MacDonald alias MacNeils in Boleskine OPRs what does this mean?

[TropiConsul]

Thank you for your well considered reply.  I was using Anglican in a generic sense.  I am aware that the Episcopacy of the Episcopal Church in the USA derives from the Scottish Episcopal Church by reason of the fact that the clergy of the Church of England were required to swear an oath of loyalty to the king.  I have done a fair amount of research into the history of the Episcopal Church in New York and Scotland because it plays a prominent part in my McDonald family history.  At the Sprague Project website you will find that Daniel McDonald , D.S.T., D.D. (1785-1830) was the first president of Hobart College.

"History of Ontario County New York" (compiled by Lewis Cass Aldridge, 1893) provides:  " The movement for the establishment in the State of New York, at some point west of Albany, of a college of liberal culture under Episcopal auspices first found expression in a resolution adopted, upon the suggestion of the originator of the movement, the Rev. Amos G. Baldwin, by the trustees of Fairfield Academy, April 10, 1812, petitioning Trinity church, New York, for a grant of funds to that end. This petition was not favorably received, but in the following year, acting upon another petition suggested by the Rev. Mr. Baldwin, the corporation of Trinity church founded in connection with the Fairfield Academy a Theological School. In 1818, however, Bishop Hobart, recognizing the importance, if not necessity, of having in the western portion of his great diocese a school of liberal culture, as well as a theological school, communicated to friends in Geneva his plan to transfer the Theological School from Fairfield to Geneva in connection with a “college and printing press,” to be established there. In 1821 the transfer was made, the principal of the Theological School then being the Rev. Daniel McDonald, D.D, the steadfast coadjutor of Bishop Hobart in this educational movement."

Daniel is my 3rd great-grandfather and the great-grandson of Col. Lewis McDonald of Bedford, New York.  Trinity Church in New York City is where many of the McDonalds are buried, including Alexander Lewis McDonald (1772-1865), husband of Elizabeth de Hart Bleecker.  He served as Commisioner of Deeds and is interred in the Anthony Lispenard Bleecker vault.   Anthony also was involved in New York's historic Trinity Episcopal Church, situated across from Wall St.  He became a vestryman there in 1785. He served until 1807 when he became a warden for five years. He purchased the family vault in its churchyard in 1790 where Bleecker family burials took place well into the 20th Century.

[Skoosh]

Folks, Highland gentry who were Catholics were barred from posts in Government or the army, so the Episcopal church became the likely refuge, once restrictions on that church were lifted.
 There were Catholics left in pockets in the Highlands, the Cromdale area was one of these. Strathspey applies to Speyside below Aviemore, higher up it becomes Badenoch.   Skoosh.

[TropiConsul]

Thank you, Skoosh, cabrach and, others for your interest in this topic.  I believe we can have a lively discussion on this issue.  My situation is that I am located in Texas and I have no access to materials in Scotland other than those published on Scotland's People.   OPR materials for this era in Inverness are minimal.  I have documentation for the descendants of Lewis McDonald but only inferences for his origins in Scotland.  However, it seems to me that his arrival in New York in 1730 at the age of 21 with a substantial amount of cash, and no indicatation of mercantile activity presumes that he was a scion of a propertied family and that he may have had reason to avoid the notice of officialdom in the colony.  Cash money was extremely scarce in the colonies and in Scotland.  His father may have been attainted in the 1715 rebellion.  We know that Lewis was an Episcopalian and that the members of that church were to be found among the peers and landed gentry of Scotland and that they were, with the Roman Catholics, supporters of the Jacobite cause.  Col. Lewis appears to have never been estranged from his eldest son who was ejected from Westchester county for Loyalist sympathies. 

Title: Recantation of Lewis McDonald,of Bedford, Westchester County, New-York
Citation: American Archives Series 4, Volume 4, Page 0247
Author/Presenter: McDonald, Lewis, Jr.
Type: Deposition
Date Presented: 1775-12-12
Where Presented: Stamford, Connecticut, North America
Date Composed: 1775-12-12
Where Written: Stamford, Connecticut, North America
Document ID: S4-V4-P01-sp06-D0230
RECANTATION OF LEWIS McDONALD.
I, Lewis McDonald, Jun., of Bedford, Westchester County, in the Province of New York, having lately taken the office of Justice of the Peace, under the Ministerial party in this Province, in which I have endeavoured to support their measures, and also violently opposed the military preparations made in consequence of the directions of the honourable Continental Congress, and in many instances have, both in principle and practice been inimical to the liberty and rights of America; for the whole of which conduct I am sincerely sorry, and ask the forgiveness of this Committee, and all the inhabitants of my bleeding country, whom I have injured by my misconduct, either by my private conduct, or in the execution of my office of justice of the peace; and promise that I will suspend acting in that office without the consent of the Committee of the town of Bedford. Which above confession and promise I freely set my hand unto, in Stamford, in Connecticut, desiring the same to be published in one of the New-York papers.
Lewis McDonald
December 12, 1775.

Early Connecticut marriages as found on ancient church records --
STAMFORD, FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Connecticut (See Book IV)   -- While Episcopal services were held in Stamford as early as 1726-7, the records of St John's Episcopal Church begin April 15, 1754. The Rev Ebenezer Dibble DD was rector from 1747 to 1797. Among the marriages recorded: 
Lewis McDonald, late of Bedford, residing in Greenwich, & Clay Feris of Greenwich Feb. 14, 1788

Laws of the state of New York: passed at the sessions of the Legislature--  AN ACT to allow Lewis McDonald to return to and remain within this State.
Passed the 29th of January, 1789-- Preamble. Whereas it has been represented to the legislature by the petition of Lewis McDonald that he the said Lewis McDonald is desirous of having permission to return to this State. Therefore, Be it enacted by the People of the State of New York represented in Senate and Assemblyand it is hereby enacted by the same That the Same Lewis McDonald is  is hereby permitted to return to and remain within this State unmolested any law to the contrary notwithstanding.

[cabrach]

Afraid the fallout from the '15 is not my area.  I'm more connected to the McDonald peasantry.  However, I have passed this on to a man who might know.

[TropiConsul]

My Campbell ancestors are all journeymen or peasants.  Fortunately the OPR for Dull in Perthshire is fairly complete and I can track them back to the early 1700's.

[TropiConsul]

Here is another example of an alias that I find difficult to explain.  Kiar is a surname that is very rare in the OPR.  I have "Alexr McDonald alias Kiar in Dalnamein & Christian Robertson in Dalinturuaine" [Blair Atholl, Perthshire]
on a marriage document of 12 Oct 1734. 

I have also found Margaret Kiar baptized Dec 1728 to 'Donald Kiar or Grant' and Jannet Grant in the  parish of Cromdale and Inverallan of Inverness/Moray.  I have not yet discovered a Grant in my family tree, but I have read that they are thick on the ground in Cromdale where they may have had some association with a McDonald alias McInab who is a possible ancestor.

Here's a pretty kettle of fish.  Have you any thoughts?

[Skoosh]

TC,  Ciar is descriptive of a family, means dark, like Ban means fair!      Skoosh

[JohnXXIII]

I have had a DNA test and find my closest matches include 7 MacNeils out of 20 matches at that level.  These matches are distorted by very uneven participation from various clans.  The MacNeils are particular well represented while the MacKintoshs are poorly represented.   Putting that to one side it is a strange result for a Glenurquhart MacKintosh.   I have a discontinuity in the family records from when my GGGrandfather lived in Skye and the reason may lie there.  I wondered if there was a MacNeil connection to the Urquhart / Fort Augustus area though.  I think the castle was garrisoned by Ilsemen in earlier times.  I found a reference to the chief of MacKintosh owning land across the river from Lewiston at one stage.  I presume that is the area called Borlum.  I guess that is why there are a group of MacKintosh families in the Glenurquhart area. 

I realise from the above discussion no-one has a definite historical theory to the MacNeil alias but I hoped to keep the thread going in case a theory emerges.
Cheers
John Mc alias JohnXXIII

[TropiConsul]

Perhaps we need to start a new thread on the subject of “Scottish nicknames or aliases and what they can teach us. “  I find the subject fascinating.  The problem is that we lack the context that would inform our generation how families and individuals were identified and regarded within their communities.  Oral tradition might provide the answers, but too often the oral tradition has been lost in diaspora or compromised by poor interpretation.  You only need to consider the possible origins of the Campbell surname which has been translated from the Gaelic as meaning “wry mouth” or “crooked lip”.  It could be that this prominent war-leader of the clan had a physical deformity, or reacted to too much salt in his porridge, or was perpetually constipated or discontent.  The more likely explanation is that the clan’s war-leader was contemptuous of his enemies and featured a sneer  that stretched from his lip to his ear.  The last possibility seems to me the more likely one to be recorded honorably for posterity. 
I am reminded of the Sioux tribal leader whose name has come down to us as Young-Man-Afraid-Of-His-Horses [Tȟašúŋke Kȟokípȟapi] (1830–1900).   The name does not seem to indicate a prodigious warrier, but in the original language it identifies him as the son of a warrior who so terrified his opponents that they fled in terror at the sight of his painted ponies.