William Allison 1749-1825: Soldier, Farmer

William was the first generation of his Allison clan to be born in the Americas. The year William was born his Ulster Irish father William Allison (1696-1778) acted as Justice of the Peace for Cumberland County,  Pennsylvania. When William Allison was born in 1749 his father, also William, was 53 and his mother, Catherine Craig Allison, was 39. 

Though William lived on the same farm his whole life, he is recorded as having lived in three different counties. His era was a time of change in the Pennsylvania Colony. As the wave of immigrants from Europe moved into the frontier, lands were sold, swapped and divided. Counties were subdivided. Cumberland County was created from a portion of Lancaster County in 1750. Soon after the Revolution in 1784, Cumberland was named Franklin in honor of the popular Benjamin Franklin.

William Allison saw military service in 1775 as a private in the Revolutionary War. According to Virginia Fendrick's, American Revolutionary Soldiers of Franklin County Pennsylvania,  William was 26 years old when he served under Captain William Berryhill and Captain Thomas Johnston 

In 1778 when his father died William inherited the running of his father's farm as well as the care of his mother, Catherine Craig Allison.

He wed Mary McLanahan around 1788, judging from the birth of the first son in 1789.  According to custom, or perhaps lack of imagination they called this son William. The McLanahans were a prominent Presbyterian family in colonial Pennsylvania. The couple had six sons and two daughters: William, Isabella, James, Mary, Joseph, John, Robert and Samuel.

Records show that William added to the family plantation with land swaps and purchases throughout his life. 

 

 Warrants  dated 25 Aug 1786 • Franklin County, Pennsylvania

William Allison died on September 4, 1825, in Greencastle, Pennsylvania at 76 years of age. He is buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Greencastle, PA, beside wife Mary McLanahan Allison.

Source: American Revolutionary 

Soldiers of Franklin County, Pennnsylvania, pg 241, Virginia Fendrick

William’s last will and testament lists a considerable amount of property including a distillery, orchards, books, land and slaves.  William deeds his property in a very uneven way giving son James the majority of the estate. The women of the family are duly considered.   The younger sons Robert and Samuel appear to inherit the possibility of nothing, depending on the whim of the executors...

William writes, “it is my sic that twenty eight hundred dollars out of the land specified to be sold is to remain the hands of my executors for the use of my two sons Robert Allison and Samuel Allison to be paid to them or not that is discretionary with my executors. Should the *** it most advisable that they should not receive it …."

Did these sons do something to offend the father? Or are they simply inheriting the disadvantaged position of being last sons? Perhaps we will never know. This will tells us that our 3rd Grandfather Samuel Allison navigated his young life with an illustrious name and three generations of history on the Pennsylvania frontier, having to make his own way with little inheritance to ease his path.

French and Indian War: 1754-1763

"What began as a series of skirmishes between French and British colonial forces in North America ballooned into a global conflict known as the Seven Years’ War, or the French and Indian War in North America. In an effort to secure the frontier from raids by Native Americans, the Pennsylvania General Assembly constructed a number of forts including Fort Loudon. 

The area’s population dropped from about 3,000 in 1755 at the start of the war to about 300, with most settlers not returning until after 1764 when the peace treaty was signed. Over 20 forts sprouted up around the area, built by settlers to offer collective protection from Native American raids. These forts include McCauley’s Fort near Greencastle, Allison’s Fort near Waynesboro, Chambers’ Fort present day Chambersburg, Sharp’s Fort, and Aull’s Fort."

Canadians refer to this war as the" North American Conflict". The British call it the "Seven Years War" and the people of the United States refer to it as the "French and Indian War". When it comes to war, perspective is everything. This piece of historical background is quoted from the very wonderful Franklin County website. Explore its interactive historical timeline:  

http://franklincountypa.gov/history/

William Allison 1696-1778: Justice of the Peace

William was born to parents John and Jannet, likely in Northern Ireland in the Ulster colony.  We believe the Allison family first settled in Donegal Township. Allisons appear to have been active members of the East Donegal Presbyterian Church. It is likely that members of this congregation emigrated from Northern Ireland's Ulster together to try their luck in the American colony.

William Allison is visible in Chester County Pennsylvania at Donegal Township on the land patent map. His acreage was on the east shore of the Susquehanna River. The survey date for his land is 1735.  Robert Allison and Richard Allison also held acreage on this map. Reverend James Anderson owned the land next to William. James Anderson was the pastor of the East Donegal Presbyterian Church. His name appears on William's father, John Allison's will. In turn, William was a witness to the Reverend James' last will and testament dated 1740. 

William Allison married Catherine Craig around 1737. He was 41 and his bride was in her twenties. They had six surviving children: John, Patrick, Agnes, Robert, William, Catherine born between 1738 and 1751.

John Allison, who we believe to be William’s father, died in Chester County in 1729 and is visible on the Donegal tax rolls. When father John Allison died he left his sons his land and its "improvements". There was a dwelling house, a woolen house, horses, cows, and sheep. He also left a list of tasks for his boys: build a second house, dig a well….  It is clear from his will that everything that needed doing on the Pennsylvania frontier was done by hand. 

Farming was intense, backbreaking work. It took months to clear an acre of trees to create farmland. It is surprising that with so many months of intense work invested to build a farm how frequently settlers picked up and moved on.  Land deed records give us evidence that the Allisons moved west. In 1750 William Allison warranted 100 acres in Antrim Township, Franklin County. 

Antrim had a front row seat to the turmoil of the French and Indian war. The Scots Irish settlers on the edge of civilization in Pennsylvania colony were caught between the French and Indian alliance to push back the British colonists on the east coast of America.  It was a bloody time. Till then relations with the Indians had been fairly peaceable. The Penns bought lands from Native Americans and held to their treaties. The climate shifted when France and England went to war and challenged each other for control of the colonial lands in North America.  Suddenly settlers were attacked. Kidnapped. Scalped. Women and children were traded as slaves. The colonials created garrison buildings to which they could flee to in times of attack. Fort Allison may be one of these garrisons. We have no details of exactly how the Allisons weathered the Indian troubles. We do know they survived. During this time William Allison was Justice of the Peace for Cumberland County 1749 and 1750. 

William prospered, owning more property at his death than he inherited. His will lists hundreds of acres in Antrim Township, a house, cattle, silver, a distillery and slaves. Like his father, and perhaps all Presbyterian elders, he had very specific plans for the property he left behind and how his children and wife were to manage it.  

William lived into his eighties and survived long enough to see the signing of the Declaration of Independence and to watch his sons go to war to defend their rights during the American Revolution.

His eldest son John became Colonel John Allison in the Revolutionary war and founder of the town of Greencastle,  Pennsylvania; son Patrick became Dr. Reverend Patrick Allison, the first pastor of the first Presbyterian church of Baltimore. Daughter Agnes married. Son William inherited the family farm. He is our 4th grandfather.

Ulster 1700

Crossing an ocean in flimsy, sailing ships to an unknown continent seems a terrifying prospect. Why would a person do this? One answer is that you were a young, energetic adventurer seeking your fortune.  An alternate answer is that miseries of staying home were worse than the anxieties of leaving.  We believe John Allison (1670-1729) migrated as a middle-aged man with a family. He was not a swashbuckling voyager seeking adventure. The politics of his Ulster homeland support the flee theory.

In 1700 the Protestants and Catholics had been at war for more than a century. The tug of war between these factions resulted in the Dukes of Northern Ireland fleeing to Europe when they failed to enlist Catholic Spain in their efforts against Protestant England. England was quick to retaliate by seizing their Irish lands.

Into this void the Brits had the bright idea of subduing the wild, Gaelic speaking, Catholic Irish with a population of lowland Scots. Vacated Irish lands were offered and 

Scots were encouraged to migrate to Northern Ireland's "Ulster Plantation", a brilliant English  strategy that suppressed Irish Catholics and at the same time diluted their troublesome Scottish neighbors.  The Scots inhabited Ulster for 100 years, the Irish Catholic and Protestant Scots living uneasily side by side.  

Ann became queen of England in 1702. Though she was Protestant, the Presbyterian Scots of Ulster were not her kind of Protestant. Laws were passed that restricted public office only to "conformists" or Church of England Anglicans. The "Non Conformists" or "Dissenters" were suddenly treated with the same disadvantages as Catholics. Life in Ulster became very hostile to the Scottish Presbyterians of Ulster.  Difficulties were exacerbated by several years of crop failure, a drop in linen prices, and rising  rents. 

"Presbyterians denied positions of law and influence but also minor governmental offices that afforded at least a small continuous source income for their families.  "Some Presbyterians … were excommunicated by the Episcopal authority for the crime of being married by ministers of their own church." They were also forced to pay tithes to the Episcopal Church that they never attended and whose beliefs they never adhered.    [Hanna 618]

Elroy's History of Ireland of 17th and 18th C.

The Ulster Scots left Northern Ireland in droves.  Whole families and congregations of churches including the ministers migrated at one time.  In 1728, Archbishop Boulter stated that "above 4200 men, women and children have shipped off from hence for the West Indies, within three years," The "West Indies" was another word for the American colonies. 

John Allison was likely one of these Presbyterian dissenters to leave with his family for new land in the Pennsylvania Plantation.

But Why Did They Come?

As a kid I asked my Dad… "Where did our family come from? Why did they come? Oh, and when did they come?" (I can't explain why, even as a child, I have always been interested in family origins.)

Dad's family memories were firmly rooted in Texas… Lewis Allison’s history reached as far back as east Texas of the 1920's and spilled over the Arkansas border. Arkansas is where he thought grandma Parilee came from.  (Arkansas was about 50 miles away.) He had heard a rumor of Allisons perhaps coming from Pennsylvania. Essentially, no origin memories were written into our family stories.

"I don't know, doll, I guess they were hungry," was the best answer I ever got.  (Actually he said "hongry" with the Texas twang that he never quite lost.)  "I guess they were Irish", he said. So as a child I always envisioned Dad's grandma as a starving girl standing in a muddy Irish field on an island surrounded by water. 

The truth of why "they" came is a lot more complex than I could have ever imagined.

As a child of course I didn't realize that " they" would include a cavalcade of kin with a bevy of surnames beyond Allison.

Back then I didn't know that the Allisons weren't Irish. They weren't really Scots either. They were a separate group that we in the United States now call "Scots Irish". They are more accurately termed "Ulster Scots".

Learning the history of Ulster gave me the answer to my questions: why and when.

  

John Allison 1670-1729: Our First Allison in the Americas

John Allison (1670-1729)  likely arrived early in the 1700s with the earliest wave of immigrants from Northern Ireland.  He and his family came to Pennsylvania, William Penn's new colony. At the time Pennsylvania had only three counties; Philadelphia county at the head of the Chesapeake, Bucks county bordering on New Jersey and southern Chester county. John Allison is recorded in Chester County.  

John Allison likely sailed with his family as did most settlers to the Americas bringing his wife, Jannet, and his sons and daughters. We find no record of their landing. People of this era coming from English colonies were not considered foreigners to  America. Germans, French and everyone else was documented when they landed in the American colonies. 

Many traveling to the new world came as indentured servants with a contract to fulfill, trading years of work for passage to the Americas. John appears to have arrived  with resources, evidenced by his will which shows that when he dies 5-20 years later he is in possession of land, livestock, money and goods.

We think John settled with his family in Donegal Township on the eastern side of the Susquehanna river.  Donegal Township was home to East Donegal Presbyterian church. The churches’ minister, Reverend James Anderson, is named in John 1’s will as a man John trusts to take care that his family’s  “debates or differences be amicably taken away (by) the Rev Mr James Anderson, minister of the gospel in this place.”

It seems clear that John Allison migrated with his Presbyterian faith intact. Back in Ulster our John 1 may have been a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church according to an entry in Authentic History of Donegal Presbyterian Church. John Allison (whom we believe to be John 1’s son) appears on the deed of the land-grant for site of the East Donegal Presbyterian Church in Pennsylvania. 

New, American Presbyterian church congregations preferred hiring preachers schooled in Scotland according to Zeigler’s, Authentic History of Donegal Presbyterian Church Located in East Donegal Twonship, Lancaster Co PA.  Imagine Rev Anderson preaching to his flock with a Scotch accent… while many of his congregation spoke the same English with an Ulster twang.  Church was the unifying force in this community. 

Whole congregations fled Ulster and Scotland to Penn’s colony. While established as a Quaker colony, William Penn kept an open door policy encouraging other religious refugees to settle in his colony. Germans and Scots came. William Penn purchased lands from the Indians and had the unusual history of never breaking a treaty with the native people. Settlements along the Susquehanna remained on the east side of the river until newly purchased lands opened the door to the west around 1768.

Our reading of his will tells us that John 1 was even handed, paternal and kind. On his deathbed he gives his beloved wife Jannet  the care of his two sons. He also gives her his own riding horse and Shifle the cow which he wishes her to have. He metes out his best black suit, the plow and the tack. He assigns the horses to specific family members.  He doesn't seem to play favorites and he distributes his things evenly and with care. 

He also gives his sons a schedule for clearing the land, digging a well and building "a second dwelling house with floors and chimlie".  As with all men of this era, he is ever the patriarch and he assigns his sons a plan and, no doubt, the expectation that they will perform according to his wishes. 

John appears to have signed the his Last Testament and Will himself. Eerily, his handwriting is very similar to the signature of our father Lewis Allison. Could the genetics of handwriting be inherited?  Sister Stella says, "its possible".

Somehow we Allison sisters have reached back in time 300 years and learned that our 5th great grandfather spoke his wife's Jannet's name with an irish accent, he prayed to a Presbyterian God, he treasured his black suit and owned a cow named "shishe."

From slivers of facts we have a pieced together a portrait of John Allison, yeoman.   We are surprised at what is possible.

Authentic History of East Donegal Presbyterian Church