A McNish Family Mystery
The Riddle of Glasgow Born George McNish 1838-1888
The McNish Clan
A McNish family mystery that ends in Raglan, Victoria, Australia has its roots on a small island in a Scottish Loch. This story is an attempt to unlock the mystery of one McNish clansman, George McNish 1838-1888.
If the McNab Clan destroyed the McNish Clan, apart from one small boy, as legend tells us, why are there so many McNish’s today in search engines making the research into my Great Great Grandfather George McNish from Glasgow so difficult? Ancestry.com has 48,000 records for McNISH and Family Search has 904,172 but not one birth record for my George.
The bloody Battle of Glenboultachan in 1522 left the McNish Chieftain mortally wounded and his blood is said to be permanently imbedded in a large boulder where he drew his last breath. Only 30 McNish’s out of 500 survived this battle forcing them to retreat to an island on Loch Earn that became known as “Neish” Island.
For 90 years, or about 4 generations, the bitter feud continued, until the McNish’s saw an opportunity for a free lunch. They spotted a McNab clansman returning home after procuring food and drink for a McNab Christmas celebration and instead of letting the poor chap return to his clan, the McNishs’ ambushed him. They stole all the festive provisions and proceeded to have a jolly good time back on their island stronghold.
The McNab’s response was swift and brutal. They raided Neish Island under the cover of darkness and found little resistance from the McNish men who were in a drunken stupor after succumbing to the effects of the McNab alcohol. They were all killed except for a small McNish boy who hid under a bed, and it is from him that all we McNish’s are supposedly descended.
Before departing after the McNish massacre, “Smooth John” leader of the McNab raiders, severed the McNish Chieftain’s head and kept it as a trophy. This is why the McNab crest is portrayed with an image of the “… dead MacNeish chief’s head of a savage affrontee Proper”.
Fast Forward to George McNish c1838-1888 …
Introduction to a McNish Family Mystery
According to family legend George McNish ran away from home when he was about 17. Probably in 1855. There is no birth certificate for George, my paternal 2X Great Grandfather, so we do not know exactly when he was born and therefore, we do not know exactly how old he is. The 1841 and 1851 Census are the only guides we have for George in his early life. There are more questions than answers to this family. And, where did the name “George” arise as it does not follow the traditional Scottish family naming pattern? Was our George really a McNish?
The 1841 Census of Scotland
The information sought on the night of 6 June 1841 included: Name, Age, Sex, Occupation and Address. Relationships to the head of the household were not collected. However, in this McNish household we know that Catherine was the mother, and the other 4 females were her daughters. Their father, John Stevenson McNish was a ship’s master which probably accounts for his absence.
At age 3 George was the youngest child listed in the 1841 Census living with five females at Paterson Street, Lanarkshire, Govan. The females were Catherine 50, Kalen (should be Helen) 20, Mary 20, Catherine 15, and Margaret 12. All were dressmakers, except the youngest girl Margaret, and mother Catherine Snr described as ‘Ind.’
An important guideline for Census recorders in 1841 was that children under 15 would have their age recorded accurately, while those over 15 were to have their ages rounded down to the nearest 5 years. Catherine Snr whose age was recorded as 50 was actually 52 as she was born on 9 June 1789 according to her Baptism record.[i]
The rounding down also explains why two daughters, Helen and Mary have the same age 20. Birth records suggest otherwise[ii]. They were not twins. Helen, born on 11 October 1816 was 24 years and 7 months; and Mary, born 3 January 1819 was 22 years and 4 months.
Some Census enumerators did not follow the rounding down instruction and recorded exact ages.
An interesting point to note with Catherine Snr in 1841 is that her occupation was listed as “Ind”. This means she had her own independent means of income and was not reliant on employment. Perhaps she had inherited money. Her father, Jabez McFarlane is described as a “Merchant” on sister Mary’s original Baptism record which may indicate the McFarlane family was comfortably off. Or maybe Catherine received adequate money from her Shipmaster husband John and chose to describe herself as independent.
The most curious aspect of the McNish family in the 1841 Census is little George. He was 3 years old with a mother aged 52. Even by today’s standards with all the advances in fertility medicine it is rare for a woman to have a baby at 49. In Glasgow in 1838, it would be a miracle. So where did our boy George come from? Who was his mother and father?
The 1851 Census of Scotland
The 1851 Census identifies the ‘Head’ of the household and the relationship all other individuals in the residence have to the ‘Head’. In our McNish household in 1851, Catherine Snr 58 is the ‘Head’ and curiously George is recorded as her “nephew”. The other females in the house, Mary 25, Catherine 23 and Margaret 21 are recorded as her daughters and they are now all working as milliners, including Catherine Snr. George at age 13 is now an apprentice clerk.
The family address has changed from Paterson Street, Govan in 1841 to 25 Paisley Road, Gorbals Lanarkshire. This could indicate a change in financial circumstances. The other change is that there is no Helen. But that should not surprise as Helen, in 1851, would be aged 35 years and possibly married. Or was she?
What Happened to Helen McNish? – A McNish Family Mystery
Helen, we discover died in tragic circumstance in 1849 at age 33. The Glasgow Herald reported that a woman found floating in the Clyde River at the Port of Glasgow on Wednesday 7 March 1849 was Helen McNish.
“About the 26th of January last, a number of printed bills were issued in Port-Glasgow, and other places on the Clyde, regarding a young girl, named Helen McNish, who had gone amissing from Kelvin Haugh, near Glasgow. No trace of her was got, and it was supposed at the time that she must have fallen over a bridge on the Kelvin, near to the New City Road. This has proved to be the fact, as on Wednesday afternoon the body of a respectably dressed female was discovered floating in the river, opposite the Wet Docks of Port Glasgow, and, when taken ashore, proved to be that of the young woman McNish. Notice being immediately sent to the friends, who reside in the Queen’s Arcade, Glasgow, by Mr McLean of the Port-Glasgow Police, a sister of the deceased and another young lady arrived on Thursday morning and claimed the body. It is very remarkable that, although the girl has been about six weeks in the water, the body is not in the least disfigured.”[iii]
The Death Notice
Interestingly Helen’s death notice appeared in the Glasgow Herald on 9 April 1849 over a month later. The notice read:
“At Paisley Road, suddenly on the 7th instant, Helen, eldest daughter of the late Mr John McNish, Greenock.”[iv]
The death notice is intriguing because Helen did not die suddenly at Paisley Road, she was found floating in the Clyde River after being missing for some six weeks. Also, she did not die on the “7th instant” (April) she was found dead in the river on the 7th ultimo (March). Perhaps this was a printing error, or the family tried covering up the circumstances surrounding Helen’s death.
Helen could have fallen in the river accidently; she could have been pushed, in which case she was murdered, or she could have jumped. Family and friends were obviously worried because they put up notices about her being missing in Port Glasgow and along the Clyde around the 26th of January 1849. Their thinking appears to be that she had “fallen over a bridge” on the Kelvin River, which runs into the Clyde.
From Which Bridge on the Kelvin did “The Fall” Occur?
It is interesting that the speculation was quite specific about her falling off a bridge on the Kelvin “near to the New City Road.” Perhaps she was last seen heading towards that specific bridge, and she may have appeared troubled at the time.
The higher bridge was built in 1838 and the lower bridge in 1825. Did Helen fall, jump or get pushed from one of these two bridges?
Being referred to as Helen McNish confirms she hadn’t married and was still single at age 33, hardly a “young girl” as described in the Glasgow Herald. We can only speculate if she was troubled or in trouble. Whatever the problem it must have been insurmountable in Helen’s eyes.
In an article about female suicide by drowning the author, Eleanor Fitzsimons quotes William Wynn Westcott, a medical doctor and coroner, who said in 1885:
‘In every age of the world, and in the history of every country, we find instances more or less numerous of men and women who, preferring the dim uncertainty of the future to the painful realities of the present, have sought relief from all their troubles by suddenly terminating their own existence.’[v]
Nothing much has changed since those words were written in 1885.
Helen was pulled from the river “respectably dressed” and her body was “not in the least disfigured.” The icy river water[vi] of a Glasgow winter would help preserve her body, but also her body must have avoided being battered against rocks as she was carried down the Kelvin and then into the Clyde.
Helen’s death notice alerts us that her father, John Stevenson McNish had also died. In the notice he was referred to as the “late Mr John McNish”. We can therefore estimate that he died sometime between June 1841 and March 1849. Exactly when, how or where he died is up to conjecture. Did he die at sea? Another McNish family mystery to try and solve.
Where Did Our George Come From? – A McNish Family Mystery
For the purpose of this story the BIG question is: Where did Great Great Grandfather George come from? Who was his mother? Who was his father?
One theory is that Helen was George’s mother giving birth to him when she was 22. He was raised in the McNish household but described as a ‘nephew’ to avoid the family, especially Helen, being stigmatised with an illegitimate child.
Fortunately for our family we had a McNish family historian and genealogist who, before she died at age 98 in 2024, provided the family with well organised notes and records. Jean, our champion family historian, “felt” that “George may have been the illegitimate son of one of his sisters as there is no trace of his birth in records.” Her research was undertaken in the pre computer/digital era, but even now with the help of online searches I have not been able to find George’s birth record.
So, is Helen, George’s mother? Quite probably, even after consulting DNA matches which remain inconclusive. It fits a tragic story. Daughter falls pregnant, father of unborn child disappears, parents of pregnant daughter raise child as one of their family. Daughter takes her own life by throwing herself off a bridge into fast flowing water because of the permanent shame attached to the pregnancy some ten years previously.
You could be forgiven for believing that the recording of George as Catherine’s “Nephew” in the 1851 Census was a mistake, because all Australian records attached to George have John McNish and Catherine McFarlane as his parents.
What does DNA tell us OR not tell us?
Unfortunately, “McNish” DNA from my McNish family tree does not help solve the McNish Family Mystery. I have 7 DNA matches through Great Great Grandfather George McNish (1838-1888). All of these matches emanate from his and wife Lucy Lilley’s children, George, John, Arthur, William and Lilley whose descendants have done DNA tests.
William is represented on the chart below by his daughter Agnes Irelene who has been inexplicably denoted as a possible daughter of my great grandfather George McNish, son of George. She is definitely not great grandfather George’s daughter and perhaps throws up an aberration in the Ancestry DNA matching algorithm.
The matches don’t vary if I go up a level to 3XG Grandfather John Stevenson McNish (1787-184?) and his wife Catherine McFarlane (1789-1867). The DNA matches seem to stop at the generation below, our George (1838-1888).
I searched for ‘McFarlane’ matches and there was one paternal match, a “half 3rd cousin 1x removed or 4th cousin”. The match has a built tree but is private and I have not been able to make contact. This match might link to Catherine McFarlane’s family and through her to the McNish family.
Moving sideways from our George on the tree, I searched for matches with his ‘sisters’ and their families using their married names, Maxton (Mary), McLean (Catherine) and McGregor (Margaret).
One paternal McLean match came up, but it related to the Thomson family (another family branch), not the McNish’s. The other McLean matches had unlinked or no trees.
There were no DNA matches for Maxton and Margaret died in 1854, two years after marrying George McGregor so there was no DNA to follow up with the McGregor’s.
A Harkness Connection to a McNish Family Mystery?
3XG Grandfather John Stevenson McNish (1787-184?) had 3 brothers, Thomas (1777-unknown), Robert (1780-1860) and Alexander (1791-1861) and because McNish or McNeish searches were not producing results I looked to his older and only sister Marion (1778-1873) who married Thomas Harkness (1779-1841) on 29 September 1799. Marion gave birth to 7 children, Elizabeth (1802), Janet (1804), Adam (1806), Marion (1807), Thomas (1812), Isabella (1816) and John (1821).
I searched the name ‘Harkness’ in my DNA matches and was excited to find there was a match to a “Duncan Harkness”. Duncan is said to be my “4th cousin or half 3rd cousin 1 X removed” and that we share 15cM / <1% DNA. There is a “Duncan Harkness” in my McNish tree, a descendant of Marion McNish and Thomas Harkness. Unfortunately, the Duncan Harkness who came up as a match has not built a searchable tree, and his DNA results are managed by a third party who I have not been able to contact.
As I continued researching I increasingly thought that perhaps George was truly a “Nephew” of John and Catherine McNish and the likely illegitimate son of a child of Marion McNish and Thomas Harkness, who was ‘taken in’ by John and Catherine McNish. This theory gained traction when the ‘Harkness’ DNA link showed up. However, I could be barking up the wrong tree!
George McNish – The Run Away
My aunt wrote: “It is believed he ran away from home at the age of about 17 years of age.” This sounded like a story that some members of the family knew and handed down.
We know George was in Australia before May 1855 because his name appears in the lists of unclaimed letters for the week ending 23 May 1855. These letters were from the UK and other foreign countries brought by ships to Australia but remained unclaimed either at the GPO Melbourne or country post offices. The lists, provided by the Victorian Government and published in the Victorian Government Gazette, show George moving around in the first few years of his arrival.
He had unclaimed letters in the following country areas where he was probably searching for gold; Maryborough (August 1856), Kerang (October 1857) and Wedderburne (January 1860). Like most gold seekers during the gold rush, he probably discovered it was not as lucrative as imagined.
According to my aunt he worked in the timber trade at Mt Cole, then bought land at the back of Raglan and worked as a carrier in the gold diggings, a much better proposition than prospecting for gold.
The fact that he had been sent letters from overseas is comforting. Surely, they were from his family in Glasgow endeavouring to contact their runaway ‘son’/’brother’. They must have been worried sick as George was after all, only a teenage boy looking after himself in a far away colonial frontier.
Life on the goldfields wasn’t a bed of roses, it could be very dangerous. Living conditions were harsh in a predominately adult male environment where there was a lot of drinking and often violence. George must have told the family where he was as he moved from area to area because letters to him were sent to the nearest country post office to where he was working.
Why did George McNish Run Away?
We can only theorise on why he ran away from home at 17 years. There had been some traumatic incidents at home with the death of ‘sister’ Helen in 1849 in tragic circumstances, followed by the death of his ‘sister’ Margaret in 1854, two years after she married George McGregor. Margaret was only 24 when she died, and it appears that she and her George remained childless.
Perhaps George learned the truth of his maternity and was emotionally devastated. Learning Helen was his mother, especially if he found out after her tragic death, would have felt like a family betrayal. Finding out he was a ‘nephew’ and a ‘cousin’ and not a ‘son’ or ‘brother’ would probably be equally, if not more devastating.
How did George McNish get to Australia?
Another unanswered question about George is, how did he get to Australia? Obviously, he sailed but exactly when and on what ship?
Searching the Public Records Office Victoria (PROV) ‘Records and Immigration, Early Victorian Inward and Outward Passenger Lists’[vii] produced no reward. I searched the names; “McNish”, “McNeish” and “McNiesh” and had no luck finding George in the following records:
Assisted Passenger Lists (1839-1871)
Unassisted Passenger Lists (1852-1922)
Outward Passenger Lists (1852-1923)
Coastal Passenger Lists (1852-1923)
Register of Deserters. Port of Geelong (1852-1925)
Ships’ Crew (1852-1922) – Unfortunately this list required the researcher to know the name of the ship not an individual crew member.
I thought George might have been on a ship’s crew and jumped ship at a port in Victoria and headed to the goldfields. I have another ancestor who did just that, Harry Lindupp was his name.
Maybe he stowed away. Maybe he used a false name. Maybe he landed in Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales or Queensland and made his way to Victoria. A search of interstate shipping records revealed nothing about George McNish.
George Meets Lucy
George met Lucy Lilley, a domestic servant at Armstrong’s Station located about 53 kms west of Raglan and originally a pastoral run taken up by John Armstrong in 1854. Gold was discovered there in 1855, and a gold mining village arose.
They married on Christmas Day 1866 at Lucy’s parents’ home in Raglan. According to their marriage certificate George was a “Labourer” and Lucy “Home”. They went on to have eight children, William (1867-1946), George (1868-1942), Luke (1870-1890), John (1873-1934), Thomas (1875-1964),Charles (1877-1883), Arthur (1881-1957), and Lilley (1883-1970).
Fire in Raglan 1886
George McNish’s name appeared in a newspaper report of a fire in Raglan in 1886, two years before he died.
BEAUFORT, January 6
A destructive bush fire occurred at Raglan yesterday, destroying fences, grass, and orchards, the property of Messrs. Andrew and James Stevenson, James Thompson, George McNish, C Tucker, and Watkin. The Beaufort Fire Brigade turned out and rendered valuable assistance. Yesterday was the hottest day experienced here this season A hot wind blew all day, and the town was enveloped in smoke from bush fires. Today a change set in. It has been raining heavily all day, with a south-westerly wind. Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 – 1954), Saturday 9 January 1886, page 1
Death of George McNish
After an intrepid pioneering life the courageous, hardworking and independent George died from tuberculosis on 3 May 1888 in Raglan, Victoria. He was only 50 years old. George is buried in Beaufort Cemetery along with his mysterious family history. He was survived by his beloved Lucy and 7 surviving children. Lucy died at a grand age of 95 in 1938, fifty years after George.
Sources:
- Research of Jean McNish, Aunt by marriage.
- Research of mary_g61, 3rd Cousin.
- Ancestry.com.au
- Society of Genealogists https://www.sog.org.uk/education/learning-hub/guides-tips/how-to-use-census-records/
Endnotes:
[i] “Scotland, Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950”, database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XTNL-FLK : 11 February 2020), Catherine McFarlane, 1789.
[ii] Helen – https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/record-results/4144470367aea3aed9bb2
Mary – https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/record-results/16908236567aea25306fb0?page=1
[iii] “Advertisements & Notices.” Glasgow Herald, 12 Mar. 1849. British Library Newspapers, link-gale-com.rp.nla.gov.au/apps/doc/BB3203449797/BNCN?u=nla&sid=bookmark-BNCN&xid=2eedd276. Accessed 18 Feb. 2025.
[iv]“Advertisements & Notices.” Glasgow Herald, 9 Apr. 1849. British Library Newspapers, link-gale-com.rp.nla.gov.au/apps/doc/BB3203450044/BNCN?u=nla&sid=bookmark-BNCN&xid=7c8312cf. Accessed 19 Feb. 2025.
[v] Fitzsimons, Eleanor (2013) Deadly Sensationalism Female Suicide by Drowning in the Victorian Era. https://eafitzsimons.wordpress.com/2013/09/03/219/
[vi][vi][vi] https://www.seatemperature.org/europe/united-kingdom/port-glasgow-january.htm
[vii] https://prov.vic.gov.au/explore-collection/explore-topic/passenger-records-and-immigration
