John DUNCAN

Father: Thomas DUNCAN
Mother: Elizabeth ALEXANDER

Family 1: Eleanor SHARP

  1. Elizabeth DUNCAN
  2. John DUNCAN
  3. Margaret DUNCAN
  4. Joseph DUNCAN
  5. Sarah DUNCAN
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 _Thomas DUNCAN _______|
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|--John DUNCAN
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|_Elizabeth ALEXANDER _|
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Notes

Updated December 11, 2022. Compiled by Howder (www.howderfamily.com) from the following source(s):

(1) LAUGHLIN, Samuel Hervey, "A Diary of Public Events and Notices of My Life and Family and Of My Private Transactions including Studies, Travels, Readings Correspondence, Business Anecdotes, Miscellaneous Memoranda of Men, Literature, Etc From January 1st, 1845 to August, 1845 and Sketch of my Life from Infancy"

"The true spelling of my grandfather's name I am satisfied is DUNKIN, not DUNCAN. He was born in Lancaster (not Chester) County, Pennsylvania, in 1743---of Scottish parents, his father claiming to be of the clan claiming name and descent (as they yet do in Scotland) from good King DUNCAN---the true spelling of the patronymic name, as my grandfather and great grandfather contended being DUNKIN."

"John DUNCAN... my maternal grandfather, was a native of Chester Co., Pennsylvania, and married Eleanor, sister of the foregoing John SHARP, before the families emigrated to Virginia about 1764 or 1765. He and his family with many of their relatives removed to Kentucky by way of Cumberland Gap and Crabb Orchard, and settled in the country around about where Lexington now stands, then, as I have often heard him describe it, one of the most beautiful and rich new countries the eye of man ever be-held. He located and settled on a little river called Kingston's Ford of Licking, I believe. In the year 1780-or between 1779 and 1781-BUTLER's and MARSHALL's Histories of Kentucky will show the date, a statement in regard to which was communicated in 1842, and published at Cincinnati, Ohio, in the American Pioneer, by Benjamin SHARP, my grandfather's brother, in relation to the affair (see that work Vol. 1 page 359), my grandfather and his family, and all his friends, with all persons captured in Riddles and Martin's Station, old and young, black and white, were carried as prisoners by a party of British and Canadians, and a large number of Indians, and carried to Canada. They were carried down the Licking River to its mouth, between the two present Kentucky towns of Newport, where the United States have extensive barracks, and Covington, and opposite to the present site of the City of Cincinnati. From thence they were taken in boats and canoes down to the mouth of the great Miami, twelve miles, and thence up that river, and then by land and water to Detroit, now the Capitol of the new state of Michigan, and finally to Montreal. There, they were retained as prisoners until the close of the war when they were exchanged and returned to the United States through what is now northern and western New York, and through New Jersey to Philadelphia, where Congress was sitting, and thence to Western Virginia, from whence they had removed four or five years before. My grandfather on returning to Virginia, settled on the north bank of the south fork of Holston river, above the mouth of Spring Creek, just above an island where he died about the year 1818 his wife having died in 1816. By negligence in attending to his head-right or occupant claim for his land in Kentucky, it only requiring his personal attention to identify it which he never gave, he lost it. In fact, after his captivity, he never seems to have recovered his previous energy of character. He commanded one of the companies in Riddle's Station. After he was conveyed to Montreal, his eldest son, John, who afterwards married my father's sister, Polly, and in Kentucky about the year 1817, made his escape from Montreal in company with one or two young Americans, and made their way through the mountains and woods of western New York, and got in safely to Washington's army, having come very near starving on the way, having been driven to eat a polecat, and such wild winter berries and roots as they could find. From the time of this escape, my grandfather was thrown into close prison, being suspected for being the advisor of it, until he was exchanged. In truth, he knew nothing of it. His son, and one or two of this elder girls, who prepared provisions and clothes for their brother being the only persons of the family entrusted with the secret. They kept it secret so as to save their father from implication. John rejoined his family after their return to the United States."

"The party of British who took these early Kentuckians prisoners, was commanded by a Col. BIRD. Among the Indians were many renegade white men. The famous Simon GIRTY was among them. The white prisoners were retained by the British, but all negroes and slaves, and property of all descriptions was given up as plunder to the Indian allies. Thus, my grandfather lost a number of valuable slaves, and all his personal property. He afterwards, on her being restored after the treaty of Greenville, recovered possession of an African negro woman named Dinah, the mother of an old woman named, Easter, now in possession,of my uncle Joseph DUNCAN in Coffee County, Tennessee. Joseph was my grandfather's second son."

"My grandfather DUNCAN, was, ever after I know him, a taciturn, serious and rather melancholy man. He was a large, stout man, and in his younger days, and until his spirits were broken and his health impaired by his Canadian captivity and the loss of his property, had been a man of great vigor of mind and body-and fond of hazardous arduous enterprises."

(2) U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 via Ancestry.com

- Name: John DUNCAN
- Gender: male
- Birth Place: PA
- Birth Year: 1743
- Spouse Name: Eleanor SHARP
- Spouse Birth Place: VA
- Spouse Birth Year: 1740
- Marriage Year: 1761
- Marriage State: PA

(3) Mostert family records, August 4, 2000.

"He is of South west Virginia, probably Washington County, but he lived in Pennsylvania before that I think. He served in the Revolutionary War as a Captain... The family was taken captive into Canada during the Revolution and the youngest daughter was born there. Information about the family found in "William King and Virginia Watkins" by Maellen King Ford. Microfilm #1421745, Item 14. The 2nd edition, revised is in Salt Lake Library, a book, call # 929.273 K589f"