James Whitehill

James was born in Cardross Parish, Dunbartonshire, in the summer of 1679. An earlier Whitehill family historian said this James was our ancestor and was born in 1680, but then corrected the date to 1679. Apparently, there is family lore that James was under the age of 21 when his first son, James, was born in February, 1700. This would place his date of birth no earlier than February, 1679.

He died in 1725. He was a Quaker merchant. The tax list for Renfrewshire of September 1695 lists the household of Robert Whitehill in Kilmarcolm as consisting of Robert Whitehill, his wife Margaret Moody, and two unmarried children living at home and old enough to be subject to the poll tax: Jean and James. Since James had to be 16 or older to be subject to the poll tax, he was born no later than September 1679. The spacing of births in the family suggests that James was barely 16 at the time of the tax.

His family moved from Kilbarchan to Cardross some time between 1677 and 1681. The baptismal records for Kilbarchan in 1679 exist and indicate that he was not born in Kilbarchan. The Cardross baptismal records do not begin until 1681, so it is probable that he was born in Cardross. In 1699, probably during the summer,

James Whitehill eloped to Northern Ireland with his bride-to-be, whose name is unknown. They probably landed at the port of Londonberry, were married, and settled nearby in Raphoe Parish, County Donegal. The frequent suggestion that James eloped to Ireland in January 1700 is almost certainly mistaken. Even if James and his bride-to-be had risked eloping in her ninth month of pregnancy, it is unlikely any ship captain would have accepted them as passengers. Furthermore, the Irish seas were very dangerous in mid-winter, and ships would normally have stayed in port then. Furthermore, elopements do not wait until the ninth month of pregnancy. From The Whitehills in America (Heroes and Heroines)