McKay
The McKay family on this page just includes the direct line to Elkenny McKay and the Deary family. The extended McKay family can be found by following the links in the right hand side column. The full list of Elkenny McKay's descendants can be found here.Click for a gallery of McKay Photos
The McKay Family
The McKay name has many variations in spelling: MacKay, McCay, McKee, Macky, among others. All are pronounced Mac Eye by native Scots. What is known about the McKays in our family line is that they first settled in western Massachusetts, then most moved into eastern New York state and Pennsylvania. Various McKay families lived in New York for over 100 years. The last four generations settled in the Midwest -- Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana.
See all links in McKay Family Tree
David McKay married Juanita Freeman on January 27, 1934 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Dave had been delivered by his father upstairs in their home above the pharmacy in Zenda, Wisconsin. Dave's father moved a lot and Dave also lived in Coburg, Iowa, Pawnee Junction, Illinois, Comal and Turkey, Arkansas, Broken Bow, Oklahoma, and Yellville, Arkansas before he was twelve years old. He and his brother Raymond attended school with mostly Choctaw Indian students in Broken Bow.
Dave's parents were very frugal -- a habit he inherited -- and after World War I surplus uniforms were cheap so his mother bought some and outfitted her boys in them, after alterations.
Dave worked part-time while going to Butler University in Indianapolis making 35 cents/hour at Eli Lilly in 1929. After graduating from pharmacy school in the class of 1935, Dave moved to full time and worked at Eli Lilly and Company for his entire career. His work took the family from Indianapolis to Dyersburg, Tennessee, to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to Webster Groves, Missouri, and finally to Fort Wayne, Indiana. He spent much of his career as a Medical Service Representative, aka a "detail man" with Lilly.
*********Robert McKay married Edith Deary on August 31, 1905 in Chicago, Illinois. When Robert was young and his family was living in Louisiana, he came down with malaria and which kept him out of school half time for a year. Robert was turned down by the army for service in World War I because of heart valve issues and was told that he would probably not live beyond five years (he died at 84).
Robert became a physician from Dr. Howard's medical school in Chicago taught by the doctor himself, not uncommon in those days. He earned money for school by being a telegraph operator. Robert was a restless person who moved frequently during his life. He became a pharmacist in 1923 but was always known as "Doc" - even by his grandchildren. He was known as "Rob" to his immediate family.
He owned at least three pharmacies in Zenda, WI and Yellville and Cotter, AR. Doc rode horseback and/or buggy while he made house-calls throughout the countryside. He would work late into the night and would occasionally fall asleep. The horse always found his way home. He later worked for a railroad company and traveled across the country with the company as the doctor. Doc kept journals of medical records and notes late in life.
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Ambrose Rosell McKay
Charlotte (Scramlin) McKay
Ambrose McKay married Charlotte Scramlin on October 21, 1877. It was the second marriage for both of them. Ambrose had married Mary Newton (described by the family as "an Italian girl" in spite of the fact that her ancestry at least as far back as her grandparents were all born in the United States) in 1871 and Charlotte had married Henry Merlin in 1875 and both Charlotte and Ambrose had been recently widowed; Mary Newton had died of consumption (tuberculosis) in 1876. Ambrose and Charlotte had four sons but only two survived past their second year.
Ambrose had limited options for education because he lived on a pioneer farm where long hours of work were required and he could attend school only in the winter. Ambrose's first occupation must have been farmer but when he moved to Muskegon, Michigan he went into the grocery business from 1882 to 1885. They lived in the home of his mother, Catherine (Ford) McKay. Then he moved the family to Grand Rapids, Michigan where he operated a horse-drawn street car until 1891.
About 1891, Ambrose took his wife and two younger sons to New Iberia, Louisiana for a visit with his sister-in-law and they decided to stay. Ambrose got a job as an expressman for the Wells Fargo Express Co. It was at this time that his health declined and he was forced to retire from this job and in about 1906 Ambrose and Charlotte moved back to Grand Rapids and went into the grocery business once again. He later operated a grocery store in Farmsville, Illinois from 1910 to 1913. It was here that his health declined further and he died of a stroke in 1916 in Turkey, Arkansas where they had gone to live with their son, Robert. Although he is buried in Turkey, Ambrose's grave marker is installed in La Fontaine, Indiana.
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Orson McKay married Catherine Ford in New York State in 1844. Orson was the second son, of his parents six sons and three daughters. He moved his family from upstate New York to Polkton Township, Michigan, west of Grand Rapids, in the early 1850s along with four brothers. Orson's occupation is listed on all census forms as a farmer. The reason they moved to that area was the good timber land. Orson died there in 1879 from typhoid fever.
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Desertion announcement
Joseph (Joel) McKay married Rachael Letson on November 16, 1815 in New York state. Joel worked as a farmer. During the War of 1812, Joel served in Capt. James J. Stener's Company, of Col. Wm. Warren's Regiment, N.Y. militia for less than a month, from Aug. 16, 1814 to the time of his desertion Sept. 11, 1814. He served a two year parole for this. To be fair, although desertion was considered a serious offense, many militiamen, coerced into service, returned to their homes before their term of service was completed. It should be noted that Joel received a claim of $100 after the war.
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Sylvester McKay married Elizabeth Bostwick on September 13, 1782 in New Preston in western Connecticut near the New York state line. They had nine children. Sylvester was himself the oldest of fourteen children.
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Alexander McKay married Mary Sackett in Amenia, New York on August 2, 1760. Alexander was born in 1732 in Hadley, Massachusetts where his father died. Alexander and Mary had a large family as was common at the time but what is most notable is not that they had 14 children but that all of them lived into adulthood and married. Alexander may have worked as a hatter.
Alexander signed the 1774 Lenox Covenant that boycotted British trade and was one of the first formal acts of defiance against the Crown’s taxation without representation. It was a courageous act that exposed the signers to prosecution and hanging should the revolution fail. The document was a precursor of the Declaration of Independence.
In the summer of 1778, during the Revolutionary War, a band of British sympathizers and their Indian allies marched up the Wyoming Valley in what is today Luzerne Valley, Pennsylvania. The settlers retreated to the fort near present day Wilkes-Barre. In the ensuing battle, two-thirds of the settler combatants were killed. Many more died in the flight from the valley after the defeat. The Alexander McKay family was living in the valley at the time. Dr. James McKay in his family history[1] relates the involvement of Alexander’s family in the events in his McKay family history as related by two family members that were there. The book describes a harrowing escape after the battle and fourteen days of imprisonment afterwards.
Alexander, was a Fife Major at age 47 in the 1st New York Regiment of the Continental Line under the command of his distant relative Colonel Goose Van Schaick. It is likely he participated in the campaign against the Indian allies of the British in upstate New York in 1779.
To show how loyalties were split during this era, Alexander's sister, Mehitable married Samuel Buck, who was a Loyalist during the Revolutionary War. With the defeat of the British, they immigrated to Canada in 1778.
A historical note
Revolutionary War Fife Player
During the Revolutionary War, armies didn’t have radios to talk to each other with. Music was the main way for them to communicate over long distances. The fife was used because of its high pitched sound and could be heard from great distances and even through the sounds of a battlefield. Males that were younger than 16 or older than 50 could serve as musicians in the army. Fife Majors would have been musically talented soldiers who instructed the young musicians.
********Elkenny MacKay married Abigail Rood in Woodstock, Connecticut on February 10, 1727. We know that Elkenny had settled near Lenox, Massachusetts about 1725. Family tradition says that Elkenny was born in Edinburgh, Scotland about 1700 but there is no proof. There is recent speculation that possibly Elkenny McKay didn’t emigrate from Scotland but was born in the Boston area and was the son (or more likely grandson) of Alexander McKay who was a Royalist soldier captured at Worcester and transported from Gravesend to Boston on the John and Sarah on May 13, 1652. Regardless, Alexander Elkenny McKay is the end of the line for the McKay family as far as well documented descendants.
McKay/Deary
Deary Family
The Deary family is descended from Palatine German immigrants who came to America about 1752. They spent a few generations in Northern Virginia before migrating west to Ohio, Iowa and Illinois.
Edith Deary
Edith Deary married Robert McKay in Chicago on August 31, 1905. She was born in Sioux City, Iowa but raised in Chicago. She met Robert when she was baby-sitting at the home where he boarded in Chicago.
********John Edward Deary married Anna Howard in O'Brien, Iowa on September 10, 1882. They moved to Chicago within a few years where John worked as a cabinet maker. He also worked for the Dennison Crepe Paper Company and invested in their stock which became quite valuable at the turn of the 20th century.
********John E Deary married Anna Hess in Tuscarawas, Ohio on May 17, 1855. He worked as a carpenter. John apparently held strong nationalistic and anti-immigrant views since he was a member of The Patriotic Order Sons of America, the McKinley Council and the North American Union, all with anti-immigrant leanings.
We know that Anna's parents were both born in Pennsylvania and that her last name indicates probable German ancestry. There are many Hess family members that lived in the area of eastern Ohio where Anna was born and married and they are all descendants of Jeremias Hess who immigrated to Pennsylvania from the German Palatinate in 1730 with his wife and four children aboard the Thistle of Glasgow. So it is probable that Jeremias was the 3X grandfather of Anna and that she was descended from one of his three sons.********
John I Deary married Polly McCurdy in Harrison County, Ohio on June 15, 1816. John moved west from Virginia with his family sometime around 1815 with his parents where he met and married Polly. When Polly died, he remarried Elizabeth Orr.
********Andrew Derry married Catherine Smith in 1794. He and his family left Virginia about 1815 for Freeport Township, Ohio, 300 miles to the west.
Catherine's father was John Smith, an immigrant from Wiltshire, England about whom there is no other information. Her mother was Mary King whose family is described below.********
Peter Derry married Catharina Feldman on May 5, 1761 at the First German Reformation Church in Frederick County, Maryland. Some of their children were baptized at the Grace (Rocky Hill) Evangelical Lutheran Church in Woodsboro, Maryland as late as 1770. Catharina apparently came to America on her own.
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Jacob Derry married Christina probably in Oberhoffen, Germany before 1740. Christina likely died in Germany because Jacob and his three sons, Baltzer, Philip and Peter arrived in America about 1752. They were part of the Palatine migration from the German Baden-Württemberg region. Jacob seems to have lived in Loudon County for the remainder of his life.
Although the origins are murky, there seems to be a fascinating immigration story in the Derry family. Basil probably had two sons who also came to America, Jacob and Valentine. Jacob settled first in Frederick, Maryland then just across the Potomac River in Loudin, Virginia and, within a few generations, his descendants had migrated to the Midwest (Ohio, Illinois, and Iowa).
But Valentine Derry's story, if true, is much more interesting. Some say he was a Hessian soldier whose nickname was "Felty." It is said that he defected and joined the American cause in the Revolutionary War. Valentine married Mary "Mollie" Mull. They left Virginia and moved north, making the long trip over the rough terrain of an Allegheny mountain pass to Somerset County and eventually settling in Georges Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. The couple had seven children including Jacob, born in 1795.
These excerpts come from a newspaper article from 1879. After building a cabin, Derry spent his later life exclusively in hunting deer and bear, in which he was remarkably successful. The deer and bear were plenty, and he never went out without capturing just what he wanted. It was thought by some that he was a wizard, and could charm the deer. He sometimes used a certain ingredient that he rubbed on his moccasins and leggings. He would then make a circuit where deer were plenty, and take his position some twenty-five or thirty steps at either side. In a short time he would see a buck coming on a slow trot. When at a proper range he would bleat, the deer would stop, and he was always sure of his meat.
Not much is known about Valentine's later life but Mollie is locally famous in that part of Pennsylvania as the "Witch of the Monongahela," She was capable of telling fortunes and misfortunes, casting spells and a few even believed that she could fly. The witch of Fayette County eventually earned the title of "Old Moll Derry." She was the inspiration for a book of the period, The White Rocks: or The Robber's Den by A.F. Hill, 1865.
Jacob Deary
But the story doesn't end there. Mollie's son Jacob had a son Phillip. He and his younger brothers, Basil and Carlisle had traveled with their parents from Fayette County, Pennsylvania to Fayette County, Indiana, sometime between 1820-1830, and then eventually settled near Quincy in Adams County, Illinois. Philip, married Miss Cynthia Pribble. In the summer of 1851 they decided to head West with two children and Cynthia pregnant with a third. Phillip had gold fever. They arrived in Oregon City in the Oregon Territory before the first snow fall that winter. In the following spring of 1852, their third child was born. The baby was less than two months old when the family headed south for Jacksonville where the mining camps were located, to search for gold. "The only way the trip could be accomplished in those days was by horseback. The trail led through a canyon and the party was compelled to follow a creek bed for the greater part of the way. That was when it took three days to go 15 miles. The unfortunate part of the journey was that the horse carrying Mrs. Derry (Dairy), slipped and fell, breaking her arm. Resulting from this exposure, Mrs. Derry (Dairy) became ill and died 3 months later." In the spring of 1854, tragedy struck the Derry family once more. Philip, the father, unexpectedly became ill. Ten days later, Philip Derry died on May 29, 1854 at the home of Towner Savage, leaving his three children now orphaned without parents. He was buried in the Salem Pioneer Cemetery (I.O.O.F.) in Salem, Oregon. Their oldest son, Jacob (now calling himself Deary), went to Owyhee County, Idaho in 1865 at the age of 19. "He played an active and important part in Owyhee's battles with the Indians in his role as a scout for the volunteer army hastily organized when large bands of Bannocks invaded the area in 1878." He died in 1899. His descendants all use the Deary surname. Many live in Oregon and Idaho.
McKay/Deary/McCurdy
McCurdy Family
The McCurdy family were Scots-Irish who emigrated from Scotland to Northern Ireland and within two generations left Ireland for America. They settled in Eastern Pennsylvania but moved to the western part of the State before moving on to eastern Ohio.
Mary Fox "Polly" McCurdy married John Deary on June 15, 1816 in Harrison County, Ohio. Her middle name, Fox, comes from her paternal grandmother. She worked as a tailoress.
********John McCurdy married Nancy Tait in 1793 in Ligonier Valley, Pennsylvania. His wife died and he moved to Ohio in 1820. John was a carpenter and prominent contractor in Cadiz, Ohio and although he wasn't an attorney, he served as an associate judge in Harrison County, Ohio from 1820 to 1825.
********Nancy's father, David Tait, married Agnes McNaught in about 1770. Both were born in Scotland and may have emigrated just before or just after getting married. They settled first in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania then relocated farther west in Westmoreland County.
Nancy's brother, Rev. Samuel Tait, was preparing his horse to take his family to church one Sunday morning in November 1838. In his Coolspring Township barn, he found a runaway slave. Tait, a member of the Mercer County Anti-Slavery Society, disguised the man with his own wig, hat, and cloak. Tait directed him to his house where the disguised man received food and protection.
John McCurdy married Mary Jane Fox in 1757 in Pennsylvania. He was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Continental Army in 1777-1778 and served in Carlisle as Guard of Stores duty. His occupation was tailor and tavern keeper. At various times he kept the "Sign of the Buck" Tavern and the "Silver Springs Tavern" in Cumberland County but got in trouble with the law for keeping a "tippling house" without a license in Carlisle.
In about 1784 John and Mary moved their family (they had twelve children) to Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, east of Pittsburgh. John had had some run ins with the law: an assault charge, unpaid rent, and failure to pay taxes. There was speculation that John was drinking and did not have his affairs in order, which is why he moved to Westmoreland.
********John McCurdy married Agnes McQuillan in 1728 in Antrim, Ireland. John and Agnes came to America in the early 1730s and settled near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
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Scottish connection
Petheric/Pethrick McCurdy married Margaret Stewart in Ballintoy, Ireland in 1667. In the latter part of November, 1666 the five MacKirdy brothers, Pethrick, David, William, John and Daniel escaped in an open boat and through a blinding snow storm sailed across the turbulent sea and after a dangerous voyage they sought shelter from the storm on one of the rocky islets near the north coast of Ireland, sailing on the third day to the mainland, they landed near the Giant's Causeway. After they located in Ireland they changed the spelling of their names to McCurdy. Pethrick located on a farm near Ballintoy in "The Cairne" and married Margaret Stewart.
Margaret is a descendant of King Robert II of Scotland, also from Somerled. Her father, Charles Stewart of Ballintoy, Ireland was the son of Ninian Stewart of Kilchattan and his wife Grizel; he was the son of Sir James Stewart, whose father was Sir Ninian of Nether Kilmory in 1532; his father was Sir Ninian who was born in 1469 and succeeded his father as Sheriff of Bute; he was made Castellan of Rothsay by James IV. Sir James was the son of Sir John Stewart who was born in 1360 and died in 1449; he was Sheriff of Bute; he married Janet Semple of Eliotstown. Sir John was the son of King Robert II.
McKay/Deary/Smith /King
King Family
The King family is the Southern connection in the McKay ancestry with old roots in Virginia.
Mary King married John Smith about 1760.
********John King married Mary Osbourne in 1731 in Westmoreland, Virginia. They had eleven children. John was a slave owner with a recorded sale of a "negro girl Sarah" in 1762.
********Smith King married Mary Hales about 1689 in Virginia. Smith was left 150 acres of land by his grandfather William Smith.
Mary was the daughter of the immigrant John Hales who died in July, 1728 in Westmoreland, Virginia.********
Arthur King married Mary Smith. Arthur was a planter growing tobacco and corn.
********Mary was the daughter of William Smith and Anne Danks.
William's father was Robert Smith, the immigrant who was married to Ann(last name unknown)
Robert died before 1668 in Northumberland, Virginia, leaving minor children. Robert left a "servant" to his wife, Anne, undoubtedly indicating that he was a slave owner. His wife, Ann remarried to Arthur Emory.
Marke King married Elizabeth or Ann Smith in 1665 in Talbot County, Maryland. Marke arrived in 1650 in Saint Mary's County, Maryland as an indentured servant of Robert Brooke.
McKay/Deary/Smith /King/Osbourne
Osbourne Family
The Osbourne family in the McKay ancestry has four Thomas Osbournes: father, son, grandson, and great grandson. All of them have a close association with a plantation called Coxendale along the James River in Virginia.
Mary Osbourne married John King in 1731 in Westmoreland, Virginia.
*********Thomas Osbourne IV married Martha Jones before February 24, 1689 in Henrico County, Virginia. They had seven children. Thomas left slaves in his will to his daughter and granddaughter and in the cruel language of the time his granddaughter is entitled to the "issue of said woman."
Martha's father was Thomas Jones, son of Welsh immigrant Thomas. Martha's mother was Mary Repps, daughter of Wyll Repps. They had land in the area called Bermuda Hundred in Henrico County, Virginia. After the death of Thomas, Mary married Edward Skerme in 1680 in Henrico County. Mary (Repps) Jones Skerme outlived her two husbands and three sons. She left to daughter Martha Osborne her wedding ring.********
Thomas Osbourne III was the first born in America (1641), and he resided his entire life in Coxendale, Henrico County. He had been given the plantation of Coxendale during his father's lifetime, rather than by his will. He married Mary Bailey daughter of Henry Bailey. After Mary's death he secondly married Martha Griegg. He would be considered literary for his time and place; is library included: "A parcel of old books, viz., 1 large Q'rto Bible, Josephus in folio, and 5 or 6 or do valued at 1 pound, 6 pence."
********Thomas Osbourne Jr. owned a plantation that was called Batchelers Bancke. The name of his wife is unknown.
********Thomas Osbourne arrived in Jamestown aboard the Bona Nova late in 1619. This makes him the earliest recorded ancestor in the McKay/Stevens family tree. There is no indication he had a wife in America, so she may have died in England. He was selected by the London Company in England to serve as the leader of the military contingent in the settlement of College Land, a large area of land near Henricus City called Coxendale.
After the March 1622 attack by the Indians, where roughly one-third of those settlers between Jamestown and Henricus City were killed, Lieut. Thomas Osborne lead a retaliatory attack; from this point onward, he appears in the records as Captain Thomas Osborne. From 1625-1633 he served in the House of Burgesses and, having been granted a large tract of land known as Coxendale, settled there around 1625. There is still a Coxendale Road in Chester, Virginia which leads to the general vicinity of the old Coxendale plantation.
McKay/Deary/McCurdy /Fox
Fox Family
The Fox family had an English/Yankee heritage with the first immigrant arriving at the end of the Puritan Great Migration in 1640. They relocated from Concord, Massachusetts to Dracut to Philadelphia. The Fox family can trace their ancestry back to Theophilus Fowke who was killed in the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
Mary Jane Fox married John McCurdy in 1757 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They settled in Chester County, Pennsylvania and had twelve children. Her grand-daughter later remembered her like this: "My grandmother...was of Royal blood...She was very refined. They were in good circumstances before the revolutionary war. Grandfather was a Merchant, and during the War he furnished supplies for the soldiers and for their horse, taking his pay in continental money, which afterwards was worthless, and he was ruined financially."
********David Fox married Mary Colburn on March 14, 1738 in Dracut, Massachusetts. David got the farm on March hill in Dracut near the New Hampshire line from his father. He is on the record as dying "in the army at Senecteda" (probably Schenectady, New York) on September 24, 1758 at age 41.
********Nathaniel Fox married Hannah Merriam on January 11, 1710 in Concord, Massachusetts. They came to Dracut from Concord in 1714 and purchased land there.
********Eliphalet Fox married Mary Stone on November 30, 1681 in Concord, Massachusetts. It was his second of three marriages. He was made a freeman of the colony in 1690. He and his descendants had farms in Concord that he inherited from his father.
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English connection
Thomas Fox married Rebecca Wheate possibly in England before he arrived in Concord, Massachusetts in 1640, the year he became a member of the Concord Church. He was a farmer who lived in the "Great Swamp" north of the church. He was elected a freeman in Concord in 1644. There is a story that the original Thomas Fox home in Concord was incorporated into Louisa May Alcott's house which was built much later.
McKay/Deary/McCurdy /Fox/Colburn
Colburn Family
The Colborn family in America started with the arrival in 1635 of seventeen year old Edward. They were all settlers in Massachusetts.
Mary Colburn married David Fox on March 14, 1738 in Dracut, Massachusetts. They had nine children.
********Josiah Colburn married Sarah Colburn, a first cousin (their fathers were brothers), in Concord, Massachusetts about 1709. He was a weaver and a farmer with extensive land holdings near Dracut.
Sarah's father was Daniel Coburn, brother of Thomas Colburn (below). Daniel married Sarah Blood on June 18, 1685 in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.********
Thomas Colburn married Mary Richardson on November 17, 1681 in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. He had land conveyed to him in Ipswich, Massachusetts by his father in 1671.
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English connection
Edward Colburn (also spelled Coburn and Colborne) married Hannah (last name unknown) in 1645. It is sometimes said that her last name was Rolfe but it was actually his son Thomas whose first wife was Hannah Rolfe. Edward had sailed in September, 1635, in the ship Defence, and arrived in Boston October 30. His age was stated as seventeen. He settled first at Ipswich, Massachusetts, and was a farmer for Nathaniel Saltonstall. Hannah and Edward were the parents of both Daniel and Thomas.
While in Ipswich in 1652, Edward became peripherally involved with some of the early colonial witchcraft hysteria. "John Broadstreet upon his presentment of the last court for suspition of haveing familiarity with the devill upon examynation of the case they found he had tould a lye; which was a second & being convicted once before the Court setts a fine of 20s (shillings) or else be whipt. Edw. Coborne is surety for the payment of the fine and fees of court."
He was a soldier in King Philip's War from Chelmsford and was in charge of what was called Colburn's garrison on the river, having the rank of corporal. He guarding the ferry, March 18, 1675, when Vamesit Indians killed two boys and burned Coburn's home. During King William's War, 1689-90, he again commanded a garrison. He was a settler of Dracut, Massachusetts.
McKay/Deary/McCurdy /Fox/Colburn/Colburn /Blood
Blood Family
The Blood and Willard families were important early settlers in Concord and Groton, Massachusetts.
Sarah Blood married Daniel Coburn on June 18, 1685 in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.
********Robert Blood married Elizabeth Willard on April 8, 1653 in Concord, Massachusetts. They lived at "Blood's Farms" now in the town of Carlisle. He was one of the original petitioners for incorporation of Groton. He received a 1000 acre deed from his father in law, Simon Willard.
Simon Willard
Elizabeth was the daughter of Major Simon Willard, an early Massachusetts fur trader, colonial militia leader, legislator, and judge. He emigrated to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1634 with his first wife Mary Sharpe and their daughters Mary and Elizabeth. He was a founder of Concord, Massachusetts and helped negotiate its purchase from the Native American owners. He lived in several Massachusetts towns: Cambridge, Concord 1636, Lancaster 1659, Groton about 1671 and Charlestown 1676. He was a Major by 1654. Simon acted as Commander-in-Chief of the Expedition of the United Colonies against Ninigret, a sachem of the eastern Niantic Indian tribe, in 1655. At the age of 75, the Major led the relief at the Battle of Brookfield (part of King Philips War).********
James Blood married Ellen Harrison on February 7, 1631 in Nottingham, England. He came to Concord in 1638 from England. and was made freeman in 1641. He owned a large estate.
James' ancestry is uncertain but some historians believe that he was a brother of Colonel Thomas Blood, an Anglo-Irish officer and self-styled colonel best known for his attempt to steal the Crown Jewels of England and Scotland from the Tower of London in 1671. Thomas' epitaph read:
Here lies the man who boldly hath run through
More villainies than England ever knew;
And ne'er to any friend he had was true.
Here let him then by all unpitied lie,
And let's rejoice his time was come to die.
McKay/Deary/McCurdy /Fox/Colburn/Richardson
Richardson Family
The Richardson family settled early in Woburn, Massachusetts and then became the early settlers in Chelmsford.
Mary Richardson married Thomas Colburn on September 7, 1681 in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.
********Josiah Richardson married Remembrance Underwood in 1659 in Concord, Massachusetts. They had eight children together. Josiah was one of the founders of Woburn, Massachusetts. He was a fence viewer among other occupations. It was written that " Some Indians, "from the love they bore to" Josiah Richardson, of Chelmsford, conveyed to him, on January 19, 1688/9, a parcel of land at the confluence of the Concord and Merrimack Rivers - where Lowell now stands.
Rembrance's father was William Underwood. He married Sarah (a widow of Richard Pellet) in 1639 in Concord, Massachusetts. William relocated from Concord in 1652 to Chelmsford, Massachusetts. After Sarah's death in 1684 he married Anna Kidder of Billerica.********
Ezekiel Richardson married Susannah (last name uncertain, possibly Bradford) on August 27, 1632 in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Ezekiel arrived in 1630 with Winthrop's fleet from Westmill, Hertfordshire . He was a follower of Anne Hutchinson and John Wheelwright in 1637 along with many members of the Boston Church during the Antinonmian Controversy. His name was included on Remonstrances in Wheelwright's favor, but was later "erased" when the Court found him guilty of sedition. In 1640 he resettled in Woburn, Massachusetts.
McKay/Deary/McCurdy /Fox/Merriam
Merriam Family
The Merriam family was among the first settlers of Concord. It was founded by other McKay ancestors the Reverend Peter Bulkeley and Simon Willard.
Hannah Merriam married Nathaniel Fox on January 11, 1710 in Concord, Massachusetts.
********Samuel Merriam married Elizabeth Townsend on October 22, 1669 in Lynn, Massachusetts. Samuel was of Lynn but was living in Concord when he was declared a freeman in 1691.
Elizabeth's parents were Thomas Townsend and Mary Newgate. Thomas and his family settled in Lynn, Massachusetts in 1635. Thomas was a cousin of Governor John Winthrop.********
George Merriam married Susannah Raven on October 16, 1627 in Tonbridge, Kent, England. George, Susannah, and at least two children may have come to America on the ship, Castle of London, arriving in Charlestown in the colony of Massachusetts in July of 1638. He was declared a freeman of Massachusetts on June 2, 1641. George, his father (William), and brother, Joseph were clothiers in Hadlow, Kent, England. The family was living in Concord by 1644.
McKay/Deary/McCurdy /Fox/Stone
Stone Family
The Stone and Rogers families were part of the Puritan Great Migration.
Mary Stone married Eliphalet Fox on September 30, 1681 in Concord, Massachusetts.
********John Stone married Anne Rogers in 1639 in Framingham, Massachusetts. John was seventeen years old when he accompanied this father to New England in 1635. After his marriage he established himself in Sudbury, Massachusetts. In 1646 he moved to what is now Framingham, Massachusetts becoming its first citizen. In 1658 he built a gristmill on the Sudbury River. After his father's death in 1672 he moved to Cambridge and became one of the elders of the Cambridge Church.
Anne was the daughter of Barnaby Rogers and Mary Wells who married on April 25, 1610 in Boxted, Essex, England. Barnaby was a tailor.********
Gregory Stone married Margaret Garrad on July 20, 1617 in Nayland, Suffolk, England. He immigrated with his family on the ship The Increase from Ipswich, England, arriving in Massachusetts in April 1635. He was a deacon of the Cambridge church, freeman in 1636, representative in 1638, was one of the proprietors of Watertown. Margaret, Gregory's first wife and John's mother, died in England and Gregory remarried in England.