[Ancestor] Acheson

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Husband [Ancestor] Acheson

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Wife

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Children

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1 M George Acheson ^{1 2}

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           Born: 1724 1 2
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           Died: 11 Jul 1812 1 2
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         Spouse: Elizabeth Weir (1728-1808) 1 3
           Marr: Abt 1754

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General Notes: Husband - [Ancestor] Acheson

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The ancestors of the Acheson family of Washington, Pennsylvania, were natives of Scotland, and about 1604 removed to County Armagh, Ireland, when, in 1776, Sir Archibald Acheson (one of the descendants) became Baron Gosford, and later a viscount. The descendants of the family who came to America were of a collateral branch, and settled on the family estate at Glass Drummond. [HWC 1882, 479]

The Achesons are of Scottish extraction. The family name originated most likely in the old custom of adding to the Christian name that of the father, by way of distinction. At first the name was probably Archieson-thereby naming the son of Archie, an abbreviation of Archibald-the patronymic expressing the name of the ancestral chief, or head of the clan.
The Acheson family came originally from Gosford, Haddingtonshire, Scotland. One Archibald Acheson, who was educated to the law, became Secretary of State for Scotland, and was advanced to a baronetcy, obtained from King James I. of England large grants of land in several of the counties of Ulster, Ireland, which led to the permanent settlement of the Acheson family in the northern part of that country. The forefather of the present generation in Washington County, Pennsylvania, was John, a full cousin to Sir Archibald Acheson, and he, about the year 1604, accompanied the Gosford family from Scotland to Ireland, and settled in Glassdrummond, where the family thereafter lived. The family seat was in County Armagh, embracing the castellated town of Market Hill. In 1776 Sir Archibald Acheson, a lineal descendant of the Sir Archibald of King James' time, was elevated to the peerage as Baron Gosford, and afterward became a viscount. His successor was created an earl in 1806, and, dying the following year, was succeeded by his son, Archibald Acheson, the late Lord Gosford, at one time Governor-general of Canada, who was made a peer of the United Kingdom, under the title of Baron Warlingham, afterward changed to Baron Acheson. The Scotch and Scotch-Irish were remarkable for longevity, and the Acheson family were no exception. The great-great-grandmother (Little) of Judge Alexander W. Acheson and his brothers and sisters is recorded as having been born in 1658, and dying in 1778, aged one hundred and twenty years. [CBRWC, 24]

1 Boyd Crumrine, History of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 479.

2 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 27.

3 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 129.