McGill Family Background in America

McGill Background

McGill Ancestry & Family Background in America

If you search the Library of Congress Catalog Card for No. 70-152303, You would find "Walter McGill – Preacher and Penmen" published in 1971 by Lucille M. Bates who was encouraged to write a book fifteen years earlier (1956) by Letha McGill Ford, her aunt.

One day Lucille Bates became interested in learning more about the life of her paternal great-grandfather. She started with a short memorial and gave it to the descendants of her great-grandfather to get interest for the purchase of a monument for his grave.

From that memorial she became so engrossed in the project that she decided to try to lengthen the paper into a biography. By 1970 she had the edition ready for publication.

William Magill – Smithy in Tennessee

We start our journey of William Magill applying at the Cherokee Indian Agency at southwest Point, New Kingston, Tennessee, for a permit to go into the Indian Territory.

According to the pass William Magill along with Innis (or James) Harris and Nehemiah G. Lostater were allowed to go into the Cherokee Nation to Lookout Mountain to work at his business of smithy. Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs, Indian Agent of the War Department, signed the Pass August 28, 1803.

The break of dawn in late August 1803 found these three men (William, James, Nehemiah) slowly drifting down the Tennessee River on a raft. None of them were trappers or traders.

If you looked closer you would have found a camper’s tent on one side of the flat boat and a blacksmith’s anvil on the other. They were headed further down the river where they would take care of the smithy needs of the partly civilized Cherokee Indians.

They traveled an approximate seventy-five miles from Kingston in Roane County to a trading post (Old French Store) where the city of Chattanooga now stands. Lookout Mountain towered above the Old French Store that was located just above Moccasin Bend on the Tennessee River.

According to Lucille, "Magill was the adventuresome type of settler who liked to be on the frontier away from the more densely populated sections of the country."

Lucille goes on to state, "Robert Patterson, William Magill, and Mr. Gamble are said to be the first pioneers to make lasting homes in the locality of Hamilton County which had previously been frequented only by trappers, traders, and missionaries."

William Magill originally came from Greene County, Tennessee. His parents and his brothers and a sister were charter members of the Timber Ridge Presbyterian Church. William, Sr. and his wife Jane Magill (parents of William Magill) were still living there when William, Sr.’s last will and testament was written and signed on July 19, 1806. It was probated on October 28, 1806 in the county seat courthouse at Greeneville

The Will of . . . William Magill, Sr.

In the name of God, Amen – I, William Magill of the County of Greene and State of Tennessee, former being in a bad state of health but of perfect mind and memory, thanks be given unto God: Calling unto mind the mortality of my body and knowing that it is appointed for all men once to die, do make and ordain this, my last will and testament, that is to say principally and first of all I give and recommend my soul unto the hand of Almighty God that gave it and my body I recommend to the Earth to be buried in decent Christian burial at the discretion of my executors, nothing doubting but at the general resurrection I shall receive the same again by the mighty power of God. And as touching such worldly estate wherewith it has pleased God to bless me in this life. I give, divide, and dispose of the same in the following manner and form.

First -- I give and bequeath to Jane Magill my dearly beloved wife, the whole of my household furniture, also her choice of two milk cows and two steers out of my stock of cattle and my riding mare, her side saddle, and bridle together with my Negro woman named Jude, the whole of which I bequeath to her as her absolute property – and also one ewe and lamb.

Secondly – I give and bequeath unto Samuel Magill, William Magill, James Magill, Robert Magill, John Magill, Hugh Magill and Charles Magill, my sons, and Elizabeth Walker, my daughter, wife to Thomas Walker, the residue of my stock of cattle to be equally divided amongst them.

Thirdly – I give and bequeath unto my beloved sons Hugh Magill and Charles Magill the whole of my plantation on which I live for to remain in one entire tract until they agree to dispose of it and then the money or property from thence arising shall be equally divided between them reserving a comfortable living for my dearly and well beloved wife, Jane Magill out of the plantation or of the profits arising therefrom at sale during her natural life.

Fourthly – I hereby make, constitute, ordain and appoint Hugh Magill and Charles Magill my sole executors of this my last will and testament and I do hereby utterly disallow, revoke, disannul all and every former testament, wills and bequests and executors by me in any way as before ordained, willed and bequeathed; ratifying and confirming this and no other to be my last will and testament.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this nineteenth day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand, eight hundred and six.

Signed, sealed, published, pronounced, and delivered by the said William Magill as his last will and testament in the presence of us who in his presence and in the presence of each other have hereunto subscribed our names.

William Magill (Seal)

Nath. Callahan
William Shields
James Shields

Emigration of Magills' . . .

It has been told that just after the Revolutionary War the Magill family emigrated from Augusta County, Virginia and found cheap, fertile land in a wilderness region which became a part of eastern Tennessee.

When the Magills' settled there in 1783 it was a part of North Carolina. William Magill's name is included in a long list of signers who clamored for a separate state in 1784 known as Franklin with John Sevier as governor. Finally on June 1, 1796, this region became the sixteenth state of the Union and was called Tennessee.

According to Lucille Bates, "The Magills' were Scottish people and staunch supporters of the Presbyterian Church. Because of religious persecution the Presbyterians left their homes in the lowland region of Scotland between 1607 and 1699 and settled in the part of Ireland known as Ulster. Friction developed between the churchmen and the Roman Catholics of Ireland, and in 1715 the Presbyterian Scots were leaving Ireland for the Colonies in America."

Lucille goes on to state, "The Scotch-Irish, who were really not Irish at all, found William Penn's Colony the most attractive settlement in America. He offered both religious freedom and a liberal land policy to each immigrant who wanted to settle there."

During that time the eastern seaboard had already been settled by early arrivals, and the Scots drifted to the backcountry of Pennsylvania. By 1750 many of these immigrants had moved into the Shenandoah Valley. Some made homes and stayed, while others moved up the valley until they reached Virginia (or the background of the wilderness of North Carolina).

The Church records at the Mount Bethel Church in Soddy, Tennessee show the Magill Family settled first in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, when they landed in America. After a short stay the members soon migrated to Augusta County, Virginia, and then to that part of Tennessee which became Greene County.

The Spelling of Magill

Those earlier members of the family who settled in Pennsylvania and later spread out into Virginia and Tennessee spelled their name "Magill". Most, but not all of the members, have changed the original spelling to "McGill". Either spelling was acceptable and could refer to the same person.

William Magill, Sr. Children:

Samuel

William - drifted in to Hamilton County by way of Knox, Roane, and Thea Counties.

James - Married Mary McMeans. They moved to Monroe County and died there in 1840. Some of the children of James Magill and Mary McMeans moved across the state line into Georgia and were associated with the founding of the Chickamauga Presbyterian Church in Catoosa County near Ringgold, Georgia. James son (Robert Magill) was the first elder of the church after it was organized on September 2, 1837, and his grandson (R. Lynn Magill) at the age of 85, was still an active elder of the church in 1968.

Robert

John - drifted in to Hamilton County by way of Knox, Roane, and Thea Counties.

Hugh

Charles

Elizabeth, married to Thomas Walker

Our Genealogy Database:

Email - LK McGill Wagner

ParisTimes Pioneers