McArthur-Barnes ANCESTRAL LINES By SELIM WALKER McARTHUR, M.D. PORTLAND, MAINE THE ANTHOENSEN PRESS 1964 McARTHUR-BARNES ANCESTRAL LINES INTRODUCTION Mrs. Gillette Barnes McArthur, wife of the late Dr. Selim W . McArthur, has honored me by asking me to write a brief to his work. My association with him began when, thirty years ago, he began to search the printed sources of The Newberry Library. This book is the product of many years of research during which time he collected data, sparing no effort to make the accounts of each family authentic. He utilized family sources of information, official records, numerous printed sources and extensive corre­ spondence, his enduring ambition to superimpose "dry as dust" names and dates upon historical facts and biographical incidents. Unfortunately, Dr. McArthur did not live to see the culmina­ tion of his effort in print. In May, 1962, nine months after his death, Mrs. McArthur decided to publish this volume as a me­ morial to her late husband. At that time the manuscript in three large folios was given to Mr. Donald Lines Jacobus, distinguished in the field of genealogy as author, editor and publisher. Mr. Jacobus had aided Dr. McArthur in solving some of his difficult research problems, and his chief task with respect to this publica­ tion has been to arrange, condense and edit the vast amount of material assembled by Dr. McArthur. However, according to Mr. Jacobus, the manuscript contains much of value not utilized in this edition. It is now a part of the manuscript collections of The Newberry Library. Had Dr. McArthur lived to see his work in print, I am certain he would have acknowledged with pleasure the invaluable assist­ ance given him by the staff of The Newberry Library of Chicago. This published work is to be Mrs. McArthur's gift to more than one hundred historical libraries throughout the country, where it will serve many generations of researchers to come. JosEPH C. WOLF, Custodian Local History and Genealogy The Newberry Library [ V ] CONTENTS INTRODUCTION V THE McARTHUR FAMILY 3 THE WALKER FAMILY 27 THE WOODWORTH FAMILY 31 THE REEDER FAMILY 51 THE BARNES FAMILY 57 THE GILLETI FAMILY 73 THE DEAN FAMILY 87 THE PARKE FAMILY 97 ANCESTOR TABLES Ill I. ANCESTRY OF DR. LEWIS LINN McARTHUR 112 II. ANCESTRY OF DR. WILLIAM BARNES 131 III. ANCESTRY OF CHARLOTIE LANCRAFT GILLETT 148 APPENDIX DESCENT FROM GOVERNOR THOMAS WELLES 193 ROYAL DESCENTS 194 WILLIAMS-DEIGHTON ROYAL LINE 196 BULKELEY ROYAL LINE 198 INDEX 201 [ vii ] PART ONE THE McARTHUR FAMILY THE Mc AR THUR FAMILY The MacArthurs and Campbells are believed to have been originally members of the same clan, and in the earlier centuries the MacArthurs claimed the chiefship of the clan. The Campbells at one time claimed to be Norman-French in the male line [DeCampo Bello], but Skene pointed out in his great work on the Highlanders of Scotland that the oldest Gaelic gen­ ealogists derived the Campbells from one Duibne, and today the Norman­ l""rench claim has been dropped in Burke's Peerage in its account of the Campbells under their ducal title of Argyll. The Campbells first enter the pages of history in 1266 with Colin Campbell, from whom their chief has since taken his name of Mac Caillean Mor (son of Colin the Great), and the support they gave to Robert Bruce, and even more, the marriage of Neil Campbell to Bruce's sister, led to their acquisition of heritable property. The MacArthurs also embraced the cause of King Robert Bruce and for some time maintained their claim to chiefship of the clan. However, when King James I summoned the Highland chiefs to attend his Parliament at Inverness, the chief John MacArthur, along with others whose independ­ ence and turbulence the king considered a danger to the state, was seized, imprisoned, and beheaded. His property was forfeited to the Crown ex­ cepting Strachur, long the seat of his descendants, and some lands in Perth­ shire. Thereafter, the MacArthurs were reduced to little more than a sept in the Clan Campbell. According to the legendary account of the Highland clans in early Gaelic manuscripts, given by Skene in Appendix VIII of his Celtic Scot'land, Caillean Mor [Colin], historic ancestor of the Campbells, was grandson of Dugall Cambel or "Crooked Mouth," whence the name Campbell derives, and Dugall was great-great-grandson of the above-named Duibne, who in turn was derived as great-grandson of King Arthur of the Round Table. It is ·entirely possible that the Clan MacArthur and the Clan Campbell have this ancestry, though obviously a few more generations would be re­ quired to reach back to the period of Arthur. The Red Book of Argyll de­ clares the ancestor of the race to have been Smervie Mor, son of King Arthur, a statement supported by the fact that the badge of the clan is wild thyme, "Lus mhic righ Bhreatainn"- "the plant of the son of the King of Britain." It is to be remembered that the battles of Arthur were fought, not in the south of Wales, as readers of Tennyson and other poets might. suppose, but in the Lowlands of Scotland and on the fringes of the High­ lands. There are many enduring memorials of the great Arthur in Scot­ land, including some two hundred place names, from Arthur's Seat in Midlothian to Ben Arthur in Argyll; but surely none of these is so inter­ esting as the memorial remaining in the name MacArthur of the ancient 3 4 l\1cARTHUR-BARNEs ANCESTRAL LINES Highland clan which had its seat under the shadow of Ben Arthur itself on the shore of Loch Fyne. Authorities. Skene, cited in text; George Eyre-Todd, The Highland Clans of Scotland, vol. I; James Logan, The Clans of the Scottish Highlands, London, 1845. In the account which follows, the compiler is indebted, especially for many details of the first two gen­ erations, to the collaboration of Mrs. Grace W. W. Reed of Manchester, Vt., Professor John W. McArthur of Toronto, Canada, and Mr. Arthur S. Maynard of Bronxville, N. Y. I. JOHN McARTHUR JoHN 1 McARTHUR, born in Scotland about 1710 (plus or minus), died perhaps at Hillsdale, N. Y., or in Vermont, after 1773; married twice or more times, his wife in 1743-47 being named MARGARET; last married, by 1771, MARY (GRANT) (ALLEN) HosFoRD, born at Windsor, Conn., 17 July 1713. In 1738, 1739 and 1740 groups of the Scots to the number of 472 were brought to New York by Capt. Laughlin Campbell, in response to an offer of lands to "Loyal Protestant Highlanders" to settle on the northern bor­ der made by the then Provincial Governor of New York. One of the groups was from Argyllshire, the home, as we have seen, of the McArthur clan. The provincial authorities failed to fulfill the contract, and the families had to settle where they could find homes, some in Livingston Manor. The first Campbell colonists arrived in New York City, .2.2 Sept. 1738, and on 17 Oct. 1738 petitioned for the promised lands: "The Humble Petition of Alexander Montgomerie, Alexander McNaughton, Peter Mc­ Arthur and Daniel Carmichel in behalf of themselves and twenty six other heads of families who came from North Britain ... for a tract of land at or near Wood Creek in the County of Albany, now vested in the Crown" etc. The list of families attached to the petition includes Patrick [Peter] McArthur, wife and six children; Alexander McArthur, wife and six chil­ dren; Duncan McArthur, wife and six children, and Neil McArthur, wife and five children. As late as 23 Feb. 1763 we find a petition from Alexander McNaughton and one hundred others, emigrants or descendants of de­ ceased emigrants who came with the deceased Captain Campbell from North Britain, mentioning "the great distress & poverty to which they were reduced by the disappointment of their scheme." A good account of this emigration is found in a book privately printed in 1928 and compiled by Jennie M. Patten and Andrew Graham, The His­ tory of the Somonauk United Presbyterian Church [near Sandwich, De Kalb Co., Ill.] with the "Ancestral Lines of the Early Members." The Mac­ Arthurs (or McArthurs as the name was usually spelled after they settled in the New '\tVorld) had to seek homes where they could find them. Ancram was part of the Livingston Manor, for which a patent was ob- THE McARTHUR FAMILY 5 tained in 1686 by Robert Livingston, a native of Scotland. Iron ore was long mined from its hills, and J. H. French in his Gazetteer of the State of New York (1860) stated (p. 243, footnote 2) that "considerable quanti­ ties of ore are obtained on the land of A. McArthur." This is of interest be­ cause the family of Neil McArthur was engaged in this business at Ancram a century earlier, at Livingston's Iron Works. In 1755 there was dispute between the Colony of Massachusetts Bay and the Province of New York as to which owned some of the lands in this re­ gion east of the Hudson River. There had been rioting and mob action and a proclamation had been issued for the arrest of Robert Noble of Claverack. Col. John Van Rensselaer with an armed posse went to arrest him, and one of his associates, William Rees, was killed. On 28 Apr. 1755, John McArthur, "Husbandman dwelling in the Western parts of the Coun­ ty of Hampshire about twenty miles distant from Hudsons River," made a declaration concerning the homicide.