Hugh MacKay lived in what is now Bonny River in the parish of St. George, Charlotte County, New Brunswick. He was already an old man when he wrote his will on July 5, 1844. When he died on Jan. 28, 1848, he was 96 years old. He was buried in St. Mark’s Cemetery in St. George. His stone reads:
Sacred to the Memory of Hugh MacKay Esq.
Late of Suther Hall St. George.
Who Departed this Life 28th January A. D. 1848 in the 97th Year of his Age.
He was a Native of Sutherlandshire Scotland.
Served during the American Revolutionary War as an Officer in the Queen’s American Rangers Regiment of Foot.
And was for many Years Colonel of the Charlotte County Militia.
And was Leading Member in the House of Assembly of the Province for the said County.
There is no indication that Hugh ever married. His nephew, Hugh Matheson, was born about 1802 according to his stone in Second Falls United Baptist Cemetery. (See http://www.rootsweb.com/~nbpstgeo/stge4a.htm.) The same source tells us that he was from Glasgow, Scotland. In the 1851 St. George census, he stated that he arrived in New Brunswick in 1821. At the time the census was taken, he was 49 years old and he was listed as a farmer, born in Scotland. His wife, Isabella, was 48. Their children were George, 26; Daniel, 17; John, 14; Christina, 10; Hugh, 6; and Mary, 1. Isabella and all of the children were born in New Brunswick.
Charlotte Campbell was my husband’s great-great-great-grandmother. She was born Charlotte Montford, and according to later census records of some of her children, she was from Scotland. Her husband was John Campbell who was also from Scotland. There is no indication that either one of them was related to Hugh MacKay. See http://www.carensecord.ca/families/Campbell.html for more information on their family. A record of Charlotte’s burial appears in St. Mark’s Church register on Feb. 5, 1856: “Charlotte Campbell (adult) of the parish of St. George was interred this day in a private place near her residence”. Given the similarity of this record that also appears in St. Mark’s register, on May 13, 1857: “John Campbell (adult) of the parish of St. George was interred this day in a private burying ground, St. George”, we assumed that this John was Charlotte’s husband. The situation is complicated by the fact that John and Charlotte do not appear in the 1851 census for St. George, or anywhere in Charlotte County, and there are no stones for them in any cemetery in the area. Hugh MacKay’s will suggests that Charlotte’s husband may have died long before 1857. There are two other possibilities : John and Charlotte may have separated, or John might have been unable to earn a living due to ill health. It's my belief that it was one of the latter two possibilities that prompted Hugh to provide support to Charlotte, likely as early as 1844 when the will was written. We know from John Campbell's 1810 land petition (found in PANB Land Petitions RS 108, film F4173, and mixed in with the papers of a John Campbell from Northumberland County) that he was born in Scotland and came over when very young with his parents, and that his father was a sergeant in the 74th Regiment. John appears on the Roll of the Disbanded Men, Women and Children of the 74th Regt present at St Andrews, Passamaquoddy Bay Nova Scotia, May 20th 1784 as a child under ten. As the 74th Regiment crossed the Atlantic in 1778, that narrows down John's year of birth to between 1774 and 1778. That would make him between about 66 and 70 in 1844 when the will was written. If John was still living in 1851 and either separated from Charlotte or in ill health, then I think he was probably the man of that name living with Susannah Waltman and family, as listed in the 1851 census for the parish of St. George, and described there as Susannah's brother. Susannah was likely the child Susannah Campbell who appeared next to John Campbell on the roll of the 74th Regiment, as above, and I think she was indeed his sister. Susannah was probably born while the regiment was stationed in the Castine area of Maine from about 1779 to 1784, when members of the regiment who didn't want to return to Scotland came to what is now Charlotte County. The one problem with the assumption that the John Campbell living with Susannah Waltman in 1851 was the man married to Charlotte is that his age is given in that census as 60, and his place of birth as New Brunswick. Susannah's age was given as 80, and her place of birth as the US. If you look at Susannah's pension records at PANB as online at http://archives.gnb.ca/Search/OldSoldiers/?culture=en-CA, you will see that in her initial petition, dated 1840, she said that she was 59 years old, had married Peter Waltman in 1796, and that he had died in 1827. This information does seem accurate. However, in subsequent documents the information she provided kept changing, and it was clear that she had suffered some loss of memory. It seems possible that at the time of the 1851 census Charlotte had gone to visit family members with her son William (perhaps sons Colin and John in Pembroke, Maine) and that John was left behind with his sister Susannah, due to either the earlier-mentioned separation or ill health. Susannah and in fact John too might have been suffering from dementia then, in which case it would not be surprising if the information provided to the enumerator about ages and places of birth was inaccurate.
If that does explain why Charlotte needed support, the reason for Hugh's choice to provide that support is a mystery. They had known each other for a long time, though. In the 1810 land petition described above, Hugh helped John Campbell in a successful bid for a land grant in Piskahegan. At the end of the petition is a testimonial from Hugh:
I hereby certify that the memorialist has resided in my neighbourhood upwards of Twenty years – during all which time he has conducted himself with great propriety is a Staunch Loyalist – and of Sufficient ability to make the necessary improvements upon the Land he asks for.
Hugh MacKay
It’s interesting that the piece of land set aside in Hugh’s will to provide the means of supporting Charlotte:
…bounded…on the North by lands owned and occupied by one James Moreland…
was very likely the land on which she and John lived (and which they apparently rented from Hugh) from the early 1820s on. John and Charlotte did live on their land in Piskahegan, but according to family recollections they were back in Bonny River before their youngest son, William, was born in 1828. There is no record of a purchase of land by them in Bonny River. However, there is a mention of a John Campbell in the description of a lot of land sold by Aaron and Eunice Linton to James and Samuel Moreland on Aug. 16, 1822 (obtained from the Service New Brunswick office in the Ganong Building, 73 Milltown Blvd., St. Stephen, NB E3L 1G5, in the county land registers, Book L, page 123):
…beginning at the northwest corner of a tract of land now owned by Hugh McKay Esquire and by him purchased of David Lloyd and at present occupied by John Campbell…
From this it would appear that John and Charlotte Campbell and the Morelands lived on adjacent lots. Ronald, the eldest son of John and Charlotte, married Anne Moreland in 1828. She was probably a sister of James and Samuel Moreland.
Alexander MacKay, though he had the same last name as Hugh, was described in the will as a friend rather than a relative. It seems that the land which Hugh left in trust for the Alexander MacKay family was in part land that had been granted to Alexander in 1832. The index to land registers for the county (from the same source as the Linton/Moreland deed mentioned above) shows that Hugh MacKay bought land from Alexander MacKay in a transaction that was registered in Book Q, page 181. I don’t have a copy of the deed, but Book Q transactions were registered in 1837 or thereabouts, though the transaction itself could have occurred in an earlier year. In the 1851 census for St. George Parish, Alexander and his wife Mary were both age 50. Their children were Isabella, 22; Henrietta, 17; Georgiana, 15; Eric, 12; and Thomas, 8. Alexander was a farmer, and he, Mary and Isabella were all born in Scotland and had arrived in New Brunswick in 1829. The other children were all born in New Brunswick.
Catherine Sutherland's connection to Hugh MacKay is an interesting puzzle. I am grateful to Marilyn Bonvie, Cal Craig and Charlene Beney (at http://www.rootsweb.com/~nbpstgeo/) for providing useful information. Of course, it's possible that the Catherine Sutherland mentioned in Hugh MacKay's will was not living in the area, though you would expect her place of residence to be listed in that case. Another possibility is that she had died between the time the will was written and the 1851 census was taken. Assuming that she was still living in the county in 1851, though, then she is listed in that census for St. George parish as Catherine Sutherland, wife of Andrew Sutherland, age 27 and born in New Brunswick. Andrew was 30, and he and their three children: Christiana, 8; Peter, 6; and George, 4; were all born in New Brunswick as well. In addition, they had Andrew’s mother Flora Sutherland, age 69 and born in Scotland, living with them. Flora stated that she had arrived in New Brunswick in 1810.
In St. Mark’s church records (see http://www.rootsweb.com/~nbpstgeo/stge4b1.htm), there is a baptism of a Catherine McVicar, daughter of George and Christianna, on April 1, 1825 at the age of five months. Marilyn Bonvie has done much work on the McVicars, and her notes state that George and Christiana McVicar did have a daughter Catherine who married a Sutherland. The whole family is said to have moved to Wisconsin. According to Marilyn, George McVicar was the son of Angus and Janet (Weir) McVicar, and Christiana was the daughter of Peter and Catherine (Martin) McVicar. Considering that the difference in age between Hugh and Catherine Sutherland was about 74 years, it is very unlikely that this Catherine could have been his niece anyway, but even as a great-niece it's difficult to see how they could be connected as the McVicars were from Argyll, Scotland and Hugh from Sutherlandshire.
Perhaps the connection comes through Catherine's husband Andrew Sutherland instead. Cal Craig's "Craigdex" found items on the Sutherlands in issues of Generations, which is the quarterly publication of the New Brunswick Genealogical Society. In issue 64 (Summer 1995), on page 28, there is a list of New Brunswick strays submitted by Warren Hasty, complied from various Wisconsin County history books.
Sutherland, Andrew born 5 Dec. 1820 in St. George, N.B., son of Alexander Sutherland of Sutherland Shire, Scotland and his mother Flora MacInnis of Mull, Scotland; married Catherine MacVicar, dau. of George and Christina McVicar.
In issue 68 (Summer 1996), Warren Hasty has again submitted information on Strays, and on page 15 there is a piece about John Sutherland. The source is History of South Dakota by Doan Robinson, published by B. F. Bowen, 1904. Described as a lawyer in the capital city of the state, John was born in Charlotte County, New Brunswick, on Feb. 18. 1858. His parents were Andrew and Catherine (McVicar) Sutherland who moved to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, about 1860.
Andrew Sutherland's father was actually also named Andrew, not Alexander, as the first Strays entry, above, states. See http://www.rootsweb.com/~nbpstgeo/stge4d.htm for the cemetery records of Andrew and Flora:
= Flora w/o the late
Andrew Sutherland d. 8 Feb 1854 ae 78 yrs
= Andrew Sutherland d.
22 Jun 1836 ae 54 yrs
The LDS International Genealogical Index (IGI) has a marriage for Andrew Sutherland and Flora McInnes on Feb. or Mar. 27, 1803 in Barony, Lanark, Scotland. The IGI also lists one child from this marriage: Alexander, who was born Dec. 21, 1806 in Barony. If this is the same couple, it seems possible that the elder Andrew was the son of an Alexander Sutherland who was from Sutherlandshire. This Alexander could well have been about the same age as Hugh MacKay.
One of the pieces of property described in Hugh MacKay's will was a lot that had been originally granted to William Sutherland. Early New Brunswick, Canada Probate Records, 1785-1835, by R. Wallace Hale, tells us that after William died intestate, the administration of his estate was granted to Hugh MacKay Esq. of St. George on April 14, 1806. The estate consisted of one lot of land, then worth 30 pounds.
A connection between Hugh MacKay and the Sutherlands of St. George seems like a possibility. Yet another is that Catherine Sutherland was not the niece, but instead the friend, and that an error was made by the writer of the will. According to a posting on this message board: https://boards.ancestry.ca/thread.aspx?mv=flat&m=1446&p=localities.northam.canada.newbrunswick.charlotte, the above-mentioned Alexander MacKay was married to Mary Matheson, who could well have been Hugh's niece.