"James Weir in America." Ancestry https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/tree/6161414/person/-1330337699/media/13b6cc27-fabe-4e31-acad-b303be21ec7b?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 13 Sep. 2023.
The following is a transcript from the research begun by my greatgrandmother, Anna Gertrude Hollingsworth Hammond, who spent many hours researching our family lineage in America. She combed church records, visited graveyards, and corresponded with distant relations in order to accumulate information. At times, I have found her details differ from others currently researching similar lines on Ancestry.com, so I am providing the following text to serve all who research the Weir line. Susan Carroll Winn Brandt 2/2010
By Anna Gertrude Hollingsworth Hammond, compiled around 1911
The first of the family in America as recorded by a great-granddaughter was, James Weir, who emigrated from County Down, Ireland between 1730 and 1745. He was said to be the eldest son of his father's family, and left only half brothers in Ireland. An old memorandum book of his, in possession of a great granddaughter, Mrs. Elvira Weir Scott of Miama, Mo. in 1893, contained entrees, the earliest date being 1745, at Port Royal, Virginia. His hand writing was very plain and good. Jundging from the contents of this book the possessor inferred that he must have held a public office, either as a county official or surveyor. There were names of many old Virginia families in it.
No family records have been preserved and we have data only of one son, our progenitor:
Robert, born June 2, 1769, died Sept. 22, 1843, married June 14, 1791 in Rockbridge Co., VA, to Sarah McCampbell
A daughter, called "Aunt Daty" who never married
A sister who married a Tilford
A brother who left sons, James A. and Tilford Weir, whose mother was a Peyton and called "Aunt Winnie."
These records are the memories of the aged and given with the hope they may be of future use. It has been thought by some that James Weir's wife was a Tilford.
Robert Weir and wife Sarah McCampbell settled near Georgetown, Scott Co., KY, from Rickridge Co, VA, early n the 19th century, but lost their land in Kentucky through bad title and moved to what was then known as Clark's Grant, Indiana Territory. They settled on a farm near to what is Charlestown at the present time, but "forted" for a time in what was known as "Reed's or Reid's Fort," adjoining their land and there the wives and mothers kept watch for Indians, while the husbands and fathers toiled.
Georgetown was laid out by Dr. John Hay whose wife was Nancy McCampbell, a sister of Sarah. Anna Hay the daughter became the wife of Governor Jennings, the first Governor of Indiana. She was said to have been noted for her beauty. She died young.
One grandchild remembers Robert Weir as "slight and fair, with blue eyes and regular features, gentle and patient." A nephhew, Rev. Gano Hay, remembers him as having the "softest, silky gray hair, refined features and ruddy color." He sometimes taught school after his reverses.
This large family of six sons and five daughters grew up in the midest of the hardships, deprivations and freedom of pioneer life. They were unusually fine looking, some of the children resembling the fair father and some had the keen eyes annd strong features of the mother. It seems a pity that we have not had preserved for the descendennts more of their interesting history, for the sons all developed into fine men who took a prominent place where ever they settled. They did not live to a great age, neither are there many descendents of the male line.
There was much intermarrying of the Weir, McCampbell and Tilford families, which is impossible to unravel without the complete data. These families were of the Scotch-Irish immigrators into Virginia abouut the middle of the 18th century.
Robert Weir did just a few hours after his wife, Sept. 22, 1843, and they were burried in the same grave, which is in a county graveyard about two miles east of Memphis, Clark County, Ind.