Clan MacNauchtan in America

Last Update 8 August, 1995

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Appendix VIII Early Clan Macnauchtan Families in America - Other Lines

a. In 1684, John McKnitt, with his wife Jane, and other Ulster Scottish families from Laggan, N. Ireland, first settled in Somerset County on the eastern shore of Maryland. The McKnitt family spread from there to Cecil County, Md. and into Delaware. By the fourth generation this line changed the surname to McKnight and resettled in North Carolina.

b. In 1718, one William McNutt migrated from N. Ireland to New Hampshire along with other Ulster Scottish families (This William may have been a brother of Barnard McNitt). Sisters Dr. Sarah McNutt and Dr. Julia McNutt, both unmarried, were direct descendants of William McNutt and practiced medicine in the Albany, N.Y. area until 1930.

c. In 1722, Alexander McNitt, with his wife Jean and three children came from Laggan, N. Ireland to settle initially in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Five of his grandsons served in the Cumberland County militia during the Revolution. Four of these grandsons settled down in central Pennsylvania, and many of their descendants still live in Koshocoquillas Valley in Mifflin County. The fifth grandson, James McNitt, led a group of Ulster Scottish families, including some McNutts from the Valley of Virginia, on a migration to Kentucky, through the Cumberland Gap where most of the group were massacred by Indians in 1786.

d. In 1738, Alexander MacNaughton, with his family, his nephew Malcolm MacNaughton, and some 83 other Scottish families, from the Isle of Islay, Argyllshire, Scotland, migrated to New York state. They first settled in Orange County, N.Y., while waiting for promised land grants, which they finally obtained, in 1764, in Washington County, just west of Salem, N.Y. where two Ulster Scotch groups, one from Pelham, Mass., and the other direct from N. Ireland had received land grants. The MacNaughtons remained in this area for several generations. One of the best known descendants of Malcolm was his great great grandson, Edgar MacNaughton, born in Argyle, N. Y., in 1887, and educated at Cornell University who became Professor of Mechanical Engineering for many years at Tufts College.

e. In 1740, Rev. Charles McKnight, 1713-1778, migrated from Lisburn, Antrim County, N. Ireland to New Jersey where he served several Presbyterian parishes, including Granbury. During the Revolution he served as Chaplain to the 3rd Regiment of Monmouth County. His eldest son, Richard, McKnight, 1750-1780, served as a lieutenant in the militia during the Revolution. His other son, Charles McKnight, 1752-1791, graduated from Princeton and Philadelphia medical school and served as Surgeon General of the Revolutionary Army.

f. In 1770, James McNutt migrated from Londonderry, N. Ireland to Prince Edward Island. His descendants are now widely scattered throughout Canada.

g. Dr. Hiram McNutt, a country doctor in Warrensburg, N.Y. probably came from a family which migrated from N. Ireland to Salem, N.Y., in 1766. His son, Dr. Hiram Eugene McNutt, 1848-1923, practiced medicine for years in Aberdeen, S.D. Another son, Randolph McNutt, 1850-1927, graduated from Dartmouth in 1871, manufactured school furniture in Buffalo, N.Y. and was a major benefactor of Dartmouth College.

Appendix VIII Early Clan MacNaughtan Families in America - Other Lines Cont.

h. Sometime around 1796 Alexander McNutt and his family came from N. Ireland to settle initially in Adams County, Ohio, then moved on to Indiana. Descendants of Alexander include Reverend George L. McNutt, 1855- , a Presbyterian minister and reformer of the early 1900's his two sons, William Slavens McNutt, 1886-1938, a playwright, and war correspondent, and Patterson McNutt, 1896-1948, a playwright, screen writer, producer and author. Another descendant of Alexander was Paul V. McNutt, 1891-1955, who was educated at Univ. of Indiana and Harvard Law School who served as Dean of the Univ. of Indiana Law School, and Governor of Indiana, 1933-1937, first head of Federal Security Administration and High Commissioner to the Philippines.

i. In 1816, Peter McNaughton brought his family from Glasgow, Scotland, to St. Johns, New Brunswick. Peter had been involved in the development of the first practical passenger steamboat to ply the Clyde between Glasgow and Gourock. Peter's grandson Robert Duncan McNaughton first came to New Brunswick, then moved west to settle in Saskatchewan when his son Andrew George Latta McNaughton was born in 1887. Andrew was educated at McGill University and went into the Canadian Army. During World War I he served in the Canadian Heavy Artillery as a Brigadier General. During World War II Andrew served as General and Commander of the Canadian Army in Europe.

j. In 1830, Dougal McNaughton, born in Argyll, Scotland, in 1792, came to Canada with his wife and 8 children, then moved on to Kent county, Michigan. Kenneth Perry MacNaugton, b. 1903, and great grandson of Dougal, attended West Point and became the director of training for the U.S. Air Force at the end of World War II.

k. The ancestors of Ernest Boyd MacNaughton, 1880- , came first to Prince Edward Island during the early 1800's. Ernest's grandfather, Anthony MacNaughton, 1818-1903, moved south to Cambridge, Mass., where Ernest Boyd MacNaughton was educated at Mass. Inst. of Tech (MIT), then moved west to settle in Portland, Ore. Ernest Boyd worked in various businesses, finally becoming a bank president, a publisher of a newpaper, and ultimately president of Reed College. He became one of the most influential men in all of Oregon by the mid-1900's.

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