James Rea

Abt 1750 - Abt 1830  (80 years)

• Name	James Rea
  Born	Abt 1750	Newry, County Down, Northern Ireland
  Gender	Male
  Died	Abt 1830	Pennsylvania
  Person ID	P44559677	My Genealogy
  Last Modified	10 Feb 2010

  
  

  Father	Matthew Sutherland Rea,   b. Abt 1730, County Down, Northern Ireland ,   d. Bef 28 May 1812, Amberson Valley, Franklin, Pennsylvania, United States  (Age < 82 years)
  Mother	Elizabeth
  Family ID	F2456	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Children	1. Rea,   b. Bef 1774, County Down, Northern Ireland   2. Rea,   b. Bef 1774, County Down, Northern Ireland   3. Rea,   b. Bef 1774, County Down, Northern Ireland
  Last Modified	21 Jul 2019
  Family ID	F3724	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  James appears in the 1786 Fannett Township Tax listing, thus he may have been the first member of the family to settle in Franklin County, prior to 1786. James would have been about 36 years old in 1786. The 1751 Franklin County Tax list shows no Reas (of any spelling), thus confirming that the family hadn't yet arrived in Franklin County at that time. According to "History of Franklin County Pennsylvania Illustrated" (1887), there was a Private James Ray in a company recruited from Path Valley (the area that Fannett Township was created from) and mustered into service to quell an "Indian disturbance" to the west in 1779. This would tend to indicate that James may have settled in Franklin County prior to 1779, or about four to five years after the Reas arrived in Pennsylvania from Ireland. James would have been 29 years old when he served. The 1790 census shows James Rea with a wife and two sons 16 and up, and one daughter 16 and up. He is the only Rea listed in all of Franklin County at the time. The 1830 census of Franklin County, Pennsylvania shows a James Rea, age 70 to 80, living in Montgomery Township as a widower, with his two daughters, who were age 40 to 50 and 20 to 30. This James would have been born between 1750 and 1760, when Matthew Sutherland Rea was 18 to 28 years old. I believe this is that same James Rea. He was no longer living by the 1840 census, so his date of death must have occurred at sometime between 1830 and 1840. Given the 1790 census data, it would seem 1750 is a more likely birthdate for James, as his children were at least 16 in 1790, making him 24 years old at their birth, if he had been born in 1750. A possible clue to one of the children's identity is the Cumberland County Land Warrantnts, in which a William Ray and a James Macklin applied for a warrant for 8 acres on March 4, 1786. UPDATE: This same William Ray may have been Matthew Sutherland Rea's father, thus, James' grandfather. I have established that, in all likelihoodd, Matthew's father was named William and that he most likely was born between 1710 and 1720 in County Down, Northern Ireland. If I'm correct, I believe William many very well have come to America with his son Matthew and his grandchildren James, Jonathan, Fanny, Margery and Robert. If so, then he would have been about 54 to 64 years old at the time of their emigration from Northern Ireland and he would have been about 66 to 76 years old at the time he bought land in Franklin County, in partnership with James Macklin in 1786. Foreman says, in "Conococheague Headwaters of the Amberson Valley," that James Rea served under his neighbor Capt. Noah Abraham. Franklin County had not yet been formed from Cumberland County, so Abraham was in command of the Cumberland County Militia, Fannett Township, 1st Battalion, 3rd Company in 1777. He later commanded the 7th Company of the 6th Battalion, also from Fannett Township, in 1780, serving, both times, under Col. James Dunlap.