A woman named Sidney

Turns out that looking for Colonel Roddye in Pennsylvania was a pretty good idea, not that it’s particularly easy. I mean, there are so many James Roddyes. Or Roddy. Or Roddie. Or Rhody. Or Roddey … you get the picture. 

As I mentioned last time, I think I’ve figured out which of them was our man’s father. That would seem to be James Joseph Roddy Jr, a miller who also served as a constable and a coroner at various times in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. 

Roddy Jr. was born about 1710 in County Donegal in the north of Ireland. His father was James Joseph Sr., born in the same place about 1680. Roddy Jr. had two brothers and two sisters: William, Prudence, Barbara, and Alexander. They were all born in Ireland, and the whole lot of ‘em – Sr., his wife Mary, and all the kids, except apparently William, came to Pennsylvania sometime between 1719 and 1722.

Once there, Sr. built a mill, and then another, and maybe more, and he and his sons were successful at it. 

I zeroed in on Jr. as the colonel’s dad because of his children: William, James, and Sidney. We already knew that the colonel had a brother named William, and he named one of his daughters Sidney (although down in the Tennessee the spelling became more like Sidnah or Sidneh, as spelling appeared to be both random and closer to actual pronunciation), so the idea that he might have had a sister named Sidney seemed to make sense. 

Now, that’s a bit of an unusual name for a woman, particularly back in the 18th century. But the name seemed to be of some import in the colonel’s family. Along with his daughter of that name, daughter Polly named one of daughters Sidney, and one of Sidnah’s granddaughters had the name. There may be more, although that’s a far as I’ve gotten on descendants so far. 

What I didn’t expect was to find where the name originally came from. That happened when I found the colonel’s mother – Jane Smith. Now, the colonel’s sister’s full name was Sidney Smith Roddy, so that tracks. And it turns out that Jane Smith also had a sister named Sidney. 

Where it all began

So the colonel’s daughter, sister, and aunt are all named Sidney. But that wasn’t all. Colonel Roddye’s grandmother – the mother of Jane and Sidney Smith – was ALSO named Sidney, and her family has a little legend about how her name came about. 

Colonel Roddye’s grandmother Sidney was the daughter of John and Hannah Gamble of County Tyrone in Ulster. She later married a man named Samuel Smith, and that, of course, is where the Smiths come in. But the story of how the name Sidney came about was handed down the Smith family until Gen. John Spear Smith wrote it out in a family history in 1857 (and the dates do match up). Here it is:

“The legend in the family, for the name of Sidney to a female is this. During the Wars of William of Orange, in Ireland, a wounded British officer, Captain Sidney, was taken into the residence of Miss Gamble’s father, and there nursed until he recovered. Whilst under their roof, she (Miss Gamble) was born. His gentle and resigned conduct had so endeared him to the family, that, in memorial of the event and of their affection for him, they gave her the baptismal name of Sidney. It is still in the family.”

Grandmother Sidney and Samuel Smith married while they were still in Ireland but came to Pennsylvania, where a whole buncha Scots-Irish lived, not long after. As she lived until 1759, I think we can safely say that the colonel knew his grandmother before he left Pennsylvania. He would have been 17 when Grandmother Sidney died. He likely knew his Aunt Sidney too. She was about 12 when he was born. And no doubt, if the legend about the name is true, he would have heard that story as a child. 

Small wonder, then, that he named a daughter after his aunt, grandmother, and sister, and that the name drifted down through the Roddy family as it did the Smith family. 

So yes, I am absolutely certain I’ve found Colonel Roddye’s Pennsylvania and Irish roots. Now, if only I can get him from Pennsylvania to Tennessee …

Part of the story here is the movements of the Scots Irish. They came from Scotland to Ulster then from Ulster to North America, many of them to Pennsylvania. From there they went all over. We’re primarily concerned with those who came to Tennessee, and that was a lot – the Nenneys, the Grahams, the McFarlands, the Outlaws, the Crocketts, the Kilpatricks… so many. The Scots who went to Ulster and then came over the pond were largely Presbyterians. The Roddys were among them, but by the time they got into Tennessee, our Roddys hooked up with Tidence Lane and were Baptists. That will clearly be part of the story of James Roddye and his brother William ending up in East Tennessee, but for now, we just don’t know much about that.

Underneath the house

Meanwhile, Thomas Fraser, our contractor, has been at work under the northwest corner of the house, shoring up the beams in the cellar because, well, that corner of the house really doesn’t have a foundation. 

The Rogans took out the porch on that end and built their dining room there, extending out into the back, a little like the typical L-shaped farmhouses of the period. My uncle came along in the 30s, and cut the dining room back in size and closed in the rest of the porch to create the kitchen (downstairs) and bathroom (upstairs). 

He also dug the cellar under that corner, leaving the remnants of the dining room sort of floating over it. 

So Thomas has been beefing up rotted and termite-eaten beams – this is the area where we found the worst bug damage – and putting in supports for the colonel’s logs. This work has to happen before we can do things like replace the bad beams, add a new roof, recreate the back porch, add bathrooms, etc. 

It’s really exciting to see this interior work going on, because it means we’re getting closer to your being able to see what we’re doing without stopping when I’m there to show you.

I promise you – it’s happening.