Ninian Beall Magruder, (dna)

A Patriot of the American Revolution for Maryland with the rank of Private. DAR Ancestor # A073126

Year Book of the American Clan Gregor Society By American Clan Gregor Society. Page 28. GoogleBooks

THE GEORGIA MAGRUDERS. By ROBERT LEE MAGRUDER, JR.

THE representatives of the Magruder family who settled in Georgia after the Revolutionary War trace direct descent to Alexander Magruder, the immigrant, through Ninian Beall Magruder and Ninian Offutt Magruder.

According to the data that I have gathered, these two were first cousins, Ninian Beall being the son of Samuel Magruder and Margaret Jackson, and Ninian Offutt being the son of Ninian Magruder and Mary Offutt.

The Ninian last mentioned, born 1711, and Samuel III, born 1718, were brothers, being sons of Ninian and Elizabeth (Brewer) Magruder, and grandsons. of Samuel (1) Magruder and Sarah Beall, who was a daughter of Colonel Ninian Beall.

Ninian Beall Magruder, son of Samuel III, was born in Prince George's County, Maryland, November 22d, 1735. He married Rebecca Young, daughter of William Young, who died in Prince George's County, Maryland, in 1779, leaving his wife, Eleanor, and children: Abraham, John, Elizabeth Wheeler, Eleanor Wallace, William, Susanna Wallace, Sarah O'Neal and Rebecca Magruder. (See Prince George's County, Maryland; Records. (T. 1, 120.) Ninian Offutt Magruder, son of Ninian and Mary (Offutt) Magruder, was born in Prince George's County, Maryland, in 1744. He married Mary Harris, daughter of Thomas Harris and Sarah Offutt, both of Maryland.

After the Revolution, the two families of Ninian Beall Magruder and Ninian Offutt Magruder removed from Maryland to Georgia, and settled in that part of Richmond County, now known as Columbia County, since Columbia was carved out of Richmond in 1790. "Thus the blood ties of the two cousins were drawn closer together since leaving their dear native state of Maryland for a strange and then new country.

Of course the journey was made after the style of the times, namely, horseback and wagons. I have seen the compass-box which George Magruder, son of Ninian Offutt Magruder, carried in his saddle-bags during his horseback ride from Maryland to Georgia in the latter part of the eighteenth century, now in possession of Hubert Johnston Magruder of Florida. This box is roughly made, being handcarved with a pocket knife, yet the memories connected with it and recollections of the many trials endured by this George Magruder in his ride from Maryland through to Georgia, causes his family to treasure it as priceless. Settling in Georgia they became large planters, and at their deaths left extensive estates.

Vinian Offutt Magruder died in 1803, and Ninian Beall Magruder, in 1810. Both were buried in Columbia County, Georgia, but as their graves were not marked, one cannot positively identify them.