Agnews back to Lochnaw!

Lochnaw Castle is in Scotland, was visited by my dad and many years later, my daughter and son. It is now privately owned and delapidated. If I win the lottery, perhaps we can buy it. At any rate, the Agnews traditionally were sheriffs in Lochnaw. They somehow were associated with being caretakers of this Lochnaw Castle. When my father visited it in the mid-1960s, they treated him like royalty and a lost brother from America. Well it turns out, he probably was. I have been working on family history for years now, steadily for about 2 years. THERE IS MUCH TO CHECK OUT slowly over time here, but perhaps this is our FAMILY LINE! I am so excited about this and hope I can slowly find records to validate all of this. It puts us in ULSTER, IRELAND and prior to that, LOCHNAW:

Patrick Agnew is the earliest: Patrick Agnew
Birth 1578 in Wigtownshire, Scotland
Death 1661 in Galloway, Scotland

Patrick is the father of ALEXANDER AGNEW, born in LOCHNAW:

Alexander Agnew
Birth 1609 in Lochnaw Castle, Wigtownshire, Scotland
Death 27 Aug 1694 in Whitehills, Scotland

Alexander fathered JAMES AGNEW (of course, one of many). This James was born in Ireland.

James Agnew
Birth 1645 in Balloo, Down, Ulster, Ireland
Death 1681 in Bangor, Down, Ireland

another James born in Ireland:

James Emigrated with son, James Agnew
Birth 1671 in Ireland
Death 1717 in Pennsylvania, United States

“James Agnew (above) was born in 1671.¹ He was the son of James Agnew and Helena Jamieson.¹
In 1717 he is considered to have moved to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.^{1 ”}

James Agnew
Birth 31 Jul 1711 in Pennsylvania, United States
Death 2 Oct 1770 in Gettysburg, Adams, Pennsylvania, United States

(Either the birthplace is wrong for this James above— or his father left Ireland before 1717. I’m leaning toward that he was actually born in Ireland and left Ireland with his father in 1717, because the record says a JAMES AGNEW left IRELAND with a SON, JAMES in 1717)

HERE IS ANOTHER RECORD WHICH LOOKS MORE ACCURATE:

James (Emigrated) Agnew
Birth 31 Jul 1711 in Ulster, Antrim, Ireland
Death 2 Oct 1770 in Gettysburg, Adams, Pennsylvania, United States

THIS IS AN AWESOME RECORD SAYING WE WERE SHERIFFS OF GALLOWAY AND OWNED LAND IN PA.:

1711 Born to James Agnew and Helena Jamieson of Locknaw, Wigtownshire, Scotland

Emigrated to Pennsylvania from Ireland. Arrived in Gettysburg, Adams County, Pennsylvania after 1739. James Agnew II in America brought a large plantation of more than 500 acreas at March Creek, then a district in Lancaster County, later called York County, Now Adams County. It was on a Run called Lick Run which flows into Marsh Creek.

1753 served in the Military as Company Commander of the First Rank

1756 Captain of York County Associators for defense against the Indians.

10/2/1770 Died at Hamilton Ban, York, Pennsylvania.

Buried “under a large, flat stone, upon which were cut the “Arms” of the Agnews of Locknaw, Hereditary Sheriffs of Galloway.

HERE IS MORE, I AM BLOWN AWAY: This is a close-up of the coat of arms of the Agnews of Lochnaw, Scotland, from whom James descended. The history of the family is recorded in “The Book of the Agnews: James Agnew of Pennsylvania” by Mary V. Agnew and is also found in one or more of the Burke’s peerage books of Great Britain. Before James’s family lived in Ireland, they were hereditary sheriffs of Galloway, Scotland, and James’s 8th-great-grandparents were Andrew Agnew of Lochnaw and Mary Kennedy, Mary being a granddaughter of King Robert III of Scotland, who in turn was the son of Robert II, who was a grandson of Robert I, famously known as Robert the Bruce.

This leads to his son: James Agnew
Birth 1 May 1742 in Marsh Creek, Adams, Pennsylvania, United States
Death 10 Apr 1825 in Gettysburg, Adams, Pennsylvania, United States

who with Mary Ramsey has a son named SAMUEL.Samuel Agnew
Birth 10 Aug 1778 in Millerstown, Adams, Pennsylvania, United States
Death 25 Nov 1849 in Harrisburg, Dauphin, Pennsylvania, United States

Samuel leads to another son named JAMES: James C Agnew

Birth in Adams, Pennsylvania, United States 1809
Death 1 Mar 1870 in Edina, Knox, Missouri, United States

NOW, if this is our James, this James (above) lived with wife MARY in OHIO and in 1850 they had a son also named JAMES who is MY great-grandfather JAMES, b.1841 in Ohio, who ends up in New Albany, Indiana. There are other stories to explore and mysteries to solve. James C. may or may not be our James, father of my great-grandfather James. His wife, Mary, in 1850 is not old enough to be our James’ mother. So who was his mother? The elder James in 1850 says he was born in PA., and there is an elder Samuel living with them.

Now, there is a ton of information to check & look into in this entire LINE, which is what I’ll be working on when I have time. This is very exciting & I hope it all checks out. There are some records that are confused, so it will take time.

This entry was posted on September 1, 2011 at 11:07 pm and is filed under family tree research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Agnews back to Lochnaw!”

Samuel Ferrell Agnew Says:
January 1, 2012 at 10:40 pm | Reply
My name is Samuel Ferrell Agnew, and I too decend from James Agnew (1711-1770). From Gettysburg my line moved to South Carolina, where Samuel Agnew was in the SC militia in the Revolutionary War.Moved to Mississippi in 1852.
Email address is samagnew@bellsouth.net. There is also a dna testing going on through familytreedna.com, if you are interested.
Melissa Hague Says:
January 7, 2013 at 8:04 pm | Reply
Hello, my family history matches yours almost exactly. However I have Samuel with son James living in SC. With James’ son being Elijah, married to Susannah (Susan) Nix also SC. Would love to compare records. My grandmother was an Agnew of this line. She kept the tartan.

Doctor Grandma