Starr Families (3)
1540 - 2006

The Three Different STARR lines in America

There appears to be three distinct Starr families in America,

1. The descendants of Comfort Starr, who came from England in 1635, [this is my line]
2. The five sons of John Starr who came from Ireland some 70 years later:

   [...] John^b Starr of England [...] was a Captain in Cromwell's Army. After the [English] Civil War he was granted land in Ireland... He had at least one son whose name was John^a Starr who married Mary... the parents of nine children. Five of their sons came to America in the early 1700's. [viz. Joseph¹, John¹, James¹, Moses¹, Samuel¹] They had converted to Quakerism in Ireland. Due to the persecution they suffered in England and Ireland, these five brothers and many other Quaker families removed from Ireland and settled in Pennsylvania.

   "STARR: The Quakers from Ireland"
   Lillie Harris and Virginia Wittwer
   1286 East 1000 South
   Keystone, Indiana 46759-9777

   It is said that a sixth son, George, did not remove to America but remained in Ireland. His line eventually migrated c1820 to Vermont:

   Thomas STARR
   Sarah NESBITT
    From: Ballyhaise, CAV
    To: No. Troy, Orange, VT
    Date: ca 1820
   

   It is likely that the Irish Starr family is related to the English Starrs, but evidence has not been found to support this conjecture.

3. Starrs of German descent who settled early in Pennsylvania.

There are also the so-called Cherokee Starrs, whom I believe are descendants of John¹ Starr of Ireland. Sam⁷ Starr, a Cherokee Indian, was of this line. (Sam⁷, Tom⁶, James⁵, Caleb⁴, Alexander³, John², John¹) He was the husband of the (in)famous Belle Starr (née Myra Bell Shirley). See Robert B. Ringo's website, Descendants of Nancy Ward, at http://www.nancyward.com, for a genealogical treatment of the interesting Cherokee Starr line.

Migrations

The Big Move, of course was that from England to the colonies in North America, pioneered by Dr. Comfort Starr in 1635 aboard the Hercules. He settled in Massachusetts, living there another 25 years until his death in 1659/60. This was the beginning of the American Starrs.

Sixty-odd years later, Josiah Starr [1657-1714/15] founded the Danbury (CT) Branch of the family after a stop in Long Island, NY, where he married and raised a family. He arrived in Danbury with his six sons shortly after the Danbury Eight first settled the town in 1684. In May, 1702 he was one of the six patentees of the town, and was the first town clerk. Most of the Starrs of that area are descended from this family.

Ninety years after that, in 1793, Micajah Starr moved from Danbury, CT to Lansing, NY, founding the Central New York Branch of the family.

Some forty years later, about 1837, Dr. John Harper Starr, of Litchfield county, CT, moved to Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches, Texas, founding the Texas Starrs. Texas is the only state with a Starr county, created out of Nueces County by an act that was passed on February 10, 1848. It was named after our Dr. Starr of the Republic of Texas. Starr also served as Postmaster General for the Confederacy. Rio Grande City, formerly known as Davis' Landing was designated the County Seat.

About 20 years later, the bug bit again. In 1855 Daniel Lewis Starr moved from Central NY to Perkins, OH, in Erie County, founding the Midwest Branch of the Starr Family.