Tuckahoes and Cohees

Ronald, one of my Morrison buddies has folklore in his family that his Morrison line was Tuckahoe Dutch.  So I am always looking out for the use of the word.  I am reading Waddell's Annals of Augusta County tonight and here is what is said on page 27:

At an early day, the people living on the east side of the Blue Ridge received the soubriquet of Tuckahoes, from a small stream of that name, it is said, while the people on the west side were denominated Cohees, from their common use of the term "Quoth he" and Quoth her" for "said he"

Paxton/Paxtang Pennsylvania and the Michael Woods family

 I do not want to forget that I have a slideshow named McNeely that has more information on this as well as a pages document named Michael Woods family that I should look at if I am reviewing this information at a later time.  I did not transfer all of the information from these documents while working on this blog post.  

I have been working a bit on the FAN club of the McNeely family.  Elizabeth Shown Mills is the researcher who introduced the term and I am probably not saying it perfectly but you will get the idea:  Family/Friends, Associates, Neighbors of the family that one is researching.

I have particularly been looking at Michael Woods because of the fact that when Robert McNeely died in 1764 in Albemarle County, there is no doubt that the Woods family are a very important part of the FAN club.  The witnesses were: 

Michael Woods, Jr.  James Woods, and William Woods.  The will was dated September 1756

 I chose Michael Woods because he seems to be well known in many accounts while our McNeely family is not mentioned as much.  So I found by good luck the following a week or so ago:

Paxtang/Paxton is a suburb of Harrisburg today

This was in a card catalogue of some sort for Mennonite records.  Definitely Michael Woods was not Mennonite but likely he had neighbors or relatives who were or had married someone connected to the Mennonite church.  This is definitely OUR Michael Woods.  And the important piece of information is that he arrived in Lancaster County 1724 and stayed there for 10 years before his move to Goochland County.  And he was living in Paxtang which is also called Paxton.  This area is no longer a part of Lancaster County.  However in 1724 Lancaster County was pretty much everything west of the three original Counties in PA.  Paxtang/Paxton is now a suburb of Harrisburg and is in Dauphine County.  But it is highly likely that the families who moved with Michael Woods and group had either come from Ireland with him or had met him in Paxtang/Paxton….so I think it is fun to poke around to see who we can find there.  I am starting this search by buying a book called A History of Paxton Church by Morton Graham Glise.  When I finish reading it, I will share what I have learned.  It is a very interesting area that was full of Scots-Irish in the early years.  Our McNeely family were gone by the time the incident with the Paxton Boys happened, but if you read about that incident you will get a feeling for the area.  There were all sorts of Indian problems in the area.  Particularly the Scots-Irish and the Indians had problems.  And it is possible that the Indian problems were part of what caused Michael Woods’ group to move to Virginia.

The Next is from:  https://www.lowerpaxton-pa.gov/248/History

Paxton Township was created in 1729 within Lancaster County. Organized long before the City of Harrisburg, it was at that time about the size of Dauphin County.  

and

Settling within the township during its colonial period were many German and Scotch-Irish immigrants. They established several farms and settlements throughout the area which eventually developed into the township's three villages. 

A few thoughts that I don't want to loose:

On page 14 is an explanation of the Scotch-Irish that includes: "England would have a colony there that would be an asset and a helpmeet,  This plan was put into effect with attractive offers being made to those who would leave their native Scotland, or England, and move to Ulster.  Those wishing to make the move were carefully screened.  Certain standards of selection were strictly set forth.  This was no venture for the poor, nor for the timid, nor for those whose political loyalties to the British Crown were questionalble. Certain conditions were set forth for the "Undertakers""  The "Undertakers" were those who had accepted the challenge to migrate to Northern Ireland.  In exchange for large tracts of land, 1000 to 3000 actres, the Undertakers agreed to build a stone or brick house, a barn, a fortified enclosure and enough weapons to arm 24 men.  A nominal yearly rent was to be paid to the Crown.  Contrary to original plans, more Scottish people responded than English; but the plan was successful.  The Scots who responded were almost exclusively from the Lowland area.  They were people who themselves had long been accustomed to confrontation with clansmen who were raiders, pillagers, cattle thieves, rapists and murders.  Henry Jones Ford says in his books, The Scotch-Irish in America p. 91 "Hardened by perpetual contact with barbarism, the Lowlanders had no scruples about making merciless reprisals.  The people were hard; the law was hard. The Scots were as fit as any people in the world for such an undertaking.

The next paragraph says:  The list of Scottish applicants who first received Ulster allotments in 1610 contains many family names similar to those who eventually made up the roll of Paxton Church.  We find names such as:  James Hamilton, Andrew Steward, Thomas Boyd, George Murray, John Brown, Alexander Cunningham, William Baillie, John Craig, Robert Lindsay and many others..... 

Now, all of that said, if the McNeely family was from Antrim, none of the above applies to them as the Counties of Antrim and Down were privately settled and not a part of the plantation.  Among the many men who acquired land in County Antrim, two, Arthur Chichester and Randall MacDonall, were responsible for encouraging the most people to settle there

Mero district of TN and William Morrison's family

 The Mero District of TN is the part of TN outlined in Red in the below map.  It is where Nashville is now located.  

William and Rachel Witcher Morrison may have moved to Middle TN at one time.  There are a couple of things that point to that possibility.  One is that Patrick Henry (son of William and Rachel) said that he was with a group that tracked Indians who had stolen their horses in Giles County, Va to what is now the Salt Rock Community in Cabell County.  They found the horses and returned home.  Patrick Henry liked the area so much that he and his brothers and sister traveled through the Cumberland Gap to settle at Salt Rock in what is now Cabell County, WV.  

If you look at a map, you will see that it makes no sense that the family traveled through the Cumberland Gap from Pittsylvania County to what is now Cabell County.  This statement only makes sense if the family had traveled through the Cumberland Gap between middle TN and Green County TN or Pittsylvania County, VA....and that that place had made a big impression on Patrick Henry.  So that he included it in his information about his families move.

The Cumberland gap is located just north of the word Tennessee that is farthest to the right in the above map.

The other piece of information that would lend credence to this idea is information given to me by Luan:

There were so many William Morrisons in what was briefly "Mero District," perhaps as many as six or seven from the late 1790s. I couldn't attribute any of the other Morrisons there as being H2s. But it wasn't for lack of trying.

The William Morrison, of Mero District, attorney for Patrick Morrison in Greene County in 1795 is the link of a William Morrison to H2 Patrick and to middle Tennessee. I believe that is why the Roane County loose papers said Patrick's son William Morrison went west, unless there was a family story of William's migration.

Luan

I am not clear when William and Rachel left Greene County TN to move to Metro district (if they did).  I do know that Daniel Witcher (father of Tandy Witcher) was living in Smith County, TN when he died in 1815.  Smith County would fall into the Mero District of TN.  Daniel would have been an uncle to Rachel Witcher Morrison.  It is possible that several relatives had all moved together to Mero district.

But now the piece of information that I wanted to save.  I have told the story that the reason that William and Rachel Witcher Morrison moved back to Pittsylvania County was that Rachel said to William:  "Honey, I want to go home.  I am tired of worrying about the Indians.  My father and mother are getting old.  I want them to see our pretty children.  I want to go home and take care of them,"  And William said OK.  Of course, that is made up....but it has been my story.  Here is information supporting the part about the Indians:  (you may have to manipulate it in order to read it...I had to make it large to be readable)

Scotch-Irish in the Shenandoah Valley

I am reading The Tinkling Spring Headwater of Freedom by Howard McKnight Wilson.  On page 19 I found the following:  "Between 1732 and 1738 the lands of the southern shenandoah Valley were settled without formal claim or title.  However, the settlers staked out the lands each desired and settle upon them.  Though they built their cabins and began to improve upon the lands, in the absence of claims they constituted a "Squatters Right".  When Beverley secured the patent covering the same territory, it appears that he dealt peaceably with the settlers.  Beverley needed settlers and the settlers needed legal titles to their homesteads, so he and the early settlers traded for an average of one English pound for forty acres.  however, when the Augusta County Court was established in 1745 the price to new settlers was almost doubled.

Later in the book (page 25) the author says that William Beverley had patented Beverley Manor in 1736 and began selling land in 1738.  Page 25 also lists families and where they were living prior to the selling of the land.

Then next page explain that Beverley had applied for his land in 1732.  Soon there were neighboring settlements to the west and the southwest.  The Borden grant was southwest.  The Ephraim McDowell Clan arrived in Beverley Manor in the fall of 1737.  Benjamin Borden followed only slightly after this date and received hospitality at the McDowell's for the night.  He asked them for assistance in locating and settling lands to the southwest of the James River.  Benjamin Borden had already been granted land by the Virginia Council.  John McDowell (son of Ephraim) was a surveyor.  He agreed to guide Borden to the land he sought in exchange for 1000 acres within the Borden claim.  In Nov 1739 Borden obtained his 92,000 acres for 92 settlers.

In the same period, William Beverley was handling another claim before the council at Williamsburg for 30,000 acres on the tributaries of the James to the west of the Beverley Manor.  He was in correspondence with Captain James Patton of Scotland concerning the securing and transporting of settlers.  Did James Patton bring mostly Scotch-Irish or did he also bring Scots?

It is very interesting to me where James Patton was bringing in his Scotch-Irish passengers.  His ship would dock at Hobbs Hole.  It took a bit of research to figure out where that was.  Unfortunately I could not find documentation for this idea.  And there were other possible ports mentioned for the docking of James Patton's ships.

However, Tinkling Spring book says that the tradition that Patton made numerous trips to Hobb's Hole in Virginia, bringing Scots from Ulster, Ireland is not borne out by the shipping returns on the Potomac 1735-1756, where ship owners and ship masters were listed on both incoming and outgoing ships.  Patton's name is found there only once and that, as master of the ship on which he brought his family among the ship's sixty-five passengers.

Those who disembarked upon reaching Hobb's Hole on the Rappahannock Ricer were Patton and wife and two children, John Preston and wife and four children, and some fifty-six personal and indentured servant. It is thought that these last were imported to seat the 30,000 acre tract on Calfpasture river .  After this one-way voyage another ship master returned the ship and the Patton family stayed in Virginia.

And the maps on this blog post will help visualize the land described in the opening paragraph.

http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2022/04/shenandoah-valley-and-rockfish-gap.html

James Hawkins married to Jane Bourne

This newspaper article was posted on a Facebook site today.