Amanuensis Monday: The Will of James Anderson 1810 Huntingdon Co., Pennsylvania

JAMES ANDERSON d. March 1810

About Amanuensis Monday: John Newmark, who writes the TransylvanianDutch blog started a Monday Blog Theme called "Amanuensis Monday". John defines "amanuensis" as "a person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another."

James Anderson's dates of birth and marriage are as yet unknown. His wife was Margaret Mitchel. James and Margaret's daughter Margaret Anderson married Samuel Grunden on April 27, 1802 in Huntingdon Co., Pennsylvania. Their son Joseph married Martha Dungan January 3, 1835 in Butler Co., Ohio. Their daughter Mary Louisa was the subject of my blog: Surname Saturday: GRUNDEN.

The Will of James Anderson:

[Will is in the Register's Office of the County of Huntingdon Book No 2, Page 59.]

"In the Name of God, Amen I James Anderson of West township Huntingdon County and State of Pennsylvania being Weak in body but of sound Mind Memory and Understanding blessed be God for the same but considering the uncertainity of this transitory life Do make and publish this my last Will and Testament in Manner and form following to wit -     Principally and first of all I command my Immortal Soul into the hands of God who gave it and my body to the Earth to be buried in a Decent and Christian like Manner at the Discretion of my Executors herein after named and as to such Worldly estate Wherewith it hath pleased God to bless me in this life I give and dispose of the same in the following Manner to Wit.

     In the first place I give and bequeath to Margaret my Well beloved Wife my large Bible and three other books of Divinity such as she may chuse off my books and One bed bedsted and beding suteable for said bed and one cot and the third of the Dresser furniture and My Silver Shoe buckels her Saddle and all her body clothes.  And also to be supported off my Real Estate in a suteable Manner till the same is sold--

     In the Second place I give and Bequeath to Rebecca my Daughter four Dollars Current Money of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

     In the third place I give and Bequeth to Elizabeth my Daughter four Dollars Current Money of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 

     In the fourth place I give and Bequeth to Silas my Son four Dollars Currant Money of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

     In the fifth place I give and Bequeath to Ann my Daughter four Dollars Current Money of yhe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

     In the sixth place I give and Bequeth to Margaret my Daughter four Dollars Current money of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

     In the Seventh place I give and Bequeath to James my Son my Silver Kneebuckels one pare of Silver Sleeve buttons anf four dollars Current money of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

     In the Eight-place I give and Bequeath to Mary my Daughter four Dollars Current Money of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

     In the Ninth place I give and Bequeath to Thomas my Son one pare of Silver buttons and four Dollars current money of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

     In the tenth place I give and Bequeath to Joseph my son one pare of Silver Sleeve buttons and four dollars Current Money of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

     In the Eleventh place I allow my Executors herein after named to Sell my Real and personal Estate within two Years after my Decease or at any time they may think proper to the best advantage and when said Estate is sold and all my Lawful Debts is paid the remainder I allow to be Equally Divided betwist my wife James Thomas and Joseph my Sons

     In the twelfth place I do allow that the aforesaid Bequethments shall be paid within four years after my Real and personale Estate is Sold

     In the thirteenth place I give to Joseph my Son my New Great Coat and the rest of my Body Clothes to be Equally Devided betwixt James Thomas and Joseph my Sons

     In the fourteenth and last place I nominate constitute and appoint James My Son and William Johnston to be the Executors of this my Will hereby Revoking all other Wills, legacies and bequeath bt me heretofore made and declairing this and no other to be My last Will and Testament.

     In Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal the Second Day of February in the year of our Lord Eighteen hundred and ten. "

                                                                    James Anderson  (Seal)

     Signed, Sealed published pronounced and declared by the said Testator as his last Will and Testament in the presence of Us who in his presence and at his Request have subscribed as Witnesses 
William Johnston, Thomas Johnston, William Johnston, Jr.       

Tradition is that the Anderson family was of Scots-Irish ancestry. James' father Thomas Anderson who married Ann Allison is said to have been born 1727 in or near the town of McGuire Bridge, County Fermanagh, Ireland; died about 1799. [Family Archive Viewer, CD19 Egles Notes & Queries of PA, 1700-1800, Annual Volume 1899, Notes and Queries - XXXIV, The Learning Company, Inc, Nov 10, 2002.   Burial Records From the Old Presbyterian Churchyard, Bedford, Pa.]

Maguiresbridge is a small village in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 774 people. It lies within the Fermanagh District Council area. The town is named after the bridge over the Colebrooke river, first built by the local Maguire family. 

                                                                                           

The Scottish Anderson Tartan
This is the tartan I wear regularly to Celtic events & Highland Athletic Games
It is said to be the only tartan with seven colors; all others have six.

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Irish Ancestors: Clotilda, daughter of Lord And Lady Vincent

Clotilda Vincent Bean 1769-1864

Clotilda was born on 14 Mar 1769, daughter of Lord and Lady Vincent of Ireland. She married Edward Columbus Bean, known as John Bean, in Baltimore, St. Mary's County, Maryland. They came to Nelson County, Kentucky in 1798 with five children and seven slaves and Clotilda's sister, Elizabeth Vincent Kelly who lived with her. Another sister Louanna Brewer lived about 12 miles north of Bardstown in Fairfield.

Children born to Clotilda and John in Maryland: Ann Harriet, Francis Baker, George Alexander, John Randolf, and Augustus. Three more children born in Kentucky were: Nancy, William Polycarp (my husband's line) and James Matthew.

When Clotilda's husband John Bean made a trip back to Maryland to retrieve furniture and supplies and to lead other pioneers back to Kentucky, he was killed by Indians on the return trip through the Cumberland Gap. He was buried in the Gap alongside the road.

Clotilda was a very devout Catholic woman who died 13 Sep 1864, and is the second oldest person buried in St. Joseph's Cemetery at Bardstown. Her tombstone was erected by one of her slaves, Joe Bean.

Clotilda donated the springs on 3 acres of her farm to get Sr. Catherine Spalding to build Nazareth to provide an education for the Catholic girls. This was deeded to Nazareth by Thomas Aud in 1822.

The log cabin that was Clotilda's home was located on the farm of J. C. Greenwell, about 3 miles northwest of Bardstown, Kentucky on Highway 245. The cabin was built before Kentucky was a state. The cabin was donated by the Greenwell family and is now located in "Pioneer Village" in what is referred to as "Museum Row", a collection of five museums in Bardstown. Inside the cabin is a display about Clotilda. 

Most of my information comes from those that have seen the display and quoted the information to me and from those who have quoted excerpts from the book "Historic Nelson County, Its Homes and Peoples" by Sarah B. Smith, copyright 1982.

Many more photos of the Bean cabin may be seen at this link: 

Those Places Thursday: Inside The Bean Cabin

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Who the heck is Alice?

I was going to write about Alice eventually but then I discovered the other day that daughter Hallie didn’t have a clue as to who Alice was. (Oh my!) She thought I was talking about the Alice in the song "Living Next Door to Alice" that was so popular with our Irish Singer friend from Canada, Jack McGuire.

“What would your brother say?”, I asked. Michael’s carefully chosen tartan for his first kilt was the plaid for County Antrim, Ireland where his Irish ancestor Alice had been born. He had agonized over each and every part of the outfit using great care with color and originality.

So now my desire to make sure Alice is given due recognition has taken on a new urgency....


Alice MCILVOY, my children's third great grandmother, was born in, or near, Belfast, County Antrim, Ireland around the year1813. This birth year is given here using the information from her obituary that says she was 90 years of age when she died in 1903. The 1900 census gives January 1815 as her date of birth. (Alice's headstone says 1818 but we know this is incorrect.) Alice was the daughter of Alexander McIlvoy and Mary Magdalene McConley. She and her family arrived on the shores of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania aboard the "North Star" out of Liverpool, England on 28 August 1818. In all the years of my research involving hundreds of ancestors between our two families, Alice was the latest immigrant to come to the United States. Others had arrived here 100 to 200 years earlier. Not one relative I have traced on either side arrived here late enough to have come through Ellis Island in the late 1800s.

What I’d really like to know are the details of the journey of the McIlvoy family between the date of their arrival at Philadelphia's port and the end of that journey which placed them squarely in the middle of the Commonwealth of Kentucky in the precinct of Mackville near Springfield in Washington County where Abraham Lincoln's parents were married just a few years earlier. That’s a long way by wagon train, lots of obstacles….mountains, Indians, etc. Yet they show up there as early as 1820, just two years after their arrival in the U.S. Did they come in the tide of one of the great Catholic migrations from the North?

In 1840, when Alice was about 27 years old she married William B. Logsdon. She was William's second wife. His first wife, Nancy Ann Worland, had been dead almost 2 years and William already had 10 children when he and Alice were married at St. Rose Church in Springfield. Before 1860 Alice would give William ten more children! Their large family lived for many years on a farm known as the Horse Shoe Bend Farm on the Little Beech River.

In 1870 we find William and Alice in the neighboring county of Marion in the precinct of Loretto. They were living in this precinct until William's death in 1882. Sometime before 1900 Alice moved to the precinct of Chicago in the same county and in the 1900 census her spinster daughter Mariah Louise is living with her. Alice died in 1903 and was buried alongside her husband in the old St. Mary's cemetery in Lebanon. I believe Alice's first name may have been Margaret. She is listed as "Peggy" (a nickname for Margaret) on the immigration lists and one of her grandsons, on his father's death certificate, listed his grandmother's name as "Margurite". But, like so many Catholics, Alice was known by her middle name.

Alice's obituary below is taken from "The News-leader" (Springfield, Kentucky) Thursday, August 6, 1903.

"The remains of Mrs. Alice McIlvoy Logsdon who died in Chicago, Ky., were brought to St. Mary's, Marion County last Monday for burial. She died on August 1st and was 90 years of age. The deceased had lived many years of her life in this county where she has children and grandchildren and a number of nephews and nieces living. She was the sister of the late Daniel McIlvoy and widow of William Logsdon who lived for a number of years on the Little Beech in this county on the farm known as the Horse Shoe Bend farm. Mrs. Logsdon was born in Belfast, Ireland and came to this county at an early age. She was a woman of fine character and noted for her charity and kindness of heart."

Alice is buried at St. Mary, Lebanon, Marion Co., Kentucky, Section J, Card 61, Section #40

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