Robert Weir

tree: 1 Leslie b: AFT 1516 + Malcom Longshoon Weir b: ABT 1516

   2 David Wishart Weir b: AFT 1533

       3 John (Jan Vyer Of Antwerp) Weir b: ABT 1550

           4 John Weir b: ABT 1570

               5 John Weir b: 1590

                   6 John Weir b: BEF 1643 d: 1686                   + Jane(t) Fergusson b: ABT 1652

                       7 Robert (Of Nutfield) Weir b: BEF 1682     + Martha b: ABT 1701

Notes for ROBERT (OF NUTFIELD) WEIR: A HISTORY OF THE WEIRS INTERWOVEN WITH THE HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE COLONIES "The surnames, with the same Christian names of the early Scotch-blooded settlers in New Hampshire, were often duplicated at the same dates in the Scotch settlement in Pennsylvania, and among them are Allison, Park, Morrison, Cochran, Boyd, Dickey, McAllister, Stewart, Wilson, Mitchell, Steele, Campbell, and others. Nor is this strange when we remember that as early as 1718 no less than five vessels of immigrants from the North of Ireland arrived on the coast of New England, but, forbidden to land at Boston by the intolerant Puritans, the immigrants moved up the Kennebec and there settled. The winter of 1718-19 being one of unusual severity, the great majority of these settlers left the Kennebec and came overland into Pennsylvania, settling in Northampton County."

Letter of Wm. H. Egle M. D., of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, dated April 13, 1878. He is the author of the ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA" published in 1876.

The second week of April the remaining families gathered under a large oak tree on the east side of Beaver Pond on land that would soon be theirs. The Rev. McGregor delivered the first sermon ever preached at Nutfield, and the first Presbyterian Church in New England was formally organized. Robert Wear and James Gregg remained to receive the deed for the town of Londonderry, New Hampshire on June 19, 1719. They voted to give lots in the town to the first comers "which is the number twenty". Robert Weir was one of the twenty to receive a lot. IF he indeed was related to the Bucks County Weirs, then they built their first bark covered log home with the help of young sons. In 1723 a daughter Elizabeth was born. Robert Weir was evidently well regarded in the community because he became the first Sheriff of Londonderry.

One of the first threats to the new community was a " War with the Eastern Indians". James Gregg (1678-1735) immediately raised a company of men from the town to fight and he was commissioned a Captain. His sons and grandsons followed in his footsteps as an Indian fighter and one was sent on a special Canadian Expedition for that purpose.

Soon a meetinghouse was built in the eastern part of town with the Rev. James McGregor as pastor. Children learned to read and write and the Rev. McGregor listened to their recitations of the Catechism (Westminster Confession). Much of the Sabbath was spent in the meetinghouse and as the town spread to the west many complained about the long distances they had to walk in the winter (with children in arms) to get to the meeting. The inconvenience of distance prompted a petition to a town meeting in 1730 asking that the western part of town "be set off as a parish, for the better enjoyment of religious privileges". The "meeting" refused this petition but the western settlers persisted. Most likely there were existing divisions in the community as well, even more serious than the threat from the Indians! The elders in the community may have resisted any action to aggravate that division.

But in 1735 the petitioners' request was granted and sixty families became part of the West Parish of Londonderry. They chose the Rev. David McGregor, son of the pastor, to lead their church. Soon parishioners wanted to shop for the church of their choice. It wasn't long before there were Easterners in the West Parish and Westerners in the East Parish. George Wiley, in his BOOK OF NUTFIELD, records the resulting confusion: "For many years, these families (traveling to the opposite parish) were accustomed to meet and pass each other on their way to church, and sometimes these meetings were attended with ludicrous scenes. Persons would go miles on foot, carrying their shoes in their hands, and putting them on just before reaching the church. Two or more would use a single horse, each riding a short distance, and hitching the animal for the other to ride when he came up. It is said that two lovers, one belonging to the East and the other the West Parish, though engaged to be married, remained single all their lives and died of old age, because they could not agree on which church to attend."

Such a division in a close knit community is not surprising but no less distressing. Those in leadership may have grieved over the state of their community and prayed for God's rule in the hearts of men and women. A grandson of James Weir and Janet Ferguson wrote about his grandfather," He was a steady, industrious and pious man....The family were all pious and raised under the faith of the Presbyterian Church.... Margaret was a woman well acquainted with history, both sacred and profane." I would like to think that those words described Robert who may have been raised in (or acquainted with) that pious household.