The McDowell family was among the early settlers of the Timber Ridge area of Rockbridge County, Virginia. Ephraim McDowell arrived with his family in 1737, accompanied by his sons James and John and his daughter Mary, wife of James Greenlee. Through the next several generations, the family became associated with frontier settlement, land surveying, military service, county government, and several prominent Virginia families.
The following account brings together the McDowell family references scattered throughout William Henry Foote’s Sketches of Virginia: Historical and Biographical, Second Series, arranging them by generation and family relationship.
Ephraim McDowell
Ephraim McDowell and his wife emigrated from Great Britain when both were already advanced in years. They traveled by way of Pennsylvania before continuing southward into the Virginia frontier in the fall of 1737.
The family settled on the Timber Ridge tract in what later became Rockbridge County. Their children included James McDowell, John McDowell, and Mary McDowell, wife of James Greenlee.
Children of Ephraim McDowell
James McDowell
James McDowell, son of Ephraim, traveled ahead of the rest of the family during the summer of 1737. He planted and raised a crop of corn on the South River so that the family would have food available for the coming winter when they reached the Virginia settlement.
John McDowell
John McDowell, another son of Ephraim, became closely associated with the surveying and settlement of Benjamin Burden’s large Virginia land grant.
John entered into an agreement with Burden to survey his 100,000-acre tract in exchange for land. As part of the arrangement, McDowell selected a property on Timber Ridge known as the Red House for his own residence.
John McDowell married Magdaline Woods.
In late December 1743, McDowell and eight neighboring settlers were killed in an Indian attack near the junction of the North River and James River. His death occurred only a few years after the family’s arrival in the region.
He was buried near his home within a brick enclosure. A low limestone marker placed over his grave bore the inscription:
“HEER LYES THE BODY OF
JOHN MACK D0WELL
DECED DECEMBE
1743″
After John McDowell’s death, his widow Magdaline married Benjamin Burden Jr., who acted as an agent in connection with his father’s Virginia land interests. Burden died of smallpox in 1753.
Mary McDowell Greenlee
Mary McDowell, daughter of Ephraim, married James Greenlee and accompanied her parents and brothers into Virginia.
Mary lived to approximately ninety-five years of age and became an important witness concerning the earliest settlement of the Timber Ridge region. In April 1806, she gave testimony in the long-running land dispute known as Burden’s Heirs v. Hervey. Her deposition preserved details concerning the settlement and occupation of the Burden tract that reached back nearly seventy years.
One of the incidents associated with Mary Greenlee reflects the superstition that persisted among some frontier communities. Foote relates that neighbors once attempted to accuse her of witchcraft after she made a joking remark at a quilting gathering that “the mare that does double work should be best fed.” The remark was interpreted by some listeners as evidence that she was using another woman as a supernatural mount for nighttime meetings.
Mary’s deposition in the Burden litigation also described practices used to establish claims to portions of the land grant. She testified that an Irish servant woman named Peggy Milhollen erected several cabins in an effort to establish multiple “cabin rights” connected with Burden’s lands.
Children of John McDowell and Magdaline Woods
John and Magdaline McDowell had several children who continued the family line in Virginia.
Samuel McDowell
Samuel McDowell became a prominent military figure during the Revolutionary era. He served as a colonel of militia and participated in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.
Samuel married Mary McClung.
James McDowell
James McDowell, another son of John and Magdaline, married a woman identified by Foote as Miss Cloyd. He died about 1770 at approximately thirty-five years of age.
James and his wife had three children: James, Sarah, and Betsy McDowell.
Martha McDowell Moffitt
Martha McDowell, daughter of John and Magdaline, married Colonel George Moffitt of Augusta.
George Moffitt served actively as an officer during the Revolutionary War, connecting the McDowell family with another prominent military family of western Virginia.
Descendants of Samuel McDowell and Mary McClung
Among the children of Samuel McDowell and Mary McClung was Magdaline McDowell.
She married Andrew Reid, son of Andrew and Mary Reid of Rockfish.
Their son, Samuel McDowell Reid, later served as Clerk of Rockbridge County, continuing the family’s involvement in local public affairs.
Descendants of James McDowell and Miss Cloyd
James McDowell and Miss Cloyd had three children: James McDowell, Sarah McDowell, and Betsy McDowell.
Their son James McDowell married Sarah Preston, a granddaughter of the immigrant John Preston. This marriage joined the McDowell and Preston families, two important lineages of early western Virginia.
James and Sarah McDowell became the parents of James McDowell, who later served as governor of Virginia.
The elder James McDowell also played an important role in preserving the history of the early settlements. Identified in Foote’s account as Colonel McDowell, he gave extensive testimony in the Burden land litigation. His depositions preserved details concerning the earliest families, land claims, and settlement history of the Rockbridge region.
Genealogical Notes
Foote’s account clearly identifies Ephraim McDowell as the father of James, John, and Mary McDowell and allows the descendants of John McDowell and Magdaline Woods to be followed for several additional generations.
The marriage of James McDowell to Sarah Preston connected the McDowell family with the Preston family, another important early Virginia lineage.
The spelling M’Dowell appears frequently in Foote’s nineteenth-century text. The modern surname form McDowell has been used throughout this account for consistency.
The testimony of Mary McDowell Greenlee and Colonel James McDowell in Burden’s Heirs v. Hervey is especially significant because it preserves first-hand or family-derived recollections concerning the earliest settlement and land occupation of the Timber Ridge region.
Source
This family genealogy was compiled from references appearing throughout William Henry Foote’s Sketches of Virginia: Historical and Biographical. Foote’s scattered biographical, family, church, and settlement references have been brought together here and arranged by generation to make the genealogical relationships easier to follow.
Foote, William Henry. Sketches of Virginia: Historical and Biographical. Second Series. Second edition, revised. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1856. Available online at AccessGenealogy, Sketches of Virginia: Historical and Biographical. Accessed 9 August 2026.