by Jonathan Tucker

This is the 23rd article in a series of articles about the life and descendants of Micum McIntire, a Scottish prisoner of war who settled in York, Maine, and about MacIntyres in general. This article is about Alexander McIntire, the often claimed but never documented “fourth son” of Micum McIntire and Dorothy Pierce. This article on the information in the two published geneaologies of Micum McIntire’s descendants, as well as online sources of geneaological information. This article may be revised as new information becomes available.

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ALEXANDER McINTIRE – MICUM’S “OTHER” SON?

Those of you who have read earlier articles in this series will have noted that it repeatedly assumes that Micum McIntire and Dorothy Pierce had only three sons—John, Daniel, and Micum Jr. At the same time, it has long been asserted (without proof) that there was another, first-born son, Alexander McIntire. Reviewing and discussing this possibility will be the subject of this article.

The 1939 Harry Alexander Davis geneaology, “The McIntire Family: Descendants of Micum Mecantire of York County, Maine,” asserts the existence of an Alexander McIntire as Micum and Dorothy’s first son. A number of online geneaological sources, including more than one found in the FamilySearch data base of the Latter Day Saints (LDS), similarly assert that Alexander existed.

When we combine the information all of these sources contain, a composite picture of an Alexander McIntire emerges. He is said to have been born around 1670 in York, Maine. He apparently emigrated to the Virginia colony prior to 1695. He met a woman there (or brought a partner with him) and had at least one child—Nicholas McIntire—with her. It is said that he died in Frederick County, Virginia (or back in York, Maine, depending on the source), in 1700 at about the age of 31.

Here are links to some of the databases in question:

https://ancestors.familysearch.org/…/alexander-mcintire-167…

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:2:S1PB-1VG

https://www.geni.com/…/Alexander-McInti…/6000000031815165176.

Bear in mind that once geneaological information is published in a single online data base, users quickly accept and spread the information to other data bases whether it has been thoroughly vetted or not. It is also the case that while the geneaological data bases can be extensive and even exhaustive, most are not independently sourced or confirmed—anyone can put anything into it. There is no review for accuracy.

Another source (Ancestry.com) instead has the father of another Nicholas McIntire, born about 1702 in Virginia, as one Robert McIntyre, and lists his mother as an Isabel McKinlay. This places this Nicholas outside the period of our inquiry, but it is interesting because the Scottish mother of our Micum McIntire was one Frances Farala McKinlay. It may be nothing more than an odd coincidence. Something for the Virginia geneaologists to pursue.

So, let’s examine the moving parts of this prospective composite picture of Alexander—his birth, his emigration/parenting, and his death.

Born About 1670 in York, Maine

We know that Micum married Dorothy Pierce, very recent widow of Alexander Machanere (MacNair). We do not know the exact date of Alexander Mechanere’s death, though we know it was before December 1, 1670, the date when the inventory of his estate was taken. We are familiar with the Colonial Revival just-so story about Alexander asking his distant cousin Micum to marry and protect Dorothy (see article 13) after his own passing.

On that basis, it has been assumed that Micum and Dorothy married sometime after December 1, 1670 (i.e., after the record confirms that Alexander Mechanere had died), but before September 4, 1671, when neighbor Alexander Maxwell deeded Machanere’s house and house lot—a house Maxwell had allowed to be built on his property—to Micum and Dorothy, possibly as a wedding present. If we are aiming for a birth date of “about 1670” for a first born son named Alexander McIntire, that leaves a month in 1670 and the first nine months of 1671 during which Micum and Dorothy could have married and engendered a son, assuming Micum and Dorothy abided by the Puritan English niceties. 

But Scotland District was the frontier, it was a Scottish enclave, and Puritan English niceties did not apply. Numerous other former Scottish prisoners had children out of or prior to wedlock (William Gowan is an example, see article 13 in this series). For all we know, given Alexander Mechanere’s declining health, Micum may have moved in to help. There is already evidence that he boarded for a time with Alexander Maxwell right next door. So given Alexander Mecharee’s ‘encouragement,’ Micum and Dorothy may have already ‘gotten together’ earlier in 1670—i.e., before Alexander Mechanere died. So the prospective timing of Alexander McIntire’s birth of “about 1670,” while potentially somewhat socially convoluted, is nonetheless entirely possible.

It is worth noting that if Micum and Dorothy were married in 1670-71, their (next?) ‘first born’ son, John McIntire, was not born until 1677, a gap of seven years. For wishful family historians in the epicenter of the Colonial Revival movement (York), it must have been very tempting to fill newly-married reproductive gaps like that with imagined offspring. Other, equally plausible—and perhaps more realistic—possibilities include unrecorded miscarriages, still births, babies lost within the first few months of life, and illness on the part of either Dorothy or Micum.

Part of the challenge in establishing Alexander McIntire’s existence has been the lack of historical documentation of his proposed birth in and around York, Maine. Aside from birth records themselves—which may or may not exist—birth dates just as often appear in (or can be back-calculated from) subsequent documents from other events in their lives, such as marriages, deeds, court documents, wills, etc. No such documents have surfaced for Alexander McIntire in the same manner as they have for Micum’s other sons–John, Daniel, and Micum Jr.

Emigrated to Virginia by 1695/Had a Son 

If Alexander McIntire emigrated from York to the Virginia colony in his late teens or early 20s, that could partially explain why the York, Maine records are silent about his existence. If he wasn’t living in York as an adult, there would have been no records generated about his life there—he wasn’t there to generate them. 

Where we first find reference to an Alexander McIntire in the documented historical record is when he is noted as the father of Nicholas McIntire, born 1695 in Frederick (County), Virginia. If this was Micum and Dorothy’s purported son, using the alleged birth date of 1670(ish) this Alexander would have been about 25 years old when Nicholas was born. There is no mention of Nicholas’s mother (Alexander’s wife or partner) in any of the historical documents. That is not unusual–there was often no record of women. Legal records for births at the time were mostly about tracking property owners and possible heirs, and those were almost all male. 

In any case, in 1748 Nicholas McIntire, the son of this Virginia Alexander McIntire, married Abigail Brown in Virginia. Nicholas would have been 53 years old at the time. Perhaps it was a second marriage. Nicholas and Abigail had numerous children—one of whom was named Alexander—many of whose McIntire descendants are alive today.

It is important to state that we do not have firm documentation about Alexander McIntire himself in Virginia, just the references to him being Nicholas’s father and his death date that show up in Nicholas McIntire’s records, plus the assertion by those tracing the McIntire lines in Virginia that Alexander was the son of Micum and Dorothy. Because Micum McIntire’s geneaology (the Red Book) was published fairly early (1940), it is entirely possible that people unable to find an origin for Nicholas’s father Alexander in the Virginia records happened on the Micum geneaology and assumed a connection. The same is possible for Virginia-origin McIntires who have searched for a connection to Micum’s brother Philip McIntire, whose Red Book geneaology was published in 1941. I know of at least one family pursuing that connection. We cannot at this point prove or disprove either connection.

Died in Virginia/Maine(?) in 1700

There are several mentions in Nicholas’s record of Alexander McIntire dying in 1700—fairly young, about 31 years old—in Frederick, Virginia, where Alexander had ostensibly married and where his son Nicholas had been born five years earlier. To date, no documentation for Alexander himself has surfaced in Virginia to confirm this. One source even has him dying back in York, Maine in 1700. No record of that death has been located in Maine, either. Yet another source suggests that Alexander might instead have been a victim of the 1694 Candlemas Massacre (see article 4)—he would have been about 16 years old in that scenario. You begin to see why most historians choose as a matter of principle to doubt Alexander’s existence until actual proof is found. You cannot pin him down.

The Name “Alexander”

It is worth pointing out the number of Alexanders close to Micum McIntire who might have served as a source of a name for a poorly recorded first-born son. First and perhaps most logical is Alexander Mechanere, Micum’s distant cousin and Dorothy’s former husband. Micum and Dorothy naming their first child for him would have been logical and appropriate.

The second most likely candidate would be Alexander Maxwell, Micum’s generous neighbor and fellow former Scottish prisoner, who deeded him the house lot where Alexander Mechanere and Dorothy (and perhaps Micum, for a time) had lived. Or perhaps it was both. It is worth noting that Micum’s third son, Micum Jr., also named his oldest son Alexander, but after whom? Alexander was also simply a very common Scottish given name.

At some point, perhaps additional records will be found that document the existence of Alexander Mcintire as the son of Micum McIntire and Dorothy Pierce. Until then, however, he will remain a geneaological ghost. And this series on the life and time of Micum and his descendants will continue to assume that he did not exist until evidence demonstrates otherwise.

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The most definitive and comprehensive current source for information on MacIntyres in general is the “Clan MacIntyre: A Journey Into the Past,” Martin L. MacIntyre, Regent Press, Berkeley, CA, 2018, second edition.  Copies may be purchased by contacting the author at martin.macintyre@juno.com .

The definitive genealogy is “Descendants of Micum McIntire,” Robert Harry McIntire, revised edition, 1983, Bookcrafters, Chelsea, MI.  This is often referred to as the “Red Book” among Micum descendants because of its bright red cover.  New copies may be obtained through the Gift Shop on this website:  https://micummcintireclanassociation.org/shop/?product-page=2.  Used copies can still be obtained from time to time through online booksellers.

Those interested in pursuing their own genealogical connections to Micum McIntire may submit question through this website at:  https://micummcintireclanassociation.org/micum-mcintire-genealogy-questions/