FARIS FAMILY OF WVA & OHIO

Contributed by Michael Brown.

William Faris was born in the county of Down, Ireland, in 1734, and came to Virginia a year later with his parents.  The exact birthplace of William and Dorratha (Johnson) Faris cannot be located but are definitely known to have been in Counties Down, or Antrim, Ireland, which was also the probable birthplace of their eldest son John Faris, who seems to have emigrated, with his parents, to what is now Berkeley County West Virginia in 1763 when about four years old.  Although there is some conflicting tradition to the effect that the actual date of emigration was some years previously and that John Faris was born on the high seas while his parents were enroute to this country... tradition also says that William Faris did not come to this country alone, but that three of his brothers came with him and later scattered to various points in the South.

From the Simms Index Land Book, William 1805; David SR 1775 & David Jr and Arthur 1790 had land on Back Creek which is near Tomahawk.

Faris family tradition

During the religious persecutions of 1680 - 1683, the ancestors of all these branches lived together in Scotland - at the time of this calamity their lands were seized and their homes destroyed and they were forced to flee to other lands to avoid sharing the fate of David Farrar, who with many others suffered martyrdom in 1683 -- true name David Faris.

Further information

The three brothers of William have been identified as David, Arthur, and Cornelius.  The first three remained in Berkeley County until early 1800's.  Cornelius wandered off to some other area.  Unfortunately Nellie Flack had no information on William's brothers or if she did she did not include it in her book.  The spelling of the name by Flack is FARIS although FARRIS is equally acceptable as indicated by various records including land grants, land transactions, tax lists, reconstructed census records, marriage records, etc.  Some say the name was derived from the farrier, others suggest (including Flack) the name has a middle east origin.  That theory indicates the Scots crusaders noted the Arabs ability to husband sheep and when they returned to Scotland they brought back some Arabs to tend their flocks.  The Arabs brought their bag pipes, which originated in the middle east and of course became what it is today.  The name Phares is still common in the middle east.

A letter to David Faris, c/o William Harper, Chillicothe is listed in abstracts of "Pioneer Ohio Newspapers" in 1806.