"Aliases Part 2" Origins Roy, More, M’Lea, McUllie, Riach and Gow are recorded in OPR from at least the 1630s and Privy Council records show four McCollaes from Stratha’an and Glenlivet were put to the horn in 1615. This implies at least a 16th century origin for these patronymics, but their genesis and significance are as yet unexplained. For the Grants and Stuarts they may well denote kinship or affiliation to a particular local landholding family or descent from a historically important ancestor. However, for McPhersons, McIntoshes and Camerons in the gaelic - but non-highland - society east of Spey, patronymics more likely represent specific allegiances within the clan lands. With aliases well-established before 1746, any suggestion that they arose in the aftermath of Culloden is clearly unfounded. Paradoxically, however, the disruption caused by the ’45 may have accelerated the disappearance of patronymics. Of the 90 or so Glenlivet men in the ‘Lists of Rebels’, nearly a quarter were identified by patronymic alone and two others with an alias, yet six Stratha’an McGregors were ‘undisguised’, though still under proscription. (Remarkably, only half of the reputedly 500-strong Kirkmichael, Glenlivet and Glenrinnes contingent in Glenbucket’s Regiment were named in the ‘Lists of Rebels’ and not one of them was executed or transported - in contrast to the appalling penalties exacted on every other regiment of the Jacobite army.) The 1761 Summary of Glenlivet lists the Principal Tacksmen (i.e. senior tenants) and subtenants of the Glenlivet estate. Of course, the high social standing of the Principal Tacksmen meant that their only name-differentiation related to a land holding elsewhere, but six of the subtenants had an alias while many more were identified by patronymic only. Grant 3 alias 9 patronymic 26 total (+ 6 Principal Tacksmen) Stuart 3 alias 9 patronymic 19 total (+ 4 Principal Tacksmen) McPherson 0 alias 5 patronymic 8 total (no Principal Tacksman) Aliases & Patronymics in Summary of Glenlivet, 1761 Alias Period It is clear that until late in the 18th century, alias families were known and acknowledged simply by patronymic, although there would have been implicit community awareness of each specific ‘family’ descent line and its significance. While the first recording of aliases in Invera’an OPR may have been an officious entering of ‘full details’ by a parish clerk not fully conversant with that communal knowledge, the continuation of the practice looks rather like the early emergence of petty bureaucracy. With many patronymics increasingly subordinate to the generic family name by the end of the century, the Catholic Registers may indeed have been the final repository of fast fading communal knowledge. However there is evidence from an old account book and from aliases in Banff Sheriff Court Records that some patronymics were still in colloquial use as late as the 1820s. The account book of a Glenrinnes barley dealer (i.e. whisky smuggler!) records some Glenlivet clients as More and McLea, while a Glenrinnes man and his son were entered variably as McPherson or Garrow. All memory of aliases and patronymics has now been lost except for one 80 year-old who knows only a vague tradition that his Braes ancestors were ‘More’ Stuarts. Patronymics There are two main types of Upper Banffshire patronymic: (i) Genealogical - identifies the progenitor of the line: M’Lea, McRobie, McUllie, McInnes, McArthur, McAndy, McAllister, McPhail, McGurman, Gibbnach, McOmish*, McShewan*, McAdam*, McRitchie*, McGeorge* (Summary of Glenlivet), * possibly only short-duration by-names. These reflect the old-style “genealogical” naming in gaelic society that was still common in early 17th century Stratha’an. Examples from the Privy Council Register of 1613 are John Dow McConeill McEan Rowan (in Innerchebit), Patrick McGaw McEane Galt (in Torren) and Allester McEan Riauche McAgawne (in Fottirletter). (ii) Gaelic descriptive - of a kind usually found as a personal by-name: More [mor] - big Bain [ban] - fair Dow [dhu] - dark Darg [dearg] - red Roy [ruadh] - reddish Bowie [buidh] - yellow Garrow [garbh] - rough Riach [riabhach] - speckled, grizzled Gall, Galt, Gauld [geal, gall] - white, ‘foreigner’(incomer, lowlander) The 17th century examples above show Dow, Galt and Riach being used as personal by-names. Also of gaelic origin are Gow, from gobha, ‘a smith’, Kynach from Coinneach, ‘Kenneth’, and the as yet unexplained Doulle, Arrach and Jay. The McDonald alias of Couper and the Grant aliases of Turner, Miller and Tailzeor (Taylor) appear to be vocational, although the single record of the last suggests that it did not endure. As all Smiths in the RC records were alias Gow and virtually every adult male at that time was either a blacksmith or wright, this was perhaps the most vocational patronymic of all. The Glenlivet Priests The meticulous recording of aliases in the Glenlivet Catholic Baptism Registers was entirely due to Rev. James John Gordon, priest at Tombae from 1812 until 1842, and to Rev. William Dundas at Chapeltown from its opening in 1829 until his death from smallpox in December 1838. There is no obvious reason why the Glenlivet priests should have done so when Rev. Donald Carmichael in Tomintoul did not, especially as the aliases were by then in serious decline. Nor were any aliases recorded by Rev. Gordon’s temporary replacements in 1826 and 1837-8, or Rev. Robert Stuart, his Braes-born eventual successor. Rev. Gordon, a Deeside man and convert to Catholicism, had arrived in Glenlivet from Paisley on 11 October 1812 - perhaps as an incomer he felt impelled to preserve traditional information that was rapidly fading from folk memory. Catholics in the OPR Until emancipation, Catholics were obliged by law to marry in the Established Kirk if they were to preserve their civil and property rights. Thus, many Catholic marriages can be detected in the Invera’an OPR throughout the 18th century, although scarce from the mid-1770s on. Surprisingly however, when reviewing the OPR for aliases, entries were found for many known RC families from the Braes - albeit just a single baptism each. This Kirk baptism of their first-born may have been perceived as some protection against a vengeful Kirk Session and the known oppressiveness of the long-serving mid-century Minister. It was hoped that such single baptisms might be a good indicator of RC families - until they also proved to be very common in Protestant areas! An explanation may lie in the 1783 legislation which imposed a 3 pence duty for registering a baptism. Glenlivet RC Censuses There is now on microfilm in Elgin Library Glenlivet Status Animarum (‘State of Souls’), a recently ‘discovered’ manuscript volume whose existence was previously unknown outwith the RC Church. It contains an 1814 census of the entire Catholic community of Glenlivet and Glenrinnes that adds substantially to the information in the Baptism Registers. It also has partial censuses for 1822 and 1834, with a few notes on conversions and deaths. Unlike other Catholic congregations such as Tomintoul, where the status animarum is merely a closely-written, undifferentiated list of names that fills a page or two of the Baptism Register, those for Glenlivet are formally laid out like a national census. By farmtoun and croft, it lists the members of each Catholic household with their family relationships, often quoting ages but less frequently giving occupations. There are occasional insertions of a birth or death date, while for several families, the note “husband/wife Prot.” replaces a spouse name. A small manuscript book Chapeltown Obituaries is also on the microfilm. Summary of Glenlivet This large manuscript volume dated 1761 details the acreages of cornland and pasture for each major holding with its subdivisions and, more importantly, lists the Principal Tacksmen (i.e. main tenants) and the Subtenants of Subsetts (subdivisions of the main tack). The acreages are repeated in the 1774 folio Generall Plan of Glenlivet, a collection of plans showing the arable land and habitations on each of the six Daughs (or divisions) of the Glenlivet estate, with the shealing and peat casting areas identified. An additional ‘New Lands’ plan has vignettes of a dozen farmsteads which, though ostensibly ‘lately taken in to Corn land off the pasture’, from other evidence now appear to have been brought under cultivation around 1720. Gow Manuscript In 1873, John Gow alias Smith wrote this 66-page reminiscence of his life and the people he had known in his youth. Born on the farm of Easter Gaulrig, Braes of Stratha’an, early in the 19th century, he had walked to Dundee as a young man, found work and learnt to read and write, returning to Stratha’an in old age. An appendix to the manuscript listing the 300 or so people who had been living in the Braes of Stratha’an in his youth is now believed from other sources to relate to the 1820s. A page of the manuscript is reproduced in Gregor Willox The Warlock by Richard E McGregor (ANESFHS, 1995). The Sources and where to find them Tomintoul, Glenlivet RC Bapt. Registers - microfilm: Elgin Library, SRO Glenlivet RC Censuses 1814, 1822, 1834 and Chapeltown Obituaries - microfilm: Elgin Library only Gow MS Appendix (1873) - SRO; transcript: ANEFHS, Elgin Library Summary of Glenlivet (1761) - SRO; photocopy: Elgin Library; transcript (Tacksmen etc): ANEFHS Generall Plan of Glenlivet (1774) - SRO; photocopies (A0): Elgin Library redrawn (A4): ANEFHS, Elgin Library Account Books of Donald McPherson - Mr George McPherson, Boharm. Footnote This article is a DIY-reply to my still unanswered Journal query (57/18) two years ago, requesting information about these aliases.......... S Mitchell No. 3195