Hugh McWhorter (1737 - 1812)

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 6 Mar 1812 at about age 75 in Avoca, Steuben County, New York, USA

Biography

• Fact: Burial Hubbard Stanton Farm Cemetery , Avoca, Steuben County, New York, USA

"An early settler of Avoca, then known as Buchanan Town. Son of Thomas and Mary McWhorter. Husband of Keziah Tyler, father of 6 children. Hugh's stone is one of only a few in the cemetery that are still legible.

Veteran Revolutionary War Sergeant in Capt. Colvil Shepherd’s, Capt. David McCamley’s, and Capt. Richard Bailey’s Companies of Hathorn’s regiment of Orange County Militia (Florida and Warwick districts)

Hugh McWhorter, son of the immigrant ancestor, Thomas McWhorter, was born either in 1737 or 1747. In the old James McWhorter family Bible, he died March 6, 1812 aged 75 years and then added evidently at a later time and in different ink and different handwriting is “aged 65 years”. Not known whether he was born in America or prior to the family immigration.

The first printed record of Hugh McWhorter is an account in an Orange County, New York History, by Ruttenber and Clark, published in 1881. On page 567 appears a list of the early inhabitants of that county who were taxed in September 1775. “Southwestern or more correctly perhaps the western part of the present town of Warwick, the neighborhood of Mount Eve, Amity, and Pine Island and to the New Jersey line, Hugh McWhorter assessed 2 pound 15 shillings and 9 pence.”

Hugh served as Sergeant in the Regiment of Col. John Hathorn’s Orange County Militia, (1779-1780), at three different times and with three different Captains. Other Orange County McWhorters served at the same time and some in the same Company. Their names were Henry, John, James and Thomas.

Hugh must have moved from Orange County soon after the Revolutionary War. An old record in Rockbridge County Virginia, shows that Oct. 4, 1785 in that county, Hugh McWhorter was given power of attorney by a David Rogers. In the 1850 Census record of Hugh’s son James gave as his birthplace the state of Virginia. Since we know from the old Family Bible of this same James that he was born “Saturday, September 3, 1785”.

His stay in Virginia was of short duration, for 1790 the year of the first census finds him living in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. In this census record he is listed as “Hugh McWhorter and son” and the family consisted of three white males under sixteen years of age and four white females. The 1800 census finds “Hugh McHirter” living in Chillisquaque Township, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. From the Register of Wills of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, a record of letters of administration being granted in 1797 to Hugh McWhorter on the estate of a John McWhorter, deceased. This John may have been Hugh’s son who is recorded in the old McWhorter family bible as “having died young.”

Shortly after 1800 Hugh moved with his family to Steuben County, N.Y., where about 1794 his brother-in-law William Buchanan, (wife Mary McWhorter) had been sent by Capt. Williamson, (an agent for Sir James Pultney, who owned a vast tract of land) to open and maintain a Public House or Inn for the entertainment of prospective settlers. The place where William Buchanan settled was first called “Buchanan’s,” then “Eight Mile Tree,” and later the town of Avoca. It was here that Hugh made his home on a farm known in later years as the “Tilton Farm”.

Hugh’s wife Kezia Tyler, who survived him many years, married a Mr. Chamberlain and “died May 10, 1841 aged ninety-three years, ten months and one day”. It is not known where Kezia McWhorter Chamberlain is buried.

An old Steuben County History gives the following, “The second to die in Avoca was Hugh McWhorter who died March 6, 1812". A crude little hewn flagstone marker with the name “Hugh McWhorte,” the stonecutter evidently not having allowed sufficient space for the last letter of the name. This grave in a little cemetery near Avoca, N.Y., is marked as that of a soldier of the American Revolution by The Baron Steuben Chapter of the D.A.R. of Bath, N.Y. on Columbus Day 1926.”

“Thomas McWhorter of New Jersey and some of his Descendants”Booklet compiled 1924 -- By Mabel Woods Hinrichs. Compiled/transcribed/formatted by Dennis W. McWhorter, 4'th Great-Grandson.

Hugh and wife Kezia had six children;

1.Thomas McWhorter

2.Tyler McWhorter

3.James McWhorter

4.Kezia (McWhorter) Buchanan

5.Elizabeth McWhorter

6.John McWhorter

Bio by: Dennis W. McWhorter"

Sources

• Hugh McWhorter (1737-1812) on Find A Grave: Memorial #206472455 retrieved 26 April 2021.