Creating a place for all of the sources and theories around the parents of Elizabeth Hutchinson
- From Ahnentafel of President Andrew Jackson URL:http://www.genealogymagazine.com/andrewjackson1.html Data Changed: Date: 26 MAY 2010
- Ronald Vern Jackson's Andrew Jackson and Rachel Donelson Ancestry (Salt Lake City: Accelerated Indexing Systems, Inc., 1980), chart 1, shows Elizabeth Hutchinson is shown as the daughter of Robert William Hutchinson and Margaret Lisle, both of Antrim, Ireland, "based part on family tradition and some old books in the National Archives."
- This webpage no longer exists and a search of the website came up with nothing. Lee-5956 00:19, 3 August 2018 (UTC)
Contents |
Summary
There is some disagreement about the identity of the husband of Margaret Leslie. There is general agreement that his last name was 'Hutchinson'. But here is disagreement about his first name and ancestry.
There are roughly three views:
- A) He was of Scotch-Irish ancestry, born about 1690 in Carrickfergus, Antrim, Northern Ireland. Nothing more is known about his ancestry. He married Margaret Leslie in Northern Ireland. They had five daughters in Northern Ireland all of whom married and immigrated to North America. They settled in the Waxhaw region on what is now the North-South Carolina border. There is no evidence that he ever left Northern Ireland.
- B) He was Cyrus Hutchinson (or Francis Cyrus Hobart Hutchinson), the great grandson of Col. Sir John Hutchinson (Hutchinson-257) and Lucy Apsley. On some variants of B), Cyrus immigrates to North America. Otherwise B) is the same as A).
- C) He was a son of Dr. John Hutchinson III (Hutchinson-255), son of John Hutchinson II (Hutchinson-256) and grandson of Col. Sir John Hutchinson and Lucy Apsley. John Hutchinson II came to South Carolina before 1690 and settled on a land grant near the coast south of Charleston. No first name appears in the sources.
The husband of Margaret Leslie was the paternal grandfather of Andrew Jackson (Jackson-1299) (hereafter AJ). Biographers of AJ provide an account that is essentially A). There is some evidence supporting the name 'Cyrus', but evidence for the accompanying ancestry to produce B) is not apparent. It is plausible that a son of John Hutchinson II settled in South Carolina as described in C). Dr John Hutchinson III had two sons, Joseph and Thomas, whose descendants are well documented. Other children attributed to him are less well documented. That he had a son who was the husband of Margaret Leslie is not apparent.
Each of these views will be considered in more detail below.
View A
The Hutchinson family has been of some interest to several biographers of . These include:
- [1] Booraem, Hendrik, Young Hickory: The Making of Andrew Jackson. Dallas, Tex: Taylor Trade Pub, 2001.
- [2] Meacham, Jon, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. New York: Random House, 2008.
These discuss the ancestry of the Hutchinson family in Ulster and and their activities in the Carolinas. In addition,
- [3] Murphy, Marion Emerson, Early Leslies in York County, South Carolina, their migrations to Tennessee, Missouri, and Arkansas, their ancestry and descendants 3rd Ed, privately published, 1976
source for [1] discusses the families activities in the Carolinas in somewhat more detail. In turn [3] refers to
- [4] Walkup, Samuel H., Papers. 1858-1876. Chapel Hill, NC 27514 United States
and several unpublished genealogical sources and public records in the Carolinas. [4] appears to contain a report of Walkup's research (~1858) aimed at determining AJ's birthplace which incidentally mentions the circumstances of the Hutchinson family. [4] is deposited at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Library. I have not seen it.
Genealogical reference books pertaining to U. S. presidents are:
- [5] Burke's presidential families of the United States of America London : Burke's Peerage, 1975.
- [6] Roberts, Gary Boyd Ancestors of American presidents Santa Clarita, Calif. : Published in cooperation with the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Mass. by C. Boyer, 3rd, 1995.
In their entries pertaining to AJ, neither offer any information about the ancestry of his mother, Elizabeth Hutchinson.
That both AJ' s parents came form Northern Ireland and directly to the Waxhaws region of North /South Carolina is pretty standard AJ lore.
- "His parents were Scots-Irish colonists Andrew and Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, Presbyterians who had emigrated from Ireland two years earlier. [1] [2] Jackson's father was born in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, in current-day Northern Ireland, around 1738. [3] Jackson's parents lived in the village of Boneybefore, also in County Antrim.
- "When they emigrated to America in 1765, Jackson's parents probably landed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They would have traveled overland down through the Appalachian Mountains to the Scots-Irish community in the Waxhaws region, straddling the border between North and South Carolina.[4] They brought two children from Ireland, Hugh (born 1763) and Robert (born 1764)."
- Wikipedia, Andrew Jackson
- (has further citations)
- "Little is known about Andrew Jackson’s ancestors. Apparently, he knew very little about them himself. Since both of his parents died when he was still quite young, he had little opportunity to learn about his heritage. Although many of his mother’s sisters lived nearby during his youth, he maintained a close relationship with only a few of them once he moved to Tennessee."
Ancestry
None of [1, [2], [3] is willing to speculate about the name of the father of the Hutchinson sisters (Hutchinson-249), nor his ancestry though all agree his family lived near Carrickfergus, Antrim, Ulster. [1] thinks the family may have been "fairly prosperous" and "involved in the linen trade". [3] is cited as the source of this. What 'involved in the linen trade' might mean in terms of social class is far from clear. [3] says the family came from Ayrshire, Scotland via Ulster, but provides no person specific information. In their entries pertaining to AJ, neither [5] nor [6] offer any information about the ancestry of his mother, Elizabeth Hutchinson.
[2] reports that AJ's mother regaling AJ with stories about her father's "fighting the British at the Battle of Carrickfergus" which his probable age suggests might refer to the brief occupation of Carrickfergus Castle by the French in 1760 . But, this would not have involved fighting the English...unless he were on the side of the French. This may be fabrication or possibly confusion with an earlier ancestor who fought in the more well known "Battle of Carrickfergus" in 1597 in which it would have been plausible to find an Ulster native "fighting the English". But, this was well before the emigration of Scotch Presbyterians to Ulster.
Children
There is general agreement among the above sources that the Hutchinson family in the Carolinas consisted of six daughters and possibly one son [3]. It is possible that there were other children in Ulster who did not emigrate, but there is no evidence of this. Other sources mention seven daughters, but perhaps mistake given name variants of one individual for different individual. The names as dates provided here are based on [3].
[3] above has:
"Our Leslie kin in County Antrim were neighbors and friends of a family of linen weavers by the name of Hutchinson, who lived in Carrickfergus. The Hucthinsons were also of Scotch extraction and originally from Ayrshire, Scotland. It is said that one of the Leslie women married a Hutchinson in County Antrim. From this union came six daughters, all of whom could read and write -- which for women of that time was quite and accomplishment! These Hutchinson daughters were destined to get a small niche in history. Some of the daughters married in County Antrim, the others in America, to which all of them emigrated in the succeeding years. Samuel Leslie (L1) our ancestor, married Sarah Hutchinson, one of the six, the place of marriage reputedly being County Antrim. His brother John Leslie (L2) married another sister, Mary Hutchinson. The youngest of the six sisters was Elizabeth Hutchinson. She married Andrew Jackson Sr., and they produced Andrew Jackson, Seventh President of the United States, as history so well records.
There is evidence of a close relationship between the Leslies and Hutchinsons in North Ireland. This carried over into Pennsylvania and the Carolinas after they came to America.. Whether the reputed Leslie who was the mother of the six Hutchinson daughters was closely related to our forebear Samuel Leslie (L1) is not known. Since the marriage of first cousins was frowned upon it is not likely that Samuel Leslie's father was the uncle of the Hutchinson girls. However there was in all likelihood some blood relationship."
- 05/29/09
- revised 05/15/15
- JDS (Sneed-20
View B
Discussion
There is some evidence that descendants of the Hutchinson sisters believed their maternal grandfather's first name was 'Cyrus'.
The earliest evidence I have found is:
- [7] Hemphill, J. C., Men of mark in South Carolina; ideals of American life: a collection of biographies of leading men of the state. Washington, D.C. Men of mark Pub. Co., 1907-09, vol. 3, p. 170.
- Flinn, Rev. John William, D. D. was born in Marshall county Mississippi on the 11th of July 1847. ...His mother, Mrs. Sarah Ann Work (Means) Flinn...was descended from Cyrus Hutchinson, a hero in the siege of Carrick Ferfus, who came to America early in the eighteenth century with his three daughters, one of whom became Mrs. Jackson, the mother of President Andrew Jackson. The Erwins, Wilsons, Vances, Jacksons, Burys and Phifers are descended from the daughters of Cyrus Hutchinson.
No source is given.
Further evidence is
dated 1926. This appears to be a letter from a descendant of Margaret Hutchinson McKamey (McKemey) with an accompanying tree diagram in which the name 'Cyrus Hutchinson' appears.
No account of the ancestry of Cyrus Hutchinson is provided. However, there is reference to an article in the Saturday Evening Post, 25 July, 1925, p. 80 which maintains that AJ "descended on both side from from old Scottish kings". I have not seen the article.
In addition to this professional AJ literature mentioned under A, there is a body of material on the web that pretends to know quite a bit more about the parents of the Hutchinson sisters. (See 1.3.2 Examples below.) Though the material is not unequivocal, the essence of it is this. The parents were Francis Cyrus Hutchinson [1690-177 Ulster - 1748 VA (arguably Hutchinson-249)] and Margaret Lisle [1694 Ulster - ? (Lesslie-7)]. The father's ancestry can be traced back 3 generations to Colonel Sir John Hutchinson I [1615 Nottingham England - 1664 Kent England (Hutchinson-257)] (a prominent member of the parliamentary party in the English Civil War, and "regicide" who died in prison as a result of this.) and Lady Lucy Apsley [1619 - 1681] (Apsley-1). From there, the ancestry is well documented back to the Norman Conquest.
The problem with all this is that there appears to be no documentation for anything between the Hutchinson sisters and Sir John. Surprisingly enough (given his prominence) little appears to be know of Sir John's children (except that he had 9 of them).
However
Memoirs of the life of colonel Hutchinson, publ. by J. Hutchinson. To which is prefixed The life of mrs. Hutchinson, written by herself, 2nd edition, London, 1808, Preface, ii-iii
has
- "...Col. Hutchinson left four sons, of which the youngest only, John, left issue two sons ; and there is a tradition in *the family, that these two last descendants of Col. Hutchinson emigrated, the one to the West Indies or America, the other to Russia ; the latter is said to have gone out with the command of a ship of war given by Queen Anne to the Czar Peter, .and to have been lost at sea."
I am not sure where this "shadow genealogy" originated. It may originate in "family lore" as appears to be the case with [7] and [8] above.
There was a Wikipedia article that stayed up for about a year (2007-2008) was deleted after some discussion. See
I think some of the material appearing on the web may be derived from this. But some other antedates the deleted Wiki article. One motivation behind all this may be the "novelty" of linking of AJ with English gentry. But, there is just enough circumstantial evidence (and absence of hard information) to make the gist of the "shadow genealogy" somewhat plausible. Sir John had a son, John II [1650 Nottingham, England - ? ], who emigrates to Ulster. It was not uncommon for gentry in this part of England to acquire land in Ulster in the late 17th century. This might have been particularly attractive to the son of a family on the wrong side in the recent civil war. John II has a son John III [1675 Carrickfergus, Antrim, Ulster - ?] who is the father of Francis Cyrus. But, it's not so clear how one of the social class of this putative Francis Cyrus might have ended up in the "linen trade" (see [1]).
- 05/20/15
- JDS (Sneed-20)
Examples
Examples of View B) appear below. There are probably more to be found.
Much or this material appears to be repetitive suggesting a single source for all. But, I have not been able to identify such a source.
- frequently cited
- Death
- November 12, 1748 (58)
- Charlotte, Mecklenburg, North Carolina
- Other examples below give the same place, but no date. None provide sources for either date or place.
- skeptical
- has sources
- Cyrus Hutchinson given in Burkes Presidential Families of The United States of America, Burkes Peerage Limited 1975 edition.
- American Presidential Families, By Hugh Brogan & Charles Moseley. MacMillian New York,1993 792 pages.
But the entry in the first ([5] above) pertaining to AJ contains no mention of Cyrus Hutchinson. I have not looked at the second.
View C
Hutchinson family lore traces their ancestry to Dr. John Hutchinson III (Hutchinson-255) who is believed to be the son of John Hutchinson II (Hutchinson-256) and grandson of Col. Sir John Hutchinson and Lucy Apsley.
The two narratives appearing in
provide a sketch of this view.
The context for these narratives is described in
There is ample documentary evidence of Dr. John Hutchinson III and some of his children.
- August 5, 1709, John Holland, Sr., gentleman, and Dr. John Hutchinson executed a bond to Governor Johnson for Holland's faithful administration of the estate of John Holland, Jr., deceased, late of the province. Witness: Thomas Hepworth, Dep. Sec. (Page 146.)
- N0vr. 15 1726 Joseph the Son of Dr. John Hutchinson & Charlotte his Wife was Born—
- Do- 11 Elizabeth the Daughter of Dr. John'Hutchinson and Charlotte his Wife was Born in the year 1725—
- 1722 , N0vr: 13th Thomas, Son of John Hutchinson & Anne 'his Wife, was born.—
- 1728/29 January Charlotte the Daughter of John Hutchinson & Charlotte his wife was born.
No source shows a Cyrus Hutchinson as a son of Dr. John Hutchinson III. Nor do they show a son to be a husband of Margaret Leslie.
There is plausible evidence that Dr. John Hutchinson III believed he was a descendant of Col. Sir John Hutchinson and Lucy Apsley.
Of course, one might question the reliability of this source as well as the the veracity of the belief that it appears to indicate.
Chee-Ha says that John Hutchinson II came to South Carolina before 1690 and settled on a land grant near the coast south of Charleston.
The location of the land grant is clear. But the circumstances are not. That John Hutchinson II received the grant directly from Charles II seems unlikely. He does not appear among the proprietors in standard sources. Standard accounts say the proprietors were rewarded for their service to the royalists. However, John Hutchinson II may well have received a "land grant" from one of the original proprietors. I don't know if records of these survive.
I have not been able to find documentary evidence of a grandson of Col. Sir John Hutchinson in South Carolina. Though this does not seem unlikely. It is also possible that he came to South Carolina by way of Northern Ireland. Again there appears to be no documentary evidence for this.
It is possible that the plausible account of the ancestry Dr. John Hutchinson III was somehow "merged" with the ancestry of Cyrus Hutchinson, the produce a rather improbable ancestry for Cyrus.
Other sources are:
- 04/09/15
- JDS (Sneed-20)
Sources
- Source S697
- IGI Family Group Record 141
- Source S714
- Hutchinsons of Waxhaw, SC, late 1700s
- Source S715
- Booraem, Hendrik, Young Hickory: The Making of Andrew Jackson. Dallas, Tex: Taylor Trade Pub, 2001.
- Source S716
- Descendants of Lesslie
- Source S718
- Descendants of William de Ros
- Source S730
- Meacham, Jon, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. New York: Random House, 2008.
- Source S731
- Col. John Hutchinson
- Source S736
- Early Leslies in York County, South Carolina, their Migrations to Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas
- Two above are a discussion about a Wikipedia article (deleted 2008) on FCHH. The discussion is mostly about whether FCHH merits a page on Wikipedia; conclusion he does not. But there is also discussion of whether FCHH is the grandfather of AJ; conclusion -- it's controversial. There are reputable source on both sides. Recent professional biographers reserve judgement.
Acknowledgements
This person was created through the import of JDS_09_17_10.ged on 09 February 2011.
WikiTree profile Hutchinson-685 created through the import of clements.GED on Jul 9, 2011 by John Clements. See the Changes page for the details of edits by John and others.