Patrick Ewing and 1st wife Jane of Cecil Co MD (m: Jan 1 1760)

[Stewart Ewing]

Hi folks, it's been a while since I've been in touch, so I thought I'd drop a note to give you an update on what I was working on with the Cecil County Ewings and my branch, Captain Patrick, son of Joshua.  

As you may know, Captain Patrick married Jane Porter (daughter of James Porter) on 1 Jan 1760.  She died 26 Sep 1784 and Patrick married her sister Elizabeth on 22 July 1788.  Easy to prove the latter, hard to prove the former.

The James Porter Will is surprising in that even though it is by his hand dated 1775, his oldest daughter Jane (d. 1784) who married Patrick and birthed my William is not mentioned, though his other much younger daughters are indeed mentioned.  Why the omission?  There's a story here that I hope I can get to the bottom of.  Then long after James Porter and his oldest daughter Jane are gone, Patrick married Jane's sister Elizabeth.  It makes me wonder if there was some enmity between James Porter and Patrick, although James does mention his grandson James Porter Ewing, 3rd child and 2nd son of Patrick and Jane.  Perhaps him being his namesake healed some wounds but not enough to mention Jane in his will.  

As Margaret Ewing Fife might say, What a mystery!

The plot thickens in that I can find no primary source documents that talk about the first seven children of 1st wife Jane, including my William.  It seems that every bit of information that we know come from the EWR Ewing book or and his reference to the Captain Patrick Ewing Bible (which I don't have any information whatever happened to it), or the Col William A Ewing chart that resides in the Cecil County Historical Society.  There are William Ewings all over Cecil, Lancaster, York, Chester, and Cumberland County in this part of MD/PA, but thus far I don't believe any are the ones I'm looking for. 

The bottom line is that I still don't have original source document proof of a William born to Patrick and Jane (interestly enough none of Patrick's older children are in his will), nor any information about his life until he reaches Georgia.  All I have is DNA that puts me in Patrick's family, and numerous secondary sources that indicate a William as Patrick's son.  

Folks this is the last item I need to close the book on to be finished with my line in America.  If anyone knows of some primary source docs that show Jane Porter (b. 1739) as daughter of James Porter in Cecil or surrounding counties (yes James owned land in Lancaster and Cumberland County too but best I can tell didn't live there), and/or that Jane was married to Patrick, and/or that William was Patrick's son by mother Jane, that would do it.  

I'm kicking around another trip to Cecil County in April (I've been vaccinated and most of the locations will permit research by appointment) to hopefully find some of this if none of my online inquiries come through.  

At the worst, I may end up just resigning myself to secondary sources for this difficult part of my line.

Stewart Ewing

stewar...@protonmail.com

ewin...@gmail.com

[Stewart Ewing]

Trip Report - In Carlisle PA right now researching The Captain Patrick Ewing line. Looking for primary sources pertaining to his first wife Jane and his 5th child William. Looking in Cumberland County in Newville and Plainfield quadrangles of all places near some of the land of his maternal grandfather and Janes father James Porter. This is the last two items I need to button up in America all the way back to 1727. For details see ewingsofgwinnett.org, the section on Patrick Ewing and the section on William Ewing. Confusing matters is an unrelated Ewing bunch in West Pennsboro Twp, so I'm having to be very careful.