McCord and Clark

Updated April 7, 1997

Thomas and Henry Lytle's mother was Elizabeth Clark. There are two views. The original one:

And the revised one:

In the first view, Thomas and Henry are descended from the McCords directly, by blood. In the second view, they are related to McCords only through their adoptive father, John Means. In either case, Thomas and Henry Lytle were raised from a very early age by a John Means, and were lucky to retain their Lytle name.

Here is the McCord Ancestry:

The McCord family is currently traced back to one James McCord, born perhaps about 1620, in Scotland, though possibly a bit later. Tradition holds that he died in the battle of Killicrankie Pass, Scotland. A sword attributed to him was shown in New York in the 1920's. James was claimed to be from the Isle of Skye, and chieftan of Clan MacCord. His wife was Jean. This all needs further research.

The next tradition is that James' son, John, was born about 1660, and was in the siege of Derry (now Londonderry, Northern Ireland) with King William's men in 1689, and was in many other battles. John's wife was Mary McDougal. John became clan chieftan at the death of his father. They moved to Ireland about 1688 as part of the great Ulster Plantation, when Scots and Englishmen were sent to oust Irish landowners. These McCords settled in Stewartstown, County Tyrone.

John then had seven sons. They all came to America around 1720. The sons were David, John, William, Robert, Samuel, Benjamin, and James. James lived from 1689 to 1781 and was a Presbyterian preacher in New York state.

There were numerous William McCords. Two appear quite early in Pennsylvania. One William died in 1739, in what was Chester County. Lancaster County was derived from this, and later other counties from Lancaster. Another William died in 1761 in Lancaster County. His age can be roughly calculated from the ages of his children and grandchildren. He appears to be just the right age to be the son of John, and one of the seven brothers. The William who died in 1739 may be an uncle or older cousin.

When William died in in 1761, his will of the previous year was proven. It appears that he had five daughters and no sons:

The Montgomerys, Alexanders, Means and Lytles all show up in Randolph County, North Carolina. Not all went there. Some went to Ohio, and some of those in North Carolina later moved on to Greene County, Tennesee. A couple of cousins in the next generation married each other. Thomas Lytle and his cousins Stephen and William Alexander all married daughters of Thomas King, and were adjacent landowners in Randolph County. All of these families are claimed to be Scots Irish, and their appearance in early Presbyterian churches in Pennsylvania supports this.

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