MacLeas in Argyll, 18th Century

[Kyle2 MacLea]

David has been working on this project of collecting McLea/similar and Livingstone/similar for some time, and now that we've been giving him other records to input, his database has been getting even more useful!

[Canadian Livingstone]

Hi David, Yes these for profit genealogy and familiy history sites can be costly. I used to suscribe to Ancestry and genealogy.com which was very helpful to my North American research, but a bit costly when you suscribe for a whole year. Nice to see that info on Lismore. Some of our neighbourhood parish information Rob Livingston copied, but I am focusing upon the more distant parishes closer to the border with Bute to satisfy a hunch that I have. I dont want to get anyone excited until I have something to show for my time and effort. Suffice to say I need gather baptismal records for MacLeas and Livingstones that resided in these eastern Argyll Parishes roughly between the years 1700 and 1800. With your contribution I am almost halfway there. You have obviously been working hard collecting this information. Unfortunately a great number of the Parish records for one reason or another dont start before 1800. But there are a few that begin in the 1730's and 1740's. THere arent many going back that early unfortunately in our Western Argyll, more in Eastern Argyll but as turns out it is Eastern Argyll that I am interested in exploring to perhaps test a theory. I should check this site out you mentioned. regards Donald

[Canadian Livingstone]

Here is a question for Kyle, David and Niall. Inveraray and Glenaray baptisms for Clan MacLea cover a period from 1726 to 1745 and then abruptly stop. Do you find anything odd or unusual about that? Now I suppose we might conclude that the later entries were lost, McLeas moved away after the Battle of Culloden,or the rest of the entries are not yet copied on that website. But isn't there another possibility that comes to mind? Kilfinan Parish baptisms cover a period from 1747 to 1755, but this is perhaps too short a time to infer or deduce for certain that there is any kind of trend there. THese are just the first two more distant parishes I have seen, so I need to look at many more before I can identify thing and refer to it as a significant pattern. Not ready to jump to any conclusions just yet as can not be certain what I have just seen I am really seeing. If you know what I mean. Just exploring at this point. Thanks again David and Kyle regards Donald

[Kyle2 MacLea]

Certainly a disappearance of McLeas in some area at a given period of time is going to point to two possibilities for me: 1.

[Bachuil]

Well Guys - you have been cooking on gas - as they say in these parts. Lots of info coming in. As to Donald's question one probably needs to actually track one or two families.

[Craig McClay Wilson]

We do have more Argyll records if we add the name variants such as McOnlay , McEnlay, etc.

[Canadian Livingstone]

Hi Kyle, Well I am back from the library. The Ak Johnston publlication from 1886 is just one of those 19th century, glorified tartan atlas size books of the major clans that omits many others including us. There is just one line at the beginning of this book that refers to Livingstone as a sept of the CLan Stewart of Appin. I don't think Niall will be too happy about that. Could the 1906 book they later came out with be a later edition of this book. I think it may be. I havent seen an author mentioned with the 1906 book just the publisher; the 1886 was by James Grant (1822-1887). I looked at another publication of W and A.K. Johnston a pocket tartan guide intitled "Scottish Clans and their Tartans published in 1925. Worth checking it out anyways. I am not certain that those baptisms ended at 1745 for the MacLeas of Inveraray or Inverary Parish. Is David certain that Scotpeople checked the entire register or registers that cover a period roughly from 1653-1688, 1699-1854? In our case it would be great if we could be certain there are absolutely no MacLea entries between 1745 and 1800 indicating something major happened. If David could confirm with Scotspeople that they have checked the baptismal record subsequent to 1745 and between 1745 and 1800 that really fantastic. If there is a cost to verify that thats no problem. We can work that out. We of course are especially interested with these Macleas or their families and if there is any chance of them being in the records in this parish after 1745. Also of course we want to check on any Livingstones to see if there any possibility that a large number of Macleas disappeared shortly before a large number of Livingstones begin to appear in the records say 1750's 1760's. I do think if the Isle of Lismore, Movern and APpin Parish baptismal records had survived from the 1720's 1730's and 1740's you would see a patern interesting and predictable as the clan changed their names to Livingstone, but of course I am not 100% certain what took place farther to the south east at Inveraray Parish. It is perhaps a bit dicey because I am sure that the MacLeas living this far from the Baron would have changed their name. Well maybe these records if we are very lucky will provide some clues as to whether these more distant Macleas like the Bute MacLeas remained Macleas or whether they changed their name to Livingstone. This is one of things that was going through my head yesterday when I first contacted you and about looking at 18th century Macleas in Eastern Argyll near Bute. Hey!the tartan 1003 thing is not going so well for me, I need to find meaningfull employment doing something else. regards Donald

[Canadian Livingstone]

Hi Craig, I envy you. That sounds like a great trip you have planned to Lindsaig. Look forward to seeing your pictures. Dont forget to drop by the Island of Lismore and say hello to the Clan Chief. One of things I am

[Canadian Livingstone]

Hi Craig, Excellent point. Any search should include those spelling variations of MacLea ie Maconlea and others. Unfortunately many of the Parish church records for parishes close in proximity to Island of Lismore including the Island itself do not begin much before the 1760's and in case of my Movern across from the Island do begin until around 1800. Many of more distant parishes in Eatern Argyll such as Inverary for example go back as far as the 1720's when MacLeas would infact still be MacLeas. Of the question to be asked is how far beyond Island of Lismore Movern and Appin/Ballachuish did the Baron/Clan Chief Maconlea's authority to change the Maconlea/MacLea name extend? Niall of course has a pretty good idea of where his clan has lived and spread out for many generations, but it would be interesting to see what if any impact the name change in the 1750's or 1760's had on the more distant Eastern Argyll parishes which are almost closer to the Bute Macleas than they to Baron Maconleas traditional perceived area of influence. regards Donald