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Clan Ewmg of Scotland

Early History and Contribution to America
Sketches of Some Family Pioneers and their Times

By Elbert William R. Ewing, A. M, LL. B., LL. D.

Author of "Legal and Historical Status of the Dred Scott Decision";

"Northern Rebellion and Southern Secession"; "Law and

History of the Hayes-Tilden Contest"; "The Pioneer

Gateway of the Cumberlands"; Contributor to

"The Gray Book"; &c

With Genealogies and Illustrations of
Family Arms.

j •

COBDEN PUBLISHING CO

Ballston, Virginia

TH'E NEW YORK
IP13BL *RY!

65778A

AST':

riLC

CONTENTS

PAGE

Addenda 5

The Publisher's Confession 7

Preface 9

I. Which Ewings and Why 15

II. Albion — Britain — Caledonia 19

III. Hibernia — Scotia — Ireland 25

IV. New Scotia 30

V. Highland Records, &c 49

VI. Founders of Our Clan 01

VII. Ewen's Son Kentigern 81

VIII. The Ewings Distinguished from the McEwens 87

IX. Origin of the Ewing Name 97

X. Highland Home and Neighbors, &c 101

XL Out of Scotland to Ireland Ill

XII. Out of Ulster to America 123

XIII. First American Ewings 136

XIV. Maryland and Virginia Septs 161

XV. Lee County, Va., and Indiana Branches 182

XVI. Samuel Ewing of Lee County, Virginia 198

XVII. Samuel Ewing of Prince Edward, Virginia.. 205
XVIII. George Ewing of Amelia and Wythe, Virginia 207

XIX. George Ewing of Virginia-Tennessee 213

XX. A Maryland-North Carolina Branch 221

XXI. William Ewing of Sligo, Ireland 226

XXII. Other Cecil County, Maryland, Ewings.... 228

XXIII. John Ewing of Maryland-Ohio 230

XXIV. Robert Ewing of Bedford, Virginia 233

XXV. Charles Ewing of Bedford, Virginia 247

XXVI. William Ewing of Rockingham, Virginia... 255
XXVII. John Ewing of Montgomery, Wm. Ewing of

Lee, &c 284

XXVIII. Some Alexander Ewings 309

XXIX. James Ewing of Pocahontas, West Virginia. 316
XXX. James Ewing of Wheeling, West Virginia. . . 344

XXXI. Thos. Ewing of Virginia-Ohio 348

XXXII. Ewing Arms Evidence of Pedigree , 353

XXXIII. Audaciter! Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum 376

ADDENDA.

After this book was in type Mrs. Lucile Turner, widow of
the late distinguished Judge Jesse Turner, Van Buren, Arkansas,
sent me a copy of arms and data showing very conclusively her
descent from the old Balloch, Scotland, family which, as I have
shown, is a branch of the oldest Loch Lomond Ewings of Low-
land origin. Mrs. Turner was born in Knoxville, Illinois, in
1877, the daughter of Emma Ruth Ewing (1851) and her hus-
band, J. F. Price. Emma Ruth was the daughter of George
Marshall Ewing, born in Uniontown, Pa., in 1818. He married
Elizabeth Maria Taylor, of Illinois ; and was the son of David
Ewing (1770), probably born in Ireland. David's Bible states
that he "left Ireland and went to America November 1, 1792."
Reaching America he visited relatives in Maryland, then settled
in Uniontown and married Ruth Brown of Virginia-Maryland in
1797. Her father owned and leased the land on which Browns-
ville is built. Ruth's sister, Elizabeth, married a Cox and their
daughter married Gen. Thos. Ewing, one of the descendants of
the Hon. Thos. Ewing. He and Mrs. Turner's branch recognized
relationship. Elizabeth, another of David Ewing's children, mar-
ried Wm. Whitton. Many of this David Ewing's descendants
live in California and elsewhere.

This David Ewing was a younger son of Alex. Ewing, the
youngest of the Balloch Ewings, and was born about 1722. He
married, first, Janet, a daughter of John Ewing of Noblistown,
Scotland; and, second, Rachel Marshall and had David and three
other boys. This Alex, was a younger son of Alexander of Bal-
loch, born about 1692, the younger son of Alex, of Balloch, born
about 1660.

The copies of arms extant in this American branch of the
family show the figures of the old Ewing arms of 1565, except
that the cheveron is not embattled ; and for difference, denoting
the descent from younger children, the three birds (martlets)
are shown and an indented border. The shield is set upon another
shield used as mantelling in order the better to show the indented
border of the first.

David Ewing's family data show that this is the family men-
tioned by Burke in his Landed Gentry. As we have seen, Burke
says that "in the middle of the sixteenth century the Ewings
acquired the lands of Balloch, County Dumbarton ;" and they
apparently lived there before they went to Bernice and Glenlean
in Corval, Argyll ; because Burke says the "family removed to
their holdings in Dumbartonshire" after the ravage of their lands
in Argyll by Atholl and Gordon. That is, earlier than 1550 the
Ewings had settled in Dumbarton and the family had acquired
lands there and near Loch Lomond ; and to these lands they
retired out of Argyll into which they had evidently gone from
Dumbartonshire, a Lowland section.

THE PUBLISHER'S CONFESSION.

The original plan was to place all citations to authorities in
footnotes. It was found that the printing would cost less with-
out footnotes. So it was decided to eliminate that part of the
manuscript. This appeared necessary because it was foreseen
that the necessarily limited field for the sale of the book would
justify only the most rigid economy in bringing out the work.
Through some mistake, however, a large part of the copious
references to authorities was not erased before the manuscript
went to the printer ; and so the compositor naturally ran into the
text the matter originally meant for the footnotes.

The printing is done on a linotype machine, which sets an en-
tire line on one piece of metal ; and so to make any change, even
put in or delete a comma, an entire line must be reset ; and a word
added or taken out means the resetting of the paragraph. Much
of the manuscript was in type before the above-mentioned mis-
take was discovered, and so neither the author nor the publisher
felt that the expense which the change would entail could in
reason be met. The author feels that the page is marred ; and
the publisher company regrets to send out that kind of composi-
tion. But many compromises had to be made or the book left
in manuscript ; and so it was felt that the family would rather
have it as it is than not to have it at all.

A reading of the proof suggested many minor changes ; and
the author desires us to say that much of the punctuation is not
approved by him ; but for the reason just given the desired
changes and corrections could not be fully made.

The author also desires us to say for him that, as can be
seen, the names of the Stephen S. Ewing children, in his own
immediate family, are not printed in proper age rotation. The
manuscript was copied from his chart ; and "how on earth" the
curious changes were made, it canot be guessed ; and that, again,
was not seen until in type. The numbering system there used
resulted from following the chart.

In this connection, also, the author desires that we say that
many of his great-grandfather's descendants were men and

women of deserved prominence, judges, lawyers, and men of
great affairs. But the commercial limitations of the work made
it necessary to omit much; and he hopes that his own close kin-
dred will most readily forgive him. He also desires that any
of either branch will write to him and give further information,
and if necessary he will issue a bulletin enlarging any genealogy
or making corrections.

The old Latin quotations should not be measured by modern
rules. Every effort was made correctly to quote the impossible
Gaelic and other languages ; but as the proofreader could not
find some of the quotations for verification, there may be some
minor errors in spelling; but the historical value of all is certain.

Many other minor matters of errata, such as Kirkville for
Kirksville, etc., will be forgiven, it is hoped, for the reasons
assigned.

A letter addressed in care of the publishers will reach the
author.

PREFACE.

This sketch treats of some of the American Ewing families
which are descended from ancient Clan Ewing of Scotland.
Bearing a similar name, there were other early clans of that
country in no way connected with or related to our clan, such as
the McEwens, the Ewens ; and probahly in later times some of
their descendants came to spell the name Bwing, though not
related to or descended from the clan from which I trace the
families of which I here specially write.

For light upon our clan and its descendants, all sources of
information, primary and secondary, accessible in all the larger
libraries of the United States, have been consulted. Much of
this material consists of original Scotch and Irish records of
one kind or another that have been published and are to be
had in the larger libraries. This information has been supple-
mented by examinations of unpublished records in both Scot-
land and Ireland. The work abroad was done by competent
scholars acting under my instructions. Unfortunately, in pro-
portion to the labor and cost, the results particularly abroad
were not the most gratifying. But, it is believed, until some
one will devote much of a lifetime and a rather large fortune
to such an investigation, we must be content with the results as
herein given. In fact, as far as can now be seen, no further in-
vestigation however exhaustive can add very materially, if at
all, to the result.

Outside of the libraries, in this country the primary sources
of our information are the hundreds of deeds, wills, and court
entries found in the clerks' offices of the several counties in
Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, North
Carolina and other States where our early American ancestors
lived. A very large number of these were examined. This
examination was made all the more difficult because the earlier
counties were vastly larger than now ; and so, though one of
our early ancestors died, for instance, in Montgoremy County,
Virginia, it is difficult to guess where the deed to his land was
recorded, if the land was acquired at an unknown date within

one hundred or more years ago; and difficult because within
the course of an ordinary lifetime, though living at the same
place, what was at first his county has been divided and sub-
divided several times, making a different place the office of
recordation with each subdivision. This difficulty is greatly
increased from the frequent repetition of the same given names,
often in the same family and almost certainly in different
though related branches.

Then, unfortunately, due to the ravages of the Union
armies during the war between the United States and the Con-
federate States, many priceless records were carried away or
destroyed. This is particularly true of some of the Virginia
counties. From time to time since that war, some records have
been happily returned by persons "Up North" — often taken as
trophies of unauthorized vandalism ; but, alas, no few were re-
duced to ashes by official orders issued without military neces-
sity.

Then, again, when the British burned the capitol in the
War of 1812-'14 there were destroyed many of the invaluable
records of the first Federal census covering an important part
of Virginia, and particularly that part along the newer sections
where, mainly, our ancestors long resided. The loss of that source
of information was intensified by a destructive fire in the build-
ing of Commerce and Labor, in Washington, again apparently
destroying other early census records. I was at the time ex-
amining the second and third censuses. Just how much and
what will be saved can only be known perhaps years hence
when the slow wheels of the Federal machinery get around to
an effort to restore to the public whatever may have escaped.
Such is the situation as this book goes to press.

In addition to these sources are tombstone inscriptions, a
few extant Bible records, and some interesting old letters. It
is hoped that this work will arouse interest so that other docu-
ments of this nature that perhaps repose in old trunks or attics
will be published for the benefit of the entire kindred.

Such published works as those of Du Bois and the few other
imperfect and scant sketches of our family of course have been
used. However, as to our branches such works furnish little
light.

To these sources are to be added the family traditions.

Let me make it emphatic that no effort is here made to
write genealogy as generally understood. My purpose is to
write an historical sketch of the earliest times of our clan, to
disclose our racial stocks, to follow our ancestors to America,
to give all that is known concerning the founders of the Ameri-
can families here under consideration, together with the briefest
glances at the pioneer conditions which the earlier American
fathers encountered, and to mention such descendants of each
branch, living today for the most part, as will, it is hoped, en-
able all who are interested to locate the branch to which each
belongs.

No effort has been made to mention the more prominent
to the exclusion of others. Many later descendants who are
not named are quite as distinguished as those whose names are
given; and I know of no descendant of the families here dis-
cussed who is unworthy of a place in a complete genealogical
record. In fact, I have no exhaustive roster of our living gen-
eration. If those who fail to find their names will think a
moment, quite probably they will recall failure to answer my
letters of inquiry. Hundreds, written one, two or even fifteen
years ago, yet remain unanswered.

No attention has been called to the scientific and literary
members of our families except in the fewest cases. A very
creditable number are distinguished for literary productions and
for scientific attainments. There are a large number of noted
educators ; and yet others who stand high in other intellectual
fields, — a more specific mention of whom is omitted simply
because of the limitations of this volume. Sketches of the earlier
pioneers are the merest outlines ; and the full ecclesiastical and
military story of our family would of itself fill a volume.

I deeply regret that I had little information regarding and
no spaces to mention our mothers, who, of course, with negligi-
ble exceptions, were not Ewings. In an unusual number, the
Ewings have married well and happily ; and I do not forget that
a good stock has thus been kept at a maximum.

During the last twenty years or more several of our name
have been very busy, from time to time, gathering genealogical
information. One of them was the late William A. Ewing,

often quoted as "Colonel Ewing," — correctly so far as I know—
at one time in Chicago and long a resident of Ohio, a descend-
ant of what is known as the older Cecil County, Maryland,
branch of our family. He built a chart on which many of that
family and a few others are shown. Blueprints were made
from parts of it and widely distributed. Unavoidably his
charts have some errors. It requires many years to perfect an
extensive genealogical chart, particularly when begun late. In
general his work is very valuable. He died December 13, 1916,
and is buried at the National Military Home, Ohio. In the
war of 1861 he served in Company H, First Ohio L. A. His
widow, Mrs. Gertrude P. Ewing, and his daughter, Miss Edna
C. Ewing, of Greenwich, Connecticut, that I might if possible
find something not disclosed by the charts, very generously
sent me all the notes and memorandums left by Colonel Ewing,
which they could find. However, he put upon the charts about
all that appears to be of value concerning the families of which
I am particularly writing.

Another most enterprising genealogist was the late James
L. Ewin, a patent attorney of Washington, D. C. His imme-
diate family dropped the g of the name some years ago; but he
was certain of descent from the same clan to which I trace
the other families here under consideration. Industriously
during many years he gathered much genealogical material
relating particularly to the American Ewings. That material
is of great value. Unfortunately and sadly he was cut down
before he could complete digesting and arranging what he had
obtained. His widow, Mrs. Sarah W. Ewin, out of a gracious
heart, not only put this material at my command but frequently
searched for items which I knew Mr. Ewin had in his lifetime.
I have used little or none of the material he left. Naturally we
each accumulated some information of a duplicate nature, and
some of that perhaps I give in my genealogical chapters. But
so far as I know my historical sketches have been duplicated
by no one ; and much of the genealogy is now for the first time
going into print. It greatly is hoped, however, that some day
there will be such a demand for the James L. Ewin data as
will justify editing and publication.

Mrs. Maria Ewing Martin, of Ohio, is another of our most
industrious and discriminating genealogists. Very generously

she placed at my command all her extensive manuscripts con-
taining what she had gathered. A small part of her work is a
duplicate of what I had. Part of her work is found in a recent
genealogy published by Judge and Mrs. Presley K. Ewing of
Houston, Texas. Had I been writing a genealogy proper,
rather than an historical sketch, I would gladly have given much
of her valuable collections.

John G. Ewing, an attorney of New York and Washington,
often quoted as "Professor Ewing" because of his work in
Notre Dame many years ago, a cousin of Mrs. Martin, descend-
ants of the late Hon. Thomas Ewing, United States Senator
from Ohio, and subsequently the first Secretary of the In-
terior, has gathered extensive information relating to the Amer-
ican Ewings and, in particular, in reference to his own branch.
It will be a valuable contribution to the family genealogy if Mrs.
Martin and Mr. Ewing prosecute their work to publication.
Perhaps he will take issue with me upon a few questions about
which none of us can be certain in the light of the present evi-
dence. He will have the advantage of seeing what I have to
say; while I have seen none of his work. I shall welcome any
light which he or another writer can furnish.

F. M. Cockrell, of Louisville, Kentucky, a descendant on
the father's side of a Lee County, Virginia, family, has ex-
tensive data. Early in my work years ago he extended me a
helping hand; but much of his work is published in Judge and
Mrs. Ewing's work.

Of all these courtesies I am sincerely appreciative.

In my investigations I have frequently met references to
''The A. B. Ewing Account." As we shall see, no such and no
similar work exists.

There is the most sincere appreciation of all whose ad-
vance subscriptions made the publication of this book possible.
Of the number Miss Sallie O. Ewing of Roanoke, Virginia, of
the Bedford County, Virginia, branch; Mrs. Alice Ewing Jones
of Los Angeles, California, of an Ohio branch; and Miss
Catherine P. Evans of Manasquan, N. J., of the older Cecil
County, Maryland, branch, are entitled to especial commenda-
tion.

Miss Evans rendered valuable help in verifying or correct-
ing as to her branch of the family the William A. Ewing chart.

Some use has been made, as will be seen, of the recent
"The Ewing Genealogy," by Hon. Presley K. Ewing, .ex-judge
of the Supreme Court of Texas, and his wife, of Houston.
Judge Ewing is a descendant of the Bedford County, Virginia,
branch, by way of Kentucky. The information which he had
from the Dr. Fox chart, relating mainly to the family of William
Ewing of Rockingham County, Virginia, I had before his work
came out, through the courtesy of Dr. and Mrs. Fox of Wash-
ington, D. C, as well as much relating to his earlier Virginia
ancestors. However, I have as far as possible avoided duplica-
tion, giving in the main such things as afford greater light
upon the earlier fathers and correcting a few mistakes.

It cannot be hoped that in what genealogy is given there are
no mistakes. Every effort has been made to be accurate, how-
ever. Perhaps the first edition of no work on genealogy is free
from mistakes. We who write must, in much, be guided by
what members of a family give us ; or, all too often, by what
some collateral relation says. We can only be guided by the
best light before us, trusting to the future to discover the er-
rors,— and to correct them.

Nothing, however, is given except that which is known
either to be true or of which I have as fully satisfied myself as
the nature of the evidence now available makes possible. It is
believed that much now presented, but for this record, shortly
would have perished forever. In a few instances it has been neces-
sary to depart from traditions found in some of the branches of
the family ; but in all such cases the weight of the evidence
has determined what is here said. This method is recognized
by courts and by long established rules which guide genealogists
and historians.

ELBERT WILLIAM R. EWING.

Washington, D. C.

WHICH EWINGS AND WHY.

History is genealogy amplified. To its members the family
story is as important and as interesting and as necessary as is the
knowledge of the history of a people to the finished scholar or to
the statesman or to the legislator. Pride of ancestral pedigree is
an important element of patriotism. The value and inspiration
arising from a knowledge of a sturdy and intelligent ancestry have
been recognized since early civilization.

The Ewings of whom I write are scions of a most intelligent,
patriotic and properly aggressive stock. Far and near the Ewings,
spreading into all civilized lands, have furnished an unusual num-
ber of trusted leaders and successful captains of industry. I
would not leave the impression that I believe all our Ewings are
great people or important leaders. One of our name once wrote
me that all the Ewings he knew preferred to leave leadership and
great industrial responsibility to others. Certainly, there are ex-
ceptions. I have met a few of our blood who were positively
"cranky;" and a few others who thought all the virtue and all the
brains the exclusive patent of their immediate branch, in fact, con-
fined to but few of that branch ! A very few have been found
who entertain a sickly sentiment regarding family lineage. All
such, I am fully satisfied, are the decided exceptions. What I
mean is that, a comparatively recent common ancestry considered,
our family in general have made good in an unusual and very
pleasing percentage. What I hope to impress is that the founda-
tion stock is of the best; and, therefore, that each for himself or
herself may build in greater confidence. My hope is that this
knowledge will inspire the individual to the highest, purest, sanest
living in all the worth-while spheres of his or her life.

Not only is the foundation stock good ; in later generations
the blood is creditably manifest. There are, a common ancestry
considered, many Ewings of our stock in the United States ; there
is quite a large number in Canada ; considerable numbers are i:i
Australia and New Zealand ; some worthy representatives of the
family are in South America, and yet other favorably known and

16 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

long-established Ewing families are here and there, go where one
may. "The Scotch Ewings have wandered far and have generally
been successful and splendid citizens," remarked a widely traveled
and extensively read Englishman to me recently. So I have
found. As a class they are respected and happily reputable.

These statements are made upon the evidence of those not
related to us. For instance, of the much proof upon this point,
the widely known genealogist, Spooner, in his "Historic Families
of America," says :

"It is noteworthy that all the Ewing families of America
have been distinguished for patriotism, and most of them have
been characterized by both civic and military attainments."

Mr. R. D. Buford, long one of the most widely known and
best-loved men of Bedford County, Virginia, who, for nearly
seventy-five years knew one branch of the Virginia family, of
which I particularly write, in a letter to me says :

"I have a very high opinion of all the stock I have known,"
and then affectionately refers to the Bedford branch, saying, "the
dear old Ewing family that years past helped to give character
and standing to the people of this good county, has no member
left in this section."

Thus I might quote of all the branches contemplated by this
study.

Of the Ewings generally, "or of many of the name, it may be
said that they are essentially inspirers of men," says Frances M.
Smith in a published study of our family; continuing: "Of
magnetic manner, intense earnestness and boundless enthusiasm,
their summoned 'Forward !' and their cry 'To arms !' move men
to action, dispel discouragements and blaze the path to high
achievement." This is representative of most disinterested
appraisements.

On the paternal side, as intimated, we are Scotch. During
the earlier clays our ancestors were Scotch upon both paternal and
maternal sides. After the branches became established in
America the men more or less intermarried with other stocks,
particularly the English of more direct Saxon ancestry. But to
this day the characteristics of most of the American families are
Scotch. This is strikingly noticeable when considered with ref-
erence to the Ewings who yet live in the old homeland, or with

WHICH EWINGS AND WHY 17

the descendants of those who helped to populate Ulster, Ireland,
and who are there today.

These family characteristics, traditions, scattering bits of
general historical mention, Bible data, tombstone inscriptions, and
much other very satisfactory evidence, conclusively show, not-
withstanding the lack of a complete and general family history,
our descent from an old and most honorable and once powerful
Scottish clan.

The origin of that clan and of the name and some account of
the earlier days in Scotland and subsequently in Ireland, I 'believe
I am enabled to give correctly. But I attempt, as will readily be
seen, no general history and no extensive genealogy of the
Ewings. Were such a work possible, it would be a most interest-
ing family document, and would show, by an unusual number
from a common ancestry, an amazing contribution to the progress
of all branches of business, learning, industry, art, science, the
professions, government and Christianity.

The genealogical inquiries here presented directly concern
only the descendants of the immigrant ancestors who founded
Ewing families which we distinguish as those of the Virginia
counties of Bedford, Prince Edward, Montgomery, Wythe, Rock-
ingham and Lee ; and some of the families of West Virginia ; those
of Cecil County, Maryland ; those whose ancestors settled in Ohio
when it was Ohio County, Virginia, and those of that part of early
Pennsylvania which bordered Cecil County, Maryland. Members
of those families in pioneer and subsequent days spread widely in-
to Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, Illinois,
Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Missouri, California and other
States. There is incidental mention of other families founded by
immigrants, closely related to the immigrant ancestors of the fam-
ilies specifically mentioned, who settled in Ohio, Illinois, Ken-
tucky, Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

It is said that at an early day a John Ewing, who after reach-
ing America lived a while in Cecil County, Maryland, founded a
family near what is now Winchester, Frederick County, Virginia.
John G. Ewing, of the Hon. Thomas Ewing family, as we shall
see, tells me he has much data regarding the descendants of that
family. I have been able to obtain little reliable information of
that branch. As Mr. Ewing means to publish his information,
naturally he reserved his discoveries.

18 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

The purpose has been to present more of the historical aspect
than a complete genealogy, but the effort is made to give enough
of the genealogy of the families particularly involved to enable
living descendants to determine each his or her line. In many
cases more of the present generation would have been given had
the information been at hand. Of the thousands of letters of in-
quiry sent to many Ewings during the past fifteen years, compara-
tively few were answered. Too, the costs of publication and the
necessarily limited field of sale wisely could not be overlooked.

The purpose considered, a condensed yet reasonably compre-
hensive study of early Scotland, England and Ireland down to
ancestral emigration is given the better to enable us to follow the
origin of our clan and the genesis of our name ; and to deepen our
appreciation of the material of which we are made. This part of
the work should appeal to all Ewings of Scotch ancestry.

We shall find that our clan unit long antedates the kingdom
of Scotland. Hundreds of years before Kenneth McAlpin, in 8 L3
A. D., brought the wild Picts into subjection and founded the
kingdom of Soctia, the great corner-stone of what became the
kingdom of Scotland in the twelfth century, the earliest forms of
our family name differentiated our ancestors. Ours is one
of the oldest of the Scotch clans. The clan breaks into the light
from the prehistoric times. Back amid the fog of those ruder
and semi-civilized days it is difficult to trace all the movements
of our earliest semi-historic forefathers, and it is not always easy
to determine fact from fiction. But we find much of interest and
importance concerning the habitat, the manners, customs, politi-
cal and religious views of the clan in general and of conspicuous
members in particular during remote as well as later periods ;
and we can follow in a general way our ancestral footsteps as
from time to time the clan forged onward, a mighty unit in the
evolution of the later Scotch nation, out into days when the clan
unit became lost in the greater unit of a powerful people into
which some of the best racial stocks of earth have blended.

Therefore, for the benefit particularly of the Ewings who
belong to the branches of the family about which I particularly
write, the facts of this little record have been gathered that the
knowledge of an intelligent and splendid ancestry may be an in-
spiration to our higher living and aid to the best citizenship.

II.

ALBION— BRITAIN— CALEDONIA.

To the Romans we are indebted for the first historical ac-
count of any part of what is now Great Britain. There is men-
tion of what we now know as the British Isles by early writers
other than Romans. In Aristotle's work, a Greek product, at-
tempting to describe the then known world, is a reference to
Britain under the name of Albion ; and another to Ireland as
Ierne. More than five hundred years before the birth of Christ,
Hamil Car, of Carthage, touched Britain in a voyage described
by Testus Avienus, who calls the inhabitants Albiones ; and ap-
parently the gens Hibernorum were the inhabitants of Ireland.
These are regarded generally as the oldest mention of the British
Isles. But to the Roman writers just before and a few years
after the birth of Christ we must go for the earliest reliable in-
formation of any part of Britain.

In 55 B. C. Julius Caesar, known today to every school boy
and girl, fresh from brilliant victories in Gaul, throwing his le-
gions across the channel from the shores of what is now France,
began the invasion of South Britain. The Romans were en-
tering an unknown country. The strange tribes which the in-
vaders encountered fought valiantly. Then, too, the newly over-
run Gaul lay between the wild and fierce tribes of Britain and
the splendors of Rome and the culture of Italy. It was neces-
sary that the conquered peoples along the green banks of the
Rhone, those dwelling in the valley of the sluggish Seine, and
those along the poetic Loire, should become dependable under
the Roman yoke before the conquest of Britain could be pushed
to best advantage. So before the Roman standards had pene-
trated very far north in Britain, Caesar returned to Rome and in
a short time went down to his death at the hands of his assassins.
New men came into power, and one leader after another came to
command in Britain. Hence, Caesar's attack and for many years
subsequent ones under his successors were followed by retreats,
leaving no permanent foothold; and so no very substantial pro-
gress was made before 43 A. D. Caesar's account of his cam-

20 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

paigns afford us the first reliable historical light upon the coun-
try and people. It was 78 A. D. when Julius Agricola assumed
command in the new province, known as Valencia. About 80,
"having subdued the Welsh Ordovices and Northumbrian Bri-
gantes, Novas gentes apcruit," he began to make war upon the
tribes in what is now Scotland.

From Tacitus, the distinguished Roman historian, we get an
account of the movements and battles led by Agricola, the earliest
authentic chronicle relating to Scotland. But Tacitus was the
son-in-law of old Agricola, and so we cannot credit all the bril-
liant feats ascribed to this Roman leader ; but archaeology has
recovered from the ruins of the Roman occupation evidences of
schools and other institutions founded by Agricola, who was
governor as well as military leader ; and fragments and sites of
his baths and other business indicating that under his leadership
the Romans in Britain, though constantly under arms and liable
without warning to attack, enjoyed civilized life. We know,
however, that the information in this Vita Agricolae by Tacitus,
as Maxwell, a recent Scotch writer, says, is "invaluable, for
Tacitus was a most accomplished writer, compiling his narratives
from his father-in-law's own description." Maxwell's caution
regarding the forgery entitled De Situ Britoniae perpetrated by
Chas. J. Bertram, should not be overlooked by those going into
the original sources covering the Roman period. This specious
document is published in Bonn's Antiquarian Library without
warning and is credited to Richard of Cirencester.

As the north was approached, the Romans found the tribes
greatly unlike those of the south. The northern tribes were
fiercer and more implacable. In the section now known as the
Lowlands of Scotland, the natives were patriotic regardless of
cost ; and the mountains and marshes of what we now know as
the Highlands enabled their brave inhabitants to take the Roman
phalanxes at a disadvantage. So Agricola found it necessary
to halt in the valley of the Clyde. Then he and his successors built
forts; and, in 120 the Emperor Hadrian visited Britain and built
the famous seventy-three mile wall, Wellsend, on the Tyne to
Bowness on the Solway River. In 138 Lallius Urbicus, another
Roman leader, built the wall of Antonine between the estuaries of
the Firth of Forth and of the Clyde. Parts of the Roman walls

ALBION — BRITAIN — CALEDONIA 21

yet interest tourists; but the rapidly passing fragments do little
more than "remind us of the all devouring scythe of time."

From the time of Agricola practically up to the withdrawal
of the invaders, the Romans were engaged in a futile attempt to
conquer the tribes north of Antonine's Wall. (For an extended
account of the Roman works see such books as A. H. Allcroft's
Earthworks of England). But the fighting quality of the natives
is not all the information furnished us by Roman historians.
Society was entirely in the tribal state, having little idea of con-
federation either for offence or defence. None of the tribes
had any historical account of themselves. The chief tribes oc-
cupying the country up to Loch Lomond in the border Highlands,
were called Brythons, from whom the country probably took its
name. In the northern section of the country, particularly in
the region we now know as the Highlands of Scotland, the tribes
apparently had little in common with the Brythons. Tacitus
calls the country north of Clota and Bodotra (the two Firths)
Caledonia and its people he calls Caledonians, — the first historic
name of what is now any part of Scotland, except whatever, if
any, Caesar included in his Britain. Caledonia is the name yet
sometimes used to indicate the present Scotland. The Romans
used the name to indicate a rather indefinite northern section of
what is now Scotland. Tacitus appears to have regarded most
of the country north of the Clyde and the Forth as an island ;
and so did Gildas, who was born on the Forth and who died in
570. Tacitus says the Caledonians were redhaired and power-
fully built ; and he believed them to be related to the Teutons of
Europe whom he calls Germans ; and says they were clearly dis-
tinguishable from the people of what we call the Lowlands and
from those of South Britain, whom both he and Caesar noted as
closely resembling the people of Gaul, now in general France and
Spain.

In later years ethnologists, archaeologists and other scien-
tists, through many sources and after much labor, have learned
that the Brythons and the Caledonians and all their connected
tribes belonged to that great branch of the human family now
known as Celtic. We also now know that the Celts were not
the aborigines of Britain, nor were any of them of German or
Teutonic descent. They represented one of those mighty waves

22 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

of emigration, of which a people before them was first, which
successively had rolled out of the cradle of the human race after
the human family had evolved into now well known divisions.
We also know that this original home of the human family is
located most likely in Asia, between the Indus and the Euphrates,
the Arabian Sea and the Juxartes. So far apart had been the
migrations, and so crude the forms of knowledge and so inade-
quate the means of preserving information, that each successive
movement had no story of its predecessor. Each, too, soon for-
got its original home.

The earliest Briton and Saxon Chronicles, such as the writ-
ings of Bede, for instance, who closed his Ecclesiastical History
in 731, mention only Picts and Scots as inhabiting the Highlands;
and there has been much discussion as to whether the Picts were
the descendants of the tribes found by the Romans. But that
the Picts were descendants of the tribes of northern Scotland
found by the Romans, is the view of some later writers. I believe
this view rests upon the weight of the evidence. I further con-
cur with those who hold that the Picts, who were Gaelic, were
the ancestors of the modern Highlanders who are of Gaelic
strain.

Notwithstanding all these tribes were descendants of the
Celtic branch of the human family, there had developed at the
time of the Roman occupation marked local characteristics, par-
ticularly distinguishing those of the south from those of the north.
The Caledonians "were tall men with red hair, and the bravest
fighters of all the Britons." Prolixo crine rutilantia, say Eumen-
ius, another Roman, writing of the Caledonians whom he called
"Picts," about A. D. 296. Other passages in Roman writings
refer to them as "Caledonians and other Picts." However, not
all the Caledonians were of this racial type. There was an ele-
ment among them whose hair and complexion were dark. Among
the mountains of modern Wales and Cornwall and in the western
hills of Ireland, there are people who are by some believed to be
descendants of the predecessors of the Celts. These people were
probably remnants of the predecessors of the Caledonians. This
dark race had long skulls, known as dolicho-cephalic. The red-
haired and later race were marked by round skulls, brachio-
cephalic. Woodburn, in his The Ulster Scot, says that the Gaels

ALBION BRITAIN CALEDONIA 23

"were tall, with brown hair, gray eyes, and broad heads, and
were alert, passionate, and full of fire."

Throughout Britain at the time of the Roman invasion the
tribes were governed by kings or chief rulers. Metal was used
as a money, a given weight being the standard ; warriors, their
bodies painted blue, often went to battle in chariots. Among
the Caledonians these chariots, drawn by small active horses,
were armed with scythes so arranged as to mow down the enemy ;
but even these, formidable as they appear when seen in imagina-
tion, were no match for the iron shields and heavy spears and
battle axes of Roman cohorts. But to us now the strangest
custom of those early Britons was the practice of polyandry, "ten
or twelve men having one wife in common," so Jean Lang ex-
plains in The Land of Romance. However, Maxwell says the
statement that those early men "had wives in common is to be
accepted with reserve."

Such is the possibly briefest view of the earliest historical
peoples found in the land before the historical foundation of
the clan from which we are descended. With events during the
period of the Roman occupation we are not particularly here
concerned, since they throw no direct light upon our history.
Except in south Britain, the Romans left no lasting impression up-
on the peoples they met, and least of all upon those in the north of
what is now Scotland; and they left no permanent factor in the
social stocks which finally become dominant in both sections of
Britain. At length the Roman grasp relaxed. Enemies both
from within and from without threatened the imperial city her-
self, and it became necessary to abandon Britain. Gradually the
Latin power waned until by 418 it had disappeared.

Whatever modern scholars may think of the origin of the
Britons, Scots, and Picts, it is at least interesting to notice what
the earliest writers who followed the Roman period thought upon
this subject. Bede, born in what is now Scotland, for instance,
completed his Ecclesiastical History of the English nation in 731.
He begins by telling us that Britain is "an island in the ocean,
formerly called Albion;" and then of the origin of the people,
with all apparent sincerity, he says :

"At first this island had no other inhabitants but the Britons,
from whom it derived its name, and who coming over into Brj-

24 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

tain, as is reported, from Amorica, possessed themselves of the
southern ports thereof. When they, beginning at the south, had
made themselves masters of the greatest part of the island, it
happened that the nation of the Picts, coming into the ocean from
Scythia, as is reported, in a few tall ships, were driven by the
winds beyond shores of Britain, and arrived off Ireland on the
northern coasts, where finding the nation of the Scots, they re-
quested to be allowed to settle among them, but could not succeed
in obtaining their request."

Then Bede says the Scots advised the Picts to repair to
Britain, and that if settlement was then opposed, that the Picts
might use the Scots as "auxilionis." Thereupon the Piets sailed
over into Britain "and began to inhabit the northern parts thereof,
for the Britons were possessed of the southern."

By Amorica Bede evidently refers to some point on the
European coast. Bede was followed by the Winchester Chroni-
cle, commonly known as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which takes
up the events after Bede, beginning about 900, as given in a lost
Northumbrian manuscript, and ending in 1154. For the earlier
events it is believed the author followed Bede ; and since the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has Armorica where Bede gives Amorica,
it is generally believed that he refers to some part of what is now
France.

The historical production, very ancient, known as the Welsh
Triades, states that the first colonists to Britain were Cymry, who
came from Defrobani Gwlad Yr Har, Taurie Cheronesus, thro
which runs the Cimmerian Bosphorus. The Brythons were de-
scended from the original Cymry, and reached Britain from
Lydon, Brittany.

Nennius says that the "island of Britain derives its name
from Brutus, a Roman consul ; and that the Roman annals de-
duce the origin of the Britains both from the Greeks and the
Romans. On the mother's side they sprang from Saturn, king
of the Greeks, who built the city of, Troy. On the father's side
from Romulus and Remus, the Sons of Aeneas, the founders of
Rome ; and thence through the family of the Roman Brutus.

III.

HIBERNIA— SCOTIA— IRELAND.

Ireland, known to Caesar as Brittanis (Little Britain),
charming island to the west of the Roman conquest, grew stronger
and forged far toward civilization while the Romans fought Bry-
thons (or Britons) and Caledonians.

The Romans knew that there were people and treasures on
the island now known as Ireland, and it was believed that con-
quest would be light work for Roman soldiers and superior muni-
tions of war (Tacitus, Vita Agricolae, eh. 24). But during all
of the more than three hundred years of Roman occupation of
Britain no effort was made to invade Ireland. Agricola, stand-
ing on the west coast of Scotland, saw the Irish shores, says Max-
well (The Early Chronicles, 4), but he found no opportunity for
invasion. Therefore, from no Roman writer do we get any im-
portant information concerning that island or its people.

As we saw in the previous chapter, perhaps the earliest
known reference to the people of Ireland calls them gens Hiber-
norum, or people of Hibernia ; and the Roman documents of
Caesar's day mention Ireland as inhabited gentibus Scotorum.
Skene, Macbain and others point out that "these Scots are to be
distinguished from the more ancient Hiberni ;" and Skene calls
attention to the lives of St. Patrick from which we get "the most
ancient notices perhaps which we have of the state of that island,"
as we are told in The Highlanders of Scotland (Macbain's edi-
tion). The more ancient name Hibernia was in the Celtic lan-
guage Eire, or Erin, or in the Welsh Ywerdon, as Skene has ex-
plained.

Ethnologists have discovered that the people who were living
in Ireland during the Roman stay in Britain, which period is
generally regarded as the dawn of the history of the British Isles,
were, in common with the Brythons, the Caledonians, and all the
tribes found by the Romans, descendants of the great Celtic
stream of the human family. We now know that as into other
parts of what is now Great Britain so into Ireland widely sep-
arated waves of human migration, perhaps thousands of years

26 CLAN SWING OF SCOTLAND

before the Roman era, rolled out from what appears to be, as
near as can be now known, the common home of the races of
earth, each to disappear before the next. Digging amid the ages-
buried ruins and prowling among the burial places left by the pre-
historic peoples, archaeologists and ethnologists, by cranial meas-
urements and other means, have traced the successive waves
of humanity which broke upon the shores of Ireland, out through
what is now Spain, Portugal and France ; thence, it is believed,
across the Bay of Biscay and upon the Atlantic to the Irish shores.

Just when the first historic people reached what is now Ire-
land is not certainly known. It is believed by some that the people
found in Ireland by the Romans reached there before the Picts
and other tribes met by the Romans reached Alba and Caledonia.
Nennius, writing perhaps before 800 A. D., believed that the Picts
reached Britain 800 years after the Britons, and that "long after
this the Scots arrived in Ireland from Spain," and that they set-
tled Dalrieta in Northern Ireland. However, that the earlv Irish
forefathers reached Ireland at least four or five hundred years
before Christ is now generally admitted. Their immediate prede-
cessors, a tall, dark, swarthy people, who were almost entirely
absorbed by their conquerors, are now generally classed as Ibe-
rians. So crude was civilization in those early days that even the
traditions of the Iberians have been lost ; but we have an immense
volume of Irish traditions and legends purporting to give the ori-
gin and some account of that race to which most Irish trace
their parentage.

Professor O'Growney tells us that there are today enough
old Irish manuscripts in Dublin to fill one thousand printed vol-
umes. From the oldest manuscripts and the earliest Irish tradi-
tions of which we have any knowledge, we learn that what we
now know as Ireland and as Scotland are represented as having
been intimately connected and inhabited by a common people. At
a very distant day, the same sources insist, there swept into Ire-
land a race of people known as Firbolgs, beings resembling classic
Cyclopeans ; years passed and these were followed by the Dan-
nans ; and then after many years come those generally known as
Picts. The first are represented as the builders of the gigantic
and well-placed stone forts found along the west coast of Ireland ;
the next brought from what we now know as Scotland learning

HIBERNIA — SCOTIA IRELAND 27

and religion and the mystic coronation stone which the Irish, in
the main, contend is yet in the Hall of Tara, and which the Scots
say was carried to Scone, Scotland, and from there to Westmin-
ster, England, where, the Scots insist, it is today. Antiquarians
are yet quarreling as to who were those Picts of the early Irish
literature, as they are as to the Picts of Scotland. Fitzgerald, in
his Ireland and Her People, says that the early Irish chronicles
peopled the country in the fourth century after the Deluge by the
Partholanians ; then in successive waves, as he reports the old
stories, came the Nemedians, the Formorians, the Firbolgs and
then the Dannans, all of whom perished before the coming, or
were swept away by, the sons of Milesius.

So that finally out of the mists of those far-distant days in
what is now both Ireland and Scotland emerge a people known as
Gaelic. By some writers they are regarded as "the second in-
vaders, a Celtic race who came into Britain and Ireland from
Northwest Germany and the Netherlands. . . . They were a
highly civilized people as compared with other races of that time."

In attempting to tell us when his people came, the Gaelic poet,
Mael-Mura, in the ninth century, sang:

"Canam bunadhas na n-Gaedhal."

"Let me sing the origin of the Gael," as Gaelic scholars trans-
late this. Then the poet tells us that the early traditions of his
people taught that the first historic people of Ireland were de-
scendants of a mighty race whose legendary leader was Milesius.
The Milesians lived in a country before they came to Ireland
where Queen Scota ruled. Gaedhal Glas was her son. From
these names came Scoti or Scots, and Scotia, the names by which
Ireland and the Irish first were known to others than the Romans,
and particularly to the early inhabitants themselves and to the
people of pre-Scotland.

"For ten centuries Ireland was the true Scotia," therefore, as
Professor O'Growney, of Manooth College, Ireland, and others,
have shown us. (2 Trans, of the Gaelic Soc. of Glasgozv, 239.)
Hence the Celts of Ireland and their descendants are also known
as Gaels, as well as Scots. They were the people who were in
Ireland when the Romans reached Britain, and at the dawn of
history they were permanently settled in Northern Ireland,
called Dalrieta by Nennius, and which came to be known as
Dalriada.

28 CLAN SWING OF SCOTLAND

The prehistoric and also early Scots ( of that early day of

"relandi were a most enterprising people. At one

r another they had trade routes into the commercial centers

of Europe and even into Asia. From Asia Minor, very probably

tly from the patriarchs of the church founded at Antioch by
that greatest of Apostolic Mission:.- Si Paul, they carried the
Christian religion to Ireland, or Scotia, about four hundred
years after Chrisl

The Romans withdrew from Britain before Christianity had
softened the Irish, or Scots ; and for about one hundred and fifty
years after that withdrawal, about all we know about either Ire-
land or Britain is that North Ireland, at the time of our first his-
torical account of it. was territory of a S kingdom known as
Dalriada. It had schools, churches, industries and a highly intel-
lectual people.

Fergus. Lome and Angus, sturdy Scot leaders, leaving old
Dalriada in North Ireland, founded, in 501, a colony on the
southwest shore of old Caledonia, known to the Scots as Alba.
This colony rapidly grew into an independent kingdom, and
also came to be known as Dalriada. The boundaries of this Scots
Albanian kingdom, swinging in an oblong circle, reached north
to about the island Skye. and covered practically the same terri-
torv as is now within Argyllshire. From the shore of what is now
Countv Antrim. Ulster. Ireland, across to the Mull of Kintyre. is
only fourteen miles, says Woodburn in The Ulster Scot. These
immigrants from Ireland were of the same Celtic stock as were
the people of the Argyll Isles and mainland : but many causes
came in time to leave between the people of these two countries
differences.

During all this time Scotia I now Ireland ) was enjoying the
blessings of peace and the fruits of Christianity. Her univer-
sities were freauented by students from many lands, and her
Christian missionaries carried the Gospel to the Saxons (who did
not accept it until they had conquered much of Britain i ; and then
or --ing the channel, missionaries went down into what is now
sunnv France. Those missionaries preached even under the blue
Italian skies, and penetrated other sections of the pagan world.

One of the most famous of those great preachers of the Irish
or Celtic church was Columba. Of royal descent. Columba was

IIlBliRNIA — SCOTIA — IRELAND 29

a representative Celt, tall, having red hair and light blue eyes.
Some, however, say the hair of the representative Celt was brown
and his eyes gray. He was a man of great zeal, fervent piety and
enjoying executive ability. At the age of 42, and in the year 563
A. D., St. Columba led a band of co-workers from Scotia into
Dalriada, of which little is known prior to his coming. He was
given the Island of lona, which lies off the west coast, and there
he built the monastery which became world-famous. It is well,
however, to remember that the monastic life of the Celtic church
differed materially in practice and discipline from the seclusive-
ness and asceticism later characteristic of the Roman Catholic
monastic life.

This settlement of Scots upon the western shore of what
came to be Scotland was the foundation upon which the descend-
ants of those Scots built a kingdom which, from their name, came
to be Scotia in the reign of Malcolm the Second, who reigned
from 1004 to 1034. What is known as the Saxon Chronicle, in
93?, applied to Ireland the name of Yraland. From that time old
Scotia became Ireland.

IV.

NEW SCOTIA— THE TEUTONIC KINGDOMS— SCOT-
LAND.

To best appreciate the stuff of which we are made it will be
necessary to keep before the mind at least a general view of the
races of mankind and their leading subdivisions.

From geology we learn much regarding the age and physical
transformation of the earth. From archaelogy, aided by geolog-
ical deductions, anthropology, philology and other sciences we are
forced to reach the conclusion that from very simple forms and
the crudest knowledge far back in prehistoric times the human
stock has come steadily though slowly upward. Whether the
bottom had been reached by retrogression, nothing short of
revelation proves. Asia in the most distant day and America in
recent times furnish us the widely separated groups of primi-
tive man. Those who accept the Bible believe that in some way
the aborigines of America were the descendants of the earliest
people of the old world ; and that after isolation in what we
now call America they were more content with the simple and
the crude than their kindred of Europe and Asia. Aside from
the Bible, or rather in the corroboration of its story of the origin
of all peoples, evidence indicates that either in Asia or Europe,
many thousands of years before Christ, there lived a small group
of people, and that from them multiplied the peoples of the
earth, including what we know as the primitive people of Amer-
ica and their prehistoric predecessors. That in what is now
southern Turkestan, Asia, was located that primal home of the
human race, is widely believed ; and no evidence even suggests
that it was in any place very far, comparatively, from there.

This scientific evidence carries us back to a very distant day
when the early people had drifted into groups having marked
distinguishing characteristics. By these marks even the pre-
historic homes of those groups are certainly known from a very
far away day, and the movements of each group or its descend-
ants are readily traced. According to widely accepted authoritv

NEW SCOTIA 31

the separated branches from a point in their histories to this day
are distinguished as American, including the Eskimo, the Azetcs,
&c. ; the Asian (yellow), including the Chinese, the Japanese,
&c. ; the Negroid, including the negroes, &c. : and the Caucasian.
The great Caucasian stock is first divided into two early groups,
the South Mediterranean and the North Mediterranean. The
former group embraces the Arabs, the Bedouins, the Israelites,
the Samaritans, the Syrians and the now extinct Assyrians and
Carthagenians, &c. ; and from the latter branch sprang three
other great subdivisions : the Euskaric, including the Basques,
and other branches now extinct, to which a few authorities upon
little evidence assign the Picts ; second, the Caucasic, which in-
cludes the Avars, the Kurians, the Laks, &c. ; and third, the
Aryans. From the Aryan family come the Celtic, Italic, Hel-
lenic, Teutonic, and Slavic. The Celts comprise several
branches : the Britons, the Cymri, the Gauls, the Irish, the Welsh,
and the Highlanders (Gaels and Scots) of older Scotland. Again,
the Italic branch includes the French, the Italians, the Latins, the
Spanish, the Roumanians, the Danes, the Goths and other Scan-
dinavians, the Saxons and their Angle and Jute tribes, the Dutch,
the modern Germans, and as a blending of several of some of
these, the English and the most of Americans. To the Slavic
family belong the Poles, the Bulgarians, the Russians, &c.

New environment, climatic differences and many other
causes accentuated the characterises of each group and, as we all
know, languages became very diverse and multiplied, and for
many thousands of years the groups which at length grew into
nations forgot their common origin and kinship with the rest of
the world. Comparatively recent scholarship and scientific re-
search have given us our present important comprehensive grasp
of the brotherhood of the human race.

Now at some prehistoric time there was a great migration,- -
and yet in other times another and still others ; and from the
primitive home it is believed that the Celts first reached and es-
tablished themselves in central Europe. The Teutons at some
time followed as the Celts spread into western Europe, where
they later settled what became known as Gaul, Spain, and the
British Isles. The Teutons were thus left in central and east-
ern Europe. The Latin and Hellenic peoples took possession of

32 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

the peninsulas which became Italy and Greece, and the Slavo-
nians, moving behind the others, overran eastern Europe. Among
the people who covered the Italian and Grecian peninsulas cul-
ture and social organization made their first marked strides,
written languages were cultivated and literature was encouraged.
The leading Teutonic tribes, the Saxons, the Angles, and their
subtribe the Jutes, the Goths, the Vandals, the Franks, the Bur-
gundians, the Lombards and Normans and the Danes, the latter
two generally known as Scandinavians, are often mentioned un-
der the classification of Germanic. But we must not confound
the use of that word with the adjective German when used to
indicate the people of modern Germany. Germany in its mod-
ern sense was unknown when branches of the Teutons were first
called Germans. It is usual to refer to the Germans as Teutons,
but that does not imply that they are any more Teutonic than any
other members of the great Teutonic family. The name Teu-
tonic to indicate a tribe was first applied to an ancient people
dwelling north of the Elbe River in Europe, and who first ap-
peared in history, along with the Cimbri, in 300 B. C. Some of
the modern Germans are descended from that ancient tribe, and
since also modern Germany includes the territory of the old
Teutons, it has become usual to speak of the Germans as Teutons.

The Saxon tribe of the Teutonic family gradually spread un-
til by 550 A. D. their kingdom covered the country from the
mouth of the Elbe and that of the Thuringia westward to ap-
proximately the Rhine. The Saxons by that time occupied about
half of what became England, their possessions being on the east
of a nearly due north and south line. The Jutes occupied,
roughly, what is now Denmark ; and immediately to their south
was the kingdom of the Angles, now the northern neck of Ger-
many just south of Denmark. The Franks occupied the section
now embraced by Belgium and northeastern France ; and the
Vis Goths were in the remainder of the French country and what
became Spain. The kingdom of the Vandals covered the entire
Northern Africa. Other early people of whom we read were
here and there to the east, north or south in Europe and in Asia.

With this hurried glance at the great human hive of Europe
and Asia, we are better prepared to follow the changes which
succeeded the Roman evacuation of the British Isles about 410
to 418.

NEW SCOTIA 33

As we have seen, for one hundred and fifty years after the
Romans had gone back (410 to 418 A. D.) to perish with their
crumbling empire, there followed a period during which history
knows little concerning either of the three countries now known
as England, Scotland and Ireland. Particularly regarding Scot-
land during that period "the darkness is profound,'" but with the
beginning of the fourth half century after the Roman period the
mists begin to dissipate.

To the missionaries of the Christian church we owe the
earliest historical light subsequent to Roman rule. The earliest
work was a life of Ninian, written in Saxon. The original, un-
happily, is lost. This evangelist was of Welsh (Briton) birth;
and had studied in Rome. Before the Roman government with-
drew he began to preach the Christian religion, as he understood
it, to the Pectish people of Golloway, reaching there direct from
Rome, and continued northward until his death about 432. It is
said that at a place then hardly a town, called Cathures, where
Glasgow now is, Ninian established a cemetery for Christian
burial. His successor, Kentigern, of whom we shall see more
later, reaching the place more than one hundred years later, built
his monkish hut near the place and on the banks of the Molin-
diner Burne (or Creek).

Comyn the Fair, one of the Abbots of Iona, wrote a memoir
of his observations at Iona, the monastery of New Dalriada, cor-
responding in general with what is now Argyllshire, but this has
little than local value.

Next was Gil das, born 516 and died 5 TO, a native of the Welsh
or Briton stock. Gildas says he never saw any writings or records
of his country, adding that "if there were ever any of them"
they had been lost, carried into distant lands, "or consumed in the
fires of the enemy.'' However, we now know that, though Gildas
never saw it. Ninian's life did not perish until much later, only a
mutilated, unreliable and much emendated edition coming down to
us. The mutilations are the work of Ailred, Abbot of Rievault, a
representative of the church as it existed in that land some five
or six hundred years after Ninian's day. Gildas saw only "the
destruction of everything that is good," and draws the darkest
picture of the Britons, calling them "an indolent and slothful
race.'' He abused most vigorously the Picts and Scots ; and of

3-4 CLAX EWING OF SCOTLAND

course exhibits no love for the invading Saxons. Maxwell is cor-
rect : "Gildas can only be reckoned an important historian in the
absence of any more capable contemporary writer. It is from
his dismal page that we learn how the Saxons first became a
power in our land (Scotland).''

The next writer was Adamnan, one of the Scots of newer
Dalriada, said to have been born in Ulster, now Ireland, then yet
known as Scotia. Adamnan's work is the life of Columba, the
founder of Iona. Columba died in 597; Adamnan was born 627;
and so, of course, wrote not earlier than the middle of the sev-
enth century. His story is regarded as reasonablv reliable, mak-
ing due allowance for the supernatural gloss which more or less
clouds all the old monkish chronicles. Adamnan wrote in Latin,
evidencing the rather wide learning of the day.

Baeda, or Bede, generally known as the Venerable Bede, is
our next source of historical light. He was born in Saxon North-
umbria. in 673, and died in 735. Bede regarded himself as an
Englishman, as did all the Saxon, Angle, and Jute descendants
of his day. He is appraised as the first invaluable writer of that
country : and his writings are regarded as of "singular impar-
tiality, a quality most rare in the writings of clerics of the early
Church." He used freely the work of Gildas and seems to have
sought every other source of information. Yet we have to watch
him carefully, for he relates things ascribed bv him to the super-
natural, which we know to be untrue, with as much assurance
and earnestness as he does real facts. For instance, of King Os-
wald he says that on one occasion a bishop laid hold of his right
hand and said : "May this hand never perish." "Which fell out
according to his prayer." adds Bede. "for his arm and hand, being
cut off from his body, when he was slain in battle, remain entire
and uncorrupted to this day, and are kept in a silver case as re-
vered relics in St. Peter's Church in the royal city."

The life of Kentigern, the son of Ewen of Urien, comes next.
Kentigern, also known as Eugenius, was a Briton, or Brython,
Cymric, or Welsh of Strathclyde. as we shall see. the old stock
occupying the country south of the Clyde at the coming of the
Romans. He was a contemporarv of Columba. and became the
greatest Christian missionary and preacher of that day. Jocelyn,
a monk of Furness, was the author. Kentigern began his work
about 5 tO, but his life was not written until 1164.

NEW SCOTIA 35'

From Ailred's life of Ninian, Adamnan's life of Columba
and Jocelyn's life of Kentigern, we get our information of the
introducing of the Christian religion into what is now Scotland,,
as well as some information upon other subjects ; and from Gildas,
the Welsh, or Cymric Briton, also a monk, and from Bede, the-
Benedictine monk, horn in Xorthumbria, and who died at the
monastery of Jarrow, and from another Welshman named Nen-
nius, who is accredited with a Historia Britonum (a History of the
Britons), believed to have been written shortly before 900, though
some place it as early as 796, and others as late as 994, we get our
chief information regarding the struggle between Britons and
Scots and Picts ; or again the Britons with the swarming Teutonic
peoples ; or again, between allies of two or more against others..
These are supplemented by the work of Tighernac, a Scot of Ire-
land of an early day, by the Chronicles of the Picts ; by Chronicles-
of the Saxons, and in a very important way by some historical
poems in the Welsh or Cymric tongue. Then we come on down
to later works of value, but very old now, in the compiling of
which older ones were, of course, used, such as Geoffrey of Mon-
mouth, who wrote Historia Britonum in 1152; and the works of
another monk, Richard of Cirencester, of whom little is known-
except that he was a great student of history, who died about
1400.

Now, then, we shall follow briefly the story as we get it
from those early writers, and as that story has been amplified or
corrected by the best subsequent scholarship.

Bede says that, at the writing of his ecclesiastical history,
which he completed in ^:il A. D., the Island of Britain contained
"five nations, the English, Britons, Scots, Picts and Latins, each;
in its own peculiar dialect cultivating the sublime study of Divine
truth. The Latin tongue is, by the study of the Scripture, becom-
ing common to all the rest."

If by Latin Bede meant Roman, this statement is in direct
contradiction to one he makes later in regard to a leader of the
Britons, "who alone, perhaps, of the Roman nation had survived
the storm" of Scots and Picts who fell upon the Britons upon
Rome's withdrawal.

From his native land in old Dalriada, now Ulster, Ireland.
Columba, a Christian in the light of his day, went to new Dalriada,,

36 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

founded by the Scots of his country, later known as Argyll, we
have seen. Under the encouragement of the king Columba
founded, on an island off the extreme west shore of Argyllshire,
what became the famous abbey of Iona. Then he turned his
greatest missionary efforts to converting the Picts of the adjacent
kingdom of the north.

Adamnan, in his biography of Columba, gives us the first
historical account of the Pictish king, Brude, of that day, and tells
us that that king's fortified capital was what we now know as
Craig Phadraig, located, we now know, two miles south of Inver-
ness, when Columba visited the king shortly after 563 A. D. Co-
lumba died in 597 A. D. (An interesting account of Columba
and his church was written by Alexander Ewing, D. C. L., long
Bishop of Argyll and the Isles, which was published in Lon-
don in 1866.)

To the south of the Pictish country and mainly in what is
now Scotland, the Britons, Cymru Celtic, followed the Roman
withdrawal by organizing something of a general confederacy
composed of numerous small political units governed by kings
who exercised limited powers. Over this federation, crude though
it must have been, was the power exercised by a chosen common
leader when a common danger impended.

Bede, our earliest and chief authority, we remember, gives
this story of the first half century thus :

"From that time (the Roman evacuation) the south part of
Britain (by south part Bede means all of Briton south of the bor-
der Highlands), destitute of armed soldiers, and all of its active
youth which had been led away by the rashness of the (Roman)
tyrants, never to return, was wholly exposed to rapine, as being
totally ignorant of the use of weapons. Whereupon they suf-
fered many years under two very savage foreign nations, not
[foreign] on account of their being seated out of Britain, but be-
cause they were remote from that part of it which was possessed
by the Britains ; two inlets of the sea lying betwixt them, one of
which runs in far and broad into the land of Britain, from the
eastern ocean, and the other from the western, though they do not
reach so as to touch one another. The eastern (inlet) has in the
midst of it the city Guid. The western (inlet) has on it, that is,
on the right hand thereof, the city of Alcluith, which in their Ian-

NEW SCOTIA 37

guage signifies the Rock Cluith, for it is close by the river of that
name. On account of the eruptions of these nations, the Britons
sent messengers to Rome with letters in mournful manner, pray-
ing succor, and promised perpetual subjection provided that the
impending enemy should be driven away."

An armed legion responded at once, the enemy, "a great mul-
titude" being slain, was driven out of Britain, and the Britains
advised to build a wall between "the two bays or inlets of the
seas. Such a wall of sod the islanders built. But, the Roman
legion again gone, the enemies "like men mowing ripe corn" (bar-
ley), swarmed into the land by sea "and bore down all before
them." A second appeal to Rome brought another legion, and
again the Picts and Scots were slaughtered or put to flight. Then
the Romans "built a strong stone wall from sea to sea in a straight
line." "This famous wall, which is still (731) to be seen, was
built at the public and private expense, the Britons also lending
their assistance."

When Bede wrote this wall was yet seven feet broad and
twelve feet high ; but comparatively small fragments now remain.

Having finished the stone wall, and having instructed the
Britons in the manufacture of arms, the Romans left, to return
no more. Emboldened, this fact induced the Picts and the Scots
to occupy "all the northern and farthest part of the island, as far
as the wall," says Bede. This is all the more important and in-
teresting because it established the fact that the Briton country,
within which was the capital, "Alcluith" (Alclyde), extended into
the border Highlands and north of the Clyde estuary and the
present city of Glasgow. When the settlement of the enemy "as
far as the wall" was seen: "Hereupon a timerous guard was
placed upon the wall, where they pined every day and night in
the utmost fear. On the other side the enemy attacked them with
hooked weapons, by which the cowardly defendants were dragged
from the wall and dashed against the ground." Finally the
Britons fled, and the enemy' slaughtered and burned, with ferocity
and without quarter, leaving no food for the Britons except such
as the chase afforded. ,

Finally, 423 A. D., "the wretched remains of the Britons sent
a letter" to one of the Roman consuls, beginning, "To Aetius,
thrice consul, the sighs of the Britons," and closing by begging

38 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

for help. But no help went out from Rome this time, for the
terrible Huns, ancestors of many modern Germans, were ravag-
ing Europe and surely driving Roman power to its doom. Shortly
after this letter, Aetius led every available Roman against the
famous barbaric Attila, king of the Huns. The armies joined bat-
tle, one of the decisive battles of the world, along that stretch of
country between what is now Chateau-Thierry and Chalons, now
France. Civilization won ; the Huns were scattered. Having
fled, some stopped "on the right bank of the Danube, in the Hun-
gary of today,'' and others turned back toward their old home on
the great plains of Asia beyond the Caspian, from which they had
poured fifty years earlier, "as if under a sudden impulse, the
whole multitude, in great carts and on horseback, carrying all
their possessions," as we are correctly told in the December,
1918. National Geographic Magazine. The Goths, Teutons from
Scandinavia, who for a time had been overrun by these terrible
Huns, now regained independence, and, aided by Slavic— tribes
within their domains, turned upon the Roman empire. "Odoacer,
chief of the German Heruli," and of tribes in alliance with them,
forced the last emperor in Rome to abdicate the throne. "Thus,
470 A. D., the renowned western Roman empire became extinct.'"

Bede gives the Roman government credit for inviting "the
nation of the Angles, or Saxons," to the aid of the Britons, and
places the coming of the first contingents in the year 419. Hence,
from the evacuation by Rome up to the coming of the Saxons less
than forty years had elapsed. Taking into consideration the fact
that the Britons had been deprived of their young men by the
Romans, that they had for nearly five hundred years been held
under the Roman yoke and given no opportunity to train for war
or permitted even to make and use the implements of war, we can
the more readily understand why the Britons were so unavoidably
helpless rather than cowardly ; and at the same time we get a
warning sight of subjugated nations, and an important lesson in
the indispensability of preparation for national defense — for the
opening of the damnable world war which has ravaged the world,
proves that since these early days humanity is but glossed the
more.

( )uickly the warlike Saxons put the Scots and Picts to flight;
then decided to take Briton for themselves. Rapidly and in great
"swarms" they came, the "three most powerful nations of Ger-

NEW SCOTIA 39

many — Saxons, Angles and Jutes," says Bede — of course using
the name Germany to indicate a different government from what
is now Germany, tho in part the same country. "Then, having on
a sudden entered into a league with the Picts, whom they had
by this time repelled by the force of their arms, they began to turn
their weapons against" the Britons.

Now, the Britons were, after the light they had, Christians :
the Saxons, x^ngles, and Jutes were pagans ; so the latter slew
"priests everywhere before the altars ;" demolished public and
private structures, slew Britons until there were none to bury
those who had been thus cruelly slaughtered ; some, taken in
mountain retreats, "were butchered in heaps ;" those who sur-
rendered were enslaved, and a miserable remnant scarcely sur-
vived far up in the mountain fortresses.

At length the Saxons ceased to dog the mountain regions.
"Ambrosius Aurelius, a modest man. who alone perhaps of the
Roman nation had survived the storm, in which his parents, who
were of the royal race, had perished," gathered up the survivors,
gave battle to the invaders and, "by the help of God," Bede thinks,
gained a victory. Shortly after that, under Germanus, the Bri-
tons gained over "a multitude of fierce" Scots and Picts a signal
victory "by faith, without the aid of human force," by ambus-
cading defiles into which the enemy unsuspectingly marched ;
whereupon with one voice the Britons, led by the priests, began
shouting "Hallelujah!"

Bede's story is very general, painfully lacking in details,
very full of exaggeration as to some things, characterized by a
belief that Christianity was introduced among the Britons and
Saxons by what we know as the Roman Catholic Church ; and
that the priests had wrought the most wonderful miracles by
direct divine interposition. But out of the confusion we know
that before Kentigern, the son of Ewen of Urien, began to preach
to his fellow Britons about 540, approximately one hundred
years after the last Roman legion disappeared, the Brythonic or
Welsh branch of the Celtic race, called by Bede simply Britons,
had organized small states, sometimes called provinces, each
having its king and all united into one grand federation under
the title Strathclyde. We also know that before Kentigern's day
Strathclyde, from the border Highlands and including modern

40 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Dumbarton town, just north of the Clyde and the Forth, reached
out to the river Derwent, not including the kingdom of the
Lothians or what is known as the Principality of Galloway. It
will help us if we remember that in the tenth century, perhaps
five hundred years after the labors of Kentigern, Strathclyde
was also known as Cumbria or Cumberland. It appears that as
a result of a war ending at the battle of Arthuret in 573, between
forces led by Rydderch Hael and those commanded by Maelwyn
Gwynedd, Strathclyde was divided, the southern section becom-
ing Wales or Cymru and the northern section, retaining the name
Strathclyde, uniting in itself the former states within its terri-
tory. The northern king established his court at "Alcluyde"
(Alclyde), modern Dumbarton. Hael was a Christian. Before
the separation of the kingdom the king, a non-Christian, had so
menaced Kentigern, as we shall see in another chapter, that he
had fled to the mountains of Wales ; but Hael recalled him. Lo-
cating, as we shall see, at what is now Glasgow, Kentigern spread
the gospel throughout Strathclyde and into neighboring sec-
tions.

To the south and in what is now England the Angles, from
their home in the region now known as SchleswizpHolstein, on the
continent, from an early day rapidly settled. Large bodies of
Jutes, led by Hingest and Horsa, came in 448 and joined those
who had acquired an earlier foothold, who had done something
like those Germans did who, taking advantage of the laws oi
Belgium, had built concealed emplacements for the big guns
which laid low the historic homes of little Belgium. The Britons
gave battle to Hingest and Horsa, and the latter lost his life, but
Hingest drove back the natives, settled his followers; encouraged
the coming of others, and by A. D. 457 his forces and adherents
were so numerous that he founded the Kingdom of Kent. This
was the first firm, organized hold of the Teutonic stocks in what
is now England. Kent lay in the extreme southeastern corner
of the island, covering, in general, what became Kent County,
England. Rapidly the Saxons founded other kingdoms, Sussex,
Wessex, and Essex, respectively in 490, 519, and 527, as the dates
arc- now* generally accepted.

From the border of the Picts and along the eastern shore of
Scotland, then known as Alba, the Saxons increased until strong

NEW SCOTIA 41

enough to found Northumbria, or Northumberland, reaching
from Pictland southward into what is now England, covering
the modern counties of York, Durham, and Northumberland.
This, after much intermittent fighting with the Celtic Cymry of
Strathclyde, as we have seen, now and then assisted by Scots
from newer Dalriada, was accomplished in 547, and this was the
chief Saxon source from which Strathclyde suffered so terribly.

The southern part of Northumbria came to be known as
Deira ; and the north as Bernecia, and for some time each had
its king ; but for our purpose we shall not go minutely into the
kaleidoscopic geographical and governmental changes which the
coming of the Teutons produced ; but it will be interesting to re-
member that further south East Anglia, bordering on the sea
(now Norfolk and Suffolk Counties), came into existence in 5.75 ;
and the larger kingdom of Mercia, covering the great inland
center of modern England, was organized in 582. Of course
we shall not want to lose from sight the wonderful Briton, King
Arthur and his "sixty knights of the Round Table," of whom
we delight to read, who sallied so oft from Camelot or Cadbury,
the capital of their kingdom, against the invading Teutons, Sax-
ons, Angles, Jutes, Danes, each in his time and often in coopera-
tion one with the other; but we cannot stop to view the stirring
pictures in detail.

Therefore, when the year 600 dawned the kingdom of the
Picts covered the Highlands, beginning a few miles north of
Glasgow ; Dalriada, the Kingdom of the Celtic Scots, who had
gone out from Ireland, embraced the western section, now within
Argyllshire ; and Strathclyde covered the Lowland and border
Highland sections from north of the Clyde River to the Welsh
country. The Scots also controlled a section on the Irish Sea,
surrounded by Strathclyde, known as Galloway, a small kingdom
before the coming of the Romans, and which enjoyed spasmodic
independence for some time after the Roman evacuation. To
the east of Strathclyde lay the Teutonic kingdom of Northum-
bria ; and yet to the south of all these, the other petty kingdoms
founded by the Teutons.

In 603 the King of the Scots of Dalriada, possibly assisted
by the Strathclyde warriors, led an immense force against the
Saxons of Northumbria. A desperate effort was made to break

42 CIvAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

the Teuton power, and to stop their merciless expansion. The
Scots had at last foreseen the subjugation of Strathclyde and the
ultimate ravage of Dalriada, and made this supreme effort to
avert the avalanche and to destroy the Angle rapacity — but the
Saxons and Angles were victorious ; the Scots were fearfully
punished. Telling us of this disaster to the Scots, Bede says :
"No King of Scots durst come into Britain to make war on the
Angles to this day." Following up the success against the Scots,
the Saxons finally exacted tribute from both Picts and Scots.
This led to an alliance between the Picts and Scots, and greatly
menaced the Saxon sway. To break this alliance and to rees-
tablish his power, Ecgfrith, king of the Saxons, invaded Pictland
in 685. At Dunnichen, in Forfarshire, the Saxons met the north-
ern foe and were slaughtered. This was decisive and resulted in
the freedom of the Picts, as well as that respectively of the Scots
and Britons of Strathclyde, "whose territory Ecgfrith seems to
have annexed to his domains," at some date before that great
battle, says Maxwell. From a writer who continued the chron-
icles of those days first penned by Nennius, we learn that the
Picts never again paid tribute to the Saxons.

By 717 A. D. the Picts and Scots were engaged in a death
struggle which resulted, 736, in the subjugation of Dalriada by
"Angus McFergus, king of the Picts ; and for the next hundred
years any glimpse afforded by" the historical sources of those
times, chief of which sources are the Irish works known as the
Annals of Tighernach and the Annals of Ulster, "of affairs in
North Britain showed Dalriada as a province subject to the Picts,
but incessantly and violently striving to regain independence.
This was conquest, not fusion; but in another direction the Picts,
now the dominant race in North Britain, had formed a connec-
tion which was to lead to important results. Hereditary suc-
cession among the Picts went in the female line ; hence on the
death of the king without any brother, the crown would pass to
the son of a sister if he had one, or to the nearest male relative
on the female side. It was in accordance with this law that King
Brude, who defeated Northumbrian Ecgfirth at Dunnichen, had
become king of the Picts, for we learn from the Irish Life of
Adamnan that he (Brude) was the son of Bile, king of Alclyde
(Strathclyde). He must, therefore, have been the brother of

NEW SCOTIA 43

Tuadar, who succeeded his father Bile as king of Strathclyde
in 722, and, had Tuador died childless, the succession would have
fallen to Brude or his children. This may have been an agency
in the network of hostilities that prevailed in North Britain from
744 onwards, the Picts warring now against the Britons of Strath-
clyde, now against the Scots of Dalriada, sometimes in alliance
with the Saxons of Northumbria, at other times employing their
leisure in a private civil war of their own. Such were the throes
preceding the birth of Scotland as a single nation." Thus uni-
fied, Dalriada and Pictland became Alba.

But fate yet held much suffering in store for that unhappy
land, the early home of the clan to which our ancestors belonged.
Through those times of terror our ancestors passed, and upon
the blood-drenched stage in that drama of an eye for an eye, our
fathers and mothers played each a splendid part. Next came the
Northmen. Their first recorded inroad was in the year 793.
These Northmen, Scandinavians, were the Fingall or Norwegians
and the Dubhgall or Danes, — again Teutons, all. On their first
raid they sacked the western isles and despoiled sacred Iona.
Three more raids followed until in 806 they put the torch to the
abbey buildings of Iona and the sword into the hearts of the
monks.

In 834 the Picts made another frantic effort to free their
country from the Scots ; but the Scots king, Alpine — not, of course,
Alpine MacEochaidh, the Dalriada Scots king killed in Galloway
in 741 , a. the decisive defeat of the Picts — lost the battle and then
litera'ly his head. His son Kenneth succeeded to the leadership;
and in 841 this Kenneth defeated the Picts, who were at the same
time sorely engaged against the invading Danes. By this vic-
tory "the King of Scots obtained the monarchy of the whole of
Alba, which is now called Scotland," says the Chronicles of the
Picts and Scots, "as continued by Simeon of Durham" who wrote
about 1130 and who is regarded "as the surest guide to events
from the middle of the eighth century onward" to the close of the
period he covered.

This is the Kenneth known in most histories as Kenneth Mc-
Alpin (the mac meaning the son of Alpin) ; and by some the date
that he became king of the united Dalriada and Pictland is given
as 844, or 846, for the Picts did not generally recognize him until
the latter date.

44 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

The Scandinavians were yet to play their most bloody and
far-reaching part. An early writer says that in "870 an innumer-
able host of Danes landed in Scotland." He says they were "men
of dreadful iniquity;" that "they butchered boys and old men."
"and commanded that matrons, nuns and virgins should be sur-
render to their pleasure." Nor are these statements' mere invec-
tive. Words cannot adequately picture the Northmen outrage
and brutality. It was in 870 that those "merciless marauders"
besieged Dunbarton and at the end of four months destroyed it.
In increasing numbers they swarmed through the Western High-
lands and overran the Lowlands. In 915 the Saxons of North-
umbria, now long overrun by the Scandinavians, united with Con-
stantin II (900-924), from McAlpin second king of Alba, against
the invaders. But the Scots, as the old writer calls the Albanian
army, were routed, the Saxon monarch was slain "with all the
best of the Angles." Thus Northumbria, born of the Saxon
sword, fell helpless at the point of the Northmen blade. Nor did
the heathen Danes assault North Britain only ; in South Britain
Alfred the Great, king of the West Saxons, had been lighting
them so successfully that at the end of thirty years he rid his
country of danger at their hands, and then passed to his reward
in 901. Edward the Elder succeeded. In 924 he built a fortified
town on his northern frontiers, and in the borders of Scotland.
For some strange reason the "King of the Strathclyde Welsh and
all the Strathclyde Welsh," Constantin II., then king of the Scots
and Picts, and the whole nation of Scots, and Northumbria, "as
well English and Danes and Northmen and others," "chose King
Edward for father and lord." So the old writer of the Anglo-
Saxon or Winchester Chronicle says, though this statement has
been questioned. At any rate, a power loomed upon the southern
horizon so vividly that all peoples and powers north of the Hum-
bar River began to organize against it. Scots, Danes and Picts
now united against the English monarch. At Brunanburg in 9<»7
Athelstan, then sovereign of England, defeated the allies. This
great epochal battle added a large part of the then Danish terri-
tory (taken from the Saxons of Northumbria) to England.

Upon every border of Strathclyde the volcano had rumbled,
and often the deadly eruption had laid her plains in waste and
filled her streams with the bodies of her people; armies had
marched and countermarched over her fields, leaving only ruin

NEW SCOTIA 45

and bleak desolation in their wakes. Yet up to 937 the integrity
of the kingdom maintained with a few apparent interregnums.
In 756 the allied Picts and Saxons of Northumbria captured Dum-
barton and brought the Britons of Strathclyde to surrender ; and
for more than one hundred years there seems to have been no
acknowledged king within the halls of the old capital ; but some
form of national autonomy maintained. For many years the
"Welsh population of Strathclyde had a dynasty of their own,
but their kingdom was tributary to the kings of Alba," Maxwell
rightly says.

However, in 945 Eadmund, who had succeeded Athelstan,
ravaged Strathclyde, mentioned by Latin writers (many early
English authors wrote in Latin, we remember) as Cumberland,
"and granted it wholly to Malcolm, king of the Scots," that is,
king of Alba. In more or less dependency upon Alba, Strathclyde
held some territory and her sovereigns exercised at least limited
dominion for a few years more. In 1018 Eugenius, also called
( )wen the Bald, the two being in that early day the same name as
Ewing, then exercising the functions of king of Strathclyde,
was engaged in war as an ally of Malcolm II., and lost his life in
one of the battles. It appears that this ended (except in the Welsh
country which was part of Strathclyde) all serious Strathclyde
claims to independence of Alba. Malcolm II. died in 1034. Dun-
can, the son of Malcolm's daughter, succeeded, as descent yet ran
in the female line. Before that event, and about 987, the Danes
and Norwegians, coming down upon Alba afresh, obtained a
stronger footing on the west coast. As a result, Thorfinn, of
Norse descent in part and cousin of Duncan, claimed jurisdiction
over Sutherland and Caithness. Of course another savage war
followed, and during it Macbeda, governor of Ross and Moray,
murdered Duncan about 1039 and gave Shakespeare the material
which he uses so well in one of his productions, changing Mae-
beda's name to Macbeth, and ascribing to Macbeth power the real
Macbeda did not enjoy. Macbeth's father had, years before, been
slain by Malcolm, and so the killing had both ambition and re-
venge as motive.

Macbeda then ruled until killed in a war August 15, 1057,
led by Malcolm Canmore (or Cennmor), Duncan's oldest son.
About that time Thorfinn died. The Angle kingdom of Lothian,
which had sprung up in old Northumbria territory, had become

46 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

subject to Alba, it seems most probable, as a result of the battle
at Carham, 1018, when "the entire people from the Tees to the
Tweed, with their nobility, almost wholly perished in fighting
against an almost endless host of Scots," as the Albanians,
whether Scots or Pitcs, long were called. Therefore, Maxwell
concludes, "I think you may regard 15th August, 1057, the date
of Malcolm's victory of Lumphanan — as the real birthday of the
Kingdom of Scotland." About that time Alba became known as
Scotia, a name theretofore long used to indicate, Ireland. It is
said that the name Scotia, to indicate what had theretofore been
Alba (or any part of North Britain) was first used by a writer
named Mariomes Scotus, who describes Malcolm II as rex Sco-
tiac, king of Scotia, and Brain, king of Ireland, as rex Hibernia,
king of Hibernia, says Skene. From that statement North Britain
came to be known as Scotland. The writer Scotus lived 1028 to
1081. "The author of the Life of St. Cadral," also says Skene, "in
the eleventh century, alike applies the name 'Scotia' to North Bri-
tain." Hence, from Scotia to indicate the combined country of
Scot, Pict and Welsh Cymri, or Cumbri, comes the name Scot-
land, which now, of course, includes also much of the former
Northumbria of the old Saxon days.

When Thorfinn died Malcolm married his widow, thus in-
gratiating himself with the Norse element. She died, and then
Malcolm married, in 1067, Margaret, sister of Eadgar, son of
Atheling, and heir to the Saxon throne of England. Thus Mal-
colm drew into closer union with his people the Saxons of Lo-
thian and Northumberland, and laid the foundation for union be-
tween Scotland and England. Atheling and his sisters and many
powerful Saxons had fled to Malcolm's kingdom upon the con-
quest of England by the Normans in 1067, under William the
Conqueror. Thus was laid the foundation of the subsequent wars
between Norman England and Scotland.

The death in battle of Malcolm III. (or Malcolm Canmore),
November 13, 1093, and of Queen Margaret in Edinburgh a few
days later, awoke again the racial bitterness of the land. The
Scots wanted Donald Ban, Malcolm's brother ; the Saxons clam-
ored for Duncan, Malcolm's son (said by some to have been ille-
gitimate), and the Gaelic Highlanders recognized Ban (or Bane,
as usually spelled), and the Welsh of the Strathclyde county

NEW SCOTIA 47

favored Duncan, who had long resided in England. Duncan was
absent in England at that time, and for a short while Bane
assumed regal functions. Duncan returned to Scotland, accom-
panied by Norman and Saxon advisers, and for a time the High-
landers were reconciled to him. "But the Scots arose next against
him, and killed nearly all his men," "becoming reconciled on this
condition that Duncan should never bring English or Normans
into the country." This was in 1093. Eadmund half-brother of
Duncan, conspired with Donald Bane and Duncan's murder fol-
lowed, killed by a governor or earl, as was the earlier Duncan ;
and Bane thereupon again ruled the kingdom for a time. But
Eadgar Atheling led an army from England and put Edmund
(Eadgar) "as King in fealty to William," king of England, on the
throne of Scotland. This Edmund (Eadgar), Margaret's son by
Malcolm, was enthroned in 1097 or 1098, and died unmarried in
1109. Bane, his eyes having been put out, died in prison, ending
his line of Scottish kings. Eadgar by will partitioned his king-
dom, giving to his brother Alexander all Scotland north of the
Forth and Clyde and the country south of the Forth, to include
Edinburgh. Thus he hoped to please and quiet the fierce Gaelic
people of the Highlands. To his brother David, Malcolm's,
youngest son, he gave Lothian and Cumbrian (Strathclyde),
under the title of earl, because David, having long resided at the
English court, was thoroughly Anglicized. Finally David gath-
ered into his hands the kingdom of all Scotland without much,
warring, and died in 1153. Henry, his son and heir-apparentv
having died before his father, Malcolm, Henry's son succeeded.
The latter became Malcolm IV., or Malcolm the Maiden, "and
was the first king recorded to have been crowned at Scone." The
Celts of the Highlands were not pleased; rebellions, wars and
many tribulations beset this monarch ; the latest before his death
led by the renowned Somerled of Argyll, Lord of the Isles, 1164,
in the interest of William McEth, who claimed the throne by de-
scent under an old law. Malcolm IV. died in 1165. His brother,
William the Lion, who had a Gaelic Ewen as an ancestor, received
the throne. In the reign of this monarch the Roman Catholic
Church came into fuller recognition. William was zealous for the
complete independence of his kingdom, and grasped every aid to
that end. The Pope co-operated.

48 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Now, to our family history the most significant fact in the
reign of Malcolm IV. is that all the country from the Grampian
Hills, stretching from the Firth and the Tay, around the whole
coast of Scotland to Beanly Firth, was more completely occupied
by an Anglo-Saxon population. Malcolm IV. drove "all the Celts
from the rich province of Moray and settled it with the mixed
races of the south," that is, with Anglo-Saxons (Campbell, Scot-
land, 3G ; Skene, 3 Celtic Scotland, 27.) So also into Galloway,
during the reign of this monarch, the Saxons swarmed, and into
all the Lowlands their laws and customs were more and more in-
troduced. This fact, we shall see, accounts for the dispersion of
our old Strathclyde family from the Lowlands of Scotland ; and
that we might better appreciate this cause of the dispersion I have
given this resume of the coming of the Saxons and the founding
of the Teutonic kingdoms in Scotland.

It will, also, be at least interesting to bear in mind the rather
strange fact that "Scotland got its name from the Scots, yet they
spoke Gaelic, and their language gets its name from the Angles,
who came from the banks of the Elbe." The Angles early spoke
the forms of what is now English. Up to 1400 the term Scotch
was used to indicate exclusively the Gaelic, the language of the
Celtic descendants occupying the mountains of the north and west
of Scotland, known as the Highlands ; while the Lowlanders then
and for many years later spoke Anglo-Saxon. (W. C. McKenzie,
A Short History of the Scottish Highlands, 67.) After 550 the
speech of the Lowlanders became known as Scots to distinguish it
from the Gaelic of the Highlanders, and from the Early English
then spoken south of the River Tweed.

THE EARLY FORM OF THE EWING NAME IN SCOTS
AND GAELIC HIGHLAND RECORDS.

It is very curious to us that there was a time when father and
child, in all the countries of the world, did not bear the same sur-
name. Or, there was a time when there were no surnames. Au-
thorities say that surnames or family names were not often used
before 1050. The individual was, in the evolution of the human
family, first a member of his tribe, transmitting the tribal name,
not as a distinctive individual name, but as information of descent.
Then, particularly in Scotland, as tribal government gave way to
more general government, those of the same close-blood relation
clung together in clan union, the word clan being understood in
the broader meaning, "as a set of men (and, of course, their
women) all bearing the same surname and believing themselves
to be related the one to the other, and to be descended from the
same stock." The clan name, in many cases, became the family
or surname. This is the history of the name Ewing.

When we speak of a Scotch clan many think only of the
famous Scots or Gaelic Highland clans about which so much has
been written. But there were quite as certainly the clans of the
Lowlands. The Lowland clans lost the clan government much
earlier than did the Highland clans ; and their struggle for self-
government was further back amid the fog which envelops much
of the conquest by the Teutonic tribes. A few of the Lowland
clans drifted into the border Highlands and there maintained clan
government or union longer than did the Lowlanders generally,
and so are mentioned in histories of the Highland clans, such as
the Gordons, the Grahams and the Calhouns, while others living
in the border Highlands and maintaining at least something of the
ancient clan unit are not so mentioned by some Highland his-
torians, evidently because of Lowland origin.

Now the most persistent tradition in the family of which I
write, my family, I may say, is that our family stock is Low-
lander ; and it is certain that we trace our descent back to Glas-
gow and to the border Highland-Lowland section east and west

50 CLAN SWING OF SCOTLAND

of Loch Lomond. All traditions in my family, and that of most
other American Ewings, agree that we descended from an ancient
Scotch clan ; and yet we find no history of our clan among that
of the Highland clans. But, as we shall see more fully later, we
do find that a few class us as descendants of the Clan Ewen, once
a small clan of Scots ancestry living about Otter, in the neighbor-
hood of Loch Fyne, and who at a very early day were known as
McEwens.

Unfortunately, in all Scotch bibliography there is no exten-
sive history or genealogy of the Ewing family, unless we regard
it as descended from Clan Ewen of Otter. There are fragments
of such a history, however, given by Rev. Alexander J. Ross,
vicar of St. Philip's, Stepney, Scotland, in his "Memoir of Alex-
ander Ewing, D. C. L., Bishop of Argyll and the Isles," written in
]cS;^ ; and in such works as Burke's "Landed Gentry," and "Ge-
nealogical and Heraldrick History of the Peerage," and in other
similar productions. Too, from the old chronicles and from offi-
cial records, such, for instance, as the Privy Council Register,
considered in connection with these later writings, we find ma-
terial from which to construct quite an interesting and reliable
history. About all we know of Clan Ewen of Otter is to be found
in Skene's works, as we shall see in a lafrer chapter. There is
nothing in Skene or in any of his sources to suggest that the mod-
ern Ewings are descended from Clan Ewen of Otter.

Starting, then, with such light as Ross affords, we shall first
explore the early Scots and Gaelic records for anything bearing
upon either the family name, in either its early or present form,
or upon the clan or family ; and then we shall sweep across the
pages of what we may term the Lowland records ; and then by
whatever light we get measures our tradition regarding family
origin. We shall then examine the history of the Highland Mc-
Ewen clan.

Ross says :

"Alexander Ewing was born on the 25th of March, 1814, in
Old Castle Street, Aberdeen, but the home of his ancestors lay
far away on the banks of Loch Fyne, in the immediate neighbor-
hood of which, in a later day, his own hospitable but modest man-
sion was to be found. The 'clan' from which he traced his de-
scent claims as its progenitors the Ewen de Ergadia, King Ewen,
Eugenius and others, who have special mention both in local and

HIGHLAND RECORDS 51

general history. For originally the forms of the family name
which he inherited were Ewen, Ewene or Ewin ; . . . The oldest
traditions, however, of that branch of the Ewene stock with which
the bishop was more immediately connected relate, not to Loch
Fyne, but to Loch Lomond, in Dumbartonshire. Loch Fyne
stands midway between Loch Awe on the west and Loch Lomond
on the east, and it is not a very 'far cry' to either of the two.
Accordingly, when the old Ewene territory became too strait for
the needs 'of the increasing clan, it would appear that while some
leaders of the tribe conducted a following into the land of the
Macdougalls, around Oban, others struck off eastward through
the weird passes of Glencoe, with its famous 'Rest and be thank-
ful,' and settled down on the fair and fertile slopes of Lomond,
the noblest of all the Scottish lakes. In this region some Ewenes,
become Ewings now, established themselves."

That paternal settlement upon the banks of the noble Lo-
mond, as we shall see, was something more than one thousand
years ago ! Yet the name we bear and, I hope to prove, the origin
of our family, are much older.

Now, of course, not all persons of today who bear the name
Ewing are descendants of the same clan to which Bishop Ewing
belonged ; but it is reasonably certain that all Ewings who are
descended of an old Scotch clan, as my family, go back for pedi-
gree to the clan from which Bishop Ewing's ancestors came, or
to the Clan Ewen of Otter, known later as the McEwens, for it is
admitted that either the MacEwens and their parent Clan Ewen
of Otter and the Ewings of later day are of common origin or
that there were two distinct clans and but tivo : the McEwen clan
or family and the clan from which the Ewings come.

Ross -was not attempting to write a history of the Ewing
clan of the earlier days. In fact, aside from the traditions of the
family which he gives, I doubt very much if he went into an in-
vestigation of the clan origin and history. He gives such tradi-
tions as came to him from reliable sources, and then takes the clan
when it was expanding after the historical period among the
southern or border Highlands. I regret that he was not more
specific. Where and when did the King Ewen and the Ewen de
Ergadia (or Ewing, the ruler of Argyll), and the Eugenius to
whom he refers live? Were they Highlanders or Lowlanders?

52 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Were they Gaels or Britons or Saxons or Norse? Were they
Scots or Picts ? We are certainly of a Loch Lomond and Glasgow
old Clan Ewing. Were they our ancestors?

As Ross tells us of a King Ewin (evidently of early days),
particularly since there is no doubt that Ewen and Ewin and
Ewan were early forms of our name, and since he tells us of
Ewings in the southern Highlands, we naturally look first to
Pictish and Dalriadac Scottish traditions and history to learn
what the records tell us about such a person or persons. Of
course, too, we naturally look first to those Highland sources
for information regarding Ewin de Ergadia and Eugenius at a
day before the Ewings "settled down on the fair and fertile slopes
of Lomond, the noblest of all the Scottish lakes."

As we have seen, for a time after the Romans withdrew,
there intervened a period for the kings, kingdom and events of
which we must depend upon traditions recorded subsequently.
However, during that misty period there were men (seanachies)
whose professional duty it was to commit to memory the names
of the kings and some history of their day, and who faithfully
transmitted that data to their successors and to rising genera-
tions. Then came the chroniclers, from whom we get, through
time-worn parchment manuscripts, the next historical light. In
many instances they prefaced the narration of events within their
own knowledge by the traditions which had come to them. Na-
tives of what is now Ireland, Scotland and Wales left us some of
these chronicles. Among them are what are known as "'The
Pictish Chronicles," compiled about 1)80, in the middle of the
reign of Kenneth, son of Malcolm, which was from 977 to 995,
as given by Skene, a standard Scotch authority. Too, let us bear
in mind in this connection, we have, what has also been mentioned,
the Saxon and Welsh Additions to a work now lost, known as
Historia Britonum, probably written about 547. This work
was an account of traditions of the different races of Britain,
and contained some history. Though the work was lost, editions
to which additions were made survived, the most popular by Nen-
nius in 858, though there was an earlier of about 796. Then we
have "Irish and Pictish Addition to the Historia Britonum," con-
taining some legendary history of the Picts and the Scots. Then
comes the "Duan Albanach," or Albanic Duan. This is a poem in

HIGHLAND RECORDS 53

Irish (that is, Gaelic or the Dalriada Scots) "and appears to have
been written in the reign of Malcolm III and contains within itself
abundant marks of its authenticity," says Skene. Skene, in his
earliest work, The Highlanders of Scotland, published in 1837,
says the Albanich is "a work compiled in 1050. and consequently
is the oldest and best authority for their (Dalriada Scots) history
of kings." However, Dr. Macbain in an edition, published in 1902,
of this earliest book of Skene, says the date of the Duan is un-
known and that the work "is of little value." Again, there is a
Latin List of the Dalriada kings, whose realm before the conquest
of the Picts was about coterminus with the present Argyll, made
by monks who wrote Latin. This was compiled probably about
1165. Then among others the genealogy of King William the
Lion, the margin of which bears the date of ]l(i5 ; and the Chron-
icle of the Scots and Picts, 1185; and the Chronicle of the Scots
and the Picts, 1187; and yet another called the Chronicle of the
Picts and the Scots.

To these and some others are added the Irish chronicles,
such as that by Tighernac, written also in the eleventh century,
"and by far the best and most authentic chronicle we have,"
again to quote Skene, long Scotland's recognized authority,
for the most part at least, upon these subjects. These Irish an-
nals cover much the same events in part of what became Scot-
land as do the Scots annals. Skene leaned heavily upon the
Norse sagas for light upon the tenth, eleventh and twelfth cen-
turies ; but some later scholars do not concur in Skene's valuation
of the sagas.

Then, also, as we have seen, we have Gildas, Bede, Nennius,
Adamnon and others and some later writers, such as John of
Fordun, who is said to have "compiled the first formal history
of Scotland" probably in 1385, — writers who rank higher than
mere chroniclers; but from them we get little light not afforded
by the chronicles upon the name we bear or upon the origin
of the Ewing clan or clans.

One of the first of the chronicles, "both in point of time
and importance," is what is known as the Pictish Chronicle. It
has a list of the kings of the Picts from Cruithne, from whom this
chronicle represents the Picts as springing, to Bred. Another
is a chronicle of the kings of the Scots of Dalriada from Kenneth

54 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Macalpin to Kenneth, son of Malcolm. Part of it was, evi-
dently at a very early clay, written in Gaelic ; but in the manu-
script which came to later times part of it had been translated
into what Skene calls Irish, the rest is in Latin. The last work
was compiled, as seen, between 97? and 995. It tells us

"Uven filius Vnuist iij. Annis regnavit."
This word Uven is clearly the Irish corruption of the Latin
Ewen. Then from the Irish version of the Pictish Chronicle we
get

"Uven (filius) Vnest iij."

The latter spells Malcolm Maelcolaim, as another sample of
the ancient spelling of well-known names.

From the old genealogy of King William the Lion, the first
year of whose reign was 1165, descended from the old Scots
kings, we find that Ewen is given as one of the early Dalriada
kings, and as an ancestor of William the Lion.

From Chronicles of the Scots, we are told :

"Fergus filius Eric ipse fuit primus qui de semine Chonare
suscepit regnum Alban, id est, a monte Drumalban usque ad mare
Hibernie et ad Inchegal. Iste regnavit iii annis." Then his
son regnavit v annis, and so on down the line to

"Ewen filius Ferchar longi xiii."
Skene says that this manuscript is made up of two "separate
chronicles which have been pieced together." He thinks this
"chronicle was put together in 1165."

In the Chronicle of the Picts and the Scots a link in the royal
chain is thus stated :

"Ferchar filius Ewini 16 annis."

An old manuscript known as the "Metrical Chronicles" has
a prose chronicle which precedes, wherein we find :

"Anno DCCXLIV, obiit Murezaut rex Scottorum, cui suc-
cessit Ewen filius ejus.

"Anno DCCXLVIJ, obiit Ewen rex Scottorum, cui successit
Hed Abbus filius ejus."

This manuscrpt was completed about 1270, scholars think.

From what is known as "Fragments of Irish Annals," we
read, in what Skene calls the Irish language :

"727 Kal. San bhliadain si so bhris Aongas, ri Foirtreann, tri
catha for Drust righ Alban.

HIGHLAND RECORDS 55

"734 Cath do bhrisedh do Aodh allan mac Fergail for
Flaithbheartach mac Loingsigh ri Eirenn go d-tug Flaithbheartach
loingius a Fortreannoibh chuige a naighidh Cineil Eoghain, acht
chena ra baidheadh earmhor an cobhlaigh sin."
These sentences Skene -translates :

"In this year Aengus, king of Fortrenn, gained three bat-
tles over Drust, King of Alban.

"A battle was gained by Aedh Allan, son of Fergal, over
Flaithbhertach son of Loingsech, King of Erin, so that Flaith-
bhertach brought a fleet out of Fortrenn to assist him against
the Cinel Eoghan (Ewein or Ewen). The greater part of that
fleet was, however, drowned," says Skene in Chronicles and
Early Memorials. The date is unknown, but this production is
very old.

It is interesting to notice that Skene translates Eoghain
(same as Eoghan), Owen (which in the early days was the same
as Ewen ) in this passage in the old Irish :

. . . mathi Cinel Eoghain e," "and the nobles of Cinel
Owen prevented it." This is a reference to the royal Owen or
Ewan clan in Dalriada at a very early day apparently.

Thus we find that as written by the Latin scholars a name
similar in form to the early form of our name was borne by
some kings who wielded the Scots scepter, a dominion which
finally gathered in the Picts and at length covered what we may
term the Gaelic Highlands. "Hie mira calliditate duxit Scotos
de Ergadia in terrain Pictorum," as the Chronicle of the Picts
and the Scots, compiled about 1317, according to Skene, de-
scribes that expansion of the old Dalriada Scots. The uni-
formity of the spelling through all those hundreds of years of
illiteracy and in the formative period of kingdoms and of differing
languages is remarkable. The same writers spelled, for instance^
Malcolm, Malcoilin ; Keneth, Kineth, and the famous brothers,
Scots, Here, Fergus, Lorin, Engus.

Occasionally we meet in an old chronicle the Irish (Gaelic)
spelling the Eogan form of the name, as in Chronicon Rythmicum,
of an earlier date than 1447, as thus :

"Armkelloch uno, sed tredecem regnauit Eogian." That
is, Armkelloch reigned one year, but Ewen reigned thirty.

In the Latin list (written in Latin by monks) we find that
King Ewen succeeded Muredach, down to whose reign this list

56 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

agrees with thai in the Albanic Duan, in the Dalriada, or Scots,
dynasty. Ewen succeeded about 134 A. D., and reigned five years.
A king by another name followed this Ewen, and the latter is
again followed by Ewen who ruled Eor three years. ( Macbain
thinks thai in the Latin lis! the first Muredach and Ewen names
should be deleted, leaving one each. P. t03 of Macbain's ed. oi
Skene). Both lists are treated by Skene as genuine, and he
reconciles the difference by concluding thai a Pictish king had
taken possession of pari of the Scots territory of Dalriada, and
thai the names found in the Albanic Duan nol found in the
Latin List are the Pictish rulers of the conquered section; and
thai the Latin lists give the "Kings of Dalriada, properly speak

in-."

The Pictish Chronicle gives "Uwen or Eogan," son of
"Unnusl ^>r \iilmis," who reigned 836 838.

Beginning with Eogan (as spelled in the Latin lists) both
the Albanic Duan and the Latin lists again agree to and includ-
ing Kenneth Me Alpin who gathered into one the kingdoms of the
Seots and the Picts in 843. Dungal was the son of King Ewen
(aboul 835); Alpin was the son of Dungal; and Kenneth Mac-
Alpin, who became king of the larger realm, was son of Alpin.
The Duan spells Eogan Eoganon, the former the Latin and the
latter Gaelic. So that we have more than three of the earliest

historic sources which give persons who hore the early form ol
our name. However, I do not believe, as will later appeal-, that

a Scot, as distinguished from a Briton, was the progenitor ^\ our
clan.

Skene says that Kwen of the Latin list was the son of
Muredach, the Scots kin-- id' Dalriada, and of Scots descent.

Uwen or Eogan, mentioned in the I'ictish Chronicles, as we
have seen, is also the same name as Ewen. The Eogan spelling
of the name is both British and Gaelic. Uwen must he a dialect
spelling, at least the result o\ phonetics.

Dunstaffnage is the place where the cornation stone of

Scotland was for a time said to have been kept. It is on Loch
Etive, Argyllshire, not far from Lomond and Glasgow. Hec-
tor Boece, who wrote in 1527, calls the Dunstaffnage the Evo
uium, "after Ewin, who built it." See The Perth Incident of
L396 from a Folk-Lore /'<>/'/// of View, by Robert C. IVEaclagan,

ll [GHI^AND RE< ORDS 57

M. I )., Edinburg and London, L905, p. 28. Maclagan says this
connects the Evonium with "the Eoghannacht." The Eoghan-
nacht or Eoghanacht were, according to Maclagan, the de-
scendants of Eoghan, or Eugenius, the oldesl son of OiliU Olum,
king of Munster, [reland, in 186. This Eugenius was killed
"at the hattle of Magh Macroimhe (fought in Ireland about
L86 A. \).), anfl the Eoghanacht are the descendants of his son
Fiach, called the Broad Crowned. They have another name. Li
Fidh-gheinte. The suffix gen, which undoubtedly means 'off-
spring,' is accepted as Gaulish, and the Welsh forms of the name,
Eugein, Euein, Ywein, are considered more directly from the
original than the Gaelic form Eoghan. Rhys derives Eugein
from the name of the Gaulish god Ksus, and therefore makes it
equal to 'offspring of Esus.' In Greek zvytxr\c, is 'well-
born.' 'or noble descent,' and these Celtic names, whatever their
spelling, which seems to be mostly phonetic, convey the meaning
of the Greek word quoted."

Maclagan points out that according to O'Flaherty "there are
descendants of Oilill Olum in central Scotland." But the fact
that bearers of the early British and Gaelic form of our name
in Scotland were descendants of an early Irish king, does not
prove that even they were of Irish origin. The same source,
the folk-lore or tradition stories, "also point to a movement
from ill'- west of modern Lowland Scotland across to Ireland.
with settlements in Meath, then in YYaterford and Kerry,
bringing us to Munster, the possession of Oilioll Oluim, and of
Lugaidh and the combatants in the battle of Magh Macroimhe,
ugge I Latin influence and also Latin strain along with the
old Briton." See O'Curry, Manners and Customs.

Boece, History of Scotland, or History of the Scots,
(published in L521 ), "gives three Ewins in the of the

Scot:-, two of them reigning before the date of Julius L'aesar, the
third, called son of Edeir, beginning to reign in the twenty-sixth
year of the Emperor Augustus, lie, therefore, commenced to
reign r before Christ, and his reign lasted for seven i

which makes him contemporary with Connchobar mac 'Nessa.'
Connchobar became a son of 'the Jesus, an Iosa,' but B
makes no statement of that sort as regard- Ewin. What he does

■ f him L quite in accord with Galgacus' account of the Roman

58 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

invaders. He was the 'maist vicius man in erd. . . . He had ane
Hundreth concubinis of the nobl illest matronis and virginis of his
countre.' " He is said to have made some laws that were very
objectionable to his subjects, and which were not repealed "quhill
the time of Malcome Canmore, and his blist quene Sanct Mar-
garet." Boece says that a conspiracy among Ewin's subjects
landed him in prison, and that he was there slain the first night.
Maclagan thinks, however, that this earliest Ewin, the traditional
monarch, was a fiction and but a type of the Roman invaders.

Boece. or Boyce, was born at Dundee, Scotland, about 1465.
He wrote in Latin and was quite a scholarly man for his day. He
had as sources the chronicles before him and, of course, Gildas,
Beda and others. Taylor, in his Pictorial History of Scotland,
says that Boece, "without the slightest regard to facts,'' attempted
to embellish the meager lists of kings with what he regarded as
suitable actions. So that we cannot be sure that Boece did find
from a now lost list, a Ewin, or Ewen, who was on the throne
before the Latin lists and the Albanic Duan.

A Ewen de Ergadia, otherwise known as King Ewen, was one
of the kings of a small realm of the Argyll section from 1253 to
1270. Macbain says that Ewen's genealogy is : "John of Lorn and
his father, Alexander de Ergadia (who) were the heads of Som-
erled's house in Bruce's time. Alexander was son of King Ewen.
son of Duncan, son of Dugall, son of Somerled." Somerled's
name is said to be Norse. Before his day the Xorse had made
many incursions upon Argyll, and the Norse Sagas claim that
their kings often conquered and held that country. Somerled's
domain was the Dalverja, as Macbane spells it, the "old name for
Dalriada," he says ; and Skene says Somerled belonged to "a Dal-
verian family, a term derived from Dala, the Norse name for the
district of Argyll, and which implies that they had for some time
been indigenous to the district." ( Macbane's Ed., 1(.»1 and 409).
Macbane seems to agree with Skene that "on the whole," Somer-
led may be regarded as Gael-Pictish, not Scottish. However,
MacKenzie is more nearly correct when he says: "This Somerled,
known as 'Somerled the Great,' was of mixed Celtic and Norse
(Teutonic) extraction. He was the progenitor of the Clan Mac-
donald, and of the Lords of the Isles, who loom so largely in me-
dieval Highland history."

HIGHLAND RECORDS 59

Then of Somerled's son, King- Ewen, MacKenzie says :

"The experience of one of those descendants, Ewen of
Lome, illustrates the anomalous situation which was created by
the attempt to serve two masters. Holding his lands in Argyll
from the Scottish crown, and owing allegiance to Norway for his
Hebridean possessions, he tried, with transparent honesty, to do
his duty by both countries, when relations between them became
strained. He failed to please either side, but his attempts re-
dound to his credit as a man of probity in an age when that virtue
was rare." (W. C. MacKenzie, A Short History of the Scottish
Highlands, 48.)

It is said that the Camerons of Lochaber are a Moravian
clan. (MacKenzie, Hist, of the Camerons) ; and there is some
tradition that the Camerons have some close relation to the Ewens
or Ewins. McEwen mentions this relation between the Scots or
Gaelic Ewens and Camerons (History of Clan Ewen, 19). Any-
way, early in the use of Christian names we find Ewen as such
name frequently used in the Cameron clan. For instance :

"The first member of this family (Cameron of Erracht) was
Ewen Cameron, son of Ewen, thirteenth chief of Lochiel, by his
second wife, Marjory Macintosh. The family was known locally
as Sliochd Eoghainnis Eoghainn, or 'the children of Ewen the
son of Ewen.' ' (Scottish Clans and Their Tartans, published by
Scribners in N. Y. and Johnston in Edinburgh in 1892.)

In 1390 Ewen, son of Allan, was captain of the Clan Cam-
eron.

The Camerons were loyal to the house of Stuart, and it was
their leader, Lochiel, who said to Prince Charles, "Come weal,
come woe, I'll follow thee."

Another Ewen of this family, living in 1745, "was a son of
John, the tanister ( i. e., the chosen successor of a clan chieftain),
a young brother of the great Lochiel."

So much, then, for the distinguished Ewens or Ewins of
royal prerogatives who were Scots or Gaels or Picts, or of mix-
ture with one or more of those races.

Unless we except the McEwens, descendants of Ewen of
Otter, there is neither record nor reliable tradition that either of
these Highland or Gaelic or Scots Ewens founded a family or
clan bearing the Ewing name.

60 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Hence, so far as the records show, there is no substantial
evidence suggesting either Gael or Scot as our ancestor or as
giving to our family the name we bear. Those who hold that the
Ewings generally are from Clan Ewen of Otter, as we shall see
more fully later, do not rightly include our Ewings. If there be
Ewings even at this day descended from Scots or Gaelic Ewens or
Ewins, they are not descendants of our ancestors. This conclu-
sion is all the more certain when studied in the light which we
shall now find from Lowland sources, corroborating our tradi-
tion of Lowland origin.

VI.

FOUNDERS OF OUR CLAN.

THE EWINGS OF THE LOWLAND STOCK.

There is, except in the one West Virginia sept, no reliable
tradition or other evidence in the family of which I write so
much as suggesting Highland ancestry. I have found no such
tradition in any family springing from our earliest American
E wings of Maryland, Virginia, or among their Tennessee and
Kentucky and other descendants. There is tradition of our
Lowland origin.

Naturally, therefore, and the more so because Ross does
not tell us the descent of Ewen de Ergadia, King Ewen and other
distinguished Ewing ancestors of the Alexander Ewing clan,
which early dwelt along the waters of Loch Lomond, the sec-
tion from which our ancestors came, we turn to the traditions
and records of the Lowlands, and so to the Brythons or Britons, a
race dwelling mainly south of the Clyde and the ancestors of
which were found in what is now Scotland by the Romans, and
whose race integrity survived Roman domination.

Ross names as one of Ewing clan ancestors, standing on a
par with the others, Eugenius — a name which is but another of
the early forms, each proper in the tongue of its day and race,
from which has been evolved the present family name. As the
equivalent of Ewin or Ewen or Ewing, the form Eugenius is
not found in any roster of either the Picts or Dalriada kings.
The Eugenius Ross had in mind, clearly, was an early person of
authority of royal descent and probably of royal functions. We
do not find such a person who became either the actual or
reputed ancestor of any Highland clan bearing our name.

Eugenius, we find, though, is a name not infrequent in the
Cymric annals of the Strachclyde states, — the Lowland country.

Either kings of Strathclyde or kings of the small nations
once autonomous within the Strathclyde country, from time to
time bore the name Eugenius. When the first Eugenius reigned
or where is not certainly known. But it is certain that in 764

62 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

A. D., King Eugenius VIII, of the Cymric Briton dynasty, died.
We also know that "Eugenius, or Owen, the son of Dounnall,
subking of Cumbria," was slain in battle in 1018 when he and
Eugenius, or Owen, the Bold, king of all the Strathclyde Britons,
invaded Northumbria. The death of this Eugenius is generally
regarded as terminating the Cymric Briton line in Strathclyde,
Duncan, the great-grandson of one of the Malcolms, annexing
Strathclyde to his Scots realm (to which, we saw, the Picts had
been added). A genealogy of the British kings of Strathclyde,
"fortunately preserved in the additions to 'Historia Britonum,'
as well as scattered notices of the Brythonic rulers in the Chron-
icles of their day, give us two 'Eugeniuses' in the kingly line."

The earlier probably reigned in the neighborhood of 658
and the later before 760. They were of the royal race which
long had its Briton capital at Alclyde, as Bede calls it, and
which in the Gaelic tongue came to be known as "Dunbreaton, or
the port of the Britons, afterwards corrupted into Dunbarton,"
as Skene says.

These Eugeniuses or Eugenes were Ewens, as Scotch his-
torians agree. For instance, Skene says that before 722 :

"Donald, the son of Ewen, or Eugene, is to be found in the
genealogy of the Strathclyde Kings."

Hence, we have as an important foundation the fact that
in the neighborhood where our family name later differentiated
the clan from which our family sprang, there lived men, at a
very early day, who bore the early forms of our name, Eugenius
or Ewen, and who enjoyed royal prerogatives, such as naturally
subsided into clan-chieftainship as kingdoms crumbled, and whose
ancestors were of the old Britain stock, Lowlanders. The Dal-
riada Ewens, the only others bearing our name so far as known,
lived far away to the westward and spoke a language foreign
to the Ewings of Dumbarton or Dunbarton, near what are now
Loch Lomond and Glasgow. Too, let it be remembered that
there is no reason to believe that the early Ewens of either Scots
or Picts blood and country settled in eastern Argyll or in any
part of the Dunbarton or Lomond country, because, as William
ot Malmsbury, regarded by reliable Scotch scholarship as "a
reputable historian," who wrote far back in (he twelfth century,
says, the Scots and Picts fought the Britons and, we shall see

FOUNDERS OF OUR CLAN 63

presently, the Scots or Picts who spasmodically perhaps over-
ran the Dunbarton and Lomond country were subsequently
ejected by the Cymric blood. In that day, unless the country
were overrun and colonized, a man of foreign blood and lan-
guage did not locate in the enemy territory. The Dunbarton
and Lomond country was not, we know, colonized by Scots or
Picts. Gilda, in what is regarded as "a fairly reliable work of the
sixth century," calls "the Picts and Scots transmorini gentes,
which Bede explains by saying they dwelt beyond two arms of
the sea." That is, they inhabited the isles and western High-
lands including old Dalriada.

Among the greatest events, destined to revolutionize con-
ditions in all Britain, were the coming of Normans, under William
the Conquerer, in 1066, and the wars which, from time to time,
followed his invasion of Scotland in 1072. Some of the inci-
dents, minor in relation to national history but prominent in re-
lation to our clan, of the Norman invasion afford important light
upon the name Ewing in Scotch history and from which we learn
something regarding the probable origin of our clan.

Spooner, an American genealogist of note, correctly says in
his Historic Families of America:

"In the Norman gerrymandering of Great Britain after the
conquest, the Ewings and Ewens of Scotland and the Owens of
Wales were mustered under banners that bore a device common
to all."

That "device common to all" was a clan emblem, insignia
of tribal relationship. That "device" was to the family then
even more than what the coat of arms is today. In this connec-
tion the tribal system of Celtic Scotland comes greatly to our
aid. Skene correctly says :

"Thus, although most of the great nations which formed the
original inhabitants of Europe were divided into a number of
tribes acknowledging the rule of an hereditary chief, and thus
exhibiting an apparently similar constitution, yet it was com-
munity of origin which constituted the simple tie that united the
Celtic tribe with its chief, while the tribes of the Goths and other
European nations were associated together for the purpose of
mutual protection or convenience alone ; the Celtic chief was the
hereditary lord of all who were descended of the same stock
with himself."

64 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

This rule that the "Celtic chief (was clan head) of all who
were descended of the same stock as himself" was true of all
Britain, characterized social and governmental organization in
both Lowlands and Highlands of Scotland. The "people followed
their chief as the head of their race, and the representative of the
common ancestor of the whole clan." Too, "the chief was the
hereditary lord of all who belonged to his clan, wherever they
dwelt, or whatever lands they possessed." This was true, even
where large clans, as they sometimes did, divided into sub-clans,
having sub-chiefs. The chief of the clan was the patriarchal
head. He was governor and military leader. When he called, if
there were sub-chiefs, they responded ; and in any case all came
in the most implicit obedience. Therefore, when, in the intermit
tent wars after the Norman invasions of Scotland in 1072, a com-
mon foe threatened, or a common cause existed, the clansmen,
slowly fusing into the Scottish nation, whether in the mountains
of Wales or among the Highlands, gathered under the tribal
banner, surrounded the standard of the chief in whose veins ran
the common ancestral blood.

How came the Ewings of the border Highlands so far from
their Welsh kindred? In fact, why the Ewings themselves so
scattered even before the coming of the Normans ? The answer
takes us back to the early years following Roman withdrawal ;
back to the long, fierce and deadly struggle between the Cymric
Britons and the implacable Picts ; back to the treacherous inroads
of the murderous Teutons.

In fact, we get helpful light from what Roman writers, fol-
lowed by old Briton and English authors, tell us.

Before the Roman invasion Britain was governed by the
tribal patriarchs, and the tribe in turn by the clan chiefs. There
were many tribes, as we learn from Caesar. Of those tribes the
"Damnii dwelt to the north of the Novantes, the Selgovae and the
Gadeni, and were separated from them by the chain of the Uxel-
lan Mountains," mountains now called the Lothers. The Damnii
"were a very powerful people," says Richard of Cirencester
(ante 1400), "but lost a considerable portion of their territory
when the (Roman) wall was built, being subdued and spoiled
by the Caledonians (ancestors of the modern Highlanders), be-
side which a Roman garrison occupied Vauduarium to defend
the wall.

FOUNDERS OF OUR CLAN 65

"In this part Britain, as if again delighted with the embraces
of the sea, becomes narrower than elsewhere, in consequence of
the rapid influx of the two estuaries, Bodotria and Clotta."

Vauduarium is Paisley, or Renfrew, and Bodotria and Clotta
are the Friths of Forth and Clyde. Beyond these two estuaries,
Richard continues, lies the Caledonian region "so much coveted
by the Romans, and so bravely defended by the natives." The
Damnii, called by Richard "Damnii Albanii," apparently then
extended into what is now Argyllshire, "a people little known,
being wholly excluded among Lakes and Mountains."

Hence, from the Clyde and Eastern Argyllshire the Damnii
occupied the Lowlands of Scotland.

Richard says that Loch Lomond was "formerly called Lyn-
chalidor," and that at "its mouth" "the city of Alcluith was built
by the Romans, and not long afterward received its name from
Teodosius." He also calls Alcluith Camborieum, now identified as
the predecessor of Dumbarton. So that the Damnii occupied the
county including Loch Lomond from its north boundary south-
ward into the Lowlands, and approximately the country included
by Strathclyde. Urien's kingdom, Murief (for Richard says
Urien was king), included, we shall see, this part of the old
Damnii territory.

From the "Four Ancient Books of Wales" we get, in my
opinion, important light by which to find our clan origin and by
which to see our early clan movements and the causes of the
dispersion. These books are poems in the Cymric language, the
old Briton tongue, some of which are of a historic character,
while others are undoubtedly the creatures of the poetic imagina-
tion. Some of those that are historic are believed to have taken
their "earliest consistent shape" in the seventh century ; and in
that form to have been a reshaping, as to literary form, of "a
body of popular poetry" and "national lays" of an earlier date.

For fifty or more years before the Roman legions withdrew
from their camps along the northern wall, the wall between the
Forth and the Clyde, that locality was the scene of greatest mili-
tary operations. Out from the Highlands swarmed the un-
quenchable Picts against those legions ; and from the wall as a
base of operations the Romans again and again drove the Picts
back into the wild mountains. The Romans gone and Briton

66 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

courage and art recovered from the five hundred enervating,
race-blighting years of Roman rule, the same section, the same
wall, saw those Cymric Britons repeating the struggle, now for
their national existence and to escape the extermination of their
race. To the authors of the ''Four Ancient Books of Wales,"
as we now call the collection of those early productions, that sec-
tion, with the famous wall as the Briton base of operations, was
the "North."' Hence Skene, in his splendid introduction to an
English translation of those poems, published in Edinburgh,
Scotland, in 1868, says :

"Of a large proportion, then, of the historical poems, the
scenery and events lie in the north; the warriors whose deeds
they celebrate were 'Gwyr y Gogled,' or 'Men of the North.
. . . They are, in point of fact, the literature of the Cymric
inhabitants of Cumbria, before the kingdom was subjugated
(from which it subsequently for a time recovered) by the Saxons
in 946."

The first thing which strikes us, as we read these ancient
poems, is the frequent appearance of the name Owein, Ewein, or
Owain, which is now Owen, in the present day English transla-
tion of what we may call Cymric Welsh. Ross says that the Owen
family of Wales not only have "the same armorial bearings as the
Ewings of Scotland, but that the Owens of Wales indeed are
Ewenes (or Ewings), according to the Cymry pronunciation."
(Memo. Alex. Bwing, p. 1.)

So that in those early poems when we find the original word
Owain, or its Cymric form Ewein, it is the same word which in
the north, the border Highlands, and out of Wales and in what
is now North England, became Ewen, Ewin, Euing, and. last
of all, Ewing. We must remember that in those earliest times
each tongue or dialect spelled the word as phonetics dictated.

An early spelling Bwein, as well as Owain, in the Cymric, is
found in the poem called the "Gododin," by an author named
Aneurin. "This great poem" "has attracted much attention," we
are told, "from its striking character, its apparent historic value,
and the general impression that of all the poems it has the greatest
claims to be considered the genuine work of the bard in whose
name it appears." It is generally believed "that it recorded a
battle or series of battles in the north in the sixth century in

FOUNDERS OF OUR CLAN 67

which the Ottandeni bore a part." This production not only treats
of an event which occurred in the sixth century, but the evidence
indicates that it is "an authentic production of the sixth cen-
tury."

The first part of the poem is the older, according to reliable
Welsh and Scotch scholarship ; and those who hold to a later date
for any part insist that in the later is recorded an event which
occurred in 642. The poem celebrates the valor and deeds of the
Gosgord, of whom "not one to his native home returned ;" and
their ally, "Three Sovereigns of the Brython — Cymri and Cynon
and Cynrain from Aeron." Of this Cymric Briton host, "wear-
ing the golden torques," "but three escaped by prowess of the
gushing sword — the two war dogs of Aeron and Cynon the
Dauntless." There were others whose praises are sung. One
authority holds that the poem commemorates a battle between
the Cymry and the Saxons in 570.

Skene, after discussinng the arguments in reference to the
site of the battle, places it in "that part of Scotland where Lothian
meets Sterlingshire, . . . where the great Roman wall terminates
at Caredin, or the fort of Eidinn." But what most interests us in
this poem is that some time between approximately 586 and 603
the early spelling, in Cymric, Ewein is met, and that the person
who bore the name was some character of importance. The
name is in line 17 :

"Ku kyueillt Ewein," and is translated Owen, or Owain,
merely because so pronounced in the Cymric. Skene says that
the "natural construction of that line is, 'Thou beloved friend
of Owen ;' while others translate it, 'Alas Owen, my beloved
friend'."

"Credyf gwr oed g was
Gwrhyt am dias,
Meirch mwth myng vra
A dan vordwyt megyr was.
Ysgwyt ysgauyn lledan
Ar bedrien mein vuan
Kled yuawr glas glan
Ethy eur aphan.

Kynt y vwyt y vrein

68 CLAN SWING OF SCOTLAND

Ku kyueillt Ewein
Kwl y uot a dan vrein
Morth ym pa vro
Llad un mab marro."

Welsh scholars will see that in such words as ntyng, ethy
and others there should be a dot above the y. The type from
which this book is printed has no y so marked.

Translated :

"Of manly disposition was the youth,

Valor had he in the tumult ;

Fleet thick-maned chargers

Were under the thigh of the illustrious youth ;

A shield, light and broad,

Was on the slender swift flank,

A sword, blue and bright,

Golden spurs and ermine.

5jC jfc ^C $Z :fc

Sooner hadst thou gone to the bloody bier

Than to the nuptial feast ;

Sooner hadst thou gone to be food for ravens

Thou beloved friend of Owain (Ewin) ;
Wrong it is that he should be under ravens.
It is evident in what region
The only son of Mario was killed."

Thus it is plain that by retaining, as we may rightly, the
Cymric spelling rather than translate the Cymric pronunciation,
we have this very early allusion to Ewin, who was evidently king
of a small Briton state ; and it is certain that the name is Ewin
as spelled in the Welsh.

Next, for instance, turn to the poems relating to Urien and
his son Ewen (Ewin), we find:

"A battle, when Owain (Owen or Ewin) defends the

cattle of his country.
A battle in the ford of Alclud, a battle in the Gwen.

FOUNDERS OF OUR CLAN 69

When Owen (or Ewin) descends for the kine of his father.

:£ :(: * * >(= %

A fine day they fell, men, defending (their) country."

Now, clearly, as Cymric scholars tell us, the scene of this
poem is in "the north," as a result of an enemy incursion into
"Clydesmen," Strathclyde ; and the "ford of the Alclud" is be-
lieved to be at the junction of the Levin with the Clyde in Dum-
bartonshire. Now this is an old, a very eld, historical allusion in
poetic form. Let's see a little about it.

In the Historia Britonum, compiled in the seventh century,
is an account of twelve famous battles fought by Arthur, the
"dux bellorum" of the Lowlands, occupied by the Britons. It
seems that this Arthur had been chosen the leader of the allied
forces of the Brythonic Briton states in a supreme effort to drive
from the Briton country the encroaching Picts and Teutonic
tribes. Moving through the Cymric country Arthur reached
the "north," and, as Skene traces his movements, "proceeded to
master four great fortresses : first, Kaerliem, or Dumbarton ;
next, Stirling, by defeating the enemy in the tratJiea Tryweryd
or Carse (Plain) of Stirling; then Mynyd Agned, or Edinburgh,
the great stronghold of the Picts, here called Cathbrcgion."

Old Welsh manuscripts known as the Bruts, state that this
Arthur "gave the districts he had wrested from the Saxons (and
Picts) to three brothers — Urien, Llew, and Arawn. To Urien
he gave Reged, as spelled in the Cymric, and the district intended
by this name appears from a previous passage, where Arthur is
said to have driven the Picts from Alclyde into 'Murief, a coun-
try which is otherwise termed Reged,' and that they took refuge
there in Loch Lomond." Loch Lomond is, therefore, in this
ancient Rege d, "and it must have been the district on the north
side of the Roman wall or Mur, from which it was called Mureif.
To Llew he gave Lodoneis or Lothian. This district was partly
occupied by the Picts whom Arthur had subdued at the battle
of "Mynyd Agned."

The old Historia Britonum by Goeffry, written in 1147,
furnishes interesting corroborative evidence upon this work of
Arthur. Geoffry says these three brothers were of royal blood;
and that Arthur "restored to them the rights of their ancestors;"

70 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

and that Urein "he honored with the sceptor of Murief," and
that Angusel was given the scepter over the Scots'' (Giles, Six
Old Eng. Chrons., in Bohn's Lib., 238) ; so that we know
Mureif, or Reged, was not in the kingdom of the Scots and not
inhabited by Scots.

This restoration to Cymric Briton blood occurred in 516,
approximately one hundred years after Roman evacuation of
Britain.

Skene, in The four --Indent Books of Wales, regards the
account of this work under Arthur's leadership as given in the
Bruts as resting upon "a basis of real history."

Owen, to whom the old poem represents "the chiefs of every
language" as being subject, was killed in a war with Theodrick
(Flamddwyn, in Cymric), king of Bernesia, according to Nen-
nius. Theodoric reigned fromi 580 to 587. Owen, or Ewin,
who fought the battle at the ford near where the Leven empties
into the Clyde, was the son of this Urien.

Now, the great significance to our family history is the
interesting fact that at about the early date of 51G the Cymric
Britons, according to the best evidence we now have, and which
as early as the seventh century had assumed the shape of history,
were in the possession of Dumbarton, Stirling and the border
Highlands about the shores of Loch Lomond ; and a further fact,
as established by this same evidence, is that a Ewin, the son of
the chief-ruler of the district, was charged with the military op-
erations against the ever persistent enemy among the Highlands
to the north-west. Back to Stirling, to Lomond, to Caer Clut,
now Glasgow, the city on the Clyde, then an insignificant place,
all the traditions of our American family persistently go for the
home of our Scotch clan ; and we know that the earliest certain
historical times unquestionably discover our clan firmly seated in
Dumbarton, in the adjoining Argyll; and that branches, appar-
ently anciently established, were along the splendid shores of old
Loch Lomond. These locations are disclosed by the earliest
authentic records.

Llew, or Loth, or Lothus, as variously spelled, on his
mother's side was the grandfather of Kentigern, sometimes also
known as Mungo (Saint Kentigern, &c, the saint meaning
revered), the early Christian apostle of the Strathclyde

FOUNDERS OF OUR CLAN 71

country. On his father's side, as stated by some, for instance
Baring-Gould, "it is said" Kentigern "was the son of Eugenius
III, king of the Scots; but there is great uncertainty about his
origin," Baring-Gould insists. By the words, "king of the Scots,"
Baring-Gould must have had in mind not the Scots of Dalriada
but the Strathclyde kingdom, for in another place he says
Strathclyde was occupied at that time "by a mingled race of
Britons and Scots whose capital was Alcluid." However, as
we have seen, Strathclyde was then and long before and subse-
quent preeminently Cymric Briton; and the reliable evidence
shows that, as stated by a more recent writer :

"St. Kentigern was the son of Ewen ap Urien or Eugenius,
a prince of the Britons of the Strathclyde — according to some
the king of Cumbria — and Thenew (or Themin, as Baring-Gould
spells it) daughter of Loth, king of Northumbria, or, according
to others, king of the Lothians, to whom he is supposed to have
given his name."

That is, Kentigern was the son of either King Ewen or his
grandson, — and, therefore, of royal blood on both sides. This
Ewin was either the son of the great leader Urien, of both of
whom the old poems sing so highly, or he was of the Urienland
or district and clan. Men in that day were commonly designated
by their clan names. It was not until after the introduction of
Christianity that double names distinguished men, and father
from son. We recall that the ap or ab, the p and b being
commutable, in the Cymric of that as well as a later day, is the
equivalent of the English of; and so Ewin ap Urien indicates a
member of the Urien clan and belonging to the clan's local home.
Before the introduction of Christianity, the names of that day
were often derived from geographical positions. We have seen
that Arthur, the common leader of the Cymric of Strathclyde,
gave to Urien what is now Dumbartonshire ; and we saw Ewen
defending his land at the ford of the river near where the Eeven
reaches the Clyde. For many years after that date the crown
or chief ruler allotted the lands to the leaders, rulers of small
sections, or to clan chieftains, who held the lands in the name of
and for the use of the clan, more in the sense of community
ownership than of the feudalism which later characterized Eng-
land. Of course for hundreds of years after Arthur's and

72 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Urien's and Ewin's day there were no records, either govern-
mental or historical, which have come to us ; but it is of record
that as early as 1257 Sir Ewin of Erregeithill granted the Bishop
of Argyll lands in Lismore (R. W. Cochran-Patrick, Medieval
Scotland (Glasgow, 1892), 81) ; and in 1550, Burke tells us, the
Ewin clan was the record owner of land in Balloch, and also
possessed the lands of Bernice and owned the Glenleon land and
other estates in Carvall, Argyll. Balloch is on the west bank
of the southern end of Loch Lomond in Dumbartonshire, the
identical section given by Arthur, according to the old Cymry
historical poems, to Urien ; and only a few miles from Glasgow
and Dumbarton town, the latter destined to be the old Cymric
Welsh capital.

Before Kentigern's day Christianity, under Ninian, had se-
cured a feeble hold in the Briton country. But there had been
a general apostasy ; and Medraut, or Morken as Jaceline calls
him, who was Loth's son, joined the pagan Picts and Saxons in
an insurrection against the Britons ; and so endangered were the
Christians that Kentigern's "cognati," kinsfolk, clansmen, induced
him, some time between 5-10 and 560, to take refuge with other
clansmen in the mountains of what is now Wales — all the coun-
try including Wales to and including Loch Lomond being "the
early and continuous home of the old Britons," say Edward A.
Freeman, The History of the Norman Conquest of England
(Oxford, 1867), and other standard authorities.

While Kentigern was in what is now Wales other far-reaching
revolutions swept over harassed and yet defiant Cymric Britain,
ending in the epochal battle of Arthuret, fought in 673, near what
is now Carlisle. This resulted in a more positive division of the
Cymry people than had up to that time occurred. Too, a more im-
portant result was the establishment of Strathclyde under a
king who encouraged Christianity. That battle is regarded as a
contest between Christianity and the lingering darkness of pagan-
ism in Britain. Ninian's preaching among the Galwagians and
the Britons during the earlier years was wellnigh forgotten ;
Kentigern was a refugee in the mountains of Wales ; the pagan
Teutons were pressing hard from the east. Dalriada alone, under
the influence of the great Columba, presented the strongest Chris-
tian front. Aedan, of Dalriada, was a Christian, and he and Mael-

FOUNDERS OF OUR CLAN 73

gwn Gwynedd and Rydderch Hael, summoning the Dalriadan
forces, Maelgwn those of the South Cymry (now Wales), and
Rydderch Hael, those of all the other Briton states, made war
upon the pagan forces led by Gwenddolew. The pagans were
vanquished. Aedon returned to Dalriada, repaired to lona and
was crowned king by Columba, and became the first independent
king of that country. Rydderch Hael gathered all the Cymry
Britons under one government, the famous Strathclyde, which in-
cluded border Highland country about Loch Lomond, Glasgow
and Dumbarton, the latter we know then called Alclyde, which
Hael made his capital. From those border Highland regions
that kingdom reached southward to the River Derwent. Maelwyn
Gwynedd asserted rule over the southern Britons, gathering
them into the Cymru kingdom, now Wales. This, as Skene points
out, ''more thoroughly separated the north, or Y Goglcd, from
Wales, or Cymru ; and we can see its very important bearing
upon the dispersion of our clan. Up to that time, evidently, the
clan was mainly in some one or more of the smaller states between
the "south" and the "north." Ewin's possession of Dumbarton,
as a result of the partition by Arthur, settled a strong section of
the clan in that region just as soon as it could be held against the
Picts ; and, under the Christian rule of Hael from his capital at
Dumbarton, that region became more attractive to our clan. Hael
encouraged the return of Kentigern, who now became the head
of the Celtic church of Strathclyde. Thus recalled to "the north,"
this great preacher proceeded to a little town where busy Glas-
gow now flourishes, and there, upon the bank of the Molindinar
Burn, he built and long occupied the monastic cell which the
Christian preachers of that day regarded as essential to their call-
ing. Why go to the banks of the Molindinar? It was within the
limits of the Bztnn country, and, it seems to me certain, then occu-
pied by Kentigern's "cognati," or clansmen ; and they, I further
believe, were our ancestral clansmen. The clan had separated.
Saxons thenceforward steadily pressed against Southern Strath-
clyde ; the Angles of Northumbria grew in power, and the king-
dom of the Scots gradually absorbed that of the Picts, and
finally that of the Strathclyde Britons. Those of our clan in
South Strathclyde and in North Cymru, who had felt the pressure
of the invaders strongest, retired south of the Cheviots, and there,

74 CLAN SWING OF SCOTLAND

when Domesday Book was made in 1085, they were found and
entered under the spelling Ewin, Euing and Ewen, freemen and
important landowners. Ross, of those Ewings of Domesday
Book, says that "as a probable indication of the vitality and far-
reaching ramifications of the tribe thus designated (by the Ewing
name) it may be noted that in the English Domesday Book we
meet with allodial Ewings who are presumed to be Celts with the
patronymic Anglicised." In my opinion, the ''allodial Ewings of
Domesday" are of our clan ; and that they were of Cymric Briton
descent is beyond a presumption.

Domesday shows those clan septs in different shires. Ewen
was in Suffolk County ; the Euings were in Wiltshire, near the
Welsh country ; the Euens were in Suffolkshire, and the Ewens
in Herefordshire. These names thus found in the Domesday
census lead M. A. Lower, a British scholar, in his "A Dictionary
of the Family Names of the United Kingdom," to regard Ewen,
Ewan, Euing, as being in origin "probably Anglo-Saxon." But
the name, I have shown, existed among the Celts before the com-
ing of the Angles and Saxons, though it was not written with
the g until after their advent, showing that Ewing is Celtic Ewin
(or Owen in Welsh) Saxonized or Anglo-Saxonized. The Nor-
man government widened the gap between the Ewings of England
and those of the Lowlands of Scotland and in the Welsh section ;
and as to the Ewings of the Lowlands the clan government was
sooner lost, due to the Teutonic influence, and due to the delay
of that influence in reaching the Highlands, clan government
longest there survived. So as a clan — but more in the sense of
a large family than in the meaning of clan in the Highland sense
— we find the Dumbarton and Lennox Ewings early spreading
into Argyll, while other clan septs entrenched along the historic
shores of Loch Lomond.

So we now understand why it was that in "the Norman
gerrymandering of Great Britain after the (Norman) conquest
(1072) the Ewings and Ewins of Scotland and the Owenses of
Wales were mustered under banners that bore a device common
to all." And when we also recall that the Ewing "name is found
associated as a tribal surname with the Calquhouns, usually writ-
ten Calhoun in the United States," and when we couple with this
the fact that it is conceded by historians that the Calhouns, who

FOUNDERS OF OUR CLAN 75

were our border Highland neighbors as well as our kinsmen, are
of Lowland origin, we are more and more sure of the accuracy of
our tradition that our Ewings are of Lowland origin.

The founders of our clan, therefore, were the Britons known
as Cymri, or Cymry. The Romans found them occupying "the
country from the eastern sea to the far uplands of the west."

The Welsh and the Cornish are today about the only people
left who have come down from the old Cymri with the least in-
fusion of Angle or Saxon blood.

The "far uplands of the west" indicates the Cymri in the
borderland of the Highlands. Alclyde, the capital of the Strath-
clyde, where Ewen ap Urien and the others of the name of royal
prerogatives lived, was situated at the site of the present town
of Dumbarton, in the border of the Highlands, we remember.
Bishop Ewen (or Ewin), or Kentigern, went in and out of it, and
at Deschue, only a few miles to the east, and in the extreme edge
of the Lowland country, he erected structures which gave rise
to a historic church, the present magnificent Cathedral of Glas-
gow. At an early day the coat of arms of the Ewings of Scot-
land, and the arms claimed by our early American ancestors, was
placed in one of the stained-glass windows in the north aisle of
the nave of the present church. (Notes and Queries) (England),
5th series, vol. 3, p. 34.)

To the north of our early ancestors were the Pictish people,
the Gaelic blood, the descendants of which clung tenaciously to
the Gaelic tongue of the real Highlanders of modern days. But
the Celtic Britons to the south, to whom our ancestors belonged,
were speaking, when the Teutons first knew them, "a language
nearer the old Cornish than the Gaelic or even the surviving
Welsh." (Veitch, Hist Poet. Scottish Border, 177.) That tongue
capitulated to the early forms of English as the Celtic blood of out
earlier parents commingled with the Teutonic. In the Lowlands
generally the Celtic was "as nearly exterminated by the Teutonic
as a nation can be," the women alone being spared, so Freeman
and others have said ; while yet others hold that in the Lowlands
the Celtic strain yet predominates, which I believe to be true, as
I shall indicate in a moment, and as to the Lenox section par-
ticularly.

Xow, while the root of our name was Celtic, Cymry of the
Britons as clearly distinguished from the Scots of Dalriada and

76 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

the Picts or Gaels of the Highlands, it is clear that the addition
of the g is a result of both contact with the Teutonic tongues and
of some race amalgamation. The valley of the Clyde, the city of
Glasgow, the southwestern shores of Loch Lomond, but fifteen
miles from Glasgow, have been the haunts of the family since the
first King Ewin held his court at historic Alclyde. That Bishop
Kentigern's mother was a Saxon is but representative, in fact, even
if fable as to Kentigern, of the amalgamation of Celt and Teuton
from early days of the Teutons' arrival in that land ; and it seems
to be certain that very early "the Teutonic speech and civilization
penetrated into every district of the Scottish Lowlands" (F. F.
Henderson, Scottish Vernacular Literature ; Henry James Ford,
The Scotch-Irish in Amer., 87.) Yet since our direct ancestors,
from the days of Reged, lived in the border Lowlands and later
further in the border Highlands, they less felt the Teuton influ-
ence and got less of the Teutonic blood than did the Celts of the
Lowlands south of Lennox. In a recent work the Duke of Argyll
says that "the country of the Levin — the Lennox — remained
almost up to our own day half Saxon and half almost purely
Celtic."

Besides, as we have seen, the Scots of the Dalriada kingdom,
corresponding generally to Argyllshire, and the Picts of the High-
lands were from the days of the Roman withdrawal enemies of
the Britons. The Britons, of whom the Cimri were a tribe, are
generally believed to have reached Briton in 500 B. C, and to have
driven the Gaels, who had preceded them, north and west, leaving
them in the mountains of the Highlands. (Woodbury, The Scot
and the Ulster Scot, 18.) For these reasons our Ewings, never
Highlanders, never Scots, not of Gaelic or Pictish descent, were
not absorbed by Highland neighbors.

The origin of both our clan and our name, therefore, is seen,
clearly and unquestionably, in my opinion, at least, in the light of
all the materials at my command short of personal research in
Great Britain. The investigations I have had made in Scotland
and Ireland have strengthened my conclusions ; further research
there, I am convinced, would only be cumulative.

Our clan has never been a Highland clan. That our clan was
not Highland in the sense of the famous Gaelic clans, but Cymric
Briton, having its origin in the Lowlands, is why Skene, for in-

FOUNDERS OF OUR CLAN 77

stance, in his The Highlanders of Scotland, published in 1837,
gives no history of the Ewings, notwithstanding they were numer-
ous and influential in Argyllshire, Dumbartonshire and in other
sections of Scotland's border Highlands at the time he wrote, and
had been for hundreds of years theretofore. He wrote of the
Highlanders proper, of the descendants of the Picts and Scots,
and their admixture, and not of the Britons and their admixture,
however prominent they may have become among or in the coun-
try of the old Gaelic clans.

Acts of the Parliament of Scotland passed in 1587 gave us
a "roll of the clannis ( in the Heilands and Pies ) ." but the name
Ewing, and no form thereof, appears. x\nother act, passed 1594,
gives us a roll of the "broken clans in the Highlands and Isles,"
but the name Ewing in any spelling is not therein. There is also
"a roll of the names of the landlords of the Highlands and the
Isles" appended to the act of Parliament of 1587. It contains no
Ewing. In neither of these does McEwen appear. Based upon
these acts of Parliament, aided by Skene's researches, and using
all information at hand, Johnston and Robertson gave us in 1872
that interesting map showing the territory of the several High-
land clans {The Historical Geography of the Clans of Scotland) ;
and in 1892 Scribners in New York and Johnston in Edinburgh
published The Scottish Clans and Their Tartans. Yet no form
of the name Ewing appears in either. No modern authority de-
parts from this. The latter work describes ninety-six clans and
their tartans, or plaids. In each case the authors were dealing
with the Highland clans. The Ewings were not Highlands. They
owned lands along Loch Lomond, if not elsewhere in the border
Highlands, long before Parliament enumerated the Highland
landlords in 1587, yet they were not included because they were
of Lowland origin and, no doubt, largely yet so in sympathy.

Now turn to the records of the Lowlands, made since the
first glimpse of our family name. The Privy Council Register
of Scotland contains "virtually all the personal names prevalent
in Scotland during the 16th and 17th centuries," writes Professor
Brown, the Scotch author. The Register extends from 1545 to
1707. The name Ewin or Ewing occurs very frequently. The
name Ewing first occurs in that compilation under date of 1574.
that Ewing being a resident of Aberdeen, a town on the

78 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

eastern coast of the Lowlands ; and, as Professor Brown says in
his private letter for my information, the Register discloses the
Ewings "most numerously in the southern and eastern Low-
lands." The dispersion of the Highland clans did not occur
until after the "rising of 1745" in favor of Prince Charles, the
lawful descendant of the earlier Scotch monarch ; and long be-
fore that time, and back to the very earliest records, in fact, "the
Ewings were distributed virtually over all the non-Highland
country." Upon no other theory than that of thej Lowland
origin, as I herein maintain, can we account for this prevalence
of our name in the Lowlands as well as in the Loch Lomond and
the border Argyll country.

Just a few of many instances we find, in the accessible rec-
ords, establishing this early Lowland dispersion :

In the accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland
appears, under date of 1502, this item: "for ane cote for Ewin,
the boy in the kitchen." (2 Accounts Lord High Treas. Scotland,
302). This was the king's kitchen, and in those times of great
personal danger to the king he trusted only the most reliable in
the place where his food was prepared ; and to be a boy in the
king's kitchen then was no servile station. We know the king did
not live at that time in the Highlands.

In 1540 the treasurer paid to Adam Ewin, "prebendar in
Restalrig," an item. This, no doubt, was an ecclesiastical com-
pensation to Ewin as the ecclesiastic.

In 1558 the treasurer paid out a sum on account of "ane
kok" brought for the king from Sir Archibald Ewein. It is not
strange, quite clearly, that a scribe of that day who spelled one
"ane," coat "cote," and cock "kok," should spell our family name
either Ewin or Ewein. Modern English had not then come to
its present form.

James Ewing was burgess of Aberdeen in 1574, and there
then lived also John and Alexander Ewing. John Ewing, who
had a son Alexander, was a burgess of Aberdeen in 1575. A
John Ewing was in Kelsoland in 1590, and at the same time
another John Ewing was in Southernnen and yet another in
Eister Strabdok. Capt. Thos. Ewing was burgess of Edinburgh
in 1591. In 1591 a Capt. Thos. Ewin lived at Edmistoun. Again
in 1592 we see a mention of Alex. Ewing in Aberdeen. In 1594
Robert Ewing and sons William and John lived in Bulnill.

FOUNDERS OF OUR CLAN ?9

Speaking of conditions in Scotland about 1596 Cowan
telling of an incident which occurred that year on the Aber-
cairyn estate says :

"The following narrative of the incident shows what men
could do in those lawless times out of sheer mischief. It would
appear that William Brown sued William Murrany of Aber-
cairny and Thomas Ewing, his tenant, touching the- coming of
the Ewings in harvest last at ten o'clock at night to the said
William Brown, who was inspecting his corn fields, then pursu-
ing him for his life, and giving him several bloody wounds. Be-
lieving him to be dead, they drew him by the heels to a burn, and
cast him therein. By the coolness of the water Brown eventually
revived, and with great difficulty got out and afterwards recov-
ered.'' (Samuel Cowan, J. P., 2 The Ancient Capital of Scot-
land (1904), 32.)

Whether Brown was inspecting his corn (not our Indian
corn, by the way) by lantern or moonlight we are not told; and
how it happened that poor Brown did not drown, I can't guess;
but it is interesting that certainly the Bwings were widely then
numerous, some tenants, in the sense that vast regions were
owned by the few ; others the fortunate landed class, and the name
Eiuing widely so spelled.

In 159? Finla (Findlay) Ewing is mentioned. In 1600 Rob-
ert Ewing lived in the Isle of Little Cumry.

Patrick Ewing lived in Strathdee in 1605 ; and Robert
Ewing was servitor, much akin to sheriff of this day, to Lord
Sempill in 160v ; and in 1604 and later years, Thos. Ewing was
servitor to the Earl of Mar. In 1609 John or Robert (the record
says John and the editor thought it Robert) was among those
who made a devastating onslaught upon the king's hawks which
for many years were reared upon the Isle of Cumry7, one of the
Isles of Argyllshire; and in 1609 Patrick Ewing, maltman of
Dumbarton, witnessed a document. James Ewing of Altir was
procurator in that year. The record says that the bridge of Tul-
libody stood "in one of the most common highways of the king-
dom," that it had "four bowis," and that it was falling into ruins
because the parishoners of Tullibody could not afford to repair
and keep it up. They asked for a toll. They were expecting
the king to cross this bridge next year, on his way "from Strive-

80 CLAN EWING OP SCOTLAND

ling to Dunfermeling;" and so at their request the Privy Council
authorized "John Ewing, partitioner of Smithfield, and his depu-
ties" to "attend at the said bridge and uplift the said tax." This
was in 1G16. In 1618 Thos. Ewing, master of Lardner, received
333 pounds, 6s 8d (Scots money, no doubt), for services during
the king's visit. In 1621 William Ewing was servitor to Camp-
bell of Dunstaffnage.

The Campbells, in turn as each inherited the office from his
ancestor, were hereditary officials of the Argyllshire country.
Now and then Campbell held his court at Dunstaffnage Castle,
one of the royal castles of Scotland, and on Loch Etive, Argyll-
shire. It was also the stronghold within which the Campbells
and their allies, the Macdougals. retired often during the feudal
wars. It had its prison as well as its administrative hall, and in
the former Flora Macdonald was for a time incarcerated for
her part in the historic uprising in favor of Prince Charles
Stuart, — it is a matter of interesting history. The castle is now
a ruin.

The servitor was an officer who served summonses and
other processes. The office held by Campbell, being hereditary,
could not be reached by any of our clan name ; and that one of
the highest offices of that court within reach was filled by a
representative of the clan indicates influence and family standing.

In 1631 John Ewing was burgess of Stirling, and so on, here
and there widely over Lowland Scotland were the Ewings — and
during long years when the Gaelic Highlanders and the Teuton-
ized Celts of the Lowlands were, as a rule, not upon terms of so-
cial amity.

John, James, William, Thomas etc., all yet our family names,
coming down from hundreds of years ago, are the Christian
names of the Lowlands borne by Ewings ; while at the same
periods others bearing similar names were in the border High-
lands, yet they were not Gaelic Highlanders. Hence, I regard
the tradition of our early Lowland origin as historically sus-
tained.

VII.
EWEN'S SON KENTIGERN, 500 to 570 A. D.

It may interest us to pause just a second to notice the story
of Kentigern's life more closely. All of the early writers weave
about him much which we know to be fable. All the early chron-
icles and histories of the early period are more or less obscured by
a similar process. Gildas and Bede relate in connection with the
great men of whom they write, and concerning the epochal move-
ments which they record, the most preposterous stories of the
miraculous. Holy water cured terrible diseases ; the presence
of the bones of saints restored life ! However, scholars have been
able to distinguish much of historical value.

A very few have questioned the fact that such a person as
Kentigern, or in modern English Ewen or Ewing, we may prop-
erly call him, the great Cymric Briton Christian preacher, ever
lived. But such a doubt ignores the facts. That that Eugenius,
more generally known as Kentigern, existed, was a great preacher,
and much concerning him and his times and his contemporaries
are far more historical than much which the learned accept as the
history of early pre-Scotland.

The most accessible information regarding Kentigern is "The
Lives of St. Ninian and Saint Kentigern," edited from the best
manuscripts by Bishop Alex. P. Forbes, D. C. L., and published
in volume five of The Historians of Scotland, which came from
the press in Edinburgh in 18? 4. In that work Bishop Forbes
gives both the original and an annotated translation of the manu-
scripts containing the earliest extant histories of Kentigern. Only
part of one of the manuscripts survived "the all-devouring scythe
of Time." The surviving original is in the British Museum. The
evidence indicates that it was written by a cleric in 1164. Fordun
refers to an old life of Kentigern which he had seen in the "libro
de Dunfermlyn," and Forbes is inclined to believe that Fordun
saw the original production of 1164. However, the "Life of Saint
Kentigern, by Jocelinus, a monk of Furness," written in 1190, is
our chief source of information regarding Kentigern ; and also a
source of informing light upon Kentigern's day. There is no

82 CLAX KWING OF SCOTLAND

question that these works treat of the life and times of Kentigern,
or Mungo, or Eugenius, or Ewen (not improperly used as to
him interchangeably), described as the bishop of Glasgow, and
known to history as the great Cymric of the Strathclyde kingdom.
(I am aware that some writers discard as "purely fictitious" all
that is said about Loth, Thenew, and Ewen. See, for instance, a
translation from the Aberdeen Breviary and the Arbuthnott Mis-
sol, by Rev. Wm. Stephenson, in Legends and Commemorative
Celebrations of St. Kentigern, 1874. But for the same reason we
would discard Bede and other early writers now generally ac-
cepted as the foundations of Scotch history.) Jocelyn's work, to
use the more modern spelling of the author's name, says Bishop
Forbes, "affords to us almost the only apparently authentic record
which we possess of certain events which took place in the obscure
history of the little kingdom of Cumbria, Combria, or Strathclyde,
and it supplies confirmation of others which occurred among the
kindred nations of the Wealas," or Welsh.

Jocelyn says that there was in use by the church of his day
a life of Kentigern "stained throughout by an uncultivated diction,
discolored and obscured by an inelegant style, and what beyond
all things any wise man would abhor, in the very commencement
of the narrative something contrary to sound doctrine and to the
Catholic faith very evidently appeareth." jocelyn, as he thus ad-
mits, was a monk of the Roman church. Kentigern was not a
Roman Catholic ; and Jocelyn further admits that he found no life
of Kentigern which gives the fiction of later writers that Kenti-
gern's remains (relics, the clergy calls them) were translated;
and no story of the many miracles performed after Kentigern
had died. The faith of Kentigern's day must have been freer
from the absurdities which befogged later adherents of the Chris-
tian faith. So, dissatisfied with the more numerous copies of
Kentigern's life, Bishop Jocelyn says he "sought diligently" and
found "an other little volume written in the Scotic dialect, filled
from end to end with solicisms, but containing at great length the
life and acts of the holy bishop," Kentigern. Forbes says "there
seems no reason to accuse Toceline of falsehood in his statement. "'
The Scotic dialect was the tongue then spoken by the Scots of
Ulster, and has no reference to later Scotch. Into that old work
Jocelyn attempted "to pour the life-giving wine." The original

Ewen's son kentigern 83

is now gone ; but it seems evident that from all these sources he
gave us a reasonably reliable story of the main events of Kenti-
gern's life. It is an irreparable loss that we have not the original
as he found it, however.

Contemporary Irish Annalists mention Kentigern and his
great Christian achievements ; and he finds ample notice in the
early Welsh poetry, and there is a record of him in the Saxon
and Welsh additions to the Historia Britonum; and elsewhere
there is much reliable evidence of him. To this day many
churches dedicated at an early day to him are known ; and St.
Mungo's well, a fine spring near one of them, certainly derived its
name from him.

Therefore, speaking of work by Joceline and of the fragment
by the unknown author, Forbes, says :

"That, with every abatement, both lives of Saint Kentigern
contain matters of history cannot be safely denied. . . . Saint
Kentigern was an abiding reality in the minds of the people when
both lives of the bishop were written,"

This, and much more, is all very interesting as general his-
tory, but to us what those old works say of Kentigern's parentage
and the surroundings and scenes of his life work are most im-
portant.

The fragment of the life of Kentigern is believed to be
older than Jocelyn's work. In the former the unknown author
says that "the blessed Biship Kentigern's mother was Thaney,"
the daughter of "King Leudonus, a man half pagan, from whom
the province over which he ruled obtained the name Leudonia
in Northern Britannia." This girl, "so far as her faith was
concerned," was a Christian, "and set herself most devoutely to
learn what she could of the Christian rites." She "had for a
suitor a most graceful young man, namely, Ewen the son of
Erwegende, sprung from a most noble stock of the Britons."
Later this author says that this young Briton "in the Gestes of
the Histories is called Ewen, son of King Ulien." But Thaney
was so absorbed in one phase of Bible information that she
would not listen to Ewen. Thaney's father greatly favored
Ewen ; and, when "gentle speeches" had failed, "gave his daugh-
ter the alternative of accepting Ewen or being turned over to the
care of a swineherd." She chose "the service of the swineherd,"

Si CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

and thereupon old King Loth became very wroth, and turned her
over to the swineherd. She was most kindly treated ; but Ewen
"was exceedingly sad at heart for he loved her much." Ewen
was beardless; and, therefore, very young; but he was adroit and
he lived in a day when women were made captive slaves as
booty of war. So he dressed as a woman, sought Thaney's com-
pany; and ''1>v chaste embrace" "sought to raise her from the
care of swine to a royal palace, and make her, instead of the
keeper of hogs, a lady over knights." Thaney was thus, in the
one moment of that embrace, deceived ; and also Ewen was de-
ceived, for he got a wrong impression which was not corrected
until "a long time afterwards by Saint Kentigern, his son" by
Princess Thaney. But when the affair came to the ears of old
King Loth, he decreed the death of his daughter. Accordingly,
for the old clericks never failed to befog the real facts they re-
corded by impossible supernatural colorings, she was thrown
over the Troprein Rock, but miraculously escaped unhurt. Next
she was put into a coracle, that is, a boat made of hides, and car-
ried "down the Clyde estuary into deep water beyond the Isle
of May." But, oh ! "all the fishes of that self-same coat at-
tended her in procession as their mistress, and after the day of
her departure the take of fish there ceased." Again right here
creeps in another bit of history ; about the Isle of May, when that
old writer wrote, "fish were found there in such great abundance,
that from every shore of the sea, from England, Scotland, and
even from Belgium and France, very many fishermen came
for the sake of fishing." So the boat landed its burden upon the
shore ; and when the child was born it was taken into a nearby
ecclesiastical school over which the great teacher Servanus pre-
sided.

To our regret and loss the remainder of that life of Kenti-
gern is lost. So much of the old copy as remains to us is in
Latin. ( )ur name in the original is spelled as in the English
translation :

"Erat namque ejus juvenis guidam elegantissimus, Ewen

videlicet filius Erwegende, noblissima Brittonum prosapia ortus.

. .In gestis histori arum vocatur Ewen filius regis Ulien."

Jocelyn gives us a full record of what he terms "the glorious
life of the most famous Kentigern," "famous for his race and

Ewen's son kentigern 80

beauty," saying the mother of Kentigern "was the daughter of a
certain king, most pagan in his creed," and tells us that the boy
was educated and brought up by Saint Servanus, and that the
monk christened the young boy Kentigern and the mother Taneu,
and that in the language of that country the boy was commonly
called Monghu. Kyentgern is a Welsh word, and suggests the
Welsh or Cymric origin of Kentigern. When grown Kentigern
left Servanus' school, in due time was consecrated bishop of the
Briton church, and ''established his cathedral seat in a town called
Glesgu, which is, interpreted, The Dear Family, and is now called
Glasgu, where he united to himself a famous and God-beloved
family of servants of God . . . who lived after the fashion
of the primitive church," says Jocelyn. What Jocelyn calls the
Cumbrian Kingdom, which he says "reached from sea to sea,"
was the region over which Kentigern "presided as bishop."
Kentigern was the thorough esthetic ; he slept on a stone couch, a
stone for a pillow ; immersed to his neck in the stream near his
home while he chanted the psalter ; and "no corruption of the
rebellius flesh either waking or even sleeping polluted or defiled
the lily of his snow white modesty." His "speech was flavored
with salt," and "honey and milk were under his tongue." "Yet
the saint preached more by his silence than many doctors and
rulers do by loud speaking." He was cheerful, ruddy, robust,
beautiful. He "raised the dead," harnessed under one yoke a
stag and a wolf and plowed nine acres; he sowed sand and har-
vested from it wheat !

This monkish interpolation of untruth in the life of Kentigern,
as I have said, is not peculiar to his biographers. For instance,
St. Colman was always awakened at the proper moment by a
mouse; and the line at which he left off reading was always
marked by a fly !

Finally paganism triumphed against Kentigern for a season
and he fled to Wales. He visited Rome to consult the Pope, ac-
cording to Jocelyn, tho that statement must be taken with caution,
as I know of no corroboration. Jocelyn was a loyal Roman
Catholic. At length Kentigern was recalled by Rydderch.
Rydderch, divested of royal robes, gave homage to Kentigern,
handed over to him the dominion and princedom of all his king-
dom. Kentigern gladly grasped this opportunity for the re-

86 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

establishment of Christianity in the Strathclyde kingdom under
Rydderch's dominion. (Series of Chronicles and Memorials.
Published by authority of the Lords Commissioners of Her Ma-
jesty's Treasury under the Direction of the Right Honorable the
Lord-Clerk Register of Scotland, edited by Skene — pp. cliv. civ.,
255).

Kentigern Ewen died on or near the spot where Glasgow
Cathedral now stands, in a window of which some one, years
ago as we have seen, placed our ancestor's coat of arms, possibly
in recognition of the descent of our progenitors from the clan
founded by Kentigern's Ewen ancestor. Kentigern Ewen gen-
erally is regarded as the founder of that cathedral.

VIII.

OUR EWINGS DISTINGUISHED FROM THE
MAC EWENS.

"The name (Ewing) is identified with MacEwen by some,"
as Spooner has said in Historic Families of America. I have
met a few of our name in this country who are of the opinion
that all American E wings descended from the MacEwens, once
a small but quite reputable clan of the Scotland Highlands. Here
is a representative statement of this contention :

"The name was originally MacEwen, and originated about
1400 in Argyllshire, in Cowal. The Clan Ewen was an offshoot,
a younger branch, of the Clan Lamont, and, about 1400, took the
distinctive name MacEwen. Broken in the contests of the High-
lands, the clan was dispersed and its organization lost. The
members of the clan about 1500-1600 took refuge in the adjacent
Lowlands district of the Lennox, which includes Dumbarton and
the greater part of Stirling. Here many lost the mac, and others
Anglicized the Ewen to Ewing,'' wrote "Rev. John G. Ewing of
Porto Rico," quoted by Jos. Lyons Ewing (of N. J.) in Ewing
Families. This is the Jno. G. Ewing, attorney, now in Washing-
ton, D. C, he tells me; but he is very glad to have it known that
he has never been a "reverend."

Some Gaelic Highland writers of Scotland are perhaps
largely responsible for such views. As representative of that
class we may take the late R. S. T. McEwen and his editor who
gathered his genealogical papers into the little book, Clan Ewen,
and Frank Adam, in What Is My Tartan;'' Their claim is
that all Ewings who are descendants of the old Scotch family
bearing the earlier form of the name go back for name and an-
cestry to Clan Ewen of Otter, descended from pne of the early
divisions of the people of the Highlands, and from that clan
down through the MacEwens, the descendants of the founder of
that Clan Ewen.

Of course those who have read the parts of my genealogical
studies which present the story of the Ewing name and family
as they emerged from the earliest Lowland days will readily see

88 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

that, at least as to the Ewings of whom I write, the above quoted
deductions are too broad; in fact, entirely inaccurate, considered
in the light of our most reliable traditions. In truth, I am
thoroughly satisfied that few Ewings are the descendants of the
MacEwens or of the Ewen clan once dominant about Otter of
the Highlands of Scotland. But of course I have confined the
bulk of my investigations to the families indicated in earlier sec-
tions of these studies. However, some review of the claims made
by the MacEwens and those who agree with them regarding
the Ewings will be both interesting and helpful in seeing more
certainly our early pedigree, — will help us to see the more clearly
that the Ewens of Otter, the MacEwens of the Highlands, are in
no way related to the Ewins, the Ewens, or the Ewings of Cymric
Celtic stock, one branch of whose family also early lived along
the shores of Loch Lomond, here and there in Dumbarton and
Argyll Counties generally, — really at times close neighbors of
the MacEwens. This local proximity, I am sure, has gone far
to mislead the Highland writers who have confused the two dis-
tinct families and who, so far as I can discover, have never con-
sidered the evidence pertaining to our Lowland family and which
in large part I present in these studies.

Now, it is important to bear in mind that McEwen, Adam
and those who agree with them have followed Skene for what is
known regarding the Clan Ewen of the Highlands, and have
followed without being able to add to the evidence. Outside of
the evidence which I have here and there gathered from general
history, the only specific light which we have regarding the early
Ewings (under any form of the name) is found in the writings
of Skene and Ross. The specific data as to the Ewene (Ewen,
Ewin, Ewan, Euan, Euing, Ewing) stock found in other writers
appears to be a repetition of and conclusions drawn from the
statements by Skene and Ross — oftener from Skene only.

Dr. P. Hume Brown, a recognized authority on Scotch his-
tory, an author of a history of Scotland, looked into this question
for my personal information. At the time, he was professor of
ancient history and palaeography in the University of Edinburgh,
Scotland. Writing for me in December, 1917, he says:

"I have now looked into all the authorities relative to Clan
Ewen (in either the Lowlands or the Highlands) that I can think

DISTINGUISHED FROM MC EWENS 89

of, and find that all the information obtainable regarding it is
contained in Skene's 'Celtic Scotland' and his 'Highlanders of
Scotland,' and F. J. Ross' 'Memoir of Alex. Ewing, Bishop of
Argyll and the Isles.' "

Here is what Skene, in The Highlanders of Scotland, says :

"The Rev. Mr. Alexander Macfarlane, in his excellent ac-
count of the parish of Killfinnan, says : 'On a rocky point on the
coast of Lochfine, about a mile below the church, is to be seen the
vestige of a building called Caestael Mahic Eobhuin (that is,
'MacEwen's Castle'),' and he adds: 'This MacEwen was the
chief of a clan and proprietor of the northern division of the
parish called Otter.' The reverend gentleman professes his in-
ability to discover who this MacEwen was, but this omission is
supplied by the manuscript of 1-ioO, which contains the genealogy
of the clan Eoghan na Hioteric,' or Clan Ewen of Otter, and in
which they are brought from Anradan, the common ancestor of
the Maclachlans and the Macneills.

"This (Ewen) family became very soon extinct, and their
property gave a title to a branch of the Campbells ; of their his-
tory consequently we know nothing whatever."

In his notes to the 1002 edition of Skene's The Highlanders
of Scotland, Dr. Macbain, a distinguished Scotch scholar, makes
no corrections of or additions to these statements, and so we re-
gard them as unimpaired by modern research.

In Celtic Scotland Skene says :

"The second group consists of clans supposed to be de-
scended from Hy Xeill or race Neill naoin Gillach, king of Ire-
land, which brings us nearer historical times. They consist of the
Lamonds, the Clan Lachlan, the MacEwens of Otter and Clan
Somarile, which has not been identified.

"These clans are all taken back to a certain Aoda Alain,
named Buirchc, son of Anrotan, son of Aodha Altanutin, ances-
tors of the O'Neills. From Aoda's son Gillachrist the clan Lach-
lan came, and from another son, Duinsleibe, the Lamonds, Mac-
Ewens and Clan Somarile. The death of Aoda Alain is recorded
in 1047." (Edition 1890, vol. 3, p. 340.)

R. S. T. MacEwen followed, as I have said, Skene ; but it
cannot be objectionable to quote his words. In the preface of
his book Clan Ezven, written by "A. M. M.," who expanded into

90 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

a little volume MacEwen's articles, which were originally pub-
lished in The Celtic Monthly, a journal now extinct, it is said :

"The attempt to weave together the scattered threads of
tradition and historical record by which the Clan Ewen may still
"be darkly followed, has not been easy. All the usual materials for
a clan history are wanting. A broken and disrupted clan since
the middle of the fifteenth century, it boasts few authentic me-
morials and even fewer traditions of its early history and subse-
quent misfortunes."

In the body of the work MacEwen says :

"The ancient Clan Ewen or McEwen of Otter, Eoghan
ria h-Oitrich, which once possessed a stronghold of its own, was
one of the earliest of the western clans sprung from the Dalraida
Scots. . . Up to the thirteenth century these Scots were divided
into a few great tribes, corresponding to the ancient maormorships
or earldoms. Skene, in his 'Table of the Descent of the Highland
Clans,' divided the Gallgael into five great clans, from whom
sprang nine smaller clans. The clan system of later times had not
appeared before this date. From the Siol Gillevray, the second
of the great clans, he gives the Clan Neill, Lachlan and Ewen ;
Chiefs MacNeill, MacLachlan and MacEwen. . . . The gene-
alogies given by Skene are taken from the Irish manuscripts and
MacFerbis. He considers the latter portion of the pedigrees, as
far back as the common ancestor from whom the clan takes its
name, to be tolerably well vouched for, and it may be held as
authentic."

Following these writers back we find they start the genealogy
of Ewen of Otter with "the fabulous King Conn of the one hun-
dred battles," of Ireland, as Skene's sources did ; thence down to
his descendant, Niall Glundubh, "who lived between 8o0 and 900."
The latter's son was Aodha Allamuin (Hugh Allaman), "the then
head of the great family of O'Neils, kings of Ireland," and his
son was Anradan, and the latter's son was Aodha Alain, or De
Dalan, whose death is recorded in 10-17. "The latter had three
sons : Gillachrist, Neill and DUnslebhe. Gillachrist had a son,
Lachlan, who was the ancestor of the Machlachlans ; Neill was the
ancestor of the MacNeills. Dunslebhe had two sons, Ferchard,
ancestor of the Lamonds, and Ewen, ancestor of the McEwens."
Keltie is given as the authority for the statement that these clans

DISTINGUISHED FROM MC EWENS 91

"were in possession, in the twelfth century, of the greater part of
the district of Cowal, from Toward Point to Strachur. The La-
monds were separated from the MacEwens by the River Kil-
finnan, and the MacEwens from the MacLachlans by the stream
which divides the parishes of Kilfinnan and Strath Lachlan. The
MacNeills took possession of the islands of Barra and Gigha."
(Keltie, 2 History of the Highland Clans.)

"McEwen I of Otter, the earliest chief of the clan of whom
there is mention, flourished about 1200," MacEwen says. About
their maximum strength, apparently, "the MacEwens possessed
a tract of country about twenty-five miles square, and could
probably bring out 200 fighting men." Being in the Argyll ter-
ritory the MacEwens supported the local claimant to the right
of government as against the king who claimed the country more
generally; but in 1222 Alexander I reduced the Argyll country
to his domain, inflicting great losses upon the McEwens. In
that struggles they suffered so severely that only "a remnant
survived under their own chief of Otter, on the shores of Loch
Fyne, where the last chief died two and one-half centuries after-
ward." Thereupon, that is "after the middle of the fifteenth
century, the barony and estate of Otter passed and gave title to
a branch of the Campbells, and the MacEwens became more
than ever 'children of the mist.' "

Upon this dispersion of the clan some remained with the
Campbells, then strong in Argyll, others going into Lome, and
"some of the latter are said to have settled in Lochaber;" and
"some, no doubt, allied themselves to other wrestern clans, for
the name was common at one time in the Western Highlands and
Islands, especially in Skye. Other colonies were formed in the
Lenox country, in Dumbarton and in Galloway."

After the dispersion, according to Lovat Fraser, The High-
land Chief, in The Celtic Monthly, some MacEwens became the
hereditary bards to the Campbells ; and MacEwen in his history
of the Clan Ewen says that "from old chronicles it appears that
there were other McEwen poets and bards in other parts of the
country." These poets, or "bards seanachies, were important
functionaries and officers in the Celtic system, and the most
learned men in the clan. . . . They combined, in their own
persons, the office of poetlaureate, genealogist, and herald of

92 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

arms. They were educated in the science of genealogy, and their
work was preserved in the form of rhymes. These they recited
on important occasions ; just as Herald of the College of Arms,
in the present day, recites the titles of distinguished persons at
great public functions." (See also J. F. Campbell, Tales of the
Western^ Highlands; and Rev. MacNicol, Remarks on Dr. Samuel
Johnson s Journey to the Highlands (1779).

Frank Adam, in What is my Tartan? or, the Clans of Scot-
land with their Septs and Dependents (Edinb. and London, 1896),
gives Ewen, Ewan, Ewing as the forms of the name indicating
the descendants of the MacEwen or MacEwan, and the latter as
septs and dependents of the MacLachlan and also the McNeill
clans. He gives his reason for this: "The Clan Ezven, whose
ancient seat was at Otter, Loch Fyne, has, as a clan, become ex-
tinct. As, however, the above clan sprang from the Siol Gille-
vray, from whom the Clan Neill and Clan Lachlan also derived
their origin, I have ranged the MacEwens, Ewens, etc., under the
MacNeills and the Maclachlans."

Now, so far as the MacEwens of Otter and their descendants
are concerned, I have no quarrel with MacEwen, Adam and those
who give the origin and descent of the Highland Gaelic or Dal-
riada Scots family. The error into which these Highland pro-
tagonists have fallen is the failure to distingush the Ewens,
Ewins, Ewings of the Cymric Briton stock ; and whose existence
and Cymric pedigree, as we have seen in other parts
of these studies, is as historical and as certain as are those of
the Otter family. Such writers seem to reason thus : Upon the
dispersion of the Clan MacEwen about 1470 some changed the
name to Ewing, — therefore all Ewings are descendants of the
immigrant MacEwens. Their conclusion might follow were it
not true that in those neighborhoods where some dispersed Mc-
Ewens located, there were Etvings long established before the
MacEwen immigrants reached the new locations. These writers
make the mistake of forgetting the Cymric Ewings. They ap-
pear to have known nothing of King Ewen of Strathclyde or of
the other evidence regarding the Briton stock; and, relying upon
Macbain, McEwen appears to have been under the delusion that
the Celts of Strathclyde were of Scots origin.

DISTINGUISHED FROM MC EWEXS 93

It may be that some Ewings were descendants of the Mac-
Ewens and that it was these whom MacEwen and Adam had in
mind ; but they have certainly misled many by the failure to men-
tion the fact that Ewens or Ewings of the Cymric family were
along the shores of Lomond and in the Lenox country and in
parts of Argyll country, strong in the bolder Highlands, in fact,
before the Otter family dispersed. It is striking, however, that
such writers give no specific evidence which proves that any
Ewing family are descendants of the Otter MacEwens. But if
there be such who claim to be so descended, I shall not question
that claim. I insist, however, that from that fact it must not be
argued that all Ewings are so descended.

But, in fact, I know of no satisfactory evidence which shows
that any Ewing, who can trace with reasonable certainty descent
from an ancient Scotch clan, descended from the MacEwens.
MacEwen fails to bring forward a single instance, as I have said.
He was attempting to write the history of Clan Ewen, too, on the
theory that "the Ewens or Ewings of Craigtown [whose arms
we show and discuss] and Keppoch, of Glasgow, Leven-
field, Billikinrain, &c," the Ewings generally, in fact, are de-
scendants of the Otter clan Ewen. Hence he must have used
all the evidence at his command; he was a barrister (lawyer) in
one of the Scots courts and knew the value of evidence. Here
is the nearest he reaches the Ewing part of his subject:

"A considerable sept of the clan (MacEwen or Otter) set-
tled early in Dumbartonshire, on the shores of Loch Lomond,
and in the Lennox country. . . . The Lenox sept received
grants of land in the district to which they gave their name. Be-
tween 1625 and 1680 there are at least four charters in which
successive dukes of Lennox and Richmond are served heirs in
the lands of 'McKewin' and 'McEwin,' as the name was then
written." He cites Report on the Public Records of Scotland as
authority. He finds that tradition places the MacEwens on the
Lennox fighting for Queen Mary in 1568. In every instance
cited by him, in reference to lands or otherwise, the name has
the mac to it. He cites Guthrie Smith, History of Strathen-
drick, to show that the duke of Lennox granted "William Mac-
ewin" the land at Glenboig. "In 1691 the proprietor was," says
Smith, "James McAlne, called in 1698 James Macewen." How-

94 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

ever, a family of Williamsons, says Smith, "appear to have suc-
ceeded the Macewens of Glenhoig. The greater part of the lands
of Western Glenboig was afterwards acquired by Napier of
Billikinrain. But in 1796 there was a William MacEwan of
Glenboig, writer in Edinburgh, who received a grant of arms at
that date from the Lyon office. Netherton, the other division of
the estate, is (1S80) farmed by Mr. James Ewing (another form
of the name), who belongs to a family who have long been ten-
ants there."

The parenthesis in the above quotation is McEwen's inter-
polation of Smith's statement; certainly not justified by what
Smith says. The lands had passed from the MacEwen family,
and it does not follow that, long years afterward, because a tenant
upon these lands bore the name Ewing he was a descendant of
the earlier owner. But if we grant that this tenant was a de-
scendant of the distant landlord MacEwen, the instance furnishes
the sole specific case cited by MacEwen. He does not give, either,
a single Ewing tradition that the Ewings are the descendants of
the MacEwens.

Now, then, we see that the earliest date at which McEwen
gets any MacEwens into the Lowland section is 1568, as given
by tradition. Against that tradition the record left by Workman
shows E-w-i-n-g of the Dumbarton (near the Lennox) section so
well established that there was a family coat of arms under that
spelling of the name before 1565. (See the illustration from
Workman.) In 1722 Nisbet shows these same arms — yet
E-w-i-n-g arms, bearing a motto which long years before — over
seven hundred, in fact — was used possibly upon the
standard carried by the warriors of the Ewing fam-
ily when brigaded with their kindred admitted to be
of the Cymric stock, Lowlanders. On the other hand,
when the McEwen arms later appear they are clearly
not founded upon the older Ewing arms ; and they take a motto,
the earlier, "Pervicax recti," the later, "Reviresco," both sug-
gestive of the history of the Highland family, and each entirely
different from "Audaciter," the motto of our family. It is true
that mottoes are not regarded as exclusive and as much property
as coats of arms, and that they are not necessarily of a hereditary
nature. Yet they are important, and when it is known that they

DISTINGUISHED FROM MC EWENS 95

have been used by ancient ancestors, their evidencial value is
great. McEwen finds that the earliest records show that between
1625 and 1680 there were four Lennox charters involving the
lands of "MacKewen'' and "McEwin." As against this the old
Ewing arms were recorded upon the gravestone of a E-w-i-n-g
in Bonhill churchyard in 1600. It must have been about this date
when the relation was buried upon whose gravestone on the banks
of Loch Lomond Bishop Ewing years later saw the Ewing "fam-
ily coat of arms." Then, as we have also seen, the Scotland Privy
Council Register discloses Ewings residing in Aberdeen in 1574,
far from the Otter McEwens, in the very heart of the Lowlands,
and that in 1575 James Ewing was burgess of that city. He must
have been there for many years before. Then again, in 1592
Alexander Ewing was burgess of that city. And so on and on
the record evidence sustains our tradition that we are from a clan
distinct from the Otter McEwen clan.

Other Ewing families than those for whom I write can draw
their own conclusions, guided by such traditions as each may have.

It is interesting, therefore, in this connection to remember
by what rule McEwen attempted to argue that the Ewings were
descendants of the Otter Clan Ewen. Here it is :

"Where the name is of clan origin and still common in the
clan territory, and where septs or families can be traced by tradi-
tion or otherwise from the original home to other localities where
the name is found, while the other names common to those local-
ities are different — in both these cases there is a prima facie
presumption that the name has been handed down from the orig-
inal source and that those who bear it are the descendants and
representatives, remotely, no doubt, of the immigrant clansmen."

But what when before the immigrants reached the new home
there were others there bearing a very similar name, yet a name
with clearly distinguishing parts, and when on down for hundreds
of years families lived there bearing the similar yet clearly dis-
tinguished name? And, too, while others continued to and yet
bear the immigrant name?

This very rule sustains my contention regarding the descent
of my family from the Cymric stock. The evidence shows that
when the immigrants from the Otter clan reached the border
Highlands and the Lennox country they settled in communities

96 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

where first Ewin and then Ewing had already become a clan name,
and the name of a large and widely dispersed family. The an-
cestor of those Highland immigrants, let us remember, was Alain,
who died in 1047. It must have been about 1100 before his de-
scendant Ewen, the first Ewen, the earliest of the Highland fam-
ily bearing any form of the family name, began to establish the
distinctive family who became the Highlai d clan — a clan which
had no chief before 1200. Then more and more we
see much besides the Gaelic Highland side of the story when we
remember that Eugein also ruled in Dumbarton long years before
Ewen of Otter was born — Eugein being the Latin form of Ewin.
Or again, we recall that "Ewin defended the kine of his father"
along the shores of picturesque Loch Lomond even before the
royal bearers of our name sat upon the Strathclyde throne. Hun-
dreds of years, yet again, before the MacEwens of Otter had a
clan name — in fact, more than five hundred years before that
time — Kentigern, the great Strathclyde preacher, and whose
father was Prince Ewen, a Lowlander by blood and birth, built
his sanctuarry beside the clear waters of the Molindinar, almost
exactly where historic Glasgow Cathedral now stands.

So that the rule, by the too narrow application of which the
MacEwen claimants have gotten into error, aids in establishing
my contention ; that is, applying the rule, we find :

The name Ewing is of clan origin (the clan government hav-
ing once maintained in both the Lowlands and the Highlands)
and today yet common in the home of the Briton Ewings.
"Where the name is of clan origin and still common in the clan
territory . . . there is a prima facie presumption that the name
has been handed down from the original source." Hence as to
our Ewings the prima facie presumption is that we are descended
and that our name has come to us from the Brythonic Ewen, Ewin
and then Ewing, a name still common in the clan territory of the
Lowlands, particularly in the Sterling Castle and Lomond region,
where our Cymric Ewing ancestors lived and the family existed
hundreds of years before the Gaelic clan of the Highlands.

When to this very clear prima facie presumption we add the
tradition that we are of Lowland and not of Dalriadic or Gaelic
ancestry, the conclusion that we are descended from the
Cymric, close kin to the old Welsh stock, becomes a matter of
creditable history.

IX.
ORIGIN OF THE EWING NAME.

This story of our clan origin considered in connection with
the Gaelic Highland records, is all the light we have regarding;
the origin of our family name. That evidence leads to the con-
clusion that the name of the Glasgow-Loch Lomond Ewing clan,
or family from which the Ewings here considered descended, is-
of Cymric Lowland origin. It is clear, in my opinion, that those
who hold to the Gaelic origin overlook the Cymric evidence, cer-
tainly as to our family, it is worth repeating for emphasis. ( >f
course it must not be forgotten that, as has been said, there are
Ewings who are Scotch or of Scotch ancestry who are not de-
scended from our ancient Scotch ancestors. For them, certainly,
I do not attempt to speak.

In 1919 a very intelligent genealogist of the Hon. Thomas
Ewing family gave me the following :

"My 'Ewing' line is from Scotland by way of Ireland. The
name is, in the case of my line (and I think likely in that of all
Ewings) from the Gaelic 'EOGHAN' (the 'GH' is a 'H' in
sound, as in Meagher, sounded Maher ; Daugherty sounded
Doherty, &c), spelt phonetically EUEN. EWEN, EWIN,
EWAN, YOUEN, &c. The 'g' in Ewing was an addition made
in the spelling of the name by those of English speech, if not race.
This because in pronouncing the name they give the final n' a 'ng*
or nasal sound. Thus did they with Waring from Warin, Huling
from Hulin, &c."

This, it is very clear to me, is a representative error as to-
the descent of the Hon. Thomas Ewing branch ; and as he lie-
longed to our family, it is error as to the rest of those of whom
I write. While, as has been said, some of the descendants of the
Gaelic Eoghan ancestors either through the McEwen of Otter
or otherwise, may now be known as Ewings, yet the history of
the Cymric Ewing ancestors proves that the greater number of
Ewings are of the Lowland origin and from that source brought
with them the name. This, I am firmly convinced, is true of
many of the Ewings of the western portions of Scotland, whose
ancestors at a very early day drifted out from the Cymric family

98 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

in the Glasgow Lomond community, as it is of our Glasgow-
Lomond ancestors.

Spooner, who has given us an extensive study of the his-
toric families of America, we again may notice in this connec-
tion, says :

"Of Celtic derivation, the surname Ewing is found at an
early period in the western portions of Scotland — in Glasgow
and in the neighborhood of Loch Lomond ... It is found
associated as tribal surname with the Colquhouns, usually written
Calhoun in the United States. An English writer on surnames
puts it among the earliest Saxon names ending in -ing, as Hard-
ing, Browning, etc. It may be of Danish rather than Saxon
origin, as it is still common in Norway, one of the recruiting
grounds of the so-called Danes of early English history, and es-
pecially as its early location was in the western part of Scotland,
which was long subject to the raids of the Danish sea-kings."

McEwen, the Scotch genealogist of the McEwens, says :

"The name Ewen (Ewing) is a distinctive, ancient, and not
very common name, derived from the Gaelic Eoghan, meaning
'kind natured' (Latin Eugenius)."

Eugenius may be a Latin equivalent of Ewen ; but it is, as
we have seen, at least a fact that in the Latin list of the Gaelic
Kings the spelling Ewen is used.

But the great trouble with the effort to link all Ewings with
the Gaelic origin of a name similar to ours, is that about the time
of the Gaelic kings of the Ewen name and long before the name
in the Highlands distinguished any family or clan, the name ex-
isted in the Lowland Cymric country and was borne by those of
the Cymric stock. Borne by those of that Lowland stock, the
name existed hundreds of years before the coming of the Danes.
Since it was the custom of the invading Teutons, including the
Danes, "to adopt the name of the Celtic tribe they displaced,"
as Shane (Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race, 302) and other au-
thorities tell us, if the name be common in the European home of
the Danes, it is not at all impossible that it was carried there
from Scotland.

McEwen, unable to explain some facts which appear not to
have been fully investigated, qualified somewhat his all too
sweeping conclusion, by adding :

"The name is distinctly of Gaelic and clan origin, and except

ORIGIN OF THE EWING NAME 99

where particular family histories and other evidence point to a
different conclusion, persons bearing the name and traceable to
the localities known to have been occupied by the early clan, its
septs and descendants, are of the same race and probably sprung
from the McEwins of Otter. In the Lowland districts the blood
has mixed largely with that of the Lowland inhabitants."

Our Ewings are "traceable to the localities known to have
been occupied by the early clan'' known as Ewing long before
the Otter McEwens had a clan existence ; and so measured by
McEwen own rule, we do not get our family name from the
Otter clan. Hence as to us "other evidence" points a conclusion
different from his. For the same reason, among others, nothing
warrants that too broad assertion that the widely scattered and
long numerous Ewings of "the Lowland districts" are explained
by the Otter blood mixing "largely with that of the Lowland in-
habitants." As I have shown, our Ewing ancestors were numer-
ous in the Lowlands and in the Glasgow Loch Lomond region
before the first Otter McEwen existed. Ewin, certainly, was a
Lowland name long before 1047. Ewin, father of Bishop
Kentigern, lived nearly 600 years earlier — and it was in 1047
that Aodha Alain died ; and Barrister McEwen, his expounder and
the authorities upon which they rely say that Alain was the grand-
father of Ewen, the ancestor of the McEwens of Otter.

Hence, the evidence, an epitome of which I have given as
ground of my conclusion, leads me to conclude that our name, as
well as that of the clan, is of Cymric Lowland origin, and so I
concur, certainly as to our family, with those authorities who
hold that the surname Ewing is among the earliest Saxonized
names ending in g. It is, therefore, a Celtic name Teutonized.
Ewin, the father; Ewing, the son. The g of the name is an im-
portant part of the evidence of its Briton origin. It was the Cym-
ric Britons, not the Highlanders, who were earliest Anglo-Sax-
ized. Eoghan of the Highlands became McEwen. Eoghan, Ewen,
the father ; McEwen, the son. Eoghan, Ewen, McEwen, Gaelic
(Macbain's note to p. 251 of Skene's Highlanders) ; Engenius,
Urien, Owen, Ewene, Euin, Ewin, meaning "well born" quite as
much in the Cymric, Celtic Briton, and have the same meaning in
the Cymric tongue as Eogan (or Eoghan) in the Gaelic. (Id.)
So as a result of the contact by the Saxons and Angles with the

65778

100 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Celts of the Lowlands, a sketch of which has been given that we
may better appreciate this fact, we have the present form of our
surname — the Highlands having escaped almost to this day that
Saxon-Angle influence.

Another important fact of history that we may consider in
this connection is that the Ewings of Scotland were of the Cove-
nanter faith. From that source our family during its earlier
days in America got its Presbyterian proclivities. It is quite
probable that most Ewings of our branches are Presbyterians yet ;
though many, for reasons discussed in my Pioneer Gateway of
the Cumberlands (manuscript at writing this), in later years
very devoutly have become identified with other churches. As
far as I have been able to discover, from the very earliest days
of the "Solemn League and Covenant for the Defense and Re-
form of Religion" against popery and prelacy, in the midst of its
great fight from 1G38 to 1643, our people gave it support without
stint, and now and then at the price of life. Earlier they were
what would now be called Protestants ; and, true to the family
traditions, those near Londonderry at the time of its heroic and
epochal defense, joined the fighting Protestant ranks or other-
wise supported the Protestant movement. Some recent English
writers say :

"It is a significant fact that this Strathclyde region was the
stronghold, or, as it might be otherwise put, the hotbed, of the
Covenantry movement. . . . This Strathclyde region is even now
(1907) the greatest stronghold of dissent (against the established
and the Roman Catholic Churches). Proportionately to its inhabi-
tants dissent is a good deal more powerfully represented in Glas-
gow than in the eastern capital" (Edinburgh).

It is true that some of the Ewings adhered, with disastrous
results, to the cause of Prince Charles Edward Stuart which
terminated at fatal Culloden April 27, 174fi. That Charles, we
know, was a Catholic ; but he was a Scotchman and, from the
Scotch standpoint, the rightful heir to the throne. The compara-
tively few Ewings who did join his standard, like heroic Flora
McDonald, who aided him to escape, finally landing her in Lon-
don Tower, and thence by happy fate an exile to America, were
actuated rather by motives of patriotism than by sentiments of
religion. But our direct ancestors, as we have said, then had long
"been out of Scotland.

OUR RACIAL CHARACTERISTICS— BORDER-
HIGHLAND HOME AND NEIGHBORS.

Intermarriages by our Celtic Ewing fathers with the Teu-
tonic blood during the two hundred years since our ancestors
left Scotland, have steadily tended to augment our inheritance
from the Saxon and the Angle and the Norman. Yet the char-
acteristics of the early Celtic stock cling tenanciously to us. In
physical and mental and moral expressions those characteristics
appear here or there now and again in accentuated form ; while
in some members of the family they are to be found only after
closer inspection ; yet in no generation are the Celtic qualities lost
and from no normal member of our family in America, descended
from the old Lomond and Glasgow clan, are they entirely absent.

There was, of course, on the part of the invading Saxon
and his kindred tribes, lack of proper appreciation of the Celt
and vice versa. As we go back we find this antipathy increasing
until it reaches the blood-feud of the earliest hostilities. One of
the keenest observers of things and conditions in general, who
knew intimately the Highlanders north and the Lowlanders
south, was our distant kinsman, Bishop Alexander Ewing, bishop
of Argyll and the Isles. Learned, full of great energy, long a
resident in Italy, he traveled on the continent and knew racial
qualities. Born in the north Lowlands, in his prime he returned
to the old Ewing paternal shores of Loch Lomond, in the border
Highlands, to spend in Christian uplift his most vigorous days.
Having this race antagonism in mind, he once said :

"It is the fashion to disparage the Celtic race. I cannot
think it a just disparagement. As a race, they were once as
advanced, or more so, than any other, and still they retain marks
of high distinction."

In 1852 famine threatened the Highlands with the most dire
calamities. The crops had failed ; the importation of sufficient
food was, under existing conditions, apparently impossible. As
she has since the outbreak of the world war, America then had
not learned that she can feed the world. Organizations, back

101

102 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

when that famine menaced the Highlands, were formed to en-
courage and aid emigration as a stern measure to save life and
to perpetuate the Gaelic race. Bishop Ewing was profoundly
moved by the sufferings of his people — as large numbers of his
church were of the old Celtic Highland stock, and in his day yet
spoke Gaelic, though the bishop spoke the English of the Low-
lands. He was deeply grieved because expatriation appeared to
be the only remedy. But he faced the situation bravely and
preached in advocacy of the removal of as many as possible.
In one discourse, having particularly in mind the Celtic people of
the Highlands, he said :

"If they have not the Saxon strength, they have other virtues.
From the highest to the lowest, this long-descended people have,
by nature, what is called 'the next thing to Christian grace' — the
grace of born gentlemen, with all the virtues signified by the word.
If they have not the stern vigor of the oak, they have the elastic
qualities of the ash. ... In leaving the Celts to perish, we
should lose a fine element in our humanity. Our nature would
not be what it is without the admixture of Celtic blood."

It is worth notice that Bishop Ewing recognized that he and
the people of the border Highlands and of the Highlands gen-
erally were an "admixture."

Again Bishop Ewing refers to this same people as that "long
descended race, that loyal and patient people ;" and correctly
tells us that another characteristic is that they "are a religious,
reverential people — a people of deep piety."

At another time, and having more in mind the work among
the Scots and the Picts, the Highland Gaels, by the great preacher
Columba and the far-reaching missionary labor which Columba
directed from his wonderful school at Iona, one of the islands
of Argyllshire, which island Columba first visited in 563 A. D.,
Bishop Ewing, bewailing the decline of the Highland stock, said :

"Few of them, however, uneducated or unaccustomed to
society, are without self-respect and that unselfish bearing which
makes the gentleman ; and this distinction of the Gael, were there
no other, is one, we think, which should go far with us not to
allow the race to perish from among us.

"It is a noble race, even in its decline. It is a people who
deserve to be cherished. By and by we shall seek, but we shall

HIGHLAND NEIGHBORS 103

not find them ; and the place which now knows them shall know
them no more forever. 'Che till ma tuille' is heard in every glen.
If 'Fuimus' is now their motto, time was when it was not so —
when England and Europe owed their regeneration to Celtic
missionaries, when the life and energy now characteristic of the
Anglo-Saxon was characteristic of the Celt, and civilization and
religion themselves were all but restored to Europe from Iona."

What Bishop Ewing says of the virtues and born graces
of the Northern Celt is also true of the southern or Lowland Celt.

In his history of the sources of modern poetry, Veitch says
that if we wish "to see the first outwellings of that romance which
has raised us above self and commonplace and conventionalism,
which has influenced English poetry from Chaucer to Tennyson,
we must go back to the Cymric people who loom so dimly in the
dawn of our history." (John Veitch, LL. D., The History and
Poetry of the Scottish Border, 177.)

So that, whether our earlier Celtic ancestors were Gaels or
Cymry, or other Britons, or an "admixture," — we have the most
desirable, the most noble, and the most pleasing racial inheritance.

Over and again old people who knew intimately one or
another of our earlier American ancestors have said in writing
to me : "He had the grace of a born gentleman, and the highest
integrity," — in part our Celtic inheritance.

With this merest glimpse at our racial qualities, let us see
our neighbors before our ancestors left Scotland.

Of those neighbors, the Grahams, who were just east of
Loch Lomond and north of the Buchanans, are among the older
in family ancestry. There is a story that the Grahams descended
from a warrior "who breached the Roman wall in 420" A. D.
However, the origin of the name, Scotch authors tell us, "is
involved in obscurity and fable." But "the first authentic ap-
pearance of the name was about 1143 or '47."

The Colquhouns (Calhouns), who bore to us a tribal rela-
tion, some Scotch authors say, occupied the lands on the west
center of Loch Lomond. It is said by reliable authority that an
early surname Calquhoun was Kilpatrick, and that the former
name attached to the clan because it acquired the Dumbarton-
shire lands known as Colquhoun between 1214 and 1249. "The
adoption of surnames from lands successively acquired was a

104 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

common practice in the time of King Alexander II (1214 to
1249), when surnames were less fixed than they came to be in
later times." (William Fraser, The Chief of the Calquhouns
and Their Country, Edinburgh, 1869, p. 1. )

The Macfarlanes were on the northwestern shores of Loch
Lomond. It is said they descended from the ancient Celtic earls
of the Lennox or Lowland district. "The remote ancestor of
this clan is said to have been Duncan Mac Gilchrist, a younger
brother of Malduin, Earl of Lennox." It was after 1296 that
from the Gaelic Parian "the p and f being easily convertible in
Gaelic," the name became Farlan and then McFarlane.

On the east of the Loch were the Buchanans. This was
another Stirlingshire family ; and the name came from the lands
it acquired "toward the middle of the thirteenth century."

The McDougalls, with whom part of our clan came in un-
friendly contact, at one time dwelt on the ocean, just opposite
the northern end of Lock Awe. Glencoe, also mentioned in the
Ewing annals, another historic spot, is ten or twelve miles north
of the north end of Awe, by the way. The McDougals trace
this descent from Somerled of the Isles who died in 1164, and
his son Dougal is said to have been the first of the name. Any-
way, the present clan name is not older than 1164, if so old.

In this connection it is interesting to notice the age of other
Highland clan names. The Campbells, long the most powerful
clan in Scotland, "rose upon the ruins of the McDonalds, and
their whole policy for ages, says a writer, was to supplant and
ruin that race."

"The county of Argyll was for ages, and is still to a con-
siderable extent, inhabited by this great clan." In 1701 one of
the Campbells was made duke of Argyll. The first charter to
lands in Argyll, however, was granted by King Robert Bruce in
1316, and "the name is therein written Campbcl." From that
date "the clan gradually increased in power, till, by conquest and
marriage, it became the most influencial in the kingdom," says a
Scotch authority. It is this clan, it is interesting to note, whose
clan pipe music is "Baile Ionaraora," the famous march which
in English is "The Campbells are Coming."

There were three or more branches of the Camerons ; and it
is very interesting that the Camerons of Erracht claim descent

HIGHLAND NEIGHBORS 105

from "Ewen, thirteenth chief of Lochiel, by his second wife,
Marjory Macintosh. The family were known locally as Sliochd
Eoghainn' ic Eoghainn, or 'the children of Ewen the son of
Ewen.' " So that we know that at least one of the prominent
Gaelic Ewens founded a family the family name of which,
Cameron, is just as unlike his and ours as can be. And it is
historically certain that our Ewings are not descendants of Clan
Cameron.

Another well-known Highland name is Douglas. We recall
the story of a descendant, the Earl Douglas, who by marriage
became also the Earl of Mar, who contested the succession to the
Scottish crown with Robert II. Yet the first "record of this
name is William Douglas, the name being derived from the wild
pastoral dale he possessed. He appears as a witness to a charter
between 1175 and 1213."

"The royal Stuarts, which in Gaelic is Stiubhard, derived
their family name from the office of 'Lord High Steward of
Scotland,' which they held for nearly two centuries before they
came to the throne." "The first progenitor of this gallant and
royal race," says a Scotch authority, "was a Norman, Allan."
His son Walter obtained lands in Scotland in the twelfth century ;
and Malcolm IV made the office of High Steward hereditary in
the Allan family, which became Stuarts two hundred years later.

Some of the Argyll Ewings, we have elsewhere seen,
e-poused the claims of Prince Charles Edward Stuart in 1745 ;
but our American ancestors had been out of Scotland two or
three or more generations before that time.

MacNeil was the name of another Argyll clan. "The name
McNeil first appears in a charter by Robert I" to John, son of
Gilbert McNeil ; "but the oldest charter to the name is for the
Isle of Barra" and is dated 1427. This charter was "granted to
Gilleonon, son of Roderick, son of Murchard, son of Neil." So
that this family name by several hundred years is not as old as
the name Ewin, which corresponds in the evolution of the names
to Neil, — Neil, the ancestor, McNeil, the descendant; Ewin, the
ancestor ; Eiving, the son, as we have seen.

So the great antiquity of our name as compared to those
of our fathers' Highland neighbors and to those of other dis-
tinguished Highland clans is both striking and pleasing.

106 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

The Highlands of Scotland are romantic and much of their
scenery is unsurpassed. In some respects the borders over-
looking Glasgow and embracing noble Loch Lomond are most
interesting and charming. Before our ancestors emigrated the
country was very wild. Game was abundant, and bear, wolf,
and stag led hounds and huntsmen afar over moor, through dell,
up crags, and often plunged deep into glades and mountain
jungles inaccessible to men.

Of Ben Nevis, one of the more conspicuous mountains of
the Ewing Highland neighborhood, Bishop Ewing wrote in July,
1844:

"It is a majestic and massive mountain, stony and hardlook-
ing, with green basement hills and gray upper elevations, with
patches of snow toward its summit."

Snow on old Ben Nevis in July suggests the salubrious
climate characteristic of the Highlands.

Riding from Inverouran toward Lourand, Bishop Ewing
saw a "country of fine swelling mountains, clothed in part with
oak, beech, hazel, and bracken, with bits of green grass at in-
tervals, where cattle were grazing; while waterfalls and torrents
in endless variety of width and volume were rippling or rushing
down to join the Falloch, which was flowing beneath us. The
first peep at Loch Lomond was splendid — the hills very majestic
with fine, broken, prominent and protuberant outlines, copse and
timber upon every side, and a clear, bright, glorious sky above,
and the Loch reflecting it. 'So much for Dumbartonshire,'
thought I. 'Monseigneur mon grandpere/ what could have in-
duced you to leave such a fatherland as this,' " he exclaims as he
reflected that from a section so charming, so full of life, his own
ancestor had, years before, gone to the less inviting country about
old Aberdeen in northern Lowland Scotland.

Let our cousin bishop's vivid pen give us one more picture as
he rides southward from historic Oban :

"When we left Oban we had to drive over a ridge from
which, in looking back, we had a beautiful view of the town, the
bay, and islands, not very different from multitudes of the same
kind of views we have all along the western coast ; but after
crossing a moor for a mile or two, a scene opened of quite a

HIGHLAND NEIGHBORS 107

different character, for which we were quite unprepared. Below,
on a peninsula running into Loch Etive, stood Dunstaffnage
Castle, a finer and more imposing ruin than I had imagined.
Around Loch Etive the Etive and the sea, and away in the dis-
tance, and far beyond anything of the sort I have seen in Switz-
erland, rose and towered in heaps and masses of all sizes and
colours the hills of Morven, Ben Cruachan, and the Glen Creran
Mountains, their bases covered with forests of greenwood, birch,
hazel, oak, and alder, and their higher slopes with green masses
of pine, which, however, gradually diminish to single clumps of
solitary trees ; and, above all, the mountain tops, bare, cold,
and severe. Fit country and accessories for Caledoninan
monarchs. . . ."

Then, again, here is old Ben Lomond, further away Ben
Ledi ; and southward the Clyde river, Glasgow, the furnaces of
which reminded Bishop Ewing of "a veritable Terra del Fuego ;"
then the rolling Clyde valley, and far beyond, the Perthshire
Grampians.

"Wildforest, foaming cascade, and magnificent mountains"
are not all ; the "wild birds' cry and the moan of the sullen wave"
are forgotten when one rides into some imposing old castle
grounds, roses, hollies, cedars, pinks, and in season, peaches,
pears, apples and gooseberries on either hand ; or, hurrying out
upon some moor finds there bogs, covered breast high with
heather ; and out "here paths that promise much, but in the end
lead no whether; while the lights and shadows and glorious
coloring, with hares starting out at every turn, a heron sailing
high over head, the cry of the curlew, a convoy of grouse rising
whirring on the wing," — furnish variety, life and thrill.

The locations of our neighbors north of the Highland line
are shown upon maps and their "checkered breacons or tar-
tains" — the famous Highland plaids — widely known. But there
is no mention of the Ewings upon such a map and no tartan of
our family described in any history of "the tartans of Scotland,"
at least so far as disclosed by any of the larger libraries in the
United States. Yet, as we have seen, our family was certainly
for hundreds of years a powerful factor in the border Highland-
Lowland country. These facts again suggest our Lowland

108 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

origin and that the family never became one of the Highland
clans.

The earliest accounts of the ancient Britons tell us of the
custom of painting their bodies. This, it is asserted, was to
distinguish friend from foe in the malee of battle, in other words,
"their uniform/' When progress toward a civilization discovered
weaving, "the means of identification which had been painted
upon their bodies, had to be transformed to their apparel — hence
the origin of the striped scarfs and tunics worn by different tribes ;
and hence, also, in all probability, the origin of the clan tartan."

From this custom tartans were used early in both the Low-
lands and the Highlands. However, in historic times, it is as-
serted by Scotch writers, "there seems no evidence of clan sets
having been adopted as distinguishing badges of any but a very
few and well-known Lowland families. It is to the Highlands
we must look for the systematic use of these" plaids.

"Tartan vestments" in the Highlands appear "first to have
corresponded in number to the few ancient earldoms into which
the north of Scotland was early divided — the different sets
[patterns] not being so much the distinguishing garb of particular
families as of particular districts."

But as the earls waned and the clans become powerful and
belligerent in clan interest, the clan uniform became indispensable.
The people of the Lowlands and of the Celtic-Saxon stock at an
early day discarded the clan uniform when they abandoned clan
government. Belligerency and self-assertiveness long after the
Lowland families had discarded clan govrenment made the clans
of the Highlands famous — and in the eyes of the law of 1747
infamous, for under it wearing the clan tartan was forbidden by
drastic penalties. This law was repealed in 1782 ; "but by that
time the old spirit of the clans had been lost and many of the
proud and daring Highland chieftains had died or were in exile."
"Wavcrly, or 'tis Sixty Years Since, revived the memory of the
past and summoned, as with the wand of an enchanter, the buried
chief of the '45 from their forgotten graves." The use of the
tartan revived and is much worn at this time by descendants of
the old Highland clans.

Listen ! There is the bagpipe ! Who of our race even in
America has not thrilled on catching the strains of weird and yet

HIGHLAND NEIGHBORS 109

charming bagpipe? Back through the centuries those strains
waft us, — and again we hear pipe and horn call the clans to war
or to festive reunions; and we see the bright plaids flutter around
"the sturdy figures of the blue bonnetted men." And again and
further back we see the Ewings from the border Highland-
Lowland gathering with their Cymric-Briton kindred from Wales
about the common tribal banner ! Or, adown the centuries of
normal life we find along the dashing, clear, diamond streams
men and maidens in summer reposing beneath the gracious shade
of the fine old birches and listening to the cuckoo and admiring
the many-colored woodcocks. Hollies "even more picturesque in
winter than summer," add to the charm, often "forming deep
glades of singular beauty." Yonder and yonder the hills sweep-
suddenly to the water's edge — for at least the nearby-land of our
fathers is moor and hill and mountain, stream and lake and wild
sea — and now and then the crags are of that "scarped, stony
redness which looks so well in water colour drawings," as Bishop
Ewing described them more than fifty years ago. Even in his
day Darnaway forest, one among thousands, had twenty-five dis-
tinct specimens of indigenous trees.

Along the shores of Lomond, and on the banks of the Levin
and of the Clyde, on hill and in moor, many are the changes
since our fathers set their faces toward then little-known
America ; yet the spirit of the by-gone ages hovers over the High-
lands and fills the Lowlands, — and Scotland, in many ways, one
of which is through the old, unchanged, plaintive and sweet tunes,
calls to the blood in America. With much truth Bishop Ewing
wrote :

Immortal tunes ! Immortal !

How many a man and maid,
Have brightened at your stirring strains,

Have wept when you were played,
Who now are sleeping far and wide.

Deep in the silent shade.

HO CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

But ye live on forever,

Forever fresh and new ;

Unshadowed by a touch of age,

No halt in your measure true.

Free as the breezy air of heaven,
Still rings the "Braes o' Mar,"

"King Robin loes," as erst he did,
And "Gallie Callum's War,"

"The Brig o' Perth," and "Money Musk,
Still as ye were — ye are.

XI.

OUT OF SCOTLAND AND IN IRELAND.

Many of the progenitors of the Ewings of America came to
this country directly from Ireland. They were Scotch, never-
theless.

For one or more generations these branches of our fore-
fathers sojourned in the Province of Ulster, which comprises
the northern part and about one-third of Ireland. Most of the
ancestors of the Virginia and Maryland families were born in or
near Londonderry, the capital of County Londonderry, Ulster,
Ireland. Others were born in Coleraine, or near there, the im-
portant seaport of Londonderry County ; and yet others were
born elsewhere in Ulster. Perhaps a few of our family ancestors
were born in Scotland and came to America by way of Ireland.
As are other Scotch whose ancestral footprints lead through Ire-
land, those of our ancestors who descended from the Ireland
sojourners are known as Scotch-Irish, though as a rule there was
none of the old Irish stock in their veins.

The story of the Scots settlement in Ulster is interesting and
indispensable to an understanding of the history of those days,
but the story is too long for these pages. We here but can ob-
serve that the conflict in Ireland for both civil and religious
supremacy plunged from one phase to another until the death
of Queen Elizabeth in 1G03. To no phase of the struggle is more
to be attributed than to the galling grapple between Protestantism
and Romanism. That year James I, already king of Scotland and
as James VI, ascended the English throne as the common ruler
of the two countries. As James was Catholic in sympathy, the
Irish Catholics took heart and defied the laws forbidding wor-
ship after their customs. But Parliament in 1(305 renewed a law
known as the act of supremacy, and also the law requiring at-
tendance on the Protestant church. Naturally the troubles in-
creased. Intrigue and disloyalty to the king and to the English
government spread. In 1605 two earls of Ulster, who claimed
title to the lands under the English law, were detected in plots

ill

112 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

which James regarded as seditious. They escaped to France.
James at once took advantage of this to declare the Ulster lands
escheated to the crown. The people by thousands were ejected
from these lands and in most cases forced to flee to the mountains.
Many wandered "gypsie-fashion" among the inhospitable hills ;
and such as could fled the island.

Fire, sword, starvation, "with a ferocity which surpassed
that of Alva in the Netherlands, and has seldom been exceeded
in the pages of history," were all used to exterminate the Irish.
"Not only the men," adds Lecky, "but even the women and chil-
dren who fell into the hands of the English, were deliberately
and systematically butchered." (1 History of Ireland, 5; 1
Hanna, The Scotch-Irish, 485 ; and other stand authorities.
Read the full story as Lecky gives it.)

The bodies of the dead people "lay all over the country
unburied," elucidates Woodburn (The Ulster Scot, 487), follow-
ing the original authorities. The awful story, surpassed only by
that written in blood by the Germans in the great war which
William kindled in 1914, is not only history, but it serves to make
us prouder of our Cymric Scotch.

Scotch and English Protestants were induced to accept the
escheated lands. Large numbers came. Those of them who
could bring others as tenants and make extensive improvements
were known as "undertakers," because they undertook specific
duties. A few of the Irish remained as tenants, but from that
event, known as the "Ulster Plantation," Ulster became and re-
mains largely Protestant. The Scotch "undertakers" and their
tenants from Scotland greatly outnumbered the English. Hannah
says that from 1606 to 1618 between thirty thousand and forty
thousand emigrants went from Scotland to Ulster. (1 The
Scotch Irish, 504). Those Scotch emigrants were of the best
blood, descendants of the original Celtic Lowlanders and border
Highlanders, — generally Celt interbred with Saxon. They are
sometimes maligned by early writers ; but the available evidence
establishes the fact that they were the best people of that day,
alert, virile, brave, aggressive, industrious, shrewd, intellectual,
and generally of the Covenanter Presbyterian faith ; and, meas-
ured by the standards of that day, sanely and cleanly religious.
Those colonists did "not leave Scotland until after two of its

IN IRELAND 113

famous covenants [for the perpetuation of Protestant religion]
had been signed" (C. S. Lobinger, The People's Law, 62). If
not in all cases signers of those covenants or oaths to aid in
perpetuating the Protestant faith as they held it, they were in
full sympathy with the purposes of those obligations, and sup-
ported the doctrines they embodied. Macaulay, in his History
of England, says those colonists, soon augmented many times,
"were proud of their Saxon blood and of their Protestant faith."
Among the first of those emigrants were many whose names their
descendants made famous later in America.

Some Ewings, claiming descent from our Scotch clan, were
there before the plantation movement began. Papers in the court
house in Lifford, the assize town of Donegal County, show that
in 1603 a license was issued to David Ewing of Cavan, authoriz-
ing him to plant trees, as elsewhere is seen. Aside from its inter-
est genealogically, this suggests a curious condition of govern-
mental supervision.

The new comers built towns, one of the earliest being Lon-
donderry, destined to become famous, and another Coleraine,
fostered industries, one of the most profitable of which was the
growth of flax; and prosperity rapidly rewarded their labors.

Neither those Scotch nor their immediate descendants inter-
married with the old Irish. However, upon what I regard as not
satisfactory evidence, except as showing negligible instances, it is
said that after a time the Scots "intermarried to some extent
with the native Irish, who became Protestants" (Woodburn,
The Ulster Scot, 26). As Woodburn points out, Geo. Chalmers
(1 Caledonia. 358) followed by some others, insists that many
of the Scotch who settled in Ireland during any of the plantation
period were the descendants of the Scots who had emigrated to
Argyllshire in the seventh century. "But this cannot be proved,"
"Woodburn correctly says ; and the best evidence indicates that the
Ulster Scotch blood was mainly Anglo-Briton from the northern
regions of old Strathclyde, as were the Ulster Ewings from whom
we descend. In a somewhat compromise spirit Woodburn says
that the conclusion is a safe one that the Ulster Scotch "must
have had at least as much Celtic blood as Teutonic" (The Ulster
Scot, 25) ; but, whatever the degree, the Celt in the Ulster Scot
was of the Briton Lowlands and not the Scots or Gaelic of the

114: CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Highlands. Religious beliefs, racial traits, and, above all, the
fact that the Irish had been evicted from their lands (unjustly
as measured by the higher standards of our day) kept the two
races apart. Very soon, to distinguish them from other Scotch in
Scotland, they were called Scotch-Irish, there in Ireland, mean-
ing a Scotchman living in Ireland. The designation to this day
follows their descendants, and now generally means those who
are descendants of those early Lowland Scotch who settled in
Ulster along with the other Protestants who were turned toward
Ireland by King James' "plantation" offer. As suggested by the
late Whitelaw Reid, the term Ulster Scot would be less mislead-
ing and more descriptive. However, "They are 'Scotch-Irish,'
i. e., Scotch people living upon or born upon Irish soil, but not
mixed with the native people. Their ancestors, many of whom
came to Ireland nearly two hundred and fifty years ago, were
Scotch. They came in a body, they kept in a body, and they
remain in a body, or a class by themselves, largely, to this day.
. . . They stuck together and kept aloof from the native
Celtic Irish. They were surrounded by the sharp dividing lines
of religious faith and by keen differences of race" (L. A. Mor-
rison, A. M., Among the Scotch-Irish, 38).

Presbyterians from the strenuous Covenanter days, we find
our family name upon the congregational "registers of births,
marriages, baptisms and burials," left by the oldest Presbyterian
churches of Ireland. Not all, no doubt, got into these registers ;
but enough did to make those old registers valuable aids to
Ewing genealogy. There is the old register of Derry (London-
derry) Cathedral Congregation, published as volume eleven of
the parish registers publications by the Doublin Parish Register
Society. Unfortunately several of its pages are missing. In the
Preface it is said :

"The register contains some curiosities in the way of
spelling, and the contrast between these and what is often good
handwriting shews how little importance was then attached to
oarthography."

This observation is true of other registers.

(There is some contrast today between the spelling of shew
in Ireland and show in America!)

IN IRELAND 115

Therefore, when we find our family name spelled once
Yeowen, and now and then Ewin, though as a rule Ewing, as,
for instance in the Burt register, we feel rather surprised at the
pertinacity of the Ewing spelling.

In the Derry Cathedral congregation register we find that
Frances, daughter of William Ewin, merchant, was born in Lon-
donderry December 1, 1653. William Ewin was a witness to a
marriage in 1651, not long after the register was begun. July 17,
1655, William Ewing witnessed a marriage. After "bancs"
(banns) were published three several Lord's days before the
Londonderry Congregation, Elizabeth Ewing being present, she
was married. Frances, daughter of William Ewin, was born
December 8, 1653 ; William Ewing, son of William Ewing, was
baptized May 27, 1655 ; Alexander, son of William Ewing, was
born October 3, 1656; Patrick, son of William Ewing, was born
November 11, 1657; and so on, Joshua, Nathaniel, Rachel, all
the family names are there and are repeated from generation to
generation. For instance :

John, son of Alexander Ewing and Margaret, was buried
1682. Elizabeth, daughter of John Ewine and Katherine, his
wife, was buried May, 1683.

Katherine, wife of John Ewine, was buried October, 3 684.

Martha, daughter of John Ewing and Janet, his wife, was
buried September 30, 1691.

Sarah, daughter of John Ewing and Jenitt, his wife, was
buried October 17, 1693.

John, son of Elizabeth Ewing, widow, was buried July, 1695.

James, son of John Ewing and Jenitt, was buried April,
1697.

William Ewine and Agnes Anderson were married Octo-
ber, 1683.

William, son of John Porter and Margaret, his wife, was
buried November, 1683.

William Ewine and Agnes Anderson were married Novem-
ber, 1683.

Jane, the wife of William Ewing, "Serjent," was "bird"
July 13, 1701.

Mary, daughter of Humphrey Ewing, is mentioned.

"Mr. Samuel Ewing was 'bired' August 3, 1771."

116 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

James, son of Joshua Ewin and wife, May, was buried
October, 1703.

John, son of John Ewin and wife, Jenatt,1 was buried
March, 1700.

Robert, son of Alexander Ewing, was born 1654.

Nathaniel Ewing was born 1681. Nathaniel, son of Samuel
Ewing and Katherine, was buried December, 1691.

William, son of John and Mary Eweings, was christened in
St. Peter and St. Kevin, Dublin, August 7, 1758.

Maryanne, daughter of Richard and May Ewing, was born
1745. James Ewing in 1700 was buried at St. Catherines,
Dublin.

George Ewing was one of the church officials in Parish of
St. Andrew, Dublin, 1733-'34, as disclosed by the publications of
the Dublin Parish Register Society. Pat. Ewing was a church
warder in Dublin in 1734.

Ewing, Alexander, Elizabeth, Frances, Humphrey, Isabel!,
James, Janett, John, Joseph, Joshua, Katharine, Margaret,
Martha, Nathaniel, Patrick, Robert, Samuel, Sara, Thomas, are
all found in these old registers.

John Ewing and Isabell Nelson married November 18, 1658.

Isabell, daughter of John Ewing, was baptized January, ]658.

"John Ewing, Isabell Ewing and Katherine Hackett, gos-
sips," says the laconic record of March 25, 1664.

The Burt congregation, near Londonderry, has an old reg-
ister containing births, marriages, baptisms, and burials from
1677 to 1716. So far it has not been published. It is invaluable,
and all the more so because early records, both church and state,
are incomplete and not plentiful, Irish authorities tell me. J. W.
Kernohan, Honorable Secretary of the Presbyterian Historical
Society of Ireland, had the Ewing entries found in the old Burt
register transcribed for me, and I give them below as he sent
them. Spelling, capitalization, etc., were faithfully copied. At
the time there was no one in that section, he told me, who made
a profession of genealogical research ; and I was fortunate to get
Mr. Kernohan's intelligent cooperation. Of this old register he
wrote: "It is one of the fciv manuscript books of so early a
date. . . . There are very few printed books that would
help you."

IN IRELAND 117

Many of the persons mentioned did not live in Burt, but
near there, as the register in many cases gives the place of resi-
dence, thus, for instance: Ffawn (Fahan) ; Elah (Elagh) ;
Elaghmore, &c. That old record has the following :

Marriages.

1691 March 2 Patrick Ewing and Elizabeth Ewing.

1692 May 24, Richard Porter and Helen Ewing.
1694-'95 January 1 fhnlay Ewing and Agnas Morison.

1697 August 12 Patrick Ewing and Margaret Cocheran.

1698 November 22 Daniel Smith and Kathren Ewing.
KOI September 4 John Ewing and Janet Micklevenny.
1704 March 30 Robert Porter and Jean Ewing.

1704 October 19 William Ewing and Janet Culbert.
17 00 April 28 James Desart and Elizabeth Ewing.
1709 August 11 John Ewing and Anna Craige.
1709 December 15 George Ewing and Elinor Gibson.
1711 July 3 Samuel Ewing and Mary Thompson.
1714 November 25 Mr. Joshua Ewing and Mrs. Sarah Ferguson.

Baptisms.

1677 April 8 Jean daughter to ffinlay Ewing.

1678 Appryle 10 Finly Ewing in Inch had a child baptized called

Jean.

1680 April 10 William son to Finly Ewing in Inch.

1681 May 10 James son to Finly Ewing (Inch).

1690 October 10 Thomas son to ffinlay Yowen in ffaan [Fahan].
1692/93 January 15 Robert son to ffinlay Ewing in ffawn.

father's name child's name

1691/95 February 21 ffinlay Ewing (ffawn), Mary.
1695/96 March 12 ffinlay Ewing, junr. (ffawn), Jean.
1699/1700 March 20 Finlay Ewing, junr. (ffawn), not given.
1701/'02 March 18 Finlay Ewing, junr. (ffawn), not given.
1678, March 26. Margaret daughter to Robert Ewing.
1678, November 17, Elizabeth daughter to Robert Ewing (Elaugh

Begg), that is, Elagh Beg.
1679/80 January 18, Alexander son to Robert Ewing (Elaugh

Beg).
1693 May 17 Mary daughter to Robert Ewing in Inch.
1701 June 22 Robert Ewing (Inch) had Ja: [baptized].
1703 November 14 Robert Ewing, . . . James.

118 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

1704: April 27 Robert Ewing (Inch) Janet.
1709 May 15 Robert Ewing (Inch) Sarah.

1679 November 6 Mary daughter to James Ewing.

1680 June 6 John son to James Ewing.
1680/81 January 9 John son to James Ewing.
1682 October 8 Samuel son to James Ewing.

1682 October 29 James son to James Ewing (Elah) [Elagh].

1694/95 March 10 James Ewing (Elaugh) Jean.

1697 May 24 James Ewing (Inch) Esther.

1697 September 26 James Ewing (Elagh) Kathren.

1698/99 January 22 James Ewing (Inch) John.

1700 October 23 James Ewing (Elagh) Umphra.

1701 August 11 James Ewing (Inch) Henry and Samuel.

1703 September 11 James Ewing (Elaghmore) Ja:.

1704 November 5 James Ewing (Inch) Thomas.
1706 June 21 James Ewing (Elaghmore) James?
1680 September 19 Elizabeth daughter to John Ewing.
1680/81 February 6 William son to John Ewing.

1682 December 24 James son to John Ewing at Castle qrter of
Elah (Castlequarter of Elagh).

1694 July 1 Jean daughter to John Ewing in Carnshanaugh.

1703 October 14 John Ewing (Carnshanaugh) had John [bap-
tized].

1705/6 January 20 John Ewing (Carnshannagh) had Mary
[baptized].

1712/13 March 2 John Ewing (Inch) had Thomas [baptized].

1680/81 February 24 George son to William Ewing.

1682 April 2 Frances son to William Ewing.

1686/87 March 18 Kathrin daughter of William Ewing and Mary
Boggs in Tuban Currah in parish of Fawn [Tooban, adds
Kernohan].

1696 July 12 William Ewing (Carnshanagh) had Helener [bap-
tized].

1702 August 14 William Ewing (Carshanagh) had Elizabeth

[baptized].
1709-10 Mch 6 William Ewing (ffanth). "franth" here may be

Fahan or Fannet, explains Kernohan.
1712 December 23 William Ewing (Luddan) Martha [baptized].

IN IRELAND 119

1683 May 27 To James Porter and Jean Ewin in Monesse a
daughter Elizabeth [was baptized].

1686 July 18 Jean daughter of Thomas Ewing and Helen McKnit
[McNutt] in Inch.

1686 November 23 John son of Patrick Ewing and Jenat Mitchell
Moleny [Molenan]. (Doubtless in cases such as this
there should be a comma after Mitchell, Molenan being
the district.) .

1693 March 26 Sarah daughter to Patrick Ewing in Moleny.

1693 April 16 Jean to Patrick Ewing in Inch.

1694/5 March 31 Patrick Ewing (Moleny) had Josias [baptized].
1695 May 26 Patrick Ewing (Inch) had Rebekah [baptized].
1699 June 4 Patrick Ewing (Castlehill) had Sarah [baptized].
1700/1 March 2 Patrick Ewing (Castlehill) had George [bap-
tized].

1701 June 1 Patrick Ewing (Inch) had Humphrey.

1702 June 25 Patrick Ewing (Castlehill) had Joshua.
1704 August 27 Patrick Ewing (Burt) Sam:

1706 December 15 Patrick Ewing (Castlehill) James.

1709 December 25 Patrick Ewing (Castlehill) Anna.
1711/12 March 16 Patrick Ewing (Castlehill) Elizabeth.

1713 May 24 Patrick Ewing (Castlehill) Esther.

1686/7 March 18 Jenat daughter of Humphrey Ewing and Jean
Temple.

1694 July 12 William son to Umphra Ewing in ffawn.

1686/7 October 19 Widow Ell Ewing in Castlehill in Burt had

Elizabeth baptized.
1693/94 January 12 William to Alexander Ewing in Inch.

1714 May 9 Alexander Ewing (Inch) — William.

1710 October 22 George Ewing (ffanth:) Anna.

1712 August 30 George Ewing (ffanth:) Sarah.

1713 August 26 Samuel Ewing (Elaghmore) James.
Porter father's name

1701 July 26 Jo: Porter (Carowan) Rachel.

1704 May 21 James Po-rter (Moleny) Rachel and Leah.

1711 July 5 Josias Porter (Elaghmore) Rachel. [She had a

brother, James, born 1699, adds Kernohan.]

120 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Kernohan adds this note: "On page 1 you will see, 1714,
marriage of Mr. Joshua Ewing. Mistress Sarah Ferguson was
probahly the daughter of the minister of Burt Congregation, the
Rev. Andrew Ferguson. There is a public statue in Derry to a
descendant of this minister."

Under Mr. Kernohan's instructions, "a professional searcher
in Dublin," where such instruments made by residents in the
Ulster Province as for other parts of Ireland are of record, ex-
amined the records for wills and administrations of estates of the
Ewings in the district where our ancestors lived. The following
disclosures resulted :

Public Record Office.

Ewin, Ewing, etc.

Derry (Diocese of Derry) Wills:

Ew
Ew
Ew
Ew
Ew
Ew
Ew
Ew
Ew
Ew
Ew
Ew
Ew
Ew
Ew
Ew
Ew
Ew
Ew
Ew
Ew
Ew
Ew

n, John, Donagheady, 1762. Nuncupative.

ng, Alexander, Molenan, 1736.

ng, Alexander, Templemore, 1776.

ng, Anthony, Inch (Date) 1773.

ng, ats Nilly, Catherine, Templemore, 1686.

ng, Elinor, ats McNit, Inch Island, 1693.

ng, James, Faughanvale, 1791.

ng, James, Londonderry, 1799.

ng, Jane, Moness, 1770 or 1778.

ng, John, Londonderry, 1728.

ng, John, Magheryboy, 1765.

ng, John, Templemore, 1770.

ng, Margaret, Londonderry, 1730.

ng, Nathaniel, Londonderry, 1684.

ng, Robert, Donaghmore, 1765.

ng, Robert, Inch, 1795.

ng, Samuel, Londonderry, 1731.

ng, Samuel, Londonderry D., 1749.

ng, Samuel, Templemore, 1766.

ng, Samuel, Pollpatrick, 1768.

ng, Samuel, Donaghmore, 1769.

ng, Thomas, Morrille, 1785. Ennishowen.

ng, William, Mollenan, 1776.

IN IRELAND 121

Ewing, William, Termoneeny, 1783.

Derry Administration Bonds.
Ewing, Joshua, Derry, Merchant, 1728.
Ewing, Alexander, 1776.

Ewing, Robert, Carnaughan, Island of Inch, 1795.
Ewing, James, Derry, 1799.

Raphoe (Diocese of Raphoe) Wills, 1634-K58:
Ewine, James, Convoy D. IT 22, in Donegal County.
Ewing, John, Oldtown, D. 1714, in Donegal County.
Ewing, John, Whitehouse, 1734, in Donegal County.
Ewing, John, Letterkenny, 1746, in Donegal County.
Ewing, Thomas, Windehall, 1755, in Donegal County.

Protestant Householders in Londonderry Walk
in the Year 1740.
Number in list ; Townland ; Barony ; County :
70 William Ewing. Spinoge, Ennishowen, Donegal.
119 James Ewing, Carrowan, Ennishowen, Donegal.
144 Antony Ewing, Belly Carnaghan, Ennishowen, Donegal.
146 Widow Ewing, Belly Carnaghan. Ennishowen, Donegal.
149 John Ewing, Belly Carnaghan, Ennishowen, Donegal.
156 Thomas Ewing, Grange, Ennishowen, Donegal.
329 George Ewing, Churchtowne, Ennishowen, Donegal.
414 Robert Ewing, Crayhennan, Ennishowen, Donegal.
1325 Mr. Samuel Ewing, Londonderry City, Londonderry

County.
1400 Samuel Ewing. Londonderry City, Londonderry County.
1714 Humphrey, Londonderry City, Londonderry County.
1718 Patrick, Londonderry City, Londonderry County.
2552 John Ewing, Falloward, Barony of Tykeering, London-
derry County.

2566 James Ewing, Templemoyle, Barony of Tykeering, Lon-
donderry County.

2567 Alexander Ewing, Templemoyle, Barony of Tykeering,
Londonderry County.

2568 Alexander Ewing, Templemoyle, Barony of Tykeering,
Londonderry County.

The Barony is a division of the county. Any good map will
show the baronies.

122 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

" 'Ennishowan' or 'Innishowen ;' Tykeering is Tirkeeran," ex-
plains Kernohan, adding:

"Falloward and Templemoyle are in the neighborhood of the
village of Muff or Eglinton, in County Derry." He also says
such lists as this are scarce.

It is clear to my mind that from the foregoing records we
get some helpful light upon some of the Cecil County, Maryland,
ancestral Ewings. Some of my readers may be able to identify
other ancestors. Nathaniel and his half-brothers, Joshua and
others, do not certainly appear in the foregoing. In May, 1919,
Mr. Kernohan wrote me that he expected to be in Derry soon
and would then examine any church register he could find there.
"As I explained," he says, "it is difficult to get such examinations
made." I heard nothing further from him, however.

Some of our traditions are that Nathaniel and those of the
near kin who came to America were born in Coleraine, as else-
where stated. Since Kernohan was unable to locate any old
Coleraine records, it is reasonably certain that we now have only
part of the records that most concern the ancestors of our family
who reached America by way of Ireland.

XII.

OUT OF ULSTER TO AMERilA.

We are much interested next to get a glance at the conditions
which surround those of our ancestors who for a generation or
more lived in Ireland. And all the more so because, among other
things, environment has much to do with human development.

To best appreciate later conditions we take a hurried retro-
spective glance beginning with the first firm hold of the Scotch
who preceded our Ireland-born ancestors.

Following the "Plantation Confiscation," the outlawed Irish,
with few exceptions, crowded back into the haunts of the wolf
and the wild cirn. They lost no opportunity to swoop down upon
the flocks of the Scotch and scurry them away to the hills. So
the Scotch had to protect and maintain themselves by bolt, bar
and gun. To this state of foray and reprisal, during which about
the only law regulating the relations between the two social
orders and the differing cultures was that of might and stealth,
soon came stupendous questions of religion. In Scotland Presby-
ierianism had waxed bolder and stronger. This religious dissent
was not alone of a spiritual nature; it was gradually moulding a
sentiment which contributed much to constitutional government.
In 1625 Charles I appointed Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, Lord
Deputy of Ireland. The same year Laud became archbishop of
Canterberry. Wentworth and Laud jealously cooperated to sus-
tain the royal authority and to enforce conformity to the English
Church. The doctrine and practices, in many ways, of the
English Church were as objectionable to the Ulster Scotch as
was Catholicism. Thus another element of discord gradually
swelled in volume. But, on the other hand, Wentworth intro-
duced flaxseed from Holland, imported experts from France to
teach the industry, and linen making, destined to become world-
renowned, began to flourish, thus contributing to industrial bet-
terment.

The struggle in England and Scotland between the parlia-
mentary party and the absolute prerogative of the king was in

123

124 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

bitter progress. Laud raised an army in Ireland to be used in
Scotland to subdue the king's enemies, composed of Irish Cath-'
olics, because "they hated the Scotch and their religion." This
army was disbanded, never going abroad to serve. This disband-
ment was the prelude to the great uprising of native Irish in 1G41.
An historic, bloody and ferocious massacres of Protestants fol-
lowed, "attended by revolting atrocities." The story of this out-
burst of racial and religious animosity makes another sad page
in the history of that day. Many thousands were massacred.

Wars and contentions continued to fill the land until at the
beginning of 1642 we find four well-defined parties in Ireland,
each of which had control of an army. The first was composed
of the old Irish, which stood for total separation from England.
This party included those who had suffered most from the planta-
tions (i. e., the displacement of the Catholic and rebellious Irish
by Protestant Scotch and English) and from religious persecu-
tion. They were in possession of Ulster. Second came the
Anglo-Irish, or Normans, who had suffered in the same way,
though not so seriously. They stood for civil and religious lib-
erty, but in political union with England. They occupied the
central and southern parts of the country. These two parties
were both Catholic, but, from lack of union, they greatly weak-
ened their cause. Third, there were the Presbyterians and Puri-
tans, under Robert Monro in Ulster, adherents of the English
Parliamentarians and working with the Scottish Covenanters,
though most bitter enemies of the king. "They were naturally
extremely hostile toward the Catholic parties. Fourth, there were
the Normans with their stronghold in Dublin. They belonged to
the Angelican or established church, which recognized the king
of England as its head."

It is really wonderful that race prejudices and religious
beliefs all along the path of man have held such a firm and un-
relenting grip ! Even more wonderful to us Americans is the
interweave of religion and affairs of state — a condition which the
Roman Catholic church yet believes to be most desirable ; a status
which would recognize the Pope as the head and supreme dictator
both temporally and morally, with full power to do such things
as give away the islands of the whole world, as did the Pope
attempt to give Ireland to King Charles.

TO AMERICA 125

From the earliest days in Ireland as generally in Scotland
our Ewing ancestors were Covenanters. To that party they gave
not allegiance alone, but of their substance and of their toil and
of their blood.

Of course with four hostile armies in the field there was
nothing to do but to fight, and fight they did. Ulster was once
again devastated. The sage again grew over once-prosperous
farmsteads ; the wheels of industry rusted. Spear, pike and
broad-axe shimmered in the sunshine. The Irish Parliament,
following the precedent set by the English Parliament, assumed
all the functions of government ; and, of course, to back its
mandates had to throw an army into the already boiling mael-
strom. In England the parliamentary party, led by Oliver Crom-
well, defeated King Charles I, January 30, 1649, and hurried
him to an ignominious scaffbrd. The predominant English power
then declared the Prince of Wales as king. He assumed the title
of Charles II. The Scotch Presbyterians of Ireland espoused his
cause, as did most of the Irish parties. But the English Parlia-
ment refused to recognize this Charles, and sent the stern Crom-
well to Ireland to annihilate his adherents in that section.
Cromwell, a brutal fanatic, entered relentlessly upon his mission.
Reputable authorities say he slaughtered some of his prisoners,
others he enslaved. By 1650 Cromwell had cut to pieces the
chief opposition to the Parliament. In that year the Parliament
proposed the "engagement," an oath to be administered to the
people of Ulster, requiring them to support a government without
a king and a Parliament without a house of lords. Most of
the Presbyterians refused to take this oath. As a punishment
Parliament ordered the deportation of their leaders and chief
men to the south of Ireland. It is said that some Ewings of
Scotch ancestry were thus sent into Catholic Ireland. By 1652
the war in support of Charles II was ended ; "but pestilence and
famine were raging everywhere." Adherents of Charles were
hanged by the hundreds. The English Parliament declared all
Ireland escheated, "and Catholics and Protestants in many cases
suffered together ; but, on the whole, the persecution of the
Catholics was the more cruel," says a writer. Thousands were
driven from the better lands to the barren hills ; settlers from
England, adherents of Cromwell and the Parliament, were given

126 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

the richer lands ; and deadly feuds between the outlawed and the
new comers followed in the wake of more regular war. Many
of the new settlers were Cromwell's soldiers, and the cruel war
they had waged was fresh in the minds of the Ulsterites. Condi-
tions were so distressing that many, especially among those who
had served in either army, fled from Ireland, 35,000 entering the
armies "of France, Spain, Austria and Venice." "Widows and
orphans were hunted down and sent as slaves to the West
Indies." Cromwell smothered the "Rump Parliament," as the
body he had at first served is called, and thereupon the deporta-
tion movement stopped. About seven years of comparative quiet
followed, during which the Ulster Scots once more prospered.
The close of the Cromwellian period saw the end of the old tribal
social order in Ireland and left the erstwhile Celtic clansman
more of tenant peasant.

Cromwell died in 1658. Sentiments changed in those days
and fortunes were made and unmade with the uncertainty of a
fitful gust of the wind ; Charles II was again proclaimed king,
and this time with such a following that he was enabled to assume
such functions as kings in those days claimed. "Nominally
Charles was a Protestant ; at heart he was a Catholic." But he
did nothing to relieve either side in Ireland. He re-established
the Angelican Church, to which it is said that then 100,000 in
Ireland belonged ; and the Presbyterians, of whom we are told
there were 200,000, including Puritans and Nonconformists and
Independents, were required to support and recognize the estab-
lished church. Of course the 800,000 Catholics were brought
under the same regulations, but for a time with pleasant
mitigation.

James, Duke of York, Charles IPs brother, succeeded to the
English throne in 1685. As King James II he at once set about
the restoration of Catholicism. All of Protestant England, Ire-
land, and Scotland began to bestir. Protestantism was confronted
with annihilation and its adherents with the most dire penalties.
Through the king only, as conditions then existed, could either
side hope for far-reaching success. For a leader the Protestants
turned toward Holland, where William, Prince of Orange, the
nephew and son-in-law of King James, and Mary, his wife,
were living.

TO AMERICA 127

To this William and Mary the Protestants offered the Eng-
lish crown. The offer was accepted. With an army William
landed in England November 5, 1688. The Irish Catholics
espoused the cause of James, notwithstanding he fled to France
a few weeks after William landed on English shores. In England
William was accepted without serious opposition, taking the
throne as William III; but in Ireland a bloody war faced him.
The story of this war and its Catholic uprising in favor of James
is generally regarded as "the most famous chapter in Ulster
history." Jacobus is the Latin for James, and for that reason
his Irish supporters are called Jacobites ; and William's adherents
are known as Orangemen, distinctions which yet live in Ireland.
The Orangemen organized secret societies for the spread and sup-
port of Protestantism. Attempts have been made to suppress
these organizations ; but they yet exist and have spread to the
United States and to Canada.

James besought France for aid. This that country was the
more willing to give because of its strong Catholic adherence.
Some help was given him by the French king, Louis XIV ; and
in March, 1689, James landed in Ireland with a small French
army. With the native Irish Catholics in his ranks, he expected
to smash all opposition ; and then to lead his augmented and con-
quering forces into England.

Londonderry, a fortified town on the bank of the Foyle,
built and yet occupied by the Scotch Protestants, was the strong-
est position held by the friends of William and Mary. James
lost no time in leading his men against it. Among its Protestant
defenders were the Ewings, though probably not enrolled with
the troops ; and a John Ewing was one of its officials. The
Protestants closed the gates of this small and rudely walled town,
and sent defiance to the oncoming enemy. Finding he could not
take the place by storm, James (through his generals) set about
beseiging it, resulting in a seige which is in many ways "one of
the most famous in English or Irish history," as a recent writer
estimates it. As the coming of James was unexpected, no prep-
aration for a seige had been made, and only the most dauntless
and determined would have undertaken the defense. As James'
army approached, large numbers of Protestants from the sur-
rounding country hurried into Londonderry — Derry, as it is often

128 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

called — so that the walls and fortifications were soon dangerously
crowded. The food supplies were soon exhausted. Mules and
other non-edible animals were devoured by the suffering beseiged.
Disease added its terror. Yet men, women and children exhibited
the greatest courage.

Unable to take the place by storm, the leaders of the Irish
Catholic army resorted to a most brutal plan by which they hoped
to break the resistance of the city. They gathered hundreds,
some writers tell us thousands, of children, women and old men,
and drove them, all Protestants, shelterless arid foodless, under
the walls of Derry, giving notice that they would be left to starve
there unless the city surrendered. "This fiendish device failed.
The victims exhorted the defenders to stand firm, and instant
death was proclaimed for any one uttering the word surrender."
"Many a man saw his aged father and mother forced up to the
walls by the soldiers at the point of the pike and was powerless
to help" (Woodburn, The Ulster Scot, 157). Fortunately the
defenders of the town had captured some of the important men
of the Jacobites. Preparations were made to hang these on the
walls of the town in full sight of the Catholic army, unless the
dying men and women and children without the city should be
permitted to return home at once. This threat produced the
hoped-for result ; but not before many Protestants died of ex-
posure, disease and hunger. The sufferings of those victims were
intense ; and all the details of the harrowing story have never
been recorded. It is claimed by some pro-Catholic writers that
the order which brought noncombatants under those walls was
issued by Rosen, a French officer, who had been sent to aid
Hamilton, the commander of James' forces, and that it lacked
the approval of both Plamilton and the Jacobite army. But the
correctness of this claim is disputed. It is certain, however, that
had Hamilton and the army remonstrated, the scheme would have
failed of its execution. It is, though, fair to remember that it is
said that King James did not approve this murder, and that he
denounced General Rosen and called the scheme "a cruel con-
trivance !"

In the besieged city women fought by the men on the ram-
parts. Gradually the siege became a blockade, lengthening into
great anguish of soul and terrible torture of body. "Arms were

TO AMERICA 129

found to grasp weapons which others arms had dropped ; stern
voices mingled the watchword of 'no surrender' with appeals to
the Most High to save his children from 'the idolatry of Rome'
and the cruelties of the Celt. . . . The sufferings of the be-
sieged soon become intense ; the refuse of the sewer, the vermin
of the street were welcome additions to the supplies of food ;
death was dreaded as little as the detested enemy"
(William O'Connor Morris (of Ireland), Ireland, 182). At the
end of 105 days, July 29, 1689, William's relief ships, sailing up
the Foyle, broke the obstructions built by the Jacobites and
saved the remnant of the noble defenders of historic Derry.
"Soon all that was seen of the Irish army was the cloud of dust
that marked its retreat." Macaulay's account of this siege of
Londonderry is a masterpiece. No Scotch-Irish descendant
should fail to read it.

Macaulay says: "The number of men within the walls
capable of bearing arms was seven thousand (including able-
bodied citizens who fought with the soldiers), and the whole
world could not have furnished seven thousand men better quali-
fied to meet a terrible emergency with clearer judgment, more
dauntless valor, and more stubborn patience."

As civilians and in the military ranks several of the ancestors
of the American Ewings participated in this defense of London-
derry. There is a tradition in the James L. Ewin family, Wash-
ington, D. C, that an ancestor was in command of troops in that
battle. Nearly every branch has some tradition of ancestral par-
ticipation in that memorable defense. Unfortunately history and
military rosters are so incomplete upon this subject that we are
left largely to tradition. Tradition, however, is corroborated by
an old poem written shortly after tbat battle by a native of Ire-
land in which we find this stanza :

Hindman fired on Antrim's men,

When they with wild Maguire,
Took flight and off thro' Dermott's glen

Thought proper to retire ;
Dalton, Baker's right-hand man,

With Evans, Mills and Ewing,
And Bacon of Magilligan,

The fee were off pursuing.

1.')0 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

In Douglas's Derriana, or Hampton's Siege of Londonderry,
is a yet older poem, "Londeriadoes," section five of which has
the following lines :

James Roe Cunningham and Master Brooks
Gave great supplies, as are seen by their books.
Ewin and Wilson, merchants, gave the same,
And forty merchants which I cannot name.
Horace Kennedy went into Scotland,
And moved the Council some relief to send.

Londonderry was hut the beginning of the war, short but
sharp and bloody, which terminated in the triumph of the
Protestant cause at the battle of the Boyne on July 1, 1690.
Our kinsmen and representatives of the family took pleasing parts
in the Protestant ranks in this battle, too. A conspicuous in-
stance was Finlay Ewing, closely related to the ancestor of the
Virginia and Maryland families. Finlay was presented with a
sword for his distinguished bravery in that epochal battle. It is
said that he was an officer of artillery. There are creditable tra-
ditions that others of the family were by his side. This Finlay,
it is said, was a son of James Ewing, who was born in Glasgow
about 1650, and who is said to have married a Jane Porter. Dr.
Thomas Ewing of New Jersey was a great grandson of Finlay,
and was a surgeon in the patriot army of the Revolution
(Joseph L. Ewing, Ezuing Families, 12, 22, and 96). The Hon.
Thos. Ewing, first Secretary of the Interior, family was another
branch which descended from Finlay. Many others of the
Ewings subsequently became "rebels" against the misrule of the
British government in America; and they left enviable records of
service in our Revolution.

But another glance at conditions which followed the Boyne
victory is needed before we come to the immigration of our
fathers to America.

Following the Boyne there was an important battle at Limer-
ick, the last considerable groan of the dying Catholic cause ; but
its mention is a matter of fairness that we may record the fact
that there Catholic women fought in the ranks as had the
Protestant women at Deny. But Limerick was a struggle of
no magnitude as compared with Derry. The treaty of Limerick

TO AMERICA 131

closed the war. Thereafter William and Mary's position was
accepted throughout the British domains. "Catholic Ireland was
now at the feet of William almost as completely as they had been
at the feet of Cromwell." The lands of the Irish who sided and
who sympathized with the Jacobites were confiscated, and thou-
sands went into exile. From arms the struggle passed into
legislation, the Protestants enacting laws unfriendly to the Cath-
olics. Backed by the Roman church with its head in Italy, the
Catholics did all that could, under the circumstances, be done to
thwart and annoy the enemy. Much wrong and much harshness
sprang from both sides ; bitterness ran into wanton riot. Pro-
testants and Catholics and finally especially the Presbyterians
suffered from the blaze kindled by hatred and fanned by fanat-
icism. But out of the confusion and crucifixion came the men
and women who were destined very largely to give to America an
untrammeled Protestantism and a government divorced from
church. One needs to read Dean Swift, who hated the Presby-
terians and despised the Catholics, to get a flood of needed light
upon the terrible decade in which our ancestors, fitted to aid in a
broader field, came to America.

It is no surprise, when we remember the horrors of Derry
and the long train of sufferings which followed the Boyne, that
Jacobites and Orangemen today cannot agree upon a civil status
for Ireland. Church differences in Ireland today are as sharp as
they were in 1690 ; and the civil status of the country waits
upon them.

Woodburn, writing recently from his home at Castlerock,
Derry County, Ulster, Ireland, says :

"In Ireland there are three main divisions of the people —
the Irish, the Anglo-Irish, and the Scotch-Irish, which are repre-
sented by the three principal churches, the Roman Catholic, the
Protestant Episcopal, and the Presbyterian." He estimates that
95 per cent of the third class yet live in Ulster.

He proceeds :

"There is a great difference in the characteristics of the
people in northern and southern Ireland — a difference which is
apparent to every one. This dissimilarity is chiefly due to the
two important factors, religion and climate, and not, as is gen-
erally supposed, to race. . . . There are not two races in

132 CLAN EW1NG OF SCOTLAND

Ireland : the whole population is a mixture of Celtic and Teu-
tonic, and the Ulsterman has probably as much Celtic blood as
the southerner."

In the south of Ireland nearly all the people are Catholics.
Their ancestors suffered no displacement by Protestants such as
north Ireland experienced during the plantations of Ulster.

Yet, after all, climate, environment and thousands of factors
have, from a parent stock, differentiated the races of the world.
The original Celt of Ireland was so different from the Celt of
early pre-Scotland that for all practical purposes they were dif-
ferent races. We know that there were such sharp differences
between tribes of the aboriginal Celts of what is now Scotland
that they, also, were practically different races. As Morris says,
the defenders of Londonderry were "sturdy Protestants of Anglo-
Saxon and Scottish blood."

So that practically it is not inaccurate to attribute to racial
differences as much as to conflicting religious opinions the cause
of the war which established the Protestant succession upon the
British throne. This classification involves no reflection upon or
disparagement of either. It merely helps us to understand the
bloodshed and bitterness between the two lines of descent.

The next English sovereign is Queen Anne, who followed
William and Mary in 1702. Anne died in 1714, without leaving
any great impressions upon the country in which our ancestors
then lived.

George I comes next. It was during his reign that some of
our ancestors embarked, tradition says, in The Eagle Wing, for
America. Few of them came later than 1725; and, probably, as
did our near kindred from whom are descended other branches
of our family, some came earlier.

During the period which saw our progenitors leaving dis-
tressed and harried Ulster, the penal laws, restricting Catholics
in educational advantages, in the right to own land and to hold
office, and debarring them from other advantages, were passed
and enforced ; and the anti-trade laws were provided and so en-
forced as to most injure the Protestants by largely destroying
trade. Previous to those laws, Ireland, regardless of its endless
wars, exported largely, especially cattle, cheese, butter and cloth.
The anti-trade laws prohibited these and other products being

TO AMERICA 133

exported or sold abroad. The list included hats, sail cloth, iron
ware, gunpowder, and nearly everything that made the island
prosperous. "The poverty and misery caused by the destruction
of all these trades brought famine and pestilence in their wake."
Catholics, Presbyterians, and all Nonconformists were required
to pay tithes of one-tenth to the Angelican or Established Church
of England, of which the Protestant Episcopal Church in the
United States is the descendant. There was persecution from
every quarter. Misery, blear-eyed want, gaunt and revolting,
and sickening despair stalked abroad by day and prowled through
the villages and about every farmstead by night. Fair Ulster
again faded; weeds, like the tares of the Bible, choked the flax
in the fields and forests no longer felt the restraining hand of
husbandry. Industry was manacled ; civil and religious liberty
imprisoned. That for which our clan had so earnestly struggled
in Scotland and to find which some of them left that beloved land
of clear lakes, inspiring hills and barren cleft-tortured mountains,
and splendid valleys, a land they loved as we love ours today ;
that for which the fathers and mothers of some of us fought and
for which they so nearly perished at Londonderry, that which
some of them helped to secure at decisive Boyne, was not to be
enjoyed in Ireland.

Woodburn, regarded particularly in England as fair and
impartial, of County Derry, Ireland, summing up the causes which
led our ancestors and their brother Scotch into America, says :

"Summing up the causes of the emigration we find the first
was the destruction of the woolen trade of Ireland by the re-
pressive laws forced through the English Parliament by English
manufacturers, which caused much unemployment, especially
among the Presbyterians (which included the Ewings, we remem-
ber), who were chiefly farmers and traders. The second was the
continual persecution they endured at the hands of the bishops
of the Irish Episcopal Church. The blame for the unjust and
galling measures which were passed must be laid at the door of
the government of Ireland. To be quite fair, the final blame
rests with the Bench of Bishops in the Irish House of Lords, who
were far more hostile to the Scots in Ulster than to the Catholics
in any part of Ireland. All the authorities are agreed upon this
point, that these bishops were the chief instruments in putting the

134 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Presbyterians of Ulster under humiliating religious disabilities.
The third cause was the payment of tithes to the clergy of the
Episcopal Church. The fourth cause was a series of poor har-
vests, which resulted in several famines in the third and fourth
decades of the eighteenth century. The fifth cause was the
raising of the rents by the landlords of the county. Our general
conclusion is that the emigration was due to 'religious bigotry,
commercial jealousy, and modern landlordism' combined."

Harvests between 1720 and 1730 were very poor. This, no
doubt, contributed to the causes which turned our ancestors to-
ward America, as some came between those dates.

We can readily understand why, therefore, with the few
earthly goods left to them, some embarked, say traditions, upon
the good old Eagle Wing, others on the staunch Rising Sun, to
seek in America what their fathers had vainly sought first in
Scotland and then in Ulster.

It is not true, as some think, that most of our ancestors came
at the same time, or that all came in the same ship. Some came
in the one barque and others in another. Yet how prophetic that
many Scotch and Scotch-Irish, with a contribution by the
Ewings, should come, among others, in The Eagle Wing and in
The Rising Sun. But for the Scotch, Scotch-Irish and Irish,
who would have unfettered the American eagle wings which
drove the clouds of misrule from the hill-top over which came
the rising sun of American liberty ?

Just a word about the old ship Eagle Wing is worth its time.
History says that she began to ship Scots hither as early as 1635,
and that in September, 1636, she brought 140; and that for more
than a hundred years she was plowing the deeps, bearing first and
last many thousands of the best blood to our shores. For
heroism and service and for the part her passengers took in
founding this government, and for the parts in world's progress
their descendants take today, The Eagle Wing shades the May-
flower into a speck on the horizon of the local history of New
England.

The Celtic Irish have contributed many great men to the
world. Their names are carved high ; but the names of no race
stand higher or surpass those of the Scotch-Irish. John Walker
Dinsmore, D. D., LL. D., expressed the historical truth when
he said :

TO AMERICA 135

"For two hundred years and more the Scotch-Irish race has
been a very potential and beneficial factor in the development
of the American republic. All things considered, it seems prob-
able that the people of this race have cut deeper into the history
of the United States than have the people of any other race,
though they have not been by any means the most numerous or
boastful. This is not an extravagant statement. It can be veri-
fied by irrefragible proofs. Until recent years the Scotch-Irish
have been mostly silent about their achievements. They have
been content to do the work given them to do and let others take
the glory. The sober fact is, that judged by the criterion of
valuable and enduring work along every line of useful life, no
other race has had equal influence on the course of American
history during the last two hundred years ; not even excepting the
descendants of the Pilgrims" (The Scotch-Irish in America
(1906), 4, Introduction by Adlai Ewing Stevenson, formerly
Vice-President of the United States).

Of those emigrants Froude correctly says that it was "the
young, the courageous, the energetic, the earnest . . . who
tore up by the roots, and founded homes in America, to the num-
ber by 1776 of 400,000." "They were driven out of the land
which they had saved for England by their swords at London-
derry and Ennis Killen, and they carried their enterprise to
another land beyond the seas, and played a great part — perhaps
the greatest— in building up" our great American dual govern-
ment, as Woodburn correctly states.

XIII.
OUR FIRST AMERICAN EWINGS.

Than those of whom I am particularly writing there are many
other Ewings in America. Both before and since our ancestors
came to this country other worthy bearers of our name established
families of whom I would be glad to write but for the lack of data
and space. There is at hand, however, some information of
others which I am glad to give, though it must be done briefly.

The earliest persons bearing any form of our name to come
in touch with America, so far as the records disclose, were from
England. As the clan, in my view of the facts, parted in the
Lowlands of Scotland at an early day, and as there were those
bearing our name in a form not unusual for the times in Northern
England at the taking of the Domesday Book, 1085, it is my
opinion that the early Ewings from England who had some part
in the earliest Virginia history were remote but lineal scions of
the clan unit before it was broken by Teutonic invasion.

We know that shortly after the settlement of Jamestown,
Virginia, in 1607, the crown granted to a company lands and the
authority for local government. That organization was much on
the order of a modern stock company, and the enterprise was
backed by private capital. Ralph Ewens, Esquire, was one of
those to whom King James granted the second Virginia charter,
May 23, 1609, the famous Captain John Smith being also a mem-
ber of that company. William Euans became a member of the
company in 1617, and a William Ewens was master of a ship for
many years employed by the company between England and Vir-
ginia. On several occasions the company commissioned him to
ship cargoes to Virginia and transport back the products of the
colony. In 1621 two contracts were made with him. In the one
case he was to fit out the "ship George 150 tuns staunch and
strong with furniture and with marines and seamen, to take on
passengers and goods and to bring back tobacco from the planta-
tion with forfeit of 1 ,000 li. in case of failure." In the other case it
was the ship Charles,"80 tun and to take the same- with fraight and
passengers to Virginia." He was to receive for carrying 80 per-

136

FIRST AMERICAN EWINGS 137

sons in the George "vjli a man and 3 li. a tunne for goods." In
one case later he left off freight to accommodate "Sr. Francis
Wyatt and some other gentlemen the better in the State Shipp,"
and "susteyned" a loss "onely" on that account. April 30, 1623,
this party had occasion to make an affidavit that he had gone to
Virginia "4 sewrall times" and had lived nearly a "wholl year
ther or ther aboutes."

These specimens of spelling are representative of English as
then written ; and they better enable us to understand why the
scribes of those days so often spelled our family name phonet-
ically, or as it sounded to them, Ewen, Ewin, Ewins, Ewens,
Euing, etc.

In 1676 John Ewin brought shipping from the homeland to
William Drummond, the governor of Virginia.

"The Earl of Sterling's Register of Royal Letters Relating
to Scotland and Nova Scotia from 1615 to 1635," has a letter to
the commissioners of the Plantation of New Scotland, as Nova
Scotia was then called, under a grant to Sir Wm. Alexander
1621, which says : "Our Soveraigne Lord understanding the long
practeis and experience of his Maties lovit James Ewing in mat-
ters of Herauldrie" with Earl Morton's consent appoints Ewing
"duering all the dayes of his lyftyme, herauld at arms in the
said kingdome," and thereafter to be known and called Rothsay
Herald. His salary was "fourties-tua pundis usuall" money.

September 9, 1643, William Ewins was granted lands in
James City County, Virginia, as shown in William and Mary
Quarterly, volume 9, 141. In 1648 Edward Ewin was granted
land in Virginia.

Whether the earliest of our name in America left descend-
ants no effort has been made to learn. We are mostly concerned
about the founders of the Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia,
North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee early families known
certainly to be descended from the old Loch Lomond-Glasgow
clan, a sketch of which has been given. At intervals within the
first one hundred years after the first firm footing of the Euro-
peans in America many descendants of that old clan founded
families located in Canada, and thence southwestward, along
the crest of the wave of expansion, here and there in every State
from Maine to Georgia. Most of our first American fathers
reached America after 1700 and located, as we shall see the census

138 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

and other evidence show, in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland,
North Carolina and Virginia ; and from those pioneer homes our
kindred have spread broadly, wielding a wholesome influence,
into Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri,
Alabama, Texas, California, and, perhaps, into every State west of
the Allegheny Mountains.

Beginning perhaps as early as 1700 the founders of the
families here under consideration began to reach America. So
far as found, there is no contemporary general record of the
Ewing brothers and near relatives who founded these families.
However, though we are deprived of the pleasure of such a rec-
ord of all these, yet there are in perhaps every branch extant
today records and traditions by which we establish with reason-
able certainty (and often beyond possibility of doubt) descent
from the respective first American ancestors. The traditions
are sustained or corroborated by family Bible records, tombstone
inscriptions, recorded deeds, wills and the records of the settle-
ment of estates, old depositions filed in law suits, military, church,
pension and other records. These are often supplemented by
historical mention in connection with affairs of local or national
scope.

This evidence upon which we rely to establish our descent
and kinship through our early American ancestors back to the
early days of the Scotch clan, is the kind of evidence which courts
admit for the purpose of establishing family relationship and
proving pedigree. Meeting the requirements of the law in such
cases, of course it is all the more reliable for historical purposes.
It "is brought from remote times, when no question was depend-
ing or even thought of, and when no purpose would apparently
be answered by falsifying." (See, among many court decisions
announcing this rule of evidence, Hartman's Estate, 157 Calif.,
20G, 107 Pac. 105; EXsenland vs. Clum, 126 N. Y. 552; Berkeley
Peerage Case, 4 Campbell (Eng.), 401.)

"What has been said by deceased members of the family is
admissable upon the presumption that as such members they
knew from general repute in the family the facts of which they
speak." (Harland v. Eastman, 107 111. 535, 538.)

Much of the tradition in any branch of our family regarding
collateral relatives is often hazy and in part inaccurate. This is
not, under the circumstances of the earlier days, strange. I have

FIRST AMERICAN EWINGS 139

found nothing to suggest that the immigrant brothers and cousins
lost interest in or sight of each other. The clan spirit, in its best
sense, has always been characteristic of our family. But we
shall find that as the several members of the family reached
out for the rich, inviting lands of the constantly expanding Amer-
ican frontier, the groups, even in the same State, soon became
separated by many hundreds of miles. Communication during
the early days was difficult, uncertain, and unavoidably spas-
modic. During the first years after reaching America, letters,
between the communities where our ancestors established them-
selves, had to be sent, generally, by chance travel. Regular mail
routes were largely unknown. An instance showing this as late as
1822 is furnished by Gano's letter to his uncle, given infra.
By the time the first American-born generation was in its prime
the stern prelude to the Revolution rumbled and shortly the
storm broke in fury over the land. Nowhere was the danger more
acute than on the Indian-haunted frontiers where our respective
families then generally were established. As the thunder of the
Revolution subsided, the din and rush of expanding America
absorbed attention. Generally in the skirmish line of expansion,
each family group acquired immense lands and built prosperous
homes ; and our fathers became the leaders in all the activities of
life. Some were made the judges of the courts, others became the
preachers, yet others the legislators, and yet others captains of
great industry and extensive husbandry ; and an unusual per cent
of their names is found upon all the early military rosters. So it
was that, during the first wonderful and thrilling one hundred
years following the Revolution, the relations between the sev-
eral family groups largely were lost.

Important light has been furnished by those who have de-
voted research particularly to some of the groups I have men-
tioned. What we know as the Nottingham District, or earlier
Cecil County, Maryland, family, received much study by Col.
William A. Ewing, at one time of Chicago, who died at the Na-
tional Military Home, Dayton, Ohio, December 13, 1916. He was
born in Cincinnati in 1838. He "accumulated a great wealth of
material. He published a very elaborate chart in blue-print, con-
taining three great family branches of Ewings." He was the
son of an Alex. Ewing, born February 10,1803, in Michigan; and
this Alexander as William A. Ewing gives his descent, was a de-

140 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

scendant of the immigrant Nathaniel of Cecil County, Maryland.
Colonel Ewing says that Nathaniel and his half-brothers John,
Henry, Samuel, Joshua and Alexander came to Cecil County
from Coleraine, Londonderry County, Ireland. That they were
from Coleraine is questioned by some of our Ewings ; but if not
from Coleraine they were from its approximate community.
They were sons of William Ewing, it is generally conceded, "who
was a son of William Ewing, of Glasgow, Scotland." (See the
W. A. Ewing chart; Jas. L. Ewin's Ewing data, &c.) However, a
few think that there is some little reason for guessing that the
Ulster link was a Patrick, — or not William ; but since in the light
of evidence before us we are not sure, we accept the name as Wil-
liam until future generations find it aright.

After years of research, after sifting traditions and having
measured them by other evidence, Col. Ewing completed his chart
about 1900. It gives little or no light in regard to the descend-
ants of the Virginia branches of the family; but it is very valu-
able as to the other branches of our family. Col. Ewing appears
never to have attempted any extensive record of the respective
families of Chas. and Robert Ewing, of the several James Ewing
families, of John Ewing of Montgomery County, Virginia, and of
the Wythe County, Virginia, Ewings and of the numerous off-
springs of each which later located in Kentucky, Tennessee and
elsewhere. But, as we shall see more fully, all were descendants
of the same Scotch clan as are the older Cecil County and the
Thos. Ewing (of Ohio) branch; and therefore Col. Ewing's
general conclusions are important.

In 1!)1!) his widow, Mrs. Gertrude B. Ewing, then in Green-
wich, Connecticut, kindly loaned me Col. Ewing's memorandum
book and such of his genealogical correspondence as she could
find. From that material it appears that Col. Ewing was just
beginning to get in touch with Capt. Patrick Ewing's branch
which settled in Lee County, Virginia, and from there spread
into Tennessee, Missouri and elsewhere. He evidently made a
small chart of that branch of the family, a copy of which was
kindly loaned me by Dr. A. E. Ewing of St. Louis; but the
greater number of the early Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky
Ewings (and of course their descendants) apparently were never
known to Col. Ewing. Just before he published his larger
chart, a Cecil County, Maryland, paper said :

FIRST AMERICAN SWINGS 141

"Col. Wm. A. Ewing of Chicago spent several days in the
county last week hunting up material for the history of the
Ewing family. He has gathered a large amount, has about com-
pleted his labors in that line and will have the manuscript ready
to put into the hands of the publishers in November. The
search and compilation of data has reached over eleven years.
The family immigration took place in 1725, or the branch which
settled in Cecil County came over then. Others came earlier.

"They came from near Glasgow, Scotland, went from there
to the north of Ireland, where they tarried but a short time, and
came on to America, landing on the Xew Jersey coast. They
crossed the State and came into Maryland and Southern Pennsyl-
vania where they settled. There were six or seven members of
the family who came to this county and vicinity.

"Col. Ewing finds the family widely distributed, all over
the United States, in fact, but has been able to trace them to the
original stock of Scotch from about Stirling Castle, a hardy race
of Covenanters who said what they meant and meant what they
said."

I much regret that Col. Ewing left, so far as I can find,
only a chart and detached manuscript memorandums. He pub-
lished no book of the family, and his wife and daughter (his
only child) know nothing of such a manuscript as this paper de-
scribes. However, that chart, taken with this account of his work
gives his conclusions regarding the origin of the clan and what
he had learned of the early American ancestors.

The earliest printed statement concerning this Cecil County,
Maryland, family and its member in Virginia, so far as I know,
is that by Rev. James P. Wilson, in his Sermons of Dr. Jno.
Bwing, published in 1812.

Of that Rev. Jno. Ewing, D. D.. who was a descendant of
Nathaniel, William Ewing's only child by the first wife, Wilson
says :

"Of his ancestors little is known. They emigrated from
Ireland at an early period of the settlement of our country, and
fixed themselves on the banks of the Susquehanna, near to the
spot where he was born. They were farmers, who, if they did
not extend their name beyond their immediate neighborhood, yet
maintained within it that degree of reputation which their de-
scendants can speak of without a blush."

142 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

So far as I found, the oldest written statement of the ear-
liest traditions in regard to the immigrants who founded some
of Ewing families of Cecil County, Maryland, and those Vir-
ginia families about which I particularly write, was left by Na-
thanial Ewing of Mount Clair (near Vincennes), Indiana. Col.
Wm. A. Ewing published in The Courier- Journal (February 28,
1897) this statement. Just when it was written we are not told;
but Colonel Ewing says this Nathaniel was born April 10, 1772,
and died August 4, 1846, and that he moved from Maryland to
Vincennes in 1801. The statement reads:

"At the request of my children I give the following history
of my family as far back as I have any knowledge, either tra-
ditional or personal. My forefathers were originally from Scot-
land, their seat in that country being on the Forth, not far from
Stirling Castle, whence they removed to the north of Ireland
about the year , and settled near Londonderry. My great-
grandfather, whose name, I believe, was William, was twice
married. By his first wife he had but one son, Nathaniel, who
was my grandfather; by his second marriage he had several
children, viz. : William, Joshua, James and some others whom I
do not now recollect.

"James 1 have seen, and had from him a portion of my in-
formation. He was at that time upwards of eighty years of age
and lived in Prince Edward County, Virginia. Nathaniel Ewing
my grandfather, was born about the year 1703. (This is error,
as Colonel Ewing pointed out. That Nathaniel was born ap-
proximately near Coleraine and Londonderry, Ireland, in 1693.
The mistake may have been made by the printer.) He married
a cousin of his own, Rachel Porter, in the year 1723, and four
years afterwards he emigrated to America, bringing with him his
half-brothers and sisters, and a large connection of the Porter
family, and also the Gillespies. The colony settled in Maryland,
between the Octorora Creek and the Susquehanna River, near
the Pennsylvania line, about sixty miles from Philadelphia,
this country at the time being the frontier settlement. My
grandfather purchased a tract of land and commenced farming.
His brother, Joshua, also purchased a tract adjoining him.
Whether any others of the brothers purchased land there I do
not know, but they did not remain long in Maryland, having

FIRST AMERICAN SWINGS 143

removed to Virginia and settled on the waters of the Appomattox,
Prince Edward County, where their posterity became numerous.
Many of them afterward removed to Cripple Creek (subse-
quently in Montgomery and Wythe Counties, Virginia), or New
Beaver (New River) and some to Potsdam, near Knoxville,
(Tennessee). They are now scattered over the States of Ten-
nessee and Kentucky."

The next information upon the early family was left by
Col. Geo. W. Ewing. It is a sketch in "History of Fort Wayne,"
Indiana, by Wallace A. Bryce, entitled, "The Ewings — W. G.
and G. W. Ewing."

I find in the manuscript note book left by William A. Ewing
this:

"I have copied the following sketch of the Ewing family
(much of it written by Col. George W. Ewing) from 'History of
Fort Wayne,' by Wallace A. Bryce, published at Fort Wayne,
Indiana, in 1868."

This copy was made because the book was out of print and
the only copy of which William A. Ewing then knew was
seen by him in the Chicago Public Library. In his notes,
he says that Col. George W. Ewing. who wrote this
"account of the family," was his uncle, and that he
had often heard his uncle speak of this contribution to
the Fort Wayne history. He says this uncle was "widely known
for his fine business and general intellectual qualities."

This Col. George W. Ewing operated contemporaneously
large business houses in Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, Kansas, Minne-
sota, Wisconsin Chicago, St. Louis and elsewhere ; and I have
heard it said that he was the earliest in this country, at least, to
operate the now famous "chain stores." It is certain that he was
a pioneer in that field — very successful, too, for he left an im-
mense estate ; and his brother, William G. Ewing, left more than
a million dollars. Among other things, this Col. George W.
Ewing founded Logansport, Indiana.

In his history Bryce says :

"Most prominent among the early settlers of Fort Wayne
was the Ewing family, and having been favored with a manu-
script account of the family, written, as early as 1855, by Col.
G. W. Ewing, deceased, while on a visit to Washington City,
D. C, I here introduce a portion."

144 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Col. George W. Ewing says :

"Being the last and only remaining one of the four brothers
... I have thought it right to make a statement of reminiscences
and of facts within my knowledge relative to the genealogy, rise
and progress of the family to which I belong.

"The absence of any record respecting my own parents and
of their forefathers has always been a source of regret to me, as
well as to my lamented brother (;W. G. Ewing) . We could glean
a meager knewledge of them only as it was gotten incidentally
in conversation, from time to time, with our beloved parents.
Even this we failed and neglected to perpetuate. . . .

"My father, Alexander Ewing, was born in the State of
Pennsylvania (the county not recollected) about the year 1763,
of Irish parentage [Scotch-Irish], the third son (his father's
name was also Alexander), who had two older brothers named
William and Samuel.

"About the year 1779 my father, then about sixteen, repaired
to Philadelphia and there enlisted in the Continental army, and
remained in the service during the last three years of the glorious
Revolutionary war."

Col. G. W. Ewing then says that, the war over, his father
engaged in a trading expedition "to the far West," among the
Six Nations of Indians. There his father, Alexander, "erected
a trading post on Buffalo Creek, then an entire wilderness, and
subsequently extended his trading into the Allegheny Moun-
tains. Where once stood his humble trading cabin now stands
the great and growing commercial city of Buffalo," New York.

Subsequently this Alexander Ewing settled on the Genesee
River, sixty miles above where is now Rochester. There he mar-
ried Charlotte Griffith, of Welsh descent, "about 1795." There the
oldest child, Sophia C, was born, as was a son, Charles W. The
youngest sister of this Alexander, so this account tells us, (Katy)
Catharine Ewing, married the Hon. John Jones, and lived near
her brother, and she and her husband died on the Genessee, leav-
ing children.

In 1802, we are further told, this Alexander Ewing, the ex-
sojdier, "having lost his farm by security debts," a misfortune
we meet all too often in the records of our family — a generous
and obliging heart is one of the family characteristics — moved to
what was at the time the Territory of Michigan, and settled at

FIRST AMERICAN EWINGS 145

what became Monroe. There his sons, William G., Alexander H.
and George W. Ewing, the writer of this account, were born. In
1807 the parents moved to Ohio and settled at what became
Piqua. There a daughter, Lavinia, was born. Subsequently they
moved to Troy, and there Louisa was born.

This Alexander, the ex-soldier of the Revolution, volunteered
and served in the war of 1812, being in the immediate command
of General William Henry Harrison. He participated, as did
some of the Ewings of Virginia, we shall see, in the battle of the
Thames, when the great Indian chief, Tecumseh, led, until shot
dead from his horse, the British. This Alexander was twice
wounded. Col. W. G. Ewing characterizes Tecumseh as "a brave,
gallant and noble Indian," and says that Alexander Ewing, "my
father, found and recognized the body of Tecumseh very shortly
after the battle was over." "In a short time afterwards," he
adds, "the Kentuckians cut all the skin off" Tecumseh's body
"to carry home as trophies, to be used, as they said, 'for razor
strops.' "

If Colonel Ewing were correct as to this barbarous action,
it need cause no surprise. Tecumseh represented Indian atrocity,
outrage and the devastation of Kentucky homes. The Indians
first scalped the whites ; the entire period of the early expansion,
followed, in fact, to the Custer disaster on the Little Big Horn,
was war to the death between Indian and white. War debases ;
danger sears and hardens. The whites came in time to scalp the
Indians, not infrequently; and more than once Indian scalps orna-
mented a pole at the gate of a frontier "stockade." Ah, well, not
so far back in the history of our ancestors, Protestant heads
actually sickeningly schriveled on the end of a pole at the very
gates of Glasgow, Scotland. We too often forget what our an-
cestors paid for the slow, halting strides of civilization, and yet
the top has not been reached nor all of the price paid.

From Troy this Alexander Ewing moved January, 1827, to
what became Fort Wayne, Indiana. There, at about sixty-three
"he died of disease induced by pioneer hardships and adventures."
Col. G. <W. Ewing says this Alexander Ewing, his father, was
strong of will, enjoyed "indomitable energy, was a true friend
and a better enemy; fond of his family, and bore the title of
colonel. He was a Free Mason. His personal appearance was

146 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

commanding, being six feet in height, straight and athletic." His
"complexion was rather light, his hair auburn, his eyes blue."

Col. G. W. Ewing adds that "we are descended from parents
who were obliged to leave their native country (Ireland) be-
cause of their republican sentiments. Some of them settled in
Pennsylvania, some in Kentucky, and some in Tennessee. The
Hon. Thomas Ewing of Ohio is distantly related to us. So are
most of the Ewings of Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri, and
it is a remarkable circumstance and fact, which I may here in-
sert without being guilty of egotism, that I never yet saw or
knew a man of this family of Ewings (and I have seen and
known very many of them) who was not a man of more than
ordinary talents and ability and many of them were prominent
and distinguished men." Col. Ewing, in these words, does not
mention the Maryland and Virginia Ewings ; but he was speak-
ing of later descendants of those related to his father, and clearly
impliedly recognized the Virginia and Maryland relations, be-
cause, among those of his day mentioned by him as distinguished
relations, he refers to "Hon. Andrew Ewing, who was a repre-
sentative in Congress from Tennessee; and Hon. Presley Ewing
was also a representative in Congress from Kentucky; and thus
I might go on speaking of others of the name and kindred, who
have filled with signal ability, many places of honor and respon-
sibility." Andrew Ewing of Tennessee and Presley Ewing of
Kentucky were, we know, descendants of two of the Virginia
families ; and Col. G. W. Ewing's own father, Alexander, was a
son of Alexander Ewing of Bald Friar's Ferry (often known as
Little Britain, Pennsylvania), Cecil County, Maryland, who was
a son of Nathaniel, the half-brother of Joshua Ewing, and the
others, whom we indicate as the first Cecil County immigration
of Ewings. Joshua's brother James, we shall see, half-uncle of
the oldest Alexander, mentioned by Col. G. W. Ewing, settled
very early in what is now Prince Edward County, Virginia, and
his descendants and those of the other Virginia families of which
I write, known as those of Bedford (from which family Presley
of Kentucky descended), Montgomery, Wythe, Lee and other
counties, Virginia, from the earliest day recognized a common
Scotch ancestry and blood kinship.

No few of our family genealogists have essayed to discover
the relation between part or all, as may be, of the immigrant

FIRST AMERICAN EWINGS 147

founders of our American Ewing family groups. No one so
far has been able to fix the exact genealogical place of all these
branches ; but much has been accomplished as to several of
them. Much, too, has been done to preserve a record of de-
scendants of some of these family units, — a work I am here
trying to do for others of them. For instance, Rev. Joseph
Lyons Ewing says that there "is the strongest traditional evi-
dence" that Findley Ewing, son of James Ewing, born at Glas-
gow in 1650, who married, 1694, Jane Porter in Londonderry, to
which he had removed, and their son, Thos. Ewing, who emi-
grated from Londonderry "to New Jersey in 1718," and the an-
cestors of the Cecil County, Maryland, Ewings, of whom I shall
treat more fully, were one and the same family before separating
in Ireland. (Ewing Families (1910), 8, 12.) Regardless of
some mistakes as to family links, Rev. Mr. Ewing is correct in
this conclusion, I am sure. As another evidence of that relation,
sustaining the "strongest traditional evidence," as Dr. Ewing
correctly suggests, we have the family arms which are the same
in both branches. This Thos. Ewing was the ancestor of the
Hon. Thos. Ewing family of Ohio. However, as I think it will
later herein be seen, it seems more probable that the father of
Findlay was a brother of the Ewing who evidently was born in
Glasgow about 1760, who became the ancestor of the Cecil County
Ewings whom Joseph Lyons Ewing had in mind. Anyway, the
relationship between the branches here considered is certain, and
is widely recognized. For instance, Rev. Quincy Ewing, an
Episcopal minister of Alabama, brother of Judge Ewing of
Texas, who recently published The Ewing Genealogy, wrote to
Joseph Lyons Ewing in 1906 :

"My grandfather, Ephriam Ewing, was a nephew of Finis
Ewing, one of the founders of the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church. I saw a letter years ago from General Thos. Ewing, of
Ohio, in which he stated that he and my grandfather were dis-
tantly connected."

This Ephraim Ewing's father was a descendant of one of
the Bedford County, Virginia, immigrant brothers.

Col. Geo. Ewing's brother, Hon. Chas. Wayne Ewing, was
long president-judge of the eighth circuit of Indiana; and an-
other brother, Hon. William G. Ewing, became judge of the
Allen County probate court. He died in 1854. He is described

148 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

"as intellectual and generous." Another brother, Alexander H.
Ewing, was long one of the most successful merchants of Cin-
cinnati, Ohio.

On the margin of his memorandum book Col. William A.
Ewing in a note dated "Chicago, February 23, 1894," opposite
where, as copied from the Fort Wayne history, his uncle indi-
cated his relation to Hon. Thomas Ewing of Ohio, wrote, "There
is no connection between our families this side of Ireland in 1G95 ;
and I have not yet found any connection (with the) Kentucky
and Tennessee Ewings." But subsequent investigations appear
to have convinced him that his uncle's statements were correct.

In another place in Col. Ewing's manuscript book I find
this :

"In October, 1892, I found in Polk's Grave Yard, four miles
west of Rising Sun, and about the same distance east of Bald
Friar's Ferry, all in Cecil County, Maryland, a monument with
this inscription :

" 'A. E.

" 'In Memory of Alexander Ewing

who departed this life

June 3, 1799,

aged 68 years.' "

"He lived and kept the hotel," adds W'illiam A. Ewing, at
Bald Friar's Ferry. ... I feel confident he was the father of
Alexander Ewing, the father of Col. George W. Ewing."

In this be was undoubtedly correct, and subsequently he so
indicated on his now widely distributed chart.

A few years ago Miss Catharine P. Evans of New Jersey,
a descendant of Capt. Patrick Ewing, visited this old burying
ground and identified the graves of Alexander and many otbers
of the older Cecil County Ewings.

That Col. Geo. W. Ewing indicates his family as of Irish
descent means no more than that he had an ancestor who once
lived in Ireland. That that ancestor and his brothers were of pure
Scotch descent is one of the unquestionable facts of Ewing gen-
ealogy.

In 1847 an edition of 150 copies of a little book was published,
entitled, "A Record of the Families of Robert Patterson, the
older, emigrated from Ireland to America in 1774; Thomas

FIRST AMERICAN SWINGS 149

Ewing, from Ireland, 1718, and Louis Du Bois from France,
1660." This work, "for the use of the family connection only,"
was by William Ewing Du Bois of Philadelphia. This author
says :

"Through the heirs of Patterson and Ewing we partake
largely of the Scotch-Irish blood ;" and then he correctly ex-
plains that Scotch-Irish was "not by the mixture of two oppo-
site races." That is. our Ewings from Ireland are Scotch, and
known as Scotch-Irish because of a sojourn in Ireland. This
Du Bois says that the Rev. John Ewing, of Philadelphia, "was
of remote relations to our family." He meant the distinguished
Dr. John Ewing, twin brother of James of Prince Edward Coun-
ty, Virginia, descendant of Nathaniel, one of the older Cecil
County family. This author did not give the Ewing genealogy
he had purposed to present ; and in 1858 this part of his work
was completed by his brother, Robert Patterson Du Bois, in a
little volume entitled, "Record of the Family of Thomas Ewing,
who emigrated from Ireland to America in 1718." This writer
lived at New London, Pennsylvania. He says :

"Findley Ewing, the first of the Ewings of whom we have
any account, was of Scotch descent, a Presbyterian, and with his
wife, Jane, lived in Londonderry in Ireland. For his distin-
guished bravery at the battle of the Boyne water he was awarded
a sword by King William. This was worn during (our) Revolu-
tion by his great-grandson."

Thomas Ewing, son of this Findlay, was born in London-
derry in 1694, and came to America in 1718, according to Du
Bois. Then Du Bois says : "The Hon. Thomas Ewing of Ohio
says two brothers came with" this immigrant Thomas Ewing;
and that they all at first settled on Long Island; that two of
these afterward went to the South; and that from them sprang
the southwestern Ewings. Of these I have no further informa-
tion and of course pass them by."

Following immediately after what has just been quoted, Du
Bois gives the information regarding the older Cecil County
family which he had from Amos Ewing of that County and which
is given presently. Just now we are interested in noticing that
in a letter written by this Hon. Thomas Ewing, seen by Dr.
Quincy Ewing of Alabama, as shown above, that Thomas Ewing

150 CI,AN EWING OF SCOTLAND

recognized blood kinship to the Bedford County, Virginia family;
and William Ewing Du Bois recognized the kinship between his
family and the Hon. Thomas Ewing ancestor and the Cecil Coun-
ty family of Dr. John Ewing who lived in Philadelphia and
whose twin brother settled in Virginia. Descendants of this
Dr. John Ewing's uncle, Joshua Ewing, to my certain knowl-
edge, recognized blood kinship with my great-grandfather of
Montgomery County, and with, of course, grandfather, of Lee
County, Virginia. James Ewing, one of Dr. John's uncles, as
we have seen, founded one of the Prince Edward County, Vir-
ginia, families.

I have seen but one copy of the Du Bois works, and that
was in the New York Historical Association Library.
In a fooi note Du Boise adds :

"Since writing the above I have received a note from Amos
Ewing, Esq., of Cecil County, Maryland, in regard to four
brothers of that name, who settled in that county." Then he
gives this statement by Amos :

"About 1700 four brothers, John, Alexander, Henry and
Samuel Ewing, emigrated from Londonderry, leaving several
younger brothers at home, and settled in Cecil County, Mary-
land. John lived near to what is now called Principio Furnace,
but, afterward removed to the West with his family, a large one.
Alexander settled in East Nottingham, near a place now called
Ewingsville. He had a large number of children, of whom five
were sons, viz. : William, George, Alexander, James and his twin
brother John. John was born June 21, 1732, graduated at Prince-
ton College in 1752, became an eminent divine," etc. He says
this John had a large family. "His grandson," adds Amos, "the
Rev. Charles H. Ewing, now preaches in West Philadelphia.
Henry (one of the immigrants) also lived in East Nottingham,
and had three sons, John, Moses and James. John died about four
years since, in the 94th year of his age. Moses, the only one that
married, left one daughter, who now lives in the old family resi-
dence."

Then PAi Boise says that Samuel settled in West Notting-
ham, Cecil County, and married Rebecca George, "who came
from North Wales with a company of Quaker preachers." "He
had three sons, Amos, William and Samuel, the last two having
many children, who removed to the 'Redstone' country, below

FIRST AMERICAN SWINGS 151

Pittsburgh. Amos inherited the family farm, where he died in
his seventieth year, Dec. 6, 1814, and where his son, Amos, my
informant, now resides."

We must grant that Amos, writing in 1858, was correct as to
recent families and regarding the names of those of his genera-
tion whom he personally knew. But the Rev. John and his twin
brother James and the other names mentioned by Amos as the
children of Alexander, whom he mistook to be the immigrant,
were the children of Nathaniel, the immigrant, as is established
by Bible records. Amos, giving the traditions after about one
hundred and fifty years, lost one generation, as all the records
show.

As we shall see more fully, Amos also mistook a John of a
later generation for the immigrant John.

Of the record evidence, it is said that the Bible of this Rev.
John Ewing, to whom and to whose brothers Amos refers, shows
that their father was the immigrant Nathaniel. Amos, however,
correctly gives the brothers of this celebrated Rev. John, as shown
in the Memorial written by Rev. James P. Wilson, and published
in a volume of Ewing's sermons in 1812. and as also shown by
other records.

Hon. Wm. Henry Ewing, who descended from the immi-
grant Nathaniel, and who represented in the Virginia legislature
Prince Edward County during 1908 to 1912, for many years
kept a critical eye for Ewing genealogy. In a letter dated Oct. 18,
1911, to me he says :

"I suppose from your letter that you already have the his-
tory of the Ewing family, beginning with Wm. Ewing of Scot-
land about 1660, who emigrated to Coleraine, Ireland. His chil-
dren emigrated to America about 1725, and some of them settled
in Cecil Countv, Maryland, some in Pennsylvania, and several in
Virginia. It seems that the whole family of Ewings who came
to America were brothers and half-brothers, and they first settled
in the same neighborhood in Cecil County. Maryland. A family
of Porters — kinsfolk of the Ewings — emigrated with them from
Ireland and settled in the same neighborhood. Porter's Bridge,
in Cecil County, took its name from them.

"About 1725 several of the Ewings came from Maryland and
settled in (what became") Prince Edward County, Virginia, and
also in other counties in the State, but I cannot give you any

152 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

information with regard to any except those who settled in (what
became) Prince Edward and Bedford Counties."

This statement is the more valuable because in the main it
corroborated the version of the early settlement which I gathered
from sources mainly independent of those from which this cor-
respondent got his. It furnishes also a representative instance of
the fact that each family kept in its direct line little information
regarding collaterals — even closely related collaterals living in
the same State. This fact has led so many to declare that all of
the Ewings have descended from one or two immigrants, though
Mr. Ewing, of Prince Edward County, about 72 years old when
he wrote the above-mentioned letter to me, speaks of "several
brothers." He did not mean to leave the impression that all of
the Ewing immigrants to America "were brothers and half-
brothers." He made that statement with reference to the de-
scendants of Wra. Ewing, of Scotland, who was born about 1660,
and whose children were born in Ireland. He tells me later that
the immigrants Chas. and Robert Ewing, of the Peaks of Otter,
Bedford County, Virginia, were "cousins of the brothers and half-
brothers" of that William of Scotland, and that these cousins
came to Virginia, also from Ireland, by way of Cecil County,
Maryland.

Among many of our name in America the clan spirit is yet
forceful. Reunions often bring hundreds together ; and such
meetings are yet held in Pennsylvania, Ohio and now and then
elsewhere. In 1901 such a gathering in Ohio brought together,
we are told. 300 of the descendants of the pioneer Capt. James
Ewing, who lived several years in what is now Pocahontas
County, West Virginia. The chronicler of that clan conclave gave
the traditions of his kinsmen thus :

"According to the tradition of the Ewing clan the Ewings
of America trace their origin to six stalwart brothers of a High-
land clan, who, with their chieftain, engaged in insurrection in
1685. in which they were defeated, their chieftain captured and
executed and themselves outlawed. As the only source of safety
they fled to Ireland, where, in 1688, they participated in the re-
bellion of William. Prince of Orange, in which three of them
lost their lives. In 1718 a number of the sons of these other
brothers emigrated to America and settled in Pennsylvania.

FIRST AMERICAN SWINGS 153

Thomas, the eldest, was the progenitor of the celebrated (Ohio)
Thomas Ewing family of America.

"In 1725 another branch of said ancestors, in the person of
Nathaniel, William and Joshua Ewing, and their sister, Ann,
emigrated to America. They first settled in Cecil County, Mary-
land, and the other brothers in Virginia. (Hence, some not
named in this tradition who settled in Virginia.) Some fifteen
years later their younger brother, James Ewing, came and spent
the most of his life in Virginia, where he died in 1800."

Now, this tradition, like the others, has some truth in it.
The rebellion part, said to have occurred about 1685, is, as of
that date, without foundation. That I might be the more sure
upon this point, I had Sir Alfred Ewing, principal of the Uni-
versity of Edinburgh, get the opinion of Professor Hume Brown,
a recognized Scotch authority. In a memorandum prepared for
me in December, 1917, Professor Brown says:

"All the rebellions in the Highlands are referred to in the
Privy Council Register, but it contains no reference to one" in
or about 1684 or 1685.

As shown by the Register, no Ewing engaged in any "re-
bellion" or political disturbance or "uprising" at that or an ap-
proximate date, and did not do so at any time except as I have
elsewhere related.

That ancestors of some Ewings who came to America par-
ticipated in the war which gave William and Mary the English
throne is certain. Too, it is certain that the James among whose
descendants we meet this tradition, was a cousin — not a brother —
of the Cecil County, Maryland, and of the other Virginia immi-
grant ancestors of the families of which I write. We know this
for several reasons, among which are, first, Wilson, as seen, in
his Sermons of Rev. John, a son of Nathaniel Ewing. the immi-
grant, tells us that James, the half-brother of Rev. John and the
others, was living in 1812; and we know he lived in Bedford
or Prince Edward County, and never in that part of Virginia
now Pocahontas County. The immigrant James, the brother of
Joshua and the others, half brothers of Nathaniel, settled and
remained in Prince Edward County, and never within hundreds
of miles of the Pocahontas section, the evidence shows. The
James of the six stalwart brothers tradition died in 1800 ; James

154 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

of this tradition married Margaret Sargeant, a native of Ireland,
to whom were born sons, John and William, "Indiana John" and
"Swago Bill," unquestionably during years residents of what is
now West Virginia.

The most reliable part of this tradition is the assertion of

kinship between the families descended from William Ewing,

born in Scotland and who emigrated to Ireland, and the Findley

(or Hon. Thos.) Ewing branch, and the founders of at least

some of the Virginia families we are studying.

M. A. Ewing of Neoga, Illinois, writing December 3, 1891,
said that his recollection was that his "father said that four
brothers came from Scotland before the Revolution and settled
in Wythe County, Virginia, near Abingdon." James Ewing, M.
A. Ewing further savs, his grandfather, moved from Wythe to
Blount County, East Tennessee, while it was yet a Territory. He
says his grandfather had five brothers, George, William, Alex-
ander, Nathaniel and John, and that all went to East Tennessee
about the same time, and then adds :

"Sometime afterwards their father, Alexander, moved there
also and died there about 1829 or '30. My father and three of
his brothers, Alexander, George and Smuel, together with two of
their uncles, William and Nathaniel, moved to Edgar County, Illi-
nois, where all but uncle George and father spent their days.
Uncle George and father died in Cumberland County. I have
traveled in fully three-fourths of our States and Territories and
in every one of them have found some one of our name, but the
most of them are in the West and South. My father's uncle,
John, moved from East Tennessee to Kentucky, near Lexington
where he raised a large family, several of whom I met in Ken-
tucky and Middle Tennessee during the war (of 1861-'65). My
father always claimed that he and the Hon. Thomas Ewing of
Ohio were cousins — I think second cousins. . . . There was a
"William Ewing who came from Pennsylvania to Virginia, and
lie and father traced their relationship as second cousins." (Mrs.
Maria Ewing Martin's Ms.)

When this Ewing, evidently at least past middle life in 1891,
'Since he was a soldier in the war of 18G1-'G5, speaks of "near
Abington" he must be understood in a relative sense and at the
same time in the sense of pioneer times. In the early day a man

FIRST AMERICAN SWINGS 155

regarded himself as "near" a place if within 50 or 100 miles
or more. M. A. Ewing had this tradition from the pioneers.
Abingdon, the county seat of Washington County, was never
in Wythe County. His traditions evidently got the pioneer
nearness to Abingdon associated with the fact that subsequent
to the settlement in Virginia the location of his ancestors fell
within what became Wythe County. I know the older tradi-
tions of settlement (as well as the history) near Abingdon in the
modern use of the word near. I have personally examined the
old records in Abingdon ; and so far as can be found, no Ewing
of our family, born either in Scotland or in Ireland, settled in
what is now Washington County. As elsewhere seen, Urban
Ewing, of the Bedford family, was once sheriff of that county ;
and Samuel Ewing and Joshua Ewing of the Cecil County branch,
who subsequently moved to Lee County, resided for a time in or
near Abingdon. But the M. A. Ewing tradition clearly did not
comprehend these or the families to which they immediately
belonged. That tradition tells us of "four brothers who came
from Scotland and settled in Wythe County," — clearly as their
location came to be some years after settlement. Who the four
brothers were, this tradition does not disclose. The present
limits of Wythe County do not aid us because, like all of the
earlier Virginia counties, Wythe was once much larger, and was
not formed until 1789. Hence, those pioneer Ewings could not
have settled in Wythe before the Revolution. That some of
our ancestors were in the section which became Montgomery and
Wythe — and there many years before the Revolution — is estab-
lished by evidence independently of this tradition ; and so it is
seen that the tradition associates the fact of early settlement with
later county names long subsequent to the settlement. All of
which is very correct ; because, for instance, to say that a man
settled in Augusta County in 1745, could mean a location
within either of more than one hundred counties of today. So
it was that the Montgomery and Wythe territory was at different
times within Augusta, Fincastle and Washington Counties ; and
when part of Washington, the county seat was Abingdon. My
great-grandfather, John Ewing, once owned lands "near" Abing-
don; and at the recordation of his will, in 1788, it appears that
that land was in Montgomery County. That land was near
Abingdon as "near" was often understood in the earlier days,.

156 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

and particularly when it was in a county of which Abingdon
was the county seat and place of record ; and as locations perhaps
appear on consulting a map, particularly when one does not in-
timately know the county, it may appear to be "near" even now,
relatively, at least.

There is some tradition that great-grandfather was born in
Scotland. He fills the description of one of the four brothers
of this tradition. If not one of them, he was certainly a near
cousin ; or, as a few have suggested, a descendant of one of the
Virginia immigrants or of one of the Cecil County immigrants.
I do not accept the latter theory, and because, for one thing, all
the Johns who were American born of the immigrant families
are otherwise identified.

I regard this M. A. Ewing tradition as of most value as
cumulative with the other evidence which establishes the close
kinship between the earlier Maryland, (old) Virginia, and
Thomas Ewing (Ohio) branch; and because it helps to link us
back to the Stirling Castle, or Loch Lomond, clan. I am in-
clined to the opinion that we should interpret it in the light of the
Nathaniel Ewing statement, published by William A. Ewing, in
The Courier- Journal. The brothers of Joshua, the sons of Wil-
liam of Scotland-Ireland by his second wife, settled in Virginia,
says that Nathaniel, who got his information from James, who
was one of them, and who lived in Prince Edward County, Vir-
ginia. That information was very close to contemporary; the M.
A. Ewing tradition was much further removed, and very probably
it lost a generation and meant that the four brothers were of
Scotch ancestry, rather than directly from Scotland. This view
certainly must be kept before us, particularly when we remember
that Hon. W. H. Ewing, who had never seen The Courier-Jour-
nal article, says his information, which was from another source,
was that several of the sons of William of Scotland-Ireland set-
tled in Virginia, and the more certainly when we remember that
The Courier-Journal article identifies Ewings of Cripple Creek,
in the Wytheville — Montgomery County — section, with sons of
that William, which sons did "not remain long in Maryland,"
Nathaniel says, before locating in Virginia.

"New Beaver," found in The Courier-Journal article, prob-
ably is a misprint for New River. Cripple Creek is in Wythe
County, and empties into New River.

FIRST AMERICAN EWINGS 157

The Georges, Williams, Johns and Alexanders of one gen-
eration, of what we may call the Wythe County community, are
sometimes confused with those of similar names of another gen-
eration, and caution must be exercised, we must also remember
in this connection.

Samuel Ewing, the half-brother of Nathaniel, of Cecil
CounfyT^and a brother of Joshua Ewing, and others, obtained a
grant of land in what became Prince Edward County, January'
12, 1746, as the date was taken from the records by Hon. W. H.
Ewing, of Prince Edward. It was this Samuel's son, George,
apparently, who married Elinor Caldwell, as we shall see, and
who was one of the Ewings who lived on Cripple Creek, in what
became Wythe County. Before his death (1788) my great-
grandfather (John) had acquiretd a right to one thousand acres
of land in the same community, and within sight of Ewing's
Mountain.

Mrs. Martin's information was that George and wife moved
from Prince Edward about KTO and settled "ten miles north of
Abingdon." I am convinced that that is too close to Abingdon,
but the point is not very important. These statements assist us
in identifying at least some of the Ewings of the Wytheville sec-
tion. Mary, a daughter of this George, married Urban Ewing,
one-time sheriff of Washington County, the county seat of which
was Abingdon, who was a brother of the widely known Rev.
Finis Ewing.

Now these traditions, which have some further elucidation
in the chapters dealing with these respective septs of the Scotch
clan, considered in connection with family resemblances and
traits, tombstone, Bible and other records, and also in the light of
what is known about our family coat of arms, furnish us a general
view of the earliest American ancestors of the families here par-
ticularly considered. While we cannot always be sure whether
some were cousins or brothers or uncles and nephews, we are
sure the American founders of these families were in some com-
munities brothers ; and again fathers and sons, and again uncles
and nephews, and in no case a more distant kinship than that of
cousins.

All the circumstances considered, including the perplexing
and almost maddening repetition of first names, often met from
generation to generation, there exists as to an unusually large

I 58 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

number of people the certainty of lineal descent from a common
Scotch ancestor not so very remote.

Than the families herein specially considered, there are,
probably, others of whose records I have not learned, similarly
descended. It is hoped that in the future a wholesome interest in
family history will bring them, if there are such, into deserved
recognition.

From several sources, apparently independent of each other
except for a common origin, it has come to me that "the Ewings
came to America in the ship Eagle Winy." Mrs. Jane H. Graham,
a descendant of one of the Lee County, Virginia, families, before
her death some years ago in St. Joseph, Missouri, gives this tra-
dition thus :

'The Ewings chartered a ship and came to this country in a
body from North Ireland. Thev had the coat of arms emblazoned
on the ship."

Mrs. Graham had that tradition regarding the ancestors of
the older Cecil County, Maryland, and Lee County, Virginia,
Ewings. As given by her, this tradition was in some confusion
regarding the emblazonment on the ship, representing the family
arms, and, of course, we now know that all of the American an-
cestors did not come to America "in a body." As given by Mrs.
Graham, this tradition is illustrative of the fact that, nearly
always, each tradition relates most reliably to the ancestors of the
direct line in which found.

Another tradition asserted with equal certainty is that "the
Ewings came to America in the ship Rising Sun."

Both, and other similar traditions, no doubt, are at least in
essentials true ; and mean that some of our ancestors came in the
one historic old ship and others in the other.

Without attempting identification at this time, it will interest
us to see where the Ewings, Ewins and Ewens, most of whom
descended from our clan, were when recorded by the first census
of the United States, taken as of 1790. Almost certainly in each
case, it is well to remember, Ewings, Ewins, Ewen, etc., were
misspellings for Ewing. In the introduction of that enumeration
it is said :

"The- territory west of .Allegheny Mountains, with the excep-
tion of a portion of Kentucky, was unsettled and scarcely pene-
trated (when this census was gathered). Detroit and Vincennes

FIRST AMERICAN EWINGS L59

were too small and isolated to merit consideration. Philadelphia
was the capital of the United States. Washington was a mere
government project, not even named, but known as the Federal
City. Indeed, by the spring of 1793, only one wall of the White
House had been constructed, and the site for the capital had
merely been surveyed."

We have seen that much of the first and second census, 1790
and 1800 for Virginia, was destroyed by fire. So we know that
many Ewings at both those enumerations were here and there
in the newer sections, the data for which were lost. No doubt this
accounts for the absence from those records of information re-
garding my grandfather. At the times of each enumeration he
was living in what is now Lee County, records for which were
burned. This is true of Montgomery and of Wythe, though
great-grandfather had died before the first census.

Printed with the records of the first census, entitled "Heads
of Families," is considerable information which was gathered
from tax and other local data, some of it for some of the Vir-
ginia Counties, going back to 1782. This information is not ex-
tant for all counties for the same year, and in no case does it en-
able us to know how long those named as the heads of families
had lived where found at the date of the information.

In 1782, as thus disclosed, Samuel Ewing, with a family
of four and one negro servant, lived in Amelia County. In that
year Elizabeth Ewing was the head of a family in Frederick
County, consisting of seven persons. James was in Prince Ed-
ward County, as shown by the information gathered for 1783.
having two in family and seventeen negroes — suggesting much
land and extensive farming operations. There were that year in
that county three Samuels ; one had a family of three, one other
had three and the third had eight. William Ewing, with a family
of eight, was also in that county in that year, 1783. In 1785
James Ewing, with one in family, lived in Prince Edward County.
He had one dwelling and ten other buildings.

From 1783 to 1786 there were on the tax lists of Greenbrier
County eleven Ewings, James, Joshua, John, Jr., and John, Sr.,
William, etc.

In 1785 Elizabeth Ewing lived in Frederick County, having
seven in her family.

160 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Andrew Ewin was in Greenbrier, as was Elizabeth Ewin.
She had a family of ten.

Henry and William, two in family, were in Rockingham.

In North Carolina George, Hugh and John were in Lincoln
County ; Nathaniel was in the Salisbury district of Iredell County,
and Isaac Ewing was in Burke County.

In South Carolina were James, three Johns, two Roberts
and Jno. Ewinge, Jno. Ewings, Thos. and Wm. Ewings.

The first census discloses forty Ewing families in Pennsyl-
vania, three Ewin families; the Rev. John (whose name was
spelled Ewin) being one, shown by the census to be the prevost of
the University ; then the inevitable William, Samuel, James, Jas-
per, Timothy (I don't know why he was not called William or
Alexander, for there were seven Alexanders ! ) , David, Ann, etc.

New Hampshire had Alexander Ewen and John Ewins, and
Vermont had James Ewings. Maine had five or six — all heads
of families. New York had William and John ; Connecticut had
Edward Ewen, Jr., and Sr., William Ewing and Thos. Ewings,
John Ewing and family were in Rhode Island. In Maryland
were two Ewens, one Ewin ; and of those spelled Ewing there
were Amos, of Cecil County, nine in family ; Henry, of Cecil
County, eleven in family ; James, of Caroline County, nine in fam-
ily, and eleven slaves ; James, of Harford County, four in family ;
Nathaniel, of Cecil County, two in family, and seven slaves ; Na-
thaniel, of Cecil ; Patrick, Esquire, of Cecil, eight in family, and
three slaves; Robert, of Cecil County, eight in family; Robert,
of Dorchester, two in family, and thirteen slaves ; Thomas, of
Cecil County, eight in family, and four slaves ; William, of Cecil,
six in family ; William, of Queen Anns, eight in family, and eight
slaves ; William, also of Queen Anns, three in family, and one
slave, and James (Ewings), of Harford, had six in family.

William and John were in New York, and a Mrs. Ewin in
Massachusetts had a family.

The returns for Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey
and Tennessee, were burned by the British in the War of 1812.

The different spelling in far the majority of cases, at least,
do not mean different family names : they were all Ewings.

XIV.

THE CECIL COUNTY, MARYLAND, SEPTS.

VIRGINIA BRANCHES— JAMES AND GEORGE EWING
OF PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY.

Out of Cecil County, Maryland, has come a numerous
and forceful army of Ewings. There were two or more distinct
immigrations to that section, the relationship between the sepa-
rate waves being apparently rather remote. Much error in de-
termining pedigree has resulted by confusing descendants of
one branch with those of another.

The earliest to become identified with that part of America,
were the children of William Ewing, of the old Loch Lomond or
Glasgow clan, generally believed to have been born about 1G60.
That he was born within the old clan territory in Scotland with-
in the environs of Stirling Castle, there is universal agreement.
In early life he emigrated to Ulster, Ireland, where many of his
clan kindred had lived for many years. His children were born in
Ireland, and there he and his wives died, neither he nor either
wife, as is sometimes erroneously reported, ever having come
to America. Ann, his daughter, who came to this country with
her brothers, the half brothers of Nathaniel, about 1725, is
sometimes confused with Ann, his grandaughter, the daughter
of Nathaniel, and because this granddaughter was born at sea,
known as the "Sea Gull".

As has been said elsewhere, some question that the ances-
tor from Scotland to Ireland was named William. However, all
the evidences as far back as I find it appears to treat that ancestor
as William.

To this branch, through one of this William's sons, who
became identified with Cecil County, belong Adlai Ewing Steven-
son, a distinguished lawyer and legislator, Vice-president of
the United States in 1893-'97 ; James S. Ewing, United States
minister to Belgium during the same period ; and many other
notable men and women.

161

162 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Another of the certainly two and possibly more branches
of the Ewings to become identified with Cecil County, at least not
closely related to those who came to this country in or about
1725, are the descendants of another William who, coming from
Ireland, it appears, settled near what is now Blake about 1790.
He acquired land, built a comfortable home, and there brought up
his family, naming his boys after the family custom by those
names that have been so confusing for hundreds of years.

We shall consider first the family of the older William.
It appears to be generally agreed that all of his children were
born in Ulster, Ireland, by reason of which his descendants are
known as Scotch-Irish. As elsewhere explained, Scotch-Irish is
a term which indicates birth in Ireland of Scotch parents; and
not, as some erroneously suppose, birth of Scotch and Irish
ancestry. Almost universally the Ewings of Irish birth are as
purely Scotch as those born in Scotland. County Coleraine is
the place most usually indicated as the paternal home of this
older Wiliam's chidren. This was the conclusion of Col. Wm. A.
Ewing and he so indicated on his chart. But records in Ireland,
studied in recent years, furnish names of those born in other than
Coleraine, corresponding to those of this William's children, and
so give some ground for concluding that they were natives of the
barony of Quisowen in County Donegal. In a recent letter to me,
Jno. G. Ewing expressed the opinion, in view of these records and
the fact that nothing similar has been found in Coleraine, that
it was in Quisowen, and not in Coleraine, these children were
born ; and he was of the further opinion that from Quisowen
"all the Ewings of the early emigration," whose ancestors he
could trace, "drew their origin." But some of the early immi-
gration, kindred, it is believed, to those who' became iden-
tified with Cecil County, came direct from Scotland. While in-
teresting, yet the question as between Donegal and Coleraine is
not so important. Both are in Ulster and not so very far from
historic Londonderry.

All the traditions agree that this William Ewing, from
Scotland to Ireland, and his first wife, had but one child,
Nathaniel. In a note to the (later) Nathaniel Ewing statement,
noticed in the previous chapter, published in The Courier-] ournal,
Colonel Ewing, who subsequently indicated Eliza Milford as the

MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA SEPTS 163

second wife of this William, gives the names of the second family
as John. Joshua, Samuel, Moses and Henry; and says that ''all
settled in Cecil County, Maryland, except John, who located in
the southwestern corner of Chester County. Pennsylvania, on the
east side of the Octorora Creek, near the others, and afterwards
went to Ohio, and then to Kentucky, with a large family." I am
inclined to believe that this statement confuses the immigrant
Tohn with a John of the first American generation. It is
possible that the earlier John has been confused with John
Ewing, born in Pennsylvania not far from 1760 possibly, and
who married Margaret Townsley in Pennsylvania. This John
moved to Kentucky at an early day, and there, in Campbell Coun-
ty, his son John was born January 16, 1800. This John sub-
sequently went to Ohio and for many years his descendants
maintained a hospitable and lovely home at Zenia, as seen in
another chapter. In his chart, made subsequeently to the pub-
lication of the article, Col. Ewing gives Joshua, James, William
and Ann, as William Ewing's second family.

Hon. P. K. Ewing, to cite a recent publication, in his "The
Ewing Genealogy," page 7, gives as this second family, "William,
Joshua, James, Samuel and Anne, and possibly other children."
It will be helpful if we bear in mind that this William was not
the William who located in what is now Rockingham County,
Virginia, most certainly. As seen elsewhere, that pioneer Will-
liam of Rockingham probably was born in Scotland.

In addition to the Col. Ewing chart, which has some in-
accuracies, some of the descendants of Nathaniel, the oldest
son of William of Ireland, are given by Hon. P. K. Ewing. He
says he had "no record of the descendants of the half-brothers
Joshua, James and Samuel". The present work, therefore, as to
these and others, will be able to add very materially to the in-
formation up to this time in print.

Taking his family in the order of birth, Nathaniel, born in
Ireland as were his half-brothers and sister, was apparently born
about 1693. He and his half-brothers and half-sister Anne came
to America at least as early as 1725. Nathaniel located in Cecil
County, Maryland, on a farm owned in recent years by David
C. Brown, which adjoins the farm on which his brother Josua
Ewing located.

164 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Nathaniel married Rachel Porter, a cousin, sister of James
Porter, who came to America with his cousin Ewings. She was
born in 1706 and died in 1771. It is generally believed that they
married in Ireland about 1721. Nathaniel, the grandson of this
immigrant, Nathaniel, in the article, which we have noted, pub-
lished in the Courier- Journal, says :

"My grandfather Ewing, as I have said, settled in Maryland,
on the eastern shore of the Susquehanna, now called Cecil County,
where he had a family of ten children, — six sons and four daugh-
ters, viz.: Sarah, William, Ann, John and James (twins),
George, Alexander, Rachel, and Samuel, who died young."

He then says Sarah married Robert Potts and lived near
Harrisburg, Pa. ; William, the oldest boy, married Kitty Ewing,
daughter of Joshua Ewing; Ann, known as the "Sea Gull", be-
cause born on the ocean, married James Breading, her cousin;
John married Hannah Sargeant ; James married, first, Peggy
Ewing, daughter to Joshua Ewing ; second, Miss Venable ; George
married Mary Porter, his cousin ; daughter of James Porter ;
Alexander married Jane Kirkpatrick ; Rachel married William
Ewing, a relative, and lived in Sunbury, Pennsylvania; Samuel
died without issue. He does not name a tenth child ; and Col.
Ewing says he was unable to locate a tenth.

Of Nathaniel's son William I have no account regarded as
reliable, except a letter, written in 1916, which comes to me as I go
to press, which indicates H. C. Ewing, bond broker, Portland,
Oregon, as descendant. John, born in Cecil County, Maryland,
June 22, 1732, was a twin of James, who moved to Virginia.
John became a distinguished mathematician, surveyor, Presby-
terian divine and teacher. He was the first or an early pro-
vost (or president) of the University of Pennsylvania, and the
first census indicates him as occupying that post. He married
Hannah Sergeant, in Philadelphia in 1758 ; and died in that city
September 8, 1802. He received the degree of Doctor of
Divinity (D. D.) from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
The celebrated Dr. Johnson of England presented him a cane
as a token of admiration. He represented Pennsylvania in the
boundary disputes with Virginia, and filled many other important
positions. He was one of the ablest preachers of his day.
(See Hening, Statutes of Virginia, Wilson's, Life and Sermons of

MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA SEPTS 165

Rev. John Ewing, 1812; Memories of Mrs. Hall, by Harrison
Hall, and many other sources). He left a large and influential
family, some of whose descendants yet live in Pennsylvania,
while other branches early settled in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and in
other States.

In the interest of a Presbyterian college, Dr. Ewing traveled
over England, Scotland and Ireland. The trip was made in
1774 and 1775; and letters to home folks yet extant shed im-
portant light upon the history of the day. In a letter written
in 1775 he speaks of the difficulties of obtaining contributions
to the college because of the growing alienation between Great
Britain and the American colonies. He bewailed the1 "con-
duct of the New York Assembly" because by some act it had giv-
en "ye ministry" of England "great hopes of breaking ye Union
of the colonies and thereby carrying out their point at last. If
America be now enslaved, it will lie at their door," he declared.
Yet the king made a personal contribution to this educational
enterprise; and Dr. Ewing became the personal friend of Lord
Dartmouth and other eminent men and women of England and
Scotland.

When the cord snapped this John, as did the Ewings gen-
erally, bent every effort in the interest of American freedom!

May 3, 1775, he wrote from Glasgow :

"I have been in my old friends, Mrs. Ewings this ten days."

That old friend undoubtedly must have been by marriage a
clan relation, and indicates that he sought and sojourned with his
Scotch kin in Glasgow, The facts that he was some time in
Glasgow ; that he was undoubtedly a man of broad learning
for his day ; that he was a man of bright mind and always alert ;
and that he used as his family escutcheon the arms used by Ewing
of Craigtown, the identical old arms that had come down from the
old Ewing arms prior to 1565, strengthen our faith in the right
of the American Ewings descended as was he from the old
Loch Lomond clan and in common from the ancestor who bore the
arms before 1565, — to display those arms today as evidence of
pedigree.

The photographic reproduction of the emblazonment he ac-
cepted, number one of the accompanying halftones, has those
arms on the left of the reader. Some other arms are sriven on

166 CLAN SWING OF SCOTLAND

the other side. It is not unusual to display on the same lozenge
or shield the arms of both sides of a family.

This Rev. John Ewing and wife had the following children :

(a) Mary, who married, first, Samuel Gillespie; second,
James Sims. They moved from Hagerstown, Maryland, to Ohio
about 1800. (b) Sarah, married John Hall; (c) William, born
1761, married, first, Elizabeth Wallace, second, Mrs. Braxton;
and became a distinguished lawyer; (d) Ann, born 1763, married
William Davidson of Philadelphia; (e) Rachel; (f) James Ser-
geant, married Catherine Otto of Philadelphia; (g) Elizabeth,
married Robert Harris of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; (h) Samuel,
born 1772, married Eliza Redman ; (i) John, born 1776 ; and three
others who died in infancy.

James Sims and wife (a) Mary Ewing had William, Betsy
(who married a Nagle) ; Mary (who married a Ramage) ; Robert,
and twins John and James. This Robert, born in Hagers-
town, Maryland, 1795, located for some time in Baltimore, and
died 1887 in Cincinnati, where he had resided since 1838. At
twenty-two he married Elizabeth Brown ; and to them were born
Mary, married John Harrison ; Honor, married John School-
field ; Josephine, married William Watson ; Martha, died un-
married ; Rebecca Francis, married George W. Trowbridge ; and
Robert Amos, born 1835, married Eliza Trowbridge ; all of
these were born in Baltimore ; and Victoria, who was born in
Cincinnati, and married William Hoover. Robert Amos and
Mary Eliza Trowbridge had Luella, married Edward Henry
Bouton of Kansas City, Missouri, a successful business man now
of Baltimore, November 15, 1888; Anna Marie, married William
Ryley; Elizabeth Brown, married John Titus, Jr., and Joseph
Watson, who married Lillie Webb in 1888.

(b) Sarah, who married John Hall (February 20, 1783) was a
rather unusually brilliant woman. David L. James, in his Judge
James Hall, a Literary Pioneer of the Middle West (in Ohio
Arch, and Hist. Soc. Publications, 1909), says:

"Mrs. Sarah Ewing Hall was the daughter of the Rev. John
Ewing, provost of fhe University of Pennsylvania, and pastor
of the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. Her edu-
cation, like that of her son, came solely through contact with
the social circle in her father's home. She learned Greek and

MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA SEPTS 167

Latin from hearing her brothers recite their lessons in the pastor's
study. She read everything that came in her way. Her mar-
riage to Mr. John Hall, a Revolutionary soldier and a son of a
Maryland planter, with the sequence of domestic responsibilities
did not prevent a continuance of her study and writing. Her con-
versation was brilliant and always tended toward some end. She
wrote for The Portfolio, long the best known American period-
ical, and at fifty published a volume 'Conversations on the Bible,'
which passed through several editions and enjoyed the distinc-
tion of being reprinted in England."

In saying that Miss Ewing's education "came solely through
contact with the social circle in her father's home," James
is somewhat misleading. The splendid social atmosphere of Dr.
Ewing's home had much, unquestionably, to do with the happy
development of his children ; but the evidence shows that he gave
both his girls and boys educational opportunities not always ex-
tended to girls in that day. In one of his letters to his wife,
written while abroad in 1774, he says :

"Let the children be kept constantly at school. I think
that Polly should go longer. As we shall be able to give them
little or no fortunes they should have as good Learning as we
can give them. I hope Billy keeps close to his ciphering and that
he takes so much delight in it as to make progress. The Girls
should also learn something of figures."

It would be unfair to forget that the punctuation and capi-
talization used by Dr. Ewing in his letters were according to rules
much followed by the learned in his day. Too, there was a wide
impression at that time that girls needed very little knowledge of
mathematics.

One of Sarah Ewing Hall's children was James Hall, born
in Philadelphia in 1794. Young Hall studied law, finally being
admitted to practice, but in the meantime he became lieutenant
in the United States army, and was under the command of Col.
Winfield Scott, subsequently general ; and later Lieutenant Hall
"fought bravely under General Brown at the battles of Chippewa,
Niagara Falls and Lundy's Lane," in the war of 1812-'14. After
that war he served in the Mediterranean with Commodore Deca-
tur. He left the army in 1818 and devoted himself to law, liter-
ature and finance. He became a resident of Cincinnati, a
distinguished judge, and one of the most extensive contributors

168 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

to the literature of his day. In 1835 he hecame the cashier of.
the Commercial National Bank of Cincinnati, a corporation with
a million dollars capital, and at death in 1 868 was its president.
(See a picture of him in his Romance of Western History.)

The other children of John and Sarah Hall were Harrison,
Sargeant, Edward, James, Thomas M., Alexander H., Charles,
William ; and there was a sister, Catherine H. Sargeant. The
oldest was born in 1783, and the youngest, William, in 1807.

The eldest son of James Hall, John Ewing Hall, became a
professor in the University of Maryland ; and subsequently pub-
lished The American Law Journal, and engaged in other literary
work.

Mrs. Sarah Hall Foote, wife of Charles B. Foote, president
of the Commercial Bank of Cincinnati, is a descendant; and an-
other is William Hall, Mount Auburn, Cincinnati.

James, the twin of the Rev. John Ewing, settled early in
Virginia, in a section now within Prince Edward County. I am
sure this James Ewing or his Uncle James was one of the signers
of a petition by "sundry inhabitants" of Prince Edward County,
Virginia, October 11, 1776, to the Virginia House of delegates,
declaring :

"We heartily approve and cheerfully submit ourselves to
the form of government adopted at your last session, hoping that
our United States will long continue free and independent."

This James was born in Cecil County, Maryland, June 30,
1732 (Bible of his brother John, extant in St. Paul, Minnesota,
in 1897). He married, first, (Peggy) Margaret Ewing, a cousin,
daughter of Joshua Ewing; and after her death he married a
Venable of Virginia. On moving to Virginia he first made his
home in Mecklenburg County. Of him Wilson in his introduc-
tion to John Ewing's Sermons, published in 1812, says he then
was the only survivor of his brothers. He died after 1812
on Vaughn's Creek in Prince Edward County. He had
one son whom he named John- James, for himself and his
distinguished brother. This son was born in Virginia in
1802. He married Tabetha P. Edgar, November 19, 1822, in
Bedford County (see marriage records of that county); but
made his home in Prince Edward County. Miss Edgar was
born in Virginia in 1806 and died in Missouri in 1855. He died

MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA SEPTS 169

at his home in 1850. About 1850 his widow and children went
to Missouri and there in Richmond and in Ray County their
descendants reside. (Hon. W. H. Ewing, letter of 1911.) John-
James grew up with James, the son of George whom this older
James adopted after George's death. As given me by Mrs.
Myrtle Ewing Creel Bierce of Richmond, Missouri, John-James'
children were :

Mary Elizabeth, John-James, Thomas E. R., Bertha, Sterling
Price, Agnes and Tabetha.

Mary Elizabeth was born 1823, near Lynchburg, Virginia.
After going to Missouri she married Daniel Branstetter, and died
in 1888. To them was born Mary Elizabeth Branstetter (possi-
bly others) in Richmond, Missouri, in 1812. She married
Matthew Judson Creel, and died in 1909. He was born in Cul-
peper, Virginia, in 1833. To them were born: Sarah P., who
married John R. Green, clerk of the Supreme Court of Missouri
for twenty years ; C. W. Creel, a farmer in Arkansas ; Myrtle
Ewing Creel, September 17, 1868, married Bierce of Mis-
souri ; H. L. Creel, who became a justice of the Supreme Court
of Missouri ; J. F. Creel, of the Southern Pacific Railway Com-
pany in California; Barton Creel, a well-known newspaper man;
Mattie, who married a Davis ; John Ewing Creel, who died young ;
Lillian May, who married Prof. Raymond Shoop of Richmond,
Missouri; and Ruby, who married a Ferris, a lawyer of prom-
inence in Missouri.

Alexander, one of the sons of Nathaniel the immigrant, who
married Jane Kirkpatrick, and who lived at Bald Friar's Ferry,
Maryland, had :

William, who was in the "west" at the date of his mother's
will; Margaret, who married Henry Ewing, son of her uncle
John Ewing; Nathaniel, who married Jane Elinor Ewing, daugh-
ter of Capt. Patrick Ewing ; James ; John ; Catherine, who mar-
ried a Long; Alexander, who, as we have seen, was born in 1769,
and died in 1827, married Charlotte Griffith; Rachel, who mar-
ried Alexander E. Grubb ; Elizabeth, who married Moses Ewing,
son of her great-uncle, Henry Ewing, ancestor of Jasper Ewing,
aide de camp on the staff of Gen. Edward Hand, a division com-
mander under Washington in the Revolution ; and George.

James Ewing on March 7. 1750, conveyed land owned by his
father Alexander in his lifetime, and it is shown that this Alex-

170 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

ancler died in 1738. The land, therefore, was acquired at an
earlier date. Two brothers of this James, John and William, as-
sented to this conveynce. If this be, as appears probable, the
son of James of the above Alexander, he must have remained in
Maryland at least some time after his father's death.

The records of administration of estates in Lancaster Coun-
ty, Pennsylvania, show a survey as of November 29, 1824, cov-
ering land "of James Ewing, deceased, late of Cecil County,
Maryland." An order was issued by the court, authorizing Alex-
ander E. Grubb and William McCullough to sell 144 acres of
this land which lay in Little Britain Township. It appears cer-
tain that this James lived for a time in Maryland ; James, "late
of Cecil County ;" appears to be the same man who had removed
to and died in Pennsylvania. This bit of light from the Pennsyl-
vania record suggests that Little Britain in Pennsylvania bordered
Cecil County. No doubt much light upon some of the Cecil
County family may be had from the old Lancaster County records,
which I have not fully examined.

For instance of many, in 17G2 James Breading, George and
Alexander Ewing took a deed to land as shown by the Lancaster
records. This deed is witnessed by Patt Ewing and William
Ewing.

Again, the will of George Ewing of Little Britain Township,
Lancaster County, was probated May 3, 1785. It names his wife.
Jean, eldest daughter Polly, eldest son William, second son
Nathaniel, second daughter Elinor, and their son James. The
executors were the wife, the deceased's brother, Alexander
Ewing, and his cousin David Breading. So of many other records
which suggest either the Cecil County descendants or their kin-
dred.

In the York County records, it is interesting to note in this
connection, may be seen a mortgage, among other Ewing instru-
ments, of William Ewing, who was a son of Thomas and a
brother of General James Ewing, dated "7th May, 23rd year of
George the 2d," that is, 1750.

May 3, 1738, Thomas Ewing gave a mortgage on land in
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in favor of the general loan
office of that colony.

So that it is certain that at least some of the Ewings of
Pennsylvania were related closely to those of Maryland; and

MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA SEPTS 171

the many records in the former State show that they acquired
lands there perhaps as early as in Maryland.

Isaac Walkeff^grandson of a James Ewing of Allegheny
County, Pennsylvania, writes for The Mansfield Item of January
22, 1886, an article, in which he says that his grandfather, James
Ewing, was born in Cecil County, Maryland, about 1730 ; "that he
emigrated west in 1770/ and settled near Fort Pitt Station, and
built the first grist mill on the waters of Robinson Run, one of
the first in the county." He took his slaves to the new outpost
home, which, for many years, was liable to Indian attack. This
pioneer, therefore, slept with a loaded gun in his bed. "He was
of Scotch-Irish birth" and a strict Presbyterian. He founded
|V a church and became an elder. He died, according to Walker,
i -^at 96 ; and had five sons and four daughters. "The Ewing fam-
ily living on Montour's Run are descendants of one son. He
was the grandfather of William Ewing of Mansfield and James A.
Ewing of Walker's Mill. Another descendant is Rev. John
Ewing, D. D., now (1886) pastor of Pittsgrove church at Dare-
town, New Jersey.'" This divine made a notable address before
the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Edinburgh,
Scotland, in 1874. Then Walker adds:

"Going back to the ancestry of James Ewing, we fiid that
four brothers of the Ewing family emigrated from Londonderry,
Ireland, about 1700. They settled in Cecil and Harford Counties,
Maryland. One of them went to Ohio, from whom sprang the
Ohio Ewings, of whom the late Thomas Ewing and his son Gen-
eral Ewing are descendants."

But, as William A. Ewing pointed out, this statement re-
garding the ancestry of Hon. Thomas Ewing, as will more fully
appear elsewhere, is unquestionably an error ; an error all the
more easy because from time immemorial the relationship be-
tween that Ohio family and the Maryland and Virginia and
Pennsylvania Ewings has been recognized generally.

Jane E wing's will (spelled Jean in body of will) dated
October 18, 1815, was probated in Cecil County, Maryland, No-
vember 20, 1824. Miss C. P. Evans of Manasquan, New Jersey,
and others of the Ewing descendants of Cecil County, identify
this Jane as the widow of Alexander, supra, of Bald Friars.
She names her children as Margaret, Rachel, Elizabeth, Betsy,

172 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

William, Nathaniel, James, John and Alexander. She leaves
a hat that belonged to his father, a Bible and $2.00 to William,
with the provision that if he should die before he returned from
the "West" these bequests should go to Betsy. "My son-in-law.
Moses Ewing and his brother John Ewing," she concludes, shall
be the executors.

Nathaniel Ewing, the son of Alexander Ewing, 1731-1799,
who married Jane Kirkpatrick and lived at Bald Friar's Ferry,
sometimes called "Little Britain, Pa.," in Cecil County, Maryland,
Alexander being the son of the elder Nathaniel, son of William
of Scotland-Ireland, married Jane Elinor Ewing, born April 2,
1778, daughter of Capt. Patrick Ewing (see the latter's will dated
1811). This marriage displeased the captain. Apparently this
was the Nathaniel Ewing who was commissioned captain of a
company in the first Maryland regiment, patriot troops of the
Revolution, January 3, 1776, and discharged in 1779. (Mary-
land Muster Rolls.) Mrs. Fulkerson, of Lexington, Missouri,
in a letter to me in March, 1913, says this Nathaniel volunteered
in the war of 1812, and never returned; and that his children
were taken by Joshua Ewing who married a Craig, living first
at Abingdon, then at Rose Hill, Virginia, and finally going to
Missouri. Nathaniel and Jane Elinor Ewing had Catherine
Ann, born 1801, and Patrick. Catherine Ann married Jacob
Vanhook Fulkerson of Lee County, Virginia. To them were
born :

(a) Margaret, who married Lyons; (b) Putnam, who mar-
ried Jane Ridings; (c) Ellen, who married Dr. Wm. Frick ; (d)
Jacob J., who became a distinguished physician and was living
in Lexington, Missouri, in 1913, and who married Mary Good-
win; (e) Nathaniel; (f) Lee Dow, who married Harriet Bales
and left descendants ; and who at one time represented Lee
County, Virginia, in the legislature; (g) Emma, who married
Stephen J. Reeder; and (h) Albert, who married Carrie Good-
win, sister of Mary.

George Ewing, one of the sons of Nathaniel the immigrant,
was the founder of another of the early Ewing families of
creditable destinction. This George was born in 1738 and died
in 1785 or '88. As his father before had married Rachel Porter,
his cousin who came from Ireland with the first Ewing im-

MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA SEPTS 173

migrants of our family, so this George married May Porter, his
cousin, in 1766. She was born 1716 and died in 1778.

Hon. W. H. Ewing, of Prince Edward County, Virginia, a
lineal descendant, and a great grandson, informed me that this
George moved from Pennsylvania (though he appears to have
been born' just across the State line in Maryland) to Virginia, be-
fore his death. Just when he reached Virginia, Mr. W. H. Ewing
does not say, but he says that, "About 1725 several of the
Ewings came from Maryland and settled in (what became)
Prince Edward County and also in other counties in the State,
but I can give you no information regarding any except those
who settled in Prince Edward and Bedford Counties. (Letter
of October 18, 1911.) Other sources of information seem to
suggest that possibly this George never permanently settled in
Virginia.

However, as he was the great grandfather of Hon. W. H.
Ewing. of Prince Edward County, "a man of education and fine
sense", incidentally remarked Mr. S. L. Farrar, clerk of the
Circuit Court for Amelia County, in a letter to me in No-
vember, 1918, I regard W. H. Ewing's evidence upon this point
as controlling. He says that this was the George who, with
William Ewing. was employed to remove the public records
and government supplies from Prince Edward Court House
upon the approach of Col. Tarleton with British forces who were
devastating that section of Virginia through which they rode.
These two Ewings were living in Vaughn's Creek in 1775.

The late James L. Ewin of Washington, D. C, informed me
that this George had five children, of only three of whom he knew :
William P.. Nathaniel, and James. Through Hon. James K.
Ewing of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, a descendant of William P.,
and who traced descent to this George, he got information of
that family, showing that William P., of Fayette County Penn-
sylvania, married Mary Cornwell, and had eight children. These
included George, who went to Texas and married and died there ;
James H., of Washington, Pennsylvania, a member of Con-
gress at one time, born 1794 and died 1887, who married, first,
Jane Creigh Kennedy, a cousin of Hon. James G. Blaine, sec-
ond, Ann Lyon Denny. By the first wife John H. had John K.
Ewing, long a well known banker of Uniontown, Pennsylvania,

174 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

who married Ellen L. Wilson, and had Nathaniel, also a bank-
er of that town. Another son of William P. was Nathaniel,
long a distinguished judge of the court, Uniontown, Pennsyl-
vania ; and another was James, who married a Miss Baird.

It is certain, however, that this George Ewing had (a)
James; (b) Nathaniel, born April 10, 1772; died August 4,
1846; (c) Alexander, who went to Ohio; and, upon the in-
formation of the James L. Ewin data, William P.

(a) James appears to have been born in Maryland. He spent
his mature life, certainly, in Virginia and there lies buried.
He became colonel of Virginia troops ; and care must be exercised
to distinguish him from his Uncle James, who adopted this nephew
in his Prince Edward home after George's death.

The younger James married Parnella Morgan of Virginia.
Their son, Thomas M. Ewing, 1812-1875, married Ann M. Owen
of Virginia. There were several other children. This younger
James, accompanied by his neighbors, the Prices, Balls, Gil-
lespies, Morgans and others, moved from Prince Edward County,
Virginia, to Chariton County, Missouri, in 1835. The family,
servants, and household furniture were conveyed the entire dis-
tance in wagons, the cows and other stock being driven. All of
this younger James' family remained in Missouri except his son,
Thomas M. Thomas M. Ewing returned to and died in Prince
Edward County, Virginia. His children: (a) Hon. William
Henry Ewing, 1841, living in Prince Edward in 1920. (b)
John James, 1844-1869, never married; was a gallant Con-
federate soldier, and served with distinction in Stuart's caval-
ry; (e). Nannie Elizabeth, 1854-1879, never married.

(a) William Henry Ewing was educated at Hampden Sid-
ney College, Virginia ; and volunteered in the Confederate army
in 1861, along with other college students. He was captured
subsequently, exchanged, and joined Gen. J. E. B. Stuart's cele-
brated cavalry. Badly wounded at Front Royal in 1864, yet he
did not quit until he surrendered with Lee at Appomattox. He
has filled many offices of honor and trust, among them repre-
senting his country in the legislature for several years. He has
been twice married and has a number of children and grand-
children.

(b) Nathaniel, one of the George Ewing boys, located at
Vincennes, Indiana. He wrote the article published by Col. W.

MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA SEPTS 175

A. Ewing in The Courier-Journal. Quite probably he saw the
older James when on a visit to Virginia, as James, the twin of
Rev. John, we have seen, adopted this Nathaniel's brother James
after the death of George and Mary Porter Ewing.

The following is a copy of a letter, which copy, as here
given, came into my hands several years ago :

"Pittsburg, Penn., Dec. 5th, 1886.
"Mrs. Andrew Mackey,

St. Louis, Mo.
"Dear Madam :

"Your kind favor of the 28th of last month making in-
quiry as to the statements made by Dr. Dewey (of the Ewings)
and sent to James B. Hogg, is received. This nephew has been
living at Seattle, Washington Territory for months past and I do
not know whether he received the statement or not.

"As to the Ewings, they were Scotch-Irish, and resided
near Coleraine (23 miles North East of Londonderry).

"Nathaniel Ewing and his wife Rachel Porter Ewing, with
their son William, Joshua Ewing and Ann Ewing (brother and
sister of Nathaniel Ewing), and James Porter (brother of Na-
thaniel Ewing's wife), emigrated to the United States in 1725.
On the ship a daughter was born to Nathaniel and Rachel P.
Ewing, named Ann (known by the relatives afterwards as the
'Sea Gull').

"They all settled on the Octorora Creek in Maryland near
the Susquehanna river. There Sally, John and James (twins),
George, Alexander and Rachel Ewing were born ; children of
Nathaniel and Rachel P. Ewing.

"Joshua Ewing married and had five children, Kitty,

Peggy, Patrick, Nathaniel and Joshua.

"Ann Ewing married Samuel Gillespie and had two chil-
dren, Samuel and Ann. Samuel, married Polly Ewing, daughter
of Rev. Dr. John Ewing, (one of the twins above), Ann Gil-
lespie married James Simms. Neither Samuel Gillespie nor
Ann Gillespie Simms lived long, and after their death the above
James married Samuel Gillespie's widow, Polly Ewing Gilles-
pie. These two lived to a good old age near St. Clairsville.
Belmont Co., Ohio, and had sons and daughters. I once paid the
old people a visit about 1838 with Catherine and Amelia Ewing,

176 CLAN EWING OP SCOTLAND

daughters of Dr. James Ewing of Phila., Pa. Dr. James Ewing
was a son of Dr. John Ewing, of Phila., Pa., and this Mrs.
James Simms was the aunt of Catherine and Amelia Ewing.

"James Porter, brother of Nathaniel Ewing's wife, married
Samuel Gillespie's sister Ellen and they had nine children, Jane,
Mary, Nelly, Betsy, Stephen, George, Andrew, William and Sam-
uel.

"Jane married Patrick son of Joshua Ewing.
"Mary married her cousin George Ewing, son of Nathaniel
Ewing.

"Betsy married her brother-in-law Patrick after the death of
her sister Jane.

"Stephen and George married sisters by the name of Hart.

"Nathaniel and Rachel Porter Ewing's children were as
follows: William, Ann, Sally, John and James (twins) George,
Alexander, and Rachel.

"George Ewing married his cousin Mary Porter, and they
had five children, Mary, William-Porter, Nathaniel, Ellen, James.
James Ewing married Rebecca Morgan and they had the chil-
dren, George-Brading, William, Nathaniel, Thomas, Betsy,
James, Mary-Susan, Pernatta, and Martha-Jane.

"Nathaniel Ewing's (the first emigrant to America 1725)
William, married his cousin Kitty, daughter of Joshua Ewing.

"Ann (Sea Gull) married her cousin James Brading.

"Sally married Mr. Potts and they had two children. Hus-
band died soon.

"John married Hannah Sargent (aunt of John and Judge
Louis Sargent).

"James married his cousin Peggy, daughter of James Porter
(see above).

"Alexander married Jane Kirkpatrick.

"Rachel-Margaret married her cousin by the name of Ewing
and lived in Sunbury Pa.

"The foregoing will give you general outline of the Ewings.
There is nothing in print. My nephew, James Brading Hogg,
left for the West before he had completed his task.

"Your grandfather's brother Nathaniel, lived in Vincennes,
Ind. His grandchildren (Dr. Wm. Lane's children), Mrs. Wm.
Glasgow and Ann Lane, and grandchildren lived in St. Louis,

MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA SEPTS 177

also his son Wm. Ewing's children and grandchildren reside there,
but I suppose you know them all.

"Maj. Edwards wife is one of Nathaniel Ewing's (of Vin-
cennes, Ind.) grandchildren. I have not heard of Wm. Ewing,
your uncle's son. I understand he was married and lived west
of St. Louis.

"I have a photograph of William and Nathaniel Ewing.
your grandfather's brothers.

"Yours truly,

"Nathaniel B. Hogg.
"L. Ewing, Esq., Guthrie, Ky. (has family tree).

"Wm. A. Ewing, National Military Home, O., Feb. 2, 1897,
(has family tree)."

There are probably many copies of this letter floating here
and there ; and I insert it because it furnishes some light and also
to caution against accepting too fully all its statements. For
instance, it confuses the family of Joshua, the half-brother of
Nathaniel, the immigrants, with the family of some other Joshua
— if we are to accept the weight of the available evidence.

So that in recapitulation, it appears that of the children of
Nathaniel Ewing (1693-1748) who married Rachel Porter, son
of William Ewing of Scotland to Ireland, left the following
descendants :

(a) William, 172-3-1788, married his cousin, Kittv Ewing, a
daughter of Joshua Ewing; (b) Ann. born at sea in 1725,
"the Sea Gull," married James Breading; (c) Sarah married
Robert Potts; (d) Alexander 1731-1799, married Jane Kirk-
patrick and lived at Bald Friar's Ferry, Susquehanna River.
Maryland; (e)rRachel, married William Ewing, a cousin, and
lived at Sunbury, Pennsylvannia ; (f) James, a twin of the Rev-
erend John, 1732, married (Peggy) Margaret Ewing, daughter
of Joshua Ewing ; upon her death, married Miss Venable of
Virginia. This James lived in Virginia. He was the only mem-
ber of his family surviving when Wilson published the Rev.
John's sermons in 1812. (g) (Rev.) John became the distin-
guished divine, scientist and teacher, lived in Philadelphia; (h)
George, 1738-1785, married his cousin, Mary Porter. It is said
that this was the General George Ewing who served as commis-
sioner of Pennsylvania troop in Revolution; but as I am not at-

178 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

tempting to follow the Pennsylvania line I have not attempted to
verify this tradition.

Of the foregoing children (b) Ann had Nathaniel Breading,
who married Mary Ewing, daughter of George and Mary Porter
Ewing, and possibly others. This Nathaniel Breading is credited
with a daughter Mary, who, as given on the William A. Ewing
chart, married Nathaniel B. Hogg, apparently the author of the
above letter, and was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1893 ; and
Elizabeth who married Mcllvane, a descendant of William B. Mc-
Ilvaine, being in Chicago in 1893. (d) Alexander we have fol-
lowed at some length as we have James and his twin John and
their brother George.

The following notes were taken from the records at Elkton.
county seat of Cecil County, Maryland. It is regretted that it
has been found impossible to verify them since they were made.
It is almost impossible to examine records extensively and make
no errors in notes ; and historical accuracy requires at least a
comparison at a later day.

Jane Kirkpatrick Ewing's will, probated 1824, mentions
money due from the estate of James Ewing; and these children:
Elizabeth, apparently the wife of Moses Ewing; Margaret,
Rachel Grubb, relict of Thomas Grubb (who had six children,
Jane, Alexander, Joseph, Isabilla, James, and William Grubb) ;
and these grandchildren : John, Elizabeth and Jane Ewing, chil-
dren of Alexander Ewing of Ohio; Elizabeth, Phineas and John
Ewing, children of James Ewing; Elizabeth and Alexander
Ewing, children of Margaret Ewing; Jane, Mary and Alexander
Long, children of Katherine Long of Kentucky; Jane Ellen
Ewing, daughter of Moses Ewing. "My son Alexander and my
grandson Alexander E. Grubb" were named as executors.

Joseph Ewing, a carpenter of New York, died in Cecil Coun-
ty in 1827.

James Ewing of Ewingsville, who died in 1843, left a farm
to his brother John, "on which he lives."

Patrick Ewing's will, son of the older Patrick, was pro-
bated in 1868, and mentions daughters, Jane Anna P. Ewing,
Margaret Isabella, and Rebecca Frances Evans (wife of William
James Evans); and daughter Elizabeth Caroline Black; sons
Edwin Evans, Theodore and William Pinckney Ewing.

MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA SEPTS 179

Robert of East Nottingham, Cecil County, died in 1803.
William A. Ewing says this Robert was a son of Henry Ewing.
His will mentions wife and daughter but gives no names.

Henry 'Ewing's will was probated in 1809. He names sons,
John, Moses and James: and daughters, Susannah Gatchell,
Nancy Scott, and Polly and Betsy; and the heirs of a son, Robert,
deceased, and a son Henry.

Joshua Ewing's will describes him as of the "Dividing
Cecil County;"' and names wife Jane, and sons, Patrick, Robert,
Samuel, Nathaniel, and "daughter Catharine or her husband."

See a James Ewing's will, probated in 1821, which names
wife Phoebe and sons Phineas and John, and daughter Eliza-
beth (A 8, 16).

Records of administration accounts, Cecil County, p. 231,
show, as of June 13, 1750, the account of Rachel Ewing and
William Ewing, administrators of Nathaniel Ewing, Joshua
Ewing and James Breading, being sureties. Distribution of estate
in favor of the following is shown :

William Ewing; Sarah Potts, wife of Robert Potts; Ann
Breading, wife of James Breading; John Ewing, who was then
"about seventeen years old;" James, "about seventeen" (the
twins); Rachel Ewing, about fifteen; George Ewing, about
twelve ; Alexander Ewing, about ten years ; and Samuel Ewing,
about eight.

The records of the First Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia,
show :

Samuel Ewen and Rebecca George married in 1740.

Maskell Ewing and Jane Hunter married October 6, 1787.

Elizabeth Ewing and Robert Harris married May 2, 179].

Ann Ewing and William Davidson married October, 9, 1794.

W'illiam Ewing and Mary Elliott married June 1, 1802.

The marriage records of the Second Presbyterian Church
show the following marriages :

William Ewing and Elizabeth Wallace, March 22, 1788.

Thomas Ewing and Anna E. Cooper, 1784.

Elizabeth Ewing and Robert Harris, 1791.

Catherine Ewing and Thomas English, 1804.

Thomas Ewing and Martha Pollock, 1808.

Ann Ewing and Charles Holland, 1811.

180 CLAN EWING OE SCOTLAND

Births — According to Bibles and Traditions.

Patrick Ewing (son of Capt. Patrick, as shown elsewhere)
was born July 7, 1791, married Isabella Polk Evans, February
27, 1822. Children, Edwin Evans Ewing, born January 9, 1824;
Theodore Ewing, born February 11, 182G ; William Pinckney
Ewing, born May 20, 1828; Jane Anna Pennington Ewing, born
December 2, 1830, never married; died November 1, 1906; Re-
becca Frances Magraw Ewing, born May 23, 1834; Elizabeth
Caroline Ewing, born May 23, 1834, twins ; Margaretta Isabell
Ewing, born April 30, 1839. She married James H. Evans but
left no children.

DEATHS.

Patrick Ewing, died November 7, 1868; Isabella Polk Ewing,
wife of Patrick Ewing, died March 19, 1864; Edwin Evans
Ewing, died August 20, 1901; Theodore Ewing, died September
30, 1901 ; Margaret Isabell. Evans, died April 30, 1905 ; Jane
Anna Pennington Ewing, died November 1, 1906; William Pink-
ney Ewing, died September 4, 1907; Rebecca Frances Magraw
Evans, died August 2, 1910.

Elizabeth Caroline Ewing married John Nelson Black Jan-
uary 1, 1856; and died July 14, 1916. Their children:

A boy who died in infancy ; Josephine Louisa Black, born
November 14, 1857; married Harry Cantwell, April 19, 1881;
Walter Ewing Black, born April 2, 1860, married Clara Walker,
December 25, 1917; Isabella Evans Black, born April 21, 1862;
married Perry K. Barnes, December 21, 1882; John Nelson
Montgomery Black, born November, 1864, married Myrtle Rich-
ardson, May 11, 1892; Emma Margaretta Black, born January 3.
1867, died February 12, 1898; Pinkney Patrick Black, born April
19, 1869, died February 20, 1902; Bayard Gayley Black, born
August 27, 1874, married Nellie Clark, August 4, 1909; Bessie
Elizabeth Black, born September 19, 1876, married Henry R.
Barnes, August 17, 1899 ; Edna Maud Black, born March 5, 1879,
single in 1921. John Nelson Black died January 27, 1906, aged
88 years.

Rebecca Frances Magraw Ewing married William James
Evans, October 26, 1857 ; children, Mary Rebecca Evans, born
September 4, 1858, married Mount E. Kirk, November 18, 1886,

MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA SEPTS 181

and died December 20, 1905 ; Sidney Corwin Evans, born May 28,
1861, died June 12, 1870; Clara Isabella Evans, born February
9, 1865, married Charles E. Turner, M. D., September 26, 1889,
and died May 6, 1916; Catharine Porter Evans, born September
12, 1871, single in 1921, in Manasquan, N. J.

William James Evans died January 6, 1892; Rebecca F. M.
Ewing Evans, died August 2, 1910; Mary Rebecca Evans Kirk,
died December 20, 1905 ; Edwin Evans Ewing married Clara
Vaughan, Camden, New Jersey. Children, Clara Vaughan
Ewing, born December 15, 1863, married George Beeson. Clara
Vaughan Ewing, wife of E. E. Ewing, died December 21, 1863.
Edwin Evans Ewing then married Emma McMurphy, July 13,
1865; children, Cecil Ewing, born April 21, 1866, married Lynn
M. Shaffer, February 20, 1912; Evans Ewing, born April 20,
1868, single in 1913. Halus Ewing, born September 5, 1872,
married Amanda Leader, September 1, 1907, died December 4,
1911, no children.

Edwin Evans Ewing died August 20, 1901.

William Pinkney Ewing married Mrs. Emma Pike Smith.
Died September 4, 1907.- No children.

Emma Pike Ewing died February 23, 1917.

Theodore Ewing married Mrs. Elizabeth Matherson in 1858,
and they left three children.

XV.

JOSHUA EWING, OF LEE COUNTY, VIRGINIA; IN-
DIANA TRIPLETS; PATRICK II. OF MARY-
LAND; VICE-PRESIDENT A. EWING
STEVENSON OF ILLINOIS
AND OTHERS.

To recapitulate a second, we recall that (2) William Ewing
and second wife, Eliza Milford (if that were her maiden name)
Ewing, had: (2a) Joshua; (2b) William; (2c) James, who lo-
cated in Prince Edward County, Virginia, and who gave to the
Nathaniel whose sketch was published in the Courier-Journal
information when about eighty; (2d) Anne, who married Rev.
Joseph Cowder, an Episcopal clergyman, (2e) Samuel, who lived
and died in Virginia; (2f) John, it is believed, who settled in
North Carolina; (2g) Henry; and perhaps others. Nathaniel
in the Courier-Journal article says he did not recollect all
of his great-grandfather's second children. That Henry was
one of them is the more certain because it is an authentic tradi-
tion in the family of Alexander Ewing and his wife, Jane Kirk-
patrick, that their daughter, Elizabeth, married Moses Ewing,
son of her father's Uucle Henry Ewing. That Alexander was a
son of Nathaniel, only son of William of Scotland-Ireland by
the first wife ; so that Henry, to have been the uncle of that
Alexander, must have been one of the children of William by the
second wife.

This Joshua Ewing and his wife, Jane, had (1) Patrick; (2)
Robert; (3) Samuel; (4) Nathaniel, and (Kitty) Catherine.
Hon. W. H. Ewing says there was also a Margaret. But there
is no mention of Margaret in the will. Wills do not always con-
tain the names of all children, however ; and so I give this state-
ment regarding a Margaret in this family for what it may be
worth.

The following is the will of this Joshua Ewing :

"In the name of God, Amen. I, Joshua Ewing, of Cecil
County and Province of Maryland, Yoeman, being in perfect
mind and memory, calling to mind ye mortality of this life, and

182

EEE COUNTY AND INDIANA BRANCHES 183

knowing that it is appointed for all men once to die, do make
and constitute this my last Will and Testament in ye manner and
form following, viz. :

"First of all I recommend my Soul to ye hand of Almighty
God that gave it, and my body to be buried in a Christian and
decent manner at ye discretion of my Executors, nothing doubt-
ing but I shall receive ye same at ye Reserection by ye mighty
power of God. And as touching ye worldly Estate wherewith it
has pleased God to bless one in this life, I order in ye manner
and from following: 1st, I order all my just debts and funeral
charges to be justly paid and discharged.

"2. Item, I order and appoint my beloved wife, Jane, to
have a third part of all my lands together with its improvements
during her lifetime or widowhood. But if she marry she must
have it taking for it ye yearly dower of twelve pounds per annum
(for no stranger shall ever inherit here), and this twelve pounds
shall be paid this manner, viz. : The inheritors of Borrans For-
est and Addition to Success shall pay equally eight pounds
equally betwixt them.

"3. Item, I order and appoint my daughter, Catherine, or
her husband in and thro' her to have one hundred pounds value
of goods or chattels, out of my whole moveable estate, by way
of Dower, whereof there is seventy-eight pounds already paid,
and further I order her to receive twenty pounds more out of
said moveable estate by way of gift, to be paid at ye discretion
of her mother or brothers when they can conveniently do it. And
I do hereby depose said daughter or her husband and their heirs
of any power or right either by law or equity forever to claim
any more either by legacy or dower of or from me or my heirs
forever.

"4. As touching ye rest of my movable Estate I order my
oldest son, Patrick Ewing, to have to ye value of thirty pounds
of ye goods as ye shall choose and ye remainder to be divided
in five equal shares between my wife and four sons, viz. : Patrick,
Robert, Samuel and Nathaniel each of ye five having an equal
share.

"As touching my real estate in land, I order and appoint my
two oldest sons, Patrick and Robert Ewing, to have ye Planta-
tion yt I bought of Jared Xeilson called Borans Forest and Ad-

184 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

dition to Success, I say I appoint it to them and to ye lawfully be-
gotten heirs of their body forever.

"6. Item., I appoint my two youngest sons, viz. : Samuel and
Nathaniel Ewing, to have ye plantation I live on called the Di-
viding, containing three hundred acres, I order it to them and ye
lawfully heirs of their body forever.

"And further I do hereby depose for ever all my four sons
and their heirs of all power and authority forever to sell or
alienate, or to sell, mortgage or rent s'lands. But in process of
time if they and their best friends see cause they may sell one
to another. But ye lands not to depart from ye family while
there is a righteous or lawfully begotten heir to be found be-
longing to me.

"And if any of my four sons die a minor before they be-
come of age his part I appoint to be divided equally among ye
other three. But if Patrick or Robert die a minor his part of
ye estate I appoint to be also equally divided only Samuel to suc-
ceed ye deceased brother in his part of ye land and said Samuel
to deliver up his right and title to ye part of ye Dividing to be
equally divided ye three remaining brothers. Further I also
order and appoint ye there be no division made between my sons
until the two oldest come of age, or see cause to marry, and
longer if possible. I order and appoint yt ye two plantations be
subservient one to another both in meadow and timber as occa-
sion may require, and if they see cause to make any improve-
ments by a mill on any of ye places either before or after ye di-
vision they must all be equal in ye expense and equally in ye
benefits arising from thence. I do hereby order and appoint
my beloved wife and oldest son, Patrick, to be Executors, and
further appoint James Porter, William Ewing, Snr., and John
Ewing, Junr., to be my guardians, to see that justice and equity
be done. And lastly revoking and disannuling all will or wills
before made by me, I do hereby make and constitute this my last
will and testament. As witness my hand and seal this Ninth
day of August, in ye year of our Lord, One Thousand Seven
Hundred and fifty three.

"JOSHUA EWING."

This will was signed, sealed and acknowledged in presence of
John Ewing, and probated August 16, 1753, in Cecil County,
Maryland.

EEE COUNTY AND INDIANA BRANCHES 185

The word "ye" is often met as the equivelent of the in old
English and in legal documents following old English forms.

(1) Patrick was born February 1, 1737, and died April 11,
1819. He married, first, Jane Porter, 1739-1784. His second
wife was Elizabeth Porter, who died March 11, 3 819, both
daughters of James Porter.

This Patrick Ewing was commissioned captain in the patriot
armies of the Revolution, and was most active and vigorous in
the patriot cause. (See Maryland Revolutionary Records;
Portrait and Biog. Record of Harford and Cecil Counties (1897),
etc.)

In connection with the Capt. Patrick Ewing record an op-
portunity presents itself to note a rather widely scattered error
and at the same time to direct attention to the source of such
misakes.

The problem of tracing descent from generations of our day
back to our early ancestors is all the more complex because of
the persistent repetition of Christian names in the same line from
one generation to another in nearly all the branches. William,
John, James, Patrick, Henry, Joshua, Nathanial, — an army, a
multitude of each ; and several of the same name living at the
same time, often, in the same section, but members of different
but related family units. Thus often a James or a John or a
William of one generation has been confused with his ancestor
or his cousin of another day, a generation or link often being
lost. As a result some have believed they belong to one branch
when in fact they came from another; and in other cases one or
more links cannot be differentiated though descent from the same
source is certain.

Just two illustrations of many: One of our family in In-
diana sent me what purports to be a short printed account of
Capt. Patrick (the only one of that Christian name in the Revo-
lutionary W'ar) Ewing's ancestry and brothers and sisters, in
which it is said that that Patrick was the son of James Ewing of
Cecil County, Maryland. Capt. Patrick's Bible shows that he
was the son of Joshua Ewing of Cecil County, Maryland, yet
my distant relative in Indiana said of this printed "slip :" "This
data has been corroborated by an independent investigator, so
that 1 feel that it is absolutely correct. . . . The Virginia, Ken-

186 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

tucky, Tennessee and Indiana Ewings are descendants of Patrick
Ewing, of Revolutionary fame," referring to this same Capt.
Patrick of Cecil County.. Now, the facts are, as shown by Bible
records, deeds, wills, etc., and as is shown herein, that Capt.
Patrick's father was Joshua, and not James, and that Patrick's de-
cendants are only a few of the Ewings who lived in Virginia, Ten-
nessee, Kentucky and Indiana.

By the first wife, Capt. Patrick Ewing had :

(a) (Polly) Mary, December 14, 1760, April 19, 179,3.

(b) Joshua, September 25, 1763;

(d) Robert, December 5, 1767, September 20, 1823;

(e) William, January 7, 1770, "went West;"

(f) Samuel, July 7, 1772; 1851;

(g) Andrew, November 27, 1774; 1775;
(h) Putnam, April 22, 1776 ;

(i) Jane Elinor, April 2, 1778;
(j) Katherine Elizabeth, March 19, 1780 ;
and by the second wife,

(k) Elizabeth, November 18, 1789, December 17, 1853; and
(1) Patrick, July 7, 1791, November 7, 1868.

(a) Mary married John M. Jackson but left no children.

(b) Joshua married Rachel Craig of Abingdon, Virginia,
moved to Rose Hill, Lee County, and there resides until after
1840 when he took his family to Missouri.

The following letter will assist to see that this is correct :

"Knoxville, Tenn.
"Mr. William A. Ewing, Aug. 3rd, 1897.

"National Military Home, Ohio.
"My Dear Sir:

"I have written to my grand-aunt at Rose Hill — or Ewing,
as the station is now "called, in Virginia, for the purpose of find-
ing who was the wife of Joshua Ewing (bro. of my g. g. father
Samuel ) . I have her letter today in which she says, 'My Uncle
Joshua married Rachel Craig, of Abingdon, Virginia. After his
marriage they moved to Rose Hill, Va., and settled and raised a
large family of children. His wife died at Rose Hill and was
buried there. In 1810 he and his family moved to Missouri, and
he and his family are all now dead.

LEE COUNTY AND INDIANA BRANCHES 187

"This statement is perfectly trustworthy, because my Aunt,
while very old, is a woman of fine ability, and is thoroughly in
possession of all her faculties. You will see that she states these
matters clearly and there is absolutely no room to doubt what
she says. This will go far to clear up the confusion created in
your mind by the letter of Mr. James V. Ewing, referring to
which I find that he says, 'The wife of Samuel was a Craig;
their childen were Samuel, Joshua, Margaret, Jane and Nancy.'

"My Aunt, whose statement I quote to you above, personally
knew her Uncle Joshua ; this Joshua being the brother to my
great-grandfather, Saniuel.

"You ask me in the end of your letter to give you the wives
of Capt. Patrick's two sons, Joshua, born in 1763, and Samuel,
born in 1722. Undoubtedly, Joshua's wife was Rachel Craig,
and Samuel's wife was Mary Houston.

'T am glad to be able to settle this point for you beyond any
question. I am. Yours very truly,

"(Signed) Joshua W. Caldwell."

Col. Ewing was at the time able to write little, so he replied
at the bottom of Mr. Caldwell's letter, saying:

"Please excuse pencil. My hand is very lame. You will
see that I was originally misled by statement in James V. Ewing's
sketch where for the first time I had any information as whom
your g. g. father married, & he is plainly wrong! Joshua m.
Rachel Craig.

"Aug. 28, 1897. Win. A. E."

This Joshua, the uncle of Dr. Joshua, the son of Samuel, as
were the Ewings generally, "was a strict Scotch-Irish Presby-
terian," writes one of his collateral relatives. One Sunday
morning a neighbor, in Powell Valley, Lee County, named Mar-
tin, carried his razor to Ewing with the request that it be honed.
Ewing kindly but firmly declined, explaining that he regarded
it as sin to shave or to do any work on a Sabbath. A few Sun-
days later Martin, riding by Ewing's barn, located on the road
side, heard a noise, and on investigation beheld the good Presby-
terian elder cutting, in a machine then much used by farmers and
called "a shaving knife," sheaf oats for his stock. Impromptu
Martin exclaimed :

188 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

"Joshua Ewing, a man of grace,

Should be an example to all his race ;

Not long ago I heard his say

It was a sin to shave on the Sabbath day;

But now, on a Sabbath cold and raw,

I pass his barn and find him shaving straw."

The family of Joshua Ewing, the brother of Samuel the in-
fluential civil officer of Lee County, Virginia, was partly charted
by Col. William A. Ewing in 1897. He sent this chart to Hon-
A. B. Ewing of Tennessee. I have seen a number of copies of
it, scattered here and there, most of them entitled, "A B. Ewing
Account pp. 139-247." For some time I engaged in strenuous
efforts to locate the "A. B. Ewing Account." A. B. (Alvan
Brown) Ewing, now deceased, was a son of Joseph Preston
Ewing, who was a son of Samuel (II), this Samuel, as we have
seen, having been born in Virginia in 1752, and having died in
{ Georgia in 1809. Miss Olivia Davis (in 1920) of Lewisburg,
Tennessee, is a daughter of Kittie Ewing, the daughter of Alvan
Brown Ewing, who married Scott D. Davis, as also seen. Miss
Davis says that in his life time her grandfather, A. B. Ewing,
spent much time in gathering data for an account of his branch
of the family. But unfortunately after his death no trace of
his work could be found. It is known that at one time he had an
extensive manuscript on the subject. His family believe that be-
fore his demise he destroyed all but copies of the William A.
Ewing chart, additions to which were made by him. As further
extended by the distinguished Dr. Arthur E. Ewing of St. Louis,
this chart, as prepared by William A. Ewing (then of Dayton,
Ohio) begins with ''William Ewing, in the siege of London-
derry, Ireland." It has some inaccuracies as to the children of
this William, who should be given as has been shown in a pre-
vious chapter. Then the children of Joshua Ewing are given,
without indicating that this Joshua was the oldest child by the
second wife of his father, William. This chart says this Joshua's
wife's name was Jane; and that he died in Cecil
County August 16, 1753. Then, after showing the chil-
dren of Captain Patrick, 1737-1819, one of the sons of this older
Joshua, the chart discloses that Patrick's son "Joshua, born Sep-
tember 25, 17G3, married Rachel Craig of Abingdon, Virginia;

LEE COUNTY AND INDIANA BRANCHES 189

(and that) he was a government surveyor; removed to Rose Hill,
now Ewing, Virginia; moved to Missouri and there died subse-
quent to 1840." Then as the children of this Joshua, A. B. Ewing
has added: (a) Samuel, (b) Joshua, "married Mary Jones, six
sons and three daughters;" (c) Margaret, married George
Ewing; (d) Jane, "one daughter, Sallie, who married Frick;"
(e) Nancy, "who married Isaac Hayes, six or seven children."

(a) "Samuel was a school teacher. He married Mary
(Polly) Davis, daughter of James Davis of Washington County,
Virginia, probably at the old Davis home four miles from Abing-
don, on the road between there and Russell County, where the
only sister, Mrs. Oliver Hughes, of this Samuel Ewing lived.
Grandfather Davis was an Irish Presbyterian (probably Scotch-
Irish) and was in the Revolutionary War. He was well off,
having perhaps twenty slaves. He sold out and moved to Piatt
or Marion County, Missouri. — William Ewing."

This William thus quoted in this chart is one of the children
of Samuel Ewing and his wife Mary Davis. This William lived
in California. The quotation was added to the chart by Dr.
Ewing of St. Louis, who had it from his uncle. As there given,
the children of this William and Mary Davis Ewing are (a)
Sallie, "who married Thomas Mills and lived at Well Pole, West
Virginia, four boys and two girls;" (b) James D., who married
Miss Harles of Washington County, Virginia, "three boys and
four girls. One of the girls married a Garrett. Two of the
boys were killed or died in the U. S. Army in the war of 1861."

(c) Nancy, who married John Sevier, — "four boys, Douglas,
Alexander, Charles, William and James and one girl. They lost
slaves by the emancipation of the negroes. Lived on Goose
Creek, six miles above Manchester, Clay County, Kentucky.''

(d) Rebecca, "married Skidmore Munsey, four boys and one
girl. Three of the boys became physicians, and another boy
lived at Muncie, Indiana;" (e) William, who married Rebecca
Brand. This William Ewing "was licensed to practice law at
Sacramento, California, in 1855. Became district attorney there;
and was district attorney in Solano County in 1860-1861. Radi-
cal Southerner; twice married, the second time in 1880. Lived
at Pendleton, Oregon. He left Harvey Samuel, Buckly, Wash-
ington; William, Morrow County, Oregon; Coke, Pendleton.

190 CLAN SWING OF SCOTLAND

Oregon; and Sallie, who married Robert I. Miller of Buckly.
( f ) Whitley Thomas Ewing, born December 28, 1823 ; married
Hannah Jane Pettingill in St. Louis, Missouri ; died at Gads-
den, Alabama, in 1891. Was a physician, (g) Margaret, who
married Christopher Jordan. He died in the war of 1861, and
she remarried and lived at Yorktown."

(f) This Whitley Thomas, who married Hannah Jane Pet-
tingill, left (1) Arthur E. Ewing, born April 25, 1855, the highly
successful physician of St. Louis (1921) who has children. One
of his daughters artistically executed and colored for me a copy
of the Ewing arms, also claimed by her family. (2) Munhetta
(Minnie) Jane, who married W. P. Shanhan. They lived at At-
talla, Alabama. (3) Charles Whitley, who married Mollie Lay.
He was born August 3, 1863, and died September 9, 1915, at his
home in Gadsden, Alabama. (4) Thomas Gale, who married
Harriet Line, and lived at Gadsden, Alabama; and (5) Stella
May, 1862-1910, unmarried.

Though not shown on any copy of the Dr. A. E. Ewing chart,
it is said this Joshua Ewing and wife (Craig) left at least
two other children, one, William Smith Ewing, was the grand-
father of Joshua A. Graham of St. Joseph, Missouri, who gave
me the Ewing-Miller story related elsewhere. This William
Smith Ewing married Sallie Fulkerson, of Lee County, Virginia.
Their daughter, Jane Hughes Ewing, married Thomas P. Gra-
ham, son of Hugh Graham, of Tazewell County, Tennessee. An-
other was James Ewing. He served in the war of 1812-1811 with
the rank of captain ; and was mustered out at Richmond. Unable
to obtain transportation, he walked about 100 miles to his home
in Lee County. He moved to Missouri and there, according to
family tradition, served in the legislature in 1810-1815. He mar-
ried Belenda Niel of Lee County, Virginia. Mrs. Todhunter of
Lexington, Missouri, is a great-niece, and kindly verified some
of this information.

(c) James P. Ewing, according to his father's will, appears
to have been in Cecil County, Maryland, in 1811, but I have no
subsequent trace of him. Neither have I any record of (<1)
Robert; or of (e) W7illiam certainly; or of (f) Andrew, (g)
Regarding Samuel see subsequently, (h) Putnam, brother of
Samuel the sheriff of Lee County, Virginia, born April 22, 1776,

LEE COUNTY AND INDIANA BRANCHES 191

married Jane McClelland (G. C. Ewing, Attorney, Owingsville,

Kentucky, letters July 22, 1913, and August 17, 1921) of Mary-
land, a cousin of Gen. Geo. B. McClelland (Letter Oscar R.
Ewing, New York, Oct. 8, 1920). After part of their children
were horn in Maryland they moved to Bath County, Kentucky.
Children: Robert, Patrick, Joshua, Samuel. James, Andrew
Jackson ; and daughters, Ann Eliza, Polly and Jane Elinor. All
of these boys, says G. C. Ewing, "lived and died in Bath County,
Kentucky, except Patrick, who emigrated to Decatur County,
Indiana about 1830." George M. Ewing, a brother of the trip-
lets mentioned below, says this Patrick went to Indiana in
1826. (Letter of July 28, 1913.) Oscar R. Ewing, an able
attorney of New York, a grandson, says Patrick's deed to
his Indiana land is dated 1826 ; "although his first child was
born in Bath County, Kentucky, October 22, 1827." Joshua
married Elizabeth Conner, and to them were born three
boys and two girls : Henry Harrison, Penrose Putnam,
George McClelland, Desdemonia and Adelia. George Mc-
Clelland was the only one of these boys who married, it is
said. By the first wife, who was "Mattie" Ewing, apparently a
daughter of Dr. Joshua Ewing, who married Rachel Fulkerson.
In his will Dr. Ewing names a daughter as Mary H. This must
have been "Mattie." G. C. Ewing says his father's first wife,
Mattie Ewing of Rose Hill, Lee County, Virginia, had a brother
named Cecil and that her father's name was also Cecil. But
he also says: "She had a sister who married a man by the
name of Cleage, and her descendants are living in Knoxville,
Tennessee. . . . My father's first wife's father was doctor
and practiced medicine." Mrs. Cleage, as elsewhere shown, was
a daughter of Dr. Joshua Ewing of Lee County ; and Mary H.
is the only daughter for whom I cannot account unless identical
with "Mattie," of Rose Hill, Lee County, Virginia. The children
were Joshua and Kittie, both of Bath County. His second wife
was Jennie Gilmer of Missouri, and they had Mattie and George
Conner, a prominent attorney of Owingsville, Kentucky. Kittie
married William C. Lyons of Surgoinsville, Tennessee, and they
have children.

Adelia Ewing married Charles C. Leer of Burbon County,
Kentucky, and they have children.

Robert (last above) had one son, Putnam, who left no de-
scendants.

192 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Samuel and James (above) never married.

Andrew Jackson (above) married Lydia Conner, and had
one son, Felix McClelland, who never married; and daughters,
Julia, Jane Elinor, Serepta, Mary, Lillian, Elva, Elizabeth and
Annie.

All of these girls married and brought up families who are
in Bath, Bourbon, Fayette, Clarke and Montgomery Counties in
Kentucky.

In his letter to me G. C. Ewing wrote:

"Tradition has it that Putnam Ewing and two of his brothers
left Maryland at the same time ; and that one of the brothers went
to Virginia and the other to Ohio."

The brother who went to Virginia, as seen, was Samuel, who
became a distinguished citizen of the section now within Lee
County, and whose family is given in another place. Subse-
quently Joshua, another brother, also went to Lee County, as
elsewhere seen. He left Lee in 1840 and went to Missouri, and
this Joshua is the ancestor of Dr. Ewing, of St. Louis, Attorney
Graham of St. Joseph, etc. G. C. Ewing for many years had no
knowledge of Samuel's and Joshua's families, which illustrates
the reliability of much of the tradition found in our family.

Patrick Ewing, who went from Kentucky to Indiana about
1826 to 1830, as seen above, married Lydia Morgan. Children:

Sarah Jane, Eliza Mary, Putnam, Abel, Joshua (triplets
born September 8, 1832), Robert, Cortez, Lydia Ann, Samuel,
James K., Geo. M. (living in 1913), Martha Caroline, Morgan
J., and Alice Jane Elinor. (See the Baltimore American, 1903).

About two years ago I saw a photograph of these triplets
taken in their prime and at a time when their combined weight
was TIG pounds, so I was informed. Yet they were not merely
"fat" — they were men of proportion and muscle. Many of our
family are of medium size; yet there is a large per cent of men
more than six feet, muscular and powerfully built. My own
father belonged to this latter class.

I have a newspaper clipping from a local Indiana paper,
written in 1911, which says, in part, in reference to these trip-
lets:

"Seventy-five years ago today, September 8, 1833, Abel
Ewing and his brothers, Putnam and Joshua, were born near

EEE COUNTY AND INDIANA BRANCHES 193

the site of the present Ewing station on the C. H. & G. railroad
in Clay township. He is the last of the triplets living. Joshua
spent his life on a farm and died March 3, 1891. Putnam
Ewing was elected recorder of Decatur County . . . being at
the time of his death, January 20, 1903, cashier of the Third Na-
tional Bank. . . .

"Abel Ewing, while distinctively a farmer, is also a black-
smith and made a specialty of Peacock plows in an earlier day.
He spent eight years in official positions of importance.

"Mr. Ewing has always held his residence in Decatur Coun-
ty and has never missed an election on any account. He is today
in good health, active in mind and body, and takes a keen interest
in what is going on about him, and has a speech to make on the
liquor question whenever he can find an audience. 'Abe' Ewing,
after more than three-quarters of a century spent in the county,
is called a good citizen, the highest encomium that can be be-
stowed on any man."

Edwin E. Ewing, of Rising Sun, Cecil County, Maryland,
sent me a photograph of these triplets, December, 1912. On the
back was pasted a damaged clipping which Mr. Ewing says was
written many years ago by his father. The article appears to have
been published in either "The American" or "The North Amer-
ican," at some date I cannot decipher. Speaking of the triplets,,
the article says :

"These Ewing brothers are a branch of the Ewing family of
the eighth district, this county (Cecil County, Maryland), and.
cousins of the writer. Their names are Abel, Putnam and Joshua.
Their grandfather, Joshua Ewing, emigrated from the old home-
stead, one mile west of Porter's Bridge, about the latter part of
the last century (1700), or the beginning of the present (early
in 1800), to the wilds of Kentucky, where older members of the
family had gone years before."

Then the article relates an interview between Joshua, the
immigrant, and the distinguished General Putnam, of the Revo-
lution ; and says that in return for some courtesy shown him,
Ewing thanked "the general and promised to name a son for him,
which he did, whence the name of Putnam in the Ewing family."

Then the article says :

"In those days Kentucky was a primitive wilderness, and the
'dark and bloody ground' was full of Indians. The journeys.

194 CLAN SWING OF SCOTLAND

between civilization and the 'backwoods of Kentucky' were all
performed on horseback. Putnam Ewing's last visit to the old
homestead was about 1828 or '30. He made the journey in the
saddle.

"The father of the triplets was named Patrick. He started
on a prospecting tour when a young man, crossing the Ohio River
from Kentucky into Indiana, going about sixty miles into De-
catur County, near (what became) Greensburg, where be saw
forests of heavy black walnut timber, and concluding that the land
must be very rich, he determined to purchase a small tract and
settle, very much in opposition to the folks at home. In 1854,
when the writer of this sketch paid the family a visit there were
thirteen children, and the parents were both large and muscular,
healthy people. The triplets were then fine-looking young men,
rather spare and slender . . . (but they) have enlarged mightily
since that day."

Now this is an interesting bit of first-hand information, and
very conclusive as to identification. But the writer got his names
and his generations slightly mixed — quite easy to do. Joshua
Ewing, as we have seen, the immigrant, was the great-great-
grandfather of the triplets, and Captain Patrick, of Cecil County,
Maryland, was their great-grandfather. Too, the writer must
have been in error regarding "older members" of the family, hav-
ing gone earlier to Kentucky. I think he had in mind the kindred
who settled in Southwest Virginia, in what is now Lee County,
whose homes were within less than five miles of the Kentucky-
Virginia line.

(i) Jane Elinor, as we have seen, married Nathaniel Ewing,
son of Alexander Ewing, of Bald Friars Ferry, Maryland (as
shown by Patrick's will). For some reason the Captain did not
like his son-in-law, Nathaniel, and carried that feeling into his
will. But after all, he must have been a man of some kindliness
of heart, for in the same will he provides for the freedom of a
negro boy slave when he reached the age of thirty, requiring that
if the negro behave well until then he should have "a good course
set of freedom clothes." He refers in the will to the estate of his
father-in-law, James Porter, and to the testator's son-in-law,
James B. Porter. This will is dated February 26, 1811, and was
probated May 25, 1819.

(j) Of Katherine Elizabeth I have no information.

LEE COUNTY AND INDIANA BRANCHES 195

(k) Elizabeth married John McCorkle. Patrick and Eliza-
beth were both baptized by the Rev. Dr. John Ewing. of Phila-
delphia.

(1) Patrick (II) married Isabella Polk, of Lancaster, Penn-
sylvania. She was born August 5, 1797, and died May 19, 1864.
It appears that this Patrick under the will fell heir to and ac-
quired the old home place and the bulk of his father's Maryland
estate.

(I) Patrick and wife Isabella had

(II) Edwin E. Ewing, of Rising Sun, Maryland.

(12) Theodore, who long resided on the Joshua Ewing
farm in Cecil County. The old house built by the immigrant was
not razed until 1835.

(13) William Pinckney, who married Emma Pike, professor
of domestic economy, and widely and favorably known for her
cook books.

(14) Jane Anne P.

(15) Rebecca F. M., who married William J. Evans, and had
Mary Rebecca, who married M. E. Kirk; Sidney C, who died
young ; Clara I. ; who married the successful Dr. Charles E. Tur-
ner, and Catharine P., now living in Manasquan, New Jersey, and
in New York City, to whom the author is indebted for help re-
garding the Cecil County family.

(1G) Elizabeth C, who married John N. Black, of Charles-
ton, Maryland, 1893 ; and

(17) Margaret, who married James Evans.

In a letter to me, dated December 17, 1912, Mrs. Clara I.
Turner, of Cecil County, says that when she was a girl she heard
her mother speak of a visit paid to the Ewings of Cecil County
by Miss Harriet Ewing, of Lee County, Virginia, and that her
mother said Miss Ewing, then well advanced in years, was related
to Mrs. Turner's grandfather. Patrick II. She was a niece of
that Patrick (the second). She made the trip on horseback, a
distance of more than one thousand miles, as the wagon road
then ran. Mrs. Turner also says, speaking of her memory as far
back as 1811 : "I heard my mother say that some of grandfather's
half-brothers went West." This is the more important because
those half-brothers were in Lee County. Virginia, which shows
that up to a rather late day that section of Virginia was the
"West" to the people in Northern Maryland.

196 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Another son of Joshua Ewing (of Cecil County) was Na-
thaniel, one of the brothers of Capt. Patrick, and uncle of Sam-
uel, the first sheriff of Lee County, Virginia. Born in Cecil
County, Maryland, this Nathaniel, early in life, located on the
frontiers of North Carolina, joining the advance picket line of
kindred Ewings reaching along the borders of civilization from
Pennsylvania to Georgia. He married Rebecca Osborne, daugh-
ter of Adlai Osborne of Rowan County, North Carolina. From
Iredell County, North Carolina, Nathaniel moved to Christian
County, Kentucky, and was there probably during 1816-'20.

To this Nathaniel and wife were born Alexander, 1816 ;
James, 1818; Adlai, 1820; Nancy, who married Hampton; Annr
who married Moses Stephenson ; and Jane, who married a Mc-
Clellan.

Adlai married Sophia Wallace in North Carolina, and to
them were born John Fielding, who became a distinguished min-
ister of the Gospel ; Alexander ; Rebecca, who died without issue ;
Eliza, who married John T. Stevenson ; Isabelle, who married W.
W. McKenzie of Kentucky in 1839 ; and Katherine, who married
Dr. T. F. Warrell.

To Eliza and John T. Stevenson were born Sophia E. ; Adlai
Ewing Stevenson, and Thomas W. Stevenson.

Adlai Ewing Stevenson was born in Kentucky, October
23, 1835. Fie became a distinguished lawyer and astute states-
man ; and was elected Vice-President of the United States for
the term 1893-'97. He died recently at his home in Blooming-
ton, Illinois.

In a letter to me dated September 3, 1911, Adlai Ewing
Stevenson says :

"I am one of the Ewing family. My mother, Eliza Ewing,
was born in Iredell County, North Carolina, October 28, 1809,
and was married to John T. Stevenson in Christian County, Ken-
tucky, April 26, 1832. She died in Bloomngton, Illinos, March
26, 1900. Her father, Adlai Ewing, was a North Carolinian by
Firth. He died in Christian County, Kentucky, in 1820. His
father, Nathaniel Ewing, my great grandfather, was a native of
Cecil County, Maryland, and emigrated to North Carolina some
years before the Revolutionary War."

t ! - -',-
if.

LEE COUNTY AND INDIANA BRANCHES 197

Another distinguished member of this family, who comes
readily to mind, is Hon. James S. Ewing, a lawyer of much power,
a cousin of A. E. Stevenson. This Ewing is a resident of Bloom-
ington. His published addresses are substantial and worth read-
ing.

XVI.

SAMUEL EWING DESCENDANTS OF LEE COUNTY,

VIRGINIA.

Samuel Ewing, one of the sons of Capt. Patrick Ewing, son
of Joshua, of the old Cecil County family, moved to and died in
Lee County, Virginia. For his and his brother's Joshua's family
the village of Ewing, near which their rich valley farms lay, was
named. In an old local paper I find this account of this Samuel
Ewing:

"Samuel Ewing was born in Maryland, July 17, 1772, and
died at his residence in Lee County, Virginia, October 27, 1851.
. . . Mr. Ewing emigrated to Abingdom, Virginia, when nine-
teen years of age, wrote in the clerk's office there a short time, and
then removed to Lee County, Virginia, where he resided until his
death, being a period of about sixty years. . . . Esquire Ewing
was of Revolutionary Whig extraction, was the first high sheriff
of Lee County, was high sheriff when he died. ... He was twice
a representative of the county in the legislature of the State.

"When the Presbyterian church was first established in Lee
County [in 1822] he was one of the first members and most effi-
cient supporters. But for his aid, it is probable, no church could
have been established or maintained. ... At his death Mr.
Ewing left his usual subscription for the support of the Gospel
in his church for five years/'

The stop in Abingdon, now in Washington County, more
than one hundred miles from what is now Ewing, Lee County,
Virginia, where Samuel established his permanent home, was the
more natural because Urban Ewing, a son of Robert, of what is
now Bedford County, was then high sheriff of the court which
sat in Abingdon (Wash. Co. Executive Doc, B, p. 80), and, no
doubt, assisted his kinsmen from Cecil County, Maryland, to ob-
tain work in the office of the clerk of that court.

The will of this Samuel is of record in Lee County (Will
Book 2, p. 36), Jonesville, Virginia. From it and other records,
we find that, that time considered, he left a large landed estate
and much valuable personal property. He resided on the south

198

SAMUEL EWING OF LEE COUNTY 199

side of the main road, the old "Wilderness Road," leading from
Bristol, Tennessee-Virginia, to and through Cumberland Gap, in
the midst of fertile Powell Valley. His home, built of a pattern
followed for some time after the permanent settlement of that
part of the Valley, was of the hewn-log type, "chinqued and
daubed," the intervals covered with white plaster. This type
made a neat and imposing structure. It was used for better pro-
tection against Indian dangers of the earlier days, and subse-
quently for some years because of the scarcity of sawmills. The
house was near Alt. Olivet Presbyterian church, which is the suc-
cessor of the first church built by the earliest Presbyterian organ-
ization this Samuel Ewing helped to found. His children were :
(1) Nathaniel; (2) William Houston ; (3) Margaret; (4) Kath-
erine; (5) Hannah C. ; (6) Sarah J. ; (7) Mary; (8) Rachel;; (9)
Patrick; (10) Joshua, and (11) John T.

(1) Nathaniel married Rachel Fulkerson, a daughter of John
Fulkerson, and sister of the Confederate General P. G. Fulker-
son, so long one of the historic and honored figures of Tazewell,
Tennessee. Their children were Mattie, who married H. C. T.
Richmond, his first wife, of Ewing, Virginia, and Samuel Hous-
ton, for many years also sheriff of Lee County. In his official
capacity Samuel Houston carried out the second instance of cap-
ital punishment inflicted in the county — his grandfather executing
the first criminal found guilty of capital crime. Samuel Houston
Ewing lived a few miles south of Jonesville and on Wallen Creek,
Lee County, and was a strong character, of wholesome influence,
and during the war for the Confederacy distinguished himself as
an officer of a Confederate company. He married Mary Elizabeth
Shelburn, member of one of the Valley's best families, and they
had: H. C. T. Ewing. long clerk of the Circuit Court of Lee
County, now a prominent business men of Loundoun County, Vir-
ginia, who married Lucy Gibson, of Lee County; James O., one
of the leading physicians of Lee County, who married Pearle
Albert; Alice, who married Parkey, and Maggie K., who married

Steel. All these marriages were contracted with members

of well-known families of the highest standing.

Regarding the other children of this older Samuel it appears
that :

(2) William Houston never married.

200 CI,AN EWING OF SCOTLAND

(3) Margaret married Robert M. Bales, and had White,
Caleb, Alary, Harriet ; and according to James V. Ewins:, of Ten-
nessee, who gave the information to Miss Olivia Davis in 188b,
also George and Margaret.

(4) Katherine died unmarried,

(5) Harriet C. died unmarried.

(6) Sarah J. married John Beatty, of Lee County, Virginia.

(7) Mary married David Chadwell Cottrell. This Cottrel
was the son of Moses Cottrel, one of the pioneers of Powell Val-
ley, who was killed in a salt well in Lee County, Virginia. David
Chadwell Cottrel went to Missouri. In later years the name was
spelled Cockrell ; and his son, F. M. Cockrell, became United
States Senator from Missouri. After a distinguished career Sen-
ator Cockrell died at an advanced age in Washington, D. C, a few
years since. His son, F. M. Cockrell, Jr., is a prominent business
man of Louisville.

(8) Rachel married a Hansard. They moved to Missouri,
and recently their children, Samuel E., Joshua E. and Henry C.
Hansard, were living in Calloway County, that State.

(9) Patrick married Sallie Ewing. This Patrick Ewing
represented his County in the Virginia legislature in 1830 and
1831.

(10) Joshua became a noted physician. He married Rachel
Fulkerson. His will is dated March 8, 1879, and names these
children :

Mary H., Cecil L., Arch P., who was a physician of ability;
Jane D., who married a Caldwell; Harriet I., who married a
Cleage, and who made their home in Knoxville, Tennessee. Her
husband was a Confederate soldier, and Mrs. Cleage had many
thrilling experiences, and some suffering, at the hands of Union
troops after the capture of Knoxville. Their son, Samuel Cleage,
long has been clerk of the Supreme Court of Tennessee. Dudley,
who was a physician, and died in Missouri, leaving Catherine,
Elizabeth and Joshua L. Ewing, who received bequests in their
grandfather's will. (See Lee County Will Book No. 3, p. 601.)
Dr. Joshua, the elder, died in Lee County and is buried near Mt.
Carmel Presbyterian Church.

(11) John J. appears never to have married.

I have an undated petition to the legislature of Virginia, "by
sundry citizens of Lee County," to the number of about one bun-

SAMUEL EWING OF LEE COUNTY 201

dred and twenty, that is significant of the advanced thought
and liberal views of the signers. Among the number are Josh-
Ewing, Samuel Ewing, Nathaniel Ewing and Patrick Ewing.
That document declares a belief that all men by nature are entitled
to equal rights, and the signers conclude "from long experience
that that class of our fellow citizens who are not freeholders pos-
sess as much virtue and usefulness and attachment to the country
as an equal number of the holders of the soil ;" and they declare
that "facts demonstrate that none less grudgingly contribute to the
exigencies of the State, or in the hour of danger step forward
more freely to Sprinkle the Altar of Independence with their
blood and hazard their lives in the defence of their country and
its injured rights. When these things press upon our minds,"
they urge, "permit us to say we feel sincere regret that such men,
because they have not been able to attach to their existence fifty
acres of the soil, should be thought unworthy to participate with
their fellow citizens in the inestimable right of free suffrage, the
very base of a representative Republic." Then the petition con-
cludes with a prayer that the right of suffrage be extended to all
free white male citizens of Virginia aged not under twenty-one
years.

All of the Ewings who signed this petition were large land-
owners ; and, as far as I can recognize the names, each signer was
a large freeholder, some of them owning many thousands of
acres of rich valley land. That fact, of course, is evidecne of the
sincerity and liberality of the petitioners. The petition is marked
"Rejected." It was brought back to Lee County, probably by the
delegation sent to present it, and many years since came into my
possession. It may have been made in duplicate, but that it was
presented to the legislature is certain. It is one of those funda-
mental documents upon which rests the broader suffrage of today,
a privilege founded upon personal intelligence rather than landed
estate.

We know, however, if not the exact date, that the petition
was earlier than 1830, because it was by the constitutional amend-
ment of that year that the fifty-acre freehold requirement as a
basis of suffrage was abolished. (For an account of suffrage in
Virginia, see my historical accounts of Lee County, Virginia, in
"The Pioneer Gateway of the Cumberland.")

202 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Dr. Joshua Ewing and Wm. Smith Ewing, son of the older
Joshua, were first cousins. They married sisters. Wm. Smith
Ewing moved to Goose Creek, Kentucky, and Dr. Joshua con-
tinued to reside in Lee County, Virginia, near the present Ewing.
He became a noted and most successful physician. Wm. Smith
became very ill and called in Dr. Samuel F. Miller, a bright young
physician of that part of Kentucky. Ewing grew worse and de-
sired his cousin, Dr. Joshua, in consultation. Dr. Miller gladly
agreed. Upon examination and consultation the doctors disagreed
on both diagnosis and treatment ! Dr. Ewing insisted so strongly
upon the use of his treatment that Dr. Miller said that in view
of the relationship between the two Ewings he would release
the case in favor of Dr. Ewing. Dr. Miller was so confident
that Ewing was in error and that the patient under his treatment
would not survive that he vowed that if the patient did not die he
would quit the practice of medicine ! The patient, under the new
treatment, made a speedy recovery. Miller kept his vow ! He
studied law and moved to Iowa. Lincoln, in the course of events,
appointed him one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the
United States. Judge Miller died on the bench October, 1890.
(See 37 U. S. Supreme Court Reports, p. 701).

Judge Miller gives this story of his change of profession in
an autograph letter some years before his death, to Joshua A.
Graham, attorney, a grandson of the patient, William Smith
Ewing, who gave the story to me. (Letter April 24, 1912.)

H. C. T. Ewing, now of Leesburg, Virginia, gives me the
following inscriptions found on tombstones in the old Ewing
graveyard at Ewing, Lee County, Virginia :

Samuel Ewing.
Died October 29, 1851. Age 79 Years, 3 Mo., 12 Days.

Mary (Houston) Ewing.
Died February 24, 1842. Age 54 years, 10 months.

Dr. Joshua Ewing.
Born May 2, 1804. Died August 34, 1884.

Dr. A. P. Ewing.
Born February 15, 1843. Died a Christian December 22, 1872.

SAMUEL SWING OF LEE COUNTY 203

Margaret W. (Ewing) Bales.

Born at Rose Hill, Lee County, Virginia, February 18, 1817.

Died at the place of her birth April 8, 1889.

Nathaniel Ewing,
Born June 10, 1807. Died December 8, 1876.

Rachel E. (Fulkerson) Ewing.

Wife of Nathaniel Ewing. Born August 14, 1813.

Died October 2, 1870.

Samuel H. Ewing.
Born March 29, 1840. Died February 3, 1888.

Mary E. (Shelburne) Ewing.

Born September 27, 1845.

Died. October 30, 1907.

Mollie J. Richmond,
Born November 13, 1842. Died February 20, 1884.

Samuel H. was the father of H. C. T. Ewing; and Mollie
J. Richmond, who was the wife of H. C. T. Richmond, was this
Samuel's sister.

Another Samuel Ewing Branch, Cecil County, Maryland.

( 1 ) Samuel Ewing, married Rebecca George in the First
Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, December 9. 1740. They
lived in West Nottingham Township, Cecil County, Maryland,
so Du Bois in his work says, and with this the traditions of their
descendants agree. There they died, and not until very recently
did the homestead pass from the family. One of the family tra-
ditions is that they came to Cecil County from Burlington, New
Jersey. Both are buried at the Brick Meeting House, one of the
old Quaker churches of Maryland. Miss George was a Quaker-
ess, and this marriage disturbed for many years the husband's
strong Presbyterian kindred.

Some of the descendants have it that this Samuel was a son
of Nathaniel, son of William of Ireland; but most of the charts
and other data seen by me do not ascribe to that Nathaniel a son
Samuel. Perhaps the friction by reason of marriage into the

204 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Quaker church accounts for this. Anyway, since I am unable to
be sure regarding this Samuel's exact relation to the older Cecil
County Ewings, it is but fair that his direct descendants be per-
mitted to place him — and this they do, so far as I can learn, as
the son of Nathaniel. The descendants of this Samuel and wife,
Rebecca, appear to have been :

(la) Amos, 1744, December 6, 1814; (lb) William, lived
near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; (lc) Hannah, married David
Patton.

Amos (It above) married Debora Coulson, 1781, who was
born 1761/died 1821. This Amos was about seventy at death, and
is buried in Cecil County. Their children :

(2a) Joseph; (2b) Samuel; (2c) Thomas, 1799-1880; all of
these remained unmarried; and also there were (2d) Rachel;
(2e) Rebecca; (2f) Mary; (2g) Marian, married Daniel Clen-
denin; (2h) and (2i) Amos, 1793-1783.

Amos (2i) married Mary Steele, April 12, 1837. Their
children :

(3a) Ambrose, 1834-1891, Cecil County; (3b) John S., 1838-
1891, Cecil County; (3c) Mary R., 1842; (3d) Esther Elizabeth.

Ambrose (3a) married Junitta Banks in 1868, and had
(4a) Elizabeth B., in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, in 1921 ;
(4b) Mary Steele; (4c) and Thaddeus B., Mary Steel Ewing
(4b) married Robert W. Swearingen, October 3, 1912; home,
Jacaksonville, Florida.

John S. Ewing (3b) married Anna M. Gillespie, 1873; chil-
dren: (5a) Mary, (5b) Sue Anna; (5c) Amos G., born January
12, 1887, Philadelphia.

Mary R. Ewing (3c) married William Gillespie, December
IS, 1873; children: (6a) Amos Ewing Gillespie; (6c) Bradner
J.; (6c) John F. ; (6d) Mary Eliabeth.

May 18, 1914, Esther Elizabeth Ewing (3d) was living in the
old Amos Ewing home near Colora, Maryland.

XVII.
SAMUEL EWING OF PRINCE EDWARD.

Samuel Ewing, one of the immigrant sons of William Ewing
by the second wife, moved at an early day to Virginia, dying on
Fort Creek, in Prince Edward County, in 1758. Hon. W. H.
Ewing thinks this Samuel reached Virginia as early as 1725.
(Letter of May 12, 1913.) Before the formation of Prince Ed-
ward County, that territory was part of Amelia County. An early
deed conveying to him 2'3S1/2 acres of land on Fort Creek, then in
Amelia County, is dated May IT, 1745 (Deed Book, Amelia
County, No. 4, p. 545). LTpon the formation of Prince Edward
(1753) this Samuel was made one of the justices of the court
for the new county, a tribute to his character and ability, for
in that day the best men filled such positions. He was paid, 1 758.
by the Virginia legislature, for supplies to the Virginia militia in
Prince Edward County (Hening, 7 Stats, of Virginia, 229),-
shortly before his death.

The will of this Samuel Ewing was probated in Prince Ed-
ward County, Virginia, in October, 1758. It is witnessed by
Charles Venable, James Ewing and Nathaniel Ewing. This
James was probably Samuel's brother. The home farm is left
to his wife, Margaret, and after her to his six children. George-
and Alexander and "my four daughters," Jane, Elinor, Margaret:
and Ann; George receives 238.5 acres in Prince Edward County,
the facts indicating this as the land the father acquired by the
deed in 1745, and on which George lived at the time of his father's
death ; then the testator says : "I give to my grandson, Samuel,
son of Alexander Ewing," a bequest specified ; and "I give to my
grandson Samuel Ewing, son of George," and then certain other
bequests to the daughters. Then he says, "I give to my grandson,
Samuel Caldwell," certain property. It is probable that all the
daughters were married at the date of the will, September 13,
1758, except Ann. (Will Book No. 1, p. 17, Prince Edward
County.)

The grandson, Samuel, son of Alexander, appears to have
been the Samuel Ewing who was with Colonel Christian in his

20G CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

epochal expedition against the Cherokees in pioneer times. Ewing
lost a horse on this expedition and was paid its value by Vir-
ginia. (8 Virginia Hist. Mag. 74.)

Who the girls married is shown by a deed to the property
left for life to the widow, executed in 1770. Some of the chil-
dren were then in Prince Edward and others in Batetourt. George
and Alexander, Jane and her husband, William Ewing; Elinor
and her husband, Jno. Caldwell ; Margaret and her husband,
James Ewing, and Ann, yet single, sign. (Records of Prince Ed-
ward County, Deed Book 3, p. 448.)

James V. Ewing, who lived near L,ewisburg, Tennessee, gave
to Miss Davis the following:

Two brothers, Samuel and Nathaniel Ewing, settled (evi-
dently in the early part of 1700) on the Delaware River (Cecil
County) in Maryland. Samuel married three times, the third
wife, being a Miss Craig. By this union he had:

1. Samuel, who married a Davis and moved to Eastern Ken-
tucky.

2. Joshua, who married Mary Jones.

3. Margaret, who married George Ewing, son of George I
and Elinor Caldwell Ewing.

4. Jane, who married Oliver Hughes.
1. May, who married Isaac Hayes.

Of these children of Joshua and wife, Mary Jones Ewing,
had:

(a) Ellen, who married Joshua Brown.

(b) Samuel, who went to Texas.

(d) Robert, who married, first, Jane Garna, and had five
children, and second, Dice Stanley, and had Ada and Beth Regan
Ewing.

(e) John, who had Mary Ewing and others.

(f) James.

(g) Joshua Colvin, married Katherine Grubb.
(h) Eliza, who married Rev. Robert Hardin,
(i) Jane, who married Benj. Martin.

All, or nearly all, of the above have children.

XVIII.

THE GEORGE EWINGS OF AMELIA AND WYTHE,

VIRGINIA.

At an early day a George Ewing lived in Amelia County,
Virginia. On July 27, 1742, he conveyed 287 acres of land tc
Hugh Callers. No wife is mentioned in this deed. The land is
described as in Nottaway Parish, adjoining Baker and others.
(Deed Book. Amelia County. No. 3, p. 245.) I have not been
able to learn when he obtained this land, as the records of Amelia
County do not disclose. He must have been 21 years old at the
date of the deed, and if not older he would have been born at
least in 1721. This George could, therefore, have been the son
George of the Samuel Ewing. who died in Prince Edward County,
and whose will is probated there in October, 1758. This Samuel
was, as shown, one of the immigrant brothers. As Samuel's son,
George had a son George, it is reasonable that one or the other
Georges mentioned in the Bible records herein given was a grand-
son of this Samuel.

Miss Olivia Davis, of Tennessee, furnished me a family
chart, and says that the family tradition is that the George, born
September, 1TG7, according to the Samuel Ewing Bible, the orig-
inal from which I discovered subsequent to Miss Davis' informa-
tion, through whom she descended, was the grandson of this
Samuel and the son of his son George, who was the son of the
Samuel who died in 1T58. I have found nothing to disprove this
tradition.

The Amelia County records disclose no Ewing marriage :
but Miss Davis, who long industriously studied her family his-
tory, says that the elder George married Elinor Caldwell, of Vir-
ginia. Hence, we have, continuing the line of this Samuel, who
died in 1758 :

George, the son of Samuel, who married Elinor Caldwell,
had children :

1. Samuel, who was born in Virginia in 1752, married Man-
Daniel, and later moved to Georgia; died there in 1809.

207

208 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

2. John, born about 1754. Married Polly Ewing, a daughter
of Robert and Mary Baker Ewing. Mr. James L. Ewin, in data
left, says this John lived most of his life in Kentucky, and, per-
haps, died there.

3. George (II), married Margaret Ewing, said by tradition
to have been the daughter of the Samuel Ewing of Maryland,
who married a Craig.

4. James, never married ; died in 1826.

5. Margaret, married Alexander Purdun.

6. Ann, married Samuel Cosby.

7. Mary, married Urbin Ewing, son of Robert, the Bedford
immigrant.

8. Ellen, never married; born 1760; died 1831.

F. M. Cockrell, Jr., of Kentucky, informed me that this
Ellen and her brother James are buried on the James V. Ewing
farm, three miles from Lewisburg, Tennessee.

John Ewing, of Logan County, Kentucky, applied for pen-
sion April 3, 1833, age 72 years. His application shows that he
was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia, 1761, in June; that
his father moved to Montgomery County, Virginia, when he was
ten years old, "to that part now in Wythe County;" that he vol-
unteered in the Virginia militia in 1778, in the company of Capt.
Henry Francis. This company gathered at Lead Mines, in Vir-
ginia, and marched under Colonel Crocket to the headwaters of
the Yadkin River, North Carolina. Later this applicant shows
that he served under Colonel Alexander Trigg; and yet later
under Col. Wm. Campbell, of Washington County. He says he
furnished a horse and equipage and got no pay. It is shown that
this John Ewing fought with the patriots against Lord Cornwallis'
army, and that he was also engaged against Tories in North Caro-
lina, likely at King's Mountain. He was pensioned and on the
rolls May 30, 1833, his home address being Russellville, Kentucky.

Of the above children of George and Elinor Caldwell Ewing,
according to the Davis chart :

Samuel had (a) James D., who married May E McLeary in
1808. Miss McLeary was a daughter of John W. McLeary. who
married Elizabeth Ewing, of Pennsylvania, a daughter of Wil-
liam Ewing. This William came from Ireland about the time the
other Ewings of Maryland and Virginia came, and was reputed

GEORGE EWING OF AMELIA AND WYTHE 209

to be related, according to information written in 1878, and quoted
by Miss Olivia Davis in 1913.

(b) George married Jane Cunningham.

(d) William D., married Rebecca, daughter of William
David Ewing. This couple had seven children, of whom the
youngest was James Scott Ewing. The latter married Eliza
Blevins, and had George Wythe Ewing, who married Alice Pat-
terson, and had Elsie, Pauline and Llewellyn.

(e) Samuel, born 1?94, died in Georgia in young manhood.

(f) Joseph Preston Ewing, married Elizabeth Newton.
They had Joseph Erwin Ewing, who married Agnes Gibson ;
Leonard Newton Ewing, who married Janet Welsh, and
Alvan Brown Ewing, who married Louisa Newton. The latter
had Kittie, who married Scott D. Davis, who had Olivia and
Mary Newton Davis. (Letter by Miss Olivia Davis, Elizabeth-
town, Tennessee, 1914.) Mary Newton Davis married A. E.
Helmick, and they have children.

George II, son of George and Elinor Caldwell Ewing. mar-
ried Margaret Ewing, and the following regarding their family
is given as taken by Mr. Heuser for me from the old Bible of
Samuel Ewing, at that time in Wythe County :

George Ewing II, Sr., was born September, 1767; died Feb-
ruary 19, 1838.

Margaret Ewing, his wife, born June 7, 1770; died July 10,
1837. Married August 6, 1793. It is said this Margaret was a
daughter of Samuel Ewing and wife Craig.

Then follows a list of births, evidently children:
- Samuel Ewing, born June 7, 1794. Death not given. Married
Sally Braly (according to the Miss Davis chart).

George Ewing, May 1, 1797. Died May 5, 1838. Married
Elizabeth Wood. See infra.

John Ewing, March 13, 1799. Died November 14, 1845.
Married Polly Painter, February 23, 1830.

James V. Ewing, February 14, 1805. Death not given. Mar-
died E. E. Ewing, July 22, 1830.

Joshua Ewing, August 25, 1809. Death not given.

Sally E. Ewing, January 23, 1812. No death given. Mar-
ried Patrick Ewing, March 16, 1834, son of Samuel Ewing (ac-
cording to Davis chart).

210 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

George Wythe Ewing, February 9, 3 835. No death given.
The births of the children of the above Samuel Ewing are thus
given :

Margaret Jane Ewing, September 5, 1820.

Emily Hannah Ewing, February 23, 1822. Married Abra-
ham Painter, April 26, 1841.

Evaline Patten Ewing, May 10, 1823.

Mary Ellen Caldwell Ewing, June 28, 1828.

James A. Ewing, November 17, 1831.
' Mary Jane Ewing, October 27, 1-833.

Margaret Elizabeth Ewing, January 7, 1836.

Joe Kent Ewing, January 23, 1838.

Lydia Caroline Ewing, March 7, 1840.

Amanda Craig Ewing, March 5, 1842. t

Lanna Ann Johnson, September 30, 1848.

Mary Ewing and James B. Johnston married November 11,
1847, but which Mary the record says not.

The Painters were the grandparents of Mr. H. M. Heuser,
who copied the record from the old Bible. Emily Painter died,
as this Bible shows, February 9, 1889. Mr. Heuser says: "My
wife has the old Ewing Bible which belonged to Samuel Ewing,
the father of Emily." (Letter of April 11, 1914.)

Some of the descendants of the older George shown above
sent me family tables claiming descent through George Wythe
Ewing, and that he married Elizabeth Wood. But from the above
Bible record it is evident that George, born May 1, 1797, has been
confused with his brother, George Wythe, born February 9,
1835. As given to me by L. M. Ewing, a descendant, the Ewing-
Wood marriage was celebrated October 4, 1821. If so, and I
know of nothing to dispute that date, then it was George, born
May 1, 1797, and not his brother, George Wythe, born February
9, 1835, who married Elizabeth Wood.

That there should be two Georges in the same family living
at the same time is well calculated to give rise to error in later
years. The Ewing-Wood record has April 30, 1797, the correct
year of George's birth, and also the correct date ; but its error
lies in Wythe as the middle name. It was George — not George
Wythe — who married Elizabeth Wood October 4, 1821, as that
marriage date and children were given to me by Mr. L. M. Ewing,
of Knoxville, Tennessee, in a communication of August 23, 1913.

GEORGE EWING OF AMELIA AND WYTHE 211

On the chart sent by Miss Davis I find this note :

"George, William and James Ewing, cousins of the above
(indicating the children of Samuel, who died in 1758), lived near
Maryville College, East Tennessee. George married a Caldwell,
and their daughter married Rev. W. E. Eagleton. James, or Wil-
liam, one married a Campbell. Their children, Rev. John Camp-
bell Ewing, and James Ewing, married Stinsins."

Miss D'avis did not have the Bible record, which is copied
under George, of Montgomery County, now in the Pension Office ;
but she evidently indicated this George, who was a soldier in the
Montgomery County troops in the Revolution. That record af-
fords considerable light upon both the family and the note on the
chart to which I have just referred.

The children of George Ewing, not George Wythe Ewing,
as seen, unless the Bible data of George Wythe's birth is incor-
rect, and Elizabeth Wood Ewing, were :

(a) Henry Wood, September 1, 1822, March 12, 1901, for
years a justice of the court of Sullivan County, Tennessee; mar-
ried Emeline P. Bartee in 1850, lived in Scott County, Virginia,
and subsequently at Bluff City, Tennessee; (b) Margaret Ann,
January 2, 1824, married John A. Moore and left several chil-
dren; (c) Sarah Jane, May 29, 1825, married. Major Henry W.
Holdway, lawyer, no children; (d) May Bird, January 29, 1827,
married A. J. Livingston, 1841, and left children; (e) George
Craig, June 9, 1828, died 1833; (f) Nancy White, December 30,
1829-1833; (g) Ellen Maria, 1831, married William P. Horton,
1857, children; (h) Marion Hopkins, May 12, 1824-1859; (i)
Elizabeth Gurie, February 13, 1836, married J. A. Harris, 1859,
left children and died 1868 ; (j) James Valentine Osborn, July 27,
1837, died 1861 in Highland County, Virginia

George and Elizabeth Wood Ewing lived on their large farm
in Scott County. She was the daughter of Henry Wood, son of
Jonathan Wood and wife, Sally Lawson, daughter of William
Lawson, who came to America from Scotland in 1750. Eliza-
beth died December 19, 1882.

(a) The oldest child, Henry Wood Ewing, married Emily
P. Bartee, October 10, 1850, daughter of John Bartee, "one of
the handsomest men of his day," it is said, and cultivated his
farm near Gate City, Scott County, Virginia. He was a man of

212 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

exceptionally clean life, devoted to his family, a Methodist, a
Mason and a Democrat. Their children :

(a) Victoria Gains, September 25, 1851 ; (b) George A., July
30, 1853, May 11, 1900, was a very able lawyer of Scott County,
Virginia. He married Mattie Queen, September 14, 1893, and
they left two children, Monterville Q., a physician, and Henry P.,
who served with expeditionary forces in France during the World
War; (c) Martha Elizabeth, 1856; (d) Lodilius M., June 26,
1858, a successful traveling man, now living in Knoxville, has
children; (e) Alonzo D., April 25, 1861; (f) Laura E., May 23,
1863.

XIX.

GEORGE EWING OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, VIR-
GINIA, AND BLOUNT COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

From the records of the United States Pension Office, Wash-
ington, D. C, I find that George Ewing, in an affidavit, applying
for a pension as a soldier in the patriot army of the American
Revolution, says that he was born in Virginia, and that at an early
day he moved with his father to Montgomery County, Virginia,
from which county he entered the war. Montgomery was formed
in 1776 from the vast westward section of Virginia known as the
Fincastie District. His Bible record discloses that he was born
February 3, 1760. He was granted the pension of a private and
later died on July 4, 1840. March 4, 1844, his widow, Margaret,
asking for a pension as the widow of her deceased husband, says,
under oath, that her husband "was an officer a good portion of
the time he was in the service" of the Revolutionary army. She
further says that she gave the Bible in which she and her hus-
band kept the family record to their son Alexander, "who resides
in Edgar County, Illinois."

March 19, 1845. Alexander Ewing, "aged about 54," of
Edgar County, Illinois, made an affidavit with which he filed
"the true original family record kept by George Ewing, now de-
ceased, and his wife, Margaret Ewing, of the county of Blount
and State of Tennessee ;" and he states that he tore this record
from that Bible which was given to him in 1843 by his parents,
and which had since been in his possession.

That Bible record says :

George Ewing was born February 3, 1760. Margaret (his
wife) was born February 13, 1765.

George Ewing and Margaret Caldwell were married Jan-
uary 3, 1785. (The last figure of the old record is rather indis-
tinct, but this is about the date fixed by comrades in arms who
filed supporting affidavits.)

The list of births shows the following (evidently children) :

John Ewing, February 27, 1786, died October 7, 1819.

Rachel Ewing, August 15, 1788, married Alexander Eagle-

213

214 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

ton on February 9, 1813, died 1823.

Alexander Ewing, February 25, 1791. Married Jane ,

November 7, 1817. This was the Alexander who made the affi-
davit in Illinois in 1845.

Elander Ewing, November 4, 1792, married Samuel McCul-
loch June 20, 1824.

Margaret Ewing, August 4, 1795; married Wm. Eagleton
April 8, 1816.

v Samuel Ewing, January 27, 1797. Died December 16, 1822.

The Eagleton children are of record, but we must notice
dates carefully to determine to which parents they belong. The
following are, evidently, the children of Alexander Eagleton :

David Caldwell Eagleton, April 1, 1814, died 1815. Margaret
Eagleton, July 4, 1816. Margaret Angeline Eagleton, January 27,
1817.

From here the Eagleton children continue as follows, but as
Margaret and William were married April 8, 1816, the record
gives no clue as to which parentage :

Samuel Ewing Eagleton, December 30, 1819.

George Ewing Eagleton, October 21, 1819.

Elvira Hamilton Eagleton, July 21, 1821.

Isaac Anderson Eagleton, November 7, 1823, died 1824.

Mary Jane Emily Eagleton, August 30, 1825.

George Ewing McCulloch was born April 29, 1838.

Who were these, also found among the birth records ?

David Parker, March 1, 1803, died 1825.

Ellen Parker. February 26, 1804.

The record also tells us that Sallie Caldwell married "Ewing
Alexander," which I am inclined to think means Alexander
Ewing.

George's application for the pension is supported, under the
law at the time, by the affidavits of two comrades, one of whom
says that George served in the army of the Revolution for two
years in Capt. Isaac Campbell's Light Horse from Montgomery
County ; and the other comrade says that George's service was for
three years.

There is an affidavit by James Ewing, made in Tennessee in
1844, who says he was then about seventy years old, and that he
saw George and Margaret married in Virginia.

GEORGE SWING OF VIRGINIA-TENNESSEE 215

This Margaret Ewing was granted a widow's pension, and
July 5, 1845, the certificate was mailed to J. S. McButt, Mary-
ville, Tennessee.

(Pension Office Record, Widow, File 9, Vol. A, page 224.)
A George Ewing died in Wythe County, the latter part of
1803, or early in 1804, leaving a will, dated March 11, 1803, and
probated in 1804. He left no inconsequential estate for his day.
Providing for his wife Elinor, he devises land on the north side
of Cripple Creek to his son George, on which he then lived, the
testator, apparently, living on the south side of that stream; and
other lands to son James ; and to his four sons, "namely, Samuel,
John, George and James," all of whom seem to have lived near,
he left personal estate. To his daughter, Elinor, he leaves a
negro and other property; to his daughter May Ewing he gave
"ten dollars and no more,'.' and to his daughter Margaret Purdam
a negro, and to daughter Annie Cosbie he left $10. He adds :

"I also order my still to be sold." "I also order my land in
Kaintuckey, if discovered and obtained, to be sold." (Wythe
County Records, Will Book, p. 284. It is interesting that the
Wythe County court held its first session January 26, 1790, and
among its first acts was the recommendation of John Ewing as
ensign of militia.)

In 1807 Samuel Ewing laid off 325 acres on Cripple Creek
in Wythe County "to George Ewing, agreeable to the last will
of his father George Ewing," adjoining "James Ewing, his
brother," and 663 acres were laid off to James adjoining his
brother George. This Samuel appears to have been the adminis-
trator of George, Sr. (Wythe County D. B. 4, p. 460.)

The son George, above, was yet in Wythe County in 1824.
(Deed Book, 9, p. 595.)

George Ewing, by will probated May 14, 1838, left land in
Russell County, Virginia, on which this son then lived, to his
oldest son, Samuel; "Margaret Ewing, the oldest daughter of my
son Samuel, and also Emily, Evaline, and Polly Ewing, all daugh-
ters of my son Samuel," received negroes. Then to "my chil-
dren that I now name, towit : George, John, James, Joshua and
Sally Ewing, wife of Patrick Ewing," property was left.

John and apparently Joshua then lived in Wythe County.
In 1797 George and Elinor Ewing, his wife, of Wythe
County, made a deed to land. (Deed Book 2, p. 228.)

216 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Samuel Ewing, son of George, died in 1859, and on No-
vember 9, of that year, Andrew Porter qualified as the guardian
of Samuel's children. He settled the estate by paying :

Evaline Ewing, Abraham Painter, Robert B. Higley, Mary
E. Sanders, Alfea Catron, Mary Ewing, George Sanders and John
Ewing. (Wythe County Will Book 6, p. 434.)

Mr. H. M. Heuser, of Wytheville, attorney at law, who fur-
nished me the Samuel Ewing Bible data, wrote :

"I learn from my father-in-law and other connections of the
Ewings that they were all high-toned and intelligent people. The
ladies of the family were all very religious ; but the men, whilst
law-abiding and good citizens, had a streak of sporting blood and
quite a few of them were done financially by fast horses." (Let-
ter of April 11, 1914.)

Heuser also says :

"The Ewings who first came to what is now Wythe County
were John and Samuel, I think. They came about the year 1760
(when most of that region was wild and little settled), and bought
a land warrant dated 1756, for land on New River, now in Wythe
County."

To which John and which Samuel Mr. Heuser refers I am
not certain, although I have personally examined the records of
that county.

In addition to disclosure elsewhere noticed, it is interesting
that a will of William Ewing, dated 1791, and probated in 179-3,
leaves one-half of the estate to Alexander Ewing, son of his
brother, John ; and other property to two boys, Robert and Samuel
Porter, sons of his sister, Margaret Porter.

James Ewing made a will in 1783, probated in 1791, leaving
his estate to his brother Samuel, "and if he die without issue,"
then the estate went to the heirs of Robert and Andrew Porter.
Mr. Heuser says this land remained in the Porter family for more
than one hundred years, and that each generation had a Samuel
Ewing Porter.

If there were doubt regarding the relation between the older
Cecil County, Maryland, Ewings and those of the Cripple Creek,
New River and nearby sections, now in Wythe, Montgomery and
Bedford Counties, the Courier-Journal article by Nathaniel Ewing
comes to our rescue. He says, speaking of the brothers of his
grandfather, Nathaniel, the oldest son of William of Scotland-

GEORGE EWING OF VIRGINIA-TENNESSEE 217

Ireland, "My grandfather purchased land (and settled in Cecil
County, Maryland). His brother, Joshua, also purchased a tract
adjoining him. Whether any others of his brothers purchased
land there I do not know, but they did not remain long in Mary-
land, having removed to Virginia and settled on the water of the
Appomattox, Prince Edward County, where their posterity be-
came numerous. Many of them afterward removed to Cripple
Creek, or New River, and some to Potsdam, near Knoxville. They
are now scattered over the States of Tennessee and Kentucky."

This was written, we have seen, before August 4, 1846, as
the author died on that day. His brother lived in Virginia, and
so did his Uncle James, one of the half-brothers of Nathaniel.
"James, I have seen," he says, "and had from him a portion of my
information." That is direct and very satisfactory information,
linking our older Virginia Ewings to the older Cecil County
Ewings, and deriving all of them from forefathers who were
"originally from Scotland, their seat in that country being on the
Forth, not far from Stirling Castle."

Though certainly distantly related to my immediate family,
George A. Ewing (b) supra, very closely resembled my Uncle
Alexander Ewing. One could not know both and doubt their kin-
ship.

Of his brother, George A. Ewing, L. M. Ewing wrote to me:
"He and his sisters were unusually devoted, and no one could have
been a better brother than he. Having fine control of his temper,
he was slow to anger, but fearless as a lion and quick to resent an
insult."

That is not an over-estimatee. Outside of my immediate
family I knew him better than any other Ewing of whom I write
except H. C. T. Ewing, of the other branch of our family. I be-
gan to practice as a young lawyer in an adjoining county and
about sixty miles from George A. Ewing's home. Up to that time
I had never met him, nor did I know any of his immediate family.
An older man. he was at the time a lawyer of wide reputation,
and regarded as one of the best criminal lawyers in the State. Be-
fore I had ever tried an important case I was appointed by the
court to prosecute, as attorney for the state, a band of mountain
desperadoes and alleged felons. Most of them, from the moun-
tains of Kentucky, had crept over into my native Virginia valley
and committed crimes, ranging from housebreaking- to murder.

218 CLAN EWING OE SCOTLAND

Some of the gang were in jail at the time of my commission. One,
charged with a murder or more, the "black sheep" of one of the
good families of the valley, had been my boyhood friend, his sister
a schoolmate, and . . . ; but I was a boy then ! How I came to
be thrust into the arduous and embarrassing position of prosecut-
ing him and his co-criminals is a long story ; too long for this book.
Suddenly, as I sat in court one morning, I found myself the sole
attorney for the Cqmmonwealth, facing a most able defense, com-
posed of the best legal talent in that part of Virginia — for his peo-
ple had ample fortune. Unversed in the technicalities of a crim-
inal trial, confronted by about one hundred witnesses pro and con,
the life of boyhood companion in the balance, I was dazed, almosf
stupified. I looked at the prisoner, his face was that of aban-
doned indifference ; I looked at his splendid array of talent — they
smiled indulgently. I turned toward the aged and broken mother.
Tears burst from her sad eyes, and then I caught the tender,
pleading eyes of his sister, my former classmate, and I was
crushed ! Many years have gone ; many, many court scenes have
intervened: I feel her eyes yet!

After what seemed the torture of an age, I sprang to my feet
and made my first speech in court :

"May it please your honor, I cannot do it."

I dropped into my chair; opposing counsel smiled and winked
at each other; a woman sobbed, but for which there was awful
silence. For a moment the judge swung around in his chair and
gazed at the wall ; then, facing me again, he said :

"Young man, I appreciate your situation; but you are now
an officer of this court; an emergency confronts us. The court
must require you to act."

"Pulling myself together," I asked that the case be passed
until the next day. The request was granted.

I went to my office almost wild with despair, grief and the
weight of the unsought responsibility. Suddenly I recalled hav-
ing heard of George A. Ewing as a successful lawyer. Rushing
out I wired him :

"Have just been appointed to prosecute so and so. Have
recently gone to the bar. For the sake of the Ewing name will
you help me ? No fee in sight."

"No fee in sight," truly, for the State paid the prosecutor the
pitiful sum of $10 !

GEORGE EWING OE VIRGINIA-TENNESSEE 219

He came on the night train ; met me quietly at a hotel, and we
fell upon a plan by which, next day, I got the case passed for
thirty days. My ! during that month I studied law day and night,
talked with the commonwealth's witnesses — digested the evidence,
and, in short, mastered a complex and difficult case and its law.
Ewing returned and brought with him another lawyer of experi-
ence and ability, a descendant of the famous Henry Clay, of Ken-
tucky, willing to join us for the advertising. We spent Sunday
night before the case opened in studying it, and then Ewing said
to me :

"Well, you have this case remarkably well in hand. This is
the greatest opportunity of your life. You must conduct the pro-
ceedings on our side. You examine the witnesses, argue points
as best you can. Gradually unlimber your best guns. There are
some big lawyers opposed to you ; they know all the tricks of the
game. But Josh, our friend here (the other lawyer), who will
help also without fee, will sit on one side of you and I on the
other. Of course we shall suggest when necessary. We shall
back you up with legal citations when you are pressed by the
keen wits of the defense. This is the greatest opportunity in the
life of a young lawyer. Use it !"

Generously, for the fame of the case went far and near,
Ewing and his friend sat. the one at my right, the other on the
left, during that terrible battle, a fight for a young man's life, the
struggle for the honor of an old and untarnished family name,
which dragged its agonizing length over one fearful month, day
by day. early and late. To my right and a little to my rear, in the
felon's place, sat my erstwhile playmate ; on one side his haggard
mother in sombre black, and on the other sat a slender, sweetly
sad-faced girl. Again and again I felt from time to time her eyes
as I drove her brother's witnesses from cover, prodded with the
merciless power of the law into his ugly past ; or with the keenest
enthusiasm born of youth, urged by a deep sense of my new duty,
pictured to the jury a fitting close to his terribly misspent, warped,
though brief, career at the end of a rope attached to a murderer's
gibbet ! Again and again I could hear her heart throb ; and now
and again as the terrible days wore slowly on, I paused as that
dear old mother struggled to suppress her sobs ! But in all that
time, when I had to look her way, the sweet, sad, face of the girl
never lifted her eves to mine!

:220 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Once during the heat of debate one of the attorneys for the
defense, half-drunken and unmindful of the decorum of the court
room, called me a "D — liar." The uncouth words were scarce
articulate when my distant kinsman and associate in the case, as
a flash of lightning, sprang to his feet and shot a terrific fist blow
full in the face of the offender ! Turning, he bowed with quiet
dignity to the court, expressed regret for the necessity of the act,
and asked his honor to fix against him a proper fine !

Finally the jury went out, and, after yet other painful hours,
as the sun was going behind the distant Cumberlands, beyond the
lovely valley, in dread silence the jury filed back into court.
"Guilty," read the clerk. "Remand the prisoner to close confine-
ment to await the judgment of the court," said the judge in a
strangely softened tone. The crowd began silently to leave the
room ; the guards were hustling the prisoner toward the door ;
friends were shaking hands with me. The group about me parted,
there she stood, those wonderful eyes full of pathos, agony, ter-
ror, afire with some strange light I do not yet understand, met
mine ! One brief instant ! Then, slowly, she turned and passed
for all time from my presence !

Somewhere among the mementos of my youth is a silk hat
mark. Ere then, ere then, upon it, in the long, long ago, her deft
fingers wove my initials !

XX.

A MARYLAND-NORTH CAROLINA BRANCH.

One of the distinguished Ewing branches, long numerous in
North Carolina, traces descent from one of five brothers, prob-
ably all of whom were born in Maryland. I have been unable
certainly to learn the ancestor's name. Information concerning
this branch came to me very recently, and there has been no
time to study its traditions. I have a hope that the publication of
this work will stimulate such an interest in our family history as
will, among other things, bring to light much regarding the early
history of this branch. That the first American ancestor of this
family was closely related to the early Cecil County and other
Ewings here under consideration I am sure. This branch has a
well-authenticated tradition that its early Scotch ancestors bore
arms, and the emblazonments in the possession of the American
descendants disclose the identical ancient Ewing arms, representa-
tive pictures of which have been given.

The family tradition is that there were live brothers of this
family born to the first American ancestor, who came from Scot-
land and established his home in Maryland. John, one of the
five, was born in 1730. The father probably came with some of
those we distinguish as the older Cecil County family. Of the
children of Joshua Ewing, four sons appear to be identified;
Capt. Patrick, Robert, Samuel and Nathaniel. Nathaniel, we are
sure, who was the ancestor of Vice President Stevenson, went
from Cecil County, Maryland, to Iredell County, North Carolina.
John might have been older than Capt. Patrick. As the Ewings
moved out to the unsettled sections, as was that part of North
Carolina then, they established homes not far apart in groups of
two or more. Nathaniel, of this family, subsequently went to
Kentucky in 1816, and so quite probably each of the five brothers
were then in as many States, as this John's descendants have the
story.

If not a brother, as appears to me the most reasonable work-
ing hypothesis, then I am sure this John and Nathaniel were first
cousins.

221

222 CLAX KWIXG OF SCOTLAND

John married Mary Pratt in Maryland, went to Richmond
County, North Carolina, and built his home on Mountain Creek,
near Chapel Mills, in 1785. He died in 1804, and his wife, born
1738, died in 1821.

Their children were :

(1 ) Isaac, 1774, 1857, married Phoebe Jackson in 1796, and
she died in 1855. Her mother was the daughter of Richard
Thompson, who was the grandfather of Naomi Bostick, wife of
William Bostick. (2) Thomas. (3) Samuel, who married Rachel
Roe. (4) Joseph. (5) Christopher. (6) William.

(1) The children of Isaac Ewing were: (la) John, born
1797, (lb) William, born 1799, (lc) Joseph, born 1801, (Id)
Mary, born 1803, 1868, did not marry; (le) Elizabeth, born
1905, died early; (If) Isaac, born 1807, died 1872. He married
Martha Ingram, a daughter of Montgomery Ingram, a grand-
daughter of Edwin Ingram, a soldier of merit in the war of 1776,
under General Greene, (lg) Ann. born 1810, died June, 1872,
married Calvin A. Everett; (lh) Phoebe, born 1812, died 1846,
did not marry; (li) Rebecca, born 1815, died 1879, married Wil-
liam Parsons; (lj) Eliza, born 1817, died 1820, did not marry;
(Ik) Kiziah. born 1821, died 1899. Married Daniel Parsons.

(If) The children of Isaac Ewing, Jr., were: (lfl) Eliza
Ann, married James Batton ; (lf2) Rebecca P., married EH Chap-
pel; (Tf3) Martha Jane, married Sandy Mclntyre ; (lfl) John
W., married Mary Tyson; (lf5) Thomas M., married Fannie
Tyson; ( 1 f 6 ) Sarah F., married Wm. Harris; (If 7) Levinia,
married H. Broadway; ( 1 f 8 ) Joseph T., married Minnie Palmer;
(lf9) Alin, married William Thompson; (IflO) Kate, married
John Batton; (Ifll) Helen, and (If 12) Mary L.

(li) The child of Rebecca, daughter of Isaac Ewing, Sr.,
was David.

(Ik) The children of Kiziah, daughter of Isaac Ewing, Sr.,
were: (lkl) James L, married Terrison Burnett; (lk2) Fannie
Belle, married James H. Covington; (lk3) Elizabeth, died in in-
fancy; (lk4) Mary, died in infancy; (lk5) Joseph, died in in-
fancy.

( la) John, the first child of Isaac Ewing, Sr., married Mary
Chisholm. Their children were: (lal) Thomas; (1a2) Sarah
Ann; (la3) Daniel; (lal) William, whose first wife was Sally

MARYLAND-NORTH CAROLINA BRANCH 223

Everett; his second wife was Jane Mclntyre. Their children by
his first wife were: (la4-l) William T. ; (la4-2) Mary Ann;
(la4-3) Elizabeth; (la4-4) Sarah; (la4-5) Isaac; (la4-6)
Joseph.

Their children by his second wife were: (lal-d) John;
(la2-d) Thomas; (la3-d) Joseph, who was a physician, married
Mary Raeford. Their children were: (1) James W., a physician
and surgeon. He married Fanny Wooley. (2) Tabitha, married
Zebedee Rush. (3) Judither, married Dr. Brooksher. (4) Min-
erva, married Hat Turner. (5) Mary, died in childhood.

The children of Dr. James W. Ewing, who married Fanny
Wooley were: (1) Joseph Preston; (2) Calvin; (3) Ida; (4) Will
E. ; (5) Annie; (6) Kemp Battle; (7) Jude; (8) James Rae-
ford; (9) Everett.

Joseph Preston was born April 8, J 864, at Pekin, North
Carolina. He received his primary education at Mt. Gilead,
North Carolina. He graduated at the University of North Caro-
lina Medical School in 1884, at the age of twenty years. On ac-
count of his age he taught school for two years and then con-
ducted a drug store in connection with the practice of medicine
from 1886 to 1890. He married Sallie Hearne Christian, Febru-
ary 26, 1890. The following September after his marriage he
went to Baltimore and took a two years' post-graduate course in
medicine at Baltimore University, graduating in the spring of
1892. After his graduation there he practiced medicine and sur-
gery at Dillon, S. C. Pie was connected with several enterprises
in Dillon and other places. In 1910 he retired from the practice
of medicine and bought a large tract of land in Cumberland
County, near Fayetteville, North Carolina, and died in June 1916.

Calvin, born in Pekin, North Carolina, spent the greater
part of his life in Florida and Alabama in the turpentine busi-
ness, and died in 1920.

Ida, born in Pekin, North Carolina, married E. D. Whitlock,
a merchant in Rockingham, North Carolina, where they now live.
No children.

Will E., born in Pekin, North Carolina, a farmer and mer-
chant, married Josie McGhee, of Jamestown, North Carolina.
Their children are: (1) Glen; (2) Mary Ida; (3) Mack; (4)
Annie Bess.

224 CLAX EWING OF SCOTLAND

Annie, born in Pekin, North Carolina, married W. F. Bris-
tow, a banker. They live in Fairmont, North Carolina. Their
children are: (1) Jeddie Mae; (2) French; (3) Bessie; (4)
Ewing; (5) Wayne; (G) Mebane ; (7) Annie Ray.

Kemp Battle, born in Pekin, North Carolina, has a responsi-
ble position with the State for the past eighteen or twenty years ;
married Hattie Wendell. Children.

Jude, unmarried, is with her mother, who, as we go to press,
is eighty-one years of age. They are living at the old plantation at
Pekin, North Carolina.

James Raeford, born November 15, 188G, at Pekin, North
Carolina, married Mattie McKinney, of Reidsville, North Caro-
lina, December 28, 1920. They live in Rockingham, North Caro-
lina.

Everett died at nine years.

The children of D'r. Joseph Preston Ewing, the first son of
Dr. James W. Ewing, are :

(1) Wall Christian, born April 3, 1891, at Dillon, South
Carolina; Dillon high school, 1908; Donaldson Military School,
Fayetteville, North Carolina, and college at the Citadel, Charles-
ton, South Carolina ; is secretary and treasurer of The Christian-
Ewing Company, of Fayetteville, North Carolina. He married
Douglas Southerland, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, in April,
1920.

(2) William Raeford Ewing, born October 8, 1894, at Dil-
lon, South Carolina. Dillon high school in 1910 ; North Carolina
State College from 1911-1914. Enlisted December 14, 1917, in
the army at Ft. Thomas, Kentucky. Transferred into the 1st
Anti-Aircraft Machine Gun Battalion in March, 1918, and imme-
diately went overseas; sent to front in July, 1918, at Chateau-
Thierry, as a machine gunner. Served almost continuously from
July, 1918, until the armistice was signed on November 11, tak-
ing part in the following battles : Second Battle of the Marne
(offensive), Toul Sector (defensive), Battle of the Somme (of-
fensive), St. Mihiel (offensive), Meurthe-Moselle (offensive).
Returned home in May, 1919. As we go to press has a responsi-
ble position as manager of the fertilizer plants of Christian-
Ewing Company, of Fayetteville, North Carolina.

(3) Giles Frederic Ewing, born November 4, 1896, at Dil-
lon, South Carolina ; Dillon high school and Donaldson Military

MARYLAND-NORTH CAROLINA BRANCH 225

School; College at North Carolina State College, Raleigh, North
Carolina. Served in The National Guard on the Mexican border
from June, 1916, until August 15, 1917, when he was commis-
sioned as a first lieutenant in the regular army. He went over-
seas with the 16th Machine Gun Battalion July 5, 1918, and served
on the front on several different sectors, and took part in battle
the Meuse-Argonne. He returned home on June 19, 1919, re-
signed from the army to accept a position with The Christian-
Ewing Company.

(4) Joseph Preston Ewing, Jr., born September 18, 1899, at
Dillon, South Carolina. Educated at Dillon high school and Don-
aldson Military School, Fayetteville, North Carolina. Enlisted in
Co. F, 2nd North Carolina Infantry in June, 1916, at the age of
16, and went to the Mexican border. He volunteered for imme-
diate service overseas and went over with the famous "Rainbow"
or 42nd Division. He served on several defensive and offensive
sectors, participating in the second battle of the Marne (Chateau-
Thierry), St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne. He was wounded in
the battle of the Argonne. He returned home in March, 1919.
When discharged he took a position with The Cadillac Motor
Company in Detroit.

(5) Robert McKenzie Ewing, born December 31, 1901, at
Dillon, South Carolina. Accidentally killed at sixteen.

(6) Henry Barringer Ewing, born June 18, 1901; education
at Manchester, North Carolina and Donaldson Military School,
Fayetteville, North Carolina; enlisted in the navy in 1918 and
served two years. He is in school as we go to press training to
be an electrical engineer.

(7) Benton Montgomery Ewing, born February 3, 1907 ; edu-
cation at Manchester, North Carolina and Fayetteville, North
Carolina, and is in high school at Rockingham, North Carolina.

(8) Kent Ewing, born August 10, 1911, is in school in Fay-
etteville, North Carolina.

XXI.

DESCENDANTS OF WILLIAM EWING AND WIFE,
MARY, OF SLIGO, IRELAND.

One of the most enthusiastic and patient genealogists of the
Ewings was James L. Ewin, of Washington, D. C, patent attor-
ney, long devoted to the cause of the Anti-Saloon League back
in the days when such devotion meant bitter battle. Christian
gentleman, his untimely death, which occurred 1915 was a real
blow to the genealogical archives of all American Ewings. He
reached far and wide. It was his ambition to write a book in
which every American whose veins bore Ewing blood would
find place and pedigree. As a result he left a vast amount of
material. Much of it is undigested. In obedience to his generous
wish, his widow, Mrs. Sarah Watkins Ewin, magnanimously
placed the whole of it at my command. Much of it I knew to be a
duplicate of my own information ; and, with this exception, almost
none of it was used by me. I simply did not have the time to di-
gest, systematize and verify it ; and much relates to other than
the Ewings here particularly under consideration.

James L. Ewin traced descent from William and Mary
Ewing, of Drumcliff, County Sligo, Ireland. As he gives the line,
their son James was born about 1770. James dropped the g in
writing his name, just as one of the sons of William Ewing, of
Rockingham County, Virginia, did, we have seen, even when
witnessing his father's signature in which the g was used. So
the descendants of this James to this day omit the final g. James
L. Ewin says he was told by his uncle William that the latter in-
duced his father, James, Sr., to change the name from Ewing to
Ewin because of a Roman Catholic family by the Ewing name
in the same village.

James Ewin married Deborah Dixon (or Dickson) and they
came to New York about 1822, and there, both on the same day,
they died August 23, 1831. Children: (a) Robert, 1799-1832;
(b) James; (c) Ann; (d) Margaret, married John Tolon in New
York City and died in Baltimore, Maryland, 1832; (e) William,
Sr., October 18, 1827, died in West Virginia, 1886; (f) Mary,

226

WILLIAM EWING OF SLIGO, IRELAND 227

married Edwin W. Wainwright, 1811-1873 ; (g) John, 1813-1866,
married Margaret Moorhead, and died at Laurel, Maryland, near
Washington; (h) Jane, 1815-1861, married Chasmer.

All of these children were born in Ireland.

(e) William, Senior, married, first, Martha Ann Dennis, and
died in Tucker County, West Virginia, 1886, aged 78. By the
first wife he had William D., and by the second, Samuel Houston,
occasionally erroneously confused with the Samuel Houston
Ewing of Lee County, Virginia, born in Baltimore in 1836;
Thomas Jefferson, 1838; Mary Jane, 1840; Angelica and Martha
Ann, who married Anthony Bonn of Baltimore.

Mary Jane, last above, married Capt. Job. W. Parsons. Their
children :

Stella Maud, born in West Virginia, April 26, 1873; William
Ewin Parsons, June 4, 1875; Job W., died young; Francis Ann,
March 20, 1879, and Dickson W., August 21, 1881.

William Ewin Parsons, A. M., is at this date principal of the
Jefferson high school, Roanoke, Virginia, and ranks high as an
educator.

(s) John Ewin and wife Margaret had six children,
of whom one was James Lithgow Ewin, the genealogist
just mentioned. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, October
10, 1849, and died in Washington. His first wife was Jennie
Young King, and the second Sarah Watkins, an educated and
splendid woman, by whom he left two bright children. Mrs.
Sarah Watkins Ewin descended from an old Welsh family of
much distinction.

William Ers Lamb, attorney of Washington, D. C, is also a
descendant of this William Ewing, of County Sligo, Ireland, as
are many others.

Much valuable information regarding the descendants of this
William and Mary Ewing of Ireland is among the manuscripts
left by James L. Ewin.

XXII.
OTHER CECIL COUNTY EWINGS.

William Ewing, whose ancestors are believed to be remotely
related to William of Ireland, the latter the father of Nathaniel
and those who reached Cecil County about 1725, came from the
old country and settled near what is now Blake, Cecil Coun-
ty, in 1790. He bought land, built a comfortable home; and to
him and wife were born, John, whose birth occurred in transit
on the ocean ; Henry, Ellen, and one other son who emigrated
early in life to Ohio. The county to which he went was new and
the rest of the family lost track of him.

This John, the oldest boy by a first wife, had William M.,
Washington, George, Jefferson, EHsha R., Ann, and John, Jr.
The children of a second marriage were James, M. David,
Amos, and Emma.

Henry, the second son of this immigrant William, had,
by the first wife, Samuel, Jackson, William, Sarah, Anna, Eliza,
Kate and George W.

Ellen, of the immigrant's children, married Richard Jones.
They had no children.

John's oldest son, son of the immigrants, William M. Ewing,
married Eliza Henderson of Providence, Maryland. They had
six children: John Wesley, September 7, 1845: Lillie Ann,
married W. B. Kirk; Joseph, July 29, 1850; George R., Sept-
tember 7, 1853; Harvey W., December 1, 1858.

This Harvey W. Ewing married Tennis Janvier, of Still
Pond, Maryland. They have one son, Maury Janvier Ewing,
born in Wilmington, Delaware, February 18, 1890. Harvey W.
Ewing was educated at Old New London Academy, Pennsyl-
vania, Delaware College, Newark and the Drew Theological
Seminary, and in 1903 he received the degree of D. D. from
the Iowa Wesleyan University.

To Dr. Ewing's courtesy the author is indebted for this
genealogy of the family of William, the Cecil County immi-
grant of 1790. The author has many other descendants of this
William, and shall gladly give them on request.

228

OTHER CECIL COUNTY EWINGS 229

This family has furnished several merchants of some prom-
inence, many farmers and artisans, a number of teachers and
some ministers of note. The earliest to enter the ministry was
Amos, son of John, son of the immigrant, but who unfor-
tunately died early in a promising career. An only child sur-
vives, the wife of Frank Foster, Collingwood, New Jersey. W.
Frank Ewing, son of David, grandson of John, the oldest son of
the immigrant, is a favorably known minister of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, now at Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. Dr.
Harvey W. Ewing, a man of splendid force, has filled pulpits
for long periods from charges in Maryland to Covington, Ken-
tucky, and in Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts. As we go
to press he is stationed at Wilmington, Delaware.

XXIII.
DESCENDANTS OF JOHN EWING OF PENNA.-OHIO.

The descendants of John Ewing, born about 1760, who for
a period lived near Gettysburg, are certainly closely, in my opin-
ion, related to the older Cecil County family. Family traits, re-
semblances, etc., are so striking that little other proof is needed.
Hence, these facts and traditions of Scotch descent satisfactor-
ily show that this John Ewing branch is* also descended from the
old Loch Lomond family, the ancestor of which bore the old
Ewing arms, and to one branch of which Bishop Ewing of Scot-
land belonged. This older John Ewing married Margaret Towns-
ley, and to them were born :

Rachel, born 1793; Margaret, 1795; Samuel, 1797; John,
January 16, 1800; James, December 27, 1801.

In 1795 John, the father of this family, moved to Camp-
bell County, Kentucky, and about 1802 to Clermont County,
Ohio, and there died in 1803.

John II of this family in 1833 married a daughter of the
wealthy Silas Roberts of Ohio, and to them were born twelve
children. Four of them are living as this book goes to press :
William, of Colorado ; Miss Elizabeth Ewing of Los Angeles,
California; Miss Ida Ewing of New York City; and Mrs. Dr.
Cummins B. Jones of Los Angeles.

An article published in an Ohio newspaper, March 14, 1890,
contains an interview with this John II Ewing, aged ninety.
From what he said we get some interesting facts. This article
refers to him as "prominent in the gallery of Ohio's venerable
pioneer patriarchs and known to most of the old settlers of
Southern Ohio, and the people who traveled in the old stages
from Cincinnati to Columbus and Sprinfield before the days of
railroads."

From this interview we find that from Gettysburg the elder
John went down the Ohio River in a flat bottom boat, then so
much used by travelers going in the direction of the current.
What is now Cincinnati was then known as Fort Washington,

230

JOHN EWING OF OHIO 231

and occasionally as Losantville. The fort protected a little set-
tlement on the north bank of the river ; while on the Kentucky-
side there was another settlement. For a time the older John
Ewing cast his lot on the Kentucky shore ; but, as we have seen,
shortly crossed to Ohio.

Ohio was then yet largely a dangerous wilderness. The
Ewing home was far from the older communities, and the
family bravely met the inevitable hardships and inconveniences,
the children not neglecting such education as could be had.

In 1814 John, the younger, went to Xenia and entered the
store of J. Gowdy, a relative. He found time from store duties,
however, to attend school. When of lawful age, Mr. Gowdy
made Ewing a partner, the firm becoming Gowdy, Ewing &
Co. This firm became one of great prominence, being, among
other things, an important pioneer in the pork packing industry.
Ewing in a few years purchased the interest of the other part-
ners and continued a most successful career.

In the interview John II says his father meant to settle in
Ohio when he left Pennsylvania, but paused on the Kentucky
side of the Ohio because of the acute danger from Indians on
the north side of the river. Too, a brother lived on the Ken-
tucky side. After the elder John's death the mother took young
John back to this uncle in Kentucky, and there the boy remained
several years. The mother made the trip on horseback, neces-
sarily ; and though the lad was only three years old he never for-
got two impressions made then. One was that when the mother
was worn out carrying him in her lap she would place him be-
hind her, warning him that if he went to» sleep and fell off the
bears would eat him up ! The other impression was his "ut-
terly lost feeling when he found that his mother had gone home
and left him." The uncle's family were kindly and aided him to
forget his grief by teaching him to build houses of corn cobs, a
representative and touching picture of the amusements and play-
toys of our early American Ewing ancestors generally.

"Afterwards he went to Batavia (Ohio) with his uncle,
who also moved there, and went to school to another uncle,"
until about the age of fourteen when he went to Xenia with
Gowdy, the first merchant of that place, as we have seen.

232 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

In mature life John II made several trips on horseback from
Xenia to Philadelphia. In the "thirties" he loaded two steam-
boats with bacon, flour and other commodities, steamed into
New Orleans, sold part of merchandise in that market ; loaded
a brig with the bacon and sailed around Florida to Charleston,
South Carolina ; advertised the bacon for three days "and then
sold it at a big profit". He then went north to Philadelphia, pur-
chased merchandise for his store, which goods, by the way, went
out in big wagons of the pioneer type, and returned to Xenia in
September. He left home in April.

John II. Ewing built and long controlled the Ewing House,
for many years Xenia's leading hotel. ''The stage used to start
from it, and many is the prominent person who stopped at this
hotel long years ago."

At ninety-three this John Ewing died at his lovely Xenia,
Ohio, home, April, 1893. Honest, of great energy, fearless, pro-
gressive, he stands a representative of the Ewing blood which
came to him as to us from our Scotch ancestry.

Miss Lizzie Ewing and Miss Ida Ewing and their brother,
Samuel, all remained unmarried and tenderly cared for their
father at his home. But the historic old Ewing home of Xenia
is now no more — alas, representative, again, of so many of the
old homes of our clan. Miss Lizzie lives now in Los Angeles,
amid its roses ; Miss Ida, having become an accomplished musi-
cian by study in Europe, now operates a successful musical
studio in New York City ; and Mrs. Alice Ewing Jones, widow of
the late distinguished Dr. Jones, spends her time between her Los
Angeles home, Washington, D. C, and New York City ; and most
wisely handles her large financial interests.

XXIV.

BEDFORD COUNTY, VIRGINIA, BRANCHES-
ROBERT EWING DESCENDANTS.

By no means least of the noted and splendidly influential
families of our name were those founded by two brothers, Rob-
ert and Charles Ewing. All the evidence indicates and nothing
disputes that they were close cousins of the other immigrants of
our family. One tradition has it that they were born in Cole-
raine, Ireland ; while another says they were born near Stirling
Castle, Scotland, within the old clan bounds. Whichever be cor-
rect, it is certain they were near relatives to those who came from
at least not for from Londonderry. A tradition, given me by
Rowland D. Buford, of Bedford City, an aged man (in his
eighty-sixth year at the time of his letter to me) who knew and
respected their descendants, insists that they fled from Scotland
because of some political difficulty, being staunch Covenanters
who, no doubt, warmly espoused the cause of the Protestant
claimants to the English throne. However, I am satisfied that
they came, whether from Scotland or Ireland, because of the gen-
eral unrest which prevailed in both countries, and which I have
briefly narrated.

An undisputed tradition says that on reaching America they
visited their relations in Cecil County, Maryland, for a short
time, and then pushed on for the new lands and broader oppor-
tunities in that section shortly to become Bedford County, Vir-
ginia, near where Samuel Ewing, James Ewing and other cousins
then lived.

The sketch of the Ewings left by Nathaniel Ewing of Mount
Clair, Knox County, Indiana, and published in the Courier-Jour-
nal, February 28, 1897, after what I have elsewhere quoted con-
tinues :

"Some time about the year 1735 or 1740 two young men,
cousins of my grandfather, Nathaniel Ewing (the only son by
the first wife of William Ewing, born in Scotland), came to
America. Their names were Charles and Robert Ewing. Hav-

233

£34 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

ing gotten into an affray at a fair in Ireland they were so unfor-
tunate as to kill a man, for which they were obliged to fly the
country and came to my grandfather's, where they concealed
themselves for a length of time until one of my grandfather's
half brothers came from Virginia on a visit to his relations in
Maryland. On his return they were put over the Susquehanna
in the night and went with him to Virginia. It being a place less
frequented by emigrants from Ireland than Maryland, and a
proclamation having arrived offering a reward for their appre-
hension, their longer stay became dangerous.

"Some time after their arrival in Prince Edward County a
new settlement was founded further back, in what is now called
Bedford County, near the Peaks of Otter. They joined the adven-
turers and finally settled there and married sisters, daughters of
Mr. Baker, a Presbyterian minister, and lived there until death.
They both left large families, who are now settled in Kentucky,.
Tennessee, and Missouri, some of whom I have seen, viz.: Baker
Ewing, Young Ewing, Samuel Ewing and Finis Ewing. The last
is a Presbyterian clergyman and resides in Missouri. I mention
the family on account of their having become so numerous in
the western country and to show the connection between them
and my family."

Exhaustive investigation leads me to the most decided
opinion that the "affray at a fair" and its result is an error. Mr.
Buford, who never heard of this fair story, was quite confident
that the "trouble," whatever it may have been, was nothing other
than a mere "political matter" which resulted in no physical
encounter. He lived in the county where both Robert and Charles
spent the most of their distinguished lives; and so had a better
opportunity to know their pre-American history than had
Nathaniel Ewing whose article was published in the Courier-
Journal. All the facts, aside from Nathaniel's statement, indi-
cate that at that day Robert and Charles could have been as
readily located where they settled in Virginia as had they re-
mained in Cecil County.

That they had committed no grave crime in early life, even
in the heat of an unpremeditated encounter, the prominence of
their later lives attests. Cossett, the biographer of Finis Ewing,
of this Robert and Charles says :

ROBERT EWING OF BEDFORD 235

"The two brothers appear to have ranked among the most
respectable citizens and prosperous farmers of that county," Bed-
ford. (Life and Times of Rev. Finis Ewing (1853), 24.)

Among other things, this Robert or his son became a colonel
of Virginia malitia. (See his letter to Governor Jefferson in
1 Virginia State Papers, 510; and another of March, 1783, in
volume 3, p. 459.) He served in Capt. Thomas Buford's Com-
pany of volunteers under General Andrew Lewis, known as Dun-
more's Indian war, and was a participant in the famous battle of
Point Pleasant, October 10, 1774, as were others of his kindred.
(Letter from R. D. Buford; Virginia Colonial Malitia, 86.)

Just when these brothers reached Virginia I am not sure ;
nor do I know where they first lived in that State, then a colony,
other than what Nathaniel has said.

In a deed dated January 24, 1755, Robert and Mary, his wife,
give their home as in Lunenburg County. The instrument con-
veys land in Augusta County. The land was patented to Robert
Ewing in 1749, according to copies from the records as given by
Lyman Chalkley, 3 Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in
Virginia, 338. This work is abstracts of the Augusta records.
Augusta County, as we saw, was formed from Orange in 1738,
and the first Augusta records begin in 1745. This is the earliest
record of Robert in Virginia which I have found. He never
lived in Augusta but was reaching out for land. Lunenburg was
formed in 1746 from Brunswick, and up to 1753 Bedford County,
which became the home of Robert and Charles, was a part of
Lunenburg County.

Mr. Buford, writing to me in his eightieth year, says that
Robert and Charles came to Bedford from Prince Edward. Prince
Edward was formed from Amelia in 1753. But as Robert, taking
the recital in the deed of 1755 as correct, did not live in Prince
Edward in January, 1755, it is most probable that he was then in
that part of Lunenburg which subsequently became Bedford.
Amelia was formed from Prince George in 1734; but the records
of Amelia give us no light upon either of these brothers. How-
ever, it is interesting that those records contain the following
deeds :

From George Ewing and wife to Hugh Challers, for 287
acres of land located in Nottoway Parrish, Amelia County, ad-
joining Baker, dated 27 July, 1749.

236 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

The body of the deed describes the grantors as living in
Amelia County, State of Virginia, and the acknowledgment was
in Amelia County and is dated 25th July, 1749.

From James Ewing and wife, of the county of Amelia,
Virginia, to Joshua Ewing, power of Attorney, to convey one-
half acre of land, dated 15th June, 1750.

Acknowledged in the County of Amelia, on the 15th June,
1750.

From William Ewing and wife to John Morrow for 400
acres, described as lying on both sides of Mill Forks of Vaughan's
Creek in Amelia County, dated 7th August, 1752.

The body of the deed recites grantors as in Parrish of Notto-
way, Amelia County.

From Edward Brafford to Samuel C. Ewing, for 208*4
acres, described as in Amelia, dated 17th May, 1745.

From,' Samuel Wallace to Alexander Ewing of Amelia
County, Virginia, for 300 acres, described as between Fork Creek
and Lalley's Creek in the county of Amelia, adjoining Samuel
Ewing and others, dated 5th May, 1753.

From Edward Brathwet to George Ewing, Jr., of Amelia
County, for nine acres, bounded by the lands of Wallace, Samuel
Ewing and others, dated 2d January, 1750.

Robert and Charles each acquired landed estates, both in
Virginia and later in what became Kentucky. Robert owned
land lying along "the south end of Ewing's mountain" and which
is now in Wythe County, and near the George Ewing lands.

Robert was the older. For many years he was "clerk of the
Bedford County Court, and an elder in the Presbyterian church.
He married Miss Mary Baker and became the father of nine sons
and three daughters," said Cossitt. But Buford says Robert was
never clerk of the court.

Mr. Buford, than whom no recent man in Bedford County
knew more of the genealogy of the prominent families of his
county, of these immigrant brothers says that they "were useful,
high-toned, wise, intelligent, and public spirited citizens."

Both of the immigrant brothers were staunch Presbyterians,
Covenanters of the Scotch faith. They and their neighbor
Scotch or Scotch-Irish founded, long before 1774, the historic
Peaks, of Otter Presbyterian church. Their children's names are

ROBERT EWING OF BEDFORD 237

upon its roster. In 1774 the congregation presented to the Vir-
ginia House of Burgesses a petition saying that they "were willing
to contribute their quota in support of the church of England as
by law established in this colony of Virgnia," with more cheerful-
ness because allowed the exercise of their religion as "Presby-
terian Dissenters unmolested." Then they ask for a continuation
of lenience and the future protection of their religion "which they
humbly conceive is well calculated to make men wise here and
happy hereafter." Then attention is called to the inconvenience
of supporting a clergy of their denomination and they ask a law
authorizing lands and slaves to be bought and title to rest in the
elders for the benefit of the congregation, and to the use of their
minister "as long as he continues in the doctrine and subject to
the discipline of the Presbyterian Church as held and exercised by
their Sessions, Presbyteries, or Synods."

Among the large number of signers are Robert Ewing,,
Charles Ewing, Robert Ewing, Jr., Andrew Ewing, John Ewing,
Caleb Ewing, and William Ewing. If the Junior Robert who
signed was the son of the immigrant, he was not quite fourteen
years old according to his tombstone, which says he was born in
1760. This Charles was evidently the son of the immigrant
Charles, as the latter died in 1770. This petition was presented
in 1774, referred to the "Committee for Religion" of the House-
of Burgesses on May IT of that year, and on the twenty-first of
that month reported "Reasonable." Thus these Ewings contrib-
uted their influence to the planting of another milestone along the
road leading to greater religious tolerance in Virginia.

This Robert E wing's will was probated June 25, 1787, and
the codicil is dated May 27, 1787. The codicil is witnessed by
Will Ewing, who was a lawyer, Adam Beard and two others. To
the wife Mary, who was a daughter of the Rev. Baker, he leaves,
during her widowhood, the home plantation and personal property.

This will is witnessed by Sam Ewing and others. A grand-
son, Bartus Ewing, a son of John Ewing, received "a set of Shew
and Knee Silver buckles" ; and another grandson, Bartus, son of
July Mills, received another set. July Mills received a diamond
ring "worth two pistols as a token of her singular obedience."
To John and Finis the will gave farms near the Peaks of Otter
in Bedford County. Most of the other boys had their faces set

238 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

toward Kentucky, mentioned in the will as the "Western Coun-
try." This elder Rohert himself had arranged for vast tracts in
the rich Kentucky regions ; and owned about "514 acres on the
south end of Ewing's Mountain," in what is now Wythe County,
Virginia, in addition to other lands in what is yet Bedford
County.

To Robert, who married Mary Baker, it is said were
born twelve children ; but eleven only are named in Robert's will.
Robert, Jr., who became the General Robert Ewing of Kentucky,
was the oldest; and Finis (Latin for last) who became the dis-
tinguished minister, it is generally reported, was the youngest.
However, Mr. Cockrell of Louisville and Judge Ewing of Hous-
ton say a twelfth was "Jane, (who) married Peter Kelly, a sol-
dier of the Revolution." As named in the will this is the order
and spelling, though not indicative of relative ages : Finis, Polly,
Robert, Baker, Rubin, Chattam, Young, Urbin, John, July (who
married Mills) and Sydney (who married Adam Lynn). In his
The Ewing Genealogy, Hon. P. K. Ewing has Martha (Betty)
where in his will the father has July. She married Capt. John
Mills, of Botetourt County, Virginia. Judge Ewing says "Polly
(Patty) married John Ewing, son of George Ewing."

There is evidently some confusion regarding the number of
daughters, and there may be also regarding the birth of Finis,
which is given by Cossett as July 10, 1773. Young and Urbin
were not of "full age" at the date of the father's will March 2,
1786, as shown upon its face; and Chatham was not of full age
at date of the codicil, May 14, 1787. Finis receives land and
other bequests as though of full age and nothing in either docu-
ment suggests that we was not twenty-one.

Mary Baker Ewing, who became the mother of these chil-
dren, was the sister of Martha Baker, who married Charles
Ewing. Of Mary's personal history Hon. P. K. Ewing says that
farther than her parentage he ascertained nothing, then adds:
"but surely the mother of a galaxy of sons like hers, who are
accredited by history so uniformly with worthy achievements of
high order, must have been richly endowed with those attributes
which make 'a perfect woman nobly planned.' " This very just
compliment is equally applicable to her sister Martha; and, for
that matter to many, many of the splendid mothers of our family,

ROBERT EWING OF BEDFORD 239

who, lost in their husbands, have so nobly contributed to the
many "worthy achievements of a high order," accredited by
history to an unusual member of all branches of our family.

July, who married Capt. John Mills, probably married in
Kentucky, as there is no record of her marriage in Bedford.
Robert II married May McLean ; Urban (or Urbin) married
May Ewing; and Rubin married Frances WhitseTt, located in
Logan County, Kentucky, and became one of the first justices
of its court. Chatham married Elizabeth Campbell, April 22,
1790, as shown by the Bedford records; and of Finis and Robert
II we shall see subsequently.

Since no attempt is being made to write a genealogy, I men-
tion only a few of the descendants of this family. Other names
may be found in the recent work of Hon. P. K. Ewing and
among the data of F. M. Cockrell, of Louisville, Kentucky, and
in the material left by the late James L. Ewin, of Washing-
ton, D. C.

Though her daughter, Nancy, who married Abraham Boyd,
Sidney (Ann) Lynn's grandson, John Boyd, was long a mem-
ber of the Congress of the Republic of Texas ; another grand-
son, Lynn Boyd, was a member of the legislature of Kentucky,
1827-'30; a member of Congress in 1834, 1838 to 1854, being
speaker of the House 1850-1854; and in 1859 he became lieu-
tenant-governor of Kentucky.

Polly (Patty) married John Ewing (son of George
Ewing j, of Virginia, and moved to Kentucky where this John
Ewing became a member of the first court of Campbell County.
Through a son, Urban Epinetus, they have descendants of note
in Louisville, Chicago and elsewhere.

Most of the children of Robert Ewing fell in with the
westward expansion along the "Old Wilderness Road," leading
through Southwest Virginia by what is now Bristol, thence
across the mountains into Powell Valley, Lee County (as the
region is now), where my own family and other Ewings early
located, thence out beyond the enchanting Cumberlands into
Kentucky; and, in time, later descendants spread into all parts
of the vast, inspiring West. Some sojourned as they went, — for
instance, Urbin lived for some time in Washington County, of
which he was part of that period sheriff. At Abingdon, the seat

240 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

of that county, Urbin Ewing, in 1773, was by its court admitted
to practice as an attorney at law.

Baker Ewing became identified with Lincoln and Franklin
Counties, Kentucky. In 1788 he was in the legislature as a
member from Lincoln. He was the first register of the Kentucky
Land Office ; and in 1802 represented Franklin County in the
legislature.

Young Ewing went early to Kentucky, married three times ;
in 1792 he was one of the justices of the first court of Logan
County ; he represented that county in the legislature in 1795 ;
was a member of the constitutional convention ; again in the
legislature in 1800-1807; in the State senate for many years;
Presidential elector in 1824 ; and with the rank of colonel com-
manded troops in our war of 1812-'14, distinguishing himself
particularly at the battle of the Thames.

Urban Ewing went to Logan County, Kentucky, about 1796.
For many years he was a member of the legislature ; was a gal-
lant soldier in the war of 1812 ; and moved to Cooper County,
Missouri, about 1819, and there died. He married Mary (Polly)
Ewing, daughter of George Ewing, at Abingdon, Virginia, Judge
P. K. Ewing says, in 1787, and she died in Lafayette County,
Missouri, in 1832. Many of their descendants are today in that
State.

Reuben Ewing went to Kentucky, became a member of the
constitutional convention; onfe of the* judges of the Logan
County "quarterly court" in 1801 ; and associate justice of the
circuit court in 1803 ; and, of course, he also served in the legfis-
lature. He married Frances C. Whitsefr and left descendants.

Chatham Ewing married and lived for a short time at
Abingdon, Virginia ; then he went to Kentucky, and from there
to Lafayette County, Missouri, where he died, leaving many
descendants.

John Ewing had a wife named Martha (Mary?) and it ap-
pears that they remained in Virginia. They had a son, Robert,
says Judge Ewing, known in the will of his grandfather as
Bartus, as we have seen; and it is said a daughter, Sidney, mar-
ried Micajah Rowland in 1793 ; and that another daughter married
a Frazier. These children of this John clearly distinguish him
from my great-grandfather with whom some of my corre-
spondents have confused him.

ROBERT EWING OF BEDFORD 241

All of the children of Robert and May Baker Ewing were
born in Bedford County, Virginia.

Robert II, son of the pioneer Robert, was born in 1760; and
died in Kentucky July 14, 1832 ; and is buried, says Judge
Ewing, near Adairville, Kentucky. On his tombstone we read :
"In memory of General Robert Ewing, a soldier of the Revo-
lution, who departed this life 14th day of July, 1832. He was
born in Virginia in 1760, removed to Wes't Tennessee in 1781,
from whence he was elected and served two sessions in the
North Carolina legislature." Then the inscription tells us that
he married Jane McLean on July 4, 1787; removed to Logan
County, Kentucky, in 1792; and was elected to the legislature of
Kentucky in 1797, and served twenty-one successive years, six-
teen of which were in the senate, during two of which he was its
president.

Judge Ewing gives a roster of this Robert Ewing's
descendants, among them being many men and women of mark —
lawyers, physicians, etc., such as Henry Clay Ewing, once an
attorney general of Missouri, and later a commissioner of the
supreme court of that State; Mrs. W. A. Dallmeyer, of Jefferson
City, Missouri ; George Washington Ewing, of Logan County,
Kentucky, 1808-1888, once member of the Kentucky legislature,
and then a member of the Congress of the Confederate States ;
and many others.

Other distinguished descendants of the pioneer Robert
Ewing are :

Presley K. Ewing is the son of Dr. Fayette Clay Ewing,
1824, a distinguished; surgeon and physician, and\ who was
surgeon in the Confederate army. Doctor Ewing was a man of
very large fortune. He was the son of Judge E. M. Ewing, who,
1843-47, was chief justice of the highest court of the State of
Kentucky. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Kentucky speaks
of Judge E. M. Ewing as a lawyer and man in the highest terms.
Presley K. was born in Louisiana July 21, 1860. He obtained a
thorough education, studied law, and was admitted to the bar of
Houston, Texas, in 1882. He became judge of the supreme court
of Texas ; and is an author of note, The Ewing Genealogy
(1919), being a recent work from his pen in collaboration with
his talented wife now, unhappily, deceased.

242 CLAN EWING OF1 SCOTLAND

The widely known John W. Kerr, once candidate for Vice-
President of the United States, said :

"Judge Presley K. Ewing of Texas is a profound jurist, a
prince among men, and one of the finest democrats between the
oceans."

Judge Ewing is a noted orator and has been honored and
his great abilities recognized in many happy ways. He married
Mary Ellen Williams, one of the most brilliant and distinguished
women of Texas, and to them were born two daughters, both
married and now residing in New York City.

Of Finis Ewing we know more than of the others of the
Robert Ewing family because of the facts left us in his life
written by Cossett. That biographer tells us that Finis Ewing
"scrupulously respected the rights of others" and "was generally
prompt to assert and resolute to maintain his own." He was, we
are further told, a man of "indomitable energy of character,"
independent and self-reliant. He was "a patriotic citizen as well
as Christian minister." In the war of 1812-'14 he served both
as soldier and chaplain. He belonged to the regiment (Kentucky
troop) of which his brother, Young Ewing, was colonel; and
the picture recorded by Cossett, when he tells us of the preacher-
soldier delivering a sermon to the troop as he sat on his horse,
rifle across the saddle pomel, is characteristic of the man and
representatives of the times. He spent much of his early man-
hood in Tennessee. When duty called, he took part in expedi-
tions against murderous Indians. From there he moved to
Christian County, Kentucky, serving as postmaster at Ewings-
ville. He moved to Missouri in 1820 ; and again, among other
activities, became postmaster of another Ewingsville in that
State. However, his fame lies in his chief instrumentality as
founder of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Differing from
the old school Presbyterians upon the doctrine of predestination,
he founded a society based upon man's complete free moral
agency ; and that body grew in numbers until in recent years it
reunited with the older church, which, in the meantime had modi-
fied the doctrine to which Ewing objected. He died July 4, 1841,
age G8, generally regarded as the youngest of his brothers and
sisters. Cossett thus estimates him: "Mr. Ewing was emphat-
ically a great as well as good man."

ROBERT EWING OF BEDFORD 243

July 10, 1794, from "Walnut Bluff, Davideon (County,
Tennessee), per safe hand," Finis Ewing wrote Capt. William
Ewing in Bedford, on family business, being unable to attend
to it on account of wife's health. Says he gave Rubin Ewing a
well "authenticated" power of attorney, to deed a tract of land,
evidently in Bedford, and to collect money due. The bond for
this he sent with the letter to be delivered, adding: "Pray
solicit the old Gentleman not to fail in sending me the money as
I expect to be sued if I do not get the money." Then he says :
"Sir, you have frequently told me that when I made the deed you
would bestow on me a chunk of a horse or some present out of
the store and. I always refused which I now do but if you think
proper to bestow anything you may send Mrs. Ewing some trifle
out of the store, ctoth for a setout coat or something that suits
your best judgment. vSir, be assured that I do not ask it."

He speaks of the place from which he writes as a "fresh
county of fertile soil."

Cossett says of this Finis Ewing :

"He was comely in person, graceful in manner, frank, kind
and generous in his disposition. He was considered a young
man of fine talents and extraordinary energy and character." He
was a "very good singer and had a strong and melodious voice."
His manners were prepossessing. Smith, a contemporary writer,
says : "Mr. Ewing is a man of liberal education and extensive
readings."

When he lived in "the Cumberland County," in the midst of
which Nashville, Tennessee, now stands, Indian raids were
frequent. When the alarm of this danger was given he was
always among the first to reach the threatened or beleaguered
point ; and was "distinguished for his zeal and energy in defence
of the settlement," his biographer-friend truthfully says. And
the story is all the more interesting to us because this picture of
the part played by Finis Ewing is equally true of all the Ewings
of pioneer days and frontier hardships and dangers. They were
men of action and nerve tempered by sound judgment; and the
women bore their part with equal credit.

Early in life Finis Ewing saw the need of preachers along the
advance line of civilization and felt the divine sanction to
preach the gospel story. The Presbyterian ministers of his

244 CLAN KWING OF SCOTLAND

church were slow to brave the hardships and dangers of the
frontiers ; and as a result Methodism, with its stronger hold on
emotional faith and personal experience and its firm grasp of the
individual's free will, gathered the harvest as civilization ad-
vanced to and beyond the Cumberlands and into Kentucky, West
Tennessee, and beyond. Finis Ewing, seeing the need of reform
in his church and realizing the need of greater zeal in its ranks,
yet unable to effect the needed reforms within his church, put
into the organization of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church
the principles the older needed ; and with splendid zeal and suc-
cess carried the banner of the new church in friendly co-operation
with the Methodist itinerants. Cossett tells us of Ewing's mis-
sionary journeys along Indian paths, beset by wolves and liable
to savage surprise. When Ewing started as an "exhorter," says
that biographer, "many persons had never attended meeting, or
heard a sermon since they came to the (Cumberland) County."

At least two of his brothers were active supporters of the
new church. At a session of its synod held in Kentucky in 1804,
Rubin and Young Ewing filled official layman positions. Cossett
says of them : "Rubin was a judge of one of the courts of Ken-
tucky, and Young had been long known in political annals of the
State, and was a colonel in the expedition under general Hop-
kins in the War of 1812."

The children of this Rev. Finis Ewing were :
(a) Winifred W., 1794-1876. She married Henry M. Ruby,
leaving descendants, (b) William Lee Davidson, who died in
Illinois in 1846. He served in the Illinois legislature; became
major of Illinois troops; became acting governor of Illinois in
1834 ; was elected United States Senator in 1835 ; was promoted
to general of the malitia ; and was State auditor at death, (c)
Thomas M., who served in the Kentucky legislature; was Presi-
dential elector in 1832; moved to Missouri and served in the
constitutional convention of 1845, leaving issue, (d) Polly; (e)
Davey; (f) Baxter, all died young; (g) Mary Anderson, who
married Archibald Kavanaugh, and died in 1837, leaving issue.
( h ) Margaret Davidson, married Rev. Robert Sloan and died
in Missouri, leaving children, (i.) Pamelia Jane, married James
W. Read and died in Texas, (j) Finis Young, who left issue in
Kentucky, (k) Washington Perry, who married Aletha Jane

ROBERT EWING OF BEDFORD 245

Ewing, granddaughter of Chatham Ewing, leaving issue. (1)
Robert Chatham Donnell, who married Maria L. Harris, leaving
issue, (m) Ephrim Brevard. He and his brother were lawyers
of note. This Ephrim was Secretary of the State of Missouri
in 1849 ; served in the legislature ; was elected Attorney General
of the State; and in 1859 was elected a judge of the Missouri
supreme court ; and after the first again became a judge of the
supreme court. See The Green Bag, October, 1899. He left issue
of marked ability, one of whom, a grandson, is Francis M.
Cockrell, of Louisville, Kentucky, the genealogist of his family,
as I have heretofore observed. The latter's mother was Anna
Ewing, daughter of this Judge E. B. Ewing. She married
Francis Marion Cockrell, who became a brigadier general in the
Confederate Army; and later United States Senator from Mis-
souri. I had the fortune to interview Senator Cockrell several
times before he died in 1905. The Senator's grandfather was
one of the pioneers of Powell Valley, Lee County, Virginia, and
for thirty-five years was a neighbor of my grandfather.

Another descendant of this Judge Ewing was Alice Brevard,
1848-1914. She married John R. S. Walker, of Missouri, who
was also a distant descendant of the immigrant Robert Ewing.
He was a man of deserved prominence and filled positions of high
responsibility. (See Judge P. K. Ewing's The Ewing Genealogy
and other sources.)

So that it is no surprise that a Dr. Burt of Kentucky dis-
tinguishes an era in the history of Logan County, Kentucky,
as "When the Ewings came and brought the law with them."

The Bedford County marriage records show the following
Ewing nuptials :

John Ewing and Mary Ewing, November 21, 1786.

William Edgar and Parmelia Ewing, June 27, 1786. John
Ewing is security on the required bond.

Chatham Ewing and Elizabeth Campbell, daughter of Moses
Campbell, April 22, 1790.

Reuben Rowland and Patsy Ewing. August 25, 1792. Wil-
liam Ewing security.

Micajah Rowland and Sidney Ewing, daughter of John
Ewing, October 15, 1793. John Ewing, security.

Mitchell Ewing and Pebe Cox (of Pennsylvania), Decem-
ber 28, 1797.

246 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

William Ewing and Anna Cotrell, February 26, 1805. This
William was a son of Charles, Robert's brother. There was no
issue of this marriage according to F. M. Cockrell, Jr.

Mitchell Ewing and Nancy Beard, March 25, 1805. This
was Mitchell's second marriage, the first wife having died.

Christopher Dorrriire and Anna Ewing, November 10, 1812.

John Jones Ewing (of Prince Edward County) and Tebitha
P. Edgar, November 19, 1822.

Caleb Ewing and May L. Jones, December 18, 1833.

Spotswood Brown and Elizabeth Jane Ewing, daughter of
Mitchell Ewing, November 16, 1835.

Fletcher H. Mays and Mary L. Ewing (widow of Caleb
Ewing, Jr., daughter of Wm. R. Jones), May, 1842.

William Ewing and Lydia Patterson, December 18, 1850.

Charles H. Ewing and Elizabeth F. Patterson, July 30, 1851.

Albert M. Ewing and Fannie Bacon Hunt, November 1, 1871.

William E. Ewing and Lila Cofer, December 18, 1878.

XXV.

THE BEDFORD COUNTY FAMILY CONTINUED-
CHARLES EWING AND DESCENDANTS.

Charles Ewing, whose will is dated May 31, 1770, and which
was probated in Bedford County, Virginia, July 24, 1770, was
the same splendid type of citizen as his brother, Robert. This is
not mere theory. Nor is it simply family tradition. The posi-
tions these two brothers filled as well as those held by their chil-
dren after them and the testimony of such men as R. D. Buford,
who knew their neighbors and who spent years studying the
family records of his county, furnish us undisputed proof.

This Charles, the immigrant, and his son, Charles, were the
only Ewings of that Christian name in all that part of Virginia in
their day, so far as I can learn. So it is the more easy to identify
them. Undoubtedly it was the immigrant who bought land in
Augusta County, Virginia^ December 13, 1744 (3 Chalkley,
Augusta County Records, p. 9) ; but so far as known he never
lived in that county, — a vast region once covering all the south-
western part of Virginia. But Charles and his brother, Robert,
undoubtedly had located in Virginia much earlier than that date.
It was earlier than this that Charles located on lands near the
Peaks of Otter in what is now Bedford County and established
what in Mr. Buford's early day (before 1850) was known as
Chestnut Grove. Until sold very recently by the mother of Miss
Sallie O. Ewing, of Roanoke, Virginia, this old home came down
through his descendants. "I have been at the sweet old home,"
wrote Mr. Buford of it in his 86th year. Continuing he adds:
"It is now owned and occupied by my friend, Mr. M. L. Hatcher.
Not a member of the Ewing family now remains in the county."
With his brother Charles resided in Prince Edward County be-
fore locating in the newer Bedford at least as early as 1761.

This Charles by his last will leaves the home place of one
hundred acres and negroes to his wife during widowhood; and
then provides for the following children, in the order named,
which, of course, is no index to their respective ages :

William, Robert, Samuel, George, David, Caleb, Charles,
Mary and Martha.

247

248 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

William became a lawyer. He died in 1810, leaving a will
bequeathing his books of law and of religion to his wife, who was
Anna Cottrell, and whom he married in 1805. They had no chil-
dren, and at the wife's death the land under the will passed to
Mitchell Ewing, a nephew, who lived on Otter River. His brother,
Caleb, had died before, leaving William as executor ; and in his
will William, by reason of his stewardship, provides for Polly
and Betsy, children of Caleb. He makes some bequests to his
brothers, Charles, George and David, indicating that they were
then living.

This will of William Ewing also mentions his sisters, Martha
and Mary, who were in Kentucky.

After the death of this William his widow married Chris-
topher Domiere, as shown by the marriage records of Bedford
County. They moved to Ohio, and there Domiere died. Anna,
the widow living in Preble County, Ohio, December 6, 1855, ap-
plied for a pension on the ground that her first husband was a
patriot soldier of the Revolution. She was then, she said, about
82 years old. In her affidavit, she says that she is the widow of
"William Ewing, who was a sergeant in a regiment of Virginia
troops" during the Revolutionary War and that he enlisted in
"Bedford County, Virginia, October or November, 1780." She
says that she and Ewing married in Bedford County, Virginia,
February 2G, 1805; and that he died in 1810; and that she re-
married to Christopher Domiere.

In her petition the name is also spelled Ewin.

A tenant who in 1805 lived on a farm of this Charles Ewing
in Bedford County, in his affidavit with this petition says that
"William Ewing was a man of good habits and well respected
by his neighbors," and reputed to have been a soldier of the
Revolution.

When Charles II Ewing was in his prime the county west of
the Alleghenies and (to the southwest) the Cumberlands was an
unsettled wild. Game was abundant; pelts were valuable.
Hunters, in parties large and small, often spent an entire hunting
season, camping, far beyond the frontier line. Land was exam-
ined, incidentally; and many a Kentucky home owes its original
location to the intelligent eye of one of the early Virginia hunters.
Charles (II) Ewing was such a pioneer.

CHARLES EWING OF BEDFORD 249

From the Draper Manuscripts we get this letter written in
answer to a request by Draper :

"Taylor County, Ky., April 15th, 1849.
"Dear Sir:

"Your letters came to hand in due time but owing to various
circumstances I have not been able to finish the Information you
desired. The 2 sheets that I wrote out some time ago I have
looked over I find many mistakes but which I hope you will
correct, I will re view or look over those sheets & by way of
notes I will add what had escaped me in the first Instance.
Skaggs was accompanied on this hunt by Charles Ewing & some
24 men, it was this trip that they killed 1500 deer & built their
skin house on the Canny fork of Russell Creek not far from
Mount Gilliad meeting house Green Cy Ky here a jealousey
arose in the breast of Ewing because H. Skaggs was the most
successful hunter & a separation of the party took place, but
whether before or after their return from the southern portion
of Ky or not I do not know but Ewing with his party returned
to Virginia. The place of this skin house was discovered many
year after the settlements in the following manner. In 1804
there was an association of Baptist held on russels creek they
chose a shady place near a fine spring the horses were tied very
thick in the woods they pawed up the ground in one place when
it was discovered that there was a vast quantity of hair which
was covered over with soil this caused an examination & it was
discovered that this was the old skin house. . . .

"JOHN BARBEE"

"Addressed : Mr. Lyman C. Draper Philadelphia." Post-
marked: Campbellsville Ky May 7. (Draper Mss. 5C77).

"Inquiries to Capt John Barbee, Campbellsville Ky Oct. 24
1820.

"You have mentioned the jealousy of Ewing as the cause of
his going off : that could hardly have influenced so many others.
One account I have says, that those who went to the settlements,
went for amunition, & when they returned, they found the camp
robbed, but the dogs remained there & were quite wild — but that
these returned men pushed on to the French Lick region — now
Nashville. Can you throw any light on this?"

Memorandum at bottom : "No reply. — L. C. D."

250 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

"The above is Draper's handwriting," said the custodian of
the Draper manuscript to me.

Some of the descendants of this Charles Ewing have in-
teresting traditions of his experiences on these long hunting ex-
peditions. Occasionally he went far into the wilderness alone,
daring wild beasts, then numerous, and taking fearful chances
on leaving his scalp dangling at the belt of a husky savage ever
on the alert.

This Charles II had William and Mitchell. William became
a major in the State military service and long resided in Bedford
County. This Mitchell (I) Ewing as shown in the original
commission in the possession of Miss S. O. Ewing, a descendant,
was commissioned by the Virginia authorities as lieutenant in
the 91st regiment, 12th brigade, first division of the militia,
June 13, 1814, having seen service in the war just closed. He
received an estate from his uncle William, married a Miss Davis,
and had :

Polly, Elizabeth, Mitchell (II), James M., and, according to
Miss Sallie O. Ewing of Roanoke, Virginia, possibly a John.

The following letters, copied from the originals in the pos-
session of Miss S. O. Ewing, are valuable for their genealogy
and interesting for their light upon their time. They were writ-
ten by John Allen Gano to James M. Ewing, Liberty, Bedford
County, Virginia. These old letters are yet, except a very few
words, plainly readable, and are neatly and well written. The
paper has so faded as that punctuation marks cannot be dis-
tinguished in many places, though I have reason to believe they
existed.

"Geo Town Scott County Ky. Feby 11th, 1822.
"Dear Uncle:

"Hope you will not think it farwardness in me, that prompts
me to introduce myself to you by letter. I am the eldest son of
your dear departed Sister Elizabeth (-abeth only being certainly
legible) M. Gano who departed this life April 9th, 1812, leaving
four daughters and three sons. I should have written before
this, but I have never had the pleasure to hear from you till a
few evenings since. Cousin James Cogswell was at Capt. Buck-
ners (a brother in law of mine) we learned from him your place
of residence &c, he also informed us of his intention of visiting

CHARLES EWING OF BEDFORD 251

you soon, and said that he expected you would accompany him
to this country. I had not myself the pleasure of seeing him or
should have written by him. My principle design in this letter,
is to say how much pleased we should all be to receive the visit
spoken of by Mr. Cogswell. And also to give you a brief his-
tory of our family since my mother's death. My youngest
brother Richard M. Gano departed this life June 16th 1814. My
father married a widow of Aaron Goforth's in October 1814 and
died Oct 22nd 1815 never having enjoyed good health after his
return from the second campaign. How sensibly have I felt the
loss of two such beloved parents. My sisters were all married.
The oldest (Mary) married Capt. John C. Buckner. The second
(Margaret) married Doct Robert M. Ewing, son of Col. Baker
Ewing, with whom I am now living in Geo. Town. The third
(Cornelia) married Capt. Wm. Henry, who now lives near Hop-
kinsville, Christian County, the fourth (Elizabeth) married
Daniel Henry brother of Wm. Henry, sons of Gen. Wm. Henry.
Sister Mary has three children, Sister Cornelia one, Sister Eliza
Henry died in Christian County 4th of last August leaving one
child. I am going to school in this place. I am studying Greek
& Rhetoric and reviewing Latin. Brother Stephan F. Gano is
living near here with Uncle Hubbell, and is also going to school
he is learning the same with myself except Rhetoric. I should
be glad to hear from you any time either by letter or otherwise.
Sisters and brother join in sending their love to yourself and
aunt Ewing and family.

"I am Dear Sir with much respect your Nephew

"JOHN ALLEN GANO."

The above bears the stamp of the "Geo. Town'' post office,
being mailed Feb. 14, and was folded and sealed with wax, no
envelope being used, following the custom in that day.

The other letter was mailed in "Geo. Town, Ky., July 8,"
addressed to Mitchell Ewing, Esqr., Liberty, Bedford County,
Virginia. It reads :

"Geo. Town (Ky.) July 6th, 1824.
"Dear Uncle

"I arrived safely at this place on the 4th inst after a fa-
tiguing journey of one thousand miles from Lynchburg, which
I performed in thirteen days. I reached Richmond about 12

252 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

o'clock on the 23rd of June and was delighted with the place, the
buildings are generally elegant particularly the capitol and those
around it. In the evening I visited many parts of the City, I
saw the Independent Club (so it looks to be) parade &c &c &c.
In the 24th at 3 o'clk A. M. I left the City for Fredericksburg
and arrived there about three in the evening, a distance of 75
miles. I took another stage immediately to Potomac River 9
miles from Fredericksburg at 9 o'clk that night I took the Steam
Boat for Washington. Came in sight of the City about day-
light, the appearance was truly a grand one ; and I was never
more pleased and gratified with any visit which was merely to
receive information. I staid all day in the City, visited the Cap-
itol &c. and in the evening was sick and in bed the attack was a
slightly billious one, on the morning of the 26th I went to Balti-
more here I soon went to bed, and of course saw very little of
the city next day although I was unwell I set out for Wheeling
a distance of 290 miles this we performed in a little more than
3 days. The Ohio was full and I soon got a board a Steam boat
in a day and two night we ran to Maysville 400 miles from
Wheeling. On the 3rd of July I arrived in Paris in the stage
and the following morning came to Geo. Town, these are the
general outlines of my visit, roughly drawn as you may easily
perceive ; I found all my relations well, and being now free from
hippo; am much better myself.

"The admrs. are satisfied with the arrangement as to the
remainder I have not yet seen Cogswell, but will shortly. Your
kindness to me ; and favor in taking my horse to sell, is not only
calculated to call forth my thanks, but to excite the liveliest
feeling of gratitude. If he is well and you can sell him for $60
do so if not let him go for $40 and if no one will give this, start

him homeward the earliest opportunity. My love to Aunt

Ewing, Cousin Polly, Cousin Caleb, and all the Cousins. My
respects to Mrs. Beard and family, Mr. Thomas, Capt, Jones,
and their families and all other enquiring friends and believe me
your affectionate Nephew

"JOHN ALLEN GANO."

"N. B. All the family send love to you and your family
and request to see you as soon as you can come.

"J. A. GANO."

CHARLES EWING OF BEDFORD 253

Mrs. Beard, to which reference above is made, must have
been Mitchell's mother-in-law, as he married Mary Beard, niece
of Rev. James Beard.

Mitchell (II.) had by a first wife, Polly, who never married,
and by the second wife, Caleb, William, James D., Robert M.,
Charles H., Edward, Elizabeth and Albert Mitchell (III), born
June 27, 1828, and died December 5, 1878. Like his ancestor
this Mitchell was fond of the chase and often spent consecutive
weeks far in the woods.

Of these children Caleb married Miss M. L. Jones and died
in 1838. They had Daniel Price Ewing, who married Miss
Woods of Albemarle County, Virginia, and had two children,
Cora, who married Thornton Stringfellow of Culpeper County,
and who lives at Preston Heights, University of Virginia, and
Anna who married Dr. Isom Summers now of Quantico, Vir-
ginia. Daniel Price Ewing become a noted captain in the Con-
federate army, dying in 1862. William married Lydia Patter-
son and lived to be 93 years old. He moved to Nebraska and
had children, one of whom is W. E. Ewing of Franklin, Ne-
braska, who was a delegate from his State to the National Demo-
cratic Convention in Baltimore in 1912 ; and who is otherwise
a man of prominence and means. James D. married Ellen Pat-
terson, had at least one son, James A., and died before 1864.
Robert M. never married. Charles H. married Elizabeth Pat-
terson and had Robert A., who was in Colorado in 1913, and
Charles A., who never married. Elizabeth married Spotswood
Brown and had several children. Albert Mitchell served with
much gallantry for four years in the Confederate army, Virginia
troops. A few days before Lee's surrender he was made a pris-
oner. After the war he married Frances Hurt. He inherited
Chestnut Grove in Bedford County, and after his death in 1879
the widow sold it. Their children are, Sarah (Sallie) Overtun,
fluent of pen, mentioned herein more than once, Albert Hugh-
ston, Elizabeth Bascom, a talented oil and crayon artist, and
William Mitchell (IV).

Matt W. Hall of Marshall, Missouri, a descendant of Mar-
tha, daughter of Charles I, says that Martha was born in 1763;
that she married Charles Crawford in 1783 (though there is no
record of this in Bedford County). Her father died in or before

254 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

1770 ; and it is probable she was the youngest. This furnishes
an approximate idea of the birth dates of the other children. She
and her sister were living in Kentucky at the date of their
brother William's will, as we have seen.

Baker Ewing was active in locating and obtaining lands in
Kentucky before the death of his father ; and he became an early
pioneer of that section.

To an inquiry by Draper for information regarding Col.
Baker Ewing, Robert Wickliffe of Lexington, Kentucky, Sep-
tember 25, 1854, wrote :

"The Col. Ewing who you enquire after I knew well. He
was Col. Baker Ewing of the Militia in Lincoln County. He
was the first register of the land office of the State of Kentucky.
He resigned the office in the year 1798 became a farmer of the
County of Franklin in Kentucky, and died on his farm many
years ago." (Draper Mss. 5C58).

This Baker Ewing had a son, Robert M., who became a
noted physician of Kentucky. He married Margaret, the second
daughter of Elizabeth M. (Ewing) Gano, as shown by the letter
dated Feb. 11, 1822, by her son to his uncle James M. Ewing, of
Liberty, Bedford County, Virginia, which we have just seen.

XXVI.

THE WILLIAM EWING FAMILY OF ROCKINGHAM
COUNTY, VIRGINIA.

The family tradition is that about 1742 William Ewing
acquired lands upon the waters of the Upper Shenandoah River
in what is now Rockingham County, Virginia. At least impor-
tant parts of the large landed estate which he and his children
subsequently acquired came down to his recent descendants. At
the time this William located in the neighborhood of Linville
Creek, a tributary of the Shenandoah, that region was part of
Augusta County. In its earlier days Augusta was a vast empire,
carved in 1730 out of a greater known as Orange County.
Augusta lay west of the Blue Ridge. At first Augusta comprised
the territory which later became four States and also forty
counties which subsequently became, for the most part, part of
West Virginia. To the northeast and on the same side of the
Ridge, established at the same time, including the lower Shenan-
doah Valley, was Frederick County.

For years after this Ewing reached that part of Virginia,
Augusta, westward and northward of the Alleghanies, far out in
sight, was an unknown wilderness. As shown in another chapter
that entire Valley region was for perhaps forty years after this
Ewing home was built on the waters of the Shenandoah . liable
to deadly attacks by the Indians. This William, therefore, built
his early home of the big trees, cut into suitable lengths and hewn
on two sides. Portholes were provided, so that it was in effect
an outpost blockhouse, one of the old block-house forts of that
day, which were the chief cornerstones upon which American
expansion and civilization were built. Tradition has it that moie
than once the place was besieged by the savages, and large num-
bers of arrow-heads subsequently found about the site tend to
support the story. Nearby was a smaller stone structure, having
a subterranean connection with the spring, used as a retreat for
the women and children when the frequent Indian alarms spread
along the frontier, and in which they remained during the acute
danger.

255

256 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Subsequently, the savage dangers in retreat before the slow
but relentless advance of the "palefaces," this pioneer erected,
not far from the old home, which in time disappeared, a com-
modious mansion of brick, colonial in style, originally having the
big dormer windows and the great porch with its lofty columns.
Here this old pioneer picket died in or about 1796, having been
born in Scotland in 1694.

Johnston, in Memorials of Old Virginia Clerks, published in
1888, says this Ewing came into the Shenandoah Valley and made
his first land purchase in 1742, locating "some three miles north-
west of where Harrisonburg now stands." He also says that
this William was a native of Scotland; that, being a strong
Calvanist, he fled to Londonderry, Ireland ; that from there by
permission of Queen Mary of England, he came to America and
first located in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and that there he
married a Miss Shannon.

Old deeds and other documents, which I have seen and yet
in the family, certainly identify this Ewing as having first lived,
after reaching America, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania ; and
that he married Ann Shannon, there is no doubt. At an early
day he owned property in Philadlephia. Some of his living
descendants have a tradition that he came to America direct from
Scotland, reaching here at the age of seventeen in 1713. There
is another tradition, which appears to be dependent on what
Johnston has recorded, that this Ewing came from Ulster, Ire-
land, where he at least paused after leaving Scotland. Remem-
bering that this William undoubtedly had close relations in Ulster,
and that at that day much of the immigrant movement was from
Scotland to the Province of Ulster ; and out of Ulster, London-
derry being an important port, to America, I am satisfied that
this young man came to America direct from some point in north
Ireland. That he came earlier than 1118 is doubtful. John G.
Ewing, long a close student of our genealogy, in an interview
with me in December, 1920, expressed himself as certain that no
one of our family reached America earlier than 3 718, and that
date is borne out by Dubois and other early writers. While the
difference between the traditional dates of arrival is not impor-
tant, yet 1718 is the one more generally accepted by tradition,
the statement of Isaac S. Ewing, a prominent business man now

WM. EWING OF ROCKINGHAM 257

of Harrisonburg, a descendant of this William, being representa-
tive of the more general view :

"My great-grandfather (this William) came to this country
from Scotland in 1718. He landed in Philadelphia and came to
Rockingham County, Virginia, in 1T42, and took up land which
has been in the Ewing name ever since."

Mrs. Maria Ewing Martin (of the Hon. Thos. Ewing line),
who investigated this subject while visiting in Scotland, appears,
as her manuscript notes disclosed, to credit the tradition that this
W'illiam was born in Tillichewan Castle, two miles from Loch
Lomond and ten miles from Glasgow. The old castle yet stands,
it is said, and is on the estate of the present distinguished Orr-
Ewing house, lineal descendants of the ancient Loch Lomond
family. Other traditions have it that this Ewing was born in
even more historic Stirling Castle, also not far from Loch
Lomond. Anyway, if born at either place he was within the
baronial jurisdiction of Stirling Castle, and as his ancestors were
barons, I often wonder on which side sat the one then living
when William Wallace, Scotland's national hero, stood in
old Stirling Castle charged with treason, as we have the story
from some authors.

Johnston's statement that this Ewing was a strong Calvinist
and that he fled to Ireland may mislead. In common with the
clan from which he descended, this Ewing, we are sure, was a
Covenanter Presbyterian. In another chapter we have seen
something of the quarrel between the Presbyterians and the
Catholics during the era in which this Ewing left Scotland. He
"fled," evidently, in the broader sense of going to seek oppor-
tunities to worship God, after Presbyterian teaching, in greater
peace. More, it is tradition that his father said to him : "My
lad, your oldest brother inherits the patrimony and the title. Go
to America and seek an honest fortune in the greater oppor-
tunities of a new country. Aye, remember, lad, you are a son of
a worthy Scotch baron."

Another branch of the family has this tradition thus :

"My son, you know that your eldest brother will inherit the
title and the estate. 1 am but a poor baron and can give you only
320 pounds sterling. Take it and go to the New World to seek
your fortune."

258 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

In 1913 Mrs. Theresa Ewin(g) Perkins compiled a record
in which, as handed down to her, she gives the traditions and
descendants of this William Ewing of Rockingham, from whom
she sprang. As this manuscript was about to go to press, Mrs.
Louise Grundy MacGavoch Todd, of Nashville, Tennessee, a
granddaughter of Mrs. Perkins, now deceased, sent me a copy
of the copy of this Perkins record in her possession. I had been
informed that Capt. Thomas Henderson, a cousin of Mrs. Todd,
had the original of the Perkins manuscript; but he wrote me
that since Mrs. Perkins' death the original appears to be lost.

According to this Perkins story, William Ewing, the Rock-
ingham pioneer, had brothers, Samuel and George ; and this
William "fought at the siege of Londonderry, Ireland, 1G89."
Then there is this parenthesis : "I have learned that it was Baron
William Ewing, father of" \the Rockingham William,, "who
fought at Londonderry.",

What was the source of this information regarding the Lon-
donderry service, I am unable to learn. That an ancestor of this
'William Ewing did take some part in the interest of the Protes-
tant fighting at memorable Londonderry, has some little other
support ; but, as we have seen, another branch of this family
insists that this William came to America direct from the paternal
home in Scotland. From the light now before me I do not decide
which is the more accurate. There could be a measure of truth
in both.

The late Miss Mary E. Ewing of Harrisonburg, a great-
granddaughter of this immigrant, who was much interested in
family history, gives us an interesting picture of this Scots laddie
after he became an old man. She obtained her information from
her father, William II, who died of pneumonia in 1857, being
then in his seventy-ninth year. Miss Ewing says that among
the most cherished recollections of her life were the accounts by
her father regarding "that grand old man, my great-grandfather.
First, let me describe him," she wrote me September 1, 1911.
"A little, frail old man. He wore a long cue, tied at the end
with black ribbon ; short breeches fastened at the knees with
knee-buckles — I have one of them — silk stockings — I have one
of them and low shoes. Nothing could induce him to change his
costume or habits, although a rheumatic (in old age). He was

WM. EWING OF ROCKINGHAM 259

quite peculiar in his political ideas, being a strong monarchist.
My father was fifteen years old when he, my great-grandfather
died and he (father) said they had frequently begged his grand-
father to go to town to vote, but he would reply: 'No, God made
kings and queens but never a President.' "

Miss Ewing also says of her great-grandfather:

"He was the youngest son, a petted darling of his mother,
and came over with three cousins. He, my great grandfather,
was very averse to coming; but the law of primogeniture left no
alternative, the eldest son inherited everything, so he came, and
they had a stormy voyage, landing in what was then a small
village, now the city of Philadelphia."

This informant further says that this William went to school
— for three years it is said — to Ann Shannon, in Pennsylvania,
a member of a Scotch-Irish family that had preceded young
Ewing to America. He and Miss Shannon married, he, it is
said, at the age of 22 and she at the age of 25. Miss Ewing
adds : "My impression is that she was the dominent spirit, but
they were a very happy couple through life." However, as the
wife lived much longer than the husband, there must be some
confusion regarding ages, for some of the descendants point
out that her tombstone tells us that she was about ninety at her
death ; and it is confidently asserted by some of the descendants,
as seen, that he died in 1796.

The early records of Augusta County disclose that the first
deed to this William for land was recorded November 17, 1761,
conveying, in consideration of one hundred and forty English
pounds, 708 acres, "on easternmost branch of Linvel's Creek,
conveyed by Hite et als 3rd October, 1746. Delivered: Andrew
Ewin, October 1769." (In the deed and by the clerk also the
father's name is spelled with the "g," while the other name is
Andrew Ewin, though this Andrew was the son.) This was
quite certainly the same Jost Hite who settled near Winchester
as stated in the next chapter. His title was from the British
authorities. Hite, alone and with others, from time to time ob-
tained large tracts of land on waters of the upper Shenandoah
as well as on the lower Shenandoah in Frederick County. By
1742 he had a mill on Linville Creek, which he rented that year
to Thomas Linville. The old mill was long a neighborhood
land-mark.

260 CLAN EWING OF1 SCOTLAND

This 708 acres bought by Ewing on Linville Creek was the
nucleous of the old home farm which eventually grew into an
estate that was pricely for the day.

In another chapter we have seen that after the success of
the Revolution, the next source of land titles in Virginia to lands
west of the mountains was the decisions of the commission ap-
pointed to pass upon claims "to lands on the western waters."
In addition to this source, land warrants were obtained from the
Virginia treasury, entitling the purchaser to locate, have sur-
veyed and then upon the survey obtain a grant from the State
to specific tracts of unoccupied lands. There are many deeds
among the records in the old Land Office, conveying lands from
one source or another to the many Ewings living near the east-
ern base of the Blue Ridge or here and there in the fertile val-
leys to the westward.

An early deed to a member of this family is found in the
Virginia Land Office dated 1780, and is to Henry Ewing. (Book
A, 423.) It recites that the land lies "on the head drafts of the
west fork of Cook's Creek;" and is based upon a survey of 1773.
This illustrates the slow and tedious method by which titles to
lands were in that day to be had. In this case of course the fun-
damental changes of the Revolution had intervened.

In the same year a deed or grant issued to John Ewing based
upon a survey of July, 1773, on the same waters and also in
Augusta, and adjoining the lands of Wm. Shannon, Jr.

In 1781 a patent issued to Jno. Ewins of Rockingham "on
the head branch of Linville Cr. adjoining his own and Brown's
land, and also said Ewin's Cab. tract." Other deeds indicate the
large and valuable landed estates acquired from time to time by
this family.

It is interesting that July 16, 1776, William Ewing was one
of the several witnesses against "Alexander Miller, M. A., form-
erly a Presbyterian minister," charged with "aiding and giving
intelligence to the enemy." The Scotch and Scotch-Irish of Vir-
ginia were, with few exceptions, belligerently patriotic in the
days of the Revolution. It is significant, and the more so that
this section was then the frontiers of the late colony, that just
twelve days after the Declaration of Independence the Virginia
patriots were prosecuting Tories, and doing so "under a com-

WM. EWING OF1 ROCKINGHAM 261

mission from the late the Honorable Committee of Safety of Vir-
ginia." Thus went into practical operation the independent
sovereignty of a great American State. According to tradition
regarding William Ewing's monarchial proclivities, one would
have expected to see where he had been prosecuted, for the pa-
triots of his community, as in fact all along the Virginia Scotch-
Irish frontiers, were very busy and very unsparing. Few Tories
escaped exposition and with it often punishment. I am aware
that there is in print studies of the "Virginia Loyalists, 1775,
1783," which hold that in the western and frontier counties of
Virginia, such as Montgomery and Augusta and Rockingham,
"insurrection of the Loyalists," during those years, "was by no
means rare ;" and that it was "difficult to get the patriots to enlist
and leave home on that account." The young author who
reached that conclusion held that "one of the best ways of ascer-
taining the sentiment of these western folk is to note the dispo-
sition of its militia. If we judge by that we must conclude that
there was a large amount of loyalism in" Virginia — that is, in the
western counties. But that young author's inexperience misled
him. We know that, among other things, the militia of the frontier
counties of Virginia knew as no others did that if the fighting
element of their section went into the armies operating against
the British in eastern Virginia and elsewhere, the resulting ex-
posure to the Indians would probably mean that the border fam-
ilies would be put to the knife and torch, "the western folk"
would be "wiped from the map," in fact ; and that, aside from
its personal appeal to the male members of the "western" fron-
tier, would seriously endanger the patriot cause. The Tory
strength of the western Virginia counties has been over-estimated ;
the contribution of the operations of our fathers against Tories
and the Indians is under-valued.

So to find this William Ewing serving as a witness against
a Tory, together with the fact that he was not prosecuted, shows
that at least his influence was with the patriot cause. For his
services in that case he was awarded for each day of attendance
as such witness "25 pounds of tobacco, or two shillings and one
penny." There were eight witnesses at the first hearing of this
case; and the officer for summoning them, "in which he rode 150
miles," was allowed "four pence per mile." This gives light upon
the thinly settled condition of the country at the time.

262 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Of course it cannot absolutely be known from the records
that this witness was the pioneer William ; but as far as I can find
he alone in all that region at the time bore his first name.

An undisputed tradition in the family of this pioneer William
Ewing is that he was the youngest son of a Scotch baron, entitled
to bear a coat of arms. Down to the present the family have
claimed, rightly I am sure, arms which are identical with the
old Ewing arms borne by the Ewings of Craigton (or Craigtoun,
as sometimes spelled), and which are more fully described in the
chapter on Ewing arms.

A copy of the arms claimed by this William Ewing was given
me by the late Miss Mary Ewing, his grand-daughter ; and they
are identical with the old Ewing arms claimed by Dr. John Ewing
of the Cecil County family and of the University of Penn-
sylvania, a copy of which was left by his grand-daughter. These
arms are identical with those reproduced by the halftones in this
book, — and are, as we have seen, the old Scotch arms. Neither
descendant of these respective branches ever knew or knew of
the other.

In support of the baronical and arms tradition is an
old seal after the name of this pioneer to an instrument dated
in 1742. Apparently a signet ring bore the device, used to seal
that instrument. In the case now extant and in the possession
of one of his descendants, the impression was made upon red
sealing wax and is about the size of a dime. In general the de-
sign is that of a modern notary seal, for instance. The papers
came to the present owner through Miss Mary E. Ewing, who
obtained them from her father. They are certainly the genuine
originals. At the top of this seal, clearly defined, is the sun in
its splendor. I am sure this feature of the design comes from
the old Ewing arms. Below the sun is another figure. This, it
appears to me, as seen under a magnifying glass, is a bird clutch-
ing in each set of claws a cluster of branches. The wings and
head are clearly distinguishable ; but the lower part of this figure
is not so clear, the wax having been somewhat worn down by
age. I am sure that it is the figure of a bird ; but some of Ewing's
descendants, who have seen this seal, believe the figure to be a
"griffin," — a figure described by Nisbet as "a chimerical creature,
half eagle, half lion, having large ears.'' In either case this

WM. EWING OF ROCKINGHAM 263

figure to me conceals its meaning. No bird and no griffin is found
on any Ewing arms upon which this signet could be based.
Around the figures are apparently words or letters ; but in the
wax impression before me they are now so worn away that just
what they are is something of uncertainty.

Woodward and some Scotch writers point out that "Badges
were the earliest form of hereditary insignia, preceding shields
or coats of arms, and commonly used as seals." Occasionally
these seals were accompanied by a motto. Early Scots laws re-
quired each freeholder to have his seal. The Scotch editor of
Clan Eiven (1904) says "the seals almost invariably have the
initials of the owners for the time being."

These facts, probably, account for the origin of and suggest
a clue by which to guess as to the words or letters of this old
seal.

However, I value that splendid heirloom as important evi-
dence going to prove that this William came of a "house," that
his ancestors were legally entitled to the Ewing arms shown by
"Nisbet and found in the Workman Manuscript, which existed be-
fore 156-5, and which are more fully discussed elsewhere. That
the sun in his splendor, found in this old seal, comes from the old
arms, I have not the least doubt.

Being a younger son this pioneer was not, under the Scots
law, entitled to the "undifferenced" arms of his ancestor, and so
with the sun he used another figure foreign to the paternal in-
signia as a design for a seal with which to authenticate deeds
and other important instruments. Conscientious and law abiding
as all the evidence proves, he would not have claimed descent
from a family distinguished by arms, were the claim not correct.
As we have seen, arms had the protection of the Scotch laws and
those laws were of force at the time this seal was impressed upon
the old document now before us.

Here is a reproduction of this seal as the artist and I
read it.

204

CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

As the old Ev,mg arms thus at least partially emblazoned
on this signet, a dev;ce wen executed and very pleasing in ap-
pearance, existed in the House or clan many generations before,
this Ewing was born, it is uear that his brothers and cousins
were entitled to "matriculate" u,e emblazonment in the Lyon's
Office. The oldest child, we recall, took the arms as borne by
the ancestor; while younger children wi>re entitled to the same
arms upon which they placed something which the rules of
heraldry recognized as distinguishing the1 > hunger heir. In
America, such arms though not matriculated Oecorded in the
Lyons Office) and though not differenced as required by the es-
tablished rules, are valuable, as has been observed, as evidence
of descent. Hence this signet is important light upQn the cor-
rectness of the claim of certain Ewings of America to the old
Ewing arms, though in later days we find many of the ^produc-
tions "emblazoned" often in a more or less inaccurate or marred
fashion. Since the several other American Ewing families of
which I write claim the arms claimed by this Ewing of Rocking-
ham, his seal tends to establish their descent from the same
Scotch family from which this William Ewing came.

This William Ewing married, as has been said, Anne (0r
Anna) Shannon, about 1733. She died in 1801, it is said at; the
age of ninety; and the two are buried in the yard of New Ejec-
tion Presbyterian Church in the Valley of the Shenandoah, near
their old home where both lived after reaching Virginia. A
considerable roster of this Rockingham family is given by L[0n.
and Mrs. Presley K. Ewing in "The Ewing Genealogry."
However, neither the widow of this pioneer Rockingham William
Ewing nor any of his immediate children went to Georgia, and
it seems certain that this William and Miss Shannon were mar-
ried in Pennsylvania. There are some other genealogical erro rs
in print regarding descendants of this William Ewing, — erroi-s
which unavoidably creep into the first editions perhaps of ai'l
genealogies ; but those immediately interested will doubtless
discover them, and by co-operation we shall one day reach a more
reliable genealogy of the Virginia Ewings than has so far been
produced.

The Perkins genealogy as copied for me by Mrs. Todd is
about as given by Hon. P. K. Ewing and wife in their "The

WM. EWING OF ROCKINGHAM 265

Ewing Genealogy," and which they obtained through Dr. and
Mrs. William H. Fox of Washington. Hence, no attempt is
here made to repeat all of what may be seen in "The Ewing
Genealogy" regarding this family. However, some things not
there found are here presented.

To this William Ewing and wife, one of the Ewing pioneers
of Augusta County (and of that part which became Rockingham
County), Virginia, were born (1) Henry, 1736-1796; (2) An-
drew, 1740-1813; (3) John, 1741-1822; (4) Elizabeth; and (5)
Nancy.

Upon the formation of Rockingham County in 1778 Henry
became one of the first justices of its court.

While this family lived in Augusta County an order was
made by the court, May 29, 1781, allowing Henry Ewing pay
"for 23 days, acting as commissary for John Fitzwater's com-
pany" of patriot soldiers serving under the State. This company
rendered valuable service during the Revolution. Again on
September 23, 1783, we find another order by the court which
states that "Henry Ewins acted commissary of provision law
in 1781."

This Henry was either the son (most probably) or the grand-
son of the earlier William, the sentimental Scotch monarchist.
Had there been question of this William Evving's adherence to
the revolutionists, it is not probable his son would have been
made the first clerk of the court established by the new State ;
and a near relation would hardly have been entrusted with feed-
ing and equipping the troops upon which the new State depended
for sovereignty not yet admitted by Great Britain.

This elder Henry Ewing married Jane Rodgers. Terminat-
ing his clerkship, he moved to Hardin County, Kentucky, and
there died. Children :

(a) John, 1761-1796, moved to Kentucky; (b) Henry,
moved to Mississippi (Perkins) ; (c) Andrew, married Sarah
Hickman; (d) Sallie, who married John Davis. The latter had
Margaret, Martha, Ewin, James, John and Allen. Some of these
went early to Missouri.

(a) John married Sallie Davis, moved to Kentucky with his
father. This John was the grandfather of Mrs. Perkins, copy
of whose manuscript Mrs. Todd sent me. Mrs. Perkins says

266 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

he succeeded his father, for a time, as clerk of Rockingham
court. Their children were

(a) Henry C, 1788-1815; (b) Watts Davis, married his first
cousin, Margaret Donly ; (c) Jeannetta, married Ed. Hall of
Virginia and went to Kentucky; and (d) John, who died young.

(a) Henry C, who married Elizabeth Hill, had John H.,
who was born in 1817 near Franklin, Tennessee; and his brothers
and sisters in Kentucky; Lucinda G., who married Henry Wright;
Martha H., never married; William H., 1824-1867; Jeannetta,
married J. T. Pendleton ; Watts Davis, married Georgia Sebree ;
Mary E., married Col. W, P. Cannon; Sallie D., never married;
and Theresa Green, 1836-1916, who married Samuel F. Perkins.
This is the author of the Perkins data copied by her grand-
daughter, Mrs. Todd.

(al ) John H. Ewing first married Susan Goodwin, and they
had Henry Clayton, married Annie May; William G., married,
first, Sallie House, second, Martha Hillman ; x\lice, married Wil-
liam Donelson ; Susan Goodwin, married Frank Anderson ; An-
dewena, married William P. May. By the second wife, Mrs.
Catharine (de Graffinreid) Perkins had John H.

James W., 1855-1889; Katherine ; Lucinda; John Overton,
born 1861, married Adair Humphries; Elizabeth C, married Mar-
tin Baldwin in 1877; Beng. R. de G., 1866, married
Margaret Winstead. (a2) Lucinda G. and husband Henry
Wright ("The Ewing Genealogy" has James H. Wright),
Clarksville, Tennessee, had ten children, some of them
died young and Susan R., 1839-1899, who married
Edmond Turnley, Elizabeth H., 18-42-1863; Florence, married
Marcellus Turnley in 1867; Jeannetta E., 1843-1915; William
Hickman, married Martha Wiblett ; and Martha E., married R.
M. Scott, Cordelia, Georgia.

Henry C. Ewing's daughter Jeannetta H., who married
John T. Pendleton, has no living descendants.

Theresa Green, who married Samuel F. Perkins, Franklin,
June 29, 1858, left Leah Letitia. 1859-1910; married Leland Jor-
don ; Elizabeth E., who married John H. Henderson in 1879,
died in 1918; Thomas F., 1863-1892; Theresa Ewin, married
Frank G. McGavick, and her twin Samuel F.

Henry Clayton Ewin, oldest son of John H. Ewin and wife
Susan Goodwin, who married Annie May left a daughter Henry

WM. EWING OF ROCKINGHAM 267

Ewin; and a son, who became Capt. William G. Ewin, and mar-
ried Sallie House ; and the latter had one child, Mary Thompson,
who married Edward McNeilly of Nashville. By a second wife,
who was a Miss Hillman, Capt. Ewin had Henry, Susan, John,
Hillman, Grace, and Andrewena.

Alice, oldest daughter of John H. and Susan Ewin, married
William Donelson, grandnephew of Mrs. Andrew Jackson,
whose husband was President of the United States. The Donel-
sons left John, who yet resides near the famous Jackson Hermit-
age, Lillie, who married a Dabney, and Andrewena, who married
Thomas Goodall of Nashville.

Susan G., eldest daughter of Lucinda Ewin Wright, who
married Edmund Turnley, left two sons, Harvey and Edwin and
Jeannetta. These sons left children. Jeannetta married Stokley
Wade and left Ednetia, William, Netta and Susan.

Lucinda Ewin Wright's third daughter who married Mar-
celus Turnley has children, one of whom, Alpha, married an Al-
ford and lives in Lewisburg, Tennessee.

Andrewena, daughter of John H. and Susan G. Ewin, who
married William P. May, had Elizabeth, Annie, and Susan. The
oldest lives in Nashville. Susan married and moved to Atlanta,
Georgia. John Overton Ewin, second child of John H. and
Katherine D. Ewin, married Adair Humphries of Clarksville,
Tennessee. Their children, Lucy, Dorothy, James, Adair. Some
live in Florence, Alabama.

Elizabeth, the youngest daughter of John H., married
Martin Baldwin, and have, Katherine, William and Lucinda of
Montgomery, Alabama.

Benjamin de Graffenreid, youngest son of John H. and
Katherine de G. Ewin, married Margaret Winstead of Frank-
lin, Tennessee, and have six children.

Leah Letitia Perkins, daughter of Theresa Ewin and Sam-
uel Perkins, married Leland Jordan, attorney at law, of Mur-
freesboro, Tennessee, in 1879. Their children are nine: (1)
Theresa G. married Dr. H. C. Rees of Los Angeles, California;
(2) Samuel P. 1881-1915; (3) Mary N., married Frank V.
McCollock of Los Angeles; (4) Leland, married Gertrude Wil-
son; (5) Letitia P., married James Lytle in 1912; (6) Mont-
ford (deceased) ; (7) Elizabeth E., married Harry Deckbar,

2G8 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

January 15, 1921; (8) Martha married John Rees in July, 1914;
(9) Henry E.

Elizabeth Ewin, second child of Samuel F. and Theresa
E. Perkins, married Judge John H. Henderson of Franklin,
Tennessee. They have a large family.

Theresa Ewing, fourth child of Samuel F. and Theresa
E. Perkins, who married Frank Young McGovock, October 15,
1884, have Theresa P. and Louise Grundy: The latter married
William Robert Todd, May L6, I!) 11, and is the person who
copied for my use her grandmother Perkins' data as here given.

Henry Clayton Ewin, second son of Samuel F. and Ther-
esa G. Ewin Perkins, married Sada B. Tansil, daughter of Col.
E. E. Tansil of Dresden, Tennessee. They have five children,
Theresa McG., married Currin Rather; Mary T. ; Leitia J., mar-
ried Tim Lyons; Henry (deceased) and Sarah Bell. Newton
Cannon, third son of Samuel F. and Theresa Ewing Perkins, mar-
ried Mary S. Smithson, daughter of Capt. G. W. Smithson
of Franklin, has one child.

All through Mrs. Perkins' manuscript this branch spells
its name Ewin, omitting the g; and the name of this branch
is thus spelled by Judge and Mrs. Ewing in their "Genealogy." It
is certain, however, we see, that the earliest Virginia ancestor of
this family spelled, correctly, his name Ewing as long had done
his Scotch progenitors.

(2) Andrew Ewing, the second son of this older William,
born March 15, 1740, married Susannah Shannon, daughter of
Thomas Shannon of Virginia. The Perkins' manuscript credits
them with nine children, whose names are not given, but adds :
"He was the great grandfather of Judge Ewin H. Ewing and
all the Nashville (Tennessee) Ewing." Of course we all now
know that there are other Ewings of Nashville who are not
descended from this Andrew Ewing; and we also know that
those of other pioneer Nashville Ewing ancestry have left upon
their community and the country an impression quite as credit-
able as the fine record of this family.

An old petition, signed by a large number of inhabitants of
Augusta County, to the Court, dated 1754, is signed by
Andrew Ewin, possibly this Andrew. It prays that the court
enter an order forbidding ordinary keepers to sell "such large

WM. EWING OF ROCKINGHAM 269

quantities of rum and wine at an extravagant rate" ; and points
out that "a stop to said liquors would encourage us to pursue
our laborious designs, which is to raise sufficient quantities of
grain which would sufficiently supply us with liquors and the
money circulate in the country."

It must be remembered that in that day and for many
years subsequently almost every one drank more or less intoxi-
cants and practically every large farm made its own liquors.
Anthony Bledsoe, for instance, it is interesting to note, one of
the heroic characters of the pioneer days of the present South-
west Virginia, received for conducting a venue, or sale of a
personal estate in 1768, eight gallons of rum, as shown by the
old Augusta records.

The Augusta County records disclose that Andrew Ewin
served with Henry Ewin and William Ewin on a jury in 1768.

In 1780 this Andrew moved to what is now Nashville,
Tennessee. He was appointed one of the commissioners who
founded that city. In 1783 he was elected clerk of the court
of Davidson County and held the position until his death, April
3, 1813. His children were:

(a) Andrew, born July 1, 1768; died March 1, 1830.

(b) Margaret, born June 4, 1769; died June 1. 1862.

(d) Nathan, born February 11. 1776; died May 1, 1830.
Nathan had Orville ; his son Albert G., who was living in
Nashville at 86 in 1921, had Albert G. Ewing. Jr.. attorney, of
Nashville.

(e) Elizabeth, born March 14, 1779. She married Thomas
Shannon.

(c) William, son of Andrew and Susannah Ewing, (Nash-
ville, Tennessee), married Margaret Love, May 26, 1795, and
their children were, as found in "The Ewing Genealogy", which
is substantially as I have had the record for many years :

1st. Andrew B. Ewing, born July 27, 1796, died May
15, 1880. He was born near Nashville, Tennessee; was a
physician; twice President of the Medical Society of Tennessee,
and several times President of the County Society. He married
Eliza McDowell McGavock, daughter of Caotain Hugh Mc-
Gavock, at Max Meadows, Virginia, May 1, 1821. Issue:

270 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

(a) William Ewing, born May 2, 1823; married (first)
Lucinda McGavock, of Max Meadows, Virginia, and (second)
Lida Withers. He served both in the Mexican War and Con-
federate Army, in the latter in command of a company of
cavalry at the time of his death. He represented Williamson
County, Tennessee, in the legislature in 1861. Issue by Lucinda:

(aa) Andrew B. Ewing, ;born July 25, 1851 ; married
February 8, 1882, Blanche, daughter of Edwin Crutcher.

(bb) Joseph William, born February 17, 1853 ; died un-
married.

(cc) Lillie Eliza, born March 24, 1855 ; married William
J. Brown, October 25, 1882. Children : Susie Elizabeth, born
August 26, 1887; William Johnston, born January 27, 1890; Mil-
ton Ewing, born May 10, 1895.
Issue by Lida :
(aa) William Milton, born December 9, 1862; married Mag-
gie, daughter of D. F. Mills, May 18, 1886.

(b) Hugh McGavock Ewing, born December 11, 1824.

(c) Randal Milton Ewing, born June 1, 1829; resided in
Franklin, Tennessee; was appointed Attorney General of the
Ninth Judicial Circuit of Tennessee when the State seceded in
1861 and again held the same office in 1864-1865 ; was elected
Vice President of the Tennessee Bar Association, 1884-1885;
married Mary Ellen, daughter of James Rodgers McGavock,
September 13, 1853. Issue:

(aa) Carrie Eliza Ewing, born September 17, 1854.

(bb) Charles Andrew, born September 25, 1857; married
Sarah Elizabeth Owen, November 22, 1887.

(cc) Francis McGavock, born December 26, 1861 ; mar-
ried Eliza McClung, daughter of John Marshall, January 15,
1892.

(dd) William F. born February, 20, 1864.

(d) Andrew J. Ewing, born May 17, 1835; died about
1890, unmarried.

(e) Susan Mary Ewing, born January 2, 1841.

(f) Ann Eliza Ewing, born August 1, 1843.

2nd. Joseph Love Ewing, born May 31, 1798; died 1864;
married Sarah E., daughter of David McGavock, November 11,
1824.

WM. EWING OF ROCKINGHAM 271

3rd. Felix Grundy Ewing, born September 2. 1800; mar-
ried Sarah McRorry, September 2, 1824.

4th. Susannah Shannon Ewing, born July 4, 1804; mar-
ried Major William Hartsfield, April 4, 1838.

.5th. Milton P. Ewing.

6th. Eliza Milford Ewing, born December 24, 1807, mar-
ried James G. Dunaway, January 3, 1828.

7th. William L. Ewing married Nancy R. Thompson, Feb-
ruary 16, 1832.

8th. Jesse H. Ewing, born September 10, 1811; married
Martha Jane, daughter of Matthew Johnson, of Williamson
County, Tennessee, January 7, 1841.

9th. Cyrus G. Ewing.

10th. Margaret A. Ewing, born December 11, 1815; mar-
ried (first) Dr. Andrew J. White, December 7, 1835; mar-
ried (second) Dr. Robert Glass; married (third) Mr. D. Cam-
eron.

11th. Mary Jane Ewing, born October 5, 1817; married
Pleasant A. Smith, February 16, 1837. Issue:

(a) William C. Smith.

(b) Pleasant A., married Martha Thompson Hamilton,
October 18, 1866. Children: William Ewing Smith, born Jan-
uary 15, 1868; Mary Hamilton, born August 15, 1873; Nannie
F., born August 30, 1878, and Nellie French, born February
23, 1882.

(4) Amelia Ewing, born January 7, 1774; died Novem-
ber 1836; married in Nashville, Tennessee, 1795, Moses Speer,
who died July 11, 1840, in Houston County, Texas. She re-
moved to Texas in 1833. Issue:

1st. Andrew Ewing Speer, born March 27, 1796; died
1837 ; married Elizabeth Williams. Issue :

(a) John Ewing Speer, born 1826.

(b) Susan, born 1831; married A. P. Scruggs. Child:
Rosa Vulnor, born 1868.

2nd. Moses G. Speer, born January 9, 1798; died 1841,
unmarried.

3rd. Jesse Lee Speer, born December 4, 1799; died 1890.

4th. James Green Hill Speer, born July 28, 1801 ; died
1832; married Eliza O'Brien. Issue:

272 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

(a) Sarah Amelia Speer, married Mr. Jackson.

(b) John Moses. Child: William.

5th. Thomas Hickman Speer.

6th. Nathan Ewing Speer, born May 1, 1805; died 1870;
married 1830, Eliza Jane, daughter of Francis P. Blair, of
District of Columbia. Children: George; "Bettie," died 1872;
married Dr. Fisher.

7th. Edward Young Speer, born April 11, 1807, died 1881. a

8th. Mary W. Speer, born January 9, 1809; died 1849; n
married Rev. G. Garrett, November 15, 1832. Issue:

(a) Mary Susan Garrett, born April 11, 1834; married
Rev. James A. Peebles, June 11, 1855; lived in Arkansas. Issue:

(b) Ann Amelia, born March 13, 1837; married William £"
Wallace, September 11, 1863.

(d) William Andrew, born August 3, 1843; died July the
28, 1861; unmarried. in

(e) Emma F., born November 24, 1846, married (first) :te"
Goodwyn Myrick, December 31, 1878, and (second) F. M. >85 '»
Whitehead, November, 1890. No issue. ock>

(5) Nathan Ewing, born February 11, 1776; died at
Nashville, Tennessee, May 1, 1830; married Sarah, daughter
of Daniel Hill, who died at Nashville in 1855 ; moved to Ten- rnec
nessee in 1780 and was Clerk of the County Court of David-
son County from 1813 until his death. Issue : mar-

1st. John Overton Ewing, born 1800, died 1826; mar- 7 l5
ried Lemira, daughter of William Douglass in Louisville, Ken-
tucky, November 6, 1823. He was a physician, began the prac-
tice of medicine in Nashville with Dr. A. G. Ewing as partner about
under the firm name, J. O. & A. G. Ewing; established a high
character in his profession before his death. His widow mar-
ried Major John Boyd and died June 12, 1838. Issue:

(a) Hill Ewing, who died in infancy. I 1864,

(b) John Overton, born August 27, 1826; died Octoberber 11,
8, 1.866; married (first) January, 1843, Margaret (daughter

of Alex Campbel, who died October 22, 1848; married (sec-

WM. EWING OF ROCKINGHAM 273

ond) Sarah E., daughter of John M. Bass, of Nashville, Ten-
nesee, December 14, 1852. Issue by Margaret: Alex. Overton
Ewing, born May 22, 1848; died October 5, 1849. Issue by
Sarah.

(aa) John Bass Ewing. born January 28, 1855.

fbb) Boyd, born August 8, 1856; died April 3, 1897.

(cc) Felix Grundy, born August 8, 1858; married Jane,
daughter of George Washington, of Robertson County, Ten-
nessee, October 28, 1891.

(dd) Henry Overton, born May 1, I860; died March
16, 1905 ; married Minnie, daughter of H. S. Chamberlain
of Chattanooga, Tennessee, January 20, 1892. Children: Mar-
garet Louise, born March 5, 1893; Rosalind, born July 28, 1894;
Winifred, born December 21, 1898.

(ee) Malvene Bass, born March 24, 1865 ; married Dr.
William H. Fox, of Washington, D. C, December 21, 1898.
(Many years ago Dr. and Mrs. Fox kindly placed this family
chart at my command.)

2nd. Henry Ewing (Nathan, Andrew, William), born
1802; died 1846-1847; married Susan, daughter of Samuel
Grundy, and sister of Hon. Felix Grundy. He was Clerk of
the Court of Davidson County, Tennessee, and later moved to
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

3rd. Albert G. Ewing, born 1804; died 1872 ; married
(first) Jane C, daughter of Alex. Campbell, and married (sec-
ond) Mary Jane Marsilliott. He was a minister and moved
to Illinois (Eureka and Bloomington). Issue by Jane C. :

(a) Margaret Ewing, married Joseph H. Pendleton, a
lawyer, October 31, 1848, at Bethany, Virginia, and lived in
Wheeling, West Virginia. Issue : Joseph Minor ; John Over-
ton ; Henry Harwood ; Ida Ewing, married F. P. Jepson, hav-
a child, Evelyn Ewing; Virginia Campbell, married A. N. Wil-
son, child John Overton Pendleton ; Margaret Josephine, mar-
ried G. S. Hughes, child John Overton Pendleton ; Elizabeth
Winston.

(b) Henry, died at birth.

(c) Sarah, married J. W. Bush at Bethany, Virginia, and
moved to Huntsville, Texas. Children : Fanny Overton, mar-
ried Mr. Lee ; Kate Ewing, married Mr. Heflin ; Rawlings ;
Sarah, married Mr. London; Ewing; Leonard, Mattie, and Etta.

274 CLAN EWING 0E SCOTLAND

Issue of Albert G. Ewing by Mary Jane :

(a) Rowena Ewing, married James B. Stevenson in Eu-
reka, Illinois, and lived at Coulton, California. Child: Anna,
married Mr. Bullis.

(b) Jane, married Mr. Davidson, Eureka, Illinois. Child:
Annie.

4th. Orville Ewing, born February 6, 1806; died October
10, 187G; married (first) Milbrey H., daughter of Josiah Wil-
liams, in Nashville, Tennessee, January 20, 1832 and married
(second) Susan C. Avery, a widow, in Groton, Connecticut,
October 17, 1866. He was president of the Planters Bank of
Nashville, the precusor of the American National Bank of Nash-
ville; lived in Nashville; died at Gainesville, Florida. No issue
by Susan C. Issue by Milbrey H. :

(a) Margaretta Williams Ewing, born February 21, 1833;
died October, 1849, unmarried.

(b) Edwin H., born January 19, 1835; died July 2G, 1873,
in Nashville, Tennessee, where he was a merchant; married
Emma, daughter of Alex. Eakin, June 10, 1856.

(c) Albert G., born October 30, 1836; was a lumber mer-
chant; lived in Nashville, Tennessee; married Harriet or Hen-
rietta, daughter of Mark Cockrell, November 8, 1865. in Nash-
ville.

(d) Rowena W., born July 7, 1838; married October 2,
1865, John C. Thompson, a distinguished lawyer of Nashville,
Tennessee.

(e) Henry, born December 23, 1840; died June 13, 1873;
was a journalist ; lived in Nashville, Tennessee, and St. Louis,
Missouri; married Emma, daughter of Edwin T. Burr, in Bates-
ville, Arkansas.

(f) Orville. born February 5, 1843; hardware and lumber
merchant in Nashville, Tennessee ; married July 25, 1865, Irene
daughter of W. E. Watkins.

(g) Josiah Williams, born July 21, 1848; married Jennie,
daughter of Pryor Smith, of Rome, Georgia.

5th. Edwin Hickman Ewing, born December 2, 1809 ; was
a lawyer of Murfreesboro, Tennessee; member of United States
House of Representatives (1845-1847) ; married Rebecca P.,

WM. EWING OF ROCKINGHAM 275

daughter of Josiah Williams, December 20, 1832. Edwin H.
Evving was one of the great lawyers of Tennessee; served by
special appointment of Judge of Tennessee Supreme Court, and
was instrumental in establishing Peabody College in Nashville.
Issue :

(a) Josiah W. Ewing, born August 11, 1834; died August
4, 1890; married Ada B. Hord, November 21, 1855.

(b) Jane C, born December 30, 1836 ; died February 14,
1871; married (first) December 3, 1856, Emmet Eakin, and
(second) August 17, 1868, Dr. James Wendell.

(d) Florence, born May 13, 1842; died June 13, 1896;
married (first) October 11, 1866, Andrew J. Fletcher, who
died April, 1871, and married (second), May 20, 1873 Daniel
Perkins. Children by Andrew : Edwin Ewing, born August 20,
1867 ; died December 9, 1889, unmarried. Mary Dean, born
January 11, 1870; died June 3, 1877. Children by Daniel:
Thomas Moon, born April 30, 1876 ; died June 15, 1876. Rebecca
W., born February 6, 1878. Sarah, born March 18, 1880.

6th. Andrew Ewing (Nathan, Andrew, William) born June
15, 1815; died June 13, 1864, in Atlanta, Georgia;.1 was a
lawyer, a member of the United States House Representatives
(1849-1851), and colonel in the Confederate Army; married
(first) Andrew Hynes' daughter Margaret, born February 1,
1819, who died January 7, 1840; married (second) Rowena,
daughter of Josia Williams. "Andrew Ewing was a forceful
and eloquent speaker ; a man of great public spirit ; a Demo-
crat and party leader ; opposed secession but went with his
people, and used his fortune to build a gun factory in Nashville
just before its fall ; he served as judge of Gen. Bragg's Mili-
tary Court.'' Issue by Margaret:

(a) Hynes Ewing, married Hattie Hiter, and was killed
in Kentucky. No children.

Issue by Rowena :

(a) Rebecca Ewing, born June 30, 1842 ; married in Nash-
ville (possibly Chattanooga), Tennessee, December 25, 1865, Col.
Henry Watterson, the famous editor of the Louisville Courier-
Journal.

276 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

(b) John, born February 10, 1844; died unmarried.

(c) Milbrey, born February 27, 1846; married September
18, 1866, in Nashville, Tennessee, Spencer Eakin, who was con-
nected with the St. Louis, Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad
Company.

(d) Nathan, born July 12, 1847; married Margaret Per-
kins. Issue : Elizabeth, Robert and Andrew.

(e) Robert, a lawyer, was born August 10, 1849; married
Hattie, daughter of Rev. Thomas A. Hoyt, March 28, 1876. He
lives in Nashville, Tennessee and became clerk and master of
the Chancery Court (1876-1882), and in October 1883, became
chairman of the Board of Public Works and Affairs ; was later
mayor of Nashville.

Later descendants of many of the above are given in "The
Ewing Genealogy" by Judge and Mrs. Ewing.

(3) John, the third son of the older William, in 1768 mar-
ried Phebe Davison (or Davis, as the old records spell the
name). He inherited the family residence and part of the ex-
tensive lands of his father, and there died May 5, 1822. His
home was known as "The Grove" and there he entertained with
a lavish Virginian hospitality. Feb. 7, 1786, he became deputy
clerk of Rockingham County, and subsequently became one of
the justices of the court, holding the position until March, 1817.

March 24, 1806, the will of Martha Davis was probated.
She left estate to "Daughter Euphona Donley, heirs of daughter
Sally Ewin."

In Augusta deed book number twenty, page 248, is the
record of an old patent dated Feb. 10, 1748, to land to Jno.
Harrison, Jr., "bequeathed to Phebe Davis, now wife of Jno.
Ewins, by said John's will," — that is, said Harrison's will.

This John and wife Phebe had the following children :

(a) Ann, July 9, 1770, 1845, married Thos. Shanklin, and
moved to Kentucky, (b) James, a lawyer, 1773, married
Grace Shanklin, April 15, 1795. moved to Kentucky; (c) Mary,
Oct. 8. 1775, married, (first), Benjamin Smith, April 1!), 1792;
(second), John Pence, Oct. 6, 1796. In the circuit court rec-
ords of Augusta County is a deposition by John Ewing, who
gave his age as 76 or 77 ; and another by Phebe Ewing, both
given Sept. 13, 1816, who gave her age as 68, and there is an-

WM. EWING OF ROCKINGHAM 277

other by Mary Pence, who says she is a daughter of Jno. and
Phebe Ewing, who gives her age as 42. (Chalkley Papers.)
(d) William, Aug. 15, 1780, Jan. 14, 1857, commissioned cap-
tain of cavalry, 116th regiment, Rockingham Militia, Aug. 19,
1812, and served in the war of 1812-1814; married Elizabeth
Bryan, daughter of Maj. Wm. Bryan of the war of 1812-'14 ;.
inherited the home place near Harrisonburg, Virginia, and there
died, (e) Hannah, Dec. 8, 1782, married James Mallory, Apr.
13, 1809. and moved to Missouri ; ( f) Elizabeth, Nov. 7, 1786,
married Harrison Connor and moved to Kentucky; (g) John
Davison, Apr. 2, 1788; (h) Jesse, July 2, 1791-June 16, 1809.

Children of (d) William and his wife Eliabeth Bryan: (dl)
Jessie Harrison, 1808-1867, married Lavinia Bryan, and mo\ed
to Missouri; (d2) Nancy Bryan, 1810-1889, never married;
(d3) George Washington, 1812-1846, never married; (d4)
Henrietta Davison, 1815-1884, married Robert Sithington, Dec.
30, 1840; (do) Benj. Bryan, 1817, died in 1862. in Richmond,
Virginia. Served in Gen. J. E. B. Stuart's Cavalry, C. S. A.,
never married; (d6) Phoebe Ann, 1819-1893, never married;
(d7) Daniel Baker (Rev.), D. D.. July 7, 1821-Feb. 13, 1886,
married Oct. 18, 1852, Francis Todd Barbour of Orange County,
Virginia; (d8) Robert D., 1823-1889, never married; (d9)
Mary Elizabeth, 1824- July 8, 1916, never married; she gave me
valuable information concerning this family; (dlO) Elizabeth
Allen, 1827, 1902, married Sept. 15, 1875, John T. Brown. She
wrote some letters upon family history while living for about one
year in Ohio, and her statements appear in Mrs. Maria Ewing
Martin's manuscripts, but she appears to have made no study of
the family history; (lid) William Davis, M. D., 1828-1902;
surgeon in the Confederate Army ; married Margaret Sellers,
Oct. 29, 1859. (See inf.)

The children of (d7) Dr. Daniel Baker Ewing and wife:
Bryan, who died in infancy ; Wm. Nicholas, married Mitt Hall of
Texas and resided in Houston, have five children ; Lucy Bar-
bour Ewing; Cornelia Bryan S., married Rev. David T. Ward,
both these daughters now of Washington, D. C. ; Elizabeth Bryan,
married Rev. Geo. A. Sparrow, now in North Carolina ; May-
belle, married Edmund Harvey Symonds ; and Jeannie Pendle-
ton, married Geo. Gross Hall of Texas.

278 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

William Davis. M. D. (lid supra), graduated University of
Virginia and Jefferson Medical College, was a deacon in the Pres-
byterian church. His children: W. T. Ewing, 1860, married
Blanch Ferguson; Elizabeth; Isaac L. Ewing, business man of
Harrisonburg, Virginia, 1868, married Ljlia G. Hite in 1897;
Ljllie M., married Wm. G. Grove of Waynesboro, Virginia.

That this pioneer William came to America with three
cousins, as we have seen Miss Mary E. Ewing had it, is corrob-
orated from other reliable sources. "Who were the three
cousins and where did they live," I asked her. She wrote in
reply :

"One owned the Sweet Springs in West Virginia, one lived
in Pocahontas (as the section came to be, in West Virginia now)
County. I do not know where the other lived."

Unfortunately she did not remember the name of either —
not surprising, as she was well advanced in years at the time
she gave me this information, tho her mind was clear.

The Sweet Springs are now in Monroe County, at the east
base of the Allegheny Mountains, approximately one hundred
miles from Harrisonburg. The Springs are now a short way
from the Greenbriar County line. Pocahontas County is on the
northeastern border of Greenbriar and the nearest point on its
eastern limit is approximately fifty miles from the old Ewing
home in Rockingham County. Back in the pioneer days the
three places were, as we have seen, in one county. For some
time while Greenbriar was one of the counties of old Virginia,
there lived within it a man, learned and of fine reputation, by the
name of John C. Ewing. At one time I suspected that this John
was identical with Miss Mary E. Ewing's grandfather, who was
this immigrant William's son John ; but when I asked her she
replied :

"No, my grandfather never lived in Greenbriar County."

John C. Ewing died in Greenbriar County in 1858. Aug. 17,
1911, Mrs. Agnes Wayland Wardell, of Columbus, Ohio, wrote
me :

"I remember well hearing my mother tell of taking a car-
riage trip in 1851 to White Sulphur Springs, Greenbriar County,
Virginia, with Prof. Jno. C. Ewing and his wife, Madelene.
. . John C. Ewing was for six years professor at Woodlawn

WM. EWING OF ROCKINGHAM 279

Academy, quite a prominent school in those days. From there
he moved to Tom's Brook, or Middleton, Virginia. I have heard
my mother speak of five children in Jno. C. Ewing's family :
Thos. J., Jane, Amos R., Edith and Robert. The oldest son,
Thos, J., came to Ohio in the early fifties to study law with his
father's brother." who, she says, was the Hon. Thos. Ewing, first
Secretary of the United States Interior, born in Virginia in 1789.

Jno. W. Wayland of Harrisonburg, an uncle of Mrs. War-
dell, says Jno. C. Ewing taught his mother at Woodlawn in 1840-
1845. He thinks that subsequently the family moved to Ohio.
He says he often heard his mother speak of Jno. C.'s sons,
Amos R., Robert and Thomas, and that his daughter Jane, "who
was a life-long and intimate friend of" his mother, married Wm.
Sisler and lived at Mt. Jackson, Illinois. Joel F. Kagey, a
brother of Mr. Wayland's mother, wrote me (July 31, 1911,)
that one of Jno. C. Ewing's sons was a physician ; and that Jno.
C. had five sons and four daughters. Thos., the oldest, he says,
went to California; Amos remained in the Shenandoah Valley;
"Absm went to Ohio, and I do not know where Robert and Wm.
went," he adds. He says the daughters were Jane, Cassie, Eady
and Bettie. He did not know what became of the girls.

As shown by an old letter, Jno. C. Ewing was living at An-
thony's Creek, Greenbriar County, Virginia, in 1856-'58.

So much for all I have been able to learn regarding this Jno.
C. Ewing.

Mrs. Maria Ewing Martin, one of the intelligent genealogists
of her branch of the family, a daughter of General Thomas
Ewing, who was a son of the Hon. Thomas, says, in a letter
written a few years ago, that she was convinced that her immi-
grant ancestor, Geo. Ewing, was either a brother or a cousin of
William of Rockingham. She adds :

"It is a matter of family tradition that two brothers, William
and Robert, came with him (her immigrant ancestor) and went to
the West or Southwest." (Letter of May 9, 1903). As found
in the manuscript notes of Ewing genealogy by Mrs. Martin,
which she very generously sent me to read, she quotes Mrs.
Elizabeth Ewing Brown (of the Rockingham family, we have
seen) and who lived a year in Ohio and later died in Orange.
Virginia, thus as of Dec. 18, 1894:

280 CLAN EWING OP SCOTLAND

''I have beard my father say that his grandfather William
(of Rockingham) had a brother and two cousins who crossed
the ocean with him. The brother staid in Pennsylvania. One
of the cousins settled" "in the forks of the Ohio and the other
near the Peaks of Otter in Virginia."

I have before me a letter by Miss Mary E. Ewing written
some years before I knew her, in which she says that it is her
family tradition that her immigrant ancestor had two cousins
who settled in Virginia near the Peaks of Otter, now in Bedford
County. That is not inconsistent with what she subsequently
said of the relations who came zvith her ancestor, which rela-
tions so coming zvith the immigrant William subsequently lived
in Monroe and Pocahontas Counties, as she recalled.

Mrs. L. B. Dunaway, of the branch of William of Rock-
ingham which became established in Tennessee, in a letter writ-
ten several years ago, says :

"Our ancestors were of Scotch-Irish stock, coming originally
from Scotland, near Stirling Castle, afterwards going to the
northern part of Ireland. We have always understood that three
brothers emigrated to this country ; their names I have forgotten,
but think William and Robert ; and do not know where they first
settled." (Jas. L. Ewin, Ewing Family data manuscripts.)

Randall M. Ewing of Franklin, Tennessee, also a descendant
of William of Rockingham County, writing at an advanced age
on Oct. 13, 1884, said:

"I have heard my father say that William of Rockingham
had two brothers, Henry and I think Thomas. When Thomas
Ewing of Ohio (the first Secretary of the United States Depart-
ment of the Interior) was in public life, he, my father, used to say
that he was related through one of these brothers. I think one
was named John, and I think the other was Thomas." (Jas. L.
Ewin's Ms.)

When he says "I think one was named John," it is clear he
meant to say, "also another of the immigrant brothers was named
John."

In another letter I find this:

"A memorandum made in 1865 from information given me
by my paternal aunt, Eliza Milford (Ewing) Dunaway, states that
she was named after her great-grandmother whose maiden name
was Eliza Milford. This was William's first wife."

WM. EWING OF ROCKINGHAM 281

The writer of this letter thought she was speaking of William
of Rockingham ; but she had him confused with some other
William, perhaps with the ancestor of the older Cecil County
family.

Since William, the Rockingham County pioneer, married, as
is admitted, Anne Shannon, Airs. Dunaway clearly referred to
the erroneous belief that that William was a son of William of
Scotland (or Ireland) who married a Mil ford.

However, as these statements show, and as every genealogist
of our clan descendants knows too well, the subject is not with-
out its difficulties. All that can now be done regarding some
questions is to reach greatest probabilities in the light of the evi-
dence now available. So all the available evidence considered, I
am satisfied that William of Rockingham and Thomas, the an-
cestor of the Hon. Thos., were cousins or brothers — probably
brothers, and with Robert, another brother, came to America in
the same ship. With this view Jno. G. Ewing, long a professor
at Notre Dame University, Indiana, and now an attorney of
New York City and Washington, of the Hon. Thos. Ewing line,
concurs, as stated by himself in a lengthy and very pleasant dis-
cussion of family history in my office in November, 1920. In a
letter to me Oct. 22, 1919. John G. Ewing says that that Robert
was a witness to the will of Thos. Ewing. his immigrant ancestor,
in 1748, at Greenwich, N. J., "His, Robert's, descendants are
still to be found in Western Jersey, I believe. W'illiam went
south, and I am under the impression that he was the Wm. Ewing
first of Rucks County. Pennsylvania, and then of Rockingham
County, Virginia." That cousins of these came in that ship
and that other cousins came subsequently is clear, too.

I know that at least a few of the Rockingham County de-
scendants laugh at this conclusion, holding that it is not shown
that this ancestor was related as here stated. But my conclusion
is warranted by the evidence now to be had as measured by the
rules applicable in such cases. Should the future discover
further evidence either way. I shall have pleasure and others may
profit thereby.

Some of the traditions upon this point confused, as so often
is done in family history, generations, I am sure. But they would
not be so wide-spread and found in each branch so persistently,
were there no foundation for each.

282 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

So that for these reasons and others which cannot now be
given, as I estimate the weight of the evidence, James Ewing,
who settled not far from the Peaks of Otter in Virginia, the
half-brother of Nathaniel of Cecil County, Maryland, and James,
the founder of what I distinguish as the Pocahontas County fam-
ily, and Robert and Charles of the famous Peaks of Otter farms,
and John, my own great-grandfather, an immigrant who died
in Montgomery County, Virginia, in 1788, were cousins of Wil-
liam of Rockingham and of his brothers, Thos. and Robert. Of
course this view involves a similar relation to Nathaniel and his
half-brothers and half-sisters. As elsewhere shown, of the
cumulative evidence upon this point, the coat "of arms is not
least, though of course it does not help us to determine the de-
gree of relation between the families claiming it.

Some students of our family have been inclined to regard
William of Rockingham County as a son of William, the father
of Nathaniel and his half-brothers, whom we generally call the
Cecil County, Maryland family, But the evidence shows that
William of Rockingham was the youngest child and that he was
born in 1694 near Glasgow. Nathaniel and all his half-brothers
were born from 1692 on down for at least eight or ten years, in
Ulster, Ireland, to which their father had gone much before the
reputed birth of William of Rockingham. That the Cecil
County family were born in Ireland, both Bible and other reliable
data prove. It is true that it is tradition that an ancestor of Wil-
liam of Rockingham married Eliza Mil ford, and it is also true
that Col. W. A. Ewing gave to William, the father of the Cecil
County family, Eliza Milford as one of his wives. In this Col.
Ewing has been widely followed ; but he, too, may have confused
generations. That the two Williams had a common ancestor who
married Eliza Milford is more likely the truth; and for her some
of William of Rockingham's descendants are named.

The old Augusta County records, as given in the Chalkley
transcripts and abstracts, disclose the following Ewing names in
addition to some I have mentioned, which I am unable certainly
to identify :

Mar. 25, 1793, the Augusta court recommended Robert Ful-
ton Ewing as ensign of the second battalion of the militia.

Aug. 28, 1776, Samuel Ewing entered suit against Robert

WM. EWING OF ROCKINGHAM 283

Sayers, apparently involving a tract of land on New River,
bought in 1755, "where Humberstone Lyon was then living.'"

Walter Davis' will was probated April 7, 180?), leaving es-
tate to a grandchild, Wats Ewing. This Wats appears to me to
be the son of John Ewing and Phoebe Davis — the name being
thus written often in the old records, as has been observed.

Joshua Ewing bought personal property in Augusta County
in 1763.

Samuel Ewing in Nov., IT OS, bought personalty at a sale of
estate in Augusta County.

July 29, 1800, Peggy Ewin married Peter Long in Augusta
County. The bond given the day before shows this Peggy to
be the daughter of Henry Ewing.

John Ewing and Sarah Davis were married in Augusta
County May 22, 1787. This must be the John whose wife has
been reported to me as a Davison.

In a suit among the District Court judgments, Augusta and
Rockingham, May 5, 1784, it is shown that "Samuel Ewing of
Bedford is about to go to Georgia." "Ewing proposed to take
the slave to Mr. John Talbot or Mr. David Wright, Bedford,
who would take charge of him, 17th July, 1784."

XXVII.

MONTGOMERY AND LEE COUNTY, VIRGINIA,

BRANCHES— JOHN, WILLIAM, ALEX

AND OTHERS.

John Ewing died in Montgomery County between January
25, 1787, the date of his will, and March 5, 1788, the date that
instrument was admitted to probate by the court. He was my
great-grandfather. William Ewing, one of his children, was my
grandfather. Grandfather died late in or shortly after 1852. In
that year he conveyed to father part of the farm on which I was
born. At grandfather's death my father, Joseph Hix Ewing.
was about seventeen or eighteen years old, I have often heard
him say. He was born in 1834. Unfortunately, I did not get
interested in our genealogy until after father had gone. Grand-
father, as we shall see. had a very large family; father was next
to the youngest; and the oldest was born in 1702. Father was
one of the children by grandfather's second wife; and so it was
that the older children had gone from the paternal home long
before father was born, and never in life did he see them. One
of father's half-brothers, Alexander Ewing, I knew, and three of
his sisters, Aunt Eliza Overton. Aunt Rhoda McNeil, and Aunt
Caroline Gibson. Aunt Minerva Thomas and Aunt Basheba
Kincaid, two other sisters, died when I was small, and their
burials in the old Ewing graveyard on the farm in Powell Valley,
where I was born, is all I recall of them. Uncle Alexander
died when I was in college. My aunts whom I knew had no
family records; when consulted, were advanced in life, and could
assist me only in a general way. So I had to rely largely upon
such information as I could get from old people not belonging
to our family, who knew grandfather, or who knew of him. Of
the latter class was my uncle by marriage, Alexander C. McXeil,
the husband of father's sister, Rhoda, who, in his 84th year, on
April 27, 1911, wrote me an interesting and intelligent account of
his knowledge and information regarding our family.

One of those I was fortunate to know who recalled consider-
able of grandfather, was the late Dr. Andrew T. Still, founder

284

JOHN SWING OF MONTGOMERY 285

of osteopathy. He was born. 1828, within three miles of grand-
father's home in Lee County. He was about 24 years old when
grandfather died in or shortly after 1852. Some years ago I
visited Dr. Still at his famous institution at Kirkville. Missouri,
and found him delighted to speak of grandfather, whom he re-
called quite clearly, in the highest terms, as he did of our family
in general. He frequently repeated that granfather was "one
of the great men of his day." Of course he was considering
grandfather's environment and limited opportunity as compared
to men of national renown ; and must have meant that, all things
considered, grandfather met life's responsibilities and oppor-
tunities with unusual courage and intelligence, thus contributing
very substantially to his day and generation.

Some of my informants had the impression that great-grand-
father was born in Scotland. Others understood that he was
born in Ireland of Scotch parents ; and one or two thought him
a native of either Bedford or Prince Edward. Upon the whole,
my opinion is that he was not American-born. However, without
exception the evidences agree that great-grandfather was closely
related to Samuel and Joshua Ewing, descendants of Joshua
Ewing. through his son Capt. Patrick Ewing of Cecil County.
Maryland; and the kinship is recognized bv the descendants of
all these families to this day.

Many old persons who knew our family traditions, such as
General G. P. Fulkerson of Cumberland Gap, Virginia-Tennes-
see, and several descendants of Robert and Charles Ewing of
Bedford County, in recent years living in Missouri and elsewhere,
have written me very positively of the close relation between my
great-grandfather and Robert and Charles Ewing. all three of
whom were contemporaries and who lived, at least at the time
of great-grandfather's death, comparatively not far apart. As
we have seen, Nathaniel Ewing in the Courier-Journal article,
written earlier than 1846, says this Robert and Charles were
cousins of the children of William Ewing of Scotland-Ireland.
In addition to this, the relation is further shown by striking family
resemblances and the fact that the traditions are that each of
these families descended from a Scotch ancestor who bore a coat
of arms. When the reproductions of these arms used in one way
or another by members of each of these families are compared

286 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

with the old Ewing arms belonging to some of the Glasgow-Loch
Lomond Ewings before 1565, the fact that our American repro-
ductions are based upon those ancient Scotch arms is seen to be
beyond question. As has elsewhere been said, the American
emblazonment often discloses slight innovations or unwarranted
changes, and colors and tinctures all too often suffered sadly at the
hands of the novice ; but, as the representative illustrations given ;
in this work show, there is no question of the relation between
what we may term the American reproduction and the Scotch
emblazonment of the oldest Ewing arms.

Hence, while we do not know the exact degree of relation
between my great-grandfather and the other Virginia pioneers
of our name who were his contemporaries, Robert and Charles,
of Bedford, James of Prince Edward, George, the son of Na-
thaniel, the immigrant to Cecil County, William of Rockingham,
and James the founder of the Pocahontas family, and the others,
we are sure the relationship was close, brothers in some cases,
uncles and nephews in others, near cousins in yet others, and in
some cases fathers and sons. There is very strong evidence that
great-grandfather, John, was a half-brother of Nathaniel, and a
brother of Joshua and the other children of William Ewing
of Scotland-Ireland by the second wife. Some charts show the
John of that family as settling in Kentucky; others take him
"West ;'' finally yet others send him to live and die in Pennsyl-
vania. As best I have been able to follow all these other clues,
I am of opinion they confuse him with a John of another gen-
eration, Amos Ewing of Cecil County certainly did, and from
that source much error regarding that John certainly has re-
sulted.

There were John Ewings, some identified and other not so
certainly distinguished, in Virginia from the earliest times of
the other founders of these Virginia families. Unfortunately I
am not sure — though I have a very decided opinion — which was
my ancestor until we come to the period of the early hunters
and explorers in Powell Valley, in what was once in turn in
Augusta, Fincastle, Washington, and other counties and now in
Lee. One of the earliest explorers in that valley was John
Ewing. That was several years before.the Revolution. We have
traditions that he was renowned for skill and bravery. Charles

JOHN EWING OF MONTGOMERY 287

Ewing of the Bedford family, we have seen, was one of the
"long hunters" of that day, hunting through and beyond Powell
Valley.

Through that fertile and always splendidly charming valley,
watered by Powell River, along the eastern base of the rugged
Cumberlands, probably first seen by the whites in 1T50, led an
old Indian trail, known as the Warrior's Path. From the Clinch
River it crossed the Powell Mountains, led down the center of
the valley, and crossed the Cumberlands at Cumberland Gap.
This dim trail was followed by Gist in his early explorations into
what is now Kentucky, and later traveled by Capt. William Rus-
sell, whose daughter married Alexander Ewing of Tennessee,
Daniel Boone, and other pioneers into the regions westward of
the Cumberlands. Boone marked it as a road for the wagons of
Colonel Henderson when he went out from North Carolina to
found in 1775 ill-fated Transylvania west of the Cumberlands.
Already the echoes of the coming Revolution were reverberating
on either side of the valley ; and Henderson's scheme failed.
But that "road," out by Abingdon, then by Bristol (as we now
know those places ) , over the ridges and mountains into the valley,
and out through Cumberland Gap, came to be, the Revolution
over, one of the most traveled and one of the most famous of
early American roads. Long known as the Hunters' Path, then
as the Old Wilderness Trail, then as the Old Wilderness Road,
its annals are among the most interesting which tell us of the
first real expansion of English-speaking America. (See the
Author's Pioneer Gateway of the Cumberlands, in manuscript as
this book goes to press.)

John Ewing, my great-grandfather, saw for himself the rich
valley lands as he passed up and down the old Hunter's Path.
He knew Henderson and of his ambitious plan to found Transyl-
vania, a supply station for which was to be in the center of Powell
Valley. He was acquainted with the movement headed by Rus-
sell and Boone to settle Kentucky in 1775, destined to a bloody
repulse in the Valley's midst. With the keen eye of a thrifty
Scot he saw the rapidly approaching value, as well as the scenic
beauty, of the rich lands of Powell Valley. His judgment
proved more accurate than he dreamed.

Shortly after its discovery an important part of the valley
was claimed under one of the immense royal grants, which we

288 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

noticed in our study of our West Virginia kinsmen. But per-
manent settlements within the Valley were not attempted until
1775. Before surveys could be made and deeds issued, the Revo-
lution swept British authority from Virginia; and so it came
that the early titles were founded upon the settlement, preemption,
and purchase laws enacted by the independent sovereignty of
Virginia; and the claims under those laws were determined by
the commission which heard the "claims to lands on the western
waters."

Before the valley could be permanently inhabited the Indian
allies of the British drove the settlers back as far east as where
now are Bristol and Abingdon. But they returned to the Valley
at least as early as 1779, and with them grandfather, William
Ewing. But his father, John, appears not to have gone back
to the valley to reside. An old man, John died in Montgomery
County before March 5, 1788. But he did not forget to press his
claims to the valley lands which he had selected before the Revo-
lution.

In the list of those found by this commission as entitled to
lands in the district of Washington and Montgomery, which
district included Powell Valley, now in Lee County, Virginia,
and, in fact, reaching far down into Tennessee, which I found in
the Land Office, are the names of John and Samuel Ewing, who
are certified as entitled to 400 acres by right of settlement- and to
500 acres under the preemption law. That list, duly signed by
the commission, is dated September 8, 1781. The old survey
book, which I examined, in the clerk's office at Abingdon, has
the record of an entire certificate, signed by the commission,
dated August 10, 1781. In each record John and Samuel Ewing
are awarded 400 acres by right of settlement and 500 under the
preemption law. From the Abingdon record it is seen that the
settlement was made in 1775 by Charles Cox. Cox assigned to
John and Samuel Ewing; and Samuel assigned his interest to
great-grandfather, October 10, 1783. The certificate of record
in Abingdon describes this land as "on the north side of Powell
River, known by the name of Dump's Cabon, or the Big Spring."
The land was surveyed and the grant issued ; but apparently the
grant did not issue until 1794, six years after great-grandfather
had died ! From the survey description I recognize the land. It

JOHN EWING OF MONTGOMERY 289

lies about three miles from the old William Ewing home, in the
midst of Powell Valley, where father was born and where I, in
turn, came into existence. Through the once dense woodlands
which covered in part it and other lands of my ancestors, I have
often chased the fox, brought down the squirrel, or bagged in-
numerable quail. The deed of 1794, which certainly conveys
title to 400 acres, thus identified as in Powell Valley, recites that
it is made "in right of settlement given by the commissioners for
adjusting the titles of unpatented lands in the district of Wash-
ington and Montgomery and the consideration of the ancient
compound of two pounds sterling."

But prior to the deed of 1794, great-grandfather acquired
title to other land in Powell Valley. For instance, by "land
office treasury warrant Xo. 1902, dated November 21, 1781," he
acquired 400 acres "adjoining his settlement survey," and on
both sides of "Wading" (Trading) Creek, on north side of Powell
River; and "by land office treasury warrant No. 10729" dated
January 25. 1782, he acquired title to 440 acres "adjoining his
settlement ;" and by another treasury warrant he became entitled
to 815 acres "adjoining his settlement ;" and the beginning cor-
ner of which was near "the old station camp." So I am not sure
whether the "schedule" duly signed by the commissioners, dated
September 8, 17 81, which I found in a secluded nitch in the Land
Office, is a duplicate of the "certificate" issued August 10, 1781.
The commissioners may have made two reports, as they certainly
did as to some other districts. But the question is not so ma-
terial, since great-grandfather apparently made no attempt, after
the earliest settlers were chased from the valley as a result of
the Revolution, to therein reside. Some of the earlier deeds
were of record in the Land Office before November 26, 1787.
On that day Colonel Arthur Campbell, one of the best known
military militia figures of that day, and who lived not far from
great-grandfather, receipted the Land Office, for deeds to lands
in Powell Valley, for the purpose of delivering to the owners,
among those instruments being great-grandfather's deeds to the
440 and the 500-acre tracts; and for grandfather's deed to 815
acre tract. Many similar entries regarding other people are on
the old records. They suggest lack of mail facilities, the long,
bad roads out from Richmond to the distant Virginia sections,
and absence of many things we now enjoy.

290 CLAN SWING OF SCOTLAND

But those old records are interesting for the light which
they afford regarding the close business relations which must
have existed between this John and SamueJ Jawing; and between
GejDrge and Samuel, who, under the award of Septemher-8,4731,
were held entitled to land by right of settlement on "both sides
of Clinch River and Copper Creek." (Land Office Deed Book
30, 296.) This George and Samuel, who settled on Copper
Creek, were we are reasonably sure, sons of George of Wythe
County. Then, among other things, grandfather and Robert
Sims, who married grandfather's sister Betsy, as stated in John's
will, entered into an agreement April 11, 1797, regarding the
tract of land in Powell Valley, which the will called "Cocke's
old place," and Joshua Ewing was one of the witnesses. That
agreement was acknowledged before the Lee County court (Lee
D. B. 1, 201), and was evidently witnessed in that county. This
Joshua Ewing was clearly the brother of Samuel Ewing, both of
whom lived in the valley about fifteen miles west of grand-
father's home. Then the deed dated 1799, under which grand-
father and Sims for his wife, as we shall see, partitioned this
John Ewing land, is witnessed by Samuel Ewing and Charles
Carter. Charles Carter was the son-in-law of Samuel Ewing,
of the Maryland family, Joshua's brother, this Samuel Ewing
being the first sheriff of Lee County, Virginia, where this land
lay.

Cumulative with the tradition of near kinship of grand-
father with the Cecil County earliest immigration, from which
this Joshua and this Samuel descended, and with the other early
E wings of Virginia, the descendants of this day, who know our
traditions, recognize the relationship.

Of record at Christiansburg, Montgomery County, Virginia,
great-grandfather left this will :

"IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN :

"I, John Ewing, of the County of Montgomery and State of
Virginia, being weak in body but of perfect mind and memory
(thanks be given unto God), calling unto mind the mortality of
my body and that it is appointed for all men once to die, do make
and ordain this my last Will and Testament ; that is to say, prin-
cipally and first of all I give and recommend my soul into the
hands of Almighty God who gave it, and my body unto the earth

JOHN KWING OF MONTGOMERY 291

to be interred in Christian manner at the discretion of my Ex-
ecutors ; nothing doubting but at the General Resurrection I shall
receive the same again by the mighty power of God. And as
touching such worldly estate wherewith it hath pleased God to
bless me in this life, T give, demise, and dispose of the same in
the following manner and form, viz. :

"I give and bequeath to my daughter Eleanore Cocke, my
brown mare, with what I have already given her, and no more.

"I give and bequeath to my son Alexander my desk and one
young bay mare and colt.

"I give and bequeath to my son William, my negroe man
named Lab, and negroe woman named Kate.

"I likewise give and bequeath to my son William my tracts
of land lying in Powells Valley, in the County of Russell con-
taining thirteen hundred acres, or thereabouts.

"I also give and bequeath to my son William one feather bed
and furniture, and one bay mare four years old.

"I give and bequeath to my (grandsons) William and
Charles Cocke my whip saw and cross cutt.

"I give and bequeath to my daughter Betsy three hundred
acres of land of the above mentioned bequeathed to my son Wil-
liam, known by the name of Cocke's old tract, if she comes there
to live, and if not, to remain in the possession of my son William.

"I also give and bequeath to my daughter Betsy one bay
mare three years old next spring.

"I give and bequeath to my grandson John Cocke two hun-
dred acres of land at the mouth of Trading Creek, including both
sides of said Creek for quantity.

"I order my household furniture with all the remaining part
of my personal estate to be equally divided between my two sons.
I order my son William to pay to his brother Alexander the value
of Seventy Pounds in horses at the valuation of two indifferent
men.

"I likewise give and bequeath to my son Alexander a tract
of land on Elk Creek in Montgomery County containing eleven
hundred acres if obtained.

"I order, nominate, constitute, and appoint my two sons
Alexander and William Ewing my whole and sole Executors of
this my last will and testament, disannualling and making void
all former and other wills and testaments by me heretofore made,

292 CLAN EWING OF1 SCOTLAND

ratifying, allowing, and confirming none other than this my last
will and testament.

"IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto subscribed
my name and affixed my seal this twenty-fifth day of January, in
the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty
seven.

"John Ewing (seal)
"Signed, sealed, pronounced, and declared by the said John
Ewing as his last will and testament in the presence of us, who
in his presence, and in the presence of each other, have hereunto
subscribed our names.

"John Montgomery, Sen'r.,
John Montgomery, Jun'r.,
Samuel Montgomery,
Roberty Montgomery
Joseph Montgomery."
"At a Court cont'd and held for Montgomery County the 5th
day of March, 1788.

"This last will and testament of John Ewing, deceased, was
presented in Court by William Ewing, one of the Executors
therein named, and proved by the oaths of John Montgomery,
Sen'r., John Montgomery, Jun'r., and Samuel Montgomery three
of the witnesses thereto, and ordered to be recorded.

"Teste,
"Abrah Trigg, C. M. C."
{Will Book, B, 128).

The grandson, John Cocke, who received 200 acres of land at
the mouth of and on both sides of Trading Creek, on the south
bank of which I was born, was evidently over twenty-one at the
date of this will. This fact is corroborative of the tradition
that great-grandfather was well advanced in years at his death.
That no wife is mentioned shows that she had died before the
date of the will.

That this John Ewing took some substantial part in the
patriot armies of the Revolution, during its earliest days, is sup-
ported by some tradition. More than one John Ewing of Vir-
ginia served the American cause in that war. Some of them are
identified ; others are excluded from the consideration because
the records disclose decease later than great-grandfather; and the

JOHN EWING OF MONTGOMERY 293

meager records of others leave it quite possible that one of them
could have been great-grandfather. But, to have had grand-
children over twenty-one in 1788, indicates that at the outbreak of
the Revolution he was much beyond what, in this day, we regard
as military age. But it is well known that in that epochal day
old men fought for our independence.

However, long on the advance picket line of civilization,
though not "a backwoods man" in the usual sense, there is no
doubt of the truth of the traditions that great-grandfather con-
tributed his share, important and far-reaching, to the battle of
civilization against the savages and to overcoming the dangers
met at every point by the westward expansion.

According to the survey records at Abingdon, the 815-acre
tract was surveyed July 18, 1787, "for William Ewing, Jr., as-
signee of John Ewing." That this William Ewing was my
grandfather there is no question, particularly since I know inti-
mately the land involved ; but why the "Jr." was used I don't
know, unless to distinguish him from William Ewing of one of
the older counties. There was in that day no other William
Ewing in the Powell Valley section. This junior probably sug-
gests that he was so known in his old home and before he became
a resident of Powell Valley. The old records at Abingdon show
that in other instruments before and about 1783 he was de-
scribed as "William Ewing, Jr."

When great-grandfather acquired his first Virginia lands, or
where he first lived, 1 regret I have been unable to determine.
Just where to look for the deeds depends upon where the land
lay and the date, as is true of so much of early Vir-
ginia records. With nothing to give me any clue, it was only
after years of search that I located his will. Montgomery
County, including territory now within Wythe and Grayson, was
formed in 1776 from Fincastle. The records were kept in Fin-
castle town, or Court House. Fincastle was created in 1770 from
part of widely flung Batetourt. Up to 1776 Fincastle was one
of the many empires once within Virginia's sweeping limits.
Reaching far beyond the mountains, Fincastle included what are
now the States of Kentucky and Illinois. The same law which
established Montgomery created Washington County, which in-
cluded all of what is now Southwest old Virginia. West of

294 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

the Cumberlands the same act established the county of Ken-
tucky ; and later Kentucky was partitioned and Illinois County,
Virginia, both long since States, was established.

Batetourt was established over part of yet more extensive
and justly famous Augusta in 1769; and, as we have seen,
Augusta was formed from Orange, once a county, mostly an un-
inhabited wilderness, almost without limits. Hence it is easy
to see why many deeds and other important papers were never
recorded. When grandfather built his home in Powell Valley,
he was nearly one hundred miles by the indifferent road of that
day, over mountains and across many streams, to the court house
at Abingdon. It was a horseback trip of about three days each
way. With these county changes before the mind, it is also easy
to see how difficult it often is to know who is who when seen in
old records. Then, too, look at the names : John, William,
Samuel, Joshua, George, &c.

What became of the Cockes mentioned in great-grandfather's
will I have been unable to learn. I trust this publication will be
the means of disclosing their descendants.

Lee County was established over the southwestern section
of Russell County by an act of the legislature passed in 1792.
At that time the courts were held by justices, the usual eight be-
ing named as the first judges of the courts of Lee. Among the
number are Joshua Ewing and grandfather, William Ewing. (6
Virginia State Papers, 184.) At that time the judges of the courts
held for each county were appointed under a law first enacted in
1661, which required for the position of a Virginia justice, "eight
of the most able, honest and judicious persons of the County."
At the time grandfather was on the justice's bench his court
exercised criminal and civil jurisdiction, the criminal extending
to capital punishment and the civil including the most extensive
chancery or equity jurisdiction. In other words, he was a judge
of the only court then held in his county.

That this William Ewing, one of the first judges of my native
county nearly one hundred and thirty years ago, was my own
grandfather, there is not the slightest doubt, — unusual as it is
on account of the great lapse of time from that dreamy dis-
tance to this age of wonders. That such is true is tradition veri-
fied by documents left in the family and corroborated by the fact

JOHN EWING OF MONTGOMERY 295

that not until the time of William Smith Ewing, many years
subsequent, was there any other William Ewing in that section
of Virginia. Joshua, appointed as grandfather's associate, was
the brother of Samuel, the county's first sheriff.

Unfortunately, the court records of Lee are missing up to
May 8, 1808, probably due to the ravages of the Union army.
How long grandfather served cannot be known. The oldest
records now extant show that the court held May 8, 1808, was
held by Judges William Neill, Samuel Ewing, John W. Mc-
Kinney, and Robert Duff; but as only a majority of the justices
were necessary, it can not be known who of those earliest com-
missioned had resigned. At a session begun March 28, 1809,
Justices Joshua and Samuel Ewing (the ex-sheriff, who subse-
quently again became sheriff) were of those on the bench.

It was not until April 17, 1809, that part of the jurisdiction
of the court held by the justices was assumed by what was known
as the "Superior Court of Law" over which one judge pre-
sided. At that term Samuel Ewing and grandfather, William
Ewing, were members of the grand jury.

Considered in the light of their day, such records are en-
lightening and very gratifying. Among others, indicative of
character and standing and interesting for their light upon the
conditions of grandfather's section of Virginia, a few more
instances are worth while.

November 17, 1792, the Virginia legislature passed a law
"to facilitate the intercourse of the inhabitants of this common-
wealth with the State of Kentucky," authorizing a wagon road
leading from the old Block house (a frontier fort) near what is
now Bristol, across Powell Mountains, down Powell Valley, to
the top of Cumberland Mountain in Cumberland Gap. Up to
that time the route to be followed by the road was one of the
most traveled by the westwardbound pioneers, large caravans
and numerous bands and slowly moving parties, convoyed by
armed men, being a daily sight. Yet no effort by any authority
to open or improve the road was made up to this act of the Vir-
ginia legislature in 1792. But nothing except to view the route
was done toward bettering this much-traveled path along which
the great American expansion was moving, until December 18,
1794, when William Ewing and Charles Cocke (believed to have

296 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

been grandfather's nephew) and three other residents of Lee
County, or any three of them, were authorized to spend, without
bound, $1,000 in building the first section of this road. (14
Hening, Virginia Statutes, 314. Hening misspelled grand-
father's name, and has it Irving.)

An act of the legislature on December 19, 1794, authorized
the town of Jonesville, and made it the county seat. Fifty-five
acres of land, on which the town was located, were conveyed to
William Ewing. my grandfather, and nine others as trustees for
the use of the county. (Idem. 322).

Again on January 25, 1799, grandfather, William Ewing,
was named as one of the commissioners who were authorized to
expend, without bound, money to open and improve another sec-
tion of the old wilderness path. (15 Hening, 164, 212).

We estimate that this William Ewing was born about 1760.
He died about 1852, on the extensive valley lands he long owned,
much of which he bought or obtained from the State and about
2,000 acres of which he acquired under the will of his father.
There is very conclusive traditional evidence of his service in
the patriot armies of the Revolution. The meager data now ex-
tant from which the Virginia State Library has compiled rosters
of soldiers of the Revolution, make it impossible to say which of
the William Ewings there found is this ancestor of mine. Then,
as is well known, the rosters of patriot soldiers, particularly
those who rendered such valuable service against the Indian
allies of the British, a service it is certain, among others, grand-
father rendered, is incomplete. Tradition must be trusted. For
years many Ewings of the southwestern part of Virginia were
lost from the Virginia geanalogies ; and this led to conclusions
regarding the military service of those in other parts of the
country that has led to some error, due wholly to the distressing
repetition of first names.

About five miles nearly west of what is now Jonesville, this
William Ewing built, at least as early as 1782, his home on the
south bank of Trading Creek. Far away to the north the Cum-
berlands tower above the valley. From an elevation near the
house one gets an enchanting view of the Powell Mountains,
miles away and on the eastern side of the valley. The original
house was a large two story building of heavy, hand-hewn logs ;

JOHN EWING OF MONTGOMERY 297

and, the white plaster filling the interstices, the appearance was
pleasing. With its big, open fire places, it became a commodious
and hospitable home, respresentative of the better homes of pre-
war Virginia. Particularly when the numerous, cleanly and well-
kept "negro quarters" stood in the background, it was a pros-
perous home on the immense farm of a typical Southern gentle-
man. Built of heavy logs hewn to about six inches of thickness,
the structure was home and fort For more than ten trying
years after it was built, again and again the bloody savages swept
into the valley, committed arson and murder and hurried through
the few inaccessible mountain gaps into the wilderness. Inter-
esting are the stories of seige and defense through which that
old house passed to stand, remodelled and now and again mod-
ernized, and to become the birth-place of all of grandfather's
family and of my father's family, for nearly one hundred and
forty years ! In a deposition by Peter Fulkerson of Lee Coun-
ty, given May 29, 1811, in the case of McKenny v. Preston (2
Chalkley, 227). it is shown that the county west of Clinch River
was little settled "and dangerous in 1785 on account of Indians."
Powell Valley, now in Lee County, was the outpost of that dan-
gerous zone. There is much evidence of this danger we cannot
examine here. On December 22, 1792, Col. Andrew Lewis,
charged with the military defense of the valley, reporting to the
governor of Virginia, said :

"I think it necessary that troops for Powell's Valley should
as soon as raised be sent there; the people by no means think
themselves safe. Captain Neale must, of course, be continued in
that place." (See The Pioneer Gatezvay of the Cumbcrlands.)

Captain "Neale" (Neil) was already patrolling the valley
with troops ; yet the stealthy Indians, in small bands, continued
deadly raids. On one of such raids Grandfather Ewing, apprised
of the attack, hurried alone into one of the gaps in the rock-
crowned Cumberlands through which gap he thought it probable
the savages would retreat. He concealed himself far up the
heights. The sun hurried over the distant Powell. As the light
gladdened the valley at his feet, he got his eye on a small detach-
ment of the marauding savages, one following another, coming up
the torturous trail leading through the gap. At the opportune
movement his old flint lock brought down the leader ; and then,

298 CLAN SWING OF SCOTLAND

incredible as it appears, two more paid the last penalty for the
booty which they had gathered from his neighbors by knife and
torch. The others, terror wild, plunged into the laurels and es-
caped.

For many years after grandfather built his home in the val-
ley, buffalo, deer, bear, and all the other wild game abounded in
that region. Dressed in a red hunting shirt, he had many dan-
gerous encounters with the wild beasts. Thrilling stories of those
adventures come down to us by authenticated tradition ; but there
is no space here for them.

One story, however, because illustrative of prevailing con-
ditions of the valley region for many years, is worth while. Until
1793 the courthouse, the county seat of justice, was about one
hundred miles from grandfather's home. He was a large stock
raiser. Much of the land grew the famous blue-grass ; and corn
and other grains grew in the greatest yield. Much of the im-
mense boundary was yet in virgin timber, great oaks, towering
walnuts, poplars sometimes 10 and 15 feet in diameter, and other
trees. Hogs brought a good price and thrived most of the feeding
season on the acorns of the oak. Often great droves would
wander far from inhabited sections. Once two men stole a large
number thus found isolated and began to drive them out of the
community. In some way grandfather heard of the attempt to
drive off his valuable herd ; mounted his horse, armed with his
ready gun ; pursued and alone overtook the trespassers. He is
described as well built, fearless, as was my father, keen of eye,
quick of wit, and relentless of purpose once his resolution was
formed ; but, withal fair and just. A man who alone would
fight a band of Indians, on murder bent, in a distant and lonely
mountain pass, was not to be regarded lightly. At the point of
his gun he took both the thieves. He was recovering the prop-
erty ; the jail was one hundred miles beyond the mountains. So
he tied both men to a tree and administered on their bare backs
the number of lashes with "a cowhide whip," while the victims
writhed and swore lustily, prescribed by the law for misde-
meanors. Each miscreant agreed, as something of a penance of
honor, to hold up his shirt rather than remove it, and thus "take
his medicine like a man." One, however, lost his nerve, dropped
his shirt at each cut of the keen whip and bellowed lustily. This

JOHN EWING OF MONTGOMERY 299

lost whatever respect grandfather may have had for him, result-
ing in a very bitter "double dose'' for failure to keep his con-
tract.

This truthful story not only discloses character; but quite
as much opens a flood of light upon the early days of Powell Val-
ley before grandfather became one of the judges of the court
which after 1793 sat within five miles of his home.

Grandfather William Ewing left the identified descendants
whose names follow, and no doubt others, whom I have not
"discovered." Many of those given are men and women of
ability and at least equally as prominent as are those of any
other branch of our family. I have not the space to give to
them the credit they richly deserve, simply because this work
has long since gone beyond its commercial possibilities. Hence
the following is little more than a genealogical table.

This William Ewing was twice married. The first wife
was Miss Elizabeth (Betsy) Saunders. The second was Mrs.
Sarah Wynn, a widow, who was Miss Hix. When and where
these marriages occurred I do not know. Both, though, occurred
in some of the once immense counties of Virginia at some date
such that so far I have been unable to guess the whereabouts
of the records. Some information indicates that the second
wife belonged to a family subsequently identified with Wythe
County.

Mrs. Wynn and her first husband had two children,
William, who died unmarried, and Lavina, who married Dixon
Litton, long one of the rich cattle barons of upper Powell
Valley, Virginia. To the Littons were born several children,
Philmore, Robert, and others. These Litton boys are among
the leading farmers and extensive cattle raisers of Virginia,
often exporting large numbers of fat cattle to Europe. They
live in the Rocky Station neighborhood, Lee County, Virginia.
Robert represented his county in the legislature some years ago.

William Ewing and his first wife had Stephen Saunders
Ewing (4), Dosia, Letitia (5), Sarah E. (6), and Alexander.
This Alexander died unmarried in March, 1889, on his splendid
estate in Lee County. He left no will. My father administered
upon the estate; and from the bill for partition, filed in the
Circuit Court of Lee, may be seen the names of Uncle Alex-

300 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

ander's brothers and sisters and half-brothers and sisters, as in
the following table given. Many of the first heirs had been long
dead, and the estate was finally distributed to persons living
widely over the South and West.

Stephen Saunders Ewing, oldest of these, was born in Lee
County February 12, 1789 ; and died near Aberdeen, Mississippi,
December 4, 1867. He married Mary Houston Carter, probably
a daughter of C. C. Carter, the first clerk of the Lee court. She
was born in Lee December 18, 1796, and died near Huntsville,
Alabama, November 6, 1849. Stephen Saunders Ewing and his
wife left Lee County early in life. Reaching Mississippi he en-
gaged in the mercantile business. He bought most of his goods
in Philadelphia, transporting them in the big "schooner wagons"
generally drawn by six splendid mules. On a trip to Philadelphia
he engaged to buy cotton for dealers. The venture brought him,
in a very short time, a splendid fortune. He organized one of
the first extensive cotton brokerages in the United States.

In reading the following chart outline, a mere arbitrary ar-
rangement to avoid as much repetition as possible, to follow the
descent, be guided by the figures. The figure after a name in
parentheses indicates the figure on the left of a name where the
children are given. For instance, Stephen Saunders Ewing (4),
refers to 4. Stephen Saunders Ewing further down in the table.
For Sarah E. Ewing (6) children, just run down the figures on
the left and find the six, and you have them. The six is her
index number, remember. Similarly for all others. A blank
parenthesis indicates that I have no information. When it is
desired to see the ancestor of one where the figure is on the ex-
treme left, go to the same figure back in parenthesis.

Grandfather, William Ewing, and his second wife had
Minerva (7) ;
Celina (8) ;
Robert S. (9) who married Mary Miller. All their descendants

are in the far West.
Bathsheba (11).
Eliza.
Rhoda ( ) who married A. C. McNeil. She died about 1896.

Lived in Lee adjoining father's farm.
Caroline, who married Z. S. Gibson, died in the spring of 1911.

JOHN EWING OF MONTGOMERY 301

Lived in Lee County about six miles from Jonesville. Left
two children.

Joseph Hix (48). He was born at the old Ewing home in Lee
County, November, 1834; died at the same place, then called
Arcadia, March, 1900. Married Mary E. C. Woodward.
He was my father. During active life he operated an ex-
tensive grain and stock farm. At times he shipped down
Powell River, by boat carried by flood tide, more than 2,000
bushels of wheat of one season's harvesting, a large yield
for one Virginia farm, considering other grain growing in
proportion. He was a Master Mason, member of the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church, South ; and in person six feet two
inches and splendidly proportioned. His eyes were the gray
of the Celt and his hair black. He was a Confederate of-
ficer during that entire war, going in as a lieutenant of in-
fantry and at Lee's surrender was in command of a com-
pany of fighting cavalry. His comrades in arms testify that
he was brave to daring, cool and ever alert. As a citizen
none stood higher. He often declined civil office.

Children of Stephen Saunders (1) Ewing (from the family Bible
record in possession of W. B. Ewing of Curtis, Arkansas,
October 4, 1918) :

Alexander (12) born in Huntsville, Alabama, June 2, 1815, died
near Seguin, Texas, August 22, 1857.

Mary Ellen (13) born at same place August 30, 1832, died Jan-
uary 13, I860.

Susan Purdom (14) born at same place October, 1838, died in
Jackson, Mississippi, September 24, 1903, and buried in
Aberdeen, Mississippi.

James (15) born at same place June 12, 1824, and died in Aber-
deen, Mississippi, March 10, 1850.

Charles Carter (I) (10) born August 22, 1816, died in Aberdeen
June 26, 1852.

Sarah (Sallie) Elizabeth (19) married Jackson Rice. Born in
Huntsville June 18, 1819, died near Chattahoochie, Florida.

Thomas Morgan (31) born at same place November 13, 1834,
died in Arkansas October 2, 1906. Buried in Arkadelphia.

George (18) born same place February 28, 1828, living in 1911
at Chapel Hill, Texas.

302 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Stephen Saunders (II) (30) born in Huntsville, December 27,

1830, died in Burleson, Texas.
John (34) born at same place April 24, 1826, died in Clark

County, Arkansas, February 9, 1895.
William Bromfield (28), born July 4, 1834.
16. Charles Carter (I) Ewing, married Mary Lile, daughter of

Peyton Harrison Lile, children :
Stephen Saunders (III). Born November 8, 1849, died March 6,

1874.
Charles Carter (II.) (14), M. D. and farmer. Born October
17, 1852, living in 1911 at Aberdeen, Mississippi. Married
Sarah Cunningham, who died April 8, 1885, and then
Josephine Thompson, June 30, 1898. Member of Metho-
dist Episcopal Church, South.
14. Their children :

Early Cunningham Ewing ( ), born April 3, 1886.
Married recently; professor of agriculture, Uni-
versity of Mississippi. Child of the first marriage.
Charles Ewing ( ), born Aberdeen, Mississippi, July
14, 1899.

12. Alexander Ewing, married Mary Jane Malone, their chil-
dren :

Sarah (32).

Mary (Mollie) Houston (33).
Alice (35).
Stephen M. (36).

John, Susan and Alexander, Jr. (All of whom died in
fancy).

13. Mary Ellen Ewing, married Walter Troup, five children :

Minnie ( ), married E. J. Smith, Auditor, Miss.

Walter ( ), dead.

Tenny ( ), dead.

Carrie ( ), married Baskin.

Mary ( ), married Alfred Bowner of Aberdeen.

14. Susan Purdom was second wife of Walter Troup, one
child :

Anne ( ), married Savage, near Hamilton, Mississippi.

15. James Ewing, married ; children :

Adrian ( ), married Spratt.
Jennie ( ), married Love (?)

JOHN EWING OF MONTGOMERY 303

5. Letitia Ewing married Robert Beaty, their children :

Elizabeth ( ), married John G. Wood. During life
leading hotel owner in Bristol, Virginia.

Catherine ( ), married William Merriman, Lee County.

John A. ( ).

Mary ( ), married N. B. Havely. Children: Lee, who
married Wynn ; Maggie, who married Creed R.
Fulton ; Mary Aston ; and Robert B. All are suc-
cessful farmers of Lee County.

Narcissus ( ), married Hiram J. Yeary, Lee County.

Margaret ( ) , married John Thompson, no children.

Celina (10).
10. Celina married Capt. Thomas S. Gibson, a distinguished
Confederate officer, both dead. Their children :

Hugh ( ). Became a distinguished physician in Ken-
tucky.

Shelby ( ).

Amelia ( ). Married P. M. Carr, Richmond, Ky.

W. Moss ( ). Became a celebrated surgeon in Ken-
tucky.

Burgain ( ).

6. Sarah E. Ewing married William Carter, one child :

Sarah E. ( ), married Coffin.

7. Minerva Ewing married William S. Thomas, both dead. Their

children :

Virginia J. ( ), married Judge James G. Rose and

left descendants in Morristown, Tennessee.
Ewing ( ).
Isaac T. ( ).
James ( ) .
Sarah ( ), married Dr. Edward Campbell. In 1911

living at Pennington Gap, Virginia. Descendants.

8. Celina Ewing married George W. Cox. Both dead. Their

children :

Alexander ( ).
James ( ) .

9. Robert S. Ewing married Mary Miller; their children:

Charles H. ( ), whereabouts unknown.

Letitia ( ), married Nare, whereabouts unknown.

304 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Ellen ( ), married A. S. Whitehead and died in the

far West.
Bathsheba ( ), married William Melbourne, Dos Palos,
California.
11. Bathsheba (see 11 supra in parenthesis, remember) mar-
ried B. F. Kincaid. Their children :
Sarah ( ) , died young.

Charles ( ), married Martha Miller. In California.
Benjamin Franklin ( ). One of the largest land
barons of Powell Valley ; long an extensive cattle
dealer. Married Lizzie Ball, and left children, one
married Stickly, of Lee County; another, John, now
a prosperous farmer near Leesburg, Virginia, who
married daughter of Rev. I. S. Anderson of Lee.
Just before this book goes to press Benjamin Frank-
lin, the first wife being dead, married a second time.
Mary ( ), married James Wheeler, a prosperous

farmer of Lee County.
Elizabeth ( ), married Timothy Thomas, a successful

farmer, Old Town, Tennessee.
John ( ), married and resides in California.
18. George Ewing, married Kate Stevens at Aberdeen, Missis-
sippi, December 30, 1857. Their children:

Adriene A. Born February 26, 1860, married W. B.

Bizzell.
John S. Born September 26, 1860.
Kate S. Born December 17, 1862, married Dr. T. P.

Robinson.
George E. Born January 9, 1861, married Miss Sallie

Sample.
Mary J. Born September 17, 1867, died August 15,

1870.
William R. Born October 21, 1869.
Minnie L. Born March 13, 1873. Married Alexander
Ewing (41) (?).

24. Ewing Rice, married . Children :

' Floyd ( ).
Stephen E., Jr. ( ).
22. Joel Rice, married . Children :

JOHN EWING OF MONTGOMERY 305

Mollie ( ).

Lillie Lou ( ).

Joel ( ).

Ellen ( )
25. Mollie E. Rice (Key), married . Children:

Mary ( ).

Sallie ( ).

John R. ( )

Alexander ( ).

Jack ( ).

Stephen ( ).
34. John Ewing married . Children :

1. Margaret Lee of Aberdeen, Mississippi. No children

2. Bettie Wilkerson of Caldwell, Texas. No children.

3. Mrs. Josephine Murrey of Tunis, Texas. Children:

Pinkie (43).
Rose (44).

4. Mrs. Mollie Wood of Washington, Texas. Child:

Mamie (45).

43. Pinkie Ewing. Married Terrell Roberson of Brenham,
Texas.

44. Rose Ewing. Married a Mr. Ludlow of Los Angeles, Cali-
fornia.

45. Mamie Ewing. Married a Mr. Craddock of Waco, Texas,
moved to Oklahoma.

40. George Bruce Ewing married Daisy Johnson at Arkadelphia.
Mayor of City of McGehee, Arkansas, in 1911. Their
children :

George Brice, Jr.
Clara Louise.

41. Alexander Ewing married Minnie Ewing, his first cousin.

Thomas W. Born June 23, 1875, married Miss May

Sproles.
Eugene S. Born December 22, 1877.
Maude E. Born February 9, 1879, married Sam P.

Felder.

28. William Bromfield Ewing, married Mrs. Carrie Johnston,
(nee Walker), their child, Dora (29).

29. Dora Ewing, married Calvin Reed. Children :

306 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Ewing Reed ( ).
Opal Reed ( ).
Ruben Reed ( ).

30. Stephen S. Ewing, married Annie Lee. Children :

Alexander (41).
Tom (42)
42. Tom Ewing married Mary Steele. Their child :
Lillie.

31. Thomas Morgan Ewing married Mrs. Mary L. Spence (nee
Cook) November 19, 1862. Their children:

William Bromfield (37). Born August 10, 1863.
Thomas (38) Morgan. Born January 17, 1865.
Walter F. (39). Born March 8, 1868.
George Brice (40). Born August 18, 1874.

32. Sarah (Sallie) Ewing married James Long. Their chil-
dren :

Alice Ewing ( ) married Walter D. Hastings, pros-
perous newspaper editor, Columbia, Tennessee.
Alexander (48).

33. Mary Houston, married Charles Echols. Their child:

Ewing (46).
46. Ewing Echols married Daisy Figures. Their children:

Otey ( ).

Harriet ( ).
36. Stephen M. Ewing married Margaret Fennell. Their chil-
dren :

James F. ( ).

Steve M. ( ).

Mary A. ( ).

Alexander ( ).

Jeff ( ).

Marga ( ).

Carrie ( ).

John ( ).

Tom ( ).

George ( ).
35. Alice Lea Ewing married Drury Davis. Their children :

Drury Davis ( ).

Charles Davis ( ).

JOHN EWING OF MONTGOMERY 307

Carlisle Davis ( ).

37. William Bromfield Ewing married Ida Weber (47) at Arka-
delphia, June 29, 1904.

47. Children of William Bromfield and Ida Ewing:

Louisa Virginia, born January 11, 1906.
Thomas Morgan, born January 3, 1908, farming at
Arkadelphia.

38. Thomas M. Ewing married Ida Gunter at Curtis, Arkansas.
No children.

39. Walter T. Ewing married Mary Cutler, merchant in Curtis,
Arkansas. Their children :

Walter Brice ( ).
Edgar Boyd ( ).
May Emma ( ).
Carrie Wallace.

19. Sarah E. Ewing married Jackson Rice. Their children :

Elisha (20).
Stephen (21).
Joel (22).
Mollie E. (2).

20. Elisha H. Rice married . Children :

Blussie ( ).
Ewing ( ).
Ollie ( ).
Jackie ( ).
Lucile ( ).

21. Stephen E. Rice married . Children:

Steppie (Porter) (23).
Rob ( ).
Richard ( ).
Joe ( ).
Elisha ( ).
Rudolph ( ).
Ewing (24).

23. Steppie (Porter) Rice married . Children:

Ned ( ).
Richard ( ).

48. (See 32) Alexander Ewing married . Had one

child :

308 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

James Ewing, who is now baliff of the Court of Crim-
inal Appeal, Texas.
49. Joseph Hix Ewing and wife (Mary E. C, daughter of Rev.
(Major) V. A. Woodward, once member of the Virginia
legislature and otherwise distinguished, married in Lee
County, Virginia, in 18G6, left E. W. R. Ewing, the author
of this work; Charles W. Ewing, widely known educator,
Decatur, Georgia, married Flora Neff of Kentucky, and have
children; Mary S. Ewing, Ballston, Virginia; Bennie M.,
who died of diphtheria in infancy; and Frank Carroll Ewing.
He injured his heart in a cycle race at a fair and died in young
manhood. His scientific attaiments were phenomenal for
his age. Among other things, he was the first inventor and
patentee of what is known as the "selective signalling" for
telephones, upon which the now widely used automatic
service is based.

XXVIII.

SOME VIRGINIA-TENNESSEE ALEXANDER
SWINGS.

What became of my grandfather's brother Alexander Ewing,.
I am unable certainly to state. I am of opinion that he was one
of the Alexander Ewings who, as shown by the "Lists of the
Revolutionary Soldiers," published by the Virginia State Li-
brary, served in the American army of the Revolution. Alex-
ander Ewing was one of the earliest land owners in Powell Val-
ley, near grandfather's lands ; but it appears that he either never re-
sided there or that he left at a very early day. I am reasonably
sure that he was my great-uncle. To whom he sold that land or
how he disposed of the land left to him under the John Ewing will,
I have never been able to learn. The will leaves him eleven hun-
dred acres on Elk Creek, in Montgomery County, "if obtained."
That means that there was a claim to that land, resting upon the
settlement, preemption or some other law, and that that
claim had not been disposed of at the date of the will. In the con-
clusion of the matter it may have been assigned and the deed
may have issued to the assignee, a method sometimes followed in
that day. Then there is no Elk Creek in Montgomery now, so
that that land fell into some other county subsequent to the will.
Any way, I have not located any record of a transfer of any of
this land by any Alexander Ewing who can be identified as one
of the sons of great-grandfather. So I can only give what is
known of the early Alexander Ewings of Virginia, hoping that
this publication will develop evidence of the connection.

Alexander Ewing, a native of Virginia, served in the patriot
armies of the Revolution. After his death his widow applied for
a pension, and among the papers is an affidavit by William E.
Ewing, a son, stating that his father "was a lieutenant in the
Revolutionary war from the State of Virginia ;" and with his
affidavit filed the original record removed from his Bible. He
states, under oath, that this "record shows the dates of the birth
of his own children and also contains a true copy of the family
record of his father and mother, the said Alexander and Sally

309

310 CIvAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Ewing." That Bible record shows that Alexander Ewing was
born May 10, 1752; and Sarah his wife, August 12, 1761. Alex-
ander died April 9, 1822 ; and Sarah B. died June 15, 1810. The
date of their marriage is not given. After their names on the
birth page are the following, evidently their children :

John Love Ewing, born April 11, 1789; died February 9,
1816.

William Ewing died November 29, 1796 ; Oscar I. Ewing,
October 19, 1808; Alexander, April 9, 1822; Martha Ann C. died
April 2, 1836 ; Mary Louisa, September 12, 1833 ; William James,
March 7, 1833; Alexander C, June 13, 1834; Martha Ann C. P.
Ewing, April 2, 1836 ; Lucinda Ewing, born December 10, 1792 ;
William Ewing, born June (or January) 31, 1795; Alexander C.
Ewing, born September 9, 1797 ; Randall McGavoch Ewing,
born November 2, 1799 ; Oscar Smith Ewing, born November
26, 1801 ; William Black Ewing, born December 31, 1803.

This Alexander and his widow both died in Davidson
County, Tennessee, to which they went shortly after the Revo-
lution. William B. Ewing administered on his mother's estate
February 10, 1853.

The pension papers show that this Alexander Ewing was
commissioned by Congress in March, 1779. After the close of
the Revolution the governor of Kentucky, pursuant to the law
allowing lands to the soldiers of the continental line, issued to him
grants for more than one thousand acres, December 21, 1798.
It is a family tradition that the land on which he made his home,
and after him several of his lineal descendants each in turn,
near Franklin, Tennessee, was obtained for Revolutionary
service.

On the marriage page of the Bible record we find that
William B. Ewing married Sarah B. Bryson, September 25,
1825. She must have died after a few years, as the record also
says that William B. Ewing and Martha Graves married March
21, 1838. No other marriages are given.

The following names are on the birth pages and William
B. Ewing's deposition in the pension papers shows that they are
his children :

Mary Susan, born December 12, 1827 ; John A., born May 26,
1829; William J., January 21, 1832; Martha A. C, December 20,
1833 ; Sarah B., December 31, 1835.

SOME ALEXANDER EWINGS 311

Randall McGavoch Ewing died in California January 11,
1853, as is also shown in one of the pension documents.

The Alexander C. Ewing shown by the above quoted Bible
record as having been born September 9, 1797, died, according
to a descendant, about 1833. I am of opinion that he married
Chloe Russell Saunders, as we shall see presently. His children
were Hubbard Saunders Ewing and Sarah, who married Judge
John M. Gault, for many years one of Nashville's most prom-
inent lawyers. She was born in July, 1826, and died in Nashville
in August, 1912, in her eighty-seventh year. She was a woman
of ability; active in the United Daughters of the Confederacy,
director of the Ladies Hermitage Association for eighteen years,
she was ever alert in the interests of her community. Mrs.
William E. Carter of South Pittsburg, Tennessee, and Mrs. R.
N. Richardson of Nashville, are among her descendants. Mrs.
Gault was "a remarkably beautiful woman, her mental graces
being worthy of her personal charms," says The Review Appeal,
of Tennessee, among other things in a lengthy notice of her death
published August 29, 1913.

Hubbard Saunders Ewing was born in Franklin, Tennessee,
1830. He died December 23, 1911. The Review Appeal, of
Franklin, on January 4, 1912, calling attention to his death at
the home of his daughter, Susie Lee McGavoch, said :

"Mr. Ewing came of an ancestry long prominent in Virginin
and Tennessee. He was the son of Alexander Ewing ana was
born on the estate near Franklin which had been bestowed on his
grandfather, a Revolutionary soldier. On March 10, 1859, he
married Miss Sallie Martin Hughes, a woman of rare loveliness
of disposition, and charm of manner. . . . Mr. Ewing was a
fine type of gentleman, courtly in bearing, kindly in nature and
ever considerate of others. His attachments were warm and
enduring. . . . He commanded the esteem of everybody and
his memory will be always honored in the place of his long and
honored life."

Writing to me November 5, 1911, Dr. Alexander H. Ewing,
druggist, Franklin, Tennessee, says :

"Alexander Ewing was an officer in the Revolutionary war
and was from Virginia. He was my great-grandfather. He had,
I think, four sons ; one of them was William B., and another was

312 CLAX EWING OF SCOTLAND

Alexander C, by great-grandfather. My father, Herbert Saun-
ders Ewing. still owns a portion of the tract of land entered by
my great-grandfather in 1787." In a later letter Dr. Ewing says
that the four sons of his grandfather were Alexander C. his
grandfather, William B., who was the father of the distinguished
"Dr. Ewing of Nashville, brother-in-law of Judge T. \Y. Dick-
inson, late Secretary of War; Randall (his family now all dead),
who went to California in 1849, and there died; and one other
brother i of William B.j, James, who went to Carmon County,
Tennessee. We know nothing of his family."

Dr. Ewing then says that his grandmother was a descendant
of the Russell family of Virginia; and sent me a book, "William
Russell and his Descendants," published in 1884 by Anna Ru=
sell des Cognets, which he accepts as disclosing information of
his grandmother.

That work tells us that Alexander Ewing was at one time
during the Revolution a member of General Green's staff; and
that, late in life, he married Chloe Russell Saunders, the widow
of a Methodist minister. Unless there is lack of identity between
Alexander of the Revolution, of Virginia birth, the Bible record
of some of whose family was filed in the Pension Office by his
son. above given, and the Revolutionary ancestor of A. H. Ewing
druggist, Franklin, Tennessee, which appears improbable, Chloe
Russell Saunders married a son of the Revolutionary soldiei
Chloe was the daughter of Captain William Russell, distinguished
in the early military frontier annals of Powell Valley and adja
cent sections, who long resided on Clinch River in what is now
Russell County, Virginia. In that home Chloe was born in
1776; and there she married Saunders. A brother of hers, a
lad. and a son of Daniel Boone, lost their lives in the Indian attack
upon the Russell-Boone party in Powell Valley near where I was
born, en route on that ill-fated first effort to settle Kentucky in
1775. Saunders and his wife moved to Tennessee and there he
died in 1828. according to Cognets. The affidavit of William
B. Ewing. in the pension records, shows that the Lieutenant
Alexander Ewing of the Revolution died April 0, 1822. So, a?
he says, it was the grandmother, not the great-grandmother, of
A. H. Ewing. druggist of Franklin, who was a Russell. It will
interest her descendants to recall that their earliest American

SOME ALEXANDER SWINGS 313

Russell ancestor was one of the "Knights of the Golden Horse
Shoe" who rode with Spottswood to discover the now famous
Valley of the Shenandoah.

William Ewing's will, dated 1791, was probated in Wythe
County, July 9, 1793. It is witnessed by Samuel Ewing and
others. To his wife Janie he leaves half his home on Cripple
Creek in Wythe County, Virginia. There were no children. To
his brother John Ewing's son Alexander Ewing, he leaves the
other half of the land. To his sister, Margaret Porter's sons
Robert and Samuel Porter, and to her daughter Rebecca Porter
each he leaves a negro. To his sister Elinor Porter's grandson,
Andrew Porter, there is left also a negro. To his brother John's
son William he leaves a negro and a tract of land lying on the
Terrace containing 640 acres and also "a tract of land lying on the
head of Cumberland if obtained." (Wythe County Will Book
No. 1, p. 22).

This instrument identifies a family composed of this Wil-
liam, a brother John, and two sisters, Margaret and Elinor Jane,,
(spelled in the record Jain). The widow of this William deeded
to Alexander Ewing some of the lands mentioned in William's
will and which are further described as patented to William in
1782, and being the land in Wythe County on which he died.
(Deed Book 1, p. 40.) This deed is witnessed by Robert Sims and
others. June 9, 1795, Alexander Ewing deeded to Porter Kinser
part of the land formerly owned by his Uncle William, describing
this land as being in Montgomery County at the date of the patent
to it. (Deed Book 1, p. 263) These home lands of this Wil-
liam lay upon Cripple Creek and this Creek was largely in Mont-
gomery before part of it was erected into Wythe. George
Ewing, the older, lived on this same stream at his death. (Deed
Book 4, p. 4G0) ; and my great-grandfather owned lands also in
Montgomery not far away, and apparently was living on that land
at death. Great-grandfather John, George, Sr., and William were
mature contemporaries. George, Jr., Samuel, Alexander, the son
of this John, William, my grandfather, also one of John's sons,
were contemporaries of the younger generation. My grand-
father, in his earlier documents, used the junior after his name,
as we have seen. This meant that a near relation (and as his
father's name was John, probably an uncle, bore a similar name.

314 CLAN LWING OF SCOTLAND

Except these two Williams I find no others of that section and
of the day when grandfather identified himself as junior.

Alexander, grandfather's brother, and gratndf-ather both
acquired much valuable land here and there in southwest old
Virginia. Upon the face of all the available evidence, including
the records, I reason that Great-uncle Alexander finally settled
in Tennessee. Alexander, the nephew of the elder William who
died in Wythe in 1793, was in Tennessee in that year, 1793, and
just a short time before his Uncle William's death they entered
into an agreement, Alexander describing himself as of the County
of Davidson (Deed Book No. 1, p. 327), North Carolina (a sec-
tion of which shortly became Tennessee). Under that agree-
ment Alexander was to assist his uncle in business during the
remainder of his life. William was then evidently feeble. He
died in a short time after that document.

Now Alexander Ewing, who settled near what is now Frank-
lin, Tennessee, was born in Virginia. He served in the patriot
army with the Montgomery County troops for some tmie. He
was of the same generation as grandfather and as the Alexander
who was the nephew of William of Wythe. I find no other Alex-
ander who settled at that or an approximate day in that part of
Tennessee. Davison County, North Carolina, became Davidson
County, Tennessee ; and for many years it embraced Franklin,
now the County seat of Williamson County, a short way nearly
south of Nashville in the neighborhood of which the Virginia
Ewings from Bedford and Wythe Counties settled. I believe,
therefore, that the evidence identifies Lieutenant Alexander
Ewing later of Franklin, Tennessee, with Alexander the nephew
of William who died in Wythe in 1793. It is not improbable that
this Alexander was the son of John, my great-granfather, and,
so, my grandfather's brother. If this is correct, then William
who died in Wythe in 1793 and John who died in Montgomery,
men of the same generation who owned extensive lands not
far apart, were brothers and had two sisters Avho married Por-
ters.

So far as the records appear to disclose there was but one
other Alexander Ewing of Tennessee who was a soldier in the
Revolution. The pension records clearly distinguished the two.
Alexander Ewing, October 30, 1832, giving his age at about

SOME ALEXANDER SWINGS 315

seventy, applied for a pension. He states that he was born in
Micklenburg County, North Carolina, "about 1762 ;" and that
his records of service had been lost. He served one year as a
volunteer under General Green ; was drafted for another year
and served under General Ruth. In his affidavit he says "my
Robert has seen one if not both" of the discharges from the
services. This Alexander died April 20, 1843.

June 25, 1850, Sarah, showing that she was the widow of
this Alexander, applied for the widow's pension. She says her
maiden name was Sarah Chappel, and that she and this Alexander
Ewing were married in North Carolina September 24, 1791.
She was about eighty at the time of her application. No chil-
dren were born to her, she says, so that she must have been a
second wife, since Alexander speaks of his son, Robert Ewing,
in connection with his application.

XXIX.

THE WEST VIRGINIA SEPTS.

The James Ewing Family of Pocahontas County.

Many years before Virginia was unhappily severed, septs
of the old clan of which I am writing settled in what is now West
Virginia, established in 1803. Some of the descendants of those
pioneers live in that State today ; far the greater number, whose
ancestors for the most part left while that section was yet part of
the Old Dominion, are in other States — some in far distant regions.
Yet for better clearness of location the descendants of all Ewing
ancestors who became residents of what is West Virginia, are
treated as belonging to the West Virginia family.

As we saw in discussing family traditions, it appears that
one branch of the Ewing stock which runs back to the West
Virginia pioneers accepts as the foundation of its Scotch ances-
try the "six stalwart brothers of a Highland clan" tradition.

As has been said, I have found this tradition in no other
branches of the old clan. It is said that this "six stalwart brothers
tradition is an old one and possessed by nearly all the American
clans." But I find no other reliable trace of it outside of those
descended from the West Virginia ancestors, except in a few
cases where the tradition had been accepted from members of
that family. Dr. Gilbert A. Ewing, a son of Geo. Ewing who was
a son of William (Swago) Ewing (infra), accepted this tradi-
tion and scattered it extensively. It is said that the unsigned
article in The Times, Galia, Ohio, Sept. 4, 1901, is probably from
his generally well-informed pen. Frances M. Smith gives this
story in The Cincinnati Enquirer, Feb. 12, 1910, thus:

"According to tradition — and traditions are kept alive re-
ligiously by frequent Ewing reunions — the American family
traces its origin to six stalwart brothers of a Highland clan, who,
with their children, engaged in an insurrection in 1685. De-
feated and outlawed, they fled to Ireland, where they took part
in the rebellion of William, Prince of Orange, in which three lost

316

JAMES EWIXG OF POCAHONTAS 317

their lives. Sons of the remaining brothers emigrated to Amer-
ica."

In The Times article the writer lost sight of the very large
number of Ewings other than descendants of the West Vir-
ginia pioneers. As we have also seen, it is certain that many
of the "Ewings of America" do not trace their descent from the
"six stalwart brothers" of 1685 who "fled" from Scotland to Ire-
land. It is clear, too, that the writer of the article in The En-
quirer had in mind the numerous descendants of one of the West
Virginia Jameses and refers to the reunions long maintained by
them. So that the tradition, I am fully satisfied, is not generally
accepted as an identification of early Scotland-Ireland ancestors
outside of those who speak for the one branch.

However, like most old traditions, this one certainly has
grown larger with increasing years. As elsewhere has been seen,
there was neither in 1685 nor in any approximate year any "in-
surrection" or other unlawful outbreak of the Highland clans
or any of.- them. The Ewings of the border Highlands did, we
have also seen, engage in a disastrous "uprising" at a much ear-
lier date; so that it is my opinion that so much of the "six stal-
wart brothers" tradition as relates to "an insurrection," dates
much further back than 1085. Then, too, as has been seen at
considerable length, it must be kept in mind that the clan from
which the Ewings of whom I am particularly writing undoubted-
ly descended, was a Highland clan in no other than the sense of
residence in the border Highlands. Coming from the border
Highlands, it is quite easy to see how American descendants came
to speak of their ancestors as Highlanders.

The tradition that Ewings engaged with the Protestants on
behalf of William of Orange, and that they were among the
gallant defenders of historic Londonderry during the terrible
siege to which the Catholic forces subjected it, is more generally
found among the American families. But, as I have said also,
I have been unable to find any Ewing name on the military ros-
ters of the defenders of that city, the Ewings certainly were
among its civilian defenders. No early history of that siege
mentions any Ewing as soldiers, unless the two poems elsewhere
mentioned are regarded as historical. But I credit that tradi-
tion because it is supported by a mention of the name in the early

318 CLAN LWING OF SCOTLAND

poem which I have quoted ; and which suggests the fact that many
of the defenders of Londonderry were not regularly enrolled
with the military. Jno. G. Ewing of New Cork City identified
a Jno. Ewing as in Londonderry during that siege, but apparently
he does not belong to any branch here especially considered ;
though there certainly were civilian Ewings among the defenders
of that city. Whether soldiers or civilians, the men, women and
children shut up within the narrow, disease-haunted walls of that
old and badly fortified town, during a siege unsurpassed in brutal
ferocity on the part of the besiegers, were heroes and heroines
of the most splendid type, — and to have borne any part with
the defenders is ample glory, though it were shown, as it is not,
that no Ewing was in the active military ranks at that time.

Coming down to later times, the story as published in The
Times says that "some fifteen years after Nathaniel, William,
Joshua and their sister Ann emigrated to America," and settled
in Cecil County, Maryland, their younger brother, James Ewing,
came and spent most of his life in Virginia, where he died in
1800."

But this (West Virginia) James, as has also been shown, was
not a brother of Nathaniel, William, Joshua and the other chil-
dren of William Ewing, which children settled in Cecil County.
The brother James of that family settled in Prince Edward
County (or in a section which became Prince Edward County),
Virginia, east of and across the Blue Ridge Mountains from
where this Pocahontas County Ewing located. Rugged moun-
tains intervened between these two sections ; in the early day good
roads were unknown and intercommunication slow, and so there
was little opportunity for social intercourse. I am sure that this
West Virginia James never lived in that section of Virginia
where the brother of the Cecil County family, children of Wil-
liam of Ireland, was located and where, as shown by the records,
he earlier became a landowner. Cumulative with the records
we have much reliable tradition distinguishing the eastern Vir-
ginia James and his descendants are today identified and clearly
differentiated from the West Virginia James.

It is not at all impossible that the West Virginia James had
brothers who located in Maryland, and who may have been
named Joshua, William, etc. As has been shown, there were

JAMES EWING OF POCAHONTAS 31 D

other early Ewings in Cecil County and other parts of Mary-
land, the immigrant ancestors of whom were not brothers of
the Cecil County Joshua, William, Ann and the other children
of William Ewing of Ireland. A William, doubtless related
to but not a brother of either Nathaniel or Joshua and the
others of 1725 immigration, settled, we have seen, in Cecil
County in 1790. Repetition of given names, so distressingly in
evidence among earlier Ewings generally, may in this case, as in
some others, have led to confusion.

It is reasonably certain that James Ewing, founder of this
family, was born in Ireland. Of this early ancestor James it is
by his descendants estimated that he was born about 1720 and
reached America about 1710. In a sketch by a descendant pub-
lished in Price's History of Pocahontas County it is said that
shortly after reaching America this James married Margaret
Sargent, also born in Ireland, most probably, I am sure, of Scotch
ancestry.

Reaching America, this James Ewing probably spent some
time in visiting his clan relations in Maryland and Pennsylvania,
and then turned his face toward the newer section of the vast
domain then within the Virginia boundaries. Westward civ-
ilization was then more rapidly reaching. From Pennsylvania
through Maryland emigrants were moving across the Potomac
into the now famous Shenandoah Valley, up which one of the
greatest of the old emigrant roads was soon to be trodden by
increasing thousands. This James fell in with the movement up
the valley in search of rich lands which called so strongly to all
of the earlier fathers. On the right of that pioneer pathway
going south westward, were the rugged heights of the main Alle-
ghenies ; on the left were the timbered reaches of the Blue Ridge.
William Ewing of Rockingham County, we have seen, settled near
what is now Harrisonburg, in the Shenandoah, about 1712. James
and possibly some cousins paused near or at what became Staun-
ton, in my view of the facts, before 1717, the year his son John
was born.

A brief resume of developments west of the Blue Ridge will
give us a better appreciation of the conditions under which our
ancestors reached Virginia and will better enable us to under-
stand the sources from which our fathers obtained their lands.

320 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Alexander Spotswood, governor of the colony of Virginia,
an intrepid Scotchman, made his historic and spectacular ex-
ploring trip westward of the Blue Ridge in 1716. Led by Indian
guides, he left Germania, settled by him, then the western limit
of Virginia settlement, in 1714, on the Rapidan, passed the Ridge
through Swift Run Gap, and was possibly the first to see the rich
valley we now know as the Shenandoah. There is some claim,
however, that others shortly before had made hurried and short
trips into the valley; but at the time of Spotswood's visit the
Shenandoah regions were uninhabited and unknown to the white
people. Not even Indians lived in the upper Shenandoah country ;
and there was but one Indian village in the lower part of the
valley, and that was near where Winchester now is. Spots-
wood's party crossed the valley, apparently, about ten miles below
where Port Republic now stands, and passed into the main ranges
of the Appalachians, pausing upon a towering peak in what is
now Pocahontas County, West Virginia, Callahan, a recent West
Virginia writer, thinks. Spottswood named the river of the
valley the Euphrates.

Shortly after 1716 expansion into western Virginia began
from western Pennsylvania. In 1727 settlements were begun on
Mill Creek, now in Berkeley County, West Virginia. At an
early date Robert Harper settled at the mouth of the Shenan-
doah, or Shanado, as the river soon came to be known, now the
historic Harper's Ferry community; and in 1732 Jost Hite and
several families, Germans, crossing the Potomac near Harper
settled in the vicinity of what became Winchester. That year,
1732, John Lewis established the first settlement at a point
known as "Bellefont," one mile from where Staunton now stands.
That part of the Shenandoah was then in Orange County. In
1738 that portion to the indefinite and mainly unexplored west-
ward from the Blue Ridge was established as Augusta. From
these earliest footings of civilization in those parts, the Shenan-
doah was explored to its sources by 1736.

Men of means and influence lost no time in "cornering" as
much of the vast areas of those splendid sections of the old
colony as possible. Notably, under date of September, 1736, the
royal authority granted upon the upper waters of the "Shen-
ando 118,491 acres to William Beverly, gent., Sir John Ran-

JAMES EWING OF POCAHONTAS 321

dolph, knight, and John Robinson, gent." The patent was re-
corded at Williamsburg October 15 of that year. Sir John
was one of the dignitaries of the City of Williamsburg and Ran-
dolph was then in Herico County. Other princely grants were
located here and there. But of them all none surpassed that by
Charles the Second to the ancestors of the eighth Lord Fair-
fax.

Tbat vast estate comprised all the lands between the head
waters of the Rappahannock and the Potomac and the Chesa-
peake Bay, and is known as the "Northern Neck." These lands
reached from what is now Stafford County north and westward
until they included much of what is now West Virginia ; and,
among counties now in Old Virginia, Page, Shenandoah and
Frederick. Lord Fairfax visited his estate and subsequently
moved from England in 1T18; and, surrounded by a large retinue
of slaves, established his home about thirteen miles southeast
of where Winchester now is. At the latter place two houses had
been erected as early as 1738, but that community did not be-
come a town until IT 52. Washington, at the age of sixteen, in
1718, plunged into the wilderness and began to survey and to
divide into farms the Fairfax lands. Some of the lands thus
surveyed was sold, others given away, it is said, for such trifles
as a turkey for a Christmas dinner.

Fairfax died at his Virginia home in 1782, devising bis un-
disposed lands, yet immense stretches covering valleys and moun-
tains, to his relation, Denny Fairfax, in England. It is inter-
esting, in this connection, to remember that the historic old Wash-
ington-Alexandria Masonic Lodge, Alexandria, Virginia, has the
only painting portrait of Fairfax in existence, and has a standing
offer for it of $150,000. The Revolution was in full blast at the
time of that bequest. It was contended that acts of the Vir-
ginia legislature, looking to the escheat of certain lands in Vir-
ginia belonging to those who were alien enemies, operated to di-
vest Denny Fairfax of his right under this will. Acting upon
that theory the State began to issue grants to such of the Fair-
fax lands as were in demand, notably to land claimed by one
Hunter in Shenandoah County. Denny Fairfax died and his
heirs brought suit in the proper court of that county to oust
Hunter's lessees and to establish the Fairfax title. From the

322 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

lower court the case went to the Court of Appeals of the State,
and from there to the Supreme Court of the United States. A
decision was rendered in the latter court in 1813, holding that,
under the treaty of 1794 with Great Britain; Denny Fairfax
took good title, and so the case was decided against Hunter's
claims. That decision reversed the Court of Appeals and sus-
tained the trial court. That was a day when the status of the
State and that of the United States were not so clearly under-
stood upon all points and particularly the functions of the United
States Supreme Court, in cases involving a State, were not so
clearly defined. So when the mandate of the Federal court
reached the Virginia Court of Appeals the latter respectfully de-
clined to obey, holding that the Federal court had exceeded its
power. So the case went back to the United States court. That
gave rise to the famous decision in Martin vs. Hunter, rendered
in 181 G, in which, among other things now recognized as
axiomatic fundamentals of our government, the court pointed
out that "while the government of the United States can claim
no powers not granted it by the Constitution," yet "this instru-
ment, like every other grant, is to have a reasonable construc-
tion, according to the import of its terms ; and where a power
is expressly given in general terms, it is not to be restrained to
particular cases, unless that construction grows out of the con-
text expressly, or by necessary implication." Thus began that
great distinction between the granted and limited powers of the
United States and the reserved, inherent sovereignty of each
State, a distinction which is so generally so little understood and
which is nevertheless a most fundamental fact of our American
government.

In the meantime Fairfax had brought suit against Hite and
his neighbors as a result of a dispute regarding title to the lands
on which Hite and the others had settled, for they were in the
heart of the grant inherited by Fairfax in 1691, made by King
Charles sometime before. Long after the original parties had
gone to their last rewards, this weary litigation dragged on ; and
it is said it did much to retard development in the lower Shenan-
doah Valley.

It will assist us, also, if we bear in mind that from 1720
that region of the Shenandoah, and thence to the limitless and

JAMES EWING OF POCAHONTAS 323

unsettled westward, was in Spottsylvania County. In IT 3-4
Orange was carved from part of Spottsylvania, the western limits
of the new county extending from the Blue Ridge to the farthest
claims of Virginia, embracing an empire now in Kentucky, In-
diana, Illinois, Ohio and West Virginia. Then in 1738 Augusta
was formed, as we have just seen.

Another section of Orange was severed in 1748 and out of
it Culpeper was formed. General A. T. Holcomb (1803-1877),
a grandson of John Ewing, "with whom he was personally and
intimately acquainted," who wrote a sketch of this John Ewing
(The West Virginia Hist. Mag., July. 1901), says that John
was born in Culpeper County, Virginia. "One of the estab-
lished facts," of the genealogy of this family, "is that this John
was born in 1747." As shown by this John's deposition, we shall
see, this date is correct. Easily Holcomb could have been in
error as to John's birth place. It is said that Summer Ewnig, a
descendant of the pioneer James, has an old, badly worn manu-
script family record of this John, supposed to have been made
in his lifetime, and which descended to the present owner through
his grandfather, Hon. John Smith Ewing. "In it John Ewing's
birthplace is designated as Orange County, N. C," writes A. E-
Ewing. Since it is an unbroken tradition, with this exception
which does not appear to be widely known, in the family of this
John that he was born in Virginia, and since his first certainly
identified home was many miles from North Carolina, and in a
section which was, about the reputed date of his birth, a part
of Orange County, Virginia, I regard it as certain that that county
in Virginia was the place of his birth. As that section became
Culpeper the next year after his birth, it was natural, when talk-
ing to Holcomb (who knew him personally) to speak of Cul-
peper as his birthplace, though if born in 1747 he may have been
born in Orange County, Virginia, and yet have been born in the
Shenandoah Valley, and in that part which became part of Cul-
peper in 1748.

Orange County, as compared with its earlier days, is now
small and entirely east of the Blue Ridge and east of the Valley.
This fact, as in many similar cases involving the earlier history
of Virginia, has misled some to think that James, the father of
this John, first settled east of the Ridge. Culpeper County has

324 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

been similarly attenuated. There is no trace so far as I have
found of this James east of that mountain. The descendants
of the Ewings who settled east of the Blue Ridge in the main
went westward along the Old Wilderness Road into southwest
Old Virginia on out through historic Cumberland Gap into Ken-
tucky and even beyond ; or southwest into North Carolina and
into that section now Tennessee. That James Ewing became an
early landowner in the Greenbriar region is suggestive of earlier
residence in the upper Shenandoah Valley ; and when this is con-
sidered in connection with all the facts, the conclusion, unless
something not now known develops, is reasonably satisfactory.
On the western borders of the Valley regions both in Fred-
erick and Augusta Counties towered the rugged stretches of the
main Alleghenies. Hostile savages long held the passes of those
grim barriers against the whites. In 1753 the royal government
undertook to encourage the settlement of the "western waters"
in Virginia; and "for the protection and encouragement of the
western settlers" the legislature in 1754 appropriated £10,000.
The encouragement of 1753 appears to have given some tempo-
rary impetus to the westward expansion. A deposition in the
Augusta records says that "Washington on his return from
Venango in December, 1753, or January, 1754, met many families
crossing the Alleghenies." (2 Chalkley Augusta Transcripts,
168). But the French, who then held Canada, with an advance
force at Fort Dequesne (now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), aided
by the Indians, moved speedily to put to pause the British growth.
In 175 1 Governor ' Dinwiddie, alarmed by the encroachments of
the French from their strongholds in Canada, issued a procla-
mation promising a land bounty to volunteers against the French.
He particularly desired to have built a fort at the Forks of the
Monongalia. Stimulated by this promise, Col. Joshua Fry
raised a regiment ; and, out of Alexandria, he led it into the wilds
of the wilderness in March, 1754. Fry died in camp and Col.
George Washington succeeded to the command. This was fol-
lowed by the fighting between the French and Indians on one side
and the British on the other, from time to time up to the battle
of Point Pleasant, early known as Fort Randolph, in 1774. Pur-
suant to these land promises lands were granted at the mouth of
Little Kanawha to David Richardson and others, under patent

JAMES EWIXG OF POCAHONTAS 325

of December 15,. 1769; and subsequently other grants were issued
for lands on the Great Sandy and the Great Kanawha, and on
waters of the Ohio between Sandy and Kanawah. Washington
was among those who received a grant to a large body of land in
that distant, unsettled Virginia region. Patents in time, based
on these military claims, were issued ; and during many years
there was between claimants much litigation. However, for our
purpose now we are mainly interested in seeing that that military
movement toward the Ohio River served as what may be called
one of the salients in the frontier line which the Alleghenies
long halted.

In 1761 the British king issued a proclamation, out of defer-
ence to the Indian claim to the lands, commanding his subjects
within the bounds of the colony of Virginia, "who were living or
who had made settlements on the western waters, to remove from
them." Settlers, however, paid no attention to this order; and
as events subsequently transpired, it came about that in large
part land titles to land here and there along the Virginia fron-
tiers were obtained from the State after the independence of
Virginia.

Concerning men and events of the upper Shenandoah regions,
the old records of Augusta County, beginning December 9, 1745,
are our greatest mine of information. But as to James Ewing
they leave us, in the absence of helpful traditions, perplexed.
The abridgments of those records so laboriously made by the
late Judge Lyman Chalkley and published in three large volumes
in 1912 by the National Society of the Daughters of the Ameri-
can Revolution, in a limited edition, is the only accessible source
outside of the old records at Staunton. It has been impossible to
verify Chalkley's work, and it sadly needs annoting. So I am
following him. I offered to pay Mr. Burnitt, the clerk of the
court where the old Augusta records are, to make some examina-
tion of them along indicated lines ; but, for the first time in all my
experience, the clerk of a Virginia court flatly refused in these
words :

"I am returning your check and letter. It is not customary
for this office to look up genealogical matters, and know of no
one to whom you could write."

As thus copied by Chalkley, the first trace of James Ewing
in the upper Shenandoah is a mention of him as "Ewin" in the

326 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

records of 1751. The next is disclosed in a suit filed March
1784, against James Ewing, Sr., on a bond (or note under seal).
This note is dated February 10, 1761, and reads:

"James Ewing, of Staunton Town in Augusta County in
the Province of Virginia, Chapman," &c. Chapman means
either peddler or merchant ; and in this case clearly merchant,
as the maker of the note was evidently established in the town.
Thus we start with a possible two by the first name of James.
In 1762 James Ewing qualified as captain of the Augusta militia.
In 1763 there is record of a suit by James Ewing. April 15,
1765, James Ewing was allowed by the court pay for provisions
furnished the militia. This must have been the captain. And
in that year land is mentioned as adjoining the land in the pos-
session of James Ewing, located on Jackson River. In 1767 he
was yet in possession of this land. In that year James Ewing
was named by the court to help appraise an estate. In 1768
James Ewing bought property at a sale. In 1769 we find a suit
by James Ewing. March, 1773, discloses a suit against James
Ewing, Sr. In 1775 James Ewing witnessed a will. Apparently
early in 1777 Capt. James Ewing resigned his commission, as his
resignation is mentioned and his successor recommended May 20
of that year. In 1778 James Ewing was awarded "a hemp cer-
tificate." This doesn't mean that he was hanged ! To encourage
the growth of hemp, from which flax for ropes, clothing, &c, was
made, the colony paid bounties upon certificates by the local
courts. Another record, it is interesting as light on that day,
discloses that "good hemp sold for 35 shillings for 112 lbs." A
shilling was equivalent to 16^c of our money. A process in a
suit against James Ewing September 18, 1777, was returned by
the officer : "Defendant lives in Betetourt," that is Botetourt
County. In 1771 "James Ewing and Capt. James Ewing" (cer-
tainly two) witnessed a will; and in 1778 the "witnesses" proved
the will in open court. That looks to me like those two James
Ewings were yet residents of the county, — but even in 1774 the
county was yet a vast territory. So prominent a man as Capt.
James would not have been returned "no resident" unless he had
been such. Another process against James Ewing was returned
May 20, 177!), "no inhabitant."

Did that James (or were there two who had changed resi-
dences?) return to Augusta? The records do not disclose unless

JAMES EWIXG OF POCAHONTAS 327

we assume that those mentioned later were in part identical with
those we have so far seen. I do not know that such an assump-
tion would be justified ; but those most interested may decide.

It was not until 1784 that suit was brought on the James
Ewing note made at Staunton in 1761. It is my guess that that
James was in 1784- yet a resident of Augusta. You are entitled
to your guess, however. In 1780 and in 1781, as at other times
a James or more appraised estates, &c, in Augusta. And hi
that year two James Ewings are on the tax lists.

In 1 785 James Ewing bought land in Augusta. March 22,
1786, Jane Ewing, daughter of James Ewing of Augusta, married
Moses Moore.

One of these could have been the founder of the Pocahontas
family, as Augusta County up to this period embraced the sec-
tion where I believe he lived. We must remember constantly
not to confuse the vast regions within the earlier Augusta with
the present greatly narrower county limits.

In 1795 the will of a James Ewing was filed for probate.
The testator left lands and other property to his wife, Martha,
to his sons James and Joseph and to daughters Martha and Nancy.
The execulors were the wife, John Wilson and Mathew Willson,
Jr. Some of the lands were in Beverly Manor, now in Rocking-
ham County.

September 20, 179G, the county court recommended James
Ewing for the post of lieutenant of the second battalion, 32nd
regiment.

An inscription on a tombstone, found in Chalkley, in the old
Glebe graveyard on the Thompson farm in Augusta, in 1902,
shows the grave of James Ewing, born March 1, 1762 ; and who
died September 26, 1794.

December 15, 1795, James Ewing, possibly with James and
Robert Patterson, sureties, married Mary Hunter. Sometimes
a man signed his own marriage license bond. This may cr may
not have been true in this case.

On October 30, 1795, James Ewing, formerly a resident of
Augusta County, gave a deposition before justices in the ''South-
west Territory, or Territory South of the Ohio, Blount County,"
now Tennessee, Blount County, comprising the Knoxville neigh-
borhood.

328 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

The records show that James Ewing, son of James Ewing,
owned land in and lived in Augusta January 4, 1800.

In 1807 Jane Ewen was appointed administratrix of the es-
tate of James Ewen, deceased.

In 182.0 in the suit of Henry Whistler vs. James Ewing, it
was shown that Whistler some years earlier bought 150 acres
of land of this Ewing, the land located in what became Rock-
ingham County ; and that this Ewing removed to Kentucky.

Now, how many James Ewings were there in that part of
Virginia in those days and what became of them? I trust this
record will assist their descendants.

These Ewings were evidently respected and regarded as men
of sound jurgment, for they were frequently called upon to ap-
praise estates, witness wills, &c, functions which meant much
in those days ; and they were neighborly and men of means, for
they "went surety," hence some of the suits in which they were
involved.

Of course, even in the light of tradition, these records furnish
no satisfactory light upon the Pocahontas Ewings. However,
we do know that Ann Ewing, certainly older than the two boys
and probably the oldest child of this James Ewing, married Archi-
bald Clendennin (often spelled Clendenning). This Clenden-
nin's father was also named Archibald ; and the latter, prior to
1748, was living on his lands on the Cowpasture River. That
stream rises in what is now Highland County, Virginia, and flews
southwardly through the present Bath County. These counties
lie west of the Shenandoah Mountain and east of the main iange
of the Alleghenies, and just across the latter range from what
are now Greenbriar and Pocahontas Counties, West Virginia.
Archibald, Junior, the records disclose, was either owner of or
interested in lands on the Cowpasture before his father died.
Ann Ewing Clendennin had a daughter born in 1758 : and, placing
the mother's age at eighteen at that time, gives us 1740 as cer-
tainly the latest possibly reasonable date of her birth. Pioneer
conditions considered, it is almost certain that this Ewing family
lived on the Cowpasture at the time young Archibald wooed and
won Ann Ewing. At that time the Cowpasture Valley was the
westward frontier line. Hence, as I interpret the few remaining
fragments of the story, from the upper Shenandoah James Ewing

JAMES EWIXG OF POCAHONTAS 329

moved slowly westward with expansion, crossed the Shenandoah
Mountain and before 1748, paused in the Clendennin neighbor-
hood in the valley of Cowpasture. Far out to the westward lay
the main range of the wild and rugged Alleghenies through the
passes of which the deadly Indians had as yet not ceased to fall
upon the skirmish line of white civilization. Westward of the
main Alleghenies Greenbriar watered a lonely plain, and on and
yet on westward and northward and southward lay many long
miles of unexplored Virginia domains — a vast empire of wild
nature, wilder savages, and filled with all kinds of the most
abundant game.

John Stuart, who left a written account of the early days of
that part of Virginia, says the first information of the Green-
briar country was given by a man who wandered into the wilder-
ness during periods of lunacy in 1749. That sounds to me in
some measure just a bit "too crazy ;" but it appears certain that
not until about 1750 did even the hardy hunters venture across
the mountain and into the Greenbriar Valley. General Lewis,
a noted surveyor and military leader of his day, led a party into
that valley in 1751 to survey the lands under a grant by British
authorities, to one of the big concerns doing their best to "cor-
ner" the unsettled Virginia. Lewis found two men who were
"long hunters" rather than settlers. Lewis offered the lands to
settlers and between 1751 and 1763 several families moved into
the Greenbriar region and west of the main Alleghenies.

In that year Archibald Clendennin and his family were liv-
ing on a settlement claim, purchased from a man named Lee,
"down on the levels not far from the present town of Lewis-
burg, perhaps some thirty or forty miles from Buckeye," as the
location has been described. With Archibald, his brother-in-law,
and Ann, "his older sister," then lived John Ewing, a lad sixteen
years old. This John was this James Ewing's older son. It was
July 15. 1763, when authentic history lifts the curtain. The
story comes to us from Stuart and Withers, contempraries ; and
records have also been left by those who gathered the facts from
survivors, notably a detailed account by "Rev. Samuel Brown of
Bath County, who collected the incidents from the descendants
of the sufferers many years ago." Then there is the article writ-
ten by Geo. P. Mathews at the dictation of Gen. A. T. Holcomb,

330 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

a grandson of this John Ewing; and which, after being condensed
by Hon. A. T. Holcomb of Ohio, was furnished The West Vir-
ginia Historical Magazine ; and therein printed along with a ver-
sion of the story as given in 1901 by Mrs. Rhoda Briggs, of Iowa,
who was a daughter of Samuel Ewing, the youngest son of Indian
John. Samuel Ewing was born in Greenbriar County in 1797
and died in Ohio in 1855.

As is to be expected, some details differ; but there is satis-
factory agreement regarding the main events ; and as told by
these writers they are as follows :

In 1761 a Mrs. Dennis was captured by Indians in a raid
on the upper James, the neighborhood of her residence subse-
quently becoming a part of Botetourt County. In 1763 she es-
caped. After terrible experience's she reached the settlements
on the Greenbriar and Ann Ewing Clendennin took her in charge
for much needed nursing and recuperation. When strong enougn
she was placed upon a horse and sent to her own people.

Shortly after she left, about sixty Indians under the com-
mand of Chief Cornstalk, who was subsequently in command of
the savages at the battle of Point Pleasant, reached the Muddy
Creek settlement, a few miles from the Clendennin place. At
first the Indians were friendly and were treated hospitably by
the white people. But suddenly the savages fell upon the whites
"and tomahawked all except a few women and children, whom
they reserved as prisoners." At the Clendennin settlement there
were "between fifty and one hundred persons, men, women and
children." It is a little difficult to understand, perhaps, why so
many people should have been at Clendennin's. That there were
from seventy to one hundred, however, is the evidence of contem-
porary writers, of whom one was Col. John Stuart, the pioneer
settler of the Greenbriar. See his Memoir of the Indian Wars.
Those early writers are followed by Waddell and other later his-
torians. The Clendennin settlement, which was only about a
mile from where Lewisburg was subsequently built, according to
the Holcomb account, and the Muddy Creek settlement, were
the extreme outpost in the Greenbriar region. During the days
of acute Indian dangers no one settler, as a rule, built alone.
Cabins stood in groups. Too, the pioneers, during many years,
moved in groups, often in large caravans, and it is quite probable

JAMES EWING OF POCAHONTAS 331

that many new settlers were camping at the time of the massacre
near Clendennin and his neighbors. Any way, the Clendennin
place the Indians next visited. Clendennin, ''just home from a
hunt, feasted them on three fat elks," ignorant of his neighbors'
fate. But again, in an unguarded moment, the white men,
women and children, except a few to be enslaved, were brained
and knifed. In part the sickening story reads :

"At Clendennin's a scene of much cruelty was performed ;
and a negro woman, who was endeavoring to escape, killed her
own child lest she might be discovered by its cries.

"Mrs. Clendennin did not fail to abuse the Indians, calling
them cowards. &c, although the tomahawk was drawn over her
head with threats of instant death, and the scalp of her husband
lashed about her jaws." "Mrs. Clendennin fought like a fury,"
is Price's interpretation of the older writers.

Mrs. Clendennin, however, was not murdered, and so Ann
Ewing Clendennin and her infant child, John Ewing, Ann's
brother, and Jane Clendenning. Ann's five year old daughtei ,
were taken prisoners. The male prisoners to be slaves to the
Indians, the girls, when old enough, were to be slave wives to the
"braves."

Leaving the prisoners under guard, some of the other In-
dians dashed further into the settlements, murdering, burning,
pillaging, going as far as Carr's Creek now in Rockbridge
County, "where many families were killed and taken by them."
Other parties, wild with the intoxication of bloodshed, spread
ruin and death in other directions.

At length the Indians assembled, gathered the booty, loaded
it upon the prisoners and set their faces toward the dark and
rugged wilds beyond the Alleghenies.

As the party climbed along an Indian trail over Keeney's
Knob, "Mrs. Clendennin gave her infant to a prisoner woman
to carry, as the prisoners were in the center of the line with the
Indians in front and rear, and she escaped into a thicket and
concealed herself." The endless stretch of dense laurel and
other growth which, in many places, almost obscured the trail,
made escape not so difficult. She hoped, though vainly as it
proved, as some time had passed since the first attack, to find
a rescue party and give quick intelligence of the Indian move-

332 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

mcnts and so recover all the prisoners. One version of the story
says she believed the Indians would kill her baby; and she could
not remain, when possible to escape, to see that done. Too, she
knew that the father had been struck to his death as he was at-
tempting to escape with another child, just older than the infant,
in his arms. Were they certainly dead? Was it dead? The
night before the sad prisoner line started up Keeney's Knob, she
heard, from crag and glen, the howl of the wolf, the cry of the
panther, the whine of the wildcat. Her dead lay unburied where
they fell, a blood offering to the expansion of American civiliza-
tion. Rescue or no rescue, she would return to the scene of
devastation, to the but yesterday happy settlement where now lay
about seventy mutilated bodies, scalpless.

In the line of march up the Knob, when the mother had gone,
the dear little baby cried ; the cunning savage, suspicious, asked
for the mother. Receiving no reply, he divined the truth. With
a terrible oath he shouted, torturing the baby to make it cry,
"When the calf bawls the cow will come," then, the mother not
hearing and not returning, "he took the child by the heels and
beat its brains out against a tree." "Throwing it in the path, the
savages and horses trampled over it." John Ewing, one version
says, obtained permission and "tenderly buried the remains be-
side a mountain brook."

The versions differ as to how far Mrs. Clendennin was from
the devastated home when she escaped ; but it is certain she was
many miles ; and that much of that distance she made under
cover of darkness. While hidden in a sinkhole during the day
following her first night after the escape, the Holcomb version
says, "she heard rapid footsteps approaching her hiding place."
She thought an Indian was about to retake her; and she determ-
ined to tell him "she was lost and hunting for the band." Jump-
ing from the hole "she found herself face to face with a black
bear. Tbe surprise was mutual.. . . The bear trotted off into
the woods." "After numerous hardships she at last reached
her ruined home, seven days after the tragedy. Her husband
lay unburied in the July sun, his faithful dog keeping watch and
ward beside him."

Why not some of our family artists — and we have some of
no mean ability — put that scene upon canvass ? It is an eloquent

JAMES EWING OF POCAHONTAS 333

and pathetically representative picture of the contribution by the
dog and by the pioneer to early American territorial growth.

Holcomb adds : "Just as the low, mellow sunbeams were
fading away in the west, that heroic wife and mother, with her
own hands, buried her murdered husband" — and, of course, the
remains of the little child that was clasped in the f cither's arms
when cut down by the savage.

One of the early histories says the grave was made under
the porch of the home; but the evidence shows that the home
was laic* in ashes.

Mrs. Clendennin was not seven days reaching the ruins
after the escape. We must remember that the prisoners were
detained before starting toward the Ohio, until the return of the
savages from Carr's Creek and other points.

Mrs. Briggs confirms the story about the faithful dog, and
adds that when Mrs. Clendennin "tried to call the dog away, be
would not leave his dead master, and she left him there with
nothing to eat but burned corn," evidently by the new-made
grave.

Mrs. Clendennin made her way back to some unharmed set-
tlement— most probably to the home of James Ewing — and the
Clendennin massacre had passed into history.

"Thus the vestiges of settlement in the Greenbriar country
were exterminated. From 1TG3 to 1769 the country was unin-
habited." (J. A. Waddell, Annals of Augusta County, 113.)

So reads this bloody, sad chapter in the life of another of
our clan kindred, — a story left us by writers who got the facts
direct from the survivors. On August 18, 1763, "Ann Clen-
denning" administered on the estate of Archibald Clendenning,
deceased, in the Augusta court. Though spelled Clendenning
upon the face of the record, it is clear that this administration
was upon the estate of the Clendennin who married Ann Ewing
and who was killed in this Indian raid July 5, 1763. April 5,
1764j the administratrix filed an itemized appraisment of the per-
sonal estate of the deceased. It is a pathetic chapter, giving part
of the story left by our ancestors of the Virginia frontiers: "One
tomahawk, one pipe, one pistole, one cow wounded with an ar-
row." The savages had carried off or destroyed all else.

Jane and her uncle, John Ewing, so it is shown in depositions
and court documents on file among the Augusta records in Jane

334 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Davis v. Rogers et als., were kept prisoners in the same nation
"though not together except on their journey to Pittsburgh"
(at the time only a fort) where they were delivered and sur-
rendered by the Indians May 14, 1765. This surrender was under
treaty stipulations. This is particularly John's statement in his
deposition after 1803 given at his home then in Galia County,
Ohio. They returned to their relations in Virginia. John Rogers
married Ann Ewing Clendennin, the widow, in 1767.

In the Holcomb article Mrs. Clendennin's first name is given
as Nancy ; and it is said that some of the Ewing descendants
spoke of her as "Aunt Jennie ;" and Mrs. Briggs had forgotten
Mrs. Clendennin's first name. But the old Augusta records show
that her real first name, whatever she may have been usually
called, was Ann. Too, John Ewing's own deposition, as reported
by Chalkley, shows that he and Jane Clendennin were captured
and the Clendennin massacre occurred July 5, 1763 ; and that
they were released May 14, 1765. We must conclude, therefore,
that later stories which assign to him and Jane longer captivity
are in error.

After some preliminary hardship, such as running the gaunt-
let by John and one of the Clendennin negro boys carried off- at
the same time, the prisoners were adopted by Indians ; and, so the
story goes, had not great hardship. When John was being
adopted he thought he was being married to a young squaw.
"The Indians cried," it is told, called him brother, and then he
realized that he had been adopted as a son of old squaw Modgaw,
and not married to her daughter, "White Swan," who "was
pretty."

His captive home was on the Sciota River, "three miles be-
low the present city of Circleville, Ohio."

When John was told that he was to be released, he went to
get his niece, "for he knew she would be the only heir to the
property in Virginia," it is said. "When he found her she was
sitting on a pile of skins on a pack horse returning from a hunt ;
she was about as broad as long, fat and hearty," bare-headed and
tanned. "In later years, after having some trouble over her
property, she said that while she was thankful to her uncle for
bringing her back to her people, she almost wished he had left
her with the Indians, and she would never have known the dif-
ference," says Mrs. Briggs.

JAMES EWING OF POCAHONTAS 335

That is why the Indians took children captives ; taken young
they became Indians ; and a girl thus brought up, becoming the
squaw of a "brave," often refused, when entitled to release by
treaty, to leave him.

From the old historian, Howe, we learn that in IT TO an out-
post fort, called Fort Savannah, was built where Lewisburg, now
in Greenbriar County, West Virginia, stands. Civilization in
that section thus got a permanent hold west of the main Alle-
gheny Mountains, and in the midst of the splendid plain of the
Greenbriar River, whence the name Savannah. Protected
against savage raids by Fort Savannah, settlements spread up
and down the Greenbriar River Valley.

John Stuart was the first, accompanied by a few men, to
venture back to the Greenbriar. That was in 1769. In a depo-
sition yet among the old Augusta records, in Luddington v.
Stuart, he states that at that time "the country was then unin-
habited."

The McNeils and Moores, long among the older families of
the upper Shenandoah Valley east of the Alleghenies, went to the
Greenbriar shortly after Stuart had commenced in 1769 wrhat be-
came the first permanent settlement of the Greenbriar regions.

In the old suit of Davis v. Rogers, it is shown that Rogers,
who married Ann Ewing Clendennin, located on the Greenbriar
in IT 72. This year, I am of opinion, gives us about the time that
Pocahontas James Ewing and the other members of his family
pitched, for the first time, their tents in the Greenbriar Valley.
Though it is possible that James Ewing may have gone about
the time that Captain Stuart and his party went. But since there
appear to have been other Ewings in that section shortly later
than that time, we cannot be sure. Price says that about 17T0
"Moses Moore settled on Knapp's Creek, known at that period
as Ewing's Creek, and so named in some of the old land papers."
Price also says that the "tract of land purchased by Moses Moore
from one Mr. Ewing. for the consideration of two steeltraps and
two pounds English sterling," lay between the place owned in
1901 by Andrew Herold and Dennis Dever. (History of Poca-
hontas County, 112). Knapp's Creek is just across the moun-
tain and along the eastern border of what is now Pocahontas
County. Jane Clendennin, who, with her uncle John Ewing, ha 1

336 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

been carried into captivity at about five years of age, married
John Davis in 1774. They most probably were married in the
Greenbriar country, since Jane must have gone there in 1772 with
her mother.

"Jane was married after Archibald's mother," says Chalk-
ley's transcript, but that is a misprint ; the word "mother" should
be "widow." "Archibald's widow Ann married John Rogers,"
says the record ; and in a deposition Rogers says "he married
the widow of Archibald Clendennin in 1767." "Jane was born
January or February, 1758."

John Rogers and, presumably, his wife, Ann, had at least
two sons, Archibald and James. (2 Chalkley, 93.)

In another suit among the Augusta records it is said that
this Jane Davis was a widow and living in Greenbriar County
in 1803 ; and that she had a daughter who married Ballard Smith,
an attorney at law. (Id. 183.)

It is yet a tradition among the McNeils, who. are of Scotch
ancestry, as are the Ewings, who are descendants of the pioneers
of lhat region, that the Ewings came in big, canvass-covered
wagons, called "schooners," drawn by teams of sleek, powerful
mules — suggestive, in the light of that day, of a goodly share
of valuable property.

Price says that after Clendennin was massacred the "widow
refugeed to Augusta County." Augusta at the time covered the
scene of the crime ; and Mrs. Clendennin merely went to another
point in the same county. That point, with reasonable certainty,
was the home of James Ewing, her father.

Price also says that this widow of Archibald Clendennin
"afterwards married Ballard Smith, the ancestor of the distin-
guished family of that name, so prominent in the annals of Green-
briar citizenship." As we have seen, the old court records show
that it was Ann Ewing Clendennin's granddaughter, daughter of
Jane Davis, who married Ballard Smith. Price did not have ac-
cess to Chalkley's work, it is fair to remember.

The Ewings and other first settlers in the Greenbrier coun-
try expected to take titles to the lands they selected from the
Greenbrier Company, to which the royal authority had made a
large grant years before that section was inhabited. But before
deeds were made the Revolution interfered. One of the very

JAMES EWIXG OF POCAHONTAS 337

first things that Virginia did, when the Revolution was well
under way, was to arrange to determine who were entitled to
the "lands on the western waters." which comprehended most of
the country as far as settled within the original Virginia bounds
and west of the Blue Ridge. So in 1777 the Virginia authorities,
acting under the newly asserted independent sovereignty, though
not yet recognized by Great Britain, appointed a commission to
grant certificates to persons entitled to lands in Greenbrier
County (created that year) and in other western counties. Laws
were provided, known as the homestead and preemption laws,
under which bona fide settlers could claim four hundred acres
by virtue of bona fide settlement; and by preemption, that is
by selecting and marking up to a thousand acres in addition to
the homestead could be purchased at what now appears a nominal
fee. The commission sat to hear evidence of settlement and
preemption claims ; and when a determination was reached,
certificates were issued which went to the Land Office, which in
the meantime had been established. Pursuant thereto deeds, gen-
erally known as grants, were issued by the Land Office. All of
the earlier grants to lands then regarded as upon "the western
waters" are now of record in the Land Office of Virginia. Thus
the claims of the big land companies in western and south-*
western sections of Virginia were repudiated in favor of the
actual settlers and titles issued pursuant to the laws enacted by the
independent sovereignty of Virginia.

The first certain identification of the James Ewing family
after reaching what is now Pocahontas County (now West Vir-
ginia) is in the findings of the commission just mentioned, which
for the Greenbrier section, sat at Fort Savannah (Lewisburg).
The findings of that commission, touching lands then in Augusta,
Greenbrier and Betetourt Counties, after different hearings, were
handed down in 1780 and '82. In the main the settlers thus iden-
tified had gone upon their lands a few years before the hear-
ings by the commission.

As has been said, I found the original list of those thus
found entitled to lands, in the Virginia Land Office at Rich-
mond, where it had reposed for perhaps a hundred years or
more — all untouched. This list of men found entitled to lands
has never been recorded except thro the recordations of the
deeds or grants later issued pursuant thereto.

338 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

The report of the commission made April 12, 1780, dis-
closes the following Ewing lands located in Greenbrier County :

John Ewing, 150 acres ; William Ewing, 250 ; James Ewing,
140; James again 400; William, 170; Joshua, 400; Joshua again,
250, — each by right of settlement ; and Joshua, 100 acres under
the preemption law. Another list from the commission made
April 12, 1782, for lands in Greenbrier County, which then in-
cluded what are now Pocahontas and other counties, certifies
to James Ewing, 400 acres by right of settlement and 100 acres
under the preemption law ; to James Ewing, Jr., 2G0 and again
400 acres, both by settlement ; and again to James Ewing, Sr., 400
acres by settlement and 100 by preemption.

Both these certificates I found in the same old batch of
faded and worn papers in the State Land Office in a neglected
nitch.

By Land Office records subsequent to the finding of this
commission, we learn that James Ewing assigned a survey of
land in Greenbrier made in 1780 to Joshua Ewing.

In 1795 William Ewing, son of James, the founder of the
Pocahontas County family, took title to his lands on Swago Creek,
a branch of Greenbrier River, the land then being in Bath
County, which originally reached beyond the main Alleghenies.
Again in 1796 he obtained land in Greenbrier County ; and in 1800
John, Sr., obtained lands ort the waters of the Greenbrier
in Bath County.

Of those early Ewing land owners of Greenbrier I have
no record, unfortunately, of any except the James and family
whose genealogy I am giving. Perhaps there are few neigh-
borhoods where the older Ewings lived which did not have more
than one Ewing of similar given name, leading to endless vexa-
tion, and which suggests caution against such conclusions as that
of a correspondent of many years ago when he wrote : "All the
Ewings of Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana are descend-
ants of Captain Patrick Ewing of Maryland !" Had I time to
count I am sure I could prove that that statement was at least
ten thousand out of the way !

In this connection it is interesting to note that Hon. Alvin E.
Ewing wries me : "My grandfather once told me that back in the
early days in Virginia (clearly in what was then Greenbrier or

JAMES EWING OF POCAHONTAS 339

Bath County) there were several William E wings in the same
neighborhood. To distinguish them they were 'nicknamed',
'Long Bill', 'Short' or 'Stumpy Bill', and one who once shot at
a wild turkey and hit a neighbor's cow, 'Turkey Bill,' and his own
father, because he lived in 'Swagger' (Swago or Swego) Creek,
'Swager Bill'. Grandfather referred to 'Stumpy Bill' as his cousin,
and was, I believe, a son of Indian John," writes a grandson
of Enos Ewing.

The widely scattered settlement on Swago (or Swego) and
Greenbrier Creeks, where this James and his sons acquired rich
valley lands, was for many years in turn the outposts along
the Virginia frontiers. Opportunities for the finer things of life
were few ; but the evidence indicates that the family made the
most of such advantages as were afforded and enjoyed the high-
est respect of their neighbors. Father and sons became ex-
perts with the old-fashioned flint lock gun, the only gun then to be
had; and many are the interesting stories of the daring, prowess
and splendid nerve they enjoyed, that have come down to us, tales
of encounters with wild beasts then numerous among the sur-
rounding mountains of that section, and with the yet more danger-
ous Indians. As a rule the pioneers of the earlier American fron-
tiers (similarly as were the early California pioneers of later days
of whom Walt Whitman has written so entertainingly) were hon-
est and fully trustworthy. Except as against the Indians, doors
were seldom barred and live stock was usually safe upon the com-
mons or in some indifferently fenced enclosure. But there were
now then exceptions to the prevailing integrity. In such cases, as
later upon the plains and in the far West before the municipal
law reached the advance guard, summary punishment, sooner or
later, was the usual end of the lawless and the dishonest. In that
early day in Greenbrier courts were far distant, as along the
Virginia frontiers generally where, we see, many of our Virginia
ancestors were in the most advanced picket line ; roads were few
and often hardly more than paths ; and it was often necessary
that the head of each home be judge, jury and executioner in the
defense of his property and in the protection of the lives within
his fold. As the representative instances here and there related
show, our ancestors met the duties and the stern responsibilities of
the hour as became men in whose veins ran the best blood from the

340 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

prehistoric days of old Scotland, — an ancestry than which none
is nobler. An incident of the earlier Virginia days is found in an
experience of this (Pocahontas) James, and the story comes to
us through a descendant of his grandson, Enoch Ewing. The
story furnishes a bit of coloring to those far-off, distant times,
which for its light upon character is worth while. It is repre-
sentative, too, of the determination and cool daring of our Amer-
ican Ewing ancestors.

The gun was to the pioneer what the officers of the law
are in our day to us. This James Ewing had acquired a new gun.
Guns were not only far from the modern weapon but costly and
not plentiful. Naturally he prized it highly. It might mean the
preservation of his life or that of his family, or both.

One day. when Margaret, his wife, was, except the children,
alone in the home, distant from neighbors, a scoundrel, widely
known along the frontiers as a renegade and outlaw, Shockley,
and a companion, by chance or design, visited the home. Shock-
ley saw the gun, probably resting upon deer antlers over the
doorway on the inside, took it down and decided to appropriate
it. Of course Margaret protested ; but she was a woman and the
officers of the law were far away beyond distant mountains. So
Shockley and his companion started off with the coveted gun.
When James Ewing returned and got the story, he carefully
loaded and primed (putting powder in the pan in which the
flint struck) another gun, and which he probably had with him,
and alone went "in pursuit of the ruffians." Surprising them in
camp some mile distant from his home, he marched up to
Shockley and demanded the return of the stolen gun. Shockley
replied by bringing his gun to firing position ; the flint sputtered
and the powder flashed in the pan. But at that moment Ewing
fired; and the soul of the thief went to trial before the Great
Judge of the Universe. The other outlaw seized Ewing and for
a short interval the struggle was one of life or death. Ewing
was fighting for home and rights which could not otherwise
then be protected. He finally got his ever ready hunting knife at
the throat of his enemy, and the spirit of the second des-
perado went to give a final account of the sins of the body. A
reward had been, by the authorities, offered for Shockley, dead
or alive ; and when James' friends knew the story it was sug-

JAMES EWIXG OF POCAHONTAS 341

gested that he should claim the reward. "No," he declared,
"with true Ewing aversion to money," sagely adds one of his
descendants, "it was not money he sought ; he was content to
recover his property and to rid the community of 'such vermint.' "

To this James Ewing, who moved from Pocahontas County,
Virginia, to Galia County, Ohio, were horn five children : Ann
(as shown by the suit in the Augusta court), who married, first,
Archibald Clendennin, and then John Rogers ; and probably two
other girls, Susan Jane, who married Moses Moore, and Elizabeth,
who married George Dougherty; and certainly two boys, (Indian)
John; and (Swago) William.

Indian John Ewing enjoyed splendid mental power. While
in this he was not an exception to the Ewings generally, yet he left
a more definite record than some others. At an early day he de-
veloped a fondness for books which followed through life. "He
found a benefactor in the parish clergyman," says Holcomb, "a
Presbyterian minister, who, admiring the good taste of the youth,
extended him the use of his library." Late in life he could
"repeat the whole of Milton's Paradise Lost;" and had a phe-
nomenal knowledge of history.

However, most probably the "clergyman" who then be-
friended John Ewing was a Methodist. The Ewings generally,
as elsewhere said, were Presbyterians ; but Presbyterian ministers
did not keep in touch with the frontiers. The Methodist did.
The early Methodists were often men of considerable learning.
The Presbyterians had no church even in Staunton before 1811,
( Waddell, Annals of Augusta County, 209) — years after John
Ewing was a boy ; and I find nothing to suggest that the Pres-
byterians went early into what become Pocahontas County.

In 1774 (Indian) John married Ann Smith, of Irish descent
(Irish by birth but probably Scotch by blood), and to them were
born eleven children; William, 1775-1858; Susan, 1766; 1778-
1837, the Honorable John Smith Ewing, who served in the legisla-
ture of Virginia from Bath County, sef|ssion 1812-'13, is his de-
scendant; Janet, 1781-1855, who married a Howell; Sarah, 1782-
1850, who married Gen. Samuel R. Holcomb; Anne, 1785; An-
drew, 1787-1866, who served in legislature of California; Eliza-
beth; Nancy, who married Mills; Lydia, 1792-1872, who mar-
ried Buris, whose son subsequently was member of the Missouri

342 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

legislature; Samuel, 1797-1855. This John Ewing died December
23, 1824. Indian John's descendants through these children are
legion. "They may be found in nearly every Western State, and
are generally successful," it is written of them. Among the many
identified descendants of Indian John, we mention :

Gen. A. T. Holcomb (1803-1877), a grandson; Sumner
Ewing, Stockton, California, son of Benjamin, son of Hon. John
S. ; S. G. Burnside, Kansas City, Missouri ; Jennie G. Spruce,
Greenville, Illinois ; Mrs. Elizabeth Squier, Angola, Illinois ; John
Ewing, attorney, Grant City, Missouri ; Thomas Ewing, Eddyville,
Iowa; Mrs. Laura Ewing Dunning of Gustine, California,
daughter of Hon. Andrew Ewing, died 1895, who served as a
Democrat in the legislature of California beginning 1877, the
father of irrigation in the San Joaquin Valley, son of Hon. John
S. Ewing ; and Edward Ewing Altshire, attorney, Kansas City,
Missouri.

William Ewing (Swago Bill), brother of Indian John, was
born 1756. His descendants identify him as the William Ewing
who served in Arbuckle's company of Virginia troops in 1774,
participating in the epochal battle of Point Pleasant on October
10 of that year, between the whites and the Indians, when the
Virginians put to flight the distinguished Indian Chief, Corn-
stalk, and his braves. Cornstalk and his band murdered the
Clendennins. This battle is regarded as the signal gun of
the American Revolution, the pregnant rumbles of which were
then filling the land. This William married Mary McNeil. This
couple established their home on Swago (or Swego) Creek, near
what is now Buckeye, Pocahontas County, and hence for dis-
tinction he came to be known as Swago Bill. They had twelve
children, all of whom were born at the old Swago home; Eliza-
beth, 1787-1852, who married Doddill ; Thomas, 1788-1874;
Johnathan, 1790-1850; William, 1792; James, 1793-1824; John,
1795; Sarah, 1797-1827, who married Wallace; Enoch, 1799-
1885; Jacob, 1802-1878; Abraham McNiel, 1804-1891; George,
1807-1883; and Andrew, 1809-1885.

Enoch married Susannah Rodabaugh, who died in 1855.
Hon. Alvin E. Ewing, who married Miss Hank of the Abraham
Lincoln maternal ancestral line, attorney at law, Grand Rapids,
Michigan, who served his state in the legislature and has been

JAMES SWING OF POCAHONTAS 343

otherwise honored, is a descendant of Enoch. A few of the
many other known descendants of "Swago Bill" are Dr. G. A.
Ewing, Jackson, Ohio ; Dr. G. K. Ewing, Ewington, Ohio ; Dr.
U. B. G. Ewing, Richmond, Indiana ; Dr. William Leonard,
Fostoria, Ohio ; Rev. Thomas E. Peden, Preshyterian Theo-
logical Seminary, Ogden, North Carolina ; and Arthur L. Salis-
bury, Burnside, Illinois, a descendant of Rebecca Ewing who mar-
ried Jonas Roush ; Hon. Geo. E. Matthews, Portsmouth, O. ; E.
B. Matthews, Jackson, Ohio ; Hon. W. S. Matthews, Colum-
bus, Ohio ; and Miss Ova Powell, Tahlequah, Okla. There are
many of this branch of the family in the Burnside neighborhood,
where, as is the custom in some Ewing communities, annual re-
unions are held, at which sometimes hundreds of blood relations
gather. (See reports of some of these reunions in The Dallas
City, Illinois, Enterprise, and in The Carthage, Illinois, Republi-
can, 1918. Other genealogical data are in West Virginia Histor-
ical Magazine, vol. 4, 203 ; and in W. T. Price's Hist. Sketch of
Pocahontas County, 646.)

Indian John and Swago William moved to Galia County,
Ohio, in 1801 or '02, with their families; and from that locality
their descendants have scattered afar and as have been all the de-
scendants of this family have been successful and always men
and women of splendid character and good report, contributing
substantially to the leadership of the country.

XXX.

WEST VIRGINIA SEPTS CONTINUED.

The James Ewing Family of Wheeling.

mes Ewing, certainly though perhaps distantly

the James of Pocahontas County, founded what is

known as the Wheeling, West Virginia, family. We have the

rigin f this family in an account dictated in L89 by T. D. F
of Wheeling for his cousin. John H. Ewing. the latter a br
:' Miss Annie Ewing of St. Louis. That account says:

"My grandfather. James Ewing (the son of Henry Ev g

was born and brought up about a mile from Straban. Ireland.

where his father before him had lived. Grandfather arrived in

this d ... and landed on the eastern shore of Maryland on the

an which Washington was elected President of the United

States He remained there I tor some time with his uncle, named

Wilson, whose daughter. Elizabeth, he married and some time

afterward came west to Wheeling. Subsequently his brothers

John and William came to America, and after stopping for a time

in Maryland, came on to join James at Wheeling. John remained

heeling all his life:'* and. the narrative proceeds. James

ttghl the : airbill farm, fourteen miles east of Wheeling, and

died. After the sons came to Ohio County ^as it was in

the c .Virginia. Henry, their father, and his wife who

was Elizabeth Glenn, joined them for the remainder of their

Xo mention is made of the sisters of this Tames; but Miss

Annie Ewing says that James "had thr^ s si rs, (and there may

have been others) who married and lived on farms in the same

neighborhood as the brothers/* Two. she recalled; Catherine,

who married a Kilk g randdaughters are Agnes and

Minnie Acker of Wheeling, an Mrs Homer C. Wells of Wells-

ville. Ohio ; and Sarah, the other one recalled, who married a

Baird, and whose granddaughter is Hollie Baird of Elm Grove.

In this account J. D. Ewing also sa

andfather Jan s serv* in the war of 1S12-*14 at Nor-
folk, Virginia ; his rank - itofs Einfantrj

344

JAMKS KWING OF WHEELING 345

T have seen the commission issued to James Evving of the
Lee County, Virginia, branch, as has been noted, who was dis-
tantly related to this James of Wheeling, as I maintain ; and I
have seen the old papers which show his service as lieutenant
under that commission at Norfolk during that war. These two
Jameses lived hundreds of miles from each other, the Lee County
James being a descendant of what I indicate as one of the Cecil
County, Maryland, families. That the two served with similar
ranks at the same point is a coincidence rather unusual and yet
by no means improbable, and attention is directed to it that their
respective descendants may avoid the impression that either family
has exclusive right to the honor.

Of this account from which I have quoted, James W. Ewing,
a widely known attorney at law, Wheeling, says that this J. D.
(James Dallas below) Ewing, then deceased, was his father, and
that he has no doubt that it "is authoritative as to the origin of
the branch of the family" to which he belongs. He mentions
having the military regulations which belonged to his great-grand-
father during his service in the war of 1812-'14. For further de-
tailed information of the sons of this John and William he refers
to Gibson L. Crummer's History of Wheeling City and Ohio
County (1902) and History of Panhandle of West Virginia, p.
268. The former work states that Henry and Elizabeth Glenn
were "both natives of Ireland," and that this James was born
in 1771, and reached America between 1795 and 1797, and
that he first settled on the eastern shore of Maryland,
moving from there to Ohio County, Virginia, and that
Fairhill, which he subsequently acquired, is in what is now Mar-
shall County, West Virginia. According to this history the
children of this James and wife Elizabeth were Henry, James,
William, John, Marie, Jane and Elizabeth. William was born
on the home farm in 1810, heired it, and there died in 1861. He
married Martha Martin, and they left ten children : James Dallas
Ewing, born Dec. 19, 1832, died Aug. 30, 1898; Wm. Wilson
Ewing, who succeeded to the ownership of Fairhill ; John Alex.
Ewing, long a prominent attorney of Moundsville, West Vir-
ginia; Geo. Martin Ewing; Isaac Newton Ewing; Samuel H.
Ewing; Susan Ann Ewing; Robert A. Ewing; Elizabeth W.
Ewing; and Mary Ewing. Elizabeth married Daniel Hartley;
and Mary married Alfred McCuskey.

346 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

John, the brother of this older James, sons of Henry, mar-
ried Elizabeth Tonner, June 10, 1801, both being natives of
County Tyrone, Ireland. He died in Wheeling Mar. 24, 1836.
They had eight children, William, Henry, James Madison, John,
Nancy, Catherine, Elizabeth and Sarah, as shown by the Bible
record in the possession of Miss Annie Ewing, of St. Louis, to
whom 1 am indebted for its information. (Letter of Sept.
12, 1914).

This John resided for some time among the other Ewings in
Cecil County, Maryland. While there he belonged to the Rock
Creek Church, Presbyterian, withdrawing Oct. 10, 1805. Un-
fortunately, the old records of that church were burned. I have
a photostat copy of the certificate of withdrawal kindly furnished
by Miss Annie Ewing. She also has his naturalization papers
and a commission to him by the governor of Virginia, creat-
ing him a lieutenant in the war of 1812-'14.

It is interesting to note that this old church was founded in
1720. It was first called New Erection, then Elk River, Great
Elk, and Elk. The name Rock first appears on the records of
1787. The first building was at Lewisville, Pennsylvania, and
the original stone building was erected in 1761 on the present site,
East Nottingham, Maryland (Oct. 13, 1920, Cecil County News.)
At the recent two hundreth anniversary, Wesley Ewing, "a Meth-
odist brother of the Blake sections," was one of the interest-
ing soloists.

This James Madison Ewing lived in Wheeling and died there
Oct. 20, 1889. He married Mary Lukens, a Quakeress, of Phil-
adelphia, May 24, 1842. Their children were John Henry,
Lukens, Annie (my informant), William L., and Edwin C. The
latter remained in Wheeling, and the others except Lukens,
who died in childhood, located in St. Louis, Missouri.

The exact relation of this Henry Ewing family to the James
Ewing who was the father of (Indian) John and (Swago)
William, is not known. There is some tradition of descent from
a common Scotch clan ; and I have no doubt, due to many years
study of the subject, that that tradition is correct, and that
both families are related to the Cecil County family and to their
collateral relatives. The Indian John branch was so strongly
certain of the relation to the Maryland branch that it has

JAMES EWING OF WHEELING 347

been believed by some of them, we saw, that the James of that
family was a brother of the Cecil County immigrants. While
that tradition gets the kinship too close, it is very satisfactory
cumulative evidence that it was real blood relationship. The fact
that John of the Wheeling branch stopped at the old Ewing neigh-
borhood and there established his church relations and his
American citizenship all goes to show the clan spirit so long a
great factor in binding together descendants of the far dis-
tant Scotch ancestry. In fact, the clan spirit, while much weak-
ened, is not yet altogether lacking as shown by the numerous
Ewing reunions held here and there by the different branches
of the family. (See Sketches of the Families of Thomas
Eiuing, by Rev. Joseph Lyons Ewing, for a mention of re-
unions in that branch.)

The coat of arms claimed by this family, a copy of which
James W. Ewing, attorney, of Wheeling, sent me, helps to es-
tablish descent from the old family, a descendant of which bore
the Ewing of Craigtown arms. The embellishments found on
this production of this emblazonment are modern, but figures
within the shield are evidences of the ancient origin.

It is interesting that, as in the other places from which
our ancestors came, there are yet Ewings in Straban, Ireland.
It was Samuel Ewing (they even stick to the same given names
over there) of Straban, we remember, who wrote Jas. L. Ewin
of Washington, D. C, of the tree planting by David Ewing in
1603.

The origin of the newer motto on this West Virginia copy
of the family emblazonment, "Hang Your Banner on the Out-
er Wall", 1 so far have been unable to learn. I am of the
opinion, however, that it has an important bearing upon the
early history of this particular branch and that through some
source its meaning will yet be given to the general public.

XXXI.

THE HON. THOMAS EWING FAMILY, OHIO.

It was planned to devote a chapter to the family of Thomas
Ewing, who was born at Wesl Liberty, Ohio County, Virginia,
December 28, L789. However, the commercial possibilities of
this work require the merest notice of this another happily distin-
guished branch of our family. Since one of the purposes of this
hook is to present some record of the Ewings of Virginia, that
Thomas Rwing has his place in these pages ; but since he and his
family find ample and deserved space in many works, a fuller
account here can lie omitted with less injustice. Too, what was
in L789 ( )hio County has long been no part of Virginia; and the
descendants of that Thomas regard themselves, very naturally, as
scarcely the descendants of a Virginia family.

This family traces descent from Finlay Kwing, often spelled
Findley, Kindly and Findlay. It is believed that he was born
about L660. I te served in the Protestant army in the war between
James and William and Mary; and for distinguished service at
the battle of the Boyne, King William presented him a sword,
which was worn by Thomas Kwing, eldest grandson of immi-
grant Thomas Kwing. in our Revolution.

lion. Thomas Kwing left an Autobiography (see Ohio Arch.
and I list. Quarterly, vol. 32, p. L28). The editor believes this
work was written about L869. Of the author the editor says
all the more worth ([noting because he expresses the intelligent
opinion of all who knew this I Ion. Thomas Kwing :

Me was "a profound statesman, an honorable citizen and a
Christian gentleman."

In the Autobiography we are told by the writer:

"My grandfather George Kwing had a subaltern commission
in the New Jersey line of the Revolutionary War. lie was then
a very young man, of ^n^A English education, tine literary taste,
and much reading for his age and the time and country in which
his lot was cast."

Then he adds :

"I <.\o not dwell upon die family genealogy at large as 1 am
aware that one of you (that is. one ni the children) has traced

348

THOS. EWING OF OHIO 349

it back several hundred years ; and more especially as I attach
little importance to remote ancestry. [This is another instance
of the great genealogical mistake our ancestors have made.]
. . . You trace your name back to the siege of Londonderry
and the battle of the Boyne, where a Captain Ewing, your grand-
father's great-grandfather, performed an act of valor for which
he was praised by King William and honored with a sword
presented by his own hand ; but we divide this transmitted honor
with thousands whom we do not know, descendants of the valiant
captain, and his blood in our veins is mingled with that of a hun-
dred other ancestors of whose names and merits we are ignorant."

The battle of the Boyne was fought July 12, 1G90, we re-
member, and was the culmination of the war which gave to
Protestant William and Mary the throne upon which British
sovereigns yet sit.

Finlay's ancestors were Scotch beyond question. That they
descended from the clan to which I have traced the other Ewings
here mainly under consideration, I have not the slightest doubt.
Family traditions, the arms found in this branch of the family,
family characteristics, and many other facts, attest this origin.
Whether Finlay was born in Scotland or Ireland is not certainly
known ; but he was living in the barony of Inisowen, County
Donegal, Ulster, Ireland, when his son, wTho became the American
founder of this Thomas Ewing branch, was born. As John G.
Ewing, at the date we go to press connected with the Department
of Justice, Washington, D. C, and formerly an attorney of New
York, points out, Finlay Ewing dwelt in what is now the parish
Fahan (old Fanghan), in Inisowen, which parish is just north
of the present parish of Burt and northeast of the present parish
of Inch in Lough Swilly. Mr. Ewing also calls attention to the
fact that the parishes of this community in 1660-1720 were part
of the parish of Templemore, or the parish of Londonderry, as
it was sometimes called. Rev. James Lyons Ewing, in his
"Ewing Families," page 12, appears to be inclined to regard
James Ewing, born in Scotland about 1650, as the ancestor of this
Finlay; but some of the descendants of that Finlay do not con-
cur in that view. Turning to the old Burt records as given in an-
other place in this work, it will be seen that Thomas Ewing, son
of Finlay Ewing and wife Jane, was baptised October 19, 1690. He
married Mary Maskell and died February 28, 1748, and he and

350 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

his wife lie buried in the Presbyterian Church yard at Greenwich,
New Jersey. (Joseph Lyons Ewing gives a photograph of their
tomb.)

It was my fortune to know Joseph Lyons Ewing's brother,
by the way, Major Robert M. Ewing, now of Pittsburg, Pennsyl-
vania, while stationed for a time in Washington, D. C, in the
United States Army service during our war with Germany, and
also his splendid wife. Joseph Lyons Ewing traces his family
to William Ewing of Ireland. That William married Eleanor
Thompson about 1759 ; and they reared one of the numerous and
distinguished Ewing families of Pennsylvania. Joseph Lyons
Ewing was unable to determine the relation of his ancestor to
the Hon. Thomas Ewing; but I am satisfied that both families
descended from the Loch Lomond clan.

Thomas and wife Mary had: Maskell, Thomas, Mercy,
Mary, Samuel, John, Lydia. Joshua, Samuel and James, as given
by Joseph Lyons Ewing.

John G. Ewing says that with that Thomas Ewing two
brothers came to America, whose names were William and Robert.
"Robert," he writes me, "was a witness to the will of Thomas in
1748. His descendants are, I believe, still found in Western
Jersey. William went south, and I am under the impression that
he was the William Ewing, first of Bucks County, Pennsylvania,
then of Rockingham County, Virginia." His cousin, Mrs.
Maria Ewing Martin of Xewstraitsville, Ohio, is inclined to
agree with this identification of William Ewing of Rockingham ;
but most of the descendants of that William decline to accept this
view because they say he came to America directly from Scot-
land and that neither he nor his father ever lived in Ireland. A
few of his dej.cendants go so far as to insist that he was not re-
lated to the other Ewing families of America; but, as I have said
elsewhere, that contention is without foundation — is refuted, in
fact, by the evidence. If that William and that Thomas were
not brothers, 1 am sure they were close cousins.

This Thomas Ewing of Greenwich, New Jersey, had seven
sons and three daughters. His second son was named Thomas.
Thomas II married Sarah Vickars, and they lived and died in
Greenwich. Their son, George, was a patriot soldier of the
Revolution, a commissioned lieutenant. After the close of the

THOS. EWING OF OHIO 351

Revolution he went with his wife, who was Rachel Harris, to the
western frontiers of Virginia, and there, in what was then Ohio
County, as we have just seen, their son Thomas was born. He
met the usual hardships of frontier life and his family was born
far from the advantages of the older communties. In 1818 he
asked for a pension as a soldier of the Revolution ; and the ap-
plication papers show that he was living on the land of his son
George; that he enlisted in 1775, was appointed lieutenant in
1777, and took part in the famous battle of Brandywine. At the
date of the application, he says his children were Rachel, age 35 ;
Abigal, 39; George, Jr., and Thomas. There were others; and
those named must have been then yet part of his household.
During the Revolution he was in the famous encampment with
Washington at Valley Forge and kept a journal. He died in
1824 in Perry County, Indiana.

The son Thomas, born in 1789, as we have seen, obtained
an education under the most adverse circumstances, working for
a time for school money at the widely known Kanawah Salt
Works. He graduated at Ohio University ; studied law, and
practiced until sent to the United States Senate from Ohio. In
the Senate he served with signal distinction from 1831 to 1837.
As a member of President Harrison's cabinet he served as Sec-
retary of the United States Treasury, 1841 ; and President Taylor
in 1849 appointed him Secretary of the Interior Department, the
first to fill that important office. "In the United States Supreme
Court he ranked among the foremost lawyers of the nation.
During the Civil War his judgment in matters of state was fre-
quently sought by President Lincoln." His historic telegram,
"There can be no contraband of war on neutral vessels between
neutral ports," is said to have been decisive of the trouble which
grew out of the capture of Mason and Slidell, thus averting war
between the United States and England. It "was his advice
that finally prevailed on Everett's opinion (in that case) and the
envoys were set free." (The Americana). Notwithstanding
he adhered to the Union cause in the war between the United
States and the Confederate' States, he used his influence to avert
the conflict, serving as a delegate to the peace congress which met
in Washington in I860.

He married Maria Boyle and they had :

352 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Phileman Beecher Ewing, Lancaster, Ohio, who became a
distinguished judge, the father of John G. Ewing of whom I
have spoken several times; Eleanor Boyle Ewing, who mar-
ried the distinguished General William Tecumseh Sherman;
Hugh Boyle Ewing, who became a well known general in the
Federal army in the war of 1801 to 1865; was minister at The
Hague 1866-1870, and left creditable literary productions.
Thomas Ewing, who also became a general; was once Demo-
cratic candidate for Governor of Ohio, and member of Congress
from the Fairfield district. Mrs. Maria Ewing Martin, of New
Straitsville, Ohio, to whom I have referred several times, also one
of the genealogists of her family, is a daughter of Gen. Thomas
Ewing. Charles Ewing, who became a general ; and Maria Theresa
Ewing, who married Col. C. Clemons F. Steele. All of these
children of the Hon. Thomas Ewing have been dead many years.

XXXII.
EWING ARMS AS EVIDENCE OF PEDIGREE.

Our early American ancestors were very sure of descent
from more remote Scotch ancestors who were entitled, under the
laws of Scotland, to a coat of arms. These American progenitors
used, as rightly they could, the "achievement" of their fathers by
an imprint upon stationery, carriage doors, tableware, etc. Wash-
ington and other great Americans made a similar use of their re-
spective family arms. Some of those oM imprints which our
early American fathers used are yet extant. There are a greater
number of later reproductions. Many of these have suffered
sadly at the hands of artists not well versed in Scotch heraldry ;
but even in most of the unscientific emblazonments enough of the
main features have been retained that we may trace the descent of
the reproduction, so to speak, through the founders of our Amer-
ican families, back to the earliest known Ewing arms. The result
of these comparisons is most important to our genealogy ; and
this result, coupled with the tradition, in all our branches, that a
remote Scotch ancestor once bore these arms, is very satisfactory
evidence of our descent from that ancestor. In this day and time,
to assist in determining pedigree, these heraldric devices of our
ancestors are of the greatest importance. In fact, since the war-
rior laid aside his armor, the chief function of armorial bearings,
or coats of arms, or ensigns armorial (as synonymously ex-
pressed) has been to "distinguish families." (Sir George McKen-
zie, Science of Heraldry; Stevenson, Heraldry in Scotland;
Woodward's Heraldry.) Nisbet is authority for the statement
that coats of arms "are the most certain proofs and evidences of
nobility."

For these reasons each family of this day should as carefully
keep the arms certainly known to have been the property of a re-
mote ancestor, as it does a family record in the family Bible.
Eugene Zieber. in his Heraldry in America (1855, p. 33), says
there "is surely no reason why any individual in America should
be deterred by ignorant or malicious criticism from preserving,
for himself or his children, the heraldric devices which were borne

353

354 CLAN LWING OF SCOTLAND

by his ancestors, even though in his own land such devices have
no governmental recognition."

"Heraldry is usually a safe and reliable guide in cases of
pedigree and inquiries into family history," correctly remarks
McEwen, the late Scotch author of Clan Bwen.

Nisbet, an early Scotch authority upon arms, in the preface of
System of Heraldry, 1816 edition, also says:

"The original design of heraldry is not merely show and
pageantry, as some are apt to imagine, but to distinguish persons
and families, to represent the heroic achievements of our ances-
tors, and to perpetuate their memory ; to trace the origin of an-
cient and noble families, and the various steps by which they ar-
rived at greatness ; to distinguish the many different branches
descended from the same families and to show the several rela-
tions which one family stands in to another."

Hence, remembering that heraldry, in this case called in to
trace our descent, is recognized by authorities as "usually a
safe and reliable guide in cases of pedigrees and inquiries into
family histories," we shall go back to find what the earlier Scotch
records disclose as to Ewing arms, and determine the bearing of
that evidence upon the extant reproductions of the arms which
our ancestors handed down to us as emblazonments of their ances-
tral arms. A preliminary glance at the origin of the use of the
coat of arms in Scotland will assist us.

What, in a heraldric sense, is a coat of arms ?

Heraldry is the science that treats of blazoning or describing
in proper terms armorial bearings.

"Heraldry, according to various principal theories, arose
from the necessity of having distinguishing devices on seals, or on
armour in the tournament, or in war. It is true that these first
necessities no longer exist, but a time-honored instance does not
become an anachronism by merely surviving the circumstances
which first called it into being. In the days of chivalry the dis-
play of heraldric cognizances was not confined to their owner's
seal, and the armour in which he tilted, or the banner under which
he and his followers went to war. While these, their first uses,
were still being served, heraldric ensigns became genealogical as
well as personal. They were not only displayed on the knight's
surcoat, but they might have been seen (and generally were) on
his lady's mantle and his daughter's kirtle ; they were emblazoned

EWING ARMS 355

in his glass windows, and carved in stone both on his castle and
on his church, and so on," so J. H. Stevenson, Heraldry in Scot-
land (Glasgow, 1914), tells us.

Hence, as correctly defined by a recent authority, "Heraldry
is the science which teaches us how to blazon or describe in
proper terms armorial bearings and their accessories," as F. J.
Grant, Rothesay Herald, The Manual of Heraldry (Edinburgh,
1914), gives the rule.

Sir George McKenzie, accepted by Stevenson, advocate
unicorn pursuivant of the Scotch King Herald's office (Heraldry
in Scotland, 12), says: "Armorial bearings are 'Marks of heredi-
tary honor,' given or authorized by some supreme power to gratify
the bearer or distinguish families."

From the earliest dawn of history men used ensigns, ban-
ners, standards and badges as distinguishing emblems in war and
in other affairs. Then came seals, devices circular or in other
form within which were represented wheels, birds or other ob-
jects. Seals were used in the early days by persons, such as
kings and other potentates, who could not write. In time seals
came to be generally used as evidence of authenticity. From that
practice in England we get the custom in this country, now abol-
ished by statute in some States of the United States, of writing
the word "seal" within a scroll after the signature to deeds and
other important documents. The seal may be regarded as the
earliest form of device which developed into designs, usually in
colors or "metals," now known as coats of arms.

In ancient and medieval times men, trusted and stalwart, car-
ried messages from commanders in times of war and from sover-
eigns in both war and peace. Such messengers came to be known
as heralds. It was part of their function to challenge to battle,
proclaim war or peace, and to denounce or proscribe as com-
manded by king or other functionary in authority. The better
to attest his authority the king's herald bore a reproduction of
the king's seal upon the outer coat, as did the assistants who were
called pursuivants.

Ancient and medieval warriors wore armor, we know.
Armor continued in general use until about 1300. (Bulfinch,
Age of Chivalry, pt. 2, p. 22). The head was encased in the
helmet and so the identity of the armored warrior was difficult

356 CLAN EWING OP SCOTLAND

or impossible. This led, it is believed, to the emblazonment of
some distinctive device upon the outer or surcoat, thus giving rise
to the term coat of arms. Thus armorial devices became im-
portant ; and a person's armorial bearings, that is the distinctive
design which he bore, came to be a badge of honor as well as a
mark of identity. The figures or representations of which the
coat of arms is composed came early to have a meaning as well
as being an identification. For instance, Alexander II of Scot-
land, who ruled 1214 to 1249, "was the first Scotch king to use
the lion rampant on his seal." (McMillan, Scotch Symbols, 50).
When later the coat of arms came into use in Scotland the lion
rampant became and yet is the chief figure on the arms of the
king of the Scots, now quartered with the arms of England and
Ireland, since the king of Great Britain is now king of Scots.
Hence, the lion rampant is significant, as an early meaning, of
royalty or royal descent.

Hence we see that early it became important to protect both
heralds and armored warriors against improper impersonations,
and all the more so as nobles and gentlemen of distinction came
more and more to use symbols and seals to indicate their author-
ity or rank. Too, the herald came to be regarded as the custo-
dian and protector of the seal or arms of his chief, the king or
other person of authority as might be. So heralds became con-
spicuous figure at great functions, particularly the coronation of
kings, bearing upon the coat or upon a banner the king's arms and
taking part in the exercises. It is said that heralds at arms, for
the first time at such functions, attended the coronation of Robert
II of Scotland in 1371 ; and it is certain that soon thereafter the
authorities of Scotland created what is known as the office of
the Lyon King of Arms, the chief officer of which is the Lyon
King of Arms, or Lyon Herald. This officer now has three
pursuivants or herald assistants.

The date at which armorial bearings became extensively
used or even appeared at all is uncertain ; but in all probability
coats of arms became generally recognized as important property
rights and widely used for one purpose or another toward the
end of the twelfth century, says McMillan, a recent learned
Scotch writer {Scottish Symbols, 302). Stevenson (Heraldry
in Scotland) and other authorities concur in this view. That

EWING ARMS 357

gives us the approximate date as between 1175 and 1200, as the
time from which we may begin to think of coats of arms some-
what as understood in later days. Of course from that to earlier
times such emblems fade back through the wearing of mailed
armor to the earliest insigna adopted to distinguish the man or the
unit in battle or in important civil function.

McMillan says that it is not certainly known when the dig-
nity of Lyon King or Herald of arms was first conferred, as
such an officer existed before the statute creating his office.
From an early day the Lyon has been installed with elaborate
ceremonies ; and he early came to be the judge which passed up-
on disputed claims to arms and decided many other matters in
connection with the use of arms.

"The king alone can give a grant of arms, and this he does
in Scotland through the 'Court of Lord Lyon,' at the head of
which is the Lord Lyon who holds directly from the crown
In Scotland the improper assumption of arms, was
made a statutory offence by act of Parliament passed in 1592;"
and "the penalty is fine or imprisonment. . . . British sub-
jects residing in British colonies apply for grants of arms to the
authority of the land from which they are sprung. A descendant
of a British subject who is a citizen of another country cannot
get a new grant of arms in Scotland, but he may matriculate the
arms of an ancestor in the same way as if he were still a British
citizen," McMillan explains in Scottish Symbols (1016), 303,
307.

But the Lyon Herald of Scotland has lost much of his an-
cient function, which is now in the Herald's College of Great
Britain. The Herald's College of Arms, instituted in 1481, is of
England rather than Scotland. It once had authority to inquire
into and to enforce regulations pertaining to heraldic devices ;
but in later years the College has no compulsory power. The
Herald's College and those in England who have some super-
vision over arms "at present take no note whatever of the em-
blems or devices" of Scotland or Ireland; "while undue prom-
inence is given to those of England," remarks McMillan.

In 1592 a law authorized the Lyon King of arms and his
heralds to hold "visitations" throughout Scotland "to distin-
guish the arms of the noblemen and 'thairafter to matriculate

358 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

thame in thair buikis and registeris." But, unfortunately, if the
Lyon got a record of the arms claimed at the time it was imper-
fect and not now in existence. In 1G72 all bearers of arms were
required to register them in the Lyon's office. But, evidently,
even that law failed to bring about a record of many old arms
belonging to prominent families before its enactment, and of
many such no record to this day exists. So it is that the earliest
records of arms belonging to Scotch families are found in
"armorials" gathered by private collectors or painted by herald
painters, — for the colorings are of vast importance. Of course
no private work contains all of the arms of its day.

One of the earliest of such private records which have come
down to a modern day was made by Matthew Paris, who was
born in 1200 and who died in 1259. The armorial which he left
is now in the British Museum. (McMillan, Scottish Symbols,
51). What is known as Gelre's Herault d' Arms, "which forms
a general armory of Chritendom at the period," comments Stod-
art, has "1331 placed before several shields, and in one place
13G9 is written." Grant says this work was "executed about
the year 1370." Before the German invasion of Belgium it was
in the Royal Library at Brussels. In it are reproduced forty-
five shields of Scotch arms, of which thirty have crests. Grant
says it "gives the arms of the king and forty-one coats of Scot-
tish nobles." Stadart of the Lyon's office published the Scotch
part of this work in 1881. Then comes the splendid Armorial
de Berry of the Bibliotheque National of France (The National
Library of France). The compiler was appointed herald by
the French king in 1420 ; and thereafter traveled far and near and
painted arms for his collection. Of course he did not get all,
tho he painted 122 Scottish coats ; and I do not know how he
determined which he would copy. As communications were slow
and difficult in those days, no doubt each of these painters never
heard of many coats of arms.

Apparently the earliest official record of the Scotch Lyon's
office was made in 1542 according to Sir James Balfour Paul,
Lord Lyon King of Arms, Edinburg, 1903, in An Ordinary of
Arms. The register of that date was made by Lindsay, Lyon
King of Arms, and is the earliest official register of Scottish
arms, says Grant. But it is sadly wanting in completeness so

EWTNG ARMS

359

far as existing arms which belonged to many prominent families.
As Nesbit says: "Many of our most ancient and considerable
families have neglected to register their arms notwithstanding the
act of Parliament ..."

The next record we shall notice, and one most interesting
to us, is known as the Workman or Forman Manuscript, because
once owned by James Workman, a herald painter. It is entitled
Illuminated Heraldia; that is, the arms contained therein are
shown in colors. It was made in 1565-66, and some authorities
say parts of it were as early as 1508 and 1530 (Stevenson, Her-
aldry in Scotland, 114.) A fac simile reproduction of the arms
of the Workman Manuscript was published by R. R. Stodart, of
Lyon's office, in Scottish Anns, Edinburg, 1881. This Work-
man Manuscript shows the Ewing arms, and is the earliest in-
formation regarding these arms under any spelling of our name,
as far as I have been able to discover. (See page 66 of Stod-
art's volume one and page 215 of vol. two.) I give a print from
a photographic reproduction of Stodart's fac simile of Workman.

M^'r^

To a casual eye the first letter of the name might be taken
for a capital I ; but without exception the Scotch and other au-
thorities read it E. I am inclined to believe that at that time it
was not infrequent that the small letters were made large in size
to represent capitals. Too, the name as evidently written in the

360

CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

Workman Manuscript, is an interesting sample of writing nearly
400 years old. On the same page of Stodart are the Barriman
arms, the first letter of the name being a small b. That was a day,
we must remember, before either capitalization or spelling was
uniform or governed by modern rules; and, at any rate, the name
was written, so far as we know, by the painter. But the spelling
is further evidence that even at that early day Ewing was the
better form of the name.

The next specific Scotch record we have, giving the embla-
zonment of the Ewing arms, is a reproduction by Nisbet, pub-
lished in 1722, the arms being at that date borne by John Ewing,
of Craigtoun, who inherited from his ancestors, but how far
back Nisbet does not say.

I give a photographic reproduction from Nisbet's work.

EWING ARMS 361

The ornamentaton outside of the shield is common to a large
number of arms shown by Nisbet, and constitutes no distinctive
part of the arms. The shield and the figures (charges) therein,
as shown in the Workman Manuscript, are the most important
part of the emblazonment and the distinctive part of arms. The
shield is the one necessary part of the achievement, and may
comprise the whole of a coat of arms. "The shape of the shield
is not essential to the owner's heraldry ;" but the type is important.
The "type of shields most in use has varied at different times."
(Stevenson, Heraldry in Scotland, 134.) Bearing these facts in
mind, we cannot doubt that the Craigtoun Ewing arms are
founded upon those shown by Workman in 1565 ; and it is reason-
ably certain that the Craigtoun (or Craigtown) arms mark fam-
ily succession. The type of the shield is one item of the evidence
leading to this conclusion. That type belongs to a period of about
300 years ending earlier than 1499.

A Ewing tombstone dated 1600, in Bonhill Churchyard, has
upon it these arms ; and McEwen supposes that this stone marks
the grave of one of the Ewings of the Craigtoun family. Ross
tells us that Bishop Ewing found upon a Ewing gravestone in the
old Ewing burying ground on the banks of Loch Lomond, in the
midst of our old clan lands, believed to be the stone of the grave
of the bishop's grandfather's cousin, "the family coat of arms."
(Ross, Memoir of Alexander Ezving, 101.) There are six entries
of Ewing arms, each slightly differentiated from the others to
denote succession, in the Lyon's office of Scotland, made since the
old records which I have described, and all of them are founded
upon the earlier arms. The editor of "Clan Ewen" says : "All
the Ewing arms are founded upon those of Ewen or Ewing of
Craigtoun. He belonged to the family of Keppoch in Dumbar-
tonshire" (Clan Bwen, p. 45.) Spooner, the American genealo-
gist, says : "The arms of the Ewing family show several varia-
tions, but there is a substantial uniformity in those borne by the
Scottish branches." This uniformity means common origin ; and,
taken in connection with our traditions, establishes the fact of
family descent from the family to which the arms earliest be-
longed.

"All members of the same family carry the same bearings in
their coat of arms," and to distinguish the principal bearer from
his descendants or relatives recognized signs are used. "These

362 CLAN SWING OF SCOTLAND

signs are called differences." This differencing or cadency is
usually shown "by bordure, which is again further differenced
among the younger sons of younger sons by being engrailed, in-
verted, indented, embattled, and so forth."

The oldest son inherits, in Scotland, the right to the "undif-
ferenced" arms of his ancestor ; but younger sons can "matricu-
late" the family arms. It appears that the Ewing arms registered
in the Lyon office were entered by younger sons.

"Sisters have no difference in their coat of arms. They are
permitted to bear the arms of their father, as the eldest son does
after his father's decease."

Now compare the arms of the American branches of our
families, representative reproductions of which are shown herein ;
and the arms of Ewing of Craigtoun, and those shown upon the
Bonhill tomb, and those shown upon the tomb of the family to
which Bishop Ewing belonged and then compare these with the
Workman reproduction — and then it is seen that it does not re-
quire an expert to see the identity. Distorted and abused as are
some of the late emblazonments, their source in the Workman
arms of 1565 is yet apparent. Entitled to preserve the heraldric
devices of our ancestors, believing that our early American
fathers would not claim what under the Scotch law was forbid-
den, we are warranted in accepting the identity of the American
with the Scotch source, those devices with the oldest Scotch arms,
as establishing, prior to 1565, the common ancestor of our Ameri-
can branches.

The late R. S. T. MacEwen, of Scotland, in his "History of
the Clan Ewen," from which Highland clan he erroneously gets
the Ewings (though probably correctly the MacEwens), as shown
in another chapter, says that "the arms, themselves, throw no light
on the family history of the Ewens or Ewings." He was under
the impression that the Ewings arms, a cut of which he gives,
and which are taken from Nisbet, "came into the Ewen or Ewing
family with the lands of Craigtoun by the marriage of Walter
Ewen, or Ewing, writer to the signet, with the eldest daughter of
Bryson." He says further : "These arms belonged originally to
Bryson of Craigtoun ;" and that so coming into the Ewing family
they "appear on a tombstone of 1600 in Bonhill Churchyard,"
marking the grave of Ewing of Craigtoun. His authority, he says,
is "Nisbet, System of Heraldry (1722)," "one of the best authori-

Photo-reproduction of arms recognized by Dr. John
Ewing of the University' of Penns3Tlvania, as belonging' to
his Scotch ancestors. The Ejwing arms are on the reader's
left, — sun, cheveron, banner, &c. The figures on the right
are those of other arms.

Both originals of this and number two were used very
early in America, and when the first American ancestors
of our family were yet living.

EWING ARMS 363

ties on ancient Scottish heraldry." He adds further that in that
work "it is said that these arms are carried by John Ewen, writer
to the signet (that is, a lawyer in a certain Scotch court), and
further on, with reference to Bryson of Craigtoun, that 'this fam-
ily ended in two daughters ; the eldest married Walter Ewing,
writer to the signet ; they were the father and mother of John
Ewing, writer to the signet, who possesses the lands of Craigtoun
which belonged to his grandfather by the mother's side, and by
the father's side he is male representer of Ewing of Keppoch, his
grandfather, in the Shire of Dumbarton; which lands of Kep-
poch were purchased by a younger son of the family, who had
only one daughter, married to John Whitehill ; whose son Thomas
possesses the lands of Keppoch, and is obliged to take upon him
the name of Ewing.' "

Now here is what Nisbet's work, revised in the 1804, 1816
edition, says :

"In our New Register Mr. Andrew Bryson of Craigton
carried gules, a saltier between two spur-rowels in fesse, a spear-
head in chief, and a crescent in base or. Plate 11, fig. 30.

"This family ended in two daughters ; the eldest of them was
married to Walter Ewing, Writer to the Signet, father and
mother of John Ewing, Writer to the Signet, who possesses the
lands of Craigton, which belonged to the grandfather by the
mother's side ; and, by the father's side, he is the male representer
of Ewing of Keppoch, his grandfather, in the shire of Dumbar-
ton : which lands of Keppoch were purchased by a younger son
of the family, who had only one daughter, married to John White-
hill, whose son Thomas possesses the lands of Keppoch, and is
obliged to take upon him the name of Ewing.

"The arms of Ewing are carried by John Ewing of Craig-
ton, Writer to the Signet, of which before, page 412." (lb. p.
428.)

That is quite a different story! I don't see how MacEwen,
a barrister-at-law, practicing in one of Scotland's courts, made
so great a blunder. Nisbet does not say that John Ewing car-
ried the Bryson arms. Read his description of the Bryson arms,
look at the photo-reproduction as Nisbet gives them in "Plate 11,
fig. 30," reproduced herewith, and it will readily be seen that the
Bryson arms are not the Ewing arms. Not this only, Nisbet
says plainly:

>64

CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

"The arms of Ewing are carried by John Ewing of Craig-
ton, Writer to the Signet, of which before, page 412."

THE BRYSO.V ARMS
Shown by Nisbet. From a photograph

Turning back to page 412 we read :

"Workman, in his Illuminated Book of Arms, gives such a
cheveron (that is, a cheveron embattled, see the illustration
where the cheveron looks like a stairway) to the name EUENE,
argent, a cheveron pignpne azure, ( for which our heralds say
embattled) and ensigned on the top with a banner gules, between
two stars in chief, and a soleil of the last in the base, and the
same are carried by John Ewen, Writer to the Signet, as in Plate
of Achievements." That is every word I find upon the subject
in Nisbet, whose monumental work was prosecuted largely by
funds supplied by the Parliament of Scotland.

So that Nisbet identifies the arms of John Ewing in 1722
with the arms shown in the Workman Manuscript of 1565. The
spelling Euene is, as I understand it, an adjective of Ewing, used
to indicate the clan or family. On the other page of his book
Nisbet spells the name E-w-i-n-g each time, and on page 412 he
spells John Ewing as John Ewen, showing, as is true, that in
1722 spelling was not yet uniform, but that the form Ewing was
the more general. Ross, in his Memoir of Bishop Ewing, a much
later work, says Bishop Ewing belonged to "that branch of
Ewene stock" which was early numerous along Loch Lomond in
Dumbartonshire, — and this is the stock claimed rightly, I am
sure, by our ancestors.

EWING ARMS 365

Further, Nisbet says he reproduces the arms "belonging to
the name of Ewing as in the Plate of Achievements." Among
the- many he reproduces we find those arms on Plate 21, which
we have reproduced from a photograph. A glance identifies
those arms with those of the Ewing clan of 1565.

Also these reproductions show unquestionably that the
Ewing arms and the Bryson arms are not the same. Nisbet
gave the arms, it will also be noticed, as embellished in 1722, with
the crest and motto. Most of the arms shown by Nisbet have
the ornamentation outside the shield, and that elaboration has no
distinctive value. It is merely a later cumbersome "embellish-
ment." This photograph of the Workman arms is from
Stodart's reproduction of Workman. Stodart, at the time he
reproduced his work, wras Lyon King of Arms of Scotland ; and
he gave us the most correct representations of the most authentic
and genuine coats of arms known to his office.

Hence the arms we now claim as evidence of pedigree evi-
dently come from the same source as those of the Keppoch
branch of our clan. Nisbet says that John Ewing, wrhose father
married Bryson's daughter, "is the male representer of Ewing of
Keppoch, his grandfather, in the Shire of Dumbarton." Being
the male representer he was entitled to the undifferenced arms of
his ancestors. But apparently we did not descend from the
Ewing-Bryson branch. We may have descended from a younger
son of the Keppoch family, but probably go further back. As
the younger son was entitled to "matriculate" the arms of the
father, our arms probably come down through the younger
branch, a generation or more older than the Ewing-Bryson
branch.

However, Stodart says that Robert Ewing, the last of the
male line of the Craigtoun family, was dead in 1T81 "when his
heirs were his sisters, Elizabeth, wife of Rev. John Bell, and
Agnes, wife of Edward Inglis of Edinburgh." Finally the es-
tate and arms came into collateral Ewing hands or a descendant
of one of the girls assumed the Ewing name; and in 1869 Alex-
ander Ewing, merchant of Glasgow, registered these arms as de-
scribed by Spooner and as given presently.

Hence, the arms, or "achievement," on the tombstone of 1600
in Bonhill Churchyard," "supposed to be (the tomb of) Ewing

366 CLAN KWING OF SCOTLAND

of Craigtoun," of which McEwen speaks, are, it is clear, Ewing
arms, and not the Bryson arms. Now, all the arms of the Scotch
Ewings, there being six registrations in the Loyon's Office, all
subsequent to the Workman Manuscript, and most of them com-
paratively recent, show a general uniformity with the old arms
existing earlier than 1565. These were evidently the arms found
upon the tomb of the Ewing buried upon the banks of Lomond
upon which tomb Bishop Ewing saw "the family coat of arms,"
and to whose family the bishop belonged. They were carved
upon the stone of the Ewing buried in Bonhill in 1600. The
American Ewings of whom I write have handed down to us re-
productions of their ancestors' arms, which reproductions yet ex-
hibit the same uniformity and show that they are identical with
the above-mentioned reproductions ; all being the arms evidently
existing before 1565. An ancient common ancestry of all the fam-
ilies thus distinguished is thus shown.

Now, then, just a few words that we may better understand
how our arms should be emblazoned.

In ancient heraldry "the essential parts of arms are tinctures
and figures." The tinctures are two metals (colors, we say in mod-
ern painting) and five colors. Old heralds speak of the gold and
silver colors as metals. Originally the warrior's shield was of pol-
ished metal, either actually or resembling silver or gold, or, at
least, in the case of" a potentate, having gold embellishments. The
Latin names for these metals are used and nearly always in de-
scriptions abbreviated: gold, orgent, or; silver, argent, ar. The
colors used of old are azure, blue ; gules, red ; sable, black ; vert,
green ; purpune, purple ;, and are generally abbreviated, az.,
gu., etc.

Some of the modern productions of Ewing arms do not show
the shield. For instance, see the picture of the Maskell Ewing,
Jr., and the John Ewing reproductions. Either the shield was
omitted by some unversed modern artist, or the figures are
mounted in something in the nature of a lozenge to denote descent
from a daughter of an ancestor who bore arms, and who, if such
were true, evidently married a Ewing, thus handing down to
that John and that Maskell the Ewing name and arms through
two slightly differing sources, though almost certainly in such a
case both parents some years earlier of the same family.

Photo-reproduction of the arms recongized by the
Hon. Thos. lowing- family as coming from Scotch ances-
tors. The banner is flung out in the wrong direction,
due possibly to the use of something resembling a lozenge.

The bars in the helmets and the lines indicating colors
in the originals from which both halftone reproductions
were made show clearly.

EWING ARMS 367

On the right-hand side of the John Ewing arms here shown
are figures from the arms of some other family into which one
of the parents or an ancestor of one had evidently at one time
married. It is not unusual to display upon one shield or lozenge
both paternal and maternal arms.

In modern days ladies do not use a shield upon which to
display the charges of arms — women are not supposed to fight.
In place of the shield the lozenge is used. Grant defines a lozenge
as "a diamond-shaped figure, but not rectangular, two of its angles
being acute and two obtuse." Then he adds : "The arms of ladies
are always displayed on a lozenge instead of an escutcheon." In
the earlier days ladies of rank bore their arms upon shields, how-
ever.

Our shield, or our lozenge, then, and its bearings, or figures,
are thus described, as we saw, by Nisbet as given by Workman,
and should be accordingly emblazoned, disregarding anything for
difference, and accepting the arms as Workman found them as
coming down to us through the oldest child from generation to
generation :

"Argent, a cheverone pegnone azure ( for which our heralds
say embattled), and ensigned on the top with a banner gules, be-
tween two stars in chief, and a soleil (sun) of the last in the
base."

Since 1565 something has been added to the banner, and as
thus modified the Ewing arms are :

"Argent, a cheveron embattled azure, ensigned with a banner
gules charged with a canton of the second, thereon a saltire of the
first, all between two mullets in chief and the sun in his splendor
in the base of the third."

This describes the arms registered by Alexander Ewing,
merchant, of Glasgow, in the Lyon's Office in 18G9 ; and doubtless
he registered the arms as inherited by him. It is very striking
that, as far as I have seen, the canton and the saltire were dis-
played on emblazonments used by our American ancestors for at
least one hundred and forty years before similar arms were
thus registered by our distant kinsman, the merchant of Glasgow.

The old arms which the Workman manuscript has show
no saltier, a cross similar to the letter X. The saltier must have
been added, therefore, to our banner since 1565. Some Scotch

368 CLAN SWING OF SCOTLAND

arms bear the saltier which is said to come down from an argent
saltier on an azure field which adorned the banner of a con-
federacy between the Scots and the Picts which resulted in their
killing the Saxon King Athelstan in East Lothian ; but that was
back in 941. Had that been the source of our saltier it certainly
would be shown on the arms given by Workman. The saltier,
which came to be known as the St. Andrew's cross, after 1557
when the Scotch barons entered into what is generally known as
the first Covenant for the support of the Protestant religion,
came to distinguish the banner of the Covenanters ; and that, it
appears most probable, is the origin of our saltier.

In non-technical language, here is the description, and it in-
dicates the way our American emblazonment of our ancestors'
arms should be made :

The shield is of silver ; upon the shield is an azure-colored
chevron embattled (that is, resembling a stairway, as shown in
the illustration) ; on the point of the cheveron is a red banner,
flung out to the right ; on the banner is a canton, that is, a quar-
ter, the upper left quarter as one looks at the picture, of azure color
of the second (meaning of the second color mentioned, as colors
are not repeated, but given as first, second, third, etc.) ; thereon,
that is, on the canton, quarter, a saltire, an X-shaped cross, of
the first, that is, of silver ; all between two mullets in chief, that
is, between two stars in the upper half of the shield ; and the
sun in his splendor, that is, the full burst, in the base, of the third,
that is, of red — the mullets, stars or spurrowels, and sun are of
red, red being the third color given in the technical description.

Upon the shield, as shown in the photograph from Nisbet,
place the helmet and upon it the lion, holding in the right paw a
mullet or star in red.

In a print such as Nisbet gives colors and metals are indi-
cated by the direction of the lines, by dots, etc. For instance,
nothing upon the face of the shield indicates silver, to represent
steel ; the horizontal lines in the cheveron indicate azure ; the per-
pendicular lines in the stars and the banner and in the sun indi-
cate red ; and red is the color of the head and body, mostly, of
the lion, the checkered lines of the right leg indicating a darker
color, and so along the back, etc. The claws and tongue should
be blue, though this is not indicated by the picture.

EWING ARMS 369

The motto may be placed as shown by Nisbet or as indi-
cated in the halftones from the arms of Dr. John Ewing and
from those of Maskell Ewing.

The dots, by the way, in the cross and stars of the Bryson
arms indicate gold, it may be interesting to remember in this
connection.

In reproducing our arms there should be careful compliance
with these requirements. For difference, that is to mark descend-
ants of younger children, there should be used some figure within
the shield, a bird, a leaf, or any appropriate thing; or an in-
dented or other border. For instance, I have in my collection a
painting of our arms having two birds in the upper chief, that is,
the upper half of the shield ; and many generations ago these
were placed there for difference. But few of us in America now
know whether our ancestor of the remote Scotch days was the
oldest or youngest, and as arms to us now are of value mainly
to indicate remote Scotch ancestry, a difference mark is not, un-
less it be known that it should be used, important in emblazoning
for our use.

Let's glance a moment at the "appendages" of our shield in
concluding.

"Strictly speaking, armorial bearings are confined to the con-
tents of the shield . . . Heralds have always regarded the ap-
pendages to the shield — supporters, helmet, motto, mantling.
&c pj — as being less important than the charges proper. These,
however, add much to the interest of the coat-of-arms, and de-
serve more than merely a passing notice. The technical word
for the entire composition is 'achievement.' The earliest known
Scottish seal containing crest and supporters, as well as the arms
proper, is that of Patrick, Ninth Earl of Dunbar, 133-1."

The reproduction herein from the Workman Manuscript
shows Ewing arms "proper" — no supporters, no crest, no motto,
no helmet, no mantling. The reproductions of the arms used
by Maskell Ewing, Jr., by Thomas and Anna C. Ewing, and others
show appendages, some of them very modern as to Ewing arms.
Of course we know that the modern appendages are of no gen-
ealogical value to us and have no heraldic significance ; and so
we consider only such as were evidently used by our Scotch an-
cestors.

370 CIvAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

"The helmet is a purely ornamental accessory of arms, and
is placed directly above the shield. It varies in design according
to the age to which it belongs, and in position and character ac-
cording to the rank of its owner," says Mathews.

The helmet is an "ancient piece of defensive armor; it
covered the face, leaving an aperture in the front, secured by
bars ; this was called the visor. The helmet is now placed over
a coat of arms, and by the metal from which it is made, the form,
and position, denotes the rank of the person whose arms are em-
blazoned beneath it.

"The helmets of sovereigns are formed of burnished gold ;
knights, esquires and gentlemen, polished steel.

"All helmets were placed on profile till about the year KiOO,
when the present arrangement appears to have been introduced
into armory.

"The position of the helmet is a mark of distinction. The
direct front view of the grated helmet belongs to sovereign
princes and has six bars.

"The grated helmet in profile is common to all degrees of
peerage, with five bars.

"The helmet without bars, with the beaver open, standing
directly fronting the spectator, denotes a baronet or knight.

"The closed helmet seen in profile is appropriated to es-
quires and gentlemen," as laid down by Grant, a Scotch herald.

Now, since there "can be no doubt that the heraldric helmet
was not originally a distinguishing ensign of rank" (Stevenson,
Heraldry in Scotland, 201), the position of the helmet found on
the modern reprodutions of Ewing arms does not assist us in
learning the rank of our earliest ancestors who bore arms at
least prior to 1565. Of course as there were an hundred years
between that time and the birth of our William Ewing, the
father of Nathaniel of Cecil County, and his contemporary kin-
dred in Scotland and Ireland, branches of the family from the
clan prior to 1660 had time and opportunity to acquire rank-
different rank, in fact. It may be that this fact accounts for
the differences in the positions of bars shown on tbe family
arms of several American brandies ; or these differences may
be the blunders of artists not versed in heraldry. For instance,
the arms shown in The Ewing Genealogy (Houston, Tex., 1919),

EWING ARMS 371

by Hon. P. K. and M. E. Ewing, appear to show three bars only.
I am inclined to the opinion that somewhere back before Judge
Ewing and his accomplished wife obtained the copy from which
was made the picture they used, an artist blundered. The Ewing
of Craigtoun arms, given by Nisbet, show very certainly the
four or five bars ; and the John Ewing reproduction, and that of
Maskell Ewing, Jr., which are the arms belonging also to my
immediate branch, show certainly an open visor and four or five
bars, depending on how the count is made.

All the American reliable reproductions of our family hel-
met which I have seen, are in profile ; and none of them shows
a closed visor. Hence, the rank indicated is something above
that of esquire and gentleman.

That all American copies of our arms which show the hel-
met, as far as I have found (except a few inaccurate copies of
the old extant copies, made in the last few years), have the hel-
met in profile, is important, and this fact suggests that we go
back to the family arms before 1600. As we have seen, Grant says,
"all helmets were placed on profile till about the year 1600."
This position of our helmet bears out the traditions that the
Ewings who were in the historic siege of Londonderry, Ulster,
Ireland, 1689, and their contemporaries and close kin whose
children came direct from Scotland to America, were from a
common family earlier than 1600, — and of course from the an-
cestor of that family who was of an earlier day. It is natural
that the arms, when the achievement was faithfully executed,
would show as they existed at the time of the dispersion of the
Scotch family.

On the helmet of Ewing arms as displayed by the Ameri-
can family, and by our ancestors certainly earlier than Nisbet's
reproduction made in 1722, is the lion rampant.

This lion is the crest. In Stevenson's Heraldry in Scot-
land (p. 179) we are told:

"Ancient documentary seals, which are our chief authority
for tbe antiquities of coat armor, afford us valuable information
regarding crests, helmets, mottoes and other exterior heraldric
ornaments. The crest (crista), as is well known, was a figure
affixed at an early age to the warrior helmet for the purpose
of distinction in the confusion of battle; and there can be no

372 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

doubt that, like devices on shields, was used long before the
era of heraldry bearings."

So that it is probable that our crest, the lion rampant, holding
a mullet (star) in the dexter (right) paw, is the most ancient
part now shown upon our arms. The lion has long been the
cognizance of the king.

McMillan calls attention to the fact that John of Fordun
(now known as John Fordun) in his Scotichronican, written
about 1385, claims that about 330 years before Christ Albion had
a king

"Whose mighty shield,

"Bore a red lion on a gold field."

The earliest known seal bearing a lion is that of Philip,
Duke of Flanders, which dates from about 11G4, according to
Scotch authority. The first Scottish king to use the lion ram-
pant on his seal was Alexander (1214-1249). He used the lion
only ; no fleurs-de-lis and no tressure.

McMillan thinks probably the lion was used on banners be-
fore it became the ensign of the king of the Scots. Anyway,
it is certain that the Scots in the army of Charlemagne, about
800 A. D., carried the lion as their ensign.

The royal banner of Scotland is the lion rampant of red sur-
rounded by the royal tressure on a gold field. "When shown in
full blazon, the claws, teeth and tongue of the Scottish lion are
colored blue in accordance with the rule of heraldry that these
parts of a beast of prey should be of a different tincture from
the rest of the animal."

"The royal crest of the Scottish kings," it is even more in-
teresting to note since the lion is our crest, "from the date of its
first appearance on the helmet of King Robert II, 1370-'l, has
been a lion. On his great seal it appears statant guardant, but
in the Armorial de Gelre (c. 1380) it is a lion sejant, crowned
and with a sword in its right paw." Ours is the rampant lion,
holding a mullet (a star) in the dexter paw.

How the lion came to be one of the appendages of the
Kwing shield I have been unable to learn. I am inclined to be-
lieve it comes to us from that distant day when our clan ances-
tors bore the lion on the tribal banner in battle. It is not at all
unreasonable that some of them served in the Scots unit of

KWIXG ARMS 373

Charlemagne's army. 800 A. D. It may be that our ancestors
were entitled to the use of the lion as an embellishment of the
shield by reason of descent from King Ewin. However, the
Ewings are not the only Scotch family using the lion on the coat
of arms, or as an appendage, notwithstanding the lion is to the
king of the Scots much in the nature of a trade-mark to the
owner in America. Upon this point it will be worth the time to
quote again from McMillan's interesting book :

"Quite a number of Scotch families bear the lion rampant,
and as a charge (or figure within the escutcheon) in Scottish
heraldry the lion swamps all other animals put together. The
arms carried by these families are not, however, infringements of
the royal arms, as the distinctive combination of the lion rampant^
double tressure and fluers-de-lis is not found there. Lord Rose-
bery has a samble lion rampant on a white field in the second and
third quarter of his shield, while the ancient family of Wallace,
which gave Scotland one of its most stalwart defenders, bore
a silver lion rampant on red field. The Edgars of Wedderlie,
descendants from the old Earls of Northumberland, bore sable
a lion rampant argent. The Crichtons carry a blue lion on a
white field, while the MacMillan's lion is sable on gold. Certain
families claiming descent from Scottish kings carry the royal
arms, sometimes with a baton sinister or a bordure gabony to
denote that their descent though direct is illegitimate."

Gabony, or compony, is a heraldric term meaning composed
of two tinctures, generally metal color, in alternate squares
in one row. There is, however, no gabony in any Ewing arms.

The lion, therefore, is, it is not at all unlikely, another link
indicating our descent from the clan which got its surname from
King Ewin.

I am not sure whether or not our arms at an early day had
supporters. Xisbet shows none. Some embellishments, for
instance, the sheep, Masonic emblems, &c, appearing in connec-
tion with our ancient family arms as used by some of our Ameri-
can families, appear to be meant for supporters. But they are
merely embellishments of modern introduction and, though in-
teresting and suggestive, have no heraldric value.

Audacitcr, boldly, the ancient motto used in connection with
their coat of arms by our early ancestors, may have been orig-

374 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

inally the clan war cry. Its laconic nature is given by authorities
versed in heraldry as a reason for this possibility. The evidence
shows that our motto was used in connection with the shield at a
very early day ; and it is not at all impossible that the present
word is the Latin of an earlier word of the old Brythonic tongue.
The motto, as Stevenson explains, "consists, as everybody
knows, of a word or sentence upon a ribbon or scroll." That
author further says that the motto "has been rarely changed,
either in England or Scotland, by families of ancient lineage, and
has generally proved to be as hereditary in its character as the
charges in the escutcheon." Our family is certainly very
ancient ; and so there is every reason to believe that our motto
has come to us unchanged form far down the centuries.

The ancient character of our motto is one reason why I am
of opinion that our ancestors were Britons of the Cymric stock
and not Gaels or Dalriadiac Scots ; and, hence not of the Clan
Ewen of Otter, to which the McEwens or McEwans belong.
The motto of McEwan of County Stirling, as given by Barrister
McEwen, is Pervicax recti; and that of McEwan of Glasgow is
Reviresco. Neither of these, clearly, came from our ancestral
motto. McEwen says this McEwan (or McEwen) motto, be-
fore is was registered by the Glasgow member of the family
"had been common to the McEwans everywhere for a long time*
previous, and had been used as a badge on seals." That author
also says that McEwens of Glasgow are related to the "same
families which are joined by the McEwens of Otter." Hence,
in the strong difference between the ancient mottos of these two
ancient families we have important evidence of their distinct
origins.

The James Ewing branch of Wheeling, West Virginia, has
the arms and motto as they came from Scotland to the other
members of our family ; but that Jamej Ewing branch has, ac-
cording to a drawing sent me by James W. Ewing, attorney, of
Wheeling, another motto which is placed on a ribbon at the top
of the shield and about the base of the crest. This motto reads

"Hang your banner on the outward wall."

I have been unable to learn the history of that motto. Evi-
dently it is comparatively modern and has been acquired by the
branch to which it belongs since that branch left the common

EWING ARMS 375

family from which it and our branches came. I am inclined to
guess that this additional motto has some relation to the family
connection with the famous Londonderry siege of 1689.

Another attempt to copy the old arms comes to me from
St. Louis. The cheveron, as there given, is not embattled, a great
error ; the colors and tinctures are incorrect, and the helmet has a
frontal display, for which I can find no valid authority. This
copy, however, has three birds, and these probably come from
some old copy where they were rightly used by younger children
for difference.

However, upon the whole it is quite clear to me that all so-
called "Ewing arms" which I have seen and which are claimed
by different branches of our family are, when incorrectly
blazoned, badly done copies of the genuine original and in so far
as they correctly disclose the essentials of the early parental arms
are valuable evidences of descent. It is hoped, though, that in
the future artists will follow more accurately the requirements.

XXXIII.
AUDACITER!— VESTIGIA NULLA RETRORSUM.

Such is an outline — and but the merest outline — of Clan
Ewing's contribution to America. In no case did any descendant
reach the apex of greatness or leave fame supremely effulgent.
And yet the contribution of the vast majority has been so credit-
able and so substantial and that of the many so much beyond the
usual, that in the aggregate our contribution to the best in all
spheres of American life has been phenomenal.

Than those specifically here mentioned, there are many more
I could not mention and of course many of whom I do not know.
Could their names, including those of the blood by the maternal
side, be gathered upon one great scroll, the result would be to us
both pleasing and astonishing.

To those who do not have ready access to the larger libraries,
it will be worth while to call attention to the fact that my estimate
of the value of the family's contribution to progress and learning
is corroborated by the representation accorded descendants of our
clan found in standard biographical American literature. Who
is Who in America, though I do not agree with it as to much it
excludes, may be taken as reasonably representative of that bio-
graphical estimate of our clan's living descendants. In the cur-
rent edition we find that :

Arthur E. Ewing, physician, born in Georgia of the Mary-
land-Virginia line, as we have seen, son of Whitley Thomas and
Hannah Jane Pettinggill Ewing, was admitted to the Alabama
bar in 1879; and subsequently became a distinguished physician
of St. Louis.

David L. Ewing, born in Iowa, is credited as a railway traf-
fic official of unusual ability; son of William Wallace Ewing;
now in New York City.

Fayette Clay Ewing, M. D., born in Louisiana in 1862, of
Virginia ancestry, is credited as a physician of much distinction
and with having written much of value in his line of work. It is
shown that he has many degrees and has held many positions to
which his great learning entitles him.

376

audaciter! vestigia nueea retrorsum 377

Next we find James Ewing, M. D., pathologist, of Pitts-
burgh, Pennsylvania, born 1866. He, too, it is shown, enjoys
many degrees and honors and is an author of note ; and professor
in Cornell University.

Then comes James Caruthers Rhea Ewing, college president
and one of the most noted missionaries to India. He has many
degrees, has written extensively ; and King George V bestowed
upon him the C. I. E. (Companion of the Indian Empire). He
is a brother of Major R. M. Ewing and Rev. Jos. L. Ewing,
mentioned in this work, of Pennsylvania ancestry.

Next is a notice of James Stevenson Ewing, of Indiana, of
the Maryland-North Carolina branch, a distinguished lawyer, long
in the diplomatic service, a cousin of ex- Vice-President A. Ewing
Stevenson.

Next is John Ewing, born in Alabama, son of James Lindsey
and Margaret Ann Ewing ; distinguished in the diplomatic service
and prominently connected with newspapers in the South.

Next is John Thomas Ewing, son of Jos. W. Ewing, pro-
fessor of classics at Sparta, Illinois.

Then we find mention of Nathaniel Ewing, long a jurist of
more than local influence in Pennsylvania.

Next is a sketch of Hon. Presley K. Ewing, born in Louis-
iana in 1860, of the Virginia house. He is the son of Fayette
Clay Ewing, M. D., and the brother of the younger Dr. Fayette
Clay Ewing mentioned above. As we have seen, it is also there
shown that he has served as president of the Texas bar associa-
tion and as chief justice of the supreme court of appeals of
that State ; that he is a high Mason, as is his brother ; and has
been Democratic National Committeeman. Among other things
it is shown that he has occupied many positions of honor, has
several literary degrees ; and, in addition to his genealogy which
we have mentioned, is an author of important law treatises.

Another brother of this Judge Ewing family, notice of whom
we also find, is Quincy Ewing, of Louisiana, a clergyman of
unusual power; and a writer on many religious topics.

Next is a sketch of Col. Robert Ewing, the son of James L.
and Martha A. Ewing, who was also born in Alabama in the
year 1859. As therein shown, his has been a career of remarkable
climbing. He began when a boy as a telegraph messenger ; in due

378 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

time he was manager ; he then became editor and manager of
important newspapers, among them the Shreveport Times, and
at present controls the New Orleans States. In 1888 to 1892 he
was superintendent of the fire alarm system and city electrician
of New Orleans; since 1912 he served as a member of the
National Democratic Committee ; was member of the Louisiana
constitutional convention in 1898 ; and has otherwise been hon-
ored. He is a high degree Mason and an Elk.

Then there is a sketch of Wm. Ewing, born in Canada, who
now lives in New York City.

Next, we find mention of Thomas Ewing, who was born in
Kansas in 1862. He is a lawyer of note and a son of Gen.
Thomas Ewing, who was a son of Hon. Thomas Ewing, born
in Virginia, and who was the first Secretary of the United States
Interior Department. The younger Thomas has many literary
degrees and is an author of recognized merit.

So much for that witness' estimate of living members of
our clan.

Now turn to the Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary
of Notable Americans, published in 1904. There we find men-
tion of the living and the dead regarded as notable Americans,
among them sketches of these :

Charles Ewing, born 1780 in New Jersey, son of James
Ewing, "an active patriot of the Revolution." This Charles
became chief justice of New Jersey and was long widely known.

Next is Charles Ewing, also a son of the Hon. Thomas
Ewing, who was born in Virginia. This Charles served as a high
officer with distinction in the Union army ; and subsequently be-
came one of the favorably known lawyers of Washington, D. C.

In that work we find Emma Pike Ewing, author of works
on domestic economy, the distinguished wife of one of the Cecil
County, Maryland, Ewings, but of course she was not of Ewing
stock.

Then we have the Rev. Finis Ewing, one of the founders
of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, distinguished in many
ways, of whom some mention has been made ; a descendant of
one of the Virginia branches.

Hugh Boyle Ewing is next. He was also a son of Hon.
Thomas Ewing, the Secretary of the Interior, United States

audaciter! vestigia nulla retrorsum 379

Senator, etc. This son became, among other things, an author of
deserved reputation.

Next is James Ewing, who was born in Pennsylvania in
1736. "His father came to Pennsylvania from north Ireland in
1734," that record tells us — undoubtedly belonging to our family.
The son became brigadier general of Pennsylvania troops and was
otherwise distinguished.

Next is James Stevenson Ewing, of Illinois, a cousin of
Adlai Ewing Stevenson, once Vice-President of the United
States. This Ewing, as was his cousin, was a lineal descendant
of the Maryland-North Carolina-Kentucky branch, as suggested
in the Who's Who list. Not only a lawyer of national renown,
he left some addresses that are substantial contributions to
literature.

Then there we find the Rev. John Ewing, D. D., "whose
ancestors came from the north of Ireland," says that record, the
distinguished Cecil County, Maryland, divine, mathematician,
philosopher, author, and educator.

Next in that work presenting notable Americans we find
Presley U. Ewing, born in Kentucky in 1822, son of Ephraim
M. and Jane Ewing, this Ephraim being once chief justice of
the Kentucky court of appeals. Presley studied for the ministry,
traveled in Europe, returned home and became a lawyer and
subsequently an influential member of Congress. He descended
from the Bedford, Virginia, branch.

Next is a sketch of the well-known Hon. Thomas Ewing,
then of his son, Thomas.

To these that work adds Hon. William Lee Davidson Ewing,
born in 1795, son of Rev. Finis Ewing. He became United
States Senator, was major in the Black Hawk war in 1832, and
was otherwise noted.

Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, to some or
all of these adds William Bellford Ewing, born in New Jersey
in 1771, long a jurist of much learning; Andrew Ewing, born in
Tennessee, a dashing Confederate officer; and who before his
death in Georgia "became an eminent lawyer;" and who was
also otherwise pleasingly recognized.

The American Blue Book of Biography, which gives "an
accurate biographical record of" "thirty thousand prominent

380 CLAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

American citizens," "founders, makers and builders of our great
Republic," published in 1914, gives thirteen Ewings. Oh, no!
Not unlucky ; there were thirteen original States ; and there are
thirteen stripes in the American flag! Those of our name,
every one again it may be confidently asserted, descended from
our old Scotch clan, sketches of whom are given in that work, are :

Adlai Thomas Ewing, of Chicago, lawyer and business
president, born in Illinois ; David L. Ewing, railway official, born
in Iowa ; the Dr. Fayette Clay Ewing, mentioned by the other
works ; Hampton D. Ewing, born in Washington, D. C, eminent
lawyer, of the firm of Ewing and Ewing; James Ewing, lawyer
and diplomat, born in Illinois ; John Gillespie Ewing, born in
Ohio, lawyer ; Mrs. Mary E. Ewing, born in Ohio, author and
poet; Nathaniel Ewing, jurist and banker, born in Pennsylvania;
Presley K. Ewing, the eminent Texas jurist and orator, men-
tioned by the other works ; Taylor Genius Ewing, born in
Tennessee, banker and publisher ; Thomas Ewing, born in Kansas,
lawyer and author, also in the other lists ; William Green Ewing,
eminent physician and surgeon, an educator, born in Nash-
ville, Tennessee; and myself, born in Virginia, credited as a
"lawyer and author."

There is also a sketch of me in Who's Who in the National
Capital, 1921.

As this is a work for the family, perhaps it is not improper
to add that among other evidences of merit, one of my books,
though not a text-book, has in one way or another been used
either in the law or history departments of eight of America's
leading universities ; and such large law-book firms as Lawyers
Cooperative Publishing Company, Rochester, New York; West
Publishing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota; and Bancroft-Whit-
ney Company, San Francisco, California, carry this work in
their regular lists of standard law books. The other works have
met receptions quite as pleasing.

The Library of Southern Literature, compiled under the
direct supervision of Dr. Edwin A. Alderman, president of the
University of Virginia, and Joel Chandler Harris, the distin-
guished author, editors in chief, assisted by other Southern men
of letters, published in 1910, gives sketches of Finis Ewing of

audaciter! vestigia nulla retrorsum 381

Virginia, Dr. John Ewing of Maryland, and mentions me as an
author, of Virginia, indicating the two of my books published at
that time, appraising them as "two volumes of much interest re-
lating to the causes of the Civil War."

Many others find distinguished mention on other pages of
American history and biography, and particularly upon the pages
of local history, but these are representative.

Every one of these Ewings, selected by biographers and
writers not related to them, as representative of eminent and
noted Americans, is a lineal descendant of the old Scotch clan of
which I am here writing, it again may be confidently asserted —
unless it be the one born in Canada. No effort has been made to
trace his pedigree. However, we may as well bear in mind,
many of our direct clan cousins located in Canada.

For a full appreciation of what the stock has contributed
to America and what it has accomplished, to these specifically
mentioned there should be added those of Ewing blood derived
through the maternal side ; for instance, Vice-President Adlai
Ewing Stevenson, a descendant of the Maryland pioneers ; and
also, of course, the many whose parts while less conspicuous
have been equally creditable and fully as important to progress.

With these facts in mind, let us take a brief retrospect before
we part.

Our earlier American ancestors, nearly all, were the pioneers
in the most advanced line of American expansion. That was a
period of dangers and hardships and few compensations. Those
ancestors broke the paths and subsequently built the roads west-
ward. They mastered the wilds of the wilderness. In the rich
valleys they built staunch and hospitable homes. They built
towns and founded cities. Not only law-abiding, in an
unusual number they were the officers of the law, the jurors,
lawyers, justices, the judges. Not moral only in an unusual
number, they were the leaders of their church and the
heralds of Christianity. They founded great industries and
opened trade routes. They fought in all the wars, as officers
in most instances. In Scotland they sided with the progressive
dissenters in church. At the siege of Londonderry, Ireland,
they contributed to Protestant democracy in state. In the Indian
wars in America they contributed their shares to snatch civiliza-

382 CIvAN EWING OF SCOTLAND

tion from the tomahawk and firebrand. Their contribution to
the success of the American Revolution was most substantial ;
and in the wars of 1812 and in that with Mexico in 1845 they
fought for the best American ideals. In the war between the
United States and the Confederacy eminent representatives were
found in the armies of each side — nearly all of those in the South
joining the Confederate forces. Legislators, writers, orators,
soldiers, educators, inventors, statesmen, "good citizens gen-
erally,"— they are found from presidential cabinets and the Vice-
Presidency down to artisans, merchants and farmers. In fact, to
every worthy and substantial phase of American life for over
two hundred years the blood of Clan Ewing of Scotland has con-
tributed happily and successfully. On land and sea, in war and
in peace, the exceptions negligible in a consideration of the whole,
our escutcheon has been seen in the front ranks of the best
citizenship and the highest morality.

Not boastingly but that this record may prove our inspira-
tion, this sketch is presented. Audacitcr! May we boldly press
onward ! But lest we be inclined to wear only our ancestral
laurels, we should adopt this further motto : Vestigia nulla
retrorsum! Upon each individual rests the responsibility that
there be no footprints retreating!

JAN 2 0 1S36-

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