James Clark and Nancy Reed

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Husband James Clark ^{1 2 3}

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           Born:  - Scotland or Ireland
     Christened: 
           Died: 1821 - near Mercersburg, Franklin Co, PA 3
         Buried:  - Slate Hill Cemetery, near Mercersburg, Franklin Co, PA

       Marriage:  - Lancaster Co, PA

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• Note: This may be the same person as : James Clark.

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Wife Nancy Reed ⁴

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

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• Note: This may be the same person as : Nancy Reed.

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Children

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1 M David Clark ^{1 5}

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           Born: 4 Feb 1755 - near Mercersburg, Franklin Co, PA 4
     Christened: 
           Died: 2 Jun 1821 - Hopewell Twp, Washington Co, PA 4
         Buried:  - North Buffalo Associate Presbyterian Church, Washington Co, PA

         Spouse: Hannah Baird (      -      ) 6

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2 M Thomas Clark ^{1 4}

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Jane Caldwell (      -      ) 4

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3 M John Clark ^{1 4}

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: [Unk] McDowell (      -      ) 4

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4 F Rebecca Clark ⁴

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: John Taggart (      -      ) 4

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5 F Mary Clark ^{7 8 9}

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           Born:  - Montgomery Twp, Franklin Co, PA
     Christened: 
           Died: 1 Jul 1836 9
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Jeremiah Rankin (      -1805) 7 9 10 11

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6 M James Clark ¹²

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Mary Murray (      -      ) 12

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7 F Nancy Clark ^{4 13}

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: David Humphrey (      -      ) 4 13

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8 F [Unk] Clark

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Joseph Smith (      -      ) 4

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9 F [Unk] Clark

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: David Elder (      -      ) 4

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General Notes: Husband - James Clark

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He was driven from Scotland to Ireland during religious persecution, and from the latter country he emigrated to America about the year 1750, and in the Revolutionary war he served in the Continental army. He settled on land in Cumberland (later Franklin) County, Pennsylvania, on which the town of Strasburg was afterward laid out and built, "Clark's Knot," or "Clark's Gap," at the mountain near there, still tell of the original owner of the land which was then called "Clark's Fancy."

The first representative of this family in America was James Clark, a native of Ireland, who with a brother Thomas landed in the early part of the eighteenth century. Thomas settled in the South. James married and settled on land near the site of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; thence he moved to "Clark's Fancy," which embraced the ground whereon Upper Strasburg was built, near Clark's Gap, Cumberland County. Subsequently he acquired a farm near Mercersburg, whereon he died.
About the year 1789, he bought two farms in Washington County, Pennsylvania, one, in what became Canton township, later owned by Samuel K. Weirich, and the other in Robinson township, whereon his sons John and Thomas in turn settled.

In colonial times, about the middle of the eighteenth century, when the country about the base of the Kittatinny Mountains in Pennsylvania was yet a primeval forest, James Clark, from the North of Ireland, took up a tract of 220 acres of Government land, to which he gave the appropriate name of "Clark's Fancy," in accordance with a custom of the times. This tract embraced the land on which the town of Upper Strasburg was subsequently built. In 1787 he received a patent for his lands from the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, in which it is described under the title already specified. In 1787 the State made a public road over the mountain through "Clark's Gap," and some of the broad stones with which it was built were still visible below the mountain near Strasburg more than a century later. Clark sold part of his tract to Dewalt Keefer, by whom the town of Strasburg was laid out in 1789. James Clark came to America with his brother Thomas, who settled in one of the Southern States (probably Georgia), and Mrs. Myra Clark Gaines was a descendant of Thomas. James Clark purchased a large tract of land near where the city of Harrisburg now stands, after he arrived in this country. Here he settled and married a Miss Nancy Reed, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Afterward he settled at "Clark's Fancy," then purchased a large tract of valuable land lying south of the town of Mercersburg, where he died. He was buried in the Slate Hill cemetery, located about a mile east of Mercersburg, a short distance from the turnpike. In 1789 this pioneer visited Washington, Pennsylvania, and purchased a 400-acre tract styled the "Big Level," a 300-acre tract at Candor, and in Canton township and Clark's Mills, for his children.

From Mercersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, he came to Washington County, on the 21st of March, 1789, and purchased a tract of land in Robinson township known as "Big Levels", containing four hundred acres, and other lands in Canton township.

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General Notes: Wife - Nancy Reed

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from Lancaster Co, PA

1 Boyd Crumrine, History of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 900.

2 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 98, 175, 444.

3 G. O. Seilhamer, Esq, The Bard Family (Chambersburg, PA: Kittochtinny Press, 1908), Pg 221.

4 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 175.

5 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 98, 175.

6 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 98.

7 —, History of Franklin County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Warner, Beers & Co., 1887), Pg 868.

8 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 175, 617.

9 —, Biographical Annals of Franklin County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905), Pg 127.

10 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 617.

11 G. O. Seilhamer, Esq, The Bard Family (Chambersburg, PA: Kittochtinny Press, 1908), Pg 383.

12 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 175, 616.

13 —, Biographical Annals of Franklin County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905), Pg 28.