Notes for: John MCFADIN
John McFadin has become known to many genealogy researchers as John Stephen McFadin. This resulted from an erroneous transcription of his probated estate records in the North Carolina State Archives which incorporated his apparently deceased son Stephen's name with John's.
The first documented evidence of John McFadin is in Frederick Co., Maryland, in 1748. Land transactions between 1754 and 1757 as well as other evidence of he and his sons appear in the Maryland State Archives. His first wife was apparently deceased by 1757, and he married again in Maryland.
Shortly after 1766, John moved his family to Tryon Co., North Carolina (later to become Rutherford Co., NC). On 16 DEC 1769, he purchased 300 acres of land from Thomas Johnston on McFadin Creek off the Second Broad River. He died there in 1776, and the names of his children were listed in his will, which was probated in 1777.
Most (if not all) of John McFadin's sons served in the Revolutionary War, primarily with the North Carolina Militia. In the early 1780s most of his sons trekked westward through Tennessee toward Kentucky. They settled in Davidson and Montgomery Co., Tennessee, and the counties of Warren, Christian, Simpson, and Todd in Kentucky. In 1806, the families of sons Andrew and William McFadin were among the first permanent settlers in Indiana. They founded McFadin's Bluff, which later became Mt. Vernon, Indiana.
Between 1822 and 1830, branches of this McFadin family were again on the frontiers in the counties of Jefferson, Liberty, Washington , and Shelby, Texas, and Randolph Co., Missouri, as well as other parts of Missouri, Illinois, and Arkansas.
Tradition states that John McFadin was the son of Andrew (b. 1675-83 SCOTLAND ) and Marsey Mallory (b. ca. 1672 Derry, IRELAND) who were married in 1693 in Derry, Ireland. They lived in the town of Garvaugh in the county of Derry on the Bannwater at a place called Summersett. There they had several sons including John.
Marsy died, and in 1704 Andrew married Jane Lindsey (b. 1684 IRELAND). In September 1718, the ship Maccallum arrived in Boston, Massachusetts Colony, from Londonderry, Ireland, with Andrew and his family. However, Puritan residents forced the new arrivals away from Boston, and the Andrew McFadin family settled to the north, far up the Kennebeck River near Merry Meeting Bay between the Cathence and Abagadusset Rivers.
Over the centuries as many as seven different children have been attributed to Andrew McFadin and his two wives, not all of which are conclusively documented. These include John, Thomas, William, James, Andrew, Daniel, and Summersett.
Andrew McFadin's family moved to Georgetown, Maine (which at that time was still a part of Massachusetts), perhaps as early as 1722, likely after the death of Andrew. The younger children and their families appear to have remained in and near that area for many years. John appears to have lived near the vicinity of Boston, perhaps later sailing to Philadelphia (unproven) and moving inland to near the vicinity of Chambersburg before moving into Maryland. The whereabouts of Thomas and William (if, in fact, members of this family) are still unknown.