While researching ancestors, I find one of the biggest challenges is to find any information on the women who are related to me. I usually can uncover some clues on the men through tax records, land records, wills, etc. However, women had little rights and written records on many of them seem to be scarce. Mostly you have to depend on bits of information from researching the men they were associated with, like fathers, brothers and husbands. I was continuing my research on the Porter and Ewing lines for Capt. Robert S. Porter and his wife Margaret Lindsay with a focus on the women in the family.

Robert Porter was the only son and child of Andrew Porter and Eleanor Ewing who were my 7th Great-grandparents. His parents were Scot-Irish immigrants from the province of Ulster, Ireland in the1700’s. Eleanor Ewing was my first challenge but I found her parents who were Alexander Ewing and Rebeckah _____. (You can read more about them here: The Ewing Clan in History and Legend: Of Eagles Wings.) Eleanor Ewing was born about or before 1721 and we can assume she got married to Andrew Porter between the age of fifteen and eighteen before 1737. Their son, Robert Porter was born around 1737-1738. Her father, Alexander Ewing wrote his will in about the same year of 1738 when Eleanor gave birth to son Robert but Alexander had all his children named in his will EXCEPT Eleanor! It is believed that Eleanor died before her father wrote his will. It is believed that she died in childbirth or shortly thereafter from complications of childbirth. Further evidence of her death is that her husband Andrew remarried shortly afterward to Margaret Leiper. Robert was raised by his step-mother Margaret and with six half-siblings. Now I have a good idea what happened to Eleanor, wife of Andrew Porter and why her records were non-existent after 1738!

When this Robert Porter grew up, he married a Margaret Lindsay. Finding information on Margaret Lindsay led to another challenge! Their marriage record was a start of the paper trail. They were married 27 May 1764 in Pennsylvania.

The AGBI (American Genealogical-Biographical Index) database listed Margaret Lindsay as being born in 1740 but another record places her birth as 1745. No where was there a listing of her parents. After searching through several Lindsays in that time period and in Pennsylvania, I found a will of James Lindsay who named a daughter “Margaret Porter” in his will and he lived in Middletown, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

This James Lindsay was born in South Leith, Midlothian, Scotland to William Lindsay and Agnes Broun according to his baptism records. He was born 03 Dec 1698 and baptized 05 Dec 1698. However his gravestone puts his birth more like 1808 if his age is correct on the stone. He immigrated to Pennsylvania about 1725 and settled there as tax records indicate. He married a woman named Elizabeth according to his will and some believe her surname may have been Ewing. James lived to 1792 and died at about 83-84 years old. He was buried in Middletown Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Elwyn, Delaware, PA. No record of his wife’s death has been found although she was still living when his will was probated in May of 1792. I assume she was buried in the same cemetery as her husband.

I believe it is quite possible that this James Lindsay and Elizabeth are parents of Margaret Lindsay who married Robert Porter. The time periods match and her birth in Pennsylvania matches. James naming a daughter as Margaret Porter in his will is also good evidence. The fact that James was a Scot and Presbyterian points to his association with the Scot-Irish community of which the Porters were a part of. The Scots-Irish tended to settled together in communities with friends, neighbors, and families they immigrated with or knew before. It was a close community with many intermarriages. One more piece of the puzzle is that Margaret and Robert named one of their sons James Lindsay Porter, presumably after her father!

Now that I believe I have identified Margaret’s parents, let’s see what happened to her. Her husband Robert Porter was first a Lieutenant and then a Captain in the Revolutionary War and is listed as a DAR ancestor (#A091290). In the DAR records, Robert was born circa 1740 in Pennsylvania and died in 1781 in Montgomery County, Virginia. This correlates with our Robert Porter and he fought in the Battle of Point Pleasant and had settled in Virginia. His ancestors listed include Andrew Porter, his son and our direst ancestor. (More on this Andrew Porter to come!) Note that Robert died in 1781 making him only about 41 or 42 years of age! It is possible that Robert may have been killed or died from injuries sustained in the War as he was so young at death.

So this left Margaret Lindsay Porter a young widow with eight children. The youngest child, James Lindsay Porter, was only one or two years old when his father died and the oldest child was probably about 17 or 18. At least three of the children married and moved to Blount County, Tennessee and Margaret moved there also – maybe with one of her children’s families. There were no records found that Margaret remarried after Robert’s death.

The only other record I found for Margaret indicated that she may have had a sad ending indeed. Margaret was appointed a guardian in 1803 according to Blount County TN court records. The reason for appointing a guardian was that Margaret was in “state of insanity!” Now “insanity” at that time was a label for multiple kinds of conditions including dementia. In the settlement records of her guardianship at her death in 1811, eight years later, reveals her guardian was a William Gillespie who was over 80 years old at the time like Margaret. This begs the question why an 80 plus year old man was her guardian when she had a number of married children living in the same area?

Some questions of the past can and will never be answered! However, I am grateful that I was able to find and tell part of the stories of my women ancestors!

Sources:

• Wills; Delaware, Pennsylvania; Will Book, Vol. A-B, 1789-1822; Case: 41; Date: 2 May 1791; James Lindsay
• Scotland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operatons Inc., 2014.
• Filby, P. William, ed. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI.
• Ancestry.com Pennsylvania, U. S. Compiled Marriage Records, 1700-1821 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2011.
• Excerpts from Ewing Family Association: https://www.ewingfamilyassociation.org
• U. S. Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2007.

#52 Ancestors Each week of the year Amy Johnson Crow publishes a theme or prompt to provide inspiration for working on our genealogy. We can choose to write, post or do something else related to our research such as organizing family photos. Although I am a bit late in starting writing this year as I was working on other research, I will consider her suggestions each week and write about the ones that inspire me! Her first theme was “Beginnings.”

At the beginning of the new year, it is a good time to think of how our ancestors came to America for so many different reasons. One thing in common is that when they set foot on our shores, they all began a new life – a new beginning. I have been researching the Porter family ancestors who sailed from Ireland. The reason I wanted to take another look at my research was that my DNA profile showed little Irish (about 5 %) and twice as much Scottish (10-13%) ancestry. So I thought it would be good to review the ancestors I believed were Irish.

Among the thousands of immigrants in the 1700s, there were three clans that immigrated from Ulster County, Ireland and settled in the Maryland area, particularly Cecil County. All three clans were close neighbors and great friends and intermarried often both in Ireland and America. The clans were the Porters, the Ewings and the Gillespies families. By tracing my ancestry, I found that I am related to all three clans in one way or another. Now I had thought that they were all of Irish descent coming from Ireland but in reality many were Scots-Irish!

Scots-Irish is really an Americanism and not used in Europe and Britain where they are sometimes called Ulster Scots. The Scots-Irish refers to people whose ancestors originated in Scotland but who lived in Ireland, sometimes for several generations, before emigrating to America. The Scots started to go to Ireland starting around 1600 as an expanding population in Scotland hungered for more and better land and escape from religious persecution. The northern part of Ireland was fertile and sparsely settled and, besides, it was a short journey of just a few miles across the sea from the lowlands of Scotland. Most Scots settled in the area of Ulster and Donegal counties which includes all the counties of Northern Ireland today. Eventually the British government required all crown officials be of Anglican faith which excluded the Scots-Irish from any sort of power as they were devoutly Presbyterian. Even their clergy couldn’t perform marriages! Then came raising of land rents, drought, sheep diseases and smallpox that took a toll on the population. Of course there is much more history to this situation and too much to detail here.

The emigration to the American Colonies began around 1718 and continued until the American Revolution. Most early immigrants went to Pennsylvania where the Quakers were tolerant of other religions or to Maryland or to Philadelphia. Eventually they followed the Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania into Georgia with many stopping to settle in the Shenandoah area of Virginia like our ancestors. The first Scots-Irish ancestor of ours to come to America was James Robert Porter. He was born in Coleraine, Londonderry County, Ulster, Ireland in 1699.

James Porter was the son of Josia Porter and Margaret Ewing, both of County Donegal, Ireland. James married Ellen (also called Eleanor) Gillespie in Ireland – recall that I said the Porter, Ewing and Gillespie families were all intertwined! The Ewings, as a clan, were banned in Scotland as they were Protestants. It is thought that James Porter emigrated to the British Colony of Maryland in 1727 and that he traveled with his uncle Alexander Ewing, his mother’s brother. (Alexander and Margaret Ewing were children of Robert Milford Ewing and Rebecca Ewing. ) Later, James Porter’s wife, Ellen, traveled to Maryland to join him along with their children and her parents. I haven’t found her parents names as yet. All together, James and Ellen had ten known children, Jane, Mary, Elianor (also called Nelly), Betsey, Stephen, George, Andrew, William, James and Samuel.

The Porter family, once reunited, settled in Cecil, Maryland Colony and there is a deed recorded for James. James bought 235 acres of land for 130 pounds from Thomas Love. On the deed, James Porter reserved the liberty of having a wagon road leading from his dwelling house through the granted land to where the school house now stands. This deed was recorded on 26 Mar of 1753.

I also found a 1740 petition from the inhabitants of Little Britain ( a township nearby in Cecil County) to establish a road that ran by “James Porters store” on the Octarara Hundred (land designation in Colonial times). This indicates that James likely owned and ran a store and was a merchant. He was indicated as a merchant in several documents and listed as the “brother of Rachel Porter Ewing wife of Nathaniel Ewing.” This reveals that his sister and brother-in-law also came to America. In 1784, their daughter Jane Porter, who was married to Patrick Ewing, died and therefore was not mentioned in James’ will. James also had a ferry service and a saw mill which his children inherited.

James Porter died around 1778 as his will was probated in 1778-1780. Because he owned land that was in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and in Cecil County, Maryland, his will was probated in both counties. The will is also evidence of his prosperity in life. His wife, named Elianor in the will, got the land they lived on of course and 100 pounds of Pennsylvania currency plus her choice of one cow, horse or mare out of James’ stock. However, I found an unusual stipulation in the will stating that she was prohibited from “committing any waste or cutting any wood save what may be necessary for Rails and firewood.” Sons William and Andrew gained land, houses and building in “Peach Bottom” and that land contained a saw mill dam, races, and a ferry service. Son William also got a silver watch and other sons Stephen, James, Samuel and George received lands while the daughters Elianor, Mary and Elizabeth got sums of money.

I have not found any documentation on where James or Ellen (Elianor) Porter were buried. Judging from their prosperity though after coming to America, they did have a very good new beginning! By researching this family, I found some answers for my own ancestry too!

Sources:

• Maryland, Cecil County, Deed Book VII, page 497. (James Porter of Cecil Co.)
• Book I; Land Commissions of Cecil Co., MD 1724-1751, pp. 265-270.
• Fife, Margaret Ewing, Ewing in Early America; Chapter XXIV, pp. 176 & 186.
• Cecil County, Maryland; Will Book 3, 1777-1780; pages 63-68, 78-79.
• Lancaster County, Pennsylvania; Will Book E, pages 299-301.
• Garstka, Katharine, The Scots-Irish in the Southern United States: An Overview; Oct 16, 2009, (online).

#52ancestors    Week 21: Tombstone

“It was just a six-foot slab of marble engraved with a few dozen words.   Two hundred years of harsh weather had deteriorated its once polished appearance and centuries of undergrowth and weeds had captured nearby surroundings.  But it was the James family’s only connection to their Revolutionary War-era relative.  And now it’s gone –stolen–swiped from its eternal resting place.”

This is the beginning of a newspaper article written by Cathy Dyson for the Fauquier Democrat on February 16, 1984.  I found this clipping while researching my seventh great-grandfather, Capt. John James — it was his tombstone that was stolen!  I managed to find a picture of the tombstone that was taken before the tragic theft.

As eerie as stealing tombstones sounds, I found out that thefts do happen and are surprisingly common.  There is actually a sort of “black market” for them and old stones are like antiquities.  I suppose a Revolutionary War stone of an officer like Capt. John James would be valued pretty high.

So who was this John James?  According to my photo of the stone, he was born “March  the 16, 1709 and departed this life January the 2, 1778 age 68 years.”  The dates correlate perfectly with the information I had already uncovered, verifying for me that this was indeed my ancestor.  John was born in Elk Run, Stafford County, Virginia Colony, and was the son of Thomas James and Elizabeth Mason Barbee (widow of Andrew Barbee).   The grandfather of Capt. John James was also named John James (go figure!), and this John immigrated from Caenarvan, Wales around 1650 and married Elizabeth Underwood.

The title of Captain wasn’t just bestowed on him as he earned his rank in the Fauquier County Militia which fought in the Revolutionary War.  He also served in the French and Indian War.  He is on the DAR list of patriots.  But, of course, there is more than his military service to distinguish him.  Capt. John James was one of the first pioneers of Fauquier County, Virginia, and he owned many, many acres in the Elk Run area.  He was also a vestryman of Hamilton Parish in the County and appointed road surveyor in 1758.

Capt. John married twice with the first marriage in 1727 to Ann Sebastian in St. Paul’s Parish, Stafford County, Virginia Colony.  Ann died before 1738 and John then married Dinah Allen in 1738 in St. Paul’s Parish.  Dinah outlived John and died in 1800.   They do seem to have been wealthy judging by John’s will probated in 1778.  He bequeathed 500 acres of land to each of his four sons and there were still acres of land left for his wife to live on.  When she died, the remainder of the land and estate passed to the seven daughters.  His last will and testament revealed a number of possessions – horses, hogs, calves, wagons, sheep, feather beds and furniture, and 17 slaves.

Capt. John James’ tombstone is still missing as far as I know.  The Fauquier County Sheriff’s Department did investigate the theft but turned up little information in 1984.  The fourth great-grandson of John, Bill James, who is an area resident, made a public appeal for the missing marker.  He stated “I would hope that people would understand the significance of the tombstone and what it means to the James family.  Maybe the tombstone will reappear as mysteriously as it vanished.”  The stone was last seen in July of 1983.

I am thinking that John James’ tombstone is probably now being used as a unique coffee table or an ornamental patio decoration.  What else could you use a gravestone for?  It has such historical value for the James family, it is really sad that it was taken from them.  Another tidbit of information came from the article I read.  Because John James was the eighth great-grandson of Col. John Washington, Mr. Bill James is the first cousin, eight times removed, of George Washington.   Could that mean that I am also related to George Washington?  Hm-m-m, time for more research!

#52ancestors     Week 19: Service

This week’s writing prompt for 52 Ancestors is “Service.”  It made me think of John “the Ranger” Taliaferro as he was an excellent example of service – service in the military and in the community!   I recently have been researching John “the Ranger” Taliaferro and his wife, Sarah Susan Smith, as they are my seventh great-grandparents.  John and Sarah were the parents of John of Snow Creek who I recently posted a blog about.  You can see it here: John Taliaferro of Snow Creek

John ” the Ranger” Taliaferro was born 24 January 1655 in Powhatan, Essex County, Virginia Colony.  John was the son of Robert Taliaferro (1626-1671) and Katherine Grymes Dedman.  When John was about 27 years old in 1682, he married his cousin, Sarah Susan Smith, the daughter of Major Lawrence Smith and Mary Hitchon.   Sarah was born on the first of January 1659 in York, Essex, Virginia Colony.  Sarah was about 22 years old at the time of marriage and together they had eleven known children.

The first thing I wanted to find out about John is why he was dubbed “the Ranger.”   I found out that John served as a lieutenant in a company of the York Country Rangers raised to fight off the Native Americans in Essex County in 1692.  After his service, John earned the moniker “the Ranger” which did help to distinguish him from his son, John of Snow Creek!  Ten years earlier in the summer of 1682, he joined with Cadwallder Jones to range the great fork of the Rappahannock River.  They were early explorers of the first heads or springs of the two branches of the river and they also crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains to camp on the banks of the Shenandoah River.   This was a daring and dangerous feat to explore unknown territory at the time!

John continued his service to his community by taking the position of Sheriff in Essex County in 1692.  In 1699, John served as a burgess in the House of Burgesses for Essex County, and also served as a justice in Essex County between 1699 and 1700 and again in 1702, along with Francis Taliaferro (his uncle).

John and Sarah were large landholders in Essex County and had built a beautiful house on their Powhatan Plantation.  The bricks for the house were made in England.  At the time of their marriage, John’s brother, Francis Taliferro, who was the son and heir of their father Robert Taliaferro, gave 1,000 acres of land to the newlyweds.  As time went on, John was able to amass much more land.  Today Powhatan is in James City County not far from Jamestown and Williamsburg, VA.  It is a historic building.

**NOTE: I have since discovered that Pohattan was built in 1740-1750 by John’s first cousin, Richard Taliaferro, not by John the Ranger.  Richard Taliaferro was a famed architect in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia.  Thanks to several readers who alerted me to this error! (8 Oct 2021)

The will of John Taliaferro, Gentleman, of the Parish of St. Mary’s in Essex County was dated June 1, 1715, and John died on June 21, 1720.  His wife, Sarah, died around the same year.  All of their eleven children were named in his will.  One would think that by naming his children in the will, it would be easy to trace and research each of them.  However, that is not the case!  His brother, Francis, who married Elizabeth Catlett, also had a large family at the time and it seems that quite a few of his children had the same names as some of John and Sarah’s children.  Some of the duplicate names of John and Francis’ children that I found include Richard, Zachariah, John, Elizabeth, Robert, and William.  Since all the cousins were contemporaries, I must check all facts carefully to determine which family each belongs to!  It makes research on the Taliaferro families a bit more tedious, to say the least!

Sources:

• The National Cyclopedia of American Biography:  Being the History of the United States. James T. White and Company, 1898. Vol. VIII, Page 161.
• Western Explorations in Virginia Between Leederer and Spotswood.  citing John Taliaferro in An American Family History (on-line).
• Mackenzie, George Norbury, and Nelson Osgood Rhoades, editors.  Colonial Families of the United States of America: in Which is Given the History, Genealogy, and Armorial Bearings of Colonial Families Who Settled in the American Colonies From the Time of the Settlement of Jamestown, 13th May 1607, to the Battle of Lexington, 19th April 1775. , 1607-1775.  7 Volumes, 1912.  Reprinted, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. 1966, 1995; Page: 138.
• The Kinnear’s and their kin: a memorial volume of history, biography and genealogy, with Revolution.  Ancestry.com. North American Family Histories, 1500-2000 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:  Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. (Page: 515)
• Headley, Robert K. Married Well and Often:  Marriages of the Northern Neck of Virginia, 1649-1800.  Baltimore, MD, USA:  Genealogical Publishing Co., 2003; Page: 342.
• 1717-1721 Essex County Virginia Wills, Inventories and Settlements of Estates No. 3; [John Frederick Dorman]: Pages 157-159.

#52 Ancestors   Week 16    Air

Mount Airy, North Carolina has a couple “claims to fame.”  For one, it was the birthplace and hometown of actor Andy Griffith.  In his television show, the town of Mayberry was inspired by this town of Mount Airy nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Another fact about the town is that it was the residence of Chang and Eng Bunker, the famed conjoined “Siamese Twins” who are buried just two miles from the main street.   Many of their descendants live in the area today.  In fact, the 200 acres of land acquired by Chang and Eng were previously owned by my ancestor and fifth great grandfather, Charles Dudley, in 1782!  (So very interesting!)

When I saw the prompt “Air,” I immediately thought of my ancestral Dudley Family who settled in Mount Airy, Surry County, North Carolina!  Charles Dudley and Robert Dudley, in particular, raised their families in that area.  Charles and Robert were originally from Caroline County, Virginia where Robert was born on 30 December 1772.   He was the son of Charles and Mary Dulyin.   Luckily, I can confirm Robert’s birth date as it was mentioned in his father’s Anglican Church Prayer Book and Psalms!   That was a great find, especially from the 1700s!

Before 1777, the Charles Dudley family moved to Surry County, North Carolina, just 3 miles south of the Virginia border, where Charles had received several land grants.  During the mid-to-late 1700s, the availability of land in North Carolina drew thousands of settlers from Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.  The process of patenting land in North Carolina was not really hard.  Anyone wanting to patent land just submitted an application or land entry to the land office and the land officer then issued a warrant. Surveyors surveyed the land and sketched a plat or map of the land claim which was filed in the land office or, after 1777, recorded by the county register of deeds.  Then the land patent was issued and recorded!

Charles Dudley’s first land grant Warrant of Survey is dated Nov. 21, 1777 in Surry County.  Three other grants at various dates were issued to him totaling about 1000 acres. Some of this land was on the Ararat River in Surry County and this is the river that flows through Mount Airy.  I am really puzzled as to the parentage of Charles.  One source claims he was the son of a wealthy nobleman in England but he ran away to seek adventure and went with a neighbor to America.  He established himself as a sort of sporting English Squire on his land and was a hospitable man who loved fast horses. You can read more about Charles in my post The Challenge of Finding Charles Dudley

Charles’ son Robert married a cousin named Clarissa Ross in about 1791 in North Carolina.  Clarissa was the daughter of Captain William Ross of Amherst County, VA and Rachel Coxey or Rachel Fugate (conflicting sources – needs more research!)  Clarissa’s family had also taken advantage of the land warrants offers in North Carolina.  Robert and Clarissa were both 19 when they married and went on to have ten children.  Their firstborn child was James Ransom Dudley, my third great-grandfather.  Robert and Clarissa did have their farm on Stuart Creek (Stewart’s Creek).  I found Robert’s name on the 1812 tax list for Surry County and, according to census records, they remained in the Mount Airy region.

Robert died in 1834 and left a will (see below):

The important thing to note in the will is that he wished “his property to remain as it then was and wished no division take place in the same until after the death of his wife or widow and until his daughters or children are all married.”   However, four years later in 1828, there was a sale of his personal estate and his widow Clarissa was living with her daughter Betsy and son-in-law, Hardin Herring, so the wishes of Robert were not carried out as he stated in his will.   Perhaps there was an agreement by his children and widow to dispose of his estate in this manner.   Clarissa Dudley lived until 1860.  It is quite possible that they both were buried in the Herring-Dudley Cemetery in Mount Airy, North Carolina.

Sources:

• The Heritage of Surry County; Surry County Historical Society, Family #209, P. 166.
• Connor, R. D. W. History of North Carolina-North Carolina Biographies. Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, New York, 1919, Vol. 5, p. 76.
• Charles Dudley Family Bible Record, 1749-1830; State Archives of North Carolina; North Carolina Digital Collections.
• Yates Publishing, U. S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:  Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2004.
•  Wikipedia, citing Mount Airy, North Carolina.
• Cerny, John & Mark, Gareth L: Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources; North Carolina Land Records (Ancestry.com Wiki)