Hello lists. I am researching a number of families with the above names who settled in Buckinghamshire, England in the last quarter of the 17th century before the Act of Union 1707 and would love to know their origins and reasons for migration/settlement. Forgive the cross-posting please but, although I'm pretty sure these folk came from the Dumfries/Galloway/Wigtown/Borders areas, I have no idea exactly where so I'm aiming for maximum coverage. When they arrived in Bucks, the men were all described as Linen Drapers, Lacebuyers and Chapmen. They resided in or near the main lace-making and clothier towns of Newport Pagnell, Olney, Buckingham and near the main roads to London, in Bletchley, Newton Longville etc. Members of the families also turn up in London occasionally. They had various connections to early Presbyterian and Independent Meetings in north Bucks and there seems to be a Moravian thread going on too. With apologies for the length of the email, I will post the main details of the families below, for the sake of archive-searchers and people looking for possible strays. But I would love to hear from anyone with knowledge of the linen trading families of this period 1680-1707, or of family migrations to England - that is, NOT to Ulster where so many went in this time period, but to England where I guess they had linen and lace trade contacts. Any links to folk with these names in D&G, WIG and Borders in the late 1600s and early 1700s will be of interest. In hope Celia Renshaw in Chesterfield UK SCOTS IN NORTH BUCKS (so far) Patrick ROY married Sarah LANCASHIRE 22 Apr 1698 in Allhallows London Wall. Patrick became innkeeper at the Ram Inn in Newport Pagnell which wife Sarah owned, with her two sisters Their children: Hannah 1699; Katharine 1700; Sarah 1702; Margaret 1704; James 1711 Of these, Margaret ROY married James MILLIGAN, Linen Draper, on 8 Jul 1728 in Gayhurst, Bucks James took over the Ram Inn from his father in law. He was a trustee for the Independent Meeting House in Newport Pagnell in the 1740s-60s, but he or his son James (or possibly both) became bankrupt in the 1760s (and so was possibly imprisoned, at least for a while) Their other children John, Patrick, Jane and Robert all died as infants. Son James married Margaret MACKARETH on 25 Oct 1769 in St Andrew's, Hertford, Herts (where Margaret's sister Mary had married a Thomas WILDMAN in 1757) and their only known child Margaret Mackareth MILLIGAN, born 1771, lived to 1852. James sadly died a few weeks after Margaret's birth in 1771. In 1851 Margaret was living in Ambleside WES and she left a will (those named were all from the MACKARETH side, living in Westmorland, Liverpool and London). James MILLIGAN who married Margaret ROY seems to have been one of several sibs who settled in north Bucks at the same time. There were also: Andrew MILLAGAN, Linen Draper/Chapman David MILLAGAN, Linen Draper Mary MILLAGAN spinster Judging by marriage dates and the occasional gravestone or Will, they were all probably born abt 1685-1691. Andrew MILLAGAN married Mary WOODBRIDGE on 19 Jan 1711 in St Mary, Aylesbury, Bucks, when he was of Newton Longville and she of Weston Turville Andrew died in the Kings Bench prison (most likely imprisoned for debt) on 8 May 1750 and was buried in Newton Longville (alongside David and James, his probable brothers) on 14 May. Andrew and Mary's children, bap in Weston Turville, Bucks were 1. William (married a Martha and had 3 children in Weston Turville, Mary, Elizabeth and Mary - the last two lived to ripe old ages and died unmarried in the village in 1837 and 1835 respectively) 2. John (married Catherine HOWLETT on 5 Nov 1734 in Monks Risborough, Bucks, when they were both of Bledlow, Bucks) David MILLAGAN married (1) Ann TOMPKINS on 13 Oct 1706 in Newton Longville and they had 1 son Robert in 1710 before Ann died aged 31 in 1711 (a gravestone for her still exists!) This son Robert survived to marry and be a trouble to everyone he encountered and he died in ignominy in Calcutta in 1759. But before then he produced 3 children and a dynasty. His grand-daughter Catherine MILLAGAN married into my main NELSON family of Buckingham. Much more info available about Robert MILLAGAN and his descendants to anyone interested. David MILLAGAN married (2) Ann BARRETT of Turweston, Bucks on 16 Jul 1713 and had two children: Mary 1714 married Robert ADAMS of Thornborough and disappeared from view; David 1716, also disappeared from view and I wonder if he took the line back to Scotland? David MILLAGAN had a friend James CROSBY whom, in one document, David describes as a long-term and very close friend, suggesting they perhaps knew each other BEFORE settling in Bucks. James CROSBY is described as a Scotch Lacebuyer on his marriage to Milicent DANIEL on 21 May 1700 in Bletchley, Bucks. He's a Linen Draper in other records and eventually a Grazier. Their only daughter Mary died a few days old in 1701 but James had an out of wedlock son Robert CROSBY (for whom he paid maintenance) with Jane COOKE in 1716. Milicent died c1720 and James in 1722. After James died, his friend David MILLAGAN was abducted and falsely imprisoned by James' heir, another James CROSBY of Saffron Walden, Essex, and others - the issue was a Bond for a loan of £50, details complicated but available to anyone interested. At the same time as all the above was happening, a Patrick HANNEY Lacebuyer was producing 10 children with two wives named Sarah and at some point settling in Buckingham - he died and left a Will there in 1693. An Andrew HANNEY, possibly a brother, had a son Andrew in Buckingham in 1697 but didn't stay around. Later Patrick's descendants were known as HANNAH. Patrick HANNEY's daughter Sarah married James MILLIGAN of Tingewick, Bucks on 23 Jul 1710 in Buckingham and this takes us round full loop because it may have been a first marriage for James MILLIGAN above who later settled at The Ram in Newport Pagnell. So all 3 MILLAGAN men (James, Andrew and David) were, it seems, imprisoned at some time in their lives and Robert, David's son, got into wrangles with officialdom at the toss of a hat. Were they rogues, were they 'warrior-type' Scotch-Irish, were they respectable puritans but persecuted and ostracised for being non-conformist and 'foreign', or none of the above? These are the questions I would like to answer. Can anyone help?