Clan Ewing of Scotland Early History and Contribution to America Sketches of Some Family Pioneers and their Times By Elbert William R. Ewing, A. M., LL B., LL D. Author of "Legal and Historical Status of the Dred Scott Decision"; "Northern Rebellion and Southern Secession"; "Law and History of the Hayes-Tdden Contest"; "The Pioneer Gateway of the Cumberlands"; Contributor to "The Gray Book"; &c With Genealogies and Illu~trations of Family Arms. COBDEN PUBLISHING CO Ballston, Virginia Copyright 1922 By Cobden Publishing Co. Er.BEHT \V11.uA~1 ROBINSON Ew,xG From a photograph made in 1'119 CONTENTS l'ACI~ ADDE:NDA . • . • • • . • . • • • . • • • • . • . 5 THE PUBLISHER'S CONFESSION. / PREFACE • • . • . • • • . • • . • . • . • . 9 1. wmctt EwINGs ,\No vVHY................... 15 II. ALBION-BRITAIN-CALEDONIA . 19 HI. HrnERNIA-ScoTIA-lREl,AND . • • . 2:3 !V. NEW SCOTIA ............................. '.. :w V. HIGHLAND RECORDS, &c. 49 VI. FouNDERs oF OuR CLAN. Gl VII. EWEN'S SON KENTICERN. • . • . 81 VIII. Tm;: EwINGS DISTINGUISHED FROM THE McEwENS 87 IX. ORIGIN OF THE EWING NAME................. 97 X. HIGHLAND HOME AND NEIGHBORS, &c .......... 101 XI. OUT OF SCOTLAND TO IRELAND. 111 XU. OuT oF VI.STER To AMERICA, ..•.............. 123 XIII. FIRST AMERICAN EWINGS. • . • . • • • . • • • . • . • . 136 XIV. MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA SEPTS. • . • . • . • • . • . 161 · xv. LEE COUNTY, VA., AND INDIANA BRANCHES ..... 182 XVI. SAMUEL EWING OF LEE COUNTY, VIRGINIA ..... 198 -xvn. SAMUEL EwING of' PRINCE EDWARD, VrnGINIA •• 205 XVIU. GEORGE EWING OF AMELIA AND WYTHE, VIRGINIA 207 XIX. GEORGE EWING OF VIRGINIA-TENNESSEE: ......•. 213 xx. A MARYLAND-NORTH CAROLINA BRA.NCH ....... 221 XXI. WILLIAM EWING OF SLIGO, IRELAND ........... 226 XXII. OTHER CECIL COUNTY, MARYLAND, EWINGS. 228 XXIII. JOHN EwrnG oii' MARYLANo-OrIIO. , . • • . • • • • • . 230 XXIV. ROBERT EWING OF BEDFORD, VIRGINJ.\ .......... 23:3 XXV. (HARLES EWING OF BEDFORD, VIRGINIA ......... 2-17 XXVI-. \VILLIAM EwrnG 01t RocKr~GIL\~1, VIRGINIA ... 255 XXVII. JOHN EwrnG OF MoNTGOMERY, WM. EwrnG oF LEE, &c. • • • . • • . • . • . • . • 284 XXVIII. SOME ALEXANDER Ewrncs .................... 30!) XXIX. JAMEs EwING oF PocAHoNTAs, WEsT VrnGrnrA. :nG XXX. JAMES EWING OF WHEELING, \VEST VIRGINIA ... :3H XXXI. THos. EWING oF VIRGINIA-Omo •.......•..... :q8 XXXII. EwrnG ARMS EvmENCE oF PEDIGREE .......... ;35:3 xxxnr. AUDACITER ! VESTIGIA NULL,\ RETRORSU:-.1 ...... :l,G ADDENDA. After this book was .in type Mrs. Lucile Turner, widow of the late distinguished Judge Jesse Turner, Van Buren, Arkansas, sent me a copy of arms and data showing very conclusively her descent from .the old Balloch, Scotland, family which, as I have shown, is a branch of the oldest Loch Lomond Ewings of Low­ land origin. Mrs. Turner was born in Knoxville, Illinois, in 1877, the daughter of Emma Ruth Ewing (1851) and her hus­ band; J. F. Price. Emma Ruth was the daughter of George Marshall Ewing, born in Uniontown, Pa., in 1818. He married. Elizabeth Maria Taylor, of Illinois; and was the son of David Ewing ( 1770), probably born in Ireland. David's Bible ~~tes that he "left Ireland and went to America November 1, 1 "192." Reaching America he visited relatives in Maryland, then settled in Uniontown and married Ruth Brown of Virginia-Maryland in 1797. Her father owned and leased the land on which Browns­ ville is built. Ruth's sister, Elizabeth, married a Cox and their daughter married Gen. Thos. Ewing, one of the descendants of the Hon. Thos. Ewing. He and Mrs. Turner's branch recognized relationship. Elizabeth, another of David Ewing's children, mar­ ried Wm. Whitton. Many of this David Ewing's descendants live in California and elsewhere. This David Ewing was a younger son of Alex. Ewing, the youngest of the Balloch Ewings, and was born about 1722. He married, first, Janet, a dat!ghter of John Ewing of Noblistown, Scotland; and, second, Rachel Marshall and had David and three other boys. This Alex. was a younger son of Alexander of Bal­ loch, born about 1692, the younger son of Alex. of Balloch, born about 1660. The copies of arms extant in this American branch of the family show the figures of the old Ewing arms of 1565, except that the cheveron is not embattled; and for difference, denoting the descent from younger children, the three birds ( martlets) are shown and an indented border. The shield is set upon another shield used as mantelling in order the b,!tter to show the indented border of the first. 5 6 David Ewing's family data show that this is the family men­ tioned by Burke in his Landed Ge.ntry. As we have seen, Burke says that "in the middle of the sixteenth century the Ewings acquired the lands of Balloch, County Dumbarton;" and they apparently lived there before they went to Bernice and Glenlean in Corval, Argyll; because Burke says the ''family removed to their holdings in Dumbartonshire" after the ravage of their lands in Argyll by Atholl and Gordon. That is, earlier than 1550 the Ewings had settled in Dumbarton and the family had acquired lands there and near Loch Lomond ; and to these lands they retired ottt of Argyll into which they had evidently gone from Dumbartonshire, a Lowland section. THE PUBLISHER'S CONFESSION. The original plan was to place all citations to authorities in footnotes. It was found that the printing would cost less with­ out footnotes. So it was decided to eliminate that part of the manuscript. This appeared necessary because it was foreseen that the necessarily limited field for the sale of the book would justify only the most rigid economy in bringing out the work. Through some mistake, however, a large part of the copious references. to authorities was not erased before the manuscript went to the printer; and so the compc:;itor naturally ran into the text the matter originally meant for the footnotes. The printing is done on a linotype machine, which sets an en­ tire line on one piece of metal ; and so to make any change, even put in or delete a comma, an entire line must be reset; and a word added or taken out means the resetting of the paragraph.. Much of the manuscript was in type before the above-mentioned mis­ take was discovered, and so neither the author nor the publisher felt that the expense which the change would entail could in reason be met. The author feels that the page is marred ; and the publisher company regrets to send out that kind of composi­ tion. But many compromises had to be made or the book left in manuscript;· and so it was felt that the family would rather have it as it is than not to have it at all. A reading of the proof suggested many minor changes; and the author desires us to say _that much of the punctuation is not approved by him; but for the reason just given the desired changes and corrections could not be fully made. The author also desires us to say for him that, as can be seen, the names of the Stephen S. Ewing children, in his own immediate family, are not printed in -proper age rotation. The manuscript was copied from his chart; and "how on earth" the curious changes were made, it canot be guessed ; and that, again, was not seen until in type. The numbering system there used resulted from fo11owing the chart. In this connection, also, the author desires that we say that many of his great-grandfather's descendants were men and 7 8 women of deserved prominence, judges, lawyers, and men of great affairs. But the commercial limitations of the work made it necessary to omit much ; and he hopes that his own close kin­ dred will most readily forgive him. He also desires that any of either branch will write to him anr! give further information, and if necessary he will issue a bulletin enlarging any genealogy or making corrections. The old Latin quotations should not be measured by modern rules. Every effort was made correctly to quote the impossible Gaelic and other languages ; but as the proofreader could not find some of the quotations for verification~ there may be some n:inor errors in spelling; but the historical value of all is certain. Many other minor matters of errata, such as Kirkville for Kirksville, etc., will be forgiven, it is hoped, for the reasons assigned. A letter addressed in care of the publishers will reach the author. PREFACE. This sketch treats of some of the American Ewing families which, are descended from ancient Clan Ewing of Scotland. Bearing a similar name, there were other early clans of that country in no way connected with or related to our clan, such as the ]\:lcEwens, the Ewens; and probably in later times some of their descendants came to spell the name Ewing, though not related to or descended from the clan from which I trace the families of which I here specially write. For light upon our clan and its descendants, all sources of information, primary and secondary, accessible in all the larger libraries of the United States, have been consulted. Much of this material consists of original Scotch and Irish records of one kind or another that have been published and are to be had in the larger libraries. This information has been supple­ mented by examinations of unpublished records in both Scot­ land and Ireland. The .work abroad was done by competent scholars acting under my instructions. Unfortunately, in pro­ portion to the labor and cost, the results particularly abroad were not the most gratifying. But, it is believed, until some one will devote much of a lifetime and a rather large fortune to such an -investigation, we must be content with the results as herein given. In fact, as far as can now be seen, no further in­ vestigation however exhaustive can add very materiaay, if at all, to the result.