I remember I made some general conclusions about John Wallace so maybe I'll start with them. He's an important guy in our genealogy because we know so little, so almost anything could be true.
Family lore says he was from Scotland, and further from Ayrshire. OK, could be true. He could be one of two boys in the pig legend which goes like this: two boys stole a pig in Scotland, went over to Northern Ireland for a while, then finally came over to Pennyslvania to join their relatives, and from there the New CAstle Wallaces were started, and we all know about them.
Back to John: if he was one of two boys, he would probably be the younger of them. My working theory is that he probably had an older brother Wiliiam, then another brother James who was already in Northern Ireland and who they imposed upon for a while until all three got passage to America in 1770. Keep in mind if he was born in 1750 (in doubt) he would have been only 20 upon arrival in Pennsylvania. He would have stolen the pig at what, the age of 16 or 17? But family legends are just that - could be true, could be three boys, or only one, or, there could. be no pig at all. No one in Ayrshire has reported a missing pig in the years around 1765.
In the Northern Ireland years recxords are scarce. An older brother (we suspect) was James and James had a family. The whole family would come to Pennsylvania. So we have James, William, and John arriving in Carlisle in 1770 and Hugh was there waiting for them, I believe, in Carlisle. Hugh would go on to be a soldier in the American Revolution. James would settle in York, PA. William would move up to New York State.
John however would not stay. In one account he married, had a son William, his wife died, and he left the son behind to be raised by grandparents. I haven't been able to confirm any of it - a marriage, a son, a wife, a William. growing up in Carlisle. Instead I think he went back and had his first son back in Ireland.
He married Geneva Jane Crawford back in Port Renfrew, Scotland, in the early 1770s and disappeared in Northern Ireland then for over twenty years, raising six children. Geneva Jane was a fisherman's daughter but I'm not sure they lived on the coast, near Londonderry, where she was from. They could have lived over where James was, or somewhere else. Somehow he had six kids when he finally emigrated to Cecil County, Maryland in 1798. At this point his youngest son, Robert, was two. Robert would be the patriarch of the New Castle Wallaces. Born in Ireland. Arrived in Maryland at the age of two.
John and Geneva Jane disappeared; so did four of the siblings. One, John Jr., had a trail; so did Robert. The other four? We can only guess. They may have gone back, it wasn't unheard of. They may have died and been buried in the mountains of Pennsylvania, their graves unmarked or barely marked. Also not unheard of.
No birth date, but also no death date. No idea how his life turned out. I have some theories, though. One involves Sinking Valley, Pennsylvania. Somehow Robert and John both spent time in Pennsylvania. There was a well-worn path through there, to Wallace Run and New Castle.
