Rutherfordiana/DISCUSSION

White, 1902 indicates that the Wigton Walker line is related to Rev. Samuel Rutherford (c1600-?, and to the Rev. Joseph Alleine (?-?), through Katherine Rutherford (c1682-1738), wife of John Walker II ((c1682-1734) of the Wigton Walker line. Samuel Rutherford was a well known member of the Presbyterian clergy, and author of the work Lex Rex, a treatise significant in the evolution of the limitation on the rights of the monarchy. Alleine was a member of the Puritan clergy, and well known for his Alarm to the Unconverted, a work still in print today. These relationships are frequently questioned as unsupported by primary source material. The main purpose of this set of collective articles is to provide information about what has been written about these relationships.

SOURCE MATERIALS
There are a dozen or so documents that are commonly cited as bearing on this problem. Chronologically ordered these include:


 * 1. The Rutherford Family Bible:


 * 2. The Joel Walker Record: the JWR is a work compiled by Joel Walker about 1840.  This work was cited by White, 1902 as the primary source of information for the early family history of the Wigton Walker line.  There are no known extant copies of the JWR, and all that we know of its contents is what is given by White, 1902


 * 3. MS. left by Rev. William McPheeters dated 1842


 * 4. Historical Collection of Virginia by Henry Howe, 1845


 * 5. Extract from Captives of Abbs Valley by James Moore Brown


 * 6. Memoir of Rev. Samuel McPheeters, by Rev. John S. Grasty, dated 1871


 * 7. Rev. Samuel Rutherford Houston, Brief Biographical Accounts of Many Members of the Houston Family, dated 1882


 * 8. White, 1902:Descendants of Johh Walker of Wigton Scotland.


 * 9. Davey, 1957:  The Gathering of the Clans, Part 1:  The Rutherford Story


 * 10. WKR, 1986:


 * 11. KRD, 1987:

A summary of the contents of these documents, as it relates to the connection between Katherine Rutherford, the Rev. Samuel Rutherford, and the Rev. Joseph Alleine, is provided at Source Material Extracts (See Index table above, for links). For discussion purposes these sources can be grouped into three sets, as follows:

Analysis of Set A
Arguably the most comprehensive, and readily available presentations on Rutherford family genealogy are the those known by the initials of their primary authors" WKR, and KRD.  The aim of these works is to comprehensively describe the Rutherford descendancy, or at least certain portions thereof. Of interest for current purposes is the fact that all three speak to the ancestry of Katherine Rutherford to some extent.  The following shows the basic relations provided in these three works



There are several relations in this chart that are of interest:

1. They identify Katherines father as John Rutherford, son of James "residenter of Utrecht"

2. They show Rev. Samuel Rutherfod aka "The Divine", as the brother of James

3. They show descent from the Rev. Joseph Alleine through his daughter Isabella Alleine who married John Rutherford, son of James the residenter of Utrecht. (There is some internal disagreement in this matter, in that WKR shows Isabella as both the daughter and granddaughter of the Rev. Joseph. Presumably she was one or the other, but not both.  While WKR, and KRD, provide substantial information on the Rutherford family connections, we are somewht handicapped by the fact that they provide only limited information about their sources of information, at least with respect to this particular family.

We would like to know the basis for the following relationships:


 * a) Katherine's parents as John Rutherford and Isabella Alleine,
 * b) John Rutherfords relationship to James Rutherford (the residenter of Utrecht) and to the Rev. Samuel Rutherford, and
 * c) Isabella's relationship to the Rev. Joseph Alleine.

With regard to sources for the above relations, KRD provides no information whatsoever. He may have drawn on WRD, or perhaps earlier works such as White, 1902 or perhaps the even earlier McPheeters, 1842, but he himself makes no statement about where he obtained the information contained in his description of the family line. While his work is undboutedly valuable for many Rutherford researchers, when it comes to this particular family the absence of any attempt to document sources of information leaves us somewhat frustrated. (See A note on sources).

Turning to WKR, the situation is only slightly improved. WKR sites a single source for a portion of their information, and points to Davey, 1957:7 for the information that "Rev. John Rutherford...married a grandaughter of the Rev. Joseph Alleine, author of The Alarm of (sic) the Unconverted." (Interestingly, while WKR identifies the wife of John Rutherford as Isabella Alleine, KRD is silent on this point. It is also interesting that WRD identifies Isabella as both the daughter and granddaughter of Joseph Alleine.)

WKR does not provide reference for any of the information that he gives concerning this family, other than citig Davey, 1957:7 as the basis for the connection to Rev. Joseph Alleine. I have attempted to verify this information in Davey, 1957 (The Gathering of the Clans: The Rutherford Story). So far I have only seen page 7, where the information is said to be contained; that page makes no mention of the supposed connection to Rev. Alleine. Others tell me that the information is not located elsewhere in this document. If that's the case, and I have no reason to believe otherwise, then this is a simple error on the part of WKR. Unfortunately, it leaves us with two documents (WKR, and KRD) which tell us nothing about their sources of any of the information of interest for present purposes.

Analysis of Set B
As shown Set A analysis above, neither of the two major Rutherford genealogies adequately describe the basis for the information they contain related to the ancestry and family history of Katherine Rutherford. This is perhaps understandable, given the intent and purpose of such overall reviews. Such works sometimes require a broad brush stroke if anything at all is to be accomplished. Often the authors have to rely on other's for their information, and may not have directly examined the underlying sources. In any event, with regard to the family of Katherine Rutherford, these two works treated in Set A do an admirable job of collating and synthesizing much information, but leave us perplexed as to  where that information came from.

One possible set of sources for that information are the documents included in Set B. The focus of these works is much more restricted than that of Set A, at least in terms of the Rutherford linage. Only one, (Davey, 1957) deals primarily with a line of Rutherfords. The others speak only incidentally to the Rutherford lineage. In the case of Davey, 1957 the primary interest is with the line of General Griffith Rutherford, a Revolutionary war patriot. Interestingly enough, as previously pointed out, even though WKR indicates that this work was the source of the informaiton concerning the relationship to the Rev. Joseph Alleine, Davey does not refer to this worthy at all. Nor does she refer to Katherine Rutherford. Indeed, the only reason for including Davey in this group is simply because WKR cites her incorrectly as the source of information for the connection to the Rev. Joseph Alleine. (See caveat below).

The remaining three sources Grasty, 1871, Houston, 1882, and White, 1902 discuss to a greater or less extent the relations of Katherine Rutherford. White, 1902 is the best known of these works. She discusses her sources for the Rutherford connection in several places in White, 1902, as well as in a brief, but separate note, White, 1903,

White, at least, makes it clear what sources she used to arrive at the conclusion that Katherine was related to both Samuel Rutherford, and Joseph Alleine. Whether she was right about that is another matter. This will be discussed further under Data Set C.

The Samuel Houston document also draws the same relationship as described by White, 1902



In discussions on the internet you will sometimes see references to Rev. Houstons work, and his note that traces his line of descent from Rev. Samuel Rutherford. This is sometimes taken as support for White 1902's conclusions. The argument that is made is that since both White and Houston make the same observation, the observation must be true. Unfortunately, the two sources are not independent of each other, as White 1902 makes specific mention of his family history as one of her sources. The question that arises then, is where did Houston get his information? He is clear enough on that, pointing specifically to Grasty's Memoirs of the Rev. Samuel B. McPheeters.

Grasty's Memoirs are undoubtedly very useful for those interested in the personal history of Rev. Samuel B. McPheeters. However, as far as the connection to the Rutherfords is concerned they provide little enlightenment, as what McGrasty has to say on the subject is a verbatim transcription of the McPheeters document. (The interested reader may compare the relevant portions of Grasty's text with the McPheeters document