DAVID PAGAN
Revolutionary War Soldier
This one may ruffle some feathers but here goes! I can't find accurate genealogy for this dude at all. We run into this kinda thing frequently. Elaborate genealogies that seem so detailed that everyone copies them until no one can remember the source. As far as I can tell someone completely fabricated parents for him, and every other descendant has just been copying the same garbage. It started with a DAR or SAR applicant! I have no idea how they became the gold standard for genealogist. I have found just as many mistakes in the trees submitted to them as anywhere else. Some of the trees I run into say he's the son of William Pagan and Margaret Maxwell but that is 100% wrong. William Pagan and Margaret Maxwell did have a son named David Pagan, who was born on December 15, 1841 but he died in Glasgow on November 16, 1764. As a matter of fact, there is a Testament Dative for that David that clearly names him as "the son of William Pagan, sugar boiler". Some have him as a son of William Pagan and Ann Scott, which is also 100% wrong. First let me just say that William Pagan married Ann Scott on June 3, 1750 and for those that need reminding.......David was supposedly born around 1745. Also, David Pagan, son of William and Ann, was born September 6, 1753 and died April 27, 1773. He is buried in Glasgow Cathedrals Old Burial Ground. Whew, we got that out of the way!
I have gone through the Scottish parish records and there are only three David Pagan baptisms from 1730-1760 that couldn't be accounted for in the burial records there. Keep in mind that not all baptisms were recorded during this time period. Some children may have been born out of wedlock, some of their families may have been dissenters, or maybe they were actually born somewhere else. Below is the list of baptisms.
1. David Pagan s/o David Pagan and Jean Gebbie baptized on February 12, 1755 in Glasgow
2. David Pagan s/o Archibald and Agnes Pagan baptized on November 10, 1754 Dumfries
3. David Pagan s/o William Pagan and Agnes Robson on January 29, 1730 Glasgow
I guess the basic information everyone has for David of Franklin Virginia, was derived from his Revolutionary War pension application. It sums up very little. David Pagan, according to his widow, was a Scotsman by birth. There is no age given for him in the pension application, so where did that come from? Robert Johnson, who was 81 in 1846, states that David was a Scotsman that came to America as a convict.
One biography actually says that he was born in Scotland c1745 and moved to France where he studied at the University of Paris (he signed with an X in one chancery deposition) and lived at Hesse Castle (did they mean Hesse-Kassel?) in Prussia. While in Prussia he joined the Hessian Army to fight for the British against the colonies. After all this, he deserted the Hessian Army and decided to join and fight for America.
I don't like completely ruling family histories out without a source one way or the other but that biography seems..............embellished.
David Pagans mark
David Pagan was born at least by 1755 because he married his first wife Elizabeth Ferrell before May 18, 1776 in Bedford County, Virginia. At a meeting of the South River Meeting House by the Society of Friends, Elizabeth Pagan was disowned from the church for marrying outside of it.
Elizabeth Ferrell was probably born in North or South Carolina. William Ferrell, father of Elizabeth, was a sort of traveling Quaker minister and as such he is found in the records of Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. He married Martha Cox on September 26, 1744 at Kennett Meeting House in Chester County, Pennsylvania.
William Ferrell seems to be everywhere after his marriage: Warrenton, York Pa, Carvers Creek, NC, Cane Creek, NC, Frederickburg Township, SC. This makes it a little harder to pin down where all his children were born. His final move was to Bedford Virginia.
On February 14 1762, William Ferrell wrote to the Bedford Virginia Society of Friends asking to permission to relocate from Fredericksburg Township, South Carolina to their meeting house with his wife Martha and their children who had not reached adulthood yet.
He was disowned in 1772 because of a disagreement between him and other parties at the South River Meting House in Bedford, now Campbell. He was restored and all were ordered to keep the peace. However, it looks like most of his children were disowned because of unacceptable marriages.
Back to David Pagan..................................
David Pagan's name pops up in a couple of chancery suits in Bedford, Franklin and Lynchburg City. The suits were all about land he supposedly had received from his father-in-law, William Ferrell, upon his marriage to Elizabeth in 1776. It's in these suits that we learn the names of the children (still living) who were born to him and Elizabeth, namely: Margaret, wife of Adam Carson, Sally, wife of Lewis Speece, Mary Smith, and Joseph Pagan.
In 1778 he enlisted with Gen George Rogers Clark's Virginia Regiment for the Illinois Campaign. General Clark had taken control of the village of Kaskaskia, Vincennes the year prior but lost it shortly afterwards to British lieutenant governor Henry Hamilton. In 1779 General Clark and his troops retook the town. According to his pension application (which was filed long after his death) he had taken his new wife with him and that was where she died.
In 1792 he was back in Bedford County Virginia because he is in the personal property tax digest for that year. He afterwards moved to Franklin County, Virginia where on October 8, 1795 he married Mary Carter, the widow of Edward Harman. They had at least four children whose names are: Pheobe, John, George and Carter. The names of the children are taken from the Last Will and Testament of Mary Carter Pagan recorded in Franklin County in 1847.
David Pagan died in about 1815 in Franklin County Virginia, which is the information his widow supplied to the pension office when applying for his pension.
Once again, he was not a son of either William Pagan and Margaret Maxwell or William Pagan and Ann Scott. It goes without saying but the Merchants of Glasgow were educated and signed their own name to all their transactions.
Below are the transcripts of both David son of William and Margaret (Maxwell) Pagan and David son of William and Ann (Scott) Pagan.
David Pagan, who was a son of William Pagan and Margaret Maxwell worked along with his family in the shipping and mercantile business. On May 3, 1764 he contracted to buy land from a certain Bryan Bruin of Frederick County Va. At the time, he and his partner Thomas Francis, were based in St Mary's Maryland (probably at the store of his Uncle John Pagan of Greenock). Not long after this transaction there was a disagreement amongst the parties, and it ended up in Frederick Chancery. In 1788 the chancery suit was dismissed because both David Pagan and Thomas Francis were dead (David had died Nov 16, 1764). In 1824, his unwed sisters, Maxwell and Janet Pagan left legacies to the heirs of their siblings and their brother David had no issue.
Letter informing friends of David Pagan's death
MY VERY DEAR MARY, Glasgow, 21st Nov. 1764
" It is comfortable to your Papa and me to hear that you now have your health better. I entreat you to take care of yourself now and do nothing that may cause you to lose it again. Health is very precious, and we would give a great deal sometimes for it when we cannot obtain it. Mr. Campbell will acquaint you that Mr. Pagan died Friday last, and was buried yesterday, to the great grief' of that family. He was an honest hearted fine youth. Lady William-wood died Sabbath last and is interred this day. She wanted several months of David Pagan's age. To be sure, the language of these dispensations of Providence is, 'Be ye also ready.' Oh! Mary, this is a vain world; much of the vanity of it have I seen; I have met with disappointments from every quarter where I wanted to turn my eyes for rest. They have, indeed, proved an Egyptian reed that has pierced me when leaning on them. I would, therefore, now fain be at saying, ' Return to thy rest, 0 my soul,' even to God as in Christ, as thy only portion. And what a mercy is it, that there is room in his covenant, even for backsliding children, and for those that have played the harlot with many lovers !
My kind love to Mr. Gray and Peggie, in which we all join. My dear Mary,
Your affectionate Mamma,
JEAN ERSKINE.
Burial records for David son of William Pagan and Margaret Maxwell
This one is the burial record for David Pagan son of William and Ann Scott
