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Subject: Samuel Rhea- delete if you already have this
Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 21:57:07 -0400 (EDT)

Would you please hold up your comments on this until I tell you I am
finished. Pat

Page 1

In the troublesome period between 1660-1680 in Scotland when an attempt was
made to compel every Presbyterian to join the Church of England, and the
Presbyterians refused to comply, they were hunted on the moors like wild
beasts by Claverhouse and his dragoons. Many of those persecuted for
religions sake finally left their all and fled to their Scotch kin in
Ireland.

Among those persecuted in Scotland for religious and political opinions, was
the head of an ancient familiy, Archibald Campbell, Marquis of Argyll. He
fought for his king, but Cromwell besieged him at Inverary and in 1652 he
submitted to the Protector. For this, after the Restoration, he was committed
to the tower of London, with his son, Charles Campbell.

In 1661, Argyll was taken to Leith by sea and beheaded; but his son, Charles
Campbell, escaped and fled to Ireland, where he escaped notice by changing
his name to Rhea, the Gaelic form of Campbell, and taking the name of Matthew
instead of Charles.

He stayed in Ireland, and his family was born ther, consisting of thre sons.
From this family of the Rhea name is descended the large and famous Southern
family, who still own most of Rhea County, Tennessee. this Rhea family is the
one referred to in the four volumes of "Prominent Southern Families".
Twenty-nine Presbyterian ministers have come from this stock and many other
prominent people.

It is unreasonable to judge that Samuel Rhea, our ancestor, was born in
Ireland in 1725, was a branch from this root? So far, we are unable to state
positively that he is, but he is supposed to have been a grandson of the
first Matthew Rhea (the son of one of Matthew Rhea's unnamed sons).

Evidence--He was not a peasant, but a man of means and education. One of the
papers of the time refers to "an aristocratic family", the Rhea family. Out
on the frontier he built a home and called it Rea's Mansion. He had a library
to dispose of in his will, while many people at that time could neither read
or write.)

So, about 1750, we find a new home established, probably in County Down,
Ireland, by Samuel Rhea and Eleanor Snodgrass (whose grandfather, Benjamin
Snodgrass, a widower with one unmarried daughter, had already left Ireland
for America in 1730).

A large number of Scoth-Irish emigrated to America from 1700-1775, because of
high rents, excessive taxes, and some religious persecution, and we can
imagine the letters that passed between them and the friends left in Ireland.

To the new home in Ireland came a baby daughter, Ann Rhea, born in 1751.
Times grew more troubled, but from across the ocean came lettes about the
vast new country, its beauties, and the warm invitation from the Penns to
those who loved liberty of conscience to settle in Pennsylvania.

In the latter part of 1754, Samuel Rhea and his brave wife, Eleanor, with
their baby daughter, Ann, embarked for the New World. We can picture that
voyage in a sailing vessel, lasting several months, with food and
accommodations of the roughest; fears of the future in their hearts,--all of
this very hard on the young mother. Like Abraham, they left their home and
their kindred faring forth into a wilderness, "not knowing whither they
went", but with strong faith in God in their hearts.

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