Ancestors of Willard E. Flynn (1917-1984)

Notes


544. Thomas Flinn

The early Flinn families of Colonial Maryland and Virginia are predominately Scots Irish; they migrated from Ulster over a 100-year period starting around 1640, and settled in the Delaware Valley between Baltimore and Philadelphia. Subsequent generations moved west into Virginia and then south to North Carolina from 1730-1760. Two of those individuals were Laughlin Flinn of Lunenburg County, Virginia and Patrick Flinn of Caswell County, North Carolina, sons of Thomas Flinn of Ulster..

Many Flinn descendants today can trace their lineage to these two individuals. Many researchers believe these two to be brothers as both Laughlin and Patrick were listed in the tithe records of Lunenburg in 1752. Apart from knowing that Laughlin emigrated in 1718 from Ireland, and that Patrick died in 1781 not much else was known.

The early Flinn immigrants landed at the ports of Baltimore and Philadelphia, as the Upper Eastern Shore is geographically located between the two in the Delaware Valley. The relationships of the Flinn families of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia and Maryland are most assured given that most migration from Ireland was from Ulster. Initially, most of the emigrants sailed to the Delaware estuary, especially to Pennsylvania, where Cumberland County became the effective center of the Scots-Irish settlement. In the 1730s, a second wave of emigrants, accompanied by the children of earlier settlers, moved farther west in Pennsylvania and south into the Valley of Virginia. By the 1750s, a third movement pushed further south again into the Carolina and Georgia back-country, where they met and mixed with emigrants arriving through southern seaports such as Charleston and Savannah. By the 1790s, more than half the settlers along the Appalachian frontier were of Ulster lineage.

A name distribution analysis using Griffith's Valuation of Ireland, 1848-1864 indicates a high probability that Flinn families of Maryland's Upper Eastern Shore came from Ulster. The Flinn Family of County Down provides greater detail on the geographic location of the Flinn's, and a history of emigration from Ulster.

One important result, significantly different from later Catholic emigration, was the fact that entire families or even communities moved in mass, allowing the settlers to maintain their way of life in the New World. This provided a continuity of religion and tradition of cultural separateness that they had already brought with them from Scotland to Ireland. To point up this separateness, in America they called themselves "Scots-Irish", and the distinctive culture they maintained allows us to trace their settlements in the United States with some precision.

Given that a number of our Flinn ancestors came to the new country and immediately concentrated in one particular location, or moved to an obscure rural community, one must question how they chose that place to live. One can be sure it was not a random choice. Many factors can influence such a decision, but often it is the presence of relatives, friends or neighbors from the old country that lead an immigrant to choose a particular area. Read local history books for the area. Did most of the Irish immigrants come from a particular province? County? Look at the names of people who appear as witnesses, sponsors, executors, guardians, etc., on documents relating to the family in the new country. And be sure to account for the different spellings of the names. There are numerous spellings of the Flinn name to be found in the immigration and early colonial records.... Flin, Flyn, Flinn, Fline, Flen, Floyne, Fling, and Flinge.

The name O'Flainn was anglicized to O'Flinn and again the 'O" dropped so that it became Flinn. Being from Ulster, the Flinn's were Scots Irish, thus Presbyterians, and fleeing Ireland for political and religious freedoms. Between 1717 and 1775 the mass migration of Ulster-Scots to the American Colonies totaled at least a quarter of a million people. With this high rate of emigration out of Ulster, caused in large part due to the violence shown against Presbyterians, led the government in 1719 to enact the Toleration Act in November. This Act finally recognized it was no longer a crime to be a Presbyterian. By the Revolutionary War, these Scots-Irish families and their dependents made up 15% of the non-Indian Americans.

Given the mass migration of entire groups of families, they brought with them not only their culture and religion, but historical families ties. Our research has found evidence that the Flinn and Neale families ties from Ireland carried over to the Colonies and link Laughlin Flinn of Lunenburg County to the Flinns and Neales of Maryland.


960. Rev. William Robert Duncan

Born near the Firth of Tay.
Beheaded for refusal to take the Jacobite Oath.
Occupation: Minister. Educated at AM University/Kings College of Aberdeen.

The Reverend William Duncan, who was born in Perthshire, Scotland, January 7, 1630, was the progenitor of the Duncan family that settled in the colony of VA in 1690. Reverend William Duncan lost his life for refusing to take the Jacobite oath in the reign of Charles II; he married in 1657 Sarah Haldane.


986. Capt. John Andrew Woods

On page 136 of the MS, Volume F 225, in the library of Trinity College, Dublin: John Woods of the County Meath married Elizabeth, born 15th day and baptized 17th Nov., 1656, daughter of Thomas Worsop, of Dunshanlin, County Meath, by his wife Elizabeth, who was daughter of Richard, son of William Parsons of Birr, or Parsontown by said Richard's wife Letitia, who was the daughter of Sir Adam Loftus, miles, who married Jane, daughter of Walter Vaughn, of Coldengrove, was son of Sir Dudley Loftus, miles, by his wife Anne, daughter of Henry Bagnall, of Newry, miles, and said Sir Dudley was the son of Adam Loftus, Lord Bishop of Dublin and Lord chancellor of Ireland, who married Jane, daughter of T. Purdon. John Woods above mentioned, who married Elizabeth Worsop, had issue, sons and daughters. The sons and daughter were Michael, Andrew, William, and James, and Elizabeth, wife of Peter Wallace, all of whom emigrated to America in the beginning of the eighteenth century with the three sons of Michael--William, John, and Archibald. From these Irish emigrants are descended the Wood, Woods families, now located in several of the United States, and all descended from Adam Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin, and Lord Chancellor of Ireland for Queen Elizabeth. From Adam Loftus the descent is, Adam Loftus married Jane Purdon, and among other children, Sir Dudley Loftus, miles, of Rathfranham, County Dublin, who married Anne, daughter of Henry Bagnall, of Newry, miles, and had among other children, Sir Adam Loftus, miles, who married Jane, daughter of Walter Vaughn, of Coldengrove, who had among other children Letitia Loftus, who married Richard Parsons, son of William Parsons, of Parsontown, and had among other children, Elizabeth Parsons, who married Thomas Worsop, of Dunshanlin, County Meath, who died May 27, 1686, and had among his children Elizabeth Worsop, born the 15th day and was baptized the 17th of Nov., 1656, who married John Woods, of the County Meath, and had with other children, Michael, Andrew, William, and James (and Elizabeth, wife of Peter Wallace). Michael Woods, eldest son of John Woods and Elizabeth Worsop, married Lady Mary Campbell, of the Clan Campbell Argylshire, Scotland, a near kinswoman of Archibald Duke of Argyle. Adam Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, was born at Levinhead, in Yorkshire, in 1534. He was the younger of the two sons of the Rt. Rev. Edward Loftus, of Levinhead, temp. Henry VIII, Robert being the elder and the ancestor of Viscount Loftus of Ely (extinot in 1725). The eldest son of Robert was Adam Loftus of Monasteraven, Queen County, who was appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1619, created a peer in 1622. The graceful deportment of Archbishop Adam Loftus at the Cambridge examination attracted the attention of Queen Elizabeth, and after his ordination in 1559 he was appointed Chaplain to Dr. Craik, Bishop of Kildare. Loftus was advanced rapidly in the church; when he was but twenty-seven he was created and consecrated Archbishop of Armagh; six years later he exchanged Armagh for Dublin. With him a general system of education was a favorite project; by his influence an act was passed in 1570 directing that free schools should be established in the principal town of each diocese at the cost of the clergy. He was appointed Lord Chanellor of Ireland in 1573, and was foremost in supporting and carrying out Queen Elizabeth's foundation of the Trinity College, of which he was the first provost, on the site of suppressed Monastery of All Hallows. He expired at the Palace of St. Supulchres, Dublin, April 5, 1605, and was buried in the St. Patrick's Cathedral.


987. Elizabeth Worsop

In 1726, all of John Woods' children came to America, lived eight years in Pennsylvania, then moved to Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.


994. Richard Key

Of Northumberland Co, VA