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McMahans in the American South |
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MacMahans in Scotland and Noteworthy Laird s McMahans in the Thirteen Colonies and Early America, Including Tennessee, below the Mason Dickson Line. John and Jenny McMahan's Children Archibald and Ann Payne McMahan and Their Children Jessie and
Caroline Barrett McMahan and their Children
Other Descendents of John and Jenny
McMahan
Ti gerville
reache d Fairview Southern Methodist Church
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John McMahan (Updated June, 2007)
Archibald's father was, based on the family narratives we have to date, John.
Some narratives list him as James. Best Lead on John Mahone in Orange County, NC. “John Mahone served 73 days in 1771 in the late expedition against the insurgents. Hart’s Company of Orange Regiment of Militia” This reference was found in Vol 22, Page 416 of the Colonial Records of North Carolina. During this period the term "Regulators" was given to a substantial group of people in mid and western NC around 1765-1771 who were upset about the way the general affairs of local government were being handled by the governor in the Eastern part of the state. They wanted to "regulate" their own lives, and did not like the appointees, laws and regulations that were coming from the government. It was in a way the beginnings of the Revolution, but it was pretty much stopped in 1771 when the Orange County Militia and some other units defeated the Regulators. This is the 73 day service event that I suspect is noted above, and the insurgents mentioned were the Regulators. This John was probably the lost John we are looking for. He is in the right place at the right time with the right name and he would have been the right age to be in the militia, but on the upper limits. 55 was the general cutoff. This would account for the fact that he did not serve in the revolution (he would have been 56 or so by 1776). We have to remember there was a son John, brother of Archibald, if those narratives are correct. This could have been him, but if so, he should have ended up in the Militia again during the war, like Archibald did.
Narratives passed down through the family on John In 1740 he married Jennie Craig in Scotland. They departed from near Glasgow, off the Clyde River and sailed from Glasgow to Pennsylvania. One account has him marrying in Ireland, one in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Some time after 1757 he moved from Lancaster Pennsylvania to North Carolina. Sources have the following as destinations: Waxhaw
One source says both John and Jenny died in Orange County. Archibald mentions in his pension application that he volunteered for militia duty while he was too young to be drafted (around Hillsborough, N.C.), and that he went off to quell Indians. If he were born in 1760, he would have been 16 in 1776, and there are records of N.C. troops being sent in 1776 to the frontier to guard against Indians. There is a mention in the Colonial Records of North Carolina that ..."John Mahone served 73 days in 1771 in the late expedition against the insurgents. Hart's Company of Orange Regiment of Militia." Volume 22, Page 416. If John were born in 1720, then he would have been 51 in 1771, within the 16-55 age range of militia. The insurgents mentioned are probably the group called Regulators during that period. The McMahans were members of the old Hawfield Presbyterian Church. This church was where the Orange Presbytery was organized in 1770. Hawfields in the 1990s is located in Eastern Alamance County, N. C. Immediately South of Hillsboro there was a community called New Hope, but this area was settled after the Hawfields, around 1756 There is a note in one source that John Craig and Richard Coswell were leaders in a church in the New Hope Community. This John Craig could have been Jennie Craig's brother or cousin who moved with them from Pennsylvania. It may have been a relative that preceded them to N.C. Also, the DAR records have a John Craig (1731 - 1816) who was born in
Scotland, served as a private in the N.C. Militia, and died in Orange
County, N.C. His wife was Mary Blackwood and he had a daughter,
Elizabeth. (DAR Lineage Book
Since John Craig was from Scotland, that would make it more likely that John McMahan and Jenny Craig were married in Glascow, if this John Craig was Jenny's brother. John and Jenny had the following children: John, who served in the Revolution and later moved to Tennessee
Assuming that John and Jenny left Pennsylvania after William was old enough to make his own way, and relying on accounts that they were married in 1740, it can be suggested that they left Lancaster, Pa. For points south sometime after 1757. Archibald's statement in his pension application that he was told he was born in Lancaster Pennsylvania is used to set Lancaster as at least one of the places in Pennsylvania where the family lived. Details on their Children Jennie McMahan (probably named after her mother) married James Payne,
Anne Payne's cousin (Anne Payne married Archibald) probably
in Orange County, N.C. or in Greenville County, SC. From there they
moved to Georgia.
Alex, who was apparently the youngest, moved
with or followed Archibald to Grove Creek, SC probably between 1787 and
1790. That was where he met and Married a Higgins who lived in Grove
Creek. From Here Alec went to Indiana.
Other speculations about John McMahan: Once in the Hillsborough area, Archibald's wife reported in her pension application that during the Revolution, Archibald's mother paid other people to serve one of Archibald's three month tours, and at another reference that she was trying to purchase her son's release from a prison ship in Charleston. It is interesting that Archibald's father was not mentioned in the request and that his mother was doing purchasing and negotiating. This may mean that by the late 1770's John McMahan had died. There is no indication of where he or Jenny were buried, only that they were members of the Hawfields Presbyterian church |