Daniel McClane's Revolutionary War Claim

            ©  Kathy Duncan, 2021

The first step in looking for any difficult-to-find record should be the Family Search Research Wiki. That's how I located the Revolutionary War Claim for Daniel McLean. I had seen a reference to it in a google book; Copy of the Original Index Book Showing the Revolutionary War Claims Filed in South Carolina between August 20, 1873 and August 31, 1786, Kept by James McCall Auditor General and copied by Jean Revill. However, I could not figure out how to locate the record.

Enter the Family Search Research Wiki. The record I was searching for was referenced on the "South Carolina Military Records" entry in the Research Wiki. The best part about the Research Wiki pages is that they contain links to the various records. Sometimes they lead to a Family Search record group, sometimes Ancestry, and sometimes something else. 

Turns out Jean Revill's book was also listed on the Wiki. Further down the page was a subheading called "South Carolina Revolutionary Claims, 1783 to 1786" with a link to the twelve volumes of stub entries: 

Stub Entries to Indents Issued in Payments of Claims Against South Carolina Growing Out of the Revolution, Book X, pt 1, page 11:  

The footnote reads as follows: "Interlined below is: Mc : Clain."

That would seem to indicate that the original document contains two spellings of Daniel McClean/McClain/McClane's name. 

In 1781, my ancestor Daniel McLean was about 56 years old. At that age, I would not expect him to serve as a soldier. However, a fifty-six-year-old man would probably be able to drive cattle for the Revolutionary army. This claim indicates that Daniel McClane spent 66 days driving cattle in 1781 & 1782. It's interesting to note that he was being paid for service and not being reimbursed for the actual cattle. That suggests to me that he did not own the cattle, but was, in fact, rendering a service. This Daniel McLane was still living in 1785 when he received payment, and I know that my Daniel McLean was still living in 1787. 

However, no Daniel McLean has been found on the 1790 census. Since I have not located any living Daniel McLeans (or any other spellings of the name) in the state in 1790, I am guessing that there was only one man of that name when Daniel McClane was paid for his claim. By 1790, he would have been 65 years old if he was still living. He was either living in another household so that he was not named on the census or he was deceased.

What is exciting about this reference to Daniel McClane's service is that the Ulster Scots in the backcountry of South Carolina had to be "wooed" over to the American side of the Revolutionary War conflict. That is understandable when you consider what they had to lose. Daniel McLean had received his bounty land in 1768, and it was bestowed by the crown. Seven short years later, the rebels were sending emissaries out through the countryside to "convince" the backcountry men to their side. Throwing his lot in with the patriots would mean jeopardizing everything that Daniel had acquired and built since coming to the colonies in 1768 - all of which he could not accomplish in Ireland. He might have felt obligated to remain loyal to the crown while at the same time probably having no great love for the English. Of course, at this point Daniel McLean's son-in-law Archibald Owings was serving on the American side. 

Daniel McLean, Irish Immigrant, 1768

           ©  Kathy Duncan, 2021

The 100 acres that Daniel McLean gave to his daughter Mary Hutson in Laurens County, South Carolina in 1786, contained this important tidbit of information - "100 acres of Land which I now dwell on which I had surveyed by a bounty warrant & has a patent for the same by William Bull, Esq. then Lieut. Governor, 29 July 1768, containing 300 acres."

First, it indicates that Daniel McLean was in South Carolina by 1768, and second, it points to the existence of other earlier records.

This 29 July 1768 deed record for 300 acres on Reedy Creek in Craven County can be found in South Carolina Memorial Book 8, page 219:

In trying to determine who was migrating to South Carolina during this period, I found Jean Revill's A Compilation of the Original Lists of Protestant Immigrants to South Carolina 1763 - 1773. Her book provides passenger lists for many ships arriving during that time. Daniel McLean and his family came to South Carolina on the Brig Lord Dunagannon with Master Robert Montgomery under the Bounty Act of 1761. There is the notation that their bounties were four pounds or two pounds sterling depending on their ages. This money was to be paid to the ship owners Torans and Pouag. The remaining twenty shillings in change was to be given to the immigrant. Additionally, at that time, the Secretary of Craven County was ordered to prepare a Warrant of Survey.

Daniel McLean's family group was given as follows:

Daniel McLean age 42

Ann McLean age 40

James McLean age 20

Lettice McLean age 16

Elizabeth McLean age 14

Ann McLean age 11

Mary McLean age 8

For this particular bounty, the head of household was to receive 100 acres, plus 50 acres for each additional person. Individuals age 16 and older were to receive 100 acres each. This evidently included both males and females. For his bounty, Daniel McLean received the 300 acres recorded in Memorial Book 8. Of that, 100 acres was for himself, and 50 acres each for his wife Ann and his daughters Elizabeth, Ann, and Mary. James McLean and Lettice McLean each received 100 acres. This establishes James and Lettice as siblings rather than a young married couple. Had they been married James would have received 150 acres, and Lettice would have received nothing.

The South Carolina Assembly created the Act of 1761 with the purpose of populating the backcountry of South Carolina with poor Irish protestants. Their settlements would act as a buffer zone between the Indian country and the more established settlements. Put simply, they were cannon fodder, the first to be sacrificed in the event of an uprising. Additionally, the immigrants had to provide certification that they were, indeed, protestants, presumably to keep out Catholics. 

Next, I searched for information about the Brig Lord Dunagannon, mastered by Robert Montgomery. It was part of the fleet of a Charleston shipping firm owned by John Torrans, John Greg, and John Pouag, who had lobbied the South Carolina Assembly to pass the Act of 1761 because they stood to profit greatly from transporting poor Irish protestants from Ulster to Charleston. Between the bounty years of 1763 and 1768, all of the ships that ran from Ulster to Charleston were owned by Torrans, Greg & Pouag. They routinely ran advertisements in the Belfast newspapers and sent agents out to recruit immigrants.

In August 1767, the following advertisement was running in the Belfast paper to recruit immigrants to leave on the Brig Lord Dunagannon that October:

While they had originally planned to set sail on 10 October 1767, it looks like they did not set sail from Belfast, Antrim County, Ireland, until 12 October 1767: 

They arrived in Charles Town, Charleston District, Berkley County, South Carolina in February 1768 with 141 immigrants from Belfast and Larne. 

Once I knew that Daniel McLean and his family had come from County Antrim, Ireland, I turned to the records of Northern Ireland. This was my first time to ever have a reason to search Irish records, so I've got a lot to learn. I've heard that not many of their records survive, so I was not expecting much. I did not find the McLeans in any marriage or birth records. However, I did find a Religious Census for 1766. On that census, there was only one protestant named Daniel McLeane in County Antrim. He was living in the village of Glenstaghy in Ballintoy Parish, County Antrim, Ireland. This seems to be the last record that Daniel McLean generated before departing for the New World, where he would go from being a poor Irish immigrant who could not pay his own passage to a man with 300 acres in just a matter of months. 

Archibald Owings' Wife Revealed!

          ©  Kathy Duncan, 2021

Uncovering the identity of wives becomes nearly impossible in the absence of marriage records and family bibles. Archibald Owings' wife has been particularly elusive. In an earlier post, I discussed that "my" Archibald Owings is frequently confused with his young nephew who was also named Archibald Owings. Unfortunately, the younger Archibald Owings' wife, Jane Kellett is frequently linked to the elder Archibald Owings as his wife.

Archibald Owings, the elder, would have married in the vicinity of Laurens County, South Carolina, and taken his wife and older children with him to Lancaster County, South Carolina by 1790, where he is found on the census, and then removed to Kershaw County, South Carolina before 1800. His wife was deceased by 1820 when she does not appear on the census. 

To date, I had found no mention of her in any records. I was not even able to determine her given name from any records. I needed to examine any books of transcribed records with an every-name index. I was hoping that she would be mentioned in her family's records and that somehow there would be an indication that she was my ancestor's wife.

As luck would have it, I determined that I had never seen Brent H. Holcomb's book Laurens County, South Carolina: Minutes of the County Court, 1786 - 1789. While 1786 - 1789 presents a very narrow timeframe, any Archibald Owings mentioned in it would likely be my ancestor since the nephew did not come of age until perhaps the mid-1790s. Yesterday, I headed to the Dallas Public Library to examine that book, and it did not disappoint:

"A deed of gift from Daniel McClain to Archebald Owins, proven in open Court by Wm. Obennian and John Hutson and Ordered to be Recorded." - 10 March 1788, p. 208

A deed of gift usually represents a family relationship of some sort.  I did not recognize Daniel McClain's name in connection with either Archibald Owings, the uncle, or Archibald Owings, the nephew. Who was he? What was his connection? Could he possibly be "my" Archibald Owings' father-in-law? A brother-in-law?

I explored deed books to see if anything more could be learned about this deed of gift. From Laurens County, South Carolina Deed Abstracts: Books A-D, 1785-1793 (1769-1793) by Larry Vehorn came the following record:

"Page 300 [Deed Bk B] 11 Aug 1787, Daniel McLain (Ninety six Dist., Laurens Co.) residing upon Redy River, freeholder, in consideration of the love, good will & affection I bear towards my loving daughter Elizabeth Owings, [give] 100 acres of land on Redy River, joining McAnalting line. Witness Wm. Obannon, John Hutson. Signed Daniel McLain. Rec. 2 Apr 1788."

Margaret Peckham Motes' book Laurens County, S.C.: Rabun Creek Settlement 1762-1848 reveals that Archibald Owings lost half or all of this tract of land to cover an old debt:

"Richardson, Thomas: 8 September 1787: Edmond Martin, Esquire, Sheriff of Ninety Six Dist., SC., and Aaron Steel, planter, of the same place. Whereas Archibald Owins [Owens], late of the Dist. and State aforesaid was seized of a certain tract of land in Laurens County on the S side of Reedy River containing 50 acres bounded N by the Reedy River, S and W by Daniel McLain, other lands laid out to one McAnulty, as appears by a plat. And whereas the said Aaron Steele in November term 1785 impleaded the said Archibald Owins in the Court of Common Please in the state aforesaid held at Ninety Six in a joint suit with Thomas Richardson for the recovery of the sum of 64 [lbs] Stg. in which action such proceedings was there for had that the said Aaron Steel did obtain and recover judgment against said Archibald Owins. Edmond Martin. Wit: John Downs, Samuel Taylor. Proved by Jonathan Downs 20 August 1789 before Joseph Downs, J.P. [LCDBK C:72-73]"

This record reveals that the Archibald Owens, who was the son-in-law of Daniel McLain, was by September of 1787 no longer a resident of Laurens County since "late of the Dist." indicates that he was previously or formerly a resident of Laurens County. My ancestor Archibald Owings had moved to Lancaster County, South Carolina before the 1790 census. 

Of course, the next thing to do was to find out as much as I could about Daniel McLain. So far, I have not found much, but I did find a sister for Elizabeth (McClain) Owings. 

A few months later, Daniel McClain/McLain/McLean gifted land to his other daughter, Mary (McLean) Hutson:

"169-170 [Deed Bk B] 4 Nov 1786, Daniel McLean of Ninety six Dist. but now called Oxford Dist. in Laurens Co. in consideration of the Love, good will & affection I bear towards my loving Daughter Mary McLean, but now by marriage Mary Hutson, give 100 acres of Land which I now dwell on which I had surveyed by a bounty warrant & has a patent for the same by William Bull Esq. then Lieut. Governor, 29 July 1768, containing 300 acres. The land I give border mouth of my Spring branch. I desire that the improvements & clear land &c may be within the boundaries of the 100 acres. Likewise I give said Mary Hutson four Cows with a mark tht is an over kut & an under kut in the Ear, one big pot & one little pot, one Chest or box, plow, Irons, loom. Witness David Speers. James McClanahan. Signed David McLean. Rec. 11 July 1787."

John Hutson went to court to prove this deed of gift. Later, Daniel McLean sued John Hutson, but the suit was withdrawn in 1789 because of the death of John Hutson. 

Merry Christmas, Mom!!

Daniel McLean, Irish Immigrant, 1768

Rev. Duncan Hyder Selph's Home is Vandalized

         ©  Kathy Duncan, 2021

This tidbit appeared originally in the Danville Gazette of Danville, Kentucky in August of 1866.

Someone, probably, a woman vandalized the home of Rev. Duncan Hyder Selph while he was away. 

The culprit had cut the curtains of Rev. Selph's rockaway, broken his windows, and smashed his parlor furniture.

A rockaway was a light carriage similar to the one below. It was probably windowless; therefore, the curtains were needed to shade the occupants or to offer some protection from the rain. This was a carriage popular with families of the upper-middle class or higher in the 19th century

I suspect that the broken windows were the windows of the Selph residence and not the windows of the rockaway. That may be how the culprit gained entrance into the parlor where the furniture was smashed.

Unfortunately, I have not found a follow-up article for this event. There is no easy way to find out who the culprit was or why she was so angry at the Selphs. Was she a disgruntled teacher? A student who was upset about her grades? One of the Selph daughters? Someone with a more salacious connection? 

There is not a lot of information about this Selphs from this time period that would help shed light on this. At this time they were operating the Danville Female Academy in Danville, Kentucky, with Rev. D.H. Selph as president and his wife Lavinia E. Selph as one of the teachers. The Selph children were in attendance as students. In 1864, Lavinia Selph had purchased the buildings of the Danville Female Academy. On 1 September 1866, Rev. D.H. Selph had a large note coming due to C. C. Moore and his wife Mary Moore. From everything I've read, the Danville Female Academy had financial problems through the Civil War, yet the Selphs made several sizable purchases of property. The Danville Female Academy was purchased for nearly $10,000. The note due to the Moores was for about $35,000. Also, in 1866, Rev. D.H. Selph was trying to raise $25,000 to open a school for orphan girls and the daughters of poor Baptists ministers. 

None of this sheds any light on why the Selphs were the target of someone's ire.  

If you've made it this far, I've started a Facebook group for researchers working on the family of Peter Self his wife Elizabeth Vick as well as all allied family lines. Please join us at Peter Self/Selph and Elizabeth Vick Family Researchers.