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Archiver > Scotch-Irish > 2000-07 > 0964145889


From: "Charles.Clark" <>
Subject: Re: MACKNIGHT/MACNAUGHTEN/MACNAUGHTON/ETC.
Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2000 22:18:09 -0400
References: <6c.1460dd8.26a73fe9@aol.com> <39771714.26281821@xtra.co.nz>


> The Clan MacNaughten lost all its lands in curious circumstances in 1700 when
>
> > the last chief, John MacNaughten of Dundarave in Argyllshire, was married,
> > while drunk, to the wrong daughter of Sir James Campbell of Ardkinglas in
> > Argyllshire. The following morning he discovered his mistake ran off with
> > the right daughter, leaving the wrong one pregnant. The child that was born,
> > a daughter, was drowned by Campbell in a river. The Campbells thus acquired
> > the MacNaughten lands.
>
> Not unexpectedly, the family version is a bit different! Their version is that
> they spent all their money supporting the Stuarts, and ended up having to sell
> their lands to cover their debts

Did I try to cover up the Macnaghten scandals by giving the received version? Shame on
me, and I've just found another Macnaghten scandal to make up for it. This one from
Charles Brett's Buildings of County Antrim, for Benvarden, a house which was at one
time in the hands of the Macnaghtens, but they lost it too.

“In May 1636 the land [ie Benvarden] was leased by Lord Antrim to Daniel Macnaghten,
who had been living at Ballymagarry” Girvan: “formerly the residence of the Macnaghten
family, and then consisted of a small thatched cottage. It came into the possession of
the late Mr Montgomery in the year 1797, and was soon after thrown down and rebuilt” -
Boyle. John Macnaghten was hanged in 1761 for shooting one Mary Anne Knox of Prehen
whilst trying to abduct her. His only daughter Cassandra later married an army officer
called Joseph Hardy, for whom James Williamson surveyed the demesne in 1788. In the
same year, Hugh “Split Fig” Montgomery, fruit merchant, waistcoat seller, and
descendant of a Glenarm family who had gone out to Virginia, returned to Belfast with
a somewhat mysteriously acquired fortune. He was one of the founders of the Northern
Bank, owned property in Coleraine and Kentucky, a grand house in Donegall Place,
Belfast, and in 1797 bought Benvarden too, and set about ‘improving’ it."

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