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I have a death record of a possible ancestor in St. John's parish, 13 Nov 1683.  It reads "Daniel McCleane, one of Capt. Moriss(on's)(?) Company

I'm wondering what army this would be and if any records/muster rolls etc survive, and what their role would be in Dublin? 

Thanks to anyone who can help.

As if there wasn't enough

I'm trying to figure out what religion my ancestors would have been.  I have records from the birth register of the Burgh Church of Dumfries 1604-1620 before their emigration to Ireland.  But was this church Presbyterian at the time or was it Episcopalian?  I've been a little confused because James VI was episcopalian and so I'm figuring that a burgh church may have been the religion of the King of Scots, would I be correct in that?

They were likely catholics at least up until this point, a long line of them were chaplains and my ancestor John Macklayne was a laird of Lord Maxwell, who sheltered a lot of catholic families in the area at the time of the reformation.  This is still a bit of a confusing time to understand religion-wise and I'm not even sure that individual churches would have been quite sectarian.

  I'll try to make a long story short here... my ancestors were Maclaines but not related to the highland clans, this name arose independently in Dumfriesshire from a family of priests and Notary Publics, the first record of which is a "Sir Thomas McLyn" witnessing a charter for the Earl of Douglas in 1432. They family was later merchant burgesses of Dumfries and most made the move into Ulster in the early days of the plantation.  I am trying to draw a link to what may be related families in the area without assuming too much... and also solidify the root origin of the name.

 Early spellings use the "y" in the name up through the early 1600s and I was wondering if the pronunciation would have been slightly different  (i.e. Maclayne vs. Maclyane). 
McLyn, McClyne, Macklyne, McCollyne, McCulyne, Mackilyn are a lot of the early spellings and of course what's "accepted" is that this is pronounced "Maclaine" and from the gaelic "Mac Gille-Eoin".  But since my unknown medieval ancestor was a Gille-Eoin in Nithsdale and unrelated to the clans... Could he more likely have been named Gille-Ewen / Gille-Eoghain?  which I think would explain the "y" in the early spellings/pronunciation of the name.

It would explain the solid unquestionable spellings of people also in Dumfriesshire in the same time-frame named McCalyane, McCalyean, Mackilyane, etc who were also priests and notary publics.  Also in an ancestor's 1573 testament, it links to a family of priests in Haddington who spelled their names Mauchlyn and Maghlyne... which I first thought may have been an indication of the geographical surname from Ayrshire.  But also in Haddington at this time were families of McCalyanes nearby.

For instance St. Andrews matriculation rolls
Andreas MakClayn, 1494
Thomas Macalyane, 1506
Mauricius Mk Clayne, 1519
Thomas M'Calyen, 1525
Johannes Maklayne, 1519
Soirlanus Maklayne, 1539
Lauchlanus MakClene, 1554
Johannes M'Kalyeine, 1564

It would also explain my distant DNA match to several people of the "Galyean" surname who are of Ulster-Scots descent (an alteration of Mackilyane?)

I'm just wondering whether I should pursue this further or it may just be a big coincidence.  Could MacGilleEwen have slowly been anglicized to Maclaine in just my branch of the family?

I'd like to know the thoughts of some of the veteran genealogists on my theory. 

     I had always thought because of the surname, my Maclean/Maclaine ancestry originated in the highlands and they had probably been redshanks in Ulster but as some of my fellow researchers told me: "Don't assume anything!"  After the past few months of researching my ancestors in Dumfriesshire (they left for Stewartstown, Co Tyrone abt 1620) , I'm a little stumped on their possible origins and it seems their name could be geographical as opposed to patronymic.  Reading up on lowland surnames, it seems a greater proportion have arisen independently by tenants or lairds taking the names of their estates.  Even though there was really no wrong way to spell your name back then, I've found something interesting about the actual pronunciation.

     In Scotland and in Ulster pre-1660 all the records of them have their names pronounced "Mack-Leen" as opposed to the later "Mack-Lane".  Their spelling wasn't really standardized until circa 1700 (Macklaine>McLaine>McLain by 1800)  Parish and burgh records of Dumfries show them as Maclyne, Macleine, M'Lene, M'Cleene, M'Klein, M'Clene.  Not only that but they were merchant burgesses of the town and my ancestor's 1624 testament reveals him as a man of property (inventory totaling 188 pounds, I believe that would be close to 50,000 pounds today).  The earliest reference to them is a "John M'Clein" witnessing a land transaction in Dumfries in 1549.  Since society was feudal and there was zero upward mobility, being a member of upper-middle class burghers must have been inherited (or so I believe from what I've read in Leyburn's book "The Scotch-Irish: A Social history").

     I recently came across information about a rare surname: a variant spelling for the village of Mauchline in Ayrshire.  It seems to be scattered across the lowlands and borders by the 16th century. A John Knoy de Maghlyn is present in the freeman rolls of York England in 1394 while a Scot named Richard Maghlyne is listed in 1408 as a squire of Henry IV being given safe passage to England.  A William Malynne is the abbott of Glenluce in 1512, and a Sir Patrick Machlyne sat on Scottish parliament in 1530 and resided in Edinburgh.  This name would certainly explain the amount of macleen/maclane-sounding names across the lowlands in the early 1600s particularly the significant population in Northumberland at that time as I've been told that highlanders didn't really "go down" nor did lowlanders "go up".

    Aside from records of my ancestors in Dumfriesshire, of the pre-1650 parish registers that survive I find McClene, McKleine, Machline, McCleine, Mauchline, Machlen all in the vicinity of Edinburgh; McLeine, Machline, Makclene, Macleyne around Perth, Fife, Berwick, and a considerable number of of Mickline, Mackleane, Mackline on both sides of the border  This pronunciation is much more prevalent than anything referencing Maclean or Maclaine.  Since the earliest records of this name were spelled Maghlyn, Maugelyne, I believe it shows a "Mawkh-Leen" pronunciation.  Letters from the time of Wallace and Bruce refer to the  area around the town in Ayrshire as "Mauchtlyne Mur"

Would my thinking that this origin is more likely be valid?  And that my ancestors surnames only developed the patronymic "Mac" prefix because of it's pronunciation?  I wonder how many other Macleans and Maclaines may falsely believe they are of highland stock.

Chris Beal

   Can anyone help me decipher this "Testament Testamentar" from July 29, 1574?  I believe it is the father of my ancestor Gilbert McCleene, Johne MacClyne.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  I got this from scotlandspeople.gov.uk and if they need to be photoshopped or altered, just let me know.

  I originally thought my ancestry was from one of the Maclean clans but all the Scottish records and pre-1660 Irish records suggest a "Muck-Leen" pronunciation rather than "Mack-Lane".  I believe this is a variant of the geographical surname from the village of Mauchline in Ayrshire.  Especially since my earliest records are of a John & Gilbert "M'Clein" in Dumfries in 1549, both merchant burgesses.


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