Ahnentafel #452 - (--?--) Galbraith

(--?--) Galbraith

Born: by 1705 Scotland
Died: Unknown

Buried: Unknown

Married:  by 1725 Scotland 

Records / Possibilities:

Scotland, Selected Births & Baptisms, 1564-1950, Ancestry database:
Lots of entries with no dates

• Duncan, b. 4/23/1705 Canongate, Edinburgh, Midlothian, s/o Duncan & Margaret (Whyte) Galbraith
• John, b. 12/14/1705, bapt. 12/23/1705 Lithgow, West Lothian, s/o James & Margaret (Key) Galbraith
• James b. 7/14/1704, bapt. 7/14/1704, Liberton, Midlothian, s/o John & Sibillah (Kerr) Galbraith
• William bapt. 11/9/1705, St. Ninians, Stirling s/o Alexander & Janet (Scobie) Galbraith
• male, b. 2/9/1704 Edinburgh Parish, Edinburgh, Midlothian, s/o George
• John b. 4/5/1706, bapt. 4/7/1706, Liberton, Midlothian, s/o Robert & Helen (Browster) Gailbraith
• William b. 4/14/1706, bapt. 4/16/1706, Edinburgh Parish, Edinburgh, Midlothian s/o John & Margaret (Robertson) Galbraith
• John bapt. 10/26/1704 Kilmaronock, Dunbarton, s/o William & Janet (Patersone) Galbraith
• William bapt. 11/23/1703 Kilmaronock, Dunbarton s/o William & Jonet (Patersone) Galbraith
• Male bapt. 11/2/1707 Greenlaw, Berwick s/o John Galbraith
• James bapt. 12/23/1707 Glasgow, Lanark s/o James & Katrin (Buchanan) Galbraith
• John (female?) bapt. 1/15/1707 Balfron, Stirling s/o James & Helen (Neilson) Galbraith
• John bapt. 12/21/1701 Kilmaronock, Dunbarton s/o John Galbraith
• James bapt. 8/4/1709 Glasgow, Lanark, s/o James & Katrin (Buchanan) Galbraith
• James bapt. 2/12/1710, Edinburgh Parish, Edinburgh, Midlothian s/o James & Katharine (Crichton) Galbraith
• John bapt. 12/24/1710, St. Ninians, Stirling s/o James & Janet (Ogilvie) Galbraith
• John bapt. 11/14/1710 Glasgow, Lanark s/o James & Katrin (Buchanan) Galbraith

All Scotland, Extracted Parish Records, 1571-1997, Ancestry database:

• James Galbraith md. Margaret Ancrum d/o William  12/31/1719 Edinburgh, Midlothian

Bolton, Charles. Scotch Irish Pioneers in Ulster & America, Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. 1972. 

The Scotch Irish migration of Presbyterians to Chester County [Pennsylvania] began in 1719 and thus came long after the English-Irish migration of Quakers which had begun in 1682.  These Presbyterians became of sufficient influence in Chester County in 1722 to obtain the name Donegal for their township. Chief among them at this time were:

James Galbraith, Senior and his sons Andrew, James and John

The place names in old Chester County, Pennsylvania, such as Derry, Donegal and Toboyne, suggest that the early emigrants came for the most part from lands west of the River Foyle. 

These pioneers built their log cabins in the pleasant meadows near John Galbraith's mill and in due time they gave of their prosperity to maintain a well-built "ordinary" or tavern, for which the same thrifty John obtained a license in 1726.  Here Rebecca, his daughter, was born, to become at the age of eighteen the wife of Colonel Ephraim Blaine whose untiring efforts as Commissary of Provisions kept body and soul together through the terrible winter at Valley Forge. Thus the Scotch Irsh of Donegal were to have their influence upon the greater events of the world.

The fine old church at Donegal became a center of religious influence. Its plain walls, high windows, and great gambrel roof symbolizes the plain manners and large hearts of its worshippers. Beneath the even turf within the graveyard wall these pioneers now lie, protected from the summer's heat by spruce and cedar.  The heirs of their blood and brain are building the great west, while strange hands trim the sod, and children with unfamiliar names play among the ancient head stones.  After the Galbraiths and their friends had moved westward or had become less dominant in their influence other men of the same race came into prominence, the Semples, Anderson, Lowreys, Pedans, Porters and Whitehills. 

Derry, early known as Spring Creek, received its first settlers about 1720. As the Scotch Irish began to increase in numbers a Presbyterian minister was needed, and in 1726 the Rev. James Anderson of Donegal gave one fifth of his time to Derry, and another fifth to Paxtang.

One of the founders of the church was James Galbraith whose father James had crossed the ocean, some say, as early as 1718. The younger James had fallen in love with Elizabeth Bertram, the daughter of a clergyman from Bangor, County Down, who came to the church at Derry.  Elizabeth's mother, Elizabeth Gillespie, tradition claimed, had a fine estate in Edinburgh.  James settled on Swatara Creek, next to the farm of three hundred and fifty acres which the Derry people had deeded to their minister upon his arrival. Here a prosperous farm and grist-mill brought food and clothing for James's growing family and for his aged father, who came to dwell under his roof.  

Home Towns of Ulster Families, 1691-1718

Since the ministers of dissenting congregations had little or no legal standing during the earliest years of the emigration to New England their records of births, marriages and death do not appear to have been preserved, except in isolated cases.  But the records of presbytery and synod were kept with great care and the latter have been printed to the year 1820.  They give the name of the ruling elder of each congregation for the year of the general synod, and often the names of commissioners sent to the synod to represent local interests. Names of witnesses in cases which came before the synod also help to establish the home towns of Presbyterian families. Names of Ulster towns are usually given here as they are spelled in the records.  A complete list of Irish townlands was printed at Dublin in 1861 under the title "Census of Ireland. Index to townlands and Towns, Parishes and Baronies."

Galbreath, Capt. Robert commissioner 1710 - Summer-hill, Fermanagh   
Galbreath, Capt. Robert ruling elder 1706 - Killeshandra, Cavan

History of Cumberland & Adams Counties, Pennsylvania, Chicago: Warner, Beers & Company, 1886: 

Lisburn - Lying in a loop of the Yellow Breeches Creek, in the extreme south, is Lisburn, the oldest village in the township [Lower Allen Township].  The portion of it north of the public road was laid out 120 years ago by Gerard Erwin, and that part south of the road in 1785 by Alexander Frazer and James Oren. . . . Among the more prominent men connected in early days with the history of this village were . . . James Galbraith . . . 

Of the above names, James Galbraith, the younger, settled in Donegal about the year 1719. He was an Indian trader, and commanded a company of rangers during the French & Indian war. He was also a member of the Assembly for a number of years. He moved to the Susquehanna, established a ferry below Paxtang, but shortly after purchased large tracts in Pennsborough (now Lower Allen) about the year 1761. He went into the Revolution, and was chosen lieutenant-colonel for Cumberland County, but on account of his great age was unable to continue active duty in the field.  He died Jun 11, 1787, aged eighty-three years. He left to his son Robert, a farm in Allen Township. His granddaughter by his son, Andrew, married Chief Justice Gibson.

Children:
John

Scotland, Selected Births & Baptisms, 1564-1950, Ancestry database:

• John bapt. 7/18/1731 New Kilpatrick, Dunbarton, s/o Archibald & Margaret (McNair) Galbraith 
• John bapt. 6/19/1732 Glasgow, Lanark s/o. William & Margaret (Glen) Galbraith 
• John bapt. 1/17/1735 Govan, Lanark s/o Isobell Galbraith

Updated August 14, 2020