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"John MacIntosh was one of the Highlanders recruited by James Wolfe, when he was a young major at Fort Augustus - near Inverness - in charge of keeping peace among the clansmen after the battle of Culloden. John fought under Gen. Wolfe at Quebec (1759) & lost a leg. He returned to Scotland, married Euphemia, & sired eight children. He never came to Canada again, but after his death, his widow & the eight grown children came to Canada to settle. She was the first white woman buried in what was known as the MacIntosh Burying Ground, near Buctouche, N.B.
"They had been granted lands on the Ottawa River, but when their ship reached Quebec & later Montreal, the Indians were very war-like. Travel was all by trail or canoe, & the Indians were ambushing canoe travellers from the banks of the rivers. The family stayed in Quebec two years, and were influential enough to have their grants changed to a new location in Kent Co., N.B. The first house was built near Grandpa MacIntosh's old home at Black River. Their grant was 500 acres[1] of land and forest."[2]
Thus wrote Deedie Meservey in 1950, recording three generations of family lore about the MacIntoshes of Black River, Kent County. The tradition she recorded says John was a native of Inverness, Scotland. Documentary evidence seems to be more precisely that the family were emigrants from Glenelg Parish of Inverness-shire.
To have been wounded at Quebec in 1759, John could not have been born much later than about 1740 -- maybe 1743 at the latest. His youngest child is believed to be Norman, born 1793, so it seems unlikely that John was born a great deal earlier than 1740, either. One isolated source says he died in 1802.[3]
Euphemia was likely a little younger, but we have no further information on her birth. Her surname may have been Stuart. She is believed to have died in 1829.[3]
John and Euphemia's children were:
A Norman McNeil and a John Morrison were given land grants neighbouring those of Donald and David MacIntosh in 1821. It seems likely that Ann and Flora MacIntosh married into these families. I've found two interesting census entries which might pertain. The first is Flora Morrison, age 73 in the 1861 census of Wellington parish, a lodger in the household of Malcolm and Catherine Morrison. The term "lodger" in the 1861 census seems to have been used as a catchall term including elderly relatives such as mothers-in-law. Is this Flora the sister of David and Donald MacIntosh?
The other is Ann McNeil, age 84 in 1861, in the household of Finley and Euphemia McNeil. Could she be the other sister?
I would welcome communication from any descendant of these families either refuting or supporting these hypotheses.
[1]
In fact, David, Donald and Finlay received grants
of about 300 acres each.
[2]
Deedie Meservey, typescript ca. 1950.
The family tradition documented here is our sole source for the theory
that the eight immigrants listed above were all siblings.
[3]
From Jack Harper's genealogical notes and papers, copies of
which were kindly sent me by Jayne Gratrix.
Jack Harper apparently submitted this information to
Donald Whyte's "A Dictionary of Scottish Emigrants to Canada Before
Confederation", where it appears in Vol. II, p.359, entry #10382.
I've been unable to either trace a source or independently verify Euphemia's
surname, or John's or Euphemia's death dates.
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This page last updated 2006 May 12.