The Hamilton Families
William Harrison Hamilton, Julia Ann Barr Hamilton, and their family about 1887. Fredonia Elizabeth Hamilton
had by this time married Lewis Monroe Atkinson and begun her own family.
In the book written by my mother, Leora Atkinson Parsons, Limbs, Branches, and Twigs: A Tree of Hamiltons, Barrs, and Atkinsons, she shows how her family was the result of two lines of Hamiltons connected to each other by marriage with Barrs.
William Hamilton
One of the branches was headed by William and Mary Hamilton of Chester County, South Carolina. William was born about 1742, but we don't know where. He and Mary were married in South Carolina about 1766. He died in January 1784 in Chester County. She was born about 1748 in South Carolina and died there, probably also in Chester County, about 1791.
William Hamilton was in America before the Revolutionary War, because he fought in that war. In an article written about a Barr family reunion and published in the Atlanta (Illinois) Argus on 11 September 1911, Andrew Jackson Barr, a great-grandson, stated that Willliam served under Generals Nathaniel Greene and Daniel Morgan. Daughters of the American Revolution records show that he served with General Sumpter's Brigade, Colonel Hampton's Regiment of Light Dragoons, under Captain John Mills.
Researchers Dwight and Rosemary Barr have found that William Hamilton was paid, posthumously, on 1 October 1786. On 1 April of that year, Mary Hamilton, widow of William Hamilton, who "died in hospital," received annuities. This seems proof that William did not die in battle, as stated in some sources.
The children of William and Mary Hamilton, all born in Chester County, were
1 Mary (Mollie) Hamilton 1767-
2 James Hamilton 15 Feb 1769-
3 Margaret Hamilton 1770-
4 Elizabeth Hamilton 1773-
5 William Newton Hamilton 9 April 1779
6 Nancy Agnes Hamilton 9 April 1779 (Yes, William Newton and Nancy Agnes were twins.)
Nancy Agnes Hamilton married John Barr in 1796 in Chester County, and they moved first to Tennessee about 1807 and then to Indiana and finally Illinois. Their son Andrew Jackson Barr was born in Gibson County, Indiana, in August 1815, and he married Nancy Knowles there in 1836. Andrew and Nancy's daughter Julia Ann Barr, born in Logan County, Illinois, on 4 Sept. 1848, married William Harrison Hamilton in July 1865. William Harrison Hamilton was the great-grandson of Thomas Hamilton of Ireland and Guilford County, North Carolina. In 1924, when she was 76 years old, my great-great-grandmother Julia Ann Barr Hamilton wrote an autobiography, describing, among other events, their journey from Omaha to California by early transcontinental train. Read the autobiography here.
Thomas Hamilton
Thomas Hamilton was the head of the other branch of our interconnected Hamilton families. He was born in Ireland about 1725, and he married Jane McCracken there. One or more children were born to them there and died there. Thomas and Jane immigrated to America sometime before 1750. Thomas died sometime after 1803 in Tennessee.
According to the Patriot List of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Thomas Hamilton was called out with the Minute Men of Guilford County to fight in the Battle of Guilford County Courthouse with Captain Vernon's Company. His son Thomas Hamilton, Jr., fought in the Revolution with General Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox." Another son, James Hamilton, also served in the Revolution, enlisting with the Continental Army in November 1778 and serving until after the surrender of Cornwallis in 1781.
The latest information we have on the children of Thomas and Jane Hamilton indicates that they had probably three sons and at least three daughters. Richard H. Wilson of Garland, Texas, has researched the marriage records of Sumner County, Tennessee, and has found the records of three Hamilton women that he can attribute to no other Hamilton family.
The son about whom I have the most information was my direct ancestor, Robert Hamilton. Born 8 Feb. 1766 in Guilford County, he married Sarah Agnew, daughter of Dr. Robert Agnew and Euphemia Shaw, in July 1787. They had six children: Henry, Euphemia, Robert Agnew, James, Sarah, and William McGee Hamilton. Sarah Agnew Hamilton died in 1827 in Humphreys County, Tennessee, and William McGee Hamilton married Nancy Gwin there the next year. Robert moved to northeast Texas in December 1836, and it is possible that William McGee and Nancy and their children moved with him. Their son William Harrison Hamilton was born in Bowie County, Texas, 13 Aug. 1841. William Harrison Hamilton married Julia Ann Barr (great-granddaughter of William Hamilton of Chester County, South Carolina) in Bell County, Texas, on 16 July 1865.