McMillan & Cameron to Aust 1838-39; Col John Cameron of Fassifern
Does anyone recognize any of the following people, and if so, can supply further information?
McMILLANS AND CAMERONS TO NSW (AUSTRALIA) 1838-39
My McMillan great-great-great grandparents who emigrated from Fort William, Inverness, Scotland, to New South Wales, Australia, were WILLIAM McMILLAN (born 20 February 1810 at or near Fort William) and his wife FLORA McMILLAN(née McMILLAN) (born 1814).
Before emigrating they lived and worked at or near Fort William, as shepherds. William had also served for two years in the 92nd Highlander Regiment, composed mainly of men of the Clan Cameron, though he may not have seen any active military service. He could read and write in Gaelic, according to emigration documents. Flora could read but not write Gaelic.
Great-great-great grandfather William was a son of ANGUS McMILLAN and FLORA McMILLAN (maidenname not known yet, unless it was also McMillan)).
Great-great-great grandmother Flora was a daughter of HUGH (EWAN or EWEN) McMILLAN, a farmer in the parish of Kilmallie, and his wife ANNE McMILLAN (née CAMERON).
William and Flora had two children in Scotland, both born at (or near) Fort William:
ANGUS McMILLAN, born 15 January 1835; died at Dubbo, NSW, 27 October 1912; and
MARY ANN McMILLAN (born 2 March 1838; died at Dubbo, NSW, 23 March 1930, as the widow of James Samuels jnr).
According to one family tradition William suffered from poor health and, at the time of ‘the clearances’ in the Highlands, responded to advertising in 1838 in the Fort William area of assisted migration to the growing British colony of NSW (no longer willing to receive convict labour). It was thought that the warmer, drier climate might improve his health.
William, Flora and their young children were in the first batch of migrants from the Fort William and Lochaber areas in western Scotland and left by the emigration ship "Boyne", which they had to join at Cromarty. After delays, it finally left there on 1 September 1838 and reached Sydney on 2 January 1839. Also on the trip was Flora’s sister CATHERINE McMILLAN.
[Among the 284 assisted (free) emigrants on the "Boyne" were several of the name CAMERON: Dr EWEN CAMERON of Achdalieu(w), Kilmallie, who acted as the ship’s surgeon on the trip out to NSW. We used to think he was a brother to Flora McMILLAN’s mother ANNE McMILLAN (née CAMERON), but some family researchers now claim that is not so. Another Cameron (not necessarily related) on the ship was one DUNCAN CAMERON, who acted as ‘schoolmaster’ (probably for the migrants’ children). Also on the ship were three Cameron brothers and their families, not necessarily related to either Dr Ewen Cameron or Duncan Cameron:
HUGH, GEORGE and ALLAN CAMERON. Hugh Cameron eventually became the grandfather of MARY JEAN (or JANE) CAMERON, better known to Australian history and literature by her married name and her later title, DAME MARY GILMORE (1865–1962). Most of my information about the trip on the "Boyne" comes from W.H. Wilde’s "Courage à grace: a biography of Dame Mary Gilmore" (Melbourne University Press, 1988) (see pp. 11–21).]
After reaching Sydney on 2 January 1839 my McMillans went inland to work as shepherds on one of the stations (pastoral runs or farms) of Robert Venour Dulhunty – ‘Old Dubbo Station’, in the vicinity of the future town of Dubbo. Despite the warmer climate William still died young at 32, at the nearby station of Saul Samuel at Euromedah on 25 September 1842, but not before another child was born, ANNE McMILLAN, in 1840.
In 1843 Flora, William McMillan’s 29-year-old widow, with three young children, married a 34-year-old farmer Robert Garland. He died in 1860 and Flora in 1875 (only 61), but by that time she had seen her children marry:
1858: daughter Mary Ann to a successful local landowner and cattle breeder James Samuels jnr (from Bristol);
1864: second daughter Anne to Thomas Brisbane Brown (whose brother James Buckley Brown married James Samuels jnr’s sister Catherine Samuels in 1868);
1865: son Angus to Sophia Campbell Skinner.
Flora also had seen her son-in-law James Samuels jnr elected in 1872 to the first municipal council of Dubbo and as the town’s first mayor (1872–75).
Catherine McMillan, Flora’s sister, married one Samuel Munday.
McMILLANS RELATED TO COLONEL JOHN CAMERON OF FASSIFERN?
According to an old family letter, great-great grand-uncle Angus McMillan (1835-1912) used to tell stories of an ‘uncle’ Colonel Cameron who died leading the charge at Quatre Bras on 16 April 1815, two days before Waterfloo. This was COLONEL JOHN CAMERON (1771-1815) of Fassifern, who was a great grandson of John Cameron the 18th chief, a grandnephew of Donald Cameron the 19th chief and a second cousin of Donald Cameron the 22nd chief of Clan Cameron (chief 1776-1832).
A Clan Cameron website gives this John Cameron no siblings or other close Cameron relatives whom I can connect with my great-great-great grandmother Anne McMillan (née Cameron). But apparently he was brought up by a ‘fosterfather’ (surely a relative) Ewen Bàn MacMillan of Kinlocharkaig and at Quatre Bras he was supported in battle by his ‘fosterbrother’ another Ewen MacMillan.
Could one of these two Ewens have been the husband of my Anne McMillan (née Cameron)? If so, it would have made him an uncle of sorts to my Ewen and Anne’s daughter Flora and so a sort of grand-uncle to Angus McMillan. I cannot prove the identification and link as yet.
Any help would be appreciated.
Tony Rainer
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
18 April 2007
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Re: McMillan & Cameron to Aust 1838-39; Col John Cameron of Fassifern
Tony Rainer 4/25/07