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