Scottish tenacity, from crofts to frontiers

 

In the misty hills and coastal inlets of 18th-century Argyll, where the sea's roar mingled with the calls of seabirds and the faint peal of kirk bells, your McNeill lineage took root amid a world of clan loyalties, hardy crofting, and the slow unraveling of traditional Highland life. Hector McNeill, born before 1740 in Kildalton on Islay, embodied the resilient spirit of these times—a tenant farmer likely tending sheep and barley on rugged lands under the shadow of ancient crosses and the Duke of Argyll's estates. The Jacobite defeat at Culloden in 1746 echoed through his youth, bringing stricter landlord controls and the push toward commercial farming. He married Mary Johnston, daughter of Alexander and Katharine from nearby Campbeltown, in a simple ceremony that bound two families rooted in the seaport's bustling herring trade and emerging distilleries. Their life in Campbeltown was one of seasonal rhythms: fishing fleets returning with silver hauls, community gatherings at Kilkerran Cemetery, and the constant threat of poor harvests. Hector's early death in 1767 left Mary to raise their children through the 1770s–1780s, a period of population growth and enclosures that squeezed smallholders, yet she endured into the mid-19th century, witnessing the dawn of steamships and the first whispers of emigration.

Their son John McNeill, born in 1759 amid Campbeltown's salty air, grew up in this transitioning era, where Gaelic songs still filled ceilidhs but English laws reshaped the land. He wed Mary Brollachan, whose parents Duncan and Mary hailed from the town's working folk, in a union that strengthened ties in a community facing rising rents after the American Revolution disrupted trade. John worked as a laborer or fisherman, navigating the loch's waters while raising a family through the 1790s, when potato cultivation offered brief respite but famines loomed. Their home would have been a modest stone cottage, warmed by peat fires, where stories of ancient clans mixed with news of opportunities across the Atlantic. By the 1830s, as Campbeltown's whisky industry began to flourish, John and Mary passed away, leaving a legacy of endurance in a Scotland on the cusp of clearances.

The next generation, Duncan McNeill (born 1786 in Campbeltown), married Mary Bell from Kilcalmonell and Kilberry, a parish of rolling hills and kelp-strewn shores where her parents Donald and Mary farmed amid growing populations and estate improvements. Duncan's life spanned the Napoleonic Wars' economic strains, working perhaps as a weaver or crofter in an era when Argyll's landlords evicted tenants for sheep runs. Their family grew in Colonsay's isolated beauty, where ancient duns overlooked the sea, but by 1841, Duncan's death amid potato blight precursors left Mary to lead the family westward. She emigrated around the mid-1850s to Paisley in Elderslie Township, Bruce County, Ontario—a frontier of dense forests and Saugeen River rapids, settled by fellow Argyll Scots seeking freeholds. There, in a log cabin amid Gaelic-speaking neighbors, Mary lived until 1878, her resilience bridging old Highland ways with Canadian pioneering.

Their son Duncan (born circa 1821 in Colonsay) carried the family's migratory spirit, likely arriving in Canada between the 1840s and 1850s, possibly touching Prince Edward Island en route, where kin had settled. He married Margaret McDonald, whose parents Angus and Catherine had sailed on the Spencer from Colonsay in 1806, landing at Cape Bear to farm PEI's red soils amid a wave of Hebridean settlers escaping clearances. By the 1850s, Duncan and Margaret moved to Goderich, Huron County, Ontario, a lakeside town booming with Scottish immigrants drawn to lumber mills and wheat fields. Life there involved clearing land for crops, enduring harsh winters, and building a community of exiles who preserved Gaelic hymns in Presbyterian churches. Their family thrived in this era of Canadian expansion, with railways connecting frontiers by the 1860s.

Allan McNeil, born 1865 in Goderich, grew up in this settler world, marrying Adaline Proctor, daughter of Irish-born William and Ellen from a nearby farming family. As Ontario industrialized post-Confederation, Allan worked in trades, perhaps shipping on Lake Huron, before moving to Detroit, Michigan, around the turn of the century—a bustling auto hub attracting laborers. Adaline's death in 1908 marked a shift; Allan adopted the name William Allen, navigating urban America's opportunities amid the Great Migration south. Their daughter Annie Margaret McNeil, born 1892 in Detroit but raised partly in Sarnia, Ontario, embodied the family's transborder journey. She lived through two world wars, the Roaring Twenties, and the Great Depression, eventually settling in Santa Monica, California, by 1964—a far cry from Argyll's misty shores, yet tied by threads of Scottish tenacity, from crofts to frontiers, weaving a tapestry of adaptation across continents.

Our Highland Scottish Family Tree

GENERATION 1

Hector McNeill

Birth BEF. 12 OCT 1740 • Kildalton, Argyll, Scotland

Death 13 FEB 1767 • Kilkerran Cemetery, Campbeltown, Argyll and Bute, Scotland

5th great-grandfather

AND

Mary Johnston

Birth BEF. 15 OCT 1738 • Campbeltown, Argyll and Bute, Scotland

Death C. 1846 • Campbeltown, Argyll, Scotland

5th great-grandmother

D/o Alexander Johnston 1695–1783 & Katharine Galbreath 1699–1774

GENERATION 2

John McNeill

Birth 18 SEP 1759 • Campbeltown, Argyll, Scotland

Death JUL 1835 • Campbeltown, Argyll and Bute, Scotland

4th great-grandfather

AND

Mary Brollachan (Brolachan)

Birth 19 OCT 1769 • Campbeltown, Argyll, Scotland

Death JUL 1837 • Campbeltown, Argyll, Scotland

4th great-grandmother

D/o Duncan Brollachan 1745–1778 & Mary McIsaac 1747–1771

GENERATION 3

Duncan McNeill

Birth 25 DEC 1786 • Campbeltown, Argyll, Scotland

Death 11 MAR 1841 • Campbeltown, Argyll, Scotland

3rd great-grandfather

AND

Mary Bell

Birth BEF. 18 DEC 1791 • Kilcalmonell and Kilberry, Argyll, Scotland

Death 17 MAR 1878 • Paisley, Elderslie Twp, Bruce, Ontario, Canada

3rd great-grandmother

D/o Donald Bell 1764–1791 & Mary MacDonald 1769–1845

GENERATION 4

Duncan McNeill

Birth ABT 1821 • Colonsay, Argyll, Scotland

Death AFT. 1882 • probably Goderich, Huron, Ontario, Canada

2nd great-grandfather

AND

Margaret McDonald

Birth 25 SEP 1832 • Cape Bear (lot 64) Prince Edward Island

Death 7 DEC 1881 • Goderich, Huron Co., Ontario, Canada

2nd great-grandmother

D/o Angus McDonald 1810–1887 & Catherine Munn 1806–1882 (1806 Spencer passenger from Colonsay, Scotland)

GENERATION 5

Allan McNeil

Birth 31 JUL 1865 • Goderich, Huron Co, Ontario, Canada

Death 07 MAR 1927 • Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, USA

great-grandfather

AND

Adaline Proctor

Birth 22 JUN 1864 • Goderich, Ontario, Canada

Death 25 NOV 1908 • Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, USA

great-grandmother

D/o William A. Proctor 1831–1892 b. Ireland & Ellen Sturdy 1833–1906

GENERATION 6

Annie Margaret McNeil

Birth 8 NOV 1892 • Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, United States (lived Sarnia, Ontario, Canada until her mother's d. 1908)

Death 31 DEC 1964 • Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California, USA

End of our McNeil line

For Michael, Ryan, Kevin and Ian with a little help from Grok xAI.