JOHN PRSTON and ELIZABETH PATTON

Ann,

Researching in Ireland in the 1700s is very hard going due to the general lack of records. Ideally you need to know the person’s exact denomination and the townland or parish they lived in to have any chance of finding them, and even then there may not be any records for that location.

In this case your understanding is that the Preston family lived in Limavady. That’s in the parish of Drumachose. You haven’t said what denomination they were but no denomination in Drumachose has any records there for c 1722. The earliest are the Church of Ireland’s which start in 1728 (Marriages) and 1730 (baptisms & burials). If your family were Church of Ireland and had children born in Ireland post 1730 you could search those records to see if you can find them. However my feeling is that both families will have been Presbyterian. The names are Scottish and looking at the 1901 census of the county, all the Prestons were Presbyterian and most of the Pattons were too. There are no Presbyterian church records for Drumachose in the 1700s at all.

I don’t recognise “Burncranack” and can’t suggest where that townland might be. There’s a Burnally near Limavady. That’s about the nearest I can find.

The timing of the family’s departure from Ireland coincides very much with the start of the big Presbyterian migration from Ireland. (Some 200,000 people, mainly Presbyterian, left Ireland for North America during the 1700s, starting in a significant way in 1718). So your family was evidently part of that. Here’s a link to a site with a bit of background explaining the drivers behind that migration:

http://www.1718migration.org.uk/s_whyTheyLeft.asp

Most of the Presbyterians would have been descendants of Scots who settled in the county in the 1600s, so it’s likely that your 2 families had probably only been in Ireland for a couple of generations or so. In North America they are often called Scotch-Irish, and here in Ireland we tend to call them Ulster-Scots.

I had a look in the 1630 Muster Rolls for Co Derry. There were no Preston families in the county then. So possibly they hadn’t yet arrived in Ireland. There were 2 Pattons (Alexander on the Haberdashers Estate and Robert on the Phillips Estate).

Possibly DNA testing may be a way of matching with others who have additional information about where the family originate. Family Tree DNA reportedly has more people with Ulster roots than any other company. That obviously increases the chances of finding a match. You might want to try them or, if you have already tested, you can transfer your results to them for no fee.

The North of Ireland Family History Society is running an Ulster DNA project and can offer FTDNA testing kits at a reduced price.  http://www.nifhs.org (Go to DNA project on the website).

Many thanks Elwyn. Yes they were Presbyterians and, I believe, Scots.

Hello, Ann,

I just today saw your post about Elizabeth PATTON and John PRESTON. I have already met this couple. Below are my notes from RootsMagic for Elizabeth.

Sincerely,
Linda (Patton) Reverchon

Source for Elizabeth PATTON, daughter of Henry and Sarah PATTON of the Barony of Kilmacrenan, Co. Donegal: The work by Dr. David V. Agricola, Pattons of Ireland, Patton Lineages of Scots-Irish Derivation which were resident in Ulster c. 1600- c. 1800. A Patton Compendium, Sections 8-14, PDF page 27 (available in PDF on the Internet).
She was born on 25 Dec. 1700 at Burncrannack [can't find such a place], Co. Donegal. She eloped with a John PRESTON, and they went to live at his home in Newtown-Limavady in Londonderry. In 1738 they moved to Virginia, accepting an offer from her brother [Col.] James PATTON for 4000 acres. They had many children born both in Ireland and in America.

From History of Augusta County, Virginia, by J. Lewis Peyton (Samuel M. Yost and Son, Staunton, Virginia, 1882):
"John Preston, who married a sister of Col. [James] Patton, also belonged to this congregation, ... " [Page 107, sometime after 1736].
"The paterfamilias or original emigrant was John Preston, who was buried in Tinkling Spring Cemetery. He was a native of county Derry, Ireland, and married Miss Elizabeth Patton, of county Donegal. They had five children, all born before emigration. They came to America in 1740, and purchased large possessions in Virginia. …" [Page 383].

Fishersville, and its Tinkling Spring area, are in modern Augusta County. The church in question was Presbyterian, according to the Wikipedia site for Fishersville.

Fiona Pegrum, a professional genealogist working in Northern Ireland, has done work on this branch. She has posted at Ancestry.com her Donegal PATTON tree, which I have saved in four PDFs:"PATTON tree at Ancestry of Fiona Pegrum (as of 6Jul2020) 1", ...2,...3, and ...4. For Elizabeth she shows b. 1695 d. 1787 and a husband named John PRESTON.