Person:William McGaugh (1)

"William McGaugh, Aug 1756, Frederick, 30, 5'7", planter, Ireland, dark complexion, brown and straight hair."

"State of North Carolina
No 118 Know ye that we have Given and Granted unto William McGuaoch a tract of land containing 640 acres, lying and being in our County of Davidson on both sides of Arrington Creek on East branch of Big Harpeth River, beginning at an ash and ironwood corner to a smaller tract of land belonging to the said McGuaoch, running thence three hundred and twenty poles crossing the north fork of the crick to the said McGuaicks own corner a black oak, then with his [continued next page] own line crossing the Creek to the Beginning. To hold to the said William McGuaock his heirs and assigns for ever, dated the 1st day of April 1786. Warrant No. 191"

Family tradition is that William McGaugh signed the Cumberland Compact of May 1, 1780. The compact was signed on May 13, 1780, at Nashborough, Tennessee, in Davidson county, and was intended to set up a system for enforcing rights in land near the Cumberland River and defending settlers against massacre by the Indians until a formal government was established. The only name on the list of signers that might have belonged to William McGaugh is William Geioch. The signature was affixed at Nashborough, Tennessee, on May 13, 1780. The original list of signers has been published on the Internet as part of the Tennessee's Landmark Documents of the Tennessee State Library and Archives. Geoich/McGaugh is found on the hand-numbered page 15 (page 14 of 38 on the PDF version), and is the seventh signature (after James Buchanan, Senior, and before Samuel Shelton) from the bottom in the left of three columns of signatures. The surname, Geioch, is written in darker ink than the Christian name, William, and the G partially covers an M in lighter ink underneath. The signature may well have been written for William McGaugh by a more literate person, and be an attempt at a phonetic spelling; or it may be the later attempt of some other person to make legible an unreadable surname. I have not seen the surname Geioch anywhere else. Many of the signatures on the Cumberland Compact are unquestionably written by the same hand. More background on the Cumberland Compact will be found at Founding Families in Nashville, Tennessee, 1779–80. See Cumberland Compact Signatories

To qualify for preemption rights, a settler had to have been on the land since before 1 June 1780. Preemption rights were limited to 640 acres for each head of household.20 Entries such as the one below were recorded by the commissioners. Some 70 pre-emptioners are named herein, as well as 63 who had been killed in the defense and settlement of Davidson County, and another 19 who had come after 1780 but who were to receive pre-emptions because of their significant bravery. Irene M. Griffey lists pre-emptioners, or their assignees, noted by the commissioners who visited the area in early 1783 in her publication, The Pre-emptors; Middle Tennessee's First Settlers (n.p.: by the author, 1989). Ms. Griffey cites as her source an “original record book kept by David Shelby for the commissioners ...preserved in the North Carolina State Archives.” The 484 peremptions herein are dated 1 January 1783 through 10 March 1783. Other pre-emptioners qualified at later dates and their grants can be found in no particular order among the early North Carolina grants, although some pre-emption rights are detailed in Record Group 50, TSLA, Series 10, Roll 51, Book 15. See also Warrants -- North Carolina Revolutionary War Guard Rights and Pre-emptions 1792- 1803. And, see Roll 53, Book 1, Preemption Book, Davidson County 1790-1791.

Another pioneer family was that of William and Ruth McGaugh. William McGaugh was born in Ireland about 1726 and came from Ireland to Frederick, Virginia, before 1756. He was in Augusta county, Virginia, before 1766. He served in the Virginia Regiment, which, after 1755, was commanded by Colonel George Washington. Here is an entry from Virginia Colonial Soldiers, French and Indian War, 1754–1763, page 105, from Virginia Colonial Records on Genealogy.com. The entry is from the "Size Roll of Col. George Washington, 28 August 1757." The roll gives the name of the enlistee, date and place of enlistment, age, height, trade, country, and a description of the soldier:

"William McGaugh, Aug. 1756, 30, 5' 7", Frederick, planter, Ireland, dark complexion, brown and straight hair."

A son, John McGaugh, was born to William McGaugh and Ruth Hill in Staunton, Augusta, Virginia, in 1766. In some records of Davidson county, Tennessee, John McGaugh's name is spelled McGough. McGaugh is the accepted way of spelling the name of this family, however. Although the McGaughs are generally outside the scope of this website, I have included on this page much of the material I unearthed in satisfying myself that this was not a McGough family. Another son of William McGaugh and Ruth Hill, Matthew McGaugh, was born in Augusta, Virginia, on January 11, 1774. Family Data Collection —Births on Ancestry.com.

There is also a record of a baptism of a William McGaugh in July of 1740 in Christ Church (Episcopal) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The parents were William and Elizabeth McGaugh.

In these web pages, I generally treat McGoughs and McGaughs as separate families and cover only the McGoughs. McGoughs are sometimes referred to as McGaughs, and vice-versa, in some American records. On this page, I make an exception to my general approach and cover the pioneer family of William and Ruth Hill McGaugh. The surname of a son, John McGaugh, was sometimes recorded as McGough in records of Davidson county, Tennessee, in the 1780s.

The website listing of the Descendants of William McGaugh (First Generation) says that William McGaugh was born about 1721 in Ireland, and died in 1789 in Davidson county, Tennessee. (An Ancestry.com family tree says William died in 1798, as does World Family Tree, volume 19, tree 649. World Family Trees, volume 2, tree 3743, and volume 57, tree 126, give his year of death as 1789, as do most similar sources.) William married Ruth Hill before 1766, and they had the following children: John, born about 1766 (John C. McGaugh, born in Staunton, Augusta county, Virginia; married Nancy Parker on June 26, 1793 in Davidson county, Tennessee; served in the War of 1812); Mathew, born on January 11, 1774, in Virginia (died on May 17, 1858, in Marshall county, Tennessee); Susannah, born about 1775; Robert†; William‡; Sarah, born about 1780 (actually 1772*); Thomas H., born about 1784 in Virginia; and Aggie. William also married Susannah after 1777. This listing is on a website prepared by Stephen Parker Hutchens of Bellingham, Washington: [Descendants of William McGaugh https://people.creighton.edu/~shu02225/genealogy/mcgaugh/]. A good family tree on the early generations of this family in America is World Family Tree, volume 151, tree 783.