McKinney and Geertsema Map

Today's project takes me to the WV archives in the Capital complex in Charleston, WV.  Harriet, Bruce and I have been chatting about the hopes that finding where the McKinney land was and who lived in the same neighborhood might lead to some clues on finding out if there is a possible link to our George McKinsey in Newberry SC and the McKinney family found in the area around Hopewell MM.

Much to my disappointment, the only Geertsema map available at the WV archives is Glengary Quadrangle.  Harriet has told me that the one that we want to look at is Inwood Quadrangle.

(If you have trouble viewing the below, double click the image or go to the link)

http://geology.er.usgs.gov/eespteam/Karst/tasks/Shenandoah/geologic_maps/inwood.html

You can see from the above map that a person residing in the Inwood Quadrant could have lived in areas that are now Berkeley WV, Jefferson WV, or Frederick County, Va.   Frederick County came into existence as a political subdivision of Orange County, Va on December 21, 1738.  Over time, Old Frederick County was subdivided into Twelve counties.  There is a good map of this subdivision with dates in Wilmer Kerns' Historical Records of Old Frederick and Hampshire Counties, Virginia (revised) that is in the armoire in my living room.  Berkeley was created in 1772 and Jefferson was created out of Berkeley in 1801.  According to the map, George and Margaret McKenny would have been living in Old Frederick County when they originally bought their land and when they sold the land in 1771. Berkeley County was not created until the year after they sold the land to Thomas Campbell.

Harriet sent me a link to directlinesoftware.com with pages that are Deed Mapper deed data Pool for Old Frederick County.  The McKinsey/McKenney names that are mentioned are Tully and George.  I will try to get my Deed Mapper up and running and take a look at the plats that have been mapped and add it here.  

At the WV archives I looked at a book with title of  Frederick County Deeds 1771-1775 abstracted and compiled by Amelia C. Gilreath.  Here is the abstraction found for George McKinney on page 17 of this book:

Bk 15, P 92-6 Aug 1771

    [Lease]  Between George McKenny of the County of Frederick [to] Thomas Campbell of the said county.....consideration of five shillings.....Tract of Land of Musty Handley....Containing one hundred and ninety four Acres Granted to said George McKenny by Deed from the Hand and Seal of the Right Honorable Thomas Lord Fairfax the 18th Oct 1756....Yielding and Paying rent of one pepper corn on Lady day next.....

Wit: Jacob Sowers, Jun                     George (O) McKennie

      Thos. Wood

Recorded:  7 Aug 1771

Bk. 15, p. 93--7 Aug 1771

    [Release] Between George McKennie and Margaret his wife of County of Frederick [to] Thomas Campbell of the said county .....consideration of one hundred and thirty pounds....194 acres (same as above)....

Wit: same as above              George (O) McKennie

This date of sale would work very well with the date of purchase of George McKinsey in SC:

 George McKinsey settled in SC on 8 Jan 1773 as evidenced by a land deed.  It reads in part, George McKinsey of Craven County in the Province of South Carolina, paid 250 pounds to Thomas Shaw for 150 acres of land more or less, 8 January 1773.  This land was bought in the 13th year of the Reign of King George III.  Note: In 1683 Craven County as shown on the deed was one of the first couties extablished  in SC.  All three couties were later abolished.  This area was made District Ninety Six in 1769.  In 1798 it became the present county of Newberry, SC.

In Feb 2013, Bruce Locken sent me the Geertsema map of Inwood Quadrant.  Below is a portion of Mr. Geertsema's map that is in Inwood Quadrant.  Bruce wrote in some of the names of the neighbors of the McKinnie family.  It is clear from what Bruce has sent me that George McKinsey's land adjoined that of Richard Marchant and that another very close neighbor was Patrick Duncan.  Other neighbors that I recognize from my research on the families in Newberry County are Reason Reagan and Evan Thomas.  

We do not know yet if Patrick Duncan is a father to Nelson Duncan or other relative.  Nelson Duncan is the man who lives next door to George McKinsey in Newberry County, South Carolina.  We do know for sure that  Reason Reagan is a neighbor to George McKinsey in South Carolina.  George's son, Mordecai marries Reason's daughter Catherine.  

There is no doubt that we are accumulating very good information that would indicate that our George in South Carolina is most probably the son of the George and Margaret McKinney who are living on this land in Virginia in the mid 1700's.  The date of the sale of the land in Virginia is EXCELLENT for the selling of land for a man who then buys land in SC in 1773.   George McKinsey and Nelson Duncan each buy portions of land from Thomas Shaw in Newberry County.  Nelson Duncan is said to have bought the SW portion of Thomas Shaw's land while George McKinsey bought the remaining portion.  It remains to be seen for absolute sure that Nelson Duncan is related to Patrick Duncan, but I believe that we have enough evidence to spend some time researching this area trying to prove parents for the George McKinsey who married Sarah Moore.  Could Patrick/Nelson and George moved with their families from Frederick County together?  

I believe that we have enough clues to continue to look for connections between Frederick County, Va and Newberry County, SC for our McKinsey line.

Bruce sent me the following information about the original grant to this George McKennie:

Bruce also reminded me of the information that Harriet had sent previously about George McKennie in Virginia and his neighborhood:  

The neighborhood of "Virginia George" had a remarkable number of SC connections.  Edward Thomas purchased or was granted four separate tracts around Turkey Run (Jefferson Co WV side of Opequon).  He and wife Sarah sold 3 of them while living in VA, and the last one on 10 Jun 1766 after having moved to Bush River (Frederick Co VA Deed Book 5, p. 246).  Richard Merchant/Marchant lived adjacent to George McKennie, on the north side of Mill Creek.  His will was proven in Frederick Co VA on 1 Sep 1752.  His daughter Mary B. Merchant married Jonathon Taylor at Hopewell MM; they moved their certificate from Hopewell to Bush River on 6 Jun 1768 (not in the Bush River minutes, because it wasn't a MM yet, but their family record is included).  Hopewell MM issued 8 certificates of removal in 1768-9 for family groups (Hollingsworth, Pugh, Barrett, Ruble, etc.) heading for Bush River, despite its being unsettled as an MM by then.  They probably had to present the certificates at Camden/Wateree MM in order to get accepted as constituent members of Bush River MM.  The certificates from Hopewell to Bush River continued throughout the 1770's, just not so many families together as in 1768.

Richard Merchant Jr. was disowned by Hopewell on 3 Jan 1763 for "training in militia and fighting".  He sold his VA land in 1771 and headed for the Saluda River after that.  He turned up in the Edgefield Co SC records after the war, and it's not clear when he got there.  Thomas Anderson also lived along Mill Creek from 1734, died there in 1747.  His son James sold his VA lands (granted and inherited) on 28 Nov 1763 from his new residence in Berkeley Co SC--he was on the Saluda River, but at Ninety-Six (Edgefield Co from 1785, now Greenwood Co).

Certainly it is very interesting that neighbr Richard Merchant, Jr. sold his land the very same year that George and Margaret McKinsey sold their land in Virginia.

See my blog entry dated 

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2012

for more information about Edward Thomas's land in Virginia.