According to the family story, John and Mary Kirkwood brought their four children, William, Mary, Samuel and Hugh along with their furniture to the Port of Philadelphia in 1788 in their own sailing vessel. All four children had been born in Ireland and which was presumably their point of departure.
It would appear that they intended to stay, however at some time after their arrival they decided they did not like the “new world” and made plans to leave. John bought a load of flaxseed, likely to finance the trip, but the smallpox? epidemic in Philadelphia during ___ infected some members of the family. How many died as a result of the epidemic is unknown however the parents and the daughter, Mary, survived and later married John Williams.
While the epidemic would probably not have stopped the trip, since in those days the best way to avoid an event like that would be to leave the area, the price of flax had also fallen and eliminated the financing for the voyage.
They elected to stay and moved west to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. During a trip to that area in 19__, we looked for their location near Cynthiana in Lancaster County, PA but were unsuccessful. We also looked for records of the ship. The Port of Philadelphia has given records from that period of time to the National Archives. A search of local newspapers during 1788, Benjamin Franklin’s ___ for example, did not find anything.