James Brownlee born 1775 is sometimes incorrectly linked to Mary Harkness b 1780 of Preston, New London, Connecticut. This link has several flaws and is based on confusing historical red herrings.
1) The documentation offered is an undated or broadly dated Abbeville SC record of a James H (or A) Brownlee to Mary J Harkness. This actually references a marriage of James, grandson of John Brownlee, who is in turn the brother of James 1775.
2) Mary Harkness of Preston, Conn. died in 1864 in Connecticut under her maiden name, with no record of having married, or of having children or of ever leaving Connecticut. She is listed in her father,s will and was granted a part of his estate land on which she lived until her death. Her parents were John Harkness and Judith Herrick. Mary Brownlee’s gravestone in the Brownlee cemetery of New Hope Mississippi lists her death year as 1832, well before Mary Harkness’ death in 1864.
3) Mary Brownlee’s gravestone is often misread to indicate she was 52 years old at death instead of 57. This false reading would put her birth year as 1780, further confirming (falsely} the match to the above Mary Harkness. However, a careful examination of the number styles of the gravestone shows a flare at the bottom of the 7 in 57 ( her death age) which appears similar to the base of a 2, but which clearly does not match the appearance of the other 2 on the stone. A correct interpretation puts Mary Brownlee’s birth year at 1775.
4} Yet a third Mary Harkness existed to confound researchers, this one born of Irish parents at sea in 1776 on the journey to … South Carolina. Her siblings were later born in Abbeville. This Mary Harkness married George Perry Pettigrew. And their daughter Rosa AnnPettigrew married John Brownlee. And this John Brownlee 1806-1863 is the grandson of William Brownlee 1770-1834 who is thought to be the brother of James 1775.
So in summary, James 1775 Brownlee of Abbeville SC did not marry Mary Harkness of Connecticut because she never married. But there are 2 other Mary Harknesses of Abbeville who are associated with a grandson for each of his brothers John and William, as a wife to the former and a mother~in-law to the latter.
