The Loghry Line

I have been able to trace my surname, Loghry, back to William Loughry, a probable revolutionary soldier, who resided in Pennsylvania and New York.  According to Stacy Jackson of Hornell, New York (Jackson’s History of Cameron Mills), “William Loughry was a native of Ireland, it is said, born in Ireland in 1743.  The name Loughry was formerly pronounced Lawrey (Logthry).” He resided for some time in eastern Pennsylvania, probably in Northumberland County, also in Luzerne County about ten miles from Wilkes Barre.  The census for 1800 shows one of this name, undoubtedly the above, was a Pennsylvania soldier during the Revolution.  Cemetery records for Browns Crossing Burying Grounds shows William as a Revolutionary War Soldier.

In 1998, another Loghry descendant, Craig A. Davis, contacted the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) inquiring about records for William LOGHRY (LOUGHRY) showing his service.  The DAR responded that their files have been checked and there is no record of service for William, which means that no one has established that ancestor in their index when applying for membership. 

Craig A. Davis has done much research on William and in an undated PDF document titled In Search of William, stated that regardless of how the name was originally spelled, or is correctly spelled, LOCHRY appears to have been the prominent spelling in early court records.  Craig also points out that there was another man named William Lockry/Loughry, but he died in 1825 in Pennsylvania.  Craig also believes that our Lockry/Loughry/Loghry ancestors might actually be Scots who were driven out of Scotland and into Ireland.  “Settlers arriving in the Susquehanna River area in the early 1700s, virtually all Scots-Irish immigrants from County Donegal, Ireland, chose northwestern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania for settlement and named the area Donegal. As I have pointed out before, the term Scots-Irish is an American term that refers to the Scots who were driven out of Scotland and into Ireland. So, while we tend to think of them as being Irish [came from Ireland], they are in reality, of Scottish heritage.”

As to why we can find nothing on William’s service during the Revolution, Craig states one needs to look at when William and Nancy (his wife) died.  The Congressional Act under which William would have been covered for a military pension wasn’t passed until June 7, 1832.  Widows and children were allowed to receive payments due the pensioner that had not been paid before his death. William and Nancy’s deaths (1837 and 1828 respectively) could be why the DAR doesn’t have any information on his service as no claim was ever filed.

During the same timeframe as my William was in Pennsylvania and New York, there was another line of individuals with same/similar names.  From Notes and Queries: Historical Biographical and Genealogical Relating Chiefly to Interior Pennsylvania, edited by William Henry Egle, M.D., M.A. (Annual Volume 1899), page 62 < https://books.google.com/books?id=3cUxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA62&dq=Archibald+Jeremiah+Lockry&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwieqJu01ZbMAhVJcj4KHUCrBMEQ6AEIHjAA#v=onepage&q=Archibald%20Jeremiah%20Lockry&f=true>:

Colonel Archibald Lochry.

Next to the sad story of the commander of the expedition to the Sandusky Indian towns, Colonel William Crawford, in 1782, is the brief recital of the mournful tragedy near the mouth of the Miami on the 24^th of August, 1781, when the gallant Col. Lochry fell a victim to Indian hate. It is not the purpose of the writer at this time to give an account of the ill-fated expedition which had been sent to the relief of Gen. Clark, who had been directed to capture Vincennes from the British. Archibald Lochry, son of Jeremiah Lochry, was born April 15, 1733, in the North of Ireland. His father emigrated with his family to Pennsylvania prior to the year 1740, locating on the extreme confines of Cumberland county in what was subsequently Lurgan township. Here the father died prior to 1750, and his children were brought up as youthful pioneers. (Page 62.)  Could my William (born about 1743) be another son of Jeremiah and a younger brother to Archibald?

Another interesting source of information is A Brief Genealogy of the Loughry Family of Pennsylvania compiled by Julia A. Jewett (published St. Louis, Missouri 1923) (original from University of Wisconsin  http://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89061962304). 

Loughry History.

The early emigrants of this name came to America when Pennsylvania was a wilderness. The father came from Derry County, Ireland, with five sons and settled in the extreme confines of Cumberland County, Pa., in Lack Twp., afterwards Lurgan Township, before 1740, taking up land under Maryland Grant. His Descendants identified themselves with the Colonists, brave Patriots who “pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to their Country,” and did not hesitate to give all when needed. 

The name is spelled in various ways, as was the case with most of the names of the early pioneers, but it is generally conceded, Lochry is the correct spelling. This would indicate the name is a Scotch or Scotch-Irish origin. What is the meaning of Scotch-Irish? It is only an appellation given by Americans to the descendants of the Scots who settled in the north of Ireland and were chiefly of Saxon blood and their religion was Presbyterian, whereas those who were natives of Ireland were of Celtic blood, and as we all know their religion was Roman Catholic and the races are said to be as distinct today as when the Scots first crossed the border and took up their abode in the beautiful Irish land.

The name “Lochry” signifies Mountain Lake. Lock from the Scotch, meaning lake, and “ery” meaning mountain.  The Wilsons, Loughrys and two other families came with Lord Forbes into Ireland from Scotland during the reign of James the First of England and settled in Loughford County, Ireland. There is a lake there called “Lough Rea” and another called “Lough Ree,” also a town in Galloway County named “Lough Rea” all of which would indicate the Loughry family settled there. (Page 1-2.)  While all of this is interesting and I want to be able to tie into this genealogy, I am not convinced this is our line.

In looking at Genealogy of the Loughry Family, the first generation (page 6), there is Jeremiah Lockery, the father of the family coming to America before 1740, and came with his five sons.  His children were:

1.       Jeremiah Loughry—born in 1731

2.       William

3.       Archibald—born in 1733

4.       Margaret

5.       John—born in 1737 in York Co. Penna.

6.       James

7.       Rebecca

8.       Mary

This book, however, has very little information on the son William, simply stating “William, son of Jeremiah, said to have married Rebecca. Had land in Derry Twp., Westmoreland County, in 1786.” My William married Nancy Purdy, another Irish immigrant. Since the information is so limiting, could Julia have been wrong on the name of William’s wife or was my William is perhaps a nephew of the Jeremiah who came over with his five sons and immigrated with them.