The Colhouns of Crosh, Part 2: The McCausland Connection

Alexander McCausland’s Ancestral Family

In the last article, I discussed James Colhoun of Newtownstewart, the Scottish native who I suggest to have been the founder of the Colhoun of Crosh family in Ireland.  I also discussed his family’s close relationship with Alexander McCausland:  James and Alexander were neighbors in 1631, and James’s son William later married Alexander’s daughter Catherine.  I then speculated that James and Alexander might have served together in the army during the civil wars of the 1640s, that James died during that period, and that Alexander afterwards became William’s guardian.  What I did not say is that Alexander McCausland was also the crucial piece of the puzzle that enabled me to connect the Irish Colhoun of Crosh family with their Scottish roots.  Because of that important link, I will devote this post to Alexander McCausland’s family.

Since this blog is about the Calhouns and not the McCauslands, I won’t go into the ancient history of the McCausland (also spelled McAusland, McAuslane, McAuselan, etc.) family in Scotland.  Instead, I will focus on the period from the late 16^th through the 17^th centuries when McCauslands first migrated to Ireland.  In the last blog post I said the following:

“The association between McCauslands and Colquhouns can be traced back to at least 1395 in Scotland, when John McAuslane of Caldenoch witnessed a charter in which Humphrey Colquhoun, 6^th/8^th of Luss granted the lands of Camstradden to his brother Robert.  In 1631, the Colquhoun lairds of Luss were the immediate feudal superiors of the McCausland barons of Caldenoch, the family from which Alexander came.”

In Scotland, the term baron was not a title of nobility, but instead meant the owner of a small estate; in other words, a minor laird.  It was the McCausland of Caldenoch (in Gaelic, Cùlanach), the chieftain of clan McCausland, who in the 17^th century came to be referred to as “baron McCausland”.  The fact that the barons were designated “of” Caldenoch and not “in” Caldenoch indicates they held the property by charter, as opposed to simply being residents there.  Some derivative sources state the barons McCausland were from Glen Douglas, but this does not seem to be quite correct.  In the 17^th century at least, they did hold additional properties not far from Glen Douglas, but their seat seems to have been at Caldenoch, near Glen Mallan.  Since all these areas were very close to each other, this may seem like splitting hairs.  However, since it is claimed that the Irish McCauslands were from the baron’s family, knowing that the barons were of Caldenoch enables us to properly identify their ancestral home and possible ancestors. 

Although their precise father-to-son lineage has proven hard to determine, the McCauslands of Caldenoch were mentioned as early as the 1395 charter noted above and as late as the late 1600s.  There is an excellent blog at lammermoor.org (formerly called McAuslandGenes) that describes the barons McCausland and their properties, and the article by McIntyre and Ward that I referenced above also provides a superb history of Caldenoch:

• Post at Lammermoor entitled “The McAusland Barons of Caldenoch, Prestilloch, Innerquhonlanes and Craigfad”.  Includes a nice chronological history of the barons McCausland.
• Post at Lammermoor entitled “The McAusland Barony Became Part of the Lands and Barony of Luss”.  Describes the reversion of the Barony of McCausland to the Colquhoun of Luss family and includes some nice portraits of a few of the 18^th century lairds of Luss.
• Alistair McIntyre and Tam Ward.  “The History and Survey of Cùlanach Settlement in Argyll.”  North Clyde Archaeological Society.  Includes a comprehensive timeline of records pertaining to Caldenoch from 1395 to 1860.

For those interested in the McCausland family in further detail, all of these sources are well worth reading.

Buchanan’s Story of the McCausland Migration to Ulster

Writing in 1723, William Buchanan of Auchmar stated the following:

Alexander, last baron McAuselan, having only one daughter, who was married to a gentleman of the name of Campbel, after whose death, she sold her interest to Sir Humphrey Colchoun of Luss, her superior.  The remainder of the Scotch McAuselans, reside mostly in Lennox.  But the greatest number and of best account of that name, reside in the counties of Tyrone, Derry, and Down, in the north of Ireland.  The ancestors of the principal men of these last, were Andrew, and John McAuselans, sons of the baron McAuselan, who went out of the paroch of Luss to that kingdom, in the latter part of the reign of king James VI.  This Andrew had a son called Alexander, upon whom he bestowed a good education, by which means, becoming a prudent, active gentleman, he obtained a commission in the army, in time of the civil wars, in the reign of king Charles I.

William Buchanan of Auchmar. A Historical and Genealogical Essay upon the Family and Surname of Buchanan.  Glasgow: William Duncan, 1723, p. 275.

To summarize, Buchanan claims that two brothers named Andrew and John, sons of one of the barons McCausland, went to Ireland “in the latter part of the reign of king James VI”, which likely meant sometime during the period 1620-1625.  He speaks, in vague terms, of both brothers as being the ancestors of Irish McCauslands who by 1723 had spread out into Cos. Tyrone, Derry, and Down.  However, he mentions only one child born to either of them, namely Andrew’s son Alexander.  His description of this Alexander’s military service and the lands he was awarded (quoted in my previous post) identify him as the Alexander McCausland who died in 1675 and who was the father-in-law of William Colhoun of Newtownstewart.

This narrative, largely unquestioned as far as I can tell, has formed the basis for nearly all subsequent accounts of the settlement of Ireland by McCauslands.  However, as I will discuss below, I believe it is incorrect regarding which McCauslands went to Ireland.  Before doing so, I want to mention three early derivative works, each of which introduced additional errors into Buchanan’s original.  Because they too have served as source material for later pedigrees, accounts, and research, their errors have also been perpetuated.

Betham’s pedigree (1814-1830).  Included in the McCausland file at PRONI (D669) is a hand-drawn pedigree with the following certification:

I do hereby Certify that the above Pedigree has been faithfully compiled from authentic & sufficient documents, and now remains upon Record in the office of Ulster King of Arms of all Ireland.  Witness my hand & seal of office this 19^th day of Jan’y 1814 (signet).  –W. Betham, D[eput]y Ulster King of Arms of Ireland.

Continued [this?] 23^rd of April 1830 by your Humble servant, Richard B. McCausland.

PRONI D669/?

Betham’s 1814 and 1830 tree (PRONI D669/45). Image kindly provided by Dave McCausland. Check out his blog entry describing his discovery of the tree here!

Although I am not certain, my guess is that the original tree was compiled by Betham himself, with later additions by Sir Richard Bolton McCausland (1810-1900).  At the root of this pedigree is “… Baron McAuslane of Glendouglass in Dumbartonsh:, Chieftain of the Clan and last who assumed the title.”  Three things mark the first three generations of the tree as being derived from Buchanan’s account.  The first is that the baron is not named directly, just as Buchanan did not name him.  The second is that the tree includes only the two sons and one grandson of the baron that were named by Buchanan (Andrew, John, and Alexander, respectively) and no others.  (The generations beyond Alexander appear to be from original research, in part using Alexander’s 1674 will.)  The third is the terminology describing the patriarch at the root as the “last” baron McCausland.  

In his account, Buchanan mentions an “Alexander, last baron M’Auselan.”  However, the reason he was the last baron is that he had only a daughter; therefore, he is not also the baron who was the father of Andrew and John, as this pedigree states.  The claim that Andrew and John’s father was the “last baron McCausland” is an error that has been perpetuated in many later accounts.  In addition, this pedigree seems to be the origin of the idea that the barons McCausland were from Glen Douglas and not Caldenoch, something not stated by Buchanan and another likely error.

Burke’s (1836).  Because the 1814 pedigree above was given official approval by the Ulster King of Arms, it was undoubtedly used as source material for the entry “Mac Causland of Strabane” in Burke’s Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry (London: H. Colburn, 1836, p. 791).  This is clear because Burke’s repeats the claim that the baron McCausland was from Glen Douglas.  However, the article also explicitly states that it used Buchanan’s account directly.  While much of the article is most likely trustworthy, the genealogy opens with the following erroneous statement:

“Baron M’Auslane, of Glenduglas, came over to Ireland in the latter end of King James I.’s reign, about the year 1600, and left two sons, Andrew and John.  Of the younger, the line is now extinct.  The elder, Andrew M’Auselane, had a son, Alexander M’Auslane….”

Burke’s, p. 791.

This statement tells us that in addition to the two sons, the baron McCausland himself went to Ireland, perhaps even 20 years before his children.  This seems highly unlikely to me since the baron had his own ancestral lands in Scotland to manage and would not have left them.  Any McCauslands who resettled in Ireland were likely younger sons who were not destined to inherit property in Scotland.  The statement that the baron himself moved to Ireland, while almost certainly untrue, has been perpetuated in at least one later work (Thesta Kennedy Scogland.  Genealogy of McCasland.  Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1984, p. 2.).  (In the paragraph preceding the passage above, the Burke’s author quoted from Buchanan but truncated the original sentence, and it can be conjectured that the resulting loss of key information from the original source caused the misunderstanding.)  

Croslegh (1904).  In addition to its extensive chapter on the Calhoun family, Croslegh’s Descent and Alliances includes a brief chapter on the McCausland family (pp. 229-232).  Like Burke’s, Croslegh provides an extensive recap of Buchanan’s account, but he probably used either Betham’s pedigree or Burke’s as an additional source since he repeats the “Glen Douglas” claim.  Croslegh adds Alexander, the “last” baron McCausland mentioned by Buchanan, as a brother of Andrew and John, which, although probably incorrect, was not an unreasonable assumption.  The major new error that Croslegh introduces is the idea that John McCausland married Nancy, daughter of Alexander Colquhoun, 15^th/17^th of Luss.  I have discussed this error, which was repeated for over a century, at length in previous posts.

Buchanan’s own account (1723).  Even laying aside these derivative works, I believe Buchanan’s own account is problematic.  Alexander’s birth date is often cited as 1617 (with no evidence that I am aware of), and from this we might guess that his father was born about 1590 and came to Ireland when Alexander was a young boy, consistent with what Buchanan tells us.  However, as I argued in the last post, Alexander’s appearance on the 1631 muster roll in County Tyrone suggests he was born between 1600-1610.  If Alexander were born on the earlier side of that range, he could have come to Ireland himself as an adult.  Furthermore, I have seen no records of Alexander’s supposed father and uncle, Andrew and John, in Ireland, and the derivative works say virtually nothing about them, suggesting their authors found no records of them either.

A 1642 roster of soldiers in Sgt. Maj. James Galbraith’s company of Sir William Stewart’s regiment, mustered at Raphoe, Co. Donegal, includes the following names:

• Alex’r McCarsan, corporal
• Andrew McCawslan

Alexander’s father, who according to Buchanan was named Andrew, would have been well over 60 years old in 1642 and not likely to have gone into combat.  This Andrew, while probably related to Alexander, was more likely a younger relative.

The Barons McCausland

Buchanan never names the baron McCausland who was the father of the supposed Irish settlers, Andrew and John.  Most subsequent researchers, assuming the general correctness of Buchanan’s account, identify him as John McCausland of Caldenoch, who appears on a list of gentry whose property was despoiled during the Glen Finlas Raid of December 1602.  Researcher Polly Aird notes that this John died shortly after the Battle of Glen Fruin in 1603, and several researchers identify his wife as Margaret Graham or Grahame.  I have not independently verified any of this information, but this has been the consensus so far.

The following McCauslands of Caldenoch from the 16^th and 17^th centuries, who presumably belong to the lineage of the “barons”, have been previously identified by other researchers.  Importantly, two of them are stated to have married Colquhouns.

Patrick McCausland of Caldenoch (fl. 1535-1543).  Sources can be found at Lammermoor.org.  This Patrick had a brother named Donald and a wife named Marjory Colquhoun:

“Mr. Adam Colquhoun of Blairvaddoch sold to Patrick M’Causlane of Caldenocht, and Marjory Colquhoun, his spouse, an annual rent of ten merks Scots, from the lands of Letterwald-mor ; and on 20th February 1543 they granted him letters of reversion, engaging, on his payment of one hundred merks Scots, to renounce this annual rent in his favour.”

Fraser vol. 1, p. 100.

Adam Colquhoun of Blairvaddoch was a son of Sir John Colquhoun, 11^th/13^th of Luss.  The property of Letterwald-mor passed between several of Adam’s siblings, and so my guess is that Marjory Colquhoun was Adam’s half-sister of that name.  Marjory (likely born in the early 1490s) married Sir Duncan Campbell, who died in 1536 (Fraser vol. 1, p. 93).  Fraser does not state what happened to Marjory after that, but she could well have remarried to Patrick McCausland of Caldenoch.  Marjory would have been in her forties when they married, so she may or may not have been the mother of his children.  I suspect she was a second wife.

Patrick McCausland of Caldenoch (fl. 1599).  There is only a single known record that mentions this Patrick (see Lammermoor.org).  Although I cannot be certain, I suspect that he had no children and that the John McCausland below was his brother.

John McCausland of Caldenoch (fl. 1602).  This is the John McCausland generally identified as the father of the Irish settlers, Andrew and John, mentioned in Buchanan’s account.  Again, Polly Aird states he died in 1603, and his apparently short tenure as baron may be because he inherited the title from a brother and not his father.

Patrick McCausland of Caldenoch (d. before 1617).  The research of Bruce Andrews, citing earlier research of James Dennistoun deposited at PRONI, mentions this Patrick, who is said to have married Agnes Colquhoun.  I will discuss Patrick at length in the next section since I believe he is the true father of the Irish settlers.

John McCausland of Caldenoch (fl. 1657).  Mentioned on a valuation roll from 1657, he probably died in or shortly before 1664 (see Lammermoor.org for references).

Alexander McCausland of Caldenoch (fl. 1664).  Mentioned on a 1664 sasine of Caldenoch and other lands that states, “Alexander McCauslane as eldest lawful son and heir of the late John McCauslane of Caldenoch” (see Lammermoor.org).  I assume he is one and the same as the “last baron McCausland” whose daughter Janet sold Caldenoch and the rest of her family’s lands to her feudal superior, Sir Humphrey Colquhoun, 21^st/23^rd of Luss, sometime between 1694-1718.

Patrick McCausland of Caldenoch and his will

I was particularly intrigued by this Patrick McCausland because of the claim that he married Agnes Colquhoun, as stated by Bruce Andrews.  In his well-referenced work, Bruce relied heavily on research performed in June 1828 by James Dennistoun and deposited at PRONI as part of the McCausland file (D669/52B and C).  James Dennistoun (1803-1855) was a Scottish lawyer, historian, and record scholar whose skill with challenging genealogical material seems to have rivaled that of Fraser (see Richard Marsden.  “Cosmo Innes and the Sources of Scottish History c. 1825-1875”.  University of Glasgow Ph.D. thesis, 2011).

Since the time this article was originally posted, I have been able to view a transcription of Dennistoun’s research, thanks to Matthew Gilbert.  Although Dennison defers to Buchanan of Auchmar regarding the brothers Alexander and John who supposedly went to Ireland, the remainder of his research appears sound and independent.  He states that Patrick McCausland died by 1617; that he married Agnes, daughter of Humphrey Colquhoun; and that they had a son John McCausland who married Alison Napier of Kilmahew (near Cardross, Dunbartonshire) on 2 August 1611.  Like Fraser, Dennistoun was a Scotsman working from Scottish records, and he seems to have done little or no independent research on the Irish branch of the family, at least by 1828.  However, he did recognize the Irish branch’s importance with the following statement:

In case any of the Irish Macaslands should feel any interest in their Scottish progenitors, I shall always be happy to communicate any particulars of which I may become possessed: and in return it would give me great pleasure to obtain from them an authentic account of their branch.  Indeed I presume they must now be the chiefs of the name — and I believe that at all events they are likely rather to confer than to derive lustre from the old house of Calderoth.  With this view, in compiling the genealogies of Dumbartonshire, it would be a matter of importance that I should have the details of the Macaslands of the County of Tyrone.

James Dennistoun, June 1828 (PRONI D669/52).

(I will revisit this idea that the McCauslands of County Tyrone were generally recognized as the heirs to the leadership of the clan in the next section.)

Curious about the connection to Agnes Colquhoun, I looked for supporting evidence and came upon the probate records of Patrick McCausland of Caldenoch (dated August 1616, probated November 1617).  Like the Colquhoun wills from the same period, it is written in old Scottish secretary hand and is very challenging to read.  With the help of Jeff Homes and Mike Barr, we have managed to read some portions of it, particularly the names of family members.  They include the following:

• Patrick’s wife, Agnes Colquhoun.
• Patrick’s children, Robert, Alexander, Isabelle, and Janet McCausland.
• Patrick’s brother John McCausland.
• Patrick’s sister Catherine McCausland.
• Patrick’s eldest son, the late John McCausland, who was apparently married to Alison Napier, sister of John Napier of Kilmahew.
• John McCausland, son of Alexander McCausland.
• Agnes McCausland, widow of the late John Campbell.
• Robert Colquhoun of Ballernick, Alexander McAulay, and Patrick’s son Robert McCausland, all executors of the will.
• Alexander Colquhoun of Luss, to whom some money was owed.

The will confirms that Patrick was indeed married to an Agnes Colquhoun, and that he had at least five children, one of whom was named Alexander.  As one of the younger sons, Alexander could well have relocated to Ireland after their father’s death.  I suspect this is exactly what happened:  Buchanan was correct in that at least one son of a baron McCausland went to Ireland in the 1620s, but that settler was Alexander, son of Patrick, and not Andrew and John, sons of John.  (Alexander’s brother Robert seems not to have gone to Ireland, since a sasine dated 30 June 1651 mentions Patrick of Caldenoch [presumably a son of John and Alison] as well as a Patrick, son of Robert in Caldenoch.)

A Proposed Tree of the McCauslands of Caldenoch

Based on the evidence above, I propose the pedigree of the McCauslands of Caldenoch to be something like the figure below.  We have no real evidence for birth dates for anyone from that time period, so I have filled in approximate dates as a way of verifying that the tree is reasonable.  Relationships with strong support are drawn with solid lines; for example, Patrick’s will of 1617 names his wife, his children, and two siblings.  Relationships that are proposed in the absence of support are drawn with dotted lines; for example, Patrick’s will notes two other McCauslands who could be his siblings, but are not explicitly stated to be so, and Buchanan’s account mentions a third, Andrew.  Those in the lineage of barons of Caldenoch, chieftains of clan McCausland, are marked in boldface.

Those who I propose went to, or were born in, Ireland are shaded in green.  There may have been others that I am unaware of since there were other McCauslands recorded in Ireland in the 17^th century who I cannot place.

Proposed tree of the McCauslands of Caldenoch from the 16^th and 17^th centuries. See text for the conventions used.

An important piece of evidence linking Alexander (d. 1675) of Ireland with Patrick (d. 1617) of Scotland is a letter in the McCausland file at PRONI from Lt.-Col. Redmond Alexander Macausland of Woodbank, Garvagh, Co. Derry, N. Ireland to Peter MacAuslane of Glasgow dated 14 February 1942 (PRONI D669/56).  Redmond states, “I also have in my possession the original of a letter written to Oliver McCausland dated 171- (between 1710 & 1715) asking him to return to Scotland to ‘heid’ the Clan.  There is no record of his reply but there is a tradition in the family that he refused on the grounds that he was an Irishman and not a Scot.”  The original letter, also at PRONI (T609.1), is in fact dated 1711, suggesting that the recipient, Oliver McCausland, Esq., of Strabane, was Alexander McCausland’s eldest son of that name, who died in 1721.  

Opening lines of the letter from the McCauslands of “Kilbride in Glen Fruin” to Oliver McCausland, Esq. of Strabane dated 6 December 1711. (PRONI T609.1.)

An offer to assume the leadership of the clan would not have been sent to anyone, but rather to the person next in the line of succession.  Presumably, it was written shortly after the death of Alexander, the last baron McCausland, who had no sons and, we must assume, no surviving brothers or nephews to inherit the title and property.  While there were other McCauslands living in Dunbartonshire at that time, this offer was made specifically to Oliver, suggesting that he was the next in line of succession despite his having been born in Ireland.  Oliver was the eldest son of Alexander McCausland (d. 1675), and for him to have been next in the line of succession, his father must have been the younger brother of baron John McCausland (d. ca. 1664).  This supports the idea that Alexander McCausland (d. 1675) of Rash and Mountfield, Co. Tyrone, father-in-law of William Colhoun of Newtownstewart, was the son Alexander mentioned in the 1616 will of Patrick McCausland of Caldenoch.

This brings us full circle to the Calhouns.  I have marked the three known Calhouns who married into the McCausland family in red in the tree above.  Since this post has gone on waaaaay too long already, exactly how all of the Calhouns associated with the McCausland family in Scotland and Ireland fit together will have to wait for next time.  See you then!

Acknowledgements

This work grew directly out of a fruitful correspondence with Mike Barr, a long-time researcher of the McCausland family, with additional help from Elaine Hamilton, Matthew Gilbert, and Paul Calhoun.  They, in turn, built on earlier research by Bruce Andrews, Dave McCausland, Polly Aird, and others.  At different times Mike, Matthew, and Dave all sent photos or transcripts of important documents relating to the McCausland family.  Jeff Homes, Mike, and I together helped transcribe the probate records of Patrick McCausland as best we could.  Paul, Mike, Matthew, Elaine, and Dave all provided helpful comments on the early draft of this article.  I am grateful for all of their help in what has truly been a collaborative project.

Update, May 1, 2024

Thanks once again to help from others, I was able to update this article shortly after its original publication.  I would particularly like to thank “Captain Craigengelt” for his very helpful comments, which can be found below.  His comments helped interpret the will of Patrick of Caldenoch, correct the McCausland family chart, and update the links to his blog.  I would also like to thank Matthew Gilbert once again, this time for sharing his transcriptions of James Dennistoun’s research.

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© 2024 Brian Anton. All rights reserved.

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