Robert STRAYHORN

Abt 1733 - Aft 1820  (~ 88 years)

• Name	Robert STRAYHORN
  Birth	Abt 1733	Ayrshire, Scotland
  Gender	Male
  Emigration	Apr 1775
  Death	Aft 1820	Chester, Pennsylvania
  Notes	According to Dictionary of Scottish Immigrants to the U.S.A. by Donald Whyte, our Robert Strayhorn was born in Ayrshire, Scotland. According to the Biographical History of Chester and Delaware Counties by Cope and Ashmeade (the copy I have seen was entitled Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Chester and Delaware Counties -Ed) published in 1901, Vol 2, page 394, "Robert Strahorn was a Scottish dissenter, who left his native land in order to escape religious persecution, and landed in America in April 1775, about the time of the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. He enlisted three times in the Continental Army, serving through the entire war, and never receiving a wound. He participated in some of the most memorable events which marked the struggle for independence, and was a sharer in many of the greatest of the hardships which fell to the lot of the devoted patriot army. He accompanied Washington when the latter, on that never-to-be-forgotten Christmas night, crossed the Delaware in order to surprise the Hessians at Trenton, and he shared all the sufferings of the winter at Valley Forge. Robert brought his two sons, Nathaniel and Samuel with him to America in 1775." (Most arrival records recorded males over sixteen years old, so Margaret was likely not recorded -Ed.) Robert "heroically ate rats with Washington at Valley Forge." from Ninety Years of Boyhood the autobiography of Robert E. Strahorn, Robert's great-great-grandson. "I also have a Robert Strayhorn who was born in 1733 in Scotland and had two sons Nathaniel and Samuel who were born in Ireland before emigrating to the America's in 1775, where he settled in the New London, Chester, PA area. Nathaniel married a lady by the name of Olympia and had 5 children Hannah, Samuel, Thomas, Elizabeth, and Peter. Of these folks, I have little else other that Nathaniel married in Montgomery CO PA. Robert's son Samuel, had descendants who settled in Ceder Rapids IA, Hardin CO IA, and other places in IA, as well as in New London PA, and Dakota territories as well as Cecil CO MD. This line contains 157 people and it is my belief that Eva Armitage compiled it." -Ed Reynolds, Rootsweb Archiver > STRAYHORN > 2000 > 0962906061 The timing and circumstances of Robert's residence in Ireland are uncertain, as Ireland was not mentioned in either the Cope and Ashmeade nor the Donald Whyte volumes. But Ed Reynolds' sources claimed an Irish sojourn, Robert's son Samuel Strayhorn listed his place of birth as 'Ireland' in the 1850 US Census, and we found a birth record for a Margaret Strehorn in Antrim, a port city on the northeast of Ireland near Scotland. We also found a reference to a Robert Strahorn also in Antrim in a 1761 newspaper article in Belfast. Robert's occupation was listed as a 'weaver' when he arrived in Philadelphia, and linen weaving had been a robust industry in Ireland, but was in decline by the mid 1700s due to competition from less expensive mechanized American cotton weaving. There are also records of a Joseph Strayhorn in Antrim, so one might expect the two to have been related. We have personally examined the church records in Ayrshire, Scotland and in Antrim, Northern Ireland and we are certain that the Robert Straehorn born in 1731 and his wife Margaret Ross were not our Robert Strayhorn family, although many Ancestry.com trees claim they were, apparently seduced by the close birth dates of the two Roberts. But the births of our Robert's children were interspersed time wise with this Robert Straehorn's children, but were not recorded in the Ayr church records. For this to have been our Robert would have required two wives, Margaret Ross in Ayr and a second wife in Antrim at the same time, a highly unlikely scenario. 1779 Tax Exoneration List in Whitemarsh Ward, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1781 Pennsylvania Census in Upper Dublin, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as 'Weaver' 1783 Pennsylvania Census in Horsham, Montgomery, Pennsylvania 1789 Pennsylvania Census in Horsham, Montgomery, Pennsylvania 1790 US Census in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania with nine household members. 1793 Pennsylvania Census in Buckingham, Bucks, Pennsylvania, one the owners of a distillery 1793 September Taxable List in East Whiteland, Chester, Pennsylvania 1800 Pennsylvania Census in Goshen, Chester, Pennsylvania next to Samuel Strayhorn 1805 Taxable List in Goshen, Chester, Pennsylvania 1820 US Census in New London, Chester, Pennsylvania possibly living with his son Samuel The 1790 US Census records Robert Strayhorn in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania with nine household members. It is not clear who in addition to Nathaniel, Samuel, and Margaret the additional household members could have been, although it was common to take in renters if one had the space.
  Person ID	I86048	Zentmeyer Main Tree
  Last Modified	25 Nov 2025

  
  

  Family	FNU LNU
  Notes	No birth records, thus no mother(s), have been found for Samuel and Nathaniel Strayhorn, and the birth record for Margaret does not name her parents.
  Children	1. Nathaniel STRAYHORN,   b. 1765, Antrim, Ireland d. 9 Apr 1840, Union, Pennsylvania (Age 75 years)   2. Margaret STRAYHORN,   b. 10 Apr 1767, Antrim, Ireland + 3. Samuel J. STRAYHORN,   b. 1769, Antrim, Ireland d. 10 Oct 1858, New London Twp, Chester Co., Pennsylvania (Age 89 years)
  Family ID	F23215	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	11 May 2022

  
  

• Photos » Slide Show		Belfast Newsletter 1761 This article notes Robert Strahorn in Antrim, Ireland in 1761. His identification as a 'principal inhabitant of Antrim' would suggest he was not the Robert Straehorn who married Margaret Ross in Ayr. Image by Gary Zentmyer
  		Washington crossing the Delaware This famous image, a painting by Emanuel Leutze, shows Washington on Christmas night 1776 crossing the Delaware river in preparation for a surprise attack on the Hessians at Trenton the next morning. While it's unlikely Robert Strayhorn was actually on this boat, he was certainly in the accompanying flotilla that night.
  		Muster Role for Robert Strayhorn dated January 9, 1777 The National Archives interprets Robert Strain as Robert Strayhorn, and we do not disagree. As most immigrants could not read nor write, scribes simply wrote down how they heard a name pronounced, so 'Strain' was probably a contraction of Strayhorn, pronounced Stray'n.
  		Washington at Valley Forge George Washington and his ragged shoeless army of 12,000 including Robert Strayhorn, make camp at Valley Forge in Pennsylvania during the winter of 1777-1778, at a low point of the American War of Independence.
  		1820 US Census for New London, Chester, Pennsylvania Showing Robert 5 and Samuel 10, Joseph 15, Jonathan 21, and two white males over 45 years of age, Samuel and likely his father Robert, who would have been 87.
  		New London Presbyterian Cemetery, Chester County, Pennsylvania - Old Cemetery The New London Presbyterian Church was founded in 1728. It is believed, albeit absent documentation, that Robert Strayhorn who died after 1820 and his son Samuel Strayhorn who died in 1858 are buried in the Old Cemetery, where many headstones have either disappeared or have been buried. Burials in the Old Cemetery continued until 1887, after which all new burials were in the New Cemetery. Samuel moved to New London prior to 1810 and belonged to the New London Presbyterian Church, and there is evidence for Robert living there in 1820. Samuel's sons Robert and Samuel and their wives were buried across the street in the New Cemetery, and their headstones are intact. Image by Gary Zentmyer