Here is a couple of passages I found on the origin of my line John Steill He was eldest son of James Steill of Liquo, who purchased a portion of the lands of Stane towards the end of the 17th Cent. On 12 May 1710 James Steill resigned Stane, Stanebent and Knowton, to John Steill younger of Liquo, his eldest son. The property of Liquo was left to his second son, William, whose descendants still possess it. J. Steill died January 7, 1745. He was succeeded in the property by his son, James, whose son John Steil possessed the same lands and died in February 1833. (Traditional Account) Regarding the origin of the family: - Early 1600, an ancestor, J. Steill, had fled from Ireland at the date of a rising of the Papists against the Protestants, towards the middle of the 17th Cent - probably on the occasion of the "horrid massacre" in 1641 . He found employment as a ploughman at or near Allanton . (later) .. a woman travelling with seven children were accommodated in the barn and he learned that this was his wife. Margaret McMullen was the woman travelling with his seven children. Shortly after, he fled for his life, his wife and children with other Protestant families had been shut up in a barn for burning. Because of the supposed leniency of the guard due to the crying children, she found a way to escape and travelled to Allanton. On the lands of Allanton, about Redmyre, they spent the residue of their days in peace, and slept in the churchyard of Shotts. Their descendants on the banks of the Calder have long become two bands, I may say three, for the Steels of Summerside, on the Auchter, are a collateral branch of the same family. Alex www.shottshistorygroup.co.uk personal page http://web.ukonline.co.uk/scotlandgenealogy/index.htm