While studying the Campbells who were part of the settlement of the Argyle patent and in many cases came to the American colony with Lachlin Campbell, I found the ”The Fitch Gazetteer: An Annotated Index to the Manuscript History of Washington County, New York Volume 1”, by Kenneth A. Perry, to be fascinating and invaluable. You can by a copy at Amazon here. I wish I could find a link to my Campbells in Jessamine Co, KY so I could justify buying. Such great history and some of it first hand!
The next several sketches will be working primarily from this book. I used this source because of the personal interviews conducted by Dr. Fitch of the direct descendants. The description from Amazon:
Over three decades, from 1847 to 1878, Dr. Asa Fitch of New York State collected a series of articles towards a history and genealogy of Washington County and the surrounding region, intended to discern “the date of the first settlement of the towns and from whence the settlers came.” This manuscript, part of the collection of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, has previously been available only on microfilm, but its contents have now been indexed and compiled here into an annotated, alphabetical list by subject, using the chronological form of the original manuscript. In collecting his data, Dr. Fitch combined personal interviews with the oldest settlers of the region and their descendants with primary source material including family records, unrecorded deeds, wills, cemetery records, early court proceedings and newspapers, and unpublished manuscripts, most of these prior to 1850. His initial articles represent some of the earliest ethnographic documentation of events relating to the first settlement of this region by the Scots-Irish and settlers from Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Included in these personal interviews were eyewitness accounts from individuals who were the participants, or descendants of participants, in the border disputes with the Hampshire grant lands that became the state of Vermont, and the pivotal events of the Burgoyne Campaign during the Revolutionary War. The numerous genealogical entries and family records featured in this manuscript trace the growth of the original families who arrived in the 1760s and the New England settlers who arrived just prior to the Revolutionary War, attempting to locate their places of origin, and carrying their descent into the 3rd, 4th and sometimes 5th generations.
Back when Google Books was a little more free with their page previews, I captured much information on the Argyle Campbells from this book – not all of it – but a good amount. Reading this book entirely would probably clarify and certainly add to the information presented here but I will write what I’ve been able to piece together based on this work. I do however, make 2 requests:
- Please back up any information with your own research because I could be wrong, I probably made some transcription errors and, it’s just a good idea…
- If you ever find this book in a second hand store, do yourself a favor and snatch it up!! Then, if you see an error in my work, correct me!
Campbell Genealogy Notes 