ohio, purchased 40 acres of land in the adjoining Morrow county, Ohio. Thomas Heape bought land in Perry county, Illinois, on March 10, 1843, February 1, 1850, and April 15, 1853. Land Patent Details on Bureau of Land Management General Land Office (GLO) Records. The 1840 census of Perry county, Illinois, lists a Thomas Heap, age 20 to 30, with a wife 20 to 30, and three young children, with a Lucas Heap, also 20 to 30, next door, and a Martha Heap, age 20 to 30, nearby (roll: 67, page 79). The 1860 census of Perry county, Illinois, (Township 4 Range 1 W, Tamaroa Post Office) lists Thomas Heape, age 40, born in Pennsylvania, a farmer, with real estate worth $8000 (M-653, roll 218, page 0, line 22), and his wife Elizabeth, age 40, born in New York, and 4 children, ages 7 through 17, all born in Illinois.]
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Robert Heape Jr., born in 1753 in Harford County, Maryland; married Martha Chalk [born on March 24, 1747; marriage on August 1, 1872]. "Robert Heaps, born 1753 at England (?), died 1819 at Long Corner, Harford Co, Maryland." 1819 was the year of death of Robert Heape, Senior., and probably not the year in which Robert Jeape, Jr., died
Children of Robert Heape Jr. and Martha Chalk (Smith James):
* Robert Heape III, born about 1775. [Bill Heaps estimates the year of birth as 1782.]
* John Chalk Heape, born about 1777 (or 1780/1783), died in 1867. [Bill Heaps estimates the year of birth as 1784. John Heaps, age 26 through 44, is listed in a family of seven in the 1800 census of Harford county (district 4) (roll 11, page 112). Roger Kent Heape tells me: "John Chocke Heape packed his family up and moved to Fairfied County, Ohio, in 1816. The land on which John C. lived transitioned from Fairfield to Richland, and finally to Morrow Counties as the population in Ohio increased and new counties were created from existing counties." On August 6, 1834, John Chocke Heape purchased 40 acres of land in Morrow county, Ohio. (Morrow county was created out of Richland and other counties in 1848.) The 1840 census of Richland county, Ohio, lists John C. Heape as age 50 to 60 (roll 423, page 213). On January 3, 1854, John Heape of Morrow county, Ohio, purchased 40 acres of land in Perry county, Illinois. Land Patent Details on Bureau of Land Management General Land Office (GLO) Records. Roger Kent Heape says that John Chocke Heape never lived in Perry county, Illinois.]
[Bill Heaps inserts a daughter here: 3--Daughter (3-1-R), born 1784. [probably the Martha Heeps, born in Pennsylvania, who is listed in the 1850 census of Perry county (District 7), Illinois, living with Lyscus Heeps, age 37, born in Pennsyvania, a farmer—probably her nephew. Martha Heeps, age 70, born in Pennsylvania, is listed in the 1850 census of Perry county (District 7), Illinois, living with Lyscus Heeps, age 37, born in Pennsyvania, a farmer—probably her nephew. (M-432, roll 124, page 387, line 28). Her brother, listed as Lyscus Heep, Sr., age 58, born in Pennsylvania, was living one house removed.]
* Abraham Heape, born about 1779, died before 1879. [Bill Heaps estimates the year of birth as 1789. OneWorldTree lists the birth date of Abraham Heape as about 1800 in Maryland, and says he married Jane Anderson, had one child James Anderson Heape born in about 1820, and died in Maryland in 1830. On January 3, 1854, an Abraham Heape purchased 40 acres of land in Perry county, Illinois. Land Patent Details on Bureau of Land Management General Land Office (GLO) Records. ]
* Lysias Heape, born about 1781, died on January 20, 1877, in Tamaroa, Perry, Illinois. [Roger Kent Heape and Bill Heaps estimate the year of birth as 1792. OneWorldTree says Lysias was born July 13, 1792, in Maryland (or, according to another tree, in York, Pennsylvania), and married Elizabeth Yeager in York, Pennsylvania, in 1814. On August 6, 1834, Lysias Heape of Richland county, Ohio, purchased 40 acres of land in the adjoining Morrow county, Ohio.On March 10, 1843, Lysias Heape purchased land in Perry county and adjoining Randolph county, and on April 15, 1853 and September 1, 1853, more land in Perry county. The 1850 census of Perry county, Illinois, lists Lyscus Heep, Senior, age 58, born in Maryland, a farmer, with his wife, Elizabeth, age 58, born in Pennsylvania; sons, George, age 28, born in Pennsylvania, a farmer, and Levi, age 20, born in Pennsylvania, a farmer. (M-432, roll 124, page 387, line 35). On January 3, 1854, Levi Heape of Perry county, probably Lysias' son, bought 40 acres in Perry county. Land Patent Details on Bureau of Land Management General Land Office (GLO) Records. In addition to George (born in 1823 and who married Elizabeth Jarvis on October 31, 1850, in Perry county, Illinois) and Levi (born about 1830), other children of Lysias and Elizabeth Yeager Heape were Robert, born on March 18, 1817, in York, Pennsylvania; Catherine Heape, born about 1819, in Pennsylvania (See: Ancestry Chart: Catherine Heape); Abraham Heape, born in about 1824, in Pennsylvania (who married Caroline Miller on December 2, 1847, in Perry county, Illinois, and died in 1913 in Liberty, Montgomery county, Kansas (The 1900 census of Liberty township, Montgomery county, Kansas, lists Abraham Heape, age 76, born in July, 1823, in Pennsylvania, married 51 years; and his wife, Caroline Heape, age 71, born in October, 1928, in Maryland, mother of 12 children, 9 of whom were living (T-623, roll 491, page 11B, line 66). Listed in the 1810 census of Logan township, Meade county, Kansas, is Abraham Heape, age 85, a widower, born in Pennsylvania to a father born in Maryland and a mother born in Pennsylvania, a farmer living with his son Charles F. Heape (T-624, roll 442, page 2B, line 78); indexed by Ancestry.com as Hespe); and Lysias Heape (junior) born on February 17, 1826, in Pennsylvania (who married Martha Griffith on October 17, 1849 in Perry county, Illinois) and died in Chelsea, Rogers county, Oklahoma, in 1897).
Roger Kent Heape was kind enough to furnish me this information: "Lysias Heape (1792–1877), 22 years of age, married Elizabeth Yeager (1792–1869) 22 years of age, in the First Reformed Church, York, Pennsylvania. The entry read, 'Lesye Hibe was married on 11 December 1814 to Elizabeth Yeager.' This information was supplied by the Director of the Historical Society of York County, John W. Heisy to me in a letter on 5 March 1970."
* George Heape, born about 1783, died before 1883. [Bill Heaps estimates the year of birth as 1792.]
[On November 1, 1798, 91 1/2 acres of land in Harford county was patented to Robert Heape, Jr. from the estate of Andrew Toland.
Harford County Circuit Court
Land Survey, Subdivision, and Condominium Plats
MSA S1199: (Certificates, Patented, HA)Reference: Patented Certificate 876
Date: 1798/11/01
Description: What You Please, Robert Heape, Jr. 91 1/2 Acres
Storage Location: 01/25/05/17.]------
Robert Heape III, born about 1775.
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Robert Heaps is listed in the 1790 census of Harford county, Maryland, in a family of 5: 3 free white males 16 or over, and 2 free white females (M-637, roll 3, page 106, image 69). The American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI) (on Ancestry.com), volume 76, page 470, says that this Robert Heaps was born in 1750. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s–1900s on Ancestry.com says that Robert Heaps immigrated to Harford county, Maryland, in 1775, citing Immigrant Ancestors of Marylanders, As Found in Local Histories by Martha Reamy and Bill Reamy, (Westminister, MD: Willow Bend Books, 2000 (358 pages), page 103. There is a second Robert Heaps, probably the son listed above as child number 1, listed in the 1790 census of Harford county—in a family of 6: 1 free white male of 16 and above; 3 free white males under 16; and 2 free white females (M-637, roll 3, page 111, image 71). One Robert Heaps (indexed by Ancestry.com as Heops) is listed in the 1800 census of Harford county, with 1 free white male under 10; 1 10 through 15; 2 16 through 25; and 1 26 through 44; 1 free white female 10 though 15; and 1 free white female 45 and over (roll 11, page 110). Robert Heaps and Robert Heaps, Junior, are listed, with their families in the 1810 census of Havre de Grace, Harford county, Maryland, as living side-by-side (roll 14, page 745). There were four persons in the home of the senior Robert Heaps: 1 free white male under 10; 1 free white male over 45; 1 free white female 26 through 44; and 1 free white female over 45. There were six persons in the home of Robert Harps, Junior: 2 free white males 10 through 25; 1 free white male 25 though 44; 1 free white male 45 and older; 2 free white females 26 through 44. The is also a Robert Heaps family in the 1830 census of District 4 of Harford county with seven persons in the household: 2 free white males under 10; 1 free white male 26 through 44; 1 free white male over 45; 2 free white females under 10; 1 free white female 26 through 44.
Here is a copy of the will of Robert Heape Senior from: Robert Sr. Heape - I019 - Individual Information - - PhpGedView (Notes):
Hartford County State of Maryland May the Thirtyeth one thousand eight hundred and ten.
I Mr. Robert Heape Senior of the County and State above being named. Being of sound and perfect Disposing mind and memory Do for the better settlement of my temporal estate and temporal afairs make constitute and appoint this my last will and testament in maner and form following
1) I give and bequeath to my son Robert two Shillings
2) I give and bequeath to my son Archibald Heape two Shillings
3) I give and bequeath to my son John Heape two Shillings
4) I give and bequeath to my son Thomas Heape two Shillings
5) I give and bequeath to my son in law Richard King one Dollar
6) I give and bequeath to my Daughter Sarah King one Dollar
7) I give and bequeath to my Daughter Mary Heape fifty acres of land being part of a tract formerly called Chevordory freeze (should be Chevauxdefrize) but now called Travellers Rest to her during her natural life and at her Death I give and bequeath the above fifty acres of Land to Robert Loyd Heape to him and his heirs for Ever but if the above named Robert Loyd Heape should dye before his mother Mary Heape I then give and bequeath the above named land to my Daughter Mary Heape to her and her heirs for Ever But if my Daughter Mary Heape and Robert Loyd Heape should die without any heirs I then give and bequeath the above named fifty acres of land to my Daughter Sarah King to her and her heirs for Ever.
I give and bequeath to my Daughter Mary Heape all my personal property all my horses cows and hogs and all my house hold furniture and all my farming and all my wheat and rye that I have either pulled stacked or threshed or growing in the ground I give and bequeath to her and heirs for Ever
John Heape and Hugh Bay Both of the County of Harford and State of Maryland I appoint my whole and sole Executor of this my last will and testament I do hereby Disannul and Disallow of all former wills made by me make confess and appoint this and no other to be my Last Will and testament.
In witness whereof I have unto set my hand Seal the Day and year above written.
Signed Sealed and acknowledged to be the Last will and testament of the above named Robert Heape Senior in the presence of Archibald Harry, James Alexander, John Alexander.
Signed Robert Heape Senior
The note on the website that includes this will comments: "It appears daughter Mary had an illegitimate son, Robert Lloyd that Robert Senior was trying to provide for." For another copy of the will, see a posting of December 5, 2007, HEAPE-L Archives on RootsMagic: Subject: Re: [HEAPE] Robert the Immigrant. This site quotes the following material from the probate record:
"Harford County the 23rd day of February 1819 then came John Heape one of the executors named in the within will who produced the same and made oath on the holy evangels of almighty God that he received the same from Robert Heape Senior deceased the testator therein named for safe keeping and that it is the true and whole last will and testament of the said deceased that came to his hands and posession and that he doth not know of anyother. Certified by Thomas Bond Rec.
"Harford county of the 23rd day of February 1819 then came James Alexander and John Alexander two of the subscribing witnesses to the within last will and testament of Robert Heape Senior late of Harford County deceased and made oath on the holy evangels of almighty God that they did see the testator therein named sign and seal this will that they heard him publish pronounce and declare the same to be his last will and testament and that he was at the time of his so doing to the best of their apprehension of sound disposing mind memory and understanding and that they severally subscribed their names as witness to this will in the presence and at the request of the testator and in the presence of each other and in the presence of Archibald Harry the other subscribing witness. Certified by Thomas S. Bond Regis."
This ends my digression on the Heaps/Heape family. I have not been able to reconcile the contradictory data on various Internet sites. My thanks to Roger Kent Heape of St. Louis who, in May of 2008, sent me a chart of the Heape family lineage and some valuable comments. I intend to study this information further, and hope to correct some of the doubtful guesses that have appeared on various Internet sites and that are repeated here.
On May 24, 1813, and October 19, 1815, Thomas McGough and Sarah McGough were named as holding a part interest in land in Maryland described as "Ogg King of Bashan, Outlet of Piersons Outlet, Whetherells Addition, Salisbury. Plat at 1/38/1/2; also shows Tudor Chocke, Improvement, Better Luck." (Accession No.: 17,898-1082-1/2 MSA S512-2- 1156 Location: 1/36/1/ ; Estate of Tudor Chocke - Salisbury. Recorded (Chancery Record) 100, page 554. Accession No.: 17,898-1292-1/2 MSA S512-2- 1349 Location: 1/36/1/. State Agency Series Listing at the Maryland State Archives Chancery Court (Chancery Papers) 1713-1853 MSA SSF 512. See also Chancery Court (Chancery Papers) 1813–1814. MSA SSF 512. Most of the names in the Chancery Court papers can be identified as relatives or spouses of relatives of Tudor and George Chocke. In the titles to the documents set out below, I have italicized names that are different in the 1813 and 1815 versions:
"1813/05/24
"1082: Tudor Chocke vs. George Chocke, Elizabeth James, Daniel Thompson,* Mary Thompson,* H.Y. James, Thomas James, Robert Heeps, John Heeps, Abraham Heeps, Lysias Heeps, John Blaney,* Vincent Blaney, Mary Blaney, Sarah Blaney, Elizabeth Blaney, Margaret Blaney, Martha Blaney, Titus Hollingshead, Priscilla Hollingshead, H.Y. Hare, Nancy Hare, Thomas McGough, and Sarah McGough. HA. Title to Ogg King of Bashan, Outlet of Piersons Outlet, Whetherells Addition, Salisbury. Plat at 1/38/1/2; also shows Tudor Chocke, Improvement, Better Luck. Accession No.: 17,898-1082-1/2 MSA S512-2- 1156 Location: 1/36/1/"
"1815/10/19
"1292: Tudor Chocke vs. Elizabeth James, Henry James, Thomas James, Robert Heeps, John Heeps, Abraham Heeps, Lysias Heeps, John Blaney, Vincent Blaney, Sarah Blaney, Mary Blaney, Elizabeth Blaney, Margaret Blaney, Martha Blaney, Daniel Thompson, Mary Thompson, Titus Hollingshead, Pricilla Hollingshead, Nancy Hare, Thomas McGough, Sarah McGough, Curvill Chocke,* Avarilla Chocke Davis, Sarah Elizabeth Davis, and Mary Davis. HA. Estate of Tudor Chocke - Salisbury. Recorded (Chancery Record) 100, p. 554. Accession No.: 17,898-1292-1/2 MSA S512-2- 1349 Location: 1/36/1/"*The name is spelled Carvil Chocke in a May 14, 1821 suit by Joshua Rutledge on a contract to purchase Ogg King of Basham, Weatheralls Last Addition, Better Luck, Roberts Enlargement. Ronald Meredith lists Carville Chocke as a son of Tudor Chocke. Sarah wife of Thomas McGough, Harford Co., MD. [A Carville Chalk married Elizabeth Mitchell (born about 1794) in about 1814 in Chester county, South Carolina. Carvil (indexed by Ancestry.com as Parvil) Chalk is listed in the 1820 census of Chester county (Chester township), South Carolina, in a family of 7: 5 males, 1 between 26 and 45, 4 under 10; and 2 females, 1 between 26 and 45, and 1 between 10 and 16; 1 person employed in manufacturing (M-33, roll 120, page 6). The 1850 census of Chester county, South Carolina, lists Carvil (indexed by Ancestry.com as Caril) Chalk, age 66, a mechanic, born in Maryland, with his wife, Mary Chalk, age 59, born in South Carolina, and 4 grown children, ages 20 through 30, incl\uding a Martha S. T. Chocke, age 20, all born in South Carolina (M-432, roll 851, page 92, line 20). Living next door was a Herndon Chalk, age 36, a farmer who owned seven slaves, and, one house removed, Charles Chalk, age 33, a teacher, both born in South Carolina, and both with families. The 1860 census of Chester county, Chalkville Post Office, lists Mary Clark, apparently a widow, age 69, born in South Carolina, close to Herndon Chalk. (M-653, roll 1217, page 19, line 18).]
State Agency Series Listing at the Maryland State Archives—Chancery Court (Chancery Papers): 1713–1853 MSA SSF 512 and 1815–1816 MSA SSF 512.
Ronald Merideth has analyzed this information and posted a summary in a document entitled Sarah wife of Thomas McGough, Harford Co., MD on McGough Genforum on December 9, 2004:
"I recently obtained from the Maryland State Archives a copy of two Chancery Court cases from 1813 & 1815 in Harford Co., MD. There are 167 pages of court records and deposition concerning the ownership of several parcels of land in Harford Co. It named the heirs of John Chocke who died ca 1765. Among those mentioned is Sarah wife of Thomas McGough. Her mother is identified as Martha Chocke, daughter of John Chocke. Martha's three husbands are also named but, unfortunately, which one is Sarah's father is not stated. My best guess is Henry James. Below is the info I have managed to gleen from these documents.
John Chocke d. before 24 Jun 1765 [John Chocke, the father of this John Chocke, married Margaret Tudor in Maryland on October 14, 1703. Maryland Marriages 1634–1777 on Ancestry.com. They had at least two sons. John Chocke, was born in 1704 in Anne Arundel county, and George Chocke, was born in 1706. A daughter, Sarah Chocke, was born in 1708. Anne Arundel County Church Records (St. James Parish). OneWorldTree. Two other daughters were Mary Chocke, born in 1710, and Martha Chalk, born in 1713. John Chocke, Margarett Chocke, and George Chocke were witnesses to the will of John Gills (Gyles) on January 20, 1727, in Maryland. Maryland Calendar of Wills (volume 6) on Ancestry.com. The son John Chocke (or Chalk), married Mary (last name unknown) and had 10 children:
1. Priscilla Chalk
2. Margaret Chalk, born on May 19, 1736 [??? married William Simmons on April 21, 1781, Anne Arundel county.?]
3. Mary Chalk born December 30, 1737. Probably married Daniel Thompson.
4. Elizabeth Chalk b: 23 DEC 1739
5. Sarah Chalk, born January 1, 1740. Married a man named Clark.
6. George Chalk b: 1 JAN 1743/4446/47
8. John Chalk b: 23 OCT 1749
9. Joshua Chalk b: 23 OCT 1749
10. Tudor Chalk b: 26 OCT 1752 in Gunpowder, Baltimore, Maryland
(from The Parlett Family of Maryland on Rootsweb.
Ronald Meredith lists these children of John and Mary Chock:
I. Martha Chocke [born on March 24, 1747]
m.1 Alexander Smith [married on December 25, 1766, in Baltimore, indexed as Martha Chalk in Maryland Marriages, 1655–1850, on Ancestry.com.]
m.2 Henry James [married in 1771]
[m.3 (not listed by Meredith) Robert Heaps, Jr. on August 21, 1782]
Children of Henry James and Martha Chocke (Smith) James:
1. Henry James
2. Thomas James
3. Sarah James [born about 1873 hm]
m. Thomas McGough
4. Nancy James
m. Henry Hare
m. Robert Heaps (senior) [born in 1731; according to some sources, married on August 21, 1781, or 1782, but that marriage is not certain.]
Children:
1. Robert Heaps (junior) [who married Martha Chocke Smith James, who may have been his grandmother, on August 21, 1782, or 1781.]
2. John Heaps
3. Abraham Heaps
4. Pyscias Heaps
5. Priscilla Heaps [who married Titus Hollingshead]"
(Returning to Meredith's material:) "Note: Not sure about the father of Sarah and Nancy. They are listed in these court documents by their married names: Sarah McGough wife of Thomas McGough and Nancy Hare wife of Henry Hare. On most pages they seem to be grouped with Henry & Thomas James. Sarah & Thomas McGough also named a son Henry* & did not use the name Alexander or Robert. So, I’m guessing the father of Sarah & Nancy is Henry James."
*Henry McGough was born in Pennsylvania in about 1805. He married Margaret Arnold on September 13, 1831, in Mt Vernon, Knox county, Ohio, and is listed in the 1860 census of Moulton township, Auglaize county, Ohio. He is probably the H. McGough listed in the 1840 census of Dover township, Athens county, Ohio.
[* Here is more background on names listed in the documents in the Maryland Chancery Court: Daniel and Mary Thompson were the parents of Sarah Thompson who was born in Baltimore county in about 1770. Sarah Thompson married Thomas Blaney (Blany, Bleany) who was born in Baltimore county in about 1766, and died in Harford county in about 1816. Thomas and Sarah Blaney had these children, all born in Baltimore county: John, born in about 1792; Daniel, born in about 1794; Mary, born about 1796; Harriet, born about 1798; Rebecca, born about 1800; Thompson (aka Thomas), born about 1902; and Anna, born about 1804. (Ancestral File on Family Search). The John, Vincent, Mary, Sarah, Elizabeth and Margaret Blaney named above in the estate of Tudor Chocke are children of Ward Blaney and Priscilla or Penelope Chocke. Vincent Blaney was born in Maryland in about 1759, and died in Harford county in about 1818. He was the father of Margaret Blaney who was born in Maryland on October 14, 1795 (married Elisha Jones and died on May 18, 1868); Sarah Blaney who was born in Maryland in about 1797; and Martha Blaney who was born in Maryland about 1799. (Ancestral File and International Genealogical Index—North America on Family Search). An Elizabeth Blaney married Zenos Chocke in Harford, Maryland, on March 5, 1813. (IGI) Zeanous Chalk, age 39, a laborer born in Maryland, is listed in the 1860 census of Prince George's County (Hyattsville District 1), Maryland, with his wife Mary, also age 39, and five children (M-653, roll 478, page 0, line 32).]
Thomas McGough and his wife Sarah moved from Harford county to Cambria county, Pennsylvania, in 1803 or 1804. They had at least two children who were born in Harford county before they moved: Sarah McGough, born about 1801 who married Stephen D. Ward in Perry county, Ohio, on January 29, 1828; and John McGough, born on February 23, 1803, who married Hannorah (or Hannah) Grace, who was born in Ireland about 1806. For the later history of this family, go to my page: McGoughs Who Moved from Harford County, Maryland, to Cambria County, Pennsylvania. Baptismal records of St. Michael's Church, Loretto, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, list two children born to Thomas and Sarah McGough in 1810–1813, Thomas McGough and James McGough.
(The 1820 census of Summerhill township, Cambria county, Pennsylvania. lists a Thomas McGough in a family of 11: 2 - - - 1 - 1 - - ; 1 - 1 - - - - - - - - - - 11 (roll: 98, page 191). This Thomas is the son of James McGough and Esther James, and grandson of Miles McGough.)
In the 1820 census, Thomas and his family are in Richmond township, Belmont county Ohio; and in the 1830 census, in Monroe township, Knox county, Ohio.
The 1850 census of Washington township, Miami county, Ohio, lists Thomas McGough, age 85, farmer, born in Maryland, and his wife Sarah, age 77, born in Maryland, in the household of their son-in-law, Stephen D. Ward, age 46, carpenter, born in Pennsylvania, and their daughter, Sarah (McGough) Ward, age 49, born in Maryland. See my page: McGoughs and McGues in the 1850 Census of the United States.
Elizabeth McGough, a daughter of Miles McGough and Elizabeth Spencer, was born in Harford county, Maryland, in about 1767, and married Patrick William Dempsey, probably around 1793. They had at least eleven children. They moved from Harford county, Maryland, to Cambria county, Pennsylvania, before 1807, and later to Perry county, Ohio. Elizabeth McGeough Dempsey died on July 6, 1835, in Huntington, Huntington county, Indiana. Patrick William Dempsy died on August 1, 1846, in Huntington, Huntington county, Indiana. Another source, however, says that Elizabeth McGough Dempsey died in Perry county, Ohio.
Their son John Dempsey was born in about 1794 in Maryland. He was married to Ann Branniff (born about 1808 in Pennsylvania), by Father Gallitzin on October 12, 1834, in St. Michael's Church, Loretto, Cambria county, Pennsylvania. They had six children, all born in Cambria county, where John Dempsey died sometime before 1860.
A daughter of Patrick William Dempsey and Elizabeth McGough was Elizabeth Dempsey, born about 1796 in Maryland, married John A. Dimond (born about 1792 in Pennsylvania) on June 21, 1818, in St. Michael's Church, Loretto, Cambria County; had nine children; and died in 1859 in Perry county, Ohio. Their son, Patrick Augustine Dimond, was born on March 4, 1819, in Cambria county; married Ann McGahan (born in 1825 in Ohio) on August 8, 1843, in Perry county, Ohio; had 8 children, all born in Perry county, Ohio; and died on December 6, 1883, in in Huntington, Huntington county, Indiana.
In a deed to James McGough, of May 17, 1803, of 127 acres in Travelers Rest in Harford county for £50, the wives of the grantors, Patrick Dempsey and Thomas McGough, released their dower rights:
"Elizabeth, wife of Dempsey, and Sarah, wife of Thomas McGough, release their dower rights. Both of them being privately examined out of the hearing of their husbands ... "
Patrick Dempsey is listed in the 1800 census of Harford county, Maryland. (roll 11, book 1, page 133). Free white males under 10 - 2; 10 through 15 - 1; 26 through 44 - 1; free white females under 10 - 3; 16 through 25 - 1; 26 through 44 - 1. (One entry removed on the same page is the Hugh Whiteford family.) Patrick Dempsey was listed in neither the 1790 nor the 1810 census of Harford county.
By 1807, Patrick Dempsey and Elizabeth McGough Dempsey had moved to Cambria county, Pennsylvania. For children born to them there and the later history of this family, go to my page: McGoughs Who Moved from Harford County, Maryland, to Cambria County, Pennsylvania.
There was a Patrick Dompsey listed in Conemaugh township, Somerset county, Pennsylvania, in the 1810 US census: 1 (free white male under 10) 2 (free white males 10 to 15) - - 1 (free white male 45 and over) 2 (free white females under 10) 1 (free white females 10 to 15) 2 (free white females 16 to 25) 1 (free white female 25 to 44) (roll 53, page 466). [The 1800 census of Quemahoning township (which is bounded on the north by Conemaugh and Paint Townships, on the east by Shade Township) listed a Christian Troyer (roll 43, page 574). See: Quemahoning Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, 1800 Federal Cenus. "Conemaugh township was formed by the Somerset County Court in February, 1801, out of a part of Quemahoning Township, and included nearly all of the present townships of Paint and Ogle, and a wide strip of Cambria County, including Johnstown. Conemaugh Township was gradually diminished in size by the formation of Cambria County, and of new townships, to its present area." Township History—Conemaugh Township Historical Society. There are now Conemaugh townships both in the southern part of Cambria county and in the northern part of Somerset county. Both are near the city of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. (There is a third Conemaugh township in Indiana county, Pennsylvania.)
"When Conemaugh Twp. was created in February of 1801, Somerset County extended north covering half of present-day Cambria County. When Cambria County was created on March 26, 1804, Conemaugh Twp. was split in two, thus creating Conemaugh Twp., Cambria Co., and Conemaugh Twp., Somerset Co." Somerset County Pennsylvania Genealogy—Conemaugh Township.
A document recorded in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, on November 30, 1807, recites that 202 acres of a 238 acre tract called Hermitage situated "in the forks of the Paint Creek, formerly in Quemahoning Twp., now Conemaugh Twp." was being sold to Christian Troyer by Solomon Adams and his wife, Rachel Adams. See: Solomon Adams (ca. 1740s - ca. 1823), Pioneer White Settler of Bedford and Cambria Counties, Pennsylvania by Craig Barry Adams. On May 25, 1807, Christian Troyer made this indenture to James McGough:
"1807 PA Somerset County, VOL 4; Pg. 334. This indenture made the 25th day of May in the year of our Lord One Thousand and Eight Hundred and Seven Between Christian TROYER of Somerset County and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Elizabeth, his wife of the one Part and James M'GOUGH of Conemaugh Township of the other part.
"Wittnesseth whereas the Commonwealth aforesaid by this Patent bearing date of the twelfth day of November in the year of our Lord one thousand Eight hundred and two did grant Solomon ADAMS a certain Tract of Land called HERMITAGE situate in the Forks of Paint Creek formerly in Quemohoning now Connamaugh Township Somerset County and Commonwealth aforesaid containing four hundred and thirty eight acres a quarter and the usual allowance of 6 % for Roads &c. Now this indenture witnesseth that the said Christian TROYER and Elizabeth his wife for and in consideration of the sum of Four Hundred Dollars lawfull money of the Commonwealth aforesaid to them paid by the said James M'GOUGH the following described part of the above described Tract of land and bounded as follows: Beginning at a Sugar Tree thence by the residue of said tract North Eighty-five degrees West twelve perches and eight tenths of a perch to a post thence by the same South six degrees West one hundred and seventy perches to a post thence North sixty degrees West fifty-four perches to a Chestnut Oak North seventy-two degrees West two hundred eight perches and four tenths to a Post North forty four degrees East one hundred and sixty-five perches to a Sugar Tree thence South fifty-eight degrees East one hundred and sixty-six perches to a Hickory thence South five degrees West twenty-six perches to the Beginning containing two hundred and two Acres and the allowance of six % for Roads &c. To Have and to Hold the above described part of the above described Tract of land called HERMITAGE with all and singular the appurtenances unto said part belonging unto the said James M'GOUGH his heirs and assigns forever and the said Christian TROYER and Elizabeth his wife their heirs, Executors and Administrators doth covenant, promise, grant and agree to and with the said James M'GOUGH his heirs and assigns by these presents that they the said Christian TROYER and Elizabeth his wife their Heirs the above described Tract of land herby granted with the appurtenances unto the said James M'GOUGH his heirs and assigns against them the said Christian TROYER and Elizabeth his wife their heirs and against all and every other person or persons lawfully claining the same or any part there- of shall and will warrant and forever defend by these presents.
"Signed: George WILL, Jacob SCHNEIDER. Christian TROYER, Elizabeth TROYER (X her mark) Received on this day of the date of the aforegoing Indenture of the above named James M'GOUGH. Four Hundred Dollars the consideration money in the aforegoing Deed mentioned in the presence of George WILL, Jacob SCHNEIDER Signed: Christian TROYER. SOMERSET COUNTY. ..."
From the entry on James McGough on O'Neill Ancestry. This entry reflects several real estate transactions between James McGough and his brother-in-law, Patrick Dempsey, around this time, and my guess is that, although James McGough did not settle on the land he purchased in Conemaugh township, his brother-in-law, Patrick Dempsey, did settle on the land. James McGough's estate shows that he owned 202 acres in Conamaugh township when he died in about March of 1812, but this was apparently in Conemaugh township, Cambria county.
The Shade Township (Somerset county) assessment list of 1818 lists Patrick Dempsey, a farmer. (For a township map of Somerset county, go to Somerset county Pennsylvania Genealogy. Both Conemaugh township and Shade township in Somerset county are just south of the south line of Cambria county.
Elizabeth Dempsey, the daughter of Patrick Dempsey and Elizabeth McGough, married John A. Dimond on June 21, 1818, n St Michaels, Loretto, Cambria County. See: History of St. Bartholomew's Church, Wilmore, Pennsylvania, page 17.
There was a Patrick Dempsey in the township of Shade, Somerset county, Pensylvania, in the 1820 US census: 1 (free white male under 10), - - 3 (free white males 16 to 26), - 1 (free whie male 45 and up), 1 (free white female under 10) 1 (free white female 10 through 15), 2 (free white females 16 through 25), - 1 (free white female 45 amd up), 4 persons engaged in agriculture - - (M-33, roll 111, page 142).
Patrick Dempsey was listed again in the township of Shade, Somerset county, in the 1830 census: - - - 1 ( male 15 to 20), - - - - 1 (male 60 to 70), - - - - - - - 1 (female 15 to 20), 1(female 20 to 30) - - - 1 (female 60 to 70) (roll 161, page 111)
The History Of Cambria County, which was written by Henry Wilson Storey and published in 1907, spanned three volumes and 1,844 pages. This monumental work included genealogical memoirs and sketches of the early Euro-American settlers in the region, a history of the Indian tribes of the Conemaugh Valley, information on the Pennsylvania Canal and the New Portage Railroad, the Johnstown Flood and more.
Volume 2 and 3 of Storey's work have been published on the Internet, See County Histories ~ The History Books From The Turn Of The Century on the website Genealogical & Historical Research in Old-Bedford County on the Mother Bedford website. Here is an excerpt of the book describing Daniel McGough, a great-great grandson of James McGough, a son of Miles McGough and Elizabeth Spencer. If my hypothesis is correct, James McGough was a brother of Hugh McGough.
"His [Daniel McGough's] paternal great-grandfather, James McGough, was a native of Ireland, and came to this country with his brother, Patrick, who fought under Washington, and fell at the battle of Princeton. James McGough first settled near Baltimore, in Harford county, Maryland, where he married Esther James, of Welsh descent, and in 1806 came to what is now Croyle township, in which he died six years later. He was a farmer, school-teacher and a civil engineer, and ranked as one of the pioneer settlers of Croyle township, in which he owned a large tract of valuable land." (From: The biography of Daniel McGeough in Cambria County Pennsylvania Genealogy—Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia, pages 198–9.)
James McGough was not a native of Ireland, but his father was. I have found no record of military service by Patrick McGough, nor any information on his birth or death. Perhaps Patrick was Irish but born in Maryland. See O'Neill Ancestry under Patrick McGough. Some genealogists have listed this Patrick McGough as another son of Miles McGough and Elizabeth Spencer.
There are a few traces of a Patrick McGough in the records of Harford county, Maryland, that indicate he was probably another son of Miles McGough and Elizabeth Spencer.
On August 20, 1790, Patrick McGough filed the equivalent of a modern day declaration of bankruptcy. The schedule of debts filed on that day by "Patrick McGough an Insolvent debtor" included his brother-in-law Patrick Dempsey (ten pounds fifteen shillings), Joseph Stokes (£7.0.0), Izra Spencer (seven shillings, six pence), and Mailen Spencer (seven shillings, six pence). The biggest creditor was John Cox to whom Patrick McGough owed £26 or £27.
On September 13, 1790, John McGough and Patrick McGough jointly executed a bond in the amount of £20 to Joseph Stokes, to be paid on demand. Witnesses to the note were John Gallion and David Stokes. Joseph Stokes acknowledged receipt of four pounds nineteen shillings of interest, and seven pounds eight shillings and six pence on the principal, of the bond on November 1, 1794. On May 15, 1799, Joseph Stokes commenced a suit against only John McGough for the balance due of sixteen pounds, one shilling, and four pence half penny. The suit says that "John McGough the only Solvent obligor on the bond has removed out of this state with a vow to avoid the payment of the same and thereby defraud his creditors." The "defraud his creditors" is often a pro forma allegation for the purpose of obtaining jurisdiction of the court over property left behind.
Benjamin McGough is listed as insolvent on a list returned by Robert Carlisle for taxes due in Harford county in 1791. Inhabitants of Harford County Maryland 1791–1800, compiled by Henry C. Peden, Jr. (Willow Bend Books, Westminster, Maryland, 1999), page 223. A list of "defaulters" filed in October of 1792, with the name Robert Carlisle and the year 1790 on its face, names Benjamin McGough, 5 shillings, 2 1/2 pence, "allowed by this Court."
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