Research by genealogist Flo Straker, indicating that there is NO family connection between Alastair MacLean, author of wartime novels, and Donald MacLean the Cambridge spy, both of whom had Tiree roots. Alistair Stuart MacLean (b. 1922 at Daviot Manse) was descended from Donald MacLean (b. 1729) and Mary Lamont of Heylipol. Donald Duart MacLean (b. 1913 in London) was descended from Alexander MacLean, Cornaigbeg (b. 1732) and Mary MacNaughton (Reid), Kirkapol (b. 1736).
Click here to view 2019.16.1
Family tree for Donald Brown of Tiree and Australia (1864-1947). Donald emigrated to Yeppoon, Australia, as a young man in 1886. His parents were Hugh Brown and Anne Kennedy of Moss. The family tree traces Donald’s ancestors back to Rory Grahame and Marion MacDonald, who were married in Tiree in 1774, and includes family names Beaton, Kennedy, Cameron and MacDonald.
Click here to view 2019.11.1
Handwritten notes by Eric Cregeen on (1) passages from the book ‘Na Baird Tirisdeach‘, (2) the family tree of Allan MacLean as given in Na Baird Tirisdeach, and as based on Parish records, (3) the List of Inhabitants of Argyll Estate, 1779.
Softback book ‘The Campbells of the Ark – Men of Argyll in 1745, Vol. 2 – The Outer Circle’ by Ronald Black, 2017. A portrait of the leading men of Argyll in the 18th Century, and the rising of the ’45 as seen through the eyes of Highlanders who helped to crush it. Volume 2 presents leading characters who were not Campbells, and a study of the 63 local companies of the Argyllshire Militia of 1745-6.
Softback book ‘The Campbells of the Ark – Men of Argyll in 1745, Vol. 1 – The Inner Circle’ by Ronald Black, 2017. A portrait of the leading men of Argyll in the 18th Century, and the rising of the ’45 as seen through the eyes of Highlanders who helped to crush it. Volume 1 begins with biographies of the 31 Campbells who were subjected to trial by water for their part in defeating Prince Charles’s army.
Softback booklet ‘MacLeans – A Biographical Dictionary of Mull People Mainly in the 18th and 19th centuries’, compiled by Jo Currie, 2002. Includes a section on page 34 about Donald MacLean (McLean; b. 1815) MD, son of the Rev Neil MacLean, minister of Tiree, who was in turn the son of Donald MacLean, minister of the Small Isles.
Softback book ‘Les Ecossais – The Pioneer Scots of Lower Canada, 1763-1855’, by LH Campey, 2006. Account of the migration of Highland and westcoast Scots to Lower Canada in the 18th century. Although Mull, Arran and Lewis are mentioned, Tiree is not. Includes details of ships transporting people from Scotland to Quebec and passenger lists for ships sailing from Fort William and Saltcoats.
Family tree for the MacKinnon family of Vaul, 1700-2011, plus 1891 & 1901 census information for some of those listed.
Click here to view 2018.18.2
Emailed information from the Archivist at Argyll Estates’ archives at Inveraray to Iain Knapman, Balephuil, regarding material relevant to the history of land settlement on Tiree. Includes printouts of the two attachments mentioned below.
“There is minimal published research on the history of the land settlement of Tiree. I understand that TM Devine in his ‘The Great Highland Famine: Hunger, Emigration and the Scottish Highlands in the 19th Century’ (Edinburgh, 2004) refers to there being 329 crofts on Tiree by 1802 and that by 1806 four fifths of Tiree was worked by crofters, but I do not know where these figures come from.
Prior to the establishment of crofts, the land was worked by communal farming settlements of multiple tenant farmers, cottars and servants – the baile. Certainly the 5th Duke of Argyll was keen to improve his lands, and the surveys of the lands and of the people who worked the lands that he commissioned towards the end of the 18th century were intended to inform agricultural improvements and the selection of the best workers to carry them out.
Apart from references in the Instructions that you have read, we hold additional correspondence within the bundle series (see attached list for possibly relevant bundles) and there is also a portfolio of specifically Tiree related material, ref. PV65, which Eric Cregeen listed briefly and which I assume informed his publication of the Instructions. I attach a copy of this list as well.”
Photograph of a hand-drawn family tree for the Brown/MacKinnon/MacLean family of Mannal and Balinoe, beginning with Hugh Brown (1799-1854) and Euphemia McMillan (m. 1821), both of Mannal, and finishing with Rhona and Roddie MacLean, children of Neil MacLean and Sarah Walker (m. 1964), Clydebank.
