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Scotland / Re: Williamson
« on: Monday 31 May 21 01:50 BST (UK) »
I am so glad I happened to come across this thread. I have recently discovered ancestors - William Williamson and his wife, Catherine Campbell Williamson - that I need lots of help in researching. I have found very little on William at all as far as discovering any of his ancestors.
The following is an excerpt I read in a book entitled History of North Carolina volume vi:
William Williamson, the father of Isabella, had an interesting and adventurous career. He was a man of fine education, his home being in Glasgow, Scotland. Before leaving his native country, he engaged in teaching English, Latin, and Mathematics, first in private families and later in colleges, but when he had won the love of Catherine Campbell, the niece and adopted daughter of the Duke of Argyle, to the extent that she was willing to go with him to the ends of the earth and the proposed match proving unsatisfactory to the Duke on the ground that Williamson was only a teacher and not the owner of an estate, the married couple sailed for America and landed on the Island of Jamaica, where they remained for two years and afterwards, landing at Wilmington, came up the Cape Fear River to Campbellton, afterwards Fayetteville where they located. Here William Williamson engaged in teaching while he was permitted to remain in America, but when the subject of independence began to be agitated, the British soldiers after investigation, were heard to remark that man’s head might overturn a government, and so Williamson and Rev. John McLeod, a Presbyterian minister, were taken under guard, carried to Wilmington, and placed on a vessel to be deported to Scotland. Nothing more was ever known about the vessel after sailing and it was supposed to be lost at sea.
Catherine (Campbell) Williamson and her two daughters were visiting friends near the McLauchlin home twenty miles west from Fayetteville when the husband and father were taken to be seen by them no more. William Williamson left many interesting and valuable papers and documents which would now be of considerable historical value, but all were lost in the confusion of the times, except portions of a diary which he kept before leaving Scotland.
Again, I know very little about William, my sixth great grandfather, other than excerpts that say essentially just this. According to Ancestry, he was born in 1749, but I am unsure of exactly where. I would greatly appreciate any information anyone might have for me.
Thank you so much!
The following is an excerpt I read in a book entitled History of North Carolina volume vi:
William Williamson, the father of Isabella, had an interesting and adventurous career. He was a man of fine education, his home being in Glasgow, Scotland. Before leaving his native country, he engaged in teaching English, Latin, and Mathematics, first in private families and later in colleges, but when he had won the love of Catherine Campbell, the niece and adopted daughter of the Duke of Argyle, to the extent that she was willing to go with him to the ends of the earth and the proposed match proving unsatisfactory to the Duke on the ground that Williamson was only a teacher and not the owner of an estate, the married couple sailed for America and landed on the Island of Jamaica, where they remained for two years and afterwards, landing at Wilmington, came up the Cape Fear River to Campbellton, afterwards Fayetteville where they located. Here William Williamson engaged in teaching while he was permitted to remain in America, but when the subject of independence began to be agitated, the British soldiers after investigation, were heard to remark that man’s head might overturn a government, and so Williamson and Rev. John McLeod, a Presbyterian minister, were taken under guard, carried to Wilmington, and placed on a vessel to be deported to Scotland. Nothing more was ever known about the vessel after sailing and it was supposed to be lost at sea.
Catherine (Campbell) Williamson and her two daughters were visiting friends near the McLauchlin home twenty miles west from Fayetteville when the husband and father were taken to be seen by them no more. William Williamson left many interesting and valuable papers and documents which would now be of considerable historical value, but all were lost in the confusion of the times, except portions of a diary which he kept before leaving Scotland.
Again, I know very little about William, my sixth great grandfather, other than excerpts that say essentially just this. According to Ancestry, he was born in 1749, but I am unsure of exactly where. I would greatly appreciate any information anyone might have for me.
Thank you so much!
. In one of my sources, the writer named the Duke as "Red Major Campbell" but anything I could find did not match the dates. Catherine and William married and moved to South Carolina and had two daughters, Elizabeth (b 1774) and Isabella. I am unsure of the year, but allegedly, William was arrested for having some sort of discussion with a minister and put on a ship to head back to Scotland. I have read two stories regarding his demise: 1. he was sent as a slave to Jamaica. 2. the ship sank before reaching Scotland. If anyone has any information on Catherine or William, I would absolutely love to know whatever it is you have.