Connecting to Clan Montgomery

CONNECTING TO CLAN MONTGOMERY I grew up in a family of four girls - a middle child. My parents followed the Southern custom of naming their children for family members. My mother, Anna Withers Montgomery, had three sisters: Mary, Margaret, and Jane. My father, Carl Ruffin Pritchett had one sister: Dorothy. My two older sisters became Mary Anna and Peggy Jane. I became Dorothy Montgomery and my youngest sister became Elizabeth Withers. I loved my Montgomery middle name and felt part of a larger family -Clan Montgomery. Mama-Anna Withers Montgomery Pritchett-And Daughters Top: Mary Anna, Peggy Jane. Botton:Elizabeth Withers, Dorothy Montgomery Uncle, Hugh Reid Montgomery, often spoke about Clan Montgomery and was the Chaplain of Clan Montgomery Society International for many years. I loved seeing him wear his Montgomery tartan tie. His wife, Martha, wore a Montgomerytartan skirt, and sash to clan gatherings. They wore pins with the clan crest and Montgomery (also spelled Montgomerie in Scotland) motto: Gardez Bien (Look Well). The clan crestis rather gruesome – a woman holding an anchor in one hand and holding the hair of a savage’s head in the other hand. One source reasoned that the woman is considered a symbol of liberty, virtue, and victory of the weak over the strong in a just cause. The anchor is a symbol of good luck. Clan Montgomery Family Crest Clan Montgomery Tartan Designs 1 2 3 1. Montgomery Eglinton District Ancient Tartan Fabric 2. Clan Montgomery Scottish Tartan 3. Clan Montgomery Dress Scottish Tartan Clan Montgomery tartan colors are red, blue, green and black. Ancient clan members did not wear these particular tartans. More recent commercial enterprises determined the characteristics of a tartan to make money. Reid and Martha invited me to join them at a gathering of the clan in Stone Mountain, GA while I was living in Atlanta. This was the first time I participated in activities of Clan Montgomery. The clan celebrated Scottish games, a tattoo with drums and bagpipes, anda Robert Burns dinner. We tasted haggis, toasted Bobbie Burns, sang Ole Auld Syne and listened to bagpipe music. I joined the Montgomery Society International and was surprised to learn there are Montgomery societies in Australia, Canada, Scotland, Ireland, and across the United States. The Clan Montgomery I knew growing up was a fun-loving and caring group who gathered for family reunions at the Montgomery home at 203 Lawsonville Ave. in Reidsville, NC. There were always lots of aunts and uncles and their families who came together in the summer. We would sing in the back yard, eat Brunswick stew (which had cooked all night in a cast iron pot) and listen to stories. The Montgomery who seemed to be in charge of this clan was Aunt Mary (some cousins called her Mimi). She did not have children. She lived in the Reidsville home place and taught school across the street. She was a strong woman who exercised authority over all those who came to visit. My father laughed and said whenever he went to the Montgomery house in Reidsville, he lost all parental authority – Mary was in charge! I learned to appreciate her softer side when I went to Woman’s College in Greensboro, NC (now known at UNC at Greensboro). Mary had married Reuben King by this time and they often came to campus and took my roommate and me to dinner. They invited us to the Montgomery home for weekends which I loved because my parents lived in Bethesda, Maryland. I stayed at the Montgomery home one summer while attending summer school in Greensboro. I read that people who live in the South have a certain “sense of place.” Our personal identity includes speech, food, people around us, and the land where we live. The Lawsonville home in Reidsville always felt like the place where Montgomerys gathered. The Montgomery family followed the same southern tradition of naming children for relatives. My grandfather, Robert Scales Montgomery, had six boys: Bob, Dave, Jack, Alex, Peyton and Reid. In addition to the female names I mentioned earlier, these male Montgomery names continue to appear in many generations of this Montgomery family. My experience has been that Clan Montgomery of Reidsville supports one another in times of joy and sadness. We are scattered across the country but continue to gather together from time to time. I appreciate being part of a family where members respect one another and describe differences as, “That’s just the way they are.” When my mother told me about a tour of Clan Montgomery historical places Reid and Martha Montgomery had enjoyed, I decided I would like to make a similar journey one day. I was curious about the “sense of place” of the Scottish Montgomerys. In 2016 I decided to take a trip to Scotlandto learn more about the origins of Clan Montgomery. My sister, Elizabeth, agreed to join me. To prepare for the trip, I read about the history of the Montgomery family in a publication of the Clan Montgomery Society International and information from the Gaelic College Foundation in Nova Scotia which I found in my mother’s papers. Gomeric, a Viking Chieftain and son of Ingvar Ragnarson, the king of East Anglia and Northumberland ravaged Europe in the 9th century and settled in the Calvados of Normandy and fortified a hill which gave the family its name MONS GOMERICI Gomeric’s great great grandson, Roger de Montgomerie, commanded the right flank of the Norman army at Hastings and was rewarded with titles and wealth.He became the Earl of Chichester, Arundel and Shrewsbury. The first Montgomerys arrived in Ayrshire, Scotland around 1160, where they grew and prospered. They received the manor of Eaglesham, Renfrew. This remained in the family for 2 centuries. Roger’s descendant, Sir John 7th of Eaglesham, captured Henry Percy, nicknamed Hotspur, at the Battle of Otterburn in 1388. Sir John built the Castle of Polnoon, south of Eaglesham. Later there began a bloody feud between the Cunninghams and the Montgomeries which lasted for several generations. During this feud, the 4th Earl of Eglinton was murdered by Cunningham of Colonbeith. Eventually Colonbeith was chased to a house near Hamilton. He hid inside the chimney but was discovered and “cut to pieces on the spot.” During the Plantations of the 1600s, many Montgomerys left Scotland for Northern Ireland. They came first to County Down and then to various parts of County Donegal. They grew but not many prospered. They began the Scotch- Irish Montgomerys. Between 1700 and 1850, Montgomerys in the first wave came into the Philadelphia area. They left Ireland, Scotland, and England for economic and political reasons. In reviewing my mother’s Montgomery historical records, I found that Alexander Montgomery,ancestor of Robert Scales Montgomery, came from Dublin, Ireland around 1730. He first lived in Lancaster County, PA and later traveled south on an Indian trail to Amherst County, Virginia. Alexander had at least one brother and sister who came to Virginia with him. His brother Michael was killed in an Indian raid. Descendants of these Montgomerys live in North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Mississippi, Virginia, and Tennessee (and across the country)! Alexander and his wife Mary moved to Caswell County in North Carolina. Alexander Montgomery was one of the petitioners to the General Assembly in New Bern in 1777 and asked that Caswell County be formed out of northern Orange County. Mary’s will was probated in the county in 1791. Alexander and Mary had 8 children. One of their children, JamesMontgomery(1752-1838), married Rebecca Davis (1754- 1837) of Eastern Shore, Virginia. Their home site was on Rattlesnake Creek, Montgomery Road, Caswell County. They had 11 children. One child, David Montgomery (1793-1847), married Jane Watt (1825- 1854). One of their children, Robert Alexander, lived and was buried at the Greenwood home place on Narrow Gauge Road in Rockingham County. Reidsville, NC is located in Rockingham County. Alvis David Montgomery, a direct ancestor of the Robert Scales Montgomery family, was born September 28, 1835 in Caswell County. He became a captain in the Confederate Army and served as Adjutant to General Alfred Moore Scales. He owned and operated a store on the corner of Main and East Market Streets and traveled as a shoe manufacturer’s representative. He married Annie Elizabeth Scales Lawson, the widowed sister of Governor Scales. Alvis David Montgomery was an elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Reidsville, NC. Alvis David and Annie had 3 children: Robert Scales (1876-1937), Jane Watt (1878-1936), and Alvis Pinckney (1880-1933). Montgomerys came down the valley of Virginia as part of the “Scotch- Irish Tide.” They settled across the mountains to the South and Midwest. Montgomerys were mostly firm Presbyterians and developed a reputation for “keeping the Ten Commandments.” I smiled at the last notation because my mother told us how her father was very strict about “keeping the Sabbath” when she was a child – no card playing! Her sisters, Margaret and Jane sang in the choir at the First Presbyterian Church of Reidsville, NC. My grandfather, Robert Scales Montgomery, waswell known for his church work and followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather as an elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Reidsville. He taught Sunday School in the Smyrna, Wentworth, and Greenwood churches and was instrumental in the founding of Hillview Chapel. His son, Reid, became a Presbyterian minister. My mother, a Presbyterian home missionary in the 1920’s, became the wife of a Presbyterian minister. After doing this research, I had a general understanding of Clan Montgomery in Scotland and details of the Montgomerys journey to Reidsville, North Carolina.

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