According to a passenger list of the GEORGE AND ANN, which left Ireland for America in 1729, there were many early settlers of Little Britain

According to a passenger list of the GEORGE AND ANN, which left Ireland for America in 1729, there were many early settlers of Little Britain. The group was sponsored y Charles Clinton. They were not poor. They had money, books, farming implements, housekeeping equipment and plenty of courage. There were Dennistons, McClaughrys, McDowells, Hamiltons and others with names that stir our admiration. There were a hundred or more in the Clinton party and another hundred on the boat. Their passage was paid and they set sail for Pennsylvania.

The ship’s captain decided to zigzag across the ocean and thus waste time until the food and drinking water would be gone and the people starved, and he could have their possessions. Disease broke out and many died, as listed by Charles Clinton. At length those who were still alive, some seriously ill, agreed to pay the captain additional money. The first land sighted was Cape Cod. Any land would do and they demanded to be let off. The Cape Cod people cared for them over the winter. In the spring they came to New York to buy land. Andrew Johnston, a patentee, was there wanting to sell his two thousand acres in farm size lots.

Seventeen McDowells had started on the voyage. Three arrived, James, Andrew and Matthew. James’s wife and five children died on the boat. He stayed in New York. Andrew bought 215 acres on the Andrew Johnston patent. Matthew was young and sick and had little money. He worked and earned until he too could buy land. He was here in Little Britain in 1735. He bought lot #1 (150 acres) on the John Johnston patent, east of the Andrew Johnston patent, and later, lot #3 (197 acres), joined to lot #1 by a strip along the south side of lot #2.

Andrew sold his land in 1737 to his cousin, Patrick McClaughry, and went to the Wallkill area where he lived for awhile. He married and had children. Some Wallkill McDowells can still be found. His wife died, he sold his property and went to New Jersey. He married Isabel Little and had children. They seemed to lose contact with Little Britain except for one descendant who came back recently, almost by mistake. George McDowell found an apple farm advertised for sale, bought it, and came back to this McDowell area, not knowing when he came that any of the McDowells here were his relatives. His property on Beattie Road is still owned by his daughter, Louise Wagner.

But our interest is in the McDowells who stayed in Little Britain. Matthew McDowell was a stone mason and built himself a stone house. It is not known whether or not he saw his land before he bought it, but he got good land with a stream running through it. He built his house near the stream at the foot of a hill. The ruins of that house can still be seen. It was lived in not many years ago, but vandals burned it. The lane to it was from Little Britain Road, but later, Pig Lane (Jackson Ave.) was laid out, and a lane west from it was an easier approach.

Matthew McDowell was one of the first three elders of the Little Britain Associate Church before 1760. The Associate Church was Presbyterian, Scotch Free Church. The church may first have met in his house. It was known as the McDowell meeting. He is to be remembered as a Godly man.

Matthew McDowell, 1715-1787, married first a Beatty, second a Crawford widow. The Beatty lady had probably come on the GEORGE AND ANN. The Crawford land joined the McDowell land. His children were:

Margery, 1738-1781. She married James Bell, 1744-1805

Thomas, 1744-180, married Elizabeth Hodge, 1755-1825

Elizabeth, 1745-1775, married Samuel Boyd, 1734-1801

Sarah, 1755-1827, married Alexander McDonald, 1742-1831.

James, dates not known. His wife’s name was Elizabeth. He is listed in the 1790 census, self, 4 white males under 16 and 3 white females.

And there was Ann McDowell, 1732-1777, parents not known. She may have been born on the boat and her parents died, and friends cared for her. She married John Waugh, 1723-1786.

James inherited 140 acres on the east side of the big farm, part of lot #3, where the aqueduct crosses now. He sold it in 1800 to Grand Bower and left the area. We have not yet found where he went.

Sarah had 57 acres near James. She left it to her nephew, Thomas B. McDowell, whose land it joined.

Thomas inherited the western part of his father’s farm, but he needed land before his father died. In 1770 he bought 34 acres from James Humphrey on the Lewis Morris patent, just south of his father and on the same stream. He was called Uncle Tommy by his neighbors. He had a grist mill and ground their grain free of charge. This farm, years later, was known as the Corwin farm. It was written about in ORANGE COUNTY POST, Sept. 28, 1967. It is certain that what we have known as the Corwin house was built by Thomas McDowell before his marriage in 1776. It is a beautiful house, sturdy, well planned. A huge chimney in the middle of it has three fire places on one floor. Two are back to back with the third in a corner beside the two, and in a small room, known as the borning room.

Thomas B. McDowell inherited the house and farm from his father, rented it to James Alexander the weaver of beautiful blue ‘coverlids’, and sold it to his son, Alexander McDowell.

Thomas married Elizabeth Hodge in New Windsor Presbyterian Church, Dec. 12, 1776. Their children were:

Jane, 1778-1852, married Isaac Denniston, 1780-1857

Thomas B., 1782-1855, married Mary H., 1780-1850

Isaac, 1789-1871, married Mary Hamilton, 1790-1818.

Matthew, about 1790-1867, married Phebe Chandler, 1788-1861. Married at Bethlehem, Dec. 2, 1808

John Mason, 1792-1825. Named for the preacher, John Mason. Married first Nancy (?), second Agnes Cook, 1788-1839.

Sarah, 1799-1872, married Thomas Cook, 1797-1843.

And three boys who died in childhood.

The four sons inherited the home farm of 150 acres, divided into four pieces. Isaac had his piece at the northwest, Matthew east of Isaac, John Mason, south of Matthew, and Thomas B., next to John M.

Isaac inherited his property in 1806. He married Mary Hamilton of the Sarah Hamilton tavern at the north corner of the Square. Did he spend too much time at the tavern? He got in debt, and to escape debtor’s prison, he turned his assets over to his brother, John M. and moved to a farm that his wife had inherited. The story of his farm was in ORANGE COUNT POST, July 11, 1968 "The McDowell, McCabe, Humphrey, Armstrong Farm." The house was a good one, still in use when MTA took it and destroyed it. One upper room had a vaulted ceiling. There is evidence that all the McDowells loved beauty.

Matthew McDowell, grandson of the first Matthew, inherited land to the east of Isaac. He married Phebe Chandler at Bethlehem, Dec. 2, 1808. His house was built before 1816 for it is mentioned in a deed of that date. Hex married in 1808 and may have built it then. It was lived in until recently, when it was partly burned. Matthew’s three sons sold it in 1868 to John Buchanan. It was known for years as the Buchanan house, but before that, long before that, it was a McDowell house.

John Mason McDowell’s land was sold in pieces.

Thomas B. McDowell is remembered not by the land he inherited, nor by small purchases, but by the land he bought from William Denniston, 100 acres in 1807, along the same stream. He had a grist mill and lumber mill, and built a two story stone house, owned recently by Coulton Waugh. A mill stone can still be seen there.

Thomas B. McDowell and Mary H., his wife deeded their home place to their daughter Sally E. Coleman in 1845 but they continued to live there, reserving the north half of the house except the cellar, the right use of the hall and $66 per year.

Their other children scattered, and the McDowell name is lost to Little Britain.

The stream was the life line of the McDowells. Matthew found it on the land he bought. It rose in two branches further north and had several mills along it course. A saw mill was north of Matthew on Belknap land. Matthew’s son Thomas bought on the same stream, and Thomas B. Bought further south on the same stream.

The McDowell story could fill a book. This is just a sampling about these splendid people of early Little Britain.

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Created by Elizabeth Finley Frasier

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July 17, 2007