Elizabeth (Wilson) McConnell (abt. 1735 - aft. 1790)

Born about 1735 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania [uncertain]

Wife of Arthur McConnell Sr. — married 11 Nov 1754 in Strasburg, Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Descendants

Died after 1790 at about age 55 in Washington, Pennsylvania, United States

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Biography

Elizabeth's parents and birth date/location are unknown. Her birth date is estimated based on her marriage date. Her death date was guessed at after the 1790 US Census^[1] and the land transaction in which she and Arthur sold George one hundred and twenty acres of Dundee in 1790.

She married Arthur McConnell on 11 Nov 1754 at Strasburg, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. ^[2]

Elizabeth Wilson is named as wife of patriot Arthur McConnell. Their son George married Pheby Gill. ^[3]

The couple first settled in Cumberland County on land bounded on the north by the Juniata River and on the south by Licking Creek. There is only one place this orientation occurs and that’s exactly where the property was found on a later map showing it as J. McKnight property. The Penn family wanted the Irish to settle in that area. They offered incentives to encourage it. The Indian troubles started on the Maryland border in June. Elizabeth was pregnant with their first child who was born September 1755 in what eventually became Washington County, Pennsylvania on 306 acres in Hopewell Township on Buffalo Creek. ^{[citation needed]}

Arthur sold his settler's rights to the land and improvements in Cumberland County in January 1756 to John Hardy as mentioned in a court case over James Colhoon’s survey encroaching on Hardy’s. At about that time, Indians attacked that area on New Year's Eve/Day 1756. A later court proceeding described the property purchase and mentioned Arthur having to flee the Indians. J. McKnight had a prior claim and won a lawsuit against Colhoon later.

A newspaper article named Arthur McConnell and Eliza Wilson (Widow Wilson? mother-in-law? or sister-in-law? No baby was mentioned and his wife was Elizabeth McConnell). They were members of a group of settlers who crossed the Susquehanna chased by Indians, arriving in Drumore Township, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 1755 or 1756 according to the article. Other members of the party were listed in tax roles in townships near the Indian attack. Template:Citation needed -- what newspaper article?

Arthur and Elizabeth McConnell's nine children^[4] who were all born and raised on Dundee, are as follows:

• Sarah was born in September 1755. According to the Wherry Bible, she was born in Buffalo, Westmoreland County. It was called Westmoreland for a time by Pennsylvania, and there was a tiny settlement called Buffalo not too far away. The Wherry Bible also says Sarah married James Wherry on 9 Sep 1774. They settled in Washington County and had a dozen children.
• Susan was born c. 1756-57. She married Valentine Kinnett in 1774. They had fifteen children.
• George was born in 1758 after 21 July based on his age of 59 at his death from consumption on 21 Jul 1818. He married Pheobe Gill, and they had eleven children.
• Margaret was born about 1762 and died in 1771. No source for this.
• James was born about 1766. He is said to have married Sarah 'Sallie' Downing in Mason County Kentucky and settled in Brown County, Ohio as did his brother Thomas and sister Mary. (This needs more research. It may be a different James McConnell that people assumed was their brother. Our James is not mentioned as going to Brown County, Ohio as Mary and Thomas did in sources I have found for this family.)
• Mary was born in 1767 and married Amos Elliot Ellis. They moved with Thomas from Pennsylvania to Kentucky in 1795. After Thomas married Polly Downing both couples crossed the Ohio River to settle in Brown County Ohio. They had five daughters.^[5]
• Arthur Jr. was born in 1768. He married Nancy Miller in Adams County, Ohio 7 Feb 1798. They had six children.
• John was born about 1770. He is often said to have married 'Betsy' Logston Brown. ^[6]
• Thomas McConnell was born in 1772^[7]. He married 'Polly' Downing first and they had twelve children. After Polly died, he married her much younger sister Elizabeth. I have found no children born to Thomas and Elizabeth.

Research Notes

Sources for the biographies cited at the end.^[8]

A researcher claims that the Arthur McConnell and Elizabeth Wilson who married in 1754 in Lancaster as recorded in the Mennonite records can't be the same couple as the Arthur and Elizabeth McConnell that were supposedly members of the Trinity Lutheran Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. If this is the case, then we can't be certain of Arthur's wife's name or the location and date of their marriage. We do know, however, from the book "History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of America", by William M. Glasgow, 1888., p. 244.^[9] that the McConnells "subsequently became related to the Wilson family."

There is a Hugh Wilson on the list of a traverse jury for the court of Oyer and Terminus in 1767 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.^[10]

History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of America, by William M. Glasgow, 1888., p. 244.^[11] Article is titled "Abused Covenanteers Settled Pennsylvania's Cumberland Valley." Early in the 18th century , the persecuted Covenanters found an asylum in the Cumberland Valley region, which extended from Harrisburg south into Maryland and Virginia. The principal settlements were along the Conococheague Creek, with more settlements made along the Octorara, Pequea, Conestoga, Swatara, and other small streams that flow into the Susquehanna from the east. "In 1720, a society formed at Paxtang, Dauphin County, and among the families were those of McClure, Wilson, Wills, Foster, Gilmore, Gray, Rutherford and Espy. Still farther north on the Susquehanna near Milton, Northumberland County, dwelt the families of Hugh Wilson, John Boyd, and Samuel Brown, as early as 1728. The principal settlements were at Octorara, Lancaster Co,; Paxtang, Dauphin Co; and Conococheague, Franklin County. The forefathers of the Wilson family, and the ancestors of the ministers of The Church by that name, settled in Franklin County about 1730, and about 1750, removed to the Cove Valley, a little west of the Blue Ridge, and some 25 miles from Chambersburgh. The McConnells, also, who subsequently became related to the Wilson family, resided in the Cove at the time of the Indian massacre in 1756. They all migrated to the region of the Yough, in Western Pennsylvania, in 1769.

There is a Hugh Wilson and an Andrew Wilson in 1781 on the tax list in Colerain, Lancaster, PA. On the same list are Widow McConnell Sr, Widow McConnell Jr, Daniel McConnell, William McConnell, and William McConnell Jr. (spelled McConal for all of them). Also on this list is William Downing. ^[12]

On the 1786 Washington, Pennsylvania septennial census, there are three James Wilsons, Hugh Wilson, and Thomas Wilson. In another group (Summerset township) are John Wilson, William Wilson, and Abner Wilson. In another group (township illegible) are James Wherry, David Wherry, William Wilson, and Joseph Wilson. In another group (Hopewell township) are William Ellis, Robert Urie, Samuel Urie, Thomas Urie, Thomas Urie Jr., Jeremiah Wilson, Arthur McConnell, George McConnell, and James McConnell.^[13] Need to research Jeremiah Wilson that is in the same township in 1786 as the McConnell and Urie families...

There is a Jeremiah Wilson in the Westland MM in Washington, Pennsylvania on 26 Apr 1794: "Cert. rec. for Jeremiah Wilson and wife Joanna from Kingwood MM, dtd. 1793,5,9, endorsed to Redstone MM." There are numerous other Wilsons noted re: Redstone MM and/or Cane Creek MM.^[14]

12 Jun 1776 - John Kimbel of Frederick, VA sells to Jeremiah Wilson of Raccoon settlement land on Raccoon Creek in Washington, PA.^[15]

25 May 1783 - William Wilson of Washington, PA sells to Miles Wilson 200 acres on Shirtee's Creek in Washington, PA.^[16]

Sources

1. ↑ * "United States Census, 1790," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GYYB-HSN?cc=1803959&wc=3XT9-MVC%3A1584071103%2C1584070905%2C1584070607 : 14 May 2015), Pennsylvania > Washington > Not Stated > image 30 of 33; citing NARA microfilm publication M637, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
2. ↑ Marriage Record. Arthur McConnall & Elizabeth Willson. Genealogical Card File. Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Ancestry.com
3. ↑ Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Genealogical Research Databases, database online, (http://www.dar.org/ : accessed Nov 10, 2020), "Record of McConnell, Arthur", Ancestor # A134078.
4. ↑ History of Fayette County, Indiana: her people, industries and institutions by Barrows, Frederic Irving, 1873-1949; Collections allen_county, Americana: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center; Internet Archive pages 873-874: (https://archive.org/details/historyoffayette00barr/page/873/mode/1up?view=theater&q=McConnell)
5. ↑ https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/viewer/210515/?offset=1#page=407&viewer=picture&o=search&n=0&q=Amos%20Ellis
6. ↑ History of Geist Reservoir and Germantown - http://oaklandon.deburger.com/stories/History_of_Geist_Reservoir_and_Germantown.pdf
7. ↑ JOHN T. MCMILLIN Biography; History Of Rush County, Indiana : Brant & Fuller, Chicago, 1888; Page 782, 783, 784; Surnames in this biography are: McMillin, Young, McConnell, Downing, Wilson, Ellis, Buzan, Kendall, Pentecost, Bishop, Freel, Wood, Shauck. https://archive.org/details/historyofrushcou00chic/page/782/mode/2up?q=McConnell
8. ↑ JOHN T. MCMILLIN Biography; History Of Rush County, Indiana: Brant & Fuller, Chicago, 1888; Page 782, 783, 784; Surnames in this biography are McMillin, Young, McConnell, Downing, Wilson, Ellis, Buzan, Kendall, Pentecost, Bishop, Freel, Wood, Shauck. https://archive.org/details/historyofrushcou00chic/page/782/mode/2up?q=McConnell
9. ↑ https://archive.org/details/historyofreforme00glas/page/244/mode/2up?q=%22hugh+wilson%22
10. ↑ Pennsylvania, U.S., Oyer and Terminer Court Papers, 1757-1787 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data:Courts of Oyer and Terminer. Series 126. Supreme Court, Record Group 33. Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
11. ↑ https://archive.org/details/historyofreforme00glas/page/244/mode/2up?q=%22hugh+wilson%22
12. ↑ Pennsylvania, U.S., Tax and Exoneration, 1768-1801 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
13. ↑ Pennsylvania, U.S., Septennial Census, 1779-1863 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: Septennial Census Returns, 1779–1863. Box 1026,
14. ↑ U.S., Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, Vol IV, p.68 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.
15. ↑ Washington County, PA deed records
16. ↑ Washington County, PA deed records

• "United States Census, 1790," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GYYB-HSN?cc=1803959&wc=3XT9-MVC%3A1584071103%2C1584070905%2C1584070607 : 14 May 2015), Pennsylvania > Washington > Not Stated > image 30 of 33; citing NARA microfilm publication M637, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

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