James Irvine was also known as Robert Irvine. In this generation the name is "Irvine," but his American sons all changed the spelling of the name to Irwin.

• Birth: after 1670 - County Antrim, Northern Ireland
• Death: after 1729 - Northern Ireland
• Parents: David Irvine, Sophie Gault
• Married: Margaret Wylie

"Robert and Margaret had 10 children; Margaret (died in Ireland) who married Ephraim McDowell; Thomas who married and settled in Cushendal, Ireland; and Alexander, George, David, William, Robert, James, and Samuel. The last seven came to America on the ship GEORGE & ANNE. It sailed from Londonderry 9 May 1729 and landed at Philadelphia." There is also a daughter Mary (died in Ireland) who married her cousin, John Wylie.

Per Elson Irwin: NOTE: This Robert Irvine became a wealthy man, operating linen mills at Larne, County Antrim in Ireland. Yet, seven of his sons chose to migrate to America in 1729, why?

"The Irish-born descendants of Robert Irvine and his wife Elizabeth Wylie, operated linen mills near Larne, County Antrim. Under the Test Act of 1703 the English held most of the population of Ireland under severe penal restrictions. All marriages and funerals were required to use the Episcopal ritual; Presbyterians were barred from the army and navy and from public offices. With these religious restrictions of the Test Act, injustices of landlords with their rent increases, and with their linen mills failing, the last seven of the ten children listed above of Robert Irvine and Margaret Wylie, his wife, decided to emigrate to America. They sailed from Londonderry, Ireland on the ship "George and Anne", departing of May 9, 1729 with their families, their destination being Philadelphia. Sailing with these seven Irvine brothers was Ephraim McDowell, their brother-in-law, whose wife Margaret had died earleir. They had lived almost a century under religious persecution, to which they might become accustomed, but would never accept."

Links

• http://thecityobserver.org/irvine/b8791.htm#P8791
• http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/w/i/l/Sharen-Williams-PA/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0127.html

Sources

1. Genealogy of the Greenlee Families in America, Scotland, Ireland and England with Ancestors of Elizabeth Brooks Greenlee and Emily Brooks Greenlee.  Also Genealogical Data on the McDowells of Virginia and Kentucky.  by Ralph Stebbins Greenlee and Robert Lemuel Greenlee. Chicago, Illinois, Privately Printed 1908
2. 1085. LDS File #L7MV-FV.
3. 1086. Agnew, Mary Virginia et al. The Book of the Agnews, James Agnew of Penna. USA, His Race, Ancestry, & Descendants. Philadelphia: J.E. Caldwell & Co.,, 110.
4. 1087. LDS File #L7MV-FV.

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1. Boyd, Loucinda Joan Rodgers.  The Irvines and their kin. A history of the Irvine family and their descendants. Published 1898 by The author in Louisville, Ky . Page 12.