Person:Samuel Lyle (1)

Information on Samuel Lyle

From "The Ancestry and Posterity of Matthew, John, Daniel and Samuel Lyle, Pioneer Settlers in Virginia", by Oscar K. Lyle:

SAMUEL LYLE, ex 1, was a farmer, m. abt 1680, JANET KNOX, of Knoxtown, in a church the ruins of which are yet seen in the centre of the graveyard at Raloo, nearly four miles westward of Larne on the Irish coast. Janet Knox was a daughter of John Knox, m Sally Locke; her second husband. Her first husband was an Ephraim Knox, who left his widow a fair estate and without issue. In the management of this estate, John Knox, of no known kin to Ephraim Knox, married the widow Knox. Sally Locke was a daughter of David Locke, m. Mary Wylie, and a granddaughter of William Wylie, m. Janet Black.

Notable Southern Families By Zella Armstrong, Janie Preston Collup French, pg. 132:

LYLE

The name Lyle is an ancient one. In the Eleventh Century the people of the Isles of Wight and Ely in England and the Isle of Butte in Scotland were called "de Insula." With the Norman conquest the name became "d'l'Isle," and with passing of Norman rule the d was lost and we have "1'Isle and later still the form in common use, Lyle'

It has been claimed that the derivation comes from nobles in the train of William, and this may also be true.

The earliest direct ancestor of the name Lyle whom we know is Samuel Lyle who was living in Ireland where he married Janet Knox in 1680. Of the family of Janet Knox, however, we have earlier record. She was the daughter of John Knox, whose wife was Sally Locke Knox (childless widow of Ephriam Knox), Sally Locke was the daughter of David Locke, whose wife was Mary Wylie, granddaughter of William Wylie, and his wife, Janet Black.

The "earliest Lyle," Samuel and his wife Janet Knox Lyle, occupied a stone house, which is still .standing and is occupied by his descendants. It is near Larne, on the west coast of Ireland.

Samuel and Janet Knox Lyle had six children. One of them, James, married Margaret Snoddy (daughter of Wijliam Snoddy, and his wife, Jane Adams). James and Margaret Snoddy Lyle had eight children: Elizabeth, Jenny, Matthew, John, James, Robert, Daniel, William. The Southern family, now scattered throughout this country, is descended from four of these seven children, four sons. Three of them, Matthew, John and Daniel, emigrated to America and Robert's son, Samuel, emigrated probably with one of his uncles, or at least as a result of their emigration.

Though living in Ireland in County Antrim, near Larne, on the Irish coast, the family was of Scottish origin, and it is supposed that the emigration from Scotland took place about 1616.

In 1700 there was a general movement in Ireland for emigration to America.