OCTOBER 2012 |
| Starting out from Comrie Croft |
But first I want to share impressions of my trip to Scotland in October 2012, ancestral home of my mother Julia Read O’Hara’s ancestors, the Magruders. My Scottish side has been a pre-occupation since Mom passed away in 2006. She left boxes of family papers about her storied forebears here in the States and in Scotland, and I got hooked. I want to visit (and post about) not only Scotland but Boston, Williamsburg, Maryland, Arkansas, the Bitterroot Mountains and the Coachella Valley, all points on the trail of Mom’s interesting family.
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| Map of Scotland ca. 1610, birth year of Alexander McGruder, my great-eleventh grandfather |
Mom’s father Lloyd Magruder Read’s mother was Sallie Magruder, daughter of Lloyd Magruder, whose great-great-great grandfather Alexander Magruder came to Maryland as a prisoner of war in the 1650s. Legend had it that her Scottish ancestors were descended from kings and the famous McGregor clan, with Rob Roy McGregor perhaps a distant uncle. Relatively new scholarship and DNA evidence has pretty much disproved a McGregor bloodline, knowledge met with disbelief or disappointment by loyalists to the legend.
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| Wha's Like Us? at Innerpeffray Library |
I think the truth is far more interesting, because stripped free of sentimental legend there is vivid evidence of the life and times of the very real people and places they lived. Thanks to copious research by Magruder descendants, especially Sue Emerson and Don McGruther (authors of Wha's Like Us? Magruders in America; MacGrouthers in Scotland to 1855), and writer/professor Susan Tichy (publisher of Magruder's Landing), along with contributions by dozens of new and veteran members of the Magruder Family Facebook page, I knew exactly where to travel in the footsteps of my mother’s forebears.
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| Drummond Family Crest, Innerpeffray Chapel |
Alexander’s father, also Alexander McGruder, was Chamberlain to the first Earl of Perth, James, and then his brother John upon James’ death in 1611. By definition, a chamberlain is the chief officer in the household of a king or nobleman, an imposing job that implies that McGruthar/McGrouther/McGrudars must have been well connected and educated. Alexander came to the colonies in the 1650s as a prisoner of war, having fought for Scottish King James VI on the losing side in Cromwell’s Parliamentary Wars. With the Americanized name of Magruder, Alexander would quickly work off his indenture and acquire substantial tracts of land in Maryland, and would spawn the family that would ultimately result in thousands of descendants.
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| Strathearn, Scotland, circled in red |
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| Drummond Arms Hotel, Crieff |
Crieff is very much Drummond territory with the prominent Drummond Arms hotel claiming history as the spot where Bonnie Prince Charlie held his final war council in 1746. Crieff in the day was a turbulent town, “milling with cattle, horse thieves, bandits and drunken drovers,” says the town website. In one incident, Rob Roy McGregor’s outlaw son was pursued through the streets by soldiers and killed. Nothing untoward occurred during my visit and I enjoyed safe and convenient lodging at the B&B Galvelbeg House.
The charming hamlet Comrie Croft, midway between Crieff and Comrie, provisioned me with an excellent mountain bike that took me to ancestral haunts from Glen Artney to the west and Madderty to the east. Day trips were only 10-20 miles in gently rolling countryside, and the vantage from the bike was so intimate with the land that I could almost feel DNA strands perk up experiencing these country landscapes.
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| Glen Artney view |
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| River Earn |
The region is called Strathearn, or valley of the Earn River. I was curious how people got from place to place 400 years ago, when it took me a half day to cycle from, say, Glen Artney to Crieff. As I followed the river as it flowed from Glen Artney to Crieff, it dawned on me that the river was also a thoroughfare for ferries and boats carrying people and goods back and forth. Damage to the river Earn from the industrial era has been repaired and the river sparkles alongside lush banks. Particularly beautiful is the park Lady Mary's Walk, as you enter Crieff from the west, which has been restored and embellished with wonderfully crafted benches.
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| Bench at Lady Mary's Walk |
BELLICLONE, MADDERTY PARISH
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| Belliclone and Madderty circled in red; Crieff to east |
East of Crieff is the home of Alexander’s mother, Margaret Campbell Drummond. Widowed by Sir Andrew Drummond, first Laird of Belliclone, she was provided for in his will and remained on the farm to raise her children. She remarried Alexander McGruder, the Drummond’s chamberlain, with whom she had three children, James, Alexander and John. Belliclone is assumed to be their birthplace.
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| Barn at Belliclone Farm--low entry door at left of barn doors |
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| Original wall at Belliclone Farm |
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| Original wall at Belliclone Farm |
Near this site stood the birthplace of Alexander Magruder, born 1610. The son of Alexander Magruder and Margaret Campbell, he emigrated to American, circa 1652, where he became a prominent citizen of the Colony of Maryland. As part of the MacGregor Bicentennial Celebration, this marker was erected by the American Clan Gregor Society, founded in 1909, by descendents of Alexander Magruder.
-– 9 October 1975.
-– 9 October 1975.
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| View North from Belliclone Farm |
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| Inchaffray Abbey ruin |
Belliclone is within the region of Madderty Parish, where the old Inchaffray Abbey was established circa 1200. By the 1500s the abbey was in decline and during the Scottish Reformation was turned over as a secular lordship to the Drummond family in 1556. Much of the abbey ruins were destroyed in the 1800s when a road was built across the site. Today a single gable end wall on private property can be glimpsed from the road. The village of Madderty itself contained a church and a school, both functions still in operation in Madderty. Assuming Alexander’s Maryland property Anchovie Hills is a reference to Inchaffray Abbey, perhaps Alexander recalled attending school at the abbey, or accompanying his father to Madderty on his rounds as chamberlain.
CRAIGNEIGH AND MEIGOR FARMLANDS
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| Glen Artney: Meiggars and Craigneigh farms circled |
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| Glen Artney |
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| Bridge over Waters of Ruchill |
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| Lower Meiggar (uninhabited) Farm |
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| Wester Meiggar (sheep?) Farm |
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| Easter Meiggar (cattle) Farm |
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| Road skirting Craigneigh Farm with standing stone visible |
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| Craigneigh Farm |
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| Craigneigh Farm |
There may be portions of the structures at Craigneigh that date from the family’s time, but nobody was at home (at Meiggar farms either) when I visited to provide that background. Sue Emerson remembers talking with an older gentleman living there who showed her a grinding stone and told her it had been Alexander’s great-great grandfather’s house.
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| Craigneigh Farm |
The farm is truly a time machine with sheep grazing in pastures and on hillsides much as they must have been 400 years ago. The most exciting moment of my entire visit was finding the Craigneigh standing stone. These solitary stones set vertically in the ground date from six to seven thousand years ago and once numbered 50,000 in Northern Europe. Ten thousand now remain with 35 in Perthshire. They signify a religious or burial site or territory marker. I hugged the “family stone” and tried to climb it, as I imagined children over the generations would have as well.
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| Ancient Standing Stone at Craigneigh |
INNERPEFFRAY CHAPEL AND LIBRARY
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| Drummond Castle and Innerpeffray Library with Crieff to North |
It was time to ditch the bicycle after 3 days of riding, and my cousin Kath Kennedy came with her two dogs from Liverpool and spent a day with me exploring Innerpeffray Library, Drummond Castle and Dunblane Cathedral.
"Innerpeffray is a place of great charm and tranquility on the site of a Roman road by the River Earn. It is the oldest free public lending library in Scotland, representing the very origins of the Scottish Enlightenment," says the website.
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| Innerpeffray Library (from website) |
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| Innerpeffray's Saint Mary's Chapel with Library at rear |
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| Interior of Saint Mary's Chapel dating from 1508 |
The complex includes Saint Mary’s Chapel, burial place of the Drummond family, built by John, the first Lord Drummond in 1508, and in great shape. As trusted servants to the Drummonds, the McGruder probably worshipped there or attended important gatherings. A bas relief headstone in Latin gives the date 1638--before Alexander came to America. That is the date of Lady Jane Drummond’s death, daughter of the first Earl of Perth.
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| Possibly Lady Jane Drummond's headstone |
The chapel survived the Reformation by its use as burial vault for the Drummonds. It is easy to imagine McGrouther footsteps among the headstones in the grounds around the chapel.
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| Saint Mary's Chapel Grounds |
The loft of the chapel was the original home to the library, which was founded by David Drummond in 1680 when he made 400 of his family books available to the public. A school was founded at the same time, both endeavors “for the improvement and education of the population, particularly the young students,” as stated in his will.
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| Saint Mary's Chapel loft was original Library |
The present library was built in 1762. Remarkably, the library’s holdings are perfectly preserved. One of the Library’s greatest treasures is the borrowers’ ledger, recording every loan made from 1747 until lending ceased in 1968, scrupulously handwritten by generations of librarians. We were allowed to handle the ledger with our bare hands (the librarian told us that gloves tend to tear the pages). There are a few inscriptions recording eighteenth century McGrouther loans and bearing actual signatures!
20 January 1759: I James McGrouther surgeon apprentice in Crieff grant me to have borrowed forth of the Library as foresaid the 3d Vol. of the Philosophical Transactions which I oblige me to return in three months. (Signed) James McGrouther.
1 December 1765: I Duncan McGrouther in Bow of Marbourne (sp?) grants me to have borrowed forth of the Library Abercromby’s History of Scotland Vol. 2 which I promise to return in three months. (Signed) Duncan McGrouther.
When the volumes were returned, the librarian crossed off the entry. For our visit the librarian proceeded to the shelves and produced the actual manuscripts for us. These McGrouthers’ tastes in reading were practical if not reflective of the times.
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| Abercromby's History of Scotland Vol. 2 |
DRUMMOND CASTLE
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| Drummond Castle and Gardens |
To get a sense of the magnitude of the McGrouther/McGruder family's relationship to the Drummonds of Perthshire, one need only visit Drummond Castle and Gardens. The castle is best known for its gardens, described by Historic Scotland as “the best example of formal terraced gardens in Scotland.”
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| Sundial, 1630 |
Also from the era are the original castle keep and the kitchens, at times thought to be a dungeon (this cool image was found on the internet as the buildings aren't open to the public).
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| Original Castle Keep |
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| Kitchen in Castle Keep |
Although the castle and grounds bear little resemblance today to how they would have appeared, the history of the property makes a vivid lens through which to view Scottish history and the impact of politics and wars on the Drummonds that would have affected the McGrouther’s fates as well. During Alexander the chamberlain’s tenure, significant building and landscaping projects took place that underscore the responsibility of his position.
The Drummonds owned the lands from the fourteenth century and the original tower house was built by John, first Lord Drummond, from about 1490. In 1605 James, first Earl of Perth, added to the castle. John, second Earl of Perth, laid out the first terraced garden in the 1630s. The castle was sacked by the army of Oliver Cromwell in 1653, just after Alexander was sent to the colonies as a prisoner of war. The Drummonds have held onto the property through upheavals, forfeitures, reclamations and rebuildings and it is still the family seat.
DUNBLANE CATHEDRAL
Final stop was Dunblane (fort of Blane), namesake of a 250 acre plantation in Maryland that Alexander the immigrant purchased in 1671. Half way between Glasgow and Perth, the town is presumed to have been named after the early Irish Saint Blaan of the sixth century. The town’s main landmark is its cathedral which dates from the tenth century by two cross-slabs preserved in the cathedral and an eleventh century bell tower. The nave is of the thirteenth century.
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| Dunblane Cathedral (from internet) |
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| Cathedral Interior |
Beautiful as is the cathedral, the graveyard holds interest as a headstone very near the main entry to the cathedral marks the grave of John M. McGruthar, Writer, Dunblane, who died 17 April 1859. The headstone also lists his children Helen, William and Jessie.
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| McGrudar resting place |
Their lifespans were well after Alexander the immigrant’s time; yet, by virtue of Alexander’s Maryland property named Dunblane, I assume Alexander had ties to Dunblane and that and these McGrudars were related somewhere down the line.
Another resident of Dunblane’s cemetery is Margaret Drummond (1475-1501), daughter of John, first Lord Drummond and a mistress of Scottish King James IV. She died of food poisoning, along with her sisters Eupheme and Sibylla, while staying at their parents' residence. The three sisters are buried together and their graves can still be seen in front of the altar. Margaret may have been murdered by pro-English forces who wished the king to marry the English princess Margaret Tudor (Henry VIII’s sister). Had James IV married Margaret Drummond instead of Margaret Tudor, the Union of the Crowns might never have taken place and Scotland might have remained an independent country.
While we’re speculating, how might that have affected the fates of the McGrouthers a century later? Would Alexander have made his way to the colonies, either as a prisoner of war or emissary of the wealthy Drummonds, or stayed home, farming in the Strathearn?
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| Entryway, Dunblane Cathedral |
I want to thank all the Magruder experts for their encouragement, research and pointers, especially Sue Emerson--who gave me my "itinerary" via email as well as by her book; Don McGruther--who was my in-country informant and suggested I make Crieff my base of operations...hoping to meet Don next trip; and Susan Tichy, whose rich knowledge of early Magruders in Scotland and this country is the subject of her eloquent blog, Magruder's Landing (see link at beginning of post). I invite corrections to this amateur effort and apologize for the tardy posting and my clumsiness with this technology.
