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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Inverness => Topic started by: Kevin Malley on Monday 18 July 16 22:31 BST (UK)
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Hi All,
I have attached the first paragraph of my 4x Great Uncle Father Charles MacDonalds short biography. It is part of a book which he had published called Moidart: Amongst the Clanranalds. There is some quite exciting claims about his paternal past! Was wondering what you all thought the chances were of proving these claims and connecting it all together?
Regards
Kevin
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Hi Kevin......
Am I correct in thinking from your wording that your 4 x great uncle was a Minister ?
Can you possibly elaborate with other family names/dates/places as this is a wee bit vague for any MacDonalds (of Clanranald) connections.
The more info. you can provide...the more chance of a connection as this family (Clanranald) have a huge following with much research done.
Annie
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Hi Annie,
Thanks for quick response.
He was a RC Priest whose parish was in the Moidart area, his chapel was at Mingarry.
His father Alexander was Tacksman at Knocknagael just outside Inverness he was born in the 1790's and died in 1842 aged 46. He was a whiskey distiller for a short time in the 1820's at Millburn Distillery in Inverness which he Co owned with a James Rose. His wife Jessie Garden was born 1802 in Auldearn, Nairnshire and died 1876 in Acharacle, Argyllshire. His siblings were Alexander b1826, John b1829, James b1830 (my 3xgg), Mary b1832, Archibald b1833 and Thomas Alexander b1837 all born in Inverness.
The family were at Plainfield Cottage, Inverness in 1851 census and the 3 eldest boys were all lawyers clerks.
Alexander the eldest was baptised at St Marys Eskadale in 1826. Charles and Thomas were baptised at St Marys Inverness.
Regards
Kevin
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Hi Kevin,
Have you looked on this site....https://westernisles.wordpress.com/
Very informative although the owner has now sadly passed away but still good for research although I can't say whether it will contain anything relevant for yourself ???
This page may be of interest?
http://www.moidart.org.uk/datasets/glenmoidart/rpm.htm
Annie
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I am actually wondering if there is a transcription error/name variant of wife Jessie Garden born 1802......could this be "Gordon" surname ???
Annie
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Hmm....
How sure of which Charles Grant MacDonald you have is correct?
A coincidence with birth year.....https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XYV2-L61
How have you determined that your Charles Grant MacDonald is the correct one?
Do you have his death cert & death certs for his siblings?
Annie
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Hi all,
Death:
Charles McDonald, Roman Catholic Minister, single, died aged 74 on 7 Oct 1894 at St Clair Villa, West King Street, Helensburgh. Causse of death was chronic pneumonia over 10 years, acute attack of inflammation. His parents were Alexander McDonald, Farmer and Distiller, and Jessie McDonald, maiden name Garden. The informant was his nephew, C ? Bates?? MB of Carrick Street Glasgow
A large cross for Fr Charles McDonald was erected on the burial island of Loch Shiel, funded by over 200 public donations. Will see if I can find more about this.
Added: Rosenish, it looks like Garden on the deat cert but I agree, more likely Gordon
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A large cross for Fr Charles McDonald was erected on the burial island of Loch Shiel, funded by over 200 public donations. Will see if I can find more about this.
Br1gau, you and I have chatted about St Finians Isle on Loch Shiel. I bored you with my holiday photos ;D Just for background on that post www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=473750.0
Monica :)
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Going back to my photos, I think this one below is the one for Father Charles:
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That's absolutely wonderful :) Thinking of your trip, I was just going to post that MonicaL would be along soon to give plenty of background on St Finan's. What a truly beautiful cross. A bit more ....
Charles MacDonald, Priest of Moidart 1859-1892
One of the first people to live in the “new” Mingarry was Charles Macdonald, Roman Catholic Priest of Moidart. His life has been well documented by Iain Thornber in the foreword of the 1989 Edition of Father Charles Book “Moidart or Among the Clanranalds”, and again by John Watts in introduction to the edition published in1997. Father Jerome Ireland also wrote a short account of the life of Father Charles, in one of his series of articles entitled “Some Priests of Moidart” published in the weekly parish news-sheets in the late 1960s.
Charles MacDonald was born of Clanranald stock, near Inverness in 1835. He was educated at Blair’s college, Aberdeen, and later at colleges and seminaries in France, and received Minor orders in Paris in 1857. He returned to Scotland in 1859 and was ordained Priest in 1859 in Glasgow. He arrived in Moidart in October 1859 and immediately set about learning Gaelic. From the various accounts, a picture emerges of a red-haired energetic, shorttemperedintelligent man. He enjoyed the company of wealthy, well educated friends and was an excellent conversationalist. He carried out his duties ministering to the local population with what appears to have been genuine affection, and was generally well-liked. He did not hesitate to travel around his wild parish on horseback in all weathers in spite of frequently indifferent health. Some of the local anecdotes related by John Watts are particularly revealing, such as the account of Father Charles intervention in fights that sometimes broke out between protestant and Catholics at the Old Bridge over the Shiel. The priest would “whip his parishioners home with a hazel stick”
He is best known for his book “Moidart or Among the Clanranalds” published in 1889, near the end of his life. Ill health had already caused him to spend a year in Egypt (1886-87) He was finally forced to give up his mission in Moidart in 1992 and died in Helenburgh in1894. His body was returned to Moidart and interred on the Green Isle.
[PDF]High Mingarry - Highland Historic Environment Record
her.highland.gov.uk/hbsmrgatewayhighland/DataFiles/LibraryLinkFiles/184984.pdf
I knew I had a reference to hazel sticks somewhere! I looked at Fr Chas MacDonald some time ago because of the subscriptions to his memorial cross. A family ancestor, Donald Boyd, fervently Free Church, donated 2 guineas towards it; he was the sixth highest on the list. A brother in law of Fr Chas donated £5. So I searched for a connection to D Boyd, but found none
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Hi Folks,
Thanks for your interest in my ancestor he certainly was a character and I'm very proud to be related him.
Thanks for your query about mothers maiden name Annie, but I'm almost 100% sure it's Garden. Charles baptismal record (30/6/1835) states his parents as Alexander Mcdonald and Jessey Garden. Also have link sent to me by Nairnshire Family Trees website of the Garden family.
http://www.tribalpages.com/tribe/browse?userid=nairnshirearea&view=0&pid=26807&ver=158043
Thanks Monica L for that terrific photo of his Cross would love to go out and see it one day myself. Is the Isle a Clanranald burial ground?
Thanks Br1gau for that short account of Father Charles I have never seen that before! Very interesting I have took note of all that info. Love that image of this manic Priest running around wacking everyone with a stick!
I know the nephews surname is Babes on death cert. Father Charles sister Mary married a Richard Babes(China merchant) and apparently they had a daughter Jessica Macdonald Babes who married her 2nd husband in 1917 a famous Irish politician Paddy Little.
Also in that short bio I have of Father Charles it says he is a relative of Bishop Colin Grant of Aberdeen but have yet to join the dots on that one?
Regards
Kevin
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Kevin
Just a couple of links for background on St Finans Isle:
www.moidart.com/history-moidart/st-finans-isle
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahtf40cW-TY ....you can walk around!
The site is incredibly old. The location is breathtaking really (on a good day...and a bad day ::)).
Monica
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It’s odd isn’t it? I’ve had that info buried in my computer for several years, but when I read your post today all I could think of was Fr Charles MacDonald = hazel sticks! Visual imagery I suppose – very potent!
Donald Boyd, Fort William merchant: His donation of 2 guineas was very generous. I can only think it reflected respect for the man rather than his creed. There are a few newspaper articles about his death, but emphasis is in Aberdeen papers. Nothing that we already know but can pass them on to you.
Send me your e-mail by PM if you would like his death cert.
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Thanks for those links Monica it really does look stunning. Possibly a few ancestors buried on that Isle I reckon.
Thanks Br1gau also I have PM my email address to you. Your ancestor may have been a good friend of his you never know.....
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Regarding Bishop Colin Cameron, he was born in 1832 in Glencairn, Aberdeenshire. Parents James Grant and Janet Cameron. Father James died in 1870. His parents show as James Grant, a farmer and a Margaret Luss (not sure on this surname). Mother Janet Cameron died in 1878. Her parents are given as Colin Cameron and Mary Durward.
If you have access to Ancestry, there is an online tree there http://person.ancestry.co.uk/tree/67167272/person/34159332387/facts
Can't easily see an obvious connection to MacDonald and Garden with the Bishop's parents, but there could be a whole array of possible links really.
Monica
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Thanks for that Monica, that info could well be very helpful. I noticed actually on that Nairnshire Family Tree link I posted that Jessie Garden had an Aunt Margaret married to a Alexander Oneas Grant. Maybe could link this Alexander to the Bishop. Grant is a common name however may be difficult.
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Looking for any information on Jessie Garden married to James Ellis in 1864
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There's a book that lists all the people the government wanted to get their hands on after the 1745 Jacobite Rising. It might shed some light on the story of some of the brothers accompanying Bonnie Prince Charlie to France.
https://archive.org/stream/alistpersonscon00excigoog/alistpersonscon00excigoog_djvu.txt
PS In Scotland there is never a letter 'e' in whisky! That spelling is reserved for Irish and American whiskeys.
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Possible probable definite, but let it stand - red herring time .... Could the nephew have been Claude Hooper Bater, born 12 May 1862 in Barnstaple, Devon, parents Alfred Bater and Mary Ann Hooper? He graduated MA (not MB) from the university of Glasgow in 1891 and is in the 1891 census in Partick. Though I can't see any obvious - or even possible - connection. He died in Kent in 1934 and probate was granted to Emily Rose Bater (b 1900), wife of Ernest Perkins Powell. Emily was the daughter of William Alfred Bater, born in Barnstaple in 1855, Claude's elder brother.
The 1895 Valuation Roll lists 4 occupiers at 6 Carrick Street - Isabella Prophet, Agnes Pirie, Murdoch Matheson and Thomas Wilson, so if Claude Bater was still there in 1895, he must have been a lodger or boarder.
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Charles McDonald, Roman Catholic Minister, single, died aged 74 on 7 Oct 1894 at St Clair Villa, West King Street, Helensburgh.
Just noticed - that is a discrepancy of 15 years in his age. If he was born on 30 June 1835 he was only 59 on 7 October 1894.
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Hi Peanutbutter :)
I think your post has got lost on this other ongoing post.
Why don't you start a brand new post on your Jessie Garden? This would work better I think for you and let people see it better.
Monica
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Why don't you start a brand new post on your Jessie Garden? This would work better I think for you and let people see it better.
Hi Pb,
I would agree with Monica but meanwhile I would ask...if/when you decide on a separate post could you please include all known info. about your ancestor?
The info. you have...
Looking for any information on Jessie Garden married to James Ellis in 1864
...is available to download on scotlandspeople.gov.uk which will give both sets of parents including mothers' maiden name.
GARDEN JESSIE & ELLIS JAMES 1864
224/ 1 Monymusk, Aberdeen(shire) not 'City'
Scottish certs. can only be accessed via above site i.e. not online anywhere else.
Annie