COREY SURNAME: "YOU SAY SALPHENUS, I SAY SYLVANUS"

My great great great grandfather was a gentleman named Sylvanus Brown Corey. According to pension records obtained from the National Archives, he was not a large man being only 5' 6 1/2". He was of fair complexion, had gray eyes, and in his youth, brown hair. He was a harness maker by trade.

Sylvanus was born June 25, 1835, in Aroostook County, Maine. By 1857 he had made his way to Canton, Illinois, where he married my great great grandmother, Sarah E. McBain (cited at least once in records as McBane), on April 4, 1857. The ceremony was conducted by one Reverend Caleb Foster. Their only child, Frank Elsworth Corey, was born June 9, 1861, amidst the growing hostilities that would become known as the War of the Rebellion or, more commonly, as the American Civil War, Fort Sumpter having been attacked April 12 of that year.

In August of the following year, Sylvanus said goodbye to his family as he traveled to Chicago and enlisted in Company F of the 88th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He would serve for almost three years before mustering out in June of 1865.

My great great grandfather would live long life, passing into the hereafter on July 27, 1914, in Elmwood, Illinois.

I told you that so I could tell you this.

It is part of the family lore that we are related to the navigator and privateer Sir Francis Drake. I have an unattributed abstract of the estate of the admiral which traces various lines of descent from his brothers as he had no children of his own. And, no, it doesn't appear as though I'm coming into any money as a result of my lineage. What is if value though is the wealth of genealogical information contained in the abstract.

Our alleged line of descent would come from Francis' brother, Thomas. At some future time I'll describe the details of the line, but for now suffice it to say that Elizabeth Drake married Thomas Corey on February 15, 1748. They had four children-Ester, Daniel, Gideon and William. That's where the abstract ends with respect to the Drake and Corey lines. Given that Sylvanus was born in 1835 and there is no mention of his parentage in the information I have, there has been somewhat of a gap to fill in.

Searching the web, I stumbled across a website that picks up where my information leaves off. If one goes to the GeneaNet.org page for Elizabeth Drake one sees that she had 7 children by Thomas Corey. The one of interest is Gideon Elisha Clark Corey born 1757. He married Abigail Hannah Clark on 1783 and they had 11 ( =:o ) children. One of their sons, Stephen Corey was born April 4, 1797. He married Sarah Cyphers Brown September 8, 1818. According to this website, they also had 11 children between approximately 1820 and 1841. One of the children born after 1830 is Salphenus Brown Corey.

I'm leaving the GeneaNet information for now. If one does a little research on the web, it becomes apparent that the Drakes and Coreys connected in Rhode Island. Within a few generations the family has located in New Brunswick, Canada. Aroostook County, Maine, has a common border with this Canadian province. During the 1830s there were disputed claims over territory between Great Britain and the United States.

I think a strong case can be made that Sylvanus and Salphenus are the same person. Could the variance be merely the mistake of a clerk who simply spelled it as he heard it or is there something more going on here. I'd be interested to know where the name of Salphenus Corey was originally recorded either in official records such as a census or in family papers.

RE-EXAMINING OLD ASSUMPTIONS: WHEN WAS "JAMES THE SCHOOLMASTER" BORN?

According to all the genealogies I've seen, 1804 is given as the birth year for James McLauchlan of Crook. If that were the case, then the 1851 census should list his age as 46 or 47. I say "or" because the information in that census is as of March 30, 1851. If James was born between January 1 and March 30, 1804, he would have been 47. After March 30, 1804, he would still be 46.

However, the 1851 census lists his age as 45. If that's true, then his birth date would be somewhere between March 31, 1805, and March 30, 1806. I am now curious about the origin of the "1804."

COLONEL MacLACHLAN, MONTROSE, & ALFORD

In Britane’s distemper… Patrick Gordon of Ruthven mentions the efforts of “corronell M’Lachlen” during the battle of Alford. I assume this brief reference is the source taken by some chroniclers of Clan MacLachlan to claim, understandably given Gordon’s choice of spelling, the presence of a MacLachlan among the officer corps of Montrose’s army at Alford. This claim has further evolved to include the assertion that “corronell M’Lachlen” “ achieved the rank of colonel while in Montrose’s service and that after capture at Philliphaugh was taken to Edinburgh and hanged.

David Stevenson, in Highland Warrior: Alasdair MacColla and the Civil Wars, identifies Gordon’s “corronell M’Lachlen” as Major Thomas Laghtnan who was in fact captured at Philliphaugh and, along with Manus O’Cahan, subsequently hanged. Laghtnan was not from Scotland, but in fact came over with the three Irish regiments under MacColla’s command. I think support for Stevenson's position can also be found in fact that M'Lachlen is placed in command of a "braue regiment of Irrish foote" by Gordon rather than leading MacLachlan clansman.


Sources:
Gordon, Patrick, fl. 1649. A Short Abridgement of Britane's Distemper, From the Yeare of God M. DC. XXXIX. to M. DC. XLIX. Aberdeen: Printed for the Spalding club, 1844

Stevenson, David. Highland Warrior: Alasdair MacColla and the Civil Wars. Edinburgh: John Donald, 2003.

“GIVING VENT TO LONG SIMMERING ANNOYANCES”-PART THREE: The War Cry

The imagination seems to yearn for colorful details about one’s ancestors. That one is descended from a person who barely existed by scratching out a living uneducated and impoverished is not nearly as compelling as the picture conjured by a clansman, targe and broadsword in hand, charging the enemy’s line while screaming a slogan shared by his fellow highlanders. But how far back do these battle cries actually go? Is there any evidence for their existence?

An example of the dubiousness of the battle cry can be found on the website for the Clan MacLachlan Association of North America. Here it is stated that the MacLachlan’s battle cry at Culloden Moor was “Life or Death!” How could anyone know this unless there is a record by those at the battle and why not provide the evidence of where it’s located? Is there a journal by a combatant of either side describing this? When did it appear in clan lore?

The clan system was already dying at the time of the ’45 and the Jacobite loss at Culloden dragged it to its grave and threw dirt in its face. I find the assertion that this war cry, if it existed at all, was used subsequently to be pure wishful thinking.

If it is indeed a fabrication of the Scottish Revival, I'd advocate the selection of a new war cry. "Life or Death!" suffers from an extreme lack of meaning and every time I read it I think of Eddie Izzard's "Cake or death?" bit from his Dressed to Kill special.

“GIVING VENT TO LONG SIMMERING ANNOYANCES”-PART TWO: The Plant Badge

While I’m personally happy with the MacLachlans having two plant badges, the rowan (Sorbus aucuparia aka European Mountain Ash) and the periwinkle (vinca minor), I’ve never seen any reference to when or where these plants were originally associated with Clan MacLachlan. Is there a sheepskin scroll in gaelic somewhere linking these plants to the surname or is this another invention similar to the tartan fraud of the Sobieski Stuarts? Perhaps it’s merely a product of the revival of interest in things Scottish attributed to Queen Victoria’s visit to Scotland early in her reign.

JAMES THE SCHOOLMASTER

I can trace my surname lineage as far back as the 1851 Census in Durham County, England. There is the entry for James McLauchlan, a schoolmaster in the village of Crook. The entry is not easy to read and the last name looks as though it is spelled “McLauchland” by the entrant.

I remember my excitement when the page arrived in the mail because I knew that the 1851 Census was the first one listing the place of birth for individuals. I scanned across the line for my ancestor to “Birthplace” to discover the entrant listed only “Scotland.” Good taste prevents me from fully describing my disappointed reaction.

I refer to this ancestor as “James the Schoolmaster” though I’ve seen his name listed variously as James W. McLauchlan, James W. McLauchlan, Jr., James McLauchlan, and (arguably) James McLauchland.

I once had a correspondence with a distant cousin in England who was in possession of some letters that James had written during a trip to Scotland. I subsequently wrote and asked for copies but never received any. That was some years ago and I don’t know if this relative is even still living. I need to dig out my research as I’m sure I saved this correspondence. If memory serves me correctly, he did mention the letters were written from two different Scottish towns, but he didn’t know if these had been James’ destination or simply towns he passed through on his way to or from.

Once I find these documents I’ll scan them and try to figure out a way to post them on this blog.

WHAT IS REALLY KNOWN ABOUT SCOTTISH CLAN HISTORY or "GIVING VENT TO LONG SIMMERING ANNOYANCES"-Part One

One of my pet peeves (yes, I have many) is the regurgitation of unsubstantiated information in clan histories. Popular books and websites on Scottish clans and tartans repeat the same tired basic facts on a given clan and we accept them as true as though they sprung forth from the collective unconscious. And, of course, the clan tartan, strap & buckle, and associated plant badges are listed. Sometimes a clan’s war or battle cry makes an appearance. While the readers of such fare may not demand rigorous scholarship regarding these matters, the clan sennachies should make the effort to separate out the reality from the fiction so that our treasured histories are true to the documented facts.

OTHER SURNAMES IN MY FAMILY

Although this is certainly not exhaustive of the names in my family, I'll also be discussing ancestors with the surnames Corey, Drake, Oestreicher, McBain, Hearst, and Hope. Stay tuned.

BLOG WON'T BE RESTRICTED TO ONLY "McLAUCHLAN"

There are something in the neighborhood of 200 spelling variations of this surname. I'll be commenting on topics involving a number of them. I used the particular spelling above because it's particularly relevant to my own genealogy and because I didn't want this blog to appear as though it were an official organ of Clan MacLachlan or any or its affiliates in the UK or North America.