Lochaber on the west coast of Scotland, possible place of origin for the McPhee clan
Decades ago, I became aware of the conundrum that was the McPhee family. Visits to the family farm in River Bourgeois happened often in this large family. When I was there, the talk was in English and French. I remember thinking it was odd that the family name was so Scottish when they were in such a French part of Cape Breton. At the time I supposed that some time in the mid 1800s, a lone male McPhee wandered into that part of Nova Scotia, married an Acadian woman and had been assimilated.
Until last week, my research didn't go very far into the McPhee line. It was then that I received an email about one of the DNA kits I manage. The email mentioned a 2nd to 4th cousin match with a connection to Scotland. Intrigued, I got out the bits and pieces I had and spent a few nights on Ancestry. Turns out my theory of the assimilated lone male McPhee in the mid 1800s was a bit off the mark.
The McPhee line I am researching goes back in River Bourgeois and other parts of Isle Madame in Cape Breton for four generations. That's many generations of assimilation into Acadian/French culture and there are names in that line like Louis and Regis that fit into the French mindset. Before the move to Cape Breton, the fifth generation back appears to have been started by John McPhee who was born in Quebec around 1756.
It's all very interesting but doesn't really answer the question of why this French family had the Scottish surname of McPhee. The timing of John McPhee's birth in Quebec is suggestive. 1756 was just a few years after some momentous upheavals in both the Acadian and Scottish worlds.
1755 was the year of the expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia but the Acadians in Cape Breton were not driven from Isle Madame. In fact, Acadians came from outside the community to settle there.* Ten years prior to the disruption of the Acadians, the Scots, particularly the Highland Scots, had gone through a major upheaval of their own, when Bonnie Prince Charlie and his supporters were defeated at Culloden. There were a number of McPhees named in the muster rolls of Prince Charles' army. Could the father of John McPhee, born in 1756 in Quebec, be one of the men who had fled from Scotland as they were hunted down by Cumberland's army after the defeat?#
River Bourgeois (Inlet) Lighthouse
There are many things to speculate about as my research uncovers information about this McPhee line and I hope to find many more answers. The questions keep coming, not the least of which why there is a 2nd to 4th cousin DNA match leading back to Scotland when I can count 8 to 9 generations of this particular McPhee line in Canada. Is this a case of more endogamy in action?
Sources:
*Vernon, C.W. Cape
Breton Canada at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century (1902). Global
Heritage Press Inc, Campbellville, Ontario, 2006
#Livingsone,
Alastair, Christian W.H. Aikan, Betty Stuart Hart. No Quarter Given: The Muster Roll of Prince Charles Edward Stuart’s
Army, 1745 – 46. Neil Wilson Publishing Ltd. Glasgow, 2001
Images:
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Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right, CC BY-SA
3.0,
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Dennis Jarvis from Halifax, Canada - DGJ_4958 - River Bourgeois (Inlet)
LighthouseUploaded by X-Weinzar, CC BY-SA 2.0,
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