Introduction to the Nine Essays on Early Todd/McMurtry/Hutton Origins (also a Todd/McQuiddy/McKee connection) May 2003, July 2005; May 2006; March 2012; May 2019
This series of nine essays was written in an effort to sort out fact from myth in the family traditions of the McMurtry family of New Jersey, Virginia and Kentucky, and its connection with the Todd and Hutton family with which the McMurtrys intermarried during their settlement in Virginia. There is also a brief discussion of the Todd/McQuiddy/McKee connections in Virginia and Kentucky. These essays summarize the traditions, the documentary evidence, and the correspondence associated with several of these family origin traditions. They attempt to discern how the traditions evolved and to determine what is the most accurate description of the early family relationships. This 2019 version seeks to correct the errors introduced in early versions of this essay.
The essays deal primarily with five families: 1. William Todd of Philadelphia County prior to 1723 who came to Augusta County, VA ca 1750 2. Robert and Andrew Todd, brothers who settled in colonial Philadelphia and Chester County, Pennsylvania and whose descendants spread to Virginia and Kentucky. 3. John McMurtry, orphan of Alexander McMurtry, who was raised by his mother Sarah and his step-father James Young after 1751 in the Whistle Creek area of Augusta County, VA and went to Kentucky in 1780. 4. James McMurtry who came from New Jersey and settled in Bedford County, VA prior to 1754. His sons, Joseph and William McMurtry, went to Kentucky ca 1780 and settled next door to John McMurtry. James may have married Hannah Todd, daughter of William Todd, and some say he first married a Nancy Todd. 5. Robert, Andrew, James, John and William Todd who settled in Somerset County, New Jersey about 1735. 6. James and Samuel Hutton who settled in Augusta County. Samuel married Mary Todd, daughter of William Todd, and went to Kentucky ca 1780. Their daughter Mary married John McMurtry. James Hutton may have migrated to South Carolina. 7. Robert McQuiddy married Mary Gaines in 1752 in Stafford County, Virginia. Their son William McQuiddy in Kentucky married Alice McKee, daughter of Lydia Todd and James McKee of Rockbridge County, Virginia.
The essays focus on (1) the confused traditions relating to the McMurtrys of Augusta and Bedford Counties, Virginia, (2) the confused traditions of the Todds of Augusta and Bedford Counties, Virginia, (3) the traditions concerning Todd-McMurtry-Hutton connections in Virginia, (4) the traditions and relationships concerning Todd families of Pennsylvania-Virginia and the Todds of Somerset County, New Jersey. There is also overview survey of the Todd family origins throughout America uncovered during the search for Virginia Todd origins. Lastly there are relevant excerpts from the Emilie Todd Helm Papers at the Kentucky Historical Society.
The essays are: 1. Essays on Early Todd/McMurtry/Hutton Origins (introduction to the essay series) 2. The Family of William Todd of Pennsylvania and Augusta/Bedford County, VA 3. Correcting the Traditions of Samuel Todd of Augusta/Botetourt Counties, VA 1 4. The Making of the Todd Family History as reflected in the Emilie Todd Helm Papers 5. The Evolving Family Tradition of McMurtry-Todd-Hutton Connection in the Letters of Miss Myra McMurtry 6. The Nancy Todd-Hannah Todd-James McMurtry marriage tradition and the Letters of Dr. William McMurtry 7. The Identity of Mary Hutton’s father (John McMurtry’s father-in-law) 8. The Todds of New Jersey and Relationship to the Todds of PA-KY and the Todds of PA-VA 9. The Todd Family in America
As background for the entire series, the family traditions and the relationships as we now know them are compared in the following tables. The end of this essay provides a thumbnail sketch of each of the eight essays.
Family Traditions Compared With Family Relationships
Below are four sets of family charts. Each set has one chart to show the family relationships as reflected in the tradition and one chart to show what we now understand to be the correct relationships.
Dr. Simeon Seymour Todd made (or reported) an incorrect synthesis of documentary evidence and family traditions in describing the relationships between the McMurtrys who appeared in the public records . 1a. The INCORRECT VERSION of the McMurtries of Augusta County and Bedford County per Dr. S.S. Todd
Josep h McM ______|______| | | | | Joseph McM James McM John McM Samuel M cM Sarah McM ______|____ | Md 1751 | | Capt John James Young McM Joseph William 1738-1790 =>KY => KY =>KY 1780 1b. The McMurtries of Augusta County and Bedford County as currently understood
Joseph McM Sarah McM ______|____ Md 1) Alexander McMurtry | | 2) James Young 1751
Joseph McM James McM ______|____ Md 1759 Md ca 1750 | | Susannah D 1771 ___ Capt John McM Samuel McM Patton _____|___ 1738-1790 1744-1796 | | m Mary Hutton Md 1762 Jean Martin ca 1770 Joseph William =>KY 1780 =>SC 1765 => KY => KY
As shown in chart 1a above, Dr. S.S. Todd claimed (1) that Joseph McMurtry of Philadelphia had five children: Joseph, James, John, Samuel and Sarah, (2) that James in Bedford County had two sons, William and Joseph who went to Kentucky, (3) that Samuel
2 McM was the father of Capt. John McMurtry who went to Kentucky, and (4) that Sarah McM md James Young in 1751.
In reality, as shown in chart 1b, Joseph and James were brothers to each other, but not to the rest; Sarah McMurtry was the widow of Alexander McMurtry, not a McMurtry by birth; and Samuel McMurtry and Capt John McMurtry were brothers, not father and son.
2. The Todds of Augusta County and Bedford County
Some family historians reported that William and Samuel Todd of Augusta County were brothers to Robert and Andrew Todd of Philadelphia and Chester County, Pennsylvania.
2a INCORRECT VERSION of William and Samuel Todd’s relationship to Robert and Andrew Todd of PA as reported by various Todd family historians
John Todd ______|______| | | | |
Robert Todd Andrew Todd James Todd Samuel Todd William Todd Remained in 1690-1754 =>Augusta Ireland m Ann Houston Co 1750 | =>Bedford | Co 1760 ______|______| | | | | Samuel Todd Sarah Todd Isabella Todd Esther Todd Nancy Todd md| md md md Md Jean Lowery John Houston Patrick Young John Taylor James McMurtry
Of Bedford Co
2b Relationship between William and Robert/Andrew Todd as currently hypothesized
Mr. Todd ______|____ ? __ | | | Andrew Todd William Todd (brother or cousin?) Robert Todd 1697-1775 D 1791 B ca 1700=>Philadelphia Co by 1723 =>Augusta Co 1750 =>Bedford Co 1760
______|______| | | | | | | | | | |
Low Eliz James Mary Sarah Hannah Alice Lydia Wm Samuel John 1723 1724/5 1726 1728 b 1729/30 1731/2 1734 1736 1738 1739 1746 1792 1789 md d-1795 md ? d 1811 1812 1829 TN Sam’l md 1755? md md John James md Hutton James ca1761 Eliz. Houston McMurtry McKee Jean or Samuel Lowery Davis
3 Origins In Ireland
Emily Todd Helm thought that her ancestor John Todd father of Robert 1697-1775 was the John Todd who died in Co Down in 1704 and left children Robert, Andrew and James. However, these brothers did not leave Ireland and DNA from this family shows that they are not related to Mary Todd Lincolns forebears. Emily may have gotten this idea from her correspondence with a descendant of this County Down family that settled in Louisville in 1821.
George Seilhamer, who published Emily Todd Helms manuscript in the Kittochtinny Magazine in 1905, reviewed a number of Irish wills and concluded that John Todd d 1704 could not be the father of Emily’s forebears but that a John Todd d 1718 in Tynan, Co Armagh, was the father. John d 1718 left a will that named sons James d 1757, Samuel, William, Robert and half brother Andrew. George seems to have based his conclusion on the Andrew being a half-brother and he dismissed the fact that John Todd d 1718 was an Anglican, not a Presbyterian. Seilhamer also noted that William Todd baptized children at the Abingdon Presbyterian Church 1736 and 1738 and wondered if he might be a brother to Robert and Andrew. He said nothing about the son Samuel. The fact that this family was Anglican is sufficient cause to doubt that John d 1718 was the father of Emily’s forebears. Also, the DNA pattern of the Todds matches the Todds of Co Antrim, suggesting that a Todd living in that area who left no will was the likely progenitor of Emily’s family.
Arrival In America
Arthur McFarland, a grandson of Robert Todd 1697-1775 writing to Dr. Andrew Todd in Kentucky in 1833 reported that Robert and Andrew Todd came to America in 1737 landing in New York with Robert coming directly to the portion of Philadelphia County that became Montgomery County and Andrew settling later in Chester County. We have found no record of these Todds in New York, but we do find a Robert Todd in the New Jersey Supreme Court records for Hunterdon County in the 1740s and 1750s. Robert’s son David married at the Abingdon Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia County in 1749 when Robert appears to be still in Hunterdon County. We also find Robert in the Chester County tax lists in 1755 and then in Philadelphia County by 1760 and we find Andrew arriving in Chester County by 1760. So the McFarland letter is basically correct except for a few details.
McFarland makes no mention of William Todd nor John Todd. We find William and John having children baptized at the Abingdon Presbyterian Church in the 1720s and 1730s (the same church where Robert’s son David Todd married in 1749; and we find William, John and Robert in New Jersey Supreme Court cases in the 1740s (Robert in the 1750s) in Hunterdon County across the river from Philadelphia County. Since William’s granddaughter married a grandson of Robert Todd 1697 and since the DNA of William and Robert’s descendants match each other, we conclude that William was a close relative – either a brother or cousin. We are not sure of the fate of John Todd, but he may be the John Todd d 1799 who arrives in Mecklenburg Co NC in 1766. His DNA differs from the Robert Todd family by 2 mutations suggesting a common ancestor at least 2 generations prior to the birth of Robert b 1697 and possibly further back in time.
Other Todd Families
4 By a strange coincidence, there was a family of Todds in Somerset County New Jersey of similar names and ages, but not the same family as that of Robert Todd 1697-1775. This Somerset County family consisted of five brothers – Robert, Andrew, James, John and William – and an unnamed sister who appear in the Janeway Store records in Bound Brook NJ as early as 1735. Some of these remained in Somerset Co, but the others seemed to disperse, some to New York. DNA shows that the Somerset Co NJ Todds are not related to the Robert Todd 1697-1775 family.
There was also a family of Todds in Hunterdon County that differed genetically from the family of Emily Todd Helm by one mutation. This suggests that this family was an Irish immigrant family just like most of the other Todds though it could be an offshoot of the Robert b 1697 family.
William Todd
William Todd of the Abington church records had a son Low Todd b 1723 and these are assumed to be the ones who settled in Augusta Co, VA since William and Low show up in the records there in 1750. Furthermore, Samuel Todd of Augusta and Botetourt Counties, Virginia was the son of this William Todd, not the son of a Samuel Todd and Ann Houston, as a Todd family historian claimed. John 1746-1829 is assumed here to be son of William because he sold half of William’s land in 1772.
As to the Samuel Todd who married Ann Houston, there is no documentary evidence to confirm the existence of this Todd-Houston marriage and there is some evidence that it is a confusion with another family tradition.
As far as the sisters Isabella, Esther and Nancy, we have only family tradition to suggest they are Todds, but no evidence other than geography and dates to connect them with William Todd. The tradition that Nancy Todd married James McMurtry is discussed in detail in the essay on the letters of William McMurtry.
3a McMurtry, McQuiddy, McKee Tradition as reported by Myra McMurtry from S.S.Todd
W illiam Todd ______|______| | | Daughter md a Daughter md a Daughter McMurtry McQuiddy Md (assumed Nancy Todd (assumed David McQuiddy md A McKee md James McMurtry) Mary (Todd) Gain es
3b McMurtry, McQuiddy, McKee Relationships in the McKee family
Lydia Todd 1736 –1811 md James McKee 1726 -1778 ______|______| | | Polly 1774 Alice 1753 Martha McKee md 1795 md Didn’t marry James McMurtry Wm McQuiddy
5 In the family tradition that Myra McMurtry reportedly received from Dr. S. S. Todd, there was a William Todd who had three daughters who married 1750-1760 – one married a McMurtry, one a McQuiddy, and one a McKee.
No documentary support has been found for this tradition; however, there is evidence that a Todd had three daughters and that one was a McMurtry, one was a McQuiddy and one was a McKee. Lydia Todd married James McKee in Augusta County, VA and had six children of which three were daughters. One daughter, Polly, b 1774 married James McMurtry in Kentucky in 1795; one daughter, Alice, b 1753, married William McQuiddy in Kentucky, and the other daughter, Martha, didn’t marry and remained a McKee.
This tradition is so similar to the one reported by Myra McMurtry that it seems likely that this tradition was reported to Dr. Todd by the McQuiddys in the 1880s or 1890s, but reported in such a way as to be misunderstood and projected back into the previous generation. A recent McQuiddy history stated that Alice McKee’s mother was a Lowery, suggesting that McQuiddy historians had been unaware of the tradition that Alice’s mother was a Todd. It is only in Alice McQuiddy’s branch where Todd was used as a middle name. They must have assumed that Mary Gaines who married David McQuiddy was a widow Gaines, but born a Todd.
4a Contradictory Versions of the Hutton/Todd/McMurtry in the tradition Lyman Draper’s notes on Dr. S.S. Todd’s version Dr. Wm S. McMurtry’s 1890 letter
? Todd ? Hutton ______|______|_____ | | | | Mary Todd Sarah Todd James Hutton Sarah Hutton Md | Md | Md Md James Hutton Alexander Mary Todd Alexander McMurtry McMurtry
| | | |
Mary Hutton John McMurtry Mary Hutton John McMurtry 1752? 1840?
The source for the Hutton connection tradition was Dr. S.S. Todd who reported that John McMurtry and Mary Hutton were cousins and claimed that this was through the Huttons. Myra repeatedly said noone in their family ever said they were cousins, but in the end accepted Dr. Todd’s version. Perhaps this tradition of John and Mary being cousins created the belief that Sarah McMurtry was born a Todd.
Another source for the Todd connection tradition was the historian Lyman Draper who noted on a letter from Dr. William S. McMurtry (b 1818) in 1890 that “John McMurtry’s mother was a Todd, so was Mary Hutton’s mother – sisters perhaps. McMurtry married his cousin and their mothers sister of the pioneer Todds of Kentucky.” This would imply that both Sarah Todd, John’s mother, and Mary Todd, Mary Hutton’s mother were sisters. It is not clear the source of Mr. Draper’s note.
With respect to the Hutton connection, neither of these two traditions is accurate in that Samuel Hutton, not James Hutton, was Mary Hutton’s father. We know this because John McMurtry’s will made reference to his father-in-law being in Kentucky and the only Hutton of that generation near John’s residence was Samuel Hutton.
With respect to whether Sarah McMurtry was a Todd or a Hutton or neither, and whether she was a sister of Mary Todd, we simply do not know. As far as Todd possibilities are concerned, Sarah could have been a daughter of William Todd (and sister to Mary) if William had children that he didn’t record in the Abingdon Church baptismal record before 1723. Sarah could hypothetically also have been the unnamed sister of William Todd mentioned in the Janeway Store records in Somerset Co. NJ. Sarah could have married an Alexander McMurtry, had her children in New Jersey in 1738 and 1744, and then migrated with William Todd to Augusta Co. by 1750 However, there is no evidence to support this conjecture. As far as Hutton possibilities, we do not have any information on the early history of the Huttons in New Jersey.
The above discussion clarifies what we have learned so far about the actual relationships that are related to the McMurtries, the Todds, and the McQuiddys. The essays that follow provide more detailed information and additional sources.
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