THE DESCENDENTS OF ROBERT AND MARGARET EMMERT SHIELDS
FORWARD:
A great deal of information has been recorded about the American SHIELDS families, especially that of the FAMILY OF TEN BROTHERS, to which we belong. This family has been firmly traced to Northern Ireland, ca. 1600 AD, with reasonable confirmation of descent to there from Spain, ca. 300 BC. Our Irish immigrant arrived on American Soil in 1658, along with a brother. Other members of the famly continued to trickle to America well into the 1700's. The descendents of these immigrants have been documented from time to time. The best known record of the TEN BROTHERS is by John Arthen SHIELDS, of Illinois, dated 1917. This is generally available only in mimeographed form. It is available at a few libraries, including the Lawson-McGhee Library, of Knoxville. It is my intention to record here, as far as possible, the descendents of a member of the sixth generation from the 1658 Immigrant, a grandson of the father of the TEN BROTHERS, a son of Richard, one of those brothers. I hope that this will serve as a foundation for the present and future generations to keep track of their heritage, which will make this a start of an on going endeavor. As will be ovserved, the genes of this SHIELDS line have infiltrated those of many other families bearing the names of earlier, as well as later, immigrants from Ireland, Scotland, England, contries of continental Europe, and a few of Oriental origin.
I wish to express my appreciation to all those who have shared in this compiliation of information, and in the collection of family photos. I have listed many of these throughtout the text, but I know that some may have been over looked, and to these I aplogize. Without this help, it would have been impossible to do what we have accomplished here. Many of the descendents have apparently vanished into the conglomerate population of our nation. Perhaps this publication will bring many of them from obscurity. We could not print all of the photographs that we received, but I think that we have a good sample of many of the families represented herein.
I will appreciate hearing from anyone who refers to these pages, especially of errors that may be found, for which I have to accept sole responsibility. Errors have a way of creeping in during the many times data have to be copied before they can be printed. Anyone with knowledge of related familes that are not included here are implored to correspond with me, so that future printings may be brought up to date.
Our heritage from these rugged pioneers is one to be proud of, and it is our obligation to preserve it for our descendents.
by A. Randolph SHIELDS
128 Sunset Drive
Maryville, TN 37801
1987
There may have been other children but these three are the ones that made it to America. James and William were exiled to the Barbados Islands, in the West Indies, during the Cromwell era, arriving there in 1655. By 1658 the two brothers were on American soil. The youngest son, John, left Ireland much later, in 1738. He died at sea, but his family, with a 9 year old son, William, found their way to East Tennessee, settling in Greene and Washington Counties. John Edgar Shields, cited above, is a descendent of this William. In an address 28 August 1928 at reunion of Shields-Winslow family, John A. Shields of Seymore, Indiana said "at a comparatively early date" a branch of the Shields family moved from Ireland to Northern Ireland, settling in County Tyrone. William Shields was born in County Antrim.
Oliver Cromwell, fresh from victory in the civil war against King Charles I, set out to quell the Irish rebellion, which had been dragging on for more than 10 years. He arrived in Ireland in August 1649 with an army of 17,000. His objective was threefold: Elimination of all military resistance, removal of all priests and landowners who were in any way implicated in the rebellion and eradication of Roman Catholicism. Within eight months, most of the military opposition was crushed, and Cromwell returned to England to pursue the other two objectives.
In 1653, Parliament passed an act providing that all Irish natives, under penalty of death, were to move from wherever in Ireland to the wastes of Connacht. No Irish person was to be found east of the River Shannon after 1 May 1654. The vacated land and properties were assigned to Cromwellian soldiers and to persons in England who had financed the conquest of Ireland. Catholic priests were hunted down and killed or imprisoned.
As a provision of the articles of peace, Irish soldiers were allowed to enter the army of any power friendly to England, and many did. Exceptions to the resettlement order were allowed for certain artisans and laborers needed to tend the holdings of the new landowners. Many able-bodied citizens were deported . During the next several years, more than 30,000 young persons were shipped into slavery in the American colonies and the West Indies.
William and James Shields, sons of William Shields b. 1600, were transported to Barbados on charges of loyalty to Charles I. It is not known if they were sold into slavery or just banished. They arrived in Barbados about 1655 and in 1658 secured passage on a chattel (slave) ship bound for Williamsburg, Virginia.
[v28t2460.FTW]
Born on the shores of Lough Neah, Antrim, Ireland.
Information from G. Ronald Hurd of Vienna, VA, and letter to Walter Davidson from Ila and Oliver Shields of Veneta, OR (1 May 1983).
Re: Descendent of Lettie Mae Shields Date: 1/25/2011 5:06:49 P.M. Mountain Standard Time From: cassdjohnston@gmail.com
LarryAndy@aol.com
Ok, I'm reading everything you are sending and I'm not seeing anything to tie Lettie Mae to your Shields group. I'm looking some more. Now I'm trying to find out who else Thomas S Shield's father may be.
On Tue, Jan 25, 2011 at 6:52 PM, Cassie Johnston > wrote:
Ok, I have to sift through all of this information, lol. I'm just finally able to sit back down. Someone else provided me with the name Joshua Shields, but I cannot find any records to substantiate it. I'm hoping to figure this out. I know for a fact that Lettie Mae was the daughter of Willis Haile Shields. Willis Haile, according to multiple census reports is the son of Thomas S and Mary R. I've tracked Thomas S Shields and Mary R Atkinson's marraige records, but I cannot fine Thomas' father's name anywhere except in an e-mail from someone whom I do not know and has not replied. Do you by chance have any information on Thomas S Shields, with wife Mary R Atkinson, being the son of Joshua Shields?
On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 10:36 PM, > wrote:
This was sent to me by Marge, redfordmi@msn.com
10/5/2007
Shields Family History
Emmetsburg Area Historical Society
Founded 1966
Selected History of the Shields Family
Dr. Martin L. Skubinna, Ph.D.
The major Shields family in America today is chiefly of Irish origin and can probably lay claim to having ancestry in Ireland dating back to the time of the initial Celtic invasions -- sometime between 500 and 1000 B.C. As one member of the Shields family from Georgia expressed it, "We Shields' are Irish, nothing but Irish, and damn proud of it. There is no family any better, and very few as good."
Irish Origins The original migrating generation of the Shields family to America appears to have been the sons of a family member who lived at the turn of the 17th century in County Antrim, Ireland. County Antrim is "on the shores of Lough Neagh," adjacent to Belfast, and the largest lake in the British Isles. William Shields, born at some time between 1590 and 1600, fathered four sons of whom we have record. He may well have fathered daughters as well, but we know only of the sons - as many genealogical records from this period often mention female offspring only in passing or omit them entirely. These were: William (born 1630); James (born 1633); Daniel and John (born apparently in the early 1640s and presumed by other circumstances to have been significantly younger than the two older Shields sons).
Exile
The two elder Shields offspring seem to have been involved in the roundups and deportation of young Irish men during the Commonwealth Period (1653-1659) under Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell. Their principal offense was the fact that they were Irish. Accounts report the family was greatly harassed, and younger sons were kept in concealment for much of their youth. This suggests that, for whatever reasons, the Shields' were in particular disfavor with Cromwell and the "Roundheads."
Family histories and tradition hold that these two older Shields brothers, William and James, were both exiled while in their early twenties to Barbados in the West Indies. At this time, during the middle 17th century, Barbados was an important British trading center and had a greater European population than the entire North American mainland. How they survived their exile we do not know, but family history is agreed that within less than two years they managed to take passage via a slave ship to Virginia, arriving around 1655 at Middle Plantation, the site of present-day Williamsburg.
The subsequent histories of these two Shields brothers is extensively chronicled, chiefly in books by the late John Arthur Shields, the late John Edgar Shields, and other descendant members of the resultant family lines. Other accounts exist which connect these two Shields immigrants with the two younger sons of William 1600, the youngest of whom, John Shields (ca. 1640), was the progenitor of the line which is the subject of this compilation. To treat with their careers and descent in a very summary manner: William Shields (1630) A few years after the arrival of the two Shields brothers to Middle Plantation, James migrated northward to the port of Baltimore. He subsequently located in Kent County, Maryland. William, meanwhile, remained in Williamsburg. William became the owner and operator of Shields Ordinary, a noted inn and tavern of the day. The tavern is noted occasionally in constabulary records, as one assumes for occasional breaches of the peace. Shields Tavern has been restored within the past two decades as one of Colonial Williamsburg's historical points of interest and informal dining establishments, and has become a popular stop on tours of the restoration. William became the progenitor of a lengthy family line. Later generations migrated elsewhere in Virginia, to the river settlements in North Carolina, and ultimately into Indiana Territory around 1800. Various genealogical works treat with the resultant lines which, collectively, are sometimes referred to as "the Williamsburg line." Among prominent Americans in this branch of the family were President John Tyler, and William Tyler Page.
James Shields From a Malthusian standpoint, James Shields was probably responsible for a greater portion of the Shields family in America than any other member of an immigrant generation. His own descent is not fully known, but included a son, William, born in 1668 at Kent County, Maryland. He died in 1741, at Augusta County, Virginia, while helping one of his sons build a cabin. This William Shields married Jeannette Parker and fathered five children: James "The Cordwainer" Shields, Jane Shields (did not marry), Thomas Shields, Eliza Shields (Hathaway), and John Shields (born in 1709). The three sons migrated to Augusta County, Virginia and became major landowners, farmers, surveyors, and shoemaker/leatherworkers (cordwainer) in the Beverly Manor portion of the huge Borden Tract which included much of the central Shenandoah Valley. John Shields, above, included among his children a Robert Shields (1740) who married Nancy Stockton. This family, which later migrated farther south in present-day Pigeon Forge, consisted of ten sons and a daughter. Known as the "family of the Ten Brothers," all lived to maturity and fathered what in most instances were large families. Many of the Ten Brothers migrated to Indiana Territory about 1800. Among this group were David "Big Dave" Shields, a man of great strength and equally great compassion. In his later years he was active in the Underground Railway, helping slaves escape to freedom in the North. Another of the Ten Brothers was John Shields, official scout and gunsmith of the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition. The Ten Brothers family built Shields Fort on Middle Creek in Sevier County, Tennessee, at the foot of Shields Mountain.
Major William Shields William Shields was the son of the John Shields who died on the ocean voyage to America. He was born in County Armagh on July 14, 1728. Certain basic particulars of his early life and emigration to America were handwritten in a family Bible presented to William Shields II in January 1796 and subsequently given by him to his daughter, Jane Shields Hunter, and comprise a basic family history of this line. A note about orthography is in order. The spelling of most English words did not become standardized in the language until the appearance of Noah Webster's first dictionary in the early 19th century. Both common and proper nouns, in particular, were spelled in widely variant ways. In William Shields' hand-written will, he spells his own family name three different ways. In consequence, until roughly the mid-nineteenth century, spelling variations in the family name did not necessary denote different family lines, but simply the inconsistency which characterized much spelling during earlier periods. The wording of the above Bible account suggests that William arrived in America by himself. But this does not appear to be the case. He was, indeed, an orphan as orphan hood was then defined - the loss of a father - but so were his sister(s) and brother(s) as well. The Bible account, written some 60 years after the event, was focused on William Shields, not the other members of his family. There is a substantial record which strongly suggests that his mother, one or more sisters, as well as at least one, and probably several older brothers were also part of the immigrant party. There was a James Shields associated with William Shields during the yearly years of the American Revolution who clearly was not his son James (although both sons James and John did serve with their father), but was quite possibly his older brother. A second probable brother was named David, who married a Nesbitt, and concerning whom a genealogical record exists which suggest a family connection with William.
Profession By profession, William Shields was a surveyor who, his role, if any, in helping William Emmit lay out his new town is lost in history. What we do know is that in 1787 he purchased 106 acres just to the west of William’s new town, upon the northern tip of which he laid out what became know as Shield’s Addition to Emmitsburg. With his wife, the Welsh widow Jane Williams Bentley, daughter of John Williams , William fathered eleven children over a 28-year period, all born at the family plantation south and west of the town of Emmitsburg. The area comprised what was in the mid-eighteenth century the Appalachian frontier. During the French and Indian War period, it was an area not unknown to Indian raids - fomented by the French - on the Frederick County settlers.
Revolutionary War Service By the outbreak of the American Revolution, William's older sons had reached adulthood, and several (John and James to our certain knowledge, and possible one or more others) served with him in the Frederick County Military Company which he organized and commanded as a Captain . His later Revolutionary career included service with the Continental Army as a Major in a regiment organized by a member of the prominent Maryland Goldsborough family. Major Shields is believed to have participated in several important early engagements of the Revolutionary War, most notably the Battle of Brooklyn Heights, Long Island on August 27, 1776 and the Battle of White Plains, New York on October 28, 1776. During these confrontations, his company served in the Continental Line under direct command of General George Washington during the period of his majority in the later stages of the war. Death, Will and Estate In the 1780s and 1790s, a number of William's children began to migrate to East Tennessee, where they joined a number of their cousins who were descended from James (1633), the Cromwell deportee. By 1797, the year of William's death at age 69, only the youngest few of his children appear still to have been at home.
William's will and estate inventory, as well as Maryland land records in Annapolis, indicate a substantial and comfortable lifestyle that was exceptional on the frontier. His possessions included a number of books, chiefly religious and cartographic in nature, a copper still, many furnishings and personal possessions; and seven slaves, whom he bequeathed to his wife and older sons.
Read other family histories
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FIFTH GENERATION: GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN OF WILLIAM HIATT
(846.) DAVID HIATT (229.) (38.) (4.) (1.):
b. 7-1mo-1800, Guilford Co., NC.; d. 1846, Grant Co., Indiana; m. (1st). in Wayne Co., Indiana, 17 September 1820, to (590.) LAVINA HIATT, d/o (144.) Christopher and Elizabeth (Mills). Hiatt; b. 20-2mo-1796, NC.; d. 27 November 1830, Delaware (now Grant). Co., Indiana; (they were third cousins, their great-grandfathers being brothers).; m. (2nd). in Delaware Co., Indiana, 14 July 1831, to LYDIA (BALLENGER). ADAMSON, a widow, d/o John and Sarah (Addleman). Ballenger; b. 20-6mo-1808; d. 27-7mo-1845, Grant Co., Indiana; m. (3rd). in Grant Co., Indiana, 19 April 1846, to BARBARA LEE, d/o John and Hannah (Morris). Lee; b. 1-2mo-1820.
CH: (By first wife). (2351.) Lorthama; (2352.) Eleanah; (2353.) Abanah; (2354.) Elhanom; (2355.) David Wilson.
(By second wife). (2356.) Elias H.; (2357.) Calvin W.; (2358.) Elijah; (2359.) Sarah; (2360.) Levi; (2361.) Lavina; (2362.) Malinda; (2363.) Elizabeth.
(There may have been a child by the third wife, as it is said that there were three sets of children in the family. The third set may have been the children of Lydia by her first husband, ---- Adamson.) (David Hiatt sat on the first grand jury ever assembled in Grant Co., Indiana. R91).
1830 Census, Delaware Co., Indiana: David Hiatt - 1 male aged 20 to 30, 1 male aged 5 to 10; 1 female aged 30 to 40, 2 females aged 5 to 10.
1850 Census Mills Township, Grant Co., Ind.
821 Hiatt David age 43 Farmer born Ind.
Malinda 40 N.C.
Elias 18 Ind.
Lavina 10 Ind.
Ayser? Steven D. 3 Ind.
FIFTH GENERATION: GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN OF WILLIAM HIATT
(846.) DAVID HIATT (229.) (38.) (4.) (1.):
b. 7-1mo-1800, Guilford Co., NC.; d. 1846, Grant Co., Indiana; m. (1st). in Wayne Co., Indiana, 17 September 1820, to (590.) LAVINA HIATT, d/o (144.) Christopher and Elizabeth (Mills). Hiatt; b. 20-2mo-1796, NC.; d. 27 November 1830, Delaware (now Grant). Co., Indiana; (they were third cousins, their great-grandfathers being brothers).; m. (2nd). in Delaware Co., Indiana, 14 July 1831, to LYDIA (BALLENGER). ADAMSON, a widow, d/o John and Sarah (Addleman). Ballenger; b. 20-6mo-1808; d. 27-7mo-1845, Grant Co., Indiana; m. (3rd). in Grant Co., Indiana, 19 April 1846, to BARBARA LEE, d/o John and Hannah (Morris). Lee; b. 1-2mo-1820.
CH: (By first wife). (2351.) Lorthama; (2352.) Eleanah; (2353.) Abanah; (2354.) Elhanom; (2355.) David Wilson.
(By second wife). (2356.) Elias H.; (2357.) Calvin W.; (2358.) Elijah; (2359.) Sarah; (2360.) Levi; (2361.) Lavina; (2362.) Malinda; (2363.) Elizabeth.
(There may have been a child by the third wife, as it is said that there were three sets of children in the family. The third set may have been the children of Lydia by her first husband, ---- Adamson.) (David Hiatt sat on the first grand jury ever assembled in Grant Co., Indiana. R91).
1830 Census, Delaware Co., Indiana: David Hiatt - 1 male aged 20 to 30, 1 male aged 5 to 10; 1 female aged 30 to 40, 2 females aged 5 to 10.
1850 Census Mills Township, Grant Co., Ind.
821 Hiatt David age 43 Farmer born Ind.
Malinda 40 N.C.
Elias 18 Ind.
Lavina 10 Ind.
Ayser? Steven D. 3 Ind.
FIFTH GENERATION: GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN OF WILLIAM HIATT
(846.) DAVID HIATT (229.) (38.) (4.) (1.):
b. 7-1mo-1800, Guilford Co., NC.; d. 1846, Grant Co., Indiana; m. (1st). in Wayne Co., Indiana, 17 September 1820, to (590.) LAVINA HIATT, d/o (144.) Christopher and Elizabeth (Mills). Hiatt; b. 20-2mo-1796, NC.; d. 27 November 1830, Delaware (now Grant). Co., Indiana; (they were third cousins, their great-grandfathers being brothers).; m. (2nd). in Delaware Co., Indiana, 14 July 1831, to LYDIA (BALLENGER). ADAMSON, a widow, d/o John and Sarah (Addleman). Ballenger; b. 20-6mo-1808; d. 27-7mo-1845, Grant Co., Indiana; m. (3rd). in Grant Co., Indiana, 19 April 1846, to BARBARA LEE, d/o John and Hannah (Morris). Lee; b. 1-2mo-1820.
CH: (By first wife). (2351.) Lorthama; (2352.) Eleanah; (2353.) Abanah; (2354.) Elhanom; (2355.) David Wilson.
(By second wife). (2356.) Elias H.; (2357.) Calvin W.; (2358.) Elijah; (2359.) Sarah; (2360.) Levi; (2361.) Lavina; (2362.) Malinda; (2363.) Elizabeth.
(There may have been a child by the third wife, as it is said that there were three sets of children in the family. The third set may have been the children of Lydia by her first husband, ---- Adamson.) (David Hiatt sat on the first grand jury ever assembled in Grant Co., Indiana. R91).
1830 Census, Delaware Co., Indiana: David Hiatt - 1 male aged 20 to 30, 1 male aged 5 to 10; 1 female aged 30 to 40, 2 females aged 5 to 10.
1850 Census Mills Township, Grant Co., Ind.
821 Hiatt David age 43 Farmer born Ind.
Malinda 40 N.C.
Elias 18 Ind.
Lavina 10 Ind.
Ayser? Steven D. 3 Ind.