WEIR - Early Nutfield Settler

The Governor Shute Petition for Nutfield

[Note:  I will be doing a series of genealogical sketches on the early Nutfield settlers in advance of the 300th anniversary of Nutfield for Founders Day, April 12 - 14, 2019 in Derry, New Hampshire.  If you have additional notes on the first few generations of this family, please comment below or send me an email at vrojomit@gmail.com, and I will edit this sketch.  These sketches will be used and distributed to the public and to descendants at the Founders Day activities.]

WEIR – Descendants of Nutfield Settler Robert Weir

Alternative spellings WEIR / WEAR / WARE

Robert Weir, a Scots Irish settler from Northern Ireland, arrived in New England with the Rev. James McGregor in 1718.  This group of Ulster Scots first went to Casco in Maine, but spent a miserable winter there.  In the spring they went up the Merrimack River to Haverhill.  Robert Weir and James Gregg petitioned the Governor of Massachusetts for permission to settle on land fifteen miles north of Haverhill in New Hampshire.  He was one of the sixteen men who accompanied Rev. McGregor to see the land, which they called “Nutfield”.  The New Hampshire general court called them (24 September 1719) “a company of Irish at Nutfield”.  In 1722 this land was chartered as Londonderry.   Robert Weir became the first sheriff of Londonderry.  His lot was adjacent to the meetinghouse and Robert MacGregor’s lot.

Robert Weir was born about 1682 in Northern Ireland and died 1726 in Londonderry, New Hampshire.  He was married to Martha Reid (?) about 1706 in Ireland. 

Children: 

      1.       John, born about 1700 in Northern Ireland, died in Warrington Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania; married to an unknown spouse. Three sons:  Samuel, Hugh and James

      2.       Robert, born in Northern Ireland, died after 1789 in Sevier County, Tennessee.  Married to Rebecca Carrell in 1740 in Northampton, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  Children:  John (married Nancy Moore), Samuel (married Polly Thompson and Margaret Gilliland), Rebecca (married John Moore and Robert Lowry), and Elizabeth.  Buried at the Fort Wear Cemetery in Tennessee.

      3.       Elizabeth, born in Londonderry 4 November 1723 [Vital Records of Londonderry, New Hampshire, 1719 – 1910]. She married William Thone. Children:  Agnes, Jennet, John, William, Samuel, Isaac, and Benjamin

      4.       James, married Jane.  Children:  Robert (married Mary Walker), Jane (married Thomas Kelso), Hannah (married Edward Hay), John, Mary (married Robert Flack in Pennsylvania), and Ann.    

      5.       William

For more information:

Notable Southern Families, by Zella Armstrong, 1918, Volume 1, pages 16 – 19.

Scotch Irish Pioneers in Ulster and America, by Charles Knowles Bolton, 1910, pages 248,  264

“Scotch Irish Settlers in New Hampshire, 1719 – 1776”, by William Copely, in Historical New Hampshire, New Hampshire Historical Society, Volume 50, pages 213 – 228.

Clan Douglas Society of North America (septs Blackwood and Weir)

http://clandouglassociety.org/weir/     

Click here for links to the sketches of all sixteen first Nutfield settlers: 
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/p/nutfields-first-16-settlers.html 

---------------------------

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "WEIR - Early Nutfield Settler", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 26, 2019, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/01/weir-early-nutfield-settler.html: accessed [access date]).