John Logan- From Ireland (and Scotland) To America (Logan Family)

John Loggan was born in 1699 in Ahoghill, Antrim, Ireland. (It is referenced that his father was from Restalrig, a suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland. This is interesting because I am told that Art’s ranch in Washington state was called Restalrig- more on this in another story). It seems John arrived in Boston, Massachusetts in 1717. He married Margaret Johnson, supposedly the daughter of Captain Johnson. Her last name is also thought to be Carr. I am still researching her. They had nine children together (6 boys, 2 girls, and one unknown). Margaret was born in Massachusetts in 1703, but I am unable to find their life from when John arrived in 1717 to when they married in 1724.

Updated 4/17/19: Two of their sons, John and Mathew, served under General George Washington during the battle for New York City in the American War for Independence. When the Army was hopelessly surrounded, the General evacuated his entire army under cover of darkness and moved to Philadelphia. John and Mathew most likely were at Valley Forge later on. Source: The Logans of Scotland by James C. Logan

John Logan, the founder of the Washington, Connecticut family, was descended from a long line of Scotch barons deriving their name, Celtic in origin, from the ancestral home, Logan, in Ayrshire. He came from the north of Ireland with the Gordons, Kassons, Keigwins, Parkes, Wylies, and other Scotch Presbyterians, under the leadership of Reverend Samuel Dorrance, a graduate of the University of Glasgow. Their party, after experiencing a great many unusual difficulties, came from Marblehead Harbor and Boston to Connecticut and buying up the Volunteer grants at Voluntown, forming the nucleus of the Presbyterian church Ekonk hill. –Source: A National Register of the Society, Sons of the American Revolution, Volume 1

“Among the first settlers of Voluntown, Conn., were a number of the thrifty Scotch-Irish, of whom large numbers emigrated to New England and Pennsylvania early in the last century. Most of those who settled in Voluntown were from Ulster, the extreme northern county of Ireland, and separated from Argyleshire, Scotland, by the narrow North Channel. They formed so large a proportion of the inhabitants of Voluntown, that they organized a Presbyterian church, the first, and for and called to be their pastor the Rev. Samuel Dorrance, himself lately arrived from Ireland, but a graduate of Glasgow University in Scotland. From these old Scotch-Irish families, the Campbells, Dixons, Douglases, Edmonds, Gibsons, Houstons, Hunters, Kassons, Kegwins, Kennedys, Parkes, Wylies, and others, have descended many of the prominent men of Connecticut, as well as of other states west and south where their descendants have settled.’ John Parke and wife, James Edmond and wife, Patrick McCallan and wife Elizabeth and daughter Elizabeth, John Gaston, John Wylie and wife Agnes, James Parke, Elizabeth Jordan, and perhaps William Cady and wife, John Logan and James Campbell, though the exact date of admission of the last four is uncertain.”

The Rising Sun Inn (6 Romford Road) was built in 1748 by John Loggin/Logan as a 1-1/2-story five-bay lean-to house. In the first half of the 19th century Matthew Logan (John’s son) altered the house to its present configuration by increasing the width of the front elevation three bays to the left (north), raising the roof to two full stories thereby providing for a ballroom, and building an ell. Presumably, the present 12-over-8 sash and window and doorway cornices date from that time. When patronage of the inn declined toward the end of the 19th century, the road in front was moved away, creating the present spacious lawn. While the age of the accompanying barn is undocumented, it surely is old and with its weathered vertical siding and large size is a prominent presence in the Sunny Ridge Historic District. Historic photographs show additional barns that formerly stood behind the house. The Sunny Ridge Historic District

There is a black and white real photo postcard of the Logan Homestead, formerly known as the Rising Sun Inn, at 6 Romford Road in Washington, Connecticut at https://www.gunnlibrary.org/gunn-museum/. Search for “The Logan Homestead July 1913”. Trees loom over the front of the two-story, home with a clapboard facade and dark trim and shutters on the multi-paned upper windows and double-sashed lower. A roofed front portico is surrounded by a railed fence. A single-story addition is visible to the rear beyond a deck to the right. Tree branches (birch?) form an X pattern at the right corner of the residence.

Interesting Note: From Jacob Larwood and John Camden Hotten’s History of Sign Boards, pg. 118. “The Rising Sun was a badge of Edward III, and forms part of the arms of Ireland, but the Sun Shining was cognizance of several kings.” “The Rising Sun may have been a favorable omen for a man beginning a business. Such signs were adopted for businesses, as well as inns.”

The Hollister name is in our tree. A Hollister Logan lived in this house and I have a letter from her (actually a friend wrote it for her as she was in her 90s) about her study of their genealogy, but hadn’t been able to find much.

Source: The Church on the Green: The First Two Centuries of the First Congregational Church at Washington, Connecticut

He then married Dorcas Root in 1771 in Washington, Connecticut. They did not have any children together, but she had three children with her first husband, John Royce, who is also my 6th great-grandfather. Their daughter, Azubah, married John Logan, Jr.

John, Sr. died on December 2, 1777, in Washington, Connecticut, having lived a long life of 77 years, and was buried there. Dorcas died the same year, the same year a smallpox epidemic raged through Washington, Connecticut. His grandson, Matthew, also died the same year at age 2. Not sure if this was the reason for their deaths, but it could be.

The Gunn Historical Museum in the Washington Green Historic District, in Connecticut, has many of the Logan artifacts, photos, stories, etc. Gunn Historical Museum

Read my next blog for the fascinating “could be’s and probably are’s” of John Loggan’s ancestors in “Logan Theories…“. DNA has proven my connection to this John first through a Yahoo group I joined many moons ago. Later, I found out that a gentleman that had helped me for years and I are 3rd cousins, 1x removed. He is also the President of the Clan Logan Society International! We share our third great-grandfather, Lemuel H. Logan. Together we are bound to find the connection between John and Scotland.

Other Logan name variations are: Loban, Lobban, Loben, Logan, Logane, Logen, Loggan, Loggane, Loggans, Login.