Harry Covington McNair

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Between 1821 and 1824, Missouri; First Governor of Missouri

Alexander married Margaret Susanne de Reihle in Mar 1805. Margaret (daughter of Antoine de Reihle and Stella Camp) was born about 1790. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Antoine married Stella Camp on 19 Mar 1786. Stella (daughter of Ichabod Camp and Ann Oliver) was born on 18 Jan 1764 in Amherst County, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He was a graduate of Yale College from which he received a B.A. and M.A. degree. He studied theology and was licensed to preach by the New Haven Association, 27 May 1746 and in the next year was preaching in Sharon, Connecticut. By the last of May 1748, however, he had abandoned the Congregational Ministry and was acting as Lay Reader to the churchmen of Wallingford and Middletown, until encouragement was given him by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to cross the ocean, which he did late in the year 1751. On 22 March 1752 he was ordained to the office of Deacon, and three days later to that of Priest, in London by Dr. John Thomas, Bishop of Lincoln. On March 26th he was licensed to execute his office in America by Dr. Sherlock, Bishop of London. He immediately returned to this country with a commission from the Propagation Society as Missionary to Middleton, Wallingford and Cheshire. The first service he held was at Wallingford, July 12. He had already been married to Content Ward, on the 26th of November 1749; and in August of 1754, he established his family in his own home in Middletown. His wife died there on the 29 December 1754. On the 6th of June 1757 he married in Boston, by the Rev. Henry Caner to Ann Oliver of Boston, who was probably the daughter of Antoine and Marie Olivier (French Huguenots) and was born at Annapolis, NS, 31 December 1727.

He continued in Middletown until June, 1760, when he was induced by Gov. Dobbs of North Carolina to remove to Wilmington in that Province. his health, however, was impaired by the change, and he would have been glad to return to Middletown, but his old parishioners were so displeased at his having left them, that they declined to invite him back again. In June, 1761, he settled in Cornwall Parish, Lunenburg County in southern Virginia. In March of the next year he moved to Amherst Parish in Amherst County, Virginia, fixing his residence in the Glebe House, near the present village of New Glasgow.

After 16 years in this parish he was attracted by the proposals for establishing an English Colony in the neighborhood of Natchez and left Amherst on the first of June, 1778, for Mississippi. He took with him his wife, one son seventeen years of age, and five daughters, aged from fifteen to eight years, besides a number of Negro slaves, some of whom were sent in advance to the Monongahela to build flatboats for the journey. The family proceeded down the Monongahela to Fort Pitt, and thence down the Ohio and Mississippi, for part of the way in company with Colonel George Rogers Clark's expedition against the British at Kaskaskia, the former Capital of the French during their occupancy of the Illinois country. On arriving at Natchez they found the situation unhealthy and the land company not as prosperous as had been represented. The oldest daughter [Mary Ann] sickened and died in February 1779, and after that Mr. Camp determined to leave the settlement and ascend the River to Kaskaskia, in the southern part of the present state of Illinois. On account of danger from the Indians, the family was obliged to wait for a military convoy from New Orleans, but they reached the village of Kaskaskia about the 1st of May 1779 and there made a pleasant home for themselves. One of Mr. Camp's daughters [Catherine] married early in 1785, a Canadian Frenchman named Guion, who proved to be very passionate and unkind to his wife. She sought refuge from him in her father's home, whither Guion followed her; and while Mr. Camp stood in the doorway remonstrating or preparing to remonstrate with the infuriated man, Guion shot and killed him. This tragedy occurred on the 20th of April, 1786. Another daughter had recently married in St. Louis, and thither the rest of the family, consisting of the widow and three daughters, immediately removed, Mrs. Camp resided in St. Louis until her death in October, 1803; though a Protestant, she was interred in the Roman Catholic Cemetery on the 27th of the month.

Nothing is known about Ichabod's journey to England except that he went there under the patronage of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and received ordination and his license to preach in the Church of England. His license and ordination papers have survived and photocopies of them have been passed around among his descendants. The trip must have been a momentous occasion in the life of a young man. He was twenty-six years old at the time. His wife and young daughter were obviously left at home, and his son, Samuel, was probably born before his return. There being no bishop here to ordain Ministers. Ordination could only be had by going to London.

Ichabod married Ann Oliver on 6 Jun 1757 in King's Chapel, Boston, MA. Ann (daughter of Antoine Oliver and Marie) was born on 31 Dec 1727 in Annapolis, Nova Scotia, Canada; died in Oct 1803 in St. Louis, St. Louis County, MO; was buried on 27 Oct 1803 in Catholic Cemetery, St. Louis, St. Louis County, MO. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]