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Hugh Ghormley
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root
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last modified
2007-05-25 23:59
The first known Ghormley to emmigrate to the United States.
- Hugh is mentioned in the History of the People of Iowa.
- According to this site, Hugh came to America in May 1759. Landed on Cape Cod, settled at Mifflin, ChesterCo with brother James before making their home in Cumberland County, near Carlisle. Hugh died in Cumberland County, Pa. or Greenfield, Ohio and was a soldier in the Revolution in 1777 under Capt. Wm. Blaine.
- According to this page, Hugh Ghormley was born on 2 March 1732 at Tyrone Co., Ulster, Ireland. He was the son of James Ghormley. Hugh Ghormley married Mary Catherine Covington (born 1736) in October 1756 at Tyrone Co., Ulster, Ireland. Hugh Ghormley died in November 1813 at Ohio, The source for this information states he died in Cumberland Co., Pennsylvania or Greenfield, Ohio. He came to America in May of 1759 landing on Cape Cod. He settled in Mifflin, Chester County, Pennsylvania with his brother James. They then moved to Cumberland County, near Carlisle. He was a soldier in the Revolution in 1777 under Capt. William Blaine. The citation for most of this informaiton is the WorldConnect Project, online worldconnect.rootsweb.com, downloaded 25 August 2001.
- According to this page, Hugh's father's name was James. There is, in fact, a source cited -- film number 446091, page 11, reference 44935. I'm not positive what those mean yet, but near as I can tell, this is a reference to a microfilm record of a Mormon individual in the recent past who stated that this was the case -- I certainly can't find any documentation that upholds this claim. Further searching reveals a second page that makes the same claim (that his father's name was James). This site cites a different file number -- 457366, pg 151-300, 16 Oct 1958. It is possible (likely?) that the two individuals making these two claims are related, so this doesn't necessarily count as corroborating evidence.
- According to this page, Hugh's father was James whose father may have been born in Scotland and who may have come to America in 1730. "James Ghormley is the beginning of our line, born in Ireland. All his immediate family born in Ireland. Ghormley is of Irish origin. The ancient Donegal family first appeared in Donegal, Ireland in the year, 1100. Another report says that Ghormley is Scottish. It is told that Mr. John Ghormley, father of Mr. James Ghormley, was born in Scotland, emigrated from Scotland to Wales and from Wales to Novia Scotia, then to Massachusetts, arriving there November 5, 1730. It is believed that Mr. James Ghormley had a son, Hugh I. Ghormley, who went to Pennsylvania, and Hugh I. Ghormley had a son Abraham who left Pennsylvania and went to Chillicothe, Ohio and settled on Abrams Creek."
- According to this page, Hugh's occupation was a weaver. This other site corroborates that point, saying that he had a carpet-weaving establishment in Ohio.
- According to this page, Hugh landed at Cape Cod from Ireland in 1759, was in the tax list for Chester Co., PA for 1765, was in the tax list for Cumberland Co., PA for 1771, served as Private in 4th Co., 7th Battalion, PA Militia under Capt. Wm Blaine in 1777, is in the 1790 in census in Rye Township, Cumberland Co., PA, and is in the 1800 in census in Rye Township, Cumberland Co., PA.
- According to this page, Hugh's wife, Mary Catherine Covington, lived from 1736 (aprox)-April 1803. She died in Millers Township, Perry, PA. It also claims her father was born in approx. 1711 in Tyrone, Ulster Province, Ireland.
- This page puts Hugh's birthplace at
Omagh,Tyrone Co,Up,Ireland.
- While little regarding the original Hugh Ghormley who arrived in the new world was recorded by my branch of the family (all we knew was that he was in the 1790 census, was the first to come over, and came from either Scotland or Ireland), a few web searches has revealed a few more tidbits which I will record here. Who am I -- Douglas Phillip Ghormley, b. 27 Nov 1969, m. 6 July 1991, writing on 3 Jan 2002 in Tijeras, NM.
Hugh Ghormley was born in Tyrone County, Ulster Provience, Ireland, on 2 March (one account out there says May, but everybody else says March) 1732 or 1733. This tidbit, however, may resolve the year question -- "Early records of the Presbyterians, who are excellent document keepers, show that Hugh Ghormley was born in Tyrone County, Ireland, On March 2, 1733". It appears his father's name was James Ghormley and that he also had a brother named James. He married Mary Catherine Covington in October, 1757 (although 2 accounts (one of which is the most complete) say 1756) in Tyrone County, Ireland. Their first child Abraham Ghormley was born on 26 Dec 1758 in Omagh, Tyrone, Ireland -- Abraham appears to have returned to Ireland after his parents came to America because all accounts I've seen state that he married in Ireland.
Hugh and Catherine came to America in May 1759 (Catherine had a 5 month old child and was 2 months pregnant), landed at Cape Cod and settled at Mifflin, Chester County, with brother James. The earliest known record of them is the tax list for Chester County, Pennsylvania for 1765. They then moved to Cumberland County, near Carlisle, PA and appear on the tax record there for 1771.
Hugh served in the American Revolution in 1777 under Captain William Blaine in the 17th batallion as a Private 4th class for the PA militia. Hugh is in the 1790 census, registering in Rye Township with 7 males and 3 females, including parents. In 1800, the family was apparently in Chillicothe, PA -- there may be a census record of this, too, I don't know.
Hugh died in Nov 1813 in Greenfield, OH at the ripe old age of 80. Early vague family documents imply that he was living with his son Thomas at the time. Hugh is buried in the Old Stone Cemetery in Ross County, Hop Run, OH. Hop Run no longer appears to be a city in Ohio, but it may have been in the immediate vicinity of Greenfield because of this tidbit: "Greenfield church was organized June 24th, 1820 with sixty members, twenty five of whom were former members of the Hop Run Church. The first elders were Elijah Kirkpatrick, Wilson Stewart and Hugh Ghormley [not the original Hugh, either his son or grandson]. Rev. Samuel Crothers was their first minister. It was subject to the Chillicothe Presbytery at its formation." It's also possible that Hop Run was never the name of a town, just the name of the church. I was able to locate a cemetery in Ross County, Ohio named "Old Stone Cemetery" at a web site called www.findagrave.com. It lists the cemetery as located at GPS coordinates Latitude: 39.3428, Longitude: -83.3689. Greenfield, OH is listed at 39.35, 83.38, so that's probably right.
The book "The Ghormley Story" by Carmen Ghormley says this regarding resting sites: "Where Hugh I and Catherine are buried is not known for certain. Every cemetery where they could have possibly have been buried has been searched but with no success. Catherine and Michael would both have been buried in Pennsylvania and there are two possible sites, but neither give any clue. If they were buried in a cemetery it would have been the "Dick's Gap Cemetery." It was the closest one to the home when Michael died and if he were buried there it is logical, Catherine would have been placed beside him if possible. Historians and old settlers agree that the weather would have had a bearing on the possible burial places. If the weather was bad or the time of death was winter, they would not have gone far afield. So Catherine could have been buried on the farm. If she was buried on the farm there is no marker today to show the place. That was one hundred sixty years ago and much clearing, changing of land and erosion have taken place, so if her grave is there and was marked, time has destroyed it. We know Michael died in the month of May so he could have been buried either place."
A word-of-mouth rumor from my branch of the family (which is not mentioned in any other records I've seen) states that Hugh came to America with two other brothers and that the immigration department made three different errors while processing their paperwork, thus leading to the different spellings of Ghormley, Gormley, and Gormly (I believe those are the three) in America. I have no idea whether this is true, but it is plausible. - If you do a search on Google today (11 Feb 2006) for various forms of our name along with the word "Ireland", you get drastically different numbers of hits:
It seems most likely that Hugh's family originally spelled their name as "Gormley".Search term number of hits Ghormley Ireland 755 Gormley Ireland 289,000 Gormly Ireland 11,900 OGormley Ireland 36 OGormly Ireland 0