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Andrew Kirkpatrick
(1720-1777) and |
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Andrew Kirkpatrick was born in 1720 in Dumfries, Scotland, the son of Alexander and Elizabeth Kirkpatrick.
As a boy of about five, with his father in the political disfavor of the English government, Andrew and his parents fled Scotland in 1825 and migrated to Belfast on the east coast of Ireland. The trip would have involved crossing the Irish Sea. The Kirkpatricks spent the next 11 years in Belfast, a growing city on the banks of the River Lagan.
Then, at age 16 in 1736, the family made the monumental decision to undertake an ocean voyage to the American colonies. The trip took 13 weeks, and the passengers and crew nearly starved. They landed at New Castle, DE, crossed the Delaware River at Philadelphia and traveled into New Jersey. They walked over mountains and along an Indian trail until arriving at spring along a stream known as Mine Brook, about a mile or two to the west of where the town of Bernardsville is today in Somerset County. Andrew's father built a farm on the trace and eventually owned several hundred acres.
Margaret Gaston, Andrew's wife, was born in 1728 in or near Mine Brook/Bernardsville, the daughter of Joseph and (?) Gaston. Their marriage took place in Somerset County, NJ.
Together the couple produced a family of at least eight children -- including Jennette Johnson, Elizabeth Bartley, Margaret McMartin, Mary Kirkpatrick, Sarah Anne Johnston, Anne Kirkpatrick, Hannah Kirkpatrick and Andrew M. Kirkpatrick Jr.
Andrew and Sarah and their family are outlined in the book The Kirkpatrick Memorial; or, Biographical Sketches of Father and Son, written and edited by Rev. George Hale, DD and Rev. William M. Blackburn (Philadelphia: Westcott & Thomson, 1867). The book says that Andrew "inherited the homestead, but not long after the death of his father [in 1758] sold it to his brother David, and removed to what was then called 'the Readstone Country,' or in other words to Western Pennsylvania." Andrew would have been age 38 at about that time.
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| Old Belfast, Ireland, home of young Andrew Kirkpatrick in 1825-1836. |
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After the move, the clan settled in Washington County, PA.The location of the Kirkpatricks' farm there is not known.
Death swept Andrew away in 1777 at the age of about 57.
Margaret endured for another 18 years as a widow. She passed away in 1795. Their burial sites appear to be lost to history.
The couple is spelled out in the 1891 book Americans of Royal Descent, 2nd edition, authored by Charles H. Browning of the American Historical Association, and published by Porter & Coates in Philadelphia (page 496). The book traces Andrew's lineage back more than 20 generations to Alfred the Great (848-899), King of England.
In Andrew’s home region of Dumfries, in 1759, was born the famed poet Robert Burns, whose parents were poor tenant farmers. He went on to become recognized as the national poet of Scotland, said to be one of the most widely known poets of the language, and author of the original version of Auld Lang Syne. Today Burns is considered the greatest Scotsman of all time.
~ Daughter Jennette (Kirkpatrick) Johnson ~
Daughter Jennette Kirkpatrick ( ? - ? )
She married (?) Johnson.
~ Daughter Elizabeth (Kirkpatrick) Bartley ~
Daughter Elizabeth Johnston ( ? - ? )
She wedded (?) Bartley
~ Daughter Margaret (Kirkpatrick) McMartin ~
Daughter Margaret Johnston ( ? - ? )
She was joined in wedlock with (?) McMartin ( ? - ? )
~ Daughter Mary Kirkpatrick ~
Daughter Mary Kirkpatrick ( ? - ? )
~ Son Andrew M. Kirkpatrick Jr. ~
Son Andrew M. Kirkpatrick Jr. ( ? - ? ) was born in (?).
He is said to have served in the New Jersey Militia during the American Revolutionary War. He is cited in Vol. XXVIII of the 1899 volume, entitled Lineage Book, National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, edited by Elizabeth Gadsby. The book says that Andrew “married in Somerset county, N.J., and removed to Washington county, Pa., after the Revolution.”
His great-great granddaughter, Harriet Tuller (Slead) Harle, a native of Milford, IL, and wife of Charles M. Harle, was admitted to the Daughters of the American Revolution based upon his service (member #27565).
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Copyright © 2021 Mark A. Miner |
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David Shaw has provided valuable content for this biography. |