Lachlan McGillivray (–1799) was a prosperous fur trader and planter in colonial
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
with interests that extended from
Savannah to what is now central
Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County
, LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham
, area_total_km2 = 135,765 ...
. He was the father of
Alexander McGillivray
Alexander McGillivray, also known as ''Hoboi-Hili-Miko'' (December 15, 1750February 17, 1793), was a Muscogee (Creek) leader. The son of a Muscogee mother and a Scottish father, he had skills no other Creek of his day had: he was not only liter ...
and the great-uncle of
William McIntosh
William McIntosh (1775 – April 30, 1825),Hoxie, Frederick (1996)pp. 367-369/ref> was also commonly known as ''Tustunnuggee Hutke'' (White Warrior), was one of the most prominent chiefs of the Creek Nation between the turn of the nineteenth cen ...
and
William Weatherford
William Weatherford, also known after his death as Red Eagle (ca. 1765 – March 24, 1824), was a Creek chief of the Upper Creek towns who led many of the Red Sticks actions in the Creek War (1813–1814) against Lower Creek towns and against ...
, three of the most powerful and historically important Native American chiefs among the
Creek of the Southeast.
Early life
McGillivray was born in
Dunmaglass,
Inverness, Scotland. Details of his early life are sketchy; he left no account and his biographers often romanticized his tale. They claimed that he was fleeing the Highland rebellion of 1745 and that he arrived penniless in a strange land, though probably neither of these is true. He was born into the McGillivray (or ''M'Gillivray'', as he himself wrote the name) family of the
Clan Chattan
Clan Chattan ( gd, Na Catanaich or gd, Clann Chatain) is a unique confederation of Highland clans. The clan is distinctive in highland clan history in that it was acknowledged to be a community or confederation, of twelve separate Scottish cla ...
, a large Scottish clan traditionally led by members of the MacGillivray clan
McIntosh
McIntosh, Macintosh, or Mackintosh (Gaelic: ') may refer to:
Products and brands
* Mackintosh, a form of waterproof raincoat
* Mackintosh's or John Mackintosh and Co., later Rowntree Mackintosh, former UK confectionery company now part of Nestlà ...
family.
More probable is that he emigrated in the late 1730s to either
Charleston, South Carolina, or
Augusta, Georgia
Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navigable portion. Georgi ...
, where members of his family had been engaging in the
Indian trade
The Indian Trade refers to historic trade between Europeans and their North American descendants and the Indigenous people of North America, and the First Nations in Canada, beginning before the colonial period, continuing through the 19th century ...
for a generation. He may have arrived as an
indentured servant
Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an "indenture", may be entered "voluntarily" for purported eventual compensation or debt repaymen ...
to his relative Farquhar McGillivray, a merchant with interests along the southern Atlantic seaboard. Records attest that Farquhar McGillivray employed indentured servants, and it was not uncommon for such arrangements to be made between relatives.
Brother to Lachlan and uncle to
Alexander McGillivray
Alexander McGillivray, also known as ''Hoboi-Hili-Miko'' (December 15, 1750February 17, 1793), was a Muscogee (Creek) leader. The son of a Muscogee mother and a Scottish father, he had skills no other Creek of his day had: he was not only liter ...
, Captain Alexander McGillivray (d.1763) regularly transported cargos between Charleston and the West Indies. His will probated in 1764 included a bequest to "brother Lachlan McGillivray, a mourning suit of clothes and a mourning ring."
Colonist in North America
Lachlan McGillivray was one of several
Scottish Highlanders
The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghà idhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sc ...
recruited by
James Oglethorpe
James Edward Oglethorpe (22 December 1696 – 30 June 1785) was a British soldier, Member of Parliament, and philanthropist, as well as the founder of the colony of Georgia in what was then British America. As a social reformer, he hoped to r ...
to act as settler-soldiers protecting the frontiers of Georgia from the Spanish in Florida, the French in the Alabama basin, and the Indian allies of the Spanish and the French. On January 10, 1736, Lachlan and 176 emigrants, including women and children, arrived on board the ''Prince of Wales'' to establish the town of
Darien, Georgia
Darien () is a city in and the county seat of McIntosh County, Georgia, United States. It lies on Georgia's coast at the mouth of the Altamaha River, approximately south of Savannah, and is part of the Brunswick, Georgia Metropolitan Statisti ...
, originally known as New Inverness. The town was founded in January 1736 and named after the
Darien scheme
The Darien scheme was an unsuccessful attempt, backed largely by investors of the Kingdom of Scotland, to gain wealth and influence by establishing ''New Caledonia'', a colony on the Isthmus of Panama, in the late 1690s. The plan was for the co ...
, a former Scottish colony in
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...
.
By the mid-1740s, McGillivray was well established as a trader in the Upper Creek nation in what is now central
Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County
, LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham
, area_total_km2 = 135,765 ...
. He established a
fur trading
The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most ...
post and
plantation
A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
at Little Tallassee (also spelled ''Talisi'' in some documents) near today's
Wetumpka, Alabama
Wetumpka () is a city in and the county seat of Elmore County, Alabama, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 7,220. In the early 21st century Elmore County became one of the fastest-growing counties in the state. The city is ...
, possibly on the site of the former
Fort Toulouse
Fort Toulouse and Fort Jackson are two forts that shared the same site at the fork of the Coosa River and the Tallapoosa River, near Wetumpka, Alabama.
Fort Toulouse
Fort Toulouse (Muscogee: Franca choka chula), also called Fort des Alibamons a ...
. He prospered and invested his trading and plantation profits in businesses on the Atlantic coasts of Georgia, eventually settling in
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later t ...
, as a man of considerable wealth. In a will drafted in 1767, long before his death, he planned the disposition of a plantation on
Hutchinson Island, Georgia, a plantation known as ''Vale Royal'' upriver from Savannah, and
cash
In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins.
In bookkeeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-im ...
bequests totaling more than £2,500, implying that he was in possession of that amount of currency, as well as numerous bequests of
slaves and other valuable chattel.
McGillivray was an accomplished Indian trader and
Adair praised his skill in negotiating with the Creek to stay neutral during the French and Indian Wars (1760-1761).
Marriage and family
Though there is no record of McGillivray having married in the
Scottish Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
tradition, he took as a consort a high-status Creek woman named
Sehoy Marchand. Their marriage was recognized by the Creek. Early biographers claimed Sehoy Marchand was the daughter of a French officer at
Fort Toulouse
Fort Toulouse and Fort Jackson are two forts that shared the same site at the fork of the Coosa River and the Tallapoosa River, near Wetumpka, Alabama.
Fort Toulouse
Fort Toulouse (Muscogee: Franca choka chula), also called Fort des Alibamons a ...
named
Jean-Baptiste Marchand
:''for others with similar names, see Jean Marchand
General Jean-Baptiste Marchand (22 November 1863 – 14 January 1934) was a French military officer and explorer in Africa. Marchand is best known for commanding the French expeditionary ...
. Her mother was also named Sehoy, and she was a high-status woman of the ''Koasati'' (alternative spelling: Coushatta), of the Wind Clan. Hers was a politically powerful family of the Upper Creek nation, which had
matrilineal
Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's lineage – and which can involve the inheritance ...
system of descent and property. Sehoy's immediate family included several important
chiefs. The marriage was a strategic alliance for her family as well as for the ambitious trader; she could protect her children within the tribe.
Albert Pickett and other biographers portrayed Sehoy as a beautiful black-eyed Indian princess, with whom McGillivray was instantly lovestruck. Historical and circumstantial evidence suggest the marriage may have been strategic for both sides, as he gained by being allied with a high-status family of Creek, and Sehoy and her family had benefits from a connected European-American trader. They had three children: Alexander,
Sophia and Jean (also spelled Jeanne) McGillivray (the latter named after Lachlan's sister). The children lived most of the time with their mother in the Creek tribe and learned its language and ways, although the father sent Alexander to a European-American school in Charleston and Augusta.
Many Native American chiefs supported such alliances; European traders, who were men of capital, also sought the alliances of marriage into tribes to strengthen their relationships. Though the Creek tribes treated
marriage
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...
as a serious institution and had strong taboos against infidelity (especially by women),
divorce
Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...
was permissible and easily achieved. A husband could divorce a wife by leaving her house, and a wife her husband by leaving his possessions outside of her door. To the
matrilineal
Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's lineage – and which can involve the inheritance ...
Creek tribe
The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language), are a group of related indigenous (Native American) peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands[Muscogee
The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language), are a group of related indigenous (Native American) peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands][Alexander McGillivray
Alexander McGillivray, also known as ''Hoboi-Hili-Miko'' (December 15, 1750February 17, 1793), was a Muscogee (Creek) leader. The son of a Muscogee mother and a Scottish father, he had skills no other Creek of his day had: he was not only liter ...]
, whom he did acknowledge and provide for. The younger McGillivray became a prominent Creek chief and
planter, and a slaveholder like his father.
Though McGillivray made neither mention nor provision for his daughters in his will, their accounts attest to a relationship with him, as they visited him in Savannah, and Sophia named her oldest son, Lachlan McGillivray Durant, for him.
Digital Library on American Slavery
University of North Carolina - Location: Mobile, Alabama - Abstract: Latchlin Durant seeks to regain possession of slaves given by his grandfather McGilveray to his mother. McGillivray's will and other surviving writings frequently noted Alexander, referred to as his "natural son," a euphemism for illegitimate.
McGillivray, a patrilineal
Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritan ...
member of the Clan Chattan, may well have fought a kind of custody battle with his son's mother. As a member of the matrilineal Creeks, she considered her son and daughters as members of her own Wind Clan. As was traditional, Alexander was reared with his maternal uncle Red Shoes, who by varying accounts was either brother or uncle to his mother Sehoy. The role of maternal uncles in the upbringing of a male child was far more important to the Creek than that of the father, as they were of the same clan. The biological father belonged to a different clan. The uncle would mentor the boy through introduction to men's roles and societies.
McGillivray took an interest in Alexander, for he arranged and paid (at considerable expense) for the boy's education at Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
academies in Charleston and Augusta. The father also arranged for the youth's apprenticeship in at least one mercantile house. He bequeathed him the substantial sum of £1,000 and made other bequests in his will. He bequeathed his most valuable assets, his plantations outside Savannah, to the "lawfully begotten" children of his Scottish siblings and cousins.
Loyalist and American Revolution
Lachlan McGillivray returned to Scotland for lengthy visits prior to the American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
, but appeared to have identified as a citizen of North America, the source and location of his considerable fortune. He took an active role in Savannah's administration, where his knowledge of Creek leaders and their languages/cultures were useful for negotiations of treaties between the tribes and the city.
In the Scottish insurrections of the early 18th century, his Clan Chattan had mostly sided with the cause of James the Old Pretender and Bonnie Prince Charlie
Bonnie, is a Scottish given name and is sometimes used as a descriptive reference, as in the Scottish folk song, My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean. It comes from the Scots language word "bonnie" (pretty, attractive), or the French bonne (good). That ...
. In Savannah, McGillivray had signed petitions opposing certain Crown colonial policies (particularly parliamentary taxation).
But he also had many business interests with British merchants and, at the outset of the American Revolution, he was a Loyalist. As the war progressed, he and other Loyalists in Savannah earned enemies among the Patriot factions and the Continental Army. Continental soldiers arrested McGillivray and at least two of his McIntosh cousins as suspected spies. They were freed when the British captured the city, and briefly fled west of Savannah after the British evacuation at the end of the war. Following the 1783 Treaty of Paris, the new US government confiscated and sold the property of many Loyalists: McGillivray lost his lands, slaves, and much of his other property. He and several of his Loyalist relatives and friends liquidated whatever property they still possessed, and left for Scotland with whatever monies they could take out, returning to the McGillivray clan's estates in Dunmaglass, Scotland.
Death and legacy
In Scotland, McGillivray served as an advisor and guardian for the orphaned head of the Clan Chattan. He continued correspondence with his son Alexander and other friends and relatives in the United States. After his son's death in 1793, McGillivray paid for Alexander's orphaned children, Alleck and Mary (their mother had also died), to be brought to Scotland. He arranged for their education. Although not returning personally to the US, McGillivray took a role in the settling of his son's complicated estate. It was difficult for attorneys to ascertain what parts of McGillivray's lands belonged to him personally and which to the Creek tribe. Some of his assets in cattle and slaves had to be sold to pay off his many debts. Further complicating matters from a Scottish view, the younger McGillivray was a polygamist
Crimes
Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is married ...
in the Creek tradition of successful men. He had other wives, who were also of mixed Creek and European ancestry.
Lachlan McGillivray died in his native Scotland in 1799 at around 80 years of age. Neither his will nor his place of interment are known. Alleck and Mary McGillivray were still living with him in Scotland at that time. Alleck died as a young adult shortly after his grandfather. Mary McGillivray's life has not been traced.
Marriage and issue
Lachlan married Sehoy Marchand, member of the Wind Clan of the Creek, a daughter of Jean Marchand
Jean Marchand, (December 20, 1918 – August 28, 1988) was a French Canadian public figure, trade unionist and politician in Quebec, Canada.
Life and career
During the 1949 Asbestos Strike in Quebec, Marchand led the striking workers as ...
and Sehoy
Sehoy, or Sehoy I (died ca. 1730), was an 18th-century matriarch of the Muscogee Confederacy and a member of the Wind clan.
She established a dynasty that became influential in the political and economic history of her nation and its relationsh ...
They had the following:
* Alexander McGillivray
Alexander McGillivray, also known as ''Hoboi-Hili-Miko'' (December 15, 1750February 17, 1793), was a Muscogee (Creek) leader. The son of a Muscogee mother and a Scottish father, he had skills no other Creek of his day had: he was not only liter ...
, became the leader of the Creeks as they attempted to prevent overrunning of Creek territory covering most of Middle and Southern Alabama and Georgia, as European settlers pushed inland from the Eastern seaboard.
* Jean McGillivray, who married French officer Le Clerc Milfort, later of service in the Napoleonic army and famed as a memoirist.
* Sophia McGillivray who married Benjamin Durant and was mother to a large family and may have died at the Fort Mims massacre in which her nephew Red Eagle was involved.
* John Jack "White Cloud' Ward, III - adopted son who later married Nahoga ("Nancy") Mahala Moniac. John Ward was Red Eagle's War General and Indian Interpreter. Buried at Fort Mitchell in 1813
Sehoy Marchand married again after McGillivray. She had a daughter Sehoy
Sehoy, or Sehoy I (died ca. 1730), was an 18th-century matriarch of the Muscogee Confederacy and a member of the Wind clan.
She established a dynasty that became influential in the political and economic history of her nation and its relationsh ...
(Sehoy III). Sehoy III married a man named Weatherford, and one of their sons was William Weatherford
William Weatherford, also known after his death as Red Eagle (ca. 1765 – March 24, 1824), was a Creek chief of the Upper Creek towns who led many of the Red Sticks actions in the Creek War (1813–1814) against Lower Creek towns and against ...
, better known to history by his Creek name, translated as Red Eagle.
References
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:McGillivray, Lachlan
Year of birth uncertain
1799 deaths
Scottish emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies
American planters
Multiracial affairs in the United States
Scottish people of the British Empire
1718 births
American slave owners
American fur traders
People from Savannah, Georgia
People from Inverness
Loyalists in the American Revolution from Georgia (U.S. state)
People from Darien, Georgia
People from Elmore County, Alabama