The MacMillan Homestead

data which yet may be secured, to throw light upon our Scottish ancestry. It is to be regretted that more of this historical data is not available for this sketch. The writer is glad, however, to include cuts made from pictures taken by Malcolm MacKenzie, who recently visited the MacMillan country in Scotland. These pictures show the church yard where John MacMillan is buried, and a plaque which was placed in his honor in the parish church. While these pictures do not add to our fund of knowledge, they do tend to dispel the legendary element which surrounds his name, and make him more real to those who are proud to think of themselves as being not only his spiritual but his lineal descendants. the McMillans in Ireland When we deal with the McMillans in Ireland, we come to that time and place where the family record begins to take definite shape. But here, too, we are left in doubt as to the origin of the family in the Emerald Isle. There are several stories to account for their presence. The most interesting is that this particular MacMillan in one of the battles which the Covenanters had with the Forces of the Crown killed one of the persecuting band, and later fled to Ireland to save his life. As we are often reminded that one swallow does not make a summer, it is not likely that one McMillan can account for all that happened in Ireland during the time the McMillans sojourned there. The best explanation which would seem to account for most of the facts, is to recall that some time after the John MacMillan era, and following a war which the Crown of England had with the ruling powers of Ireland, in which the Crown Forces were successful in driving the Irish Catholics from several of the northern counties, it was determined that these northern counties should be colonized by a large number of Protestant families from Scotland, including in all probability a large sprinkling of our Covenanter forebears. These would-be colonizers, in addition to holding this land, were given the task of acting as a bulwark against Catholicism, inasmuch as the war itself was largely a religious war. But like so many of these human undertakings, especially when selfishness and greed play too prominent a part, the promises which were made were not kept. Instead of being 10

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