Wishart

My Wishart Connection

This is one of the least understood lines in my family.  Since generations in my several lines often span more than the typical 25 years or so, it doesn’t take many for things that were well known to one generation to be lost on the the one after.  My great-great-grandfather, John Ballantine Murphy, married Million B. Wishart.  She was reputed to have been the daughter of the Rev. John Wishart of Stafford County, Virginia.  It took me a long time online to find any reference to her at all, but I did.  The Library of Virginia has a nice index of marriages and deaths that were reported in several newspapers, and I found her marriage notice.  It turns out that she was the daughter of Sidney Wishart of Belle Plaine in Stafford County, Virginia.  Sidney, it seems, was the youngest son of the Rev. John Wishart.

The Wishart Line

According to a note I received in 2002 from Mr. Jack Wishart, a keeper of Wishart information in Scotland, The Original Scots Colonists of Early America 1612 – 1783, by D. Dobson suggests that the Rev. John Wishart emigrated to Virginia in 1764, sent by the Church of England to preach in America.  His estimated year of birth was about 1740, and he died on 12 August, 1774.  While in Virginia, he served as the rector of Brunswick and Overwharton parishes in King George County, Virginia.  He was married to Lettice Smith, daughter of William Smith and Margery Rowley, and had three children who were mentioned in his will:

• William (abt 1768 – ?)
• Wilhelmina (abt 1770 – ?)
• Sidney (1773 – 1841)

Sidney was the youngest, born in 1773.  He was apparently a man of some means, and acquired an estate called Belle Plaine in Stafford County.  For years it was unclear to me who his wife was, or if he married more than once.  I found several online family trees related to the family of George Mason that showed Sidney’s marriage to Ann Eilbeck Mason Cook, who apparently was also known as Nancy, and that they had one child, Mary Thompson Mason Wishart.  There are some references to Sidney and his wife Nancy in the National Intelligencer editions of 1822. I have since found evidence of an earlier marriage to Million Cooke Browne, and my great, great grandmother is their daughter: Million Browne Wishart.  Million’s obituary in the Northern Neck News (April 1834) lists her age as 31, so we know that she was born in 1803.

We also know that Million Wishart, daughter of Sidney Wishart, married John Ballantine Murphy on 21 January, 1821 at Belle Plain, as it was reported by the Virginia Herald of Fredericksburg.  From there, they eventually moved to the Murphy home of Ayrfield in Westmoreland County.  Although the fragment of bible record we have indicates that Pine Grove was in Westmoreland County, it is possible it was in Stafford or King George County, as there is evidence of an estate of that name near Belle Plain.  (Further research indicates that Pine Grove was Ferry Farm – the same place that a young George Washington grew up on.)  Belle Plain was an old Waugh property on Potomac Creek that had been acquired by Sidney, probably through connections to the family of his wife, Million.

John Ballantine Murphy and Million Wishart had the following children:

• John Sidney Murphy (b. 17 March, 1821 @ Pine Grove in Westmoreland County, VA)
• Robert Wishart Murphy (b. 17 September, 1823 also at Pine Grove)
• William Wishart Murphy (b. 15 November, 1826 at Ayrfield in Westmoreland County, VA)
• George Wishart Murphy (b. 4 July, 1829 at Ayrfield, d. 30 December 1905 at Ayrfield)
• Anne Elizabeth Murphy (b. 27 August, 1832 at Ayrfield, d. 22 December 1921)

The rest of this line will be completed on the Murphy page.