A Biographical Sketch of James Maccubbin Lingan, One of the Original Proprietors Author(s): Ella Loraine Dorsey Source: Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C., Vol. 13 (1910), pp. 1- 48 Published by: Historical Society of Washington, D.C. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40067009 Accessed: 18-07-2018 02:25 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Historical Society of Washington, D.C. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C. This content downloaded from 69.69.21.69 on Wed, 18 Jul 2018 02:25:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF JAMES MAC- CUBBIN LINGAN, ONE OF THE ORIGINAL PROPRIETORS. By MISS ELLA LOEAINE DOESEY. (Eead before the Society, February 9, 1909.) The first mention of the Lingan family in England appears in the Domesday book, where its founder is recorded as Tnrstin the Flandrian; and in Duncombe's "History of Herefordshire" there is a very full account of its vast possessions, its honorable estate and its liberality in founding nunneries, schools and alms- houses, while at the same time it upheld church and state with zeal and dignity. It appears to have been an impulsive, generous and strong-willed race, scattering benefactions broadcast, obstinately faithful in its devotion to ideals, and abso- lutely reckless as to consequences where its loyalty was given. Thus in the Wars of the Roses it persistently clung to the hapless Lancastrians; during the days of Henry the Eighth and Queen Elizabeth it cherished and per- severed in its Catholicity through fine, imprisonment and exile ; and when the Civil Wars broke out between king and parliament it sided unanimously with the king, following his fortunes until the head of the house had given all three of his sons to the Black Sergeant, had diminished his fortune by raising and equipping troops, and had paid a fine of £5,000, the heaviest ever levied on a Commoner. In this country the name first appears in John i i This content downloaded from 69.69.21.69 on Wed, 18 Jul 2018 02:25:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 2 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. Smith's "History of Virginia," 6th book, p. 175, where he says: 6 'In the month of April, 1614, at the charge of Captain Marmaduke Roydon, Capt. .George Langham, Mr. John Buley and Wm Skelton with two ships from London I chanced to arrive at Monahegan." And in 1664 we find it in Calvert County, Md., where -on the east side of the Patuxent River south of Land's Creek, seated at " Lingan 's Adventure"- was George Lingan the American ancestor of James Mac- cubbin Lingan. On the mother's side General Lingan's first Ameri- can ancestor was John Maccubbin, of Scotland, Mac- cubbin being the phonetic rendering of the name Mac- Alpine, to which clan he belonged by right of descent from that Kenneth MacAlpine whose ancient race gave the Gaelic proverb: "The rocks, the devil, the Mac- Alpines." Their branch, being allied by marriage with the house of Breadalban, had refugee'd into the clan Campbell after the battle of Glen Frewen, and Argyle was regarded as the head of the family. John Maccubbin appears on the Maryland ' i Calendar of Wills" as a testator of 1685, leaving his estate "Brampton" to his eldest son John (by his first wife) and "Wardrop" to his four sons by his second wife, Eleanor Carroll. The will of the latter is witnessed by Chas. Carroll, Chas. Carroll, Jr., and Mrs. Mary Carroll; and, as she owned a portion of the old estate known as the "Woodyard" there may have been some family con- nection with the Darnalls and Talbots as well. She was also the sole heiress of Mary Van Schweringen.* * See Baldwin's "Calendar of Wills, » Vol. II, p. 104. This content downloaded from 69.69.21.69 on Wed, 18 Jul 2018 02:25:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Col. Hist. Soc, Vol. XIII, Pl. I Gen. James Maccubbin Lingan (Copy of miniature by Peale ; original in National Museum, Washington, D. 0. ) This content downloaded from 69.69.21.69 on Wed, 18 Jul 2018 02:25:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Dorsey: Sketch of James Maccubbin Lvngan. 3 The Maccubbins had been heavily involved in the Civil Wars and the Wars of the Covenant, and even in my own time two of the treasures owned and held by Carroll of the Caves (descended from Nicholas Mac- cubbin and his wife Mary Clare Carroll) were the plaid-brooch and claymore of Montrose- that gallant figure whose joyful nature could not satisfy the Cove- nant's stern orders to slay, and whose romantic soul once fallen captive to King Charles never ceased from that allegiance until he too followed the Eed Road of the Axe, and his proud head lay as low as that of his master. There is a romantic story told about the Maccubbins by Patterson in his "History of Ayrshire," apropos of Alexander Paden, the Minister of the Kirk, who was sometimes called the Prophet of the Covenant. In the days when he was hunted like the red deer by moss-troopers seeking his capture, he was several times sheltered by Fergus Maccubbin of Knockdolian, who was heavily fined for his charity. Finally he told Paden he could not do it again, as a matter of justice to his heir whose inheritance was dwindling under the fines. Looking past him with his strange, pale eyes Paden is said to have made the answer : "The eldest son will never inherit," and in fact Knockdolian 's heir was drowned before his father's very eyes not long after ; and while we cannot say the Covenanter meant root and branch of the race we know that the succession fails in the line of the eldest son to this day, and the Lingan name linked with it has survived only through the distaff side. George Lingan and John Maccubbin through their grandchildren, Doctor Thos. Lingan and Ann Mac- cubbin, seem to have bequeathed all the marked char- This content downloaded from 69.69.21.69 on Wed, 18 Jul 2018 02:25:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 4 Records of the Columbia Historical Society. acteristics of their races to the man who is the subject of this sketch, for although it is only through the dry medium of wills, records and deeds we can follow his career, his favorite sister was long a member of the household of her niece, Mrs. Chloe Lingan McKenney, and left in the keeping of herself and daughter several interesting anecdotes of the patriot. He was the second child of Doctor Lingan and was born on the thirty-first of May, 1751, presumably in Frederick Co., as it then extended from Oxen Kun to the Falls of the Potomac; and his parents seem to have made his education and that of his brothers a matter of care and unusual thought. His father had an exten- sive collection of books, many of them in Latin, and these he left (according to the lady quoted above) to be given to the National Library when that plan of Washington's, already broached and discussed, should have become a reality. Appleton describes Lingan very sketchily as "an American soldier employed in a store in Georgetown, ' ' and in another biographical memorandum he is de- scribed as " a poor young man coming to Georgetown to look for work. ' ' Both facts would have been most creditable to his industry and his manhood, but as he came directly into the tobacco warehouse belonging to one of his relatives, and as his youngest brother was sent a few years later to the English Jesuits College of St. Omer at Liege, with all the surroundings appropriate to a youth of respectable fortune, it would seem as though there were some mistake. It is apparent, however, from reading the will of Doctor Thomas Lingan, dated February 16, 1781, that some sharp reverse had taken place in the affairs of the family; for, after devoutly commending his soul This content downloaded from 69.69.21.69 on Wed, 18 Jul 2018 02:25:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Dorsey: Sketch of James Maccubbm Lmgan. 5 to God, expressing his wish to be buried in Joppa churchyard and directing his debts to be paid he says : "I give and bequeath to my sons Thomas, James and Nicholas all my right and title to my father's land lying in Calvert County known by the name of Batchelor's Quarter and Lingan's Adventure, now in possession of the William- sons and others, and all the lands that I may have any claim to in Baltimore County and elsewhere to be equally divided among them, provided they are at an equal expense in the recovery of such lands; and should any of them refuse to join in the recovery of such land and paying their proportion of the expense it is my desire that they should not receive any part of the profits arising therefrom." But on the other hand, he gives to his daughters $15,000 which he had lent the State of Maryland, and mentions certain slaves, silver and other personal property.