McNaughton Background Summary

The first set of blogs centers around the McNaughton side of the family.  My Nanny (maternal grandmother) was a McNaughton, and much of what I have learned about this side of the family is from stories told by my mother Twink Akester. The source of the background information I am going to summarize is from the 1956 version of of "Our Family Tree And Its History" by Arnold McNaughton that was recently given to me.  His writings are also available online thanks to the efforts of Thomas Holmes. Since the details are available for you to read, below are the highlights I found most interesting.

Finlay McNaughton was born in 1780 in Letterfinlay. (Notice the last part of the town's name? I understand there was a naming pattern in Scotland based on locality. Though I have no confirmation this was the case for Finlay, it is probably a good guess!) As a young man Finlay trained in estate management at the Ross estate in Scotland. There he became close friends with John McFee, who married his oldest sister Catherine in 1800.  He also met his future wife Andria Black, a niece of the Ross's, and they married in 1807.

Towards the end of June 1821, the two friends - now family - left Scotland for North America on a sailboat with 14 children between them. They arrived in Quebec almost seven weeks later on August 21, 1821. They brought their Gaelic Bible with them, along with their Psalm book, and church certificates. Family worship would have been conducted in Gaelic.

Dunderave

Though the original plan was to settle in Ontario, after looking around Hemmingford Finlay bought most of the land between Hemmingford and Covey Hill. He decided to build on a property with a brook running through it.  An old log house on the site housed both families until Finlay built a new stone home that he called "Dunderave" after the ancestral castle in Scotland.  It took five years to build the home that he modeled in the style he knew from Scotland, with walls that were up to three feet thick in places. (Twink confirmed this piece of information; She has been in the home - at one point it was purchased by the first cousin of my father J.A. Henri Lemieux. Interesting twist!) 

Finlay and Andria were known to locals as "Uncle and Aunt Mack". They had 11 children, including a set of twins.  (In looking through the family tree, the number of twins noted in 130 years was 21, with the last set counted in 1951. I wonder how many there have been since?) Their youngest son was named after his father: Finlay. (I really love this name and wish someone in the family would use Finlay for their son.) 

Meet the McNaughtons: If you are interested in more information on the clan or the family tree, please see the links on the right.