Person:John McGill (15)

John McGill was one of the Early Settlers of Augusta County, Virginia

Contents 1 Revolutionary War Pension Information 2 Records in Augusta County, VA 3 Records in Kentucky 4 Biography 5 Obituary		Welcome to Old Augusta Early Settlers Beverley Manor Borden's Grant Register Data Maps Places Library History Index
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American Revolutionary War Veteran

Revolutionary War Pension Information

Information from “Virginia/West Virginia Genealogical Data from Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Records”, Vol. 3, compiled by Patrick G. Wardell, Lt. Col. U.S. Army Ret. :

Magill, John - entered service 1777 in Augusta County, Virginia; moved in 1782 to Lincoln County, Kentucky, thence 1787 to Fayette County, Kentucky, for abt. 2 years, thence to Bourbon County, Kentucky, thence in 1795 to Franklin County, Kentucky; received Pension there in 1832; last Pension payment in file 1839. F-S31230, R1614.

Records in Augusta County, VA

From Chalkley's:

• Page 213.--28th June, 1790. Mathew Edmiston's will, farmer--To son, James; to son, William; to son, David; to grandson, Mathew Kirk; to daughter, Mary Kirk; to granddaughter, Margaret Jones; to grandson, Matha Edmonson, Maagill; to daughter. Ann Jones; to daughter, Jean Magill. Executors, sons James and William Edmiston. Teste: David McNair, John Kirk, Jean Kirk. Proved, January Court, 1796, by McNair and Jno. Kirk. [Note: Matthew Edmiston was the father-in-law of John Magill].

Records in Kentucky

• 1782, John Magill - Immigration to Lincoln County, Kentucky: 1061, p. 4. "Emigrated from Augusta County over the Wilderness Trail to Lincoln County, Kentucky. Settled near Stanford, Kentucky." [1]

• 1787, John Magill - Relocation to Fayette County, Kentucky:1061, p. 5-6. "Removed with his family to Fayette County, locating near Lexington, Kentucky. Associated with John Bradford who was in the printing business. Bradford’s first publication was The Kentucke Gazettte, the first number of which was issued on August 11, 1787. It was the first newspaper west of Pittsburgh and the Allegheny Mountains." [2]

• 1789, John Magill - Relocation to Bourbon County, Kentucky:1061, p. 6. "Removed from Fayette to Bourbon County, Kentucky. Became a tobacco planter and farmer." [3]

• 1790 Tax List, Fayette County, Kentucky: 1066, p. 63. John McGill listed in Fayette County, Kentucky tax list taken 11 January 1790. [4]

• 1791 Tax List, Bourbon County, Kentucky: 1066, p. 65. John Magill listed in Bourbon County, Kentucky tax list taken March 1791. [5]

• 1795 Relocation to Franklin County, Kentucky — Illness: 1061, p. 9. John Magill,"Suffered a nervous breakdown in 1795. Removed from Bourbon County to his 291-acre farm on South Benson Creek in Franklin County, about seven miles southwest of Frankfort, Kentucky. [6]

• 1804 Tax List, Franklin County, Kentucky: 1061, p. 11. John Magill "offered for assessment for taxes this year 291 acres in Franklin County on South Benson Creek, and 100 acres in Garrard County on Paint Lick Creek. He had also three slaves and five horses. This tax list is signed by John Madison." [7]

• 1808 Tax List, Franklin County, Kentucky: 1061, p. 12. John Magill "Assessed on 521 acres of land in Franklin and 200 acres of land in Cumberland County. The tax list of 1808 shows further that he had three slaves, two horses, and other personal property." [8]

• 1810 Notice in The Kentucky Gazette: 1608, p. 136 (Kentucky Gazette, v. XXIII, no. 1267, 6 February 1810) 6 February 1810, "A list of laws passed by the Kentucky Legislature mentions . . . John M’Gill." [9]

• 1819 Land Owner: 1061, p. 13. John Magill "Owned 360 acres of land in Franklin County and 200 acres in Cumberland County. Also three ‘blacks’ (slaves) worth $1,000.00 and other personal property." [10]

• 1832 Publication:1061, p. 14. "His history of Kentucky entitled The Pioneer to the Kentucky Emigrant, was published by James B. Marshall, grandson of Humphrey Marshall, in Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1832. Proved by John McKetterick, Richard Holman, James Russell, William Hickman, Jr., and James Taylor, September 17 and 20, 1832, that John Magill was a Revolutionary Soldier and entitled to a pension under the Acts of Congress of 1832. Magill at this time was 73 years old. His pension was $23.33." [11]

• 1832 Publication:1063, p. ix. "John Magill’s book, The Pioneer to the Kentucky Emigrant, is one of the rarest pieces of Kentuckiana. So far as is known there are only three copies of this book in existence. There are copies in the Filson Club, New York Historical Society, and the University of Pittsburgh libraries. The book was published in 1832 at the newspaper office of James. B. Marshall of Frankfort, Kentucky. There were eighty-four pages in the original text, and the volume was bound in paper." [12]

• 1842 Death:1061, p. 17. John Magill "Died in January, at the advanced age of 83 years, on his homestead of 220 acres on South Benson Creek on the old Mourning Road in Franklin County, Kentucky." [13]

• 1842 Estate:1061, p. 17-18. "Matthew Davidson, executor, gave the value of John Magill’s estate during the spring of 1842 at $2,940.00, this including two slaves at $300.00." [14]

Biography

"The author, John Magill, was born in 1759 in Augusta County, Virginia. He saw active service in the Virginia Militia in which he served under the commands of General Gates and Morgan. When the Revolutionary War was ended young Magill followed in the footsteps of his neighbors and came out to Kentucky to lay claim to western lands. He arrived on the Kentucky frontier in 1782, just in time to go through the latter part of the struggle of the white man to claim the region from both nature and the Indians. His experiences in the West were typical of those of hundreds of Virginians who moved beyond the mountains to take up land claims. He first settled in Lincoln County near the town of Stanford. Magill, like all good frontiersmen, showed a definite interest in land, and throughout his long detailed personal record there is much mention of land grants in several of the central Kentucky counties. In 1794 Magill fell a victim to the dread frontier disease of smallpox and for many years the old soldier was in a poor state of health. His health, in fact, became so poor that his mind was affected and in 1810 the legislature passed an act absolving him from the responsibility of paying a headright tax because of his mental incapacity. Within three years from the date of this legislative act he had regained his normal mental state and was appearing in Franklin County court as a deponent in a lawsuit indicating that he was again being respected as a normal citizen capable of managing his own affairs with intelligence. For forty-seven years, 1795-1842, John Magill lived on his Benson Creek farm in Franklin County. He had lived in Lincoln, Fayette, and Bourbon counties in Kentucky, and at his death he left behind him property valued by his son-in-law at $2,940.00. At the time of his death there were seven children living, some of whom had gone west of Indiana and Iowa." [Magill, John, The Pioneer to The Kentucky Emigrant, Lexington, Kentucky, University of Kentucky Publications Committee, Margaret Voorhies Haggin Trust, 1942 (reprint of Frankfort, Kentucky, James B. Marshall, Printer, 1832)].

Obituary

"John Magill - Died in January, at the advanced age of 83 years, on his homestead of 220 acres on South Benson Creek on the old Mourning Road in Franklin County, Kentucky." [Jillson, Willard Rouse, A Chronology of John Magill, Kentucky Pioneer and Historian, 1759-1842, Louisville, Kentucky, Standard Printing Company, 1938].

1.   GenForum.

   John Magill moved from Augusta County, VA, to land near Stanford on the Wilderness Trail. He took up land on Paint Creek in 1783 and returned to Augusta County to marry Jean (Jane) Edmiston, October 6, 1785. They returned to Kentucky. John was a school teacher, attorney and printer, was associated with the first newspaper west of Pittsburgh, the Kentucky Gazette first issued August 11, 1787, in Fayette County. In 1788 he bought land in Bourbon County and became a tobacco planter, owning land in many locations (Mercer County, now Franklin; Cumberland County. He suffered smallpox in 1794, was damaged mentally. Moved in 1795 to Franklin County from Bourbon County, 7 miles southwest of Frankfort. His history of Kentucky, THE PIONEER TO THE KENTUCKY EMIGRANT, was published in Frankfort in 1832. He died in Franklin County 1842. He was born in Augusta County, VA, son of John Magill, Sr., in 1759. Served in the militia in 1777. Completed his education probably at Liberty Hall, Lexington, and served in the campaign to relieve General Gates at Hillsborought, NC, in 1780. Children of John and Jean Edmiston Magill: Matthew E. Magill, Mary Magill, Samuel P. Magill, John Allen Magill (a well known physician), Cyrus T. Magill, William Magill, Jane Ann Magill, Margaret S. Magill.
   See EFAB, No. 33.
   
   http://genforum.genealogy.com/edmondson/messages/2369.html

2.   .

   Family Remembrance:1058, p. 156-157. "William’s grandson, John Magill of Franklin County, Kentucky, son of John Magill of Lincoln County, Kentucky, wrote the following letter to his nephew Caleb in 1838 which outlines the early history of the family in Virginia.
   
   In the letter, John Magill states that "I have one son living in Clinton County, Indiana named Matthew E. Magill, one other in the same county named Cyrus Magill. One in Park County named Samuel P. Magill. One living with me named John Allen Magill who is practicing physic on the Thompsonian plan and is very successful. One daughter Margaret S. Magill and one named Tennyann. My grandfather, William Magill, migrated from Ireland in the year of 1727 with three sons named James, William and John, who was my father, and five daughters, to wit: Jane who married William Dickson, he died and she married a McKee; Sarah married William Berry; Betty married James Berry, later John Jones; Esther who married Hugh Campbell; Ann who married Robert Fowler. My uncle James had three sons: William, Alexander and James. My uncle William had seven sons, to wit: Samuel, William, James, Robert, John, Hugh, and Charles, three last named by a second wife. My father had six sons, James, Samuel, John, David, and Hugh. [Note: William apparently omitted or not transcribed.] . . . My sister, Elizabeth Frame, living in Ohio State, Preble County. She is 83 years old last March. The only sister I have living. All my brothers are dead "
   
   The Magill property in Augusta County, later Rockingham county, was located on Magill Ford, between forks of the Dry and North Rivers on the Raleigh and Warm Springs Turnpikes where the bridge crosses the North River."
   
   Biographical Sketch (1942):1063, p. ix-x. "The author, John Magill, was born in 1759 in Augusta County, Virginia. He saw active service in the Virginia Militia in which he served under the commands of General Gates and Morgan. When the Revolutionary War was ended young Magill followed in the footsteps of his neighbors and came out to Kentucky to lay claim to western lands. He arrived on the Kentucky frontier in 1782, just in time to go through the latter part of the struggle of the white man to claim the region from both nature and the Indians. His experiences in the West were typical of those of hundreds of Virginians who moved beyond the mountains to take up land claims. He first settled in Lincoln County near the town of Stanford. Magill, like all good frontiersmen, showed a definite interest in land, and throughout his long detailed personal record there is much mention of land grants in several of the central Kentucky counties. In 1794 Magill fell a victim to the dread frontier disease of smallpox and for many years the old soldier was in a poor state of health. His health, in fact, became so poor that his mind was affected and in 1810 the legislature passed an act absolving him from the responsibility of paying a headright tax because of his mental incapacity. Within three years from the date of this legislative act he had regained his normal mental state and was appearing in Franklin County court as a deponent in a lawsuit indicating that he was again being respected as a normal citizen capable of managing his own affairs with intelligence. For forty-seven years, 1795-1842, John Magill lived on his Benson Creek farm in Franklin County. He had lived in Lincoln, Fayette, and Bourbon counties in Kentucky, and at his death he left behind him property valued by his son-in-law at $2,940.00. At the time of his death there were seven children living, some of whom had gone west of Indiana and Iowa."
   
   https://phillipsplace.net/genealogy/ps03/ps03_044.html