Andrew KIRKPATRICK

Often quoted as born Watties Neach or Watties Beach,

apparently there is no such place in Dumfriesshire

...........

Genealogical and Memorial History of the State of New Jersey, 1910

Page 70:

... Andrew Kirkpatrick, the immigrant, who migrated

from his home at Fratties Beach, Dumfries,

Scotland, with his sons. John and David, and

his daughters, Martha and Elizabeth, with his

brother .Alexander and family, and located in

Belfast. Ireland, in 1725, and in 1736 embarked

for .America, landing at New Castle, Delaware,

anl thence making the journey mostly on foot

to Mine Run or Mine Brook. Basking Ridge.

New Jersey, which place they made their per-

manent home. The name is prominent in the

history of the Presbyterian church in Basking

Ridge and in the affairs of the government of

the state of New Jersey and of the Lnited

States, both judicial and legislative.

.............

... in the spring of 1736 came over to America [with his parents],

landed in Delaware, and went to Philadelphia,

but finally settled in Somerset county, New Jersey, ...

... Alexander Kirkpatrick had five children: 1.

Andrew, who married Margaret, daughter of

Joseph Gaston, who emigrated to New Jersey

about 1720. They had one son, Alexander,

and seven daughters. He inherited the homestead

at Mine Brook, but sold it soon after his

father's death to his brother David and removed

to what was then called the "Redstone

country" in Pennsylvania. ...

(Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey .. (1910),page 458)

..............

From the book 'CAPT. JOHN KIRKPATRICK OF NEW JERSEY 1739 - 1922 And His Sisters MRS. JOSEPH LINN & MRS. STEPHEN ROY: A Genealogy by WILLIAM CLINTON ARMSTRONG' Copyright, 1927 [Expired 2005] J. HEIDINGSFELD COMPANY New Brunswick, New Jersey

2. ANDREW KIRKPATRICK (he of Watties Neach and Basking Ridge), married and had four children, named in the Kirkpatrick Mentorial in the following order: John, David, Martha and Elizabeth. It was customary in colonial times, in listing the names of children, to mention all the sons first in the order of their age, and then to list all the daughters in similar order; in the case of these four Kirkpatrick children there is reason to believe that Martha was the first-born. Neither name nor date has been discovered concerning their mother.

The four children of Andrew Kirkpatrick

• 3. i. John Kirkpatrick, who is always designated in this book as Capt. John. He was born in Somerset County, N. J., about 1739, and died in Warren County, N. J., April 17, 1822, in his eighty-fourth year. He married Lydia Lewis. He was a captain in the Sussex County Militia during the Revolutionary War. For a list of his descendants consult Chapter II.

+301. ii. Martha Kirkpatrick was born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1728, and died in Sussex County, N. J., March 7, 1791. She married Joseph Linn. See Chapter III.

+501. iii. David Kirkpatrick grew to maturity in Somerset County, N. J. He removed to Sussex County, N. J.; see Chapter IV.

+601. iv. Elizabeth Kirkpatrick grew up in Somerset County, N. J., and there married Stephen Roy. They removed to Sussex County. See Chapter V.

From the book 'CAPT. JOHN KIRKPATRICK OF NEW JERSEY 1739 - 1922 And His Sisters MRS. JOSEPH LINN & MRS. STEPHEN ROY: A Genealogy by WILLIAM CLINTON ARMSTRONG' Copyright, 1927 [Expired 2005] J. HEIDINGSFELD COMPANY New Brunswick, New Jersey

Chapter I

THE MIGRATION OF THE KIRKPATRICK BROTHERS, ALEXANDER AND ANDREW

The Kirkpatricks are of ancient lineage. Our chief concern in these pages is to register the descendants of the Kirkpatricks who emigrated from Scotland to New Jersey and settled in the year 1736 near Baskingridge, in Somerset County; and in so doing it is convenient to head the list with Alexander Kirkpatrick of County Dumfries, Scotland; he being the last ancestor of theirs in the male line who lived and died in the Old World. This Alexander was a son of George Kirkpatrick and a great-great-great-great-great-grandson of Sir Roger Kirkpatrick, Lord of Closeburn.

Sir Roger's wife was Lady Margaret de Somerville who traced her descent from Alfred the Great, King of England. See Chapter VII.

1. ALEXANDER KIRKPATRICK, SR., son of George Kirkpatrick, is said to have had nine children. See Chapter VII. We are here concerned only with his two sons:

+701. i. Alexander Kirkpatrick, emigrator from Watties Neach, Scotland, in 1725; he died June 3, 1758. See Chapter VI.

+2. ii. Andrew Kirkpatrick, emigrator from Watties Neach, Scotland, in 1725; see Chapters II-V.

It may be well to explain here that 701 has arbitrarily been assigned as the personal number of Alexander Kirkpatrick solely for convenience in classification; and also to state that the sign + is used to indicate that the household of each person thus marked is registered farther on in this booklet.

Both these sons removed from Watties Neach in 1725 to Belfast, Ireland; after living there ten years they embarked in the spring of 1736 for America and landed at New Castle, Delaware, and traveling northward, settled in Somerset County, N. J.

The voyage across the Atlantic proved to be rough and stormy; they were over three months on the ocean, provisions ran short, and the passengers and crew nearly starved. They landed at New Castle, Delaware.

Alexander's son David, who was at this time a lad of twelve years, used to tell how hungry they were. "The first thing I got to eat," said he, "after we got on shore, was corn in the state which we call roasting ears, and, without roasting or boiling, I ate it till the milk of the corn ran down both sides of my mouth, and I have never eaten anything since that tasted sweeter."

(3)

4 Genealogy of the Kirkpatrick Family

The Kirkpatricks went to Philadelphia, crossed into New Jersey, traveled north to Bound Brook, and went over the mountain. "They were all on foot," says the Kirkpatrick Memorial; "there was no road other than the Indian path. In the path before there they saw a land tortoise, speckled, sticking up his head, and as they had heard of rattlesnakes they thought that monster must be one; so they turned out in the woods and went around, leaving his torkleship in full possession of the path." Thus they journeyed on until they found a spring of water, near Mine Brook, on the southern slope of Round Mountain. Here, about two miles west of the present site of Baskingridge, in Somerset County, they settled down, built a log house, and went to work.

Two voyages are involved in this Kirkpatrick emigration. The first was made across the northern end of the Irish Sea from County Dumfries, Scotland, to the city of Belfast, Ireland; this was in 1727 ; the second voyage was made in 1736 from Belfast across the Atlantic Ocean to New Jersey. There was an interval of ten years between the two voyages.

Some questions naturally arise: how many persons made each of these voyages; what was the relationship of these persons, and what was the age of each. Definite information on some points is lacking ; but circumstances seem to justify the following conclusions.

Those on the first voyage were Alexander Kirkpatrick and his wife Elizabeth and their two children, Andrew (aged three) and David (aged one) ; and they were accompanied by Alexander's brother Andrew, who was probably about fifteen years old; total, two adults, one youth, and two young children; five in all.

During the ten years spent in Belfast it seems that three more children were born to Alexander and Elizabeth; and that Andrew married and had a daughter born named Martha.

Hence the voyage across the ocean was made by Alexander and his wife Elizabeth and their five children (Andrew, David, Janet, Mary and Alexander), and Andrew and his wife and their daughter Martha (aged about eight) ; total, ten persons.

The homesteads of the Kirkpatricks and their neighbors, the Whitakers and the McEowens, were in Bernard Township, which occupies the extreme northeastern corner of Somerset County. In the northern part of the township there is a round mountain peak in which some prospectors sunk a shaft; no ore was found and the shaft was abandoned. An open shaft being unusual in that region and becoming a matter of general curiosity, the hill became known as Mine Mountain. Several springs along the foot of the mountain unite and form a stream which flows southwestward and empties into the North Branch of the Raritan River; this stream is called Mine Brook.

The homes of these Scotch settlers were along the banks of Mine Brook, at a point two miles west of the present site of Baskingridge. Baskingridge had been settled before the arrival of the Kirkpatricks.

Migration of the Kirkpatrick Brothers, Alexander and Andrew 5

The village took its name from the mountain; and it is said that the mountain was so named because wild animals used to congregate on its southern slope in the open glades in order to bask in the sun. This village of Baskingridge was a preaching station; hence it is not to be assumed that the new settlement on Mine Brook was beyond the limits of civilization.

It seems appropriate at this point to say a few words concerning early land tenure in this Scotch-Irish settlement along Mine Brook. William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, owned several thousand acres of land in Somerset County. When Penn died in 1718, the title to this land passed to his two sons, Richard and William; but these brothers took no active interest in its development; in fact it was nearly a quarter of a century before they attempted to secure any revenue for themselves from that portion of their property lying in Bernard Township.

About 1735 a stream of emigrants began to drift in, among whom were the Kirkpatricks, the Whitakers and the McEowens. The land was there, unoccupied and uncleared ; but there was no person at hand with whom would-be renters and buyers could negotiate. For this reason the new comers became squatters; that is, each chose a site, felled the trees, built a cabin and began farming and made himself at home; in other words, these emigrants settled on the land without any permission or right so to do.

A single occupier may be dispossessed without much trouble; but all history proves that it is a tedious and expensive job to oust a community of farmers after they once get thoroughly established, title or no title.

At last the Penn brothers woke up; they appointed an agent and gave him a power-of-attorney to lay out farms and to rent and sell the same. The settlers welcomed the agent; they were anxious to secure clear titles.

On November 23, 1747, Alexander Kirkpatrick (701) signed a lease; it was for 137 acres of land. The very next spring, David, Alexander's son, married Mary McEowen. In the lease Alexander agreed "to plant an orchard of at least one apple-tree for every three acres, and in case this lease shall continue beyond three years, then to plant one apple-tree for every six acres, all regular in one orchard and to keep up the number planted and to keep the orchard in good fence."

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=kirkpatrickjan08&id=I3

Comments