Line 21.1 Robert McArthur, The Scot-Irish

    

I am pretty sure that the McArthurs were Presbyterians. They were Scotts and the Scotts prided themselves in being disciples of John Knox, the protestant preacher who blasted Mary Queen of Scots for her Catholic faith and whose brother and later her son followed into the Presbyterians church. The Scots were hardy peoples. They lived in a cold rugged land and were highly independent.

Rosemary Bigwood's book "The Ancestry of John McArthur" mentions that "Robert was a tanner in Pollockshaws." I'm sure just where this Pollockshaws was but there is one in Ireland which would have made the McARTHUR family Scot-Irish at least for a few years. I don't know a lot about Robert. His wife's name has disappeared from history but if family histories can be trusted, Robert and his wife had at least one son, John, born in Glenlyon, Portingall, Scotland about 1742. This family needs more research. I am sure there are genealogist who have discovered more then I have, especially now with the Internet but for me that will have to wait for another time.

Robert and his family ended up Chelsea, Orange, Vermont sometime after 1742. I'm not sure when Europeans began to settle in Chelsea but the town under the name of Turnersburgh was not chartered until 1781. The name was changed to Chelsea sometime later. I have second-hand information that both Robert and his son, John, were buried there but haven't been able to locate a grave site for either.


****SOURCES***

1. [RB] "The Ancestry of John McArthur" by Rosemary Bigwood

2. [BJC] B. J. Clement

3. [RA] Roxann McArthur

4. [PP] Mrs. Paul Peterson