Isabella (Miller) McEwen (1718 - abt. 1814)

Born Sep 1718 in Perth,Perthshire,Scotland

Wife of James McEwen Sr. — married about 1740 in Edinburgh,Scotland

Descendants

Died about 1814 at about age 95 in Murfreesboro, Rutherford, Tennessee, United States [uncertain]

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Biography

Isabella was born about 1718, and died in 1814, age about 96.

From Dickson-McEwen and Allied Families Genealogy: There are several versions of the circumstances surrounding the marriage of Isabella Miller to James McEwen. One tradition pictures him as a Highlander and her as a Lowlander. The Lowlanders possessed better land and more wealth than the Highlanders, and consequently felt themselves socially superior. This traditional enmity and superiority complex caused Michael Miller and his wife, who were Lowlanders to resent this marriage. Another tradition makes Michael Miller and his wife patricians and James McEwen a plebeian apprenticed to them. But we must remember that James McEwen belonged to a clan of considerable importance. Another tradition that James McEwen when a boy was apprenticed to Michael Miller for a period of seven years and at the end of the seven years requested permission to marry Isabella, the only daughter of Michael, but met with a flat refusal, whereupon the two were secretly married. Still another version of the tradition makes James McEwen an employee in some capacity in the mill of Michael Miller. The one common element in all the versions of the tradition is the fact that Michael Miller and his wife objected to the marriage. Isabella Miller herself often repeated the fact that her father and mother opposed her marriage. There is a tradition that Isabella was baptized at Bannock Scotland, in the Highlands, and that three of her children were born in Scotland. The twins, William and James,...are..believed to have been born there, and tradition indicates that Jane also was born before the family emigrated. (If they emigrated in 1753, and the birth dates of the children in the book are correct.^[1]

Potential marriage record: Isobel married Jo. Mcewen on 11 November 1733 in Forteviot, Perth, Scotland.^[2]

Her husband James died about 1767. She and her son-in-law George Marshall (abt.1740-abt.1800) were appointed administrators of his estate.^[3]

Apr 15 1767: Ordered by the Court that Letters of Administration be granted to Isabel McEwen and George Marshall of all and singular the Goods and Chattels of James McEwen, deceased who qualified according to lae in open court and offfered for Sou. Thomas Allison and James Hemphill Sou. in the sum of 200 Proc money.

There are several land transactions in Rowan County, North Carolina, that Isabella was involved in. One on 25 October 1786, ^[4] and the other was on 11 May 1788.^[5]

Isabella Miller McEwen, who died at the age of ninety-six immigrated to Tennessee with her son James after January, 1806, at which time he was in Lincoln County, North Carolina. They settled five miles west of Murfreesboro, where she died and is buried. She was described in 1896 by Mrs. Becton, her great granddaughter, as a small woman. The McEwen's were staunch Presbyterians. ^{[6] [7]}

Sources

1. ↑ Smith, Austin Wheeler; Dickson-McEwen and Allied Families Genealogy Pub: 1946 & 1975; pg 219-225
2. ↑ Marriage: "Scotland, Select Marriages, 1561-1910"
   Ancestry Record 60144 #3193481 (accessed 10 January 2022)
   Isobel Millar marriage to Jo. McEwen on 11 Nov 1733 in Forteviot, Perth, Scotland.
3. ↑ http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~kell/genealogy/dad/fergusenmcewen/McEwen_synopsis.htm
4. ↑ Rowan County, North Carolina. Deed Book 11, Page 405-406 on 25 October 1786 https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L98Q-SFPD?i=426&cat=328774
5. ↑ Rowan County, North Carolina. Deed Book 11, Page 628 on 17 May 1788 https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-998Q-393D?i=654&cat=328774
6. ↑ Some Families of East Alabama...
7. ↑ Isabella Miller

• http://www.geni.com/people/Isabella-McEwen-Miller/6000000012261076923?through=6000000011035149291