In the year 1730, Robert Muirhead and his wife were emigrating to America from their home in the Ulster Plantation in northern Ireland.
Robert Muirhead was a descendant of the 14th Century Norman knight, Sir Willielmo de Muirhead and his wife, Dame Jean Hay (herself a descendant of Alan, the 11th Century Seneschal of Dol and Dinan in Brittany).
During the journey across the Atlantic Ocean, Robert’s wife gave birth to a son. They named him James. The Muirhead family settled in York County, Pennsylvania.
Prior to 1760, James married Elizabeth Fletcher and they made their home in Huntington Township, York County, Pennsylvania. The register of Christ’s Church in York Springs (in present-day Adams County) includes the entry “Mary of James and Eliz Morehead, bapt June 15 1760.” After Mary, the couple would give birth to five sons and two more daughters, the youngest born about 1780.
When the American Revolutionary War began, James Moorhead served as a private in Captain James Thompson’s Company of Associators for York County. (Captain Thompson would later advance to Colonel of the 1st Battalion of the York County Militia.)
After the War, James Moorhead resided in the vicinity of York Springs in present-day Adams County, Pennsylvania. He died on 04 August 1814 and was buried in the Leer Farm Cemetery. James’ wife, Elizabeth, died on 16 July 1816.
