Person:Matthew Lyle (1)

Mathew Lyle, first of the emigrant Lyles, son of James Lyle and Margaret Snoddy Lyle, was born in Ireland, about 1711, in tha family residence at Browndood, near Larne, in County Antrim. He married, it is said, before he was of age, in 1731, (it is from this tradition that we learn the probable date of his birth) Esther Blair. (Esther Blair was born about 1713, in Ballyvallah, County Antrim. Ireland. She was the daughter of Samuel Blair, and his wife, they were married in 1 690, Martha Campbell Lyle, a daughter of a James Lyle, of Toreagh, and his wife, Martha Campbell. James Lyle's father was John Lyle, and his wife was Florence Montgomery. Esther Blair was a descendant on her father's side of Brice Blair of very high lineage. Brice Blair married in Ayrshire, Scotland, Esther Peden, in 1625, and went to Ireland).

About ten years after Mathew Lyle's marriage to Esther Blair they emigrated to Virginia. The exact date is not known, but one of their children, Robert, who died young, was baptized in Larne, in 1 740, and on July 30, 1 742, Mathew Lyle's name is signed to =1 petition to Colonial Governor Gooch in Virginia, and he was evidently a resident of some standing in the colony at that time.

He settled on Timber Ridge, in what is now Rockbridge County, Virginia.

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Children

From Mathew Lyle's marriage to Esther Blair there were born six children, four of whom grew to maturity. (William and Robert died young).

(1) James Lyle

(2) Elizabeth Lyle

(3) John Lyle

(4) Martha Lyle

Of the foregoing:

James Lyle, first child of Matthew and Esther Blair Lyle, was born in Ireland in 1732, and died in Virginia. He accompanied his parents to Virginia about 1741. He married in Virginia about 1764, Hannah Alexander. Their children were: Joseph, Matthew, Elizabeth, Esther, Margaret, John and Archibald. Of these: Joseph Lyle married Sarah Butt, in 1 791, and had children; Mathew Lyle became a Presbyterian minister, married his cousin, Sarah Lyle, and had children; Elizabeth Lyle married her cousin, William Lyle as his second wife and had children; Esther Lyle never married; Margaret Lyle married James Alexander and had children; John Lyle, a physician, went from Virginia to Texas and nothing definite is known of him; Archibald Lyle never married. He commanded a company of cavalry in the war of 1812.

John Lyle second son of Matthew Lyle and Esther Blair, was born in Ireland about 1736; he died in Virginia in 1793, was captain of a militia company in 1778, accompanied his parents to America and married twice in Virginia; first Isabella Paxton, and, second, Frances Stuart. He had three children by Isabella Paxton; John, Esther and Mary Paxton Lyle, and by his second wife, Frances Stuart, he had two children, Alexander Stuart Lyle and Isabella Lyle. (Of these: John Lyle married Nancy Thompkins and had fourteen children, only three of whom, however, married; Esther Lyle married Joseph Paxton and had children; Mary Paxton Lyle married James MacDowell, (son of Judge Samuel MacDowell, and Mary McClung, and grandson of Captain John McDowell, who first settled on Borden's Grant in Virginia, in 1737), and had children; Alexander Stuart Lyle probably did not marry; Isabella Lyle married John McDowell and had a son, William McDowell, who married but had no children.

Elizabeth Lyle, eldest daughter of Matthew Lyle and Esther Blair Lyle, was born in Ireland about 1734, and died in Virginia. She married twice and is ancestress of a large and influential posterity. Numbers of Tennesseans and Georgians claim descent from Elizabeth Lyle. She remained in Ireland, when her parents emigrated to America, with her grandparents and her maternal uncle, Daniel Blair. She married in Ireland, about the year 1750, William Thompson, (died 1759), son of Thomas Thompson (b. 1697, d. 1779), and his wife, Mary Black, (b. 1714, d. 1778), who was the daughter of Samuel Black, (b. 1656, d. 1740), and his wife, Alice Murdock, (b. 1675, d. 1743). Elizabeth Lyle Thompson and her husband, William Thompson, had three daughters, Esther, Jane and Mary. Six years after the death of William Thompson (in 1759), the young widow married (1765) for her second husband, William Thompson's first cousin, Mathew Donald, (son of John Donald, and Margaret Black, Mary Black having been William Thompson's mother). Eliabeth Lyle Thompson Donald and her husband, Mathew Donald, emigrated to America in 1 775, bringing with them her three Thompson daughters, Esther, Jane and Mary, and her children by Mathew Donald. Another child, Margaret, was born at sea in 1775 and this establishes the date of their crossing. The children of Elizabeth and Mathew Donald were Mathew Lyle, John, Samuel, Margaret* William Blair, James and Mark. Margaret was born at sea in 1775.

Of Elizabeth Lyle's daughters by William Thompson:

Esther Thompson (born about 1752) married about 1778, John McSpadden; they went from Virginia to Tennessee and settled near Dandridge, and had a large family, namely, James, Thomas, Elizabeth, Jane, John, Mary, Samuel, Esther, Mathew, Archibald Thompson. A large connection of East Tennessee people comes from this family.

Jane Thompson, second daughter of Elizabeth Lyle Thompson, (b. about 1 755. d. near Dandridge, Tennessee), married James Walker, and had children: Jane and Elizabeth, (both of whom married and had children), and married a second time Andrew Cowan (who had, by a previous marriage, six children). She had three Cowan children, Joel W., Thompson and Matthew, all of whom married and had children. She married a third husband, Joel Ellis, but had by him no children. Jane Walker, (eldest child of Jane Thompson, by her first husband, James Walker), is the ancestress of the Inman family, through her marriage to John Ritchie Inman, son of Abednego Inman; their children were James Abednego, Mary A. Shadrack Walker, James M.. John W., William M., Joel C, Walker P., Elizabeth, Jane, Susan, Hannah, Matilda, Sallie and Mary, which was rather a nursery full, even for those prolific times.

Mary Thompson, daughter of Elizabeth Lyle and William Thompson, was born in Ireland about 1757; she died in 1797. She is frequently called Polly Thompson in the family record. She came with her mother and stepfather to America in 1775. She married Samuel Wear, in Augusta County, Virginia, in 1 778. Samuel Wear was a son of Robert Wear. Mary and Samuel Wear moved to what is now Tennesse and settled on Little Pigeon River, Sevier County, Tennessee, which was then a part of North Carolina. For history of Colonel Samuel Wear see Armstrong Family).

Samuel Wear married twice. After the death of Mary Thompson Wear he married Mary "Gilhan," or Gilliland, and had by her several children, though this record deals with the children by his first wife only, namely, Elizabeth, Robert, Rebecca, Samuel, Junior, John and Mary.

Elizabeth Wear, daughter of Samuel Wear, and his first wife, Polly Thompson, was born in Augusta County, Virginia, 1780, and died in Tennessee, 1820. She married Robert Armstrong, the third, son of Robert Armstrong, second, and his wife, Margaret Cunningham. They built a home, which is standing, on the Tennessee River above Knoxville. Their children were Drury Paine Armstrong, who married Amelia Houston) ; Addison Wear Armstrong, who married Nancy MacMillan) ; Maria Armstrong, (who married John Brooks) ; Rutelia Armstrong, (who married Thomas G. Craighead) ; Charlotte Armstrong, (who married first Samuel Armstrong, and had no children; married second Henry C. Baldwin) ; Robert Houston Armstrong (who died young); Margaret Cunningham Armstrong (who married Samuel Hannibal Love); Dialthea Perry Armstrong, (who married Pleasant M. Love) ; James H. Armstrong, (who married Ann Eliza Park) ; Maloida Armstrong, (who married Samuel Morrow) ; Samuel T. Armstrong, (who died young), and Elizabeth Armstrong, (who died young). From these sons and daughters comes a large connection.

Robert Wear married Lucretia Thomas and had children. Rebecca Wear married John Witt and had children. Samuel Wear, Junior, married and had children. John Wear, who was also an officer in the War of 1812, married Sussannah Mullendore and had children. He married for his second wife Sarah M. Patty and had children.

Mary Wear, last child of Samuel Wear by his first wife, Polly or Mary Thompson, married Colonel Simeon Perry and had children. Simeon Perry married a second wife.

A very large connection of Tennessee people comes through Samuel Wear's children.

Going back to Elizabeth Lyle, who married first William Thompson, and second Matthew Donald: By her marriage to Donald she had seven children: Mathew Lyle Donald, (who married Mrs. Nancy Walker, nee Caughron or Cawhorn, and had children) ; John Donald (who married Nancy Paxton) ; Samuel Donald (who died unmarried) ; Margaret Donald, who married William Keys, who was a Colonel of an Ohio Regiment in the War of 1812; William Blair Donald, who married Mary Campbell, and was a Captain in the War of 1812; James Donald, who married Jennie McCorckle, and Mary Donald, who married his cousin, Hannah Lyle).

Martha Lyle, fourth child of Matthew Lyle and his wife, Esther Blair, was bor n about 1 740. She accompanied her parents from Ireland to Virginia and married there about 1 758, Matthew Houston, son of John Houston and an uncle to General Samuel Houston. Their children were John (who married Rachel Batch) ; Samuel (who married Nancy Gillespie, married second Mary Mitchell, by whom he had no children, and married third Annie Hutchison, by whom he had no children) ; Matthew (who married Margaret Cloyd) ; Robert D., (who died unmarried) ; Esther (who married her cousin. Major James Houston) ; and Margaret (who married Captain James Gillespie).

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Early Land Acquisition in Augusta County, VA

Matthew Lyle's land (Borden Tract ME, 300 acres, 1742 & 451 acres, 1746) as shown on the map meticulously drawn by J.R. Hildebrand, cartographer. This map is copyrighted©, used by permission of John Hildebrand, son of J.R. Hildebrand, April, 2009. Note that tract of John Lyle (734 acres, 1748), Matthew's brother is adjoining his land to the west, tract of Daniel Lyle (257 acres, 1743), Matthew's brother is located to the southwest, and tract of Samuel Lyle (235 acres, 1751), Matthew's nephew is located to the west..

Acquisition of Land from Orange County, Virginia Records:

Pages 127-31. 3-4 Aug. 1742. Benjamin Borden of Orange County, Gent., to Mathew Lyell of same, yeoman. Lease and release; for £9 current money. 300 acres on south side of Timber Ridge, part of 92,100 acres by pattin (patent) 6 Nov. 1739... corner to John McDowel's. (signed) Benja. Borden. Wit: John Stivenson, John Huston, John Mountgomry. 26 Aug. 1742. Acknowledged by Benja. Borden, Gent. [Orange County Deed Book 8, Dorman, pg. 73].

Acquisition of Land from Chalkley's:

Page 209.--19th March, 1746. Benj. Borden & Co. to Mathew Gyle (Lyle). Testator agreed to sell in his lifetime, 451 acres, 2 R., 17 P., for £13.10.0 current money Virginia, part of 92,100, grantee's old survey; Thomas McSpadon's line; John Mathews' line; John Gray's corner. Witnessed and acknowledged as above.

Disposition of Land from Chalkley's:

Page 198.--2d April, 1762. Mathew Lyle and Esther to John Lyle, £10. 461 acres, part of Borden's 92,100 and conveyed by Borden to Mathew; corner Thomas McSpadin, John Mathews' line; corner John Gray. Delivered: Jno. Lyle, 4th March, 1774.

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Will of Matthew Lyle in Augusta County, VA

Page 234.--15th June, 1773. Mathew Lyle's will--To son, James, executor; to daughter, Elizabeth, now in Ireland--if she do not come in within 3 years, then the land to go to James; to daughter, Martha; to son, John Teste: Danl. Lyle, Archibald Alexander, John Lyle, Jr. Proved, 17th May, 1774, by Daniel and John Lyle, Jr. James Lyle qualifies with Samuel and Daniel Lyle.

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