1937 Family Genealogy Document
by
Thomas Harrison McKnight Sr.

Containing family names of:
McKnight, Hutchinson, Lancaster, Sprott, Bothwell, Singleton, Giles

Transcribed by Thomas Harrison McKnight III
grandson of Thomas Harrison McKnight Sr.
on 12/29/1996 in Margate, Florida.
We are not absolutely sure this document was by Thomas Harrison McKnight Sr.
We believe this was written in 1937 due to a comment on the age of a Bible in that year.
This document is currently in the possesion of myself, T.H.Mc.III.

MCKNIGHT
==========
Francis Harrison McKnight
born: July 22, 1814
died: Nov. 5, 1880
Family came from near Edinburgh, Scotland,
but born in N.C. then moved to Sumter
county, Alabama.
(Note: We now know Francis H. McKnight was born in Bolivar, Tennessee)
Married: Mar. 6. 1844 to Susan Ann Hutcherson
Born: July, 1, 1822 in Orange Co., Va.
Died: July 1, 1889
Children: (only ones know)
William Thomas
Arabella

William Thomas McKnight
Born June 17, 1846 at Mt. Hebron, Alabama
Died: Sept. 28, 1922 in Memphis, Tennessee
Married:July 19, 1871 at Gaston, Ala. to
Margaret Jane Sprott
born: May 2, 1848
died: June 22, 1919
Children: Thomas Harrison
Mary
Robert Sprott
Samuel Sprott

The early McKnights came to this country from Edinburgh, Scotland and settled, its is thought in N.C. Which one started this line is not known by us but it is believed to be the father of Francis Harrison McKnight. (Note: From 1921 Tenn. Civil War Veterans questionaire, we now know Francis Harrison McKnight was born in Boliver, Tennessee) It is thought that Francis was born near Edinburgh but if so, then he journeyed to this country with his parents at an early age to N.C., where it is believed he spent his youth. There he married Susan Hutcherson, after which they moved into Tennessee, then on down to Sumter County, Ala., where he became a planter of consequence. His son, William Thomas, was born at Mt. Hebron and joined the Confederate army at 17. He served throughout the war with General Forrest as a member of Armistead's Cavalry, Company H. Several years after the war, he married Margaret Sprott and lived at Clinton, Miss. Then he moved to Livingston, Alabama, where he lived for 23 years. In 1892 he moved to Memphis, Tennessee for five years, after which he moved back to York, Ala where he continued general merchandising. After the death of his wife he lived with one of his sons and died in Memphis in 1922.

I have no other definite information on the McKnight family, but wish I did. I do have additional data on the Macnaughton clan in Scotland from which we are certain to have originated but nothing authenticated beyond Francis Harrison McKnight and his arrival in this country.

On the following page (over) is the remaining data on collateral families, which, of course, you will want.


(((Page two, on back of page one)))

HUTCHERSON, HUTCHINSON
======================
(I have never been sure that this name shoud be spelled "er" rather than "in")
(Note: Proper spelling is Hutchinson, with IN and not ER, based on 1840 Sumter County Census)

William (or Archie?) married Sallie Read Wharton?
Children: Archie Lucretia Patsy
Thomas Mollie Betsy Rice
Mordecai Susan Ann Sallie
(?George?)-Washington
Nancy Ann (1780-1857)
Washington born Dec. 12, 1816 in Orange Co. Virginia
married on Dec. 12, 1816 to Elizabeth Lancaster.
( I have a copy of their marriage bond)
children: Susan Ann is the only name I have here.
She was born July 1, 1822 &
died July1 1, 1899
From the 92 year old family Bible (this was in 1937) in the possession of Mrs. Wm. Haguewood (Sudie Giles), we learn the following:
1. when each of Washington Hutcherson's daughters married, he gave them a Bible, a clock, a chest of draweres, and a family of negros.
2. (re-iteration of above data)
Susan Ann Hutcherson was born near Fredericksburg, Virginia. She came with her parents in a colony of 100 white people and their servants to Mt. Hebron, Ala., where they arrived in Sept., 1837. Frances Harrison McKnight rode a horse along side the wagon in the same company and seven years later married her.
 Click here for more Hutchinson information.



LANCASTER
===========
Richard---born ?, died in 1815.
Married 1768 or 1769 to Joanah Singleton.
Children: Elizabeth
Benjamn James John
Jonathon Mason Larkin
Bartlett Thomas Richard

The legend has come down through the years that the father of Joanah Singleton gave her weight in gold when she married as a dowry. Richard Lancaster was a member of the Orange Militia in the Revolutionary War. His oldest son, Benjamin married Ann Hutcherson, daughter of Wm. Hutcherson, on Dec. 23, 1800 and was in the War of 1812. His daughter, Elizabeth was born in Orange County, Virginia in 1785 and was the 4th child. In the fall of 1837 or 38, she moved with her husband and children to Sumter County, Alabama where she died may years later at the age of 70. She was a member of the Mt. Hebron Baptist church.
Click here for more Lancaster information.



SPROTT
========
James-- born 1754 and died Dec. 8, 1846
Married Margaret Hamilton who was born in 1764 and died Dec. 8, 1846.
Children: John Henry
James Samuel
Margaret Jane
Robert
Robert--born Aug. 1808 and died Aug. 1862.
Married in 1831 or 1832 to Mary Bothwell who was born in 1807 and died Nov. 21, 1882.
Children: Mary, James and John were born in Ireland en route to America.
Samuel H. Alexander L.
Louise E. Maragret Jane
Little is know of the father of James Sprott. In 1745 however, he became involved in the rebellion of Charles Edward, pretender to the throne. During this struggle, he lay concealed in a cave in the side of a ditch for six months. After the disasterous battle of Culloden, he was forced to flee the country, and went to County Down in the north of Ireland, where his family remained for two and a half generations. Here James Sprott was born and later married Margaret Hamilton. This couple live to be 92 and 82 respectively and died on the same day within hours of ecah other.
Robert, his son, was born in County Down and married Mary Bothwell there, and this is where his first three children were born. In 1839 he moved his family to America, going first to Philadelphia, where he joined his brother Samuel (who had preceeded him by 10 years) and they remained there for two years. They then went to Sumter County, Alabama, where he was a farmer until his death, though he was not a success in that business.
Margaret Jane was born in Sumter County, and met her future husband when they both attended the Mississippi Women's College at Columbus, Miss., and was one of the earliest graduates of that Female Academy.
Click here for more Sprott information.


-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
References:
Ida M. Stallworth--Cuba, Ala. (D.A.R. lineage)
Mrs. Wilbur Curry--Memphis, Tenn.
Sprotts Records and Folder--Ala. State Historical Dept.
Montgomery, Ala.
Mrs. W.F. Moore--Vredenburg, Ala.
Mrs. Wm. Haguewood's family Bible.
Mrs. Charles Vernor's family Bible.
Benjamin Hutcherson's family Bible in possession of Stallsworth.
McKnight Bible--T.H.McKnight, Memphis, Tenn.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

BOTHWELL
========
Authur married Mary Adams who died at age 75.
children: James Alexander
Elizabeth Ellen
Sarah Mary
The ancestors of Mary Bothwell were from Bothwell's Ridge (Bridge?) a spot konwn in Scotch history for the battle of that name of 1679, and were descended from James Hepburn, Lord Bothwell, who eloped with Mry, Queen of Scots, and was married to her by Rev. John Craig. Like the Sprott family, Arthur Bothwell was of the Clan Douglas and fought in the Battle of Culloden on the side of the Pretender. He to escaped to the north of Ireland and settled in County Down. Arthur Bothwell died comparatively young, through his wife lived to be 75. In 1831 or 1832 their daughter Mary married Robert Sprott and moved to America with him in 1838. In 1840 she and her husband and first two children who had been born in Ireland, settled in Sumter County, Ala. She lost her husband in 1862 during the Civil War, to which she also contributed her three sons to the Confederate Cause. She died at 75 at the home of her son-in-law, W.T. McKnight, in Livingston, Alabama.

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