Hugh Linn (1753-1815) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

Hugh Linn

Born 1753 in County Tyrone, Ireland

Ancestors

Son of Hugh Linn [uncertain] and [mother unknown]

[sibling(s) unknown]

Husband of Sarah (Widney) Linn — married 1777 in Ulster, Ireland

Descendants

Father of John Linn, William Linn, Mary (Linn) Loughridge, Hugh Linn II, Sarah (Linn) Campbell, Margaret (Linn) Van Scyoc, James Linn, Jane (Linn) Campbell and Nancy (Linn) Wallace

Died 1 Jan 1815 at about age 62 in Concord, Franklin County, Pennsylvania

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Profile last modified 31 Mar 2023 | Created 4 Jul 2014

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1 Y-DNA
2 Biography
3 Research Note
4 See Also
5 Sources

Y-DNA

Two of Hugh Linn's 4th-great-grandsons, each descended through a different son of Hugh, have had Y-DNA tests at FamilyTreeDNA and match in 405 out of 408 Y-STRs. Their tests place them in the relatively uncommon Y-DNA haplogroup R-U198 and further identify them as having the downstream SNP JFS3028. In addition, they have Y-DNA matches with 7 other R-U198 Lynns/Linns who are more distantly related, and the total number and kinds of mutations that have occurred in the 9 men's respective branches suggest that the most recent shared Lynn/Linn ancestor of all 9 lived in the 13th century.^[1]

Biography

The report of Hugh Linn's birth place as Newry, County Down first came from the book "A History of a Fragment of the Clan Linn" by Hugh's great-grandson, Dr. George Wilds Linn. While Dr. Linn's book has been an invaluable help to Linn and Widney genealogists, it is not without error. The very title of the book is historically inaccurate as the Linns were not a clan, nor even a sept or associated family of a clan, but a lowland Scottish family of a decidedly non-Gaelic heritage. Only since the renewed interest in Scotland inspired by Queen Victoria have the Linns (and certain other lowland Scottish families) been associated in the public mind with clans.

In the introduction to his 1905 book, Dr. Linn wrote: "The data on which this book rests are to be found in a series of notes made by the author more than forty years ago as they were dictated to him by his grandparents, Hugh Linn 2nd and his wife, Ann (Widney) Linn, both of them at that time eighty years of age."^[2] Hugh Linn was just three when the family emigrated from Ireland, and two questions arise. First, were his recollections of the family origins in Ireland entirely accurate? Second, how much of Dr. Linn's account is verbatim from his grandfather's recollections and how much simply surmised from his notes? Again, the very picture of Scottish clans is a mere romantic idea removed from historic reality.

What of Dr. Linn’s account of the family's journey from their last home in Ireland to board ship at Londonderry? The account relates that the family passed the church spires of Newry, Emyvale, and Aughnacloy and then arrived at Londonderry.^[3] It does not say where they got on the coach to make that journey, and we are left to consider the area’s known geography. The town of Newry lies in Newry Parish, which – as relatively few people realize – is divided between Counties Armagh and Down; and the church spires of Newry, sitting high on a hill, are visible for miles in all directions. The family could just as easily have boarded the coach somewhere in the southern tip of County Armagh, or even in County Louth, and gone up the highway on the west side of Newry. Indeed, persons living in Newry, or on its east side, typically would have traveled the shorter route of 38 miles to the port of Belfast while the Linns traveled at least 92 miles to Londonderry. Why? Was it to bid farewell to relatives along the way, or just to glance once more at an older family home? It is now proven from original deeds that the home of Sarah Widney, wife of Hugh Linn, was in Killymurry in the northern tip of County Monaghan - less than two miles from Emyvale and 33 miles north of Newry.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]

How does that compare to what Dr. Linn wrote about Sarah’s family?

While Dr. Linn wrote that Hugh’s family was from Newry, County Down, he also wrote that Sarah’s great-grandfather Widney had accompanied William of Orange of Holland to Ireland and, for his services at the Battle of the Boyne, was granted “a considerable estate in County Tyrone, which was handed down to his descendants”.^[8] However, not one occurrence of the name Widney (or any variant spelling) is found in County Tyrone, but there are no less than seven records of the Widneys in County Monaghan. Several in particular reveal that at least four generations of the family, between 1724 and 1784, made their home in Killymurry, which lies about two miles inside County Monaghan from Tyrone.^[9]

Dr. Linn also wrote that the Widneys had come to Ireland from Holland, a claim which can only be taken as a supposition derived from their ancestor’s support of William of Orange. The truth is that William was supported at the Boyne not only by his own Dutch army but also by English and Scottish troops as well as "Ulster Protestant irregulars".^[10] Furthermore, Widney is a decidedly Scottish surname originating in Aberdeenshire.^[11]^[12]

Believing, however, that the Widneys were Dutch, Dr. Linn wrote further that they were Methodists precisely because they had come from Holland, a bastion of the arminian view of scripture.^[13] Dr. Linn apparently was unaware of at least two facts. One is that the Widneys were Presbyterian and only became Methodist just a few decades before emigrating to America. The first James Widney, great-grandfather of Sarah (Widney) Linn, was one of four Commissioners who, in 1713, petitioned the Presbyterian Church in Ireland for the establishment of a separate congregation for certain members of the congregation of Kinaird, Presbytery of Monaghan.^[14] The request was granted, and a new Presbyterian church was built in the village of Glaslough, which is less than four miles from Killymurry. The other fact which likely had not come to Dr. Linn’s attention is that Methodism arrived in Ireland in the 18th century and, in 1766, came to County Monaghan, where it gained many converts including the Widneys.^[15]

What do these new revelations mean for the birth place of Hugh Linn? First, of course, it means that Dr. Linn’s belief that Hugh was born in Newry, County Down cannot be taken at face value and must be proven; and proof has not been found. Second, it is far more likely that Hugh would have been at least living, and possibly born, much nearer to the home where future bride was living while still single. Since it is proved by deeds that the Widney property was in County Monaghan and not County Tyrone, perhaps it is the Linns who lived and owned property in Tyrone. Is there any proof of such?

Parish vestry minutes for Aghaloo, County Tyrone, along with Ireland's Registry of Deeds, proves that a family of Linns held part of the County Tyrone townland of Dunmacmay, and Dunmacmay just "happens" to be less than two miles north of the Widney home in Killymurry, County Monaghan. The Linns' presence in Aghaloo can be placed as early as 1699 until 1793 or later.^[16]^[17] Of note also are the families with which the Linns and Widneys both had associations. Parties to deeds for both the Linns of Dunmacmay and the Widneys of Killymurry included John Erwin and Thomas Donaldson. Also, both families’ deeds were witnessed and/or registered in Glaslough, roughly four miles southeast of Killymurry.

In 1766, when Hugh was 13, three men named Lyn or Lynn (common variants used interchangeably with Linn) were listed in the religious census of Ireland as Protestant householders in Aghaloo Parish, County Tyrone : John, George, and Hugh.^[18] Again, Aghaloo Parish is on the border of County Monaghan, which itself is barely a mile outside of Aghaloo. As proven by a 1752 deed for Dunmacmay, George was the only son of John.^[19] Thus, the 1766 Hugh Lynn very likely was the father of this Hugh Linn, subject of this profile. As noted by Dr. Linn, Hugh Linn was born in 1753 and married into the Widney family in 1777. The fact that both the Linns of Dunmacmay and the Widneys of Killymurry were gentry makes it even more likely that Hugh was the son of Hugh Linn or Lynn.

Research Note

No Clan Linn or Lynn, etc. is found in any reputable published list or history of Scottish clans written by the most eminent Scottish historical authors. All of the following were searched:

Clans and Families of Ireland and Scotland by C. Thomas Cairney and C. Thomas Cairney, Ph.D., McFarland & Company, Inc., North Carolina (1989)
The Highland Clans: the Dynastic Origins, Chiefs, and Background of the Clans and of Some Other Families Connected with Highland History by Sir Iain Moncreiffe of that Ilk and David Hicks, Bramhall House, New York (1977)
Historical Geography of the Clans of Scotland by Thomas Brumby Johnston, F.R.G.S., F.R.S.E. & F.S.A.S., and Colonel James A. Robertson, F.S.A.S., W. & A. K. Johnston, Edinburgh and London (1872)
The History of Scotland - Its Highlands, Regiments and Clans by James Browne, LL.D., Francis A. Niccolls & Co., Edinburgh, London, and Boston (1909)
Sketches of the Clans of Scotland, Clansmen J.M.P. - F.W.S., MacLachlan & Stewart, Edinburgh (1884)
The Tartans of the Clans and Families of Scotland by Sir Thomas Innes of Learney, Johnston and Bacon, Edinburgh (1971)