Facts and traditions collected for a family record

126 FACTS AND TRADITIONS.
neighbouring farms. I suspect that a tombstone, of which I have just got the
inscription, in Tongland churchyard (the only one there I can hear of) belongs
to him. As follows : — ' Erected by John M'Conneil in Lairdmamwch, in memory
of his son Alexander M'Conneil, who died June 15, 1775, aged 30.' Now, old
John M'Conneil in Blackcraig had an only brother, Alexander, who died in early
youth, having been drowned in the Lairdmannoch burn in the time of peat
casting. Upon the reverse of the stone we have the following : — ' Also here lies
the corpse of the foresaid John M'Conneil, late in Lairdmannoch, who died 12th
October 1793, aged 84 years.'
The son of John M'Conneil in Blackcraig is now an old man.
In an old book, called ' The War Committee of the Covenanters in the Stewartry
of Kirkcudbright in the year 1640, 1641,' James M'Conneil of Creoches becomes
actit in the committee's will for not subscribing of the general band.
Creoches is in Girthon.
I wrote to Dr Murray of Edinburgh, who says that William M'Conneil, who
was long Sheriff-substitute of Wigtonshire, and who died about thirty-five years
ago, was son of a writer of that name in Wigtown, and was born there about 1750.
The latter date carries you back a long way, but unfortunately his only surviving
son and daughter have long been settled in the United States of America.* The
probability is, they would be ignorant of their genealogy.
There is a schoolmaster of the name — an oldish man — in the isle of Whithorn,
to whom I intend to write ; but I fear he may know nothing of the family whose
name he bears.
There is also a Mr M'Conneil, nephew, I think, to M'Adam of the Waterhead
family, the great road reformer, and whom he succeeded as a road contractor and
overseer. He is, for example, overseer of the roads in the Lothians, which he
visits periodically, but his residence is in England."
The writer of this book has corresponded with this Mr J. M'Conneil,
of Penrith, Cumberland, who frequently visits Edinburgh, living at the
New Club, Princes Street, but has been unable to obtain any information
leading bach to any distant period. His crest is, however,. — A dexter
arm couped, holding a cross croslet, with motto, " Toujotjes pbet."
It is impossible that John M'Conneil iu Blackcraig, who died in 1844,
* In an American paper, called Zanesville Courier, mention is made of a fall of meteoric
stones near M'Connelsville, which is perhaps thirty miles from Concord in Eastern Ohio.