The History of the Ryburns   -:  THE AMERICAS  :-

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Although there are about 1500 Ryburns in North America, my American cousins have had a much more difficult job of tracing their connections back to Scotland.  Birth records in the early American Colonies were often lost, or not well kept, rendering lines of descent tenuous indeed. Nevertheless, Diana Powell of Atherton, California, has succeeded in tracing her Ryburn ancestors back to Kintyre, Scotland.  She has also built a vast web site, RamblingRoots.com, devoted to the pioneering families of Washington County, Virginia.  This includes 200 Ryburns.   Diana has traced her ancestors back to a Mathew Ryburn and Mary Galbreath of Killeonan Farm, near Campbeltown, Kintyre Peninsula , who were married in 1747 and had four children. Two, Mathew (b. 1753) and Ann (b. 1756), sailed to America at ages 17 and 15, to join an uncle 'Gilbreth' in York Co. Pennsylvania.  In about 1780 they moved to Washington Co., Virginia, where both married and had children.  Mathew senior was remarried to a Margaret Dunlop in 1761, producing four more children.   Diana has also found evidence of an earlier Mathew Ryburn, who had unclaimed letters at Philadelphia post office in 1741.  This could be the Mathew born in Kintyre in 1716, the youngest child of Mathew and Elizabeth Ryburn, who were probably my great x 5 grand parents. He seems to have joined the nascent Scots-Irish settlement in the Cumberland Valley , Pennsylvania, as there was a Mathew Ryburn who was taxed on 200 acres in Hamilton Township in 1778 and 1779, then retired a short distance south to two acres in Antrim Township, in 1781, 1782 and 1786.  As yet, no children are known. Roger Ryburn of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, who I met in Sydney in 2003, claims a William Ryburn of Washington Co., Virginia, as his earliest certain ancestor.  William, born ~1753, had a brother John living in Washington Co.  There are no obvious matches amongst Scottish births, and they may have been born to a Patrick Ryburn living in York Co., Pennsylvania, in the 1750s.  William had a son called Patrick.  In 1778, a William and John Ryburn were in the York County militia during the Revolutionary War.  1780 tax records show them as single men in Huntington Township, York (now Adams) County.  They moved to Virginia about 1781.  Patrick had a likely brother, David, in York Co., who died in 1762.  From the Kintyre records they may have been the Patrick and David born in 1724 and 1733 to John Ryburn and Ann Langwill of Knockrioch Farm, just west of Campbeltown. There are no other Scottish candidates, so that link seems fairly good.  In 1774 an Elizabeth Ryburn, a likely daughter of Patrick or David, married James Henderson at 'Widow Young's house', Chanceford, York  Co. (Guinston [Muddy Creek] United Presbyterian Church records). Eric Ryburn, a United Methodist pastor in Alvin, Texas, is descended from a James Ryburn, born ~1753 in York Co., Pennsylvania.  In 1777-80, during the Revolutionary War, he was listed in the Pennsylvania Artillery as a matross from Fawn Township, York Co.  In 1780, James settled in Chartiers, Washington Co., Pennsylvania.  He returned briefly to York Co, to marry Elizabeth Gordon in 1784, and died in Chartiers in 1826.  James's father may have been the David Ryburn of York Co. mentioned above, as James had a son called David.  By 1840 another son, James R., had moved to Harrison Co., Ohio, and by 1857 on to McLean Co., Illinois, where many later descendants lived. John Ryburn, master of the 'Prince Ferdinand of Glasgow', arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, during February, 1760.  In 1776 a James Ryburn, Philadelphia, was ship's carpenter on 'The Hancock', a one-cannon galley in the Pennsylvania State Navy, which was created by Benjamin Franklin for defending Philadelphia against the British.  This James seems to have married Barbara Pear at St Pauls Church, Philadelphia, on 9 Aug., 1776.  No children are known.  Poet Donald Ryburn, of Lakeland, Florida, says his earliest certain ancestor was another William Ryburn, born ~1748 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia.  This William was a 'Long Hunter' who married Mary ('Polly') Terry in 1773, and with Daniel Boone, blazed the 'Wilderness Road' in 1775.  He was gifted 500 acres in Pittsylvania and Halifax Counties in 1775.  In 1777 he took the Oath of Allegiance in Pittsylvania Co.  He was with Daniel Boone at Blue Licks, Kentucky, in 1778, and back in Pittsylvania Co. for the 1782 census.  He moved to Montgomery Co., Tennessee, with some of his family in about 1799.   William's father is said to have been a James Ryburn, perhaps the one named in 1767 as the father-in-law of a William Fleming in a court case, Augusta County, Virginia. James' wife was probably Elizabeth, and the daughter who married William Fleming a Margaret, born before 1755.  Another probable sister of William's was Obedience ('Biddy') Ryburn, who was born ~1757, married Moses Parsley in 1775 and died in 1850 in Logan Co., West Virginia.  A likely son was James Ryburn of Pittsylvania Co., who in 1804 was contracted by Col. Berryman Green (George Washingtons Quartermaster at Valley Forge) to build "Greens Folly" in adjacent Halifax County.  In 1810 James was sued by Green and jailed in Halifax Co.  In 1814 he married Nancy Echols in Pittsylvania Co.  He died there between 1817 and 1821. I also know of two Ryburns who fought with the British Navy during the Revolutionary War!  Arthur, master of a merchant ship, and James, a mate, were honourably mentioned in 1779, during the seige of Savannah, Georgia. A James Ryburn was also on the crew of the brigantine 'Hannah', which was captured by an American privateer in 1779.  Arthur was listed as master of the Privateer Sloop 'Mercury', a British 'victualler' that was sunk only 6 miles from New York.  In October 1782 Arthur was master of the 'Bellona', bound from Greenock to Tortula in the British Virgin Islands, and in April 1784 he was captain of the brig 'Virginia' of Glasgow, bound for the Rappahannock River, Virginia, from Leith in Scotland. Athur was almost certainly born in Kintyre in 1743, to David Ryburn and Janet Galbreath.  He died at Brookes Bank, a tidewater plantation in Virginia, on 5 Oct, 1784. A John Ryburn with Glasgow merchant connections was living in Fredricksburg, Virginia from 1791 to 1796, but seems to have moved on to the Caribbean by 1798. Thomas Ryburn, probably John's brother, was a retail merchant in Fredricksburgh in 1791.  John Ryburn of the town of Saint George, Grenada, and Thomas Ryburn, Kingston, Jamaica, were co-owners of several ships trading coffee, sugar, Madeira wine and probably cotton, rum and slaves.  Born to David Ryburn, Campbeltown merchant, and Jean Anderson, of Glasgow, in 1766 and 1767, they attended Glasgow University starting in 1779 and 1782.  In 1798 Thomas fathered an "African" daughter called Margaret Ryburn, but he died in Kingston in 1799.  The British Colonial Slave Registers reveal that the company called Guthrie Ryburn owned many slaves in Grenada.  John was later payed £7878 compensation for absentee ownership of 410 slaves on two sugar estates in Jamaica.  In 1817 a Grenada buiness partner of John's tried to sell arms to the Spanish Government in South America.  A Privy Council court case ensued in London.  By 1816 John had retired to Glasgow, a wealthy member of the Glasgow House of Merchants.  By 1832 he imported some cactus plants from Grenada for the Botanic Gardens in Glasgow.  In 1841 he was aged 75, living with a merchant Robert McCann and three servants, at Dunoon and Kilmun (Holy Loch).  He died on 30 Nov 1844. Several relatives of mine settled in North Carolina.  On 4 Aug, 1826, Andrew, John & Margaret Ryburn were early steamboat passengers enroute from Quebec to Montreal, Canada, but Andrew (b. 1796) is recorded as having arrived in Quebec in 1824,  He was the son of Edward Ryburn of Kilwhipnach Farm, Kintyre, and had married Margaret Ryburn (b. 1788) in Campbeltown in 1823.  She was a sister of my g.g. grandfather, 'James the Baker', and John (b. 1802) his youngest brother.  Her first child Isabella was born in Kintyre on 9 Sep 1824. On Aug 24, 1826, Andrew and Margaret baptized their second daughter Margaret at Niagara, Ontario (near Niagara Falls).  Andrew moved to North Carolina before 1840, when he was living at Lower Regiment, Lincoln Co., with his wife, 5 children and 8 slaves.  In 1850 he was an 'overseer' in Gaston County with Margaret (56), Isabella (20), Margaret (19), William (17), and 20 slaves. In 1860 he was down to 15 slaves.  John, a 'ditcher' by trade, was naturalised in 1838, and in 1850 was single in Cumberland Co.  In 1830, a Mathew Ryburn  was in Fayetteville, Cumberland Co., with wife and 6 children.  He was probably the brother (b. 1798) of John and Margaret Ryburn.  He had married Betty MacArthur in 1820, on the Isle of Islay, Scotland. The Ryburn Memorial Presbyterian Church in Shelby, Cleveland Co., is related to these Ryburns in some way. The earliest Ryburns to settle in Illinois were pioneers who crossed the Ohio River by wagon train from Kentucky and Tennessee in 1820 -1840.  Most settled in Williamson Co. In 1833, William Terry Ryburn, a son of William and "Polly" Ryburn, founded the now vanished town of Fredonia (south of Cambria), which was named after his daughter. The postmaster at Fredonia in 1839 was a Byrd T Ryburn, born about 1813 in Tennessee, who had been a staff quartermaster with the Illinois volunteers in the 1832 Black Hawk War.  Amongst the volunteers was a young Captain Abraham Lincoln.  In 1843 an act was passed by the Illinois General Assembly permitting William and Byrd to build a mill dam across the Big Muddy River.  Byrd was probably William T's son. There seems to have been a family of Ryburns in Charleston, South Carolina, in the 1840s.  However their father may have died, as some of their children were in an orhanage.  Their mother may have been the Elizabeth Ryburn, born in Scotland in about 1798, who died in Charleston in 1857.  In 1843 a Catherine Ryburn was in the "Poor House", and the 1850 census has a Mary Anne (22) and Peter M. Ryburn (20), both in the "Charleston Orphan House".  By 1870 Peter M. Ryburn (40) was a Methodist Minister in Marietta, Georgia, with a wife and child.  In 1860 a William Ryburn, born in South Carolina in about 1825, was with wife and six children in Bridgeport, Connecticut.  There were many descendants of this familly in Bridgeport in the 1930 US census. In the 1880 US census, the familly of David (farmer) and Margaret Ryburn, Plainfiled, Illinois, had connections to Stewarton, in Ayrshire, Scotland.  David was born in 1821 to a John Ryburn and Agnes Stewart of Stewarton, and his wife Margaret Cochran also came from there.  He arrived in New York in 1846 on the 'Agness', and in 1851 he actually returned to Scotland to marry Margaret.  In 1880 his mother Agnes was with him in Plainfield at age 85.  David had an older brother Thomas, who in 1841 settled in La Sale Co., Illinois, a younger sister Elizabeth who lived in Joliet, and a younger brother Charles who fossicked for gold in Caliifornia and Victoria, Australia. Also in the 1880 US census in Winnebago County, Illinois, were famer James Ryburn of Burritt, wife Mary Flemming (or 'Fleeming') and 6 chilren, and blacksmith William Ryburn of Rockford, his wife Mary Legge, and 6 children.  A 1904 biography claims William and Mary were orphans born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, who came to America with relatives.  However, we now know that William was born in Kintyre in 1835 to my relatives William Ryburn and Ann Mitchell, of East Drumlemble Farm, but he was orphaned about age 9.  In 1850 William arrived in New York on the 'Sarah', and became a pupil at the 'Log School', Argyle, Illinois.  The 'Argyle' settlement was founded by farmers from South Kintyre, Scotland.  In 1883 William and his family moved to Hanson County, South Dakota.  "Both were worthy members of the Presbyterian Church and were folk of sterling character, honored by all who knew them".  Farmer James Ryburn was William's older brother, born in 1833.  A 1910 biography says that James came to Illinois via Quebec in 1854.  In 1860 he married Mary Flemming, born in Campbeltown in 1833.  In 1877 he bought a plot in Willow Creek cemetery, near Argyle Village.  His sister Jane Cameron also migrated to Illinois, to New Milford. Not all American Ryburns were saints.  In 1900, at Big Springs, West Nebraska, Agnew Ryburn (relative of Diana Powell) was a hotel owner and operator, as well as clerk of the election board.  An election was held to determine the seat of County Deuel. Big Springs was declared the winner, but the votes cast greatly outnumbered the 500 voters, so the results were contested and Chappell won.  Agnew 'cleverly evaded many questions'. Like the New Zealand Ryburns, there have been a number of Presbyterian ministers amongst the US Ryburns.  Roger Ryburn had a relative Horace Ryburn of Erwin, Tennessee, who was a missionary in Thailand.  When the Japanese invaded in 1941 he was forced to flee via Burma, India, South Africa, Rhodesia, Congo, Brazil (via Pan Am flying boat), Tinidad, San Juan, and Miami.  This took 12 weeks and several brushes with death.  Shades of Indiana Jones!  He served a further 35 years in Thailand after the war. There is little doubt that other Ryburns made their way from Scotland and Ireland to North America, and that their stories will emerge in due course.  A recent discovery was a John Ryburn living in Michigan in , grandson of John Ryburn the moonshine maker, Thousand of settlers migrated from Kintyre and Cork to the Americas. Last Updated 2 Feb, 2012

Ryburn Localities, East USA, courtesy Google Maps Eleanor Ryburn Nichol, ~1822, Nashville, TN.  Eldest daughter of Mathew Ryburn, Washington Co., Virginia. Image courtesy familyhistorycrw at Ancestry.com. Nelson and Diana Powell, of Atherton, California   Roger and Loretta Ryburn, of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, with all of their descendants. Eric and Paula Ryburn of Alvin, Texas, and daughter. Donald and Inna Ryburn of Lakeland, Florida. The old homestead of William Ryburn, Washington Co. VA, built in the late 1700s.   Photo courtesy Diana Powell. "In memory of JAMES RYBURN who departed this life Dec. the 3rd, AD 1826, aged 73 years."  Chartiers Crossroads Presbyterian Church,Washington Co., PA.  Photo courtesy cu.theintelligencer.net Marriage contract of William Ryburn & Mary ("Polly") Terry. Sloop and Schooner, 1776. "Green's Folly", Halifax County, Virginia. Intially built in 1804 by a James Ryburn for Col. Berryman Green, George Washington's quartermaster at Valley Forge. The Ryburns were never far from a Church, in this case Methodist.   Slave Owner, West Indies