Boyd and Craig in Northampton County, PA
Genealogies, Necrology and Reminiscences of the
Irish Settlement by John Clyde, 1879.
John Boyd was born in Edinburgh,
Scotland, 1690 and moved
to Antrim, Ireland, circa
1700. He emigrated to Philadelphia in
1714, and married Jane Craig
(the sister of Thomas Craig) in 1715.
Jane Craig was born 1695.
John and Jane Craig Boyd moved
to the Irish Settlement of
Northhampton County, PA, in
1728, and owned a farm
near Bath, Pa. John
Boyd died around 1750. Following the
burning of the Irish Settlement
by Indians in 1756, they
removed to Cumberland County
as did many other families.
The Boyds had three children:
John, Jane, and Mary Boyd.
Jane Boyd (1720-1812) married
Samuel Brown (1714-1798), an
original settler of Allen
Twp, Northampton Co., PA. They are
buried at the Irish Settlement
in Northampton County. Samuel and
Jane Boyd Brown had ten children:
James Boyd, James, Sarah, Esther,
William, Jean, Elizabeth,
Joseph, John, Robert. Robert was a
General in the Rev. War and
later became a US Congressman.
"The
Scotch-Irish of Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Published
by
The Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society,
1926,
Volume I. R974.8
"BOYD, John Boyd, born near
Edinburgh, 1690, removed from
Antrim, Ireland, to America,
in 1714, married Jane Craig,
sister of Thomas Craig.
With Thomas Craig and other
families, John and Mrs. Boyd
moved from Philadelphia to what
became the Irish Settlement.
John and Jane Boyd died about
1750. Their children
were, John, born 1716, died 1758,
married Elizabeth Young, only
daughter of Sir William Young,
Elizabeth, born 1719, died
1803, children: Adam, John,
William Young, James, and
Margaret Young. Jane, daughter
of John and Jane, married
Samuel Brown. Of her sister Mary,
nothing definite is known."
"The Origin of the Craig Family"
"The Craig family of Lehigh
County are descended
from William Craig, of Stirlingshire,
Scotland, who, to
escape the persecution of
the Presbyterians by James I.
settled at Dungannon, Ireland.
Four of his sons and several
of his daughters emigrated
to America. The sons were Thomas,
Daniel James and William."...
"James Craig, brother of Daniel
[and sister to Jane],
settled in what is now Allen
Township, where he purchased 20
Acres from William Allen,
June 13, 1743 and deeded the land
for the church and graveyard
to the Presbyterian Congregation.
He lived to an advanced age,
and although palsied, was always
carried to church on Sundays
by his sons.
His wife died previous to April
16, 1744. He had sons,
William, Thomas, Robert .
William married Elizabeth Brown,
sister of General Robert Brown
and removed to Northumberland.
Robert married Esther Brown,
leaving sons, James, Samuel,
William, John Robert and Joseph.
"Thomas Craig, Esq., the founder
of the Irish Settlement
after conveying 212 acres
to his brother Daniel in Buch
County, he removed, 1728 to
Allen Township where he was the
leading Citizen for many years.
In 1731 his name
appeared as the first elder
of the Presbyterian congregation
of Allen township on the roll
of the Synod of Philadelphia.
He lived on a tract of 500
Acres purchased from Caspar
Wistar, by deed of March 28,
1739, and died in 1779 at an
advanced age. His wife
Mary died July 14, 1772 aged 75
years. He had sons William
and Thomas. William was the
first Sheriff of Northampton
County in 1752, and had
children Thomas, Hugh, Charles,
William, Mary, Sarah,
Margaret and Elizabeth.
"General Thomas Craig, son
of Thomas, was born October 26,
1739. He was engaged
in farming, and at the outbreak of
the Revolution entered the
army and rendered valuable
service in the struggle for
independence. He was commissioned
Jan. 5, 1776 , captain of
a company in Col. St. Clairs battalion
which saw strenuous service
in the Canadian Campaign.
On September 7th, 1776, he
was promoted to Lt. Colonel and
on August 1, 1777, to Colonel
of the Third Pennsylvania
Regiment. He participated
in the battles of Germantown,
Monmouth, and Brandywine,
and to use his own words,
"served faithful from the
commencement of the late war to
the end of it". It is
said he was the first officer to protect the
Continental Congress and the
first to march to Canada. He
retired Jan. 1, 1783.
In 1784 he was appointed Associate
Judge of Montgomery County,
which position he filled until
1789, when he removed to Towamensing
Township,
Carbon County. 1798
he was commissioned Major-General of
the Militia of the State which
Position he held until 1814.
Col Craig was at Valley Forge
in the winter of 1777-78 and
it was through him that Mrs,
Lydia Darrach conveyed to
Washington the warning of
Howe's expected attack at
Whitemarsh, she having overheard
plans discussed by the
British officers at her home."
Pennsylvania Genealogies, William Henry Egle, 1886
Adam
Boyd, son of John Boyd and Elizabeth Young,
was a native of Northampton
county, Pa., born in 1746.
He m., 1784, Jeannette Macfarlane, His
ancestors were
of that sturdy and fearless
race who, after winning religious liberty at home,
braved the perils of the ocean
and a life in the wilds of America, that they might
establish civil and religious
freedom in the New World. The ancestor of this family
was Adam Boyd, an officer
of the rank of captain in the army sent by Charles I to
Ireland, on the roll of Scottish
division June 5, 1649. As was usual in
Scotland, one of the sons,
Adam (2) went into the Church; his son Adam (3)
was also a Presbyterian clergyman.
Early in 1714, his son John (4) and a
younger brother, Rev. Adam
Boyd left their native land, Scotland, arriving at
Philadelphia in the summer
of that year. John m., the year following,
Jane
Craig,
daughter of Thomas Craig, and subsequently
became (1728) one of the
first emigrants to the "Irish
Settlement," now in Northampton county. His son
John, born in Philadelphia
in 1716, m., in 1744, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir
William Young, "an Ulster
baronet." Their eldest son was Adam Boyd the
subject of this sketch. He
learned the trade of a carpenter, and was
following that avocation when
the war of the Revolution called to arms. When
the State of Pennsylvania
had formed its little navy for the protection of
the ports on the Delaware,
in 1776, Adam Boyd received his first commission.
In 1777 he was honorably discharged.
He at once entered the army proper,
holding the same rank therein.
He was at the battles of Brandywine and
Germantown, with two of his
brothers, one of whom, John, was killed in the
latter engagement. Subsequently,
Lieut. Boyd acted as "master of wagons,"
with the rank of captain,
and as such remained with the army until the
surrender of Yorktown. Passing
Harris ferry, in the spring of 1782, to the
home of his mother, near Newville,
Mr. Boyd was struck with the immense
advantages offered by the
location of the proposed town. He subsequently
purchased of the proprietor
a lot on the corner of Second and Mulberry
streets. In 1784 he became
a permanent resident. The dwelling-house erected
by him in 1792 on lots 210
and 212 of the original plan of the borough, on
Second below Mulberry, is
yet in the ownership of his descendants. Under the
first charter of Harrisburg
in 1791, he was chosen a burgess, Dr. John Luther
being the other. In 1792 he
was elected treasurer of the county, and held the
office until 1806, when he
declined a relection. In 1809, Mr. Boyd was
elected a director of the
poor, and during his term of office, the county
poor-house and mill were erected
under his direction. Mr. Boyd d. on the 14th
of May, 1814; was interred
in the Presbyterian graveyard, of which he was an
elder. Subsequently his remains
were removed to the Harrisburg cemetery. In
private trusts Mr. Boyd was
very frequently employed. His correspondence and
accounts are precise and methodical,
particularly the care with which he
managed the estate of the
younger William Maclay. In person he was five feet
elght inches in height, a
stout, healthy, florid man, dark brown hair and
eyes. At fifty-two years of
age he had no gray hairs. He is rated on the
"Mill Purchase" at 23 2s.,
being the fourth highest assessment upon that
curious record. Adam
Boyd m., 1784, Jeannette Macfarlane,
b. June 23, 1764; d.
December 4, 1790, buried at
Harrisburg; daughter of Patrick Macfarlane and
Rosanna Howard, b. 1735. Patrick
Macfarlane, b. 1727, son of James Macfarlane
and Jeannette Buchanan, daughter
of Robert Buchanan; James, b. in Scotland,
December 24, 1695, came to
America in 1717, m., 1724, in Pequea, now
Lancaster county. The only
descendant of Adam Boyd and Jeannette was Rosanna
Boyd, who m. Hugh Hamilton.