Seven Brothers Core

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Sources

Source:Fleming, 1971

Related

Seven Cowan Brothers

Cowan Descendancy from Niall of the Nine Hostages

YDNA. Cowan Groups

Cowan YDNA Project

Children of the Seven Cowan Brothers

Overview

The Seven Brothers Core subgroup is believed to have originated with Seven Brothers who settled in Pennsylvania in 1726. Fleming, 1971 identified this subgroup, and the name has broad acceptance among their descendants. Fleming identifies the seven brothers as :

• Andrew
• David
• James
• John
• Matthew
• Samuel
• William

Earlier family historians, (Source:Houston, et al. 1916 and Source:Dunavant, 1947) believed that The Seven Brothers came to America from County Down. These authors pointed to the appearance of a group known as The Wigton Walkers in Old Chester County to support this idea. The appearance of these Walkers in Old Chester is seemingly well documented by Source:White, 1902 citing early family records. According to White, 1902, per Fleming 1947:

John Walker...settled in Newry, [County Down] Ireland. He and family...left Strangford Bay in May, 1726...on a vessel commanded by Richard Walker, and landed in Maryland, August 2nd. He transported his family and in Chester County PA.

Flemming accepted this view because:

1. They all came from County Down, Ireland

2. They all came to America about the same time

3. They all settled initially in Chester County PA

Unfortunately, while there is some evidence to show that at least some members of White's Wigton Walkers came from County Down in 1726 to settled in what was then Chester County PA, there is no corresponding evidence that this was so for the Cowans. Specifically, there is no documentation known to show that any member of the Seven Brothers actually settled in Chester County. Their presence there is dictated only by the fact that they are believed by some of the earlier researchers to have come over on the same ship as the Wigton Walkers. Yet there seems to be no independent information to confirm that they were on the same ship as the Wigton Walkers, and White, 1902 does not include them in her list of members of the extended family of John Walker, the immigrant---except to the extent of the marriage of three Walker sisters to three Cowan Brothers, two generations later on.

It is not even clear that they were in fact brothers. While descendants of this subgroup share a common YDNA signature their common ancestor is not known. We presume they share a recent common ancestor, but whether that ancestor was their father or not, is unknown. Nonetheless there is some reason to believe that this group did in fact settle somewhere in Pennsylvania in prior by 1730. Some members of the family are believed to have settled in Albemarle County by 1735, and others in adjacent Augusta County by 1740. From here the family spread southward along the Great Road, down into the Carolinas, with some members of the extended family returning to Virginia to settle in Castle's Woods in Southwestern Virginia by 1770, and further south in northeastern Tennessee after 1786.

Similarity Matrix

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