John McGREW

Notes:

From website "The Family Home Page of Jacob George Chambers" www.familytreemaker.genealogy.com, updated April 15, 2009:

"1. ROBERT2 MCGREW (WILLIAM1) was born 1675 in County Tyron, Ireland, and died 1726 in York, York Co., PA. He married ISABELLA FINLEY. She was born 1680 in County Tyron, Ireland, and died in Adams Co., PA.

"Notes for ROBERT MCGREW:
According to the most widely accepted tradition, Robert McGrew came from County Tyrone, Ireland, to Pennsylvania, about 1726/27, with his wife, Isabella, their five sons, and two grandchildren, Archibald and Catherine, children of John. Isabella's surname is not known, but it has been suggested by a number of investigators of the family history that it may have been Finley. There is a strong association of the name Finley with the McGrew family. Robert and Isabella named their second son, Finley, having named the first one John, which was probably the name of Robert's father.

"It is probable that this family came first to New Castle, Delaware, and then to Chester County, Pennsylvania. Chester County at that time comprised a great area in Southeastern Pennsylvania. As western lands were opened up, through Blunston licenses, Robert and his sons moved westward, crossing the Susquehanna River, into what was Lancaster County after 1729, York County after 1749, and Adams County after 1800. In 1732, Thomas Penn gave a commission to Samuel Blunston of the Lancaster County Court, to grant licenses to sundry persons who wished to settle and take up land on the west side of the Susquehanna River.

"The family were believed to have been Episcopalian when they came to America. It has been said and generally accepted that two of the sons, Finley and James, married Quaker wives, and joined that faith. But it will appear later that both Finley and James were married in the Old Swedes' Holy Trinity Church, in Wilmington, Delaware. Devout Quaker girls would not have been married in this church. (A girl from a Quaker family, as was Mary Dick, who was more interested in being married than in being a Quaker, might have.) Soon after Robert emigrated, he was followed by two brothers and a cousin.

"BURIAL: Chestnut Hill Cemetery is 1 mile west of Heidlersburg, PA on PA 234 on the farm of Finley McGrew.

"More About ISABELLA FINLEY:
Burial: Chestnut Hill Cemetery, Adams Co., PA

"Children of ROBERT MCGREW and ISABELLA FINLEY are:
i. JOHN3 MCGREW, b. 1700, Omagh, Ireland; d. Nov 1755, York, York, PA.
ii. FINLEY MCGREW, b. 1702, Co. Tryrone, Ireland; d. 02 Sep 1766, York, Adams, PA; m. ELIZABETH LAURIS, 03 Nov 1736, Wilmington, New Castle, DE; b. 1718, Co. Tryrone, Ireland.
iii. WILLIAM MCGREW, b. 1704, Co. Tryrone, Ireland; m. ESTHER; b. 1708, Henry Co., KY.
2. iv. ALEXANDER MCGREW, b. 1705, Omagh, Ireland; d. Mar 1763, York Co., PA.
3. v. JAMES MCGREW, b. 1708, Tyrone, Ireland; d. 31 Aug 1793, Menallen Twp., Adams (York) Co., PA."

From the Preface of James P. Myers book "The Ordeal of Thomas Barton: Anglican Missionary in the Pennsylvania backcountry, 1755-17":
"The Discussion of Thomas Barton's American adventure has its genesis in 1987 when my wife and I acquired property on Chestnut Hill in Tyrone township, Adams county, Pennsylvania. Conceale in wodds on the land was a small graveyard of unmarked fieldstones, the origina of whidh no one seemd to possess any accurate information. Local speculation identified it as the resting place of Native Americans or escaped African-American slaves who had found protection in the quaker community nearby. After ov3er a year's research at the Adams County Historical Society and discovery of some old deeds carefully preserved by a neighbot, we began to obtain a more accurat understanding of its origin: the burial ground, dating from the 1760s and early 1770s (but possibly as early as the 1740s), held the remains of the Church-of-England McGrews, a large Ulster Scots-Irish family which had migrated to Chester county, Pennsylvania, most probably from Aughnacloy, county Tryone, c. 1729 and which had finally settled in Tyrone and its adjacent townships, Menallen and Huntington, in then western York county. The McGHrews took possession of and cultivated their land during a time troubled by conflict with the French and Native Americans who raided the Pennsylvania frontier. Profound discord within the frontier communities also prevailed, for the largely Ulster Scots-Irish and Anglo-Irish who settled the new lands "over Susquehanna" brought with them may o the rivalries and factional disputes that had distinguished their troublede existence in northern Ireland, a cultural turbulence fueled by religious friction amont the Anglican, quake, and Presbyterian faiths by which they defined themselves. With the removal of the French-and-Indian threats after 1763, the denominational conflicts intensified, often contributing to the evolving political antagonisms that dramatically climaxed just before and during the American Revolution.
"I discovered that during the years 1755-59 Thomas Barton, hitherto a relatively obscure figue in local history, actually had played a key role on the trans-Susquehanna frontier."

Unable to locate the source of the following:
"In July 1963, the author was in Heidlersburg and inquired about the location of the Chestnut Hill Burying Ground. It appeared to have been an almost forgotten place. An old couple said, "We have lived here 78 years, and never heard of it." I was referred to a Mr. Roy MARTIN, who with his father had had some responsibility for the care of cemeteries. Following his directions, I went west from Heidlersburg on State Road 234, for perhaps a mile, crossed a hard-surfaced road, and a quarter of a mile further, came to a stone road going north. About a half-mile north on this road, there was a sharp right turn. In the bend at this turn, I was told, was the Chestnut Hill Burying Ground. It looked as if it had not been either used or cared for in a century. There were no identifiable stones or markers. The area was a veritable thicket. But here were buried Robert and Isabella MCGREW and their son, John, a matter of, or nearly 200 years ago. John died in 1775. Robert and Isabella, no doubt earlier.

Back down the road a little way, I stopped at a farmhouse that was being remodeled by a young man, Rollin WOLFE, who had recently bought it. He showed me a handful of old deeds to the farm, which he had received from the previous owner. The top one was the deed transferring the title from James A. and Jane MCGREW at the time they were contemplating moving to Westmoreland County. James A. was a son of Finley and a grandson of Robert and Isabella. The deed mentioned that James had received an interest in the farm from his father, and had bought the interests of the other heirs. In his will, Finley, the father of James, had given a half-acre of his farm as a graveyard. This was most likely the family burial plot, and probably the one that became known as The Chestnut Hill Burial Grounds. There was no evidence of their having been a church at this location. Nearby was a building which had been the Chestnut Hill School."

Robert married Isabella FINLEY. Isabella was born in 1680 in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland; died in 1710 in Adams Co., Pennsylvania, USA; was buried in Chestnut Hill Cemetery, Adams, Pennsylvania, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]