William McMahan

There is very little information known with regard to William's mother. Many trees indicate his mother as being Mary (Marr). This is done because we know that William's father, Redmond, was indeed married to her. However, 1) there is sufficient reason to believe that Redmond had more than one wife; and 2) if Mary (Marr) had been his mother, she would have been quite old when he was born -- something that would have been pretty rare during this era.

Therefore, for now, I am listing William as the son of Redmond only. Hopefully one day we will have enough information to definitely list the name of this real mother.

(NOTE: The tree will indicate Mary (Marr) as William's step-mother. This is due to the fact that we do not have a date of death for Mary. While it could be possible that William was a bastard fathered by Redmond, chances are that he was the son of another wife and Mary (Marr) would have been dead by this point.)

McMahan Family

(from THE STEVENSON STORY by Elizabeth B. Woodall

in the Library of Russell Cave National Monument - Jackson County,

Alabama.)

...The immigrant, Redman McMahan, who likely was accompanied by several

brothers, appears to be the Redmond, a soldier in charge of Samuel Perry

in the Province of Pennsylvania in 1746. Between that date and 1777 he

had made his way down the Shenandoah Valley to Christianburg, Montgomery

County, Virginia, where he took the Oath of Fidelity to the revolting

colonists cause. One Redmond Memayhand is on the tax list of Elk Creek

District, Montgomery County, Virginia, in 1782. In his application in

1834 for a pension for service in the Revolutionary War Redmond stated he

enlisted in Craven District, South Carolina, in 1775. He was " 103 years'

old this past January I "; his advanced age may account for inaccuracies

in his application which was rejected - because length of service did not

meet requirements. [I guess that is a nice way of saying, 'he deserted'.

j.c.]

...Redman may have been in Boone's Caravan ''from Pennsylvania to North

Carolina in 1750,'' stopping off in Montgomery County, Virginia, or later

returning there.

...It is not known who his wife was. She apparently preceded him in death as

he stated on pension application that he lived around with his children.

It is likely that he married more than once. His known children are:

Sanders (1784-1864) married Nancy;

Jonathan born 1788, married Rebecca Brown, remained in Warren County,

Tennessee; his home fell in Cannon County when it was formed in 1836;

William (1796-1861) married Mary Marr (1798-1852).

from another source:

REDMOND McMAHAN was probably born in Ireland and emigrated first to Rowan

County, North Carolina, about 1756, where his brother ARCHIBALD McMAHAN

still lived in 1776. He then moved to the Craven District of South

Carolina early in the 1760-1766 time frame. The first official record

about him is from the South Carolina REgulators where in 1766 he is

listed as a member of a band of outlaws wanted for crimes in the

northwest part of South Carolina.

REDMOND is confused with several other early McMahan settlers, in

particular with the McMahans of Montgomery County, Virginia. REDMON of

Montgomery Co, VA, who also served in the Revolution was arrested for

desertion in Montgomery Co, VA, but at the date specified he was in

Fredericksburg recovering from wounds and could not have deserted after

Cowpens. Somehow this got cleared up as REDMON was not hanged, but

Montgomery County court records make no further mention, so, we are not

sure how it was resolved.

REDMOND is also confused with REDMOND's brother, ARCHIBALD McMAHAN, who

settled in Sevier County, Tennessee, in 1784. The latter confusion arises

because East Tennessee tradition is that ARCHIBALD died at a son's

residence in Alabama. Some researchers when they found REDMOND's son

SANDERS in Alabama immediately assumed that ARCHIBALD was also knows as

"Redmond" and died in Jackson County, Alabama. (A highly improbably

scenario since SANDERS did not move to Alabama until 1831-1832 and

ARCHIBALD died in 1826). They were also apparently unaware that

ARCHIBALD's son EDWARD "Ned" McMAHAN had married RACHEL REAGAN in Sevier

County, TN, and moved to Bibb County, AL, where she died about 3 months

after ARCHIBALD and her tombstone can still be found in Bibb County, AL.

The substitution of SANDERS for NED does lead to the erroneous conclusion

that ARCHIBALD was also REDMOND. However, this researcher thinks that

that scenario is not even possible given the time line and distance

between the two men and the fact that SANDERS was not yet in Alabama when

ARCHIBALD went there in 1820.

• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Aug 5 2018, 1:30:25 UTC