Notes and Links

• m. Agnes Hart*; bap. Dec 17, 1648 in Dunino, Fife, Scotland; Agnes was the daughter of Rev. John Hart* and Agnes Baxter*. John and Agnes were married on Apr 2, 1644 in Edinburgh Parish, Edinburgh Midlothian, Scotland. Rev. John Hart received his M.A, from St. Andrews in 1637.
• Robert and Agnes had children:
  • Thomas Craighead* (1664-1739)
    • m. Margaret ___?* (1664-1738), in Scotland. She is the daughter of a Scottish Laird.
  • Katherine Craighead (1672-1754), came to America and settled on Martha's Vinyard with her brother, Thomas, and her husband. She is buried at Chilmark on Martha's Vinyard. She may have spelled her name "Catherine".
    • m. Rev. William Homes (1663-1746)
    • Katherine and William had ten children.
    • Rev. Homes and Katherine had an oldest son, Capt. Robert Holmes, a sea captain who married Mary Franklin, Benjamin Franklin's sister. This is also confirmed by an entry in Rev. William Homes' Diary which clearly states that his son Robert, born July 23rd, 1694, was married to Mary Franklin in Boston on April 3, 1716 by Rev. Pemberton. Rev. Homes also says, in his diary, that his grandson William Homes was born Jan 10, 1716/17 and was baptized in the Old North Church by Dr. Increase Mather the 13th of the same month.

      However, in the History of Martha's Vinyard, Vol. 2, by Charles Edward Banks, M.D., published by the Dukes County Historical Society, page 48 in the Annals of Chilmark, under the heading Ministry of William Homes, the author states [concerning Rev. William Homes]: "While there [in Ireland] he married, Sept. 26, 1693, Katherine, daughter of Rev. Robert Craighead, who had been minister of Donoughmore, and who translated to Derry in the beginning of the year 1690, and continued there until his death, Aug 22, 1711. In the adjoining parish of Urney another William Holmes was ordained in 1696, and this led to a confusion of identity." In a footnote, Banks concludes that Rev. William Homes as a graduate of Edinburgh University is mis-identified with this William Holmes of Urney, who was indeed a graduate of Edinburgh. In Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, and in the Biography of Benjamin Franklin by M. L. Weems, published by Uriah Hunt in Philadelphia in 1835, and in all other known biographies of Benjamin Franklin, Capt. Robert Holmes (spelled with the "l") is acknowledged to be Franklin's brother-in-law, but the name Craighead is not mentioned. Bank's History of Martha's Vinyard casts doubt as to whether Benjamin Franklin's brother-in-law was Capt. Homes (son of Rev. William and Katherin Homes), or another Capt. Holmes, who may have been a son of William Holmes of Urney. The Diary of Rev. William Homes settles this issue in favor of the former, and leaves only the mystery of how Benjamin Franklin misspelled his brother-in-law's surname as 'Holmes' instead of Homes.

  • Robert Craighead, Jr. (1684-1738), b. 1684 in Derry, Ireland. He was educated at the University of Glasgow, was a divinity student at Edinburgh, and studied at Leyden, Holland. He was ordained in Dublin in 1709. He was Pastor at the Capell Street Presbyterian Church in Dublin, jointly with Rev. Iredell. He was a Moderator of the Irish Synod, 1719. He died in Dublin, 1738.

References:

• See the Craighead Family Genealogy Forum.
• Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, for the Holmes surname.
• Sketches of North Carolina, Historical and Biographical ... by Rev. William Henry Foote, Pub. by Robert Carter, NY, 1846.
• The Scotch-Irish in America - Proceedings and Addresses of the Tenth Congress, Chambersburg, PA May 30-June 2, 1901, Pub. by the Scotch-Irish Society of America.
• Genealogy and History magazine, Feb. 15, 1946
• Nashville Whig Sep. 13, 1824.
• Presbyterianism in Nashville, Tenn. by Jacobs.
• Compendium of American Genealogy, pub. by the Virkus Co., 1930. This reference has several lines of descent from Robert and Thomas Craighead.
• Personal communication with Janet Wolfe.
• The Scots-Irish Journey to the New World - the 1718 migration.
• Information about the parents of Agnes Hart is based on personal communication with Janet Wolfe.