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Hugh McKellar (1769)

Hugh McKellar aka MacKellar
Born in Strachur, Argyll, Scotlandmap
Son of and [mother unknown]
[sibling(s) unknown]
Husband of — married 19 Feb 1795 in Strachur, Argyll, Scotlandmap
Descendants descendants
Died [date unknown] [location unknown]
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Profile last modified | Created 30 Sep 2013
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Biography

Hugh MacKellar (sometimes McKellar) was born on 3 Mar 1769 in Strachur, Argyll Scotland, and baptized in the parish church of the Church of Scotland, Strachur. He was the son of Hugh MacKellar, his mother's name is not stated. His father's residence is recorded as Strachurmore[1].
Strachurmore is one of several small localities and homelands (including Chapel, Ballemeanoch, Duifeorline, Inverglen) which occur in records of Hugh's descendants[2]

Hugh MacKellar (sic), aged 25 years, married Janet Turner, aged 17 years, on 19 Feb 1795 (proclaimed 14 Feb) in the parish of Strachur Scotland[3]. Both are recorded as resident in the Starchur parish.

Hugh and Janet had seven known children:

  1. Anne, born 9 Mar 1796 in Chapel, baptized 10 Mar 1796[4]
  2. Mary, born 4 Nov 1797 in Chapel, baptized 5 Nov 1797[5], died young (before Apr 1803) (the entry in the Register is crossed through, so she may have died shortly after her baptism)
  3. Archibald, born 3 Jan 1800 in Chapel, baptized 4 Jan 1800[6]
  4. Mary, born 3 Apr 1803 in Chapel, baptized 4 Apr 1803[7]
  5. Neil, born about 1806 (no record in Old Parishes Registers)
  6. Hugh, born about 1809 (no record in Old Parishes Registers)
  7. John, born 3 Feb 1814 in Duifeorline, baptized 10 Feb 1814[8]

It is unknown when and where Hugh died. The Strachur parish registers did not record deaths of burials

Research Notes

Hugh's sons Neil (born 1806) and Hugh (born 1809) are known as brothers to John McKellar (born 1814). John emigrated to the Colony of New South Wales in 1839. There are extant letters addressed to John in Australia from both Neil and Hugh[9]

Another Hugh MacKellar (sic) was baptized in Lochgoilhead on 5 Mar 1769[10], his parents Donald McKellar and Beatrix McGregor were located in Carrick National Grid Reference NN 19556 93779 [11]. It is more probable that the Hugh McKellar described in this biography was baptized in Strachur (rather than from Lochgoilhead).

The 'old' Statistical Account of Scotland conducted in the 1790's [12] provides a wealth of information about the life and social conditions of the people of Scotland and of life in counties like Argyll, and Bute.

In the account of Strachur[13], the local Church of Scotland minister, Rev. Mr Charles Stewart covers a range of issues faced by Hugh McKellar and his ancestors and descendants. The following suggest reasons associated with the decision of individuals like Hugh's son, John McKellar, to emigrate to the remote and largely unknown antipodes, along with a very new bride of six weeks.

p.564
Population.
By Dr Webster's reports, the numbers were 1193.
In January 1783, there were 1061. Of whom were

under 8 years of age, 221
Above 8, unmarried, 430
Widowers and widows, 68
Married, 342

The average number of marriages for 10 years back is 9 yearly; of baptisms 33. It is only within these 40 years {ie 1750-90} that any register was kept, and for 28 of these not very regular. Till within 40 years, the population is said to have continued nearly the same for a long time back; since that period, it has decreased by a third, and is still decreasing. There are not now {ie 1791} 1000 persons in the parish. There are 12 weavers in the parish, who weave coarse cloths and linens, such as the country people wear. There is 1 mason, 3 carpenters; there are 2 blacksmiths, 5 tailors, 2 ferrymen, 2 innkeepers. The people are sober and industrious. No person from this parish has been tried for a crime, for many years back... “

p.574ff.
Change produced by Sheep-Stocks.
Within these last 30 years, especially since sheep-stocks have been introduced {my emphasis}, it is remarked, that a number of people from this district have become sailors; but it appears, that necessity, and not choice, has been the cause. By joining together 2, 3, or more farms, and converting them into a sheep-walk, 12 or 16 tenants, with their families, were thrown out of their usual line of employment. The sea opened its arms to the young and active. Such of the elderly men as could labour, took cottaries, and wrought for hire. Many whole families emigrated to the manufacturing towns, where a change of climate and diet shortened the days of the old, and enervated the young. From the era of introducing sheep-stocks, a very great change is observable in the dispositions of the people. Till then, they shewed no predilection for a seafaring life ... The people have been forced to leave their native hills. Such as have gone have changed their manners, and the old spirit of the Highlander is extinguished in those that remain. The sheep have banished the men {my emphasis}. where, in 12 or 16 families, a hardy race was reared, ever ready to repel an enemy, and gain glory to their country, an opulent tacksman, with a shepherd or two, occupy the lands. Their conversation is not of former times. New plans of tending their sheep, and improving their wool, occupy their thoughts, and engage their attention. in short, the character of the Highlanders will soon be forgot ... The Highlanders of old did not live either in plenty or in elegance, yet they were happy. They piqued themeselves on their capacity of enduring hunger and fatique. They were passionately fond of music and of poetry. The song and the dance soon made them forget their toils. The sound of the bagpipe is now seldom heard. With the modes of life that nourished it, the vein for poetry has also disappeared. The deer have fled from the mountains. A forest, in the close neighbourhood of this parish, where several hundreds of them roamed at pleasure, is now converted into a sheep-walk.”

Villages.
A military spirit prevails much among the gentlemen of this country; they would wish to keep the men; but their lands give so much more rent by stocking them with sheep, that they cannot withstand the gain. The numbers who emigrate yearly to the south of Scotland, and to foreign countries {my emphasis}, is matter of serious regret to every person interested in the Highlands ... If a Highlanders is force or induced to leave the small circle which occupied his first affections, he cares not how far he goes from home. Going to another parish, or to the district of another clan, is to him entire banishment; and when he has resolved to set out, whether from necessity or choice, he would as soon cross the Atlantic as he would cross an arm of the sea.“

The various schemes to re-settle displaced tenants, especially those involving the establishment of fishing villages in north-west Argyll, where the predominant economic activity was fishing (in particular those proposed by the British Fisheries Society from 1786), were overwhelmingly unsuccessful.

This is explored in Robert McGeachy's 1988 M. Litt. Thesis [14], presented to the Scottish History Department, Glasgow University. This provides a wealth of information on the effects of changes in agricultural land use on the common people, and its role in the population clearances in the highlands including Argyll and Bute.

McGeachy notes (p. 81 ff.):
“The majority of the schemes to encourage villages in Argyll were associated with fishing. This industry was widely regarded as being of considerable growth potential both in terms of profit and in the provision of 'impressed' manpower for the navy. 53 These considerations underpinned the founding in 1786 of the British Fisheries Society, which purchased land to establish fishing villages and gave grants to individual landlords who regarded fishing as the means of supporting demobbed servicemen and those dispossessed by agricultural 'improvements'. Reflecting this in the 1760s the Earl of Breadalbane approached the Board of Commissioners for the Annexed Estates to assist ex-servicemen undertake fishing at Easdale, while others were being settled in villages and crofts in Bute and different parts of Argyll. 54 These men, however, were, according to the Provost of Campbeltown in 1763, 'indifferent fishermen' whom he wished to deprive of the herring bounty, and it appears that the settlers' 'unruly' lifestyles were a source of frequent complaint with the commissioners.55 Similarly about 1771 a small fishing village was built at Kenmore, Lochfyne, to settle fishermen evicted from the old town of Inveraray56.

The success of settlements, and the position fishing occupied within communities, was subject to marked geographical variation. On the West coast and the islands in particular attempts to develop this industry were retarded or undermined by the resistance of the 'commonalty' who refused to give up farming. This phenomenon was outlined by McLean of Coll in 1787. He predicted that the British Fisheries Society would find it very difficult, if not impossible, to persuade the 'commonalty' to enter the new fishing villages/crofting communities they hoped to establish because Argyll lacked 'any distinct body of men who live solely by the fishing' it being regarded as a 'mere temporary object or casualty', and in the light of the deep rooted commitment to the land. In his letter McLean stressed that this factor could not be underestimated, 'Their sole attention is in a manner fix'd to the produce of the earth their sole object of pursuit is to get a farm, and a patch of ground however small in infinitely preferred to every other mode of gaining a livelihood'. Consequently he noted that many Highlanders were emigrating rather than be forced into fishing and other industries {my emphasis} which would sever or undermine their ties with the land. 57

Sources

  1. Church of Scotland: Old Parish Registers - Births and Baptisms, database, National Records of Scotland, (ScotlandsPeople : accessed 16 April 2023), Hugh MacKellar 3 Mar 1769, parent: Hugh MacKellar, Strachur, Argyll, Scotland; citing Parish Number 534/2, Ref 10/27.
  2. OS map https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=15&lat=56.16659&lon=-5.06504&layers=5&b=1&marker=56.162696,-5.055638
  3. Church of Scotland: Old Parish Registers - Banns and Marriages, database, National Records of Scotland, (ScotlandsPeople : accessed 16 April 2023), Hugh MacKellar / Janet Turner 19 Feb 1795 Strachur, Argyll, Scotland; citing Parish Number 534/2, Ref 10/145, Frame 283.
  4. Church of Scotland: Old Parish Registers - Births and Baptisms, database, National Records of Scotland, (ScotlandsPeople : accessed 16 April 2023), Anne McKellar 10 Mar 1796, parents: Hugh McKellar & Janet Turner, Strachur, Argyll, Scotland; citing Parish Number 534/2, Ref 10/78, Frame 216.
  5. Church of Scotland: Old Parish Registers - Births and Baptisms, database, National Records of Scotland, (ScotlandsPeople : accessed 16 April 2023), Mary MacKellar 5 Nov 1797, parents: Hugh MacKellar & Jannet Turner, Strachur, Argyll, Scotland; citing Parish Number 534/2, Ref 10/81, Frame 219.
  6. Church of Scotland: Old Parish Registers - Births and Baptisms, database, National Records of Scotland, (ScotlandsPeople : accessed 16 April 2023), Archibald MacKellar 4 Jan 1800, parents: Hugh MacKellar & Janet Turner, Strachur, Argyll, Scotland; citing Parish Number 534/2, Ref 10/85, Frame 223.
  7. Church of Scotland: Old Parish Registers - Births and Baptisms, database, National Records of Scotland, (ScotlandsPeople : accessed 16 April 2023), Mary McKellar 4 Apr 1803, parents: Hugh McKellar & Janet Turner, Strachur, Argyll, Scotland; citing Parish Number 534/2, Ref 10/88, Frame 226.
  8. Church of Scotland: Old Parish Registers - Births and Baptisms, database, National Records of Scotland, (ScotlandsPeople : accessed 16 April 2023), John McKellar 10 Feb 1814, parents: Hugh McKellar & Janet Turner, Strachur, Argyll, Scotland; citing Parish Number 534/2, Ref 10/106, Frame 244.
  9. McKellar, Ian C. £37 a year and a free passage: a history of the McKellar family of Warrnambool. Heathmont, Victoria: Ian and Margaret McKellar, 1989. p. 137-44
  10. Lochgoilhead Parish Baptisms OPR 527/1 10 152
  11. https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=15&lat=56.11100&lon=-4.89910&layers=5&b=1&marker=56.108009,-4.906610
  12. http://statacc.blogs.edina.ac.uk/an-introduction/
  13. Sinclair, Sir John. The Statistical Account of Scotland, Strachur and Stralachlan, Argyle, Vol. 4, Edinburgh: William Creech, 1792, University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow. (1999) The Statistical Accounts of Scotland online service: https://stataccscot.edina.ac.uk:443/link/osa-vol4-p564-parish-argyle-strachur_and_stralachlan
  14. McGeachy, Robert A. A (1988) Aspects of Commerce, Community and Culture: Argyll 1730-1850. MLitt(R) thesis, Uni of Glasgow http://theses.gla.ac.uk/77636/




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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Hugh by comparing test results with other carriers of his Y-chromosome or his mother's mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known yDNA or mtDNA test-takers in his direct paternal or maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Hugh:

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