RootsChat.Com

Im struck by the coincidence in my family tree that the adage regarding the enemy of my enemy is my ally seems to hold true. Like many of Cromwell's POWs, as soon as possible they got out from under the control of Boston and moved north on to the Fernando Gorges Patent which is now southern Maine. One of the largest landowners at the time was the Rev. Robert Jordan, the nephew of the Bishop of Worcestor and an Anglican/Church of England official. My McKenney line married into the Jordan line at least twice and my Gray line; once. "Rev/ Bob" was so opposed to the church practices of the Cromwellian era that Boston had him arrested twice for refusing to enforce the edicts and he vigorously forbade the witchhunts and trials, claiming they were a political ploy of the government. When William (and Mary) forced the District of Maine to be under the control of Boston once again, we started almost immediately to rumble for a revolution moving further and further into the northern woods to get away from the government. There are still isolated communities in Maine that seem more 1700s than 21st Century. Heck I deal with dial-up and I consider myself lucky to just be on line. But I love my venison which is still available every fall. LOL.

I believe I have an ancestor who fought at Worcester but I am not at home so am relying on memory. The information is based on early records of a POW ship named the John and Francis said to have transported captured Scots to Boston about 1651 and the names were pheonetically spelled. My ancestor's surname is now McKenney but it was spelled a number of ways including Macheny, McKehnie. Elder was John and his son Robert both were transported and family lore associates them with Clan McKenzie and the Skye/Inverness area. In a strange bit of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" by 1700 my Mckenney ancestor had married into the family of Rev Robert Jordan (Uncle was a bishop in a church in England, perhaps episcopal and sent to minister to the colonies about the same time), and a descendant of another Scottish family- Gray- said to have been captured at the Battle of Dunbar and transported to Boston a year or two earlier on the ship Unity, as POWs. both families are believed to have served at Saugus Mills & Mines in the greater Boston area and after serving their indenture sentences moved north to the Gorges Patent(Maine) out of reach of the Boston Bay and Plymouth Colony government reach. Any information on these families and their clan associations would be appreciated as we have very limited knowledge. The McKenney ancestors were illiterate until well into the 19th century and tended to avoid larger settlements or moved once an area progressed to the size of "civilization". thanks-