{"id":3229,"date":"2012-02-20T13:31:23","date_gmt":"2012-02-20T18:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/?page_id=3229"},"modified":"2014-04-15T10:02:50","modified_gmt":"2014-04-15T15:02:50","slug":"introduction-wilson","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/?page_id=3229","title":{"rendered":"Introduction: Wilson"},"content":{"rendered":"

By
\nLarry Pearce
\n<\/code>2\/20\/12 & 4\/10\/14<\/p>\n

As I plan to write these family introductions, I always ask myself whom I think of when I hear the name of the family. In this case, \u201cMr. Wilson\u201d was a friendly supporting character in the Dennis the Menace <\/em>series. Then there were Presidents \u201cWoodrow Wilson\u201d and \u201cRonald Wilson Reagan.\u201d When my grandfather Gray lost his farm during the Great Depression, his neighbors, the \u201cWilsons,\u201d agreed to take in some of his children, temporarily. Grandpap worked hard and eventually got his property and his family back. All these Wilsons have a positive image in my mind, and so it is with the three Wilson families about which this article deals: Henry Moon (Pearce-associated family\/PAF b. before 1760) married Mrs. Sarah Wilson<\/a>; James Wilson, Sr. (PAF b. 1704) married Jean ___ )b. 1721);\u00a0and John Anderson (Gray-associated family b. 1731) married Elizabeth Wilson<\/a> (date unknown). We\u2019ll learn more about these ancestors and the origins of the name \u201cWilson.\u201d Of course, what would an introduction be if we didn\u2019t list some of the other famous Wilsons in the world and other possible relatives in early America.<\/p>\n

Wilson is said to be the most common surname in Northern Ireland, from where most of our Wilsons came, as you\u2019ll see in a minute. In all of the United Kingdom, Wilson is the seventh most popular and eighth in the United States. It comes from the mediaeval name \u201cWill,\u201d meaning \u201cdesire.\u201d Add the Germanic \u201cHelm,\u201d short for \u201chelmet,\u201d and it suggests the desire to protect. Obviously, in English, \u201cWilson\u201d is \u201cthe son of Will.\u201d\u00a0 William has been the moniker of Kaisers and kings. No wonder variations of the names are so popular. The first recorded English use was in 1324 England as \u201cWilleson.\u201d In 1405 Scotland it was \u201cWulson.\u201d<\/p>\n

With such a popular name, to list all the famous Wilsons would be impossible here. Instead, I offer a link sponsored by America\u2019s own–who else–Wilson Sporting Goods: http:\/\/www.aspects.net\/~janus\/Wilson.htm<\/a>. These are arranged in alphabetical categories. As if that\u2019s not enough, here\u2019s the address of a trivia quiz site where you may register to take any of 1,924 short tests on Wilson topics: http:\/\/www.sploofus.com<\/a>. Just type “Wilson” in the search window after you sign in. Good luck!<\/p>\n

When I first began researching our Pearce-Wilson family patriarch, James, Sr., I found that he was born in the early 1700\u2019s. Upon Googling the name and seeing references to a James Wilson (b.1742), early American statesman, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Justice on the US Supreme Court, I became very excited to think of the possibilities, as you can imagine. Further reading on what Wikipedia calls \u201cdisambiguation,\u201d I found literally dozens of famous James Wilsons, politicians and government officials, military and revolutionary figures, sportsmen and others. I asked myself, \u201cWhere do I go from here?\u201d I discovered a site by Jenna Hawk that identified our James. She begins, \u201cJames Wilson [Sr.] was of Scottish descent and lived in Adams County, Pennsylvania.\u201d He was actually Scots-Irish, born in Londonderry County, moved to America about 1736, settled in Marsh Creek, and died in 1776, just after the start of the Revolutionary War. Despite being remembered as the second licensed land owner in western York County, now Adams County, he was labeled as a “squatter” and “unreasonable Creature” by the Penn family estate managers who had been given the undesirable task of evicting Scots-Irish immigrants who were there at the invitation of the Penn family in the first place. His will reveals, among other things, that he was a slave owner. At least one son, David, was a captain in that war, and David’s son became a Presbyterian minister. But, it\u2019s James, Jr. (b.1747) of Adams County in our Pearce-Hill-Jack line that we\u2019re interested in. He lived only 32 years, dying only three years after his father of a disease contracted during the war. He had married a daughter of the Jack family, which had also produced the wife in another parallel Pearce-associated family, the Coopers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

James Wilson, Jr. and wife Hettie Jack (b. 1753) produced Jane (b. 1777), or Jean in Scottish, and she married John Hill (b. 1765), my grandmother Bessie Hill Pearce\u2019s great-great grandfather. The Hill family was also Scots-Irish, from Adams and Cumberland \u00a0Counties. It\u2019s interesting to see the Scottish naming patterns<\/a> revealed in John and Jean’s \u00a0six children: sons \u00a0James Wilson (b. 1796), after Jean’s father; William (b. 1799), after John\u2019s father; Hettie Eliza (b.1803), after the grandmother; Mary Jean (b. 1811), after the mother;\u00a0and then John Dixon , after John and his mother\u2019s maiden name. Margaret Ann (b. 1816) was named after an aunt. Grandmother Hettie remarried after the early death of James, Jr., and her last four children to John Thompson were after this naming tradition, which can cause some confusion for genealogists. Many of these old Wilsons and Hills are buried in the Lower Marsh Creek Presbyterian Cemetery, Gettysburg.<\/p>\n

Some of the remarkable achievements of members of James’ and Hettie\u2019s family include:<\/p>\n