John James Gilliland (abt. 1689)

Born about 1689 in Londonderry, Londonderry, Ireland

Ancestors

Descendants

Died [date unknown] in Faggs Manor, Chester, Pennsylvania

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Biography

This biography is a rough draft. It was auto-generated by a GEDCOM import and needs to be edited.

Note: Birth date estimated. Used 25 yrs old when birth of his child James.

According to family documents, John, father of James Gilliland, came to Pennsylvania in the 1730's.

According to "Historical Collections of Brown County," he settled in Faggs Manor, Chester County, Pennsylvania, and brought 10 children with him to America. His first name was evidently unknown to the writer. The book indicates his family landed at Newcastle, Delaware, in 1730.

Fagg's Manor was west of London Grove, about 35 miles from Philadelphia. An estate of 5000 or more acres, it was named for Sir John Fagg but owned by Letitia Penn. Fagg's Manor Presbyterian Church was established in 1730. Today there is a Faggs Manor Road in Londonderry Township. Albert M. Cook, in his book on Irish Quakers in Pennsylvania, states that Fagg's Manor was later erected into Londonderry Township. He says that during the 1720s and 30s "the Manor was exposed to the encroachments of the Scotch-Irish squatters, who caused the authorities much annoyance by the irregularities of their settlements." In 1730, at least, an attempt was made to warn the Irish off the Manor.

The McMillan book says three of the older sons came to America first to investigate, and the rest were to follow. Catherine's decision to stay behind led to her name not being mentioned in the family for many years. Different sources list the children's names in different orders, but they agree on the names: James, Catherine, Andrew, Adam, Thomas, John, Sarah, Jane, Mary, Hugh, and Robert. But there is serious doubt about whether these names and the story belong to this generation of Gillilands (see under the Van Wert County Gillilands below).

Abstracts of Chester County land records indicate that, on April 12, 1740, James Russell of Upper Providence, merchant, secured a loan of 30 pounds from John Gilleylan, merchant, City of Philadelphia, with a tract of land. The tract became Gilleylan's on September 1, when the loan was not paid. Land records for 1752 mention John Gilleylen of the City of Philadelphia and his wife Hester. The 1970 book, "The Loving Gillilands," by Greenwood, states that this John Gilliland was born in Antrim County, 1706 and died 1780 in Chester County. His wife was Hester Romar or Esther Rome (married at First Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, August 3, 1742). Descendants of this John say they were descended from three Gilliland brothers who came from Ireland in 1740. They also claim descent from William "Willie" Gilliland, a Scot who took part in a battle in 1676 against the King of England and, losing, had to flee to Ireland.

Birth records show the following children of John Gillelan baptized at First Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia: William (September 15, 1743), Susanna (October 3, 1744), Esther (December 31, 1745). The mother's name is not given. There is also a Jacob Gillilen, baptized May 29, 1751, in the Dutch Reformed Church, Northampton Township, Bucks County, son of John Gillilen and Hester Roome Gillilen. The 1789 will of Joanna Young, Philadelphia, reveals her to be a niece of Esther Roome Gilliland.

The connection between John, husband of Esther, and our James is that both are said to be descended from William Gilliland, who fought against England, apparently at Londonderry. But John's marriage date of 1742 makes it impossible for him to be James' father; they might have been brothers.

John Gillylan appears on the tax list of East Caln in 1753.

Gillilands who probably belong to this family include:

1) James Gilliland of Fallowfield, Chester County. His will was dated May 4, 1798, and probated May 24, 1798. It provides for his wife Hannah and his 9 children (not named). Executor was his son William. This James was co-executor to John Carruthers, West Fallowfield (August 15, 1786). Hannah's maiden name was Adams, as revealed in the 1791 will of Joseph Adams, who mentions her as James Gilliland's wife. He also mentions 10 grandchildren, none with the surname of Gilliland. Joseph Adams' co-executor was to have been James Gilliland, his son-in-law, but the will was not probated until 1801, when James was dead, so apparently William Gilliland was appointed co-executor instead. William Gilliland was a witness to the will of Nathaniel Walker of Londonderry in 1778.

2) John and William Gilliland, beneficiaries in the will of Lodowick Liggett of East Caln, written December 9, 1780. He referred to them as the children of his deceased daughter Jane. John was to receive 10 pounds and William 30 pounds when he reached the age of 18.

3) Men named James Gilliland as follows:

co-executor named in the will of David Ramsey, Londonderry, March 4, 1782 (4 years after the death of James son of John).

in Oxford Township, witness to wills of Jennett Fleming (March 12, 1783) and John Wallace (May 23, 1784), and co-executor to Job Rushton (January 17, 1784)

administrator of estate of William Clingan (February 26, 1790) and that of James Moore of East Caln (May 26, 1790)

4. The Van Wert County (Ohio) Gillilands. The History of Van Wert County, by Thaddeus Gilliland, contains an account of the Gilliland family in Ireland, including the names of the 11 children and the story of Catherine staying behind to marry. There are additional details: The Gilliland family walked to church each week in double file, parents in front and children arranged behind them in order of age. They continued in this habit even when the older children were grown. Also, it is told that three of the Gilliland sons went first to America, then returned to Ireland to get the family. Their mother was shocked at the color of their teeth, as they had acquired the habit of chewing tobacco. Despite these details, the account has a serious conflict with the accounts of the Gillilands of Faggs Manor. In the Van Wert branch, John Gilliland, on arriving from Ireland, settled in Hagerstown, Maryland. He married Jane Briggs and his son, James Gordon Gilliland, settled in Bucyrus, Ohio, in about 1835 and later founded the Van Wert branch. John was said to have served in the Revolutionary War and died in 1826. Much of this same information appears in the McMillen genealogy of 1927. The conflict is between John's living till 1826, serving in the Revolutionary War, and yet being a brother of James Gilliland who was born in 1715. This is not impossible, however, if John was among the youngest of his family, born around 1740. The sources that list the 11 children of the original ancestor do not agree as to the order.

Adding to the confusion is the on-line genealogy of Debbie Harrison, which provides, without sources, information on the descendants of John Gilliland and Sarah Gordon. Among their 11 children, all born in Ireland, is John Gilliland (1763-1826) who married Jane Briggs. Some of John and Sarah's grandchildren were living in 1880, and their census records confirm that the children of John and Sarah were born in Ireland. That his grandmother's maiden name was Gordon would explain the name given to James Gordon Gilliland, but there is no avoiding the problem of his Gilliland forebears still being in Ireland as late as the 1780s.

The 1965 history of Ripley Ohio has an article written by one of the children of Frank W. Gilliland, in which it is stated that the parents of Alexander Gilliland (1737-1795) came to America from County Down between 1760 and 1770, accompanied by 10 of the children.

The 1970 book, The Loving Gillilands, by Greenwood, repeats the story of John Gilliland and family coming to Philadelphia in the 1730s, with daughter Catherine leaving the ship to marry her lover.

The same book, which reports on the descendants of John Berry Gilliland, whose father, John was born in Ireland, tells of a tradition that three Gilliland brothers came from Ireland to Pennsylvania, and from there to Tennessee, and some to North Carolina and some to Virginia.

The 1889 history of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, tells of a David Gilliland, born in Ireland, who came to the U.S. after the Revolutionary War. David settled in Ohio and died in Wyandot County. Samuel Gilliland, a son of David, settled in Allegheny County.

5. The Virginia branch. According to the Virkus Compendium, Samuel Gilliland and son Captain Nathan Gilliland came from Scotland to Pennsylvania and then settled in Virginia in 1740. Nathan's son was Lieutenant James Gilliland, who served in the Revolutionary War. James' son William had a daughter Lydia who married Henry Poffenbarger of Mason County, (West) Virginia.

Thomas Gilliland appears on the tax list for East Nottingham, Chester County, in 1774, but James Gilliland also had a son named Thomas.

The 1924 book, King's Mountain Men, by Katherine Keough White, describes a lieutenant James Gilliland who served in Campbell's Regiment and was pensioned in Washington County, Virginia, in 1835. This regiment was raised in Virginia.

In 1774 a man named John Gilliland was at a meeting in the borough of Chester to further the Continental Congress.

A John Gilliland received a grant of 250 acres in Hanover Township, Dauphin County, February 15, 1737.

According to "The Loving Gillilands," a Hugh Gilliland received a warrant for 400 acres of land in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, March 1, 1734.

A Robert Gilliland received a warrant for 50 acres in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, in 1751.

Lancaster County deed records show land warranted to Hugh Gilliland in 1744. Hugh willed the land to his son Robert. A John Gilliland lived nearby. John Gilliland was on the tax list of Hanover Township, Lancaster County, in 1751, 1756, and 1769. In 1756 it is noted that he fled the area due to Indian attacks. John Gilliland and James Baird were residents in 1759. Hugh Gilliland died in 1750 in Lancaster County. His wife Anna and children Robert, Mary, Eleanor, Ann, Elizabeth, Agnes, and Hugh were named in his will. According to Egle's Notes and Queries, Hugh's brother John Gilliland was guardian for some of the children. A later Hugh Gilliland moved to Belmont (Jefferson) County, Ohio, after the Revolutionary War. He was brother-in-law to Andrew Berryhill. James Gilliand married Susanna Young according to records of St. James Church, Lancaster County, June 13, 1768.

A James Gordon Gilliland (b. May 11, 1772, in North Carolina) is mentioned in an e-mail from descendant Charles Gilliland. He married an Indian, Mary Rainbow, and their son, Hiram Alexander Gilliland, moved to Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

James Gilliland was a member of Rocky Spring Presbyterian Church in 1800.

According to an ancestor chart by Purl Sensel, the Gilliland family of Jackson County, Ohio, descend from Nathan Gilliland (b. 1720-25 in Ireland, d. 1790 Greenbrier Co., Virginia), whose father Samuel Gilliland was born in 1694 in Scotland.

Sources

• Ancestry Family Tree http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=36725509&pid=518
• Ancestry Family Tree http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=8806704&pid=1240

Acknowledgments

WikiTree profile Gilliland-235 created through the import of temp.ged on Jun 1, 2012 by Steve St. Martin.