McINTYRE

The progenitor of this family, Daniel McIntyre, an eighteenth-century settler in Grimsby Tp., Lincoln Co., Upper Canada (now Ontario), was in all likelihood originally named Donald, which even so late as the nineteenth century was often changed to Daniel on immigrating to the Americas. His (first?) wife, Mary ____, was the only great-grandparent of our ancestress Margaret Comfort to remain unidentified by Cecelia and Roland Botting, who worked on all these ancestral lines for many years.^[1] Compared with the other strains of Margaret Comfort’s ancestry, the McIntyres have suffered historiographically from not having left any American branch of the family. As the Bottings noted of Daniel McIntyre, “his place of birth and previous place of residence are unknown,”^[2] and we gather from this and their other work that any traditions regarding his place of origin or family connections had disappeared by the middle of the twentieth century. This fact, combined with the commonness of the surname, has rendered research difficult. There were at least two other families of this surname in the same part of Lincoln County with no apparent relationship to the present one,^[3] and we have chosen to be conservative in attempting to assign “strays” to a place in the present notes. In fact, we are not able even to show that the male line of the present family lasted beyond the death in 1843 of John McIntyre, son of the founder. It is not certain that the male line is absolutely extinct, but the family certainly “daughtered out” to an pronounced degree.

The first account of this McIntyre family in print was probably that given in Annals of the Forty, vol. VI, in 1955.^[4] This sketchy and rather confused treatment was much improved upon by the Bottings in the first edition of their History of the Kennedy Family (Hutchinson, Kansas, 1955), p. 29, and still further in their Wilcoxes and McIntyres of Lincoln County [ca. 1975?] (hereafter WMLC), pp. 26-7. We understand that their sources included some family bible record, but we were never able to learn more about it from them. Their literary executor has ignored our inquiries. We have incorporated (not always without dissent) the material in WMLC in full here, except for its discussion of some unassociated McIntyres without (in our view) a likely connection to the present family.

The reconstructed 78th Regiment at the David M. Stewart Museum, Île Sainte-Hélène, Québec

Our knowledge on Daniel McIntyre has improved somewhat with the discovery of the land petition of 1795 in which he seeks to qualify himself as a Loyalist by virtue of his services in the British Army, mentioning his service in the 78^th Regiment of foot (Fraser’s Highlanders). Because of the rather unusual circumstances (described below) in which this regiment was raised, we can say with some confidence that McIntyre must have come from somewhere on or near the Fraser lands in Inverness-shire.

1.   Daniel [originally Donald?] McIntyre, of Grimsby Tp., Lincoln Co., Upper Canada (now Ontario), born ca. 1736, presumably in Scotland, certainly alive in 1820, and said to have died 8 January 1825.^[5] He married (1?) by 1767, presumably somewhere in the American colonies, Mary ____, born ca. 1730 (?),^[6] died 12 September 1802. The Bottings infer that he married (2) Anna ____, living 1818, but this marriage may have belonged instead to his son of the same name.
     The entry for him in the “Old United Empire Loyalist List,” which was made as refugees from the American colonies were entering Canada, calls him “Daniel McIntyre, Sen[ior], [of] Grimsby, soldier [in the] old French War, re-instated [on the] U.E. list, July 11^th, 1806.”^[7] The “old French War” refers to the French and Indian War of 1755-63, the North American counterpart to Europe’s Seven Years’ War.^[8] The abstract of his land petition in the minutes of the Council Chamber at Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) of 3 August 1795 reads,

Daniel McIntier: Petition stating [he] has served His Majesty in the French War in the 78^th Regt. of Foot, and was persecuted vigorously during the American War, and had his property confiscated. Praying for such lands as Your Excellency may think proper to grant him, and family lands for his wife and five children. Ordered that he do receive for himself a grant of 600 acres.^[9]

The reference to the 78^th Regiment of Foot is important as a clue to Daniel McIntyre’s origins, because this regiment, better known as Fraser’s Highlanders, was not one of the more numerous American regiments, but rather was taken to America by Simon Fraser (1726-1782), Master of Lovat, who mustered the troop in Scotland.^[10] It is said that “by his influence with his clan, without the aid of land or money, he raised eight hundred recruits in a few weeks, to which as many more were shortly added.”^[11] In these circumstances it may be presumed that the men must have come from Fraser’s own lands in Inverness and the immediate environs.^[12] The corps was at first known as the 2^nd highland battalion, but after briefly being renumbered the 63^rd Regiment, became the 78^th, more familiarly known as Fraser’s highlanders. There seems to be little doubt that the regiment wore a red tartan, and it is interesting to read of the footsoldiers that “the men grey their hair long; it was tallowed with wax or fats and clubbed with tape.”^[13]
     According to a brief account of Simon Fraser,

Fraser’s commission as colonel was dated 5 January 1757. Under his command the regiment went to America, and was much remarked for its brilliant conduct in the field during the ensuing campaigns, and the thrift and sobriety of the officers and men…. Fraser was with it at the siege of Louisburg, Cape Breton, in 1758, and in the expedition to Quebec under Wolfe, where he was wounded at Montmorenci. He was wounded again at Sillery, 28 April 1760, during the defence of Quebec, and commanded a brigade in the advance of Montreal. He appears to have been still serving in America in 1761.^[14]

This itinerary furnishes some idea of what Daniel McIntyre’s activities must have been during the years 1757 through 1761. When the war was finally in 1763, many of the disbanded soldiers remained in Canada or in the American colonies, rather than returning to Scotland.
     The muster rolls made at the time of the disbanding of the troops in 1763 contain no Daniel McIntyre, but they do contain a Donald McIntyre.^[15] Since Daniel is a well-recognized anglicization of Donald, we suspect our subject was the man recorded as Donald.
     Reid’s Loyalists in Ontario implies that Daniel McIntyre was in New Jersey in 1767, when his eldest son James was born,^[16] and Daniel’s own claim in his land petition that he “was persecuted vigorously during the American War, and had his property confiscated,” would seem to place him in the United States toward the end of the Revolution in 1784. However, we have found no document which can be definitely attributed to Daniel McIntyre — such as a record of his marriage, or of a baptism of a child — between the end of the French and Indian Wars in 1763 and his re-appearance in Canada in 1795, a gap of over 30 years. It is unfortunate that the 1790 census of New Jersey is lost. Early tax lists (of which we have not seen the originals) apparently show a Daniel McEntire in 1785, a Daniel McEntires in 1786, and a Daniel McEntire in 1787 and 1788, all in assessments of Hanover Township, Morris County, with no man of this or similar name appearing elsewhere in New Jersey during the same period.^[17] It would appear that this man was in the township only between the years 1785 and 1788, as he is absent from the tax lists of 1783, 1784, and 1789.^[18] There is no mention of him in the early records of Hanover township’s first Presbyterian congregation at Whippanong (now Whippany).^[19] Further research would however be required to establish whether this is in fact our subject.
     Records of Daniel McIntyre in latter life are difficult or impossible to distinguish from those of his son Daniel Jr. The Bottings assume he was the one of this name who in 1811 owned lots O, P, and Q of the Gore, and who appears on voters’ lists of 1812 and 1816. However, in the meanwhile his son Daniel begins to figure in the public records in 1807 (see below), and it seems far from certain which of the two men was the Daniel McIntyre who appears with wife Anna in the 1818-19 membership lists of the Clinton Presbyterian congregation.^[20] The present man was definitely still alive in 1820, when both “Daniel McIntire” and “Daniel McIntire Sr.” are named in a list of persons promising to donate money for the building of a church house.^[21] By then Daniel McIntyre Sr. was a very aged widower, and it is not surprising that he was otherwise rarely mentioned in the public record.
     Children, so far as known, presumably all born in the U.S.:^[22]

1. James McIntyre, born 13 February 1767, allegedly in New Jersey,^[23] died 22 June 1809. In 1798 he served as one of the overseers of roads in Grimsby Tp.^[24] In 1811 he was recorded as the owner of lot F of Grimsby Gore.^[25] The Bottings did not discover a marriage record for this man, but he would have been of marriageable age before coming to Canada.
2. Ann McIntyre, born 5 March 1769, probably died by 1795.^[26]
3. Jemima McIntyre, born 22 February 1771 (it has been said in Sussex Co., New Jersey), died 20 September 1847, and buried in Clinton Presbyterian churchyard. She married in 1795 (?), Benjamin Wilcox (Jr.), born [28?] February 1769 in New Jersey, died 13 February 1847, son of Benjamin Wilcox, of Grimsby Tp., by his wife Elsie Lanning.^[27] Reid mentions an order-in-council of 18 November 1800 granting land to her as the daughter of a Loyalist.^[28]
4. 2John McIntyre, born 21 April 1773.
5. Mary (“Polly”) McIntyre, born 29 September 1775, living June 1816. She married 18 June 1795, Daniel Wilcox, born 1770-71 in New Jersey, died 6 March 1857, brother of her sister Jemima’s husband, and son of Benjamin Wilcox, of Grimsby Tp., by his wife Elsie Lanning.^[29] Reid mentions an order-in-council of 18 November 1800 granting land to her as the daughter of a Loyalist. Their daughter Jemima Wilcox was the wife of Francis Comfort, and mother of Margaret Comfort.
6. Elizabeth McIntyre, born 3 April 1778, probably died by 1795.^[30]
7. Daniel McIntyre (Jr.), of Grimsby Tp., born 5 February 1782, living 1814. Reid mentions an order-in-council of 5 August 1807 granting land to him as the son of a Loyalist.^[31] He was almost certainly the one of this name who married by 1810, Drusilla Beebe, living 1810, daughter of Sgt. Edin Beebe, of Louth,^[32] for whom Reid quotes an order-in-council of 9 October 1810 calling her wife of “Daniel McIntyre of Grimsby.”^[33] Daniel McIntyre was a member of the 4^th Lincoln Co. Regiment in October 1814.^[34] In 1820 he or his father signed a list of persons promising to contribute money to the building of Clinton Presbyterian Church.^[35] The Bottings did not discover record of any issue.
8. (perhaps) Jeremiah McIntyre, whose name appears on an undated membership list of the Clinton Presbyterian Church.^[36] The Bottings attribute him to Daniel McIntyre’s supposed second wife, but as Daniel McIntyre himself mentioned in August 1795 having only five children, we should then be forced to suppose that Jeremiah was born after that date — when Daniel would have been nearly 60 years of age.

2.   John McIntyre,^[37] of Grimsby Tp., son of Daniel McIntyre (Sr.), was born 21 April 1773, died 1843, and was buried in Beamsville Baptist churchyard. He was married 17 March 1801, by Robert Nelles, J.P. of Niagara,^[38] to Laruah Stafford, born 1776, died 1845, and buried in Beamsville Baptist churchyard, probably a daughter of Abel Stafford, Sr., of Clinton,^[39] as she named her first son Abel.
     John McIntyre was a member of the Grimsby Tp. Council in 1800, and his name appears as the owner of lot 13, conc. 3 of Clinton Tp. at an unstated date.^[40] In 1811, he owned lot K of Grimsby Gore.^[41] In June 1814, he was a sergeant of the Lincoln 4^th Regiment.^[42]
     John McIntyre appears in the 1828 census of Clinton Tp., in which the numbers of persons in his household (excluding himself) are given as 2 males over 16, 3 females over, 3 males under, and no females under.^[43] This suggests that he had two other sons of whom we have found no record.
     Issue, so far as known:^[44]

1. Ann^[45] McIntyre, born ca. 1802. She married 9 January 1822 at Grimsby, by licence, ^[46] Owen Roberts. Both parties were of Grimsby Tp. at the time of their marriage.
2. Abel McIntyre, born 1803, died (apparently unmarried) 1832, and buried in Beamsville Baptist churchyard.
3. Mary McIntyre, born ca. 1805. She married 27 February 1822 at Grimsby, by licence,^[47] William Mitchell, of Niagara Tp.
4. Elizabeth McIntyre [a twin to Daniel below?], born 1808, died 1830. The Bottings suggest without explanation that she “may have married ____ Warren.”
5. Daniel McIntyre, Jr. [a twin to Elizabeth?], born 1808, died (apparently unmarried) 1828.
6. Kezia McIntyre, born ca. 1812.^[48] She married (by license dated 31 December 1836),^[49] William Jennings, of Beamsville. She is named in an 1818 list of communicants of Clinton Presbyterian Church.^[50] We have not found her in the 1852 census.

Notes

Some Sites of Related Interest

• McIntyre Family Genealogy Forum
  at http://genforum.genealogy.com/mcintyre/
• The Old 78th Regiment of Foot (Fraser’s Highlanders)
  by the Clan Fraser Society of Canada
  http://www.clanfraser.ca/78th.htm
• Muster Rolls [of] The Old 78th Fraser Highlanders
  http://www.clanfraser.ca/muster.htm
• Scottish Regiments: Fraser’s Highlanders http://www.electricscotland.com/history/scotreg/fraser/
• The Seven Years War Website: History and Uniform of the 78th (Highland) Regiment of Foot (Fraser’s Highlanders), 1757-1763
  at http://www.militaryheritage.com/78thregt.htm

From the Genealogy Page of John Blythe Dobson
URL = johnblythedobson.org/genealogy/ff/McIntyre.cfm
This page written 15 December 2000
Last revised 25 November 2017