John McCurdy
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth Date: 1675 - County Antrim, Ireland Christening: Death: Burial: Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Petheric McCurdy ( - ) Mother: Margaret Stewart ( - )
Notes
General:
The following is on page 37 in Chapter IX "The Sons of Petheric, 'the Refugee'" of The Ancestral McCurdys Their Origin and Remote History by H. Percy Blanchard (Covenant Publishing Company, London, 1930). A facsimile copy of the book can be seen at
https://ia800905.us.archive.org/27/items/ancestralmccurdy00blan/ancestralmccurdy00blan.pdf
"JOHN McCURDY, the fourth son of Petheric, was born in 1675. He married a Miss McQuillam. One child was Samuel (of Ahoghill), born in 1729, who married Sarah Anderson, and settled on "Caven" farm. Samuel had three children: Alexander, John, and Mary, who married Hamilton Baird. Alexander was born in 1746, died in 1828. He took over the "Caven" farm in 1782. He married Elizabeth Anderson. Their oldest child, Samuel, born in 1780, held "Clougher" farm, near Bushmills. He moved to Philadelphia in 1816, and then in 1819 to Shippensburg. He was the grandfather [should be 'father'] of Hon. John McCurdy of that place. Chart Three will illustrate the relationship. Of the other children of Alexander, James held the "Caven" farm from his father's death till his own decease, in 1874."
On page 34 a lengthy excerpt from a letter written by John McCurdy of Shippenburg in 1877 describes the farms and his ancestors who lived there.
JAMES McCURDY, the eldest son of Petheric and Margaret (Stewart) McCurdy, was born in 1668. He married, when about twenty-one years old, Jerusha Murray, said to be a cousin of the Earl of Mar. He settled in the neighbourhood of Bushmills, County Antrim. In a letter written by the late Hon. John McCurdy of Shippensburg, Pa., dated February 12th, 1877, may be found the following extract: "If you take a general atlas and turn to the map of Ireland, you will find the Giant's Causeway on the extreme northern coast of County Antrim. West of the Causeway, and east of the river Bann, you will find a small stream which runs due north, and empties into the ocean near the Causeway. This stream is called the Bush River. On this river, about one mile from its mouth, there is a village containing about 1,000 inhabitants. The name of this place is Bushmills. Just outside of the town, about a quarter of a mile distant, there is a farm called 'Clouther.' On this farm I was born. A short distance east of Bush River, about a mile nearly south of Bushmills, there is a farm called the 'Caven,' the southern boundary of which is within a hundred yards of Billy Church, where very many of the McCurdys are buried. This 'Caven' farm is said to be the one on which the McCurdys settled when they emigrated from Scotland. There my great-grandfather Samuel [son of John, son of Petheric.-Ed.], and my grandfather Alexander, lived and died. My Uncle James held it from the time of my grandfather's death in 1828, until 1874, when he died. Until very recently I thought this property was held by the family in fee simple; but I have discovered that they held it on life-leases. Two of my cousins hold either the whole or a part of it now. Ahoghil, from which your great-grandfather came, is about six or seven miles from the 'Caven.'"
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