My Lamont Heritage and Triumph over Tragedy

My Lamont Heritage and Triumph over Tragedy

In my recent blog on my Lamont heritage I recounted how as a young lad I had spent considerable time exploring and getting to know  the lands of Cowal and Bute . It transpired that  my Lamont antecedents  had  been  born and  lived there and about – something  which I was ,in those far off  days ,totally unaware !My mother was a Lamont . I was the third  generation  to have been  born and  brought up far distant  from our native soil . My great grandfather John Lamont had been  born on the Island of Bute in 1841  the son of Colin Lamont , fisherman and crofter .The famine  of the 1840s destroyed the potatoes in the  fields and also  saw the herring desert the waters of the Forth of Clyde and head westwards to the colder  waters of the Atlantic , The Lamonts  became domiciled in Glasgow and Colin the  herring fisher became a venetian blind painter !

My researches into my family history preceded the era of the computer and the myriad of programmes   designed to assist  one in  tracing  their past . I spent many a day in the National Records Office in Edinburgh and  the  incredibly well appointed research  facilities in Glasgow’s Mitchell Library . On reflection one realises just how long research in detail  took ! What transpired  to have  been an absolute god send  was  being able  to borrow  from the National Library of Scotland ( through  our  local library ) that incredibly  detailed  tome ( written by Edinburgh advocate Hector McKechnie) namely  “ The Lamont Clan “ .The Lamonts  had for countless generations quarrelled  with the  much larger  Campbell  Clan headed  by the Duke of Argyll and  based in not too distant Inveraray on  Loch Fyneside  . This ongoing contretemps erupted  in a  vicious  attack by the Campbells when over 200 male  Lamonts  were massacred in 1646 near Dunoon . 

As a result of this atrocity many Lamonts changed  their  names  in attempt to protect  themselves from  further attack by the Campbells . Many changed their name  from Lamont  to colours such as  Black – Brown and White as well as using the older Lamon sept names . It  was this latter  avenue  that  my  ancestors  chose . The name McPhorich is such  a Lamont sept and according  to McKechnie  resided in that part of Cowal known as Inverchaolin ( pronounced Inver – hoo- lin ) and around  the area of the old home of the clan chief at  Knockdow . 

My McPhorichs farmed at Towardnuilt near where the light house now stands. My 4 x Great grandfather was John Lamont aka  McPhorich born at the farm about 1746 John had  one  brother , Neil ,  who was some  years  older than him . John married a Katherine Lamont in 1771 and they had a son named Neil. Sadly Katherine  died some years late  and was buried in Inverchaolain Churchyard beside a daughter who had pre deceased her . John and his brother Neil moved   to Ardenslate near Dunoon and worked as herring curers by the nearby Holy Loch. John then remarried to a Catherine Buchanan , the daughter of a local farmer.

George Buchanan tutor  to Mary Queen of Scots 

 Interestingly we know that Catherine was descended from George Buchanan, the eminent scholar and tutor to Mary Queen of Scots. This is confirmed in a letter from Daniel Scott Lamont, US politician and Secretary of State for War in Cleveland’s administration to Noman Lamont the younger of Knockdow in 1898. Daniel was the great grandson of John Lamont my 4 x great grand father and per se a distant cousin .

This period in Scottish history was one of turbulence both in politics as well as in religious life. John and Neil were what was termed Seceders, part of a  large group who broke away from the established Kirk or Church in the 1730s  They worshiped in  a draughty and smoky  barn  at Towardnuilt n.ear their old home. The minister was the famed lexicographer Dr Jamieson who is remembered as the author of The Dictionary of The Scottish Language. Things  were proving more than a little difficult for both John and Neil and their respective families. The landlord was one Campbell of South Hall Perhaps  due to the fact that they were Lamonts or indeed  were Seceders  , the brothers and their families  were  evicted . It is known that a petition was drawn up and  signed by all the Lairds with exception of Lamont of Knockdow ,  citing their religious  beliefs as  being a  valid  excuse  for ending their  tenancies . To quote Daniel Scott Lamont’s letter : “ Neil, Johns brother and partner, being ill at the time of removal, could not be removed from the place, but was taken into the barn, where he died, almost in the hands of his tormentors. He was an exceptionally fine man. A murmur was scarcely ever heard from the lips of those who suffered the most- they were happy, contented, and industrious .“

John  , his family and that of his late brother  crossed  over  the moorland above Hafton and made their  way  to Ardyne  from whence they crossed over the  narrow water of the Firth of Clyde  to Port Bannatyne on the island of Bute . It is understood that thanks to  the good offices  of a  sympathetic  Laird at nearby Kames they were  able  to build  a house in the town . John incorporated within the structure a  place of worship complete  with a pulpit designed  to imitate  that of St Giles in Edinburgh .

John had befriended  a Baptist preacher  from the little  village of Strachur to the  north of Port Bannatyne. One day in 1805  McArthur began  to preach  to a  small gathering in Port Bannatyne  He was  aware  that South Hall (  who had  evicted John and Neil ) was trying  to arrest  him for holding an illegal gathering  and so  he ensured  he  was standing  below  the high tide water  mark which was out with their jurisdiction . South Hall attracted  the  attention  of a Royal Navy sloop passing  by and   formerly arrested McArthur. This happened  to be immediately prior  to the Battle  of Trafalgar in the ongoing Napoleonic Wars being fought between Britain and France. It transpired that he was beingheld on a government vessel at Liverpool England As it was illegal to impress a man of the cloth on a naval ship , John sought  legal advice  and together with his  son Archibald Lamont and a friend sailed in a sloop, to secure his release. The mission was successful and the Court of Session in Edinburgh awarded  John 100 guineas in damages and compensation  against  South Hall his Campbell  aggressor!

John died some four years later but his son Archibald sailed  to the US where  his  descendants  still live . To discover  such a  fascinating family background and the trials and tribulations  of one’s ancestors is a reward in itself .