McEwings and McPhails of Kintyre and Ontario
Written by the late James McEwing (c1857-1950), and submitted by Allan McGillivray.
The McEwing and McPhail Families
The following is “An Historical Family Sketch” of the McEwings, McPhails and related families of Kintyre, Scotland and Ontario Canada. It was written by James McEwing, Queen Hill, Ontario, in 1938. Queen Hill is a rural area on the border between Bruce and Saugeen Townships in Bruce County, Ontario, and it was named after Queen Hill in Kintyre.
James McEwing was a native of Kintyre who had come with his parents to Ontario, Canada. He visited Kintyre in 1886. James died April 4, 1950, in his 94th year.
The following family sketch had been written a number of years ago, but in sending it with a member of my family to have it typed it became lost on the way, and rather than have my labor of former years completely lost, I am now going to try and reproduce as nearly as memory will enable me, the former sketch, in the writing of which I was assisted a good deal by my eldest sister, Mrs. Euphemia McIntyre, who is now in her 90th year, living in the city of Toronto.
In writing the following for my family, although at present it may seem but of little interest to any of them, possibly at some time in the future, there may be a few who will think it worth while to read these imperfect records of their relatives and ancestors. I have always regarded it as an evidence of true nobility when I notice members of a family manifest and cherish a spirit of kindness and loyalty to one another, and such families never fail to be a valuable asset to their community. Unselfishness and a willingness to help others is a splendid trait of character and it is well worth cultivating either in the individual or in the family.
In committing those records to paper, I can find no place for an apology, as I deem it a matter of much regret that there is not more being done along these lines, particularly in the day in which we live, when education is so common even among the working class.
Biography is a type of literature that is well fitted to exert a great deal of influence for good in the world, and many are the examples that history furnishes of men and women who have done great things in behalf of their fellow creatures in leaving the world better than they found it, and if you ask, in many cases they will tell you it was what they read or heard of what others who came before us have accomplished, and these may perchance have been some of their own forebears. The present Premier of Great Britain, Ramsay McDonald, is such an example.
In commencing these notes in connection with our family history, I need not say how much I regret my lack of data that would enable me to go back further than the sixth generation of the McEwings. All that I know of them, is that my great grandfather’s name was John McEwing. He lived in the peninsula in the south west of Scotland called Kintyre, which was once made famous as the hiding place of Robert Bruce from which he emerged to muster his brave Scottish warriors to meet the English foe at the famous Battle of Bannockburn, 1314.
As to the origin of our name – having been a visitor in Scotland in the winter of 1886, I learned from the very best authority that on the banks of the Clyde was our original home in the neighbourhood of Dunoon. We then went by the name of Ewing. However, a few generations before my grandfather’s time some of those people went south and located in Kintyre, and Gaelic being the spoken language in that district, they learned the Gaelic and got “Mc” prefixed to their name. The gentleman who gave me this information was the chief Factor of the Stonefield Estate, whose guest I had the honour to be one evening. He was one of the best informed men I ever had the privilege of meeting. Some years before that, he was sent by the British Government on a commission to investigate the possibilities of our Dominion for more emigration. He gave me as his authority on the above subject one of the Ewings, a young minister who was now about to leave Glasgow to engage in missionary work out in China; and incidentally, a few weeks before that, it was my privilege to be present along with my friend, Mrs. McNair, in the hall where the missionary was dedicated. Dr. Andrew Bonnar offered the dedicatory prayer, after his address to the missionary. The McNairs were telling me that his father was a man of considerable means, but it was reported that he disinherited his son because he went into the ministry.
James McEwing, my grandfather, after whom I am called, followed droving all his lifetime, but was also a tenant farmer as well. I heard it said he had one man as foreman for fourteen years. The class of cattle he handled was what in Canada is called stockers. His territory for buying was the Inner Hebrides, but sometimes he went as far north as Lewis. The cattle of course were delivered by boat at Glasgow, but driven on hoof to Sterling, which was the main market in those days for that class of cattle. When going to market with his last load of cattle, he took sick on the boat going up the Kyles of Bute, and was taken to a relative’s home at Dunoon, where in a short time he passed away. His remains were taken back to his farm home and from there were interred in the family plot at the Parish church at Clachan.
My grandmother McEwing’s maiden name was Sarah McMillan. She had a good deal of the responsibility of managing the home laid upon her as her husband was so much from home. She was said to be very liberal to the poor and needy, and as a result she had many callers of the vagrant class, but none were ever known to be turned away empty-handed.
Family training, in those days was a matter looked upon as a much more serious responsibility than unfortunately it is today. In my grandparent’s case, it showed its influence for good very early in their experience, as manifested by the exemplary life of the two eldest sons who, even in early youth were noted for their piety in the community in which they lived, and very early in life they both decided that they would devote their lives to the work of proclaiming to perishing sinners the dying love of a crucified but now exalted Redeemer.
But He who has the disposal of all events in His hand decreed otherwise, and those two young brothers named Donald and John were diligently pursuing their studies in Glasgow College in preparation for the ministry when they were seized with Typhus fever, a virulent disease that broke out as a very contagious epidemic in the city, at that time. There was but a week or ten days between their passing, and thus ended the earthly and brief career of two exceedingly promising young men. Their mortal remains were brought home to be deposited in the family plot at the old cemetery where dust mingles with dust until the resurrection day, when time shall be no more.
As to my great grandfather, I already said I only knew his name. My knowledge of my great grandmother is also very meager. I only know her second name, which was Thompson. In subsequent years, a number of her relatives lived in the Skipness district on the mainland opposite the island of Arran. A number of the Thompsons emigrated to what is now the Province of Ontario. There used to reside in Paisley, Ontario, a man named Edward Thompson, who had a sister, Mrs. John McNeil, living on the Elora Road north of Paisley. Her husband was locally known as “Cariboo” McNeil, having participated in the gold rush of the early 60’s when gold was discovered in that part of British Columbia. They had two sons who were noted scholars in the Baptist Church, and the eldest, John, who died about a year ago, was head of the McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
A member of the Thompson families also settled in Dunwich Township, Elgin County, and others in the Hillsburgh district in Wellington County. My great grandfather’s family were eight in number, consisting of seven daughters and a son, which later was my grandfather, who always lived, and also died in his native land, but all the sisters emigrated to Canada with their husbands. The eldest, whose name I cannot recall, was the first to come across the sea. She and her husband located in a Scottish settlement not far from Montreal. Of her descendants I have heard but little, except their names, Sarah, Mary, Catherine, Christina, Flora, and Margaret. These, Father’s aunts, came to Upper Canada. When one remembers that in those days (120 years ago), there were very few conveniences to be enjoyed, and the postal system was expensive and unsatisfactory on account of the bad roads and the primitive means that had to be employed in moving from one place to another, it is readily understood that relatives living long distances apart could easily lose track of each other. But, I know there were two sisters of that family married to husbands named McCallum. There was another whose name was McDonald, another McVannel, another Hyndman and another Wilkie.
I believe, if my memory is not at fault, my grandfather began on his own hook as a tenant in the northern part of the county in South Knapdale, Scotland. The name of the farm was “Crear.” I passed it one evening, during my visit to the homeland, but did not have the time to go in, although I would very much like to have had the pleasure of inspecting it, as I heard a good deal about it in my early days. The steading and large unbroken fields with such conveniences as lanes and iron gates would indicate that it was a very well equipped farm. The length of leases in Scotland in those days was nineteen years, and perhaps is still so. Grandfather had a foreman at that time by the name of James Smith, who was in his employ in that capacity for fourteen years. I many a time heard remarks commending his faithfulness and abilities, as a manager of an up-to-date farm.
I was invited one evening while in Tarbert, to visit a daughter of Mr. Smith, a Mrs. McLauchlan, wife of the Tarbert Blacksmith, and they both were unsparing in their efforts of kindness to make me feel at home while visiting with them. He hitched up a horse and gig and he said he was going to take me to one of the most beautiful sights in all Scotland. We arrived in Skipness a little before sun set and it really was a sight that lives in my memory to this day.
I think it was when his lease expired in “Crear” that my grandfather came south and rented a farm in the Clachan district called “loop.” One gets a real good view of the farm on board the Islay steamer going to Tarbert. It belonged to the Stonefield Estate, and the Factor who was in charge was a man called Dougald Sinclair, reputed to be a very stern and autocratic official, of whom many of the tenants stood very much in dread.
My grandfather’s family at this time consisted of two sons and three daughters: James, Dougald, Annie, Christina and Sarah. There was a family called McMurchie who were tenants on a farm called “Stewartfield” belonging to the Pollock Estate. The McMurchies were anxious to emigrate to Canada, so they transferred the farm over to Grandfather to finish their term, as there was two years to run of their lease. So my father and his eldest sister, Annie, were put in charge of “Stewartfield” for the unexpired term of two years. It was very conveniently situated near the little village of Clachan. The parish school teacher, who was a single man named Rankin, boarded with them, but in a short time Aunt Annie married a young man named Duncan Campbell, and as my father was not enamored with a bachelor’s life, he resolved to get married also to the girl of his choice, so they remained in “Stewartfield” a year and a half longer, and it was there my brother Donald was born.
On leaving “Stewartfield” my father rented a small farm on the opposite side of the village, called “Auchavalie.” In size it would be about seventy-five acres, and it was while occupying this farm that my sisters, Euphemia and Sarah, and my brothers John and Archie and also myself were born. Euphemia was called after her grandmother McPail, and Sarah was named after her grandmother McEwing. Donald and John were called after their two uncles, to whom I have already referred, Archie was called after his grandfather McPhail, and I was called after my grandfather McEwing.
It was only a few years after this that my grandfather McEwing died, but I think they still held the “Loop” farm as long as Grandmother lived. Uncle Dougald never married. He went to New Zealand. The youngest daughter, Aunt Sarah, married Donald Kerr and they went to live in Knapdale on a farm called “Balimore.” It was a cattle and sheep ranch. From this union there was a family of four sons and three daughters: James, Dan, John, Colin, Sarah, Margaret and Annie. The two eldest sons were in New Zealand the last I heard of them, and the youngest had died since I visited Scotland in 1886. The youngest daughter married a man named McMillan, and the last I heard of them, their home was in Lochgilphead. John and his two youngest sisters were still tenants on the same farm, only they rented an adjoining farm named “Fernock” on which they lived.
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Page 3: McEwings and McPhails of Kintyre and Ontario
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