A. I. B. Stewart.
Hector
MacNeill, 1746—1818, poet and author distinguished by an entry in the Dictionary
of Rational Biography, is one of at least eight MacNeills in that August
company who were descended from Lachlan MacBeill Buidhe of Tirfergus.
His father, Captain John McNeill (not James as stated in D.N.B.) was the third son of Hector McNeil of Losset who was the fifth son, and first by his second marriage to Margaret McAllister, of old Lachlan. Like his eldest brother Dougald, who was one of the leaders of the 1739 emigration to Carolina, John started off his military career in the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards The brothers are mentioned in the letter reproduced as Appendix B to MacNeill of Carskey's Estate Journal.
On leaving the army he got a post in the Customs and in 1736 when his wife, Christian, served as heir to her uncle Colonel Francis Farquhar of Murray Farquhar he was Collector at Fort William , but he rejoined the army and became a Captain in Lord John Murray's Regiment as the Black Watch was then known.
He acquired a small property at Roslin where Hector was born in 1746 and apparently owing to guaranteeing a worthless friend he lost practically all his money and so could not give young Hector the education to which his talents so obviously entitled him.
Hector wrote such popular songs as "My boy Tammie" and "Come under my Plaidie" but he acquired the sobriquet 'The Harp" from a lengthy poem of that name in the heroic manner.
About 1760 his father's cousin and his namesake Captain Hector McNeal, son of Lachlan's fourth son Torquil and brother of "Baron' Neal McNeal of Ugadale offered to train him for a business career. Captain Hector had settled in Bristol after an adventumous life trading as a merchant venturer between Bristol, Boston, the West Indies and the African Coast. His wife, Elizabeth Campbell, daughter of a Boston merchant, Cuthbert Campbell, who was probably a Campbeltown man had recently died. He had two children, Betsy, who ran his house and Neil, who looked after his interests in the West Indies.
In a volume published in 1800 under the title of 'The Memoirs of Charles MacPherson Esq" Hector tells of his reception in Bristol. In the narrative , just as he disguises his own identity in the title he gives his cousin, Betsy, the pseudonym of 'Patty.' lt must be regretted that he did not write more because in the following incident and his later descriptions of life on a slave owning plantation and in the navy he gives evidence of a keen observation and a gift of description.
His story of his introduction to life in the south runs as follows: "On my arrival, I was sensibly struck with a change of scene very opposite to what I had formerly experienced. My cousin's house was situated in one of the fashionable parts of the town, and fitted up in style, not only handsome, but elegant. The whole displayed taste joined to the utmost neatness; and such were the extraordinary attentions paid to cleanliness, scrubbing, waxing, and hard rubbing, that I got several falls in the rooms and passages, before I was forty-eight hours in the house. As for the stairs I was positively prohibited ascending them with my shoes on the very day after my arrival: but I shall defer all farther description of the house till I give an account of its inhabitants.
My cousin had early in life, by a steady and judicious prosecution of his profession, acquired, in the course of between twenty and thirty years, a genteel competency which enabled him to live in ease and affluence at home on the fruits of his former industry. He had been for a number of years engaged in the Guinea trade;but the principal source of his wealth had flowed from his West India connections. During the latter part of his nautical operations, he had become chief owner of a large ship in the Bristol trade; and opening store-houses in the different West India islands to which he sailed, he had not only gained considerably traffic, but had necessarily become acquainted with the leading men in these islands; with some of whom he had established regular freights for his ships, and fixed himself as agent for them at home. It was in this last employment he was engaged on my arrival in Bristol; and although he had a variety of concerns in different vessels in the West India trade, he had for some years retired from the fatigues of a sea life, and sending his son out to St. Christopher's to supply his presence there, contented himself with the business he had to transact at home, which was little more than an amusement. Although an intercourse with men of fortune and fashion had considerably smoothed the roughness of the seaman, a good deal of it still remained. He was, moreover, independent of every thing annexed to profession; a man naturally blunt and sincere; warm in his friendships, and positive in his determinations. Though possessed of a large share of a philanthropy and good nature, he was not only hot but ungovernable in his anger; and although few men had a better heart, or a sounder undenstanding, he was frequently unreasonable in his passions, and altogether ridiculous during their influence. He had some years before my arrival buried his wife, with whom it was said he enjoyed but little harmony; and he now lived with a daughter, a young lady of about eighteen, who, with his son in the West Indies, were the only fruits of his marriage.
Miss Patty was her father's favourite, and indeed possessed the arts of wheedling, coaxing, and leading the old gentleman in no inferior degree. She had been the chief agent in watching and detecting her mother's tippling operations, which was one of the principal sources of misunderstanding between husband and wife; and as Miss had various conversations with her father on the subject, and was also a means of conveying interesting intelligence to her mother relative to the old gentleman's amours, she became a mutual confident, peacemaker, and adviser in the family; which could not fail to enhance her consequence with both parties. Add to this that Miss Patty possessed a large portion of cunning; and with a spirit bold, haughty, and over bearing, could at any time affect the meekness and gentleness of a lamb. Indeed it was so far lucky for her, that this suppleness and disguise could be assumed at pleasure; for the strange whims and whirlwinds of the old gentleman's temper certainly required some such subterfuge. One of his invariable practices, was to repair to certain clubs every evening, where, he dedicated his convivial hours to his West India friends and connections, from whom he seldom parted till very late hours, and generally as happy as rum punch could make him. On rapping furiously at the door, his constant rule was to knock down, if possible., the person who opened it; no matter whom the porter was; servant, wife or daughter, were sure to share the same fate: and notwithstanding a most contrite repentence next morning, the same practice was repeated the succeeding night. 'Tis true, the danger was easily evaded; for, like those animals of prey who seem to lose all their ferocity after the first or second unsuccessful bound, my cousin, on lifting up his gold-headed cane and striking hard, with accompanying grunts, once or twice against the pavement, seemed as well satisfied, and as highly delighted with the attempt, as if he had actually knocked down a servant, a daughter, or a wife, at every stroke.
Another whim from which he never deviated,
was, that at whatever time of night he returned home, no mortal, whether
domestic, friend or stranger, were suffered to retire to rest before his
arrival. This was a kind of night watch which he established in his house,
in imitation of that formerly kept on board ship; and indeed, in general,
his house may be said tn have been governed by rules equally strict, and
delivered in a tone equally arbitrary, as if it had been the ELIZABETH.
It may well be supposed that I could not have dreamed of such uncommon
practices; and Miss Patty, who possessed little gentleness or humanity
of disposition, and who wished to break some jokes on the simplicity
of one who had seen nothing but regularity and decorum in his father's
house, studiously kept me ignorant of the secret. The very night after
my arrival, I was suffered to go to bed early; and about one o'clock in
the morning was roused from a profound sleep by one of the maids; who told
me, in seeming terror, that the Captain was in a
violent rage at my having gone to bed, and had ordered
me to get up and appear before him instantly. Amazed at this inexplicable
summons I hurried down to the parlour, and found the old gentleman in a
melancholy state of intoxication, and Miss Patty enjoying the fruits of
her admirable invention.
On my entrance, I was accosted in the following terms: "Come here, Sir! Why, you d—d young dog, how dare you go to bed before I come home? — Eh! what? do you think you are in your father's house in the country where, because they have nothing else to amuse them, everybody goes, stupidly to snore at ten o' clock, Eh! D--m, my blood, Sir, if ever you presume to go to bed before I come home, were it six in the morning, I'll have you tied up, you young dog! — I will — Aye In return to this speech (the first of the kind I had ever heard), I asked pardon, pleading total ignorance of his regulations, and promised rigidly to observe them in future. All this time Miss Patty continued laughing immoderately at my confusion, astonished looks, and Scotch accent; while the father, drunk as he was, discovered the trick, and relaxed in his severity. "So you were not told that I should be angry at your going to bed before I came home? —Eh?" "No indeed, Sir (said I), otherwise I should never have gone." "Why, you little b—! How come you not to tell him? Eh!" "Lord, Papa! I did tell him but the boy was so sleepy and stupid, he could attend to nothing." "Pardon me, Madam (said I) you never mentioned any such thing. On the contrary you asked me if I choose to go to bed before I thought of it." "What, Sir (said Miss, colouring with shame and resentment), do you dare to contradict me to my face?" "I have always been taught, Ma'am, to speak the truth, and vindicate myself when I am unjustly accused — I am doing nothing more at present." "Why here is. a pretty fellow truly! A Scotch boy to give himself such airs! But you must learn better manners in this house., Sir." "That by G—d? he must not (said the old gentleman firmly) the boy talks as he ought to do so, and I like his spirit. Do you go to bed, Miss Pert, and do you sit down, boy. I want to talk to you." Miss went off with a toss of the head, muttering something about Scotch pride, and Scotch poverty; and I continued above an hour in conversation with the old gentleman, who asked me a number of questions relative to my Father's family, presenting me with some pears, which, in the course of his rolls and tumbles, he had bruised to pieces in his pockets.
No 20 Autumn 1986
Page 2: Janet and Marie Morrison's 1999 Trip to Scotland - The Final Part
Page 3: The Ralston Correspondence - Part One
Page 4: Bits and Bobs / Genealogical Queries
Page 5: Heather McFarlane's Page - The Will of Miss Lucy Campbell
Page 6: Campbeltown's New Library & Museum, 1899
Page 7: Aurora Borealis / Distribution and Breeding of the Barn Owl in Kintyre 1995-1998
Page 8: By Hill and Shore - Part One