James and Anne (McLean) McKenzie: before New Zealand - Cawdor Part 2

I am deeply grateful for the ancestral details, dates and data made available online by distant-McKenzie-cousin Daryl Coup. 

Please feel free to contact me if you can add any further details, or if you think there are errors in any of my details. Note: I have used "James Mann"  to distinguish  between our founding ancestor James Mann McKenzie and any other of his James McKenzie relatives or descendants. 

The Mckenzie clan was traditionally associated with the Scottish Highlands: Kintail in the northwest Highlands and Ross-shire (the historic county abolished in 1890)  which included Inverness-shire and Nairnshire. It seems our McKenzies were Cawdor  (Nairnshire) residents for some generations, although how strong their clan connections were is unknown. 

For further background information on Cawdor in the times of our McKenzies, read this blog post. 

A brief synopsis of our known Cawdor McKenzies:
1768  August 10, Duncan McKenzie, labourer, married Anne Macarthur  at Cawdor Parish Church.  (Either Duncan or Anne was born at Ardclach, Nairnshire.)  They had 5 known children:
- Duncan McKenzie baptised 24 April, 1769 at Andrain. 
- Peter McKenzie, born 1773
- Jean McKenzie, born 3 September 1775, at Andrain
- James McKenzie, born 9 June 1780, at Andrain
- John McKenzie, born 3 February 1787,  at Andrain (See this post for more about him.)

1801 February 17 Duncan McKenzie married Elizabeth Mann at Cawdor. They had 3 known children
- Duncan McKenzie, born 27 November 1801 at Achindown, Cawdor
- James Mann McKenzie, born 14 December 1803 at Cawdor, baptised 7 January 1804 at Cawdor. 
- Hugh Rose McKenzie, born 10 November 1808 at Andrain

James Mann McKenzie is our New Zealand connection. He was the second son of Duncan McKenzie and Elizabeth Mann, and through James Mann and several of his descendants, Elizabeth's maiden name of Mann has been perpetuated.  James Mann was a joiner (as noted in 1841 census) and could have been employed on various famsteads doing building /maintenance work - which could account for the changes of location in their children's  baptism records. 

James Mann McKenzie married Ann McLean (aka Julia Ann/e). Little is know of her background and,  when discovered, will be included in a later post.  

James and Ann had the following children in Scotland, according to parish records : 

Elizabeth (1828 - 1907) born 16th October 1828 at Drum of Clunas, Cawdor

Duncan (1830 - 1896) born 1st March 1830 at Newton of Cawdor  (a farmstead) 

Julia (1832 - 1912) born 8 April 1832 at Piper Hill, Cawdor. 

Hugh Rose (1834 - 1912) born 2nd June, 1834 in Drum of Clunas, Cawdor

James (1836 - ?) born 14 June 1836, at Little Urchany (most likely a farmstead)

Mary Ann (1840 - 1842) born c. September 1840 in Renfrewshire

So, where are these places? Note that some of them could well be the name of farmsteads or villages which have long since disappeared. In Scotland's Places  "Drum of Clunas" (in ruins) is the name applied to the ruins of a farm steading on a cultivated ridge about one mile southwest of Clunas.  It is on the Cawdor estate. 

Here's a link to a more recent map of the area. It is described as "A township comprising nine unroofed buildings, one of which is a long building and another two are T-shaped, four enclosures and a sheepfold is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Nairnshire 1871-6, sheet vii). One unroofed building with an attached length of wall is shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1978)." (See detail below.) 

If I have got my geography correct, it looks as if nothing remains today. The  pointer is where I think Drum of Clunas is/was. (See below.) 

Now that you've got your bearings, see if you can locate all the places mentioned above on this map.   And have a play around with this view of Little Urchany.  I think Little Urchany was a farm. Try this link to see the approximate location of the birthplaces of James and Anne's children in Cawdor.  I've used the walking option for a more authentic appreciation of the distance between locations, though roads or paths may not be the same then as now.  

By 1840 (according to the birth records for daughter Mary Ann), James Mann and his family had moved to the (then) county of Renfrewshire. 

 How did they get there? Did they walk? Did they have a horse and cart? 

Railways were being constructed about this time, but there appear to be none from  the Highlands this early in rail history - and could the family have afforded to travel by rail anyway? Whatever form of transport they took, it would have been a long and difficult journey. 

The distance between Cawdor and Greenock, measured in walking hours -  a huge distance in the 1840s. Note that this may not be the route they took. 

According to the 1841 Scotland Census, James McKenzie, aged 35, was living in Market Street in the County of Renfrewshire in the Civil Parish of Greenock West (564). It confirms he was born in Scotland, estimated year 1803 - 1806, and was listed as a joiner.  Further family details confirms that this is our James Mann: 
Ann McKenzie, age 30,  estimated birth year about 1810, born Scotland;  same address as James.
Elizabeth McKenzie aged 13
Duncan McKenzie aged 12, estimated born 1830
Julia McKenzie, age 10,  born 1832
Hugh McKenzie, age 8

Mary Anne  aged 9 months

It seems baby James (born 1836) must have died before 1841- either in Cawdor or Greenock - or quite possibly somewhere along the way where he may have been buried - as he does not appear with the family in the census or on the passenger list of the Jane Gifford, and I can find no evidence of his death or burial in any available records. 

 
Market Street has since been demolished and King Street was built in its place.

Interestingly, in the Greenock Register of 1841-42,  there is a James McKenzie listed at 27 Market Street, whose profession is given as spirit-dealer.   I wonder if this is our James Mann? It seems outside his previous employment qulaifications, yet an association with spirits appears likely to have been within the McKenzie skill set. It could well be a totally different James McKenzie, but worth a thought. 

Why did James Mann move his family from the country highlands to the city of Greenock?

James Mann and his family could have been affected by, or moved out of their Cawdor location through, the Highland Clearances (between 1750 and 1860)  - although research suggests that the Jane Gifford and Duchess of Argyle migrants were not from the clearances. More on this in next post.   Throughout many areas of Scotland, landlords were having to make drastic changes to maintain or improve their income in a time of significant decline in their revenue. One way was to instigate agricultural improvements, and this ultimately involved moving tenants off their land. Displaced tenants were either relocated into crofting communities where they were offered employment of lesser value  and status, or  they chose to migrate to cities or emigrate - initially to North America but eventually Australia, New Zealand and other colonies. A rise in population numbers created overcrowded and uneconomic crofting communities, and further changes in agriculture prompted many landlords to pay for selected tenants to emigrate to help provide an alternative opportunity. Crop failures during this time further exacerbated the misery and desperation of many Highlanders. 

It is probable that James Mann moved his family to Greenock to look for a better opportunity, either in anticipation of emigrating or to find work in the city - and once there, found information on emigration. Whatever the reason, he was in the right place at the right time with the right qualifications to board the Jane Gifford with Ann and his children to relocate to the other end of the world to a country in its absolute colonial infancy.  And to add to their own family and found a family of descendants which must surely number into four figures by now. 

In search of James Naismith and Isabel Steel - The Canongate connection

According to HENRY NAYSMITH'S* death certificate, (see this post) HENRY'S parents were JAMES NAISMITH, a weaver, and ISABELLA NAISMITH born STILL (Steel).  

JAMES and ISABELLA were married at Canongate, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland  on 4 February 1808. 

The Canongate is a district of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It was a semi-autonomous burgh until its incorporation into the city of Edinburgh in 1856. Somewhat disappointingly, the name has nothing to do with large weapons. Canongate, instead,  is believed to derive from  the Scottish word 'gait' meaning 'way'. It was the route the canons (clerics) of Holyrood Abbey took to Edinburgh. Canongate Kirk (church) opened in 1691 as the parish church of the Canongate.   The church still operates for Sunday services and weekday concerts. It can be presumed that JAMES and ISABELLA married in this church. 

Kirk of The Canongait 

Churchyard of the Kirk of the Canongate.  David Rizzio, the murdered private secretary of Mary, Queen of Scots, is believed to be buried in the chuchyard.  

The parish includes  the Palace of Holyrood House (of interest to Mary  Queen of Scots fans), the Scottish Parliament, and is also the parish church of Edinburgh castle, even though it sits outside the rest of the parish.  Interestingly,  Princess Anne's daughter, Zara  Phillips married former England rugby captain Mike Tindall in this church in 2011. 

The ecclesiastical parishes within the 'civil parish' of Edinburgh.

The Edinburgh Old Parish Register (OPR 685¹) covered the the civil parish of Edinburgh.

This was originally only the parishes of the old town, and later included a further four new parishes as the new town was built.

The original 'Old Town' of Edinburgh enclosed by the red line. 

The light blue line encloses the parishes of the 'New Town' 

NOTE - St Cuthberts, the parish almost surrounding the city, was also known as the 'West Church Parish' or 'West Kirk' 

Follow this link to see what Canongate Kirk looks like today. 

Note: One possible reason why there are some no-shows for some of our family members in online transcriptions of parish registers: The Scotland National Archives maintain that "all" Church of Scotland registers of baptisms, marriages and burials were consolidated and submitted to the then Public Record Office in about 1855. However, some local ministers have suggested otherwise. This may be why some parish registers seem to have a puzzling lack of entries, besides mere under-registration of i.e. baptisms and some marriages.    


* Henry Naysmith c. 1818 - 1880 - our founding Naysmith, arriving at Auckland on the Duchess of Argyle, 1842, with wife Mary Maclean,  1-year-old son Alexander, and new-born daughter Mary Argyle. 

In search of our Henry Naysmith

Even though there are literally millions of references to Naysmiths online, it has been a bit of a challenge to locate information on the pre-NZ details of our ancestor Henry Naysmith who arrived in New Zealand in 1842, with his wife Mary McLean and son Alexander, on the Duchess of  Argyle. 

I have been given a comprehensive Naysmith family tree  from Colin, a newly discovered  Naysmith contact in Australia,   who is on another twig of the same tree  as Kenneth,  another Naysmith contact from America. It was with massive disappointment that I couldn't find any link to our Henry Naysmith.  Colin's tree starts with  James Naysmith (wife unknown) in 1660 and has hundreds of descendants  - but none that fit our known information.  Maybe we are descended from 1660's James' brother, or another branch of his family . . .  DNA will answer that question, hopefully. 

There's also another contact in NZ who does not appear to fit in with our records either.  It's frustrating,  but maybe DNA tests will eventually work out where we all fit in.   In the meantime, it is interesting communicating with these not-our-Naysmith contacts even though we only seem to have our surname in common at the moment.  If nothing else, it helps clarify and eliminate many of the Naysmiths that don't fit in our immediate family trees.    It would have been helpful if our ancestors moved outside the limited range of Christian names!

And the search continues.  

What I know about "our" Naysmiths  so far  - and have the evidence to prove it: 

We know that our Henry married Mary MacLean on 12 April 1840 in Barony, Lanark Scotland.  (Note the Naismith spelling  - and we thought we were indelibly Nay smiths!)

Leaping forward to 1880,  Henry's death certificate gives his occupation as a saw trimmer. That would have been, no doubt, his last occupation.  His father is identified as James Naysmith, a weaver,  and his mother as Isabella Steel.  (Grateful thanks to my late cousin Joan for passing on to me her hard-copy records and pre-internet research.) 

 The information in this death certificate is the only reference I can find to James and Isabella being Henry's parents.  Parish records of James and Isabella's marriage (and the births of their other children) can be located in online records, further confirming their likelihood of being Henry's parents.  Henry's wife, Mary McLean,  was alive at the time of his death and most probably would have provided these details - as she would have the most accurate of information. The spelling of both surnames and Isobella's first name, of course, varies widely, although Naysmith seems to have settled into  a consistent N-A-Y after the family settled in New Zealand.  But, I can find no details of Henry's  birth on Ancestry.com or My Heritage records, although there are references to the births of Henry's siblings James (b1810), David (b1812) and Isobella (b 1814). 

Interestingly, I found on another potential family member's tree on Ancestry.com  which attributed three more children to James and Isabella: Janet (b 1823), Agnes (1828 - 1910), and Elizabeth (1831); however, I have yet to find any other references to these three in any online records - and I'm starting to think they have made a mistake and hitched their ancestor's details incorrectly to James and Isabella. More work to clarify that!

It can be seen, also, from Henry's death certificate, that his date of birth was not known (not really unusual in those times and social contexts) and that his age  at death is given as 62 - giving an approximate year of birth as 1818 (+/- one year). This ties in neatly with his age at marriage  - given as 21 on his death certificate - which gives us 1839 (+/- one year) as a date of marriage. This can be confirmed by online records, giving Henry and Mary's wedding date as 12 April 1840. 

 But - on a passenger list of the Duchess of Argyle, (1842) Henry's age is given as 34 - taking his birth back to 1808, the year of the James and Isabella's wedding (1808).  Mary's is given as 25, giving her year of birth as 1817 (+/- 1 year). Son Alexander, born in Scotland, is recorded as being 1 year old, and daughter Mary Argyle was born on board the ship.  

Henry's incorrect (or correct?) date could be a red herring, and would need to be checked against the original to see if it wasn't a misread when it was being transcribed to another format. Although the maths of his ages and stages adds up on his death certificate,  62 seems a bit young to die of general debility - although it might not have been in those days, especially after years of hard physical work and maybe other health-impairing activities . . .  Mary's age in the Duchess of Argyle passenger list doesn't quite add up with her age given at death, but that's for another post. 

Henry's parents - James Naysmith and Isabella Steel -  married February 4th, 1808.    There are many variants of the spelling of Naysmith and Steel, and this could suggest that they might not have been literate - or their parents may not have been.  

So, questions for further research: 
- Does anyone have any other references or evidence of this Henry Naysmith in Scotland?
- Is there any other evidence of his age at any other stage of his life? 
- Where do these other mystery  subsequent siblings come into it? 
- What happened to Henry's parents, James and Isabella? 
- What was Henry doing before he left Scotland? 

Origins, Myths and Legends of the Naysmith name

The surname NAYSMITH is an old Anglo-Scottish medieval surname.  One version of its origin is that it is from a pre-7^th century Olde English word cnif smit. Smit  comes from the verb smitan   meaning to smite  - and this could be related to our understanding of the word ‘smith’  as in blacksmith  or a soldier. In medieval times, when all skills were quite specific, there was a wide range of skill-specific smiths:  White smiths worked with hot metals, black smiths worked with cold metals, and there were green smiths, copper smiths, gold smiths, silver smiths, and so on.  Soldiers had to be skilled in maintaining or even making their own weapons  so it could be that originally a knife smith  could have been a soldier who used a short sword, and a sword smith would have used a long sword.  Hence, the earliest recording of this name was Roger KNIFSMITH  in the records of St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, in 1246.  

NAISMITH is also recorded as an occupational name -  'a maker and seller of nails'.

 

By 1379 (also found referenced as 1273), a James NASMITE was recorded in York, and in 1415, Alan NASMITH was recorded as the owner of lands in Brechin, Scotland. In 1734, James NASMITH was recorded as the sheriff of Norwich.  Another record is of a  James NASMITH and Mary Barthol  married at St. George's Chapel, Mayfair, London in 1745, and in 1751, Ann, daughter of Alexander NAESMITH was baptised at St. James's, Clerkenwell, London.   

 The Scottish Naysmiths are believed  to have been first found in Renfrewshire  (a historic county of Scotland which is today covered by the council areas of Renfrew, East Renfrewshire and Inverclyde in the Strathclyde region of south west Scotland), where they held a family seat. Their first records appeared on the census rolls taken by the early Kings of Scotland to determine the rate of taxation of their subjects.  There have been many spelling variations over time, including Naismith, Naysmith, Naesmyth, Nesmith, Nasmyth, Nasmith, Naesmith, Knifesmith, Neasmith and Neesmith.

Some of the stories behind the  Naysmith name's origin: 

Alexander III was King of the Scots between 1249 and 1286. On the eve of a battle (most likely the Battle of Largs, October 1263), a young man was required to mend the King’s damaged armour. He was not particularly skilled in metalwork and the result was rough and rudimentary.   During the ensuing battle, he proved himself to be brave and skilled in fighting, and was accordingly honoured by Alexander, who commented, “Though he is nae a smyth, he is a brave gentleman, indeed.”  From then on, he was known as Sir NaeSmyth. 

                                                

A slight variation  has a young squire cleaning and preparing his lord’s armour the night before battle, Noticing a crack in the handle of his lord’s martel (war hammer) the young man tried to repair it himself, even though he was not a smith.  The next day, in the course of the battle, the handle did not stand up to being swung, and it broke. Seeing his lord’s life endangered, the young man grabbed a sword and fought heroically beside him, dispatching several of the enemy. 

After the battle was over, the young man was chastised by his lord for not telling him about the broken hammer, but he appreciated the young squire’s bravery.  Before the assembled knights, he said, “Although ye are nae smyth, ye are a brave gentleman.”  And so the young squire was knighted.  The coat of arms shows a broken martel  or war hammer and the young squire’s hand grasping the sword that saved his lord’s life.

Consequently, the NAESMYTH (NAYSMITH) coat of arms has a left hand holding a sword between two broken hammers.  The colour red with the drawn sword represents bravery, and the two broken hammers represent the lack of skill as a smith.  The motto: “Non arte sed marte”  can be translated as “Not by art but by war” or “Not by art but by arms”.  See a range of interpretations of the NAYSMITH coat of arms below.  

Another variation of the origin of the Naysmith name - and coat of arms - comes from the 1863 autobiography of the engineer and inventor of the steam hammer, James Nasmyth.   This is the closest to the version our father had told us as children - except the story had moved to the times of Bonnie Prince Charles three  centuries later.  I’m thinking that somewhere along the line, one of our NZ ancestors must have come by copy of James Nasmyth’s book in New Zealand, as it was published well after Henry and Mary Naysmith arrived in NZ 1842.  A sister and I located and visited a Naysmith family in Vancouver when we were both there in 1988, and that family had the exact same family origin story as  we did, which makes me think their family had come across James Nasmyth's autobiography, too. 

The story is set in the reign of James III, King of Scotland 1460 to 1488. There was constant feuding between the King and Barons, one of the most prominent and ambitious being the Earl of Clan Douglas, who was declared a rebel, and his estates were confiscated.  Douglas and his followers crossed the border to England where they were met by the Earl of Angus, the Johnstons and the Scotts, and some fighting ensued. At one stage, the Douglases had the advantage and our Naysmith ancestor, who was fighting under the royal banner, took refuge in the smithy of a neighbouring village.  The smith offered him protection, and gave our ancestor a leather apron to disguise himself as a hammerman and asked him to help him work.  Meanwhile, a party of Douglas partisans arrived and looked suspiciously at our hammerman, who, in his nervousness, struck a false blow with his sledge hammer, and the shaft broke in two.  Seeing this, the pursuers rushed at him, calling, “Ye’re nae smyth!”   Our Nae Smith, managed to take the sword off the attacker, and with the help of the smith - armed with a hammer - turned on the assailant, overpowered him (them?) and drove the Douglas men out.

A party of royal forces arrived, and “Nae smith” led them against the rebels, turning the previous advantage into a defeat.  A grant of lands were bestowed upon Nae smith for his service and his armorial bearings consisted of a hand holding a dagger between two broken hammer shafts.  The motto was 'Non arte sed marte', 'not by art but by war'."

My own theory, based entirely on the evidence above, is that our name's origins relate to the use of, or work with, sharp and potentially dangerous objects - whether they be knives, nails or swords - and that genetically, we were probably not that good with hammers. 

According to Sir Bernard Burke’s General Armory 1884, the coat of arms was Registered at Posso, County Peebles in 1706 under the spelling of NASMYTH.

 

Nasmyth entry in Burke's Armory 

   

    

Frequency of Naysmith name in UK

Reference sites: 

http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Naismith#ixzz4M3acbyvY

http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Naismith

http://surname.sofeminine.co.uk/w/surnames/surname-naysmith.html

https://familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/7874961

https://archive.org/stream/generalarmoryofe00burk#page/722/mode/2up

http://seitzandcrafts.weebly.com/neesmith.html
https://archive.org/stream/jamesnasmythengi00nasmiala#page/2/mode/2up