| Notes |
The oldest known, confirmed record of our clan is from 1732 when Robert bought 106 acres in Sussex Co DE. We used to believe the 1727 record of Margaret Addams witnessing a deed there was his mother, but Harald Reksten and I have since confirmed that to NOT be the case. 1732 is the earliest we know of this clan with any certainty.
As a result, there are many details we do not know for sure. Here is a quick run down of what is not known for certain:
We do not know when the Pattersons arrived in America. The lack of any real evidence in surrounding colonies over the previous decade, indicates they may have immigrated some time during that previous decade, but nothing is known for sure. That said, we know that Robert's sister, Elizabeth Patterson, married Jeremiah Harrison in Sussex Co DE (no official record has been found, but we know it from Harrison evidence in general). That marriage appears to have happened around 1730 or so.
We do not know where they immigrated from. Most family legends, and much of the evidence seen, indicates the family is Scots-Irish aka Ulster Scots. So they would have been Scottish, but apparently migrated through Ireland at some point. But it is unknown as to how long that migration period lasted.
We do not know when Robert was born. We can be certain that he was born no later than 1711. In Sussex Co DE, when he bought his land in 1732, it described him as a yeoman, which meant one had to be 21. The same had been the case for Isaiah Harrison when he first bought land in the 1680's. It is possible that Robert could have been born as early as 1705. That is the year Harald Reksten likes to use, but we both typically use the following to describe him.... born ca. 1705-1711. I lean more toward the 1711 figure, but 1705 is certainly reasonable.
I believe Robert's sister Elizabeth was older than him, but again that is not known for sure. Harrison records indicate that Jeremiah married his wife around 1730 or so, and they estimate she was born around 1710 and that he was born around 1707. I typically put 1707-1710 for both of them. That said, most people erroneously have his wife (only wife) as Catherine Adams. But that is an error. His first wife was Elizabeth Patterson and I am 100% convinced of this based on Margaret Adams' 1744 will -- the original, not the clerk's transcript in the Will Book. He made a transcription error that has resulted in "masking" the identity of Jeremiah's wife ever since. His second wife was definitely a Catherine, but no one knows her maiden name either. It was NOT Adams. D.O. Hood assumed her name was Adams based on the fact that her mother had to have been Margaret Adams (Robert Patterson's mother). We know due to Margaret Addams' 1744 will where she names her granddaughter Esther Harrison, a daughter of Jeremiah Harrison. So the assumption was that if Esther was Margaret's granddaughter, and Catherine Harrison was the wife of Jeremiah, then Catherine must be Esther's mother, and therefore an Adams -- since Margaret was an Addams. But that's all wrong. Margaret married William Patterson, had daughter Elizabeth, who then married Jeremiah Harrison around 1730, had Esther Harrison shortly thereafter, and by 1744, Elizabeth was still alive. She died sometime between 1744 and 1757, which is when Catherine is on the scene for the first time as the wife of Jeremiah Harrison. But where the children of Margaret Addams added a codicil to the will of Margaret Adams in 1744, they signed it as Jane Love, Daniel Love (he was the one writing the codicil), and Elizabeth Harrison. However, when the clerk transcribed it into the Will Book, he mistakenly wrote the third name as Esther Harrison. Margaret's own will mentions her daughter Elizabeth, so the two together prove that Margaret's daughter Elizabeth (and based on age, Elizabeth Patterson), was the Elizabeth Harrison who signed the codicil. This means that half of Jeremiah Harrison's 17 children, at least, were children of the Patterson mother. It also means that NONE of the 17 children are descendants of any Adams. Robert Patterson and Jeremiah Harrison were close to each other in both DE and VA. They were brothers-in-law.
We do not know when or where Robert's father, William Patterson, was born or died. I presume he died before they migrated to America, but again, since we don't know when that happened either, we cannot be conclusive about that. If the family immigrated earlier, then they could have come over as Pattersons. If so, then William died in America, and the kids could have been born in America. OR, he could have died in Ireland/Scotland, therefore the kids were born "there", and they could have come over as a widowed Patterson family. OR, Margaret could have remarried in Ireland/Scotland, to John Addams, they could have immigrated as an Addams family, with some Patterson children and Addams children.
We do not know Margaret's maiden name. The mother of Robert definitely went by Margaret, but apparently her first name was Mary, as she got her Orange Co Va plantation under that name (Mary Adams). So we believe her name was Mary Margaret, but last name unknown. It was not Donnell as so many people say. D.O. Hood made a mistake in his assumptions in that regard in his book on the Tunis Hood Family. He assumed that the girl associated with the Jeremiah Harrison family, assumed to have been Lydia Donnell Harrison, was named as such after her grandmother's maiden name. That's a great leap. Fact is, when you look at the original documents, this girl is always mentioned as Lydia Donnell. No Harrison. Jeremiah was the sponsoring adult when she got baptized, but that's all. She later married a Harrison, and that became her married name. There were Donnells around the Linville Creek area, but that's just a coincidence.
After William died, probably around 1711/15, Margaret eventually married again, say around 1718/20, to John Addams. Place unknown. John died apparently by the mid 1720's, but date and location unknown.
Margaret appears to have had another 3 kids by John Addams. Don't know the name of the oldest girl, but she later married Andrew Donelson. I can give you more on that later. She then also had a son Samuel Addams, and then a daughter Jane Addams, who later married Daniel Love.
I would love to see what you finish up with. If you want more detailed reasons on the above distinctions, etc, I'll be glad to share that with you.
The only reason we know that Robert's father was named William is from that 1770 Tryon Co NC probate record where Robert disclaimed any rite to his mother's land in Augusta Co Va.
While it's possible that William was born as late as 1685, we cannot rule out the possibility that Margaret was a second wife, and that he was much older than her.
[Notes from Wesley Patterson to Patrick A. Patterson, 5 Mar 2015]
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1720 - 1775 (55 years)
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