So, I had my next few blog posts all set to go. I had written two about Alexander Colquhoun, 15th/17th of Luss and his family, and then three more about the oft-repeated pedigree that connects the Colquhouns of Luss in Scotland with the Colhouns of Crosh in Ireland. This pedigree runs through Alexander’s son Adam, meaning that Adam appears in the family trees of hundreds if not thousands of people descended from Irish Calhouns. The gist of what I was going to say in my upcoming posts is that I think the whole story about Adam being born in 1601, inheriting the Luss family’s estate in Co. Donegal, Ireland, being widowed at a young age, sending a son named Robert over to Ireland to manage the estate for him while he remained an unsuccessful merchant in Dumbarton, and then dying himself in 1635, is wrong. Not only is the story in its entirety wrong, but each one of those statements individually is incorrect. (I still think this, and I’ll give the details in these future posts.) What I was going to propose in place of this story is that Adam did not inherit the Irish estate, but that he did eventually go and live there, since the Irish Hearth Money Rolls show an Adam Colhoun Sr. living at Corkagh, the family’s estate in Co. Donegal, in 1665. Must be him, right? As it turns out, I have to completely revise those upcoming articles, since I have now discovered that this proposal I was going to make is also wrong!
As I was wrapping up some background research on Robert Colquhoun, 10th of Camstradden, I ran across the following passage in Fraser vol. 2 that stopped me in my tracks:
John Colquhoun of Camstradden, the father of Robert, had impignorated and wadset his lands of Aldochlay, on having received in loan the sum of 200 merks Scots, from Alexander Colquhoun of Luss, who gave the same for the behoof of his son Patrick. On the death of the said Patrick, his brother-german, Adam Colquhoun of Glens was lawfully retoured and infefted as Patrick’s heir, in the foresaid lands, during the non-redemption thereof. On 11th February 1653, Robert Colquhoun of Camstradden, and Alexander, his eldest son and heir, having made payment of the said 300 [sic] merks, received from Adam Colquhoun of Glens, son of the deceased Alexander Colquhoun of Luss, a discharge and renunciation of all right to the lands of Aldochlay.
Fraser vol. 2, p. 202, referencing “Original Discharge and Renunciation in Camstradden Charter-chest.”
There are several archaic Scots legal terms in there, but as best I can interpret it, it means the following. John Colquhoun, 9th of Camstradden, evidently in need of cash, mortgaged his property at Aldochlay (a hamlet on Loch Lomond just south of Camstradden) for 200 merks, with Alexander Colquhoun, 15th/17th of Luss serving as lender. Alexander gave the note over to his young son Patrick for Patrick’s financial benefit when the loan was paid off. Patrick apparently died young, after which the note passed to his brother Adam. In 1653, a generation later, the loan was finally paid off by John’s son Robert, 10th of Camstradden, upon which Adam (by then known as Adam Colquhoun of Glens) discharged the mortgage.
I’m not sure how this passage could have escaped the notice of everyone from Croslegh’s time onward—a span of some 125 years—but as far as I can tell, it did. It even seems to have escaped the notice of Fraser himself, since he makes no note of the mortgaging of Aldochlay in his discussion of Alexander and Adam in volume 1 of his work. Perhaps he was unaware of it at the time he wrote volume 1 and did not amend the draft of that volume when he later discovered the document. Fraser also did not make mention of Adam’s fate several years after the books’ publication when Croslegh inquired about the Irish property. Croslegh states,
I wrote to Sir William Fraser, some twenty years ago [ca. 1884], to ask whether he had met with anything among the Ross-dhu papers which could serve to throw light upon the settlement of the family in Ireland. His reply was, that he had found nothing which in any way pointed to Ireland. When I drew his attention to Alexander Colquhoun’s devise of the Irish lands to his son Adam, he admitted that it had escaped his notice.
Croslegh, p. 211.
So it seems that Adam became a landowner residing on the estate of Glens, a position more befitting the station of a son of Luss than small-time merchant. Glens (also spelled Glennes, Glennis, Glinnes, Glinnis, Glyns, etc.) was located in the parish of Balfron, Stirlingshire, which was due east of Loch Lomond and north of Glasgow. The first Colquhoun styled “of Glens” was Patrick, younger brother of Sir John Colquhoun, 8th/10th of Luss (d. 1439). This Patrick was the ancestor of two cadet branches of the family: the Colquhouns of Glens and the Colquhouns of Kenmure. The Colquhoun of Glens family that Patrick founded lasted only four generations: Patrick’s great-grandson George Colquhoun of Glens had only a daughter, Margaret, who in 1535 married her cousin Robert Boyd, after which the Colquhoun line ended and the property passed into the Boyd family. Adam Colquhoun, son of Alexander of Luss, was styled “of Glens” roughly 100 years later, and how exactly the Glens estate returned to Colquhoun ownership is not known to me.
Knowing that Alexander’s son Adam was styled “of Glens” enables us to learn the details of his marriage and death. In or about October 1644, Adam Colquhoun of Glens married Giles MacFarlane, daughter of Walter MacFarlane of Arrochar. Their marriage contract, drawn up at Luss on 10 September 1644, states that Giles brought a dowry including property at Craigend and Dalhilloch, which like Glens were located in parish Balfron, as well as 4,900 Scottish merks.
Probate records of “Adame Colquhoune of Glennis” show he died in March 1655. As I will detail in the next post, I believe Adam was born about 1612 or 1613, making him about 32 when he was married and 43 when he died. Perhaps because he died young, his probate file does not include a will; rather it is a testament dative, which essentially just names executors and provides an inventory or valuation of possessions. Unfortunately, I am not adept enough with old Scottish secretary hand to read the document in its entirety, but other names in the record that I can make out include Archibald Colquhoun of Kirkton (parish of Old Kilpatrick), James Galbraith, James Lockhart of Glens, John Koy of Craigend, Robert Koy, James Koy, Andrew Colquhoun of Garscube, Donald Mitchell, James Porter, Adam’s father-in-law Walter MacFarlane of Arrochar, John MacFarlane fiar of Arrochar, Adam’s nephew Sir John Colquhoun of Luss, Walter Colquhoun, and Jonet Colquhoun.
In addition, there is mention of a “second son” Alexander Colquhoun, so it appears that Adam did have children, at least two of whom were sons. I suspect the eldest son might have been named Walter Colquhoun, after his father-in-law, but I don’t know for sure. I have not yet found any later Colquhouns styled “of Glens”, so further research is needed to figure out who Adam’s descendants might have been. Whoever they were, they almost certainly do not include either the Robert Colquhoun made denizen of Ireland in 1630, or the Colhoun family of Crosh in Ireland. As for the Adam Colhoun Sr. living at Corkagh in 1665, it seems he was not the son of Luss, so who was he? That too remains a mystery—for now.
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Genealogy of the Calhoun Family 
Interesting…..
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Wow…! This is a huge find. Thank you for the great write up. I will be studying this with diligence.
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Here are two links I hope you can open. The 1st is from Redbook that also supports Alexander’s son is Adam of Glennis.
https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/62525/images/redbookofscotlandvolume3car-drumpdf-00266?pId=14869
The 2nd is a translation of a 1st hand document that might account for why John b. abt. 1563 was able to borrow monies from his younger peer Alexander Colquhoun b abt. 1573. They are not closely related as far as we know. However, a John of the appropriate age, vouched for (likely this) Alexander in a law suit in 1603.
https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/34545/images/SCPERa005_001Rg15991604-00437?pId=10919
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Thank you so much, this is a huge help!! I had not seen the Redbook reference before, and I’m glad it validates what I said here. The next post (forthcoming in a week or so) will be a discussion of Alexander 15th/17th of Luss and his family, and there is definitely some new information in the book that I had not seen. I am currently trying to have Adam’s probate records transcribed, but it is great to know that we should expect two sons to be named John and Alexander. We’ll now have to try to research his son Alexander to see if he had children of his own, since according to the Redbook, John did not.
The Colquhouns of Camstradden were distant relatives of the Luss branch, but they were neighbors along Loch Lomond and close associates. The Luss family were also immediate feudal superiors to Camstradden, which may explain why John went to Alexander for the loan.
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The John who takes out the loan appears to be John Colquhoun, the 9th Laird of Camstradden, d. 1642. His eldest is Robert and his eldest grandson is Alexander. Do you concur?
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Yes.
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In regards to your last paragraph above, Adam’s first son is John and 2nd son is Alexander according to the “Redbook of Scotland.”
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I’ve been studying the evidence for Adam of Glennis or any Adam in the area at the time. There appears to be only one. He does not have a death date of 1634, or 1655 but he obviously died before 1676 when John and then Alexander received Adam’s estate. We know he had a wife, Geiles McFarlane, thanks to your work. The only think I don’t agree with Redbook on is that Alexander’s daughter Nancy died unmarried. I am currently theorizing that Adam had a minimum of two wives. His eldest son Robert died in 1666, thus not receiving any of his father’s estate. Robert b. abt. 1622, as you probably know, was sent at a young age to claim the settlement given to the Colquhoun family in Ireland. Tradition has it he was raised by his aunt Nancy Colquhoun and her husband, John McCauslan. When William Campbell Colquhoun / Colhoun was abt. 8 he received lands from another apparent relative in nearby Tyrone Co. He was required to live there to claim the settlement and so was then raised by John McCauslan’s brother Alexander. He married their daughter Catherine, his 2nd cousin in 1661 and took over the estate which included Crosh House. William Campbell Colquhoun’s estate went to his eldest son Rev. Alex. If this theory is correct that there is still only one Adam who is the progenitor of this line, BigY will eventually prove it. Because these families often married their relatives to keep the wealth in the family, I am sometimes able to get autosomal triangulations back that far also. This all remains to be seen. Here is history I’m sure you’ve heard before with a bit more detail.
http://calhoun-mcknight.blogspot.com/2010/05/colhouns-of-donegal.html
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Sorry for the typo on “think” instead of “thing”…
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First, Adam did in fact die in 1655, since probate records were drawn up that year that state he was deceased.
While I can’t entirely rule out the possibility that he had a wife before Giles MacFarlane, I see no evidence for it. The story repeated in the 2010 blog post you mention is very commonly cited, but most likely not true. I will get to further details about that soon.
Also, see my previous post (“Two Middle Names that Aren’t”) for why William Colhoun of Newtownstewart did not have the middle name “Campbell” or any other middle name.
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I’m glad to know about the 1655 probate record and William’s correct name. Adding middle names is often a misrepresentation in genealogies. I wonder why the Red Books talked about John’s becoming heir to his father, Adam’s lands of Colquhoun and Glennis in 1674.
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I agree, it is puzzling. If Adam was married in 1644, his sons were probably both less than 10 when he died, so I could understand waiting until John was of age, but that probably would have been around 1666 or so. 1674 seems late.
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I have a bunch of technical autosomal DNA findings to share with you. Would you please email me at ancestrees (at) gmail.com so I can do that. Thank you.
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There is a new source up on Ancestry that is wonderful for first hand Colhoun research in Ireland. Most of the hand written records I’ve studied so far are for Colhouns who aren’t in anyone’s trees. It’s called “Ireland, Abstracts of Wills and Marriages, 1620-1923” and can be found through their card catalog.
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I have come to agree with you from this and your December article that Adam of Glennis is not the father of a Robert b. 1622. I can find no evidence that Robert b. 1622 even existed. Can anyone else?
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