News Update

 

In case anyone is tuning in here and wondering what has been happening in recent times, I feel I should post an update. Over the last couple of years I have occasionally been adding to a family tree at ancestry.com.  The tree is called McWhistory, and it goes further back and also much wider than the entries in this blog. This includes some extensive exploration of my maternal side (Riddell), as well as the McWilliam background, and has led to several meetings with new-found cousins (2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th) and even to an extended family gathering.  DNA tests have helped in establishing or verifying many of those connections.

This ancestry work has also helped me identify a few minor inaccuracies in some posts in this blog, which I have now tried to correct.  For anyone who would like to see the McWhistory tree, it is available for public viewing at ancestry.com.  At the time of writing there over 1000 named people in the tree.  Please let me know if you have difficulty in locating it, and I will send an invitation with a specific link.  And of course I will welcome any suggestions for improvement.

Finally (for now) I will attach a colourised version of that old (1893) photo of the McWilliam family at Glencorrie, and another wider view of the farm buildings.  Thanks to myheritage.com for the free use of deoldify software.

Another McW gathering: Dufftown September 2017

Partly as a result of this blog, and partly just down to the reach of the internet generally, I have established contact over recent years with a number of second cousins. My grandfather Rob McW(1873 - 1931) was one of 12 siblings – or 13 when we include Robina, so the number of 2^nd cousins is pretty big, and they are well scattered around the world.

A few of us managed a get-together recently, with a visit to The Grouse Inn in the Cabrach, Glencorrie farm and Mortlach churchyard, followed by a fine meal at the Stuart Arms in Dufftown.

The catalyst for this was the visit of Ann from Canada (g-granddaughter of Helen McW), but we also had descendants of Alex (Dennis and Barry), of Janet (Ian) and of Maggie (Helen and Sheila) as well as Morag, Josh, Jorja – and myself – as descendants of Rob.

It was an excellent day all round, and I hope there will be some more of these to come.

Here we are at the Stuart Arms.

And some of us up at Glencorrie earlier in the day.

An update on some US connections

There has been rather a long gap since I last posted anything here, but I do have some progress to report, in part because of some travels I have undertaken and my meeting up with some distant cousins for the first time, and in part because of some people who have been in touch with me through the blog.

Going back to my grandfather’s generation (Robert McW: 1873 – 1931), he and his two eldest brothers (James and Alex) all remained as farmers at Glencorrie or at Clunymore), but the three youngest brothers, William, John and Peter all emigrated to the USA – to New York City. I mentioned this in my 2012 post entitled “McWilliam(s) around the world”.  John died in Chester, Pennsylvania aged just 36 in 1921. Peter worked as a civilian engineer with the US Navy in Brooklyn, and died aged 67 in 1958 – when his widow Helen (nee Cruickshank and known as Elma) chose to retire back to Scotland. Neither John nor Peter had children.

William and his wife May (nee Younie – and originally from Elgin) had a son Robert (Bob) born in 1918 and who lived till 1978. Bob and his wife Florence had a family of 5, and I am pleased to be in touch now with many of these folks and their families. William was remembered as Willie, but in the US, became better known as Mac or Mr Mac and (like many others) added an “s” to the surname to become McWilliams.

This McWilliams family are now scattered in various parts of the US, including Florida and Texas, but the home turf remains in Long Island, NY. Back in April this year I had the great pleasure to meet many of this branch or our family, hosted very kindly by Martha (widow of David – eldest grandson of Mac and May).

And going back further to my GG-grandfather James McWilliam, as recorded earlier in this blog, he spent some years in the US (NY state) back in the 1830s and 1840s, returning to Schenectady briefly in 1853. Well I was pleased to be able to make a sentimental visit there and further north to the bit of railroad that he had helped to create – from Saratoga up to Whitehall. 

George McWilliam centenary!

Today is the 26^th May 2013, the 100^th anniversary of the birth of my father George McWilliam. He was just 70 when he died in 1983, but he managed to live life to the full until his sudden end. He is still remembered fondly by those who knew him, whether as family members or as friends.

Here is a poem that sums up their feelings well, composed back in 1983 by Mary Affleck of Kinross, who knew him through his love of singing the bothy ballads of north-east Scotland – and written in a language which only those from that part of the world will fully understand.

Tribute to George McWilliam

Oh George, ye are nae langer here

The reaper spread his scycle wide

Ye fell, we grieve wi’ mony a tear

Na mair at oor side.

Oh Lord, doon here we’re in na doubt

Regards his final place o’ rest

But why sa sudden a clout

Ta ane sae blessed.

We ken yer choir was maybe dwindling

We ken yer there tae brak oor fa’

But why oh Lord gie us na warning

Sa quick a ca’.

Had a’ yer angels got the hoast

Had a’ yer harps gean oot o’ tune

Ye cast yer eye, an then we lost

Oor coothie loon.

But Lord, noo that ye have him there

An’ life’s game geas ta your plan

O’ oor dear friend tak greatest care,

Enquiries ‘ll come alang

Oh George, na mare ta hear yer sang

Or see yer bonnie cheery face

Yer liltin diddle an’ yer northern twang.

Nane can tak yer place!

Written by Mary R. Affleck (Kinross), 1983

And the photo is of him on the boat coming in to Lerwick. It's the one we used on the CD of his music that we produced a few years ago, and I think it is a good representation of his sense of fun and of enjoyment of life. 

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Catholic Connections

We McWilliams, at least those in my piece of the story, are mostly a pretty Presbyterian lot, brought up in the Church of Scotland. Undoubtedly, though, this hasn’t always been the case. In the distant past our ancestors were almost certainly Catholic. The Scottish Reformation of 1560 tried to outlaw Catholicism and the practising of Mass, but some parts of the country remained staunch to their Catholic heritage. These tended to be fairly remote parts, where the law did not have much of a reach, and one of these areas was rural Banffshire – particularly the upper reaches of Inveravon and the Cabrach, and the town of Huntly (or Strathbogie as it was) in Aberdeenshire.

As testimony to this, the remote college at Scalan in the Braes of Glenlivet was once a seminary and was one of the few places in Scotland where the Roman Catholic faith was kept alive during the troubled times of the 18^th century. For much of that time Scalan was the only place in Scotland where young men were trained to be priests. To this day there is a strong Catholic presence in large parts of Banffshire and Aberdeenshire, and the Scalan building remains open as a museum.

Scalan

Some entries back I quoted from a document written by Hugh Duff McWilliam (HDM) in 1903, and here is an extract:

“As illustrating that the name was formerly McPherson, there is a tradition that a certain John McWilliam (said to be a brother of Alexander and William first, of the family in Delgarvan) quitted Glenlivet and settled in Bracklach in the Parish of Cabrach some years prior to 1745 and that at the ’45 he paid a substitute to take part in the rising and dressed him in the MacPherson tartan”

At the Aberdeen Family research Centre I have had it confirmed that John McWilliam and his family were resident at Bracklach at that time and also that they were Catholic. HDM suggests that he was a brother of Alexander and William McWilliam of Delgarvan – and I believe from the dates we see here that this William McWilliam was likely an ancestor of our very own Lewis McWilliam. Maybe this means that our own McWilliam family had been Catholic until the time of the Jacobite setbacks and ultimate defeat! Or maybe it means that John McWilliam married a Catholic and decided to convert. These are only guesses, but there is undoubtedly a Catholic connection!

Then there was that McPherson connection I referred to some time ago too – and HDM makes mention of Abbé Paul McPherson. Again, like the Prof, he is someone of special interest because he rose to real prominence (in the Catholic Church in this case) – and therefore much is known about his life. Paul was born in 1756 into a Catholic family on a croft at Scalan. His mother died when he was just 6 years old and he was educated by an old neighbour and at the seminary. At the age of just 13 he left to train at the Scots Colleges in Rome and Valladolid, and he grew up to be a priest who was also an important diplomat for the Vatican. There is absolutely no evidence that his ancestors were any of those McWilliams who were perhaps encouraged to change their surname to McPherson (as claimed by HDM). Nevertheless I am sure he merits a mention here as I consider the Catholic connections in our past.  There is more about him here. http://www.scalan.co.uk/scalannews32.htm

Most of the tenanted farms around Banffshire and beyond were parts of huge areas of land owned by the Dukes of Gordon. The Dukes were based predominantly at Huntly Castle but they owned several other large houses and estates and much farmland. The small farms at Smithston and Glencorrie were part of this.  The first two Dukes of Gordon (and their predecessors as Marquesses of Huntly) were Catholic by heritage and they stood staunchly by this heritage through the difficult times of the Reformation and beyond. Then things started to get complicated.

”During the Jacobite Uprisings of 1715 - 1716 and 1745 - 1746 there were Gordons on both sides. The 2nd Duke of Gordon followed the Jacobites in 1715, but Cosmo Gordon, 3rd Duke of Gordon supported the British government by the time of the 1745 uprising, while his brother, Lord Lewis Gordon, raised two regiments against him at the Battle of Inverurie (1745), the Battle of Falkirk (1746) and the Battle of Culloden (1746).”

I don’t blame John McWilliam of Bracklach for steering clear of all this and paying someone else to go and take his place at Culloden!

The importance of the Dukes of Gordon to the defence of Catholicism is well know and documented. I like this little summary though, as part of a short history of the town of Huntly.

http://www.gordonschools.aberdeenshire.sch.uk/Huntly/HistoryOfHuntly.htm

And finally, two people I have to bring in here are brothers Alexander McWilliam (born 1902) and John Lewis McWilliam (born 1903), who both grew up to be Catholic priests who were well-known in northeast Scotland.
They were born in Buckie (on the Banffshire coast), with grandparents from Tomintoul.  I have no evidence of family connection to our own Lewis McWilliam, but these two surely deserve a mention here.

Canon Alexander (or Sandy as he preferred to be known – and with spelling of MacWilliam) trained at the Scots College in Rome before working as parish priest in Orkney, Chapeltown (Glenlivet) and St. Peter’s Aberdeen.

Canon Lewis (as he preferred to be known) trained at Valladolid in Spain, and became parish priest in Aberdeen, Stonehaven and Beauly before coming to St. Margaret’s in Huntly where he worked until the day he died at age 91 in 1995. I attach a link to his obituary in the Glasgow Herald as well as to a Scalan interview.

I can’t find an obituary for Sandy, but there are many references to him out there – including the attached Scalan story about St. Peter’s in Aberdeen.

They were both clearly great old fellows and people it would have been a pleasure to meet.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/canon-john-mcwilliam-1.656557

http://www.scalan.co.uk/canonlewis.htm

http://www.scalan.co.uk/StPeters.htm

Canon Lewis McWilliam

The Prof: John Alexander MacWilliam (1857 - 1937)

Some blog entries back I referred briefly to Professor John Alexander MacWilliam (1857 – 1937), who was Professor of Physiology at Aberdeen University for all of 41 years from the age of 29 to the age of 70. Since then I have come across much information on this distinguished member of our family – in large part through a lady who got in touch with me as a result of the brief mention. This lady (TW) and her husband happen to be the current owners of a house in Cults of which the Prof and his new wife were the first owners back in 1892. These folks were owners of the local pharmacy for 30 years or so, and so they had many very old and interesting references to the Prof in the pharmacy archives. Amongst other coincidences was that TW herself was born and raised in the same part of Inverness-shire as the Prof.

I won’t try to go deeply into the Prof’s career here, but it is quite clear that he was someone special, whose research has led to a better understanding of the workings of the human heart and in the long term to important innovations such as the pacemaker and the defibrillator. One result of the status he achieved is that many aspects of his life are quite well documented, and I think it is worthwhile to try to summarise some of this here – at least from the aspect of interest in the family heritage.

John Alexander was one of three children born at Culmill Farm at Kiltarlity near Beauly to William McWilliam (originally from Inveravon) and his wife Isabella Cumming (originally from Knockando). The first son and the Prof’s older brother, William Lewis McWilliam, became farmer at Culmill. He married Mary Burns. He died in 1936 aged 81, and his wife died in 1919 at the age of 63. They did not have children and are buried in Kiltarlity churchyard along with the parents William and Isabella. The Prof also had a sister, Isabella Helen McWilliam, born in 1859, who sadly died aged just 16 months. It is maybe worth a brief note here that the spelling McW or MacW seems to have been entirely down to a matter of personal preference. The Prof's work until about 1889 is published under the name J.A. McWilliam, but after that he appears to prefer the MacWilliam spelling.

The Prof’s paternal grandparents were Alexander McWilliam (b. 1768?, Inveravon) and Elspet Gordon (b.1788,  Knockando), and maternal grandparents were John Cumming (b. 1774, Knockando) and Helen Cruickshank (b. 1777, Knockando). 

Our own Lewis McW was an older brother of the Prof’s grandfather Alexander, and so we can describe relationships such as that Lewis was the Prof’s great uncle. Interestingly, the material I have on the Prof seems to confirm most of the previous generation (i.e. 6 of his 8 great-grandparents), including that the parents of our Lewis and his brother Alexander were William McWilliam and his wife Anne Cruickshank.  This makes William and Anne my gggg-grandparents.

And as mentioned elsewhere the Prof was first cousin of Hugh Duff McWilliam – whose work dated 1903 has been a great help to me in looking back through the McWilliam generations.

I have more on the Prof’s various McW family connections – too much to include here. I know that the Prof married twice, but that he had no offspring. I would certainly be interested to hear from anyone who has a more direct family connection. The Prof’s mother’s family are well worth a mention though.  His maternal grandparents (John and Helen Cumming) were the founders of the Cardhu distillery, and the family owned the business until selling it to the Johnny Walker company in 1893! http://www.scotchwhisky.net/distilleries/cardhu.htm

In 1889 at the age of 32, the Prof married Edith Constance Wise, from a wealthy Irish family (and the sister of Berkeley Dean Wise – very much a leading civil engineer of the time). Sadly Edith died in November 1893 at the age of just 33 – having contracted malaria just two months earlier while on a trip with her husband. It is understood that she had stayed in the Canary Islands (and malaria was very much present there then) while The Prof travelled on to South Africa before returning - on a ship which was travelling from Bombay to Southampton. The Cults pharmacy records show how the Prof was prescribing medication for his sick wife, but they must both have recognised that her condition was incurable in those days. It goes without saying that this must have been a very sad period. In 1897 the Prof moved from their “Wayside” home in Cults to a new home albeit just a few hundred yards away at Inverdee. In 1898 he was married for a second time, to Florence Edith Thomas from Wrexham in North Wales.

The Prof died of heart failure in January 1937, in a nursing home at 35 Drumsheugh Gardens in Edinburgh. I had to do a double take when I first saw this information – because this is exactly the building where I was born just over 10 years later!

To reinforce the message that the Prof was a man of distinction, the National Portrait Gallery in London have two photographic portraits of him, and I am pleased to have managed to obtain copies. At the time of writing I don’t have exact dates for these, but I suspect that the overcoat picture shows him at maybe in his mid 50s (so approx 1912) and the studio picture is maybe in his later 60s (approx 1925).

Finally this entry would not be complete without a big word of thanks to T and A for their help!
And a postscript is that the Prof now has his own Wikipedia entry - here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Alexander_MacWilliam

More old McWilliam photos

Thanks again to Helen Bennett I have managed to lay my hands on some more very old photos from the McWilliam archive – which Helen received from her mother, Margaret McWilliam. The photos seem to date mostly from the early 1870s, and there are several factors which give this away – for instance, my grandfather, Rob (born 1873) features as a very young baby, with his parents and alongside his two elder brothers.

The photos, as was normal for the time, are all posed in studio settings, usually with the photographer details on the back of the pictures. The sitters are sometimes easily identifiable, but some of them we are not so sure of. Many are from studios in Dufftown, Keith, Huntly or Elgin. Others are from Glasgow, Edinburgh or even London – and these tend to be the ones we can’t readily identify. The furthest flung of those identifiable, though, is from Chicago, and we are confident that this is of John McWilliam (1826 – 1884) and his son Edward (1865 – 1924).

I will start with a photo which we believe to be of my gg-grandfather, James McWilliam (1804 – 1872) – who features in his own earlier blog entry here. This is the first time I have seen a photo of him and I doubt very much whether we will ever come across any more! The photo was taken in Dufftown by Wood and Henry photographers.

James McWilliam

If we guess him to be about aged 66 in the photo, this means it was taken around 1870.

And here is a photo of his gravestone on which his daughter Margaret (who predeceased him when she was just 20) is also remembered, but before the addition of the name of his wife Margaret (who died just a year after him in 1873) or of his sons who are also now remembered there. I now have a photo of the updated stone (after James's death) which I will post in my separate entry for him.

Next we have a photo of my g-grandparents, Robert McWilliam (1844 – 1915) and Elizabeth Green (1849 – 1934), a head and shoulders of Robert on his own, and one of Robert and Elizabeth with their three eldest sons (James, Alex and Rob). And one of James and Alex on their own.

Robert and Elizabeth McWilliam (née Green)

c

d

b

These next photos, taken in Huntly, we believe to be of Ann Spence (1815 - 1895, wife of Alexander Green 1801 - 1890) and three of her daughters (probably Ann b.1847, Elizabeth b.1848, Jane b.1854) and taken about 1868. Elizabeth married Robert McWilliam. They were my great-grandparents and are featured as a couple above. And of course Ann Spence and Alexander Green were gg-grandparents.

Now here is the Chicago photo, which we believe to be of John McWilliam (1826 – 1884) and his young son Edward (1865 – 1924) at the age of about 3 or 4. John emigrated to Illinois in the 1850s – after his father James had spent many years in New York State before returning to Smithston. John was the oldest brother of my g-grandfather Robert. I suppose that makes him my gg-uncle. And more importantly he is the gg-grandfather of Lucy, Mark, Chalmer, Glenn and Stuart.

And finally, I am going to include some of the unidentified photos, in the hope that we may one day get around to knowing more about the people here.  

unknown - taken Dunedin, New Zealand

unknown - taken in Aberdeen

unknown - taken in Edinburgh

unknown - taken in Keith

unknown - taken in Glasgow - look like a music-hall act!

Unknown - taken in Elgin

Unknown - taken in Elgin

Unknown - taken in Elgin

Unknown - taken in Edinburgh

Unknown - taken in Keith

Unknown - taken in  London

Unknown - person and source

Unknown - person and source

McWilliam cousin reunion. Elgin, June 2012

The Laichmoray gathering, June 2012

A couple of weeks ago we managed a small gathering of McWilliam cousins. 16 of us met for drinks and dinner at the Laichmoray Hotel in Elgin, with most folks staying in the hotel for the night, and a few of us heading for Dufftown and Glencorrie the following day. I certainly place value on staying in touch with the extended family, and I think it is fair to say that we all enjoyed the occasion. Sadly we have lost two cousins, Elizabeth and George,  since the last gathering two years ago, and our good wishes go out especially to those who couldn’t make it this time due to ill health!

The Glencorrie team

And here's a reminder of the larger gathering in Edinburgh a couple of years ago!

Edinburgh gathering, May 2010

Visit to Inveravon, Glencorrie and Mortlach church

When I was up north a couple of weeks ago I travelled past Inveravon church, and through Glenlivet and Tomintoul to Aberdeen. Two days later I was accompanied by cousin Kathleen and Dad’s cousin Helen on a trip through the Cabrach to Glencorrie and Dufftown.

At Inveravon churchyard I wanted to see the gravestone that HDM referred to – that of William McWillie (who died in 1685) and his wife Katherine Gordon. The one that goes " Heir lyes ane honest man called William McWillie, who livid in the Cories, who departed the 10 of June, 1685 ; and Ketren Gordene, his  spouse." I was disappointed that I couldn’t find it, but very interested to meet a lady called Tricia Lawson who has lived close by the church for some 40 years. She knows a lot about the history of the church and the area, and told me that she also had heard of this very stone (from a former minister there) but did not know where it is - or was. She also had heard that the stone had been carried there by the McWilliams. She pointed out that the present church building dates from about 1806 and that it is positioned directly over part of the original graveyard. Tricia has said she will get in touch if she ever finds out any more about the story of this stone. 

Here is a photo of the church as it is today. 

By the way Tricia pointed out the location of Delgarvan to me (where it seems that our Lewis McWilliam originated) – on a bend in the Spey about a mile or so north of the church, but she was able to tell me that there is nothing much left there now after the remains of the buildings were flattened for road-building in the 1960s.

From the church I drove up through Glenlivet to Tomnavoulin (near the Corries farm once inhabited by McWillie alias McWilliam families) before heading on to Aberdeen for Laura’s birthday meal. I didn’t have time to linger long, but stopped to take these photos of the old packhorse bridge at Bridgend and of this fine bull guarding the road up to Easter Corrie.

We had a fine day for our journey through the Cabrach to Dufftown on the Sunday – myself + Helen and Kathleen, and Kathleen’s husband Eddie. Helen was a Dufftown quine and knew Glencorrie in her youth – the home of her mother and various uncles, aunts and cousins. We drove up to the farm and took a short wander round the house, the two cottages and various outbuildings. It is still very much a working farm, but the present occupants seem also to run a business contracting out farm equipment – such as two big combine harvesters.

We didn’t meet the occupants, but we took a couple of pictures – the farmhouse, and the two cottages – one of which would have been the boyhood home of my father.

Helen remembered that they used to have music and dancing in the loft of one of the barns. I can picture the scene in my mind, but the building is stripped to a functional minimum these days.

After a light lunch in a Dufftown cafe, we had a wander round the graveyard at Mortlach church - a fine old and historic place.

There are at least three generations of our ancestors there (in fact four generations in my case), and I attach here photos of the gravestones.

Finally there is another stone here which took our interest. It isn’t in memory of a McWilliam, but a Moir. I was really quite surprised to see wording which was very similar to that on the stone that HDM described at Inveravon – and of course it is of a very similar age. Here is a photo and a transcription.

“Heir lyes ane honest man called John Moir Husband to Elspet Reid who was killed in the defence of his own property at Walk Miln of Bolvenie the 13 day of October 1660.  Memento Mori”

I conclude from this, and a few other such inscriptions I have come across in recent weeks that this form of wording seems to have been quite common in the  17^th century.

And as a footnote, here is me with the statue of an Aberdeen Angus bull – on the outskirts of Alford on the return journey to Aberdeen.