EARLY SETTLERS AT OVID, NEW YORK

In 1798, Alexander Wilson heard of a section of land that had opened up in central New York. The area had first been explored by men from a group of Wilson and Dunlap families that had recently emigrated from Ireland.[1] The men had found a spot, midway between Seneca and Cayuga lakes, which they liked enough to bring their families and settle. The place was named Ovid—possibly in honor of the Roman poet by the same name, born Publius Ovidius Naso in 43 BC, whose works had become favorites of English translators, and had been published in their entirety as compilations only since 1728.

Dunlap and Wilson Arrival

Information on the family of Andrew and Mary (Wilson) Dunlap was found at the following Mormon genealogical website:

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp

Descendants of Mary (Wilson) Dunlap claimed that Mary and her brother Joseph were cousins of Alexander Wilson the ornithologist.

Andrew Dunlap

Birth: 07 SEP 1759 Sheshakee, Bucks Co., Pennsylvania

Marriage: 26 FEB 1788 , Bucks, Pennsylvania

Death: 26 MAR 1851 Ovid, Seneca, New York

Wife

Mary Wilson

Birth: 23 FEB 1763 Sheshakee, Bucks Co., Pennsylvania

Marriage: 26 FEB 1788, Bucks Co., Pennsylvania

Death: 28 JUL 1846 Ovid, Seneca, New York

Children:

1. Josiah Dunlap

Birth: 17 DEC 1790 Sheshakee, Bucks Co., Pennsylvania

Death: 04 AUG 1862 Ovid, Seneca, New York

2. David Dunlap

Birth: 02 FEB 1793 Ovid, Seneca Co, New York

Death: 12 SEP 1852 Ovid, Seneca Co., New York

3. Sarah A. Dunlap

Birth: 1797 Ovid, Seneca Co., New York

Death: 08 NOV 1808 Ovid, Seneca Co., New York

4. Jane Dunlap

Birth: About 1799 Ovid, Seneca Co., New York

5. Andrew Jr. Dunlap

Birth: 31 MAR 1803 Ovid, Seneca Co., New York

Death: 14 JAN 1887 Ovid, Seneca Co., New York

Burial: Union Cemetery In, Ovid, Seneca Co., New York

Wilson and Duncan Arrival

Information about the names, dates, and locations of births for James and Jane (Waddell) Duncan’s children are from a Duncan family bible. Most of the other information came from the following sources:

Cantwell, Robert. Alexander Wilson Naturalist and Pioneer. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, Co., 1961.
Hunter, Clark. Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson, The. American Philosophical Society; Independence Square, Philadelphia: 1983.
Of Plumage and Poetry: Alexander Wilson’s 1804 Ornithological Exploration of the Finger Lakes; Marty – Part II; 7 March 2005 (Presentation by Marty Schlabach, Librarian, Frank A. Lee Library, NYSAES, Geneva, etc.)
Excerpts from the family history memoir of William Hood Barnes

“Great‑great grandfather Duncan married a woman by the name of Wilson. She was a sister of Alexander Wilson the ornithologist of Philadelphia.”

“Great grandmother, Isabel Duncan, came from Scotland when eighteen years of age . . . . Isabel Duncan came to America in about 1797. She was about three months coming across the ocean, coming on a sailboat . . . . She lived and married in Philadelphia, married a man by the name of McNelley[2] . . . Great grandfather McNelley was from Ireland.”

“Grandmother Katherine McNelley was born in 1803[3] in Philadelphia. They (her family) moved to Ovid, Seneca Co., NY in 1809.” Of her father, “He was a soldier in the War of 1812 and died while a soldier.” William Barnes

Alexander Wilson, Jr., who would, one day, be acclaimed the Father of American Ornithology, and his nephew William Duncan, Jr., arrived in America from Scotland in 1794. They worked initially in and around Philadelphia as weavers, though William also hired out as a farm laborer, and Alexander taught school besides working on his poetry and ornithological pursuits. They purchased a farm at Ovid in 1798 with the financial help of their weaver friend Joshua Sullivan. Subsequently William and his twin sister Isabella, who had arrived from Scotland in 1797, cleared the land, planted crops, and prepared for the arrival of their mother Mary (Wilson) Duncan and the remainder of her children still in Scotland. They arrived in 1802 during a lull in enmities between England and France. Mary’s husband William Duncan, Sr. remained in Scotland and did not immigrate with the rest of his family, at least not immediately, so Alexander, being Mary’s brother, took upon himself the responsibility of guiding the family. (The unearthing of recent evidence provides strong proof that William Duncan, Sr. did ultimately join his family in America. The evidence comes in the form of a letter William's son William Duncan, Jr. wrote to his youngest sister Ann, who was still living at Ovid. The letter was dated October 12, 1822, and was sent from Philadelphia. Click here to view a scan of the original letter and its transcription for easy reading. It is a PDF file and about 450 KB in size.)

Mary remained at Ovid for the remainder of her life, which probably ended about 1833. Like his surviving siblings, James, Mary’s youngest of six children, moved away from Ovid. His departure was after his marriage to Jane Waddell 8 JUL 1817 and before the birth of their first child Alexander 21 MAY 1819 at Pulteney, Steuben County, New York. Their next child, daughter Martha, was born 24 OCT 1820, also at Pulteney, after which the family returned to Ovid. Their next six children were born at Ovid: Mary Ann b. 25 JUN 1822, Caroline b. 7 JUL 1824, William b. 24 JUL 1826, Josiah Dunlap b. 23 SEP 1828, Frances b. 11 SEP 1830, and James Waddell b. 17 FEB 1833. In April 1833 the family left Ovid for the last time and settled in Lyon Township, Oakland County, Michigan, where their last child Jennet was born 12 JUN 1836.

Announcing availability of new Wilson/Duncan book. The title is, Great-Great-Grandfather Duncan Married...a Sister of Alexander Wilson the Ornithologist of Philadelphia.

Some Descendants of Alexander Wilson, Sr.

1 Alexander Wilson, Sr. b: 1728 in Campbeltown, Scotland d: 1816 in Scotland

.. +Mary McNab b: Abt. 1741 in Scotland d: 1776 in Scotland m: 6-15-1754 in Abbey Parish,

Renfrewshire, Scotland

.... 2 Mary Wilson b: 4-5-1757 in Abbey Parish, Renfrewshire, Scotland d: Abt. 1833 in Prob. Ovid,

Seneca Co., NY

........ +William Duncan b: Abt. 1751 in Scotland m: 8-24-1776 in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland

........... 3 [1] Isabella Duncan b: 7-10-1779 in Renfrewshire, Scotland d: 5-15-1857 in Steuben Co.,

............... +John McNelly b: in Ireland d: 11-21-1813 in prob. Grenadier Island, NY m: 6-15-1799

in Philadelphia, PA

........... *2nd Husband of [1] Isabella Duncan:

............... +John Ellis b: 1759 in Ireland d: 3-20-1845 in Steuben Co., NY m: 3-4-1829 in NY

........... 3 William Duncan b: 7-10-1779 in Renfrewshire, Scotland

........... 3 [2] Alexander Duncan b: Abt. 1781 in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland d: 1871 in

Oakland Co., MI

............... +Dorothy (nee ) Duncan b: Abt. 1795 in PA

........... *2nd Wife of [2] Alexander Duncan:

............... +Eliza Mehaffey b: Abt. 1800 in PA d: Bef. 1870 in Oakland Co., MI

........... 3 Mary Duncan

........... 3 George Duncan b: 1787 in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland d: 10-7-1801 in Norfolk,

Norfolk Co., VA

........... 3 James Duncan b: 9-19-1792 in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland d: 11-24-1861 in Lyon

Twp., Oakland Co., MI

............... +Jane Waddell b: 7-31-1794 in Turbot Twp., Northumberland Co., PA d: 9-4-1862 in

Lyon Twp., Oakland Co., MI m: 7-8-1817 in Ovid, Seneca Co., NY

.... 2 Jean Wilson b: in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland

........ +John Bell

.... 2 Alexander Wilson b: 7-6-1766 in Renfrewshire, Scotland d: 8-23-1813 in Philadelphia,

Philadelphia Co., PA

*2nd Wife of Alexander Wilson, Sr.:

.. +Catherine Brown m: 7-6-1776 in Scotland

.... 2 Janet Wilson b: 1777

........ +Duncan Wright

.... 2 Margaret Wilson b: in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland d: in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland

.... 2 David Wilson

A Poem by William Duncan, Nephew of Alexander Wilson

Hospitality

Blest Hospitality to heaven ally'd

The strangers guardian comforter and guide

Whose cheering voice and sympathetic eye

Evn Angels honour as they hover nigh

Confin'd in mercy to our wand'ring race

To no one Country People age or place

But for the homeless and the exil'd lives

And smiles still sweeter as the more she gives.

William Duncan Scrip. March 20, 1808

The above poem is by William Duncan (twin brother to Isabella), who came to America from Paisley, Scotland in 1794 with his uncle Alexander Wilson (who later received the cognomen "the ornithologist"); was a weaver, farmer, and later, a school teacher in Pennsylvania and Ovid, Seneca County, New York. The Duncan family bible information and this poem are courtesy of Gerald and Carolyn Duncan of Brighton, Oakland County, Michigan, who provided a copy of the original.

Created: March 6, 2007; last updated March 16, 2009

[1] Neither Andrew nor Mary (Wilson) Dunlap appear to have been recent immigrants from Ireland. However, John McNelly, husband of Isabella Duncan, would have been “just off the boat.” He and Isabella spent a lot of time at Ovid, especially during the first twelve years of the Duncan family having a farm there.

[2] John McNelley's last name was spelled a number of different ways by the family and legal documents, including McAnnelly, McAnnally, McAnally, McInally; and for a time his son James spelled the last name "McNella." Regardless of the spelling, McNelly is a sept of Clan Niall (from which comes MacNeill, O'Neill, etc.), one of the more ancient of the Irish and Scottish clans.

[3] Strong evidence suggests Catharine was born in 1808, which would have made her a probable twin of sister Isabella.