George McKinsey's parents

Bruce Lockin and I and others have often guessed at possible parents of our mutual George McKinsey.  We first find George in Newberry County, SC during the Revolutionary War with a family.  You can find more information about George and his family by using McKinsey as a search term in the search box in the top left hand corner.

One clue that we have looked at is that George had one surviving child when the census of 1880 was taken.  That was Naomi who married Mordecai Spray and said that she was 77 when the census taker asked her age.  Naomi said that her father was born in Virginia.  I have at least one other blog post about the possibility that George's parents were in the area of Virginia in what was old Frederick County, Virginia in the northern part of the state.

However I have a few other thoughts that I would like to add until I find proof of "for sure" parents for George.  This is just a list of misc ideas that I do not want to loose.

One is that there was an Alexander McKenzie transported because of his involvement in the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion.  The transportation of this Alexander McKenzie can be found on the transcription of the prisoners aboard the ship Elizabeth & Ann at:

http://www.immigrantships.net/v2/1700v2/elizabeth&ann17160114.html

The home page for the guild that does these transcriptions is:

http://www.immigrantships.net/index.html

A researcher who is no longer alive, Martha McKinsey Wallace,  put forth the information in a book that George McKinsey was born in Scotland in 1752 and came to the Colonies the following year with his parents.  This would, of course, rule out the possibility that George descended from this Alexander McKenzie.  However, no one has ever found documentation to support Ms. Wallace's information.  The 1830 census of Warren County Ohio indicates that George was born between 1760 and 1770 as he is said to be older than 60 but younger than 70.  George died in 1840 before the census was taken, so we do not have a later census to corroborate those dates.  This would not support Ms. Wallace's date for his birth.  

If George was the ancestor of Alexander who was transported, he would likely have been grandson rather than son as Alexander must have been at least 18 in 1715.  If he married on these shores in the next ten years.....likely to have been married c. 1725.  Sons born in the next 20 years would have had children in years from 1745 to 1765....well these are just guesses.  But if I look at this man, I will not expect him to be father to George.  There is an Alexander McKenzie 

When I was at the Handley Library in Fall 2005 I looked at Wilmer Kern's 

book:  Frederick County, Virginia:  Settlement and Some First Families 

of Back Creek Valley 1730-1830.

On page 16, there is a list of men whose signatures indicated that they 

had participated in the communion (Eucharist) during 1761-1763.  This 

area would have been in Orange County before 1738 when Old Frederick was 

formed from land that had been part of Orange County.  These men were 

protestant.  Among the names is that of John McKensie. 

I have added a document to the multimedia spot that shows a George McKinney in a list just under an Edward Thomas in Frederick County, Va in 1761

Also, in Hinshaw there is mention of an Alexander McKinsey:

 p. 198 Hinshaw's Va Volume

 Makensey    Henrico Monthly Meeting (Henrico seems to be in the
 Richmond, VA area--but covering a larger area along the James River
 and up into what is now Louisa County....really there seems to be a
 fairly large area)
 
 1699,6, 17  Alexander com (complained, complained of)
 1700, 2, 25  Alex signed cert of a m. at Curles MH
 1710,5,15  Alexd still a mbr as proven when his vote was recorded
 1711,2,6  Alexander dis (dismissed)
 
 I looked to see if there were any family names that I recognize from
 Newberry among the members of Henrico MM.  It would seem that the family names in Newberry were more likely on the Opequon area than the Henrico area.

Also note that this Alex Makensy was on these shores BEFORE the Alex McKenzie who was transported.

Harriet Imrey sent us information that shores up the Old Frederick County theory:

This voting list will probably interest you.  Men named Edward Thomas and George McKenny cast their oral votes for Col. George Washington in adjacent order.  They were also adjacent for their second candidate, Col. Adam Stephen.  Candidate Col. George Mercer was the one they skipped.  Winners were Washington (505 votes) and Mercer (399 votes); Stephen got 294.

 

Marsha and I share the opinion that this was the "same Edward Thomas" who appeared together with Nehemiah Thomas on 7 Apr 1767 to petition for land on the Bush River (Newberry Co).  Nehemiah had wife Abigail with him, Edward had 3 dependents.  They had previously lived in Orange Co NC, where Abigail Moore was disowned by the Cane Creek MM for marrying non-Quaker Nehemiah Thomas.  Abigail managed to get her membership restored by correspondence from SC.  Her husband Nehemiah was buried at the Bush River Quaker cemetery, although never an active member of the MM.

 

If Abigail's niece Sarah Moore and Sarah's husband George McKinsey were practicing-anything, it was most likely the local Dunker church, only a few miles distant from Bush River MM.  Col. Daniel Clary and his family were Dunkers.  Clary's sister Cassandra Summers had one of the earliest still-legible gravestones there.  Another gravestone was for Timothy Thomas, some kind of cousin to Nehemiah and with a migration from Frederick Co VA (Hopewell MM) through Orange Co NC (Cane Creek MM).  Abel Thomas, brother of Timothy, was a charter member of Bush River MM.  All those Thomas-folks had Quaker origins, but several dropped out along the way, usually became one sort of Baptist or another (including Dunker Baptist).  The second pastor of the Bush River Dunker church was Giles Chapman Jr., also from Frederick Co VA via Orange Co NC.  The Rev. Giles had enlisted in a Loyalist regiment in 1779, a Whig militia company in 1781.  Definitely not a practicing-Quaker, although a number of his family members joined Bush River MM, were disowned when they enlisted or married-out.

 

Harriet