Back to the 1600s in Inveravon. McWilliam ancestry ..and the original William and Kate!

Digging around various sources, I reckon I can go back a few generations before Lewis McW appeared in 1760. None of this is 100% solid certain just yet, but at least I find it interesting to look at the possibilities.

As I said in an earlier post, it is highly likely that Lewis was the elder brother of John McWilliam. John (b. 1765) married Helen Black and farmed first in Mortlach and later in Cabrach parish. I now believe that Lewis was in fact the father of Margaret McWilliam who was born around 1784 to an unknown mother. This comes from documents which I have filed in my McWhistory tree at ancestry.com. Margaret married John Garden in July 1804, and they lived also at Smithston farm. Lewis was a witness to the baptism of several of the children of both couples – and John witnessed the baptism of many of Lewis’s children.

We know that John was baptised at Dellagarrowan (spelling varies), Inveravon Parish in December 1765 and that his parents were William McWilliam and Anne Cruickshank. Inveravon Parish records also show that a Lewis McWilliam and Margaret McAdam were married in Inveravon parish church in 1738 – and I am speculating that these were the parents of William, and therefore the grandparents of Lewis, John and Margaret – and also of Alexander McWilliam. Spelling seems to have been a fairly inconsistent matter back then, and what was once noted as Dellagarrowan was more often written in several variations, the most common being Delgarvan.

The River Spey near Delgarvan

I have some notes made by Hugh Duff McWilliam (HDM) in 1903, which suggest a clear link between the Delgarvan McWilliam family and the family at Corries of Glenlivet (another Inveravon parish fairm toon). This family seem to have sometimes used the surname McWillie, but they are recorded sometimes as McWilliam and sometimes as a spelling variation, e.g. as McCullie, McKullie, or with a single letter L. I guess that spelling consistency was not a matter of great importance.  This Corries family of McWillie or McWilliam seems to have been large, and well established there. Some of their descendants stayed on there, some moved to Delgarvan, and some moved on to Mortlach or the Cabrach.  HDM also suggests that prior to their arrival at Corries, they were in Botriphnie parish (to the north, but still in Banffshire).

Alexander McWilliam (of  Delgarvan) was, I believe, the youngest brother of our Lewis. It may be that he married twice and had a total of 17 children, or it may be that there was a cousin Alexander of a slightly younger age. But we do know that they were all at Delgarvan! I will assume that there were two Alexanders there – unless there was some marriage “overlap”. 

We know that, with his wife Janet Black, Alexander had 6 children – William (b. 1800), Elizabeth (b. 1802), Elspet (b. 1804), Isobel (b. 1805 - probably an infant death), Isabel (b. 1806), Anne (b. 1810). The “other” Alexander McWilliam at Delgarvan (b. 1768) married Elspet Gordon in 1809 and this couple had 11 children. 

Their second child was William (b. 1813 ) who married Isabella Cumming and moved in the 1820s to Culmill farm near Beauly in Inverness-shire. They had three children, one of whom (John Alexander MacWilliam: 1857 - 1937) went on to become a distinguished physiologist, and was Professor of Physiology at Aberdeen University – appointed at the age of just 29 and remaining there until he retired at age 70. Google him for some interesting stuff. He did much work on the function of the heart, and laid groundwork which eventually led to the invention of the pacemaker. Here is a picture of him, and I have to note that I recognise that nose - but maybe not the hairline!  

The 10th child of Alexander and Elspet was Alexander (b. 1828), who married Jessie Ann McQueen and moved to her home town of Archiestown. They had three children, the youngest being our Hugh Duff McWilliam (b. 1859) –who documented some McWilliam history back in 1903.

The other children of Alexander and Elspet were Betty (1810), John (1815), Elspet (1817), Janet (1820), Isabel (1822), George (1823), James (1825),  Mary (1830), Ann (date uncertain). No doubt this lot will have been responsible for another several score of distant cousins by now.

HDM’s McWilliam research in 1903 documents some deeper background on the McWilliam families at Delgarvan and at the Corries of Glenlivet – taking us back to a William McWilliam of the Corries, and his wife Katherine Gordon. Again the name is sometimes given as McWillie or variation.

Here is an exact extract from one of HDM’s contributions to a book entitled “Scottish notes and Queries” compiled by John Bulloch and published in 1903 by A. Brown & Co. of Aberdeen.

There is a flat stone (the oldest) in Inveravon Churchyard,

inscribed : — •

'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."

Tradition says that the gravestone was carried to Inveravon from Glenlivet by eight of the MacWilliams. It is thought likely that Katherine Gordon was of the family of Minmore, as Alexander Gordon is one of the witnesses to the baptism of their first-born child, who was named Alexander, probably after him. There were McWillies in the Corries in 1750.

The family of MacWilliams, who have been resident at Delgarvan, on the Ballindalloch estate, at least since 1763, are believed to have removed there from the Corries.

The members of the Delgarvan family are interred under the flat stone above mentioned, and also in a grave by the side of it.

There is a tradition that the MacWilliams came to Inveravon from the Parish of Botriphnie.

Are these our long-distant ancestors?

Inveravon records show that William and Katherine married in June 1643 and that they had two children: Alexander (1644) and Isobell (1645).  There is every chance that there were further children, but the relevant parish records are very incomplete around these times.

Enough for now. I will come back with a bit more on this Inveravon background, gleaned partly from some further work by HDM.

And next time I am passing Inveravon I will aim to get a picture of that stone!