As a result of DNA testing and traditional research, we can now state with confidence that Walter McChesney was born about 1732 in Monaghan, Ulster, Ireland, and was the second son of Samuel Chesney/McChesney and Isobel Riddell Chesney/McChesney.[1] Walter married Isabella (also called "Esbil" or "Ebby," born c1735) maiden-name unknown, most likely in Monaghan, Ulster, Ireland, about 1750.
We have confirmed evidence that he arrived in New York on July 28, 1764, with a Dr. Clark,[2][3]that Walter traveled on the ship John with his father Samuel, his own siblings, their children, and his own family. Walter would have been 32, his wife, Esbil, of similar age, and his two children, Samuel (about 10 years old) and Jean/Jane (about 4).
The known children of Walter and Esbil were:
SAMUEL McHESNEY, b. ca. 1755 in Monaghan, Ulster, Ireland.
JEAN/JANE McCHESNEY, b. ca. 1760 in Monaghan, Ulster Ireland.
MARY “POLLY” McCHESNEY, b. ca. 1764, possibly in New Jersey.
WALTER McCHESNEY (Jr.), b. 1772 in Rockbridge, Virginia, a few years before the Revolution began in the Americas.
Walter was born in Monaghan, Ireland,
He married an Irish lass, Isobel (maiden name unknown).
They had 2 children in Monaghan.
In 1764 they came with Walter's father, Samuel, and family to New York.
Isobel was pregnant with Mary and they stayed with Walter's father or one of his brothers in New Jersey until the baby was born and was old enough to travel.
They then went south on the Great Wagon Road to Virginia.
In Virginia, Walter McChesney and his family had a “cabin share” of 80 acres (Tract 138, Bordens Grant Properties). However, there is no extant date on record for Walter’s purchase of land in Rockbridge. These records were in dispute and under litigation for years after the death of Benjamin Borden, Sr. Records of “deals” were not well kept and often Borden made verbal agreements.
The earliest record to be found involving Walter, Sr., and a land transaction was dated 20 Oct. 1772. Walter was one of the witnesses to a deed which recorded the purchase by his son Samuel of Augusta Co., VA, of 105 acres on Hays Creek in what was then called Borden’s Tract, in Augusta County, Virginia. [4][5]
The 1760s and 70s brought British troops to protect the settlers against Native American attacks and to build forts and garrisons for their protection. The British Parliament levied taxes on the colonies pay for the building and protection, and the colonials objected to "taxation without representation." Storm clouds of war with Britain were brewing in the 1770s as colonists became more and more discontent with the actions of the troops and the oppressiveness of the British government, which most colonists had hoped to escape when they migrated to America.
Walter Sr. was 44 years old and living with his family on his farm in what was to become Rockbridge County when the Revolution began in 1775. All of his children were unmarried at this time. Samuel left and went to war at age 18. Jane was 16 and Mary was 12. Little Walter Jr. was just 4 years old. There is no record of Walter Sr. serving in the war. He did, however, die before Sept. 1782, at the age of 50, near the end of the war, perhaps as a result of the war, injury, or illness.
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/McChesney-111
