REFN: 6827
[lillief.ged]
The following is quoted from the Colonial Families of America, Vo
l. 5, P 3 79
The virginia and Nova Scotia families of MacNutt or McNutt , as t
he na me is also commonly spelled, traced their ancestry to a Scotch fami
ly in G alloway, MacNaught, of Kilqubanitie. The estate of Kilquhanitie h
ad be en in their possession from 1480 until about 1667, when the la
st of its ow ners, John, left Scotland for Ireland , Accompanied by his f
our sons. T he family of McNaught, of Kilquhanitie thus became extin
ct in Galloway. T he first of the name of MacNutt, who exigrated from t
he north of Irela nd to America was Alexander, who was born in 1656. He ca
me over early in t he eighteenth century, circa 1720, and was later follow
ed by several of h is sons, some of whom settled in Virginia.Alexander di
ed in Palmer, Massac husetts, in 1746 at the age of ninety years, his wi
fe Sarah, having died t here in 1744, aged eighty-four. The second Alexand
er MacNutt born in Irela nd, first settled near Hagerstown, Maryland, shor
tly afterward removi ng to Augusta County, Virginia , where he lived on la
nd known as the MacNu tt grants, near Lexington. He died there about abo
ut 1751, leaving sever al sons, Alexander, John , William, Robert, James a
nd another, said to ha ve been killed when a lad in an Indian skirmish. Th
ere was also a daught er named Jane, Who later married Weir., of Nova Scot
ia. The most notabel m ember of the family in the eighteenth century was C
ol. Alexander MacNut t, who was born in Ireland about 1725 and came with h
is father, Alexande r, to Augusta County, Virginia. He accompanied Maj. An
drew Lewis as a volu nteer in the Sandy Creek Expedition against the Shawn
ee Indians, in 1756 a nd later served on General Braddock's staff in the e
xpedition against Fo rt Duquesne. In the spring of 1760, he was in New Enl
and and assisted in t he raising three hundred men for his Majesty's servi
ce at Louisbourg. At t his time Colonel MacNutt embarded upon vast and amb
itious schemes for t he re-colonization of Nova Scotia, depopulated by t
he expulsion of the Fre nch Acadians. The archives of Canada contain volu
mious records of his tra nsactions with the British and Colonial authoriti
es, many of which have be en published. he visited England several tim
es in the interests of the se undertakings, and on his first visit bore le
tters from Governor Dinwidd ie, which procured him an audience of the Kin
g. His Majesty conferred up on him the honorary title of Colonel and tres
ented him with a sword, in re cognition of his services. The sword despoi
led during the Civil War of i ts silver mountings, is now 1915 in possessi
on of his gd. niece, Mrs. Alex ander Glasgow, of Rockbridge County, Virgin
ia. He sided with the patrio ts during the American Revolution and trou
gh failure to fulfill his contra cts, lost the tracts of land amounti
ng to several hundred thousand acres g ranted him in Nova Scotia. He di
ed unmarried, in Lexingtion, Virgini a, in 1811