Brice is traditionally said to have fled Scotland due to religious persecution as Brice was a Covenanting Presbyterian. An old published genealogy by Ila May Fisher Maughan claimed this Brice Blair was a cousin to William Sr., "Baron" of Blair (sic) and a Rev. Brice Blair said to have founded the first Presbyterian church in Ireland, both said to have blood lines to the Royal Stewarts and other Scottish royalty.
However, Maughan's alleged genealogy of this Blair family was thoroughly debunked by William Campbell Blair in his article, "Corrected Lineage of the Blair of Blair Line in Scotland," published in Blair Family Magazine, Vol. XXVIII, No. 3 ( Fall 2010). Maughan conflated this Brice Blair with Bryce Blair of that Ilk who died 4 Feb. 1639, and also erroneously identified Brice as a son of John Blair, younger of that Ilk, who died in 1604. In fact John was the older brother, not father, of Bryce Blair of that Ilk -- a mistake that originated with Robert Douglas' initial research on the Blairs of that Ilk in the late 1700s. Furthermore, John Blair, younger of that Ilk, had only four daughters, no sons -- if he'd had a son, that son would have inherited as Laird of that Ilk rather than his younger brother Bryce. John Blair, younger of that Ilk, and his wife Isobel Boyd certainly were not the parents of this Brice Blair, Covenanter.
In his article which debunked Maughan's Blair genealogy, William Campbell Blair relied on the research of Hugh Peskett, who opined that this Blair family probably came from the Blairs of Dunskey in Scotland, whose connection to the Blairs of that Ilk (if any) is unknown.
He married Ester Peden in 1625.[1] They had issue:
Brice, his wife, and daughter Nancy are said to have escaped Scotland in a coal sloop in the dead of night and landed in larn on the irish coast. He made his way to his cousin, Lord Edmonson at Carrickfergus at Redhall. He was granted 400 acres of land close to the village of Raloo where he built a small house and a flax mill next to a stream.
See also:
Have you taken a DNA test? If so, login to add it. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA.
Brice is 24 degrees from Zendaya Coleman, 27 degrees from Sting Sumner, 17 degrees from Josh Brolin, 23 degrees from Timothée Chalamet, 19 degrees from José Ferrer, 19 degrees from Frank Herbert, 17 degrees from Richard Jordan, 22 degrees from David Lynch, 19 degrees from Virginia Madsen, 20 degrees from Charlotte Rampling, 26 degrees from Patrick Stewart and 22 degrees from Denis Villeneuve on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.
Categories: Uncertain Family