Mackison Maxwell alias in St. Ninians

[jimmax]

I have found four likely instances of members of Mackison families in the parish of St. Ninians in Stirlingshire using the alternative surname of Maxwell or vice versa.  Their descendants may have used either surname, Mackison or Maxwell.  I am interested to learn any additional information about these Mackison/Maxwell families.

1.   A Robert Maxwell married Elizabeth Brown in 1675 and they had a son in 1676.  Thereafter a Robert Mackison and Elizabeth or Elspet Brown had seven children baptised between 1677 and 1694.

2.   In 1775 Robert Stevenson married a Catherine Maxwell.  Between 1776 and 1795 Robert Stevenson and Catherine Mackieson had seven children baptised.

3.   In 1784 William Mackison of St. Ninians and Elizabeth Yool had Banns proclaimed in Gargunnock and later that year William Maxwell of St. Ninians and Elizabeth Yool of Gargunnock were married in St. Ninians.  They had three children baptised between 1785 and 1790.  Then in 1797 William Mackieson and Elizabeth Yool had a child baptised.

4.   In 1797 William Maxwell married Marion Muirhead.  Between 1800 and 1803 William Mackieson and Marion Muirhead had three children baptised.

I have not yet found a record to indicate that my own ancestor, James Mackison (who married Margaret Sharp, from Alloa, in St. Ninians in 1781) used the Maxwell alias but I am trying to discover if any of the Mackison/Maxwells on this list were siblings or cousins of his.

There are many more examples of the use of this Maxwell alias by Mackison/MacKessan families in other parishes in the Forth Valley, such as Port of Menteith and Kilmadock.

I had thought that the use of the Maxwell alias began in the decades after the 1745 Rebellion but here in St. Ninians I have come across a possible Mackison/Maxwell as early as the late 17th century.

See attached.

[JohnnyMax]

I have an oddity that might link. I am descended from George Mackison m Mary Jack 1814 yet all their children were surnamed Maxwell. Doing my Ancestry DNA and the matches. I have ZERO Mackison matches but, at the 5th-8th cousin I have multiple Maxwell matches with what look like well researched trees back through Maxwells. 5-8th means our common ancestor was Georges father- ggGrandfather.
Perhaps instead of a Mackison using a Maxwell alias, you should be looking for a Maxwell using a Mackison alias. Working as a ploughman at Parkhead near Stirling, perhaps he was hiding out.....
Interesting but frustrating research...

[jimmax]

Thanks for this.  Yes I will keep an open mind and look for both Maxwell and Mackison.  The Alias business is very peculiar.  There are instances of both.  Mackison families using the Maxwell alias that reverted to Mackison, and other families like your own that stuck with the Maxwell surname.

Mackison (or Mackessan, the older form) is a name that is mainly associated with the Forth Valley (Menteith) including the neighbouring parishes of Dunblane, Doune/Kilmadock, Port of Menteith and Callander.  The Mackison/Maxwell alias occurs in every parish.  These families had been there for centuries so many won't have been closely related and yet they almost all adopted the Maxwell alias.  Very peculiar.

Maxwell is a name that originated in the Borders and the South West of Scotland.  The Maxwells were a very powerful and landed family there.

The Mackisons in the Forth Valley were Lowlanders living very close to the Highland Line.  My theory for the adoption of an alias used to be that after the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion the Mackisons wanted to make clear that they were not rebellious Highlanders which their 'Mac' surname might have suggested, so they adopted Maxwell, a name that was synonymous with Lowland Scotland.  Although ironically the Maxwells were usually Jacobites!  So this theory leaks!

[jimmax]

Hi Johnny.  I have always been interested in the Dunblane Mackison family because I once believed that my Bannockburn Mackison family might have been related to them.  The evidence for this though doesn't stack up.  However, I did come across a few more facts about them in the last few years.

The parents of your George Mackison (who married Mary Jack) were James Mackison, miller at Kilbryde of Blenboard in the parish of Dunblane and Catherine Abercrombie from St.Ninians.  They married in 1777 in St. Ninians.  After George was born in Dunblane in 1794 the family moved east, a short distance, to Clackmannan (just across the Forth from Stirling).  James was the Multerer (miller) at Linn Mill (just to the north east of the town).  The couple had three more children Peter 1800, Thomas 1802 and Margaret 1804.

In 1795 James Mackison in Kilbryde wrote to George Washington, President of the United States.

I hope that this is of interest.  Jim

P.s. I met a James Maxwell from New Zealand who visited the UK back in the 1980s