Loyalist Great-Grandfather X 4, Left America and Returned to Britain During Revolution

While one great-grandfather x 4, Archibald Buie, was apparently successful in remaining publicly neutral during the American Revolution, another great-grandfather, John Purcell (1720-1785), wasn’t. A lowland Scot from Canongate, Midlothian near Edinburgh, he would probably have identified with Great Britain, and apparently spoke publicly in favor of King George III and the British empire. When the tide turned, it became too dangerous for him to remain. John was one of thousands of Scots in the Carolinas who realized they could not stay in America during and after the revolution because of their loyalties to the crown. He left his son Malcolm, knowing he’d never see him again. What a sad family break-up it must have been. John was buried in St. Nicholas, Deptford, Kent, England. 

Malcolm, born in America, in Virginia in 1748, remained in burgeoning colonial America, and settled in what was then greater Cumberland County, NC. He married Beatrice Torrey, who was born in Scotland in the 1750s. She was the daughter of John and Margaret Torrey who emigrated from Paisley, Argyleshire, Scotland, in the highlands, about 1765.

Malcolm and Beatrice married in 1771. They reportedly built a large home west of the Cape Fear River that became known as “The Purcell Place.”

But tragedy was to strike. During or after the revolution, one family story goes that Malcolm, a giant of a man, encountered a gang of Redcoats. He allegedly told them that he was an ardent and active American Whig and therefore the Tories took an oath that they would kill him on sight because of his allegiance to America. Supposedly, they found him on the west side of the Cape Fear River, and pursuing him to the bank, caught him in the bend of the river, with no chance of escape. Knowing that if he surrendered, his fate was sealed, he attempted to swim across it. The Tories shot him in the river and he was never heard of again, or so the story goes. I suspect it was made up by his widow Beatrice or another family member to save face.

This story cannot be correct since the American Whig party was not founded until the 19th century. Malcolm’s supposed death by Tories was especially ironic since he married a woman named Torrey (Tory, get it?). I wonder if like his father he harbored sympathies to the crown. Or, he may have simply drowned while crossing the Cape Fear River. The family records are unclear on this.

Millprong, Purcell-Torrey-McEachern-Gilchrist family homestead, Hoke County, NC. 

In any event, Malcolm died at less than 40 years of age, and Beatrice, with their young son John Purcell “moved south of the Lumber River to live with her brother, David Torrey, near the town of Lumberton in Robeson Co., NC. A few years thereafter, she married Daniel McEachern (1755-1812), a Robeson County widower. The couple moved to Rockfish Creek in Cumberland Co. where they lived for several years before moving back to Robeson Co. Two children were born to the marriage of Beatrice Torrey Purcell and Daniel McEachern: Sarah “Sallie” McEachern and Archibald McEachern.”

This is the grave of Beatrice, who lived to the ripe old age of 78. She is buried in Sinclair Cemetery in Hoke County, near Raeford.

“Beatrice’s grave is believed to be the first in this cemetery. She reportedly died while visiting her daughter, Sallie McEachern Patterson, wife of Archibald Patterson, whose home was on Buffalo Creek.”

John Purcell, born in 1773, went on to marry Mary Gilchrist (1771-1843).  They are my great great grandparents. They would have had in common ancestors who supported the crown during the revolution.

John Purcell lived to age 77, dying in 1850. He is buried in Millprong Cemetery. Here is his faded grave on Findagrave.com. It might be mistaken for a crack in the sidewalk. Is that what our ancestors have become? Cracks in the sidewalk? Enlarge it to see at least some of the inscription.

Millprong is a restored home and museum of Scottish heritage in Hoke County, NC, near where I grew up in Scotland County. Appropriate to the memory of John and Malcolm Purcell, it does not whitewash Scottish sympathy for the British in America.

John’s son Archie Purcell (1833-1880), was my great-grandfather, and his daughter, Anna Virginia Purcell (1871-1952), was my grandmother.

John Gilchrist Sr. (1740-1802), my great great great grandfather, was born in North Loch Kiarran farm, Kilcalmonell Parish (near Tarbert, Kintyre), son of Angus Gilchrist. His mother’s name was lost to history. He married Effie McMillan (1748–1794) on Feb. 12, 1770 in the Highland Church in Campbeltown, Scotland, not far from where they grew up. John was thirty years of age and Effie, twenty-two. Her parents were Gilbert McMillan (1723-1772) and Christian “Chriosdaidh Ban” Taylor

who followed the couple to North Carolina.

John and Effie, his brother Malcolm, and their children immigrated to Cumberland/Robeson County, NC. Effie had two siblings, Edward Iver McMillan and Flora McMillan McKay,who also came to North Carolina.

John became a state senator in the 1790s, a position from which he was impeached for his Tory sympathies during the Revolution. Mill Prong contains an exhibit of the impeachment proceedings brought against Gilchrist in 1797 in the N.C. Senate for taking up arms against the United States during the Revolutionary War. Given that at least a third of the population of North Carolina was sympathetic to the crown during the revolution, and a third of the population was neutral. The impeachment did not result in Gilchrist’s removal from office.

John Gilchrist Sr.’s grave is here, in Milprong Cemetery. He lived to be 62. He and Effie had 10 children and four grandchildren.

His wife Effie’s grave is here. She died at age 45/46. John’s second wife was Flora McKay Currie Gilchrist (1760 – 1847). Her grave is in the Blue Family Cemetery in Laurinburg. She lived to be 87.

Effie’s father Gilbert died in Red Springs, NC in 1772 and is buried in Mill Prong Cemetery. Her mother Christian died in 1788. She is also buried in Mill Prong Cemetery.

Some descendants of Malcolm and John Purcell as well as John Gilchrist Sr. took a strong interest in politics. John Gilchrist Jr. was a NC State Senator for many years. Between them, Gilchrist Sr. and Jr. served more than five decades in the NC legislature.  Graham Purcell Jr. (Ancestry.com) was a congressman from Texas from the late 1950s through the early 1970s. Dr. William Purcell (Ancestry.com), a pediatrician, was a North Carolina state legislator for many years.

Other family members took a strong interest in education. Augustus Buchanan Purcell (Ancestry.com), who died in 2011, was an educator and renowned high school football coach in Charlotte.

Related:

• Echoes from Mill Prong, by Jack Autry. A Memoir.
• The Grahams at Mill Prong: Tragedy Strikes During Gen. Sherman’s Civil War March. “Alexander Graham (1800-1865) and his wife, Elizabeth Purcell Graham (1806-1888) lived in a Greek Revival cottage on the east side of the Cheraw to Fayetteville Road, now Highway 401, two miles above Gilchrist Bridge on the Lumber River, in what was then the upper reaches of Robeson County. Two sons served in the Confederate army.  Their lives were tranquil until the arrival of General W. T. Sherman and his army.”
• Photo of Mill Prong House circa 1920, when it looked like an unpainted tenement. The accompanying article says it was built in 1795 by John Gilchrist, Sr (1740-1802)., an educated Scottish immigrant who settled in Bladen [now Hoke] County and who became a state senator, a position from which he was impeached for his Tory sympathies during the Revolution. Mill Prong contains an exhibit of the impeachment proceedings brought against Gilchrist in 1797 in the N.C. Senate for taking up arms against the United States during the Revolutionary War.
• Mill Prong Restoration Forges Along (Robesonian, 2015): “The house was built by John Gilchrist between 1794 and 1802.”
• This article says John’s son Angus Gilchrist, a surveyor and one of the largest land-owners in the region, built “the famous Gilchrist house” which was “the largest, finest and best furnished house in this section of the state; it became a major stage-coach stop on the route between New York and New Orleans. His first wife was Margaret McKay, a sister of Mary Gilchrist’s first husband; there were five children. His second wife was Elizabeth McNeill; there were three children.”
• A History of the Gilchrists: Early families of Eastern NC.
• The McEachins and the MacNeills (led by Hector MacNeill) immigrated to America about 1760 from Scotland. “Hector McNeill established a farm and raised cattle on the west side of Drowning Creek, about three miles west of John McEachin in Richmond County. John McEachin and Hector McNeill are credited with having built Gilchrist’s Bridge, a lengthy causeway over the Drowning Creek Swamp. The bridge, still in existence to this day, was formerly known as Robeson’s Ferry Bridge.”
• Historical  Context: Why did John and Malcolm Gilchrist come to America?
• Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution by historian Kathleen Duval, offers a significant new global perspective on the Revolutionary War with the story of the conflict as seen through the eyes of the outsiders of colonial society. She includes a chapter on the dangers faced by British loyalists, many of whom, like John Purcell, had to flee and return to the mother country.
• Scotland County History: Laurinburg, the county seat, was named for the prominent McLaurin family. “As late as 1840, there were only three dwellings, a store, a saloon, and a few shacks in the town. A private school was established in 1852 and the town seemed to grow rapidly after that.”