Margaret M. Buchanon, along with her mother Mary (Ryan or Keys) and grandmother, Catherine Black, represent the Scotch- Irish branch of my family tree. They were a unique group of their own, and followed nearly the same path to the Carolinas as my German ancestors, but they were a fiercely different group and although they may have taken the same route, their story was vastly different.
In his book, The Scotch-Irish: The Scot in North Britain, North Ireland and North America", Charles A. Hanna reaccounts the travels of a Presbyterian minister, Alexander Craighead, who came as a minister to the scattered and widely spread Scotch-Irish families in frontier America.
"Mr. Craighead removed to the frontiers of Virginia between the years 1749 to 1752; and then a few years later to North Carolina, where he settled on Rocky River, in Mecklenburg County. (This area is now in Cabarrus County), "In Carolina he found a race of people remote from the seat of authority, among whom the intolerant laws of the English colonies were a dead letter................A race of men that feared neither the labor and hardships of a pioneer life, not the dangers of a frontier which was the scene of frequent bloody attacks by the savages."
"Under the teachings of Craighead, it is not strange that these people should be among the first to concieve the idea of Independence."
My Scotch-Irish ancestors were the most patriotic and rebelious of them all. First in fight and first in freedom, and from a son of Mary M. Buchanon came my entrance into the D.A.R.
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| The Great Wagon Road |
Margaret Mary Buchanon was the oldest child of Samuel Buchanon and his wife Mary. I've seen Mary's name as both Ryan or Keys. Margaret, was born in Lancaster, Lancaster County, Pennsylvaniaa in 1728
In 1728, residents living in the backwoods of Chester County complained that “thieves, vagabonds, and ill people” had infested the rural areas of what is now Lancaster County and petitioned for the creation of a new county. Residents also had to travel great distances to reach the Courthouse. Lancaster County was formed May 10, 1729 to address these concerns and bring a new seat of government to residents that were settled in this vast wilderness. It was the first county created beyond the original three counties of Bucks, Chester, and Philadelphia.
https://www.co.lancaster.pa.us/195/Lancaster-History
So Margaret was born the year the County was established. Her father, Samuel Buchanan had been born in Omagh, Tyrone, Ulster Ireland in 1705 and her mother in Tyrone as well. But Samuel's roots were not Irish.
His father, John Buchanon, was born in Tyrone in 1676 and died there in 1728, but had married his mother, Catherine Black, in 1703 in Mains Branshogle Killearn Ayre, Scotland.
John Buchanon's father, George Buchanon, was the son of Sir John Buchanon Laird Van Blairlusk, who first escaped Scotland for Holland, before having to seek refuge in Ireland. George's wife and John's mother, Elizabeth Mayne, hailed from Stirlingshire, Scotland.
The below link is on the Buchanans of Tyrone and shows portraits of some of them, including one U.S. President, James Buchanon.
http://aminports3.blogspot.com/2011/08/buchanan-family.html
So Margaret Mary Buchanon was of true Scottish and Irish stock.
In Pennsylvania her parents would bring 8 children into this new world. Margaret was followed by 6 brothers: 1730 John, 1732 James, 1734 George, 1736 David, 1737 Samuel Jr., 1738 William and the family ended with daughter Mary in 1739. Can you imagine how tough a woman Margaret must have been growing up with all of those little brothers? Her mother died in Lancaster County, PA in 1866 and the family removed to the Carolinas with several other Ulster Scots. They settled in what was to be known as the Waxhaw Colony. With them was grandmother, Catherine Black Buchanan and several other members of the Black family.
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| Beautiful County Tyrone |
In 1752, Margaret would marry William Marr Lemmond. The Lemmonds were truly Irish. William Marr hailed from Belfast and most likely met Margaret in Pennsylvania. The Lemmond line is less known, but between the two a family of Patriots were born. The Scotch-Irish who settled in Mecklenburg NC and Lancaster SC were greatly intermarried, including the families of the McCoys, McKays, Whites, Blacks, Alexanders, Walkers, Orrs, Queries, and so forth. I have nearly all of these families in this branch of my family tree.
In his book, "World of Toil and Strife: Coming Transformation in BackCountry South Carolina", Peter N. Moore writes;
"A note appended to the 1755 Anson County militia census, which liste sixty-one able bodied adult men, speaks volumes;" guns - 14 - wanting". ............"The Methodist families who settled along Waxhaw and Twelve Mile Creeks after the Revolution also married within their group"........In fact, many of these unions were confined to single congregations; Waxhaw Presbyterians tended not to marry Six Mile or Shiloh Presbyterians and vice versa."
So they were very tribal, this leads me to believe the Lemmonds, and there were two in this early group, William and John, were of the same Presbyterian Group as the Buchanans. This means they may have lingered for awhile in the Washington and Augusta county area of Virginia before coming to the Carolinas.
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| The Waxhaw Settlement |
My branch of Lemmonds seemed primarily settled around the area that is now Mint Hill and the part of Union County that once belonged to Mecklenburg. Many are buried at the old Philadelphia Presbyterian Church in Mint Hill. Several lived across the state line in Lancaster County, South Carolina.
Both Samuel Buchanan and William Lemmmond appear in the Mecklenburg County deeds quite often. On February 9, 1771, William recieved a grant from Justina and Abner Nash (Book 6 Page 25) for 100 acres on Coddle Creek. He would also acquire land on Goose Creek and Clear Creek.
In 1783, Samuel Buchanon was appointed Constable in place of James McComb. He held the job of Constable for several years. I tend to believe this was Margarets brother, Samuel Jr., instead of her father. A Samuel Buchanon served on a jury in 1795 and their father was deceased by then.
William and Margaret Buchanon Lemmonds would raise 6 children in this area that is now within Union and Cabarrus Counties of North Carolina.
1753: John Lemmond
1755: Robert Lemmond
1756: William Marr Lemmond, Jr.
1758: Margaret Jane Lemmond
1763: Eleanor "Ellen" Lemmond
1765: Joseph Lemmond
I descend from the oldest, John. John would marry Martha Elizabeth Query, daughter of John Query, a signer of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. Martha Query Lemmonds is another mother in my Family Tree. Both John and William Marr Lemmonds served in the Revolutionary War.
The British had never seen the likes of these fiercly independent Scotch-Irish and refereed to them as a "Nest of Hornets". That is why Charlotte and Mecklenburg County is oftern referred to as the 'Hornets Nest'.
William Marr Lemmonds served in the war as a Surgeon. I can only imagine he may have been more a butcher than a physician.
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| Samuel Buchanan Lands |
Samuel Buchanon would settle lastly in Ebenezer, Florence County, South Carolina, where he is buried. His mother, Catherine Black Buchanan, lived to see 1774 and the onset of American Freedom. My 8th Great Grandmother, I can feel her in my bones as a cantakerous, spirited old Scott.
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| Philadelphia Presbyterian in Mint Hill |
Margaret Mary Buchanon Lemmonds died in 1788 in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. The place of her burial is unknown, but could be at Philadelphia Presbyterian Church. This part of Mecklenburg is now in Union County. The mother of Patriots and daughter of Scotch-Irish pioneers, I honor my 6th Great Grandmother.