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m. Abt 1740
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The Canaday family was of Scots-Irish decent. They originally emigrated from Northern Ireland to Scotland, thence to Holland, then Germany. From there they came to America, landing in Virginia sometime in the early 1700's. They were devout members of the Society of Friends, which probably accounts for the many moves they made, as they sought a location free of the religious intolerance often prevalent against the sect. It is said that two brothers quarreled during the voyage to America, and one of them resolved to change his name to Kenedy. Other spellings in old records are: Cannaday, Kanaday, Canady, Canedy, and Kennedy. Charles Canaday is the first of the family of that name for which any known record has been found. His birthplace is indeterminate but he is known to have lived in Loudoun County, Virginia, about 40 miles west of present-day Washington, DC. In 1740, he married Phebe Beals, one of the nine children of John Beals and Sarah Bowater. Her paternal grandfather, also named John Beals, immigrated from England or Wales and was an early surveyor in southeastern Pennsylvania. Her maternal great grandfather, John Edge, had suffered the indignity of being incarcerated in Newgate Prison in England for his Quaker activities in 1784, after which he emigrated to Pennsylvania. Also one of her brother, Thomas, who made several missionary trips to native Indian tribes in a pious effort to convert them, was rewarded by being tried as a confederate of the hostile Indians. Charles and Phebe had two sons, John and Charles. Beyond that, little is known of Charles Canaday except that he was killed in the Indian wars in 1745, when only about 30 years of age, as his wife remarried on that date to Robert Sumner. Her new husband was not a Quaker and she was disowned. After due repentance and the acceptance of her husband as a member, she was reinstated. They then were granted certificates of transfer and moved with her two sons to North Carolina, ultimately joining the New Garden Monthly Meeting in Rowan County and producing ten more children. At the time of their move there was a great influx of Quakers into Carolina from the upper colonies. They founded the New Garden Boarding School, which later became Guilford College. It was the repository of many early Quaker records which unfortunately were destroyed by a fire at the college in 1885. Because of the loss of those documents, little more specific information is known of the family after their arrival in North Carolina until the marriage of John Canaday. (Taken from: A Family History, by Donovan Faust) One wonders how one family could possible produce such a group of overachievers. Their ancestry gives us no clue of greatness. The Canadays were of Quaker stock. Their earliest known ancestor was Charles Canaday, who died in the 1740's, probably in Frederick County, Virginia, leaving his young widow, the former Phebe Beals, with two young sons: Charles and John. Phebe married again, and, with her new husband, Robert Sumner, joined the other Quakers traveling down the Shenandoah Valley to settle near New Garden in Guilford County, North Carolina. (Taken from The Henry County Historicalog, Spring, 2001) The Scottish Clan Kennedy (Canaday) has the Clan Cameron as a Sept (ally). Charles died in a Native American conflict. References
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