James McCoy is almost lost under the weight of the stories surrounding his name. His early life remains undocumented, so I can't tell you for sure when or exactly where he was born. He is believed to have been born somewhere in Ulster, Ireland, about the year 1720. This would fit well with a proposed marriage date of 1745, to Ann Bruce, supposedly in Frederick County, Va.
An undocumented story says he arrived in Baltimore, Maryland in 1730. Either he was very young and traveled with someone, or this isn't our James McCoy. Other stories say he was a runaway, who became a stow away passenger on a ship to America. He supposedly ran away because he rode a horse too hard, causing it to stumble and fall. When the horse had to be put down, James disappeared. It's only a story, but it's fun and there might be a grain of truth in there somewhere. Another story is that he at some point prior to his marriage stayed with a "Captain Hyde", whose wife taught him to read and write. It is possible that the "Hyde" was actually a "Hite" but so far no candidate seems to fit the description exactly. Again, it's a story, which may or may not prove true. We know he came to America and we know he married Ann Bruce, daughter of John and Sarah Parrell Bruce, about 1745.
The couple is credited with having as many as ten children. Some, as early as 1753, are given birth locations as Union Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania but that is only in hindsight. In 1753, this would have been Bedford County, and then it was Westmoreland County before Fayette County was finally formed in 1783.
Wherever the McCoy's were (I've found record of them in 1777 in what became Fayette County), they were deeply affected by the attacks of the native Americans in both the French and Indian war and the Revolutionary War. James replaced his original log cabin with a fort, where neighbors gathered when the area was under attack. This appears to be Revolutionary War era, but it doesn't say how long the McCoys lived in the log cabin before the fort was built.
It is most probable that James is a Revolutionary War veteran, and also likely a French and Indian war veteran, although I've not found records yet. Several of his sons served, and since he was likely still in his mid 40's when the Revolutionary War broke out, he would at least have served in the militia. The history of this time and place is absolutely fascinating, and one can't read a book about it without feeing a tremendous admiration for the men and the women who settled and lived on the frontier, long before it was "safe" to do so.
When the first Baptist Church was founded in Uniontown, Fayette County in 1780, James was an early, if not charter, member. He was also instrumental in the building of another Baptist church, south of Uniontown, in 1787, where he was a faithful member until his death on September 30, 1801 (I've also seen 1802 as his death date). Ann died February 4, 1808, also in South Union Township.
As we know, the Baptist legacy of James McCoy lived on through his sons and grandsons and likely there are still descendants of this family who belong to that generation. There are certainly many who cling to the "Old Rugged Cross". Legacies are important, and religious legacies may be the most important of all.
The line of descent is
James McCoy-Ann Bruce
Wiiliam McCoy-Eizabeth Royse
James McCoy-Nancy Lane
Vincent McCoy-Eleanor Jackson
Nancy McCoy-George Allen
Edward Allen-Edith Knott
Richard Allen-Gladys Holbrook
Their descendants
Showing posts with label Bruce. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bruce. Show all posts
Friday, July 19, 2019
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Allen line: John Bruce 1690-1748, Immigrant
We know more about John Bruce than we do some of our other immigrant ancestors, but of course it's not enough. The timeline for his life and the history of his times would indicate that it's possible he left Scotland under duress, as a "Covenanter", but I've not found proof of that. He may have come to America for economic reasons alone.
John Bruce was born (or christened) September 7,1690 in Portsoy, Fordyce Paarish, Aberdeen, Scotland. Portsoy is a small village on the northeast coast of Scotland, with lovely cliffs overlooking the ocean, but little else in the way of natural beauty. The pictures I found on line showed no trees outside of the village and very few in town. The main occupation of the townspeople would have been fishing, and also quarrying or mining a serpentine rock that was considered so beautiful it was used both in jewelry and in the Palace of Versailles. Presumably there would be enough vegetation to raise a few sheep or goats, but it's hard to see how someone could farm and make a living there.
John's parents were Thomas Bruce and Mary Christian. He is believed to have had six brothers and sisters. There is not as much certainty about the identity of his wife. My tree shows "Sarah Parrell" but I have also seen Margaret Griffith, Margaret Frazier and Sarah Coles listed as being his wife. He may have been married more than once, but I don't have documentation for any of this. One possible explanation for the lack of knowledge may be that he spent some time in Ireland, as many Covenanters did, before emigrating to America. I have seen speculation about this but again, nothing definite.
John arrived in Chester County, Pennsylvania by about 1730. He would have been nearing the age of 40, and surely he brought his children with him. His two oldest daughters married and stayed in Chester and Bucks county, but John moved on. By 1735, he was in the area of Winchester, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley, where he received a patent for land on November 12, 1735, which was a grant from the Crown. (The policy at the time was to get this land settled, as a border against both the French and the Indians.) There are records in what was then Orange County of John suing and being sued for various debts. He is listed as a "peddler", which leads one to wonder whether he was trading with the native Americans, or whether there were enough white people in the area to support his trade at that time
Brucetown, Va. was named at least partly in his honor. This town was located 8 miles northwest of Winchester, near the border of what is now Berkley County, West Virginia. His land totalled about 255 acres. In addition to doing some peddling, John was a farmer and operated a grist mill. His lie was cut short by an epidemic that hit the area in 1748. It may have been cholera, or any of several other diseases that were all too common at the time. In his will, which had been written in 1747, he left his land to his sons George and James, who were to take care of his widow Sarah for as long as she lived. I don't have a death date for her, but she may have lived for some years.
It's not clear why his other children weren't mentioned in his will. Perhaps the daughters had been given money or other property at the time of their marriage. At any rate, by the time of John's death he had established a settlement that became a town, set up a business that George was able to grow, with the partnership of his mother in law, and had a farm that would help support the Bruce family. We can be proud to call him our ancestor.
I'd love to know more about John, and especially about his wife. When did they marry, and who was she? Was there a church established that John and his family attended?
The line of descent is:
John Bruce-Sarah Parrell
Ann Bruce-James McCoy
William McCoy-Elizabeth Royse
James McCoy-Nancy Lane
Vincent McCoy-Eleanor Jackson
Nancy McCoy-George R. Allen
Edward Allen-Edith Knott
Richard Allen-Gladys Holbrook
Their descendants
There is a lot of material about John Bruce on the Internet. I would particularly recommend "In the Footsteps of Our Ancestors", found at www.bradleyrymph.com. There is also a book which I haven't yet seen, but which is frequently referenced, called John Bruce of the Shenandoah, by Violet Laverne Bruce. Much of the information on the Internet seems to have come from that source.
John Bruce was born (or christened) September 7,1690 in Portsoy, Fordyce Paarish, Aberdeen, Scotland. Portsoy is a small village on the northeast coast of Scotland, with lovely cliffs overlooking the ocean, but little else in the way of natural beauty. The pictures I found on line showed no trees outside of the village and very few in town. The main occupation of the townspeople would have been fishing, and also quarrying or mining a serpentine rock that was considered so beautiful it was used both in jewelry and in the Palace of Versailles. Presumably there would be enough vegetation to raise a few sheep or goats, but it's hard to see how someone could farm and make a living there.
John's parents were Thomas Bruce and Mary Christian. He is believed to have had six brothers and sisters. There is not as much certainty about the identity of his wife. My tree shows "Sarah Parrell" but I have also seen Margaret Griffith, Margaret Frazier and Sarah Coles listed as being his wife. He may have been married more than once, but I don't have documentation for any of this. One possible explanation for the lack of knowledge may be that he spent some time in Ireland, as many Covenanters did, before emigrating to America. I have seen speculation about this but again, nothing definite.
John arrived in Chester County, Pennsylvania by about 1730. He would have been nearing the age of 40, and surely he brought his children with him. His two oldest daughters married and stayed in Chester and Bucks county, but John moved on. By 1735, he was in the area of Winchester, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley, where he received a patent for land on November 12, 1735, which was a grant from the Crown. (The policy at the time was to get this land settled, as a border against both the French and the Indians.) There are records in what was then Orange County of John suing and being sued for various debts. He is listed as a "peddler", which leads one to wonder whether he was trading with the native Americans, or whether there were enough white people in the area to support his trade at that time
Brucetown, Va. was named at least partly in his honor. This town was located 8 miles northwest of Winchester, near the border of what is now Berkley County, West Virginia. His land totalled about 255 acres. In addition to doing some peddling, John was a farmer and operated a grist mill. His lie was cut short by an epidemic that hit the area in 1748. It may have been cholera, or any of several other diseases that were all too common at the time. In his will, which had been written in 1747, he left his land to his sons George and James, who were to take care of his widow Sarah for as long as she lived. I don't have a death date for her, but she may have lived for some years.
It's not clear why his other children weren't mentioned in his will. Perhaps the daughters had been given money or other property at the time of their marriage. At any rate, by the time of John's death he had established a settlement that became a town, set up a business that George was able to grow, with the partnership of his mother in law, and had a farm that would help support the Bruce family. We can be proud to call him our ancestor.
I'd love to know more about John, and especially about his wife. When did they marry, and who was she? Was there a church established that John and his family attended?
The line of descent is:
John Bruce-Sarah Parrell
Ann Bruce-James McCoy
William McCoy-Elizabeth Royse
James McCoy-Nancy Lane
Vincent McCoy-Eleanor Jackson
Nancy McCoy-George R. Allen
Edward Allen-Edith Knott
Richard Allen-Gladys Holbrook
Their descendants
There is a lot of material about John Bruce on the Internet. I would particularly recommend "In the Footsteps of Our Ancestors", found at www.bradleyrymph.com. There is also a book which I haven't yet seen, but which is frequently referenced, called John Bruce of the Shenandoah, by Violet Laverne Bruce. Much of the information on the Internet seems to have come from that source.
Friday, July 18, 2014
Allen line: William McCoy 1753-1813, pastor and spinning wheel maker
If I were to keep a list of my most interesting ancestors, William McCoy would go on that list. Maybe it's because he made spinning wheels to supplement his income. Maybe it's because he fought in the Revolutionary War. Maybe it's because he was a pastor, and a pioneer. Maybe it's because this is one ancestor that we know for sure used a flatboat and the Ohio River as a means of transportation. There is much more to learn about him, but this post will tell a little of his story. .
William McCoy was born March 31, 1753 (some sources say 1754), most likely in Virginia. His parents were James Thomas McCoy from Ireland and Ann Bruce from Scotland. It is most likely that the McCoys were from Scotland, also, but they had been in Ireland for at least two generations before James Thomas came to America. We don't know if James had siblings but it is likely that he did.
As for William, most on line sites will tell you he was born in Fayette County, Pa. However, this area was not settled at that time, and in History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania by Franklin Ellis, it states that his father's land warrant there bears a date of June 14, 1769 and was surveyed September 23, 1769. This tract was called "Flint Hill" and covered 305 acres. There was a second tract of 223 acres surveyed to him the same date in September. William would have been about 16, then, when the family moved to Fayette County. James and Ann had moved their family to frontier Pennsylvania after the French and Indian War, but before the Revolutionary War. It was still a dangerous enough place because of the Indians that the first log cabin they built as a home was reconstructed as a stronger "Fort McCoy", where families from the area could gather for protection against Indians, and the McCoys then built another log cabin for their home. This area was under attack at intervals during the time period leading up to, and during the Revolutionary War.
We know that William was a private in the Pennsylvania Militia during the Revolutionary War, so he would have been called out on various alarms and patrols. He was a private in Captain Andrew Swearingen's Company, under Colonel David Williamson, in Washington County, Pa. He had married Elizabeth Royse (sometimes spelled Rice) about 1776, so it appears that the young family may have already been heading west. Many of William's fellow militia members participated in some horrible Indian massacres in 1781-1782 in "Ohio Country." William's name is not noted on compiled lists of participants, but the list may be incomplete. We will never know, probably, but we have to accept the possibility that he went, and the certainty that he would have heard about it when the troops returned.
The McCoy family was on the move again about 1788, in the flatboat trip down the Ohio. Their son Rice was supposedly born near Cincinnati, Ohio, and was one of the first white children born there, if tradition is to be believed. However, the McCoy's kept traveling (I wonder how many days Elizabeth was permitted to recover before the trip began again?) and eventually settled in Jefferson County, Kentucky, and later moved to Shelby County, Kentucky. By this time the McCoy family included William, James, Sarah, John, Isaac, Lydia, and Rice. William would marry in Shelby County.
One of the driving passions of William's life was his devotion to his Lord Jesus Christ. His father's family was Baptist, so it is natural that he also became a Baptist. I have been unable to locate anything regarding his religious training, which was likely minimal, or when he became a pastor. However, we know that beginning in the early 1800's William was frequently crossing the Ohio River into Clark County, Indiana, and preaching in cabins there. By 1809, he moved to Clark County and became the pastor of Silver Creek Baptist Church there. He still helped support the family by making spinning wheels. Because of Indian troubles, he again moved to a farm near Charlestown, where he died on September 1, 1813 and is buried in Silver Creek Cemetery near his original Indiana home. Elizabeth lived, likely with family, until 1834, and was unfortunately alive to know that several of her family, children and grandchildren, died in the 1833 cholera epidemic.
Our line of descent is:
William McCoy-Elizabeth Royce
James McCoy-Nancy Lane
Vincent McCoy-Eleanor Jackson
Nancy McCoy-George Allen
Edward Allen-Edith Knott
Richard/Edith/Vernon/Tessora/Nancy Corinne Allen
Their children, grand children, great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren
William McCoy was born March 31, 1753 (some sources say 1754), most likely in Virginia. His parents were James Thomas McCoy from Ireland and Ann Bruce from Scotland. It is most likely that the McCoys were from Scotland, also, but they had been in Ireland for at least two generations before James Thomas came to America. We don't know if James had siblings but it is likely that he did.
As for William, most on line sites will tell you he was born in Fayette County, Pa. However, this area was not settled at that time, and in History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania by Franklin Ellis, it states that his father's land warrant there bears a date of June 14, 1769 and was surveyed September 23, 1769. This tract was called "Flint Hill" and covered 305 acres. There was a second tract of 223 acres surveyed to him the same date in September. William would have been about 16, then, when the family moved to Fayette County. James and Ann had moved their family to frontier Pennsylvania after the French and Indian War, but before the Revolutionary War. It was still a dangerous enough place because of the Indians that the first log cabin they built as a home was reconstructed as a stronger "Fort McCoy", where families from the area could gather for protection against Indians, and the McCoys then built another log cabin for their home. This area was under attack at intervals during the time period leading up to, and during the Revolutionary War.
We know that William was a private in the Pennsylvania Militia during the Revolutionary War, so he would have been called out on various alarms and patrols. He was a private in Captain Andrew Swearingen's Company, under Colonel David Williamson, in Washington County, Pa. He had married Elizabeth Royse (sometimes spelled Rice) about 1776, so it appears that the young family may have already been heading west. Many of William's fellow militia members participated in some horrible Indian massacres in 1781-1782 in "Ohio Country." William's name is not noted on compiled lists of participants, but the list may be incomplete. We will never know, probably, but we have to accept the possibility that he went, and the certainty that he would have heard about it when the troops returned.
The McCoy family was on the move again about 1788, in the flatboat trip down the Ohio. Their son Rice was supposedly born near Cincinnati, Ohio, and was one of the first white children born there, if tradition is to be believed. However, the McCoy's kept traveling (I wonder how many days Elizabeth was permitted to recover before the trip began again?) and eventually settled in Jefferson County, Kentucky, and later moved to Shelby County, Kentucky. By this time the McCoy family included William, James, Sarah, John, Isaac, Lydia, and Rice. William would marry in Shelby County.
One of the driving passions of William's life was his devotion to his Lord Jesus Christ. His father's family was Baptist, so it is natural that he also became a Baptist. I have been unable to locate anything regarding his religious training, which was likely minimal, or when he became a pastor. However, we know that beginning in the early 1800's William was frequently crossing the Ohio River into Clark County, Indiana, and preaching in cabins there. By 1809, he moved to Clark County and became the pastor of Silver Creek Baptist Church there. He still helped support the family by making spinning wheels. Because of Indian troubles, he again moved to a farm near Charlestown, where he died on September 1, 1813 and is buried in Silver Creek Cemetery near his original Indiana home. Elizabeth lived, likely with family, until 1834, and was unfortunately alive to know that several of her family, children and grandchildren, died in the 1833 cholera epidemic.
Our line of descent is:
William McCoy-Elizabeth Royce
James McCoy-Nancy Lane
Vincent McCoy-Eleanor Jackson
Nancy McCoy-George Allen
Edward Allen-Edith Knott
Richard/Edith/Vernon/Tessora/Nancy Corinne Allen
Their children, grand children, great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren
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