Notes On John Dallas, farmer at Culloden (b. abt. 1777), and His Possible Origins

It can be stated with a very high degree of certainty that my Dallas line is descended through William Dallas, born about 1818 to John Dallas, a farmer at Culloden in Inverness-shire. This is attested to in our family history notes (probably authored by my second-great grandfather, Rev. James Maxwell Dallas, b. 1861). Several other documents generated during (or shortly after) his life also state this, including: (1) James’s passport application, (2) South Carolina death certificate, and (3) Scottish birth record.

Likewise, I can state the following about William — sometimes, and possibly erroneously, referred to as “William Cantry (or Cantray)” — with reasonable certainty:

• He died in New Elgin, Moray, Scotland on 25 June 1879, per the statutory record of his death.
• He was buried in Elgin New Cemetery (West), under a headstone with the following inscription:
  

  265. Erected to the memory of WILLIAM DALLAS who died at New Elgin, June 15th 1879, aged 59 years. Also his beloved son WILLIAM DALLAS who died at Manach Hill, June 1st 1897, aged 49 years. Also of his wife JESSIE TAYLOR, who died at New Elgin, 1st April 1905, aged 79 years. Their son ALEXANDER who died at 36 Nicol Street, New Elgin on 23rd January 1938 aged 84 years.

  (Per Mitchell, Mitchell and Bishop, “Monumental Inscriptions: Elgin Cemetery (West) and New Elgin War Memorial, Parish of Elgin, Moray”, The Moray Burial Ground Research Group, May 2012.

• He married Jessie Taylor at Pluscarden 22 December 1846, per the Elgin Parish parochial record.

The circumstances of William’s birth are a bit more ambiguous. Throughout the record, it is clear that his father was named John and was a farmer at Culloden (in Inverness Parish). It is also clear that his mother’s name is Catherine, with a maiden surname given as “McPhail.”  The age-at-death given by both the headstone, and the statutory death record, would imply that he was born in late 1819 or early 1820. My family history notes (again, likely composed by James, his son) states however that William was born in 1818.

Although not universal, it was the usual practice that children would be baptized shortly after birth. There are three baptismal records for a child named “William Dallas” in the Old Parish Records (O.P.R.) for Inverness, that fall within 5 years of 1820:

• 7 March 1818, son of William Dallas and Janet Mackintosh
• 13 August 1818, son of John Dallas and Catherine Mackintosh
• 25 November 1823, son of Roderick Dallas and Elizabeth Fraser

The strongest candidate (and the one which appears to be accepted by most family researchers) is the 13 August 1818 record, which indicates therefore that James was likely correct regarding his father William being born in 1818, and the headstone and death record are likely off by one year.

It is highly probable that this John and Catherine are the ones listed on page 456 of The History of The Family of Dallas And Their Connections And Descendants From The Twelfth Century, by James Dallas of Edinburgh (not my second-great-grandfather):

John Dallas, farmer, Culloden m. Catherine M’Intosh, 9th January 1807, by whom he had: (1) Lauchlan, bp. 20th August 1807; (2) Alexander, bp. 1st May 1810; (3) Margaret, bp. 15th November 1815; (4) William, bp. 13th August 1818.

There is a death record of a Lauchlan Dallas who died in New Elgin on 16 July 1864 at the age (perhaps approximate) of 60, who also shows “John Dallas” as his father and “Catherine Dallas m.s. McPhail” as his mother. The death was reported by his sister-in-law Janet Dallas (note that Jessie was sometimes used as a pet name for Janet in Scotland, not just for Jessicas). The death was also recorded by the same registrar (James Allen) who recorded the death of William. Given the circumstances, it seems highly probable that this gentleman was William’s brother. There is also a similar record of a Margaret Mackintosh (nee Dallas), born in Culloden (approximately 1818), who was probably William’s sister, in 1855, in Daviot and Dunlichty.

In tracing the line back through time, the next series of questions thus, are the identity and pedigree of “John Dallas, farmer at Culloden” as well as his wife Catherine.

Note that I am unsure as to why Catherine is identified as a “Mackintosh” in the baptismal record of William (as well as his siblings: Lauchlan, Alexander, and Margaret), but as “MacPhail” in their death records. It is possible that she remarried after the death of John; it is also possible that she may have had multiple or synonymous surnames.

Common sense would suggest that William would have been conceived during the child-bearing years of his parents, so they were probably older than 14 and younger than 45. We can further reduce this time frame, by noting that William’s eldest brother Lauchlan was baptized in 1807 and that John and Catherine likely married earlier in that same year. Therefore, a sensible range for the birth years of John and Catherine would be ca. 1772 to 1793.

There are several records in the local O.P.R. which plausibly could belong to John Dallas, farmer at Culloden, and father of William:

• 13 June 1776, born to Rodrick Dallas and Marjory Grant (in Inverness Parish)
• 19 August 1776, born to Rodrick Dallas and Marjroy Grant (in Inverness Parish)
• 4 August 1777, born to William Dallas and Catherine McGillavrey (in Inverness Parish)
• 9 July 1781, born to James Dallass and Isable Sinclair (in Inverness Parish)
• 12 February 1781, born on the 5th to John Dallas and Jean McLean (in Croy and Dalcross)
• 14 March 1782, born to James Dallass and Jean McLennan (in Inverness Parish)
• 23 January 1783, born to James Dallass and Isable Sinclair (in Inverness Parish)
• 17 May 1783, born to James Dallas and Marjory Campble (in Inverness Parish)

Rev. James M. Dallas’s notes set forth several criteria by which we might consider these candidates:

• James states that “Our family descends from a younger so[n] of James [Dallas of Cantray], who died in 1745 at Culloden.”
• “Our grandfathers seem to have had been named James and John for generations…
• “…and their remains until the year 1843 were interred in the Dallas family ground in Croy Church-yard.”
• James also states that John was born in Culloden in 1777.

The first clue of is likely a red herring; James Dallas of Cantray is only known to have had one son, William “the Last” of Cantray. See The History of The Family of Dallas, page 184. I have also examined the testament dative of James Dallas of Cantray. If there were any “younger sons”, they seem not to have been recorded anywhere – which seems doubly unusual for a child of a renowned and powerful family.

To be sure, James Dallas of Cantray did have four daughters. Furthermore, A number of McGillavreys served as Mackintosh officers at the Battle of Culloden. But I have a deep suspicion that the assertion that we are direct descendants of James Dallas of Cantray is incorrect, probably resulting from some combination of legitimate confusion and Victorian-era Jacobite nostalgia (what blogger Patrick Langille calls the ‘Walker’s Shortbread Tin’ narrative of Scottish history”).

The second clue given to us by the Rev. James Maxwell Dallas is that the name may have been James or John. This would seem to favor the records of 9 July 1781, 14 March 1782, 23 January 1783, and 17 May 1783. Note however that two of these records belong to the same family; it seems likely that the John Dallas born in 1781 died as an infant.

The James Dallass who was married to Isable Sinclair is described in The History of The Family of Dallas as “a soldier in the 42nd Regiment in Essich, Knocklahit, and latterly grieve of Dochfour.”  (The 42nd Regiment also being known as The Black Watch). The James Dallas married to Marjory Campbell appears to have been a pewterer.

The third clue given to us is that the grandfathers were buried in Croy Churchyard. I have reviewed The Highland Family History Society’s booklet, “Monumental Inscriptions Croy Churchyard” (2002) and can only identify William Dallas (father of the John Dallas born on 4 August 1777) as being buried there. His inscription reads:

{Slab} (under turf, at 1m) Intaired here is the body of William DALLAS, black smith in Culloden, who died Febry 17th 1798, aged 71 yr.

Given the antiquity of the graves, it is possible however that some other candidate grandfathers were buried there, and their stones have decayed or been removed. Furthermore, the O.P.R. for Inverness and Nairn deaths appears to be missing (or was never written).

As for the fourth clue, the only John Dallas to be born in Culloden in 1777 was born to William Dallas, black smith. However, note that only one John is mentioned on page 454 of The History of The Family of Dallas – and he was born in 1762. Oddly, it seems that this family (which had no fewer than 14 children!) named two different sons John – and that both lived to adulthood.

If we focus simply on geography, rather than time, then the children of Rodrick Dallas (and I am uncertain whether there were two children or one child that were for some reason baptized twice) would seem to be poor fits; the baptismal registers indicate that Rodrick was a farmer in Cuduthil, which is several miles west of Culloden and Croy (both of which are east of Inverness, along the River Nairn). The same might be said of James and Isable; Essich is even farther away, but The History of The Family of Dallas puts them squarely in Culloden. The only other candidate who is explicitly listed as being in Culloden, is James Dallas, a servant, whose John was baptized on 14 March 1782.

Based on these clues, and the presumption that we should assume that Rev. James M. Dallas is correct unless proven otherwise (he being much closer to his grandfather), I would rank the most plausible candidates accordingly, from most-to-least plausible:

1. 4 August 1777, born to William Dallas and Catherine McGillavrey (in Inverness Parish)
2. 14 March 1782, born to James Dallass and Jean McLennan (in Inverness Parish)
3. 12 February 1781, born on the 5th to John Dallas and Jean McLean (in Croy and Dalcross)
4. 23 January 1783, born to James Dallass and Isable Sinclair (in Inverness Parish)

Additional research and circumstantial evidence may shed further light on this and help to reduce the number of plausible candidates. I have already made a cursory search for information about the baptism witnesses; I have not yet turned up anything. It is my dear hope that some day I can resolve this mystery!

Update 1: One item which I considered but rejected as a criterion was the “traditional Highlands naming pattern.” It is said that the first son in a family was typically named after the paternal grandfather; the second after the maternal grandfather; and the third after the father. It appears that this pattern was not adhered to by John and Catherine (there is no record of a John son of Lauchlan, or of John having a son named John). That is not surprising; this tradition seems to have been abandoned sometime around the turn of the 19th Century. So in this case, the naming pattern is not a useful tool for deducing the names of grandfathers. However, I would note that per The History of the Family of Dallas, it looks like at least some of the candidate lines did, in earlier generations, practice this tradition (William Dallas the blacksmith appears to have done so). If I can definitely prove a line, then the naming pattern could be useful for going back further in time.

Update 2: It is, of course, possible that none of the proposed lines above represent my family; the records are certainly incomplete, and there is a non-zero chance that the family was Catholic or members of the Free Church (and thus would not have appeared in the O.P.R. prepared by the established Church of Scotland). I do think those are fringe, unlikely possibilities, however.