Quick Review
A concerted effort has been made by hundreds, maybe thousands of people through the years to record history that relates to our family. We are at a point, it seems, where we can stand back a little and take a global view of our history, which then helps us fill in the more specific details.
A look at the big picture shows that our family was in the front lines of freedom from Scotland to Ireland to America. This is no fantasy, but rather it is documented in many places by government agencies, by historians outside the family, and by our own verifiable family tradition.
Family Geography
I have found that looking at our history with a bird's eye view really helps put it all into perspective. A good place to start is with some basic geography.
There seems to be a commonly accepted belief by many historians that the Viking race may, to some extent, have come out of the lost tribe of Benjamin, and that the Celtic race may have come out of the lost tribe of Dan. These two races obviously didn't just appear on Earth one day. They had to have come from some original source and many bits of evidence exist that show they had a Mid-East beginning. One piece of evidence that I forgot to mention earlier, are the bagpipes, which have an earlier history in the Pakistan/Afganistan area, than in Scotland. Sets of pipes are still produced there and shipped to Scotland for finishing and stamping of "Made in Scotland". Not all pipes are made in the Mid-East, and some feel those pipes are inferior to the full-blooded Scottish pipes. Regardless, the link to the Mid-East is real.
It appears the two Israelite tribes of Dan and Benjamin fanned out a little to the east, but mostly to the west, some heading almost due north to the Norway area (Tribe of Ben) and others moving into the Alps and then to Spain (tribe of Dan), before leaving for Ireland. In Scotland the two tribes would combine when the Irish Celts, known as Scotti, merged with the Vikings to form the Gaelic race as it is thought of today. This race, in its early days was called the GallGael, the Gall denoting Viking and the Gael of course, denoting Celt.
There was considerable pressure for this movement, especially from Ceasar, who engaged in "ethnic cleansing" as he eliminated over a million Alpine Celts.
When we think of the Scottish freedom fighters, many whose families became American freedom fighter, we have to realize that this was a race of people who had struggled for their freedom century after century. They were the ruggedest, fiercest, most bull-headed people in the world when it came to personal freedom. They are the people who made Scotland "the Brave" and who made America "the Land of the Free".
Now, let's zero in on Dalriada or the Sea Kingdom of our family.
The distance between Ireland and Scotland, at their closest points, is only about 15 miles or so. There is a daily ferry between the countries and it is obvious that our family used roughly the same passageway as this ferry, as they traveled between Ireland and Scotland in the 1600's. This is obvious simply because they were settled, in each country, in the general area where today's ferry would service. Logic would say they would tend to use the shortest route between countries and the known records of the early family, once they left the Isle of Skye, places them generally in this area.
On the Irish side, you have the counties of Antrim and Derry, where we have a major presence, even today. In the Wigton and Ayrshire areas of Scotland you have many of our family still living, who say their ancestors came over from Ireland. I spoke with a McQuiston in Dundonald, (in Ayrshire, Scotland) and another near Inverness, and both said their families came over from Ireland, in past generations.
The land in Northern Ireland is not much different than the land in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The coastlines are rugged and islands dot the coast of both countries. It is nearly one continuous chain of islands. The Scottish bunch are called the Hebrides. Off Ireland one of the main islands is Rathlin, which played a major role in the Robert Bruce story and in the Sorely Boy McDonnell story, both of which involved our family.
This area of the Hebrides, Rathlin, Northern Ireland, the western coastline of Scotland and much of the Highlands was all considered part of the old kingdom of Dalriada, which would become the Sea Kingdom of the Gael, led by the family of Uisdean McDonald (Hugh of Sleat).
When thought of in this way, it is easy to understand why the Scotch-Irish in Antrim and Derry, Ireland, were living in the Gaelic homeland, just as much as the Highlander in Ross and Caithness, or the Islander on Skye.
Before the days of Hugh, the Lord of the Isles territory extended southward along the coast to Islay and other more southern islands. In fact, while the Highland Clans are naturally associated with the Highlands, the original Dalriadic nation was sprinkled all along the west coast including the islands of Arran, Islay, Kintyre, which are actually just a days drive west of Glasgow and on approximately the same latitude as Glasgow and Edinburgh. It would be more accurate to say that the Scotti came into the country from the West, rather from the northern Highlands.
However, by Hugh's time, the heart of Gaeldom had been contained mostly around Skye and the Uist islands, although there was expansion, instead, into the Ross Highlands, an area which consisted of a major part of what is thought of as the Scottish Highlands.
Hugh's brother, John, and his father, Alexander, were both titled Earl of Ross. The seat of Ross was at Dingwall Castle for centuries, and it is almost certain Hugh was born in Dingwall, and likely that he was born in Dingwall Castle.
Hugh's son, from whom we seem to descend, was Donald Gallach McHuiston, who was born and raised near Thurso, Caithness. There are many old records of the McHuiston name in and around Thurso. Caithness is north of Ross and north east of Skye and the other western isles where Hugh owned land.
The borders of the Sea Kingdom were flexible. The Lords of the Isles were always trying to expand them. The Scottish kings and the English were always trying to diminish the Sea Kingdom. It was this basic fight over territory that led to many bloody battles between these forces and to many secret treaties, backstabbings, in-fighting within Clan Donald, and, eventually, the demolishing of the Highland Way, by a Scottish born king, of all people.
As the clan system was falling apart in Scotland, the "Highland Way" moved back into Northern Ireland. As England continued its oppression there, this way of life moved on to America. The expansion of the Scotch-Irish, in early America (often against the laws and the wishes of the ruling parties) was simply the continuation of this tendency of the Highland Scot. Once the promise of unlimited land was opened, there was no stopping us.
Some of the earliest immigrants to America landed in New England, at Boston Harbor. They moved north into the Maine area and west into the Londonderry, New Hampshire area. In the latter was settled William McQuesten, around 1718 to 1727.
The largest group of Scotch-Irish passed through the port of New Castle, Delaware. Typically they were headed for the port of Philadelphia but Pennsylvania had many regulations on the checking for disease and the paying of import taxes that did not exist at New Castle. Also, the New Castle port came along, geographically, a bit sooner than Philadelphia, and after three months at sea who wouldn't want to jump ship a little early?
From New Castle, the immigrants often went into the area of Baltimore where they would eventually decide on moving north into PA or following the Great Wagon Road south to Virginia or the Carolinas. In our case, the family seems to have gone directly west, about 40 miles, and settled. although Robert McCuiston was said to have been the first Arch-Mason in Baltimore.
James, Robert and Thomas McCuist(i)on arrived at New Castle on August 6, 1735 and lived in an area in dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania, for several years. The area they lived in was near Rising Sun, Maryland and yet it is also recorded as being in Chester County, PA. Rising Sun was once part of Chester County and so they lived in a very undefined area. They lived in an area that included Little Britain, Middle Octoraro and Conowingo, all small communities near Rising Sun.
Today, Little Britain and Middle Octoraro are in PA, while Rising Sun and Conowingo are in Maryland.
The perception of geography, in early America, centered more around physical attributes such as the Allegheny Mountains, or the Ohio River, or the Great Wagon Road, than the borders of states as we think of them today - just as in the Sea Kingdom, where Northern Ireland and the Highlands and Islands of Scotland were considered the same place.
James and Thomas moved south to North Carolina, again following open land and generous land grants. In PA, Robert and his son, James, did the same. James, son of Robert, was one of those first Scotch-Irish who defied the government and moved across the Alleghenies into Indian Territory. He was sued by the King of England. He later became a spy in the Revolution. Guess he won, in the long run!
Two other early branches of the family came over from Londonderry, N.I. - one to settle in PA and the other to make a trip to South Carolina, where some stayed and others found themselves returning to PA.
In each of these four early batches of McUisdean immigrants (New Hampshire; Pennsylvania/North Carolina; South Carolina; and later Pennsylvania) there were three brothers, and in most cases they came over to America from Londonderry, Northern Ireland or nearby. It seems to have been a long-time habit of the Celts and the Scotch-Irish to send the strongest three children out on a new adventure to a new land. This accounts for the three Colla brothers going to Scotland from Ireland to found Dalriada, and later, the three brothers in each batch of American immigrants. Many families, besides ours, have the same tradition of three siblings making the big trip across the ocean.
The New Hampshire branch probably shipped out of Coleraine, Northern Ireland, northeast of Londonderry. The two Pennsylvania branches probably shipped out of Londonderry, or possibly Coleraine. The South Carolina batch shipped out of Larne, in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, directly east of Derry, and above Belfast.
Once in America there are many instances where members of one branch would move into areas populated by members of another branch. They were connected by blood, by religion, by culture and by their need for freedom. I will go into some very detailed connections later, but, as with many Scotch-Irish families, ours was spread up and down the east coast of America as one family, no more separated by government-impose borders than they were in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
For the period of the beginning of our name to settlement in America, the principle places of interest are the Isle of Skye, The Ross Highlands and Caithness plus a few neighboring islands (all in Scotland); Antrim and Derry Counties in Northern Ireland; lowland Scotland around Wigton and Paisley; and in America, Londonderry, New Hampshire; New Castle, Delaware; Pennsylvania, from Lancaster County, to Westmoreland, Venango and Crawford Counties; Guilford County, North Carolina and Charlestown, South Carolina, plus the Waxhaw area which straddled both states; and on to Tennessee and Texas, California and Alaska.
There is absolute evidence that we were in the forefront of settlement of all the above mentioned American states.
Captain Jack McQuesten was one of the first white men in the Yukon. Robert McCuiston's son, James, was one of the first to cross the Alleghenies. James and Thomas McCuistion moved into Guilford with the first batch of settlers there. William McQuesten was part of the earliest Scotch-Irish settlements in New England, and in America for that matter. Ann Moody McCuistion's sons were some of the first to settle Tennesee and one, Robert McCuistion, was one of the earliest settlers of Texas, living only about 50 miles from Sam Houston's headquarters as President of Texas.
Every early branch of our family had men and women fighting on the side of the colonies during the Revolution. Thomas McCuistion fought in what the U.S. Government has named the first real battle of the Revolution, in Alamance County, NC, in 1771. Thomas, his wife, Ann Moody, and their sons and daughters fought in what has become known as the last important battle of the Revolution, before the surrender at Yorktown, of Cornwallis. Again, the U.S. Government named this battlefield of Guilford Courthouse as the very first national military park because of its significance in ending the war.
In a poem written by the great Scottish poet, Robert Burns, which he wrote at the very end of the Revolution, he names Guilford County and its residents as the pilots at the helm of the American fight for freedom. Hey folks, he's talking about us! There were 11 homesteads of our family in Guilford and these family members fought in the first and last important battles of this war, according to our own federal government.
We have this verification from the government of the United States of America attesting to the importance of our battle for freedom in Alamance and Guilford. We have the Tartan Day resolution from the government of the United States of America attesting to the importance of the Declaration of Arbroath. We have the mention of Robert's son, James, as a "spy on the western frontier" attested to in the State of Pennsylvania Archives. We even have Captain Jack McQueston listed as "Father of Alaska" in Labor Department records of The United States government. Talk about official government verification of our family legends!
Outside of the geographical areas I have outlined, there is virtually no evidence of our family associated historically with any other part of the world.