From the Fortress of Solitude
Pleasant Grove
Hello All,
One
of our distant McCrillis cousins emailed me this week with additional
information on our McCrillis ancestors. His email follows:
Hi
folks. My name is Maury McCrillis. I'm the last of the Scots Gaelic
speaking McCrillises and a direct descendent of Robert, our ancestor who
served in the Revolution. My great uncle Herbert O. McCrillis wrote the
seminal genealogy of the McCrillis families in America, an early copy
of which I still make reference to for those interested in our early
history. I'm happy to report that your information about Robert is
spot-on accurate. Robert's father, as you say, was Daniel. Daniel's two
other brothers were John and David. Our original progenitor, their
father, was also named John. The original John came from Aghadowey
(pronounced AHK-ah-doo-ee), having relocated from Scotland, likley
Dumbartonshire, in or around 1690 following a Covenanter defeat at the
Battle of Bothwell Bridge. He and the sons arrived at Nodle Island,
Boston, in 1726 and about 20 years later build what is the original
homestead, which still stands on McCrillis Road in Nottingham, NH.
Anyone interested in more details about our early history can contact me
at mccrillisancestry@hotmail.com.
Le Dùrachdan, Muiris (Maury)
I've
written to Maury McCrillis asking for more information on our McCrillis
ancestors and will pass the information along when it arrives.
In
Maury's email he mentioned "a Covenanter defeat at the Battle of
Bothwell Bridge.." I did a bit of research on the Battle of Bothwell
Bridge and will share in today's post.
We begin with a Relationship Chart so you can see how we are related to John McCrillis.
John McCrillis (1675 - 1743)
is your 7th great grandfather
Son of John
Son of Daniel
Son of Robert
Son of John Kenney
Daughter of Joseph E.
Daughter of Isabella Denora
Daughter of Vesta Althea
Violet married Walter Mattson
to
Luella, Linda, John and Marvin
to
US
One
interesting side note, my research shows that our 7th Great
Grandfather, John was born in Londonderry, Ireland. The email above
clearly states that he was born a Scotsman and possibly a Covenanter.
Regardless, it is clear that the McCrillis family came from Scotland to
Ireland around 1690 and then to Boston in 1726.
The Covenanters
Simply
stated, the Covenanters were those people in Scotland who signed the
National Covenant in 1638. They signed this Covenant to confirm their
opposition to the interference by the Stuart kings in the affairs of the
Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
The
Stuart kings harboured the belief of the Divine Right of the Monarch.
Not only did they believe that God wished them to be the infallible
rulers of their kingdom - they also believed that they were the
spiritual heads of the Church of Scotland. This latter belief could not
be accepted by the Scots. No man, not even a king, could be spiritual
head of their church. Only Jesus Christ could be spiritual head of a
Christian church.
This
was the nub of the entire Covenanting struggle. The Scots were, and
would have been, loyal to the Stuart dynasty but for that one sticking
point, and from 1638, when the Covenant was signed, until the Glorious
Revolution - when Prince William of Orange made a bloodless invasion of
Great Britain in 1688 - a great deal of suffering, torture,
imprisonment, transportation and executions would ensue.
King
Charles I had introduced the Book of Common Prayer to Scotland in 1637
to the fury and resentment of the populace. He declared that opposition
to the new liturgy would be treason, and thus came about the Covenant.
There
followed a period of very severe repression. Ministers with Covenanting
sympathies were "outed" from their churches by the authorities, and had
to leave their parishes. Many continued to preach at "conventicles" in
the open air or in barns and houses. This became an offence punishable
by death. Citizens who did not attend their local churches (which were
now in the charge of Episcopalian "curates") could be heavily fined, and
such offenders were regarded as rebels, who could be questioned, even
under torture. They could be asked to take various oaths, which not only
declared loyalty to the king, but also to accept his as head of the
church. Failure to take such an oath could result in summary execution
by the muskets of the dragoons, who were scouring the districts looking
for rebels.
The
persecutions became more frequent and cruel on the Restoration of
Charles II in 1660. As time went on more and more ordinary folk became
involved, and skirmishes and battles took place against Government
troops. In 1678 the Government raised an army of 6,000 Highlanders, who
had no love for the Presbyterian lowlanders. This army swept through the
west and south of Scotland, looting and plundering. They remained for
many years, quartering themselves on the already impoverished
Covenanters
Taken from http://www.covenanter.org.uk)
The Battle of Bothwell Bridge. Sunday 22, June 1679.
At
the close of the half-hour, or, as some reports say, before it, the
royal troops opened fire upon the bridge. They had planted three cannon
behind a parapet that had been thrown up during the cessation from
fighting, but their firing was too high, and went over the heads of the
Covenanters, who, with their one piece, replied so effectively that they
killed several of the Royalists and drove them from their guns. David
Leslie shouted after them as they fled, "Would they fleg for country
fellows?" but still they ran; and the cannon would have been taken had
not the barricade on the bridge barred the way for bringing them over.
New
troops were brought up and renewed the attack, but still without
success--the three hundred bravely defended the bridge. For three hours
they stood unflinchingly. The reinforcements they sent for to Hamilton
Moor never arrived; their ammunition ran short, and messengers were
despatched for more, when the answer came that there was none to spare,
and that they must retire to the main body on the moor. "With sore
hearts" they withdrew, for they felt that the bridge was everything,
although Hamilton believed it was wasting time to defend it, and that
the best course would be to let the enemy form on its south side, and
then drive them into the Clyde.
They
fell back in good order, and the royal troops at once crossed the
bridge and formed upon the moor. When Rathillet and his brave companions
retired to the main body he found them, he says, well drawn up, and
very hearty, and all ready to march down upon the enemy. For the moment
their divisions had ceased, "and every one seemed to encourage the
other." Wyck's picture of the battle presents them as drawn up in eleven
different squares, with six standards, two detachments of horse, one
cannon, and a body of skirmishers in front. All appeared in a measure
prepared, as they assured Hackston, for a battle "with hand strokes,"
when, just as they had begun to advance, a cry got up, which ran from
company to company, that their leaders, who seem largely to have been
friends of Welch, had disappeared.
To
some extent the report was true, for Paton and Cleland were then doing
their best to find officers to take their place. But there was no time
to reason, for while the cry was running through the army, the horse,
under Weir of Greenridge, made a movement of their own from the centre
to the front of the left wing. The officer in command ordered them out
of the way, but they cried out that they would not, as they had been
placed where they had been to be cut off, and then, as if struck with
some sudden madness of fear, they wheeled about, 140 horse, dashed
through the left wing, broke it in pieces, and carried it away in their
flight.
At
that moment the cannon of the Royalists began to play, and their line
made an advance, but there was no fighting; only 15 men were slain on
the field of battle. The panic on the left wing spread to the right, and
it speedily fled in like manner, Sir Robert Hamilton among the
foremost, "leaving the world to debate," says one who was there,
"whether he acted most like a traitor, coward, or fool." The royal
troops, that stood in awe so long as there was any opposition, at once
advanced when they saw their opponents flee without fighting, and
eagerly gave chase, and slew nearly 400 of the fugitives as they fled
before them. No quarter seems to have been given, save to 1200 who
surrendered in a body and who were later imprisoned in Greyfriars'
Churchyard.
From The Martyr Graves of Scotland by J. H. Thomson, 1875. [adapted]
We join into the clan through my GG Grandmother, Isabel D. McCrillies. The email with additional information about our McCrillis family is below.
