A long but needed post for the descendants of Mary and William McGuire.
RESEARCH BY PHYLLIS A. STILL from 2007 to 2024
Mary Ann Daily was 97 years old when she passed down the family story to one of her granddaughters. The granddaughter had it published in an unknown Kentucky history newspaper “…hoping some member of the family may confirm its accuracy.” (Find this in Branch 30 on The Shirley Association website)
Over a hundred years later, I found the answers, uncovered new information, and untangled some confusion. When I learned the story of Mary as a POW during the American Revolutionary War, I dug deeper. I’m sharing the following summaries in case I don’t get the Biography written.
NOTE: I appreciate the family historians. They had limited resources but preserved what they could. However, technology allows modern researchers to discover the true stories and sort out confused family lines who lived near each other and reused given names. Please take the time to examine the following resources before shaming me for ruining the family legends.
HERE ARE SOME OF MY RESOURCES
*Website: The Shirley Association Go to the main index – Shirley DNA Project – Haplogroup R – Branch 30
*Book – “The Settlement of the Greater Greenbrier Valley, West Virginia” by Fred Ziegler
*Book – “The Kentucky Kidnappings and Death March” by Russell Mahan
*Website: The Ruddell’s and Martin’s Stations Historical Association
*A Private Facebook Group: Ruddells and Martin Stations Historical Association
*Book – “Greenbrier County Virginia Land Entry Book” by Helen Stinson
*Book – “Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia Vol. I” by Lyman Chalkley
*Book – “The Ruddlesforter” Edited by Jim Sellars
A SUMMARY OF MICHAEL SHIRLEY (No footnotes given. Study the above resources.)
*Michael Shirley’s side of the family never used Shawnee, but the name progressed from the Swiss Challie to German Schally/Shally. Michael ended up with Shirley. *Never went to Spain. He was 7 when his family left the Rhineland; waited in Rotterdam for a ship to Deal England; then boarded the Robert and Alice and arrived in Philadelphia 3, Sept. 1739.
*No proof found for Katy Franz surname or story. However, she is NOT the Catherina Frantz some have supposed because she did not marry Michael.
*“Washington City, when it was a fort.” Two possibilities during the French and Indian War: Fort Cumberland, Maryland or Fort Loudoun in Winchester, Virginia. Definitely NOT in D.C. He was in Winchester before the war ended in 1763. Proof: On May 19, 1761, Michael bonded for a Fairfax lot in Winchester VA from a Philip Helphinstone. Mary Shirley was born on February 17, 1762. Michael’s bond was acknowledged (paid off) on December 4, 1762.
*From 1763 to 1772 – The Shirleys lived in the Massanutten Mountain area of the Shenandoah Valley, a few miles south of Winchester, VA.
*1773 to 1774 Michael was one of two sergeants helping build Cooks Fort on Indian Creek ahead of Dunmore’s War (Battle of Point Pleasant) He owned 527 acres on this creek. “His land centered modern day Greenville, West Virginia and ran north and south.” – Fred Ziegler to Phyllis. This is where Mary met William. The McGuires also owned land on Indian Creek. William was a fort scout associated with his brother-in-law, Charles Gatliff.
*Sometime before Dec. 1, 1777, Michael Shirley joined the Virginia 3rd Regiment as a private, just in time to camp at Valley Forge. NO proof of becoming a lieutenant or anything to do with Anthony Wayne.
*Michael died while out surveying land on Station Camp Creek, but the family lived in the Richmond, KY area near Estill’s Fort, abt. 16 miles south of the Boonesbough Fort. If he was shot by Indians, they were Wyandot.
MARY AND WILLIAM INFORMATION (No footnotes given. Study the above resources.) (Some details not yet published by Patrick G. Meguire, CG.)
*On Feb. 23, 1778, traveling minister John Alderson Jr. recorded the marriage of barely 16-year-old Mary to 24/25-year-old William.
*Before 1778 William Charles McGuire sold his land. His brother Thomas (Heir at law of Cornelius senior) sold his father’s land. Then sometime after November 1778, the McGuires and Gatliff’s headed to Kentucky County, Virginia to help build forts to secure the western territories being freed by George Rogers Clark.
*They moved to Martins Station in March, captained by Charles Gatliff until June 26, 1780. William and Thomas are on Gatliff’s payroll as privates.
*Mary, William, and son Michael are on the British captives list with their ages in Oct. as, 19, 26, and 2. They were held for two years. Note: William was born March 12, 1753, not 1748. The mistaken date on the headstone came from a misinterpretation of the colonial writing in the family Bible by a Shriver the 1920s before the Bible was lost. Therefore, researchers must locate official documentation from other sources. Land, tax, and census records confirm his year is no more than 1754.
*The War Department answered a letter from Berry D. Shriver in 1923, affirming a Lieutenant William McGuire was wounded and captured. He replaced William’s original headstone. Shriver’s SAR application was accepted without being investigated. The Battle of Eutaw Springs in South Carolina was in 1781. (Our William and Mary were prisoners in Montreal). This lieutenant was our William’s younger cousin (born in 1763), son of Edward. He married Mary Little of Frederick County in 1792 and died at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, in 1820.
*Mary and William lost 4-year-old Michael to the Canadian weather in November 1782, after a day’s march from Montreal. Most likely, Fort Chambly. The cemetery is now underwater.
*The next day they and several other POWs had to catch a boat down Lake Champlain. They were part of a prisoner exchange in New Jersey and invited to dine with a famous general.
CONCLUSION
*They made it back to Mary’s family in Kentucky with baby Thomas. Not long after, her Father was found dead in 1783.
*In later years, they followed their son Thomas to Bedford County TN.
*Thomas followed his son Cornelius to Delta County TX.
This should get you started on your own research.
phyllisastill.com 