INTRODUCTION: As discussed in "The McCullys of Maritime Canada" there were three families of McCULLYs in Nova Scotia before 1790. The first two generations of one of those families, which for clarity's sake we call "Samuel of Londonderry," are described below. I will post information on later generations, and on the other two families, as I get the manuscripts completed. The numbered citations are found on a separate page.

There are webpages on the SYMBIOS website discussing the major families associated with these first two generations: KOLLOCK, COPP, and MORTON.

===============================================================

FIRST GENERATION
1. Samuel McCULLY was probably born in Northern Ireland (perhaps County Londonderry or Donegal) say between 1749 and 1759. He may have arrived in Nova Scotia as early as 1761, but the first certain record of him is in 1788 [1]. On 30 November 1778, Samuel McCULLY of Londonderry, Nova Scotia, sold to William Martin 500 acres of land in Londonderry, on the road between Debert Village and Masshouse Village [2]. We have been unable to find a deed showing when he acquired that land. He did not appear on the 1775 list of Londonderry grantees, so he must have obtained the land after that date by purchase, inheritance, or possibly by marriage. The deed states that he held the land "by virtue of the Grant of Londonderry," which could mean that the land came to him by inheritance, but could merely mean that the property was delineated by the Londonderry grant [3].
Samuel likely married in Colchester County ca 1779-1780, as his first child was born ca 1781. We have found no record of the marriage, and have been unable to identify his wife. Sons were born in 1781, 1784, and 1785, but we have no specific information on where the family was living during those years. Some time in the 1780s, Samuel purchased from John Mahon 600 acres of land at Great Village, near Londonderry. He apparently was living in Londonderry at the time. For some reason, the deed did not get recorded until 6 August 1788, after Samuel was dead [4]. Samuel died intestate [6] and no probate papers have been found; apparently Mahon's late-filed deed was adequate to hold the land in trust until the boys came of age. Samuel's wife is never mentioned in any of the deeds, and her situation after Samuel's death is unknown to us.
On 12 April 1809, Samuel's oldest son William McCully, sold to his brothers John McCully and Samuel McCully, for £60 his rights to the Great Village property. At the time, all three brothers were living in Horton, Kings County, Nova Scotia [5]. In November 1809 or 1810 John and Samuel sold the property, and both left Horton soon after [6]. This is the last record we have of any of the family members in Nova Scotia.
Children:
2. William McCULLY born 1781
3. John McCULLY born 25 August 1784
4. Samuel McCULLY born 1788

SECOND GENERATION

2. William McCULLY [Samuel-1] was born in Nova Scotia (likely Londonderry, Colchester County) in 1781 [7]. He lived in Nova Scotia until at least 1809, at which time he was in Horton, Kings County, and had sold to his younger brothers his inherited rights to his deceased father's land at Great Village, Colchester County [5]. We don't know how long he stayed in Nova Scotia, nor what his profession was there, but by 1814 he was at Liverpool (now, Richibucto), Northumberland (now, Kent) County, New Brunswick. On 19 March 1814 he married Anne Elizabeth KOLLOCK, the daughter of Jacob KOLLOCK and Miriam HORTON [8]. She was born 1795 in Northumberland (=Kent ) County.
William and Anne lived in Richibucto (perhaps in the same location) for over 60 years, he dying 6 November 1879 at age 98, and she in 1886. They are both buried in the Protestant cemetery at Richibucto [9]. Considering their long tenure in the area, and with many descendants in New Brunswick, very little is known about them. We assume he was a farmer. We can find no record of him applying for a Provincial land grant, or any deeds showing him buying or selling in the area. (Many of the early Kent County records were destroyed by fire.) The one land record we have found with his name on it was executed 16 August 1820 by Simon KOLLOCK, grandfather of Anne Elizabeth (KOLLOCK) McCULLY, who was at that time living in Onslow, Colchester County, Nova Scotia. Simon Kollock for £50 transferred his land near Richibucto (acreage unspecified) to William McCULLY and James HARRINGTON, to pass on to his great grandchildren [10]. He was probably the "William McCOLLAY" listed on the 1832 Kent County tax records as having paid quit receipts of £3, 4 on 150 acres [15]. A 1933 Trenton, New Jersey, news article that reportedly was about William McCully's ancestry was actually a (very confused) biography of Jacob KOLLOCK, Anne Elizabeth's father [16].
Children of William and Anne:
5. Mary McCULLY born 1814
6. Catherine McCULLY born 26 April 1817
7. Anne E. McCULLY born 1820
8. William Shepherd McCULLY born 24 January 1823
9. Rebecca McCULLY born 1827
10. Samuel Thomas McCULLY born 1834

3. John McCULLY [Samuel-1] was born in Nova Scotia 25 August 1784. Some family records say he was born in Halifax; that could be true, as we are unable to specifically locate his family from 1778 to 1809, and there was some McCully presence in Halifax. Joseph McCULLY of Onslow, Colchester County, Nova Scotia - who may have been a close relative of John's family - in 1807 was called to Halifax for military duty [25]; it was also reported that Joseph worked in Halifax as a tailor [26], although that doesn't seem to fit well with the other information we have on the family. Regardless of the possible family connections in Halifax, at this point it seems more likely that John's family were in Colchester or Kings County at the time of his birth. For example, some time in the 1780s, John's father Samuel McCULLY purchased from John Mahon 600 acres of land at Great Village, near Londonderry, Colchester County. He apparently was living in Londonderry at the time. For some reason, the deed did not get recorded until 6 August 1788, after Samuel was dead, so we don't know how long they were in Londonderry. The next record we have of them is in 1809 in Horton, Kings County, Nova Scotia.
We have no information on John for the first 16 years of his life. In a petition he filed in 1820, he stated that he had lived in New Brunswick for 21 years [29], which would have had him arriving in New Brunswick ca 1799. Because of the short time span between him selling his inherited property in Nova Scotia and getting married in New Brunswick (see below), we have suspected that he lived for awhile as a minor with one of the related families (COPP, HAYWARD, or another McCULLY family) who came across the Bay of Fundy to Westmorland (= Albert) County, New Brunswick in the 1790. However, when on 12 April 1809, John's older brother William McCully, sold to John and their younger brother Samuel McCully, for £60 William's rights to the Great Village property, all three brothers were living in Horton, Kings County, Nova Scotia [5]. John and Samuel sold the property and left Horton within the next two years [5, 6]. It is only a short distance across the Bay of Fundy from Albert County to Horton, and moving back and forth would have been simple for young unmarried men. It is possible that one or more of the brothers worked for David COPP or some other mariner who transported goods across the Bay [30]; in that case, John could have been "resident" in both provinces at the same time.
On 23 March 1811 John married Mary COPP of Hopewell, Albert County, New Brunswick [27]. Family tradition is that Mary, the daughter of David COPP and Mary PIKE, was born 12 November 1788 in Eastport, Washington County, Maine. That may be true, as David PIKE was a mariner, and had interests in areas throughout the Bay of Fundy and Passamaquoddy Bay, including Eastport. However, the land records we have been able to find suggest that the family was living in Hopewell at the time of Mary's birth, and did not own property in Eastport until 1808.
At the time of his marriage in Hopewell, John was farming in nearby Hillsborough, Westmorland (now, Albert) County (although we can find no record that he owned land there). On 11 April 1811, he purchased for £525 a 950-acre farm at Sussex, Kings County, New Brunswick, from his new brother-in-law and sister-in-law James and Catherine (COPP) WALLACE. John and Mary moved to the property at Sussex soon after purchase, and their first child was born there March 1812. About 1815, John's brother Samuel McCULLY moved from Kent County, New Brunswick, to Sussex, and on 8 August 1816 for £200, Samuel bought 450 acres of John and Mary's farm. On 10 January 1817, John and Mary sold another 300 acres of their land to William and Eunice READ of Sussex (for £20). They continued to live and farm at Sussex until May 1822, when they sold the remainder of their original Sussex purchase to Robert and Rachel COLPITTS [28].
(NOTE: John and Mary's two oldest sons, Samuel and David, were born on the Sussex farm in 1812 and 1814, respectively. Family records put Asa Alfred McCULLY's January 1818 birthplace at Saint John, St. Johns County, New Brunswick; John Wilmer McCULLY was reportedly born May 1821 at St. Stephen, Charlotte County, New Brunswick. These locations are approximately 75 and 150 miles, respectively, from Sussex. There is no evidence that John and Mary had property at either place, or that they lived outside of Sussex for any length of time. Mary's father David COPP and brother David COPP Jr. owned property and did business at Saint John at various times, and St. George is just across the bay from Eastport, Maine, where COPP and PIKE relatives lived (but not for certain at the significant times). None of the land records we have for the families fit particularly well with Asa and John Wilmer's birthdates, but perhaps John and Mary were visiting family or Mary had purposely gone to stay with relatives when she was nearing delivery.)
John and Mary had never received any government land, so in 1820 John and a number of other Sussex residents jointly petitioned for Crown lands. John was eventually awarded 200 acres, but not until after the family had left Canada and moved to Ohio. John gave his brother Samuel McCULLY power of attorney to sell the land, which was done in 1830 [29].
About May 1822, John moved his family from New Brunswick to Ohio. We have so far been unable to find them in any ship passenger lists, but it seems likely that they sailed from Saint John, New Brunswick, to Baltimore, Maryland, and went overland to the vicinity of Steubenville, Ohio. They may have lived for a short time near the Ohio River in Warren Township, Jefferson County, Ohio. Then, on 30 July 1822 John purchased 110 acres of land near present-day Dillonvale, Smithfield Township, Jefferson County [31]. The family lived and farmed there for four years, selling the property on 16 September 1826 [32]. We can find no Ohio land records for the McCullys from September 1826 until February 1829, although they were apparently in the area 10 April 1827 when in Steubenville John applied for United States citizenship [33]. John was in Sussex, New Brunswick, in November 1828 [29], and it is possible that the family was in Canada for an extended period during those two years. On 27 February 1829, John bought half of a city lot in Steubenville, Jefferson County, Ohio [34]; we don't know if the family ever lived there, as the 1830 census recorded them in Warren Township, south of Steubenville [37]. Apparently that is where the family was living when John died 19 August 1830. He had been awarded United States citizenship on 19 April 1830 [35]. We have been unable to determine John's occupation while living in town, what he died of, and where he is buried.
John died intestate, and in October 1830 Mary (COPP) McCULLY was appointed administrator of his estate. William NEELY and John NEELY were appointed by the Court as guardians of the McCully children [36]. We haven't been able to find out anything about the Neelys; they may have just been attorneys or neighbors who were available, but it is interesting that the court record says that the older McCully boys "chose" the Neelys as their guardians. We have been unable to find any additional probate papers for John McCully, and we can't find a deed for the sale of the Steubenville property, or any information on where they might have been living in Warren Township.
On 31 March 1832, Mary McCULLY purchased a 160-acre farm in Londonderry Township, Guernsey County, Ohio [38]. At the time of the purchase, she was described as "of Guernsey County," but we haven't found where the family had been living. On 21 March 1833, Mary married 2nd John McPHERSON a recently widowed Methodist minister. John was born in Virginia ca 1768. He had married 1st Ann S. _____, and with their family the McPHERSONS arrived in Kirkwood Township, Belmont County, Ohio in 1816 [39, 40, 41], where John was still living in 1833. His wife Ann died 18 January 1832, and was buried in the Sewellsville, Ohio, Methodist Episcopal Church Cemetery [42]. Mary lived on the McPherson land in Kirkwood Township, at first probably taking the younger McCully children with her, and leaving the older sons at the Londonderry farm. By 1840, Mary and John McPHERSON were alone at Kirkwood, and all the McCully children were at Londonderry [43]. In February 1844, Mary sold the Londonderry property to her sons David and Asa McCULLY. In April 1844, they sold the property [45], and the entire McCully family moved to Iowa. Mary went with them, leaving John McPHERSON in Ohio. Apparently there was no divorce. Family tradition is that Mary was never happy in the second marriage, perhaps partly because John McPHERSON was twenty years her senior. The death of their two year old son Marion Benson McPHERSON in a brush fire in 1837 may have further strained the relationship. In any event, she left. John McPHERSON lived his final years in Kirkwood with his son-in-law and daughter Lewis and Rebecca (McPHERSON) JONES, dying there in 1850 [39, 44].
In Iowa, Mary lived with her son David McCULLY first near Danville, Des Moines County, and then at New London, Henry County. In the 1850 census, she used the name McPHERSON [46], but all later references to her call her Mary McCULLY. In March 1852, most of her family left New London to move to Oregon, and she accompanied them [47, 48]. The families settled first at Harrisburg, Linn County, Oregon, with Mary living first with either David McCULLY or her son Asa McCULLY, until her daughter Mary Jane (McCULLY) LOVE arrived from Iowa in 1853. She lived with the LOVEs in Harrisburg until her death 9 September 1871 [49, 50, 51]. A family story is that she seriously dislocated her hip about 1859, and never walked again. She is buried in the Masonic Cemetery near Harrisburg.

Children of John and Mary (COPP) McCULLY:
11. Samuel McCULLY born 6 March 1812
12. David McCULLY born 15 September 1814
13. Asa Alfred McCULLY born 31 January 1818
14. John Wilmer McCULLY born 21 May 1821
15. Mary Jane McCULLY born 29 December 1824
16. William Hamilton McCULLY born 2 December 1829

Child of John and Mary (COPP McCULLY) McPHERSON
17. Marion Benson McPHERSON born 23 December 1835

4. Samuel McCULLY [Samuel-1] was born in Nova Scotia ca 1788 [52]. There is some possibility he was born in Halifax (see Discussion of John McCULLY, above), but at this point it seems almost certain that Samuel's family were in Colchester or Kings County at the time of his birth.
We have no information on Samuel until 12 May 1809, when Samuel's oldest brother William McCULLY, sold to Samuel and their brother John McCULLY, for £60, William's rights to the Great Village property left them by their deceased father. At that time, all three brothers were living in Horton, Kings County, Nova Scotia [5], although I have speculated above (see John McCULLY write-up) that they may have lived in Westmorland County, New Brunswick for a time before then. John and Samuel sold the Great Village property and left Horton within the next two years [5, 6].
From Horton, Samuel apparently went directly to Richibucto, Northumberland (now, Kent) County, New Brunswick, where his brother William McCULLY was living. On 20 September 1812, Samuel and four other Richibucto residents applied for a Crown land grant on the Richibucto River. The grant was not immediately acted on, and they applied again 15 February 1813. Samuel received his grant of Crown land 30 January 1815, 200 acres at Smith's Corner, Weldford Parish, Kent County, New Brunswick [53, 54]. It is doubtful he lived on the property (it seems more likely he lived with his brother William), for by March 1815 he was a resident of Sussex, Kings County, and on 4 March 1815 he sold his Crown grant to Andrew Sterling RITCHIE of Saint John, New Brunswick [55]. On 8 August 1816, for £200, Samuel bought 450 acres of land at Sussex from his brother John McCULLY [28], and they lived adjacent to one another until John moved his family to Ohio in 1822. Samuel continued to live and farm there the rest of his life.
Samuel married in Sussex 2 May 1816 Sarah MORTON, daughter of George Augustus MORTON and Agnes HUTCHINSON. Sarah was born in Sussex 26 May 1792. She died 23 June 1831, and is buried in the Pioneer Cemetery near Penobsquis, Kings County [24].
Our record of Samuel's land transactions in incomplete. After John and Mary McCULLY moved from New Brunswick to Ohio in 1822, Samuel owned about 640 acres of Sussex land in Lots 10, 43, 44 and 56. At some point, he apparently sold or transferred some of his land to his son Horatio Nelson McCULLY because 19 July 1852, Horatio and his wife Mary for £200 sold 220 acres in Lots 43 and 44 to Samuel. On the same day, George and Isabella MORTON sold him for £250 200 acres in Lot 9. Samuel immediately sold 210 acres of land in Lot 9 and Lot 44 for £250 to his son George McCULLY.
All those transactions should have left Samuel with about 630 acres of land, unless he had already transferred more to his children [28]. When he prepared his will 28 February 1859, Samuel did not include any real estate among his assets [57]. He died in 1859 or 1860, as his will was filed in probate court in 1860. His tombstone at the Penobsquis Pioneer Cemetery gives a death date of 5 February 1859 [24], but the date of his will is clearly 28 February 1859 [57].
Children of Samuel and Sarah (MORTON) McCULLY:
18. George M. McCULLY born 1817
19. Horatio Nelson McCULLY born 1818
20. William McCULLY born ca 1820

Topic Indexes