| Notes |
- Interestingly, the Knox-DNA project evidence also now excludes John Knox, b. 1708, Knox DNA Project Line [#8], from sharing a common ancestor with Robert or Patrick Knox since 1500 AD. This "John Knox" is "old" John Knox, b. 1708 - d. 1758, who is buried at Thyatira, who m. Jean/Jane/Jeane Gracie/Gracey/Gracy, and who is said to have been the father of Capt James Knox. There are actually three genetically disconnected groups of Knoxes in this study who claim kinship with Captain James Knox, grandfather of President Polk. Obviously, they can't all be correct. I suspect that two of these lines believe they are connected because of Miss Hattie S. Goodman's book, "The Knox Family, compiled and published in 1905.
(Source: Peggy Bruckner)
John Knox, immigrant, was born in Scotland about 1708, possibly in Renfrewshire. He went from Scotland to Coleraine, Ireland where he married Jean Gracy, an Irish Presbyterian. Jean Gracy’s mother was Jean Sinclair, a relative of the mother of John Knox, the Reformer. About 1740, John Knox, his wife Jean, brother-in-law Patrick Gracy and others emigrated to America. The crossing took three months because of unfavorable winds and they ran short of water and provisions. The Knoxes may have first settled in Pennsylvania before going to Rowan County, North Carolina. John Knox bought 600 acres on the south side of Third Creek for 37.10.
John and Jean Knox had seven sons and one daughter. They were William, Samuel, James, Absalom, John, Joseph, Benjamin and Mary. All of the sons took part in the revolution and one son, James, was the grandfather of President James K. Polk. John Knox died October 12, 1758, when he was 50 years old and Jean Gracy Knox died September 18, 1772, at age 64.
John Knox Jr. married Hannah Reid and raised eight children. Their names were Mary, Jane, George, Francis, Margaret, Robert, Ann and John. John Knox Jr. served in the Revolutionary War. A family story tells of a time when he was in charge of a commissary wagon. While he was fleeing from the British, he lost a clevis pin from his wagon. Quickly, he snatched a bridle from one of the rear horses and tied it in place. John Knox Jr. died in 1802 and his wife Hannah died in 1793.
Mary Knox was born in the early 1760’s in Rowan County, North Carolina. She married Benjamin Brandon, a Revolutionary War veteran, on February 6, 1790. Their children were Jesse, Benjamin K., Eliza, Fannie, Gideon, Jane, Levi G. and John. Benjamin and Mary (or Polly) left Rowan County, North Carolina for Tennessee in 1804. They left Tennessee in 1808 for Miami County, Ohio, where both died. Benjamin died on May 5, 1837, and Mary followed him about 1850.
A descendant of Mary Knox Brandon said of her: "She was a most excellent woman, and one whose memory is still bright with us. She raised my grandfather Brandon (Armstrong Brandon, brother-in-law of Mary) who was deprived of both of his parents at an early age, and to him she was indeed a mother." Mary was a pensioner after Benjamin’s death because of his service in the Revolution.
(Source: The Knox and Brandon Families by Christa Chaney Barton
and The Knox Family by Hattie S. Goodman)
Whittet and Shepperson; Richmond, Va. 1905
The exact locality of his birthplace is not certainly known. Some of
the descendents on two different branches have it by tradition that
Renfrewshire was his native place. He went from Scotland to Ireland
with other Scot emigrants, by invitation of the King of England, to
constitute a balance of power against the insurgent Irish Catholics.
He married an Irish Presbyterian wife, Miss Jean Gracy, whose mother's
name was Jean Sinclair, a relative of the mother of John Knox, the
Reformer, who was a Sinclair. They emigrated to America from
Coleraine, (Londonderry), Ireland about 1740, in company with his
brother-in-law, Patrick Gracy, and others. It is thought that he
first settled in PA before coming south to Carolina. He was one of
the early settlers of Rowan Co., NC. He bought six hundred acres of
land on the south side of Third Creek for 37 lbs and 10 shillings,
which land had been granted by Earl Granville to James Stuart.
We know very little of the life and character of this ancestor, John
Knox. An old paper gotten up and signed by several of his neighbors
or friends as a certificate of recommendation "to show as he traveled
southerly, selling some of his horses," certifies that he was a man of
worth and integrity.
We are informed by the family of "Knox the Hatter" that they have old
letters and papers which show that the Knox family from Glasgow and
Edinburgh and from the North of Ireland, are of one family, and were
persecuted on account of their religion, some of them having to leave
their homes in the night. Coleraine, where, as we have it, our Knox
people came from, is in the extreme north of Ireland.
Toward the end of the seventeenth century the disputes between the
Presbyterian's, or Covenanter's, and the representatives of the church
of England were marked with great intolerance, to which was added the
Stuart uprising. Many of a peace-loving Scotchman grew weary of such
continual strife, and began to seek freedom of conscience and other
blessings in the American colonies of the new world.
(Source: The Knox Family, A Genealogical and Biographical Sketch of
the Descendants of John Knox of Rowan County, North Carolina, By
Hattie S. Goodman)
In the old Thyatira Church graveyard, Rowan CO., among the old graves
we find a small tombstone, now overgrown with moss, and blackened with
age, bearing the following inscription:
John Knox
died October 12, 1758, (b. 1708)
age 50 years
Also
Jean Knox, his wife,
died September 18,
1772, age 64." (b. (1708)
Seven of John and Jean Gracy Knox' children ( 7 sons and 1 daughter)
are buried in the same Church Cemetery as are they, in the Thyatira
Presbyterian Church Cemetery. The old records of the church were
destroyed by fire in 1826.
Listed in The Battle of King's Mountain are:
Knox, Benjamin
Knox, James
Knox, Robert
Knox, Samuel
(Possible son's of John & Jean Gracy Knox)
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1708 - 1758 (49 years)