George Lynch is the gggg-grandfather of Gerald R. Ford, Jr., 38th President of the United States.
The exact resting place of George Lynch is not known, but his son Robert was buried near their town in this cemetery where other family members were interred, and thus it is likely he was laid to rest there. Many researchers place his death in the summer of 1813, but there is one somewhat erratic source that suggests it was 1819; see below.
Married: in 1755 Scotland to Mary (?) Harriet McLeon (b. Scotland, perhaps 1731).
Children:
- James H. (b. ca. 1760, d. after 1840 Tennessee, m. Margaret McGinnis, b. about 1770);
- George, Jr. (b.ca. 1764, said to be a prominent man in Fayette county);
- Anna (perhaps b. 1771, married ca. 1798 Daniel McGinnis in Fayette Co., see her biography link below);
- William (b. ca. 1774, d. 9 July 1813 while serving in the War of 1812 in Capt. Isaac Linn's company in Col Rees Hill's regiment);
- Robert (b. 4 Aug. 1777, married Marcilla Martin; their daughter was Nancy, b. 27 May 1804, married Josiah King on 3 July 1823 and eventually lived on her father's farm. They are the gg-grandparents of GERALD R. FORD);
The earliest record we have of our George is provided by "The History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania" by Franklin Ellis which lists him as an original land owner with 133 acres in newly formed Franklin Twp. in Fayette Co which was still the western frontier of Pennsylvania. George's 1785 property tax for the very sparsely settled area was based on 50 acres of land, two horses and two cows (and no slaves).
Another early record shows George Lynch applied for a land warrant for what he thought was 120 acres (it turned out to be more) on 17 April 1787 in Franklin township (Fayette County # L23). The return after the survey of 15 May 1787 by John Lukens, Surveyor General, is dated 14 August 1787 and is listed in book P, number 11, page 272, and the map is recorded in Book L, page 479 where he is also named the patentee. On the survey map he gave his farm the title "Arduous Mount" and it is located just south of the u-turn bend of the Youghiogheny as it passes through Franklin. On the west boundary of his property is the land warranted by Joseph Lewis on 7 May 1788 and patented by Joel Evans 10 Dec. 1832 (see more about him below). Joseph McGinnis, a great-grandson of George, had 41 acres of land on the east side of George's property but it was warranted much later on 23 April 1872. The land might have originally part of George's holdings and sold to Joseph by his Lynch relatives. And adjacent to this piece of property is a riverfront plot of 203¾ acres belonging to ALEXANDER HAMILTON and named "Alexandria." It was warranted 23 Aug. 1786, surveyed on 2 Jan. 1787, and patented to Hamilton on 10 May 1788.
Perhaps Hamilton's close relationship with Washington influenced him to buy this property on the river with all kinds of possible commerce opportunities. Washington had explored the area that became Fayette County during his expedition there to Fort Necessity in 1754 and the Broderick Campaign in 1755 during the French and Indian War, and he later purchased land in Fayette Co. in 1769 including over 1600 acres. The Lynch family later bought land in the Perry townships near to Washington's old property on a stream called Washington's Run (see below). Washington revisited the area by 1774 when he delegated Gilbert Simpson to build a water powered mill, but this was delayed due to tribal trouble and the beginning of the Revolution. It was finally finished in 1776 (and now recently rebuilt on its old foundations as an historical spot in the state). The warrantee survey map for Perry also shows several old properties of Washington near Robert's land which actually had a common border with the old plot of John Augustine Washington, George's brother who was apparently influenced by his sibling to buy land there (320 acres surveyed 27 Oct. 1769). As early as 1763 they have formed the Mississippi Land Company to buy large tracts of land in the west vacated by the French
The Atlas of the County of Fayette and the State of Pennsylvania for the adjacent Perry Twp. shows the small farm of George's son Robert Lynch which was two plots away from the property labeled "Former res. of Gen. Geo. Washington." Robert warranted his land 10 Aug. 1816, the survey was done 18 Sept. 1816, and he received the official return on 13 Jan 1817, but the Lynch family might have owned this land as early as 1786. Perhaps our George was in Fayette early enough to have met the famous George whose estate sold the property after he died in 1799. And as a further note, the mill was later owned by a member of the Strickler family, a distant family relation since Lena McGinnis, the gg-granddaughter of George Lynch, married David Strickler.
We also know a something of George Lynch from "The Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Muskingum County, Ohio" produced by Goodspeed Publishing Co. in 1892. This book discusses his McGinnis grandsons who settled in Ohio and gives a brief background concerning him:
"…Daniel (McGinnis) …lived in Fayette county, Penn., married Miss Anna Lynch, who came from Scotland with her parents when thirteen years of age… The Lynch family was one of great prominence and wealth, and were noted manufacturers of edged tools. Her father, Robert Lynch, lived to be ninety years of age, and her mother, whose maiden name was Harriet McLeon, and who also born in Scotland, lived to be quite old."
As so often happened in these late 19th century county histories that seem to have been written across the United States, the information was provided by the descendants who sometimes got some details wrong. Anna's father was George, not Robert who was her brother (and perhaps it is also the name of a grandfather). What seems more reliable is the Scots background for Anna. Harriet McLeon as George's wife and mother of his children is perhaps accurate, but in George's will dated 25 July 1813 and probated 20 Sept. 1813, he refers to a his wife Mary. One researcher considers Mary the first name of Harriet, but Mary could be of a 2nd marriage which was a common occurrence in the 19th century due to early deaths of spouses, so the Harriet McLeon angle is not necessarily wrong.
In 1790 for the first U.S. census George is listed in Franklin Township, and he is the only Lynch who is the head of a household in Franklin. Unfortunately, the official data is of limited value since it only named the head of household and all the people in the home in very broad categories. In this case, there are two males above 16 years of age who seem to George and an adult son, probably James who appears to be the eldest. Three males are in the 16 and under age group, and these apparently are George, Robert, and William. There are also two females, and these must be George's wife and his daughter Anna who would marry Daniel McGinnis by 1799 right before the next census would be conducted. No other free people are in the home, and there are no slaves (allowed in Pennsylvania at that time). There were some other Lynches in the county since over in Washington Township there were the four Lynch households of James, Michael, John, and Samuel, and in Wharton Township there was the home of Cornelius , but any relationship to George has not been established.
In the 1800 U.S. census for Franklin township in Fayette County both George's and Robert's homes appear, but the census is again of limited value since only the head of household is named, and the occupants are indicated in gender and age categories. George is listed on line 13 of page 525, and Robert is on line 11, so the two families were very close to each other. George's home has one man over 45 (himself), one young man age 16 to 25 (a son), and one woman over 45 (his wife). Anna was already married Daniel and was out of the home. Robert's entry shows him aged 26 to 45, a young man between 16 and 25 (probably one of his brothers), a woman 16 to 25 (his wife), and a girl under 10 (his daughter). There are still James and John Lynch who have households in Washington Township, and Cornelius in Union Township.
George's son-in-law Daniel McGinnis served in Captain Isaac Linn's company in the War of 1812, and so did a William Lynch who died during service 9 July 1813 (no cause is stated but it was likely it was some form of camp fever). Since a William Lynch is named in George's will and was deceased, the two must be the same man. So Daniel and his brother-in-law William both enlisted to serve in the same unit, but only Daniel returned home (after he had been wounded in Canada). It seems that the death of William might have been the instigation for George to write or rewrite his will to reflect the new situation on 25 July 1813. Note below that William had earlier served in another Fayette unit in the war.
George's will (found in Vol. #1 pp 306 for the county records) refers to his family as beneficiaries and gives the name of his married daughter as Anna Maginnis. George Jr. is the executor and beneficiary, but James is not present in the county with the report that he was last heard of in Tennessee, so George named James' son Samuel as a beneficiary as well (see further story about this below). The other beneficiaries include son Robert and refers to the widow of his son William. George probably could not read or write since he signed an "X" beside his name which had evidently been written for him. This suggests the family was not as well to do as the Goodspeed's biography indicates, although the reference might be to their status back in Scotland, not in the US. The witnesses are Francis Lewis and Joel Evans who are his adjacent neighbors on the property map for Franklin. His close proximity led to family connections since Evans was later the step-father of Joannah Wadsworth who would someday marry Robert Daniel McGinnis, the grandson of George Lynch.
This Wadsworth-Lynch connection was perhaps established earlier since William Lynch volunteered for Captain Whaley's company of Fayette county militia in the War of 1812. This unit served with the company of Captain Joseph Wadsworth, the father of Joannah Wadsworth, so perhaps the two knew each other.
George's will later proved to be a problem when James later returned from Tennessee where he had gone in a hurry, as the story is told, and stayed for years after running into problems with the McGinnis family for ill treatment of his wife who was a McGinnis (some researchers mistakenly state McEnnis - see http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgibin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jkeene2000&id=I00095). When he had fled leaving his wife and his son, he had left his father in charge of his 200 acres to rent it, but after George died, the executors tried to treat it as George's land and considered selling it. George, Jr. evidentially had little regard for his absent brother, perhaps for his behavior that apparently brought retribution from the McGinnis boys (likely including his brother-in-law Daniel) who were carrying guns to avenge the unrecorded wrong done to their sister. A letter written in 1879 by John Milliken Lynch, James Lynch's grandson, explain that the executors tried to sell land but others in the family said that James son's Samuel might want it, and they had no quarrel with Samuel who had been taken into the home of his grandfather George where he was being raised. The heirs compromised and rented it, which somehow became a 99 year lease. When James returned years later and wanted his land, he tried to sue for it, but his lawyer either failed to secure it or let the case lapse, and James never recovered it. James Lynch married twice more. From his second marriage was born Cyrus Lynch, and from his third were Calvin and Mary Ann.
Samuel Lynch, whose mother was a McGinnis, was doubly related to his aunt Anna Lynch and uncle Daniel McGinnis which makes him the genetic equivalent of a sibling to his McGinnis cousins. Eventually he went to Tennessee to live in the area of his father James.
The Lynch genealogy of President Ford flows from George through Robert and his daughter Nancy:
1. George Lynch married Mary Harriet McLeon, son Robert Lynch.
2. Robert Lynch m. Marcilla Martin, daughter Nancy Lynch, b. 27 May 1804.
3. Nancy Lynch m. Josiah King, son Lynch R. King, b 11 Aug 1824 Perryville, Fayette County.
4. Lynch R. (Rudolph?) King m. Rebecca Shepherd, son Charles Henry King, b. 12 Mar. 1853. Lynch King appeared on the census of 14 August 1850 at dwelling 215, Perry Twp., Fayette, PA; his grandfather Robert Lynch, 72, farmer, born in Pa, was listed in the home. Lynch King is noted as a manufacturer, (b. Pa., died on 8 Nov. 1869 at age 45).
5. Charles Henry King m. Martha Alicia Porter, son Leslie Lynch King Charles (b. 12 Mar 1853, d. 27 Feb 1930) and Martha are both buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Glendale, California. They had 5 children, 2 sons, 3 daughters).
6. Leslie Lynch King, Sr. m. Dorothy Ayers Gardner, son Leslie Lynch King, Jr. (b. 14 July 1913). They married 7 Sept. 1912 at Harvard, Illinois. Just over two weeks after the birth of their son, Dorothy separated from her husband and took her infant to her sister's home in Oak Park, Illinois and then to her parents' home in Grand Rapids, Michigan. On 19 Dec. 1913 an Omaha court granted her a divorce. In 1917 she married Grand Rapids businessman Gerald R. Ford and they soon began calling her son Gerald R. Ford, Jr., although his name was not legally changed until December 3, 1935. Meanwhile Leslie Lynch King, Sr. married 2nd Margaret Atwood at Reno, Nevada in 1919. Leslie and Margaret King had one son and two daughters. He died on 18 Feb. 1941 at Tucson, Arizona, age 54 and was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Glendale, Ca.
7. Gerald R. Ford, aka Leslie Lynch King, Jr.
The exact resting place of George Lynch is not known, but his son Robert was buried near their town in this cemetery where other family members were interred, and thus it is likely he was laid to rest there. Many researchers place his death in the summer of 1813, but there is one somewhat erratic source that suggests it was 1819; see below.
Married: in 1755 Scotland to Mary (?) Harriet McLeon (b. Scotland, perhaps 1731).
Children:
- James H. (b. ca. 1760, d. after 1840 Tennessee, m. Margaret McGinnis, b. about 1770);
- George, Jr. (b.ca. 1764, said to be a prominent man in Fayette county);
- Anna (perhaps b. 1771, married ca. 1798 Daniel McGinnis in Fayette Co., see her biography link below);
- William (b. ca. 1774, d. 9 July 1813 while serving in the War of 1812 in Capt. Isaac Linn's company in Col Rees Hill's regiment);
- Robert (b. 4 Aug. 1777, married Marcilla Martin; their daughter was Nancy, b. 27 May 1804, married Josiah King on 3 July 1823 and eventually lived on her father's farm. They are the gg-grandparents of GERALD R. FORD);
The earliest record we have of our George is provided by "The History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania" by Franklin Ellis which lists him as an original land owner with 133 acres in newly formed Franklin Twp. in Fayette Co which was still the western frontier of Pennsylvania. George's 1785 property tax for the very sparsely settled area was based on 50 acres of land, two horses and two cows (and no slaves).
Another early record shows George Lynch applied for a land warrant for what he thought was 120 acres (it turned out to be more) on 17 April 1787 in Franklin township (Fayette County # L23). The return after the survey of 15 May 1787 by John Lukens, Surveyor General, is dated 14 August 1787 and is listed in book P, number 11, page 272, and the map is recorded in Book L, page 479 where he is also named the patentee. On the survey map he gave his farm the title "Arduous Mount" and it is located just south of the u-turn bend of the Youghiogheny as it passes through Franklin. On the west boundary of his property is the land warranted by Joseph Lewis on 7 May 1788 and patented by Joel Evans 10 Dec. 1832 (see more about him below). Joseph McGinnis, a great-grandson of George, had 41 acres of land on the east side of George's property but it was warranted much later on 23 April 1872. The land might have originally part of George's holdings and sold to Joseph by his Lynch relatives. And adjacent to this piece of property is a riverfront plot of 203¾ acres belonging to ALEXANDER HAMILTON and named "Alexandria." It was warranted 23 Aug. 1786, surveyed on 2 Jan. 1787, and patented to Hamilton on 10 May 1788.
Perhaps Hamilton's close relationship with Washington influenced him to buy this property on the river with all kinds of possible commerce opportunities. Washington had explored the area that became Fayette County during his expedition there to Fort Necessity in 1754 and the Broderick Campaign in 1755 during the French and Indian War, and he later purchased land in Fayette Co. in 1769 including over 1600 acres. The Lynch family later bought land in the Perry townships near to Washington's old property on a stream called Washington's Run (see below). Washington revisited the area by 1774 when he delegated Gilbert Simpson to build a water powered mill, but this was delayed due to tribal trouble and the beginning of the Revolution. It was finally finished in 1776 (and now recently rebuilt on its old foundations as an historical spot in the state). The warrantee survey map for Perry also shows several old properties of Washington near Robert's land which actually had a common border with the old plot of John Augustine Washington, George's brother who was apparently influenced by his sibling to buy land there (320 acres surveyed 27 Oct. 1769). As early as 1763 they have formed the Mississippi Land Company to buy large tracts of land in the west vacated by the French
The Atlas of the County of Fayette and the State of Pennsylvania for the adjacent Perry Twp. shows the small farm of George's son Robert Lynch which was two plots away from the property labeled "Former res. of Gen. Geo. Washington." Robert warranted his land 10 Aug. 1816, the survey was done 18 Sept. 1816, and he received the official return on 13 Jan 1817, but the Lynch family might have owned this land as early as 1786. Perhaps our George was in Fayette early enough to have met the famous George whose estate sold the property after he died in 1799. And as a further note, the mill was later owned by a member of the Strickler family, a distant family relation since Lena McGinnis, the gg-granddaughter of George Lynch, married David Strickler.
We also know a something of George Lynch from "The Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Muskingum County, Ohio" produced by Goodspeed Publishing Co. in 1892. This book discusses his McGinnis grandsons who settled in Ohio and gives a brief background concerning him:
"…Daniel (McGinnis) …lived in Fayette county, Penn., married Miss Anna Lynch, who came from Scotland with her parents when thirteen years of age… The Lynch family was one of great prominence and wealth, and were noted manufacturers of edged tools. Her father, Robert Lynch, lived to be ninety years of age, and her mother, whose maiden name was Harriet McLeon, and who also born in Scotland, lived to be quite old."
As so often happened in these late 19th century county histories that seem to have been written across the United States, the information was provided by the descendants who sometimes got some details wrong. Anna's father was George, not Robert who was her brother (and perhaps it is also the name of a grandfather). What seems more reliable is the Scots background for Anna. Harriet McLeon as George's wife and mother of his children is perhaps accurate, but in George's will dated 25 July 1813 and probated 20 Sept. 1813, he refers to a his wife Mary. One researcher considers Mary the first name of Harriet, but Mary could be of a 2nd marriage which was a common occurrence in the 19th century due to early deaths of spouses, so the Harriet McLeon angle is not necessarily wrong.
In 1790 for the first U.S. census George is listed in Franklin Township, and he is the only Lynch who is the head of a household in Franklin. Unfortunately, the official data is of limited value since it only named the head of household and all the people in the home in very broad categories. In this case, there are two males above 16 years of age who seem to George and an adult son, probably James who appears to be the eldest. Three males are in the 16 and under age group, and these apparently are George, Robert, and William. There are also two females, and these must be George's wife and his daughter Anna who would marry Daniel McGinnis by 1799 right before the next census would be conducted. No other free people are in the home, and there are no slaves (allowed in Pennsylvania at that time). There were some other Lynches in the county since over in Washington Township there were the four Lynch households of James, Michael, John, and Samuel, and in Wharton Township there was the home of Cornelius , but any relationship to George has not been established.
In the 1800 U.S. census for Franklin township in Fayette County both George's and Robert's homes appear, but the census is again of limited value since only the head of household is named, and the occupants are indicated in gender and age categories. George is listed on line 13 of page 525, and Robert is on line 11, so the two families were very close to each other. George's home has one man over 45 (himself), one young man age 16 to 25 (a son), and one woman over 45 (his wife). Anna was already married Daniel and was out of the home. Robert's entry shows him aged 26 to 45, a young man between 16 and 25 (probably one of his brothers), a woman 16 to 25 (his wife), and a girl under 10 (his daughter). There are still James and John Lynch who have households in Washington Township, and Cornelius in Union Township.
George's son-in-law Daniel McGinnis served in Captain Isaac Linn's company in the War of 1812, and so did a William Lynch who died during service 9 July 1813 (no cause is stated but it was likely it was some form of camp fever). Since a William Lynch is named in George's will and was deceased, the two must be the same man. So Daniel and his brother-in-law William both enlisted to serve in the same unit, but only Daniel returned home (after he had been wounded in Canada). It seems that the death of William might have been the instigation for George to write or rewrite his will to reflect the new situation on 25 July 1813. Note below that William had earlier served in another Fayette unit in the war.
George's will (found in Vol. #1 pp 306 for the county records) refers to his family as beneficiaries and gives the name of his married daughter as Anna Maginnis. George Jr. is the executor and beneficiary, but James is not present in the county with the report that he was last heard of in Tennessee, so George named James' son Samuel as a beneficiary as well (see further story about this below). The other beneficiaries include son Robert and refers to the widow of his son William. George probably could not read or write since he signed an "X" beside his name which had evidently been written for him. This suggests the family was not as well to do as the Goodspeed's biography indicates, although the reference might be to their status back in Scotland, not in the US. The witnesses are Francis Lewis and Joel Evans who are his adjacent neighbors on the property map for Franklin. His close proximity led to family connections since Evans was later the step-father of Joannah Wadsworth who would someday marry Robert Daniel McGinnis, the grandson of George Lynch.
This Wadsworth-Lynch connection was perhaps established earlier since William Lynch volunteered for Captain Whaley's company of Fayette county militia in the War of 1812. This unit served with the company of Captain Joseph Wadsworth, the father of Joannah Wadsworth, so perhaps the two knew each other.
George's will later proved to be a problem when James later returned from Tennessee where he had gone in a hurry, as the story is told, and stayed for years after running into problems with the McGinnis family for ill treatment of his wife who was a McGinnis (some researchers mistakenly state McEnnis - see http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgibin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jkeene2000&id=I00095). When he had fled leaving his wife and his son, he had left his father in charge of his 200 acres to rent it, but after George died, the executors tried to treat it as George's land and considered selling it. George, Jr. evidentially had little regard for his absent brother, perhaps for his behavior that apparently brought retribution from the McGinnis boys (likely including his brother-in-law Daniel) who were carrying guns to avenge the unrecorded wrong done to their sister. A letter written in 1879 by John Milliken Lynch, James Lynch's grandson, explain that the executors tried to sell land but others in the family said that James son's Samuel might want it, and they had no quarrel with Samuel who had been taken into the home of his grandfather George where he was being raised. The heirs compromised and rented it, which somehow became a 99 year lease. When James returned years later and wanted his land, he tried to sue for it, but his lawyer either failed to secure it or let the case lapse, and James never recovered it. James Lynch married twice more. From his second marriage was born Cyrus Lynch, and from his third were Calvin and Mary Ann.
Samuel Lynch, whose mother was a McGinnis, was doubly related to his aunt Anna Lynch and uncle Daniel McGinnis which makes him the genetic equivalent of a sibling to his McGinnis cousins. Eventually he went to Tennessee to live in the area of his father James.
The Lynch genealogy of President Ford flows from George through Robert and his daughter Nancy:
1. George Lynch married Mary Harriet McLeon, son Robert Lynch.
2. Robert Lynch m. Marcilla Martin, daughter Nancy Lynch, b. 27 May 1804.
3. Nancy Lynch m. Josiah King, son Lynch R. King, b 11 Aug 1824 Perryville, Fayette County.
4. Lynch R. (Rudolph?) King m. Rebecca Shepherd, son Charles Henry King, b. 12 Mar. 1853. Lynch King appeared on the census of 14 August 1850 at dwelling 215, Perry Twp., Fayette, PA; his grandfather Robert Lynch, 72, farmer, born in Pa, was listed in the home. Lynch King is noted as a manufacturer, (b. Pa., died on 8 Nov. 1869 at age 45).
5. Charles Henry King m. Martha Alicia Porter, son Leslie Lynch King Charles (b. 12 Mar 1853, d. 27 Feb 1930) and Martha are both buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Glendale, California. They had 5 children, 2 sons, 3 daughters).
6. Leslie Lynch King, Sr. m. Dorothy Ayers Gardner, son Leslie Lynch King, Jr. (b. 14 July 1913). They married 7 Sept. 1912 at Harvard, Illinois. Just over two weeks after the birth of their son, Dorothy separated from her husband and took her infant to her sister's home in Oak Park, Illinois and then to her parents' home in Grand Rapids, Michigan. On 19 Dec. 1913 an Omaha court granted her a divorce. In 1917 she married Grand Rapids businessman Gerald R. Ford and they soon began calling her son Gerald R. Ford, Jr., although his name was not legally changed until December 3, 1935. Meanwhile Leslie Lynch King, Sr. married 2nd Margaret Atwood at Reno, Nevada in 1919. Leslie and Margaret King had one son and two daughters. He died on 18 Feb. 1941 at Tucson, Arizona, age 54 and was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Glendale, Ca.
7. Gerald R. Ford, aka Leslie Lynch King, Jr.
George Lynch is the gggg-grandfather of Gerald R. Ford, Jr., 38th President of the United States.
The exact resting place of George Lynch is not known, but his son Robert was buried near their town in this cemetery where other family members were interred, and thus it is likely he was laid to rest there. Many researchers place his death in the summer of 1813, but there is one somewhat erratic source that suggests it was 1819; see below.
Married: in 1755 Scotland to Mary (?) Harriet McLeon (b. Scotland, perhaps 1731).
Children:
- James H. (b. ca. 1760, d. after 1840 Tennessee, m. Margaret McGinnis, b. about 1770);
- George, Jr. (b.ca. 1764, said to be a prominent man in Fayette county);
- Anna (perhaps b. 1771, married ca. 1798 Daniel McGinnis in Fayette Co., see her biography link below);
- William (b. ca. 1774, d. 9 July 1813 while serving in the War of 1812 in Capt. Isaac Linn's company in Col Rees Hill's regiment);
- Robert (b. 4 Aug. 1777, married Marcilla Martin; their daughter was Nancy, b. 27 May 1804, married Josiah King on 3 July 1823 and eventually lived on her father's farm. They are the gg-grandparents of GERALD R. FORD);
The earliest record we have of our George is provided by "The History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania" by Franklin Ellis which lists him as an original land owner with 133 acres in newly formed Franklin Twp. in Fayette Co which was still the western frontier of Pennsylvania. George's 1785 property tax for the very sparsely settled area was based on 50 acres of land, two horses and two cows (and no slaves).
Another early record shows George Lynch applied for a land warrant for what he thought was 120 acres (it turned out to be more) on 17 April 1787 in Franklin township (Fayette County # L23). The return after the survey of 15 May 1787 by John Lukens, Surveyor General, is dated 14 August 1787 and is listed in book P, number 11, page 272, and the map is recorded in Book L, page 479 where he is also named the patentee. On the survey map he gave his farm the title "Arduous Mount" and it is located just south of the u-turn bend of the Youghiogheny as it passes through Franklin. On the west boundary of his property is the land warranted by Joseph Lewis on 7 May 1788 and patented by Joel Evans 10 Dec. 1832 (see more about him below). Joseph McGinnis, a great-grandson of George, had 41 acres of land on the east side of George's property but it was warranted much later on 23 April 1872. The land might have originally part of George's holdings and sold to Joseph by his Lynch relatives. And adjacent to this piece of property is a riverfront plot of 203¾ acres belonging to ALEXANDER HAMILTON and named "Alexandria." It was warranted 23 Aug. 1786, surveyed on 2 Jan. 1787, and patented to Hamilton on 10 May 1788.
Perhaps Hamilton's close relationship with Washington influenced him to buy this property on the river with all kinds of possible commerce opportunities. Washington had explored the area that became Fayette County during his expedition there to Fort Necessity in 1754 and the Broderick Campaign in 1755 during the French and Indian War, and he later purchased land in Fayette Co. in 1769 including over 1600 acres. The Lynch family later bought land in the Perry townships near to Washington's old property on a stream called Washington's Run (see below). Washington revisited the area by 1774 when he delegated Gilbert Simpson to build a water powered mill, but this was delayed due to tribal trouble and the beginning of the Revolution. It was finally finished in 1776 (and now recently rebuilt on its old foundations as an historical spot in the state). The warrantee survey map for Perry also shows several old properties of Washington near Robert's land which actually had a common border with the old plot of John Augustine Washington, George's brother who was apparently influenced by his sibling to buy land there (320 acres surveyed 27 Oct. 1769). As early as 1763 they have formed the Mississippi Land Company to buy large tracts of land in the west vacated by the French
The Atlas of the County of Fayette and the State of Pennsylvania for the adjacent Perry Twp. shows the small farm of George's son Robert Lynch which was two plots away from the property labeled "Former res. of Gen. Geo. Washington." Robert warranted his land 10 Aug. 1816, the survey was done 18 Sept. 1816, and he received the official return on 13 Jan 1817, but the Lynch family might have owned this land as early as 1786. Perhaps our George was in Fayette early enough to have met the famous George whose estate sold the property after he died in 1799. And as a further note, the mill was later owned by a member of the Strickler family, a distant family relation since Lena McGinnis, the gg-granddaughter of George Lynch, married David Strickler.
We also know a something of George Lynch from "The Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Muskingum County, Ohio" produced by Goodspeed Publishing Co. in 1892. This book discusses his McGinnis grandsons who settled in Ohio and gives a brief background concerning him:
"…Daniel (McGinnis) …lived in Fayette county, Penn., married Miss Anna Lynch, who came from Scotland with her parents when thirteen years of age… The Lynch family was one of great prominence and wealth, and were noted manufacturers of edged tools. Her father, Robert Lynch, lived to be ninety years of age, and her mother, whose maiden name was Harriet McLeon, and who also born in Scotland, lived to be quite old."
As so often happened in these late 19th century county histories that seem to have been written across the United States, the information was provided by the descendants who sometimes got some details wrong. Anna's father was George, not Robert who was her brother (and perhaps it is also the name of a grandfather). What seems more reliable is the Scots background for Anna. Harriet McLeon as George's wife and mother of his children is perhaps accurate, but in George's will dated 25 July 1813 and probated 20 Sept. 1813, he refers to a his wife Mary. One researcher considers Mary the first name of Harriet, but Mary could be of a 2nd marriage which was a common occurrence in the 19th century due to early deaths of spouses, so the Harriet McLeon angle is not necessarily wrong.
In 1790 for the first U.S. census George is listed in Franklin Township, and he is the only Lynch who is the head of a household in Franklin. Unfortunately, the official data is of limited value since it only named the head of household and all the people in the home in very broad categories. In this case, there are two males above 16 years of age who seem to George and an adult son, probably James who appears to be the eldest. Three males are in the 16 and under age group, and these apparently are George, Robert, and William. There are also two females, and these must be George's wife and his daughter Anna who would marry Daniel McGinnis by 1799 right before the next census would be conducted. No other free people are in the home, and there are no slaves (allowed in Pennsylvania at that time). There were some other Lynches in the county since over in Washington Township there were the four Lynch households of James, Michael, John, and Samuel, and in Wharton Township there was the home of Cornelius , but any relationship to George has not been established.
In the 1800 U.S. census for Franklin township in Fayette County both George's and Robert's homes appear, but the census is again of limited value since only the head of household is named, and the occupants are indicated in gender and age categories. George is listed on line 13 of page 525, and Robert is on line 11, so the two families were very close to each other. George's home has one man over 45 (himself), one young man age 16 to 25 (a son), and one woman over 45 (his wife). Anna was already married Daniel and was out of the home. Robert's entry shows him aged 26 to 45, a young man between 16 and 25 (probably one of his brothers), a woman 16 to 25 (his wife), and a girl under 10 (his daughter). There are still James and John Lynch who have households in Washington Township, and Cornelius in Union Township.
George's son-in-law Daniel McGinnis served in Captain Isaac Linn's company in the War of 1812, and so did a William Lynch who died during service 9 July 1813 (no cause is stated but it was likely it was some form of camp fever). Since a William Lynch is named in George's will and was deceased, the two must be the same man. So Daniel and his brother-in-law William both enlisted to serve in the same unit, but only Daniel returned home (after he had been wounded in Canada). It seems that the death of William might have been the instigation for George to write or rewrite his will to reflect the new situation on 25 July 1813. Note below that William had earlier served in another Fayette unit in the war.
George's will (found in Vol. #1 pp 306 for the county records) refers to his family as beneficiaries and gives the name of his married daughter as Anna Maginnis. George Jr. is the executor and beneficiary, but James is not present in the county with the report that he was last heard of in Tennessee, so George named James' son Samuel as a beneficiary as well (see further story about this below). The other beneficiaries include son Robert and refers to the widow of his son William. George probably could not read or write since he signed an "X" beside his name which had evidently been written for him. This suggests the family was not as well to do as the Goodspeed's biography indicates, although the reference might be to their status back in Scotland, not in the US. The witnesses are Francis Lewis and Joel Evans who are his adjacent neighbors on the property map for Franklin. His close proximity led to family connections since Evans was later the step-father of Joannah Wadsworth who would someday marry Robert Daniel McGinnis, the grandson of George Lynch.
This Wadsworth-Lynch connection was perhaps established earlier since William Lynch volunteered for Captain Whaley's company of Fayette county militia in the War of 1812. This unit served with the company of Captain Joseph Wadsworth, the father of Joannah Wadsworth, so perhaps the two knew each other.
George's will later proved to be a problem when James later returned from Tennessee where he had gone in a hurry, as the story is told, and stayed for years after running into problems with the McGinnis family for ill treatment of his wife who was a McGinnis (some researchers mistakenly state McEnnis - see http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgibin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jkeene2000&id=I00095). When he had fled leaving his wife and his son, he had left his father in charge of his 200 acres to rent it, but after George died, the executors tried to treat it as George's land and considered selling it. George, Jr. evidentially had little regard for his absent brother, perhaps for his behavior that apparently brought retribution from the McGinnis boys (likely including his brother-in-law Daniel) who were carrying guns to avenge the unrecorded wrong done to their sister. A letter written in 1879 by John Milliken Lynch, James Lynch's grandson, explain that the executors tried to sell land but others in the family said that James son's Samuel might want it, and they had no quarrel with Samuel who had been taken into the home of his grandfather George where he was being raised. The heirs compromised and rented it, which somehow became a 99 year lease. When James returned years later and wanted his land, he tried to sue for it, but his lawyer either failed to secure it or let the case lapse, and James never recovered it. James Lynch married twice more. From his second marriage was born Cyrus Lynch, and from his third were Calvin and Mary Ann.
Samuel Lynch, whose mother was a McGinnis, was doubly related to his aunt Anna Lynch and uncle Daniel McGinnis which makes him the genetic equivalent of a sibling to his McGinnis cousins. Eventually he went to Tennessee to live in the area of his father James.
The Lynch genealogy of President Ford flows from George through Robert and his daughter Nancy:
1. George Lynch married Mary Harriet McLeon, son Robert Lynch.
2. Robert Lynch m. Marcilla Martin, daughter Nancy Lynch, b. 27 May 1804.
3. Nancy Lynch m. Josiah King, son Lynch R. King, b 11 Aug 1824 Perryville, Fayette County.
4. Lynch R. (Rudolph?) King m. Rebecca Shepherd, son Charles Henry King, b. 12 Mar. 1853. Lynch King appeared on the census of 14 August 1850 at dwelling 215, Perry Twp., Fayette, PA; his grandfather Robert Lynch, 72, farmer, born in Pa, was listed in the home. Lynch King is noted as a manufacturer, (b. Pa., died on 8 Nov. 1869 at age 45).
5. Charles Henry King m. Martha Alicia Porter, son Leslie Lynch King Charles (b. 12 Mar 1853, d. 27 Feb 1930) and Martha are both buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Glendale, California. They had 5 children, 2 sons, 3 daughters).
6. Leslie Lynch King, Sr. m. Dorothy Ayers Gardner, son Leslie Lynch King, Jr. (b. 14 July 1913). They married 7 Sept. 1912 at Harvard, Illinois. Just over two weeks after the birth of their son, Dorothy separated from her husband and took her infant to her sister's home in Oak Park, Illinois and then to her parents' home in Grand Rapids, Michigan. On 19 Dec. 1913 an Omaha court granted her a divorce. In 1917 she married Grand Rapids businessman Gerald R. Ford and they soon began calling her son Gerald R. Ford, Jr., although his name was not legally changed until December 3, 1935. Meanwhile Leslie Lynch King, Sr. married 2nd Margaret Atwood at Reno, Nevada in 1919. Leslie and Margaret King had one son and two daughters. He died on 18 Feb. 1941 at Tucson, Arizona, age 54 and was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Glendale, Ca.
7. Gerald R. Ford, aka Leslie Lynch King, Jr.
The exact resting place of George Lynch is not known, but his son Robert was buried near their town in this cemetery where other family members were interred, and thus it is likely he was laid to rest there. Many researchers place his death in the summer of 1813, but there is one somewhat erratic source that suggests it was 1819; see below.
Married: in 1755 Scotland to Mary (?) Harriet McLeon (b. Scotland, perhaps 1731).
Children:
- James H. (b. ca. 1760, d. after 1840 Tennessee, m. Margaret McGinnis, b. about 1770);
- George, Jr. (b.ca. 1764, said to be a prominent man in Fayette county);
- Anna (perhaps b. 1771, married ca. 1798 Daniel McGinnis in Fayette Co., see her biography link below);
- William (b. ca. 1774, d. 9 July 1813 while serving in the War of 1812 in Capt. Isaac Linn's company in Col Rees Hill's regiment);
- Robert (b. 4 Aug. 1777, married Marcilla Martin; their daughter was Nancy, b. 27 May 1804, married Josiah King on 3 July 1823 and eventually lived on her father's farm. They are the gg-grandparents of GERALD R. FORD);
The earliest record we have of our George is provided by "The History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania" by Franklin Ellis which lists him as an original land owner with 133 acres in newly formed Franklin Twp. in Fayette Co which was still the western frontier of Pennsylvania. George's 1785 property tax for the very sparsely settled area was based on 50 acres of land, two horses and two cows (and no slaves).
Another early record shows George Lynch applied for a land warrant for what he thought was 120 acres (it turned out to be more) on 17 April 1787 in Franklin township (Fayette County # L23). The return after the survey of 15 May 1787 by John Lukens, Surveyor General, is dated 14 August 1787 and is listed in book P, number 11, page 272, and the map is recorded in Book L, page 479 where he is also named the patentee. On the survey map he gave his farm the title "Arduous Mount" and it is located just south of the u-turn bend of the Youghiogheny as it passes through Franklin. On the west boundary of his property is the land warranted by Joseph Lewis on 7 May 1788 and patented by Joel Evans 10 Dec. 1832 (see more about him below). Joseph McGinnis, a great-grandson of George, had 41 acres of land on the east side of George's property but it was warranted much later on 23 April 1872. The land might have originally part of George's holdings and sold to Joseph by his Lynch relatives. And adjacent to this piece of property is a riverfront plot of 203¾ acres belonging to ALEXANDER HAMILTON and named "Alexandria." It was warranted 23 Aug. 1786, surveyed on 2 Jan. 1787, and patented to Hamilton on 10 May 1788.
Perhaps Hamilton's close relationship with Washington influenced him to buy this property on the river with all kinds of possible commerce opportunities. Washington had explored the area that became Fayette County during his expedition there to Fort Necessity in 1754 and the Broderick Campaign in 1755 during the French and Indian War, and he later purchased land in Fayette Co. in 1769 including over 1600 acres. The Lynch family later bought land in the Perry townships near to Washington's old property on a stream called Washington's Run (see below). Washington revisited the area by 1774 when he delegated Gilbert Simpson to build a water powered mill, but this was delayed due to tribal trouble and the beginning of the Revolution. It was finally finished in 1776 (and now recently rebuilt on its old foundations as an historical spot in the state). The warrantee survey map for Perry also shows several old properties of Washington near Robert's land which actually had a common border with the old plot of John Augustine Washington, George's brother who was apparently influenced by his sibling to buy land there (320 acres surveyed 27 Oct. 1769). As early as 1763 they have formed the Mississippi Land Company to buy large tracts of land in the west vacated by the French
The Atlas of the County of Fayette and the State of Pennsylvania for the adjacent Perry Twp. shows the small farm of George's son Robert Lynch which was two plots away from the property labeled "Former res. of Gen. Geo. Washington." Robert warranted his land 10 Aug. 1816, the survey was done 18 Sept. 1816, and he received the official return on 13 Jan 1817, but the Lynch family might have owned this land as early as 1786. Perhaps our George was in Fayette early enough to have met the famous George whose estate sold the property after he died in 1799. And as a further note, the mill was later owned by a member of the Strickler family, a distant family relation since Lena McGinnis, the gg-granddaughter of George Lynch, married David Strickler.
We also know a something of George Lynch from "The Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Muskingum County, Ohio" produced by Goodspeed Publishing Co. in 1892. This book discusses his McGinnis grandsons who settled in Ohio and gives a brief background concerning him:
"…Daniel (McGinnis) …lived in Fayette county, Penn., married Miss Anna Lynch, who came from Scotland with her parents when thirteen years of age… The Lynch family was one of great prominence and wealth, and were noted manufacturers of edged tools. Her father, Robert Lynch, lived to be ninety years of age, and her mother, whose maiden name was Harriet McLeon, and who also born in Scotland, lived to be quite old."
As so often happened in these late 19th century county histories that seem to have been written across the United States, the information was provided by the descendants who sometimes got some details wrong. Anna's father was George, not Robert who was her brother (and perhaps it is also the name of a grandfather). What seems more reliable is the Scots background for Anna. Harriet McLeon as George's wife and mother of his children is perhaps accurate, but in George's will dated 25 July 1813 and probated 20 Sept. 1813, he refers to a his wife Mary. One researcher considers Mary the first name of Harriet, but Mary could be of a 2nd marriage which was a common occurrence in the 19th century due to early deaths of spouses, so the Harriet McLeon angle is not necessarily wrong.
In 1790 for the first U.S. census George is listed in Franklin Township, and he is the only Lynch who is the head of a household in Franklin. Unfortunately, the official data is of limited value since it only named the head of household and all the people in the home in very broad categories. In this case, there are two males above 16 years of age who seem to George and an adult son, probably James who appears to be the eldest. Three males are in the 16 and under age group, and these apparently are George, Robert, and William. There are also two females, and these must be George's wife and his daughter Anna who would marry Daniel McGinnis by 1799 right before the next census would be conducted. No other free people are in the home, and there are no slaves (allowed in Pennsylvania at that time). There were some other Lynches in the county since over in Washington Township there were the four Lynch households of James, Michael, John, and Samuel, and in Wharton Township there was the home of Cornelius , but any relationship to George has not been established.
In the 1800 U.S. census for Franklin township in Fayette County both George's and Robert's homes appear, but the census is again of limited value since only the head of household is named, and the occupants are indicated in gender and age categories. George is listed on line 13 of page 525, and Robert is on line 11, so the two families were very close to each other. George's home has one man over 45 (himself), one young man age 16 to 25 (a son), and one woman over 45 (his wife). Anna was already married Daniel and was out of the home. Robert's entry shows him aged 26 to 45, a young man between 16 and 25 (probably one of his brothers), a woman 16 to 25 (his wife), and a girl under 10 (his daughter). There are still James and John Lynch who have households in Washington Township, and Cornelius in Union Township.
George's son-in-law Daniel McGinnis served in Captain Isaac Linn's company in the War of 1812, and so did a William Lynch who died during service 9 July 1813 (no cause is stated but it was likely it was some form of camp fever). Since a William Lynch is named in George's will and was deceased, the two must be the same man. So Daniel and his brother-in-law William both enlisted to serve in the same unit, but only Daniel returned home (after he had been wounded in Canada). It seems that the death of William might have been the instigation for George to write or rewrite his will to reflect the new situation on 25 July 1813. Note below that William had earlier served in another Fayette unit in the war.
George's will (found in Vol. #1 pp 306 for the county records) refers to his family as beneficiaries and gives the name of his married daughter as Anna Maginnis. George Jr. is the executor and beneficiary, but James is not present in the county with the report that he was last heard of in Tennessee, so George named James' son Samuel as a beneficiary as well (see further story about this below). The other beneficiaries include son Robert and refers to the widow of his son William. George probably could not read or write since he signed an "X" beside his name which had evidently been written for him. This suggests the family was not as well to do as the Goodspeed's biography indicates, although the reference might be to their status back in Scotland, not in the US. The witnesses are Francis Lewis and Joel Evans who are his adjacent neighbors on the property map for Franklin. His close proximity led to family connections since Evans was later the step-father of Joannah Wadsworth who would someday marry Robert Daniel McGinnis, the grandson of George Lynch.
This Wadsworth-Lynch connection was perhaps established earlier since William Lynch volunteered for Captain Whaley's company of Fayette county militia in the War of 1812. This unit served with the company of Captain Joseph Wadsworth, the father of Joannah Wadsworth, so perhaps the two knew each other.
George's will later proved to be a problem when James later returned from Tennessee where he had gone in a hurry, as the story is told, and stayed for years after running into problems with the McGinnis family for ill treatment of his wife who was a McGinnis (some researchers mistakenly state McEnnis - see http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgibin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jkeene2000&id=I00095). When he had fled leaving his wife and his son, he had left his father in charge of his 200 acres to rent it, but after George died, the executors tried to treat it as George's land and considered selling it. George, Jr. evidentially had little regard for his absent brother, perhaps for his behavior that apparently brought retribution from the McGinnis boys (likely including his brother-in-law Daniel) who were carrying guns to avenge the unrecorded wrong done to their sister. A letter written in 1879 by John Milliken Lynch, James Lynch's grandson, explain that the executors tried to sell land but others in the family said that James son's Samuel might want it, and they had no quarrel with Samuel who had been taken into the home of his grandfather George where he was being raised. The heirs compromised and rented it, which somehow became a 99 year lease. When James returned years later and wanted his land, he tried to sue for it, but his lawyer either failed to secure it or let the case lapse, and James never recovered it. James Lynch married twice more. From his second marriage was born Cyrus Lynch, and from his third were Calvin and Mary Ann.
Samuel Lynch, whose mother was a McGinnis, was doubly related to his aunt Anna Lynch and uncle Daniel McGinnis which makes him the genetic equivalent of a sibling to his McGinnis cousins. Eventually he went to Tennessee to live in the area of his father James.
The Lynch genealogy of President Ford flows from George through Robert and his daughter Nancy:
1. George Lynch married Mary Harriet McLeon, son Robert Lynch.
2. Robert Lynch m. Marcilla Martin, daughter Nancy Lynch, b. 27 May 1804.
3. Nancy Lynch m. Josiah King, son Lynch R. King, b 11 Aug 1824 Perryville, Fayette County.
4. Lynch R. (Rudolph?) King m. Rebecca Shepherd, son Charles Henry King, b. 12 Mar. 1853. Lynch King appeared on the census of 14 August 1850 at dwelling 215, Perry Twp., Fayette, PA; his grandfather Robert Lynch, 72, farmer, born in Pa, was listed in the home. Lynch King is noted as a manufacturer, (b. Pa., died on 8 Nov. 1869 at age 45).
5. Charles Henry King m. Martha Alicia Porter, son Leslie Lynch King Charles (b. 12 Mar 1853, d. 27 Feb 1930) and Martha are both buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Glendale, California. They had 5 children, 2 sons, 3 daughters).
6. Leslie Lynch King, Sr. m. Dorothy Ayers Gardner, son Leslie Lynch King, Jr. (b. 14 July 1913). They married 7 Sept. 1912 at Harvard, Illinois. Just over two weeks after the birth of their son, Dorothy separated from her husband and took her infant to her sister's home in Oak Park, Illinois and then to her parents' home in Grand Rapids, Michigan. On 19 Dec. 1913 an Omaha court granted her a divorce. In 1917 she married Grand Rapids businessman Gerald R. Ford and they soon began calling her son Gerald R. Ford, Jr., although his name was not legally changed until December 3, 1935. Meanwhile Leslie Lynch King, Sr. married 2nd Margaret Atwood at Reno, Nevada in 1919. Leslie and Margaret King had one son and two daughters. He died on 18 Feb. 1941 at Tucson, Arizona, age 54 and was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Glendale, Ca.
7. Gerald R. Ford, aka Leslie Lynch King, Jr.
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