Display Patriot - P-246961 - John Stewart MCNAMARA
John Stewart MCNAMARA
SAR Patriot #:
P-246961
The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
State of Service: MD
Qualifying Service: 1st Lieutenant / Patriotic Service
Author: Michael A. Irish
John Stewart McNamara (1757 – 1825 Dorchester Co., MD)
John Stewart McNamara was born 1757. He died 1825 in Dorchester Co., MD. His service was as a . Tombstone was removed from family graveyard in Lakes District and erected in Christ P. E. Church Cemetery. SAR Marker was placed at his grave in 1948-1949 by the Graves Registry Committee, Maryland Society, SAR. {Ref: "Revolutionary Soldiers Buried in Dorchester County, Maryland", by Henry C. Peden, Jr., The Maryland and Delaware Genealogist, Vol. XXIX, No. 4, Fall 1988, p. 130}
John Stewart McNamara was born in Dorchester County, MD, in 1755, the son of John McNamara and Mary Stewart of Dorchester County. He was commissioned First Lieutenant in the Friends to America Company, Dorchester County, 48th Regiment, Maryland Militia on 20 March 1776 and held that rank to at least 24 June 1778 when he was commissioned once again as First Lieutenant to serve in the Maryland Militia. The main duty of the Dorchester County Militia was to defend against landings from British ships, which roamed the waters of Chesapeake Bay all during the war. In February 1778, for example, First Lieutenant McNamara’s company, which was commanded by his brother, Captain Timothy McNamara, along with three other companies, marched to Bishops Head in Dorchester County to prevent a landing from two British men-of-war anchored off Bishops Head. By the end of the month the two ships weighed anchor and sailed down the bay. He subscribed to the Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity in 1778.
On 21 January 1784, he married Lavinia “Lovey” Lake, daughter of Captain Henry Lake and Rhoda Jewett of Long Acre, the family dwelling property on what is now Lakes Cove on the east side of Honga River in Dorchester County.
After the war, he attained the rank of Colonel in the Dorchester County Maryland Militia. In 1822 he was appointed by the Maryland General Assembly, along with four other individuals, to lay out, survey, mark and bound land for a public wharf and lumber yard on Stapleford’s Creek in Dorchester County. John Stewart McNamara died 8 July 1823 at his home on Charles Creek, Lakes District, Dorchester County, MD and was buried in the Denard Johnson graveyard in the Lakes District, and buried next to him was his wife, Lavinia “Lovey” McNamara (1765-17 November 1843). His tombstone was later removed from the Denard Johnson graveyard and erected in Christ P.E. Churchyard at Cambridge, Maryland.
Sources:
Jones, Elias, History of Dorchester County, Maryland, Williams & Wilkins Co. Press, Baltimore (1902). Pp. 202, 223.
Mowbray, Calvin W., First Dorchester Families, Heritage Books, Westminster, MD (2007), pp. 95-96.
Peden, Henry C., Jr., Revolutionary Patriots of Dorchester County Maryland 1775-1783, Family Line Publications, Westminster, MD (1998), p. 161.
U.S. Revolutionary War Pension Record No. 7753 of Captain Matthias Travers, 48th Regiment, Maryland Militia, Declaration of service of Captain Travers.
Submitted by Gerald Lilly
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