Early in the eighteenth century, a William Duff went to settle in King George County, Virginia, and with him went his sister Eleanor, married to William Green, one of the bodyguard of King William iii., as shown in the Census of the Officers of the Court, 1093-1694. According to American tradition, William and Eleanor were the children of Alexander Macduff of Keithmore, died 1700, and his wife Helen, died 1694, daughter of Alexander, second son of James de Grant of Freuehie. It is tradition that William assumed the name of Duff because his father had been obliged to do so, having been outlawed because of his services with Montrose. There is, of course, something wrong with the story here, because, though Alexander Duff of Keithmore was outlawed, he did not change his name; moreover his son William remained in Scotland and founded the family of the Earls Fife; but William Duff of Virginia may, quite possibly, have been a nephew, son of one of Alexander's younger brothere, or some remoter relative.
Eleanor Duff and William Green had a son Robert, born 1695, died 1747, whose son. Duff Green, was a General in the American War of 1812.
William Duff made his will in 1741, and it was proved in 1745. In it he mentions his wife Elizabeth, and his kinsmen William and John Duff and William's daughter Anne, Robert Green, his nephew, and his seven sons, William Green, Duff Green, Robert Green, Nicholas Green, John Green, James Green, and Moses Green. There is a town Macduff in Texas, and towns of Duff in the states of Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Nebraska and in Orange County, Virginia, which probably show that members of the family were once settled in those parts.
