An early American Chesnut family

Copyrighted by John B. Chesnut, Jr.

The following is from a book by John B. Chesnut, Jr., 4045 Raymond Rd., Livermore, California 94550. The book follows many of the descendancy lines of a Chesnut that I will call "William of Bucks Co., PA." The text below is quoted from John's book. Reprinted with permission of the author.  Starting on page 11:

"1. WILLIAM CHESNUT1 is said to have come to America from Scotland, probably as a child or young man with his parents and family. It is possible, however, that he was Scots-Irish and was born in Northern Ireland. He was born in about the mid or late 1720s; no birth date has been found, so the date is estimated based on his sons' births. He died after December 23, 1782, and before January 28, 1783. These dates are known because a formal consent was signed for him, using his name (probably while he was on his death bed) on December 23, 1782, for his daughter Margaret to be married, and his will was probated on January 28, 1783. the first two children listed below were born to his first wife (name unknown). William married a second time to Catherine Callahan in Augusta County, Virginia; they were married on July 28, 1762 by the Rev. Alexander Miller, pastor of Cooks Creek and Peaked Mountain Presbyterian churches. Catherine probably died in the early 1770s. William's known children with his first wife were: 2.i. JOHN Chesnut born in about the late 1740s, base on his marriage date. He was possibly born in Pennsylvania. He married Patience Gum in about 1766 or 1767. His will was proved on May 5, 1805, in Knox County, Kentucky, according to the DAR Patriot Index, so he very likely died there in 1805. 3.i. WILLIAM Chesnut born about 1750, possibly in Pennsylvania. He married Sophia Wade probably in the mid-1770s and died in 1788 at about age 38 in Augusta County, Virginia (area became present-day Highland County, Virginia, in 1847). 1William1's children with Catherine (Callahan) Chesnut: 4.i. MARGARET Chesnut born about 1763 or 1764 in the Dry River/War Branch/Muddy Creek area of Augusta County, Virginia (now about five miles west of Harrisonburg in Rockingham County). She married William Blain on about December 23, 1782 (date of her father's consent and William Blain's marriage bond) in Rockingham County. Her death date and place are not known. 5.ii. ELIZABETH Chesnut born about 1765 or 1766 in the Dry River/War Branch/Muddy Creek area of Augusta County, Virginia (now Rockingham County). She married Thomas Woodward on August 2, 1786, in Rockingham County. the marriage records show she was an "orphan" whose father's name was William Chesnut, at the time she was married. Her date and place of death are unknown. 6.iii. DANIEL Chesnut born about 1767 also in the Dry River/War Branch/Muddy Creek area of Augusta County, Virginia (now Rockingham). He married Isabella Blain on August 25, 1790, in Rockingham County. He died on April 23, 1851, in Scioto Township, Ross County, Ohio, and is believed buried in the Chesnut cemetery sometimes known as the Malone cemetery) on Lunbeck Road, about four miles south of Chillicothe, Ohio. 7.iv. CHARLES Chesnut born on April 5, 1770, in Augusta County, Virginia (now Rockingham). He married Elizabeth Robertson on June 9, 1795, in Rockingham County and died in 1859, at his home in Logan County, Illinois, at the age of almost eighty-nine."

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