Wallaces - the early days

I thought I'd use this post to talk about the information I've gathered from various sources; some of it is not quite organized in my head, and when this happens I can confuse things. But based on what I now know I am revising some of my theories and targeting other areas to find out more about.

First, I had assumed that part of the "two boys stole a pig" legend was true: that I was looking for brothers that left Scotland, came over to Northern Ireland for a short while, then headed off to Pennsylvania to start a new life. My best guess was John (1788) and Robert (1796), who though eight years apart were the only two of a large family that had any known tracks in the new world. But more recent information has told me that their father John (~1750) was married in Pennsylvania; his wife died; he went back to Ireland and had six children with Geneva Jane Crawford, and then came back and resettled in Cecil County Maryland. In addition he had one child by his first wife, who was raised by grandparents, but that much is not very clear. He had seven altogether? They all came of age in Maryland???

But this makes it more likely that he, JOhn Sr., was one of the pig boys, because that story has him landing here, trying it out, deciding that maybe he wasn't ready, heading back...the other candidate for pig-stealer would be his brother James, who has a whole clan in Wallace Run Pennsylvania based on the fact that he arrived there a little earlier than the others.

We can see why Robert, who was only one when his father and Geneva Jane brought him and his five siblings to Maryland, found his way to Pennsylvania after he served in the War of 1812 (in which he was sixteen at best). His uncle James was up there establishing a family and by now had been there for a while (how long, I haven't determined). But his mother's sister Elizabeth was up there too. He had an aunt on his mother's side, and an uncle on his father's. Wallace Run was the place for him. But there's no pig-stealing in Robert's life - he was in the new world from the age of one.

Obviously I need to solidify the timeline. When did James get to Wallace Run? When did Elizabeth get there? Who else might have been there to draw them to begin with?

John Wallace Sr. and his brother James have very sketchy biographical information but it would be possible to find more, perhaps. John married his first wife in about 1772 and somewhere I found geography for that, somewhere in Pennsylvania I believe. So if John and James came together, as pig fugitives, it would be right before 1772, I presume. And John would now be about seventeen? That's beginning to make more sense. First time through Northern Ireland, they didn't even stop for long. But they did have connections, and saw and met people, enough so that John could go back and remarry.

Among John Sr.'s 6 + 1 children, John and Robert have the clearest trail, but the first, William, has a trail too that I haven't looked into much. The claim is that he's son of the first wife, and never left the country, but was raised by his grandparents. I'd like to see that, know more about it. One woman found a William Andrew Wallace (1774) - could that be him? My parents' genealogy has a William Walllace 1773 but no other information. There is also a Jane Wallace (>1784). But all the last six, including John Jr. and. Robert, would have grown up pretty much in Cecil County Maryland. Surely there is a trace? Or some clues in the raising of William Andrew?

I like the story about being thrown in jail for opposition to the Catholic Church. This however was Elizabeth's husband, who yes followed her to Pennsylvania. A relative not an ancestor. But sure as heck a Penssylvanian. Maybe Scott Township was named after him, or his kin.