………………………………….HUGH McWHORTER……………………...……...…….

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.
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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.” There was also a John McWhorter in this list and he was taxed 1 pound 7 shillings and 9 pence. What relationship was between these two men has not yet been determined, but this John McWhorter is without doubt the John McWhorter born in Pennsylvania in 1740, five feet nine inches high, fair hair and thick set, who enlisted in 1803 at Warwick. His will is on file in Orange County. Reference to the military service of this John McWhorter in French and Indian War, New York, Historical Collections.

...……...……………...………"REVOLUTIONARY WAR" …………………….……….

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.
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Manuscript and History section of the N.Y. State Library at Albany
1.“Certificate #261 (amount burned) dated 6 June 1779, issued to Hugh McWhorter for his services as Sergeant in Capt. Colvil Shepherd’s company of Col. John Hathorn’s regiment of Orange County Militia (Florida and Warwick districts).”
2. “Certificate #341 (four pounds, 13 shillings, 2 pence) dated 25 July 1779, issued to Hugh McWhorter for his services as sergeant in Capt. David McCamley’s company of above regiment.”
3.“Certificate #76 (Amount burned) dated 11 June 1780, issued to Hugh McWhorter for his services in Capt. Richard Bailey’s company in above regiment”.
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Sergeant Hugh McWhorter may have fought at the tragic “Battle of Minisink” on July 22, 1779. Military Pay Records show he was paid for services “four pounds, 13 shillings, 2 pence” dated three days after the battle, (25 July 1779). However, reference can be made about Colonel John Hathorn’s account of the battle, “I ordered (3) Companies of my Regiment—including the Exempt Company, to parade for the purpose of the Guard, the other (3) Companies to march immediately to Minisink on the 22. I arrived with part of my people at Minisink. I joined this party with about (40) men. The following are missing in the whole from the last accounts, (21) men”.
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A Moro sword or Mindanao Kris was carried as an armament by Sergeant McWhorter. “The handle of Hugh McWhorter’s sword or Kris was of the yellowed cracked horn of some animal and was closely wrapped with tarred string and attached by a silver band to rather peculiarly shaped silver hilt”. The straight double edged blade was about 24” long, highly tempered, very sharp but somewhat rusty with age. These weapons were used for both cutting and thrusting. The wooden sheath or scabbard was made in two parts lashed together with rattan, and had been rather crudely decorated”.
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(Sergeant Hugh McWhorter’s sword can be seen on display in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.)

…………...………..….……..AFTER THE WAR"…...……..………...……...……….

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 letter’s 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 Hugh moved with his family to Steuben County, N.Y., where about 1794 his brother-in-law William Buchanan, 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”.

The 1810 Steuben County, New York Census records show Hugh and Tyler McWhorter living in Bath Township and Thomas McWhorter living in Dansville Township. From the Surrogate’s Office at Bath, N.Y., Hugh McWhorter died intestate and on June 16, 1812 Letters of Administration were granted to his widow Kezia and to his son Thomas.
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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.”.
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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.
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Hugh McWhorter and Kezia Tyler had six children;
1.Thomas McWhorter - 1768...……...M:Sarah Buchanan (First-cousin)
2.Tyler McWhorter - 1777...………….M1:Anna Armstrong
………………………………………...M2:Mary Ann Plummer
…………………………………………M3:Anna Rose Smith
3.James McWhorter - 1785-------------.M:Arathusia (Parker) Buchanan
4.Keziah McWhorter - 1788...………...M:William B. Buchanan (First-cousin)
5.Elizabeth McWhorter - 1792 - 1814
6.John McWhorter - 1795 - 1797
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Arathusia first marriage to James' first-cousin, Michael Buchanan
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“THE MCWHORTER/BUCHANAN FAMILY BIBLE”
Property of the Essley Noble Museum, Aledo, Mercer Co., IL
Referred to as "The Old James McWhorter Family Bible".
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HISTORICAL GAZETTEER
Steuben County, N.Y.
John Single Paper Co., Ltd.
Syracuse, N.Y., 1891
Compiled/transcribed by Dennis W. McWhorter
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“Thomas McWhorter of New Jersey and some of his Descendants”, 1924.
By Mabel Woods Hinrichs
Compiled/transcribed by Dennis W. McWhorter, 4'th Great-Grandson
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