John Inverary Mcphee by Bernie P Mcphee
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Coming to Australia: Killiechonate to Geelong The Story of John Inverary McPhee by Bernie P McPhee Coming to Australia: Killiechonate to Geelong The Story of John Inverary McPhee by Bernie P McPhee Designed in August 2013 by Blue Vapours Printed in Australia For further information contact Bernie: [email protected] [email protected] © 2013. Apart from any fair dealing permitted according to the provisions of the Copyright Act, reproduction by any process of any parts of any work may not be undertaken without written permission from the author. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: McPhee, Bernie P Coming to Australia: Killiechonate to Geelong The story of John Inverary McPhee ISBN 978-0-9751980-9-4 1. McPhee family history 2. Scottish emigration I. Title. Right: St Mary and St Finan RC Church, Glenfinnan, designed by Edward Pugin 1873. Below: The Old Inverlochy Castle. Remember the MacDonells of Keppoch — McPhee saying Above: John McPhee (1796-1867). To Australia 1853. Below: Ann MacDonell of Spean Bridge Lochaber in 1985. Contents Photo taken in Glen Roy, near site of Battle of Mulroy. 1. Introduction 4 2. Killiechonate: John Inverary McPhee of 1796 to 1867 tells his story 7 3. Discovering Killiechonate and Discovering Braes of Lochaber 30 4. John McPhee – Inverary Scotland to Little River Victoria Australia 50 5. McPhee in Lochaber i. 14th and 15th Century Lochaber McPhees 63 ii. Importance of McPhee of Glen Spean to Keppochs 66 iii. Lochaber McPhee and the Lords of the Isles 68 6. McPhee Emigration to Australia i. McPhee in 1841 Census 70 ii. Coming to Australia HIES 76 iii. McPhees HIES sponsored 81 7. The Great War1914 to 1918 McPhee soldiers from Australia 86 KILLIECHONATE TO GEELONG 3 THE INVERLOCHY ESTATE “Gentle Locheil” Cameron. Hero. Lord Abingher’s Inverlochy Castle with Ben Nevis in background 4 COMING TO AUSTRALIA CHAPTER ONE Introduction: Killiechonate, Inverness, Scotland BERNIE McPHEE Killiechonate was a property on the old Inverlochy Estate, Quite a few came to Australia under the auspices of the and for centuries was one of the consitituent locations or Highlands and Islands Emigration Society. These HIES residences of significant Keppoch MacDonell Clans people. McPhee names are mentioned here too. And I will give a list also of the more than eighty McPhee men who fought in the Killiechonate was where John Inverary McPhee lived. Great War so that their great generous lives will continue to Killiechonate was the home of John Inverary McPhee from be remembered. 1826 to 1853, that is the twenty seven years from the time of his marriage to Charlotte MacArthur until his leaving for Finally, I have made several references in this book to the Australia with his family. He did not live in the main house DNA study undertaken by the Macfie Clan Society. Lochaber at Killiechonate, but in smaller buildings within the kind of McPhee participants in the study were about thirteen in compound for trusted employees of long standing, those who number. So they formed Group Nine. It appears that all the had some reason for living there. Lochaber McPhees, from Glen Urquhart, Glen Spean, Glen Dessary, Glen Pean and so on, had identical DNA (for the Where is Killiechonate? Near Spean Bridge, not so far from 43 characteristics studied – the male haplotype). They most Fort William. This following map, borrowed from Stuart likely had a common ancestor about four hundred years MacDonald is a good guide to the location of Killiechonate ago. Probably came from Islay directly, at the behest of the as well as to some places of importance in John McPhee’s Lords of the Isles, they never went to Colonsay at all, and life. I understand that the pronunciation of Killiechonate, they always had the spelling “McPhee”. Under this spelling from John Inverary McPhee’s grandsons would have been of the name and from Lochaber in the 15th Century there something like: “Killy-honnet”. are two mentions in Burke’s Peerage where McPhees made The family tree of those MacDonells of Keppoch whom I great marriages, and a third mentioned marrying very well just mentioned, as well as showing the importance of the spelt “MacDuffie”. We don’t have to look far from Lochaber, from the “McPhees of Glen Spean” and the “McPhees of daughter of McPhee of Glen Spean in its 14th and 15th Glenpean”, to find the common ancestor. Century origins, also shows the presence of John Aberarder MacDonald (MacDonell) in the 19th Century, living at So I hope you enjoy this book. As in the past with several Killiechonate. other publications, I have relied on my niece Jane McPhee Fennessy to put this material into good shape. She has a I refer readers to page 66 of this booklet to peruse this wonderful small business and would be able to help and MacDonell family tree. Killiechonate is but a stone’s throw advise other potential authors and publishers who happen from Keppoch, seat of the Keppoch Clan, but the venerable to read this book. Her address is found elsewhere in these house was destroyed by the English army in 1746. You will pages. Thank you to Jane. The late, much lamented and very read a harrowing tale of this destruction in the following beautiful Ann MacDonell of Spean Bridge was my first helper pages where John Inverary McPhee retells the piteous story in in getting to know Lochaber, and my wonderful associate the graphic words of the aged daughter of the Keppoch Chief, Norah McPhee of Mt Vincent in New South Wales has been at the time of her escape her father was by then already dead my first helper in getting to know the wider McPhee family. on Culloden field. Thanks to Ian McPhee President of the Macfie Clan Society Readers of Lochaber McPhee origin will appreciate a listing of Australia who is always supportive and is an outstanding of the 1841 Census which lists only the McPhees. Menitoned leader of our Macfie goup in Australia. And finally thanks to near to John Inverary McPhee is the famous Ewan McPhee, our ancestors – I hope that they would be proud of us. the outlaw of Loch Quioch. Many of these McPhees came to Australia, and in fact by the time of the 1861 Census, Bernie McPhee McPhees are few and far between in Lochaber. Mont Albert September 2013 KILLIECHONATE TO GEELONG 5 ISLE OF SKYE INVERNESS CULLODEN FORT WILLIAM KILLIECHONATE INVERARY, ARGYLL Drawn by J A Grante, Colonel of the Artillery of Prince Charles’ Army in Scotland, showing the route of the flight of the Prince. The map indicates some places of relevance to John Inverary McPhee of Killiechonate 6 COMING TO AUSTRALIA CHAPTER TWO Killiechonate: John Inverary McPhee—his story BERNIE McPHEE JOHN INVERARY MCPHEE, 1796 to 1867, tells You had to be somebody substantially aristocratic to mix in his story“Killiechonate”: as composed by Bernie matrimony and warfare respectively with or against those McPhee folks. My name is John McPhee, son of Duncan McPhee. I But now let me come back to the present, to my Australian come from Scotland, from that part of Scotland known as present: all that has been left to me from all this Glen Lochaber. In particular, Glen Spean is my Scotland home. Spean McPhee family background is the corporate memory ‘Killiechonate’ on the Inverlochy Estate is where I lived of McPhee families of incredible stability in Lochaber, from after my marriage in 1826 until coming to Australia from earliest times of the family name, that family name more than thirteen years ago in 1853. My mother was Ann which existed in Scotland before Christianity, down to Cameron and my wife was Charlotte MacArthur. the diaspora after the Battle of Culloden of 1746, and the Highland Clearances in subsequent years. They tell me that I was born at Inverary which of course is in Argyll. I must tell you that my parents’ presence in I wear a McPhee ring on my finger still, a ring passed on to Argyll at this time of 1796 has always been a mystery to me, father to son throughout the years and generations. So me. Why were Duncan and Ann McPhee (nee Cameron) we come to today, in the early part of the year of 1867. in Inverary of all places in 1796? In my own words Anyway, Inverary it is, where I was born, as they surely tell My neighbour and friend Ewen MacPherson of Little me. River, Victoria, formerly of Oban Scotland, is writing But it must have set my parents’ teeth on edge to see the this down for me. I have never learned to read and write. Campbell kettle drums and the pikes used at the Battle Fortunately my children did learn, thanks to the help of of Culloden. The weapons, the drums, the Campbells, their Aunt Emily, later Emily Johnson. But I never had the so successful in their triumph at Culloden in overcoming chance to learn to read and write. Even when my darling McPhee Cameron and Keppoch MacDonell under the flag daughter Anne died just three years ago (1864) in Geelong, of Prince Charles. I could only witness her death by making a cross on the paper which they put in front of me. The “McPhee” name The name McPhee is of longest standing in Lochaber. You talk, I’ll write, he said In fact the first head of our McPhee family that I know It was Ewen MacPherson who suggested to me that I make anything about was called “McPhee of Glen Spean”. some record of my life, of my early years in Scotland, and then something about my more than thirteen years here I will talk more about this later in this my little memoir, in Australia.