Scotland is alive with rebellion, Bonnie Prince Charlie has landed to claim the crown of Scotland, George II is the King of England.
Our Family ancestors are concentrated in the little town of Dailchiorlarich, Parish of Fortingall, Perthshire.

Our family origins are seated in Perthshire, perhaps the stronghold of the name Macnaughtan, where, according to history, the Clan was moved from Moray after the crushing of the great Mormaers of that province by Malcolm IV. King of Scotland, in the middle of the twelfth century. Duncan Campbell, a Fortingall Schoolmaster and Author of many books on Strathtay, believed that the Macnaughtans and the McDairmids were the oldest Clans in the area.

So it here that we begin with the earliest traceable Forebears of our family, the topmost leaves of the Family Tree. The full chart is on the next page, just click on it at the bottom.
In Strathearn, some 3 kilometers west of Comrie, lies the little town of Dalchonzie and here John Macnaughtan met, courted and married a local lass, Janet Carmichael. They had at least two children, sons, Duncan and John who were also born there in Dalchonzie.
John the younger married Janet McIlchonnel, the daughter of John McIlchonel and Katherine Docardach of Findhuglen. John and Janet raised four sons, Duncan b 2/1/1726, Malcolm and Patrick born in Dalchonzie and John who was born in Monzie a few miles north of Crieff.

Duncan grew to manhood and married Margaret Fergusson the daughter of Andrew Ferguson and Anna Boid ( Boyd ) of Aberuchill near Comrie. All these birth - places, with the exception of Monzie, were within a stones throw of each other in the valley of Glenartney, immortalized in Sir Walter Scott's 'Lady of the Lake'.
The stag at Eve had drunk it's fill,
Where danced the moon on Monan's rill,
And deep his midnight lair had made
In lone Glenarty's hazel shade
It was a place of vast forest, the reserve of hundreds of Red Deer and at this time, was a commercial centre of cotton weaving. It's greatest claim to fame is perhaps that it experiences more earthquakes than any other spot in the British Isles.

About the year of 1750, The three sons, their cousins and possibly their parents, moved house to Dailchiorlarich, a small town in Glen Lyon at the Western end of Loch Lyon, where John married a local girl called Christian McDonald from nearby Camuslai. Why they should gone bag and baggage to this place, we do not know. It was sheep country and very fertile, supporting many farms and nearby was the mill town, Milton Eonan where the original mill was said to have been built in the 7th century by St. Adamnan known locally by the name Eonan. Considering how many of the family moved, it does seem that either there was a serious economic downturn around Dalchonzie or prospects were very much brighter in Glen Lyon.

As a matter of interest, in the days of which we are speaking, at the time of marriage the Bride and Groom were required by the church to pay a fee which, if the couple were childless after nine months of marriage they received a refund! However if the reverse happened, the money was given to the poor.
I suppose you could call it Scots Canniness Contraception

Duncan and Margaret had at least four children, twins Finlay and Duncan in 1751,William on 14/4/1750 and Margaret on 18/6/1754.
On 17/3/1776, Finlay married Jean, daughter of John McDiarmaid and Grisell Macnaughtan. He had moved to Kinchlacher on Loch Rannoch, a small town some 10 miles as the crow flies north of Dailchiorlarich. Maybe he went there for employment in connection with the Tighnalinn Barracks. He could have been a Tailor as one of his sons was of this profession, but that is only a guess.
It was certainly a bleak place and previously in 1745, Loch Rannoch was so over-run with brigands extracting 'Black Meal' ( protection money ) from the inhabitants as insurance against being plundered and worse by them, that the government sent troops to restore law and order along the Loch. It took more than forty years to do so! Close by to where they lived was Rannoch Moor, one long miserable expanse of bog and morass overlooked by the snowy peaks of Glencoe and Glenetive.

Statistically, infant deaths were one hundred times greater than they are now.
Child mortality accounted for more than half the number of deaths in normal times and well over that amount in times of epidemics, e.g. Measles and Diphtheria, and in large towns, fifty per cent of all children died before they reached the age of five years.

Finlay and Jean were blessed with a large family of 14 children, although at least two, Janet who was born in 1790 and Alexander born in 1791 died in infancy. However, two later children were given these names so one could presume that they had some significance to Finlay and Jean.

The nearest hamlet of any size was at Kinloch Rannoch with it's 30 huts, 2 inns and 1 church. No doubt the family attended at least one of the fairs held there annually, in April and October for cattle and August for lambs, although it's quite likely the ladies interest would have been in the wares of the many hawkers, tinkers and traders that these fairs attracted.

The first eight children were born in Kinchlacher and then the family seems to have moved again, returning to Glen Lyon. This time, they set up house in Easter Moar, about 5 miles east of their former home at Dailchiorlarich.
There are no recorded Macnaughtan births in Dailchiorlarich after 1780 but Macnaughtan families were in plenty around Moar. Perhaps those of Dailchiorlarich had also decided to move eastward..
Their son Alexander, (the second one), born 1800, married Elizabeth Leisk, (sometimes spelled Lisk). She was daughter to William Leisk and Jane Pirie of Methlick in Aberdeenshire. I know Alexander travelled to Edinburgh as their first two children were born there so perhaps that is where they met. He may well have been there for some time if he went there to serve his Tailors apprenticeship, for that was to be his calling.
Between 1834 and 1839, the family moved to Portnacraig, a mile south of Pitlochry, still in Perthshire. Sometime after the birth of their sixth child in 1848, they moved yet again, this time seven miles South-West to Pitnacree, where Alexander set up shop at no. 15 Tulloch Street.
Next door was Pitnacree House, owned by a David and Elizabeth Burn with their three children. He was a retired India and China Merchant from Edinburgh and they had their own live-in Nurse, under-Nurse, Cook, Housemaids, Gardener and Coachman. Alexander's sister worked there as a servant until her marriage in 1819.
It is interesting to speculate that one of Alexander's and Elizabeth's children was named William Irvine, neither of those names having previously appeared, but there was gentleman of that name in Kinchlacher who was about the same age as Alexander, so maybe they were friends. Also Jessie Ann Stewart, their daughter of that name, had a name-sake in Easter Moar who married a John MacNaughtan and their children were named Findlay, Alexander and Duncan which is too much of a coincidence, although I am unable at present to establish a Family relationship.
They appeared to have escaped the ravages of the great Cholera Epidemic of 1831 and 1849. But, one wonders what Alexander thought of the 1842 introduction of Income Tax, ( knowing the Scots canniness with the cash, I would presume that he wasn't exactly overjoyed!)
I wonder also, if they were amongst the cheering crowds at Taymouth Castle, 10 miles from their home, welcoming Queen Victoria on her first visit to Scotland when great bonfires were lit on the hilltops and 40,000 lamps glowed in the castle grounds.
The River Tay, alongside which they now lived, was and still is, one of the purest rivers in Scotland and also the longest and fastest flowing with an abundance of salmon and trout.

Ed.Note: It was shortly after this visit that it became in vogue to be Scottish! There was a great rush by English folk to find their Scots ancestors and heritage and discover the Tartans and paraphernalia that went with it. 'I mean, if it is good enough for Queen Victoria. We don't want to be left out' attitude.
Up until then, a delicate shudder would pass through the Gentle-folk of the South when if by chance they thought of those 'Hairy, Barbaric Haggis-Munchers' of the North.
Not unlike I might add, the attitude of present day so-called 'Gentry' and others, here in Australia, scouring the records hoping and praying to find a Convict or two amongst their Forebears and if they can't find them, tempering their disappointment by inventing 'em.....

William Irvine provided the continuance of our line of the Family, when, on the day before his 28th birthday in 1867 he married Elizabeth Muir, the younger daughter of James Muir and Margaret Wallace of Mauchline in Ayr, their names being carried on to appear in future generations.

Mauchline was a small town of some 1500 souls at that time, 30 miles south-west of Glasgow. It was renowned both for the manufacture of snuff boxes, cigar-cases, drawing room ornaments and the weaving of cotton goods but also it's links with Scotland's Great poet, Robbie Burns.

Originally living in Pitlochry, a Perthshire village in the Parish of Moulin, boasting 2 Inns, several mills, a gas-works, public water pipes, a curling club and perhaps most important in view of their children, several schools.
The family shifted house to Glasgow and went into the Grocery business. Donald, his brother, was a Market Gardener in Pitlochry and sent his produce down to his brother for sale.
William Irvine, although fond of writing poetry, even to having some of his verse published, was not so successful as a businessman and so eventually retired, dying in 1908 and is buried in the Craigton Cemetery in Glasgow. I have appended some of his abridged poetry regarding his children.
Elizabeth his wife, who outlived him, was very artistic both musically and also in her needlework. She passed away in 1917 in her 74th year on the day that would have been her 50th wedding anniversary. She was buried alongside her husband William.

The family lived in the first floor-corner apartment at No.8 Waverly Gardens, in Crossmyloof and those apartments are still there today. A favourite picnic spot for them, was the park at Rouchen Glen, a short tram ride away.
Near their apartment is Queens Park, with its small lake where the children sailed model yachts among the ducks and swans. William's grand-daughter Janet, said that sometimes when a child would fall into the water, she and her brother would take the unfortunate one over to her grandmothers to dry out. Waverly Gardens was on the 'right side of the tracks' and this really impressed the wet little ones, as did the very large tray of sweeties from which they were offered a selection.. Janet also remembers the piano, the organ, and a brass gong in the hallway, under which was a tray containing Half-pennies to be given out to any needy person.
The family was obviously financially comfortable, with their children all surviving to adulthood. This was no mean achievement, considering that in 1898 the average life expectancy for men was 39 years and for women, 36 years.

The 1901 Exhibition in Glasgow must have been a great high-light for the family and caused William to write:

Weel, we hae a busy year
For Glesca had an unco steer
Wi' folks wha cam' frae far an near
Dor show tae see;
The music bands were gran tae hear,
The best could be.

Frae North and South, frae East and west,
And through the turnstiles each one pressed.
In croods they cam' dressed in their best
Wi' smilin' face;
And lads and lassies gently pressed
To keep their place.

For siccon croods we ne'er had seen,
As gathered there from frae morn to een,
The sick and lame;
And many, too, I trow had been
Best kept at hame.

ELIZABETH LEISK: (Bessie) Born 1868.
The eldest of the children, she never married. She worked as a shop assistant for her father and lived at home with her parents. She was crippled with Arthritis in later years and never left the apartment. By all accounts, a plump cheerful and friendly lady but often crying quietly with pain.

"In beauty and grace, I'm safe to confess,
There are few to compare with our Bessie;
She is gentle and mild to woman and child,
The pride of our home is our Bessie.

In sewing or knitting, in cutting or fitting,
We could always depend upon Bess;
Her kind helping hand was at our command,
Ever ready the young ones to dress."

ALEXANDER : (born. 1870 ) .
He married Agnes, (last name unknown). They had five children, Bessie, William, James, Nancy and Isa who was born in 1909 and was a Marine Engineer.

JAMES MUIR: (Jim). Born. 1871.
He married Winifred (Winnie). In stature, a very tall thin man. He was a Chief Marine Engineer for the British India Shipping Line. His wife was of Burmese-Eurasian descent and he brought her home on one of his many voyages. The family was 'horrified' and their disapproval caused the marriage to break up under the strain, with Winnie moving to London where Jim frequently visited her. They did not have any children, although Jim had a ward named Robert Pape, the son of his best friend. He never re-married and after he retired from the sea, he made his home with his two sisters, Bessie and Peggy at Waverly Gardens. He liked going for long walks in the mornings and if he had a companion, when he had had enough, he would inevitably say, "Tempus Fugit (Time Flies) so time we head back for lunch."

JESSIE ANN: Born 1878
A small and plump woman, she married Robert McCullough a coalman when she was quite young, much to the disapproval of her father. They had two children, Janet and William. Janet the eldest, married Alexander McCabe and lived at 14 Wesley Place, Girvan, Ayrshire. They had two daughters, Janette and Maureen. Janet was better known as Jen., she visited New Zealand in 1983. A lovely friendly lady, she had a hip operation on her return to Scotland but died shortly after through other complications.
Her daughter Maureen, was at one time Nanny to the children of Princess Fatima, sister of the Shah of Iran. She lives with her husband in Nelson, New Zealand.
Her other daughter, Janette, married an executive of Shell Oil by the name of Watson and after living in Brunei for many years, returned to Scotland.

"Oh, Jessie lass, you sore perplex us.
Your thoughtless ways they often vex us
And what at last they're all to end in,
I dinna ken,
Unless full soon to better ways,
You'll turn and men'

Yes, youth and folly will be out,
I have no doubt your heart about
But, ere your lesson you have learned
You'll sadly rue,
The time misspent in running after a giddy crew."

MARGARET WALLACE: (PEGGY). Born 1880
She never married. She was a buyer in the Millinery or Childwear Department of a wholesale warehouse. She shared an apartment with her sister Bessie and later also with her brother Jim. She kept in touch with her brother Donald in America , ( who suffered from the Macnaughtan fault of not writing letters), through his Mother-in law who lived in the same block of apartments. Peggy has been described as a thin energetic woman with a pleasant disposition, always merrily chatting away. She also enjoyed an evening playing cards, especially Whist.

"I'll sing you a ditty of a girl that is pretty,
With step as light as a fairy,
Her quiet little smile, your hearts will beguile
So I warn you, lads, to be wary

When work is laid past, and just at the last,
For change or some such diversion,
She'll get up a row, you would like to know how
This ever can be the same person."

MARY : Born 1885
She worked as an assistant in her fathers Grocery and at a young age, married Alec Purdie, a Bank Manager. They did not have any children.

"When from school she is set free,
Homeward she will hurry,
Books and pencils fly about,
Ever in a flurry.

No rest or peace can now be had
For reading or for spelling
For such a racket she sets up
Goes beyond my telling.

Oh, I have wished, how many times,
Books had never been printed,
Or that the school it's work would do,
At home it is not wanted.

And when at last her eyes are closed
And in her bed she's happit,
Oh, the joy for such a calm,
After such a racket."

DONALD: Born 1883
He married Ada Elizabeth Parkinson, who was born in Mysore State, India, her father being from Oldham, Lancashire and her mother from Dorset.
Donald was a Chief Marine Engineer on the British India Shipping Line and became Dockyard Superintendent in Bombay where he and his family were resident. He was killed in a ship-board explosion in Bombay Harbour while inspecting Engine-room machinery. He suffered a fractured skull and due to lack of competent medical attention, died some hours later. He was buried in Bombay. His Wife and family were granted a pension by the Shipping Line and they returned to Scotland. They lived with Donald's mother Elizabeth for many years.
Of their four children, Donald the eldest was killed in a road accident at age sixteen. He was saying goodbye to his girlfriend and stepped off the kerb to watch her bus pull away and was knocked down by a truck.
Ian Irvine served in the Merchant Navy during World war II and afterwards became a 'Boffin' with a Government aircraft establishment, retiring to Penzance in Cornwall. He has two children and one Grandchild.
James Muir was a sea Captain and lived alone in retirement in Falkirk, Perthshire. He suffered ill health as a result of once contracting Tuberculosis and died in 1982.
Moira was a School Teacher specialising in Home Science. She married James Ferguson, a banker and lives in Falkirk, Perthshire. They visited Australia in 1983 but the day before they were due in New Zealand, James fell seriously ill and they had to return to Scotland where he died shortly afterwards. They had two children, John Macnaughtan Ferguson who graduated as a Doctor in 1983, and David Muir Ferguson who also graduated as a Medical Practitioner in 1985, both having studied in Edinburgh.

JOHN: Born 1887
The twin brother of Norman. He left home because of his family's disapproval of his wishing to marry a Catholic girl so he emigrated to Australia where he married an Irish girl, Hannah Purcell who was incidentally a Catholic!. They lived in the suburb of Hawthorn, Melbourne, raising three children, Jack, Joseph and Rene.

NORMAN: Born 1887
He married Chrissie Little and was the twin brother of John. He emigrated to America and Chrissie followed a year later and they were married in New York, moving on to Detroit where he worked for the Ford Motor Co. until he suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered. We believe he did make a trip to visit John in Australia. Chrissie died in 1970. They only had one child, a daughter Shiela who worked for General Motors Corp. in Detroit handling Dealer Statistics until her retirement in 1986 whereupon she went back to University to complete a degree along with assisting at a local Children's Hospital. She never married and lived in a large apartment which was in a continual state of redecoration which she shared with her cat Kismet Bai.
She described her father as " such a gentle and dear man who never raised his voice and Mother and I collected nothing but love from him. He gave himself up for us and never questioned what we did or what we spent. "
Of the twins their father William had this to say:

"We have two Roguies in our house,
The one so like the other,
That when it comes to Dinner time
They can deceive their Mother.

For John comes in and gets his share
Then out he goes to play,
And in a while returns again
With not a word to say.

Mother, in haste to clear away,
Says, "Come and take your dinner"
And a second time sits quietly down,
That wicked little sinner.

Poor hungry Norman then comes in,
He finds that he has been cheated,
And such a racket then gets up,
But John, he has retreated."

WILLIAM: born 1876 -died 1945.
Married Annie Brodie McCallum from Lochgilphead in Argyll. They lived in Glasgow where eight of there eleven children were born.
William was employed at the Clyde Shipyards by Wm. Simons & company. Orders for ship-building began to fall off in a very significant manner around 1911 and this no doubt influenced the family in their decision to emigrate to New Zealand.
William, my Grandfather, preceded the others and left from Renfrew on the delivery voyage of the 521 ton Suction dredge 'Canterbury' which had been ordered by the Lyttelton Harbour Board for urgent deepening of the port entrance as a result of the larger ships then calling there. This dredge was the most modern of her kind in Australasia and after a voyage of 140 days, William arrived in Lyttelton, the sea port of Christchurch, at 6.30 a.m. on March 17th 1912 and thus marked the beginning of the family in New Zealand. He then set about arranging a home for his families arrival.
Annie and the children travelled to London by train where they embarked on the New Zealand Shipping Co. vessel, 'Paparoa' and after sailing via Capetown, Hobart and Wellington, they docked at Lyttelton at 9.00 a.m. on June 7th 1913.
Their new home was at No. 38 Cornwall Road, high on the slopes above the harbour and here the last three children were born.
The township was a busy centre at this time, with train excursions from Christchurch bringing passengers for the harbour trips on the steam launches to the popular picnic spots of Governors Bay and Purau. There was also the Annual regatta which attracted up to 10,000 people and contributed greatly to the financial stability of the town.

Annie, my Grandmother, was a large built woman and ran the house and the children with a strong hand. She was well known locally for having the 'sight' and was in great demand for this clairvoyant ability, especially in the reading of the tea leaves. On one occasion while reading a friends cup , she saw a man in the water, throwing his cloth cap up into the air and swimming to retrieve it and then repeating the same actions. It later transpired, after a rather damp husband arrived home to change his clothes, what she saw was actually happening at that moment of time, and the man was William , her husband, who, having fallen off the wharf and being rather an indifferent swimmer, was using a novel method of keeping afloat without panic while awaiting rescue. This story was confirmed by the friend and others who were there that day.
(We wish she was around today, maybe she could have given a quick sight of the Lotto numbers!! )
She rarely left the property in later life.
Her brother Hugh and his Wife came to New Zealand and may have even remained there, as his sister Sarah wrote from Scotland in 1935 enquiring as to his whereabouts.
William was a bit of a character and had a few eccentricities.
He would never eat vegetables and ALWAYS had a hot lunch delivered to him at his workplace by one of the children. He was left-handed, (which has re-appeared many times down through the generations,) had no hobbies although having a sweet tooth, he was very skilled at toffee making. He never shaved himself, always preferring to go to the barber shop.
He hated Catholics because, he said " They bankrupted my father by not paying their accounts but yet contributed to their church."
He also concocted a rather potent brew which he called Nerve Tonic, (Being Scots Presbyterian I suppose he couldn't call it hooch!)
This entailed making a hole in a young coconut, filling it with a mixture of brown sugar, rice and raisins. A wee dram of the hard stuff over the top and then reseal it and bury it in the garden to ferment. With a number of these 'Medicinal Brews' put down at one time and the inevitable explosion when the odd shell fractured under pressure, that part of the garden could be regarded as a veritable Mine-field!
William certainly saw many changes in the world during his life-time;
The introduction of electric light, antiseptic surgery, X-rays, the motor car and manned flight, just to name a few. He lived through the Boer war and two world wars, two depressions and lived under the reign of one Queen and four British Kings.
Those of us who used to visit, will remember well, the enormous lighted sign on the harbourside advertising 'Fresh Air and Lanes Emulsion'; the Railway clock who's minute hand would rise to reach the hour and then would spectacularly drop to the half-hour; the Harbour Lights movie theatre; waking up to the sound of the ancient milk truck whining it's way up the hill……………

He was laid to rest with Annie on the Lyttelton hillside.
The family home was demolished about 1950 and a number of homes were built on the large block of land.

"Darling little Willie,
Dada's hope and joy
Mamma loves most truly,
Her sunny hearted boy;

Golden locks unruly,
Eyes of sparkling blue,
Ever hold most surely
To what is good and true"

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