Camerons in Virginia
This is part 2 of a two part post. If you have not done so, read Jacobites and the Ferintosh Distillery first.
At least one of the Ferintosh Cameron children came over to America just before the Revolutionary War - the eldest, John, arrived in Virginia in 1770 or 1771. The youngest child, Ewen, arrived a few years after the War in 1785. It is not known when the other Cameron children came over, but they were all in America by 1790. I have tried to find any of the children on passenger lists, but this time period, just prior and just after the Revolutionary War, is a bit spotty when it comes to ship records. The Cameron children who immigrated to the colonies/United States were:
1. John Cameron - b. 1745, immigrated 1770 or 1771, married Anne Owen Nash 1773, died Nov. or Dec. 1815 in Virginia
3. Alexander Cameron - b. 1749, died in 1790 in America at age 41
5. William Cameron - b. 1756, died in 1794 in Virginia at age 38
6. Donald Cameron - b. 1759
9. Ewen Cameron - born Feb. 23, 1768, immigrated 1785, married Frances Buford in 1797 in Virginia, died Feb. 28, 1846 in Tennessee
John Cameron arrived in Virginia around 1770 and settled in Charlotte County. He married Anne Owen Nash there in 1773, the daughter of Col. Thomas Nash (1730-1769) and Mary Read. Colonel Nash was an attorney for the King. Anne was the niece of Governor Abner Nash of North Carolina and General Francis Nash who was killed in action at Germantown, Pennsylvania during the Revolutionary War. Her maternal grandfather was Colonel Clement Read, also a King's Attorney.
John and Anne's children include:
1. Mary Read Cameron Anderson: 1774 - 1844 2. Jean M Cameron Syme: 1775 - 1846 3. Duncan Cameron: 1777 - 1853 4. Anne M. Cameron: 1787 - 1810 5. John Adams Cameron: 1788 - 1838 6. William Ewan Cameron: 1792 - 1827 7. Thomas Nash Cameron: 1796 - 1851
John served as a pastor of St. James Parish in Mecklenburg County from 1774- 1784. It is noted that John likely supported the colonists during the American Revolution because his parishioners were colonial loyalists. After the Revolutionary War, the compulsory support of ministers was ended in Virginia, and so ministers found they had to change parishes frequently in order to find decent wages. John served as minister of Bristol Parish from 1784 - 1793, receiving pay of 116 pounds a year. After a couple of years at Nottoway County, he served Cumberland Parish from 1796 until 1815, when he retired. He supplemented his income by receiving a doctorate of divinity from William and Mary and opening a school for classical studies. John Cameron's will was dated Nov. 20, 1815 and it was probated on Dec. 14, 1815, indicating he died at some point in that 3 week period. John was buried next to his wife Anne in Lunenburg County, on property that is now privately owned, and his eldest son erected a tombstone for him. A survey of the Cameron Cemetery in the 1930s noted that the graveyard was not maintained, the tombstones were broken and largely illegible.
John Cameron was reputed to be a stern and authoritative man of great piety who commanded respect; the kind of man you would thank for rebuking you. When he wrote his superiors to resign his last position in Cumberland Parish, his superiors forwarded on his request for a replacement and included a note: "The salary may be as equal to an hundred pounds per annum, which arises from a small estate consisting of Land and Negroes, left, about twenty years ago, to the Protestant Episcopal Church in this parish, by a very pious and zealous member of the Church, whose name was Thomas Buford". (1) Thomas Buford was the G.Great Uncle of Ewen Cameron's wife, Frances Buford.
John Cameron's oldest son, Duncan Cameron (b. 1777 in Mecklenburg County, VA) became a greatly successful politician, lawyer, land holder, and judge in North Carolina. He founded the Stagville Plantation Camerons, which will receive their own blog post.
I have not been able to find any information on Alexander Cameron.
William Cameron was also an ordained Episcopal priest and he served as a chaplain to Bishop James Madison in Manchester Parish, Chesterfield County, Virginia from 1790 to 1794. Tragically, while driving in a carriage with Bishop Madison down Warm Springs Mountain in Bath County Virginia, he was thrown from the moving carriage and killed. He was unmarried and had no children. (2)
"There is a single mention of Donald Cameron in the vestry book of Bristol Parish (Virginia). On December 31st, 1788, he was appointed to collect the subscriptions for the year 1788, and was to be allowed five percent for so doing." Our family genealogist, George Cameron, wrote that Donald died in America, but he crossed out the word "died". Landon Bell says that Donald returned to Scotland. There is also a Donald Cameron listed in John Cameron's ledger of the marriages that he performed. This Donald Cameron was married to Mary Anderson on December 17, 1791. (3)
When Ewen Cameron arrived in America in 1785, he was just 17 years old. Not much is known about the next 13 years that he spent in Virginia. On December 21, 1797, John Cameron performed a marriage ceremony joining his brother Ewen to Frances "Frankey" Buford, daughter of Joseph "James" Buford and Priscilla Ragsdale. The Bufords had been in the British American colonies for several generations. John Buford was born in England in 1626 and died in Virginia in 1698. He was Frances' G.G.Great Grandfather.
For reasons that are unknown to us, Ewen decided to depart Virginia on September 11, 1798 to move his young family to Nashville, Tennessee. Frances was very pregnant, and gave birth very soon after their journey ended, just south of Nashville. Ewen and Frances became the first settlers of Franklin, Tennessee. Their odyssey was recorded in a number of letters that Ewen wrote to his nephew, Duncan, at Stagville. Ewen Cameron's life in Tennessee will be expanded upon in a future blog post.
Pictures: a. John Cameron (b. 1745). Photograph of a miniature that John gave to his daughter Mary Read Cameron Anderson. Painted from life.
b. Duncan Cameron (b. 1777)
c. Warm Springs Mountain preserve
1. Cumberland Parish, Lunenburg County, Virginia, 1746-1816 Vestry Book 1746-1816, by Landon Covington Bell. Published by Clearfield Company, Richmond, 1930. AND Bristol Parish Vestry Book, pg. 140.
2. Our family genealogist, George, lists William's year of death as 1793. The following source lists William Cameron as present during the Episcopal Convention of 1794, however, so I feel 1794 is the correct year of his death. Source: Journal of a Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of Virginia, held in the City of Richmond, May 6th, 1794, from Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of the United States of America, Volume 1, By Francis Lister Hawks, published by Harper and Brothers, New York, 1836, pg. 65.
3. Cumberland Parish, Lunenburg County, Virginia, 1746-1816 Vestry Book 1746-1816, by Landon Covington Bell. Published by Clearfield Company, Richmond, 1930. AND Bristol Parish Vestry Book, pg. 273.