John McCune's Wives

Sometimes determining where a particular person falls in a family tree is a matter of putting together a lot of little pieces of information and hoping that they all show a part of the picture as a whole. Such is the case for John McCune of Newton township who died in 1793.

 
Here is the abstract of John's will:
 
McCune, John. Newton, farmer. 24 Dec 1792. 6 March 1793.
Wife Mary.
Land bought from John McKewen.
Sons Andrew and David McCune.
Dau. Susanna Barr.
Dau. Margaret Weir.
Grandson John McCune, son of Samuel McCune, dec'd.
Dau. Mary McCune.
Sons John, Robert and William McCune, minors.
Exs.: James Sharp, Alexander Laughlin and John McCune.
Wit: Alexander Laughlin, John Woods, George Weir.
Folio: E. 278-280.
 
One of the first things I noticed about this will was that there were a grandson mentioned as well as minor children, a good indication that there was more than one marriage. Sons John, Robert and William are all shown as minors, so the oldest of them would have been born after 1779, if we assume that minors were younger than 14 years old.
 
Now let's take a look at the next piece of the puzzle. The Biographical Annals of Franklin County show this entry for Mary Sharp, daughter of Thomas and Margaret Sharp: 
 
Mary married (first) John McCune, and they had issue: Robert, who married Miss Laughlin; John who married, May 6, 1806, Elizabeth Moore; William, who married Nellie Culbertson, and had Samuel, Mary Jane, Emily, Elizabeth, Margaret and William; and Mary, who married Mr. Caldwell. She married (second) Alexander Fullerton.
 
Having come across one record that states that John and Mary were married in October 1776 at the First United Presbyterian church in Newville, it would seem that the two records above reflect the same person. In this case, John's children by Mary were Mary, John, Robert and William and the older children by the unknown first wife were Andrew, David, Samuel (deceased), Susanna and Margaret.
 
Since John's will above mentions a deceased son Samuel who had a son John, our next question becomes one of determining who Samuel was.Though there are two Samuel McCunes who died prior to 1793, only one seems to be the right age to be John's son. Here is his will extract:
 
McCune, Samuel. yeoman. Hopewell 13 March 1786. 12 Oct. 1786.
Wife Elenor.
Son John.
Daus. Elizabeth, Rosanna, Peggy, Kezia and Nelly.
Land in Southampton, Franklin Co. in tenure of Joseph Arbucle.
Exs.: Alexander Laughlin, James McCune and son John McCune.
Wit.: James Arbuckle, Robt. Barr, Rob. Scott.
Folio: E. 84-85
 
The DAR Patriot Index lists a Samuel McCune, which seems to be the same person:
 
Samuel: b c 1744 d 10-9-1786 PA m Eleanor _____ Capt PA
 
The date of birth shown as 1744 could be off by several years, but seems to be close enough for our purposes here. As seen in his will extract, this Samuel does have a son named John, so he fits in to the line as shown.
 
There is another Samuel from this timeframe, but his dates are 1726 to 1789, so he would be born too early to be John's son as John is generally figured to have born in the late 1720's.