Robert Stewart

Source: " The History of The Stewart Family", by Bucher Ayers (1876)

Robert Stewart(son of John) was born 1665 near Glasgow Scotland. d. 1730 in Drumorestrop County Down Ireland.

Robert, son of John, must have been a newly born infant when his family fled to Ireland as he was born in the same year they fled. Robert returned to Scotland in 1685 with his father and remained there until his father's death in 1720. He then returned to Ireland, County Down, where he died in 1730 at age 65. It is believed that Robert had a large family, but we have record of only three children after the death of this father

Upon the death of his father in 1720, he moved to Ireland, in Drumore Township, County Down, twelve miles from Belfast. The people of this county, as a whole, are of Scottish origin, and the Ayrshire dialect was commonly spoken. This county is remarkable for its inequality of surface and number of hills, from which its name originated. The lives of father and son, John and Robert Stewart , therefore, embraced that most remarkable period in the history of England commencing in the reign of Charles I , through the Commonwealth under Cromwell, Charles II , James II , William and Mary , Queen Anne , George I , and into the reign of George II

Marriage

Robert Stewart was married to Mary Clark about 1697 in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland

Children of Robert Stewart and his wife Mary Clark;

1. John Stewart. b. abt. 1698 in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland.
2. Robert Stewart Jnr. b. 1705 in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland. married to Margaret Cowper

Disputed children

He had a large family, of whom we have record only of three. The three known Children of ROBERT STEWART and MARY CLARKE are:

• i. SAMUEL STEWART, b. 1698, Glasgow, Lanark, Scotland; d. 1770, Lancaster Co., PA. m. Mary McClay
• ii. ROBERT 5 STEWART, b. Abt. 1705, County Down, Ireland.
• iii. HUGH STEWART, b. Jun 11, 1719, Glasgow, Lanark, Scotland; d. Oct 08, 1798, Lower Paxton, Dauphin Co., PA.

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Robert Stewart was born near Glasgow, Scotland in 1665. Upon the death of his father in 1720, he moved to Ireland, in Dromore Township, County Down, twelve miles southwest of Belfast. The people of this county, as a whole, are of Scottish origin, and the Ayrshire dialect was commonly spoken.

His children were:

1. Samuel Stewart 1698 – 1776

2. Robert STEWART 1702

TREE:

FIRST GEN: I John Stewart moved from Scotland to the North of Ireland, locating in Drumore Township, county Down, twelve miles from Belfast, during the reign of Charles II of England, shortly after the commencement thereof (his reign extending from 1660-1685.)

SECOND GEN: II Robert Stewart was the son of John who was born in 1665, near Glasgow, Scotland, but who also went to the North of Ireland.

THIRD GEN: III Samuel Stewart was the son of Robert, who was born in 1698 near Glasgow, Scotland. He moved to the North of ireland, and died in 1770 in Lancaster county Pennsylvania. In 1735, accompanied by his younger brother HUGH STEWART, he crossed the ocean, landing in Philadelphia, and settled in Drumore Township, Lancaster County, Province of Pennsylvania, near Chestnut Level, A Scotch-Irish settlement, where had been established a Presbyterian meeting-house. In person, Samuel Stewart was large and well-proportioned, six feet in height, Roman nose, blueish-grey eyes, brown hair and ruddy complexion.

SOURCE: Stewart Family Tree, as found on page 561 of the "20th Century History of Springfield, and Clark County, Ohio" Edited by William Mahlon Rockel. Published 1908.

HISTORY CONTEXT OF THE COLONIAL STEWART FAMILY:

HOUSE of STEWART: The House of Stewart, or Stuart, is a European royal house. Founded by King Robert II of Scotland when he ascended to the throne in 1371, the Stewarts first became monarchs of the Kingdom of Scotland during the late 14th century, and subsequently held the position of the Kings of England, Ireland, and Great Britain.

In total, nine Stewart monarchs ruled just Scotland from 1371 until 1603. After this, Stuart king James VI & I became the claimant to the extinct House of Tudor. Thus there were six Stewart monarchs who ruled both England and Scotland as well as Ireland. (The Stuart era was interrupted from 1649–1660, as a result of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms). After the union of England and Scotland, the first monarch was Anne Stuart as the first Queen of Great Britain, which then passed to the House of Hanover under King George.

During the reign of the Stewarts, Scotland developed from a relatively poor and feudal country into a prosperous, fairly modern and centralised state. They ruled during a time in European history of transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, when King James sponsored adopting exponents of the Northern Renaissance, leading to the earliest British adoption of Dutch banking and economic methods which ushered financial success of the colonies. After the Stewarts gained control of all of Great Britain, the arts and sciences continued to develop; many of William Shakespeare's best known plays were authored during the Jacobean (Stuart) era, while institutions such as the Royal Society and Royal Mail were established during the Stuart reign of Charles II.

The Protestant movement catapulted into the crisis of the Covenanter movement, who made a covenant to free all of Britain from the dictates of Catholicism to establish Presbyterianism. They gained power, but then lost it, and were killed in very great numbers; and so persecuted that Covenanters fled to Ireland and America.

The Protestant Reformation, for all its suffering, sparked the independence of conscience that encouraged further inquiry; eventually leading to the Scottish Enlightenment and Age of Science, where Scotsmen of that time led the world in modern advancement and thinking with an impressive list of philosophers, scientists, economists, merchants, bankers, and inventors.

COVENANTERS: The Covenanters were a Scottish form of puritanical Protestantism, which objected to the fancy rituals, interference of the papacy, and wanted to directly read and interpret the bible for themselves, rather than in Latin, amongst other freedoms and reforms. Scottish Stuart King James IV produced the first English bible. However, at that time the Stuart kings were necessarily still Catholic as a condition of their right to the throne. When the Covenanters raised an army to resist Catholic Stuart King Charles I's religious reforms to return to a measure of Catholicism, they defeated him in the Bishops Wars. This crisis caused the Stuart monarchy to spark off the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, which included the: (1) English Civil War, (2) the Scottish Civil War and (3) Irish Confederate Wars.

For the next ten years of civil war in Britain, the Covenanters were the de facto government of Scotland. In 1642, they sent an army to Ulster in Ireland to protect the Protestant Scottish settlers there from the Irish Catholic rebels who had attacked them.

The leaders of the English Parliament, worsted in the English Civil War, implored the aid of the Scots, which was promised on condition that the Scottish system of church government would be adopted in England. Following considerable debate, a document called the "Solemn League and Covenant" was drawn up. This was in effect a treaty between England and Scotland which called for the preservation of the reformed religion in Scotland and the reformation of religion in England and Ireland "according to the word of God and the example of the best reformed churches", and the extirpation of popery and prelacy.

It was subscribed to by many in both kingdoms and also in Ireland, and was approved by the English Parliament, and with some slight modifications by the Westminster Assembly of Divines. This agreement meant that the Covenanters sent another army south to England to fight on the Parliamentarian side in the First English Civil War. The Scottish armies in England were instrumental in bringing about the victory of the English Parliament over the King.

THE KILLING TIME: Once the war against the English Catholic king was won by Parliament, the English reneged on the treaty to allow Scottish style Presbyterianism to be imposed on the English Episcopalians.

IRELAND: Scottish colonists began to move in large numbers to the Belfast region of Northern Ireland after Queen Elizabeth I and King Henry VIII began a policy of investing in large plantations to grow food and products. Many English and Scottish noblemen joined in entrepreneurial investments to establish plantations across Ireland. Fearing the local Catholic Irish, the planters began a policy of encouraging the colonization of Northern Ireland with English or Scottish Protestants. Huge tracts of land were sold at attractive prices and opportunities abounded for Protestants. Covenanters moved to Northern Ireland throughout the 17th Century (1600s). Although called Scotch-Irish, they were not Irish. They were simply Scottish people who were living in Ireland.

During the Killing Time, Covenanters fled in large numbers to Northern Ireland. Some stayed, others migrated to America; and when things settled down, some returned to Scotland.

Though the bloody rebellion had ended, a degree of Presbyterian tolerance for other faiths had been suggested in King James's Indulgence of 1687, for allowing all "to serve God after their own way and manner"

AMERICA: Covenanters began to migrate to America beginning in the year 1717, when preacher William Tennant, founder of Log College, the first Presbyterian seminary in North America, brought his family to the Philadelphia area. In North America Covenanters became known as members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. They were among the most vocal agitators for independence from Great Britain and volunteered in large numbers as soldiers in the revolutionary armies. The Covenanters were opposed to slavery, and in 1800 the Reformed Church voted to outlaw slave-holding among its members.

PENNSYLVANIA - William Penn was an English Quaker born in London in 1644. After the death of his wealthy father he was given a grant of land as payment for a debt owed to his father. This land included all of Drumore Township which originally included the areas which now make up East Drumore, Colerain, Little Britain and Fulton Townships. Drumore Township was confirmed by the magistrates' court in 1729. The divisions were made from 1738 through 1883.

The main occupation in Drumore Pennsylvania was the farming of corn and wheat and milk dairies in the colonial era, as it still is today. Yoked oxen wearing sleigh bells war favored for farm work and transportation wagons in early days.

Dromore Ireland is the twin township of Drumore Pennsylvania.

IMMIGRATION HISTORY OF THIS FAMILY: Starting in this family Stewart lineage, we begin with Andrew Stewart, Master of Ochiltree born 1539-40 died 1578. Two of his sons had descendants who went to Pennsylvania starting from c1720. The first son was Andrew Stewart 1560-1628, last Lord of Ochiltree, 1st Baron of Castle Stewart created in 1619 when he moved to N. Ireland(Ulster). The second son was James John Stewart of Glasgow, Scotland. James had a son named Thomas and Baron Andrew had a son named Robert besides son Andrew, 2nd Baron of Castle Stewart. The 2nd Baron's line lost the title after 2 generations. But then Robert's son named Robert had the descendants which later became the Earls of Castle Stewart of N. Ireland. Much of the rest of the elder Robert's descendants moved to America in the 1700's. Robert's first cousin Thomas Stewart of Glasgow, Scotland b1590, son of James above, had a family line which emigrated to America to the same township in Pennsylvania where Robert's moved. They all helped establish Presbyterian Churches there. These Stewarts all worked hard to found Presbyterian churches in Pennsylvania. Robert, the subject of this profile b1665 and his sons like Lazarus were descended from Andrew Stewart, Master of Ochiltree, Scotland whose sister Margaret at age 18 married an elderly John Knox and yet they still had 3 daughters before Knox died. These daughters all married and at least one had children whose lineages carry on down to today. Descendants of these 3 daughters and John Knox, the founder of the Scottish Presbyterian Church, are the only direct descendants today of John Knox. One of these descendant families is named Welch. So all these Stewarts descended from the Ochiltree Stewarts and Master Andrew. They could call the founder of the Presbyterian Church their Uncle John Knox.

At least three lines from Andrew, Master of Ochiltree family immigrated to Pennsylvania: FIRST, four to five brothers to Lancaster County from c1720-35 & then eventually nearly all of them purchased property in Paxtang/S. Hanover Twp, SECOND, Andrew b1698 to Paxtang Twp., Lancaster Co.in the 1730's, THIRD, Archibald b1695 to Chester Co., PA then moved to Paxtang Twp, Lancaster Co. by 1735 and died in Augusta Co.,Virginia. Two other siblings of Archibald settled in Augusta Co. near Staunton, Virginia and many lines of this family remained in Virginia for generations (one was Rebecca Stewart who married John McClung). The four or five brothers, all sons of Robert Stewart bc1665 d1730, who was the son of John Stewart II born 1639 of Glasgow, started first in Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania. Several of them started in the 1720's in the far western part of what is now called W. Hanover Township. Then at least Lazarus moved over to the newly created Paxtang Twp. and joined the historic Paxtang Presbyterian Church in 1729. After that the place came to be called Paxtang Settlement by the Stewarts because so many settled there.

Extensive research on Robert Jr.,one of the brothers, also indicates that he did not stay for long in Pennsylvania whenever he came but he did do profitable business in Pennsylvania including owning a mine. They emigrated from Dromore, County Down, Ireland/Ulster(Drumore was "named after Dromore [Irish: Droim Mór], County Down, Ireland, with which it has been twinned since 1996." from Wikipedia: Drumore. Brother Lazarus settled in S. Hanover Township, Lancaster, PA very near the present-day Harrisburg, capital of Pennsylvania. Lazarus started the Old Hanover Presbyterian Church and was in the historic Paxtang Presbyterian Church by 1729 when they obtained their first pastor. Right in the middle between Old Hanover, Paxtang churches and Drumore Church was the earliest church and considered the "mother" church located in Donegal Township, near Elizabethtown, Lancaster, PA. That was where George Stewart 1683-1733 of the Stewart family settled after he immigrated from Donegal, Ireland/Ulster in about 1710. George was the brother-in-law of Lazarus Stewart and he purchased 200 acres of property right beside Lazarus and Margaret, George's sister, near the Old Hanover Presbyterian Church. But George died by 1733 and probably never lived at Paxtang/Old Hanover. He still had his Donegal township and Pequea properties at least when he died.

Comments

see notes on the same photo copy at his son's profile, Lazarus Stewart for description of the persons named above.

Three of them were sons of Robert Stewart b1665 of Glasgow, but Andrew was not a son, but rather a 4th cousin of the sons. This is from screen page 295-6 from the Stewart Clan Magazine May 1928 p43(at the top of the page). Screen page 331 gives sons of Robert: Lazarus, James, Samuel, Robert, Stephen, and Hugh(Duncan?).

From top to bottom: John Stewart (b1639 d1720 Drumore, County Down, Ireland) from Glasgow, Scotland.

His son: Robert (b1665 near Glasgow d1730 Drumore, County Down, Ireland) with limited data here noted, his sons:

Samuel b1698 near Glasgow. Came to Pennsylvania in 1735 with his brother Hugh born 1719 and his family.

Next person, Andrew b1698 in Ireland was actually descended from Andrew Stewart, 1st Baron of Castle Stewart, the son of Andrew, Master of Ochiltree, Scotland. Master Andrew of Ochiltree also had a son named James who married Lochnell Campbell and had son Thomas, whose son was John C. Stewart I, and this John was the father of John Stewart b1639 in Glasgow as seen above at the top.

This was taken from the Stewart Clan Magazine of May, 1928 screen page 295-6. Page 331 lists sons of Robert, ? of them came to far west Lancaster County, PA before it was separated into the new county of Dauphin.

Y DNA discussion

See https://www.geni.com/discussions/263898?msg=1626192

FTDNA Y-700 results show Lazarus Stewart descended from Sir John Stewart (1350 – 1441), Sheriff of Bute, Arran, and Cumbrae, the son of Robert II, King of Scots. As documented in the FTDNA “Stewart-Bute” and “Stewart-Royal” projects, this line is distinguishable through the following SNPs below the R-L746 branch: FTT46, Y14197, and Y14198.

Specifically, to Lazarus, FTDNA kits 14486, 993678, 977797, B886018, and 971822 show that descendants of Lazarus carry the [R-FT74278] SNP. This determination was acquired through testing descendants of David Stewart 1722-1798 and James Stewart 1723-1817.

As of the date of this posting, this SNP (R-FT74278) has been propagated by two Geni profiles, descendants of Lazarus. See the Y DNA tab for details.

Also See: chart attached