I have already included pertinent information from Verner Families by Augustus Lowry "A. L." Verner that was published in 1921.
In 1955 John Early Verner, a descendant of John Verner, Sr. and Mary Cochran Verner, nee Pettigrew, wrote a 25-page booklet My Verner-Varner Kin. Regarding the origin of his ancestors, he admitted that his evidence was purely circumstantial and that it seemed to indicate Huguenot ancestors who went first to England from France. His conclusion appears to have been based on only two items. He stated that an Isaac Vernier was naturalized in England about 1703 and that he (John Early Verner) had been "advised by the Huguenot Society of South Carolina that he was in all probability one of our antecedents." He stated his opinion that there seemed to be little doubt that his forebear John Verner, Sr. was of French extraction and that the old Huguenot name was Vernier. However, he based that statement only on the above two items and on the fact that one of John's descendants, John S. Verner of Columbia, SC, had joined the Huguenot Society in 1885. It appears to me that John Early Verner based his opinion on undocumented hearsay and did not provide any documentation to support his statements. Unfortunately, his vague unsubstantiated statements about possible relationships were misinterpreted by subsequent researchers, who later stated that the author John Early Verner descended from Isaac Vernier, which is not what he wrote. He also stated that the French Huguenots were "Calvinists or Presbyterians", which is not exactly true. Presbyterianism is a form of church governance that was started in Scotland by students of Calvin, but it is not exactly the same thing as being a Calvinist. Episcopacy is another form of church governance, which is why the two systems clashed over the years. When John Early Verner discussed John Verner, Sr., born ca 1725, he placed the name "Vernier" in parentheses after John's name. He wrote that some of John's descendants believed that John was born in England, while others believed that John was born in Ireland in 1718, but the author named no contacts and gave no source for that date. He wrote that John arrived in Pennsylvania between 1730 and 1740, again without providing any documentation, and stated that some people claim that John's father and grandfather, David and Samuel, came with him. I remind you that all of those statements were hearsay and were presented without naming any sources. He then referred to John Verner, Sr. as an "immigrant ancestor", which is not proven and is probably not true. Circumstantial evidence suggests that John Verner, Sr. was probably born in Pennsylvania and that he was probably a son of the immigrant David, the proven son of the immigrant Samuel Verner/Varner from County Armagh, Ireland (now Northern Ireland). There were some Verner immigrants who entered through the Carolina coast, but evidence indicates that John Verner, Sr. did not belong to those groups. After correlating all of the publications and evidence, I have decided that John Early Verner had no valid basis for his conclusions and that his booklet is essentially useless. Unfortunately, his booklet has caused some confusion among subsequent researchers and authors.
In 1968 Clara Verner Wallace self-published Verner Genealogy, after many years of researching her family. Mrs. Wallace was another descendant of John Verner, Sr. and Mary Cochran Verner, nee Pettigrew. Unfortunately, she did not always specify the details of her sources, so we are unable to verify much of her data. Her book was handwritten and contains some apparent typographical mistakes, as might be expected of such a work. Like many genealogy writers, she had the poor practice of theorizing something in one place and then writing that theory in other places as if it were fact. A casual reader might read the theorized statements and not be aware that they were just speculation and not proven facts. Her book was published in limited quantities and has not been readily available to most researchers. Unfortunately, some later writers used her book as a reference without specifying what was fact and what was speculation. Because of that, other researchers unknowingly perpetuated some of the misinformation, which has led to confusion in the literature. Because of those factors, I am going to discuss some of what she wrote about the early generations in which we are interested, so you will know exactly what she said.
Early in her book, Mrs. Wallace described an extinct coat of arms that was used by some Verner in ancient Scotland, as listed in Stodart's Gentlemen's Arms of Scotland, and versions of those arms that are used by the later titled family of Ireland and by some Americans. Her descriptions are somewhat confused, so it is not clear if she personally researched Stodart's book or if she took that information from A. L. Verner's booklet. She wrote that the ancient arms were described as "argent a fesse sable between three boars' heads". That description means that the basic background color of the shield was silver or white in the upper and lower thirds and that there was a horizontal black band across the middle third. On the silver or white background were the heads of three boars, two in the top third of the shield and one in the bottom third. That description fits the version that A. L. Verner sketched and published in his booklet, but it does not describe the color of the heads. She wrote that the Irish family modified the arms to add a trefoil (shamrock) and that an American family further modified the arms by changing some of the colors. It is not clear if those modifications were done appropriately by proper authorities, but I suspect not. She included a black and white sketch of a version that has a trefoil on the fesse, but because it has no colors, it is not clear if it is the Irish version or the American version. See my earlier comments about the use and display of arms.
Mrs. Wallace apparently quoted A. L. Verner without giving him credit when she wrote that a member of the "Colorado family" stated that John was the only son of David Verner, that David came to America in 1710, and that the information was taken from a family Bible that belonged to a grandson of John Verner, Sr. She did not specify the source of that information, but that is what A. L. Verner had published in 1921. She had nothing further to say about that lore. David might have preceded his father to America, but the date of 1710 is very unlikely, considering the history of migration from Ireland to America and the facts that we now know about David's father Samuel.
Mrs. Wallace then wrote a section titled, "Early History of the Verner Family". In that section, she included a margin note that says that most of the information for that section was taken from Verner Families by A. L. Verner. She listed some disjointed information about the origin and history of the name Verner that she had obviously excerpted from A. L. Verner's booklet. Then, she transitioned to Ireland and wrote that Henry Verner of "Armough, County Ulster" wrote a will in 1683. That is obviously a typographical error, because there was no county named "Ulster". Also, Henry's will says that he lived in "Gullivenagh, County Antrim", not Armagh. A later author John Kerr wrote that the will was recorded in Armagh, but the records provided to me do not make it clear if the will was recorded in County Armagh or in County Antrim. That record was obtained from the Armagh County Museum, but that does not mean that the original will was recorded there. Mrs. Wallace repeated A. L. Verner's statement that authorities on peerage recognized Henry as the founder of the titled Irish line.
Mrs. Wallace drew a pedigree chart that began with the Henry who died in 1724 and wrote that she was "inclined to believe" that her ancestor (meaning the older immigrant Samuel Verner/Varner) was a brother to "Henry". That statement is probably where later authors got that theory that they then repeated. She did not specify which Henry she thought was Samuel's brother, but the rest of her material implies that she was referring to the Henry who died in 1724, which in turn implies that she believed that Samuel was a son of the Henry Verner who died in 1683. She obviously had not seen the 1683 will. As I discussed above, the Henry who died in 1683 did have a son named Samuel, but he did not list a son named Henry. I think it is more likely that the younger Henry was a grandson of the older Henry and was a nephew of Samuel. Mrs. Wallace then quoted A. L. Verner as stating that Samuel Verner came to America before 1725, that his son David inherited his land grant, and that David's only son was John Verner, Sr. However, she again listed no documentation for those statements. She wrote nothing further about the Henry Verner who died in 1683. She wrote that the information on "Henry" was provided by Margaret Stephenson and was taken from Burke's Peerage, from the Armagh Presbyterian Registry, and from the Ulster Scot Historical Society, but she did not list any specific items of reference or provide any transcripts. Consider the following data. The younger Henry Verner who died in 1724 was married to Anne Kerr. Anne died in 1768, which suggests that she was either quite younger than Henry or that Henry died relatively young. The ages of their children suggest that Henry was probably at least twenty years younger than Samuel. The children of Henry and Anne are listed as David Verner (1708-1754), Marg. Verner (1712-), Thos. of Churchill (1717-1788), and a James who is listed with no dates. She apparently missed the daughter Ann, and the other daughter was reportedly Mary, not "Marg.". Confusingly, it appears that Mrs. Wallace listed that James as both the son of Henry and as the son of David.
Author John Kerr also wrote about the origins and families of the men named Henry Verner in an article titled, "Churchill - Home of the Verners", that was published in the "Journal of the Craigavon Historical Society", Volume 5, Number 3, that I found at the internet site http://www.geocities.com/craigavonhs/rev/kerrchurchill.html. I do not know the date, but the text of the article implies that it was written about 1993. The name of the place is apparently more properly written as Church Hill. Mr. Kerr wrote that his information was obtained from members of the family "here and abroad" who wished to remain anonymous, so his information must be considered suspect until verified. Some of his information appears to have come from newspaper articles. He wrote that a place called Peatlands Park was once part of the beautiful estate of the Verner family in Armagh, Tyrone, and Monaghan and that the estate once contained the mansion known as Churchill (Church Hill), which was torn down in 1928 and of which the Newry Telegraph said in 1828 - "a more chastely beautiful and classic building, or more tastefully laid out pleasure grounds we have never beheld". Church Hill is or was in the extreme northern part of County Armagh, just east of the Blackwater River and north of Verner's Bridge. Mr. Kerr commented that a little three-foot gauge railway used to cross the old Portadown-Dungannon road and later ran under the M1 in its own special tunnel, transporting the fresh-cut turf for the Irish Peat Development Company Limited. Other landmarks in that area included Verner's Inn, Verner's Bridge, and Verner's Station.
John Kerr appears to have quoted Verner Families, Verner Genealogy, or peerage books when he stated that the Verner family appeared to be of Norman origin, as their name first appeared in England as "le Venour" in the late 13th century (1200s), and that the forebears of the family in Ulster had moved across the Scottish border by the mid-15th century with the name of "Vernour". He said that they had land and property at Auchindinny near Edinburgh until 1650, which in 1702 passed to the Inglis family, who are still well known in Scotland and Ulster. He mused that the Vernour estate must have been quite large and prosperous, since, though they had no title, they had been granted a coat of arms "argent a fesse sable between three boars' heads couped gules". Gules means red, which is compatible with the picture provided by A. L. Verner. Other information provided by John Kerr is compatible with the booklet of A. L. Verner. However, John Kerr wrote that the first Verner records in Ireland are in the form of two wills, and he referred to the 1683 will of Henry Verner and the 1684 will of John Verner (actually listed as Varner in the abstract). He obviously did not have access to the other records which I have discussed. John Kerr wrote that the Churchill (Church Hill) Verners trace their ancestry from the former Henry Verner, and he provided an abbreviated pedigree chart that shows the Henry who died in 1724 as a son of the Henry who died in 1683, but he provided no proof of that connection. He wrote that the Henry Verner who left the 1683 will had a son Henry who married Anne Kerr. I repeat that no one has provided proof of the relationship of the two Henrys. He wrote that the youngest son of Henry and Anne was their son Thomas, who married Margaret Kerr in 1749. They lived at Church Hill and acquired a lot of land in Counties Armagh and Tyrone, but were childless. Henry's and Anne's son David reportedly married Elizabeth Crossle in 1743, and they had two sons Thomas and James. It was James's son William who became the first Baronet in 1846, and he married Harriett Wingfield. Henry and Anne also had a son named James, but no information is listed on the chart for him. The family had to sell the estate at Church Hill in 1922 and moved to England. The baronetcy ended in the 1900s when the last baronet had no male heirs. The information from John Kerr proves that none of the unconnected men in Pennsylvania records were sons of the Henry who died in 1724, except for the possible exception of James. There were no men named Henry Verner or Varner in the early records of Pennsylvania, and the Henry Verner who died in 1724 had no near-descendants named Samuel. That is further circumstantial evidence that the Henry who died in 1724 and the older immigrant Samuel were not brothers, but it is quite possible that they were cousins or uncle/nephew.
Janice Palmer (now McLellan) wrote Varner, Verner, Werner Families of America, published in 1995. The first chapter of her book lists some data about the older immigrant Samuel Verner/Varner and some of the other men who showed in the early records. It appears that most of her data came from the earlier publications discussed above, and she published no additional information about the origin of the Verner family. She repeated some of the theories of earlier writers regarding relationships.
Gerald H. Varner wrote Varner Families of the South, Volume Two, published in 1996. He questioned some of the statements that had been made by the authors Clara Verner Wallace and John Early Verner, but he could not provide any evidence to prove or disprove the origin of the family. Besides discussing the latter author's theory of a French origin, he mused that some descendants believed that the family came from England and some believed that the family originally came from Germany. He also discussed that it appears that the maternal history of the Pettigrew family was incorrectly applied to John Verner, Sr., born ca 1725, by family lore. As I stated earlier, the documentary and historical evidence imply that most or all of the Verner families in Ulster migrated there from Scotland and were Presbyterians. There might have been some Verners from England, but I have not yet seen any documentation of that.