McPhetie Livingstones of Dull in Perthshire

[Andrew Lancaster]

The account of McLea says...

http://www.macleay.cncfamily.com/account_of_mclea.htm

"In Perthshire the few of them that are there, some of them call themselves McPhetie who, as I am told, take that designation from the first of their name who came to Appin of Dull and was a servant to the then Laird of Weem, and his descendants call themselves McPhetie, his name being Peter of Patrick; but all of them own themselves to be Livingston but own they are McLea's."

Some of you will know that I traced this family a while back:

The relevant probate record also exists: Livingstone, Patrick, alias M'Fetie, in Tullochcoul 07 Jan 1729. His unpaid annual rents were defined in a bond granted to Patrick by one Donald McCuil Cameron in Camvor[?]. Patrick’s widow is Janet and his living children were Robert, Alexander, Patrick, Christian and Janet.

Tullichuil is in the parish of Dull. And these baptism register entries from Dull are surely the family involved. Note that they are after the first Levage sightings, and we never find Levage spellings in Dull…

19 Apr 1705 LIVISTONE, JOHN son of PATRICK LIVISTONE and JANNET LIVISTONE
7 Aug 1707 LIVISTONE, KATHERIN daughter of PATRICK LIVISTONE and JANET LIVISTONE
31/07/1712 LEVINGSTON, CHRISTIAN son of PATRICK LEVINGSTON and JANNET (this one in the parish of KENMORE)
20 Apr 1710 LIVISTONE, JANET daughter of PATRICK LIVISTONE and JANET LIVISTONE
9 Nov 1714 MCPHETY, ROBERT son of PATRICK MCPHETY and JANET NCPHETY
16/08/1719 LIVINGSTONE, PATRICK son of PATRICK LIVINGSTONE and JONET LIVINGSTONE

After this, we see many Livingstones in the Dull register, apparently overlapping with families in Kenmore, but there is one last case of this surname…
22/08/1749 LIVINGSTONE, CATHERINE and ALEXANDER LIVINGSTONE and JANET MCLAURINE
17/10/1747 LIVINGSTONE, JONET daughter of ALEXANDER LIVINGSTONE and JONET MCLAURIN
13 May 1751 MCPHETI, JEAN daughter of ALEXANDER MCPHETI and JANET MCLAREN

There were still Livingstones living in Appin of Dull, apparently as kin of the Menzies lairds, in the 1800s.

I always found it disappointing that I could not trace the existence of this family in Perthshire any further back. My interest is to see whether there might be a connection to the Livingstone of lowland Perth and Angus, my own Livingstones, and specifically those who sometimes used names such as Levage. Until recently the earliest record I knew of for a Levage was in Caputh in the 1500s.

My page concerning my Livingstones: http://users.skynet.be/lancaster/Livingstone.htm

I now have evidence that there was a family living amongst the Menzies in Appin of Dull way back into the feuding 1500s, and they used the spelling Levage. There are two documents:-

1. For the first case, I have now created a special webpage: http://users.skynet.be/lancaster/Levage ... 20Tay.html It shows a connection to the same small area, the name Patrick, and possibly a landlord with a similar name.

2. The second one shows the laird Menzies of the time supporting a Levage who had money held in order to try to get at the Clan Cameron: http://www.archive.org/stream/redwhiteb ... 0/mode/1up

This is so far less easy to understand and associates these Levages not only with the Menzies but also with Clan Cameron. Perhaps the Menzies as a whole were being punished (as often happened) for the acts of a clan they had at some point helped or associated with. More likely, the direct landlords of both the early David Levage and the later McPhetie/Livingstones seem to have been MacCuils (various spellings) who might have been the ones with a Cameron affiliation. (See the will above.)

But at least it shows there were Levages in the intermediate period, in this same small area, under the same lords and landlords

Best Regards
Andrew