Person:Andrew McClure (4)

Rev. Andrew McClure was one of the Early Settlers of Augusta County, Virginia

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Information on Rev. Andrew McClure

From "The Tinkling Spring: Headwater of Freedom", pg. 212-213:

At the meeting house of Hanover Presbytery, assembled at Augusta Stone Church, in November, 1781, he (Andrew McClure) was received as a candidate for the ministry in the Presbyterian Church. On the 29th of August 1782, he married Rebecca Allen, daughter of James Allen, Sr., and Mary, his wife, of the Augusta Stone Church. He was licensed to preach October 25, 1782, and on May 20, 1784, was ordained by presbytery at a meeting in the Bethel Church.

Mr. McClure made a trip about this time with emigrants from Augusta County to Kentucky, and the family historian believes it to have been with the large group led by General James Knox in 1783. After ordination, Mr. McClure had calls from "Sullivan County, NC", and from the north and south forks of "Roan-Oak"; he accepted the latter.

However the "charm" or "call" of Kentucky was still upon his mind, and in 1786 he moved with his family to Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky, where in 1787 he organized the first church in the county, he having "been preaching in the place occasionally for three years". He was a charter member and first clerk of Transylvania Presbytery, organized in the court house at Danville, Kentucky, October 17, 1786.

Dr. Davidson, writing of Presbyterianism in Kentucky, and after removing there with his family in 1786, the following year organized the Salem and Paris Churches and in 1789 took charge of the latter, where he remained until his death, August 25, 1793, "in the 12th year of his ministry and the 39th of his age".

The Reverend Andrew McClure and Rebecca Allen had four children -- James Allen, Eleanor Wright, Mary and Andrew, Jr. -- all of them married in Kentucky. The family descendants in Kentucky, Ohio and Illinois are numerous -- the oldest son, James Allen McClure, having surpassed the others with fifteen children! Thus Tinkling Spring and her people threw a beam of spiritual light into the wilderness frontier darkened by sin, in the life and work of Andrew McClure whose spiritual inspiration and call of God came under the ministry of Rev. James Waddell.

From "Presbyterianism in Paris and Bourbon County, Kentucky" website (now not active):

Reverend Andrew McClure

Rev. Andrew McClure was born in Augusta County, Virginia in May, 1755. He was educated under William Graham at Liberty Hall Academy, Rockbridge County, Virginia, and was licensed to preach in 1783. He visited Kentucky in 1784 but returned to Virginia and was ordained in 1784 and settled with his family on the waters of Round Oak, about 100 miles from his father's home. He returned to Kentucky in 1786 and probably organized Salem Church in Clark County and Hopewell and Sinking Spring (Paris) in Bourbon County.

At the meeting of Transylvania Presbytery in the Fork Meeting House, October 2, 1787 he was called to Stonermouth and Sinking Spring Churches in Bourbon County.

Mr. McClure served the Sinking Spring and the Stonermouth Churches until his death in 1793; he also served Ashridge Church, Fayette County, 1789-1793; Cane Ridge in Bourbon County, 1791-1792, and Salem 1788-1789.

Mr. McClure married about 1783 or 1784 Rebecca Allen, daughter of James Allen, Sr., of Augusta County, Virginia. Rebecca Allen is mentioned in her father's will, dated April 28, 1788, by the name of Rebecca McClure.

Mr. McClure died in August 1793 at the early age of thirty-eight years. His will dated August 15, 1793 was probated at the December 1793 term of the Bourbon County Court and is on record in the Clerk's office of that court.

By his will be gave to his wife the plantation on which he lived, and at her death he devised the plantation "to my two little daughters, Ellinor Wright McClure and Polly McClure to be equally divided between them." To his two sons James Allen and Andrew he bequeathed his farm on Howard's Creek in Clark County.

His will directed that his two Negroes Isam and Dell be liberated when Isam was 35 and Dell 33.

To Transylvania Presbytery be bequeathed ten pounds of uncollected rent on the Howard Creek farm to be used for charitable purposes.

To his son, James Allen, be bequeathed his silver watch and to his son, Andrew, he left money for the purchase of a watch.

He was anxious that his sons make wise use of his books for he says:

"Also all my books that are principally suited for the learned I give and bequeath to my two sons, to be equally divided between them, and the remainder to be at my wife's disposal."

He appointed his beloved brothers, Samuel and John McClure the sole executors of his estate.

The will was witnessed by William Maxwell, William Craig and Alexander Martin.

The will indicates that Mr. McClure had considerable property.

1. ↑ Ardery, Julia Hoge Spencer. Kentucky records: early wills and marriages, copied from court house records by regents, historians and the state historian; old bible records and tombstone inscriptions; records from Barren, Bath, Bourbon, Clark, Daviess, Fayette, Harrison, Jessamine, Lincoln, Madison, Mason, Montgomery, Nelson, Nicholas, Ohio, Scott, and Shelby counties. (Lexington, Kentucky: Keystone Printery, Inc., c1932)
   2:107.

   April Court, 1802
   James A. McClure, infant orphan of Andrew McClure, decd., chose John Boyd and Robert Trimble gdns.
   Same apptd. gdns, of Eleanor W. McClure, Mary McClure and Andrew McClure, infant orphans of sd. Andrew McClure, decd., with George McConn, John McKinney, William Hillis and Edward Shropshire, sureties.