Person:Robert Guthrie (8)

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Robert Guthrie

Birth 1711 Londonderry, Ulster, N Ireland Sex Male Died 17 Aug 1782

Father John Guthrie Mother Jane Stuart

Family 1 Bridget Dougherty, b. 1711, Donegal, Cardonaugh County, Ireland Married 1736 Children 1. John Guthrie, b. 11 Jan 1749, Carlisle, Lancaster County, PA

 2. Polly Guthrie, b. 1737, N. Ireland 
 3. Margaret Guthrie, b. 06 May 1753, Carlisle, Cumberland, Pennsylvania, USA 
 4. George Guthrie, b. 1751, Carlisle, Cumberland, Pennsylvania, U
 5. Jane Guthrie, b. 1741, N. Ireland 
 6. James Guthrie, b. 1739, N. Ireland 
 7. Robert Guthrie, b. 1737, N. Ireland 

Notes Came to USA through Philadelphia PA. with son Robert in 1744. Wife Bridget followed in 1745 with son James. Moved to Lancaster PA where son John was born. FROM LAURENCE RAWLIN GUTHRIE'S "AMERICAN GUTHRIE AND ALLIED FAMILIES"

Robert Guthrie, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania left behind him the family tradition that he was the great grandson of the Rev. James Guthrie, the martyr, of Stirling, Scotland. The tradition is probably true. Rev. James Guthrie married Jane, daughter of Ramsey of Sheilhill. She with a son William and a daughter Sophia survived him. On February 8, 1666, the widow and daughter were brought before the Privy Council, charged with possessing a treasonable book (understood to have been one of Rev. James Guthrie's writings). They were sentenced to banishment and removed to the North of Ireland. It seems likely that the son was absent from home at this time, perhaps at St. Andrews. January 15, 1669, the widow and daughter were permitted to return to Edinburgh for one month on the occasion of the son's fatal illness. He died on the eve of his licensure for the ministry. He was then quite a young man, but probably married and had a son, who became the father of Robert Guthrie. Robert Guthrie was a Covenanter of the strictest principles, was a carpenter by trade, and we have it on the reliable authority of Robert Walker Guthrie, a Descendant, "a well educated man, - familiar with the classics." Of Robert Guthrie, a descendant, Bayard Guthrie, Esq., writes - "I know little that is certain and can quote no definite or positive authority. He was born in Londonderry in 1711, came to this country in 1740 and settled in Connecticut. He remained there only a short time and moved to Pennsylvania where, among the Irish colonists in Lancaster County, were friends and relatives of himself and wife. He lived in the town of Lancaster and worked at his trade. "Sometime between 1751 & 1754 Robert moved to Cumberland County where he engaged in land speculation. His speculations, however, proving unprofitable, he established himself in Carlisle and returned to his carpenter's bench." The principal available information from the descendants of Robert Guthrie, of Carlisle, concerning him is contained in the following extract from a letter written by George Wilkins Guthrie, Esq., of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, under date of June 29, 1893, to his first cousin, Mrs. William J. Lyster, nee Martha Guthrie Doughty.

"My Dear Martha, In 1872, Uncle James Guthrie sent to my father (John B. Guthrie), a paper in the hand-writing of his grand-father, John Guthrie, and it was endorsed in the hand-writing of his father, James Verner Guthrie, showing the descent of the Guthrie family from one Robert Guthrie, who was born in the City of Derry, Ireland. In his letter Uncle James said, 'There was another letter of record containing the Scotch Guthrie branch back to 1702 in Scotland, before leaving for Ireland, but I cannot find it, which I very much regret.' The paper which I have is in the hand-writing of John Guthrie, our great grandfather, and endorsed in the hand-writing of James Verner Guthrie, our grandfather, and dated 1807. It begins with Owen Dougherty, of Cardonough, County Donegal, Ireland, who is said to have been engaged in the wars; to have been blind for fifteen years, and then to have recovered his sight and to have died at the age of 120 years. He left two sons, (1) Edward, commonly called 'Eman Mone,' on account of his remarkable size and strength, and (2) John, and four daughters, (1) Rose, (2) Bridget, (3) Sarah, and (4) Mary. Bridget Dougherty was born in Donegal, Cardonaugh County, in 1711. She married Robert Guthrie in 1736. Their first son, Robert, was born in 1737; their second son, James, in 1739; and a daughter, Jane, in 1741 (the daughter died when she was three years of age). Robert Guthrie, born perhaps 1700, even earlier, and his son, Robert, came to America in 1744, and were followed by his wife and son, James, in 1745. They settled and lived for three or four years in Philadelphia, and from there removed to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where John Guthrie was born 11 January 1749. When John was a year old they moved to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and there they had a daughter, Margaret, who was born May 6, 1753". "James Guthrie, the second son of Robert and Bridget, died in 1763; Robert, the father, died in 1782, and Bridget, the mother, in 1794". "John Guthrie was married to Sarah Davis, in 1775; Margaret Guthrie was married to George Brown, in 1774, and had a son called George, in 1775, and died in Carlisle, in 1795. Robert Guthrie, the eldest son of Robert and Bridget, died in Pittsburg, in 1804."

An earnest effort made in recent years to discover the old record referred to in George Wilkins Guthrie's letter, has been fruitless. It was a copy of the record written by Robert Guthrie in his family Bible, giving the names and dates of birth of his children and some information about his coming to this country.

The records of Cumberland County show that a parcel of ground was "granted unto Robert Guthrie the elder in 1750 on the south side of Pomfret street of Carlisle known on the general plan as lot No. 290." This is where the Guthries lived in Carlisle and lies at the extreme eastern end of the street as originally laid out. At one time Robert and his sons Robert and John had three lots at this Township in 1751. Middletown then included Carlisle. Robert Guthrie served in the French and Indian War. From the preceding statement and from inferences drawn from the state of affairs at the time, though family history is silent on the point, it is believed that after Braddock's defeat, and with the renewal of Indian atrocities, which followed it in the Cumberland Valley, Robert Guthrie and family retreated for safety to Coleraine Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He was active during that time of retirement, with other heroic defenders of the frontiers, in repelling the savage invaders. Just when the family returned to Carlisle is not known, but they were there again in 1762, when both Robert, Sr., and Robert, Jr., took up land. It is said that Robert Guthrie was the organizer of the Carpenters' Guild of Carlisle, famed as the predecessor of the American trade union. It is thought that both Robert Guthrie and his wife, Bridget, were buried in the old cemetery one block south and about a block west of where they lived in Carlisle.