John Mackelroy Sr

The spelling of the name 'McElroy' varied: Mackleroy / Muckleroy

 

John McElroy may have been the grandson of Archibald Muckell. They may have come from Sligo, Ireland and perhaps County Mayo also. His children were born in what is now Hartford County, Maryland but was then Baltimore County. Their births are recorded in the St. George Parish Register, 1681-1799, Page 226. ID: I22 21

 

 

Notes for John McElroy, born around 1690 in Cecil County, Maryland. Taken from "Ancestors of Billy Joe Wood."

 

"John McElroy had 100 acres surveyed that he called "Frances Delight" on a draft of Deer Creek on a branch called Green Springs, in 1716 in Baltimore County Maryland for which he paid 4,000 pounds of tobacco and six cows and calves.

In 1720, he and Robert Clark received 244 acres from Benjamin Wheeler which they called "Good Neighborhood", adjoining John's land on the South side of Deer Creek, for 300 pounds of tobacco.

Five years later, John had 156 acres surveyed on the "C/most side" of the Susquehanna River and on the North side of Broad Creek. This land he called "John and Robert's Lot" for his friend Robert Clark.

John paid 1800 pounds of tobacco for this land. Two months later, he conveyed his part of the property to John Clark.

 

Again in 1725, John McElroy bought 200 acres assigned to him from George Buchanan which he called, "John's Beginning" on the northside of Broad Creek. He purchased another 100 acres along the upper branch of Green Springs that he called "Rachel's Delight". John sold "John's Beginnings" to John Long for L50.

 

John McElroy was appointed administrator of the estate of James Durham (his father-inlaw) of Baltimore County on June 30, 1726. John had already begun selling his land in Maryland, and by 1732, had sold it all and no longer appeared on the tax rolls there. There is a ten year gap in records for him and his family. About this time, there was a great migration of the Scotch-Irish people from Pennsylvania and Maryland westward into the area of southwestern Pennsylvania (now NE West Virginia). They settled on land they had no caim to, didn't file for possession and were forced to leave later. Maybe that's where John McElroy and his family went

 

By December of 1743, John McElroy was living in Craven County, North Carolina. According to tax lists, he owned no slaves. The area of Wake-Johnston County in North Carolina where the McElroy's settled was near the junction of the Neuse River and Crabtree Creek, about five miles northeast of Raleigh, NC. This is now largely residential homes and shopping centers. The old homeplace

of Nathaniel Jones is still unsettled and evidence of the residence still exists. Jones had bought the land from the McElroys.

 

In 1761 a deed of sale from Earl of Granville to John McElroy of 365 acres of land was proved by the oath of Theophilus Hunter and ordered to be registered. John McElroy gave a deed of gift to John Belk(one of his sons-in-law) in 1763, the same year that John McElroy died."