BOYD FAMILY
HISTORY
“Boyd Family History, 1911”
Compiled by Genevieve Boyd Smith, Ellen Boyd and Bertha Boyd, unpublished
document
“Short Historical Sketch of the Boyd Family”, unpublished document, five pages,
dated “ca 1948”. Notation on page 1: “Roger Langley’s Father (John F.
McLaughlin) Father’s Family 8/8/97”
Introduction
Copies of the “Boyd Family
History” and a ”Short Historical Sketch of the Boyd Family” came to me, Marilyn
A. Terry Hudson, a 6th generation descendant, in 1992, from several
researchers including one from L.E. Boyd
(West Monrow, NY - 2002). The second document, a mimeograph copy of a
five typed document pages on a legal size avadavat forms from the office of “
Allison D. Wade, Attorney-at-Law, Warren, Pa. Additional notes by Marilyn A.
Terry Hudson, 1992-2019.
Marilyn is a
descendent of this line [see lineage section].
This version is a compilation of the two versions with annotated and
explanatory notes by Marilyn A. Hudson.
The Boyd History
The Boyd History
“William Boyd, the first of our
ancestors of whom we have any record, was born at Lynchen, County Down, Ireland
on March 24, 1768. (1) He always lived with his grandfather. (2) He was a
college man and was also an engraver and slater by trade. (3) Some say he was
also a civil engineer. He has been described as gentle and scholarly.He was first married when quite young to Peggy COOPER. She soon died leaving one child a daughter named Jane who lived with her mother’s people and is supposed to have died soon after her father came to America.(4)
For his second wife, William Boyd married Elizabeth Carson. He always called her “Betty.”
To them were born ten children: seven girls and three boys. The two oldest, Margaret and Ann died in Ireland. Next came Hans and then Ann and Margaret named for the lost ones. Then another Jane, William, Mary, Samuel, and Elizabeth.
Elizabeth Carson Boyd had a brother Samuel Carson of "Lauint ne glar,[spelling unclear may be Luintnegler] " County Down, Ireland, and a sister Molly Carson who married James CRAWFORD the son of William Boyd's sister [note: no sister is named here] and there is still in existence a letter written by their son, James Crawford of Pittsburgh, to his uncle William Boyd of Greenfield, Erie County in 1847, in which he relates some interesting facts about his family. [note: no letter has been seen by this researcher].
Elizabeth Boyd's father Samuel Carson Sr. had six sisters one of whom married a BEATY, one a DUNCAN, one a JOHNSON, one a GRAHAM, and one married a TATE, and lived in Erie Co., PA and the sixth sister married a FINLEY and were first settlers at Finley's Lake N.Y. Beaty and Graham are said to have helped build the Erie Canal. (5)
William Boyd was a Protestant and belonged to a certain sect called Croppies (6) because they wore their hair short while the custom of those days was to wear it long. But it seems he did not care to wear his cut and being high in the councils of his church and a high officer in some of the wars between Protestants and Catholics he was allowed to wear it as he liked.
He seems to have been [quite] a wealthy man in Ireland and to have made a good deal of money by working at his trade both at home in Scotland, but the religious troubles continuing, also troubles with England, made life were unpleasant, and he also having trouble over some property he finally decided to come to America if it were possible to get safely away which he was finally enabled to although at one time it was only his long hair that saved him.
They sailed from Belfast probably in January 1819 when the youngest son Samuel was about three months old. For a time, it was thought they would make the quickest voyage known at that time, but when over halfway across, storms came up and blew them off their course and it was weeks before they got back on it again.(7)
In the meantime, measles had broken out on board ship and the seven children of William and Elizabeth all took them. From the first, William and Mary were very sick and they finally died and were buried in the ocean [at sea].(8)
They landed at Baltimore where they had a cousin named Peter Boyd, about the first of May after being on the ocean about three months.[i]
The next we learn of them they had brought an improved farm in southern Pennsylvania near York. Here they had a two story house and good barns but they had been in possession but a short time when the buildings were all burned by an enemy of the former owner who did not know of the transfer of property. Practically everything belonging to the family was burned. Hans, the oldest son got out one large satchel in which the clothing was usually kept, but the clothing had been removed to air so all was burned. (10)
Soon after this the farm was sold at a great loss and the family removed to Finley's Lake in Chautauqua County, New York [where the aunt Nancy Carson Finley lived]. (11) They had a way for the mother, who was sick, and the younger children to ride, but the father and the older children walked the whole way, making sometimes as many as twenty-five and thirty miles a day.
They settled on what was known as the Berry place (12) and lived there for a while, but later they bought a farm in Venango Township, (13) where the father and mother spent the rest of their lives.
Hans W. Boyd, the
oldest son of William and Elizabeth, married Allie Ann Robbins, Ann married
Charles Morgan Sr.; Margaret married James Morgan; Elizabeth married William
Diton[ii];
James Morgan died and Elizabeth Diton after a few years. Margaret married her
brother-in-law; Samuel married Betsy Johnson, a niece of Hans’ wife. (14)
William Boyd
lived in Buffalo Valley, Union County, Pennsylvania. (15) When William Boyd arrived in Baltimore he went
to a relative, we think a cousin by the name of Peter Boyd, a wealthy merchant.
William Boyd
built a great many fireplaces while in southern Pennsylvania, and, after moving
to Erie County, he built the first stone
fireplace in that section of the country, in the log house of Porter Coolredge (16)
. He also marked a great many of the stones in the cemetery by the Addison
place. (17)
A sketch of a
letter written to William Boyd in 1847 by his nephew James Crawford who left Ireland April 28, 1840, discloses that he
lived at that time his letter was written at Pittsburgh on the head of Liberty
Street. He was a bricklayer by trade. He married Ester Wattson who was raised twelve miles out of Pittsburgh. They
had two children, May and June. He
bought property in Pittsburgh and had eight houses rented for $400.20 per year.
His wife had one hundred fifteen acres of land in Washington County,
Pennsylvania, eleven miles from town. (18)
His oldest
brother Hamilton [Crawford] lived in
Little York up in Canada. (19) He was a cabinet maker and followed that
business. His youngest brother Francis
lived in Kingston, upper Canada, (20) and was a stone mason by trade. His oldest sister, Margaret [Crawford] married a man by the name of Hough.
Mary Ann [Crawford] married John McKee. The younger sister married a Cory. They lived in Youngstown, New York. James Crawford, Sr. came to American the next year after his son
died, his wife died before he left Ireland. So he always lived a widower and
lived with his daughter Mary Ann. (21)
Samuel Carson, Elizabeth Carson Boyd’s brother, was
still on the old place in 1840. (22)
CHILDREN OF HANS W. BOYD AND SALLY ANN
ROBBINS BOYD:
Julia Ann (Kent)
Alvisa (Vandenburg)
John
Elizabeth (died in early teens)
William
Amy Jane (Blackmer)
Hamilton
Albert [Albert George]
Sallie Ann (died at about age of twenty)
Vashti (Patterson) [Vashti Electra]
Hans
Mathilda (Rowland)
Susanne (Reynolds) (23)
Hans W. sold his farm in Venango County and
built a home in the village of Lowville where he had a shoe store. After Sallie
Ann, his wife, died, he sold everything he had and went to Missouri where he
bought a farm and lived there until he died. He was back east but once after he
went to Missouri.
(24)
Marilyn Hudson’s Line:
1.
Marilyn
A. Terry who married Marvin J. Hudson
2.
Roy
Dennis Terry who married Velma Dora Cochren
3.
Edna
Maggie Boyd who married Wesley Sartin Terry
4.
William
Sylvester Boyd who married Margaret Ann Niner
5.
Hans
William Boyd who married Sallie Ann Rollins
6.
William
Boyd who married Elizabeth “Betty” Carson
Explanatory Notes
1.
Researchers contacted in Ireland feel this may be the town of Killenchy or a corruption of something
similar. In Northern Ireland the names Cooper, Boyd, and Carson go back for
several generations. The name COOPER is
found in a report by the Ulster
Historical Foundation, "Research and content development: Ulster -Scots
Trail for North Down and Ard;
Ulster-Scot Biographies, 9. (undated) " came over from Scotland with Hugh
Montgomery in 1606 as tradesmen to help build the port & town " http://www.northdowntourism.com/Documents/Biographies.aspx
2.
He lived with his grandfather. This has to be taken into consideration in
connecting family groups to this line.
3.
It is known that Wm Boyd of this line was a 'slater' - a builder and
these trades were often passed from father to son - so this may be the genesis
of this line in the area.
4.
Peggy and Jane Cooper. In Northern Ireland the names Cooper, Boyd, and
Carson go back for several generations.
The name COOPER is found in a report by the Ulster Historical Foundation, "Research
and content development: Ulster -Scots Trail for North Down and Ard; Ulster-Scot Biographies,
9. (undated) " came over from Scotland with Hugh Montgomery in 1606 as
tradesmen to help build the port & town " http://www.northdowntourism.com/Documents/Biographies.aspx
5.
Carson family. Samuel Jr., born about 1780, father to Elizabeth, was said
to be from Luintnegler, County Down, Ireland.
The spellings for the place names appears to be phonetic and there is some
question as to accuracy.
6.
Croppies: This refers to the 1798 movement against British rule in
Ireland. The 1780’s-1790’s were a time of great struggle across the globe:
France, North America, and in the British Isles and all stemmed from similar
issues of Monarchy vs Nationalism and Native rule against imperialism. The struggle was on many fronts in Ireland
and saw the emergence of the United Irish and both Catholic and taking strong
political and religious positions. There was a Protestant based uprising and
“Croppies” was a term for those who cut their hair and could not be associated
with aristocracy of Britain or France. In Ireland the conflict peaked in
Wexford where many died in the 1789 uprising, but is also associated with
Limerick and other locations such as Dublin and Belfast. On one census, Samuel
Carson Boyd will say he was born in Limerick and the family leaves Ireland from
Belfast.
7.
Ship. A record has been found for a William Boyd with five others
arriving in 1820 from Ireland.
8.
Deaths at sea. Some ships were required to report burials at sea.
9.
Langley’s version reads “They landed at Baltimore about the first of May,
after being on the water about three months.” There is some record in Baltimore
of a Peter Boyd and several Boyd’s but have not yet found a clear indication of
how they might be connected. The Boyd history includes a small footnote that
the family arrived from Northern Ireland (Co. Down) in 1819 and disembarked in
Baltimore where they lived for a short time with a cousin, Peter Boyd. Langley’s
version reads “They landed at Baltimore about the first of May history is an
interesting happenstance (?) of names which may indicate a connection of some
nature. In the History of Western Maryland is a record of a meeting of the
inhabitants of Frederick Co. at the local court house. Leading the meeting were one John HANSON,
chairman, and Archibald BOYD, clerk of the association. At the meeting the resolves and proceedings
of the American Congress of the last provincial convention were read and
approved. (HWM, pg. 128). William Boyd, arriving from Northern Ireland, has a
young son he has named Hanson William Boyd.
They stay with a Peter Boyd in Baltimore, Maryland. Was Peter's father, perhaps, Archibald
Boyd? Was Peter a relative of this Archibald
Boyd? It should be noted descendants of William Boyd will later include the
name "Archie" in their lines. This is considered a shortened form of
Archibald and may be a reminder of their distinguished fellow Boyd.
10.
York, York County. Pennsylvania
11.
Findley Lake, New York founded by Alexander Findley who married one of Elizabeth
Carson Boyd’s aunts.
12.
Berry Place – Location unknown.
13.
Venango County, Pennsylvania
14.
Information on children:
15.
Union County, Pennsylvania. There are Boyd’s listed as members of the
Presbyterian Church in this location.
16.
Coleridge. The 1840 census for Venango County, Pennsylvania shows on page
044 both William Boyd and a Portage Colege. It is assumed that this is the man
for whom William Boyd built the first stone fireplace in the county.
17.
Addison Place – location unknown.
18.
James Crawford
19.
Hamilton Crawford. Little York in Canada referred to the region of
Toronto, Canada at the time. Kingston, Upper Canada referred to the region in
Ontario
20.
Frances Crawford. Kingston, Upper Canada referred to a region in Ontario.
21.
Other family members of the Crawfords:
22.
Samuel Carson Boyd
23.
Notes of Hans W. Boyds children: some names are shortened and missing
others.
24.
Notes on Hans W. Boyd. This may be
a confusion of father with son as Hans W. Boyd’s son William Sylvester Boyd did
move to Missouri and never returned to Pennsylvania. Hans W. Boyd did sell and move to a nearby
community, even remarried, after Sallie Ann Boyd died.
Sources:
Author(s) Genevieve Boyd Smith, Ellen Boyd or
Bertha Boyd;
Title: ”Boyd Family History. A handwritten
account of the lineage and history of the family of William Boyd, born 1768 in
County Down, Ireland, his immigration to Baltimore, and his settling in Erie
County, Pa. Publication: 1911 (unpublished manuscript).
Description: An unpublished manuscript dating from 1911
sharing the history of William Boyd and wife Elizabeth "Betty" Carson
Boyd of Ireland and Pennsylvania. Most
of the family appears to have stayed or returned to the area of Erie and
Venango Co., Pa.
Author(s): Robert Langley and John F. McLaughlin
Title: “A Short Historical Sketch of the
Boyd Family”
Description: A typed and mimeographed document, five
pages, with handwritten notation “Roger Langley’s Father (John F. McLaughlin)
Father’s Family 8/8/97” on first page. Five pages legal length, stamped but
marked through of the name “Allison G. Wade. Attorney-at-Law, Warren, Pa.” page
one includes handwritten notation “ca 1948.”
Annotations/Explanatory Notes: Marilyn A. Terry Hudson, M.L.I.S.
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