>ARNOLD MCNAUGHTON'S WRITINGS
Long before he ever wrote THE BOOK OF KINGS: A ROYAL GENEALOGY (1975 or thereabouts) Arnold McNaughton was working industriously on the genealogy of our line of the McNaughton family. Much of his information and inspiration was provided for him in the beginning by three brilliant aging spinster aunts. All three of them were doctors, one of medicine, one of music, one of philosophy. Arnold McNaughton published his first book on our family tree in 1954-1956. During the following years he published periodic suppliments. Then in 1975 - 1977 he published his second book on our McNaughton family tree which consists of 122 pages of trees of all the families who descend from John MacNauchtan of Dunderave. I think it will be of interest to some McNaughtons today to know more fully of our line, inasmuch as the history books of the McNaughtons say the line of the chiefs of our clan went extinct, which is not true. So I want to put a few extracts from Arnold's books and suppliments in order to familiarize McNaughtons with Arnold and his work. This first piece I will give you is from his Christmas 1960 suppliment. In 1960 Arnold McNaughton was a young man of thirty years old. He grew up in Hemmingford Quebec surrounded by McNaughton relatives, some of whom were very old and very wise. Their memories went back far enough to include personal acquaintance with McNaughton family who had crossed the ocean from Scotland. From Arnold's earliest days he listened to their stories. And their stories all had one theme in common, that our family descended from John MacNauchtan who lived in Dunderave Castle in Argyll Scotland. By 1960 Arnold McNaughton had already put in his lengthy apprenticeship to the antiquarian genealogists of our family and was well on his way to becoming the world famous Royal Genealogist that he is known as today. Our ancestor John MacNauchtan had died around 1710. -- 250 years before. But in 1960 it was very difficult to get a clear understanding of exactly who our ancestor John MacNauchtan of Dunderave Castle was. In fact practically everyone in our family assumed he was the chief of the clan. So Arnold McNaughton had grown up hearing that was the way it was. But 250 years is a lot of years for someone looking back and trying to get a clear picture. As he studied he became aware of the fact that our line does not after all descend from the last chief of clan McNaughton, but in fact from a great-uncle of that chief. In the Christmas 1960 letter we are about to read, he is explaining this situation to the best of his ability to the members of his family.You will note that his vision and understanding of McNaughton history is gleaned largely from McNitt's book at this time and Burke's Peerage. There are errors in both books, we know today. Back then this was unknown. McNitt believed Archibald Campbell's story about THE CHEATED BRIDEGROOM and Jean de la Coeur, which subsequent McNaughton historians have pretty much discounted. Also because of the error in Burke's Peerage Arnold has Shane Dhu as a son of John MacNauchtan and Anna MacLane. Shane Dhu is now better understood to be a century older. Also, thanks to the recent information from THE PROCEEDINGS OF SCOTTISH ESTATES we know John MacNauchtan had two sons around 1670, surely one named John also, who was the father of Thomas and Malcolm. But those small errors aside, it is worth reading this piece to see how Arnold McNaughton's vision was evolving regarding our roots. Here it is:
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FAMILY TREE SUPPLEMENT NO 5
Christmas 1960
Hi! Once again the year borders on the festive season and again I have been able to bring you another Supplement edition to “Our Family Tree”. First of all I want to take this opportunity to thank those of you who so kindly forwarded new data for this Supplement. One can see by the list this year that the replies have come from many parts of Canada and the United States. Possibly the list reads impressively to some of you for the tree has indeed spread itself over a tremendous area and the number of connections steadily increases. Genealogy, the study of ones family tree, still interests me and whenever time permits me to do so I try to reach out further and further afield to find new avenues which might shed new light on ones past history. I have tried, in the past, to make the Family Tree live for those interested in what our forefather's did. Needless to say there are many who could care less! In our present troublous world affairs with all its sadness, anxiety and fear it is well sometimes to ponder the past. We can afford to learn something from it no matter how small that may be. Someone once told me, “I live only for the present and the future; the past interests me not at all.” The present, however, is not possible without the past and the future is something neither you nor I can forecast. I trust the contents may be of interest to you.
Regarding the brothers, Thomas and Malcolm MacNauchtan, on Chart I of my book “Our Family Tree. Some two years or so ago, through various reference books which I have, it became apparent that John, the last Scottish Chief of our Clan, is not our ancestor, nor the father of Thomas and Malcolm. The last Scottish Chief did have a son but he was drowned in his teens and his only daughter, Jean de la Coeur MacNauchtan, died at Ardkinglas as a youth. The male line as descended from the Chiefs therefore died out. Evidently John the father of Thomas and Malcolm was a cousin of the last Chief. I spent quite some time trying to found the family connection between the Scottish and Irish Chieftans line and through it I discovered some interesting facts. Old family records belonging to the late Miss Donalda McFee tell us that we belong to the Clan which came from Dunderave Castle, on Loch Fyne, in Argyllshire, Scotland. But where was the connection, I wondered ? Some years ago I purchased Mr. V. V. McNitt's two-volume edition THE MACNAUCHTAN SAGA published in Palmer, Mass., in 1951 and in this he describes up to a certain point various branches of the Clan. He had visited many places in Scotland associated with the Clan's history. He mentions a John MacNauchtan whose descendants settled in Canada and the United States but fails to carry the lineage further; however, this John, is quite possibly the grand-father of our Thomas and Malcolm on Chart 1 as he lived during the middle 17th century. A chart on the next page will help you follow this reference much easier. This John, in McNitt's Saga”is referred to as having loaned his brother, Alexander, lord of Dunderave and Chief of the Clan, 6000 merks dated June 22, 1659 at Tullibardin, amounting to nearly 10,000 dollars in order to get out of financial difficulties with his age old enemy the head of the Clan Campbell and since the Clan MacNauchtan had supported the Stewart cause and lost whereas the Campbells did not, our Clan fell into oblivion.
There is an old legendary belief in America and Canada that our ancestors were sheep stealers and horse thieves. Not quite for our ancestors came across the sea when hard times, over population and a desire for new freedoms forced them to do so. Would recent migrating peoples like their children in years to come refer to their forefathers as sheep stealers etc. when the true circumstances were indeed extremely serious?
Our Clan source. How did it begin? Henry Harrison, in his
standard work “Surnames of the United Kingdom” informs us that the surname
MacNaughton and McNaught are common Celtic origin and derive from nig, necht or Nechd and
Nechtan, meaning “The little pledge”while Mac means “the son of”.
Therefore MacNauchtan means the son of the little pledge. The first written use of the
surname in a still-existing document was made in a charter or deed in or around 1246 when
Malcolm MacNachtan is referred to as the father of Gilchrist MacNachtan. The suffix -an,
was replaced in later times by the ending -on, and -en.
As early as the 5th century it became customary to abbreviate Mac names, thus M Naughton. The apostrophe of writers and printers was an inverted comma and it looked something like an elevated “c”. Consequently MacNauchtan or Macnaughton, like other surnames beginning with Mac came to take the form McNaughton, the usual spelling of the descendants of the Clan in the United States and Canada today. In McNitt's Saga he states: “"So it shall be MacNauchtan down to the days of the last Chief in Argyll in the early 18th Century and MacNaughton or McNaughton thereafter; Macnaghten for the Antrim branch; MacNaucht and McNaught for the Galloway sub-Clan". Mr. McNitt goes on to say “"Let me caution you to disregard an oft-repeated fallacy: that all surnames spelled with Mac are Scottish and that those beginning with Mc are always Irish What of John MacCormick, the Irish tenor ? He would have resented that. There is no telling from the use of Mac or Mc in a name, and from that only, whether the owner is of Scottish or Irish descent. The Irish are Celts too and their Mac names have been subject to the same changes."”
ious supplements. Neglected also was a rather interesting find which I made regarding our lineage as it is to be found in Scotland in the early 16th Century. In 1596 John MacNauchtan, Chief of the Clan, built Dunderave Castle on Loch Fyne and he in turn would be the great great grandfather of our Thomas and Malcolm on Chart one. John the Builder had three sons, Alexander who had no issue; Malcolm the Scottish Chieftain who was called “Gleashian” and is associated with our own lineage; and John, called “Shane Dhu, ‘the dark one’ who is the ancestor of the Irish branch residing at Antrim in Northern Ireland to this day. According to McNitt's “Saga” and “Burke's Peerage”, the latter book containing over 2600 pages dealing with old families and nobility of the British Isles for centuries, John, called “Shane Dhu” went to Antrim County, Ireland as secretary to his great uncle (McNitt says his first cousin) the First Earl of Antrim. While McNitt's “Saga” naturally does not follow the ancestry of the Earls of Antrim I nevertheless was aware that there was a family connection through a female link. John the Builder of Dunderave married Anne MacLean, daughter of Murdoch MacLean, Lord of Lough Buy.
The following illustrates a little more clearly to the reader the contents of my letter and our Clan connection with the Scottish and Irish branches and the connection with the Clan MacDonnell, as follows:
Her mother was a MacDonnell, daughter of Sorley Buie MacDonnell, father of the First Earl of Antrim. Through this link it was interesting to find in “Burkes Peerage” that in the 14th Century Sorley Buie MacDonnell was a descendant of John Macdonald, Lord of the Isles, who married none other than Margaret Stewart one of the 21 children (legitimate and otherwise) of Robert Stewart, who, in 1371, was crowned at Scone as Robert II of Scotland, the first of that family to reign. According to the book “The Rise of The House of Stewart” John Macdonald, Lord of the Isles, was a powerful enough threat to the ambitions of Robert Stewart that the latter, probably hoping for some sort of peace settlement gave John his daughter Margaret's hand to him in marriage. The marriage was solemnized on June 14, 1350 after special dispensation for it to be performed had been acquired. The marriage occurred 19 years before Robert became King. Another of Robert's daughters, Jean Stewart, married, as her second husband, Sir John Lyon and their descendants today live at Glamis Castle in Scotland. Marjory Stewart, granddaughter of Robert II was given in marriage to the head of the Clan Campbell of that day since that Clan was chiefly the most prominent in Scotland and remained so for generations. But as so often happens in history these Clans, through various loyalties not always in their favour, fall into oblivion after forfeiting all their properties to more powerful neighbours. If one is at all in doubt on all these names I suggest a peek in at your Public Library and there inquire for the book “Burkes Peerage”, if possible the 1953 edition which is the one I have and where these facts were found. But be careful, the book is a huge one and though extremely informative it is complicated to look at, at first glance and I suggest both time and patience to ponder over its contents.
One more interesting female association is where John the Builder of Dunderave's son, Malcolm, called “Gleashian's marriage is concerned. He married Elizabeth Murray, of the Murray family which today provides Britain with its family of the Dukes of Atholl line.
You say, Ridiculous, wishful thinking! I suppose only one such as myself who is particularly interested in Genealogy would ever bother to fathom through this. Nevertheless, friends, it is true. When do I find time to do all this, you say? Well, it isn't accomplished in an evening nor in a dozen evenings but mainly whenever I haven’t anything better to do with spare time. One reads and re-reads and illustrates those thoughts on paper, tears up paper, re-reads, jots down and so forth until some sense is made out of it. As colorful as our family tree seems to appear these facts do not necessarily have to be repeated to the neighbour across the fence sort of thing. Often strangers do not share your findings and are not of importance to them in the first place. I have managed to keep this to myself until now when I thought some of you might be interested and would like to share in those findings for what they may be of worth to you.
Before closing, I wrote a story on the family of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, called “The Family of The Queen's Husband, one which few of us, I am sure have ever come across. This was written in the early summer and thought it would come in nicely as an extra for the Supplement and to share with you, in a way, some knowledge of the other family tree on European royalty as descended from Britain's Queen Victoria which I have worked on for years. On Feb. 17, 1960 I was again on television, in Toronto. The program was “Live a Borrowed Life” similar, I imagine, to “I 've Got A Secret” in the U.S. and which is seen coast to coast in Canada. Possibly some of you saw the program that night. The Life I borrowed was that of Anastasia; whom I told you about in last year's Supplement. Happily I had the correct answers and came away with a sum of money once more realizing that a hobby can prove interesting and even payoff”. For me this was the third time on television with something to do with my subject evolving around the descendants of Queen Victoria. That winter afternoon I had a phone chat with Grand Duchess Olga, the aunt of the real Anastasia; and a visit with Prince Karl of Leiningen, both of whom you read about in last year's Supplement. This year Grand Duchess Olga has been ill most of the time and is invalided in bed being cared for by a Russian family in Toronto. Prince Karl tells me she has lost the will to go on living any longer but regardless of this, her granddaughter tells me that her physical health is excellent but her memory alas is not always with her. Prince Karl and his wife became proud parents on Easter Sunday of a baby boy who proves to be the first descendant of Queen Victoria ever to be born in Canada. Prince Karl sent me pictures of the christening in Toronto May 28th which are most interesting and it was interesting to read of how Karl ' s aunt, the Countess Victoria Solms flew over from Germany to be Godmother to the baby and that she, herself, is the God-daughter of the infant Prince's great great great grandmother, Queen Victoria of England.
And now without further comment I will leave you to enjoy the contents of this Supplement. I might suggest that a quiet evening might result in appreciating these contents better than if surrounded by the hustle and bustle of a busy day.
I extend good wishes for Christmas and may 1961 prove to be one of continued health and happiness for each of you.