BAKER FAMILY HISTORY AND GENEALOGY

 

THE DESCENDANTS OF PETER PATTERSON

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FOREWARD 

 

  January 2007 - Janice has recently found information suggesting that the Robert Patterson claimed in this paper to be the brother of Peter is perhaps not the Robert who was Peter's brother.  All the facts contained in this paper concerning this Robert Patterson (wife's name, names of his children, military service, death date, etc.) are absolutely true, with the possible sole exception of the statement that he was Peter's brother.  Janice is currently sifting through the new information and will update the paper, if necessary, in the next six months.
         

 

 In the early part of 2003, I (Janice Patterson-Rosenthal) began corresponding with Linda Hansen of California, a direct descendant of Peter Patterson, the subject of this paper.  Linda had been trying to find proof of her descent from Peter for many years, and I had seen her posts on various message boards.  Because I was researching a Patterson ancestor who also settled in the same area of Pennsylvania as Peter Patterson, I thought that there might be some connection between our Patterson lines.  So I began to research Peter Patterson of Washington Twp., Fayette Co., PA.  In the end I determined that I was not directly related to this Peter, but I was able to find primary source information that conclusively proves Linda’s direct descent from Peter.  Along the way, I found numerous (published) errors concerning the life of Peter Patterson of Washington Twp., and felt impelled to compile and publish my findings so that others researching this line might have access to the correct facts.  A copy has been sent to the D.A.R. library in Washington D.C., and I intend to (eventually) file copies with the LDS library in Salt Lake as well as various southwest Pennsylvania genealogical societies.

             Linda Hansen’s direct descent is through Peter Patterson’s daughter Mary, who m. George Espy.  George Espy is said in Espy genealogy (not verified by me) to be the son of Josiah and Elizabeth (Patterson) Espy.  This Elizabeth Patterson, according to Espy genealogy (again, not verified by me) was sister to Peter Patterson of Washington Twp., the subject of this paper. Thus, according to Espy genealogy, Peter’s daughter Mary married her first cousin George Espy.

             This paper conclusively proves that Peter Patterson of Washington Twp., Fayette Co., PA had a daughter Mary who did in fact marry George Espy, but my research suggests that George Espy’s mother, Elizabeth (Patterson) Espy, may not have been Peter’s sister.  She may have been his cousin.

             At any rate, D.A.R. memberships based on the Revolutionary service of George Espy are valid (see Linda Hansen’s research; George Espy applied for and was granted pension benefits).  However, my concern is the fact that all the D.A.R. lineages based on George Espy’s service, when these lineages mention Peter, father of his wife Mary, give wrong information about Peter Patterson.

            Peter Patterson was himself a Revolutionary War soldier, though it does not appear that any D.A.R. member has based her membership solely on Peter’s service; to my knowledge, all memberships mentioning Peter’s service also involve the service of Peter’s son-in-law, George Espy.

             Some D.A.R. members whose lineages mention Peter Patterson, the subject of the paper, are (this is not a comprehensive list):

            #37097 (referenced in #37549 below)

            #37272 Mrs. Ruth Hamilton Everingham

            # 37278 Mrs. Toma Espy Morrison

            #37549 Miss Florence Mercy Espy

            #37550 Mrs. Genevieve Morrison Smith

            #71973 Mrs. Laura Conklin Van Hook Young

 

 Regarding source citations in this paper: Throughout this paper I will cite the source immediately following any statement of fact.  This method obviates the need for a separate bibliography or list of sources and allows the reader to more easily check my facts.    

                 

INTRODUCTION  

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It seems that most people researching Peter Patterson Dauhpin (then Lancaster) Co., PA and of of Washington (later Jefferson) Twp., Fayette Co., PA, found the following two sources, and it seems that they assumed that the Peter Patterson mentioned in each of these two sources was the same man.  This cannot be the case, as this paper will prove.

            Franklin Ellis, in History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: L.H. Everts & Co., 1882, p. 617) writes: 

 

            “Before the close of the Revolution four brothers, named Robert, James, William, and Peter Patterson, moved from Dauphin County to Fayette County, where they proposed to found new homes.  Robert settled in Westmoreland County and the others in Fayette, Peter and William in Jefferson township [originally part of Washington Twp.],  and James in Franklin.  The brothers came westward in company, and with their families traveled and carried their effects on backs of horses…Peter Patterson patented the land now owned by Emma Cope, near Redstone post-office, and lived there until his death at the age of more than ninety. He had a large family, but of the sons only Thomas made his home in the township after reaching man’s estate.”

 

            This Peter Paterson about whom Ellis writes is definitely Peter Patterson who settled in Washington Twp., Fayette Co., PA-- father of Mary “Polly” Patterson, who married George Espy (from whom several D.A.R. lineages descend).  This Peter, who “moved from Dauphin County to Fayette County” is the subject of this paper.

            Another source, (D.A.R. American Monthly Magazine, Vol. 30 published 1906 and dated January-June, 1907; p. 439) concerns a Peter Patterson and his brothers William, James and Robert. The following piece was in the “Genealogical Notes and Queries” section of the D.A.R. magazine:

 

 “942. LYTLE—The Rev. services of Capt. John Lytle can be found in the Penn. Archives, Vol. XIV. [*] He died a bachelor. His brother was the ancestor of the Gen. Lytle who wrote “I am dying, Egypt, dying.” One of his sisters, Eleanor, married Peter Patterson who came to America about 1732 and lived in Paxtang township, Lancaster [later Dauphin] Co., Penn.  He was exempt from military service because of infirmities of age. His sons William, Peter, James and Robert were soldiers in the Rev. War. The children of Peter and Eleanor (Lytle) Patterson were: Peter, Jr., married Ann Montgomery; Eleanor married Matthew Brown; William m. Mary McCormack [sic]; 

*The author of this piece did not list a PA Archives Series number or page number, so we searched “Vol. XIV” (it turned out to be Series 2) of the Pennsylvania Archives and found two entries: one for a “John Lytle” and one for a “John Little.” On p. 432 we found a muster roll showing that on April  27, 1779, a John LYTLE was a private (not a captain!) in Col. Wm. Chamber’s Battalion, Capt. Patton’s Company,  “in service on the Frontiers of Bedford and Westmoreland counties in the spring and summer of 1779.”  There were only 17 privates in this company: one was John Lytle and one was a William Patterson (not identified by  me). This John Lytle is a private, however--not the “captain” referred to in the above article. On p. 653 of Vol. XIV we do find a “Captain John Little.” Captain Little is listed on a muster roll of the Third Battalion, Seventh Company of the Bedford Militia on December 10, 1777.

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James m. Mary Stewart; Elizabeth m. Josiah Espy; Robert  m. Eleanor Porter;

Jane m. William Montgomery.  Matthew Brown, who married June 21, 1760, Eleanor

Patterson was b. July 15, 1732, lived in Lancaster Co., Pa., d. Apr. 22, 1777, and his will is recorded in Sunbury [Northumberland Co.].  He settled near Carlisle and went in 1774 to Northumberland Co.  He was the father of a large family. He was a Rev.

soldier and a member of the Committee of Safety (not in Conn.), but in Penn. He and his wife Eleanor are buried in Union Co., Penn.  John Lytle left all his land to Eleanor (Lytle*) [sic] Brown, as all the other relatives had moved west. Another sister of John Lytle married Humphrey Fullerton and their descendants are still living in Ohio. Josiah Espy, Jr., in his journal of a trip through Ohio speaks of his cousins, Mr. and Mrs. Humphrey  Fullerton, and Mrs. Morehead, in her little memoir of Prof. James Espy, speaks of their cousins, Matthew and Alexander Brown of Canonsburg College, Penn.—F.M.E.” [“F.M.E.” has been identified by us as Florence Mercy Espy]

 

            Because virtually ALL of the “internet” information, to date, assumes that the statements in the above-transcribed D.A.R. magazine piece are true, I think it necessary here to analyze its statements, one by one, to show how they cannot stand up against serious scrutiny.  We can then put aside the muddled information in this piece and get on with the verfifiable facts of the life of Peter Patterson of Paxtang Twp., Lancaster (later Dauphin) Co., PA and of Washington (later Jefferson) Twp., Fayette Co., PA.

 

            I received a copy of this D.A.R. magazine “article” from the D.A.R. library in Washington D.C.   I thought it important to see the original “article” for myself, as it is the one and only source cited (if sources are cited at all) in the many internet “trees” involving Peter Patterson whose daughter Mary married George Espy (i.e. “our” Peter, the subject of this paper). 

 

            I learned that the above quoted piece is NOT an “article” in the D.A.R. magazine.  It is merely an undocumented submission from a reader, Florence Mercy Espy.  Ms. Espy had read, in an earlier issue of the magazine,  Query #942  (Vol. 30, p. 257) and evidently had felt impelled to provide an “Answer.”  The transcribed piece above was her “answer” to this “query” which I’ve transcribed in full below:

 

            “942. LYTLE. – I wish to learn the war record of John Lytle of Penn. He is called in family history ‘Captain John Lytle who helped to defend Fort Augusta.’  His daughter, Eleanor Lytle, married Matthew Brown, a member of the Committee of Safety in Conn. He also served in the Rev. War and died of fever contracted in service. His widow Augusta and eight children were among those who sent to Fort Augusta for protection in what was known as the ‘big runaway of 1778.’  Capt. John Lytle deeded a tract of land in White Deer Valley to his widowed daughter Eleanor and her children. Any items connected with John Lytle will be appreciated. – H.P.B.”

 

Ms. Espy’s response to H.P.B.’s query must have had H.P.B. scratching his head

 

* "Eleanor (Lytle) Brown” makes no sense.  If it is Capt. John Lytle’s sister Eleanor to whom the author is referring, then she allegedly married Peter Patterson, so she would be “Eleanor (Lytle) PATTERSON. If it is Capt John Lytle’s niece to whom the author is referring (Eleanor, dau. of Peter & Eleanor Patterson), then she would be “Eleanor (PATTERSON) Brown.”

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in confusion.  Her first sentence sends him to the PA Archives without a Series number—just a volume number. Then, in her next statement, she writes that Capt. John Lytle “died a bachelor” (offering no proof of this) when H.P.B. had written that Capt. John had eight children!  She writes of a sister of Capt. John Lytle, Eleanor Lytle, who m. Peter Patterson of Paxtang Twp., though H.P.B. had written of an Eleanor Lytle who was the daughter of Capt. John Lytle.  H.P.B. had written that is was Capt. John Lytle’s daughter, Eleanor Lytle, who m. Matthew Brown; Ms. Espy asserts, in her response, that Peter and Eleanor (Lytle) Patterson had a daughter named Eleanor, and that it was this Eleanor Patterson who m. Matthew Brown.  However, later in Ms. Espy’s response she refers to this same woman, wife of Matthew Brown, as “Eleanor (Lytle) Brown.  Thus in the space of a few sentences Ms. Espy manages to contradict herself.  I believe this Eleanor Lytle/Eleanor Patterson confusion is why half of the trees on the internet dealing with Matthew Brown have him marrying a Patterson while the other half have him marrying a Lytle.

 

            Okay—so much for Ms. Espy confusing H.P.B. and Lytle researchers.  Let’s now discuss how she also may have confused Patterson researchers.  Let’s put aside, for now, her assertion that there was a Peter Patterson Sr. in Paxtang who was old enough to have had the four sons, including “our” Peter, who were all Revolutionary soldiers. This we will disprove gradually during the course of this paper. Instead, now, let us examine her several assertions regarding the various spouses of the Patterson children of this Peter “Sr.” of Paxtang:

1.                 She wrote that Peter Patterson “Jr.” married Ann Montgomery.  I have not found the record of any marriage of a Peter Patterson to an Ann Montgomery, but it’s worth noting that researcher Andrew Fountain shows, on her ancestry.com tree, a Peter Patterson who m. Ann Montgomery and had a daughter Agnes who was b. 1747.  If Ms. Fountain is correct, then we believe the Peter Patterson of her tree to be Peter Patterson of Drumore whose will (proved 1786) lists an unnamed daughter whom I know to be named Agnes (baptized 2 Oct 1751 by Rev. John Cuthbertson—see source below), and whom I know married John Robert Kirkpatrick 24 Mar 1774 in “Drummore” (Marriages of Alexander Dobbin [Covenanter minister who arrived in America in 1774 to assist the aging Rev. Cuthbertson who, arrving 1751, was the first Covenanter minister on American soil])

2.                 She wrote that Eleanor Patterson married Matthew Brown 21 June 1760. According to the marriage records of Rev. John Cuthbertson (“Register of Marriages and Baptisms Performed by Rev. John Cuthbertson 1751-1791” ed. by S. Helen Fields, originally published 1934 in Washington, D.C. and reprinted 2001 by Heritage Books, Bowie, MD) on 27 Jan 1761 “Math. Brown” married “Eleanor McCormick” at the Paxtang meeting house. Could there have been two marriages, within six months of each other, both in Paxtang, and both involving a Matthew Brown marrying an Eleanor?  I think not.  I believe it possible that somewhere a Matthew Brown did indeed marry an Eleanor, but it wasn’t in Paxtang, and therefore is not connected with the Patterson line from which “our” Peter descends and which is the focus of this paper.

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3.                 She wrote that William Patterson married Mary “McCormack.” This is true. (Marriage records of Rev. John Cuthbertson—source cited above)  However,  the William who m. Mary McCormick was “our” Peter’s brother (as will be proved proved in the following paper); and the brothers of this William who m. Mary Montgomery (James, Peter and Robert) did NOT marry the spouses of the James, Peter and Robert listed by Ms. Espy in this D.A.R. magazine article piece.

4.                 She wrote that James Patterson married Mary Stewart.  There is record of a James Patterson marrying a Mary Stewart—but this was in about 1735, and this James was the son of the James Patterson of Conestoga Manor—the Indian trader who was one of the first inhabitants of Lancaster County.  (James Patterson and His Descendants by Edmund Bell & Mary Colwell. Lancaster, PA: Wickersham Printing Co., 1925) I must note here that “our” Peter’s brother, Robert, married Mary Stewart (see Robert’s chapter); could Ms. Espy have been looking at a column of names and spouses and mixed them up? (More of this theory below.)

5.                 She wrote that Elizabeth Patterson married Josiah Espy.  In 1905, about the time Ms. Espy wrote the response published in the D.A.R. magazine, which response we are currently scrutinizing, she published a book on her Espy family. (History and Genealogy of the Espy Family in America by Florence Mercy Espy; Fort Madison, Iowa, 1905)  On p. 24 of this book she cites the marriage of Josiah Espy, b. 1727 (son of George Espy and Jean Taylor) to Elizabeth Patterson, “daughter of Peter Patterson, Sr., of  Upper Paxtang Township, in 1758…” This is the same information she provides in the D.A.R. magazine piece that we are currently examining (which information we believe to be mostly false).  However, in her book she provides new information: that Elizabeth’s husband, Josiah Espy, was born 1727.  This suggests that this Elizabeth Patterson might also have been born in the 1720’s—in which case she would indeed be of the same generation as “our” Peter, the subject of this paper.  I think it possible that Josiah Espy married an Elizabeth Patterson (though I have not personally seen a record of their marriage, and though Florence Espy NOWHERE in her book cites sources for her information*), but was this Elizabeth Patterson “our” Peter’s sister?  I think not, though I believe she could well have been “our” Peter’s cousin.  (More of this in the “Who Was Peter’s Father?” chapter of this paper.)

6.                 She wrote that Robert Patterson married Eleanor Porter.  Well.  Remember my theory that perhaps Ms. Espy was looking at a column of grooms and brides and perhaps lost her place?  Consider this record of a marriage performed by Rev. Alexander Dobbin, one of the two Covenanter ministers who came to America in 1774 to assist Rev. Cuthbertson: On 19 Sept 1797 William Patterson married “Elenor” Porter in Hamilton’s Barn [sic—should be Hamilton’s “Bann,” which

 *Florence Mercy Espy wrote in the introduction to her book: “There will be no attempt made to tell the number of books of refernce read in gathering this information as recording the names became an irksome task almost at the outset.”  In other words, she did not document her information.                

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     was in present-day Adams Co., PA] (This info found online at        http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~treasures/pa/adams/alexdobbinmarr.htm)

 

We need to mention here that in D.A.R. Lineage Book Vol. 38, p. 98 is the marriage of Robert Patterson to Eleanor Porter, and this Robert Patterson is said to have been b. 1746 in Lancaster Co. and to have died 1790 in Westmoreland Co.** The only Robert Patterson whom records prove to have settled early in Westmoreland County (and about whom Franklin Ellis, in his History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania correctly wrote) is the Robert Patterson who was “our” Peter’s brother, and who married Mary Stewart. (See Robert’s chapter in this paper.)  Where did the D.A.R. member get her information that her Revolutionary War ancestor was a Robert Patterson who married Eleanor Porter and who settled in Westmoreland County?  Sadly, we believe this information traceable to the “research” of Florence Mercy Espy. I say this because the D.A.R. member claiming this Robert Patterson who m. Eleanor Porter as her ancestor was Mrs. Ruth Hamilton Everingham of Fort Madison, Iowa (member #37272).  Guess where Florence Mercy Espy lived?  Yep, you guessed it—Fort Madison, Iowa. If I were the person at the D.A.R. in charge of whether or not to put a “flag” on the veracity of certain lineages, I would certainly raise questions about the credibility of any claims to membership, submitted in the early 1900’s, from women living in Fort Madison, Iowa, should their lineages involve the surnames Patterson, Lytle, Porter, Montgomery, Brown and McCormick.

7.                 Finally, she wrote that Jane Patterson married William Montgomery. I have record of a Hannah Jane Patterson who was born about 1736 in Drumore Twp., Lancaster Co., marrying William Montgomery.  This is accepted as true in all Montgomery research posted on the internet; additionally, however, I have in my possession a copy of a letter written 15 Feb 1911 by Thornton S. Dilworth of Table Grove, IL--a direct descendant of William and Hannah Jane (Patterson) Montgomery. Mr. Dilworwth’s letter corroborates that Hannah Patterson of Drumore Twp., Lancaster Co. married William Montgomery (no date of marriage in his letter).  If this marriage of William Montgomery to Hannah Jane Patterson of Drumore Twp., Lancaster Co. is the marriage to which Ms. Espy refers in the magazine piece we’re examining, then, once again, Ms. Espy seems to have picked up a member of yet another Patterson branch, and has grafted this branch onto the (different) Paxtang line of Pattersons.  I say this because the Hannah Jane Patterson who was born in Drumore Twp. and who married William Montgomery was daughter of a James Patterson (1708-1791) of Little Britain Twp., Lancaster Co., whose line is well documented and whose line does NOT connect (directly, anyway) with that of “our” Peter.  I must mention, however, that the Jane Patterson of whom

 **Patterson & Patterson Family, Vol 2, p. 74, contains a “transcription” of this “D.A.R. Lineage #37272.  Curiously, this “transcription” shows that Robert Patterson b. 1746 in Lancaster Co., PA; m. Eleanor Porter; “died 1790 in Rockbridge County, Virginia. The submitter of this “transcription” may have found that this Robert died in VA rather than in Westmoreland Co., PA, but should not have inferred that this info was contained in D.A.R. Lineage #37272; it was not.

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                 Ms. Espy writes might also be the different Jane Patterson said by numerous Montgomery researchers to have married a different William Montgomery abt.1750 in Virginia*  (After all, Ms. Espy was responding to a request for  information about a Capt. John Lytle who was stationed in Augusta Co., VA.). This might be the Jane Patterson of whom Ms. Espy wrote.

 

Note that in the D.A.R. magazine piece, Ms. Espy does not claim that Peter Patterson “Sr.” had a daughter named Mary.  The one sister of “our” Peter about whom we are certain of our facts is Mary, who married Elijah Stewart. (See Mary’s chapter).  This is another reason why the Peter “Jr.” of whom Ms. Espy writes simply cannot be the Peter who is the subject of this paper.  There is record of only one Peter of Paxtang, and he is “ours”; he had a sister named Mary and his brothers (with one exception) did not marry the women cited above by Ms. Espy. The Peter of Ms. Espy’s paper cannot be of Paxtang. 

 

How much, if any, of what Ms. Espy wrote in this D.A.R. magazine piece is actually true, I cannot say.  Perhaps somewhere there was a Peter Patterson who had the children listed by Ms. Espy in the D.A.R. magazine piece. But it wasn’t in Paxtang.

 

I recommend that any Patterson researcher including any of the above-cited information written by Ms. Espy should immediately strike this information from their files.

 

In passing, in addition to the two sources of information cited at the beginning of this Introduction, it should be noted that a third source refers to the same four Patterson brothers cited by Ellis. This third source is William Henry Egle’s Notes and Queries, Third Series, Volume II, CL, p. 406.  Egle was (and is) the acknowledged authority on the history and early families of Pennsylvania, particularly Lancaster County:

 

            “Prior to the close of the Revolution, Robert, James, William and Peter Patterson, brothers, removed to Western Pennsylvania. Robert settled in Westmoreland county and the others in what is now Fayette county. James Patterson was a captain in the war of 1812 under General Harrison. What is known concerning the ancestry of these Pattersons?”

 

Notes and Queries was originally published between 1879 and 1895 as a series of newspaper columns in the Harrisburg, PA Daily Telegraph.  These columns have been re-printed and now comprise twelve volumes. (I’ve cited information from these volumes throughout this paper.) The passage above was written at about the same time that Ellis’ History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania was published (1882) and it is therefore impossible to know if one author read the work of the other, or if each independently of the other concerned himself with the “four Patterson brothers.”  At any rate, a close inspection of Egle’s passage reveals that Egle infers that the James who was a Captain in the War of 1812 was one of the four Patterson brothers. This is most surely an error, as the brother James who crossed the mountains sometime “prior the close of the Revolution” would probably have been too old to serve in the War of 1812.  Ellis, in his


*Because several of these Patterson marriages listed by Ms. Espy might might actually involve Pattersons of Virginia, rather than of Paxtang, future researchers may want to investigate Pattersons living in the area of Rockbridge, VA in the 1750’s, to see if they can find four Patterson brothers of the names William, Peter, James & Robert who married (some of?) the women cited by Ms. Espy.

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book, states that the James who was a captain in the War of 1812 was the son of William—the William who was “our” Peter’s brother.  Ellis is correct. (See William’s chapter.)

 

 

 

 

 

            Finally, before we begin the paper about the facts of “our” Peter’s life, I would like to present a list of errors committed by researchers investigating “our” Peter’s line.

 

·       I obtained (from the DAR library in Washington, D.C.) a copy of the DAR magazine piece transcribed above. In this article, Peter “Sr.” is clearly said to have married ELEANOR Lytle. Yet, in every single internet “tree” I’ve ever seen, this old Peter’s wife is listed as ELIZABETH Lytle.  These trees list as their source for this information the exact same DAR magazine article of which we have a copy and which we have transcribed above in full, yet not one of them correctly names this Peter’s wife as stated in the article they cite.   It seems probable that one person made a transcription error, or a typo, many years ago; it got posted on the internet, and dozens have since copied the wrong information. Bad information gets multiplied exponentially via the internet!

·       Egle’s little goof about Captain James Patterson (of the War of 1812) being one of the four Patterson brothers also seems to have been duplicated over the years; on many trees posted on the internet one can see this information ascribed to the wrong James. Bad information gets multiplied exponentially over the internet!

·       Regarding Captain James, the error cited above got complicated with a further error.  There WAS in fact an older “Captain” James, living in Juniata Co., who married Mary Stewart. He was a captain, all right-- in the French and Indian Wars! Some Patterson researchers seem to have taken the error above and then compounded it, making the leap that the James who was a Captain and who married Mary Stewart was one of the four Patterson brothers, i.e. our Peter’s brother. And numerous internet researchers have copied this wrong information.

·       On various internet trees of this line one sees that Mary Patterson, alleged daughter of Robert and Eleanor (Porter) Patterson, is said to have been born 29 March 1768.  Hmm.  Isn’t it curious that in the Register of Marriages performed by Rev. John Cuthbertson (the minister who seems to have attended ALL the Pattersons of “our” Peter’s line while they were living in Dauphin—then Lancaster—County) we find that a Mary Patterson married Elijah Stewart on 29 March 1768.  No Patterson birth whatsover for this date is recorded in Rev. Cuthbertson’s records.  Could someone have mixed up a baptism date for a Mary Patterson with a marriage date for a different Mary Patterson?  We think so. And numerous internet researchers have copied this information.

·       Most of what was written about “our” Peter in the Patterson & Pattison Family publication (four volumes, privately published in the mid-sixties and now on-line at genealogy.com) has serious errors.  Here are some examples:

     A person by the name of Vashti Seaman “copied from bound Volume 30, year 1907, page 439 of the ‘American Monthly Magazine’ of the DAR” information which was then submitted by C.C. Austin to the Patterson/Pattison Assn. Journal (Vol. 2, p. 67, published in the mid-1960’s).  Vashti Seaman says in his transcription of Vol. 30 p. 439 that “Peter Patterson came to Pennsylvania

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in Paxtang Twp. then Lancaster Co., but now is Dauphin County, Pa. He was too old to serve in the Revolution, but contributed what he could to relieve the suffering of the army.  His wife was Eleanor Lytle. Their children….”  His transcription continues on, faithful to the original regarding the names and spouses of the children, but… I received a copy of this exact same page from the American Monthly Magazine from the DAR Library in Washington D.C., and nowhere is it written that “ he was too old to serve in the Revolution but contributed what he could to relieve the suffering of the army.” These words are nowhere in the source Vashti Seaman purports to be transcribing; they appear to be either a complete fabrication, or he/she read these words somewhere else and didn’t cite THAT source. As a result of this error, subsequent Patterson researchers seem to have been led to believe that there was a Peter living in Paxtang old enough to be “our” Peter’s father, a Peter who was was too old to be a solider in the Revolution.  However, this is is not the case, according to all available records. This information is quoted on many internet trees and, what’s worse, they cite the D.A.R. magazine—not this transcription!

 

  In this same transcription by Vashti Seaman of the DAR magazine article (published in Patterson & Pattison Assn. Vol. 2 p. 67) he/she writes that  “Matthew Brown was married, June 21, 1760 to above Eleanor Patterson who was born July 15, 1732, and lived in Lancaster Co., PA.” Again, I obtained a copy of the DAR magazine article cited by Seaman, and have transcribed it in its entirety above.  A careful reading will reveal that it was not Eleanor (Patterson) Brown who was “born July 15, 1732,” but her husband. Bad, very bad “transcription.”  Here are the actual words in the passage transcribed incorrectly by Vashti Seaman: “Matthew Brown, who married June 21, 1760, Eleanor Patterson was b. July 15, 1732, lived in Lancaster Pa….”  It was Matthew Brown, not Eleanor, who was “b. July 15, 1732.” Therefore the only birth date attributed to one of the alleged siblings of the Peter in this DAR magazine article is incorrect.  What if Eleanor were much younger than her husband, Matthew Brown? Except for the assumption that Eleanor Patterson was probably about the same of her husband, whose birth date is given, there is nothing else in this article which points to these children of the alleged Peter “Sr.” being born in the 1720’s versus the 1760’s.  In other words, there is nothing in this article which suggests that these children were even of the same generation as “our” Peter and his brothers.

 

  Vashti Seaman’s incorrect transcriptions continue, in Patterson & Pattison Assn. Vol 2 p. 68 where he/she offers a transcription from DAR Lineage Book, Vol. 38, p. 198 and writes that a “Peter Patterson Jr., 1739-1814, served as a soldier in the Lancaster County, Pa., Militia Wife, Ann Montgomery…had daughter ‘Polly’…” I also obtained a copy of Vol. 38, p. 198 from the DAR Library in Washington D.C. and discovered very serious “transcription” errors: First: Peter’s death date is given as “1840” on this page, not 1814 as written by Seaman;  Secondly: Peter’s wife is listed as “____ Montgomery,” NOT “Ann Montgomery” as Mr. Seaman wrote. This incorrect transcription has invented a death date for Peter (which was wrong in the first place, but that’s not the point) and has  invented a first name for Peter’s wife.  We can only wonder how many researchers since have copied this wrong information into their family tree. So, please, remember always to:

 

 

• CHECK SOURCES CITED BY OTHERS WHENEVER POSSIBLE.

 

•DO NOT POST INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET OR PUBLISH   MATERIAL THAT IS NOT POSITIVELY SUBSTANTIATED. 

 

•ALWAYS CITE YOUR SOURCES.

 

•PROOFREAD WHAT YOU POST OR PUBLISH.  AT LEAST TWICE.

 

 

 

   
 
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Linda Hansen
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