Born about 1718 in Ireland

Ancestors

Husband of Mary McKnight (Purviance) Morrison — married [date unknown] in Pennsylvania

Descendants

Died 6 Feb 1770 at about age 52 in Rowan County, North Carolina

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Marty Vestal [send private message] and Tim Morrison [send private message]

Biography

Andrew Morrison Sr. served with the British Army during the French and Indian War.
Service Started: 1760
Unit(s): Col. Jonathan Hunt's Regiment of Scouts, Rowan Co., N.C. Militia

• Andrew was born about 1718 in Ireland. ^[1]
• Andrew was the son of James Simpson Morrison and Margaret Gilmore.

Migration

"Andrew Morrison ... came as a pioneer, with his brothers, William and James, to North Carolina in 1751. His wife was named Mary and they settled further up Third Creek from James and William."^[2] "The Heritage of Iredell County" refers to Andrew being the brother of William and James, but they were really his father James Simpson Morrison and his uncle William Morrison. James and William's mother Mary Simpson had already passed away in Ireland before 1709.

Land

Andrew, like William and James, probably had a land grant from Lord Granville. The property on which he eventually settled, however, was purchased from Thomas McCulloch, whose property near Third Creek was the first in that area to have been surveyed. Andrew bought this on 25 March 1762 for £46.^[3]

French and Indian War [1754-1763]

The French Giving a Commission to the Cherokee (1761)

In 1758, the French induced the Cherokees to enter the war. After an initial assault against the settlement, there was a period of calm in 1758. “Peace on the frontier did not last long. Late in 1758, urged on by the French, the Cherokees resumed their attacks upon the settlers. John and William Ireland, Andrew Morrison, and John Oliphant were among the inhabitants of the Catawba Valley who were ‘forced from their lands'."^[4] The Cherokees, having driven the men into the safety of Ft. Dobbs, next attacked the fort itself. The men formed up outside the fort and awaited the Cherokee assault. After showing the discipline to hold their fire until the Cherokee rush was upon them, they opened up very effectively, and drove the enemy back. In the meantime the Cherokee attacked the fort wall from another direction. A boy was left dead upon the field, and two were injured outside the stockade, one of whom was scalped alive. Yet the fort held, and the Cherokee were driven back with losses of nearly a dozen men. The subsequent counter-offensive saw the massive destruction of Cherokee towns.^[5] Having survived the ordeals of ’58, Andrew Morrison signed up in 1760 as a Private in Col. Jonathan Hunt's Regiment of Scouts, Rowan Co., N.C. Militia.^[6]

Marriage

Andrew married Mary McKnight Purviance, the daughter of John Purviance.

Children

Andrew and Mary were the parents of:^[7]

In his Rowan County will, dated 5 February 1770,^[8] Andrew named his wife as Mary, and named his children as Sarah, Martha, Margaret Adams, Mary Knox, John, David, Andrew, and William. No son named James was mentioned in the will, but it is generally believed that James was born after Andrew died.

Death and Burial

He passed away on 6 Feb 1770 (aged 52/62) in Rowan County, North Carolina, and is buried at Thyatira Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Mill Bridge, Rowan County, North Carolina. The tombstone inscription reads, ^[9]

Hᴇʀᴇ lyſ the BODY of ANDREW MORISON who Dᴇᴘᴀʀᴛᴇᴅ thiſ LIFE Fᴇʙrᴜᴀry ye 6th 1770 AGED  52 YEARS:

The Gravestone of Andrew Morrison by Kelly Miller ("KindredKelly").

DNA

Notes

• The Y-DNA haplogroup for James has been determined: Kit #32434, James Morrison, b. 1702 (PA 1730 > NC 1750) country of origin: Scotland. Y-DNA: R-FT20095.^[10]

DNA

MRCA: John Simpson

• Paternal Relationship is suggested by a GED test match between Richard Shortt GEDmatch EN4917406 and Nina Rose GEDmatch FH7311539, eighth cousins, twice removed, sharing 26.1 cM over 4 segments, the largest of which is an 8.8 cM segment on chromosome 1.

MRCA: John Morrison Sr and Jeane Steele

• Parental relationship is suggested by a GED test match between 8th cousins twice removed Michael Hayter GEDmatch A939911 and Elaine (Smith) Rice GEDmatch T356306, sharing 19.9 cM across 3 segments.

MRCA: John Gilmore

• Maternal relationship is suggested by a GED test match between Frank Walling GEDmatch T914492 and Duane Lamkin GEDmatch FN1637182, 8th cousins twice removed, who share a 11.3 cM segment on chromosome 15.

MRCA: John Gilmore

• Paternal relationship is suggested by a GEDmatch test match between 9th cousins Ken Sargent Gedmatch M060529 and Thomas Grace Gedmatch QN8230106, consisting of a 7.6cM shared segment on chromosome 7.

Sources =

1. ↑ Find A Grave
2. ↑ The Heritage of Iredell County, I.424.
3. ↑ The Heritage of Iredell County, I.5. See the maps in Images.
4. ↑ Ramsey, 196, citing Minutes of Rowan County Court, vol. I, 71.
5. ↑ Ramsey, 197, quoting a letter from Hugh Waddell to Gov. Dobbs (1760). NCCR 6:229-230.
6. ↑ Clark, 856.
7. ↑ FamilySearch.
8. ↑ North Carolina, Wills and Probate Records, 1665-1998.
9. ↑ Find a Grave.
10. ↑ Morrison-Q project at FamilyTreeDNA.

See Also:

• Minutes of Rowan County Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions, 1753-1869, 3 vols (Raleigh, NC: State Department of Archives and History).

• The Colonial Records of North Carolina (NCCR), 10 vols., ed. William L. Saunders (Raleigh, N. C.: Printers to the State, 1886-1890).

• The Heritage of Iredell County, 2 Vols. (Statesville: Genealogical Society of Iredell County, 1980).
  • W. N. Watt, #2, Iredell's First Pioneers, pp. 5-6 (Image 12 of 652);
  • James Philip Walker, #453, William Elias Morrison Family, p. 423c (Image 431 of 652).

• Robert W. Ramsey, Settlement of the Northwest Carolina Frontier, 1747-1762 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1964).

• Murtie June Clark, Colonial Soldiers of the South, 1732-1774 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc., 1983) p. 856.

• North Carolina, Wills and Probate Records, 1665-1998.

• The Morrison-Williams Register; William Mann Morrison; 1979.

• FamilyTreeDNA > Morrison, Gilmore > Morrison Surname DNA Project - Y-DNA Colorized Chart (electronic text).
  • Morrison-Q project.

• FamilySearch, Andrew Morrison Sr. (1718 – 6 February 1770), LVM6-6QV.

• Find a Grave, database and images (accessed 10 December 2022), memorial page for Andrew Morrison (1718–6 Feb 1770), Find a Grave Memorial ID 13282514, citing Thyatira Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Mill Bridge, Rowan County, North Carolina, USA; Maintained by Katy Cross (contributor 46822624).

Acknowledgements

Larry Wilson Hayer (1938-2021) created this profile by importing the data for Andrew Morrison Sr. (abt.1718-1770) from HAYER.GED on 29 May 2011, and from an unsourced family tree handed down to Tim Morrison.

Indiana and Ohio descendant list furnished by Beverly Fleming.