HISTORY OF KENTUCKY, by Lewis Collins, and J.A. & U.P. James, published 
1847.  Reprinted by Henry Clay Press, Lexington, Ky., 1968, pp. 70-71 
[Boyle county].

Agatha, the fourth daughter of Judge McDonnell [William McDowell], 
married James G. Birney, the abolition candidate for president in 1844.  
Mr. Birney's father, James Birney, was a native of Ireland, who had 
settled at an early day on a farm near Danville, and whose wife was one 
of the daughters of John Reed, also an Irishman, who had emigrated to 
Virginia about the middle of the eighteenth century, and was one of the 
pioneers of Lincoln county, where he built his fort, in 1779.  Many men 
of distinguished talents trace their ancestory to this John Reed and 
Lettice Wilcox, his wife.  His youngest son, Thomas B. Reed, was the 
eloquent United States senator from Mississippi.  The late Wm. D. Reed, 
Judge John Green, Rev. Dr. Lewis Warner Green, Willis G. Hughes, and 
James Gillespie Birney, were among his grandsons.  The wives of Major 
James Barbour, of Dr. William Craig, of Dr. Ben Edwards, of Judge Cyrus 
Edwards, of Judge Paul Booker, of Sidney Clay, were among his 
granddaughters. Revs. Joshua F. and William L. Green, James and Rev. 
Lewis G. Barbour, Rev. Dr Willis G. Craig, Dr. Willis G. Edwards, of St. 
Louis, and General Humphrey Marshall, were among his great-grandsons. 
The history of James Gillespie Birney is that of Kentucky, the South, 
and of the country.  His son, General William M. Birney, is engaged upon  
work which will present the details of his life, and which it is 
unnecessary to anticipate.  His oldest son by Agatha McDowell, James G. 
Birney, an intellectual and cultivated man, an able and learned lawyer, 
won distinction and wealth at the bar in Michigan, was lieutenant-
govrnor of that state, and was the accomplished Minister of the United 
States at The Hague. In the war he was a colonel, and did good service.  
The second son, William M. Birney, an elegant scholar, was for some 
years professor of English literature in the University of Paris, 
France; returning to this country, engaged in a successful practice of 
the law in Cincinnati and Philadelphia; was all through the war as a 
colonel and brigadier in the Federal army; and now, in the afternoon of 
his life, enjoys a lucrative practice at the bar of Washington City; one 
of his daughters has been successful in literature.  The third son of 
James G. and Agatha Birney was the handsome and chivalric David Bell 
Birney, talented as a lawyer, and succesful in business in Philadelphia; 
as colonel of a Pennsylvania regiment, he was one of the most daring 
fighters under the gallant Phil. Kearney, was promoted to the rank of 
general for distinguished gallantry in the field, and died from 
exposure, in 1864.    

McDowell Birney Reed Wilcox Green Hughes Barbour Craig Edwards Booker 
Clay Marshall
=
Ireland VA Lincoln-KY MA St._Louis-St._Louis-MO MI The_Hague 
Paris-France OH PA Washington-DC

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/boyle/mcdowell.a.txt