HISTORY OF THE GWIN FAMILY ( Gwin. Gwinn, Gwyn, Gwynn, Gwynne, Guin, Guinn, Wynn, Wynne) BY JESSE BLAINE GWIS Publish~ by the author Address - 725 Orchard St., Fairfax, Virginia 1961 CONTENTS Page Introduction 5 I. Early Gwin Families in America ____ ......... ---------·· 11 II. The Origin of the Gwins in the Old World ....... 29 III. The Gwins in Indiana .. 45 IV. Letters and Documents 61 V. Genealogical Tables 1:31 VI. List of Letters and Documents 177 VII. List of Genealogical Tables 179 VIII. Index of Names .. ---- 181 GWYN \lotto: \ im \ i Hepellere l.in•t (It i,-. l:i\\lui !n reJH'i force h_, force) INTRODUCTION There can be little doubt if you are interested in history you also a1·e interested in genealogy, especially the geneal­ ogy of your own family, for "The history of the world is in the last analysis but the history of the individual." Acco1·ding to William Barrett "man is a historical being, that is his uniqueness among all other animals and he can never be understood apart from his history." In Goethe's Iphigenia in Tauris it is written, "Happy he who with high regard looks back upon his father's father who with pride recounts their deeds of Grace and in himself values the latest in the fair chain of noble sequence." Our nation builds upon its past, step by step, and the individual citizen emerges from his special endronment formed by his im­ mediate family and including ancestors, e\·en remote ones. Most of the world's great statesmen had a profound knowledge of history. No one can be a competent judge of the course his counti-y is steering unless he knows where it has rncked at anchor, at what ports it has called in the past and when it has been becalmed and through what storms it has passed. Genealogical studies make a living story of your country's history come ali\·e. Especially is this true if the earlv members of a familv lived here and were a part of the c·ountry's growth from· precolonial days and participated in the spread of the population to the west and southwest. This was true of those who bore the name of Gwin, Gv,:ynne, Gwyn, Gwinn, etc. i\Iembers of the Gwin family were among the early settlers of this country along the Atlantic Seaboard. The name appears in :'.vlassachusetts not long after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620, in Virginia quite early after Jamestown \Vas settled in 1607 and in Pennsvlvania at the time William Penn settled there. There were other Gwins who settled early in Maryland and in North and South Carolina. These early arrivals built homes in the wilderness and multiplied. They took an active part in the early life of the Colonies and helped fight the Indian Wars. Their descendants moved west and southwest with the tide of migration seeking adventure, new and cheaper land and better hunting grounds. This book attempts to trace some of the migration of these Gwins. Genealogical information of the pioneer days of our country is difficult to find and when found is apt to be sketchy and confusing. People were on the move and were little interested in personal or family records, such as dates of births and deaths or familv connections. Fires were frequent and even official records.kept in Court Houses and other public buildings were often destroyed. Families scattered and often loRt trace of their near relatives as well as all knowledge of ancestorn. Valuable information about family lineR is often passed down from one genera­ tion to another but is finallv lost if not recorded. The author recalls that when a bo): his grandfather, John Gwin. once tried to tell him about his people "back in Virginia." I was quite uninterested at the time and ga,·e him no en­ couragement to continue and I remember nothing about the conversation except that hiR people came from Virginia. A proper interest likely would have provided information which it has taken vears to uncover and some records are still missing. I believe we should interest and instruct our children about our family history. Historians al'e com­ pelled to spend years in research. This is often equally true for genealogists. In the case of Bancroft forty _\·ears elapsed between the appearance of the first \"fJlume of the Riston· of the United States and the last volume. Park­ man ~ade se,·en trips to Europe and spent a lifetime in searching out original documents for his studies of our pioneer days. It has been re1~orted that Freeman emplo_\·ed over 100 research workers to g-ather documents for his life of George Washington. - The documents needed in genealogical research in this country often have been scattered to the winds and many are missing. Generally, official records were kept of finan­ cial transactions, including deeds of land and other proper­ ties and are still available. Records of militarv serdce is ahm generally available although early military records ga,·e little more than names and elates of sen·ice. Official reco1·ds of births and deaths most needed in genealogical work were not widely kept in the early days. Research workers in famih· histories ha,·e found some of the most dependable records in church histories, in family Bibles sometimes kept for several generations, in old letters and from tombstones in old cemeteries. The Quaker organiza­ tion provided for some member to be responsible for fam­ ily records so it is not so difficult to trace the history of Quaker families. The Daughters of the American Re,:olu­ tion Library and the Library of Congress in Washington, D. C., have large collections of docurnentary materiafs on American genealogy which is available for researcherR. The D.A.R. Library has collected much information about family lines through their local Chapters from most coun­ ties in every state. The purpose of this book is not only to gh·e such in­ formation as is available about the Gwins, especially the early Gwins in America, but also to make it practical for many to trace their family connection with the past, especially through the use of the tables which are in­ cluded. The chapter on Letters and Documents gives copies of material which not only proddes the source for some of the information gi\·en in the tables and elsewhere but also give8 interesting and historical information about the Gwin family. }Iuch of the material in this book has been taken from records compiled by Miss Vera Gwin, who was the great­ grand-daughter of John Gwin, b. 1784. The author worked with }Iiss Gwin in collecting some of this information about the Gwin family lines and at her death her records became m·ailable to him. She searched for se,·eral vears in her attempt to trace not only the Gwin line but for in­ formation about her maternal ancestors. She kept a care­ ful record well organized of all information she secured in her search. The author apolo6ize8 in ad,·ance for errors of com­ mission and omission. There will be mistakes and in manv in:-;tances information about some branches of the Gwin family will be missing. due mostly to lack of the necessary facts or to mistakes in the original source information. It is hoped that those who ha,·e corrections to offer or addition information to give, will feel free to write the author. If enough additions and changes are offered and if enough interest is indicated perhaps a revised edition may be justified. J. BLAIXE GWIN Fairfax. Yirginia :\IL .\iry. Warsaw, \'irginia Elizabeth (;wynne Tayloe 16!12 • ] ';' ti"i CHAPTER I EARLY G\VIN FAMILIES IN AMERICA The name Gwin may be spelled in several ways and .\·et 1·epresent related or the same family branch. The usual spellings are Gwin, Gwinn, Gwynne, Gwyn, Gwynn, Guin awl Wynne. Sometimes the change in spelling was made in Europe before the family migrate:! and sometimes after an-i\·al in America. There are few surnames in America that ha\·e not been change=l many times. While the rnots of our system of family names may be traced back to eal'ly ci\'i!i;;:ed times, actually the hereditary sur­ name a,, \Ye know it t:_idav date., from a time scarcelv earlier than 900 years ago. Tr{ie scrnames in the se:'.1se of heredi­ tar~· designations date in En:rland from about 1000 A.D., but e\·e:1 br 1-165 hereditar:v names were not unh·ersal. Curing the reign of Edward \' a law was i:assed t'.l compel Irish tribes to adopt surname.;;. ::Vlany surnames of today whic'.1 ,l.l'e difficult to c!assif~· or explain are corruptions of ancient fo1·rns. L:mgfeilow was oriq;inall~r Longueville, Di<,;ge:·..; \ms Douglas. v'."incli was Renshaw and Gwin and W~·nn \\·e1e Gw~·neclcl. \' a1·iations have resulted from ignonmce in spe:iing, \·ariations in pronunciation or mere­ iy from ;H·eference. Those Americans, who possess old and honored names and \,·ho can trnce the historv of their sur­ names bac'<: to sturd~· immigi-ant ancestors ;r e\·en beyond to the 01:i World and inte> the dim past, should be proud of their herita1e. In referring to the Gwins, Gwyns, etc., in general and not in reference to any particular r::erson or branch of the family we shall spell the name as GWIN. There were many Gwins among the early pioneers.