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General => Armed Forces => Topic started by: MJHS1 on Tuesday 05 January 21 10:57 GMT (UK)
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I'm trying to identify the ancestry of Lt (Angus) John MacDonald HEICS (1737-1810). He was reputedly in the army for 17 years and served with distinction in India fighting against Hyde Ali and Tippo Sahib. He was subsequently appointed Controller of Customs in Ullapool. I thought that he should be listed in the ‘Alphabetical List of the Officers of the Bengal Army With the Dates of Their Respective Promotion, Retirement, Resignation, Or Death, Whether in India Or in Europe, from the Year 1760 to the Year 1834 Inclusive, Corrected to September 30, 1837’
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Alphabetical_List_of_the_Officers_of_the/kMOEAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1 but I can’t find him. Most of the John MacDonalds were killed and the one Lieutenant that I found showing ‘Retired July 30 1800 Half Pay’ (Engineer) went on to be a Lt Colonel. I have also checked Angus MacDonalds to no avail. Can anyone please tell me whether all HEICS officers should be listed in this document and, if not, where else I could look? I should like to find out in which regiment he originally served, to help establish his origins.
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There's a similar publication for officers of the Madras Army https://tinyurl.com/y32bo5l2
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Thank you, Shaun. Very helpful. I'll take a look. Kind regards Mike
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There is a suggestion here https://sites.google.com/view/highland-roots/2-john-macdonald?authuser=0 that he may not have been an officer
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How would finding his original regiment help you establish his origins ?
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Hi Shaun, That is my own website! I've just located a marriage certificate for his daughter, Jessie, which states that he was a Lieutenant. I was hoping that by identifying his original regiment that I might glean some idea as to where he was recruited (ie if he was in the 78th Regiment, he probably originated in MacKenzie territory). I have found a bunch of MacDonalds who were HEICS and wondered if he could have been related to them. https://www.clanmacfarlanegenealogy.info/genealogy/TNGWebsite/familychart.php?familyID=F14643&tree=CC . I can't find him listed in the Madras Army list either, which is strange.
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As far as I'm aware the armies of the Honourable East India Company were organised on "European" and "Native" lines. I don't think they had Scottish Regiments.
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Excuse my ignorance. How did a soldier become HEICS? I had assumed that they transferred from a regular British Army regiment.
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Until the late 1850's the HEIC army was entirely separate from the British Army and did its own recruiting in the UK for service in India.
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Thank you, Shaun. That is very interesting. Am I right in thinking that the Bengal and Madras Army lists would, therefore, not include HEICS Officers? I see that the HEICS Cadet Registers are kept at the National Archives, so think that I shall have to try to pay them a visit.
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Am I right in thinking that the Bengal and Madras Army lists would, therefore, not include HEICS Officers?
No! They are specifically lists of HEICS Officers.
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Ah! Thank you. That makes it even more surprising that he doesn't appear to be listed.
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Well perhaps, as you surmised, he was just an NCO and not an officer in HEICS.
I haven't been able to find a record of him of as Comptroller Of Customs in Ullapool. I have seen his gravestone inscription which says that he was "of the Customs Ullapool", and I have seen a reference to the post of Comptroller being created in the 1780's to enhance the Customs team there.
This record of a court case in 1831 suggests that the Comptroller in Ullapool circa 1800 was a Mackenzie:
https://tinyurl.com/y2sc49kp
Have you had a chance to research him in the Customs records at NRS ? https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/guides/customs-and-excise-records
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He was reputedly in the army for 17 years and served with distinction in India fighting against Hyde Ali and Tippo Sahib
If he enlisted at age 17 and served for 17 years he would have been out of HEICS circa 1771. This would be the right time frame for Hyder Ali but a little early for fighting Tippoo (born 1750).
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Thank you, Shaun, for you further input.
It was only a reference that I had recently found in the Celtic Magazine https://archive.org/details/celticmagazine06unkngoog/page/n343/mode/2up?q=Lerigan to Jessie MacDonald's father being Lieutenant John MacDonald that made me think that he was an officer. I'll have another look at her marriage records to see if his rank is mentioned.
I must confess that I am not sure that I have seen a specific reference to John McD being Controller/Comptroller of Customs. I was relying on family reports. I think that I have only come across 'of Customs' or 'Customhouse' http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~coigach/genealogy/articles/18251125ij.htm
I had come across the reference to Jane MacKenzie's father being Comptroller of Customs in the Dundonnell Cause proceedings. I thought that he must have been Comptroller prior to John McD.
I didn't know that there were Customs records at NRS, so will definitely try to look at them. I had tried to find them at Kew and the Highland Archive Centre. I had also tried to visit the Border Force National Museum library in Liverpool but it was, unfortunately, closed at the time.
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According to http://www.ancestryresearchservice.com/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I9840&tree=cameron1 Jessie MacDonald was born in 1815 so she couldn't be the daughter of John MacDonald of Ullapool Customs who died in 1810 aged 73.
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Oh! That's a bit fundamental and rather embarassing. Well spotted. I remember that we came across some suggestion that there was an older and a younger John MacDonald living at the Customhouse (it might have been in one of the militia lists), so we may have missed a generation somewhere. I'll have to go back and look at our references again. Thank you for pointing it out.
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Then there is the question of whether that grave inscription says 1810 or 1830. FindMyPast has both.
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=SCOT%2FHIGH%2FFHS-MIS%2F014724
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=PRS%2FSCOTLAND%2FMI%2FADD%2F5%2F00452599
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That's interesting. I'm not currently subscribed to Find My Past but may have to rejoin. I vaguely remember that there was some confusion about the date of his death but I had assumed that the transcription of the grave inscription was correct. The family tree in the MacDonald family book actually shows 'Angus John MacDonald (1757-1830)' but I don't know the source of their information.