James McCarrell, weaver from Ireland: conversations with cousins

1/17/22 Dwight talked to Margaret McCarrell---

A professor from University of Tennessee came to the house and found holes in the door that James McCarrell used for the loom. Margaret has also seen a diary that James kept which included the bills he had for yarn that he bought to use in the loom. "In his own hand", he states in that diary that he was born in Ireland. Being of Scottish descent, many mistakenly have him listed as being born in Scotland.

From Cousin Dwight, the grandson of Margaret Viola Graham-Blake..

 1/16/2022

I think the loom was integrated onto the fireplace mantle and walls, with a series of hooks. That is, if I remember correctly.

 

Actually, this was the time period when England was taking over India, and also the first beginings of mechanization that would lead to the Industrial Revolution. They were making weaving more efficient, and also had cheaper labor in India. This lead to a gradual and long decline in the weaving industry of Northern Ireland. Jobs became harder and harder to find, as the same out put required less workers. So, the McCarrells and McKibbens, and presumable the Caswell Grahams, migrated to find new economic opportunties.

 

James McCarrell was also a minister. But, he found his calling in choir and singing. He lead the church in singing and music.

 

James McCarrell’s first wife died when he was about 45. People usually did not live that long in the 1750s-1760s. He then bravely started a 2^nd family. He married the 19 year old daughter of his neighbor and fellow Irish Immigrant James McKibbens. I guessed that re-energized him, because he would live another 40years. He would go on at that age to move to the frontier of Fincastle, have another batch of many children, and then migrate them down to Knoxville. He worked hard until near his old age death. When he got older, the family made him the weaving ability in the house, so he could sit there and do something useful with his time. They did not have much space, so need to be creative to build it for him.

 

I think most genealogist would never have caught that it was James McCarrell Sr. (b. 1728) who was the father of all those young children. However, it was all recorded in the Bible [which Margaret McCarrell had at one time]. The only record that survived to prove this all.

 

There are alot of legends that I need to write down… There was another. He got the deed to his land in Knoxville in about 1800. He had to ride a horse all the way to Nashville to get it, as that was the only place where the deeds were issued. He then rode back by horse, and the very next day he took that original deed to the Knox County Court house and made sure that it was entered there also. There is a record of this special effort that he took. He must have been 75 years old when he made those journeys by himself… 

For more on the McCarrell Bible, click here

All these photos of the McCarroll/McKibbon Homestead: Somewhere when I put these all on Ancestry.com I told that they are all courtesy of Marcy Carter Lovick......

James McCarrell, Irish child immigrant

James McCarrell (my 5 great grandfather) was born in 1728, but travelled with his parents as a baby between 1728 and 1730 (when his sister was born in Pennsylvania) from Ireland to the British Colony of Pennsylvania as did many Protestant Irish at this time.

On Ancestry, people have him born in Scotland, others Ireland and still others in Letterkenny, Pennsylvania.  I am going to try to sort it out.

First, my DNA: If you look at  the map from 23andme, I am clearly more Irish than Scottish although my ancestors and I are Protestant. (Glasgow is the only Scottish blip)  What that really means is people TODAY who share my DNA live in those areas.  So, that doesn't really prove that they were Irish 500 years ago. Those from Scotland might have gone to Ireland with some staying behind and some moving on to America colonies.  Those would be the Scotch-Irish (which is one of my major ethnicities in DNA and on paper) or Scots-Irish.

And which Irish shading are the McCarrells?  Probably County Donegal in the northwest of Ireland where there is a town called Letterkenny (like in Pennsylvania).  I think some on Ancestry, for James birth place, might have hit save for the Pennsylvania town instead of the one in Ireland.  Another possibility is that the Irish from Letterkenny  who founded the Pennsylvania town in 1736 might have been friends or kin with the McCarrells urging them to settle there, too in1738.

So, I have Irish DNA, do I have any other proof James was born in Ireland?  Margaret McCarrell in Knox Co. TN  just told cousin Dwight in a telephone conversation January 2022 that she has seen James McCarrell's diary.  Margaret saw in that diary that James had written in his own hand that he was born in Ireland.  So, James McCarrell was born in Ireland, but was he Scotch-Irish?

Some have thought since the McCarrells were Protestant Irish, they must have been from Scotland originally, but I am leaning toward, they were Irish before the Scots settled there.  Several sites that discuss surname origins say it is an Irish name (I checked and the same sites said Graham was Scottish or Irish and Watson could be English, Scottish and Irish).  Those are clearly Scotch-Irish names, but that's not what is said about McCarrell

Recorded as MacCarroll, McCarroll, McCarrell, McCarle, Carroll, and others, this surname is Irish.

 

It is a developed form of the ancient name Mac Cearbhaill meaning 'The son of the warrior' from the personal name Cearbhall, a byname for a fierce warrior deriving from "cearbh", meaning to hack. There were two distinct clans, one in Leinster and the other in Ulster, where the name is often recorded as MacCarvill. The surname dates back to the early 14th Century (see below), and early examples of recordings include Donslevy Mac Carroll in 1357, described by the Four Masters as "a noble master of music and melody, the best of his time".  The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Mulrory Mac Carroll, which was dated 1328. He was the Chief Minster of Ireland and Scotland, during the reign of King Edward 111rd of England, 1327 - 1377. 

© Copyright: Name Origin Research www.surnamedb.com 1980 - 2012

I am suggesting they may not have been Scottish at all.  The name dates to the 1300's long before the Scots were re-settled in Ireland.  When the Catholic Irish migration occurred more than 100 years later, all Protestant Irish from the colonial period were labeled "Scotch-Irish" because most were that.  But, I don't think the McCarrells were.  I think they were just rebellious Irish who were Dissenters or Non-comformists.  Those with this label were Methodists, Presbyterians, Quakers, but also could have been Baptists.  From their beginnings in the American Colony, the McCarrells appear to have been Baptist.  Was it because there were no Presbyterian churches for them to attend or was it because they had been Baptist in Ireland?

Emigration of Ancestors--post Colonial

 My interest in genealogy stems from 2 questions:  What were Grandma Wicker's roots? Why did my ancestors emigrate?  Previous blogs identify many of Vennie's roots but I recently started thinking about my 2nd question.

When I began, I had no idea how far back my roots went in American history.  I knew that my g-g grandparents in Dad's family had immigrated from Germany and England but I didn't really know why.

Louis Reiter

According to my dad's cousins, Louis Reiter came from Germany to avoid being drafted in another German (Prussian) war.  The irony was he arrived just in time for America's Civil War in which he fought for the Union side.  This coincides with another Reiter family (DNA connected) who had a narrative about their family.  click here to read.  So, Louis reportedly came for political reasons probably around 1854 when we found a Ludwig Reiter on a passenger list into New York.  He was a blacksmith and possibly tried to settle in Pennsylvania where family lived.  We know he was in Missouri by 1862 when he enlisted in the Union army.

Eliza Tyrey

His wife was Eliza Tyrey whose mother was a Kilpatrick from Tennessee with Colonial roots.  But, her father, Jacob Tyrey, was from Prussia: Schwemlingen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany.  We don't know why he left but do know he was living in Wisconsin in 1836 according to the census there.  He was later identified as a miner so possibly he left for economic reasons.  But, he also probably left for political reasons since this area became Prussian in 1816 and Jacob (born in 1810) would have been subject to the draft also.

Louis Reiter and Eliza Tyrey's daughter was my great grandmother Mary Celecy Reiter McKee who married Thomas Long with Colonial roots. My other great grandparents were Henry Maupin (also Colonial roots) and Annie Reed whose parents were recent immigrants from England.

Seated:  Frances Glanville Reed and Annie Reed Maupin

Annie's mother's family John Glanville and Frances Hancock came from Camborne in Cornwall England sometime after 1841 but before my g-g grandmother (Francis Glanville) was born in 1843.  Having watched the series Poldark on PBS, I have a very good idea why they left: the mines were closing. The mines in Cornwall had been producing for thousands of years (click here) and it was becoming more and more difficult to mine, so they came to Valle Mines, MO where there was plenty of lead that was needed for bullets if nothing else.

William Farncombe/Reed

Annie's father, William Farncombe/Reed, was also from England:  Pyecombe near Brighton.  William Reed (aka Farncombe) is so far the only immigrant I have who left because he was in trouble (click here)  We don't know why he left England other than one of his sister's descendants saying he "left under a cloud".  Personally, I suspect bigamy or getting a young lady "in trouble".  He was married in 1850 to a woman in Kent (at 15 years old?)---this information was written on the back of his marriage certificate in French Village, Missouri to Frances Glanville. He was still living with his parents in 1851 according to the census in England, but was in the United States by 1860 living in Valle Mines, Missouri.

So they emigrated for economics, politics, a possible prison record which probably accounts for most emigration, however I have at least one from the Colonial era who came for religious reasons.