in 1685, and settled among the Scotch-Irish in the northern
part of Ireland. He there formed the acquaintance of a family of
McKnitts, and with them set sail for the American shores. One of this
family was a young and blooming lassie, "very fair to look upon."
Brevard and herself soon discovered in each other kindred spirits, and
a mutual attachment sprung up between them. They joined their
fortunes, determined to share the hardships and trials incident to a
settlement in a new country, then filled with wild beasts and savages.
They settled on Elk river, in Maryland. The issue of this marriage
were five sons and one daughter; John, Robert, Zebulon, Benjamin,
Adam, and Elizabeth. The three elder brothers, with their sister and
her husband, came to North Carolina between 1740 and 1750. The three
brothers were all Whigs during the Revolution. John Brevard, whose
family is the immediate subject of this sketch, married a sister of
Dr. Alexander McWhorter, a distinguished Presbyterian minister from
New Jersey, who had for a time the control of Queen's Museum in
Charlotte. Soon after his marriage, Brevard also emigrated to North
Carolina, and settled about two miles from Center Church, in Iredell
county. Dr. McWhorter was a very zealous Whig, and it is said the
British were anxious to seize him on account of his independent
addresses, both in and out of the pulpit. But they failed in their
endeavors, and, after the invasion of Charlotte by Cornwallis in 1780,
he returned to the North.

At the commencement of the Revolutionary war, John Brevard, then an
old and infirm man, had eight sons and four daughters, Mary, Ephraim,
John, Hugh, Adam, Alexander, Robert, Benjamin, Nancy, Joseph, Jane and
Rebecca. He was a well known and influential Whig, and early instilled
his patriotic principles into the minds of his children. When the
British army under Cornwallis passed near his residence a squad of
soldiers went to his house and burned every building on the premises
to the ground. No one was at home at the time except his wife, then
quite old and infirm, the daughters having been sent to a neighboring
house across a swamp to preserve them from any indignities that might
be offered to them by a base soldiery. When the soldiers came up a
self-authorized officer drew a paper from his pocket, and after
looking at it for a moment said, "these houses must be burned." They
were accordingly set on fire. Mrs. Brevard attempted to save some
a